Whatever she had expected him to say, that wasn’t it. “I’m sorry.” He nodded and leaned back on the couch. “This doesn’t buy you any points with me. I’m not going to be at your beck and call either. You have to know right up front, I’m not a pushover.”
“Believe it or not, I got that right away. I think it was when you took me to the floor without any kind of explanation. Or maybe when you cut my throat. Either is very telling.” She didn’t like him. And she was sure that he knew it. “Back to my mate. When she was killed, I assumed, sadly so, that I’d be alone for the rest of my life. Then Penny, my adopted daughter, came to me, and I’ve been—well, happy. She’s the daughter of the woman who was killed and buried in my basement.”
“Recently?” Xander told her that it was several months ago. “It was Boone, wasn’t it? He was a real bastard, from what I read. And I think he might be the reason that I’m in so much shit right now.”
“No, not him, but someone just as bad. Anyway, I only recently talked Penny into allowing me to have her mom brought from the floor and put into the family cemetery. It’s been hard on her, as you can imagine. But, thanks to the innocence of children, she could see and talk to her mom all the time. Which is making the transition easier for her.” She nodded, not saying anything to him. “Dad told me that you were a para-canvas. I hate to admit it, but I don’t know what that is. Nor what it is that you do.”
“Yes, I’m a para-canvas. I have guns, knives, and blades on my body. Cate, the woman who’s magical, she can put them on me. It’s not really a tattoo, as she can remove them, but they are permanent to my body until then. I can use them too, peel them from my body and use them like anyone would a weapon.” He told her that wasn’t what he meant by what she did. “Then I don’t understand.”
“The weapons. Why do you need them? What is it you do? I’m assuming you don’t belong to a baking club.” She told him that she didn’t cook. “Me either. I have someone that does it for us.”
“I’m not living with you.” Xander told her the cook was for him and Penny. “Oh. I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I keep hating everything that comes out of your mouth.”
“Oh, I don’t think you hate everything that comes out of my mouth.” She thanked him. “I’m sure you hate whatever comes out of anyone’s mouth that doesn’t agree with you. You seem sort of pushy and on edge all the time.”
Her temper, usually so slow to burn, ignited just like that. As she reached for him, he turned and shifted into his wolf just as she hit him in the face with her fist. Then she was under him, his great mouth at her throat.
Bug moved, then was off her body. She saw him then, sitting upon the large head of the gray wolf. Addie could feel his disappointment in her. For what, she didn’t know, but she was sure that he’d tell her.
“Addie?” Mr. Winchester sat down on the floor next to them as he continued. “Xander would like for me to talk to you. He said to make sure that you understood that he could have bitten you to connect with you, but he’s not going to do that. All right?”
“She is agreeable.” Addie looked at Bug. He’d never spoken before, and when she asked him about it, through their link he told her. There was never any necessity for it before. And this, my dear lady, is necessary. You have made your mate upset with you.
“Xander would like to know if you’re going to be this violent all the time.” Mr. Winchester laughed, and she glared at him. “Well, darlin’, you have to admit, you have been a tad on the violent side. And snappish. My grandsons, when they get like that, I send them to their room for a little rest time. Once they get up—”
Xander must have cut him off, because when he straightened up and smiled at her, she could have sworn his face had pinked up. As he listened to his son, she assumed, Addie thought of her temper and realized that she had been a bitch. Not once had anyone here called her on it, and here she was, under her mate.
“You didn’t answer the question, Addie.” She looked at Bug and answered him for Mr. Winchester.
I’m sorry. Not that I know what’s going on, but I’m terribly sorry for the way I’ve acted. It’s not like me. Bug cleared his throat. Just tell him that, will you? This man is heavy.
“He is also very naked.” When Mr. Winchester left them, laughing hard enough that he had to hold onto the wall a couple of times, she asked Bug why he knew that. “His clothing that he had on is shredded on the floor around us. And since I can talk to you and him, I’m going to tell you what he says now. Mr. Winchester said that he is going to have the others have something to eat. I’ll help you. So long as you’re not nasty.”
Why are you on his side in this? She heard him repeat her question to the big wolf. Stop telling him private things and make him to get the fuck off me.
He moved. The wolf, however, was gone, and on her now was the naked Xander. She looked into his eyes and saw there something that she doubted that many saw. Intelligence—yes, and she’d bet a great deal of it. Compassion. Understanding. And she could also see that he had a deep set of morals. Not that she didn’t think he would, but it was surprising to see it there.
“Can I talk to you without you trying to hit me?” She nodded. When he leaned up on her, his groin was pressed into her. “I’m sorry about this. But you left me no choice in the matter. When you hit me, expect me to protect myself. It’s not possible that you could have killed me, I know that, but I was trying to be on my best behavior and you were not.”
“I shouldn’t have done that. Any of the things I’ve done since finding you. I told you, I don’t know what it is that makes me want to lash out at you. Or hurt you for that matter.” He nodded and shifted again. “You have to stop moving around so much. Please. You’re...you’re distracting me from thinking.”
“Maybe that’s what you need to do. Stop thinking.” He leaned close, his breath warm against her lips. “The little creature, he’s a part of you as well?”
“Yes.” It was breathless, so unlike her to feel that way. “Where did he go? He was on your head when the wolf was here.”
“He’s on my back. And when I say that he’s on my back, I mean in my back. I can feel him under my skin.”
Xander jumped up so quickly that she hurt for a moment when his knee crushed against her thigh. Xander started screaming about bugs and that he was creeped out. As he danced around the room, trying to get Bug to stop moving over him, he turned his back to her and she could see her little sigil racing against the hands that chased him. Addie also got a good look at Xander’s ass and his legs. The man was in shape, she’d have to say that about her mate.
Gabe came in then, as did the rest of the family. There were guns out, blades too. But she couldn’t stop laughing. That was until he turned around, naked and hard as stone. Xander reached for the pillow on the couch to cover himself when his mom yelled at him.
“I.... She.... Mom, this isn’t what it looks like.” Everyone turned to her and she stared back. Addie wasn’t sure what she could say to them, because she had no idea what was going on. “She has...had a sigil on her chest—there around her throat, not her chest. I didn’t see her chest. Just that she had—”
“Son, you’re digging and digging at that hole you’ve got yourself in, and not filling in the hole all that well.” He nodded to his dad. “Just tell us what this sigil did to you. I’m assuming that was what happened after you came from your wolf.”
“Yes, yes. I shifted from my wolf and I could feel something on me. I felt something crawling on me.” He turned around and she could see Bug on his back, moving up and down his spine as if he were looking for an entrance to an elevator or something. When he stopped, Xander turned again, this time tying a throw around his hips. “He’s there. I can feel him moving.”
I’m claiming him. Even if you don’t right away, I must make sure that we can speak. He has my magic as well. Addie told them what he was doing. He is a large man, is he not?
“Yes.” She looked at his family when
she realized she’d spoken aloud. “He needs to mark him. I’m not sure how. I doubt that he’ll have a necklace like I do. But it was a gift, from my creator. And now that I have a mate—an unclaimed mate—she will need to come here to claim him as well. I’m not sure if he’ll be marked, but that’s how she claimed me. Her name is Cate. I don’t know how she’ll take me having a mate either. More than likely she’ll think that it’s funny.”
“Wait. I need to see...? You were created?” Xander didn’t look to be freaking out. Nor did he seem to be upset. But when he smiled at her with a wink, she felt like he’d hit her, with his entire body. “I think we need to talk. After I get dressed and have some dinner. Then, once we’ve refortified ourselves, you and I will talk. But no hitting or snapping, if you please. Okay?”
“Yes. No. Yes, I think food would be good. And no, I’ll try my best not to hit you again. But I’m not making any promises.” She sat up and the wound in her side pulled. He moved toward her slowly and she watched him. He looked like his counterpart. The wolf in him looked as if he were stalking his prey. “What do you think you’re going to do?”
Her voice was breathless, like she’d run an entire mile, uphill, in the pouring rain. When he asked her to stand, putting out his hand as he spoke, she took it without any hesitation on her part. He got to his knees and asked her if it was all right if he healed her. Before she could get her mind to tell him no, her mouth just went ahead and agreed with him.
“I’m going to heal you, if you’ll allow it. You do know how I do that, correct? I don’t want you to be upset at me licking the wound.” She looked for help, from anyone, but it was just the two of them in the room again. Bug, she had no idea where he was, but he didn’t answer her calls to him either. “It’ll connect us. I’m sure you don’t really want that, but—”
“We are. Connected, I mean. If not, then Bug wouldn’t have been able to come to you.” He nodded, then asked about the creature’s name. “He’s a scarab. He was a gift to me when I was created. That was the first name that popped into my head, and he liked it. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Yes, I’d like that.” He asked her again if he could heal her. “As I said, we’ll be connected, you as my mate. Not mated. While I do wish to mate with you, I won’t force you into anything. I think I might live longer if I don’t.”
“I can’t hurt you now. I might...I’m sure that I’ll lash out at you, but I will try to not do that. There are things you have to be aware of, things that could get you killed.” He said he wasn’t worried so long as she was in front of him. For some reason, that made her laugh. Something she hadn’t done in a long time. “Go ahead.”
The bandage was removed, and she felt his warm breath again. It was too much and not enough. And when his tongue touched her, played with her skin a little too long, she moaned. Then he licked end to end and around the bullet wound that had been stitched up. Looking down at him when he said her name, she saw that he, too, was being marked, but not with a necklace.
~*~
Xander stayed very still. He thought at first it was the little bug, but the more it moved over his skin, the more he realized that it wasn’t him. Looking down at this chest when he felt something running down his belly, Xander watched the blood seep from the markings that were drawing on his chest. It was moving along his arm and down to his wrist as he watched.
“Does it hurt?” He looked up at Addie and nodded. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that this would happen. I thought you’d get a small mark, but not like this. And that she’d come to do it for you, not just leap right on you with it.”
“It’s all right, I think. To be honest with you, I had no idea that I could tat. When you told me, I meant to say something, but it seems a moot point now.” She went down on her knees beside him. The pain was really making itself known to him, but to have his mate watching him, he tried to stiffen his body against it. “I’m going to be all right, aren’t I?”
“Yes.” She didn’t sound any more convinced than he felt. But she did hold his hand, and he thought that might be worth the pain of it all. “You’re being marked by my owner, Xander. I didn’t know that she’d even be able to do that from a distance. She’s been on holiday for a long while and will be gone for a few more years, as far as I know. Well, not on holiday, but resting. Creating beings takes a lot out of someone.”
“’Tis not her, my lady, but her magic.” They both looked at Bug. “If you remember, she said that you might take a man to your bed, but that he would never see what you truly are. But once you found yourself the other half of you, it would complete you both in ways that the world would never know. He will be your other part.”
“Other part of what?” Xander hissed when she wiped at his wounds. She told him again that she was sorry, but he only shook his head. He was as close to screaming as he’d ever been. And when he looked down at himself, he could see that the tattoo—sigil, he supposed—was making something artistic.
At the point where his shoulder connected with his arm were large wings. They encompassed not just his shoulders, but under them as well. There wasn’t any color in them, not yet anyway, but the rest of the pattern was starting to make more sense.
There were triangles, ten that he could count, from the bottom of the wings to his wrist. When he turned his arm over, there were two rows of ten there as well, along with a shield.
Xander would bet anything that it was the crest of the maker, the seal of his ownership, so to speak. He stood up to look at his chest in the mirror by the door. Wiping at the blood with a tissue, he realized that it didn’t hurt at all anymore. And there wasn’t any scabbing either.
Just as he was ready to ask about it, he saw the small design over his heart. It was beautifully done, the wolf. He was surrounded by what Xander knew now was wings, but it wasn’t until the creature moved that he realized that they were attached to it. The wolf on him had wings, and she seemed to stare back at him. When he moved in the mirror, he was sure that it was watching him. Reaching out to his own wolf, to see if he could somehow speak to him, he was surprised by the voice that answered him back.
“My lord, my name is Asim, protector and guardian. To you and all mankind.” The wolf seemed to leap from his flesh and stood before him. “I am your humble servant, Lord Xander. I have not taken your wolf within you, but have become a part of you that will roam the world with you.”
The creature before him shook her fur and the wings curled around her. The wolf was smallish, about the size of a medium sized puppy. He’d bet anything that she could have been much larger, but was taking things slowly, just for him.
She was the same color as his gray wolf, but looked more puppy-like than the vicious canine he thought she might be. Thinking of meeting this thing, this part of him, naked, had him pulling the blanket tighter around him.
Xander’s skin moved, and clothing appeared on him. At first he wasn’t sure what he was wearing. A cloak, some boots that were hard yet made of leather. The shirt he had on was silk, the material almost like a second skin. And when he ran his fingers over the fine material, he thought of jeans and a T-shirt, things that he preferred. And that was what he was wearing seconds later.
The jeans were worn, like he had had them for months. The socks he had on were dark—not dressy, but of a gray color that he liked. His T-shirt was from his college days, the name of his frat house emblazoned across the front. Xander was almost afraid to check his underwear or even see if he had them on. It was too much.
Sitting down, he looked at Addie. “Asim is old school, so dressed you accordingly until you thought of this.” He nodded. “Are you wigging out? Do I need to slap you again?”
“No. I don’t think so. But yes, slightly freaking out here. You said old school. Do I even want to know what that means?” She didn’t so much as blink at him. “I see. I should know, but you’re not sure the time is right for me to know.”
“Exactly. Shall we go eat dinner?” He sat there, staring a
t her hand that had been offered to him. “Xander?”
“She called me Lord Xander.” She nodded. “Another thing that might make me wig out, so you’re saving it for later?”
“Pretty much.” She snapped her fingers at him. “Come on. Your questions are not going to be answered right now, so enjoy your evening with your family. And when we’re all done here, I’ll explain things to them and you. All right?”
Xander looked at her. She was trying very hard not to tell him something. Opening his mouth to ask her what it was, he decided that he had enough shit going on in his head for the moment, and didn’t do anything but take her hand and follow her toward the dining room. Before getting there, however, he stopped and pushed her against the door and kissed her.
Waiting might have been smarter. But then, he wasn’t sure what waiting might have gotten him. More tats? More than likely not. More of the magic? Dressing like this was almost too much, but he was dealing well, he thought. But then she opened her mouth under his and he forgot everything but the woman he was holding.
She was warm, warmer than any human he’d ever held like this. Her skin was smooth; her hair, when he let it down, was long and curled at the tip. As he moved his mouth along her chin to her throat, he could taste her, the richness of her skin, the power that emanated from her. More than anything, he wanted to bite her, taste her. The wounds had given him only a hint of what she was, Xander wanted it all. She was his.
Lifting his head just enough to look at her, two things occurred to him at once. Firstly, her eyes were the green of dark old emeralds. Secondly, her skin the healthy brown of someone who worshiped the sun. When she curled her hand in the back of his head, pulling him closer to her, he kissed her again, this time pressing his hard cock deep within the folds of her flesh.
“You’re all mine.” He didn’t care who owned who, he told her. “You’re mine, Xander. Now and forever. I won’t let you be hurt, I’ll never allow anyone to be near you but family, and forevermore, you’ll be my mate.”
Xander_Winchester Brothers_Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance Page 3
