by M. L. Briers
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CHAPTER TWO
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Kiri gasped as the sensation shot up her arm and raised every hair on her body. His touch was electric, not in a bad way, not like getting hit by lightning- and yet, exactly like that.
Shock and awe was on the menu at the way her body responded to his… and then the next instant she’d been yanked out of her seat and his strong hands were around her waist, stabilising her on her feet in front of him, and slowly, so very, very slowly, she dragged her eyes up his body to his face…
“Mine…” He growled with the kind of fierce look that she would have thought would be better suited to a deadly foe rather than a… mate.
Her mind spun. Her brain revolted against rational thought as a million and one thoughts and images shot through her mind.
Her and him.
Naked.
Sex… lustful, feral sex…
Pups, millions of them running around her ankles…
Sex, up against her car…
Sex in the straw bales…
Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex…
Stop! She screamed within her mind. Not helping… she tried to shake off the helplessness that tore through her, as bone deep and soul shattering as it was.
Mate… that’s not so bad… it means he doesn’t want to kill me just… oh, it’s not so good either. She swallowed down hard.
When he went to dip his head to take her scent, she snatched her upper body back away from his, as if he’d slapped her. Her eyes were wide and her face panic stricken, like a doe caught in the headlights of his pickup…
“Not so fast,” she hissed out between clenched teeth.
“I was just going to take your-”
“Ohhh,” she snorted out a somewhat hysterical laugh, “I know exactly what you were going to do.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Rowan scowled down at her.
Kiri twisted her head on her neck and shot him a look of pure disbelief. Even a shifter couldn’t be that stupid? Could he?
“Seriously?”
“Deadly,” he shot back and her head snapped back into place again as she narrowed her eyes on him.
“Bad choice of words, wolf,” she berated him and he took a long breath in that made that chest of his puff out, and her eyes snapped downwards to the ridges of muscles, and then back up to his face when he let that breath out again.
“Obviously, I’m not going to hurt you,” he tried to sooth her fears. Not that she smelled like fear, not really, maybe a little anxious…
“Sure, you’re not-” she rolled her eyes.
“Unless you run,” he reminded her and her eyes snapped back to his, narrowed, and accused.
“Well,” she huffed, “good to know.” She bit out, sarcasm dripping from her tone.
“Then there’s the whole, marking you as mine,” Rowan frowned.
“There’s that,” she shot back, sarcasm turning to acidity.
“And bonding- I’d have to bite-”
“You’re really not helping your damn case with me,” she snapped back.
Rowan’s breath caught in his throat as he stopped thinking and started considering what the hell he was saying. He’d gotten so caught up in the moment, in the thought of mating with her and how that would go that he hadn’t considered how damn daunting any of that was for her.
He scented the air- still no fear, just anxiety and annoyance now.
“Look,” he started and she raised her hand, palm towards him, and then curled her fingers into a fist to leave just one index finger sticking up… his beast growled nervously. A witch’s power could all be channelled into that one damn finger and he really didn’t feel like getting his backside fried.
“Could you not?” he asked and she frowned.
“Not- what?”
“The finger,” he nodded at it and she scowled.
“Oh, that’s not the kind of finger I feel like giving you, trust me.” she hissed back.
Rowan felt a rush of amusement sweep through him. The woman was feisty and brave. Funny to boot.
He liked her- he kind of had too, he guessed; in a way it was pre-programmed into him. Fate had made sure that they were compatible. It was a comforting thought, considering that she was a witch.
“Right now, not as far as your magic could throw me.” It was the truth as he saw it. She was a stranger, untried and tested, but then he guessed he was the same to her.
He hadn’t really considered her feelings in any of this, only his own. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt; elated that he’d found his mate. A little miffed that she was a witch. Nervous of her trying to run.
Rowan wasn’t a man who wore his feelings pinned to his chest. As an enforcer that wouldn’t do him any good. As a male shifter he was a born fighter, a born protector, and right now his initial instinct was to protect her from herself, and in truth, from him.
The mating pull was a powerful beast, and it was the beast part that made him wary. His wolf was a predator and liked to hunt, to feel the thrill of the chase and the dominance of winning. The kill came as second nature and something that he never really questioned, until now.
If she ran…
“I told you, I’m not that kind of a witch,” she hissed back. Slapping his hands from her body and taking a small step back away from him.
“All witches are that kind of a witch,” Rowan narrowed his eyes on her. She wasn’t lying, at least he couldn’t pick up any deceit from her, and yet, he knew how magic could be used to subdue his beast.
“Screw you, wolf,” she was done trying to explain herself. She shouldn’t have too.
Kiri took more than offence at being painted with the witch brush. Sure, there were bad witches, but there were good witches too, just like there were bad people and good people. She’d never in her life used her magic in a bad way, and she didn’t need to start now…
Unless he became unruly… then she might not have a choice.
Ok, I see what he means, but that’s sooo not the point.
“Now that plan I could get behind,” his tone had changed. Gone was the moody, broody, growly-ness, and in was that deep gravelled tone that rubbed against her skin like a cat that was after a tasty treat, and she’d just offered him one on a damn platter.
“Not what I had in mind,” Kiri snapped back, but she sensed his playfulness was back, as those eyes brightened and his sexy smile was bowing his lips upwards, giving him deep dimples within his cheeks that she hadn’t noticed before.
There was a deep heat within her womb that started to seep outwards. A rush of blood went to her cheeks, and her stomach flipped before it flopped. She hated rollercoasters…
“But still,” he inched closer. Too close. She could already feel the heat coming from his body and she didn’t like it. Well, she did like it, and there lay the problem.
“Back- off,” Kiri said slowly so that he’d understand, obviously the man had mental issues.
Her magic was fizzing inside of her with the anxiety that she was feeling. He might have had a big old mean wolf buried deep within him, but her magic was the same, and it wanted out- wanted to protect her, and that wouldn’t be such a good thing.
Rowan held up his hands in front of his chest in surrender and took just a faerie sized step backwards. His eyes sparkled with mischief and that smile grew wider.
“Ok, but this is as far as I’m willing to go,” he teased her.
Rowan didn’t expect her to drop to her knees with roars of deep belly laughs, but he was trying to be less… him. Less enforcer. More… human.
“I’m dying inside,” she bit out and saw his smile falter a little. “No, really, this is me laughing my ass off.”
Rowan dropped his hands and sighed inwardly. He guessed that the women that’d he’d met in bars, human woman that were easy to woo were different to having to dazzle your mate, or a witch that knew what you were deep down inside.
Charming women came easily to him, because he never really see
med to need to do much of anything to snare them into his bed. He knew his looks were appealing to most women, and he had that deep brooding thing going on that a lot of them seem to like. But, he guessed overall that it was his inner strength and protectiveness that appealed to them.
His mate, however, seemed totally oblivious to any of that.
“Could you try and be a little…friendlier?” Rowan sighed outwardly this time and she raised just one perfect eyebrow high on her forehead and frowned with the other.
Talk about your mixed signals.
“How many pups should we have?” she demanded and Rowan’s head spun.
“Excuse me?” He heard the catch in his voice and cleared his throat.
“No, really,” she folded her arms across her chest and raised that index finger that he didn’t seem to care for to her lips as she feigned deep thought. “I’m thinking ten-”
“Ten!” Rowan almost choked on his own tongue. He hadn’t considered…
“It’s a nice round number,” she shrugged, “and if one or two get eaten by a grizzly-”
“Eaten?” Rowan growled at the thought of a bear near his offspring. “Now, wait a-” He tossed up his own index finger towards her, but she ignored him.
“Maybe we should have more?” She frowned hard as she stared at the ground for a long moment in contemplation.
Rowan swallowed again, tried to clear the rush of emotions from his mind and his wolf’s sudden alertness of possible grizzly’s in the area, of which there were none, but that didn’t help his beast any.
He’d only just met her and she was talking of having ten pups? That was… fast. Too fast? He’ll he didn’t know- he’d kind of like to get his length inside her just once before she decided how many pups they were going to have…
“More…?” he started- but she rambled on.
“Twelve, yes, twelve would be good. That way we wouldn’t notice losing two or so, and it’s still a nice round-”
“Ok, stop!” Rowan growled out.
Kiri did. With her hands going to her curvy hips, she titled her head to one side and gave him an expectant look that contained a big dose of mischief and a lot of amusement.
“I get it,” Rowan growled.
“Do you now?” She tossed back, fire dancing in her eyes.
“I’m rushing you,” Rowan offered and she pressed her lips together and twisted her head to one side, narrowing her eyes on him.
“Just a wee little bit,” she berated him with a smile. Nobody had managed to do that since he was a pup.
“I’ll stop if you will,” he shot back on a frown that drew his dark eyebrows together like two caterpillars squaring up for a fight. That look on him shot a bolt of lightning straight to her womb.
Boom, felt that… Too sexy by half.
“Pups- too scary for the big bad wolf?” There was a light of mischief in her eyes now that called to him and warned him off at the same time, but he was never one to back down from a fight or a challenge, and he considered this mating to be both.
“Not now that I’ve got used to the idea,” he used every ounce of charm that he could muster, and his voice was deep, gravelly, and growly all at the same time.
That sent her libido somewhat haywire. Her senses didn’t quite know which tone, which sound, to latch onto first, so it went for all three and overwhelmed her senses.
Damn, don’t do that… she scolded her body to behave. Even her damn toes were tingling with curly goodness.
Kiri’s spine straightened like it had no choice. Her shoulders pulled back. Her breasts went forward without her permission and his eyes shot downwards to take in the twin peaks of her girls.
Another growl rumbled through him, and she swayed forwards, like he was a magnet dragging her in…
Oh, that’s not good!
She mentally snapped everything back off again, or rather, she tried. It seemed that once his pull on her had targeted and locked on, there was no switching it off, not completely. He was like one of those heat seeking missiles, and yet she knew that the heat that he was seeking was between her damned legs.
“Thought you were going to behave yourself?” She snapped back with a scowl.
“I am,” he looked sincere enough, and yet, her body was still humming as if he’d used those kissable lips over every inch.
“Well,” she started, floundering in the sea of attraction. “I have nothing.” She ground out, flustered.
Animal attraction? Hormones and pheromones. Boy meets girl. The birds and the bees. It was the same old story, but this one was fuelled by fate’s cruel twist of the mating knife.
Kiri knew that she could try to fight it. That she could try to run from it, so to speak, but where exactly would that get her?
He- wolf shifter- was her destiny. Her fate. Her mate.
“Rowan,” he offered as she stared blankly back at him, her mind occupied with so many thoughts vying for her attention that she’d lost the train of most of them.
“What?” She gave a small shake of her head to loosen the cobwebs.
“Rowan- my- name- Rowan,” he offered again in an ever so slightly condescending manner.
“Like the witches tree,” she mumbled to herself, still lost in thought, and some of them were a little X-rated.
“I guess it was fated, a witch name, a witch mate,” Rowan hadn’t thought about the origin of his name before, but he didn’t much believe in coincidences. Everything happened for a reason- like her taking the wrong road that brought her right to him.
“Kiri,” she offered back.
“Like the fruit?” his eyebrows soared upwards. Hers matched, then dipped.
“That’s Kiwi,” she snorted back.
“So what’s it mean?”
“It means different things in several different cultures- mountain, bark-”
“Fitting,” he nodded thoughtfully. No coincidences… she was made for me, she was named for me, and I was named for her. Mine...
Mine. His beast growled within him again. Its need to speed things along, to claim her, mate with her, bond and keep her forever welled up within him again, and it all came from his wolf.
“I need to scent you,” he rushed out, feeling that itch that he couldn’t get near to scratch because it was buried deep within his psyche. The only thing that would do it was to complete the task needed, and right now, he needed to scent her at source.
Kiri opened her mouth, but his hands came up in front of him to silence her fears.
“Just- scent- no- pressure,” he offered, lowering his chin downwards and regarding her from beneath his dark eyebrows.
“I suppose it-” she got no further. He took one large step and closed the distance between them. One big hand lodged at the small of her back and the other curled around the back of her neck, touching her bare skin and causing a shiver to run against her spine…
Rowan felt that shiver run through her and held in place. He hadn’t meant to scare her. He had to remember that she was human and saw him as a predator, a wolf in a man’s skin. He cursed his stupidity.
“What are you waiting for? Christmas?” Kiri tipped her head back on her neck and stared up into his eyes. They were locked and loaded upon her- mesmerising her as a smile stretched his lips and his eyes sparkled with light and amusement.
“You are certainly the best present that I ever got,” he was back to Mr Charming again, not quite a Prince, but he’d do.
“You don’t have me yet,” she teased him back.
“Yet,” he gave a gentle growl. “Good word, I like it.” He teased her right back.
Then he dipped his head and his cheek brushed against hers. That feeling, like a gentle caress, washed over her body, and she couldn’t help it when her eyelids decided that they were a little sleepy and decided to close out her surroundings. She couldn’t help the way that lack of everything else centred all of her senses on him.
She felt his breath on her skin and wanted to squirm, dared to pull back slightly, o
nly slightly, but it was enough for him to tighten that grip around her waist and ease her right up against his hard body.
Damn! It wasn’t just her curves that melted against him and gave way under the hard press of everything that he held against her. It was her resolve too. Too good.
Her mind was trapped, caught between concentrating on that feeling of his breath being dragged in against her skin, and the way that his length twitched against her stomach. Both excited her. Both sent her stomach on a rollercoaster ride downwards before soaring again, and her womb was dancing like it had just discovered what disco was.
Too much - not enough.
Then there was the sound of that deep rumble again that started in his chest, vibrated through her breasts and made her taut nipples ache to be touched, and rolled upwards to his throat. Delicious.
It sounded so damn good that she thought she just might pool into a puddle at his feet, and that wouldn’t be good, because she needed to be flesh, blood, and bone to feel him… really, really, really, feel him.
Rowan took in her scent and stored it in his memory. His body was alive. His muscles were primed and ready to take her down to the grass and have his wicked way with her, and it would be wicked, very, very wicked.
She inspired his imagination to come up with every conceivable way possible that he wanted to touch her. To taste her on his tongue. To thrust into her body and make her his. Claim her forever. Every curve. Every inch of her knowing every inch of him.
He couldn’t stop the heady growl of need and desire that rolled through him. His beast was pushing to the forefront and he was in danger of unleashing his fangs… the urge to mark her as his was almost overwhelming.
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CHAPTER THREE
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“Just scent,” Kiri reminded him as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. Of course she did- she was female and he was an over sexed, testosterone fuelled shifter, and that growl said it all.
Rowan smiled. Her rebuke of his animal side had slapped his beast down. Pulled him back from the edge, from doing something that he might regret- that she wouldn’t forgive him for.