Half-breed’s Bargain by Samantha Wolfe
19
VAN
I stand at the window and watch Harlow drive away with my boys as a deep ache throbs in my chest. I didn’t want her to go. Not really. I just can’t think straight when she’s around, her aura and body calling to mine like a beacon. I rub at my sternum and turn away from the window with a sigh. Now that I’m alone, I still don’t have the foggiest clue what to do about this situation. But at least I’m not tempted to drag Harlow to my room and complete the bond between us with my cock plunging deep into her body again and again and again. I close my eyes and take a long, shuddering breath to get a grip on my raging libido. So maybe sending her away didn’t help after all. But at least she’s not here to threaten my already wavering resolve.
I walk through the quiet house and head upstairs to my room. I walk in and groan at the lingering yet still intoxicating jasmine and orange scent of Harlow and fight the urge to crawl into my bed and wallow in the sheets she slept in. Instead, I go into the bathroom and strip out of my dirty clothes, then step into the shower. I’m filthy from traipsing through the forest all day long to avoid Harlow.
I wash my hair, then soap up quickly before rinsing off. But instead of getting out, I linger and think about the fact that just this morning Harlow was in my shower, naked and rubbing herself all over with my body wash. Dios mío, I wish she were here with me. I wonder what her warm, wet skin would feel like pressed against mine. Lust surges through my body, my cock becoming hard in an instant. My hand drifts down to grip it with no conscious thought of my own. I moan at the contact, imagining Harlow’s fingers wrapping around me, gliding up my length, and squeezing just right at the tip. Then I can’t help myself and close my eyes before wholeheartedly embracing the fantasy that she’s here with me.
Harlow’s beautiful eyes would focus on mine as she pleasures me, her perfect lips twisting into that devilish smirk of hers. She’d drive me all the way to the edge, her strokes confident and sure, then drop to her knees with her eyes still locked on mine. She’d take me into her sweet mouth and work me to the verge of orgasm all over again until I couldn’t take anymore. Then I’d yank her off of my dick and wrest control away from her. I’d lift her up and press her back against the cold tile wall, then notch the crown of my cock against the slick wet heat of her pussy and thrust in deep as she cries out from the glorious penetration. She’d clamp her legs tight around my waist, and I’d take her with hard and dominating thrusts, and I just know she’d revel in it as much as I would. I’d kiss her as I fuck into her over and over again, feeding on her soft mouth and drinking in her loud enthusiastic cries. We’d explode together at the end, our auras joined just like our bodies, until we were both spent and quaking with aftershocks.
I jerk off harder and faster, then come just a few strokes later, my seed erupting from my cock to paint the tiled wall. I almost pass out from the pleasure jolting through my entire body and slap a hand on the wall as my knees wobble beneath me. I’m awestruck with how good it felt as I fight to catch my breath, wondering if the real thing might just kill me since I know it would be far better than any fantasy. Sadness overtakes my heart since I know that will never happen. If we did, I’d never be able to walk away from Harlow.
I sigh and rinse off again, the high of my orgasm fading fast in the wake of my now heavy heart. I turn off the water and dry off, then step out of the shower and walk to my closet to pull on some old clothes. I’m planning on working on the house’s renovation for the rest of the night, hoping maybe I’ll come up with a solution to all my problems while doing it. I’m just about to leave my room when my phone chimes from my night stand. I left it there, plugged in and forgotten since this morning, too focused on other things to remember to retrieve it.
I snatch it up with a sinking feeling and see what I hoped not to find on the screen, a text from Móira. It’s one of many, as well as several voice mails. I read and listen to all of them; the messages starting out calmly asking for an update on the situation with Lynch, escalating into impatience and anger, until the last one. It’s a voice mail where she threatens to take out her anger on my boy’s hides if I don’t contact her by dawn.
I snarl as I grip the phone tight in my hand. How could I have been so careless? I’ve been so careful over the last decade to keep her focus off Ethan and Mercer. I won’t let her hurt them because I was too distracted to keep my phone on me. I call her back, but of course the call goes straight to her voice mail. She rejected my call. I sigh, unsurprised by her petty behavior. It looks like my plans for the night have changed. I head back to the closet and change into a suit, along with a different shoulder holster that holds not only my gun, but a large knife, too. My mother likes it best when I dress up for her, and I’m hoping it will help diffuse the situation along with some serious damage control. But if that doesn’t work, then I’ll have my weapons to fall back on, even if they have little hope of doing me any good against her.
I hurry through the house and out to my Mercedes, then drive fast and hard toward Móira’s mansion. I castigate myself for the entire trip, cursing my inattention and the bargain that binds me to the fae woman I despise more than any other being on earth.
I pull to a skidding halt in her driveway when I arrive, then hustle to the door where my mother’s two favorite fae lackeys are standing. Liam and Nial both look at me with identical snide grins that irk me off.
“Hope you like the taste of boot leather, half-breed,” Nial says in a smug tone that makes me wish I could beat it out of him.
“Aye,” Liam adds, his dark eyes glittering in amusement. “It’s going to take a lot of boot-licking to get yourself out of this one.” He glances at his twin. “I haven’t seen the mistress this angry in a long time. Have you, brother?”
“No,” Nial agrees, his grin growing more vile as he continues staring at me. “If we’re lucky, she’ll let us take it out on his hide for her.”
I growl and step closer to Nial, never taking my eyes from his. “You’re one to talk when your lives aren’t anymore yours than mine is.” He looks startled by my reaction. And to be honest, so am I. I’ve always ignored their jabs in the past, but tonight I’ve had enough. “Now get out of my way or I’ll let Móira know how you detained me, and we’ll see who ends up doing the most boot-licking after she punishes you.”
Nial lunges forward, but Liam puts a hand to his brother’s chest to stop him. I admit I’m disappointed. It would have been satisfying to take out some of my frustration and anger on these two. God knows I have decades’ worth to unleash on them after all the snide and insulting things they’ve said to me and my boys over the years.
“He’s not worth it, brother,” Liam says with a panicked expression. Nial eases back and shoots an equally fearful look at his brother.
Móira rules with fear just as much as Lynch does, she’s just a lot more subtle about it. If anything, I think my mother is worse than the master vampire. She has a crueler and far more insidious way of getting what she wants from her pawns. Most of them don’t even realize they’re being manipulated when it happens.
“Neither are you,” I say with a sneer. “Now get the fuck out of my way.”
The two fae glare at me, but move to the side. I stalk past them and let myself into the mansion. I don’t even bother wasting another glance their way as I close the door behind me. I step into the center of the huge vaulted entryway, realizing I don’t have a clue where my mother is in this massive house. I stop between two marble pillars and cock my head to listen, hoping I can pinpoint her location. Sure enough, I hear a faint clacking noise coming from my right. I follow the noise and it leads down the hall to Móira’s library.
I step into the large wood-paneled room amid the floor to ceiling bookshelves and the plush ivory carpet, then stop just inside the doorway. Across the room, sitting at an antique wooden desk, is Móira. She’s dressed in a long flowing dressing gown made of mint green chiffon with thick feathers along its cuffs and hemline. I can see a long white silk nightgown with spaghetti straps beneath the sheer fabric. Her long silver hair falls in soft ringlets down her back. She’s typing away on an old typewriter that’s the same mint green as her gown with white cotton gloves on to protect her skin from the metal machine.
The typewriter dings as she reaches the end of the line she’s typing, then she turns her leather chair around to face me. Good Lord, even her delicate heeled slippers have feathers on them. Her eyes narrow at me, her lips set in a hard, straight line. “Evandro,” she says, her voice tight and whip sharp. “How good of you to show up. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me.”
As if I ever could, I think, but instead say, “I misplaced my phone and didn’t get your messages until right before I came here.” It’s a lame excuse, even if it is the truth, and her quelling glare tells me she’s not happy with it, or me.
“One would think a man in your position would take things more seriously, considering what could happen to you if you violate our bargain,” she replies. “Not to mention what could happen to the two mongrels I’ve allowed you to keep as pets for the last ten years if you were gone.” Her slow smile gives me the chills. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll make a bargain with them. I’m sure I can find the right leverage to make that happen.”
I grind my teeth together so hard I fear they might crack from the pressure. This is the most overt threat she’s ever made against Mercer and Ethan, and it enrages me. But I can’t do or say a word to her about it. One, because I don’t dare let her know just how much her threats get to me, and two, because I can’t do a damn thing about it. I may have been irked off enough to put Liam and Nial in their place, but I have no latitude for that with her. I can’t risk her ire turning vindictive. She might take it out on my boys.
She gives me an expectant and amused smile, waiting for my reaction, but I give her the blank stare I’ve perfected over the years, thanks to her. Her disappointment in my lack of a reaction is obvious, but she moves on.
“Now,” she says as she pulls the white cotton gloves from her hands, “tell me how things are going with Lynch.”
Lying to her isn’t an option. The fae woman can smell a lie a mile away. Fortunately, I’ve become as adept as any full-blooded fae at working my way around the truth.
“We paid a visit to him last night,” I answer her. “Walsh offered her professional services to him, in the hopes her reputation would intrigue him into accepting it. That way we can get close enough to find out what he’s up to.”
“And?” she says when I don’t elaborate.
“He’s interested, but wary. He’s going to require some convincing to trust her.” There, that’s not a lie. I can only hope she doesn’t question me further about it. If she straight up asks, I’ll have to tell her everything.
“That’s to be expected from a bloodsucking weasel like Lynch,” she says, her nose wrinkling in disdain for the vampire. “But sometimes one must wallow in the muck for the greater good.” She points a long, delicate finger at me. “I want you to do whatever you have to do to win him over. I don’t care what despicable things he asks you to do. I don’t care who you have to step on. You do it.”
Her words have my eyes widening in surprise. Did she just give me the tacit permission to take the ring from her?
She arches a brow at my shocked expression. “This is nonnegotiable, Evandro,” she says, her tone hard, “or must I remind you of our bargain once again. You will do as you’re told. Am I understood?”
So much for maintaining my blank stare, but my moment of inattention seems to benefit me. She misunderstood my reaction and in the process gave me the means to do what has to be done without breaking our bargain.
I regain my composure before a triumphant grin breaks free across my face instead. “Yes, ma’am,” I answer her, fighting hard to keep my tone even.
She nods with a satisfied expression, then turns her chair around to face her desk again while pulling her cotton gloves back on. She clacks away at the typewriter again and I know I’ve been dismissed. I force myself to turn and take unhurried steps toward the door, despite my overwhelming urge to run.
“One more thing, Evandro,” she calls out as I reach the doorway in a pleasant tone that stops me dead in my tracks and has my heart dropping. Is she about to take back her earlier words because she’s realized the mistake she made? “Don’t think I didn’t notice your attraction to Miss Walsh, nor hers to you,” she says.
Fear seizes my chest and I stiffen where I stand, then whirl back to see her smiling over her shoulder at me with triumph glittering in her eyes.
“I’ve seen anam amháin enough times to recognize it when I see it,” she continues as she turns her chair to face me again. “How fortuitous for you and me. To gain leverage over someone with a reputation like Miss Walsh without having to make a new bargain is quite a coup for me. I can’t wait for the chance to use it to my advantage. And just think,” her smile widens into a vile grin, “I have you to thank for it.”
Without thinking, I let out a vicious snarl and lunge toward my mother as protective rage overtakes my good sense. She lifts a single finger toward me and I’m instantly stopped in my tracks by a wall of thickened air as her magic crackles uncomfortably along my skin.
“Need I remind you that attacking me violates our bargain, my dear son,” she says, her smile now replaced with a glare as magic swirls like storm clouds in her gray eyes. “I know you value your hide far more than any price or indignity I require of you or you would have acted against me and sacrificed yourself in the process years ago.” She smiles again, this one more depraved than the last. “It’s more than I can say for your father, who was too stubborn to see reason and lost his life over it.”
That gets my attention, and my rage drains away as quickly as it came. “What?”
She cocks her head, her expression perplexed. “You didn’t honestly think your father’s death was a coincidence, did you?” Her eyes fill with pity. “Oh, honey. Those humans couldn’t possibly have figured out what your father was without a little nudge in the right direction. And they certainly weren’t capable of finding a brujo strong enough to take out a werewolf all by themselves.”
My mouth drops open and I stare at her in abject horror, unable to utter a single word. This fae woman is responsible for my father’s death, and all this time, I didn’t know. I thought she saved me from certain death all those years ago when I made the bargain with her. I later figured out that I was manipulated, but now I know the true extent of what she did to me, her own flesh and blood. I had no idea I could despise her even more than I already did as my hatred for her sears like fire through every inch of my body.
She studies me for a long moment that seems to stretch out into eternity, then throws her head back and laughs, the pleasant dulcet sound echoing around the room to taunt me. I snarl again and fight her hold on me, but it does me no good. Her air magic has me paralyzed where I stand.
She stops laughing and grins at me, amusement glittering in her eyes. “I’ve been waiting seventy-five years to see that look on your face, and it was worth every single moment of it.”
I take in a breath to snarl out a string of obscenities at her as I impotently fight against the magic still immobilizing me. Instead, Móira crooks her finger, and the air seizes in my chest before it gets ripped from my lungs. I try to suck in another breath and can’t, making panicked choking noises as I suffocate.
Her expression darkens into a forbidding one. “Control yourself, Evandro, or need I remind you what’s at stake if you don’t do as you’re told. I’d hate to bring your mongrels or your newfound mate into this as an incentive, not to mention the majority share I have in your little company. I can destroy everything you care about, take everything you’ve worked for away from you at any time.” She clenches her hand into a tight fist and my chest constricts, squeezing my lungs and heart with blinding pain. “You are mine, and I can rip your life away the very second you’re no longer useful to me. Do you understand?” she asks, then relaxes her fist.
The pressure on my chest abruptly ends and I gasp in a blessed breath as the pain ceases and my body becomes mine again. I nod my head in agreement with my mother as I stagger, barely keeping my feet beneath me. There’s no sense in denying anything she said. It’s all true, even if I’ve been fooling myself into thinking any part of my life is mine. I’m a mere puppet to this evil fae woman, and I’ll never be anything else as long as she holds the strings.
Her features become smug. “Good boy,” she says in a condescending tone that grates on every nerve in my body. “Keep me informed about any progress you make with Lynch. Remember, if you fail to answer any of my calls or messages in a timely manner again, you won’t be the only one to pay for it. And don’t think withholding yourself from Miss Walsh will accomplish anything. Accept anam amháin or deny it as you see fit. It makes no difference to me. I still own her just as much as I own you.” She flicks her hand toward the door. “You’re dismissed.”
I’m shaking with rage now, every cell of my being urging me to surge forward and tear this woman apart with my bare hands. I want to make her suffer for everything she’s done to my father, to me. I want to destroy her for what she’s threatened to do to those I care about. But I don’t dare. Even if I don’t care if I die, it’s not worth the likely failure that would have Ethan, Mercer, and Harlow paying for it after I’m gone. Instead, I do the only thing I can do. I push the hate and anger down with a hard shove of my will, then tuck my metaphorical tail between my legs and slink away like the good little puppet I am.