Authors: Anya Bast
They would get something better than a phone call. They would each get a very personal letter telling them how much they were loved and how much she was going to miss them, a letter that reminisced about their pasts and gave hope for all of their futures. In the letters she reassured her sisters that she was okay, that leaving had been her choice, and that where she was going was filled with happiness and love.
In addition to the letter, she laid down Rafian and Lucas’s pendants. The matching one hung around her neck. Now they’d always have a little piece of each other.
That done, she sat with her sisters for a long time in the dark, listening to them sleep. Finally, just before dawn, she rose. “I wish you both could be at my wedding,” she whispered, reaching out and touching Paige’s hair. “I’ll miss you.”
As she left the house, she couldn’t stop crying.
* * * * *
Two days later she was standing in a cathedral just north of the Lycaon village. The building stood above ground, but the trees wove through the walls and huge clear glass windows gave the impression there was no building, only the forest.
This was her wedding and she could never have imagined a more beautiful place for it.
Kaitlyn had been ensconced in a back room, where she awaited Rafian and Lucas. She understood they would meet her here and they would walk down the aisle together. At the front of the chamber, which was arranged with pews much like the church she’d grown up with, the men would read their magick-imbued vows to her and she would accept.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Come in.” She fidgeted nervously, smoothing her hair, but it wasn’t Rafian and Lucas who walked in. It was Scarlet.
“I made this for you.” Scarlet walked toward her, holding out a long dress wrapped in burlap.
“For me?” Kaitlyn took the dress and pulled away the burlap. She was wearing the nicest of the dresses the men had provided for her, but it did no justice when compared to what Scarlet had just given her. It was a gorgeous cream-colored gown, a satin A-line with cap sleeves. “A wedding gown?”
Scarlet laughed. “You don’t want to walk down the aisle in just anything, do you? Now come on, off with those clothes. We don’t have much time to get you ready.”
“You must have started this a long time ago. How did you know I would agree to stay with Rafian and Lucas?”
The older woman lifted a shoulder and smiled. “I didn’t, but I suspected. Meeting your soul mates is an experience not many women can walk away from. I’m glad everything worked out with your sisters.”
They got Kaitlyn into the dress and Scarlet did wonders with her hair in a short amount of time, twisting up onto the top of her head intricately and pinning it.
Then Lucas and Rafian walked into the room, both wearing black tuxedos, and every sane thought in her head rushed out for a moment on a wave of lust. While the three of them stood staring—she at them and them at her—Scarlet slipped from the room.
“You look incredible,” she managed to push out. For as good as they looked in the suits, all she could think about was getting her men out of them.
“And you look—”
“Good enough to eat,” Lucas finished for Rafian with a little growl in his voice.
Her gaze dropped to their hands. They were holding what looked like ring boxes. “What are those?”
Lucas blinked, as if just remembering what he held. Both men stepped toward her, holding out the boxes so she could see. Together, they opened them. Inside each was a silver ring set with jewels, one diamond and sapphire, the other diamond and ruby.
She inhaled involuntarily, then touched each in turn. “Did you make these?”
“We started them the day you arrived,” Lucas answered. “One for each hand.”
“They’re beautiful.”
“Not as beautiful as you.” Rafian took his ring, the diamond and ruby, and slipped it on her finger.
Lucas slipped the other ring onto her opposite hand. “Are you ready?”
She smiled. “I have never been more ready.”
Together they walked into the cathedral. Everyone in the village had come to watch them marry. Low, pretty pipe music began and the three of them walked down the aisle together. When they reached the front of the room, Rafian and Lucas both went down on one knee, each holding one of her hands.
Together, they spoke in unison. “Kaitlyn Isabella Gannet, do you consent to join your life to ours in matehood?”
“I do.”
“Universe, hear our words and make it so.”
As their words filled the immense cathedral and wrapped her in warmth, a strange tingling made its way over her skin. It made her euphoric. It was…
magick
. The magick of soul binding.
We give you our breath, blood and bone.
We pledge to you our everlasting protection.
We merge our souls with yours.
Forever, we will shield you from harm.
Foresworn, we will cherish you.
Eternally, we will honor you.
United, we forge this bond.
We are mated.
We are yours.
When the final syllable was uttered, her spine arched and magick poured through her. She thought for a moment she’d fall, but Rafian and Lucas were there to catch her. She straightened, steadying herself, and both men kissed her in turn.
The cathedral erupted into applause.
“I love you,” she whispered to both men.
Rafian gave her another long kiss that made the applause grow even louder. “As we love you,” he murmured against her lips.
* * * * *
“Okay, now close your eyes and just let go.”
She glared at Rafian. “What kind of advice is that? Close your eyes and let go?”
“He’s right. You’ve got to feel it in your gut,” Lucas added.
“Feel it in my—” She made a frustrated sound and stomped around the grass in front of the house. “I want clear,
concise
directions, not all this soft nonsense.” She waved her hand around her head to indicate
soft nonsense
.
She’d been trying to bring her animal forth for the last week with no luck. Fear was setting in. What if she didn’t have enough Lycaon blood in her to shift? Now that she was a resident of this place, a true Lycaon, she wanted to experience every part of it.
Rafian stepped forward and took her by the shoulders, forcing her to stop pacing. She looked up at him. “Shape shifting isn’t computer programming, Kaitlyn.” He tapped her chest. “It’s something you feel. It’s like love, intangible, yet unmistakable when it kindles within you.”
“But how do I feel it?”
“That is not a question either Lucas or I can answer.”
She stood in the yard for a long time after Lucas and Rafian had both kissed her, and then returned to their metal work. Shifting her booted feet in the snow, she pulled her coat more firmly around her and swore under her breath. Maybe she was trying too hard, putting too much pressure on herself.
Closing her eyes, she dropped her hands to her side and exhaled slowly. She gave herself permission to fail, to
not
shift. Then she imagined Lucas and Rafian in their wolf forms, how their muscular bodies moved as they ran, and the solid thump of their massive paws on the earth. Love for their dire wolves filled her involuntarily, that same warm sensation tingling through her chest that she got any time she thought of Lucas or Rafian.
The tingling intensified, radiating through her body. Her eyes opened wide as her body contracted. She let out a surprised yelp as she seemed to stretch, then grow smaller. A flash of discomfort raced through her, fast as a storm cloud. She blacked out, and then, she suspected only a second later, regained consciousness.
The world looked different. For one thing, she was viewing it as if only a couple feet from the ground. Her vision was incredibly crisp and clear. The world was more color-rich, with deeper definition. Something moved at the base of a tree twenty feet away and her gaze seized on it, vision narrowing.
Mouse.
She opened her mouth to call Lucas and Rafian and out came an ungodly screech. Hopping forward, she found bird feet, the stretch of wings.
Hawk.
Oh, her animal was
hawk!
She took a couple running steps and flapped her wings. Up and up she lifted a body that seemed heavy, but got lighter as she went. She dipped a little, getting the hang of how her wings worked, nearly slammed into a tree trunk. Finally she caught a breeze, got lift, and launched herself into the sky.
Euphoria filled her as she swooped and dove, playing in the air currents, learning to fly. Most of it came from pure instinct. She just
knew.
It was like remembering how to ride a bike.
Below her spread the forest and the house with smoke curling from its chimney. In the distance, she could see the village. Beyond the village, mountains. All around her the trees stretched on and on. It was no wonder the Magica had never found the Lycaon.
Her wings beat against the wind, slicing through the air like a whisper of a dream. She could go anywhere she wanted. Freedom, complete and absolute, was hers. Below her, Lucas and Rafian stood in the yard, looking at her up in the sky. Warmth filled her body as she gazed down at them and she knew a moment pure and complete contentment.
There was only place she wanted to go.
Angling her body downward, she flew toward the men she loved.
-----------------------
About the author
Anya Bast is the award winning author of numerous works of romantic fiction, mostly all paranormal and mostly all scorching hot. She lives in the country with her husband, daughter, seven cats and two dogs.
She grew up in Minnesota and still favors the colder climates. After high school she moved to the southeast United States where she attended college. While in graduate school she sold her first book and decided to pursue her lifelong dream of writing instead of a career in psychology.
Somewhat reclusive by nature, she can be drawn out with a good bottle of red wine, classic movies, or good music. When she's not writing, she can be found trying to grow organic vegetables, shopping in thrift stores for that perfect piece of clothing, or dreaming about travel to some faraway country.
She is the New York Times bestselling author of the Elemental Witches and Dark Magick series, and is now working on a new series. The Brotherhood of the Damned will feature immortal Viking warriors, demons, witches and more. Watch for the first book, Embrace of the Damned, to release from Berkley Sensation in May, 2012.
Anya Bast’s backlist
Dark Magick series:
Wicked Enchantment
Cruel Enchantment
Dark Enchantment
Midnight Enchantment (2/12)
Court of the Edaeii (ménage a trois romance):
Jeweled
Jaded