Circle of Wolves

by Jacqueline Roth

  The tempo grew as other instruments added their sounds and both couples increased their steps to match. The movements weren’t complicated but Evan made a mental note to be angry with Alexi for not warning him about this. He watched the color rise in Kira’s cheeks from the heat and the increased speed of this strange dance. Now her spin was fast enough to raise the braids that trapped her hair as she turned. He found that if he watched her eyes, just kept focused on them, the turning and spinning didn’t make him dizzy. There was an abandon to this simple repetitive movement that pulled him higher, that released his reserves and broke down the last of his hesitancies.

  The music slowed gradually and then stopped. He still held the end of the white silk and a glance at Emil told him to keep hold. Elena stepped forward as did Alexi. Both reached for the cloth that hung between their hands and in a display that was meant to symbolize her change to Evan’s family, without making contact Alexi gestured as if to push aside the hand of the older woman and took hold of the scarf himself. They followed him to stand before the two men. Marcel and Gregoravitch.

  Marcel spoke first and Evan watched with interest as the ceremony proceeded for the younger pair. He listened as the vows were spoken, as bits of bread were broken from a loaf and each fed the other the piece they had salted. A cup was passed and sips of the contents taken. He watched as two women approached Nadja and performed the act that would move her forever from the role of child to the role of wife. A cry went up from the crowd and Emil and Nadja, now clasping hands, stepped back.

  Evan was vaguely aware of Nico prowling around the edges of the gathering. His look pained and tormented.

  He heard the voice of Kira’s father begin to speak. It was his turn. Gods this was really happening. This was real. He looked at the woman at his side and a need so deep it hurt racked him. He could not imagine leaving this moment without her bound to him, without giving himself and all that he was, had or would have to her. He listened to the words of the man. Just as Marcel before him, he spoke to her first.

  “Daughter of my line, do you choose to leave behind the protections of your family for the protections of this man?”

  “I so choose.” Kira’s voice was clear and strong.

  “Do you choose to leave your place in your family and take a place in the family of this man?”

  “I so choose.” Evan watched her face. Her eyes did not leave her father’s face and a wetness was forming in them. He thought he heard a slight choke in the voice of the Alpha as he spoke again.

  “Do you choose to bind yourself to this man, body and soul, living one life with him wherever that might lead you?”

  Evan had the sudden sense of a goodbye being said. The man’s eyes were profoundly sad as they stayed fixed on her face. Her voice was thick and trembled as she answered. “I so choose.”

  A long pause followed and the man turned finally to Evan. “Will you reaffirm the agreements made by your family to this woman and to her family in your own voice?”

  He remembered Emil’s words and repeated them. “Ask what you will of me, I answer for myself.”

  “Will you provide for her and for her line? Will you offer succor and sustenance to her and to her line?”

  “It is my promise.” Evan echoed the young man’s words and found they were no less real or meaningful for their scripted nature.

  “Will you ensure a life of excitement, passion and joy filled with flavor for her and her line?”

  “It is my promise.”

  “Will you honor and respect the spirit of this girl and her line, never failing to pay tribute to that unique spark that makes her who she is?”

  “It is my promise.”

  At this point in the previous ceremony had come an exacted promise from both that they would live by marimé. But for them it was different. Evan expected to have to repeat his swearing of loyalty to Kira and that moment came.

  “You will swear loyalty to the family?”

  Evan’s eyes snapped up to look full in the face of this man. The eyes were smiling and watching him. Evan turned to look at Kira whose face registered shock. A quick look over his shoulder to Alexi calmed him slightly as he calmly nodded for him to reply. Looking back at Gregoravitch he saw the man nod slightly and barely heard him whisper, “Repeat the oath you gave, Evan. The exact oath you gave.”

  Evan remembered the words. He had chosen them carefully. It was those words the Alpha wanted him to repeat. He wasn’t trying to force him to swear an allegiance he had previously refused.

  “I am and remain loyal to the conclave and the circle I serve. But my loyalty, my allegiance, my devotion and dedication belong to the woman at my side. First and foremost I will serve her. It is to Kira, I will swear loyalty.”

  A murmur ran through the group, a pleased sound of agreement. They had liked this proclamation. Evan saw Nico out of the corner of his eye. He noticed Gregoravitch register the boy too.

  Nico couldn’t believe what he had heard. This disgusting creature had refused to swear allegiance and his father was letting it happen. Swearing his loyalty to Kira was nothing, an empty promise. It was the family that needed his assurance. One he hadn’t given. Nico edged closer and watched them, horrified. His jaw was trembling and a rage like he had never known was growing in his chest. A burning was beginning down his spine. He could barely breathe as he watched his father complete the ceremony that would tie his beloved sister to that pup-eater. The ceremony that would degrade and ruin her, make her little more than the whore of some vile half-breed.

  Gregoravitch motioned for the man standing behind him to step forward. He held a silver tray that at first glance seemed exactly like the one used for Emil and Nadja. Then he saw the difference. There was no salt on this tray, instead there was a small, very sharp-pointed dagger.

  Gregoravitch turned to his daughter first and nodded. She reached forward and picked up the knife. Evan’s heart pounded. Damn Alexi. When was he going to learn that the man told him what he wanted him to know and not always what he needed to know? He watched her hands place the tip of the knife to the tip of one finger and wait.

  “Nakira, you have chosen to join your life to this man. Will you join that life into one, nourishing his life with your own?”

  “It is my promise.” Instead of salting the bread at this point as the other girl had done, she pressed the knife into the skin and a small drop of blood appeared. Turning her hand she let the drop fall onto a small chunk of bread that lay on the tray. She returned the knife to its place and lifted the bite of bread and cradled it in her palm.

  All eyes were now on him. He reached out and took the knife. He then heard the words. “Evan, you have promised to join your life to this woman. Will you join that life into one, nourishing her life with your own?”

  “It is my promise,” he repeated. His mouth was suddenly dry. He pressed the tip of the knife into his flesh and felt the prick of the dagger and watched the crimson fluid form a perfect sphere on his fingertip. He turned his hand over, as she had done and allowed the red ball to drop onto the bread. He returned the knife and cradled the now stained morsel in his hand.

  He didn’t need anyone to tell him what would come next.

  “Both promises have been heard. Though true bonding will take place in private as it should, we bear witness now to the beginning of that union which will hold you together for the course of what will be one life.”

  He turned to her and watched as she lifted her hands. Her mouth parted slightly and he realized that he was to feed her first. As he placed this symbol of his body and soul into her mouth and watched her chew slowly and swallow, his hand shook. This act was so alien to him, yet as he watched her consume the offering something primal stirred inside him, something frightening and primitive screamed joyfully in his soul.

  Her hand reached for him and he opened his mouth. The salty copper taste was barely discernable on his tongue so cloaked in the taste of the bread. He chewed and as he swallowed, that place de
ep inside him that had responded to her actions flared fully to life. Something was different. It was faint, almost like the illusion of something greater to come.

  The cup was being offered to him and he drank deeply. Turning he offered the cup to Kira, his hands still on it as he had watched Emil do earlier, he tipped it so that the liquid ran into her mouth. She swallowed and smiled at him with a happiness he had never seen equaled in any face.

  Gregoravitch smiled at them and took the cup. He drank from it himself and passed it off to Alexi who had stepped forward. Alexi finished the contents of the cup and handed it to the man holding the tray.

  Elena stepped forward at that moment, carrying the white scarf given her by Sasha. Carefully she unbraided Kira’s hair. “You leave behind your girlhood, your maidenhood this night. Take on you the mantle, the mark of a woman, of a wife.” Smoothing the curls with her fingers, she tied the white scarf around Kira’s head so that it all but hid the red-brown hair. She kissed Kira on the cheek and whispered to her, “I do this for your Aunt Sasha and for you. Your mother may rot in hell. She does not deserve a daughter such as you.”

  Gregoravitch pretended he hadn’t heard the exchange and commanded the attention of the gathering again. “As your bodies and lives have been joined so have our families and our peoples. Now, as I believe is the custom of the young man’s people, he may kiss his bride.”

  Evan reached up to touch her face and hesitated.

  “It’s okay, Evan. You’re married. It’s too late to back out now,” Alexi called out laughing.

  Evan smiled at her as she shook her head at her brother. He placed his hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes. He touched the softness of a single tendril of hair that had escaped Elena and hung against her neck. She lifted her face to him and he lowered his to her. Nothing on the earth had ever or would ever taste as sweet to him as her kiss at that moment. Her arms wound about his chest and he held her face in his hands.

  There was something different about this kiss. The burning awareness that had started inside him flared a bit and he thought for a moment he could feel hands on his face. Then the beauty of the kiss, this first time he kissed his wife was rudely tainted.

  A cry erupted from the edges of the crowd and all faces turned to see Nico standing there, shaking, white with his rage. His hand was on his chest and his face contorted in something beyond anger, beyond fear, beyond any single emotion. His eyes were wild and he was trembling violently, his teeth bared. “No!” his voice screamed again. He bent double and thought for a moment he was going to be sick. Instead he straightened, pulling at the shirt he wore, tearing at it mindlessly trying to get it off. It was suddenly so tight, so constricting that he felt he couldn’t breathe. He threw his shirt to one side and edged around the people. They were moving aside for him now and he circled the man in front of him, watching him, studying him for weaknesses. He tore the pants from his legs. They itched painfully and he felt awkward standing on only these two spindly limbs. It was unnatural. Power was surging through him.

  Kira clutched Evan’s arm and moaned, “Blessed Mother, not now.” For so long they had anticipated Nico’s first transformation, longed for it. Only Nico’s full emergence into adulthood would truly free her. But for it to happen now, to happen this way was unthinkable.

  Evan watched the boy. All doubt as to what he was seeing was removed when Nico dropped to his knees and tore away the last of the clothing that covered his body. A scream ripped from him and became a howl as the fair young man transformed before his eyes into a white wolf. The creature lowered itself, eyes fixed on Evan.

  He’d kill him. He’d kill this abomination for defiling his sister and then he’d kill her, kill her and remove her shame. A growl came from him and he would have charged but for a movement that sped from the woods to his right and landed before him. A black wolf with a white mask and bright blue eyes stood in his path snarling at him.

  “Sasha.” The word whispered around the circle. She must have been hiding, watching. She stood before her nephew and blocked him from the young man who had just married her niece.

  Evan stared dumbfounded. He too had heard the whispered name, for him it had come from Kira. By the time he registered the potential danger of this showdown, the masked wolf was no longer alone. From the edges of the crowd came two gray wolves, one very young but snarling and growling impressively. They stood in front of Evan, hackles raised. A brown wolf joined them and the masked wolf backed into the protective shield they now formed.

  “Nico, don’t do this.” Kira spoke to him. “Just leave, Nico. Just leave.”

  The wolf growled its challenge to her and her eyes widened. Her little brother, the cherub she had petted and adored was growling at her, challenging her?

  “That will be enough, Nico. This man is now family. A challenge to him is a challenge to all of us.” The voice came from Stanislav Gregoravitch and it grew deadly hard. “A challenge to me.” More gently he spoke again. “I’m sorry, Evan, the first few transformations can be confusing. We can carry our rages over and they cloud our perceptions.”

  Evan kept his eyes locked on the white wolf while Sasha, Alexi, Sonya and Katerina stood before him protecting him. They were protecting him from one of their own. Gregoravitch had called him family. Even the tension of the moment couldn’t stop the soaring joy that spread through him. Family.

  Nico sat back on his haunches and howled loudly. He tried to advance once more and was again repulsed by the wolves. Giving one more threatening growl, he turned and ran off into the woods.

  Evan wrapped his arm around Kira and turned to her. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, Evan. Are you?” Her hand reached up and touched his cheek.

  “Unsettled but fine.” He hesitated, he didn’t want to sound selfish and unconcerned about her family but… “Kira, we are married aren’t we? This hasn’t undone something?”

  She beamed at him. “We are married Evan. Nothing Nico or my mother do can change that.”

  Evan slid his arms around her. “Good,” he said and he leaned down to kiss her again. Doors he had thought would remain locked to him were finally opening. He had so much he had always wanted and thought impossible. And now that he had it, no one was ever going to take it from him.

  Music pulled him from the kiss and he cradled her against him. Alexi was standing beside him now, refastening his clothing.

  “Finally, Kira. Finally no more burdens, no more holds.” She smiled up at him and her face shone with happiness. “Well, my little friend, you know what this means.” He winked at Evan.

  “Yeah, we need another fox. Only this time, Alexi, you’re reaching into the trap.”

  Circle of Wolves

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Bonding

  She watched him from the doorway between the sitting room and the bedroom. The white sheer curtains that draped the French doors were pulled back and he’d opened the doors for a moment, stepping into their frame to gaze up at the moon. She marveled at his beauty. He was so tall. His body was lean and hard, the muscles of his back perfectly defined as he stood there leaning against the frame staring out at the night. He wasn’t bulky or brawny the way her brother and her father were. He wasn’t earthy and— What was the contemporary word? Ripped. Valeri had been ripped.

  But Evan looked like some classic artist had carved him from the finest marble. His lines smooth but entirely masculine. He reminded her of the David, one of humanity’s most perfect examples of the male body. Just watching him stand there made her heart race. He was her husband and soon he would become her mate.

  He wore only the soft blue silk pajama bottoms she’d laid out for him. The matching shirt still lay on the bed. Kira smiled, one less thing to remove. His light brown hair curled at the nape of his neck. It caught the moonlight and shone a tawny silver in the glow. The moon was one day from fullness. Tonight, tomorrow and the next day were the days of mating for the Wolf. These were the days when they bonde
d as mates, when they conceived their children. By the end of this running moon she could carry the child of her cerieshe. It wasn’t likely to happen during their initial mating but it wasn’t impossible either.

  Tomorrow, when the moon rose complete he would transform. A part of her couldn’t deny that she wanted to see him in that form. The wolf in her was clamoring, crying out to see what it knew. Her mate would be magnificent. He would be beautiful, powerful and a good hunter. And most of all he would be hers.

  Evan felt her standing there watching him. He could smell the scent of her skin and it wrapped around his head and his body began to respond. He pulled the door to the balcony closed and turned. He found he couldn’t breathe. All he could do was look at her. She often wore white and it made the pale skin that covered her body seem like fine porcelain. But tonight she was dressed in a blue satin negligee that matched the color of her eyes. Thin straps curled over her shoulders and her small firm breasts stood, tips pressing at the cloth, ready for his hands. The folds of the gown skimmed over her hips and fell to her ankles.

  She smiled at him. The hunger burned in her eyes, she wanted him. Evan knew his own face must be displaying his need. He could hear her heart pounding faster and knew she could hear his. He could smell the rich, womanly scent of her desire from where he stood. And she would be able to smell his hunger as well.

  Evan crossed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. She was his. His wife. His mate. Her power and her strength were as intoxicating as the beauty of her face. The perfect huntress. The words came from a part of him he’d only realized these last few days could be anything but a raving madness. It was the wolf in him. The wolf that recognized what he had not, what he would never have seen if these people hadn’t made him stop and look inside. If Kira hadn’t made him stop and look inside himself. Huntress. The word should have unsettled him but it didn’t. It fanned the flames of his hunger for her. She was the daughter of the Alpha. The wolf inside merged with the man and for the first time in his life he did not fight it. Together both cried out as one. He would prove his worth, his strength, to her.