Chapter EIGHTEEN
–Tréan–
KAIA HAD JUST teased me with what she intended to do to me after we saved Ceara, promising we’d get back to doing what we do best, and called me her mate, only to follow up with another statement born of the cursed magic forming between us.
“After all,”
she went on, her voice a little different, “they can’t mate if we don’t mate first.
There’s an order to these things.”
I frowned in confusion.
“Who can’t mate?”
“Them, of course,”
she murmured.
“My cousins and your brothers so that...”
“So that what?”
I prompted when she trailed off, but her eyes had cleared, and whatever mystical foresight she’d tapped into vanished.
“Huh?”
Kaia frowned at me in equal confusion before the corner of her mouth curled up.
“Is this some sort of kinky flirtation? If so, you need to up your game, love.”
I repeated what she’d said to me, only for her to shake her head.
“Um...nope, didn’t say that.
The last thing I said was hinting at what I intended to do to you after we rescued Ceara.”
“Or so you thought.”
I opened the door for Bain, who had just knocked, only to find him standing there with a fierce scowl and his arms crossed over his chest.
“No,”
he stated bluntly, shaking his head.
“Not going to happen.”
It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about because he’d come down initially to let us know everyone’s warriors awaited us in the courtyard.
“You caught what Kaia just said under the influence of magic,”
I assumed.
“I did because she came through clearly to me and Callum.”
Bain kept shaking his head.
“And I will not be taking a mate.
Especially a Renegade.”
“What makes you assume it would be Naya?”
Kaia met his frown.
“Who’s pretty damn great, by the way, so watch your tone.”
Clearly not believing that, he grunted and gestured at Kaia as if she should have already figured out why he assumed it would be Naya.
“Hers was the only scent that caught my wolf’s attention, so ‘twould be safe to assume ‘tis her.”
His brow pinched, and his hard gaze whipped back to me.
“I do not take mates, and I will not have it asked of me, brother.”
“We both know wolves can’t be forced to mate, even by their alpha,”
I reminded.
“Especially not fated mates.”
“Fated mates,”
Bain exclaimed, his face redder by the moment and his scowl fiercer still. “Never!”
He stalked off, muttering something along the lines of you should slice my throat now and be done with it, brother, because I'll never commit to any female.
Sighing, I shrugged at Kaia.
“Give him time.
He’s long enjoyed being an independent wolf and keeping as many females as he likes.”
Pulling several blades off the wall, I sheathed them here and there.
“Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt him to settle down and finally have some wee pups.”
“I heard that,”
Bain roared down the hall before he headed out of earshot.
“Good God.”
Kaia snorted and smirked.
“Bain and Naya? Never going to happen.
Renegade wolf or not, he’d never survive her.”
I met her small smirk, curious.
“Why is that?”
“Let’s just say she’s hard to control.”
She looked skyward.
“I’ve been trying to do it for the better part of her life to keep her safe, but Naya tends to do what Naya wants, whether the rest of us like it or not.”
Her smile faded.
“Seriously, though.
I implied the four of them would be hooking up?”
“You did.”
I shrugged a shoulder.
“Or at least our curse did.
You also said there was an order to it, which tells me that everyone mating could play an important role in this war you claim is coming.”
“Right,”
she said slowly.
“A pack war, I’d say.”
“Safe to assume.”
“Which might imply today won’t go as well as we hope.”
“Or, go exactly how I foresee it going,”
I countered.
“Because I can't imagine Tadc being pleased when I don’t see through the exchange.
More so, being happy about losing you to me.”
“So you’re starting a war over me,”
she said softly.
“I’m starting a war to avenge Ceara and all the innocent lives Tadc has destroyed over the years.”
I cupped her cheek and brushed my lips over hers one last time before we headed to the courtyard.
“And, ta, I would start a thousand wars if it meant keeping you out of his hands and by my side.”
Now, all I could do was pray things went as planned.
“And what is this plan exactly?”
she wondered as I led her out of our den without tying her wrists first.
“Oddly, I can’t sense it in your thoughts.”
That was odd.
I could only hope it meant my inner beast was protecting her from Tadc somehow gleaning it through their bloodline connection.
If that were the case, though, he might have figured out she and I were mating and never agree to the swap.
She would be tainted goods and worthless to him.
“’Tis best I remain vague for now,”
I replied, heading through the earthen tunnel.
“Ah, the less I know, the better?”
“Mayhap.”
She went silent after that, but I sensed her curiosity and courage rather than the fear most twenty-first-century women would feel in her position.
But Kaia wasn’t like most women.
Not at all.
I had more respect for her than I’d ever had for any woman because I knew how devoted she was to those who mattered most.
What she faced now meant keeping her cousins safe.
Not just that, but keeping our people safe even though she hadn’t known them long.
I’d watched how she interacted with strangers over a thousand years in her past last night.
It was impressive.
She was intelligent and perceptive, instinctively knowing what people needed and desired most, no matter their ranking in the pack. More than that, she was kind in a way I knew she showed few in her era.
When we got close to the door leading up into the courtyard, she stopped and put her wrists behind her back again, waiting for me to tie them together.
“No.”
I tied her wrists together in front this time and gave her a pointed look, tying the rope so she had more mobility than before.
“Things had to look a certain way yesterday, but those wolves are gone now.
Scurried back to our enemy to report all they saw, backing up everything Blaithin told Tadc.”
I tucked the Viking dagger into her boot, hid its presence with a chant under my breath, and met her eyes.
“Nobody will know the blade is there.
‘Tis a means to keep you safe if it comes to that.”
Then came the most difficult part as I manifested the collar she had been wearing, hating that I had to put it on her again.
“Don’t be.”
A devious little twinkle lit her eyes that certainly hadn’t been there yesterday when her gaze flickered from the collar back to my face.
“Like I said, I don’t hate that kind of thing with the right guy.”
While Bain had dabbled a bit in what she referred to, I hadn’t.
There was never a desire for it until now.
Not until I imagined what it would feel like to snap this collar on her when she was tied up in our den naked and ready for me.
Fighting a rush of desire I had no time for, I locked the collar in place, cleared my throat, and stepped away before I hoisted her against the wall and took her here and now, bedamned all my responsibilities.
“Soon,”
I whispered roughly, wrapping a gag over her mouth.
“Very soon...”
There was no need to elaborate.
She knew what I meant.
“And I’ll hold you to it,”
she said into my mind, promise in her steady, sultry gaze.
“Over and over.”
As expected, the warriors we would need for this venture awaited us in the courtyard.
The other half were spread throughout the woodland in wolf form, tracking us and anyone who thought to sneak attack any of the three castles.
Those, of course, were guarded by the warriors who had stayed behind to defend the holdings.
The evening was windy and cool, and dark, ominous clouds brimmed on the skyline.
A storm would rage tonight, hiding the waning moon.
Perfect conditions for tricking wolven eyes into thinking they saw one thing when they actually saw another.
“You can influence the weather, can’t you?”
Kaia said, impressed as she felt out things we had yet to discuss.
My powers, specifically, having been born not just wolf but of wizards and witches.
“I can,”
I admitted.
“’Tis not something I often do because my inner beast doesn’t like to meddle with Mother Nature, but stormy weather suits us over moonlight this eve.”
To be expected, Callum was more stoic than usual, sitting astride a horse as black as his mood with his warriors on horseback lined up behind him.
Bain waited on his dappled grey horse with his soldiers lined up as well, his expression just as grim, no doubt because he might be doomed to a fated mate.
“I’m surprised horses are okay with you, given you’re half wolf,”
Kaia commented, undaunted by so many medieval warriors.
If anything, based on her thoughts, she was sizing up every one of them.
“Don’t wolves eat horses if they can take one down? Based on my research, a wolf will generally hunt something ten times its size.
Hence, its typical life span only being four years, even though it can live up to twelve. Damn dangerous going after something so much larger...yet I suppose they need something big enough to feed their pack.”
“They do,”
I concurred.
“And while true of full-blooded wolves, shifters are a different story.
We live longer and generally bond with those who help our human half, like horses.
‘Tis tougher for dragon shifters for obvious reasons.”
“I can imagine.”
I heard the awe in her internal voice.
“Any chance I’ll get to meet one? Maybe one of the little girls you helped raise? Well, the one who’s dragon.”
“Likely not any time soon, but eventually.”
I nodded thanks when one of my men walked my white horse over to us.
“They’re just beginning a new era of peace.
They should take the time to enjoy it.”
I sensed her flash of irritation that I had been there for them, causing such dissent amongst some here, yet I didn’t expect them to return the favor.
I didn't, though.
Not yet, anyway.
Hopefully never because it wouldn't be necessary. The road had been long and hard for Zane and his kin, and they deserved time to reunite and enjoy peace.
“I assume you know where Tadc wants to meet,”
Bain said, eyeing the turbulent sky.
Without a doubt, he'd noted the wind had picked up considerably through the day, allowing me to catch Tadc’s scent.
“Ta.”
I swung onto my horse and pulled Kaia up in front of me.
“I know where he wants to meet.”
His stink was on the wind mingled with Blaithin’s, letting me know he’d enjoyed her plenty.
Not a means to incite me because he was too smart to think I’d exile a female I still craved, but to cover up my scent with his own.
Show me he’d taken one more thing I’d once called mine because Blaithin had been part of my pack.
At one time, a beloved family member.
And I intended to do the same to him.
Not with a plan that was my own, because I had fought the idea initially, but thanks to someone who meant a great deal now.
Someone who had been with me for years and wanted revenge on their former kin, Tadc, just as much as me.
“Fall in behind me,”
I ordered, not needing to raise my voice to reach everyone’s ears.
They were either my pack or an extension of my pack, so they heard whether I whispered or roared.
They also knew exactly where I wanted them.
My brothers fell in on either side of us, then the strongest to weakest warriors behind them, spanning out into the forest where they might be needed once we left the drawbridge behind and traveled into the darkening woodland.
Although tense because we were heading into a situation that could go wrong at any moment, I remained overly aware of Kaia and how she felt between my thighs.
I breathed in the sweet scent of her hair to clear my nostrils of my enemy’s stink.
Soaked up her warmth and strength to sustain me.
In turn, she instinctually pressed back against me, letting me know I could take all I needed from her.
She was there for me no matter what, yet I couldn’t help but wonder...would that include marriage in the end? It was the last thing I should be thinking about right now, but I couldn’t stop my worries.
Hope.
The deep craving my wolf felt to possess her in all ways possible.
“Yet you can’t be thinking about that right now,”
she counseled telepathically, right there with me.
Strong inside and out.
“You can’t let me be your weakness, Tréan, and you know it.
Knew it from the moment you chased me into the New Hampshire woodland during my True Moon Shift.”
“I know.”
“You better,”
she made clear, her internal voice stern and unbending.
“You have to be the alpha your people need right now.
Ceara needs.
Don’t worry about me. However this plays out, I can take care of myself. I might be newly bitten, but I know how to read a room. If your enemy throws a curveball you didn’t see coming, and hell, if the bad guys don’t do it eighty percent of the time, I’ll be ready for it.”
I didn’t need to live in the twenty-first century to follow her references, but I still worried.
Shifters like Tadc weren’t the mafia, bikers, or gangs.
He was a ruthless monster with fangs to back up his bite.
And fangs in this era had a way of traveling faster than bullets. Especially when they wanted to sink that poisonous bite into my mate and lock her down in ways she’d never recover from.
“Be careful,”
she murmured a short time later as the forest grew darker and thunder rumbled.
“I’m catching a scent...”
“Tadc,”
I growled, certain it had to be him.
He was reaching out to her somehow.
“I don’t think so.”
She inhaled deeply and finally grew tense when any other woman in her position would have been tense long before this.
“It’s not a bad scent.”
A shiver rippled through her.
“But a vulnerable one...vulnerable to your heart.”
I sniffed what had become a gusting wind but picked up nothing outside of my enemy’s stench.
What was she talking about? Better still, how was she picking up a scent I wasn’t?
“Don’t trust this, mate,”
she whispered into my mind, making my inner beast’s hackles rise.
“Something feels off.
Tadc’s not playing fair any more than you are.”
Whether he was or was not, it was too late to turn back.
My enemy had just appeared ahead, and it was time to put my plan into motion.
Unfortunately, little did I realize just how right Kaia would be.