AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Davido directed the process of fire-building, which included telling Seth to take off his Guard coat and give it to Lorelei to keep warm. She almost told him it wasn’t necessary, but as soon as Seth started removing his coat, she clamped her lips shut. She wanted to look at him without all that leather covering up his powerful physique. His Guardsman shirt clung to his muscles in the nicest way.
He brought the coat to her and laid it over her lap, smiling down at her. His eyes, however, were at half-mast, a sure sign he was still thinking things he shouldn’t. When he turned away, she lifted the leather to her nose and sniffed. She barely repressed a groan because his scent clung to every bit of hide.
Walking away, he looked damn sexy in his thigh boots with studs down the sides. And because Davido kept telling Seth to hunt through the stack of logs to reach the exact size Davido required, Seth did a lot of bending, which in turn gave Lorelei the best view.
He’d performed this task several times when Davido cleared his throat. Reluctantly, Lorelei shifted her attention to the ancient troll, but found his blue eyes sparkling with amusement. He winked at her, clearly knowing full well she’d been enjoying the view. She realized he’d done this for her. What a wicked man! Warmth climbed her cheeks at having been caught, but she couldn’t help but smile.
When Davido turned around to face the fireplace, her gaze fell once more to Seth’s tight buttocks and muscular legs. She had the strangest desire to bite him, to shift to her wolf form and sink her teeth into the fleshy part of his bottom. Her mouth watered at the thought.
She’d always liked the male physique, from broad shoulders to narrow waist. And Seth, because he worked out as he did, was all firm, hard muscle. One more reason she wanted her teeth on him.
She bit her lip and just as the fire got going, Seth suddenly straightened and stood upright. He turned to stare at her for a long moment, then he laughed as he punched Davido lightly in the shoulder. “You old devil,” he said.
Davido shrugged and moved to join Lorelei, though on the far end of the full-size sofa. He used some loose throw-pillows to make a comfortable seat for himself. He was short at five-three, and given that most shifters hit the six-foot mark and above, the furniture had been built with larger frames in mind.
Though there was eight feet of couch remaining, Seth chose to sit beside her on the loveseat, much to her surprise.
He even took her hand in his, a small action that caused her heart to melt—silly woman that she was.
Davido smiled at them both in turn. “So, tell me what’s going on and how I can help.”
Seth rubbed his thumb over his forehead, a familiar gesture. “The alphas have called Lorelei the prime female and we need to know what that means.” He then gave a brief recounting of the events at Loperz Canyon.
“And you’re the regis male, correct?” Davido crossed his legs at the knee and looked elegant doing it, his hands resting loosely on his lap.
Seth shook his head. “None of the alphas said anything about a male regis.”
“They will. A prime female always has a regis.”
“But how can I be anything like that when I’m a vampire?”
“Historically, anytime a shifter marries a species outside his own, he or she automatically gains the complementary position. Were Ephyx, for instance, to take a troll wife, she would be the alpha female.”
“Well, there are a couple of problems with that, the first being that Lorelei and I aren’t married.”
Davido’s brows rose. “Marriage is the ceremony we’ve created over many thousands of years to confirm an already established bond and I’m catching a strong shifter-bonding scent coming from you, Seth. Remember that in the realm world, we’re all connected on a basic DNA level. Therefore, you would already have within your genetics a few shifter markers as part of your vampire nature. I’d say they’ve kicked in and the four packs will have no problem recognizing you as their regis.”
Lorelei shook her head. “This is all so much to take in. But what I really don’t get is how I became the prime female?”
“It’s just something you are, which means you have the capacity to summon the entire shifter community of all nine Realms.”
“What?” Seth’s voice boomed around the room.
Lorelei shook her head, bewildered. “Seriously? All nine?”
“That’s right. If you’d been in any other realm, your summons would have brought the shifters in that realm, just as it did here in Walvashorr.”
“I can’t believe this.” Lorelei felt out of her depth in more ways than one. “Sweet Goddess and the Mother Earth combined. How is this possible?”
“You have more power than you know, which is why Margetta has tried so hard through the years to get to you. But how happy I am, my child, that you’ve escaped her. Just doing that much has saved the Nine Realms, at least for now, since she won’t be able to employ you as a weapon.
“But what’s happening here tonight is one more layer of the battle ahead of us. Vojalie has sent a message to you both, that together you must figure out how to forge the shifters into a single, powerful, fighting unit. In the coming year, they will become a critical part of the final battle that must take place in order to defeat Margetta forever.
“However, my wife also wishes you to know that working together will not be simple at first, that there is a huge obstacle between you, something of a deeper realm nature that will require great sacrifice on both parts to overcome.”
Lorelei’s heart started pounding. “And how are we supposed to do that? We barely know each other.”
Davido shook his head. “You must have faith and learn to trust one another. Much more easily said than done, I fear.”
