Lust was winning by a mile.
He anchored his hands on two wooden chairs on either side of him and breathed in deeply, then released on a long sigh. “Sadie.”
Why did he have to say her name as if he wanted to spread her open and lick her until she came undone?
Aidan Montgomery—the werewolf shifter that starred in all her fantasies—stood so close she could reach out and touch any part of her fantasy she wished.
He must have sensed the turn her dirty mind had taken. His pupils dilated and the rims of his irises brightened with a supernatural shade of red she could only describe as a mixture of sapphire with shards of ruby. The contrast of colors was as striking as the man. She’d seen his eyes like that once before but hadn’t gotten to ask what it meant before he sprinted out her door in a dead run.
“Why the two colors again?”
“What are you talking about, Sadie?” He straightened, letting his hands fall by his sides.
It was just like her to blurt whatever decided to stomp through her mind before she had a chance to filter her thoughts. Her question caused his brows to pinch together and he took a half-step back from her.
“Your eyes. Why are they glowing two colors? They’re beautiful.”
She inched closer, forcing him to bump into a neighboring patron’s table. He threw out a hand to steady it before he answered. “It’s nothing. A shifter thing.”
She reached out to settle her calming touch on his shoulder, letting a calming power pour from her to him but before her powers had a chance to could work, he jerked back.
Ouch. That burned. She lowered her hand to her side and swallowed the hurt.
Fine. Whatever. She didn’t have time to be rejected again anyway. She knew lines when she crossed them, and she had no intentions of crossing any more lines with the alpha.
Sadie went to sidestep the man and leave him to his corner before she embarrassed herself any more, but was brought up short with his hand over hers.
With a sigh, she angled her head to the side and asked, “What can I get you this evening, Mr. Montgomery?” Her eyes trained on the man and forced all emotions from her expression and tone, but she caught the flicker of heat in his eyes at the use of his surname.
“Look at me, Sadie.” He leaned in taking up all the space in front of her. The tip of his nose almost touched hers, demanding her gaze meet his. Her heart tripped along, quickening her breath.
Standing with her phone in one hand, her other in his, she followed his quiet command.
“You need to know I’m sorry about last time.” He ran his free hand through his tousled hair in frustration. “It’s hard to explain, but I want you to know I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His gaze roamed over the half-filled bar before returning to meet hers.
“And Sadie.”
He tightened his strong hand over hers. Not in a way that caused pain. No, Aidan would never hurt her. But she could feel the force of his wolf in his touch. And despite everything between them, she liked how possessive it felt.
His voice pitched low as though he only wanted her to hear what he was about to say and his dual-toned gaze locked on hers, “Unless you want me to forget your laws, never call me Mr. Montgomery again unless you want me to do unspeakable things to you that would leave you blushing come morning.”
Before he released her hand, he traced his fingertips along the tender flesh of her palm.
A rush of sassy comebacks flitted across her mind, but she swallowed them back and settled with the truth. “We tried that, remember? You walked away.”
Still, temptation rode her hard to accept the challenge he’d dangled like bait between them. A craving unlike any she’d felt before consumed her and all she could think about was pressing her lips to his. And that was just for starters.
She inhaled the warm scent of a male who preferred the outdoors to city life. Pine and soap with a hint of aftershave that stroked a woman’s libido to smoldering. Flames blasted her core and rocked her to the verge of blowing her stopper. Whoa. What the heck?
Sadie’s cheeks flushed along with everything else. The potion. It had to be. But she’d only swallowed a drop. Tonight she’d be having a little personal time with her new vibrator and would remember his intoxicating smell and how good it felt to be this close to him again.
She shifted her weight, and he narrowed his eyes at her before he answered, “We both know why I had to walk away. One person spotted you letting a werewolf eat you out on your bar and there’s no telling what your Circle would do to you.”
Despite the small, humorless grin on her lips, her heart sank. He was right.
Shaking off the sweeping sensations that filled her body, Sadie answered in a silky tone, “Yeah, it’s complicated. No worries. Really. I get it.” She paused for all of three full seconds before letting his name roll off her tongue like fine bubbly champagne over chocolate-dipped strawberries. “Mr. Montgomery.”
Oh, look. Challenge accepted after all.
His eyes intensified from the low jewel-tinged glow to full-on, heart-stopping, melt your panties. A low rumble in his chest told her she was skating on a fine line, and it edged her closer still. Her heart thundered in her ears, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Besides,” Sadie settled an open palm on his chest and rose to her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “I think you’re all talk, wolfie. Scared of a little witch like me?”
“Scared? Fuck no.” He cupped her cheek. “I just don’t want to be the cause of pain for you.”
As he talked, she trailed her lips over the shell of his ear and pushed a tiny bit closer until her candy-hard nipples pressed against all that hard, delicious muscle.
Thick arms wrapped around her, and she melted into his body like she had the last time he held her this close.
Tingles of her magic surged through their connection and knotted in a bundle of nerves between her legs. Oh, goddess, it felt so good that she could come from the simplest of sensations he stirred in her.
In front of the few patrons she had, he fisted a hand in her hair and angled her lips a whisper away from his. His nostrils flared and the muscle in his jaw ticked in time with her heartbeat. Soft twangs of music and the rumble of Sleepy Briar’s citizens faded away until there was only Aidan and her, all remnants of their last encounter dashed away, her mind focused on the now. She licked her lips, and his hungry gaze locked on her mouth.
She wrapped a leg around his waist and fuuuuck! His hard cock pressed against her throbbing pussy and she cursed the clothes between them.
She shimmied her hips and groaned at the way his hands tightened in her hair.
“Sadie,” he warned in a deep whisper. One that she didn’t know was a warning or meant as a plea for her to do it again.
She liked the latter.
“Fuck, Sadie, stop, woman,” he growled. The sapphire of his eyes gave way to pure ruby red, and his chest vibrated with a deep growl that raced through their connected bodies.
Holy goddess.
Her breasts grew heavy and the tips of her nipples pushed at the fabric of her shirt and soft confines of her bra. Her core tightened with a throbbing need for release. Did all pack alphas have that power? To make their women come with just a touch and a heated look?
She clenched her thighs against the illicit delight. At least she tried. She still had a powerful alpha holding her legs open and from the way the muscle in his jaw bunched he was having a hard time deciding what he wanted.
Slowly, he released his grip on her hair and set her back from him. Was that regret she saw in his eyes? She could hope saying no to her wasn’t that easy.
“Sorry, Sadie.” Warring emotions flashed across his face until he settled on stoic and closed off. “It just can’t happen.” His forced words stung, but like Hades she’d let him see how deep his rejection hurt. Fool me once, shame on you.
She shook her head. Did it say glutton for punishment on her forehead or something?
Sadie shoved fr
om his embrace and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. With a weak smile and a lofty shrug, she countered in a tight voice, “Yeah, got it.”
He sure the heck had a funny way of showing what he didn’t want with her. Even with the two feet of air separating them, her body still tingled from the heat he radiated. From the massive bulge in his pants, it was safe to say the same about him.
How long would he deny the attraction between them before things turned combustible? She’d wanted him from the first day she stepped foot in this town three years ago. She thought he wanted her too.
She glanced up. This close, those eyes, that body. She so needed to get laid.
Her stomach quivered. He slowly inhaled and raked his gaze over her body starting at the apex of her thighs, then along her abdomen, only to pause on her breasts. Could he see her hard nipples through the thin material of her shirt?
Her breasts grew heavy, and she pinched her thighs together to relieve the building pressure. One touch and she would do damn near anything for him. Her lascivious need for the alpha already had her libido inflamed, but something kept him beyond her reach other than the obvious crap about laws. But what else could there be? Aidan wasn’t one to fall in line. He didn’t follow rules, he broke them.
She wished he’d talk to her—they were friends, after all—but she knew not to push, and she sure wouldn’t beg.
He just stood there, his chest rising and falling in even breaths, but he was anything but relaxed.
So many questions filled her mind, ones he probably had no desire to answer, and how could she ask why he held back and not sound desperate for him? Weak?
If he was going to be nothing more than a tease, she had more important things to do. Like deliver her love potion and keep her ass housed for at least another month. Her vibrator and vivid imagination did just fine in taking care of her other needs, thank you very much. Good thing she’d just restocked her battery supply. A hot bubble bath, a little Moon Brew, and her handheld boyfriend would help her relax after the night she was having.
Without a word, she turned on her heel and threw a look over her shoulder at the growling man who stood tracking her progress across the bar. He wasn’t the only one that could be a tease. With each step, Sadie added a little more sexiness to the dip and sway of her hips.
She loved playing with the sexy beast, but sometimes the confounding man brought on more frustration than anything. The members of his pack respected him, called him a fair leader, but she knew more about him than most. How he’d saved his younger brother from elimination during a pack war that killed their father when they were just pups themselves. One night over beers he’d shared a heart-wrenching story of how the only way he could save his brother was to take on the challenging alpha. A fight to the death he knew could put him in the grave beside his father. According to Aidan, it was only luck and a heck of a lot of pure hatred that had gotten him through it. She thanked the goddess every time she thought about it that he made it out and was now alpha of his pack.
She elbowed past a few patrons huddled around the bar and signaled her only waiter over. It looked as if the cold of the winter night was bringing in a few more paying drinkers looking to stay warm after all.
“Amber, do me a favor. Dash upstairs and grab another canister of Moon Brew for me. You should see it as soon as you walk in the door.” Loud shouting and a table smashing cut into her words. “Take it to Aidan at table five for me?”
She knew when a friend needed something a little bit stronger than what came in a beer bottle. Moon Brew would go a long way in settling any tension between her and Aidan.
It also had a way of stirring some trouble with the younger crowd. She turned, cracked her knuckles and called on her magic.
Chapter Three
It wouldn’t be a Saturday night in Sleepy Briar without a few brawls between the usually happy-go-lucky patrons. Sadie relished the feel of her magic as it accumulated in her palms, the steady glow of midnight blue shimmered and danced in her palms ready to do her bidding.
She strode across the wooden floor and planted herself in the middle of the straight-up fistfight between a group of young pups according to shifter standards. The few human patrons scrambled to the far sides of the room. Tables and beers abandoned, all but for a group of humans who she sensed liked a little trouble. “It’s a little early in the evening, don’t you think?” she called out, bouncing the ball of fire in her hand. “And who is going to pay for all this?” She pointed at the broken tables and chairs flung across the floor.
The human regulars that had stayed watched the show, ready to jump in for a little action. Not on her watch. She couldn’t afford any more damaged property. Many of the humans were lumberjacks with arms the size of trees and just as rowdy and boisterous as the shifters themselves.
“So, gentlemen, I’ll give you two choices.” Five sets of shifter eyes turned her way. She let her energy build another notch and swirl around her outstretched hands. “Chuck up the funds and clean up. Or, I get to have some fun.” And by fun, she meant release enough juice they’d wished a stun gun would have been used on them instead. “You pick.”
The bigger shifter of the group straightened and nodded her way in a show of respect. Yeah, he’d tangoed with a witch before, and she bet he’d never forget the encounter either.
She narrowed her eyes on him and slowly nailed each of his friends with a glare. The Cauldron Bubble was hers by inheritance. She’d spent a long time earning the respect of her new neighbors, both human and supernatural, and it looked like a few more coming-of-age drinkers needed to learn the rules. They shared a delicate balance between the races with witches new to the scene. Shifters and humans clashed often, but her domain, her rules.
A low, snarled growl sounded from behind her, sending every hair on her neck on end. All the rowdy troublemakers slowly shifted their gazes to stare past her, even the rough-looking humans. Aidan only had to give a warning to make his point.
The pups hurried and righted themselves along with the overturned tables and chairs. Her magic dimmed and settled back into her palms. Frustrated, she turned on her heel and made her way back to the bar.
Dammit, Aidan. Freaking meddling wolf. She’d half hoped to dish out a little ass-kicking. It would have gone a long way with helping her release some pent-up tension.
No matter how much she wanted to keep walking, her gaze defied her demands and glided over to lock on Aidan’s. His eyes still burned with the same intense smolder. Goddess, even halfway across the room she could still feel his pull on her. As if her magic answered to his wolf. But that was crazy. She’d never heard of a witch and wolf mating before. Shifters, witches, and fae kept to their own with so few crossovers she’d only heard it whispered about here and there.
With a roguish grin plastered on his face, he raised his tumbler in salute and tossed back the fuchsia and lavender liquor he favored.
She ground to a halt.
Wait. What the fuck? Moon Brew was silver-white.
Holy crap!
Her stomach dipped and rolled as though she’d just plunged from a fifty-foot drop.
“Amber.” Her eyes glued on Aidan, she screamed for the waiter, but it was already too late. “Holy Hades in a handbasket I am so sooo fucked.” She muffled a groan in between debating the closest exit to haul ass out of.
She found herself fumbling in her back pocket for her vibrating phone. Freaking Hades, trouble always came in sets of three.
She looked between the screen of her phone and the hexed alpha.
Fuck. Her sister. And she could bet where there was one, the other two were not far behind.
She couldn’t ignore the call unless she wanted an impromptu visit.
That wouldn’t be too good.
Behind her one of the rowdy lumberjacks said something that had a shifter launching himself across the tavern, breaking out another fight.
In one hand she called up her magic and flung the flaming ball at the back
of the bear-like lumberjack as she put the phone to her ear with the other.
“Make it quick,” she shouted, throwing another warning shot at the human when he shook off her last one like it was a harmless snowball.
“Sadie, you there? What’s going on? It sounds like you have a pack ransacking your place.” There was a short pause about long enough for Sadie to open her mouth and answer but not get anything out.
“Listen I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Harlow.” Crap. The potion she was supposed to give to her sister currently hexed an alpha who wasn’t at his table anymore. He was on his feet and from the look in his eyes, had ideas he wanted to act on.
She uncontrollably clenched her thighs at the heat leveled her way.
“Uhhh…look. Can’t talk right now. There’s a small situation I need to take care of, okay? We have to postpone delivery on your potion. Call you back.” Sadie winced at her clipped tone that would only spark questions from Harlow, but what choice did she have? She ended the call.
With the problematic lumberjack settling down, Sadie rounded the corner of the bar and started fumbling under the counter for a bag of herbs her other coven sister, Aleaha, liked to leave her. A little dash of whatever the concoction was would hopefully nix the hex Aidan just downed.
Habit brought a quick smile of greeting to a few regulars, playing off the holy-shit moment she was having as to not scare off any of her customers.
Everything would be fine.
Or not.
A wall of power slammed into her back, sending her sprawling face-first onto the hardwood floor. With her hands braced against the floor, she pushed to her knees and scanned the room. No longer did she see amused faces enjoying a typical evening. Instead, everyone was huddled on the floor with her or outright shifting.
Rippling shockwaves of her magic pulsed through the air to collide with everyone.
Fucking pups couldn’t keep it together this close to the full moon and turned all fur and fang the second something unusual happened.
Fuck. She was so screwed.
Mated by the Alpha Page 2
