Mated To Magic (Stark Creek Shifters Book 1) by Barb Shuler (free ereaders .TXT) 📕

I stood over him, my nails digging into the flesh of his chest, my saliva falling on him as I lowered my head.

“If you have answers, you better tell him now. He might kill you faster if you do. Then again, he might wear your insides like he did the last time. Blood makes good war paint.” Kody smirked.

I leaned in closer, my lips pulling back from my teeth.

“I got an envelope! I swear, that’s all. It said to let him in.”

“An envelope?” Ty questioned. “Boy, you can do better than that.”

“I swear! It’s in my locker! I took the cash and let him in…that’s…that’s all…” His words broke off in a sob. I leaned in until my nose touched the juncture of his neck. My growl reverberated against his skin and he pissed himself again.

“So you just let someone in to cause trouble? Fucking piece of shit. If he did it, who's to say someone else won’t.”

I shook my head. I knew the others wouldn’t, but who was to say they'd not send another asshole in to start trouble.

Josh tried to say something, but I didn’t give him a chance. I sunk my teeth into his throat and yanked. The fighting lasted seconds before his body went limp. My wolf wasn’t happy with that. He died too fast. Claws raked through his chest, digging his heart out. With one bite, it was in two pieces. We didn’t stop there. I snarled, pulling his insides out, carving his body up into nothing but a bloody mess.

“Come on, man, I have to clean this shit up, ya know.”

I looked at Kody and snarled. My body vibrated as I let the few feet of intestines between my teeth fall to the ground.

“Kody, shut up,” Ty said in a calm voice. He knew it wasn’t me in control; the wolf was in charge. Kody held his hands up and dropped his gaze.

Satisfied, I moved off the path and down to the river. I needed to get us cleaned up and back to the club. I needed to see that my girl was okay. I needed to kiss her, claim her in any way I could.

“Mine!” my wolf growled.

Fucker, she was ours.

12

Mia

True to his word, Dalton met me back at the bar to drive me home. He was kinda quiet on the trip back to our house, so I didn’t push him to talk. He had checked in with Liam on how the night went and was satisfied that the guys did well. They would all be in bright and early for more training; I, however, was staying in bed and wanted him to as well. If he needed to go, though, I wouldn’t guilt trip him into staying. We pulled up in the driveway and went inside. After a shower, Dalton and I crawled into bed. I must have been more tired than I thought because I fell asleep in his arms not long after.

Surprisingly, I woke up there the next morning. With a kiss to my lips, I smiled as I sensed that my Dalton was back. The previous night, the asshole must not have left him completely so it made sense that he was quiet. In really bad cases, if his wolf still had a hold on him, he was an asshole and it resulted in arguments. It only took one time for me to warn him that if he ever came home like that again, he would be in for a world of pain he’d never encountered before.

We went and got breakfast, neither of us wanting to cook, before going to check on the guys. I sipped my coffee as I sat in my office. A knock came on my door and Liam stuck his head in.

“Mia, can I have a word with you?”

“Sure, come in.” He entered and shut the door behind him. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just have some questions about the old owner of this place. Do you know much about him?”

“Not a lot. I tried to have very little to do with him. I let my lawyers handle the sale of the club because I’d heard that he was shady.”

“Have you seen him since?”

“He came in a few times. After the last time, my team was told that he was not allowed in again.”

“What happened the last time?”

“He was relentlessly trying to get me to sell the bar back to him. I don’t think he was at all happy that I had succeeded where he had failed. He offered me more money, almost double the original price. I told him no and that if hell froze over and I did sell it back to him, then the staff I had hired would be coming with me. He could put his criminals and sleazy assholes back on. Angus had been watching us and when Peter went to take a step toward me, Angus took him out the door.”

“Does Dalton know about this?”

“Do you think he would still be breathing if he did? Can I ask, what is this all about?”

“It’s still too early to tell. I have been going over months of footage, emails, and anything else I can find since I got in yesterday. I think he might have had something to do with Josh, but I just can’t find the link between the two. I also don’t know how the one who hurt you fits into this. None of them seem to have ever crossed paths. I need to look deeper into them all.”

I nodded. I didn’t like the feeling that was now lingering. Liam got up and left my office, passing Dalton on his way out the door.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, boss, just had to ask Mia a few things.” They looked at each other in a moment of silent communication, then Liam said he needed to get back to the office next door. Dalton followed after him, obviously not liking the lack of explanation.

“I’ll be back, baby, then