Alpha Protector (Shadow Sentinels World #3)

Chapter 31

S tone

Dust motes floated in the sunbeams that slashed through the cool interior of the cottage. A pan clattered down on the stove, and the smell of roast chicken teased my nose and taste buds. Yet my stomach turned. I couldn’t face eating. Not when I was still waiting.

“Sit down, Stone. You’ll see her soon.”

Swallowing back my snarl was hard, but there was no way I’d respond that way to Finchley. Not least because I’d discovered over the past three days that her magic stung like a bitch when it slapped me upside my head and burned away strips of my hair. Even my eyebrows hadn’t survived the first day. Not that I blamed her. My wolf had been riding me so high when Ventry had brought us back here that I’d deserved every bit of discomfort my friends and Finchley had delivered as I raged and paced and fought to leave this cottage. Over the last day, my wolf had gone from a raging lunatic, determined once again to reach his mate, to a despondent soul that sucked all the joy from me and left me feeling empty and lost. It meant I suffered fewer broken bones and bruises from fighting Connor and Ventry, but it was no less painful.

Finchley’s cocked head and the warning glint in her eyes made my mind up for me. I nodded once and sat my arse down opposite Connor, propping my elbows on the thick table top. He smirked and raised a brow. With his arms crossed and legs outstretched, he looked the picture of relaxation. I knew from experience he wasn’t. He was a controlled apex predator with a relaxed veneer who wasn’t about to let me hurt anyone, including my mate.

“Oh, piss off, brother. Finchley’s far scarier than you are.” I ran a finger over one of my half-regrown eyebrows.

Finchley giggled at my grumble before plonking a cup of steaming peach tea in front of me and Connor. I vaguely remembered Ventry had brought it with him yesterday, along with more food and news that Shannon was almost back to full strength.

“I am, and you’d do well to remember that. Both of you.” She winked at Connor, who grinned.

“Wouldn’t dream of crossing you,” he said, eyeing the tea with distaste and no small amount of suspicion.

Now, it was my turn to raise a brow. “You’d best drink your tea then.” My amusement was greeted with a scowl as soon as Finchley turned away. Connor hated herbal tea of any kind. He conceded they smelt all right, but they all tasted the same. Except the ones in Faery didn’t.

His face, as he forced himself to try a sip, made me smile despite the heaviness in my heart. I waited. Yep, there it was. His eyes widened as the sweet taste of summer peaches exploded over his tongue.

“Hey, that’s not bad at all.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not bad? It’s bloody amazing compared to that coffee shit you all drink.”

Connor smiled. “Yeah, but I need the caffeine to get going in the morning.”

“No, you don’t. You’re a damned supernatural king.”

“Okay, you’re right. It’s Ember that needs the caffeine or my life’s hell.” He was grinning widely, his eyes trained on the door as it burst open.

“Oh, please, I can make your life hell even if I get enough caffeine.” Ember smirked and shot a ball of flames at him. He laughed and did nothing to stop it. I winced, waiting for it to burn through his clothes to his skin, but it did nothing except dissipate into the air in a small cloud of bright pinks and yellows.

Connor got up and stalked over to Ember, who cocked her hip and crossed her arms over her chest, one brow raised. “Yes, beasty?” He speared her fire-red hair with one hand and grabbed her hip with the other, then slammed his mouth on hers. If I hadn't been used to their displays of affection and lust, it might have bothered me. Instead, I rolled my eyes and tried to calm my jealousy that he got to see his mate. I stood, too, ready to run to the fucking Winter Palace if needed. My movement had Connor pulling away from Ember. His knowing eyes fixed on me.

“Sit your arse down. It’ll take you weeks to get there on foot.”

I opened my mouth to argue. My wolf was desperate to get to his mate, and if I shifted, I’d be able to run there on four paws instead of two legs.

“Nope. Not even in wolf form,” he admonished, still holding Ember to him like he didn’t want to let her go.

“True,” rumbled Ventry from the doorway, where his massive shoulders blocked the light. “We’re hundreds of miles from the Winter Palace. You know you’d kill yourself trying to get there.”

I ground my teeth together, my fists flexing. “So take me to her, or I’ll do it anyway.”

His brows rose at my growling demand, but he didn’t call me out on it. Instead, he turned sideways. “No need.”

Her scent hit me before my eyes could narrow in on her silhouette. A sound of need and desperation rumbled through every fibre in my body before escaping my lips.

Mine.

My muscles tensed, my body shaking as I fought to hold back my instincts to destroy everyone who stood between us.

“Time to go,” Ember sang, pulling Connor towards the door.

“Yep.” He kept himself between me and his mate, his eyes on me. Ventry had already disappeared, and Finchley hurried out after Connor and Ember.

Shannon stepped in through the doorway.

“Close it.” My command was rough, my voice low and shaking with suppressed need.

She swallowed hard, her nostrils flaring, her eyes challenging, but she complied. I sealed it. Not to keep her in this time but to keep others out. Connor and Ventry could break that magical lock, but no one else could. And neither of them would disturb us. We all knew what was about to happen here. I inhaled deeply. Shannon sure as fuck did. Lust filled the air. Her scent was heady and so sweet with desire that it was overwhelming.

We stood perfectly still, staring at each other, my whole body shaking, knowing if I released my hold on the need that consumed me, I’d devour her. I wanted her so much that it scared me. I’d never felt anything like it before.

“Are you fully healed?” My voice was more gravelly than I’d ever heard it, my wolf close to the surface and ready to claim hers.

Shannon cocked her head, her eyes narrowing on the gouges my claws had made in the tabletop. The wood creaked under my hold. Not unlike my self-control, it was going to shatter very soon. When she looked up, her gaze softened.

“You won’t hurt me, Stoney-boy,” she whispered before she smirked and that understanding turned into a challenge. She swung her hips, stalking forward until she stood right before me. Her hands cupped my cheeks. “Give me everything.”

The softness of her lips on mine was my undoing, yet her kiss was anything but soft. The desire that had kindled between us from the moment we’d met exploded. This was different from the times we’d fucked, or even made love. This, the storm of possession and need, of pain and guilt and every other emotion we’d both been through, was a runaway train barrelling down a fucking track, and there was no stopping the outcome: that we’d belong to each other at the end of it. If we survived. Which, if I wasn’t sheathed in her heat soon—I wouldn’t.

Fuck, I was going to go up fucking flames. My wolf urged me to take take take! My Fae side wanted to sink my teeth into the erogenous zone just behind and below her ear. I’d stayed away from it, apart from that one time I hadn’t been able to resist sending her over the edge with my teeth in her skin and my cock pounding her. This time, there would be no holding back, not when my need to claim and mark her was out of control.

My hand wrapped in her hair. She whimpered but met my heated gaze. “I’m going to destroy you.” A warning was only fair.

Her lips curl into a smirk, her pupils wide. “Oh, fuck, yes, finally .”

Keeping her still with one hand, my other shredded her clothes. A quick scan of her body confirmed she had waited until she was fully healed. I silently thanked her wolf for healing her.

Her peaked nipples grew harder and more engorged under my attention, goosebumps rising over her skin. “Well, Silverlake ? You promised to destroy me.”

I grinned, the predator in me rising in response to her challenge; her use of my birth name. “Oh, I am going to.” The scent of her surging arousal was enough to snap my self-control. Within seconds, my clothes were gone, willed into nothing more than atoms.

My mouth crashed against hers in a punishing rhythm that sent bliss soaring through my body. It had been too long since I’d touched her like this and heard her moan in pleasure. There was no need for her to kneel and submit in that controlled way we both enjoyed. No, this was a wild mating of our spirits and souls, and nothing would slow us down. She was mine. And I was hers. Forever.