Chapter 2

2

SERAPHINA

A fter Kieran whispers my name like a prayer, I am ready for next-day regrets. He’s grown up so much since high school, but then again, doesn’t everyone? At least he filled out in the best way. His shoulders are broad and muscled beneath his shirt, the angles of his face sharper than they used to be. A thin layer of scruff decorates his lower jaw and those lips—god, those lips.

They’re begging for a kiss.

So are his eyes. The heat in them is unmistakable.

Can I really do this?

The longer he stares at me, the more heat curls in my lower abdomen. Oh, I can so do this. And who knows? There might not be any regrets to have.

One shot leads to three more, and the next thing I know, I’m inviting Kieran Merek, pack alpha and forbidden territory to me and my kind, back to my place and leaving my sister on her own at the bar.

She gives me a serious side-eye when she sees me on Kieran’s arm. Like most witches, she doesn’t approve of witches and shifters breaking the so-called rules, and she, like me, knows just who I’m taking home. This town is too small to not know who he is.

Does he know who I am?

Tonight, I don’t care. Kieran has certainly matured from that boy I barely knew in high school to this gorgeous man who only has eyes on me tonight. So what if he’s a wolf and is off limits? I’m getting tired of limits. They’re no fun and they only squash you into a box.

Of course, my place is the closest and offers us privacy that the bar can’t. Not to mention, having him back at my apartment means I’ll have the home court advantage. Witch’s prerogative. Kieran will be the one to traverse the walk of shame once the sun rises.

The logic sounds right in my head, anyway.

I barely slide the key into the lock when Kieran’s lips find mine. Both of us knew what we were in for when I extended the invite and he accepted. Hell, we knew it from the moment he approached.

His boldness is refreshing, as well as the subtle, graceful way he moves. His massive frame presses me against the apartment door with our bodies colliding and my libido rising. I throw caution to the wind and return his hunger with my own. When he growls out a “fuck” and pulls back from me panting, my pussy clenches with anticipation.

He wants me.

Maybe there is something to letting Fate have its way after all.

I pull him back down to me and capture his mouth.

Cursing again, he turns me until my back is against his chest. He brushes my hair back, exposing my throat. “If you keep on like this, we’re going to end up giving your neighbors a show,” he whispers against my neck.“We won’t make it into the apartment.”

His warm breath promises me there’s more to come, if I can get the door open fast enough.

“Allow me.” With one hard kick, the lock splinters and the thick door swings open wide.

Inside the small hallway, Kieran looks imposing and dangerous and sexy as sin. His soft sable hair hangs down in his eyes giving him a devil-may-care look, his eyes going dark and narrow as he stares at me.

I lead him to my bedroom and a moment of doubt clouds my mind. Should I be doing this? With him?Kieran doesn’t give me time to listen to those second thoughts and doubts. Not when he fills the doorway with his body and growls, striding forward to grab me around the waist. He hauls me against his chest and plasters his mouth to mine, swallowing down my sigh. His fingers dig into my skin, pinning me against him. He’s everywhere. His touch fills my senses, his scent on my skin and his kiss proprietary.

He tastes like whiskey and wilderness.

I change the angle to go deeper and his tongue spears through my lips to tangle against mine. He’s hungry. So hungry for me I can barely breathe and the heat of his body sears away whatever air is left in my lungs.

“Take your fucking clothes off, Sera. Now.”

Just like that, I’m back on board with this whole forbidden romance.

After all, our two worlds colliding like this for one night doesn’t have to mean anything more than pleasure.

And what pleasure it is.

His hands and mouth tease every inch of me, making me drunk with desire. I tug off his shirt and wait impatiently as he steps out of his snug jeans and stands before me like a bronzed god.Neither one of us are willing to wait. There is going to be no gentleness tonight, no foreplay.

At least, not with round one.

Judging by the massive size of his cock, I’m going to be in for a ton of fun.

“Get on the bed,” he commands.

I obey, holding his gaze as I sit and push my way back on the mattress before letting my legs fall open.

“Dammit, Seraphina.” In two strides, he’s on top of me, his cock pressing into my belly, hot and wet at the tip.

My pussy clenches again in anticipation. He’s so large, he’s going to fill me to the hilt.

He flips over onto his back, and I straddle him, taking control.

I slide down his body until I’m nestled between his legs and take him in both hands.

“You're so hot,” he says. “Do you even know how sexy you are?”

I lower my head and taste him.

Another growl rumbles in the back of his throat and he reaches for my hair just as I lower my head again to suck him deep. “Fuck.”

I grin around his thickness before popping off to say, “Yes, fuck.”

The moment I take his cock between my lips again, a moan vibrates from his chest. Kieran pants, his eyes glazed.

His hand cradles the back of my head and guides me as I work his cock.My tongue wraps around the underside of his head before he suddenly pulls me back.

“ Enough .”

The one word is filled with need.

He flips me onto my back, control wrestled from me.

“Are you wet for me?” he asks.

I nod, knowing he wants the words too. “I am. I’m wet for you, Kieran. I need you inside me. So deep.”

“Tell me exactly what you want, Seraphina.”

“I want you to fuck me hard and fast, right now. I want you to fill me up, to brand me with your cock.”

He hauls me down so that I’m caged between his arms and parts my legs with his knee. “Your wish is my command.”

He enters me slowly, his face restrained as he lets me adjust to his size. But the second I raise my hips, he loses it, pounding into me until I beg for him to go harder and faster.Fuck yes. This is exactly what I needed, the kind of fun I craved. Our bodies move in unison, both of us starving, our relief found only in each other.

Somewhere in the haze of our passion, my body buzzes with unbearable pleasure and something else. Like powerful magic passing from him to me and back again.The electricity shifts from his body to mine until I’m lit from the inside.

“Kieran,” I cry out, wanting to tell him that something is happening between us, but he’s past hearing.

Above me, he’s coming undone, his release hitting hard, his hand coming between us to bring me to a shattering climax with him.

And that’s when I know my magic is no longer my own. My jaw drops open as I come apart beneath his hand, my pussy clenching around him. The magic inside of me twists into a knot, a tie, some unbroken and unfathomable tether.

I’m bonded to the alpha.

Kieran

L ast night keeps replaying through my mind. Unlike other nights out on the town, when my brain and tongue felt plagued with old alcohol and mistakes, this all felt so good. Being with Seraphina felt good.

But, how had that happened? A wolf and a witch, oil and water.

My fingertips drum against the worn plastic countertop of the diner as I wait. We weren’t supposed to be fated mates. We weren’t supposed to be bonded. I rake a hand through my hair. Fate hadn’t gotten the message apparently.

And neither had my wolf. Both of them were firmly twined together in unison on this—we want Seraphina, and she belongs to us.

My wolf paces inside me like I’ve gone feral, demanding I take my mate again.And again. As many times as I can until she smells like me. Until she is so needy for me and my cock she won’t go anywhere.

I want to push things forward, rush to make her mine in all the ways that matter. The call on my phone last night had popped that bubble though. The simple text requested me back to pack lands and made it so that I’d left Seraphina with things between us unspoken.

Damn . Where are we supposed to go from here?

At this moment, I’d like to be anywhere but where I am.

I stand there across from Gloria in the Buck ‘N Dash Diner, ready to grab my dinner and go, as she rattles on about another fundraiser she wants the pack to participate in, a way to stuff the pantry for the upcoming winter. She grips her clipboard and holds it tightly against her chest, trying to look up at me with doe eyes I assume are supposed to entice me. They do not.

My mind only wanders back to Seraphina like I’m a lost pup and she’s my owner, and the magic she said she hoped she could undo. But what if she can’t?

It was supposed to only be a one-night stand. But Fate got its wires crossed, and here I am, bonded to a witch. A forbidden mating, but what can the pack do about a bond like ours? I can’t worry about it, even if my wolf is howling for her.

I hated to leave her in bed, flushed just as I’d pictured her. Being apart from her is killing me, had killed me last night, to not be able to soak in more of her touch.

My face scrunches in a scowl. Gloria ignores me. How can Sera be my fated mate? Am I ready? Every part of me wars against the truth of what we’d done.

I sigh and try to reign my mind back to the present where Gloria is still droning on, happily oblivious to my internal struggle. Between every second word, Gloria bites her lip, tosses raven-colored locks over her shoulder, and offers a giggle. My frown deepens and I’m mentally counting from zero to one hundred, to not blow a fuse. I hate to have my time wasted. But being the alpha means coming into close contact with many females who’d like nothing more than to become my plus one through life. It’s like I’m the local, hot politician, and everyone wants me to play the Kennedy to their Jackie O.

Keep dreaming .

“What are you doing, Gloria?” In shuffles Auntie McClellan, my saving grace. “You can’t go bothering the alpha with every request you might have. He’s a busy man.”

Gloria immediately blushes and drops her head in acknowledgement.

Auntie McClellan is one of the elders of the community, who can’t be less worried about sauntering around the community in her pink robe and bunny slippers. It’s not that she doesn’t have anything better to put on, but more that she chooses not to wear her other clothes.

“Good day, Auntie,” I say.

She presses a gentle kiss on my cheek, just as she’s done since I was a little boy who hung on her calf as she showed me the different herbs and bounty of the forest.

Gloria’s smolder is completely gone at this point, replaced by a scowl of disappointment, and she leaves without a word.

Finally.

I turn my attention to Auntie.

She narrows her gaze at me. “You’re keeping something secret. I can see it.”

“Not at all, Auntie. What can I do for you?”

“It’s what you can do for you . Ever since you’ve been of marrying age, well, as you’ve been for too many seasons, there’s been some hot in the pants young ‘un chasing after you.” Auntie allows her glasses to slip down her nose as if she peered over them to watch Gloria practically scurry away back to assist with more things in this diner-store combo.

I try to give Gloria the benefit of the doubt, or at least Auntie’s doubt. I grin. “Conceivably, she just wants to ensure the pack stays strong.”

“Hogwash. Even my old eyes can see that without your being married, it is going to split the tribe, those who want to see the alpha settled down and those who are vying for that position. That’s why you have the likes of Jonas pushing his daughter on you, not that she seems to mind it.”

I swallow over the lump in my throat. After my parents’ relationship caused them to be ousted from the pack, I’d sworn off relationships. I wanted no entanglements. And now, I have a big tangled problem on my hands. Not like I can tell Auntie that. At least, not yet.

“Well, I guess only time will tell. I see no reason to settle down quite yet.” Except I might be bonded to a forbidden witch and unable to undo it. I lightly chuckle, hoping it will make Auntie drop the subject, but it comes out as strained as I feel. “Don’t worry. I’ll meet someone.”

“Good, because our survival depends on you.”

Auntie McClellan pats me on the cheek and luckily gets distracted by another conversation within seconds, leaving me to my thoughts.

It is never easy to lead, to have everyone depend on my decisions. Sure, I can let all of this stress roll off of my back, continue to live as I’ve done before. Yet, a part of me knows it will be like living without the sun, buried in regret…all of those lonely moments between heartbeats. After all, life is a culmination of our decisions.

Maybe we can ignore the bond if Sera can’t find a way to break it. Then again, maybe I’m delusional.

Maybe I should just give in.

The thought takes me by surprise.

It will put a stop to all the politics of who to take as my mate. Fate has decided for me. I can argue that to the council. She’s a witch. How can Fate then require me to choose between the way I feel alive with her, like never before, and the pack I am destined to lead? What if the night with Seraphina wasn’t an unfortunate twist of fate but simply a lovely serendipity?

I shake my head. I need to see Seraphina.

If she has a solution, none of this would matter and I will be free.

That thinking should be comforting. But instead, it fills me with a sense of loss.

My wolf sits inside me and howls at the thought, and I have to wonder, how would it really feel to sever this new, bright bond? Will I be a man who loves a woman or a packless leader? And if I lose my pack, what meaning would life even have?

This is my crossroads and all answers rest with Seraphina.