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“O’Mara said you were like a spider, or its web.”
“A spider?”
“That you were the center of a web that spins throughout the community.” She snorted and drained her tea. “A virginal spider.”
He took the cup from her, set it aside, and pounced. He was as silent as the predator he was, and she struggled against the sheets, blankets, and the large, muscular male. Her hands were over her head in an instant, and she squirmed until she saw, and felt, evidence of his enjoyment in her struggles. She squirmed some more, but with intent.
“You will be sore.” He lowered her arms and laid his palm over the bite. “Here, too, still.”
“It is, a little,” she said. He inhaled her new fragrance: the notes that had led him to her with the overlay of his own marking scent and the addition of something unique to them alone—the product of their joining and of his bite.
She wiggled once more. “I would not waste the food it took someone’s labor to make and to carry here.” He released her and rose.
“I would not waste it as I am ravenous. For food, also.” Alfred grinned, his entire body euphoric. He had known there would be a change in himself, but not to such a degree. Soon his people would know this joy, as they were free now to be fruitful and multiply.
“When you smile…” she began and trailed off, shy once more.
“When I smile…”
“I cannot reconcile you to the man who dragged me off into the night.” She patted his face, and he nuzzled her wrist. “So stern, so unyielding.”
“So burdened, so unhappy.” He linked his fingers with hers. “So afraid that my plans would not meet with success.”
“And yet all here stood with you and trusted you.” She looked down at their joined hands. “I, too, had a plan, and now I understand that while I had help, I did not have support. There is a difference.”
“I had no way to describe us without revealing what we were,” he said. “No way of explaining what you would gain, which is all the support in the world, without my people’s blessing.”
“O’Mara explained that as well.” Felicity ate her eggs and drank from her refilled teacup. “I am astonished that you would ask permission for anything.”
“We are a delicate system dependent on all observing their places.” He filled his plate again and ate with gusto. “Those at the top have the greatest responsibility, as we must keep the equilibrium for those at the bottom. So, in their way, they are the most important since they require much of the energy and attention of the so-called upper echelons.”
“And yet their very sense of well-being depends upon that echelon being at its fullest strength.” He nodded, and she continued, “I understand, then, why you were so adamant that our marriage not be like those of theton. It is important that you are true in all things.”
“The pack requires a genuine mated pair to look upon, to know they are held by both a masculine and a feminine power, balanced in love and strength. It goes back to that blasted myth, of course.”
“Mary Mossett told me rather a different version than you did.”
“About the vengeance of Venus?” He shrugged. “I suppose anything is possible.”
“This from a being of two natures who physically changes, one from the other? I suppose anything is possible as well!”
He rolled out of bed and stoked the fire. She snuggled up against the headboard and pulled the sheet up to her chin…then threw it aside and rose to join him, naked as the day she was born. “I suppose,” she said as she leaned into his chest and slid a leg between his, “that the true meaning of the story is that when strength and love cannot be found within both man and woman, then one or the other will stray, seeking to draw what was lacking from outside the bond, thereby endangering it. Therefore, whether it is strength of thought or muscle, of spiritual love or carnal love, if all do not meet in each heart and soul, then betrayal and pain soon follow.”
“I see no need to acquire the services of a tutor,” he said, backing her toward the bed. “You have discovered an interpretation no other has before you.”
She blushed and lifted her chin, defiant. “I insist that my marriage articles be honored to the letter, Your Grace.”
“It will be as you dictated, Your Grace.” He lifted her up high in his arms and tossed her down onto the rumpled bed linen.
She laughed and bounced and smiled up at him. “As it should be, else I would have taken you as a lover and not married you at all.”
“You are the one who refused to be my mistress.”
“Well, it would have been different had it been coming from me.”
“Ah, yes, your ‘bit o’ trousers.’” She gasped, and he laughed. “I heard you discussing that scheme with Jupiter.”
“I entertained that notion for no time at all,” she admitted. “Even then, I couldn’t fathom not falling in love with you.”
