by Elle Thorne
Bel raised a brow but nodded, accepting his apology, then turned to Taya. “Would you and Barz like to show them to their new home?”
Taya’s face lit up, her Asazi skin flushed, varying between several shades of rose and green. “We would love to!”
Niptak scurried up and down her arm, his sounds of excitement adding to the moment.
On Qalen’s shoulder, Garth leaned toward the little flyn and rubbed his beak along the flyn’s head.
“They approve, it seems,” Qalen said with a laugh.
24
Hours later, in their new home, Cinia rolled over, glancing at the light that slipped in through the shutters covering the windows.
Qalen’s hand slipped over her hip. He took his time, sliding his hands under Cinia’s clothing as he kissed her slowly, his lips claiming her.
Her breath caught. She was eager, wanting to push, but he slowed her down.
“We have all day,” he murmured. No one would expect those who were newly mated to appear in public
His tongue swept along the inside of her mouth. She groaned and dug her fingers into his shoulders, lowering her hands, winding her arms around his neck until her fingertips skimmed along his wings.
She ran her hands over those muscular black wings of his, finding the hook at the top and looping her fingers into them.
He let out a growl of desire. “No one has ever touched my wings before.”
Using the hooks, she fervently pulled him closer.
“Cinia, slow, my love.”
She grumbled her frustration but realized he was right. It was better the slower they took it. He kissed his way down her body, peeling off her clothes as he did. Her skin undulated in varying hues of red and green, merging into purples in some areas. He lingered between her thighs, licking and kissing, tantalizing.
She noted the way his hardness strained against his pants and helped him out of them. Her hand closed around his fabric-covered length. His growl sent shivers down her spine. When she’d freed him and touched his pulsing thickness, his breath came hard and fast. His wings spread, filling the room with their black span.
Furling them, he settled on his side and placed a hand on each of her knees, then spread her legs. She was ready for him, aching and painfully aroused. His fingers slid along her wetness as her hips thrust in a desperate attempt to get more, more.
Curses, she wanted more. She groaned and moaned in frustration when he wouldn’t give her what she needed.
“So greedy,” he whispered, closing his lips around one of her hard nipples.
Her hand, still holding his hardness, tightened.
He groaned, shooting vibrations through her. She stroked slowly, tempting him as he’d tempted her. His breathing grew ragged and his hips thrusted the way hers had.
His hand moved and she cried out when he made contact with my core. Rubbing his fingers on her hardened button, his tongue swirling around her nipple, she climaxed with an intensity that surged through her.
She opened her eyes to find him studying her face, his gaze locked on her expression.
Her heart and body were crying out for more. For him, for all of him. For the weight of him over her. For his arms around her as he took her. For his wings to be above them, then to cocoon them and give them a special enclosure.
“I want you,” he whispered, his breath hot against her neck.
She shivered at the promise in his voice, and when his tongue traced her jawline, she moaned.
She was his, wholly and completely. She belonged to him body and soul. “I want you.”
He rolled over, taking her with him. She sighed, closing her eyes as he filled her. For a moment, it was enough just to feel him inside. She remained still, absorbing the sensation of being one with him.
The sheer lust in his eyes was overwhelming. Beneath him, she began rocking her hips, slow and steady, breathing heavy as pleasure started building, growing, the tendrils stretching their way through her body from head to toe until she was sure she couldn’t stand any more of it.
Her own thrusting brought the same from him and he drove into her, over and over again.
The feeling of heat racing through her, every nerve on fire, every touch of his hands on her body drove her wilder, bringing her ever closer to climax.
He growled, the sound deep in his chest and full of passion.
She placed her hands on his chest and leaned on them, hips rising and falling, losing herself in him.
Her muscles started tightening around his length. She thrust faster, harder, losing her rhythm as she lost control. She let her body take her where it wanted.
Then she let go.
An enjoyable tightening came to a peak and dissolved into pulsing as the wave broke over her.
“Qalen!” She arched her back and barely managed to bite back her scream as shudders overwhelmed her.
His wings flared outward and beat the air slowly, rhythmically before surrounding them once more and giving them their own special cave.
She was exhausted, body and soul, and completely sated.
He brushed the sweaty, wet hair from her forehead, then kissed her temple.
Epilogue
Cinia held Taya’s hand, wiping the sweat from her friend’s brow with the other one. “Push, sister. You are so close.”
Taya grimaced, and her whole body seemed to tense as she pushed again.
It felt as though they’d been here for two days pushing, but Cinia was sure it couldn’t have been that long. Though she was certain it had been at least one full day.
Across the bed, Ali held Taya’s shoulders, murmuring words of encouragement in low tones. On the other side of the door, Cinia could hear Qalen and Thane trying to keep Barz calm.
“How about a drink of water?” Cinia asked Bel and the midwife.
“No.” The midwife shook her head. “Water will make her vomit. That will make her push harder.”
Seemed to Cinia that the idea of pushing harder wasn’t such a bad one. But who was she to question the midwife who’d probably delivered dozens of babies, at the very least?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Taya’s scream.
“Here it is,” the midwife said with a smile.
Seconds later, she was holding a wailing baby with tiny Kormic knobs on its head and Asazi skin that undulated between red and orange.
“It’s a girl!” Bel jumped up and down, wrapper her arms around Ali and did a dance.
Cinia hugged Taya. “Well done. You have a daughter.”
“Tell Barz,” Taya uttered, her voice weak from strain. “Go tell him so he can relax.”
She nodded, and, with a final squeeze of Taya’s hand, she slipped from the room.
No sooner had she closed the door behind her than she was swarmed by the three men, at the forefront was Barz.
“Is she— How is Taya?” His Kormic features were drawn with worry.
Cinia gave him smile. “You have a daughter. And Taya is fine. They both are wonderful.”
“What does the baby look like?”
“The both of you. Beautiful like her Asazi mother and bearing Kormic traits.”
“I want to see Taya.” Barz grabbed the door handle.
Worried Taya might need a moment to recover, Cinia wanted to stop him, but there was no stopping Barz. He barreled through the door.
She followed him in. Qalen and Thane stood in the doorway.
Taya, now covered with a blanket and holding the baby, waved them all in. “Come. Meet Belcinali.”
Cinia did a doubletake. “Belcinali?”
Taya nodded. “Barz and I agreed if it was a girl, we would name her after Bel, Ali, and you.”
Tears flooded Cinia’s eyes, and Qalen put his arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder and regarded her friends. The Kormic individuals, joined by Asazi faces, and peppered with an occasional Dumarian that were there together.
The tears in her eyes dropped as she looked into Qalen’s and acknowledged
the man who’d captured her heart.
He leaned in. “This will be us, one day. Our child. Our friends.”
He touched his lips to hers, the kiss gentle.
She was home. Finally.
Keep reading for an excerpt from another Elle Thorne science fiction romance!
Wrath
What could make a regular ol’ cashier from PennyMart turn into bounty hunting and pursue a criminal across the planets? The kind of emotion that gives birth to wrath.
How does the first born of Zama’s royalty become conscripted into taking a mail order bride? That’s one story. What does he feel when his brother signs him up for that? Pure wrath.
Smyrna wants one thing. Just one. She wants the man who killed her best friend dead. Being a bounty hunter isn’t her life goal. It’s the means to an end.
Caayn’s younger brother played a cruel joke on him. He signed him up to be handfasted to a mail order bride. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned? Not so. Hell has no wrath like a man signed up to marry a woman he’s never met.
Until he meets her.
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1
“You really think getting drunk is going to solve the problem?” Razor pointed at Smyrna’s sweaty beer bottle sitting on the bar top.
Smyrna scowled at Razor, bartender extraordinaire. And former best friend as of about five minutes ago, now that he’d been criticizing her drinking habits.
“Not here, since you’re going to bug the shit out of me.” Smyrna took another long drink from her beer. “So, that shot of tequila. Happening? Or do I need to go somewhere else to get it?”
“It’s five ‘til two. Bars close in five minutes. And the next nearest bar is fifteen minutes from here. I’d have to say you’re shit outta luck.”
Smyrna’s scowl grew. “You don’t think I have a right to get drunk?”
“Didn’t say that.” Razor, six-foot-tall, head shaved, skin like shiny dark walnut wood, obsidian eyes glittering dangerously in a face carved of granite. “Asked if you thought getting drunk was going to solve the problem.”
Tears of fury burned the back of Smyrna’s eyes. Razor had a point.
But when your entire life is derailed, and everything you’ve been working for becomes pointless, what else do you do?
Smyrna didn’t bother asking Razor. She knew better. Razor had no interest in self-pity or giving in to emotions. The former latch-key kid lost his mother to gang violence, grew up homeless, then turned to the military, and now lived off the grid and off the books; Razor knew adversity.
“Hey, look.” Razor put the bar towel down and leaned against the counter, triceps popping out without his trying. “I know you’re pissed. I get it. But you can find a way.”
Smyrna stared into his eyes. “Ray-Ray—”
“Don’t call me that.” His eyes turned steely.
She knew he didn’t appreciate the nickname she’d given him when they were kids more than twenty years ago.
“Sorry. Habit.” She raised the bottle toward her lips.
She didn’t make it halfway before Razor swiped it from her hands and dumped it down the sink in front of him.
“Hey!”
“We’re closed.” His smile was tight.
“Prick.”
He remained stoic.
She stared.
Standoff.
Smyrna gave in first. “Okay, Mister Smarty Pants.”
Razor raised a brow at the moniker.
Ignoring the brow, she continued, “Since you think I can find a way, tell me how the hell I’m supposed find a way to get on a rocket ship from here to Janus.”
Janus. She made a bitter beer face when she said the name of the planet.
“I don’t think they call them rocket ships anymore. That’s so twenties.”
“Like the year 2020 was that long ago?” Smyrna sneered.
“Long enough. They’re called spacecraft.”
“Fine.” Jerk. “You’re missing the point. I can’t afford a flight—do they still call them flights?”
He ignored her sarcasm. “Go for passage.”
“Whatever, I can’t afford the passage to Janus.” Hell, she didn’t even know where the hell Janus was. Just because some of Earth’s governments had decided to have a relationship with a different planet didn’t mean she had to know the geography of it. “Passage sounds like a word my grandmother would’ve used, anyway,” she snarked.
“It probably was. But that’s what they’re calling it. Help me clean up. Then breakfast at the Over Easy. I’ll buy.”
“Give me a beer and I’ll help.”
A head shake, a scowl, and he poured her a cup of coffee.
Copyright © 2019 by Elle Thorne
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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The Shifters Forever Worlds
SHIFTERS FOREVER SERIES
Are you ready for it?
I have a whole world full of shifters, vampires, witches, elementals, and hybrids to share with you. I’m listing them here, in the suggested reading order, though I’ve tried to make it so that you can pick up anywhere in the series as we all have probably done that at one point or another.
Many of these are organized in box sets for savings. Be sure to visit www.ellethorne.com to see which box sets are out!
Where’s the best place to start? Well, probably with Shifters Forever.
SHIFTERS FOREVER starts the series off with grizzly bear shifters and their mates that steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.
•Protection
•Seduction
•Persuasion
•Invitation
•Temptation
•Attraction
ALWAYS AFTER DARK is a spinoff with the white tiger from Shifters Forever: Vax, born Vittorio Tiero. He’s the one that helped Kane out during a shifter battle. Follow the Tiero family, a group of white tiger shifters, as they head to America to find love... and heart-stopping danger. Full of romance, suspense, and gritty drama, this red-hot collection is sure to entertain!
•Controversy
•Territory
•Adversary
•Sanctuary
NEVER AFTER DARK is another spinoff that takes place in Europe. Here we visit cities along the Mediterranean and meet the old school Tiero white tiger shifters who are resistant to change.
•Forbidden
•Forsaken
•Forgotten
•Foreplay
ONLY AFTER DARK takes place in New Orleans. The Arceneaux shifters, led by Lézare, Vax’s white tiger cousin—on his mother’s side. The Arceneaux are the black sheep of the family. Lézare doesn’t cave to public opinion. He dictates policy in the area he rules and he shuns old school European rules and regimes.
•Desirable
•Insatiable
•Combustible
•Undeniable
MORE ONLY AFTER DARK takes place in New Orleans. The Arceneaux shifters and the Matthieu witches wre
ak havoc and find love within this city set on the steamy Louisiana coastline.
•Inevitable
•Inescapable
BITTER FALLS FOREVER features Mae Forester’s nephew Dane Forester, a freewheeling, sexy, successful, movie star who uses every role and every woman to escape and forget the heartbreak he left in Bitter Falls.
•Unbound
BARELY AFTER DARK features more of Mae Forester’s nephews! Grizzly bear shifters steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.
•Cross
•Lance
•Judge
Ever After Dark introduces us to the white tigers you learned to love in Always After Dark, Never After Dark, and Only After Dark. See their heritage. Visit Giovanni Tiero and his brothers Federico and Tito. Get reacquainted with Isabel Tiero and meet her sister Capriana Valenti.
Stonebound
Formidable
Shifters Forever After follows a group of polar bears in New York. Russian and rumored to be mobbed up, they are a powerhouse of shifters, determining the fate of many on the East Coast. Mikhail Romanoff, Layla’s father, runs this outfit with an iron fist. Layla’s sexy cousin Malachi features prominently in this series.
•Complication
•Fascination
•Motivation
•Captivation
•Flirtation
•Infatuation
Forever After Dark takes place in Denver, Colorado. Enter a world of secrets and forbidden love. Panther shifters who who share their worlds with elementals must decide who they can trust — and who they can’t live without.
