by Elle Boon
“You keep throwing the fact you’re a bear up in my face like it’s a curse. Being a shifter is a gift, baby. Stop growling, cursing, and hating the fact you have a beautiful being inside you.”
Her bear rumbled. If she’d been a cat she was sure the bitch would have purred, rolled over, and shown her belly. “I’m not, not really. I’ve come to accept her. Rather, we’ve come to accept each other, but it’s a steep learning curve. I never did watch the discovery channel or nature shit. I don’t know dick about bears or wolves, for that matter.” She felt her beast roll big brown eyes, the image almost comical.
“Well, I would imagine what you saw on television, and what you have inside you are polar opposites. For us wolves, we’re pack animals like natural wolves. We have a lot of characteristics that they have as well, but that’s where the similarity ends. Well, I assume they do. We can link telepathically, we obviously have two forms, and our sense of humanity doesn’t leave us when we shift. If you embrace your bear, melding the two of you together, you’ll understand her a lot better.”
His words made sense, if only she’d been turned by someone she loved. Mac put a beast in her. The female was a brawler who thirsted for a fight. It took a lot for NeNe to get the grizzly behind the cage in her mind. If Lula hadn’t helped her in the beginning, she knew she’d never have found her way out. Her beast growled, her need to be free making her skin itch. “You don’t—you can’t imagine what it’s like.”
Coti’s hand landed on hers where she was inadvertently rubbing over the bite Mac had given her. God, or Goddess, that was another revelation she was becoming accustomed to, she wanted to sink her claws into the bastard who made her, ripping him from top to bottom. Only when his life bled from the earth would she feel free.
“You’re right, I don’t know what it’s like to be turned like you. All I can do, all I can promise is to be here with you every step of the way. Let me be here for you?” He squeezed her fingers, the softly voiced question completely out of the norm for the huge alpha male she knew Coti to be.
“You still have some things to tell me, like how you flew us out of that cage,” she said. There were a lot of things about the gorgeous man who owned her heart that she didn’t know. He said he’d tell her once they were at his house. She prayed she was strong enough to handle whatever blows he planned to hand her. No, they may not be physical ones, but in the past however many days, she’d been through the ringer. For just a minute she’d like to breathe and pretend everything was rainbows and fluffy clouds with sunshine on the horizon. Oh, and for shits and giggles, since it was her fantasy, she wanted to be rich as fuck and Coti to love her.
They pulled into Coti’s yard, her eyes seeing clearly even though there weren’t any lights on. “I love your place,” she remarked. The log cabins many of her friends lived in were gorgeous, but the concrete and glass house suited the man.
He grunted, tapping a rhythm on the steering wheel while he waited for one of the garage doors to open. “It’s a better defensible place for my kind.” He held his finger up. “I’ll explain when we’re inside.”
His truck filled the section closest to the door. They both waited until the bay closed before Coti got out and came around to help her down. Why she allowed the gesture she didn’t know, only knew he enjoyed being the gentleman. “Thank you,” she murmured once her feet touched the ground.
“You’re welcome. Come here, let me program your palm into the sensor so you can get in or out.” He explained how the doors were all set to automatically lock behind him when he exited the house. She pressed her right palm to the faceplate, electricity tingled beneath her as the machine took her scans. The entire operation took less than a minute. When a green light popped on, he smiled. “Alright, lets see if it works. Place your hand on the center. It’s relatively simple, if your palm touches the plate, the door will unlock and open.”
Again, there was a small electrical sensation, then the door locks disengaged before the door slid into the wall. “You take safety very seriously, Mr. Sharp. How thick are these walls?”
He tapped her on the ass. “Thick enough. In you go,” he ordered.
Ah, at his rumbled words, her mind conjured up all kinds of dirty things. He was thick, everywhere. Her body went soft thinking of their one night together.
“Armina, don’t. We need to talk,” he growled.
Shit, shifter sense of smell meant he could smell her arousal. Embarrassment had her moving away from him.
He stopped her exit, his hand soft yet firm on her arm. “Don’t be embarrassed about a natural reaction, NeNe. Look at me.” He pointed down at his pants. “I had a boner since I smelled you. It’s only gotten harder as I watched you kicking the other ladies’ asses, and now, smelling your fucking sweet scent.” He inhaled. “If I didn’t think you needed to hear everything before I take you again, I’d have your pants shredded and your legs around my neck while I alternated between licking you ‘til you had nothing left to give and fucking you until my balls were empty.”
She shifted her legs back and forth. “Why does that sound like a really good plan?”
“’Cause I’m really brilliant and come up with the greatest ideas. Now, stop teasing me with your sweet pussy elixir and sit down. You want a drink?” He turned away, the bulge in his jeans clearly visible.
“Did you just say sweet punani elixir? Is that even a thing? I’m so going to file that in my bank of shit to pull out for later,” she laughed.
Coti lifted his hand, raising his middle finger. “It’s now a thing because I said so. Drink?” He held up a bottle of beer in each hand.
Suddenly, she was extremely thirsty. Nodding, she accepted the cold bottle, tipped her head back at the same time as Coti, and drank almost half the bottle in one long swallow. They both sighed. “Alright, spill.” She pointed her bottle at him.
He tipped the bottle back to his lips, downing the rest of the beer, then tossed the empty into the trash. “While you were in Fey, I’m sure you saw a lot of other beings. Dragons, obviously fairies. You remember Damien and Lucas, Jenna’s mates?”
She nodded. “Yes, they were drop dead gorgeous but looked as though they’d happily kill you and then go home and braid Jenna’s hair like nothing happened.”
Coti laughed. “If you mean they seemed like homicidal men, you might be on to something. What I mean is, did you scent what they were?”
NeNe shook her head. “I didn’t even think about it at the time. Are they Fey like Jenna?” She pictured the two men in tights with wings, snorting at the image.
“No, they’re nothing like Jenna. As a matter of fact, I’m related to them, loosely.” He turned his back to her, then spun back to face her. “Their father is Damikan, the Vampire King. Their mother is Luna, a wolf shifter. Both men are over three thousand years old.”
The bottle slipped from her fingers, crashing on the polished floor. What the hell else was he going to tell her? Demons from hell come out at night and steal babies or virgins from their bedrooms? Coti’s hands held her face between his palms, his words penetrating her brain. He’d said he was related to the men. No, the vampires.
She jumped backward, putting space between them. “So, you’re a what exactly?” Her eyes strayed to the broken bottle, then to his face. He looked like she’d gutted him. Dammit, it wasn’t her fault. Was he going to want to drink her blood? Did he sleep in a coffin? No, she remembered they slept in a bed together. Wait, he walked out in the day. So did the other men. “You lying to me? Trying to see if I’ll freak out or something? ‘Cause I’ll tell you right now, that’s not the best way to get laid.”
Coti shook his head, coming toward her. “No, and just so you know, we’re not like the movie or book vampires. The Cordells are hybrids. I guess I am too, but my mother was the vampire. She was also a gypsy wolf, but my father didn’t know about the vampire part until after they bonded. When they mated, he knew she was his, but somehow, he’d convinced himself she’d enthralled him. H
er people were gypsyies who came from Romania. There are stories that they could do things that other hybrids couldn’t, but the first-born son was gifted special powers. A strength, a being of three in one.
“You’re the first born?” she asked, already knowing the truth.
He nodded. “For over a hundred and fifty years, I’ve fought the others, keeping the vampire side of me hidden, embracing only my wolf. When I was twelve, I was already a head taller than my father. He feared me, feared I’d take his place as head of our family. At twelve winters, I only wanted to please the man,” he sighed, raking his hair back from his face. “Hell, at five I shifted into a white wolf that killed grown men, solidifying fear in my own father and clan.”
Chapter Twelve
Retelling his story was harder than he’d envisioned. If NeNe turned away from him, the need to continue on would disappear. Endless days and nights had been spent thinking what life would be like with his mate. Having her within his grasp, only to lose her, he wouldn’t survive.
He told her of the first year after his father made him leave, then the long years he’d spent searching for the woman his family said would fix him. “If I had this elusive female, I could go home, you see.” He looked at her, watching how she took his words.
“So, you did what, fuck your way across the world?” she snarled.
Coti laughed, her jealousy welcome. “NeNe, I can smell my mate. I can feel my mate. My others, inside,” he took a deep breath, tapping his head. “Know our mate. She was nowhere to be found. I went to the Cordells’ grandfather once out of desperation. I wanted him to end me. I’d tried everything, but nothing worked. The old bastard sneered at me, and said I wasn’t worthy of his sword.”
The familiar ache of being cast out by another member of his family made him look away, not wanting to see her do the same.
“Do you think he did that so that you wouldn’t expect him to actually kill you? Or I don’t know, maybe it was his way of being noble. What did you do after he did that?” She pressed up against his back.
Coti didn’t dare turn around, her soft breast against him gave him hope. “I decided I’d learn how to use a sword and go back and challenge the fucker. I mastered Kenjutsu, Jaijutsu, Jaido, and Ninjutsu. They were my preferred choices after seeing the katanas. Of course, I forged my own blades, and when I was confident I could take the old bastard—I decided he wasn’t worth it.”
She wrapped her arms around him, her head resting between his shoulder blades. “I’m assuming those are all some totally kickass fighting things?”
He laughed. “You could say that, yes.”
“Back to the vampire thing. You want to suck my blood,” she said in a weird accent.
Coti shook his head, then nodded. “I don’t need blood to survive. I think the Cordells and I differ in that way as well. If I’m severely injured, I go out and hunt on four legs, the blood of an animal, like a deer, works to heal me. However, since we were together, I’ve changed. My other beings have settled, come to an agreement of sorts. Hell, I don’t know, but now, my body aches for yours. My teeth ache to sink into your flesh and mark you, mate you, claim you for ours. I want to replace every bad thing that’s happened with good, make you so damn happy you never want to leave me.”
“Coti, look at me,” she whispered.
He stood from his slouched position over the counter, seeing his nails had grown during his speech. Go big or go home was a saying he figured he’d embrace. Or in this case, run his mate off. NeNe didn’t move back, making it hard for him to turn around without bumping into her.
“I’m not going anywhere, even though you got some freaky eyes going on right now.” She pointed toward his face.
He had a feeling he knew what she was referring to. When a vampire was in extreme situations, their eyes turned red. Since his beast was no longer locked down, it was making itself known, fucker. Coti blinked, willing control to surface. His wolf seemed to laugh at him. “Better?” he asked.
She nodded. “Will I become a vampire if you do take my blood?”
“Not if I do, but when I do. Armina, you understand you’re it for me. You stay with me, I’m going to do all the things I said I was. This calm façade you see before you? Its not going to last. I’ve worried about you, feared for your safety for too long. If you don’t think you can accept all of me, you have access to get out. Take one of my rigs and go. Do it now,” he gritted.
“You didn’t answer my question. I’m thinking a vampire bear will not be a very sexy beasty.” She ran her hand up his chest. “Does it hurt?”
He gripped her by the hips and spun them, settling her onto the counter. “I’d never hurt you. Ever. You want to know how it works?” He licked his lips, then let his incisors drop, showing them to her. “I’ll lick along your neck, finding the vein that calls to me. I’ll make sure you were aroused, then lick that sweet pulse, suck your skin into my mouth so you’d have a little bruise to remind you I was there. When my teeth finally sink into you, you’ll feel nothing but pleasure wash over you while my incisors act as needles sort of. Only instead of injecting, they’ll allow me to take your essence into me. Unlike movies, there’s no pain, no blood filling my mouth to drip down your shoulder when I finish. I do have anticoagulants in my saliva, so the wound will heal up almost instantly once I removed them and licked over the area.”
Her hand lifted, one finger aiming toward his mouth. “That doesn’t sound too bad. How about this mate, mine thing? What exactly does that entail?”
Coti growled. “Armina, you ask too many damn questions.”
She grinned. “Hey, you’ve known about all this for...holy shit, you said over a hundred years, grandpa. Give me a break.”
He grabbed her finger, sucking it into his mouth. “I’ll show you grandpa.”
The sweet smell of her arousal filled the air. He knew he needed to explain the truth about mates and the fact they didn’t divorce. There was no such thing in their world. He didn’t understand why her bear wasn’t raking at her the way his two beings were.
“How about your wolf? Does it feel like he’s always trying to take control? Like it’s competing with your human counterpart?” She looked down, then up, her nose scrunching.
His chest hurt as he imagined how overwhelming it all had to be on her. “Sometimes it can be a little much, but for me, I’ve been the way I am since birth. For those who are turned, especially those who were changed against their wishes, I think there’s a major adjustment to their entire lives. I imagine there’s even a constant battle for supremacy, but you’re strong. Not everyone could survive what you did.” He didn’t want to mention the survival rate was less than fifty percent for those who’d been forced into their world. She already looked on the verge of tears.
“Lula said as much. She’s different, in a good way. I think she’s the reason I survived.” she swallowed, looking away from him.
He shook his head. “You’re the reason you survived. Every shifter needs to learn to accept their other being, finding a balance within themselves. Most need a strong alpha to guide them through their first shift, which doesn’t usually happen right away. You’re an anomaly in that respect as well. Already, I can see you’re controlling your bear, not the other way around.”
Coti could see she was letting his answers process, thinking what else she should and shouldn’t ask. He didn’t want to invade her private thoughts, knowing they were forging a bond built on trust. Usually, he didn’t like answering questions. If he was being honest, he loved knowing she trusted him to give her what she needed. His dick jerked when he thought of what else he could give her.
“When I first changed I...I don’t have much recollection. Once Lula brought me out...does that sound right?” She bit her lip. “Lula was all of the sudden inside my mind, and I could feel the bear. She was so angry, wanting to rip everyone and everything to pieces. When I realized that the bear was me, I tried to hide, but Lula wouldn’t let me. She forced me to take contr
ol, which was really weird being as I was taking back my own body.” A laugh escaped her, but her hands trembled.
“How many times did Lula make you shift before it became easier?” he asked, finding it fascinating to hear about her journey. His only regret was not being there to help her.
A grin lifted one corner of her lips. “If you were to ask Lula, she’d say elevendybillion. I told her that wasn’t even a number, which of course she claimed that was because nobody had tried and failed at shifting as much as me,” NeNe laughed before she continued. “Honestly, it was her tough tutelage that made me want to prove I could do it. Like she said, this is my body, I just share it with the bear. Once I owned that, it was easier.”
The next time he saw the pink haired dragon, he was going to give her a hug. “Any more questions?”
She licked her lips. “One more. I, of course, reserve the right to ask more in the future.”
He brushed his thumb over her lower lip, wiping away the dampness. “I would expect no less. Alright, what’s your last question, right now.”
NeNe reached for his hands, bringing them up to her mouth. Her hands were so much smaller than his. She loved the differences between them. His dark, tattooed fingers with the battle scars looked like they could take on the world and come out the winner. She kissed each knuckle, glancing up at him through her lashes. “I don’t want to be your almost mate. I want to be your true mate, or whatever it is you call it. My bear wants it too, although she’s sort of growled at your wolf.”
Coti moved forward, his free arm pulling NeNe’s body into his, her legs wrapped around his waist. “Mate, I prefer mate,” he growled.
She opened her mouth to respond, but he tugged her head backward, then his lips were pressing against hers with near desperation. Her bear grunted in her head, the sound almost comical as she imagined the big girl rolling on her back for the wolfman. The heat from his body warmed her, and she felt him tugging at her mind, asking instead of taking. She let him in, felt his relief in her acquiescence. She traced his bottom lip with her tongue, then grinned as he took over, humming low when he deepened the kiss.
