Feisty Heroines Romance Collection of Shorts

by D. F. Jones

“You might not be able to leave your property again.”

  I glanced out the window again, still unable to see anything other than the snow, which was beginning to fall at an angle as the storm picked up power. “Well, we can’t drive off the property in this weather, in any case. And the elves have the nearest boundary blocked. So we can’t test that theory right now.” I turned to face Tristan. “And I’m going to assume that your theory is wrong. I refuse to be trapped in my own house.”

  He nodded. “It’s possible that you’re just part fae. And that could mean you don’t have the same limitations they do.”

  “Okay. The issue of leaving here aside, what could this mating ritual do to protect you?”

  “The queen wouldn’t be able to claim me for herself. The hunters could still take me to her, but the worst she could do would be to kill me. She couldn’t drain me and use my powers.”

  “How is she using these powers?”

  His mouth twisted. “I wasn’t able to figure that out before her hunters started tracking me. All I know is that she has plans to take over the other Fae Courts, too, and is using stolen power to do it.”

  I stared at him for a long time. He was gorgeous, he was interesting, and he was in danger.

  I was drawn to him. And I could save him.

  This is stupid, Mary. Don’t do it.

  “So,” I said. “Want to try it?”

  Chapter 13

  Tristan

  I didn’t hear that right.

  I couldn’t have.

  “Why?”

  She frowned at me like it was the stupidest questions she’d ever heard. In some ways, I suppose it was. She was beautiful, just her smell turned me on, and she was quite possibly offering to have sex with me. And not just any sex—the kind that could literally save my life.

  Still, I needed to know. “I mean, I realize it would keep the Fae Queen from using my power, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with you.”

  She pushed away from where she’d been standing by the window—her back to it, I noticed, despite her pronouncement earlier that she wanted to face the window.

  Standing up straight, even though she wasn’t a tall woman, she suddenly seemed to take up much more space, as if her entire aura had spread out to fill the room.

  And as I looked at her, her eyes snapping, I saw the same blue light flicker around her that I had seen in the clearing and again along the property line at the creek.

  “They hunted on my land, tried to kill you without my permission. That’s unacceptable.” The power echoed through her words, spinning around me, and I had the first glimpse of what claiming-sex with her might be like.

  This woman wielded her magic unconsciously, powerfully.

  What would it be like to be connected to it? To her?

  Amazing, that inner voice of mine breathed.

  And then she took a breath and a step forward, and her power receded back into her, as she became merely Mary again.

  “And besides all that,” she said, her voice turning almost tentative, “I think you’re incredibly attractive. I know we don’t know each other very well, but I like you.” She shrugged. “I’m drawn to you. And this just feels right.”

  I had to agree with her about that. I wondered for the first time if the constant push I had felt to travel ever higher into the mountains as I ran from the fae hunters could also have been a pull from Mary—or from something drawing us together.

  I was never going to say no.

  It was in my best interest to accept her offer.

  So when she held her hand out to me, her gaze capturing mine, I reached out and took it. I allowed her to draw me out of my seat, and I followed her into the bedroom, where just the night before, I’d been far too feverish to even consider sex.

  But I was certainly considering it now.

  Beside her bed, she stopped to face me, taking both my hands in hers.

  “Are you absolutely certain about this?” I asked.

  “I want this,” she said. “I want you.” She took a step in toward me and went up on her tiptoes to brush her lips against mine.

  I’d been careful to be sure of her consent, to make certain that this was what she really wanted. Now, as her lips touched mine, it was as if a spark jumped between us, turning the heat I felt into a raging flame.

  I scooped her up in my arms, crushing her to my chest. She wrapped her arms around my neck, returning my kisses as fervently as I returned hers. With my tongue, I nudged her lips until they opened, then swept my tongue through her mouth, tasting her, that wintery green sweetness, the flavor of the scent that now surrounded me heady and intoxicating.

  As our tongues tangled together, she moaned into my mouth and pushed herself closer to me. I picked her up off the floor and placed her gently on the bed.

  She met every move I made enthusiastically. Even through our clothes, I could feel the heat pouring off her.

  I kissed down her neck, then across her chest. When I finally pulled away and sat back on my heels, she watched me, her eyes almost glowing.

  Good. That would come in handy later.

  “So now what?” she asked, her voice raspy.

  “Now,” I said, “it’s up to you. How do you want to claim me?”

  Chapter 14

  Mary

  “How do you want to claim me?”

  His words sent an arrow of desire shooting through me.

  How did I want to claim him? I sat up and pushed against his shoulder. “I want to begin to claim you like this,” I said, kissing his mouth, then his chin, and from there in a straight line down his chest.

  “Dear God,” he moaned. I smiled against his stomach, then moved up to take his mouth with mine again.

  As we moved together, I felt something building inside me. Something magical.

  It swirled through me, over me, under, inside and out, until I could see it surrounding me in a blue-white light that pulsed.

  And as it pulsed, it got brighter and brighter, until the light grew almost blinding, and I closed my eyes against it. It built even more, becoming almost a sound that reached a higher and higher pitch.

  All at once, the magic light that was also a sound shattered around me. It fell like shards of glass, slicing into Tristan, too.

  From outside the cabin came a screech of anger.

  I fell forward, draping myself across Tristan’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me, his fingers playing with my hair.

  I opened my eyes to discover a bright blue light encompassing us both.

  “Do you see that?” I asked in a tone of wonder.

  Tristan chuckled deep in his chest. “I think I helped make that.”

  Chapter 15

  Tristan

  “Did you hear that sound from outside?” Mary asked, still breathless.

  “Yeah. I think maybe the claiming worked.”

  She laughed, and we both watched the light surrounding us until it faded away to almost nothing.

  “I can still feel it, though,” she said. “It’s like we’re connected.”

  I nodded. I felt it, too—and more than that, I felt a connection to the land we were on, as well. I kind of hoped I hadn’t doomed both of us to be stuck here forever.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “I think we should see if we can send those hunters back to their queen.”

  “And then?”

  I shook my head. “And then, if this worked, we’ll need a plan.”

  Mary stared into my eyes. “You mean a plan to defeat the Winter Court Queen, don’t you?”

  I hadn’t really considered that before, but for the first time in as long as I could remember, there was hope that someone else might be able to overthrow her. I didn’t know for sure how powerful Mary was, but in every story I’d ever heard, only the strongest of fae royals were able to claim people.

  And her claiming had not worked like the Winter Queen’s did, by stealing other’s magic. No. I could feel my own power
coursing through me, and more than that, I could feel Mary’s, too.

  Mary’s claiming had worked to open a channel between us, and between me and the land that belonged to her.

  I’d only known her for a day, but in that day, she had done more to save me and my people than anyone else had ever done.

  I watched her with something like awe.

  “I’ll shift before we go outside,” I finally said.

  When we got to the living room, she gestured out the front window. “The snow has slowed down. I guess the storm isn’t going to be as bad as they predicted, after all.” Her smile was sunny and bright, so I didn’t want to dim it by telling her that I thought the magic we had made may have had something to do with the weather, as well.

  Instead, I simply said, “Then we ought to have no trouble getting to the property line.”

  “No, we shouldn’t.” As she pulled on her coat and boots, I watched her in amazement. Before, she had been afraid to turn her back on the elves. Now she couldn’t wait to confront them.

  I concentrated to let my cells shift. And then I followed Mary out the door. It was still snowing lightly, but that didn’t seem to bother her as she marched directly toward the elf hunters, who rose to stand as soon as they saw her step outside.

  She stepped up to the leader, the two of them separated only by the barrier of her own magic.

  “I have a message for your queen.” Her voice was hard and uncompromising.

  The hunter hissed wordlessly at her.

  Mary reached through the invisible barrier and poked it in the chest. “Shut up and listen.”

  It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The tiniest spark of that blue-tinged magic flickered from her finger to the warrior’s chest, and he froze, completely still and silent at her command.

  She tilted her head and glanced down at me. “Looks like I can get past the barrier, after all.

  I yipped in agreement.

  “Take this message to your queen,” she repeated. “Tristan Todd is mine. His entire kitsune clan is mine. And if she tries to take them, or if I find out about any other clans being hunted, I will end her.”

  She reached through the barrier a second time and poked the leader again. “You can go now. In fact, I suggest you leave immediately.”

  The warrior hissed something in his own language to his team, and they all backed away slowly, finally turning and flowing into the creek bed, traveling along it to wherever they were headed. When they were finally out of sight, Mary blew out a relieved breath. “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off.”

  Again, I yipped to show my agreement. I hadn’t been sure, either.

  “Just one more thing,” she said.

  She swallowed nervously once before she stepped over the invisible boundary that marked her property.

  “Oh, thank God.” She all but deflated when she realized that she could, indeed, leave her land. Deliberately, I stepped over the outline, as well, joining her on the other side of the boundary.

  It occurred to me that for all this felt like a victory, it was merely the calm before a much bigger storm—one involving the Queen of the Winter Court, who wasn’t likely to take Mary’s orders the first time around.

  But watching the woman who had claimed me as she stood just outside the boundary of her property, hands on hips, surveying everything around her as if it were hers to protect and defend, I suddenly knew without a doubt that I had absolutely chosen the correct side.

  I didn’t know if fate or happenstance had led me to her, but I did know that no one else could have saved me the way she did.

  Yeah, there was more to be done. But for the first time in a long time, I felt like we could handle it.

  Mary stepped back onto her own property. “Well,” she said, “I think I might’ve just picked up one of the battles you were facing.” She grinned down at me, inexplicably delighted to be gearing up for a fight. “But you know what? I think together, we just might be able to handle it.”

  At her words, I raced back toward the house. I wanted to be able to talk to her, and I couldn’t shift out here. It was too damn cold. Besides, we had a lot of plans to make for whatever came next.

  She’d left the door open enough that I could open it with my paw.

  And by the time Mary got back to the house, I was waiting in my human form to wrap her in my arms so we could make those plans.

  Together.

  If you enjoyed Fox Trap, be sure to leave a review for the collection and sign up for Margo’s Newsletter to hear about new releases—including the next book in this collection!

  About Margo Bond Collins

  USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling author Margo Bond Collins is a former college English professor who, tired of explaining the difference between "hanged" and "hung," turned to writing romance novels instead. (Sometimes her heroines kill monsters, too.)

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  www.MargoBondCollins.net

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  Afterword

  The Feisty Authors and I trust you enjoyed reading our collection of short stories. If so, please consider telling a friend, share on social media, or post a review.

  I love reading all different types of fiction. That's where the idea to cross-pollinate romance genres came to me. Most readers may prefer one genre over the other, but avid readers of romance will venture out to different writing styles.

  Our heroines and heroes are often fraught with twists, turns, and harrowing experiences, but in the end, our readers crave the Happily Ever After ending.

  I want to personally thank our diverse group of authors for writing unique, original, and creative stories. The authors span the globe from the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, India, and Australia.

  Lastly, we would love to hear from you. Reach out by email info@DFJonesAuthor.com or register for the authors' updates to keep abreast of new releases, special pricing, and giveaways.

  May love light the way!