by A. C. Arthur
“I will not wait here while she’s in there…” Rome paused, swallowed deeply. “Get the hell out of my way!”
He pushed past Lucas, who actually stood a little firmer than anyone could have expected.
“Sir, I’m just following orders. I can’t let you go back there until she says so.”
“Lucas, I’m not in the fucking mood for this right now. Get. Out. Of. My. Way!” Rome yelled and pushed forward again.
Lucas used both hands this time to push against Rome’s chest, trying to keep him still. Finally, it was Eli and X who took Rome by the arms.
“Give him a second, Rome.” X spoke, leaning directly into Rome’s face. “He’s gonna go tell Ary you’re here and then you can go back and see her.”
X’s voice was serious and clear as a whistle as Lucas backed up, then turned and ran into one of the other rooms.
“She can’t be…” Rome began.
“She’s not,” Eli replied confidently. “She’s breathing and so is the baby.”
Rome turned to him so fast, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and slamming him against the wall. Eli let out a whoosh of breath before looking his Leader directly in the eye.
“I can hear her heartbeat and the baby’s,” Eli told him. “I know it sounds strange and you might not believe me, but … I’m a Seer, Rome. Apparently my gift from the shaman’s poisonous smoke is a speedy track to my true destiny as a shifter. You’re the Assembly Leader, Ary’s the curandera and I … am … the Seer,” he said with a finality that rang true through every pore of his body. His limbs felt stronger, his breath came easier, and when he looked even deeper into Rome’s eyes, he saw the two heartbeats there. Deep inside this strong and powerful shifter, Eli could see the extensions of him, his mate, and his child—his family.
He lifted his hands and placed them on Rome’s shoulders. “They are alive,” he told him sincerely.
“She’s asking for you.”
Rome jerked at the female voice and moved away from Eli without speaking another word. Eli, on the other hand, closed his eyes again and heard screams echoing in his head of the female’s voice, blood pumping so loudly and so fiercely through his body he actually trembled.
She was covered in blood. It was on her arms, her face, her clothes. He instantly thought of her in the forest being attacked by Lormenians, in that bed, wearing that necklace, calling to him. Bringing his hands up, Eli clapped them to his ears and hurriedly left the room.
He collided instantly with a body, strong hands clasping his shoulders.
“You know that this is no longer the answer,” the gravelly male voice whispered to him. “Fear will feed the darkness. Love will bring back the light. Take a deep breath, shifter, and let the light in.”
Eli nodded then. Hearing the words, knowing their truth. He hadn’t been able to see Nivea earlier when he’d wanted to, but after hearing what Rome needed to get him through and admitting to himself and to the others in that room who and what he was, he knew the running had to stop.
This vision of Nivea, the one where she died because of events he’d set in motion. It scared the hell out of him. Scared him enough to want to make this right, to make her his.
“Eli,” Nivea called to him.
She’d obviously followed him out of the medical center and most likely had heard what Baxter had just said to him.
“There is strength here.” Baxter began speaking once more.
Eli stood up straight, squaring his shoulders but still not turning to face either of them.
“In the Gungi, my father was also a shaman. He could create great spells and cures. I asked him one day how he came to be so talented and he shook his head, telling me simply that the success of any spell or cure rested within the individual it was used upon. A great warrior with strength and power beyond compare would own any cure a shaman offered. You own that cure, your destiny is much stronger than any poison Dagar could have ever concocted. Embrace it, embrace what is meant to be. And she,” Baxter said, pausing. “She owns your heart.
“There is no more time for this discord. The danger is real and unity is the defense. The Leader will need you both to survive this. They will all need you.”
CHAPTER 21
Nivea let her head fall back, hot water sluicing down her throat, between the valley of her breasts. Her muscles were tight, her temples throbbing mildly, persistently. But at least her hands had ceased shaking.
There’d been so much blood and Kalina’s eyes had remained closed and the monitor Ary had hooked to her stomach had been silent for ten excruciatingly long seconds. Her gaze had met Ary’s and Nivea saw the tears sheening her eyes, knew they matched her own. Then the sound had begun, loud and fast and Ary gasped.
“Yes! Yes! It’s breathing. The baby is breathing!” she’d said, her body shaking with relief.
Nivea had let her head fall forward, her chin touching her chest as she thanked everyone and everything higher and more powerful than them. She inhaled when she heard Ary begin to move, knowing there was more that needed to be done, and the scent of the First Female’s blood permeated her senses.
As she stood in the shower remembering, the scent remained fresh in her mind. And for the second time in as many months, Nivea cried.
The sound of the shower door opening made her jump and she immediately dipped her face beneath the spray of water again. Eli stepped in so that when she opened her eyes, through the blur of the water, he was standing right there. His hands immediately went to the nape of her neck, where, for endless seconds, he just held on. A muscle twitched in his jaw as he blinked, the stormy green of his eyes clear. He pulled her closer, lowering his forehead to hers but not closing his eyes.
“Look at me,” he said when she blinked slowly. “I need you to look at me.”
She did and bolts of heat traveled from the spot where his thumbs rubbed along her jawline, down her neck to her breasts.
“I don’t know why it was you. Or why I was the one who connected to Acacia in the jungle and needed that shaman’s cure. I can’t explain what being a Seer will mean to me, or to my future and I won’t promise you that I will not try to protect you with every breath in my body. I’m not an easy shifter to be with,” he said, snapping his lips shut tightly, his eyes blinking fiercely.
“But what I do know is that I cannot continue to do any of this…” He paused, took a deep breath, and let it out forcefully. “Without you.”
Her chest felt heavy, like a boulder had been settled there as she tried to inhale. When the effort seemed like too much work he kissed her. Soft and slow, his lips touched hers, tilted over them, and warmed every inch of her body. His tongue licked along the seam, coaxing her to open, to acquiesce and heaven help her, she did.
Together their tongues danced and dueled, dipped and dived in and out of each other’s mouth, along their lips, their chins, and necks. His hands moved down her arms to her torso, then down further to cup her ass tightly. Nivea wrapped her arms around his neck, her palms flattening on the back of his head. And she held on. For the next breath and the next, she simply held on.
Eli was fast and he was determined, his hard length pressing deep inside her the moment he’d lifted her thighs and pressed her back against the cool tiles. She locked her ankles behind his back and he pounded into her with such force, such emotion she could only open her mouth to scream, but no sound escaped. She shivered, her thighs shaking so vehemently she thought her legs would simply slip from his waist and when she was ready to hold onto the blissful release, Eli pulled out of her quickly. In seconds he was turning, lowering her to the floor of the shower, kicking the door open behind him so that her legs were half in and half out. He came down onto his knees, lifting her legs onto his shoulders and fastened his mouth on her clit, sucking until Nivea’s nails scraped along the shower floor. Water pelted down onto her body, stinging the turgid nipples of her breasts, running in sensual rivulets over her stomach, pattering over the back of Eli’s head as he continued to suck and
lick her until her eyes closed, her body tremoring with the quick shock of release.
She was limp and believing with everything left in her that she would never move again—or at least, not in the near future. But she was wrong; Eli was on a mission. He lifted her from the floor of the shower, holding her wet and limp body tightly against his, kissing her ear and her neck as he moved them over to the sink.
He turned her to face the mirror, slapped her palms on the sides of the sink, and stared at her in the mirror.
“Not without you, Nivea,” he said, dipping his head to bite the edge of her left shoulder before looking up again. “Not ever again.”
She didn’t know what she was supposed to think or feel at this moment, or what, if anything, Eli expected her to say. All she knew for certain was that this feeling of pure pleasure coursing through her, coaxing the cat that lived within, enticing the female that ruled, was everything she’d ever hoped for. All the counseling, the persistent will to be normal, to put her past behind her, to be better than the people that had given her life, it all came down to this exact second. The moment Eli Preston stared at her with his intense green eyes and offered her everything she’d ever wanted, and more.
“Not again,” she whispered, licking her lips and straightening her shoulders. “Not ever again, Eli.”
His hand was between her legs then, the other one squeezing her breast. Two fingers dipped inside her, pressing deep, spreading wide. Nivea opened her legs, going up on tiptoe with the intense waves of pleasure. But she did not look away, did not break the contact she’d waited what seemed a lifetime to achieve.
He pumped wildly, his palm smacking against the moist lips of her pussy until her legs once again began to quiver. Faster and harder he pushed her, thrusting into her while the fingers of his other hand pinched her nipple, sending spikes of pleasure/pain all the way down to her toes. When he pulled his fingers from her abruptly Nivea wasn’t totally surprised. She’d seen the dark desire in his eyes, heard it in his breathing, felt his cat reaching for hers. She knew what he wanted and she was more than eager to give it to him. Clasping her fingers tightly on the edge of the sink she leaned farther in, her legs spread, lifting her hips in offering to him. He released her breast, that hand spreading her cheeks as his fingers, now drenched with her essence, pushed slowly into her anus. She hissed, taking her lower lip between her teeth and pressing back against his hand.
He pulled out, pressed in again, and she purred.
“Yeah,” he whispered, his forehead resting on her spine. “That’s my little cat. Tell her I’m here,” he continued, coaxing her entrance, spreading her wider, readying her for his taking.
“O companheiro dela está aqui, para sempre,” he whispered, pulling his fingers out and pressing the hard length of his dick in their place. “O companheiro dela está aqui, para sempre. Para sempre.”
Nivea accepted him deep inside her, loving the feel of him filling her completely. His words replaying over and over in her mind.
“Her mate is here, forever. Forever.”
That’s what he’d said, what he was still saying as he pumped into her deeply, intensely.
When he came, she came; when he roared, she roared. And when their mating was final, when their hearts were beating wildly with Eli’s arms wrapped tightly around her body, his lips pressing warm kisses down her back, Nivea sighed and repeated, “Sua companheira está aqui, para sempre. Para sempre.”
* * *
“I never thought I’d be here, in this emotional place with anyone,” Eli said, his voice soft but gruff as they lay in his dark bedroom.
Nivea lay on her stomach, one leg tossed over his waist, an arm and her head resting on his chest. She liked to sleep in this position, he’d thought absently a few seconds ago. Now, he realized how much he also enjoyed her in this position, whether she was asleep or awake.
“This is exactly where I always thought I would be with someone,” she replied before sighing. “It’s the thought that kept me sane through everything.”
The hand he’d had resting on her shoulder moved so that his fingers toyed with her hair. She’d been through so much and yet had come out so strong. Eli deeply admired her for having accomplished that. “I wish I’d had your strength,” he admitted.
“You did,” she told him, her palm flattening on his bicep and clenching gently. “You used your strength to complete your training and to come here and help Rome start the Assembly. We all have strengths and weaknesses, Eli, what counts is how we use them.”
“I’ve always thought of that drug as a curse, as poison living and breathing inside of me,” he confessed.
“But don’t you see how all of that had to happen for us to be where we are now? Without that shaman’s smoke, without what you went through with Acacia and then Leanne, you and I would not be here together at this moment. And you would not be the Seer that Rome needs by his side at this time.”
“They have Magdalena,” he replied.
“She was for the Elders and the old ways of the shifters. You,” Nivea said, poking a finger into his chest, then rubbing her palm over that spot. “You are here for us, during the Stateside Shifters’ time of need, you are here and you have a power that I have no doubt will help us through this.”
Eli shook his head. “I don’t know how to control it. When I was searching for you and wanted a vision desperately, it wouldn’t come. And then when I was in the medical center and Rome was ready to tear down the walls…” His words trailed off as Eli sighed, remembering how intense that moment with Rome had actually been, for both of them.
“The power you needed to calm Rome’s worst fears appeared. You assured him and most likely saved the walls and everyone else in that room from his wrath. It was perfect timing,” she told him.
Eli kissed her forehead then, hugging her even closer to him. “You are perfect timing for me, Nivea Cannon. I couldn’t do this without you, couldn’t embrace—”
His words were cut short once again as she moved until she was completely straddling him, leaning down to cup his face in her hands. “You can and you will,” she said seriously. “Together, we can and we will. Together, Eli, that’s all that matters.”
“Yes. That’s all that matters,” he agreed, readjusting himself so that his now awakening arousal was closer to her warmth.
“And just so you know, I won’t be promising not to protect you either. You may be very important to the Assembly as our new Seer, but to me, you’re much more. You’re my mate and I’ll be damned if anybody or anything past, present, or future, will ever come between us.”
Eli smiled. He couldn’t help it. She was tenacious and headstrong and beautiful with her hair a bushy halo around her face, lips swollen from his kisses. She wasn’t soft and dainty or privileged and high-minded. She was simply the female that, at some point in these last few years, Eli had fallen in love with.
His hands went to her hips, his fingers kneading the soft skin there as he looked up at her. “I think you’ve got it twisted,” he told her. “I’m your mate so I’ll be protecting you.”
She smiled then, a wide and gorgeous smile that lifted her already high cheekbones and brightened her eyes. Eli’s chest filled with warmth at the sight, his body reacting in a similar way.
“Don’t forget I’ve been highly trained to protect shifters and humans,” she said, then lifted her hips slightly so that her wet folds rubbed seductively over the tip of his length. “My mate would be first in line to reap the rewards of my training.”
“Oh, I’ll reap the rewards all right,” Eli told her, grabbing her hips and thrusting upward until the tip of his dick was at the entrance of her hot pussy.
She purred and Eli felt the vibration throughout his entire body. The sound touched every nerve ending, rubbing along his cat with a tender familiarity that had it chuffing in response.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she told him before leaning over and sucking his bottom lip into her mouth.
&
nbsp; Eli let her control the kiss while he held firmly to her hips, bringing her down hard each time he pumped upward, filling her so completely and loving the feel of her warm essence dripping onto him.
When she pulled her mouth from his Eli whispered, “I’m never gonna get enough of you.”
Nivea licked his lips again, moving out of his reach when he attempted to trap her tongue in his mouth once more. She sat up straight, an act that increased the depth of his length inside of her and solicited a deep groan from him.
“That’s good to know,” she told him, settling her hips over him so that their bodies conjoined. “Because I don’t tire easily.”
With that she began pumping him with hard, rhythmic thrusts. Up and down, up even higher, until nothing but the tip of his dick remained in touch with her, then down until his balls rubbed against her plump wet folds. Over and over until they both were struggling for breath. When Eli’s hands went to her hips this time, he moved in farther, using his thumbs to part her folds so that when he looked down, the puckered hood of her clit was bared for his view. Licking his lips he touched a thumb to the nub and rubbed. Nivea arched back farther, her hands going back to grip his thighs for leverage. Eli lifted slightly off the pillows so he could see her better, see the desire on her face, the rise and fall of her breasts, the glistening bud of her clit and the in-and-out motion of his dick still driving deep inside of her thanks to her continued pumps.
His breath came in thick, heavy pants, hers in shallow little sounds that made him harder, his balls tightening in anticipation of release. She continued to move, her hair brushing his knees as she did. Eli pumped into her, matching her already established rhythm thrust for deliciously deep thrust. He felt the moment their cats met, the pounding inside his body as it welcomed yet another entity—his mate. He felt as if he’d jumped off a cliff and landed on a cloud, a puffy thick cloud that was now carrying him to the sweetest abyss ever. Nivea jerked forward, her palms slapping into his chest, her extended claws cutting with a sting into his skin. Her body had begun to tremble, her release pouring out, covering his dick. She leaned in farther, licking the cuts she’d inflicted on his chest and that’s when Eli erupted, his release shooting into her with the force of every emotion he felt for her.