by R. E. Butler
“Hindsight’s funny like that.”
“I’m thankful Gemma came to help you.”
“Did you know Veltris’s guys were the ones who took me?”
“I was ninety-nine percent sure, but I couldn’t find your scent. I was afraid to lose time tracking down Veltris if he hadn’t actually taken you. Mytan was able to pick up your scent.”
“Are Jet and Creek okay?”
“Magnus and River took them home. They were still unconscious when we found them. Mytan woke first. They were breathing and unharmed, so I’m sure they’ve roused out of it by now. Whatever that drug was, it was powerfully effective.”
She hummed but didn’t say anything more.
Wrath could tell she was exhausted, so he carried her the rest of the way to their territory. Magnus met them at the entrance to the tunnels.
“I can heal her, but it would probably be helpful for her general feeling of well-being if you’d take her for a dip in the pool,” Magnus said.
Wrath nodded, stepping inside and directing Magnus to gather towels and clean clothes. He followed them to the bathing pool but didn’t enter the cavern.
“We didn’t lose anyone?” Magnus asked.
Wrath carefully set Trinity on her feet. She winced and let out a shaky breath, then straightened. “No, thank goodness. I’ll tell you and the others about it after we get Trinity healed and settled.”
“Of course.”
“Speaking of the others, Creek and Jet are awake and well, I trust?”
“Yes. As soon as they were awake, they wanted to join you, but I wouldn’t let them.”
Wrath smiled. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be waiting in your chamber,” Magnus said. “I’m glad you’re both okay.”
Wrath nodded. The healer left, and Wrath looked down at Trinity. Her sapphire eyes were brimming with tears that spilled over her cheeks. He wiped them away and gave her a gentle kiss. “You’re safe now.”
“I know.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “I was trying not to cry in front of everyone.”
“Why would you do that?”
“You told me once in our dreams that crying was a sign of weakness. I don’t want our pack to think of me as weak.”
He inwardly cursed his callous words. “That’s the alpha in me talking, sweetheart. Or, rather, the before-you-came-here alpha talking.” He smiled at her, and she sniffled and gave him a half-smile. “I don’t think crying makes you weak, and the pack won’t think so either. You just went through a major trauma. You were running on adrenaline before, and now your brain has a chance to think about what nearly happened. That would shake up anyone.”
Tears again spilled over her cheeks. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“Sweetheart, I will always come for you.”
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning, Trinity woke rested and feeling like herself again. She rolled to her side and smiled at Wrath. He was awake with his head propped on his upturned hand, studying her.
She gave him a kiss. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” he said. “How do you feel?”
“Fantastic, actually.” The night before, after she’d had a long soak in the hot pool, she’d experienced Magnus’s healing powers first-hand. His hands glowing a soft golden color, he’d laid them on her, and her skin had prickled pleasantly and warmed. She’d watched her wounds heal before her eyes; it had been incredible to witness. “How does Magnus’s power work?”
“It’s akin to magic. It’s hereditary from the father’s side, and only males have the power. He’s got an abundance of healing power within him, and when he lays his hands on someone, he pushes the power into them, and it causes wounds to heal. He can heal most things.”
“It’s incredible. There’s a limit to the power, though?”
Wrath nodded. “Each time he heals, he has to rest because the strain of healing drains his energy.”
“I’ll be sure to say thank you.”
“Of course. I already thanked him, but he considers it an honor and duty.”
She snuggled into him and smiled when he held her close. She could hear his wolf practically purring. “When do we need to be at Isolde’s?”
“Soon.”
Tilting her face to his, she kissed him then sat up with a groan. She would’ve rather spent the day in bed with him to make up for lost time from her captivity, but she knew meeting with Veltris and his pack at Isolde’s was important.
Mytan lifted his head from his pile of blankets. He yawned with a whine then rose to his paws and shook out his fur. He bounded across the room and leaped onto the bed, making Trinity bounce a little when his full weight hit the mattress. He snuffled all over her with a curious whine and then licked her cheek. Jumping from the bed, he stretched and whipped his tail back and forth, watching her and Wrath.
“I think he’s ready for breakfast,” she said with a smile.
“I am, too,” Wrath said.
They dressed and followed the smell of cooking meat to the surface, where Creek, Jet, and River were tending to cast iron pans in the red-hot coals of a fire.
“Creek!” Trinity ran to him and hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
He hugged her back. “I’m great. You?”
She nodded. “I’m perfect and glad to be back with the pack.”
She hugged Jet, who assured her he was well, too.
She gave them both a serious look. “I’m so sorry you were hurt because of me.”
Jet shook his head. “I’m sorry I failed to keep you and Creek safe. I was there as a guard; it was my one job.”
Wrath joined them and put his hand on Jet’s shoulder. “You didn’t fail, you were ambushed. The important thing is that you and Creek are healed and safe, and our alpha female is back with her pack where she belongs.”
She smiled at her mate. “I hate that we were all hurt by what the other pack did, but I’m also thankful. There’s a silver lining here, and it’s peace between our people.”
“It would be nice if we could’ve had peace without being drugged,” Jet said.
“True,” she said. “But I’ll take peace however it comes.”
The pack gathered on the ground and ate breakfast that consisted of venison sausage and scrambled bird eggs. While they didn’t have coffee, which she’d always enjoyed in the morning, they did have tea, and she sipped on an orange pekoe tea with honey while the pack got ready to go to Isolde’s.
She leaned against Mytan, who was happily lapping at the bowl of beef and gravy that Creek had cooked for him. By the time he’d licked the bowl clean and she’d finished her tea, they were ready to go to Isolde’s. Trinity wished she could call ahead to let her know they were coming so they didn’t catch her at a bad time. It would’ve been handy to have a telephone or computer, but considering those things didn’t exist in this world, there was nothing she could do to let the witch know in advance they were coming.
The pack was quiet as they walked, and Trinity could feel their tension because of her connection to them through Wrath. They weren’t used to people wanting to be their allies, particularly purebreds. They were suspicious and wary, and she understood. But she also knew that Veltris was a man of his word, and if he said he’d be willing to ally his pack to theirs, then he meant it. He was an honorable male, and honor was important to him. There was no way he’d betray them if he promised to help them.
She’d realized Veltris and Wrath were a lot alike. Even though Wrath had gone after any and all who could benefit him in his quest to increase his power and territory, at the core of his being, he was a good male, honorable and honest.
There was a benefit to both sides being allies, and she just hoped that all Veltris’s people would see that.
When Isolde’s house came into view, Trinity smiled when she saw her carefully plucking purple blooms from a fluffy looking bush.
“Hi Isolde,” she said.
Isolde straightened with a broad smil
e and opened the protective wall around her yard so Trinity could enter.
As the two embraced, Trinity said, “I hope we’re not coming at a bad time.”
“Not at all, I was expecting you.”
“You were? How?”
“I had a dream that you were coming today, bearing important news. I prepared a surprise for you.”
“It’s not just us coming here today,” Trinity said, explaining that Veltris’s pack was on the way as well.
“Oh, I know,” Isolde said. “I saw it all in the dream. I’ve got a table set up in the backyard.”
They walked around the cottage to the back where a large table sat underneath a weeping willow, its branches hanging down like a curtain and shielding the table from the morning sun. “Wrath, you and Trinity can sit at this end of the table, and Veltris and his mate will sit at the other end. There aren’t enough chairs for everyone, so arrange your people down the right side however you’d like, and Veltris can take the left side.”
By the time Wrath had set seven of his males in chairs at the table, with the others standing behind them, Veltris, Gemma, and a dozen of his pack members had arrived. Once they were all seated, Isolde introduced herself officially to the alpha pair. While they knew who she was, they’d never met.
“Now,” Isolde said, “I understand that you’d like me to tell you about Trinity and Wrath, the shared dreams, and how she came to be in this world.”
Veltris nodded sharply. “Yes. An alliance rests on what you say, so choose your words carefully.”
Trinity didn’t particularly care for the subtle threat in his words, but Isolde dismissed him with a wave and said, “I’ll do more than tell you. I’ll show you.”
She lifted the lid of a wooden chest in the center of the table and pulled out four books. Trinity immediately recognized them as hard copies of Veltris and Gemma’s book from her series. Isolde handed one to Wrath, one to Veltris, one to Cael, and one to Ren.
“This couple looks like us,” Gemma said, her voice tinged with awe. She glanced across the table to Trinity.
Trinity nodded. She’d been amazed when she saw how close they looked to the models she’d picked for the cover image. Gemma read the book description from the back cover out loud.
“Alpha Veltris finds love in the arms of his human true mate, Gemma. But Gemma’s family isn’t happy she’s chosen a purebred wolf shifter and attempt to turn her away from him. When she refuses, she’s cast out of her family and threatened. The humans aren’t the only ones watching Veltris and his mate, however. The Blood Wolf alpha, Wrath, has a plan to ensure the purebreds leave their territory so he can claim it for his own pack. Even if it means taking an innocent female hostage to force her true mate’s hand. Will Wrath succeed, or will Veltris get to Gemma in time to save her life?”
Trinity’s cheeks flamed as she sat uncomfortably next to Wrath while he looked over the book that she’d written based on the dreams they’d shared.
“Where did this come from?” Gemma asked.
“From Trinity’s world,” Isolde said. “I’m able to access the portal I created to bring her here, and I went into her world and brought back some books for you. I’ll also show you the portal so you can see into her world. This book is proof that what she says about her dreams, about her life before she came here, is true. She and Wrath were destined for each other, but for some reason they were born in different worlds. Their dreams kept them connected, but it also drove Wrath insane. It made his blood lust worse because he felt drawn to Trinity but didn’t know where she was or if she was even real.”
Veltris dropped the book to the table with a frown. “Are you suggesting he’s not responsible for his actions?”
Wrath snarled. “She said nothing of the sort. And I take full responsibility for what I did and allowed others to do on my behalf. I might have been going crazy because of the blood lust and missing Trinity, but I knew right from wrong and still chose to go down the dark path.”
Ren snorted. “You expect us to believe that you’re different now?”
Wrath made the motion to stand, but Veltris beat him to it, rising to his feet and backhanding his second-in-command. “I don’t give a fuck what you believe, but you’ll keep your damn opinions to yourself unless I ask for them. I’m the law. I say whether we trust Wrath and the Blood Wolves or not.”
Gemma’s eyebrows rose, and Trinity met her gaze across the table. The two smiled at each other, and Trinity felt like everything was going to be okay.
Two of the wolves helped Ren up and he grudgingly apologized to Wrath and his alpha.
“Now,” Veltris said. “I told you that I’d consider an alliance if Isolde would corroborate your stories, and I will. So let’s see this portal, witch, and this other world.”
Isolde nodded and led them away from her home and deep into her backyard, into a thick growth of eight-foot-tall trees that reminded Trinity of red maples. Isolde stopped in front of a small garden that had a short white picket fence surrounding it. The garden itself had a bed of sand with cactus and tropical plants in square sections bordered by colorful rocks. A narrow aisle ran between two of the rows.
Isolde stepped over the fence and moved to the opposite side next to a tall queen palm in a painted clay pot. She spoke softly and rapidly in a strange language, and the air in front of her began to shimmer and fog. The air darkened and a pinpoint of light appeared in the center of the darkness, lengthening and widening until it was large enough for a person to walk through.
The area fogged again and then cleared suddenly, and Trinity gasped.
“What is it?” Wrath asked, putting his arm protectively in front of her.
“It’s outside the hotel where she and I met. Oh my gosh. Can they see us, Isolde?”
Isolde stepped aside so everyone could have a clear look. “No. Like in this world, the portal is only accessible by me, so it’s not visible to anyone on the other side.”
Trinity’s eyes stung as she looked out the portal into the busy street. People on cell phones were on the sidewalk. The only green things were the potted plants in front of the hotel lobby doors.
“What the hell is this place?” Veltris asked.
“It’s Trinity’s world,” Isolde said. She pointed as she spoke. “Those are vehicles. Humans use them to get to places. And the things the humans are talking into are called cell phones. They let them speak to people they can’t see.”
Gemma moved to cross over the fence, but Veltris grabbed her arm. “It might not be safe.”
“It is, I promise,” Isolde said.
Trinity and Wrath moved forward with the alpha pair, careful not to step on Isolde’s plants. Trinity inhaled, picking up the scents of the city. “Wow, I never thought I’d see this place again. Where did you get my books?”
“The hotel has a gift shop and they were selling copies of the authors who were at the conference. I picked up a few of yours.”
Gemma looked at Trinity. “Do I want to read that book?”
She shrugged. “I might have embellished some things I saw in the dreams, but it’s your story.”
“And the sex is pretty damn good,” Isolde said with a chuckle.
“What?” Veltris demanded. “You saw us having sex?”
Trinity put her hands up. “Whoa, whoa. No, I didn’t see anything intimate like you two making love. But my books have love scenes in them, so I had to use my imagination.”
“Good,” Gemma said. “That would be weird.”
Trinity thought that wasn’t the weirdest thing, but she didn’t feel it was necessary to point out that they were standing in front of a portal between two worlds.
Wrath looked down at Trinity. “Do you miss it?”
“Some things, but I’d rather be missing my car and phone and have you, and that’s the honest truth.”
Trinity watched the trio stare into her world, amused by their curious and wary expressions. If Isolde had opened a portal for Trinity when she’d first
woken up in Wrath’s arms, she would have stormed right through it. But now that she had Wrath in her life and knew it was where she belonged, her old world didn’t do anything for her.
The trio had asked Trinity questions about her world, and she answered them as candidly as she could. They turned from the portal, and Isolde closed it.
“You could close it permanently,” Trinity said. “I don’t want to go back.”
“I thought you might not. It stays open for seven days because the spell has to run its course. But I’ll close it on the seventh day. Before you leave, I have something for you.”
Trinity nodded. The group returned to the table under the tree.
“Do you believe me now?” Trinity asked, looking pointedly at Veltris.
He nodded. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” He tapped the book and said, “If I’d had dreams about Gemma but didn’t know where to find her, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have gone crazy myself. It doesn’t excuse what you did, but it does shed light on it, and for that I’m willing to forgive and forget.”
“Thank you,” Wrath said. “And the alliance?”
“I’m game,” Veltris said. “I’ll send word to the other alphas that the situation has changed, that you’re no longer a threat to us and are instead an ally. Any who come against you will come against us.”
“The same applies to you as well,” Wrath said. “If we can be of assistance, we will.”
“Is it true that you’re building?” Veltris asked.
“Yes, Trinity’s not keen on living underground forever. It’s about time we came out of the darkness.”
Veltris rose to his feet. “Let’s make this official.”
Wrath met him at the side of the table, and the two gripped forearms.
“I vow that as long as I’m alpha, my pack and yours are no longer enemies but are now allies. Whoever comes against you, comes against me.”
Wrath repeated Veltris’s words. The two lifted their heads and howled together, the sound echoing around the trees. The packs both joined in. Trinity and Gemma met and hugged.
“When are you mating officially?” Gemma asked.
