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Another deafening cheer pushed against the rafters. Lorelei drank to the toast, and found the heavy, bitter ale the most wonderful flavor on her tongue.
Ephyx called out, “To our regis and the prime female.”
The cheers, shouts, and stamping of feet that followed brought a painful grin to Lorelei’s cheeks and tears to her eyes. She’d found an unlikely home in Walvashorr as the blood rose to Mastyr Seth and the prime female to the four shifter packs of the realm.
Several more toasts followed, as each pack honored their leaders and lieutenants and as Seth offered a final word on behalf of the several men and one female shifter who’d given their lives tonight on behalf of their fellow realm-folk. Observing a long minute of silence, Lorelei bowed her head and blessed their swift journeys into the arms of the Goddess. She added another blessing for those enslaved realm-folk, who had succumbed to the Invictus wraith-bonding.
And Seth still held her hand.
When the silence ended, he glanced at her and she saw enormous longing in his eyes, something she almost didn’t recognize. What is it?
You. His chest rose and fell in a deep breath. I need to be with you, Lorelei. Tonight. Now.
She glanced down at their joined fingers. Is this why you’ve been stuck to me for the past hour of celebration?
Yeah, it is.
He looked almost pained. You have to understand, I haven’t had a woman in my life for a thousand years.
When she finally understood, her eyes widened and maybe unfortunately for Seth, the shifter in her took precedence over the more orderly fae part of her genetics.
In a loud voice, she called out, “Hey, fellow shifters, sorry to be leaving the party so soon, but I need to get my man to bed.”
The slow glide of the ‘o-o-o-o-hs’ that this announcement fostered, as well as the grins and a few not-so-subtle hip-grinding gestures, made Seth turn to her and frown. Really?
But she was too much part-shifter, not to respond with anything else, except, Would you rather I went home with one of your men? Maybe one of the alphas?
You’re gonna start with me? Here?
Anywhere, anytime.
She got up close and slung an arm around his neck. He did the only appropriate thing and kissed her.
Another gliding set of ‘o-o-o-o-hs’ washed over her ears.
When he drew back, his eyes were at half-mast. “Let’s go home.”
At the mere mention of the word, she lost all her taunting shifter-bravado and nodded. “Yeah, let’s go home.”
* * * * * * * * *
Seth had never been this happy in his entire life. As he flew Lorelei south toward Defiance Falls and his home above Shauck Gorge, his body felt flooded with love, with triumph, and above all gratitude.
Never in a hundred years could he have predicted all the events of the past few days, or perhaps more importantly, of the past month from the time that Lorelei had appeared to him at his backdoor. She’d stolen into his life, on command from Queen Rosamunde, to serve as his bodyguard, and she’d stayed to become his confidant, his blood rose, and the woman he loved with all his heart.
She would probably never know the changes she’d wrought in his life, taking him from a solitary mastyr, who rarely socialized, to a shifter pack regis and part of a community that would probably never leave him in solitude again.
Yet he felt unsettled, as though something important hadn’t been resolved between himself and Lorelei. And the only place he could think to do it, was in his home, with his woman, in his bed. He needed her to feel him as he told her all that needed to be said, aloud, nothing hidden, or cloaked in telepathy, but the words vibrating between them, their bodies on fire.
Defiance Falls came into view first. The great river that created the falls, then broke into three distinct rivers, billowed with mist, the sound deafening, familiar, and welcoming as he passed overhead.
I love that sound. Lorelei spoke reverently, another thing he valued about her. She had an appreciation for the land around her.
I do, too. It feels like home.
A few seconds more and he touched down on his wrap-around porch. Snow created a soft round appearance to his flat railing, a single track of squirrel footprints the only breach.
But he didn’t release Lorelei until he had her inside his house with the front door shut and locked. He lowered the day-blinds as well, uncertain what hour they’d finally rise from his bed.
