Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Karsyn
“Open your eyes, Karsyn. Wake up for me.”
The sound of Corbin’s gruff voice breaks through the bleak darkness I find myself in. Usually, when I find myself like this, it’s cold, leaving me freezing, but I don’t feel any of that. It’s warm like the sun.
Slowly, I open my eyes to find Corbin standing over me, blocking out the sun in his wolf form.
My heart instantly starts beating faster, but not out of fear.
It’s the sight of his wolf, its beauty and majestic form, sends a thrill through my body.
He’s beautiful and captivating. I should fear this shifter, yet he calms a part of me I never understood.
“What happened?” I ask him, uncertain of why he’s standing over me in wolf form. I don’t remember running from him again. Not that I would.
The last thing I remember is sitting outside, my emotions all over the place after the way he’d gone cold and steely.
I was hurt that he would go back on his word about taking me to get clothes and was going to send one of those women.
Thankfully, Daniel had given me a bag of clothes, explaining Dane had gone shopping for me.
He’d gotten me several long, flowy dresses (all of them to my feet), undergarments, socks (soft and fluffy), and shoes (boots and sandals).
There was even a brush for my hair, hair ties, shampoo and conditioner, soap (unscented), along with a few other things I’d never had before.
I’d taken a shower, dressed in one of the dresses, and went outside to watch Sage play while connecting with the earth.
I needed connection more than ever at the time.
The next thing I knew, I was standing in a darkened room in the shadows, listening to Corbin speak with a vampire.
I heard what the request was and that they needed my help with an enchantment to protect those weak and unable to keep safe from the blood witches’ magic.
Corbin hadn’t looked happy to see me there, and I was scared about how I’d gotten there. I didn’t understand it. Could it be part of the bond that the two of us now share?
I performed the spell, but not just over the establishment. I’d done it over the entire town of Redwich.
Now, here I am, laying on the ground with Corbin standing over me.
Slowly, I shift my head side to side, seeing he brought me to the meadow I found when I first came to Redwich.
The air around me shifts, and the wolf over me turns back to the man I’m fast falling for. Maybe it’s part of us being mates.
“You okay?” Corbin asks, still hovering over me.
“I think so,” I murmur, sucking in a breath of air. “Why are we out here?”
“You said you were connecting with the earth, so after you passed out, I brought you to the meadow behind my house that sits on club grounds,” he explains.
“This meadow is on club grounds?” I didn’t think it was when I first found it. It’s so secluded and near the cabin.
“Baby, you got a lot to learn about what belongs to the club. However, before you start learning anything, you need to explain to me what the fuck happened during that spell you cast.”
“What do you mean?” Staring at him in confusion, I watch his features and try to focus on them, but I can’t fully do so. I don’t understand this feeling of unfocus. It’s almost like I’m being watched, but I don’t sense anyone.
“Syn, do you even know what you did?” Corbin asks, rolling to his side, as he sits up and reaches for me, making me sit up as well.
“What?” All I did was cast a protection spell on vampires and shifters alike.
“When you passed out, that blood witch that was there died. Blood seeping from her eyes, and she was frozen in place,” he explains.
Dread overwhelms me, and my breathing becomes panicky because I know what happened.
It’s why Death wants my magic. Like with the earth I connect with, I can also conduct.
It’s how I was able to cast the spell over the town.
But being weak still, I’d sucked it from the other witch and killed her as I set the enchantment in town, ensuring nothing could happen within the town limits to shifters or vampires.
Technically, what I did wasn’t just for them, but for all who are weak-minded and easily accessible to the blood witches.
If a witch attempts to take over a mind within the town limits, it will not work.
“I didn’t mean too,” I whisper, hating myself for killing another person.
“You got nothing to be sorry for, baby. I heard your thoughts just now, and you don’t need to explain it further, I get it,” Corbin remarks, grips my chin, and forces me to look up at him.
“The way I acted earlier, it was uncalled for. I’m sorry, Syn, but there’s a lot you need to get used to, and some of it you won’t like. ”
“You mean the women?” I definitely am not fond of the way they seem to look at me with hatred. Even more the scent of their lust.
“They’re a part of the life, Karsyn. The doxies are there to please the brothers anyway they can.”
“Does that mean you as well?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
“Mates don’t cheat, baby, not fated, that is,” he responds nonchalantly.
“You mean they can’t.” But if he could, would he?
This is all new to me. Growing up, I might have lived, but I didn’t live. I spent years captured and an enslaved person. Never before have I actually had absolute freedom. A chance to love or to figure out who I am.
“Karsyn, even if we weren’t fated and I claimed you as my mate, I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean I was a choir boy all my life.
I’ve fucked women, humans and shifters. My daughter’s mother was a doxy who wanted to play games and try to trap me into mating her.
That shit doesn’t fly with me. Once Sage was born, she disappeared, and knows if she shows her face again, I’ll kill her,” Corbin says, his voice deep and sensual, sending a ripple of awareness through me.
“That being said, we are fated mates, but we’re also bonded, so there’s no way I’d fuck you over even if I could.
I also wouldn’t. There’s no fuckin’ way any woman could compete with what I’ve got with you.
When I’m inside you, Syn, there’s nothing like it.
For fuck’s sake, you’re literally fire in the bed .
. .” Drawing me into his arms, he pulls me into his lap and brushes his lips against mine.
“You got nothing to worry about, got me?”
“Yes,” I breathed, nodding.
“Good.” Kissing me briefly, Corbin pulls back. “Now, do you still need to connect, or are we able to head to the clubhouse? I’ve got a little girl to see, and I promised a shopping trip.”
I part my lips to say something, but the sound of a twig snapping stops me, and my breath hitches.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s just Dane. He’s on watch along with Justice, Abel, Tucker, and a few others,” Corbin murmurs reassuringly. “Dane’s not wanting to see or hear us out in the open.”
“Out in the open?” What does that mean?
“He thinks I’m gonna fuck you here and now.
” Chuckling, Corbin tucks his face in my neck, where he inhales deeply and swipes his tongue over the spot where he’d bitten me.
“I’ll save that for the bedroom. I don’t need them seeing how you burn bright for me,” he murmurs for only me to hear.
Pulling back, he grins. “Now, you good or need to connect some more?”
Sucking in a breath, I bite my bottom lip and glance around quickly before meeting his gaze once more. “Can I have a few more minutes to really connect?”
“You got it, Syn,” he says, nodding.
I give him a small smile and pull away. I cross my legs under the dress, press my hands to the ground, and keep my eyes locked with Corbin’s. He’s watching me intently, waiting to see what I’m going to do, knowing that I’m trusting him with this as I have with so much more.
Calling to the Goddess through the earth, I feel the healing powers from within the very air surrounding us.
The wind whips through my hair. The grass beneath my finger grows, tickling my hands.
A bee flies in front of me, buzzing and landing on the tip of my nose.
Connecting with the earth is me becoming one with it, letting it rejuvenate my body and soul.
Not once through the whole thing does Corbin look away, and when I draw my hands away from the ground after finding that connection I needed, he draws me into his arms and slants his head, at the same time claiming my lips with his.
Corbin takes me to my back, one hand at my hip, the other bracing his weight over me.
Long moments later, Corbin lifts his head just enough to look me in the eyes and whispers, lips brushing mine as he does, “I lied, I’m fuckin’ you right here. There’s no way I’m waiting.”
“I’m okay with that.” And I was. I want the connection to him just like I need the connection to the earth. I have a feeling that he might just end up turning into a need that I can’t live without.