The humans were…human. Pretty, handsome, some more so, others plain.
But then her eyes started to pick out a human she thought at first was an elf. Eyes that gleamed, not quite as brightly as an elf’s. But more than a mortal’s, a human’s would. Hair that shifted and swirled and gleamed with a life of its own. A fire inside.
Not wholly human.
But not elf either.
“Elf-touched, elf-mated,” Nikolai murmured behind her, sliding one brawny arm around her waist.
He brushed his lips across her head as she jumped, and Bryan laughed at the look on his mama’s face. “Nik fwighten Mama? Mama jump.” The boy clapped and tugged, jerked and squirmed until she set him down and he made a beeline for the window to the workshop, trying to rise up on his toes and peer inside. “Can’t see nothing…magic windows.”
“The Northern Reach is full of magic.” Nikolai was murmuring to her as they watched the small child pace back and forth, casting awed glances at the workshop. Such a frantic pace inside. Nik had taken a short, quick break to come see her, but then he must go back. Too much to do, too little time to do it in. Would she understand? “I want to share that with you. Chantelle, please…”
Chelly stood stiffly in his arms, folding her arms over her belly, rubbing her hands up and down against some inner chill. “Elf-touched? What do you mean?”
“They’ve mated with one of my kind.” He gently turned her in his arms, taking her hands and lifting them to his mouth. “Joined souls, minds, life essence. Their bodies are mortal no longer. They are not truly elf, but not truly human, either. My mate…this is what you are to me, have always been. I’ve just been waiting for you. I could have taken the time to explain before bringing Bryan here, but he did not have the time, so I did what I knew you would have wanted, da?”
Chelly felt her breath leave her lungs in a hot, shuddering rush as Nik’s lashes lifted, revealing the smoky, smoldering depths of his cobalt blue eyes. “I wish to share that with you, all of my long life, all of my heart. I have loved you since you were eighteen, Chantelle, and I shall love you for all the years that I walk upon this earth. I do not wish to spend those years without you. And I hate feeling your anger and helplessness.”
Helplessness…a choice taken from her.
Yes, he had saved Bryan, and brought her here against her will.
Lifting her eyes, she met his and just mutely shook her head. And then she turned away from him.
She only heard his rough sigh, but she knew when he was gone. Chelly could feel his absence in her heart.
“You made the right choice.”
The voice was friendly enough.
There was no reason for her to dislike the owner of it so intensely before she even saw the emerald-green eyes appraising her so thoroughly. None at all. But she did. Meeting that intent stare, she patted Bryan on the back and told him to keep playing. He studied the visitor with distrusting eyes before going back to the brightly colored picture in front of him, one hand gripped a chunky crayon tightly.
Then she rose in a fluid motion and met the man’s eyes. “I beg your pardon?” she asked, lifting a dark brow. Her eyes, a softer green than the elf’s, were blank and polite.
“Nikolai is infatuated, but you cannot truly believe he would love a mortal, can you?” He smiled as he said it, as if to take the sting away. “You are a sweet thing, I’ve no doubt. But surely, you can see this is not a fated thing.”
Chelly studied him with curious eyes. He was a handsome, almost angelic man, with long golden blond hair that fell just below his shoulders, and those big green eyes. “You expect me to believe that Nikolai doesn’t know his own heart?” She smiled in return, just as politely, sliding her hands into her pockets and cocking her head.
His eyes glinted, flashed, with what looked like amusement but it was gone so fast, she couldn’t be sure. “Elfin men are quite captivated by mortal women—” He moved toward her in a smooth, stalking gait, muscles rippling and flexing under his clothes.
A mountain lion. Her head spun dizzily for a brief moment, then she shook it and threw off the odd, muffled feel inside it, the nagging sense of fear that resided inside her belly. It didn’t feel right, didn’t feel like her. And as soon as she thought that, the fear fell apart, and he was in front of her, glaring angrily at her. “Captivated by your stubbornness, your charm, the way you cling to your short, insignificant lives—”
Chelly narrowed her eyes and spat, “Insignificant? You pompous, self-righteous bastard. Insignificant? Because I won’t live forever?”
He smirked at her. “No, because you could have. Because you could have had everything you had ever wanted…and you turned it down. Because you fear tomorrow. All mortals do. And that fear robs you of your joy of today.”
He turned on his booted heel, an old-style boot, to match his old-style velvet breeches—that same impossible green of his eyes. He smiled at Bryan, who stared at him with a rather ambivalent stare now, instead of outright distrust, and left in smirking silence.
That fear robs you of your joy of today…
Oh, hell.
Chelly knelt beside Bryan and ran her fingers through his downy soft blond hair. “What have I done?”
Chapter Seven
Alisdair’s voice filled the chamber just as Rhys was closing the door behind him with a self-satisfied smirk. She was thinking hard now. And about time too. Rhys didn’t know how much longer he could tolerate Nik’s brooding.
“What exactly did ya hope t’ accomplish by that, Rhys?” said a low, silky voice.
The room was empty.
Rhys turned around lazily, a whimsical smirk on his lips as the tall red-haired giant went from nothingness to a mist, to a solid, massive mountain of a man. His blue eyes were no longer twinkling, but snapping with anger, his full sensual mouth drawn tight with rage as he stared at one of his successors.
“An empath should know better than t’ use his gifts to induce such fear on a person, a mortal. Such a sweet girl, she is, an’ ye go causin’ her fear and doubt and distrust. What is going on inside that head o’ yours?” Dair demanded, his voice booming, his mouth grim and angry.
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Rhys said smoothly.
That fear robs you of your joy of today… Rhys grimaced as his voice echoed through the corridor. Alisdair snarled angrily, “I guess I should be thankin’ ye. Chantelle has loved Nikolai for years and years. But her pride and fear is what keeps her from telling him. You just pushed her into acknowledging how foolish that is—”
Rhys smirked. “I know.” His golden hair fell in a curtain around his face and he shoved it back behind with one hand, as he met the boss’s eyes. “Why else would I have gone there? After all, Nikolai is my best friend.” Then he turned on his heel and ambled down the hall, whistling under his breath tunelessly as Alisdair stared at him in bemusement.
Over his shoulder, Rhys called out, “Both of us being made Successor to the Line didn’t change that.”
* * * * *
Alisdair was weary when he returned to the Northern Reach at noon the next day. The last few children in Berea and Nome, Alaska, were opening their presents as his shiny black boots settled down on the polished wooden floors of the Great Hall. There was a dim echo in the back of his mind where he could hear their jubilant cries, some disappointed groans—those always made him smile—some bittersweet. Like Chelly’s had. She knew now that the black cat she had wanted would not have worked out.
But many children would never understand.
Ah, well.
One voice in particular drew him this morn…and it was close. It took only a thought and the rich red velvet he wore faded away and was replaced by a flannel shirt that hugged his massive shoulders and faded jeans that clung comfortably to long, muscled thighs. The Council had covered their eyes and all but whimpered when the boss had also started wearing the comfortable mortal clothing.
He ran a hand through his red hair and t
ucked it behind his pointed ears before knocking on the door to Nik’s apartment. Nikolai wasn’t there. Out sulking, Dair imagined. When Chelly opened the door, and he studied the soft, sweet-smelling mortal in front of him, he decided that was understandable.
But needless. She was as miserable as Nikolai, aching and yearning for him. It was there in the misery in her eyes, in the slump of her shoulders, all over her face, in every line of her body.
With a wide, brilliant smile, Dair held his arms out to the boy and then they were gone.
Chelly looked down at herself with a gasp.
Because so were her clothes.
Nikolai was in the process of chopping wood. A tedious, back-breaking job, guaranteed to leave him aching and sore, which was why he had chosen it. He had been at this task for more than four hours when suddenly the axe was gone and he was being flung through time and space as his clothes were stripped away.
“Damn it, Dair, what in the name of Hell are you doing?” he snarled as he battled against the superior elf’s power.
He heard the distant echo of his friend’s laughter as he landed bare-assed in his room. “You’ve a week, man. Don’t be wastin’ it,” the Scot told him.
He lifted his eyes to see Chelly standing over him, her eyes wide and luminous with shock, need, and love.
He barely had time to stand before she flung herself at him.
Her mouth covered his, her tongue pushing its way into his mouth, hungrily, desperately as her hands raced over his body, squeezing each muscle, massaging and rubbing every body part she could reach as she urged him backwards. Nik growled and reached for her waist and rasped, “Now.” The bed was too damn far away. Grabbing her slim hips, he lifted her and guided her legs around his waist, arching and using the muscles in his back and thighs to bury his cock in her cleft to the hilt.
“Nik…” His name fell from her lips on a ragged moan, her eyes wide, the pupils dilated and dark as she arched up against him.
“Do not turn away from me,” he whispered, fisting one hand in her hair and pulling her mouth to meet his, staring into her eyes as he kissed her hungrily. He sucked her tongue into his mouth, and bit down, then he pulled away and nibbled hungrily on her lips before rasping out again, “Please. Do not.”
“No. I won’t.” Her arms came up, winding around his neck. “I won’t. I couldn’t.” His cock jerked inside her and she cried out, twisting against him, the slick swollen tissues of her pussy caressing him as she moved herself up and down.
Sweat gleamed on his powerful, nude body as he worked her up and down on his impaling sex. “Scream for me, dushechka…Come, let me feel it,” he purred, one hand gliding down and pressing against the pink rosette. “I’ve a need to take you here, and soon. You’re so tight…so hot. Push down for me.”
Chelly shuddered and screamed as he pushed one finger past the tight ring of muscle, working it in and out slowly, gathering cream from her sex to ease his passage until he had seated his finger in fully. She arched up against the new invasion, feeling tightly stretched, invaded, and hot. Her womb contracted and she started to come, as Nikolai rumbled against her ear, “Ah, yes…that’s it. Let me feel…”
Rhythmic, waving contractions caressed him and Nikolai’s cock jerked, then he started to pulse and jet his seed deep inside her, seeking out her mouth and moaning as he kissed her, pushing his tongue inside her mouth, taking in more of her sweet, addictive taste. The silken walls of her pussy hugged and stroked him, tightening, relaxing, tightening, until he thought he’d go mad with it.
On legs that shook, he carried her to the bed, keeping his sex still buried inside her as her head slumped against his shoulder. Soft, weak little moans fell from her throat as he bent his head and kissed the exposed arch of her neck. “I love you, Chantelle.”
“I love you, too, Nik. I’m sorry. I’ve got this pride thing…and I couldn’t let it go, just being snatched away from everything I know and brought here.” Chelly opened her eyes, blinked sleepily as he laid her on her back and started to surge over her, moving deeply. A low, rough keening sound came from her as he pushed her legs wide and pulled away, sprawling between her thighs and burying his face there, catching her clit between his teeth.
She fisted her hands in the black silk of his hair and screamed when he stabbed at the sensitive little bud with his tongue while he worked moisture from her cleft lower, easing his finger in and out of her ass, until she was lifting eagerly for that caress. Then he started to use two fingers on her and she shrieked out his name and came, waves of hot pleasure washing over her with each little biting thrust.
He mounted her and drove in with one deep thrust, feeling her silken wet pussy close greedily over his cock, the scent of her body rising up and filling his head, taunting him to near madness. Leaning down to her, Nik covered her mouth and caught her wrists, pinning them overhead. “Mine for always…you swear?” he rasped against her mouth.
“Yours always, I swear.”
With a triumphant, savage grin, he rode her fast and rough, until they both went tumbling into bliss, Chelly screaming out his name, raking his arms and back with her nails, as he suckled one nipple deep and growled out her name, slamming his hips against her as he flooded her with a hot wash of come before they slid into sleep, gasping for breath, and holding tight to each other.
“Have you chosen your Successor?”
Dair smiled as he stroked the head of the boy who cuddled against his shoulder. The Council had not looked pleased when he strolled in carrying a mortal’s child. Granted, this child was now elf-kin, with the glowing eyes and the bloom of magic already growing under his skin.
But the Council was stodgy and had always been so.
None but Council and Successor had ever breached these chambers.
Dair smirked inwardly.
But outwardly, he pasted on a polite smile and said, “Nikolai. As you know, he has always been the one I say is the ideal Chosen one.”
A soft-spoken, sweet-tempered elf spoke up, shaking her head as she said, “The man is unmated. He is a grim, melancholy creature—”
Dair dropped one lid in a wink as he made sure the boy was still deep in slumber. A bit o’ magic made sure he would stay that way as he pictured the looks on a few more faces… “Hold onto your hats, my friends—”
“Damn it, Dair, what are you doing?”
Chelly was on her hands and knees, a look of rapture on her heart-shaped face. Dair had fast eyes, but he caught no more than a glimpse of berry-colored nipples and a slim body, firm ass and thighs before Nik had his mate covered with bed linens as he rolled out of the bed, his cock wet and shining from her body as he glared angrily at both Dair and the Council.
Chelly was a bit slower to react, her eyes blinking sleepily as the last bit of climax rolled through her and her body shuddered with it.
“As you can see, Nikolai has a mate, and a very satisfied one at that,” Dair said with a smirk he didn’t bother to hide this time.
Chelly heard voices and squealed as Nik settled down on the bed, bringing her against his side and murmuring to her as the Council studied the grim, hard-as-iron man going as soft as a newborn snow rabbit’s fur as he cuddled his mate up against him and stroked her gently, murmuring into her hair.
She flushed red and he smiled, a smile as wide as Dair’s, and the Council fell silent.
Dair felt, under his magic, the boy trying to wake. He sent a silent thought to Nik and Nik blinked, used a bit of his magic to don some jeans before he looked up at the Council. “I had planned on a bit more formal meeting, but this lady has agreed to become my wife, my mate. My life,” Nik announced just as Dair allowed the boy to waken.
Bryan saw Nik and squirmed his way out of Dair’s arms, taking off toward him with a laugh.
Nik caught him with a smile, and added, “And this…this is my son.”
Not one Council member argued as Dair turned over the reigns of Leadership to Nikolai later that day.
They did,
of course, wait until they were more formally dressed.
About the author:
Shiloh was born in Kentucky and has been reading avidly since she was six. At twelve, she discovered how much fun it was to write when she took a book that didn’t end the way she had wanted it to and rewrote the ending. She’s been writing ever since.
Shiloh now lives in southern Indiana with her husband and two children. Between her job, her two adorable and demanding children, and equally adorable and demanding husband, she crams writing in between studying and reading and sleeps when time allows.
Shiloh welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787
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Also by Shiloh Walker:
Her Best Friend’s Lover
Once Upon A Midnight Blue
The Dragon’s Warrior
The Hunters: Delcan and Tori
The Hunters: Eli and Sarel
Voyeur
Whipped Cream and Handcuffs
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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