Col: His Destined Mate

by Georgette St. Clair

  “That is surely not the organ you should be showing so readily.” Aylwyn japed.

  “I’ve got an organ I can—”

  Barric was mercifully interrupted by Tybalt. “Go to her, Col. From the time you were whelped, you have been shaped into being a fearsome fighter. And now you must fight for this. Fight for her.”

  Col looked up at the three Bredhren, all gazing upon him intently. They sensed the depth of his pain – and they set their differences aside. For him.

  At that moment he felt the solidarity that had been missing since his senses going haywire, when he had not yet realized that his Destine was entering into his life.

  He looked at Tybalt. “You are a good leader, my Vixar.”

  The handsomest one of them said in a grimly resigned voice “Aye. Being a leader is easy.”

  He looked all around the fire, at all the intent faces, and then straight back at Col.

  “Tis living with only memories of mine Destine that is unendurable.”

  “You’re not the one who’s supposed to be the fuckup! I am so beyond fucking disappointed!” Cadmus’s veins were popping on his forehead and neck. Infernal Gods help one, if the cowering girl in the passenger seat caused him to have an aneurysm or heart attack, he would reanimate from the dead just to shred her into a thousand pieces.

  Jordy was tearfully whining drivel about how she would do better, that she would do anything to make this up to him, blah blah blah. It was getting tiresome, and only angering him further.

  Billy Bob was in the backseat, sniggering, a front row seat to the fireworks show in front of him. Almost literal sparks, as Cadmus channeled all his aggravation into the air around Jordy and—

  She started screaming from the agonizing pain, and bucking against the strap of the seatbelt that held her in place. Cadmus smiled, all the anger draining from his body. It was only something he could do with one as malleable as she was, who had given him access to her mind by virtue of being his acolyte. It sure was coming in handy now. Using the merest of effort, he squeezed a little harder. With everyone the effect was different — scratch that, it was whatever would cause them the most pain, enough to get their own hearts beating so hard that if Cadmus were to push it just a little further, the organ would literally explode. And then the pain would be over for them. Forever.

  Cadmus would be calmed, his own heart at a nice, relaxed rhythm. Win-win, cardiovascular magicks for everyone!

  He paused just for a second, and then squeezed a last time for emphasis. Her agony-fueled scream curled through the interior of his rental, and even Billy Bob clapped his hands over his ears. Jordy was now a blubbering mess of snot, tears, and drool, slumped over and kept upright solely by her seatbelt. Cadmus grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head, and yanked it up, to look at the trailer he had so eagerly driven to.

  The trailer where that female who would lead him to his prize was supposed to be found.

  But the trailer had been emptied. Cleared out. No signs of anyone having been there. The walls had been freshly painted white.

  Jordy had been stammering, “I don’t understand. This is the address on file.”

  Billy Bob had started sniggering then, and it only got worse as Cadmus bit out, “Get back into the car. All of you. Now.”

  Because even Cadmus knew that he had to wait until he was safely in the confines in the car, to let loose the rage that was roiling inside.

  “Look at it. And never forget what will happen if you fuck up again,” he hissed. “Nod if you understand.”

  The girl bonelessly lifted her chin and let it drop against her collarbone, as if that effort took everything she had. It probably did.

  Billy Bob kept sniggering in the back seat. Cadmus leaned back against the cushioned headrest of his seat. He was surrounded by incompetents and imbeciles. What was that expression that Micah’s generation used these days?

  Fuck my life.

  The twins were finally asleep. Lily quietly closed the book of fairy tales she had been reading from, and rested it on her lap. She had changed into one of the new outfits she had found in her room, this time a simple floral dress that fit her perfectly. Lily watched them, Brady first, then Clover, taking in the calm of their even breathing, the sweetness of two innocent children at rest. If only life could always be that easy.

  It had been torture to be near Col, knowing that he didn’t really want to be with her for any reason other than a sense of responsibility. She couldn’t bear to look at him, or let him touch her, it would be agony wanting him as much as she did. Rosa’s condition was slowly improving. As soon as she was better, she would be reunited with her kids in the Faire housing that Rika had arranged.

  She had heard that a service had been hired to pack up the trailer, and move all the contents —cleaned or in some cases replaced — into the new residence. All the toys, books and games purchased for the kids would be moved there as well, from Simon’s house. When Lily had some time, she would ask if she could go to the new residence and retrieve Mr. Calabash, and whatever else she might have left in the trailer that night.

  If whoever had trashed the trailer had been after Rosa, she and the kids would now be safe living at the Faire, with both Simon and Rika looking out for them. And if that person had been Rey…Lily would be gone soon. As soon as the kids were reunited with their mom, she would move back to her room at the Faire. And once her car was repaired, she’d be outty. Gonzo. Seeya.

  She just had to make it through until then.

  Lily moved the book onto the nightstand, careful not to make a sound as she switched off the lamp. She got up and walked to the door. And furrowed her brows. The light underneath the door wasn’t steady, as if there was maybe something out there.

  She didn’t hear anything. She shook her head. Silly Lily. Next she was going to feel herself being watched again. She forced herself to grab the knob, and turned it with a trembling hand. She stood there for a long moment before she finally forced herself to yank it open. Just open the door, already—

  There was a huge wolf in the hall, the size of a pony, looking at her. It didn’t have curly black fur, or dark brown and white markings.

  It had thick, auburn fur, and golden, almost hazel eyes. She knew him, even without his telling her.

  “Col,” she whispered. The animal took a step forward, and with its muzzle nudged at her. Herding her. She reached her hand out, and stroked its head at first tentatively, and the memory of Col’s hair under her palms, her fingertips when he had entered into her, given her sweet release, swept through her.

  The animal tilted its massive head, as if it scented something…and found it pleasing. It pushed at her more urgently, and she laughed, a soft tinkling sound.

  “I get the hint,” she said, in a whisper and a smile. Because really, if a giant wolf wanted you to go somewhere, you went.

  And so together they went out into the moonlight, Lily feeling unexpectedly happier than she had only minutes earlier.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Lily allowed the massive wolf to guide her towards the hollow where they had been together the night before, the dip in the grass covered earth a sign of the hours they had spent reveling in each other’s bodies. As if by mutual agreement, they stopped by a nearby log, that had fallen so as to form a natural resting spot. Lily sat on it, and the animal gently pressed its muzzle once against her cheek, before moving back a few paces. It tilted its great auburn head at Lily, and then there was a small blast of something invisible, something that Lily had never felt before, that softly rocked her in her seat.

  She opened her mouth to exclaim in surprise, but a shadow fell over her face. She was stunned again as Col stood in front of where she was seated, his human form towering over her.

  And the thought flashed through her mind, as it had earlier when she was looking at the toddler, our children will be like this. But the immediacy of his presence, the intensity of his look pushed aside all suppositions of the future. All that mat
tered in this moment was the here and now, the nearness of this man who stood before her.

  He was wearing the heather grey t-shirt, fatigues and boots from earlier, when she had studiously avoided looking at him. And now she couldn’t stop. The fabric stretched across his board, muscular chest, the short sleeves revealing the massive biceps of his corded arms.

  And his beautiful hazel eyes. That look they held couldn’t be from duty. Because if he could turn that on and off at will, he had missed his calling as an Oscar winning, Tony award-getting, Emmy-sweeping actor. Actually with his voice, he’d have a Grammy to brag about too.

  Maybe she was a little bit biased. But she was definitely mesmerized. And aroused.

  And then he knelt.

  Down on his knees, so that he was close to eye level with her. He reached out, and took her hands into his own, and keeping his eyes on her, he kissed them, one at a time, brushing his lips over her knuckles.

  She sighed softly, breathing in the nighttime air, the foliage surrounding them, his masculine scent that liquefied her insides, made her ache for more contact.

  “Tell me,” his voice was low and deep. “Tell me what thoughts plague you. What has come between us.” He bent his head to kiss her hands again, and looked up at her. She groaned, and pulled him towards her, so that his head was in her lap. He wrapped his arms around her bare legs, and she stroked his hair, the hair that was the same color as the fur of his wolf.

  “I just need to know.” She choked on the words, afraid of the answer. “You act so strange around me. Sometimes you make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, and other times you’re a million miles away. Are you…is what’s happening between us, is that all because you feel a duty to find your Destine?”

  He jerked his head up, his eyes wide with surprise. His arms tightened around her legs, and the contact of his skin against hers was exquisite.

  And then he laughed. It was a low laugh, but a laugh all the same. What the hell was so funny? She felt the ire rise, but then he bent his head to kiss her knees.

  “No, my Lily,” he said, his voice reverberating against her legs. “Forgive me, if I have not made my feelings clear. I have been struggling — mightily and pointlessly — against joining with you, against bonding with you, because of my own misbelief.”

  What? Lily’s jaw dropped open.

  Col continued, in that warm, deep voice.

  “My foolish misperception the way you make me feel…”

  He dropped a kiss on her knee.” —the manner in which you make my senses come alive…” And then the other knee. “—the manner in which you affect me…’

  She closed her eyes, and felt the little flicker of his tongue on the underside of her knee, right where the skin was thin and sensitive. “—all of you is at odds with mine duty to the pack.”

  For the second time, What? Her eyes blinked open, meeting the piercing intensity of hazel. Did she hear right? She was a bit distracted, after all.

  “What I feel for you, fair Lily, is not duty, although I know not how else to characterize the sheer force of it, for it far outpaces that of anything else I have ever felt in my life.”

  His eyes moved to her bottom lip, “The yearning I have for but a single kiss from your lips, to be graced with a single smile, to be favored with your touch -- that yearning burns higher than any fervor I have ever had for battle.”

  She could feel the potency of his fierce longing permeating through his body, like the thrumming of a powerful motor. It was familiar, for it matched her own.

  With an inchoate cry, she launched herself at him, and they fell back together, he easily cushioning her on the grass, capturing her lips as at last they kissed, hungrily, grabbing at one another.

  She felt his thickness against her, and she pressed her hand on it, wrapping her fingers around the hard ridges through the fabric. He groaned, and together they made light work of the barriers in the way of their skin meeting, in between hot kisses that scorched the ground beneath.

  Col’s large hands swept over her naked body, before finding the damp heat at her core. His mouth closed over one rosy peak, as she writhed with the laving of his tongue, the suckles that pulled at the stiffened tip.

  She parted her legs, giving his fingers access to her depths, as his thumb swirled over her sex. His mouth moved to her other breast, latching on as his hand continued stroking her, over and over until she shattered against him, crying out his name.

  When the last tremor had been wrung from her body, he kissed her deeply, careful not to let too much of his weight on her. She ran her hand over the contours of his back, his muscles rippling under her fingertips. His tongue swept against hers, and her body arched towards his, wanting more of him. His hands slid over her sides, and with a sudden move, he had flipped her so she was on top of him, her breasts flattened against his powerful chest.

  She felt the blunt tip of his thickness against her belly, and she slid herself against it, eliciting a deep moan that throbbed through his muscled body.

  “My Lily,” he breathed, and she thrilled to the sound of her name, the power that she felt pressed to the very core of her. He moved his hands, so that each held one of her breasts, and slowly skimmed his thumb across each pebbled tip. She rolled her hips, hearing his breath hitch with each pass on his thickness. She raised her body, so that she could be directly above him, and together they positioned his arousal.

  His hands gripped her hips, and with a loud exhalation he pulled her down onto him, so that he filled her completely. His powerful arms lifted her, and together they found a rhythm as the sweeping tides of the ocean. Over and over the waves came, until she screamed his name out anew with her release. Her pleasure ignited his own, and her cries were joined by his. Into the night air, he shouted out syllables possibly not heard in centuries: Acchushla!

  They rode the ocean together, until the tremors subsided and they lay, her body nestled against his under the moonlight.

  Beloved. He had called her beloved in the ancient tribal tongue of his people. It was a word he had rarely heard uttered, let alone believe that he would use it himself. And yet in the midst of his release, when he had felt his body barely able to house the ecstasy he had felt, the word had emerged for the woman who had elicited it. His Lily. It felt completely right.

  She lay nestled within the crook of his arm and chest, her perfect breasts gleaming in the moonlight, which shone over the contours of her beautiful body. Her fingertips were sliding along his arm, and just that contact alone was enough to cause him to stir once more.

  But he was eager to prove to her that what he felt was real, that it was not duty as she had supposed. That what he felt now was larger than anything he had ever felt before.

  He took her hand, and raised it to his lips for a tender kiss. She shifted in his embrace, with a soft sigh. “My Lily. Whatsoever you wouldst ask of me, I will do with all mine ability. What might I do to bring you happiness?”

  She shifted again, this time so she could face him. There was a smile on her lips, and he resisted the urge to take them again, at least not until she had given him an answer. He wanted nothing more than to dedicate his life to pleasing her, making her proud.

  And so he was surprised at her request.

  “Col, I would like an actual date with you.” Her voice was husky. “A dinner that we have together alone, without the kids.”

  They both smiled at the memory of that first dinner in a restaurant, with both Clover and Brady.

  “Can we do that?”

  He kissed the tips of her fingers. “As you wish, so shall it be.” The words came out, ere he realized that they were the traditional phrase for yielding to the Vixar’s commands. Here, he was merely surrendering to the inevitable.

  “We shall do so, the following eve.” Col said, and slid his tongue along the underside of her wrist, feeling her shiver.

  “I’ll ask—ahhh—Miller to pick up—ahhh—” His Lily was beginning to writhe and moan as h
e graduated to suckling one of her breasts again. “—the twins. Ahhh—I’ll make it work.”

  The last was said in a rush of syllables as his Lily gave herself over to the pleasure he was intent on giving her. Over and over until the sun came up.

  And beyond, if she wouldst but allow it.

  Col’s auburn hair was brushing against her chin, as he was bent over lapping at her breast. Lily was enraptured with what had happened, the clearing up of a misunderstanding that had caused her so much unnecessary anguish. Agonized both of them, apparently. And now, his easy agreement to talking more, so that such an event would be less likely to happen again.

  This was real. This was big.

  Dinner, the next night, for just the two of them. She would come clean about everything, about Rey, her real identity, and together they would work something out. Because this was worth working out, and for the first time, she trusted that perhaps they could have a future together. A future perhaps, filled with auburn haired little boys and girls who could turn into huge wolves.

  And then his head moved down, his tongue burning a path towards her delta. After that, Lily was solely focused on the here and now.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Jordy was officially having the shittiest day ever. And she was going to blame it all on Katie Cooper, because why not? Dumb, shady beeyatch wasn’t where she was supposed to be last night, and Jordy’s body was still having the trembles from whatever Cadmus had done to her. It had hurt so badly that Jordy still flinched at the thought of it, even though there were no visible signs of it on her.

  And to top it all off, Puma was hauling her in to find out what had happened with the video footage. Gabe had looked positively gleeful relaying that message to her, when she first checked back into the Faire at the beginning of her shift. It wasn’t a good look for the normally placid Ops guy.

  Yet she had an even bigger worry about Puma’s message. It meant somehow, that what she had done with the footage had been discovered. But how?