by Bonnie Vanak
“He looked…at my private place and laughed.” Shame pricked her. “And said, ‘Look at that. Fresh wolf cunt.’”
Tristan’s fingers on her arm tightened.
“And then they all laughed.”
A low growl rumbled from deep in his throat. Tristan released her arms and sprang off the bed, pacing back and forth. “That fucking bastard. That bastard! How dare he insult you, my mate!”
With a snarl, he picked up one of the pretty silk pillows from the bed and threw it across the room. Claws emerged from his fingertips. He raked them down the thick tapestries lining the wall, shredding one. “I should tear his throat out.”
“Better his throat than the tapestry. It is a very nice tapestry.”
He looked at her, and gave a harsh chuckle. “My Nikita. You are a treasure.”
She was not alarmed at his fury, but relieved at his protective streak. Perhaps she did come first in this mating, as his vows had stated. But then fear filled her as well, for Emer was a powerful Fae king with the might of the Fae army behind him. The Fae ruled over shifters like Lupines.
“I daresay you are not the only Lupine who wishes to rip out his throat. The fathers and mothers of all virgin Lupines who must endure this new, brute tradition would agree with you,” she told him.
Dying candlelight gleamed upon his skin, shadows dancing over the muscled flanks as he strode across the room and joined her in bed. She was accustomed to his nudity by now, and it felt natural. More natural than the binding clothing, the thick gowns required by Emer’s court.
“All Lupines are required to this barbaric ritual? Since when?”
“Since King Emer made a law for shifters, all shifters, more than two moons ago.” Nikita shook her head, bemused. “Have you truly been so blind to the needs of your people, Tristan?”
Guilt touched his expression. “I have. Too long I have been in Emer’s court, away from my own people and their woes.”
“We have little power. Especially not the commoners, Tristan. The Fae rule over us and do as they please.”
Her mate’s body tensed, as if he came to a new realization. “Our lives belong to him. Drust warned me, but I refused to listen, hoping things would change. Hoping I could change them, since Emer respects me.”
Tristan shoved a hand through his thick, dark hair. “I was a fool. Emer respects me not at all and respects our people even less. He leaves us no privacy, strips away our dignity as it pleases him. We deserve better. We deserve to be free to hunt upon our lands as we please, not wait for permission, and form our own packs instead of living as Emer dictates. Lupines should not be mixed with other shifters.”
He cupped her face with his strong, warm palms. “You deserved better, my sweet. I am so sorry you were forced to endure such humiliation. It was not me who ordered that procedure. I would never request that of you.”
As he curled his arms around her, she heard him say words that made her blood turn cold:
“One day, we shall be free of his tyranny, even if it means war.”
Chapter 9
Niki awoke, her mind refreshingly clear instead of muddied as most dreams left her. She slowly sat up, and saw Tristan watching her with a guarded look.
“It was war, then.”
He nodded, hugging his knees. “Our wedding night opened my eyes, Nikita. You opened my eyes. I had failed to realize the brutality of Emer’s reign, the indignities our people were forced to suffer.”
The dream hadn’t been as much about the initial joining of their bodies, but the joining of purpose. Niki gave a humorless laugh. She, who had only wished to mate with the handsome Tristan and raise a family, had ignited the spark inside him that began a war that ultimately destroyed them both.
She stretched out her hands and wriggled her fingers.
Tristan’s brows knit together. “What are you doing, my sweet?”
“Studying my hands. They don’t look like the bloodied hands of a warmonger.”
“They are not. They are the hands of a woman I wish to make my mate again, in this life. Let’s forget the past, and start anew.”
But she could not forget the past, for in doing so, she disrespected all they had shared, all those hopes and dreams the old Nikita had kept alive. And though he spoke words of purpose and passion, his deep voice carried a note of hollowness and he made no attempt to draw close to her.
“Start anew, when you still have the same mindset, Tristan? I am flesh and blood, with dreams and hopes of my own. We had a life as mates, but you died.”
“And I am immortal now. I am the Silver Wizard, with immeasurable powers. You need not worry about me.”
“Worry about you?” She scrambled to her feet. “I’m worried about me. You want to have sex with me and then go charging off on your duties as wizard, locking me up like a prisoner to keep me safe.”
Blue flickered in the darkness of his eyes, signaling the rise of his powers. “When I make love to you, Nikita, you will be a willing prisoner…in my bed. I plan to keep you there for a long time until you beg me to stop. Or not stop.”
A wicked smile touched his sensual mouth. “It is a good thing I have a very sturdy bed with a thick headboard that will not break when it bangs against the wall.”
Headboard banging sex. Oh wow. Her wolf howled with sheer female need as Nikita studied his muscled form and the thick silk of his hair billowing in the breeze. Tristan, after that first awful encounter, had been an expert lover in the past, and her dreams of their time together in bed had left her aware and aroused to the point of pain.
But that was a different Nikita. She was not afraid to state her needs. “Fine. Then let’s do it. Right here. Who needs a bed?”
He blinked. “This is a place that tests the will of all, including immortal wizards. And if I touch you, my control may shatter. I cannot make love to you until I am mortal, unless I use protection and prevent conception.”
His deep voice went husky. “And I do not wish your first time to be as brutal as I was in the past, my sweet. But if I touch you, lust will win over my control. I will not be…gentle.”
“I’m not fragile or made from glass, Tristan. I’m also not the naïve Lupine of nine hundred years ago. I can handle whatever you dish out.”
“Can you?” he asked softly, the blue of his eyes growing brighter, signaling the rise of his power. His nostrils flared, as if he scented her rising desire.
“Or you are suggesting I conjure a battery-operated boyfriend to deal with my frustration?”
Barely had the words left her mouth when a flesh-toned vibrator in the shape of a penis appeared in her right hand. Niki’s eyes went wide. Goodness, it was six inches long and round as a fat sausage. Startled, she clasped the bottom and triggered a switch.
The vibrator began jerking from side to side.
He gave her a pointed look. “And you wish me to compete with that?”
“If memory serves correctly in nine hundred years, you have nothing to worry about.” The BOB began growing until it was a foot long. Then longer.
Tristan scratched the rough bristles on his firm chin. “This is quite entertaining. Are you trying to set a world record?”
The vibrator suddenly began to sprout little green wriggling tentacles that licked the air. Tristan raised a dark brow.
“I read a very bad erotic romance not long ago,” she admitted, feeling her face heat. “It was a freebie.”
“It certainly did stay in your imagination,” he murmured. “I hope you are not into monster porn?”
“Please. I have more taste than that. Getting impregnated by a wizard is enough of a challenge. I have no desire to climb into bed with a T-Rex.”
Niki threw the BOB to the side. It began twisting and growing, and forming teeth. Dear goddess! It grew into a lizard-like shape…much like a baby T-Rex. Tristan flicked a finger at the BOB and it vanished with a soft poof.
Humiliated that her dark fantasies had surfaced, she picked up the apple and resumed e
ating it. At least fruit was safe. Apples…not bananas.
Suddenly the apple turned into a large yellow banana. Choking, she drew it out of her mouth and set it down.
“This place is dangerous,” she said in a shaky voice. “I can’t even eat fruit.”
“What do you wish, Nikita?” He sounded tired.
Love. Love me the way I need to be loved, as if I’m the only Lupine in your universe and there’s no one else claiming your attention. Put me first and make me your world. I’ve been so lonely for so long, as if I’ve lived in a vacuum.
I want to travel the world, see sights, have adventures with someone at my side who will be my best friend, my lover, my mate.
But she knew his answer. He could not love her. Care for her, feel affection, yes. Put her needs first? He’d promised that. But love, the deep kind that her twin shared with Aiden, the binding love that sealed together Lupine mates as they went through life, making babies, raising a family and watching their children grow, and then their grandchildren?
No.
He was an unreachable immortal and as the Silver Wizard, he must focus on his duties to judge and guard all shifters.
No matter how much she wished it was otherwise. Unless she agreed to give up her life as a mortal Lupine, and stay with him in Tir Na-nog, never seeing her own family ever again.
Looking down at her elegant gown, and the glittering threads of the bodice, she felt a sense of new purpose. “Did I die in this gown?”
Tristan didn’t look at her. “It was your burial gown.”
“Then enough of this.” She closed her eyes and imagined herself as a strong, capable female warrior, one who would not allow anyone to poison her or her child.
When she opened her eyes, she wore tight fawn trousers of supple cloth, a matching fawn vest made of soft doeskin, and a long-sleeved silky blouse, gathered at the wrists. Her hair was bound back in a ponytail. In her right hand was a bow and slung over her right shoulder was a quiver filled with arrows.
“Like a female Robin Hood,” she murmured. She cleared her throat. “I’d rather be the Sheriff of Nottingham. That’s it then.”
Niki cleared her throat and quoted from the movie she’d seen, “Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings and call off Christmas.”
Tristan did not even blink. He was too busy staring at her legs.
“Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Alan Rickman was a splendid actor, a terrific Sheriff of Nottingham.”
“I do not know about Robin Hood, but those trousers are most becoming on you.” Desire ignited his dark eyes as he lifted his gaze to her startled face.
She flushed beneath his hungry gaze. “You’ve seen my bare legs before.”
“Not like this. Not in the Shadow Lands, where everything, including my own lust, is amplified.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Though the gown was distressing because it was your burial shroud, I prefer gowns. Although they do make you more accessible when I wish to take you.”
“Wish to take me!”
His gaze gleamed. “Do you remember the mirror image when we first entered the hotel, Nikita?”
How could I forget?
Curious, she studied him. The deliberately relaxed pose could not disguise the tension in his muscles…
This was a land of danger, but one of fantasies as well. “What is it like having sex with you?”
His gaze grew intent. “Sit down close your eyes, my sweet. When I pleasure you with my touch, it will be quite intense. You may pass out.”
As her eyelids lowered, she felt him touch her. All over, his hands caressing and exploring, as if her skin were bared to him. Nipples tingling, she moaned, feeling him gently thumb them until they became diamond hard.
She felt his mouth, warm and firm and commanding, upon her own and sighed, opening to him. His tongue lazily thrust inside, an invitation. She moaned as he deepened the kiss.
And then he drew away and she felt his hand skim down her belly, dip into the waistband of her trousers.
He put his hand between her legs.
Shocked and aroused, she opened her eyes and saw him leaning against a tree.
He hadn’t touched her at all. Had distanced himself from her in fact. Yet the pleasure now pulsing between her legs, growing more and more intense, felt quite real.
It was magick. He was using his powers to make it feel as if he touched her with his hands, and now teased and stimulated her sex. Oh wow, it felt like his long, skilled fingers were sliding between the slick wetness of her cleft, then lightly stimulating her clit. Rubbing, stroking with gentle, expert moves, making every muscle in her body tense with pleasure.
The tension between her legs built higher and higher until she collapsed, screaming as the pleasure exploded into orgasm. Stars burst behind her eyelids and she gasped for breath.
For a few moments, she struggled to regain her lost composure, wondering if she would ever be the same again.
Chapter 10
A slow smile curved Tristan’s handsome face.
“Was it good for you, my sweet?”
Good? Toe-curling, mind-bending amazing.
“That,” she dragged more air into her lungs, “was how it was with us in bed?”
“A mere taste of it,” he said softly.
The experience left Niki deeply shaken. She’d always known Lupines were sensual, but the impact of his magick touch had left her panting for more. And she didn’t want this, didn’t want him to give her such intoxicating pleasure that it clouded her mind to all else.
Trying to control her breathing, she held out a hand. “Give me a moment.”
He waited, his gaze heavy-lidded.
The wizard had woven a spell of sensual magick with his kisses and his fiery passion. He held a mysterious, sexual power over her that could turn her into his willing slave, making her forget her own dreams and hopes.
How was she supposed to leave him when she craved his touch again like a drug?
“Was it like that between us all the time?”
“Most of it. I was quite lusty and you were most desirable.” His look grew dangerously intent. “As you are now.”
“Seems like a one-sided experience,” she shot back. “You make me fall to pieces and you stand there as if none of this affects you.”
His mouth narrowed. “Do not judge me, Nikita. I am quite affected, which is why I cannot physically touch you here and now.”
Then he turned abruptly, but not before she caught the frantic pulse beating in his neck, and the interesting tent in his trousers.
She was not alone in this desire, it seemed. Tristan wanted her as badly. It should be reassuring, but she wondered what would happen if he surrendered to his own passion.
He studied the sky peeking through the thick covering of trees. “Come, Nikita. We must hurry. We are spending far too much time in these lands.”
I already came, she thought humorlessly.
Trying to tamp down her desire, she followed him.
But she needed to know more about this mysterious wizard who turned her world upside down and showed her a glimpse of such incredible passion. He was immortal, yet felt desire. Showed it.
She navigated over a large, fallen log and jumped down. “If you’re immortal, how can you have sex?”
Tristan stopped and turned, the look on his face almost comical.
“You said everything in the Shadow Lands is not corporeal since they are dead. And yet you are living, you have a beating heart, you have a body and you have…” Her gaze dropped down to his groin. She looked away, flushing.
“Yes, I have one of those as well and it works quite well,” he said dryly. “Too well, for it has a mind of its own.” He glanced upward. “We have a long way to go yet. We must not delay.”
As he began walking again, he kept looking around, scanning for danger. But her curiosity would not be denied. She had dozens of questions and he had not answered many.
“But how
can you have a functioning body? If you wish me to drink this magick elixir so I can become immortal, I need to know the basics. I’m a science geek, Tristan. I need to know how things work.”
Tristan held back a low-hanging branch so she could duck beneath it. “We wizards are as corporeal as your pack, Nikita. When I was made the Silver Wizard, I underwent a transformation, as you will, except you will not have my powers. I was made corporeal again, and the powers endowed in me allow me to live in Tir Na-nog as flesh, not spirit. The elixir of the Blooded Moonflower helps maintain our immortality. It is the only food, if you will, we require. And when you drink it, you will become immortal as well.”
“Like a human tasting ambrosia in the Greek myths becomes immortal. So the elixir is the food of the wizards as ambrosia is the food of the Greek gods?”
A faint smile touched his mouth as they navigated past another fallen log. “Yes. Except we wear better clothing and we are much less capricious with our powers.”
The smile dropped. “It is forbidden for me to share my seed with a mortal, for it contains part of my magick and my powers as the Silver Wizard. I cannot make love to you until we reach Tir Na-nog and my home, where I will become mortal again for the ten days you are with me.”
He turned and started through the forest again, and she walked at his side this time, not behind. Tristan kept scanning the forest, as if looking for something.
By drinking the magick elixir, she could become immortal as well, but lose her family.
Tristan told her to get to the crystal cave where Drust hid Prince Alexander, they had to walk through a desert filled with hidden traps. Like a minefield, she thought, as they eyed the treacherous terrain ahead. Nostrils flaring, she looked at the long plateau of tawny sand. Like the deserts of Egypt, it seemed a giant sea of sand, no end in sight. Her wolf, already uncomfortable with the stale air, the heat and the smell of old blood, whined.