by K. L. Kreig
His eyes fell shut. He felt his body roll. He had to take care of her, of his queen, but he was so damn tired he couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Could barely breathe.
“Sleep”, her sultry voice coaxed.
“I need to take care of you.” Did he speak out loud?
“No arguments. You need sleep.”
Just for a minute, he thought to himself. Maybe just for a minute.
This time, when sleep wound her tempting fingers around him and pulled tight, he fell into her knowing that when he woke he would be a brand new man.
A better man.
The one he was always meant to be.
A vampire’s mate.
21
4 weeks later…
Giselle
“Breathe.” She shivered as her mate’s lips brushed against the shell of her ear. His hands rested lightly on her hips and she couldn’t help but press herself back into him. Mike seemed to have his wits about him. She hoped they rubbed off on her. She could use a whole boatload of them about now. “No need to be nervous, baby.”
“Like you’re any better,” she chided in a hushed voice. She felt the tension coiled inside him.
“We’re going to be fine,” he said quietly, thoroughly meaning it. He was so sure, so confident, but how could he be? This would be like the blind leading the blind. Neither of them had a clue what they were doing. There really should be a licensing process for this, she’d decided. Mandatory training classes, annual recertification, board exams. How was it possible to suddenly inherit responsibility for another life without a sole qualification? No wonder there were so many fucked-up people roaming around.
“Besides, we have a village of help,” he added with conviction.
There was that. Weeks ago when Giselle originally had this crazy-ass idea, she was bound and determined to do it on her own. Well, her and her mate. She didn’t want help from others because help equated to failure and failure led to judgment. But she’d come to realize the kind of assistance and advice given to her by Kate, Sarah, and Analise was out of some weird affection and understanding, not scrutiny or derision.
Giselle and Mike stood beside her crib, watching her sleep, watching her breath. Making sure they were there the second she woke up and needed them. Mainly they just stood there in awe of her.
Jade.
Their daughter.
The morning after bonding, Giselle talked to Mike about baby number one. She’d been nervous, not knowing how he’d feel about it, particularly after they’d just become mates. They had so much to learn about each other and throwing a new baby in the mix might not be the best of ideas, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t let the idea go without at least talking to him about it.
She should have known better, though. Mike was supportive. Encouraging even.
* * *
“Something’s on your mind. What is it?”
“Reading my thoughts already?” she hummed against his neck. She ran her hands down his strong back, scraping her nails against his flesh on the way back up. She’d never get used to how heavenly his nakedness felt against hers or how perfectly his body weight pinned her beneath him.
“No, but I’ve been reading your emotions for weeks and I know you’re anxious about something. What is it?”
She pulled back, surprised. “You’ve been feeling my emotions?”
His lips quirked. God, that smug look hooked her every time. “Yep.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t really understand what it was at first and besides, even if I did, you weren’t ready to hear it.”
She diverted her eyes, but he gently grabbed her chin and brought her back. “Spill,” he quietly encouraged.
Well…here goes nothing. “I met someone.” His eyes bugged and she laughed, realizing how that sounded. “She’s tiny and sweet and vulnerable and all alone. She’s…” Giselle paused, trying to find the right words. “…absolute perfection.”
“Yes,” he mumbled sweetly against her mouth before taking it in a searing kiss.
“I haven’t even asked you anything yet.”
“You don’t need to, baby. If she brings out this blinding blaze inside you, that’s all that matters.”
* * *
The genuine excitement she’d felt when she’d talked about Jade was infectious. They’d decided together, though, that it would be best to wait just a while. Mike needed time to adjust to his rapidly changing body. She estimated he’d gained about fifty pounds of pure muscle over the course of the last few weeks and if she’d thought he was insanely sexy before, he was a demigod now. Vampire looked awfully fucking good on him. She was damp just thinking about how taut and virile he was. Everywhere.
“You’d better stop thinking those salacious thoughts, my mate, or I’ll have to have to take you in the other room and fuck them out of you.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing,” she taunted silently.
“I feel like you’re challenging my manhood, baby.”
“And if I am?”
They’d no sooner taken half a step in the direction of their bedroom when Jade stirred, making those cute little sleep noises that she did when she dreamed. They froze, all thoughts of lust and toe-curling sex evaporating in a flash.
“Cockblocked by my own daughter. Ouch. I suppose I’d better get used to that, huh?” His chuckle slid all the way to her now wet and ready core.
“I think we just need to learn to take advantage of when she naps, instead of staring at her.”
“Or we can just get a babysitter.”
“To have sex?” she asked incredulously.
“It’s called date night, baby.”
“We just brought her home yesterday. I don’t think we need a date night already.”
“And I haven’t been inside you yet today. That’s unacceptable, mate.”
She turned in his arms and wound her limbs around his neck. The love she saw floored her. She was pretty sure it always would. “I love you, Mike. Thank you for this. For her.”
Pushing some stray hairs behind her ear, he said, “I wanted her as much as you did, Giselle.”
While they’d decided they needed to wait to make things official, they’d spent all of their free time with Jade over the past few weeks. They’d bonded as a family well before they officially were and when it became harder and harder to leave her behind at night, they knew it was time.
So yesterday they finally brought their sweet baby girl home.
And insecurities reared their ugly, vicious heads once again.
“What if I’m too lenient?”
“Then I’ll be the disciplinarian,” he answered plainly.
“What if I’m too strict?”
“Then I’ll be the favorite,” he chuckled in jest. That made her smile. He probably would be anyway.
“What if she gets you wrapped around her pinky finger?”
“She already has, just like her mammi,” he breathed.
Oh God. She’s a mammi.
Her stomach flipped in excitement, but nerves piggybacked on top, making her feel sick.
“What if I can’t love her like she deserves?” she barely whispered. She was barely getting the hang of being a mate, let alone a parent. It was a daunting, overwhelming, disheartening thought.
He cupped a cheek and bore his gaze into hers. She knew this look. Steely determination. She loved this side of him the most. If not for his grit, they wouldn’t be bonded. If not for his insistent, gentle prodding, she would have talked herself out of adopting this perfect little being.
“Not. Fucking. Possible. If your love for her is a tenth of what it is for me, she’ll be the luckiest girl in the whole world.” It was. It is.
A smile tried to break free. He always knew the right thing to say to squash the negative into mush. “You can’t swear around her, you know. I read that kids are like sponges. They absorb everything. We don’t want her first word to be fuck.”
Mike’s
lips curled in amusement. “Hmmm. Maybe you’ll have to punish me until I get it right.”
“That sounds like a good reinforcement technique,” she hummed.
His eyes fell to her bottom lip, watching his thumb rub it back and forth, back and forth. His attention had shifted solely to her, but hers was still on Jade. “What if I mess up?”
Hot lips met her mouth. “We both will,” he mumbled, washing out her moan. “And then we’ll make it right again.”
The next insecurity was almost out when the softness of sheets surrounded her and her clothes were being ripped off. “Mike…”
He came flush with her, pinning her arms above her head. Her sex went liquid, her nipples strained, needing his mouth, and her body started moving for him. She’d let him dominate her before, but now that his strength almost equaled hers, there was no letting about it. He dominated every single part of her, pushing her to her limits but never over. “Every protest is another second without me inside that sweet, wet, tight body, Giselle,” he replied on a heave. “Is that what you want?”
She shook her head. No, no, that isn’t what I want.
“Good.” Reaching down, he freed his velvety steel rod and without even removing his jeans, slid inside in one long drive, the denim abrading her bare thighs. When he hit the end of her womb he groaned but stilled. “Besides, we only have half an hour before we need to wake her anyway. The guest of honor can’t be late to her own party.”
The baby shower.
Christ, how could she have forgotten?
“And don’t look like that. You know you’re excited about it.”
“I am not,” she protested.
“Yeah, you are,” he breathed into her neck as he began moving in the most delicious of ways. He had her panting in short order, her objections now halfhearted at best. “I overheard you talking to Jade about it.”
“I was…just…warning her.” Giselle gasped her reply between pumps that were getting rougher and quicker with each shift of his hips. She was already balancing precariously on the tip of a climax that was beginning to wash through her.
Her eyes fluttered open when he stilled again. She was overflowing with protests now that had nothing to do with balloons, presents, oohs and ahhs, and unwanted attention.
“Remember what I said about lying?”
Shit. The rat bastard.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” No, he wasn’t a rat bastard. He was a smug bastard. “I know how much you enjoy your orgasms, baby.”
It didn’t take her mate long to find and withhold the one thing that would get her to confess anything and everything, every fucking time.
Moving again, he was slow. Too slow. Too teasing. Too effortless to give her that final push. His curved, wicked mouth hovered over one erect bud, waiting. She knew exactly what he had in mind. It was his favorite spot to feed from her. And for some ungodly reason, his mouth suckling at her breast threw her into a wild orgasm like nothing else.
“Okay, fine. I may be the teeniest tiniest bit excited,” she confessed. Deliriously, stupidly, unreasonably excited. No one had ever thrown a party for her before, and even if it was for Jade it was also for her, too. “Happy?”
“Oh yeah. I’m deliriously”—nip—“stupidly”—nip—“unreasonably”—nip— “happy.”
“God, you’re such an asshole,” she chided, but there was no truth behind it. She loved that she didn’t have to keep anything from him. That she could be who she was and when she strayed, when she felt unworthy and scared, he’d find her and bring her back to him, reminding her she was loved now and forever.
“I know, but I’m your asshole, right?”
Yes was but a perishable thought because his teeth had now pierced her flesh and she was coming apart at the seams, trying hard not to scream Mike’s name, waking their daughter prematurely.
Next time she’d need to try harder. Jade’s angry wail filled the house and Mike’s frustrated panting filled her ears. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he mumbled against her tightened nipple, flicking it hard with his tongue.
“I’m sorry,” she moaned, still mostly lost in her postorgasmic haze. “I’ll get her.”
One last pull then he licked the tiny punctures closed and bounded off the bed, leaving her cold and empty, but satisfied and smiling.
“I’ll get her.”
She loved her baby girl more than her next heartbeat, but not having her mate all to herself anytime she wanted would definitely take some getting used to. She may have to rethink this “date night” idea. “You sure?” she asked, stretching her arms above her head teasingly, letting the hair she’d pulled through her fingers fan out around her.
An arm came down on either side of her head. His mouth swooped in to take hers. Her blood hummed and her body immediately came alive. “I’m sure, you wicked temptress. Now, take a quick shower and get ready to be fawned over.” Her mouth turned down at that sickening thought. “And maybe practice turning that frown upside-down.” He laughed as he strode nude out of their room.
“Hey, you can’t let her see your junk flopping around. You’ll scar her!” she yelled after him. His only reply was to laugh harder, but it still didn’t drown out Jade’s short, high, escalating cries.
Giselle stayed still, waiting with anxiousness until their little girl’s cries abruptly stopped. Then she heard Mike’s low, gruff voice soothing her. Telling her she’d cost him an orgasm and that his balls were bluer than the Pacific. Then she heard him tell her he was going to gag her mammi next time they had sex so they could finish without Giselle’s wails waking her up.
Oh my God.
What the hell kind of parents were they going to be if they walked around naked and talked about sex in front of their daughter?
“Fucking good ones,” her mate’s growly voice echoed in her head. “Now…get that fine ass in the shower and stop stalling.”
“But…”
“No buts, baby. Everyone’s waiting.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, knowing there was no way out of this absurd human ritual.
Epilogue
Everyone was there. The whole fucking gang and then some. All the Lords and their mates, of course. Ren, Thane, Manny. All the lieutenants. Hell, even Geoffrey and Rom’s brother, Taiven, were here, huddled in the corner discussing something that seemed serious. And if she wasn’t mistaken, there were a few females from the shelter who she may have grunted at once or twice in passing because she had no choice.
This entire thing was out of control.
It was supposed to be a “small” event, according to Sarah. “Just a few people,” Sarah said. Since when did a few mean thirty? “Just an hour,” she’d told Giselle. They were now going on two. “Just light finger food and a couple of gifts for Jade.” Shit, there was enough food here to feed a small village for a week and presents upon presents littered the entire length of two eight-foot tables, spilling onto the floor all around them. Did babies need all that crap?
Asinine.
She was shaking her head at what she let herself be talked into when Ren moseyed up beside her. “You look like you’re ready to breathe fire,” he mused on a laugh.
“I think they’re doing this on purpose,” she spat back. She’d taken up residence across the room lest she rip someone’s hair out. Three “someone’s” hairs, to be exact. Don’t think she hadn’t thought of it, had it not come with the repercussion of punishment by their mates.
“Doing what?” He knew exactly “what.”
“This,” she whisper-yelled, gesturing wildly around the room where it looked like a party threw up. Muted sheer fabric hung in arches from the ceiling. There were stupid welcome banners, baby blocks, stuffed animals, pink and purple balloons, streamers, and cupcakes that had princess cutouts on top. Fucking princesses. Her daughter was going to learn to wield a sword like a soldier and employ sarcasm as a first language. She was not going to be sitting around singing Disney songs, playing with dolls, and emulating The
Little fucking Mermaid for Christ’s sake.
Did humans really do this to their kids and each other? It was overkill. Appalling, actually.
“I think it’s cute.”
“Cute? There’s so much goddamned pastel in here I think I fell into an Easter egg.”
“They mean well, Elle.” His voice held an air of amusement, which pissed her off more.
“You’re enjoying the fuck out of this, aren’t you?”
He chuckled without apology. “Just a bit.”
Mike caught her eye and winked knowingly but didn’t make a move toward her. He was hovering over their daughter instead, knowing she wouldn’t want both of them too far away yet also understanding why Giselle had disengaged from this ridiculous melee. It was ultimately for her own safety.
“She’s stunning, your daughter.”
Her tension eased a bit and she allowed a small grin on her lips. “I know.”
“You’re going to be a great mammi, Elle,” he told her quietly.
Breaking her gaze from how sweetly and longingly Analise held her daughter, she looked at her longtime friend—the male responsible for her little slice of happiness. “You think?”
He nodded just once.
A deep breath later, she replied softly, “Thanks for saying that.” She needed the confidence boost.
“Not saying anything that’s untrue.”
No one, except maybe Ren, would have thought this was possible, including her. Yet here she was.
A bonded mate.
A terrified, but elated mammi.
Even fighting the pull to become some semblance of a friend with the other females in her life. She had to give in, she told herself. It’s clear they weren’t going anywhere. Her entire world had been upended but in the best possible way.
A sudden flurry by the “queens” grabbed her attention. She watched them hand the baby back to Mike and begin to gather pens and papers and a basket filled with all sorts of baby stuff in it while they chattered away, trying to herd the crowd into chairs. Throwing worried glimpses her way.
