by M L Briers
“You’re injured…” Deborah offered with a scowl.
“Already healing.” Jethro assured her as Annabeth noted her own mate’s injuries when he turned in a different direction to watch Luke disappearing with his mate across the gardens.
“Holy crap, and you won?” Annabeth exclaimed as she started towards him on fast feet. His head spun back around to see her coming at him with a scowl of disbelief on her face. “What does the other guy look like?” She demanded and Caleb couldn’t help himself.
“Like this.” He dropped his head to one side and lopped his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he closed his eyes and brought his hands up like limp paws.
“You’re a funny guy…” Annabeth informed him with a sneer. “How about I play darts with your body with something wooden and pointy?” She added and her mate chuckled as Caleb drew back in mock horror.
“Witches, no sense of humour.” He teased and she snorted her contempt.
“Vampires, no sense of etiquette to stay in their damn graves.” Annabeth shot back. She turned her attention back towards Dale. “As for you…” She bit out and he rolled his eyes to the ceiling and waited for what came next. “It looks like you need some tending too from your mate.” She purred at him and his eyes shot down, and Caleb was certain his tongue was going to hang out of his mouth at any moment.
“I do…” Dale agreed wholeheartedly.
“Looks like we could all use some of that.” Jethro gave his mate a wolfish grin.
“I know I do. I killed a mutt.” Caleb held up his hand and grinned at his mate.
“Good for you.” Wendy teased back to him and saw the look of confusion on his face. “And we broke the spell on the pendant, which means that they shifted back to human, and anymore mutts that might be out there as well with this spell just became normal again.” Wendy added with glee. Caleb tossed up his shoulders and admitted defeat.
“Fine. You win the pissing contest.” He offered and Wendy burst into laughter.
All the way back to the cabin, Tilly felt the rush of excitement go through her like waves crashing to the shore, each one more powerful than the next as she imagined what came next. They passed through the place where some of the pack still gathered and Luke noticed curious eyes aimed in her direction, but he noted that even the ones who had been the underbelly of dissention about the witches being part of the pack now seemed to have softened in their stance and nodded towards her in greeting. Luke felt less restless at that gesture and more restless to woo his mate as his own.
“You can put me down now He-Man, it’s not like I have anywhere to be just now.” Tilly offered from down his back and heard him grunt.
“I’m not going to let you go until we get home.” He informed her and she frowned.
“And when we get back to your cabin…”
“Our cabin…” He corrected her, but she brushed over that.
“What then?” She asked as innocently as she could. That damn excitement wouldn’t be curtailed within her.
“I woo you.” Luke announced as proud as punch, but the smile died on his lips when she started to chuckle.
“I woo you.” She mimicked him. The next moment she was being tossed up in the air and placed on unsteady feet. She was grateful that his large hands were against her hips holding her in place as the blood rushed out of her head again.
“I don’t sound like that…” He started on a frown and she chuckled again. “And what’s so funny about being wooed?” Luke demanded on what had now become a scowl.
“You can’t woo a woman who doesn’t want to be wooed.” She grinned up at him.
“Of course you can, happens all the time.” He was making that up and they both knew it. He didn’t know if it happened all the time or not, but he knew that he was damn well going to woo her.
“N-o you can’t.” She offered back to him. Luke was determined to stand his ground.
“Y-e-s I can.” He rocked his head from side to side with every word.
“Fine. Give it your best shot.” She challenged him and he moved fast, wrapping one arm around her waist as he palmed her back and yanked her up against his naked body.
She felt the flush of heat sweep through her and she liked it. Just as he was about to dip his head and kiss her she put her hand up, palm facing him between them, and he didn’t move. His eyes narrowed somewhat on her in suspicion.
“What are you doing?” He demanded.
“R-e-s-i-s-t-i-n-g.” She offered slowly as if he was in need of special care. Luke growled deep within his chest. “Oh, that’s wooing?” She demanded and he snapped off the growl. His beast was agitated.
After tonight all he wanted to do was to mate with her and make her his. He irrationally always wanted to be by her side to protect her should danger stalk her again. He didn’t see why she couldn’t understand that as a Lycan female would.
“It’s not wooing…” Luke agreed and she gave him a drop dead sexy smile that was full of promise.
“Now if I choose to allow you to woo me…” She offered up to him. He didn’t know if she was toying with him, but he snagged her wrist and slowly lowered the hand that she had held between them.
“Allow me…?” Luke raised his dark brows high on his forehead.
“Sorry, did you want to act all caveman and carry me away again?” Tilly asked with a look of innocence that didn’t quite get to her eyes.
“I want you as my mate, Tilly, and I don’t give a damn how that comes about as long as it does.” Luke admitted.
He watched with baited breath as she changed her stance. She softened in his arms and her smile grew wider as she pressed her body the length of his, feeling that hard length press against her stomach fired her blood. She almost sighed.
Her body wanted him; there was little doubt in that for her. But did she want a mate? Forever seemed an awfully long time when she’d first found out about him a little over a day ago, but now, with everything that had happened she knew that the mating pull and her opinion of him had grown stronger, better, and she couldn’t imagine walking away from him.
“I’m not going to join your coven, even if I stay…” Tilly warned him and Luke beamed her a devastatingly handsome and very sexy smile.
“You are staying…” He dipped his head and brushed his soft lips against hers and she felt that touch deep within her. “And nobody said you had to join the coven, sweetheart.” He assured her.
“Good. Because I don’t play well with others.” She informed him.
“I’d say you did pretty well tonight.” Luke didn’t wait for her reply. He took her lips in a kiss that brought every inch of her body to life.
She could feel his hands roaming over her body, feel the heated skin of her flesh tingle with his touch, and she revelled in it. Never before had any man brought that much sensation to everything that he did or everywhere that he touched. When his thumb skimmed under the bodice of her top and found her naked breast she heard his gentle growl at the same time as she caught her breath on a gasp. She pulled away from his lips…
“I’m all for nature…” She looked around her. Cabins dotted the landscape and she was certain that if Lycans had curtains then they would be twitching about now.
“You’ll be mine?” Luke gave her the kind of wolfish grin that curled her toes, and she liked that feeling.
Tilly knew two things. That fate had a plan for us all; whether we fought it or not we would all still end up walking that path. And that fate was never wrong when it put two people together as forever mates.
CHAPTER NINE
“Kind of a foregone conclusion, wouldn’t you say?” Tilly offered up to him. A moment later; he’d swooped her up into his strong arms and was stalking cross the level ground towards his cabin.
There was a moment when her heart stopped beating inside of her chest as she looked at him. It was a moment when doubt and worry clouded her thoughts, and then his eyes snapped down to hers and doubt flew out of the window in that
one look. She couldn’t explain it; there was desire and need in those eyes, and yet there was also reverence, as if even before they were together as one she knew he would always love her as best he could, always be at her side when she needed him… It was the rest of her life in just one long look.
By the time they reached the inner sanctum of his cabin, with the front door closed to the world outside and it was just the two of them, the planet had stopped turning on its axis, life as they knew it had disappeared, and time stood still. In that moment nothing else mattered. Nothing else could matter to either of them as he slowly lowered her to her feet in front of him but kept her body pressed to his.
“You’re mine.” His voice was full of his beast with that one word and that one word made her heart kick her ribs with such a force that she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to catch her breath again.
His hand reached up to her face and he cupped her cheek with his palm. The rough pad of his thumb brushed down her soft skin and that touch reverberated over every inch of her body. She couldn’t think of anything but him, she couldn’t see anything but him, and that suited her fine.
He dipped his head and nuzzled between her neck and shoulder. The feel of his hot breath against her skin seemed to warm every inch of her body, inside and out, and she couldn’t help but let her lids close over her eyes and revel in the feeling of his closeness. Then he growled; so gently that it felt like another stroke across her skin, and she was lost in him.
His name on her lips made him lift his head and turn it towards her. Her lips found his and she opened herself to him the moment he increased the pressure. Then he was devouring her and she was practically trying to climb up his body in an attempt to get as close to him as she could.
His hands ran down her back and he cupped her backside, lifting her up against him and groaning at the feel of her legs as they wrapped around his hips, it was almost as good as the feel of her sex pressed against his length. She wasn’t yet naked, but she might as well have been, because clothes were not a barrier that would last once he got her into the bedroom.
When he started off on fast feet towards their room, every press, every movement of her sex against his length made him growl and groan like a madman. It was intoxicating.
For one long moment as he was placing her down on her feet again her brain couldn’t comprehend why she felt bereft of him. That feeling didn’t last long as he started to literally tear the clothes from her body. Shock hit her the moment his strong hands ripped her favourite bodice right down from her breasts to her waist, and she gasped at the sound of the material being torn asunder, but the last thing that she cared about was a piece of clothing, she just wanted to be totally naked and wrapped back around him.
Her hands touched his naked skin and she revelled in the contact. Frustration got the better of her as he knocked her arms down to strip the remains of her bodice away, as soon as her arms were free she was reaching for him again, but he dropped down onto one knee to strip the remainder of her clothes, and she groaned at the wait. She needed skin to skin contact, and she needed it now.
“Luke…” She started to demand that he come back to her when he bobbed up right in front of her and silenced her with his lips back on hers.
Yes… About damn time… I need…
His hands palmed the naked flesh of her backside and he lifted her back up against him. This time when the wet heat of her sex found his naked length she moaned long and hard at the promise it held. He took two long steps towards the bed and lowered her down to the mattress beneath him.
Her arms had been wrapped around his broad shoulders but with the security of the bed beneath her she was free to allow them to roam, and roam they did. Her fingers touched and pressed down the length of his back. The feel of his muscles moving beneath her skin somehow registered in her mind, and it was of his strength, the power he had over her, and it only heightened the excitement within her mind and body.
She knew she needed to breathe. She loved the way he was devouring her with kisses that made her toes curl and yet there was so much more to come and she wanted it, all of it, now. His lips left hers, as if knowing her thoughts and they travelled down her neck, across to the place where he would place his mark before he closed them against her flesh and sucked hard… jolts of electric sensation shot straight to her womb…
“More…” She begged as she tried to palm his chest. She wanted to turn him onto his back and run her tongue over every inch of him until she reached his hard cock. Then she wanted to taste and devour him until he couldn’t hold back his seed a moment longer… But that wasn’t going to happen any time soon…
His hands caught her wrists and he pressed them back against the mattress. She mewed in frustration, but that was soon silenced by the feel of his tongue as it swept over one hard, aching nipple. Her back arched as her body demanded more and he gave it, closing his lips over the hard peak; he sucked hard bringing a moan to her lips that could have been a stroke of her tongue against his length.
“I want to do that to you… taste you…” She offered up to him as she looked down her body and saw his eyes come up to hers. They were dark with desire and his mouth was still sucking at her breast. He looked like a man on the edge, trying to hold onto his sanity in the stormy seas of his desire.
He growled at the thought. Just that image alone sent his pulse racing, but as he let her nipple slip from between his lips, he just gave her a wolfish grin that set her pulse racing. He wasn’t a man to be swayed from what he wanted so easily, and while the thought of her lips wrapped around his length thrilled him beyond belief, he needed to taste her, consign every inch of her body to memory, and devour her with a vengeance…
“Later sweetheart. Right now you’re mine…” His beast pushed ever forward and he pushed back, keeping it at bay, but both man and beast knew that it would have out sooner rather than later.
His eyes stayed locked with hers as he moved lower. His tongue circled and drew unseen patterns against her flesh in between his blunt teeth nipping against her skin. Every inch he moved over her flesh felt like a blissful eternity to her mind and body…
Her hips rose up and fell down as her backside hit the mattress again. She tried not to roll from side to side with the feel and direction of his tongue, but that was impossible. Every inch of her mind was centred on what he was doing to her body and the fever inside her grew with every second that ticked away.
He released her wrists as he moved lower. His hands locked around the backs of her knees and he drew her legs up before pushing them sideways against the bed, opening her sex to his hungry gaze. Her heart hammered inside her chest as he dipped his head and ran his tongue up and down her inner thigh as anticipation gripped her for that first touch, that first stroke of his tongue against her sex, and when she couldn’t wait a moment longer she reached out and fisted his hair, guiding him to where she needed him the most.
He didn’t tease. His flat tongue ran from the puckered hole of her backside, up and over her throbbing channel, and ended at the sensitive nub of her clit. Her body practically convulsed in on itself with pleasure. She bite off a cry that came out of nowhere as her inner muscles clenched as they search for his length inside her and her hips tried to roll against him, but one large hand held her still.
Then he was devouring her as if she was his last ever meal and he was determined to wolf it down. There was no time to think of anything but the sensations that tore through her body, straight to her womb, and the knot that was tightening inside her. A million swear words shot through her brain and she didn’t know if they came from her lips or not, but they just kept going as if someone had pressed the repeat button…
One thick finger pressed inside the silken inner walls and he felt those muscles clamp down around it as if she never wanted to let it go. He could feel her need, her desire, and he wasn’t about to pull back from giving her the pleasure that she needed. He needed to taste her, to know that scent of her, and when he pr
essed a second finger inside her, opening her channel and curling them against the inner wall to find that nub of nerves within, there was no damn way that she wasn’t going to get her release, and that would be sooner rather than later.
He nipped and sucked up and over the silken folds of her flesh until he reached her clit. His lips closed around the tiny nub and he suckled her hard and fast as his blunt teeth ran against that flesh, and his tongue stroked fast under the tiny hood. Her inner muscles tightened around his fingers, more and more until her whole body followed suit… and then she found that release with an intensity that made her hips try to buck upwards and brought a harsh cry from her lips.
His thumb replaced his tongue and his tongue thrust inside her, greedily lapping at the feminine juices that flowed down her channel. She was lost somewhere deep inside the orgasm that continued to roll through her entire body, and he couldn’t get enough of the taste of her. She was his, for now and forever and he’d never give her up without the fight of his life.
When she started to come slowly back to him, he sensed it. He didn’t want to let her go, wanted to taste her over and over again, and yet the feel of her hands as she fisted his hair told him that his time was up… for now. His beast growled at him with impatience, but as he climbed up her body and settled between her inner thighs, he was in no mood for the antics of his beast…
Her eyes locked with his and she saw the raw emotion that was displayed in those dark eyes. He needed her, he wanted her more than he wanted the blood in his veins or the breath in his lungs, and she wanted him right back. She pressed her hips up against his and felt the tip of his length slide against her sex until he found the entrance to her channel… His growl of desire rattled the windows and made her smile.
“I’m yours, Luke…” She offered the words that she knew he wanted to hear and his eyes flared as another growl rolled through his chest.
“I’m going to make you mine, my little witch.” His beast pushed forward and he pushed back. It wasn’t time yet and his beast knew it. He needed to really ready her for what was to come.