Witch's Mate

by Alicia Montgomery

  “You…taste…delicious,” he said. She let out a soft cry, and he sucked her fingers into his mouth.

  “Liam,” she breathed. He released her fingers, only to capture her mouth with his.

  Electricity and power shot through her body the moment their lips touched. His tongue delved between her lips, seeking hers out in a powerful dance. Pushing up against her, she could feel his erection, grinding up insistently against her core, and her knees buckled. Without missing a beat, Liam scooped her up, placing her on top of the dresser. He shoved a hand between her legs, tracing up her thighs, and shoved her panties down, nearly ripping them off her.

  Lara moaned against his lips, lifting her hips so he could pull the scrap of fabric down her legs. A warm hand cupped her sex, fingers teasing her wet lips. He seemed to smile, and he let out a satisfied grunt when he felt her dripping cunt.

  “You’ve been wet for me all this time?” He teased her with his finger, dipping the tip into her.

  “Yes,” she confessed. She couldn’t hide it anyway. Liam already knew what she had been doing before he arrived.

  “I can’t stop thinking about you…about your lips and what you would feel like around me. How your pussy would feel, gripping me.” He pushed a finger inside her, and she let out a whimper. “Hmmm…much better than in my imagination.”

  She sucked in a breath, shocked at his words. Lara always had the impression he was so reserved and polite, a true gentleman. She never would have imagined such things coming out of his mouth, and she wanted more.

  As if he read her mind, he nipped at her neck, sending shocks through her. “Do you like it when I talk dirty, Lara?” He slipped another finger in her and began to thrust his hand gently. “My hand is soaked, so I’m betting you do.”

  He continued to fuck her with his fingers, and he encouraged her, whispering dirty things into her ear. “God, you feel so good. So tight and wet. Are you wishing it was my cock inside you?”

  “Liam.” She seemed to have lost all words and all thoughts. Only Liam filled her head and her senses. She reached out, threading her fingers through his hair and pulling him down for a kiss. Tongue, teeth and lips scraped and gnashed at each other, rough and wild, as his fingers continued to drive her towards orgasm.

  “Fuck!” He gritted his teeth as she pulsed around his fingers. Lara let out a long moan, her hips bucking up to meet him. The heel of his hand ground down against her clit, sending her over the edge as white hot heat exploded all around her and she cried out his name one last time.

  “That was so fucking sexy,” he breathed against her ear as she collapsed against him.

  She needed time to collect her thoughts. Time away from him. But she could barely put a coherent sentence together before he lifted her up and carried her to the bed. He laid her down gently and positioned himself on top of her, between her legs. He pressed his thick, hardened cock against her, and she could feel the heat of him through his pants.

  “We shouldn’t…” she protested, finally coming to her senses. God, this was all wrong. “No.”

  His back stiffened, and his body tensed. “What?” he asked in a surprised tone and rocked back on his heels, staring down at her with this electric blue gaze.

  “Liam…” She pushed at him and rolled to her side, away from him. “Please…we shouldn’t have done that.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “What are you saying? Lara, c’mon. You know this feels right.”

  “And then what?” she asked accusingly. “You want a romp in bed, one night to scratch this itch? I told you, what you’re feeling isn’t real!”

  “This seems pretty real to me. You can’t hide behind pheromones this time,” he said, his eyes narrowing. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I want you, and you just showed me how much you want me.”

  “This isn’t going to work. You’re an Alpha, and I’m a witch,” she reasoned. “We both have responsibilities. You have obligations…” She swallowed the bitterness building in her chest. The thought of Liam being with another woman was ripping her apart. But this was for the best. She couldn’t risk it.

  “I don’t give a fuck about that!” he roared.

  “What do you want from me, Liam?” She whipped around to face him.

  He opened his mouth to speak but stopped suddenly. “This thing between us. It feels like something big. More than attraction or lust. Tell me you don’t feel it, and I’ll leave you alone.”

  Lara stared at him, willing the words to come out of her mouth. To tell him she didn’t feel anything, just lust. But she couldn’t. God help her, she couldn’t lie to him.

  A loud ring pierced the thick silence between them. Liam cursed softly and took his phone out of his pocket. “Yes?” he answered gruffly. He listened to the person on the other line intently and let out a sigh. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m coming back now.” He turned to her.

  “You should go, that sounded important.” She nodded towards the door.

  Liam looked conflicted, staring at the phone in his hand. “You might get the impression that I’m some goody-two shoes, that I’m just going to roll over,” he said, his voice steely and serious. “But this is far from done.”

  Before she could say anything else, he stalked over to her, gave her a bruising kiss and then left the room.

  Lara sank down on the bed, her face in her hands. What have I done? She was supposed to push him away. She was supposed to stay away, but what did she do instead? Damn her traitorous body. Even now, she was still buzzing from the most powerful orgasm she’d ever had, and they didn’t even have sex!

  Liam’s words haunted her. She had to resist him, to stop this madness. True Mates or no, she wouldn’t risk his life. He would die if they fell in love with each other, and she would lock up her heart and throw away the key before she let that happen.

  ***

  The cold air hit him with a force as he stormed out of the hotel, but he welcomed the chill. Liam wanted to throw the damn phone away but resisted the urge. Takeda had called him, worried because the security team at Gracie Mansion said he had left the house and hadn’t returned yet. He wanted to strangle his Beta for interrupting, but he didn’t want Takeda (or his mother) to figure out where he was, so he had no choice but to leave.

  The torrential rain had slowed to a drizzle, and he walked to the corner of the street and decided to wait for a taxi there.

  Truly, when he left the house, he was just going for a walk to clear his head. His emotions were in turmoil, and though he knew he had to stay away from Lara, he suddenly found himself at her hotel, walking into the lobby and pressing the elevator button to her floor. He was ready to walk away, when she opened the door, wearing nothing but his shirt. Her exquisite scent, mixed with his and her own arousal, had pushed him over the edge, and he had to have a taste. He wanted to do more than just touch her, and watching her explode in orgasm in his arms, her face twisted in ecstasy, almost did him in. If she hadn’t stopped him, he would have buried himself deep inside her, with that sweet pussy wrapped around his cock, fucking her until she screamed his name.

  “I must be losing my damn mind,” he muttered to himself, raking his fingers through his hair. He had women - human and Lycan - throwing themselves at him. Yet for the past few weeks, all his body craved was that redheaded witch. Did she possess some power over him? Was Lara playing with him, or was there some reason she seemed to call out to him like a siren but retreated the moment he came panting after her. Being around her was turning him into a sex-crazed maniac. He should just walk away from her, while he still had some damn dignity.

  No. Mine.

  No? If he wasn’t out of his mind, then his wolf was. The animal had practically howled in happiness when he was with Lara, then threatened to break free from his skin when he left her. He was getting more and more vocal and out of control. He wished he could go somewhere and just shift, let the wolf take over and forget the world and his responsibilities. If he wasn’t Alpha, it would be differe
nt. But Lara was right. He had a duty to his clan.

  Bright lights twinkled in the distance, and he raised his hands to hail the passing taxi. He climbed in and gave the cabbie his address, then stared into the distance as the car brought him farther away from Lara.

  Chapter Ten

  “Are you OK?”

  “For the last time, Jade,” Lara said as she looked over the magazine in her hands. “I’m fine.”

  “Then why have you been reading an upside-down magazine for the last five minutes?”

  Lara let out an indignant squeak and threw the glossy journal aside. Unfortunately, there was nothing else to read in the jet. But at least they were on their way back. The car and the driver picked them up around noon at the hotel, and by two in the afternoon they had taken off. Liam was nowhere to be seen, but Gage did relay the Alpha’s apologies for not seeing them off personally, as he was stuck in meetings the whole day.

  Yes, she was glad to be going back. A strange, edgy ache formed in her stomach when she woke up that morning, but she ignored it. Must have been something she ate.

  “Are you mad at me, or something?” Light green eyes looked at her dolefully.

  “What?” Lara exclaimed. “No!”

  “Is it about last night?”

  Lara’s face turned red. Did Jade know? Her room was right next to hers, maybe she heard her and Liam…Oh God.

  “It was something I said at dinner, right? I’m sorry about Mrs. Henney. I was trying to include you as much as I could, but she kept talking to me and-”

  Lara breathed a sigh of relief. “You never told me your mother was a Baroness. That’s like royalty, right?” She hoped the change of subject would distract Jade. “Are you going to be a Baroness after her?”

  “Goodness, no!” She shook her head. “Her husband, my stepfather, is Baron Huxley. I’m nowhere near in line to take any title. My real dad is American, a New York Lycan, so I’m just a plain old Miss.”

  “Oh, I see.” Lara was glad the conversation steered away from last night’s dinner. And everything else about last night. She was also relieved that they were on their way back to New York. And she told that small, small part of her that pined for Liam to shut up. “So, what are we going to start with tomorrow? Are we going to try to work on the bracelet? Or figure out how the mages are controlling the humans?”

  Jade’s nose wrinkled. “Actually…I know it’ll be late when we come into New York, but I need to go to the lab. I have this strange feeling.”

  “Feeling?”

  “Yeah, I can’t put my finger on it…but I need to check something out, and it can’t wait until morning. The mages…we need to stop them.”

  Lara clucked her tongue. “I’m coming with you. If only to stop you from working all night.”

  “You don’t have to-”

  “I want to,” Lara said. Jade’s words and reminder about the mages sobered her. There were much bigger things at stake now. They had to stop the mages, before they struck again.

  ***

  It was nearly midnight by the time the car dropped them off at Fenrir. The lobby, usually busy and bustling with activity, was eerily quiet and empty, save for the night security guard waiting at the reception desk. They showed him their badges, and he waved them through.

  “So tell me again why we’re here and what couldn’t wait until morning?” Lara asked. She was tired from the trip, and all she wanted to do was flop down on her bed and sleep for hours. Although the jet was comfortable, she felt restless. Her thoughts kept drifting to last night, and that uncomfortable feeling in her middle just wouldn’t go away, and as the plane flew farther and farther away from San Francisco, it just got worse.

  “It’s a theory of mine, but what you said about magic seeping through…I had this thought.” Jade paused as the elevator stopped on their floor. “I’ll show you when we get to my computer.”

  They walked into the laboratory after getting their biometrics scanned. “Illuminate, 50 percent,” Jade commanded, and the lights in the lab flickered to life. As they walked towards the stairs leading to Jade’s inner lab, the Lycan suddenly stopped. She put a hand on Jade’s arm, her light green eyes glowing behind her glasses.

  Lara immediately stopped. Jade had never displayed any Lycan abilities or qualities in the time they’d known each other. In fact, if she didn’t know Jade was a shifter, she would seem like an ordinary human. But for something to set off her Lycan instincts, something had to be wrong.

  Jade took a delicate sniff and then cocked her head to the side, towards the large walk-in refrigerator where they kept all kinds of samples. Lara opened her mouth to speak, but Jade shushed her. Carefully, she fished her phone out of her purse, dialing an emergency contact pre-programmed into her phone.

  All of a sudden, a figure dressed in all black burst from the walk-in fridge, knocking down several monitors and experiment set ups. Whoever - or whatever - it was, it was fast and strong, but the presence didn’t feel like a mage or witch to Lara.

  The main door slid open, and three men dressed in Fenrir’s security uniform burst in, surrounding the figure. Instead of surrendering, though, the figure attacked them head on. He bowed low in a defensive stance, then sprung forward as one man came at him with handcuffs. His leg struck out, kicking him to the head and knocking him down. The two remaining security guards raised their weapons, but he came flying at them with blinding speed, kicking the gun away from one man and then swinging over to the other, his legs wrapping around the man’s neck and bringing him down on the floor.

  “Shit!” Lara cursed. The intruder kicked up and got to his feet, then bound towards the open door. With the wave of her hand, Lara made one of the computer monitors fly across the room, hitting the intruder on the head, knocking him down.

  A soft groan came from the figure as he lay on the floor. Cautiously, Lara stalked over to him. He was dressed in a dark cat suit and a ski mask, which she promptly ripped off.

  “What the?” Lara’s eyes widened.

  “He” was a she. Long blonde curls tumbled down her shoulders, her long, sweeping eyelashes casting delicate shadows over high cheekbones. One of the security people must have gotten one hit in, because there was a cut on her jaw, but from the looks of it, it was already healing. Lara gasped. This wasn’t just an ordinary cat burglar. She was a Lycan.

  ***

  Lara and Jade stood behind the one-way mirror, watching as the Lycan woman sat with an eerie stillness in the other room. It was like a police interrogation room, at least the ones that she had seen in movies and on TV. The woman sat with her wrists in cuffs chained to the table in front of her, and an empty chair on the other side. Lara didn’t know such a place in Fenrir existed, though she shouldn’t have been surprised.

  As they waited for more security personnel to come in, Jade had explained that she scented the other Lycan when they came in. Since the lab was kept sterile, she knew someone was in there. She immediately called an emergency number, which triggered the alarm and sent the security team up to the lab.

  It was nearly two o’clock in the morning, and she yawned but took a sip of her coffee to stay awake. It wasn’t long until reinforcements came and took the intruder away. Grant, Nick, Alynna and Alex had arrived soon after that. She was curious as to who this intruder was and what she wanted, which is why she opted to stay. The Lycans, on the other hand, were probably more interested in how she was able to bypass Fenrir’s high tech security system and make it all the way into the lab on the 33rd floor.

  The single door in the interrogation room slid open, and Grant, Nick, Alex, and Alynna filed inside. Grant sat on the chair opposite the woman and folded his hands on the table, while the rest stood behind him.

  “Do you know who I am?” Grant asked, his voice cold and authoritative.

  The woman’s eyes lifted up to meet his gaze. “I don’t know, should I?”

  “You don’t speak to the Alpha of New York that way, Lone Wolf,” Nick gritted. He reached over
and grabbed the woman’s hand, exposing the mark of a wolf’s head on her wrist.

  Jade gasped beside Lara. “I’ve never met a Lone Wolf.”

  “What’s a Lone Wolf?” Lara asked.

  “They’re basically Lycans without clans.”

  “Not all Lycans have a clan?”

  Jade shook her head. “Not always. Lone Wolves are those who simply don’t have one, for whatever reason. Most Lycan clans are small, and with the trouble we have reproducing, some clans are reduced to single families.”

  “So, if you lose your family or clan, then you just become a Lone Wolf?”

  “If you can’t find one to take you in. Or some of them are actually banished from their clans.”

  Lara turned her attention back to the interrogation room.

  “…or you can tell us your name now and save us the time and trouble of going to the Lycan High Council for your records,” Grant continued.

  The young woman smirked. “And why would I do that? That would take all the fun out of it.”

  Grant leaned back and crossed his arms. “You might think you’re funny or snarky, but I’m not laughing. Now, I can do this all night. In fact, we can take turns.” He motioned to Alynna, Alex, and Nick. “I’ll go back to bed and get some sleep, while Nick sits here and interrogates you for a couple of hours. Then he can go home, and Alynna and Alex can have a turn and I’ll be back, fresh as a daisy, in the morning. You, on the other hand, will sit there with no rest, no food, and no water. Let’s see who outlasts who.”

  The Lycan woman grumbled. “Meredith.”

  Alynna guffawed. “Just Meredith? Like Cher? Or Madonna?”

  Meredith gave her a venomous look. “Perhaps you need more Lycan history lessons, Princess,” she sneered. “Lone Wolves don’t have last names.”

  “So, Meredith,” Grant continued. “Why are you here? Who sent you to break into our lab and how did you get in?”