by Tia Louise
Lifting his chin, he grins at me. “I’ve always wanted a lynx.” The door is open, but he pauses just inside it. “And Cora loved me. I thought I might find her again in one of you.”
With that he’s gone. The men from the council are right behind him, and Slayde is quick to follow, patting me on the shoulder and shaking Koa’s hand. “I’m leaving with Derek, but I wanted you to know, I’m proud of you. I don’t know many shifters who would single-handedly storm the underworld.”
Koa only shakes his head. “Don’t even. Thank you is not strong enough to express how I feel right now.”
My heart is full as I watch them both. “My family owes you a huge debt of gratitude,” I say.
“I was only working off the leads Koa found.” He’s at the door, but he steps back once more. “Take care of him, Mercy.”
“I will,” I say, holding Koa’s arm and smiling as I watch them go.
Revelations
Koa
Doris is banging around her kitchen when we arrive back at my apartment. I vaguely remember Jim’s truck being left out at the campground, and I wonder if he ever went and retrieved it. I still don’t know how long I was gone.
Mercy is on my arm. We haven’t stopped touching each other since I walked through the door and found her, and as much as I’m ready to head upstairs and make up for lost time, I touch her hand. “Give me just a minute,” I say, looking toward the house.
“One minute,” she purrs, stepping forward and pulling my shoulders for a kiss. Our lips meet, and she catches my bottom one between her teeth. It’s enough to make me almost forget my errand.
“Hold that thought,” I say, slapping her ass as I turn toward the house.
Inside the small kitchen, my landlady is opening and closing cabinet doors, grumbling under her breath. “Where is that damned blood meal?”
“Doris?” I hold the metal door as it closes to keep it from slamming. Still she jumps at the sound of my voice.
“Kona! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
Looking down, I shake my head. “I don’t think you’ll have a heart attack.” Then I look up to catch her eye. “Who are you?”
Moving to the other side of the kitchen, she turns the heat off under a large pot on the stove. “I’m your landlady Doris White. Are you doing those weed drugs all the kids are into these days?”
Reaching for her arm, I stop her movements. “Cut the crap. Who are you really, Doris White? I know there’s a lot more going on here than little old lady bullshit.”
Stepping back against the cabinet, she crosses her arms hard over her chest as if she’s pissed. For a moment or two she only looks at me, considering my question, turning it over in her mind like she’s weighing all sides of the matter.
“It’s like I said before. I’m your great aunt. You’re my adopted sister’s kid.”
“My great aunt?” Straightening, I try to think of any relatives I remember being adopted. “Why don’t I know about you?”
“Your mother, my adopted sister’s kid, wanted a ‘normal life.’” She makes little curly cues with her fingers as she says normal life. “She didn’t like all this paranormal activity. Witches and such.”
“My dad was a shifter.”
“Exactly, and I blame his sorry ass for turning her away from her gifts.” She resumes banging around her kitchen. “Your mother was a beautiful witch. Her aura…” She straightens, pushing lavender hair out of her face, “was the most gorgeous shade of blue-violet. And her powers… Well, they were truly immense.”
I feel like my head is spinning. “Are you trying to say—”
“Your mother was a great witch? Why is that so hard for you to accept?”
Thinking back, I can only shake my head, remembering. My mother was a professor. She made me come right home after school and do my homework. She cooked me mac and cheese and complained when I got into boxing. She disapproved of just about everything I did from the moment I hit puberty until I was kicked out of the pack.
“She was always so… normal.”
“Welp,” Doris sighs, holding up a hand and shaking her head. “That’s what she wanted. Your mother was perfect at anything she set her mind to doing.”
“Well, she was perfectly fucking normal.”
“Language, you brute!” She opens another drawer and lets out a little squeal. “Well, fuck me, I found it!”
That makes me laugh. “So you drew me here?”
She ducks her head and tilts her hand side to side. “With the help of the ley line. I needed you to save Mercy.”
“How did you know I’d be able to save her?”
Pausing mid-brew, Doris leans against the counter, and a dreamy look fills her eyes. “I knew from the moment I saw that beautiful baby lynx she was perfect for you.” She gives me a little smile and pats my arm. “Sounds like I was right, yes?”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “How the hell did you know Mercy as a baby?”
“Oh, her great aunt was my best friend. Persephone wasn’t very smart, but she was smart enough to get her ass out of the underworld.”
Catching her narrow shoulders, I make her stop and face me. “What was in that vial?”
She sighs. “I knew from your grades in school you never were one to apply yourself…”
“You sound like my mom.”
“I worried as soon as you got there, you’d drink from that River Lethe—”
“Which I did.”
She nods, pressing her thin lips together. “I concocted that little potion from the Narcissus flower. Loads of galantamine.”
“Galantamine?”
“It’s actually not such a mysterious ingredient. Scientists are testing it as a treatment for dementia.”
Leaning back against the counter, I look up at the tiny flowers on my newfound aunt’s ancient wallpaper. “Have you ever felt like your entire life is not what you thought?”
“All the time.” She pats my arm. “You get used to it in this business.”
All at once, I’m feeling grateful, humbled… and undeserving. “After all I’ve done…” I look down thinking of my past, my record. “I don’t deserve her, Aunt D.”
The small woman drops her spoon in the pot with a loud CLANG! She returns to stand right in front of me, holding both my arms. Her head barely clears the center of my chest.
“You have a heart of gold, Koa.” Her eyes are serious, and I don’t miss she said my name right for the first time. “I knew you would redeem your past. After what you did, you’re worthy to rejoin your pack… if that’s what you want.” Releasing me, she gives me a wink. “You just needed Mercy.”
I lean down and hug the little woman, who isn’t really my aunt. Still, I’ll go with it. “I guess that makes Jim my cousin?”
“In a round about sort of way.”
Straightening up, I have to ask. “What happened to him anyway?”
“Ahh,” she shakes her head. “Wandered into the middle of a sparring spell I was crafting. Got hit right in the head, bless his heart. I thought we’d lose him for a little bit.”
“He’s a good guy, though.”
“He can’t help it. It runs in the family.”
* * *
Mercy
Koa’s strong arms surround me, and I close my eyes as my body hums with all the beautiful sensations of this moment. The sun has set, the moon is on the rise, and I know bright sunshine will greet us when the morning comes. My gorgeous panther is in my arms, and I’m taking deep breaths of freedom.
When Slayde and I fell through the crack between the worlds, all I wanted was to get back here to my love. When I discovered he had gone after me, that he was left behind in the underworld, I almost had a breakdown.
No one would let me return to find him, but I couldn’t rest knowing he was somewhere in that place searching for me. If Slayde hadn’t assured me he had a plan that included both breaking my family’s pact and freeing Koa, I would have sneaked away and returned on my own.<
br />
“I was so afraid I wouldn’t reach you in time,” he says, kissing my neck, leaving a trail of fire following the path of his lips. “I kept getting trapped or being caught. I made stupid mistakes…”
“I held onto your promise to save me the entire time,” I answer, circling my fingers in the sides of his hair as his lips move lower to my breasts.
My breath inhales sharply as his large hands cup them, squeezing them as he kisses and slides his tongue over my sensitive nipples. We’ve been apart so long, my insides ache for him to fill me, stretch me, make me come.
“I saw you the night I was taken.” His mouth moves lower, to the top of my ribcage. “The door slammed, but I saw your beautiful face.”
He’s kissing a trail down my body, and I’m losing the ability to think. “Your gorgeous body was the only thing in my dreams. Oh!” I jump as his tongue makes a lazy pass over my clit.
His mouth covers me, and he’s massaging, circling, driving me wild. “Oh, god!” I gasp, threading my fingers in his hair as my hips follow the movements of his mouth. It’s been so long since we were in this place.
Slow passes, figure eights, his tongue moves down, and my hips rise off the bed. The tension in my pelvis tightens, and my eyes flutter closed as the orgasm ripples in my thighs.
“Don’t stop! Please don’t stop!” I’m on the edge, dying for him to take me.
He gives me two more firm licks, and I lose it, shuddering, quaking, crying his name as he kisses my lower belly, grinning against my skin. I only have to wait a moment before he blows my mind. His enormous cock lines up with my core and with a hard, possessive thrust he’s inside, balls deep and pushing.
“Jesus, Mercy,” he groans deep in my ear. “You are so fucking good.”
Large hands grip my ass, and I’m flying. He’s working me, pounding out his orgasm, and I’m riding waves of bliss. His movements, the friction of our bodies has me climbing again, but in that moment, I feel the scrape of his fangs over my neck.
“Oh, god, yes!” I wail, holding his face and turning my head. It’s only a moment before I feel the prick of his teeth on my skin. He draws my blood and my body ignites. I scream with the intensity of my second orgasm, even more powerful than the first.
As my insides clench, in one powerful burst, he lets go, swearing and groaning as he fills me, pulsing deep in my core. I feel every move, every jerk and throb of his cock.
“Oh, god, Koa.” My voice is a ragged whimper. My arms are limp around his shoulders.
He gradually slows and then holds me so tight in his arms. I feel as though I’ve ascended to the most beautiful place in the universe. Nothing compares to these moments of oneness with my beautiful panther.
Lifting his head, he looks deep in my eyes. “You and I will never be apart. Not ever again.”
I smile, touching his lips with the tips of my fingers. “No more going ahead without me, sending for me once you’ve found a place?”
“My place is wherever you are.”
“And my heart will always belong to you.”
He moves to the side, and I curl into him. His large hand strokes the skin of my back in warm circles. My entire body relaxes into him.
“I had pretty much decided my life was over when I set out from Princeton,” he says, and I love the vibration of his low voice.
“Then you came here,” I say with a grin.
His warm hand cups my chin, lifting it so our eyes meet. “I’d do it all again so we could be together. I love you, Mercy.”
Reaching for him, I pull my body against his, the warmth of completion hugging around my heart. “I love you, Koa. I can’t wait to start our life together.”
He leans down, nibbling the side of my neck. Shivers scatter down my body, and I laugh in delight. “We’ll start our life tomorrow. Tonight I’m catching up on everything I missed.”
“Insatiable,” I purr against the side of his face. He rises and captures my lips, pushing them apart and taking me with an aggressive growl. It’s incredible and amazing and everything I want.
He lifts his head and looks deep in my eyes. “We’ve been to hell and back. The only thing left for us is heaven.”
His gorgeous mouth covers mine, and heaven is right where he takes me.
The End.
New Start
Koa
Soft beige sand slips between our toes as we walk along the shoreline barefoot. Breakers crash, and the briny air pushes Mercy’s long dark waves behind us. The day is cool, but our shifter blood keeps us warm, and Mercy is hugged tight against my side, my arm around her shoulders as we walk. She’s holding my waist with a contented smile on her lips.
Bayville, New Jersey, is a far cry from San Francisco. I still can’t believe Mercy agreed to go east instead of west when we finally sorted out her situation in Woodland Creek.
Once Hayden was exposed as the lying motherfucker he is, he returned in a self-righteous godlike huff to the underworld to lick his wounds, and I’m sure regroup to resume his trickery on some other unsuspecting female.
Mercy stayed with me in my aunt’s garage apartment until she was sure Dylan and Penny were settled and could stay in the mansion. The High Council granted her family ownership rights of the house and the grounds as restitution for all the years they’d been enslaved to Hayden. He claimed he didn’t want the place anyway.
We were all set to head west when Slayde called me out of the blue one night.
“We could use a guy like you,” he’d said, an unexpected smile in his voice. “Instead of starting over alone in a new city, think about coming home where you have friends.”
Friends. Yes, we are friends. Saving Mercy had changed everything, and my old bitterness at his work and his new life has been washed away.
Still, I couldn’t ask Mercy to give up her dreams. It’s exactly what Hayden had done. I hadn’t expected my beautiful little lynx to be right at my shoulder listening to our conversation.
“Derek Alexander gave Slayde a second chance,” she’d said later that evening after I’d fucked her royally and was holding her in my arms. “Who says he couldn’t do the same for you?”
“Mercy,” I exhaled against her skin, pressing my lips against her beautiful neck where I’d tasted her. “I found my second chance the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Pushing me onto my back, she’d propped her elbows on my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes. “Tell me about Princeton. Could I do my art there?”
“Slayde and Kenny actually live in Bayville. It’s a little coastal town about forty-five minutes away. Kenny is a painter.”
Her eyes light, and she smiles. “A beach and a painter. Maybe she and I will be friends.”
Rolling her over, her small body is back under me, and I’m trying to decide if I’ll ever grow tired of having her near me. Our separation almost finished me.
“You missed out on so much being trapped here. I want you to have everything you dreamed about.”
Slim fingers thread in the sides of my hair. “I never dreamed about you, and now I wouldn’t want to live without you.”
Leaning down, I capture her lips briefly. “If you want to try New Jersey instead of California, I won’t argue,” I say. “I would like the chance to make amends with my mother.”
Doris’s revelation is heavy on my mind. I thought my mother had been a perfectly normal human when she raised me. I never knew the secret she was hiding.
“No decision is permanent.” Her soft lips cover mine, and my hunger for her returns quickly. “We can try one place, and if we’re not happy, we can go somewhere else.”
“You’re reveling in your freedom,” I chuckle. “I get it.”
“You’re damn right I am,” she says. Since her escape from Hayden, she’s grown even stronger, which I love. “No one will hold me prisoner ever again.”
* * *
The Riverside Condos on Tom’s River in Bayville are a far cry from the Quinlan-Strong mansion in Woodland Creek. They’
re a few steps above my garage apartment, but it’s still a shock for my girl.
“It’s so… quaint.” I hear the nervousness in her voice, and I laugh.
“You’re such a princess,” Walking through the small place, I survey the laminate flooring, cheesy wallpaper, and fluorescent lights. “I bet we can spruce this place up. Maybe no marble floors and limestone accents, but we’ll make it more homey.”
In a sweep she’s in my arms, holding my shoulders, her blue eyes urgent. “I don’t care about those things, Koa, you believe me?”
She’s so serious I kill the laughter, and hug her. “I do believe you, babe. I know what you’ve been through.”
“Even before Hayden, I didn’t care. I only ever wanted to be normal.”
“Well, this is about as normal as it gets.”
I’m just about to lean down to kiss her full, beautiful lips when my phone goes off. Pulling it out of my chest pocket, I see Slayde’s name on the face.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” I give her a peck on the cheek and walk to the small balcony.
The nice thing about our condo is it’s located right on the river. I can walk out and see the body of water most residents use to access the Atlantic.
“Hey, I know you’re getting settled in.” His voice is serious, and I’m impressed by how much he’s changed. “I appreciate you taking a chance on working with us.”
“Alexander-Knight saved Mercy,” I say, referencing our new employer. “Whatever went down in the past is water under the bridge.”
“I’m glad to hear it because our dealings have caused quite a stir in the subculture.”
That surge of protectiveness tightens my stomach. “What’s going on?”
“I’d rather not discuss it over the phone. Is there any way you could drive into Princeton? Derek would like to have a meeting with the team. That includes you now.”
“I’m on my way.” My fist has tightened over the slim phone, and my mind is already sorting through the possibilities.
