by Vivi Anna
He shook his head.
“Wow, that’s impressive.” I sipped the wine. “Are they all here tonight?”
“No.” He ate more food.
I leaned back in the chair and took it all in. The food, the house, him. The items were a lot to consider.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say your pack is very much like a mob.” I expected some surprise or shock on his face at my accusation, but there wasn’t any.
He just patted his mouth with the linen napkin and sat back in his chair with his wine and studied me over the rim. “Every member of the pack pays a yearly tribute to the Alpha. In turn, the Alpha provides protection and other benefits, some of them monetary.”
Surprise lifted my brow. “How much is the tribute?”
“Depends on the member’s financial status, but anywhere from a thousand to three thousand a year.”
“And how many in your pack?”
“That I can’t share with you, but let’s say anywhere from thirty to seventy.”
“Wow. And all that money goes to pay for this?” I gestured to the house, the private treed backyard.
“In a way. That money is invested in various ventures. Some of these ventures are very lucrative.”
“So it’s like shares in a company?” I smiled, finding the information all fascinating.
He nodded, and returned my smile. “You could say that, yes.”
I finished the wine and set the glass on the table. “Why are you telling me all of this? It’s obvious other members aren’t happy about my appearance.”
“Because I trust you, Nina.”
“Is it because I’m not human?”
The second the admission was out of my mouth, I knew that I had planned to reveal my true nature to Severin from the very beginning. Something about him was unsettling but at the same time, he instilled a sense of the old and familiar within me. As if we had done this dance before.
He gazed for a long moment, and then said, “That’s part of it.”
I couldn’t sit any longer. I pushed up from the table and stepped back into the room. Severin was there beside me, stopping me from leaving altogether.
“It’s okay, Nina. Your secret is safe here.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since the moment I saw you.”
I rubbed at a spot on my brow between my eyes. The headache was doing its damnedest to make a roaring comeback. I closed my eyes for a second then opened them to regard Severin. “How do you know? Do I look different?”
“You glow, like a firefly.”
“Is it because you’re a werewolf?”
He nodded. “We can see everything. The things that hide in the shadows, and those that hide in the light.”
“Like me.” I sighed.
“Yes, like you.”
I stepped around him to go to the bathroom to collect my clothes. “I have to go.”
He followed me in, and then grabbed my hand to stop it from picking up my shirt. “Stay. Please. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s just that, I’ve never told anyone. For my entire life, my true nature has been kept a secret.”
“I know what that’s like, Nina. To not be your true self. To not share it with anyone. It was like that for us before we came out, so to speak.” He brushed his fingers through my hair. “I know how lonely that can be.”
“I’ve always been cautious when it came to men. I’ve always been afraid to do to them what my mother did to my father.”
His fingers brushed my ears then along my chin as he cupped my cheek in the palm of his hand. “You’ve definitely struck me, Nina. But I won’t grow old and wither to nothing like a human. You can’t hurt me in that way.”
I stared him in the eyes and saw the truth of his words there. For the first time in my life, I felt free to let my guard down and let my fae-ness show.
A smile spread across his face. The gesture was slow and sexy and made my skin tingle pleasantly. “There you are. There’s the real Nina.” He turned me toward the large mirror over the sink.
My skin glowed. A bluish light radiated outward from my body like a visible aura. The sight was beautiful. I was beautiful. My hair shone like polished onyx and my eyes like twin full moons. I smiled at my true nature. For the very first time, I wasn’t ashamed.
From behind me, Severin’s hands feathered down the length of the robe to the belt. Deftly, he unknotted it, then pulled apart the two halves. He pulled the robe over my shoulders and let it pool at my feet. My body was luminescent. In the mirror, I could see his eyes darken as he drank his fill of my naked form.
“You are breathtaking.” He pressed his lips to the back of my shoulder.
I turned in his arms and wrapped mine around his neck. “Someone in this room has on too many clothes.” I traced the tip of my tongue along his bottom lip then nipped playfully.
Burying his hands in my hair, he tilted my head to one side and took my mouth with his. He sucked my tongue between his lips, playing and teasing and tugging. Heat filled my body, swirling like a typhoon, building into a tight ball at my very center.
His kiss left my lips swollen and achy. I wanted more, to kiss him until I went numb. But instead, he swiveled me around to stare into the mirror.
Pressing his lips to the sensitive spot between my neck and shoulder, Severin’s hand sought my flesh. He trailed his fingers over my stomach, and up toward my breasts, until finally, gloriously, he molded them with his palms.
Staring at the mirror, I couldn’t tear my gaze from the image of us together, his hands on my body, flicking and pulling on my taut nipples. I trembled against his body, reveling in my own pleasure. I hooked an arm around his neck to give him more room to maneuver.
Jolts of hot pulsing pleasure rushed over me as Severin nibbled on the side of my neck. One hand moved down, circling my navel with just the tip of his finger, then down to brush against my sex. I quivered at the briefest touch. Gasping as he lowered his caresses, my knees nearly gave out when he slid his fingers into the heat between my thighs.
His breath came in hot hard pants in my ear as he slid his fingers up and down my slick cleft. All my muscles quivered as he stimulated me. A hard liquid ball of heat swelled deep inside, swirling, twirling, always moving. Not much more was needed for me to climax.
Severin moved his hand from my sex to grip my thigh, pulling it up; he bent my leg and set the heel on top of the counter.
Spread wide, I could see every inch of my most intimate flesh and see what he was doing to me. My heart hammered in my throat as his fingers filled me.
He trailed his tongue over my ear and moaned. “Mmm, you’re so hot. So wet.”
Transfixed, I watched as he manipulated me, glorying in the decadence of the action. Breath hitching in my throat, I could hardly stand. Every muscle in my body shuddered and quaked, desperate for more, desperate for Severin to take me hard and fast.
“I can’t hold back,” he groaned. “I need to be inside you now.”
Faster than I thought possible, he tore at his clothes. His shirt went flying one way, as his pants and shorts went the other. The actions would’ve been comical if I wasn’t trembling for him to enter me.
Shifting his position, he cupped me with one hand, his other hand gripping my hip. Slowly, he entered me, filling me. I arched my back to take in more of him. I wanted…no, needed him to fill me completely.
Once fully seated, he started to move, thrusting in hard and dragging out slowly, as if to torture me with his delicious languid pace. Although I desired him to hurry, to bury himself totally, I bit down on my lip and let him have his way with me. Control was not easy for me to give up, but I gave it to him. I let him control the pace and dominate my pleasure.
Thrusting deep, he cupped me, sliding fingers along my core, rubbing at my clit. In anticipation, I gripped his neck tight. I hovered on the edge, so near to orgasm. With each ragged breath, I could already taste the rapture in my mouth.
His pace increased, riding me hard. Moaning, he rammed into me again and again, digging his fingers into my flesh. As he thrust forward, I pushed back. I’d lost control of my body, it wanted to take more, give more. So much that I was lost to my pleasure.
With one final grunt, Severin drove in deep. Everything around me exploded. Sound and sight became a garbled kaleidoscope of sensations. The experience was damned beautiful. A sphere of colored light swirled around my chest then receded back into my body. Spectacular.
I took in a shuddering breath and tried to move, but all my body parts shuddered in response. Severin was still inside me. I could feel him moving again. Stirring. His desire was insatiable.
As if to demonstrate that fact, he pulled out, flipped me around, and picked me up, his hands molding my ass cheeks. Without any effort, he carried me into his bedroom and tossed me down onto the bed.
The look in his eyes—both dangerous and delicious—stole my breath. I scrambled backwards on the mattress, as he crawled towards me, his eyes dark, gaze fixed on me. I swallowed hard. It looked like he wanted to eat me. Not that I would’ve minded much.
My body thrummed with desire and power. I was electrified by the intensity of the energy pulsating through me. I felt powerful, invincible. When Severin neared me, kissing me hard, I wrapped my arms around him, and flipped him onto his back. I straddled him within seconds.
Pushing him down, I quickly had his long hard length sheathed inside me. Control was mine now. I would take what I wanted.
Slow at first, then gaining a frantic rhythm, I moved on top of him. As the power surged through me, I lifted my arms to the sky. I left like I was soaring. The sensation of flying was so real, I had to open my eyes to make sure I was still moving on top of Severin and not spinning wildly in the night air.
He reached for me, setting large hands on my breasts.
I wondered if he could feel the wild beat of my heart in his palm. Release was mine to be had. Heat built deep inside. My thighs trembled in anticipation. My orgasm was so close. I reached down to spread my hands over the hard smooth plane of Severin’s chest, possessing him…
Something tore inside me. As the skin on my back split open, a scream ripped from my throat. The slow dribble of fluid between my shoulder blades made me shudder.
“Nina?” Severin tried to grab me.
But I was off him and the bed in a second. The pain made my head swim in darkness. I stumbled about the room, unconsciousness threatening to take me under the waves of agony. But I wasn’t having it. I wouldn’t bow down; I wouldn’t break. My body was mine. I owned it. I wouldn’t let this transformation shatter everything I’d worked to become.
Severin came near me. Caution made his movements slow and deliberate. “Nina. Let me help you.”
I put my hand out to ward him off. “Keep away.” More blood dripped down the back of my legs to dot the bedroom rug beneath me.
“I know what’s happening to you. It’s the transformation. Werewolves go through the same agony. I know the pain and confusion you feel.”
Tears streamed down my face as another convulsion rippled through my flesh. The sensation was as if my atoms were rearranging themselves from the inside out.
“Don’t fight it, Nina. It’s natural. You’re becoming.”
“Becoming what?” I hissed, clutching the wall so I didn’t collapse to my knees and retch all over his nice clean rug.
“Your true self.”
“Well, I don’t want it. I don’t want to be this.” I spat out the last word.Eyes wild, I searched the room. “Where are my clothes? I need them. I want to go home.”
“You can’t drive home.”
Fresh tears spilled from my eyes. Absolute despair threatened to overwhelm me. “I want to go home. Please, let me go home.”
Another wave of body-racking pain surged over and through me. A thousand blades slicing my flesh at once. I panted through it, squeezing shut my eyes and digging my nails into the wall. They left divots.
“I’ll get your clothes, but I’m driving you.”
I didn’t argue with him. I couldn’t think beyond the tearing and ripping. The thing inside me was persistently destroying every inch of my flesh. Every nerve ending, every muscle and fiber, every strand of DNA that fit together to make me, screamed. I was no longer Nina Decker, trauma nurse, but N’lina, princess of the dark fae.
Then the darkness swooped up from the floor and swallowed me whole. I became one with it as I was absorbed inch by inch. Light couldn’t even penetrate my fugue. I was lost, groping blindly in the black. Hope abandoned me. I had no illusions that I would ever make it out again.
Then a voice reached me through the abyss. The sound touched me and I opened my eyes. I blinked groggily out into the night.
“Nina?”
I thought I saw Severin looking my way from behind the wheel of a car. Concern crinkled his brow.
“We’re almost there, love. You’re almost home.”
Home. Did I know what that was? A place. A feeling. A person waiting for me.
“Da?” Did he know what was happening?
Severin nodded. “Yes, I’ll take you to your father.”
There was a sudden lurch forward in the car, and then Severin opened his door and jumped out. Next thing I knew, the door next to me opened and he pulled me out. Was I even walking? I couldn’t feel my legs. My whole body was numb.
He had my keys and he unlocked the door, all the while juggling me in his arms. He nudged open the door and carried me inside. He laid me on the sofa in the living room on my side.
A shudder racked my body. It nearly lifted me off the cushions. Severin grabbed a blanket from the back of the sofa and covered me. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t cold. That in fact, I was on fire from the inside out. Sweat coated my face. I swore I could smell my flesh sizzle.
“Nina?”
My father came into view and I tried to smile, but my mouth wouldn’t move. Instead, I lifted my hand and reached for him.
He looked at Severin. “Who are you? What’s wrong with my daughter?””
“I’m Severin Saint Morgan, a friend. She’s becoming.”
My father’s eyes widened. Frightened, he looked down at me, his gaze racing over my body.
“She’s finally changing into the beautiful creature I created.”
The new lilting voice made me cringe. Another shudder sent convulsions over my back. Through the sweat dripping into my eyes, I saw her as she stepped into the room to stand beside my father.
My mother had returned.
“Hello, my darling.” She smiled down at me, her lips a thin line.
I wanted to retch.
Then her intense gaze fixed on Severin and she snarled wickedly, “What are you doing here?”
Severin squared his shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “I brought her home.”
“How dare you subvert my daughter.”
“I haven’t. Not yet. But she needs to know the truth,” he countered.
“The only truth there is to know is that your kind is cruel, ruthless, and bloodthirsty.”
Severin smiled, but the gesture was not kind. “I believe you are mistaking me for you, A’lona.”
My stomach roiled as I listened to their banter. I heard the words, but their true meaning was beyond my scope as more pain cascaded over me like molten lava.
“Get out!” she shrieked. “Get out of this house!” She pointed a long elegant finger toward the door.
Severin glanced down at me, his eyes narrowing in concern.
I could do nothing but wriggle my fingers toward him. I wanted to say something, to ask him to stay, but no words formed in my mouth.
He reached down and touched my fingers, one by one, then with one last scathing look at my mother, he left, slamming the door behind him.
Don’t go. I opened my mouth to call him back but nothing came out except a series of unintelligible gurgles.
My mother dropped to her knees beside me and
stroked my sweaty face. “It’s okay, N’lina, I’m here. I will help you through it, my daughter.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want her here. I didn’t want her love and comfort. I didn’t want to be her daughter. But I couldn’t tell her. Not when I was dying, my flesh betraying me and turning inside out. Pain ripped through me again. I bowed my back, scrambling away from the searing agony.
She continued to brush her fingers over my forehead and cheeks. “Go to sleep, my darling. Go to sleep and let your body do what it must.”
Sleep was the last thing I wanted. That would mean letting go, and I had no wish to do that. But the darkness had other plans. It crept close, floating up from my chest, to settle inside my mouth, my nostrils, and my eyes. It slithered its sinuous ways into my head. Took hold of my mind. And squeezed until I passed out.
***
Chapter 12
Again I was in the darkened woods walking along a dirt path. Glancing down, I noticed I was wearing a green tunic that fell to my knees and I was barefoot. I wriggled my toes in the soft sandy dirt. It tickled and I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t and kept on walking.
Not long before I came to a shallow brook that cut a narrow path through the wood. I sensed this was where I’d wanted to go. My feet longed to feel the cool tingling of the water. So, I sat on the water’s edge and settled my feet into the stream.
A sense of overwhelming peace and comfort settled over me. As if I had traveled a long distance and finally returned home.
Content, I leaned back on my hands and kicked my legs in the water. Much like I had when I’d been a kid and on the one family vacation I remember taking with both my parents. We’d gone camping, and the trip had been the one time when I’d felt completely happy.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed colored lights downstream, dancing above the water. Eager to see them, I sat straight and watched as the twinkling lights drew nearer. Once they were directly in front of me, I saw tiny humanoid shapes in the lights.
“Gladflies,” I said aloud, and smiled.
I held out my hand and one purple glow settled onto it. The tips of its tiny purple feet tickled my palm. I peered down into the tiny spritely face.
