Ignite me, p.19
Ignite Me, page 19
The door closed nearly all of the way behind us, and the lights were still on in the area we’d entered. There were a few rooms with doors up ahead, but the main area seemed to be where most everything had been before whoever had up and bolted. If only we’d gotten here earlier like planned.
Tables with cords dangling from them that likely went to computers and other tech filled most of the space. Potion bottles I’d seen before were on a shelf against the far wall, and that was what drew my attention the most.
Not because I thought I knew a lot about magic, but because these were purple stained-glass bottles with an insignia on them that I had seen on occasion while growing up.
These were from Hazel’s shop back at the coven.
My fingers touched the glass lightly as if I expected the material to do something grand, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about these potions except for the fact that I knew where they’d come from.
“What is it?” Grayson asked from next to me.
I glanced up at him, unsure if I was overthinking this or if I was on to something. “I know the witch who made these,” I said. “Well, I more knew of her. She housed me for a few weeks when I was, like, seven. I never talked to her after that.”
A rumble built in Grayson’s chest. “He could have gone to your coven for magic trades and stumbled upon you, forcing her hand in some way.”
“Or the witch turned on her coven and sought Johnathon out,” Lia said from behind us, pointing at the bottles. “That magic is familiar.”
She reached between us and took one, opened the corked lid, then sneered a second later, quickly closing it back up. “Yep. That’s the same magic that was used on you, Grayson.”
“Are you sure?” he asked with a strained voice.
“Positive.” She nodded at the same time. “Honestly, it was an excellent plan now that I’m seeing all of this, one that would have worked except there was no way to know that you were Kinsley’s mate or that I’d show up.”
“I’ve got something over here,” Markus said from across the room.
He was standing over one of the tables and sorting through some papers that had been scattered about. “What is it?” I asked when we joined him.
Markus handed me a sheet of paper with just a few confusing sentences on it, then he pointed to certain words. “Shade. Heir. Factions. War. Throne. Spread out, those make no sense, but if you put them together, this Johnathon person knows exactly what he’s doing, and I would assume he’s been fucking with things longer than any of us realized if he’s talking about Shade.”
“Who is Shade?” I asked as I scanned over the paper again.
“He was Dad’s second-in-command,” Markus answered, but the hard set of tension in his face told me not to ask anything else about the guy.
I noticed Lia still moving around the room with her eyes closed and hands hanging loosely at her side. I watched her for several moments until she paused next to one of the doors.
“We need to go in here,” she said, slowly looking at each of us.
Grayson was the first to move, and I quickly followed, with Markus right beside me. Lia waited for one of us to open the room, and my mate gladly took that job.
The heavy metal door groaned as it was shoved open, and the space was dark with no windows. While Grayson trudged forward, I skimmed the wall until I found a light switch.
Mother of fuckity fucks.
“What the hell is this?” Markus asked.
A stalker’s lair.
They’d taken the computers, but they’d left plenty of photos behind. I wondered if this was a message. One meant just for us
There were pictures of Grayson, me, and Markus scattered through the room. Even Ryder and the other faction leaders were in the photos, along with a few others I didn’t recognize.
“He’s been following you all for months,” Lia said with an edge to her voice. “Probably about the time I started having visions.”
There was one of me alone in the forest back at the coven. Me sitting in my studio apartment with the curtains open. Me eating alone at a table. Me fucking sleeping.
My skin crawled, and my wolf itched to shift so we could search for this fucker, but the more I stared at these images, the more certain I was that these photos had been left behind as bait, not a message. It was a trap to get us to react emotionally, and I wouldn’t fall for that. Not when we had a House of supernaturals to protect.
Grayson began ripping photos down and tearing them with his partially shifted hands. He was silent, but I still gestured for the others to leave the room.
Markus closed the door behind them once they were gone, and I placed my hand between Grayson’s shoulder blades.
The shudder that moved through him at my touch broke my heart.
“It’s okay, Grayson,” I murmured, pressing my lips to his back.
His body tensed, and he looked back at me. “It’s not fucking okay.” There was a picture still in his hands and I took it from him.
There was a little girl in the image with long, ebony hair; bright, silver eyes; and the cutest dimples I’d ever seen.
“Who is this?” I asked, thinking we now had someone else to find and protect.
“That was my baby sister Addie.” He growled through clenched teeth, snatching the photo back and putting it into his back pocket.
Fuck, he’d mentioned her death before, but it had been so long ago…I hadn’t expected her to have anything to do with this.
Instead of saying anything else, I wrapped my arms around him and pushed my ever-growing feelings for him through our bond, hoping to ease whatever grief was storming through him.
“They used her death to trick me,” Grayson finally said. “They know who I am. I’ve tried to hide who I was this whole time, thinking it could be an advantage later, but they’ve fucking known.”
His whole body shook with unfiltered fury, and he wasn’t hugging me back, but that didn’t mean I was going to walk away. We might have only been mated for a couple of hours, and I hadn’t even known him two weeks, but there was no abandoning him now.
Not when we needed to stick together most.
I pulled back and glanced up at my mate. “Then let’s make sure everyone else knows who you are as well.”
Grayson’s skin was heating, and the fire in his eyes was back as he stared intently at me. “If I let go and express the rage boiling inside me, even you won’t be able to stop me from the destruction I’ll cause.”
I gripped both of his hands with all my strength. “Turn them all into fucking ash if you need to.”
He nodded, then cupped my cheeks and seared his lips to mine. Rough passion flowed between the two of us, and I knew then that as long as none of the innocent members of Fire and Fluorite were caught in the crossfire, I'd let Grayson burn this whole damn place down.
Hell, it might be better that way. A fresh start for everyone.
“We need to go,” Grayson said when he finally pulled back, slightly calmer than he’d been before.
I glanced around. “Should we destroy any of this?”
“We will.” His shoulders relaxed ever-so-slightly. “As soon as we’re outside.”
Grayson led the way back into the main part of the warehouse. Lia and Markus were just finishing gathering items from the tables when we joined them, then followed us outside without a word.
I shared a look with Lia, nodding in confirmation that things were as okay as they could be. She had seemed to know a lot about Grayson when we’d first found her, so she might have already known about his sister. I’d still want to talk to him about it more later, because he’d been loose with the details before and I hadn’t wanted to pry on such a sensitive subject.
We exited the building the same way we’d come in and stood a few yards away when I began to sense energy pulsing from Grayson. His normally ochre skin was darkening as if it were being burnt from the inside out, but he didn’t seem to be in any pain. Instead, a glint was growing in his eyes.
His hands raised just before he thrusted them forward. Dark flames that seemed black at first grew in size, climbing up the sides of the building. When the sun hit them, I could see hints of the forest-green color I was used to seeing in Grayson’s eyes.
The metal siding of the building began to warp from the rapidly rising temperatures, and the rest of us had to back up to avoid the heat from burning even us.
Grayson, however, stayed right where he was with his hands still directed toward the building. Each time he moved them, the flames changed directions, staying confined to the building that we sought to destroy.
Minutes ticked by as we watched the structure start to collapse and turn to rubble. Lia joined my side and leaned her head on my shoulder. “He’s a little pissed off.”
I lightly snorted. “I’d say that’s an understatement.”
“He needed this,” she said more solemnly. “None of us should have to hide who we are. Not any longer.”
While I knew she was right, I also knew there would be ramifications to these revelations.
The Houses were about to find out not only that a unicorn still lived, but that there was a blood heir who was staking a claim to Fire and Fluorite, and her mate was a demon-wolf hybrid.
Putting it all together, it sounded as if we had the upper hand, but I wasn’t that naïve.
I knew that only made the target on our backs bigger, but we’d be ready for anyone that wanted to come for us.
I hadn’t spent my whole life wishing for a real home and family, only to find just that and have it ripped away from me.
Nobody would take what was mine.
My mate, my friend, my brother, and my House.
Right then, I knew.
I knew I’d fight to the death for each of them.
Chapter 26
GRAYSON
A week of eerie silence passed after we returned from No Man’s Land. We should have used that time to act against the third faction and to be sure the second one was backing down now that their leader had been killed, but instead, I’d listened to my gut.
I’d convinced Kinsley and the others to remain quiet until we had confirmation that news of our group had been spread.
That had been confirmed only the day before by Markus when he’d gotten in touch with Danni, the Queen to Blood and Beryl and a former member of Fire and Fluorite.
While that had been what I’d been waiting for, there were other pressing matters to take care of before we acted against the other factions.
Like my mate’s heat.
Her scent had been calling to me for days, but now it was damn near irresistible. Tonight would mark two full weeks since the new moon, and I had hardly been able to keep my hands to myself.
Even Lia and Markus had to leave, because just having him be in the same room as Kinsley drove my inner beasts to the brink of insanity—regardless of their relation or logic.
All I could focus on was Kinsley and knowing that for the next couple of days, she would be all mine to please, devour, and claim.
My wolf was ravenous for our mate, and the demon side of me—that I was no longer keeping on a tight leash—was eager to see what kind of pleasure-pain we could inflict on her.
And the man in me wanted to ravage her body for hours on end.
I hoped she was ready for that, because as the moon rose higher in the sky, I knew soon that there would be little to stop either of our needs.
Kinsley was sitting at the counter, eating a cold sandwich on my advice. She was going to need sustenance to survive the following days.
When she finished, I was nearly panting with need. It was a foreign feeling for me, but then again, I’d never allowed myself to care for someone as I did for Kinsley.
It wasn’t only that she was my mate. She was strong and intelligent and kind. She was everything I’d long ago stopped searching for, but now that I had her, I realized that I’d just been waiting.
Waiting for her.
Kinsley walked around the counter and sauntered toward me. My eyes watched the sway of her hips, and when she was close enough, my hands jerked her against my heaving chest.
Her pupils were a minuscule speck within the ocean depths of her eyes, and her cheeks were stained crimson. I traced my tongue over her plump lips, then picked her up, cradling her in my arms.
“You’re mine,” I murmured, scraping my teeth over her already burning skin
Her hand rose and cupped my cheek. “I’m yours always.”
Fuck. Her words pierced my chest while I walked us to the bedroom. The moonlight shining in through the window only briefly captured my attention before I threw her on the bed.
“I hope you’re not fond of these clothes,” I said only seconds before reaching forward and ripping the white shirt from her upper body.
Her shorts and underwear quickly followed, and I lost all sense of control when I took in her submissive form.
She’d lain on the mattress with her arms settled loosely above her head and her legs spread just for me.
Knowing that I was the only man to ever touch her so intimately had my wolf surging to the surface, wanting to claim her in his own way. To sink his teeth into her, leaving a permanent mark on our mate.
As Kinsley’s chest began to rise and fall with rapid succession, I pushed him back for the moment. I knew our focus needed to be on her needs and getting her through this first heat. I’d been told it wasn’t an easy feat, but I was more than up for the challenge.
My index finger tilted her chin up as I leaned over her naked body and claimed her mouth. She moaned loudly into the kiss before grabbing my other hand and placing it over her pussy.
That was one of the things I admired most about my mate. She wasn’t afraid to say or do what she wanted, and being in the bedroom was no different.
I swept my tongue across her lips while I slipped one, then two fingers inside her slick heat. She contracted around them, and I began to pump them in and out of her, moderately surprised when her breathing became strangled and her nails dug into my sides so quickly.
Within seconds, she was screaming my name and already claiming her first orgasm of what I assumed would be the best, yet longest night of my life.
“Fuck,” she panted. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
I smirked at her. “That’s only the beginning.”
Her eyes flashed with emotions I couldn’t quite decipher, but they seemed to be a mixture of anticipation and something like trepidation.
I’d known she’d asked Lia about what to expect, but unicorns didn’t go through the same kind of heats as wolves, thanks to their mixed races. Lia wasn’t able to ease any uncertainties besides saying the “throes of passion” would be worth feeling like her body was on fire from the increased temperatures.
Now, it was up to me to make sure my mate wasn’t in a constant state of pain and orgasmed as much as she needed to for however long it took for the heat to subside.
Basically, I was one lucky mother fucker.
Kinsley pushed me onto my back and practically growled at me as she did. “I need your cock inside me right the fuck now.”
The feral look in her eyes had my dick becoming painfully hard, and I didn’t object to her taking the lead. I knew better if I wanted to keep all my body parts attached.
I was surprised that my wolf was also okay with it. He was an alpha at heart. Even if we’d been in agreement about not trying to lead our own pack, we’d never backed down to anyone. Until Kinsley.
Her strength was equal to ours, and I had no qualms about kneeling for her. Not now that I’d tasted her and knew her heart.
My head sank into the pillows as she clawed at my clothes, ripping them from my body just as I’d done to hers.
By the time my cock sprang free from its constraints, Kinsley was practically salivating with eagerness.
She positioned herself over me, pressing her hands onto my chest to prop her body up before slamming down onto my waiting dick.
“Mother fucking hell,” she moaned, nearly coming again from the hard thrust.
I reached my hands up as she began to ride my cock, grinding over me with abandon. My fingers pinched her nipples, and her head dropped back.
Her long, nearly white hair moved over my thighs, tickling them until I reached around her and wrapped the strands around my hand.
I pushed her forward and rolled my hips until she gasped from the deepened position. My thrusts moved in time with hers and I pounded into her even when her eyes squeezed tight.
“I can’t stop it,” she muttered, clenching tightly around my cock.
My hands cupped her ass cheeks hard. “Don’t fight the releases. You’ll only cause yourself more pain.”
She nodded briefly until her lips parted and she cried out once more.
I kept moving inside her, stretching out her orgasm to hopefully offer her more relief. Her nails dug into my ribs, leaving crescent shapes in their wake but not drawing blood.
I reveled in watching her fall apart on top of me, taking what she needed only from me. Only ever from me. For the rest of our lives.
Nearly three weeks had passed since I’d first laid eyes on Kinsley, but that didn’t matter now that we’d completed the bond. It was as if I’d known her all my life, and there would never be a point in the future that I would tire of showing her how much I wanted every part of her body, mind, and soul.
Her shoulders drooped forward, but only for a few seconds before the next wave started to crest within her.
“I’ve got you, Mate,” I said when I rolled us back over so that she could rest.
She nodded. Or at least attempted to as her head lolled to the side.
We’d only just gotten started, but I knew she’d get through this. Just like she had everything else before.
Instead of leaving my hard cock pulsing inside her, I pulled out, much to her apparent dismay, then I closed my mouth around her dripping pussy, using my tongue to lap at the evidence from her previous release.
