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I would deeply regret if any more of them were harmed in this endeavour - knights or wolves - but my ascension and the plight of my people was of greater importance. I would never recover if I lost my mates, but I could not lose sight of my goal.
Fillian stepped forward, his eyes now boring into mine, a growl rumbling through his chest.
He was magnificent, so beautiful that I reached out to him, wanting to run my hands over his muscles, bury my fingers in the softness of his fur, luxuriate in his primal nature.
His mouth dropped to my wound, exposed by the stretch of my arm. The beast that was my mate sniffed deeply, his great nostrils flaring, his chest rumbling as he drew in my scent. I didn't say what I wanted, but I pushed my wrist closer to him, heat sweeping through me as he extended his tongue.
He ran a slow lick from my palm up to my arm. My bite had nearly healed, but his coarse tongue still gathered my drying blood. A moan rang from me as my blood blended inside him, connecting us more deeply, our bond so strong that I could feel his wolf totally in my body, and how desperate it was to see me shift. And I wanted it. I wanted to free my wolf with their bite, even though my duty came first. But the primal desire of his wolf was so strong that I was almost overcome, forgetting myself yet again.
Another lick and I fell against the tree, panting at the pleasure burning inside me. If he kept going, I would give in, making it even harder to hide myself from them when the time came. A third lick, and his chest expanded, a sound close to a moan. I could feel his need raging inside him, more powerful than his urge to destroy.
A rustle of bushes and a shout behind us snapped at me, and I pulled back from him.
“Fillian!” Valko stormed into the clearing, snarling in human form. He was imposing, even compared to Fillian’s wolf. “Enough!”
Valko’s eyes flashed yellow, the same deep glow as Fillian’s. Only Valko’s voice held a power that I knew intimately.
It was not compulsion, or not the same brand as vampire compulsion, at least. But Fillian turned his enormous body, his full attention now focused on Valko, who stepped towards him with no fear or hesitation.
“Stand down.” A deep growl from Valko echoed in the misty clearing.. Another push of his power shuddered through the bond, and Fillian whimpered. They held each other’s eyes, tense, waiting. The air crackled as they faced each other, Fillian’s beast rearing over Valko, who stood before him like the alpha he was.
Fillian’s fierce energy calmed, his ears twitching before his snout dropped, his head bowed low. Submission flowed from him. I admired the way Valko held himself, embodying authority, using a power I did not know he had.
Though that could simply be because I refused to bow to him as Fillian did.
Arms folded, muscles straining underneath his shirt, Valko’s glare was firm as he fixed his attention on Fillian. Not once did he look at me, not even a brief glance.
It both hurt and amused me to sense Valko’s nervousness. After everything that had happened since he had told me he loved me, he still could not face me.
“Back to the den,” Valko growled. “We will talk about this later.”
Fillian let out a whine, stuck still as Valko turned and walked away.
I stepped in beside Fillian, who still gasped and panted, though his madness was subsiding.
I reached up to sink my right hand into the thick fur of his hind leg, before I stroked my way up his body to his shoulder, relishing the way his fur resisted and parted for my fingers, flowing under my palm, his scent heavy and lush.
“Let’s go home,” I murmured, sending him love through our bond, and hiding the spike of guilt that followed.
This was the second time I had used him, though I could not change the fact he was the easiest to trick. It was in my best interest to take every advantage I could, even if each chance brought me suffering.
NINETEEN
Lucien
Iswept her hair back from her forehead and kissed her as I left, leaving the fireplace lit so she wouldn’t wake to darkness.
Red was so beautiful when she slept. We had returned her pendant, and joy flowed through all four of us as tears slipped down her cheeks. She thanked us with everything she had, holding us close, filling us with love. The swirling blood opal lay against her chest, glinting as I leaned down to her. I didn’t care that the silver seared my skin when I fucked her, it only made it sweeter.
I had never seen her look so peaceful.
Especially when she was naked, sated from riding my cock, her soft moans in my ear as she clung to me. Valko and Fillian had gone to one of the market towns on the Cardinal border. With Fillian on his first trip out of the forest, Red was all mine.
I grabbed a wicker basket and a knife from the kitchen before heading east. I’d come out to a patch of wild garlic out in the forest that I hid from the others, knowing they would cut it all at once. I knelt down, grinning as I collected leaves in the soft dark, surrounded by the light green blades and white flowers. Drawing in the soft smell of musty earth, I could already picture her face as she sat at the table, watching me as I cooked her lunch.
The chatter of ravens in the trees above me filled the dead air. Branches loomed above me, but this clearing, hidden behind a wall of brash, was my safe space. I’d bring her here the next time the others went out.
I’d tried growing garlic in the den, where the spell Cassandra cast to counteract the original spell on the forest would bring it to leaf, but it never tasted the same as the garlic that had grown when sunlight had graced the forest floor. Still fresh after a hundred years, it had become a delicacy, one that was scarce after decades of harvesting. Only fifteen plants remained, but Red deserved the best.
