Embracing Carly

by Tianna Xander

  How long had she waited to hear a man say those words to her? How many times had she prayed that her father hadn’t insisted she marry Robert? Carly’s hands thrust into his hair, roamed over his back and down to squeeze the firm muscles of his ass. Her tongue stroked his neck, caressed the outer shell of his ear. She was on fire, a burning need filled her, consumed her.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been so sure of anything, Bastien. It’s all I can think about, all I can imagine. I’ve been fantasizing about this moment since the day we met.”

  Bastien chuckled. “Thank God.”

  He lowered himself further, propping himself on one arm as he reached between them with the other. He surged forward, burying himself deep in her moist heat. Energy sparked and sizzled between them as they moved together in a perfect rhythm driven by instinct alone. She cried out as he filled her, stretched her and took her over the edge of another mindless climax.

  Carly felt his mind in hers, felt the rightness of it as they merged as one. One mind, one heart and one soul. She could hear his thoughts, knew when he found it nearly impossible to move. The incredible tightness of her slick channel squeezed and milked him. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself deep inside her and stay there forever.

  “Mate,” he growled against her breast, the sound not quite human. “You are my mate.” His hands grasped her hips, tilting them up for better access. He lunged forward, harder, faster.

  Carly’s head thrashed. Reaching up, Bastien tangled his fingers in her hair, then leaned down and buried his face in her neck.

  “Yes,” she whispered, the word coming out on a sigh. She urged him faster, deeper. She moaned, on the brink of another orgasm.

  “Wrap your legs around me.” He raised himself up to smile down at her. “Wrap those beautifully long legs around me and I’ll take you on the ride of your life.”

  Carly did as he asked, her eyes growing round as he slid deeper into her welcoming sheath. She clutched at his arms, feeling the incredible strength of his biceps, allowing her hands to brush his shoulders, her fingernails lightly scoring his back.

  A groan tore from inside him, deep, throaty, husky. “Carly, baby, you’re everything I’ve ever dreamed of. Everything I’ve ever wanted in a mate,” he whispered in her ear as he drove himself still deeper inside her.

  Their minds were still linked together, his fully entrenched in hers. She knew what he wanted, what he needed to hear. His body cried out for it. His mind alternately raged and begged her for it. He believed himself nothing without her, his mate, his other half.

  Carly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head to hers. She pressed her lips against his in an attempt to crawl inside him, to become a part of him as he surged into her. She tilted her head to the side as he buried his face in the crook of her neck.

  “Bastien, you don’t know how much I need you,” she moaned. “You are my mate.”

  He pulled back, his eyes blazing into hers. “You are my mate, Carly, bound to me for all time,” he ground the words out between clenched teeth. Bastien moved his body faster, harder, pounding into her with abandon as he took them both over the edge.

  Electricity sizzled around them, sparks danced through the air as the light bulbs exploded from the intensity of the surge of power.

  Carly drifted back slowly, her breath still coming in short gasps. Perspiration coated her body in a soft sheen as she lay beneath him, panting. Bastien leaned down, his tongue stroking her breast, before his mouth closed over one dusky nipple.

  She shivered as aftershocks raced through her body, causing it to jerk slightly beneath him. Her muscles clenched and she squeezed his shaft that had grown hard again while still within her and moaned as he thrust deeper.

  “We can’t possibly do that again, Bastien. We’ll spontaneously combust!”

  Bastien chuckled, his body growing even harder and thicker as he began to move, driving himself into her incredibly tight, channel again in a compelling rhythm.

  “Mate,” they said in unison, reveling in the closeness of the bond between them.

  Bastien lowered his head, feathering tiny kisses across her brow, eyes and the corners of her mouth.

  Opening her eyes, Carly stared up at the shattered light fixture in the center of the ceiling. “Remind me to ask you what happened to the lights later,” she said as his slow, careful movements drove her over the edge of another climax.

  Later...

  CARLY SLID OUT FROM under Bastien’s arm and sat up. “I can’t believe we’ve been in this bed for four hours, Bastien.”

  He grinned, his eyes raking over the pink abrasions on her skin. “You’ll be here for a few more if you don’t hurry up and get dressed.”

  She jumped, squealing when he reached over and playfully swatted her rear.

  They went downstairs to find Dimitri in the kitchen. He had breakfast half-cooked and was whistling as he swept broken glass up off the floor.

  Carly looked up, noticing the fluorescent bulbs had shattered, flinging glass throughout the kitchen. “What the hell is going on around here?” she asked, looking around. Every light bulb in the house had exploded.

  Dimitri turned his back, grinning. Bastien looked uncomfortable. He stuck his hands in his pockets and studied the floor too intently.

  “What?” Carly looked between them. Bastien looked like he didn’t want to say a thing and Dimitri was wallowing in mirth. Something had to give. She grabbed Bastien’s hand and tugged him from the room. When they were alone, she pinned him up against the wall, her finger in the center of his chest.

  “I want some answers, dammit! What the hell is up with the light bulbs?”

  BASTIEN GRINNED AT his mate’s bravery. She didn’t even realize how much she’d already come to trust him as she poked her finger into his sternum to emphasize each word she’d said.

  “Remember the sparks when...” Letting the words trail off, Bastien looked around then cleared his throat. “When a were-being finds his or her one true mate, their other half, a mystical power binds them together.”

  He stuck his hands in his pockets and glared toward the kitchen as the irritating sound of Dimitri’s whistling traveled through the closed door. “I wish he’d stop that. We don’t need a damned serenade.” This was hard enough to explain without that idiot’s interference.

  Carly smiled softly. “We’re bound together by some mystical force?” she prompted, obviously trying to keep him on target.

  Bastien dropped his shield, needing to know how she felt. It relieved him to find that she liked the idea. To her, it brought a completely new meaning to the phrase, what God has brought together, let no man put asunder.

  “That’s kind of nice. I think.” She titled her head, her brow furrowed. “But it still doesn’t explain what happened to the light bulbs.”

  “When each couple mates, they find their own unique power.” He glanced around, lifting a corner of his mouth. “Apparently, our power is controlling electricity.” Bastien knew he was not going to get off easy when her face paled.

  “What do you mean our power is controlling electricity?” She started pacing in front of him. “People can’t control electricity, not without a switch anyway.”

  “We’re not normal people, honey, we’re weres and as such, each of us has our own latent talent that lies dormant within us until we find our true mate.”

  “So,” she said, waving her hand, “somehow the light bulbs have gotten broken. Why?”

  “All of the bulbs in the house burst when we both climaxed, sealing our life-forces together in this lifetime.”

  A loud clanging from the kitchen caught their attention.

  “What in the hell is he doing in there?” Carly asked, glaring toward the door. Suddenly, her face turned a fiery crimson. She turned, staring at Bastien.

  “He knows, doesn’t he? He even knows the exact moment we—that we—” She put her face in her hands, then turned to run up the wide circular stairs.

 
Bastien stared after her. Part of him wanted to follow, but something told him she needed time to herself so she could think. Sighing, he turned and strode into the kitchen.

  “What’s for breakfast?” he asked as Dimitri turned around, grinning. Bastien felt a nearly irrepressible urge to beat his old friend to a pulp. He could have been a bit more diplomatic. He didn’t have to openly laugh at his mate’s ignorance of their kind.

  “Since I knew you’d both be famished, I fixed enough for an army.” He turned to the stove, pulling scrambled eggs, steak, bacon, hash browns and corned-beef hash from the set of double ovens and the microwave.

  Setting the dishes on the table, he turned around to look behind himself, then cast his gaze past Bastien. “Where’s your mate?”

  “Upstairs, trying to rid herself of the embarrassment of knowing that you’re aware of the exact moment we sealed our fates.”

  Dimitri grimaced. “Sorry, old friend. I didn’t think of that.”

  Bastien shrugged, having come to terms with the fact that his friend couldn’t have known how she would react, or that she would even put the two events together. “Of course, you wouldn’t have thought of that. All weres know what to expect. It wouldn’t have been an issue with you and your mate.”

  Dimitri grabbed a slice of bacon and shoved it into his mouth. “It would have been, had there been anyone around and if Charity was newly turned as your mate is.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “My mate is human. I know she is my one true mate, even though she is not a were. Even so, we cannot form such a bond since she is human.”

  Bastien turned, looking over his shoulder. The last thing he needed was for his mate to overhear this conversation. “Neither is Carly. She wasn’t born a were. Those idiots turned her using a serum that contained traces of another were’s blood. She isn’t truly one of us.”

  Dimitri shook his head. “Perhaps she was not born a were-being, Bastien. However, she is as much a part of the pack now as she would have been if she had been born to it. The truth of that is lying in these glittering shards that are all over the house.”

  The reality of his friend’s statement hit Bastien like a punch in the gut. Dimitri was right. Carly was a were in every sense of the word. He had to get in touch with Jake, their alpha. After that, he needed to call Luke. Maybe he should call his cousin first. He had to catch him before he destroyed those records. They might be of some use to them after all.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “You’re lucky you called when you did, Cuz. I was just about to throw the records in the fireplace and have myself a weenie roast,” Luke said. His voice sounded like it was coming from the inside of a tin can.

  “Am I on the speakerphone?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Are you alone?”

  Luke snorted. “The last time I checked. You know I’m not one of those lucky few that have claimed their mate.” Paper shuffled in the background. “Hell, right now, I’d settle for a nice lively piece of ass. Why do you ask?”

  “Just didn’t want this bandied about the pack until we were sure of the answer to a few burning questions.”

  “Burning questions, huh? Well, you’ve got my interest piqued. What in the hell are you talking about?”

  “Have you read through all of those records?”

  “Yeah,” he paused. “Well...most of them anyway.”

  “Did you find any reference as to how they made the serum they used to inject Carly?”

  “I think it’s here in the stack. I could have skipped over it, especially if it was filled with a bunch of scientific jargon and techno babble. Why?”

  Bastien liked techno babble. It was usually informative. He paced the room, the phone glued to his ear. “Just check those files and get back to me.” He disconnected and turned to Dimitri. “Well, we caught him in time.”

  “Obviously, but did he have the information in the first place?”

  “Hell if I know. All I know is that information could prove invaluable to our species.”

  “Forgive me for saying this. I don’t understand how the ramblings of a sick mind can help us,” Dimitri said with a snort.

  Bastien smiled. “How would you like to have a true bond with your mate? Do you think she’d be interested?”

  Dimitri’s hand stopped halfway to his mouth, the slice of bacon he held in his hand forgotten. “I don’t know. We’ve talked about it, of course. But we have never seriously considered the possibility.”

  Bastien paced the kitchen like a caged tiger filled with so much energy he could barely contain it. He met Dimitri’s eyes. “You might want to go to her and start considering it. With that serum, we could have a viable source of new blood for our people. Can you imagine the possibilities? Weres wouldn’t have to live the last years of their lives alone after their human mates passed. Their mates could be turned, binding their life-forces together, extending the life expectancy of the mated couple, extending their childbearing years by decades.”

  Dimitri’s eyes rounded. “We could essentially repopulate our species.”

  “Exactly.”

  Bastien filled a plate and left the room. If Carly wouldn’t come to her breakfast, her breakfast would damn well go to her.

  CARLY LAY PRONE ON her bed. Why couldn’t she cry when she wanted to? Resting with her chin on her arms, she stared at the wall. A yawning emptiness crept through her, mocking every hidden desire she had for companionship.

  For once in her life, someone loved her. He truly loved her and she ran away from him. Why? Was she one of those poor, confused women who needed to be a part of an unhealthy relationship with a cruel man? Carly could have it all. She only needed the courage to stand up and grab the brass ring.

  She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. The light fixtures in here were completely devoid of bulbs like the rest of the house. Flinging an arm over her face, she groaned. “I’ll never be able to face Dimitri again. He knew, all the while he was cleaning up the broken glass, he knew! And he had laughed about it.”

  Where was a good-sized hole when she needed one? If only she could find one, she would crawl deep inside it, then curl up and die.

  A knock sounded at the door.

  “Go away.”

  “I have your breakfast, Carly. You need to eat.”

  “Ha! I don’t need to eat. I need my head examined.” What had made her believe she could have a normal, loving relationship with anyone?

  Hell, her real parents had never even loved her. They had put her up for adoption at the first opportunity. She was probably lucky to have even been born. No. Scratch that. She would have been luckier if she’d never been born. She sat up, throwing her pillow across the room. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, dammit!”

  “Excuse me?”

  She sighed, throwing a glance toward the door. The poor man probably thought she was a few ants short of a picnic. “Nothing. I was...” Just feeling sorry for myself. How could she tell him that? Bastien had been nothing but kind to her and she continued to repay him by running from him and generally being a pain in the ass. “Just talking to myself. That’s all.”

  “Can I come in?”

  Carly brushed the hair from her eyes, making sure that it didn’t fall back into her face. She couldn’t do any more about the condition of her hair. There wasn’t a brush here. Hers had gotten lost somewhere between the hotel they had stopped at and here. It was probably in a trashcan in a bathroom somewhere on the road. “Yes, I suppose.”

  Bastien stuck his head in the door. “I hope you like your coffee with cream and sugar.”

  Carly threw him a wan smile. “Is there any other kind?”

  “I thought you might be the cream and sugar type.” Smiling, he pushed the rest of the way through the door and carried a tray to the bed. “I hope you don’t mind. I brought enough for the both of us.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “I didn’t want you to eat alone.”

  She shrugged. “Whatever.”

  Wa
s that pain she saw flicker in his eyes? Did she care? Of course, she did, she was in shock. She was in a strange town in a strange house with even stranger people. It was only normal for her to be in shock.

  Carly fought the urge to laugh hysterically. Was she losing her mind?

  “Of course, you’re not losing your mind, Carly.”

  She glared at him. “You know, I wish you’d stop doing that. It doesn’t help any. It only adds to the illusion that I’m having a nervous breakdown.”

  Bastien picked up a fork and brought a small piece of cut steak to her lips. “Have a bite, it’s delicious.”

  Carly fought the urge to turn her head away like a child. She would only be hurting herself if she refused to eat. Opening her mouth, she allowed him to feed her the steak.

  “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  Chewing, she shook her head and swallowed. “No, I suppose not.”

  “We have to talk.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year,” she said with a snort.

  “I know you can’t appreciate this, Carly. Many good things could come from what happened to you. We could use the serum they used on you to repopulate our species.”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide. Looking past him to the door, she asked, “Where is the real Bastien? You definitely can’t be him.”

  He chuckled. “Hear me out, will you?” He stood up and paced between the bed and the door. “We would certainly never use the serum on someone who was unwilling. Just look at what we could do to help Dimitri and his mate.”

  “I don’t think I’m following you,” she said, picking at her hash browns.

  “Dimitri’s mate is human. He’s going to ask her if she wants to become one of us.”

  “She doesn’t want to. Take my word for it.” When she saw pain flicker in his eyes again, Carly felt a pang of regret for her spontaneous words. “No offense, Bastien, but it hurts like hell! Besides, so far, all I have seen to this are downsides. Is there an upside to being like you?”