Chapter TWENTY-ONE
–Kaia–
DESPITE WORRYING ABOUT leaving my cousins, I knew the moment Tréan barged in the front door of the Colonial, and I saw the fear on his face until he locked eyes on me and knew I was okay, I could only ever remain by his side.
He was part of me in a way that went beyond lust and love.
He was my other half.
Though I wanted to rush into his arm and never let go, the female pup beat me to it, which was okay for the moment.
He was her alpha, too, and needed his strength no matter how strong her little spirit was.
“If you’re sure you’ll be okay, I’ll return to the pack with Tréan and the pups,”
I said to Storm before giving Tréan and Adlin a look.
“But only under the condition that I can return here if my family needs me.
That me getting the pups here wasn’t the only time I’ll be able to time travel on my own because our maker Niall is still out there, and things are only going to get worse with Tadc.
Not just that, but I want to be able to say goodbye to Uncle Connor and give him the option to come back with me if he wants.”
I shook my head and looked at Tréan.
“He might be a loner these days, but he's my family as much as you are.”
“Your uncle is always welcome in our pack,”
Tréan confirmed as we headed outside.
He stopped near the oak and brushed his thumb gently alongside the knick from Torc's blade digging into my neck as if he tried to soothe the sting.
I also felt rather than saw him feeling out the other minor scrapes I'd gotten in battle, making sure I was okay and didn't need further treatment.
“As to coming and going betwixt eras,”
Adlin went on, “of course, you can come here any time you like, as you possess the power now.”
I knew by the look in his eyes he doubted that would be necessary, telling me two things.
Chances were good my cousins and uncle would be traveling back because we’d all be needed.
That meant despite Storm’s claim she wasn’t ready for mating, she might have no choice.
That was undoubtedly her issue over the jarring possibility of traveling to an era unlike ours because, in all reality, I had a feeling she’d flourish there.
Naya, however, not so much.
I couldn’t imagine her hooking up with Bain or living in the medieval period.
It seemed too far-fetched.
As to me? Had you asked me a week ago, heck, even a few days ago, I would have laughed.
Hard. No modern-day amenities? Primitive medicine? Screw that. Not in a million years.
Yet here I was after spending time with Storm and the pups, getting ready to say goodbye because I finally nodded once at Tréan, telling him everything he needed to know in a single look.
I was his, and he was mine.
And we had a pack to keep safe.
“A pack to rule together,”
he said into my mind.
“A pack to...”
When he trailed off and inhaled deeply as if catching a whole new scent, I tensed.
“What is it?”
I said aloud, going for the Viking blade sheathed at my waist.
“Is Tadc heading this way? Niall?”
“No.”
When his wolven eyes flared at me, a sharp ache blossomed between my thighs, and my skin felt like it caught on fire.
“’Tis time to go, mate.
Time to bring the pups home and keep them safe.”
Unsure what was going on inside me, but understanding he was right, I nodded, and we said goodbye to Adlin and Storm.
I thanked my Scottish realtor turned wizard again, giving him a look to keep a close eye on my cousins before turning to Storm.
“You’re really, truly sure about this?”
I shook my head.
“Say the word, and I’ll—”
“I am.”
She pulled me into a tight embrace.
“I can take care of myself, cousin. Promise.”
I blinked back tears when emotion swamped me—emotions that were too intense, considering I sensed she was a lot stronger than I’d given her credit for and that I would see her again soon enough.
Storm crouched and welcomed the pups into her arms with a warm smile when they raced to her, making clear the four had bonded quickly.
I might have been seeing and hearing things, but I swore she blinked back tears and whispered telepathically for them to take care of their alpha and father.
He would need them.
“What does she mean?”
I asked Tréan within the mind, knowing he caught it too.
“You’re the alpha.”
“I’m the alpha of alphas,”
he reminded.
“Callum and Bain rule their kingdoms on my behalf and are just as much alphas to their people as I am.”
“Callum then?”
Putting two and two together, I realized that made sense.
Sort of.
“Should I assume he and Ceara are getting back together? That he intends to marry her this time?”
Which threw a hardcore monkeywrench in Storm being his fated mate.
“I could not say,”
he replied.
“But I suspect we'll soon find out.”
Tréan embraced Adlin.
“You have my thanks, uncle, for protecting my own.”
“Aye.”
Adlin cupped his shoulders and gazed at him with pride and reassurance.
“Rule well, nephew.
As you now know, be they kin or Viking friends, you have support.”
“Ta.”
Tréan nodded in thanks before looking my way.
“If you’re comfortable with it, ‘twould be best to take the pups back to our kingdom in wolf form as our beasts can keep them safer.”
I nodded and glanced at Storm, concerned about her seeing me like that, but she only nodded and smiled.
“I missed it when you arrived earlier, so I’d love to see your wolf.”
Her smile fell to the male pups clamoring at my feet.
“Looks like they would too.”
Naturally, the female pup wasn’t as enthusiastic, given I’d carried her here by the scruff of her neck.
“I’m all for it, then.”
I frowned at Tréan.
“The only problem is I don’t know how I did it or how I managed to be dressed when I shifted back.”
“You did it because you were protecting others,”
Adlin revealed.
“All you need to do is tell your inner wolf you wish to protect again, be it pups or a cousin or a mate, and ‘twill be there for you.
For them.
‘Tis who you are at your core, lass. A protector. And in time, you will be able to shift effortlessly whether protecting or not. Whether there is a full moon or not.”
He offered a crooked grin.
“Not only that, but you’ve progressed enough with your inner beast that ‘twill always redress you when shifting back.”
While all that sounded nice enough, I wasn’t so sure, but it was worth a shot.
It turned out he was right because when I crouched and focused on keeping the pups safe, my body morphed even more smoothly than last time.
A flash later, I stood on four paws and wasn’t looking at the pups but into the golden eyes of a huge white wolf.
Looking into the eyes of my fated mate.
Tréan and I might have shared several impactful moments since first coming together, but nothing like this—nothing so intense and consuming as how it felt being beasts together.
It gave us a better sense of all we had found and what we would continue to find over the years.
First, though, we had pups to keep safe.
Not surprisingly, the males climbed onto my back before I could stop them, eager for another ride.
The female, however, having been embarrassed by how I’d carried her before, climbed onto Tréan’s back before shooting me a triumphant look.
“She’s something,”
I muttered into his mind.
“She’s you,”
he countered, a smile in his internal voice.
“And I imagine as she ages, you two will become fast friends.”
“We’ll see.”
But I knew he was right.
“Follow me, mate.”
He trotted toward the oak tree.
“And trust your wolf.”
When I looked at Storm one last time, she nodded and smiled, telling me she would be fine, so I tracked my mate straight into the tree, only to find myself back in the woodlands of medieval Ireland.
“Ceara is at our castle, so we’ll bring the pups there,”
he said.
“They will strengthen her in her weakened state.”
I hoped so.
Honestly, I couldn’t help but wonder because if I knew nothing else, Ceara hadn’t willingly slept with Tadc, so these pups were born of violence.
Born of what had been a traumatizing experience for her all the way around.
It seemed only a day had passed here because the setting sun cast prisms of reddish-gold light through the wet forest.
I knew we were in Tréan’s territory, our territory, by scent alone.
“We’ll go through the back of the castle to the courtyard lest eyes be watching from a distance.”
He cut left across a cool, trickling stream and through heavy shrubs until the backside of the castle appeared.
“This way.”
I followed him through a back door kept slightly ajar, without a doubt, thanks to our pack sensing us coming.
We passed through a medieval earthen kitchen scented with succulent meats, freshly baked bread, and spices before heading down long, torchlit hallways that smelled richly of earthy wood and pack members who had walked here before us.
Some smelled of sweat from battling, and others the musky scent of mating.
“Come, mo maité.”
His wolf stopped and looked at me with pride.
“Follow my lead and greet the entirety of your pack.
Let them see you as the strong, beautiful wolf you are.
One they already have much love for.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that until I followed him into the courtyard to way more than I anticipated.
Tons of people in both wolf and human form stood everywhere, from the battlements to the arched halls, roaring and howling in greeting before they bowed their heads and lowered in respect.
“’Tis very much for you this time, my mate.”
He set the female pup down, shifted to his human, and stood beside me with pride.
“They thank you for protecting our own.
From a broken wolf taken by the enemy to wolf pups that are our future.
For protecting a matriarch who will be sorely missed because she very much became that over the years. The mother of a monster who sought shelter with us then watched over us the best she could.”
Surrounded by not just Tréan’s kingdom but Bain’s and Callum’s, I understood their matriarch better as they all gathered to welcome me home.
Felt her all around me even though she wasn’t here anymore.
Saw her relatively young wolf first limp across the drawbridge, broken from the abuse she’d gone through being the natural-born mother of Tadc, then turned into a wolf by him.
Felt the abuse she had suffered from pack members because they couldn’t take their anger out on Tadc for making them into monsters against their will.
Then I saw the kindness Tréan and his pack had shown her.
How they’d helped her heal over the years.
How, she, in turn, made them her own.
Watched over them as intensely as their alpha.
I fought another wave of unexpected emotion when I felt how much she’d hoped Tréan would start a family of his own.
That he would someday find the fated mate he’d been lacking in his last life.
Have children again.
But he fought it and I felt that now. Felt how, because of the unusual circumstances he’d been born into, he feared losing love again. Children again. Feared having offspring that were half wolf because he knew the bond they would share would be that much more intense.
And with that intensity came vulnerability.
I didn’t understand why our matriarch came through to me so strongly all of a sudden, what she was trying to tell me, until I set the male pups aside, shifted back to human, and met Tréan’s eyes again.
Not until, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of pack members, I wrapped my hand with his and felt the contact like a carnal explosion.
Now, I understood the scent he had caught before we returned and why I was so emotional.
“I’m in heat, aren’t I?”
I whispered, not to be discreet but because, yet again, emotion clogged my throat.
“Ta.”
His loving gaze lingered on my face.
“So ‘twill be up to you how you wish to move forward.”
How did I want to move forward? Kids had been the last thing on my mind before becoming half wolf.
Then, the last thing I’d want to do to a child once I turned wolf.
Yet now, standing here, gazing into my mate’s eyes with three wolf pups in tow, I wasn’t so sure.
Or was I?
The thought of having a child born half wolf because I knew they would be with Tréan felt more appealing than it should, given how new I was to this place and the curse Niall had inflicted on me.
A curse that had since transformed into something that felt less and less sinister.
Felt less like a curse from the moment I’d laid eyes on Tréan.
Less like a curse when I shifted on my own and realized I had family here.
Wolf pups that needed me.
So I said what came naturally as he left the decision in my hands about being in heat because I understood what that meant.
If we slept together, I’d get pregnant.
His wolf wanted me that much.
He wanted me. And he wanted offspring with me. Had since we met, and I only saw that now. So he wouldn’t be able to stop it. Wouldn’t want to.
And I let him know exactly what I thought about that.