Inevitable: Shifters Forever Worlds (Only After Dark Book 5) (6 page)

B
lack Glade Bayou
, Louisiana

L
eandra shifted in her seat
. Clothing and shoes instead of barefoot in her usual practically threadbare chemise. A formal meeting at the Black Glade Coven Hall, that was the occasion behind Leandra’s dressing up.

Her lips curved into a smile from the early morning’s visit from Theo. Two months. She’d seen Theo Ricoletti regularly every few days now of the last two months. His visits were the one thing she had to look forward to in her life. She couldn’t keep the pace of hiding him from others forever. Their relationship would be known quickly at this pace.

Michelina, the interim leader, rose to her feet. “Council needs to find a new leader. We’ve gone long enough without one.”

“We’ve managed fine so far. What’s the rush?” Leandra asked.

“Adelise put the matter on the agenda.”

“Of course she did.” Leandra barely controlled the sneer that threatened to mar her features. She turned a tight smile toward Adelise and her sisters, all sitting at the table catty-corner to her own.

What a time to be sitting alone at a table. It really hit home, times like these, that her Mémé was gone. That Lucia wasn’t around. And as for Rochelle—Leandra couldn’t bring herself to call her mother, Rochelle had never sat at this table, to Leandra’s knowledge.

She tried to focus on what the other witches were discussing.

“Technically, the leadership position would belong to a Mathieu,” declared Councilmember Michelina. “But things have changed. Latrice chose to have a shifter’s child, making herself unable to be leader. Rochelle has spurned the coven. Lucia is the offspring of a shifter, so automatically not qualified to lead witches.” Michelina turned accusing eyes toward Leandra. “And you…” She shook her head, as if in disbelief.

Or maybe it’s disappointment
, Leandra pondered.

Michelina’s eyes glowed in the dim room as she continued. “You have chosen to cavort with shifters. Specifically, a lion shifter. Or so word has it.”

The smirk on Adelise’s face told Leandra exactly who had told the council this information.

Mémé had always said that she’d wanted the leadership back in their family’s control. Leandra had wanted to make her grandmother’s dream come true—but was it really Mémé’s dream? She had given up that dream willingly herself, to have the child of Étienne.

Maybe it wasn’t Leandra’s responsibility. But at the same time, it galled her to think that Adelise’s family would be able to take control of the coven that her grandmother’s grandmother once led.

A commotion at the doorway drew all eyes in the room.

She turned her head to see what the fuss was.

Rochelle walked in.

Except this wasn’t the mother she remembered. The mother she hadn’t seen in more than a decade.

Rochelle was different.

The room released a collective gasp.

“Rochelle.” Michelina stood, her black gown majestic as it draped her body.

Leandra glanced between the woman who’d given her birth, and Michelina, who’d been responsible for some of Leandra’s early training.

Rochelle was resplendent in a crimson dress that was so dark it glowed like a glass of merlot in front of a candle. Her skin, always so pale, compared to Leandra’s, glowed a ghostly white.

Leandra didn’t need an explanation. She knew why the room gasped, and she knew why Rochelle’s skin was so fair. When Rochelle’s fevered black and crimson eyes rested on Leandra, the difference in her mother was apparent.

She’d been turned.

Rochelle Mathieu had become a vampire.

Her mother was now a vampire.

The enemy.

Rochelle’s gaze was more like a glare as she stared at the daughter she’d scorned and rejected. Then she turned her eerie stare and focused on the council. “Michelina.” A small scoff escaped from perfectly glossed lips. She shifted her weight slightly, from one foot to another, turning her attention to Adelise. “You think yours can take away what belongs to my family?”

“Since when am I your family?” The whispered words escaped Leandra’s lips before her brain could clamp her mouth shut. Leandra squeezed her hands into fists, pressed them into her thighs, pushing against her own flesh, wishing she were anywhere but here. Anywhere at all.

Rochelle swiveled toward Leandra slowly, with deliberate moves. One perfectly arched brow rose. Disdain crossed her features. She shook her head.

I see I still disappoint you.
Leandra thanked the stars she managed to think it and not say it.

Could a vampire hurt her? She’d faced vampires before. She could kill a vampire.

But could I kill a vampire that’s also my mother?

Rochelle left the room. Behind her, the witches’ conversations were like a loud buzzing sound in Leandra’s mind. She couldn’t pick one conversation apart from another one.

So much buzzing going on.

A gavel pounding on wood brought the room to a silence.

“Enough theatrics and distractions. We have a purpose for today’s meeting, vampires aside. We’ve been hired to protect a shifter—one Alexandria Arceneaux.”

“Since when do shifters hire us to protect them?” Leandra asked.

“Since we can provide a service and they have something we want.”

“Pray tell what that is.” Leandra tried, but couldn’t remember ever seeing this Alexandria

“Territory. Without a fight. No battle. No bloodshed.”

Since when does a witch run from a confrontation.

Surely they could take this territory by force.

Michelina raised her hand, as if anticipating Leandra’s objections. “A majority vote has been taken. The coven is in agreement. All that’s left to decide is who is going to do the deed."

“The deed?” Leandra asked.

“The lion shifter security guard must protect the Arceneaux woman. A spell, to have him fall in love with her, guarding her, with his life, this must be done.”

Leandra fought back the gasp. She couldn’t allow this to happen. She couldn’t have another witch handling this, making him fall in love with the Arceneaux shifter woman forever. There was only one option. Especially if she didn’t want to lose Theo.

“I’ll do it.”

B
lack Glade Bayou
, Louisiana

L
eandra kneeled
and studied the track.

Definitely a large feline, but not as large as Theo’s lion’s tracks were.

And it was fresh.

Could it be?

“Lucia. Come out.”

Lucia stepped out from between the overgrown cypress trees.

“You are good,” her aunt said.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” Leandra studied her aunt, wondering why she’d come, why she didn’t send a postcard, and why she’d stayed away since that last postcard, the one that had her join Theo.

“You must do this. It is written. If you do not do what is fated, if you try to avert… the shifter will not live.”

How does she know what I’ve agreed to do?

“What do you mean, exactly.”

“There’s no reason to pretend that I don’t know what you’ve agreed to, Leandra. And I know why. Everything is as it should be, but I wanted to be sure you had no hesitations.”

“But I do have hesitations. Lots of them. He’s the man I—he’s—Theo is…” Leandra sucked the bayou’s air in but couldn’t get enough to make her struggling lungs happy.

Or maybe it wasn’t her lungs that weren’t working so much as it was that her heart was struggling not to break.

“Lucia.” Leandra closed her eyes briefly to compose herself, then opened them again. “The spell I’m to put on him—what if I don’t do it correctly? What if he falls in love with this Alexandria? What if they bond?” Her heart tightened, squeezing with a ferocity that brought tears to her eyes.

“I will help you put it together.”

“You? But you are not a practicing witch.”

“That doesn’t mean I wasn’t trained in the craft of our family.” Lucia gave her a nod. “Let’s go. We have work to do. Your man will be back tonight, won’t he? From his trip?”

A shiver crossed over Leandra. How did her aunt know so much? “He returns tonight.”

“And as usual, you will be the first thing on his mind.”

Leandra couldn’t help the smile that crept to her face. She knew Theo made seeing her a priority.

“How long must I keep the farce up?”

“You will know. Trust your visions.”

“What if it’s a dream? Wishful thinking while I lay in a half-asleep state?”

“You will have to discern and be honest with yourself. You know the price.”

“You never visit during times of joy, do you?”

Sadness passed over Lucia’s face.

“Seems that is my role, these days.”

“Who do you answer to? Where do you get all this information?”

Lucia shook her head. “It’s not for me to tell. Maybe it never will be.” She rolled up her sleeves. “Let’s get to work.”

* * *

T
heo’s pulse
raced with excitement. He hadn’t seen her in a few days, but it felt like it had been an eternity. He made his way through the undergrowth, ignoring the scratches from thorns and errant branches.

On stilts that were watermarked, depicting how high the water had risen at various times, and proving the stilts were needed, Leandra’s grandmother’s cabin was an unpainted, weathered wooden structure, not much bigger on the outside than the cabins at Arceneaux Point. Entrenched tightly amongst the rot-resistant cypress trees, the building looked as if it had been there for ages, the roots and branches of the trees had begun to grow around the cabin’s frame, making it appear as if it were an organic, nature-created creation. From the roof of the cabin a ladder, part wood, part rope, rose and rose and became lost amongst the tall trees in the swamp.

Mist surrounded the ramp that connected the slight cabin’s wraparound dilapidated porch. The entrance of the ramp was half-buried on solid ground, then it extended over the water, eventually touching the porch.

Leandra stood in the doorway of her grandmother’s cabin, the light behind her casting her body in a tempting silhouette.

She was clad in one of the threadbare chemise she wore when she was at home, alone, in the bayou.

The way the fabric clung to her curves, the way the material was diaphanous in just the right light. It was far more magnificent than anything else he could imagine her wearing.

She was regal.

She was royalty.

She was Theo’s first and only love.

She was his.

Theo would die rather than be with another.

His lion roared in agreement.

Theo’s strides became longer, faster as he hastened his way up the ramp to meet the love of his life.

His lips closed in, swooping down like a bird of prey. His mouth crashed into hers, and his tongue drove in, branding and claiming.

Leandra returned the kiss, and he could see that her own passion was fueled by his.

She pulled away, held him at arms’ length and studied his face as if trying to memorize his features. A glimmer of melancholy shone in her eyes briefly.

The scent of her—a heady fragrance, sweet, with a hint of the herbs she kept in the cabin—filled his lungs, teasing his appetite with a suggestion of her flavor. He dropped into a gulf of yearning. The sensation rolled over him in waves.

This woman was his.

Had always been meant to be his.

He reached for her chemise and pulled it over her head. She stood before him, legs shoulder-width apart, hands on her hips, a curvaceous goddess, splendid in the setting sun. Her white bra showcased her breasts, so full they were overflowing the cups.

Her white cotton panties clung to her mound, teasing him with the outline of the treasure within.

“Lose the bra.” His voice was husky, his lion making the request, though it sounded more like an order.

A quick reach and snap of two fingers, and the cotton hung loose, cups clinging to the bounty within.

Theo pulled it off, relished the sight of her. Her breasts, a lighter café au lait were garnished with dusky rose tips.

Screw the panties. He released one of his claws and drew it across the fabric on both hips.

The panties fell to the wood floor of the threshold with a silent whisper.

He cupped her breasts, thumbs brushing over taut pearlized nubs. Theo pinched a nipple and Leandra gasped in response. He lowered his head, touched his tongue to the tip. His thumb caressed the other nipple, rolling over it, pressing it in, then pulling on it, pinching it.

Leandra’s gaze was fixed on him, pupils dilated. Her scent rose, growing stronger.

His lion growled in response, his cock twitched.

Theo lowered his hand, wandering over her stomach while his tongue toyed with her nipple and he alternately sucked and flicked, then grazed it with his teeth as his hand passed over her thigh and made for the moist target in the middle.

Her heartbeat thudded in his mind, trying to match his. He slid a finger over her sensitive little core and she flinched, almost jumping.

He parted her folds with his fingers, enjoying the scent that rose. He glided a finger along her wet folds, near the heat of her entrance.

A moan escaped Leandra. She spread her legs further.

The scent of her became sheer torture. Her nails dug into his shoulders as he lowered himself, eye level to her pussy, where a nicely trimmed triangle of dark hair greeted him.

Theo paused to breathe her in, letting her essence sit on his palate, teasing himself with the taste of her scent.

One thumb on her clit, the other hand parting her, he blew on her mound, a slight breeze cooling her heated flesh.

His cock throbbed with need, demanding access. He led her to the kitchen chair facing the door and sat her down.

Her eyes grew wide. “What if someone approaches?”

“I’ll hear them.” Not that she ever had visitors out here. He’d never seen a soul. He spread her legs and leaned back, admiring. “God, I’ve missed you.”

Her eerie, sexy eyes glowed luminescent in the near darkness in the unlit room.

Theo leaned in, his breath hot on her mound. Hotter than the Louisiana bayou environment.

He swiped at her with his tongue, from the top of her entrance down over her clit.

She twitched in response.

That was the moment he drove two fingers in, stretching her while she was in the middle of flexing. She wiggled and slanted her body forward, wanting more.

He licked her clit, his tongue flicking with supernatural speed while his fingers pumped in and out, over and over.

“Sacre bleu,” she panted.

He picked up speed, relentless in his quest for her pleasure. “Come for me, now.” His demand was a growl, low, heated.

She put her legs on his shoulders, locking his head between them, while her muscles tightened around his fingers.

Leandra screamed his name as climax after climax overtook her.

A glistening moisture on her face made him think he’d seen a tear. He studied her countenance.

Theo tipped her chin upward. “Are you crying?”

"Tears of joy." Her lips curved into a smile that was almost bittersweet then she licked his bottom lip.

She pulled him close, rocked her hips, and pressed him against her moisture then guided his length inside her.

* * *

L
eandra fought back
the thoughts that this would be the last time for a long time that she made love to Theo. She didn’t yield to the idea that if things went wrong, this would be the last time ever. That he’d forever forget what they were to one another.

“I love you,” she whispered in his ear, her words accentuated by the crickets and frogs outside the cabin.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and hoisted herself closer to him, taking him in as deep as she could.

“I love you too. Forever,” he groaned.

He began to pump, pulling, then pushing, deeper and deeper, making her gasp with every thrust.

Theo watched his cock going into her, taking her, possessing her. And Leandra watched his face, savoring and memorizing the look of passion merged with love.

She squeezed, tightening around him, making him growl. He leaned forward, locked her lips with his. She could taste herself on his lips.

Leandra dug her nails into the flesh of his neck, making him grunt with the pleasure and pain, while at the same time driving her to greater heights. His large hands dug into her hips and ass, raising her and pulling her closer, driving into her, deep, hard, pushing, demanding.

She buried her head into his chest so he wouldn’t see the tears that were free-flowing, while she tried to regain her composure.

“Forgive me, my love,” she whispered the words against his chest. “It’s the only way. It won’t be forever.”

I hope.

* * *

T
heo shook
his head in confusion. Where the hell was he? He looked around the dilapidated little abode, the tiny bed he’d just gotten out of.

He was nude, in front of a—

—the swamp witch!

He pulled away from her. Her hands had been on his chest.

“What the hell am I doing here? How’d I—”

Fuck. He’d been having sex with her?

What the hell is wrong with me?

Why was he here? He shouldn’t be talking to an Arceneaux enemy, much less sleeping with one.