by Kimber White
The world fell away. I didn’t care about the Ring or the danger we were in. I didn’t care if she’d lied to me. I didn’t care about the lies I told her. My existence became this moment. This woman. This hunger.
“Colm!” she cried out. Cassia arched her back, her lust driving her to the brink. I liked her there. I wanted to hear her shout my name in pleasure. I wanted to hear her beg.
She was mine. Nothing would ever be the same again.
I ran a finger along her slippery folds. She bit her bottom lip and quivered. I wanted to tease her. Wring every drop of pleasure out of her. I wanted to deliver sweet torture and make her submit to me completely, over and over.
I wanted to claim her.
My stark need startled me. And yet, it was the most natural thing in the world. She would break me. I knew it in my soul. And I didn’t give a damn.
I pressed her thighs flat, exposing her sweet, pink parts. My growl ripped out of me.
“Yes!” she gasped. Tiny sparks crackled around her hair. I thought she might set the woods on fire.
It wouldn’t matter. She could burn everything to the ground. I wouldn’t be denied another second.
“Please!” she begged for it. I came undone.
I leaned down and lapped at her delicious wetness. She dug her fingers into the soft earth, trying desperately to contain herself.
Oh, I liked her like this. Wild. Out of control. Fueled by wanton lust.
Cassia bucked. She threaded her fingers through my hair and pushed me closer. I tasted her. Sweet as cinnamon, she was. I loved her fire.
Her little bud grew hard as a rock and she moaned. I delivered just enough pressure to drive her mad, but not enough to bring her to climax.
I sat back, admiring my work. Cassia was open and ready. Her eyes changed color, becoming the kaleidoscope that matched her hair.
She reached for me, closing her fingers around my cock. It was my turn to brace myself as I felt ready to explode.
After a moment of it, I couldn’t take it anymore. Her heat drew me in. Cassia took my cue. She lay on her back, her legs spread wide. God, I could look at her like that forever. All mine. So beautiful, So perfect and ripe for me.
I took her legs and wrapped them over my shoulders.
“Oh!” she gasped, realizing how deep I wanted her to take it.
And she did.
I threw my head back and howled as I slipped inside of her. She was just as luscious as I knew she would be. Slippery, hot, tight. A perfect fit. She stretched to accommodate me, and instinct told me she’d been a virgin.
That shocked me for a moment, then spurred me on.
“Say it,” I growled.
She knew.
“Yes,” she cried. She dug her fingers into my back, drawing blood. It only heightened my arousal.
“Oh, please!”
Oh, how I loved to hear her beg for it.
“You’re mine,” I said through gritted teeth as I thrust inside of her. Cassia hooked her ankles behind my head. I nipped her thigh.
“Mine!” I growled.
She pushed her hips upward, taking me in even deeper. She slapped her palm to the ground and a bolt of fire came out. It ignited a clump of leaves but quickly fizzled out.
“Mine,” I whispered.
“Yes,” she whispered back. “Oh, OH!”
I felt her twitch around me. She was coming hard and fast. I gripped her ass, angling her upward, filling every inch of her. I held myself still as Cassia found her orgasm.
Her eyes popped open. She panted through it. Slamming her fist once again to the ground, flames shot up all around us. The heat of it blew my hair back, but it didn’t burn me. We were at the center of a vortex of fire. It went through me but didn’t hurt me. Instead, it only intensified my pleasure. It was as if was inside all of her. Body and mind.
My Cassia. I knew I had only just begun to understand what she was.
She floated down, opening even more. She was beautiful. And I didn’t just mean physically. She was magic and fire, all consuming. She delivered a shock to my heart and made me feel like it had only just begun to beat.
A slow, wicked smile spread across her face. She slid her hand down my back and over the curve of my ass. Oh, my Cassia knew just what I needed.
She leaned up and found my lips. It was my turn to let out my power.
And she took it. Every inch. Every drop. I dug my heels into the earth and pressed into her even deeper. My wolf came out just enough. My howl rent the air as I spilled into her.
“Yes!” she cried out, needing it.
Then, I cradled her against me, smoothing the hair away from her face. The rain stopped, and the sun began to peek through the clouds.
“This is real?” I asked her. We sat against a massive oak tree watching the sunrise. The light caught in Cassia’s hair, amplifying the rainbow effect as I wound it through my fingers.
She sat between my legs, resting the back of her head against my chest. “It’s a kind of glamor,” she answered. “I was born with red hair like my mother’s. This just started to happen when I was ten years old or so. I suppose if I thought about it hard enough, I could make it red again. I’ve never actually tried.”
“Don’t,” I said. “I mean…I love it this way. I just can’t…a dragon?”
“Technically, a halfling,” she said, her tone somber.
“Incredible,” I said. “How the hell did I not know there were still living dragons? How many?”
She stiffened against me. For the first time, I finally understood what it might have cost her to trust me. But we were here now. The two of us.
“You understand my father’s kind were hunted to extinction over a thousand years ago. Or nearly. And now, I’ve betrayed him.”
She turned, facing me. Her eyes glistened with tears. I felt the desolation in her heart, and it gutted me to know I had caused any of it.
I wanted to make her promises. I wanted to take her away from here and find a place where no one would ever find us. I wanted it to just be Cassia and me. Only, I knew that might never be.
“I’ll keep your secret,” I said.
“We have to find him,” she said. “Now do you understand the kind of danger he might be in? There’s only one reason my father would have disappeared.”
“He’s a full-blooded dragon,” I said, trying to imagine what that would be like. Cassia alone was magnificent to behold. I had seen with my own eyes that she didn’t fully shift. What she did do amazed me. She had wings. She could levitate, but could she fly? And she could bring a fire hotter than anything on earth.
“Surely there’s no shifter or magic user on the planet that’s as strong as he is,” I said.
“My mother is human,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I think they took her to get to him. It’s the only thing that would have made him stay away. If he’s alive at all.”
My heart went hollow thinking about the worst possibilities. Cassia’s mother was Xander Brandhart’s fated mate. If she had been captured by the Ring, they would have tortured her to control Brandhart. Perhaps he’d even laid down his life for her. And if so, it had been for nothing as she was still missing too.
God. I thought of my own parents. I’d spent the last fifteen years trying not to. My mother had always been my father’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
“Fated mates,” I muttered.
“More trouble than they’re worth,” Cassia said as if she were finishing a sentence I’d uttered a thousand times. I’d always believed that. This was why. But now, as I stared into her eyes and felt her heart beating alongside mine, the world turned inside out.
“Those bears,” she said. “Do you believe me now? I had nothing to do with them.”
“Yes,” I said.
“I wouldn’t… Colm, I’d never do anything to put you in harm’s way. I swear it. I’ve laid everything out for you. You know things about me no one else does.”
She w
as right. She’d made herself vulnerable to me in every way. It twisted at my heart. Already, I felt my own heat beginning to rise again. I wanted her. I needed her. I just prayed it wouldn’t be my downfall, like perhaps it had been for Xander Brandhart and my own father.
“I made you a promise,” I said. “I intend to keep it. But we’re not safe here anymore. We never were. I don’t know if we’re safe anywhere. If you’re still determined to do this…”
She shifted away from me; her eyes filled with alarm. “I don’t have a choice. Colm, there’s no one else who can help my parents. I have to know.”
“What if it’s bad news?” I said. “You have to be prepared for that. Those bears? Hurley sent them after us. You trusted the wrong person. He sold you out. He sold us both out. There’s no telling who else is out there waiting for us. He knows who you’re looking for.”
“No,” she said. “He only knew I was looking for you. You’re the only one I ever told who I was or who my father was. How many people have you told? What makes you think Stella, or that mage back in Michigan City, haven’t sold this information? I trusted you, Colm. I don’t… I don’t have anyone else.”
Instinct fueled me. I went to her and pulled her back into my arms. At the same time, I hated myself for it. She was right. I’d bet my life Stella had nothing to do with this, but I couldn’t be sure about Cyrus Bach anymore.
“Fine,” I said. “Don’t cry. I keep my promises, Cassia. I’ll take you as far as Luna Point. But you may not like what we find out.”
“I’m ready for that,” she said.
“Are you?” I said. “I mean, I must be outta my mind.”
I rose to my feet and started to pace. “What you did back there. You can’t control it, can you? Not all the time.”
She rose beside me and I saw the truth in her eyes.
“Shit,” I said. “That’s it, isn’t it? Why do I get the feeling if we do find your father, he’s going to be the first one in line to turn me into a pile of ash for bringing you so deep into the Neutral Zone?”
She gathered her things. It killed me to watch her get dressed. I’d rather have her naked beside me until the end of time. I found my own jeans and put them on.
Cassia got her hands on the truck keys first and started marching back toward it.
“Where the hell are you going?”
“I’m going to find my parents!” she shouted, whirling around to face me. “I mean it, Colm, with or without you. You’d be wise not to underestimate me. Now you know why.”
My jaw dropped. I sure as hell did.
“You won’t last a day in a place like Luna Point without me. You don’t exactly blend in.”
“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms. “Then get in.”
I couldn’t help it, I started to smirk as I realized she was serious. I tilted my head.
“Fine,” I said. “You know where you’re going?”
“East,” she said. “I think I can find my way to Lake Erie from here.”
She turned her back and climbed in the truck. She revved the engine, and I realized she was about to back over my foot. I dove to the side and then jumped in the passenger seat.
“Uh,” I said. “Do you know how to drive a stick?”
“I’ll figure it out!” she shouted.
My stomach flipped as Cassia more or less found reverse. The truck lurched backward. Miraculously, she didn’t pop the clutch as she found first and kicked up dirt.
The clouds broke for good as we hit the road. Even from here, I could scent Lake Erie in the far distance. Cassia’s nostrils flared, and I knew she could smell it too.
The truck hurtled forward, and I said a silent prayer that I could keep my promises to her. I had the distinct feeling I might have to take on the devil himself to do it.
Chapter 15
Colm
“What makes it different from the last person you thought you could trust?” Cassia asked me.
She stood with her hands on her hips, her rainbow hair flying all around her face. The wind was coming straight at us off the lake. The rotted-out lighthouse at Luna Point was visible in the distance over her left shoulder. Even before the world turned upside down, there were those who thought it was haunted. Now, with its chipped white brick and broken out windows, the place just looked like one more bad omen.
“Cassia,” I said. We’d been having this same argument for the last two hours. She wanted to come with me when I met with my contact.
“I don’t,” I said. “That’s why it’s even more important that you stay out of sight. Christ. If I’d wanted to doublecross you, why would I have even brought you this far?”
I wished I hadn’t. Ever since we’d crossed into Monroe County, my hackles went up. Though this was still the Neutral Zone, Lake Erie was a whole different story. In the last ten years, it had formed one of the main passageways along the underground for those shifters hoping to make it safely into Canada.
I put my hand on her shoulder. God. I craved her fire. Before, her power had set off warning bells inside of me. Now that I knew what it was…or at least was beginning to…it stirred me to distraction.
I wanted her. Now. Repeatedly. I tasted blood in my mouth as my fangs dropped. A shudder went through her and color came into Cassia’s cheeks. Fuck. Her heat pooled in her center. Lust coursed through her just like it did me.
“I want to know what you know, when you know it,” she said. “Has it occurred to you we’re stronger together than we are apart?”
My mouth went dry. Her eyes widened.
“I mean I can watch your back,” she said. “And you can watch mine.”
“You still don’t get it,” I said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Shifters make you a mile away,” she said.
“I’m not meeting with a shifter,” I said. Her eyes went wide.
“I’m meeting with an old family friend. Stella works for profit. So does Cyrus Bach. But this contact…she doesn’t. She’s just a friend. I need to know what we’re up against in Luna Point. If you come with me and she sees you, then…”
“Then, your friend will have information to sell,” she said.
“No,” I snapped. “She’ll have information they can torture out of her if she’s ever captured.”
Cassia finally went still. I think she sensed the pain in my heart.
“You don’t want to see her either,” she said. “Why?”
I had to touch her. I brought my other hand up and gripped her shoulders. “She’s family,” I said.
Cassia searched my face. Then the lines across her brow softened. “Fine,” she said. “You have one hour. Then, I don’t care, Colm. I’m coming after you.”
I did something then without really thinking. I pulled Cassia to me and kissed her. Desire raced through my veins. I wanted more. I wanted it all. Her response was immediate. Her nipples hardened as I held her against me. I could barely see straight as my blood heated. I wanted to burn.
“One hour,” she said, gasping as she pulled away.
“Stay put,” I said, having apparently as much trouble forming words as she did. “Stay here among the dunes and out of sight. The lake will mask your scent. Plus…nobody around here will know what to make of you even if they did get close enough to smell you. As long as you don’t let your fire out.”
“I can do better than that,” she said. Cassia stepped back. Her hair lifted even higher, going straight up behind her. The pull of her fire took my breath away. Her power was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. Sparks crackled from her fingertips. Blue flame swirled around her. Then she was gone.
No. Not gone. I could still feel the shape of her outline. But it was as if my eyes played tricks on me. An optical illusion. If I tried to look too hard, she was invisible. “A cloaking spell,” I said.
“Yes,” she said, though her voice reached me in the whispered wind.
“Good,” I said. “Keep it up as long as you can. I’m coming back for you.”
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I turned on my heel and shifted. It took just about every ounce of strength I had to leave her there. I sniffed the air and got my feet under me. Then, I let out the full power of my wolf and ran west along the shore.
My heart thundered inside of me as I veered away from the lake and headed inland. Luna Point was a tiny town. Before the shifter attacks, the only draw was a high-end marina that catered to the corporate rich looking for an escape from Detroit. The marina was gone now. The Ring had firebombed it and closed off the pier. They’d done so with the blessing of a misguided government looking to restore order and focusing on the wrong threat.
Most of the people left Luna Point and headed across the border into Ohio. Later, a few came back here and tried to make it their own. The lost. Luna Point had earned a nickname from the new locals. Lonely Point.
I was the one who brought her here thirteen years ago. The last favor I did for anyone from Wild Lake. That was what I told myself, anyway.
Maria lived at the end of a quiet street. A generation ago, it would have been filled with young children riding bikes and the constant whir of lawn mowers. Now, the grass was overgrown and what sidewalks remained had crumbled to dust.
Maria’s front door was open, almost as if she were expecting me. I lowered my head and let out a low growl. There was no one else around. Only Maria.
She came to the door. The screen hung crooked off of one hinge. God, she was skinny. She had the look of a spell-head. She took a long, slow drag off a cigarette then flicked her ashes on the ground. She turned her back to me.
“It’s open,” she called back. “Not that it would stop you, anyway. There’s a towel just inside the door. Use it. I don’t want to look at you.”
I padded up to the door and shifted, rising on two legs. I grabbed the yellow towel she mentioned and wrapped it around my waist. Maria had spent her life surrounded by wolf shifters. I knew my being here could reopen old wounds, and I hated myself for that. Coming at all meant another broken promise.
I opened the door. I found her in the kitchen, staring out the back window.