Where Wild Things Roam

Parents

Darby    

By the time we finish Townsend’s sumptuous picnic, walk back to Ian’s office building to collect both laptop computers—these are a significant improvement over the computers I was introduced to the last time I left my valley—then drop Ivan’s at the hospital and get back to the hotel, it’s late afternoon.

Afternoon tea is delivered to our room on a tray, complete with creamy cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and cherry sauce and a decadent chocolate cake so rich I can’t finish it. I feed Ian by hand from the tray, giggling and wincing and moaning in response to what he does while my fingers are in his mouth, while he reviews his e-mails and documents, triaging the work he must get caught up.

Tessa sleeps belly up on a cooling vent in the corner, snoring softly, when I put the last of the plates back on the tray. As I finish the last of the tea, I wander near the windows looking out over the hotel’s enclosed garden.

“Against the windows, that dress is nearly see-through.”

There’s something dark and intense in the way that he says it. I look over my shoulder at Ian staring at me keenly where he’s leaned against the ornately carved wooden headboard, his long muscular legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles and his laptop and phone on his lap. “Should I return it?”

A devious smile spreads slowly over his face and he rises, setting the laptop aside. When he reaches me, he turns my hips into his, taking my teacup from my hands and setting it back on the tray. With one large warm hand in the small of my back, he presses into me. “No.”

Ian isn’t looking at my face as he says it. He’s looking at the neckline of my dress, his fingers pulling the laces on the front of the bodice.

The prickling starts at the back of my neck as he loosens the satin lacing, then gathers the billowy skirt and pulls the whole thing over my head in one smooth motion, dropping it to the floor.

I moan softly as his hands cup my breasts, his thumbs caressing over my stiffening n*****s and his lips flutter tender kisses along my shoulder. Beneath my hands on his chest, I can feel his heart beating, his breath coming a bit faster and more ragged.

“You aren’t going to get your work done,” I whisper.

Freezing, he exhales a frustrated growl. “Shit.”

I squeal when he scoops me up, dumping me unceremoniously on the bed with my head to the foot of it, then roll to my belly as he makes his way to the other side.

Taking his seat again, he sets his laptop on his lap and chuckles. “My tabletop’s unbalanced now.”

“Serves you right,” I giggle. “It’s your own fault.”

He grins, nodding. “Natural consequences. I’m always harassing Jack about natural consequences, and here they are, literally, right in my lap.” His blue eyes skim my body, lingering fixedly on the pale pink panties I picked up today at Suzanne’s.

“Perhaps I should put my dress back on.”

He catches my ankle, closing over it with one giant hand, before I can crawl away. “I didn’t say you could do that.” Appreciatively, he slides his warm hand up my leg, cupping one cheek on my bottom. “Hmmm. You have the most gorgeous ass.”

I prop my chin on my hands, elbows beneath me. “Still doesn’t sound like you’re getting your work done. Ow!” I jump when he gives me a stinging swat, then lays his warm hand over it soothingly.

“I need motivation,” he growls, then reluctantly resumes typing on his keyboard.

When I wiggle my hips a moment later, the clacking on the keyboard stops abruptly, and I can feel his gaze burning my skin.

“What are you trying to do to me?” Ian growls.

“Nothing to do with you. Just getting comfortable. Go back to your work.” I continue looking at the wall across from the bed. But out of Ian’s view, I’m smiling to myself.

There’s a long pause, then the clacking resumes, slower and in distracted bits and pieces. When it settles into a regular rhythm, I wiggle my hips again.

“Ohhh,” Ian laughs, setting the computer on the pillow above my feet and turning his body the direction of mine, “you’ll pay for that.”

His tongue leaves a searing wet trail up the back of my leg, first hot then cold and I shiver. It earns me a delighted growl.

Ian hooks his thumbs under the sides of my panties, sliding them slowly down my legs. As he’s dropping the soft cotton drawers over the side of the bed, his phone starts to vibrate somewhere near my feet. I look over my shoulder at him again, see him glance at the phone. His face falls and he exhales a frustrated sigh.

“Shit.” Snatching up the phone, he stretches out alongside me. “You ready for this?”

“Me? What do I have to do with it?”

“It’s my mother.” Positioning himself alongside me, he answers the phone, setting it between us on the bed on speaker.

“Ian Michael Gallagher, I raised you better than this!”

“Hi Mom,” Ian says, then rolls his eyes with a patient sigh as she gets started.

“Don’t you 'hi mom' me! Do you think your father and I didn’t know you were missing?”

Oh! I gasp silently, covering my lips with my fingers then smile. “Is she always like this?” I whisper.

“No,” Ian says into the phone, then nods his head slowly to me, defeatedly mouthing ‘yes’.

“Then why do I hear from the neighbor she saw you at the plaza. And walking with some beautiful girl on your arm?”

Ian sighs. “Mom, we didn’t even get home until last night about this time. We had to take Iva—.”

“You’ve been home twenty-four hours!? And I’m just now hearing from you? Because I called! You were missing for three days! And what about this rumor about a woman?”

My shoulders shake with silent laughter and a warm grin spreads over Ian’s face as he shrugs.

“Not a woman, Mom. My mate.”

This silences her momentarily.

Her voice quivers with excitement when she speaks next. “You brought home your mate? You found her?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Your father and I have been waiting as anxiously as you have—”

“Nope, Ian. Just your mother,” Ian’s father calls in a deadpan voice in the background and my giggles begin again.

“—for you to find her!” Ian’s mother continues, then says to his father in a threatening tone, “You watch it, Michael. Ian, we’re coming over to the packhouse right now to meet her.”

“Mom! No!”

“Don’t you ‘no’ me! Ian, how could you? We’re dying to meet her!”

“Nope, Ian Just your mother.” It’s the same flat tone and press my face into the mattress, struggling to keep from laughing out loud. “No offense to your mate.”

“Michael, I swear to you…”

“Mom! Listen!” Ian says over her. “Mom! We’re not at the pa—.”

“You’re gone again already?”

Ian laughs in frustration. “No, Mom. Just listen. Darby has an allergy and we’re not at th—.”

“Darby? Is that her name? That’s adorable. Is she there with you? Hello? Darby?”

“Hello, Mrs. Gallagher.”

“Oh sweet goddess! Your accent! You call me Ellie, sweetie. I really am sorry, Darby. I promise Michael and I raised Ian—”

“Nope, Darby. Just Ian’s mother.” Again, it’s the same mellow tone before he continues, “It’s nice to meet you and welcome to Candlewood, Darby.”

“— better. Try not to hold it against him. He’ll never find someone as good as you if you reject him.”

“Mom!” Ian interrupts indignantly, horrified. “Don’t tell her that! After this, she might do it!”

She chuckles. “Oh, well, you’re probably right about that. Anyway, Michael. Get your stuff.  We’re going to the packhouse.”

“Ellie, they didn’t invite us.”

“Of course they did!”

“Nope, Ellie. They didn’t.”

“Mom! Dad!” Ian interrupts again. “We—listen, Mom—we’re not—listen, Mom—not at the packhouse.”

The words are barely out of his mouth before Ellie cuts in, “Where are you? Your office?”

Ian squeezes his eyes shut, heaving a big sigh around his grin. “No. Listen, Mom. Just listen. Maison des Saisons.”

“The hotel? What about it?”

“Yes, Ellie. The hotel,” Ian’s father says, still in the same tone. “Give me that so you’re not at this all night.” There’s a light scuffle, then Ian’s father says into the phone. “Sorry, Ian. Your mother’s really excited.”

“We can tell, Dad.”

“So the hotel?”

“What’d he say, Michael?” Ellie says in the background.

At this point, I can’t stop my giggling.

Beside me, Ian shakes with laughter as well. “Yes. We’re staying here a couple days—maybe the weekend. Have you two had dinner?”

“Shhh, Ellie. I can’t hear him with you talking in my other ear. No, Ian. Do you really want to do that? Right now your mother’s excitability dial’s cranked up to ten.”

Ian chuckles again. “We both know she’ll tear Candlewood apart now if we don’t.”

“True. What time?”

“Give us a couple hours. I have something to sort first.”

“Okay. See you in two.”

As the call ends, Ian flips the phone off the bed onto the floor, then pounces on me. “Now—I believe you were misbehaving...”

**

Michael    

Turning to my mate in our shared closet, I wrap my arms around her waist. “Ellie, stop panicking. No matter what you wear, you’re going to look beautiful—like the former Luna—and Ian’s mate will adore you as much as your sons and I do.”

She turns in my arms, looks me up and down. “You’re almost ready. Go sit down and tell me which of these looks best.”

I smile, nodding, knowing that Ellie thinks this is something I do for her.

It’s not.

Since the first time I caught her scent, I’ve been in love with her and the spectacular package she comes in. There’s only one greater pleasure in my life than watching her take off her clothes—the part that comes after—so if she wants to have a fashion show with each one of the plethora of outfits in our closet, I’m all eyes, doll face. All eyes, only for you.

I know exactly how long it’ll take us to get to Maison des Saisons, exactly how much time Ellie will need after she selects her outfit to finish getting ready. In the meantime, I keep my face a blank, serious mask and watch her every unintentionally arousing move as she strips down to her lacy underwear. Over. And over. And over again. Discarding outfits onto the chair in the corner until time’s up and I raise my brows at the next outfit she comes out of the closet wearing.

“This one? Really?”

Seeing my expression, Ellie looks down her own body, running her hands along her curves and it almost undoes me. If I didn’t know how much she wants to meet Ian’s mate, those would be my hands all over her and they wouldn’t be stopping there.

I rise, step near her and tip her chin up to me with a peck on her sweet lips. “That’s the one, doll face. You look beautiful. Finish getting ready. It’s almost time.”

She can barely sit still on the brief drive to the hotel, and as I walk her up the wide staircase to the door, she trembles on my arm. I stop us at the top of the steps, nuzzle her neck and give my favorite part of her—her firm, round bottom—a squeeze.

“Michael, please,” Ellie giggles, relaxing, and an adoring smile brightens her face.

I inhale, filling my chest, and make a show of considering. “Well, okay. But I’ll be back for that perfect posterior later.” Grabbing the crystal handle, I swing the heavy door open for my mate.

Just inside the door, Ellie freezes and I wait beside her. Ian’s imposing figure stands in the entry with his back to us, astonishingly, dressed in casual clothes. The consummate alpha, though he knows we’re here, he doesn’t turn.

“Michael,” Ellie hisses in my ear. “Where is she?”

As if in answer, I catch peripherally the swish of a pale blue-green skirt, the flash of a slim leg behind Ian’s large frame. Then he grabs his wayward sprite, dipping her deeply, covering her mouth in a crushing kiss. Though she’s tall for a woman, Darby is slim and supple as a willow, her body willingly conforming to her much larger mate’s. Her dark hair is so long that, even intricately braided, it dangles mere inches from the ground. She clutches his arm and the back of his neck with almost spidery fingers, flashes him a spectacular and adoring smile as Ian rights her.

That’s when her startling green-gold eyes fall on Ellie and me, and though I’m retired, my alpha instinct tells me there’s a whole lot more to Darby than a nice figure and a pretty face.

It’s her eyes.

Or rather what’s in them—something expansive, depthless, and decidedly old. Not merely an old soul, but an ancient one. I can’t stop staring, even when Ian turns, beaconing his mother and me forward, even when Ellie tugs on my collar and calls my name. She can’t be…

“Dad! If you’re going to stare at my mate like that, it better be coming with a challenge.”

Ian’s threat is delivered playfully, but I know my son chooses his words deliberately and there’s a correction here. I tear my eyes away from Darby, meet my own eyes in my son. “Ian.” I extend my hand and he shakes it. “Glad you’re home safe and you’ve found your life’s treasure.”

“Thanks. It’s in no small part due to Darby. Speaking of whom…” As if he’s used to it, he reaches behind him and with a large hand in the small of her back, pushes Darby out from behind his shoulder to stand before him. “Mom, Dad, this is my mate, Darby. Darby, my parents—Ellie and Michael Gallagher.”

With her usual social grace, Ellie sweeps Darby into a hug, then quickly links arms with her and, chattering already, leads the way toward the hotel’s restaurant. I fall into step behind them, beside Ian.

“Dad, what is wrong with you?” Ian’s low growl is insistent.

“Wrong with me?” I stop and Ian faces me. “She’s not were. She’s not even shifter. And she’s definitely not human.”

A broad grin like his mother’s spreads over Ian’s face. “Those are some powerful instincts, Dad. I hope I’ve inherited half of them.” He turns me toward the restaurant and we trail behind Ellie and Darby following a hostess to a table in a quiet corner of the room. “And you’re half-right. She’s half-human. The other half is fae. But you have to stop staring—you’re scaring her.”

I hold Ellie’s chair as she takes her seat, Ian doing the same on the other side of the table for Darby. Thankfully, Ellie is monopolizing the conversation, smoothing over the awkwardness of my behavior as she always does. But I can’t let it go.

 My son looks uncomfortable and even blushes faintly. 

“—Luna ceremony be this weekend?” I direct my attention to Ellie when Ian does, impressed he’s been catching the details in two conversations.

“No, Mom. Ivan’s still in the hospital. Once he’s discharged, we’ll look at the following weekend.”

“There’ll be all kinds of rumors by then, Ian. I know it bucks tradition, but maybe you should have a private ceremony then the weekend celebration later.”

Ian laughs. “Mom, Jack would kill me. He’s already stressing a mid-day weekend ceremony and the party that runs afterwards into the night. If I bind Darby to the pack before that, the party will start right then and go for days.”

Beside my son, Darby lays her hand over his on the table. “Ian, I realize this is your pack and these are your traditions, but would it be possible to hold this ceremony in the evening instead. At dusk?”

“It’s not just my pack, baby. It’s yours. And binding you to them and them to you is a big deal for weres. It’s a huge celebration.

Darby looks disappointed, then quickly masks it. “Yes. Of course.”

“We can still celebrate, Ian. Just rearrange the schedule and bind her at dusk.” Ellie suggests.

Leaning to her, Ian kisses Darby’s smooth shoulder. “We can do that. I’ll talk to Kasey about it.”

“—a vegetarian plate, sweetie. Wouldn’t you prefer something with some protein?” Ellie looks up at our waiter, patiently taking our dinner orders.

“Mom, Darby’s vegan. She doesn’t eat meat.”

Uncomprehending, Ellie looks from Ian to me, then back to Darby. “How is a were vegan?” There’s no condemnation in the question, only curiosity.

“Would you give us a minute,” Ian asks the waiter, watching as the young man returns to the kitchen. Reaching for Darby’s hand in her lap, Ian commands his mother’s attention. “She’s not were.”

My mate’s eyes narrow. “But I can smell you’re not human.”

“She’s not, you’re right, Mom. She’s fae.”

Ellie’s eyes go wide and she takes a trembling breath.

“Doll face? Ellie? Look at me. Ellie, look at me.”

Her head snaps my direction, clearly stunned. “Michael?”

“Arianrhod gifted our son a faery mate,” I say gently. Ellie stares blankly for several long seconds.

Across from us, Darby shuffles nervously and Ian raises her hand to his lips, kissing the back to soothe her and whispers, “It’s alright, I promise. It’ll all be okay.”

“No, Michael,” my mate whispers softly, her gaze falling on Ian before lingering on Darby. “The goddess gifted our pack a faery Luna. Ian, I want to plan this ceremony.”

**

Ian    

Tessa wags happily when we return to the room and Darby kneels, hugging her tightly, the billowy skirt of her sundress pooling around them on the floor like a silky cloud.

“Here, let me feed her.” I uncover the plate in my hand, set the dish of medium-rare chunks of steak and raw carrots Darby insisted on in front of Tessa on the floor.

Darby rises to let Tessa eat, then belly flops on the bed, her face buried in her arms. “Oh my word, that turned stressful quickly. Your mother is intense, Ian.”

I chuckle, lifting her feet by the ankles and propping them against my thighs. Untying the laces, I drop first one, then the other of her strappy sandals to the floor and push them aside with my foot. “It wasn’t just my mother, though she’s more excitable. My dad freaked out too, just through the pack link. You just have that effect on people, baby.”

“Mmmmm.” The sensual moan escapes her as I massage her feet and down her firm calves. “What am I going to do, Ian? I could barely handle your mother’s response and there’ll be three thousand more like it at this Luna ceremony.”

“Turn over. Look at me.” I shift with her as she rolls over, keeping her feet on my chest. She opens those gorgeous peridot eyes to meet mine, her arms over her head, framing her face. “By now my mother has six different plans set up for that ceremony, and probably at least that many for a wedding, and a multitude of baby showers, then kids’ birthdays.”

Darby giggles. “Multitude? She only had one—how many children does she think I can handle?”

“She only had one but raising Jack would be enough to kill the thought of more for anybody.”

“You and Jack are brothers?”

“Adopted. His parents were a Second triumvir pair under my parents. They were killed by vampires when he was really young.”

Holding her legs, I draw her bottom to the edge of the bed. I massage my way down to her hips, returning to slip her panties over her feet. “So, my mother will only ask for as many as you want, but—,” I tip my head for an uninterrupted view of her round exposed bottom hanging slightly off the bed, and my body clenches—she’s not wearing panties. I feel the tingling at the back of my neck start seeing her soft nether lips coated in a faint wet sheen and flushed slightly, “she happily spoil as many as you give her.”

Inhaling deeply, I savor lilac and shortbread and the warm desire of her seeping s*x, licking my lips eagerly. “But if you’re worried about crowds, tell her—my mom’ll know how to make it less anxiety inducing for you.”

Kneeling slowly, I slide Darby’s ankles over my shoulders and hear the faint hitch in her breathing as her legs open to accept me. I drag my lips along the inside of one thigh, taking deep breaths and drowning myself in the scent of her, exhaling each one through my mouth, warm and slow, over her slick rosy lips.

“You’re a little tense, my love.” I flick my tongue over her rosy, hooded bud and her back arches as she shivers. “How about a little massage to relax you?”