by Hannah Pole
‘Leyth.’
‘Yeah?’ His voice was soft. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead she reached out and slid a hand across his face, pulling him gently forward. As their lips met, his soul sang. She was so soft, so sweet.
He eased into her, slowly wrapping a hand around her neck, stroking her hair. Her hands found his T-shirt, tugging gently. He let her slide it off, breaking away from her only briefly to let her slip it over his head.
Then he was back on her again, more frantic this time. Urgency heated him from his core, but he was careful to take it slowly, he didn’t want to hurt her.
No chance of that though, she was as anxious as he, her hands wrapping around his broad shoulders, pulling him further forward.
‘Hang on,’ he murmured against her lips, shoving his combats down but leaving his boxers on for good measure. ‘Mind if I join you?’
‘Not at all.’ Her voice was husky, and she moved over as he slipped into the warm water. For the first time, he was truly grateful for Julian’s oversized tubs. Even so, his size made the water swell and spill over the edges of the bath. She chuckled against his lips, her throaty laugh making him want to take her, right there and then. He restrained himself though, not wanting to spoil the moment.
He was going to do this right. Remember every second of this. No matter what happened between them, even if it didn’t work out and he ended up spending the next eternity alone, he wanted to have this one memory to see him through it. It might be selfish, but he needed this.
Grabbing the sponge again, he broke free of her lips, regretting the decision the instant he made it. He soaped the thing up and carefully ran it across her collarbone once again. She leant back and maaaaan did he get an eyeful; her heavy breasts floating in the water. He couldn’t help himself, he ran the sponge over them, her nipples tightening under his touch.
A quiet moan left her lips as she arched into him. Carefully he washed the suds away, and moved further down still. He washed her stomach, brushing past her hips and onto her legs, taking care to avoid the nasty-looking gash on her thigh. Bringing her feet up to his chest, he slowly massaged her soles; the cuts had healed well, it had only been a day or so, but all that was left of them were pink, raw-looking scars.
She tugged her feet away and, leaning forward, took the sponge from him. Gingerly she lifted the soapy thing to his chest, washing away the day’s wear and tear. As she reached his own variety of wounds, she carefully cleaned them, kissing her way across his skin.
Finally she settled herself on his lap, leaning into him. She kissed her way up his neck, nipping his chin and moving onto his mouth. As her tongue met his, she groaned. It was just a bit too much.
He wound his hands around her, gripping her thighs, pressing her into him, she gasped and moaned his name against his lips, and pushed herself further onto his bulging, throbbing crotch. Finally he let himself go, standing up and lifting the two of them out of the water. He stepped over the edge of the bath and carried her into his bedroom.
Settling her wet, naked body in his bed, he ditched his soaked boxers and slid in beside her. She was all over him, kissing, nipping, running her hands down his broad chest, exploring him. He did some exploring of his own, running his fingertips across her back, feeling his way up her stomach to her breasts.
‘I need you,’ she hissed, leaning backwards and climbing on top of him. Wrapping her fingers around his cock, he roared, bucking into her touch. Looking up at her face, as she grinned down at him, slowly stroking the length of him. He arched into her again, he just couldn’t help it.
Then he hauled her on top of him in one strong movement and found her core, glistening and ready for him.
She clearly didn’t want to waste any time as she leant into him, dominating him even though she was but a fraction of his size.
Leyth could barely control himself; he thrust a hand into her hair and urged her downwards. He needed her. As she bent down to kiss him, she slowly ground herself against him, making him grit his teeth against a moan. The alpha inside him came raging to the surface, making him ache right to his very core with the need to be in her, marking her. Making her his. And his alone.
As their lips met, he couldn’t help the groan that escaped his lips; her foresty scent filled his nose, her hazelnutty sweetness filled his mouth, her skin covered his. The wolf in him surged through his veins, making him roar in sheer ecstasy and utter frustration. He was a male who’d found the most amazing female on the planet and he needed to be in her, he needed to be all over her, covering her with himself, his scent. He needed to mark her.
To hell with slow and steady.
Yet Tamriel was such a strong, determined female, she was the one in control; she was the one calling the shots. And, hell, if that wasn’t even more of a turn on.
As Leyth ran his fingers up her spine, biting down on his roaring need to be inside her, she deepened the kiss, bringing back the earth-shattering heat they’d both felt last night and, as fire seared between them, his world completely disappeared, replaced with his female, and she alone. She slowly slid her way down the length of him, the heat at her core welcoming him into her.
He barked out a curse as she groaned and started to move, slowly at first, stroking him gently. She leant further down, putting her hands on his chest as she kissed his lips, the tips of her breasts gently swaying against him.
Leyth slid his hands down her back and cupped her perfectly formed rear, stroking her smooth skin.
As her movements became more frantic, so did his; his need to fill every part of her with himself became a constant roar. He flipped her over, unable to take the tension any more. With her safely on her back beneath him, he plunged deeply inside her, as far as he could go. And she took him in, every inch of him.
Together they rode out the wave of heat and ecstasy in frantic, mind-blowing movements. She screamed his name as he groaned and roared.
As he felt himself reach the edge, he dove straight off without hesitation, his orgasm hitting him hard. As he came, so did she, his name leaving her lips in a hiss.
When the storm was over, she leant her forehead against his, panting hard. He rolled over, letting her rest her head on his arm, brushing her hair from her face. He kissed her gently, and slowly stroked his fingers across her soft skin, holding her close as she closed her eyes and drifted off.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘You really are amazing.’
‘Where the hell have you two been?’ Julian thundered, storming towards them as they wandered downstairs, several long hours later.
‘Sorry, man, we had to sort some things out.’
‘Don’t talk to me like that. I’m not your buddy, I am your alpha. You will treat me with respect. And you,’ he snapped, glancing at Tamriel, ‘my office. NOW.’
The two of them scuttled through the large doors as Julian strode in behind them, slamming the doors behind him. Then he slipped a finger over his lips in a ‘shh’ motion, and waved them behind his desk.
No wonder the thing was so outrageously big; there was a crawl space underneath it. Bending down, Julian hit a button and, silently, the floor beneath the crawl space slid apart, revealing concrete steps that dipped down into the dark room below. Julian waved them forward, closing the hatch as he went.
Once in the room, he clicked the light on and slouched on a shaggy green sofa leaning against the plain brick wall.
The overhead light revealed a concrete floor covered in a variety of ugly rugs, two sofas and little else, bar a fridge. Julian grabbed a beer from the thing, then threw one to both Tam and Leyth.
‘Sorry about that, guys. A lot happened while you were gone.’
Tamriel shot him a confused glance, fiddling with the sleeve of Leyth’s baggy T-shirt, the only bit of material she was wearing. They were only planning on coming downstairs to grab some food and they hadn’t planned on, well, this.
‘The Council are here,’ Julian said by way of explanation. ‘
They’re demanding to take control of you, Tamriel.’
‘What?’ the two of them said in unison.
‘I don’t know how, I don’t know why. But they know about you escaping the Circle’s base already.’
‘Well that’s not a bad thing, what she did was good!’ Leyth looked relieved.
‘No. They also know about what happened with Alison.’
‘Oh shit.’
‘Yeah. They want to take her to be put on trial, to be bound and buried.’
‘What?’
‘No.’ Leyth stomped his foot. ‘NO.’
‘What?’ Tamriel repeated, glancing between the two males.
‘They want to bind you to your skin and bury you. So you can die a slow and painful death. It’s their way of punishing supernaturals that hide their talents.’
‘But I didn’t even know I could do it. I still don’t know how.’
‘I know. Look. We’ve got to hide you. Leyth, I need you here, we need to come up with a plan and fast.’
‘How are we going to do this? If we don’t hand her over, they will put a kill order on her head and shut our pack down.’
‘I know. We’ll figure it out as we go. We need to act quickly though, otherwise they’ll know something is up.’
Leaving Tamriel inside Julian’s secret hideout, the two men left, pulling the desk over the hatch for good measure.
Julian whispered to Leyth, ‘Break a window, fast.’
Leyth hurled a chair in fury.
Julian then walked over to the huge double doors, throwing them wide. ‘Everyone in here now!’ he hollered into the body of the mansion. One by one, they all piled in; the wolves, the shifters, the djinns, minotaurs and the Council members.
Everyone but Alison.
The pale-skinned, bony leader known as High Lord strode across the room, his purple eyes locking onto Leyth’s as he went. The guy’s thinning white hair stuck to his forehead, slick with sweat. It was if the pure act of walking was an effort, sapping his strength.
The male settled himself in Julian’s chair; an act of such disrespect Leyth couldn’t hide the shock on his face. The second Council member, known as the thane, or right-hand man to the High Lord, had much more colour to his skin, his shoulders filled out his robe, and his hair was long and thick, though still as white as his companions. He strode over to stand at the right-hand side of the Magi. Leyth was sure he’d never seen these magi before; even so, a sting of recognition hit him in the gut as the thane met his eyes.
He shoved the confusion on the back-burner as the rest of the household stood to attention in front of Julian, even the half-breeds were there, Leyth noticed.
‘We have a situation,’ Julian announced. ‘Tamriel has escaped. Following the news of the Council’s decision to… detain her, she made a run for it, escaping through the window.’ He waved a hand at the broken glass.
‘Are you telling me that the two of you couldn’t contain one little wolf?’ the ugly magi snarled.
‘She is small and nimble. Her actions were fast. We could not react in time and we thought it best to alert you, my highness, before taking further action.’
‘And so you have told us. Take the necessary action.’
Julian turned to address the rest of the group. ‘I want all of you out in the woods, searching for her. Wolves, I want you shifted and hunting by scent. Shifters, I want you in the skies. Scour these woods, do you hear me? She can’t have gotten far, do whatever is necessary to detain her; I want her back here… Alive or dead.’
Each of his subjects nodded, no one daring to argue with their alpha, not in front of the Council. They slowly headed out of the door, and quiet chatter began on the other side.
‘Sarah,’ Julian called the female in. ‘Take some of the remaining females and prepare the guest quarters for our honoured guests.’
‘Thank you, Julian. We shall retire to our quarters and await your news.’ The thane bowed his head, holding a hand out for his High Lord.
‘I find your actions curious.’ The High Lord eyed him. ‘I shall watch you closely.’
Once the two men were safely out of earshot, Leyth slammed a fist on Julian’s broad desk.
‘What the hell are we going to do?’ he hissed.
‘There’s not a lot we can do. We’re wolves, we survive,’ Julian responded.
‘Julian!’ Sapphire ran in, panting, followed by Carl.
‘We need to talk.’ Julian led the three of them back into his hide-out, in which a very pale-faced Tamriel was hiding. At least she was safe here for now.
‘Tamriel!’ Sapphire whispered, running over and wrapping her arms around her. ‘I’m so glad you’re here, I was worried for a minute there!’
‘Hey, Sapphire.’ Tamriel wrapped an arm around the shifter.
‘Goddamn, you’re freezing!’ Sapphire made quick work of stripping off her own jumper and wrapping it around Tamriel’s still very half-naked body.
Carl followed suit, tugging off his own jumper and handing it to her to cover her legs. At least she would be a little warmer now. God it was supposed to be so simple, thought Leyth. Run out of the bedroom, grab food and coffee, back up to bed. How did it turn into this? His female hiding for her life in a damn cellar?
‘I know why you could see the magi,’ Sapphire whispered, and every head turned to her, Tamriel just gaped.
‘Well, do tell,’ Julian said to break the silence.
‘You’re my kin!’
‘Yes, she is pack now. How does that explain anything?’
‘No! She’s my kin.’ Sapphire beamed. There was a collective gasp from everyone but Leyth, who had known this already.
‘It’s true.’ Tam smiled. ‘She is my cousin!’
‘Well, to be honest, you look like you could be sisters with those damn emerald eyes of yours,’ Julian said, looking thoughtful for a moment. ‘Yes, wasn’t it John Chambers, Tamriel’s dad, who brought you into the pack, Sapphire?’
‘It was indeed.’ She smiled at Tam again.
‘Well that’s all very well, but it still doesn’t explain why she could see the magi.’
‘Well.’ Sapphire paused for a moment, considering her words. Then she carefully moved to kneel in front of Julian. ‘My alpha.’ She nodded at him.
‘Yes?’ Julian looked irritated and amused at the same time.
‘Would you do me the honour of giving your word under pack law that the next words I speak to you shall not leave your lips henceforth?’
‘I do.’ Julian began to look more interested than irritated at this point; anyone who invokes pack law has something incredibly serious to tell, and this was obviously a secret Sapphire had kept hidden particularly well. ‘And I give you my word as alpha that those in this room, whose ears shall hear your words, shall not speak of this either. Do you accept?’ He nodded to each of them in turn.
‘OK.’ Sapphire took a deep breath and walked to stand next to her cousin, Tamriel, who was staring up at her with wide eyes.
‘Tamriel, Julian. My father, as you know, was a shifter. And I am a half-breed, but my mother wasn’t human. My mother was a Wiccan.’ There was another collective gasp. ‘And so is Tamriel’s mother.’
Holy Maker, no wonder Sapphire had kept that little bombshell a secret.
Anyone who was born of two races was a ‘threat’ to the Council, particularly if one of those halves was Wiccan or magi; the Council did not like civilians in any part of the kingdom to be able to use magic unless it was sanctioned and controlled by them. If the Council had found out about Sapphire’s mother, they would have killed her long ago, or imprisoned her. Firstly for hiding her ability, and secondly because they feared those with the blood of two races.
Everyone just stared in silence at the two females as they talked of their families. Tamriel hadn’t known about her mother being Wiccan, which, in truth, wasn’t surprising. Her wolf heritage would be the most obvious, so if she was going to hide one half from the Council, the Wiccan half
would be the most obvious. And, of course, the most effective way to hide something about yourself? Well, is to not know that there is something to hide in the first place. Tam’s mother was smart, and was clearly playing the ‘cruel to be kind’ card.
Wiccans were effectively humans, though they were humans who were born with the ability to control magic. They couldn’t create it like the magi could, but they could control it once it was there. They used their power through the use of spells and incantations, manipulating magic with herbs and tools.
Sapphire had done a very brave thing indeed coming forward.
Chapter Fourteen
Tamriel rubbed her eyes as she tried to process everything she’d just learnt. It had been a hellish week. A headache ripped its way through her mind. Her mother was Wiccan? How had she not known that? In truth, her mother had always been sort of witchy; she knew exactly what Tam was doing at any given moment, she consistently gave her cryptic warnings about the future, and she was an absolute genius when it came to herbal remedies. Tam could see her mother’s actions in keeping her heritage a secret was done out of love, and only to protect her, but nonetheless, it hurt. She really needed to sit her mother down and have a long old chat once this was all over, but not yet. For one, she really wanted to be sure about her father before she went telling her heartbroken mother that the husband she thought was dead was actually alive somewhere. And secondly, she didn’t want to mix her mother up in all this madness; now she was potentially on the run from the Council, she couldn’t call her mother and put her in danger.
Sapphire had promised to teach her how to control her Wiccan side, and Julian, Leyth and Carl had promised to keep this skill a secret. The Council would go mad if they found out Sapphire could use magic as well. It was a bit too late for her though.
‘OK. So we’re in agreement,’ Julian announced, nodding at everyone. They had come up with a plan. It wasn’t something Tam liked the idea of, and Leyth by the looks of it was less happy than she, but it appeared to be the only way.
‘Yes.’
‘Right, I’m going to get the ball rolling. I’ll go and distract the High Lord and his lackey. Leyth, you come with me. You need to be angry, distraught and betrayed. We need to get them to believe Tamriel really hurt you, enough for you to pursue her. While we’re doing that, Carl, you bring the van around and get the girls the hell out of here. Don’t leave the county though, they’ll expect that.’
