by M. L. Briers
“I haven’t forgotten.”Callum bit out.
“Then you’ve chosen to turn your back on that history?”Fergus demanded and Callum growled longer and deeper in his annoyance.
“It’s complicated.”Callum growled again. He wanted to get back to his mate. He didn’t need to be having a damned debate about decisions he had made.
“What are you a female?”Fergus growled back at him and then raised just one eyebrow and whined like a pup. “It’s complicated.”
Callum yanked his hands out of his pockets and found he had made two tight fists at his side as his anger flashed within him again. The snort of a laugh that came from the witch behind him sent his head snapping around to where she stood. Her hand shot to her lips as she tried to cover her grin, but her eyes were alive with amusement.
“He has a point.”Teri offered with an unapologetic shrug off her shoulders and the alpha scowled down at her.
“This is not helping my mate.”Callum ground out between clenched teeth. He wanted to hit something, hard. But trapped between a witch and an elder he had little to choose from. If only Cyrus was here… Callum held that thought and then growled out again. “Fine. The vampire can stay. Can I get to my mate now?”He growled towards the elder and watched as the light of amusement lit the old man’s eyes. Stepping aside the elder motioned towards the bedroom door.
“I’d expect nothing less.”Fergus offered and Callum growled out again in annoyance. Berated and stopped from seeing his mate with mundane chatter, and then berated for not going to see his mate… Fergus did like to push his luck.
Callum stalked into his bedroom and caught sight of Kiera lying in the middle of his large bed. She was lying on her side and just staring out at the room, but he knew she wasn’t taking in the scenery. She looked so small, so fragile beneath the covers and his wolf pined within him.
He climbed up onto the bed beside her and reached for her, wrapping her in his arms and bringing her head to his chest so she could hear his heart beat, feel his strength around her. He needed to bring her home to him, but he didn’t know how. He hoped that on some level she would respond to the mating pull of her body to his, her mind to his, and he bent his head and brushed his lips against the satin feel of her hair. He whispered endearments and encouragement, telling her about his pack, his life, and the future that awaited her if she wanted it. There was little else he could do.
“You’re an idiot…”Teri declared as she caught sight of her mate the moment she set foot outside the alpha’s cabin. Cyrus started towards her slowly as he eyed her for signs she was going to use her powers to at least zap him across the way.
“I know. How is she?” He agreed wholeheartedly with her assessment, but he wanted to know how badly the female was damaged.
“How could you do that to win a damn bet?” Teri demanded. Her hands went to her hips and her eyes bore into him as if she wanted to wrench the answers from inside his mind.
“I’m sorry, how is she?” He tried again. He would apologise for this for the rest of his life, if that was what it took, but right now he needed to know that Kiera wasn’t going to be a zombie for the rest of her life.
“The same. You really are an idiot…”
“Didn’t we just clarify that?”Cyrus saw her swing for him and ducked out of the way. In hindsight it might have been better to let his mate hit him and get her aggression and frustration out there and then. But he didn’t want her to hurt her hand on his face.
“Being an idiot, I thought you might have missed the point.”She snapped back. Swinging for him with her other fist and hitting nothing but the air where he was once standing. Cyrus reached for her. He yanked her against his chest and wrapped her in his arms before she could do any real damage to herself. He felt her struggle, but he refused to let her go until she’d had her fill of a battle with him.
“I get the point, Teri. I’m an idiot…” He whispered against her hair, holding her close and using his voice to sooth her.
“At your age, don’t you think you should be a little more, oh, I don’t know…smarter than the average bear?” The fight was all but out of her.
“Well, we can’t all be Einstein, now can we?” He brushed his hand down her hair and continued on down her spine until he felt her rest easy against him.
“But you can at least try for less footballer and more schoolteacher, don’t you think?”
“How about I just check with you before I do anything really stupid in future?”He’d not only hurt his best friend and his best friend’s mate, he’d hurt the one person who meant more to him in the world than any other.
“I can be your conscience.” Teri agreed as she buried her face against his chest and let the silent tears of the fear she had for her friend fall.
“Haven’t had one of those in a very long time.”
“Where is that useless excuse for a bloodsucking, brain dead, corpse of worthless…?”With every step that she stomped towards the alpha’s cabin, Caren bit out another insult into the air between her and Teri.
“I think you mean me…”Cyrus appeared out of the shadows of the night and gave her a slight bow in greeting. His lips were drawn into thin lines as his eyes took her in.
“Caren…”Teri started but Caren held up her hand to silence her friend.
“Oh, how like a vampire to be skulking in the shadows…”Caren planted her feet upon the slippery ground and her hands on her hips. No one could mistake her mood for anything other than really pissed off.
“I was just waiting for a tasty bite, but now that you’re here…” He forced the amusement that he didn’t particularly feel onto his face as he strolled slowly down the steps and faced the witch head on. He knew he might as well get this over with. Fergus and his mate had already berated him today. His best friend refused to see him, he might as well hear from the other Fae…
But it wasn’t talking that Caren was interested in. Before anyone could do anything to stop her, she had lifted her arm, snapped her hand on her wrist and tossed him through the air like a Frisbee. The sound of his body hitting the hardened ice over the earth filled her with satisfaction, but she wasn’t yet done.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Caren…” Teri warned as she took a step forward, but Cyrus pulled himself to his feet and held out his hand to stop his mates advance.
“I deserved that…” He assured her.
“And this…”Caren did it again. This time slamming him back first into a thick tree trunk. She was sure the sound of his bones crunching was louder than the sound of the wood splitting down the middle from the impact zone where he had hit it.
“Caren!” Teri wasn’t amused. But again Cyrus held up his hand and waved her away. He looked a little more sluggish in his movements this time, a little more battered from his ordeal.
“Nope. I deserved that too…”Cyrus ground out.
“And more…”Caren bit out between clenched teeth. Lifting his body up and tossing it through the air into a collection of bins that scattered like skittles around where he fell. If she had managed to put anything more than anger behind it she would have preferred to have seen him stuffed head first inside one of those damned bins rather than on the floor.
“That’s enough.”Teri slapped out with her magic and knocked Caren to her backside on the icy ground.
A few Lycans had come out of their cabins to watch the floor show and Fergus stepped out from his doorway and scratched his head in amusement as his mate came to stand alongside him.
“Shouldn’t you help the little Fae?”Gladys nudged her mate in the ribs and he groaned.
“Help her do what, toss Cyrus about some more. I think she’s got that covered.”He growled gently back at her.
“And they say we are the violent ones.”Gladys huffed. Folding her arms across her ample breasts and lifting her chin with an air of superiority.
“What are you talking about woman? If that was you, your teeth would already be sunk firmly into Cyrus’s backside.”F
ergus chuckled back to her and saw the spark of amusement in her eyes.
“Well, for a vampire he does have a very nice backside.”Gladys assured her mate, but she didn’t look at him.
“Heard that. Thank you, Gladys, it’s nice to be appreciated, even if it’s only for parts of me that you’d like to chew on.”Cyrus bit out as he dragged himself up to his feet and waved a hand in the elder woman’s direction.
“Well, it wouldn’t be for your brain, Cyrus, because your mate is right. You don’t have one.”Gladys turned on her heels and strolled back into her cabin, leaving her mate to roll his eyes and follow her inside.
Caren hadn’t made a move to get up. She was still sitting where she’d been dropped on her backside and glaring at Teri across the way. Cyrus was in front of her in a heartbeat. Offering her his hand to help her up, she grunted her contempt for him.
“I don’t want to get between you and Teri over this. She’s protecting her mate, its instinct, she probably feels as bad as your backside does right about now.” Cyrus hadn’t pulled his hand back. He still had hope that she would take it and let him help her to her feet. Caren snorted her contempt for him and smacked his hand away.
Twisting around onto her knees on the sheet ice, which had been smoothed down by the coming and goings of the packs cars, was a lot easier than trying to get herself back up to her feet. Caren felt her knee shift one way and her foot the other as she tried to push herself up. But she was determined not to take his damn help.
Cyrus watched the little Fae for a long minute as she slipped and slid about on the ice, and for a moment there, he thought that she might actually manage to pull herself upright, and then she slipped again and ended up back on her hands and knees. A lot of dark curses and several proclamations of a hex on most people’s houses, including his, and he lost the will to live.
Reaching down, Cyrus grabbed the waistband of her jeans and hoisted her up off the floor as if she weighed no more than a pup. The trouble was, and it took her a moment in which she let out an ear piercing squeal, to realise that she was just hanging downwards…
“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you to your feet? Think carefully now…”Cyrus teased sarcastically and he heard Caren squeak out another curse. “No…?”
“Yes, you over arrogant, self inflated, bag of…”Cyrus let go of her with one hand and she squealed out another other high pitched wail, but he caught her with the other and flipped her upright onto her feet.
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to thank me.”He whispered against her ear before moving off towards his mate, who was now scowling at him. “What?” He balked at her stance. Was he ever going to do anything right again in his mates eyes?
“As your conscience…”Teri started and Cyrus let out a small groan that he was sure was only audible to his ears. “I have one thing to say.” Teri flipped him the finger and strolled off back into the alpha’s cabin.
“Very nice.”Cyrus called after her. “Very mature.” He added to her back just before she disappeared inside the house. Caren slapped him on the back on the way past as she skidded and slipped after her friend.
“That’s what you get for being a dick…”She offered with glee, happier with her lot in life now that Teri had given him a piece of her mind.
“Mates. Can’t live with them, can’t suck them dry.”Cyrus ground out as he rolled his eyes to the stars in the night sky and sighed long and hard.
Kiera felt the warmth of his body wrapped around hers. He’d been talking to her nonstop for what felt like forever. She must have known everything about his pack and who was who. The stories he told her about his pack and his life over the years could have been immortalised in some soap opera or another on TV. The only problem was nobody was supposed to know that Lycans existed. That was a shame, because from what she could tell, they seemed like an amazing people.
The pack and family was the most important thing to them. Children were a gift to be nurtured and loved unconditionally. Rules and traditions were upheld between the families, and it really did seem that it took a community as a whole to raise a pup.
Then there was Callum himself, the alpha, the big wolfman that held everything together. He’d lost his father when he was very young and his mother had become rogue after losing her mate. He’d become an orphan. Raised by the pack and risen to the rank of Alpha among them. He’d told her stories of his life growing up, of his struggles, his fight to become Alpha and his longing for a mate. Her. She felt both honoured and blessed by his truth, by the peace he told her he had found inside at having his mate with him, and his need for her to return to him so they could start their life together.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to return to him; it was that she didn’t know how. He’d scared the hell out of her, changing the way that he had. She hadn’t even known he was Lycan. If she’d known then maybe it wouldn’t have been such a damn shock. Knowing what she knew now, she could see his wolf for what it was; a beautiful animal that was both ferociously protective and devotedly loving, both to his people and towards her. But when there was a big fangy beast coming at you…that wasn’t your first rational thought.
Kiera felt as if her whole world was just floating in some way station. At first she couldn’t even feel him, but she knew he was there. She could hear his words, gently spoken and with the odd low, deep growl dropped in here and there. But gradually she had felt his warmth, the strength of his arms as he held her. The brush of his fingers as they stroked down her back, against her hair, and she was sure she had felt his lips against her ear once or twice recently…
Callum felt her fingers twitch for the second time against his chest and carried on speaking to her. He’d lost track of the stories he’d told her. He must have gone through his whole childhood from the day he was born to his meeting her, and now he was telling her of the future that they could have together. The life they would live if she became his mate. The hopes he had for them as a pack, anything to try to ground her to him, to bring her back.
“Even this day, today, with everything that has happened, we can tell our grandchildren, because by then it will just be a funny story. How the stupid Alpha stripped naked in the snow and shifted in front of his human mate, scaring you to silence. But how you were strong enough to overlook the fact that I was a complete fool and came back to be with me…”Her fingers curled slightly against his top and his heart skipped inside his chest. “How you forgave me for being an idiot and let me make it up to you everyday of our lives together.”
He couldn’t help but brush his lips against the top of her ear. His breath caressed her skin and her fingers curled further against his chest. Callum reached for her hand and covered it with his own. “And I will, sweetheart that I can promise you. Every single day I will treasure you, love you, and be there for you. I’ll never choose to leave you, and if the God’s see fit to take me away from you, I will be there with you in spirit until we meet again on the other side.”
Callum heard her suck in a breath. It had been the first sound that had come from her lips in so long that he wondered if he had imagined it. He felt her heart kick against her ribs and her body seemed to slowly thaw against his. He felt a rush of emotions from her, and it hit him like a wave, so many emotions in one go that he couldn’t identify one from the other. It was as if a dam had burst and the torrent that gushed out was quite overwhelming, even for him.
“W-wolf.” It was music to his ears. After what felt like an eternity without hearing her speak, even that one word, an obvious indictment of what he was, sounded like a gift.
“I’m sorry I frightened you.” He let his eyes close and held onto the feeling of having her within his arms. He didn’t want to let that go, but he thought she might need a little space away from him to be more at ease. Callum felt her body move against his and set her back from him. “I’m going to go and get something for you to drink, maybe some food…?”
Kiera didn’t say anything. Her emotions were overwhel
med with everything that she was feeling, but the loss of his arms about her, the feel of his strength around her, seemed to be slowing down the process of rational thought. She wanted to tell him not to leave her, but her brain and mouth didn’t seem to be cooperating.
Callum slipped from the bed and covered her with the thick woollen blanket in place of his body heat. He would fetch Teri to sit with her now that she was recovering, and he would fix her something to nourish her. With a final look back over his shoulder at her as she lay in his bed, Callum slipped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Callum jogged down the stairs and saw the Fae pacing back and forth over the rug in his living room. Two pairs of expectant eyes swung towards him and he nodded his head, a smile on his lips. “She’s recovering. I think you should be with her now.” He informed them.
The sound of the front door opening brought his attention towards it and the vampire that stood in the open doorway. The rage that tore through him was centred only on him. Cyrus knew what was about to come before the thought had even finished forming within the Alpha’s mind. It took a heartbeat for that thought to turn into action as Callum roared out his intention and hurled himself across the room to where the Vampire stood.
“Oh, crap…”The impact took Cyrus off his feet as the alpha hit him full force in the chest. He felt two sets of claws dig into his flesh as he was hurtled backwards away from the house and out into the night. The weight of the man was akin to being hit by a brick wall at speed, and the sudden impact of his back against the hard earth made up a sandwich of hurt that tore through his body.