Page 92 of Bewitching the Wolf

Otis gives Kazmo a thumbs-up. “You’re on. My father Bradley has been working on a classified project up on Earth to rehabilitate humans when the time comes. He briefed me about it when he made a surprise visit to Mom a while back. I guessed the old man wouldn’t be sitting on his laurels.” Otis laughs ruefully. “But he’s going to need a truckload of help.”

“Getting back to the plan, where will Ronald DeVine be during all this? Does he pose a threat?” Tony asks.

“Nope, he’s no threat. He’ll be asleep too. As a mere human, he has no more power than anyone else, despite all his grandstanding,” Otis snorts.

“What about the staff at DeVines and DV Medical and Biotech?” Tony plugs on, always the fine details guy.

“The same. They will be in a state of fugue.”

“So that leaves…”

“Marsha to contend with.” Traggar says. “Our warriors will hold back her demons, while Aurora gives Marsha the option to surrender.”

“And if she chooses not to?” I ask.

“It won’t look pretty for Marsha,” Traggar says grimly.

CHAPTER 27

TIPPY

It’s very late when Jax and Otis arrive home.

I’m still awake, reading on the couch. Jax looks exhausted, his hair messy, his skin pale under his scruff. I jump up and run to him and we kiss.

“Gods, you are a sight for tired eyes,” he murmurs against my cheek.

“Get a room,” Otis grumbles good-naturedly. “There’s enough of them in this old place. I’m going to turn in,” And then he ambles off to his and Clem’s room.

“I’ve already set up one of the bedrooms for us,” I say, dragging Jax down the corridor with me.

As I snuggle into my mate, wrapping my tail around his waist and hugging him close, he tells me what has been planned for tomorrow morning. How we have to get up at some ungodly hour to travel to One Moonbeam Lake and collect the Golden Book.

I have only been to the lake a handful of times, as part of my training with Auntie. (Vixen shifters do not go there, they’ve always viewed the lake as a place that could lead the young astray.) I have swum in the water, and danced on the rocks amid the ferns and fairy flies.

I’ve always sensed it was a deeply magical place, but I guess I didn’t know just how magical. That it was the spot where the Dawnwrought Coven secretly shared their magic with the monster folks, so that they could return to living on Earth someday.

It seems that day is almost upon us.

As we lie face to face on the bed, Jax smooths my hair, gazes into my eyes.

I feel the heat in his body, and the swell of his arousal against my belly, but we don’t take it further. We’re simply too exhausted right now for our bodies to go where our minds would like to.

So we just lie here, me in my lace nightgown, Jax in his boxers, as he strokes my tail and winds it around his long fingers.

“Your tail is so sensitive.” He laughs softly.

“It’s my most erogenous zone.” I laugh. I try to still it, but it refuses to comply. Jax’s touch can ignite a fire in me even through the fog of fatigue.

I mewl as he licks the bite marks on my neck.

“Do they still hurt?”

“Only a little, and when it stings, it reminds me that I am your mate.”

“Good,” he growls. “That’s exactly how it should be.” His kisses trace lower, trailing over my breast, and he captures my taut nipple and laves it. And despite everything, desire coils inside me and I want more.

I lie waiting, barely breathing.