by M. L. Briers
“You snapped the mug with your magic.”Shaun used one foot to release his other foot from the gathered material around his ankles. “Don’t bother to deny it.”
“I wouldn’t if I’d done it, but I didn’t, so don’t blame me for your carelessness.”Julia protested her innocence, hopefully not too much. Her shields were in place and she hoped he didn’t know her well enough yet to get by her natural defences.
“I’m clumsy…?”Shaun spat out, and she didn’t let him get any further.
“Glad you admit it…”
“You’re walking a fine line with me here, Julia…”Shaun warned, even his eyes flashed her a warning, before he picked up the material and tossed them in the washing machine, and he wasn’t delicate with the door either as he slammed it shut.
“Are you threatening me wolf?”It was Julia’s turn to cock her eyebrow at him.
“I don’t make threats, I just deliver results.”He assured her, before stalking over to the pile of clean washing on the side and sorting out a pair of Alex’s denim’s for his own use.
“Why don’t you bend over and sniff your butt so you can smell what you’re talking, wolf boy.”Julia tossed over her shoulder, not even bothering to turn and look at him as he started to step into a fresh pair of jeans.
Sofia came through the doorway first and her eyes went straight towards Shaun and his half naked appearance.
“God, you guys like to be naked.”She ground out as she turned her eyes away towards her friend, and Alex’s hand on the small of her back guided her across the room.
“Another pair of my jeans? What are you doing stocking up?”Alex teased as Zara continued to snigger.
“Shaun dropped his coffee in his lap and then blamed his mate for it.”Zara informed Alex, as Sofia’s eyes went to Julia’s and she saw the glint of mischief in them and knew the truth.
“”She doesn’t even have the decency to admit she had a hand in it.”
“He claimed I used magic, I guess he has absolutely no idea how magic is performed.” Julia was starting to weave a spider’s web of plausible deniability, she just hoped she wouldn’t forget any of the lies she was telling. The more elaborate the story, the more you could slip up. Keep it simple, she reminded herself and clamped her lips together to stop herself from adding to the lie.
Shaun fastened the jeans and stalked back towards his stool, reaching out he grabbed a handful of kitchen paper and started to mop up the spill.
“I can sense your deceit from here, Babe.” He informed her, and she swallowed down the sarcasm she was going to level at him in favour of silence, what could go wrong with silence?
“Hardly, wolf boy.”She ground out, unable to help herself, before returning her attention back towards Sofia. “Are you ok?”
Sofia nodded, but Shaun wasn’t about to let it drop.
“I get the feeling you’re not a very nice person.”Shaun informed her, and she narrowed her eyes on him and sneered.
“Well, Der.”She snapped back. Then she lifted her hands and wiggled her fingers at him. “Better run while you still can, if I’m oh-so powerful who knows what I’ll do next.”She was teasing him now, playing up to his accusations.
“I’m warning you Julia, you’d better start behaving before I…”
“You’ll what?”Julia bit out. She was his mate, he was hard wired not to attack her, and if he decided to open the door and kick her out, all the better, it would save Quinn the job of rescuing her.
“There are fates worse than death you know.”He offered, his dark eyes flashing with annoyance.
“Being mated to you would be one, right?”Julia shot back, and Shaun went to take a step towards her before he threw his arms up in frustration.
“You really are a shrew. I thought it might be an act, but it’s not is it? You just can’t help yourself.”Shaun turned on his heels and stalked out of the room before she even had a chance to answer.
“Julia?”Sofia questioned her with her eyes and Julia balked.
“What?”She was the picture of innocence, almost.
“Harsh.”Sofia offered just the one word.
“Justified.”
“Weren’t you the one telling me about the value of mates?”Sofia reminded her and she balked.
“That was for you.”
“I feel insulted.”Sofia looked at Alex. “Should I be insulted?”Sofia frowned back at Julia.
“I just mean…”
“You mean this isn’t for you?”Sofia motioned around her and Julia nodded.
“Exactly…”
“You mean you’re better than all of this?”Sofia demanded and it was Julia’s turn to frown.
“What? No. That’s not what I mean. I had a life…”Julia saw Sofia balk at her words and she tried to brush it over with her hand, to clear the air and rephrase it.
“So the hell did I.”Sofia snapped out.
“You had a life. I had a social life.”Julia corrected and Sofia spat out a laugh of disbelief.
“I don’t believe you went there.”Sofia went to get down from the stool, but Julia put out her hand and held her in place.
“Hold on a minute.”Julia snapped back. None of this was coming out as she had meant it. They were friends, but they were definitely different…
“Let go…”Sofia snapped and Alex took a step forwards with a low growl of warning, and Sofia’s head snapped around to look at him, her eyes narrowed and she scowled. “Don’t even think about it.”She hissed at her mate. Caught between him and her best friend she felt ripped in two.
“You know where I stand on Lycans…” She hissed out the last word on a whisper, as if they couldn’t hear her perfectly well. “I just don’t get the attraction.”
“Obviously.”Zara sneered, and Julia shot her a look of annoyance.
“It’s nothing personal, I just enjoy the company of vampires.”
“Well you know what, Julia?”Sofia waited until she had Julia’s full and undivided attention. “Tough. Get over it. Fate dealt you this hand and it’s the one you need to play…”Sofia went to get down again, and then she stopped and turned towards her friend. “Shaun seems like a really nice guy. He’s good looking, funny, and above all, he’s your mate. So suck it up, because if I can give it a chance, so can you.”
Sofia dropped down off the stool and stalked out of the kitchen leaving Julia behind with Alex and Zara, and she rolled her eyes and blew out a deep sigh. Then she noted how they were both just staring at her and she balked again.
“What? I said nothing personal.”
Alex took a last knowing look at Zara and what she was thinking before he headed out after his mate.
“Your friend’s right you know…”Zara offered without malice. She got that this woman was Fae, and that she had a preference for who she’d like as a mate, and she also knew that you didn’t always get what you wanted in life, but sometimes, if you were lucky, you got what you needed.
“Do tell.”Julia had run out of steam for the moment, she didn’t want to fight anymore. Maybe later she would feel like going ten rounds with someone, but right now she was more than prepared to be belittle or berated by their little sister.
“Shaun’s a nice guy.”Zara just shrugged her shoulders and walked off. No shouting, no screaming, no belittling, and certainly no berating. That wasn’t what she had been expecting and it just made her feel even guiltier than before.
Alex caught up with Sofia in their bedroom, or the room that was his but would be theirs when she surrendered to the bonding. She stood in front of the open curtains looking down on the woods that spanned out across the pack’s lands, her lands, and he wondered if she found it as beautiful as he did. Being an artist he expected so.
“Are you ok?”Alex asked walking towards and reaching out to rest his hand against her shoulder, when what he wanted to do was to fold her inside the protectiveness of his arms and make her forget about anything but them.
“Julia’s not a bad person…”Sofia offered in defence of her fr
iend. She felt a little guilty because she hadn’t exactly defended her downstairs.
“I know. Everyone reacts differently to the mating, and to finding out that their life has basically been mapped out for them. Humans and Fae obviously take more time to adjust to the concept, but nobody is going to think any worse of her for it.”Alex wanted to assure his mate. He could feel her tension, her anxiety rolling from her, and he noted that she didn’t have her shields up. That heartened him even more.
“Do you think any less of me for the way I behaved?”
“I was as mad as hell because you could have died. I’ve never known fear like it. I had to get to you. I had to see you…”
“And here I am.”Sofia turned towards him then. She didn’t want to look anywhere but at him. Those sexy dark eyes that held such passion, be it anger, or pain, or even love, looked right back at her and she felt his gaze like a loving touch to her senses.
“And here we are.”He offered and she took a moment to let his words sink in.
“And here we are.”Sofia closed the gap between them and Alex wrapped her inside his arms like he’d been longing to do. He gently stroked down her back and soothed her tension. Her muscles eased against him as she rested her cheek against the heat of his chest and took in his strength.
How could she have thought to deny this? Turn her back on her mate? She didn’t need to lose herself in him and their life, not if she chose differently. She didn’t envisage Alex chaining her to the cooker. Although, the thought of Alex chaining her anywhere, especially that damn big bed of his, made her feel as if she were riding a rollercoaster at the fair.
“Alex, would you really have let me go?”Sofia asked the question, but she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know the answer, not when she was being held in his arms, it just felt too damn right being there.
“I would have tried if that was what you wanted.”The deep low growl that rolled through his chest and underpinned his voice made her knees weak. She knew about the mating pull, but she’d had no reason to ever think it would be something she would experience. If she had bothered to consider it, she probably never would have dreamed it would feel as all consuming as this.
“I don’t think I would have been able to deny you for long, Alex. I feel the pull to you, it’s so strong…”
“Scared?”He never wanted her to be afraid again, of anything, especially not him.
“Not scared, just nervous…”
A thought flashed through Alex’s mind and he swallowed hard. She’d been in a sexless marriage, and he wondered if she’d ever known a man. If she was a virgin then he’d do his damndest to make it as painless as possible for her.
“Sofia are you a virgin?”Alex felt her tense and then her head came up from his chest and she looked at him as if he’d just admitted he liked to line dance in a tutu while juggling chainsaws.
“Seriously? Wow what planet are you from? I’m an adult…”
“Well, I just thought because of Jonathon being Gay…”She was still looking at him like he needed locking up and treated for mental health issues. “Or maybe he swings both ways?”
Now she rolled her eyes and then regarded him as she would the village idiot. “Jonathon?”She sniggered.
“So you took lovers of your own?”Alex felt the need to clarify the situation, even though any thought of his mate being with another man made his wolf want to break for freedom and wrap his jaws around the guy’s neck…
“No!”Sofia tried taking a step back from him, but he didn’t release his arms from around her. “What do you take me for? I would never cheat on my marriage wows.”He saw the flare of anger in her eyes…
“Sofia, your marriage was a sham…”Alex offered in defence, and she snorted at him. He thought that she would be folding her arms over her chest, or putting those little fists on her hips by now if he’d let her go.
“I was still married…”
“But…”
“Don’t but me. Are you telling me that you’d cheat on…”Sofia’s eyes grew dark, if he didn’t know better he’d say she was more Lycan in that moment than Fae.
“No! Never!” He growled down at her, appalled that she would even think it of him. Wolves were faithful, he would never stray…
“Oh, but the Fae woman is just easy with her virtue…?”She shot back at him, and he wanted to head butt the nearest wall, things had been going so well until he opened his big mouth.
“I didn’t…”
“oh, but you did…”
“Well, I didn’t intend…”Alex was losing ground here. What was the saying? When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging…
“And yet…”He yanked her body up against his and claimed her lips with such an urgent need to silence them both, but that lasted all of five seconds. The moment she yielded to him he devoured her with a passion that left them both breathless in anticipation of what came next.
Sofia was as eager as he was, which wasn’t like her at all, sex was sex and she could take it or leave it, usually leave it, but this… this was more than sex, this was passion, this was Hollywood blockbuster swept-of-her-damn-feet-head-spinning-toes-curling-for-the-love-of-the-tripple-Goddess… give me more, passion.
His warm hands roamed, and she wondered when he had found his way beneath her top, as his lips broke from hers and she was finally able to suck in a heart breath, even though it came in on a gasp as his lips trailed down her neck and he nipped at the soft skin where her neck met her shoulder. Who knew that was an erogenous zone? She wondered, but only briefly because his thumb found the hard bud of one breast and he rolled over it. Holy cow, when did that get to feeling so good?
She wanted to taste, to touch, to lick, to caress, but he was still fully clothed. Her fingers found the hem of his top and she yanked it upwards. The low growl that rolled through him sounded like remorse as he released her to help her yank it over his head, and she gasped again. Her eyes went wide as she took in his chest, she’d seen it before, but now it was hers to touch, and boy did she want too.
Alex saw her eyes flare, saw the tip of her tongue roll out over her lips, and he groaned with the way his arousal hardened in his jeans. He’d been hard, but this was as if every drop of blood was trying to flow into his penis all at once, damn but he wanted her.
He didn’t move for what felt like the longest moments of his life as her eyes took him in, devoured him alive might have been a better description, because if he was reading her right, and he hoped to God he was, the things she envision doing to him were written there on her face, and he groaned again against the ache to be released from the confines of his jeans.
Alex couldn’t stand it any longer. He reached for the fly on his jeans and her eyes snapped down. He thought he might even have heard them move in head. Her lips parted again and that little pink tip of her tongue made a slow motion, left to right sweep of her lower lip.
Alex practically tore the damn jeans clean off his hips as he thrust them downwards with his hands, grateful he wasn’t wearing anything beneath as his hardness sprang up between them like the welcome wagon, and her tongue paused in flight. Now that she was giving this mating thing a go, she was succumbing in leaps and bounds, and he liked it, damn did he like it.
Sofia’s hands moved of their own volition, and she knew this because the thoughts that were shooting through her mind had nothing to do with anything as basic as instructing her body to move. She ate up the sight of him, as if he was a giant tub of Rocky Road ice cream on a very bad day… Her favourite chocolate bar at that time of the month… Christmas day dinner with all of the trimmings that you knew you were never going to be able to finish, but wanted a taste of everything on offer all at once. Her damn cup runneth over…
She reached out to touch him, but he growl long and hard, and her hands hesitated in mid air, and for the briefest of seconds she wanted to whine in her uncertainty… Could she look but not touch? How unfair was that?
His hands shot out and before her brain e
ven caught up she was topless, literally, standing there in a thin bit of lace that followed her top, wherever that had gone.
Sofia blinked at the suddenness of where her skirt went, and when she finally realised that she was naked and was about to cover her modesty with her hands… He reached out and pulled her to the length of him.
The heat from his body hit her like a sensual blanket that mixed with the feel of his muscled chest, arms, and thighs against her softness. The coarse hair down his thighs, his curls around his penis, and the softer hair of his arms and his chest made her brain not know where to concentrate first.
Skin on skin, hands roaming over her body, and the feel of one hell of an erection pressed against her, left her needy and breathless. She’d never been kissed like this before in her life. One moment his tongue was stroking and exploring, and the next it was thrusting and demanding her answer.
When his knee pressed between her legs and he opened her to his touch, his fingers pressing downwards, over her hip and around to find the wetness of her arousal for him, she was sure that first touch was going to make her come right there and then.
Alex could scent her arousal in the air; it mixed with his own and was so strong that he wanted to feel for himself how much she wanted him. His fingers skirted lightly over the wetness of her folds, tracing back and forth between her channel and the tiny nub of flesh that was so sensitive to his touch that she practically convulsed in pleasure every time he rolled over it.
Damn but she was responsive to him. He’d never known a female like her; there wasn’t a place his fingers had touched that hadn’t brought a gasp to her lips or a movement to her limbs.
When he rimmed his finger around the sensitive entrance to her channel, she gasped and broke the kiss. Her lips sought the pulse in his neck and she teased him with her tongue until he pushed his finger inside her.
The sound of such a sweet moan from her lips made his arousal twitch between their bodies, and when he sipped the second finger inside her and stroked the silken walls, finding the little bunch of nerves that made her moan and convulse about his fingers, he placed his thumb over the nub and traced his tongue down to where her pulse was beating a frantic dance within her neck.
