She opened her mouth to speak, but he kissed her, holding her tight and wrapping his arms around her before covering them both in his wings.
She was warm, cocooned in the scent of man and the dusty-sweet scent of feathers.
When he raised his head, he murmured, “We should get portraits done with the wings.”
The idea of being photographed when shifted was appalling.
He seemed to take in her expression. “Too soon? I will bring it up after our first child.”
She blinked in surprise. “When do you think that will be?”
“Well, it will be sooner rather than later. I suppose we should have had this discussion before now, but it was one of the things that the shifters had to give up to get their enhanced lifespans.”
“No one mentioned it to me.” She had never thought about kids. Kids were not part of her modest plans for her life.
“I am mentioning it now.” He kept her wrapped in his wings and arms.
She sighed. “Isn’t this a barn-door moment?”
He grinned. “Perhaps, but we are bonded now, so it is possible. It takes a lot of magic to get a shifter and fey to breed.”
“Drorik and his mate?”
“Are probably going to have a tremendous brood that will stretch into the ages. I will be content with one or two daughters that will grow up to have daughters of their own.”
“I thought every man wanted a son.”
“Whatever child comes of our union will be welcome, but in the fey society, there are no girls being born for the men born a century ago. Our population has decreased to the point where this was the last and final effort to get a foothold on the future.”
“I am a foothold?” She raised her eyebrows at that.
He chuckled. “This moment is the foothold. Where we go from here is up to us.”
She ran her hands between them and stroked the individual muscles of his abdomen. “I have a few ideas on that matter, but you might want to lose the wings.”
He smiled slowly as her hands loosened the closure of his belt. “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, as I am going to be on top, the wings might be in the way.”
She almost heard the snap as the wings disappeared. He was naked, on his back and watching her with a smile in a moment.
Hayley lifted the edge of her robe and crawled up his body to straddle him, their thighs concealed by the folds of her robe. She was slick and wet from watching him fly, so he slid in easily.
He pulled her robe down over her arms as she rode him slowly. His hands gripped her hips, cupped her breasts, and she could see his enjoyment of her body. It was heartening; they were both stuck with it.
She had always had an appreciation for her own body and enjoyed being inside it, but to find someone who revelled in it as much as she did was a delight.
When she was curled in his arms, she whispered, “What am I going to do for a living?”
He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “If you want to continue your work at the recovery centre, it is now an option. If you wish to work with me as a hunter, I can train you. I think you would have some excellent possibilities in recognisance.”
“I don’t think that life as a hunter is for me. The recovery centre is much more my speed, though my transformation might not be well received.”
He nodded. “Right. Those held by fey might be a little aggressive toward you.”
“I just realised that.” She sighed.
He chuckled. “You would be good at eliciting confessions. You can tell when they are lying and could use magic to extract the truth.”
Hayley sat up and stared down at him. “Could you teach me that?”
“Sure. Truth spells are handy to use on children as well. Just a heads’ up.” He winked.
She dropped onto his chest, making him grunt; she pinned his arms above his head with hers. “So, what do you want for the instruction?”
“I will think of a proper tutoring fee. How long can we stay here?” He wagged his eyebrows at her.
“Until we are both comfortable with our transformations. We have until then.” She nuzzled his neck and squirmed on his chest until he broke her grip and held her hips.
“I love your waist, your hips, your breasts and those lush thighs that welcome me. Whatever you want me to teach you, the honour of you with me is payment enough.”
She grinned. “Good answer.”
He laughed and rolled her to her back, whispering the instructions for the truth spell while he kissed his way down her body.
When she managed to work the spell, he let her come, and the honesty she inflicted on him had him groaning as he lost control in the sheets.
He looked at her. “Let’s not cast that spell in bed again. Honesty means I can’t lie to myself about how much I want to come, and since I am bound with magic, I lose all control.”
She grinned. “Fair enough. Can we get something to eat before you defile any more linens?”
“Of course. I need to keep your strength up. This joining will be more of a strain on you than on me.”
Hayley got up, put on her robe and headed for the kitchen she had noted on the way in. Her honeymoon was off to a good start, and she wasn’t even married yet.
Epilogue
Tovin was still reeling with the greeting of his three nieces. Hayley had not stopped laughing at him.
“You are not going to do that, are you?” There was a nervous horror in his tone.
Hayley grinned. “Have three at once? No. This is one baby, one set of feet, elbows and fists, not to mention one little head. I am very glad I have five months to go. There should be time between cousins’ birthdays.”
Yval was in good hands. Their mother-in-law was enthralled with the new arrivals, and for the first time, Hayley appreciated living closely to her new family. Her job with the shifter council, interrogating suspects and getting confessions from fey was satisfying, and she didn’t think she would want to give that up after the baby. She had two babysitters who had already volunteered. Yval and Isgara had already offered to watch whatever came out of her for as often as she needed them to.
Since she had begun showing, she wore clothing that exposed her bump when she had to deal with the fey. They automatically deferred to a pregnant female. It was nice and a little weird.
When they got the call about the babies, she had been wearing an outfit designed by her mother-in-law. The silk flowed around her and gave her a graceful look that nothing else could. Her figure was even more ample now that she was building the next generation, but Tovin had never been more interested. Her growing curves fascinated him and exhausted her.
“What do you think they will name them?” Tovin wrapped his arms around her and put his hands on her belly, covering her completely.
“I don’t know, but I know that they will be loved and protected, and most of all, wanted.” She patted his hands. “Just like this one.”
She leaned back and whispered, “I have to take a deposition with the chancellor in attendance or I would be interested on your thoughts on what we should name this little one.”
“You already have my list.”
“I want you to shave it down to twenty for a girl and twenty for a boy. The current five hundred is a little overwhelming.”
“Nothing overwhelms you.”
She turned in his arms and kissed his jaw. “That is why we have safe words. Now, I have to get to the council headquarters. See you for dinner.”
She disappeared out of his arms and reappeared in the council hall, patting her hair back into the elaborate twist that Isgara taught her.
The shifters were a little nervous around her, and the fey watched her with fascination.
She headed up to the council chambers and nodded to the guard. He opened the door and announced her.
“Truth Seeker Hayley Hyland Arrowheart, attending the offices of Chancellor Brightscar.”
The position had been created just for her, and she
enjoyed being the only Truth Seeker.
As a pregnant woman, she didn’t need to bow to the chancellor. She nodded her head. “Good afternoon, Chancellor Brightscar.”
“What news?”
She smiled. The man who was seven centuries if he was a day, leaned forward to hear her news.
“Three daughters, all healthy. Each a solid crossbreed with visible fey and shifter traits.”
He sat back with a sigh. “Excellent. We are looking into finding a match for the seers, but they need to mate as pairs, so it becomes awkward. They do swear that if anyone comes up, they will let us know.”
She nodded. “In the meantime, this makes thirty successful pair bonds with five exceptionally powerful couples having offspring. The program is definitely productive.”
The chancellor nodded to her belly. “With one more exceptional child on the way.”
He waved to the chair next to his. “Please, be seated.”
The scar that bisected one eye glowed brightly as he watched her. “Your mate is a lucky man.”
“And a patient one. My spell casting is not proficient yet. I continue to turn all my clothing purple.”
“It is a good colour on you. The portrait that your husband commissioned is lovely as well.”
She blinked. “Where is it? I haven’t seen it.”
“The high king was so enamoured with the image that he demanded it hang in the court for the first five years. It is proof of the success of the bonding program.”
Hayley blushed. “That would explain it.”
Tovin was a soldier by nature, and he was in service to the court. When he had wanted the portrait, he had to petition the high king to borrow his artist. The painter was efficient, and the sketches of both Tovin and herself wearing their wings in a close embrace, looking into each other’s eyes, was a powerful image.
She sighed. “I don’t suppose that you can take a picture with your phone and email it to me?”
He laughed. “I will consider it. I do have to say that the image was powerful enough that fifty more names went on the roster. You are admired deeply and your current pregnancy only adds to your beauty.”
Hayley knew he was being nice, but Brightscar had the look of a man who had killed casually at some point in his lifetime. She couldn’t imagine the woman who would be an ideal match for him, but that woman would have to be exceptional on a lot of levels.
When he admired her pregnancy, and it was a frequent occurrence, it sent her human impulses scurrying for self-defence while her fey self, preened. She now had a collection of impulses in her mind that didn’t belong to the human psyche that she had been raised with.
“I hope to get a portrait done with the baby when it arrives, and I am just hoping that it will not be confiscated as well.” She made a face. “Maybe Tovin can ask the artist to make a print.”
Brightscar inclined his head. “I will file my own request that you get a copy of the image.”
She laughed. “Thanks. What is on the roster today?”
“Forcible seduction. He has kept her bound to him since she was legal in the human world, and now, she has been found. The spell is broken, and we need to find the truth of both parties. You can see magic and see lies. That is our duty this afternoon.”
Hayley straightened her shoulders and nodded. “Ready when you are.”
Others of her kind escorted in the shifter, and Brightscar remained quiet while Hayley coaxed out every detail.
The woman was a coyote with exotically beautiful features. Golden skin, silky black hair, high cheekbones and dark-gold eyes.
Hayley gathered the story of a young woman who had bumped into a fey at a fair and helped him navigate the midway. It was the last thing she remembered until a week ago.
Hayley watched her as she lied about never coming out of the spell. There was affection between the two, but he had gone about it all wrong. Her family of coyotes was not especially kind, and the comfortable life offered by the elf had been welcome. She had been safe and had been willing to pay for it with her body.
Hayley rubbed her forehead when Mirabell left the room.
“This is a mess.”
“Let’s hear his version.”
Hayley tucked her hair back over her ears, and she paced with her bump preceding her. Her questions were asked and answered, and to her surprise, he was very frank about taking the woman for his own.
“I thought she was human.”
Hayley blinked in surprise. “The contact shock didn’t give that away?”
“Not until we were intimate. When her eyes changed colour, I realised what she was.”
Brightscar took over the questions, and Hayley watched closely.
He had used the seduction honed by his people over eons and the magic had held her as his companion for six years.
She wrinkled her nose at the conflict. The initial seduction had been magically induced, but shifters developed resistance to fey magic very quickly. Some shifters were even simply irritated by it and didn’t even initially react. His big lie had been ignoring the contact sparks.
The scribe was in the corner, frantically recording the deposition.
When he left, Hayley turned to Brightscar. “He noticed the contact spark right away, but didn’t want to give her up.”
“Was she upset with him?”
Hayley rolled her eyes. “No. She was initially under his spell, but it wore off right away. The big problem will be her family. The coyote have pack ties that will insist on restitution or the return of their female. I do not believe she wants to go back to them, but council law says she has to.”
Brightscar nodded. “Leave it with me. I will see if enrolling them in the Crossroads is possible. If they come out as a mated pair, they were destined. If not, he will be on his own and held responsible for the initial magically forced seduction.”
Hayley nodded. It had been the hardest thing to deal with. She had to leave work at work. She had to determine the truth and then leave. Fortunately, she had Tovin to go home to, and he had her when his rescues showed him a side to his people he despised.
Hayley walked through the door, and Tovin took one look at her face before he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her.
She cried and sniffled against his shoulder as the rioting mood added to her day’s tension. “I hate knowing some of what I have learned.”
“As do I. You have me, I have you, and together, we can make the world better, one person at a time.”
He slid his hand between them and whispered, “And so will she.”
Amyra Arrowheart was born at a healthy ten pounds. Her parents admired her pointy ears and the tiny button of her nose. It was the delicate and perfect rosebud of her lips that made her mother smile.
“She has that same cupid’s bow that you do, Tovin.”
Tovin was still sweating and nursing the hand that she had crushed, but holding his daughter with care. “I think her eyes are shaped like yours, though they are coloured like mine.”
“Yes, they are. Now that the midwife is done with me, hand her over.” The sheets were clean; Hayley was sore, but tidy.
He sighed, but did as she ordered.
She watched as he pulled a shifter’s trick and changed his hand to a feathered wingtip before returning it to his normal digits.
She held little Amyra and cooed at her.
“Can I let in the family? They are waiting outside.” The midwife smiled.
Hayley was shocked. “They already have children and grandchildren.”
Tovin smiled. “And this little one makes four, and she will have cousins to play with and grandparents to dote on her. Let them start now.”
Hayley cuddled her daughter against her. “Let them in.”
Tovin sat with his arm around them both, and their family came in pronouncing Amyra to be beautiful and Hayley to be glowing. There was truth in every face and Hayley believed them.
Author’s Note
And so we conclud
e the beginning of Hayley’s new life. Her family is going to come up in future books along with her half-sisters and brother.
Roar of Magic is going to take us through the world of a woman who lives to take care of animals and a man who lives for his art.
Thanks for reading,
Zenina Masters
http://www.zeninamasters.com
[email protected]
About the Author
Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.
An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.
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