VEX: Valley Enforcers, #1 (21 page)

Vex came as his mouth clamped down on my skin. My sex was overstimulated and numb, but I felt every strand of his hot semen as it shot inside of me. His groan was muffled by my skin, but I could feel it echoing in my bones. We swirled together in a beautiful haze of magic and love.

I didn’t know if the peace that settled over me was from the sex or from the bite, but as Vex retracted his teeth and cleaned the blood from my shoulder I couldn’t help but feel everything and nothing all at once. The anxieties that I felt about myself and my fears about losing Vex melted away and were replaced with this sudden rightness.

“My mate.” Vex’s loving voice saturated my skin. He made no effort to disconnect our bodies while he softly kissed the area around my new bite. It was tender, but it was a comfortable hurt. “My beautiful, strong mate. I want to stay like this forever, but I’m going to go crazy if you don’t mark me back.”

“How? I’m not a shifter. I can’t bite you.”

He gave me a warm smile. “Female shifters don’t bite their mates; they mark them with their claws. You’ll mark me here.” He rolled off of me and I missed his heat immediately. His hand flattened against his chest on a patch of skin that was already peppered with tiny white scars. “Go get a knife from the kitchen.”

“You’re not joking, are you?”

“It won’t hurt me, Acacia. It’ll hurt me more if you don’t do it. Please. The bond won’t be complete until you claim me, too.” His eyes lit up with amusement. “I’ll watch a scary movie with you tonight if you do it.”

“Are you bribing me to mark you?” I asked with a laugh.

He gave a half shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

My legs were like jelly as I climbed out of the bed. As everything with Vex seemed to go, the moment was romantic and absurd all at once. He was the light that guided me through both the good and the bad.

When I returned with the kitchen knife he was sprawled out on his side, uncovered and unashamed. His dick was at half-mast already. I bit my lip and crawled onto the bed.

“Here. Make three lines.” He tapped above his pectoral. “You have to make them long and deep or they won’t stay. I heal fast, remember?”

“I feel like a masochist doing this.” I touched the blade to his skin and looked up to meet his gaze. They didn’t reflect fear or apprehension; they sparkled with the purest love. I leaned forward and kissed the skin next to the knife. He shivered. “I love you, Vex, and you are mine.”

I pulled back and watched his face as I pressed the blade in and drew the first line. He didn’t even flinch. I finished the other two quickly with a steady hand. Blood poured down his chest, but he was vibrating with satisfaction.

We made love again in the shower with his blood swirling at our feet. His mouth was almost permanently attached to the tender spot on my neck. The tingling pain was gone when he cloaked the spot, and somehow, it felt even more erogenous than before. We stayed inside the small tub until our skin was pruned and the water ran clear. Trapped in a world of our own magic, time didn’t exist. All that mattered was the way souls blended together.

Vex was a kaleidoscope. Each facet of his soul was a special piece of magic that created this Adonis of a man. He was built like a brick house and had this dark, exotic danger to him. He had brusque moments. He had plenty of them. But the kaleidoscope turned and I always found a new part of him to enjoy. The part that hummed along to music in the car. The part that drove an extra thirty miles to the store so he could buy me the foods that I preferred. The part that loved me whole-heartedly even when I was stubborn.

I came to Brown Bear Valley to find the man who turned into a bear. I came to find truths that would settle my soul. I found so much more. I found not one, but an entire group of people who shifted into bears and their secret was one I would take to the grave. I found the truth. I had the confirmation that the life I dedicated to the weird, creepy, and unknown wasn’t a complete waste. The Valley was a special place. After spending nearly my whole life feeling like an outsider I finally found some place that felt like home.

But more than that, fate had led me to the one man who understood me better than I understood myself. He gave me the world, and I was going to spend the rest of my life trying to give
him
the universe.

Vex

The airport terminal was loud and busy. My nerves were already coming through my skin. I’d been in a near permanent state of anxiety for nearly a week. Hakeem, my brother and best friend, was finally coming home after two and a half months. It felt more like two and a half years had passed since he left. I was elated to get him back, but when Dean shared the news there was something in his eyes that told me he wasn’t telling me something. If Hakeem had been injured I knew they would tell me, so I spent hours trying to analyze the way my Beta’s eyes twinkled like I was some lovesick puppy.

“People are staring at you, Vex. Do we need to go outside so you can breathe?” Acacia ran her hand up and down my arm and looked up at me. She looked even better than she did the day I met her. The wings of her eyeliner were sharper than a knife and her lips were stained a dark purple color, but she looked like the happiest woman alive. She radiated joy. “I have some chocolate in my bag. Chocolate always makes you happy.”

“I’m happy, baby.” I kissed the top of her head. “I’m just nervous. I wouldn’t be opposed to the chocolate, though.”

She pulled her big black bag in front of her and started rummaging through it. “These are from that chocolate shop next to the salon. They’re raw cocoa truffles.” She handed a small wrapped package. “Here. Eat them before I do.”

I unwrapped it and gave her one of the two chocolates. “We’ll share.”

“I’m ashamed to tell you how much money I’ve spent at that place,” Acacia said as she popped the piece into her mouth. Her eyes closed for a second and she let out a tiny moan that heated my soul. “Perfect. Would you still love me if I turned into a giant piece of candy?”

“You already are a giant piece of candy,” I teased, wiggling my eyebrows at her. She elbowed me in a totally non-playful way as I ate the piece of chocolate. “Holy shit. This is amazing.”

“I know! One of the owners
paid me
with cholate for her cut and color the other day,” Acacia admitted. “I’m like a truffle slut.”

I snorted. “I can’t believe you didn’t bring me any home.”

“They were gone before I hit the reserve. I know; I’m a bad mate. I try though!”

“You’re the very best mate,” I corrected. I swung her around and pecked her lips softly. I wanted to do so much more, but I didn’t want to get kicked out of the terminal before we picked up Hakeem. “You’re wonderful, Acacia. I’m so proud of you.”

She contacted the salons in Center Village that she was interested in a week after she was completely healed up. Though her cosmetology license needed renewed, one of the salons took her under their wing. The owner, Danielle, had a rockabilly vibe and a crazy, fun salon that was perfect for Acacia. I was wary about letting Acacia drive so far for work, but she loved it and I wasn’t going to deny her anything. The rattling death trap she drove was going to have to go before the snow started, though.

Life with Acacia was easy. It was fun. We showed up at Willa’s birthday party with the ball pit that Hakeem suggested getting. My family loved Acacia. I knew ‘Keem would too. We visited her family for a cookout, too. Seeing them outside of a bleak hospital room was the first step in getting her family to accept me, but as we cuddled in her old bedroom that night she whispered in my ear that they loved me and that Ava told her that she should marry me. Marriage was the next step, and it was going to come sooner than Acacia probably realized. We weren’t engaged yet, but we both wanted to wait until Hakeem was back to even entertain the idea of a wedding.

She was mine in all the ways that mattered, but I wanted everyone – human, shifter, alien and cryptid – to know that she was taken.

“I think we’re supposed to be over there,” Acacia whispered loudly, pointing in the direction of a conglomeration of people.

I didn’t see Hakeem, who would’ve stood at least a head taller than everyone else, but we walked over anyway and hung towards the back of the crowd. It started to thin out, and when I didn’t see my brother my heart jumped to my throat.

“Vex?” It was unmistakable. I whipped around and saw Hakeem. He was a little leaner than he had been before he left, and his hair was cropped shorter. Otherwise, he was completely the same. No broken bones. No disfiguring scars. He grinned and picked up his pace as he walked towards us, arms stretched wide. “Shit, man. It’s good to see you.”

I squeezed him tight, calming both bear and man inside of me. “Good to see you, too, ‘Keem. Real fucking good. A lot has happened since you’ve been gone.”

“I’ve got a story or two of my own to tell you.”

We let go of one another and stepped back. It was then that I realized that there was a woman with my brother. Her olive colored skin was flawless, and a braid of silky black hair was draped over her shoulder and fell nearly to her waist. She was all curves and had an understated beauty that made you want to stare at her until you could really figure out what it was that made her shine. Just as I realized Hakeem wasn’t alone, he realized that
I
wasn’t alone either. He took in Acacia with wonder and a tiny smile on his lips.

“This is my mate, Acacia. Acacia, Hakeem.”

She raised her fingers and wiggled them in a greeting. “Hi. I’m glad you’re back.”

“I’m glad I’m back, too.” He smiled wide and pulled her into a hug. I tensed, afraid that he was going to snap her in half, but she laughed into his jacket and tightened her arms around him. Acacia laced our fingers together when they broke apart, and I gave her a reassuring squeeze. Hakeem stepped back and lifted his arm with a tiny huff of amusement. “Seems like we both were busy. Vex, Acacia, meet my mate, Naya.”

For each book I write, I create a special playlist of songs inspired by the characters.

• Two Weeks – All That Remains
  
• The Kids Aren’t Alright – The Offspring
  
• I Stand Alone – Godsmack
  
• This One’s For You – Of Mice & Men
  
• Destroy Everything – Hatebreed
  
• Sex Type thing – Stone Temple Pilots
  
• Everlong – Foo Fighters
  
• Graveyard Shift – The Acacia Strain
  
• Like a Stone – Audioslave
  
• No Ordinary Love – Memphis May Fire
  
• Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jet
  
• Sleepwalker – Parkway Drive
  
• Power Trip – Chimera
  
• Lived A Lie – You Me At Six
  
• The Hand That Feeds – Nine Inch Nails
  
• Wait and Bleed – Slipknot
  
• A Boy Brushed Red – Underoath
  
• Thirty and Seven – August Burns Red
  
• Scar tissue – Red Hot Chili Peppers
  

Abi Walters lives in Ohio with her husband and action figure collection. A fan of all things supernatural and weird since a young age, she loves writing about shifters and magic. She is a confessed bibliophile and loves discovering new book boyfriends to fall in love with.

Follow me on Twitter at
awalterswrites

Or check out my website at
abiwalterswrites.com

And if you want to chat, you can email me at
[email protected]

As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read my book. As an avid reader myself, I know how much content is out there! If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

I hope you enjoyed reading Vex’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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