Trial by Heart (Trial Series Book 4)
Page 15
However, the greatest gift my father and Myca left me is before my eyes.
Seated at a picnic table behind our home, I smile as I watch Ben’s siblings and extended family play sports and talk during the monthly picnic Ben hosts. The cheerful werewolves are even happier than when I first met them, and so am I. I have a huge family, a home, and a possessive husband who fucks me like every day is our first and last together. He also lets me boss him around, even though he seems to run the rest of the world and was unanimously nominated the Community leader at the first election held several months ago.
Although I don’t think my heart will ever completely recover from the trials, I’m grateful for an incredible life filled with everything I didn’t know was missing.
Spotting me on the sidelines, Nate trots towards the picnic table and sits beside me.
“Did you tell him?” he asks.
At one point, I feared being around him would be awkward, given our history. But, as always, Ben knew better. When someone is right for you, it makes you want everyone else to be as happy as you are. There’s no room for awkwardness.
I’m smiling broadly, until Nate’s question registers.
“What? How do you know?” I demand and twist to face him.
“I was talking to Tristan, and he said you came by the medical facility. When I asked why, he –”
“Oh, my god! He was supposed to keep it a secret!”
“Tristan’s like a brother, which means –”
“– no secrets among family.” I roll my eyes. It’s another stupid werewolf reasoning, one I’ve had to get used to. For most of my life, I was accustomed to being alone and viewed other people knowing my business as intrusive. Wolves are pack minded by nature and share almost everything, even secrets. It’s not possible to keep something quiet for long, if I tell anyone other than Ben. Wolves want to know because they care, not because they’re planning something. It’s taken me a while to warm to the idea the rest of the world isn’t out to get me.
“Why didn’t you go to our clinic?” Nate presses.
“Is it your business?” I snap.
He grins.
“Hey, did you tell Ben yet?” Jason asks me, joining us.
Nate laughs loudly.
“Damn dogs,” I mutter. “You mean you all know and he doesn’t?”
“No one’s told him,” Jason replies.
I narrow my eyes at him. He’s smiling.
“We don’t have to. He can smell the change in hormones,” Nate explains. “You don’t have to say a word.”
I’m generally at peace with my werewolf senses after a long adjustment period. I can control them better, thanks to Ben’s guidance, and am rarely ever overwhelmed anymore. But I guess there’s no controlling my fucking hormones and how they give me away.
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” I say, disappointed. “Do I have a puppy or a human?”
They both laugh, Jason until he’s crying.
The only non-native werewolf, I don’t know everything about werewolf society yet, which is an endless source of entertainment to my family.
“Fuck you both,” I say icily and stand from the table.
I head inside, where Ben is on the phone with one of the other clan leaders, probably talking business. He wasn’t joking about rarely getting a break. I’ve had to lure him away from his office more than once a month.
He holds out his hand.
I go to him eagerly, my heart and hormones singing in a way they only ever have for him. Ben wraps me in his embrace and holds me against his muscular frame, continuing to talk in his low, suede voice. I trace my fingertips along the scar on his forearm I discovered during one of our first nights together. I’ve explored every inch of him – and ache to do it again, whenever I see him. When he touches me …
It’s the very definition of heaven and hell existing in the same place at once. I lean into him, and peace and ecstasy fill me with a dizzying flash of energy. At the same time, I’ve never been able to get enough of him, no matter how we exhaust ourselves making love every night and the long weekends where we don’t leave our bed. I smell like him already from our quickie before the family arrived. Lust, desire, passion … there’s no good word for the intensity of yearning and inhuman craving I experience nightly in his arms.
With him, I need more. Always.
Pawing at him impatiently, I rub my face against his chest and loosen my tight control on my senses, until I’m intoxicated by the roughness of his voice, the spiciness of his scent, the heat of his frame. Only then am I remotely soothed but in no way satisfied.
He finishes the call and tucks the cell into his back pocket.
My eyes lift to his face, and I smile. I can’t look at him without a sense of pure wonder about how, as fucked up as this world is, we ended up together.
“Hey, baby,” he says and wraps his other arm around me. His penetrating look, and the emotion in his silvery eyes, turns me into a breathless, purring, wet mess every time.
I gaze at him for a long moment, always overwhelmed by the warm, giddy emotion I can’t begin to express aloud. I’m not sure how to tell him what he already knows and suspect, if I don’t reveal my secret, he’ll continue to pretend he doesn’t know until the day I give birth to a puppy. Or … infant.
God, I wish Nate and Jason would’ve told me so I don’t have to ask Ben! Ben will answer any question I have, but I’d like for once not to have to ask him something that feels stupid for me not to know.
“Myca,” I say finally.
Ben smiles, the skin around his eyes softening.
“Boy or girl, we’re naming the baby Myca.”
“You’re the boss.” Ben rests his forehead against mine. We breathe in the same air, and I melt further into him.
“So you did know,” I say unhappily.
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wanted you to be ready to tell me.”
To add to his perfect body, sexual prowess, confidence, influence in the Community and brilliance, Ben is also the sweetest person in the world.
“Thank you,” I respond, appeased by his explanation.
We hold one another, the air around us sizzling with sexual tension as we enjoy a private moment of tenderness. I’ve learned a thing or two about reading him since we’ve been together. He’s not the kind to shout with joy or cry when he’s upset, like I am. His expressions of emotion are subtle. Normally, I feel them rather than see them and today is no different.
My alpha is really happy. I can sense his wolf, too, and the primal animal side of him is ecstatic with the news of an heir.
“This calls for a vacation to celebrate,” I decide.
“That’s why Tristan asked how long we needed his jet?”
“That damn elf!” I mutter. “I’m gonna have a talk with him when we get back. And yes, we’re borrowing his jet again.”
Ben’s laugh is soft, and he nuzzles my cheek. “You going to tell me where we’re going this time?”
“Nope.” I give him a wicked grin. At first leery of situations he can’t control, he’s slowly begun to warm to the idea of letting me take us away on trips to secret locations and plan the types of activities he’s never really participated in, such as parasailing or hell, even riding rollercoasters. Thrust into responsibility and groomed to lead at a young age, my super serious, super sweet Ben has a lifetime of fun and spontaneity to catch up on, and I’ve made it my mission to break him out of his comfort zone. “Do you want to announce baby Myca to your family?”
His hands travel down my sides, and he begins trailing kisses down my neck. Breathless already from anticipation and the pressure of his hot lips, I lean my head to the side to give him better access and slide my palms up his shirt to the warm skin covering his chiseled torso.
I’ll never get enough of his body.
“After,” he whispers.
“We might not be back downstairs before tomorrow,” I teas
e.
“Then we’ll email them the news.”
I laugh, as exhilarated by the prospect of a night with him now as I was our first time a year ago.
He lifts his head. The air between us shimmers with emotion neither of us have the ability to express, but we don’t have to, because both of us understand. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I rise up on my tiptoes and plant a light kiss on his lips.
At the beginning of the trials, I never in a million years would’ve guessed we’d end up here, or that a damned Kingmaker would ever have a chance at happiness, acceptance and love.
“So this is how our movie ends,” I murmur. “Happily ever after?”
“Guaranteed,” he responds with the quiet assurance that changed the course of my life.
As always, I believe him. A two thousand year old curse and four weeks of hell brought me to Ben. If we made it through all that, we can survive anything together. I may never feel as though I deserve him, but I’m never letting him go.
Also by Lizzy Ford …
Non-Series – 2014 - 2016
Black Moon Draw (Amazon, Amazon UK) (about a reader sucked into her book)
Highlander Enchanted (Amazon, Amazon UK)
The Door (2016)
Water Spell (2016)
Dragon Tear (2016)
Trial Series Novellas
Trial by Moon
Trial by Thrall
Trial by Blood
Trial by Heart
History Interrupted – Time Travel Romantic Adventures
West (Amazon, Amazon UK)
East (Amazon, Amazon UK)
North (2016)
South (2017)
Super Villainess Chronicles
It’s Not Easy Being Evil
It’s Complicated
(untitled)
Lost Vegas Novellas – young adult post apocalyptic
Aveline
Tiana
Arthur
Singing Coyote
Omega Beginnings Miniseries – individual episodes
ALESSANDRA (Amazon, Amazon UK)
MISMATCH (Amazon, Amazon UK)
PHOIBE (Amazon, Amazon UK)
LANTOS (Amazon, Amazon UK)
THEODOSIA (Amazon, Amazon UK)
NIKO (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Cleon (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Herakles (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Omega Beginnings Miniseries – complete set
(Amazon, Amazon UK)
Starwalkers Serials (with Julia Crane) – new adult science fiction serial
Severed (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Trapped (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Exiled (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Revealed (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Escaped (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Heart of Fire – sexy dragon shifter
Charred Heart (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Charred Tears (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Charred Hope (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Incubatti – Buffy meets 50 Shades
Zoey Rogue (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Zoey Avenger (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Rhyn Trilogy – new adult paranormal with demons
Katie’s Hellion (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Katie’s Hope (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Rhyn’s Redemption (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Rhyn Eternal – Death finds love
Gabriel’s Hope (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Deidre’s Death (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Darkyn’s Mate (Amazon, Amazon UK)
The Underworld (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Twisted Fate (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Twisted Karma (2016)
War of Gods – paranormal with gods, guardians and exceptional humans
Damian’s Oracle (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Damian’s Assassin (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Damian’s Immortal (Amazon, Amazon UK)
The Grey God (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Damian Eternal
Xander’s Chance (Amazon, Amazon UK)
The Black God (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Hidden Evil – paranormal with angels and four horsemen
Hear No (Amazon, Amazon UK)
See No (2016)
Speak No (2016)
Unnamed Series
Unnatural (2016)
Unmade (2017)
Omega
Omega (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Theta (2016)
Alpha (2017)
Theta Beginnings Miniseries (novelettes)
Silent Queen (2016)
Shadow Titan (2016)
People’s Champion (2016)
Supreme Magistrate (2016)
Anshan Saga – new adult science fiction romance
Kiera’s Moon (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Kiera’s Sun (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Santa’s Ninja Elves (short stories)
Natasha & Hunter (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Non-series titles – 2011 - 2013
Star Kissed (Amazon, Amazon UK)
A Demon’s Desire (Amazon, Amazon UK)
The Warlord’s Secret (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Maddy’s Oasis (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Rebel Heart (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Witchling – young adult paranormal
Dark Summer (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Autumn Storm (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Winter Fire (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Spring Rain (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Broken Beauty Novellas – new adult dramatic fiction
Broken Beauty (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Broken World (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Voodoo Nights - young adult paranormal
Cursed (Amazon, Amazon UK)
Chosen
Writing as SE Reign, erotica writer
101 Nights Box Set (all seven serials)
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Also by Lizzy Ford …