My Perfect Mate Read online

  His gaze was tender as he took her hand. He opened the catch on the gold bracelet and removed the chain holding the second bracelet. Then he clicked it back onto her wrist. “It would give me great pleasure if you would wear this always as a symbol of our joining.” He removed the chain from the second bracelet and slipped it into a pocket before putting the bracelet on his wrist.

  “Let me,” Susan said before he could close it. She reached over and clicked the bracelet closed. “I’ll wear mine, if you wear yours.”

  Jean-Paul smiled. “I promise to wear it at all times, unless you wish to wear both of them.” A picture built in her mind of the bracelets around her wrists snapped together like handcuffs.

  She chuckled. Her Fae liked to play. That was good with her. “Deal.”

  “You need to get changed, and we need to collect your dogs.” JP took her hand, his thumb rubbing over the palm.

  “We need to go back and get the other sled dog team, not to mention our snowmobiles. Jared said not to lose or damage them.” She might not live with the alpha, but she was still part of his pack. Losing his new snowmobiles wouldn’t be a good idea.

  “I’ve never ridden on a snowmobile,” Aisyt said listening to the conversation.

  “Don’t worry, baby. All you have to do is hang onto me. I know you can do that.” Ujarak winked at Aisyt.

  Aisyt wrapped her arm around Ujarak. “You’re right. I’m going to hang onto to you from now on.”

  “I thought you would port back, but having company on the ride will be safer,” JP said.

  Susan sighed. There went any chance of intimacy in an igloo somewhere. Guess her Fae wedding night would have to wait.

  “Not too long,” echoed in her mind with Jean-Paul picking up her thought.

  “Aisyt, Qannik is missing. She never came back,” the woman from the kitchen said.

  “I’ll have to scry for her and see what’s happened. Ujarak and I will meet you at the snowmobiles.” Aisyt turned to Ujarak, her gaze worried.

  “Very well,” JP bowed to Aisyt. “Merry Meet, Aisyt.”

  “Merry Part, Jean-Paul”

  “And Merry Meet again. Let’s go back to the chamber and get you changed, Susan.”

  Aisyt and Ujarak hurried from the chamber, the amarok offering congratulations as they hurried past. JP walked more leisurely and Susan followed his lead. The amarok needed reassurance. Their leader mated one of their sworn enemies. Susan shook hands and hugged the little ones. Several offered her small gifts, a bone comb, a sweet cake, a fur hat. She accepted them all with a smile and exclamation of gratitude.

  Jean-Paul pulled her toward their stone chamber and suddenly they were through the crowd. He picked up his pace. Susan struggled to keep up with him. Feeling her distress, he paused and grabbed her, swinging her around.

  “Should I carry you, my lady fair?”

  “Don’t be silly. I can walk. My legs aren’t as long as yours.”

  “They go around my waist and hold tight. I think your legs are just right.”

  Susan felt her face flush. She wasn’t the only one thinking of bedtime sports. “I’m glad you like them. If you ask nicely, I’ll let you massage them. It sounds like they’ll need to be soft and supple.”

  JP laughed and turned them down the side corridor. “That they will. I’d be happy to massage them and anything else my lady wishes.”

  Susan smiled. She loved JP’s enthusiasm. He never failed to let her know she was wanted. Maybe they had time for a quickie before they left.

  They arrived at the chamber and JP dissolved the magic barrier holding the dogs inside. Fur was flung far and wide, the large blankets ripped and shredded into tiny bits. The alpha dog sat in the middle of the platform bed a scrap in his mouth. He quickly dropped it on seeing Susan and JP enter.

  “Oh, no,” Susan gasped.

  §

  Luckily, a mending spell can repair fur as well as cloth. JP repeated the spell again slowly so Susan could memorize it as well as hear the nuances of the tone.

  “What once was whole, is now asunder. Cells grab hold, your form to muster.” Susan watched in amazement as pieces of fur flew through the air to find the other pieces that made up each blanket. Sparkles of light filled the air around the room. When the blankets were whole again the sparkles winked out and little pieces of dust fell from the air. Susan leaned down to inspect the light covering on the blankets. Little pieces of sparkle glittered the surface.

  “What is this stuff exactly?” she asked JP.

  “Fairy dust, like in the stories. I’m afraid you need more than a happy thought to fly though. You have to be Fae or an Air Witch for that to happen. The dust is magical and marks a person as Fae, or in your case, the mate of a Fae.”

  “Wow. So some of the fairytales are true?”

  “No, fairytales are stories of morality. They are rarely true as told, but pieces of them hold truth. Fairy dust really does exist, but the Fae weren’t formed from a child’s laughter, quaint though the thought might be.”

  A clearing of a throat made them both turn to look at the door. The alpha dog’s ears perked up when a teenage amarok entered the room carrying two stuffed bags. “Aisyt told us to pack supplies for your journey. She and her mate will join you shortly. They are indisposed at this time.”

  The young girls face grew red and she hurried out of the room. JP chuckled. “She means they’re having sex. I guess Qannik is fine, wherever she is.”

  “I was worried about her. It must have been traumatic to kill your own father.” Susan shuddered. She couldn’t imagine what Qannik suffered.

  “The father who tortured her and left her to die. Tortured her so much, her black hair is now white. I’m not sure it was as hard as you might believe. Qannik is full of hatred toward the nanuk.” JP picked up one of the sacks and inspected the contents.

  “She cried, even as she stabbed him. I think she was traumatized, but I might be wrong. The poor girl needs counseling.” Susan petted the alpha dog, needing to be comforted while thinking of the troubled amarok.

  “Pretty words, won’t help her. I’m not sure magic could even help. I don’t want to think about it now. Not on the same day I bonded with my Destined One. Please, change the subject.”

  “Okay…Where are we going to live when this is all over?”

  “Wherever you will be happy. I have funds and I have magic. We can go anywhere in the world. After I return the ring to its rightful owner.”

  “Wow, you sure know how to turn a girl’s head.”

  JP looked up from the bag. “There’s only one girl I’m worried about. You, sweetheart. I know this hasn’t been easy on you and it doesn’t even come close to the weddings I’ve seen in your dreams.”

  “Every girl dreams of a fairytale wedding. I get to marry the fairy. I’m not worried about the big white wedding.” Susan might have once felt cheated, but this trip showed her the world had bigger problems than a girl wanting a fairytale wedding. Susan wanted to help the amarok and nanuk come to an understanding. Parents shouldn’t leave their children to die, or give them away to protect them.

  “Please don’t call a Fae a fairy. It’s considered a huge insult. The little flighty fairies you are thinking about are actually heavenly beings. They are angels for nature, made by the creator to help the Earth’s plant and animal life. Not all of them are the flighty little Tinkerbells either, they can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes depending on what plant or animal they maintain. I’m surprised you’ve never encountered them, since you have Earth witch ancestry.”

  “Humans aren’t encouraged to believe in such things. I used to be human. If I had an Earth witch ancestor, I was never told.”

  “There would be more magic in this world if earthlings would only open their eyes and see. But you’re right, they have to believe to see, or see to believe. Either way, it doesn’t happen. I think we have everything we need. Are you ready to go?”

  “What about the dogs? How are we getting them ho
me?” Susan bit her lip. She couldn’t leave the dogs behind and the amarok didn’t need them.

  “I thought I would port them to your pack’s sled dog business. We’ll only be a day behind them. Jared and Mathis will know that I’m probably behind the sudden appearance. I’ll port the dogs we left at the igloo, once we get there.”

  Susan continued to pet the alpha dog. She’d hoped to keep him. It felt like he belonged to her. Tears prickled her eyes. She didn’t want to lose him.

  “What is it? Why are you upset?”

  “Could you port the lead dog to Mathis and Margot’s house? I could put a note on his collar. Please? I’d like to keep him.”

  “I can do that, but once Mathis’s children get a hold of the dog, they’ll want to keep him too. You won’t be able to take him away from Tikaani and the rest.”

  “That’s okay. As long as he’s with someone I love. I know Tikaani and even little Cybille will love him as much as I do.”

  “All right. Let me send the rest and you can get your note prepared. Margot is going to get quite a shock when a dog shows up in her living room. I wish I could be there to see it. She might not thank you.”

  §

  “The igloo next to what’s left of our camp on three. One. Two. Three.” JP ported them to the site. The world swirled and then settled.

  A huge roar was the only notice they weren’t alone before strong arms grabbed them and yanked them apart. Susan gasped. JP struggled.

  “You killed them!”

  Jean-Paul stopped when he recognized the voice of Ujarak’s father.

  “You said you were going to convince my brother to give you the magic ring, but you killed him. You and the lycans. My brother was right. The lycans are our enemies. Does my oldest son know? Did Mathis betray me? What have you done with Ujarak? Did you kill him too?”

  “Wait, you don’t understand,” Susan started to say. Ujarak’s father backhanded her.

  “Shut up, you lycan whore. You tried to seduce my son and then you seduced the magic user.”

  “If you touch her again, I will kill you!” A rage as cold as the ice around them filled Jean-Paul. No one hit his mate. He turned his glare on Ujarak’s brother, Kumaglak, who held his arms and blew air over him. “Air so cold, frozen will hold.”

  Susan sent into his mind. “Jean-Paul, please. He doesn’t understand. Don’t make things worse.”

  Kumaglak stood frozen. JP yanked his arms free and walked up to Ujarak’s father getting nose to nose with him. More than anything he wanted to kill the man for touching Susan. It was only the touch of Susan’s thoughts, her continued asking him to find a peaceful solution that stopped him. “You need to listen, old man. We didn’t betray you. Your brother tried to kill Susan, but it wasn’t us who killed him. Though I would have since he threatened my mate.”

  “The evidence doesn’t lie,” the older man holding Susan exclaimed. JP thought he was Angakkuq, the shaman of the nanuk. “We’ve been to the other igloo. We saw the bodies and read the signs. A pack of lycans hunted the three nanuk and killed them. Your prints are there as well.”

  “It wasn’t the lycans. It was the amarok,” Susan said.

  “That’s impossible, the amarok have been left to die since they were infants. The numbers alone tell me you are lying. This is a pack, a working unit of at least thirty,” Angakkuq said.

  “She’s telling the truth grandfather.”

  Everyone turned to find Qannik walking from behind the igloo. Her long white hair flowing down to her legs.

  The shaman gasped. “Luava, you’re dead, a ghost.” He released his hold on Susan and sunk to his knees his hands over his eyes. JP ran to Susan. He pressed his palm to her face and whispered a healing spell. She smiled up at him and gripped him hard. They turned to watch what would play out between Qannik and her family.

  “I am not a ghost. I am Qannik, daughter of Luava. You gave my mother to Itigaituk for a wife. Did you give my aunt when Luava was killed like custom demands? Even though you knew he hated the amarok and your own mother was a lycan? My father killed my mother when he realized I was amarok. He then tortured me for days before he left me staked on the ice to die. I killed him. I killed him with the same knife he tortured me with.”

  Qannik turned to Ujarak’s father. “Your brother was a monster. He hunted and killed the amarok when he realized we lived hidden in the arctic. Did you know? Did you turn a blind eye?”

  “No,” Ujarak’s father stepped back a look of horror on his face. “I didn’t know.”

  “Yet, his murder enraged you. You would hold the lycan and her mate responsible without listening to what they have to say. Are you any better than your brother?”

  Ujarak and Aisyt appeared. “What is going on here? Father?” Ujarak ran to his father, pausing briefly when he saw his middle brother stood frozen. “What have you done?”

  His father turned a haunted face to his youngest son. “The amarok live? They are here in the arctic, in such large numbers?”

  “Yes, Father. My mate has been saving them for many years.” Ujarak held his hand out to Aisyt. She walked over and slipped her arm around his waist “This is Aisyt; she and I have mated. We plan to stop the killing of the amarok. It is up to us, the nanuk, to stop this atrocity.”

  Chapter Eleven

  It took some fast talking to convince Mathis to sell Jean-Paul the land he owned next to the border of Nanuk territory. When Susan explained she wanted a place amarok pups could escape to if they needed, Mathis offered to give them the land as a wedding present. Once the decision had been made, Jean-Paul brought his family out to help support his magic and built them a house in one day.

  Her favorite room was the playroom they were in now. Susan stood in four-inch heels and nothing else. Her wrists bound by the golden bracelets from their bonding ceremony were attached to a chain hung from the ceiling. Goose bumps ran up her arms and down her legs as JP tickled her with a feather. She felt an answering gush of moisture between her legs.

  “You are so beautiful. I am going to take you in every possible way now that the ring is where it belongs and life is back to normal.” JP stood before her in tight leather pants that did nothing to conceal his desire for her. His long dark hair lay loose against his shoulders. Just looking at him got her juices working.

  “You call this normal? I’m chained to the ceiling,” Susan pointed out. She didn’t admit it turned her on to be so vulnerable before him. She liked her mate in control and so did her wolf.

  “Yes, normal. If you continue to complain, I’ll have to gag you.” Susan squeezed her thighs together. Now that JP was part lycan, could he smell the scent of her arousal filling the air?

  “You do realize I will want to chain you when my turn comes. Though perhaps not exactly like this.” She’d want him chained to the bed, so she could have her way with him. Take a nice leisurely ride when he begged her to finish him. She might start with the feather though.

  “With your earth magic, you could free yourself in an instant. This is only a game. Are you saying you don’t feel like playing?” He ran the feather down her ribs tickling her.

  “If you don’t hurry up and take me, I might have to break free.” Her nipples hardened even more when he brushed the feather across them. She was so going to pay him back for teasing her.

  “You like my teasing. I can feel your arousal through the lycan mating bond.”

  “Dammit, JP. Take me already!”

  “So eager. You need to learn patience.” He brought the feather down her stomach and twirled it between her inner thighs.

  Susan groaned. JP’s voice alone was a turn on. It caressed her almost as intimately as the feather. Her toes began to curl in her shoes.

  He brought the feather down her legs to her calves. Then kneeling in front of her, he dropped it to the floor. He ran his finger up the back of her leg. Susan squirmed. He kissed each knee and then kissed his way up her thigh. Her knees felt weak. She wasn’t sure they could hold her weigh
t.

  He blew across the curls at the juncture of her hips. Susan gasped, her head falling back.

  “Pick your head up, baby. I want you to watch me.”

  Susan moaned. She felt so languid. She forced her head up and looked down at the man who had become her world.

  He caressed each ankle and then pushed them apart. Susan felt moisture starting to trickle down her thighs. She was so ready for him. He dragged his tongue up her thigh and swirled it in her curls before sucking in the moisture that glistened there. Susan moaned and trembled.

  “So sweet. I love the way you taste.”

  Susan watched entranced, unable to answer. He pushed his tongue through the folds of skin. He tickled her clit, lapping at it, before dipping inside to lick at the cream of her arousal. Her breath came in short pants and her legs trembled.

  Still she watched him. In and out his tongue licked her. She couldn’t look away even though her eyes wanted to close. He’d asked her to watch. He pulled back, his lips wet with her juices. He looked up at her as he pushed in two fingers. Susan whimpered. Spots appeared before her eyes. The pressure was too much.

  “Do you want to come for me love?” JP asked, his pupils wide with desire.

  Susan nodded her head.

  “Tell me, baby.” He pulled his hand away.

  “Yes. Please. I want to come.” Her whole body shook with trying to hold back. She ached with it.

  “Come for me.” He pushed his fingers in and twisted hitting her G-spot.

  Susan screamed. Her body convulsed. She lost her footing as she flew into the ether. Jean-Paul held her up. Then stood naked between her thighs, wrapping her legs around his waist. He pushed his member in deep. She quaked around him. Not sure how she was able to keep her legs around him, except that she wanted them connected. Never to part.

  “That’s it, take me deep.” He pushed in again, harder, deeper. He opened the lycan mating bond wide. Her pleasure was his, his desire hers.