by KH LeMoyne
“You’re easy to read.” He smiled, a lift of lips that played cocky against handsome. A surprise, since she’d rarely seen him smile. The effect wasn’t lost on her, but what she wanted most was a wolf with golden eyes and the man who owned all her emotions.
“Don’t you report to Trim?” she asked. “She used to be concerned I’d take over your alpha.”
“Look, Trim can be harsh because she’s loyal and protective about Deacon. But she understands what’s at stake, what’s important. She sent me after you before Deacon had a chance.” Breslin patted the bag. “Eat. I don’t think my alpha would appreciate you fainting from hunger and exhaustion at the meeting. It would reflect poorly on my bodyguarding skills.”
With reluctance, she pulled out the sandwich. Hunger had been the last thing on her mind, but as she unwrapped the paper, her stomach growled. The aroma of warm roast beef and horseradish sauce made her mouth water.
“What happens at the clan meeting?”
“Newborns are introduced first. Then the first-time shifters take their oaths.” Breslin grabbed a bag of chips from the center console and tossed them into her lap. “Deacon visits throughout his territory once a year, but biannually he holds the clan meeting at Black Haven for a more ritualistic atmosphere. Rarely, there are issues brought up that have been put on the agenda by lieutenants.”
“And Shanae, Matthew, and Trevor?”
“Mating announcements come at the tail end.”
So she would be saved for last. Slowly giving in to fatigue, she managed to finish her sandwich and lean back before her eyes closed.
20
Clan Meeting
A quick, loud rap jerked Lena from sleep. She startled as Trim tapped again, softer now against her passenger window.
The vehicle was stopped and Breslin gone. A pink streak of dawn was visible through the SUV’s windshield. From the slow tick of the cooling engine, he hadn’t been gone long. Easing from her seat, she swung the door wide, the frame of a huge building beyond. Lena had seen it from a distance during her return from Deacon’s place of sanctuary. Up close, the structure rose like the tall bow of a ship, the formidable façade a subtle combination of stone and timber. Refusing to be distracted by calculations of how many shifters the building contained, she focused on Trim.
She leaned her shoulder against the open door, blocking Lena’s way. “Glad you didn’t cut and run.”
“Running isn’t my style.” Why did she have to keep saying that?
“Nope. You just wade right into trouble, ready or not.” A smirk flashed across Trim’s lips. “Shanae put a change of clothes for you in the bathroom in Deacon’s office, but the meeting is already in progress, and Shanae’s mating announcement has already started. It’s the last item on the agenda.”
Unwilling to let the opportunity to clear the air disappear, Lena looked Trim in the eyes. “Why did you send Breslin to help me?
“You were luring the ferals away from Ford.” Trim pressed her lips together. “And I’m loyal to my alpha. I’ve also found nothing to refute his choice in you as his mate.”
“An awfully abrupt change.”
“I guess I deserved that. I’m not big on being bowled over by emotions, but Shanae’s return and Deacon finding you—” Trim licked her lips and then pinched the bridge of her nose. “I wouldn’t have hesitated with my support for anyone else in the clan, and you deserved the same respect. You’ve earned loyalty.”
“Thank you.” Lena hopped down and wondered whether the rush of blood from her brain was anticipation or terror. She brushed back her hair. “I tried to clean up a little on the way here.”
Trim looked pointedly over Lena’s clothes. Then she shrugged. “To be honest, the blood on your clothes will probably dispel any impressions the others might have that you’re a docile human. With some, that might add to your acceptance.”
A bubble of laughter built up that Lena cut off before it had a chance to escape. Trim looked uncomfortable enough without more sharing. However, the idea that only shifters would appreciate blood and gore as a measure of beauty tickled her.
Heat brushed through her again, but this time she could categorize the emotion correctly. Anticipation. Definitely, anticipation.
Straightening her shoulders and pulling her jacket a little tighter in an attempt to cover the bloodstains, Lena followed Trim up shallow, wide stone stairs and through enormous wooden double doors. They strode through a voluminous entryway and through a second series of doors.
She paused in shock at the sight before her.
The flooring, if it could be called that, sloped downward. Boulders littered the ground. Green grass and moss wove in intricate patterns between them before a final dip. Stone walls rose to a ceiling of thick wooden beams and solid planking. Beautiful and artistic, the ceiling look like a ship turned upside down. Adults and children sat and sprawled across both stone and grass, their attention focused on a precipice thirty or so feet from a large podium.
Hoots and howls yanked her back into awareness. Shanae and Matthew stood on the precipice, Trevor waving to the hundreds of people collected in the massive auditorium. Shanae leaned to kiss Matthew’s cheek, and he turned, bussing her lips with his. The howls started anew, and people rose, clapping.
With everyone still standing, Trim gestured Lena toward the front of the room and down a winding path toward the podium outcrop that Shanae and Matthew were vacating.
Wharton appeared at Lena’s side, Hansen at his shoulder. She felt no emotion from the first, Wharton evidently reining in his comfort and solace. His message was clear. This decision required her commitment without any help from him. While her choice would bind her to the whole clan, the intimacy of her claim belonged to Deacon.
Determined not to let hesitation slow her down, Lena continued forward without her bodyguards. Unfortunately, the narrow path between boulders proved longer than it looked, and a moment of cold fear gripped her spine. If she failed now, she’d not only hurt Deacon in a way no one else could, but she risked his whole clan.
On the heels of her indecision, the memory of the child tortured and changed, lost through no fault of his own and begging for her help, captured her soul. “We cannot save them all.”
She met Deacon’s gaze as his words echoed in her mind, and with a certainty as firm as the sun’s rise and the tide’s pull, he captured her heart. It always had surprised her how fear played in the mind as a larger enemy than physical pain or imminent peril, but in moments, they would be together. Never alone against struggles again. For, bold and beautiful as the wolf and man, Deacon would belong to her, her rock in hard times in the same way that she would stand strong for him. He deserved her courage and her whole heart.
Surprisingly easy, given how much she loved him.
Lena endured everyone’s gaze as they turned toward her. Hundreds of pairs of eyes, the intensity of a two-thousand-watt bulb blazing over her skin. Well, this probably wouldn’t be the last time. Taking a deep breath, she counted the stairs as she descended. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Really, enough already.
She glanced at Deacon. He didn’t move or smile. Not offering an inch of outward support there, but she’d expected none. He’d test her mettle, and if she didn’t have the guts to demand his alpha wolf be hers, then she didn’t deserve a place beside him. She understood that, but she’d never been so terrified in her life.
Still searching for any sign as she neared the dais, only the solid, heavy draw of his golden eyes pulled her closer. It was enough—the sign she needed and the emotions and promise meant only for her. He’d singled her out from the rest of the room and drawn her with desire only she could read.
When she reached the precipice, Deacon’s eyes flared with heat. This was the man, the wolf, who’d enflamed her body and devoured her soul.
“My name is Lena Juarez, and I am here to claim Deacon Black as my mate.”
Murmurs rose behind her in a cacophony of voices. Deacon remained silent, though he glanced with
out subtlety to the floor at his feet and back to her with a raised brow and a tiny twitch of his lips.
Like hell I’m going to jump the podium and crawl at his feet. And if he didn’t get his furry ass over to her before she died of embarrassment, she was going to make him pay.
He stalked toward her and stopped several feet away. Then he launched into the air and landed beside her.
The crowd gasped, but his gaze never broke from hers as he pulled her hand into his and said softly, “Are you sure, Lena?”
“Do you trust me? No more holding back.”
“I let you walk into the teeth of the battle to fight the beast alone. Please let that count for something! I will never allow it to happen again.”
There was more to the story of his letting her fight alone, but they could talk about that later. “Right, instead you sent your silent and deadly force to guard me. For which I thank you.” Then she added, “Because if mating means nothing else, it should mean accepting two viewpoints.”
His expression became pained. “After all that, I refuse to lose you now by my hand.”
She leaned closer and whispered as well, “I’m not your mother, and you’re not your father. I claim more than your body. I want your trust.”
His eyes gleamed, fierce and intense. “You want everything right here, in front of all these people?” His lips curled a bit with snide humor. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have a traditional engagement—a ring and flowers?”
“If you keep on, I’m leaving.”
Suddenly solemn again, he gripped her hands harder. “I love you.”
“Good call. Because I love you too. So let’s prove to each other there’s nothing to fear between us. Now. In front of everyone.”
His lips touched hers as his lids lowered. “Cataclysm or salvation. I suppose either way, I’m bound to you unto eternity. Works for me.”
“I can promise my lifetime.” She smiled, her heartbeat doing a jig. “The rest isn’t up to me.”
He pulled her to him, then leaned close and brushed the hair away from her face as he attempted to draw out her secrets with his gaze. “Once I mark you before all, we will be inseparable.”
“The same but better?” she replied. Being bitten didn’t sound all that fun, and she squeezed his hand. His thumb gentled over her knuckles, dispelling the bundle of nerves tightening inside her. The butterflies in her stomach barely let her breathe. “I could have used a little briefing on the actual ceremony here.”
“Why? I accepted you as mine the first moment I saw you, gunmetal and all.” He glanced over her shoulder and then back. “But for them, lack of preparation shows your strength. Your resilience speaks to a new level of protection they can count on from their alpha pair.”
“Just do it, Deacon.” She pressed closer. He kissed her, and she could swear she heard “awws.” Then one of his hands cradled her face and pressed her forehead into his chest. The other slid her jacket and shirt from her shoulder, baring her to him, but he seemed to wait. “I’m a big girl. A little bite isn’t going to hurt me.” She hoped.
His growl rumbled against her skin, growing as he clutched her tighter. His arm surrounded her, hard with tension, dispelling her own fear and displacing it with confidence. One hot lick down her neck preceded a second stroke over her shoulder. Then piercing-hot pain seared her flesh, points sharp and sure slid into her muscles and touched—hell, it must be to the bone. Oh my God. He had fangs in this form?
“Trust me, Lena. Open to me. I will keep you safe.”
Unable to concentrate on the channel, she wondered if everyone could hear them.
“No, love. This is just between us, you and me. A bond we will always have.”
She swallowed hard, but her heart was beating too fast for him to calm. Though naked need in his voice found an echo deep inside her. She gripped Deacon tighter. What choice did she have after all? She loved him, trusted him. From the moment she’d turned back to the stronghold, she’d realized this path was all or nothing. “I better get to bite you too.”
“Later.” She felt his chuckle in her thoughts, but the vibration also echoed beneath her tight fingers.
As if that thought released her, a spark lit beneath her eyelids. A second and then a third, followed by too many to count. Fireflies in the dark, lighting the blackness into a solar system of twinkles.
She gasped, instinct forcing her to grasp him. Before she could take a breath, the pain was gone, replaced by disorientation. Haze and distance, followed by a shocking diminishing of consciousness. She tensed, prepared to struggle again.
He growled, and heat flooded through her, bright and strong. Like a cresting wave, the energy hit her, swallowing every part of her, pulsing in thick, broad sensual strokes through muscle, bone, and delicate tissue. Close to sexual release, she held her breath. Then the tide landed, crashing through her and exploding toward every star twinkling in her mind’s eye. Stream after stream of power raced across the darkness, touching each pinpoint in a bright flash of diamond brilliance. Beyond her physical body, the energy raced.
“What are those?”
“The shifter lives we protect. Feel them, Lena, for they feel the energy you sent them along with a promise for better lives from the alpha female who loves them. The temperance and strength only you can deliver.”
“I’m not a shifter.”
“We are part of each other. With your choice, we share this life. I will share all I have with you as you have already sacrificed for them.”
Breath held to the point of pain, she exhaled as the rolling wave receded. Deacon’s canines retracted with the ebbing tide, but his tongue stroked again. Ripples of sensations feathered through her body from apocalyptic to a subtle afterglow, replacing the minor pain with a wash of desire and a quicksilver flash of pleasure.
Oh God, she’d had an orgasm here in front of all these people, and all she could see were stars.
Again, he chuckled. “I am the only one who knows.” Still, he held her closer, safe and hidden in his embrace as her pleasure passed and dimmed. He didn’t turn her to the crowd but held her in the silence. At the nuzzling of his lips on her neck, she lifted her head. He captured her lips in a tender, searching kiss, one finalizing his claim and promising more for later.
As he moved back, searching her face for any lingering doubt, growls and cheers reverberated behind her. Not that he released her.
His hold tightened as his mouth sought hers again, claimed her mouth, refusing a quick end to their act and sealing the bond in her heart while the clan erupted in jubilee.
“You’ve made your alpha a very happy man, Lena,” he said.
She glanced up. Gold and sparkling, his eyes glowed. “Don’t think that little show with fangs and power is the end of this claiming. You’re mine, Deacon. Forever. I’ll be happy to show you teeth and starlight when we’re alone.”
“I’ll be your loving subject.” He turned her in his arms, sliding his hand to clasp hers and raise it above their heads as they faced the crowd together. “I give you the newest member of our clan, my mate, and your female alpha.”
Fur flashed. Canine, feline, bear, fox, and other animals she couldn’t even discern erupted from their human forms around the stadium. Children gawked at the riotous exuberance of adult shifters who howled, growled, and rolled like infants. Then, one by one, the shifters moved toward Lena. A rub of head and jowl against her leg or a brush beneath her hand, and then each one lumbered back to their families.
Wharton’s wave of acceptance slid across her, and she glanced toward the top of the room to meet his typical carefree smile. Dani and Chisholm offered her a thumbs-up.
Of the hundreds present, all approached, and Lena allowed each the touch and connection they sought. Who was she to reject family? Their happiness was evident. Their acceptance more so. They’d shown her their true selves and edged her gently to this conclusion. An end and a new beginning all in one.
Slowly the gymnasium cleared. L
ena searched through the departing crowd. Trim was nowhere to be seen, and Deacon’s trusted teammates had blended in with all the others and disappeared.
Lena walked with Deacon toward the small group around Matthew and Shanae. The others moved aside as they approached. Matthew’s arm tightened around Shanae, but his gaze flickered over the clothing hiding Lena’s mark. “Congratulations?”
With a laugh at his uncertainty, Lena answered as Deacon drew her into the warmth of his body. “You both as well.”
“I’m guessing you’d like me to field felicitations for the next few days,” Shanae said with a wink.
Matthew glanced at her in surprise.
“What?” she answered, kissing him again. “Alphas should have some downtime.”
“What about us?”
At his disturbed expression, Lena laughed.
“We will have plenty of time, but you need to get your new lab set up and pick up whatever items you left to find me. While I need to automate Deacon’s files.”
Lena felt Deacon’s muscles relax at the prospect of less administration.
“Then I should give you a heads-up. I’ll be sending Alarico a note to see if he has a suitable biochemist to help Trevor and the others. I remember he referenced a highly qualified one in his clan a year or so ago.”
Shanae left Matthew’s hold and leaned forward to kiss Deacon’s check. “Thank you.” Then she tugged her husband toward the outside and called Trevor from the playful mass of the Romald brood.
“What now?” Lena asked.
“First stop is home and—”
Just as they were about to make a clean exit from the auditorium, Trim stepped in front of them. “Deacon, could I have a word with you?”
“Whatever you have to say can be said in front of my mate.”
Trim raised her chin, but she glanced at Lena with a nod. “I’m stepping down as your second.”
“Accepted.”
“I’ll remain in the team, but I would appreciate the opportunity to take a role on the outskirts.”
