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  He went down on his knee in front of her and pulled her legs back down, then slipped the necklace off of him and put it on her. “The damn thing saves you from a curse, but it’s both a curse and blessing itself. I know you won’t age after your next birthday, you won’t get sick, and for that I’m grateful. But knowing the instant someone rips it from your neck, you’ll drop dead, you’ll be gone, is going to be a living hell for me.” He caressed her cheek. “I can’t lose you. Not again.” He kissed her, a long deep kiss. A kiss that was soft, sensual, his fingers grazing her sides, her breasts, her nipples.

  He leaned back to look at her. “You’re beautiful.” He plucked her nipples and she moaned. “And so are your little sounds of pleasure.” He joined her on the mattress and took them both down side by side, his leg twining with hers, his hand exploring her body. “We’re still us. Nothing has changed.” He kissed her, sliding his tongue inside her mouth for a deep taste. “You still taste like witch.”

  She laughed. “And you still taste like wicked wolf.” She pressed herself to him and settled between his legs, “A wicked wolf that needs to be tamed.” She drew his cock into her hand, wrapping her fingers around the base.

  “Never going to happen,” he assured her.

  She licked the salty residue at tip of the shaft. “You sure about that?”

  He pressed a hand under his head. “Feel free to try. Suck me, baby.”

  “When I’m ready.” She swirled her tongue around the ridge, then licked him up and down and around.

  “You’re killing me,” he moaned. “Suck me.”

  She looked up at him, pure evil in her eyes. “Say please.”

  He sat up and pulled her down on top of him, pinching one of her nipples as he did, and twining his fingers in her hair and kissing her. “Now who’s wicked?” He grabbed his cock and slid it down the slick folds of her body.

  “You,” she assured him. “They even wrote a story about you. The Wicked Wolf.”

  He pressed inside her. “That was Little Red Riding Hood and I hear she was a witch who didn’t know how to play nice with the wolf.” He pulled her down on top of him. “I don’t like nice, not when I’ve been without you this long. I need my little witch to fuck me like there is no tomorrow. Later, we’ll go slow. We’ll go soft. We’ll make love.”

  She nipped his lip with his teeth. “Tell me when you’ve had enough.” She sat up, her breasts high and full, her nipples plump and rosy red, her hips rocking against his.

  “Never,” he said. “I’ll never get enough.” He pulled her back down on top of him. “And no one is ever going to hurt you again.” No matter what price he had to pay to keep that promise.

  Chapter Six

  Another morning after...

  Aylia woke up and once again, somehow, she was on her stomach. Actually, there was no somehow about it. Wolves, her wolf, liked her on her stomach for all kinds of naughty reasons. She didn’t move, wondering where Nico was, wishing this time she could wake up with him beside her.

  His muffled voice sounded somewhere in the distance, in the other room. She rolled over and sat up, blissfully sore all over, and looked around the fancy hotel suite that was his home, her home. Nico had reminded her of that over and over in the hours since she’d arrived here. Her gaze swept beyond the navy blue curtains that matched the comforter that had long ago been shoved to the floor. Vegas lights brightened a dark, night sky, telling her another day was gone.

  Aylia pushed to her feet, not bothering with a robe, but pretty desperate for some clean clothes since hers were filthy. She tiptoed to the cracked, open bedroom door, and listened to what Nico was saying.

  “We need heavy coverage of the Reno territory,” he said. “We know that’s where Andres set up heavy Rebel forces.”

  She could see him pacing and she smiled. He always paced when he gave orders. She missed this. She’d missed him. She headed into the bathroom and turned on the standing shower next to the tub. Her gaze caught on the bag by the sink. She walked over and looked inside, only to find all her favorite products -- hair, face lotion -- even the makeup she’d always bought in one of the stores here. And a leopard-print terry robe, just like the one she’d once worn as a joke. She laughed, stepping into the flow of hot water to shower as she replayed the memory in her head. You’re not the only animal in the house and you’d best remember it, she’d told him.

  She was still smiling when the door to the stall opened and Nico appeared, fully dressed, and looking like sex and sin in leather all over again.

  He leaned against the shower frame. “All is as it should be. My hot little witch is naked and wet.”

  She laughed. “Nothing you can take credit for.”

  “I’ll be happy to do my best to turn you into -- what was it you said? -- a puddle of desire?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I should have known that silly statement was going to come back to haunt me.”

  “The boutique downstairs just delivered you some clothes and I ordered food.”

  “Oh good. I’m starving.”

  He reached into the shower and kissed her, seemingly uncaring of the water splashing all over him. She laughed. “My wolf is wet but he’s not naked. My world isn’t right.”

  He started undressing and she happily watched. When he finally stepped into the shower with her, he pressed her against the wall. Hot male hardness settled between her thighs; her world was, indeed, right. She belonged. She was home. And the little voice in the back of her head that was telling her it wasn’t true was evil. Thankfully, it faded with each kiss and touch from Nico. And when he was suddenly on his knees in front of her, it disappeared completely. Oh yes, she thought, flattening her hands on the wall and gasping as his mouth closed down on her clit. Her world was absolutely perfect right now.

  ***

  A long while later, Aylia finished drying her hair, applied makeup, and slipped on her new robe before going in search of Nico. She pulled open the bedroom door, bringing the open concept living room and kitchen into view. She found Nico standing with his back to her, looking out the window that covered the entire wall beside a large mahogany table covered with food.

  He was dressed again, and she could tell he had his arms folded in front of him. She waited, expecting him to acknowledge her, certain his wolf senses had made him aware of her presence. But oddly, he didn’t. “Nico?”

  He turned immediately, seeming to snap himself out of deep thought. “The sandwiches arrived so whenever you’re ready, we can eat.”

  “Okay. Yes. I’m starving. I just want to get dressed. Did you say that you had some things brought up for me?”

  “Your closet, babe.”

  Her closet. Her closet. Like she’d never left. “Right. Of course. My closet.”

  His lips twitched. “In our bedroom.”

  She grinned and started to head back into the bedroom, but something stopped her. She turned back around and found Nico staring out of the window again. Something was wrong and suddenly clothes were unimportant.

  Aylia walked towards him and he rotated to face her as she sat down, arching a brow at her reappearance. “I thought you were getting dressed?”

  She settled her elbows on the table and her chin on her fist to study him. “I want to know what’s wrong, my big bad brooding wolf.”

  “How did Andres know I had the necklace?” he asked immediately, as if he had been waiting for her question, wanting her to ask it. ”Someone has to be on the inside. Someone close to me. And there’s only one person who knew I had the necklace.”

  A knock sounded on the door. ”Kole,” Nico said.

  She kept her focus on Nico, trying to figure out where he had been headed.“It’s not Kole, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  His expression said it was. “I’ll happily let you convince me of that later.” He called out across the room. “Come in, asshole.”

  Aylia shook her head at the familiar greeting of the two very close friends. Nico was wrong about Kol
e. They were like brothers. It wasn’t him.

  Kole came sauntering into the suite dressed in his typical statement-making red leather, with his long blonde hair loose around his shoulder. “Just in time for dinner, I see.” He headed for the table and nodded at Nico. ”Asshole back at ya.” He grinned at Aylia. “Nice to see you back, witch-cakes.”

  She laughed. “Nice to be back, wolf-cakes, though I wonder if everyone else will welcome me back so readily.”

  He snatched a sandwich from a tray in the center of the table. “Sure they will. We wolves love a good witch.” He took a bite and then added, “Of course, a few wolves might get the grand idea of using that necklace of yours for monster making like Andres did.” He lifted his chin at Nico. “You planning to let her wear it?”

  “He’s not letting me do anything. I make my decisions.” She glanced at Nico. “You’re not my alpha and don’t forget it. I’m wearing my necklace.”

  “Actually,” Nico said, drawing out the word. “I was going to talk to you about the necklace.”

  She stood up. “Nico, damn it.”

  He reached for her and pulled her to stand between his legs, his hands settling on her hips. “If you’re wearing it, you’re a target.”

  “If we’re going to be together, then I’m going to be exposed to a civil war. Even when it ends, you will have enemies. My coven is now actively involved in fighting the rebels and the rogue vampires that prey on humans. Do you really think that at this point, I’m not a target? My necklace grants me additional magic I could well need to fight off an attack.”

  “Both times you were attacked, you didn’t use that magic.”

  “I froze up. I’m not used to fighting. I’ll learn. Teach me, because I’m not letting go of my necklace.” She swallowed her emotions, lowering her voice. “When I don’t have it, I feel like I’m living out a terminal diagnosis and I’m the walking dead. I know you’re trying to protect me. I know you always mean well, but the closer it gets to my birthday, the more I fear taking it off; losing it. Teach me to fight and improve my instincts. If anyone can teach me, you can.”

  He rested his head on her stomach a moment. “I don’t want you to have to fight. I don’t want you in danger.”

  “But I am. I accept that. You have to as well.”

  “I’ll teach you to fight so you can kick Nico’s ass for me,” Kole offered. “It’s against pack rules for me to do it.”

  She ignored him. She loved Kole but there was no humor in her right now. “If you still aren’t convinced, Nico, then consider that Andres couldn’t have used my spell, bound by my coven’s blood, on his own. There is a process to drawing out that kind of magic from an object and doing so when it’s not your spell is nearly impossible. There is no way Andres created that darkness back at the diner without some major magic mojo either. We’re talking someone who has natural born magic and a long lifetime of practice developing it.”

  “A witch?” Kole asked.

  Aylia glanced at him. “Or a warlock.” She tried to move away and Nico wrap his arm around her waist. She sighed and continued, ”My Coven’s been working with the Wardens since we had our little falling out with the Society to find out who and so has Marcus. No one knows.”

  “If Andres wasn’t the true leader,” Kole said, “if this witch or Warlock is instead, then killing him may have done nothing to slow the rebels.”

  Aylia nodded. “The problem is that we have no proof that there is a witch or warlock, but there has to be. There just isn’t any way Andres used that kind of magic on his own.”

  “So the first priority has to be to find this wizard or witch,” Kole said.

  “The first priority has to be to get any traitors out of the Society,” Nico corrected.

  “I can convince a few of my coven members to help me cast veils in the Society headquarters. The veils basically catch any spells that are attempted inside the certain areas of the property. That way you have safe zones.”

  “I thought your coven was pretty pissed about us blaming them for the Andres mess.” Kole said.

  “Between Aylia, our King, and Marcus,” Nico said. “I’m certain we can make amends.” He glanced at Aylia. “The King is calling your Priestess for a private meeting tomorrow anyway. We should probably call your mother and your stepfather.”

  “I’ll wait until we convince the Priestess all is well,” Aylia said. “My mother is pretty pissed at you.”

  “Alrighty then,” Kole said, pushing to his feet. “I’ve filled my stomach and I’ve listened to some entertaining arguing. I now know that I will soon be fighting some magic madman or woman who can probably turn me to a frog with a magic wand. I’m going to have a drink. I’ll be at Amsterdam if you need me.”

  “Of course,” Nico said. “Where else would you be but a bar where the women dance half naked on top of tables?”

  “Exactly,” Kole said and wiggled an eyebrow. “But it’s inside cages.” He saluted Aylia. “The offer to teach you to kick Nico’s ass will remain open.”

  “You’ll have to figure out how to do it yourself before you can teach it,” Nico said dryly.

  Kole let out a deep, evil laugh as he headed for the door. “Maybe I’ve been holding out on you.”

  As soon as the door closed behind Kole, Aylia turned to face Nico, her hands on his shoulders. “He isn’t holding out on you. Don’t read into that joke. Kole is not a traitor.”

  “Keep going. Make me feel better. Tell me I’m crazy. Tell me that, as alpha, blood bonded to my pack, I can smell my wolves’ emotions. Tell me that I’d know deceit from any of my Guard.”

  “Sounds like you’ve done a good job of telling yourself.” She studied him a moment. “This is about Rebecca, isn’t it?” she asked of the wolf that had attacked her with Andres, who’d betrayed Nico and the Guard. “Because you couldn’t smell her betrayal.”

  “And I should have been able to.”

  “Someone had to have cast what is called a ‘shield spell’ on Rebecca. It would have sheltered her from your senses. And if you have another traitor, I suspect, they too, have been cast with the same spell. But there are ways to use magic to trace magic. I can do it. I just had no idea I needed to when I was here. By the way, you don’t necessarily have to have a traitor for Andres to have known you had the necklace. Magic imprints on a person. It’s too complicated, with too many options to fully explain, but there are spells that allow that imprint to be picked up. Granted the spells have to be worked at close proximity. That’s why I couldn’t locate my necklace myself. Believe me, I tried.”

  “In other words, someone close to me could be using magic to deceive me and they could have used it to locate the necklace.”

  “It’s not Kole.”

  “He was the only one who knew I had the necklace.”

  “We just established that anyone could have used magic to find it if they were close to you.”

  “How would they get close to me? We have no witches or warlock here.”

  “Magic can be shared in various ways,” she said. “Placed in objects or cast inside a person with a time limit. Again, it’s complicated. You just need to know it’s possible.” “So it could still be Kole.”

  “It’s not Kole, Nico. We don’t know that there is even a traitor at all but I’ll keep repeating the ‘not Kole’ statement until you believe it. For now, please, let’s move to other options. There is a way I can share my magic with you, a spell. It will work like my necklace and repel any magic masking your wolves’ emotions. We’ll need to do a blood bond to make it work though. It’s a powerful spell.” Like the bond that mated wolves, the bond she and Nico could never have. Afraid that was the can of worms she just opened, she quickly blurted, “I think we should consider Serena a suspect.”

  “Aylia, I don’t--”

  “I know. I do. I’m talking about Kole and Serena. Is he seeing her?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know. He’s been dipping his stick so much latel
y. I don’t know what’s up with him. That’s part of the reason that I’m worried about him being involved in this mess. He’s not himself.”

  “But we’re talking about Serena,” she reminded him.

  “Right. Okay. Serena. What exactly did you see that makes you target her as a suspect?”

  “When we were Benedanti after our little confrontation, I saw Kole glaring at Serena, and it seemed to be because she was glaring at me. Something about the moment just struck me wrong, like he didn’t like her jealousy over you. She always hated me because she wanted you, Nico. She still does. It might be a reason to help the enemy.”

  “She thought I was through with you. I made sure everyone did.”

  She sucked in a breath, her heart twisting with those words. “Right. So did I.”

  “Aylia.” He pulled her into his lap. “Sweetheart, you know why I did what I did.”

  “I do. I’m okay. Really. I’ll deal with this. It’s just it seemed like it was so easy for you to send me away. It made me feel like I didn’t belong here. And it makes me worry about the day some female wolf shows up and just happens to be your real mate. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to come back, Nico. Maybe I can’t stay, or shouldn’t stay, no matter how much I want to.”

  Chapter Seven

  Morning ever after...

  Nico heard Aylia’s words and rejected them instantly. She was meant to be here. She was meant to be with him. There was no other mate for him but Aylia and he was going to prove that to her once and for all.

  Nico picked her up and exited the dining area, carrying her to the black leather living room couch where he set her down. He dropped to his knee in front of her. “I was going to save this for a perfect, planned moment, but I think right now it’s pretty important I tell you now. I’ve petitioned the King to name you as my official mate, and to have you recognized as that in the Society.”

  “No,” she said instantly, shaking her head. “No, Nico. I’m not your mate. It doesn’t matter how much I want to be or how much you think you want me to be. I’m a witch, not a wolf. I can’t be your mate.”