Noah: House of Wilkshire ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  And it was too—in everything; a part of everything. Everything was even made by magic as far as he was concerned. Touching the book that he’d taken from Austin, he wondered what the family would say if they knew that he had it. They’d more than likely kill him. That was precisely why it was in here and not out in his home where he could brag about it.

  “Someday I’ll lay it next to his mother and daughter’s books.” He thought of the stand that he’d had made especially for the three of them to be side by side. “Yes, that’ll be a day that will make me a god to all the witches. Not only will I have their books, but I will have their power too.”

  Giggling, something that he only did in private, he even did a little dance to go with it. Soon, he kept telling himself. Soon it would be over for the Frost family, and he’d be able to make the rules, ones that would cut out the half-breeds altogether.

  Black was just leaving his treasure trove when he felt the tingle of being summoned. If those idiots were calling him to have him tell them how to breathe, he was going to remove their heads once and for all. Going to the room that was reserved only for those he deemed necessary, Black felt his cock shrivel up and nearly make its way up his ass. His adversary was standing there as if she owned the place.

  “Hello, Black.” He asked her what she wanted, and when she smiled at him, he sat down in his seat so that she’d not be able to see his knees shaking. “I have a request. Not that I really care if you grant it or not. Should I want to, I’m sure that I could make you wish you’d never been born.”

  “You think? I do not. What is it that I can turn down for you today, Bryce Frost? Are you asking to take a mate? Then I say nay. Are you telling me that you’ve had enough of your mother? Then I would grant that one. Ask me. I have a great many things to do today.” She laughed and told him that she’d never do either one. Black wasn’t sure what she’d meant with her answer. “Tell me what it is you think you need. I am a very busy man, and I don’t have time for your childish games.”

  “I wish for you to release the hold you have on a human family.” He asked her what she meant. “There has been a murder, and I want—”

  “I have killed no one.” She said that he lied, and she’d never said that he had. “Then what is it you think I have over a family? I’m assuming that they’re human?”

  “Yes. But that’s not what I’m asking for. As I was saying, there has been a murder, and to solve it, I will need their files and all the families that are attached to it. The name is Carter.”

  “I know no such name. So, it stands to reason that I would have no hold over them.” She asked him if he’d release it to her. “Yes, whatever it takes to get you out of my offices. As I have said, I’m very busy. Now, if there is nothing else, then I’d like for you to leave.”

  “I want my father’s things.” His balls and cock, already the size of a peanut from earlier with her, seemed to have leapt from his body and into his ass. Shifting on the chair to try and get some relief from the pain of it, he realized she was still speaking.

  “Why is it you think you have a need for those?”

  “Well, he was my father. And since the council had him murdered, then his things would rightfully come to me, as his daughter and a witch of worth.” He laughed. It was better than what he felt he needed to do, and that was to puke then run for his room. “Did you hear a word that I said? I want his things. And along with it, his books. You’ve no use for them, and I’d like them returned to me. As they should have been years ago. I am well within my rights to ask for them and to have them returned.”

  “You are. I’m going to see about having that law taken off the books too. Why should you have his things when he was killed, not murdered, for something that he did wrong?” She asked him what that had been. “He broke the laws of our kind, and you well know it. Had you not been greedy and had him train you, nothing more than a half-breed animal—”

  His airway was cut off. Black could feel the tightness around his heart and lungs. Spots before his eyes made Bryce go in and out of focus. When his hands began to tingle, all he could think about was that all his planning had been for naught. Bryce was stronger than anyone he knew, much stronger.

  He realized that she was speaking, saying something about his welfare, asking if he was all right. The smile she gave him was as big as her face—evil looking, he thought, like she was some sort of monster that was going to eat him alive. Then he was free.

  Gathering as much wind into his lungs as he could hurt. The burning of his throat hurt him with each swallow. Coughing, he saw a spot of blood on his desk in front of where he’d been sitting. Black looked at Bryce when she asked him, once again, if he was all right.

  “You’re going to pay for this.” She said that she thought that it could be wiped up with a tissue. The blood wasn’t that big a deal. “Not that, you moronic fuck. I’m talking about attacking me. You cannot touch me, I am the council. I’ll make you pay if it’s the last thing—”

  “It just might be.” The threat—and there wasn’t any doubt that’s what it was—hung there between them like a pink elephant in a dark forest. “Now, as I was requesting—and so you know, this is not so much a request as it is a demand—I want my father’s things back by the end of the week. And that would include his magic book. If I don’t have them, Black.... Well, trust me, you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you if I have to get them for myself.”

  Then she was gone. But her laughter, high and full of humor, lingered in the room like a woman’s perfume. The sound of it—again, much like a perfume that a woman would spritz on to entice a man—made the air around him tight. But unlike the smell, there was a clogging of his throat, and his ears were full of the sounds. Black knew that as surely as he sat here, he was going to die by her hand if he did not do something, and soon. Bryce wasn’t one to fuck with anymore.

  ~*~

  Noah waited for Bryce to come out of the bathroom. She’d been in there since returning this afternoon, about an hour ago, and each time he’d knocked on the door to find out if she was all right, she told him to go away. Actually, she wasn’t quite that nice about it, but he’d gotten the point. When Laura came into the hallway where he was, she asked him what was going on.

  “She went to see about some file that she needed from the WC. And to ask for her father’s books. She said that it had been long enough.” Laura nodded, but looked so pained that he changed the subject. “This file, she said that it has a hold on it from one of the members. Black. Then, of course, she had to explain to me that there were three men of the WC—Black, White, and Gray.”

  “Yes, there are. Black is the meanest of the three of them. White—well, Austin often said that he was the calming one, but he was also very vain about things. Gray, I was told, was stupid. And his gray matter wasn’t much more than a tater tot with ketchup on it.” They both laughed, and just then, Bryce came out of the bathroom. She looked a little green. “So, you tangled with Black, did you? You should have taken me with you. I would love to have seen his face when a non-witch came in the room with you.”

  “He killed Father.” Bryce staggered to the living room after saying that. Both he and Laura made their way behind her as Bea was joining them. “He killed my father for no other reason than he wanted me to fail. I mean, he had no idea how powerful I was then, and regrets not killing me too. But he killed my dad. There hadn’t been any complaints about us either.”

  They sat down, Noah next to Bryce. And when she wrapped herself around him, she was chilled and shivering. When he wrapped his arms around her, she cuddled under his chin while she continued to tell them what she’d encountered.

  “I asked first for the file. But something came to me while I was there that made me think that I had to ask for it under the name Carter, not Krupp. Once he gave me permission to open the file, I reached into his mind and saw what he’d done to my father. Done for no other reason than he could.” Bea asked why he had targeted Austin. “Because h
e could see him training me off and on. Saw us in the back yard playing around, and he was jealous. And when it occurred to him what he was—the law, so to speak—he came up with the plan to have someone complain, then to kill him.”

  No one said anything for several minutes. They were thinking, he could see that. But he also knew that the man who was called Black would not be long for this world if he thought that he could get away with what he’d done. Noah asked about the file and what the significance was with the names.

  “He knows the girl—Beth Krupp Carter. Well, he doesn’t know her, not at all, but he’s related to her. She’s his daughter.” Noah asked her what she’d said, and Laura started laughing. “Yeah, he’s got himself a half-breed daughter of his own. So all the rules that he’s been trying to tell us about people like my mom, they’re not going to mean squat because he has done it all himself.”

  “I don’t understand.” Bryce explained it to him. “Christ, he’s taken a human to his bed and she had a child by him? Holy shit, Bryce. This isn’t just about the rules he’s trying to enforce over your mom. His kind—the council—cannot have any children. Not ever.”

  “Why not? I mean, even the thought of him reproducing makes me ill, but I don’t understand the reasoning behind them not having anyone to love them.” Before Noah could explain, Laura seemed to have gotten it. “So, they cannot be used against them. Oh my, I never thought of that until just this second. The council wouldn’t want someone to have the upper hand over them by taking their children. And I bet that it’s happened before, so that’s the reason for the rule.”

  “Exactly. And the fact that he had a child makes him subject to all sorts of fines and sentencing.” Noah let Bryce slide to the couch. She was looking better all the time. “What did he do to you that I’m going to have to kill him for?”

  “Nothing. Just taking a walk into his mind was enough.” She shivered again and got up to move around the room. “I’ve asked for—well, demanded really—my father’s things back. He has them. I’ve even seen the room that he has it all stored in, the code to get into the room, and his plans for using it when he’s either asked to step down or he changes the rules. He thinks that will be done once I’m dead. Also, he has it out for you, Grandma.”

  “Good. I’d hate to have to kill the little bastard and not have just cause.” Everyone turned and looked at her. It was the first time he’d ever heard her curse. “What? I’ve been around the block a time or two, you know. You don’t get to be my age and have a son and not hear a few things you store away for later. Why, I bet I could teach you a thing or two about sex.”

  Everyone yelled “Don’t” at the same time. Grandma, as he’d been asked to call her, laughed. He thought about living out the rest of their lives together and thought there would never be a time when he was bored.

  They talked for another hour. Mostly it was about the things that they’d do with Black if he didn’t turn over the things that were Bryce’s father’s. Noah didn’t have any idea what they might be; a book that had spells in it was the only thing that he really understood. But he didn’t care really—whatever it was, he wanted Bryce to have it.

  When his cell phone rang, he went out onto the deck to answer it. There were some very heated discussions going on about the coming fall soloistic. Again, he didn’t know what that meant, but he was willing to do whatever it took to make his love happy.

  “There are a couple of things that I’d like to talk over...where are you?” He told his old boss, Lin Ming, where he currently was. “The United Kingdom? What on earth is there that you had to travel halfway around the world for?”

  “My bride.” That shut the other man up. “I came here to see to a few things and get some vacation time in when I met her. She’s wonderful, and I couldn’t be happier. And before you ask, no, I’m not returning to live in the States anytime soon.”

  “But I thought we had a deal. You’d work for me until you keeled over in your grave, and I’d be able to retire with a clean slate.” That wasn’t going to happen either, but Noah laughed when he did. “Seriously though, congratulations. I’m very happy for you both. But I have to ask, is she blind? I mean, she’d have to be if she wanted to stay with your ugly puss.”

  They talked about nothing at all for several minutes, and Noah could tell that he was building up to something. Coming into the house, he sat at the desk that he’d claimed for his own. And when he finally hit on it, Noah sat down to think about what was going on. He also found out that not only had Boseman been fired, but what was left of his crew was gone as well.

  “I have a case that I’d like you to give some thought on. I know you’re far away, but I can send you what I have, and I think you can see what I’m not.” He asked him what the case was about. “Murder. What else is there in this town? Anyway, the man is claiming that he shot his wife in self-defense. I say he shot her because of an argument that they’d been having over the last few days. Something about a lover. I was never sure if it was his lover or hers, but I’ll send it all to you. If you have a fax machine or a computer nearby, I can tell you what you’ll be looking at.”

  “I think there is one here. Let me call you right back when I get it figured out.” Lin thanked him. “Anytime, I told you that.”

  William flew into the room seconds after Noah hung up. After telling the faerie what he needed, he said that he’d see if his mistress had one. Noah needed to get him a faerie. They’d been sharing William, but he still needed to find one of his own. When William came back, saying that his mistress had made him one, the machine appeared on the corner of the desk. After calling Lin back, he was getting the paperwork in minutes.

  “The page that you have first is of the crime scene. As you can see, she was shot in the heart. If she had one, my guy is saying, but they were having a fight when she pulled out the gun first. When she shot at him, the report knocked the gun out of her hand and he picked it up. She then threw a knife at him and he shot to kill.” He asked him if he had a picture of the knife in the wall. “I do. A close up, as a matter of fact. But I don’t think I’d be bringing a knife to a gun fight, do you?”

  The picture of the knife came through the machine last. He looked at it, then smiled. It was about as cut and dried as he’d ever seen. Just as he was leaning back in the chair, Bryce came in the room with an envelope.

  “He killed her, but not in self-defense. The knife was planted after he killed her.” Lin asked how he could tell. “From where she is lying on the floor. I’m assuming that it’s about fifteen to twenty feet from her to the wall. There isn’t any way that that sort of knife, a butter knife, would have been planted that deeply by her tossing it, unless that’s what she did for a living. But regardless, it’s a butter knife. Your guy planted it after he killed his wife.”

  After he hung up, Bryce sat on his lap, her legs on either side of his hips. Noah felt his cock harden at the thought of taking her right where she was. Asking her where her family was, she said that she’d sent them away for the morning. Noah tore off her shirt even before she finished the sentence.

  Chapter 7

  Bryce couldn’t seem to get enough of her mate. He only needed to touch her, to come close enough for her to touch him and she’d be wet, her body ready for him. And right now, sitting on his lap, his mouth doing amazing things to her breasts, she began rubbing her hands on his thick hard cock.

  “You’re making me insane—you know that, don’t you?” Bryce told Noah that she thought he was already there. “Yes, well, it’s all your fault. Before you came into my life, I was a smart, reasonable man. Now I’m nothing more than a pile of mushy love for my mate.”

  She was naked before him, and she took the opportunity to spread herself out over his desk. There were a few things that bit into her back, but when he stood up, as naked as her, his cock in his hand, she didn’t care if her hand was in a bear trap—she wanted him.

  “Christ, seeing you here like this, all I can think about is feasting on
you. But I need to be inside of you too. Marry me, Bryce.” She told him no and spread her legs wider, sliding her hand down to her pussy until she could feel the heat coming from it. “Touch yourself, Bryce. Let me see you bring yourself.”

  She only needed to touch her fingers to her clit to come, but she played around it, gathering her juices on her fingers before she took her hand to his mouth. When Noah suckled them beyond his lips, using her other hand, she touched her clit and screamed how hard she was coming.

  As her second climax took her under, she screamed out his name, telling him to take her, begging for his cock. But he was teasing her now, using the tip of his cock to bring her over and over while he suckled at her breasts.

  Bryce was on fire now, her body burning not just to feel him inside of her, but to feel his cum filling her. The heat of his release would bring her over, she knew that, but it would be epic; her own release would take her under. When he slammed into her, filling her to the hilt with his cock, Bryce screamed again and again, her throat raw from it as he pounded her hard enough to move the desk several inches from where it had been.

  When he came, his body bowing back from hers, she felt the pause—like every living thing, every air molecule in the world, just waited to see how Noah would react, how his body would let go. And when he did, she felt the impact of the explosion all through her body.

  Bryce screamed. It came from her mind, her body—even her heart seemed to want to let the world know that they’d been a part of something spectacular. Something so profound that worlds colliding couldn’t have been nearly as epic.

  But Noah wasn’t finished. Jerking her up from the desk, he bent her over it, her ass so near his thickening cock that she could feel the heat from it. And when he leaned over her, his cock pounding her from behind, he told her to come for him.