What Goes Bump In The Night

by C. R. Jane

  My mother smiles apologetically. "I'm sorry, but it's not something I can control."

  "Don't you dare be sorry," my father says brusquely. "We're just glad to see you."

  "So am I." She pats the armrest to her right, inviting me to sit. When I was a child, I was never allowed to sit on the armrest of our sofa back home, so for her to now invite me to do just that is something even more special than anyone will understand.

  I swallow hard and sit by her side.

  "How long can you stay?" I ask her, fighting my tears.

  She looks out of the window where the sun has started to melt the ice flowers that have covered the glass overnight. "Not long, a few minutes. I can already feel the pull."

  "Are you happy?" I blurt out before I can stop myself.

  She turns back to me and looks me straight in the eyes. There is nothing but peace and love in her face as she replies. "Yes, I am. Of course, I miss you and your dad, but I'm happy. Being dead isn't as bad as they make it sound."

  She chuckles. "Now, I think you've got some introductions to do."

  It takes me a moment to understand what she means. My men.

  I smile and wave at them to come closer. Until now, they've stayed back, standing by the door, giving us space, but now they're surrounding me, their presence giving me the strength not to cry.

  "Mum, meet Storm, Frost, Arc and Crispin. My..." Boyfriends? Partners? Companions?

  She smiles widely at them. "Lovely to meet you." She turns and gives me a wink. "Good choice, sweetheart. I take it all of them are yours?"

  "We are," Storm answers for me. "We're hers and hers alone."

  "Good." My mother nods. "It's good to know that my Wyn is being looked after by such handsome young men."

  Arc coughs. In reality, all of them are older than my parents, but better not to dwell on that. It gets a bit creepy to think of that age difference.

  "X tells me you're now the Queen," she continues. "Do you enjoy that?"

  I can't help it, I laugh. It's like she's asking me whether I liked my new job - except that my job involves running an entire Realm, dealing with politics, judging criminals and a lot, I repeat, a lot of paperwork.

  I think for a moment. Nobody has asked me that before, not even my guys.

  "Yes, I think I do," I finally reply. "It's not easy but I'm getting better at it."

  "I'm sure you're a fantastic Queen," my mum says. "And are you going to make them your kings?"

  My men have the decency to look a little taken aback. Of course, I've thought about it. I've even asked Tamara once what the customs are about the Queen marrying her consorts. Since my mother was the first and only Queen of this Realm though, there are no customs I have to adhere to. I can do whatever I want to.

  I grin. "Perhaps."

  She winks at me, the same way she always used to. It doesn't matter that she's semi-translucent, silver and untouchable; in this very moment, she's my mum, alive, here with me.

  "Then you better invite me to the wedding. Next Samhain, perhaps?"

  My heart threatens to burst. "You'll be able to visit again?"

  She nods. "I've been told that the Veil has been weakened through Queen Beira's death. It will stay this way for a few years at the very least."

  I feel like hugging the entire world. I know that my mum is dead and that she'll never be able to be here with us again, but the thought of seeing her one more time, or even twice, is too much. Tears begin to fall and my guys crowd me from behind, taking me into their arms.

  "It's time to go," my mum whispers, turning to my dad. "Look after her, X. I love you both."

  Then she's gone, leaving behind an empty armchair but a heart so full of love and happiness that I know I'm going to be able to draw on it every time I have a dark moment for the coming year.

  "Did you just indirectly propose to us?" Crispin asks with a chuckle while Frost wipes away my tears with his sleeve.

  I laugh and my men and my father join me in laughter.

  "Yes, I think I did. Gentlemen, would you like to be my Kings?"

  The End

  Want to read more about Wyn and her four Guardians? Start the Daughter of Winter series withWinter Princess, also available as audio book! The series is now complete so you can read all four books in one go.

  About the Author

  Skye MacKinnon is a USA Today bestselling author with a slight obsession with bunnies, dried mango and Scotland. And when she says slight... her friends are trying to find ways to trick her into not having a book set in Scotland.

  You'll often find Skye bribing herself into writing words using cake and tea, but whatever works, right?

  Whether it's set in space (Scottish space, obviously), fantasy worlds (Scottish fantasy worlds, obviously), or Scotland, Skye's tales are full of magic, romance and adventure. Oh, and the occasional unicorn.

  Keep in touch with the author online:

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  A Date with a Werewolf

  by KT Strange

  Copyright © 2018 by KT Strange

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A trail of molten kisses ran down the side of my neck.

  "I'm not going to get ready any faster if you do that," I said. Over my shoulder, smirking at me in the mirror, Cash grinned. His hands spanned my waist and I tried not to shiver at the heat of his fingers on my skin.

  "What, don't have time to lay a little sugar on me, doll?" he drawled. A warm hand cradled the base of my spine and Finn came into view, nudging Cash out of the way with his hip.

  "Shove off. Darcy's gotta get dressed." Finn eyed the strap of my bra, and then sighed, folding his arm around my stomach and pulling me back against him. His chest was bare, droplets of water still sticking to it, his hair wet from the shower.

  "S'cold," I mumbled as his mouth found the side of my neck, lips brushing the spot where he'd bitten me, bound me to him, so many months ago.

  "I could warm you up," he offered.

  "Who's being a fuckin' distracting asshole now," Cash growled, and he stepped in front of me, sandwiching me between the two of them. It's not like I had any room to move, or to complain. I relaxed between them, resting my cheek on Cash's chest, and the soft jersey of his shirt.

  "I really do need to get dressed," I said with a sigh, as warm hands overwhelmed my senses. Cash's knuckles skimmed over my hip, his fingers digging into the elastic of my underwear. His rough stubble scraped across my shoulder.

  "You guys are such little shits," Charlie's voice cut through the slowly rising fog of arousal. "Eli is going to beat the crap out of both of you if- well, shit," his words went airy as Cash pulled my panties down. For ripped, rough werewolves, they didn't seem to do much higher thinking when one of them got me naked. Any protest I might have made died on my lips when Cash's warm hand, broad, calloused and rough from playing drums every night of his life, cupped the rise of my pussy.

  "Going right for it, huh?" I mumbled, pressing back into Finn's chest as I squi
rmed, the warmth of Cash's palms doing it for me in a way that should've been criminal. These guys? Each and every one of them was perfect for me, in their not so perfect way. That included the way they just seemed to know what I want, every time we got down and dirty like this. Well, after a year together, a year of the six of us, they had better know what I wanted and needed.

  "I can feel you thinking," Cash said, his fingers spreading me open, teasing just inside my already-wet entrance. I gasped, and bit my lip to stop from making any more noises. Encouraging Cash was probably a bad idea. Finn sensed my hesitation, two of his fingers lifting my chin so I'd look him straight in the eye. A lazy smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

  "I want you to make my brother crazy," he said, "and that's not gonna happen unless we let you get ready." Finn kissed me once more and then pulled away, snagging Cash by the wrist. I let them go. "C'mon Cash, we got songs to write. Charlie? Go find Ace."

  "He's hiding out downstairs in the studio already. He knew if he came upstairs he wouldn't be able to resist Darcy," Charlie said, leaving the room with reluctance. Cash pinched my ass, shooting me a cheeky grin as he left me and thundered down the stairs, Finn following him closely.

  Relief flooded through me. Finn was right. With four out of five of my werewolf mates distracting me, I'd never be ready in time, and Elias was anything if not prompt and demanded we all live up to the same standards. Elias... he'd be pissed if I was late. I glanced at myself in the mirror. The panties I was wearing around my knees now, I realized, were all wrong for my date with Eli. I grin flitted across my lips. Elias was all old-school charm and slick gentlemanly behaviors. Maybe tonight I could get him to trip up...

  "Well?" I asked, sweeping into the living room. Ace staggered to his feet and stared at me. Cash let out a low whistle.

  "Shit, doll," he murmured, before eyeing me up and down. "You've given me half a mind to steal you for myself."

  "Nuh uh," I said, side-stepping Charlie as he went to grab me around the waist. "You'll wrinkle my dress."

  "You could just... take it off?" Ace offered, and then he cleared his throat. Finn exhaled hard and walked up to me, taking me gently by the shoulders and looking me over.

  "You're beautiful, sweetheart, and any one of us'd be crazy not to want you on our arm tonight," he said, his voice thick with emotion. I was blushing, I could feel it in the heat of my cheeks, and he kissed me gently, so as not to disturb my lipstick.

  The doorbell rang and my belly swooped. Cash gave me a wicked grin and Charlie snickered.

  "You have fun," Charlie said, "I think our fearless leader would kill us if we made you late." I rolled my eyes and went to the door, where Ace was opening it.

  Eli stood there, dressed in suit and tie, looking mouthwateringly delicious in a shirt that his chest filled out exactly. His hair was tidied, not like Finn's wild locks, and when Eli stepped in, he reached out for my hand.

  I nearly melted when he kissed the back of it, his lips warm on my skin. His gaze ran up and down my body and a smile quirked at the corner of his mouth.

  "You like?" I asked and then glanced down at the dress. It was pure 40's perfection, right down to the stockings and my shoes.

  "I wasn't expecting this, but yes," his eyes burned as he spoke, "you look beautiful."

  Beside me, Finn pulled me in for a hug, kissing me again before running his thumb along my lower lip.

  "Be good," he said. I shook my head.

  "When am I ever bad?"

  "Only all the time," Cash snarked, but I ignored him and let Eli take me by the hand as he drew me out onto the porch.

  "I'm glad I picked the right mode of transportation for tonight," he said, tilting his head to what was waiting for us down the driveway. My lips parted in surprise as I heard laughter from the rest of the pack behind me.

  Down at the bottom of the stairs was a carriage pulled by a matched set of bay horses, their tack all in black leather with silver fittings. Eli's arm snuck around my waist, his other hand squeezing mine as he walked me to the edge of the steps.

  A tall, dark-haired man sat up front of the carriage, dressed in newsboy hat and clothes more suiting the dirty 30's than our time, but I guessed it was a costume just like my dress. Eli helped me into the carriage and then swung up beside me. I spared one last glance at the house, the rest of our pack crowding in the doorway. Finn's eyes glittered as I caught his gaze and he lifted two fingers in a lazy salute by his forehead.

  Eli shifted, blocking my view, then called out to the driver that we were ready.

  "I'm not going to ask how much this cost," I said, sitting back on the plush red velvet seat, the night air falling down on my shoulders.

  "I saved up from our t-shirt sales," Eli teased. I rolled my eyes. The guys were always making jokes about that now that their merch sales alone were enough to sustain the band, and me, in an extravagant lifestyle many times over, and never mind the streaming and sales of their music and actual concert tickets.

  "Has anyone ever told you that you're a little bit extra?" I wrinkled my nose at him and his gaze slipped from my eyes down my face, coming to rest on my lips.

  "I'll be extra if it means putting a smile on that beautiful mouth of yours," he said, like butter wouldn't melt on his tongue. I shivered and he pulled up a tartan blanket that was folded on the seat across from us, over my legs and his. I sighed and curled up into his side, enjoying the warmth he was throwing off.

  "So, asides from you learning the slang that kids like me are throwing around these days, what else is going to happen tonight?"

  "We'll start off with a tour of the neighborhood," he said as the carriage pulled out onto our street, the clip-clop of the horses' hooves filling the air around us. The gentle creak and sway of the carriage had me leaning into him more, and he arranged the blanket over our hips, pulling it up to my belly, with care. "There's a picnic basket on the back of the carriage, which we'll enjoy once we've seen all the decorated houses, and we head up to the park where we'll watch the fireworks on a blanket." His smile quirked. "No ghosts or ghouls up there, I was assured, but I had hoped a witch might be in attendance."

  I felt my cheeks flushing.

  "Maybe you'll get lucky," I said, "and one will show up, spontaneously or something.

  Eli glanced ahead, to where our driver sat, quietly urging the horses along.

  "In case you hadn't noticed," Eli drawled, his hand snug around my waist. "Being that I'm in the presence of the most beautiful woman on this planet, I consider myself quite the lucky guy already."

  "Smooth," I murmured to him and he laughed, low and silky in a way that sent shivers scattering all over my skin. "That was real smooth, Gunner."

  "Elias," he corrected me. "You call me Gunner and I might think you're pretending that I'm my twin brother."

  "Not likely. Finn's sweet, but he's a little more um, rough on at least one of his edges than you are." Not that I minded those rough edges. Those edges were half the reason I'd fallen for him in the first place, watching him work a crowd as he stood on the edge of a stage, microphone in one hand and the hearts of every single girl in the room clenched tightly in his other.

  "Oh I can be rough," Eli's voice pitched down, inviting more shivers to course through my body, but at the heat in his voice the tingle was directed itself with one destination in mind. I squirmed and he leaned in, his lips brushing my ear. "Did the boys warm you up before you left?" My cheeks were so hot. How had he known? Of course he'd know, with a wolf's acute sense of smell he had to scent their touch on my skin, and how turned on I was. That idea only made me shift in my seat even more.

  He grinned at the blush on my face.

 
"Never in my life have I been more pleased to share a mate with my pack," he said, kissing me soundly. I was very aware of the tall back of our driver, and how if I made too much noise over the squeak of the carriage and the clopping of the horses' hooves, he'd hear us. I melted into Eli's embrace anyway until we were turning onto a long street, the bare trees reaching toward the sky with their twisting, black limbs.

  Eli let me go, still slinging an arm around my waist, as the horses walked down the street, taking us by fancifully decorated houses where enthusiastic residents had made the most of the pumpkin spice latte season.

  One house had a sound track, a chorus of crying and howling wolves, as we pulled past, and I felt Eli tense for a moment.

  "Feeling the call of the wild?" I teased him. He pinched my ass lightly and then buried his face in my neck, growling under his breath.

  "Brat," he murmured and then bit me softly. I shivered as his teeth dragged over his bond mark, the light, barely visible scar that had bound me to him when he'd finally claimed me as his, the last one in his pack to do so. My eyes fluttered shut.

  "Why'd you wait so long?" I asked, giving voice to a question he had to know was coming.

  "You always ask that."

  "Because every time I do, you give me a different answer."

  "There are a million reasons why I couldn't claim you for my own. The main reason was that our pack wasn't safe, and I didn't want to be distracted." His bulk was warm as I cuddled up to him, eyeing a passing house that had a lawn littered with fake headstones.

  "I guess that's a good reason."

  "But still you are not satisfied with it."

  "Maybe my feelings were a little hurt," I said after a minute. We'd pulled down to the end of the street, and turned another corner. In the distance, I saw the hill of Hyde's Park rise, the crest of it dappled with pine trees and other evergreens. That must've been our destination if we were going to watch the fireworks that would be set off in the harbor.