Benjamin, Karen - Creole Moon (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Karen Benjamin

  “Is there something you want, love?”

  She tilted her head back and snarled up at him. “You know what I want!”

  He looked down at her from beneath his hooded lids, his face giving nothing of his thoughts away, and smiled. “You sound like a true mate, but until you promise to never put your life at risk again…”

  “I wasn’t in any danger, damn it!”

  He lowered his head and nipped the lobe of her ear.

  “Ouch! That hurt.”

  “Did it, love?” He ran the tip of his tongue over his bite mark. “Be a good little witch and admit you were wrong to disobey me. You might as well, every Wulfren in the house can smell your arousal and though you didn’t scream, Wulfren hearing is exceptional. They heard you panting…and begging—”

  “Shut up. Just shut up and make love to me!” she said at a near shout, uncaring who heard her. “I was a bad girl, a very bad girl, and I was wrong to break my word to you and place myself in danger.”

  He raked his fingers through the curls at the apex of her thighs, and she closed her eyes and shamelessly spread her thighs as she arched against his hand. He inserted a thick finger into her pussy and pumped once, twice and then stopped. She opened her eyes and their gazes locked in a silent challenge.

  “And…” His voice trailed off, but the look in his eyes spoke volumes. Tonight he would not be denied.

  She lowered her gaze and whispered, “And you are my mate.” Then she sighed heavily, and tried to push his hand between her legs. “Now can we stop with the talk and get on with it? You started this fire and you can damn well put it out!”

  He laughed and, wrapping his arms around her, rolled until she lay sprawled atop his chest. “We’ll put the fire out together.” He shifted her until her legs straddled his hips, and positioned his cock at the entrance to her feminine core. “Ride me, baby. Let loose that dominant streak in you, and don’t stop until you milk me dry.”

  She couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across her face as she reached down to grasp his engorged flesh. If this was his idea of punishment, she was going to be getting into trouble twenty-four-seven.

  With her eyes locked with his, she guided him slowly into her body, rocking her hips back and forth over his massive erection until the lips of her pussy gripped his balls. He closed his eyes and groaned, and, emboldened by his reaction, she squeezed him with her inner muscles. He roared, his hips snapping forward to drive his shaft so deeply into her body his taut balls were partially embedded in her. Her body responded with an almost painful clenching deep in her feminine core, and something wild and uncontrollable rose within her. She placed her hands on his broad shoulders and rode him like a wild thing, lifting and pushing down on his hard flesh, as wave after wave of mind-numbing pleasure washed over her body.

  Their lovemaking was rough, raw, and totally without restraint. She rode him with single-minded determination, showing him with her body how she felt in her heart. He thrust forcefully up into each of her downward pushes, the muscles of his body bulging and rippling as he raced with her to the edge of their existence. The air in the room filled with the scent of their lovemaking, and the sound of flesh slapping against flesh became a steady beat that matched the beating of their hearts. Neither cared that the scent and sound of their lovemaking carried to the Wulfren meeting in the rooms below them. Caught up in a rhythm older than time, they were beyond caring. There was no Lucas. There was no Alisha. There was only the two of them, linked in body and soul by an insatiable, unrelenting need.

  * * * *

  “How long was I out?”

  Lucas leaned in and nipped her on the neck.

  “Hey, what was that for?”

  “That was for what you did to Serpentes.”

  You in for it now, girl. You dun met yo match!

  Ma’mon! Get out of my head!

  I told you that man would come. And now I tell you he gonna spit fire at you and then he gonna make me some fine grandbabies. If dey be anything like you, I gonna be plenty busy keeping them in line.

  Ma’mon, I love you, but will you please go away so I can work on those grandbabies you want?

  I go back to stay with Alan. He need me now more than you.

  Then this is…goodbye.

  Never that, but Alan needs me now.

  Ma’mon…thank you for everything.

  “Who the hell are you talking to?”

  Alisha pushed up on one elbow and sighed heavily as she took in his suspicious glare. “I’m talking to Ma’mon, my spirit guide. Remember I told you about her and how she made a home for Alan and me in New Orleans. She may have passed from this world to the next but it hasn’t stopped her from blasting her opinions into my head whenever she feels I’m headed in the wrong direction. She just told me she was going to be with Alan for a while and that you had a right to be angry with me, although technically, I didn’t break my word and follow you into battle.”

  “I’m not going to split hairs with you, woman. Using our mate bond to hitch a ride into battle with me was wrong, but killing Serpentes by sending him a vision so terrifying he threw himself off a cliff totally crossed the line.”

  “I didn’t do it deliberately! And anyway, I thought he was squeezing you to death.”

  “He called pack challenge,” Lucas snarled between clenched teeth. “You do not interfere in a fight once challenge has been accepted. You deserve an ass spanking, and not the kind you’ve been looking forward to.”

  Alisha sat completely up in bed and decided it was time to face the music. Obviously, he was still angry with her, despite the mind-blowing sex. She hated to admit she was in the wrong—again—but if that was what it took to clear the air between them, then that was what she was going to do.

  “I admit I overreacted,” she said, running a soothing hand along his clenched jaw. “But how was I to know you were faking it? Next time you plan a move like that you need to inform your partner.”

  “You are not my partner, you’re my mate. And you gave me your word you would stay where I put you. Do you have any idea how I felt when I realized you had linked your mind with mine? If I had been killed, you would have died as well. I swore when my mother fell…” His words trailed off, his eyes dark with pain, and he left the bed abruptly, and walked over to stare out the window at the starless night.

  “Don’t turn away from me,” she whispered, coming up behind him to wrap her arms around his waist. She pressed her face against his back, offering what comfort she could as he fought to bring his emotions under control. “You’ve never spoken of your family until now and I want to know what happened to your mother.”

  He sighed, a long, drawn-out affair, but he turned to take her in his arms, gently tucking her head against his chest.

  When he remained silent, she tilted her head back and looked up at him. “You keep telling me we’re mates but if we’re ever going to make this work, you’re going to have to do some sharing.”

  His jaw clenched, a warning that she was pushing too hard, but she saw the resignation in his eyes. She tightened her arms around his waist and waited.

  “My father was the first Alpha of the North American Packs, born to wealth and great power. My mother was a gifted healer who came from a family that lived a hand-to-mouth existence selling trinkets and love potions to the tourists who came to the island. But despite coming from different worlds, they were truly meant to be together. Father called her ‘Suso Weechrondra,’ his little drop of love. And even though the Wulfren clans were at war with the Wiccan, my mother was well liked. Maybe that was why no one said anything to my father when she disobeyed him and slipped onto the battlefield to help in the healing of our fallen warriors, or maybe she be-spelled them. We may never know because one of the Wulfren warriors mistook her for the enemy and attacked her.”

  “God, Lucas, I’m so sorry.” She brushed a hand against his cheek and he took her hand in his to plant a kiss in the center of her palm before releasing it.


  “Thank you, but my mother didn’t die that day.”

  Her eyes locked with his. “Your mother is alive?”

  He nodded. “Our healers were able to keep her spirit from fleeing by placing her in a type of stasis. Not unlike the kind your brother has been placed in. She’s neither dead nor alive, but exists in a kind of limbo, sustained by what’s left of her magic.”

  “And your father?”

  “He’s spent the last fifty years guarding her resting place, living out his days buried in the body of his wolf. I visit him as often as I can, usually on a night like this when the moon shines bright. Sometimes we argue, but he won’t listen to reason when it comes to her. And my greatest fear has always been that if I ever found my mate, I would be as obsessive about her as he is about my mother. I was determined to take you as a mate, but to deny you my heart.” He shook his head, a self-mocking smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “I fought what I felt for you, and lied to myself because I feared I would lose myself in you. Now I know I had nothing to fear, because I was never alive until I found you. I love you. And if you will accept me as your mate, I will consider myself the most fortunate man alive.”

  “I love you too, wolfman, but if you keep saying things like that I’m going to have to kick your butt for making me cry,” she said around the tears clotting her throat. “I feel the same way about you. You complete me, and whatever time we’re given, I want it…no matter the cost. But surely there’s something that can be done to help your mother?”

  “The seers of the pack believe she will find the strength to return when she is needed most. That time may not be far off. Serpentes was a part of the first wave in the war to come. Supernaturals are taking sides, dividing themselves into those who want to live peaceably alongside humans and those who want to enslave them. Other leaders have been attacked, some fatally wounded, but many of them have simply disappeared.”

  “Kill the generals and the soldiers will have no one to follow.”

  Lucas nodded and pulled her tighter into his embrace. “A simple but effective first strike.”

  They held each other for a long moment, both staring out into the night, each finding comfort in the nearness of the other.

  “There’s a Creole moon tonight,” she finally whispered, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. “That’s what my people call the moon when it shines like a beacon in a pitch-black sky. Some say it’s God’s way of reminding us that though the dark may blanket the sky, it will never swallow the light.”

  Lucas turned his head to look down at her, his midnight eyes burning with a light to rival the glow of the moon. “And I have a Creole girl to share that moon with me.” He scooped her up in his arms and turned toward the bed. “We’ll let tomorrow take care of itself. Tonight and all the Creole moons to come will be ours.”

  And so they were.

  THE END

  WWW.KARENBENJAMIN.COM

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  I live in the beautiful hills of La Mesa, California.

  I have always enjoyed writing, but as a navy wife and working mother of two, there was never enough time. The kids are grown now, the husband is semi-retired, and writing the kind of stories I love to read has become a reality. To me, reading a well-written romance is the equivalent of popping my favorite chocolate into my mouth. Writing one is to savor each bite. Satisfaction without the calories. It totally works for me!

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com