She held up the glass in a toast. “It’s what I am, right?”
She didn’t sound bitter, but she didn’t sound too happy about it, either.
“It is.” He met her eyes. “Talking with Belle earlier, I realized that we never had a discussion about our circumstances.”
“You don’t have to worry, Parker. I told my father I was happy with my situation and I’m well taken care of.”
“I know, but you deserve an apology. You deserve to know that what happened was an accident, but she is my mate.”
She took a sip of her champagne. “Your true mate? Your One?”
“Yes.”
“I’m really happy for you, Parker. That doesn’t often happen with our kind anymore and for you to have found her…” She sighed. “I’m just glad you found her before we were mated. That would’ve been messy.”
“Thank you for understanding. I know Warner wasn’t what you were expecting, but he’s a solid wolf. He’ll be good to you.”
“If we’re being honest, I don’t mind him.”
“I guess that’s a good thing.” Parker realized he wanted more for his uncle and more for Maribella than “not minding” each other. Except it was a very real fate that a lot of their kind had to endure.
“It really is.” She finished her champagne. “I think we might actually be a better match than you and I. Over these last few days, I’ve realized that you and I are more alike than is probably healthy for any relationship.”
He gave her a genuine smile. “You’re right about that. We’d have gotten along okay, though. I wasn’t opposed to marrying you, you know. When I went to Vegas, it was to find you and do my duty.”
“Except you got shitfaced and married a waitress named Belle. Who is perfectly lovely. I like her a lot.” A mischievous grin curved her mouth. “And she makes my nephew happy.”
“I hope you and Warner can be happy.”
“Me too. I’m going to try.”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
“Why not?” She grabbed another flute of champagne off a passing tray and took a sip.
“You seem to be much like me in a lot of ways. Closer to your humanity than your beast. Were you bothered that he ‘kidnapped’ you like wolves used to do to their mates?”
“I was startled, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it. I think while our humanities are kindred spirits, Warner’s wolf and mine are.”
“Perhaps you’re his true mate. His One.”
“Doubtful. He told me even as he was marking me that he’d only ever love your mother.”
Parker snorted. “Yeah, he was probably just telling himself that.”
“It’s okay either way. I knew to expect an arranged mating. This is my pack now.”
Parker leaned forward and impulsively kissed her cheek. “It is. Forever and always, Maribella. You belong to us and we belong to you.”
“Thank the goddess for that. It was you or Remus.”
“I still wonder why your father chose us. Especially since he chose Remus in the war.”
“Siding with Remus was calling in a chip. He didn’t want to, but he didn’t have a choice. He sent me here because he knew I’d be safest with Woolven.”
Parker tried to imagine being forced to make that choice for someone he loved. For his own child. It made him even more thankful he wasn’t the Alpha. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the big wedding.”
“I’ve realized I don’t really need it. Since you asked me something personal, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“I’d like to get to know Warner better. Any hints on how to do that? I think we got off on the wrong paw.”
“Oh yeah?” He couldn’t help the smirk. Warner was prickly, but he needed a mate who could give him what for. He hadn’t thought Maribella was that she-wolf, but just maybe she was.
“He said I was too pretty to be useful. I told him he was too old and ugly. I didn’t mean it. I know I can say I’m sorry, but those are just words.”
“So were the daggers you threw. I’m sure he’s over it.”
“I’m not.”
“Go to his level. I know he doesn’t spend any time as a man at his cabin.”
“He prowls the woods in his wolf form most of the time. He checks on me, makes sure I have everything I need, but it’s like having a babysitter instead of a mate and I’m pretty much over that.”
“I would be, too. So you know what you have to do.”
She downed the champagne. “Give up the champagne and diamonds and run around naked in the mud and trees. Got it.”
“Or continue with things the way they are.”
“Like I said, Parker. That’s no way to live. I thought about moving back into the main house, but that would put even more distance between us.”
“Do you want to be a true mate to Warner?”
“Even if we don’t belong together we can at least try to have a good life, right?”
“Have you said this to him?”
“Not yet. We don’t really talk much.”
“Maybe you should. After you tell him he’s not so old and not so ugly.”
“He’s really not either of those things, I’m just a bitch.”
“An Alpha bitch who isn’t going to take any shit.” Parker was hit with inspiration. “In case you didn’t know, Warner could’ve been Alpha.”
“What do you mean?” Her eyes narrowed.
“His brother needed it more than he did. Warner chose to be Beta to my father.”
“That makes so much sense.”
“Forewarned is forearmed, my dear.” Parker had the feeling he’d just loosed a world of shit on his uncle and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“He won’t thank you for telling me.”
“Yeah, Blake didn’t thank me for arming Randi to the teeth with silver weapons, either. But now look at them.” He shrugged. “I should get to the table.” Parker looked at her empty glass. “And get you some more champagne.”
“I drink it like water. So I wouldn’t mind if you sent me a bottle. I especially like it when the bubbles tickle my snout. That’s how my father used to get me to change to warrior form when I was child. Bowls of champagne, because I liked the tickles.”
“You’re lucky. Westwood would just beat us with sticks.”
“Really?”
“No. Well, Drew, sometimes. When he’d snap at her. We all actually live in fear of her,” Parker confessed.
“Even Warner?”
“Maybe not Warner. If so, he doesn’t show it.” He saw his bride waiting for him at the table and it was getting close to time for the toast. Then he could spirit her away back to Aphelion.
Back to safety.
Back to his bed.
“Your bride is waiting.”
“See you back at the house.” He squeezed her arm in a gesture of affection and turned toward Belle.
He fixed a smile on his face for the cameras and approached the table.
Chapter 10
Belle was exhausted.
She hadn't dealt with that many people in one place in a long time. Remembering everyone's names and faces, if they were friendlies or foes... It was all so much.
Parker seemed to be completely at home under the scrutiny.
Belle remembered the hotel room, where he'd casually walked, cock in plain view, toward the window where he'd closed the drapes. He'd acted as if nothing fazed him.
She knew he took their situation seriously, but seeing him like this, so laidback and unimpressed, she had to remind herself that it was facade.
That he was very aware of the danger they were all in.
When they were finally in the limo, he said, "I've got a surprise for you."
"Oh, yeah? What's that?"
"We're not going back to Aphelion."
"No? Where are we going?"
"We're going to stay right here. There's a supernatural spa that caters to our sort downtown. Before we hea
d back to Aphelion, you're going to get a spa day."
"What? Really?"
"Me too. We'll spend the night and then head back to Aphelion in the morning." He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. "You're getting the Bathory treatment."
"The blood of a hundred virgins?"
"All legally and humanely acquired. Your wedding present."
"This is too surreal."
"Would you rather just go to Aphelion?" he offered. "I know this must all be so overwhelming."
"This spa is just the thing. I've been so out of touch with the supernatural world. I think I need it."
"Good. Because after you get your Bathory treatment, and you've had a massage, and all the beef liver you can eat, I'm going to eat you." He snapped his teeth at her.
Belle shivered with sensual delight. She couldn't and didn't want to say no. "Oh really? Well, Parker Woolven, what if I just eat you instead?"
"Can't we do both?" He leaned in and nuzzled her neck.
"Can we? I like that." Except she couldn't stop thinking about the blood slave she'd seen that day. That's what she assumed he was.
He hadn't been a vampire, but he was sentient. He was obviously Asakku property and he'd been sent there to torment her.
To warn her of what was going to happen to her, and to anyone that dared to help her. There was part of her that wanted to tear him to pieces. Part of her that wanted to unleash the pack on the bastard and send his entrails back to her father in a pretty pink box.
Except that would make her just like him, wouldn't it?
"Hey, gorgeous. Where'd you go?"
"I was thinking about that man today. About The Greasy Lamb."
"He'll be dealt with."
"Will he?" she asked softly. "You must have considered he might've been sent to rile us up. To make us sloppy."
"Of course he was, but that doesn't mean we'll let it go unanswered." He pulled her close. "There's plenty of time to think about war. For now, think about taking care of yourself."
"Are you trying to spoil me?" She eyed him. "Because I like it. A woman could get used to this."
"You should get used to it. No point in having money if you can't enjoy it."
"I guess you're right about that." She settled against him and, in her head, time stopped. She burrowed into the moment, committed it to memory.
Something told her in a quiet whisper that it was all about to come crashing down around them. If it had been that voice screaming in her head since the outset, she'd have ignored it. This was something different. Something that would not be ignored.
It was as if every bit of sand through the hourglass was a razorblade slicing away this future she'd pretended she could have.
She'd never be free of her father or the murder until she faced them both.
But she wasn't ready.
Running and hiding was what she did best.
When they arrived at the spa, she was led to one room and he to another. Every part of her body vibrated with the wrongness of it, but she didn't listen. It wasn't telling her anything new.
She went.
Belle allowed herself to be led to the spa room, stripped and lowered into a blood bath. All of her cells were instantly rejuvenated and she was filled with all the joy and relief each donor felt when they'd been paid for their blood.
This had cost him a pretty penny indeed.
In the ancient days, before she'd known it was wrong to take blood without permission, before she'd known it came from living, thinking, feeling creatures, she'd demanded a blood bath once a week.
And the citizens of Ur had only been too happy to provide it to keep the Asakku happy and out of their homes.
"I knew your dog wouldn't be able to resist this," a voice said from the shadows.
She struggled to get up, preparing to defend herself, but the dopamine in the blood was making her high. She felt too good, too languid to do anything but sit there and absorb more of the elixir.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice sounding not at all authoritarian.
"You know what I want. What is it you're calling yourself now? Belle? Yes, you know what I'm after." He stepped from the shadows, a winged darkness.
A demon.
A devil.
He was big, bigger than any mortal man. This creature who stood before her didn't seem as if he'd ever been human. Not with the mouth full of fangs and the flat, cold, reptilian-like hunger in his eyes as his gaze was drawn to the bath of blood.
"Does it feel as good as it smells?" he asked, licking his lips.
His skin was sallow and pale in the soft glow of the candles, the light playing across his sharp features like a scene in a shadow box.
"Yes."
"That doesn't quite fit with your no human blood lifestyle, now does it? Are you finally ready to come home?"
"It's humanely harvested. The humans are paid for their blood. They're paid well." She licked her lips as more of their euphoria infused her.
This vampire could rip her apart, and she couldn't bring herself to care. She was too stoned on blood and bliss.
"Tirigan sends his love."
Tirigan, her father, didn't know how to love. But she didn't say that. She wasn't going to debate the finer points of anything with this brick of undead flesh. "Was that all you wanted? To bring me my father's love?"
"And a boon."
"What's that?"
"Come with me now and, hell, I'll even let you finish your blood bath. I'll take you back to Tirigan, and he'll let your pet mongrels live."
She laughed. "Oh, I think we both know that's a lie."
"He swears to Enki and Enlil."
"I know his tricks. If I didn't see him swear—"
"He will swear it before the full moon. As you, too, must swear to never leave him again. Otherwise, the Woolvens will suffer the same fate as those at The Greasy Lamb."
Her emotions weren't her own, but she supposed that was a blessing. He couldn't use them against her.
"Not a chance in hell."
"He may just kill you, too. You've gone sour. Rotten."
"Sour and rotten things don't walk in the sun."
"Your little spa day just put you out of the sun for a year."
Actually, it hadn't, but he didn't need to know that. As long as she didn't drink it... "Do you want some?" She held out her bloody hand to him.
"I wasn't born or made yesterday, Princess."
"I'm not a princess." She remembered what Randi had said about being the dragon. Belle wanted to be the dragon, too.
So far, she was failing miserably.
"I wouldn't know when you were born, or when you were made. I don't care." She closed her eyes and sank deeper into the bath. "Nothing about you means anything to me."
"I just wonder, will you send your mutt after me?"
"Why ever would I do that? You must've been born yesterday, because you don't listen. You think you're telling me something, and my words don't matter. A wise individual listens to what their enemy has to say."
"Contrary to what you think, princess, I'm not your enemy. I only want to bring you home."
"There you go, telling your version of the truth, as if mine doesn't matter. And you wonder why I think you're my enemy."
"Vampires belong with their murder."
"I'm not really a vampire anymore, am I? I'm something else. I always have been."
"Come home, Belle."
"I am home." Her words rang with truth and the bliss she was feeling wouldn't let her block it out or ignore it. Being with Parker, it was home in a way she'd never felt before. Not even when she was a little girl and had been brought before Tirigan. Not even when he proclaimed her his "daughter."
He sighed. "Tirigan has shown you how far he will go. Do you really want to go to war against him?"
"I've been at war with him since I was twenty."
"I suppose you're right about that."
"Why do you care anyway? What did he promise you if you got me to
return home?"
"You."
She opened her eyes and looked at him. "See? There's the problem. He thinks he can just give me to someone like I'm property."
"And yet, here I am, asking you to return with me."
"It seems we’re at an impasse, then. I've said no, and I'm not going to change my mind."
"I think you might. There's a storm coming, princess. Only you can hold the tide back from your precious Woolvens."
"You act as if they have no defenses."
"They have none against Tirigan."
"I guess he shall see." The good feelings were fading quickly as the blood lost its potency.
"So shall you." He eased back into the shadows, seeming to melt into a dense, dark fog.
Damn it, she wished she could do that. Maybe Westwood could teach her the fog. Or the even the wolf.
If she could learn to shapeshift into a wolf, she could run with Parker.
She suddenly realized that the fog hadn't yet begun to dissipate. It was still there and it was creeping in thick, smoky tendrils toward her.
Holding out her hand, she tried to conjure a spell she and Eleanor had been working on. It was her first. She wasn't even sure she could do it.
Or should do it.
But it was the only one she knew, and she wasn't going to let Tirigan's henchman intimidate her, or put his smoky fingers wherever he wanted with impunity.
Small bits of light sparked in her open palm, but it was nothing like what she needed to banish the encroaching darkness.
She pulled from all the places Westwood had taught her. From the light she imagined to be inside of herself, to the power of the blood coursing through her veins.
Belle got only sparks until she thought of Parker. The way he reminded her of the sun.
How golden and warm he was.
The taste of his blood on her tongue.
His scent.
The way she felt in his arms.
The golden orb exploded in her palm, searing her hand, but best of all, burning away the darkness.
A shriek that sounded like it'd been ripped straight out of hell echoed through the room, causing her eardrums to rupture and blood poured out of her ears, but she didn't even feel the pain. She was still a little stoned on the blood, and her joy at having protected herself from the Asakku was worth it.
She hadn't run.
The Mate Mistake (The Woolven Secret Book 3) Page 9
