by Camryn Rhys
Her breath caught in her throat. Luther had said he needed time. It’d only been a couple of days since Hannah’s father had left with Faye’s body to do follow up testing in Seattle.
The team, including Luther had been shut up in the apartment just on the off chance that Adrian had anyone following Julianna. Better safe than sorry.
Now out of the blue in the middle of the afternoon…he declared his intentions to bond. He called it mating, but she knew what he meant.
Why now?
He rose from his seat and knelt on the floor in front of her.
She set her laptop aside and smiled. “You mean, bond?”
“I guess. You said there was another link that would connect us for life. I know I said I needed time, but I don’t need any more.”
“Bonding is equivalent to marriage in our circles.”
“I haven’t gotten a ring yet.”
Her smiled widened. “A ring can be for later. Fate will bring the tattoos for the bond.”
Luther shook his head and grinned. “You talk about Fate like it’s an entity. Not a person, but—”
“She’s a goddess. I do believe that. She’s the source from where all magick originates. She brought us all on this mission. The chances of so many of us finding our mates in such a short time, one right after the other, are astronomically ridiculous. Without Fate’s intervention none of us would’ve been in the right place at the right time. The magick you feel between us…is her. She is very real.”
“We get tattoos?”
A chuckle slipped from between Maggie’s lips. “Yes. Fate will design us a unique set of matching bracelets.”
“We get these via email? Or—h”
She slapped his arm and rolled her eyes. “Really?”
“Hey, I’m the newbie at all this wolfy-magick-bonding stuff. But I was hoping you and your friends might go out to the beach with me tonight so we could sorta have a ceremony…if this is that kinda thing. But if you want to do it privately, just say the word. You said there wasn’t a rush, but I feel like there’s something missing between us and I just can’t stop feeling like this is what it is?”
Tears welled and rolled down her cheeks. The bond was exactly what was missing between them. She was so happy to be at his side, safe and secure, and protected in his arms. But a bond was so much more.
A bond would seal the cord that’d grown between them into place. It was why he felt something was missing. Why she also felt it acutely.
“Am I doing it wrong? Should we wait until after all of this?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m just happy,” Maggie answered as he wiped her cheek with his thumb, brushing away the steadily streaming tears. “There’s nothing you could do that would make me happier.”
“So tonight?”
“Tonight.”
The beach was dark, and the swish-ahhh of crashing waves brought a natural musicality to the isolated strip of white sand. A hazy, nearly-full moon hung in the sky, but it was the torchlight that illuminated the night.
Each of the team members—Niko, Hannah, Andrea, Donovan, Danielle, Alex, and Julianna—stood in a half-moon around Luther and Maggie with a dripping torch in their hand. The salute of fire made the whole scene feel like Camelot.
Luther and Maggie faced each other inside the circle and he took her hands. He couldn’t get enough of looking at her. The colorful spray up and down her arms contrasted with the cream of the dress Julianna had picked out for her.
Truth be told, he would’ve married her in a garbage bag, and she would’ve been stunning. But the dress and the flicker of the flames…he never could’ve imagined such a breathtaking bride.
Mate.
She squirmed under the squeeze of his hands. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
Luther squared his shoulders and nodded. “Couldn’t be more ready.”
“I’m going to say the words of the spell, and the tattoos will write themselves.”
“Wait.” He gripped her hard and her brows practically floated to the sky, around her wide eyes.
“Luther, if you’re having second thoughts, that’s fine. We can do this any—”
“Stop talking, Mag.” One corner of his mouth tugged up. “Before you say the spell. I need to say something.”
With a tight breath, she whispered, “You can say anything you want.”
He raised his voice so the whole team could hear, but he locked on to Maggie’s deep, fathomless eyes. “A week ago, I was a shell. Today, I am full. I think this Fate thing you talk about is real. I don’t know how it works, and I don’t think I have to know. But I see the evidence.” Emotion took hold of his throat and gripped hard. He pushed out a quick breath and blinked at the sky.
“Luther, you don’t have to—”
“No. I do.” He swallowed and met her eyes again. “You make me want to be the person you think I am.” He shook his head. “I’m not that man, yet. But I know that with you around, I will be.”
Tears slipped down Maggie’s cheeks. “You are a good man, Chris Parker.”
From somewhere in the circle, Niko whispered, “Who’s Chris Parker?”
Maggie’s smile widened and she tilted her head to one side. “It’s a long story, Nik. The important thing is, Chris Parker is a good man.”
Luther’s mouth went dry and tears burned their way up his throat. “Chris Parker was a cop killer, and Luther Frost was a criminal. But you made me something else. You gave me a purpose, and a family, and that’s more than I deserve.”
Her tears fell in earnest and she squeezed his hands. “Fate doesn’t make mistakes.”
With a smile, Luther glanced around at the circle. “Anyway, continue your ceremony. I just wanted to say, I’ve never loved anybody before. But I can love you. That’s weird for me to say out loud, but there it is.” He sighed through tight lips.
Maggie closed her eyes. “Chun tú Geallaim mo chroí agus anam go deo.” She took a deep breath and repeated the spell once more. “Chun tú Geallaim mo chroí agus anam go deo.”
At her words, metallic green marks materialized around their wrists, wrapping and knotting into a double-set of intricate bracelets on each wrist. His matched hers, exactly.
“Holy shit.” Luther let go of one hand and held his up to the torchlight. “Magick tattoos.”
She giggled and pulled him toward her. Her lips parted for him, and when he kissed her, it truly felt like they had sealed something. Muffled claps came from the team members, slapping one hand against their thighs or arms or stomachs, trying not to disrupt the very skillful torch-holding.
“That was fast.” He took her hand in his and held it up to examine it.
Maggie let out a little sigh and examined them closely. “Wow, I forgot. They’re… these are not like my family’s tattoos.” She traced the outline of his bracelet with one tiny finger.
“Well, Luther’s not part of your family,” Donovan said. “The magick would write a new pattern, for a new wolf pack.”
“A new pack,” Maggie whispered. Her eyes met his. “We just started our own pack.”
Luther couldn’t help the ten-mile smile that spread across his face.
He had a family. A mate.
“Wait,” Alex piped up. “That makes Luther an alpha.”
The whole group laughed and Maggie just stood, quietly holding his hands, while everyone else talked around them.
She was his family, and that was all that mattered. The pack stuff, the politics, that was all well and good. But he belonged to someone. And she belonged to him.
Luther chuckled and looked at the sky.
She’s mine.
“What?” she asked, leaning in to him. “What’s so funny?”
He winked at her and pulled her tight against him. He snaked his head around hers and whispered, “Who’s your alpha?”
We hope you loved Saving a Wolf!
Thank you for spending time in the Moonbound world. Please consider leaving a short review. E
ach one helps!
* * *
- Camryn Rhys & Krystal Shannan
* * *
Sign up for the Moonbound Newsletter and receive TO WIN A MATE for free! This is the story of how the VonBrandt family found the unbonded New Orleans wolf, Elise Blanchard. Plus, our newsletter is full of new release info, giveaways, and sales!
* * *
For your reading pleasure, here is the first chapter of Book
Seven, BROKEN WOLF!
Chapter One
3 weeks later…
Toronto, Ontario
* * *
“So you really trust this guy?” Andrea sipped her cappuccino and sighed. Liquid caffeine. Best drug in the world. It wasn’t as good as coffee back home in Texas, but it was better than what she normally got down in Choaca. The flight to Toronto had been brutal and she’d been delighted to see her favorite coffee shop in the airport terminal.
Andrea glanced across the table at Luther, who had a coffee cup in one hand and his other arm around Maggie’s shoulders. Those two were almost always touching. Once upon a time, she knew what it felt like to be so in love. So drawn to a person that you couldn’t exist without their touch. She swallowed and flashed a friendly smile, pushing the dark memory back into the vault where it stayed.
They’d had to wait three weeks for the right john to travel to the island. This friend of Luther’s was their only chance—Vadik Nabatov. It was a huge risk. Not only was he a complete stranger, and a mercenary for hire, they were going to have to break her pack’s cardinal rule. They would have to tell him about wolves…about magick. It put them all in danger for a human to know.
Why didn’t anyone understand this?
“I already told you. I trust him with my life. With Maggie’s life,” Luther answered calmly. “He’s one of the best at what he does. Instincts unlike any I’ve ever seen.”
She nodded and rubbed a sweaty palm across a denim-clad thigh. Being nervous wasn’t something she was used to. Even through all the shit they’d dealt with in Choaca, it’d been a team of wolves working for the higher purpose of saving other wolves. As the mission had twisted and turned and wrapped around each and every one of them, they’d involved one human after another. Granted Julianna and Luther had turned out to both be destined mates to wolves on the team, but it hadn’t been easy to stomach. She’d grown up in a small town where the secret of being Moonbound was guarded ever so carefully, and now they were about to share it with yet another human. Her brother would flip a gasket.
“Breathe, woman,” Dani snapped, shifting in her seat next to Niko.
The Hollywood wolf never pulled punches. Probably why Niko was so attracted to her. The man was a glutton for punishment. He and Dani had done their best to hide their blossoming romance, but Andrea had noticed it months ago. A brush of their hands or a stolen look here and there. They’d probably slept together too, but she didn’t know that for sure.
Good for them.
But their relationship only hammered in the fact that Andrea was a total fifth wheel on this trip. Maggie had insisted she come, though, feeding Andrea the line that if anything went sideways with Vadik, she could sweet-talk him off the ledge and win him to their side.
Everyone loved Andrea VonBrandt.
“This is the only way. If we don’t bring in a human in on this, we’ll never get anyone onto the island again. Just deal,” Dani continued.
“Dani’s right, Andrea,” Maggie added.
Andrea raised an eyebrow, but didn’t respond. If this was what they really wanted to do, she would support it. The team, her friends, were her highest priority right now. She’d do anything to keep all of them safe, even if it meant some—or a great deal—of personal uneasiness.
She rolled her neck and took a deep breath. A wave of something flowed over her skin. Magick? It licked at the hairs on the back of her neck and a shiver flitted down the length of her spine, warming her from the inside out.
“Did you feel that?” she asked, glancing at Maggie.
Maggie shook her head.
Andrea glanced into the crowds of people walking through the terminal. Whatever it was she’d felt was getting closer.
Vadik Nabatov clenched his fists. Women. There were three women at the table with Luther.
He hadn’t been told there would be women. He might not have come.
The barista handed him a brown and red paper cup of hot, black coffee. He nodded and flinched. Something seemed to burn in his stomach as he walked past the big green plant that hid the table Luther’s group occupied.
No one had noticed him yet, and he preferred it that way. He wanted to watch for as long as he could, before Luther saw him. He stood at the condiment bar and pretended to fiddle with his coffee. Vadik never understood people who added shit to a perfectly good product. Like pretty girls who wore makeup. Just leave it as God intended.
If it was bad enough that it needed cream and sugar to prop it up, why waste time consuming it? Worthless.
“Did you feel that?” one of the women at Luther’s table asked. They were all watching the crowd out in the terminal, completely oblivious that he was behind them. He turned his shoulder so he couldn’t see them at all.
“What?” Luther’s voice carried.
“Nevermind,” the woman responded.
This was the same one who’d asked if Luther trusted Vadik. She spoke with a lilty accent, dropping the ends of her words and twanging her vowels. Probably Texas, although she hadn’t said enough for him to be certain. The black woman had expensive sunglasses and designer jeans, but he couldn’t place her accent. The little pixie girl with the tattoos, Luther was practically mauling. She had a big tablet in her hand and was busily swiping at the screen.
The man who was not Luther was a big, blond beefcake who looked like he might have Russian parentage. This wasn’t the target, though. The target would be in the luxury lounge. Not down with the plebes.
He didn’t trust this group. They had no obvious affiliation, and apart from the two couples—one who couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and one who tried very hard not to touch at all—they didn’t seem close. Not by body language.
They weren’t family. He’d never heard of any of them, including the little no-tits girl who was almost in Luther’s lap.
Who the hell were these people? Maybe he shouldn’t have taken this job.
Groups of hitmen, mafia, mercenaries, and criminals would never congregate in the middle of an airport terminal, talking loud and slurping sugary drinks. These were civilians, and they looked like tourists.
Vadik put the cup down and replaced the lid, throwing away and unused stir stick. He needed to get Luther alone.
The tug in his stomach was driving him crazy. He always listened to his gut, and his gut was telling him to run. Fast.
He sipped the hot liquid and let it roll across his tongue, perking his tastebuds with bitter heat. Listen to your gut.
With a quick swivel of his head, he scoped out the most likely place in the restaurant that Luther would be able to see him without drawing attention to himself. He walked to the big display that showed pictures of all the food items and turned just a bit off-center of the display. Luther had his chin on the little woman’s shoulder and was almost looking directly at him.
Vadik pulled down the edge of his coat and drilled Luther with a hard gaze. His friends’ eyes lit for a moment and Vadik shook his head. He gestured outside and quickly walked in the direction he’d indicated.
He took a sharp right outside the restaurant and walked far enough that he couldn’t see any part of the coffee shop. He ducked in to line with the boarding flight to Winnipeg and shuffled around until he saw Luther emerge from the coffee shop and glance around.
“What the hell, man?” Luther said, approaching. “We were supposed to meet inside.”
Vadik sighed and stepped out of the line, walking until even the entrance of the coffee shop was no longer in sight. Luther followed.
/> “I thought you were coming alone.”
“So did I.” Luther leaned against the wall and huddled close so they could talk without being overheard. “It wasn’t until we got on the jet that I realized half the team was coming along.”
“Team?” Vadik crossed his arms. “They don’t look like any team I’ve ever seen.”
“They’re…a different kind of team than we’ve worked with before.” One corner of Luther’s mouth formed the beginning of a half –smile. “Way different.”
“What… like a cheerleading team or something?”
His friend snorted. “Not like that.”
“Come on, man. There are women. And they’re obviously not military. Hell, they don’t look trained at all. One of them looks like a fucking movie star, with her shades and shit. And I swear to God, there’s a cheerleader.”
Luther laughed and waved a hand. “That’s just Andrea. I swear, she’s a badass when she needs to be.”
“And you’ve got a woman all over you. Shit, man. We can’t be on a mission with a woman all over you.” Vadik flexed his fingers and wished for a smoke. “You’ll get us both killed. Or all of us.”
“See, that’s the thing.” Luther rolled his shoulders and looked around. “I won’t be going on the mission with you.”
Vadik raised his eyebrows. “You won’t?”
“Nope.”
“Then who’s going with me?”
“No one.” Luther grabbed him by the arm. “Come on. You really need to meet the rest of the team.”
But when Luther’s body moved and Vadik focused on the space behind him, the rest of the team was standing there, looking unimpressed. The shades had come down off the movie star’s nose and the blonde had a hand on her hip.
The pixie girl stepped forward and smacked Luther’s arm. “Duh, jackass, you didn’t think we knew what that was all about? Uh, I have to go to the bathroom, and then you take off in the opposite direction.”
