by Susan Hayes
She clung to him, riding each thrust as he powered into her like a god on a rampage.
They kissed again, his canines stroking across her lower lip with a delicious bite of pain that made her shiver.
“Don’t even think about using those,” she warned him. “Play only, no biting.” She knew that a bite between shifter mates was more than foreplay, it was a permanent claiming. And while she’d heard that mating sex was mind-blowing, she really wasn’t ready for forever. Right now, she was barely managing with today.
“No biting,” he agreed, branding a line of kisses from her lips to her ear and back again. “You are incredible, little witch. I’m not going to last much longer.”
She shivered again, his words undoing the last shreds of her control. “Me, either.”
“Come for me,” he changed the angle of his thrusts, sending a jolt of pure lust through her body.
“I…I…” He pounded into her with a fury that burned away every thought in her head but one. This wasn’t just sex. This was everything she’d ever dreamed of. She was finally going to have it all, and holy Goddess, it was fantastic!
Her orgasm ripped through her like a tornado heading for Oz. She screamed and her magic bloomed around them, creating clouds of blue and silver bubbles that whirled overhead like drunken butterflies.
She was still riding the aftershocks when Connell joined her, his eyes blazing as he threw back his head and roared so loudly most of the bubbles burst. She managed a breathy little laugh as a fine mist of bubble-bits fell around them. She felt pretty much the same way… slightly wrecked and a little shimmery.
What was almost better than the sex was the moment he kissed her and somehow managed to turn them both over, so she sprawled on top of him in a limp, contented heap. She hoped like hell there wasn’t an emergency in the next five minutes, because she didn’t have the energy to lift more than her pinkie finger.
“That was amazing.” He sounded slightly dazed himself, which made her feel a little better about her current state.
“I think we’re going to need a new word. Amazing doesn’t cover it. Amazinger? Amazingest?”
He chuckled and brushed a lock of her hair off her cheek. “I like amazingest. Also, I won our bet. You are totally a screamer.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to any such bet.” Not that she’d mind giving the sexy selkie as many orgasms as he’d like, but she hadn’t agreed to the bet, or to anything else. The mate thing might be true, but she wasn’t used to getting what she wanted in life, so as much as she was enjoying the moment, she didn’t want to get ahead of herself. Just in case.
“You’re declining my offer?” He waggled his brows at her. “Really? I mean, according to the terms of the bet I owe you at least two more orgasms, but if you’re not interested…”
She found the strength to raise her head. “Two more? Me?”
“Ah, so you are interested?” His brogue thickened as he teased her.
“Definitely. I’m not sure I’ll survive it, though, so if I die? This has been the best day, ever.”
“I have to agree with you, there.” He rolled his hips, which made parts of her tingle in the most amazing ways. “But I think we can improve on it, if we put our minds to it.”
“Oh? What were you thinking?” The more he moved, the harder it was to string words together. She only had a few seconds before she stopped making any kind of sense.
He pumped his hips again. “Does this place have a hot tub?”
“Uh-huh.” She was down to monosyllabic noises now. The end was nigh.
He flashed her a grin so wicked it would have made the devil himself run for cover. “Did I mention I’m a seal Shifter? We can hold our breath a very long time.”
Chapter Nine
She closed the locket after the message from her parents ended, keeping her eyes on her necklace while she waited for Connell’s reaction.
“Bit vague, isn’t it? I mean, I know the Goddess works in mysterious ways, but that’s not much to go on.”
“Tell me about it.” They had made it to a bedroom eventually, and curled up under the covers as the afternoon sun streamed through the window. He’d made good on his promises, and she was so relaxed she could give lessons on limpness to an overcooked noodle.
He cuddled her close and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she finally looked up at him. His smile was there, but it was accompanied by something new, an intensity and intelligence she hadn’t seen before. This was a new facet of his personality, the man who worked as an agent for the Goddess herself.
“Dark and light, I get. Bad things are coming, maybe even dark magic. And you’re the heir to the role of protector. You, and your two friends, the ones you don’t really remember, yet.”
“Snuffy told me about them, but my memories of them aren’t clear. It’s strange. I can recall my parents perfectly now, and the town, but there are still gaps.”
“I think we can safely assume that you’ll get those memories back eventually, but whoever did this to you did it for a reason.”
“Yeah, to screw up my life.” Sparks danced over her fingers as her anger rose. She was about to dismiss them with a flick of her fingers when she noticed something odd. She raised her hand so it was between her and the window and looked closer.
“What colours are my sparks?” she asked, not sure what she wanted his answer to be.
To his credit, Connell didn’t question her change of topic. He looked intently at her hand, squinted a little, then said, “Different shades of blue.”
“Would you say some of them are midnight blue, almost black?”
“It’s hard to say, but I think so. Why?”
“Because the last time I checked, my magic didn’t look like that. No dark at all. That’s new.”
“You think that’s the part of your power you’ve been missing?”
She shook her fingers and the sparks vanished. “I don’t know. Right now, I don’t know much, and it’s driving me batty.”
“We’ll figure this out.” He kissed her again, slow and sexy this time. “All of it. Your mission, my mission, and what we’re going to do about us.”
Us. She liked that word. It wasn’t one she heard often, not in relation to herself, anyway. “So which do we tackle first, your mission or mine?”
“The Goddess sent you here when I asked, so I figure we should start with mine, then work on yours. For now, I think you should focus on the fact that your memories are coming back. You are home, and it’s pretty clear this is where you’re supposed to be. Hold onto that and be patient about the rest.”
“Says the man who just spent the last quarter of an hour talking in circles while he tried to figure out why a bunch of gull Shifters are dumping trash in the area, and how they can afford to hire a witch to ward their island.”
He cocked his head and chuckled. “Are you telling me to take my own advice?”
“Maybe. What’s sauce for the goose and all that.”
“Goose?” He clutched his chest in mock outrage. “I’m a selkie, not a bloody goose Shifter.”
“Well, I haven’t actually seen you shift yet. For all I know, you could be a goose. Oh, or a cute little fox with a big, fluffy tail. That would explain the red hair, too.”
He spluttered and sat up, dragging her across his bare thighs and swatting her once across her bare backside. “There’s no part of me that’s the slightest bit fluffy, witch.”
She sat up and wiggled her fingers at him. “Spank me again without permission and I’ll give you the biggest, fluffiest tail you’ve ever seen.”
“Without permission?” He grinned.
“I threaten you with a tail, and that’s your takeaway?”
“Selective hearing, lass. It’s one of my many talents.”
He checked his watch and sighed. “So is losing track of time. I’m off to track down a certain gull’s sick mother and see if she knows what her son’s been up to lately.”
“You think you c
an find her?”
He got out of bed, gifting her with a fantastic view of his naked body as he hunted for his clothes. “Jimbo spoke protectively about her. A guy like that isn’t going to leave his mother alone if she’s sick. She’ll be somewhere nearby so he can visit. I’ve got a list of places to check.”
“Why would he help to destroy the place if his mother lives here?” She conjured his kilt from where he’d left it down by the water and handed it to him. It was a crime to cover his perfection, but if he was going out in public, she wanted him fully dressed. Shifters might not have issues with nudity, but she did. His naked glory was for her pleasure and no one else’s.
He shrugged as he pulled on his sweater. “Why do people do half the stupid things they do? Money? Peer pressure? It seemed like a good idea at the time?”
“True. What can I do to help?” They were supposed to be working together, weren’t they?
He kissed her on the nose. “Not a thing, lass. You work on figuring out your new powers—we’re going to need you at full strength to get onto that island.”
“And when are we doing that, Mister Double-Oh-Selkie?”
He grinned and waggled his brows. “We’re well past double-ohs by my count. In fact, tonight I’m planning on hitting double digits. As for the island, we’ll hit it tomorrow, after the party. I’ll swim there tonight to do some recon and figure out the best approach.”
“I should come with you. What if you run into the other witch?”
“Then they’ll see a seal. Ocean’s full of them. You, my wee witch, would be a bit easier to spot than me.”
He had a point, but she didn’t like the idea of him going alone. Which is stupid. He was a secret agent, after all. They had wildly different skills. She couldn’t swim out to the island undetected, and he couldn’t break the wards. He’d do his part, and she’d do hers. “Be careful.”
“I always am.” He kissed her gently. “Shall I swing by and pick you up for the party?”
“Like we were going on a date?”
“Exactly like that.” His blue eyes gleamed. “Sends the right message to Eleanor, the meddling matchmaker, and any lads she’s got in mind for you. You’re spoken for.”
“But what if I really like one of those wolf fellows?” she teased.
He had her down and pinned to the mattress half a second later, his big body caging her in. “We might not know what we’re doing about this just yet, but make no mistake, little witch. You’re mine.”
She was tempted to throw her arms around him and drag him back to bed. She’d never tolerated that kind of behaviour in any other guy she’d dated. “Either we’re really mates, or I’ve gone totally insane, because that was hot.”
He blinked at her and his mouth lifted into the sexiest smile she’d ever seen. “Nice to know I’m not the only one feeling a little crazy right now.”
“More than a little,” she admitted.
He stood up and offered her his hand, pulling her to her feet and into his arms. “We’ll figure this out, my wee witch.” He kissed her one last time, then left.
She checked the time. Still plenty of daylight left, and she had things to do. Starting with fixing up the house. Snuffy was right, the spells her parents put in place were holding up, but they could do with some tweaking, and there was definitely something off about that broom. The damned thing was happy to swat hockey pucks, but it kept sneaking back to its closet every time it was supposed to actually sweep.
The next few hours flew by as she used a combination of magic and her newly discovered trust fund to refurnish parts of the house. She kept the overall feel, but there were new couches under the familiar quilts, and the bedrooms had all been redone. All but her parents’ room. She couldn’t even bring herself to open the door.
Her room had been like walking into a time capsule. Posters of boy bands she hadn’t listened to in years decorated the walls, bad poetry and aspirational sayings were taped to her vanity mirror, and stuffed animals lined the foot of her bed like a tiny, fuzzy army that included several seals. Huh, maybe her younger self had known she was fated for Connell all along.
She cleared the room with a few waves of her hands. The toys went into a cedar chest, the poetry was sent to recycling, thought after she read one badly penned ode about waiting for her breasts to grow, she was tempted to burn the lot. That much teen angst had to be a health hazard of some kind.
She replaced her furniture with a four-poster, mahogany bed with matching vanity and dresser. The only thing she kept were her photos. Some were in frames, while others had been taped to the mirror alongside the poetry. They were pictures of her family, some with a big, gruff man who towered over her parents and had streaks of white in his hair. The same streaks she’d inherited from her mother. He had to be family, but she couldn’t remember his name. Just like she couldn’t recall much about the two girls whose pictures took up most of the real estate on her mirror. Fern and Luna. The names only conjured a faint memory of girlish laughter, lemonade, and loss.
She smacked her hand down on the dresser. “Why can’t I remember?”
Her locket vibrated against her skin and she picked it up, flicking the catch with her fingernail.
Her parents’ voices rose from the locket, but this time the words were different.
* * *
“The time draws near,
You must not fear,
All will soon be made quite clear.
The spell that hid your recollections,
Was done with love – for your protection.
Your first trial you soon will face,
Protect your home, safeguard this place.”
The verse ended with her father’s image smiling up at her. “We love you, sweetheart.”
* * *
She blinked back tears as she closed the locket. First trial? If they didn’t want her to fear, maybe they should have picked a less threatening turn of phrase. What trial was she facing? And why were things still being hidden from her? This sucked bloated donkey balls.
Her stress levels were at DEFCON two and rising. There was only one thing to be done. Clean.
The house really didn’t need it, but she went to work anyway, rolling up her sleeves and scrubbing every surface by hand. The counters, the sinks, even the bathtubs got a thorough cleaning, and by the time she was done, she felt calmer and more in control of things. It was an illusion, of course, she was as in control as a plane with one engine on fire, a wing missing, and both pilots down with food poisoning.
She was putting away the cleaning supplies when the phone rang. Not her cell phone, but the landline. Who could be calling the house?
“Hello?”
“Thank the Goddess you’re home. You need to get here right now!”
“First of all, who is this? Secondly, where is here?”
“Oh! Oh, of course. This is Eleanor, from the bakery. Only I’m not at the bakery right now, I’m at the Watering Hole. Uh, the pub. It’s just next door. Oh, oh dear. You really need to be here, soon! Snuffy….”
“What about Snuffy?”
“He’s had a few, and when they showed up he went to tell them off, and now they’re…well, listen for yourself.”
“Get your webbed paws off of me you sorry bunch of shit hawks. When my Breeze gets here, she’s going to blast your feathers off!”
Breeze dropped the phone back into its cradle. The mother-flocking gulls had Snuffy.
She magicked herself up a new outfit, which included a killer pair of blue combat boots that perfectly matched her leather duster jacket. She whipped her hair into a Hollywood-style ponytail of ass-kicking, summoned her magic, and teleported herself to the front of the bakery without a second thought.
No fear. That’s what her parents had told her. If this was her trial, she was ready. This was her home, and she’d protect it. It was what she’d been born to do.
Her grand arrival was only slightly diminished by the fact she materialized facing the wrong way
. She covered her goof by trying to look confident and concerned as she looked over the residents gathered outside. “Everyone okay?”
There was a collective nod. Eleanor looked like she was about to faint from the stress, but she raised a shaking hand to point to something behind Breeze. “Your Uncle Fisk is trying to get Snuffy Wuffles back.”
Uncle? She spun around.
Holy Goddess in gumboots, why was there a biker gang in her town? Eleanor really should have mentioned that in the call about the gull Shifters. She would have spent a little less time coordinating her outfit and more time coming up with a plan.
There were more than a dozen bikers, all with long hair and wearing black biker leathers. Each of them took up slightly less space than your average bulldozer, but not by much. They were standing shoulder to shoulder, like a living wall of badassery standing between the gulls and the residents. The one in the center had black hair streaked with white.
Memories crashed over her like a tidal wave. Booming laughter. Big hands holding her up, piggyback rides with her hands buried in hair just like… Well. Fuck a plucked duck. “Uncle Fisk?”
The biggest of the biker dudes turned around, and she recognized his face right away. Not only from the pictures in her room, but from the dozens of memories she suddenly had, filling her already crowded head with yet more information and no time to process it.
He gave her a broad smile, but his dark eyes were sad. “You look so much like your mother.”
“You’re really my uncle?”
Several men and women with hair much like hers turned and nodded to her. “He is.”
“Hey, your witchiness! I hate to break up this little family reunion thing you got going on, but I got a message for you.”
Beyond the line of angry orca Shifters she could see the gulls. There were almost a dozen of them, all with lanky frames and atrocious hairstyles— swept up at the sides and so long at the front they were all partially blinded by their bangs.
The orcas parted ranks so she could pass through them, then formed up again behind her with her uncle at her back. She wanted to ask him a hundred questions, but now wasn’t the time. She had a familiar to retrieve and a message of her own to deliver. These idiots needed to get the flock out of her town. Now.