The Delta's Daughter Chapter 358

MIKE

I find some clothes on the chair in the room and shoot off a quick mind link to Rhett letting him know I saw Jonda. It's the right thing to do.

The short conversation wasn't easy, but he was a day and a half out from us and was packing up his gear by the time I cut off our mental connection.

I didn't have to contact Kellen or Lamia; I was sure Tobias had already done that.

I would be having words with my wolf later on but now I needed to go find Lyric. I wasn't happy at the way she walked out of here. And wasn't happy that she led me on. I could smell her fear, and I wasn't angry that she feared intimacy. I was angry at myself for trying to push her, for being me, and for attempting to take advantage.

But waking up to her, I just couldn't help myself. That kiss was everything I never thought I would feel, could feel. It was the wake-up call I needed.

The revelation that she was my fated mate and I wanted to claim her. No if's no buts. Any doubt had been erased from my mind with that kiss.

I just couldn't help it. I had been an idiot and after my visit to the void, I was starting to get an idea of how Duke could still have feelings for Jonda, yet want his mate at the same time.

Yet still, she was afraid of me. Afraid of her own mate.

*****

LYRIC

Left alone, my back to my mate, I cross my arms waiting to hear what he has to say. I feel him at my back. His body heat seeped over me, his breath fanning the back of my neck. I refuse to show vulnerability.

"Lyric," He groans. His large hand slowly sweeps down my arm until he reaches my hand.

I stifle the groan I want to let out because his touch affects me so deliciously. I feel the sparks and when his fingers touch mine, he lifts them and I look down to see the sparks of light dancing between us. "How is this possible?" I ask him entranced once more with the magical arcs of blue light that pass between us. "What happened to you, Mike?"

He groans again, this time at the sound of his name, and nuzzles his nose into my hair. I don't pull away because I like the feeling of being close to him, plus I can't keep my eyes off our hands, and the memory of him turning into a ball of light, lying lifeless on the ground is still fresh in my mind.

"I don't want to talk about it. Not today." He then says with words full of lust, "I want you Lyric, make no mistake about that."

"And your chosen mate? She is in danger. I know you love her Beta."

"Mike, call me Mike. I love the way it sounds coming from you." He steps away, taking his heat with him and leaving my back cold. I immediately miss his warmth. "Jonda is important to me. I will fight for her. I had chosen her and I have fought against the bond and my growing feelings for you. I'm still confused Lyric and I'm sorry I yelled at you." I hear him sigh and turn to watch him frustratingly run a hand through his hair. "When I thought Senko had hurt you…" He shakes his head, casting his eyes to the ceiling.

"You love her," I state the obvious.

"She's not mine. You are." He says with a pleading tone. I can clearly see the conflict in his eyes and hear it in his words.

I won't argue with him. I also won't goad him into saying I'm his second choice, whether it's true or not. The female needs saving. And as much as hearing him say he wants me, sends my heart fluttering, he shouldn't want me. "While true, as that is. I can see it. I can feel it. You love her Beta and no matter if the bond draws us together but…" Extending my hand I poke his chest with my long nail, "Your heart belongs to another."

I watch his face, watch how his emotions contort from one to another, how his pupils dilate trying to reason with what I have said. I know he can't deny it. And I will be okay with that. I hope.

Deep down though, I feel my wolf's anguish. Her hurt and pain when her mate didn't deny that his heart belongs to another female. If was up to my wolf, Note would eliminate the competition. But it's not up to her. She shares my distress and feels my very real fear of intimacy.

"This involves my son, Beta. This witch needs to be stopped and he has Rhett's mate, I will help you get her back. I will help Queen Tala get her sister back. I will do whatever I can to make sure my boy has a future. A future where he isn't looking over his shoulder every five minutes thinking the boogeyman is coming to get him."

My mate bobs his head and rubs his chin. Not taking his eyes off me, he reaches out again, the sparks immediate. The magic crackles between us as he twines our fingers together, calling to me once again. The same feelings of arousal and need flutter to the surface coiling deep in my core.

I drop my hand from him because I know what needs to be done. Sooner or later, he needs to reject me. Note howls in my head at the thought of losing our mate. But she knows it's the right thing to do. He's the fucking Royal Beta for goddess's sake. I can't be his mate, not if the very idea of mating scares the living daylights out of me.

I walk away from my mate once again, with a deep ache in my heart. I head back to the control room where Alpha Brett, Tobias, and Halley are waiting for us.

Queen Lamia had urged me to give my mate a chance, that he was worth it. But how could I? What would be the point?

'We could try. We could get to know him better. Build trust.' I hear Note and I listen. I know she wants her mate. It's her nature to mate, her nature to be with her soul mate.

Our human side is different, our minds don't think like that, we hold on to memories and feelings. The wolf can get past the past, well some. But the human side of us lets the darker days eat away at us, consume us, and to a point rule us.

'He could help us. No nightmares when we slept with his scent.' She was right, when I slept with his shirt, which was saturated with his scent, I didn't have a nightmare. But once that scent began to fade, the dark dreams began to manifest once more.

Walking into the control room, The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, including Halley of the Golden Circle pack along with Tobias are already seated. I'm acutely aware of my mate coming into the room behind me.

I take a seat on the other side of the room from him, but that was the wrong choice as he takes a seat directly across from me.

"Queen Lamia and King Mathias already know what took place," Tobias kicks off the meeting without hesitation. "Their concerns are for everyone, most especially regarding Jonda and Lyric as the Shadow Witch formally known as Senko, or still could be, seems to want to trade a life for two."

"Not happening." Beta Mike growls, his fists curling tightly on the top of the table. "We don't negotiate with the enemy and there's no fucking chance we are trading a pup." My eyes move from his balled fists to his face where I find him staring at me intently.

"Okay, I agree but let's work through this..."

"There's nothing to work through. We find a way to get Jonda back without making a trade of any kind." My mate sneers at the werebear.

"Royal Beta," Alpha Brett stands to address my mate and the rest of us. "After what I saw occur, we can't go to war with this witch. Those creatures annihilated my pack. Killed over twenty of my warriors and at least a dozen of yours. We don't stand a chance. We can't take them on again."

The Beta to the Golden Circle pack, Cyrus, stands up next to his Alpha. "Alpha Timothy of the Black Moon pack will arrive with reinforcements tomorrow morning, a few of his warriors are already on their way, but even with his numbers, like my Alpha, I don't believe we have a chance."

"Given those facts, even if Queen Lamia and King Kellen sent out an army, they wouldn't be here in time. You all heard him. He gave us twenty-four hours to hand over his breeder and the pup."

A powerful growl ripped through the room, the Alpha and Beta of Golden Circle quickly sat down and bearing their necks to my mate who stood with black eyes, claws, and teeth protruding. "Is this what your former Alpha Zane would have wanted? For you to cower to the enemy? You would just hand over a child and the female he knows as his mother? You would sacrifice the pup of Queen Lamia and her former mate?"

Even I shrunk back under his rage, the only person unaffected was Tobias.

"I have made contact with Rhett, he and his men are a day and a half away. Whether we have the numbers or not, the blood witch is coming and I'm not giving him shit. And I will get back Jonda if it's the last thing I do!" I'm tempted to go to my mate's side, just to help calm him and his wolf down but I don't.

I'm pinned in place when his attention turns to me. "How did we lose visual?"

I go into tech mode immediately, thankful for something else to concentrate on instead of the bubble of rage that was seeping out of my mate and the intense hold his stare had on me. "Um, well, the mist. When the mist rolled in it cut out visual including infrared. It also managed to block the coms of anyone who is in that area."

"So we use mind linking." Tobias offers.

"That won't work," Alpha Brett states, clearing his throat. "The pack can communicate with each other but we wouldn't be able to communicate between the packs. With the elite warriors or Black Moon."

"I can." My mate states, "As Royal Beta to the werewolf kingdom I can communicate with any pack. As a Knight of Queen Lamia, I have the ability to communicate with ranking officers of any pack, clan or pride. I can force my mental telepathy on them."

"Wouldn't that leave you weak?" I ask, afraid of what using that amount of concentration and power could do to him.

"It would leave you weak and exposed." Tobias contributes, looking at my mate skeptically. "Connecting to that many minds if you're not used to it could do permanent damage, or render you unconscious for a few days, maybe weeks. That aside, we can't have you weak Mike. We need you to fight. You and I are the only ones who managed to kill one of those fuckers."

I feel like these boys are missing the point, "Not state the obvious, but my son is not even here. Not that trading him for another is an option but still…"

"King Kellen is aware of the threat and has put New Moon on high alert in case they are attacked." Beta Mike says.

"What about using weapons? Surely a sword would be easier than our spirit animals trying to fight something that is twice their size?" I ask, trying to be helpful. When all eyes turn to me and I hold my hands up, "What?"

"The only reason weapons weren't used this morning was due to the surprise of the attack."

"Seriously?" I begin to argue with my mate, "There's a fucking convoy of vehicles not even twenty miles from the border, why wouldn't you carry weapons? Checks or not, there was obviously a threat why wouldn't you take precautionary measures, extra steps to safeguard the border."

"OOUUTT!" My mate bellows so loud the walls of the room shake. I shrink back in my chair, clamping my lips shut tightly. This time, even Tobias scrambles to leave the room quickly. I stand ready to follow them knowing I have overstepped. "NOT YOU!" My mate growls pointing at me.

My butt hits the seat again, Mike's scalding glare pinned on me. Making me feel like a child. Yet the heat in his eyes that are dark with his wolf has those fluttering feelings coming back again. I try to ignore them when he stalks around the table, like a predator he keeps his sight trained on me as he slowly draws nearer.

Faster than I could retaliate the beta has me pinned against the wall. His large hand roughly grabs my neck, putting pressure on my windpipe, not enough to hurt but just enough to where I gasp for breath.

Note mentally rolls over, submitting to the powerful aura he is releasing. My body begins to shake but not with fear. With need and want.

"Don't ever disrespect me in front of anyone again." He growls out the warning. "Your mouth drives me insane," He says still with harshness but he drops his face to the crook of my neck and inhales. "Do you understand little thief?" His wolf is at the surface in control. His eyes - dark and domineering.

His grip tightens when I don't respond and I shake my head yes. "Yes, Beta." I croak out, yet somehow the words come out breathy and wanton.

"I'm having a hard enough time keeping my hands off you little thief," He draws into me, pressing his crotch against my pussy and I feel his hard length straining against the seam of his jeans. "Tell me, thief," He hisses, his tongue darting out to lick the spot on my neck that under normal circumstances would bear his mark. "What will you do when your heat comes? You will be begging for my cock, begging me to fuck you." He ruts his cock against me as he says it.

I feel my eyes roll back, my core pulses with need, and heat flutters through me, pooling and settling between my legs as arousal soaks my panties. "No, I won't." I try to sound annoyed and firm, I sound anything but that.

'Yes, we will.' Note pipes up wanting me to submit to my mate. But I won't. I can't.

I do.

On impulse my hands fly to his brown hair, grasping at the short soft strands, and pulling his face from the crook of my neck. Our eyes meet, and silent understanding passes between us. I become lost in the dark pools of his wolf's eyes. Sharp canines poke over his bottom lip. A beaded spot of blood oozes from his lip and I lick mine wanting to taste his blood. Wanting him to kiss me the way he did when he woke.

I yank his face to mine and cover his lips with my own. Moaning when I feel them part and take control over the passionate moment I started.

He deepens the kiss, his hand loosening on my neck and sliding up to thread through my hair. Yanking it back so his tongue can invade my mouth at a better angle. Without thinking, my legs lift to wrap around him.

Hard and long, his cock presses against my most sensitive area, rubbing, creating the most delicious friction I could have ever thought possible. His other hand slid down to my waist then back up to cup my breast and squeeze it.

"Beta," I breathily breathe out the one word. Not knowing what I'm trying to say.

My shirt is lifted, exposing my bare breasts, they immediately pebble with the cold air in the room but not for long as his warm breath fans across my nipple before his hot mouth sucks on the pebbled tip.

"Goddess shit," I cry out when he nips at my breast and ruts against my covered nether regions harder.

A sensation and overwhelming feeling I had never experienced before began to build inside me each time he grinds against me. Burning me up and taking my breath away. My legs tremble and my pussy releases a gush of wetness. "Mike," I moan not understanding what's happening to me but enjoying the sensation and how out of control my body feels.

All too soon the feeling comes to a crashing high, and I release a noise that sounds like a dying animal, biting my lip to shut myself up. The high that came and had me feeling dizzy and my pussy weeping left just as fast as it formed and exploded inside me.

My mate's hands are at the waistband of my pants, fingers pushing inside. "What are you doing?" I ask when I feel the sparks from his fingers against my abdomen.

"I want you, Lyric. My wolf wants you. We want to claim you." He says undoing the button of my jeans.

Panic sets in. "No." I push on his chest with my palms, "No more. I can't..." I say feeling embarrassed by what just happened. By what I just let happen. My emotions are haywire and I'm desperately trying to grasp ahold of how I'm feeling.

Mike grabs my wrists pinning them above my head, his chest heaves out of passion, lust, or anger, I'm not sure. His eyes search mine and begin to soften as they do, turning back to his gorgeous hazel with flecks of green and gold.

"Lyri," He says using my nickname, his head tilts to the side as he regards me. His breathing has begun to even out and he seems calmer, "Do you even know what just happened to you?"

I roll my eyes, now he isn't trying to take this any further. "Yes." Is my short reply, but I'm not sure. I think I do. I'm pretty sure I had an orgasm. My body slumps and my head falls to his shoulder. Any fight in me has been drained away.

"Was that the first time you ever came?" His voice has turned husky and gravelly still holding an undertone of lust.

I drop my legs from his waist and yank my hands free from his grip. Goddess this is embarrassing, not to mention a huge dent in my ego. "Please let me go," I ask nicely, heat creeping across my cheeks from shame and embarrassment.

He steps away from me, creating the distance I asked for. Taking the heat of his body with him. The little distance between us allows me to think clearer, as my body still comes down from the explosive high, he created.

I can't say I didn't enjoy how he felt against me, it would be a lie if I did. But I couldn't have it go any further, my mind wouldn't let go of my fear. He would hurt me. I know he would even if it wasn't his intention.

"I'm sorry. I just can't." I tell him with remorse.

"You won't be able to fight this for much longer. Just like I can't." He shakes his head, moving back, creating even more distance between us. "I can be patient. For now. But soon you will be begging me." There's a promise along with finality in his words.

We met weeks ago, a month. When my heat comes and could be between now and another few months, I know he is telling the truth. My wolf and my body will crave him like nothing I know. They will demand I mate with him.