I gritted my teeth and forced myself through the words of the ritual, fully aware that our conversation was creating a palpable charge in the air that the packs could pick up on.
“Will you accept a stud of silver through your tongue?” I threw out angrily, and noticed Silas' eyes going wide. Mm. I was probably going to regret this one.
I could feel the awe emanating from the werewolves gathered around us, this palpable admiration for me that filtered through our pack bond. Like I said, there was no way I was making the coward's choice here. I needed the packs to believe in me. If that meant doing something as incredibly stupid as putting poisoned silver through my tongue, then so be it.
“Yes, Alpha,” he said, some of the cockiness stripped from his voice as we both realized how damn bad this was going to hurt.
The Jeweler approached and I swear, I had to stop and rub blood away from my eyes so I could see her clearly.
I extended my tongue, my eyes latched to her purple-black ones as she took a stud with a small silver ball on the end of it … and stabbed it into my flesh. Um, seriously don't try this shit at home. One advantage of being a werewolf is that all the usual necessities of a piercing—antiseptic, a hollow needle, gloves—aren't important. As soon as I took the silver out, it would start to heal. And as long as it was in my mouth, it'd make a bloody mess of it regardless of how careful we were.
The pain was … violent and all-consuming.
I pulled my tongue back into my mouth and then promptly felt my knees give out.
Silas caught me as I fell, and I managed to find my feet, blood bubbling up along the crease of my lips.
What. The. Hell. Was I thinking?
Now I'd have to kiss Jax, Nic, and the Alpha-Son of Pack Amber Ash with a fucking silver tongue stud in my mouth. I had not thought that one through completely. I should've saved it for last. It … just sort of seemed to fit Silas though, that tongue stud. Or maybe I was just reluctant to admit that even I made mistakes sometimes?
No.
No way.
I forced myself to stand strong and watch as Silas received the same treatment.
He, too, ended up on his knees. I caught him just before he hit the stone floor, easing him carefully to the ground and following him down.
“Zara and Silas of Ebon Red.”
Those words boomed over our heads as we knelt together, one of his knees between mine, both of us struggling to breathe past the blood and the pain in our mouths.
“I always wanted to be your mate, you know?” he said, and the words were so sincere—and so flecked with tiny spots of blood—that I smiled.
I put a hand on Silas' chest and pushed him back, onto his ass. And then I crawled in his lap and let him put the strong bands of his tattooed arms around me. Our second kiss was just as powerful as our first had been all those years ago, reminding me that no matter how frustrating I found him sometimes, I was attracted to him, too. Silas had that edgy, bad boy vibe that I was always warning Faith away from.
Damn it.
When it came to Silas Vetter, I just couldn't resist.
I wiggled in his lap and felt the hard bulge of his cock beneath the fabric of his brown cargo pants. Nic is so going to freak when he finds out about this. There was no love lost between Nic and Silas, that was for sure. But I was already here and Silas tasted so damn good, like more than just blood, like cigarettes and the vibrant heat of lust.
Sometime soon probably, we'd finally get to slake this edgy need that'd been brewing between us since we were sixteen years old. I couldn't wait to feel his tattooed hands all over my naked body, see his inked fingers kneading the pale mounds of my breasts. When those hands and fingers I'd just been fantasizing about sneaked beneath my dress and clutched the bareness of my ass, I gasped and came to like I'd been slapped, rising to my feet like a shot.
More laughter followed me up as my cheeks flushed and I wondered yet again what the hell was going on here. Another glance in Majka and Nikolina's direction wasn't helpful; they were both smirking at me. I thought of the careful way my grandmother had braided my hair and applied my makeup. If she'd wanted to sneak a spell in there, she very well could have.
Maybe she'd dropped a love or a lust spell on me without my noticing? Maybe this was just more of her raining hell?
I held out a hand to help Silas to his feet, surprised when he paused and took the time to press a bloody kiss to my cheek. Just like the others, he took up a position behind and to the side of me.
Next, I wanted to yell jokingly. At first, this had been kind of fun. Now … I was starting to feel slightly dizzy from pain and blood loss. Oh, and aroused. Very, very aroused. My core clenched tight, throbbing and pulsing and begging me to bed one of these males the first chance I got. My wolf side seemed to growl in agreement.
Yep.
Majka definitely spelled me.
Either that or losing my virginity last night had awakened something new and fierce and feminine inside of me, something that demanded to be sated. And why not? I would have seven mates to slake my thirst, wouldn't I?
“Jaxson of Azure Frost.”
The cool, easy sound of Jax's voice felt like a balm against my heated flesh as I looked up at him, watching as he knelt and was acknowledged by Nikolina before making his way to me. He seemed to prefer wolf form, so seeing his human side—dressed in a long blue robe, open at the front of course, and a pair of cream colored pants—was a nice change.
'You look tired,' he told me, a wry smile on his face and a sparkle in his sharp blue eyes.
Now, there were a lot of strong males in the Pairing, some of whom were kind of dickish. But Jax? When I looked at him, I felt a real threat to my dominance, like he could and would push me every chance he got. I wasn't sure if I was excited by the prospect of a challenge or frustrated knowing I'd have to put up with that for at least a year—forever if I chose him as my mate.
'Exhausted,' I admitted as I realized how quickly all this silver was draining me. I'd been told by both Nikolina and Majka that the first few times I wore it, I'd feel groggy and sluggish and that the pain would be twice as bad. After a while, they'd assured me, I'd get used to it.
Jax pushed some pale blonde hair back from his face, waiting with a bemused twist of his lips for me to continue the ceremony. He smelled like oranges, like lemons, like a breakfast of grapefruit with sugar sprinkled across the top.
I licked my bloody lower lip and he mimicked the motion.
Azure Frost is right, I thought as he looked at me with a sardonic expression burning in that blue gaze. He's so … cold. But in an intriguing sort of way. It probably would've offended him to no end to hear this, but his expression reminded me more of a fox than a wolf. Sly, cunning, just a tad tricksy.
“I am your Alpha and you are my mate. Do you accept these terms as they've been given?” I said, surprised to hear my clear, strong voice reduced to a husky whisper. I think it was the tongue ring that really did it. It was hard to talk with blood oozing down the back of my throat.
At that point, I just wanted the bonding over so I could escape to the Pairing House and tear off all my silver.
“Yes, Alpha,” Jax said, with a sly smirk. I narrowed my eyes.
“To represent our union, we'll each wear a piece of silver. Will you accept a pair of silver eyeglasses?”
'What if I said no?' he asked jokingly and grinned at me, a wolfish grin that mimicked that frustratingly smug look he got on his face when he was in wolf form.
“Yes, Alpha.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, at first because Jax was annoying the shit out of me. And then because I found that if I gripped my own biceps, the position helped brace me a little.
The Jeweler—who I no longer found ethereally beautiful and was actually starting to kind of hate—slipped a pair of silver frames with no lenses onto my nose. The effect was immediate, like a punch to the face that translated straight into an awful migraine pounding between my temples.
Slowly, I tilted my head back and looked up through one of the holes in the ceiling, at the twilight kiss of color in the sky. Contrary to popular belief, werewolves were not nocturnal. We were, in fact, crepuscular by nature. Basically that meant our people were most active during dawn and dusk.
I didn't feel particularly active in that moment, standing in a sea of werewolves in a crumbling old hotel decorated only with flowers and vines and branches. I think I might pass out.
I dropped my chin just in time to see the Jeweler slip the silver glasses onto Jax's face, lines of red welling up and sliding down his cheeks like a macabre painting.
“Zara and Jaxson of Ebon Red,” Nikolina announced as Jax reached up and used his thumb to rub some of the blood away from my face. The effect of his touch was instantaneous, this sudden, sharp burst of feeling that made me gasp in surprise. I felt like he'd kissed my skin with a touch of wild frost, so cold that my body registered it as hot. My thighs clenched tight and I found my breath quickening, a bead of sweat trailing down my spine to mix with the blood from my belt.
That … that was what really sealed the deal for me. I mean, this guy was a complete a-hole and yet, I was reacting to him the same way I'd reacted to Silas. Damn you, Majka, I grumbled to myself, even as I was wondering if there was something else at work here, something inside of me that was responding to all these guys. What if that magic that Nic and I summoned last night was still sitting inside of me, calling out like to like, calling out for Pack.
I grabbed Jax's wrist and pulled his hand away, leaning forward to press my lips against the arrogant shape of his. I'd just barely had time to slip my tongue between his lips and then he was pulling away and planting a kiss on my palm, tossing a cruel wink in my direction before sauntering off to join the others.
The shape of his mouth haunted me as I turned and glanced at him over my shoulder, vision slightly blurry, head swimming, headache pounding. That jerk, I thought with a clenching of my jaw. That brief touch of my mouth to his had only made me curious to find out what would happen if he hadn't pulled away—and that infuriated me.
Once again, I felt like I had that first day, when he'd been staring me down upstairs. He might've looked away, but there was no way in hell he was truly submitting. The urge to put him on his back, make him expose his belly, it was almost too much.
White fur rippled around my hands and arms and I noticed Jax raising his pale blonde brows in surprise. A growl tore from my throat, a clear challenge that was now sitting out there in front of everyone, something that I couldn't take back.
Jaxson stared at me for a long moment and then he was the one clenching his jaw and looking like he wanted to put me on my belly. Those blue of eyes of his stared out at me from inside the silver frames of the glasses, narrowing slightly before he stepped forward and bowed his head.
“Take the kiss,” he growled in a low, edgy voice. “Just take it.”
“I don't want a kiss from you if you don't want to give it,” I told him truthfully.
Jaxson Kidd lifted his head like he was surprised, and then without warning, he was stepping forward and kissing me, putting his tongue between my lips. Whatever effect he was having on me, I knew then that he could feel it, too.
With a sly smile of my own, I pulled back and then grabbed his hand, planting a kiss on his palm and then winking at him—stealing all his tricksy fox moves for myself.
The surprise on his face made it all worth it as I turned back to Nikolina and made myself take slow, controlled breaths of air. Two more—and one of those is Nic. You can do this, Zara. You are strong.
For a second there, I'd almost forgotten that there was a boy I hadn't met, had never met.
The shock of seeing such an unfamiliar face come around that corner temporarily helped restore me to full consciousness.
“Tidus of Amber Ash,” said the boy with gray eyes and honey colored hair. His skin was kissed by the sun, and his smile was like a ray of light in the encroaching darkness. Orange beams from the sinking sun filtered through the glass in the ceiling and reflected off his hair, making it shine like, well, amber.
“Tidus Wolf,” Nikolina greeted after he took a knee and came down to see me—completely stark naked. Oh, except for some gold bracelets on his forearms. There were also a few tattoos etched into his muscular body that I was having trouble identifying—the woozy, dizzy feeling was quickly sneaking back up on me.
“Tidus Wolf,” I said, almost like I was surprised to see him standing there. And I don't know if it was because I was quickly losing it or what, but his smell … oh god, his smell. It made my nipples tighten and my sex swell. For a werewolf, scent was a very powerful thing and this boy smelled like everything I'd ever wanted, sandalwood and amber (surprise, surprise) and sunshine.
I tried really hard not to look down. It shouldn't have mattered. Nudity had never been an issue for me. I'd seen naked men and women pretty much daily for my entire life. But this guy? It was like when I was with Nic, how his nakedness affected me in a way that nobody else's did. Well, apparently nobody else but Tidus Hahn—and you know, the other five alpha-sons.
The edges of his eyes crinkled when he smiled at me, and he seemed to be biting his lower lip to hold back a laugh, probably because I was looking down still.
“Nice to meet you, too,” he whispered aloud, followed by a jovial chuckle. I heard Majka grumble something about how young people never respected ritual and ceremony and protocol and then she cursed Tidus out by saying fuck your goat father in Croatian. Don't ask me why; it was just something she said. Often.
I cleared my throat and closed my eyes for a moment, just so we could get through the words of the ritual without me passing out. It was bad enough to feel an instant, wild attraction to a ton of guys I'd never met/barely knew when I'd never been that type of person before in my life—Faith was always getting crushes and flirting and dating and breaking up but not me—and it was a whole other thing to feel all of these crazy hormones at the same time I was near certain I might die from silver poisoning.
“Will you accept a silver circlet on your arm?” I asked finally, opening my eyes.
“Yes, Alpha,” Tidus said, and I swear, there was almost an exclamation point at the end of that phrase. The Alpha-Son of Pack Amber Ash actually seemed thrilled to be standing here.
The Jeweler came toward us again and I had to fight with everything I had inside of me not to growl at her.
I held up my right arm and let her slip an intricate silver cuff onto my bicep. The thing that scared me the most about that, was that I hardly even felt it, watching rivulets of blood pool in my inner elbow without even registering the heat or the wetness of it.
Tidus accepted his arm cuff with grace, allowing the Jeweler to mold it to his generously curved bicep, right over a black and gray tattoo of … something. I had to swipe blood out of my eyes to get a better look at it, and by the time I did, he was bleeding profusely and obscuring his own ink.
“Zara and Tidus of Ebon Red.”
“That has a nice ring to it, don't you think?” he asked, just before he scooped me up in his arms and kissed me smack on the lips. The warmth of his personality shone through in the way he moved his mouth, letting me part his lips with my tongue and take control, following my lead and letting me suck his bottom lip into my own mouth.
At least one of my potential mates isn't a dick, right?
I'd known this guy for all of two seconds and I was pretty sure he'd pass the friend test with Faith right away. Hell, she'd probably fall in love with him before the week was out. If it got her to dump Owen, I was sort of okay with that.
“Holy crap, you taste nice,” Tidus whispered against my mouth, and it occurred to me then that I was lying in a stranger's arms and letting him lick and suck my lips.
“So do you,” I admitted as he set me down and I realized that the ground was rocking like the deck of a boat. Tidus held onto my hips for a moment and I found that I enjoyed the warmth of h
is palms against me—even if it was all part of some magically induced lust haze.
He seemed to recognize when I was ready for him to let go, taking the second to last spot behind me.
When Nikolina waved her hand once again and the last of the boys appeared at the top of the stairs, the entire room went silent.
Nic Hallett stood there in the same coat and pants I'd seen him in that morning, eyes rimmed with kohl and focused on my unstable, bloody form with a certain level of alarm that I found comforting. He was always there looking out for me. Always. And at the very least, for a year he was mine.
“Nicoli of Ebon Red,” he said, his voice echoing throughout the lobby.
As the Alpha Female of Ebon Red, Nikolina had no need to explain herself or justify her decisions. The other packs would not like Nic participating in the Pairing, but what were they going to do? I imagined that if at the end of this, I chose him, they'd rebel. The alliance would crumble. The witches or the vampires or whoever was responsible for spiriting my people away would get exactly what they wanted—a fractured, broken people to pick apart.
But I wouldn't let that happen.
“Nicoli Wolf,” my mother said with an evil smirk on her reddened lips, her own black eyes draped with kohl.
Seemingly in slow motion, I watched as Nic made his way to me. I was so happy to see him that I could barely contain the tears of pain and fatigue that wanted to fall in fat droplets down my face. He was here, with me, part of the Pairing. The thing I'd wanted most in the world was right here in front of me and I was finding it almost impossible to enjoy it. My vision was going white at the edges and I was starting to hear a very distinct ringing in my ears.
“Nicoli Wolf,” I repeated, my voice a husky scrape of sound.
'Zara, are you okay?' Nic asked, and I could tell he was on the verge of panicking. His hands curled into tight fists at his sides as he fought the urge to touch me.
Pack Ebon Red (The Seven Mates of Zara Wolf Book 1) Page 17