Stripes of Fury by Zenina Masters

Chapter One
     
     
    Nika giggled as she hauled the man into her apartment and shoved him through the hall to her bedroom. She had had enough alcohol to gain the nerve to tackle the gorgeous god that had wandered into her watering hole but not enough to impair her in any other way. Her conscience would meet her in the morning.
    Keeping her strength to human levels was tricky, but she managed to get herself undressed and push the half-dressed man onto her bed. Reaching between them, she unzipped his jeans and carefully spread the fabric wide to let his cock emerge from its confinement.
    She giggled again and slid down his body, hearing his gasp as she enveloped him with her mouth. She slid him deeper into her mouth and drew back with a rapid bobbing motion until she felt him stiffen against her.
    Since she was near orgasm herself, she slid a condom on him, straddled him and impaled herself with a short thrust.
    Her companion seemed a little bemused by the rush of activities, but he moved with her as she rode him frantically until she felt the surge of heat move through her limbs. She gasped and shook as her body gripped him hard, and when she was under control again, she moved on him once again with hard thrusts until he had his turn.
    Nika dismounted, holding the base of the condom, and flopped to her back on the bed.
    “Um, my name is—”
    She cut off his voice with a sharply raised hand. “I don’t care. I don’t know you, you don’t know me; it all works out well.”
    She glanced at him, and to her amusement, his entire body flickered slightly. So, he had some fey blood. That made two of them.
    Her bemused companion got to his feet, headed to the bathroom, and after a moment, he returned to retrieve his shirt.
    He paused and looked like he wanted to say something, but he simply shook his head and left.
    Nika went to the bathroom and tidied up before grabbing an oversized t-shirt and crawling into bed. She felt a little bad for taking advantage, and her mother would give her a lecture, but if she could get what she needed to get through another heat without having a child, where was the harm?
     
    * * * *
     
    Frennin saw what had happened the moment that the young lord entered his presence, but he had to ask. “Well?”
    “Your daughter is forceful, sir. She... uh... had her way with me, and then, I left. There was no chance for courtship.”
    The horse lord nodded grimly. He had hoped that his daughter would see mate potential in the young man, but apparently, her heat was on her again.
    He was going to have to speak with her mother, and she hadn’t been willing to have a conversation in the last decade. This was going to be rough.
     
    He walked up to the door of the modest house with the huge barn in the back and knocked on the door.
    Annabella appeared in the window, and she made a face before opening the door. “Frennin. I wasn’t expecting to see you.”
    He took in the long cascade of her hair, the intelligence in her dark-brown eyes and the lush curve of her lips. She was even more stunning in her beast form and that grace and beauty had been his downfall.
    “Annabella, I need to talk to you about Nika.”
    She paused, nodded and let him in. He sighed. It was a big step. Fey and shifters did not normally get along, and if not for their beast forms, sex would have been heralded with enough electricity to jumpstart a car. He had seen a beautiful mare with intelligent eyes, and eleven months later, he had come by to find a woman sitting in the field holding a baby. Annabella was a shifter and their mating had had perfect timing to bring little Nika into the world.
    Annabella made some tea and put some cookies out on a plate. “Tell me about your concerns.”
    “Nika needs a mate. She is rapid-cycling into heat and going through casual hook-ups at an alarming rate.”
    Annabella smiled. “You have been trying to put likely candidates in her path?”
    “She rode them and kicked them out.”
    Annabella