Fated Hearts Ch. 06

I'm soooooooo sorry for the long wait!!! Ahh!! Lol. Anyway. I'd like to thank my editor LaRascasse for making sure this made sense. I know the last chapter's scene with Dennis was a bit off. I know. I wrote it before I wrote this chapter and I didn't add enough around it (oops). Anyway...enough of my rambling, here's Fated Hearts Chapter 6!!! Enjoy, and keep that feedback coming! I love it soo much! Chapter 7 is being written as we speak!

-Gia

Thessa and Eric looked at each other for a moment before Eric sat up and reached for his jeans. "I have to go find them."

Thessa laughed and sat up. The sheets clung to her breasts where she held them to herself. "Leave them alone Eric. Meddling isn't nice."

Eric licked his lips in anticipation. "But I have to--"

"No, you don't. Don't worry about what's going on over there Eric. I just got home from the hospital. I need you." She said wearily, allowing her fingers to brush over the back of his hand.

The touch awakened his desire for her again.

"Thessa, he can't sense her." Eric explained, frowning. "I could sense you immediately when you were in a crowd of people. It doesn't feel right."

"Can he? Did he say that to you?" She kept her relaxed pose, but Eric could see the wheels turning in her head. He smiled to himself and thanked god that his mate was so intelligent.

"Yeah he told me on the way back from when we were in my study." Eric frowned harder.

Thessa bit back her smile. Eric looked into things more than he should. When his Alpha kicked in, he madeeverythinghis business.

Alpha my ass.Thessa's wolf snorted.He just wants an excuse to be nosy.

This time she laughed and felt the same reaction from the presence of her animal. It seemed as though the accident made both wolf and woman more aware of one another. The fear of losing each other to death had somehow fused their minds together. Thessa was no longer afraid of what she would become, but knew her wolf, like her, wasn't unnecessarily violent like others she had the misfortune of meeting in her very short life.

She crooked a finger at him. "Come back to bed. We can discuss this tomorrow. You're too young for wrinkles." She let the sheet fall into her lap and was rewarded with Eric's growl.

He crawled on top of her and she giggled, pushing him away when he nipped playfully at her nose. He came at her again, this time catching her off guard when he caught her wrists and held them over her head. Thessa's round eyes grew impossibly rounder as she realized what he was about to do. She bucked under him, trying to throw him off. She was smaller than him, but still strong, and one of her hands got free more than once as she tried to escape his relentless tickling.

Thessa's thrashing caused a light sheen of sweat to cover her skin, making her deep brown skin glisten in the light. She watched in slow motion as Eric's face came down, his lips so close that she could feel his warm breath caressing them.

"You're so beautiful." He brushed his lips over hers, teasing the seam of her mouth with his tongue.

He held her gaze as she parted her lips for him, and tightened his hold on her wrist as he pulled the sheet down over her breasts, the silky fabric made her shiver with anticipation. He rewarded her with a kiss to her neck...down her shoulder. His fingertips swirled lazily around her nipple.

"Eric..." She groaned, arching her back to get him to do something else, anything else. "You're driving me nuts. Please." She sighed closing her eyes.

"Look at me." He pulled the nub taut between his thumb and forefinger.

She gasped and reveled in the shiver that rippled from every extremity to that one aching point in her body. "Please."

"Please, what?" He growled, letting go of her wrists to stroke the other nipple to hardness.

"Lick them, suck on them, anything. Please!" She cried desperately, sorry she had ever teased him before.

He obliged her, and with a broken moan, she wound her fingers through his hair, holding him to her...as if he planned on moving anytime soon. It amazed him how hard it made him to see her react this way. He wasn't even in her yet. Speaking of which...

Eric stroked a hand over her abdomen and lightly feathered one finger over her dripping pussy. He smiled against her breast as another shiver tore through her. He flicked her clit playfully and was rewarded with a moan of encouragement. She seemed to get even wetter as he jerked her legs closer to him, the warmth of her slit radiating over his impossibly hard cock.

"What do you want me to do?" He searched her pleasure glazed eyes as he rocked his hips forward, the head of his penis nudging her opening.

"Fuck me." She begged, and he almost came right then.

"Again. Tell me again." He said through tightly clenched teeth, afraid that relaxing would make him lose control.

Thessa locked her ankles around his waist, her small hands pulling him as close to her face as she could bring him.

"I said." She whispered, her voice shaking. She licked her lips once. Twice.

Eric swallowed, suddenly aware of his legs shaking with anticipation.

"Fuck...ME." Her fingers dropped to his forearms as he pushed into her with a breathtaking thrust.

"Eric!" She screamed, tilting her hips to take him deeper.

"Again! Say it again!" He growled, pulling back to thrust deeper.

"Oh god." Her eyes rolled. "So deep. Please! Fuck me, Eric!" She begged, accepting his overpowering thrusts as her orgasm came so suddenly and potently she saw spots.

Eric smiled as she tensed, forcing her to ride the wave of her orgasm into another one. She pushed at his chest, her eyes begging him to go on even as her body begged him to stop. He slowed down, feeling the telltale tightening in his balls as he shot his seed deep into her womb.

"I love you." Thessa whispered, her breath coming in small gasps. Her legs fell from around his waist as he rolled onto his side, turning her so they faced each other.

He pressed her hand over his heart, allowing her to feel the erratic thumping in his chest he was sure matched her own.

"I love you." He whispered as she fell asleep.

~*~

"Did you find anything out Anton?" She asked, tapping long red nails on the table.

"Yes, Mistress." He bowed low.

"Not yet, fool. I'm not your Madame Alpha yet. That idiot Eric crossed the wrong one this time." She stood

"WHO the FUCK does he think he is turning me down...Well this time the joke will be on that little black shifter bitch." Anton flinched as she grabbed him by the front of his coat.

"I...I don't know." He stammered, shaking like a leaf.

"You pathetic Omega." She snarled in his face, much to his delight. Nothing was more exciting and appealing than the madness of his mistress.

"I want him. And I had him. It was so close. So FUCKING close I could taste the power." She yelled.

"What did you find out?" She dropped a shaking Anton on the ground before coolly resuming her seat. Black stiletto clad feet propped themselves on the desk as she waited for the reply.

"The...the mating ceremony. It's in two days."

"Damn. I won't have enough time then...I'll figure something out." She took her feet down from the desk.

~*~

Thessa's morning found her in the huge fluffy bed she and Eric fell asleep in. A strange feeling of contentment settled over her and she stretched, enjoying the feel of the soft, satiny sheets surrounding her. A glance at the other side of the bed confirmed that Eric had gotten up a while ago. She slid out of the comfort of the warm sheets and she stretched again, rubbing the sore muscles of her neck. She smiled as she remembered falling asleep with her head on Eric's chest.

Her wolf was content for now.

She made her way down the hall to the room she was in originally. She saw it when Eric left her there with her mother, but she was too distracted by her mother's presence to notice anything about the room itself. Thessa supposed that it was enough. It was much too girly. She laughed when she thought of Eric picking out the loud and fussy colored throw pillows on the bed. The walls were a bold teal color.

"You don't like it." She heard behind her.

"You know me. Loud isn't really my thing." She turned to look at her mother with a wide grin on her face.

"He's trying hard." Jolena laughed, keeping her position by the door.

"You know, I knew you'd be great. From the moment I knew you were the only one that survived." She forced back tears as she remembered.

"Mom?" Thessa asked nervously.

"I never really told you the story...and I mean now would be the best time to do that. You're starting a new journey, Thessa; your mating ceremony is tomorrow. You're going to be a woman." She smiled at her youngest who was so much like her in temperament and physical looks.

"Anyway come." Jolena sat on the bed and patted the space next to her.

As she sat down, Thessa couldn't help but remember the times when she was a little girl and her mother would tell her a story. She would eagerly rest her head on her mother's lap and listen to Jolena's soothing voice as her mother stroked her hair and told her tales of their race's history fact or fiction. It was with great nostalgia then that she laid her head on her mother's lap, to listen to the story of circumstances surrounding her birth.

Jolena smiled and started stroking Thessa's hair for a while. The silence was relaxing, and they stayed that way for a while before Jolena began to speak:

It was a terrible day. Nothing was going right. I was baking a few pies to send to one of the human churches near the hospital for their bake sale and one of your older brothers switched out the sugar in the jar for salt. It started snowing when I finally got everything right and packed up.She stopped at that point, and Thessa looked up to find Jolena staring out the window blankly. She nuzzled her mother's hand to get her attention. Jolena looked down at her, snapping out of her reverie before continuing.

Your father didn't want me to go...he said it was too bad outside and that he would send someone else to deliver the pies. Well it was more along the lines of "Damnnit woman...you're going to be the death of me if you go out there in that storm just for some damn pie." You know how stubborn I am: I definitely insisted on going. And we reached the agreement that he would come with me to make sure something god-awful didn't happen like it usually does.

So we set out, and got into the car. We made it about half way before the engine stalled and we slid a couple feet off the road on some ice. I was so scared when the seatbelt locked and I'd hit my belly on the dashboard. After that it just seemed to get worse. I was panicking, your father was trying to remember if there were any houses nearby with a telephone. He wanted to carry me, but he knew he would get further faster if he went alone...I was terrified by then because I'd started feeling sharp cramps...it was too soon. You all couldn't come out for another three weeks or so because you weren't like the human babies I'd delivered. You were two things: Were and Shifter. It's a lot more complicated than that, but the general point is that you needed to stay in there as long as you could to have better chances of surviving birth. But I knew you were going to be born right there in the middle of the snow and your father would have to deliver you. It was so painful and I had to shift and lie down and tell your father what to do telepathically. He was as scared as I was.

When you were all out, all but two of you were dead. I was even more scared because you were in a wolf form and the other cub was in hybrid form. I knew then he wouldn't survive because he barely had any fur and he was so small.Thessa felt the tear drop onto the back of her hand before she noticed that she was actually crying. She wiped her nose. She knew the way the story ended. Her father buried the other pups and bundled her up in his sweater before shifting and taking off to find some help. Fearing the worst, Julius ran in the direction of home.

"You're my baby girl, you know that." She smoothed Thessa's hair back affectionately. "Letting you go isn't going to be easy." She sighed.

"Mom, you aren't letting me go, I'll still be here." Thessa reassured, clasping hands with her mother. "I'll be here for you and daddy and my brothers and sisters, and Nyo, and—" Jolena cut her off, squeezing her hand.

"No. You'll have your own life and responsibilities as the Madame Alpha, and I won't be able to tell you what to do. I know it seems like I've been only bossy..."

"And overbearing..." Thessa interjected. At her mother's look she bowed her head sheepishly "sometimes."

"But it's because I love you. I was so worried that you wouldn't find someone. And then when you found Eric...I didn't know what to think. I was hoping your mate would be someone like Dennis or Russ, someone I knew well, you know?" She smoothed her hand over Thessa's reassuringly.

"But I was so upset that it wasn't someone I could relate to that I didn't see...or maybe I didn't want to see how responsible Eric was. I see how he looks at you: he looks at you like you're his whole life. Your father looks at me that way. I came to the conclusion that I don't have the right to tell you who to mate with. You're an adult now. You've gotta figure it out." Jolena got up and pressed a kiss on Thessa's cheek.

"Come on. Give me a hug." She smiled as Thessa rushed into her arms. The tears that wet her shirt seeped under the material and she kissed the top of her daughter's head once more before she pulled away.

"Mama, you don't know how much this means to me. You know that you don't have to approve as long as the majority of the pack approves, but I appreciate that you're accepting Eric into our family as your son." Both women smiled at each other. Thessa started at the faint noise of someone moving around in the sitting room.

"Uh, mom can you do me a favor? I made a mess in the living room and I just need you to call one of the Omegas to come up here and clean it." She said loudly, hoping to divert anyone that may be coming out into the bedroom.

"Thessa, what are you..." Jolena got out before she found herself getting pushed out of the room, the door shutting in her face.

"Teenagers..."

Thessa breathed a sigh of relief and turned to find Stephan standing in the doorway of the sitting room. She opened her mouth to tell him off when her gaze dropped lower. Embarrassed she turned around and squeezed her eyes shut. "Good God, can't you find clothes before you run around in the nude in my rooms, Stephan?" The question had none of its intended bite to it, and Thessa called for Eric as soon as she got the image of her sister's naked mate out of her mind.

"You act like you aren't a wolf." He taunted.

"Not all wolves are uncivilized." She muttered under her breath, grabbing the bright orange sheet on the bed and throwing it to him.

"What happened?" Thessa heard Nyoko murmur sleepily from behind her.

"What do you mean 'What happened'?" Thessa spat angrily. "This is my room! I don't understand why you couldn't find somewhere else to collapse once you were done." She ignored Nyoko's defiant eye roll.

"Thessa relax, you act like you aren't a wolf." Nyoko responded, her voice full of exasperation for her sister's strange behavior.

"That's what I said!" Stephan replied in the same tone.

Thessa heaved a sigh of surrender and headed to the door just as Eric barreled through, almost knocking her over.

"Watch it!" She yelled and stormed past, down the stairs.

"What did you do?" He turned on Stephan and Nyoko.

"Nothing!" They both responded at the same time.

" I came out here because I heard people and I forgot to put clothes on and she freaked out on us." Stephan explained.

"She's such a damn prude." Nyoko rolled her eyes.

"Cool it." Eric warned.

"Hey. Okay. I'll go apologize." Stephan stood in front of his mate, shielding her from Eric.

"Put on some clothes first. You don't want to upset her royal highness." Nyoko growled from behind him.

"Nyoko..." Eric said, taking half a step forward.

"Eric..." Stephan put out a hand up to stop his friend from attacking.

"Tell her to watch how she fucking talks about my woman and I wouldn't have to attack her."

"Hey! Don't use that kind of language here!" Everyone turned to look at Jolena.

"Nyoko you should know better. You know how your sister is around strange naked men." Nyoko huffed and walked back into the living room to get her clothes.

"And you! I already gave my blessing for you to mate with my little girl, don't think that means you get to attack another one of my cubs." She poked a finger at Eric's chest.

"And you. I don't know who you are, but this is about to get ugly fast if SOMEONE doesn't go apologize or find out where the hell she is." Jolena yelled, her eyes burning a furious gold.

"I'll go." Eric volunteered with a grin. Jolena had given her blessing. He watched with sick anticipation as Jolena noticed that both Stephan and Nyoko were naked. A laugh rumbled in his chest as the older woman started yelling again behind the closed bedroom door. He jogged down the stairs and onto the small porch in front of the house. In a flash, his clothes were in a neat pile and he shifted to extend his sensory network. An image flashed into his brain of Thessa by the lake. He smiled to himself and took off at a trot toward the spot that held so many memories for the couple.

~*~

Thessa sat by the water, allowing herself to calm down. She remembered the nightmares she had before of this very spot and smiled at the irony that the place that made her afraid was the same place she would meet the man the universe chose for her. She heard movement behind her and stood up.

"Okay Eric, come out now. I'm sorry I yelled at you." She laughed, waiting for the familiar wolf to come out from behind the bushes.

When he didn't come out, she laughed even louder. "Oh, so we're playingthatgame again." She pulled the sleep shirt over her head.

The moment the shirt got caught at her ears was when the panic set in. This...whatever it was, wasn't Eric. As she opened her mouth to scream, she felt something hit into her. With a splash she toppled into the water, the fabric over her nose soaking to cut off her breathing. Panicked, she fought against the hands reaching for her legs. With a yell, she forced herself to shift, allowing gills to form and filter the water for the precious oxygen her lungs needed. She swam deeper into the water, relief and adrenaline giving her the strength to swim as deep as she could.

She sensed more than heard the frustrated sounds of her attacker and she poked her wet head briefly above the water, but saw no one. She was still scared and stayed close to the surface of the water until she heard a familiar howl followed by a scream of pain and retreated into the water once more.

~*~

Eric heard Thessa's desperate screams for help followed by a splash and immediately thought the worst. As he entered a clearing, he saw the same Omega from the other day crouched by the edge of the pond where Thessa's sleep shirt laid soaked and half in the water. With a howl of anger, he shifted and came for the man. What he didn't expect was the trap that he stepped into shackle onto his ankle. The pain made him yelp as his back leg brushed against the icy metal. He ignored the man's nervous smile and focused on calling out to his mate.

"No, no. Let me. I need both of you. We can't go scaring her off right?" He pulled a syringe and ampoule from a small bag dropped on the grass next to him.