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The Honeymoon’s Over Already?
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
The Alpha's Warlock Fine Then, I Don’t Trust You Either
The night after Ian and I mated wasn't the best night of sleep I'd ever had.Strike that, it was the worst. For one, Ian hogged the bed. That shouldn't have surprised me, since in all fairness he should have gotten two thirds of it to start with. But I ended up with a tiny little sliver of mattress, and only sleeping against the wall — and I do mean against the wall, squished on my side with my spine crammed against a wood panel — kept me from toppling off and rolling under the bed, possibly never to be seen again. I'd glanced around a little more while Ian was at the pack house getting food, and it quickly became obvious that the only part of the floor Ian swept was the middle.For two, I was still hungry. Ian's idea of ‘food that came from a grocery store’ was a dented can of minestrone soup and half a loaf of whole-wheat bread with all the gross seeds in it. Without butter.And third, even if my fucking useless mate had scrounged up something more to eat and had a better mattress —
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death
Chapter 8 Give Me Coffee or Give Me DeathWaking up alone in a strange room that smelled like dust and werewolf was starting to be a pattern — one I didn't like much.And since I was now mated to Ian, that might be every morning for the rest of my life. That was a cheerful thought before I even had any coffee.Coffee. I'd finally fallen asleep sometime after dawn, probably right before Ian got up and left. Exhaustion had kept me under while he moved around. Now it looked like it was about noon, going by the angle of the light. Of course Ian didn't have a clock, and my phone was smashed somewhere on the floor of a warehouse. Just as well. If I'd had one, Ian probably would have kept it anyway. I could picture him hunched over it, waiting for a text that read, “Oh hey this is the Kimball shaman. Killed Matthew Armitage yet? Report soon! :) Good luck!” I was pretty sure Ian actually did think I was that dumb.Asshole.I swung my legs out of bed, winced at the chill of the floor against
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock Dishonesty Is Important in a Relationship
Chapter 9 Dishonesty Is Important in a RelationshipSeconds ticked by, and Ian didn't move.“Ian,” I whispered, and reached out, gently pushing his hair back from his clammy forehead. I laid my hand against his neck. He had a pulse, and the relief of that nearly bowled me over. Of course, of course I'd have known if he was dead — the bond would have snapped, and possibly taken me out in the backlash. But it took me a minute to remember that, and to start to think clearly.And see clearly. At that moment, I saw Ian in a way I'd never seen him before. He was always wary, often scowling, constantly primed for action. Now he was more vulnerable than I could have imagined him: the thin skin around his eyes shadowed purple from exhaustion, the stubble on his cheeks and chin dark and rough against his waxy skin, his lips parted a little, mouth slack.I wanted to stroke his forehead again. I wanted to cradle his head in my lap and cry. I wanted him to wake up and hug me and tell me it was a
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock Kiss It Better
Chapter 10 Kiss It BetterIt felt like a long time before the shower shut off. I was drifting, the tears dribbling out of my eyes burning hot, and the puddles of saltwater in my ears and along my collarbones ice cold. It was even longer before the door opened, letting out a massive cloud of pine-scented steam.“Nate, look, I — what the fuck?” Heavy footsteps thudded across the room, vibrating the bed through the floorboards.I didn't even have the strength to move my eyeballs, let alone my head, so I glanced up at him with my peripheral vision alone. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, his chest bare and gleaming with a few rivulets of water. Fuck, but his shoulders were big. And both of my hands would barely have wrapped around one of his biceps.Then he dropped the towel. My heartrate accelerated, ramping up from sleepy-slow to painful in two seconds. The jolt of adrenaline made my stomach lurch and my head pound, but it didn't give me any more energy, somehow.“What,” I gasp
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock Getting the Last Word
Chapter 11 Getting the Last Word“Don't move,” I warned him. “I mean it.”Ian narrowed his eyes at me, but that glare didn't have quite as much of an effect when I was sitting on his hips with both of us totally naked.Strike that. It had at least as much of an effect, but it was different from the usual. I wasn't pissed, and I wasn't afraid. I wanted. I wanted to win this round, which was petty as hell, but even worse, I wanted him. Luckily I'd come so hard I wasn't nearly ready to get another erection, so I could pretend for a minute that he was the only one so worked up he could hardly think. Unless he could interpret the sound of my pounding heart. Hopefully he'd mistake it for anger.I kept eye contact as I shifted backwards, sliding down his thighs. He swallowed hard enough that I heard his throat click, and his body tensed under me. Carefully settling between his legs, I smoothed my hands up his thighs, tracing the rigid muscles there. His skin was still a little damp, from t
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock Hope for the Best, But…
Chapter 12 Hope for the Best, But…“Look, this stuff isn't going to work,” I said for the millionth time.Maybe only the fifth or sixth time. But still. Ian and Matthew were both leveling identical glowers at me, their brows furrowed and their arms crossed over their broad chests. I turned a laugh into a cough, and they frowned in unison. I choked down another laugh and leaned back against the kitchen table of the pack house, taking a load off, since it looked like we'd be here arguing for a bit. My ass ached, and the boots I'd found in the pack house's hall closet to cover my stolen super-socks didn't fit quite right. I needed the boots, though, if only to keep Ian from ripping the socks off my feet. He’d actually growled when he saw them on me that morning.I was finally caffeinated enough to deal with it, though. Ian and I had slept all night tangled up in each other's arms, and he'd slipped out of bed at the crack of dawn, taken a shower, and set a hot cup of coffee down beside
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock Out on the Town
Chapter 13 Out on the Town“I’m not actually a bad driver.” I jumped, startled out of my funk, as Ian spoke for the first time since we’d gotten in the car — I glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Ten minutes ago.“What?”Ian pressed his lips together, hit the gas so hard I jolted back in my seat, and shifted gears with a force that would have cracked the shifter in a car that wasn’t as sturdily built as this one. Figured that Ian would have some muscle-car nightmare. He’d probably restored it himself, since he had more time than money.“You’re white-knuckling your seatbelt,” he said. “You don’t need to. I drive just fine. Matt drives like someone’s grandma. I mean, he drives a hybrid.” There was enough contempt dripping from that last word to qualify him for a bit part in a BBC costume drama.I started to laugh, and then I pictured Ian in a waistcoat and my brain shorted out for a minute.“Hello? Nate? Anybody home?” he asked irritably. I came back to reality again, a little dist
Last Updated : 2024-10-29The Alpha's Warlock On the Run
Chapter 14 On the RunI wiggled my hips, trying to hoist myself a little higher on Ian’s back. “Sorry, I keep slipping,” I muttered.“At least you stopped telling me to mush,” Ian shot back.“Only because I believed you when you said you’d drop me.”Ian snorted and tightened his grip around my thighs. It had taken all of half an hour of fighting our way through thorny bushes and tall weeds and mud, and more mud, before he’d rolled his eyes, stopped, and leaned over so I could climb on — and another thirty seconds before I pissed him off. But hey, in my defense? I honestly wasn’t trying to be a jackass. I thought maybe what we needed in this situation was a little humor, so sue me.Note to self: alphas had no sense of humor about dog jokes. To be fair, I probably should have been able to work that one out on my own.“You still not getting any signal?” he asked.I pressed the button on the side of Ian’s phone, where I had it awkwardly poised in my left hand. My right arm was wrapped a
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
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The Alpha's Warlock Epilogue :You Don’t Want a Choice
EpilogueYou Don’t Want a Choice“Mr. Castelli,” Laura said, and smiled warmly. “Go right in. He’s never too busy for you.”“You know it’s Blake.” She shook her head, laughed, and went back to typing.I hadn’t yet given up on trying to convince Declan’s assistant that I didn’t deserve any particular formality; after nearly four months of trying, though, I’d started to fear it was hopeless.I set the double latte I’d grabbed on my way at the edge of her desk—if she insisted on calling me Mr. Castelli, I’d at least make sure she said it with affection—and stepped into Declan’s office.He glanced up from his laptop and then immediately back down again, which I knew meant “I’ll forget what I was typing if I don’t do it right now.” At first that’d hurt my feelings. Shades of being treated like an unwelcome and disliked inconvenience at Castelli Industries, of so many times I’d been called on the carpet in my father’s office only to be ignored until he deigned to notice me. But I knew it w
The Alpha's Warlock A Lucky Man
Chapter 21A Lucky ManIf I’d really tried, I might’ve been able to look at a calendar and count how many times Declan had laid me out on his bed, naked and waiting for him to take what he wanted.But I didn’t need to count to know that it’d never been like this.He settled me on my back, head carefully placed on a pillow, kneeling between my legs and leaning down to stroke a hand through my hair and down my cheek, coming to rest across my throat. Instead of a threat, it felt like safety.All right, a little bit of a threat.But that only had my cock perking up, getting harder every second that he pinned me down, glowing eyes fixed on my face with an intensity that would’ve had any sane man running away screaming.Or spreading his legs.I went with option two, letting my knees fall open to give him full access, my arms relaxed at my sides. Touching him—I wanted to, and I would. But right now I knew what he needed from me, and that was complete surrender, allowing him to re-stake his
The Alpha's Warlock Ten Years Ago
Chapter 20Ten Years AgoNo matter how many times I’d daydreamed about Declan kissing me, the reality far outstripped the fantasy—and how often could you say that about anything? His mouth took control of mine the same way his body had taken control of me so many times, opening me and tasting me and laying me bare for him to use however he wanted.Which happened to be what I wanted too, so badly that I ached for it. His tongue teased between my lips and twined with mine as his arms tightened, gathering me so close that not a millimeter of space was left in between us.Declan kissed me until I couldn’t breathe, my lungs hot and laboring. All the pain and fear of the last few hours melted away, a much better and more natural kind of magic than the ones I’d experienced so far tonight.I pressed against him, kissing him back with everything I had, trying to spread my legs and wrap myself around him and take him into me so that he’d never leave.Declan tore his mouth away and lifted his h
The Alpha's Warlock My Life Mattered
Chapter 19My Life MatteredWhen I woke up, the SUV was moving—but I couldn’t shift so much as a muscle. My head had gotten crammed against the door and my neck ached like a bitch. My arms lay limp, one dangling to the floor of the car and the other on my leg. I tried to twitch a finger.No go.I couldn’t open my eyes, either, or speak. My autonomous functions weren’t affected, though: I could still hyperventilate. Lucky me.Kidnapped. I’d been fucking kidnapped, and the first thing Declan would do would be call me. No doubt they’d gotten rid of my phone. Then he’d look for me. He wouldn’t find me. And then he’d probably request—and be allowed, professional courtesy and all that—to review the security footage of me leaving the party and the path I’d followed from there.For a brief, shining instant, I almost felt relieved. Declan would look for me, he’d see the video and know—despair squeezed my chest into a tight ball.He’d see me looking nervous and running out of the building as i
The Alpha's Warlock This Won’t Go On
Chapter 18This Won’t Go OnDeclan hustled me out the door the second I emerged from the bathroom, ushering me downstairs and into a waiting limo. A nice one: black, not too stretched, no neon lights or anything tacky, nothing I’d have to be embarrassed about riding in.I tried to focus on how good it felt to be wearing decent clothes, going somewhere in a respectable vehicle, and for fuck’s sake, actually leaving the Morrigan and going somewhere, rather than on being in an enclosed space with Declan and our combined scents of sex and alpha desire.If I focused on that, I’d end up begging him to knot me in the car after all.The limo pulled out of the Morrigan’s driveway and into traffic on the Strip. It was Friday night stop and go. Maybe we had time for a fuck after all?“Where are we going? Am I allowed to ask?”“Not far,” he said, putting paid to my hopes. “A few blocks. If I’d been going with Wa—colleagues I probably would’ve walked. I thought you might appreciate going in style
The Alpha's Warlock I Missed Your Voice
Chapter 17I Missed Your VoiceSince I’d never slept in Declan’s bed before, I woke up confused, disoriented, and with a mouth that tasted like someone had murdered a particularly sandy desert and buried its corpse under my tongue.Well, that last part didn’t have anything to do with Declan’s bed, to be fair.I rolled over and groaned, throwing an arm across my eyes to keep the sunlight out, because someone had left the blinds wide fucking open when he got up and went to work.I knew I’d be fine once I had a couple of glasses of water and a bite to eat; hangovers weren’t really that much of a thing for werewolves without serious effort involving multiple illicit substances, and I hadn’t been to a party that good in like, six months. But seriously. Close the damn blinds. Fuck.It crossed my mind to find my phone, make some coffee, and send him a text complaining about the window.And then I sat bolt upright, head in my hands, and let out another groan.I’d slept in his bed. We hadn’t
The Alpha's Warlock Kind of Endearing
Chapter 16Kind of EndearingI woke up the next day just after eight o’clock, early by my previous standards but late by the standards of the company I kept these days. The cold coffee pot, holding only a few teaspoons of dregs, told me that Declan had been up and gone for hours. The usual hundred dollar bill sat beside it.That felt a little bit like I’d been slapped. I’d sat there and worked on that stupid spreadsheet for three full hours the day before without even getting up for a glass of water. I’d only stopped when Declan stood, put on his jacket, and told me it was quitting time.But apparently he assumed I’d be right back to blackjack and vodka today.Well, fuck him.I made a fresh pot of coffee, ordered some room service—an omelet, because I knew if I had any carbs at all I’d fall asleep with my face in the keyboard—and dressed in the closest thing I had to what the other people I’d seen in the offices had been wearing, black slacks and a blue button-down. I couldn’t wear a
The Alpha's Warlock Try Me
Chapter 15Try MeLetting it all go seemed easy at first.I’d spent so many years showing—and allowing myself to feel—only the most surface of emotions: anger, entitlement, arrogance. Under the circumstances, I chose to temporarily trade those in for indifference, apathy, and resignation, but it was just as fake and just as likely to keep people from looking any deeper.My family hadn’t looked any deeper. Neither had Declan. Clearly, no one wanted to.And it worked. When I didn’t try to fight back, didn’t bother arguing or demanding answers, Declan didn’t go out of his way to humiliate or torment me aside from the rough, careless way he used me. He texted me at some point during the day to let me know when he wanted me available to be fucked, I awaited him obediently, and he fucked me. Sometimes he put me on my knees instead, or in addition to. I opened my mouth or spread my legs, and I moaned and cried out when he made me come, but I didn’t talk more than I absolutely had to.I took
The Alpha's Warlock What’s Worse?
Chapter 14What’s Worse?Declan’s knot hadn’t gone down at all by the time I blinked my eyes open and slowly came back to reality, lying on my side with Declan wrapped around me from behind. The bite he’d left on my neck throbbed in time with my heartbeat. I could feel his, too, syncing with mine and vibrating through my back.And I felt safe again, which made me want to throw up and then run away screaming.Well, he’d already made me scream. Running away was out. And it’d suck to throw up all over the bed and be stuck here.Unfortunately, that left me with nothing to do but lie there enclosed in his arms listening to his steady breaths in my ear, savoring the heat of his body and the softness of the bed.Ugh. Savoring. I really was, and it made me swallow hard against a wave of real nausea.But it suddenly occurred to me that maybe Declan felt something similar. Pheromones. Hormones. Borderline mating-magic. I couldn’t be the only one completely at their mercy, could I? He might not
