Ashwood Falls Volume Two (35 page)

“They are watching the place.”

Christa nodded. “I expected no less.”

Jonathan met her gaze and stepped closer to her so there were only a couple of inches of space between them. “You know this is a trap. He plans to kill you.”

Fear burned in her veins despite the fact that she already guessed that Vance would most likely kill her, or try to. “I know, but he’ll have a fight on his hands,” she whispered, hoping Jonathan understood what she was trying to say.

He stepped back and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Like a good prisoner, she turned around so he could cuff her hands behind her back. Just as he clicked the second cuff into place, she felt him press the key into her palm.

She bit her lip to keep the smile from forming.

Jon leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I hope you have a plan.”

No longer able to fight the smile, she released her bottom lip. “When do I ever not have a plan?”

“Right. Let’s get this party started.” He nudged her to door then opened it.

As soon as they stepped off the last porch step, three Shield officers that she’d seen before in passing, but never worked with stepped out from the trees on the opposite side of the house. With them were two very large mutants and a man she’d never seen before.

As they got closer, she realized the man was a shifter. A feline of some kind. She knew that because his eyes looked like those of a cat. He stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder then Jon’s. A moment later, the forest faded away as she felt as though she was being pulled through invisible jelly before everything around changed to a stone room.

Dizzy, she tried to make sense of what had happened. Her stomach churned as if it was about to give up everything she had consumed in the last twenty-four hours.

She took deep breaths and steadied herself. Peering around the room, she frowned. It wasn’t a room, but a cell.

The shifter nodded to Jon to come with him. Jon complied, following the male out the cell’s glass door.

Once alone, she ground her teeth. “Hayden?” she whispered.

“Here.” His rough reply sent chills across her skin.

“Please tell me the GPS is working.”

Alec cut in, surprising her. Had they moved to MoonRiver while she was talking with Jon? “I got ya. The teleportation throws us for a moment. Dumbass bastards are twenty miles outside of Ashwood.”

She rolled her eyes, to no real effect. There was no one here to see her. Fiddling with the key in her hand, she moved it around until she could get it into the keyhole. “How far away are you guys?”

“Five minutes,” Hayden growled.

Just then she heard footsteps coming from down the hall. “You need to make that two minutes. Someone is coming.”

Her cell door
swished
open, and Vance walked in. She swallowed the fear that threatened to rise and kept her hands behind her back.

“Hello, Christa.”

The bastard thought he was so smart.

“Do you know that I’ve known about your true nature for a while?”

He shrugged and leaned his back against the door. “You were always too smart for your own good. Where are those brats of yours?”

She stiffened involuntarily and hated that she showed him how much his words affected her. “The twins are no concern of yours.”

He pushed off the door and stalked toward like the animal that lived within his soul. His leopard flashed in his eyes as he moved. She forced herself to remain standing in the middle of the room.

When he stopped inches from her, he smiled, but there was no humor in that smile. There was an evil that crawled over her skin like a million tiny ants. He reached out and stroked her cheek with his fingers. She jerked away, which only pissed him off.

He grabbed a handful of hair and yanked her head back. “Your thoughts betray you.”

Realization filled her at his words. “You’re a telepath?”

He laughed. “No, but my Alpha is a mindbender. I can draw from the telepathic side of his ability.”

Her fear from earlier shifted to anger then to a rage she hadn’t felt until the day she’d seen her sister’s dead body. Rick might have killed Mary, but it was the rogues—ones like Vance—that were responsible for her death.

She brought her foot up and slammed it down on his toes then swung one arm around to slam a fist in his nose while her knee connected with his balls.

Vance screamed and fell to the ground.

Christa ran out of the cell and down the hall, expecting to be ambushed by rogues and mutants, but none came.

When she rounded a corner, she ran into someone. Startled, she swung at him, only to have Jon grab her hand. “Chris. It’s me.”

Heart pounding, she peered into his eyes, unsure if she should trust him. “Let me go.”

He released her wrist and stepped back. “Come this way.”

“Why?”

He let out a heavy sigh. “Because the mutants will be upon us in two minutes.”

Without waiting for her reply, he grabbed her wrist again and dragged her through the maze of hallways.

“Where are we going?”

He didn’t look back at her. “We’re getting the hell out of here before it blows.”

“What?”

They came to a door at the end of a corridor. Jon kicked it opened and pulled her out into the evening air. They made it about fifteen feet away from the building before it exploded. Jon pulled her into his body and turned so he covered her as they fell to the ground.

She felt the heat from the fire as it washed over them. Tears stung her eyes, and she screamed until she no longer felt the heat.

Her heartbeat hammered in her ears as silence filled the night around them. She nudged Jon, who still lay over her, protecting her from the blast, but he didn’t move.

Oh God. “Jon? Please wake up. Damn it!”

She heard footsteps, and she started to panic. Breathing became hard, and the tears rolled down her cheeks. She hadn’t even said good-bye to the twins.

A voice she thought she’d never hear again called out to her. Hayden. Thank God.

“I’m here.”

A moment later, Hayden knelt beside her then Jon’s body rolled off her. When she was free, she scooted from under him and flung herself into Hayden’s arms. He squeezed her tight and kissed her temple.

After a few moments, she raised her head to peer at Jon. “Is he alive?”

Dane, who hovered over Jon’s body as if accessing the damage, nodded. “Yes, but he has severe burns on his back.”

“He saved my life.”

Hayden lifted her in his arms as he rose from the ground. “We know. He’s coming with us.”

Christa just nodded. She was too tired to speak any more. Snuggling into her mate’s chest, she closed her eyes. God, please let Jon be okay.

H
ayden thought he’d never get Christa home and in bed. His home was one of the many that had gone untouched during the attack. The rogues’ firebombs hadn’t reached the back of the den where his, Keegan’s, and many other homes were located.

Christa obsessed about the Shield soldier’s health until she knew he would pull through.

“I can’t believe I never knew he was half-shifter,” she said as she lay across his bare chest, her fingers raking through his chest hair in sensual, calming motions.

“Many like Jon, who don’t develop the ability to shift, live most their lives as humans until they realize they aren’t aging.”

“I guess. I mean we weren’t ever close. We worked on assignments together, but never shared personal information.” She lifted her head to peer into his eyes.

He kissed her forehead. “Shifters, whether they live as humans or not, are still sworn to secrecy. In his case, it was most likely for his own survival.”

She nodded and laid her head back on his chest. They laid there in silence for several moments before she spoke again. “Hayden?”

“Yes?”

“How long will it take to rebuild the den?”

He shrugged. “A few months. There wasn’t as much damage as we thought. We’ll start bringing everyone back in about four months to be sure.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

She fell silent again. He wasn’t sure how long they lay there, nor did he care. Having Christa in his arms and in his bed was heaven. It gave him a peace he hadn’t had in a long time.

Finally she broke the silence. “What does it truly mean to be mated? I mean for a human to a shifter?”

He ran his fingers through her silky blond curls. “You know that we change you. You will remain human, but take my lifespan. Which means you will stop aging.”

She stilled her fingers, and his heart stopped for a brief moment. Fear that she’d reject him and back out of the mating filled him.

Finally she straddled him and leaned down to press her lips to his. “What else?”

“Our souls will connect. You would feel me inside your mind and body.”

She moved down his body and kissed his chest. “Sounds permanent.”

He sucked in a breath as she moved down farther and pressed a kiss on his stomach, inches away from where his cock lay under his jeans. “Wolves mate for life.”

She unbuttoned his jeans then slid the zipper down. “How do we complete the bond?”

“You have to accept it in your heart and open to me completely.” He cupped her head in his hands and sat up so he could press his lips to hers. “I love you. I want you for my mate. Say yes, Chris.”

She smiled, and he felt the bond slowly forming, weaving a thread from her heart to his. “I love you too. I want to be your mate and your partner for however long that will be.”

He growled his approval and flipped her to her back. She gasped then laughed. God, he loved the sound of her laugh. “Are you sure? There is no divorce in my world. Only death can break the bond.”

She fisted a handful of his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Thrusting her tongue into his mouth, she deepened the kiss and moved her hips against his hard cock. When she broke the kiss, she held his gaze. Her hazel eyes appeared more blue in the dim light of his...no, their, bedroom.

“I’m sure. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”

His wolf howled at her words, and the man agreed. This was his female. “I love you.”

Christa smiled. “I love you too. Now make love to me and complete the bond.”

Hayden pushed his jeans down enough to free his cock then, with his claws, ripped her jeans and panties off her, patience forgotten.

He captured her lips in a hard kiss as he thrust deep inside her. She groaned into the kiss and rocked against him as he moved in and out of her pussy in a fiery need to claim what was his. She wrapped her legs around his waist, making it possible for him to go deeper.

Breaking the kiss, he trailed his lips down her jaw to the throat, then further to bite down on her shoulder. A moment later, an orgasm rocked through both of them in a rush of combined pleasure that grew with each shutter, snapping the threads of the mating bond in place.

He shuddered as the last tremor rocked through him, and he rolled to his side, pulling Christa with him. She snuggled into him and kissed his chest.

“Now you’re mine, forever.”

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I’d have it no other way, my mate.”

The End

Paranormals

Ashwood Falls Series

Winter Eve

A Tiger’s Claim

A Mating Dance

Surrendering to the Alpha

A Rebel’s Heart

Divided Loyalties

Touch of Desire

A Leopard’s Path

Ashwood World

An Alpha’s Fate

Bears of Blackrock

Bear Essentials

Sons of War Series

War’s Passion

Ashes of War

Artemis’s Hunt

Vampire Lords

It’s A Vampire Christmas

Shifting Magick Trilogy

Moon Curse

Moon Kissed

Moon Mated

Contemporaries

Pleasures of the Heart Series

Business Pleasures

Single Titles

His Guarded Heart

L
ia Davis is a mother to two young adults and three equally special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, and a lover of romance. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it's her home and she loves it!

An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very active imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

Website: www.authorliadavis.com

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A
shwood Falls Volume Two

By: Lia Davis

Published by After Glows.

© 2014-2015 Lia Davis

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9964303-2-6

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9964303-3-3

Cover Art by Scott Carpenter

Interior format by The Killion Group
http://thekilliongroupinc.com

––––––––

T
his ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the publisher at

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All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.