Chapter TWENTY-TWO
–Tréan–
FROM THE MOMENT Kaia whispered the sweetest words I’d ever heard, I was counting down the minutes until I could bring her back to our den.
Counting down the moments to thrusting deep inside her once again.
Over and over until we passed out in each other’s arms.
After all, she had just agreed to give me offspring.
Not marriage yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Our bond was too intense and only growing.
She would be my wife eventually.
Until then, she would remain my fated mate for eternity.
But first, we needed to welcome the living and honor the dead.
Callum approached the pups slowly, hand in hand with Ceara, who clearly struggled.
She had bathed but looked so gaunt it was a wonder my brother didn’t carry her.
Then again, based on the set of her chin and the determination in her eyes, he probably tried, but she had refused.
Yet determination wasn’t the only thing in her eyes.
They welled with unshed tears as she sank to her knees in front of the pups and looked at them with a mixture of grief and wonder.
Grief because they had been malnourished.
Wonder, I realized, because this was the first time she’d laid eyes on them since giving birth.
“I’m so sorry,”
she whispered, her heart in her eyes when she looked at them.
“I never meant...”
The male pups hung back, trying to assess her state and odd behavior, but the female took a few tentative steps toward her, cocked her head, and sniffed.
Tears slipped down Ceara’s cheeks as she looked from the males to the female and hung her head.
“I would have been there for you, my pups.
I would have...”
Having caught her scent and undoubtedly her love for them, the female raced over and cuddled against her, making it clear she understood Ceara was her mother, and she was forgiven.
Once again, letting their sister pave the way, the males followed suit, lapping and loving Ceara, who released a sob and gathered the pups close.
Callum looked at Kaia and me with gratitude for bringing them home safely, crouched beside Ceara, and wrapped his arms around them all, telling me he would be making them his own.
Whether he was in love with Ceara or not, I knew by the determination in his eyes that he would sacrifice a life of genuine passion so he could take care of Ceara and her pups.
Kaia knew it, too, by the way she watched the five of them.
Understood like I did, why Storm had wanted to stay behind.
It wasn’t because she was opposed to finding that kind of union but because she wouldn’t break their family up.
She would not make life more difficult for Ceara than it already had been.
“It doesn’t quite work like that, though, does it?”
Kaia murmured into my mind.
“No, it does not.”
Our eyes connected in mutual understanding.
The mournful howl Callum’s wolf emitted when he first encountered Kaia had everything to do with Storm.
Everything to do with this moment and something only he understood.
Something that tore his soul apart in a way that could only be born of deep love and loss.
Born of turning a fated mate away.
After that, we had no time to discuss the dynamics unraveling within our pack as we focused next on bidding our matriarch goodbye.
A solemn affair as her wolf was carried out on a wooden plank loaded with all her favorite things, be they flowers or ferns or tree leaves and bark.
She had always enjoyed a fine layer of fog on her morning hunt, so I ensured it poured over the castle walls and blanketed her gently.
As was the way with these things, I was handed a torch to light her deathbed afire and send her to the gods.
Yet as I took the torch, its wooden weight heavy with what I had to do, Kaia rested a hand on my arm, and I looked at her.
“Do you mind?”
she asked softly, her eyes brimming with unshed tears and admirable strength.
“Is that allowed?”
Swallowing hard and reflecting on the monster Tadc had been and still was, not to mention having clearly seen enough violence in her time to understand at least a portion of what the old wolf had suffered, Kaia shook her head.
“I get I haven’t known her long, but it would mean a lot.”
She wanted to be the one to light the pyre and send our matriarch to the afterlife, just as she’d been willing to sacrifice her life mid-battle to escort her there.
“I believe she would have liked that.”
I couldn’t love Kaia any more intensely if I tried when I handed her the torch.
“Very much.”
When Kaia brought the fire to the pyre, and it caught, sending our matriarch to the gods wrapped in flames and sunlit fog, mournful howls resounded far and wide.
Though it was a somber moment, all was as it should be once the fire dwindled, and we made our way down into the Great Den.
Down to a celebration of not just our matriarch’s life but the return of precious pups.
Wolves didn’t mourn death but celebrated a well-lived life, sharing all the happy and touching moments they’d shared with their loved ones.
Add to that tales of adventures, escapades, and hunts that would be forthcoming with the pups, plus the addition of their alpha’s new fated mate they already adored and respected, and it was a celebration for the ages.
“If you haven’t sensed it already, you should know Mave and her pack protected me from Blaithin and Tadc's mutts so I could get to the pups,”
Kaia said at one point, plunked on my lap right where she belonged.
“I’d say she’s trying to make up for not stopping Ceara from leaving our pack.”
She perked her eyebrows at me.
“Perhaps something we should let Callum know because even though I sense Blaithin got away from her in the end, Mave's clearly trying to help us?”
“I did sense she helped you, which means Callum undoubtedly sensed it, too,”
I replied.
“’Tis a good start to finding a much-needed resolution.
With what’s coming, ‘tis something we will have to ensure happens sooner rather than later because we need to stand together.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Kaia peered around the den.
“I had hoped I’d be able to meet the dragons that saved me, but I get the sense I won’t.”
“Not this time.”
I munched on a piece of succulent meat, not missing the way her gaze lingered on it.
“Soon, though.
Zane and his daughter know you’re grateful for their help and look forward to meeting you after the dust settles, as you would say in your era.”
“Right,”
she murmured, moving her backside just enough to tease the endless erection I’d suffered since first pulling her onto my lap.
“Because dragons are the bad guys in some circles.”
She licked her lips and eyed my mouth.
Not just for the meat in it but because she grew desperate for more.
To press our lips together and spread her thighs for me.
Let me drown in her scent and fill her with seed.
“You cannot fight your wolf’s needs much longer, mate.”
I picked up another piece of meat and held it between us.
“’Twill become not just an insatiable hunger but a craving to hunt.
‘Tis part of your inner beast now.”
There was no need to ask her about her aversion to it.
I heard it in her thoughts.
Saw it in her memories.
“’Tis not spoiled meat or—”
She put a finger to my lips and shook her head.
“I know it’s not.
And I realize you've figured out things were tough when my cousins and I were kids.
My uncle didn’t know much about keeping fresh food around, and I got gun-shy about meat, especially. Since then...”
Her eyes dropped to the meat and the bad memories it represented, not just because she’d had to eat spoiled meat but because of the rough times affiliated with it.
“Since arriving here, it’s felt like I’ve been conquering those memories by avoiding something that smells so damn good right now.”
“And now you have conquered those tough memories, mo maité,”
I said softly.
“You’ve been nothing short of a hero for your cousins and our pack.”
Shaking my head, I kept the meat in hand and made sure she understood just how far she’d come.
“You have shunned evil and saved the future of the Wolves of Ossary because I don't doubt you have, even though a bigger battle still lies ahead.
Our coming together as mates, then bringing Ceara and the pups home, gives us hope that we will defeat our enemy.”
I rested my hand over her womb in anticipation.
“That there's more to fight for than ever.”
Her eyes lingered on mine for a long, telling moment that told me she agreed.
We would succeed, and her difficult past was, indeed, fading away one layer at a time.
She showed it too when—keeping her eyes with mine—she opened her lips in such a way I envisioned putting something else there and steered the meat into her mouth with me still holding it.
As I pulled my fingers free, her eyes slid shut in bliss, and she chewed and groaned.
Needless to say, she went on to enjoy meat the remainder of our time there, which was brief before, too aroused to withstand another torturous moment, we bid farewell to our pack, and I carried her back to our den.
Rather than bring her into our private den with the waterfall or lay her in bed, I rested her by the fire on the pile of furs I’d first found her sleeping on.
While tempted to chant away our clothing and thrust deep inside her, I wanted this moment to be special.
Wanted her to feel how cherished she was as we made children together.
We might not have known each other long, but as the Fated Mate Cycle neared its end, it felt like far longer.
As if we’d known each other always.
“How do we know when we’re at the end of our cycle?”
she murmured hoarsely as I peeled her clothing off bit by bit, kissing and nipping every bit of newly exposed silky soft flesh.
“How do we know when we’re fully mated?”
“I could not say.”
Having never experienced it, I didn’t know.
“From what I’ve been told, ‘tis transcending...final.
It does away with the limitations of time and moon cycles.”
“How cryptic,”
she moaned as I flicked my tongue up her belly, pinched a nipple, then closed my mouth over hers, kissing her so deeply I lost touch with what I was doing and knew she did too.
Everything after that was primal, instinctual, raw, and desperate.
Frantic as we became one and loved each other.
Lusted and adored until she straddled me, met my eyes, and finally, at last, sank onto my cock.
Nothing, not even our first time together, had ever felt so good.
We groaned as I sat up and pulled her against me, needing every inch of her, including her mouth.
Wrapping my tongue around hers, I drowned in the feel of her rocking and grinding against me.
Lost myself in all the sensations she wrung from me as we held each other close and moved with a gentle sort of violence.
Faster and faster until we began trembling, eager and hungry, starved for what came next.
“Tréan,”
Kaia gasped against my lips.
She wrapped her arms more tightly around me, buried her nose in my neck to inhale my scent, and dug her nails into my back.
“This is...too much...”
Soaked in sweat and each other’s scent, she moved faster, grinding against me when I clasped her backside, steering her into my every thrust.
Steering her as I swelled inside her, ready, desperate, waiting...only for her to release a long, low, throaty moan of heartfelt pleasure, lock up against me and clamp down on my cock so tightly, I half roared, half groaned, and exploded deep inside her.
I let go in a way that felt different than anything I’d ever experienced.
Dove headfirst into another soul as if it had been part of me always.
Like this wasn’t the beginning for us but the continuation of something that had been going on since the start of it all.
Since life first blossomed. Truly the most intense, wondrous thing I’d ever felt.
And it didn’t end there.
We made love all night and well into the next day, unable to do anything else.
Consumed by everything we felt, we loved so deeply, it owned us, and we lost ourselves to it.
Lost ourselves so thoroughly, we knew we'd have pups of our own soon and begin a new life together neither of us could have ever imagined.
Difficult times lay ahead, and a pack war unlike anything I’d seen before was igniting, but as Kaia and I completed our Fated Mate Cycle and discovered just how strong we were, there could be no doubt we would succeed.
We had everything we needed to win this war.
Her beast had met my brawn, and love had been born.
Fated mates.
And that, as our enemies would soon find out, would be the ultimate weapon.
Will Bain and Naya come together to help the Wolves of Ossary, or will they do everything in their power to avoid becoming fated mates? Find out in Of Savage and Sin.
Just Curious
First off, I’d like to thank all of you who have kept reading my books and followed my characters over the years.
As I always say, without you, they’d be voiceless, their stories forever untold.
I’d also like to thank those of you who just found me.
I hope you’ve enjoyed spending time with all my various characters.
Enough so that you might share your experience.
To that point, if you enjoyed Of Beast and Brawn, would you consider leaving a rating or review? Just a line or two.
It would mean the world and make such a difference when it comes to reaching more readers and continuing the craft I so love.
If you’re up for it, thank you in advance.
I appreciate it more than you know, as do my characters.
Hugs!
Sky
Coming Soon