A Muse for Mishka (Wiccan-Were-Bear #12)

by R. E. Butler

  She looked at her closest friends and said, “I feel like we should first talk about the fact that Cleveland has a wolf pack and a falcon nest.”

  Tamar’s brows rose. “Why does that matter?”

  “I’m just putting it out there.”

  Bridge flopped down on the couch next to her. “We’re our own group, Harm. It doesn’t matter that our kinds are around the area. We all left the group life for our own reasons, and I don’t think any of us want to go back to that.”

  Wyst put his oversize, booted feet up on the coffee table, settling back in an overstuffed chair. “Do you think that the only reason we’re with you is because we haven’t run across our own kind during our travels?”

  She shook her head. “I’m mated now. Things are different.”

  “They’re only different if we choose for them to be,” Tamar said. “If you’re wondering about us finding our own mates, we will when the time is right. I’ve always felt like I found you – we all found each other – because of fate.”

  Bridge nodded. “You don’t fuck with fate.”

  She sighed in relief. “I just don’t want you to stay with me, with the band, because you think I’d be upset. I want you all to be happy.”

  “We’re all happy. We’d tell you if we weren’t,” Tamar pointed out.

  “Things are different than they were when we first started out in the band. I’m more in control of my powers, and now that we have a home base, we don’t have to be nomads. I wouldn’t blame you for leaving, but I’m thrilled you’re staying.”

  For the next hour, she and her friends discussed Fang21 and the band. As the new house band, they would plan to perform two shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. She would only sing one show each night, and the boys would carry on without her for the second show.

  “Your hair is looking very blue. Are you singing to Mishka?” Bridge asked.

  “I did after we bonded.” She wrapped a lock of hair around her finger and pulled it forward so she could look at it. The blue was starting to fade slightly, but singing to Mishka, with the strong emotions she felt from him because of their beloved bond, had given her a boost she hadn’t expected. “Feeding from him is like being supercharged.”

  “How does he need to feed now that you’re beloveds?” Tamar asked.

  “Just once a week from me, and he’ll use donated blood or SyBl the other nights.”

  “What the hell is SyBl?” Wyst asked.

  “It’s the brand name of the synthetic blood they use.”

  He arched a dark brow. “It sounds like a band name.”

  “Sorry, you’re stuck with Fluffy Venom.”

  All three males wrinkled their noses. Even though they knew why she picked the name, they’d never been on board with it. Not that she had cared, frankly. It was her band, and she claimed naming rights. Both were the names of her childhood pets: Fluffy, a hairless cat who liked to steal Harmony’s stuffed animals, and Venom, the guard dog her mother had secured when their home had been burglarized. Venom, although he looked tough, was scared of his own shadow. Fluffy was more likely to strike fear into the hearts of intruders with her too-big ears and yellow eyes.

  “It will be nice to be the permanent house band,” Bridge said. “We haven’t had a real home in years.”

  She and her band had been together for ten years, since she reached the pinnacle of her power at age twenty. She’d still been learning how to use her power, and they’d been really supportive of her all along the way. She was fortunate to have found three guys who were musically talented and got along so well.

  “Cella said the club is open from sunset to one hour before dawn. Every member of the coven works at the club in one way or another, from handling deliveries to working the bar. The club also employs humans, mostly as food.”

  “Food?” Wyst asked.

  “Food is the term the vamps give humans who sell their blood.”

  “Sounds like prostitution,” he said.

  She shrugged. “They get paid really well. The club pays them a flat-rate nightly salary, and they agree to allow at least one vampire to feed from them each night they work. They wear white shirts, and the club employs a ribbon system, which the food wears to indicate which part of the body they want to be fed off of, like their necks or their wrists.”

  Bridge’s brow arched. “What other spots would there be?”

  “Inner thigh,” she said, “but it’s my understanding that feeding from the inner thigh is reserved for mated couples because it’s so intimate.”

  She couldn’t imagine getting paid to let a stranger bite her. She rubbed her fingers lightly over the place where Mishka had fed from her to complete their bond. Without the rush of pleasure she’d been under, she was certain the bite would have hurt. A lot.

  “What’s the sex deal here?” Tamar asked.

  She, Bridge, and Wyst looked at him in surprise.

  He cleared his throat and laughed. “I mean, do they let the food have sex with customers?”

  “The rules are pretty loose,” she said. “Cella said that there’s no sex out in the club, but if a vamp wants to play with their food, there’s a common area near their daytime resting chambers they can use. They don’t have sex out in the open. They use booths with dark red curtains they close when they’re using them. There’s a bench seat inside. She said that some vamps don’t like to feed out in the club so they use the booths, and sometimes things get hot between them, and they’ll play.”

  Bridge said, “Does the family use the booths?”

  “The family members have their own chambers underneath the club, but what I learned from Mishka’s memories is that they aren’t allowed to bring random food down to their chambers unless they’re taking someone under-the-fang.”

  Being under-the-fang was when vampires chose a lover they fed exclusively from. It could be for a short period of time, or for years. Mishka had a lover years earlier he’d taken under-the-fang. Elizabeth was a Wiccan, and Mishka had cared deeply for her. They’d been together for several years, but she’d also fed Brone weekly, and she had other supernatural lovers. She’d mated twin were-bears and left all her lovers behind, which had devastated Mishka at the time. He hadn’t taken anyone else under-the-fang. It didn’t surprise her that Mishka had been hurt by what had happened. Harmony was certain she would have felt equally betrayed if someone she’d been intimate with for years suddenly cut all ties for strangers, truemates or not. Whatever hurts had transpired since that had happened, Mishka was the male he was because of it, and Harmony was crazy about him.

  “Temple was telling us earlier that there’s a food manager for the coven, and they call her and tell her what they want for their food,” Tamar said.

  “I can’t wrap my head around calling a person food. Or ordering a person for dinner. It’s just too weird,” she said. “But it’s home now. Is everyone okay with living up here and working at the club?”

  Each member affirmed his contentment, and she grinned. “Let’s get the schedule together, and then I need to go see my beloved.”

  Chapter 9

  Mishka could feel Harmony as she walked down the hallway toward his office. The beloved connection surprised him on so many levels. He’d known about vampires becoming beloveds, but he’d never asked what they felt. Brone had shared some information with him, and Mishka had witnessed how quickly Brone and Arissa had grown close. Now Mishka felt that same way with Harmony – she’d been a virtual stranger to him, but then, suddenly, she was the center of his world. He couldn’t imagine his life without her.

  She opened the door and smiled at him. “Are you busy?”

  “Never too busy for you,” he said, pushing back his chair and standing. “How did your meeting with your friends go?”

  They met in the center of his office, arms immediately wrapping around each other. He felt comforted and turned on at the same time, calm but excited.

  “It went well. They’re excited about their new
jobs.”

  After talking it over with Harmony and then the family, Mishka had opted to ask her band to take over the musically related duties of the club, which included booking shows and handling the talent. For the last year the duties had fallen to several of the family members, but none of them was interested in those duties becoming a full-time job.

  “I’m looking forward to hearing you sing and you not passing out on me,” he murmured, his hands sliding under the hem of her thin sweater and rubbing her soft skin.

  She writhed in his arms with a soft purr of pleasure. “I’ll sing something extra sexy for you.”

  She tipped her face up to his and smiled, her eyes dancing. He pressed his lips to hers and said, “I’d love to take you out tomorrow night.”

  Her brow arched delicately. “On a date?”

  He nodded, dropping his hands to hers and linking their fingers. “I’ve heard it’s traditional to go on at least one date before getting married.”

  “You don’t eat.”

  He growled softly and drew her hands up to his lips, kissing along her knuckles. “Don’t I?”

  She blushed scarlet and giggled. “Food, I mean.”

  “There’s a restaurant west of the city meant for vampires with non-vampire mates. It’s called Bistro Claret.”

  “So you’ll drink SyBl and I’ll eat steak, and we’ll make small talk about jobs and family before groping each other in the car?”

  It was his turn to laugh. “You are precious, my heart.”

  “Is this a fancy place?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ll be ready at sunset,” she said, going onto her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck. He pulled her against him, lifting her off the floor slightly. He walked backward to the door and swung it shut, snapping the lock in place.

  Lifting her legs around his waist, she sank her fingers in his hair as he turned and walked toward his desk, intending to make her scream his name at least two times.

  Maybe three.

  * * *

  Although Mishka had been on numerous dates over the years – he was five hundred, after all – he’d never been on a date as important as this first one with Harmony felt. She was already his mate, so whether the date went off without a hitch or not, nothing about their relationship would change. But he still wanted her to know how much he cared and how special she was to him. Through their beloved connection, he’d seen her relationships, and she’d seen his as well. Everything before her was like dust to him now, a speck in the sand of eternity that waited for them.

  He tugged on his cuffs, rubbing his thumb along the cufflink, a stunning moon sapphire that matched the energy highlights in Harmony’s hair.

  She walked out of the bathroom in their chamber wearing a simple black dress and the necklace he had given her. The dress hugged her curves sinfully, stopping just above the middle of her thighs. Her legs were bare, her feet encased in strappy stilettos that brought her petite height just a little closer to his. She’d arranged her hair to one side so that his mark on her neck was visible. Every possessive instinct within him rose as he settled his hands on her waist and tugged her close.

  “You. Are. Gorgeous.”

  “I’m in good company,” she said, running her finger down the center of his dress shirt, her nails scraping against the mother-of-pearl buttons. “I’m the luckiest woman in the world to have such a handsome mate.”

  He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her only briefly. She made a soft sound of protest, and he chuckled. “If we really kiss, then I won’t get to woo you.”

  “I’m already wooed.”

  “I insist.”

  “We’ll still do that groping in the car thing, though, right?” Her brows wiggled in jest.

  “As if I could keep my hands off you.”

  With another all-too-brief kiss, they walked hand in hand to the door of the chamber and then out into the hall, where they took the elevator to the first floor. Waiting in the reception area of the offices were Vex, Rage, Finn, and Dolan.

  She clicked her tongue. “Four guards to go out to dinner? How many would we need if we also went out for dessert?”

  “A minimum of eight,” Rage said, “but if you’re talking about ice cream, then it’s ten.”

  “At least,” Vex added.

  “Lucky for me I can have dessert at home,” she whispered as she looked up at Mishka and ran her tongue along her upper teeth.

  It took a tremendous amount of willpower to actually leave the club, but he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, so that he could take his beloved out on a date. A real one, not her eating in the cafeteria while he drank a mug of heated SyBl.

  Rage and Vex walked on either side of Mishka and Harmony, while the others brought up the rear. Security at the club was very tight because it was not only a gathering place for vampires but also where the coven lived.

  Their group moved into the garage, and Vex strode ahead of them and opened the door to the town car.

  Mishka helped her in and settled next to her on the plush leather seat. Vex shut the door and sat in the passenger seat while Rage sat behind the wheel. Harmony peeked through the tinted window, watching as Finn and Dolan climbed into a stretch limo parked just ahead of the town car.

  “They’ll leave first,” Mishka explained, “and drive past the front of the club. Protestors will believe that I’m in it, and we’ll be able to leave the club unnoticed using a private alley.

  She frowned. “Maybe we should stay home?”

  “Whatever for?”

  “It’s dangerous for you to be out in public. You’re the king of the coven. Don’t you have enemies?”

  Vex snorted and tried to cover it up with a cough. Mishka couldn’t help but smile.

  “First, love, I’m not the king. I’m the master. And second, of course I have enemies. I’m five hundred years old and master of the largest coven in the Midwest. But it doesn’t mean that our guards won’t keep us safe, that I wouldn’t do everything in my power to ensure that we make it back here in one piece.” He cupped her face and kissed her. “Being powerful means many things, but it doesn’t mean that I will allow anyone, particularly small-minded fools like the First Church members, to tell me how to live my life.”

  “If you’re sure?”

  “Most certainly.”

  “Okay. I just found you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “I have no intention of going anywhere, my heart.”

  “Good.”

  She leaned against him, snuggling close, and he wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes for a brief moment. It would be heaven if life weren’t dangerous for them, if he could walk down the street with her and not worry about protestors.

  “Ready, Mishka?” Rage asked as the limo disappeared out of the garage slowly.

  “Yes.”

  After a brief pause, Rage pulled out of the parking spot and circled the garage, heading for the back of the concrete enclosure and the private entrance that led to the alley. Eventually, the limo would meet them at the restaurant, but it would take a detour designed to lose anyone who might follow them.

  When they reached the restaurant forty-five minutes later, Vex got out and opened the back door for them. Mishka exited, and Harmony took his hand and slid out of the car, holding a black clutch in her free hand.

  The parking lot was full, and several couples stood around outside, talking and enjoying the evening. The limo pulled up a few moments later, and in a heartbeat, he and Harmony were surrounded by their guards and walking into the restaurant. He could hear the clicking of the cell phones as people took pictures of them.

  “Tell me they’re not going to put those pictures online or something,” Harmony whispered as the maître d’ rushed toward them, his face alight with happiness.

  “At the very least,” Vex said. “You’ll be on the news tonight for sure.”

  “We’re just going to dinner.”

  “He’s t
he master of the city, and he hasn’t…” Rage’s voice died off, as though he struggled with what to say.

  Harmony rolled her eyes. “He hasn’t dated in years, blah blah. All his memories are banging around in my brain, don’t forget.”

  “Sorry, mistress,” he said, bowing slightly.

  Her brows arched so high that Mishka was surprised they stayed attached to her skin. Then she grinned. “That was fabulous.”

  Mishka chuckled. “In public, the coven will always address you appropriately.”

  The maître d’ said, “Master Mishka, it’s an honor to have you join us tonight and with such a beautiful woman on your arm. Please, follow me to the chef’s table.”

  They wove their way through the restaurant, where whispers erupted in their wake as vampires, humans, and shifters recognized him. He glanced down at Harmony, whose cheeks were pink and her lips curved into a beautiful smile, and he knew that going out in public with her had been a good choice. He’d been a recluse after his last failed relationship, and it wasn’t good for his coven to believe him to be a male who could be cowed by something like a lost lover.

  They were seated at an intimate table that had a semi-circular booth. Harmony slid across the seat to the center and Mishka joined her. Their guards moved away to give them privacy, but they stayed close enough to keep an eye on them. This gave Mishka the added benefit of comfort because he didn’t want to worry about anything but Harmony’s happiness.

  “I don’t suppose we can go groping each other since everyone knows who you are,” she said.

  “Any time you want to put your hands on me is okay with me, my heart,” he said, lifting her hand and kissing the top.

  A waiter appeared with the restaurant’s private label sparkling water, and he filled a glass for Harmony.

  “May I tell you about our specials, my lady, or would you prefer to see a menu?”

  “The specials please,” she said.

  He recited a long list of items that included chicken, salmon, and several types of beef, along with a variety of side dishes. She listened intently, and then said, “I’ll take the filet, rare.”