Reaching for My Angel [The Royal Wolves 5] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Honor James

  Picking up the basket he looked to her and held out his free hand. “Nice and slow, love,” he murmured, softly lacing his fingers with hers as she approached. “We’ll take this all at whatever pace you are good with,” he promised, rubbing his thumb over her fingers slowly.

  “Slow and easy.” She agreed and placed her hand in his, trusting Benedek to keep her safe, to bring her back to life inside and hopefully help her past the pains and fears she was having so that they could restart their lives together.

  Pushing open the door to the outside, he tugged her out with him nice and gentle. Moving to the edge of the deck, he led the way down and then walked with her across the lawn toward the wooded path. Stopping at the edge of the trees he looked to her. “How are you doing?” he asked softly knowing she’d know the wolves had their scent and were close.

  “So far, okay.” Evan’s hands were shaking but she moved all the same. “Tell me about the boat we will buy and go for a cruise on. Tell me about how we will both heal from this?” she asked even as she watched the wolves coming from the woods and circling them in wide circles. “How will we replace the family we lost already?” Her voice broke as she whispered her last question.

  “We will buy a good sized boat, whatever the two of us can handle,” he said softly pulling her in closer to his side and rubbing at her arm. “I think we will have to try a couple to find what is right for us, what we might be comfortable with. I don’t want others there so we’ll need to be practical on the whole buying trip,” he pointed out continuing to keep her moving as he kept an eye on the wolves. He could feel their need to come to Evangeline and to receive her comfort for the loss of their fellow pack and to offer their own in return, but they were hesitating because of her tight body language.

  “If we are going to let them come to us”—Evangeline looked up at Benedek with tears shimmering in her eyes—“it needs to be now before I fall apart,” she whispered softly. “I love you, Ben. I need to do this for us or else I will never be the woman you need me to be, the woman I need me to be.”

  Nodding he set the basket down and then sat on the ground pulling her into his lap. Wrapping his arms around her tight, he looked to the wolves and signaled them forward. She was shaking so hard he was afraid he’d hurt her with how tight he was holding on, but he couldn’t let go. “Breathe, Angel, just breathe,” he whispered in her ear as the first wolf approached, head down and softly whimpering.

  Evan held close to Ben and when the first wolf came forth she could barely see because of the tears in her eyes. She reached a shaky hand out to the Alpha and whispered, “Come, my friend. Help us all heal.” She spoke softly, quietly, and with the emotional pain there and clear.

  Butting his head to her hand, the Alpha whined softly as he moved closer to rub his cheek to hers before resting his head on her shoulder, the wolf’s version of a hug. Ben gently rubbed a hand on the large male’s side to comfort the animal and waited to see what Evangeline would do next.

  Reaching up slowly Evan buried her fingers into the wolf’s fur and turned her face to press her soaking wet eyes into the side of his neck. “I’m so sorry.” She couldn’t think of what else to say to this wolf, from what she understood a brother to Ben’s Alpha wolf.

  “He knows that, love,” Ben whispered softly shifting his hand to run his hand over her hair lightly. The other wolves began to move in and lay down close to them, pressing the weight of their bodies against them. “Let them help you as you are helping them,” he murmured gently.

  “I’m trying.” She sniffed in the wolf’s fur as she held onto him now and sobbed, their mutual pain reaching out and soothing each other. “Don’t let me go, Ben,” she said when she pulled from the wolf and looked up at Benedek. “You are everything to me, I can’t lose you, ever.”

  Cupping her face he kissed her softly, his lips brushing over her cheeks. “I’m never going anywhere without you, Angel mine. I love you, my beautiful mate,” he whispered before pulling her into his arms and hugging her tight. “You will never walk alone, love,” he said softly.

  “Thank you,” she said and moved her hand from the wolf’s fur and wrapped them around him. She wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around Ben’s neck and held onto him as they all had the moment of pain, all had the healing moment.

  Closing his eyes he held her tight even as he reached out a hand to bury his fingers in the thick fur of the Alpha pressing in close to her body. Rocking her back and forth gently, they just sat there as she cried, the wolves knowing it was her time to let the pain go.

  Evan had no idea how long they sat there on the ground holding each other, Ben wrapping her tight as the wolves all pressed in closer to them and holding them close. Finally she raised her head and looked at him. “I think that I’m ready to go now, my love. Thank you,” she whispered.

  Kissing her gently he wiped at her cheeks lightly. “You are always welcome,” he murmured softly. Shifting her he got to his feet and pulled her up to her own. “Let’s go find our spot, love,” he suggested as he lifted up the basket.

  “Sounds good to me.” She was still in pain but it wasn’t as raw, it wasn’t as intense and consuming as it was before her little melt down with Ben and the wolves. “Will we recreate our pack?” she asked finally once they found their place under a tree and by the small man-made stream.

  “I don’t know, love,” he said softly pulling out their food and laying it before them. “But if you want to, the Alpha pair wanted you to know that the twins they carry could be our firsts,” he told her.

  “They would entrust their children with us?” Her question was a watery one, something that Evan couldn’t seem to stop doing. “Tell them that we will consider it, and most likely accept.” When they got back she prayed that she was under better control that she would be able to take the pair as their firsts.

  Sliding his arm around her, he hugged her close, pressing a kiss to her temple. “They are trusting you with their children, the future, and their greatest hope, love,” he murmured. “They believe in you and know you were never at fault. They are doing this as a show of their belief in you and want you to understand it as such.”

  Wiping her nose with the back of her hand and then onto her pants she nodded. “And we will accept it as thusly,” she whispered and smiled a watery smile. “We will take them and raise them as our own, even if it is taking them on the ship with us, we will do it.”

  “Oh god, I hope that they don’t have sea-sickness,” he said softly as he frowned. “We’ll have to see when they are born. If we’re not here, Laz will look after them. If they are, we will figure it out if they can come with us or not,” he told her as he tried to remember what he knew about pups. It had been a very long time since he’d been around any.

  “I think that we will all do just fine.” Evan had hope now. She had hope for their future and for the happiness that would come to them soon. “I love you, Ben, I love you so very much.” She no longer had tears clogging her vision. She was looking now and seeing him, seeing their future, and it would be good, they would make sure of it.

  THE END

  WWW.HONOR-JAMES.NET

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Born in the mid-seventies, this thirty-something woman has only been writing for the last six years of her life, faithfully that is. Honor has always been scribbling a phrase, a curious word, or the oddest of thoughts down on anything she could find laying about. Now she piles them up before her and, if one catches her fancy, she further explores it to whatever its end might be.

  A lover of books, her reading material spans from Shakespeare to mysteries and all the way to the erotic. Anything and everything she can lay her hands on she’ll read. Though, these days, she leans more toward the paranormal than anything else.

  Poetry was her first love, lasting about three solid years. Don’t ask. She won’t show many of them to anyone. Then short stories became the focus and finally she began to write for more than just writing what came to mind.
She started to write for pleasure and to tell the story that begged to be told.

  Life and family came next, working full-time as a customer service representative and raising two children got in the way and the writing that she so loved as a teenager seemed to be pushed off to the back burner of everything.

  So several years passed and her children turned into more than the babies that demanded her attention and into young children and then teenagers with different demands, ones that allowed her to once more spread her imagination to the wind and ask for more, want more.

  As with all great things, the door to her notebook-written world might have been closed and placed on hold, but where a door closes another one opens, and in this case it was with the advent of buying a computer.

  Honor spends many a sleepless night pounding at the keyboard. She is a consummate professional in her daytime career. However, at night her visions swing to the fantastical, and in those long hours after the children and husband are in bed, she weaves together words and blends up stories that not only bring a whole new meaning to romance, but sizzle the pages with a heat that will have the readers begging for more.

  For all titles by Honor James, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/honor-james-0

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com