by Alexx Andria
Serra attempted a half smile but Cassandra could tell it was all she could manage. Serra drew a halting breath and stood, gesturing to the plate of cookies on the nightstand. “The cookies are from Hannah,” she explained, as if knowing she needed to explain that they didn’t come from her. She didn’t offer any niceties or pleasantries, or even a polite inquiry as to the babies, and frankly, Cassandra was grateful. She didn’t think she could successfully make small talk with Serra after everything that’d happened.
Maybe someday, after things had settled…Cassandra watched as Serra closed the door behind her. How awful. She could only imagine the pain Serra was in. Cassandra sighed and rubbed her belly just as it grumbled. “Hungry again? If I didn’t have the metabolism of a hummingbird I’d be a two-ton cow by now,” she said to her stomach as she reached for the largest chocolate chip cookie on the plate. Hannah, the clan cook, was a dream in the kitchen. It was no small tragedy to wolf the cookie down in two big bites. However, by the third cookie, Cassandra began to feel sick. Sweat dotted her hairline and a general nausea rolled across her belly, cramping her gut until she doubled over in pain. Her babies squirmed frantically in her womb and Cassandra was gripped with the knowledge that something was terribly wrong.
Tieran!% iad I was
She stumbled from the bed and crumpled to the floor, her last thought a desperate attempt to shove her fear into Tieran’s brain so he would come running.
But as she began to lose consciousness, the door opened again and Serra slipped in, silent as the grave. She picked up the plate of left-over cookies and stared down at Cassandra with open contempt and every ounce of hatred she’d been holding back only moments earlier. Serra bent down to whisper in Cassandra’s ear. “If you were one of us, you’d know that the Alpha always feeds his True Mate. Hannah would never send a plate of cookies to your room. You’ve taken everything from me. It’s only fair that I repay the pain in kind. You are his True Mate but you and your babies will die and Tieran will spend the rest of his life grieving for you. Goodbye and good riddance, Cassandra.”
And then Cassandra was aware of nothing more.
***
Tieran stilled as a discordant vibe washed over his entire body. He had seconds before Cassandra’s scream echoed through his mind. He gripped his head with both hands and for a moment went completely blind. He stumbled and Jandin caught him before he crashed into the wall. “What is it?” he asked.
“Cassandra,” Tieran answered, pushing off his brother and running at a full tilt to her bedroom with Jandin and Koris close behind. He burst through the door, shattering the jamb into pieces to find Cassandra crumpled in a ball, her arms cradling her belly as if to protect her babies. “Oh Goddess, no.” He scooped her from the floor and laid her gently on the bed. When he released her body, he realized she was leaking blood.
“Woman’s blood,” Jandin said, worried as he looked to Koris. “Get the vampire. He knows the most about Breeding Females. Where is Iona?” Koris immediately split the room, fast as his beastly strength could take him.
“Gone until tonight. Damn the old woman for her stubborn ways. She wouldn’t tell me where she was going or why,” Tieran nearly shouted in his fear. He leaned in smoothed her forehead with his palm. “Cassandra, talk to me. Open your eyes. Tell me what is wrong. What should I do?”
Jandin leaned in, his nostril flaring. “There is something here…something that shouldn’t be.” He followed the scent to the nightstand and inhaled sharply. “Something was here…in this spot. Wolfsbane. Brother…” he looked at Tieran, shock in his expression. “Someone has poisoned your True Mate and the Prophesied One. Goddess help us…who would do such a thing?”
Tieran heard Jandin’s horrified question and realized with a sinking heart he knew the answer. “Serra,” he said, closing his eyes. “It was Serra.”
“No,” Jandin breathed, unable to believe it. “Serra is a good woman, a strong and loyal member of Clan Barrachius. It had to be someone else.”
“It was Serra,” Tieran said sharply. “I told her that Cassandra is my True Mate and she didn’t believe me. I had to send her away for her own good, so she could heal and move on. I did her a kindness and she repaid me with pain.” Tieran rose, his fists clenching. “I will kill her if Cassandra dies.”
“Brother, your justice must wait. Cassandra needs you right now. We will find Serra. She will answer for her crime but for now…we must find a way to help Cassandra.”
Tieran’s blood raged for vengeance but he realized the wisdom in Jandin’s advice and choked down his need to tear Serra limb from limb for her treachery. Cristophe entered the room and went straight to Cassandra. Tieran suffered the vampire’s presence and the knowledge that Cassandra had been intimate with the blood sucker only because Cristophe seemed bound to aid by the Gods’ hand to guide the prophecy. Otherwise, Tieran never would’ve allowed Cristophe to remain in the compound. That, and Cassandra seemed to enjoy the vampire’s dry wit even if Tieran found him tedious and irritating.
“Wolfsbane,” Cristophe spat the word as if he’d tasted the poison himself. “Someone has poisoned her.”
“We’ve figured that out ourselves, vampire,” Tieran said, glowering. “What can we do for her?”
“Nothing.” Cristophe tested her pulse and grimaced at her sluggish beat. “Wolfsbane almost always takes its victim. And if it doesn’t kill Cassandra, it will most certainly cause her to abort the twins.”
“No,” Tieran uttered the word as his heart cracked in two, not only for Cassandra but for the babies he had yet to meet. “Do www.eroticalexxandria.wordpress.coms ad I was something.”
“I can do nothing. Wolfsbane was the poison we used on the breeding females when the need arose. I’m sorry. We’d need a miracle.” Cristophe’s stricken expression mirrored that of Tieran and Jandin. “Maybe the Gods will favor us.”
“And maybe they have forsaken us,” Tieran countered bitterly.
Cristophe said nothing; his expression said it all.
Cassandra was likely going to die.
***
Iona’s old bones creaked and rattled beneath her thin skin and she wished she could still transform. She missed the feel of the ground beneath her paws, the feel of arterial blood gushing into her mouth as she took down prey. Ah, those were the days. Now she was stuck in this old woman’s decaying body, her mind still as sharp as ever, but her ability to do anything more than shuffle and limp was lessening by the hour. She’d known the minute she saw Cassandra, she’d be The One. Relief and sadness followed the knowledge but when one has lived as long as she, the relief was a bit more pronounced than the sadness.
And now the time was here; albeit a bit more quickly than she’d anticipated. Thankfully, she’d already paid her homage to the Mother Goddess for all the years she’d given her and she was ready to pass the torch.
Cassandra was dying.
She pushed aside the wall of men standing helplessly around Cassandra’s inert body, shocking everyone with her sudden appearance. “Seer!” Tieran exclaimed. “Serra—“
“Has poisoned Cassandra with wolfsbane,” she cut in irritably. “Yes, yes, go make yourself useful and get me my bag as well as a sharp knife.”
“A knife?” Tieran repeated but Iona’s no-nonsense stare quelled his_ iad I was questions and he left quickly.
To Jandin, she said, “You must keep Tieran from this room. I must be allowed to complete the ritual in order to save her life. Do you hear me?”
Jandin nodded fearfully. No one would gainsay the Seer. “Yes. Can you save her?”
“Seeing as the fate of the world rests on her survival, I damn well better try,” Iona said, surprising Jandin when she cackled a short laugh before shooing him from the room. To Cassandra, she said, “You didn’t ask for any of this but you’ve handled yourself well. I know you will shoulder this next responsibility with as much grace as you’ve shown thus far.” From a pocket in her long skirt, she withdrew a tiny vial with a milky
substance. “A gift from the Mother Goddess,” she murmured as she poured a drop into Cassandra’s slack mouth, then another, and another, until the vial was nearly empty. Iona put her weathered hands on Cassandra’s stomach, felt the frantic beats beneath her palms and whispered a secret song that soothed distressed infants. “You must calm yourself if you are to live,” she said to the babies. The squirming subsided and she smiled. “Strong little Alphas,” she murmured, sighing when she realized she would never know them. “You will do your kind proud and bring the clans together. You must end the fighting. And you will. But first, you must live.” She checked the babies’ position and frowned. Breech. Cassandra’s eyes opened slowly as the magic of the Mother Goddess counteracted the poison but a different threat loomed. Iona looked into Cassandra’s blearily focused eyes and instructed her firmly, “Your babies will die if you do not transform right now. You must birth them out of your human form. Can you do this?”
Cassandra’s eyes were glazed with pain but she managed a short nod. She struggled to her feet, clutching her stomach as waves of pain racked her body. “I can’t,” she gasped. “H-hurts too much…can’t focus.”
“You will or they will die,” Iona said simply.
Cassandra cried out and focused hard, her scream cut short as her body ripped apart and knitted back together beneath her skin, transforming her into the white wolf of legend. The beast whined and collapsed to the floor and Iona quickly followed. “Now push them out, www.eroticalexxandria.wordpress.coms ad I was Cassandra. Let your body do what nature intended.”
It took several minutes but Cassandra managed to birth two slippery bundles. Immediately, Cassandra began cleaning the babies who had come out as actual pups. Within seconds, Cassandra changed again and the babies shimmered and changed into infants. Iona marveled at the olde worlde magick that wove itself around the babies, tying them to their mother. Iona could see the magick as it pulsed like a living thing, a God vine to the eternal and immortal. The Mother Goddess granted Iona one last vision as she saw the twins, hand in hand, the male and female, tied to each other in strength and weakness, bringing the clans together after centuries of bloodshed. She smiled, knowing her time was drawing near. She retrieved the vial from her pocket again and gave each baby one drop, finishing the vial.
“What is that?” Cassandra asked, her voice weak. “What are you doing?”
“They are the Mother Goddess’ children as much as they are yours. They would need their ethereal mother’s milk to thrive, just like you and I.”
“What?”
Iona coughed, feeling her lungs start to labor for breath. “Listen child, my time is short,” she said, ignoring Cassandra’s confusion. “It is time to pass on. You are the clan’s next Seer. You will take my place when I die. At the moment of my death, I will pass my knowledge to you as it has been done since the beginning. And when your time comes, you will do the same but your life will be long, my child. Fear not that your end will come quickly. You must guide the twins to their destiny and unite the clans.”
“How is this happening? I am the Seer now?”
Iona heard the panic in Cassandra’s voice and chuckled. “We share a similar lineage. It was always in your blood. Why do you think you have visions?” in the ongoing series.
Cassandra’s stare went to the babies as they made soft baby noises together and Iona barked a short laugh. “Yes, mystical babies aside, you hold the magick inside you. The babies simply amplified what you already possessed.”
“How? My mother was from Clan Janus and you’re from Clan Barrachius,” she said, struggling to get her bearings even though she remained weak.
“At one time, we were all one clan. The Prophecy is bringing us all together again. Female Seers can all transform; however, Seers in themselves are rare, which is why it was generally believed that females don’t change.” At that Iona chuckled, finding humor in the misconception. Oh, what good times she’d had with none the wiser. Her heart gave a warning stutter and she knew the time for words and storytelling was finished.
Iona scooped the babies up and held them for a long moment, gazing at the children she would never know on this plane. Then, she cocked her head as the sound of footsteps alerted them to the men returning. She handed the babies to Cassandra, knuckled Cassandra’s cheek with one gnarled hand, and then blissfully sank into her own destiny knowing she’d played her part and it was time to move on.
***
EPILOGUE
In the days that followed, Cassandra found herself overwhelmed with the newfound knowledge that’d flooded her brain at Iona’s passing. Her babies, a girl and a boy, were named Ianna and Veris, and they were exceptional children who grew like beautiful, alien weeds that were both dangerous and yet mesmerizing.
And they had the ability to transform at will, which made for some challenging parenting. Cassandra never knew if she were going to find pups or babies in the cradle but she always knew where to find them if they happened to escape their beds.
“You are amazing with them,” Tieran said with pride. “You are a formidable Alpha’s Mate. You will raise our pups with strong hearts and even stronger minds.”
Cassandra smiled and accepted his praise with a glowing heart. So much had changed in such a short time frame that it was difficult to comprehend how radical the switch in her life. She went from a nobody in college, struggling to find her identity in books and academia when her true identity had been hidden from her until fate determined it was time to emerge.
And as traumatic as certain events were, Cassandra wouldn’t trade her life for anything.
Since Ulster’s defeat, Cassandra and Tieran had managed to convince a few of Clan Janus to join with Barrachius but it was not an easy transition. Ingrained prejudices made for tense relationships but a few were grateful for the change and ready to embrace a new way of thinking, particularly the women who’d been horrifically abused, such as Arja, who in spite of her limp, had become quite helpful in the kitchen with Hannah.
But it wasn’t factions within Clan Janus that worried Cassandra and Tieran. It was a threat from within that had nearly taken everything.
Serra, in spite of an exhaustive search, had managed to escape justice. The fact that she roamed free was a worry that kept both Tieran and Cassandra awake at night.
Tieran, gazing at their sleeping twins, said, “If she dares to step foot on Clan Barrachius land I will know.”
“As will I,” Cassandra said with deadly calm. “She would be foolish t against ad I was o try.”
Tieran smiled in approval at Cassandra’s fierce protectiveness. He knew she didn’t offer idle threats either. Since Iona had passed on her knowledge, Cassandra had been able to unlock gifts that had been lying dormant in her mind. Suffice to say, Cassandra was one bad ass Seer, one that definitely didn’t take any shit from anyone.
“You have that look,” Tieran noted with a faint smile.
“Which look is that?”
“A look that says you want to tear someone’s throat out.”
Cassandra laughed, not bothering to deny it. “Serra better hope never to cross paths with me. I fear that confrontation would be messy.”
Tieran sobered and pulled her to him, sealing his mouth to hers in a fierce kiss that stole her breath. When he broke the kiss, she stared into his eyes, loving this man more than life itself. “What was that for?” she asked softly.
“For being my perfect True Mate. I look forward to a lifetime with you by my side. You are mine and I’ll never let you go.”
She liked the sound of that. Cassandra smiled as he pushed her down to the bed. “And what exactly do plan to do to me?”
Tieran’s mouth curved with wicked intent as he plucked at the buttons on her nightie until he could part the halves, revealing her full breasts that were always swollen now with milk for their twins. “Everything,” he answered before pressing kisses down her belly to settle at the apex of her thighs. “Starting with…” and then his tongue delved
into her folds, igniting a fire of need that only he could satisfy.
Yes, life was good.
She didn’t know the future but the present was exactly as she wanted it to be
— with Tieran, their babies, and the clan.
***
Enjoy an excerpt from another of Alexx Andria’s best-selling paranormal erotic romances, BOUND TO THE BEAST.
I didn’t hear the door open but I suddenly became aware that I wasn’t alone. The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I slowly turned, praying that I was simply being melodramatic. But somehow I knew before even turning that it was him standing there, blocking my exit and watching me with open hunger.
I turned and my heart jumped into my throat. “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice a high-pitched squeak as I flattened against the opposite wall. “This is the l-ladies room.”
“You smell like honey and rain,” he said, his mouth curving in a sensual line that did weird things to my ability to remain standing. I almost forgot that he was likely a weirdo or psychotic killer but I remembered quickly when he began walking toward me.
“Stop!” I cried, my voice shaking. “Or I’ll scream. Get out and leave me alone and we can just forget this ever happened and you won’t have to go to jail for being a creeper.”
“Forget? And why would I want to do that? It’s taken a century to find you…I’m not about to walk away.”
“W-what? Are you crazy?” I asked, my mouth trembling. Had he said…a century? Fabulous. I was locked in a dimly light club bathroom with a crazy person. Hadn’t my evening been crappy enough already? I looked furtively for something I could use as a weapon but aside from throwing soggy paper towel wads his way, I was screwed. This was how it ended, I thought grimly. Savaged by a nutball in a dirty bathroom. Tears pricked my eyes. “I don’t want to die,” I whispered as he strode toward me.
At my whispered plea, he simply smiled darkly and pulled me roughly to him. “Who said anything%ic their C about dying, sweetling?” he murmured, crushing me against the granite of his chest. “Humans,” he chuckled with amusement even as I stiffened against him. “Such alarmists.” He didn’t give me a chance to respond as his head dipped down and suddenly his lips were moving across mine. He smelled of masculinity and raw power; sex and leather. The heady combination was enough to dampen my fear and sharpen my sudden arousal. He pressed me against the bathroom wall that was covered in profane graffiti and I gasped at the shock of his tongue searching for mine. I clung to him as he ground his hardened length against me through the rough denim of my jeans. I wiggled against the delicious pressure, quickly losing all sense of why this was a bad idea, and simply gave in to the intoxicating feel of being ravaged. Yes, ravaged was a good word for what he was doing to me. There was nothing soft or sweet about the way his hands were roaming my body as if memorizing every curve, every valley. I’d never been so consumed by another person in my life. Every boyfriend or casual sexual relationship I’d ever been in or with had always left me wanting for something deeper, more primal. He filled his hands with my breasts and when the fabric of my blouse impeded his questing touch, he growled and simply ripped it from my body. I sucked in a shocked breath but trembled at the look of possession in his stare as he openly stared at the way my boobs overfilled the lacy cups of my black bra.