The Mating Intent-mobi (8 page)

Elves, unlike shifters, were selfish. When infused with power, some went very dark and did very bad things. 

Sienna’s eyes widened. “My people would never curse the land they are foresworn to protect.”

He leaned close, his muscles tensing. “Maybe you don’t know your people as well as you thought, pixie. Because some of them have proven to be very devious.”

Sienna clenched her fists, her shoulders rigid. “Stop insulting us. We protect the land. Perhaps a shifter did this, a shifter who somehow gained new powers.”

Going still, he searched her face. “What are you accusing me of, Sienna? Are you saying I did this on purpose? I hurt my land?”

“Maybe you did it to lure me into staying, convince me that I’m needed here.”

Infuriated, he clenched his fists. “You believe I’m that low I’d hurt those under my care?”

”No. But I have a hard time believing a Fae would do this.”

“Because your people are noble. So you think. The almighty Elven especially have no faults,” he grated out.

And you’re not like them. You’re more like us, like me. You have two sides to your nature as well. How can you long for acceptance from a people who will always judge you as unworthy, just like they judged me?

“You don’t like us.”

“I like you. But not your people,” he told her. “Elves can’t be trusted. Some do very bad things.”

“Like leave their lovers and return to their people? You’d like me in your bed, but you don’t trust me because I’m Elven. Say it, Gabriel.”

He couldn’t say anything more because he was dangerously close to losing it. Infuriated, he turned on his heel, wanting to smash his fists against the trees. He would not argue with her anymore. Not lose his temper before these shifters who already had suffered too much trauma.

Instead, he forced himself to calm as he went from Wylding to Wylding, talking with them and trying to soothe their fears. This was his territory and he’d fight to the death to protect it, and anyone who lived within his borders.

Keeping his distance as he helped a deer shifter cook a vegetable stew outside (now there was an irony he’d never have predicted), Gabriel kept an eye on Sienna. His sharp hearing enabled him to overhear every word she said as she knelt down by Neida, and began talking with her about Oregon and the beauty of the rugged coast.

Gabriel’s chest tightened. She was good here, good with the shifters and the land. He must make her see reason and stay with him. But would she stay? Because experience taught him Elves never stuck around.

He couldn’t risk his heart. Not again. When she’d left him last time, he’d mourned her absence for days. It had felt like a razor sliding over his heart.

The connection between them had been so strong. He’d felt as if his mate had finally walked into his life.

Only to walk out.

When the shifters began eating and the sun sank into the sky, Gabriel went to Sienna. “Time to return, pixie.”

They left the campsite to a chorus of good-byes. Voices that had weakly greeted them sounded much stronger since Sienna’s visit.

His anger faded as he watched her duck her head, wiping her eyes. She’d come here for her own purpose and never anticipated being sucked into his troubles. Guilt pinched him.

Then he shoved it aside. Guilt was a useless emotion. Did their guilty feelings ever make his life more bearable?

Hell no.

But, wanting to preserve her dignity, Gabriel pretended not to see the tears on her cheeks, sparkling in the dying sunlight.

Elven tears had power, he remembered. She’d cried as he took her virginity, and her tears had lit up the entire room with blue-white light.

“I need to use the spring as soon as possible. And return home.” She pushed a hand through her long blonde hair. “But you have a huge problem here.”

Sensing her indecision, he nodded. “I need your help to stop this.”

“I have to return to King Cael soon. I don’t have much time. So what can we do?”

Glad she seemed committed to stay for the moment, he put a hand on the small of her back as he guided her over a rugged hill on the pathway.

“We need to visit the river where you saw Rex. If this has spread, then we need to examine the river and see if it’s feeding the Glades or if it’s migrating.”

Sienna frowned and stopped, her hand flattened against the trunk of a slash pine tree. She tilted her head, all sorrow gone and replaced by intent scrutiny. She appeared to be listening to something he couldn’t hear.

He waited patiently. Having seen her use of power previously when she’d visited him last, he trusted her abilities. Light or dark, she was a powerful Elf who could tune into nature and discern problems by communicating with plant life.

If only she stopped trying to fit into a lifestyle that refused to admit her. Sienna was too good for those superficial, pompous fools.

He certainly hadn’t been good enough. Gabriel swallowed past the bitterness.

Sighing, she removed her hand. “I tried gathering information, but the tree was silent. I got nothing, probably due to the warding you did on your borders. It’s shut away all other magick.”

“Perhaps the tree is tired and asleep for the night.”

Amusement flickered over her face. “Still sarcastic, Gabriel? Maybe it needs a hug instead. You’re a tree hugger. Why don’t you demonstrate your love?”

He grinned, enjoying this light sparring with her. She had a sharp tongue and knew how to use it.

Knew how to use it on certain parts of his body, too.

He spread out his arms. “
I
need a hug. Panthers need love, too.”

Sienna tried to keep a straight face, but he saw her crack a smile as she pushed at his chest. “Go away. I’m allergic to cats.”

“Please Sienna. I need love. I need affection.” He grabbed her hand and clutched it to his chest. “Don’t be Elfish.”

Sputtering, she tried to snatch her hand back, but he yanked her into his arms. Gabriel stared down at her. “I need you. I need you naked in my bed, but at the moment I’ll settle for having your mouth. I love your mouth. It’s so damn sexy I need to kiss it. Now.”

He lowered his mouth to hers. Her lips were soft and warm, silk against his plundering tongue. Lust seized him and he held her tight, never wanting to release her, always keeping her by his side. Sienna did not struggle but sighed and parted her lips as he thrust his tongue into the wet cavern of her mouth. She tasted like mint and hope and all his tomorrows.

His dick instantly went hard and Gabriel groaned at her sweetness. He had to have her, no matter what it took. Pushing her against the tree trunk, he ravished her lips and fisted a hand in her hair, feeling as if he’d been lost all these years and had finally found his way home. No one had ever understood him like Sienna had. She knew the loneliness of never truly being alone, solitary as a small island surrounded by a raging sea of people. Sienna was a quiet forest glade, a splash of cool water to extinguish his thirst.

One night, three nights in his bed, hell, he’d never get enough of her.

Gabriel groaned against her mouth and felt her warmth envelop him and stroke him from the inside out. And then he felt something else as well; a stirring in the air and the awakening of his shifter senses.

His breathing ragged, he opened his eyes and broke the kiss. Sienna’s eyes remained closed, her expression dreamy, her skin pulsing blue-white.

She was glowing with sexual heat.

Glowing with Elven power. And so was everything around them.

“Pixie, look at yourself. Look at us,” he quietly ordered.

She opened her eyes and confusion replaced passion. “You’re glowing, Gabriel.”

Then she glanced around, and her eyes widened with shock. “Everything is pulsing with power.”

“Elven power. Your power. It’s good and wholesome. Not dark.” Sensing her fear and denial, he picked up her hand and placed it against the tree. “Feel this? I can’t communicate with it, but I sense its gratitude that you are here. You love the land as much as we do.”

She pulled her hand away as if burnt. Her mouth, swollen from his possessive kisses, trembled. “It can’t be me, with all this darkness consuming my powers. You’re wrong.”

And the glow faded from the earth beneath their feet, from the trees and the foliage, and her, leaving Gabriel cold and empty as if something precious and wonderful had touched him for a single moment, and then fled.

She still believed the magick inside her was evil and dangerous.

He must convince her that the tremendous power she held could be used for good, too.

“It’s us, pixie. When we come together, in sexual passion, the magick inside you reacts to me. You become a conduit for positive energy that heals.”

“That’s not true. You’re saying that only as a line to get me into bed.”

Gabriel released a frustrated growl. “You don’t believe me? Fine.”

Grabbing her hand, he pulled her back toward the glen, knowing what they’d find. When she protested, he simply scooped her over one shoulder again and carried her, jogging back to the encampment.

“Dammit, Gabriel, put me down!”

Her protests died as he set her on her feet. She gazed around the camp, her eyes wide.

Every shifter was smiling. They’d all stopped eating their evening meals and looked rapt with joy. All the fear and worry had vanished, leaving only a feeling of peace and hope. Even he sensed it.

Gabriel gently clasped his fingers around Sienna’s wrist and tugged her over to Roger. The hawk shifter’s broken arm was free of the sling, and he moved it around like a baseball pitcher warming up before a big game. Happiness replaced the constant, pinched pain of grief.

“Gabe, it’s healed! I don’t know what happened, but all the sudden this enormous surge of power flowed into the camp and washed over us like a wave.”

Releasing Sienna’s trembling hand, he knelt by the shifter. “Were you scared? Did it hurt you?”

“Hurt?” Roger flexed his right fingers. “No, it felt really good. Warm and peaceful and loving.”

A shadow flickered across his face, but it was fleeting. “For the first time since I lost Ursula, I didn’t feel this horrid emptiness. All I felt was peace, remembering the love we shared. I still miss her like crazy, and I always will, but it’s not the constant, crippling ache crushing my chest. Feels as if I can finally breathe.”

The hawk’s brown gaze searched his. “Did you do this? Thanks, Gabe.”

“Not me.” He nodded at Sienna. “She did.”

Roger stood and bowed formally to the shaken Sienna. “Thank you.”

“I did nothing,” she protested.

“You did this, Sienna. You succeeded where I could not, no matter how I tried. You healed him. Not just here,” Gabriel touched Roger’s once-broken arm and then his heart. “but here as well.”

Her mouth wobbled and sweat glistened on her forehead. Sienna shook her head. “It’s impossible. It must be you, Gabriel. I have nothing but dark power inside me.”

“If I held the power of light, they would have been healed already,” he pointed out.

Roger nodded. “He’s right. Whatever killed my darling Ursula was evil. I feel only good energy radiating from what healed my arm. Thank you, Sienna.”

“Shifters know. Just as animals know a Skin has a good heart. We can feel their vibrations and energy and know if they are harmful people.” Gabriel cupped her chin and raised her face to meet his gaze. “You see the evidence here with your eyes, Sienna. Believe what you see.”

Breathing in her scent of flowers, tangy earth and freshly cut grass, he felt dizzy with need. Sienna had the unique ability to turn him upside down, make him forsake common sense. He must keep his distance, keep his wits about him.

Hell, he’d almost swear she’d cast an enchantment over him. Twenty-five years was a long time, but when he’d seen her in his store, all the old feelings had returned as if she’d never stepped away. He’d never wanted a female as much as he wanted her.

Gabriel stroked a thumb over her wobbling lower lip. “They need you, Sienna. This land needs you and I need you. Don’t deny your true nature.”

She remained silent as they returned to the house. Inside, she headed directly for the guest bedroom, turning to regard him as she put her hand on the doorknob.

“I’m very tired, Gabriel, and I’m going to bed for the night. Please, leave me alone.”

He stepped closer, stroking a hand through her thick blonde hair. “I have no intention of disturbing you for the rest of the night. But know this. Tomorrow is a new day. We’ll leave for the river after breakfast, to see if we can track the dark enchantment that killed Rex.”

“And tomorrow night?”

He studied her, his body tight with longing, his instincts sharpened and alert. “Tomorrow night we will be lovers. You can count on it.”

They would be lovers, but she would leave him again. The thought clenched his guts. Because Elves always left. But maybe he could shower her with so much pleasure she’d stay.

“Sex is the price you’ll make me pay for using the sacred spring. And you think we create some kind of sexual mojo that heals the earth? How very New Age of you. What’s next, telling me giving you a blow job will make the corn grow?”

His mouth quirked. “I don’t grow corn, but it would be an interesting experiment to test on the cucumbers.”

Then he sobered. “I know you’re scared of losing everything familiar to you, everything comfortable. But I won’t let anything bad happen to you, pixie. Count on it.”

“I can’t,” she said, looking haunted. “I can’t count on anyone anymore. Only myself.”

“You don’t have to be alone. I’m here for you,” he said quietly.

“Right. With all this dark magick inside me? What if I infect you? Contaminate you and turn you dark as well?” She shook her head. “No. I won’t sleep with you, Gabriel. No matter how much good mojo you think sex will create.”

“Forget the positive energy and the effect your Elven powers have.” He cupped her face and dropped a kiss on her chilled cheek. “We will be lovers because you want me as much as I want you. There’s no denying it, Sienna.”

Gabriel left her standing in the hallway, staring after him.