Chapter 13
The weak snowfall was on its way to becoming a full-fledged storm by the time the banquet drew to a close.
Those who lived at far points of the city or beyond the walls were invited to stay at the keep.
Liandra and Justas had been invited to remain for the entire seven days of light and dark, and they’d accepted even before the snow.
So Reule didn’t have to search hard or far in order to find Mystique as the hour grew late.
“Why aren’t you married, then, if you want a family of your own so much?” he heard her familiar low voice asking as he neared the door to Liandra’s chambers.
“I haven’t found a man worthy of accepting.
” Reule could almost hear her shrug the subject aside.
“What of you? Do you suppose that you’ve always wished for a husband and children?
I think of what you’ve told me and imagine you as a healer much too busy to think of making a family.
Or perhaps your independent ways made you undesirable. That happens in some cultures, I hear.”
“I don’t know what I’ve wished for before. Only what I wish for now,” she responded softly, the warm emotion in her tone shooting right through his heart.
“Aren’t you afraid?” Lia asked in a whisper. “Of the responsibility? Of … of committing to a single man for the rest of your days? You’ve known Reule only a week, and you’ve no past to use for comparison. Aren’t you curious?”
Reule felt a quick and stony stab of jealousy limned in fury. The jealousy was at the idea of Mystique making opportunities to compare him to other men, and the anger was directed at Liandra for speaking the intolerable suggestion aloud.
“Lia,” Mystique scolded in a light laugh. “It isn’t about physical relations. That doesn’t matter. Trust me on this.”
It doesn’t matter? Reule frowned irritably. Granted, he’d been a little wild and a tiny bit selfish in his haste with her earlier, but it still mattered!
“I knew Reule was my destiny the very instant he first touched me,” she confided vehemently.
“I was barely conscious, but I remember feeling him coming for me. Everything I had within me was focused on his coming. Then he was there, and I touched him, and I just knew. It was like coming home to the perfect place, Liandra: When you come into contact with someone who makes you feel like that, then you’ll know it too.
No fear. No curiosity. You’ll just know it in your soul. ”
“What …” Liandra cleared her throat, hesitated. “Do you suppose one could feel this way with only a look?”
“Well, I suppose so. I … Liandra! There is someone! Someone you’ve seen, right?”
“No. Of course not. I’ve merely had a ridiculous crush on the fool for years. If it was destiny, you’d think the idiot would have figured it out by now.” Liandra snorted derisively. “I gave up on that nonsense a long time ago.”
“Clearly not, or he wouldn’t have been the first to jump into your head,” Mystique teased mercilessly. “Tell me who it is!”
“I never would! Not to you! You aren’t even a telepath and he could snatch it out of your stray thoughts one day like that!
” Lia snapped. “I’d be mortified and humiliated.
Since there are no other Sánge for quite a large distance, relocating is out of the question.
Therefore, I’ll keep it to myself, thank you. ”
“He could just as easily take it from your mind,” Mystique countered.
“No, because I’m the stronger telepath. Thank the Lady. I’m even stronger than Amando was telepathically, which kept him from knowing. A good thing too, because I know he’d have let it slip one day, or tried to play matchmaker.”
“Are you hinting that this man you have a crush on is Pack?” Mystique crowed.
“He is, isn’t he?” She laughed riotously as Liandra furiously tried to shush her.
Reule grinned as he leaned against the wall, continuing to eavesdrop.
His kébé and her uncanny sense for reading people had uncovered Lia’s secret.
“Stop! Please!” Lia begged. “He wouldn’t …
couldn’t notice me even if I fell in his lap, Mystique.
His position would make taking a mate all but impossible without resigning, and he will never resign.
He would die for Reule. It’s all he knows, and all he’ll ever know.
I’m resigned to that. So please don’t tease. ”
Darcio. She could only mean Darcio. Stunned, Reule thought about the development and realized that Liandra was correct on many counts.
Darcio wasn’t likely to take note of a girl of her station.
Especially not the sister of a Packmate.
She was a noblewoman meant for a seriousminded relationship and commitment.
Darcio was, and always had been, fully committed to his position as Shadow.
It was a job that never ended and had no set hours of on and off time.
It would be unfair for Shadow to wed a woman and then pay her no attention.
Spend no time with her. And resignation was out of the question. Darcio would never consider it.
Poor girl. It was exactly as she said, a foolish sort of dream that it would be best for her to overcome.
“Sweet Lia,” Mystique said, her tone now all kindness and sympathetic understanding. “You cannot speak to me of the impossible. I’m quite certain that becoming the queen of Jeth was very impossible to the girl I once was.”
Reule took the responding silence to that remark as his cue to step into the room and make his presence known.
When he did, he found his kébé stroking her fingers through Lia’s fair hair in consolation, the girl’s head resting on her shoulder.
It was like watching a mother soothe her daughter, and the richness of the emotion it stirred inside him froze him in his tracks.
He could suddenly imagine her doing the very same thing for their daughter one day.
Coming to her mother with a broken heart or confessions of a young girl’s crush.
Only the hair slipping between her fingers would be black, like his, and her eyes would sparkle like diamonds.
The image in his mind made his heart thud in a hard, pounding rhythm. He wanted her then. Right then. Needed her in a way he’d never needed another being in his entire lifetime.
“Kébé,” he croaked, his voice harsh with lurching emotion.
She looked at him quickly and her eyes widened, first with pleasure, then with obvious understanding.
He struggled not to emanate emotion, wanting to maintain a measure of privacy for his feelings.
Liandra sat up and smiled warmly in greeting.
“Well, then,” she said briskly, shooing Mystique off her bed.
“I’ve kept you so long that my Prime has come looking for you.
I myself am exhausted,” She affected a wide and obvious yawn.
“Have a fair night, Mystique. My Prime.” She stood up and herded Mystique directly toward him.
He wanted to grab Amando’s sister and kiss her in gratitude.
Instead, he snatched up Mystique’s arm and swung her out into the hall.
“Good dreams,” he wished the other woman just before hustling his intended down to the other end of the long hall.
He’d housed Lia in Amando’s rooms, on the same floor of the keep as the rest of the Pack.
That meant he was in his bedroom moments later, the door slamming heavily shut behind him as his willing captive turned in a swirl of skirts to face him.
“Reule,” she whispered as he faced her, his face no doubt as savage as his need.
“Take off your clothes,” he commanded her hotly.
She drew in a deep breath, but though she didn’t protest, she didn’t move to obey either.
He watched her very steadily, slowly beginning to walk a tight circle around her.
He liked watching her. Watching her breathe.
Hard. The confines of her corset was doing outstanding things to her pretty breasts so that every deep breath sent her swelling over her neckline.
His crest dutifully circling the edge of that neckline made him smile.
His expression made her gasp, and he wondered what he looked like just then to make her react in such a way.
Probably like a man intending to leave his mark on her in all sorts of ways, which was exactly what he was.
“Let me explain it like this,” he offered, his tone low and purposeful.
“By the time I marry you, I want my child growing inside you. I cannot produce this desired outcome while you’re fully clothed.
Although …” He tilted his dark head and seemed to contemplate it for a moment.
“Well, that’s not entirely true, but I’d much prefer you fully nude as opposed to …
” Reule felt his entire body stiffen with heat and need as a host of lascivious options began to flood his mind.
“By the Lady, Mystique, take off your clothes.”
This time she was the one to tilt her head, her crystal eyes narrowing into sensuous little slits as her lips tipped upward at their corners.
She reached up with a single finger and teased at the bow her laces were tied into just beneath her cleavage, her hips swaying in a way that made her skirts swish in a soft pendular motion.
“I’ve heard much about what you want,” she mused, “but is there no consideration for what I want?”
He grinned at the little tease. “I plan to consider your wants quite thoroughly,” he told her.
He laughed when that had her cheeks turning pink with heat.
He reached to remove his jacket, shrugging it off his shoulders and tossing it aside.
He began to pull at the ties cuffing his shirt around his wrists, purposely bracing his legs into a wider stance so that his muscles flexed beneath his snug trouser fabric.
He knew she liked to look at him but was especially drawn to the strength of his legs. An avid horseman, he had that aplenty.