Iron Master (Shifters Unbound Book 12)

by Jennifer Ashley

  She pictured it, and laughed.

  “Good morning to you too,” Stuart said, his hands on her back.

  Peigi rose to him for another kiss. It was so much fun to be in love.

  “They’re kissing again!” Donny shouted from two feet away.

  Peigi jumped, but Stuart finished the kiss and smiled. “You’ll be seeing us do that a lot, lad,” Stuart told him. “We’re mates.”

  “Woo hoo!” Noelle said. “Breakfast’s almost done, Peigi. Stuart cooked it already. And Ben’s in the kitchen.”

  Now Stuart started. He and Peigi unwound themselves from each other and ran for the next room.

  Ben sat at the table, about to attack a steaming pile of pancakes. “You were busy, so I thought I’d help myself.”

  In spite of his glib words, he did not appear to be well. The hand that held his fork trembled.

  Peigi grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured dark coffee Stuart had brewed into it. She set the cup at Ben’s elbow and took a seat next to him. “Where’ve you been? You left without a word.”

  Ben shuddered. “Don’t ask.”

  “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Peigi said. “I’m just checking that you’re all right.”

  Behind her, Stuart herded the cubs to the counter to start carrying the food to the table. He waited until the cubs were settled before he sat down to his pancakes.

  “Dylan get to you?” Stuart asked.

  “I haven’t seen Dylan, lately.” Ben gave another shudder. “Thank the Goddess. No, I’ve been exploring ley lines since Lady Aisling lifted my curse. Or possibly lifted my curse. Be careful what you wish for. I’ve been searching for any other goblins, anywhere, but haven’t found them. Going back and forth is playing hell with my metabolism.” He shoveled in several mouthfuls of pancakes and washed them down with coffee. “One thing Faerie hasn’t figured out is good coffee. Thanks, Peigi.”

  “Stuart made it. I just poured.” Peigi cut into her own pancakes, letting syrup and butter ooze onto the plate, and lifted her fork. “If using the ley lines exhausts you, maybe you should stop doing it for a while.”

  “Great advice.” Ben ate a few more mouthfuls. “But while the Fae threaten Shifters, I’ll be using them. Keep an eye on the bas—” He caught six cubs watching him and coughed. “Keep an eye on the bad men. They’ll never come through on my watch, don’t worry.”

  “Peigi and Reid will kick their asses,” Noelle said with confidence. “So will Nell and Cormac, and Eric, and Graham, and everybody.”

  “That we will.” Stuart stated this with quiet belief.

  Ben continued to eat—a lot. He hadn’t lied when he said he’d run down his metabolism, but Peigi realized some of his peakedness came from sorrow. He must’ve hoped that a few of his people might have survived the long-ago devastation by the hoch alfar, and he’d found no evidence of it.

  Impulsively, Peigi patted the tattooed hand that rested on the table. Ben gave her a weak smile, one that said, I’ll be all right. His resignation broke her heart.

  He drew a breath, some of his robustness returning. “So, mate claim, eh?”

  “She accepted,” Noelle said with satisfaction. “We just have to plan the sun and moon ceremony. Full moon is in two weeks. I looked it up.”

  “Can we stay up all night for the moon ceremony?” Donny asked immediately. “It will be a special occasion, right?”

  “We’ll talk about it,” Peigi said.

  Donny decided to take that as an affirmative. She saw him putting arguments in line if she took a stand against his night-long party.

  Breakfast ended in a jubilant mood. Peigi knew she shouldn’t be so happy, as they had much to worry about, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d accepted mate claims in the past—Michael’s and then Eric’s nominal one—but those were for expediency. This time her whole body danced, and joy flooded her heart.

  This was right.

  Peigi assumed Stuart would want to talk with Ben about Dylan and his requests—rather, his thinly veiled demands—but Stuart said nothing at all. He helped clean up after breakfast, asking Ben what he thought about the Tuil Erdannan, and somehow the discussion ended up being about soccer—or footy as Ben and Stuart called it.

  Peigi left them to it.

  She did ordinary things, such as make certain the cubs were bathed and dressed, their dirty clothes from yesterday in the laundry—activities that today were easy. She found herself humming again as she worked, which infected the cubs, who started singing or bellowing tunes along with her.

  “How many cubs will you and Stuart have?” Noelle asked her after lunch. She held a steno pad and pen and appeared to be taking notes. A young human girl would have been tapping on a tablet, but Shifters were still restricted from certain technologies.

  “We haven’t got that far yet,” Peigi said, flushing. “Haven’t even started on the first one.”

  Noelle regarded her without embarrassment. Shifter cubs knew all about sex and what it was for, though they had only a cursory interest in it until their Transitions when they were in their mid-twenties. Then they would pursue sex with mindless adrenaline.

  “Once the cubs start coming, we’ll need a bigger house,” Noelle said. “We’ll have to tell Eric. We might be able to stay in this one but build on.” She assessed the end wall of the living room.

  “Early days, my girl,” Peigi said breathlessly. She’d thought the same at Cain’s house—maybe Eric would okay a courtyard and another floor, she thought with nervous hilarity.

  “In any case, Stuart should move into your room right away, and we can start turning his room into a nursery.”

  Ben leaned on the open doorway to the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. “You mean he’s still sleeping in the guest room? Seriously?”

  As Peigi’s face grew hotter, Noelle nodded. “They haven’t spent the night together at all.” She shook her head, disappointed in them. “Cubs will take forever if they don’t change that.”

  Ben took in Peigi quivering with embarrassment, the other cubs listening in avid interest, and Stuart pretending not to hear as he banged dishes in the kitchen, then reached behind him and set the coffee mug on the kitchen table. “Tell you what, kids. How about I take you out for sundaes?”

  Instantly the cubs forgot about Peigi and Stuart’s personal life and shouted their pleas.

  “Can we, Peigi? Please, can we?”

  “I suppose it will be all right. But take your coats—” Peigi’s admonition was drowned out by a chorus of delight.

  Noelle abandoned her position of family organizer, flung down her steno pad, and dashed for her coat. Ben herded them toward the foyer as Stuart emerged from the kitchen to help bundle them up.

  Ben bumped fists with Peigi. “You two have some things to work out,” he said. He grabbed his leather jacket from the coat rack and followed the cubs out the front door, hollering at them to wait for him.

  The door slammed shut, and the cubs’ voices receded and faded as Ben loaded them into the SUV Eric had given Peigi. The engine turned over, and the SUV pulled away.

  “I never gave Ben the keys,” Stuart mused. He leaned on the doorframe where Ben had.

  “Neither did I.”

  “Good to know he’d make an excellent car thief.”

  “Maybe he is one.” Peigi tried to smile, and the corners of Stuart’s eyes crinkled.

  They studied each other, the silence like a barrier rising between them.

  Peigi swallowed. “They expect us to …”

  She trailed off, unable to voice it. She hoped, she wanted, and yet was uncertain. Shifter frenzy was strong, but Stuart wasn’t—

  Stuart pushed himself from the door frame before she could finish the thought. “And why not?”

  His dark eyes fixed on her as he came to her, purpose in every step. Before Stuart reached her, he pulled off his sweatshirt and tossed it to the sofa, his bronze-colored skin molded to hard muscle beneath it.

&n
bsp; Peigi made a strangled noise in her throat. She grabbed her own shirt and jerked it off over her head. Her bra followed a moment later, right before Stuart drew Peigi into his arms and kissed her with a fierceness that took her breath away.

  Chapter Nineteen

  To touch this woman, to taste her … Stuart had waited so long—too long.

  He skimmed his hands down her arms, absorbing her heat, her softness. Peigi was strong, her body firm, and at the same time smooth and curved.

  Reid pulled her against him, taking her with a kiss that contained all his need. She met his kiss with her own, seeking, their mouths coming together in desperation.

  The hall was short, the rooms along it small. Peigi’s was at the end, the tiniest in the house, which she’d taken, claiming she didn’t need much room. Stuart backed her toward it, unable to cease kissing her. She’d mentioned mating frenzy, as though Stuart wouldn’t be able to understand it, but he understood plenty. Dokk alfar could out-frenzy Shifters any day.

  Peigi laughed as Stuart spun her in the hall so he could open her door. He danced her inside, holding her tight, until they bumped against the bed.

  He kicked he door shut. Though the house was empty, he wanted privacy for Peigi in case the ice cream party came home early.

  They paused, breathing hard, studying each other in the gray light. The open blind showed rain streaking the window, mist beyond it like a curtain shrouding the world.

  “Stuart,” Peigi whispered.

  Not a protest or a hesitation. She said his name as though she liked saying it, pronouncing each syllable with enjoyment.

  Stuart couldn’t answer, finding no words. He kissed her again, tasting the salt-sweet of her lips as his arms stayed around her, her breasts against his bare skin.

  He wanted to take her down to the bed, but they were still wearing too many clothes. Stuart released Peigi long enough to unbuckle his belt. He unbuttoned and unzipped in record time, letting his jeans fall around his legs, underwear after it. He kicked out of the fabric to see Peigi watching him, a smile on her lips, a gleam in her eyes.

  Goddess, she was beautiful.

  She studied him without shame—she’d never been shy about staring at his body. Stuart went incandescent as her gaze dropped to his full erection. He couldn’t help it sticking straight out in her direction, his wanting for her obvious.

  He ceased breathing altogether when Peigi undid her jeans and let them drop. Her hips were a sweet curve cupped by underwear that was at once practical and feminine.

  She slid her fingers under the waistband, and without hesitation, slid the panties down her legs.

  Stuart wanted to die. He’d seen Peigi nude before, when she shifted, but she’d been bear very quickly after her clothes were off.

  Now she stood in her bedroom, her body bare for him, and welcomed his gaze. Her breasts were round and full, nipples dark. Her waist nipped in slightly before her hips curved out, a dark twist of hair between her legs.

  Stuart found his voice, though it came out whispery and wrong. “I see the Goddess’s touch on you. She made you beautiful.”

  A flush spread across Peigi’s face. “You aren’t so bad yourself.”

  “For a weird dark Fae shit?”

  “I’ve never called you that. You are the most gorgeous male I’ve ever seen. Of any kind.” Peigi smiled at him, her eyes shining, and suddenly Stuart felt like the strongest man alive.

  He forgot anything he planned to say to her, any declarations he could have made or sonnets he wanted to recite. None of that mattered. Stuart went to her, hands on her waist.

  He kissed her, wanting that intimacy, words superfluous. She met his kiss with a powerful one of her own, her yearning matching his.

  Stuart couldn’t wait any longer. He wanted to touch her all over, explore her, taste her.

  He eased them down to the bed, the small mattress sagging under their weight. Peigi held Stuart with her gaze as he came over her. He read the urgency in her eyes as she parted her lips, lifting herself to him at the same time she wrapped her arms around him. Her body fitted against his, welcoming, her faint sound of need undoing him.

  Stuart touched her thighs, which readily opened for him, and groaned as he slid home inside her.

  Peigi had always believed that surrender meant loss of freedom, confinement, and fear. Today, she discovered that surrendering could be a different thing.

  She didn’t expect Stuart to catch her, comfort her, or wrap her in a blanket. Surrender today didn’t mean submitting to one stronger than herself and hoping he’d be kind—it meant surrendering to love. To the need to make the world better for that person, to make certain he had everything, even if she didn’t.

  Stuart kissed her throat, her breasts, his breath hot on her skin. Having him inside her made her complete, her last uncertainty gone in a puff of wind.

  It also made her cry out in ecstasy—why not? Stuart opened her and touched her deepest places and it felt astonishing. No, astonishing wasn’t a strong enough word. It was wonderful, tight, glorious, and plain fucking fantastic.

  Stuart’s midnight eyes held the gleam of magic he constantly tried to hide. It flared, and she saw him, the powerful being who kept himself contained so he wouldn’t destroy others.

  The Shifters didn’t understand what they’d taken in, with Stuart. But Peigi did. She always had.

  Stuart’s power surrounded her, tingled through her, touched the latent magic within all Shifters. A surge of wildness hit her, blotting out the rain, the gray mist, the cold of the winter day. She and Stuart were solid, hot, together, and she wished this would never end …

  But then the heat where they joined expanded to drown her, and she spiraled toward a screaming peak. Peigi came and came, and Stuart, holding her, let out a shout that rang through the room.

  Mine, mine, love, mate. The words tumbled through Peigi’s mind and might have come out of her mouth.

  Stuart pounded the mattress with his fist. He moved inside her, the friction hot and driving. as though he’d lived his entire life for this moment, this loving.

  His cries joined hers, as they came together, finally, finally finding a haven from their long and weary existence. Wrapped in each other, they fell together, panting, laughing, tears wetting Peigi’s cheeks and falling from Stuart’s beautiful eyes.

  “Ben’s keeping them out a long time,” Peigi murmured much later.

  It was mid-afternoon. Whatever daylight had formed was gone, and mist pressed the window in swirling white-gray.

  Reid, his whole body rested and satisfied, traced a pattern on Peigi’s bare arm. Satisfied, yes, but he knew he could do more, and more. They were only stopping to rest.

  “We’ll have to find a place to be alone as our family grows,” he said. His voice was scratchy. “Noelle is right—it’s a small house.”

  Stuart hadn’t been able to speak at all as he loved Peigi, until passion had taken him, and he’d yelled his release in the cozy room. He’d gone on and on until he could only rasp.

  “If the family does grow,” Peigi said.

  She sounded so wistful that Stuart lifted on one elbow to look down at her. His arm was sore—they’d made love a long time.

  “You’re afraid you can’t have cubs?” he asked gently.

  A swallow moved Peigi’s throat. “I was twenty years with Michael and never …”

  Reid touched her face. “You were also stressed, on the run, confined, afraid …”

  “So were the other women. They conceived and bore cubs just fine. That’s why we have our six.”

  Reid liked that she spoke of them as “ours.” “Can I ask a very personal question?” he ventured. “Did you have mating frenzy with Michael?”

  Peigi’s cheeks went pink. “I thought I did, at first. I was young, not long past my Transition. I knew Michael wasn’t the ideal Shifter, but I thought the alternative to staying with him would be worse. I’d be stuck in a Shiftertown, probably with members of my clan who did
n’t want me. Shiftertowns are decent places now, but back then, they weren’t at all.”

  “I know.” Stuart hadn’t been assigned to the newly formed department that handled Shifters when Shiftertowns first opened, but he’d seen the crowding and misery whenever he’d had to handle complaints from humans who lived nearby. “You were right to try to avoid it.”

  “I convinced myself I should be with this strong Shifter who took care of me. But when I didn’t have cubs, he easily turned to other women. I had enough dominance that he couldn’t put them above me, but he let me know I’d disappointed him. I was still head mate, but it became pretty awful.”

  Reid kissed a tear from her hot face. “I wasn’t trying to make you remember bad things. I’m sorry.”

  “No, I need to remember. I need to immerse myself in how much better my life is, living in this house, in the middle of a Shiftertown, with six cubs and a dokk alfar lover.”

  Stuart gave her a mock glare. “Wait, you have a dokk alfar lover? Who is he? I’ll kill him.”

  Peigi laughed shakily. “He’s a shit. I don’t know if you’d like him.”

  “Probably not.” Stuart slanted her a smile. “One more question. Did any of Michael’s other women have cubs? None of ours are his—I’ve always known that.” Their cubs’ fathers were Michael’s trackers and seconds, some of them dead. None of the ones alive had bothered to find out what had become of their cubs.

  “The women there took several mates each,” Peigi said. “Michael’s idea, as there are always more Shifter males than females. A more diverse gene pool, he said. But thinking it through, I’m not sure any of the women had cubs by Michael.”

  “Did you … um … take another mate?”

  “No.” Peigi shook her head adamantly. “I didn’t want to, and Michael figured I was infertile, so he didn’t insist. I also think he didn’t want to share the alpha female.”

  Reid brushed her lower lip with his thumb. “I’m thinking Michael is the one who wasn’t fertile. Probably had his trackers take the same mates he did to cover up the fact he couldn’t make little Shifters.”