Shifter Magick (19 page)

He sat on the sofa they slept on the night before. He sat with his head in his hands. When she came closer he angled his head to her and pursed his lips together.

Kera swallowed and crossed her arms over her chest. She shivered.

“He said you came to him and accused him of knowing you.” Maddox watched her as he spoke. His gaze unbroken as his blue eyes rested on her.

Kera shook her head. “No.” she said firmly.

Maddox stood. He towered over her. “Lie.” He whispered.

Kera’s jaw dropped. She sucked in a breath and swayed on her feet under his unyielding
stance. “I only accused him of knowing me after he told me he was supposed to make me feel welcome here. That was the only logical option.”

Crossing his arms, Maddox’s features tightened. “True, now tell me why you were talking to him.” He sighed and stepped closer, only a foot away he looked down at her, waiting.

Kera shivered again. I took all the control she had not to close the distance between them and wrap her arms around him. She didn’t want to talk about what happened with Andrew. She wanted to forget. But Maddox wasn’t going to forget. He wasn’t going to budge. Kera stilled her nerves. She pushed her emotions away and straightened her spine.

Maddox raised an eyebrow at her change in stature but didn’t speak.

“I left my phone in the jeep when my dad dropped me off after lunch.” She started from the beginning, aware of how cold her voice sounded. “I fell asleep in my room and woke up after dark. He knocked on my window and I thought it was you. He told me you attacked him because I told you he was the one who hurt me.”

Maddox’s brows furrowed, he shifted his weight to his other foot but continued to stare down at her.

“
He said it wasn’t him because he wouldn’t have hurt me. He would have been my friend or my lover.”

“So you kissed him?” Maddox growled.

Kera shuttered. She averted her eyes.

“Look at me.” Maddox cupped her cheek in his hand and angled her head to look at him. “Do you not feel the need for any one man? Your father has even noticed that you trade one male in for another. It’s hard to reform a relationship when you’ve suffered great loss
,
like I know you have Kera
,
but I don’t think I can do this. I can’t
be here when you need me when it
mean
s
something different for me. I’m possessive. My bloodline is of an Alpha. It wouldn’t be fair to play us against each other. The men in my family can be very dangerous. I can be dangerous. Andrew was right, I overreacted. I hurt him before I gave him the chance to explain. He didn’t hurt you Kera. It wasn’t him.”

Kera’s chest constricted. “No.” She fisted her hands in the front of his shirt. “You can’t believe him Maddox. Maybe you didn’t ask him the right questions. Maybe he tricked you.”

Maddox closed his eyes tightly. “I think you should go.”
He released her and stepped back, pulling his shirt from her hands.

Her throat tightened. She couldn’t breathe. “Please.” She panted. “He forced me. I don’t need anyone else.”

Anger blanketed Maddox’s features. He practically shook from it.
“That’s a dangerous accusation. I’m going to need you to explain exactly what you mean when you say he forced you.”

Kera felt the emotions she had been forcing at bay, rush to the forefront. Her hand flew to her lips.

“You can’t just insinuate something like that.” He growled. “Say it Kera. Tell me he forced you to touch him.”

She nodded and felt her mouth working in a whisper. It was so soft that she knew a normal human wouldn’t hear her. But he did. Her chest shook as she told him how he held her against the car. She hung her head in shame when she whispered that Andrew kissed her.

His arms enveloped her. “God Kera.” He rubbed her back and pressed his forehead to the crease of her neck.

She tensed for only a moment. “It hurt.” She said before she hugged him back.

Maddox growled low in his throat. “I’m sorry.” His voice was rough. He sat on the sofa and pulled her onto his lap. “
I still can’t discern the truth between your stories with my ability but I want to believe you wouldn’t make up something like this.
Please tell me you understand where I’m coming from Kera. I want to believe you even though I would rather your story not be true.”

“I’ll tell you anything.” Kera whispered to him. “Test me, ask me anything. There has to be a way he is getting around your ability.”

Maddox sighed and rested his chin on the top of her head. “Of course there are ways around it. I grew up trying to find ways to lie to my father. Andrew knows me better than most but he’s always been honest with me.”

Kera craned her head up to look at him. “Not everything.” She told him. “Maybe he’s just always been exempt.”

“What do you mean?” Maddox’s already dark eyes, darkened further.

“Maybe he’s a sociopath.”

Maddox frowned at her. “That’s a little extreme even if what you say happened did.”

Kera pursed her lips.

“What I mean is….”

Flushing with anger, Kera untangled herself from Maddox and stood up. She ignored his protests and adjusted her pants to make sure they didn’t fall down.
“
He had something to do with your accident.”
Kera mumbled the words to herself even though she knew he would hear them.

“What did you say?” The shock in his voice caused her to turn around.

“When I passed out in your car that first night we… well I had this vision of your accident. I saw you driving up the mountain and you were angry. Andrew got in the middle of the road and wouldn’t move. You swerved and hit a tree and then flipped down the mountain. He didn’t even help you, Nick did.” Kera didn’t realize she practically yelled the last part. She winced at the echo in the shop as her voice bounced off the walls. “He knows I know now.” She whispered.

Maddox stood up and glared at her. “He’s family.” He pointed at her as punctuate his statement. “It’s more believable that you would be able to trick me. You can’t expect me to believe you don’t know anything about your magick. You could be here just as another ploy to get me to play along with Rayland’s ideas. Or you could be here to destroy us like Luke would love to do.”

Kera gasped. Her heart was breaking at his accusations. “I’m on your side.” She whimpered as tears trailed her cheeks. “What can I do to prove this to you?”

He shook his head. “I can’t trust you. Your father was right. I don’t know what I’m getting into with you.”

Kera nodded, resolved as he was. “Fine.” She hissed. “But you’re wrong. My dad said that I didn’t have relationships but he never said I was free with my affections. I haven’t traded one male in for the next. My father is always going to be the father figure in my life and you’ll always be the one guy I want to be with. I might have kissed you first and maybe that lead you to believe I did that with other guys, but I haven’t. The only reason I can say I’ve kissed more than one person is because Andrew took that from me.
Otherwise it would have only been you.” She spun on her heels and headed for the door.

“Kera.” He growled.

She held up her hand to cut him off. “You’ve made yourself clear.” She breathed.

His hand came against the door before she could open it.

Trapped again, she broke down
inside
. She felt like throwing a tantrum like a child and beating at the floor. But she didn’t. She clinched her jaw and turned to him.
He was so tall and strong. She wasn’t afraid that he would hurt her physically. He had an emotional chainsaw at his finger tips. It shredded her inside when he didn’t believe her.

“
O
pprimendum
Vincent.”

Kera wanted to ask him what he meant by that but suddenly she couldn’t speak.

“Sorry.” Maddox frowned. “I can already tell I am going to regret
…
” He motioned to her mouth, “
this
,
but I need answers.”

She sat on the sofa again. Glaring at him. Maddox hadn’t asked her a question yet but he explained their situation. The words he spoke were used by his father as a last resort for answers. Maddox apologized profusely but said this was the only way to test her.

“Pleas
e forgive me for this.” He urged
her again.
He ran his hands through his hair and looked into her eyes. “Did Andrew kiss you?”

“Yes.” She said against her will. She glared at him.

“Did you want him to?”

“No.”

“Did you stop him?” he furrowed his brows, his shoulders tensing more and more at each question and answer.

“Yes.” Kera sighed and motioned him to continue. She tried to gesture for him to ask different types of questions other than yes and no.

He smiled, then caught himself and frowned. “
Okay
, so tell me what you know about my accident and how you came to the information then tell me what everything that happened with Andrew today.”

So she did. Kera felt the compulsion to explain everything, even her opinions on his accident. He sat quietly and listened. When she finished telling him about his accident she explained again about what happened with Andrew.
He let loose a growl when she repea
ted Andrew’s words to her
.

By the time she was in the middle of him kissing her, Ma
ddox was sitting with his elbows resting in his knees and his hands
clinched
together
against his forehead.
His right foot tapped in a quick rhythm in an attempt to calm his heart rate. Kera found that it affected her greatly how distressed he was to hear what happened to her. She decided maybe she would be able to forgive him.

She told him
about how she bit his lip and then how Andrew
hit her.

Maddox jumped out of his seat and began to pace. He waited until she finished explaining how Andrew fell to the ground for no apparent reason before he spoke again. “
Dimittere
.”

Kera felt her throat loosen. She cleared it and shifted in her seat.

The silence stretched between them.

Finally, Maddox crossed the room and knelt before her. He placed his hands on her knees and sighed. “You said you needed me. I’m sorry this is how I treated you after what happened to you.” He shut his eyes and shook his head. “I wish things were different and I wasn’t so untrusting.”

“It’s
okay
.” Kera whispered.

Maddox looked up at her
. “I find myself even more skeptical of you because my first reaction is to believe you. I think about you constantly Kera. You are becoming very important to me.”

Kera felt her heart flutter at his words. “You’re the only one I want.” She whispered.

He smiled sadly. “What do you need from me Kera? Anything and it’s yours.”

Kera’s hands shook as she reached out for him. “Make me forget.” She whispered.

He kissed her quickly. He was still kneeling on the floor, his hands braced against the sofa on either side of her.

Kera wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her. His lips met hers with urgency. Kera gasped when his tongue swept inside her mouth. The energy was electrifying. It passed from him and spread into her
and left her shaking.

His arm came around her back. He pulled her closer to him and then picked her up as he stood.

Kera wrapped her legs around his waist.

Maddox laid her down on the couch and covered her body with his own. He broke their kiss and looked down at her. His eyes were ice blue, the lightest she had ever seen them. His lips were moist and swollen. “Is this
okay
?”

Kera smiled.”Yes, I love your kisses.”

He chuckled. “And I yours.” He leaned down and
resumed
kiss
ing
her
,
slowly.
He positioned his arms under her shoulders and rested his hips in-between her thighs.

She felt so encompassed by him. Every movement sparked a new feeling of desire she hadn’t felt before. She felt suddenly bare beneath her clothing. Her lack of undergarments brought her attention to those areas and how sensitive they were becoming to his touch. When the material of the shirt brushed against her breasts she shuttered and groaned at the feeling. His chest pressed against her and his warmth seeped into her skin. She wondered how it would feel with his skin touching hers. She already knew his lips were more intense than his hands. Would she even be able to handle all of him? She felt drunk on the feeling. The heat, the energy, whatever it was that sparked when his skin touched hers, was singing in her veins.
Her heart raced.

Maddox broke the kiss. He looked down at her and smiled. “You are so beautiful.” He whispered. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. His eyebrows furrowed and he hung his head. “We have to stop.”