Chapter 8

Merlot walked past his parents while his mate pressed against him. He carried her up the stairs and into the first room at the top of the stairs. He didn’t care whose room it was. He just needed to get that bastard's blood off of her. He set her on the sink before burying his face in her neck, deeply inhaling her scent. Her hands moved over his back for a moment before she pulled away.

“Merlot?”

“Mhmmm?”

“Can I take my clothes off?”

He chuckled against her throat. “You never have to ask if we’re alone.”

He backed away to help her remove her clothes. When he stepped back up to her, she shoved his pants off, so he stood naked between her legs. Tendrils immediately came out to attach to his skin when his naked body pressed against hers. Her eyes drifted closed as she relaxed against him. He picked her up to carry her into the shower. He carefully set the temperature to be lukewarm, not wanting to hurt her fragile tendrils at all. When he stepped under the water, she trembled, and he immediately stepped back out of the water. She looked up at him.

“It’s cold,” she giggled.

He made the water warmer, apologizing profusely, before stepping back under. She uttered a small moan that had his cock hardening under her ass. She buried her face in his neck.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you horny.”

He chuckled as he ran his fingers through her hair, washing the little bit of blood out of it.

“My desire for you is not something you ever have to apologize for. You are my mate, and I think you are perfect.”

“How can I be perfect when I don’t even know what I am?”

He kissed her forehead. “I don’t even know what you are fully, but I would like to learn with you. If you let me, that is.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’d like that very much.”

“Good. Let’s finish up in here and go try to figure some of this out. Afterwards, we can go back to Locust to get the books that explain Floras. We can start going over them tonight.”

“Okay.”

He washed her up quickly before washing himself up carefully, avoiding the little tendrils that connected them. She sighed as he toweled off, making him look up at her curiously.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m going to have to let you go.”

He stiffened. “What? Why?” he asked, panicking.

“Because you have to put clothes on. I’m happier when we’re connected,” she responded, touching the tendrils on his chest.

He relaxed a little as he hugged her. “Don’t say stuff like that. I thought you wanted to leave me.”

“No.”

He sighed before pulling away. “Let’s finish this quickly. I’m already ready to go to bed.”

She stared up at him, wide-eyed. “I know I was going to go all the way earlier, but that’s really not me. I don’t know what came over me, and I-”

He kissed her softly. “Don’t worry about it, Margo. I will never force you. Whenever you are ready for us to make love, I’ll be ready, too. What you felt earlier was the mate bond. It is strong and hard to fight, but I promise you, we will go at your speed.” He sighed as he placed a soft kiss over her mark. “Well, now anyway.”

She hugged him again, before retracting the tendrils. He groaned as the peace and happiness he was feeling fled his body. He kissed her again.

“I like it when we’re connected, too. Do you like dresses, pants, skirts, shorts, tank tops, long sleeves, or hoodies?”

“I like pajama bottoms and tank tops.”

“Fuzzy?” She nodded. “Okay.”

He moved his hands over her body, muttering the spell to dress her. When he was done, she stood in fuzzy black pajama bottoms that had little tigers and dragons on them and a black tank top that had green vines with bright purple and white flowers stitched onto it. He repeated the spell over himself, choosing black sweats and a white tank top. She giggled as she looked down at her clothes.

“I don’t match.”

He chuckled as he knelt at her feet to help her put her shoes back on. He touched a dragon on her pants.

“This is Koda, my dragon.” He touched a sabertooth tiger. “This is Kodak. You’ve kind of been introduced to him already, but they both are eager to truly meet you.” He stood up to run his fingers along her side over the vines. “This is you. It’s who you are, so I really don’t care if you match. You are still perfect.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and swung back and forth a little.

“Alright, Mister, where did you come from? Men like you don’t exist for real!”

He chuckled as he picked her up. “I’ll show you where I came from. Come on now, little Miss.”

She wrapped herself around him again as he headed out of the room. She wiggled to get down at the bottom of the stairs, and he begrudgingly put her down, taking her hand immediately. He followed his nose to the living room, where the entirety of the small coven and his family were. He gazed around, shocked to see the rest of his siblings there, too, standing around watching Nomad, who was pacing back and forth agitatedly while their mother tried to calm him down. Merlot cleared his throat as he stepped into the room. Margo shyly hid her face in his arm.

“Mom, Dads, guys, can you come into the hallway? Everyone else stays here.”

He took Margo back out into the hallway to wait for them to come out. When they were all present, Merlot smiled at them.

“Everyone, this is Margo, my mate. Margo, these are my parents. Alpha Amerald, King Joshua, and Queen Lucianna. The rest of them are my siblings.”

“Hi,” she said shyly, clinging to his hand as a tendril crept out to attach to his wrist.

Nomad stepped forward. “Brother, are you sure the whole coven is here?”

“Yes, why?”

He jammed his hands in his pockets. “My mate is here but not in that room. Are there women in the dungeons?”

“Yes. I will take you down,” Keith said. “Even though I hope to the Goddess that your mate is not there.”

Merlot grimaced, knowing that even if his brother’s mate was in the dungeons, she was going to die for her role in whatever happened to Margo and her sisters. He led Margo over to Nomad to grasp his shoulder.

“He will take you after our meeting. Can you wait for about half an hour?”

“If I have to.”

“Thank you.”

He tilted his head to the hallway, where he knew the offices were. Rose, Keith, Joyce, the woman who attacked Rose, and the sisters accompanied him down the hall. He pushed the door open before shoving Margo behind him. He peered around the office, knowing something was off but not seeing it. Jenna rushed past him with Joyce hot on her heels. Koda’s wings came out to wrap around them as a ball of something was flung at them from across the room. Merlot cried out when the acid from the ball slowly began to eat through his scales, burning all the way through, leaving a hole in his wing.

Joyce dragged Jenna out of the room while she screamed for Nalani. Rose and the strange woman put a barrier spell over the door as they entered, leaving Joyce and Keith to keep the sister from trying to enter the room. They all slowly scanned the room again, searching for any sign of where the intruder was. A slight glimmer on the furthest wall had Merlot shooting a containment spell around the glimmer. A howl told him that he had hit his target, and he carefully lowered the spell to the floor. He cast a reveal spell as he walked over to kneel in front of it.

A slim, terrified silver and black wolf pressed back against the barrier of the spell. Her electric, sapphire blue eyes held intelligence.

“I’m going to let the spells down now. I understand that you are scared, but I promise you that you are safe.” He glanced at Rose. “Let her sisters in.”

“But Merlot-”

“Let them in.”

She groaned but let the spell drop. Margo and Jenna immediately rushed over to his side, sobbing as he slowly dropped the spell. The wolf tried to get up but was forced back to the ground, whimpering loudly. Rose knelt by her side.

“May I help you?”

The wolf pulled her leg closer to her body, refusing Rose’s help, until Margo and Jenna reassured her that they weren’t going to hurt her. When she let her leg move away from her body, Rose slowly reached out to place her hands gently on her leg, pushing healing energy through while the wolf licked it, trying to tend to it herself. When Rose was finished, she sat back on her heels, staring at the wolf in awe.

“What the fuck is going on?” She looked at Merlot. “We have a Flora, a Cobra Wolf, and Goddess knows what Jenna is.”

“A Cobra wolf? Aren’t they-”

“Extinct? Yep. They sure are. Just like Floras.”

The strange woman sighed. “I think I can explain.”

Merlot turned to glare at her. “Talk!”