Claimed by the Mate, Volume 3

by Kate Douglas

  She was Phelan’s distraction. His mate would be the only one to draw him away from Blaez, the only connection strong enough to make him leave the alpha he’d pledged his life to.

  “It worked,” Phelan said. “I’m here and so is Marena.”

  “You dare to bring my beta to me. You are more stupid than Eureka said,” Davis taunted, believing he had the upper hand.

  If Phelan were another type of man or lycan, he might have felt sorry for the poor bastard. As it stood, he was neither and so, running toward Davis, Phelan struck out with his strong fists, taking the lycan off guard and knocking him to the floor.

  “You’re the stupid one if you believe I’m going to let you keep calling her your beta,” he told Davis before kicking his body across the floor.

  To his credit, Davis did make it up onto his feet, but then he keeled over, vomiting thick dregs of black tar as he coughed over and over again. They were killing him from the inside. It had to be painful and dreadfully dark where he was right now. Still, Phelan had no pity. He walked over to Davis then, grabbing him at the neck by his nails. The lycan howled in pain as Phelan was sure to thrust his nails deeper as he lifted Davis off the floor.

  “She’s nothing to you, now or ever,” he told Davis. “She is her own lycan, her own woman.”

  “She’s a bitch in heat!” Davis continued. “I can smell her ripe pussy right this moment and I want it,” he said. “I want her, all of her. I can claim her tonight. This night I can claim that bitch and make her mine forever! I can—”

  With his free hand Phelan thrust his nails into Davis’s gut, taking any other words the lycan dared to speak from him immediately.

  “Your forever is gone,” Phelan said with a growl. “Dead and gone!”

  With all his might he threw the lycan so far and so fast that when he crashed through the windows and out of the building there was a huge flash of light. The building shook again and this time the floor threatened to crumble beneath Phelan.

  “Phelan!” he heard Marena yelling. “Phelan! The building’s going to collapse!”

  He was turning toward her voice, watching as she came running through the door he’d witnessed close on her face. Never in his life had he been so happy to see someone. She was safe. Thank everything he knew, she was safe and alive. Phelan was just about to run to her, to grab her up in his arms and swear to never let her go, when there was another glittering bolt of lightning and a familiar voice yelling from behind him.

  “Go, Phelan! This is my fight, my life.”

  It was Blaez.

  Kira was standing right beside him, Channing, Malec, and Caroline behind them. Marena had run across the room, grabbing hold of Phelan’s arm, watching just as he was, as the roof of the building was ripped free. In the center of the dark night sky was the supermoon. Big and bright, draped in a haze of red, dominating the space as if it had every right. Between it flashed another bolt of lightning, and when that bolt disappeared the god emerged.

  “The lycan demigod,” were the words spoken from the great god Zeus as he walked along that lightning bolt with ease, eventually stepping down into the center of the room.

  “You’ve gone through a lot of trouble to find me,” Blaez said, taking a step away from Kira.

  “To kill you,” was Zeus’s quick reply.

  “But you can’t kill me,” Blaez told him. “That’s why you had to go to such great lengths to find me. You cannot take my life.”

  “Insolent child!” Zeus roared, lifting his hand until another sizzling lightning bolt appeared.

  He hurled it at Blaez, who then shifted into his full wolf form. Next to him, Phelan heard Marena gasp, and he reached for her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. Although she knew that Blaez was half demigod and half lycan as a result of his mother, Kharis, being a child of Artemis and his father, Alec, being a direct lycan descendent of Nyktimos, she did not know, however, that this power meant Blaez could turn into a full-grown black wolf.

  The wolf dodged the bolt and then leapt forward, landing directly in front of Zeus. Blaez howled, with his neck bent back toward the moon, and rain immediately began to fall. A few feet away from Zeus and the wolf, Kira’s eyes glowed a bright white, her arms lifting up from her sides, hair blowing in the cool breeze.

  Out of nowhere came another blinding light that swirled around the room like a gusting storm, until finally settling into a small female form.

  “Selene,” Zeus gasped. “You are meddling again.”

  “I am protecting them,” the Moon Goddess said, her voice like a litany of chimes in the air. “They are my creation, Zeus. They have my power. A power that even you in all your mightiness cannot destroy.”

  “They are mine!” Zeus yelled. “All of the packs belong to me, as I created them. I started this with Lykaon.”

  “And I ended it with the Selected and the demigod lycan,” Selene countered calmly. “They are mine and their peace will be so.”

  Zeus pulled another bolt, this time slamming it into the ground beneath his feet, causing what felt like the biggest earthquake in the world to erupt. The Moon Goddess lifted a hand, sending her golden beams along the floor and up the walls. They even stretched up to the red of the supermoon, dripping down over the orb in brilliant white.

  “Their peace will be so!” She yelled louder and louder, until the shaking stopped and Zeus backed away with a vicious curse.

  “You will regret this, Selene! You all will!” were the god’s last words as he disappeared in a roll of thunder amidst the falling rain.

  “I think,” Marena whispered, “on some level he already regrets it.”

  Phelan held her hand tighter, pulling her closer to him. “I think you’re right, baby. I think you’re absolutely right.”

  Chapter 12

  It was late and rain still fell in a soft, steady drizzle that made a tapping sound against their helmets. The asphalt was one shining stretch of black in front of them with only the beam from the motorcycle’s headlight to guide the way.

  Marena held on tightly, ignoring it all and relishing the warmth of Phelan’s body against hers.

  She’d thought they were going to die. Each of them as they stood in the face of Zeus’s human form. He was the most powerful god; surely he could kill them all without blinking an eye. She should have known better. Or at least should have thought that little scenario through a little further. If Zeus could have killed them all so simply, what had stopped him from doing so all this time? If it were simple, why had it been so hard for him to find Blaez and to take care of the loose thread he’d felt as though he’d left dangling all those years ago?

  Because it wasn’t that simple and the Moon Goddess had shown up to make that point perfectly clear.

  “I knew she would come,” Kira had said when they’d all finally made their way out of the building.

  They stood beside Blaez’s black Escalade only minutes after the Moon Goddess’s bright beams had carried her back to her realm.

  “You knew she would rescue us and save Blaez?” Marena had asked.

  Kira shook her head. “She appeared in my dream telling me to be strong, that the moment she’d created me for was at hand. I knew then that there was nothing that could defeat us.” Kira spoke as she held Blaez’s hand tightly in hers.

  The alpha had come down the stairs with them in his wolf form. A huge, gorgeous black wolf with startling blue eyes that had actually produced enough light to guide them through the dark stairwell. Once at the truck, Channing had opened one of the back doors and the wolf had climbed inside, coming out moments later as a fully dressed man.

  “Then this definitely was all a part of their plan,” Marena added. “I mean the part up until the Moon Goddess appeared. Zeus had used Davis and Eureka to get Phelan away from Blaez. They thought he was the strongest and most protective of the betas, but they hadn’t counted on a Selected being in the picture.”

  “They hadn’t counted on all of us working together to keep Bl
aez alive,” Malec added. “It didn’t take us long to figure out their strategy after you left. That’s why he quickly got on the road behind you and came out here.”

  Phelan nodded. “I was wondering how you made it here so fast without me having a chance to call to you.”

  “It all made sense. The only thing strong enough to take you away from Blaez would be your mate,” Caroline said, looking from Phelan to Marena.

  She’d felt uncomfortable with the knowing gazes but was no longer alarmed at the sound of that word. Caroline and Kira had been saying it for weeks. Blaez had even approached her about the situation. But it was the moment Eureka had the audacity to speak about her supposedly being Phelan’s mate that Marena had finally grabbed ahold of the word and hung on for dear life. If that powerful and vengeful fury was irritated enough to come after her with her deadly nails and fireball palms, there must have been some truth to the word. It must have meant she was definitely a threat to the woman and her revenge against Phelan for leaving her. And if that was the case, then Marena was without a doubt Phelan’s mate. Regardless of the fact that a mate was exactly what Phelan didn’t want.

  “We shouldn’t stay out much longer,” Blaez had said then. “It’s not safe out tonight, not for any of us.”

  In the distance there were howls and eerie sounds that had Marena moving closer to Phelan. He wrapped an arm around her waist and Marena resisted the urge to smile. She did, however, lean into him, accepting his protection and his warmth. He walked her over to his bike, telling them all he’d see them back at the lodge. Then he’d put her helmet on and helped her onto the bike. She’d waited expectantly while he put his own helmet on and climbed on in front of her and she quickly leaned into him once more.

  This was the most comfortable and complacent she’d ever been and it hit her, much like that lightning bolt that had brought Zeus down from the sky, that it was so because this was where she belonged. Phelan was the one she was meant to be with. She was destined to be a lycan and his mate.

  Now, after hours of riding, she was still wondering how she was going to convince Phelan of that fact. He’d never wanted a mate, because another connection meant someone else could walk out of his life taking a chunk of his heart with her.

  Marena would never hurt him that way. She knew that for a fact because just the thought of leaving Phelan had gripped her heart like a vise, spikes of pain already radiating throughout her body. She shivered with the thought, burying her face further into his leather jacket and holding on to him as tightly as she could.

  Seconds later Phelan was turning off the road. There was no exit sign and no asphalt to make the drive smooth as it had been. Now they were bumping over dirt and grass wet and slick from the rain. She had no idea where they were going and was going to ask, but they moved into a clearing where Phelan brought the bike to a stop. He took off his helmet, hanging it on one of the handlebars, and sat there for just a few more seconds.

  Marena sat up straight then, pulling her hands back from around his waist, until Phelan grabbed her wrists, holding her still.

  “I’ve been bound to you from the very start,” he said so softly she almost didn’t hear him. “From the very first moment on that dark highway. I picked up your scent and there was no turning back. No walking away.

  “I don’t do girlfriends,” he said matter-of-factly, and Marena frowned at his back. “I don’t have romantic connections or entanglements and I don’t make promises.” He stopped talking and took a deep breath. “Not ones that I don’t intend to keep.”

  With a quick motion Phelan had kicked the stand on the bike down and hopped off, leaving Marena to stare at him in question. His hands were on her next, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her up off the bike, setting her feet down on the damp ground, her backside leaning against it.

  “I promise I won’t give you a reason to leave me,” he started, cupping her face in his hands. “I promise to let you be whatever and whoever you want to be in this world and to stand right by your side while you do so. I promise that everything that has happened in my past will stay there. I promise to be whatever and whoever you need me to be as long as you’re happy. As long as you’re . . . mine.”

  She didn’t have a moment to speak before Phelan’s lips were on hers, his tongue pressing hungrily inside her mouth and taking charge. Marena gasped and slipped her arms beneath his jacket to wrap around his waist, pulling him closer while tilting her head farther into their kiss.

  “I promise, Marena. I promise.” He was whispering, his hands moving quickly over her body.

  Marena felt his hands at her waist again, reaching up beneath her top to grab hold of the band of her pants. He pushed them down roughly, dragging her underwear with them until they were pooled at her ankles. In another quick motion he was turning her, pressing her down so that her stomach lay over the seat of the motorcycle and then his fingers were sliding down the crease of her ass.

  He rubbed down until he was parting the tender folds of her pussy, circling his fingers around her clit until her essence began to flow from her much like the rain pelting against her bare skin. Marena held onto the leather seat, clenching her teeth as the feel of his fingers on her drove her slowly insane.

  When he thrust a finger deep inside of her she gasped, bucking back against his hand and begging him for more. “Phelan, please.”

  “Always,” he sighed, using his other hand to squeeze her ass. He released that cheek and slapped his palm over it until it began to sting and Marena moaned.

  “Always for you, I promise,” he told her while working his finger in and out of her pussy.

  She was wet, probably more so than the ground after it had been raining for hours now. The slick sound of his fingers on her skin moved from one hole back farther to another where he circled and petted, teasing and prodding. Marena sucked in a breath and shook her head, yelling, “Phelan!”

  He moaned from behind her. “Yes, my mate,” he said. “My. Mate.”

  Marena loved the sound of those words from his mouth, almost as much as she loved the touch of his tongue on her ass cheek, when he kissed her there. He bit her and stroked his tongue over the throbbing area, then went lower, until his tongue was licking up and down her swollen lips, just a breath away from her clit. Marena was throwing her ass back into his face, screaming for him to take more, to lick harder, faster. She wanted to come. Damn, she wanted it more than she’d ever wanted anything else in her life. She wanted to come all over his face and then ride his dick until she came again.

  Her mind was full of all the lascivious things she wanted to do with Phelan and that she wanted him to do with her. It was the full moon, she knew, sending their sex drive to higher heights and threatening to strangle them if they didn’t act on it. Then there was something even more powerful. Something that exacerbated her need for Phelan, creating a burning ache in the center of her stomach. She needed Phelan to give her more.

  And that he did.

  Coming to his feet, Phelan had at some point released his throbbing erection and then pressed the bulbous head of his cock against her dripping wet entrance. He thrust in so fast Marena almost slipped off the bike. The feeling of him filling her completely was so good she’d opened her mouth and screamed at the contact.

  His palm was on the center of her back as he pounded into her mercilessly. The cool of the rain mixed with the heat of her arousal had Marena moaning in ecstasy. The way her body was bouncing over that motorcycle she thought surely they were both going to hit the ground at any moment, but they didn’t. Instead, Phelan’s dick moved in and out of her with expert precision, hitting her G-spot over and over again until her thighs shook with her release.

  He leaned over her at that very moment, ripping her shirt from her shoulder and sinking his teeth into her bare skin. It was the exact spot where Davis had bitten her and it had hurt like hell. This time it didn’t, yet Marena yelled out anyway. She realized she was yelling because as Phelan bit into her he also li
cked over the wound, sealing it with his saliva at the same time as his dick pulsated inside of her, spurting his hot cum deep inside of her.

  She felt it in that instant, the connection between them being bonded and strengthened. He was right; it had been there since day one. It was what had kept them together, the fact that she had remained in pain until he was near. He’d been her relief and her comfort immediately, while it had taken her time to become his solace, his safe place after all the pain and disappointment he’d endured.

  Now, on this rainy night of the supermoon, they had become one. He was her mate and she was his. And when his still-rock-hard dick slipped from her pussy to press slowly against the tight bud of her anus, Marena yelled out, “I love you, Phelan. I love you so much, my mate!”

  He moaned her name as he pressed deeper inside her. “Marena, my mate. I so love you. I am so fucking in love with you.”

  He pumped her slowly, deeply, over and over again until the point where neither of them could have resisted no matter how hard they tried. She lifted her head the second she felt him releasing into her one more time, and Phelan leaned forward, touching his hand along the line of her neck as they both howled their love and claimed the supreme power of the supermoon.

  Craving more shifter romance? Dive into…

  HUNGER

  A paranormal romance anthology by New York Times bestselling author Eve Langlais, Kate Douglas, and A. C. Arthur!

  AVAILABLE MAY 2017