Wrapping her arms tight to her belly, Tierra continued to move restlessly around the room. Earlier she had felt dizzy and her food had sat queer in her stomach—as though it might come back up.
What was this feeling clenching her heart and soul? The fear for her heart-sisters—that she understood. Fear for all races, and that their way of life might soon come to an end—that was clear, too.
But why did her thoughts continually return to her dark warrior? Out of all that could come from this battle, why did she fear most never again seeing Renn? Why did she fear never again hearing his deep and vibrant voice…never again feeling his touch upon her skin…never again enjoying his embrace through the night…never again waking in his arms in the morn…and never again hearing him say—
“I love you, denai.” Renn’s powerful presence filled the room as his voice startled Tierra from her thoughts.
With a small cry she whirled to see him standing before the open bedchamber door. He let it swing shut behind him, his gaze intent on her, drinking her in as though he would never have his fill.
Frozen in place, Tierra absorbed every last detail of her dark warrior. His weary expression, his silver eyes, his windblown hair and stubbled cheeks. His muscular body, his scuffed boots and dusty tunic and breeches.
“No matter what happens,” he said, his resonant voice breaking the silence, “I will always love you.”
Tierra bit the inside of her lip, her heart melting at the bare honesty in Renn’s words and in his expression. Without another moment’s hesitation, she ran toward him and threw herself against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as he embraced her tightly to him. She pressed her face against the material of his tunic that was still cold from being outside. He smelled of wind and dust, cedar and his own heady masculine scent.
For a long time he just held her, neither of them saying a word. She did not want to talk, did not want to shatter the precious moment that existed between the two of them.
The moment she realized she was in love with him.
As Tierra clung to him, Renn could never remember a time in his life that he felt such intense emotions for anyone or anything. He loved his brother and sister, had loved his parents, and cared for his people.
Every other feeling paled in comparison to his love for Tierra. His entire life before Tierra was naught but a shadow of what his life had become since he had found her.
A long shuddering sigh wracked her body. Renn pressed his lips to the top of her head, inhaling her honeysuckle perfume and drawing it deep into his lungs. She sighed again and he strode toward the bed with her snug in his embrace.
After he disentangled her from around him, he set her on the bed. He knelt before her on one knee and took her hands in his. “When this battle is over, I wish…” Renn swallowed, suddenly finding it difficult to find the words to say as he looked into Tierra’s emerald gaze. “I would ask that you join with me and become my wife.”
Her eyes appeared large and luminous as she stared at him. His heart near ceased to beat at the thought that she might refuse him.
He squeezed her hands tighter as he humbled himself before her. “Please say yes, Tierra.”
The tightness in his chest grew even greater as Tierra’s lower lip trembled, and he bowed his head. He could not let her go. How could he convince her to love him as he loved her?
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I cannot live without—” His head snapped up and his gaze met hers. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.” She cupped his face in her hands and smiled. “I love you, Renn. I will be your wife.”
“Denai.” He grabbed her to him and stood in one quick movement. Tierra shrieked and laughed as he whirled her around the room.
“You are making me dizzy.” Tierra clasped her hand to her forehead, her head spinning and her stomach churning. “I love you, Renn, but you must stop.”
Abruptly he halted, his face concerned. “Are you all right?”
She kept her hand to her forehead, not daring to nod for fear her dinner would come up all over her soon-to-be-husband. “Just allow me to lie down for a moment.”
He set her on the bed so gently, as though he feared she might shatter if he was not careful. “Do you need a healer? A tonic perhaps?”
“You are sweet.” Tierra took his hand and smiled. “But I am fine.”
Renn frowned. “Sweet?”
A giggle rose up inside her and she could not keep it from escaping. “I bet no one has ever called you sweet before.”
Renn’s lips turned up into a grin. “Never.” His smile faded as he eased onto the bed beside her, his hand still holding hers. “You are ill?”
Tierra shrugged. “I felt a bit queasy when you spun me around. And earlier, too.”
He suddenly straightened. His grip on her hand grew tighter and his expression serious.
She cocked her head. “What?”
His chest expanded as he took a deep breath before speaking. “I have not known how to tell you this…” He paused and then continued, “Do you recall when Anistana spoke of aradne dust?”
“A Faerie powder.” Tierra nodded as she remembered how jealous she had been when Anistana spoke of using it with Renn. “It makes men wild in bed.”
“Yes.” He studied her for a long moment before he added, “Its use always results in a child between heartmates.”
“So…” Her voice trailed off as flashes of memory came back to her. The dungeon. A glittering gold that had floated in the air and the wild fucking Renn had given her immediately after.
Hot anger flooded through her. “You used it with me.”
A shocked expression covered his handsome face. “I would never do so without your knowledge or consent.”
She raised her chin. “Then what are you saying?”
“Anistana.” He shook his head, his black hair brushing his shoulders. “When she sent us to the dungeon, she apparently put aradne dust within the folded horse blanket. I did not realize it ’til after we had joined.”
Tierra’s skin tingled as she absorbed what he said. “It always results in a child?”
“Between heartmates, always.” Renn brought her hand to his mouth, feathered his lips across her skin and she shivered. “I cannot lie and tell you I am not pleased. To know that you carry my—our—child is the second most incredible thing that has happened to me in my life.”
I’m pregnant. Dear gods, save me. Tierra swallowed and then said, “What is the first?”
“Meeting you. Touching you. Loving you.” He leaned forward and kissed her lips. “Most definitely, you, denai.”
When he pulled back, she could not help but smile. “Who would ever have thought that you could be such a romantic man?”
“Do not tell my brother or Jalen.” Renn gave her a mock scowl. “I shall never live it down.”
Tierra laughed, almost feeling giddy. “I’m pregnant? With child? Your child?”
“Yes, denai.” Renn’s expression grew more grave. “I offer apologies for the circumstance. But as I said, I feel nothing but joy at the knowledge. Are you…happy to have my baby?”
Warmth splashed Tierra’s heart as she realized the big warrior looked vulnerable again—almost more vulnerable than when he asked her to marry him. Her hand covered her belly protectively, and she felt a fierce thrill. Pride, protectiveness, joy.
Renn’s tense expression doubled, then tripled.
Tierra reached out and brushed his cheek. “Even with Zanden at our gates, to know you love me, to know we will be wed, and to know your seed grows within me—I could live ten lives and never feel more joy than I feel this day.”
With a sensual growl, Renn lowered his mouth and gently moved his firm lips over hers. A slow, erotic kiss that she felt all the way to her soul. He eased his tongue through her lips, tasting her, teasing her, bringing her such warmth and love.
This fine dark warrior would be her husband. The f
ather of her child.
He was hers.
With gentle hands that belied his incredible strength, Renn removed the Elvin clothing she wore. He eased off her lace-up boots, one at a time, then drew off her breeches. Finally he helped her to sit up and carefully pulled her tunic over her head.
As he undressed her, Tierra found she could easily picture this man as a father. And herself as a mother. He could be gentle and caring, yet a fierce lover and protector.
After he slipped off her tunic, Renn removed his own boots. Then, still in his breeches and tunic, he sat on the bed behind her and removed the tie from the end of her braid. He combed her hair out with his fingers ’til her tresses hung loose around her shoulders. She shivered at the sensual feel of his touch, loving the way his hands and fingers felt on her scalp, at her neck, everywhere.
“You have the most beautiful hair,” he murmured and rubbed his face in the silken strands. “Everything about you is beautiful.”
She turned in his arms, so that she was on her knees on the bed, facing him. “You are, Renn. You are beautiful.” She put her hands around his neck, pulled his head down to hers, and kissed her man.
When she gently bit at his lower lip, a groan rumbled through his chest. His callused hands rubbed her back from her shoulder blades, down to her buttocks, and back up again.
Tierra pulled away, her skin raw from the scratch of his stubble, her lips swollen from his kisses. She clenched her hands in the material of his tunic. “I want to feel your skin next to mine. I need to feel you.”
He helped her pull his tunic over his head, revealing his massive chest. He started to reach for the ties of his breeches, but she halted him by placing her hand upon his. “Wait.” She rubbed her hands over his chest, enjoying the feel of his solid muscles beneath her palms, exploring him, memorizing every inch of his body.
Moving behind him, she continued kissing and loving him. When she trailed her fingers down the scar across his back, Renn said, “Are you healing that scar, too?”
“No.” She kissed his shoulder. “It is a part of you and I love you just the way you are.”
Tierra’s touch was so exquisite, every moment Renn was sure was his last. He had died and gone to the gods’ heaven to be loved by his woman.
She moved from behind him and said, “Lie back.” When he did, she straddled his waist and leaned forward so that her fiery tresses fell across his chest. They brushed across his skin like the finest of silk as her mouth found his nipple and she flicked her tongue across the tiny nub.
The ache increased in his already painfully hard cock and he gripped her shoulders with his hands. “Denai, you are torturing me.”
“No.” She laved his other nipple. “I am loving you.”
That magic tongue of hers worked its way down his taut abdomen to the waistband of his breeches. With deft fingers she untied them and then lightly stroked his cock as she pulled the breeches lower. He arched up, helping her ease them over his hips, and then she scooted down the bed ’til she had taken them all the way off.
“Perfect,” she murmured. She moved back up his long frame ’til she straddled his waist, his cock against her wet folds.
Tierra caught her breath as Renn rolled her onto her back in a quick movement. His weight felt solid between her thighs and in her arms, right where he belonged.
With a gentle hand he brushed hair from her face and smiled. “How could the gods have favored me with one such as you?”
She laughed. “As often as I ran away from you, and you consider yourself favored?”
He gave her a roguish grin. “The chase was half the fun.”
“Oh?” Tierra raised a brow. “But what will you do with me now that you’ve caught me?”
“Love you.” Renn reached down and placed the head of his erection at the entrance to her core. “Forever.”
With that he slid his cock into her channel and she gasped. How could such words of commitment bring her even more excitement than the teasing and games had?
His thrusts started out slow and easy, but became more and more powerful. Tierra met his every plunge, her heart and soul blending with his, her cries mingling with his groans ’til their passion exploded into fireworks of her scream and his shout.
“I love you, Renn,” Tierra murmured as he rolled to his side and brought her tight against his chest. “I will always love you.”
* * * * *
Tierra woke to the soft glow of sunshine on her eyelids and an urgent knock on the door. Still sleepy, she shook the fog from her mind. When she saw that the Renn’s place beside her was empty, she felt a momentary sense of loss that he was not there with her. She so enjoyed waking up with him at her side. And now that they were to be married, it was even more thrilling to know that she would wake with him every morning.
She could not help but smile. Renn would be her husband. And she would be his wife.
The knock sounded again, vanquishing the last of her morning stupor. She clutched the blanket tight to her chest and called out, “Come in.”
Liana and Ranelle both rushed into the room wearing expressions of mingled fury and concern.
“They left us,” Liana said, her sea green eyes wide with disbelief.
“What?” Tierra sat up in bed, still holding the blanket to her.
“Jalen, Aric, and Renn.” Ranelle fisted her hands. “They posted guards throughout the castle so that we cannot leave.”
Tierra gritted her teeth, anger rushing over her in a hot, furious wave. “They what?”
Liana’s hair swirled around her shoulders as she spoke. “They have gone to fight Zanden without us!”
“Those bastards.” Tierra climbed out of bed, dropping the blanket to reach for her discarded Elvin clothing. “Like hell they’re going to do this without us. Like hell.”
Chapter Fourteen
Blood thrummed through Renn’s veins as he rested his hand on his sword hilt and waited on the Mir Plains, just behind the front battle lines.
Gods, but their army was magnificent.
Line after line of Elvin warriors, Nordain fighters, Tanzanite hulks, Dwarven soldiers—on and on and on, across so many species.
Surely this would give the bastard Zanden a little pause.
Feymir shifted beneath Renn, almost prancing in his impatience. The war stallion snorted and tossed his head, obviously ready for the coming battle.
The darkness on the horizon bore down across the plain and straight toward the poised warriors.
Nordain cries echoed, along with Elvin chants, Dwarf shouts, and the eerie keening songs of Tanzinites.
Almost like laments, those songs. Sorrow that conflict had to come to violence.
Renn’s heart rate doubled.
The dark clouds—they were moving too fast.
Zanden’s followers were bearing down more swiftly than Renn or anyone else had expected. In just moments the Sorcerer’s vast army would be upon them.
As if in recognition of this danger, the entire battlefield fell silent. Only the intermittent snort of a horse or an occasional report cry from Nordain scouts could be heard.
That, and in the distance, the sound of marching feet. Many marching feet.
Several rows of Seraphine Elvin archers prepared to strike down as many of the Sorcerer’s front lines as they could when they were attacked. Many of Renn’s Seraphine brothers and sisters-at-arms calmly waited. Tirnac, Kerriel, and Chrys stood alongside Jalen’s sisters, the twins Damianne and Angelei.
Gods. Do not let me lose these people. My family.
Renn scowled into the oncoming cloud, battling a rage that might swallow whole all of Dair. Now that he had Tierra, a child on the way—family had a deeper meaning to him.
And this bastard, this foe who shared his very blood, meant to take it all from him.
“You will die,” Renn growled to himself, imagining Zanden’s death at his hands.
Renn glanced to his side.
The Devline Elves were primaril
y sword-fighters, the cold silver of their weapons glinting in the early morning light. Their dark features impassive, the Devline stood side by side behind the Seraphine archers.
Behind the Devline and to the right, stood masses of winged Tanzinites. The cave-dwelling, mostly albino race preferred the use of long, thin scythes in battle. Their wicked blades would be even more of an asset for these creatures who could fly.
To the left of the Tanzinites, the fierce Dwarves crouched like countless blue skinned, blue-eyed statues. When unable to use their bare hands to snap an enemy’s neck, the Dwarves relied on jagged-bladed daggers to disembowel.
Even though he would choose to be in the middle of the melee immediately, Aric remained behind the armies like a true King should. Renn had no doubt at first opportunity his brother would thrust himself into the thick of battle. Aric’s mount was a fierce war stallion, but Baethel, the King’s steed that had been slain in recent events, would be sorely missed in this fight.
The Nordain remained behind the other races as half were on horseback, and the other half on foot—prepared to shift into nordai form for the air battle soon to come. All of Phoenicia’s warriors were present, save for those left behind to protect the castle—the fiercest of which had been instructed to guard Tierra, Ranelle and Liana and to keep them from leaving.
For a moment Renn allowed himself to think of Tierra. The honeysuckle scent of her skin, the smells of their mingled sex. How beautiful she had looked sleeping in his arms, and how difficult it had been to leave her this morn. He knew she and her halias would be angry at being left behind, but Renn, Aric, and Jalen refused to risk their women’s lives.
At the memory of Tierra’s declaration of love, Renn’s heart soared like a nordai in flight. At the end of this battle, she would become his wife, and months from now, she would give birth to their babe.
Renn gripped his sword hilt and gritted his teeth as his attention riveted on the horizon. He could now make out the cold faces of the front line of Zanden’s army.
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