Matt: Tales of the Were (Redstone Clan Book 5) (19 page)

“Welcome to my world.” Morgan chuckled as she kicked off her shoes and stretched. The meeting had been long, but important. She felt good about what they’d decided and the plans they’d made for the next evening. “Since I work mostly with vampires, I tend to keep their hours. There are some days I don’t ever see the sun.”

Matt came over and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It’s nice to have the option, though,” he said philosophically, surprising her. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to give up the sun completely. To not have a choice about it.” He shuddered a bit, shaking his shoulders. “I like the sun on my fur. On my skin. I wouldn’t want to be faced with that choice the way some of the mates have been.”

“Christy?” The little flare of jealousy didn’t rise all that high, this time, and Morgan impressed herself with how much her attitude had changed about Matt’s former liaison with the woman.

“Nah. She wasn’t given a choice. She was dead without Sebastian turning her. Her ex-husband saw to that.” Matt frowned, but visibly shook off the dark thoughts. “Some of her friends, though, they had to make a choice. Lissa once told me that if she’d said no to being turned after the accident, Atticus would have let her die…and followed her soon after. She chose life with him, and forsook the sun.”

“She loves him,” Morgan observed simply. “I know Kelly was willing to die to save Marc when he was poisoned. But he wouldn’t have wanted to live without her. I know that for a fact.”

“Just as I couldn’t live without you, Morgan,” Matt said softly, making her heart clench.

He kissed her, and the kiss turned torrid in an instant. Before she knew what was happening, he’d pushed her up against the wall, and she was tearing at his clothes, wanting to feel his flesh against hers. She was wild for him, and it felt like he was just as out of control.

They came together in a sizzling flash of passion, his cock sliding home inside her with little preamble. She felt a faint moment of relief. This was what she wanted. To be possessed by her mate. Fully.

But then, that wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted him to take her. To make her come for him. To own her pleasure.

The almost submissive thoughts were strange to her, but they felt right. The female wildcat inside her wanted the male to dominate her—just the tiniest bit. Matt seemed to know just how far to push, how far to assert himself before he pulled back, allowing her to make a few decisions, such as how best to wrap her legs around his waist as he rammed into her repeatedly, almost slamming her willing body against the wall beside the bedroom door.

He nipped at her lips, making her moan, and she wanted more. All he could give. All he could take. She wanted to give him everything—all the love that was inside her—and all the trust they had built between them in the few days they’d been together.

But that’s the way it was supposed to be between mates, her inner cat whispered, then yowled as Matt made them come. Over and over. She cried out and purred at the same time, loving the feel of her mate making violent, blissful, spectacular love to her. As it should be.

“Holy crap, that was intense,” she whispered, panting as she began to come down from the most amazing climax.

“I’d tell you two to keep it down, but I know
were
cats in heat aren’t to be trifled with.”

Morgan swung her head around to meet Cam’s gaze through the
open
bedroom door. Her cheeks flamed as she realized the fey knight could see them, but Cam seemed to think nothing of it, merely leaning in to grasp the handle of the door and pull it closed behind him as he left them alone.

Matt chuckled, and Morgan’s gaze shot up to his. “Did you know that door was open?”

“Honestly, I didn’t know my own name, for a while there. Sorry.” Matt didn’t look sorry, and Morgan had to admit the situation was kind of funny, even if she had no idea how she would ever face Cam again.

She hid her face against Matt’s shoulder. He was still inside her, still pinned up against the wall next to the—now, thankfully, closed—door.

“Don’t sweat it, sweetheart,” Matt cajoled. “I’m sure Cam’s seen a lot in his time. Do you know how
old
that guy is? He talks about time passing in terms of centuries. In all those years, he must’ve met more than one newly mated couple. And we’re shifters. We’re not exactly shy about nudity or doing it out in the open.”

“Speak for yourself. I was raised by a vampire. An ancient vampire, who lived mostly in the human world. By your standards, I’m sure I’m a prude.” She nipped his neck, then raised her head to look into Matt’s eyes. “I’m so embarrassed.”

Matt kissed her nose. “Don’t be. For one thing, you’re beautiful. For another, he couldn’t see much. Mostly, he probably saw my butt, which I’m pretty sure he’s not interested in. I don’t think Cam goes both ways, if you know what I mean.”

She giggled, as Matt had probably intended. Sure, this incident was embarrassing, but it brought out a bigger issue that had her worried.

“I’m not sure how well I’m going to fit in with your people, Matt. I wasn’t raised as a shifter.”

“Let’s deal with things as they come, Morgan,” he counseled, kissing her temple. “I know it’s going to be okay, but I know also that you’re going to have to see it for yourself.” He carried her to the bed, his cock still deep inside her body and regaining its stiffness. “Let’s get through tomorrow, and then, we’ll deal with the family stuff. Just trust me, it’s going to work out. I know it is.”

“If you say so,” she agreed. Though, as he placed her on the bed and began to move inside her again, her thoughts began to trail away from any possible problems she might have with his family. There were much more enjoyable things to think about, at the moment.

* * *

At dusk that night, the three teams were ready to go. All three mages had been hunted to their locations and watched throughout the day. Irma had gone to work, as usual, and hadn’t seemed to notice the magical workings Cam had put in place the night before. Carlos had been at home all day, and the third mage had been traced to his apartment, where Philomena’s team had seen him enter around midday, and he hadn’t left since.

All was in place.

Marc sent out the take-down order to the other two teams as Atticus sprang the trap in the winery office. For the next half hour, everybody was on the move.

Morgan was at Matt’s side, right behind Cam as the fey knight knocked out the magical wardings around Irma’s home. Carlos came to the door and tried to fight Cam in a showy magic battle, but Cam was unstoppable. He herded the heavyset man right back into the house, preventing anyone in the quiet, upscale neighborhood from seeing much of anything.

Matt and Morgan followed right behind, securing the door while the
Venifucus
mage and the fey knight continued to battle through the living room and into the kitchen.

Carlos began to get desperate, and things in the room started flying around. Knives came out of the butcher block knife stand and embedded themselves in the wall much too close to Morgan’s head for comfort. Ian Sinclair, the vampire enforcer, was searching the rest of the house for surprises while Cam subdued the sorcerer in the kitchen with Morgan and Matt to watch his back.

Carlos threw open a door that led to the basement, and a sulfurous smell assaulted Morgan’s nose. A split second later, the most vicious dog she’d ever seen came bounding up the steps, jaws salivating as it launched itself at Cam.

Matt stepped in and wrestled with the beast while Morgan went to help him. When the dog turned to lunge at her, she let her inner cat out to play, swiping at the beast’s muzzle with half-shifted claws and screeching at it. The dog seemed to realize it was facing something that wasn’t quite human as Matt half-shifted, as well.

The giant dog was dwarfed by Matt’s bulky battle form, and its tail lowered, to hide between its legs as it whimpered. Matt maneuvered around to shove the beast back behind the basement door, closing it downstairs while the magic battle moved on toward another door that led to the backyard.

But Cam wasn’t letting the sorcerer open another door. And neither was Matt.

He signaled to Morgan, and without words, she knew he wanted her to mirror his movements. They put Cam between them. Matt went to Carlos’s left, blocking the door to the backyard, while Morgan took the right. They flanked Cam, moving closer, pinning the mage between the three of them. He had nowhere to go.

But Carlos surprised them, lunging for Morgan, probably seeing her as the weakest of the three that faced him. She was ready to prove the bastard wrong, though. She let her claws flash and couldn’t wait to taste the sorcerer’s blood.

Too late, she realized Carlos had reached behind him, into a drawer that held yet more cutlery. She skated too close to the knife in his hand and knew she’d been struck, though it was a shallow cut.

Matt felt his heart clench when he saw Carlos lunge for Morgan. He couldn’t let her be hurt—or killed. That was simply unacceptable. He’d rather die if it meant she would live. He loved her that much.

His heart overflowed with love and fear for his mate as he launched himself across the kitchen, onto the sorcerer’s back. His claws struck repeatedly, looking for soft flesh. Blood and curses flew as the mage tried one last-ditch attack, but Cam blocked the magic, and Carlos’s flesh was no match for half-shifted claws.

One lucky swipe and Carlos was dead, his throat torn beyond repair. For a second, Matt’s human side chastised his inner cougar. The cat was glad its enemy was dead, but the man knew they might’ve gained more from having a prisoner to question than a corpse to bury.

“Pity, that,” Cam commented, leaning against the kitchen table, clearly drained from the magical battle that had just taken place. “But it’s probably for the best. He was a strong one. It would have been difficult to contain him.” Cam straightened from his slouched position. “Which makes me wonder how the rest of our friends are making out.”

Ian picked that moment to walk into the room, his gaze lingering on all the blood that had been spilled. But Ian was a mated vampire. His bloodlust was limited to his One now. He was more stable than an unmated bloodletter would have been in a similar situation.

“The rest of the house holds some hidden traps, but nobody else is here. Looks like it was just him and Irma,” Ian reported.

“Can you hold the fort here?” Cam asked quickly. “I feel our fellows may need my help.”

“We’ve got this,” Matt answered, shifting back to his fully human form.

The half-shifted battle form was painful to hold. Only the strongest Alphas could withstand it for any significant length of time. Matt realized Morgan had held the battle form far longer than any female he’d ever known. Truly, she was his match in every way. She continually impressed the hell out of him.

Cam nodded, and with a blinding whoosh of magic, he simply disappeared.

“Now, that’s a neat trick,” Matt observed, putting his arm around Morgan’s shoulders. “He didn’t even have to ask Scotty to beam him up.”

* * *

Matt and Morgan began cleaning up what they could of the mess in the kitchen. They didn’t want to leave any evidence of what had happened here, and the sooner they began erasing the proof—washing the blood down the drain—the better. Matt also insisted on checking Morgan’s little flesh wound. As she’d thought, the cut had been shallow. It was painful, at first, but with her shifter constitution, it had already scabbed over.

They were careful not to venture much farther into the house than they already had. Cameron, or someone with more magic than they had, would probably have to deal with the magical traps Ian had been able to discover.

All in good time. Right now, Morgan was getting antsy to find out how the other teams had made out. It had been agreed in advance that they would call in at a prearranged time, in a specific order, to share their results.

“Almost time,” Matt said as he rinsed his hands again in the kitchen sink.

He’d been amazingly casual about wiping down the blood spatter that had gone all over the kitchen. He’d insisted on Morgan washing off first, while he inspected her cut. Her hands were clean now, though her cat had reveled in the feel of its enemy’s blood under its claws.

She hadn’t really known she was quite that bloodthirsty, though her cat had always enjoyed hunting and the occasional kill. Morgan hadn’t really let her cat kill very often. She figured she was well fed in human form. There was no reason to eat raw food while in her fur. Though she did enjoy chasing birds, rodents and the occasional annoyingly yippy dog, she was more a
catch and release
kind of cat.

Ian rejoined them in the kitchen while Matt hit speed dial on his phone, putting it on speaker so they could all hear and be heard. Lissa answered midway through the first ring. She and the other vampire mates had been left in the make-shift war room, ostensibly to handle communications.

“I’ve got Marc and Philomena already on the line,” Lissa said in a very efficient sort of voice. “Go ahead.”

“Carlos is dead,” Matt reported quickly.

“So is Irma,” Atticus said, satisfaction clear in his tone.

“Ours got away.” Philomena sounded really, really pissed off. “Cameron popped in right as we got up to the apartment. There were magical traps all along the way, and we accidentally sprang a few. Hilda’s unconscious. She tripped something that knocked her against the wall, and she hit her head. Jeff, Mindy and Prudence are injured too, but not too badly. They’re still conscious, though banged up and bleeding a bit. Cam’s investigating now and asked us to stay in the entryway. I sent half my team out with the injured, so we don’t raise too much attention, but it’s a quiet building. Not too many tenants. I don’t think anybody’s all that interested in us.” There was a pause, and she went on, “Cam’s coming this way now. He doesn’t look pleased. I’m handing him the phone.”

Another brief pause and then, Cam’s thick brogue came over the line. “I think we underestimated this one. He didn’t leave this apartment by any conventional means. He has the ability to transport. That’s the only explanation. And the only real explanation for that is that he’s not entirely human. I think we’ve missed the ringleader here, and I’ll be damned if I can track him.”