“If you stick the needle in her, brother, I’ll beat you within an inch of your life.” Robert snarled. He was here. She tried to raise her head to look at him only her neck didn’t want to work. Neither did her mouth.
“Injection is what she instructed me to do. Twelve hours and it would be too late for her to make the shift. For good measure, I waited thirteen because she was sleeping already and I wanted to give her every chance to make the shift. She didn’t and she’s dying. Caitlyn says the ones who didn’t shift end up burning from the inside out.”
Thirteen hours. Yes, Caitlyn was right. She’d not make it. A tear slipped from her eyes from all the things she’d never done, never known, and never would. “Robert.” She croaked and seconds later he stood over her. His face was pale and lines she had never noticed before fanned from the corners of his eyes.
“Tatyana, you’re awake.” His voice cracked. “See? I told my brother not to give you the shot.”
“No, he needs to. Please, I don’t think I can take anymore.” Her hand shook when she tried to touch him and he laced their fingers. His grip was warm, the life in him flowing so strong and steady. “Don’t make me live for days as my body shuts off or burns me to pieces.”
“Tatyana, listen to me.” He narrowed his eyes. “Very carefully. I am not going to repeat myself. I killed the dragon queen. I was only able to do so because I thought you were gone from me forever. By some miracle, you’re not. I’m not going to lose you twice in three days. You are going to live, change into a werewolf, if for no other reason than I told you to.”
“I wish it worked like that but...”
With a growl, he bit her. She shrieked from the surprise, not because it hurt. Who knew what hurt anymore? Every bit of her stung already.
“You’re mine, little human.” He spoke in her ear.
The world shifted on its axis and she lost consciousness only not before she arched off the bed, her spine breaking when she did.
Chapter Eight
Robbie never wanted to see anything as horrifying as Tatyana’s first change again for the rest of his life. He’d lost countless men to battle and torn dragons in two. His mate had been nearly dead when he’d arrived and his younger brother had been ready to knock her out so she wouldn’t ever wake again. He gritted his teeth and tried to let his anger go.
What happened next was so much worse. He didn’t know what possessed him to bite her. The need to do so had been overwhelming. She belonged to him and so help him she would wear his mark before she perished.
Somehow he must have known, deep inside, she needed it too. Tatyana thought it was the biting which changed humans into werewolves. He didn’t know the science, didn’t care to, only he’d lay money it was the mating bite which saved her.
He knelt before the small white wolf. All white wolves were unusual, yet the Knox family had many of them. A pretty genetic tendency his once-human mate shared.
With a crook of his finger, he called Tatyana to him. She stumbled twice, not used to walking on four legs. When she finally reached him, he let his hands explore her brand new fur for a few minutes. The touch would give her peace and strength. The acrid smell of her fear raised his own hackles, yet he had to maintain calm or she would never reach it herself.
He sat and patted the floor next to him. She should be able to understand him with basic commands. New werewolves, usually children at their first change, were often so overwhelmed by the experience simple gestures worked better. As she calmed, he would speak more.
Satisfying his need to touch her, he stroked her soft fur. “So, you becoming a wolf is quite a turn of events.” She groaned and he stared at her. “You can understand me already? Wow, fast learner. Close your eyes. You need to sleep. The wolf will take care of you. And when you wake we’ll see you changed back.”
His mate grumbled in wolf and closed her eyes doing as he instructed. With a low sigh, she settled against him and her head rested on his thigh. He heard a slight tap on the door and he looked to see who stood there. Tatyana didn’t stir.
Dougal popped his head around the corner. “Safe to come in? Are you going to take off my head?”
Robbie raised his eyebrows and didn’t answer. There was always the possibility he might take off someone’s head. Seeing Dougal with the needle over Tatyana’s arm was going to take a while to move past.
“You can come in.”
Dougal nodded and crept in softly. If she was going to wake she would have already. His brother probably didn’t have to be so quiet.
“I want you to know I wasn’t looking to harm her. I was trying to do as I thought you’d want, as she instructed. If Caitlyn were suffering...”
He held up his hand. “I get your intentions were on point. But, this thing that just happened, we’re never talking about it again.” Because if he thought about it, how close he had come to losing her...
“Right. I get that too.” His brother nodded. “So what’s it going to take to make you to come back home with us to lead?”
“I think home has two perfectly good Alphas without me.” Devon and Dougal handled things fine. Nowhere flourished anymore yet his home had stayed afloat thanks to his brothers. Why did they want him coming and mucking the whole thing up?
“Neither of us want the job. When I was young, I felt as if I could be Alpha.” Dougal shrugged. “Without my hand, and so much to rebuild, I don’t want the responsibility of everyone’s problems. I want my mate and our child to know the person watching out for us has our best interests at heart. Your men? They follow you into battle after battle, they never doubt you.”
He wanted to argue, but Dougal only spoke the truth. Robbie had often wanted someone else in charge yet who? Only Auggie would be strong enough to warrant the kind of allegiance needed for an alpha and his brother lacked the ability to communicate his intentions without pissing everyone off. His twin was much more of a fuck you, do your job kind of a guy which didn’t inspire others.
“I don’t know how to live in peace.”
Dougal shook his head. “Sure you do. We were raised in the same place. War couldn’t have undone all of it for you. I found it came back pretty quickly once I was home with Caitlyn and the baby. Thanks to you, it seems.”
“And your point is I should come home with my new mate and figure out how to lead in whatever world we’ll live in.”
“Well,” he grinned. “I’d really be appreciative if you would try.”
“We’ll see.”
That was the best he was going to be able to give. Dougal nodded. Truth be told, Robbie would do whatever Tatyana wanted. From then on, it was whatever she wanted.
Sometime later, as the sun pressed through the windows showing the afternoon sun, she roused. Her wolf eyes opened to stare at him. He was glad to see her and more than ready for her to return to her two-legged self.
“Hello there.”
She huffed, and he grinned at the sound of exasperation.
“We have lots to teach you about the new part of yourself. I’ve never instructed an adult before, but I imagine we’ll figure it out. To start, I’m going to tell you how to shift back. It’s...”
In front of his eyes, she shifted, her body reshaping, the fur on her skin receding and her human form reestablishing itself. He winced while he watched. The breaking and pulling was all part of the shift. He was used to it, and watching others do the transformation never bothered him. Until her.
His mate had enough pain. Days of it. She’d hung on. Waited for him.
“I think I’ve got the hang of it, actually. I visualized the change and it happened.”
Smart woman. He took a deep breath, ready to tell her so. Only his mouth didn’t work. When he spoke, all he could manage to let out was her name on a sigh. “Tatyana.”
Whatever forces had brought them together he would always be grateful to them. How had he gotten to such a moment? They should both be dead.
She rushed to him then tugged his shirt free. After
the clothing was off, he kissed her. Tatyana’s lips were warm, soft and all female. She pushed until he deepened their embrace. His mate had been through a terrible ordeal. He didn’t want to do too much, press too hard and yet she drove him on, her need for him tugging at him until he gave into what she wanted.
His mate released him and sucked in a breath. “I can feel...no, smell something off you. Fear. I don’t know how I know, I just do. It hurts my nose.”
He tweaked her chin. “It hurts. I know. I’ve been afraid of losing you. I’m trying to let it go...the kissing helped.”
“Then we’ll do more of it.” She leapt on him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Don’t be afraid anymore, Robert. I feel like heaven. Stronger than I’ve ever been and more alive than I knew possible.”
Robert wrapped her legs around his waist. His cock rushed to life. Someday he’d have her in a bed.
“Bite me again, would you? This time I want to remember it fully.”
He growled, the sound startled him along with the sheer intensity of his need.
“Look at you, being all male and tough.”
“As opposed to all the times I’ve been otherwise?”
Tatyana snorted. He could feel the waves of happiness coming off her and it cooled some of his anxiety. His mate was here, whole, and grinning from ear-to-ear. He kissed her, because he had to, because not doing so would be akin to not breathing.
“Slow.” Robbie whispered in her ear before he nipped. “I want it easy and unrushed, I need to know if can be simple.”
“You killed the queen.” She held his face in her hands and it sent jolts of pleasure through his spine. “We have lots of time right now.”
He kissed her over and over again until drunk off her taste and scent. Her small sounds, the sighs she made against his mouth, and the way her body moved with his every touch, contented his soul in a way he’d not known possible. She was his reward, what he had earned for his years of hell. She would completely be his.
Running his hand over her belly, he savored the ripples of her muscles and the trembling of her reaction.
“I’m so hot.” Her voiced had lowered.
“Yes, you are.”
She pinched him. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Well, I don’t want you cooled off, although I may be able to make you more comfortable I don’t have it in me to find a bed or risk anyone interrupting.” He tugged at her clothes until she was naked. Gently, he laid her on the floor. With her beautiful and naked beneath him, he also undressed himself. As soon as he joined her, she ran her hands over him as though memorizing his skin.
“Everything feels different to me.” She sniffed at his chest and his cock hardened. “You smell of sandalwood. Did you know?”
“I’ve never heard my scent described. Its not really the kind of thing men discuss with each other.” Sandalwood? She leaned closer. “And smoke, like after a campfire. I really love it.”
“Good.” He took her mouth before she said anything else about how he smelled. Vulnerability never worked for him. Although he loved how she took to her new senses. She was always supposed to be with him. The woman had clearly been born to be his mate, to be a werewolf.
“Wow, Robert, please touch me. I’m burning for you.”
“Burning for me where?” He stroked his fingers across her breasts until he reached her nipples. Using both his hands, he twisted them lightly and she gasped, her eyes flashing heat at him. “Here?”
Her back arched and he smiled. “Where else?”
Robbie scooted until he was directly over. With a smile in his soul which had never been there before, he licked from her breasts to her pussy loving each gasp she emitted. His lady was turned on and they didn’t have to be afraid of her changing.
“Here?” He asked again, loving their little game. Robbie let himself get lost in her heat. Her wet pussy waited for him and her clit was dying to be bit. “I think you might be hot here, baby.”
He bit and she cried out his name.
“Oh, Robbie. Yes. Shit.”
“I love your dirty mouth. Make you really excited and you say the best things.”
She was manna from heaven, everything he’d been missing in his life and he wanted to make her happy. “Anything you want. You understand what I’m saying?”
Her eyes met his. “In bed?”
“And out of it but, yes, in bed.”
“I know I talked to you about this. Humans are kind of repressed. We don’t experiment a lot with sex. Wolves are selective. Wolves don’t have a lot of sex, you’re particular, but from the way I’ve heard it talked about, I think its more exciting. I mean, before it really was with you. The best ever.”
She had his full attention. “What have you been wanting to do in bed you haven’t gotten?”
Robbie clenched his jaw to push off the unreasonable surge of jealousy threatening to take him over. He would never have to see the imbeciles who didn’t get her off properly so he wouldn’t have to kill them.
“Could you,” she swallowed before she stopped talking.
He breathed in her discomfort. Not fear, which made him happy. She should never be anxious when it came to him. Uncertainty, more of a ping than a pain on his senses.
“Tell me.”
“Could you hold down my arms? So I can’t move them? Over my head?”
He smiled. “Fuck yes, I can.”
Her surge of desire scented the room. Damn it, he loved the woman. And he was going to love a lifetime of showing her all the different ways they could come together.
****
Tatyana’s shook. He was going to pin her as she’d asked, and he hadn’t looked at her as if she was a freak for asking for it.
Robert slid his hands over her body until he got to her wrists. “Hold your hands here. Don’t move them. In a minute, I’m going to be inside of you and I am going to press them down. If at any time you want me to let go, you tell me. Or if you want me to ease the pressure, you also say something. If anything hurts, I need to know about it Tatyana. I want to give you what you want as much as you want it. For me, it’s about giving you something you fantasize about. However, if the reality doesn’t match the imagination, you tell me. You’re in charge from beneath me. Got it?”
She did although all she could manage was a nod. With a few adjustments to the way their bodies pressed, he moved above her, positioning his cock on the outside of her pussy. “You belong to me. Tell me you know it, too. Tell me since you shifted you can feel our connection, what it is to be mated.”
“I’m yours.” Like a chord had connected them from heart-to-heart she knew she would always feel him inside of her as integral as the beating of her heart or the air in her lungs.
“Good girl.” He pushed inside of her and she closed her eyes, loving the feeling of suddenly being so full. For the few precious moments, they were together, no longer alone but joined in a way where she could actually know his soul inside of her body.
He moved his hands until he held hers as they’d discussed. His hands were stronger than she’d anticipated and the pinch of pressure on her wrists caught her attention. She didn’t mind the pain, in face she liked the way it bit at her a bit. Robert moved his hips, thrusting in and out of her. Unable to move the top half of her body, she arched her hips to meet his every jolt.
Yes, she loved, wanted, and craved him. It would never be enough.
“Ride with me, baby.” He groaned, the sound of the strain in her voice surging her pleasure further. He wanted her. This strong, alpha male would give her whatever she wanted. Being restrained a bit by him didn’t make her constricted, it allowed her to feel protected. For so long she was alone. Not now. Not again. Not with him.
Her muscles clenched around him, she was close. It wasn’t going to take much. As if he could read her mind, and maybe he could—Robert was amazing—he let go of her arms with one hand, and reached between them to stroke her clit. “Don’t move.”
His ins
truction and the extra stimulation on her nerves set her off. She orgasmed. Her body arching and pulsing, pleasure and pain mixing until she was crying out—his name, nonsense, nothing—she really had no idea what she said—she just came, like she’d never known she could before.
Robert bit her neck. He marked her. It was a second marking for her, unlike the one she’d gotten when she was dying, his marking made her hotter than she could have imagined. Everyone would be able to see it. And the new wolf inside of her loved the claiming. Robert would never throw her away; he’d never leave or want someone else. Forever meant always and his mark showed he meant it.
With both of them panting, he stared at her, releasing her arms. “Good girl.”
She grinned. “Love you.”
He stopped smiling, his face getting very serious. She gulped, a dose of uncertainty filling her. Should she have not said it? They’d only technically known each other such a short period of time. Was it too soon? She’d spoken because she’d felt it and she could never do better than be true to herself.
“You can never take that back.” He bent over until their foreheads touched. “Mating is intense, it implies certain things, those words come from deep inside our souls even further binding than the mating, the bite. I’m going to hold you to what you said. I haven’t had love, not in a very long time.”
With their heads touching, she could hear how his breathing picked up. His scent changed too, getting deeper, richer. She’d moved him. “I meant it. I’ll never take it back. I’ve never said it before. Well, I mean I guess to my family when I was young. Not like this. Those words are only for you.”
“Oh, Tatyana. You make me feel as if I could fly.” He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them he kissed her softly on the lips. “I love you, too.”
“Don’t ever take that back.” His words made more sense to her than ever before. If he said them and then ever didn’t feel love again, it would kill her.
“Not ever. We are always.”
****
She hated they had to get dressed. Standing in the room filled with the other werewolves, Tatyana understood the need to move. Robert had killed the dragon queen only it didn’t mean the danger was over. Not yet, anyway. The human compound was fully visible. They had to hurry along.
Always (Dragon Wars, #3) Page 10