Madeline was covered in black blood on one side. The baby and her left side were completely clean. She had managed to shield him completely from the horrible attack—this time. But she and the baby would always be in danger as long as she wielded the ruby blade.
Long ago, he’d tried to shield her from the battlefield. But she hadn’t been safe in Bronwal, either. The ruby warrior was a target. The white wolf could accept that. Lev, in his human form, could not.
As soon as his decision was made, the wolf in his heart began to fight against it. Lev kept the shift at bay the same way he had in the days that he’d traveled with Madeline—with an iron control that severed his connection with her. Even exhausted, he was tireless in his determination to protect her. In that, he and the white wolf were alike.
The ruby sword died.
At first, Madeline was too busy with the baby to notice. For Lev, the sudden silence in his mind and in his blood was deafening. He stumbled through an echoing vacuum of loneliness that was similar to the Ether that would soon welcome him into its icy embrace. He’d been this alone before. He’d endured the ice before. For his family, he would do it again.
Vasilisa brought them all to Krajina. She shielded the baby and her tired warrior with her violet light. No one noticed that the ruby sword was dead. With Vasilisa’s power, their time in the Ether was negligible. But it was a reminder to Lev of the nothingness he would endure to protect Madeline from the connection between them.
The island was more beautiful and peaceful than Lev remembered. His fury had disrupted Vasilisa’s false atmosphere the day he sensed Madeline waking. The disruption had allowed the true Hebrides’ climate to storm in on them with wind and rain. Nature’s fury had perfectly mirrored the fury he’d felt that day. He hadn’t caused it, but he’d welcomed it. As the rain had lashed his skin and the ocean had crashed onto the rocks below, he’d thought he deserved the pain.
Today, the queen’s enchantment held. The air was warm and mild. The ocean was calm. Trevor laughed in his mother’s arms as they stepped from the Ether into the light. His son’s laughter sealed his decision. Krajina would be the perfect, protected home for them.
They all paused on the cliff overlooking the calm sea. Lev reached to touch his baby’s face. Trevor reached up to grasp his hand with a grip more powerful than Lev expected. It was Lev’s turn to laugh, even though his joy in his son was bittersweet.
If Madeline noticed his mood, she didn’t let on. She smiled in the sun, and her hair gleamed in myriad shades of red, from ruby to copper to scarlet to strawberry blonde. She was shining. She needed a bath, but she was still shining. The black smears of Ether taint did nothing to mar her perfect porcelain skin. Lev tried to memorize the moment. He tried to pretend he could take it with him into the abyss.
Krajina was the place for Madeline and Trevor. Just as it had always been. Except this time, Trevor would grow and Madeline could laugh and sew or sketch to her heart’s content. She would never have to wield the sword again. The queen would guard against future invasion. Aleksandr’s attack had only prepared her for future possibilities. She would fortify Krajina against them so his family could enjoy their peace.
And he would disappear.
He would protect them the best way he knew how: by removing the white wolf as a threat to their lives.
* * *
Lev thought she didn’t know. The truth was that she felt the loss as soon as he severed their connection. Her heart echoed with every beat in her abandoned chest—beats that stuttered, as if her heart couldn’t quite find the right rhythm.
Madeline continued as if nothing was wrong. She placed Trevor in a borrowed cradle that Vasilisa provided. The rose-and-thorn motif on its headboard and footboard only caused her a moment’s hesitation. She was certain the borrowed cradle was Anna’s, and Anna was her friend. There was nothing to fear from Anna’s mother. Not anymore. The queen’s appearance continued to startle her. She softened by the minute. And her silvery white hair was shot through with strands of silvery gray.
Madeline had stopped crying. The baby was safe. He’d been returned to her arms. They’d survived the attack on their family. Her tears for Lev burned behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Trevor slept the ordinary sleep of a tired baby who’d just been fed. He was back with his family, where he belonged. It was up to her to convince his father that he belonged as well.
She found Lev in the guest room next door. The ocean-facing rooms were barely separated by a latticed wall with an arched opening to the side. Lev stood at the window looking down at a troupe of witches standing guard below.
“They aren’t guarding against attack. They’re keeping you here. Giving you time to reconsider,” Madeline said.
Lev turned from the window to watch her approach. She’d already bathed and changed into clothes that Vasilisa had provided. Her silk gown was loose and flowing, the color of her ruby when it was bright and alive. It matched the color of certain strands of hair on her head and called attention to the deep pale V of her cleavage.
She was well aware of how her curves filled out the silk even before Lev’s blue eyes tracked the movements of her full breasts and hips beneath the gown. She wore no underclothes. Her body was as bare as she intended her heart to be.
“Reconsider what?” Lev growled. He always growled. And the burr of his hoarse rasp would always cause shivers of erotic response down her spine. The howls that had ravaged his voice over the centuries had all been for her. She wouldn’t let them be for nothing. He thought they were saved—he didn’t realize that they could only save each other, every day for the rest of their lives, if they stayed together.
“Leaving,” Madeline said.
She stopped inches away from his lean, towering frame. Maybe one day he would fill out his big, broad Romanov body, but for now, he was still the runner. Still the starving wolf who had driven himself to the brink of madness to be sure he would be strong enough to save her when the time came.
He had bathed and changed as well. Maybe he hadn’t meant to disappear without seeing her first. Maybe he’d always intended to say goodbye, guards or not. He was dressed in truly modern clothes for the first time. A thin, soft marled T-shirt hung softly against his skin, leaving nothing to the imagination. She could see the outline of his pecs and his abdomen, the dusky pebbles of his nipples. With the T-shirt, he wore matching lounge pants. Although they were loose, they clung to his large muscled thighs...and other things.
“You’re in danger as long as you’re with me. Both of you,” Lev said.
“And the white wolf will never leave us,” Madeline added. “Though you think you’ll take him with you and disappear into the Ether.” He wouldn’t. Lev would never leave them. The white wolf was his heart. She only had to make him see that. “You won’t leave me. Not after all this time. We deserve to spend the rest of our lives together.”
“I’m not so savage that I’ll put my desire to be with you over your safety. Or Trevor’s safety,” Lev said.
Madeline stepped closer. Lev didn’t step away. She was sure he was more savage than he understood. Because she was more savage than he understood. There was no way she would let him go. Not now that she’d remembered all they’d meant to each other. Not now that they meant more to each other than they had before. The battles they’d fought had only made their love stronger. She didn’t need sacrifice. She needed a partner.
“You’ve always thought you had to protect me, but I’m a warrior, Lev. And I’m meant to be your companion and your partner. We protect each other,” Madeline said. “It isn’t up to you to decide whether or not I wield the ruby blade. That decision was always mine. It’s mine still.”
Suddenly, the room was lit by a flash of ruby light as the sword came to life. Madeline had left it in the corner while she fed Trevor. But her hold on it hadn’t been broken. She had only allowed Lev to think that it had, until she had time to soothe his concerns.
“There will always be ano
ther threat. Another Dark witch waging war against the Light. Or another Light witch hungry for power and ready to rise against Vasilisa,” Lev warned.
“If you leave us, you’ll leave us to face those threats alone,” Madeline said. “I’m not a warrior because of our connection. I’m a warrior...and that’s what caused our connection. I will fight the Dark with or without you. But I prefer with.”
She pressed her body against his. His heart beat against her breast, meeting and matching the rhythm of her own. He couldn’t deny their connection. Neither of them could, although they’d tried.
“But Trevor—” Lev began.
“Has two powerful parents to protect him until he grows into his legacy. He’s a Romanov. He’ll need both of us to help him learn how to live up to his future,” Madeline said. “You were created as savage as you need to be to face the darkness. And I was Called because I can take it. I’m a survivor. Just like you. I’m fierce and tenacious. More than capable of fighting alongside the white wolf...and you. Trevor will grow up to stand against the Dark as well. It’s in his heart and his blood.”
“I failed you both when I failed to save you from Vasilisa,” Lev said.
Madeline slid her hands up the hard plane of her lover’s chest. She twined her hands behind his head, threading her fingers into the fall of his wild blond hair.
“The white wolf always had a plan. You thought you had failed, but success only took more time than you allowed yourself. I’m here now. Take me in your arms. Stop resisting our connection. You’re punishing yourself when we should be celebrating,” Madeline said.
“I’ve been an exile for a long time. I know how to be wild. I’m not sure I know how to be civilized,” Lev confessed.
His erection had risen between them. She pressed his heat between them. Moisture welled between her legs as she remembered that heat stretching and filling her. She could claim the sword’s power herself. Just as she claimed their connection. But she wanted him to claim it. And her. Hard. With all the furious passion that time and distance had caused between them. With all the desire that their partnership against evil had kindled. She didn’t want peace. She only wanted occasional interludes so they could appreciate their victories between battles.
“You don’t have to be civilized with me,” she whispered against his neck as she pulled him down to her lips. He didn’t resist. He melted into her hot mouth as she tongued his pulse to taste its rapid beat. “I want your wolf heart as much as I want you,” Madeline insisted.
Lev swooped to pick her up then. Both of his big arms came around her, and he carried her to the bed. He placed her in the middle of it and then sank down on top of her. Her gown was in the way. His lounge pants and T-shirt were barriers she almost couldn’t stand.
But then she realized it didn’t matter.
He settled between her legs anyway. His bulging erection was hot against her. Silk and cotton didn’t stop her from feeling his urgency or his heat. He thrust his hips, and she lifted hers to meet his thrusts. He dropped his mouth to her left breast to suckle her nipple through the silk of her gown.
“Shhhh,” he murmured as she tried to reach for his shirt to pull it over his head. He took her hands and pressed them firmly into the bed on either side of her head. “I need the barrier to slow me down. If this is a celebration, then we need to savor every second of it.”
She stilled and stopped, then met his intense gaze. He was taking it all in. Her impatience. Her urgency. Her hunger. Her needs. He gauged her response as he tilted his hips to position his erection against the spot that would bring her the most pleasure. She gasped when he found it. Her hips jerked reflexively. And he laughed, rough and low.
“I’m going to rip this gown from your body before the night is over. I’m going to tear out of these pants and into you. But not yet. First, I want to watch you come. I want to make you fly,” Lev said. “I can feel your heat through the silk. And you’re almost more than I can stand like this. You’re covered by this ruby gown, but just barely, Maddy. I can see every luscious inch of your pale skin shining through. And I love to anticipate completely baring your skin, inch by beautiful inch.”
He illustrated his hunger with a deep kiss, delving with his tongue into the intimate recesses of her mouth. She hungrily met his tongue with hers. She found the moist velvet of his mouth and teased in and out of those vulnerable depths again and again. He groaned into her mouth. Maybe he knew she was showing him what she wanted him to do to her with his cock. She begged wordlessly with her thrusting tongue and undulating hips.
But he moved her hands above her head without letting them go. He placed the back of her left hand in the palm of her right, and then held them together against the pillow with one hand.
“Not until you come for me,” he said against her mouth while they kissed.
And then he caressed his free hand down the length of her silk-clad body. She cried out under his gentle, teasing touch, but he ignored her impatience. He softly cupped the neglected breast he hadn’t suckled. He moved his lips to that nipple and paid it the attention it so desperately needed.
Then he moved his hand lower.
The silk didn’t stop her from feeling the heat of his palm or the firm dexterity of his fingers. Nor did it stop her from aching to know his fingers’ final destination. Her body thought it knew. Her pulse throbbed between her legs as blood rushed to her most sensitive flesh.
“I want to feel how ready you are for me, Maddy. Are you wet? Are you hot? Are you eager to squeeze me deep inside you? Show my fingers what you want to do to me,” Lev ordered.
His hand had settled on her mound, and he pressed his palm firmly against her. At the same time, he slid two silk-covered fingers into her wet crevice. The silk prevented his penetration. But it didn’t prevent the teasing of her most tender spot. She cried out, and her hips jerked up off the bed. He leaned down to suckle her upper lip and she could taste salt—hers and his—from the perspiration their desires had caused.
“You can’t show me, can you? This gown is in our way,” Lev said. He still held her hands above her head, but he moved from between her legs. He rolled to the side and used his free hand to grab a fistful of silk. He pulled her gown up her legs as she undulated beneath the teasing sensation of slinky fabric sliding up her bare skin. Cool air finally brushed her sensitized flesh, and Madeline looked up to see Lev staring down at her. “Do you want my fingers, Maddy?”
“Yes,” she said, without hesitation. She wanted more. She wanted him. But she knew she had to come first. He’d already laid down the rules of tonight’s game. She wanted to be claimed. Giving her pleasure was his way of making her his. And she hoped she’d been right. He wasn’t going to leave. His lovemaking had to be his promise to stay.
“Spread your legs for me,” Lev ordered.
Madeline complied.
His eyes slid from her face down to the intimate folds she’d revealed, and she was rewarded with heavy eyelids and a softened mouth. He licked his lips as if they’d gone dry. And then he dropped the silk so he could caress his bare fingers up her leg and across her thigh. Madeline watched his face when his hand found her. But then she closed her eyes and threw back her head when he teased a finger just inside her.
“Yes, please,” she begged.
“You’re supposed to show me, Maddy. Show me what you want me to do to you,” Lev said. His voice was raw with emotion. His erection was massive against her hip. She ached for it. So she thrust her hips up to claim his teasing finger. His hand brushed against her as she took his finger. His thumb found where she needed to be touched. And that teasing caused the pace of her hips to increase. “Is that what you want? That hard? That fast?”
Madeline cried out as her body clenched around his big finger. She shuddered with her climax, and suddenly Lev let her go. Her eyes opened as she trembled back down from the peak where she’d been taken. She watched him rip off his shirt and pants and throw them to the side. She was no longer held in plac
e, but she was weak from the strength of her orgasm. She couldn’t reach for him. She could only watch as he climbed back onto the bed.
His erection made her tender flesh throb in anticipation. But she was finally able to move. She rose to pull her gown over her head. It settled into a ruby puddle beside them on the bed.
Then she leaned to press kisses on his chest and shoulders. When he tried to reach for her, she held his hands to each side. Their fingers twined. He held her tightly, but he didn’t protest as she licked and nibbled her way down to his erection. When she closed her mouth over its tip, he jerked and cried out her name, but she didn’t let his hands go. She teased him as mercilessly as he had teased her, licking the tip of him and suckling until his thighs began to tremble with need.
“Get on your hands and knees for me, Maddy. I can’t hold back any longer,” Lev ordered. His voice was more hoarse than it had ever been. His need was harsh. A thrill coiled deep and low inside her as she remembered what that meant.
Madeline positioned herself in the middle of the bed. She did it slowly; she took her time. She knew every second was killing him because it was also killing her. She curved her back and spread her legs before she looked over her shoulder at Lev. The white wolf was in his eyes. His hair was wild around his face. A shadow had reclaimed the jaw she’d shaved. The sight of the erection she’d just suckled made moisture flood between her legs.
“I can’t wait any longer, either,” Madeline confessed.
Lev moved to position himself behind her. She watched his beautiful, hard body line up with the sensual offering she displayed for him. He met her eyes just as he spread her cheeks and thrust his erection into her folds. She cried out, but thrust back against him. To take more of him. To increase his tempo. He needed no further encouragement.
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