Chapter 53
S
tray couldn’t control himself once Kate started running. Brother Wolf surged and he fought the shift, instead took off on two legs at a dead run toward her back.
No matter how powerful, Kate wouldn’t be able to outrun him. When she learned she could mimic a shift with witchcraft, she might be able to keep up with him. Until then, he had the upper hand and he’d take it.
Within minutes, he closed the space between them. Another thirty seconds and he was on her, waiting for her to give in and stop. But she wouldn’t, tried to keep the run going.
He snagged her with a hand around her waist, lifting her up and off her feet. He slowed, pushed her to him, stopping moving when he pushed her against a tree.
“You can’t leave me,” he told her. “I don’t want you to.”
“I’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”
“Ditto. That’s behind us, Kate.”
“I can’t go back to who I used to be. I was never that person, anyway. Not since the accident.”
“I like who you are now. You soothe me, and I think I do the same for you.”
He ran a hand along the brand, the electricity sparking between them. It made him hard and her start against him.
“Suppose it’s just magic?” she asked.
“Then hallefuckingllujah for magic,” he murmured. “Why shouldn’t we let it make us happy? Maybe that’s what it’s been there for all along.”
“I hope so.” She nibbled his neck. “I like magic. And I like when you chase me.”
“Like?”
“Love,” she corrected. “From the start, Stray. I think I knew when you first touched the brand that this was meant to be.”
“Me too.”
“But what about the mating? I’m not a wolf. The Elders . . .”
“I’ll figure something out,” he promised. “But first you have to come back and not leave me ever again.”
“Never,” she swore. “When I met you, everything in my life clicked together for the first time. And you keep talking about being fated. What if that is what this is? I mean, what’s a familiar? Something that protects me. I protect you, too, so I guess I’m yours too. This isn’t a one-sided thing for me. If it’s that way for you, tell me now.”
She barely caught her breath before he was kissing her like he was claiming her. It was brutal and sensuous all at once and she had her answer.
But when he pulled away, he answered anyway. “You mean everything to me. I don’t care what the Elders say. You are mine. My mate.”
“Stray—Brother Wolf—I’m okay. Really. I’m a little scared. I can’t deny that. But I’m going to help people.” She paused, drew in a shaky breath as her fingers dug into his shoulders, like she was drawing strength from him. “I’m just so sorry. You shouldn’t have to be bound again. Not to me, not after the way you grew up.”
He jerked his head up to stare at her. Brother Wolf’s eyes were Stray’s—they inhabited different forms but they were the same.
Stray was all wolf. Animal. And still, somehow, she knew he was the best man she’d ever known.
“I tried to let you go. I’d do anything to make you happy, especially after everything you’ve done for me. Anything.”
“I don’t want you to get rid of me,” Stray whispered.
She turned, buried her face in his chest. “I know what you did for me—with Kill. He told me about the blood oath.”
He didn’t sound upset when he told her, “Kate, we’re bonded. In a way that’s past being a familiar. In a way the familiar bond can’t touch.”
She looked up at him. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve . . . you bring out my mating instincts. And I’m only able to mate with another Dire, so I don’t understand it.”
“It’s the magic.” Her face fell.
“There’s no way you could manipulate my mating instincts,” Stray told her. “I can’t be spelled.”
“So what are you saying? This is meant to be?”
Stray swallowed hard. “My king . . . Rifter . . . when he felt . . . fated to Gwen, things happened. Strange things. And if we can’t be mated in the traditional way, I still won’t let you go. Can’t.”
* * *
First Stray went to his king and brothers and Gwen. Gathered them around the old oak table without Kill or Kate, because he didn’t want to expose her to everything just yet. Not until he figured out some things.
“I think you all know how I feel about Kate, that I love her. She’s my mate. And she’s a witch. I need to make sure you’re okay with that.” Stray looked to Rifter first.
“She fought with us—for us. In my eyes, she’s every bit Dire,” Rifter said.
“Gotta hope the Elders feel the same,” Vice muttered. “I agree with Rifter. I’ll call Jinx, but I think his answer will be the same.”
Around the table, Gwen, Harm, Liam and the twins all nodded their agreement.
“Now, about the Elders,” Stray started.
“It’s not going to be an easy pitch,” Rifter said.
“When we were only exposed to other Dires, it wasn’t a problem. How can we be expected to not fall in love with others?” Stray asked.
“Because we never had before,” Vice said simply. “Thousands of years and we’ve never found anyone to be our fated, our mate. And suddenly it’s going to happen?”
“Maybe it’s because of the Elders?” Rifter suggested.
“Why now?” Vice asked.
“Because they need us. More of us—solidarity to fight to keep humans safe,” Rifter said.
“Are humans really safe from us?” Vice asked.
“She’s technically—”
“Witch.”
“Immortal,” Stray corrected. “And she’s all fucking mine.”
“Yeah, but are you hers?” Vice asked. “What? I like to ask the hard questions.”
“Yes, I am. She’s keeping her powers. We’re staying bonded.”
“But, dude, she’s not a wolf,” the ever-helpful Vice pointed out. “What’s she going to shift to? An orgasmic woman?”
“Don’t care—she’s all mine,” Stray said stubbornly, noting Rifter couldn’t argue with him—how could he, when he’d been in nearly the same position. He wouldn’t have given up Gwen for anything. And if the Elders hadn’t intervened, he would’ve lost her last year.
“And I’d also like my brother to stay as well, despite the prophecy,” Stray added, held his breath as Rifter deliberated.
“I think Killian can stay here. Should stay here. I’d feel better if he was under our watch because of his powers,” Rifter said. “Granted, I feel better when we’re all here under one another’s watch. We all have our foibles, Stray.”
“Thank you, Rifter.”
“Stray, with Kate, ask Eydis, not all the Elders,” Vice said.
“You act like you know her personally. Has she done favors for you or something?” Stray asked.
“Just ask. Go to the oak tree in the middle of the woods that was split by lightning. She favors that tree,” Vice said, got up and left before Stray could ask any other questions. Rifter looked as in the dark as Stray was, but there wasn’t time to figure it out.
Vice tended to give good council—Stray wouldn’t waste it.
* * *
Stray waited until dark, left the house alone and went to the tree Vice told him about. The oak was massive, thousands of years old, split clean down the middle by lightning, and still somehow both pieces stood, healthy and ramrod straight. The tree bloomed every spring and stayed lush and green until winter.
Now it was barren, but the bark was dark and healthy. He stared up at the sky with his hand on the tree.
“Eydis, I implore your help,” he began. “It’s about Kate.”
“Speak, wolf.”
She was behind him. He turned, expecting the imminent shift, or to see the other three Elders with her, but none of that happened. “You need to be in this form to communicate your wishes to me, correct?”
“Yes.” Stray bowed his head out of respect and then continued. “I wanted to come here to ask for something. I love Kate. She is my mate, wolf or no wolf—and I know she feels the same.”
“You want me to allow you to be with her?”
“Yes. But I know, most of all, that she wants to be rid of her power. If there’s a way she can have that, even if she remains human and lives a human lifespan, I would wish that for her instead.”
When he looked up after a long silence, Eydis was watching him closely. “And you think I have this kind of power.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t change a future.”
“You can, but you won’t,” he ground out.
“Watch your tone, wolf, or I’ll shift you,” Eydis’s voice was soft but steely, and he didn’t want Brother Wolf to do this. No, this was Stray’s thing.
“Apologies.”
“The only way something like this works is a life for a life. And you cannot give yours.”
“There must be a way.”
“The way is to accept your destiny.”
He stared at her. “Like the prophecy. If I stay with my brother . . .”
“If you’d stayed with him,” she intoned. “You changed the course of history. You did this. You cannot outrun it again.”
It was like a gunshot to the chest. He sank to his knees as Brother Wolf took over . . . and then he ran, away from Eydis, from the fact that seventy-five years ago, he’d set all of this in motion and somehow contributed to Kate being what she was now.
She’d accepted her future as a witch, but Stray loved her enough to release her from that. And if that wasn’t possible, he would love and protect her and her powers until the end of time, approved mating or not.
He ran until he reached the crest of a hill and his senses rang out that something was very wrong. He waited impatiently, as his instincts and the wolf told him to, until he saw a man get to the top of the hill and begin to walk through the woods.
It was Shimmin, and he had Kate, was dragging her along with him.
Why hadn’t she called to him? He started moving stealthily toward Shimmin, noted that Kate struggled to throw the cop weretrapper, but it appeared that he’d drugged her, because her legs began to drag behind her and her arms flailed less.
He took off on a dead run, heard the howls of the other wolves behind him, all of them well aware that this could be a trap, that Seb could very well be hiding in the woods.
No matter what, he would not let Shimmin have her.
“Dires took my brother, so I’m taking one of yours. I didn’t think you’d mind losing a witch, considering your kind doesn’t have the best of luck with them.” Shimmin laughed, a cruel sound that made Brother Wolf bolt for him before Stray could stop him.
Stray finally pulled the reins and forced himself to shift back. Blinked and hoped none of this was real, but it was. Her worst nightmare, and he knew she was far more worried about Stray than she was about herself.
“It’s me or you,” Shimmin told him. “And I know you’re not going to kill me. I still bear the poison to immobilize you for the rest of your natural-born life.”
“Don’t do it, Stray,” Kate pleaded. She could speak, but her body appeared paralyzed by whatever Leo had given her.
But Stray had to. He went for Shimmin’s throat, ripped it out before anyone or anything could stop him, not caring about the poison, not caring about anything but saving Kate.
It had been the only way to ensure her safety.
Chapter 54
S
himmin had thrown Kate to the side when Stray lunged for him. Now she crawled over to Stray’s body, the drugs Shimmin had injected her with making it impossible for her to walk.
This time there was no blood, save for Shimmin’s, but Stray remained unconscious for far too long.
She wasn’t aware that she’d been screaming for help until she saw Vice running toward her, followed by Gwen. Vice was holding her and Gwen was checking Stray.
“I just went to find Stray—to tell the Elders I was ready to pledge my loyalty to them, the way Gwen had,” Kate explained. “Shimmin was watching Stray—I literally stumbled on to him.”
“I don’t know how the hell he got on the property without us knowing,” Vice muttered, and then he started to clutch at his chest and breathe hard.
“Our guard was down,” Killian said from behind them, his breath also coming too fast to be normal. “What the hell is happening? Why isn’t Stray moving yet?”
His voice sounded rough, and Kate noted that Vice was looking very pale as well. “What’s happening to all of them?”
“When one of them dies, they all do,” Gwen told her.
“I thought they couldn’t die?”
“Technically, they can’t. And Stray should be waking up soon.”
“But . . . Shimmin’s blood . . . pure poison . . . to us,” Vice told Gwen in a halting voice. “It . . . immobilizes us.”
“For how long?” Gwen demanded.
“Forever . . . we were told. We’ve never . . . put it . . . to . . . the test,” Vice managed.
Kate willed herself to pull it together. Went deep inside herself and pulled up a healing chant, even as Gwen dropped her medical bags and placed her hands to hover over Stray’s chest. She closed her eyes in concentration as Kate watched and chanted, and she didn’t know which one of them had the power, if both or neither, but she believed. And Stray had told her that was all she needed.
Stray, I believe. Finally. Please come back to me.
For a long while, there was nothing. Sweat beaded on Gwen’s brow and she began to shake. Rifter, who’d dragged himself up behind her tried to pull her away, but thankfully Gwen had more strength than he did, was able to shake it off. “Rifter, please—I have to do this. I’m the only one of you not affected. Let me.”
And he listened, which she knew didn’t happen often. It probably had something to do with the fact that he was also feeling the effects of the poison. In fact, all the Dires were on their knees, with only Liam and the twins to guard them. And guard them they did.
Finally something good began to happen. Stray’s breathing quickened and he began to cough, hard, curl up like he was in pain. Like Gwen was pulling the poison from his body.
“Now, Kate,” Gwen told her. “Trap the poison.”
Like it had happened earlier, her mind knew the spell before she could doubt herself—her hands curled and she spoke in ancient words, pictured the black pain rising and catching inside her binding spell, far away from where it could harm Stray or anyone.
Gwen stopped a few minutes later, leaned back against Rifter and brushed some hair from her face, which was flushed. Her eyes were clear and bright, slightly lupine, as though she could shift at any moment.
“You did it—you saved him,” Kate told her.
“Finally. I was beginning to feel useless,” Gwen said as Stray began to stir between them.
Rifter placed his hands on her shoulders, told her more fiercely than Kate would’ve thought necessary, “Never. You are never useless, mate.”
“Right. Forgot the alpha thing,” Gwen murmured, but she seemed anything but displeased. As Rifter carried her away, she called back, “Stray’s fine now, Kate. He should wake up fully in a few minutes.”
* * *
It took about ten minutes for Stray to be up and functioning. He ignored Kate telling him to take it easy; instead, he picked her up and carried her inside the house, up the stairs and into his bedroom.
Vice followed them, threw some heavy silver chains on the floor, where they landed with a loud thump. And then he closed the door behind him when he left.
Stray kept her tight in his arms, kissed her fiercely. It would be so easy to sink into the bed with him and let him take her.
But something tugged at her, something she couldn’t deny, and she pulled away.
“What? Did I hurt you?” he demanded, his eyes going to the bruises around her neck.
“No, you didn’t. I was just thinking about the mating.”
“Second thoughts?”
“No. I still want to be your mate, even if it’s not officially recognized beyond anyone but us and your family. But . . . we could still go through the motions,” she suggested and then blushed when his head whipped toward her. “I mean, I won’t turn into a wolf, but I could still, um . . .”
She looked pointedly at the chains. “If you’re into that sort of thing.”
“For you, I could be into anything.”
He was serious—so serious. She’d never wanted anything more. Her heart raced, because this was within her grasp. Because their love didn’t involve magic of the manipulated kind in the least. “So those are the mating chains?”
He went over and picked up a large metal collar from the floor. “You put this on me. Chain me up. And I’m supposed to endure the mating pain as a sign of my love.”
“I don’t want to cause you any more pain.”
“This pain, I’ll gladly deal with.”
“We’ve had sex more than twice—the pain must’ve been excruciating.”
“Worth it. And now I get to use this mating tradition. I’ve known I’m fated for you.”
“Even though I can’t shift into a wolf? Because that obviously won’t happen after we, ah . . .”
“Yes, even though.”
“So this is just for show?”
“It’s more than that. It’s an honoring of my warrior ways. I never got to be a part of them growing up, but now I am. This would be my crowning glory.”
“Then I want to be a part of that.”
“You already are.” He climbed onto his bed and grabbed the headboard. “Wrists, then ankles. Then collar.”
She locked him in place, felt herself grow more aroused than she thought possible as he lay bound under her, his cock jutting thick and heavy, his eyes lupine as he watched her. She expected to hear him howl soon. Wanted him to.
“Now this.” She opened the last piece of the mating chain carefully—placed the collar around his neck and locked it slowly. It didn’t need to be opened with a key, but rather a hand, and Stray didn’t have a free one at the moment.
“Now you get naked. And you put me inside of you. And you fuck me,” he told her, licked his bottom lip as his voice grew deeper, darker. She noted his canines had elongated and she felt nothing but want. Her sex was wet for him already, and she slid out of her clothes and mounted him, hovering above his shaft before slowly bringing herself down on it.
Later, there would be a time for drawn-out exploration, for stroking and kissing and worshipping. This was for hard and fast, for mating. For joining as one, and she waited until he was fully inside of her before beginning to move. Back and forth, she rocked against him, her hands on his chest, watching his face bathed in pain and pleasure fighting for dominance. She didn’t worry about it—this was part of the ceremony.
It was what Stray wanted. He writhed under her, bucked, moaned. She felt him grow bigger inside of her, realized she couldn’t pull away from him now because of that, even if she wanted to.
It had happened before, but not like this. Never like this.
“Stray, more,” she heard herself moan as her sex contracted around him. The way he throbbed inside of her brought on multiple orgasms and she couldn’t have controlled herself if she tried. She raked his chest with her nails, bent down and bit him on his shoulder, hard enough to draw blood, didn’t stop when he cried out.
She’d become wild. Feral. A beast, just like him. And she liked it.
* * *
Stray had never mated before, but he couldn’t imagine it being more perfect. When she bit him, the pain throughout his body had been as intense as anything he’d felt before, and then his orgasm had staggered out of him, a jagged, sharp burst that finally took away any of the previous pain and gave him only a shiver of pleasure as intense as any he’d ever felt.
Kate collapsed on him when he was finally sated. It was hours later—too long for a human to deal with, but not an immortal witch, no matter how inexperienced. She’d gotten nothing but pleasure from the experience, because he’d watched her.
She’d looked happy. She loved him—told him so several times.
He stroked a hand along her shoulder and she reached up and undid the collar around his neck. Stared at him. “Did it work?”
“It worked for me.”
She laughed a little, sat up and undid his wrists. Stayed straddling him while she reached back to undo his ankle bindings, and he saw it on her shoulder.
He waited until he was free and then he got off the bed, holding her against him, turned her back to the mirror in the bathroom. “Look over your shoulder.”
She did and her eyes widened. “That’s . . . a wolf tattoo.”
“It’s a glyph, like mine. It comes out right before our first shift,” he told her.
“It looks just like your Brother Wolf.”
“It is.”
It began on her left shoulder and went halfway down her lower back. Brother’s eyes glowed with a secret they now both knew.
“We share your wolf,” she whispered as she stared over her shoulder. “I like it. No, I love it. You.”
“My mate,” he told her, kissed her until he was hard again.
She pulled back and looked over her shoulder at the wolf in the mirror again. “Should we let the others know? Don’t we have to dance under the moon?”
“Plenty of time for that tomorrow. All the time in the world.” And for once, that wasn’t a scary thought for either of them.