Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night

sliding him the bewitching smile that made his heart punch the insides of his chest. “What’s your favorite place to visit?”
    He absently answered, “Wherever you are.”
    “Bowen, five things about you can’t all be about me.”
    But you’re the only good thing that I’ve got. “Why no’?”
    “Where’s your home? I don’t even know where you live.”
    “I have a place in Louisiana, but my real home is in the north of Scotland.” Though he said my home, in his mind the large hunting lodge he’d had restored was already their home—but he didn’t want to spook her further.
    “What about your family? I bet you have a huge one, being a Lykae and all.”
    “My family was unusual. I’m an only child.” Except for his male cousins, he had no one left.
    Maybe that was why he wanted children so much, to grow his own family. Soon, he would reveal to Mariketa that he wanted that bomb-blast look parents had at an amusement park. And he and Mariketa would have brave children together—fearless even. He began to resent that patch of hers as a barrier to a prize he’d wanted for so long... a prize he now believed was within his grasp.
    For the present, he cast about for something to say. “Tell me something about yourself that only your close friends know.”
    She scrunched her lips, then said, “It drives me absolutely crazy that I can’t control my magick better. I act like it doesn’t bother me, but it does. Just when I was about to leave for the Hie, these baby witches of six and seven came up to me and said, ‘Mari, look what we can do,’ and their little spells were more than I could manage.”
    “Maybe you were just a late starter at that age.”
    “No, more than I could manage— now .”
    He swiped his palm over the back of his neck. “Oh, then.”
    “Why am I granted all this power and then no means to control it? It’s like giving someone a Ferrari with the horses under the hood raring to go, but then you get into the buttery leather driver’s seat, and holy hell, there’s no steering wheel. It’s so frustrating.”
    “I know you will no’ like to hear this, but it must be so with someone like you.”
    “What does that mean? And I caution you to proceed with care.”
    The corners of his lips curled. “You read about people like you in myths and in the Lore, struggling with their gifts. But it’s the struggle that brings greatness. If your powers came easily to you, without incident, you would never appreciate them as you should. And you would no’ be a good leader because you would be impatient with others who did have to work hard. It never comes easy to all the great warriors in history.”
    “It came easy to you.”
    He gave a half laugh. “And why do you think me a great warrior?”
    “Rydstrom said you were frontline in every battle, and you’re still alive. Therefore... great.”
    He grinned down at her. “My ego thanks you for that verra sweet stroke.” His grin swiftly faded though. Reminded of Rydstrom, he realized that hours had passed since the bridge collapse, and still Bowe hadn’t scented the others once. Though he couldn’t detect them as well as he could his mate—he could find her a hundred miles away—he still should have picked up on them if they were within a quarter of that distance. But there’d been nothing.
    Tomorrow would bring the night of the full moon, they’d been forced days out of their way, and as of now, he had no one to guard her—from him. Over and over, he’d deliberated if he should reveal to her how Mariah had died. He dreaded the thought that history might repeat itself, and feared that telling her would initiate a self-fulfilling prophesy.
    If Mariketa ran from him out here...
    He shook his head hard. Tonight, he would take her continuously, and he would mark her as he claimed her, revealing a good bit of the beast within him. Tomorrow, surely the others would catch up. But if not, Bowe would have accustomed her to his body, and then, when he inevitably lost control in the heat of the moon, maybe she wouldn’t suffer from shock. He might prevent her from wanting to escape him.
    When they heard the distant rumble of thunder, he dragged his gaze from her and said, “We need to start scouting for a place to make camp. It’ll likely rain on the mountainside tonight.”
    “I could consult my mirror.”
    “Doona like that, Mariketa. I’d rather see you blow something up than that eerie apple bullshite again.”
    “I