by V. A. Dold
Rage twisted Lucinda’s expression. “How dare you defy me. And for what?” She spat on the floor at Thomas’s feet. “A low-rent roll in the sack?”
“Now, that’s just nasty, Mother. This is about me and Tommy, my mate. My love life has nothing to do with you.”
She narrowed her eyes at Julia. “That’s it! I’m cutting you off immediately.”
“Okay.”
“I’m not joking, Julia. I make one call, and you will know what it’s like to be poor.”
She snuggled deeper into Tommy’s arms and turned slightly to speak over her shoulder.
“Once we’re mated would you like to live here or buy a new place?”
Thomas grinned at her and tightened his hold. “I don’t know. This is a bit far from Isaac. There’s my brand new two-story, six-bedroom house on my family’s plantation. Or, I could build us a new house halfway between the two. Although the ten million dollars Isaac deposited into my account, last week may not build a house large enough for my lady. For you, only the best will do. Maybe I should take Isaac up on his offer and utilize the family account, that has billions in it, and I have unlimited access to use any of it as I see fit.”
Tapping his lips, he made a sucking noise with his teeth. “But you know, The Backwater is pretty far from the plantation, and I hate the thought of you so far away from me. I think we should relocate the entire place closer to the royal compound and stay in my house for a while until we make up our minds.”
“You think we can lift the whole place and place it on new pilings?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll get my architect on it, and we should be able to have a grand opening by the end of the month.”
Her mother’s eyes were growing larger with each option. “Lies. All lies,” she screamed.
“What lies, Mother?” Thomas frowned.
“Why would Isaac give a human who isn’t blood-related to him a cent. You’re lucky Isaac gave you a job at all. And stop calling me ‘Mother.’”
Thomas arched a brow at her mother. “I’m really beginning to think you don’t like me. It’s time for you to leave.”
Thomas gave Julia a quick kiss before he stepped around her and grabbed Lucinda’s arm.
Her eyes about bulged out of her head, and her jaw actually went slack. “Take your filthy hands off me!”
“See you around, Mother,” Julia smiled and waved. “And say hi to Daddy for me.”
It was the first time in her life she’d seen her mother tossed out of anywhere, and it felt great.
She took Tommy’s hand as he closed the door on Lucinda’s still shrieking face. He flipped the deadbolt as a giggle bubbled up from her throat.
“This must be what it feels like to be truly free.”
He swung her around as they laughed like school children.
“You okay, babe? That was pretty harsh and intense.”
“I’m perfect. I finally feel happy. Really happy. It’s like a ton has been lifted from my shoulders, and if I’m not careful, I’ll float away.”
A new, uncharted future unfolded before her. No—before them. It was beautiful and filled with unlimited possibilities. She was excited to be out from under her mother’s thumb.
As they cuddled on the couch, she expected her phone to start ringing off the hook, but it remained silent. Apparently, her mother didn’t want her father to know what she’d been up to. That was okay—for now.
Thomas tipped her chin to look into her eyes. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Absolutely.”
Thomas turned her hand up and kissed the center of her palm. “So, didn’t we have a first date to enjoy?”
She gave him a saucy grin. “I vote we stay home and watch action movies instead. I’m all pumped up and could use a Die Hard marathon.”
Thomas gave her an amused grin. “You’re a Bruce fan? Now I know I’m in love.”
“Remember that when I want to watch a chick flick.”
As Thomas set up the movie, Julia made popcorn. She paused for a moment and sighed. As horrible as her mother could be, the little girl in her wanted her mother to change and be the loving parent she had been. She wasn’t sure what had happened to change her mother, but about one hundred years ago she started to go a little crazy, and now she was straight up insane. I wonder if the healers can cure crazy?
“Goodbye, Momma,” she whispered to the empty kitchen.
She hoped one day her mother would be normal again, but she seriously worried it would never happen. The person she worried about the most was her father. They were mated, and if her mother died, he would, too. She wasn’t sure she could take losing her father.
Walking into the living room, she smiled at Tommy. Thank Goddess for him.
He reached out and took the bowl filled with popcorn so she could snuggle up beside him. “The price for the movie is a kiss,” he teased.
“I don’t know. That’s a pretty high price,” she teased back.
Laughing, he pulled her in for a long kiss that would have steamed the windows of his car.
Leaning his forehead against hers, he caught his breath. “Okay, it’s Die Hard time.”
Twenty minutes into the movie Thomas was dying to talk about their mating relationship. They had both seen the movie multiple times so why not talk, between the action scenes.
“You know what I smell whenever you come near me?”
Julia glanced away from the TV and grinned. “What?”
“Freshly fallen snow. A crisp winter day in Denver.”
“Really?” Julia scrunched up her nose. “I’ve never even seen snow.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No. I’ve never been anywhere but Louisiana.”
“First thing we do once we’re mated is go someplace with snow,” Thomas declared. “That’s just not right.”
Julia laughed at his distraught expression. “I smell warm spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, when you come near.”
“Spicy,” Thomas nodded with a manly, satisfied grin. “I like spicy.”
Julia gave him a playful swat on the arm. “Don’t let it go to your head, he-man.”
Thomas laughed and hugged her tighter to show just how strong and manly he was.
Were you able to sense me as your mate during the gathering, even though you’re still human?
Thomas liked using telepathy. Now he appreciated and understood the intimacy of that way of communication.
I had a strong attraction to you and couldn’t stop staring at you. And I caught your scent. He thought it through further. And we can talk telepathically, so, yeah, I guess so.
“No one else can smell your snowy perfume but me, right?” Thomas asked.
“Nope.” Julia grinned. “That’s reserved only for my mate.”
“Did you have a strong reaction to my voice? Cade said when the male shifter hears his mate’s voice the effect is amazing. That your animal soul recognizes its other half.”
“Yeah, I did. It was pretty shocking. I’m surprised it didn’t knock me off my feet. But there’s really no way to describe it. The effect certainly assured me I had found my mate. You’re the only person who can complete me.”
“I know from talking to my mom that the mating is more permanent than any human wedding can ever be. That being said, she still had a wedding, but Rose and Simon chose not to, and then Stefan and El kind of did a quick wedding at the gathering. What do you want to do?”
“It’s true that a mate is like being married, and yet so much more. Since we were created to complete each other by each having the other’s half of a soul, once the pieces are joined there’s no separating that. I guess I need to think about the whole wedding thing. Until now I hadn’t given it much thought.”
“To tell the truth, neither have I. I never felt anything more than physical attraction for a woman before I met you. So, there was no reason to think about getting married. Is that because I was de
stined to be your mate? Did my half of the soul prevent me from getting too attached?”
“Maybe.” Julia thought about it and then added, “I would bet it did.”
“I’m excited to be able to shift. Is the mating ritual the same for me? Or is it different when the man is human, and the woman is the shifter?”
“It’s still the same except I will recite the words first since I’m the shifter. Have any of the guys described the claiming to you? You understand being a mate and the combining of our souls, right?”
“Cade and Mom explained a little when we first found out she was a shifter, but, needless to say, they didn’t go into details. That would have been too many levels of wrong.”
“As far as the ritual goes, when we do it, it’s going to be a little backward. Usually, the man says the first part and the woman says the second, but, since I’m the shifter, I’ll say the first part. There are several parts to the ritual.”
“Hold that thought. Let me grab a pen and paper so I can write everything down. Since I wasn’t imprinted with the ritual words, I’ll need to memorize them.”
“Ready?”
“All set.”
“First there is the request, where I ask you formally if you will give yourself to me to make me complete. I will ask you:
‘Will you give yourself, body and soul, to complete this woman and her wolf?
‘Will you unite your life with mine, bond your future with mine, and merge your half of our soul to mine, and in doing so complete the mating ritual?’
“The second part is your response:
‘I will give myself, body and soul, to complete you as a woman and a wolf.
‘I will unite my life with yours, bond my future to yours, and merge my half of our soul with yours.
‘I will complete the mating ritual with you.’
“Then we make love as I make my vow to you:
‘I claim you as my mate.
‘I belong to you as you belong to me.
‘I give you my heart and my body.
‘I will protect you even with my life.
‘I give you all I am.
‘I share my half of our soul to complete you.
‘I share my magic with you.’ Here is where I bite your neck, then say:
‘I beseech the great Luna Goddess to bless you and your wolf guardian.
‘You are my mate to cherish today and for all time.
‘I claim you as my mate.’
“Then you say those same words to me and bite me in the same manner. Do you have any questions?”
Thomas shook his head as he furiously wrote the last few words.
Looking closely at Thomas’s hair, she slowly ran her fingers through it and watched the multitude of colors and highlights flash in the table lamp’s glow. “I’m guessing you will be more of a brownish or tan wolf.”
Julia’s wolf voiced its approval at her assessment.
“I can hear you rumbling, babe.” Thomas chuckled.
“Around you, I can’t seem to help myself.” She shrugged.
“Since I’m in my mid-twenties, I won’t have any physical changes like Mom and Rose had. I’ll just get my wolf soul, my wolf, and special gift. Right?”
“Yes. By the way, do you have any special abilities now as a human?”
Thomas told Julia all about his super sensor for violence and trouble. They both agreed that his sense would more than likely be enhanced by the conversion. It was a little scary to think of it getting stronger than it already was.
“Don’t forget. You’ll also have a longer life. Shifters live to be around fourteen hundred years old. I’m one hundred ninety myself.”
“That makes you a cougar, doesn’t it?” Thomas teased.
Julia gaped at him and swatted him a good one for that remark. Her flabbergasted expression made him laugh even harder.
“Hey, I just thought of something,” Thomas said with a frown. “If you’re one hundred sixty-five years older than me, are you going to start aging again at nine hundred and leave me behind? I don’t think I like that idea.”
“From what I’ve been told the mates somehow sync their aging process. I will ask around to see if you will age sooner or if my aging will take longer while I wait for you to catch up.”
“I don’t care which way it goes as long as we do it together,” Thomas said with a happy smile.
“That’s my man,” Julia said as she snuggled closer to him again.
“Since you’re over one hundred, did you ever have to change your identity to cover up your age?”
“Only once so far. I was born with the name Emily.”
“That’s a pretty name. But I like Julia better.”
“Thanks,” Julia blushed at his compliment. “I liked being able to choose my own name versus being stuck with the one my mother chose.”
Thomas was in heaven holding Julia close and watching an action movie. He couldn’t imagine a better first date.
Chapter Eight
The last couple of days had passed quickly, and today Jack and Michael were scheduled to arrive at the Le Beau plantation after sundown. Thomas knew once the guys came to the plantation, he would be very busy, so he made a plan.
He couldn’t wait another minute to see Julia again. The past two days had been agonizing, and the foreseeable future looked even less promising.
Women like surprises, right?
He thought his plan to show up unannounced was perfect. He would surprise her for a lunch date and maybe get a kiss or two.
What he hadn’t expected was a hot tub…and certainly not the bikini.
Pulling his boat up to the pier at The Backwater, Thomas was hot and sweaty. March in the mountains of Colorado was cold, and snow followed by more cold and snow. In the bayou of Louisiana, the average temperature was in the seventies, and the humidity was ninety percent. Good Lord, with this much moisture in the air, shouldn’t it just rain?
As he approached her front door, he heard music on the other side of the house. He rounded the corner and daaammn! She was in a hot tub he hadn’t remembered seeing the other night.
Sheeee-it! What was that song about an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, polka dot bikini? Whatever it was, he was living it. In technicolor, no less.
Son-of-a-bitch, now his tongue was numb. Had it fallen out? He glanced around his feet as if he would find it lying there.
The weather wasn’t the only thing making Thomas hot.
And sweaty, and more than a little bit bothered.
Julia was relaxing with her head leaning back over the padded edge of the hot tub, eyes shut. He wasn’t sure if she was napping or awake.
Apparently, that distinction didn’t matter to his mouth. It was watering like an out of control sprinkler over her display of enticing cleavage and curves.
It didn’t seem to matter to his lower extremities either. His body had exploded to life. All he had to do was stand there and gawk for his libido to rev into overdrive.
That’s when his heart started pounding, and he panicked. Should he announce he was here? Or back off and pretend he’d just arrived?
Crud. What was the best way to handle this? He didn’t want to be a peeping tom pervert, and yet he didn’t want to lie to her either.
Holy cow. I am one lucky bastard, was all he could formulate in his mind as his eyes traveled over every bit of flesh he could see.
She was incredible.
He recalled the old pinup posters his father had on the walls in the garage. If he was right, they were the sex symbols of the forties. Julia would give any one of them a run for their money.
Suddenly the hair on the back of her neck stood up, and a prickle of awareness slammed through her body. Thomas was near. She slowly turned around to see if he was really there.
Aw, shit!
Julia squeaked in alarm when she saw the silhouette of a man standing at the edge of the house. With the sun at his back, s
he couldn’t see who it was. On reflex, the items on the table beside the hot tub rose in the air, ready to do battle.
“It’s me, Thomas,” he quickly shouted. “Please, don’t whack me with those.”
“Oh.” The items settled back to the tabletop as if they had never moved. Exhaling her alarm away, she watched him place his hands on his hips, as his shoulders rose and fell with the deep breaths he took. She must have startled him as badly as he had her.
He only half heard her response, thanks to the blood pounding in his ears. With her turned the way she was, he could see all of her. And he meant ALL of her from the waist up.
Holy fright! She was in a microscopic red bikini that barely covered her nipples. A blessedly, barely there scrap of material only he would be seeing on her from this second forward. An itsy, bitsy, swimsuit he would be fantasizing about pulling off with his teeth for weeks to come. Hell, maybe months.
Damn. This was the best moment of his life. And he would be sporting wood every time he pictured her in that hot tub just like this.
Finding his brain cells, he was finally able to string words together. “Good Lord, babe,” Thomas growled as he walked to the edge of the tub. “You look amazing. Those classic pin-up girls from the forties have nothing on you.”
Julia made an unladylike sound. “Yeah, right,” she scoffed.
Thomas frowned. “I mean it. You’re smoking hot.” Then he quickly looked around as if to verify they were alone. “You don’t let other guys see you in that bathing suit, do you?”
“Hell no! If I had known you were coming over, you wouldn’t be seeing it either.”
He chuckled at her disgruntled expression. “Then I’m damn glad I didn’t call ahead. There’s no way I would miss this view.”
Thomas cupped her face and gave her a proper hello kiss.
“If my embarrassment comes with a dozen of those, I will gladly suffer the humiliation.”
“You have dibs on all my kisses from now on.”
“The last time a man saw me in a bikini, well, let’s just say, he had some very derogatory comments. But if you like it, I’m happy to oblige.”
“Who’s the ass? I’ll beat the crap out of him.”
