She squeaked as he swept her up into his arms, cradling her against his chest, his right arm tucked beneath her knees and his left around her back.
“Your shoulder.” She pressed against him but he refused to release her, only growled as her palms scalded his chest through his t-shirt and made him ache to feel them on his bare flesh.
When he reached the cabin, he kicked the door shut and carried her up to his bedroom, into the dark.
He set her down on the bed and stared at her, his heart labouring, chest heaving, body and soul screaming to claim her.
He forced himself to say, “You’re sure that you’re sure?”
She hit him with a dazzling smile. “I’m very sure that I’m sure. I don’t want to go away, Rath… I don’t want to leave this place. It feels like home… because you’re here. I don’t want to leave you. I didn’t come here looking for this, but I’m damned glad that I found it… that I found you.”
Gods, he loved her.
He snaked his arm around her waist and kissed her hard, showing her that he felt the same way, that she had become his everything, was vital to him now, and he couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from her either.
Without her in it, his territory would feel empty, as hollow as his heart would be without her.
She was his home.
She was also a female possessed. He broke the kiss and looked down at her hands as they tugged his t-shirt up, wanted to grin as she hastily shoved it over his chest. A flicker of determination crossed her pretty face as she pulled it over his left arm and then her expression softened, gentling as she carefully eased it down and off his right one.
Her fingers fluttered over the bandage on his right shoulder, and he could feel she wanted to mention it, so he silenced her by pulling her fleece off quickly followed by her t-shirt. He tossed them aside and his boots followed them.
Ivy tugged her own boots off and stood, and he stilled and stared as she shimmied out of her dark charcoal hiking trousers, revealing her legs. She blushed when she caught him watching her, and then pulled down a deep breath and reached behind herself, and his own breath hitched as she unhooked her black bra and let it slide down her arms, freeing her breasts.
His already hard length shot harder at the sight of her dusky tipped full breasts and the way her nipples beaded in the cooler air, calling to him.
He growled, grabbed her around the waist and fell onto the bed with her, landing between her thighs, his chest against her stomach. She moaned, the sound music to his ears as she pushed her fingers into his hair and twisted it into her fist as he swirled his tongue around one sweet bud and sucked.
She wriggled beneath him, her breaths coming faster, and he could sense her desire mounting as she tipped her head back into the mattress. A strained moan left her lips and she arched her chest up, pressing her breasts into his face. He groaned and moved to her other breast, teasing it with his tongue as he teased her other damp nipple with his fingers, aching with a need to hear her moan again, to hear the pleasure he gave to her.
“Rath,” she breathed and he shuddered, his body quaking against hers as fire swept through him, a thousand hot needles stabbing down his spine to his balls.
Gods, he wanted her.
He needed to claim her.
It pounded inside him, primal and fierce, a drumming need that he could only obey, one that hijacked control of him and had him seizing her hips and flipping her onto her front. He pulled her hips up off the mattress, tearing a delicious gasp from her, and licked her through her damp black underwear. The taste of her had him growing harder, that ache growing fiercer, and he pressed his tongue in deeper, needing more of her.
When she moved, bringing her hands to her hips, he growled and rose off her, grabbed her by the nape of her neck and pinned her to the bed. He groaned as her heat pressed against his aching shaft and he stared down at her, her submissive position stoking the inferno inside him.
She moaned as he rocked forwards, pressing his cock against her.
It wasn’t enough.
He released her neck and gripped her panties, pushed them down to her knees to expose her, and groaned as he stroked her, felt how wet she was and drank down her breathless groan as she trembled.
“Gods, I need you, Ivy,” he husked, and a blush climbed her cheeks as she turned her head to one side so she could see him.
He fumbled with his trousers, tore the fly open and released himself, and her eyes darkened with need as he stroked a hand down his cock, revealing the crown. That need ran in his veins, commanded him to satisfy it, to give her what she desired from the bottom of her heart.
A mating.
He had wanted to taste her, wanted to tease her to a climax before making love to her, but the passion that drenched her eyes and her feelings had him burning too hot for her, needing to be inside her now to satisfy her and himself.
He fisted his cock again, looked at it as he eased it down the seam of her backside and into her folds, and lifted his eyes to lock with hers as he edged inside her slick heat.
His heart thundered in time with hers as it filled his ears, as he sank deeper into her and saw in her eyes every drop of the pleasure he could feel flowing through her as he joined them. He looked down at his cock again and loosed the low feral snarl that rolled up his throat as he disappeared into her, filling her.
“Fuck,” he muttered, and swore that one day, they were going to do things gently, that it wasn’t always going to be frantic and fast between them.
One day.
The way she wriggled, pressing back against him to drive his cock deeper into her, her eyes dark with need, calling to him, said that day wasn’t today.
He grabbed her hips, pulled out of her and drove back in, a deep thrust that had her rocking forwards when their bodies met. He groaned and shuddered as his balls brushed her and she clenched around him, pushing him to the edge.
Rath leaned over her, reached beneath her with his left hand as he gripped her hip with his right, and fondled her breast as he pumped into her, each stroke of his cock sending a thrill shooting through him, a sweep of tingles that hit him from the blunt head to his balls, and back again.
She moaned and gripped the bedclothes, twisting them into her fists, and damn, the sight of her undid him, gave him that shove he needed to propel him over the edge.
He clutched her breast, pulled her up so her back was flush against his chest, and pinned her there as he angled his body lower and thrust into her, making her bounce in his arms with each powerful plunge of his cock into her heat. She moaned and tipped her head back, rubbed her hand over his hair and captured his cheek.
He groaned as she twisted her head and kissed him, lost himself in her as her tongue teased his and each breathless sigh she loosed drove him on, had him pumping deeper and harder, a slave to the primal need to satisfy her.
To mate and bind himself to her.
His canines elongated, and he shuddered as she teased them with her tongue, no trace of fear in her as she explored them.
He wasn’t sure he could take much more.
He dropped his left hand to her thighs, swallowed her gasp as he teased her flesh as he plunged into her, the need for her to find release warring with a need to find one of his own by sinking his fangs into her nape.
He growled and broke the kiss, twisted her chestnut hair into his right fist and dropped his lips to her neck. Her moan sent a shiver through him, one that lit up his blood and had him thrusting faster, deeper, stroking her harder between her thighs. She arched forwards and he shook as she tightened around him, and his fangs itched, the need to bite her, to claim her, overwhelming him.
He swept his tongue over the back of her neck.
Buried his fangs deep.
She cried out, her hoarse shout filling his ears as she jerked in his arms, quivered and trembled so violently he struggled to keep hold of her. He growled against her nape as her blood hit his tongue, had stars exploding across his vision a
nd his head spinning as release blazed through him.
He grunted as his body kicked hard, cock throbbing wildly inside her, each jet of his seed tearing another animalistic sound from his throat, and an answering moan from her. Her bliss washed through him, mingled with his own to heighten it, and he clung to her as he spent himself inside her, sipped on her blood and felt the connection between them bloom.
Her feelings grew clearer, crystalizing in his mind and his heart, so he could pick out every emotion, right down to the love that burned in her heart as he held her on him and convinced himself to release her neck.
He swept his tongue across it to steal her pain away and offer a silent apology for hurting her.
When her trembling ceased, and he felt strong enough to move again, he twisted her in his arms so she was facing him and stretched out on the bed with her, holding her tucked against his chest. Her breathing slowed, her heart calming again, but the warmth and bliss he could feel in her lingered, seemed to grow stronger as she nestled closer to him.
She lifted her head and he gazed down at her, struggling to believe that she was his mate now.
His forever.
She tilted her head back and kissed him, and he held her closer, made a new vow as he clutched her to him and drifted with her in the haze of their shared happiness.
He would protect her, from now until the end of eternity. He would allow nothing to happen to her, would keep her safe and at his side. He would love her more every day, and would do all in his power to make her happy.
Because she had given him everything.
She had blessed him with her love.
She had accepted him and his world, and bravely stepped into it so they could be together.
She had made him believe in forever again.
And that forever started now.
The End
Thanks for reading!
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Discover more about my paranormal romance books at: http://www.felicityheaton.com
Or sign up to my mailing list to receive a FREE vampire romance ebook, learn about new titles, be eligible for special subscriber-only giveaways, and read exclusive content including short stories: http://ml.felicityheaton.com/mailinglist
Want more of the Cougar Creek Mates series?
Captured by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates series #2)
In the wake of an Archangel attack on Cougar Creek, Storm is seething with a need for revenge against the hunter organisation and the key to it might be the petite blonde mortal he’s locked in his cabin, one he’s determined to make sing for him. Only the beauty has a fiery temperament to match his own, and the more time he spends with her, the more she stokes a fire inside him. One that fills him with a startling and undeniable need to make her sing in another way—in his arms.
Gabriella isn’t going to take her captivity lying down. She’s going to give the pig-headed brute holding her against her will hell until he finally believes she’s innocent. He might be a cougar shifter, but she isn’t afraid of him. Or at least she isn’t afraid of what he is. The way he affects her, the flames that lick through her whenever they’re close, terrifies her though, because the longer she’s around the towering sexy-as-sin shifter, the hotter that fire blazes, and it’s only a matter of time before it burns away all her restraint.
With the mating heat and the attack bringing cougars back to the creek, Gabriella is a complication Storm doesn’t need, but she’s one that he wants… because she might just be his one true mate.
Available now in ebook, paperback and audiobook: order your copy now
About the Author
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole, Donna Grant and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, her best-selling Her Angel romance series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm romance series or any of her stand alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful and passionate, then try her London Vampires romance series. Or if you like hot-blooded alpha heroes who will let nothing stand in the way of them claiming their destined woman then try her Eternal Mates series. It’s packed with sexy heroes in a world populated by elves, vampires, fae, demons, shifters, and more. If sexy Greek gods with incredible powers battling to save our world and their home in the Underworld are more your thing, then be sure to step into the world of Guardians of Hades.
To see her other novels, visit: http://www.felicityheaton.com
Or sign up to my mailing list to get a FREE vampire romance ebook, learn about new titles, be eligible for special subscriber-only giveaways and paranormal romance freebies, and read exclusive content: http://ml.felicityheaton.com/mailinglist
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THE ETERNAL MATES WORLD
Eternal Mates Series
Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince
Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King
Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar
Book 5: Craved by an Alpha
Book 6: Bitten by a Hellcat
Book 7: Taken by a Dragon
Book 8: Marked by an Assassin
Book 9: Possessed by a Dark Warrior
Book 10: Awakened by a Demoness
Book 11: Haunted by the King of Death
Book 12: Turned by a Tiger
Book 13: Tamed by a Tiger
Book 14: Treasured by a Tiger
Book 15: Unchained by a Forbidden Love
Book 16: Avenged by an Angel
Book 17: Seduced by a Demon King
Cougar Creek Mates Series
Book 1: Claimed by her Cougar
Book 2: Captured by her Cougar
Book 3: Courted by her Cougar
Book 4: Craved by her Cougar
London Vampires Series
Book 1: Covet
Book 2: Crave
Book 3: Seduce
Book 4: Enslave
Book 5: Bewitch
Book 6: Unleash
Discover more available paranormal romance books at: http://www.felicityheaton.com
Or sign up to my mailing list to receive a FREE vampire romance ebook, learn about new titles, be eligible for special subscriber-only giveaways, and read exclusive content including short stories: http://ml.felicityheaton.com/mailinglist
Protectors of Poison
Forgotten Gods #1
Laura Greenwood
Sera is used to being forgotten and is happy to be, even if her healing powers have waned in the years since people forgot her real name.
Everything changes when a jackal shifting minor god turns up and reveals her scorpions are being blamed for a poisoning. Determined to prove her innocence, Sera must take her place as the scorpion goddess once more and uncover the plot threatening to destroy her.
Protectors of Poison is book one in the Forgotten Gods series featuring a romance between a jackal shifting god and a
scorpion shifting goddess and based on Ancient Egyptian mythology.
© 2018 Laura Greenwood
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the published, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address;
[email protected].
Visit Laura Greenwood’s website at:
www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk
www.facebook.com/authorlauragreenwood/
Protectors of Poison is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1
"Just a bit longer, little one," I assured the kitten in front of me. His fur was all matted together and at least one of his bones was broken. The worst bit was the lack of response from him. Whoever hurt him had done such a number on him that he didn't even move as I teased a tiny brush through his fur.
I glanced around the room, trying to work out if anyone was about to walk in. If they were, I couldn't help the little guy more than I already was doing. Thankfully, no one seemed to be around.
Shifters Gone Wild: A Shifter Romance Collection Page 27