Her Brother, Her Mate

Carli POV

I hang my bikini and flip flops on the branches of a tree, ready to shift. I turned and saw Parker’s perfect, dimpled, muscled a*s on full display and lick my lips at the sight. I wanna bite it. Just once. Maybe twice. Okay….I wanna bite it all night long.

Parker turns and smirks, seeing the needy look in my eyes.

“Please, never drink when I’m not with you?” he laughs, striding over to me.

“I do what I want,” I leered up at him. He stops right in front of me, peering down with a heated look.

“You need to hurry up and shift before my restraint snaps,” he warns me. I know it’s the alcohol, but I can’t help myself. I can feel this need in the pit of my stomach, and his droopy eyes, filled with all the desire I feel, are not helping. I wrap my hands around his neck and pull him down to me.

His lips tenderly move against mine, and I try to deepen the k**s but he stops me, “After,” his warm, delicious breath washes over my face, “Let’s run,” he says before pulling my arms from around his neck, smiling playfully at me, then shifting and sprinting off.

“Catch me if you can,” he taunts through the mind link. I smile, shift, then chase after him.

In wolf form, the fogginess from the alcohol dissipates, but my desire for Parker doesn’t. Even in wolf form, he’s gorgeous. His sandy fur looks fluffy and soft, and I just want to bury my hands, or paws, in it. My wolf is a reddish brown color, and I feel like I’m too sleek and slim. I’m just as muscled as I am in human form, and in wolf form it makes me look skinny in all the wrong places and bulky in my shoulders and chest.

I’ve always been envious of Hillary and Simone’s wolf form. They’re both fluffy and small. I’m not much smaller than the men.

If Parker is repulsed by my less feminine wolf form, he has never shown it. When I first shifted, he was with me and kept telling me how pretty and cute I was. I’m about twice the size I was back then but he’s still saying those same things through the mind link. I can’t even describe the satisfaction that brings me. I never cared how others perceived my wolf, but I didn’t want Parker thinking I was masculine or too fierce.

We circle the packlands a couple times, nipping playfully at each other as we play cat and mouse. When we get to a marshy, muddy field behind our packhouse, I tackle Parker in the mud, and we spend several minutes rolling around in the mucky grit. Somehow, we both end up shifting back to our human forms, laughing like fools.

“The golden boy looks good, even covered head to toe in mud,” I teased him, smashing a handful of muck into his hair.

Parker laughs, rubbing the mud from my face with his dirty hands. “You look like a wet dream,” he wiggles his eyebrows at me, peppering my face with muddy k****s.

“Muddy dream,” I snorted.

“Dirty dream,” Parker whispers, resting his head against mine and pulling me closer to him.

“Wanna go shower, then reenact some of those dirty dreams of yours?” I asked him, rubbing seductively against his slimy body.

“Mmh, that sounds good to me,” he smiles, then pulls my face to his, kissing me deeply. We start getting carried away out here in the open, where anyone with a backyard view and good vision can see us from the packhouse. I somehow end up on top of Parker, rubbing against him as his hands roam my body, and his lips move in sync with my own.

“Where are you!?” My dad’s urgent, frenzied voice rang through my mind suddenly, causing me to pull away from Parker and look towards the packhouse. Can he see us?

“What’s wrong?” Parker asks me, sitting up with me in his lap and giving me a worried look.

“My dad….” I whispered, squinting as I looked for some sign of us being caught. Parker furrows his brows and looks around with me.

“CARLI!” Dad’s voice calls out desperately.

“I’m with Parker on a run. Why? Where are you?”

“Thank goddess,” my dad sighs in relief, “Get back to the packhouse now. Be careful and watch your surroundings.”

“Why?” I asked him, looking all around us for some sign of an unknown threat.

“Just do it, Carli. Get back here fast, and safely, and I will explain,” he commands me, making me panic. He never commands me. This is the harshest he has ever spoken to me.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Parker asks me, pulling my face so I’m looking at him.

“I don’t know. Dad commanded me back home. We have to go,” I told him, the command compelling me to get up and start moving, checking my surroundings once again for a threat.

Parker follows suit, both of us shifting back to wolves as we sprint for our bathing suits in the trees. I slipped mine on over my muddy, human form, then we walked quickly to the front of the packhouse. About 30 of our top warriors are littering the front of the building, speaking frantically amongst themselves. Alpha Jared is scowling at a fairy soldier, and as I look around I notice an armored transport van with the seal of the fae, a feather crossed with a sword on the side of it. It’s long past sundown. Are they here for the rogue vamp?

“What’s going on?” Parker asks, pulling me with him as he approaches his dad.

Alpha Jared looks over at us, and his strained expression turns to one of disgust.

“What is all over your body?” he asks Parker, choosing to ignore me.

“Mud. We were going for a run. What happened? Why are there so many warriors out here?” he asked his father again.

Alpha Jared looks over his son’s body distastefully, but doesn’t comment further on his appearance. “There was an issue with the transportation,” he mutters, scowling back at the fairy before him.

“An issue?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

Alpha Jared regards me dismissively, but before he can speak, Elena and my dad come running over to us, calling my name.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Thank goddess you’re safe,” my dad pants, gripping me to him, not caring in the least that I was covered in mud and debris. “My heart dropped when I couldn’t reach you on our phone.”

“I’m fine, dad, but what’s going on?” I gripped him back. Elena is watching us, gripping Parker’s elbow with one hand to steady herself as her other hand rests over her heart.

“She escaped. That rogue vampire got away as she was being loaded onto the van,” Elena tells us. “Oh, Carli. You have no idea how worried we were when we couldn’t find you. You both disappeared from the lanai and no one had any idea where you went.”

“She escaped?” Parker looked over to the fairy and his dad.

Alpha Jared was regarding us disapprovingly, but looks away and nods once to Parker.

“She did. When they were loading her into the back of the van, a darkly tinted sedan with no license plates came out of nowhere, sprayed iron dust from the sunroof, then abducted her before these….gentlemen could recover,” he regarded the fairy crudely.

“Oh no! Are you alright? Were you able to get it all off? We have showers in the gym in the packhouse if you need to use them,” I approach the tactically dressed fairy, examining him for any lingering effects.

Alpha Jared scoffs, but the fairy knight smiles down warmly at me. His pointed ears are red, and his angelic face has red blisters spotting the silky skin, but he looks to be almost recovered. “I’m alright. Thank you though. Carli, is it?” he asks.

“Yes sir,” I answered, regarding him curiously. How did he know my name?

“My name is Cathal. I believe you are acquainted with my daughter, Melody?”

“Oh!” I smiled at him brightly, “I am. I love Melody. She is one of my good friends.”

“I am aware. I would like to thank you, on behalf of my people and our dear Emily’s family for your bravery that day. Melody and her kin spoke adamantly of your heroic feat. If you had not acted so quickly, even more of our kind would have been lost that tragic night. Even preserving Emily’s dignity by covering her mangled body was an act that has not gone unnoticed or without appreciation. Her family, and our kind, owe you a debt of gratitude.”

I was in shock by his words. I wasn’t trying to be any kind of a hero. I was doing my duty to my friends and my family that night. I was just doing what I was trained to do; what I’m supposed to do.

“Thank you, Cathal,” I bow respectfully to the fairy, following their cultural customs. Not accepting a compliment or kind gesture is highly offensive to the fae, since they don’t hand out compliments or kind gestures easily.

“You are the one mated to the future alpha?” he questions me, regarding Parker behind me.

I smile back at Parker who is looking on at me proudly, Elena tucked in at his side like he is supporting her in her emotional state. I look back to Cathal and nod, “I am.”

“That fills me with happiness, young luna. My queen will feel reassured to hear that.”

“You are too kind,” I smiled at him.

“Enough,” Alpha Jared huffs dismissively, “How are you going to fix this mistake? We now have a crazed rogue vampire out there, with her sights set on my pack. This isn’t the time for embellished greetings.”

Cathal scrutinizes Alpha Jared coldly. “I have told you, my men went in pursuit of the vehicle. We will not let this issue go unresolved.”

“So I am supposed to trust you to do this, after you are the ones who lost her in the first place?”

“Dad,” Parker scowls at Alpha Jared disapprovingly. “It’s not his fault. It’s none of their faults. Talking down to him and condemning him for something out of his control isn’t helping.”

“Where are our men who were helping with her export?” my dad questions him.

Alpha Jared glares at my dad, “I was the one managing her export.”

“Alone?” Parker scrutinizes him condemningly.

“My beta and gamma were off having their own pool party,” he continued to glare at my father accusingly, “The guards were with me. The fault was not on my end.”

I huff in disbelief. He should have called for another ranked wolf to help in the process. He doesn’t even attend training anymore. How was he going to overpower a rogue vampire on his own, even with 2 guards.

Cathal seems fed up with Alpha Jared’s condescending behavior, and turns his nose up to him in disgust, “I will be helping my comrades in their search. I bid you all a good evening,” he then turns a friendly smile to me, “Carli. I look forward to yours and your alpha mate’s rein.”

I bow once again, smiling back politely. “We wish you safety and good fortune in your search.”