Fighting Heaven for Love (18 page)
“Fuck.” He’d just made matters worse for himself when the scent of her aroused pussy filled his lungs. “You’re trying to kill me.”
“You’re the one who just made me come,” Meg said between her clenched teeth. She was breathless now, and a fine sheen of perspiration glistened on her back.
The dress she’d chosen for their wedding had a slim scrap of silk that fastened around her neck, leaving her back fully exposed nearly all the way to her ass. He and his brothers had nearly had heart attacks the first time she’d turned around.
Since the ceremony had finished they’d made sure one of them was standing close behind her unless she was on one of their laps. No one was seeing that much of Meg’s skin except her mates.
Prescott stalked toward them, his expression thunderous. He squatted down and took Meg’s lips for a long passionate kiss. When he released her mouth, they were both panting. “Do you realize how embarrassing it is to get an erection in front of our mother?” Prescott glared at Caleb, but had a smirk on his lips.
“It’s his fault.” Meg pointed to Caleb over her shoulder. She pulled Prescott closer and whispered something in his ear that had him growling loudly.
“When can we leave?” Prescott’s eyes were bright amber and his canines were pushing into his bottom lip.
“It’s too early to leave,” Lachlan said. He bent to kiss Meg and had to adjust his erection in his dress pants when he pulled away.
“You can’t leave yet,” Kaitlyn said. She’d been standing behind them, but most of the guests were shifters, so Caleb imagined the whole room knew they wanted to take Meg home and have their wicked way with their new wife. “You haven’t cut the cake, or had the first dance.”
“It took me three days to make that tower of delicious magnificence,” Brody said.
Meg jumped and then playfully slapped Brody’s arm. “Stop doing that, you’ll scare me to death one day. Of course we aren’t leaving before cutting the cake. Thank you, Brody, it’s the most beautiful cake I’ve ever seen.”
Caleb marveled at the change in his mate over the last four weeks. She’d been beautiful and alluring when they’d first seen her in this very tavern a month ago, but now she was an irresistible vision of womanhood. Being free from a homicidal maniac stalker really suited her.
“There’s a vampire near,” Brody said. He looked around, his eyes wide, his normally pale skin having lost what little color it had.
“Take her,” Caleb said. He stood and placed Meg on the floor next to Brody.
“Wait,” Aiden said. He appeared next to Kaitlyn and grasped her hand firmly. “I can’t read the vampire’s thoughts, but whoever they are, they have a wolf with them. The wolf is injured and I can hear the vampire talking to it.”
The space around Caleb filled with bodies. Landon and Elliot came to stand behind Brody, Sean came to stand in front of Kaitlyn, and the Walsh brothers stood behind Caleb and his brothers. This new vampire would have to kill a lot of shifters to reach Meg or Kaitlyn, let alone getting past Aiden.
“Brody,” Caleb said. “Can you wait a moment? It might be better to take Kaitlyn first if she turns out to be the target of an attack.”
“I’d have taken her already if I thought that were the case, Caleb,” Aiden said. “This wolf is badly hurt and the vampire is telling her that we can save her.”
Snarls filled the air as all the shifters scented blood. Caleb’s roar shook the tavern and silenced his pride. “Let them through.”
In the next instant a tall dark-haired woman stood before them. Her hair was long and straight, the pupils of her almond-shaped eyes were a fiery red. She held a small wolf in her arms. The wolf’s eyes were a dull copper color, and her coat was matted with dirt and blood.
“I need your help,” the vampire said. “It’s started. Everything I feared would come to pass has happened.” She looked at Aiden and held out the wolf to him. Aiden took the wolf and it whimpered softly.
Howls sounded behind Caleb, and the howls were of pain. Enough pain that it drew Caleb’s attention away from the vampire. He turned in time to see Josh and Shane Walsh streak from the room in their shifted forms of giant arctic wolves. Brayden, their elder brother, shook his head and moved through the crowd of shifters to Aiden’s side.
“It’s all right now, little one,” he said softly. “We’ll keep you safe.” He reached for the wolf and Aiden smiled sadly as he relinquished the injured wolf to Brayden.
“They’ll come around,” Aiden said.
“I’m ashamed to say I was dreading ever finding her,” Brayden said. He lowered his head and placed a kiss on the wolf’s head. The wolf shuddered and closed her eyes. “My brothers are both so terribly broken.”
“Maybe she’s what’s needed to finally heal them,” Aiden said. Brayden shook his head and sat down in the nearest chair. He gently rocked the now sleeping wolf.
“What’s come to pass?” Prescott said. The look he was giving the vampire woman was coldly hostile. “What danger have you now brought to Pine Falls?”
“Look at her,” Aiden said. “Tell me you don’t know who this is Sean?”
“I have never seen her before,” Sean said. “But I know she’s a vampire.” Caleb felt as confused as Sean obviously was, but the hairs on his arms stood on end. This was going to be bad news for his pride.
“You must be Isabelle,” Aiden said. “Let me introduce you to my mate, Kaitlyn. Your daughter.”
Caleb roared out his rage. It wasn’t bad news, it was terrible news. The vampire Selwyn Graves needed to die. He knew in his heart that this trouble was caused by him. Caleb would not consider failure in keeping his pride safe. This new addition of Brayden and his brother’s mate only added to his motivation to end the threat the vampire held for Pine Falls. The thought that had him on the edge of turning feral, however, was that now both Kaitlyn’s cub and Meg’s was going to be in danger.
THE END
I live in a quiet bush suburb north of Sydney, Australia. I was born in England but have lived in Australia since I was a child.
I have been an avid reader since I was twelve years old. My first series of books were Nancy Drew, and they have left me with an enduring love for mystery and suspense novels. I do love romance, though, so I write what I would love to read, which will always have strong heroes and a happily ever after. What girl doesn't want that? My love of fantasy has let me explore the paranormal genre, and I love the way it lets me escape reality for a little while.
My hope is that people will enjoy reading my books as much as I have enjoyed writing them
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For all titles by Ashley Malkin, please visit
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
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