Claws and Effect (13 page)

I snorted, but my fingers skimmed down his back and to his buttock, and I squeezed it, enjoying the tight flesh under my fingers. "You just let me know when you're ready to start soldiering again."

He groaned. "Give a guy a minute to recover."

I tsked between my teeth. "I didn't realize your stamina was so lacking."

"I'll show you lacking--" he said, leaning in to nuzzle my neck again, and distracting me from any further teasing.

Epilogue

We made love three more times - three passionate, bite-filled, sexy, glorious, frantic times -- before my skin began to ripple in response and claws sprang out of my fingers. I panicked, but Ellis was elated, and with soothing strokes of his hands on my skin and his easy directions, he walked me through my first change.

After that, it was surprisingly easy. Ellis was surprised at the ease I had with the change. He told me that Marie had a very difficult first change, and I reminded him that she'd been very sick. Either way, he seemed extremely relieved. And happy. Which ended up being another round of sex after we raced through the woods in cougar form.

The next morning, we dressed and left the cabin, hand in hand. We walked a few miles through the woodsy underbrush. It looked like nothing but a mess to me, but Ellis knew instinctively where we were going, and sure enough, we eventually broke through to a familiar clearing -- the place of the picnic.

"So what is this house, anyhow?" I asked him, eyeing the enormous house and the barn in the distance.

"This is where my family lives," Ellis said. "Well, most of it. There's a lot more room now that people are scattering a bit. Beau and Bathsheba split their time here on weekdays and at their own private cabin on weekends. Ramsey and Sara live a few miles away. Josh just moved out and into Marie's apartment. And my cousin Jere lives with Sam and Miko. But Austin, Everett and I all live here and run the place. We own all this." He pointed into the distance and circled his hand. "Several hundred acres. Gives us enough room to run around, you know?"

"Wow. Doesn't it take a lot of work?"

He grinned at me. "Of course it does. That's why I became a vet. So I could figure out how to take care of our animals a little better. I specialize in farm medicine."

"And kittens," I teased. Which reminded me. I squeezed his hand. "Speaking of, where are our kittens?"

"Everett has Wonder Woman and SuperGirl up in his room. I'm pretty sure he'll be ready to hand them off as soon as we get inside."

"I can't wait to see them," I admitted, feeling so incredibly happy I could burst.

"Well, come on then," Ellis said, and we sprinted toward the back door of the house.

It opened before we could touch the handle, and a grim-faced man who looked like an older version of Ellis opened the door.

"Hey, Beau," Ellis said, drawing me a bit closer to him. "I'm bringing Lily home for good. She's mine. I changed her and I claimed her." With that bold statement, he practically vibrated with tension. Oddly enough, I could smell the change in emotion in the air -- just one of the many changes I'd have to get used to as a shifter, I suspected.

Beau's gaze moved over me, rested on my neck, and then back to Ellis. "We should have discussed this first--"

"Nothing to discuss," Ellis said. "I love Lily, she loves me, and I can keep her safe if she's part of the Russell clan. I'm not about to let another vampire get his filthy hands on the woman I love."

Beau crossed his arms. "I realize we just relaxed the laws on changing humans for mating, Ellis, but damn it, how's it going to look if the only ones changing women are Russells? First Josh, now you--"

Ellis waved a hand. "So we'll pay a fine. I don't care."

Beau snorted. "It's going to be a pretty fucking big fine, I imagine."

"I have money, don't I?" I asked, speaking up for the first time since Beau had arrived. "Didn't someone say I got a lot of money from the vampires?"

"A few million," Beau admitted.

My jaw dropped. "Few...million?"

"Um. I hope the fine doesn't take all of it," Ellis said.

Beau's lips twitched with amusement. "I sincerely doubt that. Considering that the vampires are going to have to pay another fine for attacking Lily while she was on protected territory last night? I'd say you're probably going to break even."

"Oh," I breathed. Wow. I was a millionaire.

"We need to let them know she's a cougar now," Ellis said in a decisive tone and pulled me closer. "I'm not letting them touch her again."

"She'll probably have to prove her transformation," Beau said, but he seemed to relax, the lines on his forehead smoothing away. "But I admit, this solves quite a few problems. You're sure you didn't turn her just on a whim?" He gave a fierce look to Ellis.

"Beau, you're my big brother and all, but I'm going to punch you in the mouth if you say anything else disparaging to Lily," Ellis said cheerfully. "I love her, and that's the end of the story." He looked over at me, and his eyes shone with such tenderness that I nearly wept at the sight.

"Well then," Beau said. His gaze was hard as he stared down both me and Ellis. "We've got a lot to do. We need to let the police know that Lily's no longer a missing person - once we come up with a sufficient cover story. We need to let the vampires know that she's been changed and is now under our protection. We need to let the council of alphas know that another human female has been transformed. We need to get Lily established with our clan and start teaching her how to control her shifting, and..." his expression softened. "You two need to come inside so we can welcome Lily properly to the family. Bath's cooking breakfast and she's going to have a fit if you don't feed your new mate before letting her run around and practice shifting forms."

Ellis chuckled, rubbing at his messy hair. "Yes, sir."

"And your twin's trying to foist those two noisy kittens on anyone that will take them."

"I'll take them," I said immediately, smiling. "They're mine."

"Come on in, then," Beau said, stepping aside so we could enter the warm, friendly kitchen of the Russell house. Within minutes, both Ellis and I were surrounded by the others, plates of food being shoved in front of us. We held our kittens and I tried not to weep with emotion as I stroked my hand over SuperGirl's fuzzy head and leaned back against Ellis -- my mate -- while Beau's wife fussed over us and Austin and Everett teased Ellis for falling in love with me.

Life was good. We were home.

I was home.

And as I snuggled against my mate and cradled our kittens, he kissed my forehead and murmured naughty words in my ear, and I belonged to the world again.

From the Author

Thank you for reading this book! Seriously – thank you. Somewhere out there, a unicorn just farted a rainbow out of sheer happiness. And your hair sure is pretty today! Have you lost weight? No? Well, keep doing what you’re doing, because you look fabulous.

Anyhow…

If you are the type that likes to review what you’ve read, I’d love for you to leave me a review – let me know what you thought. Feedback is super important to people like me that juggle three or more series at once. We like feedback like chocolate loves peanut butter. And the more feedback I get, the more it tells me what I need to work on next. So if you want more Midnight Liaisons, let me know!

For those curious about the reading order of the Midnight Liaisons books, each one stands totally alone and it isn’t necessary to read in one particular order. However, characters do pop up in book to book, so I suggest the following:

Beauty Dates the Beast

Vixen (short novella)

Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter

Speed Mating (short novella)

Single Wolf Female (novella)

Must Love Fangs

Bear Naked (novella)

Wanted: Wild Thing (August 2014)

About Jessica Sims

Jessica Sims lives in Texas. She hates writing a bio, so something cool will undoubtedly go here later when she actually thinks of something interesting to write. She has some cats, but what writer doesn’t? She plays video games and confesses to reading comic books. And she likes writing, but that one was pretty obvious.

Sign up for Jessica’s newsletter and you’ll receive notices of new releases under all of her pen names, along with a coupon for a free read. You can visit Jessica’s website and sign up for the newsletter at www.jessica-sims.com!

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Claws & Effect

By

Jessica Sims

Copyright © 2014 by Jill Myles

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in

any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.