by C. J. Pinard
With a silent sigh, I went back to my plate and began eating again, when Aden and Celeste came to sit at the six-person glass table with us. I made the introductions to Sanja’s mother, and then between the five of us, we chatted about nothing and everything.
“So, what coven do you belong to, Celeste?” Samantha asked.
I dropped my chicken to my plate with a thud, looked up at my brother to see him smirking at me, embarrassed, then to Celeste, who smiled shyly at Samantha and slid some loose hair behind her ear while holding a watermelon slice in her hand.
“Luna,” she replied, and then cleared her throat and bit into the watermelon.
I was speechless—utterly speechless—and that was hard for most people to do to me. I watched as Samantha and Celeste chatted about witch stuff, and I looked at Sanja, whose eyes were wide, as if she’d either been as clueless as me—or worse, she’d known.
What the hell was going on here? Aden didn’t seem surprised, so that made me even madder. I remembered briefly discussing this possibility with him in the tunnels a couple days ago, and he had seemed oblivious then. But, clearly something had changed between then and now. So, was anyone going to tell me about it? I was irritated now. Shocking, I know. I let my words fly out before my brain could tell me to stop.
“You got a frickin’ witch pregnant with a wolf baby, Aden? Seriously?” I whipped my hand out toward Celeste for emphasis.
The entire backyard went quiet as things were dropped and conversations halted. If music had been playing from an old-fashioned record player, the record would have scratched and ceased playing. I realized entirely too late, that, in my anger, I hadn’t bothered to lower my voice, and in fact, had raised it.
Whoopsie.
“Ayla!” Samantha said in a scolding tone.
I heard Sanja snort a laugh.
My mother’s head whipped up from where she had been having a conversation with Mrs. Cranson, the next door neighbor. My father’s hand paused at the grill. Then they both stalked over to our table.
“You’re pregnant?” My mother looked at Celeste, then to Aden, blinking incredulously.
“She’s a witch?” My father questioned my brother, pointing his spatula at him while wearing his red, white, and blue Grill Sergeant apron.
Aden shot me a murderous look, looked at my parents, then pointed at me. “Ayla’s sleeping with a vampire!”
The whole backyard gasped, and my parents’ heads both whipped in my direction.
I narrowed my eyes at my brother and then snarled at him. I then raised my chin and said, “But I’m not pregnant by one!”
I looked up at my dad to see confusion coloring his features. I then noticed the sun was going down over the mountains behind him, and the temptation to bolt out of there and into Kellan’s arms was strong.
Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let’s start over.” He looked at the crowd in the backyard, and I followed his gaze. Thank God everyone, with the exception of Mrs. Cranson and her husband, were supes. He looked at our neighbor and said, “Virginia, let me make you a plate to go. Looks like we have family business to attend to.”
The disappointed look on her wizened face didn’t go unnoticed by me. The nosy bitty wanted to find out all the gossip. I was sure someone was going to have to put a spell on her or use allusion on her after hearing the wolf, vampire, and witch comments.
“Oh, it’s okay, Rick, I don’t need a plate. I’ve had plenty. But I will need to take my flag fruit pizza back to the house. Don’t want to forget the tray, you know.”
She glanced my way with her beady brown eyes before smoothing down her short, bottle-dyed red hair. She offered me a fake smile, but I just grunted.
I looked at my brother and mouthed, “Seriously?”
He flipped me off. Double-handed.
Celeste laid a hand on his arm. “Aden, stop.” She then looked at me. “I’m sorry. We were going to tell you today.”
I just stared at her, then looked at Sanja. “Did you know she was a witch?”
She nodded slowly with her mouth full, her large, chocolate eyes regarding me with sympathy and guilt. She swallowed. “Yes, but just barely. My mom mentioned another witch being here the second she walked through the door.” She jerked a thumb behind us at the sliding glass door.
“I’m sorry,” Sanja’s mother said with a cringe. “I thought you knew already.”
I shook my head. “I am not mad at you, Samantha.”
“I’m still sorry,” she replied.
Most of the guests had cleared out, and while the rest were gathering up their trays and plates from what they had brought to share at the barbeque, and then said their goodbyes, my mom and dad sat at our table and looked at us both.
“Spill it, you two,” my mom demanded.
I looked at Aden and waved my hand. “Go ahead.”
“But what about the Cransons?” Aden asked quietly, jutting his chin at the older couple, who was leaving through the side wooden gate that led to the front of the house. Mrs. Cranson carefully held a metal tray in her right hand, and was quietly bickering with her husband.
“They think you guys are too heavily involved in online gaming fantasies,” my dad said dryly, sounding annoyed that he’d had to make up the lie.
“Oh, gee, that’s awesome, Dad. Thanks for making us look like a couple of weirdos.”
“Stop being a drama queen, Ayla,” Aden snapped, shooting daggers my way with his eyes.
I sighed. “I’ll just start. Yes, I have been seeing a guy, a vampire. And no, you won’t be meeting him anytime soon. Next subject.”
“Lovely,” my mom replied with a shake of her head. She then looked at my brother. “Well?”
Celeste took the wheel and smiled shyly. “I’m about nineteen weeks along, Mrs. St. John. The baby is a boy, so of course, we will be naming him Austyn Michael St. John. My dad, Michael, died when I was seventeen in an accident. I miss him a lot.”
My mother’s face crumpled and she bit her lip, tears brimming along her lashes. I was pretty sure my face reflected the same.
“Oh, Aden,” she said quietly. “I’m so happy.”
“That’s fu-… freaking awesome,” I replied, smiling while wiping my tears.
“I have a question, though,” my dad interjected. He looked at Celeste, then to Sanja and her mom. “Will the baby be a wolf, or a witch?”
“The father’s genes dominate,” Samantha answered quickly. “You’re witches, you should know this.” Her answer wasn’t scolding or condescending, but more surprised.
“We don’t keep up with the witch stuff very well, and haven’t for years, since we adopted them. We found it better to just live human lives. We are official members of our coven, but we’re, like, email-newsletter type members,” my mom supplied, looking chagrinned in the presence of a Burman witch.
I didn’t even know they were in a coven, so that was a surprise to me.
“The baby is gonna be a wolf? Like, will it be one when it comes out?” Celeste asked, staring at Samantha in horror.
Sanja giggled a little, and I bit back a laugh, too, before biting into my watermelon.
“No,” my mom replied. “Wolves are born and live just like humans until, about seventeen or eighteen years of age, when they have their first shift. Some sooner, but usually no later.”
“And also”—I was talking to my brother and Celeste, but shot my parents a look—“make sure you tell Junior there what to expect.”
Mom and Dad smiled embarrassingly at me.
“Oh, we will,” Aden replied.
“Seems like you should have known this already, too,” my mom said to Celeste.
“I guess I should have,” Celeste answered with a shrug. “I haven’t talked to my mom yet about it, or even told her. She has met Aden, but doesn’t know he’s a wolf. So that will be interesting. We’re kinda like you. Not big practicing witches. Mom’s been too busy working a couple jobs since my dad died.”
My mom squ
eezed Celeste’s hand. “Understandable, honey.”
“You should know that since the baby will be half-witch, or I suppose, half-warlock, he’ll be a very powerful wolf,” Samantha replied.
That reminded me of Linden, who had been born half-warlock, half-human, then turned into a vampire later on.
“Wow,” Celeste replied, looking as if she was trying to soak it all in.
“Mom, Dad, there’s something else I need to tell you.” I looked at them both and bit the side of my lip.
“Well, I’m not sure our hearts could take any more news today, Ayla, but you might as well just spill it,” Mom replied.
“Linden’s dead,” I deadpanned.
Both their faces lit up. My father, always the practical one said, “How can you be so sure?”
“Because it was this that killed him. I watched him crumble to ash with my own two eyes.” I held up my dagger, and it glinted under the white lights strung around the backyard.
“Did you do it yourself?” my mom asked quietly.
I shook my head and launched into the story about what had happened over the past few days, leaving out the part where I violently killed two vampires. I was sure my mother was about to have a stroke when I told her I’d been kidnapped.
“You’re like a cat with nine lives, rather than a wolf,” my dad replied with a shake of his head once I’d finished.
“And she only has about three or four left,” Aden replied under his breath.
My mom smiled at Aden, then looked back to me. “And this Kellan guy, he’s the one you’ve, uh, been seeing?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll let you meet him one day. Or night, I should say.”
My dad shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re dating a vampire, after all we’ve been through.”
Then I said the most teenage girl thing ever: “But, Dad. I love him.”
Chapter 21
Two days later, I was woken up by the doorbell. I groaned and rolled over to see that it was 8:22 p.m. I had been up most of the day taking care of annoying shit like paying late bills, registering for a yoga class with Sanja (because, why not?), and going to the bank to deposit a bunch of cash. Then to the grocery store for a few things. You know, adulting crap.
I flipped the covers back and slogged to the door, and after checking the peephole, I looked down at myself to realize I was only wearing a long, black sleep-shirt with #LoveBites in white lettering printed across my chest.
I opened the door anyway and grinned at a now clean-shaven Kellan standing in my doorway wearing a navy-blue dress shirt, with the top two buttons undone at the throat and the sleeves rolled to the elbows, along with a pair of casual dress pants, and a fancy silver Rolex on his wrist. In his hands he held out a dozen red roses, and in the other, he had a small, black box.
After eyeballing the items, I swallowed hard and invited him in. I took the roses and sniffed them. “Gorgeous,” I said quietly.
“Just like you,” he replied, wrapping me in a hug. “Happy twenty-fifth birthday.”
Shit.
“Oh, man… it is my birthday. I kinda forgot after, you know, everything.”
He chuckled. “I don’t remember mine either.”
“That’s ’cause you’re like ten billion years old,” I said, setting the bouquet on the counter as I headed toward the bathroom. “Be right back.”
I heard him laugh again and then open up a cabinet and begin rummaging through it.
After taking care of business, I quickly brushed my teeth so I could kiss him hello. I snatched a hair tie from the bathroom counter and put my hair into a ponytail before going back out to see Kellan turning on my Keurig and putting a pod in it for me.
I went up behind him and put my arms around him. “I’ve missed you.” I inhaled his wonderfully spicy, manly scent and closed my eyes.
He pressed the start button and turned around to look down at me. “I’ve missed you more. I’m making you coffee because it’s going to be a long night.”
“How so?” I asked demurely.
He leaned down and kissed me, his lips gentle against me at first, until his tongue swept in and began to mingle with mine. He reached down and lifted my legs, wrapping them around his waist without breaking the kiss, and I groaned as I felt the evidence of how much he wanted me pushing against my core.
Leaving the steaming coffee, he held onto me as we made our way to my bed. Continuing to kiss, I raked my fingers through his hair as his hands held me tight under my backside to keep me secured to his body. The gesture seemed effortless to him, and I was sure it was. Kellan was incredibly strong.
He laid me down on the bed, and my shirt came up as he sat up with his knee between my legs. While staring at me in the eye, he ran the back of his hand up the inside of my thigh, which caused a shiver to rack my entire body. I felt my nipples pebble under my shirt and a groan escaped me as his fingers slithered into my panties, and then into me.
“Mmm, wet and ready, just how I love you,” he murmured, now looking down at what he was doing.
With his other hand, he tore the panties off and tossed them over his shoulder.
Hot.
He pulled his fingers out, licked them clean, and then began unbuttoning his shirt. I sat up to help him with his pants, unbuttoning them, and then running the zipper down. As I yanked them down his legs, along with his tight, blue boxer briefs, I smiled as he sprung free in front of me. I needed to touch it, to taste it… so I did. As I put him into my mouth, all the way to the back of my throat… the groan he let out was worth it. I began to move my head up and down, tasting and licking each inch.
“Oh, love,” he moaned, reaching to the top of my head and yanking out the elastic holder so he could run his fingers through my hair.
I was really getting into it now, his excitement and moans spurring me on. I had my hands on his hips, so I reached one around his backside and grabbed one taut ass cheek.
“You’re going to have to stop now, Ayla,” he whispered, as if he only half meant it.
I shook my head, but he pulled away and pushed me back down on the bed. At this point, I was now lying on the edge, so he got down on his knees and pushed my legs apart. I gasped when he ran his tongue slowly up my wet slit several times, licking his way to my most sensitive bundle of nerves. Then, after pushing two fingers inside again, he moved his mouth to my inner thigh, and without warning, bit down. I yelled out in surprise, but was quickly filled with a warm pleasure gushing throughout my entire body. As he sucked, his fingers moved in perfect sync with the pull of his mouth, and it only took a few long seconds before the coil of desire low in my belly unfurled between my legs and an explosion of pleasure caused shuddering breaths and squeals to erupt from my mouth.
Kellan pulled away from my thigh, and when I opened up my eyes, I could see him standing now, staring down at my body, his cock looking painfully hard and ready, resting in his hand.
“Fuck me,” I growled, needing more as I licked my lips.
He nodded, and with a wicked gleam of lust in his eyes, and still standing, I watched him push into me. I gasped in relief and closed my eyes as he held my legs apart and slid into me. He pulled all the way out, and then slammed back in. On the third push, he banged me hard, and began stroking in and out of me at speed, which caused another orgasm to rush to my core. This one made my back arch and my body shake uncontrollably. Just as I was coming down from the lusty high, he stilled inside of me, rushing warmth into me. He spilled my name from his lips like a curse, and then collapsed on top of me. After a brief second, he lifted his head and kissed me with bloodstained lips. He tasted like sex and perfection.
After he rolled off me, he said, “Happy birthday, Ayla.”
I smiled with my eyes closed, still drunk on him. “I love you, Kellan Conley.”
I sat at my kitchen table wearing nothing but his navy-blue dress shirt, checking my phone for anything urgent. I looked up as Kellan lifted the steaming re-heated cup of coffee from the mi
crowave and went to the fridge to retrieve my creamer. Guess he’d been observant when I’d made coffee in the past. I smiled as he set them both in front of me, and then rummaged through my cabinets for the one and only vase I owned, which he found fairly quickly. He filled the vase with water, then plunked the roses inside. He set the arrangement on the table in front of me, and then sat. I took a sip of coffee with a groan of happiness.
“Jeffrey said they were trimmed and ready for the vase, just needed to be put in water.”
I grinned at how he pronounced vase like “voz”, and glanced up at the roses, then to Kellan. With my hands wrapped around the I heart vampires mug, I jutted my chin at the bouquet. “You better make sure all twelve are there, he might have gotten hungry while preparing them.”
Kellan blinked at me, then the roses. “How did you… He ate flowers, uh… in front of you?”
I chuckled and tapped my temple. “No, he didn’t know I was there. Dream-vision thingie. It was super weird. Although, I really only saw him eat lilies. Ew.”
“There appear to be all twelve intact there,” he replied, pointing at the bouquet.
I laughed and then set my mug down. I sat on his lap, ran my hands over his bare chest, and kissed his lips before staring into his beautiful eyes. “I was joking. The flowers are beautiful and I love them. Give my regards to Jeff, okay?”
He grabbed my hand from his chest and kissed my knuckles.
“I have a question,” I said.
“Shocking,” he replied with his usual response.
“Did Linden, you know, have a thing for you?” I asked, gnawing on the side of my lip while I stared into his beautiful eyes that I would never get tired of.
“That’s difficult to answer. You have to understand that the era we come from, there was nothing of the, uh, how do you say it now? The LGBT community? But having spent the last one-hundred and eighty-three years with him, I do believe Linden was gay. Bisexual, actually. Never took a spouse or a long-term mate. He would have women in his bedchamber, but men also. And he never stopped asking me to join them. Not ever. Didn’t matter, man or woman. He’d implore me… beg me… every single time a whore was brought in. I tell you, declining became tedious and tiresome. But… I am grateful for one thing.”
