An Immortal's Song
Page 11
Tristan made sweet love to her as Seth did the same to him. She put her hands on both of them, needing them close as she came on a wave. Her men followed her, their voices growls as they shouted their passion, their love.
When they were finally able to breathe, she found herself spooned between both of them as Tristan used a warm, damp cloth on her. She pillowed her head on Seth’s arm and smiled at him.
“I would say we need to wake up that way every morning, but I might not make it,” she teased.
Seth winked and kissed her softly. “We’ll just have to find inventive ways to wake you up, then.”
She groaned. “I might run out of energy.”
“Don’t worry, little siren,” Tristan said smoothly from behind her. “We’ll find ways. We always do.”
Her phone buzzed then, the alarm going off. “We’re going to be late,” she said as she sank into their holds. “I promised the girls I would be at Dante’s Circle to see what Eliana needs to talk about, and I don’t want to be the last one there.”
Tristan gripped her hip and kissed her shoulder. Seth’s fingers played with her nipples and she moaned before sitting up.
“Hey, I wasn’t done with those,” Seth said with a smile.
She batted him off and did the same to Tristan. “Stop it, both of you. I need to shower. Alone.” She narrowed her eyes when both men leaned back, their cocks hard and standing at attention. “We have like seven showers in this home. Use them. Separately. I don’t want to be late. I haven’t seen the others since my change, and it was only because I promised to be there on time that they didn’t all show up on our doorstep last night.”
“You’re beautiful when you’re on a mission,” Tristan said with a grin.
“You’re beautiful always,” Seth added.
Amara stood at the edge of the bed, her hands on her hips. “I love you both, but get clean you dirty, dirty men of mine. I will not be late. They will all know the reason why.”
Tristan shrugged. “Almost all of them are newly mated. They’ll understand.”
“That’s true enough,” Seth said.
She rolled her eyes. She never once thought she’d have the kind of life she had now. She was the queen of the sirens, the voice with a song of truth and power. And yet she didn’t live in the siren realm, not fully, not yet. She had her men, her powers, and her future.
There were hundreds of details to see to, and thousands more unknown, but she wasn’t alone in her decisions and that made it all worth it. No matter what happened next with her friends or with any of the realms that her new family was part of, she knew she could handle it.
Because Amara wasn’t alone anymore. She had a family. A home. She had everything she needed. And all it had taken was a leap of faith and a song sung in hope and destiny.
For an immortal with a lifetime of lifetimes ahead of her, that sounded like a perfect plan to her.
THE END
Next up in Dante’s Circle series comes the dramatic conclusion of the lightning-struck. Eliana and Malik find their own in Prowled Darkness.
A Note from Carrie Ann
Thank you so much for reading AN IMMORTAL’S SONG. I do hope if you liked this story, that you would please leave a review where you bought the book and on Goodreads. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us authors know if you’d like to see more stories like this from us. I love hearing from readers and talking to them when I can. If you want to make sure you know what’s coming next from me, you can sign up for my newsletter at www.CarrieAnnRyan.com; follow me on twitter at @CarrieAnnRyan, or like my Facebook page. I also have a Facebook Fan Club where we have trivia, chats, and other goodies. You guys are the reason I get to do what I do and I thank you.
Make sure you’re signed up for my MAILING LIST so you can know when the next releases are available as well as find giveaways and FREE READS.
The Dante’s Circle series ends with the next book, PROWLED DARKNESS. Eliana and Malik will not only find their fate but will complete the journey that started all those years ago in the dragon’s bar. If you’re just starting the series, you can go back to the beginning and find out what happened when Lily meets Shade in DUST OF MY WINGS.
Dante’s Circle Series:
Book 1: Dust of My Wings
Book 2: Her Warriors’ Three Wishes
Book 3: An Unlucky Moon
The Dante’s Circle Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
Book 3.5: His Choice
Book 4: Tangled Innocence
Book 5: Fierce Enchantment
Book 6: An Immortal’s Song
Book 7: Prowled Darkness (Coming May 2016)
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About Carrie Ann and her Books
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan never thought she’d be a writer. Not really. No, she loved math and science and even went on to graduate school in chemistry. Yes, she read as a kid and devoured teen fiction and Harry Potter, but it wasn’t until someone handed her a romance book in her late teens that she realized that there was something out there just for her. When another author suggested she use the voices in her head for good and not evil, The Redwood Pack and all her other stories were born.
Carrie Ann is a bestselling author of over twenty novels and novellas and has so much more on her mind (and on her spreadsheets *grins*) that she isn’t planning on giving up her dream anytime soon.
www.CarrieAnnRyan.com
Redwood Pack Series:
Book 1: An Alpha’s Path
Book 2: A Taste for a Mate
Book 3: Trinity Bound
Redwood Pack Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
Book 3.5: A Night Away
Book 4: Enforcer’s Redemption
Book 4.5: Blurred Expectations
Book 4.7: Forgiveness
Book 5: Shattered Emotions
Book 6: Hidden Destiny
Book 6.5: A Beta’s Haven
Book 7: Fighting Fate
Book 7.5 Loving the Omega
Book 7.7: The Hunted Heart
Book 8: Wicked Wolf
The Talon Pack (Following the Redwood Pack Series):
Book 1: Tattered Loyalties
Book 2: An Alpha’s Choice
Book 3: Mated in Mist
Book 4: Wolf Betrayed (Coming October 2016)
Montgomery Ink:
Book 0.5: Ink Inspired
Book 0.6: Ink Reunited
Book 1: Delicate Ink
The Montgomery Ink Box Set (Contains Books 0.5, 0.6, &1)
Book 1.5 Forever Ink
Book 2: Tempting Boundaries
Book 3: Harder than Words
Book 4: Written in Ink
Book 4.5: Hidden Ink
Book 5: Ink Enduring (Coming June 2016)
Book 6: Ink Exposed (Coming November 2016)
The Gallagher Brothers Series:
A Montgomery Ink Spin Off Series
Book 1: Love Restored (Coming September 2016)
The Branded Pack Series:
(Written with Alexandra Ivy)
Book 1: Stolen and Forgiven
Book 2: Abandoned and Unseen
Book 3: Buried and Shadowed (Coming July 2016)
Dante’s Circle Series:
Book 1: Dust of My Wings
Book 2: Her Warriors’ Three Wishes
Book 3: An Unlucky Moon
The Dante’s Circle Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
Book 3.5: His Choice
Book 4: Tangled Innocence
Book 5: Fierce Enchantment
Book 6: An Immortal’s Song
Book 7: Prowled Darkness (Coming May 2016)
Holiday, Montana Series:
Book 1: Charmed Spirits
Book 2: Santa’s Executive
Book 3: Finding Abigail
The Holiday Montana Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
&nb
sp; Book 4: Her Lucky Love
Book 5: Dreams of Ivory
Stand Alone Romances:
Finally Found You
Flame and Ink
Excerpt: Wicked Wolf
From New York Times Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan’s Redwood Pack Series
Wicked Wolf
There were times to drool over a sexy wolf.
Sitting in the middle of a war room disguised as a board meeting was not one of those times.
Gina Jamenson did her best not to stare at the dark-haired, dark-eyed man across the room. The hint of ink peeking out from under his shirt made her want to pant. She loved ink and this wolf clearly had a lot of it. Her own wolf within nudged at her, a soft brush beneath her skin, but she ignored her. When her wolf whimpered, Gina promised herself that she’d go on a long run in the forest later. She didn’t understand why her wolf was acting like this, but she’d deal with it when she was in a better place. She just couldn’t let her wolf have control right then—even for a man such as the gorgeous specimen a mere ten feet from her.
Today was more important than the wants and feelings of a half wolf, half witch hybrid.
Today was the start of a new beginning.
At least that’s what her dad had told her.
Considering her father was also the Alpha of the Redwood Pack, he would be in the know. She’d been adopted into the family when she’d been a young girl. A rogue wolf during the war had killed her parents, setting off a long line of events that had changed her life.
As it was, Gina wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up in the meeting between the two Packs, the Redwoods and the Talons. Sure, the Packs had met before over the past fifteen years of their treaty, but this meeting seemed different.
This one seemed more important somehow.
And they’d invited—more like demanded—Gina to attend.
At twenty-six, she knew she was the youngest wolf in the room by far. Most of the wolves were around her father’s age, somewhere in the hundreds. The dark-eyed wolf might have been slightly younger than that, but only slightly if the power radiating off of him was any indication.
Wolves lived a long, long time. She’d heard stories of her people living into their thousands, but she’d never met any of the wolves who had. The oldest wolf she’d met was a friend of the family, Emeline, who was over five hundred. That number boggled her mind even though she’d grown up knowing the things that went bump in the night were real.
Actually, she was one of the things that went bump in the night.
“Are we ready to begin?” Gideon, the Talon Alpha, asked, his voice low. It held that dangerous edge that spoke of power and authority.
Her wolf didn’t react the way most wolves would, head and eyes down, shoulders dropped. Maybe if she’d been a weaker wolf, she’d have bowed to his power, but as it was, her wolf was firmly entrenched within the Redwoods. Plus, it wasn’t as if Gideon was trying to make her bow just then. No, those words had simply been spoken in his own voice.
Commanding without even trying.
Then again, he was an Alpha.
Kade, her father, looked around the room at each of his wolves and nodded. “Yes. It is time.”
Their formality intrigued her. Yes, they were two Alphas who held a treaty and worked together in times of war, but she had thought they were also friends.
Maybe today was even more important than she’d realized.
Gideon released a sigh that spoke of years of angst and worries. She didn’t know the history of the Talons as well as she probably should have, so she didn’t know exactly why there was always an air of sadness and pain around the Alpha.
Maybe after this meeting, she’d be able to find out more.
Of course, in doing so, she’d have to not look at a certain wolf in the corner. His gaze was so intense she was sure he was studying her. She felt it down in her bones, like a fiery caress that promised something more.
Or maybe she was just going crazy and needed to find a wolf to scratch the itch.
She might not be looking for a mate, but she wouldn’t say no to something else. Wolves were tactile creatures after all.
“Gina?”
She blinked at the sound of Kade’s voice and turned to him.
She was the only one standing other than the two wolves in charge of security—her uncle Adam, the Enforcer, and the dark-eyed wolf.
Well, that was embarrassing.
She kept her head down and forced herself not to blush. From the heat on her neck, she was pretty sure she’d failed in the latter.
“Sorry,” she mumbled then sat down next to another uncle, Jasper, the Beta of the Pack.
Although the Alphas had called this meeting, she wasn’t sure what it would entail. Each Alpha had come with their Beta, a wolf in charge of security…and her father had decided to bring her.
Her being there didn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things since it put the power on the Redwoods’ side, but she wasn’t about to question authority in front of another Pack. That at least had been ingrained in her training.
“Let’s get started then,” Kade said after he gave her a nod. “Gideon? Do you want to begin?”
Gina held back a frown. They were acting more formal than usual, so that hadn’t been her imagination. The Talons and the Redwoods had formed a treaty during the latter days of the war between the Redwoods and the Centrals. It wasn’t as though these were two newly acquainted Alphas meeting for the first time. Though maybe when it came to Pack matters, Alphas couldn’t truly be friends.
What a lonely way to live.
“It’s been fifteen years since the end of the Central War, yet there hasn’t been a single mating between the two Packs,” Gideon said, shocking her.
Gina blinked. Really? That couldn’t be right. She was sure there had to have been some cross-Pack mating.
Right?
“That means that regardless of the treaties we signed, we don’t believe the moon goddess has seen fit to fully accept us as a unit,” Kade put in.
“What do you mean?” she asked, then shut her mouth. She was the youngest wolf here and wasn’t formally titled or ranked. She should not be speaking right now.
She felt the gaze of the dark-eyed wolf on her, but she didn’t turn to look. Instead, she kept her head down in a show of respect to the Alphas.
“You can ask questions, Gina. It’s okay,” Kade said, the tone of his voice not changing, but, as his daughter, she heard the softer edge. “And what I mean is, mating comes from the moon goddess. Yes, we can find our own versions of mates by not bonding fully, but a true bond, a true potential mate, is chosen by the moon goddess. That’s how it’s always been in the past.”
Gideon nodded. “There haven’t been many matings within the Talons in general.”
Gina sucked in a breath, and the Beta of the Talons, Mitchell, turned her way. “Yes,” Mitchell said softly. “It’s that bad. It could be that in this period of change within our own pack hierarchy, our members just haven’t found mates yet, but that doesn’t seem likely. There’s something else going on.”
Gina knew Gideon—as well as the rest of his brothers and cousins—had come into power at some point throughout the end of the Central War during a period of the Talon’s own unrest, but she didn’t know the full history. She wasn’t even sure Kade or the rest of the Pack royalty did.
There were some things that were intensely private within a Pack that could not—and should not—be shared.
Jasper tapped his fingers along the table. As the Redwood Beta, it was his job to care for their needs and recognize hidden threats that the Enforcer and Alpha might not see. The fact that he was here told Gina that the Pack could be in trouble from something within the Pack, rather than an outside force that Adam, the Enforcer, would be able to see through his own bonds and power.
“Since Finn became the Heir to the Pack at such a young age, it has changed a few things on our side,” Jasper said softly. Finn
was her brother, Melanie and Kade’s oldest biological child. “The younger generation will be gaining their powers and bonds to the goddess earlier than would otherwise be expected.” Her uncle looked at her, and she kept silent. “That means the current Pack leaders will one day not have the bonds we have to our Pack now. But like most healthy Packs, that doesn’t mean we’re set aside. It only means we will be there to aid the new hierarchy while they learn their powers. That’s how it’s always been in our Pack, and in others, but it’s been a very long time since it’s happened to us.”
“Gina will one day be the Enforcer,” Adam said from behind her. “I don’t know when, but it will be soon. The other kids aren’t old enough yet to tell who will take on which role, but since Gina is in her twenties, the shifts are happening.”
The room grew silent, with an odd sense of change settling over her skin like an electric blanket turned on too high.
She didn’t speak. She’d known about her path, had dreamed the dreams from the moon goddess herself. But that didn’t mean she wanted the Talons to know all of this. It seemed…private somehow.
“What does this have to do with mating?” she asked, wanting to focus on something else.
Gideon gave her a look, and she lowered her eyes. He might not be her Alpha, but he was still a dominant wolf. Yes, she hadn’t lowered her eyes before, but she’d been rocked a bit since Adam had told the others of her future. She didn’t want to antagonize anyone when Gideon clearly wanted to show his power. Previously, everything had been casual; now it clearly was not.
Kade growled beside her. “Gideon.”
The Talon Alpha snorted, not smiling, but moved his gaze. “It’s fun to see how she reacts.”
“She’s my daughter and the future Enforcer.”
“She is right here, so how about you answer my question?”
Jasper chuckled by her side, and Gina wondered how quickly she could reach the nearest window and jump. It couldn’t be that far. She wouldn’t die from the fall or anything, and she’d be able to run home.