by Eden Cole
Jon thrust forward to meet her pump, driving himself to the hilt inside her. His roughness made her tumble forward, and he caught her against his chest. Her sweet lips touched his in desperate kiss that threatened to send them spinning into eternity. Jon sat up with her on his lap, held her close, and buried his tongue in her mouth. He greedily took all she had to offer, never drawing back in his pursuit of her.
Together they rocked, whispering words of need. Serenity’s face was wet with tears, and he knew she didn’t realize she’d said she loved him. He wasn’t going to press her to repeat it at this time. Let her think about it, consider what the impact of their mating meant—not just on a shape shifter, but on his mate, whether she was like him or not. A hormone was released sealing them as one.
Jon turned Serenity around so her back was to him. He encircled her in his arms. Small kisses planted on her neck had her wiggling on his lap, making him harder. He put her on his erection again, but just long enough to rewet his shaft from her delicious juices. This time, he pulled her higher and felt his way to her rear entry. They’d been this intimate the day before, so he knew Serenity both liked it and she could take him.
He eased in. She gasped and broke from his hold to lean forward. Jon watched his cock glide in and out of her ass while he held her waist. Just seeing it brought him to a head. Too soon, he emptied himself inside Serenity’s body, satisfied beyond anything he had ever experienced.
Afterward, they washed in the lake and settled quietly on the grass. Jon held her close to him, knowing that the sun was beginning to go down. Just a little longer, and he’d take her to their home. Right now, he couldn’t bear to let her go, not even for a moment.
The Shifter's Mate
The Shifter's Mate
Chapter Nine
When Serenity yawned to full wakefulness, it was to find not sunlight but moonlight bathing her naked body. She jerked to a sitting position and looked around for Jon. He was nowhere in sight. Fear gripped her chest. He wouldn’t leave her, would he? She didn’t know these woods. How could he have wandered off?
Quickly in the dull illumination, she dressed and gathered their things. Jon’s clothes lay where he’d stripped them off. He hadn’t been kidding when he said he enjoyed going bare. Not sure where he was, she decided to leave his clothes there just in case he found his way back while she went searching. Besides, that’s what he got for not waking her.
She decided not to lug the picnic basket in case a wild animal came after her and she needed to run. She laughed at that considering these woods weren’t the wilderness or somewhere farther from civilization. Inching between the line of trees, she called out, “Jon, where are you?”
He didn’t answer. She swallowed, squared her shoulders, and began to work her way through the trees. Each step away from the water, the surroundings grew darker. Serenity shivered against the cool night, wishing she had a jacket. Every few steps, she called for Jon, and when the light had all but winked out since the moon’s light didn’t seem to penetrate to where she was, her imagination began to run wild.
An owl hooted overhead, and she squeaked, freezing in place. She peered around her, seeing nothing, but then something snapped nearby. Her throat went dry. For no reason at all, thoughts of the panther entered her mind. She’d dreamed of him again while she slept by the lake, and by now he felt familiar—if he was even real.
Another twig snapped, and Serenity whirled around. There in a narrow strip of moonlight, which was eerie, stood the panther. He watched her with eyes she knew were able to see clearly in the dark. He was huge, bigger than what she thought a panther would be, with taut muscles rippling under his smooth fur as he walked toward her.
Serenity flattened herself against a tree, panting. “I-I’m your friend,” she told it, hoping it understood and wasn’t looking at her like dinner. “Don’t eat me,” she whimpered when he drew alongside her.
The cat brushed her legs and nuzzled under her dress. She shoved the material down and just caught herself from popping his nose. The beast looked up at her and then sat down. All of a sudden, all her fears drained away. She dropped to her knees before it.
“You don’t want to hurt me at all, do you?” She reached a tentative hand toward it. The animal brushed its head into her palm, and she began to stroke him, scratch behind his ears, and then kissed his nose. “I can’t believe I’m treating you like my mother’s cat familiar. I must be crazy. I’m not a cat person, but I like you better than Sil. No, that’s not short for Sylvester. Mom named the thing Silvia if you can believe it—as if we don’t have enough S names in our household.”
She stopped speaking, realizing she sounded like an idiot. The panther had no clue what she was talking about, and there was still no guarantee that it wouldn’t turn on her. But she couldn’t detect a threat. Besides that, now that she was less afraid, all the defensive spells that had fled her mind when the cat first appeared came flooding back. She’d string him up by his toes with barely a word if he turned violent.
“So what are you doing around here, darling? Did you escape the circus? Does Jon know about you?” She moved closer to peer into the animal’s eyes. “Did you eat Jon?” She laughed at that absurdity. She stood up. “Never mind. Come on. You can help me find him.”
To her surprise, the animal walked at her side. When Serenity was about to make a right turn through the trees, the cat crossed her path and nudged her to the left. She gave into it, knowing she’d never win with the direction they chose. Within five minutes, the trees thinned, and Jon’s house came into view.
“Wow, you led me home. You’re amazing, boy.”
Home. The word echoed in her mind, almost like someone had spoken it with joy, thrilled that she had called Jon’s house her home.
“What should I do? Where’s Jon? He wouldn’t have left me by the lake to come back home alone. And I can’t just go inside and wait for him. Something could have happened. Maybe I should go look for him.”
She spun to head back into the trees, but the panther blocked her path.
“Move, boy. I have to find him.”
The panther looked her dead in the eyes and spoke to her mind. “It’s fine, Serenity. Go inside and wait.”
She blinked. He couldn’t have…She didn’t hear…Serenity came from a long line of witches, a bloodline kept pure to preserve the level of power they possessed. That line had never been broken until her mother fell for a regular human man and had been disowned because of it. Still, with that history, Serenity had seen a lot of strange things—some she could conjure herself—but she’d never met a panther such as this. It was as if…as if…he was human.
She remembered the night before when it rained and she’d seen the panther then. She’d heard Jon’s voice tell her to go back in the house. Not come back as he pretended to be in the house. The voice had said go back or started to. This time as well, the voice in her head had sounded like her lover.
“J-Jon?” she asked.
There was no answer in her mind, and the animal didn’t move. Serenity moved to go around it, but again, it blocked her path. She backed away and turned to go inside the house. When she was at the door with her hand on the knob, he called to her.
“Serenity.”
She gasped. Too afraid to face him, she froze in place, unable move forward or go back. The rustle of grass met her ears, and then she felt him near, his breath on her hair. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. I wanted you to know. Probably should have chosen a better way to break it to you.”
“I don’t understand.” She shivered, and he reached around her to open the door and conduct her inside. When she was seated at the kitchen table staring at her fingers, Jon moved about the room preparing tea to warm her. From somewhere, she found the courage to speak again. “So you’re not human at all.”
“No.”
“You’re a shape shifter?”
“Yes, that’s one of the terms I’ve heard. metamorph, mesomorph, changeling, were—”
“Were-?”
“Were-cat,” he explained.
When he set her tea in front of her, Serenity was so rattled, she took a huge sip of the brew and burned her tongue. Without thinking, she muttered a spell to relax the nerves in her mouth just enough for healing to begin without suffering.
“There,” Jon exclaimed. “What did you just do? I’ve come clean about myself, Serenity, but you’re keeping secrets. I’m very observant, as cats tend to be, and I’ve noticed you do that sometimes, mutter something.”
She wasn’t sure she was ready to reveal her secret. Women in her family were sworn to secrecy about their existence. They were not like the average witch, the ones portrayed in movies or in books. None of her clan had ever been involved in the Salem witch hunts and things of that nature throughout history. That’s how elite they were, how protective of their presence in the world.
Then again, she, her mother, and her sisters had been disowned with no support ever to come from their family again. Was this how it was for Jon, or was he the only one of his kind? She dared peek up at him, finding that he watched her with interest and concern. He must be worried about her accepting him for what he was. At the moment, she wasn’t sure whether she believed it and what it meant for their relationship.
Since he wasn’t an ordinary human, he wasn’t off limits, but mixing shifter and witch? How odd would that be? An ache began in her temple, and she tried to rub it away with her fingertips. The tension increased. Jon stood up to come around to her side of the table. He laid gentle hands on her shoulders and began to massage.
“You don’t have to say anything. I will wait until you’re ready,” he told her.
Longing to be held in his arms, to pretend that none of these issues existed, she laid her head against his abs and closed her eyes. “I’m not sure. Everything inside me tells me to trust you, to take a chance, but I have to think of my sisters and even my mother who drives me crazy with her antics. We are all we have.”
“I understand that.” He leaned over and kissed her. She gave into the pleasure for a while before pulling away.
“I have no real proof that you are what you say. For all I know, it could have been a trick. We don’t know each other that well.” She looked up at him in time to see hurt pass through those dark eyes, but it disappeared quickly. Still naked, he moved from behind her and stood to her side.
“Watch, Serenity.”
She dared to keep her focus on him and almost lost her breath and dropped her tea cup when he began to transform. Black straight hairs grew out of his skin at all points. His bones cracked and popped to reshape into that of the panther. This wasn’t a trick or magic. She could sense magic, and this is why she’d never sensed it from him, why she didn’t know that Jon wasn’t human. The shape shifter was genetically made up to do what he could.
“Only the black panther?” she asked breathless.
Like before, he spoke in her head. “Yes. My family are all panthers. I found after I got here to the States that there are others like us. We can smell the difference. Lena is from a clan of cougars.”
Jealousy rose in Serenity. “That’s why she was so clingy to you. Does that mean you can only be with others like you?”
Jon changed back to his human form and crossed to her, but when she stiffened, he didn’t take her in his arms like he had obviously been about to. Instead he drew a chair close and sat in front of her. Serenity wished he would put some clothes on. She couldn’t think clearly with him naked. He no doubt knew that, even wanted it that way.
“Before I left London, Mordecai, my clan leader, told me I would find my mate in the States and that I would know her when I found her.” He reached out to take Serenity’s hand. She didn’t pull away. “I knew you from the moment I saw you, and you knew me too. You may not be a shifter, but you know me. Just as I told you before, baby, you believe that I am the one. You sense it inside of you.”
“What if you’re wrong?” Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her face. “I’ve always been independent, and I don’t say that because I feel like you’ll take over my life. My sisters and I live with the consequences of such a union gone wrong—because my mother loved the wrong man.”
She stood up and went to get a tissue to wipe her nose. From the doorway she watched him, his shoulders slumped, pain in his bearing. Not for anything did she want to hurt him, but things weren’t so simple.
“When I close my eyes, I see my father’s face just as it was so long ago. In my heart I believe he is a good man, that there were reasons he left his family. We’d all been so close. Jon, if I give in to being with you, what happens years from now when we have children? Will you leave us?”
“Never,” he roared and rushed to her. Against her will, he tugged her into his arms and held on tight. “I wanted to wait until you were sure, Serenity, but I love you. We haven’t been together long, but the feelings are true. I know you feel it, and from what you tell me, I understand your reservations. But I promise you, I won’t leave. I’ll never leave you. Not now. Not ever!”
“We’re witches,” she blurted out.
He pulled back and looked in her face. “You’re what?”
“Witches. Magic flows through us. We create it from nothing. We don’t necessarily need an herb or a potion. Knowing the right words can accomplish anything from stopping time to changing our form.”
His eyes grew wide. “So that’s how she did it. I knew it wasn’t you at your house.”
She gasped. “You knew?”
He tapped his nose. “My nose doesn’t fool me. Salacity can change her appearance, but she can’t or maybe didn’t change her scent. I had recorded which of you was which by scent.”
She grinned. “Interesting.” So her lover would never be fooled by an imposter. The thought thrilled her given how Salacity liked to play tricks. For a moment, she dared to think that Jon could be the one. After all, she had taken the leap to share her family secrets with him. In the past a memory wipe was the result for any who’d learned the truth about them.
Jon lifted her in his arms and carried her to their bedroom. He laid her down and stripped her of her clothing. In silence they laid for a while in each other’s arms. Serenity went over their situations time and again, but it all boiled down to being afraid. She had no idea before until she met Jon how terrified she’d been of love all these years. Time and again, she’d blamed the lack of magical men or that she only met ordinary ones who could never be trusted with their secret.
Yet like Salacity and Sky did, she could have attended the annual festivals of magical creatures and found someone if she truly wanted to. Now she began to wonder if both her sisters were like her, too afraid to end up with their hearts shattered like their mother. Serenity was terrified of taking a chance on Jon, but she might be even more scared to lose him.
“I’m so confused,” she admitted.
“Shh, my love.” He kissed her forehead. “Who said anything about you choosing tonight what you want to do? We can go back home tomorrow, continue to date, and I won’t rush you. Knowing that we’ve shared our secrets is enough for now, and we’ll both take our time, get to know each other better, and see where it all leads. How’s that?”
At last, the tension and fear in her chest eased. She breathed out a sigh of relief. “Yes, I like that plan. It will give me more time to come to terms with what I feel. Can we keep this between us? Will you promise not to come to the house until I’m sure? We’ll meet somewhere and keep my family out of it.”
“Agreed. Whatever it takes, Serenity. I’d wait an eternity for just a moment with you.”
The Shifter's Mate
The Shifter's Mate
Chapter Ten
Serenity had made her decision. No matter what the risk, she would see where things led with Jon. With a grin she hadn’t been able to wipe from her face all morning, she put the finishing touches on the painting she was restoring and cleaned her hands on a cloth. For the last month
, she and Jon had been dating, and to her surprise, her mother didn’t once try to poke her nose into Serenity’s life by asking her where she was going each night and who she was with. The woman didn’t even try to take over Serenity’s body, making Serenity conclude that her mother was busy driving Salacity or Sky crazy.
The time back home instead of being filled with the normal stress from her family had been quiet on all fronts. Serenity was happier than she’d ever been, and that gave her confidence that her decision was the right one. Being six in the evening, she had just enough time to shower and change before she would meet Jon at his clinic. At first they had avoided meeting there in case one of her family members suspected, but when no one showed interest, she told him it was the best place since he’d been late wrapping up work several times. At least if she was at the clinic, she could sit in the waiting room and chat with his assistant Becky.
By seven-thirty, Serenity had changed to a cute black dress that clung to her curves in just the right places. She’d slipped her feet into high-heeled sling backs, and with the addition of a few tasteful accessories, she’d left the house and headed over to Jon’s work. She couldn’t wait to see him, to kiss him and hold him in her arms. More and more as the days passed, she disliked being away from him. There was almost an ache in her heart when they parted each night. Not being one to deny reality, she knew what it was. She loved him.
Since she’d made her decision, tonight was a good time to tell him how she felt. He’d be ecstatic, she knew. Serenity would have to be blind to miss the love that shined from Jon’s eyes every time he spotted her, and it had made her feel like the most precious woman on Earth—well after she’d gotten over her fear of it.
“Hello, Becky. How was your day?” she called to the assistant when she strolled into the waiting room.
Becky smiled and pointed to the phone she held up to her ear. She waved Serenity on through, pressing the buzzer to unlock the door. “Hey, Serenity,” she whispered and went back to her call.