Authors: Doris O'Connor
“Easy, wolf. I’m not here to cause trouble, but
we need to decide what to do about Marnie. So put your claws away and stop
thinking with your dick for a minute. Have you told her yet?”
****
Marnie sat, only half-listening to the
incessant chatter of Leah’s mum. The woman, still gushing with gratitude, had
insisted that Marnie sit at their table for dinner. Even though they had long
since finished eating, she was still holding Marnie hostage. Leah’s ––husband?
Mate? What exactly did one call them?––had left them half an hour ago, and more
and more of the males and about half of the females followed. You didn’t have
to be a shifter to realise how agitated they all were. The heavy moon visible
through the windows didn’t seem quite so pretty to Marnie anymore. Not when she
had a familiar ache low on one side of her abdomen and it seemed every unmated
male in the room hadn’t been able to restrain himself from sniffing her on
their way out. It was unnerving enough when Ion did that, let alone perfect
strangers, no matter how buff they may be. Especially when she was expecting
them to change into wolves and start howling at any given moment.
Ion’s barely controlled animal masculinity was
kind of exciting.
Get real, girl… exciting?
That was hardly the right
word for the way she felt around him. When she awoke earlier, safely ensconced
in the incredible warmth of his body, it had felt like the most natural thing
in the world. She was so screwed. First, wild sex with a vampire, and now she
didn’t even blink, waking up in nothing but her underwear next to a half-naked
werewolf. No, not werewolf, she remembered Lucas’ warning all too clearly; but
what did you call a man like Ion? Was he even a man? How much did his wolf
control him, or was it the other way round? She was so clueless, but really,
who’d have thought shifters and vampires and goodness knows what else really
did exist?
Turning slowly in his arms, a quick glance at
the tight-fitting jeans he’d still been wearing told her in no uncertain terms
that he was definitely a man, and raring to go, if that huge bulge was anything
to go by. Marnie swallowed nervously, expecting him to wake up as she propped
herself up on one elbow, all the better to study him. But Ion slept the sleep
of the just, as her mum used to call it. Thoughts of the one woman she could
always rely on brought tears to her eyes and she furiously blinked them away,
stuffing her fist in her mouth to stop the sobs escaping. It had been over five
years since that dreadful accident and sometimes, like right now, the guilt
over her death was all-consuming and too raw for Marnie to deal with. It had
been her fault, just like she now had the death of that would-be rapist on her
conscience. They had all been right, she was toxic. She’d thought moving away
from the small village she grew up in and making a fresh start in London would
mean she could bury the past. She could avenge her mother and appease her guilt
by getting her law degree and nailing the bastards of this world.
Or at least, that had been the plan before
finances forced her into Ion’s club, and the world, as she understood it, had
changed forever. She had no blinking clue what she was going to do now and her
growing awareness of Ion was
so
not helping. Marnie smiled in self
-deprecation, which seemingly gave Leah’s mother encouragement to launch into a
new speech. Marnie did her best to smile in the right places and feign interest
in the baby’s family tree and the best way to get fur balls out of the carpet –
seriously, fur balls?
Marnie so did not want to know this…
but
her mind was still upstairs in the bedroom, letting her hands wander over Ion’s
naked chest.
He’d been so warm and hard, his skin as soft as
silk under her fingers, the well-defined muscles in his chest covered by a
light dusting of hair, leading down to the waistband of his jeans and his obvious
erection. She never would have dared to explore him so openly had he been
awake, too wary of what his inner wolf may do. Even in his sleep she heard the
wolf’s deep rumble, when she had leaned in closer, drawn in by Ion’s spicy
scent. It had sounded suspiciously like purring, which did the strangest things
to her. Did he give off some sort of pheromone that she couldn’t help but
respond to? She simply had to sniff his neck, in much the same way as he always
did to her. That purring sound got louder, the arm around her waist tightening
for an instant, before relaxing back in sleep. Marnie’s hands wandered up to
his face, the ever-present stubble making her wonder whether he ever shaved, or
even if he needed to. Her fingers traced those impressive cheekbones, the nose
that looked as though it had been broken a few times too many, and the
just-visible scar, disappearing into his hairline. When Ion’s eyes flew open
for an instant, her hands froze, not focusing on anything, before he fell back
into deep sleep with a sigh. The breath of air skittered across her sensitive
skin, arousing every female nerve ending and settling deep in her core with a
rush of moisture. She scrambled off the bed. She may not know much about
shifters, but it had to be a bad idea to wake up a wolf when dressed in nothing
but a thong soaked in her own arousal.
She left him sleeping instead, and on her way
downstairs, was cornered by Leah’s mum. She forced herself to pay attention to
what she was saying, as she glared at another young man approaching her.
“And of course the moon has everyone on edge. A
wolf scenting his mate will find it impossible to not act on his desires at
full moon, but you’ve got nothing to fear from this lot. The boss would have
their furs for rugs if they actually tried anything.” She shooed the newest
sniff tester away with a low growl of her own and a dismissive wave of one
suddenly clawed hand, before smiling at Marnie. For all intents and purposes
she was back to being just an ordinary, slightly rounded new mother.
Sheesh, would she ever get used to that––and
hang on, since when did she have to? She felt almost back to normal now, so
there was absolutely no reason why she shouldn’t demand to go home, was there?
Other than the fact that the only times she had truly felt safe lately had been
in a certain alpha wolf’s arms. Best not think on that too much, right now.
“It can be so romantic, though. Pedrus claimed
me on a full moon, and well, I don’t think we saw the light of day for a
week.” Marnie had to smile at the far away expression on the woman’s face. “Of
course it may be different if one party is human. You’d have to talk to
Louisa’s mum, but now that her mate is dead, she tends to stay in town, rather
than here, so you haven’t met her yet. She’s the only human to ever have mated
and stayed with the pack, or so I’m told. I’m quite new to the pack myself, but
it can certainly be done; mating with a human, I mean.”
“And you are telling me this why?” Marnie
wasn’t at all sure she wanted to hear the answer, looking at the sympathetic
smile on the full face looking back at her.
“Oh, Marnie, I may not have been here long, but
I do know what a man looks like, when his wolf has chosen and the way the boss
has been around you, it’s obvious. If you were one of us, you’d have sensed it
already.” Her smile deepened when Marnie couldn’t stop the heat rising into her
cheeks at those words, and she patted her arm in an affectionate gesture. “Oh,
I see. Let me guess, he suddenly smells irresistible? You can’t keep your hands
off him? How marvellous. Well, maybe it’s not that different for humans, then.“
Marnie shook her head at the woman’s obvious
delusion, ruthlessly tamping down the surge of excitement her words had caused
for just a minute. Yeah, sure, that’s why he’d kept away from her. She had
sensed him earlier, behind her. She’d known it was Ion by her body’s instant
awareness. Her heart rate had picked up, the fine hair on her body standing to
attention and she had to force herself to not turn around. His gaze had been
like hot coals roaming over her skin, setting her on fire, moisture erupting
between her thighs as his scent washed over her. And then he disappeared again.
So much for him not being able to stop himself.
Before she could voice any of her inner
musings, she watched in disbelief as the would-be sniff tester from earlier
erupted into furious growling and shed his clothes, running for the open doors.
The air shimmered around him for an instant and with the next blink of an eye
it was a wolf leaping out onto the terrace, swiftly followed by others, until
Marnie was alone. Even Leah’s mum had disappeared. Surely she hadn’t shifted
too? What the hell was going on?
The howling carrying in through the open doors
raised goose bumps all over her skin, and she forgot to breathe altogether,
when Ion’s furious growl reached her, floating on the wind.
“Get the fuck off my territory, Lucas.”
Chapter Ten
Fear held Marnie in its icy grip, as she
followed the rumble of Ion’s voice, interspersed with the accented icy tones of
Lucas and the growling of the pack. She couldn’t make out what they were
saying over the noise of the agitated pack, but the hostile tone came through
loud and clear. What the hell was Lucas doing back here? How dare he, and what
on earth did he hope to achieve? Three thousand years old he may be, but the
whole pack was out here. He was never going to get out alive, even if he did
manage to defeat Ion. The mere thought of Ion getting hurt had her break into a
run. She had seen Lucas in action, damn it. Whatever spell he had put her under
to forget the night of the attack, had worn off and she remembered everything
in sickening detail. Lucas moved at lightning speed and she had no doubt he had
fed well, before he attempted to get here.
Bile rose in her throat and her hand went to
the marks on her neck of her own accord as fury replaced her fear. If he
thought he could just waltz in here, putting Ion’s pack in danger… They had
families, damn it, and she was not going to stand by and let anyone else get hurt
because of her and her misguided and foolish attraction to the vampire. None of
it had been real anyway. If he could make her forget witnessing something so
brutal, what’s to say he’d not also put her attraction to him into her mind?
Rounding the corner, her heart slammed into her
ribs. The wolves had formed a semicircle around Ion and Lucas. The two men
swirled around each other slowly, heads down, eyes locked, the air thick with
tension. She knew Ion well enough by now to realise the tight control he had
on himself, the only visible sign of his wolf, the claws slowly extending from
his hands as she watched. Lucas’ hands formed into claws at the same time, the
smile on his face making her blood freeze. Slightly taller than Ion, he was not
as muscular as the shifter, but he moved with the same graceful balance, his
attention never once wavering, even as his accented voice addressed her.
“Come to join the party, chere? Or could you
just not resist me?”
Ion’s eyes briefly connected with hers at the
drawled words, a move which cost him dearly, as Lucas lunged, slicing through
Ion’s t-shirt as though it was butter, exposing muscles and tendons. Marnie
shrieked at the bright red stain of blood that spread all down Ion’s front, her
instinctive move forward blocked by a wolf, which shifted into Jenkins, who
pulled her back and out of the way.
“No, Miss Marnie, this isn’t your fight.”
The hell it wasn’t, but no matter how much she
struggled, Jenkins’ grip on her did not waver and several other wolves
surrounded them, their teeth bared, snarling at the unfolding scene. Why the
hell did they not interfere? Ion was injured, damn it––he was no match for
Lucas in this state. But even as she thought that, Ion pulled himself upwards.
Marnie held her breath as the air shimmered around him. With a ferocious growl,
a huge greyish-brown wolf leaped at Lucas. The vampire managed to dodge him,
the sneer on his face sickening as he whirled around, ready to face Ion’s wolf
again. Again the wolf leaped, his teeth snapping air, as he missed Lucas’ arm
by a hair width. The sickening dance continued, both dodging and weaving, until
Ion managed to sink his teeth into the vampire’s leg and they proceeded to roll
around the floor. It was hard to tell who was who, and Jenkins moved Marnie out
of the way several times, whilst the two opponents continued their violent
struggles, the air full of growls and sickening snarls. Ion’s wounds were
bleeding heavily and Lucas too seemed to be weakening, when suddenly Ion had
him pinned by the throat, one huge paw slicing open the vampire’s side. The
sound of claws slicing through flesh and the stench of blood made Marnie gag.
She had to stop this insanity now. Jenkins, caught up in the excitement of
Ion’s impending victory, had loosened his hold on her. With a quick stamp on
his instep and sharp elbow to his solar plexus, Marnie shook him off. She
jumped over the wolf closest to her, desperate to get to Ion and to stop him as
he raised another paw, claws poised for the kill.
“Ion, no, don’t!”
****
Marnie’s terrified shout got through the blood
mists of anger clouding Ion’s vision and he hesitated just long enough for
Lucas to bring one powerful arm up and side-swipe him. He rolled off with a
yelp, as he fell on his injured side, his blood boiling at the sight of Marnie
leaning over Lucas, defending him from his pack. Ion called the advancing
wolves back with a low growl and reined his own beast back under control with
sheer will, as he shifted back to his human form. He couldn’t give his wolf
free reign right now. Seeing Marnie in Lucas’ arms made him want to howl his
frustration to the moon and tear the vampire to pieces.