Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Tempest
After we returned to the clubhouse and filled Warrick in on what happened, I asked Fender to come home with me. He’d readily agreed. Glindy liked him instantly, which was surprising since he was basically canine.
Manfred, on the other hand, had made a lot of noise, splashed us, and thrown what amounted to a monster-sized tantrum.
Then I’d gotten Fender to feed him a boar, and his attitude had immediately improved.
It might take a little while for them to warm to each other, but I was staying positive.
Also, they had no choice. I loved them both, so they’d just have to get along.
We lay in bed now, wrapped in each other’s arms. I was on the mend, almost back to my old self. Almost. Fender was being very careful with me. He knew everything now, what…who I was.
I was the Matilda, at least for now. I still had to have a conversation with my coven about all the changes.
I had a mate I refused to give up, and I’d brought Fender with me to the cottage.
Two more rules I’d broken, but then, nothing was the same.
People were still dead after Disease let loose on the city, and we knew Mayhem wasn’t far behind him.
Nothing was the same out there, so they couldn’t be in here either.
The cottage was dark, and moonlight streamed through the bedroom window. It was cozy and warm, and I just wanted to be here with Fender and not think about what was coming next, at least for a little while.
“Matilda the Brave,” he said roughly into the darkness. “How old were you when you were given that name?”
I slid my arm around his stomach. “Matilda W gave it to me. She chose it after my father killed my mother, and I killed him, then burned our home to the ground. I was eleven.”
He made an agonized sound and pulled me closer. “Peaches,” he choked out.
“I’m okay. W was the best. She loved and cared for me. Living here at the cottage was wonderful. After what happened, this was the best place for me. I was safe, and that’s all I’d needed for a really long time.”
“And you’ll stay safe. I’ll make sure of it,” Fender said, but the quiet growl to his voice, made it sound like a vow.
I lifted up on my elbow and looked down at him. “I don’t need to be sheltered anymore, Fender. I can offer my skills and my magic to help in the fight, and I want to.”
He slid his fingers down the side of my face and nodded slowly. “If that’s what you want.” Then he gave me a flash of teeth. “Who am I to get in the way of Matilda the Brave?” The smile slid away. “You’re a warrior, Tempest, and you’re mine.”
I leaned in and kissed him. “And you’re mine.” I crawled on top of him, straddling his thick waist. “I think I need to show you,” I said.
His eyes lit with excitement as he slid his hand up and down my back. “Are you feeling up to showing me, peaches? ’Cause if you need to rest—”
“Oh, I’m definitely feeling up to it.” The need I had for him, to claim him the way he had me, couldn’t wait. I couldn’t bite him, marking him the way he had me, but I could mark him my own way.
“Then, please, go right ahead,” he said, his smile wicked.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kissed him, and the playfulness vanished as fast as it came.
He kissed me back with the same brutal fierceness as I was giving him.
I was Matilda the Brave, at least for right now.
I didn’t want to give it up, and I didn’t want to let my coven down, but I couldn’t…
wouldn’t give up Fender, not for anything or anyone.
If it came down to it, I would find my own way to help people in need, with or without the name Matilda.
His hot, rough hands slid up under my cotton nightgown, and he tugged it off and tossed it aside before sliding me higher up his body.
He gripped the back of my neck so he could pull me down and take one incredibly tight and aching nipple into his mouth.
I groaned as he sucked deeply, my hips already churning, desperate for friction—to have him inside me again.
His other hand went to my behind, and he squeezed as he kissed his way across my chest, nipping the fullness of my breast before taking the other nipple into his mouth and giving it the same treatment.
We rolled, and I shoved down his boxer briefs with frantic hands.
The weight of his erection lay across my stomach, so hot and thick.
Goddess, I wanted him inside me. “Please.” I wrapped myself around him, wriggling until he was right there, right at my opening.
The head pushed inside, and Fender shuddered as he slowly filled me with every long, thick inch. I trembled from the exquisite intrusion, from the way he stretched me in a way that could only be described as a claiming.
I shoved at his shoulder, and he rolled again, returning to his back.
I gasped at the change of position, and the way it forced him deeper inside me, filling me almost past my limits.
I leaned over him, my hair falling around us like a curtain, and took in the burnished gold of his eyes and his heaving chest that told me he was fighting for control.
I loved all of it, all of him. “It is my turn to claim you, my strong, beautiful, wonderful mate,” I whispered.
A shuddering breath left him. “Whatever you need to do, I am yours.” His fingers flexed against my hips. “Claim your male, baby. Claim me however you want.”
I started to move, rocking on top of him, keeping him deep inside me.
Fender’s fingers stayed locked on to my waist, holding me to him as he began to roll his hips in a small circle that had us grinding together.
His eyes were brighter, he was breathing harder.
I ran my hand over his chest, pressing my palm to his heated skin, right over his heart.
“Here,” I said and whimpered as he thrust back in deep.
“I want it here,” I said, feeling delirious from the intense pleasure building inside me.
I wanted to take my fire back, to own it.
I wanted to turn it into something beautiful, instead of something to be scared of.
I wanted to claim it, while I claimed the beautiful male under me because he was the reason I was no longer afraid.
I leaned forward and licked and kissed the spot where I wanted to brand him as mine.
I’d been thinking about it ever since we got back.
I’d never done anything like it before, but knew I could.
Fender lifted me, so he could slide out farther, then slammed me back down. I cried out as the pleasure climbed higher.
“What do you want there?” he asked, his gaze burning into me.
“My mark.” I leaned over him as our bodies ground against each other. “I want to mark you like you did me. Will you let me?” I asked.
“Yes,” he groaned.
“It’ll burn,” I said, moving faster.
He nipped my jaw and flashed his teeth. “I don’t mind a little heat, peaches.”
No, I suppose a hellhound wouldn’t. Our movements grew more frenzied. I was close, so close. Sliding my palms to where I wanted to brand his flesh, I pressed them firmly against him and called to his blood, drawing it to the surface.
Fender gasped, then thrust inside me with more force. I pressed my mouth to his, swallowing his groans as I set the blood alight, a white-hot blaze too hot to flame.
Fender barked out a harsh sound, and his cock thickened inside me. He held me to him tight, and came, shuddering against me. I cried out, coming with him, my body clutching chaotically around him, holding him deep inside.
I collapsed on top of him, my face to his throat, while his cock kept me there, locking us together.
His hand slid up and down my back as we both caught our breath, and this time, without my panic, it only took a couple minutes for his knot to release me.
He dragged me higher and slipped from my body, then threaded his fingers in my hair and kissed me, rolling us as he did, so we were on our sides facing each other.
Then he finally looked down at his chest and traced the stylized T I’d branded into his skin. He looked up at me, a huge grin on his face.
“What do you think?” I asked, and carefully traced it with my fingers as well. “The sting will ease soon, but the brand will remain.”
“I fucking love it, peaches.” Then he tilted his head to the side. “I do have one question though?”
I fought my grin. “Oh?”
“Why does my ass cheek sting as well?”
I curled my fingers around the side of his neck. “I decided to cover all my bases and make sure no one missed who you belong to.”
He chuckled. “You put a T on my ass?”
I shook my head. “A peach.”
Fender tugged me closer, wrapping me in his massive arms, and laughed, a joyful rumbling that slid through me and easily pulled me into his happiness, because it was mine too.
“It seemed an appropriate location,” I added.
That set him off again, and I joined him until tears rolled down my face.
I had no idea what the future held, but one thing I was sure of, whatever happened, I would be doing it with my mate at my side.
I woke early, a pale blue light filling the room. The sun was starting to rise.
Something had woken me, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
Slipping out from under Fender’s arm, I crossed the room.
Candlelight flickered from the kitchen. I frowned, confused.
I hadn’t lit any candles. As I neared the table, I spotted the Matildas’ grimoire.
It sat where I’d left it, only now it was open, and there was a pot of black ink and a quill sitting beside it.
The Matildas could do things like this, move things, if they all worked together. It didn’t happen often.
I stepped closer, staring down at the page it was open to. These pages had been blank the last time I’d looked at this book, only a few days ago. I read the heading, across one of the pages.
Matildas code of conduct.
Then below it was scrawled: Amendments.
There were several entries in this section.
Over the years the coven had made changes to our rules.
In small script, someone had written, A request may be made to the coven for an amendment during unprecedented times.
Approval must be given by the coven to become law.
Write your request and your ruling will be received.
I called to my sisters. Why are you showing me this? I asked them.
If there were ever circumstances where an amendment was warranted, it is now.
It was Matilda W who answered. These, my child, are most definitely unprecedented times.
Ask for what you want, my brave girl, and if the ink fades and returns, we have granted your amendments and it will be law.
If it fades and does not return, those requests have been denied.
Picking up the quill, I looked up at Fender, asleep in my bed, then dipped the tip into the ink and put quill to paper. I wrote my deepest desires, asking for everything I wanted.
When I was done, the ink faded until there was nothing there.
My heart in my throat, I waited.
Then slowly, line by line, the ink returned. I smiled.
Live in love, Matilda W whispered.
Then they were silent again. I stood, crossing the room, and climbed back into bed with my mate.
“Everything okay?” he said into the silence.
“More than okay.” I looked into his sleepy gaze. “Will you live here with me?”
“Yes,” he said without a moment’s hesitation.
“The cottage will just be like another room we walk into from your quarters in the clubhouse. You’ll be able to get back in a moment, just like you’re still there.”
“I said yes, Temp.” His hands framed my face. “Wherever you need to be, that’s where I need to be as well.”
I pressed my face against his throat and breathed him in. “I love you.” Then Glindy jumped on the bed and strolled up between us, circled twice, and dropped down so she was pressed against us both. “And I don’t think I’m the only one.”
“Can you blame her?” he said and chuckled.
“She’s the only female I’m willing to share you with.”
“Deal,” he said and kissed me, his lips smiling against mine.