by K. F. Breene
He chuckled without humor. “And who will carry it out? You? Wrapped in rope with no use of your hands? Can’t even put up a simple ward spell or wash away those crow’s feet on your eyes? Sure. Or are you talking about the shifters? Because I’m all that stands between them and their annihilation.”
Finally Austin clicked back onto my radar, and a wave of dizziness rode the link. The other unconscious members of the crew woke up soon thereafter.
I breathed a sigh of relief and refocused on the issue at hand.
I could kill this disgusting mage right now. I didn’t need my hands—I’d learned some spells without them. I could kill every person in this room. I didn’t care that I would be stranded, tied up in ropes without even Cheryl to saw myself out.
But I wouldn’t.
Because Chambers wasn’t my fight. He was Broken Sue’s, and I wouldn’t take that from him.
I shook my head as Austin snapped to focus, and a deep, aching pain pumped through the link. Not a pain of the flesh, but a pain of the soul. He was reacting to the fear of what might happen to me—to the anguish of possibly losing me—and I could feel it overcome his whole person.
My heart throbbed and then overflowed, the pure, unchecked, incredibly raw emotion bringing tears to my eyes. If I’d needed proof of how much he cared for me, I had it.
“No need to cry. You won’t be hurt,” Chambers said, but I wasn’t paying him any attention.
Shock and alarm radiated from the links. Frustration. Anger. I wondered what was happening. Whatever it was, it was happening to everyone.
“So your plan is to trade me to Elliot for…favor?” I asked, passing the time. “For some sort of back-scratching thing?”
“Yes. There you go. Not so stupid, then?”
“And you will give Austin a hollow offer to keep him at bay until you can kill him, and then try to…what, play Elliot and Momar off each other or something?”
Chambers’s eyebrows pinched together. “A simplistic and juvenile grasp of the situation, but…you have the gist of it.”
Rage sparked in a few of the links, but none felt so tumultuous as Austin’s. From that alone, I knew he was being given the offer he supposedly couldn’t refuse.
Once upon a time, I might have worried he’d take it. It sounded good on paper. He would want to protect his family. I was just his girlfriend, after all.
Once upon a time, I’d been young, without any self-confidence. Without any power or strength of my own. Without the drive to insist I be given the things I deserved.
I wasn’t so young anymore. I might be naive when it came to magic, but I was no longer naïve about love.
And I did love Austin. I loved him with all my heart. I trusted him with everything that I was. He would come for me, just as I would fight for him. He wouldn’t take a ridiculous offer in the hopes it might be legit—he’d do battle, and once we were together again, we’d join forces to combat whatever came at his family.
No more holding back out of self-preservation. It was time to swing my leg over the saddle. It was time to accept what he already had—that we were meant to be bound together, body and soul.
First I needed to get out of this rope.
“You’re an idiot,” I said as Austin’s rage built, dark and twisted, a nightmare bubbling up from down deep. He would lose himself to his beast. This time, he wanted to. “Holy hell, you are an idiot. He’s pissed.”
Excitement surged within me. Anticipation. The desire to meet Austin and fight by his side.
I scowled down at the ropes.
“You’ve turned me into a damsel,” I murmured.
“Are you hearing a word I’ve been saying?” Chambers demanded.
The walls shuddered around me. The ground vibrated under my feet.
That wasn’t Austin.
My eyes widened as I looked at Chambers, my focus split between him and whatever was happening around us. “No, I haven’t. You unleashed hell, do you know that? Listen, really quickly, because it’s the last chance you’ll get. If you try to hold something over Elliot’s head, he’ll just kill you. He has no qualms about it. I don’t know why he’s pampering me, but it probably isn’t good. The others are almost certainly right about that. Second, your ego is out of control if you think you’d be able to pit Momar and Elliot against each other and not end up being smashed between them. You probably aren’t smart enough, or rich enough, or…whatever enough to handle the kind of crap you’re wading into.”
Glasses shook on tables. A small rock fell from the ceiling. The three lackeys in the room looked around, wondering what was going on.
I also wondered what was going on. What was the basajaun doing to this mountain?
“Third, you do not understand shifters at all. At all. They are incredibly loyal. They have pack mentality. If you are in the pack, they will saw off a limb for you. They wouldn’t leave a member of their pack out to dry. They aren’t like mages. And you just so happened to mess with the baddest shifter in the world. His brother doesn’t need you for safety. His brother needs him.”
Austin changed into his animal; I could feel it through the link. Niamh shifted, and the gargoyles did the same. They couldn’t use their wings, but their flyer forms had tougher hides and sharper claws.
Edgar came toward me fastest of all, slipping by whatever opposition waited in the halls in his swarm-of-bugs form.
I felt bad for standing here without doing anything, letting myself stay tied up. But I’d feel worse if I didn’t let Broken Sue decide what he would do with the guy who had stolen his life. Besides, I knew Austin was coming for me. I knew he would deal with this situation. That he would also want to give Broken Sue a chance for revenge.
The ground rumbled. Little pebbles fell from the roof.
“Find out what is going on,” Chambers told one of the guys at his back.
Power radiated through the walls.
A knock came at the door.
The attendant ran forward to get it. He cracked it open and peered out. That small space was all Edgar needed to slip by, materializing next to me before the mages could react, his eyes taking me in.
“Oh, good, you’re not terribly hurt,” he said. “The alpha is coming. The rest of our crew is with him.”
Magic jetted through the air. Edgar puffed into his insects and beelined for Chambers.
“No,” I shouted, wishing I could throw out my hand. “He’s Brochan’s.”
Edgar materialized inches from the mage, who staggered back in fright, a stream of magic going wide and crashing into the kitchen at the back.
“He’s the one?” Edgar asked, stepping calmly to the side as another stream of harried magic zipped past. “Despicable. Yes, that’s fitting.”
Austin ran at me now, moving fast, full of consuming rage. Power pulsed in the air around me. It throbbed, wild and intense, and I couldn’t tell if it was his or mine.
A great shadow blackened the doorstep. I could feel it—Austin’s nearness pounding through me. The mages in the room must’ve been able to feel it too. All four of them snapped their heads toward the door, Edgar forgotten, the ground rumbling under their feet, power pulsing through the air.
The door exploded, ripping off its hinges and pulling completely free of the frame. Austin’s roar filled the confined space, full of blistering rage, and then he was inside, impossibly large.
A mage shook free of his stupor and shot forth a stream of magic. It slashed across Austin, opening a gash and spilling blood down his dewy white coat. He didn’t even flinch. He roared again as he rushed forward, grabbing the mage and chomping down on his head before ripping to the side.
Something inside of me roared in response. It scrabbled to get out. To feed on his power. To bask in his strength. To merge with him, giving him some of my own power and strength. He was showing me his beast, and mine was answering in kind. Magic shed from my body, colorful light drifting into the room.
Chambers put up his hands, but not to throw a
spell. He was shielding his face from what Austin was doing to the other mage. Crimson splattered across his palms.
One of the mages in the back shook into action, hands shaking so badly that the spell he churned out withered and died on the vine. Austin wasted no time, shoving furniture out of the way, knocking over anything that hindered his movement. He grabbed up that mage and ended his efforts. The last ran out of the door. Austin turned toward him, but the basajaun’s roar said he’d get there first. The mountain shook under my feet again.
“Don’t bring the mountain down on us,” I hollered, a backseat driver if ever there was one.
Austin lowered down to all fours, his predator’s gaze on Chambers as he stalked around him in a circle, putting his body between me and danger.
“I c-can save you,” Chambers said, his palms still up, his hands shaking. “I can k-keep Momar away from your brother. From y-your people.”
“As if,” Edgar said, unintentionally (I was pretty sure) sounding like a character out of a nineties movie.
Light and heat flashed in the room. Austin stood there in the flesh. “I would like to kill you for what you’ve done, but my mate is safe. I must defer to the one whose life you took.”
The huge silverback gorilla filled the doorway, his arms and legs thick with muscle, his chest robust.
“No,” the mage said, backing up, tripping over a chair and falling. “No! It wasn’t me. It was my people. I didn’t do anything!”
Austin turned, his eyes twin cobalt flames. He grabbed the rope attached to the bindings on my back. The other end was tied to a hook in the wall, and he ripped it out in one crisp gesture. “Send everyone back to the rooms,” he barked.
“Yes, sir, colonel…ah…alpha.” Edgar puffed into his insect form and zipped from the space.
“Edgar got in by knocking,” I said, heat pooling in my middle. Power still pounded in my chest, filled the air, sizzled through my blood and bones.
Mate.
I wanted to give him his due. I was ready to merge our beasts.
Mate.
I didn’t know what any of that meant, but the need was there, pulsing within me, insistent.
“I was giving orders,” Austin said, and I could barely focus on the words. “He ignored them. His first inclination was to get to your side. He’s nuts, but he’s got his heart in the right place. I won’t fault him for it.”
And then he unwrapped me, blood trickling down his cut chest, and all I could do was stand there, buzzing. Aching. Desperate for him. Wanting his arms around me, his body inside mine, his heart beating in my chest.
Click.
It felt like a giant’s hand punched through my chest, grabbed my very center—my life’s essence—and squeezed.
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I clutched my chest, and his heart gave one hard throb before settling into mine, our link deeper than my connection to Ivy House. Stronger than the roots of a mighty oak. Permanent.
MATE!
The world shifted, but it didn’t go anywhere. Everything changed, but nothing did.
His eyes moved over me for a beat, and then suddenly I was in his arms and he was hurriedly walking through the halls. The basajaun froze when we neared him, a head in each of his huge hands, doing some sort of end-zone dance.
Cyra looked up from a pile of char, and I did not want to know what that had been. This crew was getting out of hand.
I’d deal with them later.
“What’s happening?” But I didn’t need to ask. I already knew.
Twenty-Two
Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate.
It was a pulse within me. It was an assurance. My beast had finally accepted Austin. And so had I.
“I lo—”
“No,” he growled, reaching the end of the tunnel and cutting across the foyer. A man in a red coat paused as we passed, his eyes widening, clearly responding to a naked and bleeding man carrying a woman through the hallway like Tarzan. “Not here.”
I tightened my hold around his neck and ran my lips down the shell of his ear. “I can’t wait much longer.”
“I know. I…” He shook his head, his breathing ragged. “Almost to our room. I didn’t want us to claim each other in enemy territory, but…”
“It’s happening.”
“Yes,” he growled, and he staggered into the wall, his knees nearly giving out.
I sucked in the fevered skin of his neck. “I lo—”
“No! Not here. Not yet, baby. Please. Not yet.”
“Why not yet?” My voice was thick and sultry. “You saved me. You gave a blood price. You appeased the beast.” I sucked in his earlobe. “I want to fu—”
“No, no, no—” He staggered again, crushing me to his chest, nearly going down. “I’m not going to make it,” he murmured, barely loud enough to hear.
I laughed, emotion gushing through me. Power. Desire.
“Oh God,” Austin breathed, reaching our front door and kicking it open. On the other side, he kicked it closed again. He pushed off the frame, his hand beneath my shirt, holding me up, cradling me. Panting, he settled next to it. “Do the ward. Hurry.”
Passion built. Expectation. My core throbbed, and pleasure unfurled from every point of contact between us, driving me to the brink.
Breathing heavily, barely able to focus, I laid the ward. My people could come in but no one else.
“Good,” I said, pulling his face up so I could suck in his bottom lip.
He groaned and staggered toward our room, pushing it closed with his backside and then ripping at my clothes, tearing off my shirt and shoving down my jeans and panties.
“Now,” he said, stilling for a moment, his eyes dazed and soaked with feeling and passion. His presence inside my chest was more comforting now than it had ever been.
This felt right. What was happening felt right.
“I love you, Austin,” I said, and tears came to my eyes. “I trust you. I cherish you. My heart is safe in your hands. The other Ivy House heirs chose men who wanted to be more powerful. Men who wanted their woman to stoop lower so that they could stand taller. But you’ve always tried to build me up. Even when I don’t feel I need it, you put me above yourself. I’m lucky to have you. I’ve always been lucky to have you. I love you.”
He pulled me to him with a hand at the back of my neck, his kiss hard and insistent. When he let up, I had to catch my breath.
“I love you too,” he said. “It’s been a long road for me, finding you. Finding my mate. But it was worth it, because I appreciate you so much more. I appreciate what you mean to my life. You’re the light in my darkness. You’re my hope in a bleak world. You’re the reason I strive to reach my true potential. You make me a better man, Jacinta Ironheart. With you in my life, there is nothing holding me back.”
A tear slipped down my cheek, and I ran my thumb across his stubble. “Mate.”
“Your beast has chosen. Shall we…consummate the pairing?”
“Is that how it goes?”
“I honestly have no idea. That’s not something I ever wanted to ask my brother.”
I laughed as he walked me back to the bed, and then that thing down deep—my gargoyle—growled for him. I craved him like I hadn’t craved anyone ever in my life.
“Austin—”
I didn’t need to say anything more. He settled between my legs and found my center, entering me slowly but quickly speeding up. I clutched his back, swiveling my hips up to meet him. Our bodies clashed together again and again, the bed rocking beneath us. Our fevered breathing filling the room. Magic flowered and rolled around us, vibrated between us, sank down deep.
I groaned, pushed higher. Striving harder. Filled over and over, not able to get enough but almost too much. Too hard. Too good. Too—
I cried out with the release, shaking beneath him. He quaked above me, digging his face into my neck, nipping me softly.
“Why didn’t you fight earlier?” he asked as he slowly plunged into me, starting up
again. “Why didn’t you do any magic?”
“I realized who he was, and since I can only really do defensive spells or kill shots without my hands—nothing with finesse—I figured I’d wait for you. He wasn’t planning to kill me. I knew you’d reach me before anything happened.”
He swore softly and rammed into me, making me squeak in surprise and then moan in utter delight.
“There is a deep and primal…satisfaction in hearing that your mate knew you’d come for her. That she had no fear because she believed in your abilities. It’s…” He drew back and rammed into me again. “This is damned bad timing for the bond to click into place.” I groaned, tightening around him. “Focus is going to be hard to come by.”
“Hmm.” My eyes fluttered shut, my body on fire, his ministrations sending me to the next level.
He chuckled darkly and worked faster. I held on for dear life.
“My mate,” he said softly, and I shattered.
This time around, I knew I was doing it right. I loved myself, and I loved him, and I loved us together. We were two individuals who were more together than the sum of our parts. It was the kind of love I’d always wanted. He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was perfect for me.
The journey leading here had been long, but I’d learned so much from it, and from the mistakes I’d made along the way. I’d found myself. And now I could share myself with another, and delight in him sharing himself with me.
Mr. Tom felt goosebumps as a pulse of power lightly concussed the air. Nathanial shifted in his seat. Ulric uncrossed his left ankle from his knee and shifted to the opposite configuration, right over left. Jasper paced in the back by the kitchen. Edgar sat in the corner, doggedly working on the latest monstrosity of a doily.
“Why are ye all so jumpy?” Niamh asked, flicking through a magazine on the couch. “Ye got fleas?”
“The female gargoyle has found her mate,” Mr. Tom said, turning a page in the book he was looking at but not necessarily reading. Those pulses from the miss were messing with his focus. “Would’ve been nice if she’d chosen an alpha gargoyle, or even looked around a little more before settling on someone, but alas, we’ll take what we can get.”
