Mate Night: An enemies to lovers shifter romance (Southern Shifters Book 2)

by Eliza Gayle

  This room was far different from the rest of the house and the complete opposite of her own room. Instead of the combination of light and dark elements, everything was dark here. Dark walls, dark wood, even chocolate brown covered the bed, which looked damned inviting in king size. The glint of silver on the headboard caught her eye and she inhaled sharply. Was that...?

  She moved closer, and sure enough there were silver handcuffs attached to the bed. Interesting...and something she hadn’t expected although she wasn’t sure why. All three brothers struck her as sexually adventurous and a little bit deviant, but damn. She felt a rush of liquid dampen her panties as she imagined Kane cuffing her to his bed, his prisoner. As long as he didn’t leave and abandon her.

  But everyone leaves.

  She glanced around the rest of the room wondering what other secrets might be hidden there. Were there other kinks he kept hidden from her? There was a door on the opposite side of the room across from the bed, a closet she would presume, and her fingers literally itched to go in and see what she would find.

  She took a few steps towards the door and stopped to listen—the shower was still running. She could take a quick peek and he would never know. A few more steps and sweat broke out on her palms. What the hell is wrong with me? She rubbed her hands on her pants. It’s not like I’m going to find a dead body in there or anything.

  When she reached the door, she placed one hand on the cool, smooth wood and the other on the knob. That would help keep it quiet in case it creaked when she pulled it open. She placed her forehead against it, contemplating what to do. It didn’t seem right to pry through his private space, but how often in life did Lara do what anyone else thought she

  should? If you want to know something about someone you do whatever you have to do to find out.

  Fuck it. She twisted the knob and started to ease it open when two arms appeared alongside of hers and a hard male body pressed up against her backside, closing the door and trapping her against the wood.

  Kane.

  “Where are you going, sugar?” His voice rumbled low and menacing in her ear. He sounded different.

  “Why are you calling me sugar now?”

  “It’s a term of endearment here in the south, I’m sure you’ve heard it before.”

  “Yeah, but not from you, and you didn’t start saying that until you got upset.” His finger trailed along her arm, distracting her immensely.

  “Should I be upset?”

  “Stop it, Kane. If you have something you want to say just say it.” Already her thoughts of Malcolm and Kane fighting and the ugly things that were said faded as he caressed her. Instead she thought about his hard abs pressed against her back and the breadth of his cock lodging against her ass through her thin pants.

  “Why are you in here? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to enter a den?”

  “I thought that applied to wild cats.”

  He purred then, right against her throat as he nibbled on her neck and ears. “And you don’t think I’m wild?”

  “Uh huh.” She pressed back into his arms, unable to stop herself from wanting to crawl all over him. How did he do that to her? Melt her into a compliance that made her willing to give him anything.

  “Are you spying on me?”

  “You were in the shower, I was curious about your room. I saw—saw the handcuffs on the bed.”

  He grabbed her wrists then and pulled them behind her back and pushed her flush against the smooth surface of the door. Her panties moistened more from the fresh flow of her arousal. “Did that turn you on, sugar?”

  “I’m not your sugar.”

  “Aren’t you? You know I can tell everything about you just by your scent. Your fear, your anger, your arousal...”

  She moaned. A faint thought of denying him flitted through her mind, but what was the point? He knew she was wet and ready for him just this easy.

  His grip tightened on her wrists and his free hand slipped into the front waistband of her pants.

  “You should wear skirts, makes for easier access.”

  She squirmed against his hand when his fingers slid through her curls and glanced over her clit on the way to her wet entrance.

  “Spread you legs for me, Lara.”

  She instantly obeyed, trembling a little as she did. A wicked lust for this man washed over her as he continued to stroke her slick folds. She fought for breath as she let her forehead rest against the cool wood of the door, waiting for whatever he wanted next. This feeling of uncertain vulnerability should have worried her, especially considering how angry he’d been, but somehow she sensed that he suffered as much as she did when they tried to deny this connection.

  “Mmm, I love how wet you get for me, makes me want to feast on you for days. It’s enough to drive a man into a frenzy.” His breath feathered hot and fast at her ear, sending chills from her head to her toes.

  His fingers continued to brush quickly across her clit, enough to give her a jolt every time he did, but nowhere near what he knew she needed. Her body ached for him to fill her, to stroke her every which way he could until she begged and screamed for more.

  When two of his fingers curled inside her she wanted to burst from his arms with the force of the sudden electric sensations coursing through her. “Oh, God. Kane.” She screwed her eyes shut, hoping to control herself, gain a little equilibrium before she collapsed on the floor in front of him.

  “Do you want me, sugar? Or do you want me to stop?”

  She shook her head almost violently. “Please. Don’t. Stop.” He chuckled in her ear, a rumbling sound that vibrated straight to her clit—it pulsed in eager anticipation. Her hips bucked against his hand and he removed his fingers, making her whimper with the cold loss.

  He tugged at her arms and pulled her back a little. He released her wrists. “Take off your shirt and bra.” She quickly whipped her shirt and sports bra over her head and stood still in front of him, waiting and taking in his bronzed, naked skin with his thick erection jutting from his hips. He held a small tube of lube in his hand and she eyed him curiously as he began to put some on his fingers. “Now your pants.”

  She met his gaze, grabbed at her waistband, and wiggled her pants over her hips and swept them down her legs, kicking them across the room. Without waiting, he flipped her back around to face away from him and gripped her wrists behind her back again and pushed her slightly forward at the waist.

  She wiggled her body forward as best she could, considering he held her arms tight in his hand, not letting her move any way he didn’t want her to. He was obviously making sure she knew exactly who was in control, but right now she didn’t care just so long as he quit teasing her.

  His rough-skinned hand covered her ass, caressing in a small circular pattern before letting his fingers slip between the cheeks, pressing his slick fingers to her tight rear opening. Her breath caught in her throat as his finger stretched the tight ring of muscles.

  “I want your ass. I’m going to sink in one slow inch at a time until you scream and beg for more.”

  Lara let the dark pleasure course through her veins as he pressed in deeper, not hearing anything else he said. Her thoughts became lost in the incredible sensation of the wicked. She’d already forgotten her anger and hurt feelings from earlier all for the sake of this moment.

  “Do you like that, sugar?”

  Of course she did. How could he not know that about her by now? That the more he pushed her sexual boundaries the more she craved from him? What others called forbidden she called heaven. Lara’s body trembled, shaking with each new plunge of his finger until she cried out in frustration. How long would he make her hang on the ledge? Cool sweat broke out on her body as her instincts drove her to push back against him. “Please, Kane. Please.”

  God, he loved her like this, hovering on the edge of a mind numbing orgasm and begging for her release. It had to be the hottest damn thing he’d seen in his life, and he’d seen plenty. But her ass gripping tight
on his finger as the words he’d needed to hear trembled from her lips made his cock swell, leaving him with a hard-on the likes of which he hadn’t experienced before, and he was about to fill her with it.

  He released her wrists then and she grabbed for the wall to steady herself. When he’d figured out she was in his room he’d thought to teach her a lesson. She needed to know that he couldn’t be controlled by something so simple as sex just to get what she wanted from him, yet here he was going against his own plan to bring her to the cliff of an orgasm and then walk away.

  Walking away wasn’t an option, and clearly it never would be for either of them. So how did he get past her obvious betrayal, back to where he’d thought they’d been headed before his pain in the ass brother had shown up? Another question he had to ask her when he didn’t have his dick buried in her and could think straight.

  He stood there for a minute, looking at how beautiful she was. She had a round and lush butt, just as he liked them, and as he took her in, his hunger built to a higher, more impossible crest. He couldn’t wait any longer, he had to fuck her.

  Grabbing up the lube he’d dropped at his feet, he squeezed some more on his fingers. He slid one finger back inside and added a second right away with no problem. She opened beautifully and he couldn’t wait to see her take his dick. The little whimpers she made when she was aroused tore at his control as he removed his fingers and replaced them with the tip of his cock.

  “Tell me, Lara. Tell me how much you want this from me.”

  “Do it already!”

  “Do you want me as mate?” He didn’t care right now if his demands were fair; all that mattered was her admittance. He wanted to hear her say it.

  “Kane, please.”

  “Not until you tell me.” He wasn’t about to let her wiggle out of it.

  “I want you!” she screamed. He pushed forward and her back bowed at his entry and her cry filled the room around them. He gripped her hips and dug in with his feet forcing himself to take this slow and easy, unwilling to hurt her. The heat of her flesh surrounding him was like liquid fire, and sweat ran in rivulets down his face and back as he still did his best to hold onto that little thread of humanity that held back the animal.

  “More, Kane. Hurry.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”

  “I don’t care. You need to fuck me now!” The tether broke on her last cry and he surged forward, buried to the hilt. With the scent of her filling his senses and the entire room, as well as the tight grip she flexed and released around him, he was forced to free the cougar. A snarl twisted his lips as he surged forward again and again, covering her body with his own. His eye teeth descended and the cries of his mate begging him not to stop erased all conscious thought and responsibility from his brain.

  Her whimpers and cries increased, and when his arm wrapped around her so he could thumb her clit he came face to face with her mark. Lost in her wet heat and the screams that tore from her throat when she flew from the cliff he’d held her at so long, his teeth sank into her back, piercing her mating mark.

  His actions threw her straight into a second orgasm that milked him until he, too, pumped his release into her, all the while with the taste of her blood hot in his mouth. His mate.

  When the aftershocks of their mating cooled, his mouth popped from her skin as he slid from her body. He had to catch her from falling when he stepped back and easily scooped her into his arms to take her the few feet to his own bed. Not willing to leave her alone in her own room, he needed to feel her warmth curled against him. Their fate was sealed and, like it or not, they would be linked forever. It took ’til death do us part to a whole new level.

  After he washed up in the bathroom and shut down the water, he took up a post in the chair across from the bed. She looked so beautiful and small lying there. Her creamy skin stood out stark from the dark room, making her look like a sweet treat to be devoured by a predator like him.

  He brushed his hands through his hair and looked down at the floor. How could he let the animal take control like that? What would she do when she woke up a human mated to a shifter? What would he do? In two days they would have much to answer at the tribunal. He hoped they survived.

  The eerie stillness of the night unsettled Bran. Animals should be scurrying, and owls hooting on a moonless night such as this. He’d opted to meet Nick far from home, and his nosy daughter. Katherine had provided him with her shocking news and taunted him mercilessly with it ever since.

  Lara’s mating mark complicated the situation beyond tolerance and it made her and Kane more dangerous than ever. By now the boy would have discovered it, and no female could escape a male cougar as powerful as that one. He’d heard the stories of the Gunn brothers and their sexual exploits. At one point he and the other council members had chalked it up to their increased animal DNA. What made them powerful killers was what also fed their voracious appetites above and beyond the average cougar.

  The clan needed more females with the mating mark, but these half-breeds were not acceptable.

  Wind rustled through the leaves and Bran raised his head at the scent carrying in on the wind.

  “Took you long enough.” He didn’t bother to hide his irritation.

  “Council business ran late and I had to wait until everyone left.” Nick stepped out of the shadows and into the clearing. “And you’ve got quite the fetish for this cloak and dagger shit. Did we really have to come all the way out here to do this?”

  Nick’s mocking tone crawled under his skin for a moment before Bran shook it off. “Did you bring it?”

  “Yeah I got it.” He produced a thick manila envelope from his pack and handed it over.

  “Are you sure you got everything?” He couldn’t have any loose ends coming back to bite him in the ass down the road.

  “I’ve been searching through records for days. I have it all and now you do.”

  “I suppose you read through it.”

  Nick laughed. “You know me too well to think I wouldn’t look. It made for some entertaining reading. Talk about flimsy evidence. That woman was essentially executed based on your word.”

  Anger rushed through him at Nick’s gall. “You were just a kit when that sentence was passed down, and despite what may or may not be in this file, we were justified.”

  Nick threw up his hands in surrender. “Whoa. Whoa. Didn’t mean to get you all riled up, but let’s face it. If Kane gets his hands on that file, the council might be forced to not only rule in Lara’s favor and offer her vengeance, they’ll likely decide to clean house.”

  “Enough.” Bran didn’t want to hear anymore from this snot nosed kid. “That little bitch of Kane’s is trying to wipe out our clan’s future. If we don’t stop Kane from mating with her, do you realize how much power she’ll have?”

  “Wait a minute. Seeking the truth before a kill is a far cry from mating. That’s not the kind of person he is.”

  “Oh hell, Nick, how can you be so naïve? One minute you’ll stoop to the dirtiest task you’re given and the next you defend your childhood friend with blinders on. She bears a mating mark.”

  Bran took great pleasure at the wild-eyed look of horror in the other man’s eyes. He figured that would shut him up.

  “How is that possible?”

  “Evil has a way of getting things done, boy. You should know that by now.” He spied Nick’s jugular vein pulse faster when his heart rate increased. His claws lengthened as he imagined how easy it would be to slit his throat. Nick had been easy to mold these last few years, but his usefulness was coming to a fast end. After he got him to do one more thing.

  “She can’t make it to the tribunal. To get her close to the council puts us all in danger.”

  “Kane won’t let that happen.”

  Bran laughed loud and long, a sinister sound even to his own ears. “Kane will be lucky to live through the night. A cougar in the throes of mating heat is useless to the rest of us. She has him right w
here she wanted him all along. I’ve warned people many times over the years about underestimating your enemies, yet no one ever listens until after they’ve been robbed, hurt, or worse.”

  “I can stop her. Her mating mark doesn’t mean jack to me.”

  That arrogance was exactly what he’d hoped for. “By tomorrow night it will be too late.”

  “There’s plenty of time between now and then. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “You are a good friend, and I hope he appreciates your devotion. Take this.” He produced an envelope of his own. “It’s everything I’ve gathered on the witch. Study it tonight. There might be something in there you can use against her.”

  Nick grabbed the packet and turned back in the direction he’d arrived. They had less than twenty-four hours to get this done or all hell would break loose and play out in front of the entire clan. His mistakes over the years had been many but with age had come wisdom and no bastard child no one ever wanted would ruin all of his hard work.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lara woke to the bright sunshine streaming into her room from the skylights above her bed. She didn’t wake up disoriented this time; she knew right where she was, in the guest bedroom of Kane’s home. The same place she’d been alone for the past two nights in a row. Just like the morning before, she stretched and popped her incredibly sore body as a soft sigh escaped her lips. The last time she’d seen Kane he’d taken her like she’d never been taken before, but when she’d woken the next morning she found herself back in her bed alone and two strange men sitting in the kitchen.

  The bastard had left her here with a couple of babysitters with no word, no note, no nothing. Hell, if her body wasn’t still aching so much she’d probably have thought the whole thing a dream. She absently rubbed at the back of her neck right where her birthmark was. It had tingled off and on for days, but it was the lethargy that bothered her. She couldn’t ever remember being sick a day in her life, and always her injuries healed much quicker than most people’s. She attributed that to probably having a higher metabolism than most. What else would drive her to such a frenzy all the time?