Dante’s Circle Reborn: A Dante’s Circle Collection
Page 22
“Your skin is a little tanner than it was before, your hair a little blonder than when I first met you. Your eyes are the same, though.”
He looked down at Eva and smiled. “I think I’m finding myself, so I’m changing. Just like the bear inside me.”
Jace’s eyes went gold. “Your bear? You can shift?”
Ashen closed his eyes. “Maybe? I don’t know. I’m a reaper.”
“What’s a reaper?” someone asked.
“It’s a long story,” he said, and then he spoke of the reapers and the choices and how he’d met Eva. The others nodded, and he felt like maybe they understood. Couples and triads looked at each other as if they got exactly what he and Eva had already gone through in their short time together. And perhaps that was true. He wasn’t quite sure, but he couldn’t take too much more at the moment, so he wasn’t going to think about it.
Not yet. He couldn’t remember everybody’s name, and he wasn’t even sure he had known everybody when he was alive.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” Jace said, his voice a rasp. “Can I...can I hug you?” Jace asked, his face pink.
“If you’d like,” Ashen said, his body stiff.
Eva laughed. “Bears are the most touchy-feely shifters out there,” she said, and the other shifters in the room laughed.
“She’s got that right,” a wolf called out.
“Far cuddlier than dragons,” Dante said dryly.
The succubus that stood between them laughed. “You’re pretty cuddly, my dragon.”
Ashen held out his arms, and then Jace pulled him into a hug that was bone-crushing.
“I thought you died, baby brother. I looked at you, and you smiled, and then the flames touched you.”
Ashen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of family. “I’m alive. I’m here. Somehow.”
“I’ll never forgive myself for letting you get hurt,” the dragon said, and then Ashen remembered.
“It was a war. It was your mother.”
The dragon nodded, his jaw tight. “I am sorry.”
Ashen shook his head. “It’s not your fault. It might have even been the reapers themselves.”
“I’ll kill them,” Jace muttered.
“We already took care of that,” Eva said, her face a little pale. Ashen reached out and gripped her hand, and Jace looked between them.
“Your mate?”
“Yes,” Ashen said. “Although, we’re not bonded yet.”
“Well, let’s just tell the whole world that, shall we?” Eva said, and Ashen winced.
“Sorry.”
“No worries. However, you’re going to have to stop saying everything that pops into your mind.”
“He was like that as a little boy, too,” Jace said, his eyes wide with wonder. “We have more siblings, and our parents…”
“They’re all on their way.”
Ashen looked at Dante.
“You have been busy.”
“I’m a dragon. It’s what I do.”
Ashen sat there as he was introduced to everybody once again, even his niece and nephew, a baby dragon, and a baby bear, who looked into his newly unusual eyes and smiled, wanting hugs before shifting and playing on the floor like the babies they were.
When a small child bumped into him, he looked down and picked up the baby bear before kissing it on top of the head as if he had done it a thousand times before giving him back to Jace. He’d never met these children, he knew that. A different kind of pain slid through him over the fact that he’d missed so much.
“No worries. It’s almost like you’re back to yourself.”
Ashen shook his head.
“I’m not. I’ll never be.”
“None of us are who we were before the wars. But you’re here. I have to count that as a blessing.”
“Torrent?” a female voice said from behind him, and he turned.
A female bear stood beside a larger male bear, as well as three other bears that looked remarkably like Jace.
Ashen froze and knew exactly who these people were.
The woman took a few steps forward, her legs shaking. “Torrent,” she whispered.
And then she reached up and pushed a piece of hair behind his ear as if she had done so countless times before.
“Mom,” he whispered.
“Torrent,” she whispered, and then she tucked her head under his chin and wept as the others looked on and spoke to him, telling him stories of his time before he became a reaper, tales of who he had been.
He didn’t know if he would ever be that man again, but that was okay with him. Because now he had a second chance. He looked at Eva and knew who he wanted to take his second chance with. This was their beginning, their chance, and when the time came, he would take every next step with her.
Chapter 6
Four months later
“I want you to come,” Ashen whispered into her ear.
“You say that every day, and yet, you’ve never been inside me. I wonder why that is.”
“You wanted to take it slow,” he said, nibbling at her chin.
She groaned and wrapped her legs around his waist. They were naked, skin to skin, and she wanted him inside her desperately, just like so many times before. But they had waited to go further…until now.
Mostly because everybody in their life had told them that they didn’t have to rush into it. They could take their time. And with so much change and the fact that Ashen was still trying to remember every detail about who Torrent was, they had put their bonding on hold.
Because Eva wanted to know who he was, all facets of him, and she was grateful that he was taking the time to learn more about her, as well.
They lived in the banshee realm, mostly because it was safer for her. It was hard for her to be around so many humans and other paranormals when she could scream for their death at any moment. With a denser population, it was harder on her. She would visit the other realms if she had too much power quaking inside her, but the banshee realm was quieter.
And that was good for Ashen because he could find his new place in a world where others might not understand him and know more about him than he did about himself.
All of that fled her mind as he slowly slid his hand between them, cupping her.
“Are you ready for me?”
“I don’t know, you better check,” she said, licking her lips.
He looked at her then, his unusual eyes gorgeous and sultry. And then he slid one large finger into her, finding that bundle of nerves that almost sent her right over the edge. Her toes curled, and she gritted her teeth, not wanting to come yet.
“Oh, yes, wet and slick, it’s so fucking hot.”
“All for you, Ashen.”
“I love it when you call me that.”
“It’s the name of the man I love. The man I found.”
He was Torrent to everyone else, something that he appreciated. Yet to her, he would always be Ashen. The man who had refused to kill her, and the one that she had sung to at first sight.
He was her reaper, her Ashen, and she loved that she had a special name for him.
“Bond with me. Make love to me. I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“I’m going to bond with you. As a bear, too.”
She frowned. “I am not getting furry with you for your bear.”
He threw back his head and laughed. She relished the sound. He rarely laughed, but when he did, it was everything.
“I meant I’m going to bite you on your shoulder and mark you as mine.”
She blushed. “Oh, that’s fine. Get biting. Get in me right now, Ashen. Don’t make me reap your ass.” She winked as she said it. He rolled his eyes, and then he positioned himself between her legs and plunged. His eyes were on hers, and she gasped at the intrusion, needing more, wanting more. Except, at the same time, it was all too much.
He leaned down, thankful, and she took his lips. She kissed him, running her hands down
his back as he plunged in and out of her. They made love, sweetly, then hard and fast, everything. And when she arched up into him, her breasts pressed against his chest, her fingernails digging into his back, he bit into her shoulder and marked her as his. The sensation sent ecstasy through both of them, and he pummeled into her harder. And then he came, roaring her name. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tightly.
Then she followed him into the abyss and knew he was hers forever. The bond that tied them together snapped into place.
She was his, and he was hers, and they were mated.
Finally, a reaper and his banshee.
It was a perfect match on the loom of fate.
He was death, and she could sense it. And, one day, if he went back to his duties, she would help him. She could sense the souls that needed to be reaped beyond those that were decreed from on high.
Things were changing, the world was settling, albeit in a new way. And she had her mate.
The man she would stand by for the rest of her life. The one who had helped her find out exactly who she needed to be.
Her reaper, her song, her forever.
Epilogue
Dante leaned back against the bench at his bar and looked across the table. His circle had grown over the years. Not only with the seven lightning-struck and their mates. Nor with only his mates and children.
No, they’d added friends and family over the years. People who had fought their own battles and had asked for help when he was able to give it. And, in some cases, not even then.
His mate, Jace, stood next to his brother, talking with Torrent and his new mate—or perhaps his name was Ashen now. They were off to the side, keeping their distance, but Dante understood what was needed. They were new to this life, much like the other couple near them.
Misha and Caly laughed together, though the vampire and his family weren’t mingling with the others quite yet. Dante understood that was needed since they’d spent centuries running and hiding from others who didn’t even know they existed. Dante let out a snort with a trail of smoke. He hadn’t known of their existence, and that baffled him. He wanted to know all the secrets of the realms, and as a dragon, the fact that he didn’t vexed him to no end.
Poppy, his bartender, laughed at something her mate Jonah whispered to her, and Dante held back a grin. He had a feeling he’d be needing a new bartender soon, but that was understandable. He tended to lose them these days to mates and finding peace. And if that was the price he had to pay, then so be it.
Dante looked over at the final new couple and let out a sigh. He’d watched the two wolves fight themselves for years and find a way to create a family over time. Liam and Alec danced together near the others, their child sleeping in the large playpen that Dante had built. At least six children were sleeping in there at the moment, with others in arms or crawling and walking around the bar.
Dante’s Circle wasn’t so much a bar anymore, it was a place for family. A harbor in the darkness. He might take out the taps one day, or at least change it up so there were more comfortable places for people to rest and mingle. Though Dante’s Circle would always be in his heart, he knew it was time to move on.
“Dante?”
He looked down at his mate and kissed the top of her head. “Yes?”
“You look sad. What’s wrong?”
He shook his head and looked up at his other mate, who still stood near his brother, looking as if he’d seen a ghost. In essence, he had.
“I’m thinking about the changes that must be made.”
“What kind of changes?”
“This bar. We have children, and our family is here more often than not. It’s time to transition it into a new part of our lives. Rather than a bar for laughter and drinks, it should be a place to meet when we need to. Somewhere for those on the run to take refuge and find safety.”
Nadie studied his face, frowning. “You could always build a new place. One for families. We could keep this one a bar if you’d like.”
He thought on that, nodding. “Maybe. I’m not sure. But change has come. Things changed forever with that lighting strike, then when I found you and Jace. Again when our children were born. Life has moved on, and we must move with it.”
“I’ll miss the place if it changes too much,” Nadie said, leaning into him. Jace sat next to them in the next moment as if he felt their emotions through the bond. Perhaps he had.
“We’ll find balance,” Jace added. “We’re growing so much, maybe an addition rather than two separate places?”
Dante smiled. “I’d like that. My hoard is growing.”
“Forever the dragon,” Nadie said, laughing.
“You know it, darling.”
The others began to give suggestions for what needed to be done, and Dante nodded, listening. There would be change, that was inevitable. Even a dragon as old as he knew that. Before he’d mated, he’d have made all the decisions on his own. Now, however, he’d let his friends help.
And while they worked on that project, on their new beginnings, he knew there was one more path they would begin down, as well. One that the kit now in Alec’s arms had put him on.
There were others.
Those who needed him.
Who needed the seven.
He would answer the call. Just as he had before. And as he looked at his family, his blood, felt the bonds and more thanks to the call he’d answered, he had to wonder who would come next.
And who they would meet along the way.
Together.
* * *
THE END
* * *
Is the end of Dante’s Circle?
Perhaps…
* * *
For more information about the Dante’s Circle series and Carrie Ann Ryan, please visit her website.
A Note from Carrie Ann Ryan
Thank you so much for reading DANTE’S CIRCLE SERIES. I do hope if you liked this story, that you would please leave a review!
I hadn’t planned on returning to the Dante’s Circle world, but a voice just wouldn’t go away, and now four more HEAs are out in the world!
Thank you so much for going with me on this journey. As for more in this world? Perhaps one day. I’ll never say never…
After all…Dante has a plan….
If you want to make sure you know what’s coming next from me, you can sign up for my newsletter at www.CarrieAnnRyan.com; follow me on twitter at @CarrieAnnRyan, or like my Facebook page. I also have a Facebook Fan Club where we have trivia, chats, and other goodies. You guys are the reason I get to do what I do and I thank you.
Make sure you’re signed up for my MAILING LIST so you can know when the next releases are available as well as find giveaways and FREE READS.
Happy Reading!
* * *
Dante’s Circle Series:
Book 1: Dust of My Wings
Book 2: Her Warriors’ Three Wishes
Book 3: An Unlucky Moon
Book 3.5: His Choice
Book 4: Tangled Innocence
Book 5: Fierce Enchantment
Book 6: An Immortal’s Song
Book 7: Prowled Darkness
Book 8: Dante’s Circle Reborn
About the Author
Carrie Ann Ryan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary, paranormal, and young adult romance. Her works include the Montgomery Ink, Redwood Pack, Fractured Connections, and Elements of Five series, which have sold over 3.0 million books worldwide. She started writing while in graduate school for her advanced degree in chemistry and hasn’t stopped since. Carrie Ann has written over seventy-five novels and novellas with more in the works. When she’s not losing herself in her emotional and action-packed worlds, she’s reading as much as she can while wrangling her clowder of cats who have more followers than she does.
www.CarrieAnnRyan.com
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