by M. L. Briers
He could feel her muscles tense beneath him and his fangs pushed down from his gums on a growl of need to bite into her flesh and taste her blood, his mind was floating in a place where he had lost all reason and could only feel his carnal pleasures.
Elijah bit down hard against her skin, his fangs sliced into the soft flesh until they were buried deep. The cry of pain from his mate echoed within his mind as he opened himself up to her, his mind reaching out for hers and there she was, his mate. Her Fae abilities were calling to his very soul to join with hers as he felt her wants, her needs and her desires so clearly. The pleasure and pain of what he was doing to her body in that very moment when she came undone.
Isabel screamed when the release hit her. His fangs pulled from her flesh in a moment of pain and he roared his release against her neck. His orgasm ripped through him like a tsunami, taking every nerve ending to throbbing heights of awareness. There was nothing else in the world as his pleasure and hers met and mated together. The waves of sensation bouncing between them like a wildfire that was as ferocious as it was spectacular.
The flood gates of pure pleasure swept away everything but the hard gripping pulses of their orgasms as they joined together. He felt her pleasure as though it was his own, and he continued to thrust his hips against her backside as he pumped his seed into her womb until he had nothing left to give and The Bonding was complete.
Isabel wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, his body wrapped over hers. She wasn’t even sure if time existed anymore. They melted together, body and soul. One.
Joshua stood under the stream of the shower and revelled in how good the water felt against his skin. Angry red welts streaked down over his chest and ribs, the only sign left of his injuries, and in another few hours they would be gone too. He was looking forward to some payback with that vampire and getting around to seriously wooing his mate, the little Fae who seemed afraid of her own shadow.
Joshua heard the roar from his brother that rattled the entire house and its contents. A wide grin spread over his face, no Lycan could ever mistake that sound. His brother had bonded with his mate. Soon it would be him. Soon they would both be mated and hopefully the house would be full to bursting with pups in a few years. It was all he had ever wanted in life. A mate and a family and soon it would be his.
Snapping off the water, Joshua stepped from the shower and grabbed a towel from the rack. He slung it low around his hips and grabbed a smaller towel for his hair. Yanking open the bathroom door he took two steps out into the bedroom and her scent hit her at the same time as her gasp.
Cynthia’s eyes caught sight of him and locked onto the hard muscles of his chest and she didn’t move a muscle, completely snared. Her body was bent forwards in the act of retrieving the food tray from the unit beside the bed, but she became completely lost in the sight of him standing there, all rippling muscles that still had water droplets clinging to them from his shower.
“See something you might like to investigate further?” Joshua drawled from the lopsided grin on his face. His mate was more than interested in him and he liked the way she was looking at his body, liked it more than enough for his erection to start to make an appearance under the thick towel.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Ye… No…I mean…” Cynthia took a moment to steady the nerves inside her that were telling her to run from the room. His near naked presence was too much of a temptation, but they were also telling her to just melt into him, take what he had to give her, and he looked to her like he had a lot to give.
“You’re wounds are healed…” She swallowed down the urge to run as she straightened and kept her eyes from dropping to the bulge lower down that she couldn’t help but notice, even though she wasn’t staring directly at it.
“Nearly there, a few more hours and they’ll be gone.” He took a step towards her to see if she would bolt. She didn’t move and he told himself that was a good sign. So he took another step.
“Looks good…” Cynthia said and then gave her head a half shake. “I mean the skin looks…” She would have smacked herself upside the head for that one, but he took another step towards her, closing the distance between them and she swallowed down her anxiety.
What she wanted to do was reach out and touch those angry welts, trace her fingers over the harsh lines and make them go away completely, if only she had that kind of power.
Joshua stopped in front of her. He watched her fingers flex at her side and reached for her hand, gently wrapping his fingers around her wrist and her eyes came up to meet his. She had the bluest eyes he had ever seen, eyes he could get lost in as he made love to her.
Damn, he cursed the ache that thought caused him, as he brought her fingertips to his chest and waited to see what she would do.
Cynthia swallowed hard when the intensity of the simple fingertip touch against his skin sent waves of gentle humming through her entire body. It was the mating thing, she knew that, but it still wasn’t any easy thing to dismiss.
“All but healed.” The depth of his tone had changed to a husky velvet that seemed to reach in and fan the embers of desire within her. The mating thing, she told herself, but that didn’t stop her fingers from moving over the welts, trying to sooth them away of their own accord.
The low growl that rumbled through his chest, warned her as much as it called to her to continue, told her that she was bringing pleasure to her mate, as a little voice in the back of her mind said to back away before there was no going back. But in hindsight, she knew that there was no going back from the moment she had felt his pull on her in the van.
Joshua felt the torture of her touch against his skin. There was no pain from the fading scars, just from the need to feel her against his whole body. Everything within him was telling him to strip her naked and press his body to hers, inch for inch, skin against skin, and he ached with the need.
“Do they still hurt you?” Cynthia flinched with the thought that she might be causing him pain, nothing could be further from what she wanted to do to him at that moment.
Was she losing her mind? She didn’t even know him, not really, and yet here she was with a half naked mate, in his bedroom and she was tracing her fingertips over his skin while he growled in pleasure.
Madness was a relative thing, she guessed, considering the whole Lycan mating thing was a madness that you couldn’t escape once it had begun.
“No. It hurts me more not to be able to touch you…”
“Why can’t you touch me?” Cynthia heard the low growl and saw him come for her. The one thought that crossed her mind before she was pulled against his chest and his lips came down on hers was- she really needed to think before she spoke.
Joshua had taken her words as an invite that he wasn’t about to reject or ignore. But he wasn’t about to act like a bull in a china shop either. He sensed the frailty of her nerves where he was concerned. He knew she was flighty about all things Lycan, about him. She was drawn to him, it was the natural order of things, but he also knew he needed to tread carefully with her sensibilities.
Joshua held back the need to devour her with a passion that would make her dizzy with his need, with the need he would ignite within her. Instead he was infinitely gentle with her. He teased her lips with his, before he ran his hand down her spine and caused her lips to part in a gasp. As her hips pressed against his arousal, his tongue swept into her mouth and tasted the sweetness of her.
Her hands flattened against the hard muscles of his chest. The droplets of water lubricated her path over the rise and fall of his muscles, and her brain took a vacation somewhere in ‘oh my god’ land. He felt so good, large and imposing and yet comforting and downright sexy all around her.
His lips were sinfully warm against hers and his tongue danced to a devilish tune with hers. She wasn’t sure if it was the man or the mating thing, or both, but she had never wanted a man so much in her life. This man, her man…
By the time Isabel was able to think, to
breathe without panting, she was lying on her side, her back tucked up against Elijah’s chest, with her whole body pressed to his. His arm was around her waist possessively and his leg wrapped over hers.
The pain that emanated through her shoulder and reached up her neck from his bite was offset by the aftershocks that still throbbed through her body. Not to mention his tongue, that still worked over the wound on her shoulder.
“Elijah…” It was the first word she had spoken and her throat felt sore and raspy. His arm tightened around her and his mouth came to her ear.
“How badly does it hurt you?” There was a demand to his tone. But she could feel his emotions even clearer in the mental bridge that now existed between them. He was anxious, but filled with so much love that it dominated his whole being.
“I’ll live.” The small chuckle behind her words eased his anxiety and she could feel him reaching for her mind with his. “Don’t do that. I wouldn’t lie to you.” She berated him, immediately his presence pulled back from hers.
“I was just testing the link…” He growled gently and she snorted in amusement.
“Liar.”
Elijah grinned and nuzzled into her neck, careful of her closed wound. The bruise that was already forming around it looked angry against her beautiful skin and he hated himself for causing her that pain.
“And stop feeling guilty. I have some herbs that will help…” She berated him again and this time it was his turn to chuckle.
“So you can read my emotions and feelings, but I’m not allowed to do that to you?” He lifted his head and turned her slightly in his arms so he could look down into her face. She was considering his question.
“Yes.” She delivered the one word totally straight faced and he raised his brows at her and stared until she caved, the mischief spreading over her face. “No, you can read me. But not just because you think I might be lying to you. You need to trust that I will always tell you the truth…”
He ran just one finger down over the warm skin of her bare arm and waited for her body to shiver. When she did he smiled to himself, he liked just how he affected her. He liked the feel of his mate in his bed, in his arms, in his life.
“Always…?”He had already seen the wheels turning in her mind. Felt her debating with herself over whether she could in fact do what she had said. There were always times when a little white lie was helpful rather than destructive and she wondered if they counted.
“Mostly.” She caved and he grinned wider.
“As I thought. Deceitful little Witch…” He growled out playfully and she shot him a look.
“Ogre.” She shot back, just as playfully and he pressed her closer to him.
“And it would serve you well to remember that Little Fae for the next time you disobey me.” He was still teasing her, but he felt her body tense in his arms. “What’s wrong?” He felt the guilt sweep through her and into his own emotions.
“I got Emily injured. It was stupid…”She didn’t need him or anyone to berate her for her actions, she was doing it all on her own.
“You also saved her life. Taking on the vampire the way you did. One could argue that if you had not have been there, he could have attacked Emily and killed her anyway…” He reasoned. He wasn’t pleased that she had gone outside. He was as angry as hell that she had come face to face with the vampire and he was enraged that the vampire had attacked his mother. But above all that, his mate had proved formidable in her actions against the enemy. That he was more than happy with, and grateful for.
Isabel felt his emotions like layers of an onion, with each layer that he peeled back there was another emotion, anger, rage, pride and then his emotions settled and there was love.
“Still…” She shrugged. It didn’t make her feel any better to rationalise the situation, it just brought her back to the fact that his mother got hurt.
“Not still. Grateful, thankful that things worked out the way they did and were not so much worse.” He growled against her neck as he nuzzled against her, and she couldn’t help but smile as she reached up and lost her fingers in the tangle of his hair.
“So… we’re bonded, what happens now?”He lifted his head and gazed down at her, a gentle smile on his lips.
“Now we live happily ever after…” He teased and she rolled her eyes.
“Once we kill the vampire…” She offered and he shrugged. “And sort out the witches…”
The deep frown that etched lines onto his forehead and forced his brow down over his eyes made her want to reach up and brush it away, smooth out his skin.
“Witches?”
“The vampire has a connection to the circle, I’m sure of it. It was something he said…”
“The circle? Why would the circle be involved with a vampire, they like them about as much as they like us?” He was thinking out loud. The frown etched deeper and she watched him lose himself in thought.
“Cynthia might know. She has more to do with the circle witches than I do…” Her words pulled him back to her and he nodded, before a grin swept away the frown from his face.
“She’s a little tied up at the moment with Joshua.”He informed her and she gave him a silent ooh, before grinning at the thought herself. The thought of Cynthia and the big Lycan amused her, especially if he was as domineering as her Alpha.
“Don’t worry. Joshua’s a little more laid-back than I am. She’ll be fine.” Elijah chuckled. He didn’t need to read her thoughts to know exactly what she was thinking, it was written all over her face.
Joshua’s hands ran a down Cynthia’s back, leaving a heated path of sensation everywhere he touched. He was kissing her to within an inch of her life and she was going to have to come up for air soon, or she just might pass out.
“Wait, stop… wait…” She breathed as he relinquished her lips to her panted pleas and nuzzled gently against her neck, revelling in her scent, as he tried to sooth her back to a normal heartbeat.
“I wasn’t going to…” His breath against her neck reminded her of his fangs, and his fangs reminded her of his bite, and she squirmed within his arms to put some space between them.
“Fangs in neck is…” Her panic at the thought of his fangs anywhere near her had her almost desperate to get away from him, even though her whole body seemed to want to be pressed against his.
Joshua put his hand under her chin and gently teased her face up to his. Cynthia resisted his bidding at first. She didn’t want to see his handsome face marred by super sharp razor like fangs. Some people might find them sexy, or erotic. She thought about the biting, the sucking and the blood, and she wasn’t fond of any of those things.
“Look at me sweetheart.” Joshua encouraged until finally she lifted her eyes and stared at his mouth. “No fangs. And I wasn’t going to make love to you then either…”
“Why? What’s wrong with me?” Cynthia felt a wave of anxiety wash through her. Isabel had said that Elijah couldn’t hold himself back. If Joshua was her mate, shouldn’t he be equally as eager?
He grinned down at her and she couldn’t help but stare at those two rows of perfect blunt white teeth for a sign of his fangs.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, you are perfect…” Cynthia’s eyes snapped up to his.
Good answer.
“Then why wouldn’t you be chaffing at the bit to… you know…?”
“Who said I wasn’t?” Joshua brushed the backs of his fingers down over her cheek and watched her lean into his touch. She lost her chain of thought for a long moment. Between his touch against her skin and the large hard bulge pressed against her stomach, he was making it decidedly hard to keep a rational thought.
Damn, mating thingy. She told herself, trying to shake off the cobwebs and get back to their conversation.
“You said you didn’t want to make love to me, ergo something wrong there somewhere…” Cynthia blurted out before his fingers stroked down her cheek again.
“I said I wasn’t going to, not t
hat I didn’t want to. Because I do…” For added effect he rubbed his aching erection against her. The ache only got worse for him, especially when she let out a little whimper. “Damn woman, I hope you make that sound when I’m buried inside you…” He hadn’t meant to say those words out loud, and saw her eyes widen as her brain remembered what they were talking about.
“I…umm…” She noted that she was doing a really good impression of the village idiot and tried to mentally slap herself back to sanity. “So why weren’t you going to…?”
He liked her skittishness. He knew as a Lycan she should want a mate that mirrored his own ferocious sense of fearlessness, but she was soft and gentle, and it played to his protective side. He wanted to wrap her within his arms and never let anything even come close to worrying her ever again.
“Because you don’t know me yet, and you still fear me…” He brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheek again and her lids fluttered shut for a long moment before she stammered her response.
“Not you, well…ok maybe you… a little…” She blurted out and stopped talking on a wince. He grinned down at her. She was just so cute when she was flustered. “But I have a thing…” He raised his brows when she didn’t elaborate.
“Thing?”
“With fangs…”She tried to take a step back from him, but he didn’t let her go and she knew there was no way in hell she would move him, or herself without his cooperation.
He narrowed his eyes and considered what she had told him. If that was the only reason she was so skittish around him, problem solved, he reasoned, he just needed to get her comfortable with his fangs.
“Can I show them to you?”
Her mouth dropped open and she went to take another step backwards, but again he stopped her. She shook her head and his grin widened, the small chuckle that left his lips eased her slightly and she managed to snap her mouth closed.