Mated to the Wizard

My Cousin - 26

"Hello Avery. My name's Curt. Curt Black." He says in a silky smooth, devious voice. "You look just like that boy described. Pretty little one, you are. Such a... deep, deep shame..." he adds, eyes roaming my body in a way that makes me shiver.

I know exactly who this man is. I remember Gabe talking about him before. About how dangerous he is, and what he did to my mate when he was younger. He's also the man from the vision the trees showed me. The one who was standing next to Everest in the first one, where he killed me.

"You're Everest's father." I swallow, clenching my fists and assessing the threat. Now, I have faith in my wolf and I, but he's a full wizard. To take him down would be nearing impossible.

Curt claps his hands in applaud and starts subtly pacing in front of me.

"Congratulations, I thought I would be a stranger to you." I simply glare at him, which is definitely a mistake. He starts taking slow, concise steps towards me, but stupidly, I decide to stand my ground. Suddenly, I'm being pushed up against a tree. I let out a low growl as he moves his body closer to mine, pressing himself against me. Pushing at his chest doesn't work. The man doesn't budge. He smells of power and strong mints; completely different to Everest, who smells like musk and rain. It's wrong.

To my horror, he smashes his sloppy lips onto mine, moving them against mine, which are shut tightly as I squirm to get away from him.

"Stubborn, huh. I'll change that." he mumbles into my skin. He moves to my ear and bites down on it. Hard.

Bloody bastard.

I open my mouth to scream at him, but before I can, he's shoved his tongue into my mouth. I want to vomit. His hands keep my arms pressed to my side in such an iron grip that I can feel the blood being cut off in my hands. I want to yell and scream for him to get off, but I can't. He silences me with his mouth, and it's the most disgusting thing I've ever felt in my life.

Suddenly, there's a growl. And it's not from this harasser.

"Father." The familiar voice of Everest snarls, I can see him over Curt's shoulder, so I send what I hope are recognisable pleas for help through my eyes. "Get off her." he adds in a more threatening tone. Curt stops his attack on my mouth and I feel his mouth upturn into a smirk. I'm breathless, for all the wrong reasons.

"I told you, if you didn't mark her by the end of the week Sunday, I'd make her mine." He says, moving away from my body so I can breathe once again. As soon as I'm free, I run over to a tree behind Everest. My wolf yearns for the comfort of her mate, but I push her aside in my brain. I can't process this right now; there are so many reasons I can't go to him for security.

"It's only Friday." Everest replies tightly, flickering his eyes over to me and then back to his Father.

"I got bored." Curt shrugs, a sick smile on his face. He raises a hand at me and waves slightly, still smirking. I send him my best glare, but can't ignore the shaking of my hands, and I know it's not because of the cold. "And she is quite the looker. I don't know how you've managed to wait this long to mark her. Tell me again, Son: why are you waiting to claim her again?"

"She's not ready. I'm not ready." Everest grits out, clenching his fists at his sides. Curt eyes his son's hands in contemplation.

"And when will she be ready? On her deathbed?" he sighs. "You know we don't have that long. We need to kill that retched wolf of yours. He's played his part in creating Ben, now we need to dispose of him."

"You put silver in the drinks." Ignoring the question, my mate answers with an accusation to change the subject. I don't know what to think of that; I want to know what his reply to that would be. Curt visibly gulps, but plays it off with yet another sigh and drops his shoulders. Playing the guilt card, it would seem.