She snapped her fingers, silencing the shifters behind her. My shoulders stiffened. I didn't want to be left alone with her, especially with those shifters seemingly at her beck and call. Even if it was simply to talk—about what I couldn't even fathom."Absolutely not." Zaine stepped in front of me again, Kaius coming around to herd me over while staying in front of the shifter still on the floor. "What is going on, Mother? Why are you here? Where's Father?""This is a matter between women. Step aside."The way she said it… there was a threat there, buried underneath. Over what, was the real question. Peering around Zaine, I could see she'd moved in from the entrance, stepping over a large pool of blood that had been left by one of the bodies nearest her.She held her arms around herself in a relaxed hold, confidence and ease rolling off of her. There was no concern for what was in front of her at all. As if she'd seen this kind of scene a million times before. And
I was knocked to the ground with such force my back skidded along the club floor, hauling me back a good ten feet until all momentum was lost, and I stopped. My palms stung from where my magic had collected, the density of it giving me a light burn over the surface of my skin.The snapping of jaws and teeth had me propelling my body off the ground, just in time to see the shifters run into the club and attack Kaius. He battered them away expertly, keeping them from advancing any further toward me as they fought his hold. He was strong, a lot more than I'd been expecting.One of the shifters unhinged their jaw, clamping down on Kaius' shoulder to hold him in place. He quickly grabbed the back of the shifter's scruff, ripping him off of his arm before prying the jaw back and cracking it apart.The sound of breaking bone had me wincing and covering my ears. It made my teeth clench, that sound reverberating inside my skull. When I looked up, I dodged to the left; a shi
A few days later…"—So, that's pretty much the majority of it."I settled back into my chair, tempted to cross my leg over my knee in order to gain back some semblance of self-control. My hip screamed in protest when I tried, forcing me to remain with my knees mushed together and my hands hovering over them awkwardly.Jeffery stared at me unblinkingly from the other side of his desk. Around the halfway point into my debrief, he'd grabbed a pen—which I assumed he was going to use to write down everything I'd been spewing at the time—but it remained still capped and clutched between his fingers like some kind of comfort objectIt'd gotten back into town only a few hours ago and was already exhausted from my ride back here, not wanting to bother going home first because I knew once I kicked off my shoes and took my bra off, I wasn't getting up out of bed for another week.Unless it was to greet a certain welcomed guest, then I might reconsider."So you're…
A few months later…"Are you sure about this?"I turned away from the bathroom mirror, the curling iron still wrapped around a section of my hair. Zaine leaned against the doorway, watching me with a frown on his face. I hated him looking so glum like that, especially with where we were going tonight."It won't be that bad." Trying to reassure him as best as I can.He crossed his arms over his chest, not answering me back. Turning back around, I dropped the curl and let it bounce before spraying it with product to keep it tightly wound. I could feel Zaine tracking my every move, the soft pulses of his desire for me rang through the bathroom. It flattered me in a way that was hard to describe accurately. He'd been respectful of my time today, knowing I'd set aside a certain amount of time for myself to get ready for tonight's dinner and that derailing those plans by seducing me into bed would piss me off as soon as I came to.I'm sure he'd be able to sw
Gabriel's POVThe newspaper was strewn out on the table before me as I sipped my morning coffee. My glasses sat at the base of my nose. Nothing very exciting. Seemed to be a dry season within stories. Perhaps that was a good thing to some people, but in the world of investigative journaling, it meant missing out on a good paycheck. My phone was always on the table next to me, face up, just in case one of my contacts sent me a tip. My wife, Lucy, and I were freelancers. New to the game, waiting for one big story to come tumbling into our laps.I graduated a few years before her before getting eaten alive at a newspaper press. I wanted to find my own stories. Write what I wanted to write, but all they used me for was getting coffee and lunch. For two years. They never assigned me anything. Always the person next to me.Lucy was the one that told me to leave. Said we'd find our own stories. And we did—a few here and there, but nothing big enough to get our names out there. But we w
Lucy's POVI never liked flying, but the excitement of going someplace new completely overrode my fear of airplanes. I was absolutely elated by the new adventure laid out in front of me. While Gabriel grew up flying all over the world, I rarely stepped foot on a plane.He slept next to me the whole flight, not even jostling when we hit an especially rough section of turbulence. Adrenaline fired through my system, and I wouldn't have been able to sleep if I tried. Gabe could tell I was nervous and left his hand on my lap to squeeze whenever I wanted. After we landed in London, around 4 AM, we had quite the endeavor trying to get to Northpass. Bus to cab to bus to cab. Gabriel was useless without his coffee in the morning, but thankfully, he laid the itinerary out for us before we left. The last cab driver took us over the rolling hills where I could just barely see a little clock tower. My reception started to get a little spotty as we got closer. But I didn't care, absorbed i
Gabriel's POVWe dropped our luggage off at the bed and breakfast I booked, and the host was more than accommodating when she took it off our hands and told us to enjoy the small town. Lucy wanted to stop by the fishmonger. I wasn't sure why she wanted to stop there considering how much she hated fish, but then I saw an older teary-eyed woman handling the fish. A picture of her and a man hanging on the cluttered walls. James and Patricia. Fishmonger has been open since 1932. But the photos on the walls, I'd say James took over after his father, who inherited it from his father. A family endeavor like everything in this town seemed.Patricia apologized, saying that they didn't have anything fresh today. Lucy took point. Her empathetic nature made her perfect for handling situations with gentle hands. Yes, she was always full of energy, but she was also the sweetest woman I'd ever met. From the moment I met her, I knew she was the one for me. I observed, and she absorbed.
Lucy's POVGabriel's hand pressed over my mouth, muffling my cries as he pinned me against the wall. I couldn't help it. I cried out with every pump of his hips, fucking me harder and deeper against the wall of the shower. I whimpered his name over and over into his palm.The water had gone from hot to room temperature, but I wasn't cold at all. I released a few muffled sobs, eyes rolling to the back of my head. I wriggled, seeking more pressure, but I couldn't move. He dominated my body completely, controlling my pleasure exactly how I liked it. "Shh, baby," he whispered against my ear, very aware of how I writhed against him. He groaned as I clenched around him, wordlessly begging him to let go and take me with him. His groan turned into something like a growl, his other hand slipping between my legs to stroke the needy swollen bundle of nerves. I nearly screamed, thrashing at the sensation. "I need you to come, Lucy. Right now." He made a deep anguished noise in his thr