by Dara Nelson
Colton pulled his shirt over his head, grabbed Tess’ index finger and guided it to his chest, “Here, right here, love.”
They emerged from the room forty five minutes later, fingers entwined, smiles on their faces, twinkles in their eyes but it was the peaceful, contented glow that had everyone in the cabin turning and staring at them with their mouths agape. Both Tess and Colton were oblivious to it because they only had eyes for each other. As they took their seats across from Hansen, Hansen leaned over and said, “Sir, what happened to you two?”
Colton’s gaze shot to Hansen, “I’m sorry, were we too loud?”
“Loud? No, I didn’t hear anything, sir, it’s just that there’s something different about the two of you. Something’s happened,” Hansen said.
Colton pulled Tess’ hand to his lips and kissed it. “Tess is now my heart-bonded mate, Hansen.”
Hansen looked at the two of them for several seconds then he looked down at his hands, “Oh,” he whispered.
Colton leaned forward and placed his hand on Hansen’s knee, forcing his gaze up, “What is it Hansen?”
“Well, I’ve heard of that, but I’ve never met anyone who was actually heart-bonded and it’s odd but I swear that I can actually feel it.”
Colton grinned, “It’s strong, isn’t it?
“Very, sir, umm, congratulations, I suppose.”
“Thank you, Hansen.”
Colton felt Tess’ hand tense when the plane touched down. He released his hand from hers and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close and kissing her temple, “It’ll be okay, Tess.”
“I hope so, Colt, I really hope so,” she mumbled.
Tess fell silent as she stared out the window again for the few minutes it took to taxi into the hangar. “What if she doesn’t want to be saved, Colton? What if she truly hates me and wants to stay where she is? She and I would be mortal enemies. How am I supposed to live with that?”
“I don’t know sweetheart but we’ll figure it out, I promise.”
In the back of the limo, Tess watched as Hansen, in the passenger front seat, pressed his finger to his ear, “House is secure, Sir,” he said.
Colton leaned into Tess’ ear and whispered, “I think Hansen is enjoying his beefed up security role.”
Tess smiled and nodded then stared wistfully out the darkened limo windows at the sun-kissed countryside as it passed safely on the other side of the UV protected glass. “What is it, Tess?”
“Why me, Colton?” she whispered.
“What do you mean?”
Tess turned and locked her eyes on Colton’s, eyes that were full of more emotion than he had ever seen in any one place before – love, fear, doubt, anger, confusion. Colton frowned, he hated to see this conflict raging in her.
“You were alone for so long, you preferred to be alone after being hurt so bad, so I’m wondering why me, why, after all this time, did you decide to open your heart to me? I mean, you barely knew me, so why?” she whispered.
Colton raked his hand through his hair, “Honestly? Before I even saw your dirty, battered body in my yard, I felt your presence. Something about you pulled me. Your heart was like a beacon. It awakened something in me that I truly thought was shut down forever.”
“But what if none of this is real? What if it’s a spell?”
“I know what I feel Tess. I love you. I want to marry you. The woman who came and saved me in that basement loves me too, of that I have no doubt.”
“I love….wait, you, what, did you say?” she stuttered.
Colton’s eyes light up with his smile, “Yes, Tess, I said I want to marry you.”
“But we’re already bonded, I thought that was enough.”
“Nothing is enough when it comes to you.”
“Oh, Colton, I love you so much,” she gasped as she unbuckled and crawled into his lap.
“And I you, mo anam cara,” Colton whispered into Tess’ hair as he cradled her on his lap.
“Mmmmm, mo anam cara, that sounds so beautiful, what does it mean?”
“It means ‘my soul mate.’ It’s Celtic.”
“It’s wonderful.”
Pulling into the driveway several minutes later pulled them out of their quiet moment. Colton looked at Hansen, “Has the basement been set up for strategy?”
“Yes, sir”
“Everyone has arrived?”
“All but Kryton, Sir. He’s due tomorrow afternoon.”
“Excellent work, Hansen.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
The town car pulled into the garage and Hansen jumped out and opens the door to the house. They can all hear that there is a heated argument going on in the basement….
“We need to ambush them all at once Tyson. Take the fuckers out once and for all.”
“No, no, no, Craig, we can’t. The girl is her sister. She’s not to be hurt. We go in there all guns blazing and, well, you know how that turns out. We need to get them apart. Divide and conquer. Less casualties that way.”
“Damn it Tyson, we did that back in England in 1658. Remember how that turned out?”
“Oh, no you don’t. I didn’t plan that one. That one was all Stryker’s piss poor planning, not mine. We did it your way in Paris in 1447 and it was a disaster.”
“Good afternoon, my brethren,” Colton said as he entered the room. Tess, watches, mesmerized, as everyone in the room stops talking and bows deeply towards Colton. “Who are you,” Tess whispers to Colton.
Colton presses a kiss to the back of her hand as he mumbles, “Later, my dove,” then he addresses those in the room waiting for his command, “Stand tall and proud, my brothers.”
As one they stand straight and say, “Today and all days we fight by your side as one, King Renner.” Then they pound their fists on their chests and let out a roar that rattles the windows.
“It’s damn good to see you all again,” Colton said.
“You mean after your self-imposed exile for the last eighty years or so? Yeah, you must’ve really missed us,” Craig said.
Colton shot an angry look towards him, “I understand that it has been a long time and you might be a little rusty on protocol, but do not forget who you are speaking to, soldier,” he hissed as he flashed his fangs.
Craig lowered his head, “Apologies, Your Highness, it’s been a tense day. My breach of protocol won’t happen again, I assure you.”
Colton placed his hand on Craig’s shoulder, “I know it won’t. Now, I would like you all to meet, someone,” he said as he turned towards Tess and held out his hand. Tess was still confused but sensed that now was not the time to question him so she smiled and clasped her hand in his and stepped to his side. “This is Tess, my bonded mate, your Queen.”
Tess’ slight gasp at the word queen was gently cut off by a slight squeeze from Colton’s arm at her waist. They hesitate for a few seconds, looking at each other with confusion on their faces then they all kneel onto their right knees, bow their heads and place their right hands over their hearts as they say, “Our honor, our loyalty, our lives are sworn to you, our Queen.”
The room is silent and none of them moved. Tess looks from the men to Colton, who quickly mouths to her, ‘say thank you’
“Um, thank you?” she mumbles.
They all grunt their approvals as they stand up. “Now, tell me your ideas, I want to hear your plans for rescuing Tess’ sister,” Colton said.
The men silently shuffled their feet for a few moments until Colton finally said, “Problems?”
“Should we be discussing this in front of our Queen, sir?” Tyson mumbled.
Tess opened her mouth to give Tyson a piece of her mind, but Colton stopped her by speaking first, “I’ll have you know that your Queen is every bit as tough as each man in this room. And your King would not be standing here today if not for her. She alone rescued me when I was taken by the werewolves. I was on death’s door and she risked everything, including her own life, to save me. She will be
involved in the planning and she will be by my side when we go in,” he held up his hand to the gasps and protests that came from the room:
“But, Highness, she is your Queen, having her there will make you vulnerable,” said Craig.
“A Queen fighting by her King? It is forbidden,” gasped Tyson.
A deep voice from the back of the room silenced everyone and Tess couldn’t help but be impressed and a little intimidated by the sheer size of the huge figure at the back of the room whose bulk filled the entire doorway as he said, “I’d shut the hell up if I were you. The woman is a vampire-witch hybrid who could probably have you dancing a jig if she wanted to. Show your Queen some respect.”
Tess leaned over and whispered to Colton, “Who’s that?”
“Stryker,” he whispered back, trying to hide his smile but she could see it in his eyes.
Tess turned towards the figure in back and said, “Thank you, Stryker.”
“Don’t thank me, ma’am. I didn’t do it for you, I did it for them,” he said as he nodded towards the men in the room then he smiled slightly and winked at her just as he finally stepped forward so that she could see him more clearly, and holy hell – Tess tried but was unable to stifle her gasp: over six feet, a wall of solid muscle from his head to his toes, wavy jet black hair that hung to his shoulders, deep blue eyes that seemed to stare into your soul, and a sexual vibe that was oozing out of him so thick it was like butter. “Whoa,” Tess mumbled under her breath.
Colton felt an unfamiliar surge of jealousy as he watched the brief exchange and he chastised himself mentally because he knew that it was just because he had spent so many years alone – and because it was Stryker – he knew that Stryker couldn’t help how women reacted to him. Colton trusted Stryker completely and knew that he wouldn’t never touch Tess, yet he still put a protective arm around Tess as he said, “Tess, I’d like to hear your opinion first on how you think your sister is going to react to you. Do you think she’ll be happy to see you? Glad to come with us? Receptive?”
Tess concentrated for a few seconds, “Honestly? Probably not. Even if she doesn’t want to be with the werewolves anymore, she’s always had this weird competitive thing with me. I’m going to say that she’s not going to be exactly happy with my coming to her rescue at first.”
“Okay, second question, can you work on some sort of spell to incapacitate her or put her to sleep or something as soon as we get there?”
Tess nodded, “Absolutely. Something like…..,” her gaze turned toward Craig, who suddenly stiffened, growled, “Bloody hell,” then fell to the floor and began snoring loudly.
Colton smiled, “Yeah, something exactly like that should do.”
“I’ll have to be careful though. I’m sure she’ll be expecting something like that so she will have a lot of protection spells in place. I will have to work around those,” Tess said.
“Do you have to be close to do to that?” Colton said.
“The closer the better”
“Okay then we’ll use the woods around the house for cover. You do your magic stuff then we’ll move in. Got it?” Colton said.
“Standard split formation, half in front, half in back?” Stryker said.
“I think that’s best,” Colton said.
Stryker nodded at Craig, who was still snoring on the floor, “Sleeping beauty here going too?”
Colton bit back his smile. He looked at Tess who then knelt on the floor next to Craig. “Yes, Craig too,” Colton said as Craig first groaned then snorted as he began to wake up. Then the anger hit as he came fully awake, “Son of a bitch, what the fuck did you do to me?” he yelled as he tried to scramble to his feet.
“Mind your tongue in front of your Queen, soldier!” Colton bellowed.
Craig inhaled sharply as he realized what he had done then he dropped to one knee and bowed his head, “My humblest apologies, my Queen, my wits were not fully returned when I spoke. I beg your forgiveness.”
Tess placed her hand on his shoulder, “Please stand. You are forgiven. And please know that there wasn’t any reason that I chose you over the others for my demonstration.”
“Thank you, Highness,” he mumbled as he moved back into the crowd with the other men.
Colton nodded at Stryker, “So, standard four-man formations? One team in front, one team in back?” he said as he pointed at the map of the house and grounds that was laid out on the table in front of him.
Stryker nodded, “I’m thinking that’s probably best, with pairs stationed in the woods around the house to capture any who manage to escape.”
Colton turned to Tess, “Honey, do you have a picture of your sister with you?”
Tess nodded, “Probably, on my laptop upstairs in my bag, why?”
“Can you go hook it up to the printer up there and print out two dozen copies so we can circulate it among the men? I don’t want to take any chances on her getting hurt.”
“Sure, I can text it to phones too,” she said as she swept from the room.
The moment she was gone, Colton faced the room, “Men, I know this is a lot to ask from you after I’ve been completely out of touch for almost a century but,” he stopped when Stryker held up his hand.
“Sir, I think I speak for all the men here when we say that we completely understand why you went silent. Hell, after what Lisette put you through it’s a wonder that you kept your sanity at all. And nothing is too much to ask from us after everything that you’ve done for us over the centuries.”
Colton placed his hand on Stryker’s shoulder, “Thank you.”
“We’re just glad to have you back, Sir,” he said, “Now, are you ready to go kick some werewolf ass?”
Colton smiled, “We roll tomorrow at sunset. Kryton will be here by then. We need him too, you know that. Let’s run some exercises to make sure we still have the same feel for working together. It has been a while, you know.”
“Sir, it’s only been eighty years. We fought side-by-side for over a thousand. If we can’t take out a few werewolves then it’s time to retire,” Stryker said with a wink.
Colton laughed again, “Then am I to assume you’re off for your usual pre-fight night ritual of sampling the local female population and feeding?”
“Well-fed and well-sexed for every fight, that’s what’s kept me alive all these years. And with that beautiful new Queen waiting for you upstairs, I’m guessing that you will be following the same ritual, so I will take the rest of the men with me and we will get rooms at the B&B in town.”
Colton shook his head, “That’s not necessary, I’m sure we can find room for all of you here. I’d actually prefer to keep us under one roof. Tess’ sister is half-witch, she might know that we’re here already. We’d be safe to assume that they do, so we should stick together.”
“So, I don’t get to go out and get some tail tonight? That’s some bad ju-ju,” Stryker grumbled.
“No, you go. I know you’ll stay safe. Just keep your eyes and ears open, make it quick, don’t make waves and get back here before sunrise,” Colton said.
Stryker smiled and grabbed his crotch, “A wham, bam, thank you ma’am night, now that’s definitely my kind of night.”
Colton laughed as he headed from the room, muttering, “There are going to be some broken hearts and pissed off ladies in New Orleans tonight.”
“Amen, Sir,” Stryker said as he headed out into the night.
As Colton and Tess were at the house, putting sheets on couches, rolling out sleeping bags, spreading out blankets and then finding a few moments to spend with each other in the shower – the only way that Colton could be well-sexed and well-fed – Stryker stifled a smiled as he walked through the door to the dimly-lit bar in the French Quarter and felt all eyes in the room turn to him. He was used to that. The men immediately puffed up their chests and many, gay or straight, even got hard-ons. The women, well, the women got hard nipples, their hearts started pounding, they licked their lips and swallowed, their clits s
tarted throbbing, their pussies got wet, some would start squirming in their chairs, some would even start rubbing themselves, and for some the need to come was so painful that they didn’t care that they were in public – he’d seen them dig small vibrators out of their purses, lift their skirts and take care of business, he’d seen them grab the stranger’s hand next to them and shove it in between their legs, he’d had them throw their arms around his neck and beg him as they rubbed themselves on his thigh – it wasn’t anything he did, wasn’t any vampire trick, it’s just how most humans reacted to him, they always had. He was sex on two legs and anybody near him could sense that. He almost felt bad about it, almost. His cock was already hard and straining against his leathers as he walked up to the bar and ordered a double shot of whiskey.
“You sure know how to make an impression when you enter a room, dontcha buddy?” the bartender said as he poured the drink.
Stryker set a few one hundred dollar bills on the bar and said, “It wasn’t intentional, do you have a back room I could use for a few hours?”
The bartender pocketed the bills, turned and grabbed a key off of a hook on the wall behind him as he said, “Why am I not surprised. The office, at the end of the hall, has a couch in it. Please use the cleaning wipes to sanitize it when you’re done.”
Stryker slid the key ring over his finger, downed his drink then turned in his seat and leaned his back against the bar as he surveyed the room.
Several women, wearing short skirts, were facing him, legs open, showing him exactly what he would be getting if he chose them. “Pick me?” a voice next to him said.
Without looking he said, “Are you here with someone?”
“Well, yes, my boyfriend, but I want you,” she moaned.
He finally turned and locked his eyes on hers, “No you don’t, you want your boyfriend more than you’ve ever wanted anyone in your entire life. You need to fuck him right now, go, take him, take him now.”
She took off running as Stryker went back to scanning the room. He spotted a shy brunette, nervously shaking her legs as she sipped her beer and tried to pretend that she wasn’t looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
