by Leia King
Her movement caught Ryan’s attention and he eyed her out of the corner of his eyes.
His concern poured into her head. What’s wrong, my love? Are you hurt?
No. Just an ache. Probably just hungry. It’s been a while. She knew none of that was true. But now wasn’t the time to stress him out more. Things were bad enough with a frigging army facing off with them.
It was possible Ryan may have seen through her bravado, though, because his voice was back a moment later. I need to get us out of here.
Where exactly are we?
We’re standing at the gates to the White Realm.
What? They were? She couldn’t see any sign of them. She didn’t get the chance to ask him what that was all about.
Luca’s voice interrupted their telepathic conversation. “Shaye, you can’t hold that barrier and conjure the gates. It’s one or the other.”
Another sharp pain shot through Cora, the sensation far more painful than the first. She couldn’t help it. She collapsed onto the grass, gripping her stomach, grunting in agony.
Ryan dropped to his knees beside her. “What’s wrong? What is it, my love?”
“How disgustingly sweet of you, Ry,” Luca commented of Ryan’s endearment.
Cora tensed, worried it would set Ryan off again. She was incapacitated, unable to hold him back if it did.
But she needn’t have worried, because he didn’t pay it any mind at all. He was focused wholly on her, his worry for her trumping all else. He was frantic that she was hurting.
He stroked her hair gently and whispered, “Talk to me, Cora.”
The awful sensation started to subside, just a suddenly as it had come on.
“I’m okay,” she breathed. “It’s gone now,” she said, trying to get to her feet.
Ryan pulled her up and supported her weight against him, his arms wrapped around her, protecting her. He eyed Shaye in question, clearly hoping she might know what was happening.
Shaye’s eyes met hers and she saw some sort of realization in them. Her eyes widened, then she looked away abruptly.
Ryan caught it too. “What, Shaye?” he pressed.
“You know what’s wrong with me, don’t you?” Cora said.
Shaye hesitated as she looked between them and their enemies. “Not in front of them.”
A blinding, silver light swept through the forest, obscuring everyone’s vision.
And then everything disappeared.
28
Ryan removed his hand from his eyes as the blinding light dissipated.
“We are here,” Shaye said. “The White Realm palace.”
“How? We didn’t even pass through the gates!” Ryan exclaimed, scanning the room urgently.
“Welcome.”
They all spun around to see a middle-aged man striding into the room. Although, given what Ryan knew about the White and Dark Realms, someone’s appearance was little indication of their true age. He could be hundreds of years old. His white-grey hair hung down to his shoulders and matched his long beard, which was as silky as his hair. He wore silver robes like that of a priest that brushed the floor as he walked, giving the appearance that he was floating towards them.
Immediately upon seeing him, Shaye dropped to her knees and bowed politely, murmuring submissively, “Your majesty.”
Ryan watched Cora tense. He wasn’t surprised. Given Shaye’s reaction, his wife was looking upon her father for the first time in hell only knew how long.
“Vazra, right?” Ryan spoke. Best make sure. “King of the White Realm?”
“Indeed. And, you are Ryan Winters, King of the Wolves.”
Ryan eyed Shaye who was still on her knees bowing before the king. Not my style. “I appreciate you allowing me into your kingdom, but let’s get one thing straight right off the bat, yeah? I’m not bowing at your fucking feet. I bow to no one,” he told King Vazra.
King Vazra smiled. “Just like your father, Ryan. Blunt, abrasive and cursing like a sailor.” He moved closer until he was just inches from him and added with a wink, “Everything I liked about him.”
Ryan was taken aback and failed to stifle a laugh. “Really?”
“Indeed. Your father and I were close friends for centuries.”
“What? He was King of the Dark Realm.”
“There was a time when our two realms weren’t so divided.”
“And my mother? You knew her, too? She was a member of your court, right?”
“More than just a member. She was my chief advisor.”
Ryan wanted to ask more, to find out exactly what had happened to his mother. Was she still alive, like the rumors claimed? Did Vazra know where? But all of that would have to wait.
Cora took precedence. Not only was she about to reunite with her father, but she was ill, in pain.
Too much was happening in the present. The past would have to wait for a little while longer.
“Shaye, please make yourself at home in the palace. I can feel the vampires still at the gates. It is not safe for you to return to the human realm yet,” Vazra said, turning to her.
“I may stay here, your majesty? In the royal palace?” she asked, incredulous.
“Of course. You aided my daughter. You are always welcome now as my honored guest.”
Shaye nodded excitedly and left the room to explore the palace. Ryan smiled inwardly. Shaye had finally got her centuries-long wish. She’d been accepted into King Vazra’s fold.
Vazra turned his attention back to them. He reached for Cora’s hand and she hesitantly accepted it. “We have much to discuss, daughter.”
Ryan grimaced as he watched Cora pull her hand back, hurt blanketing her face. “I don’t know you. Not as my father. Not as anyone.”
Vazra’s expression was pained. “I know and I am sorry.”
Cora turned away. “Was it you who saved me from that dream?” she asked without looking at him.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. It was your proximity to the White Realm gates. It dissolved the magic that the Vampire Prince and that misguided vampire, Michael, were using to keep you there. It also eased your pain, your proximity to pure white magic, soothing it, which enabled your strength to return.”
She spun back around in surprise. “You know about my pain?”
“Yes. I must teach you now about your power.”
“That will cure it?” Ryan asked. “It’ll stop the agony she goes through way too often?”
Vazra nodded. “Not only that, Wolf King. She will be your key to winning the war ahead of you.”
Ryan’s instincts screamed a warning at him. Something wasn’t right. Vazra’s response was messed up. He hadn’t seen his daughter in years. He knew she’d been suffering. His concern should be for her wellbeing alone. Yet, he was referring to her as an asset? A weapon for war? Nah, it wasn’t normal. He stepped forward, demanding, “Is that why you pulled us in through the gates?” Did he want to wield Cora’s power too, just like Michael?
Vazra shook his head at him. “No.” He walked over to Cora. “I had to safeguard the future of this realm.”
“You mean Cora?”
Vazra’s brow furrowed. “You don’t sense it?”
“Sense what?”
“You have resided in the human realm too long. You’re not used to employing the full scope of your abilities.”
“Excuse me?” Ryan bit back, his eyes narrowing at the insult.
Vazra reached out and pressed his hand to Cora’s stomach, the precise location that she’d been clutching in the forest, where she’d been hurting. He looked between the two of them and smiled. “She is with child.”
Ryan choked, “What?”
He looked at Cora and her stunned reaction mirrored his.
FATED BETRAYAL
Book 2
1
“With child?” Ryan choked out. “She’s pregnant?”
King Vazra gave him a nod of confirmation, then smiled at Cora. “Congratulations, daughter.”
> Ryan turned his attention back to Cora and the wide-eyed gaze that had been frozen on her face since Vazra had given them the news. It seemed she couldn’t actually find the words to summon a response. He wasn’t surprised because he was having some trouble himself. To say he was shell-shocked would be a major understatement.
Finding he couldn’t stand still a moment longer in his agitated state, he began pacing the mammoth room.
When they’d first materialized inside the White Realm palace, he’d been so taken aback by the appearance of the infamous King Vazra that he hadn’t even realized exactly where in the palace they’d been standing.
Now, as he glanced around erratically in his panicked state, he noticed the two high-backed crystal thrones at the rear of the room. They were adorned with sapphire roses and shimmering with what he suspected was white magic. Three-foot-high effigies rested on either side of the four white-marble steps leading up to the thrones. Two stone palms clasping a glowing orb. The room was well-lit, so bright, in fact, that Ryan suspected a vampire would have a hard time opening his eyes inside the room. Ryan wasn’t sure whether the source of the light was sunlight, or white light. He suspected the latter, because he could feel the power all around him. He glanced at the windows. They were all stained glass, depicting the various creatures of the White Realm in all their glory. White witches, warlocks, faeries, dragons. Like the floor, the many pillars positioned throughout the room were white marble. And off to the right, a large table in the shape of a snowflake with intricately carved chairs caught his attention. It looked like it was made of ice. But Ryan knew the legends of the White Realm. The table was crafted from pure white magic. The sacra mensa. The Sacred Table of the Royal Court, the place where the King of the White Realm met to discuss matters of the realm with his royal advisors.
The pacing had helped and he was finally able to get a hold of himself. He walked back to Vazra and Cora, scrubbing his hand roughly over his face. “I don’t understand. We were careful. Very careful.”
“Except that one time,” Cora pointed out, finally speaking.
Ryan’s gaze snapped to hers. “During the bonding ritual,” he realized aloud. He shook his head. “No, it’s impossible.”
“See for yourself,” Vazra suggested, gesturing to Cora’s belly.
Ryan knew that Vazra wanted him to use his wolf senses. Shit. It’d been a long time since he’d used them in such a way. He stepped up to his wife and reached out. “This may tingle a little,” he warned her.
“I trust you,” she said.
Their eyes met as he pressed his hand to her belly.
He grunted irritably. He couldn’t feel anything. He was way out of practice.
“Keep trying. Tap into your inner wolf,” Vazra encouraged.
Ryan took his words in. He knew if he’d remained in the Dark Realm his entire life then he wouldn’t be experiencing a problem. But, as it was, he’d been living in the human realm for two hundred years, a place where he’d never had to use the full breadth of his abilities, so he was more than a little rusty. He tried to ignore his embarrassment. The Wolf King showing weakness in front of the King of the White Realm? Not the best impression he’d ever made. He forced it out of his mind and concentrated solely on the task at hand.
He shifted his weight and closed his eyes tightly. A few moments passed and a soothing warmth coursed through him.
And then he felt it.
The essence of a wolf. Whoa.
The rest came to him in a rush. The gentle heartbeat, the smell of his blood fused with Cora’s.
He gasped and pulled back.
“Holy shit,” he breathed, gazing intensely at Cora. “You are pregnant. The baby is wolf, Cora.”
Cora’s lips curled into a smile in response to the wave of excitement that had suddenly come over him upon him realizing that she was really carrying his child and a wolf, no less. “Really?”
“Yes,” he confirmed, wrapping his arms around her and planting a chaste kiss on the top of her head. “There’s something else,” he said, pulling back and taking her hand. He pressed it to her belly and clasped his hand over hers.
She looked up at him in question.
“You can read my thoughts. You should be able to tap into my wolf sense as well.”
She shook her head. “Ryan, I don’t think—I don’t know how.”
“Just try. Feel me.”
“You are bonded so the link is already there,” Vazra told them.
Cora nodded and closed her eyes tightly, concentrating.
Ryan watched her closely for several moments. And then he gasped in surprise as he felt a sudden, searing sensation travel from his hand that held hers all the way up his arm and into his heart. He choked against the uncomfortably intense power that gripped him. It felt like her hands were literally squeezing his heart. Her eyes snapped open and she looked at him worriedly, afraid that she was hurting him. “It’s okay. Keep going,” he rasped.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed in surprise, looking between him and her father.
“You felt it, my child?” Vazra asked her.
She looked up at Ryan, grinning widely. “A boy?”
He smiled back at her. “Yes. Our son.”
“Our son,” she murmured with disbelief. “We’re having a child.” It had obviously finally hit her now she’d moved past the numbing shock of it.
As Ryan watched her, relieved that the initial fear and rejection he’d felt from her when Vazra had first told them she was pregnant had evolved into acceptance, something awful suddenly occurred to him. He turned to Vazra. “A non-wolf can’t carry a wolf child to term.”
It was a well-established fact in the supernatural world. Ryan had heard enough horror stories to know. And if that wasn’t enough he’d actually witnessed a few disturbing cases, too. It always ended the same way. The mother had died in excruciating pain after being literally ripped apart by the wolf within. It was why he was so harsh with his pack, ordering them to use several levels of protection when sleeping with human women.
“My daughter is not human, Ryan.”
“She isn’t wolf either.”
“She is more. As is the child.”
“What does that mean?” Cora asked.
“The child is not solely wolf. It is a hybrid. It will possess your powers as well.” He looked at Ryan as he said, “Cora’s white light will sustain the child, enabling her to bring it to term. She will be fine.” His gaze snapped back to Cora as he added, “Once I teach you how to unleash your powers properly. It will ease all of your pain. Pregnancy and migraines alike.”
“How did this happen?” Ryan asked.
“The child was conceived when you bonded,” Vazra revealed.
“You told me that was impossible,” Cora said to Ryan, accusation dripping from her words.
Ryan held up his hands in surrender. “It is.” He eyed Vazra. “Help me out here.”
Vazra chuckled. “What Ryan told you is correct. In normal circumstances.”
Ryan folded his arms across his chest. “Normal circumstances?”
“When two beings of royal blood mate, the conception rule during a bonding is transcended. When you bonded, the King of the Wolves and the Princess of the White Realm, and your power joined, the magnitude of it could not be contained. Not by any rule. It made it possible to conceive a child.”
Ryan growled. “How was I not aware of this?”
“You were never told, because we all believed Cora was lost to you the day your father was killed and you were subsequently banished from the Dark Realm. Had your father lived, he would have told you when you were ready to bond with your mate. I am sorry, Ryan.”
“And me?” Cora demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was my intention. But the night of the bonding, my attention was drawn elsewhere.”
“Where?” Cora snapped. “What was more important than that? Than allowing us a choice in this?”
“Saving your lives.”
“What?” Ryan snapped.
Vazra heaved a heavy sigh, revealing, “That night, it came to my attention that the Vampire Prince had sensed you were both beyond the protection of the wolf compound. He’d set out to track you down. I couldn’t allow him to interfere with the completion of the bonding ritual. I raised a temporary veil around the both of you to hide your location from him while the ritual occurred. He would’ve killed you both, had I not.”
Ryan shook his head. “Luca wouldn’t have been able to cross the threshold of the house. He wasn’t invited. And he wouldn’t have had an easy fight on his hands anyway.”
“Michael has the ability, via his black magic, to overrule the vampire invitation rite,” Vazra explained. “He could quite easily have granted Luca access. Had that occurred, you would’ve been in more danger than you realized. Another thing that was never explained to you, Ryan, due to the loss of your father at a young age, is that a couple is at their weakest for several hours following a bonding ritual. You would’ve both been too vulnerable to fend off an attack.”
Ryan locked eyes with Cora. Fucking hell. That explained why Luca had nearly killed him outside the house that night.
“Unfortunately, using my magic across the realms takes a great deal of power. It drained me very quickly and I wasn’t able to sustain the veil for very long.”
Cora stepped towards Vazra cautiously. She held out her hand to him. “Thank you, father.”
Vazra smiled and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into him and holding her tightly. “I have missed you dearly. Sending you away all those centuries ago grieved me greatly.”
Ryan watched Cora jerk back. “Centuries ago? I’m only twenty-five, father.”
“In human years. You’ve lived in the human realm for that amount of time. You don’t remember your life here in the White Realm. You lived here for over a hundred years with your mother and me. But when Ryan was banished and I was forced to agree to your betrothal to Luca, I sheltered you in suspended dormio. Sleep.”
“What?” Ryan snapped. “For how long?”