Page 31 of Bewitchingly Hers (Witches of Pleasant Grove #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

eryne

H e’d come for me. Of course he had. I’d never doubted he would, not for a single second. He was mine, and I was his, and we were alive.

“Barrett,” I whimpered, feeling the tears pooling in my eyes. The emotions rushed through me, making me realize how close I’d come to losing everything I’d come to hold so dear. How close I’d come to becoming some terrifying monster’s next snack as it slowly drained my magic from my body.

“My mate,” Barrett said, wrapping me in his arms. “I thought I’d lost you.”

I snuggled against his chest, feeling like everything was righting itself as he held me tight.

“You could never lose me, Wolf-Man. It’s like you said.

You’re stuck with me.” Warmth flooded through my chest as I pushed my healing magic into him, feeling his body knit itself back together.

He’d had a cut over his eyebrow that was trickling blood, and I didn’t even want to imagine the other injuries under his clothing.

“Fuck, but I love you.” Barrett kissed me, desperately, showing me just how terrified he’d been of losing me.

“Say it again,” I said, eyes fluttering as he pressed a kiss to my neck, over that spot he loved.

He rubbed his nose against mine. “I love you, Eryne. My sweet mate. My little healer. My everything.”

I took a deep breath, telling him what I knew to be true. “I love you , Barrett. Thank you for finding me.” I shut my eyes, savoring the feeling of his hands rubbing my back, his woodsy, spicy scent in my nose. For a brief moment, I’d thought I might never feel this again.

“I should be the one thanking you for finding me. Saving me.” He pressed his lips to my forehead. “For bringing me back to life, literally and figuratively.”

From that very first moment when his wolf’s eyes had connected with mine, we’d both been changed forever. And I didn’t want to wait any longer.

“Make me yours,” I said.

His eyes flared with desire. “ Here ?”

I nodded, wanting to complete the bond like he’d mentioned. Whatever that entailed. “I want you.”

Barrett looked around, crowding me against a tree and letting my back rest against it.

He tugged my sweater to the side, exposing more of my neck and shoulder, and I watched as his canine teeth grew out of his mouth, elongating into the teeth of a predator. Of a wolf. His lips pressed against my bare skin, so soft, like he was worried he’d hurt me.

“Do it,” I begged, craning my head to the side. “Please, B. Bite me.”

He groaned, scraping his teeth over my skin. I let out a moan, surprised at how turned on I already was. Barrett pushed a knee in between my thighs, his hands running up my sides. “My saliva has healing properties,” he told me. “But it shouldn’t hurt. I’ll make you feel good.”

I nodded. “I trust you.”

“Fuck,” he cursed, holding my neck with one hand, and my waist with the other. I shut my eyes, letting my head fall back against the tree as I reached out, gripping his jacket tight before he finally sank his teeth into the spot between my shoulder and neck.

I let out a gasp as his teeth sank into my skin, because he was right.

There was a small prick, but it didn’t hurt at all.

Not when emotions came rushing into me— his emotions.

His love. The feelings he’d been holding back all this time.

They swirled with mine, every feeling in my body heightened to the max, and I cried out at the bliss, the pleasure of it all.

Barrett , I whined, rubbing myself against his leg, every brush of denim hitting my clit.

I know, baby , he said back, the words popping into my mind instead of either of us saying them out loud. I could feel all of my emotions flowing back into him, and I knew he felt the desire in my veins the same way I felt his.

“Your house?” he gasped, eyes wild as his nose flared, no doubt smelling my arousal. My need. I needed him to fuck me, and I needed it now.

I couldn’t hold back my moan. “No. The girls are still there.” He groaned as I pulled at his shirt blindly, untucking it, before running my fingers up his abs. “Here,” I begged him, smoothing my hands over his chest. “Take me here.”

His hands shook as he unbuttoned my jeans, pushing them into my underwear before his fingers found my slit, finding out what I already knew—I was soaked. My body’s response to my mate.

“So needy,” he muttered. “My little mate needs to get fucked, huh?” He ran his tongue over the bite mark on my neck, no doubt healing it. I hoped it left a mark. I wanted everyone to know I was his, to see how he’d claimed me for the entire world.

I nodded as he slid two fingers inside of me, hitting the spot inside that made me see stars. “ Yes ,” I cried. “Yes, I need you.”

Barrett took his jacket off and laid it down on the dirt before guiding me down gently, pushing my sweater up to expose my breasts. He kissed the swell of each one before helping pull my jeans off, exposing me to the cool air of the forest.

We were both so lost in each other, in the moment, that I didn’t even care that someone could see us right now. I just needed my mate inside of me, to know that I was completely, wholly his.

He didn’t hold back, unzipping his pants and freeing his cock before sliding inside of me with one thrust, filling me completely.

I let out a gasp at the fullness, my back arching as I shut my eyes, savoring the stretch of him inside of me.

There were no words. We didn’t need them.

Not when we could feel each other’s emotions, each other’s thoughts and desires.

It was a wordless communication I’d never experienced before, and I wanted more.

He was so big, and I wanted that knot in me once again. I wiggled my hips, trying to get him deeper inside of me, as he gave me another punishing thrust, hitting my cervix.

“Fuck,” I cried, wrapping my arms around his back and digging my fingers into the soft material of his dark t-shirt. “More.”

His eyes were dark as he looked down at me. “Are you sure?”

“I can take it,” I begged, wrapping my legs around his back and forcing him deeper. “Give me your knot, mate .”

Barrett groaned, like he knew there was no way he could deny his mate.

After another few shallow thrusts, he pushed it inside of me.

I came as his knot locked inside, my cunt clenching around him, and then he was spilling inside of me, filling me up, and his teeth found my neck again, plunging in to the spot where he’d just marked me, and oh, Gods.

Another orgasm burst through me before the first had even subsided. I was crying, pleasure like I’d never known torrenting through my body as we both came, liquid already seeping out around his knot and trickling down my thigh because there was so much.

Was this what it was like with your mate? If so, I never wanted it to end.

Finally, when we both collapsed, breath rough and completely spent, Barrett adjusted us, sitting back against the tree as he cradled me to his body.

We were still connected together until his knot deflated, and there was nowhere I wanted to be except right here—with him. I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face into his shirt, taking deep pulls of his scent.

He chuckled. “A bed might have been better, my mate.” Barrett picked a leaf out of my hair, and I blushed.

“Say it again,” I repeated from earlier.

“My mate.” He kissed my forehead, then my cheeks, then my lips. “I love you, my mate.”

My lips widened into a blinding smile. “I didn’t think I’d ever get to hear you say that,” I admitted, a blush warming my cheeks.

He frowned. “Why not?”

“Well… look at you. I just didn’t think you’d be mine.” There was no universe where I thought that I’d be mated to this sensitive, yet sexy, shifter.

Barrett smiled, his fingers roving over my face like he couldn’t decide what to focus on.

“I’ve always been yours, Eryne. From the very first moment when you saved me, your touch kept me going.

Knowing my mate—” His voice cracked, full of emotion.

“Knowing you were mine, that was how I fought to come back to you. Even when I couldn’t shift to tell you what you meant to me. ”

“Oh.” I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “And here I’d thought I had a new pet wolf.”

He laughed. “I’ll be your good boy whenever you want, sugar.” Barrett winked at me, and I blushed harder. His knot was still firmly inside of me, hard and keeping all of the cum inside of me.

I clenched around him, and he groaned. “Don’t do that.”

“Why not?” I gave him a coy smile.

He swatted my ass. “How long do you want to be stuck like this?”

I pouted. “Fine.” I’d be good—even though I didn’t want to be.

“So… what now?” I asked, looking down between us.

His hand pushed my hair back behind my ear. “Now, we wait for my knot to go back down, and then I’m going to take you home and we’re going to clean ourselves up—” He pulled another leaf out of my hair. “—and then we’ll reconvene with the rest of the group.”

Even though I knew it was the right thing to do, the idea of having to go see everyone after this was mildly mortifying. Especially since Ezra—and probably Damien, too—could smell him on me.

I groaned. “Everyone’s going to know what we were doing out here.”

“So?” He gave me a mischievous grin. “I like them all knowing that you’re mine.” Barrett nuzzled his face against my neck. “That we smell like each other.”

“Mmm.”

I guess that wasn’t so bad.

We decided it wasn’t worth the risk of humans finding Pleasant Grove if we left the barrier down any longer, and so we’d decided to perform the spell to recreate the wards that night. Only these wards were stronger—interlaced with magic from all of our species: demons, witches, and wolf shifters.

I slumped on the couch in between Rina and Wendy, exhausted and drained. After everything, it would take a few days for my magic to replenish itself in my body, though ordinary things like levitation were still doable in small bursts.

Leaning my head on Rina’s shoulder, I watched my mate across the room. Barrett was in Willow’s living room, talking with Damien and Zain, though I could barely keep my eyes open enough to listen to them.

It had been a long day. Honestly, the last two days felt like two lifetimes. I’d been kidnapped by some sort of evil un-dead being, almost drained of my magic and life, and then Barrett had rescued me. And we’d had the most insane sex of my life.

He looked over at me, eyes heating, like he knew exactly what I was thinking about. And then I realized that he probably did, now that we were bonded. I ran my fingers over his mark.

Earlier, in the bathroom, I’d stared at it for a long time, appreciating the spot where he’d marked me. It was still red, but he’d been right when he said his saliva would heal it.

I liked the way it showed off his possessiveness. And he seemed to like it too, if how he acted after was any indication.

He’d almost ripped Ezra’s head off when he’d found out the reason I’d come after him—and subsequently been taken.

That Ezra had revealed we were mates before Barrett could tell me.

It had required all of us to pull the two apart, panting and bleeding from both teeth and nails.

Ezra had been telling me the truth when he’d told me that Barrett would go feral if I touched him, barely letting me out of his sight when I tried to heal the vampire.

In the end, I’d just taken care of my mate, knowing someone else from the coven could help Ezra.

Barrett felt like shit, but I knew it was just the alpha wolf in him, trying to protect his mate. An instinct that he couldn’t control. Though he was better now that we were mated. I could tell, because every time he looked over at me, his eyes caught on my mark, and his heart slowed.

I rested my hand over mine, knowing they were beating in tandem.

The door opened and closed, and a white haired man dressed in black slipped inside.

I faintly recognized him from the cave when Barrett had come to find me, though everything had happened so fast that I hadn’t had a chance to say anything to the men who had helped my mate.

He hadn’t been there when we’d re-cast the barrier tonight, which I hadn’t even thought about till now.

I felt Wendy sit up straight next to me, the blanket that had been draped over us falling to her lap. Looking over at her, I saw her eyes grow wide as she stood. “ Cassius ?” The word was barely above a whisper, as she reached out towards the white haired man, then seemed to think better of it.

He looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Wendy?”

I looked between the two of them, wondering what was going on.

“What are you doing here?” She snapped, the words were cold—so unlike my friend.

“I—”

Barrett looked over, noticing the man standing inside the door, and interrupting before I could find out what was happening. “Cassius,” he said, coming over to shake his hand. “Thank you again for the help.”

Cassius gave a curt nod. “I was just doing my job.” He looked over at Wendy, and then back at my mate. “They are taken care of, and shouldn’t bother the town again.”

“We owe you one.” Barrett shoved his hands in his pocket.

Willow stood up from the table slowly, Damien instantly at her side as she curved a hand over her belly, almost waddling across the floor towards Cassius. “Thank you,” she repeated Barrett’s sentiment. “For keeping my mate safe.”

Cassius shook her hand, nodding again, and she nuzzled back against Damien’s chest.

I smiled, imagining Barrett and I like that one day, when we decided to start our own family. For so long, the idea of having a husband and kids had seemed so far off, but now it was within my grasp, and the idea made bats flutter in my stomach.

Yes , I wanted that. I wanted everything with Barrett.

One day at a time, I reminded myself. After all, we had an entire lifetime together.