Chapter 14
“I don’t like it,” Miguel said in that tone he had that sounded like a growl, which was surprising from a man who wasn’t part wolf.
My vampire was cuter than a sack full of puppies when he was ornery and protective. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face about that last bit.
“You think this is funny, Ethan? Well, it isn’t. You’ve been gone for several days. And even though we scrubbed you clean, you still smell like me. I don’t understand it but those shifters are bound to notice.”
“’Course I smell like you. We’re mated. You ain’t gonna wash that off. I didn’t realize that was why you were so, uh, thorough in the bath.”
My mate pulled me into his arms and nuzzled my throat. “It wasn’t the only reason I was thorough,” he whispered.
I couldn’t hold back the tremble. That bath had been like no other I’d experienced. Miguel had caressed every inch of my skin, outside and in, his strong hands slick with water and soap. Lord, that had felt good, my mate exploring me deep inside with a finger while he kissed me and milked my erection, not stopping until my knees were weak and I could barely breathe. I moaned at the memory and turned my head, aiming for Miguel’s mouth.
He sucked my bottom lip between his and licked it. I crowded against him, rubbing my swollen prick on his thigh.
“Miguel,” I moaned.
He wrapped his arms around me, cupped my backside, and then, suddenly, he jumped back. “Damn it!” he shouted, panting. “I can’t stop touching you and it’s only making my scent all over you stronger.”
I sighed. “That’s not…the scent isn’t from you touching me. It’s just my scent now that we’re mated. That there’s how it works.” I could tell from his expression that he didn’t understand what I meant. “That’s what happens with true mates. Once we tied, our scents wove together so we smell the same but different.”
“The same, but different?”
“Yes.” I nodded and stepped closer to him, so we were touching again. “My scent is still there, right? So I smell like me but I smell like you too. Your scent changed too. You smell like me now.”
“Shit,” Miguel said as he shook his head in frustration.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Is it so bad to share my scent?”
I didn’t realize how naïve and pathetic that question would sound until after I’d already asked it. The things I considered romantic probably struck my four-hundred-year-old mate as silly. Like sharing something as elemental as our scents. Or having him smell of me so nobody could doubt my claim on him.
“No, baby.” That deep voice washed over me, and I looked up, meeting Miguel’s gaze. “I didn’t realize our scents had changed, didn’t know something like that was possible, but I’m not upset about it. Actually…” He turned up one side of his mouth in a wicked grin. “I like the idea that you smell like me, like I’ve marked you so completely. But I can’t let you go onto pack lands now. I’ve seen what shifters do to vampires. It isn’t safe.”
“I’m not a vampire, and I swear, shifters never hurt our own. I’ll be safe. Besides, I don’t have a choice. I need to talk to Crissy, set up a meeting so we can explain about the pack lands being sold.”
“Fine,” Miguel said, agreeing too easily. “Then I’ll go with you.” He took a step toward the woods that made up the edge of Miancarem.
I grasped his arm. “You know you can’t go onto pack lands, Miguel. It’d be considered an act of aggression.”
“A walk in the woods is considered aggression, and you actually think shifters aren’t the cause for the violence between our kinds?” he said sarcastically.
I wasn’t going to get into another debate with him about who was at fault for the divide between vampires and shifters. I wasn’t sure either of us had the answer. And, besides, it was a pointless argument.
“Whatever the cause, that’s how things are now,” I said. “But we’re aiming to fix it, right?”
“Fix what? I’m not on some goodwill mission representing vampires, Ethan. Even if I wanted to do that, I can’t speak for anyone but myself. No vampire can. We don’t have packs and Alphas. We have autonomy and personal responsibility and—” He sighed deeply and stopped ranting, probably realizing that line of talking would end in an argument. “Besides, that’s not what I want to do. I just want to make sure you don’t lose your family like…” He trailed off and closed his eyes for a few beats. “I can’t keep you safe if you go onto pack lands without me,” he said softly.
“I’ll go straight to Crissy’s den and back,” I assured him. “It won’t take me but two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
“A wolf making sheep references,” Miguel said with a roll of his eyes. “Will wonders never cease?” I didn’t think he expected an answer to that question, so I didn’t give him one. “All right. You go to your sister’s house, no pit stops. You tell her where to meet us tomorrow night, then you come right back to me.”
I put my hands on his shoulders and stretched up until our lips touched. “Always,” I whispered. “I’ll always come back to you.”
He threaded his fingers in my hair and pulled me closer, then tilted his face and pressed his mouth against mine roughly, teeth nibbling, tongue licking until I opened for him. Then he pushed his tongue past my lips, thrusting and tasting, devouring. By the time he released me, my lungs were heaving and my shaft was throbbing.
“I’ll give you an hour, wolf,” he said. “One hour. Then I’m coming after you.”
I nodded and then walked into the woods in the direction of Crissy’s den. Though it surely wasn’t possible, I felt like my mate’s gaze was glued to me even when the thick brush and trees had me hidden from view. It was comforting, the idea of Miguel watching me. I laughed internally at how crazy that sounded—a shifter comforted by the idea of a vampire following his every move.
But it was true. I felt comfortable with Miguel. Comfortable and safe and right. Seeing as how I’d never felt right around nobody, myself included, that was really saying something. It was like the man had been made for me, or, considering he’d been walking the earth long before I was born, it was more accurate to say I’d been made for him. Or maybe we were made for each other. Whatever the words, the point was clear. And, as if in direct reaction to my thoughts of my mate, my blood pounded through my veins, stronger, faster, louder. I wanted to feel his breath on my skin, his fangs piercing my veins, his mouth drawing out my blood in long, hard pulls.
Come back to me. I heard his words in my head, or maybe I felt them in my heart. Either way, I quickened my pace, anxious to finish my errand so I could return to my mate.
Strong as I was now that I’d mated, it didn’t take me long to get to Crissy’s den. I ran fast, the exertion feeling good whereas before it would have hurt my limbs. The slap of branches against my skin barely registering whereas before the touch of anything was akin to a burn. The change was amazing and all because of the long-haired man waiting for me, the man who didn’t want to let me go. I smiled, feeling pleased as punch, and quickened my pace.
Shortcuts kept me off the main roads and allowed me to reach my destination faster. And before I knew it, I was standing in front of my sister’s door.
The door swung open before I could knock. “Ethan!” Crissy hissed as she yanked me inside and closed the door behind me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me tightly. The silence lasted but a few seconds and then the barrage of questions started. “After I got your note, I didn’t count on seeing you none for a long spell. Is everything okay with your mate? What’re you doing back here on pack lands? Nobody saw you, right? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? Let’s sit down.” She pulled me toward the couch and sat next to me, taking my hands in hers. “Tell me everything, right quick,” she said excitedly.
I didn’t have time right then to catch her up on everything I’d learned and experienced in the short time I’d been away. We’d have time for that later, I hoped.
“I can’t stay,” I said. “I’m here to—” I stopped mid-sentence. “Are the boys in bed?” I asked, not wanting to risk having one of her young overhear our conversation.
“Yes,” she answered. “They’ve been asleep going on an hour.”
“Okay.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I need you to come into Kfarkattan tomorrow night. Meet me in that alley where you found me last time. There’s some papers you’ll want to see, and Miguel needs to explain what the humans have planned.”
“Miguel?” she asked.
“My mate,” I clarified.
I hadn’t told her my mate’s name in the note I’d left behind, figuring the paper could get into someone else’s hands, and giving anybody information about Miguel would have put him in danger. All right, then. Maybe there was something to my mate’s assertions that my kind was a bit hot under the collar.
She leaned in and sniffed me. “You really done found your true mate.” Her smile was wide and genuine. “And he really is a vampire. How about that.”
I returned her smile, pleased as punch that she could share my joy. “So can you come?” I asked again. “Alone,” I clarified. “No one can know about this.”
“Of course,” she answered.
“Like hell you say.” Richie’s voice caught us both off guard. I jerked my head toward the hallway and saw my brother-in-law glaring at us, his arms crossed over his chest. “You ain’t going into town on your lonesome to meet some bloodsucker.”
My heart dropped.
“Fine,” Crissy said and met his gaze head on. “Then I reckon you’ll be taggin’ along.”
I didn’t argue. Richie was family, and I figured we’d need all the help we could get.
He didn’t respond to my sister right away, just stood in place, not moving a muscle other than the one in his jaw that seemed to have developed a tic. Eventually he gave a sharp nod.
“It’s a plan,” Crissy said joyfully.
“Good.” I squeezed her hand and got up from the couch. “I have to go. Miguel’s waiting on me. Tomorrow night, the alley from the other morning, we’ll talk more.”
“I told my sister we’d meet them in the alley.” I cupped my hands on the window and pressed my forehead against them, squinting as I looked past the street outside and over to the alley beyond. We were in an abandoned building across the way from the alley. “They’ll never be able to see us all the way over here,” I said to Miguel.
“That’s the point,” Miguel muttered. He had walked over when my back was turned, and as he spoke, he circled his muscular arms around my chest and burrowed his face into my hair. “We’ll see them first, so we’ll know if they bring reinforcements.”
I turned around and traced my mate’s shirt collar before grasping it and pulling him down so our eyes were level. “I already told you that it’ll just be Crissy and Richie.”
“You also told me your sister would be meeting us alone. I didn’t hear word one about a husband until after you went over there by yourself. What if he had hurt you?” He’d near about lost his mind the first time I’d mentioned Richie, and now he was getting ramped up all over again. His arms flew in the air as he spoke. “Did you think about that? What if I couldn’t get to you in time?”
“Why would he hurt me?”
Miguel shrugged. “How the hell should I know? Those shifters attack for no reason. They can’t be trusted. Especially the males.”
“Those shifters?” I asked as I raised one eyebrow.
“You know what I mean,” Miguel muttered.
Strange though it was, I did know what he meant. My mate was worried about me.
“I’m just fine,” I told him. “Ain’t nobody hurt me none.”
Miguel grunted and wrapped his arms around me once more, pulling me close. I straddled his thick muscular thigh, pressed my rapidly expanding prick against him, and rocked just a tad.
“Does that thing ever go down?” he asked with a chuckle. “Because I’m pretty sure you’re hard ninety percent of the day.”
I blushed and stopped moving. “Sorry,” I said as I looked down at my feet, feeling suddenly uncomfortable about my out-of-control hormones. “I’m not usually like this, honest. It’s been just since I met you. I can stop, though.”
Miguel took my chin between his fingers and tilted it up until my gaze met his. “Only since you met me?” he asked gruffly.
I nodded.
He dipped his head and whispered into my ear. “I like that, wolf.” He swiped his tongue across my lobe and then sucked it into his mouth. “I like that a lot.” Then he cupped my backside in those big hands and squeezed tight as he tugged forward, encouraging me to rock again.
“Yeah?” I asked. “’S okay?”
He didn’t answer with words, just grunted and shoved one hand down the back of my pants while he worked my zipper open with the other. “What time is your sister supposed to be here?” he asked, his voice as rough as his hand was gentle. He kneaded my backside, fondled the sensitive skin in my crease, and got closer and closer to the puckered hole he seemed to enjoy massaging and penetrating with his thick fingers.
“We didn’t set a specific time,” I answered in between pants. I cried out when he encircled my erection with his warm hand, and then I thrust forward, desperately seeking friction.
“Good.” His voice was husky, his pupils dilated. “Because I need to take care of you before we entertain your family.” And with those words, he worked one finger inside me.
“Miguel!” I shouted.
“You like that?” He stroked my hard length faster and pumped his finger within me at the same pace, crooking it just so and touching a spot inside that made me tremble. “I like making you feel good, wolf.”
My hips rocked madly as moans and whimpers fell from my mouth. And then, just when I was about to spill my seed, my mate dropped down to a squat and sucked the head of my erection between his lips.
“Ah!” I shouted as I shot over and over again, filling his mouth with my release.
My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the ground, dropping my head onto Miguel’s thighs. My chest heaved as I tried to take in air, and my heart felt like it was pounding strong enough to break my ribs.
When my brain finally regained some function, I realized that the scent of my mate’s arousal was strong. The heat from his engorged shaft was close to my lips, separated by the thin layer of cotton he wore. I reached for his button and looked up, asking for approval with my eyes.
He caressed my cheek and graced me with a smile so tender it made my heart skip a beat. “Only if you want to, baby,” he said.
I’d been longing to taste him so I dipped my face until my lips were pressed against the bulge in his pants and then I mouthed the fabric-covered hardness as I unfastened his button. I had to pull back long enough to lower his zipper and shove his pants and briefs down over his erection. It was brown and thick and so unbelievably hot. I whimpered as I rubbed my cheek against it, then my lips, and finally my tongue—long swipes intermingled with short laps.
Miguel’s breath quickened, and he clutched my shoulders tightly. When I took his crown into my mouth and sucked hard, he gasped and thrust his hips up, pushing himself farther inside.
“Yes, Ethan!” he shouted and then warm fluid splashed onto my tongue, the taste of my mate strong and arousing.
I swallowed and sucked and licked until he pushed my head back and sat on the ground. I climbed right onto Miguel’s lap, straddled his hips, and flung my arms over his shoulders. He tangled his fingers in my hair and held my face still as he gazed into my eyes.
“Good?” he asked me.
My nod seemed to give all the assurance he needed. He relaxed and shoved his hand underneath my shirt, then rubbed circles on my back. I rested my head on his shoulder and enjoyed the feel of his strength and warmth.
“Do you hear that?” Miguel asked after some time.
I lifted my head and perked my ears up. “That’s my sister,” I said.
Miguel took in a deep breath. “It’s showtime.”