Legendary Shifter

by Barbara J. Hancock

  As Romanov spoke, he and Grigori flickered in and out of existence again and again. Every time, Elena’s heart seemed to follow Romanov into the cold. But it was the frigid memory of Ether in her chest that told her what to do. She lifted the sword and braced the back of the hilt against the palm of her free hand. She timed her thrust against the flicker of here and gone again to be sure she penetrated Grigori’s heart while it was materialized. The sapphire blazed, and Romanov let go of the witchblood prince. Her legendary shifter remained solid in front of her as the evil Volkhvy who had stalked her since she was a young teen disintegrated in a sudden implosion. Every molecule of his body was sucked into the black hole of Ether her sword had unleashed from his corrupted heart.

  The bright blue light of the sapphire’s glow wrapped around her and Romanov. It held them tight in this world until the black hole that had been Grigori disappeared in on itself with a hissing pop.

  And, after, the glow continued as her lover stepped toward her. She lowered the sword so he could take her into his arms. They were solid and real. She pressed into his chest to absorb his heat. She placed her cheek against him so she could hear the steady beat of his heart. He’d always been more than a story. The sword had called her to his side, but it had been the legend that had awakened her to the sword’s call.

  “I’ve loved you longer than I realized,” Elena said. “I heard the sword’s call because I loved you before we’d even met.”

  Romanov held her as if she anchored him in this world. He didn’t yet know that the curse had been lifted. He would have to be told about Lev and about Bell. There was good news and bad to share. For now, she shared her embrace and her heat. She shared the modern world she’d brought to him and her dancer’s strength.

  “I think I knew when I first saw you climbing in the snow. I hadn’t felt so alive in ages. I had to go to you. But I couldn’t accept the evidence of my own eyes when the sword first glowed. It’s too cruel. The Ether...you don’t deserve that fate, Elena, my love,” Romanov growled.

  “No one does,” Elena said. “Except maybe those like Grigori who court its darkness.”

  She pulled back to look up into Romanov’s emerald eyes. They were haunted as they always were, but there was a new light in them too. Maybe it was the sapphire’s glow influencing the gold flecks in his irises, but she decided to call it hope.

  “Bronwal is free,” she said softly. His eyes widened. Only then, did he look away from her to see what had been happening while he was fighting Grigori. His hands tightened on her back when he saw the queen and Bell standing side by side. His brothers were by the door, alive even if they weren’t quite well.

  “You came to us for help, but it’s you who saved us all,” Romanov said.

  He looked back at her, and Elena wrapped her free arm around his neck. She pulled him down to her mouth and their lips met in a kiss that was long and leisurely. They’d fallen in love as a ticking clock counted down their last moments together, but every moment from now on was theirs to enjoy.

  “I was afraid to call the wolf, but I didn’t let that stop me,” Elena said, when they finally came up for air.

  “I was afraid when you picked up the sword, but that didn’t stop me from loving you with all my heart, even when the black wolf ruled it,” Romanov said. “He is me and I am him. Can you love an enchanted shapeshifter after all Volkhvy magic has forced you to endure?”

  “My mother’s sacrifice taught me that the greatest power is love. She bought me time to find my way to you. And now our love is more powerful than Volkhvy enchantments. We’ll fight for the Light together with the sword and the wolf,” Elena said. “There are still difficulties ahead. Bell is Vasilisa’s daughter. Your father kidnapped her for leverage. The queen thought he’d killed her. That’s why her rage was so long and deep.”

  Ivan Romanov stiffened at the news of his dead father’s further treachery. He looked at the queen and her daughter. Elena followed his gaze. Their reunion wasn’t warm. In fact, Bell looked as if she’d rather be swallowed up by the Ether.

  Soren was gone. He and Lev had slipped away once Romanov was safe. The white wolf didn’t know that his wife and baby had been found. He might be too far gone to ever know. Soren was his lost brother’s only hope and yet the red wolf had his own heartbreak to face.

  “Bronwal stands,” Romanov said. His attention came back to Elena.

  “And whatever comes as we recover from the curse, we will fill this castle with love,” Elena replied.

  Epilogue

  Vasilisa left without a word. Her entire entourage disappeared. What could she say to the black wolf she’d almost killed? It wasn’t until Elena went searching for Bell that she realized her friend had disappeared too. Her aviary was abandoned. All her magpie collection was gone.

  Except for the trunk of male clothes that Elena had helped her drag up the stairs. It was open at the foot of Bell’s bed. On top of the carefully folded and preserved garments was the boy’s hat Bell had always worn.

  Elena lifted it from the trunk and blinked against the moisture in her eyes. Soren had growled at Bell when he’d heard the truth about her parentage. He had lashed out at the girl who had kept a silent vigil for his return for centuries. The hat must have been Soren’s. She was certain of it. And the trunk was probably full of his clothes, as well.

  The dress Bell had worn to the Gathering was abandoned on the floor. She wouldn’t be able to abandon her feelings for the red wolf as easily. Had she gone to live with her mother to escape the wolf who had always protected her? Elena already missed her determined smile, even though she realized now that it and the hat she’d always worn hid much of her true feelings. Bell...Anna...had persevered through it all. She’d shouldered much of the brunt of her mother’s curse and she’d survived, in large part, because of the debt she thought she owed the Romanovs for saving her.

  Only to find out it was all a lie...

  There was nothing she and Ivan could do to repair the damage his father and the Light Volkhvy queen had done. They could only work toward a future where Bronwal thrived once more. Romanov was already consulting with the people who had reappeared when Vasilisa lifted the curse. There were more survivors than they’d known. Patrice was in the thick of things. By her side was a man who called her “my wife.” It seemed her long-lost husband had been looking for her for many Cycles. She’d been looking for him too. Much of her distraction was caused by that search, not by being Ether-addled after all. Most of the survivors decided to stay and reclaim a life with others who were also like time travelers in a strange new world.

  The Dark Volkhvy had lost their king, but they were still a threat that had to be controlled. All of Romanov’s plans included empowering his people to continue to champion the Light. The training courtyard would be full once more. The halls would be lit and alive and full of people with purpose. Now that Bronwal wasn’t coming and going from the Ether, he planned to update and modernize their home. For that, they would need to reach out to the queen for help. Their location was inaccessible without her abilities.

  They had time.

  Currently, her head was full of more sensual plans.

  She’d brought her grandmother’s book with her to the castle’s roof. She lit several candles that had been left in the aviary, but she sat on one of the openings in the ramparts to open the book beneath the stars. The illustrations sprang to life in her hands, but they were nothing compared to the reality of Ivan Romanov when he came to her side. She looked from the book up to the man. He was larger than life as he always was—tall, broad and handsome. This time there was an added thrill though, because he was also hers.

  Finally, she and Romanov were alone.

  Her swan gown was rumpled and dirty, but she didn’t care because the look in Romanov’s eyes was one of desire and appreciation. She stood to meet him. As usual, her head came only to his chest. She
had to lift her chin to watch his face. His eyes were highlighted in the soft glow of stars, candles and the sapphire’s gleam. He reached for her belt and she placed the book on the wall in order to raise her arms out of the way. He unbuckled it slowly, never once breaking contact with her gaze.

  The stars above his wild hair reminded her of the mica in the cavern, but the cold breeze and the distant expanse of snow-capped mountains reminded her that they were free. She didn’t have to seek refuge in the black wolf’s lair.

  “Every time we’ve been together, I’ve resisted our connection,” he said. The belt came free, and Romanov placed the sword in its scarlet scabbard carefully on the wall beside the book. “I’m not resisting anymore. And every second away from you tonight has been torture.”

  “We’re free. I don’t have to be afraid to sleep or to dream. I don’t have to be afraid to show you how I feel,” Elena said. “And you don’t have to be afraid of our connection.”

  “You were always the braver of us. I was afraid to allow myself to love you. I didn’t want to ensnare you in the curse,” Romanov said.

  “Your strength and control were a siren’s call. I’d been relentlessly pursued. I’d never been given a key and told that I could say no,” Elena said. “Of course, with you, I wanted to say yes. Again and again.”

  “You killed me when you refused to use the key. I thought I would die from wanting what I couldn’t have,” Romanov said. “But every kiss, every sweet sigh only brought me back to life.”

  As they’d spoken, he had found the fastenings beneath the feathers on her shoulders and he’d unhooked them. The top of her dress slid down her chest revealing her naked breasts to his intense perusal. Her nipples peaked in the chilly air, but the rush beneath her skin that caused gooseflesh to rise was all warm anticipation, not cold.

  There was a fireplace in the aviary, but Elena didn’t want to lose the stars or the wide-open sky above their heads. She wanted to see the mountains she’d braved to find her alpha wolf and the legend that called her home to his arms.

  “You’re shivering,” Romanov said. He reached for her waist and pulled her against his chest. Her breasts were crushed against his loosened shirt. Sometime after the fight, he’d shed the jacket of his tuxedo and his white silk shirt had come untucked. His tie was long gone, and his buttons were unfastened all the way to his rippled abdomen. This was her lover, a man from a less-civilized age who had survived through the centuries to come to her.

  “I hadn’t even noticed,” Elena said. Her attention was fully caught by the man who held her. She buried her face in his neck when he leaned down to scoop her up into his embrace. As always, he was careful with her injured knee when he arranged her in his arms. She held around his neck and breathed deeply of his wintry, evergreen hair. She wanted to go back into the woods with him soon. She wanted to see him, there, among the trees when nothing was trying to kill them. She knew from the worn trails and the scent on his hair and skin that he walked there often.

  “I wanted to kiss you the first night you carried me to the tower,” Elena confessed. “When you gave me the key. When you explained that you weren’t locking me in. I began to desire you at that moment.”

  “I needed you to lock me out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away,” Romanov said. He nuzzled the top of her head as he carried her into the aviary.

  “I’m glad I didn’t hide in the tower,” Elena said.

  He placed her on the bed and turned to start a fire. She watched him lay the logs and strike a match. There was no rush, but she thought she saw a tremble of anticipation in his hand. The flame on the match danced more than it should have before he tossed it on the logs.

  “So am I,” he said as he turned around.

  He unfastened the rest of his buttons while she stared transfixed by the hardened body he revealed. He was so unlike the other men she’d known, but some part of her had always known she would need to leave the ballet and Saint Petersburg. The legend had called her long before she’d felt the sapphire’s call. The fire caught behind him and its golden glow illuminated his muscular form. Elena rose to reach for his waistband. She helped him loosen his pants and, as they fell, her body tightened in response to what they’d revealed.

  He was hard all over. From his head to his feet. But some parts of him were even harder.

  Romanov reached for her skirts, but the bodice of her dress had fallen over the fastening at her waist. She gasped when he tore the chiffon rather than patiently burrow for the means to release it.

  “I’ve been waiting too long to do that,” he said.

  Elena stood nearly naked in the firelight. Her silk underwear was translucent and so were the gossamer stockings on her legs. She kicked off her shoes, but that was all he allowed her to do before he pushed her back onto the bed. Her legs embraced him. She cradled his stiff erection at the moist juncture of her thighs. She wound her arms around his muscled back.

  “Don’t wait. Not any longer,” Elena whispered urgently.

  She moaned when he tore the fabric of her underwear to slide it out of the way. She raised her hips to meet his thrust when he joined his body to hers. She was slick with need and she only got slicker as his shaft filled her. She cried out when he began to rock. Their bodies moved together in perfect rhythm.

  “I don’t know how I didn’t carry you to the lair and keep you there from the moment you arrived,” Romanov growled against her ear. She gloried in his hunger. She undulated beneath the urgent movements of his hips. Her body tightened around him. The cold mountain breeze whistled around the shutters, but it didn’t cool the perspiration that had risen on her skin.

  “You were too used to being strong and alone. You didn’t know we could be stronger together,” Elena said. She punctuated her words with a push, and Romanov allowed her to roll him over so that she could straddle his hips. Her knee protested, but not too much, because other parts of her body were too pleasured to be interrupted.

  “You’re so small and yet so fierce,” Romanov groaned. His head arched back on the pillows as she braced her hands against his broad shoulders. The position gave him total access to her depths. She cried out as she was stretched wide and the head of his penis found the entrance to her womb.

  “The better to take my black wolf to the stars,” Elena said.

  They didn’t need the mica cavern or the sky. They didn’t need the sapphire’s glow. On the wall outside, it beamed its light alone. They only needed each other. When Romanov came, he cried out her name and it sounded very like a howl she’d once heard in a distant wood. His release caused hers, and she joined him in shouting her pleasure to the mountains.

  Their pleasure rang out to echo down Bronwal’s lonely halls. Their love dispelled the castle’s curse as a lone red wolf tucked his tail and ran far away.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss out on the rest of the

  LEGENDARY WARRIORS miniseries!

  Soren and Bell’s story,

  LEGENDARY BEAST,

  will be available in September 2018

  and

  Lev and Madeline’s story,

  LEGENDARY WOLF,

  will be available in October 2018.

  In the meantime, check out these otherworldly tales

  of romance from Barbara J. Hancock:

  BRIMSTONE SEDUCTION

  BRIMSTONE BRIDE

  BRIMSTONE PRINCE

  Available now from Harlequin Nocturne!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SEDUCING THE DARK PRINCE by Jane Kindred.

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  Seducing the Dark Prince

  by Jane Kindred

  Chapter 1

  Like the ethereal substance his last name evoked, Lucien Smok was breathtaking—literally. The moment Theia saw him across the temple reception hall, the air rushed from her lungs as though it had been sucked into a vacuum. Pale blue eyes like pieces of ice locked on hers from beneath long lashes, dark brows in an ivory face lifted in amusement above them as if he was well aware of the effect he was having on her.