by M. L. Briers
“No. You’re female and no threat.”Seth assured her and it was Fiona’s turn to snort, this one as a chuckle as she motioned towards Hannah.
“She’s female, and right now she wants to rip your wolfling apart.”She declared before disappearing up the stairs and leaving Seth to continue soothing Hannah.
He still hadn’t released her from his hold, but he had loosened his grip on her body. She was still firmly against him, but as she wasn’t struggling to get away anymore he didn’t feel the need to hold her so tightly.
“Let’s get you that bottle.”He breathed against her ear and felt her shiver down the length of him.
“And a straw. I want a straw.”
“Who the heck was that?”Kay asked as she burst through the front door with her mate in tow. He’d flatly refused to let her walk home alone from the bar, even dripping wet with beer he had followed her down the street to make sure she was safe. She found it rather endearing, although she wasn’t about to admit that to him.
Hannah scowled at Lee as he stood behind her sister.
“Who the hell is he?”She bit out, not wanting to hear what her brain had already come to terms with. Another damn mate.
Kay shot a look over her shoulder, as if suddenly remembering the wolf literally at the front door, and she turned back as a wince went across her face.
“My mate…”She waved it away as unimportant. “You’re here. Fiona’s has a vampire mate, so I’m guessing that was Mary’s mate howling like a loon?”Kay heard her mate bit off a chuckle behind her and turned her dark gaze on him. “Something funny?”She demanded and he coughed to clear his throat as the amusement grew in his eyes.
“Nope. Just never heard the Bonding howl described like…”
“Bonding?”Kay turned towards him. Her gaze was now a dark glare and her hands were on her hips as she demanded clarity.
Lee reached up and scratched his head on a nod of confirmation as Kay spun around and glared at her sister in shock.
“You allowed this?”She demanded and saw the instant death glare from her sister turn her to proverbial stone.
“Are you touched?”Hannah shot back and watched Kay’s eyes widen.
“Well you’re right here…”She spat out, tightening her fists against her hips and poking her head forwards on her neck in a challenge.
“I am now. I wasn’t then, and where were you?”Hannah demanded. “Off making puppy eyes at your mate?”She snapped back as both of their mates rolled their eyes.
“I’m going to kill Declan.”Seth growled out, shaking his head in disbelief at all the trouble the young Lycan was causing.
“After me, you’re first.”Hannah said as she finally shook his hold from around her waist and stalked off into the kitchen closely followed by Seth on her heels. She could have been aiming to get a knife to carve off the male’s privates or something equally as macabre, but he didn’t think it likely. She was Fae and anything she wanted to do to that young wolf would be done with her magic.
“Look, what’s done is done.”Seth knew he should have left it alone, she was a mother bear protecting her young, even if it was her sister and not her child, but he didn’t like to see her so upset.
“How wise of you…”Hannah snapped as she pushed open the kitchen door and let it go in his face. Seth reached out and caught the door before it hit him. With a low growl he pushed inside the room and found her reaching up over the fridge to get the bottle of scotch she desired.
“Scotch?”He growled, thinking her more of a beer or vodka kind of a woman…
“I think this situation calls for scotch…”He reached over her and snagged the bottle and she snatched it from his hand. “Lots, and lots, and lots of scotch.”
Kay stood at the kitchen door and lent her hip against the frame as she crossed her arms under her breasts and regarded her sister with cynical eyes.
“So you’re answer to Mary bonding is to get smash faced?” Kay demanded and saw Hannah’s eyes narrow on her.
“I can’t turn back time, Kay. What do you want me to do?”Hannah shot back as Lee came up behind his mate and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Talk to her, maybe. Give her some motherly advice.”Kay offered as she shrugged his hand from her shoulder.
“I did that. I told her to go slow. It didn’t work, she’s like the rest of you, pig headed…”Hannah spun the top from the bottle and reached for a glass.
“Pot, kettle, black, sister.” Kay retorted turning on her heels and finding the wall of muscle blocking her path of escape. “You stink of beer…”She informed him, turning up her nose and dropping her arms to her sides.
“And whose damn fault is that?”Lee offered gently. He could feel his mates emotions were all over the place and he didn’t want to rile her up any more than she already was, but he needed to make his point.
“Go take a damn shower.”Kay put her hands on the hard muscles of his chest and pushed him backwards, and he allowed her to do it. Holding up his hands in surrender, palms out towards her as she scooted around him.
“Here?”Lee smirked and watched her stop and turn slowly back towards him.
“What, you don’t have a pond you can bathe in?”Kay snorted and he gave her the sweetest puppy dog eyes she had ever come across. “Fine.”She relented. “Upstairs, end of the damn hallway. Towels in the cupboard.”
“And will you be joining me?”He asked taking a step towards her and knew he had gone a step too far when her eyes flashed death and anger in his direction.
“Out, wolf.”She lifted her arm and pointed to the front door, and Hannah couldn’t contain the amusement that rolled through her any longer, even if she didn’t feel like it, even if she still wanted to throttle someone.
Lee balked at his mate’s sudden change of demeanour. “But you said…”
“And you tried to take advantage, so out…”Kay stomped her foot as only Kay could. “Shoo, be gone.”Kay wasn’t in the mood to be soothed or swayed and Lee picked up on that in an instant. Dropping his head down, he mumbled a growl and a few curses on route to the front door.
“Call yourself a beta?”Seth chuckled and saw the anger flare through his friend as he turned hard eyes on his Alpha, biting down on a stream of obscenities and the urge to plant his fist in his friend’s face.
“Not now Seth.”Lee growled as he shot a final look to his mate who didn’t appear to be budging from her stance.
“Who are you?”Fiona asked, fearing she was always the last to know what was going on around here lately.
Lee’s blue eyes came up to meet his mate’s sister and he grinned his hellos as she frowned down at him.
“My mate. Don’t say a word, he’s just leaving.”Kay snapped as Fiona’s face lit up with glee.
“Your mate!” Mary’s voice rang out in shock from the top of the stairs and brought Hannah out of the kitchen on a run as Seth followed hot on her heels.
“Well if it isn’t the little nymphomaniac…”Fiona turned in amusement on the stairs to look at her sister, as everyone’s eyes turned upwards to find her cheeks aflame with a blush so deep it could have been painted on.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”Mary gasped out, but she could already see by the way everyone was staring at her that they all knew what had been going on in her bedroom.
“Oh, Crap.”Declan growled out as he came up behind her and wrapped a protective and possessive arm around her waist, pulling her back against him as he heard the low growl of annoyance from his alpha, and saw the way Hannah’s eyes flared when she saw him.
Hannah launched herself forwards determined to do him some sort of harm as Seth’s hand snapped out and grasped her wrist. With one yank she was back against his hard chest and his arm encircled her waist holding her there.
“I think you should take your mate back to her room.”Seth growled up at Declan who scowled down at Hannah.
“If she has something to say…”Declan started and Seth growled out again as Fiona turned toward
s the young Lycan and wagged a finger at him.
“It’s not her words you have to worry about young wolf, it’s her actions.” Fiona informed him as Hannah lifted her hand and drew on her magic.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“No you don’t…”Seth had her turned towards him and up over his shoulder in a heartbeat as Hannah gasped out her disbelief and started thumping against his back. “Clear the damn way.”Seth growled as people moved like lightning to get out of his way as he took the stairs three at a time, whisking her up the stairs and into her bedroom before she could do something they all might regret.
The sound of the bedroom door slamming shut behind them had Fiona grinning wildly as she turned to look about her at the stunned faces of her sisters and the look of amusement from the Beta. Declan just looked slightly miffed.
“Well, I have a hot date with a Mac-Vampire. Enjoy the rest of the festivities people.”Fiona trotted down the stairs on her heels, reached for her coat and shrugged into it.
“You’re just going to leave?”Kay demanded and Fiona grinned at her.
“Yep.”
“Typical.”Kay crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, as Fiona yanked open the front door and disappeared outside.
“I can stay…”Lee started to walk towards Kay and she raised her arm and pointed towards the open door.
“Out.”She informed him as he mumbled and headed after Fiona, closing the door behind him, as Kay turned to look up the stairs at the two bonded mate’s. Crooking her finger she bade them towards her.
“We need to talk.”
Hannah felt the breath leave her lungs as her back connected with the mattress from where he tossed her from his shoulder, and it took her a long minute to get her bearings, even though she only bounced twice and the ceiling above her was a good indication of what had happened.
She pulled herself up onto her elbows just as Seth was climbing up over her body on the bed, and she felt the excitement of just how predatory he looked right in that moment sweep through her.
“Don’t you even think of trying to distract me…”Hannah started, but stopped to drop down on the bed when he gave no sign of stopping in his advances.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”Seth growled against her ear as he brushed his cheek against hers and caught the tender, sensitive skin of her lobe between his teeth, nipping before soothing it with his lips.
Hannah caught a breath and let her eyes close as the sensation washed through her.
“I mean it, Seth…”Her hands reached for his shoulders as his tongue swirled over her neck, before his lips closed against the skin and he sucked hard. The corresponding jolt of excitement bolted through her womb and she moaned.
“I know you do, sweetheart.”Seth growled against her ear, nuzzling against her, before he lifted his head and brushed his lips over hers.
“I don’t even like you right now…”She offered, somewhat breathlessly she thought, tightening her hold on his broad shoulders.
“But you do like me…”He breathed against her neck, before claiming her lips with his own and demanding that she open to him.
How could she not react to him? That was the question that she would pay good money for someone to answer right about now. With a tingle that raced back and forth over every inch of her skin, bringing her body alive, and the way he kissed her, more a devouring of her body and soul that made her toes curls inside her thick socks… socks, shoes, jumper… damn why was she still dressed? She wanted to feel his skin on hers, wanted to run her tongue over his…
“Time out…”She gasped as she yanked her mouth from his and heard the low rumble of a chuckle through his chest.
Seth pulled up and stared down at her, and she could see her own desire mirrored on his face, but there was no anger, no annoyance. He was chancing his luck and seeing how far it got him, and boy if her mind wasn’t a jumble of stupid right now, it might have taken him all the way to where they both needed to be, wanted to be.
“More time, my Fae?”There was a definite rumble of a growl to his voice that sent another wave of please rip my clothes off and have your very wicked way with me, through her body.
“Just a smidge…”She teased him and he grinned a very toothy grin at her.
“Are you going to try to flay one of my pack?”He growled down on an improvised scowl and she rolled her eyes.
“How can I? He’s my sister’s mate, I’d never hear the end of it.”She pouted and pushed at his chest. He was too close, although not damn close enough, skin to skin wouldn’t be close enough…
Seth took a long moment to regain his composure, although he couldn’t do anything about the pain of his manhood aching within his jeans until he got under a damn shower and relieved his tension, something which had taken him forty minute yesterday and an hour this morning. God knows how long he would be yanking his own chain for tonight?
Rolling from her soft, warmth he lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling and tried to calm his inner beast.
‘Mine.’ The animal didn’t want to be calmed, he wanted their mate between his fangs, needed to claim her and mark her as theirs.
“Good to know.”
“Thank you for not letting me do something that I’d regret…” She offered, rolling onto her side next to him and reaching out her hand to stroke down over the hard ridges of his abdomen. The gentle growl that left his lips as he closed his eyes and savoured her touch thrilled her.
“We all have a little stupid in us when our young are threatened…”
“So you’re calling me stupid?”She knew he wasn’t, but she needed to break her desire to climb on top of him and investigate those hard worked muscles with her damn tongue.
He snatched her wrist and brought the palm of her hand to his lips where he pressed a gentle kiss against her skin.
“I’m calling you a mother bear, it was a compliment…”He growled as he turned his head and his dark eyes captured hers and held them. Damn, he wasn’t even going to let her rise to false anger against him. No escaping his magnetic pull there…
“I’m going to do something you might not like, but I need to right now.”She didn’t wait for his reply, she needed to be away from him, or him away from her, and just in case he wouldn’t let her up, she needed to be pro active.
Hannah released her hand from his and flicked her fingers in his direction. The look of surprise on his face as he was forced through the air, away from her and off the bed onto the floor made her want to laugh and gasp all at the same time.
The loud thud of his body hitting the hard floor made her wince. The low deep growl of annoyance that reached her ears made her grimace, and when his head bobbed up over the side of the bed and he scowled at her, she couldn’t help the shrug of apology she gave him.
“I needed a little distance…”She offered innocently and he raised just one enquiring brow at her.
“You could have asked me to leave…”He growled back and she gave him innocent eyes that were mixed with mirth.
“I could have, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun.”She admitted.
Seth was back on the bed in a heartbeat, padding towards her on his hands and knees, and she shrieked and tried to roll away from him, but his hand reached out and snagged her around the waist as he hoisted her back and pinned her down with the whole of his body, especially the feel of his arousal against her.
“This is what I was hoping to avoid…”She breathed out as he ran the backs of his fingers down her cheeks.
“But you must have known I would make you pay a penalty for assaulting me, my little witch.”Seth growled down at her, and she didn’t have time to wonder if she had known before his lips were back on hers and she was caught up in that torturous fast rush of fire that ripped through her.
Fiona felt excited and uneasy all at the same time. Clicking the locks on the car, the glare of the indicator lights illuminate the darkness of the car park and she felt a cold shiver reach down her spine, and pulled her jacket fur
ther around her for a warmth that couldn’t be found no matter how many layers of clothes she put on, this was her body trying to tell her something, and she looked about her for signs of Mac. Was he really going to jump out at her from the shadows? She thought at his age he would be past the show and tell of vampirism.
Fiona pulled on her magic, if he wanted to play games she was going to give him a shock, in more ways than one. She smiled to herself as she turned on her six inch heels and started towards the exit.
The rush of wind that accompanied something fast displacing the air around it caught her attention and she looked to the right, damn, the feel of him on her left hand side told her she had fallen for it and she started to turn when she felt the hard grip of fingers dig into her wrist…
“Did you think you could escape me?”The cold hard sound of his voice stilled her heartbeat inside her and gripped her stomach like a vice, and before she even caught sight of him, she knew that this wasn’t Mac.
Fiona sent a hard shockwave through her body akin to touching molten lava, and heard the hard hiss of pain as his fingers released their grip on her skin, and for one long second she was free of him.
She stumbled backwards and her heel caught in the grate. She was going down and she knew that hitting the floor was preferable to having his touch on her. She didn’t reach out, she just allowed herself to fall as his curse rang in her ears…
“Fiona!” The sound of Mac’s voice was like the sun breaking through the black clouds in a thunderstorm, and she held onto it, let it fill her with light and relief, as her eyes took in the fast movement of Dermond as the rush of air signalled his retreat.
Mac was fast, but not fast enough to reach her before she hit the floor. The force of the ground greeting her backside jarred her body and made her squeak out her pain. But he did save her before the force of the fall sent her head backwards towards the ground.
Fiona felt his arm come about her back and he was scooping her up towards his chest and lifting her off her backside in another heartbeat that had her insides lurching all over the place.