Wolf Mate (8 page)

She was from a good coven.
She was a good girl, a good witch.

And he—was just a lusty
wolf, panting after his sweet, young secretary and thinking all kinds
of wicked thoughts about her.

He shook his head hard.

He had to get over this, get
over her.

Snatching up the phone, he
pressed the button and waited.

“
Yes...Mr Ferro,”
Melynda said breathlessly into the phone.

Mr Ferro?

She had always called him by
his name before.

What changed?

His eyes narrowed. “Come
into my office. Now.”

He put down the phone and
waited.

She usually just came in
immediately when he called. But this time, she took much longer than
usual. It was as if she didn't want to face him and was stalling for
time. Was she afraid of him? Or was she...

A knock. Soft and tentative.

“
Come in.”

The door opened and Melynda
stood awkwardly in the doorway. She kept her eyes down, and
approached his desk reluctantly.

“
Look at me, Melynda,”
Dax commanded.

She bit her lip and flicked
her eyes up. Dax froze as he stared at her. Her eyes. They
were...changed.

There was a speck of silver in
the middle of her deep, brown eyes. Dax shook his head almost
imperceptibly. No.

No!

The pen snapped into two in
his fist.

She gasped when he stood up,
rising to his full height. He saw her gulp and take a tiny step
back.

“
Close the door,
Melynda,” he said in a voice that was very quiet and very
dangerous.

“
We need to talk.”

Standing at the door to Dax's
office, staring into those stormy gray eyes, Melynda had to force her
legs to remain steady.

She had seen and experienced
his overriding emotion towards her last night. What he felt for her
was undeniable, unstoppable lust.

But now, she could see none of
that fiery passion in his eyes. Instead, she saw only anger, cold,
deadly anger.

She gulped as she closed the
door behind her. Did he know what she'd done to him? Melynda knew
she shouldn't have done it, and she swore she wouldn't do it again.

“
Dax,” she began.
“I...”
I can explain
.

“
What is going on with
you, Melynda?” Dax asked, his voice deceptively calm.

“
N-nothing.” Oh
God, she couldn't even look him in the eye.

Dax stared at her a long time
before uttering just a single word. “Don't.”

“
What?”

“
Don't lie to me.”

“
I...I'm not...”

Dax closed his eyes and
inhaled deeply, painfully. Very softly and slowly, he said, “Not
you, Melynda.”

“
Dax, what...”

“
Not. You!” He
slammed his palm down on the side of his desk. “You...are not
an Elemental witch. Are you, Melynda?”

She gasped. How did he know?

Dax let out an angry, ugly
laugh. “You are wondering how I know. I know, because I can
smell a lie and I can smell your fear. I can smell many things on
you, but I have never detected the smell of nature on you. No scent
of rain or sunshine, the earth, the wind...nothing! You never called
on the elements for your magick. Never. Am I right?”

Melynda took a step back, then
stopped herself. Why was she backing away? What Dax had said—was
the truth. She shouldn't be backing away from the truth. She had
been doing that her whole life. It was time to stop hiding and
denying. She would stand firm, stand tall, and face him.

She sucked in a deep,
steadying breath and said, “Yes. You are...absolutely right.
I am not an Elemental witch. I tried, I really tried, to work my
magick using the elements. But—you either have it, or you
don't. I just didn't have Elemental magick in me. What I am...”

“
I know what you are,”
he spat.

Her eyes rounded at the
vehemence in his voice. What did he have against Emotional witches?

She stood her ground as he
stalked towards her. She saw the conflicting emotions in his eyes, a
mixture of revulsion, denial, hunger and hate.

With a finger under her chin,
he tilted her face up to him. “Your eyes reveal what you are,
what you have done.” His breath was hot against her cheek.

With a hiss of pain and anger,
he released her abruptly and stepped away from her.

Melynda reeled, feeling the
world tilt and spin around her. Dragging a hand across her forehead,
she blinked hard and tried to center herself. Her eyes? What did he
see in her eyes?

She lifted her face to the
tinted windows behind Dax, and saw her faint reflection. She saw
just her pale face, a head without a body, floating like a specter
behind Dax. There was a glint of silver from her reflection, and it
wasn't from the glass or the glare of the sun. She squinted to get a
clearer look at her reflection, and let out a small cry. That glint
came from her eyes. There was an unmistakable spark of silver in her
eyes.

Melynda shook her head
rapidly. It couldn't be.

“
When Emotional witches
mess with someone else's emotions, it shows in their eyes,” Dax
said, watching her intently. “I have...seen that, up close and
personal. I have personally experienced that.”

“
W-what do you mean?”
she stammered, her mind whirling.

“
I was once...mated, to
an Emotional witch.”

She gasped, blinking at him in
confusion.

“
It wasn't a true
mating. She used Emotional magick to manipulate my feelings, to make
me believe that she was my true mate. But what she wanted was just
my wolf. Silver Wolves are very rare, and they can channel the power
of the moon like no other creature. The moon holds tremendous sway
over Silver Wolves, and a Silver Wolf can pull and absorb the pure,
potent power of the full moon. We make very good familiars, and are
highly sought after by magickal practitioners. But you can't tame a
Silver Wolf. No Silver Wolf would willingly become a witch's
familiar, or a warlock's slave. A Silver Wolf would only be a
witch's familiar if the witch was his mate. Many witches and
warlocks have tried to catch and keep a Silver Wolf, and they have
died trying.”

Melynda stood rigidly in the
middle of the room, listening to Dax's dispassionate account and
feeling the cold anger behind his words. He had been mated—to
a witch!

Melynda could feel herself
begin to shake, and she had to clench her teeth hard to stop herself
from screaming.

Dax met her burning gaze. “I
didn't kill her.”

“
You...were mated—to
her.” Her voice didn't sound like her own. It was scratchy,
hoarse, full of hurt and bitterness.

“
She tricked me.
Savannah was an Emotional witch—like you. She used her dark
Emotional magick to twist my emotions around my neck like a leash. I
couldn't see her for what she really was, until it was too late. I
thought...I imagined that she was my mate. It had felt so real. Oh,
she was good, that witch was good.” He smirked. “I
really thought I'd found my true mate. Turns out it was just an
illusion, a dark spell. Emotional witches are the most dangerous of
all the paranormals, if you ask me. Behind the pretty face hides a
predator. They prey on your emotions, and crush your soul and your
mind with their dark magick. And you, Melynda Morgan, are an
Emotional witch. Whose emotions did you play with last night,
Melynda? Was it...mine?”

“
How...?” She
struggled to speak, but the words lodged painfully in her constricted
throat.

“
How do I know?”
Dax smirked. “Savannah had the same silver spark in her eyes
whenever she yanked on my emotions with her magick. It took me a
long while, but I finally realized the connection. The silver speck
in her eyes was the exact same shade of silver of my eyes, my wolf
eyes.” Dax's eyes changed from gray to silver, and Melynda
glimpsed her own reflection in those brilliant silver eyes. She saw
the fleck of silver in her own wide, brown eyes merge and melt into
the silver of Dax's intense, gleaming eyes.

She blinked hard and stepped
away.

Dax's eyes faded back to gray
in two blinks. “What were you trying to do to me, Melynda?
Why were you using Emotional magick on me, Melynda.” His voice
was very quiet, but she heard the menace in his words.

She held his gaze steadily,
balling her fists at her side. It was time to come clean. The truth
would...set her free. If it didn't kill her first.

“
I wanted to know how
you felt, towards me.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“
That's all. That's all
I wanted.”
I want you too, but...

“
That's not what you
want.”

“
Huh?”

“
You want my wolf. You
want the Silver Wolf.” His lips curved, but it wasn't in a
smile.

“
No!”

“
Don't lie, Melynda.
You know I can smell a lie.”

“
I'm not lying! I don't
want your wolf! That's not what I want!” she yelled.

“
Don't. Lie. To. Me!”

“
I am not lying to you!
You! You are the one. You're lying to yourself!”

His face contorted into a
grimace or a scowl, she couldn't tell. Not that she cared. Where
did he get off calling her a liar over and over again? He wasn't
listening to her. And it was clear he didn't want to listen to her.
He just wanted to vent, vent his anger and hate on her. So what if
she was an Emotional witch? She wasn't...

“
I am not her! You mate
lied to you. Not me! She...”

“
She is not my mate,”
he corrected her.

“
Whatever. It's none of
my business what she is, or is not. But you...you.” She
stopped, feeling tears spring up in her eyes. Shit! She wasn't
going to cry, not here, not in front of him.

She swiped furiously at her
eyes, and said, “I never knew you were a Silver Wolf, Dax. I
just knew you're a werewolf, a shifter. I didn't care what you were.
It didn't matter to me. What mattered was...you, how you felt
towards me. I...I thought you despised me, hated me, because you
suspected what kind of witch I really was.” She laughed
painfully. “Well, now I know. You do hate me and despise me.
But it's not because of me. It...it's not even about me.”

She suppressed a violent sob,
and turned it into a harsh, painful laugh. “It's not about me.
It's about you, and your...
mate
!” she spat. “You
hate me because of what she did to you! Well, this might come as a
surprise to you, but—” She paused, letting her sarcasm
sink in before raising her voice once more. “I am not her! I
am not your ex-mate, your wicked witch, your...punching bag!”

Dax's nostrils flared and he
took a step towards her. But she didn't flinch. He might be a
Silver Wolf, but he was a bastard.

Looking down on her?
Insulting her? Comparing her to another woman, and his ex-mate at
that!

No man had ever made her feel
so low, so worthless, so damn stupid!

To think she had been crushing
on him, obsessing about him, wanting him to notice her and
just...like her. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

“
I thought...”
She hiccuped a sob. “I thought you were...”
Mine.

He was standing right in front
of her, but she couldn't hear him breathe. “What did you
think, Melynda?” he said very softly.

She screwed up her face. “I
thought that you were
nice
.”

When he didn't respond, she
sniffed and boldly carried on, “But you're not.”

You're not mine.

“
Not at all,” she
finished in a whisper.

Dax didn't touch her, just
stood so close to her she could hardly breathe. She should just
shove him back, push him away from her. But all the fight and
strength seemed to have left her. Melynda felt so tired, and so sick
of everything.

She swayed on her feet, and
Dax caught her arm to steady her.

“
Don't...touch...me.”

He didn't release her.

Wearily, she looked up at him.

“
Just let me go, Dax.
I'm an Emotional witch. Touching me might...” She gestured at
his hand and snorted. “I don't know, dirty your fingers. You
are a rare, precious breed, aren't you? A Silver Wolf, highly sought
after by all magickal practitioners.” She made quotation marks
with her fingers. “Blah, blah, blah. You are so full of
yourself, so full of shit, Dax Ferro.”

“
Melynda, I...I know you
are not
her
.” His face twisted at the last word, like
there was a bad taste in his mouth.