Diablo Lake: Moonstruck (19 page)

Leaning in, he touched his forehead to hers. So grateful he had her. Letting that knowledge soothe his agitation.

“I want a life with you. Forever. Wolf and man trust you utterly.”

“Then what’s bothering you? Are you worried about my ability? Or that I’d leave like I did after Darrell dumped me?”

He shook his head, kissing her slow as he backed her into the bedroom. “I’m not worried about either of those things.” Hell, he was proud of what a powerful witch she was and he knew to his toes they were together for the long term.

He pulled her shirt off, followed by her bra. All her pretty skin aroused him. Bared just for his touch. For his mouth and gaze.

He drew his fingertips up her ribs, sucking in her gasp as he kissed her once more. Restless and needy, she writhed to get closer. “You’re my witch and I’m your wolf. There’s special magic in that bond. Can you feel it between us?” He spoke, his lips against hers.

“From the first moment you kissed me I wanted you. Even when I shouldn’t have. I never imagined feeling as if I belonged with someone. Not like this. Belonging
to
someone.”

Her breath hitched as he cupped her breasts and flicked his thumb back and forth across her nipples.

That was all the last bit of proof he’d needed. Darrell had never even halfway loved Katie Faith. A wolf took mating very seriously. It was more than marriage. It was a true partnership even as he’d continue to protect her however he had to.

“Planning our future will never be a source of stress for me. It’s what I’m supposed to do for us. You’re my mate. Taking care of you, building a life that makes you happy and keeps you safe is what I was born to do. Nothing pleases me more than our connection.”

After a rather hectic few moments of kicking clothing off, they fell into bed, tangled, heated, sliding skin to skin.

He ached with how much he needed her. His pulse a drumbeat in his cock. Her smell aroused him beyond bearing as he licked a trail from one nipple to the other.

She reared slightly, groaning as her nails dug into his ass.

It set him on fire that she demanded her pleasure. So sexy and fierce. He slid kisses down her belly and over to each hip. Her taste beckoned and once he took that first long lick he hummed.

“Delicious.”

She shivered as he petted her with covetous hands, kissing her, tasting her as she warmed, heated under his touch.

All his. Every beautiful, tasty inch of her. The strength in her muscles as she strained to get more from him.

He gave it to her, reveling in all that soft, sweet honey between her thighs. Here she was vulnerable and open to him utterly.

The sounds she made drove him, battered at his control as he feasted on her, wanting her orgasm, craving that rush of magic she threw off as she came.

Her fingers tunneled through his hair, pulling him close as pleasure seemed to rush over her skin like a shiver.

Even as she came she wanted more of him. Knew she’d never get enough even if she spent the whole of the rest of her life at his side.

And she planned to do just that.

She tugged his hair. “Inside,” she managed around a desire-thick tongue.

“Yes,” he growled as he went to his knees at the foot of her bed and brought her to the floor with him, settling her on his thighs as he thrust up into her pussy in one movement that stole her breath.

It drove her wild when he used his strength like that. He could pick her up like she weighed nothing.

So. Hot.

He ran his hands over her skin, sending ripples of sensation through her. In contrast, he fucked her hard and fast.

All she could do was hold on as he sent her careening over cliffs and into the sea. He was a rollercoaster of a force in her life and she’d never been happier.

“I tell myself over and over that I want you slow but once we get started I can’t stop myself from gorging on you,” he murmured against her collarbone before kissing the hollow of her throat.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him close so she could nibble on his earlobe to make him snarly growl that way he did when she licked him in one of his favorite spots.

“Gorge away,” she said as he slid impossibly deeper, resulting in an unladylike grunt.

He gripped her hips, pulling her forward on his cock, sliding her clit against the line of his cock as he ground up and into her.

Just when she was sure she wasn’t able to come again so soon, it hit her, sucking her under as she held on, her teeth finding that spot on his neck where he loved to bite her too.

He shuddered hard with a groan and held her in place as he climaxed.

For long moments they panted to get their breath back, still in a tangle.

“I do apologize for doing this on the floor but I seem to have lost control of my lower extremities,” he muttered, making her laugh.

“Just don’t look under my bed because there’re dust bunnies. Oh!” She wriggled free, grabbing a lost sandal. “There it was. Now it’s not even sandal season, of course.”

“There’s such a thing as sandal season?” he asked her from his spot on her bedroom floor.

“Duh. Do you wear sandals in February? No. You wear them in July. Sandal season.”

“Well there you go. Learn something new every day, I guess.” He rolled to his feet and she had to pause at her closet door to take him in.

“Damn, look what I got in my bedroom. It’s a wonder I ever leave.”

He grinned at her. “Darlin’, if it were up to me, you never would. We’d just lock ourselves in, fuck, sleep and eat. That’s all we need.”

The way he saw her—his gaze roved slowly from her toes up to her face—left her a little faint.

“Never in my life did I imagine someone who looks as good as you would look at me the way you do,” she told him.

“Never in my life did I imagine being able to look at someone like you and know you were all mine.”

He didn’t tease. His voice was serious, which moved her to seek him out, burrow into his embrace.

Chapter Twenty

Katie Faith knocked on Patty’s door as she called out a hello. She didn’t want to just barge in and her hands were full anyway.

“Katie Faith?” Patty came in to the front room from her kitchen with a smile. “Come on in!” When she got a few steps closer she noted the things in her visitor’s arms and hurried to open the door for her.

“Hey there. I got a little crazy with pumpkin and ended up baking all morning long. Want a share of my loot?” She desperately wanted the matriarch of the family to like her and if it took pumpkin nut bread and spice cake, she’d darned well bake her heart out.

“I just made a pot of coffee. Come on in and have a cup with me,” Patty told her as she led the way through the kitchen.

She’d been in Patty’s kitchen a few times before. Always with Jace. Katie Faith had to find her own way with each member of Jace’s family, most especially the woman who had been the only mother he’d had for most of his life.

“I’m glad you came by. I know you’ve been busy with your daddy and the Counter but you made time to redecorate the front of the mercantile so nice.” Patty indicated she sit at the table.

A cuckoo clock on the wall above the fridge chirped once. “I love that clock. I don’t think I noticed it before.”

Patty carried coffee and plates over for the treats Katie Faith had brought. “I have to disable the bird when JJ is home. We had to come to an understanding about that about thirty years ago or so.” The grin she turned Katie Faith’s way reminded her of Damon. “Some battles you lose to win the war.”

“An excellent relationship tip.”

Patty chuckled as she stirred two heaping teaspoonfuls of sugar into her coffee. Jace was the same way. Most werewolves had a wicked sweet tooth. “How are things?”

“In general or anything specific?”

“Let’s start with in general and see where that takes us.” Patty tipped a fat slice of the pumpkin bread onto a plate for herself.

“I’m doing pretty darned good all things considered. I just finished my dress for the dance. Aimee took pity on me and helped with some of it. I’m the worst with buttonholes. She always has been a whiz at that sort of thing. Business is up. Everyone is so excited about Collins/Hill Days so they’re out more. May as well have a hot fudge sundae before heading to get a pumpkin down your way.”

“Avery okay?”

“Yes, thanks. As long as he keeps calm, he’s okay. He’s back in his garden, which means he’s not under my mom’s feet and there’s no incidents with frying pans. He’s also back at the Counter three days a week. Says he likes it when he doesn’t have to be the one in charge. I think it’s more that he likes that I clean up the mess after he makes it.”

“I like that you came over here without Jace. Shows you want to be part of this family more than just his main squeeze.”

“I better be his only squeeze.”

Patty laughed. “I can see why he fell for you. Some sweet, soft thing would get run right over by him and this family. You know you’re going to have to shove him when he muscles into your business. Male alpha wolves are a big pain in the butt. JJ still feels it’s necessary to tell me how to make peanut butter cookies after six decades of marriage.”

“I love Jace very much even when he’s constantly in my business. Trying to protect me like I’m a toddler with a fork near a light socket.”

Patty smiled. “Even when he was just a preschooler he would herd his brothers. Make sure they never got hurt. Oh, they beat the snot out of one another plenty of times, but heaven help anyone who came at one because they got all three for their trouble. His mother was like that.” She folded a napkin, pressing the fold over and over until it made a sharp pleat.

Katie Faith knew Patty wanted to say more, so she remained quiet. Waiting.

“All his life he’s worked to prove he wasn’t Josiah.” Patty spoke at last. “Sealing what happened only makes it more mysterious when really it was ugly and tawdry and unnecessary. And now they want to use that to hurt him.”

“Scarlett and Darrell, you mean?”

Patty nodded. “Twenty-five years have passed and it’s still an open wound. Out of sight is never out of mind. It’s always there.”

“Someone needs to tell Jace the whole story. I know there are rules about it. Secrecy and all that. But it’s going to come out somehow and when it does, don’t let it sucker punch him. Please, Patty.”

“I took an oath. Like the one you’ll take one day when you rule this pack at Jace’s side. I gave my word I wouldn’t reveal the key details from what happened. I’m bound by that.”

“Shouldn’t Darrell and Scarlett be bound by that too, then? How is it they get to know and he doesn’t? Don’t you all know how it eats away at him?”

“They’re skirting the terms. It’s still a violation, but it’s not within my power to make them tell Jace or I’d have made it happen a long time ago.”

Katie Faith vowed to find out herself then. She hadn’t taken any oath to keep the truth from Jace. He deserved to know what happened. Another wolf might get into trouble for it, but she wasn’t a wolf or a Dooley by marriage yet, so she’d damn well do whatever she could to keep him from getting blindsided.

* * *

They finished their coffee and sweet treat before Katie Faith said her goodbyes and headed out. She wanted to stop by to check on her mom and TeeFay, who were supposedly spending the day canning but more than likely they were drinking margaritas and watching romantic comedies together instead.

She found them both on the sofa in the TV room watching a movie about male strippers. “I can’t turn my back on you two for a second,” Katie Faith told them as she came in.

“Canning is done. Why not share some eye candy?” TeeFay held her glass aloft. “Come on in and sit a spell. Tell us why you have that look.”

“I brought pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and two bottles of wine.”

Her mom grabbed the remote and turned the television off. Aimee came in the back door a breath later, calling out her hello as she stumbled into the room and saw the three of them.

“Well you’re just in time, Aimee. Katie Faith brought chocolate and booze so she’s got
something
big to say,” TeeFay told her daughter as she dropped a kiss on her cheek.

“I don’t have a glass yet,” she told Aimee, who came back with a jelly jar.

“Bigger than a wine glass. You look like you need it.”

She opened the bottle and poured herself and Aimee a glass. Her mom and TeeFay topped off their margaritas.

“If you’re pregnant maybe not drink that wine,” her mother told her in an undertone.

Katie Faith laughed and gave her mom a one-armed side hug, careful not to spill any liquor.

“I’m not pregnant. He...well he sniffs me and knows when I’m fertile. Pretty cool if you ask me. Anyway. It’s about Jace. I need to know what happened with his dad,” she said finally. “The wolves have pack law. And that says they’re supposed to not speak of whatever the hell his dad did. But Scarlett and Darrell have hinted around it. Used it to hurt Jace and I’m not going to stand for it.”

He’d said to her that it was unfair they got to know and he didn’t and that was doubly true when they used that to hurt him.

“They have rules for a reason, Katie Faith,” her mother warned pretty halfheartedly.

“I’m not a goldarned werewolf and I’m not married to one either. I don’t have to obey their rules about this.”

“All we know are rumors because it involved another wolf and you know how close they keep their business to the vest when it’s about this sort of thing. Whatever he did got him killed. Not just killed, but struck from their records. JJ and Patty had to officially adopt the boys under pack law or they’d have suffered the same fate.”

“For goodness sake, why? That’s awful. Damon and Major were babies. Jace couldn’t have been much more than three or so. How could they have been punished for whatever their daddy did?”

“Like I said, this is all mainly secondhand because of all the rules they have.”

“Well, that’s dumb.” Katie Faith fumed on Jace and his brothers’ behalf.

Aimee nodded. “Totally dumb. I bet a man made that rule up.”

“The same one who invented stiletto heeled sandals so your toes start to hang off or hurt after about an hour.”

“Katie Faith, I know we’ve talked about your tendency to wander around a point. This is one of those times,” Aimee told her.

“Am I wrong about the shoes and your toes?”

“About them having anything to do with the topic at hand? Bless your heart. It’s nice you’re so pretty.” Aimee patted her knee as they snickered. “And damn I hate those shoes.”

“I think they’re more sarcastic than we ever were,” TeeFay told Nadine.

“Probably.”

“So what happened?” Katie Faith repeated.

“There was a girl. There always seemed to be at least one. Boy, I always did feel bad for Jace’s momma. He used her beauty right up. And then her hope. That light in her she had all through school had been drained away. He wasn’t just a tomcat. He was sort of predatory about it. He’d hound and hound a girl until he finally got bored or she had someone threaten him away.”

TeeFay took up then. “Always shifter girls. He never was one for witches, thank heavens. That’s part of the reason this has remained such a well-kept secret. Whatever he did back then, he did it to another werewolf and they aren’t talking. I just know he was here one day and then the wolves—down to a one—left town. Didn’t see any of ’em for several days. Then we woke up and everyone was back except Josiah and none of them were talking. Their elders sent someone to talk to Miz Rose’s daddy and later it just sort of made its way through town that no one spoke his name. Time passed and it fell from our minds, I guess, as things like that do.”

“It took years for the Dooleys to get themselves back together after that. Pembrys solidified their power then and they’ve held it pretty tightly ever since. Whatever it was, he did it to a woman or because of a woman, and he caused so much damage he got executed and then erased for it. I just know it was bad or they wouldn’t have done what they did. Whether you like it or not,” her mother added. “You go marrying into their world, you best realize they’re not humans and they have their own rules.”

“Why is everyone talking marriage today? We’re dating. Seriously yes. I’m in love with him and I don’t doubt we’ll be together—married and all—for the long haul. But it’s early days.”

“Is not.”

“You’re not helping, Aimee.” She glared at her best friend.

Naturally, Aimee ignored the look. “Early days my butt. You two are inseparable. You live across the hall from him. You’re with him every day even if it’s just um,” she darted her gaze over to her mom, “a few minutes before you go to sleep.”

Katie Faith rolled her eyes as she struggled not to blush that her mom had been right there when Aimee pretty much said they slept together every night. “Nice save there.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake! You don’t think TeeFay and I know you and Jace are having sex?” Nadine flicked her wrist. “There’d be something wrong with a gal who didn’t avail herself of a man who looked as good as Jace Dooley.”

Katie Faith dropped her face into her hands, laughing and horrified all at once.

She’d missed this side of her mom when she’d been so very concerned about her father. But that sense of humor, the steadfast strength of Nadine Grady had settled in her once again.

Still didn’t mean she wanted to really get into sex talk with her mom. “Okay, moving along.”

Aimee spoke. “That’s right. Back to the subject. The front of the mercantile? Pumpkins and hay bales and flower boxes?
Come on.
You’ve known him for a very long time. There’s no early days for you two. Not anymore. You’re long past that. You’re over here finding out what you can so you can skirt around rules everyone else has to obey except those who’re trying to hurt Jace. Anyway, your momma’s point was that if you go into his world, you have to deal with their rules and customs. Just like he’ll have to deal with ours. That’s how this works.” Aimee sat back and gulped her wine.

Katie Faith sobered a little. “I do accept the rules of his culture and his pack. If I actually was married to him, I couldn’t be doing this.” Not until he was Patron. Maybe then they could drag the Dooley wolves into some more modern rules. “But I’m not. He said something to me. That I was his witch and he was my wolf and we had a special bond because of it.”

Nadine and TeeFay shared a quick look.

“What was that all about?” she asked them.

“He said those words exactly?” TeeFay asked.

“Exactly? I don’t know word for word. It was the feeling it gave me. Like we were making a promise. And part of that is me protecting him like he’d protect me,” she said.

“Did he say you were his witch and he was your wolf?” her mom asked.

“Yes. Those words. And then he said we had a special bond because of it. He did say bond specifically. Why?”

“There is a special kind of magic between some witches and shifters. Sometimes it’s not romantic or sexual at all. Just a union of two people that creates an old magic. Protective magic. That bond, that promise between you, is impenetrable. It’s strong, ancient energy these woods don’t generally favor folks with on the regular.”

“Since all this stupid political marriage crap started to get more witches into the packs, it’s happening less and less, wouldn’t you say?” TeeFay asked.

Katie Faith’s mom nodded after she thought a few seconds. “Yes I would. But it’ll be something to ask Miz Rose because she’s the best source for that sort of thing. But it goes to her point that this kingmaking the wolves have been up to with our people has changed the balance here. If you and Jace have this connection I’m glad of it. As your mom because it means you’ll be safer and stronger. That this thing you have with the man you love is genuine and special. I couldn’t wish for more for you. At the same time, you’re going to be involved in so much nonsense. I don’t like that they’ll hurt Jace through you. And I don’t like that they came at you through your daddy. I have some things to say when Scarlett returns my calls.”

“You called her?”

“After she did what she did to you in the market? You bet I did. She’s lucky you didn’t send that buggy straight up her ass.”