by Katie Reus
His expression softened. “No. Kat is a friend. A dear friend who is mated—bonded—to the enforcer, one of the scariest shifters in the world. I’m her maker, so we’re close. But things between us are and always have been very platonic. I just called her ‘honey’ out of habit. It used to piss off her mate before they were mated, but I guarantee it means nothing beyond friendship. But I won’t do it again if it bothers you.” His words were sincere, but there was still a hint of something in his eyes that drove her crazy.
“You sound sorry, but you don’t look it,” she snapped.
His mouth quirked up even higher. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’ve just never seen you quite so territorial before. I was the jealous one when we first met. I don’t care if it’s fucked up; I like that you’re feeling this way. You might not remember me, but your subconscious does.” And he was absolutely smug about it.
She relaxed at his words and reached for him, some deep part of her needing to touch his body. Placing her palms over his chest, she looked up at him. “If you turned this Kat, she must have been human before.”
He nodded and she frowned.
“Shifters almost never turn humans.” The survival rate was around one percent if she remembered correctly. “Why did you turn her?” What if he’d harbored feelings for the female? Just because they hadn’t been lovers didn’t mean Aiden had never wanted the female.
At her question, his expression darkened. “She was minutes, seconds, away from death. We didn’t know if it would work, but she was dying so I had to try.”
“You care for her.” That shouldn’t bother Larissa, but for some reason it did. Logic did not enter into her thoughts, only the strange new feelings of possessiveness that could drown her if she allowed them.
“Yes. But not in a romantic sense.”
She believed him. It was the only thing that locked all those jagged emotions back into their cage. “What is an enforcer?”
His eyes slightly widened. “Right, you wouldn’t know,” he muttered. “When shifters and vamps came out to humans, my kind formed Councils all over the world. Each Council has one or more enforcers who basically investigate the more serious problems our people might have. They also mete out the kind of justice the humans won’t. Up until recently North America only had one. Now we have two. A male and female. Both live with my pack and the male is mated to Kat.”
“He is one of the fiercest of your kind?”
Aiden nodded.
“And you used to push his keys for fun by purposely calling his female ‘honey’?” What was wrong with Aiden? She knew how territorial shifters were and he’d been trying to annoy a powerful one intentionally. It didn’t make sense. She didn’t like the thought of him putting himself in any amount of danger.
Aiden frowned for a moment, then grinned, his fingers digging tighter into her hips. “Push his buttons?”
She felt her face flush as she nodded. Stupid idioms. She’d found entire lists of common popular phrases on something called Google, but they’d been confusing and nonsensical. “Yes.” She’d been thinking of keys on a keyboard. It made more sense than a button anyway. “Why did you?”
Aiden shrugged, his demeanor changing. It was slight, but his muscles tensed under her fingertips. “I thought he was a fool. His would-be mate was right in front of him, but he was too stupid to claim her. It served him right,” he growled.
The meaning of what he wasn’t saying hit her. “You were mourning me and were angry at the other male for not being with the woman he cared for?”
He nodded, all traces of humor gone from his expression now.
After sixty years of her being gone, of Aiden assuming she was dead, he still cared. Why couldn’t she remember this male? Anger and frustration clawed at her. She cupped his face between her hands. “Aiden . . .” She didn’t even know what to say. Emotions pummeled her insides like a battering ram. Possessiveness and desire for this male mixed with the need to take care of him. Because something told her that he’d been burying his emotions and covering his pain for a long damn time and that bothered her.
Maybe it was their link that told her, she wasn’t sure. Last night before they’d gone to sleep she’d tried to mute the bond between them in an effort to regain more of herself, but maybe that was stupid. Maybe she needed to be foolish and just embrace this male and wipe away all the pain she saw in those dark eyes. Pushing up on her tiptoes, she went to give him a soft kiss, but he crushed his mouth over hers like a man starving.
Like he couldn’t help himself.
God help her, she didn’t want him to stop. As their tongues and lips clashed in a frenzied mating, he picked her up by the hips, giving her no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist. Grinding against him, she groaned at the feel of his thick length pressed against her lower abdomen through their clothes. Just the sensation of his arousal made her nipples tighten in awareness.
Thankfully he didn’t have a shirt on so she could feel all that raw power humming beneath her fingertips. The male was truly beautiful, but something told her that wasn’t what had drawn her to him originally. If anything, it might have repelled her. She’d never been one to be swayed by a handsome face or a hard body. Aiden was a little cocky but underneath that swagger he was so caring. She’d hardly spent any time with him, but what little she’d seen so far told her a lot about his character.
When she’d been slicing him up in the woods he’d done everything he could to deflect her blows but not cause her injury. He’d been mourning her for decades, and he hadn’t even been able to cut her when she’d needed that tracking ink out of her skin. If for some reason she never regained her memories, she still didn’t want to lose this male. Even the thought of that happening sent a shot of agony ricocheting through her.
Larissa tore her lips back from Aiden’s. “I might never regain my memories,” she blurted, needing to let him know.
“Then we’ll make new ones.” He didn’t hesitate. As if it wasn’t a question for him.
Her throat tightened as she watched him, as she felt the most beautiful warmth spreading across their bondmate link. This time she crushed her mouth to his. With impressive speed, he moved them until they fell onto the longer sofa, her underneath him. She loved the feel of his big body stretched out on hers.
As he started kissing his way along her jaw, then down to her throat, she slid her fingers through his blond hair and clutched onto his head. His hands moved under her T-shirt, shoving it upward as he teased the column of her throat with his tongue and teeth.
With him she felt absolutely no fear. Not even as she bared her neck. Even though she had to feed, she’d rarely fed others unless in dire circumstances. And only then had she offered her wrist. Never her neck. The sensation of baring herself to Aiden was freeing, exhilarating and she was getting so turned on she knew he must sense it. Her inner walls tightened as he blazed a path of kisses to her stomach.
“Off,” he murmured against her skin as he shoved her T-shirt upward.
Without pause, she pulled it over her head. As she tossed it behind her, his fingers dipped into the waist of her pajama pants. Slowly, torturously, he tugged them down her legs. She knew it wouldn’t be wise to have sex with him now because she would absolutely not stop at just one time—but she was pretty sure he had something else in mind as he lifted up one of her legs and started to kiss her ankle.
As he slowly made his way up her inner calf, her entire body tingled in awareness. She was completely naked whereas he still wore pants. She liked being laid out like this for him.
He met her gaze, his expression so damn needy she couldn’t fight a shudder that rolled through her. Keeping his eyes pinned to hers, he continued kissing his way up her leg until he reached her upper inner thigh. When he swiped his tongue along the seam of her inner thigh, so close to her wet heat, yet not close enough, warmth flooded the juncture between her legs. She wanted to fee
l all of him invading her: his tongue, fingers, his hard length.
I wish I could fuck you right now, but since we shouldn’t, I’m going to make you cry out my name. Aiden’s voice was a dark promise in her mind.
The words he communicated telepathically set her on fire. She still wasn’t used to communicating like that with anyone other than her family but it felt right on the deepest level to let Aiden in like that. She struggled to find the right response, but couldn’t find any words at all as she let her head fall back on the couch.
Not seeming to need or expect a response, he pressed his hands between her thighs to spread them wider. She gladly obliged him. When he swiped his tongue up the length of her already wet slit she jerked against him. Unable to stop herself from touching him, she grabbed on to his head.
With some of his blond hair splayed on her thighs as he began the most delicious assault on her nerves, this looked so much like her dream that she wondered if she was still dreaming.
When he centered on her clitoris, swiping his tongue over it with the perfect amount of pressure to drive her insane, she forgot everything and just held on to him.
She wasn’t sure how long he teased her, but it was driving her crazy. Her body was sensitized, as if he had a direct line to all her nerve endings. But he wasn’t giving her enough stimulation and something told her that he knew exactly what he was doing. How much he was teasing her.
When he slid one, then two fingers into her sheath, her hips vaulted off the couch. He plunged deep, her slickness allowing him to move in and out of her as he finally increased his pressure against her sensitive nerves.
Say my name, he demanded.
“Aiden.” His name tore from her lips even as she projected it to him. Aiden.
Groaning against her, he buried his fingers deep inside her and held them there, doing something positively wicked as he curved them against a spot that drove her crazy. Pleasure shot out to all her nerve endings as a wave built inside her.
Higher, higher it pushed as her nipples tightened, her back arched, and her inner walls clenched even harder around his thick fingers. She grabbed onto his shoulders as her fangs descended. God, she wanted to feed. Needed to taste Aiden again.
After savoring his blood earlier she’d realized just how quickly he could become an addiction in the best way possible. Her orgasm slammed into her, her inner walls squeezing around him as he showed her clitoris no mercy.
His tongue teased and stroked her until it almost bordered on pain. Her climax seemed to go on forever, stretching out impossibly long until finally he tore his head away from her. Feeling almost bereft, she was surprised when he crawled up her body and bared his neck to her.
“Feed.” He used that same demanding tone as before. The one that should have annoyed her, but now turned her on more.
“I can’t.” She didn’t think she’d taken too much before but she didn’t want to risk it.
“I’ve recovered enough and I’m stronger than when we first met.” Even if he was stronger, she wouldn’t know.
But she didn’t sense a lie and as he dipped his head to hers, angling his neck so that it was right in front of her mouth, she swallowed hard. Her fangs ached, but she told herself to show control.
“Take from me,” he whispered, his big body tense above hers.
Her eyes grew heavy-lidded and focused on his vein as her control snapped. Sinking her fangs into his flesh, she slid her hands up his back as he groaned in pleasure. His fingers were still buried deep inside her as she began to suck. With each drag of his blood, he pulled his fingers out, then pushed back in. The rhythm was slow and erotic and the more she drank his sweet blood, the stronger she felt.
As they writhed against each other, he cupped one of her breasts with his free hand, strumming her already hardened nipple with his callused thumb. The gentle action sent her into overdrive as another orgasm rippled through her. This one was less intense, but just as wonderful as it ebbed out to her already frayed nerve endings.
Using hard-won control, she pulled her head back and withdrew from his neck. Though he would heal anyway, she licked the tiny wounds to instantly close them. Nuzzling against his neck, she tightened her grip around his waist as he finally withdrew his fingers from her and returned her embrace.
He buried his face against her neck and inhaled her in a way that told her exactly how much he wanted her. Needed her. She desperately wanted to feel his thick length inside her, but kept a tight rein on her baser wants.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed but eventually Aiden’s voice cut through her thoughts. We need to leave soon.
I know. She was definitely getting used to this telepathic thing with him.
He lifted his head then, his expression fierce. “We’re going to find Magda and get answers. It might get ugly.”
There was no maybe about it, and even though she couldn’t remember Aiden she wasn’t surprised by his attitude. Shifters and vampires were very similar in the way they handled justice. That woman had lied to Larissa and set her up to kill Aiden. A man who she was now coming to understand had meant everything to her. That witch was going to pay.
She still worried about Aiden though. She’d seen him in action, but Larissa wasn’t up to her normal fighting self and they had no clue what this witch had in her arsenal. The unknown was the scariest of all. The thought of something happening to Aiden sliced her up. She didn’t care that she didn’t remember him. She knew that if she lost him, she’d never get over it. If she had to choose vengeance against Magda and discovering the truth about her parents and past or Aiden’s safety, Aiden would win.
Chapter 12
Larissa ran her finger along the edge of the chipped ceramic plate sitting under her now-lukewarm cup of coffee. She’d ordered something to be polite and even though she could imbibe liquids, after having Aiden’s taste still lingering on her tongue she didn’t want to dilute it.
She stared out the window of the small diner attached to the gas station where he was currently buying cell phones. The entire setup of the place was strange to her, but everyone here had been friendly. Possibly because they didn’t know she and Aiden were supernatural beings. Aiden had told her that while they might have come out to humans twenty years ago, they didn’t go around advertising what they were. Apparently there were many hate groups who would love to see them dead. Not that she was exactly surprised by that. People often feared what was different to them. Some things never changed. It wasn’t as if she planned to show off her fangs, so unless Aiden shifted in front of everyone they should remain undetected.
A dark SUV pulled up right in front of the big window of the diner. The windows were tinted but she could see the passengers in the front seat clearly enough. Brianna O’Brien and an unknown male. Must be her shifter mate.
Larissa turned away from the window and leaned slightly out of the booth for a glimpse of Aiden in the attached gas station. There were no barriers between the two establishments, but with too many people in the way she couldn’t see him. She could sense him though.
Your friends are here, she projected.
Paying now, will be over in just a sec.
She turned back to the window to see Brianna and a dark-haired, bronze-skinned, lean but muscular male step out. Both of them looked at her through the glass, as if they sensed her presence. Or Aiden had told them where they were sitting. She didn’t like being so exposed by the front of the restaurant, but there had been no other seating and Aiden had needed to eat.
Brianna half smiled and nodded at her before the male looped an arm around her shoulders and they headed inside. The bell jingled over the door a moment later. Out of respect, Larissa slid out of her seat and stood. She might not know her in a friendly, intimate way, but she was acquainted with the fae female.
And as another royal, it was only proper that Larissa stand for Brianna. The young blo
nd female seemed almost amused as they approached the booth. “Larissa Danesti,” she murmured, “it’s good to see you alive. This is my mate, Angelo Medina.”
Larissa nodded at the male with the piercing hazel eyes and murmured a polite greeting as she motioned to the booth. “It’s nice to see you looking so well, Brianna. Respectfully, I can’t believe your brothers didn’t have a stroke when you mated,” she said softly as they all slid into their seats. The humans from the two booths surrounding theirs had already paid and left dirty dishes behind, but she still didn’t want anyone to inadvertently overhear.
She hoped Brianna and Angelo would take her statement the way it was intended. Larissa was curious about their relationship and how things worked with the female’s royal family. Shifters and vamps had always been blunt and she hoped that hadn’t changed in the last few decades she’d been in stasis.
The other female smiled and snuggled closer to her mate, her adoration for him clear. “Best decision I ever made, but yes, my family is still adjusting. Especially my brothers. My mother has been surprisingly okay with it. I can’t believe that Aiden from Angelo’s pack is ‘The Aiden’ who mated with Vlad’s daughter,” she whispered the last part before continuing. “It never occurred to me that he was the same male.” She shook her head slightly.
Aiden chose that moment to return to the table. With his exceptional hearing he would have heard their conversation from the gas station. He slid into the booth and promptly slung an arm around Larissa’s shoulders as he nodded at his friends. She loved his immediate possessive display. He was making it clear what she meant to him. It didn’t matter that the others could scent her and Aiden’s bond, even Brianna with her almost human senses, Larissa needed him to claim her publicly. Something she hadn’t even realized she wanted until that very moment. “It’s not something I advertise,” he murmured before sticking his hand out to Angelo.
The two males did some sort of hand clasping/bump thing that wasn’t exactly a shake, but more complex. She wondered if it was a shifter thing she’d never known about or a new human way of greeting. Or maybe it was a male thing because Aiden didn’t do it with Brianna.