“Should’ve known you’d find me quickly, Alpha,” Krane said with a smirk as his eyes met Trick’s. “Your watchers have always been impressive.” He looked into the trees as though suggesting we were surrounded by eyes. From my experience with the ravens in New York, he was probably right.
“They told me they’d seen you around here a few days back,” Trick replied. “I figured this place was your temporary hideout.”
“Nothing temporary about it. I’ve been coming here for years now, when I want to get a look at the old country. No one expects to find a filthy-rich dragon shifter traitor hanging around abandoned shacks in the fucking Louisiana bayou.”
Once again, Krane pulled his eyes in my direction, his nostrils flaring as he took in the sight and scent of me. I crossed my arms tight over my chest, trying to resist his strange allure. The last thing I wanted right now was to fight off the awful charms of a man I’d hated until a few minutes ago.
“Where’s Tristan?” I asked curtly. I knew my first move should have been to thank Krane for what he’d done back on Demarche’s property. He’d saved my lover—my husband. He’d saved me from a torment that would have destroyed me.
But thanks could wait.
I needed to see the man I loved.
Krane thrust his chin towards the shed. “He’s in there,” he said. “Pissed off as hell at me for saving his life, the ungrateful fucker.”
I shouldered my way past him, not much caring if his brother had made him feel bad, after everything he’d done. There was no doubt in my mind that Krane was the reason the Seven had known we were getting married by the Magic Lake. He’d told Elodie about the wedding, then felt some kind of remorse and tried to warn us. In the process, though, he’d nearly gotten Tristan killed.
I dashed over to the door and slipped inside the metal structure. It was dark, except for a small gas lantern in the far corner that illuminated Tristan’s angry features as he sat rigid on the edge of an old, ratty-looking double mattress. But when he saw me, he rose to his feet, strode over on those long, muscular legs of his and collided with me, his arms wrapping so tight around my body that I could hardly breathe.
“Why did you do it?” I asked, weakened by a sense of asphyxiating joy and sadness. “Why did you leave me like that?”
When he’d loosened his grip without answering the question, I pulled back and slapped my hand hard across his face. He backed away, rubbing the red mark where I’d made contact with his skin. “Lover…” he began.
“You left me!” I shouted. “You left me with nothing more than a note! How could you do that to me, after everything we’ve been through?”
I leapt at him, my fists beating his chest as hard as they could, but he grabbed my wrists and pulled me tight to him again, a hand wrapped around my head as he kissed my hair over and over again.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered against me. “I’m so sorry. I did it because I love you. I told you I’d die for you, Ariana. I meant it. There was no way I could let them take you from me. There was no way I could let you take the punishment I alone deserved.”
“I didn’t want you to die,” I sobbed. “I never want you to die. There are too many people—shifters—Valkyries—who count on you, Tristan! You should have offered them my life for yours. You should have…”
“I could never do that, and you know it, my love.”
“But you lied to me. You said Elodie told you to make a choice—”
“There was a choice. It just wasn’t the one I told you about.”
I finally let the tension leave my body. I was too tired, too happy, to hold onto my anger. I had him with me again, and that was the only thing that really mattered.
“I was destroyed,” I said. “I wanted to run to you when I saw you there with her. I wanted…”
“You wanted to kill her. I know. I could see you in the woods with Trick. I could feel you, even. But you understand why he had to hold onto you.”
“I do. But I hated it. I couldn’t stand not getting to say good-bye…” My voice caught in my throat and I had to stop myself. I pulled away and looked at him. His wolf was alive inside him, his eyes dancing with light. “Krane…he…” I said.
“Saved my ass, yeah,” Tristan said, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure how to repay him for that.”
“I’d say you’re even. He was the one who told Elodie, wasn’t he? It’s his fault, all of it. He nearly destroyed us both, all because he was loyal to those assholes.”
Tristan shook his head, an expression of pure sadness in his eyes. “No. I wish it had been him, but it wasn’t,” he said. “Believe it or not.”
“What? Then who was it? Trick was the only other person who knew we were there, and he would never—” But before I could finish, I remembered that there’d been one other person at our wedding.
Tristan took hold of my hands as if he was trying to steady me while the realization sank into my bones. “Oh, God, no,” I breathed. “He couldn’t have. Marcus wouldn’t do that to us…would he?”
He pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’m afraid he did, lover. But it was my fault. I held Marcus off for too long; I kept him from moving forward. I only wanted to be sure of his loyalty to me, to you. But the Marquis must have gotten to him when he came to New Orleans. I suppose he made a better offer than I ever did. I tested Marcus for too long, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He surrendered to temptation because he was broken.”
“You’re saying the Marquis manipulated him into betraying us?” I asked. “But Marcus wouldn’t do that to me, even if…” The tears began to flow again, and Tristan went blurry, disappearing from view. I almost felt like I was losing him all over again.
Only it wasn’t Tristan that I was losing this time. It was Marcus, one of my best friends in the world.
“How could he do that?” I asked weakly.
Tristan escorted me over to the mattress in the far corner and sat me down, his fingers pushing my hair behind my ears. “Lessers are called that for a reason,” he said. “They’re easily corruptible. They follow whatever leader dangles the freshest carrot in front of them. I had a bad feeling about Marcus from the start, which is why I wanted to wait and see him fulfil his promises to me before letting him out into the world. He was a conflicted man who’d served a cruel master.”
“But I’ve always trusted him with my life,” I said. “He’s been so kind to me…so protective…”
“I know. He’s not evil, Ariana. But he’s now joined some evil men. Maybe someday he can find his way back, but for now we can’t afford to worry about him. There are larger problems to deal with.”
“Will he be okay?” I asked, wiping my cheeks.
“That’s up to him. He’ll have to choose his own fate.”
My heart had broken so many times today that I didn’t even know what to do, how to breathe. I put my hands on Tristan’s cheeks and kissed him hard, my tongue searching for his. I needed to taste him, to prove to myself that he was real. It was now all that mattered in this awful world.
A few seconds later, the door creaked open. I spun around to see that Krane was making his way towards us.
“I’m sorry this place isn’t exactly the luxury penthouse you two are used to,” he said, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck in an almost sheepish gesture, “but it’s all I had that wouldn’t attract the Seven. They don’t know about it, and the scent of the lake will mask any trace of the two of you.”
“It’s fine,” Tristan growled. Even though his brother had saved him, there was still a note of hatred in his voice.
“I’ll leave you here, then,” Krane said. “I’ll be back to check up on you in the morning.” With that he turned on his heel and made his way back to the door.
“Krane, wait!” I called after him. I got up and headed to the door, nodding to him to go outside. After I’d ushered us both through the door and closed it behind me, I reached out to grab his arm, recoiling when I remembered the effect he�
�d had on me at the Midsummer Ball. Touching him seemed like a seriously bad idea.
“What is it?” he asked in a slightly hostile tone.
“I wanted…to thank you,” I said, daring to make eye contact with him for only a second. He was an astonishingly beautiful man, like his brother, but for once he didn’t seem to be trying to manipulate my thoughts into inappropriate erotic fantasies. The scent that normally worked its way over my tastebuds and mind had retreated, as if he was deliberately controlling his allure in my presence.
Whatever the case, I was grateful for it.
“Don’t thank me. I was only doing what I was put on this earth to do,” he said, turning to walk away.
“Wait…” I said. This time I did reach for him, my fingers circling his thick wrist. He took my hand and pulled me close, his eyes burning bright with golden lines crossing through the blue of his irises.
“Careful,” he growled. “You know what I am, Ariana. You know I can’t help myself.”
“I know,” I replied, going weak for a second as his touch sent a shiver of something forbidden through me. But I fought it back, pushing his spell away. I knew by now that my love for Tristan was too strong to fall for any dragon shifter’s dirty tricks. “Why did you do it?” I asked.
“Save him?”
I nodded.
“Like I said, it’s my duty.”
“But you’ve been so awful to each other,” I protested. “You always seemed to hate him.”
He shook his head. “If I hated Tristan, I wouldn’t have asked, many years ago, to be turned into the creature you now see before you. Everything I am is a result of my attempts to save my brother. But it never mattered, none of it. I was too late back then to save him. I only ended up corrupting myself, too.”
“What do you mean?”
He smiled and stroked a finger down the side of my neck. “This beastly bastard who’s standing in front of you, touching you like he wants to devour you whole—he only exists because I wanted to help my brother two hundred years ago. I wanted to fix him. To make his life better.”
“I don’t understand, Krane…” I said, pulling myself back and free of his fingers.
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter anymore. I was too late,” he said with a look I hadn’t seen in his eyes before. Could it be that the mighty Krane was feeling sad? “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go.”
He pulled his hand away, releasing me from my momentary paralysis, and walked in the other direction, towards the thick woods.
I spun around and headed back inside to my lover.
Chapter 23
Tristan and I were alone now, though I couldn’t help but suspect Krane was spending the night close by to keep watch over us.
I stepped over to sit down next to my husband again, draping an arm around him and burying my face in his neck.
“You know what’s weird?” I asked with a chuckle that was more than a little tinged with regret.
“What’s that?”
“I keep wondering if maybe this all happened because we forgot to buy wedding rings. Maybe we cursed ourselves, somehow.”
“Maybe we did,” he replied, reaching for my left hand. He stroked a finger over my engagement ring. “You still have this, at least.”
“I do.” I pulled my face up to look at him. “But that wasn’t quite the wedding I’d imagined for us, and this definitely wasn’t the honeymoon I thought we’d be on by now.”
“I know. Me neither. I’d planned something quite different.”
“Where were you going to take us?”
“To heaven,” he said, his tone soft and filled with sadness. “Maybe we’ll still get there some day.”
“That sounds nice. Maybe we can go there when all this is over.”
He nodded but pulled his eyes away. “Maybe.”
I leaned on his shoulder. “Elodie wants a war. I heard her talking to the others after you and Krane took off. She wants to make an example of you, of the Valkyries, of everyone.”
I felt him nod. “I know. It’s what she’s wanted for a long time. I’m afraid that thanks to Krane, I’ve now given her the perfect opportunity to start it.”
“You thought you could avoid all this by sacrificing yourself, didn’t you?” I pulled my face up again to look at him. “You weren’t just giving your life to save mine—it was to save everyone else, too.”
He nodded again. “I failed, though.”
I kissed his cheek, but the gesture felt inadequate. What Tristan had done was more generous, more noble than anything I’d ever known anyone to do in this world. He’d been prepared to destroy himself for the sake of those he cared most about. “I love you so much,” I whispered. “You’re the best man I’ve ever met.”
“You’re the best woman I’ve ever met, so I guess that makes us even,” he replied. “Just so you know, I’ve summoned the Valkyries. By now, Trick will probably be on his way to muster all the wolves he can gather by morning. Since we’ll be going into battle tomorrow…”
“Yes?”
“I have a suggestion.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“You and I could use a shower,” he said. “But since there isn’t one here, I think we should go for a quiet, peaceful swim together. Just you and me, lover.” As he spoke, a smile curled its way across his lips. A beautiful sight for sore eyes.
I nodded. “That sounds amazing,” I told him. Tomorrow might end us both, but tonight we would be together, moving towards the dawn with our eyes wide open.
He stood up and offered me his hand. I slid my own into his palm and we made our way outside to the edge of the lake, kicking off our shoes and yanking off our socks to feel the water lap gently at our feet.
“This is beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked, looking up at the moon above, the clouds flitting over its brightness. “It’s so quiet. You’d hardly know…”
“You’d hardly know the world will be on fire tomorrow,” he replied, pulling himself close and stroking the backs of his fingers over my neck. “Ariana, I hope you understand what’s about to happen. There will be casualties. It’s inevitable at this point.”
“I understand,” I said, my voice tight. “I understand that your people are willing to fight for what’s right. But I also understand that the Seven are tyrants who want to control every aspect of shifters’ lives, and someone needs to do something about it.”
He nodded. “I’ll give everything I have to take them down. The Marquis, too.”
“The Marquis,” I growled. “Why didn’t Trick take him down when he had the chance?”
“I’ve already told you, a leader doesn’t resort to cruel tactics. A leader shows others what he’s made of, and sometimes that means letting others live with their own cruelty.”
“You’re right,” I replied. “It’s why you’re such an amazing leader, Tristan. I’ve only ever known you to be fair and kind. Well, except when you were being a shit to me.”
A laugh surged up in his chest. “I deserve that. For the record, I’m really sorry that I left you like I did. But I’m also not sorry, because I know perfectly well that you would never have let me go willingly.”
“I know. Just don’t do it again. Don’t leave me behind, ever.”
He pressed his lips to the tip of my nose. “I won’t. Not ever. Now let’s get naked and forget about all the horrible people in the world for a few minutes, okay?”
“Okay.”
As Tristan backed away to pull off his shirt and jeans, my core tightened immediately. For a second I pulled my eyes to the woods in the distance, wary that Krane might be out there somewhere, his glowing eyes fixed on us.
“If anyone’s around, it’s only Trick’s wolves,” Tristan said, “and they’re loyal to us. I’m not worried.”
I nodded and yanked my shirt off over my head. Instantly my lover advanced on me, impatient and hungry, slipping his hands behind my back to unhook my bra, drawing it away from my body and tossing it aside. A secon
d later he was down on his knees, cupping my swollen breasts as he fluttered his perfect tongue over their sensitive peaks.
“I thought we’d never do this again,” I said as I watched him, my voice torn between a sob and a moan of pleasure. “I thought I’d lost you forever.”
“I did too,” he responded, undoing my jeans and sliding them down over my hips. “Which is why I’m so fucking filled with desire for you now, and why I needed you so badly last night.”
“You knew,” I said breathlessly. “You knew you were going to give yourself to them before you even stepped into the house after the ceremony.”
He looked up into my eyes. “I knew, yes. But thanks to a certain estranged pain-in-the-ass of a brother of mine, I can now do this to you.” With those words he buried his face between my legs, taking a deep breath before sliding my jeans and panties all the way to the ground. I stepped out of them and reached down, taking Tristan’s hands to pull him to his feet. Together we walked into the warm lake until I was waist-deep and could watch the water lapping at his thighs and against his heavy, exquisite erection. I pulled to a stop, reaching again for his hand.
I eased towards him, my fingers wrapping around his massive shaft as I pushed myself up on my toes and wrapped my free arm around his neck. He sealed his mouth over mine as I stroked my hand over his length, pulling it upwards and cupping the velvet head for a moment.
“Your cock is so beautiful,” I whispered, stroking a finger over the droplets of pre-cum that had formed at its tip, then fisting him gently, my hand running over the marbled shaft until I reached its base.
A moan escaped my lover, then he was lifting me, my legs splitting apart eagerly to wrap themselves around his waist. When fisted his cock and jammed it inside me I let out a purr of pleasure, tangling my arms hard around his neck and savoring his heat against my body. It was the most wonderful sensation in the world…to be with him again, after those desperate moments fraught with terror.
Tristan cupped his hands around my backside, lifting me and lowering me onto his beautiful dick in a slow rhythm as he kissed me deeply, the lapping waves matching our pace.
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