The Bar was quiet as usual, and Angel’s manager had taken it upon himself to leave her alone as he did almost every shift. It didn’t exactly bother Angel. She liked to be alone. At least, that was what she told herself. It was definitely easier than putting up with all the bullshit and politics that came with being the traitor’s daughter. Yet it didn’t remain that way for long. No sooner had Angel stepped out from the back corridor having just collected a box of napkin refills from the storeroom than the front door of the bar swung open. Even before he entered, Angel could sense him, his inner turmoil and the obvious frustration he was feeling at whatever the hell he was struggling with now. His wolf was grumbling and the moment she saw Layon’s face, she knew that something serious was going on. She opened her mouth to speak but barely managed to let out a whimper as he charged up to her, grabbed her by the elbow, and began to drag her back into the back corridor. “What the hell,
Struggling not to smirk with amusement at Angel’s obvious astonishment the moment they stepped onto one of his father’s three privatejets, he urged her to take a seat. He wanted to be in the air as soon as possible. She continued to glance around the sleek cream interior even as she silently did as he said, clearly too awestruck to argue. It was a welcome relief not to have her arguing with him, and he settled himself in the seat opposite her after instructing the pilot of their destination and their need to hurry.Angel’s silence didn’t last very long and almost as soon as they were up in the air, she seemed to revert right back to her old self. “You know we can’t just walk right into Italy, right? Not since supernaturals came out of the closet.”Layon couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You remember who I am, right?” he responded and watched her face drop with distaste at his need to be so bigheaded.“That doesn’t mean you can ignore the rules,”Angel snapped back at him, crossin
Struggling not to smirk with amusement at Angel’s obvious astonishment the moment they stepped onto one of his father’s three privatejets, he urged her to take a seat. He wanted to be in the air as soon as possible. She continued to glance around the sleek cream interior even as she silently did as he said, clearly too awestruck to argue. It was a welcome relief not to have her arguing with him, and he settled himself in the seat opposite her after instructing the pilot of their destination and their need to hurry.Angel’s silence didn’t last very long and almost as soon as they were up in the air, she seemed to revert right back to her old self. “You know we can’t just walk right into Italy, right? Not since supernaturals came out of the closet.”Layon couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You remember who I am, right?” he responded and watched her face drop with distaste at his need to be so bigheaded.“That doesn’t mean you can ignore the rules,”Angel snapped back at him, crossin
Able to feel him staring at her across the jet, Angel chose instead to keep her gaze on the window. After all, it was her first time outside of Dale and she was determined to make the most of it. She hadn’t come just to stare at Layon the entire time or put up with his alpha male bullshit. Yet even as she gazed out at the open ocean, marveling at the white caps of the waves, all she could really think about was how pissed off she was with herself. Layon had practically offered her exactly what both she and her wolf were craving, and yet she’d been stupid enough to turn him down. Worse, she’d been stupid enough to strike him. His constant staring, goading her and clearly attempting to make her uncomfortable, wasn’t helping. In fact, it was doing quite the opposite, making her want to charge across the jet and jump right into his lap. Her insides were twisting with desire and her thighs squeezed together at the heat that was pooling between them. The more he stared, the more she r
She's so beautiful.The thought came unbidden into Layon's mind as he caught himself staring at Angel who, by the sound of her gentle breathing, was now fastasleep in an awkward position in the chair across from him thanks to the belt around her waist that she now refused to take off. Thinking of how fearful she'd been for him when the jet had been jolting all over and he'd hit his head, he couldn't help but smile. She was feisty and stubborn and more than a little annoying at times, but she was also cute and beautiful throughout. Even nowwith her red hair a wild mess, half hiding her creamy face, she was all he could see.Stop it, he snarled at himself the moment he realized what he was doing. It didn't matter what he wanted, that he wanted to cross the jet andgive it another go at getting intimate with her again, once they were off the jet everything would revert right back to normal. Why put ourselves through it?Layon asked himself, knowing that if he allowed himself to have
After easily getting through security, Angel couldn't help but wonder what she had been worrying about. Of course, they'd have had no problems, not when the security guard checking them was a female fairy who quite clearly had the hots for Layon. Angel had been forced to grit her teeth the entire time watching as the pink-haired pixie-featured woman ran her hands all over his body in a long and very drawn-out search, giggling and fluttering her pink eyelashes at him the entire time. The way that Layon had flirted in return didn’t help the matter, but there was one good thing about it. With the woman's attention on him, she barely batted an eyelid in Angel's direction, leaving them in the clear to wander right out of the airport. "Could you be any more cringe?" Angel asked almost as soon as they had made it through security and were headed through the airport in the direction of the main doors. Though the airport itself was cooled by aircon, Angel's overly sensitive shifter skin coul
From the outside, the fairy court looked like nothing more than an old gothic cathedral, but on the inside, it was like something out of a fairytale. A huge stone castle fortress with a literal forest growing inside. Every wall, archway, and window was decorated with vines and trees and climbing plants. Birds, bees, and other insects hummed throughout the place. The scents that filled the air were nothing like that of the pollution of the human world outside the court's doors, and Layon and Angel glanced at each other in astonishment several times as they were led down the forested hallways by a rather tall and pretty fairy whose professional demeanor left her looking strict and unapproachable. “This place can’t be real,” Angel exclaimed when they had been walking for several minutes. Layon couldn’t help but admire the innocent astonishment on her face that made her look even more angelically beautiful than normal. “It’s huge compared to the outside!” Layon had to agree. They se
The feather-light silks that the fairies had draped over her in a sheer gown that left little to the imagination were softer than anything Angel had ever worn before. They seemed as soft and fragile as spider silk, and it took her a while to grow used to the movement of them, fearful that they might slip from her shoulders and pool at her feet. The only thing that seemed to hold them in place was the golden rope belt that had been tied loosely around her waist. She stared at herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror that was surrounded by grape vines, barely able to recognize herself. So used to seeing herself in leather and black and the odd skater dress, she felt as though she had stepped into some kind of fairytale. The attendants that had been assigned to her were like handmaids, and they'd brushed out her hair into long cascading curls that fell over her shoulders like red waterfalls, decorated here and there with irises. The paleness of the silks she wore against her creamy porc
“You have got to be kidding me!” Emily’s exclamation startled Tyson. It had been the last thing he expected her to say when they stopped walking outside a psychic’s shop in a small human town just outside of Silverdale. “What’s the matter? Didn’t the tracking spell work?” he asked, feeling his gut beginning to churn. They couldn’t possibly have traveled all this way just for Emily to tell him that the spell had failed, that it had brought them to the wrong place. The tall and slender witch who wore a long, velvet gown cinched at the waist by a leather corset, stood at the bottom of the steps that led up into the shop and glowered up at the store front window. “No real witch would advertise herself in this way!” Emily snapped, practically spitting, and Tyson struggled to stop himself from shrinking away from her, reminding himself firmly of his reason for even being there in the first place. This is for Barach. “Then your outburst has nothing to do with this being the wrong pla
At first, everything was darkness. Then she felt it. One minute it was just the gentle brushing of something soft against her lips. Then she felt the suddenness of a most passionate kiss pressed upon her. Hands stroked down her ribcage, causing her to suck in a deep breath and then those same hands cupped her hips, drawing her closer to the warmth of the person they belonged to. Though at first, she could not see him, she could feel him. She could feel the smooth softness of his skin, the tender tautness of that skin pulled tight over thick bands of muscle. She could feel his callused yet somehow soft hands moving around her hips and back toward her buttocks, hooking her into place against him even as the lips upon hers added pressure and the kiss became even more passionate. Then finally, he pulled back and she was able to open her eyes. Dazed at the sight of him, Barach could only smile. She opened her mouth to speak but found there were no words to say. Instead, she wrapped he
Sitting by her bedside, Tyson couldn't help but think of the moment when he thought he had lost Barach forever. He had held her in his arms in the center of the small warehouse, cradling her on his lap as he watched all of the color drain from her face and her eyes roll back in her head, helpless to do anything else. Only the gentle sound of shallow breathing, that he would not have picked up had he been human, alerted him to the fact that she was still with him. I should never have let you go in the first place, he told himself even as he thought of how he had ditched everything, thinking of nothing else but getting her to safety. He had picked her up in his arms, alarmed at just how light she had become. The last time he had carried her, she had been kicking and thrashing and doing everything in her power to get him to put her down. Now she was deathly still, her face so pale and her eye sockets going so black as she lay in a bed at the Silverdale Manor, that he felt as though h
"We are going to have to work quickly," Barach whispered. Though they had managed to secure themselves in one of the outer buildings on the industrial estate, just close enough to every point of the area that her spell would reach Layon and Jason no matter how far they moved, she knew all too well that the longer they remained, the more danger they were placing themselves in. Having added all the ingredients to the spell in the small cauldron she'd placed in the center of the room on a pile of old boxes, she had only one final thing to do. Holding two bundles of sage, lavender, and fennel in front of her with a lighter in her other hand, she pointed out, "This may well attract Tyson's wolves to our location, but I can't do the spell without it." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tyson stiffen. It was clear that he didn't like the thought of her being put in danger at all. She could feel his concern in the way he stared at her, feel it in the way his entire body tensed. Being
The pack was clearly restless. They stood all around the dining room awaiting Lester’s return, unable to stay still, several of them murmuring among themselves about what was taking so long. Tyson remained silent, watching Barach as he stood close by, unable to stray too far from her for too long. With everything going on, he was on edge and in full protection mode. Everyone fell silent the moment that Lester returned to the room and settled back into his seat at the head of the table. “So you’ve located her?” he asked, looking at Barach, who stood at the far end of the table, close to the doors, looking like an outsider. Even against Lester’s steady gaze, Tyson felt the urge to protect her, and he was barely able to stop himself from stepping between them. Barach nodded. “She’s in the industrial estate just as I said she’d be,” Jason snarled through gritted teeth and Lara, who had taken a seat beside him, quickly placed her hand on his shoulder again, warning him silently to be
When she had left, Silverdale had been on high alert, but on returning, things appeared to have gotten ten times worse. Though on the outside things looked entirely the same, the moment Tyson's truck passed through the gates and they closed automatically behind them, Barach felt as though a weight had landed heavily on top of her shoulders. She could practically feel the tense energy coursing throughout the streets of the locked community, and she was certain that something serious had to have happened since she left. If Tyson attacked us in New York, then he knew I wasn't keeping my eye on things here, Barach thought grimly, glancing at Tyson in the driver's seat to see if he had thought the same thing. Was the attack on us just a distraction from something going on here? It was clear from the way that he glanced at her, his hands gripped tightly to the steering wheel and his body so tense he looked like he might snap a bone, that he was having exactly the same thoughts. They wast
She tasted just as he might have expected, like cherries and cream, and her lips were plump and soft and smooth as if she were wearing Chapstick. When she opened them to him, he dipped his tongue into her mouth, tasting her further when she offered the same in response. They kissed as though it was their first and their one hundredth time all wrapped into one.Everything was heightened, the pleasure and desire and the sensation of having her close to him and yet he felt as though it was practiced, something they had done many times before, something they had been meant to do together. It was then that the need started to pulse between them. He could feel it coming off Barach in waves even as he realized he could fight his own urges no longer. When he felt her beginning to pull on the hem of his t-shirt, yanking it up over his muscular torso, he knew there was no turning back. Instinctively, he shrugged off his jacket, barely hearing its zips clattering onto the hardwood floor behin
The moment they stepped out of the truck, Tyson became even more on edge. He felt far too exposed standing out on the front steps of the shop, waiting for Barach to open it up. The shop itself was just as Tyson had expected. Two huge display windows out front were decorated with candles, gemstones and small statues, glass bottles and vials, and all manner of other witchy things. Even though the place was locked up tight, he could faintly smell the scent of all manner of herbs coming from under the front door and guessed that inside the smell would be almost intolerable. Though he hadn't been inside many witches’ shops, he had been in enough to know that his senses were about to be irritated big time. Gritting his teeth, he stood by, waiting for Barach to do what she needed to do. "Well, do you have a key or not?" he asked when she didn't pull one from her pocket. Glancing down at her, he realized there wasn't much chance of her having anything on her. All she was wearing was a v
Why the hell did I just tell him that? Barach thought grimly even as she relaxed back into the passenger seat of his truck and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Although he was driving like a maniac, it wasn't that telling her she should have him stop the car. It wasn't even the fact that she was still feeling the urge to turn around and go back for her grandmother's body. It was the fact that she was suddenly alone with him, trapped in a confined space and with no hope of escape until the truck drew to a halt. The worst thing was, Barach wasn't sure she wanted to escape him. Although there was plenty of room inside the truck, Barach could sense how close their seats were, how easily she could reach out and touch him. No, this is not going to happen, she told herself firmly before she spoke aloud through gritted teeth, "We should go back." Tyson flashed an incredulous expression at her before turning his eyes back onto the road, still speeding well over the limit and g