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Authors: Tami Lund

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BOOK: Dawning of Light
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Why in the hell was he so damn attracted to her? It was stupid. So they’d been naked together. So she literally fit perfectly with his body. So they showered together. So she’d propositioned him, and then when he pissed her off, she went and climbed into his bed and went to sleep. So she was temptation walking. All very valid points.

But his job was to protect her—at his pack master’s command—and frankly, that command superseded any stupid-ass fantasies he might have of grabbing her and pushing her to her knees and screwing them both blind. In the end, she would still be Cecilia, a frustrating and sometimes annoying lightbearer, and he would still be Finn, a shifter living amongst and attempting to protect the lightbearers from his own damn kind, and—oh yeah—they barely got along.

“Go to Olivia,” she suggested, still angry, those bright blue eyes still spitting fire. He was mildly surprised she wasn’t throwing magic bombs at him by now. She was well and truly riled.

“Hell no,” Finn said. “I’m not running the risk that the queen gets wind of this and then does something really stupid like try to mate us. Hell, Tanner’s so hung up on his own lightbearer mate that he might try to do the same damn thing.”

She gasped as if he’d doused her with cold water, and then she wrapped her arms around herself and fought hard to keep the hurt look off her face. Which hardly mattered, because he could
feel
her injured feelings.

She wore a pair of his sweatpants that were about seventeen sizes too big, and a T-shirt that was equally as large yet did nothing to hide the outline of her perfectly pert breasts.

He should have suckled them when he had the chance, damn it.

No—he made the right choice. He turned away from the look on her face, because he did not want to feel guilty and therefore do something stupid like pull her into his arms and try to reassure her that he didn’t really mean to be such a jerk.

“I’ll go get our clothes from the beach,” he finally said, with his back to her. “You can probably use your magic or something to dry them off.”

Without waiting for her acknowledgment, he pushed through the door and shifted into the form of a wolf and went charging through the underbrush.

* * * *

While he was gone, Cecilia blatantly wandered through his cottage, snooping as she went. She did it on purpose because she was so angry with him that she wanted to get back at him for saying such mean things to her. Finn struck her as a pretty private guy, so she had no doubt that checking out his personal belongings would definitely piss him off.

She found a box of condoms in the drawer of the bedside table, which didn’t surprise her in the least, although she did wonder with whom he used them. As far as she knew, he only ever left the coterie whenever he went chasing after her. Which meant he was no doubt sleeping with at least one of her fellow lightbearers. She wondered which one, and angrily pushed back at the surge of jealousy. She most certainly did not want to sleep with Finnegan Hennigan, at least, not anymore. Sleeping with jerks—even utterly gorgeous, sexy-as-sin jerks—was not her style.

Next to the box of condoms, she found a feather. She pulled it out of the drawer. It was about eight inches long and was white and fluffy. The apex of her thighs tingled as she imagined that feather skimming across her body, tickling and tantalizing her—
oh my
. She shoved it back into the drawer and slammed it shut. She so did not need to know Finn had a propensity for a little kink. Especially not when she herself had the same damn propensity.

His wardrobe was basic and typical of a shifter, so she assumed. Lots of jeans and dark T-shirts. Only two dress shirts and one pair of slacks. Apparently he didn’t often have occasion to dress up. She found the underwear drawer and noticed that the contents were awfully sparse. She quickly closed it and wondered—was he even wearing undershorts under his jeans right now? The temperature at the apex of her thighs increased again. She had to get out of this area of the house.

She went into the bathroom, but there was nothing of real interest there, other than a stack of plastic-wrapped toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet. So he was a considerate one-night stand, was he? Either that or he’d been a dentist in a past life.

The kitchen was pretty typical of a single male, utilitarian and with basic functionality. His fridge contained lots of beer and cold cuts and containers of leftovers that looked as if they were from the beach house.

Was he sleeping with one of the cooks? Somehow, she could see Finn doing that. Served two purposes—he got laid and he got fed.

She wandered into the living room, and that was where she finally found an inkling of his personal life. A photo album, the type people ordered online by e-mailing pictures and choosing a specific style. The company then sent a ready-made photo album, with glossy pages of pics.

She flipped the pages and admired pictures of shifters with copper-colored hair, smiling and laughing, hugging and teasing. Most had similar features, which told her they were related. A young, beautiful female and two handsome boys in various stages of life featured prominently, although occasionally there would be another male in the pic that she guessed was the female’s mate. He was the only one who had dark hair instead of coppery.

There was a picture of the female, another male, and Finn with an older couple, in which Finn and the girl and other boy looked terribly young. Just hitting puberty, she guessed. There was another of Finn, with the same young man and young woman, plus the other male shifter she saw in previous pictures. They all had their arms slung over one another’s shoulders, and were all smiling for the camera, but there was a trace of sadness in Finn’s eyes that was unmistakable, at least to Cecilia. She traced her fingers over the picture and wondered why he was so sad.

“Since when did you become so damn nosy?”

Cecilia jumped at the sound of Finn’s voice, even as he snatched the photo album out of her lap.

“Stop sneaking up on me,” she snapped as she fought the blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Stop snooping around my house,” he snapped back, but his eyes were on the album in his hands. He stared down at the same picture she had been admiring.

“Who is she?” Cecilia asked quietly.

“My sister,” he said shortly.

“Who are the others?”

Finn’s gaze stayed riveted to the picture. “My brother, Reid. My sister’s mate, Ben.”

“Why do you look so sad in that picture?”

He lifted his gaze and caught hers. “We’re all smiling. What makes you think I was sad?”

She shrugged. “I can tell, I guess. It’s in your eyes.”

* * * *

He looked down at the picture and traced it with his fingers, just as she had a moment earlier. He could still feel her magic on the page. He could also smell the scent of her arousal, and wondered at it. Surely she was not still hoping—

“That’s the last time I saw her. The day she and Ben mated. He was from a different pack.” He pointed at the dark-haired young man in the picture. “The only reason she got to go with him was because of my standing within our pack. And even then, I had to accept a challenge from one of Quentin’s other guards in order to let her go.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means Quentin was fucked-up in the head, and he got off on making people’s lives miserable. He knew Felicia wanted to be with Ben, and he knew I cared enough about my family that I would do what I could to help her be with him. So he locked me in a cell with the biggest, baddest shifter in our pack and told me if I won, he would give Felicia and Ben his blessing and allow Felicia to leave with him.”

“She couldn’t just go? The pack master has to give his approval?”

Finn nodded. “I don’t know if you know how our mating ritual works…?”

Her pink-tinged cheeks told him she certainly did know.

“Well, even if you mate shifter style, you still have to have the pack master’s approval. He could have actually made the mating null and void, if he wanted to. He could have forced Felicia to stay in our pack and sent Ben back to his own pack.”

“I take it you won?”

Finn shook his head and continued to stare at the picture. “I got the shit beat out of me, and I nearly died. Quentin let her go anyway, claiming he never intended to say no, he just wanted to watch a good cockfight.”

“Oh my,” Cecilia said with a gasp, staring at him as he stared at the picture.

“Then, after she left, he informed me that I was strictly forbidden from ever visiting her, and if she ever came back to visit the rest of our family, he would never let her leave again. She sends me these photo books once a year, but I haven’t seen her in probably eight or nine years. I’ve never met my nephews.”

She touched his elbow. He gave a small start but did not pull away. “You could visit her now,” Cecilia pointed out. “I cannot imagine Tanner would forbid you. And if he does, you let me know and I’ll make sure he lets you go.”

Finn blinked at her. Was she really trying to be his champion? He didn’t need a freaking champion. He’d done just fine all on his own until now.

“I can handle it,” he said brusquely. Then he added, “Your clothes weren’t there. None of our clothes were there. So you’re down to three choices: go home wearing what you have on, I’ll go collect clothes for you, or strip naked again and go home that way. No, wait, that isn’t an option because I don’t want you to develop hyperthermia again.” Nor did he want to take the risk that some other guy would see her naked.

“How could our clothing not be there?” Cecilia wondered out loud, echoing Finn’s own thoughts.

Their clothes hadn’t just disappeared. Someone had taken them. There hadn’t been any tracks in the snow other than his and Cecilia’s, but he’d noticed the telltale signs that indicated someone had deliberately covered his footprints. And he’d felt the shimmer of lightbearer magic, far too strong to be more than a few hours old.

He wondered if it was the same someone who’d tried to drown Cecilia while she’d been paddling around in her kayak. That wave had been far too big, compared to the rest of the lake. He had a bad suspicion that it had been magically constructed.

He wasn’t ready to speak his thoughts out loud yet, but he couldn’t help but wonder if someone didn’t have it in for Cecilia. If so, who? And why? He determined he would have to keep an even closer eye on her until he could figure out what the hell was going on.

“No idea,” he said with a seemingly nonchalant shrug. No point in worrying her, until he had real, solid proof. Once he did, though, he’d shove it in her face until she saw reason and made sure she actually watched her own back and paid attention to her surroundings and under no circumstances whatsoever traveled outside of the coterie without him by her side.

Although, if his suspicion was correct, and the person out to get her was one of her own, well…Cecilia might soon discover she had a shadow all the damn time, whether she was inside
or
outside the coterie.

“I cannot believe this is happening,” she fumed, and then she stormed out of the room. When she returned again, she wore one of his two dress shirts with his single tie wrapped around her waist like a belt. She was so short compared to him that the tail of the shirt fell below her knees. On her feet, she wore his snow boots, which had to be a dozen sizes too big. They reached all the way to her knees, and she had to shuffle when she walked, or else they fell right off her feet. Finn tried hard not to laugh at the ridiculous image she portrayed.

“Don’t you say a single word,” she warned him as she waggled a finger in his face. “I swear I’ll conjure a sword and show you how competent I’ve become since you began forcing us all to learn how to defend ourselves. I’m going home now. I’ll return your clothes at some point. Goodbye, Finnegan.” She lifted her head high and shuffled out of his house. He waited for the count of ten and then followed.

He followed her through the woods and as she skirted the path leading from his cottage to the village proper. He didn’t stop until he was at the edge of the stand of trees bordering the property around her parents’ cottage, and he didn’t turn away and return to his own home until she’d stepped inside. She would be safe enough within her own parents’ home, and he needed time alone to do some investigating.

Chapter 4

Cecilia managed to slip inside the back door and into her bedchamber without anyone seeing her—thank the lights. She knew she looked ridiculous, but she’d determined the dress shirt, belted with Finnegan’s only necktie, was slightly better than walking around in a pair of his sweatpants that she had to hold with one hand in order to keep from falling to her ankles.

She shed the clothes and boots, taking only the briefest moment to breathe in his unmistakable masculine scent, and then she pulled on a long-sleeved wool dress and a thick pair of woolen socks. The shower, snuggling in Finn’s bed, and her overzealous libido had all helped to bring her body temperature back to normal, but she still felt just a little chilled, and the temperature outside hadn’t warmed all that much.

She brushed the tangles out of her hair and then took a deep breath, plastered a fake smile on her face, and left the sanctuary of her bedchamber to face the parents whose voices she heard drifting down the hall.

“Oh—what are you doing here?” she blurted when she entered the room. Samuel Parsons was sitting at the dining room table, sharing a casserole with her parents.

Cecilia’s mother, Lacey, turned and gave her daughter a reproachful look. “Cecilia Marie, do not be rude. Samuel stopped by and brought this delicious casserole. He made it himself.” She beamed, her smile full of pride. “Come, sit and join us.” She waved at the empty chair at the table.

Feeling trapped, Cecilia reluctantly sat and watched her mother scoop a mound of delicious-smelling casserole onto her plate. Deciding eating was necessary, even if the food was a blatant attempt at wooing her, she dug in.

“So where did you go off to this morning, dear?” Lacey inquired as Cecilia ate.

“Down to the beach,” she replied between bites.

BOOK: Dawning of Light
8.35Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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