Of Savage and Sin (Wolves of Ossary #2)

CHAPTER TWELVE

–Bain–

I KNEW I wanted Naya and knew I would die for her, but I had no idea how intensely, unwaveringly, and without question both my human half and wolf loved her until the moment she stepped foot in my den.

The moment all our dreams became part of a singular moment.

Her, here and now.

Her, where she always should have been.

I felt so strongly I wondered how I had ever been here without her. How I had ever stepped foot in this overly root-ridden cave without her. She was everywhere, and I didn’t see it until now.

Did not see it until I looked at everything through her eyes.

“Bain,”

she said hesitantly, as if fighting saying my name but could not help it. Her gaze traveled the scope of my circular den in awe. “What is this...”

Not a question, not really, because she knew, and I finally did, too, as she took in the numerous roots that covered the walls. When I was young and newly made by Tréan, my wolf had sought this location. Sniffed it out and made it mine.

Now I knew why.

As I gazed at a pattern I had, bit by bit, carved over the years in the massive root systems cushioning my most private space, I saw the waves. The ripples of a turbulent sea. Each cut of my blade had been small and intricate. A means to keep my mind occupied, but now, with Naya here, I saw a bigger picture that I hadn’t before. Lots of tiny carvings that only made sense the moment she walked in.

That had possessed no meaning until she was by my side.

“They made sense to your wolf, though,”

she managed, clearly struggling with her emotions while she took everything in. As she saw the turbulent seas of our youth and, one way or another, our separation. A day that stayed with me in more ways than I’d realized. “This always made sense to your wolf.”

“So it seems,”

I said gruffly, troubled by it for several reasons. Not just because it represented one of the hardest days of her life, losing her parents, then her shunning me, but because I’d enjoyed several females in this room over the years.

Somehow, that felt worse than anything.

“That’s because you’re not seeing the whole picture.”

She rested her hand on my arm and pointed along a horizontal line toward the bottom of the wall that swept around the entire chamber. “You’re not seeing that your inner beast has been trying to comfort, not upset you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And I’d say trying to remind you those other females were a means to an end and would only have you for so long.”

The moment she touched me, her inner beast touched mine, and I saw beyond the turbulent waters to the safety of the shoreline. I saw her in human form, waiting there, still needing me, never shunning me, calling me back to her.

Watching.

Waiting.

“Yet I hadn’t been bitten yet,”

she murmured. “So how is that possible?”

“I could not say,”

I replied. “Other than ‘tis said, the call of fated mates is powerful...powerful enough for a wolf to go Renegade if it meant pulling their mate back to them.”

Unable to keep from touching her, I traced the back of my fingers along her delicate jawline, caught again by the softness of her skin. “Yet I find myself grateful you did not go Renegade to pull me to you.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Her beautiful pale brown gaze drifted to my face, and she leaned into my touch, admitting something I hadn’t caught in her thoughts. “I might have done it to avoid belonging to Niall, but I think some part of me did it to be closer to you, too, because even though it was one of the worst nights of my life, I never felt alone. Not entirely. Terrified and sad but never alone like I should have felt during such a monumental shift.”

“You went back to the shore,”

I realized, glancing from the carvings back to her. “You went back to where I ...”

I bit back a wave of emotion at how hard that must have been for her, never mind the blinding terror and pain of a newly made wolf suffering a True Moon Shift by herself. “You went back to the place so close to where you lost your family.”

“I did.”

She released a choppy sigh. “It was the only place I knew Niall wouldn’t think to look, and he didn’t, so I got lucky.”

Her eyes searched mine. “But then, like I said, I didn’t feel alone, so maybe, in some strange way, you were there protecting me.”

Her cheeks pinkened in a way that brought my inner beast to attention. “With me like you’ve been before. Sometimes in dreams and sometimes...more.”

As quickly as she had grown affectionate, a frown marred her lovely features, and she pulled away. “Other times, far less.”

I knew she spoke of the night Niall had bitten her, so I addressed that first. “I wasn’t truly there when it happened, Naya.”

Meeting her frown, I poured a cup of ale from the pitcher left on the table. “I was with you in a nightmare but not in reality. Not like I had been the night your boat sank.”

“Because you thought I’d shunned you years before,”

she concluded, knowing I told the truth due to our growing connection. “So you never came to my era again? Somehow, I find that hard to believe.”

“You mean you know it’s impossible to believe.”

I handed her a cup of wine and arched an eyebrow at her. “If you have figured out nothing else by this point, ‘tis that I’ve kept an eye on you over the years as best I could but only from a distance. Never truly seeing you but feeling you. Something I couldn't do with a thousand years between us.”

Biting back a growl, I clenched my fists in frustration. “Whether I felt shunned the night you lost your parents or not, I only ever wanted what was best for you.”

I shook my head, reining in my fury at Niall all over again. “And what was best for you definitely wasn’t this curse. It might be welcome for those of us turned by Tréan but not for wolves of the future.”

“Yet you had to know things were getting dangerous for me,”

she pointed out, narrowing her eyes as she thought about it. “You had to be wary when you knew a close friend of mine had turned wolf.”

“I was, and I wasn’t,”

I admitted, trying to explain how strange things had been. How troubling the times. “Unlike Tréan, because he’s far more powerful, I didn’t realize Niall was Tadc’s descendant because, sadly, I never caught the scent, or I would have interfered years ago. Niall turned wolf during a turbulent time when I could not leave our pack. Tréan was off fighting for the Vikings, leaving me and Callum to protect everyone from the growing threat within our ranks and all around us. When Kaia arrived and told us of her cousins’ fate, your fate, Naya, time seemed to stand still, and it ended up being one of the hardest, most infuriating moments of my life. Until I realized you had gone Renegade, making what I’d felt moments before pale in comparison.”

As expected, my wolf responded with anger at the time, but I managed to conquer it, keeping the truth from Tréan about my connection to Naya, albeit a distant one, mostly in my dreams by that point.

“Had I known what would happen to you,”

I went on vehemently, “I would have abandoned all who needed me to be there for you. Stopped Niall before he could cause so much harm.”

“But I wouldn’t have wanted that,”

Naya said, her tone softer now. She eyed me with what appeared to be empathy. Perhaps even a touch of pride. “I understand protecting your own because nothing could have stopped me from staying in Boston and trying to get what I needed from Niall to protect my family.”

I didn’t realize how hard I gripped my mug or that I trembled with repressed rage until Naya rested her hand over mine and continued. “I’m not sure if you need to hear it, but now that I understand, I don’t blame you.”

She seemed to think about how she wanted to phrase things. “I did blame you initially because...you were you, someone so present in my dreams and nightmares, but I don’t anymore. Hell, I probably shouldn’t have to begin with.”

She shook her head. “Honestly, I would think less of you if you’d left your pack undefended to save some random woman from the twenty-first century.”

“Yet there’s nothing random about you, is there?”

I couldn’t help but cup her cheek, grateful for her forgiveness because I needed it more than I realized. “Somehow, some way, fate has been leading you to me, and ‘tis not random at all. You are—”

Beautiful? Irreplaceable? Soon to be mine?— “a worthy fated mate.”

I didn’t miss the flash of wariness in her eyes because forever was a long time, but I knew, deep down, she was having fewer and fewer doubts. With every word we shared and every moment that passed on my territory.

With every second we inhaled each other’s scent.

The more I breathed her in, the more I became aware of a unique change to her sweetness. There was a new and especially delicious aroma to it, which made my inner beast scream to the surface and hover there, causing me to inhale sharply and my beastly eyes to flare.

“What is this?”

Naya managed, sensing it, too, when I set my mug down and reeled her closer before I could stop myself. Before she could get away. “Why does my skin suddenly feel like it’s on fire and—”

Blood pounded into my cock so painfully I couldn’t stop myself from locking her against me and crushing her lips beneath mine. Here I was, furious at Niall for biting her against her will, but I was ready to do far more whether she’d have me or not, and I barely understood why because I had never felt such intense lust before.

Kissing her and feeling her let go while straddling me in the great hall had been the most arousing thing I’d ever experienced, but it didn’t compare to how I felt now when she melted against me so quickly and so submissively, telling me she wanted me just as badly. But then I’d figured out what was happening.

She had just gone into heat.

Something Naya made clear whether she understood it or not when her tongue wrapped around mine, and she released a throaty growl of need. I had caught her distress about not being able to bear offspring and had meant to talk to her about it, but now wasn’t the time.

She might not be able to have children, but clearly, her wolf still experienced the sensations because my inner beast was desperate to fill her with seed. Again and again, over and over, until I’d emptied every last bit of myself deep inside her.

Marked my territory in the most primal way possible.

There would be nothing romantic about it, either. Not with how desperate I had become and how wild my inner beast felt. I would own her in one deep, hard thrust, and no wolf would ever have her again.

Especially not Niall.

Something about knowing he’d already experienced her sweet flesh made me growl in warning, end the kiss, and meet her eyes in a look I hoped she understood. One that told her I intended to tie her down so she couldn’t escape and wipe his scent from every last corner of her luscious body until every last bit of her inner beast rejected him. Loathed him.

Then, she would beg me for more because the pleasure would be so intense.

“You promise?”

she whispered, her head falling back when I kissed and nipped my way down the side of her neck, devouring her ever-sweetening flavor because I swore even the taste of her soft flesh was designed to please me.

While tempted to lock her down on my bed, there was no time. I had to be inside her now, so I swiped the food and drink from the table, ignoring everything as it crashed to the floor, then grabbed her and laid her down. I locked her wrists over her head with one hand, pushed my tongue into her mouth again, and thrust my free hand into her pants, pleased when I found her soft center hot, wet, and ready for me.

It was a miracle I didn’t take her right then, but I held back because I didn’t want to hurt her. She might be ready for me, and I might be desperate, but I was larger than most, so I would see her well-pleased before I claimed her.

“Bain,”

she groaned, squirming against me in need before I worked two fingers into her steamy, tight sheath, pleased when she kept moaning and arched against me as I nibbled my way down her neck. More pleased still when she grew even wetter, and I could add a third finger while working the pad of my thumb against the tiny, swollen nub above.

“Oh, God,”

she cried out, letting go almost immediately when I thrust and curled my fingers, and I’d never found anything more satisfying. It had been one thing holding her trembling body against me in the great hall when she’d released. Another thing entirely now when she didn’t bury the pleasure against my chest.

This time, when she arched even more, her lips fell open in a long, throaty groan of pleasure, and her eyes rolled back in her head. If that didn’t make my arousal that much more painful, then the feeling of her sheath clamping down around my fingers certainly did. Had my cock been there, I would have exploded from the raw sensation. Instead, I continued thrusting my fingers in and out slowly while I brushed my lips against hers until the kiss grew more passionate.

Eventually, she whispered that she needed more. All of me.

And I was more than ready to give it to her.

In fact, I was about to rip her pants off when my sister, Mave, of all people, appeared at the doorway, leaned against the doorjamb, and clearly appreciated the view.

“Sorry, brother.”

The corner of her mouth shot up as she took in the food and drink strewn all over the floor before her gaze locked on Naya with approval. “Greetings, Naya. I would welcome you to our century in hopes it has not been too uncomfortable an era for you, but I see my brother’s seeing to all your needs.”

“What is it, Mave?”

I growled, in no mood to chat when I could be slaking my lust and marking my territory, making sure Niall’s stink was removed from Naya once and for all.

“Are you not going to introduce me to your...”

Mave tilted her head sideways and grinned at Naya, who still lay on the table, so their gazes aligned. “What should I call you?”

She glanced at where I still held Naya’s wrists down on the table and winked. “I could think of a few things, and all flattering.”

“Hey, Mave.”

Undaunted by her current position or that she was still suffering the effects of her release based on her slightly dreamy smile, Naya shrugged. “Call me Naya. Hell, call me whatever you like as long as your brother keeps making this era feel so damn good.”

Mave chuckled before her expression turned grim, and she met my eyes. “Not that I blame you for missing it because what you're doing is far more fun, but Niall is becoming more of a problem than he already was.”

She sniffed, inhaling my mate's telling scent, and shot me a look. “The one thing nobody considered was Naya going into heat when you two began your Fated Mate Cycle. As Kaia puts it, all bets are off now because Niall’s caught her scent, which means Tadc probably has, too, not to mention the countless enemies we have since Tadc has been building his army.”

“We’ve begun our Fated Mate Cycle?”

Naya murmured as if gauging how she felt about that.

“Then let me claim Naya now,”

I said through clenched teeth, elated that we’d begun our cycle because that told me Naya's wolf was accepting mine in a whole new way but frustrated that I was being held back from taking her. “’Twill eliminate all threats.”

“You would think so, but ‘tis not that simple according to Tréan,”

Mave said. “Not until you are fully mated. Naya, being a Renegade already mated to Niall, makes things more difficult, especially now that she is in heat.”

The way she said that last part alarmed me.

It did Naya, too, based on the disgruntled frown that settled on her face with good reason, as she seemed to sense Niall in a way that discomforted my inner beast.

Better still, she sensed Tadc.

“He’s coming,”

she said, her voice slightly off, husky, almost as if she battled arousal, of all things. “My maker’s maker is coming for us...both of us...but me most of all.”

Knowing she spoke of Tadc coming for both her and Niall, I swore under my breath and took action to battle any sensual hold Tadc might have over her. Pulling her up into a sitting position, I cupped her cheek, grasped her backside roughly enough to please her, and pressed my raging arousal against her center. Then I gazed into her eyes and made sure she didn’t just see my reddish gold wolven eyes, but she remembered they had been a light in the darkness on the worst day of her life. The day she’d lost her family. She might have been terrified then of the safety I offered, but I refused to let her be now.

I would keep her safe, and we would see through our Fated Mate Cycle.

And all the while, I would pleasure her like she had never been pleasured before. Pleasure her until she screamed and begged for more. And she would beg time and time again. I pushed images of all the ways I would do it into her mind until I knew she was back with me in all ways possible.

“So what’s the plan?”

I finally asked my sister, satisfied when Naya softened against me, not just in submission but with acceptance and trust. “Where does Tréan want us?”

“Remaining one step ahead of Niall.”

Mave surprised me with what that meant. More so, the amount of risk my pack was willing to take to keep Naya out of the hands of not one enemy but two.