by Ann Denton
"That shit doesn’t work on me," she glared.
"I know."
God, I’d grown to love that fucking glare. My heart jumped at the sight of it. And then… I just had to touch her. I reached into the circle and grabbed her hips, but her feet were stuck. So, I made a choice, and stepped inside the spell with her so that I could pull her body flush against mine.
Her eyes widened in panic. "You stupid reptile! You were supposed to fucking leave."
She tried to crush the Portal Potion she’d given me so that it splattered onto me, but I closed my fist around it and her tiny hands beat uselessly against mine. I used the hand not holding the potion to caress her furious face. And then I leaned forward and did the one thing I swore I’d never do. The thing I’d been both craving and fearing ever since I met the beautiful fae.
I gently ran my lips over hers.
Piles of gold and enchanting fires couldn’t compare. The thrill of shifting, the excitement of wind sweeping me up on an updraft and yanking me through the sky… faded to nothing.
This kiss was everything. The alpha and omega, the beginning and my end. My entire body tingled from head to my toe as magic coursed through me.
"Aubry," I breathed.
Was she as mesmerized as I was? Had her entire world just shifted on its axis? Did her soul long for mine like mine did for her?
Suddenly, footsteps echoed in the hallway.
The enforcers are here. We’re out of time.
I pulled back to look at her beautiful chocolate eyes once more. Then I shoved the mage jewel into her hand and smashed the Portal Potion against her chest.
Colored smoke surrounded her, and she started to scream, "Asshole!" before she disappeared, leaving only her boots behind.
That mate bond yanked at me like a hook through my sternum. It sizzled under my skin. It screamed as it called to me, clawing and reaching out, but never quite touching me. And I couldn’t help but smile at that vicious sensation.
Because it meant that Aubry was gone. Safe.
I’d never been afraid of death. I’d known it was coming for me for years. At least this way, I got an honorable one, which was far better than I’d ever hoped. I felt almost triumphant as I heard the MP whispering their orders in the hall.
I was dying in place of Aubry, the only woman who’d ever broken through my defenses. My… mate. And she was going to protect the shifters. Everything I’d ever wished for had come true. Who was I to be greedy and ask for more?
More time wasn’t in the cards. Neither were more kisses. One would have to be enough. Because that one kiss held the truth. Our souls were bound together. We completed each other in a mystical way that I couldn’t even begin to fucking understand. Nor did I try. I just felt grateful. So damn grateful that I could die with a smile on my lips.
But when the laser beam of a gun glided across the wall, I had to toss sentiment aside. Just because I’d die grateful, didn’t mean I’d die without a fight.
I reached forward and grabbed Triton’s body. The fucker might as well be useful. He’d make a decent shield—for a couple seconds, at least. But as I yanked on his lapels, I felt something in his inner jacket pocket.
Bullets ripped through the backside of the room, chewing up the wall and making their way over to me. One second, just one second more was all the time I had left. My heart hammered as I ripped the dead man’s pocket open with a dragon claw.
And out fell a tiny, rainbow-colored vial.
I caught it in my unshifted hand. Hope, relief, and unadulterated joy ripped through me. The fucker had brought a Portal Potion with him so he could get home. Oh my fucking god.
Without another thought, I smashed it against my chest and wisps of red, orange, and blue smoke swirled up around me. I laughed as the MP burst into the room and faded from my sight.
A sensation of weightlessness overcame me as the potion’s magic whisked me away, like riding a rollercoaster, looping through the hoops at zero-G. So fast and with so much pressure, I couldn’t even breathe. Then gravity kicked in, and my vision cleared. With jarring clarity, I realized I was standing on a red rooftop somewhere else. The potion ride was over.
I glanced around, trying to regain my bearings. Apparently, I’d ended up on the Spanish Mission tiled roof where Bodie and I had stood and done our surveillance before we’d gone and taken Mag-Sorgin. I looked out over the campus until my gaze fell on Aubry.
I saw my mate sobbing as she walked along the grass, a hand over her heart like the damn thing was destroying her as it clawed at her chest.
My dragon roared. My beast didn’t care that it wasn’t dark yet or that we could be seen. He shifted, and a second later, I was in the air.
Beneath me, some little human boy pointed. "Mommy is that a kite? I want one."
I smirked and ignored them, keeping my eyes on my beautiful target.
The closer I got, the faster the magic of our mate bond flowed. I was captivated by the very sight of Aubry. I was an asteroid, drawn to her gravity, to this invisible force that pulled us together. I crashed into her, literally, my claws wrapping around her to keep her from falling. My dragon gave a final contented screech before I shifted to human form and held her close.
She gasped, sobbed, laughed, and cried even harder as I squeezed her tightly, wrapping her in all the heat and love I’d never been willing or able to share before.
Then I spun her around in my arms and smiled into her tear-streaked face. "Mate."
She nodded, and I claimed her again, this time with a kiss. One that crushed all the excuses and burnt away all the fear and resentment from the past. One that left us with a bond that sparked and crackled with the heat of a thousand fires. One as beautiful and as mesmerizing as she was. My mate.
Epilogue
Aubry
The mage jewel didn’t solve all our problems.
But it sure as hell helped.
All shifters had temporarily relocated to Angeles National Park in order to hide, because making an entire section of L.A. disappear would not have gone unnoticed. While we waited, hunkered down between the trees and protected by the power of the jewel, my guys had snuck away and ‘mysteriously’ purchased a huge swath of land in Santa Paula. A whole little town nestled right next to some rolling green hills that claimed to be the citrus capital of the world.
Was it a coincidence that the guys thought I smelled like oranges and honey and we just so happened to move to the citrus capital of the world? I didn’t think so.
Larry, Tony, and Decker—the ex-Mag-Sorgin student who’d agreed to become Larry’s apprentice—worked tirelessly on spells and potions that would surround our future sanctuary and enable it to remain as safe as possible. The jewel would always hide us, but their additions to the security—Compulsion Spells to keep people away, Confusion Spells for the very same reason, Movement Restriction Spells inside the border in case any bad guys miraculously made it that far, plus shit like Mage Fire Protection Spells, Lethal Protection Spells, and a plethora of others I didn’t actually know the names of—were bound to be invaluable embellishments. We didn’t just want this to be a temporary solution. It was going to be our forever home. We wanted it to be perfect.
We, however, remained far from perfect.
I continued to be a naughty badass who cussed like a sailor. That might have seemed like a good thing, until I accidentally taught Mariana, the little cheese hunter, the word ‘fuck.’
Drake... still had asshole issues. I wasn’t actually expecting that to change, nor did I want it to. It was part of who he was, part of his character, and I loved him in spite of his flaws, not because I intended to fix them.
Same with Bodie and Easton. Bodie was still a smartass assassin who thought of everything as a competition—one where he was determined to come in first. And Easton still remained my sweet honey bear, the guy who’d drop anything and everything in an instant if I needed him.
When the day finally arrived for us to move into our magically
bedazzled town, everyone buzzed with joy, anticipation, and excitement. Including me. The suspense felt like walking down the white board of a high dive. It was thrilling and scary at once. This was the day we’d be permanently free of the war—at least the one raging in Los Angeles—and free of the Mage Council and their witch hunts—because, if there were no shifters left to target, then the hunts had no option but to cease.
Drake and Bodie—and a few other helpers—had gone ahead early to get things prepared for us. I’d wanted to go too, but Bodie had pulled me aside and insisted it would spoil the surprise if I did. So, I remained behind with Easton, wondering nonstop about what my wolf shifter might’ve planned.
I hoped his plans were naughty.
Finally, the big day arrived. A big, silver tour bus pulled up to the edge of the woods—the only thing besides a plane that would be big enough to fit us—and we all piled in. It cruised at a carefree-Cali pace up Highway 5 to Santa Paula. Bright chatter filled the bus as the shifters gossiped like morning birds chirping, singing back and forth. Some of them had literally shifted into birds. The excitement in the air was damn near palpable, and it had a constant smile tugging at my lips—lips Easton couldn’t seem to stop kissing, which of course, made me smile even more.
When we finally pulled into the center of our new town, the kids all but tumbled out the door. They giggled, squealed, and shifted, diving into a giant ornamental fountain in the middle of the town square. Fourteen different little animals squealed and growled and squawked as they splashed water at one another.
Of course, Mariana had to yell, “Fuck yeah!” before she joined them. I cringed, hoping her mother wasn’t paying attention. Way to go, Aubry.
At the center of the fountain, there was a tall podium which held our tiny mage jewel, gleaming like a miniature sun inside a special crystal case Easton had designed for it.
It was a beacon of truth and remembrance. A promise of a brighter future.
I laughed when some of the spattered water droplets sprinkled down on me. "Part of me wants to jump right in!" I said, turning and smiling up at Easton.
He grinned and put an arm around my shoulder. "You can do whatever you want, sweetheart. But I think Bodie said he had a little surprise for you first."
Ooh, yes! The surprise.
I glanced across the square and spotted another of my mates. Drake looked up from the ‘welcome’ table he was manning—ironic, considering there was really nothing all that ‘welcoming’ about my black-haired, blue-eyed, brooding mate. He sat next to Lorena, the Hispanic grandmotherly wolf shifter who’d pulled a gun on me in her fabric shop. She stood with a warm smile, offering hellos, and distributing maps and gleaming house keys to the new arrivals.
Homes. So many of these shifters had been homeless or poor, scattered around Skid Row, bouncing from apartment to apartment as the rent was continuously raised too high for them to afford. Now, they had actual homes to call their own.
My heart filled up like a cup of water and spilled out over my eyes. "Damn it."
That shit was happening a lot lately. I’d never realized how much happy people cried. Probably because I’d never really been happy before. Not truly happy. Not like this.
I wrapped my arm around Easton’s waist, and we walked down the street toward Drake, admiring the cute little Mission-style shops.
We passed many familiar faces as we went. Rocco, with a machine gun still slung over his shoulder—because apparently, old habits die hard. He was hanging around town until Tony was done helping Larry, then they’d be headed back to New York. He gave us a nod before he turned a corner.
Other couples strolled hand in hand, including Aaron and Tee. They’d decided that staying with us would be easier than trying to explain everything to their families. Plus, they already had jobs lined up. Larry’s guilt over their can’t-remember-jack-shit-anything-about-humans ‘condition’ had driven him to offer them positions at a magical supply store he wanted to set up in town.
Tee and Aaron had looked at one another and shrugged, both saying at the same time, "I’m game if you are."
Their easy change of heart wasn’t mirrored by their cellmates. John and Tammy had chosen to go to the great beyond in the sky, instead, and Bodie had sent them there with mercy, as quickly and painlessly as he could.
The Mag-Sorgin students, on the other hand, had gotten another round of Sleep Grenade powder plus a heavy dose of Memory Wiping Potion. Since mages were human, and only gained their magic by learning spells and potions, it erased any memory of magic for them. When they woke, they couldn’t remember the simplest of Shrinking Spells. The high-ranking mages of Los Angeles were going to have to get their potion makers elsewhere. They’d lost an entire generation of magical thinkers and laborers.
And I didn’t regret that one bit. Those kids would be much happier as humans, without that mage bullshit twisting their thoughts. But, the other students—the fae, elves, pixies, sirens et cetera—I truly did feel bad about losing. We’d offered them the chance to come here and live among us since they wouldn’t remember much about human life, but many of them refused. So, we’d let them go. We knew all too well what it was like to live in a city where you trembled in fear and always had to watch your back. Even though it was a risk, they were innocents. It was the right thing to do.
Larry hoped one day that gesture would help convince them to switch sides. It might have been a pipe dream, but then, so was all of this. Most shifters had thought getting a mage jewel was nothing more than a far-fetched fantasy.
Yet, here we were, living that dream.
When we reached Drake, I let go of Easton and leaned forward to give my dragon shifter a hug. But he grabbed my biceps and stopped me at the last moment, whispering softly so no one else could hear, "I missed you, Dollface. But right now, you don’t get to touch me until I tell you to. And I’m not gonna tell you to until I’ve watched you come at least three times."
My hands froze. My eyes widened. My pussy screamed, ‘yes!’ like the little hussy she was. I was so incredibly ready for Drake to dominate me again. The practicalities and necessities of the shifter situation hadn’t left us tons of time for bedroom games.
A naughty smile slid across my face, but as I met his eyes, his look was reproving. I quickly lowered my gaze.
"Yes, Alpha," I said, knowing the effect those words would have.
Drake growled low and grabbed me by the wrist, marching me off down a side street with no explanations and zero fucks to give to our curious onlookers. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Easton was following closely behind, a look of uncertainty turning his pale blue eyes a darker shade.
"Hey!" a voice rang out from behind East.
I stopped, Easton stopped, and for once, Drake stopped too, though he sighed impatiently. From around my honey bear’s shoulder, I saw Bodie sprinting toward us.
He wore a wife beater and board shorts, and I’d never seen the assassin look so relaxed. Or young. Or hot. I decided he was never allowed to wear a shirt with sleeves again. Because damn! Those arms were delicious.
A grin spread onto my face as I realized all three of my mates were together with me. That hadn’t happened in a while, since they’d been so busy planning this move.
When Bodie reached us, my green-eyed wolf swiped my free hand and tugged me away from Drake, who reluctantly let me go with yet another sigh. Bodie leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the lips, but then bounced on his toes, like he was excited or nervous or something.
I supposed we all were.
But when he dropped to one knee in front of me, I realized there was probably an entirely different reason for his nerves.
Panic flooded me. It felt like I’d been tossed over the edge of a waterfall with bloodthirsty piranhas lurking at the bottom.
My frantic gaze searched out Easton’s as Bodie looked down and, with his free hand, dug around in his pocket. My gaze screamed at Easton, "I told you we needed to discuss this first!" But he looked ju
st as shocked as I felt.
Fuck! I hadn’t expected this to be my little surprise.
I turned back to Bodie and tried not to let my hand tremble in his grasp. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings; I truly didn’t. But how was I going to tell him that engagements were about as attractive to me as Ron Burgundy from Anchorman?
Damn it. How had we gone from impending sexy time to this?
Bodie finally grabbed what he’d been searching for and looked back up at me with the naughtiest grin imaginable.
Which, kinda made no sense.
"Aubry, will you accept my ring?" he asked, pulling his closed hand out of his pocket and opening it.
Easton and Drake both shouted, "No!" from behind me.
But I took one look at the ring looped over his finger and said, "Hell fucking yes!"
I practically pounced on him, ripping the keyring off his finger and checking out the key fob. A red flag and a black checkered flag made up the emblem on the fob.
"A corvette! You bought me a fucking corvette!" I squealed like a preteen girl at a boy band concert and started jumping up and down. I wasn’t even a car person. But who could say no to a gift like that? A fucking corvette, my mind kept repeating.
Bodie leaned forward with a grin and pushed a button. Across the square, the headlights on my new, cherry red baby flashed at me.
I didn’t sprint. I fucking flew toward that car, and while I did, emotions rushed through me. I was ecstatic, delighted, overwhelmed. I hadn’t even gotten a car from my parents—driving was apparently beneath them; they believed that was what chauffeurs were for.
I reached the car and just stared for a minute. It was so beautiful. Then a thought came to me.
Shit. Was it an anniversary? Was I supposed to get Bodie something? Or was this a shifter thing that I didn’t know about? Some kind of ritual?
I turned around, worry crinkling my forehead just as Bodie reached me. Drake and Easton weren’t far behind. I could see the annoyance on Drake’s features easily—the thin lips, the drawn-down brows, the ticking jaw. Easton was just watching me. As usual, he was always checking to see if I was happy.
