by Aliya DalRae
Rachel, Jessica and the twins had been integral in opening him back up to the world, in helping him remember what it meant to have people around him who loved him. People who, in turn, gave him purpose.
But Kitty? She was the missing piece, that critical part he needed to make him a whole person. She amused him and vexed him, but most of all, she loved him, and he loved her in return. Rachel thought it would be so easy for him to turn his back on her simply because their differences might cause complications, but she was wrong. It was because she was different that he’d found the part of his soul he’d thought lost forever.
He tried to send what he was feeling to his sister, through their familial bond. She stood next to him for a moment, taking in the emotions he was feeding her. Finally, she sat on the bed next to him and took his hand.
“I only mean to protect you, brother mine. You’ve had too much heartache in your life, and if I can spare you anymore, I’ll do it without a second thought.”
Harrier opened his mouth to argue, but she held up her hand. “No, you listen to me now. I like the girl, I can’t say that I don’t. She’s strong, and has the heart of a lion…”
“Liger.”
“Whatever, Harrier. She showed her true nature when things went wrong at the Vindicta Ritual. She could have folded under the pressure of what she’d done to Nox, but she didn’t. She stood up and faced the things Fuhrmann forced her to do like a warrior. And my understanding is that she fought like one last night as well.”
“If you’ve such respect for her, why did you tell Mason she was no good for me?” Harrier couldn’t help the feelings of betrayal that now bled through their bond.
Rachel had the good graces to look guilty. “I shouldn’t have interfered. I was only trying to protect you, you ken?”
“Aye, I do. But you owe Kitty an apology.”
“I’ll be the one to decide what’s owed to me.”
Harrier’s stitched up heart did a triple Lutz in his chest at the sound of that snarky voice. The grin that lit his face was automatic and uncontrollable. He peeked around his sister to see that, yes, his Kitty was standing in the doorway wearing an oversized hospital johnny and a broad grin that rivaled his own.
“How’s it hanging, Harrier?” she asked.
Laughter burst from him, pulling at the stitches holding his wounds together, but it was worth every ounce of pain he endured to see the looks on the faces of his sister and future father-in-law. His Kitty was a crass lass, indeed.
“Hanging low, wee Kitty, and a little to the left. You?”
She shrugged, but let go of her father to limp to his bedside. Rachel graciously stepped out of the way, giving his little cat room to fuss over him. She rearranged his blankets, smoothing them out around his body, an excuse, it seemed, for her to touch him, to reassure herself that he was truly there and in one piece.
Harrier grabbed her hands and pressed them to his lips.
“You didn’t get dead,” she whispered. A haunted look floated across her eyes but disappeared in a blink.
“No, I didn’t,” he said, pulling her to him. “And neither did you.”
He threaded his fingers into her tangled hair and pulled her closer until she was near enough for him to kiss. “Let’s not do that again,” he said, then pressed his lips to hers. She crawled into the bed beside him and wrapped her arms around his neck, laid her head on an unwounded portion of his shoulder.
“That sounds like a plan.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
W ith his arms around her, Kythryn was only vaguely aware of the conversation taking place elsewhere in the room.
“Good to see you again, Seamus.”
“Likewise, Miss Rachel.”
In the back of her mind, Kythryn knew that at another time she would have found the uncomfortable interaction between her father and the woman he’d tried to kill a few months ago fascinating. Now, however, she had much more important things to concentrate on.
Harrier was alive! Aaaand kissing her.
Someone cleared their throat, but again, not interested. Only when Mason spoke did Harrier pull away from her, reluctantly, but yeah.
“I see you’re both feeling better,” the Warlord said. Harrier actually blushed, but Kythryn being who she was, felt no shame whatsoever. “I’m glad to see it. I have news that I’m afraid you’re not going to like. Any of you,” he added, his look including Rachel and Kythryn’s daddy.
“What’s happened?” Rachel asked.
“Maxx is in the wind. Nox put a bullet in his head which had a fifty/fifty chance of killing him, but when we went back for the body, it was gone. We’ve searched everywhere for him or his remains, but neither has been located. The ferals have scattered like the vermin they are. It’s possible they took his body, but Nox doesn’t think that’s something they would do. Not a lot of loyalty among the bastards. Anyway, Merlin’s searching for any sign of him on the Undernet, but until something pings, we’re in the dark.”
“What about Fuhrmann?” Harrier wrapped a protective arm around Kythryn and pulled her to his side.
“We’ve done a complete sweep through the fur farm and the surrounding properties. From all appearances, he was never there. In that, Maxx may have been telling the truth.”
“But that makes no sense,” Kythryn pulled away from Harrier and leaned toward the Warlord. “Why would Fuhrmann send these guys to kill me, only to have their leader take off without finishing the job.”
Harrier growled and pulled her back to his side where she belonged, but she ignored him. “It seems awful convoluted to me, a whole lot of time and resources spent and for what? To make a scene?”
Mason studied her for a minute before he nodded. “We think that’s exactly what they did. Fuhrmann’s self-proclaimed goal is to complicate Raven and Nox’s lives. Bringing Maxx here was a slap in Nox’s face. Going after you was simply a way to get us involved.”
“So, what are you saying?” Seamus spoke up. “Is my daughter still in danger or were they just using her again to get to you all?”
Mason lifted a shoulder. “I wish I could say. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to continue with one on one protection for Kythryn. Although, it seems to me she is perfectly capable of fending for herself.”
“I am,” Kythryn said, puffing her chest out so they knew she was serious.
Seamus shook his head. “I don’t see how things can go back to normal if we’re always looking over our shoulders waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“I’ll be fine, Daddy,” she said, but he wasn’t buying it.
“You.” Seamus pointed a finger at Harrier, and her male snarled. “I’ll hire you. I have money.”
Harrier’s eyes sparked and Kythryn threw her body on top of his, blocking him from getting out of bed. She couldn’t stop him from growling at her father though, or from speaking. “You have a lot of nerve, Seamus Flannigan. You truly believe I would accept payment for protecting what’s mine?”
Seamus sputtered and looked to her for guidance, but Kythryn shrugged. This was between the two of them.
“I can’t protect her at the house,” Seamus said.
Kythryn knew she shouldn’t let the two most important men in her life discussing her safety irritate her, but hello! She’d just come through a major battle where she’d defended herself pretty damn well. But here they were, acting like she was some kind of medieval damsel in distress. Still, she thought it best to keep her trap shut and see how things played out.
“You don’t need to worry about that, Seamus, because she won’t be returning to your house.” Harrier was adamant, but the look on Mason’s face said it was news to him. Roll with it, Warlord, she thought. I’m just now learning about all this, myself.
Obviously, Mason couldn’t read minds because he chimed in. “A suite has been prepared for her. I suppose it would be acceptable for her to move in temporarily.”
Now Harrier looked like someone had slapped him in the f
ace with a three-day-old trout. “Fuck the suite. She’s staying with me.”
Kythryn beamed up at him, suddenly all warm and fuzzy inside. Sorcerers and ferals, nasty things that go bump in the night, all out to get her. The one thing she hadn’t counted on was a Vampire sneaking up on her and stealing her heart. With everything else going on, it was the most amazing, most unexpected turn of events.
“What?” Harrier said, misreading her expression.
“You,” she said. “You do say the sweetest things.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
A llon forced Harrier to stay in the medical wing for three days. Three. Long. Days. If that weren’t insult enough, he threatened to have Kitty banned from his room if they even thought about having sex before that time was up. Some crap about Harrier’s heart being on the mend and needing time to heal. Hell, yes it was mending, and she was the reason.
But the three days were now at an end, and they were both back in tip top shape. Kythryn walked him to his suite—their suite—her arm wrapped tightly around his waist as though she would catch him if he stumbled. That was a hell of a metaphor there, seeing how she’d already done that.
“I should carry you over the threshold or some shit, shouldn’t I?” Harrier asked when they reached the door.
Kitty laughed. “Let’s save it for the honeymoon,” she teased, and he smiled that goofy smile he couldn’t seem to wipe off his face since the moment she’d claimed him.
Once inside, she planted him on the sofa, gave him the wait-a-minute finger, then returned a moment later with a couple of brews. That girl certainly knew her way straight to his newly-mended heart. She twisted the cap off one of the bottles and handed it to him.
“I’m not an invalid, you know. Allon said I could go back to work as soon as tomorrow.”
“I know this,” she said, opening the other beer and taking a drink. “But until then, I aim to take care of you. Something tells me you haven’t had much pampering in your life. That’s one thing I plan to change.”
Harrier chuckled, but covered it by taking a swig of his own beer. “What if I don’t want to be pampered?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kitty shrugged and gave him one of her patented evil smiles. “I guess you’ll have to suffer through.”
Harrier set his beer down on the coffee table and waved her over.
“What?” She didn’t move from where she stood, just watched him over the bottle as she took another drink.
“Get your ass over here.”
Kitty threw sultry eyes at him and sauntered over, taking her own sweet time. The swing of her hips was hypnotizing, tantalizing, and Harrier growled.
“Don’t make me come and get you.”
Kitty giggled, pausing for another drink before placing her bottle next to Harrier’s with a deliberate thunk.
Harrier held his arms out to her and Kitty finally joined him on the couch. She started to sit next to him, but he grabbed her and pulled her to him. She straddled his hips and settled herself on his lap, facing him. Harrier laced his hands behind her hips and sighed.
“This is a sight to behold,” he said.
Kitty’s smile lit up the room—his entire life—and Harrier’s heart tumbled over itself.
“This is where I want you, right here, with me. In my home, in my bed, in my heart. You’re mine, and I’m never letting you go.”
“That’s good to hear,” she said as she stroked her fingers through his hair. “‘Cause you couldn’t get rid of me now if you tried.”
Harrier’s eyes sparked, and he raised a hand to the back of her head, pulling her into a kiss intended to make her toes curl.
When they came up for air, he searched her face, her eyes, trying to convey everything he was feeling in that one look. He didn’t think it was enough, so he said, “I love you, Kythryn.”
Her eyes danced as her lips slipped into one of those evil smiles Harrier had grown to adore. “I love you, too,” she said. “And please, call me Kitty.”
Epilogue
H arrier stood back from the funeral pyre, Kitty’s hand clasped tight in his own. Neither one of them knew the deceased, this Mouse fellow, but when Rachel asked them to come, for Nox’s sake, he couldn’t deny her. It seemed odd to be giving a feral a full Legion send-off, but Rachel had a way of getting what she wanted. Harrier doubted Mason had been able to refuse her a single request, and so was not surprised that everything was perfect.
Nox led the ceremony, had said all the proper words under a clear sky with a sliver of moon to light the funereal clearing. Harrier had been busy protecting his greatest asset when the whole Mouse situation had arisen, and eventually gone down, so he wasn’t entirely privy to what went on. One thing was clear. This feral had been important to Nox. The male stood at the bier with tears streaming from his good eye.
When he called for the torches, Mason and Raven joined him at the tall wooden structure that held the gauze-wrapped remains of Nox’s friend, firebrands at the ready. Raven handed a torch to Nox, and at the newly appointed Soldier’s command, the three males laid fire to the kindling piled beneath and around the structure. Soon, the blazing conflagration filled the clearing, a promise that the dark column of smoke would carry the deceased’s soul into the hereafter.
Harrier didn’t believe in such things, but it didn’t really matter what he thought. The last time he attended a Vampire funeral had been as a kestrel, and he’d flown with the billowing cloud into the sky to see if he could feel Bella’s essence as it drifted away on the wind. Of course, he’d felt nothing but abandoned. The smoke was just smoke, and Bella was gone for all eternity.
For the first time in his life, he was okay with that. Would he ever forgive Raven for the beast he had been? Probably not, but that, too, was ancient history.
Today, right now, he had the hand of his future tightly in his grasp. Ever the perceptive one, Kitty looked at him and mouthed, “You okay?” He nodded, but she wasn’t buying it. She reached up, brushed his cheek, and turned pink-stained fingers for him to see.
When had he started crying?
She quickly handed him a tissue she’d had stored wherever it was females stashed such things, and he discretely dabbed at his face. Would she always be there to take care of him like this? To see to it that he didn’t embarrass himself in front of his fellow Warriors, or to hold his hand when he was feeling morose?
His wasn’t a life that held much promise in that area, and he was jaded enough to realize that nothing was forever. But for as long as the gods deemed it so, he would hold onto this little lass, cherish her, love her.
The small gathering was breaking up, and Rachel thanked them for coming, reminding them that she’d set up a small repast in her suite. Harrier glanced at Kitty before declining the invitation. Right now, he required more sustenance than a couple of finger sandwiches could provide. He needed his female with him, as close to him as she could get. He needed the reminder that there was life after losing someone you loved, and that if you waited long enough, it would find you.
Harrier needed her, now.
He pulled Kitty across the field at a respectable pace for people who were leaving a funeral. However, when the coast was clear, he picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and made a mad dash for the elevator.
She giggled as he flipped her from his shoulder and pressed her against the elevator wall. His kiss was hard, demanding, and as he explored her, she matched his fire with her own.
When the elevator dinged and the door slid open, he picked her up again and carried her across the hall to his suite. He mentally flung the door wide and quickly hauled her through, slamming the thing shut behind them with his foot.
They were naked before he could blink, and this time he didn’t hesitate to bend her over the back of the sofa and take her from behind. When she screamed his name in ecstasy, he wrapped his arms around her and they both went to the floor. There he lavished her body with kisses, tasting every inch of her, with heavy emphasi
s on that treasure between her legs. She screamed again, begged him to stop and when he did, she scrambled to her feet.
“Give me a minute,” she gasped, her face flushed with satisfied bliss. He growled, eager to bury himself inside her again, but she dashed for the window and threw open the drapes. “Gimme a minute,” she panted again, and pressed her face against the cool glass. “One minute.”
Harrier didn’t have a minute. He joined her at the window and wrapped his body around her, pulling her to him for maximum skin contact. “Your minute’s up,” he growled into her ear, and she giggled.
“You’re incorrigible,” she said, but she turned in his arms and climbed his body until she had her arms wrapped around his neck, and her legs linked around him at his back, all of that warm and slick pressed against his raging erection.
“And you’re a tease,” he said.
“Un-uh,” she whispered into his ear. “I’m not teasing. I’m making you a promise, and you know between us, we keep our promises.”
Harrier groaned as she slid down his body and landed on her knees at his feet. When she wrapped her lips around him, he slammed his palms against the window as he struggled to resist the pull of her lips on his cock. He lost that battle before he intended, and when he could no longer stand, he joined her once again in a tangled of naked limbs on the floor.
He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her head in his neck, planted soft kisses against his carotid that nearly had him hard again.
“You’ll be my undoing,” he said.
“Always,” she whispered against his shoulder.
His breath leveled out as he lay exhausted, Kitty wrapped tight in his arms, but his mind was still in overdrive. Mouse’s funeral was a reminder to him that losing someone was the end of their life, but not the end for those who loved them. For as long as you lived, the world would continue to throw shit at you, some of it good and some not so much. But there would always be balance, and considering the seven levels of hell he’d lived through, he only had to squeeze the lithe little body at his side to know that he was in for at least a few centuries of heaven.