by S. L. Morgan
I had heard of this all my life about wolf mates, but Dom and I were too young for this to happen—to unite our wolves and complete our bond by merging our souls as one. These feelings didn’t really hit strong like this until wolf mates spent more time together and let that energy blossom at their age of full maturity.
I let out a breath. “I feel it too. It’s almost painful not to follow through on this.”
Dom’s eyes swirled with mystery. “We’re too young for this, I know. We were too young for this at Dark Water too, yet we almost acted on it then and there. We were so young, and the feelings were so strong that it was consuming both of us.”
“How did we not?” I licked my lips, “You know, what stopped us from going through with it?”
Dom smiled, his fingertips exploring more of my body beneath my uniform shirt. “You still don’t remember us at Dark Water, do you?” He glanced back at the door where the godmother exited, waiting to kill me if Dom didn’t figure all of this out. “That woman really wiped your memories hard. Crazy how bits and pieces came back to me, though.”
My desire for Dominic was growing stronger. The need for this to happen between us was unbearable to not satisfy. “I want this, and I want us to do this now,” I said.
Dom nodded. “I have felt that way in your presence, Jen,” he lifted his hand through his hair, “since I first realized you’re my mate. I fought it off, knowing we could wait, and obviously, we didn’t want to wake the sleeping monster at the school.” He twisted his lips. “I don’t care about any of that anymore. I can’t lose you no matter what this does to any of us.”
This was it…Dom’s wolf and my wolf were practically howling some love call to each other, and my man—shirtless and chiseled to perfection—was on board with us answering our call to each other.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asked.
Was I sure I was ready to take this all to another level with Dom Rossi? Oh my God, all the power driving us to do this faded when my nerves kicked in. I was a wolf shifter, not some crazy sex-driven, hormonal teenager. So, okay, it was going to be Jenna’s first time, and thank God it was with my true mate, whose power that was emitting off of him kicked me into overdrive for all of this.
Dom didn’t say another word after I nodded. I was ready. I closed my eyes after he helped me remove my shirt, his hand now at the waistline of my uniform skirt, and his lips on mine, wild and possessive.
I felt my body melting into his as I turned to face him and encourage him for more. He tasted like honey, and I was pissed when his lips left mine, not wanting to end our tasty kiss.
“I need more, Dom,” I said. I felt my body want to explode under his lips as they explored the curves of mine and he gently caressed areas of my body I’d never let a man so much as think about touching. It felt amazing, and it was driving me wild.
“I know,” was all he answered while he became more eager with his lips and hands. I felt like I was a treasure that he’d been longing for and now was able to fulfill his need for this. “I want this more, babe. I need to be sure you’re ready and accepting of it.”
“Ask me that stupid question again, and I’ll take charge of it all.” I smiled at his eyes as they glanced up to mine from where his lips rested on my lower abdomen.
“I know I’m not entirely your alpha, but in this case, I’m taking control, and I promise you won’t regret letting me dominate every part of your sexy body.”
Dom was ridiculously attractive right now in every way, shape, and form. Yes, it was always the alpha males in these situations who claimed their mates, and the female mate accepted this, but Dom and I were different.
“We’re both claiming each other in this. I am yours, Jen, and you are mine.”
His face came back to mine, and his kiss sent his tongue fighting against mine, showing the angst that was built up in him.
“That’s what I love about us,” I said, my fingers running through his hair.
“Close your eyes and go deep into your mind. You need to reach the call of your wolf and mine. I feel your nerves wanting to take over, and it’s understandable. Let the wolves guide it all, babe.”
I closed my eyes while Dom’s hands and lips went to work on ensuring I would be his eternal mate. Everything would change after this, and it was going to screw us since we were still at this school. Once shifter mates united their hearts, bodies, and souls, they longed to spend at least the first month alone and together.
This merge of our souls and wolves would make both of us continue to crave being in each other’s presence without interruptions—like living in a den together, just Dom and me. So, if we went through with this, how would we function, being intensely in need of each other at a school that busted you for saying a stupid curse word?
None of that mattered now. My body was rolling into feelings I’d never before experienced the further Dom was driving this between us.
There was no turning back. We were definitely going to be true mates, and we were stamping all of that in stone. The Dom and Jenna show would have all eyes on us now, and you know what? Who freaking cared!
I needed this, and I wasn’t about to go back on what I knew needed to be done. It was time to stop ignoring what our wolves needed, and more importantly, what Dom and I needed. Thank God I was all in because as I writhed under his touch, our bodies were ready to confirm their calling to each other. Dom was a master at handling all of this, and I was beyond okay with him claiming all of me. Once I got into my groove—oh my God—I was going to show him that Jenna could bring him more than he bargained for.
21
I thought I had it all down, especially with the way Dominic was slowly and amazingly working this situation for our wolves, souls, and bodies to unite. He was a master in this department, but I was slipping away from all of it due to my nerves.
My heart was racing again. I was panting in expectation of it all. Good Lord, I was twenty-one. You’d think I’d be a little more down for this because of my age alone, not just doing this because I was a supernatural shifter who’d accepted the next step without reservation. He was my true wolf mate. I wanted this—so why in the hell wouldn’t my wolf step in, calm my ass down, and let us do this?
The death reaper outside the room was waiting to kill me if Dom and I didn’t join our wolves and gain the strength to overcome the evil she said was worse than what took my mother.
Maybe that was it? Yes! Pressure! I was crumbling under intense pressure from going all-in with this gorgeous and overwhelmingly powerful shifter—who seemed to know his way around the female body like he created it—and I was crumbling. Weren’t guys supposed to fall apart and malfunction under pressure in intimate situations?
“Jenna,” Dom’s enticing lips were at my ear, “your mind is in hyperdrive.” He kissed below my ear. “Can you feel my energy? I need you to accept it, and feed off of this calm state I’m in.”
Instantly, I was brought back to when Dom saved my butt on our summer vacation. Our bodies were facing each other and molded together. That’s when I felt him calming me and saving me from the attack of the demon-spawn.
“That’s it,” he calmly said, brushing a hand over my head. “Your heart is trying to find its rhythm with mine. Can you feel it?”
This was like a class in Shifter Intimacy 101, and Dom was the instructor. I couldn’t screw this up. We had to get these wolves merged and this bond sealed—or I was toast.
“Yes.” I lifted my lips to kiss his neck as he massaged my back.
“You need to let your mind drift. You're blocking yourself and the wolf from this happening.”
“First time, sorry.”
Dom pulled away enough for me to meet his eyes.
“I’ve got you. It’s you and me, Jen. The bond is there, but your nerves are blocking all of it. Do you trust me?”
“Maybe I don’t trust myself?” I questioned.
He ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “I can sense it. Ther
e’s nothing to worry about. I’m here to protect you. You need to let me in, babe.”
The soothing way Dom delivered that reassurance through words and what I felt radiating off of him, calmed me down then and there. That’s when all of my nerves were gone, and I accepted it wholeheartedly. I watched Dom’s eyes oddly glaze into a trance, knowing he was picking up that his mate was ready for him.
He exhaled when I suddenly rolled him to his back and climbed on top of him. I brought my hands to each side of his perfectly-shaped face and smiled at the effect this change of events was having on him. He let out a ragged breath and closed his eyes. Not what I was exactly expecting from the alpha wolf, but I did manage to get the jump on him when I grounded my nerves and was ready to set this whole thing into motion.
“My turn,” I said in a lighter voice.
Dom’s closed lips lifted into a smile as he lazily opened his eyes. “You’ll have your turn. I promise you that.” He playfully rolled me back over, and then his eyes returned to that alpha determination stare as they bore through mine. “God, you’re so sexy, I can hardly hold back.”
Dom’s voice changed into what seemed to be frustration. As I peeked at his wolf, I saw the dangerous beast looking as though it were ready for the kill, but we weren’t going in that direction. Maybe this is how the alpha wolf claimed his mate? Shit! We didn’t take these classes, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect with the whole bonding thing.
I pulled my eyes from Dom’s to keep my mental state strong and ready for how wild and crazy this was about to get. In glancing away, I ran my fingers down Dom’s hard biceps. Though totally sexy, having seen his arms like this after punishing workouts, I had to wonder why my man looked like he was about to kill me himself.
His lips crashed into mine, derailing those morbid thoughts, and I settled in under his taut body, feeling his warmth and security shroud me like a cover. I’d never felt more connected to anything—not even the first time we felt the bond we had—until right now.
“That’s it. Go farther, take me with you.” Dom’s voice was steady and stern, “Open up to me, Jen.”
He removed my hands from his rigid and flexed-to-kill biceps and intertwined our fingers as he stretched my arms up, pressing his body firmly against mine. “I love you.”
Dom’s forehead rested against mine. “Let her meet my wolf, Jenna. Go into your mind and open up completely to us.”
My eyes rolled back as soon as I closed them, Dom using multiple methods to relax me further and enhance how we’d handle this.
I felt an overwhelming sensation of bringing him into my mind and taking us away from this doomed environment we were in, wanting to bring our wolves together like my life didn’t depend on it. With the weight of Dom’s body over mine, and the tight way he’d clasped both my hands into his, it all faded away.
His wolf disappeared right before my eyes just as my wolf stepped out to meet and unite with his. Damn it! What the hell did I do? I must have pulled in the fairy-witch genes and zapped Dom from entering this mental state of bliss with me and joining forces. If only there were a way to figure out how to control this other, more powerful side of me.
To my horror, I was suddenly in the dark memory where I had the demon locked up. It shapeshifted right before my eyes while I was strapped to the death table like Jess had been before the school possessed the professor to kill the fox shifter.
The demon shifted into the most handsome creature my eyes had ever seen. He was tan and muscular like Dom, and his—holy shit—it was Dom? WTH! No! It was taking on Dom’s appearance because it didn’t want us to merge the wolves.
“Why else would the most attractive and crazy powerful alpha at this school take an interest in you?” Dom’s voice ripped through me like this could actually be true.
“You’re a damn demon. You’re locked up. I have control!” I chanted, eyes closed, unable to accept that Dom was some shapeshifting demon who had been stalking me for God knows how long.
“Since Dark Water,” Dom’s voice sang through the demon’s mouth. “Too bad you don’t have the memories to remember how I almost got you then too.”
I reopened my eyes and saw the expression that shattered me. “You’re finally at the age where I can take you—take all your power—and allow me and my people to dominate everything in existence.”
“You’re not Dominic, you son of a bitch!”
“Say whatever makes you feel good about this. You fell to me so easily. You and your ignorant inner wolf. I knew this would be an easy feat, I just had to take my time with you, that’s all.”
That’s when I drew from my wolf—wherever in the hell she’d run off to—and called her back. Dominic or not, this thing was going down.
“Oh, but true love never dies.” It taunted me with some malicious smirk I’d never seen on Dom’s face before. It was nauseating.
I felt my wolf enter this area in my mind, and I had a sudden desire to bring her to my side to take out the shapeshifter.
“Not a shapeshifter,” the Dom-demon waved a finger at me. “Master Dominic Rossi.” It laughed, “You know him well. It was nice pushing you to your limits too. I felt everything—all of the power that I will absorb, leaving you dead for your friends to find.” It paced in front of me while I was restrained to the bed of death in my mind.
“See, they’ll think Dominic failed,” Demon-Dom pursed his lips. “In a sense, it will be true, but either way, it won’t matter. The owl will not kill his precious cousin. I will resurrect all of the darkness we hid at Immortal Academy. I’ll kill all the immortals brought here and give them to your mother.” Demon-Dom smiled, “I’ve been waiting for this day.” It paced in front of where I was fighting my restraints, only to grow weaker by the second. “When I bring my powerful wolf shifters and your magic to her?” It acted like it was jolted with electricity, “Oh, I only wish you’d be alive to see it all happen.”
“I will be alive after I kick your ass!” I said, dislocating my damn arm, trying to jerk free.
“All in your mind, remember, Jen?” Demon-Dom laughed, “So, come at me. Oh, wait, you gave me all your power when you let your beloved alpha mate have full control.”
Shit! Was Dom really this POS who was in my mind?
“Physically, I was outside, but being so powerful, I was enjoying having a part of me locked up in your mind too.”
“That shit can’t happen.”
“Um, yeah, when you’re as evil as I am, anything’s possible. Create the perfect mate you’re drawn to and also take up residence inside your mind? It’s splendid how it all worked out. Oh, and don’t count on that bear shifter coming to rescue you from me either. I have more power than that shifter dreams to have, but you already knew that, right?” Demon-Dom smiled as he ran a fingertip along my jawline, “It was all so much fun, pulling you away from sexy Dominic, bringing you to fall for some weaker shifter…only to have you give it all up so quickly to selfishly save yourself and be with your one true shifter mate.”
I had to get control, now. Where the hell was my inner wolf?
Dom’s smile was eerie when those thoughts hit me. “Remember the whole, healthy wolf state? Get your wolf under control and not thinking on her own…you know, all of that information you were fed by your boyfriend?” Demon-Dom laughed. “Yeah, you probably shouldn’t have listened to that. Now, the wolf only hides behind you and your fear, which is me, and it’s sad to say, but it’s time to handle matters. Your friends will be devastated to learn Dominic tried but failed and you were lost in the merge. His wolf was just too powerful.”
I wanted to freaking roll over and die. All of this was a dark demon sent to take whatever in the hell powers I had, unite with my cursed mom, and dominate the world? Dom was the darkness behind all of this since day one? There was no way I was going down without a fight.
If my immortal butt just became mortal and could die because I fell for someone who I thought was my true mate, I was going to leave some kind of
a mark on Demon-Dom so that Ethan would take his possessed cousin out. Ethan was the only creature I knew who would be able to take on a demon who’d absorbed my power and put that to work with the power I’d been feeling in my fake mate this entire time.
I needed to figure out how I was going to stamp a message on this mental battle I was having in my mind with Demon-Dom and hope it transferred to the physical body of Dom so that Vannah, Ethan, and fairy godmother could pick up on how we’d all been tricked this entire time.
I wasn’t going to crumble. I could do that beyond the veil in whatever afterlife I’d be heading to if I didn’t kill Dom after letting him into my mind like this.
22
I pushed past the emotions of losing my mate and focused on the powerful genetics in me that this creep wanted.
Think fairies…think witches…damn it! I’m locked inside my mind, which is being invaded by a demon who’s been toying with me for years, and I can’t recall jack shit from any of my schooling in witch or fairy lore.
When I tried to imagine that my restraints were gone, they tightened. This asshole was in full control of me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Maybe the godmother would walk into this room of eternal mate bonding, catch the demon named Dominic Rossi, and use Ethan to take us both out.
I’d love to say this was a rookie move on my part, but how the hell would I have seen this coming? I sniffed out the crap going down at the academy, and I should have sensed something with Dom too—but I never did. This demon played me, and until it was killed, we were all going to pay for Jenna’s first boyfriend mistake.
Demon-Dom—I wasn’t about to refer to this thing as my Dominic. Maybe I was in denial, but I wouldn’t accept it. I had to fight.
A restraint was unexpectedly strapped over my neck and forehead, clamping my head against the hard table I was practically glued to. The creep walked over and took the needle, jabbed it into my arm, and flipped a switch on the machine. I watched the fluid that took Jess’s fox-shifter life start to move and forced myself to understand this was all in my head. My physical body wasn’t really going through this. This was a memory where I’d locked up that menacing energy. I could mentally get past this.