Page 37 of Untraced Magic (Cutters Cove Witches #1)

Being this close to Tyler would usually have me melting in his arms, but an unease crawled the length of my spine, and I couldn’t shake the strange feeling of being watched again.

“Thanks, it’s new,” I said with a sigh. “A name I can’t pronounce”

Tyler held me close for a moment. “Well, whatever it is, I love it.” He pulled back, his fingers lifting my chin. His brow furrowed. “Something’s wrong. What is it? … You don’t feel safe here?”

“No. Yes. Gosh, I don’t know.” I shook my head, trying to clear my anxious thoughts. “It’s everything, I guess. I just don’t feel like I fit in here.”

He pulled me closer, his fingers sinking into my hair. “You’re safe here. I spoke to security before we arrived. Also, wolves have a unique sense of awareness. They would know if there was someone here who shouldn’t be.”

I let out a breath, exhaling a sense of relief. “Thank you… for everything, and for being so un derstanding.”

His hands massaged my shoulders in lazy circles. “If you don’t feel comfortable, we can leave; it’s no problem. That was always the deal, and it still stands. Just say the word.”

I knew he meant it, and that alone warmed my insides.

I pushed my arms over his shoulders, moving over the nape of his neck. “No, it’s okay. I’m fine, just a few jitters I guess.”

His strong arms held me close, pulling back to look at me as he spoke. “It’s okay to feel this way. It’s a big thing attending something like this for the first time. But you need to tell me these things. Be real with me, and in turn I’ll do the same.”

Tyler pressed his lips against mine, his kiss searing its way through every part of me and turning my unease into a new sense of calm.

His lips brushed my ear. “Did I mention you look absolutely stunning tonight?”

His hand floated over my hip, knuckles grazing my sizes.

The temperature in the room seemed to soar when Tyler reduced the space between us.

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep my hands off you…” he murmured, a finger skimming the length of my spine.

I arched against him, his touch sending flares sparking over my bare skin.

“Then don’t,” I challenged.

I slid my hand discreetly between us, running it over his hardness, and a deep groan filled my ears, his breath hot on my neck.

Knowing how ready he was for me destroyed me, the temptation in the room rising to a fever pitch. When his lips claimed mine, need rushed through me, my insides melting .

Tonight, there was no delicate tasting. No teasing.

Tyler took what he wanted, what he needed.

I was suddenly acutely aware of the company we were in, the attention we were attracting. But the mate bond screamed at us for mercy, pulling me under its spell until I ached for more of him.

Tyler’s lips left mine, turning to the front of the room to where Alpha Aden stared back at us. The Alpha’s irises flared, like a storm rolling in on a clap of thunder before finally turning his back on us.

A streak of satisfaction laced Tyler’s molten gaze as he cupped my face in his hands, until I could look nowhere but up at him.

“You’re my mate, Morgan. My beautiful witch. And I know you could bring any man to his knees in a heartbeat, but gods help anyone who looks at you that way again.”

My heart slammed into my chest, as if it were fleeing from danger, arousal settling between my thighs as he undressed me with his wicked eyes, right in the middle of the glitzy pack house.

I needed him so badly, the ache of my sex a silent yet exquisite plea.

He sensed my undoing, my control slowly waning. The decency I clung onto by a single thread.

“Follow me,” he whispered into my ear, closing his hand around mine.

Tyler weaved us through the room of couples pushed together, drunk on a mixture of champagne and their own lust.

We exited the grand ballroom into a dimly lit hall, our feet mere whispers on the carpeted hallway. He moved to the side, pulling me into a library where books towered above us from floor to ceiling, their history lingering in my nostrils .

“Should we be in here?” I whispered.

Two fingers touched my lips, hushing me with a grin as he tugged me into an aisle.

“You are so bad,” I mused, letting him lead the way.

Stopping, he walked me backwards, air collecting in my chest in a rush as my back hit a set of bookshelves.

“Tyler…”

The look in his eyes was one of pure lust as his hands skimmed the length of my arms, stopping to lace his fingers through mine.

“These,” he said, motioning to each of my hands, and he lifted them so I held onto the shelf either side of me, “stay right here.”

I didn’t dare move my hands, fully on board with whatever he had in mind.

I followed his every move. I’d never seen him like this, so in control. And I liked it. A lot.

He placed his hands above me on the shelf, his lust-drenched eyes roaming the length of me as if admiring artwork. I almost laughed at the irony. In reality he was the piece of art, a perfectly sculpted masterpiece, but he had no idea. So humble.

I dared a bold tongue, sex drenching my tone. “I thought you didn’t like it against the wall.”

He pressed his body against mine, his hard cock pushing against me. Those same eyes held a devilish spark in them now. “Someone changed my mind.”

Greediness flooded my insides, and I rocked my hips, yearning for his touch. A needy moan pulled from deep within me, and he quickly stifled it with his lips, dragging an urgency from me as his tongue devoured mine.

His hands lifted the front of my dress, slipped beneath the lace of my thong, sliding into my arousal waiting for him. He cursed. “So damn soft.”

His fingers circled the most sensitive part of me, my hands clawing the shelves at my sides at his expert touch. When he pushed inside me, I drew in a swift breath, my head leaning against his as he drew them out and back in again, devastatingly slow.

Noises I didn’t recognize purged from me until a lone finger landed on my lips, silencing my pleasure as he watched me with ravenous intent.

“Come for me. Right here. Right now,” he ordered.

His filthy whispers breathed heat throughout me, his hands seeming to get hotter every second. What the hell was happening to me?

I didn’t understand the intense heat igniting the flesh between my thighs, until it dawned on me.

Was he using his magic on his hands?

…On me?

“Ty… your hands,” I gasped, struggling to put words together. “Oh God, is that…?”

His lips brushed mine, an unmistakable smile teasing my mouth. “You’re mated to a thermo mage, princess. You like that?”

Oh. My. God!

I cried out as his hands heated against me. Inside me. Every part of my sex on fire, bordering on the point of pleasure and pain .

“Tell me if it’s too much,” he insisted.

I shook my head against the euphoria spreading within me. “Yes.”

“Morgan?” He started to pull away.

The words rushed from me. “No. Please.” My fingernails scraped the shelves they desperately clung to. “Don’t stop.”

“That’s my girl.” His voice was low and husky in my ear. “Give these books a show.”

Another world captured me as my insides combusted into a thousand embers around his sinful hands. I cried out, unable to contain myself. His lips crashed into mine again, a desperation in his kiss matching the curling of his fingers.

Suddenly, I was in the air, Tyler backing me against the shelf, and I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist as he adjusted his hold on me.

Books slid from their shelves followed by a drum of dull thuds, then the unmistakable rip of a zipper. Moments later, Tyler buried his length in me, stilling as he filled me with every inch of him, the stretch of him a delicious pain I would never stop craving.

His eyes turned predatory, a darker layer to them, and I was sure I was sinking as I stared into the graphite depths of him.

“You’re my mate , Morgan. Say the words for me, my beautiful witch.”

Still reeling from the feeling of him inside me, my voice came out unsteady. “I’m yours.”

He remained still, and I rocked my hips against him in frustration, earning me a low, graveled laugh.

“I’m your what?” he pressed .

Those eyes. His words. He undid me in ways he would never know.

Every word struck a beat within me. I rocked against him again, but he pinned his body hard against me this time; I couldn’t move an inch.

A greedy whisper tore from me. “I’m your mate. Your beautiful witch.”

As soon as the words left my lips, he withdrew slightly, only to slam back into me again. He took me over and over, his nails digging into me as he held me in his arms.

I released my hands from the shelves, one holding his neck, the other sliding down his front. His suit had come undone, and I skimmed my hands over the angles carved into his chest beneath his crisp shirt, grabbing a fist full.

Clawing my way underneath, my palms finally sank into his flesh, holding onto him as he muffled my cries with his mouth.

I kissed him with frantic need as he buried himself in me repeatedly, a madness of sorts claiming us. Our magic wrapped itself around us, the mate bond an all-consuming and utterly beautiful thing as we came together cursing the gods for creating such a connection.

The mate bond held me at ransom, with my heart in its delicate hand, and my soul on its sleeve. I’d never felt anything like it before.

When Tyler released his hold on me, I slid down his front until my feet found firm ground. Tucking himself back into his suit pants, his hands found the sides of my face, holding me delicately .

Our breaths came in short bursts, our chests rising and falling simultaneously.

Our heads pressed together. “The mate bond,” he rasped, shaking his head in disbelief. “I could feel it before. But you’re under my skin, in my head… I can feel you. It’s so fucking intense.”

I couldn’t find words as his hands weaved their way through my hair, his mouth closing tenderly over mine. I loved him so much I could barely breathe.

It filled my heart with so much joy I couldn’t help my giddy smile as he stared down at me.

“Bit of light reading, I see.”

We turned to the unexpected voice, horror rushing through me at the sight of Wesley. He sat in an aged leather armchair in a far corner of the library, a smirk on his face.

Tyler glared at him. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he demanded, his hands ensuring my dress covered me.

Wesley dragged in a breath from a cigar, motioning lazily to Tyler. “Alpha Aden is looking for you.”

Tyler ignored his comment. “What did you see?”

Wesley didn’t answer, playing the same game.

Heat moved to my cheeks, the gleam in Wesley’s eyes telling me he’d seen more than I liked if not everything.

Tyler smoothed over his shirt, straightening his tie. “For fuck’s sake, you get off on the weirdest shit.” He shook his head like he was used to Wes watching people fuck, before shifting his attention back to me. “I need to speak with Alpha Aden. I shouldn’t be long. ”

Wesley stood from the chair, moving toward us. “I can accompany Morgan back while you go ahead.”

Tyler turned his attention back to me, uncertainty filling his features.

I nodded. “Sure. You go.”

Tyler pecked a kiss on my forehead. “I’ll see you shortly for another dance.” He turned to Wesley. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

Wesley nodded, leaning against the opposite shelf of books. His arms were folded across his front, the cigar balanced precariously between his fingers, curling its smokey essence around him.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How long had you been sitting there for?”

His looked briefly at the books scattered on the floor. “Long enough.”

If the ground could just open up and…

“Your magic is powerful,” he said too quietly, interrupting my thoughts.

Gone was Wesley’s usual banter, the angles of his jaw now rigid and fused with tension.

“I’m not sure I follow.” An uncomfortable chill settled on the base of my neck.

A fleck of something indifferent passed over his gaze, a vivid bright green slashing his emerald irises.

I scrunched my brows. Something didn’t feel right.

An icy shiver streaked through me, and my heart started to pound against my rib cage, a deep thump that matched the pace of Wesley’s dress shoes as they stepped closer .

He inched closer, until he was only an arm’s length away.

Extending his hand to me, he offered me the cigar. “Want a drag?”

I swallowed, a deep sinking feeling making my stomach churn. “No, I’m okay, thanks.”

His voice left him as a whisper, but it roared in my ears. “I’m sorry.”

Seconds later, his hand covered my mouth.

Then darkness.