by Eve Newton
“My pleasure, my dear,” she says. “About twice a year. You will be able to leave shortly. There is just one person you need to see first,” she says and waves as she exits. I expect her to let my mother in on her way out, but instead it is Finn.
“Hi,” I say a bit warily, hoping there are no residual effects floating around the room that will make him jump on me.
“Hi,” he says. He is back to friendly, nice Finn, so whatever his issue was before seems to have been resolved. “I need to take you in before you can leave. This is a stressful time for ValamAtrux.”
“Okay,” I nod and sit up. He helps me off the bed and his eyes laser over my body, quite apparent through the sheer robe. I turn quickly, as that will lead to nowhere good, and carefully pull it over my head. This is the first time I have been completely naked around him and I feel very odd, like I want to hide my nudity. I usually have no qualms in this area, but suddenly I feel very shy. I hear him disrobe and then feel his overwhelming presence behind me. He places his hands on my back and V.A. flutters under his touch, happy to have his attention. I suddenly realize this is also the first time we have been alone during this process. I take advantage of this and turn around to watch him. It is truly a beautiful experience to see him with Her. Not to mention he has a body that I would love to crawl all over and lick every inch of. I admire him openly and he sees it in my eyes when he opens his and is ready to replace my Dragon. It lights a fire in his eyes, an actual fire, and he parts his lips. I turn back around slowly, and he carefully replaces V.A., keeping his hands on the small of my back even after She has flapped off. I gasp as he pulls me against him. I can feel his enormous erection pressing into my back. He is unbelievably well endowed, and my mouth starts to water. I think there are, in fact, some residual pheromones flying around and a lot of them are hitting me. He tilts my head and brushes his lips down the side of my neck. My nipples tighten and I feel myself getting wet. His palms are lightly moving down my body, over my nipples and my stomach, getting closer and closer to my hot sex. He slides a finger down between my lower lips, rubbing it over my clit and my head falls back against his shoulder.
A scuffling outside and the door being thrown open interrupts us and we jump apart. Finn stands in front of me as I hastily pull the robe back over my head. It’s not exactly covering up my very aroused state, my nipples are like pebbles against the sheer material, but it will have to do as CK bellows at me in a voice of the gods. I am going to have to face him, so I step around Finn who is still standing there as naked as the day he was born, with his erection still proudly showing.
“There are no words, Aefre!” CK yells at me. “No explanations, because this is exactly how it looks.”
“We didn’t do anything,” I say calmly. “He was taking care of V.A., that’s all.”
“Taking care of you, you mean,” he snarls, eyes fixed firmly on my breasts. At this point it gets worse as Cole walks into the room, having been let in by Aida, who I am not all that surprised to see, is mooning over him like a teenager with a crush. She glares at CK, who clearly went around her, and she is not amused by that. Finn exacerbates the situation by leisurely getting dressed and then bending down to kiss me.
“See you soon, my Queen,” he whispers and leaves before CK can step forward to throttle him.
“Don’t blow this out of proportion,” I say to him before he can speak. “V.A. needed him, but nothing happened between us.” I say the lie directly to his face, as even a slight avoidance of his furious gaze will prove to him that I am lying. I am completely certain that if we hadn’t been interrupted, it would have ended up with me bent over and Finn’s cock deep inside me. Christ, I had wanted it, badly.
“We will go home and discuss this further,” CK says and holds his hand out for me.
I shake my head and he is about to yell at me some more, when I step forward and hold my hand out to him. I also take Cole’s and say, “There is something more important that I want to show you.”
He looks at me quizzically as I Astral us off, back to the country manor in England.
“You have your Powers back!” he exclaims with a big smile, the Finn situation suddenly forgotten. He kisses me and I smile happily at him.
“You mean Finn gave you your Powers back,” Cole says coldly, arms crossed defensively.
Aw shit. Thought I might have got away with that.
“He helped,” I say. “My own healing abilities did most of the work,” I add loftily, and he looks somewhat abashed.
CK has moved behind me and is brushing my hair away from my neck and says, “If I don’t do this now, it is going to kill me.” He bites down hard, and I gasp. He suckles quickly and I tremble with desire. Cole gets in on it as he can’t resist, and bites down on my other side. I am sandwiched between the two and this is going to go somewhere very pleasant if I don’t stop it. I have other issues to deal with at the moment. I wiggle and they both let me go, sex on their minds, but I shake my head. “Sorry, I want to, really I do. But there is something I have to take care of immediately.”
I close my eyes as they growl at me but ignoring them, I call for Lincoln. He is in Wolf form and I can see him prowling the woods. His head goes up and he cocks his ears and leaps forward, cutting through the woods at super speed. He is tearing across the garden and is in human form when he bursts into the library with his pants undone and pulling a t-shirt over his head. “You’re back,” he says and crushes me to him. “And healed,” he adds.
“Yep, good as new,” I say with a smile. “Let me get showered and we will go and deal, okay?”
“Yes,” he says, and it looks like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders.
“Tell me everything,” I say and take his hand. I look back to Cole and CK who aren’t happy, and I try to placate them by saying, “I will be back soon. I cannot ignore this for another minute. Please understand.”
They both nod reluctantly, but probably so they don’t look like jealous fools in front of Lincoln. Neither of them is stupid and it is quite clear that I have to go. With a big smile and relief in my heart, I Astral myself and Lincoln upstairs and outside Cade’s room. I knock and without waiting for an answer, I push the door open. He looks pretty bad, still not healed, so I quickly go to him. He cracks his puffy eyes open and groans when he sees me.
“Go away,” he says gruffly.
“No,” I say. “Gods, what is your problem? You agreed to just me and now are you reneging?” I am getting mad with him, stubborn fool.
“Wasn’t talking to you,” he says.
I look over my shoulder at Lincoln, who is leaning casually in the doorway with a smile on his face. I shoo him out and he goes, but leaves the door open, still not altogether trusting.
“Let’s get this over with,” Cade says and hastily draws his eyes back up to mine from where they had been lingering much lower down. Crap, I had forgotten I am practically naked. I sit to cover up as much as I can and he drops his fangs, hiding them behind my wrist. He makes a slight purring noise as he drinks from me, his eyes fixed firmly on me. He lets me go and says, “You’ve healed fully. I can taste the difference.” He looks slightly perturbed by that admission, so I just nod and pat his hand, lingering for a bit longer than he is comfortable with. He pulls his hand out of mine and turns over, dismissing me. I sigh, but vow to come back here while he is sleeping and sit with him. I turn and leave, closing the door behind me, and lead Lincoln to my bathroom. I am all sticky and in need of a thorough cleansing. I whip the robe over my head and step under the jets. Ah, bliss. I enjoy it for a second and then say, “Spill, Anderson.”
He chuckles at me and he shifts from foot to foot, edgy. He clearly wants to get in the shower with me, but I am sure on some level he knows to stay out. This shower is huge, but so is he. It would be way too crowded for my liking. I hurry it up as he tells me of the problem. It seems I have let his side down with my coma and a revolt is about to take place. Well, the sooner we get this show on the road the
better. I get out and turn in a circle, dried and dressed. Fantastic.
Lincoln takes in my attire, starting with my Louboutins, of course, up my bare legs to my very mini skirt - well, CK did say to wear skirts - to my halter top that shows off not only my Faerie markings, but also my Dragon.
“No,” he says eventually. “You look gorgeous, but you need to look badass.”
I can do badass, so I spin in a circle again and he nods approvingly at my black leather pants, tight vest top, and biker boots. Sadly, I have to ruin the look by adding a coat. It’s bloody freezing.
“Let’s go,” I say, taking his hand and Astralling us to Lincoln’s house in L.A that currently houses his Pack.
Err, our Pack.
They sense his presence as soon as our feet hit the ground in the foyer and they all come out and surround us, looking pretty hostile.
“So, you’re back,” Chrissie, the instigator of my potential overthrowing snarls at me. She’s a gutsy lass, I’ll give her that. Not only am I her Alpha, but her Queen. She must be pretty well pissed off to be doing this.
I have to wonder why Lincoln never told them about my coma. Surely it would help explain my absence.
“They would see it as a weakness and the same would have happened, only sooner,” Lincoln says in my head and I get it.
“Yes,” I say shortly. I don’t have to explain myself to her. Not that I have an explanation to give anyway.
“You have some nerve,” she says, stepping forward with her arms crossed. The others let her, and I see her as the strongest of the Pack. “It’s bad enough that you live halfway across the world, but you disrespect our Alpha by deserting him and us. You don’t deserve him,” she sneers at me. “You don’t deserve to call yourself our Alpha.”
Interesting, how she said I don’t deserve him. She just showed her hand, and now she can see mine. Lincoln wanted me in fighting gear, because I am going to have to fight for my place here. That is why he left it until I was better. I have to prove to them that I am the strongest. I don’t give her, or anyone else for that matter, a chance to say anything as I step forward and accept her challenge. She drops her arms and I hold mine out and she goes flying across the room without me even having to touch her. She lands in a heap and the rest of the Pack sidles back out of my angry reach. I sense Lincoln’s approval, as he too stands to the side and lets me get on with it. I march over to her and pick her up in one hand, the other one striking her. It would be unfair to beat her arse into the ground using only magick. She rallies quickly and lashes out, but I am quicker, ducking and I grab her wrist, twisting it behind her back and forcing her to her knees.
“Do you concede?” I growl at her, as I hear her bone snap. I could keep going at this, but I have roughed her up a bit with only a couple of shots. She grunts but says nothing, so I pull her head back and say again, “Do you concede? You won’t beat me, you know that, they know that, and Lincoln knows that. I am his Alpha, he chose me. We can fight over it some more, but you will never win.” I let her go with a rough shove and she falls forward on her unbroken arm. She stands stiffly and looks to her second, Cindy, for support. Cindy, the clever girl, drops her eyes and steps back.
Chrissie lets out a howl of rage as she attacks me. It catches me off guard as I thought she would back down. Stubborn fool. She gets one punch in and it revitalizes her quest. Sadly, for her though, I’ve had enough, and I blast her with Faerie magick, which knocks her unconscious before she hits the middle of the stairs with a sickening crunch. I look at each and every one of the Pack in turn, but all of them have their eyes lowered. “Anyone else think I’m not good enough?” I ask archly.
A chorus of “No, ma’am,” is muttered and I nod briskly. I join Lincoln at his side, and he is trying not to beam proudly at me. This is a serious business and it could have gone a lot differently if I was challenged without my Powers and full strength. No wonder he was so fretful over it. I think these types of situations usually go on for longer as everyone just stands around not knowing what to do next. They must have expected more of a fight than that. Oh, well, let this be a lesson: Don’t mess with the Queen. I am badass, if I say so myself.
“That’s enough,” Lincoln says mildly in my head. “You are supposed to be gracious in victory.”
Inside, I am laughing my head off at him, as he is with me, but outwardly I remain completely calm and in control.
“Someone, please help her to her room,” I say, indicating Chrissie. “Make sure she is comfortable while she heals.”
I get shocked stares back and Lincoln gives me a tight squeeze.
“Do as your Queen says,” he demands, although I have a feeling, I am missing something. Pack life is a mystery to me. As I am not really one of them, I fail to understand their customs and Lincoln only really tells me what I need to know. Apparently, he fills me in now, I was supposed to excommunicate her from the Pack.
“Nice heads-up, Wolf-boy, guess you forgot to mention that a bit earlier,” I say to him telepathically as he is still laughing at me.
“She has shown mercy to her challenger, and we will respect that,” he adds forcefully as no one has moved a muscle yet. With that said, they all spring into action, eager now to do my bidding and get back on my good side.
“I suppose we should stick around for a bit?” I ask him.
“It would be advisable,” he says with a smile.
“Okay, but not too long. You still owe me a date,” I say as I pull him closer to me by his t-shirt. “I am collecting.”
“Oh, God,” he groans. “You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that. A couple of hours and then we’ll go.”
“And what can we do in this couple of hours?” I ask seductively. He doesn’t answer me, just kisses me urgently, walking us back to his office. We don’t even get through the door before he is tugging his t-shirt off and undoing his pants. He picks me up and pushes me against the door and I get rid of the pants. He growls as he can now feel my bare skin and despite our very public spot, he slams into me with not a second to waste. I am so ready for him; he slides in easily and rubs my g-spot with the first stroke. He muffles my cries with his mouth, our impatience evident. I sense we are being watched, but that only fuels my excitement. He senses it too and turns the handle of his office door and we fall back inside, laughing as he bangs it closed. “Not sharing you, even indirectly,” he says as he speeds up. I come soon after that, as does he. We lie half clothed in each other’s arms on the sofa where we fell and he says, “So where do you want to go?”
I am surprised by his choice of topic. I thought we would talk about what just happened in the foyer. He seems to have forgotten all about it in the face of our pending date. I ponder it for a moment. I am feeling a little bit like I could eat proper food. I graze occasionally with bits of fruit or something light, but never because I need to. This is different. I want FOOD!
“Dinner,” I say, sitting up. “There is a lovely restaurant not far from the house that we could go to.”
“A restaurant?” he asks. “You want to sit there and watch me eat?” He laughs.
“While I do so adore your healthy appetite, my love, I am thinking about my own at the moment,” I say.
“I beg your pardon?” he asks. “You want food? You aren’t turning into Xerxei are you?” He peers at me closely but relaxes when I don’t Shift.
“No,” I say. “I guess my body just needs some fuel after everything I’ve been through. I’m sure it’s just a one-off. But take advantage while you can,” I add with a smirk.
“Oh, I sure will,” he says. “Watching you eat something would make me the happiest Wolf in the land.” He circles my tiny waist with his big hands to make his point. “Way too skinny.”
“Then why do you love me?” I pout at him in jest.
“Because to not love you would be to die,” he says dramatically with a fake swoon. I bash him playfully and he grins at me.
“Bedroom,” he says to me and off we
Astral, intent just on each other.
Two hours later we Astral off back home after trying to regain Pack morale. Chrissie was still out, probably will be for a while yet. Faerie magick isn’t to be taken lightly and quite frankly, I shouldn’t have used it. I am not schooled enough in it to be throwing it about. But it re-established my position and everyone just seemed happy that I was showing my face. Baby steps.
I tell CK and Cole of my planned date and neither are very happy.
“You can’t go out on a date, what will people think?” Cole asks.
“They will wonder who the gorgeous black-haired girl is he is with,” I say smartly and Shift to my Dark Fae persona, Aeval.
Much arguing later, I am starting to get a headache, and nothing has been resolved yet. They accept I need time with Lincoln, but they don’t see why we have to go out. I try yet again to explain to them I promised him, and the arguments start again.
Chapter 17
Buckinghamshire, England, September 2013 - Jess
Jess sits on the terrace as it is getting dark. She stares at the vial full of blackened marigolds that she took off Liv the other day. She kept them. She has no idea why or what to do with them, but it is quite clear they are full of poison as they shriveled up and died in this blackened state. She taps it on the table and stands to go back inside, gripping it tightly in her hand. Maybe if she crushed them up and put them in Liv’s blood it would make her ill again. Or better yet, kill her.
Unfortunately, the woman is nearly indestructible. She stops outside the library doors and peers inside. She is in there arguing with her husbands and Lincoln. She has three of the sexiest, most gorgeous men on the planet at her beck and call so why does she still need Devon? Why can’t she just let him go? The whore.
Jess sees she has Shifted, but thankfully not to Elizabeth. It is just too painful. Jess wanted to kill her the other day for doing it right in front of her. She wishes she hadn’t followed them upstairs, but she wanted to know what they speak about when they are alone together. She was unnoticed as Liv was still ill and Devon has no bond to her. She sat outside the door and listened to them fucking. No, that’s wrong, they weren’t fucking. They were making love. He was making love to her, seeing to her completely and he was in Heaven. She heard it in his voice. It had ripped through her like a red-hot knife, but she sat and waited. She was burning with curiosity about what they would speak of. Their words are etched into her brain for eternity. She will never forget what he said to his sire. She had listened to them making plans to meet in the clearing and she had gone herself to confront them. However, she had forgotten about both her sire’s and his sire’s tendency to turn up early. She had been on time, but they had already started, and she hadn’t heard a word of what they said. Devon had sent her away and it had been a long time later when he came to find her.