Marisa Chenery

by A Warrior to Love

  All that mattered was Konner getting to his bedroom.

  Alexis dropped her athletic bag and purse to the floor once he had them inside his room. He let her slide down his body until her feet touched the carpet. She quickly toed off her shoes and kicked each one away. She put her hands under the back of Konner’s t-shirt and shoved them as high as she could reach before she ran her nails down his skin. He groaned, his kiss becoming more erotic, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth to duel with her own.

  “Clothes off,” Konner said with a groan that was mixed in with an animalistic growl once he’d released her lips. “I have to have you naked against me.”

  “Yes,” she said in return. “God, yes.”

  They only broke apart long enough to help each other frantically strip out of their clothes. Once they stood naked facing each other, Konner pulled her against him and once more devoured her mouth. Alexis whimpered with need. Wetness leaked from her pussy and onto her inner thighs. She wasn’t going to feel complete until she had his long, thick cock buried deep inside her, taking her in hard thrusts.

  Alexis reached between them and wrapped her hand around Konner’s erection. It jerked in her grip as she pumped it up and down. He made that animal-like growl again, which had her libido skyrocketing. She squeezed his cock harder and stroked him faster.

  Konner soon pulled her hand off him and walked her backward toward the bed. He lifted her onto it and followed her down. He didn’t settle between her spread legs and thrust into her as she wanted. Instead, he lay half on and half off her and shifted lower until he was level with her breasts.

  He supported his upper body on one bent arm as he sucked a nipple into his mouth. Konner gently bit down on it before he sucked it once more. Alexis grew wetter, her need for him growing stronger with each passing minute. She shifted under him, lifting her hips in invitation.

  “Konner, please,” she begged.

  He gave her other breast the same attention before he shifted until his body covered hers with his hips wedged between her thighs. Konner pushed the head of his cock into her slick pussy, sinking deeper with each thrust until he was balls-deep. Alexis clutched at his shoulders as he slid in and out of her. Pleasure exploded along all her nerve endings, and she whimpered, getting caught up in the sensations.

  Konner’s cock grew harder, stretching her, making her pant. She squeezed her inner muscles around it, increasing what she felt. The way her body coiled tighter, it wasn’t going to take much to have her coming. He pumped his hips faster, harder.

  Lost in the moment, on the verge of what she was sure would be an intense orgasm, Alexis cried out, “I love you, Konner. Don’t ever leave me.”

  He growled that animal-like growl he did and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She felt the drag of a sharp tooth where her shoulder and neck met just before Konner bit her there—hard. It didn’t hurt. If anything, it gave her a jolt of pleasure that threw her into an orgasm that seemed never to end. As Konner continued to piston between her legs, he held on to her with his teeth. Alexis felt as if something snapped into place, like some kind of invisible bond. Her feelings for him already strong, seemed to solidify even more.

  Konner pulled his teeth away, then lifted his upper body off her, holding his weight on his hands. As he continued to thrust, his gaze drifted to her neck where he’d bitten her. He let out a groan of male satisfaction.

  “I love you too,” he said on a moan. Then he moaned even louder as he pushed inside her pussy one final time, his cock pulsing as he came.

  He collapsed on top of her, and Alexis wrapped her arms around his back to keep him there. With her emotions running high, she didn’t want to let him go.

  She’d blurted how she felt about Konner. She’d taken a big risk, but at least he returned her feelings. He loved her too. Feeling as if all her bones had turned to jelly, she held her lover close and waited for her body to settle.

  Konner knew he had to be too heavy for Alexis, but her grip told him he was exactly where she wanted him.

  Not that he minded. He didn’t think he could move very far even if he wanted to. What he’d done had left him a bit shaky. He’d bitten Alexis, made her his mate and tied their life forces together. She was now as immortal as he.

  The deep bite mark his fangs had left behind had healed within seconds with no trace of it ever marring her soft skin.

  He’d promised Anubis he would give Alexis the choice to accept him as her mate after Konner told her what he was, but he’d lost control of himself. Hearing Alexis say she loved him, and that she didn’t want him to ever leave her, had pushed him over the fine line he’d walked. He’d acted on the deep feelings he had for Alexis and didn’t think of the consequences. He just wanted her as his. The sensation of the bond forming between them had felt so right.

  Konner kissed the spot where he’d bitten Alexis.

  He’d have to tell her about his being a warrior of Anubis and that they were now mated, but he’d wait until he took her out for her birthday meal this coming weekend.

  It would give him some more days of having her think he was nothing more than a normal man she’d come to love. Hopefully that wouldn’t change once he told her the truth.

  Chapter Seven

  Alexis had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing. If she gave in, she could offend Konner, and she didn’t want to do that since he tried so hard.

  He looked at her. “You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?”

  She shook her head. “No, really I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are. I can see it in your eyes.” A small giggle escaped Alexis before she could hold it back. The way Konner looked at her with a combination of frustration and exasperation on his face she couldn’t help it. They sat on his bed, after making love twice more, as she tried to teach him how to use the new laptop he’d bought the other day. The router had already been set up when he’d had one of the service guys from his internet provider come in and do it for him so getting WiFi wasn’t the problem.

  No, the problem wasn’t the internet, it was Konner.

  She had already showed him twice how to get into his email and how to send one, but it just didn’t seem to click. And watching him type painfully slow with one finger, it made her want to push him aside and do it for him.

  “Fuck, I did it again,” Konner growled. “Why do I keep clicking on the wrong things? And this built-in mouse pad is driving me up the goddamn wall. The arrow wants to shoot off on its own or I can’t get it where I want it.”

  “You just need to practice, and you’ll get used to it.

  If you can’t, we’ll just have to get you a wireless mouse to use instead.” She undid what he’d done. “Try again,” Alexis said.

  “I think I’m too fricking old to learn this.” She didn’t hold back the laughter this time. “Come on. You sound like an old grandpa who grew up before computers were invented. You’re what? Twenty-eight?

  Twenty-nine? I hardly think that qualifies you for a senior-citizen discount.”

  Konner gave her a look she couldn’t read before he let out a sigh. “I’m serious. I doubt I’m going to be able to learn this.”

  “Nonsense. You’re an expert when it comes to gaming systems. You should be able to handle this.” She took the laptop off Konner’s lap and put it on hers, then shifted so he could only see the back of the screen.

  “Here, I’ll give you an incentive to learn.” Alexis signed into her web-based email and typed up a message for Konner. The few sentences were highly erotic. She hit send and looked up to find him staring at her. She clicked to his home page before she handed him back the laptop.

  “You took me out of my email,” Konner said as he gave her a look that said he wasn’t too happy about it.

  “Yes, I did. You need to get used to going into it yourself. Now go read what I sent you.”

  After a few choice swear words when he couldn’t get the mouse to coopera
te, Konner finally was once again in his inbox. Alexis watched as he clicked open her email.

  His gaze quickly moved back and forth over the screen.

  Once he finished reading, he put a hand on the back of her neck and pulled her closer until their lips met. He gave her a kiss that took her breath away.

  After he broke contact with her, Konner said, “All right, you convinced me. I’ll practice until I can do this with my eyes closed. I definitely don’t want to miss out on any emails like the one you just sent me.” Alexis smiled. “I thought you’d think that way.” The rest of the day pretty much went by with computer lessons, cooking food together and another bout of lovemaking. Alexis couldn’t have been happier.

  The longer she spent with Konner the more right he seemed for her. And she couldn’t find anything about him that would cause her to think she’d made a mistake by rushing into a serious relationship with him.

  Now that it had grown dark, Konner stood at the door about to leave for work. Alexis stood with him and gave him a kiss and a hug before he left. She’d miss him, but at least he’d join her in his bed once he came home.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with me leaving you here alone?” Konner asked.

  “Of course I am. Since you have a laptop and internet now, I’ll work on some of my web design projects I have going. I use an online backup site so I can access any files I need from there.”

  “Okay. I have my cell with me, but if I’m caught up in something, I might not be able to answer right away.”

  “I’ll be fine, Konner. Go. And I’ll be in bed when you get back.”

  He gave her one last kiss, then walked out the door.

  After she turned the deadbolt, Alexis headed upstairs to get the laptop where they’d left it in Konner’s bedroom.

  Having decided she’d work in the living room with the TV on, she went to that room and made herself comfortable on the couch.

  Alexis launched the browser and typed in the website address for the online storage site she used. She opened one of the files she wanted to work on. She went to minimize the browser, then jerked when it went to another website on its own. Alexis hit the back button to return to the website she’d been at. Two seconds later, it changed once again to the other page.

  Afraid Konner’s brand-new laptop had somehow picked up something it shouldn’t have, she looked at the page closely. It didn’t appear to be something that would cause a virus. Her brows drew together once she started to read. It was about the Egyptian god Anubis and a group of men he’d chosen to be his immortal warriors to help protect mortals from evildoers. It went on to say each man had been at the point of death on a battlefield and had called out to be saved. And that the god of the Egyptian underworld had done so after they’d given their vow to serve as one of his warriors for all eternity.

  Alexis shook her head. Even though it was written as if it was fact, she doubted it was. It had to be a legend or myth from ancient Egypt. Her opinion didn’t change about that as she read further and saw that the warriors of Anubis all shape-shifted into a half-human and half-jackal form while in the presence of evil. And while in that form, they could snare an evildoer’s gaze, push into his or her mind and see all the evil their prey had done, experiencing it as if it had happened to them. She pulled the laptop closer to look at what appeared to be a hand-drawn picture of what the warrior would look like shifted. The creature even wore an ancient Egyptian-styled kilt and gold armbands around large, furry biceps.

  She looked at the bottom of the page to see who might be the designer or author of it, but there weren’t any names. Alexis shook her head. Never knew what you’d find on the internet.

  Alexis minimized the window and clicked to open the antivirus program to run it just in case there was a virus. Once it started scanning, she opened the window again. Now she really didn’t know what to think. The page was gone. Literally. Just a blank page with nothing on it. She refreshed it a couple of times and it came up with the same result.

  She’d never seen a computer act like this. And she’d never heard of a virus that would take someone to a page about an ancient Egyptian myth. She couldn’t see what a hacker would be trying to do with it, either.

  Pushing thoughts of the weird website aside, Alexis got down to the business of doing some work. That didn’t last very long, though. She found herself fidgeting on the couch, her thoughts drifting from what she was doing and straying to what she’d read on the strange page. It eventually got so bad she decided to get up and get some water, hoping that would help her to once again find her focus.

  Alexis left the living room and went to head to the kitchen, but found herself stopping in front of a closed door. She reached for the doorknob as an overwhelming urge to go inside this particular room washed over her. It was so strong she’d opened the door before she could even guess at what was on the other side, or decide if Konner would mind if she did go in there.

  A quiet gasp escaped her once she walked into what would have been a den, but it wasn’t. Her gaze took in all the statues, big and small, paintings and carvings that depicted the Egyptian god Anubis. Some of them portrayed him as having the body of a human and the head of a jackal, much like the creature she’d seen on the website. It also clicked in that it matched the tattoo of Anubis that Konner had on his chest. This had to be the weirdest coincidence. A small voice inside her mind asked if it really was one.

  Alexis shook her head and told it to shut up. It had to be, there was no other explanation. It wasn’t as if Konner was one of Anubis’ warriors. Now that would be plain ridiculous, considering the story she read about them was just that, a story.

  Looking around the room, she noticed at one end there was what appeared to be an altar. There was a plate with some slices of bread on it and a small glass that held some kind of amber liquid. Konner had to have put those items on it, but for the life of her, Alexis didn’t know why. Obviously he was into the god of the underworld. She gazed around the room again. Really into Anubis. Alexis guessed there wasn’t anything wrong with it, though it might seem a little strange to her. As she’d thought before, it had to be a huge coincidence that Konner had a room dedicated to Anubis and she’d been taken to a page about the god’s warriors.

  Deciding she’d already invaded enough of Konner’s privacy for one night, Alexis turned, walked out of the room and shut the door firmly behind her. She wouldn’t be telling him about finding his little collection. If he wanted to tell her about it that was fine. She didn’t need him to think she snooped through his whole house while he was away at work.

  Alexis went to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and returned to the living room, determined to get some work done herself. Then in a few hours she’d call it a night and climb into her lover’s bed to hopefully be awakened in the most erotic of ways when he returned home.

  * * * * *

  After the night Alexis had slept over, Konner had seen her only once before the Saturday he planned on taking her out for her birthday. He’d gone over to her place and had dinner with her and her parents the other day. He’d stayed until he had to leave to hunt evildoers.

  He and Alexis didn’t have any time alone, and making love had been out of the question, but he’d enjoyed his visit. Claudia and Drew had seemed to take to him as much as he’d taken to them.

  Konner still hadn’t told Alexis anything about what he was or about him claiming her. So far she hadn’t noticed any changes in her, but it wouldn’t stay that way the first time she hurt herself in any way. The speed with which she’d heal would be a dead giveaway that something had changed.

  Now it was Saturday in the early evening and he was on his way to pick Alexis up for their date. He’d also decided to take the night off from hunting, to devote it entirely to his mate. At some point during it he’d tell her everything. Konner still had no idea how Alexis would react to it all. They loved each other. He hoped it would be enough to help her a
ccept it. And she had to since he couldn’t undo his making her his mate and tying her life force to his.

  He hadn’t told Alexis where he was taking her, only that she should get dressed up. Konner picked a fancy, and he hoped romantic, restaurant. After they had their meal, he’d take her back to his place and make love to her before he let the cat out of the bag.

  Arriving at Alexis’ house, Konner pulled into the driveway and parked in front of the garage. He got out of the car and gave the sleeves of his sport jacket a tug.

  He’d gone out and bought it along with a pair of slacks, dress shirt, dress shoes and a tie. He hadn’t had to dress up like this since he’d been a mortal.

  Konner rang the doorbell. Claudia opened the door and waved him inside. “Don’t you look nice,” she said as she closed it behind him.

  “Thanks. Is Alexis ready?”

  “Just about. You must be taking her someplace fancy.”

  “Well, this outing is for her birthday.”

  “Quit bugging Konner, Mom,” Alexis said with a smile as she came to stand at the end of the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

  “I’m not,” Claudia said in return. “I just asked him if he was taking you to a fancy restaurant since the pair of you are all dressed up.”

  “I was only joking. Tell Dad I said goodbye, and Mom, don’t expect me back tonight.”

  Alexis’ mother laughed. “I figured that much out on my own. Enjoy your meal.”

  Konner took Alexis’ hand and threaded his fingers with hers before he guided her out the door and into his car. Once they were closed inside, he leaned across the seat and kissed her, letting some of his hunger for her out.

  After he pulled away, Alexis said, “Mmm, that was good. I’ve missed your kiss,” she gave a pointed look at his crotch, “along with other things.”

  He shook his head and grinned. “Enough of that now. We’re going out to eat. I’ve had this planned for days and we’re going to stick with it.”