No one would take Charlie away from them. There was no way he was ever going to let this clan leader steal her away from him. She belonged with him, with his clan. Where she would be happy and whole.
The others were following Alec’s lead. Jude crashed into a dragon and created a huge splash. Moments later, she reappeared, rising out of the water beside Alec. She tossed her head toward the last dragon on the ground. The one they had met earlier.
The beast’s eyes widened like he knew what was coming. He spun to run away but hit Cole’s dark chest and fumbled back. They circled him. A warning had been issued earlier. The beast hadn’t taken their advice. Alec wanted to jump on the creature and tear it limb from limb. It would never come back for Charlie.
It was Jude who stepped forward, though. She knocked the dragon to the ground with one swoop of her tail and pressed her clawed foot to its neck. Before Jude could do anything else, the sound of crashing water erupted behind them.
Alec spun. The lake reached into the sky like grasping fingers. It raked through the air before crashing again. Just when Alec noticed there were no more enemy dragons in the air and began to relax, the water shot upward again. It was torrential. The lake slammed into the shore and dragged away rocks.
Over it all, Charlie was trying to avoid the fingers of the lake.
What was Zane doing? How could one dragon have so much power? Alec understood only one thing: he needed to reach Charlie.
She fumbled in the air as the water knocked her off balance. Spinning, she fell. Alec pushed off the ground harder than he’d ever tried before. The air tried to hold him back, but he refused to let anything get in his way. He’d been half a person for fifteen years. His other half had been suffering alone. He would not let her down again.
Her wing stung. The water had slapped it and knocked her out of the sky. She didn’t understand why Zane had attacked her. Fear slipped into her heart for the first time. It was possible she had asked too much of him and he began to hate her. That, or the magic surrounding him had finally overcome him.
Would she meet her friend down there? Or would she come into contact with the monster he was slowly becoming?
It didn’t matter. Charlie’s only thought was of Alec. She hoped he was safe, far away from the rioting lake.
Before she could tell what happened, she was flying sideways. The lake tried to reach for her, but she was moving too fast. A familiar scent ripped past her senses.
Alec.
Her vision focused. His brow was flat with determination and his lips slightly curled over his sharp teeth. Alec carried her away from the churning water and back toward shore. There, he set her on her own shaky feet.
The fight was over, all of Norman’s dragons brought out of the sky, but Zane was still protesting. His scream filled their mind. It was a roar of raw rage. She cringed as it pelted her mind and left her skull throbbing.
What had they done that was wrong? Zane had helped them of his own volition. She hadn’t coerced him or anything.
She could be my only chance! Mine. Mine. MINE.
Alec fell back into his human form. Completely naked, he stomped toward the lake. Smoke coiled from his shoulders. His entire form burned with anger. Charlie didn’t know what to do, so she sat back and watched as Alec shouted at the lake.
“Charlotte is my fucking mate and if you lay a hand on her again, I will empty this damn lake one bucket at a time until you’re just a fish flopping on the ground. I will do everything in my power to make your life even more miserable and I won’t waste a moment regretting it.” Alec’s shoulders heaved.
Sure, his words were vicious, but Charlie preened. Alec had finally acknowledged her as his mate. It was all she’d ever wanted. Across the way, dragon Buffy jumped up and down excitedly.
“We will not let you intimidate us anymore. Do you hear me?” Alec continued. “You will sit here and wait patiently for your fucking friends to help get you out of this mess.”
When Zane said nothing, Alec nodded as if he was pleased and turned back to Charlie. On the other end of the lake, she saw Norman’s dragons climb out of the water one by one. They staggered on shore, looking worse for wear. She tensed, thinking they would come back, but they took to the sky and flew away into the night.
She hoped they would go back to Norman and tell him stories of the lake monster. That would buy her some time until Jude’s cousin intervened. She would have to tell Jude to call her cousin, because she hadn’t gotten the chance to accept Jude’s offer earlier.
And she wouldn’t tonight, either. The way Alec’s eyes smoldered had Charlie shifting back to human form. He caught her in his arms as he passed and lifted her off her feet. If anyone said anything, neither of them heard it. Charlie’s world shrank down to Alec and Alec alone. He was the only thing that mattered in that moment.
15
He laid her down on his bed and collapsed beside her. She rolled onto her side and curled around him. This close, she could hear the furious beat of his heart. She pressed her hand to it and waited for his instincts to catch up.
The fight was over. Everyone was safe.
Alec grabbed her. He hoisted her over his body so that she straddled him. His cock immediately greeted her. It slid between her folds and drew a wet warmth from her. She groaned.
Before she could do anything, Alec grabbed her by the back of her neck and brought her down to him. She thought he would kiss her, but his lips only grazed hers. Heart skipping a beast, she gasped. His teeth closed around her shoulder. Pleasure danced in her core.
It was anticipation, sweet and intoxicating. He wasted no time. There was no indecision anymore. He didn’t hold back from her. His teeth sank past her skin. She cried out and writhed in his grasp.
The mark had been made. No one else could fight their mating bond.
Alec brushed her hair away from her face. “You are mine and only mine.”
Her breath was ragged. Pleasure flooded her body. That was all it took, the whisper of his breath over the mark on her shoulder, and she was near climax. She wondered what it would be like to take him inside her while his teeth were on her skin.
Alec didn’t make her wonder for long because he flipped her over and parted her folds. His cock found her core. He groaned as she clamped around him, pleasure rolling through them both. All Charlie could do was hold onto Alec while they drifted away.
This was what it would be like forever. This was what it was meant to be like. She swallowed and rode the waves as he began to thrust. He was kind and started slow, but their lovemaking became frenzied.
At one point, the two beds slid apart and they dropped to the floor. Neither seemed to care, so lost in one another they were. Charlie had gotten what felt like her lifelong wish.
Alec didn’t know how his mate took her coffee.
He scowled at the cup on the counter. Did she even drink coffee? Or was she a tea drinker? Charlie was his mate, and he didn’t know any of this. It irked him. He might have forever to figure these things out, but that wasn’t soon enough. Not if he was going to bring her breakfast in bed.
He didn’t have any fancy containers for cream and sugar like some people had. He couldn’t bring the stuff to her without bringing the whole bottle of cream or the whole bag of sugar.
“What are you doing out here?” Charlie asked, appearing in the hallway. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
Alec couldn’t take his eyes away from her. She wore a simple black lace bra that peeked out from the neck of his oversized shirt. Her black lace panties were obscured by the hem of his shirt, but it was worth it to see her long legs flutter the hem as she walked.
He liked seeing her in his clothes. Almost as much as he liked the mark on her neck. When she approached, he gently touched her shoulder and rubbed his thumb against the bite mark. The hitch in her breath was unmistakable. It pleased him.
He threaded his fingers in her brown and pink hair and stole a kiss from her. “Go back to bed,” he whispered
into her lips.
Charlie was too sleepy to argue. She spun away and raised her arms over her head in a dramatic yawn. He knew it was just to give him a glimpse of her curvaceous bottom, especially when she glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was watching.
He laughed and shook his head. He couldn’t believe his luck, having found his mate once again. His beast knew all those years ago. The beast had pushed him to change her, to make her into a beast like him. He’d felt such guilt after, but life had a way of working itself out.
Maybe Alec didn’t have to fix everything himself. He could let the universe unravel its kinks in time. Like Zane.
That was a huge kink in the universe. He didn’t know how they would break it if they couldn’t find Sybil or a mate for Zane. No one wanted to throw women into the lake until one stuck.
They would have to wait for Zane’s fated mate to come along on her own. Until then, their best plan of action was to stay and protect each other from Zane. And protect the world from him. He had every right to be pissed, to lash out. They would be there to minimize damage whenever possible.
Just as Alec was heaping breakfast sausage onto Charlie’s plate, the front door swung open. His heart leapt into his throat, thinking the worst, but it was just Asher strolling through. The white-haired shifter sniffed the air and made a beeline for the pan of sausages.
“If you know what’s good for you, you will turn around right now,” Alec growled at his friend.
Asher snatched a sausage link and leapt back before popping it into his mouth. “We’re a family now,” he said around his food. “You’re going to have to get used to this. Family means sharing your food with your brothers.”
“You aren’t my blood brother. And if you don’t leave now, you won’t be a clanmate for much longer.” Alec couldn’t bring himself to truly threaten Asher.
He was honestly happy to be home. Alec enjoyed Asher’s antics. He took pride in helping Cole fix up the cabins some more. Even taking over some of the fishing tours had been fun. It wasn’t like he’d never left. There was no way they could ever go back to the times before Alistair’s attempt at a revolution.
But they were a family again. That was what mattered.
“If you don’t get out,” Charlie shouted from the bedroom, “I’m going to feed you to Zane! And I won’t have any regrets. You’ll become chum in the water.”
Asher cackled as he saw himself out, but not before snatching up the cup of coffee Alec had poured for Charlie. With a sigh, he yanked open the cupboard and sought out another mug. This one he hadn’t seen before. It was white and round, with a cat’s face on the outside. It was cute, just like his mate.
He poured her another cup of coffee and added it to the tray. Charlie was waiting for him, pillows behind her back, hair mussed from their lovemaking every night.
It was unlike anything he could have dreamt up on his own. She ran a lazy hand through her hair and grinned sleepily up at him. His heart fluttered when her nose twitched.
“Is that maple sausage I smell?” She instantly sat up straighter.
“Yes, and fresh blueberries.” He set the tray over her lap before setting down on the bed beside her.
She popped a blueberry into her mouth. He watched her lips move, entranced by them. He didn’t know how to say it. The words were trapped behind his daze, behind his trepidation. He wasn’t great at communication. Not when the words meant so much. He could talk bullshit all day long, but when it came to saying what mattered, he wasn’t sure he could do it.
Charlie sighed and settled deeper into the pillows. The look she gave him was dreamy, nearly blissful.
“I have been infatuated with you since the moment I met you.” She grinned and shook her head, color flooding her cheeks. “I started to fall for you before you changed me. The change…it was a sign from the universe. I wasn’t meant for anyone else.”
He sat up and laid a soft kiss on her cheek. She turned to kiss him. When her lips parted, she tasted like fresh fruit, sweet and tart.
“I love you, Alec.”
She said it first. The fist around his heart that held back the words suddenly loosened.
“I love you, too.” It was like a sigh of relief, something that had been trapped inside him for fifteen years. With it finally in the world, he was a new man.
Charlie had the same kind of look on her face. She reached for him and drew him into another kiss. They settled into one another like they had been carved out of the same stone, meant to click together. The morning stretched on as they fed each other blueberries, French toast bites, or pieces of sausage.
Alec couldn’t think of a better way to spend his time.
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Alec (Keepers Of The Lake Book 3) Page 14