Wolf Mate (5 page)

Dax opened his mouth to ask
Levi another question but the door swung open. Dax pushed back from
the table, as two officers walked in. His time with his client was
up.

He nodded encouragingly at
Levi as the werebear was led away by two beefy officers. He had
gotten the bare facts from Levi and he would work with whatever
information he had at hand.

He had never ever let a client
down.

Levi jerked against his cuffs
and yelled over his shoulder before the door closed behind him.
“Protect Rebecca! Promise me.”

“
I promise,” Dax
answered quickly and clearly, making sure Levi heard him. “I
will protect Ms Rose. And I will protect you.”

As Dax walked with Jett to the
car park, he spoke on the phone to Lucas Rieve, the PAC Alpha and
Blake Madden, Levi's cousin. Lucas and Blake were understandably
very worried, but they listened to Dax calmly, not interrupting him
while he explained Levi's situation to them succinctly.

There was a shout behind them,
and they turned to see Scott Madden running full tilt towards them.
Not slowing down, Scott almost smashed headlong into them as he
skidded to an abrupt halt in front of them. “How's Levi?”
he demanded. “The human police got the wrong guy! Levi
shouldn't be sitting inside. Phin Lester is the monster!”

“
I'll get him out,”
Dax assured Scott. The Madden cousins were very close. They were
extremely loyal to the PAC and their clan. Family was everything to
them. The Madden bears had a good reputation. They were honest,
honorable, dependable and calm. Scott was evidently less calm than
his cousins. But still, considering the circumstances, he was still
more restrained than his hot-headed, foul-mouthed boss. Jett was
still swearing at the New Moon City Police Department, kicking stones
violently out of his way as he marched to his car.

“
Want a lift?”
Jett shouted to Scott.

“
Yeah.” Scott
gripped Dax's hand. “Don't let us down. You're the only one
who can get Levi out.”

Dax nodded. “And I will
get him out,” he said evenly.

Dax watched Jett's car round
the corner with a squeal of tires. Jett was driving like a maniac.
Dax shook his head. He pitied the police officer who would be
issuing the speeding ticket to Jett. The human was fuming and
foaming at the mouth, and he would bite the officer's head right off.
It would be up to the big bear shifter in the passenger seat to
smooth things over between the hapless officer, who was just doing
his job, and his rabid boss.

Dax exhaled heavily as he
walked to his silver Jaguar. If a shifter was convicted of killing a
human, he would be put down immediately. Like a rabid animal.

Levi's life was on the line.

Turning out into the main
street, he drove home slowly, mulling over the events of the day.

All his cases were important,
but Levi's case was the most urgent. He had to see to it first thing
tomorrow morning.

But tomorrow morning, the
first thing he would see when he reached the office would
be...Melynda.

He had made a mess with
Melynda.

He never messed with women.
He never got emotionally entangled with the women he slept with.
They were all adults, and they knew that it was just sex. Nothing
more.

But with Melynda, it wasn't
just sex. Heck, he hadn't even really had sex with her.

He hadn't even taken her, and
already, he seemed drunk on her. She was...just irresistible. He
wanted her, yet he had to protect her, from himself. Every shifter
protected his mate. Even cuffed and locked up, Levi still protected
Rebecca.

His mate.

Her scent, her body, her
beautiful voice and smile...

No. He would never take a
mate.

Never again.

Dax shook his head hard and
exhaled a harsh, ragged breath.

He'd be lucky if he got any
sleep tonight.

Melynda let herself quietly
into the house. Her mother and grandmother were already in bed. Her
grandmother, Lucinda Morgan, was their coven Elder, and a powerful
Elemental witch. Her mother and sister were Elemental witches as
well. Her whole coven practiced Elemental magick.

Melynda winced. No one knew
she wasn't an Elemental witch. Not even her coven, her family.

Locking the door behind her,
she tiptoed upstairs to her bedroom. Exhausted, she flopped onto her
bed and closed her eyes. She felt so tired, so drained.

Why did Dax have to turn up at
the restaurant? Hadn't he done enough at the office? He had turned
her mind and body to mush, giving her the most mind-blowing,
toe-curling pleasure, and then...he had just brushed her off. Like
she was nothing more than a speck of lint on his jacket.

She had gone on her date to
try to take her mind off him. Dax Ferro was not worth her time and
her tears.

Arrogant jerk.

Her date had been going well,
well enough anyway. Steven was a nice young man, jovial, polite,
and...bland.

Melynda massaged her temples.

God, she was only twenty-two.
She shouldn't be dating like this, like a crazy, desperate old maid.

She turned on her side and
groaned when she saw the stacks of spell books on her table. She had
to ace her finals and graduate from Spell School. She would have
graduated earlier if she'd enrolled as a full-time student.
But—being a full-time student meant she would have to spend a
lot more time in Spell School, under the tutelage and scrutiny of her
lecturers and tutors. And they might discover that the real reason
she never did well in her Elemental Magick course, was because...she
wasn't an Elemental witch.

Her sister had graduated from
Spell School with flying colors. Jasynta had had her heart broken by
Camron Quinn, an obnoxious, unscrupulous warlock and her senior at
Spell School just before her final year, and yet she had bravely and
stoically picked herself up and soldiered on. Jasynta was a great
witch, and she would make a great mother.

Melynda smiled a little at the
thought that she would be an aunt soon to an adorable little cub.

But her smile faded as she
counted the days to her final exams.

Why couldn't she be an
Elemental witch?

It would be so much
better...for everyone.

If her grandmother and mother
found out what she was, they would be...so disappointed, and so
ashamed.

They didn't know what kind of
witch she was. She had taken great pains to hide it from them. The
truth would no doubt shame and sadden them.

Elemental witches drew their
power from the elements, from the air, fire, water, wind or other
forces of nature. These witches were pure and powerful.

On the other hand, Emotional
witches were like leeches, parasites, drawing their power from the
turbulent emotions and charged feelings of others.

Some Emotional witches needed
hate or anger to fuel their power. Others needed pain and suffering.
To work their magick, the emotion had to be intense, profound,
consuming.

Melynda fed off the ardor and
fervor of another.

It was the reason she dated so
much. To have a fresh infusion of excitement and fervor at each
date.

Melynda blew out a breath. If
she had taken things further with just one of her dates, and embarked
on an exclusive relationship, would that have generated more ardor
and passion for her?

Perhaps. Perhaps...not.

But Melynda knew that the true
answer was no. A loud, resounding no.

No, there would not be passion
and ardor, fire and lightning.

Not that red hot passion she
had experienced with Dax Ferro tonight.

Melynda gasped, her eyes
flying wide open with realization.
Fire and lighting.

She had sparked fire and
lightning with Dax. It wasn't just an illusion. He had ignited her
magickal powers, filled her and fueled her.

Dax drew her, pulled her,
captivated her. The way he looked at her and touched her made her
ache for him. He was the only one who could set every nerve in her
body on fire, and ignite an inferno in her soul.

Melynda groaned and buried her
face in her pillow. Why did it have to be him?

Dax Ferro was aloof,
inscrutable, brash and demanding. He wasn't...nice to her. In fact,
he was the most unreasonable, unbearable, unapproachable boss around.
The other two partners, Matthew Wells and Ian Robertson had much
better temperaments. They were both gentlemen, always polite and
smiling. Dax snarled a lot more than he smiled.

He was...so...infuriatingly,
irritably hot.

Melynda piled more pillows
over her head. She was hopeless.

Despite his attitude towards
her, her traitorous body still hungered and ached for him.

He tried to speak to her
coldly and curtly, frequently snapping and scowling at her. But
she'd seen the yearning and dark desire in his eyes. Dax had always
fought his hunger for her. She could see the conflict and struggle
in the depths of those silver eyes.

But tonight, he had lost the
fight.

Dax had never acted on his
desire for her, until tonight.

Tonight, something snapped.
His control, his lust, his mind.

Melynda hugged her pillow to
her chest, curling into a ball. He was right. She did go out with
Steven, even though he had ordered her to cancel the date, just to
spite him. She wanted to get even, and regain some semblance of
control over the situation. He had tormented and pleasured her body,
driving her out of her mind. She had felt the power surging through
her like a bolt of lightning as she came. It had frightened her and
confused her. She felt...out of control, out of her depth, and yet,
she felt so powerful. She could feel the magick surging through her
veins, flowing from her core to every cell. The feeling was so
amazing, and so right.

Melynda squeezed her eyes
shut. Her entire body was trembling and she could feel the powerful
magick gathering at her fingertips.

She had never felt like this
before.

Her classmates at Spell School
had often gushed about how good it felt to be filled with Elemental
magick after a lightning or hail storm. Some water witches immersed
themselves in streams and lakes, bathing in the light of the full
moon, and emerged fully powered and charged.

The witches had huddled
together to gush about their experiences.

It feels incredible!

Like...sex?

Better than sex! Way
better!

Really? Now this I've got
to try!

Melynda had pretended she knew
what they were talking about. She had nodded and tried to twitch a
smile when her classmates squealed about how orgasmic it felt to face
the sea and the wind, or stand in the middle of a storm and absorb
the power of the elements. She envied them. Truly she did.

She had never felt such power,
such pure, wonderful, uplifting power. She just muddled her way
through, never drawing on the true source of her magick, numbly
casting weak spells that didn't hold. Her hexes had no bite and most
of her potions didn't work the way they should.

She managed to pass, barely,
but her grades weren't sterling.

But she tried, she really did
try to take her ardor and magick to the next level.

On the first few dates, she
had allowed those sloppy kisses to lead to something more. But the
experience had been less, far less, than satisfactory.

No ardor. No passion. No
pleasure.

Her dates had been more than
happy to get into her pants. Wham, bam, and it was over. In a few
minutes.

She hadn't even been wet. It
had been awkward, and painful.

No more. She decided she
would date them, but not bed them. It just wasn't working.

But tonight, with Dax, she
finally understood and experienced what her classmates were raving
about. They were right.

It was...incredible.

But...better than sex?

Sex with Dax would be...

She didn't know how it would
feel to make love to Dax, but she knew that it would change her. If
she slept with him, she wouldn't be the same.

Melynda flung her pillow aside
and scrambled out of bed. She staggered to the window and threw it
wide open, letting the moonlight stream in.

She had never done this
before. But she had to try.

There was no denying it.

She was an Emotional witch.
The only one in her coven. She had to acknowledge this and own this.

Melynda snapped her fingers
and all the lights in the room flicked off. Slowly, she peeled her
clothes off and stood naked in the shaft of pure moonlight. Raising
her arms above her head, she tilted her head towards the waxing moon
and started to chant a spell softly.