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For a split second, the viper had coiled into Kane’s consciousness, narrowing his focus and assessment on a potential threat. Except then the wolven had lowered their heads as if they were bowing, and disappeared into the night—as if they had just come to welcome, to make sure he and Nadya had known they would be safe.
And as they continued to ascend, he had the sense that the wolven were keeping their distance out of respect because they knew why he was here and why he’d brought his mate.
Because they knew who he was. Or rather, what was inside of him.
As he and Nadya crested the final rise, and the turn in the trail took them around a tumble of rocks the size of cars…
There it was. The clearing with the fire pit in the center, and the hidden dens of the wolven, and the red hut.
As soon as they stepped free of the trees, a burst of flames lit the stack of logs that had been set in the circle of stones, and thewhoof!-ing sound of spontaneous combustion was a greeting that was surprisingly cheery. And while the fire crackled and red sparks rode white smoke up to the clear, star-freckled sky, Kane turned to the hut.
He knew the old female who was not old would be emerging, and yes, there she was, holding the flap back so she could duck and step out. For a moment, he tensed up and moved in front of Nadya so that his body was protecting his female. But then the old female looked over at them and her smile was radiant.
“Greetings to you both. How wonderful to see you.”
She was wearing the same kind of crimson dress she’d had on that first night, except the beading and smocking was different—no, wait… the embellishment was moving over the fabric, the swirls of stitches and red, yellow, and white beads shifting their positions slowly, the pattern like a living thing. Her gray-and-white hair was once again loose over her shoulders, and he realized that it was alive as well, the gossamer strands swirling around her body even though there was no breeze to animate them.
Kane opened his mouth. And when the words didn’t come, he cleared his throat.
“It’s all right, I know why you’re here.” The old female smiled again. “You’re very welcome. And she is just lovely, inside and out. Aren’t you, my dear.”
The old female did not extend her arms, and neither of them walked forward, but the sense of warmth and comfort that came when one was embraced by somebody who loved unconditionally suddenly suffused Kane—and he sensed that it was the same for Nadya because she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Now go,” the Gray Wolf said, “and stand at the precipice and stare out over the valley. You will not find your future in the view, though, however beautiful it is. It is the one beside you who is your horizon. But you already know that, don’t you.”
Kane put his arm around hisshellan. “You are too right, and yes, I do.”
He looked down at Nadya, and as her eyes met his, he felt her arm go around his waist. The touch was so natural, so easy, her hand resting on the top of his hip a physical commentary on how much she just liked to touch him. And that still mattered to him, that she wanted to feel him and his body as much as he wanted to do the same to her.
“Will you join us to look at the—”
Kane glanced up. The old female was gone and so was the hut. And somehow, he wasn’t surprised.
“Come on,” he said to his mate. “I want to share this with you.”
As they walked around the fire pit and out the other side, he thought briefly of Cordelhia and that empty beautiful house of hers, arelic of the past, a testimony to the female’s lonely present and desolate future. There was no horizon for her, and maybe it made him vengeful, but that was okay with him. She deserved an even harsher punishment for what she had been a part of. Her blindness to the consequences of the actions of her family still astounded him. More than anything else, that was what had stuck with him.
It was a fresh definition for cruelty, such ignorance.
But as with learning to get along with the new side of him, finding a way to be at peace with something he couldn’t understand and couldn’t change was the internal challenge he was working on.
A little farther on, the trees gave way to a rock ledge and a cliff that dropped off to a sheer fall and a valley in the distance. The view was majestic, the rolling mountains descending to a gleaming lake, the thousands of acres of pines a fragrant blanket smoothing the contours of the undulating elevations of earth.
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Nadya said with awe.
He looked at his mate. Her hair was getting longer, to the point where she always had to pull it back in a tie during work, and her face, though free of makeup, had a glow to it that was more about the soul than a good diet and being well fed from the vein of a loving mate.
“Yes,” he whispered as he continued to stare. “I couldn’t agree more.”
Nadya turned to him, and stepped into his body. As he wrapped his arms around her, he thought about the things he had wanted for himself back in the Old Country, what he had hoped for, what he had dreamed of.
Funny, how all of that had come together in this female.
“I’m going to keep bringing you pebbles,” he said as he stroked the flyaways from her hair tie back. “For the rest of our lives.”
It wasn’t like he had any kind of net worth, so it was never going to be diamonds. But diamonds were just rocks, weren’t they, and to his female, his little stones were just as precious. She told him so every time he presented her with a new one.
“I’m going to cherish each and every one,” she said with a smile.
Just as he leaned down to kiss her again, he saw, standing off to the side, a beautiful pale gray wolf. And the mystical, ghostly animal looked at him and seemed to wink.
Then she lifted her head to the heavens and let out a howl. And as the song of the wolven weaved through the dark night, Kane lowered his mouth to Nadya’s.
And knew that community was a family that was chosen. Whether it was their friends and their mates, the prisoners, or the Black Dagger Brotherhood, they were surrounded by love.
Which made them richer than any amount of money ever could.
Family, after all, was priceless.
