~

 

“Inside me — now,” It was the best that Saffy could do.

She didn’t have the breath to laugh, but if she had, then she surely would have chuckled at the look on his face. He twisted his head on his neck and gave her a dopey, hungry, zoned out kind of an expression, before a mental slap on the back of his head sent him crawling up and over her body on his hands and knees.

Damn, he looked sexier than ever. All of those muscles working under the skin, his dark eyes locked and loaded on hers, and that thick, long cock waving a not-so-subtle hello in her direction.

If she had been a she-wolf, then she would have growled for all that she was worth at the sight of his cock. She more than understood the need to claim her mate.

She wanted him buried deep inside of her. Needed him there.

The sound of his hungry growl and the look in his eyes told her that she was about to get her wish. She couldn’t wait any longer and reached for him again.

Again, Doug snatched at her wrists and pushed her hands back against the bed.

“Still no touching,” Doug growled for all that he was worth.

“But I want you to lose control,” Saffy said, and that was when she saw something click into place in her mate’s eyes.

His growl grew deeper — like gravel over gravel — and as he lowered his body down, and she felt the hard press of his cock against the rim of her channel, and she almost begged for more.

There was no need to beg — with a long growl of pure pleasure he pushed inside of her. Saffy’s body opened for him, welcoming him, and she squeezed her inner muscles around his length and got a damn sexy grunt in reply.

“Be careful what you wish for…” Doug growled.

“Especially at Christmas — it’s the most magical time of the year,” she grinned with mischief, but she wasn’t grinning when he pressed home, buried himself to the hilt, and devoured her lips like a hungry beast, she was moaning in pure pleasure.

Mine…

Doug’s beast was trying to claw its way to the surface. Its only intention was to claim their mate, bond with her, and end the torture of uncertainty that it had felt for too long.

Doug needed more time. His hips started a rhythmic dance with hers. His hard cock devoured her. He needed to take her up towards another orgasm before he could even contemplate placing his bonding bite into her flesh.

It was a shame that his fangs didn’t understand that. His beast pushed forward, taking advantage of his little brain taking over from his big brain, and there wasn’t the damn thing that he could do about it.

Doug released her wrists and pushed backward onto his knees. He brought her up with him.

His fingers fisted her hair, and he pulled her head to one side to open her neck and shoulder to his will. He growled long and hard at the sight of her skin just waiting for his mark.

He could feel that her inner muscles were already tightening around his cock, making him work harder on every thrust, and sparking the hope within his beast that they were going to bond soon.

Saffy was making the kind of noises that was making it harder for him to stay in control — but control was almost laughable at that point — the moment that he brought her to pleasure he knew that he was going to be lost inside of her.

Doug’s hips moved faster. The heady sound of skin against skin only propelled him onward.

Then he felt the moment that her whole body became frozen in anticipation of what came next. He dipped his head toward her shoulder and opened his jaws — his fangs were poised to bite.

The moment that Saffy cried out with release; Doug bit down into her flesh, placing his mark, as he held her body locked tightly against him. His beast roared within him as it reached for her soul.

Body to body — soul to soul — they became mates for life.

The taste of her blood against his tongue made his beast roar within him. He released his fangs, cleaned and sealed her wound with his tongue, and battled against the fever within his blood to complete the bond.

Doug couldn’t hold back a moment longer. The feverish need to plant his seed within her womb claimed him to his very soul.

He rose up onto his knees, keeping her wrapped around his body, as he thrust to the hilt on every stroke of his cock. Over and over, his hard, thick length devoured her, bringing her up toward another release, and making her inner muscles clamp down hard around him with so much pleasure that he thought he was going to go insane.

That need for release clawed within him like his beast. His fever grew — his hips work harder — until that moment when she came undone around him once more, and the hard clenching release of her inner muscles around his cock literally sucked his seed from his aching balls.

Doug got as close to her as was humanly possible. He buried his cock deep within her on every thrust as his seed exploded against her womb.

He wrenched his head back on his neck and howled until the windows shook in their frames. Over and over, and over again, until he had nothing left to give — until he was done — quivering muscles and all.

Doug came back to her with a jolt of realization that his body was weak, and his muscles were in danger of not holding them up a moment longer. He took her down gently to the bed with him, wrapped his body around hers protectively, and only then could he allow himself to fully relax.

The alpha had wooed and bonded with his mate. Perhaps Christmas wasn’t so bad after all.

Christmas had brought his mate to him. He would definitely embrace the Christmas spirit every year from that moment on.

 

~

~

~

 

Rex stopped in mid pour from the bottle of Scotch in his hand and took stock of the room around him. Everything was shaking with the depth of tone from the alpha’s mating howl.

He turned his attention towards his mate who was sitting on a stool on the other side of the countertop in the kitchen. Christie narrowed her eyes on him.

“Don’t get any ideas,” she hissed and then nodded her head at the bottle. “Keep pouring.”

Rex’s shoulders moved up and down in a silent chuckle as he did her bidding and poured her a decent sized shot of Scotch. Then he used his index finger to push the glass toward her.

“I was just thinking…” He started, but she cut him off.

“A man thinking — not always a good outcome,” she offered, keeping her eyes down on her glass, as she brought it to her lips and savored the first taste of the fiery liquid.

“It could be worse…”

“Don’t go there…”

“It could be a witch thinking.” He waited for her to slowly raise her gaze to his face and then he offered her one hell of a sexy, taunting grin.

“See, you had to go there — and then you wonder why you get zapped,” she backed it up with just a little magical sting in the tail, or where his tail would have been if he was a beast.

Rex grumbled a growl. Her magic hadn’t hurt him any more than a bee sting would have, but it was the symbolism that he thought he needed to share with her.

“Don’t zap me.”

“Don’t growl at me…” She offered back.

“How am I not supposed to growl at you?” Rex frowned, bringing his eyebrows toward each other in a mating dance.

“How my supposed to not to zap you?” She offered him back a small shrug.

“It’s not the same thing…”

“A course it is.”

“No, it’s not. A wolf growls…”

“And a witch zaps…”

“Would you have me deny my beast?”

“Would you have me deny my magic?”

“N-o-o-o,” Rex said the words slowly, drawing it out as long as he could because he was unsure.

It was shaky ground that he found himself on, and he didn’t know quite how to handle it.

“There you go then,” she waved an absent hand in the air and went back to sipping her drink.

“I need a recap…” Rex looked confused.

“You can be you, and I can be me — and neither one of us should try to change the other one.” Christie shrugged her shoulders.

“So you get to zap me?” His eyebrows danced again.

“And you get to growl.”

“That sounds like something I could live with,” he still looked a little confused.

He was sure that he’d missed a step along the way there somewhere.

She had the smallest of smug smiles that turned her lips upwards at the corners. He felt like he’d lost a battle.

Then it hit him head on just what she was proposing. Even if she hadn’t meant to say it, well, she had.

“So, recap — you’re going to do what you do — I’m going to do what I do — and we’re going to do it together.” He watched as the glass hesitated at her lips.

Her eyes locked on his and narrowed.

Oh yes, he’d won that point.

Tick — tick — tick — tick — she was thinking that one over.

“Somebody is getting a little ahead of themselves, don’t you think?” Christie said as she mentally kicked herself in her backside and berated herself for speaking out of turn without thinking.

“I’m just following your lead…”

“I can say something really funny about mutts on a leash…” She waved an absent hand in the air between them. “But I won’t.”

“I could say something funny about witches on a broomstick, with pointy hats…” He watched her eyes narrowed again. “But I won’t.”

“Touché,” Christie said as she lifted her glass in a toast to him.

“Now, let’s get back to talking about doing things together,” Rex grinned.

“Let’s not and pretend we did,” Christie offered back before putting the glass to her lips and sinking the rest of her drink. Then she clanked the glass down onto the countertop and pointed towards the bottle. “Keep pouring.”

 

~

~

~

 

“Well, that’s me for bed,” Natalie announced after the shock of hearing the alpha’s mating howl had worn off.

“Wait — what?” Jonathan was still lying on the floor and was still wrapped in the stupid Christmas tree lights that he could not seem to be able to break.

He squirmed his body against the hardwood floor and managed to shimmy a little more towards his mate.

“I think I’ll sleep very soundly in my bed tonight, especially, as you’re a little tied up,” Natalie chuckled as she turned on her heels and started towards the stairs.

“Positively harmless,” Tom chuckled from his place in the seat beside the fire.

“You can’t leave me like this all night!” Jonathan growled and grumbled as he shimmied along the floor a little more.

“A girl has to have something to unwrap on Christmas morning, don’t you think?” She tossed over her shoulder as she started up the stairs.

The heady sound of Jonathan’s growl of annoyance reached out to her, at the same time that the elder’s deep chuckles reached her ears. Her only wish was that she could have thought of it sooner.

What better way was there to keep a wolf on the hunt from getting its prey?

“Natalie!” Jonathan called out after her, but her feet didn’t hesitate on the stairs. “This is not funny!” He yelled as she disappeared from sight.

“Yes, it kind of is,” Tom chuckled as the beta growled in annoyance.

The sound of the front door opening sent a chill through the beta, but it had little to do with the frosty breeze that blew inside. He knew exactly what was coming.

“Wow, what did I miss?” The vampire announced as he walked up to the beta and nudged him with the toe of his boot.

“Don’t even go there!” Jonathan warned on a hearty growl.

“But it’s Christmas — and Christmas is supposed to be full of fun. And this — this is fun,” Jake informed him as he reached in the back pocket of his jeans for his mobile phone, took it out, swiped it to the camera and took as many pictures as he could through the tears of laughter that filled his eyes.

“Don’t you just love witches?” Tom chuckled.

“Not right at this moment, I don’t!” Jonathan growled.