by Dara Fraser
She turned into a clearing and there he was. She picked up speed and instead of running, he bared his neck to her. Her unicorn took over and next thing she knew, her horn was on his neck. At first she feared that her unicorn had stabbed her mate, but as she felt the wave of euphoria hit her, all thoughts fled. All that was left were the feelings, and what feelings they were. They shifted back simultaneously, kneeling in front of each other. She reached over and touched the mark her horn left on his neck. It looked almost like a tattoo, shaped like the sliver of a crescent moon. She reached out, touching it gently with her fingers, and all of the emotions of moments earlier flew back into her, and his hand was on her wrist pulling her hand down before she had fully outlined it.
“Love, you can’t do that willy-nilly.” The veins on his neck bulged slightly.
“I didn’t hurt you though?” She was not sensing hurt off of him. No, what she was sensing was much more powerful and much more fun than that.
“No, you did the opposite of hurting me, and it was all I could do not to act on it.”
He reached up and touched her spot, and lust hit her harder than she thought possible in the two seconds he left his hand there. He beamed in triumph.
“Oh.” She reached up and touched her neck. She felt the bits of what she assumed was or would be a scar, but that was it.
“It only works with mates.” Thank the fates on that.
“Wow.”
“Wow indeed,” he agreed. “I admit that I was worried before. You seemed to be all happy after I bit you, but it didn’t feel complete, and now… Now I know why. You needed to chase me.”
“The predator became the prey.” Leo seemed to like that just fine. “Did you let me catch you?”
“No. Yes. Not really.” Leo pulled her into a hug and Samantha snuggled in, needing his touch. “I didn’t block you like I could have, but it was because it takes so much of my concentration to put up a block strong enough for you that I wouldn’t have been fast, and you are so fast that I figured that was my best shot.” He kissed the top of her head and she all but melted. “That being said, when you broke through the clearing, I had no choice but to submit to you. It wasn’t me saying ‘I give up’ as much as my lion telling your unicorn that he was hers. Am I saying this right?”
“You are saying this perfectly.” She tilted her head so she could kiss the mark she gave her mate. Mate, she loved the sound of that.
“Samantha.” His voice held so much. Partial censure, partial lust, and partial begging. Her kiss did that. “What are you doing?” His voice cracked, and Samantha knew she either needed to go big or go home because all other options were unfair to them both.
She scootched onto his lap, and his nakedness took front and center in her mind. Before her emotions were so much at the forefront that she missed the gloriously naked man before her. “I was trying to seduce my mate.” She tried to sound coy and innocent, but her voice gave her away.
“You never need to seduce me, love. I’m yours at all times.”
“How about now o’clock?” she teased and found herself on her back beneath every spectacular inch of him.
“Lucky for you, I’m having a now o’clock special.” He leaned in close, his lips practically touching hers. “Are you sure? You want our first time to be dream walking?”
“No.” He tried to pull back as he let out a sigh, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and refused to let him move. “I want our first time to be where we first mated and that just so happens to be here.” She lifted her head to meet his and brushed her lips against his, testing the waters. He remained perfectly still, and for a second she thought he was going to deny her.
“I had plans, woman.” He leaned in close to her ear. “Dinner, flowers, wooing. There was a lot of wooing involved.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“Never, my love, never.”
She tried to think of a witty reply but was cut off by a kiss. That one kiss became many and Samantha became lost in the sensations. Their lips and hands spent time exploring and worshipping each other’s bodies. There was no rushing, only the savoring of every moment. Samantha was lost to each and every sensation and discovery as they finally came together as true mates. Everything that was stated, hinted at, or even imagined about what this moment would be like was nothing compared to the powerful feelings that flowed between them as they gave into fate and completed the bond that would connect them for the rest of their lives.
Chapter Nineteen
Afternoon Delight?
Samantha woke with a start. Everything in her dream walking had felt so real that it took her a moment to figure out where she was. Leo had mentioned putting her to bed and joining her. His arm was still wrapped around her just like it had been when she felt her dream slip away, only this time their darn clothes were between them. Had it really happened? If she looked over, would she see her mark on the man beside her?
His breathing changed and she knew he was awake, probably trying to figure out if she was as well.
“Hi.” She rolled over to get a better look.
“Hi, love.”
Samantha tried to be all covert and check out where her horn had met his neck, but his darn shirt was in the way. He reached up and pulled it down. Covert was not her strong suit apparently.
Much to her amazement, it was still there. She should have known her unicorn wouldn’t let her down, but seeing it there in front of her filled her with a sense of pride. As if on their own accord, her fingers reached over and outlined the mark.
“Same rules apply here, sweetheart.”
“Huh?” She was so mesmerized by her mark that it barely registered that he spoke, much less understood the implication. When his hand touched her neck, she was immediately reminded what she had been doing and pulled her hand back as if it were on fire. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“No need to be sorry, love. Just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing.” He waggled his eyebrows in an exaggerated manner.
“So what happens while dream walking really happens?”
“The mating part at least. Not sure of the rest. I say we don’t do anything dumb like hurt ourselves to see if the injury is still there when we wake up, just in case.” He was joshing, but there was logic to that. She always dream walked alone before she met him, so she never thought about any of this.
“Tell me what you are thinking.”
“Hmm, well right now, nothing but boring stuff like how I can’t remember anyone in my family getting hurt in their dream walking, so I figure we have no worries there. Then I went back to thinking about how you have your mark still so my mind started to wander to memories of that.” She knew she was blushing hard, but this was her mate, so she pushed her embarrassment aside.
“I see. So you weren’t thinking too hard.”
“Not so much.” She reached over and put her hand on his cheek, needing to feel that he was really there. “How about you? What are you thinking about?”
“When we first woke up I was thinking about how very lucky I am to have you as a mate. And then you touched my mark and I was thinking about getting you naked again.” Great, now she was, too. “Then you looked all serious, and I was worried you were upset or conflicted about what we had done. If maybe I rushed you more than I should have.” His hand landed on her hip and he pulled her flush to him. “Then you mentioned our mating, and I went straight back to thinking about getting you naked.”
“Do you…” she started and then wanted to suck all the words back or hide under a rock.
“Do I what?” He used his fingers to pull her chin up and help her find his eyes.
“Do you think it will always be…you know…like that?”
“Better.” He spoke assuredly. He believed what he said. His eyes didn’t lie. She could hardly imagine anything being better than that, but her experience was a string of random one-night get-togethers when the loneliness became too much to bare. She had never dated, much less had
a relationship, and now here she was with a mate. An amazing, alpha mate who, according to him, had plans of great wooing. After they saved Mindy’s sisters and the world of course.
“You’re thinking too hard again.”
“I am. Best kiss me so I stop.” She puckered her lips in a silly gesture and even threw in a kissing sound for good measure.
“So you don’t want to tell me what you were thinking about?”
“Yeah, not so much.” His eyes fell. She had inadvertently hurt his feelings. Samantha wished she were better at this whole mate thing. “It’s embarrassing is all.”
“Okay.”
She really had the perfect mate. He was willing to just let it go, but that made it seem more like she needed to tell him. Maybe he was using his alpha brain to get her to spill the beans.
“Fine.” His eyes sparkled and she knew he had played her like a fiddle. Best get it out there so he could get back to the kissing. “I never even had a boyfriend, so I have no clue how to do this mating thing.”
“Good.” He leaned in and kissed her and all the nerves fell off of her. “I like to know that you are mine and like it even better knowing you have only ever been mine and not someone else’s.”
“I wasn’t a nun though.” Best get that out there, not that he hadn’t already figured that out.
“I wasn’t, either.” He leaned back in, this time passing her mouth and going straight for her mark. “But I never had anything more than a fling, either.” He spoke against her neck and all the feels came back in an instant. This mark was either going to be the biggest blessing or her Achilles’ heel. “I was waiting for you.” His lips moved against her mark and just as she was about to beg him for more, she heard the door to the back open.
“Nooooooooo!” she moaned as he flopped over to lay flat on his back and she followed suit. Back to reality it was.
Chapter Twenty
Spells, powers, and plans
“About time,” was all Sybil said as they walked hand in hand into the kitchen. She was making a pot of tea as eight rabbit carcasses sat on the counter next to the sink. It would take a while for Samantha to get used to all the dead things that seemed to be common place in a lion’s home.
“Subtle, Granny, really subtle.”
“Never claimed to be, Leo.” Setting the teapot aside, she pointed to the rabbits. “Got eight today. Even with not letting my lion out as much as she wants, I’ve still got it. Not too bad for an hour’s hunt.
“An hour?” That felt wrong, but they had spent most of their time dream walking, and time did flow differently there.
“An hour. I figured he would bite you before I even got past the tree line. His lion has been riding him hard and I was half expecting him to before I even got out the door. Then of course you would have to drag his sorry butt into dream world so you could take care of the unicorn part of things and then, well, an hour.” Sybil really spent far too much time thinking that through.
“Wait, did you know about the dream walking part? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Didn’t feel it was my place to intrude on such personal matters.”
“Granny, I’m sure you had your reason, but don’t think for a second we believe that.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved them away. The woman had spunk. “I’m going to get these rabbits ready to cook, and you two need to memorize that spell. There is much to be done.” Sybil was right. There was a lot to be done. Unfortunately, Samantha had no clue what that entailed, so she took Sybil at her word and grabbed the pile of papers from the night before, reorganized them, and spent the next hour making sure she knew the words to the spell forward and backward. There wasn’t much to it, but it felt like every word needed to be just so in order for it to work.
What was once stolen will now be returned.
Hunter becomes hunted and untamed become tamed as into the dream world you wander away.
We harness the power of moon and sun to gather back what was unfairly won.
“So, you guys have it memorized?”
“We do.” Leo looked at the older woman. “It sounds kind of awkward, like we are missing pieces of it or something.”
“How long have there been Theron?”
“I don’t know. Always?” Samantha assumed they were there from the beginning, but if the spell was correct, they stole their powers.
“Not quite, dear.” Sybil grabbed her teacup and joined them at the table. “But for a very long time. Long enough that this spell wasn’t written in English. This is only a translation and it should do quite well. The power of a spell is barely in the words.”
A spell without heart is just words.
“The power in the spell is me.” The weight of it all settled on her.
“Us.” Leo pulled her in to his side. “We harness the power. We.”
“We.” She liked the sound of that. She didn’t like him being in danger, but knowing she would no longer be alone, yeah, that filled her with hope, and hope was what they needed right now.
“We.”
“Enough, you two love birds, we have other things to work on now.”
“Who’s the alpha, Granny?”
Samantha loved how those two bantered with each other.
“Samantha, but that’s not the point, Leo and you know it.”
Samantha had forgotten about that in all this mating stuff.
“Can we get back to the spell part first?” Samantha knew that while there were many pieces of this that all had to work perfectly in sync, this was the part foretold all those years ago, and she wanted to be sure she got it straight before they moved onto other things.
“You know the words, right?”
She nodded.
“And you have your necklace?”
She nodded again.
“And the eclipse is coming on Thursday?”
She nodded, not knowing if it was true but trusting in Frank.
“Then that’s all you need to know.”
“Granny.”
“Fine.” Sybil put her hand on Samantha’s. “What do you have questions on, dear?”
“How does it work? The spell, I mean?”
“Do you mean what do you do, or how does the magic do its bit?”
“What do I do?”
“It is really quite simple, dear. You wear the talisman and recite the words aloud with your mate, over and over again until it feels like you are supposed to stop.” That sounded too easy. They could do that now, for goodness sakes. “Frank said you would know when to do it but that you should be prepared Thursday for that would be the day.”
“Granny, what did the warning from her mom mean? The one about careful who you give your heart to because it can only be given once.”
“Pay no mind to that.” Sybil got up and went to fuss at the sink. It felt, no it tasted like a lie more than evasiveness, and her frustration built. She needed to know all of the pieces if she were to do this. She owed it to everyone to get it right. They may not know her, but they had been counting on her for generations. Samantha rose from her seat and took two steps closer to Sybil who stopped her tinkering long enough to turn around.
“You will tell me, Sybil.” Samantha’s voice terrified herself. The power flowing off of her was unlike any she had ever felt before and she could see the moment it hit Sybil. Sybil’s eyes fell, and she bared her neck as words began to flow out of her mouth. Not that Samantha heard any of them. She was still trying to reign back the power that she was emitting. If this is what being an alpha was like, she wasn’t sure why fate had chosen her. It was too much, and she had only given one command and it was unintentional.
A hand on her shoulder anchored her and she was able to regain control. “That’s my girl. You did great.” Her mate was praising her for tormenting his granny. Her world was getting weirder by the moment.
She turned into his arms and the flood gates opened. She couldn’t believe she had done that, and worse, that she had no control over it.
/> “Shhh, love, it was your first time, and you had no idea the power you had nor how to control it. I was groomed from my childhood, and I didn’t control myself half as well as you did the first time I went all alpha on Granny.” He was rubbing small circles on her back, giving her comfort she didn’t deserve. “Granny seems to think it is her job to help young alphas find their power, don’t you, Granny.”
“Well it had to be done.” The smile on her face hit her eyes, and Samantha knew that Sybil was not only not mad, she was proud. “I tell you what, Leo, your mate has some power unto her. I had no hope of denying her command.”
“I know.” Pride. Her mate’s voice was filled with pride. Samantha was still not sure she was at ease with all of this, but she was feeling better. “So why don’t you repeat what you said. I’m guessing she heard zero of your reply. I know I missed it all.”
“I said the warning was because the talisman can only be used once and then it is a useless bauble, but since your mom couldn’t have seen Frank coming, let’s not worry about that.”
“It feels like I should apologize, but at the same time I shouldn’t. Is that an alpha thing?”
“Leo, I’m taking your mate.” Sybil had the same annoying habit of not answering her questions. Must be a family trait. Sybil grabbed Samantha’s hand and started to pull her towards the back door. “She needs practice using her power, and you need to call a meeting of the Elders for tonight and your men for the morning. The Aldric pack won’t be fun to deal with on a good day, but coinciding with the Theron coming will only make things more challenging. Your pack is strong, but you’re going to need more than strong to come out unscathed.”
“Teach my mate well, Granny. I only just found her and I’m growing quite fond of her.” His words were as if Samantha was not in the room, but his eyes were on her the whole time.
“Will do. Now give the visiting alpha some respect and follow my commands.”