Pursued by a Werewolf (Mystic Isle, Book 4)

by Blake, Selena

  Ceara quickly finished off the cocktail and then with a smile she snaked her way onto the dance floor in front of Avery. They laughed as they danced, hopping up and down to the driving beat. When the song slowed, so did they. Avery settled a hand on Ceara’s hip and clasped the other in her own.

  “Where is V?” Ceara called over the music.

  Avery shook her head and spun her dance partner slowly. They giggled. “She didn’t answer the phone.”

  Ceara nodded. V was a law unto herself and they all accepted it, expected it.

  “Hunter looked happy.”

  Avery wasn’t sure how to reply to that since she felt a little guilty for coming clean to Pearl before she did Hunter. Or her longtime friends. But Ceara just smiled.

  And she kept on smiling, knowingly, like she had a secret.

  “What?” Avery finally asked a few songs later.

  “Nothing,” Ceara shouted over the music. “I’m just happy for you.”

  “Me too.” Happier than she’d been in a long time. Whatever the future brought, she felt ready to embrace it.

  “You’re in love,” Ceara declared, announcing the fact to the whole room. Not that anyone else probably heard her. Avery wouldn’t have minded. Not anymore.

  Avery let her smile do the talking and Ceara pulled her into a tight hug.

  It had taken one handsome, cagey wolf to prove what her heart already knew. Days of stolen glances, chaste kisses, and one heart-melting promise from Hunter had set her free.

  She couldn’t wait to tell him. Was almost bursting with excitement.

  The song ended and a faster one took its place. She let Ceara go and threw herself into the driving beat, both arms waving above her head. Someone bumped her from behind but she quickly righted herself and waved off the apology. It was a crowded dance floor and she’d already had her toe stepped on twice.

  “I’m just glad Pearl’s having a good time.”

  She and the handsome stranger were still dancing close, not moving with the music. Avery didn’t think she could have squeezed a piece of paper between them.

  “She’s really sweet,” Ceara called.

  The princess deserved her prince, no doubt about it. At least slow dancing was a start.

  “I’m gonna get a drink,” Avery said, her mouth dry.

  “I’m going to check in with Maxim.”

  Avery watched her friend slither between the crush of bodies as she made her way off the dance floor and out the entrance. Once upon a time she would have rolled her eyes and thought Ceara silly for being so invested in a man. But as she turned and saw Pearl’s smile, she found herself smiling too.

  It was nice to have a special someone who was there for you through anything and everything. To have someone to trust, who knew your secrets and your desires. But when that person was absent… a part of you was absent too.

  Avery had another cocktail, danced her way through the crowd and kept an eye on Pearl. In the back of her mind she’d been waiting, hoping, to see the look on Hunter’s face when he saw her new dress. The independent woman in her said it was stupid to try to pretty herself for a man, to dress to please him.

  But the old Avery, the Avery she’d once been had loved being part of a couple. Had enjoyed shopping with her guy in mind and waited with baited breath to see the smile of pleasure on his face.

  Try as she might to become a new woman, no, a different woman, a leopard couldn’t change its spots. She could try to forget the past, the betrayal, the life she’d almost had. She could party and dance and go out with any man who struck her fancy. She could claim she was an independent, practical woman who didn’t need a man to exist.

  But the truth was, the truth she’d managed to push deep down for so long, was that she craved belonging to someone. She wanted what her parents had. What Maxim and Ceara had. What Grayson and Coco had found with each other. Even the wedding that Izzy and Shade were about to have.

  Somewhere in the last week she’d embraced that old self, welcomed her back and stopped hiding. She felt reborn. It no longer bothered her that Hunter was always on her mind. He’d been in her heart for almost two years and she saw now that that day, that solstice, had been a rebirth for Coco, Ceara and herself.

  “Avery!”

  She heard her voice over the music and turned to see Pearl squeezing through the other dancers.

  Avery smiled and waved her over, but Pearl wasn’t alone. The handsome man had his fingers laced through Pearl’s and Avery’s eyebrows crept up at the intimate gesture.

  “I-ugh-wanted you to meet Bane.”

  Pearl looked up at the man with so many stars in her eyes, Avery had a hard time believing they’d just met. But what was more interesting was the look of complete adoration in his gaze. And the way he tucked Pearl against his side so he could shake Avery’s hand.

  “I must thank you,” he said.

  “Me?” she glanced back and forth between them.

  Pearl nodded and stepped closer. “Bane is my bodyguard. Going after your dream gave me the courage to go after mine.”

  Wow.

  Pearl smiled that lovely smile of hers as she stepped back into the circle of his arms. She seemed to be standing taller, more confident, and obviously, deliriously, happy.

  So that was the tension and sadness she’d detected in the princess. Unrequited love.

  Avery reached out and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “Me too,” Pearl said, squeezing her back for a good half minute. “Thank you, Avery.”

  “You’re so welcome. Please tell me you’re going to forget yoga lessons and go make up for lost time.”

  Pearl pulled back, smirking.

  “Now that you’re with Hunter, I think my job is over.”

  Avery frowned. “Job?”

  “I’ll let Hunter explain. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

  “Go,” Avery shouted over the fast dance beat. “Have fun.”

  The new couple exited the club, arms around each other and Avery, despite her puzzlement, couldn’t stop grinning. Go Pearl. Good for her for finally claiming what she wanted.

  If only Hunter was around.

  It was past time to pursue her werewolf.

  But the sun was still set and the club was vibrating with excitement and lust. She shimmied back to the dance floor and waited for Ceara to return.

  “I like the way you move,” a masculine voice called from behind her. She spun on the ball of her foot.

  “Thanks.”

  He was a few inches taller than she was with wavy brown hair and dark eyes. Not bad looking and his goofy dance moves made her smile.

  “I’m not much of a dancer,” he admitted doing an odd disco/hip-hop mix.

  The music clicked up to a hard driving beat and the crowd of bodies began hopping up and down. He followed suit, waving his arms over his head.

  He looked a little like Kermit the Frog doing an excited flail.

  She grinned at him. One hand over her head she let her whole body undulate to the music. Closing her eyes, she imagined that Hunter was with her. Watching her, his hands itching to touch her.

  A hand slid across her hip and her eyes popped open. She started to back away from the man, Hunter’s words from their first night together echoing in her ears. I don’t share.

  A low growl stopped her.

  “Get your hand off my mate.”

  She recognized Hunter’s voice immediately and shivered at the ferocity of his tone. But she melted too. Anticipation swept through her with the fury of a tornado.

  “Your mate?” the stranger said, backing up a step, his hand falling away from her.

  Hunter slid a hand between her shoulder blades and turned her slowly. The dichotomy between his smooth, sure movement and the frantic pace of the room around them made the moment even sweeter. Almost like time was slowing down just for them. She sighed beneath his touch, so elated that he was back that she was willing to forgive him for not telling her
an important detail. Make that two important details.

  His gaze flicked over the top of her head and he pulled her hair to the side of her neck. She frowned.

  “Sorry man! Didn’t know she was taken.” When she turned the stranger melted in with the crowd, his hands held up in surrender.

  Before she could ask what that was all about, Hunter wrapped his arms around her. “Miss me?” he asked, close to her ear.

  His hands molded against her lower back, holding her tight. He smelled so good and felt even better.

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  His cocky smirk made her tingle. The beat slowed just enough for close dancing and the look in his eye said he was done talking for now.

  Instead, he spoke to her with his hands, his hips, his kiss. She moved against him, fluid and easy. Melting. Blending. Losing all sense of time and place until it was only him and her at the center of the universe.

  She slid a palm up his chest, needing to touch as much as she craved being touched. As soon as she reached the warm skin beneath the open collar of his shirt she closed her eyes and thought of Valencia’s suite in Paris.

  When she opened her eyes they were surrounded by the soft, muted tones and quiet that had always soothed her. As nice as the island was, she wanted complete privacy. The Paris apartment was so romantic, perfect for what she had in mind.

  “No more secrets, huh?” she asked, reminding him of their conversation the evening before.

  He had the good grace to look sheepish. “Last one.”

  “A pretty big one.”

  He stepped back and studied her with deliberate thoroughness. She felt the intensity all the way to her toes.

  She was suddenly a little breathless, but the happiness bubbling through her made her want to raise on her tiptoes and kiss him.

  “You look incredible,” he said, pleasure in his eyes, just as she’d hoped.

  Hunter backed her against the nearest wall. His lips sought hers, kissing her with a passion that stole her breath. But she couldn’t let him distract her. Not now. Not when there was so much left unsaid.

  Wrenching her lips from his, she placed both palms against his chest and pushed. “You’ve got some explaining to do.” She quirked an eyebrow at him.

  “Yeah? You sure you want to talk right now?” He trailed a fingertip down the side of her neck, across her collar bone and then down the length of her arm. The caress almost made her knees buckle. Almost.

  “Right now,” she whispered, drawing out the words.

  He groaned. “You expect me to think while you’re wearing that scrap of a dress, smelling good enough to eat?”

  “Absolutely.” She stared him down, unwilling to let it go.

  “I--”

  “Have a confession?” she prodded.

  He nodded slowly. She watched his eyes. He didn’t shy away, didn’t back down. “Or two. I bit you the second night we were together. You came so hard you didn’t even notice.”

  Avery let her head drop back against the wall. “The second night?”

  She remembered that night, every detail. Every kiss. Every caress. The way his mouth felt moving across her skin, down her stomach, lower still until she’d lost her mind.

  Except, obviously, the most important detail. His bite; him marking her as she’d shattered in his arms.

  “I know you don’t believe in forever, but I believed in us. I knew the moment we met that you were my mate.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “So you bound us together without asking? Without even telling me?”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Hunter was having a hard time determining Avery’s mood. But her body language hadn’t changed. And she wasn’t shouting.

  “I know…” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear wanting to kiss her again so badly he ached. “I couldn’t help myself.”

  “And your second confession? Pearl said something about a job.”

  “I asked her to arrange lessons with you for three weeks so I’d have enough time to carry out my plan.”

  “I knew it! You played hard to get on purpose.”

  He didn’t deny it.

  She raised an eyebrow and smirked.

  “Are you mad?” he asked, afraid of her answer.

  “I should be. I should be furious. You bound yourself to a vampire. Are you crazy? You know I can’t give you kids. And you barely even knew me--”

  “I knew enough to be crazy about you.”

  “And that’s why I’m not mad.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  She ran a foot up the back of his leg. “You knew. Somehow. And you had faith in me. And you waited until I knew you well enough to fall for you.”

  Those words were like a jolt to the heart. Words he’d been waiting to hear, for a lifetime it felt like. But gods help him, he needed to hear more.

  “You fell for me?” He couldn’t hide the smugness in his tone.

  “You’re kind of irresistible.” She raked her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, giving him that sultry look he loved so much. But where she used to see him as another man to warm her sheets, he now saw the pure, unfettered love in her deep blue eyes.

  “Is that right?” He ran a thumb along her jaw, completely seduced by her. There was no where he’d rather be. Wrapped up in her arms, making love, laughing at a movie, walking along a beach hand in hand, it didn’t matter so long as he was with her.

  “Actually, you’re completely irresistible. Which is why I could never keep my distance. Why I always felt safe with you, even when I barely knew you.”

  “And now?”

  “Now I know you.” She rose up and kissed him. “How are things back home?”

  “Tense. We think the power went to his head. I’ll, ugh, I’ll be needed there for a while.”

  She nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

  He stared at her, wishing he could just make good on his promise and whisk her away. “For how long?”

  She’d wanted to travel, not be bound to a pack of werewolves. They both knew it.

  “For as long as it takes.” She smiled, undoing the buttons of his shirt. “Did Maxim string him up by his tail?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I did.”

  She paused, glancing up at him.

  “Not literally,” he told her. She visibly relaxed. “Although, I would have been justified.”

  She worried her lower lip.

  “What’s wrong, Avery?”

  “Nothing. I just, sometimes I forget that you’re, you know… dangerous. Deadly, even.”

  “I could never be dangerous to you,” he whispered against her lips. “Don’t you know? You’ve tamed the wolf.”

  “Is that right? You? Tamed? I don’t believe it.”

  He laughed at the disbelief in her voice. He loved that she didn’t pull her punches. That she said what she felt. That she made him laugh. “I love you, Avery.”

  “I love you, Hunter Ciolek. And your wolf.”

  Those three little words. He’d longed to hear them and now that he had, it felt like pieces of his soul clicked into place.

  “He’s rather fond of you too.”

  “Is that right?”

  He reached for the zipper beneath her left arm and slowly tugged it down. As delicious as she looked in this dress, she’d be even more decadent naked, quivering beneath him.

  “You’d better believe it.”

  EPILOGUE

  Hunter woke to a gentle trilling sound. He reached for Avery but found the bed empty. Bolting upright, he confirmed his worst fear. He was alone.

  His heart dropped even though he knew he was being hasty.

  “Avery?”

  There was no reply.

  The trill drew his attention to the nightstand. His cell phone lit up and he reached for it. There were two text messages waiting for him from Avery.

  HELLO MY HANDSOME WOLF.

  Followed by:
<
br />   MEET ME ON THE PONT DES ARTS BRIDGE. XOXO

  His heart beat slowed and he sighed. Scrubbing a hand down his face he thought back to the day before, momentarily reliving the time in her arms. She was his. And he was hers at last. His pursuit was over.

  He had nothing to worry about. But he didn’t relish waking up to an empty bed, especially after telling himself as he’d been falling asleep, arms around his mate, that he’d never have to wake alone again.

  Yesterday, these last two years, hadn’t been a dream.

  He dressed in a hurry and practically ran the whole way to the bridge. Somewhere down the way a musician was playing La Vie en Rose.

  He made it to the bridge and recognized the fences full of locks. Lanterns lined the edges. He caught Avery’s scent on a breeze. The scene before him, flickering candlelight, thousands of padlocks sparkling in the moonlight, violinist playing one of the most romantic songs…it spoke to the human in him and humbled the wolf.

  And in the center stood Avery, radiant in an ultra-feminine red dress. Nothing like her normal style but perfect for her nevertheless. Seeing her beautiful curves, feeling her gaze on him made his heart beat faster. His stomach felt odd and fluttery. And his inner wolf was strangely quiet but completely alert.

  “Hi,” she said when he was an arm’s length away.

  “Hi.”

  He loved her so much.

  She studied his face and a slow smile stretched her lips. She released a breath and he realized she was nervous. He was dying to touch her and was ready to sweep her into his arms and carry her off, but she’d planned this for a reason. He needed to hear her out, let her have her say.

  She held out her hands, opening them toward him. A silver lock rested in her palms. He closed his eyes for a two full seconds, a feeling so powerful ricocheting through him that he felt weak in the knees.

  Her voice played through his mind, telling him of the legend of the bridge. Why all those locks were attached to the railings along the edge of the bridge; thousands of them professing love and commitment.

  He wasted no time taking the lock from her.