Trent and Troy flopped over on their sides and panted, with almost identical wolfy smiles that she had to ignore. Mac whooped up at the moon, then looked around. “Where are we?”
Troy sat up, pointed his nose at the moon, and howled. “Arooooo.”
The sound, long and low, made Ella think of Trevor. She bent over him, placing her head on his chest. “Guys, I don’t think he’s breathing,” she said, her voice hitching.
They all scrambled to her as an answering howl came from their left. Then another, then another.
“Wade will be here soon,” Mac said, standing straight and tall, not caring at all that he was naked.
“Can’t you heal him?”
“We can take him to a doctor, but that’s all. Wolves who can’t shift can’t heal.”
“A doctor…” Ella stared down at him, trying to remember how to do CPR on a canine. Her brain wouldn’t work right. Her vision blurred as tears dropped from her eyes.
A voice filled her head, deep, with a thick brogue accent.
Bite me.
She looked up. It could only be the dragon.
What?
Troy’s voice.
Someone has to bite me. I’m too weak. Dragon’s blood has healing properties.
Troy looked up, but Ella could tell he hesitated to leave Trevor. “Mac, the dragon says to bite him. Dragon blood has healing properties.”
Mac looked at the dragon, laying on its side in the leaves and underbrush, then looked at Trevor. He grabbed Trevor by the haunches and hauled him over to Graeme, then shifted. Ella held her breath, thinking if she could go without breath for that long, so could Trevor. She prayed.
Mac’s wolf latched onto a meaty part of the dragon’s front arm? paw? claw? and bit, growling as he did so. Fat drops of blood appeared at once, reddening Mac’s muzzle. Ella rushed forward and moved the dragon’s arm over Trevor’s muzzle, trying to drip blood into his mouth. One big drop, then two, then three.
That’s enough
, the dragon sighed in her mind.
What about you? Do you need some?
My own blood will not heal me.
Ella stared at Trevor, about to ask how long it would take, when before her eyes, he shifted, his muzzle shortening, becoming a proper nose, his fur pulling into his skin, his ears shortening and moving, his body lengthening.
In the moonlight, though, she still couldn’t tell if he was breathing. She dropped to her knees and put her ear to his mouth, looking down his body.
Her eyes went wide as she saw he had an erection, bigger than she had ever seen it. Trent and Troy scrambled backwards.
That’s a side effect of dragon’s blood. He’ll have it for a few hours. But it does mean he’ll be fine.
Ella didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. So she did both.
Um, Mr. Dragon, sir, can I give some of your blood to my sister?
she asked, thinking it awful of her, but unable to help herself.
Of course. Take what you need quickly, before it clots. I’m going to sleep now.
Ella touched him gingerly, not wanting to hurt him. She cupped her hands and gathered a few drops of blood from him, the same as she had for Trevor and walked to her sister, tipping the blood between her lips.
Then she returned to Trevor’s side to wait.
Ella sat in the chair beside her sister and watched her slack face as the monitors and IV machines beeped mercilessly around them.
She could hear her guard out in the hall, swapping stories. Mac’s voice was the loudest.
“You should have seen it. He came to, then breathed this spout of blue fire that totally obliterated Khain’s fire. We could run through it. It didn’t burn us at all! Then when we got down into the dungeon, he flew right at Khain’s face. That Graeme, he’s an all right guy. I’ll be happy when he’s up and moving again.” His voice lowered a bit, not quite as excited, but not hostile. “Good job adding him to the team, boss.”
Ella smiled as she heard the surprise in Trevor’s voice. “It was all Wade. I was against it.”
“Eh, you had a good reason, I’m sure, but he’s staying right?”
“That male can stay as long as he likes. I might even give him your job, Mac.”
A wave of laughter greeted that, but then another male spoke. She wasn’t sure if he was Harlan or Crew. She didn’t have their voices down yet, although she didn’t think Crew talked much, so maybe it was Harlan.
“Any word on the
foxen
?”
“Nope, it’s been five days and no one has been able to find him. We lost his scent in a stream.”
“What’s our operating belief? Was he there against his will or not?”
Trevor sighed. “We have no way of knowing. We just need to find him and question him. Oh, hi Doc.”
“Gentlemen.”
The curtain moved and Shay’s doctor moved into the room. “Hello, Miss Carmi, good to see you.”
Ella smiled. “Thank you, doctor.”
“I have some news about your sister. Unfortunately nothing has changed. Her vital signs remain strong, but her brain is still dormant. No activity at all.”
Ella dropped her eyes. How was that news?
“Miss Carmi, did you realize Shay is pregnant?”
Ella sucked in a breath, feeling its coldness as it passed over her teeth. She half-stood, then dropped into the chair again.
She looked towards the door, but heard only happy banter between the males out there.
“I didn’t, doctor, and I need you to do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone else.”
The doctor’s eyes narrowed but he nodded. “Of course. We would not. Doctor-patient confidentiality.”
Ella nodded. “Good. And you still plan on moving her tomorrow?”
“Yes, to the facility we talked about.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
He left quietly and Ella took Shay’s hand. It was cold. Or Ella was cold. She wondered if there was any place in her new life for her sister, if her sister ever recovered. The dragon blood had not helped and Ella didn’t know if anything could. The doctors seemed to think not.
An image flashed through her brain, the pendant she’d found while going through the boxes at her aunt’s home with the angel on one side and the wolf on the other. Ella could see it perfectly in her mind. An angel… and a wolf. That was no coincidence. She would give anything to have that item back again. She had heard Mrs. White had moved her business to another shop. She would visit and try to buy it back as soon as─ well, as soon as she could.
Trevor came in the room. “Sorry to rush you El, but we are out of time.”
Ella stood. “No. I’m ready.” She took Trevor’s hand and walked out of the room, on her way to be mated, finally.
“Such pretty hair,” Lorna said, looking at Ella in the mirror as she twisted Ella’s black hair up above her head. “And your dress? It’s going to be perfect. Worthy of being seen at the first mating ceremony in twenty-eight years.”
“I didn’t realize your mating ceremonies were so much like human weddings,” Ella said, trying to hold still as Lorna pushed bobby pins into her hair. They were at Ella’s aunt’s house, getting Ella prettied up. She could hear her guard joking and laughing in the living room, but Trevor wasn’t there. He was already at the farm property they’d rented one county over to have the ceremony at. He’d calmed down in the days since they’d returned from the
pravus
, letting the KSRT look at her and talk to her and even be her constant guard without him there. Even Mac, as long as Trent and Troy were with him. Ella hoped the guard thing would ease up once they were mated. It was getting tiring.
“Of course, honey, we gotta pass for humans. We can’t go doing too much too different.”
“What was your mating ceremony to Wade like?”
Lorna laughed. “That was a long time ago. I barely remember. But he was handsome as all get-out in his tuxedo. I couldn’t wait to get to our honeymoon suite after.”
“Oh, a honeymoon? Do you think we will go on one?”
“Perhaps, though how you are going to drag seven
wolven
and maybe a
dragen
after you, I don’t know.”
“That’s the issue, isn’t it?” Ella pushed it out of her mind. She wasn’t going to let anything ruin the day. Her day. Her… wedding.
“So is anything different than at a human wedding?” she asked.
Lorna tsked her tongue. “Only if you haven’t been claimed yet, but I’m sure Trevor did that long ago, pretty little thing like you, he wouldn’t be able to help himself.”
“Claimed?” Ella felt tiny tendrils of panic flutter in her belly. She had no idea.
“You know, where he bites you right here.” Lorna touched the back of her shoulder. “Right where your renqua would be if you had one.”
“Bites me? He’s going to bite me?”
Lorna stared at her in the mirror for a second, then moved to the front of her and leaned down. “You mean to tell me he hasn’t already?”
“No, will it hurt?”
Lorna stood and clasped her hand to her heart. “Wow, that is special then. I haven’t seen a claiming in a hundred years.”
“Seen? What?” Ella had an image of a dozen
wolven
watching her and Trevor together. She couldn’t do that.
“Don’t worry, honey, we don’t actually watch, but if a female hasn’t been claimed by her male yet, the claiming happens right there at the ceremony, in a special room behind the bower, or sometimes right in the woods, depending on the size of the ceremony. But the males who stand for your mate don’t let anyone near the couple. Sometimes, Rhen’s blessing can be seen in the sky afterwards.”
“Rhen’s blessing?”
“Oh child, it’s beautiful, thick clouds in the shape of the couple’s
renquas
, combining in the sky, with the sun shining behind them like Rhen herself smiling down on the couple.”
“Why do you think he hasn’t claimed me yet? Do you think there’s something wrong with me? What happens if he doesn’t? Do we get divorced?”
Lorna laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “Calm down, girl, it just never happened yet. It will. Don’t worry. He’ll see that spot where your neck meets your shoulder and runs down into your back and he won’t be able to help himself. That’s why it usually happens before the mating. But always after.”
“Oh,” Ella said in a small voice.
“What, honey?”
“That’s why he hasn’t done it yet. I always want him to… you know, mate facing me.” She held her hands up, palms together.
Lorna threw back her head and laughed till tears ran down her cheeks. She patted Ella on the other shoulder. “Why honey, I never heard of such a thing. You just make sure you let him do it from behind at least once.” Lorna wiped her eyes, still chuckling softly.
Ella stared at her, blinking hard. “Do you think I’m too strange to be part of his life? I probably do more stuff like that.”
Lorna stopped laughing. “Light, honey, no. You are too sweet for words and he loves you more than I’ve seen a male love a female in a long time. You’re perfect just the way you are. The
wolvens
need new blood, a little fresh air breathed into us. You fit that bill right perfectly.”
“But what if nobody else accepts me but him.”
Lorna shook her head. “You’re kidding child, they’re already calling you Queen Gabriela. The One True Mate who was pulled into the
Pravus
and made it out alive. You’re famous honey, they’re out at that farmhouse reciting your prophecy to each other right now.”
Ella grabbed her hand. “My prophecy?”
“Life begins anew. Love brings two, then four, then six more. Khain’s downfall lives inside her. She will be queen.”
Ella shook her head. “What does it mean?”
“So much, child, but you don’t have to worry about any of that right now. You just worry about getting mated properly. That’s all you have to do for now.”
“Lorna, I just have one more question.”
“Anything, child.”
“What’s it like being married to a
wolfen
?”
Lorna smiled and grabbed Ella’s hand. “It’s wonderful. I think Rhen messed around with their instincts and made them be unable to be anything but sweet with their mates and their female young, in the same way that she made us all protective of humans. They can get a little hard on their male young, and you’ll need to watch that, but you? He’ll treat you like gold every day of his life.”
Ella took a deep breath and turned to look in the mirror. “Thank you. I’m ready.”
Ella looked out the window of the helicopter, her bouquet in her hands, her veil thrown back over her hair, white satin spilling around her ankles.
“That’s it, up ahead and to your left,” their
wolfen
pilot said over the intercom. Behind them, Crew, Harlan, and Mac sat in their tuxedoes, Crew sedate, Harlan almost boisterous, and Mac green and staring straight ahead, a blank but somehow terrified look on his face. Trent and Troy relaxed on the floor.
Lorna turned around and yelled to him. “Macalister Niles, if you are going to puke, you do it away from the dresses! You hear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mac mouthed, possibly afraid to turn or nod his head. Trent and Troy both looked at him, then stood and flattened themselves against the doors of the helicopter, out of his range.
“Ooh, it sure was nice of that
dragen
to let us use his helicopter,” Lorna yelled in Ella’s direction. “Funny, a dragon needing a helicopter though.”
Ella smiled, but couldn’t take her eyes off the ground in front of them. What looked like tens of thousands of
shiften
milled in one large crowd surrounding a large stage. Hundreds of thousands of
shiften
, maybe.
“There are so many of them!” she called over the noise in the cabin.
“They all wanted to come out. Everybody wants to witness history.”
Ella swallowed hard as the helicopter banked and headed for the landing pad. They had secured this location for the helicopter pad and the nearby airstrip that could handle even small jets. Now that Ella saw the crowd, she knew why.
The helicopter set down and Lorna whooped as the blades slowly came to a stop. “Wasn’t that fun!”
Outside, a male Ella didn’t recognize ran up with a step, placed it on the ground, and opened their door.
“Welcome, wedding party, I am Baron, here to take you to the bower.”