Claiming His Witch (23 page)

My question stopped him. He stood, unmoving. I watched his eyes, looking for some sign of what I’d said that was wrong.
 

“Pup?”

He licked his lips, his eyes still dark with his arousal and the hard length of him pressing against my stomach.

“You want to be my mate? Forever?”

I grinned. “You’re my red thread, the other half to my soul. If there’s some kind of ritual we need to do so you feel the same connection to me that I feel to you, I’m in.”

“I thought you’d be mad,” he murmured.

“I’m mad that you didn’t tell me, that you made me worry with your guilt and your silence. But I’m not mad that you bonded us.” I leaned forward, licking up the length of his neck. “I’ve been nothing but in need of you since the first time I saw you. So tell me what I have to do.”

“To complete the mating, to make it permanent”—he licked his lips again as his body gave a sudden shudder—“you’d have to bite me.”

I traced the length of his neck where the shadow of a few of the hickeys I’d left him remained. Not as dark as mine still were.

“But I have bitten you.”

He shook his head. “You’d have to draw blood.”

I nodded once, thoughts of his blood mingling with mine oddly more enticing than I would have imagined. As a witch, I was well aware of blood magick and the mixed connotations about it. I knew the Parity Lake coven was staunchly against blood magick, fearing it opened a door to the darker side of magick. But this was about bonding myself to my soul mate, the one the Fates selected for me. That couldn’t be dark.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Pup’s soft voice pulled me from my own thoughts. His face was drawn, his eyes cast down. Disappointed.

“It’s not that I don’t want to bond myself to you, but blood magick—”

“It’s not magick.”

I smiled. “Everything is magick. From the wind in the trees to the way the ground beneath our feet feeds the crops. Everything about this world is infused with magick. You are magick.” I ran my hands over his chest and down his flat stomach. “The bond between us is magick.” I pressed lower, hands sliding over him as I worked my way around to his hips and thighs. “When we’re together, we create magick.”

He groaned and pulled me into his arms, fastening his mouth over mine. The kiss was clumsy at first, too heated and needy, but we quickly smoothed it out. Lips and tongues moved together, dancing and sliding as our breaths turned to pants. Pup’s hand went right to the edge of his sweatshirt, pushing the fabric up as he worked his way up my thighs. When he reached my panties, he didn’t pause. He pushed them down off my hips and down my legs. I stepped out of them, never breaking our kiss, my hands too busy holding him to me to worry about where the garment ended up.

Pup grabbed my ass, squeezing, letting his fingers tickle my pussy from behind. I moaned into his mouth and gasped as he slid one finger inside of me, just deep enough to want more.

“You’re so damn wet.”

I nodded, biting his shoulder as he slid a second finger inside. He pushed and stretched, playful and teasing.
 

“Pup, please.”

“I like this look, by the way.” His voice was warm and thick like syrup, coating me in his sweetness. “The knee socks and sweatshirt are very eighties-cool. Plus I like seeing you in my clothes.”

“You do?” I gasped again as his thumb pressed against a place no one had been, exerting pressure and making my legs shake.

“Of course.” He licked his way over my jaw, down to my neck, where he sucked hard enough for me to curse in response. “You wearing my clothes may be the hottest damn thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Oh.” My entire body shook as he worked his fingers deeper inside me, that errant thumb still pressing
there
. I clung to his arms, desperate for more but afraid to voice what I wanted. In case he stopped. I never wanted him to stop.
 

“You have my permission to wear anything you want of mine, anytime.” He ran his teeth along my collarbone.

“I’ll wear your clothes every day if it makes you—”

My breath hitched as he slid a third finger inside of me, the delightful burn of the stretch stealing my thoughts.

“If it makes me what?”

“Fuck.” Legs shaking, I clung to him. “If it makes you want me this much.”

“I always want you. Every second. I do nothing but want you.” He leaned down and brushed the sweetest, softest kiss against my lips before whispering, “I’m positively starving for you.”

“Then have me.”

Without warning, he picked me up and carried me across the room. He laid me on the bed, the delicateness of his hands and movements an example of how caring he was. Legs hanging over the edge of the mattress, I started to scooch forward, but he placed one arm across my waist and held me down. With his other hand, he reached underneath me and lifted my hips off the mattress.

Sliding my fingers under the soft fabric covering me, I pulled his sweatshirt up over my hips and stomach. He licked his lips as my legs fell open, revealing myself to him. A single pause, a moment of perfect, teasing tension as he stared at all I revealed to him, and then his mouth was on me. Hot and wet and perfect, he sucked my clit and flattened his tongue against me. My head fell back, hands clutching the blanket, whispered cries and moans falling from my lips. This wasn’t gentle. No, this was not a delicate man taking his time and cherishing the feel of his woman on his lips. This was a man dying of thirst and finally finding an oasis in a world of sand. A man desperate and needy. He’d said he was starving for me; the way he tried to devour me proved it.

Over and over he sucked and lapped, groaning as he moved from clit to labia and back. Nibbling, licking, diving inside. And all the while, I angled my hips and gripped his hair and refused to let him break away. Not that he tried to. But I wanted more. I always wanted more of my Pup. I wanted the release I knew he’d give me. I wanted the feel of his teeth in my flesh. I wanted his tongue inside me when I came. I wanted to see him drenched in me.

His arm across my waist kept me from sliding away as he spread my legs wider and continued to feast on me. Pressure inside me grew; as the orgasm I’d been chasing came into view, I thrashed on the bed. But when that buildup finally peaked and the deep, throbbing need threatened to split me open, he released my hips and let me move as I wanted. As I needed. I pulled his face into my pussy and rode his mouth as my body contracted, loving the way he slid his tongue inside me. Licking, sucking, groaning; the vibrations only adding to the sensation.

“Good goddamn, baby.” Pup lifted me, stripping me of his shirt even as he pushed me up the mattress. I didn’t stop him, my body too blissed out and jellylike to do much more than hum. Within seconds, he hovered over me, naked. I wrapped my legs around his hips to bring him closer, loving the way his dick slid against my swollen flesh.

But as he started to slide inside, I pushed on his chest. “Wait.”

He froze, breathing hard but not moving. “Why? What’s wrong?”

I shook my head and smiled as I pushed on his one shoulder. He rolled slowly, cautiously, as if afraid I was going to push him away and make a run for it. Instead, I straddled his thighs as soon as he was on his back and rolled my hips along the length of his dick.

“I want to be on top.”
 

His smile was slow and easy, filled with a casual masculinity that drove me crazy.
 

“By all means, baby. Ride me.”

I started slow, sliding along his length, teasing him. But after only a few passes, I grew tired of waiting. With an angle of my hips and a slow glide back, I pushed onto him. The stretch and the fullness had me lifting myself to sitting and letting my head fall back. So good, so thick. I rocked experimentally, loving the way the head of his dick pressed against something delicious and exciting inside of me. I moved in a rhythm all my own, rocking into the pleasure, spreading my lips with my fingers and teasing my clit as I leaned farther back.

“Jesus, Zuri.” Pup’s groan brought me back to the present, to the knowledge that the man under me was enjoying this just as much as I was. I pulled up with a smile, loving the way he dragged his fingers down my lips to spread me farther as his dick nearly slid out of me. Then I sat back hard, driving him up, taking him deep. He bit his lip and groaned as his head fell back. So I did it again. And again.
 

Soon, we were a rocking, plunging, cursing, sweating mass of sensation. I could hardly pay attention to him. My own pleasure so strong and powerful, I barely noticed his. He thrust his hips in time with mine, never releasing me, keeping his thumbs on either side of my clit to give me even more sensation.

“Shit, gonna come.” He pushed hard, pulled me tighter as I swiveled my hips and grabbed one of his hands. I entwined our fingers and brought our joined hand between my legs, pressing our knuckles against my clit to get the pressure I so desperately needed.
 

“Fuck, Zuri. Fuck. Yes.”
 

With a shiver and a groan, I reached that peak of release. My entire body pulsed as Pup thrust a few more times, reaching his own climax with a loud snarl. Our bodies covered in sweat. Our breaths coming in pants.

He stayed inside me as I came down, my breathing leveling out. After a few minutes of snuggling and casual affection, he smiled up at me. Feeling a wetness cooling against my thighs, I sighed.

“We made a mess.”

Pup glanced down between us. “Don’t care.”

“No?”

“Not a bit.”

I leaned over and licked his lips. “You get me so wet.”

“And I love it.”

And with that, he rolled me underneath him. He deepened the kiss, his tongue exploring my mouth in a way that was pure sin. When we broke, he pulled back with a grin more vibrant than any I’d seen before.

“My name’s Adam Tackett, and you, Azurine Weaver, are the love of my life.”

I smiled, a happiness I’d never experienced flowing through my heart. “You remembered.”

He nodded. “Someone very important helped me. She mentioned my name. I was so focused on getting back to you that I didn’t even notice it at the time, but now…”

He trailed off, still grinning, still watching me, his eyes filled with emotion.

“We’re tied,” he said, voice quiet but confident. “You and me, your sisters. The four of us are a unit now. One I intend to honor and respect. And maybe one day, when we’ve known each other for more than a couple of days”—he grinned, and I grinned back—“maybe you’ll tie yourself to me with more than metaphorical thread. Maybe we’ll use rings and promises and the sharing of a name. My name.”

He touched his lips to mine, all warm and soft. And as I lay in his arms, in that tiny bed, in a crappy little cabin with plywood walls, I knew I was exactly where I belonged.

Home.

I dropped the last of the boxes from the lighthouse on the porch, grinning as I saw Zuri inside putting her things away.

“I think that’s everything.”

Rebel leaned against the front of his truck, giving me a sarcastic smile. “I sure as hell hope so. Two truckloads of shit—good luck fitting all that into your little apartment when you come back to the city.”

I shrugged. “We’ll work it out.”

“You sure you’re going to be okay with this?” Rebel had that appraising look on his face, inspecting me as was his usual. “I don’t want to leave you out here alone if you think you may need our help.”

“It’s just temporary.” I leaned against the porch railing. “We’ll stay here to spend as much time as we can with Sarah while we can. The girls need that. And then, when Sarah moves on to the Summerlands, we’ll head to Detroit and figure out what to do from there.”
 

Rebel shook his head. “A mate and her two sisters. I don’t know, man. You’ve got more guts than I do.”

I glanced to where my girl was standing, both sisters at her side, the three of them laughing with Charlotte over something. “Zuri’s a package deal. She’s worth any headache the other two bring my way. Besides”—I looked him in the eye, making sure he understood the seriousness behind my words—“I made a promise to someone. I owe them.”

Rebel stared at me for a long moment, the eye contact not making either of us uncomfortable. I hadn’t told anyone about my visit to the Summerlands, not even Zuri. It wasn’t really an intentional decision to keep it a secret. But when I tried to explain what had happened while I’d been dead, the words wouldn’t come. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to say. Or maybe it was a moment just for me and Ximena. Something personal and private between a mother and the man who would spend the rest of his life protecting her daughters.
 

Whatever it was, I hadn’t said, and no one had pushed me on it. Not even my mate.

“So, you’re staying here?” Charlotte asked as Zuri and her sisters joined us. I gave Amber a noogie because I knew how much it pissed her off. Ximena said to be a brother to her; seemed to me being an annoying one was like respecting my pledge and having fun at the same time.
 

Amber shoved me, throwing her head back. “You’re such an ass.”

“Yeah, but your sister digs that ass. She thinks it’s hot.”

“I do.” Zuri came up beside me. I wrapped my arms around my mate and buried my face in her neck, still so relieved to have her safely in my arms again. “Though it’s not my favorite part of him.”

Zuri and Charlotte giggled as Rebel groaned. “Too much information, Zuri.”

“No such thing as TMI,” Scarlett said. “So we know these two are going to be fucking like bunnies in the cabin”—she thrust her thumb in our direction—“but where are you two off to, Charlotte?”

“We’re headed to Detroit for a few days, and then I’ll be going back to Milwaukee.” Charlotte glanced over her shoulder at Rebel, both looking almost giddy but nervous at the same time. “Julian still has a few months of school left, so we’ll be doing the long-distance thing until his semester ends. But then we’re talking about moving in together. In Detroit.”

Everyone cheered. Even knowing how hard it would be on Rebel to be separated from his mate, the fact that Charlotte and Julian would eventually be moving in with him was good. Rebel didn’t need any more uncertainty in his relationship with Charlotte. As the group began to settle down, Beast strolled up and threw an arm over Scarlett’s shoulders and looked at Rebel.