~

Parker didn’t need telling twice. That hadn’t been his intention when he’d stopped her from leaving — but who the hell was he to look a gift horse in the mouth?

Parker brought his lips down on hers, soft, warm, but damn demanding. While his mate was in that frame of mind, he was surely going to make the most of it.

Kat had asked to be kissed and kissed she was. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but she should have known that the man was an alpha, and his kisses would reflect that.

They did. He took charge right from the start. There was no tempting, no teasing, he branded her lips and then deepened the kiss, staking his claim on her body, mind, and even her soul.

Kat didn’t like to think of herself as helpless because she had never been, and she never thought she would be. Until now.

Now, she helpless to resist the man’s charms — of which he had many — his kisses were only part of the deal. He was the whole package, his hard body pressed against her soft one — his strong arms wrapped around her — the way that her body was responding to his — everything — everything — was overriding any thoughts of doubt that she might have harboured even in the smallest, darkest space in the back of her mind.

Parker knew one thing. If he didn’t stop kissing her then he probably never would be able to until she was his. Lock, stock, and barrel his.

Claimed — mated — bonded — his.

Boy, did he want that? More than he’d ever wanted anything in the world before, or probably would again.

But what he didn’t want was to claim his mate in the damn den. He wanted her in his bedroom, laid out on his bed, where he could love her properly, and not take her like some drunken one night stand.

Parker used a hell of a lot of willpower to be able to pull back from kissing her. The fact that she clung to him didn’t help matters any, and he was so damn tempted to kiss her all over again that he felt an actual physical ache for that grow inside of him.

“Now, I have to say — I was only going to ask you about the danger level of this spell,” Parker whispered against her ear and felt her body tense just a little in his arms. Kat groaned inwardly and grimaced as she kept her face turned downward. “Glad I didn’t get that far.”

The fact that Parker chuckled was probably his undoing. Kat felt the rush of embarrassment as it collided with the white-hot anger of her temper and – like a damn stingray – she zapped him with everything that she had.

Parker was going down – there were no two ways about it. His legs were jelly, his muscles nonexistent, and as Kat sidestepped the alpha – so he face-planted the floor with a thud.

Kat’s face was so damn hot that she thought she just might have been able to fry an egg on her cheeks. But the good news was that her lost pride was now flat on his face on the carpet.

Jerk.

Kat snatched up the candles and turned for the door, but she bit down on the urge to run and crouched down beside him instead. When the alpha brought his eyes to her face, he narrowed them on her.

“There’s being a gentleman, and then there’s crowing – I suggest you rethink your actions and learn the first,” she bit out, and heard the deep groan that caught in the back of his throat as she pushed up and stalked off.

The alpha had just learned an important life lesson.

 

~  

~

 

“Where have you been?” Grayson asked the alpha when Parker stalked into the kitchen and eyed his mate as if he wanted to eat her alive, and not in a good way. “Enough said.” The beta chuckled as he followed his brother’s dark glare to the man’s mate.

“Do you ever get the feeling that fate is just screwing with you?” Parker growled.

“Did she kick you in the balls, again?” Grayson chuckled like Mutley as he tried to bite down on that sound.

He didn’t much feel like getting a fist in the face, and when Parker turned that hard stare on him, he held his hands up in surrender and tried for an innocent look.

“She did not,” Parker growled, and his top lip quivered slightly in annoyance.

“Don’t shoot me, brother, I wasn’t even the messenger – let alone the harbinger of doom in whatever this is,” he chuckled.

“That’s what she is…” Parker bit out in annoyance.

“The harbinger of doom?”

“One of the horsemen of the apocalypse sent to destroy me,” Parker growled as he cut his mate another dark glare.

“Damn, what did she do to you?” Grayson followed the alpha’s glare back to his mate, and Kat raised her hand, waved just her fingers at the alpha, and offered him a wickedly teasing smile.

Parker rattled a low, deep growl in the back of his throat.

“She looks so … innocent,” he bit out, knowing the woman was anything but.

“I thought she was offering you more the smouldering look of a sex-goddess myself,” Raff said, as he stood just behind the brothers, peering at the witch over their shoulders.

Parker half-turned in place and landed a punch on the vampire’s chin that snapped his head back on his neck and sent him reeling. Raff’s back hit the wall, and he held in place for a long moment, stunned as the beta tossed a look at him.

“Feel better?” Grayson chuckled, but when the alpha turned that killer glare on him, Grayson held his hands up to his chest again.

“Nooo,” Parker growled.

“Ouch,” Raff grumbled, and he cupped his chin and tested his jaw to see if it was broken. It clicked.

“Should I get Dusty?” Grayson offered with a wide grin. “The man makes a great punchbag.”

“I was thinking the same about you,” Parker growled.

“Touchy!” Grayson grumbled, and knowing when to cut his losses; he backed away.

Parker heard his brother chuckle harder and his top lip curled once more. He didn’t feel like he’d done enough punching yet, and his pride had taken a hit, but still, the witches looked as if they were ready to start their hocus-pocus and he tried to get a grip on the urge to kill someone.

“Just think as forever and eternally mated as guidelines,” Raff whispered over his shoulder, but when Parker turned to launch another fist at the man – he was gone.

“Damn vampires,” Parker grumbled.

“Wooing going well?”Bella chuckled as she walked by the alpha and Parker bit down on another curse.

“Everyone’s a damn critic,” he muttered.

“Man up, son,” Peter said, chuckling as he strolled across the room after Bella.

Parker grumbled another growl as he turned his attention to his mate. Kat pulled a sad face and ran her fingertip down her cheek from her eye like she was following a tear.

“Oh geez, I should just headbutt a damn wall until I give myself a lobotomy,” he grumbled.