by Renee George
Ford brushed a stray swatch of skull and hair from my back.
“So gross,” I said.
“It really is.” His blue eyes alighted around the room. “I’ve seen it before with guys like Townsend.”
“What?”
“Small mammal syndrome.”
I grinned. “You did not just go there.”
He laughed, and it made me feel good to my toes.
“Proud to be my mate, huh?” I covered his freed willy with my torso.
“Don’t make me take it back.” He lifted me into his arms. “You have a decision to make.”
“Don’t forget about me!” Tizzy scaled his leg and settled into my lap. “Nothing like bear-to-door service.”
“Not so fast.” The voice froze us all in place. Standing in the middle of the mess, in a black tutu and a bullet bra corset, her blonde hair twelve inches high and full of ribbons was none other than Baba Yaga.
“Hello, Baba Yaga,” my dad said with reverence.
“You missed all the fireworks,” I said kinda pissed that she hadn’t shown up sooner.
She rolled her eyes so far back they turned white. “You’re a riot.” She curled her sequined gloved fist on her hip. “Is this Adele Adams?” She pointed at barbecued body parts.
I shrugged. “Some of it.” The pile of goo near the door was my biggest regret. “Too bad about Chief Nichols. I would have bet my savings he was one of the bad guys. Color me surprised.”
“He was a dick,” Ford said. “But you’re right. He wasn’t evil. Just incompetent.”
“Agreed,” my dad said. “Are you satisfied now, Baba Yaga?”
“You’ve done well, Kent. I will allow that the death of your wife was an accident of her own making.” She straightened her bullet bra and glanced around at the meat explosion. “Adele has always been a jealous witch. Even as a child, I knew she’d be trouble.” She puffed up a breath of air that rustled her bangs. “Family. Can’t live with them. Can’t kill them.” She winked at me. “Sometimes a little help is needed in that department.”
“She is a member of your family?”
“A very distant cousin.” She examined her long, bedazzled manicured nails on hand not wearing the glove before turning her all-knowing gaze on me. “You owe me a favor, Hazel Marie Kinsey.”
I didn’t like that she invoked my entire name. “Killing Adele wasn’t favor enough?”
She shrugged. “Fine. We’ll call that favor number one. But, as you may recall, we agreed on two favors.”
“Right, right. So mote it be.”
“Why do you keep adding that to your spells?” My father asked. “Not judging. Just asking.”
“I thought…You mean you don’t have to?” I wasn’t about to tell them about my Witchcraft for Idiots book. “But Baba Yaga said it to me when we made the deal.”
“You believed in the words. Belief gives the magic power.”
“Awesome.” I felt like a total dummy.
“Don’t be ashamed, Hazel. You are very strong, and you will do great things for this town.”
Ford’s arms tightened on me. “I hadn’t decided…”
“Now you’re being a dummy,” she said. “You will be the new Chief of Police.” She pierced me with her or-I’ll-smite-you stare. “No arguing.”
“I don’t know…” I looked up at Ford. “Would it make you mad if I was your boss?”
“You mean you want to stay in Paradise Falls?”
“I really do.” I kissed him, squishing Tizzy between us. She squeaked her protest. “I want to be your mate.”
“Hello, injured BFF over here,” Lily crooned. “I really need to get to Dr. Geller.”
“She’s a medical examiner,” I protested. Uck. I didn’t want that bear-flirting bitch fixing my friend. “She works with dead people.”
“She’s the only healer in town,” Lily countered. She held her arm to her chest. “I can heal a lot, but that asshole broke the bone clean in half.”
Baba Yaga clapped her hands. “My soon to be daughter-in-law is a Shifter Wanker. She will fix the werecougar.” She clapped her hands again and Lily disappeared from my father’s arms. “She’s in good hands now. Goodbye, Hazel.”
“Good--” Baba Yaga was gone before I could say bye.
Chapter Fourteen
I STARED INTO FORD’S BLUE EYES, mostly to avoid looking around at all the people parts. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“You were pretty damn spectacular.”
His compliment made me squishy in all my squishy places. I wiggled against him, and his timber hardened against me. He growled. I grinned.
“Get some, Haze!” Tizzy said.
I blushed. Sometimes it was easy to forget about the tiny squirrel in the room.
The soft noise of a throat clearing got my attention. My dad stood alone, his hands by his side, his palms open.
Goddess on toast. I’d rubbed a naked guy in front of my father.
“Haze,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
I’d blamed him for so long, it was hard to get a grip on how to feel now that I knew he didn’t kill my mother. At least, not on purpose. “How come you never told me you were innocent? That Mom was the one practicing bad magic?”
“I wanted to protect you. Besides, it was hard to convince Baba Yaga I hadn’t killed Priscilla on purpose. I believed, without proof, I’d never convince you either.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t a perfect father, even before I tried to sever the mate bond with your mom. But I do love you.”
Ford set me down. I hugged my dad. “We’ll get through this.”
He hugged me back. “Danny died because he got too close to the truth. Lily deserves to know. Her brother died an honorable death. His and Lily’s parents were victims of Adele, Robert, and your mom. I suspected, but couldn’t prove the crime. It’s why they killed him.”
“Why break all his bones?”
“Pain,” Dad said. “The more pain that fed the spell, the more powerful the magic. Druidic magic is more potent with sacrifice.”
“And Boyd?”
“I think because he and Danny were friends, they believed he knew more than he actually did. They killed Dennis Mitchell because he decided to blackmail them for more money after they’d bribed him to hide evidence in the investigation.”
“Lily and the Deckers will have some peace knowing their loved ones have moved on to the Next Adventure,” said Ford.
“Huh?”
Ford winced. “You really know nothing about Shifters. In order to move on to…well, our version of Heaven for the sake of simplifying, our deaths must be natural or noble. The fact that Danny was killed while trying to right a wrong makes his death noble. Same with Boyd.”
I kissed Ford. Not a quick bump of lips, but a deep, meaningful, sucking his tongue down my throat kiss.
He growled and yanked me hard against his body.
“I’m out of here,” my dad said.
“We’re covered in Shifter-witch gunk,” I said when Ford’s hands slid under my shirt.
“The mating frenzy is strong.” His fingers danced over my nipples sending sharp spikes of pleasure to my hoo-ha.
“Bear and witch.
Mating frenzy itch.
Too much power.
Need a shower.
Goddess hear me.
So mote it be.”
In a quick fade out then back in, we were standing in a five-foot marble shower with ten pulsating jet sprayers and an overhead rainmaker. “Oh, man, I am getting good!”
I turned on the water and stripped my clothes while Ford tossed them over the clear door.
“Are you sure, Haze?” he asked when he had me naked with my breasts mashed up against his bare furry chest. “Mating is for life.”
“Do you wish I wouldn’t have kissed you the night of the party? I mean, I was a nobody in high school. I wasn’t even on your radar.”
“There have been times I regretted it because it’s hard to be alone.”
He brushed back a wet strand of hair from my face. “But…you were wearing black leggings, a blue tank top, and a pair of pink ankle boots. Oh, and you wore your hair in a ponytail to the side. You were pretty adorable.”
“The night of the party?”
“No,” Ford said, shaking his head. “The day I asked you to pass me the catsup.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “Oh.”
He growled as he lifted me off the floor of the shower, my feet dangling as he pressed his forehead to mine. “You were on my radar, Hazel Kinsey. Then and now.”
“Yes,” I told Ford. “I agree to life with you.”
“Without parole.” He smiled.
“I’ll wear an ankle monitor if it will make you happy.”
“One more thing about mating, and I’ll be quick because frankly, I’m about to explode, there is a…bite involved.”
“How hard?”
He rubbed his red oak against me. “Pretty hard.”
I smacked him. “The bite. How hard is the bite?”
“Do you want to find out?” The promise in his blue eyes made me nod. Vigorously.
“Yes.” I wrapped my legs around his waist, inhaling sharply as his rigid log rolled against my throbbing pebble. “Do you love me, Ford?”
“I do.”
“Good. I love you too.”
“I think I saw that on one of my textbooks.”
“Will you two get on with it already?” Tizzy asked, standing just outside the see-through shower door. “This is getting more When Harry Met Sally and less When Hairy Wet--.”
“Get out, Tiz!” I opened the door and threw a wet washcloth at her. When she raced, laughing, from the room, I turned to Ford. “That didn’t kill the mood did it?”
His love-lumber bumped against my lady den. “It’ll take more than a sassy squirrel to put me off.”
I rubbed against him, and he groaned, his spicy masculine aroma filling the shower stall. When the tip of him pressed against my opening, I rolled my hips, asking for more. I wanted him inside me like I wanted air to breathe.
“I don’t think I can be gentle,” he moaned.
“Then don’t,” I said. “I’m a tough girl.”
His thumbs dug into my hips as he entered me inch by torturous inch. A helpless sound tumbled from my lips.
“I’m hurting you.”
“No,” I lied. His invasion inside me was painful, after all, he was a mountain of a man, but it would have hurt more for him to stop. “I want this, Ford. I want you.”
“I love you,” he said. His teeth elongated. “I love you so much, Haze.”
He bit down on my shoulder, and I screamed as a pleasure like nothing I’ve ever known ripped through my body as he pierced my flesh. He dropped to his knees, carrying me with him, and when my back was on the tile floor, he entered me completely and began to thrust in earnest.
Ecstasy wracked me with wave after wave of rapture as my orgasm spilled over me. Ford let go of my shoulder and roared as his own climax erupted, holding me until he’d spent every bit of himself inside me.
We lay there for Goddess knew how long before the water turned cold. Ford reached up and turned off the shower. “Mrs. Haze Baylor,” he said teasingly, as he held me close.
“Is that a proposal?” My heart pounded like a fist against the inside of my chest.
“I am yours for eternity, Haze. Until death do us part. Do you want to get married?”
“I do,” I said.
“Then I do too.”
A loud knock on the bathroom door startled us. Next, a loud booming voice said, “You have your own shower in your own home, son.”
“Dad?” Ford asked.
“Yes. Your mother wants me to congratulate you. So congratulations.”
“Uhm, thanks.” His cheeks were turning a very adorable shade of red.
“Welcome to the family, Hazel,” Bryant Baylor said.
“Thank you, sir,” I answered.
“Now get out.”
“Why’d you pop us into my dad’s shower?”
I shrugged. “How was I supposed to know it was your dad’s shower? Didn’t you notice?”
“I noticed your perky boobs. Everything else was a blur after that.”
“I can hear you,” Bryant added. “I’m getting bleach. If you’re not out by the time I get back, you will be getting cleaned along with the shower.”
We stood up, wrapping ourselves in Mr. Baylor’s towels. The one I had covered me from armpit to knees. On Ford, it looked more like a miniskirt.
Ford grimaced. “Can you get us out of here?”
“We’re better off walking.”
“You really are a terrible witch.”
“But I’m an awesome lover, right?”
Ford grinned. “The best.”
“I can still hear you,” Bryant shouted.
I stared up at my mate. Two days had passed since I’d arrived back in my hometown, and a lifetime of events had occurred almost simultaneously. I had my best friend back, I no longer hated my father, apparently I was the new police chief, and the man of my dreams had promised to always love me. This was the first time that Paradise Falls didn’t feel like a fail.
“I can see up your skirt, bear boy,” Tizzy said. “Dang! You could put an eye out with that thing.”
“Tizzy!”
She looked up at me, innocently batting her eyelashes. “You called?”
The End. For Now…
About the Author
Renee George is a USA Today Bestselling author of cozy mysteries, paranormal romance, erotic romance, contemporary romance, and romantic comedies that highlight varying themes. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, man-child son, two sweet dogs, and a senile cat.
Find More Books by Renee George
Amazon Author Central
Join Renee’s Newsletter
https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/m8p8u6
Other Great Magic & Mayhem Series Authors
Robyn Peterman (Kindle World Creator)
Magic and Mayhem Series Page
Releases in Magic and Mayhem Kindle World
Michele Bardsley
Website
Amazon Author Page
Kris Calvert
Website
Amazon Author Page
Deanna Chase
Website
Amazon Author Page
Claudy Conn
Website
Amazon Author Page
Melinda DuChamp
Amazon Author Page
Renee George
Website
Amazon Author Page
Melanie James
Website
Amazon Author Page
Renea Mason
Website
Amazon Author Page
Donna McDonald
Website
Amazon Author Page
H.M. McQueen
Website
Amazon Author Page
Isabel Micheals
Website
Amazon Author Page
Rose Pressey
Website
Amazon Author Page
Lori Ryan
Website
Amazon Author Page