The Wolf Next Door ( A Paranormal Romance) (The Anthology Novella Series)

by Darlene Kuncytes

  Bader pulled her earlobe between his teeth and gave it a gentle tug as he moved his body just enough to join them, and she sighed.

  She grazed his chin with her teeth and he caught her gaze, his intense eyes alight with a passion that was honest and almost primal and her heart skipped a beat.

  Bade began to move his body, slowly at first, just to allow himself a moment to revel in the indescribable sensation of being buried deep inside of this woman. It was surreal. It was awe-inspiring!

  It was…Shit!

  Bade stopped as the realization hit him square in the chest with all the gentleness of a nuclear explosion.

  This woman was his mate!

  Holy freaking crap! This was not at all what he had been expecting!

  The enormity of it all crashed down on him like a ton of bricks, and he tried to get his thoughts together. He had to think! But, when only a moment later, his mate kissed her way up his neck in order to seek out his mouth, all rational thought flew straight out of the damned window.

  He moved his body, his strides strong and steady and she met his pace to absolute perfection. But, why wouldn’t she?

  She was his God-damned mate!

  Just what in the hell was he going to do now?

  He didn’t do feelings! He didn’t do forever! He sure as hell didn’t do domestic bliss!

  He increased his movements as he sensed her climbing to that place where she was reaching her pinnacle yet again, and did his best to hold back so he could hit that precipice with her.

  Finally, he felt her begin to climax, her body tightening around him as his name passed her lips in a throaty cry and he let himself go, stunned by the impact of his release. His entire body vibrated from it like it never had before, and he found himself thinking that domestic bliss didn’t sound half bad. Not if she was the one that he was going to share it with.

  Shit and hellfire. He was completely screwed!

  A smile curved his mouth as the thought popped into his head that he really couldn’t say that he minded much at all.

  Let him burn.

  Bade slid beside her and pulled her into the crook of his arm. Christ, but he found himself loving the feel of her soft, pliable, amazing body fitted snugly up against his, and he kissed the top of her head as her warm breath tickled his chest.

  Yep. He was screwed.

  Ember curved her body against this man’s incredible frame and fought for all she was worth to keep her eyes from sliding shut. She was satiated, and content, and sleepy.

  He made her feel safe and protected, and she just wanted to fall asleep in his arms and sleep a long, dreamless slumber. A slumber safe from the terrors that waited in the fog. Secure in the fact that he was with her, and would let nothing harm her.

  As if reading her thoughts, she felt his lips brush against her temple before whispering “Rest,” into her ear.

  She obliged.

  She was just that secure.

  Chapter Six

  “Ember...”

  Embers eyes fluttered opened and she glanced across the darkened bedroom, trying to get her bearings. She could hear Bader snoring lightly against her ear as her head rested on his enormous chest and a small smile curved her lips.

  Was she really lying here in this man’s arms?

  A part of her wanted to pinch herself, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, but there was that other part of her who was so afraid that if she did, she would indeed wake up from this bliss.

  She nibbled at her bottom lip as she found herself wondering what had woken her. Nothing seemed off. In fact, everything was near perfection.

  She laid there quietly a moment longer, listening to the sound of Bader’s even breathing as it cut through the silence of the bedroom, and allowed herself just a bit more time to enjoy the pleasure of being wrapped in his embrace.

  It was surreal.

  She indulged herself only a few precious moments more before reluctantly slipping away from his perfect frame and carefully sliding from the bed; taking extra care not to wake him.

  She must have been dreaming of Evan again, she surmised as she snagged Bader’s t-shirt from the floor and silently headed toward the kitchen to grab a glass of water. She was absolutely parched, and just wanted to grab something, then crawl back into bed to snuggle up with the sleeping Adonis lying there.

  Who knew how long she would have to enjoy this feeling? The man would certainly come to his senses sooner, rather than later.

  “Ember.”

  She jumped as the sound of her name drifted across the air. Floating on the breeze like a feather in a wind.

  It was Evan! She knew it to the very marrow of her bones.

  And, it was coming from right outside!

  Without thinking, she hurriedly made her way through the kitchen and to the back door of the house, moving purely on instinct now as the thought of seeing her brother again hit her full force.

  She reached out and pulled open the door, her eyes scanning the area in search of any sign of him, and bit back a squeal of delight when she spotted her twin standing across the yard, the excitement hitting her and sending her senses reeling.

  She hadn’t been dreaming!

  She took a few steps forward and towards where he stood, but stopped, hesitating as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and his features became clearer. He was deathly pale. His skin almost translucent in the moonlight, and he was so thin, and bedraggled. She watched in stunned silence as his body swayed slightly from side to side as he seemed to struggle to stay erect.

  He merely stood there…silent, his face devoid of any emotion whatsoever as he stared straight ahead, almost as if in a trance, and it unnerved her to her core.

  Something wasn’t right.

  In the blink of an eye, Evan was flanked by several men, dressed all in black; their lifeless, silvery eyes glowing in the darkness like an animals reflecting the beams of light from a passing car, and the sight of them appearing around her brother without any warning caused a shudder to run across her.

  They were absolutely terrifying. Like nothing she had ever seen before.

  Ember took a long, shaky breath as she tried to calm her nerves and the overwhelming urge to turn and run swept over her as she was hit with a sense of impending doom.

  It descended over her like a thick, black cloud, practically suffocating her with its noxious presence.

  This was so not good at all.

  Bade’s eyes flew open as his entire body snapped to attention with all the subtlety of being hit by a train. His senses screamed out to him that something was dangerously amiss.

  He found Ember’s space next to him empty and cool to the touch, and jumped from the bed as if he had been set on fire, his eyes searching the room for any sign of her, only to find everything deathly still.

  To still.

  He could feel the air around him crackling with that all too familiar electrical current of danger and quickly slipped into his jeans and left the room.

  Something was very, very wrong.

  “Evan,” Ember breathed out, as she unconsciously took another step toward her brother, glaring in fury at the creatures standing so stoically beside him, their mouths twisted up into something loosely resembling sneers as they watched her intently with an almost humor-filled curiosity.

  That…and a look of what could only be described as…hunger. It was almost as if she were the fly, and they the spiders.

  “Your sister is truly lovely,” the man standing directly to Evans left exclaimed as his glittering, cold eyes surveyed her from head to toe. Her skin began to crawl as her stomach roiled. His blatant perusal of her left her feeling violated and dirty, and she wanted nothing more than to scratch the bastard’s eyes out.

  The timber of his voice was strong and commanding…almost feral, and Ember found herself despising him immediately. The arrogance radiated off of him in waves, like a stench that grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go, and she knew without a doubt that this douchebag had to be
the leader of this little band of assholes.

  Her temper simmered as she stared back at the group, refusing to cower.

  “Give me my brother,” she ground out, not sure just what in the hell she thought she was going to do if they refused her demand, but she’d be damned if she was going to just stand here and do nothing.

  “My, my…she is a feisty little thing, isn’t she?” he chortled in response with an amused little huff. “It really is such a shame that we must to kill her. A waste, really, but she is a means to an end.” He turned toward Evan and gave him a quick shove, propelling her brother forward on legs that trembled violently. “Time to say your goodbyes.”

  Evan stumbled, nearly falling to his knees, which caused Ember to rush towards him.

  “No!”

  The sound of her twin’s voice blasted through her brain with such force that she actually saw stars. She stopped dead in her tracks, staring back at him with her mouth hanging open in shock when she realized that his lips hadn’t moved to shout the word at her.

  He was in her head! Bader had been right! This really was why the vampires wanted him so badly!

  “Don’t let them get too close, Emmie,” Evan warned, and she found herself taking a step back at his command.

  Before she had even a millisecond to gather her thoughts and decide what to do, one of the creatures came rushing at her at an inhuman speed and had her by the throat.

  He pulled her over to where their leader stood as she struggled and fought to break free, but she was no match for the strength of these men.

  “Easy, Yuri,” the leader warned the vampire holding onto her in a grip that was completely cutting off her supply of air and causing her eyes to water. “We mustn’t dispose of her just yet.” He looked to Evan who had finally succumbed to his weakness and was now down on his hands and knees, bracing himself up on arms that shook frantically. “I haven’t yet gotten what I desire.”

  “And just what would that be, Devlin? A stake through that miserable black thing of yours that poses for a heart?”

  The sound of Bader’s voice washed over Ember like a tidal wave of warmth, and her heart skipped a beat.

  “You’re looking well, Bade.” Devlin chuckled with a snide little grin, and Bade felt his entire body tense as his wolf howled in fury.

  He had run into Devlin LaPorte on more than one occasion in his days as a hunter, and the bastard had always managed to give him the slip somehow.

  Well…he’d be damned if he’d let him get away this time!

  “Let her go,” he demanded icily of the vampire holding onto Ember in a death grip.

  “You seem to be outnumbered, Bade,” Devlin laughed.

  “Really?” Bade responded, his voice low and even as his lip curled up in a sneer. Several very large wolves stepped out from the darkness of the surrounding woods.

  His pack had arrived as he knew they would.

  He watched with amusement as the four Vampire’s looked around in surprise, carefully weighing their options and looking to their leader for direction.

  Devlin grabbed Ember from Yuri and wrapped her in his arms, his lips pulling back as his fangs descended from his gums. He yanked her head to the side, revealing the alabaster skin of her neck, where her pulse fluttered sporadically with her terror.

  She smelled positively delicious, and he found his bloodlust rising.

  “It’s all very simple, really. They attack…” He informed him coolly, nodding at the wolves. “I drink. Do you really think that you will be fast enough to save her before I’ve drained her dry? Are you feeling that lucky, Bade?”

  He knew that the wolf leader was ready to explode with his rage, and was counting on just that. His obvious regards for the tiny human held so snugly in his embrace would hopefully be his nemesis’s downfall.

  Emotions and feelings were very rarely ever a good thing. They served no purpose whatsoever.

  Ember’s gaze collided with Bade’s and held fast, as she tried her best to convey to him all that he had come to mean to her in such a short amount of time. She needed him to know that he mattered to her. No matter what happened, she wanted him to know that she cared.

  “Kill them,” she croaked out finally in defiance, only a millisecond before all hell broke loose.

  Evan, who it seemed as if everyone had forgotten about for the moment, suddenly pushed himself back up to his feet as his voice exploded in her head once again.

  Duck!

  Ember instinctively let herself go limp and slid down Devlin’s body just far enough that Evan had room to hit the vampire square in the face with a solid crack to his large, pointy nose.

  The vampire’s hold on her loosened, more from surprise she was guessing, than the actual punch, and she dropped the rest of the way down to the ground, kicking out and hitting the bloodsucker in the shin with everything that she had in her. Praying that she could at least stall him long enough so that the pack could make their move.

  She stared in absolute wonder and awe as Bader shifted into a striking jet-black wolf.

  Strong, powerful…he was magnificent!

  And huge!

  Growls and screeches boomed around them as the wolves took her cue and used that precise moment of distraction to attack, and she watched the unfolding battle in stunned fascination as Bader sprang through the air and slammed into Devlin with a mighty smack, his muscular body knocking the vampire to the ground in one fail swoop. He began snapping furiously at the vampire’s throat as the bloodsucker shrieked in fury.

  She stared as the two of them sparred, unable to move, almost as if she were frozen to the spot until she realized someone was pulling on her arm and turned to see Evan on his hands and knees beside her, that mischievous smile she knew all too well cutting across his features.

  He was frighteningly pale and his breathing was labored, and she knew that it had taken what little strength he had left to knock that asshole in the face as he had, but her brother was there. Those sons of bitches hadn’t broken him! She could see it in his eyes.

  He was still there.

  “Come on, Em, you need to move!” he urged her, trying to push himself unsteadily to his feet, and as if she had been slapped, she sprang into action.

  She stood and wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling him up and leading him over towards a small stone retaining wall at the back of the garden. She eased him down onto it and hugged him fiercely only a moment before turning to watch the melee happening around them and trying to figure out what she could do to could help.

  Bader and Devlin rolled and slammed against the ground, fangs snapping and punches flying as each grappled to regain dominance. Finally, with a mighty roar Bader hit his mark and the vampire screamed in agony before falling still.

  The other vampires who were left, made a horrible hissing sound in what could only be construed as fright, and took off running, the fight leaving them the instant that their leader perished.

  The wolves followed close at their heels, and she knew that they didn’t stand a chance.

  Ember looked back toward Bader who had shifted back and was standing there in all his striking glory. Their gazes locked as he gave her that heart stopping grin that made her weak in the knees and before she knew what was happening, she realized that she was running toward him.

  He welcomed her into his embrace as his head dipped and his lips met hers. He kissed her soundly, thoroughly, and she soared through the stratosphere with just his touch.

  Talk about an adrenaline rush!

  Holy crap!

  He broke away much too soon, and looked into her eyes a moment before his gaze slipped down to her neck and his expression changed to one of anger. She was pretty sure that she had bruises there, and she cupped the side of his face in her hand in a gesture to reassure him the only way she could.

  “Are you, all right?” He asked softly and she nodded, her throat constricting with emotion at his obvious concern for her.

  “You were amazing,”
she husked in awe.

  “You weren’t too bad yourself,” he chuckled in reply. “Are you sure that you’re okay?”

  She giggled lightly as her eyes gleamed. “Well, my lips are a bit sore,” she informed him, her brow lifting suggestively.

  Bader leaned forward and brushed his mouth against hers. “Are they, now?” He asked with a wicked chuckled that reverberated through his chest and into hers. “I just might have to remedy that situation.”

  “I believe you might,” she responded softly.

  With that he kissed her again and she shivered straight down to the tips of her toes.

  Oh, hell and shitfire…she was falling hard for this man!

  “Um, I really hate to interrupt this tender moment and all, but if you’re going to insist on sucking face with my sister, I’d really prefer to not have to watch it. Especially considering that you’re buck naked!” Evan called from where he sat, and Ember smiled. “Besides, I’m starving! Those bastards didn’t believe in common hospitality.”

  Bade glanced her brother’s way and gave him a grin. “Nice to see you again, Evan,” he laughed before taking her lips once more.

  Epilogue

  Ember once again stood by the fountain, a small, content sigh whispering past her lips as she stared down into the rippling water. It seemed a lifetime ago that she had stood in this exact spot, making a wish that she never would have ever thought would come true.

  And now…

  Strong, familiar arms wrapped themselves around her from behind and she was pulled back against that solid, muscular frame she knew by touch. That scent that she loved more than anything in the world tickling her nose as it drifted on the air.

  Bade nuzzled her neck as his hands fanned out over her burgeoning belly.

  “Where it all began,” he murmured against her ear.

  “Who would have thought?” She replied with a smile, reflecting on how very much her life had changed over the past six months.

  They had brought Evan back home where Neoma had immediately burst into tears before hovering over him like a mother hen and doing everything short of force feeding him in order to bring him back to full-strength. She had thanked them both profusely and had squealed with delight at the fact that the two of them were together.