CHAPTER 6
Zara
I watched Savla interrogate Rok about the rodent with a wide smile. The male loved animals and would befriend any that he found. The number of times he’d complained about me not having a familiar was incalculable.
“Did you want dessert?” Rudgar asked, the low rumble of his voice sending pulses of arousal through my body.
This male will make me melt into a puddle of goo.
“No,” I said in a prim voice, but I searched the table for any sweets. There weren’t any, so I frowned.
“Pen keeps it hidden,” he said in that same low, sensual voice—way too close to me for my own sanity. “Because she knows I’ll steal it. Did you want me to bring some for you?”
I frowned, peeking at Pen and then looking back into Rudgar’s gorgeous blue eyes. “How good is it?” I asked, curious now.
“ So good,” he told me with a grin. “Make an excuse for me,” he said, standing and turning away.
Pen’s gaze snagged on him right away, and my lips parted of their own volition.
“He has gas,” I said with a firm nod. Both Becca and Pen stared at me for a long moment, so I shoved another bite into my mouth, staring down at my plate and struggling not to look guilty.
Buy it. Please buy it.
“It might be the cheese,” Dristan said with a nod. “He’s always eating too much of it when he’s been sensitive since he was a youngling.”
Pen and Becca turned disgusted expressions his way and I just nodded along with him.
“ Definitely the cheese,” I agreed.
“I only get gas with certain types of breads,” Enka told us in what I assumed was an attempt at being helpful.
I made a small sound of agreement low in my throat, but Pen gasped, standing and pointing at where Rudgar was making his way back from the kitchen with two plates.
“I knew it!” she gasped, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re supposed to wait to have dessert with everyone else!”
“This is dessert with everyone else,” he scoffed, sitting and placing a plate in front of me and then himself. “Everyone else is present .”
“Those cookies are for everyone,” she added, and I noticed that there were five full-sized cookies on my plate and ten on his.
“There’s enough for everyone,” he said with a shrug and Pen sat with a grumble, glaring at him while he took a hearty bite out of his first cookie. “They’re delicious,” he sighed, leaning back in his chair, tilting his head back toward the ceiling. “Your mom’s recipe?”
Penelope’s frown transformed into a smile with just those words. “They’re hers . She made them and brought them over this morning.”
The happy sigh from next to me as he shoved a cookie into his mouth made me curious. I lifted one to my mouth and took a small bite before moaning low in my throat.
I watched as Rudgar’s head whipped in my direction, his blue eyes going dark with lust. “Be careful what noises you make, Gul-ar. I don’t know how much control you think I have, but I can assure you that it isn’t much,” he murmured.
My eyes widened and I swallowed down the bite of cookie, almost choking.
Oh dear Goddess Mother, please send help. I can’t deal with this on my own.
He licked his thick lips and it was everything I could do to not lean forward and nip them between my teeth. I wanted to grip his tusks and yank him down to me—but I resisted, forcing myself to look away from the intensity in his gaze.
You can’t do this. You know why.
Swallowing hard, I stood from my seat. “Thanks so much for having me,” I said to Pen and Dristan. “Everything was delicious. But I need to go meet my mom’s coven,” I explained. “And you guys are always welcome to visit me,” I told them.
I didn’t even look at Rudgar as I stepped away from the table, but I felt his giant presence stand next to me and follow me as I scuttled toward the door.
“Leave them,” I heard Dristan say. “Rudgar’s got her.”
What the hell does that mean? I wondered, hurrying over to the front door and yanking it open. Peeking behind me, I gasped. Rudgar was right there , filling my entire line of sight. He was so big, but he didn’t make any sound as he moved.
He was rocking on his feet where he stood, peering down at me, a predatory gaze locked onto me. “Going somewhere, Gul-ar?” he asked, folding those huge, muscular arms over his chest.
Giving into the impulsive urge I’d had since I’d met him the first time, I leaned forward and swiped my tongue over the bulging vein in his forearm.
His lips parted and he stood frozen as I ran away from him with as much speed as I could muster, aiming for the elevator that was standing open ahead of me. I barely made it a foot away before I was over Rudgar’s shoulder and he was striding with purpose toward his front door.
Oh shit. I shouldn’t have done that.
I kicked and fought, but he kept his sturdy arm wrapped around me. I yelped as his huge palm gave my ass a squeeze. Arousal coursed through me, swift and true, but when his fingers brushed against my pussy, a jolt of pleasure shot through me.
“P–Put me down!” I demanded, trying to push his hand away from my ass, but he ignored me, making his way toward the bed where I’d woken up. I eyed it with trepidation, swallowing hard.
No, no. Not the bed. Anything but the bed.
I slapped at his back, giving his ass a firm squeeze—because it was right there, there was no way I could stop my hand from doing it—before sucking in a breath and screaming bloody murder. He tossed me onto the bed, and my scream became a yelp.
We eyed each other for a long moment before I feinted to the left and scrambled to the right. With a roll of his eyes, he stopped me long before I could even make it to the bottom of the gigantic bed, one finger to my forehead enough to throw me off-balance.
“You’re not the boss of me,” I gasped, falling to my side before scrambling back to my knees—trying to gain some height and some dignity. “I’m going home!”
“You don’t even know if it’s safe there,” he said with pursed lips, crossing those magnificent arms over his strong chest again. “You’re just heading off without a plan.”
His words made my mouth drop open with shock.
How dare he throw the truth at me.
It was a well-known fact that I wasn’t a planner by nature. I was more of a go-with-the-flow type and while that usually worked, I could admit that in the past, it also led to some of my bigger mistakes.
Like being captured by the warlocks.
I hesitated, because even though I didn’t want to admit it, he was right. I had no plan, and if I accidentally triggered my powers outside of a protective barrier, it could call the warlocks to me. Biting my lower lip, I studied him, trying to find any weakness in his stance and expression. When I failed, I crossed my own arms under my chest. His eyes dipped right away and I knew I had him.
My breasts are his weakness.
I totally got it. They were great. Large and perky. Pretty much ideal if I was being honest. I grinned, hefting them a little higher for him. His brow furrowed and his lips parted—his fangs on display while I distracted him.
“I may not have a plan,” I told him in a prim voice, “But you’re going to help me.”
His eyebrow quirked, but he didn’t remove his gaze from my breasts. “I am?” he asked, licking his lips.
The shiver down my spine told me that I wanted this male to lick me everywhere .
“Yes,” I insisted. “You may have been slightly right,” I continued, wincing when his lips quirked in a smile—but his eyes stayed right where they were. “I didn’t think it all the way through. I might need you to do some light recon on my mom’s coven. I want to make sure that when I go meet them, I’ll know exactly what to do and who I’m meeting.” I ended the sentence with a small shake of my shoulders and watched as his lids went hooded with lust.
Satisfaction coursed through me. I’d never felt powerful in my own femininity before. But this . This was intoxicating. Everything about being around him was showing that while he was physically strong, I could make him bend with just a crook of my finger. It was a heady type of power that I could already tell I was going to take undue advantage of.
Not for anything that could get us in trouble, I warned my inner harlot. Just for the necessary things.
It was hard to figure out what was necessary though, when he was looking at me the way he was. I’d been helpless when Veron had held me captive. The grand warlock had made sure he’d rubbed in my face the fact that he held all the power in that situation.
In comparison, this huge male—who actually was more physically powerful than I was—looked at me like his world revolved around me. I could get used to that feeling.
Nibbling on my lower lip, I tapped my finger against his hard chest. “Okay, big guy,” I said in a seductive voice, and he released a low growl that sent a flash of lightning through me. I ignored it, trailing my finger downwards until I touched the top of his chiseled abs. “I need you to look into them for me. Will you?”
His brow furrowed, but his breathing was faster than before—more shallow—as he licked his lips. “Okay,” he agreed, leaning down until our faces were just inches away.
I could have pulled backward—I definitely had enough space to—but I didn’t want to. This was the most pleasurable and fascinating thing I’d ever done in my life and I never wanted it to end.
“But when I do, I want to kiss these soft lips,” he groaned, his huge palm coming up to cup my jaw, his thumb swiping over my lower lip. My tongue darted out to lick him—without my permission—and his eyes went black with lust.
“Careful, Gul-ar,” he whispered, leaning even closer. “You don’t want to trigger my rut.”
“Your rut?” I gasped, my lips parting as a hot flood of lust washed through me. From the way his nostrils flared, I realized that he could smell how turned on I was. “What’s that?”
A small quirk of his lips was the only answer he gave me. He pulled away, taking a deep breath before he released my face. “I’ll need five minutes to find the information you need.”
“Five minutes?” I asked, blinking at him. “That’s all?”
“Now that I know who they are, it’ll be easy,” he said with a shrug. “I already have quite a file compiled on them after they took Rok. In case they ever decided to cross us again.”
My eyebrows swung up. “Paranoid much?” I teased, and he bristled.
“I prefer to think of it as being prepared ,” he huffed, before becoming focused on my mouth again. “I’ll be right back, and then I want my reward, Gul-ar.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, my eyebrows knitting together.
“It means you’re my little witch,” he said, leaning forward to nip his strong fangs in front of me. “And I’ll be taking a bite out of you in a few minutes.”
My jaw was still on the floor when he walked away. “No one said anything about biting!” I called after him, but he ignored me, a dark chuckle making its way to my ears.
Well, shit.