Chapter 15
The bottom had dropped out of his world and the entire Pack went sharply rigid with the whiplash of his emotional fury. Reule felt Darcio’s hand circling his upper arm, squeezing hard to focus him on the task at hand. His voice was hard as he forced himself to speak.
“We’ll speak of this in the comfort of my keep. Enter Jeth and be welcome.”
Reule turned away and moved with speed as he laid commands into the minds of his Pack.
“Bring Lothas and the higher-ranking leaders to the keep as guests. House the outriders in two separate locations, in the city. Opposite ends, preferably. Dividing their ranks will keep them harmless. Offer a guard for Lothas if he wishes it, out of respect. Chayne, take Mystique to my rooms. Keep her there at all cost. If you allow her to gainsay you, I’ll have your head. Is that understood?”
“It’s quite clear, My Prime,” he agreed firmly.
“Saber, I want heavy patrols around the city, especially where the armed men are staying. Don’t make it too obvious, but make certain they feel our presence.
No one is to show even the remotest hint of hostility, Defender.
Make certain that’s clear. Unless the Yesu threaten to harm someone’s life, don’t move against them.
Warning, firmness, informing them of our laws—all of that is acceptable, but not violence or posturing. ”
“Understood, My Prime,” the Prime Defender said grimly.
Reule jerked on his riding gloves as he approached Fit. Again, Darcio reached out and stayed him with a hand against his arm.
“Easy, Reule. You could be mistaken.”
Reule narrowed his hazel eyes on his Shadow with a sharp turn of his head. “Do you think I’m mistaken?”
Shadow didn’t respond, and that was response enough, he knew.
He felt the tension in his Prime, like a whipcord of lightning that burned fierce and fast. And there was fear.
An enormous amount of fear unlike anything Darcio had ever known Reule to feel before.
He hadn’t even known Reule could be so afraid.
Darcio was the weakest empath among them, but even he could feel Reule’s growing storm of pain like a fist closing around his heart.
“Reule,” he said softly, “you’re the leader of a powerful city that will stand behind you no matter what you decide.
Don’t ever forget that. Don’t ever doubt it.
This Sánge tribe would sacrifice itself if you commanded it.
They know their lives would mean nothing without you, and they’d be willing to prove it with their last breaths.
” Darcio reached out to pat Fit’s flank, as though they were speaking of simple things instead of life, death, and fate.
“Good,” Reule said with bite. He looked hard at his friend. “I love her, Darcio. No man, no army, will ever take her from me.”
“Well, you might just be realizing that,” Darcio said with a snort, “but your Pack figured it out days ago.”
With that remark, Shadow turned and threw himself up into his own saddle. Reule looked at him, amusement shattering his fearful tension. He reached for Fit and swung up onto his back. He patted the horse’s withers. “Come, old friend. Let’s go protect our lady.”
Fit shook his head and whinnied in agreement.
“Chayne, this is ridiculous! Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?” Mystique demanded explosively as she paced the breadth of Reule’s private sitting room.
“Reule will be here any second,” he assured her firmly.
Mystique glared at him. He stood like a sentinel—a jailor—with arms crossed over his chest and the legs she had healed braced firmly apart.
“Aw, come on, Mystique,” he groaned, “that isn’t fair.”
He was right. It wasn’t fair. He was only protecting her and doing what Reule had asked him to do. She walked over to Chayne and touched an affectionate palm to his jaw. “I’m sorry, Chayne. Forgive me.”
“Mystique …” The tough man flushed under her affection like a young boy kissed by his mother in front of all his friends. She giggled and kissed his cheek anyway, knowing he was pleased regardless of what he’d show to her or others.
“And you get the apology even though it isn’t fair for you to read my mind when I can’t do the same in return,” she said pointedly. “I thought there were manners about that.”
“Yeah, well, the rules change when there’s … um …” He hesitated, then sighed. “When there’s potential danger.”
“I see.” She ignored the gist of his words and focused on the etiquette. “So you’re saying that when the Pack is on alert, reading the minds around you becomes acceptable?”
“Automatic, really. Not all at once, of course, because that would overload us, but it’s more efficient to do away with speech. Did you know the Sánge had no spoken language for centuries?”
“No,” she said, honestly fascinated now.
“We’re all telepaths. There was no need. Then, as the other races began to cross our paths—”
The intriguing Sánge history lesson ended when the door flew open and Reule strode into the room.
“Shadows.”
It was a sharp command and both Chayne and Darcio hastened to vacate the room, closing the door behind them.
Mystique looked at him, her brows drawing down into a wrinkled line of worry.
Reule’s heart turned over as she looked into his eyes with nervousness shimmering through her emotional aura.
All he could think of in that moment was how beautiful she was.
The curve of her soft cheek where it arched beneath her eye, the endless glittering facets of those gemlike irises, and the pale perfection of skin he now knew was soft and flawless along every inch of her body.
A body he now knew better than his own. Its scent.
Its varied flavors. Its devastatingly precious warmth.
Reule threw aside his cloak and gloves and crossed the floor to her in three huge strides.
He swept her up against him, capturing her mouth.
She reached up instantly, unquestioningly, and, grasped him by the back of his neck, opening her mouth for him.
His hands tightened on her desperately as he filled himself with her taste and drew her warmth into himself.
He felt as though he’d crossed the world, rather than the city, to reach her.
It was as though their days of lovemaking had happened in another lifetime, rather than having ended a few short hours ago.
When he’d had his momentary fill of her mouth, he buried his face against her neck and drew deep breaths full of her sweet scent. “Mystique,” he exhaled, her name shuddering out of him, his eyes closed against the sudden burn within them.
“Reule, please,” she begged softly, her hands stroking through his hair, “you’re frightening me.”
It was the last thing he’d wanted to do. He’d wanted to reassure her, tell her that she need never fear anyone again, just as he’d promised her. But it would have been a lie. There was someone for her to fear.
Herself.
Whatever had happened, Mystique had blocked it out with a vengeance. Knowing her now, knowing her heart and her need to rescue the lives of others, there was one act that could so destroy her psyche that she’d repress it with everything she was.
Taking the life of another.
Oh, she had the courage to do it if she were pushed to the sticking point, of that he had no doubt.
But doing a thing and accepting it were two different issues.
Now realization and acceptance were imminent, and he didn’t want to tell her.
He’d sensed that it’d be better if she never remembered, and he’d been right.
To drive her to murder, the circumstances would have to have been …
unimaginable. It shredded his heart to think of it.
“Remember one thing,” he whispered roughly against her neck.
“I should have said it before, but I’m a man, and that makes me two parts fool and one part genius.
My brilliant part loves you with all of his heart, Mystique.
The fool parts as well, only they never know the right time to admit it.
” He pulled away to look into her stunned eyes, blinking back emotion.
“Do you hear me? I love you as you are now, as you were before, and as whatever you become in the future. You have my heart and always have. Since the moment I first felt your sadness and knew that someone who could hurt so deeply had to also be capable of equal amounts of joy, love, and passion. And I was right. I was so right.”
He caught her startled mouth again in a slow, tender kiss.
He waited until he felt her melt bonelessly against his body, then closed his eyes and turned himself over to the emotion rushing through him.
By the time he finally lifted from her swollen lips, she was hardly holding up any of her own weight, and her slumberous eyes glittered.
“Reule,” she said with breathy wonder. She reached up to cradle his face in her small hands, her bemused smile so sweet it hurt. “Tell me what happened. Don’t bear your trials without me. I will be your wife and—”
“You are my wife. In every sense that matters.” He grasped her waist tightly, squeezing for emphasis. “Remember that, Mystique. You are my wife. My queen. And all will treat you as such or they will answer to me.”
Mystique felt the sudden rush of icy dread in every vein of her body. Her breath came quick and her eyes rounded with fear as she began to understand.
“Who?” she whispered. “Who has come for me?”
Reule wanted to curse himself and all of his fate for doing this to her, but he couldn’t when it was fate that had brought her to him.
He decided to be as direct as always. “They call themselves the Yesu. They have your coloring of skin and seem, for the most part, a fair and pleasant people. A mountain tribal clan. I’ve never heard of them before, but I read them as honest and well-intentioned. ”
“Then why are you so upset?”
“They’ve come in search of a criminal they tracked to this wilderness.” He took a breath to steel himself. “A murderess.”