Chapter 9 #2
“Otto!” She stretched to reach for him even though it was futile. “What if he gets lost?”
The door closed, and the latch engaged with a loud metallic clatter.
“That I did do with my magic.” Propped on his elbows, Mathison smiled down at her. “He’ll not get lost. My steward Tanpip understands to have the footmen and the maids stay with yer Otto whenever the pup leaves this room.”
He trailed his thumb along her jawline. So many emotions flickered in his eyes that she swallowed hard. Old insecurities nipped at her, battling to steal the first genuine sense of contentment she’d felt in a very long while…if ever.
“I guess you think I’m a liar,” she said softly, half hoping he wouldn’t hear her.
His brow slowly furrowed over the befuddlement in his eyes. “Why would I think ye a liar?”
“Because I clearly told you I didn’t do one-nighters or relationships.”
The way he tipped his head and offered such an understanding look threatened to make her weep.
“Dinna be afraid, mo chridhe. This is real. Fated. When time began, and our souls were born, the jealous gods and goddesses splintered them in two, but we found each other, over and over, through each and every lifetime and reclaimed our precious bond.” He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.
“We have found each other again now and will be better for it. I promise.”
He scooped her up into his arms and rose from the floor with impressive ease. “To the bed, aye? I apologize for the floor.” He helped her slide under the covers, then stepped back and shed his jacket, tunic, kilt, and boots.
Unable and unwilling to look away, she feasted on his nakedness like a starving dog offered a banquet.
“The floor served us well. I’ve never…” Would it sound lame if she told him she’d never enjoyed such satisfying sex before?
“It was perfect—especially since you weren’t particularly happy with my plan to escape. ”
“I was not.” He climbed into bed with her and pulled her close. “Ye must never leave Wraith Tower without me by yer side. This Scotland is far more dangerous than yers.”
Worry stabbed at her again. “That’s why I was trying to leave.
” She pressed closer, ravenous for the feel of his warm flesh against hers.
She touched his face, trailing a fingertip along a silvery scar on his cheek, one she’d somehow not noticed before.
“I’ve never depended on anyone but myself. It just wasn’t safe to do so.”
“It is safe now,” he said with a sadness that worried her even more. He brushed a fingertip along her temple. “My heart breaks at the fear and doubt in yer eyes. My soul will not rest until that fear and doubt leave ye.”
“This place…the voice in my head…and now us.” She hitched in a deep breath to keep from spiraling into renewed hysteria.
Here she was in bed with a man who had just taken her to delicious oblivion and back, and she was panicking about the other stuff.
What in the world was wrong with her? She should be firing on all cylinders for round two.
Her body was ready. Why wasn’t her mind?
“I think I’m crazy, Mathison. All this stuff has me so terrified and confused, when all I should concentrate on is you.
Here. Now. And yet, I insist on worrying. What in the world is wrong with me?”
“There is nothing wrong with ye, mo chridhe.” He tucked her to his side and cradled her closer.
“There is much pulling at ye from every direction. Ye are a shifter raised in a world that lost its connection to the ancient ways of magic long ago. Yer wolf has never taken form out of fear for yer well-being. Ye still grieve for the child ye lost, the only precious one ye ever truly trusted and loved.” He idly trailed his hand up and down her arm, then pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“And now here ye are, fated to the soul of the dark Wraith, the cursed one of the Ninth Realm, and we’ve yet to bond.
Therefore, yer soul pulls at ye in a way ye dinna understand. ”
“But we did bond.” She lifted her head, confused. Had it not been good for him, too? He’d seemed to enjoy it.
“We joined physically, and quite wonderfully, I might add, but we’ve yet to meld our souls by speaking the binding oath.”
“Would that untie the uneasy knot I always feel right here?” She touched her sternum. The aching was worse. It was as if she were about to split in two.
He rolled them and kissed the spot between her breasts where it hurt the most. “That is yer soul crying out to join with mine.”
“Is that why I feel like I know you?” She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. All the feelings, all her fears, were about to overwhelm her. “How I know at an almost cellular level that you’d never hurt me.”
He gifted her with a smile that eased her mind and filled her with hope. “Aye, my heart. That is exactly why. Yer soul recognizes mine as mine recognizes yers.”
Still leery but unable to turn back, the churning within her increased to the point where she almost couldn’t breathe. “The binding oath—is it like a marriage vow?” She feared the M word for good reason.
“’Tis stronger. Once we are bound as we were in the beginning, nothing can tear us asunder except death—and even then, death will not conquer us because we will find each other in each life thereafter.
” He kissed her again on the breastbone, then pressed his forehead against her.
“Yer heart beats for mine. I hear it. Yer soul reaches for me.”
Cradling him against her chest, she closed her eyes and nearly lost herself to the maelstrom within her. Dare she really do this? Her heart screamed ‘yes’, and she found it impossible to ignore. “Where do we have to go? Is there an officiant here at the Tower?”
“We need nothing but each other, mo chridhe.” He lifted his head and locked eyes with her. “Do ye trust me?”
“Yes.” And she meant it even though she’d never trusted anyone other than her daughter. “I trust you.”
“Then repeat after me: Heart of my heart, soul of my soul.”
“Heart of my heart. Soul of my soul.” The rushing pound of her blood through her veins made it impossible to speak above a breathy whisper.
Mathison took her hand and placed it on his chest. “We reunite, to never let go.”
“We reunite, to never let go.”
He brushed the lightest of kisses across her mouth. “Blood of my blood, bone of my bone.”
After a deep, shuddering breath, she repeated, “Blood of my blood, bone of my bone.” The emotional storm beneath her sternum hammered harder.
With her hand in his, he held on tight. “We two are now one. Our halves are now whole.”
“We two are now one. Our halves are now whole.”
“For the good of all, with harm to none, so let it be spoken, so let it be done. So mote it be.”
Struggling to catch her breath, gasping as hard as if she’d run a race, Calia cried out the words over the roaring in her ears, “For the good of all, with harm to none, so let it be spoken, so let it be done.” As soon as she uttered, “So mote it be,” the room exploded in a cloud of blinding white light, and all sound ceased.
She couldn’t even hear the roar of her hammering heart or the whoosh of air whenever she pulled in a breath.
Weightless and floating, the warmth of the light embraced her, reassuring her that all had finally been made right.
And then she saw them, a pair of wolves frolicking and nuzzling each other as if reunited after a long separation. One silvery white. One inky black. In the light’s brightness, their images were hazy, their movements slowed as if Father Time held his thumb on the second hand and made it drag.
“They are fated mates as well.” Mathison’s voice echoed through her consciousness. No, not her consciousness, but theirs.
Then she realized her aching knot of uneasiness no longer existed. In its place was the steady, comforting beat of Mathison’s heart, a rhythmic thump that synced with hers as they lay there chest to chest.
His arms tightened around her. “We are bound, mo chridhe.”
Breathing him in, she kissed the salty sweetness of his throat and nuzzled closer, fitting perfectly in the crook of his neck and shoulder. “What does muh KREEuh mean?”
“My heart.”
She liked that. Very much. “Will we always feel this way?” she whispered, almost fearing that if she spoke too loudly, she would break the magical spell.
“Always.” He tipped her face up to his and took her mouth with an urgency that set fire to her all over again.
Using leverage borne from years of defense training, she rolled him to his back, climbed on top, and mounted him. “I’m afraid this time can’t be slow either. If we don’t do this now, I’m going to die.”
He grabbed hold of her waist and arched upward with a satisfied growl. “Aye, love. ’Tis the final sealing. There’ll be no meandering about this claiming.”
She rode harder, blinded by a furious lust that raged through her. Every nerve ending burned, only sated by Mathison’s touch, and even then, her body hungered for more of what only he could give. “We’re going to burst into flames.”
He rolled her over and pounded, hammering into her with even more fury than before. “Mine,” he said with a guttural growl before sinking his teeth into her shoulder.
No pain came from the bite, only ecstasy, and the need to taste him just as he’d tasted her.
As soon as she bit into his shoulder, the room exploded again, but there was no silence this time.
Just the deafening howl of wolves combined with the scream of delight that ripped from her throat alongside Mathison’s victorious roar.
Together, they convulsed in the completion of their wild joining.
She clutched him, digging her nails in and holding with a tightness that would never let go.
“Mine,” she said, her voice raspy and hoarse from screaming. “Mine.”
“Mine,” he growled against her mouth as he kissed her with more possessiveness than before.
Eyes closed, gasping for breath, she kept herself wrapped around him.
No way could he ever escape her tangle of arms and legs.
His skin against hers, the beat of his heart, the way he shifted in her arms whenever he breathed, every sensation filled her with so much joy and completeness that tears overflowed. Soon, she was sobbing, unable to stop.
“Calia?” Lifting his head, he framed her face between his hands. “Calia—are ye in pain? What is wrong?”
“I never knew such happiness was possible.” She sniffed and blinked, trying to stop, but more tears came.
“By the blessed Veil.” He kissed her eyes, then cradled her closer, rolling so she could rest her head on his chest once again. “So, ye’re happy, my heart? Well, and truly?”
“Yes.” And she knew why. It wasn’t the phenomenal sex, the oath, or the connection; it was because she finally belonged. “You are my home.”
He yanked the covers up over them, then tenderly kissed her eyes again while wiping away her tears. “And I always will be, my treasure. Now, rest.”
While physically tired, her mind hummed with renewed energy. “But Otto’s still roaming.”
“They will bring him back and let him in when he is ready to retire.”
Tickling her fingers along his dark trail of hair that ran down the center of his chest, down his abdomen, and even lower, more wonderings kept her from closing her eyes. “Is your curse broken now?”
He shifted beneath her cheek with a heavy sigh. “Nay, love. Not yet.”
“But we said the binding oath. We’re reunited.”
“Aye, but the curse says I must win the love of an otherworldly woman who refuses to love. I know ye feel a lot of things at present, but I fear ’tis entirely too soon to call any of it love. Do ye not agree?”
“I see what you’re saying.” As he’d said, she felt a lot of things for him, but wouldn’t quite call any of those things love. “How will we know when it happens?”
“Ye will know when ye love me just as I will know when I love ye.” He slid his hand down her back and gave her butt an affectionate squeeze.
“But how will we know when the curse is broken?”
He shook his head. “That, I dinna ken. I would hope my people would recognize me for who I truly am rather than continue to think me the Wraith.”
More uncertainties crept in, determined to pee on her contentment. “I don’t know anything about being a chieftain’s wife, and I sucked at history. I memorized the information long enough to pass the tests.”
“Ye dinna have to be anyone other than yerself, mo chridhe. That is and always will be enough.”
Mathison Shadowmist was too good to be true. If not for what she’d just experienced, she’d think him a con man of the first order. But he wasn’t. As she’d said, he was her home. Her one. He was contentment, trust, and safety rolled up in a sexy, alpha male package.
He hugged her close and kissed her forehead. “Sleep, my worried one. Together, we can conquer anything, ye ken?”
She forced herself to stop spiraling and ruining the perfect afterglow. “I ken.”
But she had one more question. Her mind was missing one particular participant that she’d known her entire life. “Intuition has gone quiet,” she whispered. “Is she okay?”
Mathison chuckled. “Aye, love. Her and Dubh’s spirits are probably still in the in-between, doing a bit of binding of their own.”
“Good.” She wouldn’t ask what the in-between was since she’d seen them playing in the haze of the light’s glow.
“Aye, lass. ’Tis verra good indeed.”