Fire Wolf: CINAED (New Scotia Pack Book 3)

by Victoria Danann

  She meant that in a sarcastic way, but she could tell that he took it as a compliment and that was a little exasperating. “Let’s come at this from another angle. Why did you change your mind?”

  He took that opportunity to get up and set the kettle closer to the fire, partly because he thought they could use some mulled wine and partly because it gave him a moment’s reprieve from an uncomfortable scenario.

  Starfire waited patiently until he returned to his place next to her on the floor.

  “I do no’ suppose ye’ve forgotten where we were.”

  She shook her head. “Not a chance. I had just asked you why you changed your mind?”

  “Fear.”

  “Fear?”

  “Fear,” he said again. “I feared findin’ and losin’ you more than I feared causin’ a kerfuffle for our families if things did no’ work out between us.”

  “I see,” she said thoughtfully.

  “When I woke up, halfway back to New Elk Mountain and learned that the bloody cowards had left ye behind, I believed I might go mad with fear and worry. I knew instantly that I’d been an ass. No’ claimin’ a mate does no’ guarantee anythin’ but uncertainty and unhappiness. And I’m sorry ye’ve been hurt by my clumsiness and stubbornness.

  “On the way to find ye, I promised myself and any gods who might have been listenin’ that, if ye were alive, I would take you without fear for what the future might have in store, cherish you, and keep you. There’d be no question about whether or no’ things work out between us. Mates are made for each other. Sort of magically. Ye’re mine. I’m yours. That’s all.

  “When I picked up the lion shifter’s scent, I also promised myself that I would sink my fangs into his neck if he’d hurt ye. Even if ‘twas the last thing I‘d ever do.” He chuckled. “Full well knowin’ that it surely would be the last thing I’d ever do. Strangely I felt peaceful about that fate because I’d already made up my mind that I want to be where ye are, livin’ or dead.”

  Ken looked at Star to see her reaction. Her eyes were big and surprised, but also liquid, shimmering with tears.

  “What’s this?” he said. He reached over to her cheek just as three big tears ran down her face.

  “Beautiful. That’s what this is,” she said.

  “So does that mean that ye’ll have me?”

  She barked out a laugh. “I told Brandish you’re my mate.”

  “Ye did?”

  “Yes.”

  “So that’s what he meant when he said, ‘Is this him?’”

  She nodded, looking sheepish. “You have to make an honest wolf of me.”

  When she gave him a teasing smile, his eyes drifted down to her mouth. Her tongue peeked out and wet her bottom lip when she anticipated what was coming.

  He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers tentatively, softly, before pulling her into the sort of kiss she always dreamed she’d experience in a claiming. She opened her mouth wider so that her tongue could tangle with his while learning his taste and the intoxicating tremor of passion that shivered through her.

  Before Starfire knew what had happened she was on her back being pressed into the floor by the full weight of a male shifter set on claiming. She didn’t know it was possible to feel anything so perfect as Cinaed stretched along her length, pressing his hips against hers as if his life depended on their joining. Just when she’d reached the conclusion that they were overdressed, the kettle whistled in such an obnoxious and demanding way that it made them both laugh.

  Ken groaned at the interruption, but rose dutifully with one last peck to punctuate the fact that he had every intention of picking up where they’d left off. Just as soon as the dadblasted kettle was lifted away from the flame the noise died. Ken dropped one of the bags into the water and replaced the lid before searching the cupboard. He found two cups which he brought back to the fire.

  He held up the cups with a small lopsided grin. “Wine or me?”

  Star stood up and began undressing. “First you. Then wine.”

  He nodded and quickly rid himself of his clothes, revealing an erection that was extremely proud of being a newly mated male.

  “Oh my,” she said, causing him to look down, following her gaze.

  “Aye. ‘Tis near to painful, Star.”

  She prowled close to him, leaned up and licked his ear. “How can I help with that?”

  He took her hand and guided it to his cock. When she closed her palm, he took in a sharp breath.

  “I have plans for this,” she said.

  “Do ye now?” His voice was ragged, raspy, and sexy enough to make her breathe faster.

  “Sit down where you were.”

  He raised his chin and smiled. “Say please.”

  For a wolf she did a good imitation of a purr. “Please.”

  She drew the word out in a breathy guttural way that made his cock twitch in her hand.

  Ken sat down on the rug where he’d been and waited to see what she’d do next. One thing that he’d noticed about Starfire was that she was unpredictable. She didn’t act and react like a typical female.

  She dropped to all fours, crawled toward him seductively and straddled his lap looking down at him with hooded eyes. He was sure he’d never seen anything so captivating.

  “Star, do no’ make me wait,” he growled in warning.

  With a show of white teeth she sank down on him. The sensations of mated sex were exponentially more intense than anything either of them had ever experienced.

  Ken suddenly sat up straight. With his extra height that put them eye to eye. Holding her close with his left arm, he brought his hands to her waist so that he could control the speed and depth of their coupling. When she threw her head back in ecstasy, he rolled her under him suddenly overtaken with a need to dominate. Her soft snarls and moans were his undoing. His answering thrusts inched them across the room. The rug burned her skin, but she didn’t care. It was perfect.

  When he rolled away, she said exactly what she’d been thinking,

  “That was perfect.”

  “’Tis ye who are perfect,” he said.

  She laughed silently. “Far from it. I suppose you’ll find that out if we’re going to live together.”

  When Ken said nothing, she added, “We are going to live together, right?”

  “O’ course we are. We just have to make some decisions about where. Bein’ as we’re from different tribes.”

  It was the first time that she’d considered that. There was no way to accomplish that without someone making a sacrifice. He or she.

  “It’s kind of strange that I never thought of that until just now.” She remembered what he’d said to Grey as they were leaving. “Is that what you meant when you said we had things to work out?”

  He nodded. “Aye.”

  “Well, what are you thinking?”

  “I think my brothers would mind me bein’ away more than I would mind it.”

  “Hmmm. I think the same about Win and Cloud.”

  “We should take their feelings into consideration.”

  “We should. So what do you suggest?”

  “What say you?”

  Neither of them wanted to be first to make a suggestion.

  “Coin toss?” Star suggested.

  Cinaed chuckled thinking it was an odd coincidence that he’d just recently been thinking about coin tosses. But he’d heard that coincidences grow exponentially when wolves mate.

  “Do ye have a coin?”

  “Yes. At Grey’s house. You could either say I missed leaving it behind or you could call it a souvenir from… what is that you call…?”

  “World of origin.”

  “Yeah. A souvenir from my world of origin.”

  “’Tis as good a plan as any. Probably better than most.”

  She leaned into him and nuzzled his neck. “Yes. If you’ll be there, I don’t care about the rest.”

  Ken’s heart swelled with love, satisfaction, and content and he hated
the months he’d wasted being an idiot. That was an especially hard pill to swallow given that he prided himself on being smart.

  They coupled and slept, coupled and slept, coupled and slept, exploring each other’s bodies and preferences, reveling in sounds and sensations. And both woke believing they’d experienced the best hours of their lives.

  They returned to the king’s house in time to have breakfast with Star’s family. At the door Ken said, “Are we ready to let Fate decide the colony we call home?”

  Starfire grinned and nodded looking even more beautiful than he remembered from the last time he’d looked at her minutes before.

  After officially announcing their mating, Cinaed shared their intention to decide where they would live by coin toss.

  “Granted, it’s not as wildly romantic as being abducted and carried off to a new world,” Star said, looking between Grey and Luna. Luna gave Grey a private smile and a wink. Grey answered her with a twinkle in his eyes and an arrogant smirk. “But it works for us.”

  “Aye,” Cinaed agreed. “Works for us.”

  Star ran upstairs to find the coin she’d brought with her. When she returned, the king said, “Who will do the honors?”

  They looked around the room. “Grey,” said Star, pointing at the baby. “He’s completely impartial.” To Cinaed, she said, “You call it. Heads or tails.”

  “Tails,” he answered quickly.

  “So you’re a tails man,” said Win with an eyebrow waggle.

  Star rolled her eyes before putting the coin in Grey’s little hand. He immediately tried to eat it, of course.

  Everybody laughed as she wrestled the coin out of his mouth. His featured threatened to storm until Star returned it to his possession, placing it in his fist. She took hold of his little forearm and began waving his hand around while saying, “Drop the coin, Grey, throw the coin!”

  The longer Grey refused to let go, the more everybody laughed.

  When it was clear that no progress was being made, Stalkson Grey said, “Here. Let me. It’s obviously a job for the king.”

  His large hand completely covered Grey’s forearm. The king gently waved the boy’s arm in the air saying, “That’s right. Let go. Just give it a toss over there. Alright. On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

  When the king realized his grandson’s little brow had wrinkled with inherited stubborn determination, he said, “This will get us nowhere. The boy has made up his mind and dug in. He’s not giving up that coin except by force.”

  Everyone in the room took a turn to no avail except for NightCloud, who went last. She’d left the room for a minute. When she returned, she calmly went to Grey. Taking his free hand in hers so that it would be occupied, she shook his favorite rattle in front of his face. The child immediately dropped the coin so that he could grasp the rattle and began sucking on it as if it held the nectar of gods.

  The coin had fallen onto the table in front of Grey. “The boy’s mother is a genius,” Win said. “Tails it is! Star, we’ll not let you go unless you promise to visit often. Ken,” he said, “she’s my best supervisor of animal husbandry. Has a keen eye for breeding and keeps immaculate records.”

  Ken looked at Star with new appreciation realizing he’d never asked how she contributed to the New Elk Mountain tribe. “I did no’ know that.”

  “You don’t know your own mate’s occupation?”

  “I’ll admit that seems careless of me, but our courtship has no’ been typical.”

  “What courtship?” Star asked.

  It was Ken’s turn to smirk. “I suppose I’ll be owin’ ye a courtship then.”

  “Yes. You do.”

  “Well, get yer things so I can get started. I’ll be courtin’ ye all the way home.”

  She laughed.

  To the king, Ken said, “Can I borrow a cart to carry my bride and her things to New Scotia?”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Grey asked.

  Ken and Star looked at each other. “What?” they said in unison.

  “You made a promise to a lion shifter.”

  “Do no’ be lookin’ at me, Uncle. The idea and the promise were entirely her doin’.”

  “Well, Star,” said Grey. “How did you plan to make good?”

  Star sat down and looked around the table. “I could say that a promise made under duress is not binding in any culture I know of. And certainly the threat of keeping me against my will was duress.”

  “Aye.” Ken nodded. “She could say that.” To Star he said, “But he also mentioned comin’ to get you if no lioness comes knockin’ at his door.”

  “I wouldn’t try to get out of it. What do you take me for?”

  “Forgetful?” Ken offered.

  To the king, she said, “I got him to let us go by telling him that you were powerfully connected.”

  “If you knew me better, you’d know that flattery has no effect on me, niece.”

  “Oh. That’s not what I heard. But regardless, I was hoping your demon friend could help?”

  “So you made a promise that depends on me extracting a favor from an associate.” He declined to repeat the word ‘friend’. “Deliverance doesn’t grant favors. He’s a demon. He makes deals. And who do you think he’s going to press for something of value?”

  “You?” Star asked innocently.

  “Yes. Me.”

  “Well,” she said. “What will you offer him?”

  “What do you imagine I have that would be of interest to an old demon? Your only chance is asking his daughter to intercede and I don’t have a way of reaching her.”

  Star looked at the table. Ken said, “The next time he stops by, perhaps ye could ask if he’d carry a message. Without revealin’ what the message was.”

  Stalkson Grey almost glared at Ken. “What are you going to do if that doesn’t work?”

  Ken looked at Star. “I do no’ know. Cross that bridge when we come upon it?”

  The king sighed. “I’ll send word when I next see the demon. No promises. My agreement to ask is my wedding gift to you. Because believe me when I say again, everything comes at a price where Deliverance is concerned.”

  “If ‘tis so one-sided, why are ye friends with the devil?” asked Ken.

  “First, he’s not a devil. Second, I never said we were friends. I will mention the proposition to him and see what he says. I’m much more interested in when you’re planning to implement the irrigation you spoke of before the expedition.”

  “Well, I know how to do it. ‘Tis simply a matter of resources, time, hands, and materials. ‘Twould make the most sense to do it just after harvest.”

  “Very well. Send me lists of everything you’ll need and it will be ready.”

  Three weeks later Deliverance stopped in to say hello and to see little Grey, whom he thought was marvelous for some reason. The king had prepared a message in advance and had it waiting, knowing that sooner or later he’d get a visit.

  “Pass a note to Litha? Perhaps. What do you have to offer in return?” asked Deliverance with the gleam that always appeared in his eyes when a negotiation was at hand.

  “It costs you nothing to hand off my message.”

  “True enough, but that’s hardly the point. You’re asking something of me. I can’t simply do it for nothing. I’m a demon. It’s against the rules.”

  “Are there really such rules or are you just making that up? Because I have no way of fact checking that.”

  Deliverance looked so scandalized that Grey was inclined to believe him. “I would not lie about something so sacrosanct as demon rules!” Grey deliberately looked unconvinced. “Demons’ honor.”

  Grey laughed. “Demons’ honor? Will you listen to yourself?”

  “Look here, werewolf. I like you. And I want to help you. But rules are rules. What do you have that would be of interest to me?”

  Grey didn’t get to be a wise old king for nothing. He’d anticipated the turn the conversation would take whe
n Deliverance recognized an opportunity and thought through what he would offer.

  “I’ll invite you to the next Gathering on the condition that you enjoy only the widowed or unmated females who are past childbearing. You know wolf shifters are a delicacy you don’t often enjoy.”

  A broad smile slowly grew on the demon’s face. “Give me the note,” he said.

  “I will when you say it’s a deal. Loud and clear.” The king knew Deliverance fairly well.

  “Deal.”

  “And don’t look at it.”

  Deliverance was getting good at feigning a shocked expression. “I wouldn’t pry! What do you take me for?”

  “An unscrupulous demon with no moral compunctions whatsoever.”

  “Well, there’s that,” he said, pursing his lips as if trying to remember what a pout should look like.

  Within an hour of the demon’s departure, Litha materialized next to Grey who was conversing with Win at the stock pens.

  “Got your note,” she said. “And here I am. It’s the damndest thing that you can get my father to run werewolf errands.”

  Grey smirked in response.

  In her hand she held a folded paper that read,

  Please come.

  Stalkson Grey, King of New Elk Mountain

  “Welcome to New Elk Mountain, Litha. Thank you for coming. I have a situation.”

  She handed him a carry carton of six bottles of wine. “Situations call for wine.”

  So they sat in Grey’s office and drank cabernet sauvignon while he related the entire story of the expedition and Starfire’s promise to the lion shifter.

  Litha, being both romantic and softhearted, said she would love to help, that she needed approval from the Black Swan Council, but saw that as being more a formality than a problem.

  Within three days she had located three female lion shifters in their prime, meaning between two and five hundred years old, who were unmated and open to the prospect of both “dating” and moving to a new world.

  Brandish hadn’t expected anything to come from the promise Starfire had made. He thought there was a one hundred percent chance that she’d made up the story about knowing people who could find a mate. So to say he was surprised when she knocked on his door with a demon/witch would be an understatement.