by Limelan Z
‘Did you fight with him?’ I asked as I tried to sketch out his background.
‘No. No, I was kept back with Patrick to fight domestic battles. Patrick is my brother,’ he added. I had noticed the similarity in features before. Patrick didn’t sound like a particularly Egyptian name but I didn’t want to send Wolfe on a tangent. I wanted to learn about him. ‘I did not come to this country until you.’
‘Me?’
‘The threat of your presence upset a great many. My alpha at the time chose a handful of us to attempt to take this territory under control.’
‘You were sent to kill me. I know that much already.’
‘Then you know it all.’
‘Not really,’ I protested. ‘Why did you go?’
‘Because I was commanded.’
‘That’s not a reason. You forget, I’ve met you – I doubt you could be commanded to do anything.’
A faint smile played on his lips. ‘I was young. One may be born with an ability to become alpha, but one must claim the title.’
‘And maintain it,’ I added.
‘Yes.’
‘Have you ever been challenged?’
He seemed amused by the question. ‘Oh, yes.’
‘A lot?’
‘At the beginning. Not so much anymore.’
‘When was your last challenge?’ I didn’t know why but I was interested.
‘Four years ago.’
I frowned. ‘I thought you said it didn’t happen so much anymore.’
‘It doesn’t. The time before that was when the Berlin wall came down.’
‘So, what happened?’
‘Four years ago?’ I gave a nod. ‘A wolf called Grigor Romanov challenged me. I fought him and won.’
‘What happened to him?’
‘I killed him.’ I blinked out of my story haze. I was sat with a murderer after all. ‘Ceri, a challenge for alpha is to the death. When you fought yesterday,’ he indicated my ankle, ‘your position in this pack was not under question. There was no reason for anyone to die. But if I am challenged, I must show I am strong enough to protect the pack or die trying.’ I opened my mouth to ask more questions but he got there first. ‘Enough with your interrogation. My turn.’ He leaned forwards resting his forearms onto his sheet-covered knees. ‘Why have you chosen research?’
It was such an odd question, I was momentarily jolted. He wanted to know about my job? ‘I like it.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know why. I suppose it’s interesting. I like learning.’
‘How long have you been in this field?’
‘Biochemistry or research?’
‘Both.’
I let out a long breath as I did the math. ‘Biochemistry nearly eleven years now. I’ll need to move on soon.’ Before they noticed that I don’t age. ‘But research in some capacity since the fifties.’
‘Why London?’ His next question was so quickly asked that I realised he must have had a list ready. Why had he waited until now to ask me?
‘I like London.’ He frowned a little so I continued. ‘When I woke up – after the Intervention, I think – I was alone and in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t know anyone. You must remember how suspicious villages were of outsiders back then. I couldn’t stay more than fifteen years in a place, maybe twenty if I was lazy, more realistically ten. And then I would have to start again.’
‘But not in London.’
I gave a nod. ‘London is, and always has been, the one place no one cares who you are. You can disappear.’ I sighed. ‘And it’s easier to get papers and passports and things done here than in a hamlet in the Cotswolds.’
Wolfe began to ask more questions but there was a knock. The doctor entered.
‘Cara will remove your cast,’ he said, standing.
‘Where are you going?’
‘To dress.’ He indicated a door on the other side of the room. I’d somehow forgotten he only had a thin sheet on. I indulged the need to let my eyes follow him as he disappeared inside, then turned my attention to the good doctor. The pirate mutineer. She looked up when the cast cracked and fell away.
‘How does it feel?’
I wiggled my ankle. ‘Good,’ I said. ‘Like normal.’
‘That’s good. James says you should be able to heal much quicker from now on.’
‘Is it supposed to hurt so much?’
‘Yes,’ she said simply. She started packing her things away. ‘But you’re like an alpha so I imagine it fades. Wolfe doesn’t feel anything when he’s injured.’
‘I doubt that.’ Alpha wasn’t a catch all for invincibility.
She shrugged. ‘Wolves sense emotion keenly. We cannot hide what we are feeling from each other. I have known Wolfe nearly three hundred years and seen him injured in different ways. He doesn’t feel pain like the rest of us.’
‘But he feels pleasure,’ I said before I could stop myself. I’d meant it more as a statement of general emotion – he wasn’t incapable of feeling human reactions to things. Obviously, she took what I said a different way and smiled. I was instantly flustered. ‘And other things, like fear.’
She lost her smile at that. ‘An alpha does not feel fear.’ She had said it with such certainty that I began to doubt myself. But I had felt his fear the day before. Had she not been able to tell? Vince hadn’t. Perhaps no one had. I decided to leave it.
When she left, I made my way over to the room Wolfe had disappeared into and knocked intent on asking.
‘Enter.’
It was a bedroom. His bedroom, given the way my senses were bombarded when I stepped through the door. It wasn’t what I had expected. For some reason, I had thought there would be a roaring log fire and animal skins all over the place. Instead, the room was simple, clean, masculine. Him.
He was buttoning his shirt. He glanced down at my ankle. ‘Any problems?’ I shook my head. ‘Good.’
I leaned against the door frame and watched him a while. He didn’t seem to mind the intimacy of the viewing and I rather enjoyed watching his fingers move across the fabric.
‘Do you feel pain?’
He looked up at me as he fixed his collar. ‘Would you like to hurt me?’ He indicated a large sword that hung on the wall at the head of the bed. ‘It is largely ornamental.’ He was in a playful mood. I could sense it. Unfortunately, he could likely sense what mood I was in and had been in for a while. I wanted him. And I was increasingly struggling to find a reason why I shouldn’t act on that want.
‘Cara said you don’t feel pain.’
He seemed amused by that. ‘I feel pain.’ He walked over to where I stood. ‘And pleasure. As you know.’ Of course, he had heard the conversation. I swallowed at the way he was watching me. Hungrily.
‘And fear.’ He cocked a brow. ‘You were afraid yesterday.’ I waited a moment for him to say something but he didn’t. ‘I sensed your fear just before the fight.’
He leant against the other side of the door frame. The air between us seemed to crackle. ‘Did you?’ His eyes began to examine mine.
‘Yes.’ Although I was beginning to doubt myself. ‘Were you? Afraid, I mean.’
He met my gaze. ‘Of course.’
‘Why?’
He was still a long time as though debating whether or not to tell me. I hadn’t known him long but I doubted he had regular heart-to-hearts with the other werewolves.
‘I was afraid that you might be hurt or that you would kill Victor.’
‘What would you have done?’
‘If something had happened to you?’ I nodded. ‘I don’t know.’ I doubted that. He had torn a vampire’s arms off simply for touching me, I doubted he would have sat back. But to challenge Victor himself would have meant a fight to the death.
‘And if Ariane had killed him?’
He blinked. ‘As alpha, I would have had to accept any challenges from his pack.’ And fight to the death.
For a brief moment, I wondered whether he had been af
raid because of the prospect of challenges rather than because he didn’t want me hurt. And then I remembered what Vince had said about what he had done when he had thought I’d died. He had killed anyone involved in what had happened, fought his own alpha and claimed the pack. And mourned for four hundred celibate years.
Suddenly I didn’t care so much about any of the unanswered questions I had about him. I just knew that I wanted him and that was enough.
I closed the distance between us and kissed him. I had to. I didn’t care about anything else. There was no pause, no hesitation on his part. He welcomed my lips as if he had been waiting four hundred years for me to do exactly that.
I ran my hands up his crisp white shirt as he gathered me closer. His taste, his scent, all drove me wild with want. I tugged him away from the doorframe and towards the bed. He didn’t complain.
He had far more restraint than I would have given him credit for as I pressed him into the sheets. He seemed to want me to take control. His corded muscles relished as I explored him. Which I did. Thoroughly.
When I nipped at his chest with my teeth, his hands fisted in my shirt and popped a button. The effect was clearly pleasing. Soon all my buttons were gone and I was on my back, his hot mouth working down my body.
A shrill chime sounded from the telephone by his bed. I barely had a chance to glare at it before Wolfe had reached over, lifted and hung up the receiver. His lips returned to my hips and my head rolled back into the sheets.
Was this what it meant to be mated? My body was so sensitive to his touch. I could feel the hot arousal thick from both of us in the air. It was a heady combination.
When the phone rang again, he pulled it clean from the wall. Didn’t they get that he didn’t want to be disturbed? He was busy. With me. And in that moment I really needed him.
There was knocking at the door.
‘No.’ His simple reply.
‘You have a visitor.’
‘Later.’
‘It’s Elvira. She says it’s urgent.’
The effect was like someone tipping a bucket of ice water over him. His usually controlled demeanour shattered. He swore under his breath. I raised my brow. He glanced at me and apologised. I sensed it was more about protecting my sensibilities than actually being sorry for it.
‘I guess this means you have to go,’ I said more than a little frustrated as he stayed hovered between my legs.
He gave a reluctant nod.
‘Will you be long?’ I wondered whether I could wait, whether I should wait.
‘You should come with me.’ He rolled off me and stood.
‘Now? Like this?’ I indicated where he’d popped my buttons from my top.
His eyes lingered. He wore a pained expression when he looked back up. ‘Wear one of my shirts.’ He passed me a fresh one from his wardrobe and averted his eyes as we both dressed. Then we stepped outside.
As we moved through the house, I found myself becoming increasingly self-conscious. I was being watched. Not just the odd glance or raised eyebrow at my wearing a shirt clearly not my size, but properly watched. They could tell what we had been doing and, if my senses were right, they weren’t disappointed – they were intrigued. I kept my head down and pretended not to see them.
Wolfe was less affected by their stares. He strode straight into a large office and came to a stop in front a large oak desk. I hurried into the room behind him and closed the door.
‘Elvira,’ he said impatiently by way of greeting. ‘Your emergency?’
I noticed then the small, old lady taking tea in one corner of the room. That was the world-famous, sex-stopping witch? She looked like Miss Marple. She was unfazed by Wolfe’s brusqueness.
‘Zosimos,’ she smiled warmly. ‘And Ariane,’ she added noting my presence. ‘I’m afraid I have bad news.’ She didn’t chew her words. ‘You are not mated.’
There were four of us in the room. Elvira, Wolfe, Patrick and me. No one spoke for a while. I knew it wasn’t my place but…
‘What do you mean? As in I’m not his mate anymore? Because we were apart too long?’
Elvira looked at me with patience as one would a small child. ‘No, my dear. As in you are not his mate. You never were.’
I looked at Wolfe. Both he and Patrick were eerily still. I couldn’t read them. At all. There was no emotion.
I turned back to Elvira. ‘How is that possible? Our wolves think we’re mated.’ I wasn’t sure Ariane recognised him as a mate, but she definitely felt something strong.
‘Magick. You were bewitched,’ she turned back to Wolfe, ‘to protect you both.’ I frowned and opened my mouth to speak but he got there first.
‘Who?’
‘Ostanes.’
I frowned. ‘Who?’
‘My alpha when I was sent to this country to fight you.’
‘Come, Zosimos,’ said Elivira, ‘she was more than your alpha.’ Jealousy pricked at my neck. Misplaced jealousy, if what she was saying was true.
‘How?’ Patrick stepped in.
‘Old magick.’
I looked at Wolfe. He was alert, watching, but still not speaking.
‘Surely someone would have picked this up before now,’ I said. Someone had to be the voice of reason…in this secret werewolf world. ‘Or it would’ve worn off. What about the whole Intervention thing? Surely everyone thought I was dead? And I thought the whole point of the mate bond is that nothing compares – surely we would be able to tell if it was fake.’
Although she listened to me, Elvira’s attention kept flitting back to Wolfe. Something best described as motherly concern drifted across her features.
‘You must have felt it, Zosimos. The bond between you and Ariane has weakened with Armande’s work. It’s not just the Intervention he is unravelling.’
‘That can’t be true. I’ve felt it,’ I protested. ‘Whatever is happening between us, it’s getting stronger.’ I turned to Wolfe for support but his eyes were fixed on Elvira’s.
Which meant it was true.
Which mean that whilst I felt like my body was yearning more and more for his, he was less and less interested.
Cold rejection hit me like a stone. I had hardly been invested in the idea of being his mate, but on the news that it was about to end… I was lost.
‘I can undo it,’ Elvira went on.
I stared at Wolfe. He was eerily still. And then he gave a nod.
Chapter 15
‘So, what’s going on?’ Vince asked as we sat down with our drinks. ‘We’ve barely had a chance to speak the past few days with Eric in the lab, and you’ve been out the door by 5pm.’
‘Do you know who Elvira is?’ He frowned at the name but gave a nod. ‘She came by just after my challenge. She said Wolfe and I aren’t mated.’ The words tumbled out fast. I hadn’t spoken to anyone about any of it. I hadn’t known what to say. But they needed to come out. I needed to speak to somebody who might know what it meant. ‘Wolfe left before we could talk.’
‘To the pack meeting?’
‘I don’t think it’s a real meeting. I think Trevelyan’s just telling people that. I don’t think anyone knows where he is. Except maybe his brother.’
I took a big glug from my glass.
After a long pause, Vince spoke.
‘Fuck.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Who else knows?’
‘No one. Just you.’
‘Fuck.’
‘Yeah.’ I stared at him. ‘So what does this mean?’
‘Which part? The fact that we you aren’t mated or the fact that our alpha’s gone AWOL?’
‘Both?’
He let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair. ‘I’ve never heard of either. How can you not be mated with Wolfe? He’s the only one who can soothe Ariane, he’s the only one who could scent you for ages.’
‘Apparently it’s a spell. Old magick.’
‘That made you think you were mated when you weren’t? Christ – that’s poss
ible?’ I rubbed my eyes. ‘But that makes no sense. Anyone who’s been in a room with you two for a minute can tell—’
‘I get it. The sexual tension is incredible,’ I reached again for my drink. ‘And the sex might have been too, had we been allowed to actually get to it. Anyway, Elvira said the stuff Armande is doing is undoing it and she’s going to do something too so eventually I’ll stop acting like I’m in heat when he’s about.’
‘Unless you turn out to be his actual mate.’
I frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘You’re unmated. He’s unmated. You may still be mated to each other. Just not yet.’ Unbelievable. I had enough to think about as it was. ‘And since you’re both unmated, you can have all the potentially incredible sex you like.’
I hit him in the arm.
‘In fact, you and I can have all the potentially incredible sex you like, too.’
I hit him again. Harder. And tried not to let my mind wander. It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about potentially incredible sex with Vince.
‘So, what do I do?’ I asked once I’d got it out of my system. ‘Pretend everything’s normal until Wolfe’s back? What if he doesn’t come back? Am I supposed to make some sort of announcement?’
He grinned. ‘Maybe hold off doing that just yet. For your own good.’
‘You think they’ll start trying to mate me? Well, Ariane.’
He laughed. ‘I meant more the carnage of a leadership bid. You’ve lived through some of the crazy politics of this country. Imagine that ten-fold and with fangs. That’s what will happen if it gets out that Wolfe’s gone.’
The back of my neck went cool. ‘You think they’d challenge me?’
He laughed. ‘No chance, but Ariane’s not alpha. And if the history books are right, she’s never tried to be.’
‘They fight it out themselves?’
‘They fight it out themselves.’ He gave a nod and started drumming against the table as some Hendrix song came on. He winked at me and I rolled my eyes. I liked Vince. I liked him a lot. There was something easy about him. Despite all the crazy, with the right tune, he could set the real world worries aside and live in the moment. Everything had become so serious for me recently. I needed to be more like him.
