Shadow Sworn (Copper Falls Book 2)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  He hadn’t considered that before, that if he and Sophie had kids, they would just be normal. Or maybe they’d be Shadow witches, he thought with a grimace.

  “Stop thinking about her for like five seconds,” Jon muttered, and Calder raised his middle finger in response. “It’s like you’re thirteen all over again.”

  “Except worse,” Bryce said with a smirk. “Thirteen year old Calder only had her kisses to obsess over.”

  Calder looked at the television again. The truth was, he’d felt more isolated than ever since the night Sophie had taken his curse. Yeah, he was sane now, and he had the love of his life… if he said it was everything he’d ever dreamed it would be, he’d be lying. He never fantasized about having to pull an insane Sophie away from a pan of raw brownies, or having to wonder if she would jump some random guy just because she happened to be in the right mood. The sex was everything and more he’d ever dreamed of, and in her sane moments, Sophie was a dream.

  “I’ve never been so pissed at anyone in my life,” Calder said quietly. He didn’t normally do this confiding bullshit. He glanced at Bryce. “And this doesn’t leave the three of us. Keep your mouth shut to Layla.”

  Bryce nodded.

  “She had no goddamn business taking the curse. I hate seeing her like this, and there’s not a goddamn thing I can do about it. She never asked me. I never, ever would have let her take it,” he said. He rubbed his hand over his face. “Part of me hates her for it,” he finished quietly. “And I feel like an asshole for saying that.”

  “Because you are an asshole for saying that,” Jon said, and Calder was surprised by the vehemence in his voice. “Fuck you, Calder.”

  Calder stared at his brother.

  Jon went on. “She took the curse because we all knew, the second dad was gone, that the curse would hit you fully. She took the curse because no matter what else you think Sophie is, she’s strong as hell. Not magic-wise or physically or any of that shit,” Jon said, waving off whatever Calder had been about to say. “Emotionally. Dude, did you not hear even a tiny bit of what you told me about what she went through after they moved away from here? Did you not tell me she lived through not just leaving her home, but then losing everyone who ever mattered to her, having that freak-ass warlock stalking her, and coming out of it sane and strong and determined to take her life back? Do you remember any of that, or is your mind totally gone under your pathetic ‘poor Calder’ bullshit?”

  Calder stared, dumbfounded, at his brother. “You don’t even like Sophie,” he said, incapable of putting together anything else in the face of his brother’s impassioned speech.

  “I like Sophie just fine. I didn’t like her when it looked like she couldn’t break the curse. I didn’t trust her line. Didn’t trust her. But she showed more strength in the moment she decided to take your curse than I’ve ever seen, and from what you told me about what she went through before she got back here, I think she deserves some kind of damned medal for sheer strength of will. So get the hell over it and appreciate what you’ve got. Asshole,” Jon added.

  Calder turned to Bryce in disbelief.

  “What he said,” Bryce said with a grin. “Stop being an asshole. Give her a little credit, man.”

  “I do! I am! You haven’t seen her when she’s losing it—“

  “Did you ever once think of dad as being weak or helpless when the curse was on him?” Jon interrupted.

  “No,” Calder said without a thought.

  “Then stop thinking of Sophie as those things,” Bryce said, and Jon nodded.

  He was about to argue. He was about to tell them that he never thought those things about Sophie. But the fact was that he had, more than once, thought her helpless, too weak to face the burden he’d lived with for so long. And that was a big part of his anger with her: that she’d taken his curse and wasn’t strong enough to manage it.

  “So she loses it every once in a while. The woman is going to work every day and managing not to turn your dumb ass into a toad or something. She’s already handling it better than dad ever did,” Jon said quietly. “Dad hated it when he could tell we felt sorry for him. Remember that?”

  Calder nodded.

  “Sophie’s likely not any different.”

  “Just a hell of a lot sexier,” a deep voice said to Calder’s right. He looked up to see Jack, the area alpha and owner of the bar standing there grinning at him. Jack was a big man, roughly the same height as Calder, but with a bulkier frame. He shifted into a wolf, but in his human form he looked more bear-like. He was about fifteen years older than the three of them, but shifters tended to age well. Calder knew the man’s reputation among both the shifter and human communities and the idea of him even thinking about Sophie made Calder want to slug him. “What the hell are you doing here when you have a sweet little thing like Sophie Turner waiting at home for you?”

  Calder gritted his teeth, suppressing the urge to jump over the bar and slug Jack for talking about Sophie.

  “We barely got him pried away as it is,” Bryce said to his alpha. Bryce was in Jack’s pack, as a wolf himself, as were Layla and Cara. Being bears, Jon and Calder belonged to no pack. And Calder was grateful for it.

  “I bet,” Jack said. “The things I could do with a woman like that. Damn. That ass—”

  Calder saw red, and before he even realized what he was doing, he was lunging over the bar. He got one hit in on Jack’s mouth before the alpha recovered enough to fight back.

  After that, it was all punching and snarling. Jack tossed Calder over the bar, and Calder crashed into one of the small tables, which cleared out just in time, patrons scattering to get out of the two shifters’ ways. Jack jumped over the bar, and Calder was ready for him.

  “Come on, teddy bear,” Jack taunted, and Calder launched himself at the larger man, hitting him hard once, twice, in the ribs before taking a quick jab to the stomach that had him gasping for air. He recovered in time to dodge another swing, then landed a solid hit to Jack’s kidney.

  “You’re lucky I have customers in here tonight,” Jack growled at Calder as they scuffled, then swung out and Calder didn't duck in time to avoid the solid hit to his right eye.

  He barely felt it.

  All he could feel was the need to rip Jack apart, to see him beaten and bloody for even looking at what was Calder’s. For having thoughts about Calder’s woman that he had no right thinking.

  Calder was on him, punching, hard, and when Jack fell to the floor under the onslaught, Calder was on him, punching him repeatedly. He was vaguely aware of Jon and Bryce pulling him off of Jack, and turning his rage against the two of them.

  Even Jack seemed to have seen something that had him trying to calm Calder down. “All right, man. Okay. I’m sorry,” he said, holding his hands out in a gesture of peace. “You feel better now, though, right?” he asked with a grin.

  Calder watched him as he tried to get his breathing under control. Blood was dripping from Jack’s nose, and his eyes were blackening. The alpha laughed.

  “It’s okay, man. That was a stupid thing for me to say.”

  “I’ve seen you looking at her,” Calder snarled.

  Jack smiled in a disarming way. “There’s not a straight man in the vicinity who wouldn’t look at her. Come on. Calm it down there, son.”

  Calder shook his head, and as his sanity returned, he realized what he’d done: he’d attacked the alpha of the Copper Falls pack in his domain.

  Jack laughed as he watched Calder work it out. “It’s okay. I could see you had a bug up your ass when you walked in here. Sometimes all you can do is fight that shit out,” the older man said, still grinning.

  “So you did that on purpose?” Calder asked.

  “I didn’t really think you’d hit me. But I’m glad you did. It’s been a while since I’ve had to kick anyone’s ass.”

  “Pretty sure I kicked your ass, old man,” Calder said, and Jack laughed again, stuck his hand out. Calder took it, and they shook. />
  “You’re not of my pack, but I like you, kid. I liked your father. Damn shame, what happened to him,” Jack said, too much knowledge on his face. “And an even bigger shame that his sons have to live with the memory of what their old man became. You ever need anything, come to me. Yeah?”

  Calder nodded, and Jack gave his hand another firm shake, then turned back to the rest of the bar. “Right. Show’s over. Round on me to make up for the interruption,” he said, and the patrons cheered, started righting chairs and tables. One of the bartenders grabbed a broom and dustpan to clean up the broken glass, and within moments, life was back to normal.

  Calder sat on his stool and gratefully accepted the beer Jack handed him.

  He stared at the television without seeing it. It had been weeks since he’d felt that pissed, that insane with rage. Not since he’d been freed from his curse.

  Jon and Bryce talked about the Tigers, and about Bryce’s ugly car, and Calder answered noncommittally when they asked him how it was going with the cars he was restoring. His mind was a million miles away, something just out of reach bothering him.

  He shoved another palmful of peanuts in his mouth, and the barmaid replaced the empty bowl with a full one.

  “You really like those, huh?” she asked with a smile.

  “Huh?”

  “That was your fourth bowl,” she said with a laugh.

  Calder shook his head. “Oh. Well, they ate some, too,” he said, glancing at the bowl.

  “Uh-huh. Sure they did,” she said with a wink. He watched her walk away, then tore his eyes away and looked back at the television screen.

  “I should get home to Sophie,” he said. This time, Jon and Bryce didn’t bother arguing with him, and he left, clapping each of them on the shoulder. When he opened the door and stepped out into the cold night air, he finally felt like he could breathe again.

  It was late. Sophie was likely in bed already, he realized. And the though of Sophie lying in bed in that sexy sleep bra and panties she showed him had him hard as a rock in an instant, his erection almost painful in its intensity.

  Yeah. Definitely time to go home, he thought. He climbed on his bike, started it, and roared down the highway toward home.

  When he pulled up to Sophie’s house, he could see that there was still a light on inside. She probably fell asleep looking through those journals of Migisi’s again, he thought to himself as he unlocked the front door with the key she’d given him. When he entered the living room, he stopped, frozen, struck by how gorgeous she was. She was asleep on the daybed in the little nook off of the living room, the wall sconce over the bed casting her in a warm glow. Her riot of dark curls cascaded over the pillow, and her full, gorgeous breasts rose and fell with every breath. She was wearing the sleep bra and pajama pants she’d showed him, the same ones that had him running hot on his way home, and now his desire returned tenfold. The white blanket on the bed was tangled around her legs as if she’d been tossing and turning.

  Regaining his senses, he slowly walked toward the bed, still staring at her. Her eyes fluttered open, and at first she smiled. Then her expression turned to one of alarm.

  “Calder! What happened to you?” she asked, sitting up.

  “Later,” he said, gently pushing her back down. He untangled the blanket from her legs and tossed it aside.

  “Your eye—“ she protested.

  “Later,” he repeated, settling himself between her thighs, the painful erection he’d been sporting the entire way home cradled between her thighs, and she gasped.

  Damn, he loved that sound. She tried to say something about his bruises again, and he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her with all of the hunger he was feeling, all his need, all his love… everything. He was rewarded with a moan, and it kicked his need into overdrive. He pulled her bra down, watching as her gorgeous breasts popped free, and then he was licking, sucking, biting her sweet flesh as she writhed beneath him, moaning his name, urging him on.

  He didn’t need any encouragement. He reached between them and pulled her pants down, and she helped by kicking them off.

  He was too impatient to even bother with his clothes. He unzipped his fly, and the second he was free, he plunged it inside Sophie in one hard thrust that had her crying out, her fingernails digging into his shoulders.

  He took her in a frenzy of need and lust, as if he couldn’t get deep enough inside her, and nearly lost his mind when she clenched around him as she fell apart.

  “Oh, don’t stop, Calder,” she moaned as she came down.

  He couldn’t stop if he wanted to. If nothing else, he was stirred into an even higher frenzy. He took her faster, harder, out of his mind with need for her. The scent of her arousal only drove him crazier, her moans and cries, the way she clawed at his back and repeated his name like some kind of prayer as he took her.

  He finished, thrusting into her, hard, holding her hips down and plunging into her with a series of hard, fast movements that had her screaming with another orgasm.

  He collapsed on top of her, and within moments, he was asleep, still buried deep inside her, the haze of lust and anger finally abating, at least for a little while.

  Chapter Eight

  Sophie lay under Calder for a long time, trying to catch her breath. His snores started even as her heart pounded from what they’d just done together.

  He was so heavy on top of her. So solid. She closed her eyes. His face was pressed against the side of her neck, where he’d bitten her as he loved her. His hands were wrapped around her wrists, her arms stretched over her head.

  Even in his sleep, he occasionally moved his hips, still connected to her, and she trembled in need and exhaustion.

  He hadn’t taken her like before. It was exactly what she’d wanted, during the worst of the need she felt for him due to the curse. Clearly, being away from her made for an enthusiastic homecoming, she thought wryly as she tried to shift a little beneath him. His hands tightened on her wrists, and she stilled.

  “Mine,” he murmured in his sleep, voice muffled against her neck.

  “I’m yours,” she whispered. “Always.”

  “Lied to me,” he murmured, and she wasn’t sure if he was asleep or not. She didn’t answer. “Car was dusty.”

  She closed her eyes. Of course he’d notice something like that. He hadn’t asked her about it. Of course he’d noticed and knew she’d lied. And she felt even guiltier for lying to him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked, and now she knew he was awake. He rolled off of her, then gathered her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed his chest, the light hairs there gently tickling her face as she did. He raised his hand to her hair and gently tugged it, forcing her to look at his face.

  She did, and was met with the sight of that black eye. “You need ice,” she said, pulling herself out of his arms. He sat up in bed with a sigh, and she was well aware of his eyes on her as she crossed the cabin. She’d long passed being self-conscious around Calder. Truly, he made her feel like the most gorgeous, most desired woman on Earth, and she was almost embarrassed by how much that pleased her, how much his approval meant to her.

  She opened the freezer, then popped several ice cubes into a bag of ice, then put the bag onto a dishtowel that she’d lightly dampened at the sink. She twisted the dishtowel around the bag of ice, then carried it back to the bed, blushing a bit under Calder’s unabashed appraisal. He’d removed his pants, and sat in bed naked. She climbed onto his lap, straddling his thighs, and gently pressed the ice pack to his eye. He rested his hands on her hips, and when she tore her eyes away from the icepack and focused on his face, he was looking at her, intensity, love, seriousness in his gaze.

  “You do that like a pro,” he said quietly.

  “The ice pack?”

  “Yeah.”

  Sophie shook her head a little. “After my mom died, my dad worked nonstop. When he wasn’t working, he
didn’t know what to do with himself, so he drank. And when he’d drink, he’d fall. A lot,” she added. “I can do stitches too, by the way. But don’t make me have to give you any.”

  “Okay,” he said quietly. They sat in silence for a few moments.

  “So are you going to tell me how you got this? Who slugged you?” she asked, continuing to hold the pack to his eye. His hand rubbed over the curves of her hips, his fingertips gently tracing up the curve of her waist, then back down, over and over again. She glanced down at his hand, noting the red, scraped knuckles. “And who did you hit?”

  “Are you going to tell me where you went?” he asked.

  She nodded. “You first, though.”

  “I got in a fight with Jack,” he said, and she looked at him in surprise.

  “Why?”

  He didn’t answer, and she ran the fingers of her free hand through the stubble on his chin. “Why, Calder?” she repeated.

  “He was a little too complimentary toward you,” he growled, and, after a moment of surprised shock, she found herself laughing, just a little. “It’s not funny,” he said.

  “No, it’s not,” she said, sobering. “You seriously got into a fight over something like that? Do you know how stupid that sounds?”

  “I know. It was stupid. He said it, and kept going, and I was leaping at him before I even realized what I was doing. All I wanted to do was punish him for even thinking about you,” he finished quietly. “I haven’t been that pissed in a long time.”

  “Well. Maybe it was a case of the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’ve both been tense, and I know you’ve been worried about me.” She paused, shifted the ice pack a little. “I know you’re angry with me.”

  “Sophie—“

  “You are. And I can even say that I understand it. I would be angry if the situation was reversed,” she said. He put his hand over hers, and lowered the ice pack from his face so he could look at her.

  “I have no right to be mad. You did what you thought was right. It’s who you are. You’re a Lightwitch. Expecting you to let me continue on that way would have been impossible. I get that. I love that about you, that you care so much. I’m pissed because I hate seeing you suffer. I’m pissed because I hate that I wasn’t strong enough to hold it together better—“