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“We have to find your friend,” he told me softly, “and Midnight, and save the world. That’s the only thing that’s saving you from being tied to my bed for the next month.”
“Whom do you belong to, Sunshine?” I sobbed and his fingers slowed. “You!” I burst out. “I belong to you.”
“Who is your true mate, Sunshine?” “You.” There was no hesitation in my voice. Shadow owned every part of me, and I would take whatever Dannie put us through just to have these moments with him. “You are my true mate,” he confirmed as he kissed me, the slight copper of my blood between us. “You’re mine in all ways, and for that, Torin is dead when I have some time to waste. I’m already anticipating the day we never speak about that bastard again.”
“It’s just magic,” he told me. “Your eyes see what you’re told to see, and it’s only if you look closer that you’ll notice the delicate edges waiting to be peeled away.”
“How is it that you still don’t understand the danger of putting a foreign object in your mouth?” Shadow asked with a shake of his head. “For all you know, the water here could kill you in an instant.” I gawked at him. “You didn’t say anything when I had your dick in my mouth. Where was your concern then?”
He nodded, pressing a lingering kiss to my forehead, and… how was that so freaking hot? I would swear I felt it in my vagina, if the flutter there was any indication.
“Let the battle begin,” Shadow said against my lips, and I knew then, with absolute certainty, that this most perfect of true mates was going to challenge me every step of our relationship. Fuck, if I wasn’t beyond excited for our future.
“I can smell your arousal,” he murmured. I sighed. “Yep, that’s me, always horny around the Shadow Beast. But we seriously have to find Angel, so you better put me down.”
Why waste words when you could answer with just one… Shadow’s motto in life.
His eyes were flaming orbs, eating me up, and I ended up both weak at the knees and horny like no one’s fucking business. “Eat it, Sunshine,” he said in that deep rumble of his voice. “Swallow that power down.” Motherfucker.
Shadow said, and he wrapped me up before Angel could touch me. “Mine,” he added for good measure, nailing the angel-faced beauty with a glare. “Even as powered up as you are, I will destroy you if you claim Mera again. The first bond is bad enough. Don’t make it any worse.”
“Don’t push me, Shadow Beast,” she snapped. “You cannot lay full claim to Mera, since there’s more than one bond connected to her energy. Mine, Midnight’s, Torin’s, and now yours.”
“Mine, Melalekin. Last damn warning.” Because I was messed up, his words had me purring like a damn kitten. Shadow had always been possessive, but it used to be in the way of an object he didn’t want others to play with. Now it was the possessiveness of a shifter with his true mate.
“Your smart mouth is about to turn your ass red,”
One day my ability to bring him to the brink of losing control would bite me on the ass. Only time would tell if I liked it or not.
If there’s one thing I know for sure about Mera Callahan, it’s that she’s impossible to resist for long.”
You should have known that he was going to love you from the first moment he didn’t murder you for smarting off at him. The Shadow you know is not the one most of us do. He never suffers fools or any form of disrespect. Not even from his friends, but with you… he almost encourages it.” “It’s a lot like winning the damn lotto.” Angel actually let out a chuckle. “Like winning it twice.”
We were the last to the party, and since the party was once again six powerful, sinfully sexy men, I was more than a little happy to have an extra set of tits on my side. This merry band of psychos needed our perspective. It was time for six to become eight.
Being close to Shadow always sent my mind in one direction. South. But there was no time for slutterbrain today.
A few of them nodded, except for Reece, who just looked more pissed than ever, crossing his arms as he silently glared. I was lowkey obsessed with watching those two now because there was something going on. What that something was, I had no idea, but I had to find out soon or I’d lose my mind.
Reece finally made a sound, a deep rumble. “No one is at the same level as Angel,” he bit out, “except for Shadow. Here’s hoping this time she uses it for the greater good.” Okay, yep, it was happening, people. Bring on the dramaaaaa. I turned my wide-eyed gaze to Shadow, lifting my eyebrows to ask him what the fuck was going on, but the bastard just shook his head. Shook. His. Freaking. Head. That was just… unacceptable. How dare he leave a girl hanging when there was some sort of beef between our friends?
I knew it wasn’t sex I was addicted to. It was sex with Shadow. The Shadow Beast, demon of the darkness, and plunderer of my vagina.
“Except with me.” He interrupted, needing to take control of my words as well. “This is why we’re true mates; beyond anything you could have had with Torin. We build each other up, making each other stronger by embracing who we are. Torin wanted you for your beauty, strength, and brains, but only in a way that enhanced his. You were his trophy mate, his prize. A male of strength will get on his knees for his woman and know that it doesn’t lessen him in any way. Torin was too weak and stupid to see that, and he never could have honored you as you deserved.”
Kissing Shadow was maybe the best thing I’d ever experienced in my life, and I could happily do this forever without ever tiring of it.
“You taste like life, Sunshine,”
my body no longer mine to control. Basically a normal day when it came to sex with Shadow.
“She might be my mother, but the moment she tried to destroy our bond was the moment my loyalty to her died.”
What Shadow did to me went against the laws of nature.
Dude was rearranging reproductive organs down there, but that was cool. I’d heal whatever he threw my way.
“You were made for me,” he said in his deep brogue. “There’s no other, Sunshine. Not now, not ever.”
“Look, I know firsthand that chocolate doesn’t kill shifters, but no lie, I did consider testing the theory on Shadow, especially when I first arrived here. Unfortunately, the bastard doesn’t eat.” “Oh, I eat,” Shadow replied seriously. “My favorite meal is right here in this room.” It took me a second. An embarrassingly long second. “That shade of red is nice on her,” Len said. “Matches her hair.”
“There’s nothing I won’t do to make you happy, Sunshine,” he told me, his eyes holding flickers of fire. “You only have to ask.”
“Sunshine,” he drawled. “We don’t have time for what your scent is begging me for, but since you tempt me like no other has or ever will, I can’t leave you naked and pleading.”
Reece reminded me so much of Shadow, and I wondered briefly if the desert lands had their own version of a true mate bond. If so, I’d bet ten to one that if Reece found his “mate,” he’d be as possessive as Shadow. There was a reason I called him Shadow the Second, after all. If we survived this, maybe I’d get a chance to find out.
By the time I’d recognized that this fragile creature, with her smart mouth and innocent soul, was to be my undoing, it was too late to change our fates. I craved her with the sort of intensity that would have scared the life from her if she’d been aware of it. Mera thought she knew my desire. She knew nothing. I wanted to possess her mind, body, and soul. Every damn part of my Sunshine belonged to me, but like always, the fates had other plans.
The mate to my soul. The fire to my fire. My Sunshine.
Her pain was real, but mine was destructive.
They would all pay. For touching her. For bringing about this event. When Mera’s empty vessel finally disintegrated in my arms, a guttural sound escaped me, sending forth another whip of my destructive power. Without my Sunshine, there was only darkness. I was darkness. And I would destroy everything.
Above all else. There was Shadow. My Shadow Beast. The growly bastard was the other half of me, the best piece of my damn soul.
You left me, Sunshine, and the world went dark.”
the real truth is that I go where you go, Sunshine. Right or wrong, you and I exist together… or we don’t exist at all.”
“Still my Mera,” he murmured. “Your rebirth is the greatest gift I’ve been given, and I would take any form of you in my life, but to know that you’re still your true self brings me a sense of relief.”
“Mera,” Shadow rumbled, drawing my full attention back to him. “The last fucking time I left you alone, you were stolen out from under me. Then you died. It’s cute that you think I’m ever letting you out of my sight again.”
“Shadowshine,” I whispered. “I was always rooting for us to win.” “And win we did, Sunshine,” he said, breath brushing over my skin. Dammit, there he went again. Who would have guessed that my Shadow Beast was a secret romantic? Very, very deep down.
“One day, in the very near future,” he said, his deep voice a caress on my senses, “you and I will spend a week in bed, where I destroy your body, and in between, you can let me be part of this world of movies you enjoy. Like Indiana Jones.” I coughed. “I legitimately heard nothing after the destroying my body part, but it doesn’t even matter what you said. My answer is yes. Always yes.” “Now you’re getting it, Sunshine,” he said with a small smile.
Never stop fighting her, Sunshine. His voice was in my head, his love and strength surrounding me, and I squeezed my eyes closed for a beat knowing that Shadow was right.
I love you, I told her because there was no time left. Our bond, that fluttering feeling of home and family in my chest, was nearly gone. I love you, treasora, Angel whispered until her voice faded out. Death had stolen the last of her, leaving the rest of us to mourn in its wake.
“I feel your pain and my own, but you’re not alone. I will hold you together until such a time you can do it yourself. Fall into me, Sunshine. Fall. Into. Me.”
“There is no other like Mera,” Shadow said, his eyes locked on mine. “And there never will be.”
I, for one, needed sex, sleep, and sustenance. In that order.
