Monsters Under Mistletoe

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

H is coffee had grown long cold, the cups still on the bathroom counter. He hadn’t been able to drink them, ash coating his tongue as he faced the reality of the situation.

I didn’t want to overstay my welcome , her note had read, laying his failures plain at his feet. Holly thought her welcome had been temporary, had only been for her heat, hadn’t known that he was carving out a permanent space for her in his life, his home, his heart.

Even so, there wasn’t anything he could do. There had been no time to have that conversation, not with Holly dipping in and out of her sanity. He couldn’t have told her, but he also couldn’t believe he let her go without doing so.

The only thing he could do was go into his office, turn on his computer. Maybe that would—

The front door opened, catching Thorne. The bell hadn’t been rung, no one had called, there was no reason anyone should have walked into his apartment.

And everyone in the coffee shop knew better than to let a customer get access to his home.

Standing, everything alert, he listened to the silence as the door closed behind the intruder. He didn’t know if he should say anything or wait—

“Thorne?”

His wings beat after him as he raced out of the room to find Holly standing there in his foyer.

She wore the same thing she’d been wearing when he first saw her, the heavy coat bundled over her form. And she was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

That twist in his stomach eased, his heart lifting at his mate coming back. Swallowing, he sought for any words he could find. “I got your note—”

“Did you mate me?”

He blinked, watching her as she stepped closer. Her fangs were prominent in her mouth, her lips barely touching as she looked at him. “What?”

“I read it online.” Her words were slurred and rushed, and it took his brain a second to catch up. “That incubi mate immediately, and it starts the bond, but sometimes other species need to complete it and I thought that maybe that happened and that’s why I can’t fix my teeth, they’ve been aching for days, but I thought it was the heat and—”

“Holly. Mate.” The word was home on his tongue, and her blue eyes brightened as she recognized the truth. “Yes. I knew as soon as I saw you.”

“And then my heat started.”

He smiled. “I meant to tell you, but then you bit through my jockstrap and, well.”

She smiled, but it dulled suddenly, a bit of her expression closing off. “I left. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I know.” He stepped closer, waiting for her body to settle again before he reached out for her, wanting nothing more than to feel her against him. “Are you okay with this? With mating?”

She blinked, bright eyes going soft as her smile. “Of course.”

“We have a lot to discuss. I want to know everything about you.”

She moved almost faster than he could react, his arms barely making it around her to catch her against him as she landed on his body. Her lips were next, the press of her fangs a wonderful threat as he held her, his feet solid.

“We can deal with all of that later,” she said, her eyes slightly crazed as she pulled back, her pupils dilating when they landed on his. “First…”

He tilted just as she struck, giving her room for those fangs to sink into his neck, the last part of the bond snapping in place. A rush of emotion flowed then, a bright beacon settling into his chest, a brush of fur against his mind.

His wolf, finally where she belonged.

“I know we just got done with a week of fucking,” she said against his skin, her body softening against his, “but if you don’t get in me right now so I can bite you again, you’re going to have a very angry mate.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Those leggings still had a hole in them where he’d ripped one a week ago, and it took nothing for him to slide back in.