“You could have interfered!” Nia burst out.
“No. I could not, not when he had not done anything evil to warrant it. I am forbidden to interfere in someone’s destiny.”
Tristan went to Niki’s closet and pulled out the chest. He shook his head. “Such a waste of life. But it will harm no one else.”
He waved a hand and the chest vanished. “Now that the chest has been returned, the curse on the land is lifted and the wildlife, and the earth will be restored to normal. There will be no more disease upon this land or in the people.”
“Where did it go?” Aiden asked.
“Back to Tir Na-nog, land of the afterworld, where it will never again be opened. It is far too dangerous.”
Nia sagged against Aiden, needing his strength. Emotion clogged her throat. Her beloved sister was going to leave her. Despite everything she’d done, she couldn’t save Niki from her fate.
But the wizard didn’t seem as if he would harm Niki. And the dreams her twin had… the man in them had loved her. If it was Niki’s fate to be reunited with this powerful being, she could not prevent it.
Sudden desolation filled her. “If you take her, I have no one now. Nothing. I can’t remain here, with Aiden. I’ll never be his equal in power or status. How can an alpha leader have a mate who isn’t even wolf?”
Aiden hugged her. “He can. I don’t care what others say. If I have to stick to you like glue to keep other wolves from attacking you, Nia, I will. Or even… leave the pack and the ranch.”
Stunned, she turned around. “You’d give up everything, your people, your ranch, your power, for me?”
“I love you, sweetheart. We’d find a way. Start another ranch of our own, forge a new life.” He kissed her, his mouth warm and firm, and she felt her nerve endings flare with new life, as if he poured a little of his powers into her.
Tristan cleared his throat. “When you surface for air, I must tell you something.”
Aiden broke the kiss, and Nia turned around to see the wizard. Kindness shone in Tristan’s dark eyes.
“Xavier told you the tears of the dragon strip away all one’s magick. It is one of life’s greatest sacrifices, to surrender all your magick for the one you love. He failed to tell you that magick is not lost forever. It resides within Aiden now. Your mate.”
Aiden blinked. “I can give it back to Nia?”
“You’re a powerful alpha Lupine, Aiden Mitchell. And so is Nia.”
“I’m not alpha,” she protested. “I’m the younger twin. All my life I’ve pretended to be something I wasn’t.”
The wizard sat on the bed, stroking Niki’s forehead with a gentle hand. “An alpha is a leader, someone who gives everything for his or her people, a Lupine willing to make tremendous sacrifices and do what is best for them. That, more than hereditary succession, is what makes an alpha.”
Aiden wrapped his arms around Nia’s waist and pulled her tight against him. It felt good to be surrounded by his strength. His love.
“What do I have to do?” Aiden asked. “Eat more of those damn crystals? Say a chant by the light of a full moon?”
Tristan grinned. “Do what comes naturally to you, Aiden. When you make love with your mate, without protection, your magick will flow into her and her wolf will return.”
Blushing, she looked away. Aiden dropped a kiss on her head. “Sounds like a plan to me, sweetheart.”
“But why didn’t Xavier tell us this?” she asked.
“If he had, your sacrifice would not have meant as much. The tears work because the person willing to give up her magick knows she surrenders all.” Tristan winked. “Besides, X was in a hurry to get to that car show. It is a very sweet cherry red Mustang.”
Then Tristan slid his arms around Nikita, lifting her from the bed. Her twin opened her eyes and Nia was relieved to see they were once again blue.
“Don’t worry about me, Nia. I’ll be fine.” Niki curled her arms around Tristan’s neck. “I’m strong.”
Nia blinked back tears. “You’d better come back to me.”
“She will,” Tristan promised. “You will see her again.”
Then he gave Aiden a solemn look. “I already used Nikita’s antidote on Rickie and Carl. They will recover and your niece, Beth, may use the antibodies in their blood to create more of an antidote just as a precaution. Take good care of Nia, alpha. She will need you.”
Tristan waved a hand and vanished with Nikita.
Nia went to the bed and felt the indentation her sister had made. Felt the warmth where her body had lain. She climbed into the bed, hugged a pillow and cried into it. For 25 years, she and Niki had been together, had supported each other through joy and sorrow. And now her twin was gone. She was alone.
And then a big, warm male climbed into bed with her, holding her tight. “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart. I’m here.”
She wasn’t alone, after all. She had the most important person in her world. Aiden.
“I love you, Blakemore.” He stroked her hair, holding her tightly against him. “I know how much it hurts, losing someone you love. But I won’t leave you.”
“Even though you mated with the wrong twin?”
His gaze filled with fierceness, Aiden shook his head. “I mated the right twin. Like Tristan said, being alpha doesn’t have to do with birth order. It has to do with giving everything for your people, and putting them first. You put me first, Nia. That’s what true mates do for each other.”
He stroked a finger down her wet cheek. “You’re mine, Blakemore. No one, not our packs, a damn wizard or the goddess Danu herself, will separate us.”
Nia turned and faced him, her cheeks wet. “Promise? Because I love you, Mitchell and I never want you to leave me. Ever.”
“Not a chance. We’re going to make love and restore your powers.” Aiden gave a wicked grin. “And if it doesn’t work the first time, we’ll keep doing it.”
She smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”
For a long few minutes, they simply lay together, the sound of their breathing filling the room. Nia’s heartbeat finally slowed and she could think straight. She buried her head against the crook of his shoulder, trembling deep inside.
Moisture blurred her vision as she lifted her head and studied him. Her male. Her mate for life.
“I just realized something. The biggest fear I’ve had all my life was losing my sister after I lost my family, so many of our pack. She was the center of my world. And then you came along and taught me how to be strong and let love push aside my fear. I fell in love with you, and you became my center.”
She rubbed her cheek against his hand. “And then I saw you, so sick, and you were dying and everything else faded away. My biggest fear wasn’t losing my sister. It was losing you. I knew then I’d have given anything to save you. Anything. Losing my magick was a small price to pay for your life.”
Aiden thumbed away a stray tear, his expression filled with tenderness. “I never imagined growing weak would make me stronger. Until I met you, I thought being alpha was what my old man said it was. Having courage and being the strongest. It wasn’t until you came into my life that I realized being alpha is much more. It’s about having the courage to love, and love deeply.”
He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her, his mouth warm and firm. Whatever they faced in the coming days, she knew they would face it together.
As equals.
The End
Thank you!
Thank you for reading THE MATING CHALLENGE and I hope you enjoyed it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bonnie Vanak is a NY Times bestselling author of paranormal romance. She writes the Werewolves of Montana series and the Werewolves of Montana Mating Mini series. You can sign up for her newsletter here http://www.b
onnievanak.com/contact.html and receive a password to download free stories on her website.
Find out more about Bonnie at:
Website: http://www.bonnievanak.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bonnievanakauthor
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Newsletter Signup: http://www.bonnievanak.com/contact.html
Or discover more of her books in Kindle at:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Bonnie-Vanak/e/B001JS7NMK/
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bonnie-Vanak/e/B001JS7NMK/
BOOKS BY BONNIE VANAK
The Werewolves of Montana Series
Prequel: The Mating Heat
Book 1: The Mating Chase
Book 2: The Mating Hunt
Book 3: The Mating Seduction
Book 4: The Mating Rite
Book 4.5: The Mating Intent
Book 5: The Mating Challenge
Lovestruck, a short story about Xavier, the Crystal Wizard
Book 6: The Mating Season, Tristan’s story, coming soon.
Book 7: The Mating Game, Gideon’s story, coming soon.
Book 8: The Mating Ritual, Xavier’s story, coming soon.
Book 9: The Mating Captive, Cadeyrn’s story, coming soon.
Dark Flame
by Caris Roane
Committed to the rule of law, Robert Brannick falls hard for a beautiful fae woman who illegally seduces him in his dreams. Together, he and Juliet Tunney work hard to help several human women escape the nightmare of Five Bridges. But something isn’t right. Juliet acts as though she knows him really well, yet he’s only met her once. Unless…the dreams he’s been having about her aren’t dreams at all. When a sensual dream surfaces in vivid images and sounds, he knows something’s up with the beautiful fae woman from Revel Territory. And if what he suspects is true, Juliet has a lot to answer for.
Table of Contents for DARK FLAME
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
Other Books by Caris Roane
CHAPTER 1
Robert Brannick stared at Juliet, every suspicion lit on fire. She’d been the star of a recent dream and the hot-as-hell images kept streaming through his head like a porn movie he couldn’t shut off.
Yet something about the dream wasn’t right.
He just didn’t know why.
He was in the garage of a private homeowner, moving boxes away from a secret tunnel entrance he’d built to smuggle abused human females out of Five Bridges. Tonight, Juliet had driven the van containing four of them, each rescued from Revel Territory sex clubs. With the vehicle in the garage and the door shut, the neighbors wouldn’t be able to see what they were up to.
He steadily shifted boxes and plastic tubs out of the way.
Another image flashed.
Juliet’s long curly hair splayed out on his red sheets.
Lips parted.
His body moving over hers, connected.
Her cries filled his bedroom.
He could see each freckle on her creamy skin and her hair smelled like strawberries.
So real, like more than a dream.
Doubt nagged at him about what had actually happened between them, as in something very fae and highly illegal.
He glanced at Juliet again, the star of his cockfest and a beautiful alter fae woman. He couldn’t seem to move as he watched her.
She stood next to the van and wore a loose, light green dress, a gauzy thing that draped her curves. He’d seen those curves in his dream, beautiful, lush, full. His hands and mouth had been all over her. Would she look the same as what he’d pictured beneath the dress?
She glanced at him and turned her hand in question, probably because he was staring at her. She had large, dark blue eyes, even delicate features and all those faint freckles that in the dream he’d kissed over and over.
She was about to open the door, but when he remained silent and staring, she let go of the latch and turned in his direction.
“Everything okay?” Her voice had a soft, melodious sound. She was a feminine kind of woman, not like the vampire females he banged noisily in Crescent Territory. But then Juliet was an alter fae who lived in Revel, not vampire at all. In many ways, she was his opposite.
He tore his gaze away from her, resisting the urge to clear his throat, then put his feet in motion. He called out, “Everything’s fine.”
But he knew in his gut it wasn’t. As soon as they got the women to safety, he’d have to confront her about what he suspected was going on.
He heard the van door slide open, then Juliet as she spoke quietly to the women inside. “I need all of you to refrain from talking. We’re on a residential street and don’t want to alert anyone in the area of our presence here. But please don’t worry. You’re in good hands and you’ll be back in the human part of Phoenix within the hour.
“We work with excellent people as dedicated as we are to ending this nightmare in Revel Territory. And that man over there? Moving the boxes? That’s Officer Brannick of the Crescent Territory Border Patrol. He’s the one who’s set up this whole operation.”
Brannick scowled as he shifted a dusty, rolled up carpet out of the way. He didn’t like to hear that kind of praise, though he understood Juliet’s motivation. The women had been badly used by men for a long time. They would need to know he was someone they could trust.
He forced himself to focus on the task at hand and set the box on the growing pile off to the side. The owners of the house had agreed to let him run a tunnel up to their garage so that he could get abducted women out of Five Bridges. It was a dangerous set-up for everyone involved.
Brannick took great care to keep his operation on the down low. For that reason, he hadn’t used this particular tunnel in two months, a policy that helped keep suspicious neighbors from reporting unusual activity.
The three cartels that ruled Five Bridges paid a lot of money for tips leading to the discovery of exactly this kind of covert operation.
The upper part of the door leading down to the underground tunnel was half visible now. He needed to let the sex dream go and pick up the pace. He shifted a couple more dusty bags and plastic tubs.
Juliet wasn’t even supposed to be driving the van tonight. That was Mary’s job. Juliet coordinated with a team of Revel Border Patrol officers who worked their off-hours to rescue abducted humans, mostly female. The women were used in the sex trade in Revel Territory while pumped full of the dark flame drug. Each bore the teal flame markings on their hands, necks and faces. Drug addiction was hard to disguise in Five Bridges.
So where was Mary? For as long as he’d worked with her, she’d never missed a run.
As Juliet continued to talk to the women, answering their hushed questions, he glanced at her again. She wore her long, curly hair pinned up but with a lot of curls hanging free. She looked messy in an artsy way, but then she didn’t. She looked fresh and alive. Beautiful.
He’d played with those curls in his dream.
Shit, that dream again and how the woman would make, intense cries of passion…
Once more, he forced himself to look away and to keep shifting the boxes. He pulled a heavy one, but set it off to the side. It should be closer to the bottom. He didn’t want the stack to fall over after they were gone. The door needed to be kept hidden at all costs.
He’d met Juliet five months ago, having arranged to look her over at the White Flame club in Elegance, to see if she might be a good fit for his operation. She’d come highly recommended by one of his extraction team, a hard-core Revel Border Patrol officer by the name of Keelen.
Maybe it was the vampire in him, or maybe the human part that had always been a
ble to read people, but he’d trusted Juliet right away. He’d liked the way she held his gaze, spoke in a clear direct if soft manner, and set her chin when he asked about her commitment.
He’d liked her so much in fact that apparently he’d made her the star of his dreams.
The truth was, he hadn’t seen Juliet since his meeting with her at the club. He’d spoken with her several times on the phone and he’d checked her out on the net. She was an up-and-coming civic leader in Revel Territory as an apprentice to Agnes Munroe, who served on the Revel Board of Sages.
Mary was the one who drove the van to the exit-point houses each week. But she hadn’t shown up and when questioned, Juliet had said she didn’t know why.
Brannick had been shocked as hell when Juliet had pulled into the garage. He was profoundly attracted to the fae woman, something that didn’t make him happy at all. The moment he’d realized she was in the van and not Mary, his jaw had dropped and that dream had started playing over and over in his head.
The weird part, however, was that when she’d crossed the garage floor to greet him and shake his hand, he’d felt as though he was looking at a really good friend. If he believed in past lives, he’d say they’d known each other in one.
Or maybe, as he suspected, something else had been going on, something a powerful fae could have done with him.
Or to him.
Despite his drive toward the woman, he kept moving boxes. But that didn’t keep him from looking in her direction about every third trip.
Right now, one of the women wept. She sat in the seat closest to the open door and Juliet was comforting her. The human woman had bruises on her face and up and down her bare arms. She was missing a couple of teeth and of course had the teal colored flames on her cheeks.
Juliet went to the front seat of the van and returned with a small box of tissues. She handed the woman one, who in turn blew her nose. Blood came out.
He watched Juliet rubbing the woman’s shoulder as she spoke to her in a low voice. She kept handing her tissues and taking away the bloody ones. The woman leaned her head back and closed her eyes, her fingers pinched over the bridge.
Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 144