Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

T ravis closed the door behind them and set Skylar down by the bed. He could feel the tension and unease rolling off her.

"We don't have to do this tonight, Sky. No one but the two of us will ever know."

"No, I want to. I've just never done it before. My mother has always been very open about her relationship with my father and with the bastard she was mated to before him. While she had no trouble with my having sex, she always cautioned me to wait for my fated mate before allowing myself to be knotted and tied."

"If it helps, this will be my first time with a she-wolf in human form."

She looked at him, fear fading from her face as she let her love shine through. "It does help. I keep reminding myself you were also my first wolf and nothing—I mean nothing—can compare to being with you. You complete aspects of me I never even knew weren't complete."

She reached up and began unbuttoning his shirt, pushing it off his shoulders and kissing the exposed skin. She was being so brave. He sensed she was still concerned but was committed to exploring this new intimacy with him. When she reached for his belt, he stilled her hand.

"My turn," he said, reaching down to the hem of her summer dress and drawing it over her head, leaving her standing in nothing but a lace bra that unfastened in the front. He removed it and she stood before him, gloriously nude. "God, you're so beautiful."

His hand cupped her breast and lifted it as he leaned down to take her nipple in his mouth. He sucked it gently before nipping it and then turning his attention to her other pebbled tip. Skylar moaned and arched her back, offering him more.

Travis lifted her up and placed her on the bed. She watched as he sat to remove his boots and stood again to render himself as naked as she was. He lay down next to her, rumbling soothingly, but the sound had an erotic edge. He kissed her, his tongue surging into her mouth as his hand slipped between her legs, circling her clit with his finger before trailing down to the opening of her core.

Skylar's breathing went from relaxed and dreamy to aroused and ragged. Using two fingers he traced the petals of her sex in a circular pattern, sometimes pressing down on her swollen nub and others merely teasing it. He could feel Skylar's body already beginning to grow taut in anticipation of climax. She was so responsive and open to him. Her hips began to move of their own volition.

He pressed down on her clit with his thumb and thrust two fingers up into her. Skylar clutched his arm and cried out in pleasure.

"Good mate," he crooned softly, never ceasing the rumbling that only she could hear.

From the first time, Skylar's response to him had been the stuff of dreams. She was glorious in her femininity and her submission to him. She purred and rubbed against him, instinctively seeking the ultimate carnal knowledge between an alpha male and his mate. He allowed her to come back to herself before beginning again. He wanted her primed and wanting more.

He sucked her nipple back into his mouth, teasing the rigid tip with his tongue before giving it the edge of his teeth, making her moan. His hand pinched and played with her other nipple, and he growled seductively to her.

Travis moved to cover her, settling himself between her legs, whispering kisses first on one breast and then moving to the other, making sure to lavish his attention on both of them. One hand played with her nipple as the other one slipped between their bodies and teased the pearl of her pleasure.

There had been times when he'd been with Skylar and thought he was as hard as he could ever be. But he'd been wrong. Now his cock throbbed and strained to be inside her. Never had he been this hard or this desperate to mount a woman. Refocusing, he increased his attention on her breasts and nipples, and he could feel another climax beginning to build.

"For God's sake, Travis, knot me! Please!"

He chuckled as she snarled in frustrated desire. He ignored her fussing and continued to fondle her, suckling and biting her stiff nipples. Her hips began to move again; it was an invitation as old as time. His woman—his mate—was ready to be breached. His cock nudged its way past her labia, parting them until it found the entrance it was seeking. He grasped her hips, held her still, and surged forward, entering her opening with his knot. She orgasmed, and her pussy clamped down, drawing him forward as she screamed in ecstasy.

Skylar struggled instinctively. It was natural; she had never experienced the kind of rapture that could only come from being possessed completely by her mate. He'd known this first time would be difficult since she didn't know the bliss that lay just beyond her pain. He held her close and allowed her cunt to draw him in further until his cock found the place made only for an alpha's knot. She gasped but when he held still, she quieted.

He inhaled sharply but stayed motionless, allowing her to revel in the feeling of his knot swelling and sealing her to him in a primal hold unique to wolf-shifters. He held her in place and allowed her body to accommodate his. Pleasure began to override pain as he growled low, calling to the most primitive part of her nature.

When her breathing and the softening of her body indicated she had fully accepted the knot, he began to rock her, gently at first and then with more power and rhythm. Skylar's arms came up to hold him close and her legs intertwined with his as she molded her body to fit him. The harder he rocked her, the tighter the stranglehold of her pussy on his cock. As she began to climax again, she sank her teeth into the same area alphas had been marking their mates for millennia.

Travis couldn't get enough of the feeling of his mate writhing beneath him in the throes of the knot. He howled as he began to move more forcefully within her. He couldn't take a full stroke because of the knot, so he continued to move in short, powerful bursts that came instinctively to all alpha males.

"God, you are magnificent. All my dreams and fantasies pale in comparison to the reality that is you. No wolf ever mounted a more responsive she-wolf."

Holding her close, his rocking became more frenzied and even though she tried to wrest some control from this ultimate possession, his dominance overpowered her. He rocked her through another series of orgasms, each following more quickly on the heels of the one before. The sizzle running along his spine told him he was close too. His balls drew up and he emptied himself into her, flooding her with his cum.

Once Travis had given her all that he had to give, he collapsed onto her. Skylar cradled him within the warmth of her body, and he now understood what it truly meant to be united with his fated mate.

He lifted his head and kissed her. "Hang onto me and I'll roll to my back, so you don't have to bear my weight."

She shook her head, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "No, I'm content being underneath you. I think I could die quite happily right here."

"I'm too heavy to lay on you for the duration of the tie, but I'll let you have your way for a bit," he said, closing his eyes.

When he opened them a short while later, he could tell Skylar was indeed comfortable beneath him. Nevertheless, he gathered her close and rolled to his back, soothing her when she fussed. She settled and was quickly asleep again. When the tie had at last dissolved, he eased himself from her body. He would have preferred to be in seclusion with her where he could fuck, knot, and tie her repeatedly, but he knew for now he had to wait.

Something was out there, and he knew they were going to face it together. Soon.

W hen she woke, she was no longer tied to Travis, but instead lying on her side, spooned against him. She could feel he wasn't asleep.

"Travis?"

"Yes, my beloved."

"That was amazing. You know how I said I wanted to be tied a couple of times a week? That may not be enough."

He laughed, his breath tickling the nape of her neck. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my mother lied to me. She said it was amazing, but amazing doesn't even begin to cover it. Can we do it again?"

"If we were in seclusion, you would be hard pressed to keep me from knotting you two or three times a day, but we aren't, and we can't be until you catch this bastard."

"You're serious about him not seeing his first appeal, aren't you?" she asked.

"I am. As long as he breathes, he is a threat to you and that I will not allow."

"I suppose we should sleep," she said reluctantly.

"It doesn't sound like that holds much appeal to you. But I won't knot you again until you've caught your killer."

"Then it had better happen soon or I'll shoot the sucker out of sheer frustration."

Travis chuckled. "How about a run? We have yet to shift and run together as wolves."

S kylar rolled off the bed and stepped naked out onto the patio into the light of the full moon as it slid among the clouds like a ghostly galleon belonging to her ancestors. She turned away from the railing and leaned back on it.

"Come and run with me, mate. Catch me if you can."

Skylar shifted and bounded from the balcony. It was a fair way down, but she had done it many times before. She glanced back just as Travis cleared the railing. He hadn't been kidding—he was enormous as a wolf. She galloped past the light of the main house and headed toward the maze. She had no hope of escaping him as he was bigger, faster, and knew the maze almost as well as she did.

Travis caught up with her and they ran through the maze together, stopping at its center to lap from the enormous fountain that was there. Skylar raised her head when she heard the sound of a small outboard motor on the river, not too far from where they were. She shifted back and Travis followed suit.

"What did you hear?" he whispered.

"Something that shouldn't be there." She stood still, listening and scenting the wind. "Human, not shifter. He's on the side of the gazebo, moving up from the river. It shouldn't be him. If he follows his pattern, he shouldn't strike until tomorrow night."

"Sweetheart, it is tomorrow, and if he's going to stage the murder here, now would be the best time. We're out here without clothes or a gun."

"Not true. Come on."

Skylar led him toward a ring of benches. Lifting of one of the seats, she revealed a compartment containing sweatpants and tank tops of all sizes and shapes.

"What can I say? My mother is practical. We're still without a gun, but at least we have clothes."

Dressing quickly, she led him out of the maze and into the trees by the gazebo. Up ahead, moving cautiously, was a human dragging a body that was limp but still struggling weakly.

"Why'd you have to go and pass out on me. The least you could have done was wait until I got you into position. The Master is waiting," snapped the man, huffing and puffing from exertion.

"I don't suppose I could convince you to go back to the house and raise the alarm?" he whispered.

"No more than I could convince you."

Together they moved out of the trees to confront the killer and his latest victim.

"Stop! You're trespassing, and are under arrest for suspicion of murder," said Skylar as the moon cleared the clouds.

The short, squat man stood up and Skylar thought about how he was one of those people who others wouldn't notice. He was non-descript, almost a non-entity, except for an air of malevolence that seemed to permeate his being.

"You can't stop me," he said as if trying to make himself believe, as well as them. "The Master will protect me."

"I don't know who this Master is, but he doesn't seem to be here to save your sorry ass," growled Travis. "Now put the girl down and surrender or you won't live to see the sunrise."

The murderer raised a small pistol and fired at them. Travis knocked Skylar out of the way and felt the bullet graze his ribs before the next one imbedded itself in his shoulder. Knowing he was wounded but not wanting Skylar to face the threat alone, Travis smiled grimly when the ribbon of moonlight shone down and illuminated them. If his father and his aunt were right, the circumstances were ripe to put the legend of La Guerrera Lobo to the test.

Travis nodded to Skylar and then toward the moon. Closing his eyes, he could discern the electrical charge of the shimmer. But instead of it feeling warm and familiar, there was an intensity that he'd never experienced before. Crackling and spitting, the shimmer was illuminated and empowered by streaks of lightning. Travis focused on not only shifting, but on calling upon his ancestors and his beloved fated mate to be one with him. Shifting had always come naturally, but this time there was a difference in the way his body morphed from man to beast. He was larger, stronger. He was astounded as he felt an unseen force slam into him just before his wolf took form. The legends were true. From two distinct shimmers came one beast with two consciousnesses working in perfect harmony.

Startled and terrified, the killer screamed, dropped his victim, and turned to run. With a single shared thought , La Guerrera Lobo bounded after him, quickly getting between the murderer and his boat. Realizing his escape was cut off, the murderer turned to flee toward the woods and the maze beyond. There was no way for him to evade capture, but he seemed determined to try.

The dire wolf bounded past him, cutting him off from the trees. It lowered its head and growled, snapping its massive jaws together.

"Master!" the murderer called to no one who was there. "I am your servant. Save me!"

With no rescue in sight and the house coming awake behind him, the killer raised his gun and fired again. The shots missed their mark by a wide margin. When the gun fired on empty cylinders, he threw it at the beast that seemed determined to catch him and whirled to try to get back to his boat.

Again the dire wolf charged past him. The panicked man must have realized he had no means of escape and no other options. He became even more desperate, pulling a large butcher knife from his jacket. He rushed toward the enormous beast. Travis and Skylar, moving as one in the form of the dire wolf, leaped at the attacker. The killer threw up his hands to protect his throat, leaving his belly completely vulnerable. Instinctively and with one mind, La Guerrera Lobo changed the trajectory of her attack and sank her teeth into the murderer's soft midsection, tearing open the flesh to the sound of the man's screaming.

The primitive nature of the wolf took over and ripped the killer's entrails from his body, then grabbed him by the throat and shook him mercilessly. Dropping the dead man at its feet, it placed a paw on the man's breastbone and howled at the moon in victory.

In that same instant, something without corporeal form seemed to emerge from the prone body of the killer and knocked the dire wolf back with stunning power. The wolf watched as an inky mist spun into something that resembled an oozing, murky tornado swirling up into the sky.

It seemed to have no stable shape or light of any kind—almost like a moving black hole, existing only to suck light and life from all around it. It smelled of death and decay and there was a feel of an ancient, knowing evil. For a moment, the dark, swirling mass morphed into the form of a face, glaring down at them with malevolence and malice before folding in on itself and dissipating into nothing. The wolves of the New Orleans pack as well as Travis's father raced toward them.

Travis could feel Skylar pulling away and let her go. He felt himself decrease in size from that of the enormous dire wolf back to the timber wolf he usually was. Exhausted, they both shifted back to their human forms. JD reached them first and removed his shirt, handing it to Travis who gave it to Skylar, who was hidden behind her mate.

Once she had on JD's shirt, she moved from behind Travis and wiped the blood from her mouth with the cuff. She reached up and dabbed at his mouth and gasped as she noticed his bullet wounds.

Her father embraced her. "You are all right? What happened?"

"They tried to strike at us here. Someone get the doctor, Travis has been wounded," she said. "Are you all right? What a stupid question. You've been shot. Of course you're not all right."

Travis gently removed her from Jean-Michel's embrace, wrapping his arms around her. "I'll be fine, Sky. One is just a scrape and the other was a through and through. Nothing a little antiseptic and a bandage can't fix. But what the hell was that black tar cloud and where did it go?"

"It has escaped," said Jean-Michel quietly.

"What is it, Papa?" asked Skylar.

"An ancient evil previously thought to be subdued. The journals of Jean Lafitte talk about it. It has no corporeal form and can only exist within a host if the host feeds it a life energy. If the host doesn't provide it, the Darkness will consume the host. If the host dies, the Darkness can only exist for a short time without another to take its place. It can escape to hide within anything living. The Darkness can be contained, but only destroyed if its undefined mass is trapped by a magick that can force it to remain within the boundaries controlled by that power. A human host, or for that matter a wolf-shifter, cannot force it to remain and die with the host. It will find another and will try to weaken its soul and destroy its honor. The Darkness will be long gone before we can chase it down, but we will need to find a way to track its movements. We must find it."

"Can it be defeated?" asked Travis.

Jean-Michel shook his head. "Not by ones such as us. Only those with an ancient magic can hope to defeat it. As you have seen, it has no shape or form which is why Jean Lafitte could only contain it and not destroy it. Six of you use the blanket and get his intended victim up to the infirmary. Let the pack know we have a human guest."

Cameron turned to JD. "Help me dispose of the body in the swamp. We'll let it be found after it has spent some time being gnawed on by things other than wolves. We'd best get back up to the house and have someone take a look at Travis's bullet wounds."

"Come," said Jean-Michel, putting Travis's arm over his shoulder and helping Skylar take him back to the house. Once there, he was given a pair of jeans. His mother and Darby calmed the rest of the pack and sent those who didn't work in the kitchen back to their beds.

"I'll call in a report tonight, letting them know he escaped into the swamp," said Skylar. "We should expect them here before full light."

"I can help in the kitchen to get the pack fed as well as those who come to search," said Riley.

Darby nodded. "That's good. We'll rouse everyone early and let them know to prepare for guests. We can get the tent pavilions brought up from storage and be ready for the police when they get here."

"By the time they arrive, the creatures of the night should have had a chance to do their work on the body." Jean-Michel turned to Cameron. "It would seem the legends of the dire wolf were not exaggerated."

Skylar smiled at her father. "Not only could I hear him calling to me, but I was also compelled to do his bidding. The next thing I knew I was leaping at him and then we were one."

"Shame that compelled to obey thing doesn't work in real life," quipped Travis as JD cleaned and dressed his wounds.

Skylar snorted and embraced her mother and Riley before they were shooed away by Jean-Michel. "Can we ever destroy that thing?" she asked her father.

"I do not believe it can be killed by ones such as us. The last time it was free, it perpetrated its evil for almost a century. You did weaken it, however, with your attack on its host. But it fled and evaporated into the ether."

"How did Jean Lafitte capture it?" asked Travis.

"They say he had the help of a magic wielder, but we need to find it first. For now, it has run from the light as it always does. It will take time for it to heal, strengthen, and find another host."

Jean-Michel walked them to the top of the stairs, embraced Darby, and kissed his daughter's head before heading back to their chambers.

"He's frightened," Skylar said, as she and Travis walked back to their room.

"I think he's more worried than afraid. I know your father plays the charming rogue, but there are few who could stand against him, and he will not be alone."

They took a shower together, gently bathing one another—seeking to comfort rather than arouse. Then they got into bed, savoring the sweetness of being nestled together.

"At least you'll be rid of those nightmares. The Darkness that you foresaw has risen and been defeated—at least for now," said Travis, wrapping his arms around her as they looked out over the water from the balcony off their room.

Skylar shook her head, loathe to tell him what she knew to be the truth, yet committed to being honest and transparent with him. "It's not defeated. Both my father and Chantal said that while we might catch the killer, he was just a tool." She snuggled into his warmth and strength. "The Darkness is still out there. We'll just have to wait to see where it rises next. It's not done… not by a long shot."

W ant to know what happens next? Click here to read Jed story in Touch of Light.

She refuses to be bound by fate. He's determined to save her soul. Can he save her from the evil that has possessed his fated mate?

Katarina Marino has her future carefully mapped out, and it doesn't involve a fated mate. Leaving her family's vineyards in Tuscany behind, the independent wolf shifter sets her sights on a promising career in San Francisco. An invitation to a friend's restaurant opening in New Orleans offers the perfect detour—until it becomes a descent into a nightmare she couldn't foresee.

Jed Steele has known Katarina all his life, but it's only when he sees her amidst the Tuscan vines that he realizes she's his fated mate. Determined to claim her heart, he faces an unforeseen challenge when a malevolent force chooses her as its new host. With an ancient evil on the rise, Jed must confront darkness itself to save the woman he's fated to love.

As Katarina grapples with the sinister power growing within her, she must decide whether to trust the bond she shares with Jed. Time is running out, and only together can they hope to defeat the shadowy enemy threatening to extinguish the light within her.

Can their love overcome an ancient darkness, or will evil tear them apart forever?

Touch of Light is the gripping second installment in the Fated Legacy paranormal romance series. If you relish friends-to-lovers stories, intense action, and scorching chemistry that defies all odds, you'll be enthralled by Delta James's captivating tale.

T urn the page for a First Look into Touch of Light

Interested in learning more about Jean-Michel and Darby? Cameron and Riley? Then read:

Marked and Mated

And

Hunted and Claimed

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As always, my thanks to all of you for reading my books.

Take care of yourselves and each other.