by Abigail Owen
Several of the guests around him screamed, but none of the chaos approached them, as though they were cocooned in a bubble of protection. Castor’s jaw dropped at the awesome display.
This had to be all the nymphs. Whipping around he searched for her among the chaos. She wasn’t with the guests. Where the hell was she?
Then he found her.
Lyleia. His nymph stood on dry ground at the bottom of the lake near the chapel, though the water didn’t touch her, pushed outward from her body by an invisible force. He doubted anyone else could see her. Although wolves had excellent vision at night, demigods had better, and he’d been searching for her. Somehow, he knew he’d always find her wherever she was.
Eyes glowing an eerie blue, arms raised above her head, she pushed the wall of water higher. A cool mist brushed his face and dampened the fine cloth of his tux.
He knew exactly what she was doing, especially after the little display from the nymphs in the area when they’d been here talking to Calli before. Leia was making a big damn point. Not an attack against her brethren, per se. More a display of her hurt and anger.
He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did.
His nymph was smart. If her family wouldn’t help her, she’d force their wrath, which would, in turn, result in a display of nature run amok. Because in demonstrating, she was whipping up the other nymphs, forcing them to use their powers against her, manifest a “sign from the gods” for Tala and Marrok.
Fear gouged a hole in his chest. Surrounding Leia on all sides were ten or twelve nymphs who were clearly furious, if their scowls and glowing eyes were anything to go by.
“Lyleia.” He barely breathed the word, but she turned her head in his direction, as though called. He started toward her, compelled to help, but halted when she shook her head. Her pale hair swirled around her face, whipped by the winds assailing her.
Nymphs of various kinds—water, air, fire, earth, electricity—raised their hands. In another explosion of sound and shock waves, they pummeled her with the elements they controlled.
Except none of their efforts touched her.
In fact, she pushed away everything they aimed at her, redirecting it over the forest. How she held them off while controlling the water at the same time, he had no idea. She was magnificent in her effortless use of her power.
Did anyone else suspect? Or was her ploy working?
Where the fuck was Kaios?
A glance around him showed none of the other guests had discovered her. All were too focused on the forest going wild around them. Kaios was across the field from where Castor stood, which meant the wall of water should block Leia from the werewolf’s view. But Kaios stood strangely still with an expression akin to fury tightening his features, his lips drawn back in a sneer.
Castor split his attention between Leia and Kaios, but the man stayed where he was.
The culmination of the mating was nearing—instinct screamed at him as pressure seemed to build all around them. Pressure that had nothing to do with Leia’s actions, and everything to do with the mating magic.
The urge to relieve the need pulsing through him grew to an unbearable ache. His hand went to his cock, gripping through the fine cloth of his tux, tugging. It wasn’t enough. He needed to bury himself in the sweet softness of a woman. For hours. His body told him only Leia could assuage the desire riding him hard. Her display of power had him even more turned on. His fear for her safety, and his demigod instinct to protect her, heightened his need even more.
He wanted to rescue her and sweep her away from this place to their own private mating.
Would she even let him touch her? By the gods, he hoped she would.
A burst of desire pummeled through him, like the wave of water Leia wielded. Groans arose through the gathering of wolf shifters and a handful of other magical creatures in attendance, shouts echoing through the woods as couples reached their own completion in turn.
In the same instant, the cacophony of noise from the forest and river ceased. The water splashed back down to the bedrock with an almighty roar. Stark silence settled over the woods.
Marrok and Tala must have completed the mating.
“A sign.” The cry started with one man. “The gods have spoken. They’ve blessed this union.” Quickly the phrase caught on, repeated in hushed whispers by the rest of those who’d witnessed the storm of nature.
For his part Castor inspected the now calm lake with troubled eyes. Where was Lyleia?
Chapter Ten
A hush fell over the crowd as Tala and Marrok appeared. Then, as if an unseen signal had been given, all the wolves bowed to the alpha pair. After a pause, they both lowered their heads in return to the assemblage, then walked through the group to lead them all back to their cars. The celebration was set to be held back at the hotel.
Tension coiled in Castor’s shoulders, tightening the muscles until they strained against his bones. Leia still hadn’t shown up, but he had to act as though nothing were wrong or all her efforts would be for nothing. He followed the bride and groom and got into the limo with them along with Tala’s maid of honor, her sister Astra.
Other than flushed faces, Tala and Marrok appeared well put together given what they’d just been up to. The couple sat close together on the back bench seat, with Castor and Astra taking opposite side seats.
“Was that Leia?” Tala asked as they pulled away from the parking lot, breaking the awkward silence which had descended.
“Yes.” Worry had the one word grinding from him.
“Where is she?” Marrok asked.
“I don’t know. She disappeared under a wall of water.” And he couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.
“We should go back.” Marrok reached for the button to lower the window between them and the driver, but Castor shook his head.
“She’s a water nymph,” he said. “She can handle it. Besides, she’d be upset if we ruined her work by giving away the secret to everyone. She’ll be fine.” She’d promised him she would, and he’d made sure Kaios had left with the crowds.
You’d better be fine, he thought. If she wasn’t, he’d wring her neck for taking that kind of risk.
The rest of the interminable ride was completed in silence. Castor shifted his position a few times. While the worst of the pheromones were released with the mating, being near the couple was still like a constant bombardment of lust, like standing chest deep in ocean waves. Marrok couldn’t stop touching Tala—not overtly, just constant contact. All Castor could picture was Leia’s big blue eyes, her hair fanned out on a pillow like a golden halo as he moved above her, the sound of her husky voice groaning her pleasure.
Where was she?
The valet handed them out onto a red velvet carpet. A woman with deep red hair approached with a come-hither light in her eyes. “Congratulations, Alpha. You as well, Alpha.” She nodded to Tala and Marrok in turn. Then she hooked her arm through his. “And who might you be, handsome?”
“Mine.”
Relief and lust warred for dominance at the sound of Leia’s warm voice behind him. He shrugged off the redhead and turned, the impact of just seeing her like running chest first into a gorgon’s fist. He pulled his nymph in close where he could wrap his arms around her and feel for himself that she was unharmed and inhaled her rainy-day scent.
“I can take a hint.” The other woman’s parting comment hardly penetrated.
He was too busy with the woman in his arms, bending his head close to murmur in her ear. “I didn’t see you after the ceremony.”
Wolves had phenomenal hearing, which meant he couldn’t ask her straight out if she was okay. A question like that would sound odd to anyone who overheard.
“I made it safe and sound.”
She did appear to be unharmed. In fact, she looked perfect, her hair back up as it had been at the wedding,
not a drop of water in sight anywhere on her person. Unable to resist the urge, he leaned forward and planted a light kiss on her unsuspecting lips. He wanted to linger, sample, taste, and take. However, now wasn’t the time. Not yet at least.
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t protest.
He grinned, relief and triumph raising his spirits like a balloon in strong wind. Question and answer time could come later. After she faced the werewolf who’d destroyed her life.
Castor sobered. Be damned if that werewolf would ever harm her again. He offered her his arm. “Shall we beard the lion?”
Her lips quirked, but she accepted the gesture, hooking her hand through. “By all means.”
Forcing his body to calm—at least he wasn’t the only man walking around in discomfort—he led her into the hotel.
Off to the right the sounds of a lively gathering drew them through a set of double doors into a ballroom with windows all along one wall and the original bar along the other. A dance floor took up one end, and the rest of the room was dotted with large, round tables set with fancy linens and china. Large bouquets of flowers graced each table, filling the room with the sweet fragrance of spring, helping to mask the natural outdoorsy scent put off by the large gathering of wolf shifters.
Castor searched the room for Kaios, tensing against the werewolf’s presence, but didn’t see him among those gathered. Leia found their table while he was detained by one of the elders from Marrok’s pack. As he watched, she circled the table, fiddling with something by the plates. Then she dropped off her purse in a chair and rejoined him.
Before he could ask her what she’d been doing, the newly mated couple was announced. Then everyone found their assigned places for the sit-down dinner.
“My, my, my,” a rough male voice intoned from behind them. “I thought that was you earlier, Lyleia.”
She didn’t so much as twitch, but her sudden tension radiated to Castor nonetheless. The demigod in him wanted to wrap himself around her and shoot lightning bolts through the man, but he understood this was Leia’s fight. Holding back with effort, he reached under the table to take her hand, which was clenched in her lap. Her fingers loosened up to link with his. She plastered a fake smile on her lips, one Castor recognized from when she’d first started working with him, and turned to face her tormentor.
“Kaios.”
No doubt even the wolf shifters starting to join them at the table picked up on the tension radiating from her. It pulsed like a living thing.
“How lovely to see you after all this time.” The werewolf actually had the audacity to lean in for a kiss.
“Touch me and I’ll stab you with my fork.” Leia delivered the threat with her polite smile in place and a friendly tone to her voice.
Pride swelled along with his dick. Damn, she was amazing.
For his part, Kaios froze, took a moment to assess how serious she was, and apparently concluded she meant it. Castor had zero doubt she did. He kind of wished Kaios would try something, just to see Leia fork him somewhere that would cause permanent damage. Weren’t werewolf balls a delicacy in some societies?
“I took the liberty of moving your seat as far away from mine as possible.” Leia glanced meaningfully across the table.
Castor choked back a laugh. So that’s what she’d been doing earlier. He and Kaios, as the most powerful beings present—even if the werewolf was an unexpected addition—were both treated as guests of honor, seated with the bride and groom, but that didn’t mean Leia had to sit close to the man.
“Out of respect for Tala and Marrok, I won’t share our story with them,” Leia continued.
Kaios’s lips flattened then pulled back in a silent snarl that had Castor’s fists bunching. Werewolves were notorious for hair-trigger tempers and a tendency toward crazy.
Visibly schooling his features to amusement, Kaios stepped back. “I would have thought you’d learned from the last time.” He tut-tutted. “Still high and mighty. Even without your spring, hmm?” He made his way around the large round table to the opposite side.
Castor’s entire body tensed with the need to lunge for the man’s neck. Leia’s only reaction was to tighten her hand around his, holding him back. Rage burned a cruel path through Castor’s chest—at Kaios as well as at himself. He shouldn’t have let her do this.
“She’s not alone anymore,” he said, biting off the words.
Deliberately, provocatively, Castor trailed a finger across the smooth skin of her upper back and placed a proprietary hand at her nape. Claiming.
She turned her head to blink at him, a question in her eyes. He returned her gaze with a warm smile, solely for her. One he meant. Satisfaction zoomed through him as she shivered beneath his touch and her eyes darkened to the hue of a midnight ocean. He’d started this for their audience of one, but Leia’s shiver had him laser focused entirely her. With wicked intent he trailed his fingertips down her spine in a feather-light touch designed to tease. At the same time, he dropped his gaze to her strawberry-colored lips, eager for another taste.
“I see. Found yourself a new lover, Lyleia?”
But beyond a scowl at the use of her full name—his name for her—Castor kept his gaze locked with Leia’s. He swallowed at the need he could see in the color in her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes.
“Castor is a wonderful man. I’m lucky to know him.”
Suddenly, with everything inside him, Castor wished she meant it. That she did think him wonderful. That she felt lucky because she was his.
He gave himself a mental shake. “I should thank Brimstone.”
“You know Delilah?” Tala asked, clearly happy for a different topic.
He nodded. “She found Lyleia for me.”
“She’s fantastic.”
“She must be a fantastic pimp,” Kaios said with a sneer.
Castor leveled a hard glare on the werewolf. “Watch it.”
“Or what, demigod?” the werewolf spat.
Castor sent an enigmatic smile across the table and had the satisfaction of seeing the werewolf pause. Between the two of them, he’d know Castor was more powerful.
The waiter appeared and set down a steak in front of the wolf. Castor flicked a hand and lightning shot from his fingertip, zagging across the table and hitting Kaios’s plate. A small thunderclap followed, making everyone in the room jump. The tang of burnt ozone mixed with the smoky scent of charred meat. What had been a rare piece of meat was now black and crispy.
Leia turned her head into Castor’s shoulder, trying to hide her laugh in the silence that followed his small demonstration of power.
Usually he let people guess his parentage, letting what they didn’t know worry them. Even more rarely did he whip out his control of lightning in a blatant display, but Kaios was too full of his own power and importance. The guy needed knocking down a peg. He might have bent Poseidon’s ear, but Castor’s father was Zeus, and the king of the gods trumped his oceanic sibling.
And now Kaios knew that Castor could turn a bigger wrath on him.
In fact, that sounded like a damn good plan.
Kaios had realized the implications if his glare, even as he pinched his lips closed, was anything to go by.
Castor picked up his knife and fork, cut a small piece from his own steak, which was still a lovely pink, and offered the morsel to Leia. She shook her head at his actions, the amusement dancing in her eyes. Amusement and gratitude. She opened those lush lips over the bite then gave a delicate groan of delight that stoked the tension inside him, like coal to a steam engine.
“Delicious,” she murmured.
Unable to resist any longer, he leaned forward to kiss her lips. “Delicious is right.”
An adorable blush stole up her cheeks. He wanted to take her back to their bedroom and find out if her entire body blushed the same way.
Marrok
cleared his throat. “And I thought we were throwing off pheromones tonight. I think you two are giving us a run for our money.”
They both laughed at the alpha’s attempt to break the tension, though Castor could tell Leia’s giggle was forced. He didn’t miss the flash of hatred in Kaios’s eyes. Disguised quickly, the burn was unmistakable. Pure, unadulterated hatred.
Castor scooted closer to her, needing to protect. What had Leia done to him?
Dinner over, at Tala’s sister and maid of honor Astra’s prompting, Tala and Marrok stood and moved to the center of the room.
Castor knew his role as best man. A tradition at alpha mating ceremonies was for the alpha to put on a display of his skills. He gave Leia’s hand a squeeze and reluctantly left the table to retrieve Marrok’s weapon of choice for his display. As maid of honor, Astra also got up to get Tala’s for her.
Tala and Marrok laughed when they discovered they’d each chosen throwing knives. Duties done, Castor returned to his seat. The alpha pair put on an impressive showing, culminating in both throwing a knife at the other as they stood still against opposite walls.
“Wow,” Leia whispered when it was over. “They’re very evenly matched, but in different ways. Good thing they mated rather than battled for the right to be alpha.”
Castor agreed.
Following their display, the bride and groom shared their first dance, after which the floor was open to everyone. And it was needed, because the sexual tension had built back up in the room with the physical displays.
Needing to get her away from the werewolf—and also closer to himself—Castor pushed his chair back, stood, and held out a hand to his date. “Dance with me?”
She stayed where she was and pursed her lips. “Maybe that’s not a good idea.”
“What? Don’t dance?”
“And if I said I didn’t?”
“I’d say you can put your feet on top of mine.”
