by M. L. Briers
“And would the witches be willing?” Connor asked, but he already knew the answer to that question by the glimmer of amusement and mischief within the woman’s eyes.
“We like Gemma…” She shrugged and left that open.
Connor got her meaning. He didn’t need her to draw him a picture. In truth they were probably waiting for the old woman to pop her clogs so that Gemma could take over…
“Can you contain her magic should she…?” Connor left that open too.
“Gracie, Jane, and I could easily do that. We could bind her magic.” Scarlet knew that it would take the power of three to be able to make another witches powers dormant, unusable. It was like a safeguard, no one witch could take the right of magic from another.
“I feel a but coming on.” Connor sighed.
“But, I doubt it would come to that. Molly values two things – her magic and her power as head of the coven – even over her own daughter. She isn’t going to give those up.”
“Good chat.” Connor grinned and started for the door.
He’d suspected as much earlier in the evening when he’d threatened the old woman with the loss of her magic. He’d seen it in her eyes when he’d had his mate lock her magic up inside the cabin…
That would make life a lot easier.
He practically ran head first into Gracie as she bounced around the corner. Her eyes went wide and her hands came up, palms out…
“Vampire!” She hissed. Her face frozen in a half smile.
“Yes, for a long time now.” Connor grinned. He couldn’t help himself, it had been a while – he showed a little fang, and heard her wheeze a breath… “But, I’m the friendly kind.”
He moved off quickly. It didn’t seem like fun anymore. If anything, the look on her face twanged his guilt switch – kind of like kicking a puppy.
His mate had made him soft.
~
~
~
Gemma couldn’t quite remember when she’d lost her jacket – when her jumper had disappeared – when the wall had moved out to meet her back in the middle of the room – but she was mindful that his lips had now left hers as he dipped to push the material of the jeans down around her ankles.
This was her chance to say no. This was her chance to rethink, to back off, and to cool down. The only problem with that was that there was a fever of lust, need, and desire burning within her blood, and not one of those thoughts stayed in her mind for longer than a second.
Then he was back, caging her body in with his, hard muscles meeting soft flesh, and the only thing that she could think was – more.
More of him.
A naked him.
A naked her.
Touching.
Feeling.
When his lips captured hers again, hungry, demanding, making her breathless with need and anticipation, she didn’t give a damn if the cabin was on fire around her. She needed more.
His hands grasped her backside, palmed the curvy flesh, and he growled long and hard as he lifted her up his body and she wrapped her legs around his hips. His hard length ached for her as it twitched and longed to be free of his jeans.
Pressed against her hot sex like that… damn, he kind of expected it to burst out and find a home inside of her.
She loved the feel of his skin beneath her fingertips as she stroked down his back. The muscles moved beneath her touch as his hips gentle rocked against her, rubbing his hard cock against her clit and making her moan with every jolt of pleasure that ended up in a giant knot of expectation deep within her body.
He alternated between kissing her senseless, leaving her breathless, and burying his face between her neck and her shoulder. Licking, nipping, sucking up and down her neck, over her shoulder, and the deepest, hungriest growl was always saved for when he nipped her flesh where he would place his bite, his mark in her flesh…
“Landon, put me down…” She ran her fingers through that silver hair at his temples and fisted his hair in her hands, yanking his head back from where he was nibbling her neck…
He growled. His eyes were jet black and so damn hungry for her that it sent a jolt of excitement clean through her body.
“Something I did?” He growled.
“Put me down.” She demanded, and he hesitated for a long moment, fighting a battle within himself to comply with her wishes, but reluctant to set her free…
The moment that he slid her down to her feet she regretted the loss of the feel of him all around her, but she wanted to feel more of him. Every last inch…
He watched her like a curious hawk to see what she was going to do next. His heart was racing and his body was pumping too much blood to his cock for him to think straight, but he waited…
Her hands went to the zipper of his jeans and he growled long and hard. One hand gripped her wrist and the other her hip and he spun her around to face the wall… His hard body pressed her there.
“Not yet…” He growled against her ear and her heart tried its damnedest to thud out of her chest and against the wall.
His hands chased down her skin. Over her hips, down her naked thighs… pressing into the flesh as they dragged back up again.
Then he hooked her panties under his thumbs – one quick thug and he’d ripped them free. She gasped in a breath.
His knee pushed between her legs and he opened her to his touch. His hand snaked around to the front of her. Fingers pressing against the trimmed hair… she caught another breath… those fingers travelled downwards, opening her flesh, running against the wet heat of her sex, she pushed out that breath and dragged in another one as he buried one finger deep inside of her channel…
That hard, deep, hungry growl at her ear sent her pulse racing faster. She heard the sound of a zipper… then there was the hard press of his cock that fitted just right as it rested long ways between her ass cheeks…
He growled again. A different sound – still hungry and yet filled with so much need, and even a little pleasure at the skin on skin contact against his hard length…
He added a finger inside of her as he stroked the pad of his thumb against her clit. Her body was on full overload now… need like she’d never known before clawed within her…
“Inside me…” She needed him.
“No.” He growled again – this time it sounded like regret.
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
Landon tore his body away from hers and she felt that loss. Her head spun as a million thoughts chased through her mind, but the feel of his hands on her hips as he yanked her backside towards him, his hands moving around to her backside, his thumbs opening her up to the hard press of his tongue, swiping from front to back…
She almost ended up in a heap on the floor. Her legs went weak and she had to lock her knees to stay upright.
Landon liked the sound of her curses now. Every curse that came from her lips told him that he was doing it just right – stroking against her sex, making her taste even better as that wet heat seeped from her body.
He couldn’t get enough of her.
He spun her around. Grasped her hips and brought her down over him as he laid back on the floor. His face buried against her sex as he devoured her, holding her in place above him with a firm grasp on her hips.
She cursed at not being able to move. She had a burning need to crawl down his body and impale herself on his cock, but he had her in some kind of a death grip that she couldn’t get away from without the help of her magic, and that wasn’t happening.
It felt too good. She was climbing too fast. She wanted to come around his hard length, but that wasn’t going to happen.
This wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t about mutually assured pleasure. This was about bonding, and he needed to taste her, and that he did.
She lost all sense of time the moment that he thrust her over the edge with his tongue buried within her. Pleasure so intense that she could only rock a little against him and let the hard crashing waves sweep through her bo
dy until she managed to find her way back to him.
She found herself down his body. Her face pressed against his chest, and excitement, need, and desire shot through her…
She wasn’t done. He certainly wasn’t done, but right then – she needed to have her way.
She palmed his chest and pushed up. His jet black eyes devoured her as he lay there taking hard breaths in and trying to control his needs until she was ready for him again…
“You taste damn good…” He growled out.
He reached for her, but she was already clambering down his body. His head came up from the floor to look down at her, those big hands reached out to capture her, but with the wickedest of smiles upon her lips, she ducked her head and tasted him right back…
Landon tried to keep his head up. He wanted to see his cock disappearing between those rosy red lips of hers, but his neck muscles didn’t seem to want to comply…
She felt too good. The wet warm heat of her mouth encasing his cock, sheathing him. The feel of her tongue licking around that sensitive ridge… he growled long and hard.
“Gemma…” He forced his head up again, his hands coming for her, and she pushed down, down until she couldn’t take any more of the girth inside of her…
He cursed long and hard. The back of his head thudded against the floor again, and he was lost in the feel of her…
Curse after curse left his lips as she worked up and down his length. His hands fisted into tight balls at his sides… His chest heaved up and down as he dragged in breath after breath.
His balls ached. His cock twitched. He could feel himself losing it…
With a half roar of desperation, for not wanting that moment to end, for the need to bury his cock inside of her, rocked the air around them. He pushed up, grabbing at her upper arms, locking his hands firmly, but gently around them, and he yanked her mouth away, cursing with regret as he spun her over onto her back.
Mine…
Landon came down on top of her. His beast was right there for her to see. It needed to bite, to claim, to bond, and there would be no stopping it soon.
“Tell me…” he growled, almost a plea. “You have to tell me.”
“I’m yours. Bite. Bond.” Gemma felt his grip move down to her wrists. He pushed her arms above her head, held her hands captured there in one large hand.
His knees pushed her legs wide and he settled between her thighs. She could already see his fangs had pushed down a little – that thought sent a hard shiver down her spine as excitement swept through her.
He caught it. Held in place. His eyes narrowed on her face as he scented the air…
“It’s not fear… I swear…” She knew the man. Knew what held him in place, denying the both of them what they needed.
“Gemma…?”
“I swear, and the only lie I will ever tell you will be little white ones…”
He dipped his head to her neck and took her scent. He needed to be one hundred percent certain… and he was.
He growled as his cock pressed against the wet heat of her channel. He felt her hips rise to meet him, and his hand pressed against her hip, holding her there as he pushed inside of her, opening her to his girth, stretching her around the hardness of his cock that felt like satin covered steel as it ate her up, devoured her, demanded the muscles relax so he could bury himself balls deep inside of her… and her body complied.
She’d never felt so full before. Stretched around his girth. His length pressing against the opening to her womb. The perfect fit, because he was made for her, or she for him.
Together they were… complete.
“Mine.” He growled against her lips.
“Mine.” She answered him.
His bear roared within him. Demanding. Desperate to claim her as theirs.
The damn beast would have to wait. He had his mate in his arms and he was in no mood to rush anything. He wanted to savour her.
It was a slow build. The friction between them as his cock took her over and over. Deeply, short bursts of shallow thrusts that made her beg him for more… Balls deep; his groan of pleasure was a match for her moans and gasps…
When he felt her inner muscle start to lock up around him, causing more erotic friction inside of her. He reached for her, bringing her back up from the floor, cradling her upper body against his as one hand locked against her hair, and he opened up her neck and shoulder for his bite.
His hips moved faster. His cock devoured her… until she stilled, held against him as expectation, need, soared within her.
Landon allowed his beast to push forward. His fangs elongated and locked into place…
Mine…
His.
The moment that she cried out as she came undone around him; the beast within him pounced, struck. His fangs pierced her skin, biting deep into the flesh, and the taste of her blood flooded over his tongue… a growl so deep, so hungry rumbled through him that he’d never heard the likes of it before.
His soul reached for hers and her magic welcomed him. He knew her then. Truly knew her the way no two humans ever could.
His bear roared.
Mine.
Forever mine.
Landon knew it to be true.
He’d never let her go.
Never let harm come to her while he drew a breath on the Earth.
His to love.
His to protect.
His. And he was hers.
Body, mind, heart, and soul.
Landon wasted no time in cleaning and sealing the wound. His body ached with a need to find his own release, to complete the bond, to spill his seed inside of her womb.
“Gemma, I need you, sweetheart.” He growled hard as his cock slipped out of her. Instant regret at the loss of contact.
He turned her onto her knees. Her upper body was draped against the bed as she came back to him…
He felt her push back to meet his cock as he buried his length to the hilt within her. A growl of pure ecstasy caught in his throat and the sound of a long moan that left her lips thrilled him…
His hands grasped her hips. He wasn’t going to be gentle… there was no way in hell that he wasn’t going to lose his mind or keep a leash on the beast within him.
He moved, taking her deeply, over and over again. His hips beat against the curvy flesh of her backside. The sound of skin slapping skin sounded so damn erotic to his ears – the sound of her moans of pleasure, gasps of breaths, and hard curses sounded even better.
He was lost then. Lost to how the friction felt against his cock. Of how his muscles tightened in expectation of what came next.
His thrusts became erratic as her muscles tightened around him again. He grunted and growled as he became fevered with need…
His muscles tightened to burning point as he climbed higher and higher, took her faster and faster… and the moment that she cried out… he felt her inner muscles clenching and releasing around his cock, trying to suck his seed right from his balls, just the way her mouth had, only this time, she succeeded…
He buried his cock to the hilt, tossed his head back on his neck, and the moment that his seed exploded within her… he howled, long and hard.
Over and over her body milked his, and he gave her everything that he had, and yet that fire within him didn’t dampen. He only wanted her more.
He cursed at the frustration that boiled within him. His body curved over hers. His hands found hers and he locked their fingers as his hips pounded against her backside once more, taking them both right back up to heady heights again.
The intensity of the orgasm that tore through him was almost unbearable. His head went back, his neck muscles stood proud as the friction built to the point that he thought his head might explode or his heart would stop…
Then she cried out again, a second before he joined her in release, before his soul and hers danced together in ecstasy.
Forever mates.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
~
Molly felt him there. She might have been asleep but she snapped awake the moment that she sensed his presence. She cursed not having her magic as her eyes met his and she sneered…
“Nice sleep?” Connor asked with an air of amusement.
It would have been so easy to have snuffed her life out, and maybe back in the day he would have found that the right option without thought and consequence for what it meant. Now he had a conscience, and at times like these he cursed it, but killing for little reason was somehow unpalatable to him…
Molly opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell when the sound of the alpha’s mating roar went up. Her eyes flicked towards the door and Connor could see her body physically deflate against the back cushions of the chair.
“Too late. Whatever dastardly plan you had been hatching will now be redundant.” Connor folded his arms and regarded her with something of a victory smile upon his lips as she snorted her contempt for him.
“Good luck to her, she’ll need it.” Molly bit out, and it didn’t take much to see that she wasn’t exactly overjoyed for the newly mated couple.
“And you’re going home.” Connor’s grin widened. He couldn’t wait to see the back of the woman.
She eyed him for a long moment.
“My magic?” She asked.
“Intact. As long as you stay away until invited back, if ever.” He offered and saw the glint of misdeeds within her eyes. “If you don’t keep to your side of the bargain. I have some witches that will gladly bind your magic…”
He saw her body twitch, saw the cogs move in her mind, and he was satisfied that what Scarlet told him was true. The woman valued her magic over her own daughter.
Shameful.
“Or there’s still the fun option of me turning you into me junior, mini me.” He grinned then, showing his fangs, and bringing another curl to her lip.
“I’d rather die.” She hissed.
“And you will. Only you’d come back again, and again, and again… but without your magic.” He enjoyed that. The look of horror on her face was priceless.