by M. L. Briers
When he found his way back to her he could hear the long hard pounding of her heart within her chest. Still locked against his body he could feel the harsh rise and fall as she tried to take in the breath that she needed. She was still lost and he reached up his hand and brushed his fingertips against her cheek as he became her anchor to find her way back home to him.
“Come back to me, love.”His voice carried deep within her mind. Teri responded to his call. Her eyes flickered open and she drew in a long deep breath as she gazed up at him through hooded eyes. “Did I hurt you?” He didn’t wait for her response. He searched her mind for the answer and breathed a sigh of relief when he found her unharmed.
“I can’t…”She gasped in another breath and he brushed his fingers down her cheek again. Holding her gaze with his, he willed her body to recover.
“Relax, breath, I have you.” His melodic tones brought her body to rest. The aftershocks of his loving rippled through her while he cradled her within his arms and turned them in the bed until she was lying against him, wrapped in the protective embrace of his arms.
“Why did you wait so long…”She mumbled against his chest as she drifted into sleep. Cyrus stroked his fingers absently down her spine, asking himself the same damn question over and over within his mind.
Callum leaned up against the wall outside the bathroom door. His mate had taken herself back inside, but this time he could hear the shower running and knew she had a reason to be in there. The fact that he couldn’t put the image of her naked under the warm spray out of his mind was his own private torture. He rested his head back against the wall and closed his eyes just listening to the small sounds she made as she washed the artificial scent from her body. That was the true upside. He would once again be able to scent just her.
He wasn’t sure how much time elapsed as he stood there waiting for her. But when she emerged, scrubbed clean and dressed in fresh clothing, he could scent only the light fragrance of the soap, the slight chlorine from the water and her. She hesitated slightly as she caught sight of him and her heart sped up, but then he noted how she calmed easily. She seemed to be accepting his presence more as time went on and that could only serve them well.
“Some small part of me was kind of hoping that you’d left.”She gave him a small strained smile before walking past him and feeling him follow on her heels into the living room.
“Which means a large part of you hoped I was still here.”He reasoned and when she looked back over her shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at him, he couldn’t help but chuckle. He watched her turn and settle down into the overstuffed cushions on the sofa before he followed suit, careful not to get too close and crowd her, even though he wanted nothing more than to reach out and pull her onto his lap. To hold her close and feel her head rest against his chest in total trust, that was his goal.
“You’re so very sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“I’m an alpha, it goes with the territory.”He offered back and watched her brows draw down into a frown over her eyes.
“What’s an alpha?”
“The leader of the pack. The strongest, fastest and best fighter among us…”
“What’s the pack?”
“Family. A community…”
“With you as their supreme ruler?”She mocked, and yet he could see that she was interested.
“Not exactly like that, but not far off, I suppose.”He gave her that one. He wasn’t going to sugar coat anything for her. He could play up the good in pack life. The reasons an alpha is needed, but ultimately, she would learn those things when she became his mate and took her rightful place at his side.
“And are you all wolf people, or are there more humans?”
“We’re called Lycans…”He corrected.
“I know. But that didn’t answer my question.”She pinned him with her eyes and he held her gaze. He didn’t generally go for prolonged eye contact within the pack, it was classed more as a challenge, but she was his mate and if she wanted to stare at him, especially now, who was he to stop her?
“A witch or two over the years, but no other pure humans…”
“And the witches didn’t inadvertently get eaten by any chance by the pack?”She dropped her eyes then and he couldn’t help but grin.
“You can’t seem to get past this fear of being eaten by wolves, first me and now the pack. As my mate you will be perfectly safe living among us…”
“Among you? Now hold on one damn minute…”Her hands went to the cushion either side of her thighs and her fingers curled into the fabric. He heard the thump of her heart and saw the way her eyes flared and knew that she was rushed to panic once more.
“If you were to marry a human, tell me, would you live with him?”He wasn’t about to give her a chance to think on her life changing so rapidly. He knew he needed to steer her towards the rational side of this conversation.
“Well, yes…”
“And in becoming my mate, or wife, as you would call it, would it not therefore be prudent that we should live together?”Callum could see the logic in his argument, as he noted she could, by the way her hands unclenched at her sides slightly and her heart started to settle within her chest.
“Sure, but…”
“Then you have your answer. When we are mated you will obviously live with me.”He still wanted to reach out and pull her over onto his lap. This whole conversation would probably be easier if he could sooth her with a touch rather than logic and words.
Kiera stayed silent for a few long moments. He could see that she was mulling over the idea and he couldn’t help but smile. But then she frowned again and his smile faded.
“But, who says I want to be mated to you, with you…?”
“It’s a foregone conclusion. What fate has set in motion is inescapable.”
“That’s not exactly true now, is it alpha?”Cyrus stood by the open door with his arms folded across his chest and a small wry grin on his face. He’d heard them talking and decided that now would be a good time to get his mate a glass of water, should she awaken and need a drink.
Callum started to roll his eyes within his head but stopped when he caught sight of his mate shifting uncomfortably on the cushion at the end of the sofa. Just having the vampire in the room had notched up her heart rate a few more beats per minute, and she eyed him cautiously as he watched her. It was good to know that she was calmer and more trusting of him than of Cyrus.
“Meaning?”Kiera asked. Not wanting to make eye contact with Cyrus, she kept her gaze on Callum to see how he’d respond to what the man had to say.
“Meaning, you don’t have to become his mate. You can reject him…”
CHAPTER NINE
Kiera saw Callum flinch and she wondered at it. “Although, if you did that then the alpha here would eventually go permanently wolfie, and probably become a fruit loop, and his pack would have to hunt him down and kill him…”Kiera’s eyes flashed with fear. The very thought of wolves tearing him apart sent a wave of panic through her. “But you shouldn’t let a little thing like that sway you in anyway.”Cyrus finished on a devilish grin.
It took everything within Callum not to let out a warning growl towards his friend. Cyrus had a bet to win, he knew that. But the man was being deliberately intrusive in the mating process and that he wouldn’t stand for.
“Be careful, Cyrus, or your mate will find herself mate-less when she awakens.” Callum bit out the warning and he heard the small chuckle that rolled towards him.
“Now-now, Alpha. Play nicely around our new mates.”Cyrus had delivered his message and he turned back towards where his mate still slept. The pretence of getting a drink for her was now long forgotten.
“What does he mean?” Kiera waited for the vampire to leave before she questioned him. There seemed to be enough tension within the room without adding more to it.
“Wolves mate for life.” She nodded her head. She knew that much.
“It’s the whole hunting down and kill
ing you part…”She offered back to him and saw his lips thin out as contemplated how much he should tell her. He didn’t want her scared of him or the pack. She was just starting to be a little easier around him.
“When a mate rejects a Lycan, or dies, often, but not always, the humanity within the mate dies too, or gives up, knowing he will never find another mate. If that happened the wolf takes over and he will shift into his wolf form, and when that happens the wolf’s natural instincts take over and he can become dangerous to others.”He was careful not to call his wolf a beast for fear she would take it as such. Likewise he wasn’t about to tell her how rogues would kill without impunity anything that came into their path if the mood took them, or the bloodlust. These were things he didn’t believe that she needed to hear.
“No pressure then.”She went to push up onto her feet, but his hand wrapped around her wrist and his touch against her skin held her in place. The sensation was like nothing she’d ever felt before, and Callum felt it too. Although, he expected the rush of sensation that flooded his body was far more potent than hers. Her eyes dropped to where he touched her and she looked at his hand with both surprise and confusion.
“This isn’t about what could happen, Kiera. This is about us being mates and if you’re open to accepting that.”Callum’s voice seemed a little deeper. There was a slight rumble of a growl in his tone that she couldn’t ignore and her eyes snapped back up to his face. His eyes had darkened considerably, they were closer to black than brown now, and she tipped her head to the side and frowned.
“Why do your eyes change colour?”
“Emotions. Anger, need, want, lust, desire, love…”He knew which emotions were controlling him now, but he left it for her to decide which she believed had changed him. Her eyes flicked down to his groin and the hard length of the bulge that was more than visible through the denim. She went to open her mouth, but decided against it. Nobody really needed to point out the elephant in the room, or in his pants, as the case may be.
“Why does your touch do…?”She stopped before the words came out. Finally her filtering system seemed to be working and even if it was a strange time to kick in, it was welcomed. He knew what she was feeling. The desire to mate was getting stronger the more time they spent together, but again, it wasn’t something he needed to call her out on.
“You’ve never met anyone that has made you feel like that, and you never will again. Its part of the mating pull to ensure that we know each other, that we connect…”He left the rest to her imagination and he saw the acknowledgement in her eyes as they became wider. Then she tugged her arm away and he let go of her wrist immediately.
“We can’t stop it?” She had a home and this wasn’t it. She had a job, not a good one, but that wasn’t here either. All she had here was her two friends, and they were cool witches, but she’d resigned herself to paying them visits whenever she could afford to take time off work, not living next door to them. She belonged in the city not a backwater town… or did she? Wait, slow down. Back the hell up, and what was that?
“Not as long as we’re together. Cyrus is right. You can reject me and go on with your life…”
“But, I’d never find another you.”She added with a nod of her head to show him that she got it. This is insane. Oh, not the whole wolf thing, although, yeah, that was pretty screwed up too…but, how the hell am I supposed to decide what to do? How long do I get to decide? What if I change my mind…? Oh, there’s a thought…
“I don’t suppose you come with a money back guarantee?”Well, how the hell else am I supposed to put it? She grumbled to herself when she saw his eyes widen with what appeared to be shock from her question. Then he tossed his head back on his neck and roared with laughter, which made her feel slightly better about asking the whole stupid question thing…
“You could leave me at anytime, Kiera…”He informed her when he was done chuckling. “But, I warn you that once we are bonded together as mates, it’s very unlikely that you would want to.” Callum saw a mischievous look cross over her face and the tip of her tongue played over her bottom lip.
“I’d say that was blowing your own trumpet.”She looked away from him with a smirk.
“That’s just fate’s design. Why would they make two people who are perfect together, who make one whole, then give them a reason not to be together?”
Kiera shifted uncomfortably where she sat. Her inner voice wanted her to say, ‘prove it. Show me we are perfect together’, but her slim grasp on sanity told her that would only lead to trouble. His touch had been enough to arouse desire within her. Hell, his presence beside her was doing that just fine on its own. Maybe a little distance between them would give her more clarity?
“I should get some sleep…”She pushed up quickly and found him standing in front of her as she turned towards the door that led back to her bedroom. He loomed large, but not in a threatening way, at least the only threat seemed to be to her desire to knock him down and straddled him so she could…Wow, really?
“Know that I won’t be far away from you. It’s my job as your mate to protect you now…”
“From what?”Kiera’s head snapped back and her eyes took him in. He felt the rush to panic within her and reached out his hand to cup her cheek. Brushing a thumb down over her soft skin, she stilled inside and then there was another rush, this one far more potent to him and his beast. Desire…
“From anything, Kiera. I’m your man…”He took a step towards her, just a little one, but he felt her rush to panic inside again.
“So what’s the wolf, the family pet?”She wanted to reach out and push him away, not because she didn’t want him that close, she did, but because she wanted him closer. There was a gentle rumble that greeted her ears and washed through her body like a caress to her senses. “Did you just growl at me?”She looked up at him and saw the desire there. That wasn’t a growl of warning, it was another kind of growl and she couldn’t help but lift her hand and put her palm to his chest. “Do it again.”
Callum felt her fingers curl into his skin through the thin layer of material that hung over his muscles, it might as well have not been there, she could just as easily have been touching him skin on skin because he felt it so deeply. He couldn’t have held back the gentle, desire filled growl if he’d wanted too and when it rumbled through him again, her fingers curled tighter. He saw the way she reacted to him. The desire in her eyes, the way her lips parted slightly as she took in a breath. God, but he wanted her.
Callum slipped his hand to the back of her neck and closed the distance between them, just barely touching and yet his body was so aware of every inch of hers. He dipped his head and brushed his lips over hers in the gentlest of touches that caused just the tiniest of a squeak from within her, but she didn’t push him away, didn’t pull back, and when he did it again he put a little more pressure behind it.
Kiera felt the heated softness of his lips on hers. She couldn’t say it felt like heaven because she didn’t know what that felt like. But it did curl her fingers and her toes in anticipation of more to come. She wanted that more. It felt like anxiousness within her stomach, a need, an addiction, and yet she wondered how she could be addicted to something that she’d never had. But she wanted it, boy did she want it.
What the hell am I thinking? “Wait!” She flattened her palm against his chest to hold him at bay and every muscle beneath her touch moved with tension. Boy that feels good…She gave a small shake of her head to try to clear her thoughts, but it wasn’t working, not when she was looking up into his eyes. There was something sinful in the way he looked at her. A promise of sin, a promise of a night she’d never forget…But he is the wolf at the door and there are stories about these kinds of things…
“Just one kiss, so you can see what I’m talking about, Kiera. I’ll ask no more of you than that for now.”There was that growl again, deep and rumbling beneath her fingers. It played over her nerves with soothing clarity that made her want more, need mor
e.
What could one kiss hurt? Maybe he would find that I’m not the one and this would be over? That’s kind of depressing…or a blessing! She scolded herself. But she didn’t move away from him when he dipped his head towards her again. The touch of his lips on hers sent tiny shivers down her spine and her inner body was doing back flips. One little kiss won’t turn my head…
But it wasn’t one little kiss. Sure, it started out all gentle and tender. His lips on hers, increasing the pressure until she felt his tongue press her lips apart and she opened for him… and then he stroked her tongue with his. There was that damn growl again, and before she knew it he was devouring her with so much passion that she couldn’t think, couldn’t stand upright, and she leant into him so that she didn’t end up a puddle of a human on the floor at his feet.
This had to be heaven… oh Lord, but I think my knees are melting… wow… save me from… myself. No, don’t. I don’t want to be saved… I want some more of him… I need… boy, do I need…
Callum felt her guard drop, felt her body soften against his. It was as if she was opening herself up to him. Accepting him, wanting him, needing more from him, and he wanted to give it. But he’d said one kiss… he wanted nothing more than to scoop her up in his arms, carry her to her bedroom and make her his, over and over until they were both sated with their desires… But he’d said one kiss and he needed her to trust him.
‘Mine.’ His damn beast wasn’t impressed with his unwillingness to take her further than he said they would go. But this was his honour, and his beast understood what that meant. It took a lot of damn willpower, but he ended the kiss.
Kiera wasn’t just breathless, she was gobsmacked. Nothing and no one had ever sent shivers down her spine, made her toes curl, sent her insides into freefall, had her inner feminine muscles contracting around thin air, and filled her body with a kind of fever that left her wanting so much more. How the hell did he do that? It was supposed to be a kiss, but that wasn’t a damn kiss, that was a full body assault, no prisoners taken. If he did that again she might just climb up his body and wrap her legs around his hips screaming ride ‘em cowboy…