“Uh – so…does anyone wanna play bag toss?” As if sensing the tension, Maddy came up on us slowly, and my gaze flew to her. Her question wavered slightly as it broke the tension in the air, and the human Chad’s hands flew up to stretch with a sharp arch. His muscular body gave muffled pops at the joints, and he shook his arms and shoulders before dropping the subject completely.
“Yeah. Come on, Linne. We’ll teach you to play.” My spine tingled at the abrupt change of topic, and I nodded jerkily. Flexing his fingers around my waist, Derek and I followed the human Chad and Maddy across the yard and beyond the deck. The grill sent thick plumes of smoke high into the air, but the smell helped calm my mind and body. Inhaling deeply, I heaved a sigh that relaxed my shoulders, and my mate pressed his lips to my temple to whisper in my ear.
“We’ll talk about it at home, babe – just have some fun for now.” The promise eased the goosebumps that washed my chest, and I nodded silently. Dark curiosity slithered into my rib cage, tightening my abdomen, and sent a fine mist to invade my mind. Sucking in another deep breath, I pushed my tumultuous feelings and thoughts away to focus on my mate’s current desire.
CHAPTER FIVE
Linne
“Did you have fun today, babe?” Gasping as desire rampaged unchecked through me, I braced my palms against the wall of the shower to duck my head. Derek’s mouth scorched my skin, trailing open kisses down my shoulder and between my wings while his hands slipped down my front. “Well…?”
“Yes-s-s-s…” Moaning my response, I licked my lips heavily to catch droplets of water on my tongue, and Derek growled low as he swiped my sopping wet hair over my shoulder. The high of such a perfect day only grew more intense as his kisses dragged down my back, and I spread my legs for his probing fingers. Stiffening when he circled my nub with firm fingertips, my knees wobbled dangerously, and he smiled against my quivering flesh.
“Are you ready to have some more fun?” Nodding furiously, muted from the pleasure of his touches, I whimpered pathetically when Derek swiped his middle digit up the length of my slit. “Say it – tell me how much you love when I fuck you, Linne.”
“I – I love it… I lo – love you…” My eyelids popped open just as Derek whirled me around, and I gasped a breathless moan while the world struggled to right itself. His intense, narrowed, ferally glowing eyes bored into mine, and he tangled his hand in my hair to kiss me with brutal ruthlessness. Rolling in their sockets, my eyes hid behind their lids, and I nearly choked when he shoved his tongue into my mouth.
Derek’s fingers slipped into me while his kiss laced with intent to devour, and I couldn’t hide my squeal as he jerked my entire body. Cupping my apex, he hiked me up against the warm, wet tiles before two of his thick digits sunk deep into my tightening channel. Wrapping my legs weakly around his waist, I threw my arms around his neck to swallow his grunts and groans as my core undulated wildly.
The stench of our musk laden the already heavy atmosphere, and I struggled to breath it in with the moist air. Tearing my head away, I took shallow breaths to feed my starving lungs even as they stuttered under Derek’s passion. His lips never left me, teeth nibbling my sensitive skin as he sucked and abused his way downwards.
“Ha-a – ha-a – there! There!” My high-pitched squeal bounced off the tiles to echo harshly, and I buried my face in Derek’s mop of wet hair as pleasure ripped through me. Every cell tingled, and cold prickles surged in waves up to my collar bones as he threw me violently over the precipice of desire. His fingers twisted and curled, hitting that spot as I spasmed around him, as he drove into me harder and faster.
“Fuck yes, babe…” Rasping his praise, Derek exited my sheath to grip my butt with bruising force, and his mumble reverberated through every bone in my body. “My love – my mate – my mate…”
“My ma-a-ah! Ah-h-h! God – God!” Plunging into my depths with one, easy stroke, Derek cut off any reply and grinned against my chest at my shrill shriek. Tears welled in my eyes as we came together, and my unfiltered need for him slammed into my lungs to knock the air loose. Pushing him away with a burst of strength that came from deep in the bowels of my soul, I fell to the tiled floor as he stumbled back into the polarized glass of the shower door.
Darkness formed an ugly blotch inside the confines of my ribs, and the emptiness that struck the pit of my stomach roiled dangerously. Derek’s narrowed eyes bore down on me with a striking intensity, and I scrambled to my feet as a red haze settled on my mind. Then I threw myself at him with a force that shocked me.
The sound of shattering glass was faint beyond the blood rushing in my ears, while the impact of my body drew a hard grunt from Derek, and my very bones rattled as we hit the debris-laden floor of the bathroom. Rolling through the sharp shards, my body didn’t register the pain as my mate secured me underneath him. Glass cut into my breasts and face, digging into my knees as he yanked my hips up, and I reached back blindly as rainbows appeared in my tears.
Big, sweat slickened hands grasped at my forearms, and Derek pulled me up to sink his length into my channel. My greedy walls clamped down around him, and I arched and twisted even as pleased grunts and moans burst from my throat. The drum of my heart beat against his chest, and the smell of his sweet blood curled in my nostrils to darken the red that coated my vision.
“Mine – my mate.” Grunting with the force of his thrusts, my mate wrapped his arms around me like steel beams. The pain in my face spread to envelop my entire head, and the head of his rod speared my channel to create a thick ripple of ecstasy that gripped my muscles. But it wasn’t enough, and my misted mind only grew dimmer as my wings came between us.
Derek fell back, and I whirled around as he propped himself against the side of the shower that hadn’t been broken. The tinkling of glass shards scraping against each other only heightened my senses, and my pupils blew as blinding, white-hot need drove me forward.
Tackling him to straddle his waist, I panted harshly as he grabbed my hips to sit me directly down on him. His hard, spongey head sent stabbing pain shooting through my hips, and bracing myself, I grabbed his muscular shoulders in both my shaking hands. Flapping my wings wildly, the pain in my skull reached its peak, and I ducked sharply just as my mate buried his fists in my hair.
Bite – bite – bite – bite…
A blood curdling screech tore from my mouth when Derek’s sharp, deadly canines shredded through the sinew and flesh of my neck.
Bite – bite – bite – bite…
And I did – even as his hands forced me up and down on his hard, silky rod, I bit Derek with every ounce of strength I could summon. Clamping down on his salty, rough skin, I moaned gutturally at the taste of his blood sloshing across my tongue. His length rippled and quivered inside me, legs spasming against my backside while his hands threatened to rip out my hair.
Bite – bite – bite – bite…
Derek’s neck strained and flexed, and the pressure that built behind my eyes threatened to pop them from their sockets.
Blood.
Sweat.
Lust.
Love.
Derek untangled his hands from my hair roughly to grip my hips, and I grunted between muffled groans as he rolled us to position himself atop me. My mind barely registered the change, and his length swelled and throbbed inside me as he thrust deeply. Biting down on the crook of his neck harder, I couldn’t feel the glass digging into my back. Wings beating uselessly, I undulated and squeezed his rod as erotic passion seeped from my ears to drown out everything else but the erratic thumping of his heart.
Or, almost everything.
“Derek! Derek – get off her!” Against me, my mate stiffened even as he thrusted with abandon, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him tightly. Clamping down on his neck, a harsh growl erupted from my chest when hands that weren’t Derek’s touched me. “Get off! Snap out of it!”
Four pairs of unfamiliar hands pried my arms and legs from Derek, and I let out a yowl as his f
lesh tore from my teeth in thick, sticky chunks. Struggling against the person’s grip, I flapped my wings furiously as vicious growls squeezed from my throat. Unable to see anything beyond the tears, the red haze, I buckled violently as someone sat on my chest to hold my neck tightly.
“What the fuck did you do, Derek? Look at her – look!” Quivering as Alpha Jackson’s harsh voice slithered low into my ears, I twisted weakly in a futile attempt to escape. “Look, man!”
A familiar, heavy gaze landed on me, sapping what little strength I had left, and the bathroom became eerily silent. Blinking hard, I gasped for air through hard sobs that raked through my chest. The hands around my throat stifled my breath, and my legs began to tingle with numbness from the pressure put on them.
“She…she has canines…” Derek’s rasping declaration cleared my blurred, watery vision, and I tossed my head to the side to catch sight of his astonished expression. “What the fuck – what the fuck – what the fuck…”
Scrambling to my side, Derek held my face to send pain shooting up into my skull, and my pupils widened at the panic that swirled in his gaze.
“No – no – no…! This can’t be happening. What did we do? Fuck – fuck – shit – ”
“The bleeding is stopping – she’s healing on her own. Alpha – ” The deep, masculine voice from above me lilted in shocked confusion, and I gasped when the pressure on my neck lessened.
Filling my desperate lungs, I couldn’t look away from my mate as his face washed white, and his cheeks hollowed from the force of his fear and anxiety. My tongue worked, trying to make words, only to hit hard, long teeth that cut into the tip, and a pained sob bubbled up from my throat.
“No, no – shh…it’s okay, babe. Just – just stay still. Just stay still. How do we get them to retract, Jackson?” Without looking away, Derek posed his question frantically, and his thumbs rubbed my cheeks and nose. A light brightened in his eyes, and he pursed his lips together as he called for Muss. Numbness spread through me, dampening my emotions in a thick blanket of shock, and he finally tore his eyes off me to glance around.
But Muss didn’t come, and Derek turned his gaze back to me in utter, debilitating defeat.
CHAPTER SIX
Derek
“You are sure they are regular human teeth, now?” Holding her mouth open for me, I peered inside to examine her teeth with narrowed eyes, while shared anxiety threaded through my gut. With a curt nod, I straightened back up, and Linne closed her mouth, visibly relieved. My own shoulders relaxed enough to sag, and I held her to me tightly as she sat on my lap. “I do not understand how this could happen.”
“I know, Linne…” The truth was that I had no answers, and Muss wasn’t answering my calls. My frustration was evident in my tone, but Linne didn’t fault me for it. “We’ll figure it out, babe. One way or another, there has to be some answers somewhere.”
“…I do not want to become a lion shifter, Derek. It is scary.” Even as my heart twisted at her words, I only nodded and pressed my cheek to Linne’s crown. Honestly, I didn’t want her to become a lion shifter, either. The very prospect of it was absolutely terrifying because it was just so outlandish and confusing.
Wishful thinking be damned.
“I know, babe.” Those two words were all I could say, and the ugly hopelessness of the situation sat on my shoulders like a ton of bricks. Staring at the black abyss of the television screen, I pursed my lips tightly as Linne’s fingertips sought out the pinked mark on the left side of my neck. Her touch sent a swirling throbbing of pain and faint pleasure through me, but I ignored both the mark and the endless, drowning questions it presented.
“Why do you not suffer as I do?” Yet another painful collection of words escaped Linne’s mouth, hoarse and gritty, and I shook my head slightly.
“I don’t know, babe.” Guilt threatened to eat me alive; all of this was my fault, after all. It all started with Melinda doing that spell, and I should’ve made sure it was safe. Of course, we knocked out the problem with Linne’s nightmares, but a whole host of new issues arose. I had no doubt that this suffering she brought up would come for me at some point.
“I do not think I want to have sexual relations with you again.”
“I know, babe.” No sex – I could deal with that. It would suck, but I wouldn’t complain. This rift that had suddenly opened up between my mate and I when we were at our closest, though – I could not deal with. There was just nothing there but uncertainty that bordered on mistrust, and that was more painful than anything I’d ever had to go through. Even when it came to the mark on my arm and side, the ridicule and the hatred had made me feel something.
But this was torture, and there was no key to this box.
“I think I should leave for a little bit.” My heart nearly stopped beating at Linne’s small, bare whisper, but she made no move to extract herself from me. Squeezing her weakly, I forced as deep a breath into my lungs as I could, and she whimpered under the pressure. Sluggish and broken, the cogs in my mind struggled to turn, and I pressed my lips to her head before parting them.
“If that’s what you want, babe.” I didn’t want her to go. Hell, Linne herself probably didn’t want to go, but she didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to do. There was no direction to take from here. There was nothing but confusion and anger and simmering self-disgust.
“I will come back…” Linne’s voice scraped harshly against my ear drums, wavering and uncertain, even though she stayed completely still. I heard the unspoken words that laced her tone, and a frown dragged down the corners of my mouth.
…but I don’t know when I’ll be back.
“I’ll wait for you, Linne. You are my mate – I’ll wait for you.” Before either of us could even take a breath, the front door to my home burst open, and my head whipped to the side as Jackson stormed through. His furious expression provoked nothing from me, and I tightened my grip on my mate further as he positioned himself at the end of the sofa.
“We have a huge problem – apparently, the Witch’s Council is on their way. Everyone felt…whatever happened to Linne. They contacted Melinda since she’s the closest witch around. They’re literally on their way right now. This is a huge fucking problem, Derek.” Reiterating his point, Jackson glared at me expectantly, and I returned his stare blankly.
Witches and shifters didn’t get along on the best of days, but the threat I knew I should feel was simply absent as my Chief sneered at me. “That means they’ll take her away and torture her, you idiot! Is that what you want for your mate?”
“I won’t let them take her, Jackson.” Flat, monotone, my voice crackled slightly, and Linne’s miniature wings ruffled slightly against my forearms. Her soft feathers brushed my skin, and goosebumps swept up my arms and across my chest as I sucked in a sharp breath. “When are they supposed to get here?”
“Two hours. They know the epicenter was on my land – they’re pulling out their most powerful witches for this. If they get ahold of Linne – ”
“I will be fine.” For the first time all night, Linne’s tone held some stability, and she fingered my mark with a soft, warm sigh. “Let them come. I will obliterate them. I will wipe all of the witches off the face of this planet – they have caused me nothing but hurt.”
“You can’t do that though, Linne… You don’t understand. The witches, for the most part, at least, help keep the shifters in line all around the globe. Liza’s pack isn’t unique – without the witches, the shifters will destroy the humans. Is that what you want?” Frustrated panic laced Jackson’s voice, and I rubbed my mate’s back even as she nodded against my bare chest.
“Maybe that is for the best…even humans can cause unimaginable suffering without realizing it.” She’s talking about Kristy and Melinda. The realization hit me hard, and I palmed Linne’s shoulders on my way to cup her face. She offered no resistance, and my chest tightened as hope blossomed against my ribs. When her eyes met mine, watery and bright, they blaz
ed with pure fear, and I rubbed her cheekbones with my thumbs soothingly.
“No, babe. We’ll work this out. Don’t take it out on them.” Her eyes rolled, eyelids fluttering, and I cracked a hollow smile as a tiny flicker of something wiggled into my heart. “We got this. Maybe they’ll be understanding about the whole situation – you never know.”
“Well, figure it out before they get here, please. The last thing we need after all this shit with Jordan is the Council finding out we have an Unseelie in the pack.” For a moment, a fraction of a second, I wondered why Jackson didn’t suggest Linne just hide herself as she had been doing the past eight months before we met. Glancing up at him, I frowned deeper at the conflict painting his face. He had plenty of reason to dislike the Witch’s Council; we’ve clashed with them more times than I cared to count over the years since he took over.
“I will show them I am not a threat. If they attack me, I cannot promise I will not attack back.” Leaning away from me, my mate rolled her shoulders sharply, and I tightened my grip on her face at the pure bloodlust that swirled in her eyes.
She wanted the Council to pick a fight with her…or she wants an outlet for this confusion and fear.
Narrowed, brown eyes met mine, and I pursed my lips tightly as Linne’s wings grew to their normal size. Soft feathers brushed against my knees, and she flexed the appendages as wide as she could before her face inched closer to mine. Plump, familiar lips touched my own tentatively, tinged with a sourness that seeped from her very pores, and my palms slid down to cup the back of her head.
“I’ll stand with you, my mate.” My mumble earned me a relieved sigh, and that flicker in my chest grew as Linne rested her forehead against mine. “What do you want to do?”
“I will show them that they are puny by comparison… Puny – insignificant – tiny beings that I will crush if they dare try to do anything to us.”
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