by Cecy Robson
His crooked smile held more mischief then I’d ever seen. “Oh, that. Sure, I could do that.”
Aric had expected me to ask him to do more than just sit and chat. I tugged at my bottom lip nervously with my teeth. He released the softest of groans. I staggered away before I succumbed to the urge to rip off my clothes and his. He followed close behind me, placing his hand on the small of my back when we entered the ballroom. My body stiffened with surprise. Perhaps he wanted to present me as his, but the rest of his kind clearly wasn’t ready to receive me.
Glares and whispers followed us as we made our way to where my sisters and friends waited.
“Problem?” Aric asked a werebear who shot us a particularly nasty scowl.
The bear dropped his gaze, but his bitter words cut us both. “We’re counting on you to keep our species from dying out, Aric. I haven’t turned my back on my responsibilities and neither should you.”
The she-bear next to him idly rubbed her small pregnant belly. She didn’t acknowledge us, or her partner. They were together, but not a couple—pures, I assumed, brought together by obligation, and not by love.
I hurried ahead, giving Aric ample space to change his mind and return to his pack. He paused briefly. The aroma of his rising frustration and anger reached my nose from afar. His warmth also reached my skin when he’d caught up to me. He didn’t want to abandon me. It should have thrilled me. Instead guilt warred with my happiness, making it difficult to relax once we reached my table.
Unlike the weres we passed, our loved ones greeted us with warm and pleased smiles. Gemini nodded at me, giving me the impression he sensed a different quality to Aric’s beast.
Liam pulled Emme on his lap so Aric could sit next to me. I crossed my legs and adjusted my skirt. Taran motioned to Aric when she caught him staring at my legs.
“You don’t have to be here,” I told him. “I’ll understand if you can’t stay.”
“I don’t want to leave you. We’ve been apart enough.”
I pursed my lips. “Not wanting to” and “having to” were two different things. I squirmed uncomfortably. The werebear was proof I’d been foolish to ask Aric to accompany me, especially here among the elite of his pack.
Danny arrived, interrupting Aric, who seemed to want to say more. My longtime friend shook, and breathed as if he’d been chasing cars.
“Where have you been?” I asked, worried something had happened to him.
Danny coughed into his hand. “Um. Heidi is on security detail. I, ah, just went to bring her something to eat.” It was then I noticed his wrinkled shirt and that the buttons weren’t lined up correctly. He’d hooked up with the Pamela Anderson of werewolves—again. He coughed, more and more as we all stared.
“You really like her, don’t you, Danny?” I asked.
Danny dropped his head and nodded. I was happy he’d found someone. I just hoped she wouldn’t break his heart. Heidi had a reputation for being lethal, earning her place as one of Aric’s Warriors. She also had a rep for sleeping around. And that was what worried me.
Bren leaned back in his seat, reeking of witch’s brew and slurring his words. “I can’t believe you banged someone as gorgeous as Heidi.”
Danny’s head shot up. “I’ve dated hot women before.”
“No, you haven’t, Dan. Aside from Celia, Heidi’s been your only decent lay.”
That’s when the world stopped.
Aric crushed the water goblet in his grasp like a withered twig. His Alpha glare honed in on Danny, making him jump. “You were with my Celia?”
Danny jerked toward me. “You never told him?”
Oh, no.
Aric dropped the fractured pieces of glass onto the table. They fell like broken icicles. His hand showed no signs of injury, but his face shadowed with fury and betrayal. “You went after Celia the moment my back was turned, knowing I was goddamn miserable without her.”
Danny’s voice quavered. “Aric, I didn’t. Honest I didn’t. You have to believe me.”
Bren, of course, just had to jump to our rescue. “Come on, Aric. They only slept together a few times.”
Aric rose slowly. Koda and Gem stood with him, placing themselves on either side of him.
“Aric, you need to calm down and take control of your wolf,” Gemini said.
“This isn’t the time, Aric.” Koda’s voice was just as stern as Gem’s. “Reel in your beast.”
Aric ignored them both. He trembled, and his voice was barely restrained. “This . . . happened more than once?” He wouldn’t even look at me, despite my frantic pleas to calm and Taran’s threat to jolt him with lightning. His wolf was focused on Danny—his prey.
I clutched his hand. “Aric, please—you don’t understand. This happened years ago.”
Aric left Danny to focus on me. He stopped shaking when I touched him, but his fury still heated the air around him. “When did it happen?”
“We were young, Aric. Just kids.”
“Kids?”
I held out my hand. “That’s not what I meant. It came out wrong.”
Liam closed in on Aric palms out, stepping over Bren, who’d passed out drunk on the floor. “Come on, Aric. So what if he popped Celia’s cherry?”
My sisters and I gasped. I couldn’t even believe we were having this conversation.
Koda snarled through gritted teeth, “Liam, stop trying to help!”
I blocked Aric’s way when he lunged at Danny, and grasped both of Aric’s hands in mine. Gemini and Koda backed away. They knew Aric wouldn’t risk hurting me just to pound Danny. My gaze pleaded with him. “Aric, this is a senseless discussion. It happened before I ever met you. I swear we haven’t been together since.”
Aric’s heartbroken expression wrung my insides. “Why didn’t you ever tell me? You led me to believe you were only friends.”
“We are only friends, love.”
My term of endearment tamed Aric’s beast, but only momentarily. Once more the air around him fired with his anger. “Just like you and Misha are only friends? How many friends are you getting naked with and kissing?”
I’d forgotten Liam had told Aric about the kiss. I was driven with need to explain this and a lot more, but Aric’s words struck me like a blow. I shoved his hands away from mine. “It’s not what you think. Misha was trying to bring out my abilities and—”
“Oh, I bet he was,” Aric growled.
Aric had been growling all night. Whether it was his fired-up beast or not didn’t matter. I’d reached the end of my patience and so had my tigress. “Well, now you know everyone I’ve ever slept with: you and Danny. That’s two guys. How many girls have you been with, Mr. Pureblood? Can you even count that high?”
“That’s different. None of them ever meant anything to me.”
“And that makes it better?”
“Yes, it does. You can’t seem to let go of anyone you’re intimate with. After all, here you are with Danny and Misha—”
“And you.” That stopped Aric right in his tracks. I stared at him, trying hard not to cry. I’d missed him so much and all we’d done was fight. My voice broke. “You’re right, Aric. I can’t seem to let any of you go.”
Makawee’s essence swept in like a gentle rain, extinguishing the majority of my wolf’s rage, but not all of it. She interrupted calmly. “Aric, please come with me. This is a time for celebration, not anger. And, Celia, Uri would like a word with you.”
Aric and I glared at each other the entire way to the main table, where Misha and Tye also waited. Tye flashed me another dimple and waltzed his way between us to stand next to Aric. “How’s it going, man?” he asked him.
“Shut the hell up,” Aric snapped.
Uri’s hands clasped my elbows and led me to Misha, passing Anara and the hateful “hello” scowl he sent my way. “Oh, lovely Celia, it’
s so good to see you again,” Uri said. “The Elders and I were just discussing how vital you have been to our cause.”
Martin’s deep baritone voice resonated with a kindness I hadn’t expected. “You and your sisters have been most extraordinary.”
“Thank you,” I stammered. Martin had never been cruel to me. But seeing how he’d encountered Aric and me alone in the hall, his pleasantness surprised me. I looked around. The Elders and Uri all watched me. Even Anara regarded me with interest. They’d obviously been discussing me, which was bad enough. But I just about hurled when Makawee spilled the deets.
She clasped her hands and nodded approvingly when Misha slipped his arm around my shoulders. “We’re looking forward to seeing what gifts your children will possess.”
Aric shifted his gaze from me to Misha. “What?”
This isn’t happening to me.
“Misha and Celia have been talking about starting a family,” Uri explained like it was obvious.
Oh, sweet heaven, this is so not happening to me.
I threw my hands out like I was trying to stop a Mack truck. “Um, no— Wait!” I looked to Misha for help. Fang-ass had the nerve to smile angelically. “This whole . . . thing is being . . . misinterpreted.” It was no use; Aric’s face had darkened past red into vicious “I’m going to eat you” purple. And crap, his growls were worse than when I’d been with Tye.
Destiny popped out of nowhere, giggling like a toddler. “Uri, you have it all wrong. The tigress and the lion will mate.” She motioned to me, and to where Aric and Tye stood directly beside each other with a dramatic wave of her arms. “Their children will be the ones to keep the world safe from evil.”
She smiled with glee following her earth-shattering revelation, evidently believing this was the greatest prophecy ever. I stood there like someone had walloped me with a sledgehammer covered in poo. Tye danced his brows and gave me a wink. And at that moment, I thought both Aric and Misha were going to lose it.
Makawee angled her head inquisitively. “That is the future you have foreseen, Destiny?”
Destiny’s response was more enthusiastic than Tim’s at an edible underwear competition. “Oh, yes! It’s almost completely certain, Makawee.”
I wanted to run away screaming from this disastrous evening. Instead I excused myself like the lady I pretended to be and dashed for the bathroom. ’Cause that’s what women do when they’re faced with something they can’t deal with. My sisters chased after me. When they reached me they found me gripping the jade granite countertop and trying not to hyperventilate. It took me a few moments to enlighten them on my latest debacle.
Taran paced back and forth. “Son of a bitch. You’re supposed to make cubs with that werelion?”
“So says my Destiny,” I answered almost numbly.
Shayna focused on the stall in front of her as if the answers to my woes were etched into the door. “But you don’t even know him, like, at all!”
“Nor do I want to.”
Emme’s soft green eyes glistened with sympathetic tears. “I always thought you and Aric would find your way back to each other . . . no matter what.”
The ache in my throat intensified. “Yeah, I was kind of hoping for that, too.” My sisters watched me for a while, unsure what to say. Their kindness meant the world to me, but I’d taken enough of their time. They could still enjoy their evening. “Go back to your wolves. I’ll be out in a minute.”
They didn’t want to leave me, but seemed to recognize I needed a moment to catch my breath. When I finally deserted the bathroom, I couldn’t bring myself to return to the gala. I wandered through the foyer and onto the stacked-stone porch, where I took a seat near one of the outdoor fireplaces. Flurries continued to fall and the bitter cold chilled my bare legs. Yet the warmth from my inner beast and the fire made it tolerable.
Around me couples cuddled in corners. A few swept down the steps in their haste to find privacy. They had someone to keep them warm. Aric had more than a someone. He had two. I caught his scent and that of his dates as they led him past me. Their arms wrapped his waist and their bodies snuggled tightly against his. He might not have returned their affection, but he sure as hell wasn’t beating them back. He paused with his back to me, obviously having caught a trickle of my aroma. “Wait by my quarters,” he told them.
They kissed his cheeks and strutted off, stopping only to beam at Aric wickedly. He faced me then, his expression a horrible mixture of hurt and defeat. “I need to get over you. Don’t I?”
Tears burned my eyes as I rose. “If you do, you’re certainly giving it your all.”
He stepped toward me. “Don’t look at me that way—”
“What way, Aric? Like I expected more from you? Well, maybe I did!” I glared into the night where his tramps had flounced off. “Maybe I’m the one who needs to get over you. You’re not the man I thought you were. Not like this.” I swallowed hard. “It was my mistake to love you . . . and to think that you really loved me.”
I veered quickly and slammed right into Tye. He was happy to see me and yanked me into a tight embrace. The feeling wasn’t mutual and his words disgusted me. “There you are, dovie. Since we’ll be making babies soon, maybe we should get to know each other.”
I shoved him into a wall when he bent to kiss me. “If you think I’m going to sleep with you because some geek with hideous fashion sense said so, you’re out of your mind! Keep your goddamn hands to yourself before I ram them down your throat!”
I barreled down the steps and cut through a walkway between two smaller buildings. I wasn’t sure where I was going. I just wanted to get away from Tye and Aric. The walkway seemed endless. I don’t know how long I stormed down the path before it finally curved and led into a large garden.
The leaves had shriveled from the trees and stout bushes. I didn’t care about the barrenness and welcomed its solace, just like the large gulps of air I struggled to take. My back fell against a retainer wall. The cold granite was like a slab of ice against my exposed back, yet it didn’t bother me enough to move. My body trembled from my raw emotions and my tigress fought to emerge, to protect me from the pain of the evening and manage the hurt that always seemed to haunt our lives. I tried to settle her. It was hard. The mysticism of Tahoe brought my beast a sense of peace, both energizing and harmonizing my inner magic. We belonged in Tahoe, and in a way we were a part of it. It wasn’t that way in Squaw Valley. I was hated here, and there was nothing I could do to change that.
My anxiety and sadness surged. I needed a distraction before my tigress tore free. I concentrated hard on the branches of one tree. A slight breeze caused the tips to dance and drop icicles onto the snow like frozen tears. It comforted me in a way to have something symbolically cry for me. If I allowed myself to weep, I wasn’t sure when I’d stop.
My tension began to lift a little just when someone approached. Aric had tracked me. He moved toward me slowly and leaned against the wall beside me. We both stared straight ahead and didn’t speak for a long time.
I hated standing next to him like that, without talking, without touching. How had the relationship I’d once so cherished ended like this? “Don’t you have someplace else to be?”
“No.”
A growl burned my throat. “You could have fooled me.”
Aric let out a long breath. “You know what would have happened if I’d met those females—nothing. My beast rejects anyone who’s not you, and the man in me doesn’t fight to change his will. Except tonight.” He stared out hard into the darkness. “My Elders came down on me just now, and threw everything in my face—Destiny’s prediction, my obligations to my pack, and the annihilation my kind faces if we fail to reproduce. I finally surrendered and gave up any hope between us . . . and then I saw you on the porch. All it took was feeling your spirit beside me to know that I can’t be with anyone else.” He turned to me then. �
�No matter what anyone tells me.”
I angled my head to the side, not wanting to expose the rip in my heart.
“What about you?” he asked when I failed to speak.
I wiped my eyes. “What about me?”
“Do you want Tye?”
I couldn’t believe he even had to ask. “Of course not.”
“Or Danny?”
“No.”
“Or Misha?”
Tears streamed down my cheeks in tandem when I faced him. “How can I be with Misha or anyone when all I think about is you?”
Aric reached for me, holding my face with his hands and wiping my tears with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, sweetness. Please don’t cry.”
Aric’s eyes met mine, the way they had so many times in our past. There was no anger, no bitterness, no distance. Only compassion and tenderness remained. I held his hands with mine. “I can’t help it, Aric. I love you. I’d give anything to be with you.”
“You don’t have to.” He kissed me, hard, just as he had a thousand times in my dreams. The warmth we shared spread through me like a wave of soft water. I didn’t want to stop, but I knew I had to. Whether I loved him or not, the world needed him, and so did his pack. The werebear and his pregnant wife had shown me as much. I struggled against him and finally managed to pull away.
It hurt to move away from him so forcefully. My tigress rushed to the surface, trying desperately to pull us back to him. He had felt so good. The rest of me tried to beat her back, knowing I couldn’t handle it if he abandoned me again. “Aric, what about your commitment to the pack?”
Aric backed me up against the wall, pressing his body firmly against mine and gripping my hips with his large hands. His pounding heartbeat threatened to explode between my breasts. “I don’t want to talk about that now,” he murmured in my ear. “You just told me you love me—prove it. Prove that you still need me. Prove that you still want me, because I sure as hell want you.”
Aric smashed his lips against mine. This time, I didn’t resist. I drove my tongue into him, making him groan. My arms wrapped around his neck. His hands moved from my waist and traveled beneath my skirt to caress my backside. I let out a cry filled with anticipation. Aric became more insistent; he wasn’t going to stop. But even if he did, I wouldn’t have let him. I kissed him across his jawline. When I found his ear, I licked it in the way that drove him crazy and grazed the lobe with my teeth. A deep growl thundered in his chest and his growing need hammered against my stomach.