The thought made him desperate to be inside her, as if he could prove to her through physical prowess that he was man enough to be her mate. Unlike their first night together, when he’d been gentle with her, knowing it was her first time in almost a century, today he wanted to make her believe that, human or not, he was all the man she needed.
Warm mist from the waterfall wet his back. He moved his kiss to the corner of her mouth, around to her ear, and pulled her earlobe between his teeth. “I want to be inside you, in every way.”
She groaned. Her nails trailed over the outsides of his shoulders, scraping down his back. He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his briefs and worked them off, over his erection. He was hard as a rock, ready for her. He bent over her petite frame to move his kiss to her shoulder.
She sank to the floor in front of him. “You said you wanted me on my knees,” she said.
He stared at her with hooded eyes. Before he could say another word, she took him in her mouth, opened her throat, and pulled him in deep.
Logan closed his eyes to keep from going over the edge.
“Fuck, what you do to me,” he said, the words laden with awe, worship in every syllable. Her warm tongue worked against his shaft until he thought he’d lose his mind as well as his resolve. “Not yet. Stop.” He tugged her to her feet.
She complied, her lids heavy with need. He lifted her nightgown over her head and cast it in the direction of his briefs. Hot damn. No underwear.
Dragging a knuckle down her abdomen, he stopped at the place where her thighs met and curled two fingers along her most sensitive flesh. She was wet and ready. A moan escaped her lips as his fingers entered her and began to stroke. Her head fell back and he caught her around the waist, her knees going soft.
She arched over his flexed arm, providing convenient access to her breasts. He flicked his tongue over her nipple as his fingers picked up the pace. He sucked harder on her breast, biting the nipple gently.
“Logan, mmm.” Her nails dug into his hair. He could feel the muscles inside her draw him in, her abdomen tense with pleasure as she worked herself into his hand. She was close. He wanted to watch her orgasm, see her shatter in his arms, but he needed to mark her as his own.
He removed his hand, smiling at her tiny whimpers at the absence of his touch. Hooking his hands under her ass, he bent his knees and lifted, spreading her legs and wrapping her thighs around his hips.
One step and her back was against the wall, his length sliding into her slick, wet velvet. Once fully inside, he paused, heart pounding and body enjoying the tight squeeze of her. He examined her face—hooded blue eyes, full, slightly parted lips, a hint of a smile tightening her cheeks.
“Tell me,” he whispered.
She opened her eyes a bit wider. She knew what he wanted. “I love you.”
He gripped her thighs, slid halfway out, and thrust back in. She gasped, squeezing her arms around his neck. “Whose are you?” His voice was breathy with restraint.
“I’m yours. I’m all yours.”
“I love to hear that.” He pumped into her again, slow out and sharp in, finding a rhythm and gaining speed. Her moans grew louder, echoing against the stone of the room, until finally he felt her clench around him. There was no holding back. He went over the edge, her sex milking his erection, clench and release, clench and release.
Only when she was completely spent, the last aftershock flowing from her body, did he lower her to her feet and pull her into the spray. The warm shower hit his sensitive skin, prolonging the intensity.
He reached for the bottle of shampoo on the ledge and motioned for her to turn around. As he took her wet hair into his hands and started working up a lather, he caught the eyes of the doe through the window. She was definitely watching.
“Berries, my ass,” Logan murmured.
“Huh?” Polina asked, eyes closed.
“Nothing.” He kissed her on the cheek and went back to lathering her red tresses. She eased into his touch. His. She was his.
And he didn’t take the responsibility lightly.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Home Again
“I don’t like leaving you alone to deal with these werewolves. I know I’m only human, but give me a shotgun and some silver ammo and I can make a hell of a sidekick.” Logan sat across the breakfast table at the Stowe Diner dressed in his clothes from the night before. Polina had cleaned and repaired them for him, a spell she’d made him ask for twice.
She smiled and lowered her voice. “After this morning, I’m having trouble thinking of you as only human. In fact, I’d venture to say you’ve enchanted this witch.”
Logan’s chest visibly swelled, and he pointed his fork at her. “Please tell me you’re not just saying that.”
Blushing, she shook her head.
Logan tipped his face toward the ceiling. “Alleluia!”
The other restaurant patrons turned heads to look his way. A man with a long gray beard and leather vest pumped his arm and yelled, “Amen, brother!”
Polina snickered.
“So, you’ll let me stay and help you tonight?”
She shook her head. “Let me do my job, Logan. You have the restaurant.”
“I have a sous-chef. He can handle it.”
“You’re not one of those men who think women are helpless, are you?” she asked sternly.
“Of course not.”
“Then thank you very much. I appreciate your offer, but I will be managing my realm on my own. I promise I will call for you should I need help.”
“Call for me? How? The mirror you gave me is... gone.”
“I’ll make you another.”
“Wouldn’t a cell phone be more efficient?”
With a smug grin, she shoveled in a bite of hash browns. “The magic of the mountain interferes with cell service. You will become acquainted with the ways of magic over time. These things were strange to me at first, as well.”
“Believe me, between you, Grateful, Tabetha, and the water witch of Astoria—”
“Kendra.”
“Right, Kendra. Between the four of you, I think I’ve become adequately acquainted with the ways of magic.”
“I just mean…” She paused. “I should have introduced you to my gargoyles.”
Logan, who was about to take a sip of coffee, almost poured it in his lap. “Gargoyles?”
“Nicodemus, Skogal, and Rohilda. They live on the roof of Aurorean House. I would have introduced you, but it slipped my mind. Has anyone ever told you how distracting you are?”
He pressed the tips of his fingers together. “Not in a long time.”
“But once?”
He nodded slowly. “I was engaged once.”
She straightened. “You were?”
“Yeah.”
“What ended it?”
“She did. I found her in bed with someone else.”
Polina crossed her arms and leaned on the table. “She cheated?”
“Yep.” He laughed. “I guess nothing in life is permanent.”
“But why? You are a coveted human suitor. Why would she risk your alienation for pleasure?”
“I don’t think she shared your opinion of me. I worked too much. I wasn’t sensitive to her needs. She thought she deserved better.”
Polina furrowed her brow. “You seem adequate to me.”
Logan grinned. “Things are looking up. I’ve advanced from worthless to an adequate human.”
A slight blush crept from her neck to her cheeks. “You’ve changed my perspective. You’ve changed me,” she said softly.
“I try.”
Straightening, Polina asked, “Can I come to see you again, tomorrow when I’ve managed things here?”
Logan flashed a wry grin. “And the day after, and the one after that, until you are sick of me and send me away.”
“You may never go home.”
“Home.” Logan dropped his fork. “Shit! I am very sorry Polina, but I need
to go. I have to feed my cat.”
“You have a cat?”
“I do now.”
He kissed her long and hard. “Tomorrow. Will you come to me, or should I come to you?”
“I’ll come to you,” she said, her eyes twinkling with what Logan hoped was anticipation. God, she was beautiful. He’d take her again right now if they weren’t in a crowded restaurant.
He paid the check, watching her walk out the door wearing a purple dress that would look at home in any Renaissance fair.
“Your change,” the cashier said. Logan turned to accept the money. When he turned back a moment later, Polina was gone.
Chapter Forty
Missing pieces
Polina arrived at Aurorean House more concerned about her realm than when she left. She’d been so caught up in Logan that she hadn’t even considered what Hildegard and the gargoyles had seen the night before, or the fate of the camp of humans. It did not escape her notice that her feelings for Logan were all consuming and dangerously distracting. She could still feel him moving inside her, filling her. It wasn’t just physical. His love was a warm blanket of affection that wrapped her in an encompassing embrace. He seeped through her skin, taking up residency in her heart. Even now, she felt swollen with it, blissfully heavy with wanting.
“There you are,” Hildegard said from an oak branch above her. “From the reek of man in the house, I take it you kept company last night while the rest of us were protecting the realm.”
Hand moving to her hip, Polina pursed her lips at the snowy-white barn owl. “The human was injured inside my realm. It was my duty to heal him. I saw him off, just a moment ago.”
Hildegard laughed. “It was Logan Valentine I smelled in the room of reflection when I went looking for you, and unless I’m mistaken, the type of healing going on extended beyond blood and bone.”
A giggle escaped Polina’s lips. “I never could swing anything by you, old girl. It was Logan Valentine, and I’m afraid this witch’s heart is all tangled up with his at the moment. Would you ever believe in all your years that I would love another human?”
“Nay, lady. I thought your heart had closed itself off to the possibility centuries ago. You’ve spent a long time alone.” Hildegard’s mirth-filled voice became soft and serious. “I’m glad to see the change. You look like an opening flower this morn.”
“Thank you, Hildie.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I have a fair bit of bad news to share with ye.”
Polina frowned. “What sort of bad news?”
Hildegard rotated her head on her neck. “This is a conversation better suited for the indoors.”
It wasn’t like Hildie to be needlessly cautious. Polina nodded her agreement and they passed into the house, under the gargoyles asleep for the day on the gables. Polina made her way to the big leather chair in her library. Hildegard soared past her to land on her carved perch near the window.
“What did you and the gargoyles see?”
“The gargoyles saw nothing. The wolves they followed hunted the local wildlife. Nothing unusual. Nicodemus confirmed that none of the wolves crossed the border into the human camp. He was concerned about you but he did his duty and guarded the human campsite until dawn.”
“Good. And you?”
“I did as you asked and followed the northward group. They made it almost to the peak of Silver Sparrow. After Alex’s red wolf tried to kill you, he circled around and joined the northerners, and let me tell you, he was on a mission. That wolf scoured the mountain with his nose to the ground.”
“What did they find, Hildegard?”
“I thought they’d run out of time. The sun had begun to rise and the lot of them risked shifting back and standing knee deep and naked in the mountain snow. But Alex sniffed and searched far past the time the rest of his pack abandoned him for lower altitudes. He found a cave. I dared not follow him inside, but there was a glow, my lady, an intense red glow that poured out the mouth of that cavern and lit up the night like a torch. I heard laughing, the wicked and twisted sort that makes your feathers stand on end. It was still dark, but Alex walked out of that cave on two legs with a dragon scale amulet hanging around his neck.”
“Naked? In the snow?”
“The cold didn’t seem to bother him any, and even if it did, he didn’t suffer from it long. He disappeared right in front of my owl eyes. You know, dear witch, my sight in the darkness is better than most any creature, but I’m telling you, he blinked out of existence like… like…”
“Dragon fae. He found the amulet.” Polina stood and paced the floor. “Silas was right; he must have hidden it here while I was buried in Tabetha’s garden. Hmm.” Polina stroked her chin. “Damn it. I need to tell Silas. We must find a way to neutralize this madman and his pack of orphans. That amulet will make him as powerful as any witch. Maybe more. No wonder he laughed at my threat to kick him off the mountain. He knew that in a matter of hours, he’d have what he needed to make sure I couldn’t.”
“If you plan to speak to the detective, may I suggest you do it sooner rather than later? I fear the clock. Alex is gaining power with every moment we hesitate.”
“You’re absolutely right. We’ll go now.” Polina grabbed her wand and headed for the kitchen where she kept her extra stores of gold dust. She’d be in Carlton City in seconds.
But the sight outside her kitchen window chilled her to the bone.
The doe that’d wandered her yard feasting on her blackberries hung limply, neck at an odd angle, over the arm of a man glowing with power. He stood where he should not be able to stand, over the protective enchantment around Aurorean House.
Polina reached for her gold dust but was seized by an invisible fist that held her to the spot.
“Oh no, Hecate,” Alex said. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Chapter Forty-One
Retribution
“A member of my pack, a wolf named Sam, has gone missing,” Alex said. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
The pendant around his neck held a carving of a twisting dragon with a red stone eye. The dragon’s body looked to be made of pewter, but Polina knew better. It was dragon’s scale, rare and powerful. The amulet throbbed with energy. Polina could feel its presence through the window like the warmth from a small sun.
Snap out of it, she ordered herself. Drawing power from the metal bones of her house and the dead beneath it, she mustered enough strength to break Alex’s hold on her and muttered a defensive spell.
“Where is my wolf?” he demanded.
“Your wolf almost killed a human last night. I sentenced him to the hellmouth.” Polina raised her wand.
“He attacked your human lover, inside the bounds of your territory. The man was where he shouldn’t have been. Hardly fair to blame Sam for that. Bring him back. Show me you’re on my side. If we work together, Polina, we could rule the entire northeast, and soon beyond.”
“I’m good with ruling my own realm, thank you. I’ve never been much of a megalomaniac. I see we differ in that respect.”
“Careful,” Hildegard said in that special language only Polina could understand. “The power coming off that thing is practically making me molt.”
Alex took a step closer and Polina reached for her gold dust again. The leaded glass between them was working to her advantage but Polina knew she had to get out of there. Silas wasn’t kidding about the strength of the amulet. With it on, Alex was as powerful as any witch.
“We’re not done talking.”
Polina released the dust over her head. But something went wrong. The dust didn’t fall. She tilted her chin up to see it hanging in the air. Alex stared at her, eyes pinning her like a butterfly to a display board. A step closer and a crack formed in the leaded glass. Another step and she couldn’t move.
“Hildie, fly!” Polina ordered, focusing all her energy on freeing the bird. The owl left her shoulder just as the glass shattered, blowing through the kitchen
in sharp, fragmented waves. She screamed as it sliced her flesh and tore her wand from her hand. The wounds healed almost immediately, but the assault stung. Her body tumbled through the glass toward Alex, caught in the grip of his power.
“I hope you don’t mind, I detained your owl as well. I can’t have her interfering,” he said, as Polina struggled against the invisible vise compressing her arms to her sides.
“What do you want with me, Alex?”
“It’s not you. It’s never been about you, Hecate. It’s your realm. The enchantment you have around this mountain has done an excellent job of concealing and protecting my pack. It’s funny, when I hid the amulet here years ago, I had no idea it would be so difficult to find it again. But the magic of this place…” He shook his head. “It wasn’t the same under Tabetha’s rule. I had to find it the old-fashioned way, by smell. It takes a long time to smell an entire mountain.”
“So now you have it. Just go.”
“See, that’s the problem. Tabetha promised me this land in exchange for my help in your abduction.”
“Tabetha?”
“Have you ever wondered how the witch of Salem was able to get the best of you? You, the recluse of Smuggler’s Notch, who never left the security of her realm. I sniffed you out. I used the amulet to abduct you from your own realm before I hid it here. I upheld my end of the bargain with Tabetha, only she did not. You didn’t stay buried.”
“She didn’t have the right—”
“This is my home, and I can’t have you threatening to evict me or my pack every time we kill someone. And we need to kill someone, Hecate. Tonight.”
“Kill someone? Who?” Polina asked.
“Silas Flynn.”
“Silas? Why do you need to kill Silas?”
Alex laughed and rolled his eyes. “He never told you? Is he still propagating that story about his father being the true alpha?” Alex snorted. “Silas is the alpha of Fireborn pack and has been since the day I slaughtered his parents. He is the leader of the largest pack of wolves in North America. If I take him out, with the numbers I already have answering to me, I’ll not only restore my birthright, I’ll take control of the entire Lycanthropic Society. They will answer to me, or die. Silas would already be dead if not for his decoy. I killed his Zafka.”
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