“Yes,” she spoke aloud, and Stefan’s attention snapped to her.
This is the last of my magic, girl. Open the portal and send him back to hell. She felt Zoranna’s presence not only inside her mind, but inside every cell.
You said that last time. I think you just like a show, Beth answered.
Of course I do, I’m Gypsy. Don’t screw this up.
An icy wind manifested in the small space, and words she didn’t recognize in a voice that was not her own echoed like a death knell from deep inside her.
The wolves backed away from Torin slowly, still growling and snarling, but a heavy presence dragged them back. Torin was still laughing, believing he toyed with his quarry.
Stefan continued to channel shields around the rest of the group, but Beth moved forward, the words coming louder and stronger, as if the sounds were made from the very resonance of her bones.
“You can’t kill me, wolfling.” Torin grinned, obviously amused by her efforts.
“I don’t have to kill you,” she said in her own voice beneath the din of the magic invocation that still flowed from her mouth.
His eyes widened then, the red flames climbing high into his sclera and turning his whole eye into a fiery pool. “Blood sacrifice to open the Abyss, Bethany. You’ll die.” His voice deepened, the timbre of it hitting that place inside that brewed fear like a finely crafted beer.
That was what Zoranna had meant. Just like at the research facility, Beth didn’t want to die. She wanted to live this new life with Stefan. She wanted to spend those nights under the stars in his vardo. She wanted to have raven-headed Gypsy children with his eyes. But most of all, she wanted to experience all the world could offer by his side.
But she knew no one would have any of those things without what would happen here tonight. Her resolve was harder than steel.
“Beth, what are you doing?” Stefan asked.
Keep the shields up was the only answer she offered him.
The words kept coming and the wall behind Torin splintered and cracked, like a great pair of jaws opening to a horrible maw. And beyond lay nothing but the dark and the things that crawled in it.
The frigid wind formed a vacuum and started to suck him back into the void.
“I won’t go alone,” Torin roared, and reached out his massive paws to grab whatever and whoever he could.
Beth shed her humanity and launched herself at him. The force knocked him through the gaping hole, but his claws closed around her hips like a bear trap as she tried to anchor herself to the rock wall. The sound of the wind sped up until all she could hear was the tempest.
She saw Stefan’s mouth moving, the horror on his face, the fear. Konstantin reached for her, but as Torin ripped through her flesh to climb over her and back out to safety, she knew there was only one thing she could do.
Let go.
I love you.
Only, when she surrendered to the dark, instead of flying back into the pit, something was ripped from her body and she was propelled forward into the safety of the cave.
It was Zoranna.
She wrapped herself around the beast with an evil cackle worthy of the wickedest witch and said, “At last, I have my vengeance. Forever in the dark with me, Torin. Forever.”
Stefan and Marijka were quick to prick their fingers and smear sigils in blood above the rift. It sealed, scarring the stone wall like a giant suture.
Stefan gathered her close. “You keep trying to leave me. Stop it.”
“Yes, my king.” She’d never been so grateful to follow a command.
He kissed her hard, the mind link flooding her with a blast of emotion, the most important being the radiant warmth of his love.
“I think I’m going to be sick. And don’t call him that, he’ll get used to it and there will be no living with him,” Marijka said.
“Like you don’t ‘my lord’ me on occasion?” Luka said.
“In your dreams,” she countered.
“You’ll see in my dreams, woman,” Luka promised her.
“Ian is dead. The Aeternali are gone. The final big bad has been defeated. What’s next, do you think?” Daphne asked, excitement shining on her face.
“You don’t need to get into any more trouble,” Konstantin growled, surly.
“Come on, you know you like my brand of trouble,” Daphne promised.
“You guys are just as bad as we are,” Beth countered.
“Uh, no. I’m pretty sure neither Daphne nor Marijka tried to fling themselves into the Abyss,” Stefan said.
Marijka looked sheepish. “Well, there might have been this one time.”
“I don’t want to know,” Stefan replied, but then grew serious. “Since everyone is here, I’d like you to bear witness.”
Beth cocked her head to the side, wondering what he was doing.
“I’ve claimed Beth as my queen, but I asked her to marry me in the human way before this all happened. With bad music, seating charts and cake. It started out as a lie, but it’s more real than anything I’ve ever known.” He turned back to her. “What’s your answer, Beth? Will you walk down the aisle with me and celebrate with our family?”
“Yes,” she cried, tears streaming down her face. “Yes.”
Epilogue
One month to the day after the horror in the catacombs, they fulfilled their promise to each other. Leaves were scattered across the ground like red-and-gold coins, bright and crisp on a beautiful October evening. Torches burned high as the last shadows of dusk fell softly over the wedding party. Trees arched over each other, branches entwined like couples holding hands, guarding them from the rest of the world.
Beth was thrilled to be welcomed so easily among Stefan’s people—her people now, too. Luka and Marijka, as well as Konstantin and Daphne, had come to celebrate not only her marriage, but their defeat of the dark forces.
She watched her friends drinking warm spiced wines, eating roasted meats and enjoying the peace and comfort they found in each other. Beth had never had family like this, but she knew she wanted it for always.
“Sneak away with me, wife,” Stefan whispered against her ear.
“Johann is about to give Zoranna’s tribute. We can’t leave.” She laughed and slapped his hand away from her bodice.
“My grandmother would be the first one to tell us to sneak away. I have something special to show you.” He tugged her hand. “Come.”
“If I had a dollar for every time I heard that...” she teased as she followed him to the vardo.
Once inside, he slipped a ring on her right hand and one on her left. Her mother’s ring and Zoranna’s ring.
“I thought they were lost!”
“I did, too. I found them with Zoranna’s journals.”
That was the only thing short of her mother and Zoranna being present that could’ve made this day any more perfect.
“You should read them, Beth. She knew exactly what she was doing every step of the way from the morning I wandered back into camp with those scratches across my chest. She knew how important you, Luka and even Daphne and Konstantin would be to our people and the world.”
The enormity of what they’d been through slammed home again, but she refused to feel anything but gratitude and joy for the life she’d been given.
“I will. I’d like to know her the way she knew me.”
“You will, but enough of that. Now that I’ve got you in my vardo, my queen, it’s time to do your duty.”
“My duty, is it?” She arched a brow. “I think, my king, that you’d best consider your next words most carefully.”
“No more talking.” He pounced on her as if he were the wolf and she the prey. They tumbled among the cushions and blankets in a mountain of silk and velvet.
His mouth captured hers and he kissed her deep.
For as much as she loved her wedding dress, Beth couldn’t get it off fast enough. She suddenly despised each and every seed pearl button she’d lovingly sewn onto the back. B
eth wanted to be skin to skin.
He used his magic to undress her, each button slipping free of its mooring to reveal more of her body to him. She loved that he watched each button open as if he were seeing her naked for the first time.
Her dress slid from her shoulders and danced over to the corner, where it stood waiting for her like a silent sentry.
When he touched her, his knuckles grazing her cheek, it felt like the first time all over again. She locked her legs around his hips, but he rolled, taking her with him so that he was on his back and she was the one in charge.
“I want another do-over, Beth.”
“I thought you said no more talking?” she teased, but straddled him so that her cleft rubbed against his straining cock.
“I mean it. The morning you left when I thought you’d died—do you remember?”
She did. Beth had climbed on top of him, half-asleep, and rode him until completion, then left for work. “Are you saying you want me to leave after?” she whispered, knowing he meant no such thing.
“The only place you’re going after this is next to me in this bed while we get ready for round two.”
“Then what do you want?” Beth leaned over him so her breasts brushed his chest and her red hair tangled around their faces.
“You told me you loved me. I didn’t say it back, and then I lost you.”
“That’s because some part of you knew that you did love me then and you couldn’t say it because you meant it.” She brushed her lips over his before trailing hot kisses to his jaw and his throat, down to the scar on his neck where she’d marked him.
Her tongue darted out to lave at the abused flesh and his fingers dug into her hips.
“You know what that does to me.” He arched into her caress.
She shimmied her hips until she’d shifted his cock so it was poised to slide into her. “I do, lover.”
Beth impaled herself on his length, sliding down oh-so-slowly only to retreat and do it again. He drew himself upright and hooked his arms beneath hers to palm her shoulders and guide her down harder on his cock.
She loved being guided by him as he drove himself into her—his hands, his hips, his mouth and his cock all working in tandem to bring them both to the highest peak of bliss. Small cries fluttered from the back of her throat as he hit her core, and she buried her face in his shoulder as all of her senses narrowed in on one thing: ecstasy.
As they crashed back to earth in each other’s arms, Beth was certain her ever-after couldn’t possibly be happier.
* * * * *
About the Author
Saranna DeWylde has always been fascinated by things better left in the dark. She wrote her first story after watching The Exorcist at a slumber party. Since then, she’s published horror, romance and narrative nonfiction. Like all writers, Saranna has held a variety of jobs, from operations supervisor for an airline, to an assistant for a call girl, to a corrections officer. But like Hemingway said, “Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.” So she traded in her cuffs for a full-time keyboard. She loves to hear from her readers.
ISBN-13: 9781460326381
CLAIMED BY THE WOLF
Copyright © 2014 by Saranna DeWylde
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