by M. L. Briers
Nero dug his hands into the pockets of his jeans and thought about it. Standing at the kitchen counter and listening to the two Fae chattering about Nadia wasn’t his idea of fun, but his interest had been peaked by two things. Firstly that Nadia was intent on leaving, that didn’t bode well for his Beta. The damn man had moped around for months, and if she left he would obviously mope around some more. Then there was the fact that she’d gained extra powers and nobody, not even Nadia knew what they were.
“So, she is leaving or she’s not?” Nero’s thoughts came out as a question and he watched as both the sisters turned towards him from where they sat at the kitchen table. Neve shrugged her shoulders and Natasha rolled her eyes.
“Who knows?” Natasha answered. “She said she’d stay put until she saw Neve, but this is Nadia, she could just up and leave.”
Nero’s eyes flicked to the Beta at the end of the table who was trying to sip his coffee and make like he wasn’t remotely interested. Blake’s eyes met his Alpha’s and he knew what his friend was thinking in a heartbeat. It didn’t thrill him one little bit.
“Nero…”Blake went to get to his feet.
“Someone needs to watch her to make sure she’s still there.” Nero offered and saw the uncertainty on his Beta’s face.
“It’s not a good idea…” Blake started to protest again, but Natasha cut him off.
“That’s a great idea. She can’t go anywhere with the big bad wolf at the door…” She offered with excitement and then shrivelled slightly under two sets of Lycan eyes that rounded on her. “So to speak?” She offered with a small wince of an apology.
“Nero, there’s something that you need to know about…” Blake tried again, dragging his eyes from Natasha back to his Alpha.
Oh, he knew alright. Natasha had told Neve and Neve had told him, but he wasn’t going to put his Beta in the position of knowing that everyone knew that the little Fae had rejected him. Blake had his pride.
“It’s not important right now, Blake. Keep an eye on her, and let her know that you’re there so she doesn’t get any ideas.” Nero waved a dismissive hand in his Beta’s direction and heard him sigh.
“But, Nero…” Blake tried for a third time, but Nero wasn’t having it.
“Better get going.” Nero informed him before stalking from the room as quickly as his feet could carry him away.
Neve wasn’t happy that her sister was leaving. The moment she had found her note she’d practically gone into meltdown and it was only Natasha coming through the door and settling her fears that had stopped her racing over there.
That was two Fae and one moped out Beta that wanted Nadia to stay. Who was he to stand in the way of them getting what they wanted? Forcing Blake to confront the woman he was obviously in love with was a good start, hopefully, and if it did backfire, well he’d have to deal with that damn bridge when he came to it. He didn’t have much choice.
Blake had been pacing back and forth outside her front door for what had to be close on half an hour, and Nadia had sat behind her curtains and watched him. He looked like a caged beast that was deciding how best to jump the fence and escape from captivity. In her opinion he also looked like a damn idiot, a rather handsome, sexy, broody-but in that good way, idiot.
He was obviously at her door for a reason and she wished he’d get to the point before her backside became totally numb from all the sitting and watching to see what he was going to do. That was the problem, she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes off him, dismiss his presence and get on with packing. She sighed to herself, she liked him, she liked him a lot, but that wasn’t going to end well. If she had been his mate, whoopee, fine, but she wasn’t…
She jumped in place when he turned with determination towards her front door and stalked up to it. Lifting his hand, he rapped hard against the wood, and even though she knew he was going to knock, her heart slammed into her ribs and she jumped in place again. Now that he was knocking she wasn’t so damn sure she wanted to answer the door.
“Come on, Nadia, I know you’re in there. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.” He growled through the closed door and she couldn’t help but smile at his words. How many times had she heard them since she’d moved here? Not nearly enough…
“Huff and puff at someone else’s door, Blake. I’m busy.”She shouted back to him. Busy being a scared little piggy. She thought, knowing that he wasn’t about to go anywhere. It wasn’t in his nature to back down, not now he was geared to action. Damn, maybe she shouldn’t have wished he’d do something, she much preferred his pacing like an idiot now.
“You know I’m not going away…”He shouted back to her and she rolled her eyes wide and nodded her head in agreement. Yep, she knew. “So open the damn door and stop acting like an idiot.”
Nadia’s jaw nearly dropped onto her lap. Idiot? She jumped to her feet and stalked towards the front door, wrenching it open she stared up at him in disbelief. His eyes were dark and his stance was awkward, but she ignored all of that.
“Idiot? I’m the idiot? Says the Manwolf who’s been pacing back and forth for the last hour…” She shot a glare at him.
“A little exaggeration…” He offered down to her, a spark of amusement in his dark eyes, but she ignored that too. She was used to him making fun of her, only because he knew she couldn’t fight back, but now she could. Now she could do whatever the hell she wanted. She had magic and she was leaving town, she didn’t have to play to anybodies damn tune anymore.
“Oh, bite me you overgrown lapdog…” She narrowed her eyes on him and felt the rush to magic inside her. Before she knew what was happening Blake was snatched back away from the door in a whirl of winds that caused her to shriek out in alarm. “Crap!” Nadia didn’t know what to do. He was sailing backwards through the damn air, head over heels like a gymnast, a really bad one with his arms and legs flopping and flapping around like that, but still…
“Easy does it.”Neve appeared from the bushes beside her cottage. With her hands outstretched she eased the constant loop the loop that the poor Beta was going through and settled him down to earth on his feet. Still holding him steady with her magic, he lowered himself to his knees and tried to shake away the dizziness inside his head.
“Whoopsie…” Nadia offered on a wince and a small shrug of helpless innocence as her sister turned to look at her.
“You got a little more than just a smudge of magic.” Neve informed her and Nadia shrugged again. How was she to know? But surely that was her fault as well, everything else was.
“I can either teach you how to use it, or you can give it back.” Neve offered giving her sister something to think about.
“It’s kind of scary. I didn’t mean to do that to him.” Nadia admitted as she returned her attention towards Blake, who was finally pulling himself to his feet, a slight wobble, a little sideways crab motion as he tried to walk towards them and then he growled long and hard and shook his head again.
“That was kind of cool.” Blake shook his head for a third time and slapped himself upside the head, just for good measure. “Thanks for the soft landing.” He grinned at Neve and she grinned back.
“You’re welcome.” She turned back to Nadia to see her slightly more relaxed now that Blake wasn’t threatening to kill her. “You’ll need to stick around for a while kiddo, if you want me to help you.” Neve shot a sideways glance towards the Beta as he strolled up towards the house.
“She’s not going anywhere, Neve. I won’t allow it.” Blake informed Nadia more than her sister and he saw her narrow her eyes on him and give him an infuriated look of disbelief.
“I think I’ve just proved you can’t stop me, Wolfboy.” Nadia gave him a smug look of pure satisfaction, but he didn’t stop coming towards her and that look of satisfaction turned into a frown as he stalked closer. His eyes intent on hers, and when he reached out and yanked her towards him, she opened her mouth to protest but it was already too late. He claimed her lips with a kiss that
spoke of passion, of possession, of a claim that he was determined to make.
“And that would be my cue to leave.” Neve chuckled as she turned and left the way she had come.
Blake didn’t give his little Fae time to think. He cupped the rounds of her backside in his hands and hauled her up his body. Wrapping her legs around his hips he strolled into the house and back heeled the door closed behind him. Every second that passed he could feel her body melting more into his and he liked it, damn did he like it. She was his the moment she stepped into town he’d just been too damn stupid to claim her.
Nadia lost herself in his kisses. Maybe she’d lost herself to him a lot longer ago than that, but now he was making his possession known she knew that she couldn’t refuse him. She may not have been his mate, but she wanted him with a fire that burned deep within her, and she’d fight for him if she needed too.
Blake carried her into her bedroom and looked for the bed under the mess of clothes that piled high out of the suitcase that resided there. He lifted one hand from her backside and tossed the case and its contents onto the floor with a long growl of annoyance. A moment later he tossed her down onto the bed and she gasped as she sailed through the air looking for his solidity to grab onto.
“What the…?” She demanded, bouncing just once before he was over her body, caging her beneath him as he growled down his intentions. Nadia’s heart slammed into her ribs as she stared up at him. Still a little shocked by the whole tossing her on the bed thing, she went to speak but only managed a squeak instead and that caused him to grin wildly down at her in amusement.
“I intend to claim you as mine.” Blake informed her and she squeaked again. “If you have any objection to that, my little Fae, you’d better tell me now.” Nadia added a blink to her squeak. “Good to hear you say nothing for a change.” Blake chuckled and Nadia squeaked one last time before he claimed her lips in most passionate kiss she had ever experienced.
By the time he let her up for air she was almost naked. He was totally naked and she blinked in surprise. She wasn’t sure when that had happened, how the hell long had he been kissing her for? Did her clothes just give in and fall off?
“Wait, I…?” Nadia head was reeling. She wanted this, she wanted him…
“Too fast?” He teased as he lowered himself to her. Settling his large body against hers, he rested his weight on his elbows and stroked both of his thumbs down her burning hot cheeks as she stared up at him.
“No…” She admitted. Hell, she’d waited what felt like a lifetime for this…
“I promise, Nadia, I will never leave you. You can trust me to be forever faithful to you. I’ll die to protect you and to do everything in my power to make you happy. I know that you’re not my soul mate, but I’ll never treat you any differently than if you were.
“You’re free to leave at anytime you decide you no longer want me, and I’m free to do everything that I can to make sure that you change your mind and stay with me for life. I hope you decide you want pups with me one day and I swear I will always provide everything you need…”
“I need you to shut up and kiss me now.” Nadia found her voice with gusto. He’d probably just pretty much covered every question she could possibly ask him. Nothing else mattered. She had everything she ever wanted right here.
Blake’s lopsided grin came towards her and it was the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes and surrender to his kisses, lots of kisses. Once he claimed her he wouldn’t let her go, and she didn’t want to leave. This was her home, he was her home and she had a family here.
It seemed that Fate had given her everything she had ever wanted; magic and sister’s that wanted her to stay around and on equal terms. Blake and the chance to have a family of her own, pups and a place within the pack community. She’d gone out on her own to find where she could belong and she’d found it. Not only that, but her sister’s had found it too. Why would she ever want to be anywhere else?
The End.
