Paranormal Romance and Romantic Suspense Author Caridad Pineiro

Chapter 24
***If you are not over 17, please read no further***

Catalina woke to the feel of him spooning against her, the heat of his body bathing her back. As she stirred, pressing into him, he woke as well.

“G’morning,” Ramon said against the side of her face, a tired grumble in his voice.

She understood the reason for his fatigue. They had spent the night, short as it was, making love. Glorious, satisfying love, she thought and turned in his arms, dropped a playful kiss on the side of his mouth.

“Again?” he said, barely opening one eye, but a smile played along the corners of his lips.

“You dare to complain?” she teased, unused to beginning the morning with levity. Actually, unused to beginning the morning wrapped in the arms of a lover.

With a swiftness she had not anticipated, he rolled and trapped her beneath him, fully alert, his dark eyes gleaming with purpose. “Since last night, I dare many things, mi amor,” he said, bent his head and kissed the tip of her breast before suckling it.

“Ay, Ramon, what a nice way to wake,” she almost purred, holding his head to her as he switched from breast to breast, awakening desire. His erection growing as it rested against the softness of her belly.

A knock came at her door. Insistent.

Ramon picked up his head and glanced at her bedroom door and the knock came again, more determined. Followed by her sister’s command.

“Catalina. Open up. Father has called for us,” Helena said, clear distress in her tones.

Catalina shot a quick look at her alarm clock. Barely four in the morning. Her father would not be dragging from her bed at this hour unless it was urgent, especially knowing that she had been on patrol the night before.

“I must go,” she said, but Ramon was already in action, rolling off her and onto his feet.

The knock came again and Catalina bolted from the bed, grabbing a robe and jerking it on as she walked to the door. She only half-opened it, not wanting Helena to see that she’d had company for the night.

Her sister darted her gaze past Catalina and toward the bed, and Catalina stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

“What is it, sister?” Catalina questioned.

“Father called up from the morgue. He says it’s urgent and we need to convene the council.” As her sister spoke, she narrowed her gaze, as if examining Catalina for signs that something was amiss.

“In the morgue? One of the pack has been killed?” Catalina asked, tying the robe more tightly around her as if that would somehow guard her secrets from her sharp-eyed half-sister.

“Two wolves. Ambushed from the looks of it. By vampires.” After she finished her report, Helena leaned close and drew in a deep inhale.

“You should scrub, hermana, before you come down. His human scent clings to you,” Helena warned.

Catalina rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she considered all that Helena had said. The vampires had been growing bolder every day, but an ambush . . .

“This is so not good,” she said.

Helena nodded and seemed about to say something else, but hesitated.

“Is there more I should know?” Catalina pressed.

“Hemmerich was with Selina when I went to her room. He was rather smug, as if he knew more than he should,” Helena advised.

So not good, Catalina thought. She trusted Hemmerich as much as she trusted the vampires.

“Tell father I’ll be down shortly,” she advised and then ducked back into the room.

Ramon was dressed and pacing beside the edge of the bed, clearly aware that something serious had occurred. He stopped as she approached and faced her, tension evident in all the lines of his body.

“It’s something bad, isn’t it?” he said and opened his arms, always ready to offer comfort.

She stepped into his arms and embraced him, his comfort surrounding her. Peace suffusing her in a way that did not come with any other person. But even as she held him, she knew that her peace would be shortlived.

If the vampires were on the offense, it could mean only one thing. . .

War.