by M. L. Briers
“I’d say you tell me, but I’m not fishing for compliments — and if you give me the wrong answer I will zap you.” Ashley tossed him a glare.
“And right back into our discussion about your magic,” the alpha said.
“It saved your backside, didn’t it?”
“I think my backside would have survived without it,” Kiel chuckled.
“I wasn’t prepared to test that theory.”
“Because you care about me?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Ashley said as she tossed him a look that said she was questioning his sanity.
The alpha chuckled – it was low, riding deep within his chest, and it sounded as sexy as hell. She couldn’t say that she didn’t feel something tingly deep within her feminine bits.
“How far would you go?”
It might just have been her imagination, but Ashley was sure that even his voice had become deeper, sexier, more targeted on her feminine bits than she was comfortable with.
“To the nearest cliff so that I could push you off,” Ashley tossed back.
It has been Nancy that had wanted to kill her mate, not Ashley, but he didn’t need to know that.
“And I thought you were the one that wanted to leave,” he said as a throwaway remark, but he saw her body snapped to attention, her chin rose in defiance, and she turned a slow look upon him.
“Perhaps I did…”
“And now?”
“Perhaps now I’m not so sure.” She made it something of an effort to lift the coffee pot and fill her cup. Anything was better than turning her gaze back on her mate.
“I suppose that’s better than nothing.”
“Do you want coffee?” Ashley rushed out as she quickly stirred the contents of the cup and pushed it along the counter toward him.
“I don’t think a cup of coffee flavored sugar is what I’m looking for.” He chuckled.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” She offered him something of a teasing grin, and Kiel held onto the growl that threatened to rumble through his chest.
“I could say the same about mating…”
“You can’t just try mating. A mate is for life, not just for Christmas.” She chuckled again as she reached for the cup, brought it to her lips, and sipped the burning hot brew.
Ashley grimaced at the sickly sweet mess that she’d made as she returned the cup back to the counter and pushed it away from her.
“You wouldn’t want to make another mistake, would you?” Kiel asked, but when she shot a look at him; there was nothing but teasing humor in his eyes.
“Exactly.”
“Then listen to your elders…”
“You’re not that much older than me.” She snorted a chuckle.
“Not me – fate,” he shrugged.
Damn, he got me there. She thought.
Fate – the least said about that the better. I don’t want to get myself hexed for the rest of my damn life.
Ashley stayed silent, biting her tongue, and playing it safe.
“No snappy comeback line?” he chuckled.
“I’m not dissing fate, but you go right ahead,” she offered.
“Pass.”
“Chicken,” she muttered, but the low deep growl that rumbled through him told her what she already knew – he’d heard her challenge.
“Don’t bait me…” he warned.
“Or what?”
“Or I might just take up that challenge, and that’s cutting off your own nose – again.” He sounded like he disapproved, and she didn’t need to wonder why.
“How so?”
“Because we’re mates – my bad luck is your bad luck…”
“Not if I’m not around you…” she offered with a song in her voice.
“What are the odds?” he teased her.
Dropping rapidly from where I’m bloody standing.
“Faerie!” She shrieked and pointed behind him.
Kiel dropped his arms and turned to look. His beast growled, suddenly pushing forward in the protection of their mate.
Ashley turned fast and tried to make a clean getaway so that she wouldn’t have to answer any more of his questions. That ended abruptly when she felt his hand close around her wrist.
He spun her around and yanked her toward him.
Ashley’s palms hit the hard muscles of his chest, and she had the irrational need to curl her fingers and test the steel of those ridges. She automatically tipped her head back on her neck and offered him a questioning look.
“Devious,” he growled.
“A girl has got to do what a girl has got to…”
She got no further. The alpha’s beast was just beneath his skin, and he could practically feel the fur as the beast bayed to be set free.
Mine…
Kiel almost lost control of his beast. That wasn’t going to happen.
The only other thing that would garner him some control might just miff off his mate. He had to take that chance.
He brought his lips down on hers.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
~
Nancy was at a loose end. Ashley had gone off to make coffee, her mate had all but disappeared, and Eliza was obviously a lost cause, having already mated.
She stalked down the hallway, turned at the kitchen doorway, and stopped in her tracks at the sight of Ashley sucking face, and more, with the alpha.
“Whoa! Get a damn room,” Nancy sniggered.
The lovebirds pulled apart, but only as far as they weren’t slobbering over each other anymore. It would have taken a little more than a moment to separate the two, and maybe even a bucket of cold water tossed over them.
Ashley was like a damn vine wrapped around the alpha’s body.
“That…” Kiel started, rushing to defend his mate’s honor.
“Sounds like a damn fine idea,” Ashley said, and then squealed as he turned fast on a hungry growl and started towards Nancy, who was blocking the doorway.
The witch jumped out of the way, because the look on the alpha’s face said he wasn’t stopping for anything, and she didn’t want to get herself steamrollered against the floor.
“And they’re off,” Nancy chuckled as the alpha steamed past her carrying his mate.
Nancy watched them go before she turned back to the empty kitchen. She expanded her hands and looked about her.
Alone once more — she guessed she had time on her hands to figure things out.
~
~
~
The alpha took the stairs two at a time — it would have been more — but with his mate wrapped around his hips, it was kind of hard going as it was.
The extra weight that he was carrying wasn’t a problem, she didn’t weigh that much, but the fact that every time he moved he could feel her hot sex rubbing against his hard length - that was a special kind of torture.
He wasn’t stopping for anything. She’d agreed to be his — kind of — he would have run through fire to get to where he was going.
It wasn’t as if they didn’t have all the time in the world together, they did. He just wanted that time to start now.
Mine…
Kiel kicked the door closed behind him and headed straight for the bed. She wasn’t a one night stand, she was his mate, and he was determined to do things right.
He wasn’t about to take her up against the wall, even though that thought had crossed his mind.
He was about to take her down to the floor and have his wicked way with her either. Boy, had that crossed his mind.
When he got to the bed, he dug his knee into the mattress and placed her right in the middle of the mattress.
“If this is a mistake then you need to tell me now,” the alpha growled against her lips.
“Are you saying you think fate is wrong?”
When he pulled his head back slightly and gazed down at her; she offered him a big, teasing, beaming smile.
“I believe in listening to my elders…”
“Something like that,” he agreed. “But I want this.”
“Gee, talk about fickle — half day ago and you hated witches and didn’t like me…”
“That’s not entirely true.”
“Really? Which part?” She chuckled.
“I never not liked you…”
“You were — wary?”
“Something like that.”
“Worried?” Her eyes sparkled with amusement.
“Not exactly.” There was no way he was going to admit that.
“About me being a devious, mischievous, spell crafting, psycho demon of epic proportions?”
“Wow, I’ve never been able to describe myself that accurately — well done,” he chuckled, and she tried to slap out at his chest, but he caught her wrist within the palm of his hand and wrapped his fingers around it, pushing it back against the mattress.
“That definitely deserves a zap.”
“If you must…”
“But, I thought I wasn’t supposed to use my magic?” She challenged him once more as the amusement flared in her eyes.
“For evil…”
“And zapping you isn’t evil?”
“Let’s just say that when you zap me, everything gets extra hard,” he chuckled; it sounded deep and dirty to her ears, and it made the excitement ping within her womb.
“Truthfully, I don’t think you need any help in that department,” she chuckled.
Ashley pressed her hips against his and got a long, deep, groan of pleasure for her trouble.
“Be careful; my resolve is hanging on by a thread…”
“Let me cut that for you.” She rolled her hips against his, tightened the hold of her legs around him, and the alpha felt his wild side baying to be set free.
“That’s the last time tonight that you tease me.” He took her lips in a kiss that caused a shiver to race through her body.
Ashley didn’t think that would be the last time that night, just the last time for a while. She could feel his strength, his dominance, and she knew that he needed to be in control as much for his own sanity as to keep the beast at bay as long as possible.
Kiel’s hands were already working over her clothes, pulling and tearing them off her body. Every inch that he uncovered he tried to claim with his hands, his lips, or his tongue.
His beast was getting agitated. It wanted the certainty of a bond between mates.
His beast had waited as long as possible before testing the man. Even Kiel had to concede that his own fever for his mate was stoking the flames within him.
Naked in front of him on the bed, his mate was glorious. Full of curves where a woman should have them, and he’d explored them all.
When Ashley reached out for him, he moved between her open thighs and followed the alluring scent of her arousal with his lips trailing over her skin before he went insane with the need to taste her.
He did just that — swiping his tongue along her folds and reveling in the guttural sound that came from her lips.
Kiel knew that right then he wouldn’t give a damn if someone was to scream that the house was on fire. Well, maybe he would, but that was only because his protective gene would kick in. But the fact remained that she could pull and tug the damn hair right out of his scalp for all he cared – he wasn’t giving her up before she came undone on his damn tongue.
His wish was granted a few minutes later with the sweetest taste he’d ever had, and the sweetest sound from her lips that he’d ever heard as she lost herself to him.
That sound seemed to be chased up too soon by almost growled demands to be reprieved from the lashings of his tongue against her sensitive nub, but he decided that he still wasn’t giving up until he heard that damn sweet sound once more.
The alpha in him practically puffed out his chest with pride as he climbed up and over her body as his mate came back to him with a look that said she wanted to zap him until dawn.
That look didn’t last long as her gaze flicked down over his hard body and she caught sight of his long, thick cock waving hello at her. When Ashley licked her lips, he almost lost his damn mind.
“Are you trying to kill me?” he growled.
“Wrong witch.” She spat out a chuckle.
“Definitely the right witch.”
He growled at the thought of having her lips around his hard length, but his beast growled some sense into him, and he lowered his hips and rubbed his cock against her sex. Then he pushed into her channel and reveled in just how good she felt.
Kiel wanted to take things slowly, build up a head of steam in the both of them for what came next, but her tight channel, made tighter when she deliberately squeezed her inner muscles around him, made that an impossibility.
What made it harder still was that his mate didn’t object to him becoming wilder with every thrust inside of her.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
~
Kiel rocked back on his knees, taking his mate with him, and locked one strong arm around her body to keep her in place. His other hand fisted her hair and opened her neck and shoulder to his longing gaze, and his hips didn’t miss a beat.
Mine…
He was powerless to stop his beast from pushing forward. The need to taste her blood was like a fever in him that was never going to be denied, and as his fangs elongated, he could feel her inner muscle clamping around his thrusting cock, and he all but lost his mind to the perfect moment.
Ashley cried out at the sheer intensity of the orgasm that hammered through her body. Caught up in the whirlwind of pleasure, she barely noticed the pain of his fangs as they tore into her flesh.
Kiel tasted her blood on his tongue, and his beast roared at the bond that was formed between them. Body to body – soul to soul – those moments of joining was magical.
When he released his fangs, he made short work of sealing her wound with his tongue. The fever within his blood was burning like lava once more, but this time; it was with the need to place his seed within her womb and find his own release.
Kiel pushed up onto his knees. His hands palmed her backside as he held her up at just the right angle to be able to bury his cock to the hilt.
With the heady aroma of their arousal in the air and the guttural sounds that were coming from Ashley’s lips, he was wild with need.
Every muscle in his body strained, burned, and begged for mercy, but he wasn’t listening. His mate was close to coming undone around him, and he gave her that release before he took his own.
The powerful clench and release of her inner muscles sucked his seed from his balls, as he craned his neck back on his neck and howled like a wildling. Over and over, he buried his cock to the hilt and gave her everything that he had to give.
Body to body and soul to soul they rode to oblivion together.
~
~
~
If Jeff had a cat, then he might just have kicked it. He wasn’t in the best of moods, and was it any wonder when his mate had rejected him?
But the sound of his brother’s mating howl had just put the damn cherry on top of the icing on his miffed off cake.
He stomped into the kitchen and gave Nancy a hard stare as he grumbled a growl and looked as if he was chewing a wasp. It would have been hard for her not to notice the big behemoth seething was annoyance.
“We need to talk…” he growled out.
“With you looking like someone stole your toys from your cradle, not bloody likely.”
“Why did you protect me from the faeries?” He took a step and demanded an answer from her.
“Because I could.” She lied.
She’d protected him because she had the overwhelming urge to do it, but whether that was because he was her mate, or not, didn’t make a damn difference in the big scheme of things to her.
“I scent something in the air, and it’s not the smell of roses.”
“I suggest you
have a shower.”
Jeff growled long and hard. Yes, she could run verbal rings around him, but that wasn’t the point.
He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. If she was going to reject him, then he wanted to know. He needed to leave before his beast pushed forward and he became a rogue wolf.
He wouldn’t put his family in danger.
He wouldn’t put his pack in danger.
He wouldn’t put his mate in danger.
Jeff stalked toward her. He saw her body snap to attention. He saw the way that her eyes narrowed on him, she was unsure — and that look gutted him.
Jeff ground to a halt. He scented the air looking for the smell of fear.
He might not have been able to smell it, but he sensed that there was a streak of it within her.
“What are you doing?” She looked like a viper that was coiled and ready to strike.
“Leaving,” Jeff growled.
His beast clawed within him, needing to be set free, and he slammed that cage door shut. He turned and started for the back door.
“You’re what?” Nancy couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.
Leaving?
How the hell could he be leaving?
Wasn’t he supposed to be wooing me?
Did I miss something somewhere along the way?
It’s not like I want to be wooed, but still, I’m sure he’s supposed to be in wooing mode.
“You obviously have made up your mind about being my mate…” He tossed over his shoulder as he reached for the handle of the door, and he hesitated only when she spoke again.
“I have?” Now Nancy was really confused.
She certainly didn’t remember telling him to take a hike. Especially in a snowstorm.
“Haven’t you?” He demanded as his fist closed around the handle.
“I’m … thinking,” she said, and she was too.
“My brothers have already mated…”
“I didn’t get the timetable.” She shot back.
Jeff closed his eyes and allowed his head to fall forward on his neck. He didn’t understand women — he didn’t understand her — but he was trying, and failing.