by Tay T
EPILOGUE
Thick lashes fluttered over closed eyes and flushed cheeks induced by sleep.
Maya felt like she was lying on a bed made of sponge-covered steel. Her entire body didn’t feel real, like she was made of nothing and weighed nothing.
Her eyes were heavy and refused to open, shut tight as if her eyelids had been sealed together by several layers of super glue.
Maya felt trapped inside of her head. She couldn’t see anything but black and couldn’t keep her thoughts together enough to understand why.
Was she dead?
Maya didn’t know. But she no longer felt the ineffable coldness of her limbs turning to ice and her body slowly dying.
It was as if she had been thrown into limbo, waiting for someone’s judgment so that she could pass on or enter the gates of hell.
Though Maya wasn’t afraid of death, she didn’t really want to die. There were so many things she wanted to do, so many things she wanted to say.
She wanted to find Everette and check on the dove-shifter’s safety. She wanted to continue finding her mother, even if it would just be her dried bones or apparition.
And Xavier…
She really wanted to see the Cardinal Alpha again, wanted to feel the warmth of his hands and the heat of his kiss.
Something ached in her at the thought of their separation, and she knew it was her heart.
“Wake up, Maya. It’s time for you to wake up,” a familiar voice murmured into her ears, deep and silky to her senses, with a loving yet pleading tone of voice.
The voice ruptured her void of darkness, and an image of beautiful golden eyes, devilishly handsome features and sensual smirking lips appeared in her mind’s eye, vanishing just as quickly as it had formed.
Maya’s eyelids twitched with the effort to open her eyes, but she couldn’t. No matter how she tried to move her hands or sit up, she remained in the same position.
After a moment of vigorous trying, soothing purrs, low and deep, vibrated against her chest and lulled her back into the land of darkness.
The second time she had “awakened” to her surroundings, the silken voice was no longer there. But Maya found herself to be immensely warm, as if she had been wrapped in a layer of vice-like heat.
This time, her body had regained its ability to feel the naked skin rubbing along her own, sending a torrent of stimulating tingles across her back, thighs, stomach, arms, butt, and calves.
It didn’t take a genius to know she was naked, lying in the arms of a man whose skin was strewn over a layer of steel-like muscles and smelled like freshly cut wood and forest rain.
Xavier Thaeos.
Maya’s eyes flew open, and her irises dilated at the familiar image of the Alpha’s room.
As she glanced down, she noticed the strong arms encircling her waist and holding her lithe body against a much harder one.
“Did you die, too?” she asked, before her mind could catch the stupidity of her question.
The air of innocence and confusion made Maya look extremely adorable. Her beautiful eyes were wide and her sweet mouth was slightly parted as she stared up at him.
Xavier chortled, eyes twinkling like golden stardust.
“Neither one of us are dead, Maya,” he responded, bringing his index finger up to softly brush the tip of her nose in an affectionate way.
Maya pushed his big hand away from her face and glared at him from the corner of her lively green eyes.
Afterward, she inspected him and herself, remaining in the position on top of his equally naked body.
Much to her relief, the Alpha was in pristine condition. She didn’t smell blood and didn’t notice anything different than usual, other than his extremely hard phallus rubbing between her parted thighs.
Tossing the last thought aside, Maya noticed her wounds had closed up nicely. Her flesh was smooth and soft like normal, and there were no scars and no pain of any kind.
Maya felt at the prime of her age.
“Did you see Everette? The little dove-shifter?” she asked worriedly.
“Yes. I’d brought her and her wings back to the pack after one of my warriors found her. She’s currently resting in the pack house,” he replied.
Still worried, Maya took a deep breath, scenting the air until she found the smell of vanilla and marshmallows.
Although wingless, Everette was still alive. And that was the most important thing.
“You did a very fine job of extinguishing the Coven, little sorceress,” Xavier commended, shifting his body upward until they were in a comfortable sitting position, and nuzzled the top of her head with his chin.
Maya’s eyes lowered to the hand slowly stroking the skin of her thigh.
By now, she was assured there were no survivors from the Coven of Light. With the amount of animosity and hatred from the spirits and demons of the dead, she doubted any of them could make it out alive. And although she had killed Aldrich, she wasn’t too sure about Avalyn.
Maya had wounded the half-sister rather lethally, but there was no saying what Aldrich’s offspring was capable of.
If Avalyn wasn’t dead, Maya wouldn’t be surprised. But she knew whatever she didn’t kill was going to come back and bite her in the butt.
Her good mood soured a bit.
Suddenly, the animalistic purring and guttural sounds came back, resounding inside the confines of her tired mind like a loud gong.
Maya had been ignoring the sound for as long as she could, but it seemed as if the growls and whining became even louder as time passed. It was like some kind of animal was trying to talk to her, and Maya couldn’t understand a thing it was saying.
“There’s strange growling in my head,” she admitted, brows pinching together at the oddity.
“That’s my beast,” Xavier answered, offhandedly.
“Your beast?” A perplexed expression bloomed on Maya’s face. “I didn’t know I could communicate with your beast.”
“You’re not supposed to. But, I suppose, you can now,” he said, brushing her hair to the side to kiss up against the mark on her slim neck.
Maya stiffened slightly before melting in his arms. “What does that mean?”
“My beast is currently bonded to you. He’d left me to keep you from dying,” he replied, stroking the softness of her arm. “It was the only thing I could think of to keep you alive.”
After a moment to thoroughly analyze his words, she turned her head to him and asked, “Then what will happen to you?”
Maya had never heard of any werewolf living without their wolf part, no matter how strong they were.
It’s impossible, right?
Her shapely brows knitted together as worry rushed through her entire being, and a sense of panic welled in the deepest parts of her soul.
Her heart ached again.
“Nothing,” he replied, smoothing the wrinkle on her brow with his lips. “A werewolf can live without their beast. It’s been done before.”
He didn’t lie, but her worry would not dissipate, even with his reassurance. “But then, how will this affect you?”
Xavier didn’t know if he should be over the moon because of Maya’s concern for him or angry at himself for upsetting his little mate. “Nothing will happen, Maya. Don’t worry.”
After carefully inspecting his roguishly handsome face from the corner of her eyes, Maya’s shoulders relaxed again, until a sudden thought popped into her mind. “Will I turn into a werewolf?”
The distaste was clear on her face.
She didn’t like the idea of turning into a creature that crawled on all fours, had fur all over its body and a mouthful of sharp canines. It was disconcerting, and she would be mighty devastated if such a thing were to happen.
In her short lifetime, Maya had looked around for spells to get rid of the little bit of hair growing on her body. Now that she was smooth and hairless, she did not want it to grow back.
Xavier laughed at the disturbed expression on her pre
tty face and said, “No. You won’t turn into a werewolf.”
Maya breathed a sigh. “Thank the gods!”
“But it does mean you are now my Alpha,” he revealed, lips curling upward at how unreserved and unguarded Maya had become.
Though the ex-Alpha knew what the consequences were for saving Maya, he didn’t regret it.
He didn’t care that he had lost more than just his beast, didn’t care that he was no longer the Southern Cardinal Alpha. All he cared about was how Maya was still breathing, still warm, and still alive in his arms.
His title and inheritance mattered very little compared to his little sorceress.
“Me? Your Alpha?” Maya exclaimed, turning her head to look at the male with an astonished expression on her lovely face.
The thought of being his Alpha was preposterous. It was something Maya had never thought possible. Not even in her wildest dreams.
But who knew such an extraordinary day would come?
“Mm-hm,” he hummed.
Maya grinned up at him as her gleaming, jade-like eyes turned into crescents like a well-fed cat. “You know what, I really like the sound of that.”
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Book 2: Heart Bound
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DON’T MISS THESE BOOKS BY TAY T.
The Cardinal Alpha Series:
Book 1: Blood Bound
Book 2: Heart Bound
The Breeder Series:
Book 1: The Alpha’s Breeder
Book 2: Eros: A Short Character’s Point Of View
Book 3: The Sentinels’ Mother
