“He fought like hell,” he assures me. “He wasn’t going to leave you.”
I nod against his chest.
“He just found you.” He then chuckles darkly to add some levity. “He wasn’t about to die before he can mate.”
I choke out a laugh-sob in response, but I still can’t say anything. So, he just holds me, and I continue to empty the stress of it all into my hands, into the space between us, until I’m ready to gather myself together and talk again.
* * *
“Do you want to know any of the details?” Elias asks as I pour fresh cups of coffee.
“I do,” I say, my voice raw. I hand his over.
“The bullet hit his intestines.”
I wince, knowing what that meant for him. It’s painful. And potentially fatal. Whatever Phaedra did was… Magic. I owe so many thank you’s to so many people, I feel overwhelmed at the prospect, but I can start with the wolf in front of me.
“Thank you,” I say, and my chin quiverers, but tears don’t spring to my eyes. I’m not sure I have any left at this point. “For saving my child. For staying by Blaze’s side.”
He nods his reply. Takes his first sip.
“Barnett told me you were the one who pulled him from Elaina’s car.”
“Stolen car,” he corrects, and punctuates it with an eye roll.
Oh. Figures.
“But you’re welcome,” he adds with a smile that doesn’t touch his eyes. He’s weary. Exhausted. “No child is abducted under our watch.”
“I owe you my life.”
He shakes his head. “You owe us nothing, Madison. It’s what we do. This is what we’re here for.”
Fair enough. But I’m still going to think of something to thank them all properly, have them over for a barbeque or take food to pack land. Once all this settles and everyone heals, I’ll figure it out. Not that Elias expects it, obviously.
“Where is Blaze now?” I ask.
“Still at Phaedra’s.”
“Will you let me know when he’s able to leave? I’d like to talk to him.”
“I can ask him to come here. Should be by tomorrow.”
I shake my head in awe. Wolf healing, and Phaedra’s healing, is an incredible thing. It would take a human weeks, if not months, to recover from that kind of thing. If they even survived. “Can you? I’d like to see him.”
He flashes a knowing smile over his mug as he takes another sip. “I can.”
18
The Red Wolf
Carson and I stay in all day. It gives me time to update Dr. Payne and the school about what’s been going on. He gives me the rest of the week off, and the school says not to worry about a thing. Carson can come back when he’s ready.
I then line up counseling for both of us in Summermire.
Checking off boxes help me feel in control again. Helps me stay sane.
Last thing on the list is to let Jaxson know what happened. We decide not to tell Rhee yet, thought I know she’ll crucify us for it later. Well…she’ll live.
When Carson and I settle in for a late dinner, a knock on the door interrupts us. Probably Barnett and Ralph checking on us. Or possibly even Jaxson. But when I open the door, it’s neither.
It’s a tall, auburn-haired drink of water in a leather jacket.
Blaze.
He must have shifted and ran straight here from Phaedra’s.
Anything and everything I want to say jams inside my chest, so instead of speaking, I rush him into a hug, burying my face into his chest.
He flinches in pain, a small grunt, but wraps his arms around me as if he didn’t think he’d ever get the chance again.
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
He responds with hugging me tighter, and I allow myself to melt there, gently, against the hard planes of his torso. My eyes glaze over with tears. Joyful ones, this time.
I once worried I wouldn’t have this chance again, either.
“And thank you,” I whisper urgently.
“Mommy?” Carson says behind us, but we don’t break apart.
“Who is that?”
“I’m Blaze,” he answers for me.
I can’t bring myself to peel away from him. “The red wolf, baby,” I finally say through a tight throat. “Blaze is the red wolf.”
19
Right Here
Blaze stays with us for dinner, and I can tell he’s starving by the rate at which he’s shoveling his lasagna, so before he’s finished his first plate, I make him a second. Then a third, and a fourth.
Thankfully, I made two pans so I could freeze one for another night, but I’ll gladly let him eat it all if he needs to. His body needs to continue healing. It’s been through a lot.
Carson watches on with wide eyes, and I have to remind him not to stare with gentle nudges beneath the table.
By the time Blaze is done, he can barely keep his eyes open, so I throw some blankets on the couch for him and hurry Carson toward the bathroom for his bath. “Is Blaze going to stay with us tonight?” he asks, hopeful, on the way there.
Blaze and I exchange smiles.
“Is it okay if he does?” I reply. “He needs his rest.”
He hesitates, and I bend down to look in his eyes. Try and gauge what he’s feeling. “Yeah, I…” he says, but he’s too timid to say the rest.
“What is it, buddy?”
“I just…can he stay with us for a while?”
“Well...” I look to Blaze again. “We’d have to talk about that, I’m sure. Why? Do you want him to stay?”
A small nod, and then he whispers into my ear, not understanding Blaze’s sensitive wolf ears can still hear him. “I do. I know if he’s here, I’ll be okay.”
My momma heart shatters, and I fold him into a hug. We stay like that for a moment, me, trying to not fall apart for the hundredth time, and him, clinging desperately for reassurance that this won’t happen to him again. “No one’s going to take you again, baby,” I manage.
“And I’ll be right here,” Blaze echoes across the room. “I’m not going anywhere, bud.”
* * *
Carson drifts off easier tonight, and I let him sleep in my bed again. As soon as I’m sure he’s past the point of no return, I head for the living room to find Blaze propped up on the couch. He’s taken his shirt and jacket off, and a bullet hole scar sits angry and healing just to the right of his belly button.
I gingerly sit beside him. “How do you feel?” I ask in a whisper, as if talking any louder will undo all the mending he’s done, though he’s obviously far from better. He must have split from Phaedra’s earlier than recommended.
“Getting there,” he says with a grunt as he shifts. “But still a little bit like I got shot.”
I wince sympathetically and tun my fingertips over his scar and down his side. A mixture of emotions swirl inside me… Relief. Admiration. Awe. His skin tightens at my touch, but it doesn’t seem to cause him pain. “Careful,” he teases. His heavy eyelids are back, and he tries not to yawn. “You’ll get me excited, and I can’t do anything about it right now.”
I laugh. At least he feels good enough to crack jokes. “Maybe tomorrow?” I shoot back.
“Easy, tiger.” He hooks an arm around me and gently pulls me into him.
I then want to take a moment to tell him everything I’m feeling. How there are no words in existence that will ever do my thankfulness justice, but I decide to shelve all of that for now and just listen to the miraculous way his heart is somehow still beating. Feel his warmth. Smell his familiar smell.
We sit like this until he falls asleep.
20
Exploding Ovaries
It’s been weeks since Carson was kidnapped and things seem to be settling back into normal, with one minor adjustment—Blaze stays either in our living room or shifts into wolf form and sleeps outside Carson’s window every night to help him feel safe.
Things are good. Almost so good, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But as my counselor says, I can’t live life that way. I have to allow myself to receive the good.
And Blaze is definitely part of the good.
Spencer being locked up and awaiting trial is good.
And so is my new niece, Harley Rose.
I don’t know who’s in love with her more: me, Rhee, Jaxson, or Carson. Or Blaze, for that matter. When he visits with us, it’s all we can do to get him to hand the baby back over.
My ovaries explode every time.
I never thought I’d be open to having another child again, but with Blaze…
On a Friday night, Rhee and Jaxon feel comfortable bringing Carson back into the mix, so Blaze and I have my house all to ourselves.
And we don’t take it for granted.
As we lay sweaty and panting on my kitchen floor, Blaze props up on his side and leans down to plant a long, slow kiss on my lips. “I love you, Maddie,” he says against them.
My heart jumps. It’s the first time he’s said it.
“I love you too.”
And I mean it. With everything I am.
His kisses trail down the side of my neck, leaving tender little flames as they go and linger above my collarbone.
Something situates itself on my tongue, something I’ve been thinking about for a while but was afraid it was too soon. The moment feels right, and I feel safe with him. “Bite me tonight,” I say, almost whimper, and my toes run down his calf as I shift restlessly beside him.
He meets my eyes to gauge my seriousness.
“Bite me,” I say again.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Are…do you want to?”
A cheek-splitting smile. “I’ve already asked Elias’ blessing.”
I smile back, lean up to fuse my lips to his. In other words, he was waiting for me to ask him. To be ready. And had already taken care of all formalities. Not that Elias wasn’t already rooting for us.
He shifts his rock-hard body on top of mine, spreading my legs wide, my sex already open and slick for him since we’d just made love. Right as he pushes in, my head falling back with a gasp, he playfully nips at my shoulder. “I want you to come for me again,” he says, and he thrusts harder.
My nails dig into his back.
His thrusts come faster. “Come for me, Madison.”
God, when he says my name…
When he feels me tighten around him, my arousal heightened to a fever pitch this time at the prospect of him biting me and us being mated for life, his cock hardens inside.
He swallows hard.
Gently grips the back of my neck to make sure our eyes meet.
The orgasm rips through me, and just as my body bows beneath him, my sex pulsing around him, his mouth moves back down to flesh along my shoulder.
And in the same place he nibbled me before, his teeth sink deep into my skin with a stinging, delicious kind of pain.
THE END
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International Bestselling Author Susan James Pierce writes Paranormal, Sci-fi, and Contemporary Romance novels, and they all have the same thing in common—the characters' love defies all odds. Her "unputdownable" stories will make you laugh, cry, swoon, and keep you on the edge of your seat. Enjoy the ride!
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Ciaran
Pia Milan
1
Leira
Leira struggled to keep awake as she drove the beaten-up old car along the main highway. Her eyelids were heavy even though she was never the type to tire easily—all those djinn genes coming into play.
But, for some reason, after Ivan had agreed that the application from the Dark Moon Falls guy was legit, she’d felt a sense of such immense relief that she must have relaxed a little too much. Which was dangerous. Relaxation could make Leira dead very quickly.
She still had a ways to go, and it wasn’t as though she was out of danger so she couldn’t exactly relax, but Ivan’s help had put her in a more positive frame of mind. She’d seen the application from the security specialist whose handle was DarkSecure2k—which she assumed was a reference to the services the man was offering.
He’d sounded the most suitable, his application stating he’s done security work for high-profile officials and had worked for intelligence agencies around the world. He had appeared intelligent enough but honestly, who was Leira to make any such judgement? She was the last person to be trusted when it came to being a good judge of character.
Aldrich’s face swam before her eyes and she blinked the image away angrily. She’d slowed without realizing it and blinked to awareness, eyes suddenly focusing on a tawny deer which had taken a hesitant step onto the road. All spindly legs and wide-eyes, it stepped in front of the car and Leira screamed, heart thudding as she spun the wheel and swerved hard to avoid colliding with the animal.
Her heartbeat was still in overdrive as she glanced into her rear mirror to watch the deer meander across the highway, probably unaware of how close she had come to meeting a blood, gory end at Leira’s hands.
She’d been trying—and clearly failing—to refocus her crazed thoughts in an attempt to enjoy the sight of pure unadulterated nature before her. Channel some calm, perhaps? But right now, Leira felt like she’d been bumping along on the highway for what seemed like forever. This Dark Moon Falls place was so damned remote but she reminded herself that its seclusion had definitely been reassuring.
How often does a girl get to disappear into the mountains, to head to an almost unknown little town where she hoped she’d find safety and anonymity. She wriggled in her seat now, trying to get the blood flowing again to her butt-cheeks.
Her ass was sore, lower back throbbing, neck muscles tight, and her head was beginning to blossom with a truly stunning headache. Why could she not have been the mythical type of djinn capable of appearing and disappearing at will? She’d always hated those tales, although she had to admit at the same time she’d often found herself wishing she did possess those very powers.
Djinn or not, you’d have to be pretty self-assured not to wish for some of those wishes to be yours.
But she’d left that part of her life in her past, a decision she was still paying for, and one she suspected she’d continue to pay for until she faded from existence. High Priestess Arania wasn’t the type to forgive easily.
Leira shoved away her thoughts and wriggled her butt against the lumpy seat a little more but the movement wasn’t helping. The cushion from the seat was paper-thin and she could feel the springs digging into her flesh. The old car had been a godsend and a curse at the same time, but she really shouldn’t complain.
Ivan had arranged for the vehicle to be parked outside of the motel he’d sent her to, the keys on a keychain inside the secret storage place in the bathroom. The rusty old Mazda hatchback was somewhere between faded blue and army green, had fake plates, no GPS, and a fake registration too. It was nondescript enough that she was safe in it, which had kept her somewhat calm on the drive, calm enough until she could get herself to a safe place.
The message she’d received had said to meet DarkSecure2k at a diner in the little town of Dark Moon Falls—a place called Delight’s Diner. Ivan had checked the security guy out and had pronounced him to be as legit as anyone using such secret backchannels could get, though Leira herself wasn’t all that sure. If someone was able to hack her laptop from a remote location even when she’d been on a highly secure webpage, what did that really say about the level of the page’s security, security she’d wanted which was the sole reason she’d delved into the more nefarious sections of the web?
But, as Ivan had said, if she didn’t allow herself to be helped then how would she find help at all? She’d been somewhat amused that he’d worded her ad to make her sound like some rich hei
ress fleeing from an abusive ex.
Not that abuse was at all funny. She was coming to terms with much of Aldrich’s controlling and manipulative behavior, which she’d chosen to ignore during the short time they’d been together—thankfully short enough to chalk up to a brief loss of judgment on her part.
Ivan’s description of her vulnerability had made her smile. If the man who answered her ad only knew what she really was, and that she was pretty capable of physically defending herself if it came to it, he may not have put in an application for the position of what boiled down to a glorified bodyguard.
But the skills she needed were more than physical. She needed someone to also protect her from technical intrusions, from Aldrich’s eye in the sky who had found her with such ease when she’d fled.
Leira glanced at her nondescript grey rucksack which contained everything she’d taken with her, and which also held the relic. She’d guard the thing with her life, well aware—through her education at her training academy—of the dangers such items possessed.
Any object capable of channeling the volume of energy capable of shattering the walls between all the hells and the living world had to be kept out of everyone’s hands. Which left her with a dilemma: who could be trusted with the security and secrecy of the relic? And was there anyone she could possibly give it to who would not find the power it contained tempting? A tempting too strong to ignore?
Leira’s stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly—just the thought of food was making her hunger pangs have hunger pangs. Her stomach growled again and she shook her head, laughing sadly as she spotted the latest signpost advising she was not far off from the town now.
Dark Moon Falls: Volume 2 Page 33
