Matt: Tales of the Were (Redstone Clan Book 5) (13 page)

Morgan remembered her cell phone and quickly checked it. The signal strength was low, but it did have signal. The only problem was her battery. It was running low.

Matt saw what she was doing and reached into his pocket, but the phone he pulled out was seriously damaged. The glass screen was shattered, and it wouldn’t even power on.

“So much for that,” he grumbled. “What about yours?” She filled him in on her battery issue, and he frowned. “Better save it for tonight after the vamps rise. We can use the rest of the day to try to get ourselves out, and if we haven’t made a dent in this rock pile by nightfall, we can call Marc and get the cavalry—if they haven’t already figured out we need help. The messages we left before we came in here ought to alert them. Especially when we don’t check in as promised.”

“Yes,” she said, powering down the phone and putting it away. “You’re right, of course.” She was comforted by his positive outlook, even if she was still freaked out by being trapped.

“But first…” Matt walked over to her and took her into his arms again. “We both need to calm down. I need a few more minutes for my shoulder to heal, and you need a hug. Come to think of it, I need a hug too.” He smiled as he hugged her close, leaning back against the wall of the tunnel.

He held her in the near-silence, for long moments, the only sound that of their breathing and the occasional slide of pebbles as the newly formed piles of rock settled. His arms were so very comforting. So strong. So able. Just like him.

Matt was everything she dreamed of in a man, when she allowed herself to fantasize about a perfect world where a mate wouldn’t try to rule her life and keep her down. She hadn’t thought a relationship like that was possible. She thought it the stuff of fairytales, used to beguile women into accepting the yoke of mating.

But everything she’d learned of Matt and his Clan… She was changing her mind. Maybe the Redstones really were different. Maybe her home Clan had been warped. Old fashioned. Backward. It was entirely possible. Until Morgan had met Marc LaTour, she hadn’t even attended school regularly.

Marc had seen to it that she received the finest education money could buy. And he’d arranged for tutors, at first, to get her up to speed with the rest of her age group. She’d had private tutors in everything from math to deportment. She’d had to learn how to interact with humans and Others. She’d had to learn how to speak properly and even how to read.

But Marc had helped her. He’d kept track of her progress and encouraged her until she was able to join a normal class of human children and not stand out. Marc had taught her how to hide her differences from the humans. How to blend in and walk among them without fear. He’d been her mentor and her guide, and she’d come to trust that bloodletters, at least, didn’t devalue women.

Matt had been showing her that his Clan felt the same. The women Morgan had met and learned about from the Redstone Clan were confident and out here in the world, doing things. Working. In charge.

Seeing that had gone a long way toward changing Morgan’s attitude about the Redstone Clan—and its local representative. His gentleness and protective nature also impressed her, and his strong arms and willingness to treat her as an equal went the rest of the way toward earning her respect.

And now, she was stuck in a deep, dark hole with him. And yet…somehow…when he held her as he was doing, she wasn’t afraid. She sensed his confidence in their ability to get out of this alive, and it reassured her.

She felt his heart beating against her cheek and the strength of his arms around her shoulders. She smelled his warm, masculine scent and heard the steady beat of his breath. He wasn’t alarmed, and so, she wasn’t either. He gave that gift to her. The gift of calm…and of hope.

And earlier that day, he’d given her the most amazing climax of her life.

Her thoughts turned decidedly naughty as her blood heated. She moved her hands on his back and around his torso, reaching downward. It was time. Time to seal this deal and feed the hunger that had been building inside her since the moment they’d first met.

“Matt?” she whispered, raising her head, seeking his lips in the dim light.

He didn’t disappoint her. He lowered his head and touched his mouth to hers, allowing her to lead the way, to take possession of his lips, then delve inside, taking the kiss deeper. She wanted it all, and she told him so without words, in the most delicious way possible.

She felt the rumble in his chest before the purr came to life in the quiet dark. She wasn’t afraid of it now. It was good and right. And she discovered an answering vibration in her own chest. Only Matt had ever made her purr, and she was through fighting it.

The world might go to hell in an hour, or a day, or a week, but she wanted this moment with him. The man who pleased both her beast and herself. The man who seemed like her perfect match in every way.

Was he too good to be true? Only time would tell. But for now, she wanted him. She wanted to be with him and belong to him and have him belong to her.

She reached for his shirt, pulling it out from his pants. He helped, ridding himself of his clothing, then starting in on hers. She noted absently that he made a little pile of the discarded clothing right next to them. Sure enough, when they were both naked, he eased her down onto the pile of fabric.

“Sorry we don’t have a featherbed and soft sheets. I dreamed of this moment, and I never expected—” Matt said in a rush as his breathing escalated. They were both excited and ready for more, but it was sweet of him to apologize for something beyond his control. She stopped his words by laying one finger over his lips.

“It’s all right. It’s perfect, Matt. It’s how it was meant to be, and I don’t need anything but you right now.” He made her breath catch by licking her finger then sucking it into his mouth, holding her gaze all the while. “And I do mean
right
now,” she added in a whispery, amused voice.

He smiled and let her finger go, swooping in to catch her lips. She let him lead the dance, for a little while, but then, her cat felt like asserting itself, and Matt let her roll him beneath her as she straddled him.

There was no time for preliminaries. No time for finesse or drawn out foreplay. The pounding need inside her demanded immediate action. No more waiting. No more uncertainty. It was time. Long past time.

Morgan reached between them and guided him into her body, feeling the stretch and burn as she took him. He was larger than anyone she’d been with before. Then again, she’d never been with a shifter before. Up ‘til now, her only experience was with human men who had never known her true nature. It was no wonder none of those relationships had lasted. If she couldn’t be herself with her lover, what was the point?

But she could give Matt all she was and then some. He could take it. He would answer her wild nature with his own. They could be wild together and unleash the cats within. In fact, it was inevitable.

Morgan sank down on him, taking him fully as her hands changed just a little bit, small claws emerging in place of her fingernails. She noticed Matt’s hands had done the same. His claws weren’t sharp enough to puncture her skin, but she felt the indentation of all ten digits in the soft flesh around her hips as he guided her motion.

She began to move, drawing her own claws down his chest, not hurting, but letting the cat inside her come out to play. Matt growled, his eyes half-lidded in pleasure as he looked up at her.

“Do that again,” he told her in clear approval. She did it again, and he jerked slightly under her body. Yeah, he really liked that.

She wanted to explore that sensation further, but her body needed to move, to take him and ride him until they both screamed out in passion. Almost without conscious volition, her hips began a steady rhythm, her inner muscles squeezing and releasing as his hips thrust upward into her. The muscles in her thighs strained, as did his. She threw back her head as pleasure reached for her, and braced her hands on his thighs behind her.

Then, Matt reached up and ran his claws lightly over the sensitive skin of her breasts, her abdomen, the small of her back, down her thigh and all over. Each erogenous zone. Places she hadn’t even known could be so sensitive. He discovered each one and made her squeak and moan as he drew every ounce of response from her body.

She keened as a wave of climax hit her, stopping her motion while her body seized up. But Matt wasn’t still. He flipped her and put her beneath him on the pile of clothes, arranging her body to suit him as he took over, pounding home into her tight sheath, pushing her toward another, even higher, level of pleasure.

“Matt!” she cried out his name as she went farther than she’d ever gone before. There was an element of fear in their passion. Like she wasn’t quite sure she could survive the coming explosion. But Matt was with her. He was her guide and her lover. He would see her through the disintegration and reassembly on the other side. She trusted him.

And there it was. She trusted him.

That moment of startling clarity erupted into the most amazing experience of her life. There was no Morgan in that moment of pure bliss. There was no Matt. No mountain on top of them and no evil in the world. There was only pleasure. The pure, good, blessed pleasure of being with the one who was meant for you.

Mate
. Matthew Redstone was her mate.

She didn’t really know all that entailed. She’d lived on the fringes of shifter society for most of her life. But, if the Goddess willed it, they might still have time to figure this all out.

For now, it was enough to know that she had found her One, like the bloodletters she so admired. For each soul, there was one perfect match. Something inside her soul clicked with Matt, and she knew in her heart of hearts that he was it for her.

Goddess help them.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Matt had claimed his mate. Dear Goddess, he had finally found her and claimed her. He was truly blessed. He’d known she was his for a while, and now, Morgan knew it too, beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Matt had suspected Morgan might be the one when they first met all those months ago, but her skittishness and his wandering lifestyle had made it hard for him to pin her down. There was something oddly amusing about the fact that it had taken an earthquake and getting buried alive to get them together. It would be a story to tell their grandchildren. If they made it that far.

For now, it was enough to have her in his arms, and have the knowledge in his heart that she was the one meant for him. Mating was serious business, and Matt knew exactly how lucky he was to have found his match. She’d led him a merry chase, but in the end, she had come to him, and he would do everything in his power to make certain that she never regretted her decision in the years to come—if they had that long. And he’d do all he could to make sure they had the time together to have cubs and grow old and do all the things he wanted to do with her.

Daydreams spun through his mind as they lay together in the aftermath of the most magical experience of his life. They had both purred there, for a while, in the afterglow.

Never had he dreamed he would find a woman so perfectly matched to him. She was a cougar, which was something he hadn’t taken for granted, seeing as how two of his brothers had mated with non-shifters. Matt hadn’t known what to expect, really. He’d been open to any possibility the Mother of All might send his way, but once he’d met Morgan, he’d found it hard to get her out of his mind.

No wonder. She was his mate!

He must have recognized their connection on some basic level, but now, he had irrefutable evidence that even she couldn’t deny. He squeezed her closer and bent to kiss the top of her head, which rested against his chest. Exactly where she belonged.

With him. Next to him. On top of him, or under him. As long as she was with him, he’d be a happy man for the rest of his life. However long, or short that turned out to be.

“Feels like the mountain has quieted. Maybe the mages gave up and went home,” he mused, stroking her hair. He wanted to say so much more, but he knew he’d have to tread lightly with his skittish mate. She would have to come to him, but he was a patient man. He could wait as long as she needed. He loved her enough to give her all the room she needed to be comfortable with this. With
them
.

“We should be so lucky.” She rested her hand over his heart, which now beat only for her. “I guess it’s okay to tell you now that I’m a little freaked out by being trapped in tiny spaces.”

A tremor ran through her body as she said the words, and he hugged her closer, soothing her.

“Sweetheart, you can tell me anything. Anytime. I would never betray your trust, and I won’t think less of you for admitting to being less than the superhero lawyer everyone else sees when they look at you.” He smiled at her when she met his gaze, resting her chin against his chest. “You’re kinda scary, you know? In a really hot, powerful, lady lawyerly way,” he was quick to clarify when her eyes narrowed. “And I really admire that about you. It’s totally hot. But knowing that you suffer from some of the same frailties as the rest of us mere mortals makes you a bit more approachable. And it makes me want to touch you, and squeeze you, and do all sorts of wicked, delicious things with you.”

She smiled at him, and her body seemed to relax against him, once more. “You do have a way with words when you get going, Redstone.”

“I try, counselor. I try.” He stroked her hair back from her face, gazing deep into her eyes. “So, why the fear of enclosed spaces? Can you tell me about it?”

She turned away and moved so that her cheek was against his chest again and she was draped over him. It was probably easier for her to talk about her fears if she didn’t have to look at him, he realized, though he wanted so much to take any burdens of uncertainty off her fragile shoulders. He’d do anything for her. He’d fight battles. He’d cross oceans. He’d face hell itself to keep her safe.

Whoa
. He knew he was probably being a little over-dramatic, but he cut himself some slack seeing as how he’d just claimed his mate. That sort of thing was bound to bring up all sorts of epic feelings in a guy.