M&L03 - SS (2 page)

A sly smile curled her lips.
“Are you hoping your mate is one of those enlightened few who like to
experience a little variety in the bedroom?”

“Honestly no, I’ve been ready
to settle down with one woman for a long time now.”

Rachel snorted, “You might
not be doing it in public anymore but I’ve heard all about your sex life and
the huge numbers of women you’ve slept with in recent years.”

I wagged my finger at her.
“It’s not polite to gossip Rachel.”

“But it’s
so
much
fun,” she informed me with a wink.

I looked back down at my
book, ready to get back to work but Rachel announced, “I think I need a break
from looking at all these old books.” She stretched with her arms over her
head. “You mind if I take off?”

I glanced at the grandfather
clock in the corner and decided to let her off the hook. It was a little early
but we’d been at this for hours and as usual, we had nothing to show for our
trouble. Maybe a change of scenery would do us both some good, and maybe a new
approach to my problem would yield better results.

It was possible to counteract
a spell without knowing exactly what kind of spell I was dealing with, but so
far I’d only had limited luck. Whether it was due to one of the spells I tried
or sheer willpower, I was now able to move forward in my dreams with the intent
to approach my mate. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t enter the house without
waking up. I knew I needed to address the problem from another angle - but how?

Suddenly the answer hit me from
out of nowhere.

“I need to get drunk,” I said
rising from my chair, already striding for the front door.

“What?” Rachel asked
scrambling to keep up with me. “I didn’t think you guys could get drunk.”

“Human alcohol doesn’t have
any effect on us but that doesn’t mean we can’t get drunk. Several of the
drinks served here at the resort contain a potent solution brewed from a
mixture of demon herbs that will not only get us drunk, but is guaranteed to
turn us into babbling idiots if we’re not careful.”

She grabbed my arm and pulled
me to a stop just before I could open my front door. “Then why would you want
to drink it?”

I looked at her and grinned
knowing she would find my latest plan amusing. “Maybe if I get totally
shit-faced drunk I’ll pass out and stay that way long enough to get a good look
at my mate.”

Rachel released my arm with a
grin of her own and I swung the door open. She followed me through it, and then
down the hall to the elevator. Like all the other supernaturals who work at the
Myths and Legends Casino Resort here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I live in
the staff apartment building on the resort property.

Once we were in the elevator,
I put my hand on the security panel making it light up while it scanned my palm
print. The security panel was part technology, but mostly magic. I was the
Entertainment Manager for the resort, but as the resident sorcerer, I was also
in charge of anything magical. Primarily, I maintained several portals to other
locations, the security panels located throughout the resort and a protective
ward that doubled as a glowing green moat around the medieval castle that
housed Myths and Legends.

“Would this mixture of demon
herbs hurt humans if they drank it?” Rachel asked when the elevator began its
descent.

A few months ago, Rachel was
mixed up with some very bad people. As a result, she was given a demon drug
called Oblivion by a vampire named Danarius. For supernaturals, the drug is
only mildly addictive and causes a euphoric high with increased sexual appetite
and occasional hallucinations. Humans on the other hand are instantly addicted
to the substance and suffer heart failure if they ever stop taking it. While
they’re using the drug, they’re Oblivious to everything around them except
their need to find sexual fulfillment. Normally humans who are given Oblivion
never recover from the experience. Rachel was only saved because her new
stepfather Rook, the Myths and Legends Security Manager, is a time demon and he
traveled through time to prevent her from ever becoming addicted to the drug.

“No Rachel, drugs like
Oblivion are prohibited here at the resort so you don’t need to worry about
accidentally ingesting something that might hurt you.”

Her shoulders relaxed where
she was leaning back against the elevator wall and I knew that was exactly what
she’d been worried about.

“People are going to think
it’s weird to see you out in public,” Rachel commented, examining her nail
polish for chips.

“An understatement, I’m sure
but it’s early so maybe I’ll miss the crowds.”

Shapeshifter culture could be
summed up with two words - sex and violence.

The violence I could do
without most of the time but I learned long ago to play by the rules.

The sex on the other hand was
my favorite part of life with the clans. Or at least it had been, until six
months ago when the Phoenix Prophecy was fulfilled and my fox awoke from his
magically induced coma. He went ape-shit the first time things got hot and
heavy with a female and every time I tried to get naked with a woman since, my
dick went completely limp and any hopes I had of actually having sex flew right
out the window. The ladies involved were all very understanding, and have so
far kept my erectile dysfunction a secret, but I knew that if I kept trying,
eventually someone would talk. So I stopped trying to have sex altogether.

For a while, I continued
going out to the clubs because I enjoy dancing, moshing and socializing, but
the sexual frustration soon became too much to handle - especially when a few
of my regular partners wouldn’t take no for an answer. The only respite I had
was when Rachel first came to the resort. While Rook and her mother Angela
sorted out the trouble she was in, she spent most of her time with me and Serafina,
Dragon’s mate and our queen. Whenever I took Rachel to the club with me, the
other women kept their distance. It wasn’t until they realized Rachel was also
attempting to finagle her way into my bed that they resumed their relentless
pursuit of sexual fulfillment with me. I eventually gave up completely and have
since stayed home except when work required my presence.

The elevator came to a stop
on the first floor, the doors opened and Rachel asked, “The Catacombs?”

I nodded then we started down
the hallway to the right. The Catacombs was one of three clubs located within
Myths and Legends. It featured live bands and drew in crowds of tattooed rock
enthusiasts wearing multiple body piercings and lots of black clothing decked
out with buckles and chains. With its crypt-like design and its hard-core atmosphere,
it was exactly my kind of place.

Occasionally I’d go to
Mystique to soak up the sex demon pheromones and take advantage of the horny
women on the dance floor but with my current circumstances, I’d only wind up
with a set of blue balls for my trouble.

The third club was Lilith’s
Lounge, which was a jazz bar with a portal leading to another club located in
New Orleans called Forbidden Fantasies. Jazz music has never been my thing and
I don’t think I could sit through the nearly pornographic stage shows in
Forbidden Fantasies without losing it right now.

The instant we walked through
the doors of The Catacombs the frenzy began. The women dancing in the cages
suspended from the ceiling called my name, trying to get my attention but I
ignored them and continued walking. There wasn’t anything I could do to avoid
the women on the ground however, and by the time I reached the bar I had three
women surrounding me, each of them rubbing against me and purring like a cat in
heat.

I needed to find my mate soon
or I was going to spontaneously combust.

Once I flagged down the bar
tender, Jamie, I ordered two Zombie Makers. She raised an eyebrow but made the
drinks and passed them my way. I downed the first one immediately and told her
to keep them coming.

“Where have you been
Solomon,” Mia asked, her bottom lip pushed out in a pout.

Six months ago that would
have been all the invitation I needed to take her lips with mine and set us
both on the road to ecstasy. Now, the thought of kissing anyone but my mate
made my fox nearly homicidal and left me feeling as if I’d done something
wrong.

“We’ve missed you Solomon,”
Lisette whispered in my ear as her hand slid up my thigh then over the rigid
flesh straining against the back of my zipper.

I needed to get laid. Going
cold turkey after centuries of having sex with at least four different women
every day was killing me.

“And to think, humans find
something wrong with this kind of behavior,” Rachel remarked from beside me.

“It’s different for us
Rachel,” I reminded her. “We try to avoid emotional attachments so that no one
gets hurt if and when we find our mates. And since we can only have children
with our mates and can’t carry sexually transmitted diseases, why shouldn’t we
have as many sexual partners as we want?”

“I’m so glad you feel that
way,” Charlene said throwing her leg across my lap to straddle me. Her mouth
went to my neck and she rolled her hips forward grinding herself against the
front of my pants. I knew from past experience that she never wore anything
beneath her skirts.

My head fell back for a
second when her fangs grazed my neck sending shivers up my spine.

Coming here had been a bad
idea.

Placing my hands on her hips,
I forced myself to lift her off my lap instead of opening my pants and sliding her
wet center along my throbbing erection - it would only deflate the instant the
clothes started coming off anyway.

“I’m sorry ladies, but I’m
only here to have a few drinks,” I insisted once Charlene was back on her feet.
I downed another Zombie Maker while they complained and tried to convince me to
change my mind.

Thirty minutes later the
women had finally given up, Rachel had gone into the mosh pit with Jasper, a
wolf shifter who works at the front desk, and I’d finished eight Zombie Makers.

“I heard you were in here.”
Doyle sat down beside me, his strawberry blonde hair brushing his collar when
he shook his head.

Doyle was my best friend and
head of the largest wolf clan in The United Clans. He was also in charge of the
fight scene here at the resort, which suited him since he was six-three, built
like a heavyweight boxer, and loved nothing more than a good fight.

“I’m conducting an
experiment,” I told him, or at least I thought I did, but from the look on his
face, it must not have come out the way it was supposed to.

“Right. Why don’t I take you
home now?”

“Sure.”

I tried to stand but my legs
felt like wet noodles and couldn’t seem to hold my weight. Doyle wrapped his
arm around my waist with my arm draped over his shoulder and practically carried
me out of the club. Once he had me back in my apartment, he let me fall onto my
bed where I immediately passed out looking forward to seeing my mate in my
dreams.

~ Solomon ~

I was standing outside the
door to the white house in my dreams but I couldn’t bring myself to try the
handle.

Shapeshifter souls were made
up of two halves - the human and the animal. Since mating was part of the
animal’s magic, most of us weren’t able to recognize our mates while we were
cursed. Only Dragon’s animal was strong enough to break the curse and claim his
mate. Thankfully, the rest of our animals were freed along with his.

Since I met Renee while I was
cursed, and the last time I saw her was before my fox woke up, it was entirely
possible that she was my mate. It was even possible that my fox sensed her
through the curse and that was why I’d always been so drawn to her. Add to that
the gothic paintings inside this house that I knew she would love and the fact
that the woman inside was constantly singing Renee’s favorite songs, I was
almost positive I knew who my mate was. And if I was right, I’d be the happiest
man alive.

So why wasn’t I throwing the
door open and rushing inside?

Because Renee left me six
months ago.

For thirty years, Renee was
by my side as my assistant and my best friend, but she stayed true to her word
and never gave in to my sexual advances. Then she was asked to fill in at our
European club Supernova while the General Manager, Katerina went on vacation.
Renee was supposed to go there for two weeks and then come straight back home.

Then all hell broke loose
here at Myths and Legends just after she left. The curse ended and we quickly
learned that controlling our beasts wasn’t as easy as it used to be. They were,
after all, understandably pissed off and tired of being caged. Then a bomb took
out The Gateway to the Otherworld, the performing arts theater where I host the
majority of my shows. Several members of the interracial council including its
leader Garrek, a very rare solar demon, were also taken out in the explosion.
Then to add to the chaos, all of the vampires created by nightshifters suddenly
inherited the beasts of their sires - including Renee.

I expected Renee to come home
the instant Katerina returned, but for reasons I still didn’t understand, she
decided to stay on at Supernova choreographing their stage shows. I threw up
one argument after the next for why she should come home, but she said I could
handle it myself and told me that she wanted to spread her wings. Normally I
encouraged everyone to try new things, but this was Renee, and up until she
left for Supernova, I would have said we were as inseparable as mates.

Now, I had no idea what was
going on between us. Whenever we talk on the phone, she says she misses me, but
she doesn’t want to come home - not even for a visit. By the same token, I feel
so empty without her, but every time I think about going through the portal to
Supernova, I get this overwhelming feeling that it’s the wrong thing to do.

Standing here now, listening
to the woman upstairs sing Madonna’s
Like a Virgin
- Renee’s all-time
favorite song - I had to wonder if I should just walk away. I wouldn’t do it
for the reasons Rachel gave earlier, but because Renee might not want to be my
mate. Could I sacrifice my own happiness for hers?

I shook my head. No, I’d made
a lot of sacrifices in my life, but this wasn’t one I could make. I put my hand
on the handle without pushing down. I’d been here every night for the past
three weeks, sometimes multiple times in the same night, and every time I tried
to open this door, I woke up alone in my bed.

After a prayer to whatever
higher power might be listening, I closed my eyes, held my breath and pressed
down on the handle. Click. My breath rushed out. I was still here. Lifting my
eyelids, I eased the door open and stepped inside. So far so good.

Once I was inside, I reached
up and tried to remove the amulet from the painting above the door. My hand
went right through it as if it had no substance at all. I’d been afraid that
would happen. The amulet in this dream world was nothing more than an echo of
the real one that was most likely somewhere on my mate - maybe a piece of
jewelry or something along those lines.

Forgetting about the amulet
for the moment, I cut through the kitchen and took the stairs two at a time.
Once I was upstairs, I made a beeline for the bedroom door and hurried through
it into the dimly lit bedroom beyond. The instant I came into the room the
singing stopped and a petite female figure froze with her back to me.

A violent shudder rolled
through my body and I knew I would have woken up if not for my drunken stupor
in reality.

Taking a deep breath, I
stepped towards the woman who still hadn’t moved. Her straight black hair was
short, barely covering any of her delicate neck, but that wasn’t enough to rule
Renee out just yet. I’d made her a ring years ago that projects whatever color
and hairstyle she wants to have from one moment to the next. Letting my eyes
drift lower, I saw that a shimmering black T-shirt barely covered her slender
body. The sexy garment was so thin that I could see the silhouette of her
subtle curves beneath it. She wasn’t wearing a bra but I could clearly see a
tiny black thong disappearing between the round cheeks of her firm ass.

This time I shuddered for a
completely different reason and moved forward slowly until I was pressed
against her backside. She shivered as I skimmed my hands down her arms and
inhaled deeply taking in her scent. She smelled like black raspberries and
vanilla, but underneath that, she smelled like Renee, warm and seductive.

“I’ve missed you so much,” I
whispered in her ear, wrapping my arms around her. It felt unbelievably good to
hold her in my arms even if it was only a dream.

She sagged against me and
sighed. “I’ve missed you too, but you shouldn’t be here.”

I spun her around to face me,
keeping her close, holding her tight. “Why shouldn’t I be here Renee?”

A single tear slid down her
cheek and she said, “Because he promised me the spell would keep you from
finding me.”

Before I could ask what the
hell she meant by that she was gone and I was left alone in her bedroom unable
to wake up. I raged for a while throwing things and shattering windows but
eventually I calmed down and tried to think rationally. Lying in her bed, I
inhaled her scent and tried to understand why she would want to keep me away.

Had she somehow discovered we
were mates? If she really didn’t want to be my mate, then it would make sense
that she wanted to stay away from me, but why wouldn’t she have talked to me
about it on the phone. And for that matter, why in the hell would she ask
another sorcerer to put a spell on her? Hadn’t I told her often enough how
dangerous magic could be?

No matter how hard I tried, I
couldn’t wrap my mind around any of it - not why she left me, why she didn’t
want to be my mate, or why she would resort to magic to keep me away.

Before she left, Renee and I
had a very intimate relationship. It wasn’t sexual, we never even kissed, but
we never thought twice about holding hands or caressing each other. And a day
rarely went by that we didn’t curl up together on a couch or in a bed at the
end of the night. Sometimes we watched movies or read books, but countless
other times we just fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Holding her in my arms for
that brief moment before she disappeared had been a revelation. I’d thought the
lack of sex over the past six months was torture; that I might die without it,
but now I knew I’d been missing something even more vital. Now I realized that
I couldn’t live without Renee’s touch, even if it never did become sexual in
nature.

Of course, the fox didn’t
like that idea. He thought we needed to claim our mate in the most primal way,
and we needed to do it as soon as possible. I knew that wasn’t going to happen
though. When I finally saw Renee in person, I would have two choices. I could
touch her and trigger the mating frenzy that would eventually have us ripping
our clothes off with mindless sexual hunger, or I could take the time to make
her see me as a man worthy of her body and her heart. I knew which option I
should choose, but I wasn’t sure how long I could override the animal clawing
at
my insides to get to his mate.