by Evi Asher
“Did you find them?” Angelica forced herself to focus on her friends, getting sidetracked by how attractive Colt was would not help her now.
He didn’t answer as he hung his coat on a peg near the door.
He spoke to the dog. "What are you doing in here, Disco?"
Angelica got impatient and took a step toward him. “He was whining by the door, so I let him in. Colt—"
“Yes.” He pinned her with his green gaze, and Angelica felt a shiver race down her spine.
“We found your friends.” He glared down at the dog, but then looked back at Angelica.
“And?” Angelica started wringing her hands again.
“They are safe in a cabin in the village. But—”
She didn’t let him finish. Angelica ran and threw herself into his arms, grabbing his face between her palms to kiss him. He had gone and saved Ath and the rest, and he’d done it even though he hated her.
She’d given him no choice but to catch her, and she felt him grab her backside and hold her in place against him.
His lips were soft and cold from the temperature outside. She wanted to moan at the decadence of the contrasting sensations. Angelica only meant to give him one kiss, but without thinking, she leaned in again and moved her lips over his, wanting more of the kiss.
Colt groaned a deep rumble from inside him and opened to her, letting Angelica delve her tongue into his mouth and taste the freshness of him. He tasted like snow and mint, and she deepened the kiss further, slanting her head to feed her hunger for him.
He started kissing her back, and soon they were both panting. Colt started walking, carrying Angelica in his arms. He reached the couch, and without breaking the kiss, he turned and dropped her onto it so he was sitting down and Angelica was straddling him.
Angelica got a fright and tried to break the kiss, but Colt thrust his hips up and his hardness hit her sex, making her groan. She rubbed against him instinctively and kissed him harder.
His kneaded her ass, pushing her down on his erection and Angelica thought she would burst into flame. She rocked against it again and he moaned into her mouth.
Colt raised his hands, sliding them up her sides and around. cupping her breasts. He scraped a nail over one nipple through the fabric of her robes and Angelica gasped into his mouth, rubbing against him harder.
He took control, tugging her robe up around her waist so he could get his hands under the fabric, finding her breasts and started kneading them.
He broke the kiss, pulling the material up higher and flicked his tongue over one of her nipples.
Angelica hissed and arched into his mouth, offering her breast up to him. She wanted more, and he gave her more when he pinched one of her nipples and nibbled on the other, then sucked it into his mouth.
“Oh, God.” she panted, rocking down on his erection again. She had to have more—she needed him inside her.
Angelica raked her nails over his shirt and reached for the button of his jeans. She stumbled to unfasten it and reached for the zipper.
Colt stiffened under her and shoved her away.
Angelica landed on the floor on her butt, her breath knocked from her and her thoughts in turmoil.
“What the…” She didn’t get to finish her sentence.
Colt rose from the couch, buttoning his jeans and giving her a glare that would have frozen anyone else.
“I almost forgot who you were.” he hissed at her. “I won’t forget again, so don’t ever touch me again, Angelica.” He stomped towards his bedroom, shutting the door, leaving her on the floor and still confused.
Humiliation flooded Angelica as she realized he’d rejected her in the most hurtful way possible. He’d been all in, kissing her and touching and then he’d up and tossed her onto the floor as if she was garbage. She wanted to storm into his room and tell him he was an asshole. She wanted to hit him for making her feel like dirt. She wanted to hurt him, but mostly, she wanted to finish what they’d started.
Angelica sighed in defeat. Colt had a hold on her she wasn’t sure she could break, and it had nothing to do with their bonding as mates. She wanted him, in every way possible, but he didn’t want her. The look he gave her was one filled with hate and disgust.
When they had watched the mortal world, the women in her dorm had often discussed the fact that men would have sex at every opportunity.
Yet, Colt didn’t want her. Sure, he had responded to her, but that was just him being a guy. When she’d tried to take it further, he’d pushed her off him. Did he find her that revolting?
Angelica felt something warm roll down her check and raised her hand to touch it. Her fingers came away wet and she realized she was crying.
“Fuck no!” She got up off the floor and straightened her robes, her hand brushing them off, as if she could wipe the humiliation away with her touch.
She was not going to sit here and cry over a male. No way in hell. Colt had said her friends were in a cabin in the village. She was going to go find them and get the hell out of Alaska and away from the temptation that was Colt, and the pain that was his rejection.
She went into her room and took the bear skin off the bed, wrapping it around herself for extra warmth. She made sure she had the signet ring she’d found in the old house. It was hers. She wasn’t going to leave it, and she refused to feel guilty about taking the bearskin. She hadn’t come there willingly, and she wasn’t prepared to freeze.
“I can help you find your friends, Angelica.” Michael’s voice whispered in her ear, but he didn’t become visible.
“How?” she asked. “Never mind. I don’t care how, just take me to them.”
Angelica felt his presence move away and turned to see a shimmer in the air. She pulled her room door closed and followed the flicker to the front door, opening it with exaggerated care so she wouldn’t alert Colt to the fact that she was leaving. She hesitated. If she left, she was never going to come back, never see him again. She made sure she closed Disco in the cabin and swallowed the pain of never seeing Colt again, then walked down the stairs without looking back.
The snow wasn’t as deep between the cabins, so she didn’t struggle too much, but seeing the shimmer that Michael was using to guide her wasn’t as easy. The sun had come out, and it was blinding on the fresh snow. Angelica tripped on something under the snow and caught herself with her flattened palms. She sank up to her shoulders in the snow, cursing. Spitting out snow, she got to her feet. She was going to dust the snow off her robes when she saw the blood on her palm.
She’d cut herself on something under the snow.
“Damn it.” she muttered as she adjusted the bearskin around her shoulders.
Squinting in the bright light, she caught another glimpse of the incandescence and followed it further.
About fifteen minutes later, she found herself in front of a cabin much like Colt’s cabin. She climbed up the steps and stopped in front of the door. There was a heavy padlock hanging from the door and she didn’t have a key.
“Are they in there?” she whispered to Michael. She didn’t want to talk louder in case there was someone else occupying the building.
“Yes…” came his soft response in her ear.
Angelica lifted the padlock in her hand, examining it. Maybe there was a way she could break the thing.
“Heat it,” Michael said.
“That won’t work,” Angelica pointed out. Even if she could heat it to a level that would melt the metal—and she didn’t think she could do that—it would make the lock like toffee, not break it.
“Heat it.”
With a shrug, she called a flame to her palm. It took some concentration, because despite the bearskin she had over her shoulders, she was freezing.
The flame slowly heated the metal of the lock. She watched it start to change color.
“Let it go,” Michael said, and his voice was stronger in her ear.
Angelica dropped the lock, then watched in fascination as Michael’s
disembodied hand phased through the lock, ice crystals forming on it. Angelica picked up the lock and dropped it against the door. It shattered as if dipped into liquid nitrogen.
Angelica pushed the door open, wanting to rush to her friends, only to find a barricade of males. Ath’s head peeked around the bristling males.
“Stop! It’s Angelica.” Athera darted around them and flung herself at Angelica.
“You are safe! How did you find us? How long have you been here? What’s going on?” Athera asked the questions in a rapid fire as Scarlet disentangled her so she could have her hug, too.
“So glad you are okay, Angelica.” Scarlet murmured in her ear.
She could feel the grin on her face. “I’m glad you are all safe, but I wasn’t expecting…” She let it trail off as she eyed the males.
They had relaxed and moved back.
“Let me introduce you to my Wolf.” Scarlet beamed as she went to one of the males. “This is Archer.”
Angelica smiled at the lycan. She had seen him once before in the mirror, when Scarlet had contacted him from the phoenix plane.
“And this is Laz.” Ath smiled. “He is a necromancer who helped us find you.”
A necromancer? Angelica wasn’t happy about that development. Necros were supposed to be some of the most evil beings of the eternal, and this one was frowning at her.
She cleared her throat as Scarlet shut the door against the cold. “Thanks for the help you gave my friends, Laz.”
He continued to frown at her and stepped closer, walking around her in a circle, his brow furrowed and his expression serious.
“What is it, Laz?” Archer asked, and Angelica could see the sudden tension in the lycan’s shoulders.
The necro made another circuit around Angelica as she craned her neck to see what he was doing.
“I’m not sure.” he answered Archer. “I feel some kind of…Presence.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know.” His frown deepened to a scowl, and his eyes scanned Angelica up and down as if he was trying to x-ray her, or find something that wasn’t there.
Angelica tried not to look guilty. She was sure that Laz was feeling Michael’s presence, and for a moment, she almost told her friends about the ghost, but something stopped her.
In the pocket of her robes, she felt the signet ring she’d found heat up, and suddenly, she was sure that she needed to keep Michael a secret, even from her friends.
Laz leaned into Angelica and drew in a deep breath through his nose, scenting her. She stiffened, guilt flaring in her. Perhaps she should tell them about Michael. Laz had to know something was off.
“Oh, enough.” Ath stepped between Laz and Angelica. “Stop looking for trouble where there isn’t any.” She hooked her arm through Angelica’s and led her to the couch.
They hadn’t even sat down when Ath said. “Tell me everything that happened, from the moment we left you as we stepped through the rift.”
Angelica glanced around the eternals in the room and relaxed when Laz went to sit on the other couch and seemed to pay no more attention to the presence he had felt.
Ath sat next to her, and Scarlet and Archer chose a chair to cuddle up together so close that Angelica felt a moment of pain. Why couldn’t Colt treat her like that? She wanted that kind of attention, not the never-ending spew of hate he directed at her, and when he didn’t hate her, he was trying to devour her from the mouth down.
Mixed signals, much?
He needed to pick a mood and stick to it, because she felt like she was on one of those roller coasters they had always watched on the earth plane.
Ath’s hand on her arm broke her train of thought. “Angelica.”
“I’m sorry what did you say?”
“You seem a little distracted.” Ath smiled.
“I’d say she’s on another world.” Scarlet laughed. “Has he worked his magic on you that well already?”
“What? No!” Angelica protested.
“Come on, who are you trying to fool? I’ve met him, and that male is all kinds of tasty.” Scarlet finished the sentence with a squeal as Archer playfully nipped her shoulder.
Angelica felt heat suffuse her cheeks and looked down at her hands in her lap to hide the blush. “He hates me.”
The words came out in a low mumble.
“What was that?” Ath asked and Angelica got pissed off.
“You heard what I said, you all have preternatural hearing. I said Colt hates me.”
“Why?” Laz asked so it took Angelica a moment before she could bring herself to utter the words.
“He thinks I raped him.”
There were gasps of surprise and anger.
“How could he think that?” Archer asked.
“What?” Laz was shocked.
Athera and Scarlet were quiet.
Angelica looked at the two phoenix females and felt her jaw drop. “You think I did!”
She bound up from the chair, her fists curling, and her knuckles turning white.
“How could you, of all the eternals, assume that I raped Colt?”
“No, honey, don’t get us wrong.” Ath stood and reached for Angelica.
Geli wasn’t having it. She moved out of the way. “How else am I supposed to take it?”
“We know you were forced, too. You were sent to the breeding center, and you were forced to rape Colt.”
“I. Never. Touched. Him.” Fury was blinding Angelica and she felt it as her fists started to burn.
“Okay, everyone just calm down.” Archer’s voice was soothing as he stepped between Angelica and Athera.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened from the beginning? Everyone.” He pinned each of the phoenix women with a death stare in turn. “We’ll sit down and shut up until you have told your whole story. Okay?”
Ath went to sit on the couch and Scarlet perched on the edge of the chair.
“Okay,” Angelica agreed, and took her seat on the couch next to Ath again. She concentrated on calming herself and finding some peace. She would tell them what actually happened.
“The first time I saw anyone in the breeding center, it was Malta…”
Chapter Eight
Colt sat on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. He felt torn, guilt eating at him. He knew he’d treated Geli unfairly. He had overreacted, but at the same time when she’d reached for his zipper, everything that had happened had come flooding back, and he’d wanted to punish her. He wanted to hurt her the way he’d been hurt.
He couldn’t deny that he wanted Angelica.
Oh, God, did he want her, but he didn’t know if he could let go of what had happened in the phoenix realm.
Scratch that. He could. He could let go of it and he would.
Angelica had used him, and he would use her in the same way.
You are trying to justify your attraction to her, and the stuff you are feeling toward her, a small voice deep inside said, but he shut it down.
It had nothing to do with attraction or any feelings…
Hell no!
He had no feelings, other than good old-fashioned lust. He wanted to fuck her, and it was that simple.
So, he was going to do what he wanted, but he’d have to apologize to her first.
Yeah, pretend as if apologizing is just a way to get under her robes. You know it’s more than that.
“Shut up.” Colt told his mental voice. He didn’t need to second-guess himself or add more complications to his plan.
He stood up and wiped his hands down the thighs of his jeans as he wondered why they were clammy.
“No time like now.” He walked to his door and pulled it open. He’d go into Geli’s room, say sorry, then finish what they’d started on the couch.
A knock on the front door interrupted him, the door pushed open without a response, and Jericho stepped into the cabin.
“Hey, Colt.” He smiled a greeting.
Colt could have strangled his best friend f
or his crappy timing, and he must have had a black scowl on his face, because Jericho tilted his head. “What’s got your claws sprouting?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Colt went and sat down on the couch. He wasn’t going to tell Jericho that he was a world-class fuck up when it came to dealing with Geli, but he was going to let his friend know what kind of woman Jericho was involved with.
“Tell me about Kate.” He leaned his elbows down on his knees and dipped his head to tell Jericho to sit down.
Colt’s best friend sat down, but he looked at Colt with a questioning look. “What about her?”
“You haven’t known her very long.”
“That is a statement, not a question and yes, you know I’ve only known her a few days.”
“Are you serious about her?” Colt asked and prayed that Jericho would say he wasn’t.
“We’ve been friends since we were cubs. Do you really have to ask me?”
“Answer the question Jer. I need to hear it from your lips.”
Jericho shrugged, and the motion screamed whatever. “No, she’s fun to be with and great in bed, but I’m not interested in anything long term. She said she’d be on her way soon anyway.”
Colt debated telling Jericho about the kiss Kate had given him, but he couldn’t make up his mind if he should say anything or let it go since Jericho wasn’t serious about her. Colt clenched his jaw and made a decision.
“She came here and she kissed me,” he blurted.
Jericho did another one of his whatever shrugs, and Colt relaxed a little.
“You aren’t going to hit me.”
A bark of laughter escaped Jericho’s lips. “Dude, she kissed you, and I’m not blind. I saw how she was looking at you when you met her.”
Colt knew there was something Jericho wasn't admitting to. He thought his best friend might have more feelings for Kate than he was letting on.
“I kissed her back for a bit.”
“Did you enjoy it?” Jericho grinned, but Colt could read Jericho's tension in the lines around his eyes.
