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You Always Have a Choice
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2024-10-30 14:35:22Related chapters
The Alpha's Warlock Cats Always Land on Their Feet
Chapter 11 Cats Always Land on Their FeetThinking started with taking a shower. Matthew wasn’t waking up for a while, and my skin was crawling with the sensation of filthiness. Washing off Matthew’s come was priority one. It felt like he’d marked me as his, and I didn’t know what to do with the mix of reflexive horror — I didn’t belong to anyone, dammit! — and arousal that left me with.Once I’d washed, extensively and thoroughly, it still felt like he’d marked me, like physically removing the evidence of how he’d had me wasn’t close to enough.It was weird, because that wasn’t how it’d worked before. I was good at washing that man right out of my hair, to grossly misuse a really awesome musical number. After what Parker had done to me, I’d felt more lingering disgust over that shaman watching than over Parker himself. Yeah, I was furious, and yeah, I wanted revenge and would never forget how it felt — but I didn’t feel dirty. Once I washed enough to get his lingering scent off of
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock On the Hunt
Chapter 12 On the HuntEven if you ignored the infestation of vamps, Lancaster was a shithole. Okay, sure, it was supernatural-friendly, and it had an all-organic grocery store — which just pissed me off, because it made me think of Matthew’s Prius. But it was a shithole all the same.Laceyville, the even smaller town a couple of miles from the edge of the Armitage territory, didn’t even qualify as a shithole. More of a shit stain, since that was all that was left. The paper mill closing had killed it.Lancaster, on the other hand, had a thriving cannery and a few vineyards (the latter all owned by Fenwick), and there were campgrounds that brought in tourists of the more bearded and smelly variety. The cannery didn’t strike me as a particularly desirable place to work, but at least it kept the locals mostly in beer money.Gods, but I wanted a beer.It’d taken me two full days plus a few hours to reach the edge of Lancaster, about forty miles from the edge of the Armitage territory.
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock Keep Your Enemies Closer
Chapter 13 Keep Your Enemies CloserAfter a stunned pause, Colin’s eyes widened, and he let out a sharp crack of laughter. “Shamans are so fucking weird, dude. Really? A fucking bobcat?”Now, I’d never found Colin particularly attractive; he wasn’t quite tall enough, and his muscles were overdeveloped, and he had light hair and brown eyes, and he didn’t hold a candle to — other people. Even so. He was looking at me as I stood in front of him naked, and laughing. And calling me weird.“Do you want me to burn you alive or flay your skin from your bones, or would you rather try again?” I glared him down, my nose in the air. How dare he? And then I crouched down to dig my clothes out of my backpack, because he didn’t deserve to see me naked.He made a choking sound that was probably another stifled burst of laughter. “I apologize,” he said completely insincerely, holding up his hands in a ‘come on now, calm down’ gesture that only infuriated me more. “Just — I didn’t expect it. What the
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock Break on Through to the Other Side
Chapter 14 Break on Through to the Other SideGetting out of the Kimball territory was as easy as getting in. By two I was on the highway heading east, straight for the Armitage territory. I knew I needed to conserve my strength for later, but I put a little burst of magic into the car. Not exactly an illusion, like the one I’d used to obscure the license plates, but a little something to confuse any cops with a radar gun into thinking I was going the speed limit.Not that speed limits were much of a thing out here in the boonies, but the Kimballs owned half the police around here. And I was short on time.At least I wasn’t getting tired yet. I’d slept most of the day, and I was still wide awake.More than wide awake, since my brain was running in circles like a meth-addled hamster. Somehow I’d gone from working with Jonathan Hawthorne, to being the Armitages’ prisoner they wanted to kill, to escaping, to now going back to the Armitages voluntarily.And somehow I’d also gone from en
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock Taken
Chapter 15 TakenIt wasn’t long before I knew they were there. They must have parked farther out and walked in, which was why they’d taken a little longer — but they were there. I could feel their life forces approaching when I extended my senses, reaching out through the forest’s rich green to find the smudges of alpha-red and regular old werewolf-orange.Nate reached across our carefully arranged spell components, holding one hand palm-up and the other palm-down. I matched him, and we joined hands, going into that space under the mundane world where the energies flowed, visible to those with the talent and training to see them.The book’s incantation only required one vocalization, so I let Nate take the lead on that, concentrating on echoing his meaning with my own power.The spell built between us. It layered, and folded, and started to thrum with magic. We could hold it for a bit, but then it’d need to go somewhere — which meant Matthew and his pack had to lead our attackers int
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock Disenchanted
Chapter 16 DisenchantedWhat was left of the night passed in a hazy blur. I heard Colin say, “Matthew, you look like shit, let me carry him,” and then I felt Matthew let out a low, warning growl. After that I was in motion — kind of lurching motion at first, as Matthew was still healing. But his arms around me were bliss. Warm and strong and careful. I dozed. I was safe, and as weak as I was, I followed my instinct and trusted that implicitly.Trusted Matthew implicitly.Then the arms were gone, and for a moment I was cold. Then there was some kind of blanket.And then I slept.I woke, blinking slowly, to shafts of early-morning sunlight filtering rosy-gold through a set of dusty blinds. I was on a couch, not a bed, but it was a pretty comfortable couch, and I stretched just like the cat I was, arms over my head and toes pointed.Fuck, that felt good, working out all the kinks from being clawed and kidnapped and flung into a tree and then healing it all.I propped myself up on my el
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock Fuck Me, or I’ll Find Someone Who Will
Chapter 17 Fuck Me, or I’ll Find Someone Who Will“Hey!” I shouted. “Hey, come back here!”Matthew was already way, way down the path, walking as fast as he could without outright running. What, he couldn’t wait to get away from me? Good luck, Arik, and then making his escape so he wouldn’t have to give me another thought?I chased after him, my feet pounding on the path and sending up muddy spatters.“Hey!” He finally turned, his face drawn and wary.I slammed into his chest with my hands outstretched, palms flat. He rocked back on his heels but didn’t even stumble, which only pissed me off more.“What the fuck, Matthew? What the fuck? You just wish me good luck, and that’s it?”“What more do you want from me? Arik — what the — stop it —” I whacked away at him, pounding my fists on his chest and then swinging for his mouth. He ducked back, and my knuckles glanced off his jaw.Quicker than I could match, he caught my wrists and held them out to the sides while I tried to kick him in
Last Updated : 2024-10-30The Alpha's Warlock Well, This Is Awkward
Chapter 18 Well, This Is AwkwardOf course, getting bacon and eggs wasn’t as easy as it sounded in theory. Matthew’s knot went down at last, and I wriggled around a little until his cock slipped out of me.And then we were left with the quiet, sticky aftermath, separating our melded bodies and going back to being two entities who needed to find our clothes and had aches in odd places and couldn’t quite meet each other’s eyes. My shirt was still intact, albeit dusted with dirt and tree detritus, and my jeans were fine. Nate’s magical socks didn’t have a speck of dirt on them, and even as distracted as I was I took a moment to be impressed. I needed another shower so badly, but at least my socks were pristine.But Matthew’s shirt was in little scraps all over the ground, only the seams still mostly holding together with a few sad threads in between. It looked like it’d gone ten rounds with whatever alien Captain Kirk had been fighting that week.So when we stepped out onto the path ag
Last Updated : 2024-10-30
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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
