by Maia Dylan
Travis, a trained medic, stepped forward and helped her to sit on the ground. Quickly and efficiently he had her jeans ripped open, which pissed her off because this particular pair did fantastic things to her ass, and was inspecting the wound.
“Looks like she was only barely kissed by the bullet. It’s just a graze.” Travis diagnosed as he reached for the back he had brought with him
Neve’s jaw dropped. “I was shot? Again! What the hell am I? A freaking bullet magnet? And who the hell says kissed by a bullet! Kisses are nice and make you feel tingly, not horrible and make you feel like your legs on fucking fire!” Neve complained as the others all murmured words of commiseration and comfort. She looked to Liam to see what he thought, but when her gaze met his, all she saw was one pissed off bear shifter.
Liam turned his head slowly to look at the prone figure on the ground, lying exactly where he had dropped it. He stood up and moved with deadly purpose toward the man.
“Wait, Liam.” Micah stepped in front of him his arms out. “We need to question this guy and see—” Liam swept the man aside with one arm, and he didn’t slow down.
“Hey!” Casey shouted and there was no missing the anger in her tone and it was obvious to all that she did not like Liam putting a hand on her man. With a quick weaving pattern of her hand, the ground beneath Liam became like liquid and swallowed him to the waist before closing around him.
“Goddamn it, Casey,” Liam yelled as he struggled against the earth that held him captive. “Let me outta here!”
“Not until you calm the fuck down,” Casey snapped back as she helped a grinning Micah to his feet. “And if you ever lay a hand on my mate again, I will bury you up to your neck, cover you in honey and let the ants have you, understood!”
Liam’s shoulders drooped. “He hurt Neve, Casey. He shot her. He could have killed her!’
“I get that grumpy bear,” Casey relented. “This is why you can still breathe. Now, let’s get outta here and go home. We need to get Neve cleaned up, eat dessert despite the fact we are all so full we may actually explode because my mum made it, and it will make her happy, and question your chew toy to find out where he came from.”
Casey helped Neve up and between her and Fiona they started helping her to limp back to the house, the rest of them following along behind.
“Hey, wait!” Liam called from behind them. “Aren’t you going to help me outta here?”
Neve stopped and went to turn around, but was stopped by Casey and Fiona who started gently frog marching her back to the house. Not letting her stop. “Nope!” Fiona called out. “You were a bad bear Hottie McHotterson, and getting out of there is your punishment. See you when we see you!”
Chapter 3
“What about these?” Casey asked as she stared critically at the clothing hanging from the hanger she held out in front of her. “I think these would get a man’s motor running.
Neve turned, and when she spotted the miniscule piece of black lace Casey was holding up, her jaw dropped open. “What in the hell is that?”
“It’s a black lace G-string!” Casey’s said. “Don’t tell me you’ve never worn one? Besides, they go perfectly with the demi shelf bra we chose for you.”
“A demi what bra?” Neve felt like she had woken up in an alternate reality where she hadn’t actually known she was a woman. Casey and Ariana had dragged her into this lingerie shop, and Neve had looked around at the wall to wall lace and silk, and oh my god PVC, and had almost walked straight back out. She was more of a cotton and comfort kinda girl.
It had been almost three weeks since Neve had been grazed by that bullet. Three weeks where they had all be training hard, perfecting their control over their elements. They had added a new component to their training routine since the last time they tangled with Aeron. He had managed to get into their minds and hurt them, and create illusions. For Neve, Aeron had made it feel like he was running his hands over her intimately and painfully. They had been working on their psychic shields, hoping to lessen the effects.
And after all that training, it was time to let off a little steam, and tonight was her first official date with Liam. They had spent hours talking and sharing who they were since the shooting, and the more they did, the more in common they seemed to have. Three nights ago, their usually sweet kisses had taken on a life of their own. By the end of that kiss, Neve knew she would never be the same. They lay in each other’s arms, both of them breathing like they had just run a mile.
“Damn, Neve,” Liam’s voice seemed to have dropped an octave. Neve shivered just remembering the sultry timbre of his voice. “You are so fucking responsive. I want to take things slow with you, and show you what you mean to me, but when you give yourself to me like that? Fuck, it’s so damn hard not to just bury myself in you.”
“God, that sounds like a good idea,” Neve had all but groaned. “We could definitely do that. I mean, now. We could do that now. We should do that now.”
Liam had laughed gently. “Baby girl, there is nothing I’d like more, but I want our first time together to be everything you could want and more. I have made so many mistakes with you. I refuse to make any more. Let me take you out on Friday. I want to take you dinner, hold you in my arms while we dance, and torture us both with the anticipation of the night ahead.”
“Okay,” Neve had squeaked.
She had never really enjoyed sex, and had been told by her last partner that she was practically frigid. When she had admitted her fears to Casey, Ariana and Fiona, they had all offered to hunt the guy down and make him pay. And although Neve appreciated the gesture, she asked that they help her prepare for her first date with Liam instead. Casey and Ariana had taken one look at her nonexistent wardrobe and insisted on going shopping. They were meeting Liam and Ryan at the diner where Fiona was working the lunch shift in an hour, and Neve felt a tingle of excitement ripple through her at the thought of seeing Liam.
“Neve!” Ariana’s voice brought her out of her own head with a jolt.
“What!” She turned, expecting to see an imminent danger, but instead caught the two sisters grinning at her like fools.
“Stop thinking about the bear, and focus on what we are telling you,” Casey said and winked.
“A demi shelf bra in the same black with lace across the half cup that will look fantastic on your skin.” Ariana said as the placed another small scrap of lace on the counter they were standing beside.
“I-I don’t know about all this,” Neve said as she lifted the G-string up with one finger. “Firstly, none of this looks overly comfortable. Secondly, are you sure this is the type of thing a man wants to see on a woman? Surely if they’re going to get all intimate and shit, getting naked would be what the man would be looking for. Not something that needs to be untied, and potentially cut out of the woman he is about to have sex with!”
Casey rolled her eyes at Fiona, grabbed the G-string from her finger and looked around the store. “Aha! Come with me!” Having obviously spotted what she was looking for, Casey grabbed Neve by the hand and tugged her in the direction of the changing rooms. Oh god! Was she going to get her to try these things on?
“Excuse me,” Casey asked someone and when Neve stepped out from behind her, she saw Casey was talking to a good-looking guy leaning against the wall. “I was wondering if you could help me out with my friend, Neve, here for a minute.”
Neve felt herself go red. Not just a soft blush, ones that made girls look healthy and cute. This was one that was born from mortification and lit her up like a freaking Christmas tree. Did Casey want her to model that scrap of lace in front of a perfect stranger!
“Do you think she would look good in this G-string and bra set?” Casey asked the stranger as normal as if she were asking him which sauce he preferred on his steak! Neve bit her tongue to hold back the string of curses.
“Jesus Christ! Casey, this is the most embarrassing thing!” Neve yelled down their link, but Casey simply ignored her, and waited f
or the guy to answer. “I swear to god, as soon as we get the hell out of this store you are going to find yourself walking around with your own little rain cloud for the next decade. I swear to god, you’ll be like Olaf from Frozen.”
“Well, looking at your friend here,” the guy spoke as he ran his gaze over her and Neve had to force herself not to fidget. “She definitely has the figure up top to pull off the bra. As for the panties?” He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “There isn’t a man on the face of this planet how wouldn’t appreciate a woman wearing something like that, and walking toward him with a look of sultry welcome.” Neve’s jaw dropped for the second time in a matter of minutes when the guy winked in her direction and stepped closer to her. “Neve, you will look hot as hell in that outfit. If the guy you’re going to wear it for doesn’t appreciate it, or it doesn’t work out, give me a call.”
He held out a card, but Neve was too shocked to do anything. Casey stepped forward and took the card. “Thanks, ah,”—Casey glanced quickly at the card in her hand—“Bryan. You’ve been a great help! I’ll take your card and give it to my friend here when she comes out of her standing coma.”
Bryan laughed then looked back into the store when a female voice called his name, and from the sound of it, she was none too happy that Bryan was talking with other women. Neve watched him walk away. She had never been given a man’s number before, and technically she still hadn’t because Casey took the card, but still! She was totally taking that.
“See, I told you,” Casey said with a grin. “You are going to look hot and fuckable in that underwear, and Liam is basically going to swallow his tongue. Now, come on we have an appointment at the beauty parlor before we meet the boys for lunch.”
Still feeling a little shell shocked, Neve just nodded.
* * * *
“Your contacts over in Billings come back with anything more on our shooter?” Liam asked Ryan as he forced himself to stop looking at the door to the restaurant. He and Ryan were sitting with Micah, Travis, and Cole waiting to meet up with the girls for lunch. Fiona was working the lunch shift and would take her break with them once Casey, Ariana, and Neve arrived. He and Ryan were in uniform and had come directly from the station. They had arrived ten minutes early, and Liam had lost count of the times he had looked at the door, willing it to open.
Ryan took a slug of the black coffee Fiona had given them when they sat down. “Nothing more than what we already got directly from the bastard.” They had taken the shooter back to Maggie and Kingi’s place and they had used the guy’s fear of Liam to get answers to the questions they had. Well, once he had managed to get himself out of the ground and follow them back to the house.
Turned out the dude worked for the same mercenary outfit the two guys that had come after Casey had. They had been trying to find out how in the hell Aeron was able to send these bastards after them from the Otherworld, but so far, every lead had turned up nothing.
“So, it looks like things are working out for you and Neve,” Micah said and Liam’s gaze lifted to his. Micah’s eyes had hardened and Liam almost grinned when he realized he was about to get the what are your intentions speech.
“It’s still early days, but yeah.” Liam sat back and looked around the table, meeting the eye of all the Winters brothers. He wanted to make sure they were all clear on what he was about to say. “Neve is not my mate, but she is mine. She is mine to protect, mine to cherish and if she’ll let me, mine to marry at some point in the very near future.”
“If your feelings are so strong, then what are you going to do if you do finally meet your Fated mate,” Cole asked. “I don’t know if it’s fair on either of you to pursue something that may have to come to an end.”
Liam nodded. “I agree. And if I hadn’t already met and lost my mate over a year ago, I wouldn’t dream of starting something with Neve.”
“Well, shit,” Travis said softly. “That was one scenario I hadn’t thought about.”
“How in the hell are you still sane?” Ryan asked. “Or for that matter, how in the fuck are you still alive! When I thought Ariana was lost to me? I lost the will to live, man. I had already worked out how I was going to follow her into the afterlife or the next life or whatever the hell happens after this one.” Both he and Ryan ignored the growling of Ryan’s brothers. None of them liked what Ryan had said, but neither could any of them argue that it wasn’t something they would do if the positions were reversed.
“I don’t know,” Liam answered honestly. “My bear was the one that recognized Agnes as ours. I never really had the opportunity to make that connection. He scented her and went crazy and drove me to find her in the station, and when I did, I was intrigued because she was a good looking woman, but didn’t feel the mating bond snap into place for me like it did for my bear. He drove my arousal sky high, which is not something I knew could even happen! Next thing I know we’re going at it on the gym floor and I claimed her. She was killed later that day.”
Silence descended over the table as the brothers all stared at him until he started to feel like a germ beneath a microscope.
“Well, that must have sucked,” Micah said with a grimace.
“Yeah, it definitely did suck. But, I never felt the same level of loss and pain that you did Ry,” Liam admitted. “When I saw how ravaged you were at the Pagan Stone that night, I knew that what I had experienced was nothing in comparison. And that just confused the shit out of me even more.”
The bell over the door dinged and without even turning to look Liam knew that Neve had walked into the room. He was suddenly able to breathe and it felt like the room that had been dull and gloomy just moments before, exploded in light. He inhaled deeply and caught her scent in the air and his bear chuffed happily within him.
Liam stood up as he turned to watch Neve walk toward him, his eyes never leaving hers. God, she was so fucking beautiful.
“Hey,” Neve said softly with a smile that Liam knew was just for him. She was still a little hesitant around him, and he understood that he was the reason why. He longed for the day when she would be completely at ease with him.
“Hey back,” he returned with a gentle smile of his own. He stepped in and kissed her gently on the cheek, knowing that if he took her mouth, he might just embarrass both of them by taking her to the floor!
Once they were all settled back at the table, and lunches on their way, conversation turned to the girls shopping trip. “The shopping was fun, but the spa was amazing! Mmmm, the massage was just what the doctor ordered!” Casey moaned and Liam had to bite his tongue when he saw Micah shift a little in his seat.
“Did you enjoy the spa, baby girl?” Liam asked as he placed his arm around the back of her chair, gently rubbing strands of her silken blonde hair between his fingers.
“It was…interesting.” Neve said hesitantly. “It was my first time at a spa, and Casey told me that it will get easier and less uncomfortable the more I go.”
Liam frowned. He didn’t know how a massage could be uncomfortable. Perhaps Neve had ordered one of those deep tissue massages that hurt like hell, or so he had been told. “Did they push too hard?”
“It wasn’t the pushing that hurt so much as the pulling!” Neve gave him a funny look and Liam frowned even more. Casey and Ariana both cracked up laughing and he turned to ask them what was so funny, but stopped when he saw a gentleman grab the wrist of a woman in a booth at the back of the room. And from the pained grimace she gave, he gripped it hard.
He was just starting to stand up when he saw the man twist the wrist swiftly and he heard the woman cry out. He was across the room in a blur. He placed his hand on the man’s wrist, plunging his fingers into a nerve, causing the man to cry out and immediately loosen his grip on the woman.
“What the fuck, asshole!” the abusive prick whined.
“That would be Deputy Sheriff Asshole to you,” Liam said pleasantly as he nodded his head in the woman’s direction. Her face told a story he had heard on m
ore occasions than he would like to remember. Ryan, who must have moved directly behind him, came and gently helped her out of the booth.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, bitch?” the prick yelled at the woman who was now scuttling away from the table, gripping her wrist and murmuring her thanks to Ryan. Then, when the prick tried to force his way out of the booth after her, Liam stepped closer, penning him into the booth, before applying so much pressure he thought he might actually break the man’s wrist.
“Now, see here in Freedom Springs, we don’t take to kindly to men who think it’s okay to manhandle a woman,” Liam explained with a smile on his face. The man whimpered so Liam took that as a sign he wanted the lesson Liam was giving him to continue. “Even cursing is deemed to be extremely inappropriate. It just gets me so angry when a man makes a woman whimper in pain because he has to prove he’s a tough guy, by exerting physical dominance over someone he considers to be weaker than him. Isn’t that right, Sheriff?”
“Why, you have never said truer words there, Deputy Sheriff Asshole,” Ryan said as he slid into the booth opposite the man Liam held, with a friendly smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Just had a quick word to the lovely Bridget who is a member of our town and had the misfortune of meeting you this morning. I gather from her that you aren’t from around here, which I assume”—Ryan’s voice turned cold— “is why you thought you’d get away with hurting a woman for refusing to fuck you in the bathroom of this establishment.”
“Oh, no you didn’t,” Liam said and grimaced at the man when his frightened eyes spun in Liam’s direction. “Damn, boy! You sure know how to make a first impression now don’t you, little man! Now, because Bridget is an intelligent woman, I am assuming she’s pressing charges against Little Man here?” The man’s face grew redder and his eyes narrowed even further every time Liam called him Little Man.
