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There’s No Ritual
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2024-10-31 22:40:32Related chapters
The Alpha's Warlock One Life or One Death
Chapter 12 One Life or One DeathWithout taking even a moment to do anything sensible, like peek out the window to see who was there, or glance in a mirror to make sure my hair looked okay, I leapt up and went to the door, flinging it open without hesitation.And as I’d hoped, Jack stood there, hands in his pockets, shoulders held tensely under his leather jacket.This time the jacket made me smile.He made me smile, helplessly, from his short black hair to those icy blue eyes—not so icy right now, since they shone with hope and something that could have been longing—to his well-shaped lips, and then down, all of the strength and solidity and wonderfulness that was Jack.We stared at each other for an endless, breathless moment.“Hi,” I managed, and then swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat.“Hi,” Jack said. And in his low voice, that one syllable sounded a lot like Please kiss me, Angelo, I’ve missed you so much.Of course, that could’ve been my imagination.“
Last Updated : 2024-10-31The Alpha's Warlock Throw the Dice
Mismatched Mates #7The Alpha's Gamble Chapter 1Throw the DiceIn my experience, private casino back rooms were plush, quiet oases, well stocked with top-shelf liquor, with absurdly attractive staff on call to cater to my every whim. Chairs so comfortable you could sleep in them, or even fuck on them—the staff really would cater to my every whim.I shifted in my seat, plastic armrests creaking, trying to find an angle for my ass that didn’t squish it against unyieldingly flat metal.My mouth had gone so dry I’d have killed for even a lukewarm glass of nasty Vegas tap water.My poker rooms had always been stocked with chilled Alpine mineral water.New experiences were highly overrated.Fuck this. All I’d done was mind my own business, doing my best to keep from getting crushed in between my overachiever little brother’s single-minded drive to rule our family company with an iron fist and my parents’ obsession with maintaining the perfect image of a wealthy, high-profile pack full of
Last Updated : 2024-11-02The Alpha's Warlock A Moral Debt
Chapter 2A Moral DebtMacKenna had said he owned the casino, so I was a little surprised when the two security goons escorted me not to the very top penthouse of the place, but to a—still very expensive, of course—suite a couple of floors below that. The room I’d been given twenty-four hours ago, before they figured out what had happened to my finances, was a floor above this one, in fact.Apparently MacKenna wasn’t one for taking the maximum perks he could. I would have. False humility on his part? Or maybe he’d overextended himself financially and needed the income from the penthouse? Well, not like I could throw stones in that direction.One of the goons opened the door, they all but shoved me inside, and the door shut behind me, leaving me alone in a spotless foyer with a huge, gilt-framed mirror hanging over an end table. I tried not to look, but I couldn’t help glancing to the side.No, being manhandled off the casino floor, left to stew for hours, and being interrogated and h
Last Updated : 2024-11-02The Alpha's Warlock Playing with Fire
Chapter 3Playing with FireMacKenna lounged back into the sofa again, obviously trying to look like he couldn’t give a fuck.But he wasn’t fooling me. His big body sang with tension, and the hands he’d taken from my wrists and rested on the cushions beside him had balled into fists. His chest rose and fell faster than normal respiration would account for.The way his trousers seemed to be about to give way from the force of his erection clued me in, too.Maybe that ought to be my way of making my fortune once I got free of MacKenna: a clothing line for alphas. Guaranteed to stand up to the force of an alpha cock! Even when you’re about to grudge-face-fuck someone you’re blackmailing!I tried to choke back a hysterical laugh, but I’d forgotten my mouth was hanging obediently open, and it came out as a weird, strangled yelp.MacKenna grinned at me, more like a shark than a wolf. Although his teeth would’ve done any predator, shifter or otherwise, plenty proud.“Your hands and mouth ar
Last Updated : 2024-11-02The Alpha's Warlock So Sue Me
Chapter 4So Sue MeWaiting for the other shoe to drop was fucking torture. I took a long, boiling-hot shower, shuddering as I scrubbed the dried come off of my groin and shuddering again as the vigorous rubbing started to get me hard again.I gathered my suitcases from the hallway where they’d been left while I showered, and I got a pair of clean underwear, thank all the gods above and below. I didn’t unpack any more than that. My stuff had an odd scent to it, as if whoever had packed it for me had been wearing an unusually offensive cologne. It made my nose tingle, and I shoved the bags into the closet and shut the door, hoping the smell would dissipate overnight.And then I slept, for some definition of sleep, tossing and turning and waking up twisted into a pretzel.When I dared to poke my nose out of my room halfway through the next morning, hunger finally winning over wanting to pull the blankets over my head and stay there forever, the suite was silent. The kitchenette yielded
Last Updated : 2024-11-02The Alpha's Warlock Eight Minutes
Chapter 5Eight MinutesThe walk to the bedroom felt endless. All the stalling and attempted mind games (which I’d lost, and the clenching in the pit of my stomach and the sweat on my spine made that abundantly clear) had distracted me from the reality of what we were going to do.But I didn’t have any distractions now, not with MacKenna practically breathing down my neck and the doorway of his bedroom looming in front of me.His bed loomed even larger when I stepped through. I’d been a little taken aback by his impersonal lifestyle, the way he didn’t splash out as much as he could have with little luxuries even when it would’ve made him more comfortable, but his enormous bed made me reevaluate. It had to have been brought in custom; maybe they’d even had to remove part of the wall.More than big enough for two alphas.And it looked sturdy enough to hold up to the force of an alpha fucking an alpha, too, with its heavy dark wood frame. No footboard, though.The better to bend you over
Last Updated : 2024-11-02The Alpha's Warlock You Can Tell Me How It Feels
Chapter 6You Can Tell Me How It FeelsMacKenna didn’t bother telling me what to do next. Maybe he realized I had all the coordination and motivation of a wet noodle.I didn’t resist as he put his big hands on my inner thighs and shoved my legs up and apart, splaying me open with my upper body and my face still mashed into the now-ruined duvet and my ass in the air.When he touched my ass, I flinched involuntarily—expecting another hit, no matter what he’d said about counting to eight.“Fair’s fair,” he said, reading my fucking mind again, the bastard. Was I that transparent? Not that I’d ever put much effort into hiding how I felt. I just carefully felt only things I could show. Those weren’t exactly the same thing. And MacKenna had me so off-balance that I couldn’t curate my emotions anymore. They were coming faster than I could handle, and not controlled at all. “No more spanking. Unless you ask me nicely.”I bit my lip and kept any words that wanted to escape safely inside. I mig
Last Updated : 2024-11-02The Alpha's Warlock Uncanny Valley Territory
Chapter 7Uncanny Valley TerritorySleeping off the spanking and the fucking and the knotting and the hideously disconcerting personal revelations took me a full twelve hours.Unfortunately for me, those twelve hours started after my shower, which meant they ended when I popped awake, panting and with my heart racing from a dream I couldn’t remember, and fumbled for the clock on the nightstand—which told me it was 3:27 AM. I flopped back on the pillows and blew out a long breath, flexing my fingers to get my incipient claws under control. Whatever dream I’d had, it’d almost pushed me to shift. I hadn’t shifted fully in a long time. That might have been part of the problem. Maybe I needed to run.Like that was going to happen, in the middle of a city and stuck here at MacKenna’s beck and call.But on the other hand…I eyed the clock again. Now it read 3:28 AM. Time sure did fly when you were having fun.Fuck. It wasn’t like I was a prisoner, right? And Las Vegas was a 24/7 kind of plac
Last Updated : 2024-11-02
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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
