by Bianca D'Arc
That still amazed her. It probably would always amaze her. All her life, Sal had lived with the fear of wild magic rising in her soul. Well, the magic had come, but it wasn’t exactly wild. Not the way it was with her mother. Not since Mr. Howell had taken Sal in hand.
Sal had hope that she might live through this, essentially intact. There was no doubt she would have a lot more knowledge, and perhaps a new set of skills, but she wouldn’t wind up like her mother. For the first time, she had hope that she could live with this curse, though Mr. Howell insisted on calling it a gift.
Abuela was beaming at her when Sal dismissed the fireball and looked into the old woman’s eyes. Sal read approval in that ancient gaze. Approval and respect. Wow.
“I’ve seen enough. You two should not stay way out here all alone. I want you both to come to the big house. It will be easier for Master Howell and I to see to your education if we’re all staying in the same place.” Nick’s grandmother turned to him. “Unless you have another reason for wanting to be alone.” Those old eyes showed sparkles of mirth as she teased her grandson.
“That’s none of your business, Abuela,” Nick growled, but with clear love in every word.
“It is my business. I want great-grandchildren, Nicky. I’m not getting any younger here.” Laughter accompanied her teasing words, and Sal felt her cheeks heat at the idea of providing those great-grandchildren…and just how they might be conceived.
And just like that, it was decided that Sal’s exile to the cabin was over, and she was welcome among the rest of the Clan. Nick wasn’t sure exactly how to feel about that. On the one hand, he wanted his mate to be accepted among his people. On the other, he really liked being alone with her in the middle of nowhere.
Abuela sent him outside so that she could spend some time with Sal, teaching her more about magic and how to control it. Nick cooled his heels, walking the perimeter and checking in with his sentries. All was well, but he knew Abuela would want more time to work with and assess Sal. Some unnamed fear kept him close to the cabin. He couldn’t just leave two of the most important women in his life alone and not stay within reach should they need him.
So, he paced. And prowled. And just walked around, checking and rechecking the local area. Mostly, he was just trying to burn off his own nervous energy, but it wasn’t really working.
At length, Abuela opened the door to the cabin and came outside. Nick walked over to meet her as she made her way toward her car, which had waited for her, the youngster behind the wheel having passed the time playing games on her phone. She wasn’t on the security team. Heck, she wasn’t even old enough to legally drive had they been on the mainland.
The girl was Abuela’s little helper, which meant she accompanied Grandmother wherever she went and did whatever she asked the girl to do. Nick thought of her as a personal assistant—though a very young one. Abuela liked to work with the younger members of the Clan, teaching them by showing them kindness and including them in her important work. She cycled through the youngsters on a regular basis, making sure to spread her influence and love around wherever it was needed most.
This girl was new to the personal assistant position, but she would learn to pay more attention to her surroundings eventually. Nick didn’t take her to task because this was the only place on Earth right now where jaguars could go about their business without looking over their shoulders every single minute. He wouldn’t ruin that for the youngster.
Nick met his grandmother halfway to the waiting vehicle, just out of earshot of the game-playing pre-teen. He could see Sal closing the door behind Abuela, a soft smile on her face. He took that to mean the visit had gone well.
“Nicky, you are a foolish man.” Abuela wasn’t mincing words as she put her hand on her grandson’s shoulder. “There isn’t an evil bone in that girl’s body. Anybody could see that.”
“I know, I know,” he tried to placate her. “But I thought she had lied to me when the magic suddenly appeared. She didn’t tell me about her past and the many skeletons in her closet.” He was still mad that she hadn’t trusted him with the secret of her mother’s incarceration.
“And how many of your secrets did you tell her?” Abuela challenged. “A few, certainly,” the old woman allowed. “But not all. Not everything. You have not divulged every little bit of your past to her. You may never do so, and you would be within your rights. As she was within her rights to keep the painful secret about her mother. You two have only just met. You are mates, but you are new to it, and it will take time to develop the trust that comes with years. You are too impatient. Too quick to judge. How could you ever believe for a single moment that your mate might hold evil in her heart?”
Abuela was truly angry with him now. Her voice was shaking, and the hand on his shoulder rose to slap his cheek lightly.
“Stupid boy. The Mother of All would never allow that. She would not mate you—Beta and protector of our Clan—with an evil woman. You should have had more faith.” Abuela’s disappointment was written all over her lined face and made Nick feel about two inches tall.
“I’m sorry, Abuela,” he whispered, knowing she was right to have called him on his bullshit.
“It’s not me you need to apologize to. Your mate is in there, and she needs your faith in her now more than ever. She needs your unconditional love and unquestioning loyalty.” Abuela pointed toward the cabin. “And you need to make your peace with the Goddess, too. You doubted Her wisdom, and you, of all shifters, should know She has plans for us that aren’t always clear, but that always work out for the best. She moves in mysterious ways, and it is for us to have faith and believe that She is doing the best for us. How could you have forgotten that? My own grandson?” Abuela’s eyebrows rose as she regarded him for a long moment, then she relented. “You must begin to teach your mate more about our ways. If she’s going to be part of our Clan, she will need such knowledge.”
“Is she going to be part of the Clan?” There it was. Nick’s biggest worry. He’d already decided he would leave the Clan and his responsibilities behind, if they couldn’t accept Sal. She was his mate. She had to come first.
“That’s up to you,” Abuela said, stepping back. “And her.” Abuela looked back at the cabin for a moment then sighed. “And the Alpha.” She started walking toward her vehicle, and Nick fell into step beside her. “For my part, I will advise the Alpha to accept her. She is a good woman, and the Mother of All has sent her to us for a reason.”
“You really think so?” he couldn’t help but ask, risking his grandmother’s renewed wrath.
“Nicky.” She shook her head slowly, clearly disappointed that he still questioned. “Don’t you think it’s quite a coincidence that both the Alpha and Beta have found mates who were latent mages until they came to our island? Two women of great power, unused to the ways of magic. Mages unknown to magical circles. Mages bound by love to our Clan for all time. I don’t believe that is an accident. I think, rather, it is a gift from the Goddess we all serve. Two strong mages to help us in our time of rebuilding, to share their power with their children and our Clan, to make us stronger in the future. We should not fear these women. We should welcome them with open arms, like the gifts they are.”
Put that way, Nick could hardly keep arguing. Abuela was a wise woman of the Clan. A healer and medicine woman. Before Mr. Howell had shown up to help his daughter train her newfound magic, Abuela had been the one helping Shelly. Grandmother had always been a bit more magical than others in the Clan. As was her entire bloodline. Nick included.
She’d given him a great deal to think about, his mind whirring even as he helped his grandmother into the waiting vehicle. The pre-teen at the wheel finally put away her phone and started the engine. They were gone a moment later.
His head was spinning, but he knew one thing—he had to talk to Sal. He headed for the cabin, entering quietly to find Sal standing near the doorway, hands on hips, in what looked to be a fine temper.
“Wha
t did you mean when you said I was your mate?” she asked without preamble.
Nick immediately paused his steps. Abuela had been so right. He’d dug a hole for himself with his mate, and it would be up to him to dig himself right back out. But he had to do this delicately. He had one shot here, and he didn’t want to blow it.
“Shifters are a bit different from everybody else,” he began, drawing a shake of her head and a hint of a smile from her lips. Good. She wasn’t set rock solid against him. She was listening.
“You can say that again,” she allowed, leaning back to rest her shapely butt against the back of the couch, her arms folded as she waited for him to explain.
“Yeah, well, that goes for the way we find our mates, too. See, we believe in the Goddess. The Mother of All. We believe She sets us on a path that will help us find our perfect mate. It’s a bit different than for humans. With shifters, mates are strictly one per customer. We don’t divorce. We don’t fall in and out of love, like I’ve seen so many humans do. When we mate, it’s for life.”
He held her gaze, even as she stood from her leaning position, tension in her stance as her eyes widened.
“And you…” She seemed to be having trouble speaking. She cleared her throat and tried again. “You think I’m…your perfect mate?”
Nick advanced on her, slowly stalking closer, holding her startled gaze. Startled was good. Fear was not. The moment he saw fear in her eyes, he’d back off, but for right now, he found hope blossoming in his heart. So far, she was handling this as well as could be expected.
“I suspected it almost from the first moment we met,” he admitted softly. “But I was fighting it. I sensed you were keeping secrets from me, and there was the safety of the Clan to consider. You’d seen a shift. You might’ve had evidence. You could have been an enemy—or even just a misguided soul seeking to profit from the news about shifters. I had to be wary. And I regret my wariness and suspicion almost ruined everything.” He shook his head, concerned that he could still botch this. “But through it all, there was this undeniable attraction. A pull from my soul to yours. A bond that was forming no matter how much in denial I was.”
He stalked closer with each word until he was only inches from her, holding her gaze as if his life depended on it. And maybe—just maybe—it did.
“Do you feel it, too?” he asked the final question. The one that would make or break this whole shebang. Then, he waited, apprehensive of her answer.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sal thought about his words, and the way he was laying it all on the line here. That took courage. She recognized her power in that moment—the power to crush his hopes or make both of their dreams come true—and she couldn’t deny him.
“I feel it, Nick,” she admitted in a shaky voice. “It’s like a magnet, drawing me to you.”
“And me to you,” he agreed, hope shining in his eyes.
“It all happened so fast,” she breathed as he drew closer, his head dropping down toward hers.
“That’s the way it is with shifters. We fall hard, and we fall fast. And we love forever.” He nibbled on her lips, and she almost let the moment carry her away. Almost.
Hands on his chest, she pushed gently, to make some space between them. She looked up into his eyes, the moment more important than any other moment in her life.
“You love me?” she asked, trying desperately to settle the small hint of fear still in the pit of her stomach.
Were they too different to make a go of this? Were shifters meant to be with humans? Or even human mages who hadn’t known they were mages until very recently? The thoughts jumbled through her mind, making little sense…except for the fear that she might still lose him, somehow, despite his words. Perhaps it was fear of belief. If she believed in him and then he left, she knew she would never survive.
But Nick held her gaze, the magic swirling slowly in his eyes, his expression as serious as she’d ever seen it. Hope started to overshadow the fear in her heart.
“I love you, Sal. I will always love you, and I will never leave you unless you drive me away. Even then, I’ll watch over you from afar, if that’s all I have left. When shifters mate, it’s forever. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me, sweetheart.” At last, he smiled, and it was as if the sun had come out after months of rain. Years of rain, in her case.
She could deny the joy in her heart no more.
“I love you, too, Nick,” she told him, smiling as he did. “It’s all happened so fast, but I feel it in my heart. In my soul. I love you, and I never want us to be apart.”
Now, it was his turn to beam at her, tugging her into his arms for a jubilant embrace. He lifted her high and twirled her around the room, making her feel carefree in a way that she hadn’t felt for a very long time. Breathless, she hugged him back, wanting the moment of mutual discovery to go on and on.
He slowed them, looking down into her eyes as he let her feet touch the ground. “It’s fast, but it’s real, Sal. As real as anything has ever been.”
She caught her breath, feeling the magic rise and meet his, touching, exploring, not out of her control but definitely doing its own thing. He seemed to feel it, too.
“I have another little confession to make,” he told her somewhat sheepishly. “Being part of the Balam bloodline means I have a little more magic than most jaguars. I guess that’s why it bothered me so much that I hadn’t detected your magic. I’m sorry, Sal. The extra dose of magic is what makes me Beta and protector of the Clan and why my grandma is a wise woman. Somewhere in our family tree is a mage—or maybe more than just one—and that gives us a little extra something.”
“That’s why my magic reaches out to you,” she reasoned, and he nodded.
“Yeah, probably. But we can ask Abuela, if you want. She knows more about it than I do, that’s for sure. My strength is more martial than magical.” He settled his arms around her waist, looking at her with a speculative gaze that held a bit of humor. “I suspect any children we manage to have will be quite a handful, and probably a lot more magical than their old man.”
Children? She gulped, already dreaming about what they would be like. She’d never thought she’d have children because she’d feared passing on the curse of wild magic, but now… Now, everything was different. She had hope for the future, and with Nick, children were not only possible but very much desired.
“I think I’m really going to like being mated to you,” she told him, only partly joking. Nick had changed her whole world. For the better.
Nick growled and picked her up, taking her to his bedroom and laying her down on the big bed. She didn’t argue. She wanted to make love to him, right now, more than she wanted her next breath.
They undressed each other with eager hands, getting down to skin on skin in record time. Then, there was a slight pause as they kissed and stroked each other to new levels of yearning, driving each other up the ramp of passion toward their ultimate goal. Sal gave as good as she got and felt a thrill race down her spine when he started that sexy low purring that seemed to come to him at times like these.
Yeah, that was a total turn on. His rumbling chest against hers was all kinds of sexy and made her eager for more. She climbed on top of him and let him know in no uncertain terms what she wanted. Taking when he gave and joining them with gusto when he might’ve held back.
Then, she began to ride him. Slow, at first, her strokes became more intense, more fluid, more impatient as she went along. Her passion rose and rose…and then rose some more, reaching toward a height that only Nick had ever shown her.
And then, the magic began to rise, as well, and for a moment, she faltered.
But it was cool. She was in control. The magic wasn’t running away from her to do God-only-knew-what. It was running toward Nick, and he was meeting it. Caressing it. Like he caressed her body with his hands. Somehow, his magic was accepting hers and returning the tingling stroke for stroke.
Her breath caught at the sensations—both p
hysical and magical. Who knew sex could be so multi-dimensional?
Aware of her now as never before, Nick could feel Sal’s magic reaching toward his, touching tentatively at first, then twining together with his, as if they had been made for each other. They had been, after all. He and Sal had been matched up by the Goddess. They were mates. It wasn’t all that surprising—or at least it shouldn’t have been—that their innate powers would recognize each other and blend together.
The flavor of her power was quite different from his. She wasn’t a shifter, for one thing. That was a huge difference right there. But they were more alike than he had imagined. Given the chance for their energies to intertwine as their bodies came together in passion, the magic roiled and bubbled happily—not at all contentiously. This was a good match. One that would stand the test of time…and beyond.
As Nick and Sal made love on the physical plane, their powers came to terms with each other on the magical and spiritual planes. There was a joining, and a blending, that resulted in a new incarnation for each of them. They came together as separate beings and came out of the encounter joined. Renewed. Reenergized. Remade.
When their bodies reached for the ultimate reward, together, the magic poured out, sparkling around them together, an echo of what their bodies were doing. Climax after climax was powered by both the physical and the magical, lasting long after any previous experience Nick had ever had with other women.
There were no other women. Not anymore. From now on, the only woman he could contemplate was his mate. His perfect match. His Goddess-given joy.
“I love you, Sal,” he whispered in her ear as they clung together, magic swirling around them.
He felt her relax into him. “I love you, too, Nick. With all my heart.”
*
As the sun set, Nick pulled up in the driveway of the mansion on the other side of the island. Sal was beside him, as he hoped she would be for the rest of their lives. What came next would determine whether he—whether they—would stay here as part of the Jaguar Clan or have to move on. Mark would have to make a decision to either accept Sal into the Clan or lose Nick forever. It was just that simple. And that scary.
