A Wolf's Duty (29 page)

We’ve been
deprived Tobias,
his wolf began,
but now that we can touch her again…the
possibilities are endless.

We have to
wait until she wakes up.

That’s true,
but there are locks on the doors of both your bedrooms, no one
needs to know she’s woken. We’ll barricade ourselves in and enjoy
our reunion in peace.

She rubbed her
lips against the skin at his throat in her sleep and he moaned in
pleasure.
You know, I’m beginning to see
the merits of that plan.

I knew you’d
come round to my way of thinking eventually.
The wolf chuckled, pleased at the prospects of their reunion
once Alex woke.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Sitting in a chair across
from the bed, Tobias watched the gentle rise and fall of Alex’s
chest that assured him she was still breathing. The resident doctor
had come to check on her and told him that while there were still
traces of poison in her system, she was otherwise fine. At the
time, he had been elated, but four days later she was still
sleeping and he was becoming increasingly frustrated. After the
second day, he’d called in a different doctor who had told him much
the same as the first, there was no reason they could find to
explain why she still slept. So he had barricaded them into his
bedroom, refusing to leave until she opened her eyes.

Wake up
Xandria.
He rose from the chair, taking a
seat instead at the edge of the bed and gripping one of her hands
within his own.
I miss you.
Through the contact of their skin, he could feel
that what the doctors had said was the case; there was nothing
wrong with her. He dropped her hand, frustrated and walked over the
balcony, opening the window to let in a fresh breeze.

“Tobias?”

He spun round at the sound
of her voice. “Xandria?” Quickly covering the distance between
them, he pulled her from the bed into his embrace.

“Woah, Tobias,” she
wheezed, the tightness of his grip making breathing a difficult
chore. “What’s the matter? Did something happen?”

He thrust her away from
himself, scanning her frame to ensure that she was fine. “You’re
never allowed to use that ‘gift’ of yours again,” he stated, his
tone demanding compliance.

“Why Tobias? I don’t
understand, I thought I won the Challenge. Did I get disqualified
or something? Did Lucinda win?” She sobbed, “Oh God, she did,
didn’t she? I’m sorry Tobias, is there anything I can do? Can I
Challenge her? I’ll win this time, I promise.”

His grip loosened and he
felt his ire fading at her frantic thoughts. “No dearest, Lucinda
didn’t win, you did.”

“Oh thank God, you scared
me for a second.” She sighed, clearly relieved, before she
remembered his strange demands. “If I won Tobias, then what’s the
problem? Why don’t you want me to use my ability
anymore?”

“Because apparently using
it exhausts you.”

“Yeah, I guess I was a
little tired,” she conceded.

“A little tired? A little
tired?” he reiterated, baffled by her calmly delivered statement.
“Xandria, you’ve been asleep for the better part of four
days.”

“Four days? Are you
serious?”

“I wouldn’t joke with you
about something like this. You had me racked with worry. I haven’t
been able to sleep, that’s how concerned I was for your wellbeing.
I couldn’t wake you no matter what I did, but you seemed fine. The
doctors were confused as well, according to them there was nothing
wrong with you, which leads me to the conclusion that it’s the use
of this power of yours that did it.”

“Tobias, don’t be silly.
That can’t be right. I used my ability all the time when I was
preparing for the Challenge with Ryan.”

“Not your ability to
control a wolf you didn’t.” She groaned at the statement. “Yes, I
found out. Ryan confessed everything when you still wouldn’t wake
up after two full days of sleep.” He growled, remembering the anger
he had felt towards his cousin when Ryan had confessed that little
bit of information. Sebastian's calming influence was the only
thing that saved him from a sound beating, though as the days had
continued to pass with no sign of Alex awakening, he had regretted
that decision.

“Are you mad?” she
murmured, avoiding his gaze in case he was disappointed.

“With you?” She nodded.
“Of course not.” She sighed relieved, smiling widely at him. “Ryan
on the other hand is another matter.”

Her smile vanished. “Don’t
be mad at him Tobias, I asked him not to tell you.”

“And he shouldn’t have
listened, you could’ve been killed.”

“But I wasn’t,” she
pleaded, dragging him over to the bed where they both
sat.

“He didn’t know
that.”

“Tobias, I had to try.
Besides, I won, didn’t I?”

“That isn’t the point,” he
groaned, the image of Alex’s flesh being torn so easily by
Lucinda's claws flashed through his mind and he found his body
shuddering. “You don’t understand how hard it was for me to watch
Xandria. I could see you bleeding, smell your blood, feel your fear
coursing through me like it was my own.” He turned to her, his eyes
wild. “I thought I’d lost you Xandria. I can’t lose you,
ever.”

“Tobias I –”

Her response was cut off
as his lips descended upon hers, snatching her breath. His lips
were hard against her own, the kiss bruising in its intensity. His
tongue easily slipped past her open lips, clashing against hers.
The punishing kiss continued as he dragged her body closer,
preventing her from catching her breath. As oxygen became an issue,
she began to struggle in his grasp, but he didn’t seem to notice
her attempts to be free until she began pushing at his shoulders,
demanding he let her go. His mouth left hers and she felt torn,
wanting it to return while desperate with the need for
air.

Panting she tried to catch
her breath, looking at the expression of desperation on his face.
“Tobias, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t want you to
worry.”

“Promise me, Xandria, that
you won’t use that ability any more.”

“I can’t Tobias. If
someone else tries to Challenge me I’m going to need
it.”

“No one else will be
challenging you dearest, you can be sure of that. So there’s no
need to use it anyway.”

“It doesn’t matter Tobias.
I can’t even control it properly. There’s no need for me to promise
not to use it because I can’t anyway. The only time I seem to be
able to hear wolf whispers is when I’m scared for my life and I
have no intention of going through that any time soon.” He sighed,
relieved. “And as for the plants, it’s not like I can really do
anything about them, they’re always there in the back of my mind.
If I don’t try to use them when I’m in trouble I think they’ll just
take matters into their own hands – well if they had any hands I
mean – and do what they think is best.”

“I want you to be able to
do anything that makes you happy dearest, but the Challenge and
these last few days…I swear I think you’ve taken a few decades off
my life expectancy,” he chuckled.

“Tobias?” she murmured
hesitantly.

“Yes, dearest?”

“If I’ve been asleep for
four days, does that mean everyone’s gone? I’m not sure, because I
was losing consciousness at the time, but the last thing I remember
is you telling me that I was going to have to meet all those
people.”

He grinned at that,
tossing her further on to the bed, before crawling over her and
caging her in with his body. “You know if I didn’t know better, I’d
think you slept that long intentionally so you could get out of
meeting my clans.” A blush rose to her tinge her cheeks. “Well even
if you did, it would have been for nothing because everyone is
still here.”

“What?” she spluttered.
“Why didn’t they leave?”

“People are anxious to
meet their Warrior Princess, soon to be Queen.”

“You’ve got to be kidding
me, warrior Princess? Who thought that one up?”

“After your display, it
seemed natural for people to think of you as a fighter and before
long everyone was calling you the Warrior Princess.”

She groaned, “They can’t
all still be here! There were so many of them… where did you put
them? The estate just isn’t big enough for everyone to have
somewhere to stay.”

“The grounds are bigger
than they look dearest. They go on for miles and miles and there
are houses scattered all over. You didn’t think that everyone here
lived in just the one building, did you?”

“What else was I meant to
think?”

“There’s enough housing on
the grounds to house all the clans and all their members. The whole
estate was built so that in case of an emergency, we would have
somewhere to fall back to.”

“Oh.”

“Xandria, do you remember
what you said to me before you wrapped yourself up in those plants
of yours?” Her eyes widened as the memory floated through her mind
but she stayed silent. “It seems that you’re having a bit of a
memory lapse,” he grinned, lowering his head to her neck and
planting a light kiss against the flesh. “I think that I’ll have to
remind you then.” He continued placing butterfly kisses against the
warm skin. “You said you loved me Xandria.” He began undoing the
buttons of the oversized shirt she wore, kissing the exposed flesh
as he went and she moaned as pleasure began to course through her.
“Did you mean it Xandria?” He stopped kissing her, sitting up with
the edges of the shirt in his hands. “Xandria? Do you love
me?”

Well there’s
no point in denying it now, he already knows. I might as well
confess. It’s not like I need to hide it anymore, there’s no Fred
here and as far as Tobias is concerned, we’re engaged.
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly feeling
extremely parched. “Tobias, I love you.”

He smiled, the simple
movement of his lips transforming his formerly stoic face into one
that was alive with joy. “I was beginning to wonder when you’d come
out with it and tell me,” he laughed, lightly running his hands
over the exposed skin of her stomach.

“Well, don’t be too smug
about it,” she chided, though the wide grin on her face served to
diminish its effect.

“I was getting sort of
worried,” he laughed leaning over so that their noses were almost
touching. “I mean it’s no secret that I love you, but you, you
weren’t saying anything, though I could hear it in your head. I
think that’s my favourite place to be.”

She gasped, shocked at the
revelation. “Hey! My thoughts are private.”

“There shouldn’t be any
secrets between mates, no secrets and no lies, so there’s really
nothing wrong with me having a little look every now and again.
Besides the only reason I can is because of you, my parents don’t
have this wonderful way to share information between them, so it’s
really your own fault.”

“Why you –”

His lips meeting hers once
again cut off her words, but the kiss this time was different. No
longer angry and desperate for touch, his lips moved over hers
leisurely, the kiss drugging her with its intensity. He wrapped her
within his arms, holding her as close to his body as possible
before deepening the kiss, lightly brushing his tongue against hers
before retreating. The tantalising brushes of his tongue against
hers caused her to respond, running her hands through his hair to
keep him in place; she waited for him to move. His tongue once
again just brushed against her own but instead of allowing him to
retreat she followed, moving her tongue against his.

He smiled at her
initiative, running his hands over her exposed skin, palming the
firm cheeks of her ass and pulling her closer against his growing
hardness. She gasped at the sensation, shocked at the feeling
before she began to rock her hips into his, desperate to relieve
the ache building between her thighs.

She’ll be the
death of me,
Tobias groaned pulling her
closer.

But what a way
to go,
his wolf sighed, content.

We can’t take
her so don’t try to do anything stupid.

I’m happy to
be a bystander for now.

Good.

His mouth left
hers, moving from her neck to her chest and leaving a trail of warm
kisses in its wake. He sat up for a moment, content to simply enjoy
the sight of her almost naked and ready for the taking.
These have got to go,
he
thought, thumbing the edges of her simple underwear. He looked up,
unsurprised to see that her bare nipples were now pointed, awaiting
him. A warm hand covered one of her exposed breasts palming it,
while his mouth lowered on the other, sucking the straining tip
within the warm cavern of his mouth.

“Tobias,” she moaned, her
back arching from the bed at the sensation, pushing the nipple
farther into his mouth.

His tongue flicked the
nipple in his mouth and she felt the wetness that had been growing
between her legs multiply in a rush. The hand at her other breast
moved, rubbing the hardened nipple between his fingertips. He sat
back on his haunches momentarily regarding his work before his head
descended once more, switching from suckling one nipple to the
other until Alex was writhing beneath him.