Amber Flame (The Flame Series Book 4) (7 page)

Mary’s voice entered his mind.
Fergus, I’m coming with you tonight.

Fergus frowned. Her words made no sense and her voice, even telepathically, carried an edge.
What do you mean, you’re coming with me? To Savage?
His territory was the last place Mary ever wanted to be.

You’ll need me tonight. So, as soon as the sun drops below the horizon, you can fly me over. I assume you’ll be meeting up with Warren and laying out your strategy for retaking the Gordion Pack.

Fergus stood up. He was thoroughly confused. What the hell had gotten into Mary that she was insisting on joining him? And why was she
telling
him what she planned to do instead of asking?

He left the guest room, headed down the hall and found the door to the master bedroom open. He moved straight in and laid out his thoughts. “You’re not going to Savage. I’m planning on a coup and you’d be … in the … way.” His voice trailed off as Mary emerged from the bathroom. She wore a sexy nightgown so sheer in places he could see her nipples. They were peaked, a sight that aroused him, to say the least.

His eyes widened. “What the hell are you doing?” He lifted his arm, gesturing to her nightgown. “I mean, what is all this?”

Mary’s eyes glinted. “I’m supposed to be with you. I don’t understand why and remember, you’re the one who found me in your dreamglide so don’t pretend for a second that you’re an injured party here.” Her lips quirked.

“I’m not injured, I’m confused. What’s changed? I don’t get it.”

She moved a few steps closer to him, her scent riding him hard. He loved the way she smelled, her fae femaleness with a hint of rose and yarrow beneath. He could see that she was offering sex, but he needed to know what she meant by it. He didn’t want any misunderstandings between them.

“Are you remembering our time together right now?” He asked.

She shook her head, her long blond hair floating around her shoulders. “No, well, maybe a little. A few memories have started leaking through. But I’m definitely sensing all that we did together. It’s a fae thing.”

“I don’t want to take advantage of you. You saved me and maybe you’re feeling something that’s not real.”

She put a fist to her chest. “What I feel is a powerful connection to you that I can’t explain. I don’t want it to be there, but it is. And I’ll tell you something else. Though I’d blocked my dreamglide memories, each afternoon when I would wake up, I knew I’d been with you. I could smell your musky wolfness on my skin even though it was only a dreamgliding experience. I just never wanted to own the truth of what we’d been doing. Your territory represents what I hate most about the
alter
experience, that we live in such a violent place.”

“I know. That’s why I’m confused.”

She took a few more steps so that she was only five feet away from him. Her brows were drawn tightly together. “Fergus, I don’t want to hold back from you right now. I may not understand what’s going on, but I’m relinquishing at least some of my fears about what your territory is like, what it would be like to truly be with you. But this isn’t easy for me.”

Fergus was stunned. “You know I’ve been wanting to date you, but you’ve refused and I’ve understood. You don’t have to do this, Mary, not any of it. When I first came to you in the dreamglide, I promised myself I would never ask you to come to Savage. Even I knew it was too much. You’re a sensitive fae woman. You have a right to despise my territory.

“But with that said, I know that you weren’t having these thoughts even a half hour ago, so what changed?” He watched her swallow hard, but she remained silent as though debating what she should tell him.

He continued, “Please tell me. I need to know. You’re talking about coming with me to Savage, that you’re needed there, but we would be heading into a dangerous situation. At the very least, I need you to be honest with me.”

At that, she drew a deep breath and lowered her shoulders. “I had a ghost come to me just a few minutes ago. She talked to me for some time and was very clear about what I should do.”

“You’re taking orders from a ghost?”

A hint of a smile curved her lips and an amused glimmer entered her light brown eyes, the Mary he knew. “When you put it that way, it does sound odd. But she was very persuasive. Besides, are you really going to reject the invitation? Maybe together we can figure out what’s happening between us. It can’t be an accident we’ve found each other or that you can build dreamglides and I can, at times, feel very wolfish.”

When she put it that way, he didn’t know how he could refuse her. Besides, she stood in front of him in an almost-sheer nightgown. What he wanted most was standing, in real-time, right in front of him. “I’m open.”

She took another deep breath, this one punctuated with a huffing sound that was definitely more wolf than fae. “I also know that going into Savage I should be well-marked by you. Warren told me what’s going on, about who I am in terms of your wolf-world. He said I was alpha-mate material and all the unbonded alphas would pursue me. If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt Warren, will you? Mark me, I mean?”

Fergus felt like a sledge-hammer had just hit him between the eyes. He couldn’t think and he was suddenly dizzy with need as well. Mary was offering herself in real-time, Mary, who he’d lusted after so badly he’d somehow fabricated a dreamglide so he could seduce her while she was sleeping. This Mary, this beautiful woman who had saved his life.

He closed the remaining distance between them and took her arms gently in hand. “I’ve wanted you so much, just like this, in the flesh. You have no idea. I’ve craved being with you and now you’re here and you’re willing. But are you positive you want to do this, because I’m not sure there’s any going back afterward.”

“This is what I want. But what about you?”

Fergus felt all male in this moment. He might never understand what was going on with Mary, but right now he didn’t care. He was at the top of his alpha-mate hunting cycle, and she had everything he needed.

He removed the towel from around his waist, let it fall to the floor, then took her in his arms. She moaned softly as he slanted his lips over hers. She parted immediately, the exact invitation he needed, and he drove his tongue inside with deep thrusts.

She leaned into him, sliding her arms around his neck. Nothing could have felt better to him than the surrender of these movements. Mary, at last, was his in real-time.

Thank God he was fully healed, because he would need to be at full-strength to mark Mary the way he needed to.

When he drew back from her, his jaw trembled. He pulled his lips back and bared his teeth.

He couldn’t help what he was doing. It was a dominance signal.

She didn’t seem distressed, either, as she brought her hand forward and rubbed her fingers over his incisors. Her touch sent a thrill straight to his cock. Then she kissed him.

You’re shaking, Fergus. You need something from me right now, don’t you? How about I stretch out on my belly?

He drew back and tilted his head, eyes closed. He released a long, low howl, but from years of training kept the volume turned down. He didn’t want the Revel neighborhood to know there was a shifter at large.

~ ~ ~

Mary saw the angle of his throat and with an instinct that was more wolf than fae opened her mouth wide and took the front part of his neck in her mouth. She clamped down hard at the same time.

Mary, that’s fucking hot.

She slowly started backing him up to the bed, while retaining her hold on him. She released his throat, but at the same time gave him a hard shove. He fell backward and she took half-a-second to strip out of the silky nightgown.

Leaping, she quickly straddled him, then settled her sex on his cock. She took her time moving up and back along his hard column so that he could feel how wet she was for him. She knew the marking would get very physical and she needed him to understand she wasn’t afraid.

His neck arched, and he groaned. “I’ve wanted this with you so bad. The dreamglide was wonderful but this is incredible.”

She leaned over him and looked into his eyes. The dark brown was lit with a familiar amber glow, very wolf. She loved it. She loved the physicality of his wolfness. His scent had started to rise as well, the deep heavy musk of the alpha that had her nipples tingling and her sex clenching.

She shouldn’t even be with a wolf, not after how Alicia had died. In fact, she should hate everything about what he was. Yet she couldn’t, because this was Fergus. He was a good man. And dammit if his wolf didn’t turn her on.

She kissed his cheek and his lips, then moved lower to lick along his throat. His black fur had already formed a thin ring around his neck and his scent was thickest there, like warm summer grasses, sun-drenched rocks, and wolf combined. She nuzzled him, then licked his fur.
You smell like heaven, Fergus, and you taste so good.

A low growl returned. She lifted her hand to touch his mouth then rubbed her finger over his wolf fangs again. She couldn’t help the moan that rushed from her throat.

She lifted up so she could look at him again. She savored the strong shape of his brows, the amber in his dark eyes, the way he pulled his lips back to let her know he was very male.

She reached down low and caught the head of his cock in her hand. She held his gaze as she slowly positioned him at her sex.

As she eased onto him, he huffed out a series of wolf grunts. “Damn that feels good, Mary.”

She released a long stream of pleasure-filled air.
“And your cock feels amazing. I’ve wanted you like this as well, Fergus. In real-time.” When another wave of his scent reached her, she shuddered. Her nostrils quivered, more wolf than fae. She drank in his musk, and it sent a ripple through her sex so that she clenched around him. He groaned heavily.

She leaned down and nipped at his throat along the line of his fur. His scent grew stronger, which sent another ripple and this time when she clenched it was like a melody she played with her internal muscles.

“How are you doing that? My God, Mary.” He surrounded her with his arms, caressing her back.

“It’s you, Fergus. It’s how you smell. Your scent is making me do things I didn’t know I could do. Give me more.” She licked his throat. The fur tingled on her tongue and another wave of his musk hit her.

Only this time, the clenching caused a different kind of reaction in Fergus.

It all happened so fast that she was airborne before she knew what hit her. Fergus had pulled out of her and flipped her up, then over. She landed on the bed on her back.

He was poised above her on his knees. His cock stood upright and he held it in one hand as he stared down at her, his eyes at half-mast. A heavy V of black fur appeared on his chest angling well below his navel, pointing the way.

She arched on the bed, aching for him, needing him to get back inside her. She reached for his arms, but he leaned away from her. He seemed to have something else in mind as his gaze fell to the narrow landing patch of blond hair on her sex. Another growl left his throat.

Gliding backward, he moved farther down on the bed, then lowered his mouth to her sex and began to lap. But he wasn’t gentle about it. Instead, it was as though he was feasting on her and the grunting, hungry sounds he made teased her into a frenzy.

She howled softly, a strange sound for a fae woman to make. Like Fergus, she kept the volume down as well.

He lifted up and howled with her.

In a quick, rolling motion, she turned on her stomach then lifted her hips into the air. It was blatant, animal-like and she loved doing it, knowing it would drive the wolf in him crazy.

She felt him grip her hips with his hands. At the same time, she rose up on all fours.

His howls transformed into a low guttural grunting sound. He pierced her sex with his cock and began to drive into her with deep thrusts.

Her breaths came in short gasps. She pulled her long hair away from her neck. She knew what was coming and the strange rippling inside her sex began to flow once more, repeating over and over.

Mary that feels amazing.
He licked the back of her neck and the ripples increased in speed.
And you’re showing a thin ridge of blond fur here.
He licked her neck.

He began to pump into her which strengthened the ripples. Her moans turned to a huffing kind of grunt. Pleasure built a fire inside her. His tongue on her neck kept the ripples moving even faster and her sex clenched around his stiff cock.

When she felt him bend over her with his chest pushing into her back, she knew what was coming. She felt saliva from his mouth first. He was grunting hard and pumping with equal force as his extended wolf teeth bit down on the back of her neck, clamping her into a submissive hold.

She released a high-pitched howl as pleasure flowed all down her body.

He held onto her chest, an arm across her breasts, and pumped faster.

She’d never experienced anything like it.

Deep within her abdomen, she felt a strong downward push, which she sensed was wolf in nature.

More,
she sent telepathically.

He increased the speed of his thrusts until she was rocking hard on the bed. Ecstasy roared toward her. The inner push suddenly thinned out and an orgasm burst over her sex. The pleasure she felt exploded into a surge of heat so that she cried out in long, strained gasps.

At the same moment, Fergus released the hold on her neck, rose up, then slammed her from behind. He howled through clenched teeth. The sound of his wolf-cries brought another wave of orgasms flowing through her.

Ecstasy carried her into secret, hidden realms.

Her chest felt full and warm.

She joined his howls with a song of her own.

Knowing he was spending his seed inside her put a flush on her skin. She tingled all over and shivered as he began to slow down. She could also smell an unusual, heavy musk scent that rose off her skin. It smelled like animal but with a hint of mountain grasses.

Instinctively, she knew it was Fergus’s mark, something every other wolf would be able to detect. The experience also wasn’t the same as a true bonding, but for now it would help warn other wolves away from her.