She reached across the table and clasped his hand. “Even growing up with wolves, the first time is traumatic. It got better after that?”
He nodded. “I was still a nervous wreck the next month, but it was easier. Wulfen are legendary among my people.”
Desmin was a decorated veteran in the fae military and served for many years. Even before Crimson shifted for the first time, he knew he would follow in his father’s footsteps. He joined the military at seventeen and quickly rose up through the ranks because of his training. The military considered it a boon that they had a wulfen in their midst.
“This is the Fae Realm, but that doesn’t mean that everyone within this realm is fae. The military handles everything from full-scale wars to private matters the way your human police force would. One day I might be handling a robbery in the market and the next day I might be clashing swords with a wizard. There are shifters here that aren’t like anything in your realm, and just like in your realm, there are evil people who want to do harm for their own personal gain.”
She stroked her thumb across the top of his hand. “I grew up hearing stories about tiny little fairies who hid in flowers and made clothes out of leaves. Your world is nothing like I believed.”
He was certain that was true of most people from her realm. He continued on in his life’s story, telling her about his mother’s insistence that he spend time with high-bred females and go to all the parties. She’d hoped he would want to settle down with a female who came from a family that would get her access to a world she’d not had access to because her family, and his father’s family, were not part of the wealthy elite.
When their meal was done and the dishes washed and put away, he continued his story as they walked toward the center of town. He hadn’t really realized how dissatisfied he’d been with his life – just going through the motions – until she’d come into it. Just two days with her and already he felt more alive, and definitely happier.
They came to the center of town, and he showed her the tavern where he and the other members of the military came to unwind, the market where vendors hocked their food and wares, and the courthouse where civil and criminal matters were handled.
She held his hand tightly as they walked. They passed many fae along the way, with everyone greeting her warmly, and he could see she was relieved. He could tell she wanted to be accepted in his world, and he could admit to feeling the same concern when he considered being in her world. He wanted her friends and pack to accept him, too.
“Do you have prison here?” she asked when he took her into one of the glen’s public gardens. Towering flinks flowers waved gently in the breeze, their honey-like scent filling the air.
She sat down on a marble bench, and he joined her. “We do. Our judicial system is not all that different from the Mortal Realm’s courts. Here, trials are presided over by fae judges, and sentences for crimes vary from monetary fines to community service to imprisonment.”
“Ever been in trouble?” she asked, looking at him out of the corner of her eye with a mischievous smile.
He hummed in his throat. “When I was twelve, Riyad and I thought it would be fun to sneak onto a grent farm. They’re hens that have silky bright blue feathers. Some girls from school said that if we would bring them the feathers, they would spend time with us.”
Lindy chuckled.
He continued, “Anyway, what we didn’t know was that while grents look very docile they’ve actually got really sharp beaks and spikes along their clawed feet. And they’re extremely protective of their eggs. Riyad and I thought the grents were sleeping, but when we touched their long tail feathers, they attacked us. Suffice it to say we barely made it out of their coop with our bodies intact.”
She laughed and said, “Did you at least get feathers to give to the girls?”
He shook his head. “We’re lucky we didn’t lose any fingers. And it turns out that Riyad is really allergic to grent feathers, and he had to see a healer to stop from sneezing constantly.”
“So you had to see a judge?”
“Yes. The grents were so stressed out that a few of them died, and the farmer did a location spell to find out who had broken into the coop. We had to publically apologize to the farmer, fix the door of the coop that we’d broken, clean up the mess we made, and pay to replace the grents that died.”
“Wow. I bet you never did anything like that again.”
“True. My dad was very understanding and just wanted me to learn from my mistake, but my mother was horrified the prank would somehow reflect poorly on her mothering abilities.”
He said the words lightly, but suddenly he didn’t feel so pleased to be sharing that story. Yes, it was funny, but at the moment, it just reminded him of how worried his mother had always been about her social standing.
“Hey,” she said softly, turning his chin with her fingers. “If your mother isn’t proud of you, then she’s blind. I’ve never met anyone like you before, Crimson. You’re brave and strong. You’re gorgeous and funny and kind.”
He pressed his lips to her palm. “And really lucky.”
“I’m lucky, too.”
Her smile made his insides warm.
“Do you think your mom will like me?” he asked, taking her hand and standing. They began to walk back through the market.
“I’m sure she will. What’s not to like? Besides the fact that you’re my truemate, you saved my life.”
They stopped at a market stall selling dresses, and he told her to pick out something for when they went to dinner with his father the following evening. As she looked through the dresses of varying lengths and hues, he said, “It seems like it’s simpler with your people than mine.”
“What…acceptance?” She held up a dress the color of lilacs.
“Yes. Your pack doesn’t have social standing the way that my people do. It’s refreshing.”
She put the purple dress back and pulled a teal one down, which he thought would look amazing with her pretty blue eyes.
“There’s a hierarchy within the pack. The males are ranked during rank-fights, which only occur at times when a member leaves the pack for some reason or if a member becomes unable to perform the duties of his rank. The higher the rank, the more responsibilities there are.”
He paid for the dress, and they watched as it was wrapped up in colorful fabric and tied with ribbon. “And the females?”
“Before the current alpha, the females were ranked after rank-fights as well. When I came into my shifted form at sixteen, I trained with some of the older females for a while and then fought for my place. At the time, there were a few females who were very good fighters, and I wound up mid-ranked. Those females left for one reason or another, and then for many years there was no female alpha. Cadence took over a couple years ago, but she never held new rank-fights, so the old ranking has stood.”
“How many females are there?”
“There are only thirteen active she-wolves in the pack. Males and females will technically ‘retire’ from the pack as they age and no longer participate in rankings, so there are a lot of wolves in town, but our pack only has around forty active members. There are a lot of young wolves who haven’t shifted yet, too. In the next couple of years there will be a population explosion within the pack, and Cades will have no choice but to hold ranking fights to be fair to everyone.”
He held her hand as they walked back to his home. “You’d like to be higher ranked?”
“Not necessarily. What I do regret is that I alienated myself from the pack for such a long time. I became a virtual stranger, just someone who shows up on the full moons and goes hunting with her best friends. I’ve been working to change that, to change myself into someone I’m proud of. When I was younger, I wanted to fit in, and I thought I could do that by being like my mom. I always thought she was so popular. She dated all the time when I was little; there were always men showing up at the house to talk to her. Then I found myself in that same place,
but where she’d embraced it and taken all those failed dates as stepping stones to finding her mate, I just felt used. And then I hated myself for trying to fit in.”
He held open the door to his home and ushered her inside. “You fit in with me, Lindy.”
She turned to him with a brilliant smile, her eyes dancing with happiness. “You fit in with me, too.”
While they’d been out walking, he had an idea for their mating night. Although he had changed the sheets on the bed and the protection spell kept out any unwanted visitors, he felt as if that room had been tainted. He didn’t want the first time he and Lindy made love to be in that room, on the bed that Giwyn and countless other women had been naked on. He’d told her that her past didn’t matter to him, and that was true. But his own past – the random females, the meaningless sex – filled him with shame. After knowing how powerful their connection already was, he knew he wouldn’t trade one of her sweet kisses for all the fae pussy in the realm, and he wished, in some ways, that he’d saved himself for her.
She’d been tired after they spent the morning walking around the realm, so he lay next to her on the couch and stroked her back with his hands until she fell asleep. While she slept, he began to make preparations for their night. He’d told her that he wanted to make her his mate in a ceremony in the traditions of the old ways, which had gotten him to thinking about how he could make their first night together special and unique. He wanted to make love to her for the first time and be able to honestly say that he’d never done anything like it before with anyone else. The ceremonial old ways, referring to the official mating between the fae warriors and their brides, was not about sex but about joining them together in front of the realm. He wanted to do that and would talk to his father the following night about it. But this night – when he and Lindy would mate and mark each other – was going to be a night where he could show her just how special she was to him. She was already the center of his world. He’d never known affection for a female like this before, and he knew he was fast falling in love with her.
After making a portal-call to Riyad, he filled a large satchel with supplies and left his sleeping sweetheart on the couch with a note in case she awoke. He let his wings loose and flew to the place where he and his friends used to play as youngsters, a cavern in the nearby mountains. Inside the cavern was a hot spring. Riyad was waiting for him, a smile on his face.
Riyad clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m happy you’ve found your mate, Crim, and glad to help.”
Crimson appreciated his best friend and thanked him. They ducked inside the low entrance to the cavern, which widened immediately and was tall enough for them to stand up. The entrance spilled out into the rounded cavern, and he inhaled deeply, checking with his wolf’s instincts for anything that might not be welcome. Finding the cavern clear of creatures, he pulled a torch from his satchel and willed it to light, setting it in an alcove near the entrance. The cavern had natural vents in the high ceiling that allowed smoke and steam from the hot spring to escape.
Crimson shared his plan with Riyad on how he wanted to alter the cavern for his mating night, and Riyad got to work while Crimson turned his attention to lighting more torches and setting them in alcoves to provide subtle lighting. When the torches had been placed, he moved to the center of the cavern where a ring of stones was filled with purple colaras, also known as fire stones. They were mined on the other side of the realm, and he’d brought them to the cavern when they were children so they would have light and warmth when they played without having to use wood.
Although he, Riyad, and Merik had spent a lot of time in the cavern, exploring the mountainside and tunnels, none of them had ever brought females. He remembered that Riyad’s grandfather had told them about the caverns and tunnels dotting the mountainside, sharing how warriors of old had stolen females and hidden them away to be pleasured until they agreed to officially mate the warriors. Riyad’s grandfather had stolen his grandmother while she was walking home from a party and kept her in a cavern for a week until she agreed to be his mate. Now, he wasn’t kidnapping Lindy but bringing her willingly to a place where no other woman had ever been in his arms and he could worship her and make love to her in the way of his ancestors. And then, later, he would stand up in front of his people and make her his mate, and no one would ever dare try to take her from him.
No one had been in the cavern for years. The fire stones were covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs, which disintegrated when he used his power to light them. Although purple in color, once lit, the stones changed colors, some red, some blue, some green. They warmed immediately, and he smiled. Lindy would like them. She thought his fae power was resh.
“Cool,” he amended out loud.
“What’s cool?” Riyad asked.
“Lindy says ‘cool’ when she means resh. I was just thinking that she would think the fire stones were cool.”
Riyad said, “Help me spread balnk seeds around the pool.”
Crimson stood and joined his friend at the hot spring, a pool of steaming water that was five feet deep at the center and fed from a small waterfall along the wall of the cavern. He and Riyad spread dark green balnk seeds around the perimeter of the pool, and then they stepped back and Riyad lifted his hands, calling the seeds to life. Dark green blades of grass sprang from the seeds, spreading across the cavern floor. Riyad stopped the flow of grass when it had covered half of the cavern in thick, silky grass. The grass was hardy and could take root in stone, which is why Riyad had suggested it when Crimson laid out his idea. He couldn’t give Lindy a carpeted cavern, but he could make a carpet of grass for her.
“What do you think of the mattress?” Riyad asked, and Crimson turned to look at the task his friend had completed. Crimson hadn’t been able to carry an entire bed up the mountain, and he didn’t want to just lay his mate on the hard stone. Riyad had caused moss seeds to grow, shaping them into a thick mattress. Sitting down on the moss, Crimson was amazed that it felt exactly like his comfortable mattress at home.
He ran his hands over the soft moss. “This is amazing.”
“Aw, thanks. I’m glad you like it. At least you’re not going to be lying on blankets on the stone floor. Even with the balnk grass, it would still be uncomfortable.” Riyad took four small tree limbs and moved around the mattress, sticking one into the moss at each corner. As Crimson watched, Riyad used his power to make the limbs grow. Each limb had been no thicker than the width of his finger, but the tiny branches on the limbs twisted and grew, forming a thick braid of branches that rose several feet in the air at each corner of the moss bed. With a push of power from Riyad, who grunted slightly with exertion, the limbs connected overhead in the center of the bed, leaves and branches forming a canopy overtop of the mattress.
Riyad reached up and placed a little green vine on one branch and filled it with power. The vine grew quickly, twining between the branches and then sprouting tiny pink flowers, covering the entire underside of the canopy.
Leaning back on his elbows, Crimson looked up, admiring his friend’s handiwork. “Wow.” Raising a brow at Riyad, he said, “You’re pretty romantic. I had no idea.”
Riyad blushed and scuffed at the cavern floor with the toe of his boot. “Just don’t go telling everyone. I’ll have every male in the glen wanting me to help them impress their mate.”
Getting up, Crimson laid a soft sheet across the moss then placed two pillows at the head of the bed and folded a blanket at the foot of the bed. He left the food and drink in the satchel and tucked it against one wall then surveyed their work. Riyad’s power had turned the stark, manly cavern into a beautiful oasis. Crimson knew that he could bring Lindy here and what they would share would be the start of their new life together.
He clapped his best friend on the back and thanked him for his help. Sealing the cavern door with a protection spell, Crimson flew off toward home and Riyad headed off in another direction. He would have to remember to send Riyad a proper th
ank you for his assistance.
As he walked into his home, he saw that Lindy was still asleep. He crumpled up the note and joined her on the couch, curling her warm body against him and breathing in the sweet scent of his mate.
Chapter 13
After Lindy woke from her nap, Crimson told her he was taking her for an overnight trip to a very special place. She’d wanted to ask for more details, but judging from the heated look in his green eyes, she knew that no matter where it was, they were going to be mated by morning.
He’d promised to seduce her, and he had. When he’d first said he would seduce her, she’d expected a full-blown physical assault meant to weaken her emotional defenses. Crimson had done the opposite. He’d seduced her mentally and emotionally, and not in the way she’d anticipated. Simply by accepting her and taking his time with her, he’d proven himself to be much different than any other male she’d known. And more than the seduction was the fact that he’d saved her life. He’d come through the portal and brought her back without hesitation and offered her everything he had.
She was quickly falling in love with her handsome wulfen, and it was both the most terrifying and freeing things she’d ever done.
He had packed a small bag for her, and after she changed into shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, and tennis shoes, he took her hand and walked out of the house. He hooked the bag over his shoulder, tightening it so it lay flush to his bare chest.
He turned and exhaled, his wings slipping from his back silently. He stretched them out and then picked up her hand. “Ready for a ride?”
The Wolf's Mate Book 7: Lindy & The Wulfen Page 11