Authors: Quinn Loftis
∞
Showered, refreshed and ready to get on the road, Peri reached out to Elle and Adam. As a high fae, Peri had the ability to connect mentally with others of her kind and, until now, she had never thought twice about invading their privacy when she needed them. Of course, until now she had never had to share them with anyone. They were her soldiers, sent by the Great Luna to help keep the supernatural world in balance. Peri could never have guessed that the Great Luna would cause the fae and werewolves to become compatible as true mates, forever changing the fates of both species. Adam, who had at one time been quite the flirt, became true mate to Crina, one of the female werewolves in Vasile’s pack. Adam had been shocked, but he gave in willingly. Now, months later, he hardly leaves Crina’s side. He had even developed the markings that were common on the wolf males that indicated he was a dominant and then Crina’s mate markings had appeared and matched Adams.
Elle had also been chosen to be the mate to a wolf. She was given, Sorin, once the Guardian of the Alpha’s son, and a dominant. Elle hadn’t been quite as sure as Adam and had initially run from Sorin. Peri smirked at
the memory of Sorin, calm, collect Sorin having a regular werewolf tantrum when Elle had disappeared right before his very eyes. Peri had been the one to go talk to Elle, much to her own surprise and the surprise of pretty much everyone.
Now she was contemplating supernaturally communicating with Adam and Elle through their minds, something fae are accustomed to doing. But the fact of the matter is that a mental bond in the werewolf world is a much more intimate affair than in the fae world and she felt like she was going somewhere that only their mates should be allowed.
“Dammit Perizada,” she snapped at herself as she headed for the door, “it’s not like you are walking into their bedroom while they’re going at it. All you’re doing is slipping into their mind to give them a message and then just slipping right back out again.” She walked to the hall where their rooms were located as she reasoned with herself. But she knew she wasn’t going to win this battle, not after sharing the mental bond with Lucian—her conscience wasn’t hearing her.
She let out a resigned sigh as she stood in the hallway. “ELLE, ADAM!” She yelled, knowing that her strong voice would make it through the walls and doors. She waited, not patiently by any means, as her foot tapped and she chewed on her lip.
I’m chewing on my lip, good grief what’s next, nail biting?
She admonished herself inwardly. Finally, two doors opened almost simultaneously.
“Good grief it took you two long enough,” Peri grumbled.
Adam stepped into the hall with a knowing smirk on his too handsome face. “You still haven’t given in and taken that male of yours to task have you?”
A single brow rose on Peri’s face as she looked at the male
fae. “Did you just refer to the intimacy of mate as taking them to task?”
Adam laughed. “Okay, you’re right, it’s so much funnier when you say it.”
Crina slapped his arm. “Be nice.”
Adam pretended to be hurt as he put on the pouty face that seemed to make Crina laugh; it only made Peri want to smack it off.
“But
she’s
never nice.” Adam blinked big puppy dog eyes at his mate. She giggled.
Peri rolled her eyes and smacked herself on the forehead. “Please tell me this is not what I have to look forward too?”
“Oh no, Peri, it gets worse,” Elle said as she walked up to stand next to Adam with Sorin, her mate, at her side. “Nauseatingly worse,” she said wickedly and laughed at Peri’s look of distress.
Peri took a deep breath and let it out slowly, all the while telling herself that she would never allow herself to be that wrapped around
Lucian’s little finger, the way her fellow fae were with their mates.
“I actually sought you both out for a reason and much to your disappointment it was not for your input on the ins and outs of being mated to a werewolf.”
“Can I touch that one?” Adam interrupted.
Peri knew exactly how Adam’s mind worked. He was basically the male version of Jen, in short, a pervert. “Not with a ten foot pole,” she glowered. He held his hands up in surrender but the grin remained.
“What do you need, Peri?” Elle asked.
Her tone indicated to Peri that she still recognized Peri’s authority and would perform whatever task was required of her. Peri wondered how Sorin would feel about that.
Guess we’re about to find out,
she thought.
“I’m going after
Lorelle. Her crimes are a death sentence and since she killed me, and even though the Great Luna spared my life, I feel obligated as her sister to return the favor. I would appreciate your help and Adam’s as well. You both have very useful skills that would be of great importance to such a mission.” Peri tried not to look at their mates to gauge their reactions, but instead focused on the two fae who had served her and been her friends for centuries.
“Are we going to be traipsing through a forest, sleeping on the ground, battling other supernatural beings or killing a witch or warlock?” Adam asked.
“Considering we have recently killed the last evil witch left on this earth that I know of, I think it’s a safe bet that I can say no,” Peri said dryly.
Adam acted disappointed as he slumped back against the wall. “Well in that case, no, sorry I can’t in good conscience go on any missions where my life isn’t in some sort of danger. That would be boring. I’d rather stay here and see how un-ladylike I can get my pretty, furry mate to be.”
“Okay, first off, I think I just vomited in my mouth,” Peri’s face twisted into one of obvious disgust. “And secondly you should know by now that anytime I have to spend more than a day in your company your life is in danger. So problem solved and you,” she pointed at Crina who was staring at Adam like he had just invented social media, “shame on you. Come on, girl. You’re giving the rest of us a bad name panting after him like he’s the last popsicle in hell.”
Crina blushed and laughed. She was usually nearly as snarky as Jen and Jacque but her mating to Adam had softened her. Peri was giving her hard time, but she wasn’t about to tell Crina that her mating agreed with her. That she looked happier and healthier than she ever had.
“What about you?” Peri asked Elle.
“Honestly we’ve been waiting for your call,” Elle answered. “We’re ready to go when you are.”
“Sorin, you are okay with your mate continuing to work with me?”
Sorin smiled slyly. “You ask me that as if I had some sort of say in the matter.”
Elle elbowed him in the stomach and though he pretended to be hurt he was laughing.
“I do need to ask,” Sorin spoke up again having corralled his mate’s stabbing elbows, “will
Lucian be joining us?”
“Yes,” Peri answered curtly. “Is that a problem?”
“Just like to know the pecking order if you know what I mean,” he told her with a wink.
Peri rolled her eyes. “You wolves and your dominance games, you all should seriously consider making it an Olympic sport.”
Sorin shook his head. “I have no desire to play games, Perizada. I do, however, have a strong sense of self-preservation and part of keeping my mate safe and staying alive is knowing who the more dominant wolves in the room are and how to avoid angering them.”
“Or you could just learn to fight dirty,” she replied. As she turned to go she added, “We’ll meet at the edge of the forest at midnight.”
“Um, why midnight?” Elle asked her retreating back.
“Because that is when the things that go bump come out to play.
Lorelle is most definitely a thing that goes bump in the night. Don’t be late, I do not want to have to come drag your writhing bodies from your beds, because it would make me puke and I dearly hate to puke,” she called out over her shoulder not bothering to see the looks on their faces.
“If you are a villain, eventually there will come a day when you finally admit that you like the taste of all things evil. You like doing evil deeds, you take joy in others pain and you seriously struggle not to turn every idiot you meet into a beetle that you can then step on with a satisfying crunch. But when the day comes that you finally encounter an evil darker, and fouler than your own, the taste you so dearly cherished becomes bitter ash in the back of your throat.” ~Lorelle
“Why have you come to my home, Lorelle?” Volcan’s voice echoed off the cold stone walls. Lorelle looked around her, feeling vulnerable because she couldn’t see him and yet he could somehow see her. “I found myself in need of new lodgings,” she told him casually.
She heard his chuckle and knew the nonchalant tone in her voice hadn’t fooled him.
“Come now, it’s rude to be dishonest when you’re a guest.”
“Isn’t it
always
rude to be dishonest?” She asked.
“In the face of murder,” he let his words set in before he continued, “what’s a little dishonesty?”
Lorelle immediately pushed up mental walls to cloak her thoughts from the ancient fae. She hadn’t even considered that he might be able to read her mind. “If you already know the answers, then why even bother to ask me questions?”
“Perhaps I wanted to see if you would be honest with me.” There was another pause and then he finished with, “And perhaps I wanted to see if you could feel my presence.”
“How is it that you…,”
“Ah-ah,” he interrupted. “No more questions from you until you begin
to answer my own. It seems the Fates have brought you to me. I cannot leave this place thanks to the Fae Council and their bloody binding spell.”
Lorelle
chuckled but tried to quickly cover it with a cough.
“Is something amusing?” Volcan asked her.
“Well it’s just that you called it a
bloody
binding spell and I couldn’t help but find that ironic since it took blood for the spell to work,” she explained though her humor had dried up by the time she was done.
“Yes well I imagine your sister had something to do with that part of the spell. She was always quite powerful.”
Lorelle bristled under the praise of her sister and couldn’t believe that even after she’d killed the egotistical wench she was still getting more accolades than her.
“Now, tell me the truth or I will rip it from your mind and it won’t be pleasant,” the voice of Volcan growled at her.
“Hence the whole ripping part,” Lorelle muttered.
He made an exasperated sound and
Lorelle could almost picture in her mind the face he would be making.
“I guess I should start with
hi my name is Lorelle and I killed my sister
.”
∞
Lucian stood outside of her door, his hand poised to knock. He hadn’t seen her since their encounter in the library and he was hungry for the sight of her, but something stopped him from knocking. Instead he stood there listening for her movements, and not for the first time feeling very unsure of himself. It was not a feeling he was used to and he found more and more that he did not like it.
“You are acclimating well to this environment,” a soothing voice came from behind him.
He turned and knelt all in the same motion, bowing his head to his creator.
“Great Luna,” he rumbled.
“But for all your acclimation, you hesitate at the door of your true mate. Why?”
Lucian didn’t miss the reprimand in the Great Luna’s voice and fought the urge to cringe at the picture she painted. He, a dominate male, and an Alpha in his own right, stood like a scared pup outside the door of his mate instead of claiming what was his.
“She doesn’t fully understand the bond and I won’t push her before she is ready,” he explained and though it made sense to him, it sounded like an excuse as he said it out loud.
“Perhaps you aren’t giving her enough credit. Peri is a strong female, which is why I picked her for you. She has shouldered many burdens and dealt with much evil in her time. I have a feeling she is plenty up to the challenge of an Alpha male werewolf. Stand, Lucian,” she commanded gently.
Lucian
rose from his position on the ground and looked at the Great Luna. His eyes met hers briefly but then dropped in humility. He decided to voice what he knew his creator already knew. “What if she doesn’t want me? What if she doesn’t want the mate bond?”
He felt her hand on his shoulder and her warmth, love and comfort from that simple touch.
“You aren’t asking the right questions. What you should be asking is what if she does?” She tilted his chin up so that he had to look at her. “I know that you were in the dark for a very long time and that has affected the wolf you are, but do not let it affect the man I created you to be. The struggles that you endure in your life can either chip away at the goodness inside of you, or they can cause you to grow stronger, fortifying your character. Don’t let that time in the Dark Forest ruin the good things I have in store for you. Don’t allow yourself to be robbed of joy because of fears that might never come to fruition. I made you wolf, I have a purpose for you but I cannot fulfill it. That is something only you can do. I gave you a true mate; now you must claim her. Love her as she needs, be the servant male that she has never known and watch the walls that she has built up around herself come crashing down only for you.”
Lucian
stood there looking at the empty hallway for several minutes after the Great Luna’s departure. Her words struck something deep inside him and he felt his wolf stirring, answering his creator. He turned to look at the closed door he had been standing in front of full of indecision and saw it for what it was, a barrier between him and his mate. He was done with barriers.
∞
Peri paced the room checking the clock for the umpteenth time and growled in frustration when she realized that only three minutes had passed since she checked it last. It was only eleven o’clock, she still had a bloody hour until she would meet up with the others. She hadn’t seen or heard from Lucian, not that she had attempted to reach out to him through their bond, but it would have been nice if he had checked in on her.
“Oh hell,” she
groaned as she sat with a gracelessness that was uncharacteristic of her race, on the edge of the bed. “I like him,” she admitted out loud, granted only she could hear her admission. That could be the only explanation to wanting to see him or hear from him.
Well not the only
, she conceded, but she refused to even give thought to the other four letter L word. Liking him wasn’t the end of the world she decided. He was, after all, a nice male and nice to look at, that certainly didn’t hurt.
She had figured after their little
interaction in the library he would seek her out, but to her surprise and irritation he hadn’t. He had said that he would go with her when she left, now she was beginning to wonder if maybe he had changed his mind. Just as she stood up to resume the pacing that seemed to be her tendency of late, the door knob on her door twisted until the lock in it popped and broke. Peri gathered her power but before she could strike out at the intruder Lucian walked in.
Peri’s breath caught in her throat as his eyes met hers. He was cloaked in his usual confidence but there was something more, something stronger seemed to shimmer on the edges of his being. He stalked towards her and
didn’t stop until he had a strong arm around her waist and a large but tender hand held her chin still so she was forced to look at him. She could feel him in her mind, searching as his silver eyes stared into hers.
“You missed me,” he finally spoke.
There was no smugness in his voice. He was merely stating what he had found when he used their bond and she didn’t deny it.
“Yes,” she told him.
“Why did you not seek me out?”
Peri’s lips parted but no words came out. What was she supposed to say?
I’m too proud to admit that I need you, that I want you near me?
And even as she thought the words, she realized they were true, and she felt so very ugly in that moment. Standing there in the arms of a man ready and willing to be whatever she needed of him and she hadn’t even had the courage to ask him how he was when all she had done was think of him nonstop.
“I don’t know how to do this,” she finally blurted out. She tried to look away but his hand held her captive.
“Do what?” He asked gently.
“This,” she indicated with her hand between them. “I don’t know how to be a mate. I’ve been numb
er one in my life for centuries, and now suddenly there is someone else who has feelings I should consider.”
“So you are saying that you are selfish?” A slight smile danced on his full lips. “We all are, but the beauty of having a mate is that they will love you regardless. I want you, even with all of your selfishness. With all of your centuries of baggage, I want you.
Do you want me? I know that you are unsure about doing the blood rites, and completing the bond, but in this moment looking at me, can you say that you want to be with me?”
“Yes,” Peri didn’t hesitate, what would be the point? She couldn’t lie to herself any longer and she was sick of denying the ache inside of her chest.
She wanted Lucian. She didn’t know where it would go from here or how quickly she would let it progress, but she was done pushing him away.
He closed his eyes and let out a low, possessive growl as his arm around her pulled her more tightly against him
, her body flush against his igniting a flame of desire in her that no other ever had, and she knew without a doubt ever would. “Finally.” His eyes snapped open and then his mouth was pressed to hers. Peri swore she could hear all of nature shouting, a chorus of angels singing and quite possibly even that Elvis guy from the grave singing that falling in love song, as Lucian, her mate claimed her lips, her heart and her soul. He deepened the kiss as he tilted her head to the side and her lips parted without a conscious thought. The sensuous stroke of his tongue on her own woke urges that she didn’t even realize she had. Peri felt her arms raise and her hands wrap around his neck, her fingers tunneling through the hair on the back of his head drawing a deep moan from him. She lost herself in him. All rational thoughts flew out the proverbial window as his hands gripped her hips,
holy hell when had his hands made it there,
she asked herself. He lifted her and she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked until her back was pressed to the wall.
Lucian
pressed closer to his female, holding her effortlessly against the wall as he drank from her lips. Her scent was swirling around him calling to his wolf. He felt his canines lengthen and he had to be careful not to cut her as he kissed her. He needed to get control of himself, but as he felt her thighs tighten around him he felt his resolve for that control slipping. He could have her here, now, she would give herself to him, he could feel it in her mind and his wolf urged him to claim her.
Bite her,
his wolf growled in his mind,
she is ours, she should bear our mark
. Lucian’s lips slid from hers down her jaw and neck to the tender place below her ear. He licked her and kissed her several times until Peri’s head fell back and she submitted to him. He stared at the spot calling out to him through a haze of lust, need, want and instinct. He felt a snarl rising in him as he fought his wolf for control as the thoughts of the man broke through.
Not like this
, he told the wolf.
“
Lucian,” Peri’s needy voice helped clear his mind and he looked up from her neck into her pale green eyes.
“Is something wrong?” She asked him through swollen
, glistening lips, flushed cheeks and hair all askew from his hands ravishing it. He could feel her chest rising and falling against his own as she fought to catch her breath.
He let out a deep sigh and set her feet on the ground. He didn’t let go of her, but he
put a little space between their bodies so he could continue to regain his reasoning. There was only so much a man could handle before he was tempted beyond reason and gave into his primal urges, especially a man who also carried the soul of an animal inside of him.
“Yes and no,” he told her honestly. “That was, it was,” his breathing was still ragged as he tried to gather the words. “I’ve been told intimacy with your mate is indescribable and I’m inclined to say I agree even though all I’ve had the privilege of doing is kissing you.
That was not wrong okay; I need you to hear that Peri. What we just shared was beyond anything even I could and have imagined with you.”
“Okay, so then what
was
wrong?” She asked him carefully.
“
My wolf doesn’t think like I do. He doesn’t reason the way a man does. He smells your desire and goes crazy to be near you, to touch you, taste you and possess you. He doesn’t stop to wonder if you want him touching you, he just assumes it’s his right and you will like it.”