Chapter 18 - Winter

Seeing the paled looks on both of the men's faces, Winter was certain that Eddie had overheard whatever Will had said on the other end of the phone.

Feeling entirely in the dark, the moment Jack finished the call, she asked, “What's the matter? Why do you both look as if you've seen a ghost?”

A look passed between Jack and Eddie, one that Winter didn't like one damn bit.

“I have to go,” Jack said, placing the mug on the counter. “Thanks for the coffee, Winter.”

“Let me grab my boots,” Eddie said, and Winter’s heart sank. After everything, was he really about to rush off? Emergency or not, it felt more than a little disappointing.

“No,” Jack said, surprising them both. “This is technically your honeymoon. I think I can handle this one.”

Eddie looked like he was about to protest, but then he glanced in her direction and his expression softened. Looking back at Jack, he said, “You'll call me if you need me?”

“Of course,” Jack promised. Smiling, he added, “Don't be having too much fun.”

With a wink, Jack turned and started out of the kitchen.

“I'll see you out,” Eddie offered, but as Jack hit the threshold of the kitchen door, he waved his hand in a rejecting manner.

“I can see myself out.”

And with that, he was gone.

Winter listened for the alpha's footsteps until she heard him open and close the front door of the apartment. Then she waited a few seconds longer in the hopes he would be out of listening range before she asked, “What was that all about?”

Eddie turned to her and shrugged. “It's just pack business.”

“If it's an emergency, I think I've earned the right to know what's going on,” Winter pointed out, her stomach twisting. Did he not trust her? “I am technically part of the pack now as your mate, am I not?”

At that, Eddie blinked in surprise. “I hadn't really thought of it that way, but I guess you are.”

“Then please, tell me, what is going on,” Winter said, stepping closer to him. She hooked her fingers into the front of his t-shirt and pulled him close.

In response, Eddie wrapped one arm around the small of her back while he reached up with his free hand and stroked her hair back behind her ear. “Really, it's nothing for you to worry about.”

Winter cocked her head, furrowing her brow. “Why won't you tell me?”

Eddie flinched. “It's not that big a deal.”

“Well then, tell me.”

“You aren't going to let this one go, are you?”

Winter pulled back just enough to look him dead in the eye and say, “I think you have seen enough of my stubbornness to know I never let anything go.”

At that, Eddie smiled, leaned down and nuzzled his nose against the tip of hers.

“I guess I'm going to have to get used to it, then,” he said, pressing his lips to her forehead before he admitted, “Kane's sister has come to town.”

“And that's bad because…”

Is she a monster? Winter thought, almost laughing. Once, she might have been worried that another werewolf was visiting town, but not since she had met the new werewolves of Nightstar, the ones who had utterly changed her perspective on their species.

“She's human.”

Winter blinked in surprise. Pulling back, she asked, “But Kane is werewolf, right?”

Eddie nodded.

“And they’re full-blooded siblings?” Winter asked, cocking her brow.

Eddie nodded again, this time smaller. “As far as we are aware.”

“Then that means…” Winter cut herself off.

“That means that if they are full-blooded siblings and she is a human, then at some point Kane had to have been human, too.”

Winter gulped. A full-blooded werewolf was one thing. But a bitten werewolf was quite another.

The balance between human and wolf in a bitten werewolf was usually so off-kilter that it made a heap of problems, not just for the werewolf itself, but also for those around it.

For a second, Winter panicked a little. Then, her rational mind began to take over once more. “Wait a minute. This is Kane you're talking about. Hasn't he been a member of your pack since before Nightstar?”

“He's been a member of the pack longer than even I have,” Eddie admitted, and Winter thought she saw a hint of embarrassment on his face.

“Then what exactly is all the worry about? Has Kane ever done anything to make any of you question his loyalty, or even his ability to control his wolf?” Winter asked, already suspecting she knew the answer.

A young werewolf who showed difficulty controlling their wolf was usually given the benefit of the doubt so long as nothing drastic occurred. But a fully grown werewolf who had been showing problems would likely have been banished from the pack or worse. Winter had never heard anything like that whispered about when it came to Kane. And people in a small town like Nightstar liked to talk.

“No. Never. He's always the first to show loyalty whenever something goes wrong.”

Winter breathed a sigh of relief. “Then what the hell is all the worry about? You've known Kane long enough to know there's no harm in his not being a born wolf.”

“That's not the big worry,” Eddie said, shrugging. “The worry is, he didn't tell us.”

Winter sighed and pulled Eddie closer. “Ever thought that maybe it wasn't that he didn't want to tell you, but that he couldn't? You know how discriminative werewolves are when it comes to the bitten. He's likely lucky to be alive.”

At that, Eddie smiled and brushed her hair back once more. Cupping her cheeks in his hands, he kissed her delicately before he asked, “How did I ever get so lucky?”

“Lucky?” Winter whispered the word against his lips.

“To have you as a mate,” Eddie said in return. “Always seeing reason, always determined, always beautiful.”

Before she could say anything, he kissed her again, this time much more passionately.

This shouldn't be happening right now. Winter knew that. But she also knew she wanted it to be.

Since the night before, since she had climbed out of bed leaving Eddie to sleep, all she had been able to think about was him.

And when Jack had asked her if she hoped to leave Nightstar, Eddie had been the first person to pop into her head. Even if she had wanted to leave, how could she ever have left him when she felt like this ?

Her hands snaked up around the back of his neck and she held him there, pressing up on her tiptoes to kiss him hard.

Was this the spell? If it were to be broken, would she still feel this way?

No, I was attracted to him before that, she finally admitted to herself. In fact, it had been more than that. Though she had tried not to think of him, her mind, her dreams, her everything had been obsessed with him.

In a matter of days, it felt as if he had become the air that she breathed.

And that frightened the living daylights out of her. What scared her more, though, was the thought of never having had him at all, and so she lost herself to the feeling of his hands traveling over her ribs, down her body, hooking around her buttocks.

When he picked her up and placed her on the counter, she offered a small yelp of surprise. Feeling Eddie smile against her lips, she kissed him hard again to remove it.

If this was what it felt like to be mated, she couldn’t believe she had ever tried to find a way out of it. What a total fool she had been.

Grabbing the hem of his T-shirt, Winter yanked it up over his head, struggling to get the sleeves off his bulging biceps before she discarded it onto the floor.

“Are you hungry?” Eddie asked, stroking his fingers down the length of her back in a way that made her quiver.

Against his lips, she whispered, “Only for you.”

She kissed him again, drawing his lip into her mouth to bite it and illustrate her point.

The growl that erupted from his throat made her tremble with desire.

Frantically, she tore at his jeans, yanking open the belt buckle and buttons before shoving them down off his well-angled hips.

She needed this more than she had ever realized.

It had been so long since she had last been with anyone, having given up romance in favor of focusing on her craft and helping her mother with the shop.

But this felt way better than anything she had experienced before. Maybe it was just her poor memory or maybe this really was it . Maybe fate had brought them together to perform the spell for a reason.

Winter shoved that thought away. No matter the reason, they were together now and that was all that really mattered. That was all she really cared about as Eddie yanked off her leggings and spread her legs wide, pulling her buttocks right to the edge of the counter.

Standing at over six feet tall, Eddie had no trouble slipping his cock deep inside her.

And as he did, they both moaned with pleasure.

“Hold on to me, baby,” Eddie whispered in her ear, and instinctively, Winter wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, digging her fingernails into his shoulders as he thrust deep inside her, over and over.

His cock felt so good inside her, his body rippling so deliciously against hers, that soon she was unable to even attempt to hold back the explosion of pleasure that ripped through her.

As her insides tightened around Eddie's cock, he growled with delight.

“Fuck, Winter, you're so tight.”

His words only urged her on further and she came all over again, biting back a scream.

“Oh, gods, Eddie!” Winter exclaimed, feeling as though her mind was reeling with pleasure.

She became frantic, angling her pelvis to take him deeper, dragging her fingernails over the backs of his shoulders in a way that made him growl.

And soon, she felt his cock growing even harder inside her, throbbing with need as he drew closer and closer to climax.

Desperate for him to spill his seed inside her, Winter grabbed at the roots of his hair and tugged, pulling his head back so she could look him in the eye as she moaned, “Cum for me.”

As if her words had encouraged him, Eddie's face twisted into an expression of both pleasure and pain, his forehead wrinkling as his entire body tensed and he grew red with the effort of fucking.

“Ah, fuck, Winter!” Eddie growled, and just like that, he came deep inside her, filling her fit to bursting.

It was such a delicious sensation that Winter could have immediately gone for round two. In fact, she would have happily spent all day fucking Eddie over and over.

But when he leaned his face against her shoulder, panting for breath, she realized it was far more than that. It was more than fucking. She simply wished to be near him, and what could be nearer than having him inside her?

Silence fell over the room as their labored breathing started to subside.

Winter closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of Eddie's hair between her fingers, holding him to her shoulder, practically cradling his face against her breasts.

“I could stay like this all day,” she barely dared to whisper.

When he tensed, she wished she hadn’t said anything at all. And when he straightened up, that disappointment only grew.

Still inside her, his cock rock solid as ever, Eddie reached up and cupped Winter’s cheek. “I would like nothing more than that either, but I can't help but feel like I should be—”

“With your pack,” Winter finished for him. “I understand. If something were going on with my coven, I'd want to be there, too.”

Eddie looked a little sheepishly at her as he asked, “Would you mind if we pressed pause on this so-called honeymoon?”

Winter scowled at him and shook her head. “Why do we need to press pause when I could simply come with you?”

Eddie looked more than a little shocked. “To the manor?”

Winter nodded. “Pack business is my business too now. And if you feel the need to be there, then as your mate, I should be there too.”

Eddie looked hesitant. His cock slowly slipped from her as if all the serious talk had left his libido lacking.

As he pulled up his jeans, tucking his cock back behind the buttons, he admitted, “You're right. We should both be there.”

Winter almost gasped. She hadn't ever expected him to accept it so easily. She had imagined he would forever try to keep her out of pack business simply for the fact she was a witch.

“Give me five minutes to wash?” Winter suggested, slipping off the counter as he stepped back a little. She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

How they had gotten so comfortable so quickly, she would never know. How they could go from fucking to business just like that astonished her. And yet, it didn’t feel awkward in the slightest. In a way, it was nice.

It felt somehow like home.

And that both thrilled and terrified Winter in equal measure.

What if Christopher finds a way to break the spell and all this I've been feeling is gone? Winter thought as she headed down the hall to the bathroom to freshen up.

Then, just as quickly, she reminded herself, he's locked up. He isn't breaking anything.

And besides, there was a feeling deep down in her gut. This wasn’t just because of any damn spell. The spark had been there well before she cast anything into being.

We witches don't mess with fate, she reminded herself, knowing her moral code never would have allowed her to cast a spell that would alter either of their feelings. The spell was a protection spell, not a love spell. She was confident of that much.

And with that knowledge, she realized, this might actually be real.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she found Eddie watching her with an admiring expression. Blowing him a kiss which caused him to smile, she slipped into the bathroom before she could follow through with the urge to ask him to join her.