Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2)

by Mary Hughes

  The swizzle-stick man made a scornful sound. “Come on. Everybody in town knows it. She married the animal in front of witnesses, for shit’s sake. She’s already pregnant with the brute’s litter.”

  Emma’s face went red. “Noah Blackwood is no animal.”

  This time he was the one to gently restrain her, touching her arm.

  Ryder’s gaze followed his hand and narrowed.

  Clasping his traitorous digits behind his back, Gabriel repeated in his most civil tone, “Do you have proof?”

  “I have better,” Ryder smiled his shark’s grin. “I have an informant who will swear to it as fact.”

  “One of Noah’s pack, I know. Who?”

  “Well, I could tell you. But I don’t think you’re ready to hear it.”

  “Stop playing games, Ryder. I want a name.”

  His beady eyes glittered. “Remember, you asked for it. In fact, it was Singer.” He nodded at Emma.

  She blanched. “I didn’t—”

  “Didn’t you?” Ryder’s grin widened. “Then I’ll play along. She didn’t tell.”

  “She didn’t.” Gabriel’s voice was utterly flat from ironing out his anger, but he knew his eyes were blazing. “Emma would never do such a thing.”

  She turned a pale, serious face to him. The gratitude in her glossy eyes tugged at his heart.

  And if Ryder all the emotions swirling in her gaze, she’d be in a cell faster than Sophia.

  “But all that is beside the point.” He turned from her, slashing a hand for emphasis but also to distract Ryder. “What would it take? What would get Sophia released until the trial?”

  “She’s not going to be released, prince.”

  All the air left Gabriel’s lungs. Ryder’s resentful emphasis on Gabriel’s title revealed his pinched soul. This was more than the swizzle-stick Enforcer throwing his weight around. Quietly, to keep the simmering rage out of his voice, Gabriel said, “What do you mean by that?”

  “She’ll stay in my jail until the Council executes her.”

  “Hopefully before the git are born,” the cricket added.

  “Yes,” Ryder said. “End their miserable existences before they start.”

  Gabriel sucked in a breath, horror invading his whole body. Did Ryder hate and envy Gabriel so much he wanted his sister dead? Her children?

  Then the Enforcer flicked a nasty glance at Emma. “They say this sort of thing runs in families.”

  This time Gabriel didn’t bother to hide his fisted hands. “What sort of thing, exactly?”

  “This sick, sordid behavior. Rutting with animals.”

  “You bastard.” Rationality and diplomacy went out Gabriel’s emotional window, thrown out by rage. He surged forward, too angry to let Emma’s gentle fingers stop him. One fist came up…

  Where his wand, misreading his intentions, had materialized. He froze.

  Bad bad bad. Any attack on an Enforcer could be legally met with deadly force.

  Gabriel threw open his fingers, the wand dropping with a clatter. “I didn’t—”

  “Attempted assault on an official Council representative? You’ll pay for that, Light.” Ryder’s eyes glittered as he swept his Council-enhanced wand from empty air with a showy gesture. “By the authority of the Witches’ Council, I strip thee of thy shields.”

  “No.” Gabriel shunted Emma behind him with both hands. “It was a defensive reaction—”

  “Neutralize!” Ryder roared.

  A torrent of power, like superheated air, streamed from the deadly black wand, straight at Gabriel.

  Magic struck him, a stream that, under normal circumstances, he’d have flicked away like a gnat.

  But he was a lawful witch. He couldn’t legally defend himself against a duly appointed Council Enforcer.

  Besides, Ryder was only stripping him of his shields. Better than death, right?

  Wrong.

  The magic hit, enhanced and boosted by the skill of a dozen Council witches nearly as powerful as Gabriel himself.

  The neutralize was broad spectrum and stripped away all active spells—including the mask that hid the scent of his desire for Emma.

  Testosterone billowed into the air, so heavy even he got a snort. He cursed, wishing he’d thought to anchor the spell with a talisman, but that would’ve been harder to refresh as often as he’d needed to.

  Now, with Ryder watching, judging, he couldn’t refresh it at all.

  “What is that…?” Emma squeaked. “Oh God.”

  He closed his eyes and tried every trick he had to keep calm, but Emma’s reaction goosed his heart double time. He wasn’t aroused now, but his clothes held the scent—to her nose, they must reek of it.

  Even the shirt and undershirt he’d put on fresh on the boat.

  Emma was quick. He’d only been around her since he’d changed. She’d know she was the cause of the smell.

  But worse, Ryder chortled. “I knew it. The stink runs in the family. Your ass is mine, Light.”

  Gabriel’s eyes snapped open. “And to think, when your magic killed my parents, I asked for lenience. I should have pushed for imprisonment.”

  Ryder went red. “I was a child—”

  “You were seventeen.” Gabriel stalked toward him, jabbing an accusing finger. “You knew better.”

  “Fuck, I don’t have to take this,” Ryder snarled. “As a rightful Council Enforcer currently in this demesne, I accuse thee of indecent intermagical cavorting and hereby arrest thee. Effective immediately.” He flipped out a bracelet-like talisman and spun it at Gabriel.

  Gabriel made himself stand still as the thing frisbeed for his ankle, hitting like iron and snapping shut with a manacle’s clang.

  The instant the shackle closed he felt his energies mute. A magical limiter. Even when his power regenerated fully, the limiter would cut off his access to all but the most basic magic.

  Ryder continued, “I imprison thee for a period of not more than ninety days, until thy crimes can be tried before a proper court of thy peers.”

  He tossed a second talisman into the air beside Gabriel. Air irised open like a dilating pupil perpendicular to the fireplace, revealing a second parlor.

  Looked inviting, but that was a prison door.

  Gabriel ground his molars. What did he do now? He and Sophia had only one other family member who might fight for them, their Aunt Linda. She’ll rescue us, right? Hopefully. Auntie tended to be a bit scatterbrained.

  “You’ll get the headsman’s axe for this,” Ryder chortled. “I’ll make sure of it.” He reached out a hand—

  “No!” Emma charged around Gabriel, brown eyes fired on the Enforcer.

  “Ha. Exactly the person I wanted. Strength assist.” Ryder grabbed Emma by the wrist and flung her stumbling through the iris.

  The moment she was through, the opening started to collapse.

  Acid terror splashed through Gabriel. He didn’t think, he simply acted.

  He dived in after her.

  Chapter Ten

  Magically thrown harder than even her shifter-nature could counter, Emma couldn’t stop herself from stumbling through the aperture.

  She found herself in a room exactly like the bed and breakfast’s parlor, down to the white piano and red-flocked wallpaper.

  While she stood gaping, Gabriel plowed into her from behind, throwing her flying onto the carpet. He landed on top of her with so much force she was smashed flat.

  For a second, it was the most wonderful feeling in the world, his heavy body finally on top of hers, pressing her into the carpet pile.

  Then reality came crashing back, and she twisted out from under him. She winced that he scrambled off her almost as frantically—until his scent, tangy with male desire, surged again into her nostrils and she remembered.

  “You lied to me.” She leaped to her feet and shouted at him, putting all her months of pent up sexual and personal frustration into it. Yeah, weird iris and clone room. They paled to nothing next to the fact
that he’d misled her—or maybe this was her way of coping. “I thought you didn’t want me. I thought I was putting out signals, and you weren’t interested. I thought I was a fool.”

  “Never a fool.” With a sigh, he sat where he was on the floor. “And I didn’t lie.” Resting his elbows on his knees, he dug hands through his hair. “I masked the truth, exactly because of this possibility.” He peeked up at her through his hands. “Because I feared the Council would imprison you.”

  Reasonable, kind even—the exact thing she couldn’t take at this moment, not from him, the man she’d wanted, yearned for, for so long. She lashed out. “They wouldn’t have imprisoned anyone if you hadn’t let it go so long you smelled like a teenage boy’s jack-off towel.”

  He winced. “I’m sorry.”

  Instantly sympathy washed through her, made worse by the subtle desperation of his hands in his hair. It brought her back from the brink of throwing things. Besides, it was hard to have an argument when he wouldn’t argue back.

  He glanced up at her. “Are we still friends?”

  Friends.

  She hadn’t quite believed him when he shook her hand on the boat and said friends, because he hadn’t ever smelled interested, or that he even liked her.

  From that heavy dark tang, he not only liked her, he liked her a lot.

  A small glow of happiness lit inside her like a birthday candle.

  She nearly facepalmed. Months of lying, no, masking the truth, instantly okay, because he “liked” her. Oh, she was a besotted fool all right. Amused sanity returned.

  “I don’t know about friends yet. But truce.”

  “I’ll take truce.” His shoulders eased.

  She took a deep breath. Yes, she was still upset, but they were in this together. Time to act like it. “Where are we? This doesn’t look like a jail.”

  He got to his feet. “It’s the witch’s version. A bubble of reality split off from ours…like a rubber-banded hemorrhoid.”

  “You have the most colorful metaphors. Did the Enforcer create this? It looks like the B-and-B.”

  “It is the B-and-B. The jail talisman creates a bubble from the current reality, opens a portal then seals the bubble off. In the jailer’s hand, the talisman acts as both door and key.”

  Anxiety pierced her. “Is Ryder that powerful?”

  “No, but he’s got the Council’s backing in the form of top-shelf talismans, potions, and spells. I’m the stronger witch, but my magic is uniontological—” He glanced at her apologetically. “That means to the limit of my power alone. Enforcer weapons are synergistic, created by additive magic. Sorry, I was a TA. Lecturing is in my blood. Bottom line, we don’t leave until Ryder releases us.”

  “Yes, us.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “That skinny-assed Enforcer said he was jailing me. And you hit me like you jumped. Did you deliberately imprison yourself? Why? What about your sister?”

  He gave a helpless little shrug. “I wasn’t doing Sophia much good, not with Ryder hating me so much. Honestly, it was mostly instinct. I wasn’t sure how much you knew about Council jails.”

  “Isn’t it safe here?”

  “Safe enough. This world is a complete copy of ours, minus the gross living things.”

  “No snot?”

  He managed a smile. “No people or large predators. But electricity will fail at some point, and though you could live on what canned food there is for the duration of the three-month sentence, I guess I thought I needed to be here. I can magic anything you can’t live without.”

  Curious, she trotted to the front door, opened it, and peered out. “But there are parked cars. Shops. How can that be, if there are no people?”

  “There are a couple explanations I got from magical theory classes, but they never made much sense to me.” His deep voice came from behind her. Silently moving up on a wolf, that was talent. “The trappings of civilization, without people to build them? Boggles the mind. Can’t argue with reality, though.”

  “Magical theory classes?” She shook her head, gazing at the empty street, feeling the heat of his big body warm her back. She knew witches existed, but they didn’t slum with shifters, so she’d never gotten to know one before. Now she found herself fascinated by the idea of a young wizard prince’s life, growing up. Any young prince, not just Gabriel. Really. “You had to take classes to learn magic?”

  “Doing magic is innate, but there are ways to do it better. Easier.”

  “Will any of your classes help us get out of here?”

  Behind her, he huffed a breath full of self-disgust. “I’ve had magical creatures and arcane languages and spell composition and a whole lot of other things that don’t matter now because there’s only one door out, and only one key.” Almost sheepishly, he added, “It’s an imprinted uniostium.” He pronounced it you-knee-ah-stee-em.

  She laughed. “That’s almost as bad as computer terms. What does it mean?” She glanced over her shoulder at him and got an eyeful of pectorals pressed against the front of his vest, shooting her awareness of him sky high. She had to work to unstick her eyes, almost impossible because her every breath drew in his scent, full of masculine desire, something she’d yearned for for so long it made her dizzy.

  “One key for one door at one, unchanging location.”

  “Lovely.” She finally managed to tear her gaze from his chest and met his star-shot eyes, searching her face.

  Softly, he said, “Emma, I’m so sorry. I never wanted to get you into this situation.”

  He was only thinking of her. Her wolf thumped its tail, and her treacherous heart wanted to forgive him everything. Wimps. “You’re in this situation too.”

  “Yes, but I knew the possible consequences. Which was why I hid the smell…well. Not making excuses.”

  He was so close her skin itched. She had to move. She brushed by him back into the parlor, stopping before the fireplace, her back to it. Searching the nearby air, she wondered if the portal was still there but invisible.

  Invisible. It hit her—she couldn’t see Ryder, or any Matinsfield residents. And that might mean… She turned to Gabriel, trying to ignore her goosed heart rate. “Can anyone see us?”

  “We’re completely cut off until the door opens again…” He dribbled off, his eyes widening.

  The scent of testosterone, already heavy, utterly drenched the air.

  An answering storm of butterflies fluttered in her belly. He and she were alone in the world, literally—which meant no Council.

  With empty beds right upstairs.

  Sure, she was still upset with him. But they’d also declared a truce. Over the thudding of her heart she managed, “The Enforcer won’t open it for how long?”

  “Three months.” His voice sounded strangled, and his nostrils were white, as if his breath was coming hard.

  Months, alone with the man she’d craved. She’d wanted him before, but smelling his reciprocal desire sent hers skyrocketing. “Could he reopen the portal early?”

  “He could.” Gabriel swallowed audibly. “But knowing Ryder, he’ll try to delay as long as possible.”

  “Oh.” Pining and hunger surged and crashed inside her. Sizzling attraction and a wolf’s extreme need, too long denied, met like baking soda and vinegar, like nitro and glycerin, until the pressure burst forth in two short words.

  “Take me.”

  He jerked, and his breathing stepped up from rasping to organ bellows. She saw it hit him. Saw his understanding that she was putting aside her anger and frustration with him in favor of her physical need. Their physical need.

  But he stayed where he was.

  Oh, he wanted her. His desire was evident in every tensing muscle in his big body, the clench of pectorals, the heavy swallow. The deep, intense shudder. The rise of evidence, so big and needy it wasn’t hidden even by his baggy trousers.

  Yet he only stood there, completely motionless, spectacled gaze tethered to hers like a lifeline. If it weren’t for the visible signs and the sc
ent of arousal rolling off him like a tidal wave, she’d have doubted herself.

  Doubt rose anyway. In the two months she’d been working for him, she’d learned his every mood. If he really wanted her, if he’d read her desire for him, why wasn’t he here satisfying her? Satisfying them? “What’s wrong?”

  He clenched his fists, his belly churning rapidly with his panted breaths. “Emma, I need to know… Is it you, or is it your wolf?”

  Then she understood. He thought this was her wolf goading her to lift her tail for the creature with the most testosterone—or actually, in this universe, about the only creature with testosterone.

  He needed a sign from her that she really wanted him.

  The sweetheart. The big lug. “Of course it’s me wanting you. I’ve wanted you from the moment I laid eyes on you.” When he still didn’t move, she made an exasperated noise. “I’ve wanted you from the moment I heard your first bad joke.”

  He was on her like a monster truck roaring down the road. Big, overpowering, making her jump back automatically, but it was too late. He snared her in his powerful arms, cinched her tight to his muscular torso, bent his great frame, and kissed her.

  Blazing hot lips landed on hers.

  Two months of need exploded on contact. It was less a kiss and more a mating of mouths. His tongue pried as if desperate to get in. She spread her lips wide in welcome. He dove in with a sigh, as much relief as desire.

  Her heart pounded as their breath mingled and their tongues tangled. He tasted of dark, rich magic. His muscled body pressed against her so hard she felt imprinted by the rocky mounds. She wriggled in pleasure.

  With a groan, his mouth opened wide, his jaw beginning to work as his tongue speared into her like a javelin. Tasting her, branding her with his taste, filling her with his power. Excitement driving her, she stretched up, clasped her wrists behind his neck, and pulled herself onto her toes for more.

  His hands slid down her back to the bottom of her shirt. Grasping the hem, he tore it up her body, hard enough that she had to let go or get her arms ripped off. As it was, her ID bracelet flew off and one button popped when he yanked the top over her head, barely breaking the kiss before seizing her head in both hands and tonguing her deep. She opened wide and accepted him, all of him.