by M. L. Briers
“I des-erved th-at.”Cyrus bit out. He felt the alpha release his claws from his flesh and a fist smashed into his face a moment later. Cyrus didn’t want to hit the damn guy back. He had just fried his mate’s brain after all, but he knew he was going to have to at least defend himself from the blows if he wanted to be anything more than a squishy mush on the white ice beneath him.
With every bit of speed he possessed, Cyrus twisted his body and used his strength to toss the alpha aside. It took him a moment to shake off the remnants of the impact on his body. Then he was up on his knees by the time that Callum was up on his feet and charging back towards him.
“I guess we’re not going to talk rationally about this?”Cyrus bit out, flicking out his own claws and digging them into the ground to shoot his body across the ice on his knees and away from the alpha, who shot past him, corrected his mistake on a skid and a growl, and then came back at him from a new direction.
“I’m going to rip you apart.”Callum growled out, spitting rage from his eyes as he came back at Cyrus, but Cyrus was too fast. The vampire was already up on his feet and running towards the Lycan at high speed. Pushing off from the ground, he flipped over the top of the Alpha and landed with a skid over the ice behind him.
Callum roared with the frustration of not being able to sink his claws into the damn bloodsucker for a second time as his whole body snapped back around towards Cyrus for another try. “It’s like piggy, or wolfie, in the middle, with me playing both ends.” Cyrus had seen Callum like this before. Hell bent on smashing his fists into someone with sheer blind rage that meant he couldn’t quite think straight. It wasn’t the same man who was the Alpha of the pack, but more the teenage pup that had the bit between his teeth and didn’t know when to let it go.
“Stop it.”Teri snapped out from the porch as Caren joined her.
“Really? Cos this is just getting good.”Caren shrugged. She never took her eyes from the men. It was like watching some sort of supernatural cage fighting extravaganza, but with fangs and claws…
“I’m going to tear your arm off and beat you to death with it for what you did to my mate…”Callum growled out. The sound of a sharp intake of breath and a small squeak brought everyone’s attention back towards the door of the cabin. Kiera stood there on shaky legs, her eyes wide as she took in the scene in front of her.
“Claws a-n-d f-fangs…”She spluttered out.
CHAPTER TWELVE
In an instant both men snapped to attention. Two lots of claws and fangs disappeared from view and both looked as sheepish as hell. Cyrus spat out a dark curse as Callum rushed towards her.
He half expected her to run, but she didn’t. She stood stock still in front of him. Perhaps not all of her memories of what she had been told about Lycans had gone. Perhaps she still knew enough not to run. That was a blessing within itself.
“Kiera, what are you doing down here…?”Callum went to reach for her. He wanted to offer her his soothing comfort, but he didn’t want to scare the hell out of her again.
“You left me. I felt cold, alone…”Kiera admitted as she dropped her eyes to the small space between them. It felt like a million miles of emptiness.
“I thought you wanted me to leave…”Callum felt the desperate ache within him to hold her, touch her again. He wanted to feel her back within his arms, but he didn’t know what she wanted. He felt for her emotions, but again they were coming in waves and he couldn’t pull them apart.
“You held me, told me stories. It felt like forever and then you weren’t there anymore…”She frowned hard as she lifted her hand to her head and search for what she wanted to say, but she wasn’t sure. Everything was still jumbled within her mind and she didn’t know what had been a dream and what was real. She wasn’t even sure if this was real now. It was all so hazy.
“I’m here now, sweetheart.”Callum growled gently as he reached out with tentative hands, slowly moving towards her in case she pulled away from him. He heard her catch her breath as his hand touched her hip and travelled around her waist to the small of her back. She took a half step towards him and swayed the rest of the way until her body was pressed to his.
Callum reached down and swept her up into his arms. Kiera’s head rested against his chest next to the palm of her hand and she sighed contentedly. As if she knew that she was back where she belonged. Callum paid no mind to the others as he set off through the house and back up the stairs towards his bedroom. His mate needed him now and that was all that mattered.
Settled back within his arms and in his bed, Kiera felt his warmth again, but it wasn’t just the warmth of his body that she missed, but him, her mate. She didn’t feel as if she were missing a part of herself anymore, she didn’t feel complete, but she felt connected again.
“Sleep, Kiera. I promise I won’t leave you alone again.”Callum brushed his hand down her spine and her body responded by pushing closer towards him. He felt her fingers curl into his chest once more and he liked that she did that, as if touching him just wasn’t enough.
‘Mine.’ His beast had been unusually quite the whole time that she had lay in his arms before, but now the beast had awoken to remind him of who she was, as if he needed that reminder.
“Will you tell me some more stories of your life, of your pack?”Her voice was still small, but it was getting braver with him. Callum couldn’t help the smile that touched his lips.
“In truth sweetheart, I can’t remember what I’ve told you already. I just kept talking, hoping to bring you back to me.”
“I heard every word, I think. It felt like I was tethered to you, like you were keeping me from falling off a cliff…I can’t explain it.” She rolled her cheek against his chest and snuggled closer to him, still not close enough.
“I’ll always keep you safe, even from my own stupidity. I swear to you, I’ll never let you down again.”Callum made a silent vow to the God’s to allow him to keep that promise.
It felt like he’d opened a door within her heart, not just with his words and his stories, but being in his arms. It didn’t seem real, and yet she couldn’t seem to close the door again. Did she really want to? What was her life before she had come here, before she had met him? A life alone, but that was her choice and no reason to rush head long into something she hadn’t expected. At least she now knew what she was getting into. Kind of.
She’d never tried to more than what she was. She’d never tried to dress up the things she felt she was lacking, appear better than she was. She’d thought that Charlie had been her one true love, but in hindsight he’d always tried to make her feel that she was not good enough in everything that she did, in everything that she was, and each day with him a little piece of her had died inside. He left her with the overriding sense of being somehow barren, bereft and she’d sworn to herself that she would never let a man make her feel that way again. But the truth was that she still felt a small piece of that every single day.
Just lying here with Callum she felt peaceful. How weird was that? The man had shifted into a wolf in front of her and scared the hell out of her, and yet he made her feel safe. Brick by brick he had taken down the wall inside her with words alone. It was a glorious madness that filled her with the sweet hope that she wasn’t destined to be alone in this world, but was she clutching at straws? Wishful make believing in something magical. Fate, destiny, love?
“I can’t be what you want me to be, Callum.” It wasn’t real. It was a fairytale and she didn’t believe in those anymore. They were fine for children and wonderful to read in books, but this was real life and he wasn’t her knight in shining armour, he was a wolf…
“I want you to be you, Kiera. I want you to accept me as your mate. Tell me what you need me to change to keep you by my side and it’s done.” Callum felt the confusion within her mind. She eased her body back away from him just enough that she could look up at him with eyes that questioned him, but for what he didn’t know.
“Change?” She hadn’t
heard him right, or he hadn’t understood her. His dark eyes roved over her face as she watched him, it looked like he was drinking her in, but that was wrong. She must still be woozy from what had happened. It wasn’t as if she could read men, not in any emotional way. Sure, she was a dab hand at the put down lines in bars when they came onto her. That she could read, but other emotions were just a mystery to her.
“What can I do to convince you that I would give up everything for you? That I would walk a thousand miles to be by your side…?”
Kiera pushed up from his chest and stared down at him. She wanted to come out with something flippant, put on her second skin and give him a sarcastic come back line that would knock his argument into touch, but she found she couldn’t find that persona within herself right then. She was starting to feel like herself around him, and it didn’t feel bad or wrong, just normal.
“I don’t want you to change. I wouldn’t ask you to change…”How had it come to this? How was the shoe on the other foot? It felt wrong, no, strange. But wasn’t it she who was supposed to change, supposed to fit in with his idea of the perfect woman?
“Then tell me why you can’t be what I want? Why you can’t be my mate?” Callum reached up his hand and brushed her hair away from her face as it slipped from her shoulder and down like a veil. He wanted to see her. He didn’t want her hidden from him, emotionally or physically. He wanted to show his pack how lucky he was to have her as a mate. He never wanted her to hide herself away from him or the world.
“I didn’t say I couldn’t be your mate…”She looked slightly confused.
“Then what did you mean when you said you couldn’t be who I wanted you to be?”Callum was now as equally confused as she was.
“I’m just me.” She gave him the answer as if that was enough, but it wasn’t, not really. When she dropped her eyes away from his Callum understood. Slowly he raised himself up from the bed and onto his elbow as he eased her back against the mattress. Cupping her face within his large hand he brushed his thumb down over her cheek.
“Look at me, Kiera.”He gently growled when she didn’t bring her eyes up to meet his. “Please look at me, and see me for what I am.” He noted the frown that brought her brows down over her eyes and reached up with his fingertips to sooth it away until she looked up at him.
“Try to forget the wolf within me for a moment and listen to the man that I am. I’m just a man, a man who has found the woman that he wants to spend the rest of his life with. I’m a man that will love you unconditionally, and will put nobody else before you, not my pack, not my God’s, and never another woman. I would fight to protect you and willingly give my last breath to keep you safe. What makes you happy makes me happy, and I’ll craw over broken glass to make you smile. Does that sound like I want you to be anything other than just you?”
Kiera gulped down the rush of emotion within her. She didn’t know whether she wanted to burst into tears or burst into song. She’d gone from certain she wanted nothing to do with him, to a mind blowing kiss, to questioning her own sanity and if she’d ever get it back, to this… this declaration he’d given her.
It was crazy. It was…love at first sight. From the moment that she had seen him she hadn’t been able to tear her eyes away. From the moment he had walked up to her in the bar she had known he was the one, hadn’t she? Body, mind and soul she had responded to him. Cyrus might have taken away her ability to remember that she was his mate, and yet he couldn’t stop her from feeling connected to him, drawn to him.
“Are you still frightened of me, Kiera?”Callum took her lack of response for something else.
“It wasn’t you I was afraid of, it was…”She gave a small shrug off her shoulder, a sort of apology towards his wolf, and when she saw the amusement in his eyes she felt slightly easier about her admission.
“My wolf would never hurt you. He’d protect you with his life.”
“He’s beautiful.”She admitted and then bit her lower lip with how stupid that must sound.
The beast within the man practically rolled over onto his back and showed her his damn belly for her to tickle. Smitten wasn’t a word that Callum would ever equate to his beast, but there it was. The damn wolf was putty in her hands from that moment on and if she’d wanted to throw a leash on him and take him for a walk, Callum knew he’d have let her.
“You’ve made him very happy.” Callum assured her and she frowned again.
“He can hear me?”
“Yes, we’re one and the same.”Callum watched her frown again. “What’s wrong?”
“He scared the absolute cra…”She started to berate him and Callum dropped his head forwards and chuckled. “It’s not funny…”She protested and Callum nodded in agreement. His beast was whimpering within him for his part in what had happened.
“I know, and you don’t know how sorry he is for that. But you were falling and he wanted to save you…”
“Well he did a piss poor job of it.”She blurted out and then clamped her lips shut, worried she’d said too much.
“Don’t do that, sweetheart. You don’t have to be guarded with me. I might not always agree with you, but I want to hear what you have to say, even if you are going to berate my wolf.”He grinned at her, flashing two rows of perfect white teeth and she couldn’t help but look to see if he had his fangs down again.
“Doesn’t your wolf need a mate?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking no. If I’m at peace then so is he.”Callum assured her.
“So, he’s not going to run off one night and shag a deer…”She rolled her eyes and grimaced. It seemed her brain was back to normal after all. Letting her mouth run away with her before it had vetted her thoughts.
“Wolf or man, faithful to you and only ever you.” He brushed his thumb against her cheek again and saw her eyes flash with desire. He knew he should wait, knew not to rush her feeling for him and yet he couldn’t help but dip his head and taste her lips with his. Just a gentle kiss, but the wave of need that it sent through his body was a heady feeling.
“Do that again with a little more…”She didn’t need to finish her request. He was already claiming her lips, already teasing against the softness with his tongue and baying entry by the time she’d finished the thought within her mind.
Kiera opened for him on a sigh of desire. She could remember the taste of him, the touch of his tongue against hers and she wanted to feel that again. Wanted to feel the way she had felt last night when he had kissed her for the first time. The passion, the desire she had felt from him, and it was back, more so.
Callum moved his body against hers. He needed to feel that closeness, that bond between them. It surprised him a little when she turned in towards him, bringing the length of her body up against his, and when she pressed his hardness between them, he couldn’t have held onto the gentle growl that rumbled through his body if he’d tried. He expected her to still, to tense, maybe even to pull away from him, but she reached her hand around his hip and splayed her fingers under his top against the heat of his back.
‘Mine.’
He wanted to stake that claim too, but he couldn’t break the spell she was casting over him. The passion that she shared with her kiss matched his and he didn’t want it to end. His hand roamed under the thick top she wore, his fingers causing goosebumps the length of her torso as he consigned every inch of her to his memory. When he found the soft swell of one breast, braless and baying for his attention, he palmed it with a large hand and felt it become firm under his touch, the little bud of her nipple begged to be tweaked, and she moaned deep in her throat when he took it between a finger and thumb and rolled it.
Kiera’s upper body arched from the bed and into his touch. There was a fever within her blood for more, more of his touch, more of him, just more. She’d forgotten to breathe, she’d forgotten to come up for air, she’d even forgotten her own damn name, but she knew his.
“Callum…”She broke away and breathlessly begged for mo
re. There was no time to try to think of another word, his lips were against her neck, his hands were thrusting her top up over her breasts and then his mouth was against her. Tasting and teasing the nipple of one breast as his hand did a similar job to the other, she was lost in that feeling.
Kiera fisted handfuls of his top and yanked it upwards. She wanted to feel his skin against her own. Needed the sensation to assure herself that this was real, that he was real. Her wolfman. Her mate.
The low, deep growl from his lips as he separated from her just long enough to help her remove his top, made her shiver, but it was in a good way. He caught the movement and hesitated, his eyes locked with hers. Then he grinned sheepishly.
“I’ll try not to growl, but it’s so damn hard…” He saw her hands come up to palm his face and revelled in the intimate moment.
“I like it when you growl softly.” She offered, somewhat shyly, he thought. He moved back up to her lips, a small press against them as he rumbled a gentle growl of satisfaction at her and she shivered again. This time he knew why, she was accepting of the beast within him.
Callum kissed her with a fevered passion that had her body pushing up to his. The press of his manhood against her stomach was equally torturous and wonderful. How he longed to be free of his clothes and to take her, be inside her, buried deep and in no rush to move.
Callum pulled back from her and nuzzled against her neck. The warmth, the scent of her skin, the softness of her body called to him. “I want you so very badly, sweetheart. We need to stop before…”
“I want you…”Her voice cut through the madness in his mind, the reasoned denial that she would be his this night, the need to wait for her to catch up with his own desire.
Callum lifted his head and found the truth within her eyes. She was his. She was accepting him for who and what he was.