by Claire Ryann
She was momentarily distracted by how new everything looked. The realization that the bright light in the room was actually the soft glow of the waxing moon shining through an open window made her stare in wonder. Everything felt like the volume had been turned up, colors were richer, sounds were sharper, smells were downright overwhelming.
Somewhere outside the window she could smell animals, decomposing wood from a fallen tree, moss on the stones along the river's edge, a fire in the distance. To the other side of her, through a closed door to the room she was in, dozens of people had moved through the halls. She could guess at how long ago each person had passed by how strong their lingering scent was.
The scent that had woken her, however, was in the room with her. Her mate. She felt the wolf somewhere inside her vibrate with a possessive growl and with it she was overcome with the need to find him. She needed to feel him and cover him with her own scent so there would be no mistaking that he belonged to her.
Haley struggled to sit up. She was on a comfortable bed, the down quilt pushed off of her naked body and she remembered how warm the wolf had been in the dream.
Her muscles were stiff and every single one ached. The shoulder that had been filled with blinding fire the last time she opened her eyes tingled and throbbed. She could feel the tissue pulling itself together.
She reached up with her left hand and winced as her fingers touched her right shoulder. The skin wasn't broken but it was tender to the touch.
Ruelle. The last thing she remembered was Ruelle's cruel jaws clamping onto her throat. Thinking she'd been a fool to follow him and an even bigger fool to trust him when he said he owed her for her kindness.
Of course he didn't owe her. He'd have survived without her. She had only given him a chance to get to know her while he rested. Information that he had used against her. It made sense that he hadn't killed her on his own, that he had waited till his colleagues could join the fun.
Wolves hunted in packs, after all.
She knew this from what she'd read before, but now she also knew it instinctively deep inside her. In a place that didn't feel like her own conscious but more like a whisper from a close friend.
That friend also tapped her gently in a very private way and pointed her back to the source of the scent.
Daelan's head rested against her thigh. His arms stretched out across her, holding her as best he could from where he sat in a chair beside her bed. He was sleeping. His wild curls falling haphazardly around his face.
She could plainly see his features in the bright moonlight. His cheeks had hollowed, his eyes were sunken with dark circles under the thick dusty lashes that fluttered against his cheek as he dreamed.
Haley reached down and let her fingers brush away a lock of hair from his face. He was alive, he was with her. Her fingers moved more purposefully over the side of his face and along his jaw. It was obvious he needed this sleep, he looked like hell, but she'd woken with a need for him that was going to be hard to put aside.
Daelan's lips twitched as her fingers touched them and then his eyes opened. His fingers curled, one hand over her left thigh, the other against her midriff. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and turned his face against the thigh he had been resting on.
Her skin was bare from when she had pushed the covers off in her dream and his lips pressed firmly against her. She could just see his eyes close as he continued to press kissed across her skin, his nostrils flaring at he inhaled deeply at the apex of her thighs. His right hand slid up along her leg and grasped her hip, pulling her closed to him as he settled back against her.
"When you wake up," he mumbled sleepily against her body, "Everything starts over when you wake up."
Haley watched him lay his head back down, this time on the soft bulge of her stomach with his face turned away from her eyes.
She reached down and stroked the back of his head and he pulled her tightly to him. Then she let her hand purposely move down his neck to the knotted muscles of his shoulder making sure her touch was too intentional for him to ignore.
"Haley?" His voice rose with a glimmer of hope as he spun around to face her, "Are you awake?"
He was kneeling on the bed beside her now, framing her face between his large hands.
"Are you really back?"
The strangled emotion in his voice surprised her. She could see his eyes were wet with unshed tears as he began dropping hurried kisses over her face.
"I was beginning to think you would never wake up," he kissed her forehead and then the bridge of her nose, "you've been out for so long," more kisses on her cheeks, "I was so worried," finally a kiss landed on her lips.
Haley lifted her face toward the kiss, hoping for another. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep but she'd woken to the keen awareness of Daelan's presence. Her body was sore but the hunger for her mate pushed it into the background.
She raised her arms and pulled Daelan's mouth against hers.
First he resisted, making a sound of objection that was muffled by her lips on his. She refused to let him leave her though, pulling him closer till his mouth opened against hers and he allowed her tongue to tangle with his.
He was hesitant at first, as if he was worried she would vanish or break, but soon she felt his resolve slip. He pressed forward, mashing against her, his mouth greedy on hers.
Haley slid her hands down Daelan's back. Her palms flattened wide as she savored every thick muscle of his shoulders, the hard protrusions of his shoulder blades and down the taut skin of his back. She clung to him, pulling him down till his body was against hers, his weight resting atop her.
Her body was bare but his wasn't. Haley hated taking her hands off him, but she had to get to his naked flesh. She pushed and tugged at his clothing till, with some cooperation, they fell to the floor in a series of soft rustles.
Now she had his flesh against hers. The soft layer of hair that adorned his chest pressed against her breasts, the hard muscles of his stomach against the cushion of hers, his hips on hers. His knees trapped one of her thighs between them, as his body pinned her into the sheets.
The feel of him was everything. Her body sang at the feel of his flesh and she struggled under his weight to make herself more available to him.
The thick shaft of his cock pressed against her mound in a way that commanded her to rock her hips against it.
Daelan's mouth lifted from hers and they both gasped for air. Haley grunted with frustration as she squirmed under his weight again. Daelan seemed oblivious to her pleas as his mouth moved down her body. His hands cradled each breast, pushing them up and holding them to his mouth as he sucked each taut nipple to attention.
Haley's hands scrambled to stay on him as his mouth gave mercy to her aching nipples in favor of torturing her clit. Her fingers managed to clasp in his hair as the coarse hair of his beard brushed over her fevered skin as his head settled between her thighs.
Daelan's arms wrapped around her legs and she eagerly allowed him to move them widely apart. His tongue slid between her folds with a firm, hot stroke, and Haley's cries filled the room.
"You're going to get us caught," Daelan murmured against her with a wicked grin she could feel more than see. He licked her again, lapping the nectar from her aching entrance all the way along her seam to the throbbing button of her clit.
"That's OK," Haley panted, "I'm not shy." She bucked her hips against his tongue, "Just don't stop."
She was coming, flinging her hands above her and twisting the pillow around her head as she muffled a scream.
The release was what she needed but not what her body craved, "Please," she begged between ragged breaths, "More. More please."
He kissed her inner thigh lightly, "Glady," he agreed as his pressed his mouth to her mound once more.
"NO!" Haley felt something wild rising inside her, her body twisting till she could reach his shoulder, "Daelan!" She was holding herself up and looking down at him with her hand in his hair, forcing
him to meet her eyes. She could feel the rapid heartbeat of another being inside her, something feral and hungry.
Daelan's eyes went silver with that inner light the wolves all seemed to have, his heat surged and his scent filled her lungs anew. He moved with purpose as he returned to her mouth with a hungry kiss that still tasted of her pleasure.
The broad head of his cock pushed into her, stretching her wide as he slid past her gate. She felt the soreness in her muscles as they clenched and tightened throughout her entire body, a searing pain shot through her shoulder as she used that arm to pull herself again Daelan's body.
A fleeting memory flashed in her mind, a wolf's jaws open and coming toward her, but it was gone just as suddenly.
Haley felt her body taking Daelan in, molding itself around him as he pushed deeper. His arms were tense as they framed her shoulders, his breath heavier with each slick thrust.
This, this is what she needed. This was what the wolf had demanded, to connect to its mate in the most intimate way, to feel him moving inside her, filling her completely while the sky went dark in her mind and the storm raging on the horizon crashed over her body.
She felt him joining her, his breathing more ragged, his movements more frantic till his fingers tightened their grip on her and he spilled over inside her with a harsh growl that shook the room around them.
They lay spent in each other's arms. Haley softly stroking Daelan's back as she enjoyed the heavy rising and falling of his breath till it finally returned to normal. She listened to his heart beating strong against her breast. His lips pressed soft, dry kisses along the side of her throat on the side that ached only dully now.
"Everything starts over now," Daelan whispered.
31
He was kissing along a tender area that stretched from the base of her neck, over her collar bone and down toward the pit of her right arm. When she first woke, it had burned but now it tingled with that pins and needles feeling of blood flow returning to a sleeping foot. His kisses were soft and tender but they seared her skin like tiny pin pricks.
Haley hated to stop him. The thought of not enjoying the feel of his mouth on any part of her filled her with dismay, but this place was too sensitive.
She pulled away and turned her head to see what was causing the discomfort.
"Oh my God," she gasped.
An angry purple scar cut a jagged path along her shoulder. The flesh above the line was a mosaic of lesser scars connecting patches of new skin in various states of healing as if her arm had been cut off and sewed back on with scraps of skin.
She looked like a rag doll.
"What the fuck happened?"
Daelan moved aside to let her sit up. His eyes filled with pain as he watched her stare at her at her damaged flesh.
"Day," she turned wide eyes on him, "how long have I been sleeping?"
"Six weeks," he said sadly, "Long weeks." His fingers raised toward her shoulder and barely grazed the deep scar.
"What happened?" She asked again, "I don't remember."
"I didn't get there in time."
Haley could hear the pain in his voice, the sound of a man who had spent the last 6 weeks blaming himself for his mate's injuries.
"I never thought my friend would stand against me," he mumbled, "let alone attempt to kill my mate."
Daelan raised his eyes to Haley's, "I will hunt him down and pull him apart for what he did to you. We thought you were dead when we found you. You were torn apart," his voice choked on the words, "you were so covered in your own blood, there was no way you could have survived."
"So how am I here?"
"He missed something vital," Daelan moved a strand of her hair from where it lay against her neck, "here," his fingers traced lightly over her throat.
A thoughtful look furrowed his brow as he watched his fingers outline the area he was talking about, "Ruelle is a good hunter. He knows how to make a quick kill," Daelan's voice dropped low as he thought out loud, "he must have been over eager to attack. To be the first one and take credit for the kill."
Haley ran through her memories of that day. Of dragging Ruelle's mangled wolf into her shelter, of their conversations as he healed, of his offer to help her get to the road.
"Do you intend to join the pack?"
She remembered seeing the other wolves racing toward them on the hillside as Ruelle demanded answers to questions that seemed irrelevant at that point. She remembered the sickening feeling of betrayal as his wolf lunged for her throat and the blackness that she had swum through till the reflection of the black wolf looking back at her in the water began to permeate her dreams.
Haley ran her hand over the newly knitted flesh of her wound.
"It's almost like Hollywood says...if you survive you become one...Do you intend to join the pack?"
Ruelle's words replayed in her memory again and again.
"No," Haley finally raised her eyes to meet Daelan's, "I don't think he missed."
32
The pack remained divided.
New policies had been put in place. Their Alpha was clear: No member of the pack should fear the safety of their mate. No pack member should be afraid to introduce their mate to their home and their family. Crime against a mate would not be tolerated. Whether that mate was human or not and whether they chose to accept the wolf or not.
Those who disagreed were free to go, but any future problems would be dealt with without mercy.
A handful of members chose to break the pack. It was a painful time but Daelan stood firm as his opponents packed their things and left the den.
It was time for the pack to move forward again. To find its balance between its wild nature and its humanity. They would open their doors to the modern world of the humans, even if only a small bit at a time.
Haley's wounds healed slowly, taking well over a year before it was little more than a pale pink scar along her shoulder.
She had still been sleeping for her first shift, so it was another month before Daelan was able to introduce his mate to her new wolf properly.
At first she was shy with her wolf, not sure how she was supposed to take charge without overthinking all her new instincts. Eventually she got the hang of it. The wolf felt like part of her and she learned to shift between forms without feeling like she was changing identities.
Daelan was a good mate. Haley knew she'd taken a leap of faith. He'd always been so sure, from the moment he'd pulled her out of the snow, but Haley had had nothing better to go on than a gut feeling and her body's need for him until her wolf had showed her what it meant to recognize her mate without question.
He was strong and protective and utterly devoted. He still blamed himself for her hard introduction to the pack and for the wolf that she hadn't been fully prepared to receive.
After a lot of discussion, Daelan had agreed to give Ruelle's actions the benefit of the doubt. He still burned with anger at the betrayal of one of his most trusted men. He wasn't entirely prepared to accept Haley's belief that Ruelle had intentionally missed her jugular, knowing that he could save her from Sandalius and his hunters by taking the chance of Turning her, but he had agreed not to send a hunting party after him.
The Alpha of the west coast's oldest pack had more important things to look forward to than revenge.
"Do you need help with those?" Daelan smirked as he watched his mate struggle to buckle the straps of the sandal over her swollen insteps.
"I hate you so hard right now," Haley giggled as she give up her fight. She sank back in the chair and held out her foot so he could finish the job.
"I don't understand why Kara would do this to me? Doesn't she know I'm 50 kajillions months pregnant?" Haley whined melodramatically.
Daelan chuckled as he checked to make sure the thin straps were loose enough not to cut into her feet. Then he set her foot back on the floor and let his hand slide up the smooth surface of the white stockings that ended in lacy bands around the tops of Haley's thighs.
> "You are going to get me in a lot of trouble if you keep that up," She laughed as she made a weak attempt to bat his hands off her thighs.
"Mmm, it's not like you can do much about it in your current state," he mumbled as he licked the flesh just above the garters, "I've got you trapped."
It was true, the arms on the chair were just wide enough for him to hold her thighs apart while his thumbs led his mouth dangerously close to missing their appointment. At her current size she had lost most of her mobility and until he got out of the way, she was at his mercy.
Not that she minded much, but they had places to be.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the altar already?" She giggle-moaned.
"I'm the Alpha, they can't start without me," Daelan's fingers searched under her dress and found the lacy scrap of fabric she was calling panties.
"These feel nice," he smiled as his fingers rubbed over the rough texture.
"Alpha or not, if this wedding starts late, the bride is going to have your fur," Haley teased as she stretched her thighs a little wider against the arms of the chair.
She seriously needed to make him stop, Kara was going to kill them both if this shin dig went off track because of them. It's just that his fingers felt so good as they slipped under the edge of the lace and stroked against her.
Daelan mumbled a rejected sigh as she pried his hand off of her.
"You have a wedding to perform, Mister," she scolded playfully as she kissed his fingertips, "and I have to waddle down that aisle without tripping before the bride runs me down."
Haley struggled to sit back up and met Daelan's lips in a sweet kiss as he got to his feet.
"I promise to let you do whatever you want with these panties as soon as they say "I do," she laughed as he grasped her hands and pulled her to her feet, "the lace is all itchy anyway."
A low growl rumbled through his chest and his breath tickled the back of Haley's neck, "You could just take them off," he said with a nip against her earlobe.
Haley's breath hitched as the soft feel of his teeth on her ear sent a bolt of electricity through her body, "Kara is so going to kill me for distracting you during her ceremony!" But she let his hands reach under the hideous green dress and slide the scrap of fabric down her round thighs. She stepped out of the little triangle of lace and watched Daelan smile lewdly as he tucked them into his suit pocket.
