Of course he had to forge new pack bonds. It would take every advantage they could get to defeat the acolytes. What the staff had said was purely logical. Why then were tears gathering along her lashes? Oh, yes, because as much as she was this Healer and wielder of some great and horrible power, she was still a woman, with a heart made of flesh and blood, not cold unfeeling rock.
Sorsha stood, slowly looking between Beatrice and Silverblade. “What did the Falcon Staff just say? Tell me I misunderstood that whole speech, because….because….well damn it all to the dark! That’s not fair. I think that’s worse than what the Oracle demanded.”
Beatrice wouldn’t look up to meet Sorsha’s gaze, but she caught movement as Ashayna placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder to silence her. “I don’t like it either, but it probably won’t be the last time one of us has to do something we’d rather not.”
Silverblade sat, rigid and silent, but Beatrice could feel the turmoil in his body. If she could do something to make this easier for him, she would. At least they wouldn’t both have to be in emotional distress.
Autumn Shadow pushed back her chair and stood slowly. “It is almost nightfall, I will call together the adults and we will hunt and sing to the night’s beauty. Come join me when you’re ready. But know I take no joy in this either, I’ve come to love Beta in the years you’ve been away scouting.”
With that she left. Silverblade still hadn’t moved or spoken.
After another long, awkward silence, Councilor Tav stood and made his exit. Shadowdancer held out his hand for Sorsha and they started away, clearly intending to give Beatrice and Silverblade some privacy.
Sorntar held his ground, a stubborn look on his face as if he was going to say something.
“Do not.” Silverblade said, locking his gaze with the phoenix prince’s. “It is one night. I’ll survive it.”
Her lupwyn turned to her at last and took her face in his hands. “You live in my heart already. None other can come close to touching that love or besmirching its purity. Come morning, I will be yours alone again, and if you’ll still have me, we can put this night far from our memories.”
Tears flowed down her cheeks and her throat still had a lump in it that made speaking difficult, but she would not let him go without knowing she would not hold this night against him in the least. “Of course I’ll still have you. I love you. This is a duty you’re required to perform for the good of all. It changes nothing between us.”
Silverblade pressed a kiss to her forehead and then he stood, spun on his heels, and hurried from the tent.
Beatrice watched him go and thought by the pain in her chest, he must have ripped her heart out and taken it with him.
She didn’t want to think or move and she most certainly didn’t want the others’ sympathy. She wanted to be left alone. But more than that she wanted Sorntar to stop pacing.
“I don’t care what my Talisman said, Silverblade is half phoenix,” Sorntar said with a frown directed at Beatrice. “This will harm him in ways only a fellow phoenix would understand.”
“Sorntar,” Ashayna tried to silence her bondmate but he wasn’t listing.
“What the Staff askes of him is unnatural.”
“Sorntar!”
“And Silverblade has clearly already given Beatrice his heart.”
“You’re not helping.” Sorsha joined her sister to try to reason with the phoenix.
Sorntar ignored the sisters and said to Beatrice, “You should just challenge Autumn Shadow, become pack alpha in her place.”
Sorsha looked up at the phoenix suddenly. “What? If that was possible, why did Silverblade not suggest it?”
Smiling, Sorntar came back to the table. “Because he’s protective of Beatrice. He wouldn’t risk her getting mortally injured in a dominance fight.”
“You’re both unhinged,” Ashayna muttered. “But let’s say for a moment you aren’t. How will that help?”
“If she defeats Autumn Shadow, she can take the pack bonds by force. Once Beatrice is Pack Alpha, all she needs to do is bring Silverblade back into the pack the same way Autumn Shadow would have…”
“She’ll never survive a dominance fight with a lupwyn.” Ashayna’s tones sharpened with annoyance and then she changed tactics. “Come Beatrice, I’ll show you where you can sleep tonight.”
Beatrice stood but not to follow Ashayna. Instead she met Sorntar’s gaze. “Tell me more.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
As Autumn Shadow had promised, she had called the pack together for a hunt, which in turn would lead to other social activities since they were in a fertility cycle. Already excitement for a group hunt was building within the pack, howls and barking echoed through the camp.
Santhyrians raised their heads from grazing or whatever other task they were performing to watch. After a few moments they grew bored again and returned to their tasks. With a heavy heart, Silverblade reached the edge of the camp and wandered into the grass with no real destination in mind. Autumn Shadow would track him by scent once she and the pack returned from the hunt.
He didn’t plan on returning to the camp until…afterward. There was no way he wanted Beatrice to experience firsthand the pain of accidentally seeing the one she loved with another. That he would spare her at least. He only wished he could spare himself. Oh, once the pack members started to love each other, he wouldn’t be immune to the magic and lust rising within the other lupwyns.
Looking down at his mostly human body, a new thought occurred and he started to chuckle. Perhaps he wouldn’t be affected by the other lupwyns in this form. Then they’d just have to wait for the pack bond to form naturally over time. Of course, if that was the case, he and Beatrice couldn’t be together during that time for fear of forming a single link with her.
He growled.
Beatrice should be here with him. That’s all there was to it. The Twelve, duty and acolytes be damned. Back at the pavilion when he’d forbidden Sorntar from saying anything to Beatrice, he’d been so close to holding his tongue and letting the other phoenix speak his mind. But he still wouldn’t have wanted his beloved to risk herself in a leadership fight even though there had been a few stray thoughts that kept flashing through his mind this day.
In them she always came and claimed him as hers.
He would have blamed his Larnkin for them, but Silverblade was pretty sure these ones came from his own heart’s desires.
Lupwyn courtship involved both parties displaying their interest in combat and posturing. But Beatrice was human.
Snarling softly, he broke into a run, putting more space between himself and the camp before he did something stupid like return to her side.
*****
Four candlemarks earlier, the first of the lupwyns had returned with a deer. It was now cooking over a fire in the central fire pit. Other lupwyns were now starting to race into camp, yelping and greeting the youngsters who had remained behind in the care of their santhyrian nursemaids.
Beatrice waited by the fire pit, its fuel now reduced to glowing embers and a few stray flames. Prince Sorntar had started it himself while he explained his plan. She also wore a long mage cloak he’d given her. It covered her from head to toe and would keep her warm once she left the fire and ventured out into the plains
More and more lupwyns arrived out of the tall grass to join the others near the fire where the deer was almost cooked. Other types of food and drink appeared and so too did small drums and other musical instruments she did not recognize. But none of that held any interest. Only Autumn Shadow interested her at this exact moment. The female hadn’t arrived yet, but Sorntar had informed her an alpha always returned to begin the feast by taking the first portion. Once the pack had fed and the youngsters were put to bed the rest of the pack would ghost away into the night to sing to the moon and partake in other activities.
At last she spotted her prey returning. When the other female approached the central fire pit, Beatrice unsheathed the small k
nife she’d been holding all evening. Discarding the sheath, she tossed it to the ground and stepped directly in front of Autumn Shadow and then just as quickly turned her back on the alpha and made her unhurried way to the cooking deer.
Once there, she sliced off a piece and blew on it to cool it and started back toward the baffled alpha. When she was a few steps away she met the other’s gaze and slowly took one delicate bite. She chewed that and nibbled on another piece while she continued to stalk toward the other female. When she was almost upon the other’s location, she made certain to snap the edge of her cloak so it deliberately hit Autumn Shadow’s leg as she passed.
As she’d both hoped and expected, the alpha growled out something low and dangerous-sounding in her own language. To add to the insult, Beatrice continued on her way without acknowledging the female.
Behind her she heard Autumn Shadow turn and follow. Good. If this all went terribly wrong, she didn’t want to be responsible for killing half the pack. She continued out of the camp and over to a small rise in the land where a lone tree grew. It was sickly and old, rot already working away at its trunk. But the tree suited her purposes just fine.
Autumn Shadow was still trailing her, and behind the alpha the rest of the pack had started to follow, likely curious to watch the spectacle of a tiny human woman challenging their alpha.
Beatrice arrived at her chosen tree and leaned against it while she waited.
“Challenging me is remarkably foolish, human. You can’t hope to win a fight against me.” Sighing, Autumn Shadow, added, “I’ll not harm you if you submit to me now.”
“I promise the same. You should also know I promised that I would be loyal to Silverblade and guard his heart—I view this challenge as part of that. And I don’t break my vows.”
“Fine, but you’re going to have some bites and bruises come morning.” Autumn Shadow stalked forward and shifted to all fours. Giving herself a full body shake, she stretched and limbered up in a showing of strength.
Smiling coldly, Beatrice tossed back the mage cloak, revealing her body clothed in nothing but the dark flames of her death magic.
“A challenge is strength,” Autumn Shadow said with the first flush of fear entering her voice. “Magic is forbidden.”
“No one told me that detail.” She shrugged. “This will be more an execution than a challenge, I suppose.”
Freeing one arm from the billowing cloak, she reached out and caressed the long, waist high grass as she walked. When the dark flames of her magic touched it, the grass crumpled and disintegrated. Gone in the blink of an eye.
Autumn Shadow continued to circle her slowly, but Beatrice could see the fear in her eyes now. “I am only doing as the Falcon Staff asked. I do not even desire Silverblade anymore.”
Beatrice’s healer’s magic studied her opponent’s physical responses and realized her words were true. “Then I’m doing you a favor.”
“By challenging me to be alpha?” The lupwyn snarled and started forward but halted when Beatrice made an off-handed gesture. Her death magic raced across the distance and collided with the already dying tree. Her power sped up the process a thousand-fold and like the grass before it, the tree crumbled and vanished.
“Silverblade chose me,” Beatrice continued in a calm voice. “And I him. It has always been so. By the dawn I will be alpha and he will be my mate again.”
Walking forward, she sent her healer’s magic into the lupwyn and sought a particular cluster of nerves. They flared brightly to her mage sight and with a thought she ordered them to go dark. Back legs folding under her, the startled lupwyn collapsed to her side helpless.
“I don’t want your death. And I don’t really want to be alpha, but no one asked what I or Silverblade wanted. The thought of not having a choice is distasteful to me, so I am going to give you one. You can choose to submit and go free unharmed, or you can be hardheaded about this and my healer’s magic will dig out the secret of how the alpha’s pack bonds work.”
“I submit.”
Beatrice smiled as she swallowed back both her death magic and her healing power.
“Well, Sorntar was correct. He said you would submit.” She knelt next to the lupwyn. “The feeling will return in your legs shortly. While we wait, why don’t we start transferring those pack bonds?”
*****
Silverblade heard the excited howls of his pack drawing nearer. They had his scent and would be upon him shortly. He’d almost managed to push away the deep ache in his heart and find a few moments of peace once he’d found this little patch of mossy ground, sheltered by a river on one side and a ridge of rock on the other. A large willow grew off to one side. Now that his pack had found him, bitterness returned.
He turned to face the first of the lupwyns. Several had stopped before they intruded upon his territory, but Autumn Shadow continued on as he’d expected. What he wasn’t expecting was the cloaked rider upon her back. When the other lupwyn halted and allowed her rider to dismount, Silverblade caught Beatrice’s scent.
“What do you think you’re doing bringing Beatrice here!” he snarled, rage igniting in his soul.
“Obeying her new alpha’s command,” Beatrice said in a calm voice as she lowered the hood of her cloak. “You may go now.”
He’d thought the words directed at him at first until Autumn Shadow and the other lupwyns all ran off into the forest with excited howls.
Shocked speechless, he could only look at Beatrice in silence.
Hope curled in his chest and he took a step closer.
“How?”
“Sorntar explained everything about how an outsider could become alpha by winning a challenge against another alpha and forcibly taking their pack bonds. When I asked why you didn’t simply do that, he told me it was because the pack had no alpha male for you to challenge. So that left it to me. I knew I couldn’t beat her in a fair fight so I tricked her into an unfair one. Not one of my prouder moments,” Beatrice said with an unapologetic shrug and parted the cloak to show him the pale, glowing lines of the pack bonds upon her naked flesh.
Silverblade thought them the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and reached out to trace his fingers along one of the lines on her skin.
“Stop.” Giggling, she covered his hand with hers. “That tickles.”
“Then I think I shall spend half the night touching them just to hear that lovely sound again.”
“They are rather noticeable aren’t they? Prince Sorntar and Councilor Tav assured me the silver glow will fade once my body finishes accepting them.” She frowned. “This is not how I would have…. that is … I know I must still bring you into the pack tonight and this isn’t how you wanted it to be, but I couldn’t allow another to do it. Because you are mine.”
“Yes, from the moment I first found you digging in the garden outside Old Mother’s hut.” He reached out and dragged her closer so he could run his jaw along hers and then bury his nose in that favorite spot where the graceful curve of her neck joined her shoulder.
Hmmm, her scent was her own but now mixed with pack. It was lovely. He nipped and flicked his tongue along her jaw while toying with the clasp holding the cloak in place. In the end, he decided to leave it for now. The glimpses of her skin when she moved were like little rewards for all he’d endured in the last few days. He pressed his lips to her throat where her pulse pounded just below the skin.
“What are you doing?” Her voice came out a startled squeak.
“Submitting.”
“I don’t want that.”
He was sure he detected a tiny lie in her voice.
Nuzzling his way to her other shoulder, he bit gently as he slipped his hands under her cloak to rest on her hips. He kissed his way up the curve of her neck and nosed aside her hair until his lips brushed her ear. “That would be a lie. But I can be more dominant if you’d like.”
To prove his words he pulled her closer and sealed their lips.
After a time she broke away to bre
athe and then cupped his face in her hands. “I don’t care if you are dominant or submissive, I only care if you’re willing.”
“I’m very willing. Never fear that.” He stepped back but kept their fingers entwined, and slowly dragged her back to a spot where a soft patch of moss and ferns could act as a bed. Once there, he used his other hand to free himself from his clothing.
That was done, he reached for the clasp holding on her cloak and it started to slide from her shoulders. Even distracted with watching her body revealed to his gaze, he managed to catch the cloak. With a twist, he spread it out on the ground and then sat on his haunches.
Beatrice blinked at him, but when he held out his hand and told her to come, she did and settled on the ground in front of him. When he leaned forward to kiss her, she crawled onto his lap, her legs settling to either side of his naturally.
“How do I bond you to your pack?”
“Touch, warmth, love making. The longer we are together, the stronger the bonds grow. I can already feel my bonds flaring with new life, reaching for you.”
“Ah, that doesn’t sound so difficult.”
“No,” he agreed and returned to kissing her.
After a candlemark filled with many slow, lingering caresses Silverblade knew the moment Beatrice’s patience ran out for she uttered a sound of frustration. Breaking away from his kiss, she looked him in the eye and raised herself just enough so their bodies aligned. He accepted her silent invitation and with one slow thrust he was home for the first time in centuries.
“My Healer, I have missed you,” he whispered against her throat as he started to move.
Beatrice hugged him with a fierce strength like she was afraid he’d disappear.
“You’ll never lose me. We’re pack now.”
And it was true.
*****
An unknown number of candlemarks later, Beatrice snuggled against him for warmth. One hand explored his chest, her fingers stroking along each rib, across his abdomen, even dipping into the hollow of his bellybutton until she was familiar with every part of his body.
Maiden's Wolf (In Deception's Shadow Book 3) Page 19