Vexing Your Mate

by Sara Spark

  “Shit!!!” And he stomped into his room, slamming his door as he went. Her fear had put a decisive end to their encounter, and he only had himself to blame.

  ******

  Wrestling was what he did to let off steam. So after a week of aggravating horniness, needless to say, he was doing a lot of wrestling. He still did his fighting training, and then right before he went upstairs to Lia in the afternoons, he took someone to the wrestling mats and schooled them. But after last night’s monumental screw up, he didn’t want a “training” wrestling match, where he spent most of his time barking ‘position’ at the newbie. He had spent much of his morning pounding on everyone. Every rookie had come out of his close quarters training groaning. Pussies!

  He was pacing and growling on the edge of the mats. Actually, he had been doing this for a while, getting more worked up the longer he waited. His buffalo only wanted a worthy opponent. From the corner of his eye, he saw Keegan come in and head straight to him, yanking his shirt off and changing into a pair of shorts. Finally!

  Upstairs, Lia knew something was going on. People kept whispering, and looking at her. She couldn’t hear what they were saying. Aggravatingly, they all clammed up when she approached, but then maybe her aggravation wasn’t all about that, but more about last night. That and being really achy. Like sexually aching for some down and dirty with a man. She meant in a general sense just any male, but whenever she pictured getting down and dirty, it was Bain she was rolling around with. Go figure!

  When lunchtime rolled around and Bain didn’t appear, she knew. He always appeared and would bring her something to eat, knowing that she wouldn’t stop to go downstairs and get lunch. When a tall, blonde, roughly handsome guy walked up and asked what he could help with, she knew something was going down.

  The event was the day after tomorrow and all the things that could go wrong were going wrong. Lights had gone out in one section of the ballroom so electricians had their mechanical crane in to check the wiring. One of the retractable walls had gotten jammed, so that it was stuck halfway into the room. The stage crew that was building the stage had dropped a section this morning causing quite a stir, but luckily no injuries. In the middle of the chaos, Lia was on the phone or firing off emails in a sort of coordinated frenzy.

  Lia had decided to do an icy white with a dark ruby red theme. Sticking to the idea of non-breakable items for the submerged flower centerpieces, she was having the florist do them in clear plastic containers. Wracking her brain on ways to make this humongous ball room look special and more cozy for the party, she found a lighting company that would come in and string up fairy lights dripping down from the ceiling. Of course, they had woefully underestimated the number of lights they would need.

  “—so you have more at your warehouse?” She was talking to the head of the lighting crew, when Axel walked up.

  “Who are you?”

  “Axel. Whaddya need help with?”

  “Where’s Bain?”

  “He’s, uhh, working out. He got delayed. He’ll be up later.”

  Not wasting any hands that she had access to, she set Axel to work. She got the lighting team hanging up lights while one of them went to fetch more lights from their warehouse. She knew where the workout/training area was. Basement 2. And she was going to look for some answers. She got a few curious looks from some guys that passed her by in the basement. But one of them murmured something and then “Bain”.

  The other guy just said “Ahhhh.” Nodding his head.

  Wandering around in the blank halls, Lia had no idea where to go. She heard some voices, some bangs. Weight room! She opened a door and was faced with a set of stairs. She’d acted like an idiot last night, letting her insecurities just go ahead and say it Lia!--her scar—get the better of her. She’d just make sure he was busy training, that there was nothing wrong and then straight back upstairs.

  What she saw down below her after she climbed the stairs made her stomach tighten into knots. She was on a jogging track that circled over a large gym area, machines, weights and various mats down below. Bain and Keegan, who was just as huge as Bain, were wrestling on a mat as a group of spectators stood to one side. Except this didn’t look like any training she had ever imagined. No one was shouting encouragement. No one was even talking that she could tell. They all seemed to be watching tensely as Bain and Keegan circled each other looking for a position then exploding faster than the eye could see for take downs, sweeps of the leg, holds until one of them escaped and they were back up circling. The first time that she saw it she thought she had imagined the movements, but it kept happening. They moved that fast. It was incredible. And then a yell broke her train of thought.

  “FUCK!” Keegan stood up oddly from a hold that he had on Bain, but Bain had escaped. Then she realized that Keegan’s arm was…wrong. “Did you have to fucking dislocate my arm?!?”

  All Bain did was pace to the edge of the mat and then pace back, stomping back and forth. Lia put a hand over her mouth, vomit climbing its way up her throat. Bain had disloc--? The bang of the double doors to the gym broke her train of thought and announced Magnus and Trac. Magnus was striding in, removing his shirt as he did. Lia watched disbelieving as he removed his shoes and jeans too. And the man went commando! No one even seemed to notice, everyone was busy watching Bain. Trac tossed Magnus some shorts and then Magnus was walking on to the mats. Bain turned with a snarl and yelled at him. Magnus who was already huge, bigger than anyone there, bigger than even Bain—which didn’t seem possible—Magnus seemed to expand. His chest moved, billowed out and then the loudest noise that she had ever heard in her life occurred.

  Magnus roared! Bending himself backwards with the effort. It was unworldly, not human, animalistic but not, at the same time. Lia blamed the weird noise on the huge room and the echoes bouncing back at her. Lia covered her ears as the noise vibrated through her powerful, difficult, and unnerving. With a snarl, Magnus and Bain were locked in holds. A ferocious twisting of bodies, scrabbling of powerful legs looking for purchase. First Bain was on top and then Magnus flipped out of the hold and rolled putting Bain underneath. Then Magnus would jump back away, letting Bain regain his feet. It was the most violent fighting without blood that she had ever seen. Sure Bain was dripping some blood out of his nose, but otherwise there wasn’t much. Just brutal, ferocious fighting. Over and over, they clashed together. One would go down, but would somehow roll out to launch himself back up again.

  “Lia?”

  Lia jerked around with a gasp. Rimie was standing at the top of the stairs.

  “Are you ok?”

  Lia realized that she was still standing there with her hand over her mouth.

  “Yeah, sure. Fine.” Her voice was hoarse and she had to swallow several times to keep the bile down.

  Rimie reached out with her hand that had the little green swirls on it, and the light musta hit it weird cause it looked like it glowed for a minute there. Rimie held her arm gently. Almost immediately, Lia felt calmer, less panicky, less pukey.

  “No, you’re not. I think you’ve been working yourself into the ground for this event and that is not what I intended at all! Let’s go upstairs and get something warm to drink. Do you like tea?” Rimie started urging her to the stairs.

  “But, but—they’re fighting!” She pointed at the mats.

  “Yes.” Rimie peered over the balcony, unsurprised. She exchanged a long look with Trac. “Yes, well, that’s how Ch—c-cranky men handle things. We’ll just let them get this all out of their system.” Rimie guided her back to the apartment.

  Chapter 5

  “Are we done?” Magnus was on Bain’s back and had him in a chokehold. He had pulled a--snap, front headlock, snap and a chase the ankle-- to get him pinned. Bain’s buffalo was outraged.

  That was obvious! What was he? A fucking noob?

  But his rage had made him blind and stupid. Which is why fighting when you were angry was usually not a good thing. But they truly hadn’t
been playing by legal wrestling moves since the first 30 secs of the match.

  Bain roared in frustration, bucking furiously, twisting and churning his hips, trying to break the hold. Magnus was a fucking elephant! Well, actually Magnus was a ginormous tiger shapeshifter, but he felt like a fucking elephant on Bain’s back.

  Magnus, in response to the roar, whacked Bain’s head into the mat several times, then twisted Bain’s head around with a chinhold. Magnus tended to get your attention through action, not words. Bain growled, shaking the blood dripping from his nose out of his eyes. Magnus smacked his head down several more times.

  “Yield!” Magnus gritted out between his teeth.

  Bain, slowly, gradually released the tension in his muscles. He could feel his buffalo settling down. Satisfied that things were as they should be. This was his Alpha. It was right and natural to submit to your Alpha. By being Alpha, Magnus was the leader of the clan and every clanmate’s animal deferred to the Alpha. Eventually. Bain’s was a little more thickheaded than most. Magnus put more pressure on Bain’s neck. They were Chimera. A broken neck was just like any other broken bone, they could heal it. In the meantime, while you healed, you were paralyzed, which sucked. His buffalo got really pissy then!

  Just testing to make sure Magnus is strong enough to be Alpha. His buffalo said smugly.

  Yeah, testing with my skull! Bain snarled back at his buffalo as Magnus not hearing Bain’s ‘yield’ proceeded to bang his head repeatedly against the mat. Bain felt like his brain was breaking loose in his skull and bouncing around.

  “I yield!” Magnus didn’t let him up immediately, making sure that Bain had truly given up. The animal side of a Chimera sometimes got uber pissed when they had to submit. The man side had yielded, but that didn’t mean that the animal side had.

  “You got nothing to do? Cause I can find you something!” That was Trac barking at the spectators. Who quickly dispersed, scattering like ants leaving a collapsed mound.

  Trac walked over to them once the gym was empty. Bain and Magnus lay panting on the mats.

  “So, what has you in a tizzy?”

  Bain snarled. Trac kicked him in the ribs with his boot.

  “Fuck!” Bain felt a rib crack on that one.

  “I am your Beta. You will submit or we will go head to head, and remember I don’t play by the rules like Magnus!”

  No, Trac, was a panther, a black jaguar. Sneaky bastard.

  “She’s scared.” His Alpha and Beta just waited. “My mate. She’s scared.”

  “Ok, I realize that you are about as talkative as Magnus, but you’re going to have to give me more to work with.” Trac frowned. “What’s she scared of?”

  “Scared of me.”

  Dead silence.

  “She won’t let me touch her.”

  He opened his eyes to see Magnus and Trac exchanging a look.

  Bain rose up on his elbows. “Rimie’s a human. How’d you get past her fear?”

  “Seduce her.” They both said at the same time.

  “Talk to her and listen to her, sure, but we’ve found that humans tend to overthink things. Don’t get mired in the talking. Her body will know you’re her mate. It takes a little time for the rest of her to catch up.”

  “I promised her I wouldn’t touch her unless she asked me to.”

  “Why the fuck would you do that?” Magnus growled.

  “She’s so damn scared.”

  “No wonder you’re so pissy. You’re in blue ball hell! Soon the need to touch her is going to become overwhelming. You’ll go into Mating Frenzy. You’re Chimera. We need to touch our mates. And I don’t mean just sexually. Touching her hand, her back. Feeling her skin. Sometimes just holding her arm as we walk around the ranch. You need the touch.” Trac was scratching his chin, thinking. “Well, if you can’t touch her, next best is….”

  Bain sat up, cradling his ribs, feeling a little hopeful.

  “…scent. She’s your mate. Underneath all the ‘civilizing’ of humans, there is an animal core to them that recognizes their mate’s scent. We noticed this with Rimie. She loves our scent. Has gotten a little addicted to it.”

  Bain’s shoulders slumped. “She’s had my scent all week all around her in that little apartment. Nothing.”

  Trac shook his head. “No, she hasn’t had it in concentrated form! It’s getting dispersed by heating, air flow, perfumes, food, etc. Now, I’ve got an idea….”

  After watching that violent episode as Bain dislocated Keegan’s shoulder, Lia’s gorge started rising again. Don’t think about it! She had managed to avoid Bain like the plague for the rest of the day. He was violent! Brutally violent. Just like—stop!

  Just stop! Bain was fighting in a match. A training match. He said he trained new recruits.

  ‘Keegan’s not a new recruit!’ her brain whispered.

  They were probably fighting to show the crowd some new techniques. She countered, and things just got carried away. She argued with herself in bed that night, well aware that the flimsy lock on her door could no more stop him than she could if he chose to come in.

  Don’t paint Bain with the same brush as JT! Bain has promised not to touch you without your permission, and he’s kept that promise. He even asked before he kissed you!

  Well, that was true…. And that kiss had been something! A whole lot of wet, hotness, masculine strength, firm lips and he tasted good! Really good! Like forget there-was-a-bar-fight-going-on-around-them good! Even when she had caught him on the couch later, he hadn’t touched her. He certainly had faced temptation there and hadn’t lost his mind, or his control.

  But he did lose his temper!

  You were calling him a liar! And even when he lost his temper, he still didn’t touch you!!

  Truth.

  Lia lay in bed, chewing on her bottom lip, arguing with herself back and forth. After avoiding him all afternoon, she had worked late, sending him to do several tasks far from her when he did appear finally in the ballroom. He stiffly completed every task she assigned him, she had checked on him from a distance. So, she actually hadn’t been close to him today. I will make sure that it’s the same tomorrow, too.

  Are you sure that’s the way you want it? You leave in a few days. A vision came to her brain of the muscled, sexy sprawl of him spread out naked on the couch, stroking his hard cock. He was the sexiest man she’d ever seen in her life.

  Don’t you want to live a little? Well, actually a lot? That was one big cock! No regrets?

  If only she could feel safe at the same time!

  Sometimes life wasn’t about playing it safe.

  Bain thumped his head against the wall as he waited in the hall. It was Valentine’s Day. Lunch time had come and gone. It was late afternoon. Everyone was getting ready for the party tonight. Bain had managed to track Lia back to the apartment. She was taking a shower and he couldn’t stand to be in the apartment and think of her naked and wet in the shower. He paced down the hall. He felt like he had ants crawling under his skin. The need to touch her was so strong.

  Really? This is what you’ve been reduced to?

  Shut it, buffalo!

  He shifted the bag in his hand. It was his gym bag…with a lot of additions to its contents. He stopped and leaned against the wall again. Was he really gonna go through with this?

  He heard some movement in the apartment. Timing it perfectly, he walked in as Lia was gathering her stuff together to leave. She was in an elegant, all black pants jumpsuit with her hair all up. Delicate silver jewelry glittered on her ears and neck. She probably thought she was being discreet and professional in her all black outfit, but to him she glowed with sexiness. He went hard immediately.

  Damn cock! Settle down!

  “Forgot my keys.” As he stiffly stomped to his room and grabbed his keys. Lia in the meantime was struggling to get her cart out the door. It was loaded down with last minute items, some LED lights for the tables, some accessories for the centerpieces, a fancy cake knife and ser
ver and so on. It was still a few hours before the party, but apparently this was mission critical time for event planners.

  “Thanks.” Lia said breathlessly.

  Slinging his bag on his shoulder, he silently pushed the cart to the elevators. Lia seemed nervous in the elevator, fiddling with her hair, straightening her outfit.

  “You look gorgeous.” Bain said gruffly.

  Her eyes swiveled to him in surprise. She just blinked at him.

  “Am I allowed to say that?”

  Her lips twitched. Her blue eyes softened. A half smile appeared. “Yes, you can say that.” She started chuckling as the absurdity of their situation hit her. “I’m sorry. I just have a har—“

  Screeeeeeech.

  With a lurch, the elevator ground to a halt and the lights went out.

  Her breath caught in her throat. “Ohhh!”

  A hand reached out and brushed against hers. Instinctively, she grabbed for it.

  “I’m here.” Bain’s voice was deep, rough and…reassuring.

  “Looks like we are stuck.” She tried to choke out a laugh. The blackness was almost suffocating. It wasn’t that it was dark. It was pitch black. It didn’t seem like your eyes were even open. She blinked them again to make sure they were.

  His hand squeezed hers gently.

  “Lemme just call and let them know tha—Dammit!” She realized the problem.

  “What?”

  “Trac accidently broke my phone earlier. He, uh, stepped on it.”

  “How’d it get on the floor?”

  “Well, he knocked it off the table first, and then stepped on it.”

  Bain snorted a little.