by Celeste Raye
Connie looked at the bottle and wanted to ask so many more questions.
“It will help me?”
Dahlia smiled. “Sounds weird, but it will. There is some kind of magic imbued into it. I can’t explain it, but you will see.”
Connie closed her hands around the bottle and almost dropped it. It was warm, sort of like it was alive.
Immortality was in the palm of her hand.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Now I know why you were so worried about the moon. You should have given me more warning. I fear that I didn’t impress with my attire. We just got married with me in shorts and one of your T-shirts.”
Frank looked over at his new mate and couldn’t help the smile that was creeping up on his face. He wouldn’t have changed anything. She was wearing one of his shirts, and that, in and of itself, was enough to get his heart beating a little faster. It made him feel like she was telling the world who owned her.
“There is no way that you could be any sexier to me than you are right now. You know that, right?”
Connie blushed because she knew what was going to happen next. They were just arriving back to his room, and his mind was on what had happened before. He had allowed himself a little taste and almost ruined everything. Frank had wanted to bury himself as deep as possible inside of her. The taste had done something to his brain. He wasn’t able to think straight. The whole mating ceremony that he’d insisted on wasn’t even an event that was sticking.
The whole time he’d been mating with her, he was thinking about the ending. Frank couldn’t stop thinking about what was going to happen right then. They both knew what came next, and he was anticipating it more than he could imagine.
She started to take her pins out of her hair, and he stopped her. When he held her hand in his own, Frank could feel the worry that was coming over her. Her hands were shaking, and he kissed them, and then each fingertip.
“There is nothing to be worried about now. You’re mine, and I’m yours. I will do anything in my power to make sure that you’re well-loved and cared for, Connie.”
“I know. I am not really worried about that.”
He chuckled and sighed. “Then what worries you?”
Her eyes shifted to his groin area, and he smiled.
“Don’t worry about that either. I will be gentle. I know that it will be your first time.”
Connie hid her face. He pulled her towards him and made her look up, kissing her lips to silence all other concerns that she had.
Frank could feel her resistance fall, and then she was kissing him back. Her body was rubbing against him and driving him crazy. He was shaking with his desires that had been put off for too long.
It took only seconds for him to get her on the bed and her clothes off. He had seen it all before, and even though he would have liked nothing more than to spend his time savoring the moment, there was no more control left in him. She was his, ready and willing; finally, his. That was all that mattered.
Connie’s arm slipped around his neck, and his eyes held hers as long as they could. He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to hold himself for long. He pushed deep, breaking away all semblance of her innocence. She cried out, and he held her for several moments, waiting for her to calm down.
Only when she begged for more did Frank start to move inside of her again. She was trembling in moments, and the first orgasm ripped through her unexpectedly. Connie pulled tighter to the man on top of her, and then she was calling out his name.
Frank tried to hold back, go slow for her because it was her first time, but he was being egged on, and it was impossible to not go along with it. Connie felt amazing, wrapped so lovingly tight around him. He wanted to make it last forever, but his time was quickly coming to an end. She was too tight, too hot, too amazing for the first time to be everything he wanted it to be.
Frank didn’t stop the increasingly loud sounds that were coming from her because he didn’t want to. It was the perfect noise, and before long, he was losing himself right along with her. The feeling came over him in seconds and took his breath away.
When he lay down beside her, Frank was breathing hard. He was looking up at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath. He’d never felt so satiated in all of his life. If he had any real questions that they weren’t meant to be together, all of those were gone. There was no other way to explain how he felt. She was just perfect.
“What are you thinking about?”
“What do you mean?”
“You have this look on your face, and I don't understand it.”
“I don't think I have ever felt like this before. You really did something to me. I am not sure what I want for us going forward, but that was worth all of it.”
“Worth what?”
“Us together. I have decided that I'm going to give all this up.”
She sat up a little straighter. “What do you mean, give all this up?”
“Dahlia told me a little bit about what happened, and I think it's best that we take some time for just us. I am going to take a break from my duties. We're going to go live a normal life. You said that’s what you wanted.”
“Trust me when I tell you that it's not all it's cracked up to be.”
“I highly doubt that. I can't think of anything that I would want to do more.”
“What about the pack?”
“For now, it is going to be run by Dennis. I know that he'll do a good job.”
“Are you sure you're willing to give all of that up for me?”
“It is the easiest decision that I have ever made. Let’s play house, live normal lives for a time. For as long as we can.”
He leaned in for another kiss, and it wasn't long before he was doing everything in his power to make her scream his name again. He certainly had no problems at all, with how things turned out.
Frank had everything he could ever want, and as they laid together that night, he held Connie just a little bit closer. He knew then that he was never going to be able to let her go. Someone was coming for her, for the blue bottle that held eternal life. Frank knew that he would do whatever he had to in order to make sure that Connie was safe, even living a lie for a time.
Shifter’s Acceptance
(Quest for Immortality)
BOOK III
Chapter One
Marl was younger. She felt beautiful, and that was long before she had to use children to stay that way. It was before she went to the dark side. Everything about her was different. The black hair that she had wasn’t always that way. It used to be the prettiest and lightest color of yellow, almost to the point it was white. Everything about the young Marl was different.
Marl smiled at her reflection in the mirror. It was the beautiful woman she remembered seeing in her youth. Her eyes were fixated on the glass and the creature looking back at her. So full of life and hope, and love.
Daniel was coming to pick her up, and they were going to ride together on his horse. He had something special, something that he was going to ask her, and Marl had one idea of what it would be. She wanted to believe that he was going to ask her to marry him. That is what she hoped for anyway.
When she heard the knock at the door, she got up with all of the desires of a young woman in love running through her. It blinded her to everything. All that mattered was Daniel. Marl had turned away from her sisters for him, because of what he was. But now, she knew that it was the right choice. When she saw the way that he looked at her, needed her, it was all she could do to keep it in.
He leaned in and kissed her red lips, dyed with petals from flowers. Marl felt the immediate need flow through her. No other man could make her feel the same as Daniel did. No other man had been given the access to try, until Daniel. He’d changed everything.
“Come now, Marl. We have to get going. If we don’t stop, we aren’t going to be able to, and I don’t think your mother would like if I did that.”
She waved him off. “Mother is not here.
It’s just us. I think we should go upstairs, and I can finally give you what you’re always asking for. Then, we can talk about what it is that is so important.”
Marl knew that Daniel wanted to take their relationship to the next level. She had already gone further with him than anyone else, but there was something that was bothering him. He was not jumping at the chance like she had thought he would. As much as he had gone on about it, pushed it, she thought they would already be in bed and her knickers would be off.
“We should really go, Marl…”
She couldn’t believe it and suspected that he thought that she was joking. Marl wanted to show that she wasn’t joking at all. At the moment, there was still a part of her that wasn’t sure if he was the one, but she wanted to believe that he was. She loved him, and she’d waited twenty-one years to feel the way she did. Marl didn’t want to wait any longer.
Finally, she pulled away from another kiss, and his blue eyes were filled with an animalistic need that took her breath away. Whatever had her worried moments before was gone in a heartbeat. She was now being dragged into the back room that Marl shared with several of her sisters. They were all gone but judging by the way he was looking at her, it would seem like it wouldn’t have mattered if they were there or not.
“Do you know how long I have been waiting for this, Marl? I didn’t think that this day would ever come. I was afraid that I would never get to feel your skin against mine.”
Considering that it was the inevitable, his words were a little confusing, but nothing to disconcert herself with. He was right there in front of her, so it would have happened eventually. She’d wanted to give herself fully to a man for a long time. Marl had just wanted it to be the right man. She felt like Daniel was the one.
Soon, he was teaching her all of the secrets that she wanted to know. The pleasure that he’d given her before was nothing compared to what she experienced for the next hour. When it was all over, and Marl was breathing hard in his arms, he rushed her to get dressed.
“You don’t have to take me anywhere, Daniel. Just ask me what you want to ask me. I can’t think of a better time and place than here and now.”
He wouldn’t tell Marl why, but he insisted that she come with him. He made her get dressed and then they started out into the woods for a time, until they got to a horse, tied to a tree in the distance. He hadn’t wanted to wake anyone up if there had been anyone around.
“I still can’t believe you’re afraid of my parents. I told you that they don’t care what you are.”
“I find that hard to believe, Marl.”
She shrugged. “Even if they do care, I don’t. I love you, and I don’t care if we have to run off together. I just want to be with you.”
He looked at Marl suddenly, and he grimaced.
“Why do you have to do this, Marl?”
“Do what?”
“This, be perfect, sweet? Why do you have to do this, when you know that we can’t be? You know what I have to do next, and I don’t want to do it.”
Marl was confused. She was still basking in the love that she felt for him, and it was becoming clear to her that he was not.
“What do you mean you have to do something? What do you have to do?”
Then, a few more shifters started to come through the trees and Marl was taken aback. She was scared, something she didn’t experience often. Her parents had made sure of that.
“What is going on, Daniel?”
He was stepping back away from her, telling her that he was sorry. Marl couldn’t believe that the man that she loved, the man she’d given her body to, the man she thought she was going to be with forever, had betrayed her in the foulest way imaginable.
All Marl could feel was rage after a moment. It was welling up inside of her in a way she didn’t know how to handle. It was too much, and it felt like it was going to burst out of her at any moment.
Marl fought back, and it wasn’t long before she was using her powers. The shifters were strong, but she was stronger, and the rage inside of her gave her even more strength. She went through all of them, besides Daniel. He was the one that deserved all of her attention as far as she was concerned. He was looking at her as if she were some sort of demon, and maybe she was. Marl would find out later that the first black streak in her hair, came that evening.
“How could you do this to me, Daniel? I thought that you were going to ask me to marry you. You just wanted to kill me?”
Marl knew what it was. She could see it for the truth, even though it hurt so much, she felt like she was suffocating inside because of it. All she could do was give him the pain and anguish that he had bestowed upon her.
She hit him with a powerful bolt of magic, one that was bigger and darker than any that she had produced before. All she could think to do, was hurt him.
And hurt him she did. Daniel flew a hundred feet before crashing against a tree trunk that was as wide as a grown man. It stopped him, breaking bones, while he slumped to the ground. She paused for a moment, debating what to do next.
Daniel was a man that she had just given herself to, and it was just too much of a betrayal for her to justify letting him live. Marl was consumed with hate and the next thing she knew, she was hurtling a magical ball towards him, and she didn’t expect him to survive. He wasn’t supposed to.
The last thing he said to her, before she ended his life, was that he loved her. Those words would haunt Marl all of the years that she lived. And she lived many.
Marl woke up in a sweat and tried to replay the last few moments one more time. He had loved her; he’d shown it in his final few moments. But it was too late. Her anger consumed her, and now she was as bitter as they come.
She hated to wake up in such a state, and Marl cursed herself for not mumbling out an enchantment before she went to sleep. The woman could have very easily avoided it all if she would have done that one simple thing.
Marl sat up and sighed loudly to herself. It was her cross to bear. She would dream about Daniel and his betrayal every day of her life. She had lived for centuries, which meant that she had dreamed about him just as long. At some point, it was exhausting.
Her hand went towards the bedroom table, and she found something else instead. The body was still in her bed, and she sighed to herself. Marl was ready to get her life back to where it was before. She needed her powers again, so that she could stop sucking humans dry.
She turned the light on, her eyes squinting to the bright light. Marl was now up for the day. It was early, but there was no way that she was going to be going back to sleep. Marl had plans anyway. She had a lot to do if she was going to get back to her original Stein glory.
Chapter Two
“Jazz, it’s time to get up.”
Jazz groaned and swatted her roommate, Sarah, away. She didn’t want to get up, but she knew that if Sarah was waking her up, it was because she had ignored or turned off all five of her alarms.
“Come on, Jazz. You’re supposed to be in class, and I’ve been trying to wake you up for like twenty minutes. It’s creepy how you sleep. You sleep like the dead.”
Jazz apologized and then looked over at the clock. It was well past time for her to get up, and she jumped out of bed, debating if she had enough time to take a shower. She really needed one. It would help her wake up if nothing else.
“I will meet you downstairs in a minute, Sarah. I am just going to rinse off quickly and get dressed.”
Sarah made a face at her and told her to hurry up. Jazz wasn’t usually too late to things, but she rarely was on time for anything. It was just her nature to be late, whereas Sarah liked to be early. They were good friends, but fundamental differences kept them at odds at times.
She tried to hurry, but ever since the surge of power Jazz had gotten the night before, she wasn’t quite feeling like herself. Her dreams were strange and more intense. Everything felt like it was more, like her senses were all heightened. She was hoping that it was a fluke, the new po
wer she felt, but she knew it wasn’t. A closely related witch had died. It was that simple, and now that Jazz had all of the power, it was hard not to wonder where it was coming from.
While she was in the shower, her thoughts went to her family that she didn’t know about. The mother that might be gone now. Jazz felt a sadness and loss inside of her that she shouldn’t feel. It wasn’t like she was close to her mother; she never met her beyond being birthed. Something told Jazz, though, that she had lost something, even if she didn’t know exactly what it was.
“Come on, Jazz! We’re going to be late!”
Sarah was hollering up the stairs, and Jazz cursed her under her breath. Sarah was a good friend, but sometimes, she wished she would chill out. Being on time or late wasn’t going to make much of a difference. Jazz was already bored with their divinity classes with Sister Evans.
When she got downstairs, her hair was still wet, and Jazz felt unkempt.
“Let’s go.”
She was pushing a bit hard, and Jazz wanted to know what was going on, why she was acting the way she was.
“I just don’t want to be late. We have that test today, and I need to get a good score. I am never going to pass if I don’t.”
There were thirty students, and even if they didn’t pass, it wasn’t like they wouldn’t be witches. The whole school was to teach them what they needed to know for later in life. It was like a finishing school for those blessed with magic.
“I can’t believe you’re not worried about the test. You know how Sister Evans is.”
“Yes, I do, Sarah. And she will be just as unpleasant as she always is no matter what we do. I’m not going to worry about her.”
Sarah looked unsure, and Jazz ignored the looks from her. She wasn’t going to worry about it, not when she had so many other things on her mind. The test from Sister Evans about divination wasn’t going to change what was going on in real life.
