by Milly Taiden
He dropped to one knee and tried to stop the bleeding. “Mrs. Patty. What happened?”
She gurgled blood and pointed toward her open balcony door before she was gone. There was a notebook on Mrs. Patty’s desk. He glanced at the half-written page and stopped. She’d been writing an apology letter.
Dear Mr. Roarhart,
I’m sorry for having lied to your family. Right after I started working here, I became involved with a man I thought loved me. He told me he needed me to do him a favor. I thought putting the poisoned tea was going to be simple, but when she didn’t drink it, things became difficult. The snake was hard, but pushing Ms. Burns down the stairs was the worst feeling in the world. Tonight, I’m going to see him and explain I can’t do this anymore. I love him, but he is going too far. I can’t stay here, I’m s-
She clearly hadn’t gotten a chance to sign the letter when Christian had taken her life. Sebastian rushed out of the room, his focus solely on finding Burns and keeping him away from his mate.
Harper had just left the shower in her robe when she walked into her bedroom and found Christian standing there, only a few feet from her.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. From what she knew of Sebastian, he hadn’t been invited.
“I came to help you,” her father said, his voice cold and hard. His gaze locked on her robe. “You’ve been sleeping with the dog?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You better watch what you say. That’s my man you’re talking about.”
“He’s a dog. I hoped Patty would've kill you before he had a chance to dirty you, but I see she couldn’t get the job done. She was useless. I had to get rid of her too.” He pulled out a gun and closed the distance between them. “I’ll make sure that dog doesn’t ever touch you again.”
“Let her go, Christian,” Sebastian said from the door.
She glanced at his eyes. They glowed with his animal. She knew how badly he had to be fighting the urge to shift and kill him.
“I’d rather see her dead than with you. I told you this the first time you came to my house,” Christian yelled at Sebastian.
Harper frowned, wondering what he was talking about. “When did he come to the house?”
“You were a kid. Only eighteen. He showed up trying to talk to you.”
Her gaze focused on Sebastian’s face. “Why did you come to my house?”
His eyes locked with hers. “You invited me. At the prom.”
She gasped. He was the boy she’d met that night. The ballroom had been dark, but she remembered how sweet he’d been and how interested he was in her.
“Disgusting,” Christian roared. “Just like your father.”
“Oh god. What do you mean?” she asked, her throat closing up.
“He killed my parents,” Sebastian told her, his gaze never leaving hers. “He’s the reason I’m scarred.”
“What?” She tried to jerk out of Christian’s hold but he pressed the gun to her side.
“They deserved to die. Your father bad mouthed me to all the banks. Nobody wanted to give me a loan!” he spat.
“You stole from him,” Sebastian said. “You’re lucky all he did was tell others about your shady ways. He should have killed you himself!” Sebastian growled and prowled closer.
“Don’t push it, dog. I will kill her myself if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Christian, stop.” She tried to talk some sense into him. This was the Twilight Zone. How could her father be guilty of killing Sebastian’s parents? How?
“That’s not all he did,” Sebastian said. “Why don’t you tell her what you did to your wife.”
Harper gasped, horrified. She yanked herself away from him.
“No. No. No!” She screamed and shook her head violently. “You didn’t.” Christian tried to come closer, but she darted away to Sebastian. “What did you do to my mother?”
Christian lifted the gun and pointed it directly at her. “She found out I had someone else. Got so clingy and desperate, I had to get rid of her,” he spat, venom in his voice.”
“You had someone else? Another woman? My mother loved you exactly as you were. She never tried to change you and you had the nerve to cheat on her?” she screamed at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You fucking lowlife. You piece of shit!”
She stumbled further away, her chest tight from trying to draw breath at the same time her sorrow overwhelmed her.
“Yeah. The witch was convenient,” he told her coldly, the gun unwavering. “I got rid of her too, eventually. When I no longer needed her. Same with Patty. Women,” he shook his head in derision. “So quick to fall for anyone who says what they want to hear.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “Mom tried to make me love you.” She wiped angrily at the moisture on her cheeks. “She forgave all you did, and you killed her? How? How did you kill her?”
“I just told you. The witch was convenient. She made problems disappear.” He glanced at Sebastian. “No matter how rich and powerful.”
Nausea rolled in her stomach. He was a murderer. Her father. How could she have not known all this time? “But you got rid of her, too?” She shook her head. “You killed my mom. My mom. You fucking asshole. You deserve to die a horrible death.”
Christian didn’t budge. “Your mother got in my way and later, the witch did, too. She trusted me so much she never saw it coming. Neither of them did.”
Harper doubled over, pain slashing at her chest thinking of her mother. He’d killed her. He’d taken the only person who had shown her love for most of her life. She believed he did it, too. When she got home and found her mother dead on the floor, she’d been told her mom’s heart had just stopped.
But her mom didn’t have heart problems and had been in great health. Everything had been too strange. There wasn’t a single doctor that could pinpoint what exactly happened. “Oh god. Oh god. How could you kill someone so good? Someone who loved you so unconditionally?”
Tears blurred her vision. She blinked them away, trying to get air into her lungs. She saw something rush from the corner of her eye. Christian shot the gun, then he went down. A massive wolf shoved him hard to the ground.
“Get off me, you filthy dog!” Christian yelled, his hands swatting at the big wolf.
The animal growled, bit down on Christian’s hands and tore several fingers off. Christian howled in pain, still trying to push the animal off him. The wolf snarled, his bared teeth bloody, and continued taking bites out of Christian’s arms and legs. Christian screamed and yelled in pain but continued fighting the wolf until the animal locked his jaws around his neck and broke the bones. Christian’s lifeless body lay in a pool of blood.
Shock held Harper immobile. She gulped bile back and hugged herself in a corner. Sebastian shifted. He picked her up in his arms and carried her out of the room. Guards rushed toward them as they left. Kellen led them in.
“Clean it up,” Sebastian told him. “We’ll be in the royal chamber.”
They continued down the hall, up the stairs, and to a floor she hadn’t been to. He opened the doors to a massive suite, then carried her straight to the bathroom. There he set her down on the edge of the jacuzzi and started filling the tub.
She let him take the robe off. Then he went into the shower and rinsed the blood off himself. Once that was done, he helped her into the tub and turned on the jets. He sat her on his lap and hugged her tightly.
“I’m sorry.” The words were hushed but packed with love.
She curled her arms around his neck and cried. Everything hurt. Her head. Her throat felt raw and full of sand. Her heart hurt for her mother. “She was such a kind giving woman and truly loved Christian. He didn’t deserve her.”
“I know. I wanted him far away from you,” he sighed, pushing her hair away from her face. “I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt you if he thought you were involved with me.”
She gulped, swallowing at the thickness in her throat. “He had no heart. How could
he be so cold?”
“He’ll never hurt anyone again.”
She cried harder, her heart breaking for him and her. “He left both of us without parents.”
“I know, sweetheart, but we have each other now.”
She raised her face from his chest. There was torture, sadness, and so much love in his gaze. “I love you, Sebastian.”
“I love you, too, Harper. I’ve loved you from the first time we met at your senior prom.”
She kissed him and pulled back. “I should have recognized you, but the scars got in the way. I felt this immediate connection. It was strange.”
“We’re mates. We’re linked for life,” he said and brushed her tears away with his thumb. “You will never be alone again. I’m here for you. Always for you.”
She nodded, her heart filling with love. “I don’t need anyone else now that I’ve got you.”
He hugged her tighter. “You’re all I need.”
“So why do you need me to have a baby?” She frowned.
“The witch cursed my father’s first born. I need a child to live past my thirty-fifth birthday.” He met her gaze. “I will die if I don’t have an offspring. That was always true.”
“Don’t worry,” she said with determination. “I’ll keep you alive. We’ll make it happen.”
23
The next day, she woke with a new sense of purpose. Keeping her mate. She kissed him softly, rubbing her hands over his chest.
His eyelids cracked opened and a ghost of a smile spread over his lips. “You’re so beautiful,” he said softly.
That look of love in his eyes. That made her life worth living. It made her feel cherished. Wanted.
“I love you,” she told him, the words coming with a lot more ease now that she had admitted her feelings for him.
“I love you so much, Harper. There are no words.”
He might have brought her into this relationship with some strange blackmail, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world. Their lips met in a kiss so raw, she lost all ability to think. Right when she thought he couldn’t make her love him more, he did. She clung to him, digging her nails into the back of his neck, sliding her fingers through his shaggy blond strands.
Their tongues rubbed in a wild mating dance. He stroked his mouth boldly over hers, licking and sucking her lips and driving her crazy with need. She tore her mouth from his, groaning at his hands cupping her breasts.
“Sebastian,” she moaned. “I need you.” She slid a hand down to grasp his cock. God, he was hard. She wanted him inside her. Deep.
“Baby—”
She shoved her hand into his pajama bottoms. Her hand filled with his shaft. He groaned and pushed her on the bed, looming over her. His hand slipped between her thighs, cupping her slick sex. “God, Harper. You’re so wet.”
She licked her lips and tugged his head down for another kiss. “I am. Always.”
“The things you do to me, sweetheart. I’m going crazy from wanting inside you.”
She curled a leg around his hip. “I can’t wait, Seb. I want all of you in me.”
“You’re ready for me,” he groaned.
She moaned. His finger sliding in and out of her felt like a wonderful torture. “I am. Fuck me.”
He pressed at her clit one more time, watching her gasp and groan. With the head of his cock at her entrance, he stopped to stare at her.
“I love you.”
She smiled, her heart bursting with love. “I love you, too.”
With one single thrust, he filled her. So deep. So full. So perfect. Their lips met once again. The passion grew intense between them.
She clawed at his shoulders, her nails scratching him and she licked at the blood from his wounds. A soft growl sounded from her. “I fucking love how you taste, Seb. I’ll always love it.”
“Ah, baby girl,” he grunted, his cock filling her like the sweetest caress. “I knew from the moment I saw you that you’d be the only one for me.”
He pulled back and thrust forward. And she forgot everything again. He kissed the corner of her lips, down her jaw and to her shoulder. He sucked one of her nipples into his mouth and continued driving harder and harder into her body.
“Seb...” Tension gathered tightly at the pit of her womb. “God, that feels so damn good.”
He sucked her nipple, biting down, then blowing on the sensitive tip. Over and over again. Hot shudders raced down her spine. Her pussy felt on fire with each of his driving thrusts.
He continued to plunge hard and pull back. Then did it again, grinding his pelvis with her pussy. Slow flutters started at her channel.
“That’s it, baby,” he growled, licking and biting up to her shoulder. “Come on my dick. Squeeze me hard with your hot, tight pussy.”
She gripped his hair, plastering her chest to his.
“Oh fuck, Seb. I’m— Fuck me harder!”
He slammed into her with so much force, the bed banged against the wall, until the tension broke inside her. He bit down on her shoulder again. Pain and pleasure exploded through her limbs.
She screamed his name, the sound hoarse and raw. Then he was there, his body tensing as his thrusts slowed until he stopped and filled her with his cum. He snarled into her shoulder, a giant wave of vibrations that traveled the length of her body.
He lay on the bed next to her, pulling her up to his side, her body half-draped over his. “I love you so much, Seb,” she whispered. “I’m going to keep you alive. You’re mine.”
Epilogue
It was Sebastian’s birthday. After all the stresses of past months, they could celebrate. Sebastian would live a long life. She had definitely seen to it. Harper held only weeks old baby Sabrina, as the pack members filed into the ballroom, each stopping to offer their congratulations on the new addition to the royal family.
Once everyone was in the castle, Sebastian turned to face Harper. “I have something for you.”
She grinned and winked at him. “That’s what you told me last night.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “You’re terrible.”
“Hang on,” Sarai squealed and took little Sabrina from Harper. “You’ll want your hands free for this and it’s time for me to hold my little sweetness again.”
Sebastian pulled out a ring box from his pocket and got on one knee. “Harper, I know I brought you here under false pretense, but from the moment I saw you, my heart told me I couldn’t live without you.”
“I forgive you for bringing me here through blackmail,” she laughed. “It all worked out for the best.”
He popped the ring box open to show her a matching canary diamond to match her pendant. “Will you marry me, Harper? Add to the unending happiness I already live every single day?”
She nodded and pulled him up to his feet. “When you put it that way. Yes, I will. I’ll marry you, my king.”
He slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her. The pack erupted in cheers. She glanced at their baby, her heart full of love, and kissed Sebastian. “Bringing me here was the best thing you could have done for me.”
He kissed her hard and hugged her tightly. “It was the best thing I could have ever done for me, too.”
THE END
Howls Romance
Classic romance… with a furry twist!
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About the Author
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Hi! I’m Milly Taiden. I love to write sexy stories featuring fun, sassy heroines with curves and growly alpha males with fur. My books are a great way to satisfy your craving for paranormal romance with action, humor, suspense and happily ever afters.
I live in Florida with my hubby, our boys, and our fur children “Needy Speedy” and “Stormy.” Yes, I am aware I’m bossy, and I am seriously addicted to iced caramel lattes.
I love to meet new readers, so come sign up for my newsletter and check out my Facebook page. We always have lots of fun stuff going on there.
