“Claim me…” she arched against him as another fission of energy moved between them.
“Mine.”
Sage threw back her head, her insides coiled and ready. Her own fangs descended, itching to bury themselves inside of his flesh. “Give me your bite.”
Carrick growled, his fangs breaking the unmarked skin of her shoulder. He bit down the pain zinged through her body, awakening her and making her long for more time in his arms. She came all over his dick, her pussy clenching as the sensation of a full mating sizzled along her skin. Sage cried out, sinking back into his arms. She raised his hand to her mouth and clamped down, her fangs breaking the skin of his hand. Carrick shuddered, his heat enveloped her inside and out as his seed bathed the inside of her womb.
The hold that had been over her for six years broke. Her mate still moved within her and her heart sang with the clarity of his senses as their bond solidified.
“Can you hear our pack? They know we mated.”
Carrick withdrew, placing a kiss on the bite mark. “I can.” He fixed himself and reached down for her discarded dress.
“Thank you.”
He helped her step into the black gown and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Are you ready?”
Sage grinned and suddenly wished she’d thought to call Mel. She was going to be so pissed she missed a good fight. “You bet.”
***
Carrick led his mate out of the alcove and was relieved to not to see Jess anywhere in the vicinity. He told her to go inside and if she had a lick of sense, she would for once follow his orders. He was sated but the tension rolled through his body at the threat in their midst.
Why was he here tonight of all nights? Did the hybrid wolf come on his own accord? He doubted it. Michael was never a leader, but only a follower. Someone up high was pulling the strings and he was damned sure going to find out who.
A sharp cry echoed in the cool night air and then a roar. Sage cocked her head, her eyes narrowed.
“It’s Jess. He has her.” Sage gathered her skirts and took off running into the crowd.
“Sage! Get back here.” Carrick tore after her, his wolf chaffing to break free.
Soon.
Carrick stopped, ready to swing into action but instead found his little mate facing down a demon from her past.
Chapter Seven
“Let her go.” Sage glared at Michael. He gripped a quivering Jess by the hair, his other fist poised to strike.
She felt Carrick beside her, his calming force giving her the strength she needed. They were one. She didn’t have to do this herself. Not anymore.
The thought almost made her weak in the knees but she bit her lip to keep focused.
“Make me, bitch.”
Could she do that? Alone, she didn’t think so but as the Alpha Female she could give him a pretty good fight until the males stepped in. The creature was bound by no rules and the scars on her body proved that time and again. Every drop of ink that colored her arm was a reminder of what price she’d paid for living when everything inside of her wanted to die.
And it was fucking worth it. Every second.
“Oh…I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.”
Her awareness of the pack flickered in her peripheral vision. Female signatures burst hot with anger and she smiled, urging them forward.
Together.
We are one.
And they came. Female shifters in glittering gowns and older women dressed with immaculate care. Servants. Guests. A sea of faces. Black. White. Brown. Only one similarity spanned their group; the shuttered look in their eyes and the spark of injustice singed across their spirits. Michael and Justin had harmed so many and it was time to take back their lives.
Tell me.
Images flooded into Sage’s consciousness and she was nearly overwhelmed with emotion. Rage, anger, hope…they were all there. Human forms faded as their shift took over, a sea of wolves at the ready to fight for one of their own.
Only one woman remained. Jess.
“Shift,” Sage urged her. “He can’t hold you if you change.”
“I can’t.”
To save themselves they would save her. The first one lunged. And then another until Michael couldn’t battle them all. He struggled to grasp Jess’s hair as she knelt at Michael’s feet. Tears ran down her face, her fear and misery apparent. His hand slipped from her hair as an elder wolf snapped at him and three more took him to the ground.
Carrick joined her, slipping his hand in hers. He placed a kiss on her cheek.
He shifted, his body changing into the sleek wolf from her dreams and her hand rested on his lupine head. The wolf’s tongue lolled out, happy and he raced over to join in. Michael’s cries rang out in the courtyard and quickly morphed into bloodcurdling screams. The pack rushed in and Sage smiled at the peace knowing their enemy was dead at last.
There were many stories here and as she looked into the eyes of the women and men around her. They nodded and she returned the gesture. And she would learn them. Every one. But first there was Jess. Scared and battered, she dug her way out of the mass of wolves.
Reid stumbled forward, bloodied and torn, and rushed to her side. The male reached for her, tugging her into his embrace, shielding her with his body. She softened for a moment and stiffened against him.
“Off, wolf boy.”
Sage groaned. Her friend was in denial. “Here we go.”
Carrick loped back and joined her, a tender expression on his face. “Yep. But first we have some unfinished business.”
“We do, do we?”
“I owe you a week in bed and I’m going to do all kinds of wicking things to your body.” Carrick nuzzled her ear. A flush of warmth spiraled through her body and her pussy clenched.
“Wicked. I like the sound of that.” Sage turned in his arms and pressed her lips to his. “Only for you, baby. Only for you.”
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Turn the page for Heart's Protector, Book Two in the Westmore Wolves...
Heart's Protector
Westmore Wolves, Book Two
Naughty Nights Press LLC
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Third Edition January 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77357-094-5
Copyright © 2016 Erzabet Bishop
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Heart’s Protector
Two gargoyles and a woman who needs them…
Medina Argos is a woman on the run from her present and her past. One of three sisters in an international art theft ring, she flees when a routine art heist goes too far. But this curvy girl is about to learn that some hearts beat to a different drum and the road to love is sometimes the less traveled one, even for a woman with secrets.
Thomas Sauveterre is a renowned art restoration specialist. Nothing is more important to him than his daughter, Gabrielle. When he takes on the largest project of his career, he also gains a security officer in the bargain. But love can be hiding in the most surprising places if he can only open his heart to find it.
Grayson Maberry is a man on the brink. Charged with protecting property and guarding the family he’s currently assigned, he is torn by duty and a love that may never be. But a true guardian will wait forever and this gargoyle may have just met his match. Twice.
Dedication
To my husband. Even on the hard days, baby. It works.
And to Taddy, my own little gargoyle baby. One of these days you are going to fall off that bed hunting for cookies. But I’ll catch you. Every time.
Prologue
“Gabrielle, get down.” The child was going to give him a heart attack. She climbed up the stone railing along the patio, the angry sea crashing beneath them in a torrent of waves. Thomas could shift at a moment’s notice and dive after her, but he’d prefer not to leave anything up to chance. If anything happened to Gabby, he would absolutely lose his mind. The little minx thought she could fly, but her young gargoyle wings remained fragile and the winds outside were picking up with the storm.
The first pelts of rain started to fall and he grew concerned she would catch a cold. Little girls with colds were not fun. At all. And with the monumental art restoration job in front of him from the Westmore pack Alpha, Carrick, he wouldn’t be able to devote all the time it would require if she was ill. Gabby was his first priority, even at the cost of what was left of his career. But if he could, he didn’t want to take a chance with the few strands of his reputation that lay twisting in the wind.
Thomas Sauveterre shifted his glare to his soon to be ex-wife, the burning resentment in his gut almost more than he could bear. His fingers turned to talons and he had to will them back into their human form. She tried to ruin him in every way possible and, blinded by her vivacious nature, he’d been the fool. His stone beast regarded her with contempt, recoiling whenever she came near.
We need a mate. A true one. Not this imposture.
How little he understood when he brought her into his world, only to have it crumble around him like the ruins he loved to fly through as a young man. His gargoyle heritage was a rich one. His family one of prestige, but his blind infatuation placed a wedge between them he wasn’t sure would ever be displaced. Candice wanted him when he took her to parties and showed her off, but when the lights dimmed and the reality of being a mother and wife to an art restoration expert, she found his dual nature not to her liking at all. Pity she hadn’t informed him of that tidbit until after they were married and had their first child.
All evening at dinner she’d plied herself with liquor, not stopping even to help Gabby with her meal. Divorce papers be damned, she could at least pretend she cared, even for the thirty minutes it would have taken to get through at least part of the first course.
But no.
An icy look here, an innuendo there. All he had to do was look in the direction of his new security officer, Grayson, and she would start up. The man had only been at their home a few months at the insistence of Carrick, the Westmore pack leader, when he took on some of the more valuable pieces in his art collection to restore. He’d fought the idea at first but art theft and the black market were a clear and present danger he couldn’t afford to ignore. His career as a preservationist and art historian were already in the shambles thanks to Candice and he wasn’t about to tempt fate twice.
There had been rumblings from some of the old guard in the wolf pack. The previous Alpha had done terrible things, kidnapping women and girls to keep his wolves in line, even resorting to genetic experimentation to try and build a super breed of hybrid wolf. He knew when Carrick rediscovered his mate, Sage, that she had been one of the victims of one of the hybrids, and Carrick warned him to be careful. There was no telling who was still out there with a grudge, and taking the restoration job could put his family at risk. The thought of anyone coming here to his family home was ludicrous, but never the less, he was happy to have Grayson here to keep things safe, both for him and for Gabby.
It hadn’t taken long for Thomas to feel the pull of his attraction to the younger man despite his refusal to act on his baser impulses. He would not do to Candice what she had done to him. Not while they were still technically man and wife. But the moment she signed the papers all bets were off. He longed to taste Grayson’s full lips and feel his body against him locked in passion. To find another gargoyle shifter who shared his world, that was a prize worth keeping and he was done throwing his life away on a woman who would rather fuck delivery men and take pleasure at debasing herself at every turn just to cause him pain. And she had. In spades.
Thomas sighed and thought back to the first time he saw Grayson. His long hair tied back in a queue, sexy stubble on his chin as he tried in vain to coax a willful young gargoyle out of a tree.
“Come on, little lady. Your daddy is going to be mighty worried if you don’t come down from there.”
“But I like it here.” Her innocent eyes shifted from Grayson on the ground to train on him as he swooped down from the sky.
“Daddy!” She raised her arms to him and he scooped her up in his arms. “I found a new friend.”
“Did you now?” He let himself glide to the ground, careful to land softly with the precious cargo in his arms. Then he turned to the man who would be his future and smiled. “Thomas Sauveterre.”
“Grayson Maberry at your service.” The other man lowered his head, his full lips curving into a smile. He raised his head and met Thomas’s gaze. “I think Carrick has designs on putting us together.”
His breath caught in his throat at the images that invoked and he had to shift his weight against a sudden tightness in his jeans.
Thomas grinned, a flush creeping up the back of his neck. “That would be just like him to set things up before consulting either of us.”
“Daddy! Meet Grayson. He has wings just like we do.” His normally shy daughter ran to the other man and hurled herself into his arms.
Grayson laughed and collected her into his embrace, planting a kiss on her little cherub cheek. “You’re a little stinker, you know that?” He set her down. “Now get back to the house. I think Sage made some of her chocolate cupcakes and you won’t want to miss those.”
“Goody!” Gabby scuttled off toward the main house with a giggle, leaving both men in the dust.
“Well, you seem to have made an impression.”
Grayson met his eyes, a chuckle slipping from his lips. “I hope so. It seems like I’m following Carrick’s gallery collection to your place while you do the restoration.”
“Not a bad idea.” His eyes raked over the competent security officer. He’d never had one before when he’d restored paintings, but with the art heists that had been in the news of late he agreed with the Alpha’s caution. “Well…we’d best get back so Carrick can fill us in. I need to get back home soon.”
His wife Candice had been acting even more erratic than normal and he didn’t trust her by herself. After all the affairs and provocation, he was considering a very painful truth. He was going to have to divorce his wife. It was not a thought that came lightly. His family believed in longevity and a mate was for life. Family was everything.
She’s not your mate.
He grimaced, thinking of what she might be up to while he was away.
Thomas’s gaze spanned out across the fields, noting the birds flying up to escape the progress of his daughter. He turned his eyes back toward Grayson. “Thank you for not frightening her.”
“Oh, I don’t think much would faze that girl of yours.”
“True enough. Come on, let’s catch up. I don’t want her diving in for another bout of ice cream after she demolishes the cupcakes. She’ll ruin her dinner and I’ll never get her to sleep.”
“We’d better hurry then. She’s fast.” Grayson winked and started off in the direction Gabby had gone.
Thomas paused and watched the man go and couldn’t help but admire his powerful well-muscled body as he moved with easy grace.
“Don’t I know it,” Thomas muttered, starting off after them. “Wait till she starts flying.”
So many months ago. The scene felt like yesterday, but here they were, together at his home, Gabby still as precocious as ever and Grayson ever watchful.
The sound of shoes slipping against wet stone brought him back to the present. It was a good memory.
“But, Daddy, the view up here is so exciting.” His six-year-old daughter Gabrielle raised her dimpled cheeks to him and smiled, not alarmed in the slightest by the close proximity of the edge or the cold rain splashing down on her. She hung on and looked wistfully at the cliffs below. “Do you think we can go out tomorrow?”
“If you’re good and do all your homework.” He reached around her waist and tugged her down, and set her on her feet. “Now, what did Mommy tell you to work on after dinner?”
Westmore Wolves Series: Shapesifter Collection Bks 1-5 Page 6
