Page 54 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

A burnt-orange fox sat with its tail wrapped around its front legs, a curious, pleasant expression on its tiny face.

My inner fox immediately recognized it as family, as someone close to me.

But who? Shifters only transitioned on the full moon, which was weeks away.

I’d just been about to get Mill’s attention so he could see, so I could ask what it was, but the fox stood and sauntered back into the woods. And the night carried on.

* * *

The party was still going by the time we left. The pack had been through a lot recently, and everyone needed the revelry. Music blared through the speakers, and mirth echoed through the pack bonds, adding an intoxicating coat to an already dreamy experience.

We burst into our room in a tangle of kisses and desperate embraces. I clawed at his linen trousers, desperate to tear them from his body, but he chuckled and pulled my hands away.

“Mill,” I whined, trying to get at them again.

He leaned back and stared down at me with an eyebrow raised. “Patience, baby.”

Patience?

I’d been patient for seventeen years.

At my indignant pout, he ran his thumb over my bottom lip and stuck it in my mouth. I wrapped my tongue around it, sucking it the way I wanted to do to his dick.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said, shaking his head. “Such insolence.”

“Yeah?” I bit down on his finger, enough to make him hiss in a sharp breath. “What are you going to do about it?”

He paused long enough to send a quiver down my spine before bending to haul me over his shoulder.

I squealed with delight as he walked me to the bed and plopped me unceremoniously in the center.

I bounced and rolled onto my knees, waiting for his next move.

Mill stared down at me like a disapproving teacher who couldn’t wait to take a ruler to my ass.

I wanted him to. I wanted every deliciously vile thing he planned to do to me.

And then I wanted him to mark me in the way only a dominant shifter could.

“That depends entirely on you,” he said as he put his hands on his hips. “If you’re a good girl, I’ll make you come on my face before I bite you.”

My lower belly tightened and sent a hot surge to my cunt. “And if I’m bad?”

His wolfish grin gave him away. “I’ll make you come twenty times before I bite you.”

“Twenty?” I balked. “That doesn’t sound like a punishment.”

He let out a condescending laugh and shook his head. “Oh, you sweet girl.”

Mill held up two fingers and waved them, gesturing me closer.

I crawled to him, and when I got within arm’s reach, he grabbed the bottom of my dress and hoisted it over my head.

The cool bite of air rushed in around me, my skin pebbling, but the heat of my desire for him burned through my blood. He nodded toward the mattress.

“Lie down,” he said.

I nearly tripped over myself to do as he asked, another wave of his affection shooting down the bond as I stretched out on the duvet. The mattress dipped as he crawled over me, running his hands up my shins to my knees and thighs.

“You are the most miraculous thing that’s ever happened to me,” he murmured. “Do you know that?”

“That’s saying something for someone who’s died and come back to life twice,” I admitted with a small laugh.

“Hmm.” He pulled one of my legs up to his shoulder and kissed the inside of my calf, alternating soft pecks with open-mouthed bites. “That smart mouth of yours will get you in trouble.”

“I thought my mouth was one of your favorite things about me.” I couldn’t help being a brat. It was in my nature, after all.

He struck like a snake, leaning over me to wrap a hand around my throat, his pupils dilating with a small crimson ring around the edges.

“And if you don’t shut it, I’ll give you something else to do with it.”

I bit my bottom lip, excited about the prospect.

Everything Mill and I did together was amazing, but if there was one thing I loved the most, it was sucking him off.

I liked to watch him fall apart because of what I could do to him.

I loved his little moans and how he grasped my hair to position me where he wanted.

He worked his way down my body, nibbling at my neck before lapping over a nipple with a tiny nibble.

I arched toward him, rolling my pelvis against the growing tent in his pants.

Mill laughed and pulled away from me, grabbing his cock as he slid down the bed.

Then he speared his tongue through my cunt and grinned.

“Hmm, already so wet?” He did it again, and I threw my head back with a moan. I couldn’t help it. Being a shifter came with the added benefit of slick, and it now dripped down the side of my legs, puddling underneath me as he continued to suck.

Nearly five orgasms later, after he’d had his fill, he finally resurfaced and prowled up my body with a slow easy grin. Evidence of his handiwork dripped down his chin, and when he kissed me, I tasted the combination of us in all of its resplendent earthy notes.

Not breaking eye contact, he reached between us and positioned himself at my entrance, sliding all the way in on one hard thrust. I surged off the mattress, but he held me still with his massive weight, dark eyes trained on my face.

The first few thrusts were easy, and then he slammed against me, pounding me into the mattress, filling every inch of my cunt and soul.

I sensed he was getting close to his own climax, the heavy weight of sensations rattling between us like unhinged fireworks.

“Are you ready?” he said, pulling his lips back over his canines.

“Yes, do it.” I tilted my head to the side, giving him more room, and when he bit me, I blasted into another reality.

His teeth sank into the spot between my shoulder and neck, right on the scent glands, and our magic pulsed, cementing into place.

It wasn’t like any other time he’d pierced my skin.

This permeated with magnificent brilliance, like my entire life had been leading me to this one moment, like everything was suddenly so right and free and perfect.

When he pulled away, his lips bloody and teeth gleaming, my instincts took over. I leaned up and sank my canines into the same spot on his shoulder, impregnating my saliva into his body. His scent flared, his body convulsing as he emptied into my cunt, his knot expanding into place.

“Fuck, fuck, that’s amazing,” he groaned, his breathy sighs adding to my own ecstasy. Was there anything better than turning a powerful man to mush? I didn’t think so.

The tether between us snapped taut like a tightening guitar string. I sensed it pulsing, twisting around my soul and extending into his. He collapsed on top of me, his heavy weight like a blanket, making me feel secure and loved and precious.

“I’ll never stop wanting this,” I said, running my fingers up and down his spine. “I’ll never get over how amazing we are together.”

He leaned up and brushed hair out of my face before pressing tender kisses to my mouth and nose. “Thank you for saving me, Maeve.”

I smiled and shook my head as an untenable wave of adoration crashed into my heart. “No, Mill. Thank you.”

I’d grown so much since he first came back into my world.

I’d once been reckless and rash. I’d once thrown myself into dangerous situations just to feel the rush of life under my skin.

And while I wouldn’t necessarily give up some of my favorite pastimes, I had to admit—Mill had a point.

I needed to care for myself as much as he needed to do the same.

That girl who clung to life had found a reason to pause…

to slow down and take things one at a time.

I hated what had been done to me, but with time, I hoped I’d become grateful for it.

I appreciated life in a whole different way now.

We fell asleep wrapped in each other, our legs and arms tangled, our bonding scents thick and heavy with sex. I didn’t have any nightmares that night, thank God, but something pulsed inside my chest around two a.m. that had me sitting up with a gasp.

At first, I thought it was just aftershocks of what we’d done together. The mating magic lingered like a shot of good whiskey, making my limbs tingle and my head dizzy. But no, this was different. This was an ancient knowledge pulling in my gut, something rare and primal.

Ava.

I reached for my phone to check my messages, but I didn’t have any from her. And just when I started to call her, my fox told me to stop. Something was happening, but it wasn’t bad.

No, I sensed her the way I did Guin or Sol, deep in my bones, wrapped in my magic.

“Maeve?” Mill asked, sitting up next to me so he could kiss my shoulder. “What is it?”

“It’s Ava,” I said. “I think she just went into transition.”

Mill met my eyes with a serious gaze, and together we came to the same realization. She was in Paris.

And the only one with her, the only one who could help her, was Lycan.