CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Kayla
“Come on, Victoria.” I pour a cup of coffee and take a big gulp. I need a helluva lot of caffeine if I’m going to continue this argument. “It’s been two days. You can’t keep us locked up like this!”
“Of course I can.” Smugness fills the kitchen.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to hold off a headache.
My excellent idea for snatching back a bit of freedom has backfired.
Victoria might not know Shadow and I had sex while in Faerie, but she can sense that something happened.
Why did I have to create a sentient house that’s also flipping smart?
I switch to a new tactic, since weddings are so important to her. “How’s Shadow supposed to get everything ready for the wedding if he can’t go anywhere?”
“Jace came to see him yesterday while you were working, and he brought everything Shadow needs.”
“But Shadow also needs to go and bring his people from Alarria. They’ve never been here before. They don’t know the way.”
“Shadow asked Naomi to teleport them for this first visit.”
“Argh!” I throw up my hands. Does she have to have an answer for everything? I stomp my way up the stairs. “Shadow! You talk to her. I give up.”
The bathroom door swings open at my touch, and my eyes almost pop out of my head. Shadow stands on the bathmat in front of the tub wearing nothing but a towel wrapped low around his waist. I might have seen him naked, but seeing him shirtless still gets my pulse racing.
He grins at me, wide and hot and wicked, as the front of his towel tents. His voice drops into a seductive purr, rich as chocolate. “My wife.”
I should be working. That most recent trip to Faerie gave me a whole new plotline idea I need to finish fleshing out. But I’m ahead on my timeline, and Topher can take a flying flip.
We’re also trying to be careful. Now that we’ve had sex, it would be so easy to get swept up and forget and give in to temptation.
Being trapped means we can’t use the loophole of taking a side trip to Faerie for sexy fun times, which makes everything much more frustrating.
But Victoria locking us in makes me more determined than ever to wait her out.
I want my future with Shadow to be something we both freely choose. It feels more important than ever.
Right now, I choose him and this growing attraction between us. I wrap my fingers in Shadow’s towel and tug until it drops free. “We’ll keep it mouth and hands?”
In answer, he bends and tosses me over his shoulder.
I let out a shriek of surprise, then laugh as he carries me to my bedroom and tosses me onto the bed. When I reach for him, he backs away and goes to sit against the headboard of his bed, clearly visible through the connecting door.
“I spent my entire first week living here with a permanent erection.” He strokes his hard dick. “I used to lie here awake and listen to you breathe, imagine you touching yourself while I watched.”
“You did, did you?” I slip a hand under the waistband of my shorts. Thank god for spandex.
“I masturbated in the shower every day, thinking of you.”
I gasp, my whole body tingling as I brush over my sensitive nub.
“Show me,” he growls. “Take off those damned shorts, Kayla.”
I strip those things like I’m trying to win the flipping undressing Olympics. Then I grab my bullet vibrator and flick it to life. I press it over my clit, my hips jumping as pleasure washes through me.
Shadow groans, and I can’t look away from the hand working his dick. He’s the sexiest sight in any world.
It doesn’t take long—we’re both too worked up—and soon he’s yelling my name as I gasp my way through an orgasm.
Weight lands on the bed, startling me, and my eyes snap open to find Shadow lying between my legs.
“Mouth and hands, my wife.” He scrapes his fangs up my inner thigh, making me shiver. “Mouth and hands.”
Then he proves exactly how much pleasure he can give me using only those.
That evening, Naomi teleports into the entryway, her hands buried in Moonlight and Mist’s ruffs. They’re both in their panther forms.
“Hi, guys. Back in a sec with the kittens.” Naomi disappears again.
“Hello, Mother,” Shadow says. “Cousin.”
“Welcome to our home.” I wave toward Victoria.
“Thank you both.” Moonlight’s green eyes assess the house. “I sense magic.” She looks at me. “Your power, only not.”
“Yeah, things are a little complex when it comes to Victoria.” I offer a sheepish smile. “My magic animated her and gave her sentience, but she also has magic of her own.”
“It is a great power you possess.”
I blink a few times, unused to compliments from anyone resembling a parent.
Naomi pops back into view, carrying the three kittens.
Wisp launches from the other witch’s arms. “Kayla! My human!”
Naomi grins down at the tiny scamp. “I thought I was your human?”
“You both are!” The kitten tries to climb my leg, her baby claws piercing my jeans. I grimace and lean over to pick her up as she declares: “All the humans are mine!”
“Kayla’s mine!” Dewdrop flies from the living room to land on my shoulder. “But I don’t mind sharing.”
“Whoa,” all three of the kittens chorus together. Then Slate asks, “What are you?”
“I’m Dewdrop. I’m her familiar.”
“He’s a dragonet from Dularia,” Shadow adds.
“To have such a familiar is very good.” Moonlight nods toward me. “Very powerful.”
The approval in her tone warms my chest. This is only our second meeting, and Shadow’s mother is already more supportive of me than my parents have been in years. It’s no wonder he turned out so self-assured.
“I’ve got to get home to the husband,” Naomi says.
“Tell Wranth hello for me.” Shadow grins. “And that he owes me a visit.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She kisses him on the cheek. “You can come and see us in Faerie, too, you know.”
When she teleports away, we lead the panthers into the living room.
A door bangs shut upstairs, and Victoria writes across the room’s parchment. “You haven’t introduced me.”
“Everyone, the house we’re inside is called Victoria,” Shadow says. He strides over to tap a finger to her words. “Every room in the house has one of these translation parchments, which is how she talks.”
“Do we write on them to talk to her?” Moonlight asks.
“No!” appears on the parchment as another door slams.
“Victoria can hear and see everything you do within the house or in the yard,” I say.
“Amazing,” Moonlight says, and the mood of the room immediately shifts and grows happier.
The kittens squeal and start jumping on the couch. Dewdrop hovers over them and lets out series of excited chirps as they try to see who can bounce the highest.
When they finally calm down enough to sit, Dawn says, “I love furniture.”
“You know what makes furniture even better? Using it in your fae form!” Shadow says, infusing his tone with extra excitement. “Who wants to try shifting?”
“Me!” “I do!” “Yay!”
He shares a look with me, and I pick up the robes I left draped over the back of a chair. Then he says to the adults, “If we shift, they’ll feel how we do it. You can stop at your werepanther form, but if you want to go full fae, we have clothes.”
Shadow goes first, stopping at werepanther so his clothing doesn’t tear.
Moonlight goes next, shifting straight to her fae form in one giant pulse of power.
She’s a gorgeous older woman with dramatic silver streaks at her temples and green eyes glowing with power.
It’s easy to see she’s Shadow’s mother. It’s more than the pale skin and black hair that shades to silver—according to him, all cat sith look this way—it’s the shape of her eyes, the tilt of her cheekbones.
When I wrap the robe around her shoulders, she fingers the silky material. “This is nice.”
“It’s my good robe,” I blurt. “I, uh, I wanted you to be comfortable.”
“Thank you.” She pats the back of my hand. “That’s very thoughtful.”
Not gonna lie, I also really want her to like me.
Mist goes next, turning into a werepanther.
She’s one of the smaller adult panthers, and her werepanther stands only about six feet, but she’s still seriously formidable.
In another burst of magic, she turns into a woman with light skin and long black hair tipped with silver.
Like Shadow, she’s amazingly nonchalant about her nudity but accepts the robe I hand her.
Shadow crouches down right in front of the kittens and extends his arms. “Put your paws on me and feel my shift.” Then he changes back into a man.
“I want to shift!” Wisp says, screwing up her eyes with concentration. She strains for several seconds before letting out a breath.
The other two try without any success, even though Shadow shifts back and forth several times for them.
“Perhaps they’re too young,” Moonlight says, gripping his shoulder. “We’ve lost so much knowledge over the centuries.”
“I’m sure that’s it.” He stands and grins, but I know him pretty well by now, and I can tell it’s not his real smile.
Those disappointed little faces kill me, so I pick up the remote. “I’ve got an idea!” The TV springs to life, already set to a kids’ cartoon channel.
“Whoa!” Their little eyes get three times their size. “What is that?”
“It’s my favorite cartoon!” Dewdrop settles onto the couch beside them and catches them up on what’s happening. Before long, they’re all cuddled up, with Wisp lying on his tail tucked up against his front legs while the other two sit on either side of him, each wrapped in a wing.
We take the adults upstairs and show them the bathroom and their bedrooms.
“These are called sweatpants and T-shirts.” Shadow points to the clothes we ordered online. “They’re good for around the house, but if you stay longer, we’ll need to get you some clothes spelled to accommodate your werepanther tail.”
The women slip out of their robes to pull on the clothes, completely comfortable in their nudity.
“There are dresses for the ceremony tomorrow, if you like them.” I hold up one of the maxi dresses I found in the attic, the flowing fabric and relaxed shape back in style.
“We even got some kids’ clothes.” I pick up a pile from the top of the dresser. “There are a few sizes to try.”
“It might not be an issue,” Moonlight says. “I doubt they’ll shift in time for tomorrow’s ceremony.”
Shadow makes a face. This is really bothering him.
“It’s okay,” I say. “They can come to the wedding as kittens.”
“You’re okay with that?” Shadow asks.
“Of course. They’re adorable, and they’re your family.” Their father might be one of his distant cousins, but it doesn’t matter. All of the pack is Shadow’s family. It sounds like a dream to know every adult in your life will care for you.
“Let’s go downstairs and order pizza. I bet the kittens will get a kick out of the pixies.”
“Yes, you have to try pizza,” Shadow says, waving Mist and Moonlight toward the stairs. “It’s one of the true pleasures of taking your fae form.”
As they head down, he turns and grips my hands. “Thank you for making my family so welcome.”
“It’s not hard,” I say. “They’re pretty great.”
“And you’re amazing.” Warmth fills his eyes as he leans over to kiss me, soft and sweet and full of promise.
Not a sexy promise, not this time, but a deeper promise.
One that speaks of a future with him and his amazing family and all their support and acceptance.
My heart skips, and I cling to him, prolonging the kiss.
I want it.
I want it all so very badly.