Fae Unchained (The Mage Shifter War Book 2)

by Ann Denton

  "Fuck Drake," Aubry spat with a glower.

  Great. I’d said the D-word. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t say the goddamned D-word and ruin her mood. Good start, East. Just great.

  I led Aubry across the shiny tiles of the bank's lobby and into a corridor behind the teller desk. There were a few closed doors on each side of the hall, but near the end, on the left, a single door stood ajar. The delicious aroma of Vietnamese cuisine filled the air. I glanced back at Aubry. Could she smell it? I could never tell with non-shifter noses.

  It was a sucker punch to my heart when her face lost that dull look and lit up. "Oh my god, you ordered my favorite takeout. I might love you forever."

  Those words. Did she even realize she’d said them? My heart rate doubled, and my neck got hot. Those words were everything. My bear wanted to come out and wrap her in a hug. But I knew she hadn’t really meant love. Not yet. Because I hadn’t earned it.

  But I would.

  I grabbed both her hands just outside the big door. "It’s not takeout. Homemade by yours truly. And I wasn't sure if you were ready to heave the big L word around already—"

  She groaned and her cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink. "Damn it, I knew you’d pick up on that."

  I lifted her hand and kissed the back of her knuckles. "I'm just going to say that, as my mate, you're kinda stuck with me forever. But I want to make sure you mean that L-word next time you say it."

  She giggled nervously. "You know how to make Vietnamese?"

  "Spitfire, I know how to make anything. Bears love to eat." I winked, making sure she caught my innuendo as I pushed open the door and led her into a big meeting room equipped with at least a dozen chairs, a big smart board on the left hand side of the wall, a flat screen TV on the right hand wall, and large floor to ceiling windows in between—all of which were drawn shut.

  On one side of the grandiose meeting table sat an array of steaming dishes and a portable stove top typically used by recreational campers, which I’d borrowed. And on the right, was a makeshift dinner for two. A tablecloth had been draped across the end, with two plates and silverware and fancy crystal glasses. A vase of assorted summer roses stood tall in the middle, their red, pink, coral, yellow, and white buds practically bursting with beauty and sweetness. And beside the vase, also in the center of the two plates, sat a tiny flickering candle.

  The meeting room screamed romance. I glanced down to see if it was too over the top.

  Aubry’s eyes were wide. She took a step backward.

  Oh fuck. She hates it.

  "I can get rid of the flowers," I said in a rush.

  Damn it, were summer fae opposed to cut flowers? Why the fuck didn’t I know the answer to that?

  "No. I just…" Her eyes welled up. "Thank you."

  Her gratitude was soft and genuine, and she actually seemed quite touched. Exactly what I’d been going for. I gave a sigh of relief before I led her inside and shut and locked the door behind us. "I’m not gonna let any cheese hunters interrupt our date," I explained.

  Aubry’s eyes flickered with desire. "Oh, is this date gonna be rated something worse than PG?"

  Damn. I loved that naughty look on her face. But instead of answering, I flicked on the smart board. An online radio station pulled up and started playing. Of course, the song was "Let’s Get It On."

  "This is a station. I didn’t pick that," I told her.

  She laughed. "Sure, Goldilocks." But the skip in her step as she made her way to our seats told me that her mood had picked up. She was having a good time.

  The tension in my chest started to unravel.

  I grinned and bit my bottom lip as I followed her and tried not to ogle her ass. I pulled out the chair for her and she sat.

  "I feel like I should have changed clothes," she said, glancing down at the off-shoulder t-shirt she wore and the distressed skinny jeans with rips all up the thighs. Rips that showed delicious hints of her creamy skin. Rips that I wanted to make wider.

  I smiled as I strode to the other side of the table and began serving her. "You crazy? You look gorgeous no matter what you're wearing. Besides, I don't plan on you wearing anything for very long."

  Her intake of breath and the way she squeezed her thighs together let me know she liked the dirty talk. Good. I’d keep it up.

  I scooped us some pho into two wide bowls and then arranged the sides between the two of us so we could share. Aubry leaned forward and inhaled deeply. "You know, this reminds me of childhood."

  "Yeah?" I asked as I took my seat opposite of her.

  She gave a little smile. "We had a Vietnamese maid. She’d make me stuff when my parents were out of town."

  "They travel a lot?"

  She nodded. And I could see the ghosts creeping back into her eyes. I had to banish them. So I said, "Hope you don't mind double dipping," as I placed a napkin on my lap. "I'm totally a double dipper."

  The line did the trick. Aubry’s eyes cleared and she raised a seductive brow. "You can double dip whatever you want when it comes to me, Papa Bear."

  Oh fuck. That nickname went straight to my dick. The sounds swirled around and surrounded it like a cock ring. I was instantly hard as a rock.

  My eyes became hooded. She wanted to play like that? Okay. I was game. "I plan on dipping all sorts of things, Spitfire. My fingers... My tongue... My cock… But first... I'm going to dip my meat in this sauce." I plucked a strip of beef off a plate and dunked it in the bowl of broth. I let my tongue come out, lapping the juice off before drawing the bite into my mouth.

  Holy fucking hell, it was hot in here.

  "I'll give you something juicy to dip your meat into..." Aubry smiled and leaned back in her seat, tracing a finger down her cleavage.

  I nearly fucking choked. Damn. We needed to slow down or I was gonna blow my wad just listening to her. We ate for a while in companionable silence before I had calmed down enough to introduce a new topic.

  "Tell me something about you I probably don’t already know."

  Aubry studied me for a minute before she said, "You know I used to be engaged right?"

  My throat tightened at that. I vaguely remembered something about a high profile break up, maybe. But hearing her say it made my bear tremble with both fear and possessiveness. Damn it. Did I want to spend my date talking about her damn ex? Why would she bring that up? "I don’t know any details."

  "He wasn’t my mate. It was gonna be an arranged marriage. Fae like to do that shit with their royals for some reason. I liked his mom though, so at least there was that."

  I nodded, unsure where this was going, unsure if I wanted to hear or to stop this. But listening… that wasn’t something Bodie was good at. It was something I could give her to take care of her. And maybe my mate needed to get something off her chest. I could do that. I could listen. Even if it was painful.

  Aubry licked her lips and swirled her spoon around in her soup for a minute before she said, "He cheated." She gave a harsh laugh. "I should have expected it, given the arrangement. But you know what he told me about why? It wasn’t ‘marriage of convenience’ or ‘we should both get some on the side.’" Her hands turned to fists as she set them on the tabletop and tried to rein in her hurt.

  I wanted to reach out and pluck her from her seat and pull her onto my lap. But I could sense she needed to finish this and get it out.

  "Gerrard told me that he cheated because I was a robotic workaholic without a scrap of love to give." She shook her head then stared down at the soup. "Fuck. I’ve always wondered if he was right. Suspected it even. But look, this is proof. You did this huge, sweet, romantic thing and I ruined it." Tears filled her soft brown eyes.

  I stood and went over to kneel next to her chair. Even kneeling, she was so small and petite that we were almost face to face. I cupped her cheek in my hand. "Not ruined. Never ruined."

  I had to shove down the rage I felt at some asshole fae who could just discard my precious mate. The animal side of me wanted to gu
t him with my claws and lift him in the air with my hand still inside his stomach. I suddenly knew how Bodie could kill without remorse. But the mate bond told me that I needed to suppress my rage and comfort Aubry. She was more important. "He’s wrong, you know. What you did for Bodie a couple days ago? That… that was love. Staying here even after you found out about your dad, so you could help us… that’s love, Aubry. It’s not all flowers and poetry and pretty words. Love is sacrifice. And if he couldn’t see that, he was an idiot. Can I also add that I think his head would look great stuffed and mounted on my wall?’

  Aubry let out a peal of laughter. Then I started to laugh too. Any time either of us stopped, we’d make eye contact and start all over again. It gave me the best feeling ever, like I was walking on air and shooting sunbeams out of my fingertips. I’d made her feel better.

  My sweet mate laughed until tears came to her eyes and she swiped at them.

  I wanted to cheer her up even more. I didn’t want this giddy feeling to end. I rubbed her knee for a second as I said, "I have a surprise." Then I stood and strolled over to a side table. I blew out a breath, stupidly nervous all over again.

  "I thought the dinner was the surprise?" she asked curiously.

  "Nope."

  There was a coffee maker on the table, some plastic cups, a jug of sparkling water, and... a tiny gift box wrapped with a bow. It was small enough to be a diamond ring. I hoped she didn’t freak out about that. On the flip side, I hoped she wasn’t disappointed that it wasn’t that.

  "Don't tell me you can wrap gifts and cook." Her tone was wry.

  "You can't?" I asked with a grin. "Just kidding. I had one of the shifter grannies help me wrap this."

  Her grin looked tight as I handed her the box. "What is it?"

  "Open it and see."

  I sat down across from her once more and folded my hands in front of my face, sinking my chin down onto my hands, both elbows resting gently on the table.

  She cocked her head and exhaled a shaky breath. "Okay..."

  I held my breath as she peeled the paper, slowly at first, hesitantly, but eventually she got impatient and just ripped it off like a Band-Aid—kind of like the way I'd prefer to rip off her clothing.

  She didn’t breathe at all as she flipped the lid and opened the black velvet box.

  I was terrified and at the same time so excited to see her response.

  She plucked out a pair of earrings from the box and this glorious rainbow of a smile crossed her face. "They're beautiful, Easton. I love them!"

  The earrings looked like miniature daggers, but the detail on the blades and hilts were all hand-engraved. It had taken several tries to get them right. She didn’t even want to see the pile of mistakes I had hidden in one of the offices.

  Now that I knew she loved the gift, I was capable of joking. "Spitfire, you look a little pale. What did you think it was gonna be?"

  She leveled me with an unenthused stare. "I think you know damn well what I thought it was going to be. And just for future reference, if you ever do get any crazy ideas about that, you damn well better clear it with me first. I'm not usually a fan of surprises."

  I chuckled and leaned back in my chair. "You seemed to enjoy your candle-lit dinner surprise just fine."

  She gave me a grudging nod but couldn’t help the soft little smile that cropped up.

  Goddamn. Her smiles were gonna give me a heart attack. I swear, the fucker in my chest leapt every time she grinned.

  "I have enjoyed dinner." She licked her lips and the naughty vixen came out to play. "I'm going to enjoy my dessert just fine, too. But, like… proposals and shit... I don't want that sprung on me. I want it to be a joint effort."

  I gave her a knowing smile. "You want every party involved to agree." It made complete sense, after she’d been forced into one engagement that she didn’t want to rush into another. And there were three, maybe four of us, if Drake ever pulled his head out of his ass. So… it was a little more complicated. Honestly, I was not in any rush for that part of my life to begin.

  I held out my hand. "May I?" She placed the box in my palm and watched as I pulled the earrings out.

  "They're special," I told her with a wink. "The backs contain just a pinch of Growth Potion, so you have to be very careful putting them on. But when you remove the earring stem, it's like pulling a plug. And if you drizzle that potion onto the knives... Voila! Insta-weapon. That way, you’ll always have protection."

  Her lips parted in awe and her hand came up to touch my arm over the table. "Easton, did you...?" She shook her head then tried again. "Did you make these?"

  I smiled wide, staring down, enraptured by how her eyes sparkled in the candlelight. "I am a weapons specialist, Princess. Violent gifts are the best kind, aren’t they?"

  Aubry suddenly stood and grabbed my neck, pulling me across the table. I had to swoop sideways to avoid roses to the face. But it was worth it because she gave me a kiss that left me breathless. When she released me and settled herself back in her seat, she asked, "Is there extra potion? Like, can you show me how it works?"

  I nodded. "It only takes a drop, and there are three drops in each earring back. But yeah, Larry has more."

  I carefully removed one of the earring backs, which had a dual compartment so that the potion could only be intentionally accessed and wouldn’t accidentally drip onto the earrings while my mate was wearing them.

  I tilted the earring back ever so slightly until a drop of potion escaped and landed on the blade. Instantly, it stretched in my palm, moving from pea-size to dick-sized—at least, my dick’s size, which was a little large. I had to admit, I’d wanted Aubry to think about my dick whenever she held one of my blades in her hand.

  The dagger glimmered, reflecting the candlelight off its pristine blade. It gleamed like undisturbed water. The hilt was metallic, but the blade itself appeared to be black as night, a subtle pink glow surrounding it where it lay on my hand.

  "East... why is it glowing?"

  I pursed my lips before I said, "I may or may not have asked Larry to spell the metal as I was making it. It's imbued with a special Limiting Spell."

  Her eyes went wide. "No offense, Honey Bear,"—I smiled at the new term of endearment—Aubry continued, "but I don't really trust Larry's magic as far as I can throw it right now. Tee is still unconscious from his freaking memory wipe. I'm afraid he made her brain-dead or something."

  I shook my head. I’d worked side by side with Larry for years. I knew the care he put into his magic. I knew how he fretted over Tee’s coma too, and how he worried he might have overdone things on the little pixie. But Aubry didn’t need to hear that. There was nothing she or I could do about it right now anyway. So, I said what I could to comfort her. "I’m sure Tee will be fine. Larry tries not to use murder bones in his spells, which makes everything a bit different. Plus, Power Limiting Spells, like the ones on your blades, are Larry's specialty. They're, like, the one thing he's really, exceptionally good at."

  My mate pursed her lips and stared at the knife in my hand with distrust. "I suppose..."

  I flipped the blade in the air, catching it between my thumb and forefinger before holding the hilt out to Aubry. I couldn’t wait to see it in her hands. "Take it. See how it feels."

  Hesitantly, she set her napkin on the table then reached out and gripped my knife.

  "You like the weight?" I asked. I felt like a kid at Christmas, only, instead of unwrapping presents, her expressions were my gifts.

  Aubry bounced her hand up and down, testing the weapon with an experienced hand. The corner of her lip quirked up. "Yeah. It's not too heavy but not so light that I can't bash a fucker's head in. It’s perfect."

  Yes. Hearing her compliment my weapons was nearly as good as hearing her compliment my cock. But I tried to stay low key. "Sweet. How about the texture?"

  She ran her hand along the hilt. I couldn’t help but imagine her gripping my dick the same way. Her fingers tightened. "It's smooth, b
ut the vine-like pattern you carved into it gives it grip. Like, I don't think it'll slip in my grasp even if my hands are sweaty."

  "How do you like the rosy glow?"

  She glanced down at the knife and sighed. "Okay, fine. Tell me about this special Limiting Spell that Larry did."

  I reached out and traced my finger up and down the blade's shaft. Aubry immediately responded, her eyes lighting, lips parting. The air between us grew charged. "With every second it’s in contact with the victim's skin," I said in a low whisper, "the blade removes a bit of the victim's magic. Hold it up to someone's throat long enough, and they'll be completely powerless, even if you never cut them." The blade’s pull on my magic was just as intense as Aubry’s pull on me. I couldn’t help but focus on those lips, those soft kissable lips.

  She pulled the knife away from my fingers and raised an intrigued brow. "And what if the person has no inherent power?"

  I smirked. "Then it's still a sharp as shit blade, and you can slit their fucking throat."

  "Perfect," she said breathlessly. Her breasts heaved in her tight little shirt. I could see her nipples start to pebble.

  I knew I was fucked up. Talking weapons and violence with Aubry had gotten me so hot. My dick was throbbing and my bear was growling. There was just something so incredibly sexy about a woman with murder in her eyes...

  Like I said. Fucked. Up.

  Aubry set the knife aside and rose from her chair. Then, in a move I didn’t expect, she came quickly around the table and dropped down into my lap so that she was straddling my thighs.

  Neither of us had to say a word. Our mouths simply met in perfect harmony, our tongues teasing and stroking one another, just as our hands teased and stroked each other's bodies. There was this delicious push and pull of aggression and sweetness that we somehow tossed back and forth as we kissed. No matter how hard or how softly we kissed, it was still in sync, because the other naturally responded in exactly the right way.

  My mate is perfect.

  Eventually my cock grew so hard that it was uncomfortable in my pants. I growled and pulled away from her, lifting us both from the chair. I squeezed her ass then turned, walked a bit, and set Aubry down on the meeting table, to the side of our romantic dinner. "Get undressed. I want you naked and spread out on this table in twenty seconds."