by Thorne, Elle
Damn.
And then the moan, well, that telltale moan, it escaped her in the form of a low groan melded with a sigh.
That seemed to be the equivalent of pushing a start button for Hawke. Seconds later his warm breath was near the nape of her neck. A shiver ran over her, one that had nothing to do with the chill outside.
His tongue touched that sensitive spot behind her earlobe. His arm had wrapped itself around her torso, pulling her close. His hardness was there, prevalent, obvious, and so very delectable. His hips shifted, grinding that length against her body. She arched backward, pressing her ass against his hard-on, moved her body just so.
“You know what that does to me, woman.”
Oh, yeah, she knew. She’d known since their first time, almost a month ago when he’d come in after building cabins for the other shifters—all of them opted to stay on his property to become a clan. He’d been working, smelling deliciously male and musky as he darted for the shower. She thought of that first time, the shower’s steam, his erection.
She moaned, just thinking about it and wiggled her body more, driving his hardness against her tush.
She heard a rumble that signified one thing, and one thing alone: his bear’s presence. She turned to face him, looking deeply into his eyes, seeing his bear, seeing the love that both of them had for her. The lengths they’d go to in order to protect what was theirs.
He lowered his head, taking one dusky nipple into his mouth, sucking fiercely while his other hand cupped her breast, his fingers squeezing her nipple, throwing her into a chasm of ecstasy she’d have a hard time climbing out of.
“Hawke.” His name ripped from her throat with passion as he paid particular tribute to her breasts with his hands and mouth. “God, Hawke. Don’t make me wait.”
He loved teasing her, building her to a crescendo, then taking her over the edge with his lovemaking. She mewled, digging her fingers into his shoulders, her nails marking flesh, seeking purchase as she tried to pull him into position.
He lay firm, relentless in his pursuit of her nipple, circling the tip with his tongue, teasing, then releasing it, his tongue tracing a slick trail over her creamy breast, blowing cool air in his tongue’s wake. She lowered her hand from his shoulder, reaching for his erection when he grasped her wrist in a powerful hold and brought it above her head. He trapped the other wrist, holding both captive.
“Damn you,” she hissed, enjoying his roughness merged with the sweet torture of his foreplay.
He ground his hips against her, that hardness pressing on her mound, making her clit buzz with need. “You’ll pay,” she threatened.
“I’ll pay every day for the rest of my life,” he said against her navel. “And I want nothing more than to pay. Just like this.”
And with that, he lowered his head. Her legs parted as if they had a mind of their own. With his free hand, he spread her lips, and blew that cool breath that threw her over the edge again.
“What was that you said about paying?” With every word, every breath, the air he blew teased her.
Her body arched upward, wanting him. He flicked his tongue out, tracing a circle around the sensitive bud on fire for him.
“Please, Hawke.” Yes, she’d resort to pleading if that would get her what—
“Oh, God, yes.” She gasped the words.
His mouth was fully enclosed around her clit, sucking, releasing, flicking, licking. A pattern of movements that had no pattern at all, they were pushing her too close to a place she wanted to share with his body. His thumb alit on her sensitive button at the same moment he thrust his tongue inside her.
Alannah flinched and jerked her hands free, grabbing his head, pushing it in, her nails digging into flesh, her thighs clamped around his head.
Tiny lights flickered behind her closed lids as she whimpered her pleasure. One final plunge of his tongue and she grabbed his hair tightly, fisting it, pushing his head down at the same time, thrusting her hips up.
“Hawke.” His name was one long extended release from her lips as her body yielded to the pleasure he delivered.
And before she could finish, he’d positioned himself and thrust his hardness deeply inside her pulsing muscles.
“Fuck. That feels good.”
“Mhm mmmm.” She agreed whole heartedly as he began to pump into her, driving deeply, over and over. His chest scraped against her nipples when he put his arm beneath her and pulled her close to a sitting position, letting her ride him while he pushed her up and then drove her down, impaling her body, branding her inside.
“Hawke?” She gasped, grabbing his shoulders. “Wait.”
“Hmmm?” He pulled back and looked in her eyes, his own sex-glazed and heavy-lidded.
“I want you to couplebond me. I want you to make me yours.” She panted, breathless.
“You know about that?” His words came out in faltered pauses while he tried to even his breathing.
“Fiona told me when we talked yesterday.”
“You sure?”
“More than anything. More than ever.”
“You’re so fucking sexy right now. Sexier than you’ve ever been.” His eyes flashed a silver glow. He thrust into her, picking up the momentum with a ferociousness that was taking her to another dimension. She grabbed his shoulders, riding him, watching his beautiful face as lust and love merged, melded, and chased each other across his countenance.
“Fuck, Alannah.” With that, he roared, the sound seeming to come from deep within his soul, then bared his teeth and lowered his head.
The sting was fierce, but easily abated by the licking that Fiona had told her would lessen the pain. She felt his thickness as he came undone within her while she rolled into wave after wave of orgasms. She had aftershock following aftershock while he held her.
When she’d finally stopped, he held her gently as if she’d break, her head against his chest, their bodies merged as one.
Round two was no less spectacular than the first time around until finally she laid her head on his shoulder and slept.
* * *
Hours later, Alannah and Hawke padded out to the kitchen. Mireille and Renee were up already, having breakfast.
“About time, sleepyheads.” Mireille giggled.
“What are you two plotting?” Alanna mockingly waggled her finger at them.
“Who us?” Renee grinned. “Mireille was telling me she wanted to find out about an apprenticeship.”
“Isn’t that what brought you here to Russia?” Hawke laughed. “Isn’t that what got you abducted? Seeking an apprenticeship?”
Mireille nodded solemnly. “Yes, I was going to study to be a healer.”
“You’re not anymore?”
“No.” Mireille glanced at Renee.
“So what do you want to study then?” Alannah asked, wondering what that glance was about.
“Transformation and reversal spells.”
“Is this because of Jenner?” Hawke teased.
Mireille fake-gasped. “No, of course not.” But her cheeks were a traitorous shade of pink, belying her words. “I wouldn’t mind seeing Jenner again. I called Mikhail. He said he’d ask Desideria to see if they would take apprentices.”
Alannah shook her head at her little sister, who suddenly didn’t seem so little anymore. “I doubt they’d take an apprentice. They’re part of the Circle.”
The Circle, an elite group of witches and wizards. Not likely to find themselves interested in training a witch who’d barely mastered intermediate spell casting. But Alannah didn’t want to discourage her sister. She gave her a smile and a hug. “I hope they give you a chance.”
“And you’d leave me here? Alone?” Renee’s voice was playfully panicky.
“Alone?” Mireille shrieked. “Hawke’s got shifters galore here. Lots of them.”
“But you’re my best friend.”
“Maybe they’ll let me bring someone along.”
This time Alannah didn’t contain her lau
ghter.
Pipe dreams.
Under the table, Hawke took her hand in his, tugging her closer. She leaned into him, kissing his cheek, relishing the scent of him.
“It’s snowing,” he whispered. “Cuddling weather.”
“And to think, I didn’t used to like Russia.”
“No?” He quirked a brow teasingly.
“Now, I think I could live here for a while.”
“Perhaps forever?” He put a thumb under her chin, tipping her head his way.
“Forever after,” she countered, raising her lips to his, tasting the scent of the man who’d be her forever man.
Forever after.
Notorious
Circe Brazos is notorious. Notoriously hard. Notoriously bad ass. Notoriously alone. And she’s damned happy that way. Don’t give her any complications in her black and white world.
Circe’s a shifter elemental hybrid. One of the very few who exist. Too often these hybrids do not make it to adulthood. The fact that she and her siblings did has made them uniquely qualified to run the Order of Elementals—a secret group designed to assist elementals, particularly those who share a host with a shifter.
Long ago, Circe kicked Mae Forrester out of her life. Now Mae’s back, and Circe has to deal with the reasons Mae left. As if that’s not bad enough, a gorgeous hunk of a shifter shows up on her doorstep with a little girl hybrid who desperately needs Circe’s help. Except, Circe didn’t know at the end of the day who needed help more—herself or the young hybrid.
Lincoln Avila has a damned good reason for hating elementals. They’ve torn everything in his life apart. Now he has to deal with the fact that his niece, his ward, is a hybrid. Thought that was bad, did you, Linc? Here’s bad, for real. Don’t fall in love with Circe, the hybrid elemental bad ass who has no fondness for gray areas or men. The beautiful, notorious, curvy hybrid has found a way to wrap herself around his heart. Convincing her to let love win won’t necessarily be easy.
That’s okay, Linc’s up for a challenge. He just has no idea the challenge could lead to life or death—his own.
Chapter One
“Mae’s coming.” Circe Brazos scowled at her brother and sisters.
Marco her brother, the only brother she had—not to mention, her best friend, at least these days—lounged in the chair by the pool, stretched out, his lean muscular body absorbing the sun’s rays. Her sisters, the twins, as everyone called them, Camden and Eden were lying on their stomachs on towels, reading, letting the sun caress their voluptuous curves.
Hell, Circe was no stranger to curves, or voluptuousness. She had that market cornered with way more curves than she’d ever wanted when she was a teen. These days though, she appreciated her curves, relishing every inch of her body. She rolled over, pushed her sunglasses down so she could let Marco see her eyes—see the anger within. Deep within her, her elemental, Albani sizzled with fury. Albani was an electric elemental, and even more easily angered than Circe.
Marco raised his brow and put his phone down, mid-text. “You make it sound like the world’s coming to an end.”
Circe sat up with a huff. “You don’t think there’s a problem? After all the—”
Near the pool, a lightbulb shattered. Then another. Circe breathed deeply to gain control of Albani’s anger, her own anger, before they had to spend a fortune replacing the bulbs Albani was destroying.
The twins put their magazines down and looked at her, a question in their eyes.
They didn’t know her full history with Mae. She’d never shared. The only one she’d shared this with was Marco, a panther shifter elemental hybrid, just like her.
All four of the Brazos siblings were shifter elemental hybrids. Rare in the world. Even rarer, to have them be in the same family. It was no surprise the Order of Elementals had put the Brazos siblings in charge of the Order’s business, a business that was highly secretive, but crucial to shifters who found themselves with an elemental residing within.
Elementals had been known to kill their shifter hosts, and then they would move on, finding another host, just as they did with humans. But with the longevity and power of shifters, it made the relationship tenuous at best. Unless the shifter and the elemental could find a middle ground. No easy task. That’s where the Brazos siblings and the Order of Elementals came in.
Circe, Marco, Camden, and Eden were specialists at this. So, they were the powerhouse of the Order, and led by Circe as the first born.
“She wants something, you know.” Circe was still on the same topic.
The topic of Mae.
Mae.
Circe fought back a sneer.
“Yes, she does,” Marco answered.
Fury surged within Circe. Her skin burned with static electricity, making tiny crackling sounds she couldn’t control. Betrayal seethed within her, disappointment in her brother.
“You talked to her.” She let the words come from between her lips in a staccato. “You. Talked. To. Her.” She sucked air in and closed her eyes against the anger.
“I answered the call.” Marco’s voice was clipped. “We are the Order. We have a duty. A sworn duty,” he reminded her.
Circe opened tortured eyes, her dark gaze tormented by the past. “Yes.” She nodded, then whispered, “We do.”
Chapter Two
Lincoln Avila, lion shifter and business mogul, leapt out of his bed, his lion snarling in his head.
The screams were horrific and high-pitched. He didn’t need time to realize what they were and where they were coming from.
Dina, his niece, and now his charge since her parents had both perished, was in her room, screaming. A few long strides made short work of the distance between his room and hers.
“Dina.” He kept his voice low and comforting so as not to alarm her more than she already was.
The first time this had happened, he hadn’t known—had overreacted. And had found himself surrounded by a ring of fire. Torn between comforting her and grabbing the fire extinguisher from the hall, he’d opted to put out the fire, though he’d suffered some burns on his legs and feet.
“Dina, baby. Uncle Linc’s here.” He scooped her into his arms.
Her dark eyes were a testimony to the hell she lived in her mind and body. She looked around, as if confused, then focused on his face. “Unca Linc?”
“Yes, baby. I’m here.”
“It happened. She wants me gone. She hates me. She’s going to kill me.”
He pushed her wild bed hair away from her face.
“I won’t let that happen. You know I won’t. You know it.”
“How can you stop it? She doesn’t come around when—” She gulped air in, beginning to hyperventilate while at the same time growling, her tigress eager to protect her was pushing for a shift. He saw the amber and gold flames flickering in her eyes.
“Dina, listen to me. I know how to stop it. I’ve heard there is someone who can help.”
“Who?” Her little girl voice, all of four years old, sounded more like a baby’s voice with the fear that clearly enveloped her.
“Some people, baby. Don’t worry. I got this.”
And he did. He would put aside all hate and all prejudice to make things better for Dina.
She was all he had, and by damn, he’d do his best to protect the little dark-haired, dark eyed beauty who was all that was left of Linc’s brother.
“I got this,” he whispered, more to himself than to her, holding her tightly as he made for the rocking recliner in the game room, knowing he was in for a long night of cradling his niece and keeping her calm so she didn’t burn down the house around them.
Chapter Three
Gathered in the boardroom at the Order’s mansion, Circe tuned out her siblings while she flipped the pages of the file before her.
She forced her mind to concentrate on the task at hand and not on her traitorous cousin Mae.
The file contained the information on an incoming arrival at the order. A little girl
, a hybrid. The child’s name was Dinaria Avila, called Dina. She was a tigress, fire elemental hybrid. Four years old.
Circe studied the picture of the little girl. Twinkling bright eyes with a gleam of amber in their depths. Her tigress was definitely dominant. Circe wondered how that played out with the elemental that was housed within the child’s body. The smile was innocent, her cheeks plump and full with the ruddy glow of health.
What an endearing child. She thought of the hell that the child might be going through with the elemental and the shifter battling within her.
It brought to mind Circe’s own childhood. The days of playing with Mae. Carefree days, before she took on the responsibility of the Order of Elementals. Before she removed Mae from her life.
“Earth to Circe.”
Circe glanced up at Marco, then smiled. “Sorry, was reading,” she covered up for her foray into the past.
He nodded, but his eyes told her he was not the least bit fooled by her excuse.
“Camden and Eden are flying out. They’re going to take care of the twin girls.”
Circe nodded. Twin girl bear shifters, barely older than toddlers, recently found to have elementals within. A perfect case for Camden and Eden.
“What about your case?” She tried to remember what Marco was working on, but for the life of her couldn’t get Mae’s impending arrival to leave the portion of her mind that wasn’t devoted to the case she’d be taking care of.
“No update,” Marco said.
She nodded.
A knock sounded at the conference room door.
Marie poked her head in. Marie was so much more than an administrative assistant. She was their right hand, their minds sometimes, Circe thought.
“There’s a cutie here. A little one called Dina Avila. The one who brought her isn’t half bad, either.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Circe.