by Ladew, Lisa
He held onto her hips, pulling them hard onto him, as his cock continued to pump and jerk inside her. When he finally relaxed and dropped his hands to the forest floor, her crests and eddies of pleasure began to ebb away enough that she could fall onto his chest, all her muscles relaxed, even her mind quiet.
It was done. They were bonded.
Chapter 34
They lay that way until their breathing returned to normal. She sat up on his chest, surprised her muscles obeyed her commands. They felt like used-up rubber bands that would need rehab to learn to work again.
“Molten, huh? Did you make that up just to scare me?”
He laughed. “I would not do that. I assure you that you are special. No one else could have survived that.”
She leaned forward, pulling him out of her, then sat next to him. “It felt warm. I’ll give you that. But I liked it.”
He sat up and kissed her on the nose. “Good. Because I’ll be wanting to do that again when we’ve finished.”
“Finished?”
“We must bathe our bodies and the rings in the stream. Then the ceremony is over and we can leave the forest if we like. Go to your place. You can feed me hot dogs and introduce me to your reptiles in between sessions of love and deciding what to do next.”
She stopped, halfway in the process of standing. “You know I have lizards?”
“I apologize, leannan, but I saw them. The night I walked you to your home. I stayed outside and checked on you through the window, then followed you the next morning.”
Her forehead creased. “But why?”
He frowned. “Have I not made it clear that you would be very valuable to the demon, Khain? Until the wolven have vanquished him, you will never be without a guard again.”
She stood straight up, remembering something Ella had said, about somebody having to stay and guard her. Her chest tightened slightly. “Oh.” She would think about it later. Deal with it later. For now, she would keep her thoughts in the forest, with her bond mate.
He stepped into the stream and held out a hand to steady her as she stepped in also. He bent and cupped his hands to gather freezing-cold water, and began to wash his legs, his cock, his hips, then up his chest and finally his arm. When the water hit his ring, it resonated again, sending out that sweet, melodious note they’d heard before. The sound filled her with happiness and hope. Being a one true mate wasn’t all bad, or all good. Just like anything else in life, it just was. She would face it all head-on.
She followed his lead, shivering slightly. “That’s cold!” she cried as she tried to wash her legs.
“Let me help,” he said, and a blast of heat radiated out of him, warming her right away. She smiled at him and continued her washing. When the water touched her own ring, the sound came again. She stared at it, then flexed her elbow to see what would happen. The note’s echo changed slightly, resonating at a higher frequency, making her smile.
“Oh,” she said, deciding to face one thing right there and then. It would make Graeme happy. “You don’t have to worry about me getting pregnant. I can’t have kids, anyway. I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want you to think I was making it up. I wouldn’t have been able to stand that.”
He blinked a few times and stared hard at her, water dripping from his hands, the sound soothing. “Who told you that?”
“My ob-gyn.” She bit off the rest of it. She wouldn’t tell him about the C-word. All of that seemed so unreal that she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
He shook his head. “I would never believe what a human doctor said about a female intended to mate with a dragen. I’m sure you look different inside than what he is used to. Wyrmlings come out on fire. Heck, for all I know they start that in the womb.”
Heather’s hands fell to her side and her mouth dropped open. Graeme bent and finished her washing for her, then pulled her out of the stream and began to dress her gently, reverently.
She hit his hands away, shock still numbing her from the inside out. “Wyrmlings… that’s a dragen baby?”
He dipped his head, looking nervous now. “Aye.”
“And they come out of the woman’s body on fire.”
“Aye. So I’ve heard. I’ve never seen it.”
Her voice turned frantic and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. “And you think my gyno is wrong. That I can have babies, I mean wyrms. Wyrmlings!”
Graeme stepped toward her and pulled her into him. “Heather, I’m sorry I’ve made ye scared. This is part of why I fought us being together for so long. Dragen life is not what you are used to. But it can be a good life. I see it when I look in your eyes. I never, ever thought I’d have a bairn to call my own. But when I’m with you, I want one. I feel something here.” He made a fist and pounded on the center of his chest twice. “And here.” He pointed with two fingers to his throat. “Something stronger than any fight or conviction that points my thoughts towards family and wee ones with all the need in the world.”
His touch soothed her and his words! How did he know the exact right thing to say to make everything ok? The C-word sprung to her lips and as it did, she knew she’d been lying to herself. It scared her badly. And she needed Graeme to soothe it. She spit it out in a rush. “My doctor said if I didn’t have surgery to take out my uterus I’d almost certainly get cancer in a few years.”
He smiled and she almost freaked. How could that make him smile?
But then he shook his head. “No, leannan, no. You have no cancer and will not.” He took a deep breath through his nose. “I would smell it on you if such a thing were brewing inside of you, waiting like a snake in the bushes to strike. You smell of robust health, of happiness, of fire, and good tea. There is no sickness within you.”
A dam broke in Heather’s mind. One that had been holding back those worries since she’d first stepped out of the doctor’s office. The worries flooded out, then streamed away. Gone. “Oh, thank God,” she cried, falling into her dragen’s arms, letting him kiss every bit of it away, until they fell to the forest floor and made love again, while night fell around them and the world went about its business somewhere far away, so far away, it couldn’t touch them.
Chapter 35
Ella woke up in a rush, her eyes flying open, her dreams interrupted. Something was happening, or about to happen. Something big. She climbed off the mattress Trevor had called God knows who to bring in for her, then strung sheets across chairs and tacked them to walls until she had a tiny nest in the corner to sleep in. She’d been so glad when her head had finally hit the pillow. He was right. She needed sleep. Being pregnant taxed her enough that she could sleep even through all the noise.
She made her way out of the little tent he’d constructed for her and looked around at the old barn. They’d turned it into a processing station, bringing all the evidence and even the hostages there for a short while for cataloguing and processing. Officers were everywhere, talking to each other and poring over boxes and items.
Trevor saw her and ran over. “I’m out of here soon, I swear. My part is just about done and then I can turn everything over to Mac.”
She waved her hand and stared at the sky out the broken windows. “It’s ok. What time is it?”
He looked where her eyes were glued. “Almost six. The sun will set soon.”
She walked forward, waiting. Any minute now…
Trevor followed her till she stopped. “Ella, are you ok?”
She didn’t answer. It was coming. Whatever it was.
A blinding light filled the sky, erasing everything, making her shut her eyes and cry out. Trevor grabbed her and held her, while all other people in the room vocalized surprise, alarm, and then wonder. Ella blinked her eyes and opened them slowly. The initial blinding light had faded, but a steady band of red and yellow illumination was shooting straight up from what looked like the woods in the direction of her house. It reminded her of a volcano, one big enough to reach the heavens.
Her b
ack tingled and she arched it, as a power shot through her chest, making her remember her claiming. She grabbed for Trevor’s hand and moaned lightly. He was there, his eyes searching hers.
“I feel it, too.” He looked over her shoulder, then ran his hand along her smooth back. He growled deep in his throat. “I have to get you out of here. Get you somewhere private. I never should have made you stay so long.”
“You were doing your job,” she said, turning to stare at the light in the sky, which was beginning to fade. “But take me home, now, I need you to take me… home.”
“Yes,” he murmured, knowing exactly what she wanted.
On the other side of the map table, Mac spoke up, pulling Ella back to where they were. “He did it, Sparky did it! Good for him. I knew he had it in him.”
A few males laughed, while most continued to stare out the windows. Trevor pulled her over by Wade and whispered something in his ear. Wade looked at them both, then he nodded. “We got this. Get your mate home.”
Trevor didn’t wait to hear any more. He pulled Ella across the room and out the door, and, by the time they’d hit the driveway, he’d picked her up and was running with her.
Epilogue
Ella lay in her mating bed, staring at the beautiful ceiling Trevor had fashioned out of lovely birch logs before she’d ever met him, her breath slowing, her body melting into the mattress.
He’d taken her with the fervor of their claiming and she felt a strange connection with her half-sister in the afterglow of it. Like maybe Heather was thinking of her, too, or talking about the life they would all share, now that another one true mate had been found. What it all meant. What they meant to each other.
She let her mind wander, feeling her mate’s warm body beside her. He’d fallen asleep on his stomach almost immediately after their love-making, but she didn’t begrudge him that. He’d worked all night and not slept like she had.
What would it be like? Not only would they have their own lives, but the lives of the males would be connected in a stronger way than they’d ever been before. Trevor had invited Heather and Graeme to move onto the property. To stay in their guest room.
The reality of the massive family and community that she would soon be a part of hit her hard, making her swallow convulsively and run her fingers through her hair, trying to soothe her thoughts. She could see it. Couples that she loved like family, because they were her family, lined up in front of her. Babies everywhere. Like a constant family reunion. One steeped in danger no one would name until they had to.
The genius of it flooded into her. They would fight for each other. Die for each other. Because they would love each other. The group that would be created by the mating of half-sisters with wolf after wolf would have to be able to fight the demon. To win. Even if nothing else could. They would have the power of love. That had to win over evil. Had to!
Trevor snorted next to her, then held his head straight up, his open eyes staring at the wall. She rubbed his back. “Shhh. Go back to sleep.”
He turned his head towards her and the strange look on his face unnerved her. His eyes were wide open. “I can’t believe I never gave it to you.”
“What?”
He sat up, looking towards his closet. “The pendant. I bought it for you back before I even knew who you really were. I bought it from that crazy old lady. And I forgot all about it. Everything’s been so busy. I have to give it to you.”
Ella pulled herself into a sitting position. “Trevor, what are you talking about?” but some part of her tingled like she knew. Her breath caught and a strange fear filled her.
Trevor stood and stalked to his closet, naked, running his fingers through his hair and making it stand on end. He disappeared and she heard him pulling clothes off hangers and swearing.
A few minutes later he emerged, a chain dangling from his fingers, and at the end of it, the wolf and the angel. She gasped and held her hands to her throat. “Trevor, how did you know that was mine?”
“I don’t know. It just called to me. When I stared at it I saw your face in my mind.”
“No, Trevor, I mean I sold that the morning before I met you, to Mrs. White.”
A frown line appeared between his eyes. “You didn’t want it?”
She blew out a shaky breath. “It’s not that I didn’t want it. It scared me. It’s powerful. I didn’t know then what I know now.”
He walked toward her, holding the chain open like he wanted to put it over her neck. She stared, her mind warring. Should she let him? She bit her lip, almost told him to take it away, hide it, put it somewhere she’d never run across it, but then she bent her neck to accept it.
The cold metal of the pendant grazed her face as he lowered the chain around her head, then positioned it, and stepped away to look at her.
Memories, emotions, smells, and impressions of what had to be the future came to her in a sizzling rush that she could not interpret. The room in front of her faded. Horrified alarm appeared on Trevor’s face and he reached out for her, but then she wasn’t there anymore.
She looked around. She was sitting in a grassy field that smelled different than Illinois. She scrambled to her feet and glanced up. The sun was high in the sky, no people were around, and a rutted path ran next to her. On the path, the dirt was scuffed and pitted as if there had been a struggle there.
She took a step backwards. “Trevor?” she said under her breath, stress chemicals dumping into her bloodstream. Where in the world was she?
Hoof beats sounded behind her, and she whirled around. A lone horse with a rider was coming up fast, the form on the top of the horse bent over it, the horse’s nostrils flaring and its eyes rolling.
The horse slowed at a command from its rider and the person sat up straight. Ella could see it was a male wearing a strange soldier’s uniform and armor. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open.
Ella looked down and realized she was naked. Oh, God. This was a dream, it had to be! A flash of gold caught her eye. The pendant! She ripped it up over her head and held it by the chain.
The instant she did that, the world flickered and disappeared and she was back in her own bed, Trevor screaming frantically for her in the hallway outside their room.
“I’m here,” she called weakly, still holding the pendant out.
He ran in, his eyes wild, his face flushed and terrified. Relief flooded it when he saw her. “You disappeared.”
“Take this,” she said, thrusting the pendant at him. “I never want to see it again.
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Notes From Lisa xoxoxo
Fun fun fun!! Graeme and Heather were so much fun to write. I think Graeme is like my ultimate man lol. Shh, don’t tell my husband. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
I have received so many emails about otm1, and most are about Trevor and Troy. You really want to see them shift. I promise you that their lives from this point forward will be interesting, but I can’t spoil anything.
Please, join me in my naughty women-only (sorry guys) writer’s group I share with Jamie Garrett and Adele Huxley.
OR, come talk about OTM in my spoiler group.
I hope to see you in book 3! It’s just going to get better from here ;)
Xoxo, Lisa
Wondering what to read next of mine? Depends on what you like. (all are romantic suspense)
Firefighters/FBI?
Billionaires?
Female cops?
Thriller romance?
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