Desire Awakened (Aaron's Kiss #13) (21 page)

“Dominate me. Please, I need it too. Logan,
I need for you to dominate me and claim me.” As if her giving him
permission was enough, he sank his fangs into her shoulder and came
inside of her. Reaching to her pussy, he pinched her clit and felt
her tighten around him. Lifting her up so that she rode his cock,
he rested on his toes and knees as he offered her his wrist. As
soon as she bit him, Logan felt the power he had within him pour
from him into her. The circle, or whatever it had been, was
complete.

Moving forward, he laid her on the bed and
lifted from her. She lay there lax, but he could tell she was sore.
Going into the bathroom, he got a warm washcloth and a towel. He
went back to the bed and cleaned her up. She rolled to her back and
looked up at him when he finished.

He could see her mark on her breast just
above her heart. It looked just like his. When he touched it, his
own burned, and he looked into her eyes.

She smiled. “We’re a pair. I’m not really
sure of what, but we’re the same. We’ve given each other whatever
you were given from the Fates today.”

He nodded, tossed the clothes away, and lay
down beside her. “There was something in me that needed to dominate
you. Have you ever…I know you’ve never had that done to you before
and I’ve never had the desire to do it either, but something made
me want to take you that way.” He held her close. “How can we find
out what that was?”

“I’ll have to ask someone at the castle. The
three you have…well, we both now have, is from the Fates. The
rest…I don’t know.”

He felt her fall asleep in his arms and he
lay there thinking about it. He’d forgotten to tell her what else
the Fates had given him, the ability to use all the power she’d
given him, for one, and wondered if whatever he’d given her was
something she’d just know how to use as well. He closed his eyes
and thought of the child they’d have. He put his hand over her
belly. He was going to love seeing her swollen with their child and
knew that Mathew would as well.

Bradley moved along the tree line, watching
the five wolves to his left. They were his men and they weren’t
very happy with him right now. Well, tough shit. He was going on
this hunt, and they could very well get over it or go home. He had
promised Aaron that he’d make sure that the woman and her wolves
were no longer a threat, and he was damn well going to do it. A
movement out of the corner of his eye made him pause. Then he
started cussing.

“
I thought I told you to stay
home.”

Airic growled low at him as she came up
beside him.

“
Damn it, woman. You might get
hurt.”

“
So might you. Besides, since when have I
ever listened to you when you ordered me around like one of our
cubs? Never. So I’ll tell you now, shut the fuck up and let’s get
this taken care of so we can go home. I’ve got a kiln I have to
turn up in three hours, and I don’t want this thing to get in the
way of it.”

He thought about telling her to go back
again, but didn’t want to embarrass himself. She would roll him and
show him who was boss again, and he didn’t want to have to go
through the ribbing again. Smiling to himself, he thought of the
payback he’d give her later and decided that it might just be worth
it to tell her, but something in front of them moved. Everyone,
including her, stilled and dropped down to the ground.

“
There are seven of them. One female and
the rest males.”

Bradley nodded at his brother
David
.

“
They can’t be more than a few years
older than my oldest.”

“
But they were warned to stand down or
else.”
Bradley had spoken to their alpha again, and had been
assured that the leader of this group of rogues had been told to
come home two days ago. Now they were in direct violation of the
pack laws that had been handed down from generation to generation
for as long as there had been weres. He reached for the leader, a
man by the name of Ollie Wright, and felt the connection
immediately to him and his group of wolves.
“You are on pack
land that you’ve no permission to be on. I’ve spoken to your alpha,
and he claims that you’ve been ordered home and that fines will be
paid.”

The leader stepped out of the shadows.
Bradley was pretty sure he couldn’t see them yet, and thanks to
Sara, he wouldn’t be able to scent them either.

“
You have the wrong information. We are
with a female of great power and she said that we have her
permission by order of the queen of…”

Bradley watched him turn and another wolf
came to stand beside him
.

“
Queen of magic. She called her to be
here.”

Bradley felt the stir of magic around them,
and then Mel was standing before them. His men knew her and lowered
their eyes from her as a show of respect. Mel was one hell of a
woman and sweet as could be, but when a person fucked with her, she
was as mean as his grandmother had been when she was on a roll.

“Do you know who I am?” Mel asked the wolves
in front of her as they stood still in the light of her magic. None
of them moved to either bow or to step forward.

“
You’re the queen, I suppose, but you’ve
no claim over us. Our female said that you were all puff and not
much in the way of magic. But she did say that you gave her
permission to find the woman and her male.”
Ollie sat down and
yawned before he continued
. “She said to tell you if you had a
problem with us being here to come talk to her and she’ll
straighten you out.”

Bradley nearly laughed when Mel turned to
look at him. Ollie had dismissed her as if she were nothing. Her
face said that she was pissed, but her body language said she was
as relaxed as she could be. Shamus shimmered beside her and looked
over the pack of wolves. When he stepped forward, Bradley went with
him. Airic stood just in front of Mel to protect her if need be. As
soon as Shamus spoke, Bradley knew that he’d be able to hear what
was being said to Shamus from any of the other wolves.

“This is Bradley Wolfe, alpha of the
Brotherhood of the Gray, the largest pack in the world. Have you
heard of him?”

Ollie yawned at Shamus as he spoke to
them.

“I see. You’re incredibly stupid. You know
that, don’t you?”

“
Stupid? Nah, I don’t think so. But I’ve
seen our female’s magic, and she’s got it all together. You and
that queen over there have put her here without cause and she just
wants her payback.”

Shamus nodded.

“
So if you guys don’t mind, we gotta find
the woman called Lizzy and a man by the name of Logan. I think you
might know where they are.”

“Yes, we do.” Shamus crossed his arms over
his chest and smiled. “And you can have her on one condition. Just
one, but you all must agree to it.”

“
A condition, huh? Well, I’m not so sure
about that. The female we work with has sort of got us all tied up
in conditions right now. I don’t know if we can take on any
more.”

Shamus leaned down to face the wolf eye to
eye. “You give over and I won’t have these wolves behind me kill
you. Because no matter what Megan has told you, you’re going to get
your asses killed if you go near my friends. Not that I think you
can take them either, but…” Shamus shrugged. “Would you like a
little taste of what they can do to you?”

The wolf looked at him. Bradley knew what
Ollie saw—an older wolf with a little gray at his muzzle. What he
didn’t know—and wouldn’t until it was too late—was that he had a
great deal of magic within his blood, some of it from the man he
stood beside. The wolf nodded that he wanted more proof, and
Bradley leapt.

He had the other wolf down and his canines
deep into his throat. A sharp move or even a slight one would have
him bleeding. Bradley had a feeling that it wasn’t going to end
well for the leader of this small pack. Shamus laughed when Ollie
whimpered.

“You are stupid. Did you really think
because of his apparent age, he would wait for you to say anything?
This man is a great leader among his men and has survived many
attacks much larger than this one and has come out the winner.”
Shamus ran his hand over his fur. “If I release him from you, will
you leave this area now?”

“
No.”

Before the word was out of his mind and into
Bradley’s, he tore his throat out. Shamus stepped back as the rest
of his pack attacked the rogues. It was over within minutes. He
walked beside Airic and sat beside the queen as Shamus turned
toward them. All seven of the others were dead and his men were
unharmed.

“This was a great loss for our kind,
Bradley. Thank you for making it quick.”

Bradley nodded.

“You’ll have to find Megan now. But only
find her. Lizzy will need to deal with her, don’t you think,
Mellie?”

“Yes. This war that she opened is between
the two of them now.”

When she ran her hand over Bradley’s head,
he felt a surge of power that nearly knocked him over.

“For what you’ve done for me.”

She disappeared along with Shamus a few
minutes later. Bradley looked around at the carnage and then at his
mate. She was smiling.

“
She has all the power in the world and
then some and can’t ever clean up the mess she leaves behind. Why
is that, you suppose?”

Airic snorted.

“
Just so you know, you got whatever she
gave me too.”

“
I know. I feel younger already.”
She
stood up and started away, then stopped and turned back to him.
“If you hurry up and get this cleaned up, I’ll make it worth
your while, alpha. I have a powerful need to run with you, and if
you’re a very good boy and don’t bitch overly much about this mess,
I’ll let you take me any way you want.”

She ran off in the direction of their house,
and Bradley turned back to David with a grin. He was looking at the
bodies that had to be dealt with. As much as he wanted to run after
his mate and play, he wasn’t that sort of leader. He shifted when
the others did, and dressed.

Gathering the bodies took more time than he
thought it would, but they had found things on the bodies, marks
that had caused them pause. When Bradley had asked for Shamus or
Mel to come back to see them, they had brought in Phillip as well.
The marks were of black magic. These men had been marked by magic
that none of them had seen in a very long time.

“It’s Megan’s mark. Just like the one she
left before we’d asked her to leave the kingdom. She’s been
practicing on these wolves in a dangerous way.” Phillip stared down
at the female that had been mutilated not in the attack, but by a
magic that had left her deformed and scarred.

Most of them had been burned badly by magic;
a few of them had been permanently changed to a wolf. The leader
had been harmed in such a way that had he lived, he would never
have fathered a child. She’d hurt him that badly.

“I’ll take care of them. We cannot bury them
in the forest or it will die trying to heal from this.” The bodies
were suddenly gone and Mel turned to him. “I’ve contacted Lizzy and
Logan. They’re aware of what had happened here. I would ask that
you and two of your most trusted men go with them when they
confront Megan. I’ve asked Colin, as well as Aaron and Kyle to go.
A show of force, if you will.”

“Will they be able to defeat her?”

Mel nodded at David’s question.

“Then I should like to be there with them. I
may not be able to help much, but if you need a show of force then
I would be honored to go.”

Mel nodded and then looked at Bradley. “You
must go as well. But I will speak to your mate. It isn’t as if I
think she can’t handle herself, but I would like for her to stay
with Sara. She won’t like not being able to help her daughter.”

“I understand.” And he did. When his own
daughter had been hurt a few months back and Mac had saved her for
him, he’d been nearly insane wanting to be with her. But he would
have been irrational, and that wouldn’t have helped anyone.

Bradley started back for his home and
wondered what had happened that this had become so bad. He’d heard
stories about the woman who’d gotten her father killed and her
mother nearly mortally wounded, but not everything.

Shamus appeared beside him as he walked.
“The story told is that the royal guards were there to protect the
queen, and Megan’s father was killed in the process. Her mother had
been wounded as well by one of the men that are always there to
protect the queen. This was before I mated with Mellie, but I have
heard it from her, not the rumors. Would you really like the
story?”

Bradley nodded. He liked this king. He was
personable and very friendly. And he loved his mate as she deserved
to be loved. Mel and Shamus ran a good kingdom, and the two of them
had five children, three girls and two boys, that showed how much
they loved their lives as a truly mated couple. Shamus smiled when
Bradley turned to him to ask him about the surge he’d felt.

“If you wish, you may have more children.
She gave you a gift of life for both you and your mate.”

Bradley grinned.

“You would like the story or your mate now,
Bradley the Alpha?”

He glanced in the direction of his home and
knew that when he got there, the gift would still be theirs to use.
He looked back at the king and knew that if they were to finish
this, it would be important to know what they were doing it
for.

“Megan had been tutored by Sherman to be a
great mage. The problem was that she got greedy and he got stupid
with her powers. It is rumored that he gave her the book of spells.
He had stolen it from Phillip and had been using it with Megan to
change what was in it. The spells of black were something that
should never have been written down, but Phillip said that he
wanted to be able to reverse whatever they had been used upon.
Without the spell, it would be impossible to repair the
damage.”