by Leia Stone
The music wafted through the trees, reaching us, soft and almost haunting in a way.
He held out a hand. “Dance with me, Miss Blue?”
Why resist? Tomorrow would start four years of hell. Four years of me proving to myself, Nolan, my clan, and everyone else that I was the best person to lead my pack when my father either died or retired. Why not let loose for one night?
He pulled me in a respectable distance to his body, but I pushed us closer. I don’t know if it was the music, the magical garden, or the entire party atmosphere, but I felt like we were magnets unable to pull away from each other in this moment. His fingers trailed down my back, causing goosebumps to rise up my arms.
Without overthinking it, I reached up and traced his jawline. His eyes were the most captivating, searing green I’d ever seen. A slow buzzing sensation filled my body then, and my breath caught as he stiffened against me.
Something white and fluttering caught my eye, and I glanced up to see over a dozen white glowing butterflies descend upon us. His whole body tensed further as the butterflies landed on us, one by one.
Laugher pealed out of me as he held me tightly.
“Oh, my mage, this is crazy!” I said.
The buzzing grew stronger; the urge to draw closer to him seized me. I dropped my gaze, and my lips parted. His hands gripped my hips, his eyes widening, and his skin blanched as the butterflies settled onto my shoulders and his arms.
“It’s you,” he whispered, his voice filled with awe.
“What?” I didn’t have time to process anything more because, in that moment, he leaned in and captured my mouth in a kiss. When our lips touched, warmth exploded within my chest and traveled downward, pooling low in my belly. The buzzing tingle saturated my entire body, and I reached up and threaded my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer. He nipped at my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth to him. He tasted of honey and promise. I kissed him harder; his fingers kneaded my back, reeling me into him until I was smooshed against his hard body. I’d never been kissed like this. Not James from the clan, not Kevin the farm boy who lived next door. Not ever. This kiss was earth-shattering. I was hungry for him in a way I’d never felt before. He deepened the kiss, and our tongues tangled, causing him to moan against my lips.
I swallowed his breath, wanting more of him. As I pushed my hands into his hair, the rest of the world faded until there was only him and me and this heat between us. I needed his kiss like I needed air. I needed him. I—
“Friend!” a voice that sounded a bit like Kaja shouted. “Blue-haired friend that I came with and now can’t find…!”
I froze.
Crap, she couldn’t say my name without giving me away.
Just like that, he pulled back, breaking the kiss, and the butterflies that had landed on us took flight and disappeared into the forest.
We stood there staring at each other, panting, lips swollen and red from our kiss.
“Who … who are you?” Screw the rules. I needed more of that kissing, and I wasn’t about to leave this party without this guy’s name.
“No.” He backed up, chest heaving, his gaze looking me up and down as if I were the plague. Okay … maybe he did care about the rules.
“FRIEND! I’m calling werewolf 911, AKA the king, if you don’t—”
“She’s in here!” the dude called out and turned away from me, booking it for the gate.
“Wait!” I called after him. “Seriously?”
He reached the gate and looked back at me, his eyes, like glittering emeralds, brimmed with sadness.
“I can’t. I … won’t.” Then, he left.
What. The. Mage?
“There you are! You had me so worried.” Kaja was nearly falling over, holding two glasses of mage wine and looking over her shoulder at the mystery kisser’s retreating form.
“I’m … fine.” Was I fine?
No. I’d never be fine again.
Not after a kiss like that.
Chapter 7
I’d stared at his retreating form until he disappeared, and even then, I just kept staring at the gate. Legit … what … the … mage … just happened?
“I can’t … I won’t.” What did that mean? I didn’t initially take sexy-shmexy homeboy for an asshat, but what did I know? Maybe he really was one. I mean … obviously, he was! Who kissed a woman like that and then left?
Green-eyed asshats.
“Who was that?” Kaja asked, toddling over to me with two half-filled glasses of mage wine. “And what did you do to freak him out?”
The sparkling liquid glowed golden in the crystal glasses, and the sinking feeling in my stomach needed to be quenched. I was not going to cry over someone I didn’t even know—especially if he was douchy enough to run off after kissing me. Did it matter if that kiss was the best I’d ever had? Nope. I’d just have to find someone else to give me a better one.
“That was a douche-canoe,” I said, plucking one of the crystal flutes from her hand. “And this”—I raised the glass—“is me taking charge of the rest of the night. We’re going to eat enough delicious food to last a lifetime and find someone else to kiss who makes our toes curl.”
Kaja nodded with a grin and solidified her role as my new BFF by raising her glass. “Challenge accepted.”
We both drained our glasses, and the heady concoction tickled my insides as it slid through my chest and into my stomach. My anger over the asshat-wolf melted away, and I grinned at the prospect of kissing another stranger. “Did you see they have a chocolate fountain?”
Kaja licked her lips and then smacked them loudly. “You betcha. The only thing better than that is the mage wine. I could swim in it and not get enough, ya know?”
“Swim in it?” The idea had merit. “Let’s go.” I grabbed her wrist and tugged her along with me, determined to have fun. “One night to live it up, right?”
“Yass!” She giggled as she stumbled alongside me. “I knew there was secretly a fun chick hiding in there with all that sass. Let’s go live it up, Blue!”
Blue. It reminded me of the best kisser in the world, AKA asshat-wolf calling me Miss Blue … but we obviously needed code names. Staring at her black hair and silver dress, I dropped the first nickname that came to mind. “You call me Blue, and I’m going to call you Ash. It’s perf.”
“I love that,” Kaja said, her eyes wide as she clutched the empty flute to her chest. “I’ve never had a nickname before.”
We exited the magical garden, and I resisted the urge to look back. Not going to happen. If a dude was going to kiss and bolt, he shouldn’t be allowed to take up space in my thoughts. However, no matter how much I tried to steer my thoughts, they went back to that kiss, those green eyes and soft lips. Didn’t Justice have eyes like that? Rage? And one dude from Daybreak I saw earlier. Maybe more … I hadn’t exactly been an eye connoisseur. Until now.
The full lips reminded me of another guy I’d seen at the ceremony. I was desperate to know who I’d just made out with.
“I think the wine is affecting my thoughts,” I announced with a giggle. We stepped back into the house, and I turned to look back the way we’d come. “Oh. My. Mage. Did we float here?”
Kaja blinked and then burst into peals of laughter—which only made me laugh harder.
“What’s so funny?” a guy said, sidling up to us.
I glanced at him dressed in a black tux and wearing a black mask, and my snicker died off as a lump formed in my throat. Was this the same dude? His hair was black, but my interest waned as soon as I noted that his eyes were honey yellow. The guy was hot. They all were, but he wasn’t my kiss stealer. It hit me then. They all…
I scanned the room, and my laughter returned. Oh mage … no flippin’ way. Every single dude in here was wearing a black tux—and a black mask, his hair dyed black. Asshat dude could be any of them. We only had about fifteen heirs here between the four clans, and those all ranged from first to fourth years. But there were at least thirty peop
le at this party.
Palace guards. The king probably didn’t let his four heirs party with the other clans without protection.
“Blue?” Kaja poked me.
Both she and the male wolf Clone #7 stared at me as if I were unhinged, but I was 70.3% sure there was no one else in the house dressed like me, so that was good.
“Mage wine is funny,” I told the dude with a wink. My gaze shifted to the clone, and I raised my eyebrows. “You look like”—I waved my hand in the air, indicating the other occupants—“everyone else. ”
The guy grinned, “All the males took a pact to magic ourselves with the same look.”
Great. Just freaking genius. They all had the same onyx colored hair of the Midnight princes. But the dude I’d kissed wasn’t one of them, because he’d referred to the secret garden as a place his friend told him about. Which meant my magical kisser was friends with the Midnight princes or worked for them.
Awkward.
Half of me wanted to go through the entire room and kiss every single guy just so I could find him and then kick him in the balls for leaving me like that. Why did that kiss have to be so amazing? I couldn’t deal—I needed more wine and chocolate before I could enact operation Kiss Every Dude Here.
“Let’s go, Ash.” I tugged on Kaja’s arm. “Nice to meet you!” I yelled to yellow eyes and walked away briskly with my new bestie.
Three mage wine drinks and a dozen dipped strawberries later, and still, all I could think about was a certain sexy-schmexy wolf dude. I needed to start kissing other guys pronto; someone was bound to make my toes curl … or make magical butterflies descend from the sky? Now, where was my wingwoman? I swayed on my feet, bumping into a tux-clad body as I spun away from the chocolate fountain. “Shh-orry.”
Note to self: three drinks were a lot … way too much … for me to think … right. Although shifter metabolism was a thing of beauty, I had not burned off the effects of those drinks. The good news, no tears. I was doing better than I had a few years ago when my dad gave me that glass.
“You all right, princess?” the dude in the tux asked, his voice like liquid honey.
Grinning, I nodded. “Very much yes—I think.”
Staring at his eyes, I noticed his were green—like spring grass. “Do people change their eye color tonight?”
Reaching out to touch his eyelids, I reconsidered and let my hand fall onto his chest. Hard as a rock. I patted it, wondering if chests could be magicked too.
Was this my kisser?
“Some do.” He seemed amused by me, allowing me to pat his chest as he looked down at me with a halfcocked grin.
“Are yours really that color?” Because if they were, there was a fair chance this dude could be one of the asshole Midnight brothers, Rage or Justice. Too bad I didn’t know if my magical garden asshat’s eyes were really green or just magicked-green.
“No.” His lips pulled up in the corner. “Why do you ask?”
No way was I going to tell, but there was something I wanted to say to this dude. Leaning forward, I dropped my voice and narrowed my eyes. “Are you trustworthy?”
He grinned, a feral, wild grin that made my heart leap. “Not at all.”
“That’s…” I held my fist up, index finger extended to make a point. “Huh … that’s very honest of you.” Which required me to pat his chest again with approval. Dayum. “I like your chest.”
Please don’t be Nolan.
He chuckled. “Really? How interesting. I find yours quite to my liking as well.”
Laughter burst from me as my belly warmed at his words. Mage wine and chocolate were life. Where was Kaja? My bestie was missing out on all the fun.
“That’s good.” And totally factored into my kissing plan. Tilting my chin so I stared above his square jaw, I demanded, “Tell me what you think of my lips.”
Leaning over me, he traced his finger across my collarbone, up the side of my neck, and then rubbed his thumb over my lips. His voice dropped, going husky with desire. “They’re ripe for kissi—”
Dude disappeared. A blur, almost too fast for me to see, whizzed past, and when I looked up, he was gone.
Huh? How drunk was I?
I blinked, and there was a new man towering over me, definitely not the same guy who’d been there seconds ago.
“Hey, what the—?” In fact … those emerald eyes, those lips.
“You asshole!” I screamed at my garden kisser. How did I even recognize him? Who knew? Maybe it was the eyes or the way my body gravitated toward him like he was the frickin’ sun.
Looking to the right, I saw the guy I’d been speaking with now lay among the forest bramble a dozen feet away. He’d literally flown out the open, white food tent and into the trees. He climbed to his feet, leaf-litter and twigs stuck to his coat and hair.
Shaking my head, I looked back at Asshat Extraordinaire. Un-freaking-believable. How dare he act possessive now? I splayed my palms out on his chest and tried to push past him—which was like trying to shove a tank, impossible—even for a werewolf.
Glaring up at him, I growled, “Move.”
His jaw clenched. “You shouldn’t be with that guy.”
He grasped my hand softly and started to walk me out of the silk tent and back into the patio garden, leading me up to the house. I was too tipsy to put up much protest, and I needed to find Kaja anyway. We walked inside the packed living room, to the sound of bustling music, before he slipped me into a little alcove holding a potted plant. My pulse quickened as he leaned closer and sniffed the air in front of my face, and his lip curled. “You’re drunk.”
Hah! “That’s rich! You don’t get to do that. You scurried off like a rat, remember? So don’t act like—”
“You’re mine,” he said, gripping my hips, eyes flaring emerald, and his possessive words melted into my body like warm butter. He pulled me closer, slamming my body to his; my pelvis pressed into his hips. The raw need in his voice made my knees tremble.
“Only mine,” he added, and his chest heaved.
Whoa.
I swallowed hard. In the back of my mind, the little bit of rational-Nai screamed about healthy boundaries and psycho-controlling males. But the rest of me … I grabbed the lapels of his tuxedo jacket and gave him a half-lidded gaze as the world fell away. Nothing else existed in this moment—just me and him.
“Prove it.”
He growled, low and possessive, and then traced the tip of his nose up the side of my neck, scenting where my pulse pounded.
Scent. I’d forgotten to smell him before, but it was our greatest tracking device. In our human form, the aroma of an individual was best detected at the pulse points. In this crowded area of the house, even in our little alcove, the best place to scent him would be the neck, like he’d just done to me. If I got a good whiff now, I could figure out exactly who he was later…
My breath quickened. I gripped his arms. Desire blossomed low in my belly, and I inched closer.
“You smell like sunshine and home, Miss Blue,” he whispered.
The warmth of his breath made my skin prickle, and I might’ve moaned—a little. “Like home?”
I inhaled, but my mind was fuzzy with mage wine. Cedarwood? Sandalwood? Sage? What was it? He traced the outside of my ear with his tongue before capturing the soft flesh between his teeth. Slowly, he worked his way across my jaw to my lips with his tongue, drawing out the tension until my desire for him was agony.
Holy mage!
“You’re mine,” he whispered, his lips brushing my skin. “All mine.”
“Yes,” I panted. I was his. I could feel that in my very core.
This time when he captured my lips, his kiss was fierce and dominating. He nipped my bottom lip between his teeth, and I parted them. Our tongues tangled as he pressed me back against the wall, our bodies fitting together as if made for one another.
All alone in this magical little nook, the world around us fell away. Nothing else mattered.
His
hand pressed between the laces of my dress on my back, nudging me closer. I couldn’t get enough of him. I couldn’t be close enough to him. His hips rotated, and I clung to him, throwing my head back to give him better access. He kissed my neck, sucking and biting as he pressed against me. I moaned, begging for more because this … was … magic.
“Mine,” I growled, my wolf rising to the surface as instinct took over. I needed to stake my claim, to mark him as mine and make sure any female who got near him would know he was taken.
Searing heat flared beneath his palm, and I arched my back as the warmth became an inferno. Need, passion, and fire swirled around us, building and expanding, consuming us.
“What is happen—?” My question became a cry, and I clung to him to stay upright as the burning sensation tore through me, an explosion of pain and pleasure. His hand came up, fingers lacing through mine as all of that pain weaved through my body and wrapped around our encircled fingers. When I felt the final bolt of stinging flesh on my left ring finger, I gasped.
Looking at our clasped hands, I stared at fated mate marks on our ring fingers, a glowing white swirl pattern in place of where a human couple might wear rings.
Holy mage.
I spun out of the alcove, switching places with him as I wrestled with my wine-soaked senses. His green eyes were wide with shock. His gaze bore into me. His chest heaved. But he didn’t let me go, didn’t give any indication he regretted this.
Green-eyed secret garden kisser was my freaking mate! I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe— Fated mates? The phenomenon was rare, but not impossible. Except—
A hefty hand landed on my shoulder, and then I was ripped back, away from Green Eyes and our little alcove, and pressed into the chest of another man as his arm encircled my waist.
“Hey,” a man snarled, his voice faintly familiar. “She was mine first.”
The dude I’d been trying to kiss from before growled, and his grip tightened as he hauled me into the crowded living room where people danced around us.
Oh, Cursed High Mage Council.
The murderous look in Green Eyes’ gaze told me shit was about to get real.