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Everyone stood quietly. The only sound heard was the haggard breathing of the newborn wolf. She was facing the opposite direction where the body had landed, then snapped back around to the crowd.
She snarled, curling her lip up and over her teeth to expose the bubble-gum pink of her gums. Lexi wasn’t in control since it was her first time shifting. She was running on instinct, and everyone around her knew it.
Xander took a step forward into the silence as Lexi’s growl grew deeper. She bent forward, narrowing her eyes at her king, the black engulfing her green seas.
“Take everyone inside,” Xander whispered to Stephen. “Go, now.”
The pack began to slowly back away, not making any sudden movements. They all knew what was happening. Lexi was as wild as any mangy rogue wolf in the forest and could easily decapitate or mutilate the next person who caught her attention.
Xander waited as the pack moved inside and away from the battleground until it was only the two of them who remained. He approached her cautiously, the beating of his heart so strong and filled with love.
“Lexi, it’s me. I know you know me. It’s Xander, your mate.”
He spoke softly, even softer than his normal cadence. Lexi continued to growl at him, bending forward with deep rough snarls, her nails protruding into the grass.
But Xander knew her and trusted her more than he trusted himself. He continued to move forward bravely until the pupils of her eyes began to shrink.
“Hey, it’s me, darling. You did so well. Come to me.”
Xander held out his hand, trying to ignore the fact that it shook. Blood stained the blonde-shaded fur of Lexi’s mouth, but the snarl was beginning to evaporate. Xander reached for her, and steadily rubbed her snout.
The wretched expression melted away, and Xander watched as the feral monster began to disappear. She looked hypnotized as her body shrank back into its human size, the fur fading away into her skin, the bones cracking back into her divine, shapely figure.
All at once, as quickly as the wolf had arrived, the human Lexi was back again. She stood there naked before her beloved, a dozy calm captivating her expression.
“Xander,” she breathed. “I shifted.”
Lexi then fell into Xander’s arms as she fainted from the harrowing exhaustion. He caught her and lifted her like she was a baby, wrapped her in his arms, and carried her straight into their bedroom suite through the private entrance.
When he placedher in bed, she had nearly gone unconscious. Her eyes fluttered, and he stroked her face tenderly.
He bathed her silently as she dozed, her body desperately needing rest and nutrition. He washed the blood off her mouth, and the sweat from her body, then fed her sustenance along the way.
Xander kissed her cheeks, then her lovely lips. He whispered to her the only truth he would ever need to hold in his heart.
“I love you.”
THIRTY-ONE
XANDER
Because Lexi was finally able to completely shift, her healing processes after the battle were miraculously quick and efficient. Her strength increased twofold, as did her energy and, of course, her lust and desire for her mate.
Xander felt like he was a young man again, feeding the desire of his new mate, which was often insatiable. She ran about the palace in her wolf form most days after working at the clinic. Coming to him ravenous for food and lovemaking.
There wasn’t a single inch of this that Xander didn’t adore. She had become her full, vibrant self. A self who was even more incredible than who she had been when they first met. He was in love with her, deeply and madly, the best way to be when blending one’s life with another’s.
Despite the fact that they had already mated, Xander and Lexi still needed to participate in the ceremony. The rituals were, of course, the wolf shifter version of a wedding, which began with the procession and ceremony, including their vows, and after that, an elegant affair for a reception.
Xander and Lexi had become one beyond their physical forms, often sharing thoughts and emotions through the wavelength of their connection. It was a language only they understood.
It was an unimaginable experience for Xander to feel the tranquility within himself. He found that Lexi’s temperament had calmed, too, no longer concerned about her parents’ or sisters’ opinions of her decision to dabble within both witchcraft and the pack’s history.
He was extraordinarily proud of her and took every moment he could to express that to her.
“You’re a cosmic queen. You were made for me, and I for you.”
He spoke to her at the crest of dusk beneath a rustic wooden curve of an old elm that a carpenter within the pack had built for them. They, along with their pack and the pack of the Autumharts, were in the heart of the forest beyond Obsidianvale. The benches were also carved especially for the event, adorned in the plant life of their mixed families’ traditional colors.
