by Juniper Hart
The things you work hardest for are the ones that reap the best reward, she thought. Is that true of what Hudson and I have, or will we just grow apart under these circumstances?
“If I turn you, Audrey, you can’t be turned back. You understand that, right?”
Audrey closed her eyes. “Why not?”
“Because you shouldn’t have been turned in the first place,” Lane reminded her, a note of irritation in her voice. “You’re lucky that you weren’t exterminated already.”
“So I keep hearing.”
“There is no going back on this,” Lane said again. “If I turn you and Gabriel gets caught tomorrow, it’s a done deal.”
“Gabriel is not getting caught any time soon,” Audrey grumbled. “He’s been harassing me for a very long time.” Lane’s eyebrows shot up.
“Is that a fact?” She glanced at Hudson, who shook his head.
“He’s untraceable.”
“Maybe,” Lane agreed, but she dismissed her digression and continued on the lecture she’d started. “Also, if you whisper a breath about the existence of the Enchanted, you will be terminated without trial.”
“I would never!” Audrey cried.
“And so will Hudson,” Lane said, as if Audrey hadn’t spoken. Audrey’s eyes almost bugged out of her head.
“I would never put Hudson in harm’s way,” she croaked. “But what do my actions have to do with him?”
“Everything,” Lane and Hudson chorused.
“That’s what it means to be mates,” Hudson offered softly. “We are intertwined, one soul. Your mortality doesn’t matter—our connection is deeper than that.”
Tears filled Audrey’s eyes, but they remained there, unshed. Her gaze locked with Hudson’s.
“I’ve caused you nothing but problems,” she whispered. “This is going to be the best thing for both of us.”
“If you think so, my love,” he said, the doubt still clear on his face. Audrey didn’t miss the nervous look he gave Lane.
“Hudson, you need to leave the room now,” Lane told him, but he didn’t move.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Hudson breathed. “You can reconsider. Or at least wait.”
“There is no waiting,” Lane said. “The Council won’t vote on this again, and I’m here now.”
Audrey lowered her eyes and stared at the ground, her stomach twisting in knots. This was what she had asked for. She’d sent Hudson to New York to meet with the Council and get this very result. So, what was holding her back?
“Well?” Lane didn’t hide the impatience in her voice. “Are we doing this or not?”
Audrey told herself everything would be okay, once more darting her tongue across her teeth. She didn’t feel the fangs this time, and suddenly, she was consumed by a sense of loss.
That’s ridiculous, she chided herself. You can’t miss something you never had. But she had Hudson, and she was throwing away a future with him. We’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t. There’s no middle ground here. I can have this lifetime with Hudson or an eternity alone, because we’ll never get through this being glued together.
“I don’t think she wants this,” Lane said flatly.
“I do,” Audrey protested. “I’m ready.” She couldn’t look at Hudson, even as he snaked his arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek.
“I’ll be here when you’re done,” he promised gruffly, his voice hoarse with emotion. Then he was gone, leaving the women alone in the cabin.
“This is going to take a while, Audrey, so I suggest you get comfortable,” Lane said, gesturing for her to lie down on the sofa.
“What’s a while?” Audrey asked, and Lane shot her a reproving look.
“As long as it takes,” came the flippant reply. Audrey pursed her lips together and lay back on the sofa. “Last chance to change your mind,” Lane told her with more gentleness than she’d used before. Audrey closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry.
“I’m ready,” she lied.
“No,” Lane said, sighing heavily. “I don’t think you are. But let’s do this anyway.”
16
Even Sandoval knew to shut his big trap while the pack waited outside. Hudson had told them all to go, but in an act of solidarity, they all remained, shifted into their wolf forms as a sign of respect. No one asked him what was happening inside, but the fact that Lane was alone with Audrey indicated to all of them that something big was occurring.
Only Hudson stayed in his mortal body, and while the pack prowled the woods for a hunt, he held a vigil outside of the cottage. He suspected that they would be waiting some time, but each minute felt like an hour, and as they dragged past, Hudson had to steel himself from bursting inside to stop the proceedings.
This is not your decision, he told himself over and over. This is not your choice to make. The mantra did nothing to help his cause, and an insurmountable sadness built inside him as he realized he was losing his mate, no matter what Lane claimed.
As if feeling his sorrow, the pack unleashed a low howl in unison, one which reverberated through the trees and met his ears to fill his heart with a bleakness Hudson had never known.
After several hours, the wolves emerged from the thick of trees to drop offerings at his feet: rabbits, mice, voles. But Hudson had no appetite. He let the pack indulge, and they hung by the door while he wandered off into the dark. The moon was almost full, casting an eerie glow on the woods around them. The iridescent beauty was lost on him. Oddly, he found himself hoping that the spell wouldn’t work and that Audrey would still be the same woman he’d known.
Will this change her? It was something neither of them had thought to ask.
His ears perked up as he heard a rustle in the brush beyond. He growled, baring his teeth, but it was only Tyler, whose face was flushed.
“They’re done, boss. Audrey is asking for you.”
Hudson fell forward onto all fours, Tyler in hot pursuit, and the two made it back to the cabin faster than seemed possible. Hudson burst through the front doors, earning a scowl from Lane.
“Easy,” she muttered, but his eyes were fixed on the resting figure of his lover on the couch.
“Hey,” Hudson said, dropping to his knees. “How are you feeling?” Audrey’s mouth was a firm line, but the quivering of her chin was undeniable. She wouldn’t look at him, as though she was embarrassed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry I had to do this.”
“Shh,” he hushed her, pressing the palm of his hand against her forehead. “You’ve done nothing wrong. You were only trying to protect yourself.” Because I failed. I failed miserably.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Lane said to no one in particular. Hudson didn’t acknowledge her as she left.
“I feel terrible,” Audrey moaned. “Why did I do this?”
“You’ll feel better soon,” Hudson assured her, although he had no idea if that was true or not. “You just need to rest.”
“How will Gabriel even know that I’m not a Lycan anymore?” she whispered. “What if he comes for me anyway?”
“Then he’ll realize he made a mistake,” he said. “He’s not coming for you, Audrey. The Council has put word out about what’s happened. He’ll hear soon enough.”
“But what if he doesn’t and he comes and he kills me when he realizes I’m of no use to him?”
“This is not an exercise in futility,” Hudson told her authoritatively. “You can’t think that way.”
Tears slipped down Audrey’s cheeks, slowly and silently until Hudson leaned down to kiss them away, one by one. As he moved along her cheeks, his mouth came to rest on hers. To his surprise, she responded eagerly and reached up to pull his head toward hers to mesh their lips together. The spark between them remained as strong and firm as ever, their tongues darting out to tease one another.
Audrey moaned, yanking on him so that the weight of his body fell onto hers, and Hudson could plainly s
ee that she needed the feel of his flesh against hers to make her feel alive again.
“You should rest,” he protested. His words lacked strength, and she ignored them, her teeth sinking into his lower lip sharply. “Ow!” he cried in surprise, but again, he was silenced. Audrey sat up, ripping off her shirt as she did.
She is still the same woman I fell in love with, Hudson thought, and yet there was something different, something subtle that he didn’t understand. Not that he was complaining.
The heat in his body rose to meet hers, but Audrey’s flesh seemed to be made of lava as their arms and legs entwined. He couldn’t say how he was suddenly naked, his abs pressed against the firmness of her breasts, their sweat comingling with their soft groans until the air was punctuated with a cry of pleasure as Hudson entered her.
Audrey’s legs wrapped around his waist, drawing him in deeper, harder and sweeter, to the point where it was impossible to tell where one of them started and the other one ended. Together, their lovemaking reached a fever pitch, fingers tightening, limbs clinging until they met in unison at an explosion that neither one had known before. Their bodies were molten, heated and alight with desire for one another, and then they were nothing but a spasming pile, gasping for breath, half off the sofa.
“There you are,” Hudson told her huskily, brushing the matted hair away from Audrey’s face. “Nothing has changed.” Audrey cocked her head to the side and stared at him with intelligent eyes.
“I don’t know if that’s true,” she murmured, slowly rising up against him. “I feel different.”
“Different how?”
“I-I don’t know,” she muttered. “I mean, I never knew when I was turned, but I can definitely feel a difference in me now.”
That’s because you’ve experienced power, and now you’ve given it up, Hudson thought grimly.
“You will feel better when you rest.”
“That’s the thing, though,” Audrey said. “I feel great.”
His brow creased. “I’ll take the credit for that,” he said lightly. “Because when I came in here, you weren’t feeling so great.”
It stabbed him in the gut to know that she was so happy to have regained her mortal status. Morbidly, he had hoped she would regret it, but the more he looked at her face, the more brightness he saw flowing through her eyes. Her complexion was radiant.
Something was wrong.
“Get dressed,” Hudson ordered her sharply, and she grinned at him slyly.
“Sure thing.” Audrey rose, naked, and sashayed around the room, picking up her items and lazily slipping them on as she moved. In seconds, Hudson had found his own clothes, and when he was sure that Audrey was decent, he pulled open the door to call for Lane.
“It’s about time,” the witch sighed. “I thought you were going to be at it all night.”
The pack tittered around her, and she winked mischievously.
“What did you do?” Hudson demanded. Lane blinked innocently.
“What do you mean?” she asked in a sugary voice that sent chills through him.
No. She’s not evil, Hudson thought. Raven would do something to sabotage Audrey, but not Lane. Would she? He had no real foundation for his belief. Lane was relatively new to the Council of Seven, after all. She was known for stretching the rules.
“Come inside,” he instructed, shutting out his pack, who watched with interest. Lane followed him back inside and perched on a wing chair.
“I would sit on the couch, but I don’t know what you two were doing.”
“Lane, what did you do to Audrey?” Hudson demanded again.
“I turned her. Isn’t that why I’m here?” He studied her face and saw no sign of guile. Still, he couldn’t help feeling that he was missing something.
“And that’s it?” he asked, shooting his mate a nervous look. Audrey seemed to be in a dream state, dancing around the room, trailing her fingers over the furniture like she was a teenager in love.
“How do you feel, Audrey?” Lane asked, ignoring Hudson.
“Amazing,” she answered, her voice deeper than he remembered. “Hot.”
“That’s to be expected,” Lane replied, turning her eyes back toward Hudson.
“Is it?” he demanded. “I thought you’d never done this.”
“Hudson, how old are you?” Lane questioned, quite out of the blue.
“What difference does that make?”
“You’re over a hundred, right? Over two hundred?”
“He’s two hundred fifty-six,” Audrey offered, flittering back toward him to fall gracefully into his lap.
“Tell me,” Lane said. “Have you ever known of a case where a Lycan was turned mortal? Or any of the Enchanted, for that matter?”
“No,” Hudson replied slowly. “But you said—”
“I said I would turn her,” Lane interjected. “You want Gabriel off your trails. You want to live your lives, and Audrey still wanted her immortality. I made that all happen.”
The dreamy smile faded off Audrey’s lips as Lane’s words filled her ears. “What?”
“Yes,” Lane chortled. “I found a solution to make everyone happy.”
“How?” the couple demanded in unison.
“Oh, Lane, what did you do?”
Lane grimaced. “I turned her… into a dragon.”
Audrey looked dazed.
“What?” she breathed. “A dragon?”
“Only a few witches can do it,” Lane told her. “But it ensures that Gabriel will leave you alone, and it ensures your immortality. It’s a win-win.”
Hudson and Audrey looked at each other in confusion, but as Lane’s solution sunk in, he knew that she had sincerely found the way out they had all been seeking.
“You were never going to turn her into a mortal?” Hudson choked.
“No, Hudson. There is no way, not without killing her. It just can’t be done.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that?!” Hudson exploded. “Instead of worrying me about the spell and…” He inhaled sharply.
“Meh, where’s the fun in that?” Lane chuckled. “The expression on your faces right now is priceless!”
Unexpectedly, Audrey burst into tears and threw her arms around Lane.
“You saved me!” she sobbed. “I woke up filled with regret, wishing I could take it back, but you knew I would!”
“No, Audrey,” Lane corrected her, untangling herself from Audrey’s embrace. “Hudson saved you. He was the one who went against everything he believed to see you happy. You’ve got a good man there, one who would do anything for you. I hope you don’t lose sight of that.”
The shame was apparent on Audrey’s face, and she turned to her lover, shaking her head.
“I’ve taken you for granted, but you’ve put your whole life on hold for me,” she murmured. “I’m sorry, Hudson.”
“There is no my life or your life,” he reminded her. “It’s only our life. We’re going at it together.”
“I’m a dragon,” Audrey whispered, her eyes huge. “What does that even mean?”
“I guess we’ll figure that out together,” Hudson laughed. “I guess it’s a good thing you never got too attached to being a Lycan.”
“I’m attached to a Lycan,” Audrey breathed, slipping up onto her tiptoes to brush her lips against Hudson’s.
“If you two are going to start with that again, I think I’ll wait outside,” Lane muttered, disappearing from the cabin. With a serious look in his eye, Hudson peered into Audrey’s face.
“Are you sure that you’re okay with all this?” he asked in a low voice, searching her face for any signs of regret. Audrey’s pupils dilated.
“Are you kidding me?” she demanded. “Of course I am. In the future, we’re running all major decisions through Lane.”
Relief filled Hudson, and he laughed.
“So, you’re happier being a dragon than a Lycan?” he asked with mock upset.
“Absolutely,” Audrey giggled. “I can
fly, right?”
“You can,” Hudson agreed, squeezing her to his chest. “But not as high as you make me feel.”
Epilogue
Alex tilted her head back up so that his loving gaze locked on hers.
“I’ve never loved anyone more than you, Stacey. From the first moment I saw you, standing in the sand, the waves crashing at your feet, wind blowing up your hair into a disarray of rogue waves…”
“Good lord, he’s a terrible actor,” Hudson whispered in Audrey’s ear, and she whacked him playfully.
“Shh!” They sat at the premiere of Greenfable Mountain, their mouths twitching as Alex fumbled through his lines. One person who was notably missing from the premier was Mike. He was still awaiting trial, but the evidence against him meant that he would most likely be spending the remainder of his days behind bars.
“I can’t believe they managed to finish this movie without reshooting anything,” Hudson muttered again, shaking his head in disbelief. Technology was a marvelous thing.
“Can you go three seconds without making a comment?” his lover demanded, casting him a reproving look.
“Sorry.” He couldn’t help it. As much as he loved Audrey and respected her craft, sitting through the movie was proving to be a bigger chore than he had expected. The scenes brought back painful memories of chasing Audrey through Germany, and even though she was actively watching herself on screen, he could plainly see that her mind was on what had happened with Mike.
But that was a big night for her, and despite the uneasiness that the film brought with it, Hudson couldn’t help feeling a rush of pride.
My mate, the movie star. How many alphas can claim that? Sure, it had been a rocky start, but after Lane had turned her, Audrey had become a different being in more ways than one. Gone were the insecurities, the thousands of questions which always seemed ready to spring from her lips. In their place was a grinning, happy woman without the neurosis that Gabriel had cast upon her without her even knowing.
Hudson slipped his hand into Audrey’s, and they entwined their fingers together. The fire of her skin warmed him to the core, and he focussed on nothing but that as they continued to watch the end of the movie. The lights came on, and the theater erupted into applause, the pretentious Hollywood types and critics calling out their approval as though they were watching a flamenco dancer. It was Hudson’s first premiere, and he secretly hoped his last, but he had a feeling this was just the tip of the iceberg.