Then he crashed into the wall of pleasure. She felt it to her core as his body stiffened and held still, cradling her close. Uncontrollable spasms rocketed between them, as they fell together from the skies of sexual oblivion, back down to where mere mortals roamed.
He released her, falling to her side as they recovered from the final stage of their mating. She realized this last time there’d been no condom separating them. Did he realize it too? A calm reclaimed her, giving her peace and stillness of mind.
Then there were no thoughts, symbols or even sounds, save the ones of extreme panting for them to catch their breaths. Her mind was at rest—for once. Owain pulled her close to him, entwining fingers with hers, as they continued to recover from some otherworldly expression of love between them.
She continued to simply exist in his arms, knowing that even thoughts would diminish this. Soon, sweet, beloved sleep slinked into her consciousness, cooing and calling for her to join the land of dreams. That is where she met with Owain again, to play and love, in the best dreams of her life. They held each other in sleep as they had in wakefulness, oblivious to the dark stirrings outside their dwelling.
Chapter 10
Outside in the darkness of the woods, she watched the play of light and power that danced over Owain’s home. She wept, knowing it was too late. Turning in disgusted defeat, hatred and anger snaked and swirled within, growing stronger with each step. No—she wouldn’t accept defeat. He was the key and he would do what he was created to. No matter the obstacle, she would have him.
With firm resolve, she left with a simple vow, “Let the killing begin.”
***
“Hurry up, we have to get over to the garage before the crowds leaving town pick up,” he said, laughing at how typical she was when it came to primping in the mirror.
“If I was able to do to you the number you did on my hair last night, you’d be more understanding.”
“Yeah, yeah. Use that brush I left for you in the bathroom and come on.”
“What the hell, Owain, it’s only… 8:17am. You act like an old man with time.”
“Hurry up or I’m coming in to help. Usually by eight, I’ve done a couple of hours of work.”
“Oh God, I’ve gone and mated myself to a paw-paw.”
He loved hearing the stuff she muttered under her breath. It was funny as hell, and as of yet she hadn’t figured it out that he could still hear it all. He’d continue to keep that a secret for a little while longer. It was just too damn entertaining to give up yet.
Celia came into the kitchen looking like his own personal living doll. He marveled at how unaware she was of her awe-inspiring beauty. He watched as the biggest chocolate brown eyes grew with affection as he passed her a cup of coffee from that fancy machine.
She took a sip, savoring the flavor and sighed. “Deep, dark roast with hazelnut creamer,” she said with that dreamy, sexy throaty voice of hers. “Honey, how did you know?”
She’d called him honey and his heart did a flip. Keep it under control. It’s just a term of endearment that’s common.
Stay cool.
“Um, I took a guess. Thought you might like it to add a little something to the coffee. I like strong coffee with no frills. I thought you might be a hazelnut coffee lover.”
“I am.” She moved closer. Warmth and the subtle fragrance of buttered caramel and lavender bathed him anew. He’d never grow tired of her scent. It called to him and would quickly render him a babbling idiot, if he didn’t stay on guard. “Give me a kiss, paw-paw,” she whispered, inching up on tip toes to reach his mouth.
He devoured her offering, drinking in as much of her as possible. Hazelnut had never interested him so much. He took his time tracing an outline of her plump, full lips with the tip of his tongue, enjoying the faint taste of the creamer, mixed with her. Celia was his obsession.
Mine. His wolf growled within.
He knew they would have to come to some sort of concession about her. Unless she was gifted with the ability to change, the wolf would never know what it was to lie with his mate in that form. Owain mourned for his wolf but doubted it strongly that she’d ever be able to shift. Witches were witches and wolves were wolves. He didn’t know of a case where a witch was gifted the ability to shift as well. That would be a miracle, if she could. Even with the knowledge of this, his wolf refused to be denied. He wanted what he wanted and Owain completely understood.
Ignoring the continued war within, he opted to get their day started.
“We need to get a move on. Do you want to take that with you?” he asked, pointed to the barely touched cup of coffee she nursed.
“Yeah, let me find a travel mug.”
“I got it,” he said, reaching high over her to grab one of his favorite travel coffee mugs.
She looked at the high cabinet and then to him, and said, “You know some things are going to have to change around here. Don’t you remember how bad I am at climbing? I can’t be doing that every morning.”
He stopped in mid stride and turned. “You mean you’re not still trying to run away from here then?” He knew it sounded absurd the moment it left his lips. But, it was out in the open. His biggest fear—that she would still leave him—was out for her to trample over, if she wanted.
His love and light, stepped closer to him. She purposefully placed his arms around her waist, tilted his head down until their eyes met and said, “You, Owain Colfer, are my mate. Where you are, that’s where I am. Deidra and her gang of tragic Real Housewife wannabes can suck it. They can bring it, as hard as they’d like. We—” she said, poking him lightly in the chest, “Ain’t got time for that. I’m tired of running now that I’ve run into my destiny. That would be you, if you’re not keeping up with where I’m going with this. I want it all. I want everything life with you has to offer me.” She moved out of his arms to grab the mug and rinsed it.
As she started to transfer the hot coffee, standing over the sink, he wanted to take it from her. He’d have to work on his need to protect her from the slightest thing that looked dangerous. Celia had proven how strong she was last night—over and over again. He’d never had a woman, human or she-wolf that could keep up with his sexual hunger. But his Celia had. She’d even been able to take his mate mark. She’d slept so soundly that she didn’t even stir when he woke throughout the night to lick her wound to keep it clean and promote healing.
Instead of taking the cup from her, he stood behind, encircling her stomach to hold her. She leaned her head back, treating him to a mouthful of her gorgeous, unruly curls. He loved getting his fingers tangled up in them, but that would be another thing he’d keep quiet about. If she knew he did it on purpose, he could see her quickly shutting down his hair-playing privileges.
***
At the garage, Celia cried when they told her it was a hopeless expense to try to fix her car, Holly. Noel, the mechanic he’d used for years seemed baffled at the damage. He kept saying it was like nothing he’d ever seen before. But Owain had another explanation. What he hadn’t told Celia was that Mandy was also a witch—one with dark, twisted magic.
He was thankful he’d never been affected by her magic and would kill her, if she ever tried anything on Celia again. Mandy had tried to glamor him, when that didn’t work, she’d tried to flat out hex him. That she was pathetic and obvious never seemed to cross her mind. Mandy thought she was always the brightest and smartest in the room. He might be a lone wolf, but sure as hell wasn’t a stupid one.
As he’d looked at Holly yesterday, magic sizzled and popped weaving itself all over that car, the note, and money. Holly never stood a chance. He was surprised the car had made it as far as it did.
Celia’s reaction had thoroughly confused him too. How hadn’t she seen or sensed it? The answer didn’t come until later yesterday when he realized she or someone else must have blocked it out. He hadn’t wanted to freak Celia out, since he knew she was ignorant of the fact that she too was a witch. Now that she kn
ew and seemed to be taking the news in stride, now might be a good time to let her in on what had happened to Holly.
He pulled Celia close to him and put an arm around her shoulder. Noel’s eyes widened, but he ignored him. Noel could hold his own with any of the town gossips and he wanted it known that he was taken. For added measure, he announced his plans and said, “Come on darling. We’ll go on over to dealership row, so you can pick out the car you want.”
Celia acted as he’d expected, pulling away and preparing to fuss with him about it. “Now look here Owain Colfer, I can take care of my own damn—oops,” she said looking over and at the still stunned Noel and continued, “Self. Just because we’re mated doesn’t mean you have to start trying to spend all this money. I still believe there’s a chance I can fix Holly.”
It was Noel who spoke up. “Well actually Miss Celia,” he paused to take off his cap and scratch his head, as was his habit, before finishing, “Your car, um Holly, well—she’s gone. I wanted to let you know that we already have a bid from some of the nearby salvage yards for the remaining parts and body—that is if you’re interested.”
Owain couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him as his mate stopped squirming and listened when Noel brought up money. That was his mate. She most certainly was nobody’s fool.
“Oh really, how much are we talking and are those bids their final offers?”
Owain allowed her to negotiate a pretty impressive final offer for her car. After scraps and parts, Holly had done her right in the end. A courier brought the bill of sale and cashier’s check over to finish up the transfer of Holly to the salvage yard. When the dust settled, Celia had enough to make a sizable dent in a down payment for a car. But he already knew that money was going into a personal bank account for her—no matter what she said.
At the car dealership where he’d purchased his trucks, the sales guy was eager to help, knowing if he was here, this would be a sure sale. Celia had shopped hard, using his phone and Internet to research each car. He watched in amazement as she looked past the outward shape of the cars to see the economy, history and reliability. Hell, she even went to a few forums to check out recalls, service and maintenance ratings and how well each car held its value. It was clear who’d be buying his next large purchases.
After what most likely looked like a highly animated discussion between them, he’d won this battle to buy the car for her. They were currently waiting on yet another check to be delivered from his bank to the car dealership, so they could take possession of her new car or rather SUV. Time waiting inside a car dealer’s office always felt like time was warped and lengthened to impossibly slow degrees. It felt like they’d been waiting for an hour when his phone rang and Celia past it over to him to answer.
“Yeah, what’s up?” he asked his foreman Jimmy, who was at the current build site.
A lump formed in his throat as he listened to Jimmy tell him about the accident that might have killed one of his crew. He was needed to meet them at the hospital.
Celia watched and picked up on his distress as he continued to listen. Once he ended the call, she wanted to know everything.
“I’m coming with you. We can finish this up later, she said, waving to the car dealership office. You have to get there and take care of things.
Owain knew it was no use arguing with her. If the situation was reversed, he’d demand the same. They left the dealership with a promise to come back after things had settled.
“Slow down. We’ll get there, but I want us to arrive alive,” she said, placing a warm hand on his forearm.
She was right. No use risking their lives too. The hospital was in the next town over, but they’d get there soon enough. Owain slowed both the car and his heartbeat down. He’d take the back way to avoid all the traffic lights and get there just a few minutes later. Turning off onto a state route highway, he’d drive, taking the time to allow the presence of his mate to sooth him. She rocked at connecting with him without having to say a word.
Celia took his free hand and threaded their fingers together as he drove, not saying a word. This would be the first trial of their relationship and she was already knocking it out of the park. She knew him. Everything she did, instinctually confirmed it.
“What do you want me to do when we reach the hospital? Is there any insurance company or others you’d like me to contact? I know you’ll be talking with your workers and I can do that to help get the ball rolling.”
He looked over at her. She smiled. He said, “I love you so hard, I can’t ever go back to how things were alone.”
“I know…” was the last thing she said before her face contorted in horror and fear.
Owain saw rather than heard her scream as the car slammed into the truck bed of his side of the truck. He reached for her as the truck spun in complete circles, threatening to teeter over with each rotation. Unable to maintain its stability, the truck toppled over onto the passenger side with high impact, sliding toward the deep ditch.
Both he and his wolf tried to combat the laws of G-Force as he attempted to break free of the seat belt to reach his mate. Airbags deployed, socking him and Celia in the face with their velocity. When the truck came to a stop in the ditch, she was silent. Blood streaked her face and neck and her eyes were closed. Remnants of the airbags littered their seats. The seat belt had locked him firm to the back of his seat, but he continued to attempt to trigger the release mechanism.
“Celia, Celia! … Wake up for me honey. I need to know you’re all right. Celia!” His voice burned with emotion and from the screams of his agony. Owain reached out to her. The distance was too far away. She was too far away for him to sense her warmth. Glass from the window began to crumble as someone broke it. “Help! We’re trapped and my mate isn’t responding. Please, hurry! She needs help!” he yelled to the faceless would-be rescuer. Forget about him, he needed them to help Celia.
He had limited range of motion in his neck with how the seat belt was locked and the angle at which the truck leaned on its side in the ditch. A hand started searching for him, reaching around until he felt fingers tugging at his seat belt harness.
“Help, its locked—the seat belt’s not going to budge. You need to help my mate. Please—she’s not responding,” he said trying again to communicate the severity of the situation. His voice was gravel-filled with his harsh use, but he had to make whoever this was, stop fiddling with his seat belt and help his mate.
He felt the seat belt release and disintegrate as the hand connected with it. The hand got the lock to the door in the open position and then tugged. The door opened, letting in fresh air into the emotion-filled space of the cab. One quick tug and he was hauled out by those same hands. Tugged over the edge of the tilted truck and onto the ground, he was never so relieved to see him as he was now.
Reaching a hand up, for the man to help him stand and free Celia, he noticed he wasn’t alone.
Instead the other hand reached out, but instead of a free hand, a Taser greeted him. Before he allowed the bolts of angry energy to overtake him, he managed to get out, “You’ll never get her. You’re no match for her. Stay away from her or I’ll kill you myself.”
Then the darkness dragged him into its abyss.
Chapter 11
Wake up!
The sharp intake of air rushed into Celia’s lungs snatching her back to consciousness. Everything was on its side. She tried to shake her head to clear her vision, only to trigger one of the most badass headaches she’d ever encountered. Grabbing her head, she felt stickiness along her temples. Pulling her hands down to examine it, the sight of blood threatened to make her hurl.
Deep breaths.
Owain popped into her mind. “Owain?” she called out, looking over to the driver’s side of the truck to see it empty and destroyed.
Where was he? Maybe he went for help. She began to tug and pull on the seat belt. It wouldn’t move or unlatch. The crap that the air bag had been packed with was all over her and
the cab. Maybe she could clean it out of the seat belt latch to get free. Another slight move and searing pain shot along her neck and collarbone where the belt had cut into her flesh. Another look around and she could sense a car approaching.
Think and remember.
She willed herself to remember what led them to be on this road, when the image of a familiar car slamming into them pushed everything else aside.
It had been that bitch Mandy and some dude! Celia’s memory showed the advancing car with acute clarity. It had been the disbelief of the situation that caused her to stumble in saying something to Owain in the first place. She thought they’d stop in time. She’d been horribly wrong. Scenes replayed in her mind of seeing the lover of her entire being, absorb the impact of that car. Over and over, the scene played out until she willed it to stop.
“Got to get out of here and find him.”
Footsteps padded against the asphalt of the old country road and she struggled to get free. Unexplainable tension and panic welled up in her with each step of the advancing bodies. She needed to get out of here—now.
Her body began to pulsate, becoming one with her heart beat. She was on fire with the heat of the electricity her body produced. What was she doing and would she be able to survive it? She pushed past, focusing on finding Owain. Somewhere deep in her gut, she knew that bitch, Mandy had taken him. That she knew a few choice ways Mandy would pay for her treachery, gave Celia a focal point to concentrate the energy that visibly funneled around her. She allowed the energy to compound and fold in on itself until the entire truck vibrated and shook. More and more, she expanded her influence to use the plentiful energy of the air to feed and fuel her personal power funnel.
Sassy Ever After: A Witchingly Sassy Seduction (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 7