by M. L. Briers
Hannah’s spine tingled in warning of trouble on her doorstep and she lifted her eyes to the glass panelled frontage of the shop and saw those dark chocolate eyes staring back at her through the glass.
That was her hearts cue to do the Mamba, while the rest of her body was still mellowed from the sweet soulful music that echoed off the walls and ran in direct competition with the rushing in her ears as her blood coursed through her veins.
What the hell was he doing? Just standing there staring at her like an idiot with the wood panels around the windows framing him like he was a portrait in a gallery. Some portrait, there wasn’t a painter alive that would be able to capture the intensity of those eyes. The vibrancy of his very being.
“Help you with something?” Hannah had to speak, with the two of them just staring at each other it felt awkward, more than awkward, it felt downright stupid. They both knew what each other was, but the question remained did he have a problem with the Fae?
When his hand reached for the door and he pushed it open she mentally fortified her shields and took a long deep breath inside her mind to deal with a wolf.
Seth took a step inside the room and scented the air. Fae, mixed with a little something extra that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, and his eyes took in what they could of the little witch, right down to where the counter top halted his view.
It was her eyes that pulled him in, green like a summer meadow and wide with apprehension for his presence, and it made him want to sooth her worries and look deeper into her very soul as he lay above her and buried himself inside the heat of her body.
Damn, where did that come from? Seth mentally adjusted the bulge within his jeans and closed the door behind him, keeping his eyes firmly on her.
He was a wolf and as such had a high sexual appetite, he reasoned, taking another step towards the counter towards the woman, but she really wasn’t his type. Wild corkscrew curls tried to escape the clasp at the back of her neck, and a few wayward chestnut curls framed her face, and he wanted to reach up and brush them away.
Seth mentally snapped himself out of it. She was Fae, she was probably doing some magic voodoo that was sent out to distract him from his purpose. His wolf was certainly sensing something from her, and he found himself growling his displeasure. Whatever she was doing, he wanted it to stop.
“Growling? Really? Is that the way you introduce yourself…?”She cocked her hip to one side and placed a hand on it, one tip of her head in the other direction and she regarded him with those green eyes, a challenge.
“Speaking of introducing yourself…” Those deep tones of his voice, with just the right amount of wolf woven in them, had her body humming another tune, one she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “You didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?” Had she zoned out on part of the conversation?
“Introduce yourself.”He elaborated, but not well enough. Hannah frowned in her lack of understanding, either this guy spoke in cryptic riddles, or she was definitely missing something here.
“Look, I don’t know who you are…”She started and he took another long step forwards and he saw her eyes flare before they narrowed on him. She was as antsy as his wolf.
“Seth.”He offered and she took a long moment to comprehend just that one word.
“Well, Seth, I’m kind of busy here…”She motioned in a wide sweep with her free hand, but she didn’t pull her eyes from his.
“You know what I am…” Seth gave her a minute to respond. The slight raise of one dark eyebrow was all she gave him. “And you know it’s customary to notify the pack when you want to move into a protected town.”
Hannah’s heart hit her ribs. She was a city girl. Surrounded by supernatural being’s that if you didn’t mess with them they generally left you alone, how the hell was she supposed to know the rules of a small town pack?
“I didn’t.”Hannah answered honestly. She didn’t want any trouble, she had sisters to protect, and this guy looked like all kinds of trouble to her. So she’d stepped on some toes already, her bad, let’s move on.
Seth looked for deceit in the Fae and found none. What kind of Fae didn’t know the rules? He could say a non practicing one, but he could feel her shields up, keeping him out, so he knew that wasn’t true.
“No Fae can set up home in a protected town without the permission of the alpha and the pack.” Seth growled a little through each word and he saw her cheeks flush and wondered at it.
“My bad.” Hannah knew exactly who the alpha was of this particular pack. This guy had alpha written all over him. Just the look from those dark eyes was enough to have her heart racing and her blood coursing through her veins with a nice unhealthy dose of adrenalin pumping through her system.
“Yes.” He agreed and took one more step towards the counter. “And now you need to make amends.” Seth saw the flare of her eyes and her nostrils, and knew that she was running on pure adrenalin. That could be dangerous and unpredictable, and as he didn’t know the power of this particular witch, he was ready for anything.
“Make amends?”Hannah questioned him with more than her words, her eyes were practically boring into his soul looking for answers.
“I need to know you…”Seth started and watched the little Fae balk at his words. The wide flare of her eyes and the high colour to her cheeks made him think of being inside her again, stroking her release from her body, and his body responded in kind, an ache within him grew stronger.
“Not bloody likely.” Hannah spat out and watched the Lycan frown, his dark eyes narrowed on her, and she couldn’t help but drop her eyes to the bulge in his jeans and she swallowed hard.
Seth couldn’t help the smile that graced his lips. Those dark eyes glinted with amusement as he stared back at her and she swallowed hard for a second time.
“I didn’t mean in a sexual way, but if that’s where your mind takes you then I’m sure I could accommodate your needs.” Seth offered. But there was a gentle growl to his voice that made every inch of her body want to wrap around every inch of his.
“Accommodate me?”Hannah spat out, disbelief rolled through her words and she looked at him as if he had just grown at least one more head.
“Yes. I have some time…”Seth teased. Taking the last step forward and closing the gap between them. The only thing separating them now was the counter top and she was more than grateful for it.
“Oh you seriously need to turn your butt around and get the hell out of my shop…” Hannah’s eyes flicked with fire, and he gave her a drop dead gorgeous smile that had her insides clenching, and she wondered why it was so damn hot all of a sudden.
“So you want to see my arse? Is that what you’re telling me?” Seth made that sound so sexy that she could have melted into a puddle on the floor.
“As long as your backside is walking away and taking the rest of you with it, it’s all good.” Hannah retorted and he gave her a low, gentle growl of knowing just what she was thinking. The amusement in those eyes was starting to rile her. “Now are you going to leave or do I have to call animal control?”
The growl that emanated from him this time was less gentle and more annoyance mixed with a warning, but she wasn’t heeding it.
“As I said. I need to know you.” Seth moved quickly, placing his palms down on the counter top he sprung over to her side and was standing next to her, staring down at her, by the time her heart had skipped a beat within her chest.
Hannah turned towards him and raised her hand in self defence, but the firm grip of his fingers as they circled her wrist, followed by the one quick tug he gave had her up against his chest faster than she could think of using her magic against him.
“Don’t…” He growled down at her and she saw the warning in his eyes and heard it in his tone. “It won’t end well for you.”
CHAPTER TWO
Hannah opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Her mind was racing inside her, thoughts of what to do came and went as she dismissed each and every one of them
, until her mind was overwhelmed to the point where she had forgotten to hold her shields in place.
Seth felt her opening up to him. The sudden dispersal of her shields had shocked him, but not as much as the sweet scent of her true nature as he scented her for the very first time. His wolf howled within him as he recognised his mate.
“Let me go or I will kick you in the nuts so hard you’ll choke on your own testicle.” Hannah had used that line before, and it generally worked, but she wasn’t dealing with a wolf then. Now she was dealing with a red blooded alpha male who could crush her with one fist if he had a mind to do so, and as she stared up into his those dark eyes, she got the feeling that he didn’t want to.
“Don’t move. I’m not going to hurt you.”Seth growled down at her. His tone had changed, it was more gentle, more soothing, and she couldn’t help but respond to him.
When he dipped his head towards her neck she felt the brush of his hair against her cheek and closed her eyes. It wasn’t a response she would normally have, by now she would have been trying to knee the guy where it hurt his pride as well as his body, but this was different, and she didn’t have a damn clue why.
Seth brushed his cheek against her neck and closed his eyes to everything but the scent of her. He needed to be sure that she was the one, but in his mind and his heart he already knew it. His wolf knew it, and as he took in her scent he couldn’t help but nuzzle against her soft skin and revel in the feel of her.
Hannah wasn’t sure if her body was about to spontaneously combust, but she thought it was doing a damn good job trying. Every inch of her was on fire and it felt like waves of heat lapping at her nerves. Whatever it was about this big wolf certainly had her body responding to him in ways she had never felt before.
‘Mine.’ Seth’s wolf confirmed.
“Mine.”Seth growled out against her neck and Hannah’s mind hit a mental wall at one hundred miles an hour. Her heart didn’t just skip inside her chest, it did back flips and cartwheels and she felt dizzy from the one word she never wanted to hear.
“No.”She breathed her denial, trying to take a step backwards, but failing miserably as his hand on her wrist, and his other hand against her lower back kept her in place, along with legs that had no intention of moving.
“Mine.” He growled again, his lips brushed over her skin and her womb did flip flops within her.
“Seth…” He heard his name on her lips and his body tensed with just that simple word. He wanted to take her here and now, sink down to the floor with her and bury himself deep inside her, stroke long and deep until she called out his name over and over, until they had they fill of each other.
“Who are you?”Seth pulled his head back and stared down at her. Her eyes were still closed, but her face was flushed with desire and her lips were parted for kissing, and when her lids fluttered open and those green eyes starred back at him, he could see that she recognised her mate in him.
“Hannah, but I…”She was going to deny him, or was she, she stopped in mid flow, and when he released her wrist and brought his hand to her face, she palmed his chest and lent into him as he brushed his thumb over her lips.
“Hannah.” He repeated her name and it rolled over his tongue on a low, gentle, possessive growl.
“Don’t say it like that…”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m chocolate, something to be consumed…”Hannah was trying to push away all of the confusion within her. She knew she was standing within his arms, this man she didn’t know, this wolf, and yet it felt more than right, it felt like home.
“Consumed, devoured, savoured, relished…”Seth said each word with a gentle growl of desire and Hannah couldn’t stop her body responding to each damn word.
“I don’t know you…”
“But you will…”Seth promised.
“Not now…”Hannah managed to shake her head. Her eyes were locked onto his lips, lips that for the life her she wanted against hers, and she wanted to curl up in the freshly scrubbed corner of her shop and never move again.
“No. Not now.” Seth felt her relax within his arms. Felt her let go of the breath that she had been holding, of the uncertainty she had been keeping within her, and he couldn’t help the wolfish smile that spread across his face.
“Don’t do that…”
“Do what?” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip and heard her draw a long steadying breath.
“Look so smug.”
“I’m not smug. I’m certain.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes you are. But you’re Fae, not Lycan so you need me to woo you…”
“Woo me? I don’t want to be wooed, I don’t want to be mated, and I certainly don’t want to know you.”Hannah slammed her shields back into place and it might have taken everything she had to do it, but god they felt good around her, and she managed to pushed off from his chest and take that much needed step backwards. It might have been only a step and not nearly far enough, but it felt like a victory.
“Ah, yes, back to the getting to know you…” He rested his backside against the counter and folded his large muscled arms over his chest as his eyes shone down with mischief. “I wasn’t suggesting we mate. I was suggesting dinner and a conversation to prove that your family should have a home here…”
Hannah couldn’t help but gape up at him. “Prove…?” She managed to get out. Who did he think he was? King?
“But of course, now that I know you are my mate, there is nowhere else that you should be. Welcome to town, Hannah.”That welcome to town sounded a lot like, you’re not going anywhere, and she frowned her disenchantment with what was supposed to be her new home. They might have gotten away from the vampire, but for her it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. Maybe she should go back to the damn vampire…
“Crap.” The word left her lips before it even registered in her brain and she saw the amusement flash across his face and then turn into a full blown laugh as he tossed his head back on his shoulders and chuckled.
“Now, let’s get back to me taking you for dinner…” He teased and she cut her eyes at him as she turned away.
“Soon, maybe. I have a lot to do…”
“Nonsense. You’re part of the pack now, any help you need you just have to ask…”
“I’m not a needy person.”Stubborn, he thought, but not needy. She might just lead him on a merry dance before this bonding was over, but he liked the idea of wooing her.
“Perhaps you should learn. My pack are going to want to meet you and your sisters…”
“You leave my sisters out of this…” There was the mother bear instinct that he hadn’t expected to find in her. Her eyes flared with warning as her hands went to her hips and she practically growled up at him.
“We just want to meet them, not eat them for lunch…” He leaned down over her and she narrowed her eyes and bit down on every single swear word that she knew, and she knew a lot.
“And you can keep that little runt away from my youngest sister as well…” Her eyes flashed with anger again.
“What runt would that be?”
“Declan, carrying my sisters bags…” That piqued Seth’s interests. Declan wasn’t the type to go for a Fae, he might have been testing his rampant hormones out, but as far as Seth knew he was supposedly sweet on a Lycan female.
“I’ll have a word with him.”He left it there, no commitment to stop him, she noted.
“So, you can go now.”Hannah tried shoeing him away, but he just grinned down at her.
“I’m waiting…”
“For?”
“You to leave so I can see you safely home.”
“I’m a big girl…” Hannah lifted the bucket of water she had used to scrub and felt his hand wrap around the handle next to hers, and sighed. “And I can lift a damn bucket of water without help…”
He wasn’t about to let go, even when she tried pulling it towards her he held onto it. Hannah felt the heat rush to her cheeks
and the annoyance flare within her. Reaching out with her mind she made the bucket tip and half of its soapy, greasy contents splashed out in his direction.
Seth managed to jump back from the water with minimal damage to his jeans and shoes and he gave a long low growl of annoyance.
“Whoops. My bad. Perhaps you should go home and change.”
Seth snatched the bucket from her with a little more force than was necessary, dragging her closer to him before she had the sense to let go. With his other hand he captured her around the waist and hoisted her against him.
“Perhaps I should just strip off here…”He growled out. His lips a breath from hers and she gawked up at him in surprise.
“Look, I get it. You’re the big bad wolf and I’m allegedly your mate. So back off and let me get used to the idea.”Hannah was clasping at straws. If she was his mate, and from the way her body was reacting to his, with gusto, she thought she was, she had two choices. Run and make damn sure he never tracked her down, or submit to bonding with him for the rest of her life.
The first wasn’t a viable option, even if she did run she had no clue how to stay hidden from a damn wolf. The second, well she was going to need time to come to terms with that proposition.
“Sounds… reasonable…” Seth offered, lowering the bucket to the floor, as his hard body ran down over hers and she shivered with the contact of his muscles against her aching breasts, and then he came back up again, slowly, and she wanted to moan with the pleasure that contact provider her. “Just one thing…”
“What?” She tried to sigh her annoyance, but she just ended up sounding breathless.
“This…” Seth’s soft lips came down on hers. The force of the jolt of pleasure within her made her hands lock around his upper biceps, hard and unyielding under her fingers, as he teased her into a slow submission with his tongue stroking over her lips until they parted.
Seth wasn’t about to take any prisoners, she wanted time and he wanted to give her something to think about, so he devoured her with equal amounts of passion and desire.