“Oh, dear God.” I swore under my breath. “She isn’t a wolf, she doesn’t want your meat, Mason.”
He blinked. “But every female wants my meat.”
“What kind of meat?” Hope just had to ask.
“My… meat.” Mason said slower this time like that helped clear things up.
“Don’t.” I shook my head at her. “Stop whatever you’re doing with the music and your eyes and let’s go.”
“Music?” She frowned. “What music?”
“She does not know how to control the music?” Mason whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “But she is an elf.”
“The kind that makes shoes.” I grinned at our little inside joke, while Hope glared at me.
“Look, guys.” She started slowly walking around me. “As fun as this little mental breakdown has been. The doors opened, which means whatever immortal craziness that was supposed to take place, didn’t, meaning, I can go, and you can continue….” She frowned. “Uh, offering your meat to women.”
Mason grinned. “I like her.”
“Stop winking at her, you’ll make her think you want to chase her.”
Mason kept winking.
I rolled my eyes and waited for her to try to escape. Which she did. I only felt marginally bad when her body slammed into an invisible wall and bounced back.
“You were saying?” I asked in a calm, detached voice.
Hope rubbed her head. “But the door’s open.”
Mason sighed and slowly walked through it — still naked — and called back. “Come along, Elf.”
“My name is Hope!”
“That’s what I said!” he yelled back then completely disappeared around the corner.
“Is he hard of hearing?” She directed the question back to me.
“Come on.” I gripped her hand and walked through the wall to the other side.
“Whoa.” She stumbled into me. “How come it worked when I was touching you?”
“Mates can’t do things alone,” I said in a pathetically hoarse voice. Like my body was elated, turned on by the fact. “Therefore, where you go, I go. Always.”
I dragged her down the hall toward the back entrance where I’d left my car.
“Wait.” She dug in her heels.
I stopped only because I was too drained to fight her anymore. I needed sex, and I needed it hours ago.
Or I was going to die.
Literally.
“What?” I barked.
“Mason called me Elf, not Hope.”
“Elf.” I spat the word and then rubbed my face with my free hand. What I wouldn’t do for at least a kiss — something to sustain the urges, the itching, the emptiness. “The word elf is synonymous with Hope. Before we labeled you as a race, you were called, ‘the ones who bring forth Hope.’ Ergo, the race of Hope.”
“But—
“If we do not get to Ethan’s house before I can control myself, I will kill you during sex. Is that what you want?” I tried to sound sane, but my voice had a shaking, hollow edge to it that I knew terrified the hell out of her.
“Y-yes.”
“You escape, I find you. We’re linked now.”
Though I had no idea how since we hadn’t joined, nor had there been mention of love or forever. But still.
Another jerky nod.
“One more thing,” I helped her into the passenger door of my white Lexus. “More than twenty-four hours without touching me — will only bring death.”
I ignored the twinge of guilt I felt at her pale expression.
She didn’t need to know it was my death I was concerned about — she didn’t need to know she would survive just fine — because I had a feeling that if she did leave — I would cease to exist while the royal elf continued on without me.
It was the worst feeling in the world.
Next to knowing—that my mate was a part of the race that held my shame.
Hope
I TRIED TO stop shaking.
I really did.
But I was in a car with an immortal, and I was still awake as in, I wasn’t dreaming or even having a nightmare. This was real. And he’d just basically told me if I didn’t have sex with him. I would die.
Was he lying?
Too many thoughts rushed to the surface, thoughts about elves, about Alex, about why I needed to touch him, why I wanted to touch him, why I craved him even when Mason seemed friendlier, albeit in a pet sort of a way.
It was insanity.
Because I wanted to run.
My mind told me that was really the only logical choice I had.
But my body leaned toward him, wanted him, thirsted for him. And I felt like a complete fool that I had to actually concentrate on not touching him every single time I sucked in a much-needed breath.
His golden skin pulsed before my eyes. Like legitimately pulsed causing a shiver of awareness to wash through me as he slowly exhaled and pulled up to a stoplight only to curse and jerk the steering wheel right and take us down an alleyway before popping out on the other side and nearly running us into a semi.
I double checked my seat belt then gripped the door handle just to keep myself from slamming into his rock hard body.
“Immortals have road rage too.” I nodded as I talked to myself. “Good to know.”
“I need you not to do that.” He finally broke his silence with his gruff voice.
Frowning, I glanced over at his perfect face and barely kept back a whimper as it built in my throat. “Do what? Exactly?”
“Talk.” He grit his teeth. “At all.”
“Ever?”
“Now.” He said slowly and loudly, like I was hard of hearing.
I was irritated. Hot. Angry. Scared. And he’d just asked me not talk or ask questions. “Well, can I breathe or is that against the rules too?”
“Still talking.” He slammed his hand across the steering wheel. “Absolute death wish.”
“I thought I only died if I left you or if you can’t control yourself during sex.” I really needed to snap my trap shut. His crazy purple and gold eyes hit me like a lightning bolt before he jerked his attention back to the road and shook his head. “That’s still talking.”
“I know but—”
“Literally.” He whispered hoarsely. “Not figuratively. But literally…” His body pulsed faster, harder, louder, like I could hear his heart hammering inside, the blood roaring to the surface. “I will kill you if I don’t calm the hell down, and every time you speak, I taste you. Again, not figuratively, literally. So if I were you, I’d sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, because the next time you get one, it’s going to be rough.”
I felt my cheeks heat.
He meant in a car, right?
Not… I gulped and chanced a glance out of the corner of my eye as his breathing slowed and then, of course, because I was hallucinating, I could have sworn he finally exhaled and relaxed.
All because I’d stopped talking.
Which was great for him — bad for me.
Because with every mile came the sinking feeling that I was headed toward my doom. And I hated, absolutely hated, that my body was on board with it.
That even now, I was on fire for him.
And felt like if I didn’t touch him.
I really would die.
Alex
I STOPPED THINKING.
That was my very first clue that things were bad. For me to focus on anything was nearly impossible. The beast inside was completely taking over. The savage side of me that needed to be appeased. The curse as my brethren and those like me so lovingly called it — was starving.
I was starving.
My entire body ached with awareness.
When she spoke, the air tasted like a mixture of sweat and sugar, the brown kind that mixes with butter over a stove as it crystallizes and hardens into a texture that nearly takes your breath away.
I gripped the steering wheel harder.
This was bad.
&n
bsp; Very bad.
Somehow, we’d mated or bonded without having sex, and my body was pissed as hell that it didn’t get the chance to do more than taste her.
That was the freaking problem with elves.
Where a siren could seduce anything with a pulse — or a cell structure.
Elves could enchant.
They brought peace.
They brought music into an existence that until now, had been filled with nothing but my own pulsating lust.
Want.
Want.
Want.
My body hummed as I jerked the car into the long driveway and slammed on the brakes right in front of Ethan’s large mansion.
He could fix it.
He was a vampire.
And he was old as hell.
If he couldn’t make the burning stop, then maybe Cassius would do me a solid.
Part of me knew that Hell would literally have to freeze over before the half angel would do anything that would cease my suffering — but still.
I had to try.
Because being with her was painful.
And being without her — my immortal brain couldn’t process what it would feel like to have her ripped away from me once we had a physical relationship.
An image of the murdered elves flashed through my mind again.
Cassius had messed up.
He’d brought me the wrong type of mate.
I was supposed to mate with a human.
Not an elf.
Not a weak, sniffling, little elf.
Shit, was she really crying?
Moisture filled the air as I sucked in a deep breath and tried to keep myself from jumping over the console and asking her to please stay quiet while I sucked her lips until they were dry.
I’d never killed anyone during sex.
But I knew it was possible.
Knew it was an actual reality as I felt her wild heartbeat, as I heard her staggered breathing beside me, and as I tasted more and more of her scent in the air as her body temperature grew.
She needed me.
I reached out to touch her arm, just as the door flew open and Cassius stood, grin firmly in place. “To what do we owe this pleasure?”
“Cassius.” I bit out his name like a curse just as Hope flailed out of the car and fell directly into his arms.
A frozen cloud burst into the air and then finally, my mate, Hope, whatever, relaxed against him and sighed. “Thank you.”
“Off.” I slammed both hands into the car sending it sideways into Mason’s motorcycle just seconds after he hopped off.
“Really?” Mason growled as he chucked his helmet at my face.
I ducked and kept stomping toward Cassius.
I was picking a fight with a man who was basically ninety-nine percent archangel.
Not one of my finer moments.
But he was touching mine.
“Mine!” I screamed at the top of my lungs not recognizing my own voice as my entire body dripped with sweat, my heart damn near bursting in my chest cavity as my eyes strained to focus on Hope and the fact that Cassius dared touch her.
“Stay back.” He released Hope and pushed her toward Mason who was still grumbling about his stupid motorcycle.
Ethan and Genesis ran out of the house with Stephanie close on their heels.
“Oh, good an audience.” My voice had a hard edge to it, one that sounded foreign, raspy.
“Couldn’t get the job done, hmm?” Cassius folded his arms across his chest just as his purple and black wings darted out from his back fanning wind toward my overheated and lust filled body.
I let out a shaky exhale and shook my head. “No time, the doors opened and…” My body swayed as I tried to regain my thoughts, my blurred vision focused in on Hope one last time before I reached for her then collapsed against the hard gravel driveway.
Hope
“HELP HIM!” I yelled as everyone stood frozen while Alex face planted against the gravel. I mean I didn’t exactly like him — he was rude, aggravating, too good looking, and entitled, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to die!
Could immortals die?
“Perhaps.” A whisper carried to my ears as if someone had been standing behind me and speaking in low, crisp tones.
“Who said that?” None of the immortals’ lips were moving.
Cassius’s eyes narrowed in on me before he very languidly knelt next to Alex and pulled his huge body into his arms and began walking toward the house.
Gravel crunched beneath his feet.
Did I follow?
Was he dead?
Mason made his way over to me and wrapped a bulky arm around my shoulders. I let out a little harrumph under his weight as he tugged me toward the house.
“He may die,” he said so casually that I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. “Or he could live.”
I shook my head as words tumbled out of my mouth. “But he can’t!”
“Good.” A soft feminine voice spoke, and then crisp blue eyes locked on mine as one of the women stood in front of me and leaned in, sniffing me like I was an animal or in need of a good shower. Which was probably true, at least the shower part. I hadn’t stopped sweating since meeting the siren. And even though he was completely unconscious the heat still built within my system like I was going to explode on the spot. “His song is calling hers.”
“Song?” I repeated dumbly. “What song?”
“His heart has slowed.” Cassius interrupted after he placed Alex on the large coffee table, the siren’s legs touched the ground even though his body was elevated. The man was huge, from his muscular thighs all the way down to his feet.
His chiseled face was tan, his full lips twitched before he jolted as if he’d just been shocked only to go completely lifeless again as his wildly colored hair draped across the oak.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, unable to keep myself from getting closer, because I wanted to touch him, needed his touch, and wasn’t sure why except that I knew that I had to.
I had to.
My fingers grazed his arm.
A pulse.
A very fast pulse had me jerking my hand back, how could I feel his pulse through his arm?
“His blood,” Cassius’s eyes went white. And just like that, I remembered where I was.
In a house.
Closed in.
Locked in most likely.
With dangerous creatures.
Immortals who could break me with a simple thought or flick of their wrist.
“Easy.” Mason placed both hands on my shoulders and pressed down like he was trying to plant my feet into the floor. I let out a grunt as he continued to push. “You are protected.”
“Protected from you?” I whispered with a quiver.
“Protected from everything.” Mason whispered gruffly before releasing his grip and nodding toward Alex. “But not from him.”
I gulped.
The one man I needed protection from.
And I didn’t have it.
How was that for fair?
Because if I were being completely honest with myself, the angel was terrifying, just like Mason, the vampire had shifty eyes, and the girls even had this weird ethereal look about them, but Alex?
He absolutely horrified me.
Or maybe it was my reaction to him.
Maybe he made me scared of myself.
Of what I felt when he was near.
Dirty thoughts.
Thoughts I had no business having rushed to the forefront of my mind. Of Alex stripping every inch of clothing from my body — of his heat and mine joining — and then of ice so cold that it was hot filling my veins.
I sucked in a breath.
“Already his power grows.” Cassius eyed me cautiously. “If he can affect her even in a deep sleep.”
“Stay out of her head, Cass.” Stephanie touched his arm. “It isn’t polite.”
“Good thing I’m not polite.” He scowled and then smile
d as she reached for his hand and squeezed it. With a sigh, he hung his head as a few feathers seemed to ruffle and then calm before completely tucking back into his wings and disappearing altogether. “I’ll stop.”
The room wept with heat.
I felt it everywhere.
With a shudder, I leaned on the oak table just as a hand shot out and grabbed my wrist.
And then Alex’s eyes opened.
They were a burning red.
I couldn’t breathe.
His grip was soft.
His stare penetrating as my body shook.
Waves of pleasure rushed over me until I was a sobbing mess, until tears collided with sweat.
Nostrils flaring, his eyes went from red to blue and back before his wild hair beamed at me like an electrocuted rainbow. If I had been in my right mind, I’d think he looked like a sexy unicorn.
But I wasn’t in my right mind.
My mind wasn’t my own.
It was his.
Some part of me told me to look away, to close my eyes, to ask for help, but a small voice told me the only way out was in.
It wasn’t my voice.
And it wasn’t one I recognized.
So I had no idea why I was listening.
For all I knew, I could be hallucinating.
The only way out is in.
So hot.
I was so hot.
I leaned into him as his grip lessened and then brushed a kiss across his scalding skin.
The minute my lips touched his.
My world shattered into relief.
And then strong arms wrapped around me, hoisting me up onto the table as my legs straddled the sexy muscular body beneath me.
Panting, I kissed him again and again, bruising my lips as I greedily tugged his hair with my hands pulling him closer and closer.
His taste was sweet.
And cool.
And then his hands were everywhere, too fast for me to push away, too fast for me to catch with my human eyes as blurs moved past my line of vision removing every single piece of clothing I had on from the bottom down.
When he was finished, his eyes were completely filled with red.