Guarding His Mate Read online

  “Everything…”Mary gushed, her mind more on Declan and the way he made her feel when she was with him than Hannah’s easy dismissal of her mate.

  “Yeah, sis. He’s an alpha, so that mating call is gonna be pretty strong…”Kay teased and watched her elder sister squirm.

  “Kay…”Hannah bit down on her lower jaw and felt her teeth grate against each other. “Go learn to boil a damn egg.”Hannah slapped her sister’s arm out of the way and disappeared out of the bedroom leaving Kay to turn to Mary and give her an open mouthed silent laugh of glee.

  “Poor Hannah.”Mary muttered and Kay frowned at her.

  “What? Why poor Hannah? She’s got a sexy alpha on the go.”

  “Well she’s never really had a life has she? Not since mum and dad died, she’s always looked after us, now she’s got her whole life mapped out for her…”

  “Yes, but with an alpha.”Kay dropped her chin to her chest and raised her eyebrows suggestively.

  “Sex isn’t everything, Kay.”Mary snorted and Kay chuckled.

  “You’ll learn it comes pretty close, little sister, especially with a wolf of your own.”Kay retorted as she backed out of the bedroom and hooked the handle of the door.

  “You’re just like Fiona…”Mary hissed and Kay frowned.

  “Thanks for the insult.”Kay turned her nose up and pulled the bedroom door closed. “Looks like I’ll be having this big old house all too myself…”Kay frowned. “I’d better make getting a damn job a priority.”

  Mac laced his hands behind his head and leant back against the footboard of the bed as his mate snorted her contempt for him.

  “If looks could kill, little witch…”He teased, the fire of amusement in his eyes as Fiona scowled at him.

  “They can when one of us is a Fae…”Fiona reminded him. And right now she was more than willing to prove her point.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Mac tipped his head to the side and regarded her from head to toe. Something his mate obviously didn’t like as she scowled harder. “I’m not lunch, Mac-bite-Me. Stop staring.”

  “Oh but you are…”Mac gave her the kind of look she knew all too well. It made her toes curl and her womb ache and she didn’t much like it. Well, truth be told that wasn’t exact true, she liked it a lot. What she didn’t like was the thought of being mated to a damn vampire for the rest of her life, even if the damn vampire was as sexy as sin.

  “Get over yourself, and get out of my room.”Fiona readjusted her robe, knowing she was completely naked underneath did nothing to help the fact that this guy was getting to her, and the more he looked with those sinful dark eyes filled with desire and amusement, the more her body was responding to him.

  “Why don’t you just accept the fact that we are mates and let’s be done with the pretence that you have a choice in the matter…?”

  “Choice?”Fiona scowled harder and he rolled his eyes.

  “In whether or not you want to be my mate. Not whether or not we make love, you’ll always have that choice with me. That’s not to say I won’t try to persuade you…”

  “Oh for god sakes. Will you just leave so I can get some sleep?”Fiona felt the urge to take him over to the window and push him the hell out, but the landing would only hurt for a moment before he healed himself, so what would be the point?

  “Only if you promise to have dinner with me.”

  “Fine.”

  Mac was in front of her in a heartbeat, and beat it did, faster than her heart had ever beaten before, even when the last vampire she had met wanted to kill her, her heart still hadn’t thumped the way it did now.

  “Dinner it is then.”Mac didn’t give her a chance to answer as he covered her lips with his and teased the kind of response out of her that he knew was languishing under the surface of her sarcastic and abrasive mood.

  Fiona felt his lips against hers and her toes curled, and her fingers itched to search him out, but she fought that itch, right up until the point that he stroked his tongue against her lips and they parted to allow him entry, and then her hands sought the stability of his chest and she found herself in his arms, pressed up against his body, and her those damn toes curled painfully as he coaxed a physical response from her body that she just hadn’t expected.

  Mac pulled away from her and gazed down into her face. He wanted to see the passion there, the desire, and he wasn’t disappointed.

  “Just in case you were in any doubt about being my mate.”He breathed against her ear, a moment before he disappeared out of the window, because if he stayed a moment longer he might not be able to control the desire to take her under him and bury himself inside her.

  He had waited for her for so long, his mate, and he needed to remember that she was human, that she was his forever, and that he needed to start as he meant to go on.

  Hannah turned the corner into what was considered a high street in this little town and saw the Alpha leaning his backside against his car. His arms were crossed at his chest and his eyes scanned the shop front before him. Her shop front, and she felt more than miffed that he was there.

  She was just about to back around the corner when his head snapped in her direction and she cursed the breeze that had surely taken her scent towards him by the way his nose was sniffing the air. Mother Nature was certainly conspiring against her in so many ways, and she wasn’t best pleased with it.

  Seth lifted his hand and hooked a finger, beckoning her towards him and she still debated whether to turn on her heels and leave, seen or not, and when the alpha seemed to sense something was up and he narrowed his eyes on her, the choice was made in her mind and she turned on her heels and started back the way she had come.

  She wasn’t about to run and inflame his wolf’s sense of the hunt. She wasn’t that stupid, but a nice fast pace was supposed to be good for the heart, and even though she loathed exercise, doing it once in ten years wasn’t going to kill her, hopefully.

  She wasn’t sure who she thought she was kidding. Like he wasn’t going to follow her, and he didn’t know where she lived, and he wasn’t the predator she knew him to be. And when he appeared beside her, keeping an even pace with her, she wanted to sigh, but kept it to herself.

  “Going somewhere?”Seth growled down at her and now she felt all kinds of stupid.

  “I forgot the shops keys…”She lied. She’d checked that she had them in her pocket three times before she left the damn house, and being an alpha he could probably scent her deception, but she didn’t care, she just kept on walking.

  “I could have given you a lift…”

  “I like walking…” Another lie, god but she was full of them today. What was it about this guy that brought out the stupid in her?

  “I came to see what needed doing in the shop…”

  “Don’t you have a pack to run? Business to take care off?”She didn’t want to look up at him. It was bad enough that she could actually feel him walking beside her, so much so his hip might as well have been sandwiched to hers.

  “Right now you’re my priority.”Seth informed her and she nearly tripped over her own feet. His hand came out to steady her, catch her if she fell, but she’d recovered herself quickly. It was just the shock of his words that echoed through her mind. She had never been anyone’s priority before, and that thought kind of warmed her on the inside as much as his proximity did on the outside of her body.

  Hannah practically ran up the path to her front door, but she wasn’t sure if it was him she was running away from or her new found sense of self worth, and her hands trembled as she tried to open the front door.

  Seth’s hand came down over hers to steady her. She felt him step against her, with his body running the length of her back and his arm running parallel with hers, skin touching skin as his hand slowly helped her turn the key, she could have been standing there naked, she doubted she would have felt any less exposed to him.

  “Easy love, just accept who I am to you and let nature lead us to where we need to
be.”The deep seductive tone of his voice captivated her mind, as his closeness captivated her body. She’d read about the mating pull, but now that she was experiencing it for herself, it just felt so all consuming.

  When the front door was yanked open and the keys torn from the lock he lowered the hand that she still held out in front of her.

  Kay’s eyes took them in as recognition washed over her face with a wide grin of amusement.

  “And you must be the alpha. Either that or somebody’s going to be a wolf’s dinner pretty soon.”Kay knew he was the alpha without a doubt. The word alpha practically screamed out from every sexy little pore in his body, not to mention the way that her sister was swooning…

  “I must be, and you must be Kay.”

  “Someone’s done their homework. Ten out of ten, alpha…”

  “Seth.”He offered and she cocked a brow at him, that smirk that stretched her lips was a wakeup call to her sister.

  “Where are you going?”There might have been a slight hint of desperation to Hannah’s voice, at least she thought so, but she wasn’t sure if the other’s had picked it up or not.

  From the way Kay giggled and the hand that roamed soothingly down her left hip, she guessed it was a pretty good bet that they had.

  “Well I’d love to stay and play gooseberry, but I’ve got a job interview.”Kay announced feeling decidedly pleased with herself.

  “You do?”Hannah frowned, it was less a question and more a statement of disbelief and she saw Kay stiffen slightly.

  “I called the local bar and they have an opening for a barmaid, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.”Kay wanted to sneer, but she didn’t have the job yet, just an interview, so she thought she had better save the sneering for later.

  “Let’s hope they don’t let you near the kitchen.”Hannah’s remark made Kay turn up her nose.

  “Seth, she’s all yours, the house is empty, do with her as ye will.”Kay retorted before bounding down the path away from them and leaving Hannah speechless. Even if the words traitorous little witch were bouncing around the walls of her brain.

  “Sounds like a plan.”Seth wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her against him, walking her inside and putting her down in the hallway. In truth he didn’t actually think she would step inside any other way, she seemed frozen to the spot outside the door.

  “I’ll get the keys…”Hannah was spurred to action. She wanted to be as far away from him as she could get, what with the rush of excitement her sisters words had caused, and then the flush of heat that had gone through her body when he picked her up, but Seth caught her wrist and wrapped his fingers around it, pulling her back towards him and up against his chest.

  “You have them right here.”His hand dipped inside her pocket and retrieved the keys, and her eyes went wider as he held them up, dangling from one finger by the large ring, and he watched her swallow down her pride.

  “That’s where they went…”

  “You just wanted to get me alone in your house…”Seth teased and saw her eyes flash with alarm as she opened her mouth to speak and nothing but a little whine came out. “No pithy come back? I’m shocked.”

  Hannah opened her mouth again and realised that she must look like she was doing an impression of a goldfish, no wonder he looked both smug and amused.

  “I…” Nope, that was as far as her brain would allow her to get. She needed to issue a denial, but the only denial was the denial of service her brain was offering her.

  “I’ll get right to my point.”Seth dipped his head and claimed her lips with his, now and forever he would be the only one to kiss her, and he started slowly, a gentle teasing of her mind and body, as he pressed her to him and she felt the hardness of his arousal against her, and yet even that didn’t tell her mind to make her body pull away.

  Her mind noted when her jacket slipped down her arms and ended up on the floor, when his followed and her hands could run up his chest and down the barely covered muscles of his biceps unencumbered by the heavy leather he had worn, all while he tasted and teased her lips, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth to duel with hers, his hands roaming freely over her body, and then under her top, and she pulled away from his lips.

  “What are you doing, Seth. I said time…”

  “I’m just playing…”He growled gently against her neck, his tongue sweeping over the vein upwards as his teeth nipped her earlobe.

  “I’m not a toy…”She rested her forehead against his shoulder and tried to concentrate on anything but the way her body was responding to his.

  “You don’t like playing?”Seth nibbled his way back down her neck and her head went back and to the side all on its own, not a damn conscious thought went into it, it was as if her body wanted him and it didn’t give a damn what her objections would be. Not that she had any right now.

  “No, I like playing…”She admitted, and then slammed her head against a mental wall, but it was too late, his lips were already back on hers. His tongue was doing wickedly erotic things, mimicking what she knew her body needed elsewhere as he pushed in and then retreated, pushed in and retreated, until her inner muscles were clenching with each thrust of his tongue over hers.

  When his thumb brushed against the hard pebbled nipple, under her bra, against her heated skin, she almost climbed up his body and wrapped herself around him, so intense was the stirring inside her for more, he caught the gentle moan that escaped her lips as he rolled over the sensitive nipple again.

  Hannah couldn’t help the way that her back arched into his touch, no more than she could help the way that her hips pressed and rolled against him. The thickness of his arousal captured her imagination in an x-rated version of what his tongue was doing.

  “Seth…”She needed to regain some semblance of control, or she was going to be lost here to him, lost to the desire that was coursing through her veins, lost to the need that was raging like a fire within her.

  “I’m trying, Hannah, but damn I want you…”Seth nuzzled into neck, his thumb still moved absently against her breast, and the throbbing ache that was pressed against her body was screaming to be buried deep inside her, and then there was his wolf. The damn beast was trying to press forwards within him, urging him to take their make, claim her as theirs, and he needed to rein the damn beast in.

  Kay pushed in through the door and looked around at the empty bar. Chairs stood upended on tables and there was a mixture of cleaning fluid and alcohol in the air that made her nose twitch.

  “Hello?”She called, walking towards the bar and feeling a little bit creeped out by the desolation of the place. The loud bang of a door being hit against a wall caught her attention and she rallied around to see the large hands carrying a stack of four crates come through the doorway first followed by the rest of him.

  His face was turned away as he balanced the crates down his large muscled torso, walking them to the bar and placing them down on the ground, there was no bending at his knees, it was more his hips as he leaned down and she got the very nice view of his tight muscled backside.

  He snapped his head around and caught her staring. Bright blue eyes, under a mop of wayward mousy blond hair, that shone with the amusement that her eyes were on his backside.

  Fay had been drooling, there was no doubt about that, and she mentally snapped herself out of it as she realised his eyes were on her, busted, she admonished herself as she felt the heat rise in her cheeks and pressed her lips together in the awkwardness of the moment.

  “Caught you staring.”He offered and she made a mental note that this guy certainly wasn’t a gentleman, not if he was going to call her on it.

  “You should bend from the knees…”Kay informed him, thinking fast, and trying not to think of the backside that was still tactically aimed in her direction, and then he turned towards her, and even though his eyes were still accusing, he looked like he might let her off the hook.

  “So you’re concerned with my posture and not my gluteus maximus, is
that what you’re telling me?”He pinned her with his dark eyes. He knew what she was, Fae. He knew who she was, the little sister of his alpha’s mate, or one of them, which was why they were taking on a new barmaid.

  Hell she was family and if family needed a job, they had one. She’d been put on the list of people to employ if the need ever arose, and it had, rather suddenly.

  “Well, your gluteus maximus is your posture. It’s the three muscles…”Kay started and watched him narrow his eyes on her. “Yes.”She finished abruptly, thinking that she might just have lost him somewhere along the line. He was a barman, how smart could he be. Not to mention the fact he was a wolf, her body could sense it even this far away from him.

  Lee closed the distance between them and scented the air as he went. He didn’t much care to take in the Fae scent, it tickled his nose and made his wolf want to go and roll in a meadow of flowers somewhere, but he figured he should know her scent, her being family and all.

  The scent hit him head on like he had run into a damn brick wall. He faltered in his step as his whole body tensed, and his wolf yipped within him.

  “You’re Kay.”He managed to push out of his lips as he carried on towards her and held out one large hand for her to take.

  “And you’re?”Kay slipped her palm against his and every inch of her body came alive. A rush of heat went through her body, as a shiver racked through her, head to toe, her nipples hardened, her legs quivered, and she swallowed hard as her eyes narrowed on his, as they went from bright blue to black in a heartbeat.

  “You’re mate apparently.”He seemed as dazed and confused as she was, and she went to wrench her hand away from his but he had it pretty much locked down.

  “This isn’t happening.”She bit out between clenched teeth and he nodded his head.

  “Yeah, I think it is.”Lee offered back and watched as she squirmed from one foot to the other.

  “I don’t like the surfer boy look…”She motioned with her free hand at his body and he cocked a light brow at her.