Duke and Brain looked at Bash, who seemed to consider his words carefully before saying, “No, it’ll still matter.” He sighed. “But we may not have another chance to try, so we kind of have to do it now.”
I shook my head as I realized what he was saying. “No, I won’t do it. My wolf submits to you in bed, and we’re mostly partners out of the bedroom. I won’t do anything to fuck that up.” I looked down at my engagement ring a few seconds, and then back up to meet his gaze in the strange shadows the two lights were throwing around the cave and on our faces. “I love you, and you know I’m terrified of… there’s more than one way to lose someone, Bash. I gave all of myself to you. I won’t battle you.”
“Well then,” Duke said, walking to a cave wall just outside of the light. “Let’s see what the two of you combined can do.”
He pushed a decent sized rock to the center of the floor — perhaps three times the size of a basketball.
“I want the two of you to hold hands and press down on the rock with your minds. We’re all going to move farther away from it, because if you succeed in crushing it, smaller rocks are going to fly everywhere.”
“What do we do?” Bash asked as he looked at the rock with doubt.
“Hold hands, whatever feels right, and then press down on it with your combined energy.”
“I’m assuming I pull from the waterfall? And he does the same? And our combined energy will be greater than what it would be apart?”
“Yes, and for this, you don’t have permission to pull from Brain.”
I looked at Bash. “We’ll hold hands, and pull it in until we’re ready. I’ll squeeze your hand when I’m ready, you squeeze mine when you’re ready. When we’ve both squeezed, we’ll do it.”
He nodded, reached for my hand, and we faced the rock. I pulled energy in and was surprised I filled up and nearly overflowed so fast. I squeezed Bash’s hand, he squeezed mine back, and I used the big ethereal hand I’d discovered to push on the rock.
It exploded in a rain of smaller rocks and power, and I turned my face away as the rocks struck me. Bash shielded my body with his, and there wasn’t time for me to protest because it was over seconds after it started.
I looked at Duke and Brain, who’d been near a larger boulder they could move behind. They stepped back out into the light, and they were staring at each other in shock. “Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t tell them they aren’t supposed to be able to do it.”
“They did it in less than five seconds!”
Bash sighed in frustration. “It doesn’t really matter though, because we can’t use it! If she pulls this out, Randall won’t give her a choice of leaving — it’ll be oath herself to him and join the Pack, or be killed.”
Duke nodded and looked to us. “I hate to tell you to keep secrets from your dad, Punkin, but… this is one it might be best to keep from everyone.” He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes a few seconds, and opened them to say, “Randall can pull on the energy in nature, as well as every wolf under him. Not just the ones in the local Pack, but the ones in all of the states in his territory. The two of you can’t defeat him, but you could likely walk into almost any other Pack and easily take over.”
The more I thought about what Bash said — today might be our only chance to see who was stronger — the more I realized we needed to see. It would be a huge question hanging over our heads, and I had one in particular shooting through my brain.
“Bash, lift your arm and bring it down, like you’re hitting something with a belt. Do it ten times, please?”
I let him do it twice, and then I ‘grabbed’ his wrist with my power. He looked shocked, then pissed as he realized what I’d done.
“You were right,” I told him, my wolf near the surface. “We need to know.”
I hadn’t let go of his wrist, it was still in the air, and I felt him pushing back — not with his arm, but with his entire being.
I pulled more power from the falls, felt him doing the same, and I pushed at all of him as I tried to counter what he was throwing at me. His arm came down, but I could tell he was fighting to keep to his feet, which was fair, since I was also fighting to remain standing.
We both went to our knees at the same time, and Brain touched my shoulder as I saw Duke touch Bash’s.
“It’s a draw,” said Duke. “Now hug each other, mix your auras back again.”
We hugged, and my head started to throb.
“You okay? I smell pain? Did a rock get you?” Bash asked.
“My head is pounding all of a sudden.”
Duke opened his backpack and brought me some water and some dried beef. “The two of you will need to stop for a steak in Andrews or Murphy, but this should help.”
I sat and ate it, and the pounding let up a little. “I need to be around trees, and feel the sunshine. The waterfall helped, but it’s still… dead down here.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Bash
We pulled into the apartment complex more than six hours later — three and a half hours of driving, and almost three hours of eating. We’d stopped for steak twice and burgers once.
Our helmets are outfitted so we can talk to each other, but we’d only talked about food and scenery. Neither of us had wanted to bring up anything more serious.
“Do you mind if I take some music and a book to the bathroom and just read for a while?” she asked as we walked through the living room towards the bedroom to deposit our bags.
“You want me to just leave? Give you alone time?” Even to my ears, it sounded harsher than I intended, but her question felt like a slap in the face.
“No! Fuck, Bash. I’m exhausted, and we need to talk, but I need to unwind from everything before we do. Just… can you chill out with some beer and a game? I’ll set the music to play for an hour, and then I’ll come out and talk, I promise.”
I sighed and massaged my forehead a few seconds before letting my arms fall to my side. “Okay, yeah. Give me a hug and kiss first, and then chill out. I still feel like my skin doesn’t fit right, maybe some down time will help, before we talk.”
* * * *
As is usually the case, Angelica had been right. When she came to me after her bath, wearing only a robe, she was so much more relaxed. She curled up on the sofa next to me, leaned into my side, and closed her eyes.
“God, I love you.”
“Love you too, Princess,” I said as I wrapped my arm around her and snugged her in a little closer.
We were both quiet a few minutes, and I said, “I don’t think we have anything to talk about after all, do we? Nothing’s changed between us, and we can’t use what we learned. It’s good to know it’s there, but using it would mean war with no telling how many supernatural factions.”
“I get that it’s the people who are organized who have the power to make and enforce the rules, and that we’re choosing to stay lone wolves, so it isn’t like they’re keeping us out of the power structure… but it’s still a bitch we have no say over the damned rules.”
“Agreed, but I don’t see there being any changes in the near future.”
She fell asleep in my lap, and I carried her to bed without waking her. Sex would have to wait, my Princess was exhausted.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Angelica
“Dad! No sex talk! Seriously! I haven’t been a virgin for a long time!”
“I’m not giving you a how-to lecture, just pointing out marriage vows are sacred, and I’m making sure you aren’t intending to sully them with threesomes with Dawg! Playing around when you were dating was one thing, but doing it after you’re married is...” He shook his head. “Wrong, Angel. It’ll be wrong.”
I looked at the floor, counted to ten, and looked up. I spoke slow and calm as I asked, “You really want to do have this conversation?”
“Want to? No. But I feel as if I need to, Angel.”
I refused to get embarrassed or look away, so I held his gaze and said, “Dawg on
ly fucks my ass and my mouth, Dad. He’s never been in my pussy, because if something fucks up and I get pregnant, Bash wants to know beyond a shadow of a doubt it’s his kid.”
He looked at me, speechless, through a dozen heartbeats, and finally grinned. “Damn, Angel. Fuck if you aren’t every bit my daughter, but you still didn’t answer whether you intend to keep playin’ with him.”
“Our vows are to be faithful to each other, and as long as Bash is present, and Dawg and I stay within the limits Bash is comfortable with, I’m faithful to my promises to him.”
He shook his head. “At least you’ve talked it through, but I have to say I still don’t like it.” He held a hand up to stop me from talking, “I know — I don’t get a say in it, but I feel obligated to speak up. Now that I have, I’ll shut up about it and tell you how beautiful you are, and how proud I am of the woman you’ve become.”
“I love you so much, Daddy, but I wish Mom could be here.”
“I know, Angel, so do I. I have to think she’s watching today, though. Maybe not always, but today? I can’t believe she’d miss this for the world.”
My eyes got watery and I grabbed a tissue and dabbed. “Dammit, Daddy, don’t make me cry! You aren’t going to go all caveman about giving me away during the ceremony, are you?”
He shook his head. “This is your special day. I’ll behave. Bash and I, and Dawg and I, have already worked through the caveman stuff. I’m officially giving you to your new husband today, but you’ll always be my little girl.”
“Yeah, and you’ll always be my daddy.”
The wedding coordinator knocked on the door and practically sang, “It’s time!”
I rolled my eyes, and Daddy laughed. The woman was very good at her job, but way too happy about it.
She walked us through the hallway, and the next thing I knew, the music started, we stepped around the corner, and I met Bash’s eyes as my dad walked me towards him.
We had more than two hundred guests, as Bash is high enough in the RTMC this was a political event as well as a social one. I was honored to have the Lion King, the Dragon King, the Swan Queen, the Wolf Alpha, and a dozen other powerful supernaturals present. The Abbott, one of the most powerful vampires on the planet, was supposed to show up later for my reception, with a few other high-powered vampires, too.
But everyone and everything faded except Bash, and I felt as if I were walking on a cloud as my dad escorted me down the aisle towards the love of my life.
Duke officiated, and looked super sharp in his tux, but nowhere near as handsome as Bash in his.
The ceremony went fast — we said our vows to each other, and put the rings on each other’s fingers as Duke handed them to us. Duke didn’t get to say the whole sentence about kissing me before Bash had me bent backwards as he kissed me senseless. I went stiff at first, but then relaxed and let him take over. The audience cheered and clapped, and then we were on the way to the reception.
Months of planning, and now I was Bash’s wife, and he was my husband. I thought back to the first time I talked to him, when I tried to bully him into doing as I told him to, and he’d pulled into a parking lot and let me know how it was going to be.
Once we’d gotten past the initial power struggles, we’d settled into a friendship, and now he’d become my friend, my love, and so much more.
My gaze met his as the notes to the song for our first dance played, and my heart threatened to melt as I recognized More than Words. This was the song that’d first played when our souls had joined, and we’d had something close to telepathy without a formal binding ceremony. My eyes watered as he took me into his arms and we moved in time to the music.
Love you so much, Princess. Never thought I’d see this day, and now that it’s here, I don’t want it to end. You’ve shown me your love and trust in so many ways, and I intend to spend the rest of my life being worthy of you.
I rested my head on his shoulder and let him lead. I wasn’t supposed to know he’d taken dance lessons from Mac and Ranger, so I kept it to myself, but it was just one more way he’d shown me the lengths he was willing to go to give me my perfect day.
You’re in my soul, Bash. You don’t have to prove anything.
I looked around the room at our family and friends, as well as so many truly powerful individuals. I’d taken my status as Bud’s daughter for granted, growing up… but now I understood there was a lot more responsibility behind my position as Bash’s ol’lady.
My dad got the second dance, Dawg claimed the next, then Brain, Duke, Gonzo… Eventually, I’d danced with a dragon, several vampires so powerful my aura vibrated just being near them, a couple of lions, a leopard, a snake, and — the newest patched member of the RTMC — a bobcat. Bash fed me in between dances, kissed me crazy, and used our telepathy to remind me of some basic political positions and strategies as I worked my way through the power structure.
Besides the supernatural big-wigs, there were also a bunch of top TVA people. I’d gotten a huge promotion at work a few weeks back, after I discovered a way to get four percent more power out of the current setup in certain dams with minimal expense, and it meant millions of dollars more a year in revenue for each dam we could implement it. Thankfully, though, none of my new bosses demanded a dance with the bride.
Bash had sprung for first class tickets to Hawaii, and a limo to take us to the Nashville airport. We had sex in the limo, and I gave him a blowjob over the Pacific Ocean in the airplane bathroom.
We were wired by the time we landed on the final island, but I wondered why another limo was taking us to the house, instead of us renting a car.
“Some motorcycles will be delivered to the house tomorrow,” he explained when I asked. “Can’t get the luggage to the house on bikes.”
I smiled, so in love with this man my heart felt it might not fit in my chest. “And we can’t explore a dormant volcano in a cage, right?”
He kissed me, and when he let me go I hung my head out the window to get a better look at the surrounding landscape, and to see how high up the volcano went. “I can’t believe how green everything is,” I exclaimed as I breathed in the ocean air.
Bash laughed and pulled me back in. “You’re a wolf, not a dog, for cryin’ out loud!”
I laughed back and swatted him, and then looked out again as the limo pulled off the main road.
“Shit! This is where we’re staying?”
The house was huge, with a lush, green lawn leading all the way to the beach, and lots of gorgeous tropical plants creating a thick, brushy area all around the house.
I took the keys from Bash as he settled up with the limo driver and got our bags from the trunk, and was inside looking at the huge, airy kitchen when Bash joined me. We toured the house, and I fell in love with the master bedroom and bath, with lavish, beautiful views of the ocean. We both stood in the doorway of a guest room that was clearly here to be used as a jail cell, with a mattress on a utilitarian steel shelf mounted to the wall in place of a bed, and another stainless shelf across the room at the height of a dresser. A corner of the room served as bathroom, with a toilet and sink against one wall, and a shower head mounted to the ceiling with a large floor drain under it. The floor was a rough stone tile throughout the room, and fancy metal scrollwork on the windows would keep anyone from escaping.
“Aaron Drake doesn’t do anything halfway, does he?” I asked, unwilling to step into the room.
“Wouldn’t be a bad setup for new wolves,” he remarked, and I turned and walked away from the room. It gave me the heebie-jeebies, and I wanted no part of it.
“He mentioned the house is soundproof,” said Bash as he followed me through the house, “on six acres with an intense security system, and made a point of telling me people can be suspended from the rafters.”
“And you thought, ‘wow, sounds like the perfect spot for a honeymoon’?”
He chuckled and led me outside to an outdoor kitchen with the biggest grill I’d ever seen, and
a beautiful swimming pool. “The half wall means we can swim nude without being seen, and I’ve made arrangements for a boat to take us out to a reef in a few days so we can snorkel. And, don’t forget, tomorrow we’ll have bikes and we can explore the volcano.”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to sound like I was complaining. It’s a great house, let’s just close the door to that room. The bleach smells coming out of it tell me I’d just as soon not spend any time in there.”
“Deal, Princess. I didn’t like it either. I paid a shopper to stock the kitchen with the foods we like, and there’s supposed to be some fresh steaks in the fridge, and potatoes already baked that we just need to heat back up. Hungry?”
We ate a huge feast out on the patio, with the ocean air blowing, and the blues and greens so vibrant the entire vista looked photoshopped.
Bash convinced me to go for a walk on the beach when we finished eating, and as we walked with our feet in the water, I asked, “You aren’t all set on anything kooky for our honeymoon, are you? I’m gonna get lots of orgasms, and you aren’t going to actually hang me from the rafters, right?”
He chuckled and pulled me into his embrace as the waves buffeted our calves. “Not for the first couple of days, but we’re here two weeks and it might be interesting to play around later.”
“Well,” I drawled, “I wouldn’t mind a few fun spankings — I could even be a little bad, if you need me to…”
“Mmm, you get fun spankings when you’re good, Princess, and the blowjob over the Pacific probably gets you your choice of whatever the hell you want tonight.”
The clean salty air, the hot sun and cool ocean breeze, the sound and rhythm of the waves, the soft sand under my feet — and the love of my life holding me in his arms. Could life get any better than this?
“The song, you understood what I was saying?” he asked. “I wish there was a better way for me to show you much I love you, Princess. The words aren’t enough to encompass everything in my heart.”
Bash, Volume III Page 20