by Celia Kyle
At least, she hoped he could.
“If he can’t, he’ll know someone who can.” Elise grimaced. “Digging for secrets isn’t something many are willing to do, but saving a little girl…” She shrugged. “It’ll be done.”
“Blake might have something to say about you commandeering a hedgehog shifter.” Maya ignored Alex and just elbowed him in the stomach. Blake could say all he wanted. She’d just eat him the next time he shifted. No more Hedgehog Alpha, no more problems. He ignored her ignoring him and asked another question. “And the tiger?”
Maya would have added “that was killed in the most awesome display of manly manliness ever” to the question but stopped herself.
“Gone.” Ricker didn’t say much more but there wasn’t more to say really. He’d been alive. Now he wasn’t.
“What did Gavin have to say? Any trouble from that corner?”
More head shaking. More revealed about the day’s events. The male who’d tried to kill Harper—had killed Lark’s mother—was a loner like most tigers. They didn’t form strong family attachments beyond their own mates and young. A drifter with no ties and no one to miss him now that he was gone.
And that… hurt her heart a little bit. That a shifter could be killed—justified or not—and not be missed made her gut tighten.
“Are we thinking we brush this under the rug and not say anything?” Neal spoke up, drawing the group’s attention.
Maya nodded.
Alex shook his head.
Good thing she got two votes—one because she was his mate and one because she was the Queen of Booblandia and All Things Pink Bits Related.
FYI, not something that looks great on a coffee mug.
Also not something she wanted to explain to an inquisitive child when they learned to read, and her kids had learned young, dammit.
“No one has to know.” She poked Alex when he continued to shake his head.
“They don’t have to know about Lark,” he pointed out. “But we’re not going to have a dead tiger and not make a report. As far as the council and everyone else will be concerned, he entered our territory without permission or an invitation, killed a human, and when discovered, he attempted to kill Harper. Those are the facts. They don’t change with or without Lark’s presence. The closer we stay to the truth, the less chance of Lark being discovered. If her grandfather is…”
“Fine,” she grumbled. She hated when he was right. Dammit. It was best to keep Lark’s identity—existence—secret. If the Hawkins family had known about Lark’s shifter tendencies, she wouldn’t have made it past day one.
Alex just grunted at Maya. “Grayson, give Sheriff Corman a heads up and pass the word around the pride that the hedgehog isn’t to be mentioned—for her own safety.”
That single word would be enough to secure everyone’s silence. Safety. They all wanted that for themselves and their children.
“Done.” Grayson nodded, and the discussion moved on. There was no doubt Grayson would do what was needed to keep the pride—everyone—safe. He was a lot like Alex in that way.
Not as hot though.
“Good. Then we’re done for tonight. Keep your guard up. Let me know if anyone sees anything out of place. If someone who’s not a resident comes to town, I want to know. Period.”
Alex could put the fear of God into anyone, but Maya… Well, she wanted to give them something else to fear. The most fearsome, hated thing of all… celibacy.
“If this gets fucked up, if my new little girl gets a boo-boo or is chased by a caterpillar, no one is getting nookie.” She glared at each male and mentally smiled when the Ovulators all nodded along with her. Bitches had her back. “No one knows what she’s been through, her past, or the identity of her shifter family. So from this second forward, she’s an O’Connell. She’s the daughter of the Prime and the youngest child of the Mistress of Menstruation, Baroness of Boobs, Duchess of Badonk-a-donk, Princess of Pink Bits, Queen of Quim.” Maya lifted a hand and slowly made a fist, fingers curling in one-by-one. The cat leapt forward at her call, lion’s nails replacing humans the very second she opened her hand. “And ho that will straight up kill a bitch for making one of her babies cry.”
6
“Always fuck like no one’s watching. Mainly because at any moment, the kids could walk in and you need to finish quickly.” – Maya O’Connell, Prima of the Ridgeville pride and woman who loves her kids, her new hedgehog, and fucking her mate.
They were gone, the house was quiet—truly quiet—which meant Maya finally had a moment to just be with her mate. The dust from the last car heading down the drive still lingered in the air, the tail lights now out of sight. The darkness encroached on the yard, the black battled by the lights from inside the home.
Alex sat on the top step of the front porch and Maya plopped beside him, resting hip-to-hip with her mate—the male who hadn’t threatened to kill her.
Yet.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t try his patience every day. At least twice that day alone.
She leaned into Alex and nuzzled his shoulder, breathing deeply. Smoke. Dark. Hot. A tinge of sweetness.
Mine.
Hers just like the children inside. All hers.
Warm lips brushed her forehead, a soft precursor to a gentle nuzzle from her mate. “Tired?”
“Depends,” she murmured.
Alex just chuckled. Fifteen years and he knew her too well. She was too tired for many things, but if he had sex on the brain…
“Too tired to finish what you started earlier?”
Maya tipped her head back, excitement thrumming in her veins, the desire she’d stomped on so many hours ago now flaring back to life. “Never.”
“Good. C’mon.”
Oh, she wanted to come all right.
Alex released her and pushed to his feet, grabbing her hand and tugging her up behind him. Except, instead of throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her inside for one night of awesome boot knocking…
He led her down the stairs, around the side of the house, and past the rose bushes she’d never quite managed to grow. Weston puked on them after eating something Easton “caught” and the ground had been barren ever since.
Maya thought “caught” was more like “found rotting in the woods.”
But no one died so it was fine.
“Alex? We could…” He could just bend her over against the tree off to their right and that’d be fine.
Alex grunted. Yeah, that was a no.
“But, Alex…” She even whined. Whined. Like a cat in heat. Well, cats in heat yowled, but the kids were sleeping. “We…”
They rounded the last corner and—
“Alex,” she whispered, voice suddenly lost. All day she’d yelled and growled and snarled and now…
Her mate tugged, the pressure constant while he drew her forward and beneath his arm. Those familiar lips caressed her temple, his mouth curved in one of those smug smiles she hated. He deserved to be all smug, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
“Happy anniversary.” His deep tenor vibrated through her, two words that touched her heart, but what she saw touched her soul.
A near full moon.
A pristine and perfectly set table for two.
What she knew would be chilled raw beef in a nearby cooler.
And a cherry on top for dessert. In the form of a cherry wood desk. Exactly like the one they’d first fucked on all those years ago in Alex’s office at Genesis.
“You didn’t forget,” she breathed out the words with a nearly silent whisper. She’d tried to plan her own anniversary celebration that the kids sorta destroyed. Er, ate. Then Carly decided to try, but then Alex sorta… killed a tiger. And now…
“Never, baby.” He squeezed her hip and pulled, encouraging her to turn in his grip. “Forget the first day I saw you?” His eyes caressed her like a physical touch. “Scented you?” He leaned down and ran his nose along her neck, breathing deeply. He exhaled slowly,
his warm, damp breath fanning over her skin. Deft fingers tugged at her top, nudging one strap of her tank top aside. “Tasted you?” He lapped at her mating mark, the deep scarring that’d stay with her forever. “Mated you?”
Alex caressed her back, palm skimming her spine, and his heat sank into her body, warming her from outside in. He didn’t stop until his fingertips teased the upper curve of her ass and she wanted him to keep on going.
Maya whimpered. “But it’s not until next week.”
“And you planned on celebrating today,” he murmured, teeth scraping her scar. “But things went a little sideways.”
“But how…” Fuck it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know how he knew. She wanted him to just not stop.
Except he did stop. Asshole.
He stopped and pulled away and stared at her with those amber eyes that…
“I know you, Maya. I know what the little wrinkle above your left eye means.” He brushed his thumb over the spot in question, though she’d never admit to having any type of wrinkles. “I know what you’re thinking when your eyes have a little hint of gray.” He ran a finger down her cheek. “And that you’re up to something when this tiny dimple comes out to play.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Because she still refused to acknowledge anything that could be construed as a wrinkle.
“You know I love you and that I’ll do any-fucking-thing to make you happy.”
Maya swallowed and nodded. Yes, she did know. He’d proved it more than once in their years together. And those were just the times he knew about. There were plenty of instances—and awesomesauce adventures—that began with “I could always ask Alex…” and ended with “don’t tell Alex.”
“We’ve been through heaven and hell, Maya.” His lips quirked in a rueful grin. “Sometimes in the same day. But no matter what’s going on around us, I will always know what my mate is thinking. I will always do everything in my power to make her happy.”
Alex, she mouthed his name, unable to speak.
“I love you.” He brushed the hair from her face, fingers gliding over her skin as he tucked it behind her ear. She turned her head slightly and kissed his palm, lapping at his bare skin and savoring the hints of his flavors that glided over her tongue. “I’ve loved you for fifteen years, through three kids and one thousand, two-hundred fifty-three threats to my cock. Gonna love you for fifteen more.” His amber eyes darkened, deepening to sensuous honey. “Gonna love you for a thousand more.”
“Even when I…” she flicked her attention to a darkened window that looked out over the back yard.
That rueful grin came back. “Complicate the hell out of my life and claim an orphan hedgehog as your daughter?”
His gaze drifted over her features, and just like he knew her every expression, she knew his. Knew that he wasn’t really mad unless he had one pinched line between his eyebrows. That even when he frowned, it wasn’t a true frown unless it reached his eyes.
“This is it. We’re it. We’re marking fifteen years with a slightly bigger family, but it’s perfect.”
“Fucking perfect.” Her lips tipped up in a small grin and she pretended her eyes weren’t filled with tears.
“Freaking perfect.” He lowered his head, his lips capturing hers in a soft, gentle kiss that she felt all the way to her toes. He lapped at the seam of her mouth, making love to her lips before he gave her one last kiss and pulled away. “We have new little ears, baby. It’s back to freaking.”
Yeah, yeah it was. “It’s freaking purrfect.”
“Corny.” He snorted.
“But you love me anyway?”
“Always.”
“Even when I bring home hedgehogs?”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Your daughter brought home the hedgehog.”
“Why is she my daughter when she brings home hedgehogs and yours when she drags a bloody carcass home?” She quirked a single brow. Because that’d happened-ish more than once.
“Maya?”
“Huh?”
“Happy anniversary.” Then he was kissing her and then he was doing more. And Maya decided their life was pretty fucking perfect.
Even with a dead tiger and an orphaned hedgehog whose mother was part of the family who founded the HSE.
Even then.
Want more Ridgeville madness? I’ve published a bundle of the COMPLETE Ridgeville series. Ten books, one bundle. It won’t be available forever, so snag it while you can. Click here!
Mating Instinct bundle: http://celiabks.me/mizon
About the Author
Ex-dance teacher, former accountant and erstwhile collectible doll salesperson, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Celia Kyle now writes urban fantasy, science fiction (as Erin Tate), and paranormal romances for readers who:
1) Like super hunky heroes (they generally get furry)
2) Totally dig beautiful women (who have a few more curves than the average lady)
3) Love laughing in (and out of) bed.
It goes without saying that there's always a happily-ever-after for her characters, even if there are a few road bumps along the way.
Today she lives in Central Florida and writes full-time with the support of her loving husband and two finicky cats. (Who hate each other with a passion unrivaled. What’s up with that?)
Find Celia on the web…
@celiakyle
authorceliakyle
www.celiakyle.com
[email protected]
Copyright © 2016 by Celia Kyle
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.