Begging her to get the fuck up because he didn’t want to do this without her.
He didn’t just need her.
He wanted her.
There was magick in those words.
Tala’s hands began to Change, and she held them out to Mari. “Take my hand, child, and with it, the gift of the Wendigo. Take her back to your world.” Then she smiled, and didn’t look the least bit grandmotherly. She looked all wolf with her sharp teeth bared. “And kick Breslin’s ass back down to the pit he crawled out of. I’ll be waiting. Along with the soul of every Wendigovessel.” She gnashed her teeth together.
Mari reached out and took her hands in her own.
The power of the Wendigopoured into her, filled her up and before she knew it, she flew through the sky like a rocket aimed at the sun.
Only it wasn’t the sun, she knew she was flying from the world of the dead back to the world of the living.
She brought the Wendigowith her.
The first thing Mari felt was Warner’s tongue on her wounds, and they stitched themselves up tight.
Air dove into her lungs, and with that breath of life, the Wendigostretched inside of her, filling her arms, her legs, her eyes, her ears, and even the deep recesses of her heart.
The Wendigobore an eternal love for her Dark Champions and was gentle with him, when she opened her eyes and touched his face.
Then she exploded to action.
On her feet, the world got a lot smaller. Or maybe it was just that she got a lot bigger. The infected were nothing to her. Ants scrambling from their little hill away from her foot.
A great roar echoed throughout the trees and Mari realized with a numb shock that the terrifying sound had come from her.
“Oh fuck me,” Peter mumbled. “I never thought it would be you.”
No one did, she supposed. She focused solely on him and her vision honed in on the pulse in his throat.
She knew before this day was done, she’d bathe in the fountain of his blood and devour him whole.
For she was the Wendigo, the vengeance of the Great Mother made flesh.
Mari ran him down and while he fought her, and the infected tried to make their stand, she tore through them as easily as a warm knife through butter.
She devoured a screaming Peter with one giant gulp. She’d wanted to make it last, to make him suffer, but she remembered her grandmother’s promise.
And really, that’s how the bad guys always lost. They tried to rhapsodize about their evil plans, or they hesitated.
Mari did nothing of the kind.
She simply opened her jaws and a hurricane from hell sucked him in and she swallowed.
Warner followed her into the action, obviously trusting her to do what she needed to do while he wreaked his own carnage.
They decimated the infected together, ensuring none escaped and none survived.
Infection contained.
After all they realized they’d won, their eyes met. She could see Warner swallow hard as he seemed to look for the right words.
She didn’t need them, but she wanted them. So she waited for him to speak.
“Helluva first date, I guess.” He grinned.
She ran to him and he swept her up in his arms.
“Goddessdamn, Mari. I thought I’d lost you.”
“Me too. But I found me, and so did you.”
He squeezed her tight. “Guess I was right, huh?” He was smug, but playful. “Told you that you were the one.”
“I guess you did. But it’s funny how no one can tell you your own worth, you’ve got to figure it out for yourself.”
“And did you figure it out, my Mari? Do you know you’re the world to me? That I love you?”
She pressed her lips together tightly. “I do.”
His neck looked so appetizing, she just had to take a bite. Mari wanted her mark there for all the world to see. To know that Warner Woolven, the Dark Champion, was all hers. Not her puny human bite, but the bite of a powerful bitch. Her Wendigobite.
Her teeth emerged, long and aching and she plunged them into his neck and shoulder.
Warner tightened his grip on her so that his nails became claws that dug into her back. “Keep doing that, and we’re not going to make it home.”
She licked at the place where she’d marked him. “We have important Wendigo/Dark Champion business to attend to, Warner, before we go home. We need to get started on our happily ever after.”
“The werewolves never get a happy ending.”
“That’s why we’re writing our own fairytale, Warner. A fairytale where no one is too pretty to be of use, or too old. A fairytale where—”
“—an old, curmudgeonly gray tail steals a beautiful young heiress but he’s the one who ends up with his heart stolen? Yeah, I’m good with it.”
“You better be. Because that’s what we’re doing.”
He laughed. “Good to know. I think you need a bath first.” Warner swiped his tongue against her neck.
She broke away from him.
“I don’t know. I think maybe you have to catch me, first.”
He growled low in his throat. “Woman…”
“Wendigo,” she said with a grin. “Or maybe, just maybe, I want to catch you.”
Warner gave a great, deep belly laugh. “Hell yeah.”
And he took off running into the woods with Mari not too far behind him, ready to ravage him in all the ways they both wanted.
18
It was a midnight picnic with the whole Woolven Pack.
A great, long table had been conjured out on the south lawn overlooking the small town that sat in the protective shadow of Aphelion.
Westwood was busy fussing over various dragonlings, fairies, goblins, and Noah, while her new husband, the goblin-king Enoch looked on with a self-satisfied smile.
Gin, the sugar fairy sat much closer to the giant terror of a bone fairy and he showed her a new skull he’d affixed to his belt. This one had tried to kidnap a broom full of sugar fairies for his own nefarious purposes and Kasadya had stopped him. And cheerfully plucked his head from his body to bring to Gin. Gin, for her part, gave him another cupcake he couldn’t eat. She thought it was a trade, but his black, fathomless eyes shone with something Mari would’ve called devotion. The little sugar fairy would realize it soon enough.
Drew and Emmie laughed together, his hand on her waist and their attention mostly for each other. After all the darkness and horror, it was good to see. They were talking about going back to Greece where they’d met.
Parker and Belle were elbowing each other under the table and Parker couldn’t stop smirking. Until Belle licked her finger and shoved it in his ear. “Gotcha, fucker.” Parker was rather displeased by this turn of events, but he wouldn’t be outdone. He didn’t hesitate to pounce of her and shove her to the ground, tickling her mercilessly.
Noah and the other children decided this was a must-do activity and joined in.
Belle showed her vampire teeth, but that didn’t stop anyone.
Tirigan, her terrifying vampire-god father looked on. “You okay down there?”
“Help,” she cried.
“I think you’re fine. You’ve got this,” the scary bastard elbowed his current squeeze, Randi’s father, David.
“I don’t know. She’s turning kind of red,” David said. “When Randi turns that color, someone is pretty close to death.”
Tirigan shrugged. “Eh, Parker likes to live dangerously, don’t you, boy?”
Parker growled playfully, but when Belle nipped his finger, all the playfulness left him and something else altogether came over him.
“Gross, not at the table, Uncle Parker,” Noah said.
“Then we should leave the table, eh?” Parker waggled his brows.
“I ought to smack your nose with a newspaper, Parker Woolven,” Westwood interrupted. “There’s cake.”
“Cake?” Parker’s attention was back on the table.
Belle just r
olled her eyes.
Blake sat at the head of the table with Randi by his side. “It’s so good to have all of my family here to celebrate our peace. As long as it lasts.”
“I’m here to make sure that it lasts a long time,” Alpha DeVaughn said, approaching the table.
“So glad you could come,” Blake said and embraced him.
Mari was frozen in place. She hadn’t expected to see her father. She’d missed him, she’d wanted his counsel, but she hadn’t known quite what to say.
Alpha DeVaughn turned to Mari and he didn’t say anything. Instead, he held his arms open and Mari flew into them, hugging him tight.
He wasn’t an overly affectionate creature, her father. So his public display meant so much to her.
She missed the comfort of him. The way he smelled. The way she felt like the whole world had to obey his commands when he held her tight.
“You channel her well,” he said quietly. “Did you get to see your mother?”
“No. I saw Tala.”
“Aww. Tala. A terrifying wolf if there ever was one. I had to run her gauntlet to win your mother’s hand even though we were mates. She wouldn’t tolerate anything less. I wish you could’ve known her.”
“She spoke… gently of you.”
“Did she?” He laughed. “I’m surprised.”
Oceans of things passed between them in that moment. Regret, sorrow, and loss, but on the heels of those things came joy, hope and love.
“If you have time soon, I’ll tell you about all of it. If you still want to hear it.”
“I do.” Mari nodded and hugged him again. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
Alpha DeVaughn held out his hand to Warner and Warner shook it with a very serious expression on his face.
“I knew you were the one for her.”
“Then why did you betroth her to Parker?” Warner blurted.
“Eh, I had a dream. These things in our family have a way of working out, you know.”
“I can see that.” Warner shared a look with Mari.
“In the future, if anyone cares about my opinion,” Blake coughed, “I’d like to be kept in the loop. When things happen.”
Randi waved him off. “Yeah, yeah.” Then her eyes went wide.
Mari was sad Lenore wasn’t with them, but she knew she’d see her soon. She was on the first vacation she’d ever taken.
With Luchtaine.
They’d gone to Antarctica. Mari couldn’t wait for pictures.
“What, what is it?”
“The baby is coming.”
“What?” Blake asked. “Right now?”
“No, in two weeks. You said you wanted to be informed. I’m informing you. Baby is coming.”
Westwood clapped her hands together and let out an evil wicked witch cackle. “Oh, perfect.” She got up and ushered Randi toward the house, with Blake, the Woolven Alpha, big, important wolf that he was, trailing alone behind them managing not to look like he was about to lose his shit.
Warner looked at her. “He’s totally freaking out.”
“Can we do anything to help, do you think?”
“Nah. She’ll do all the work. Westwood will ease her pain, and there’ll be a new Woolven at the table soon.”
“Maybe more than one,” Mari said with a grin.
Warner looked like he’d been punched. “What?”
“Why not? It could happen.”
He exhaled heavily. “It could, but should it? I mean… what we are.”
“Our pups would be amazing. But I want to practice making them some more, just to make sure we get it right.”
Mari got up from the table. “Wanna play Stealing the Heiress again?”
Warner pushed back from the table and got up to follow her. “That’s your favorite game, isn’t it?”
“It’s kinda hot when you rip the roof off the limo with your bare paws.” Mari licked her lips.
“You’re not going to make it to the limo, pretty one.”
“Wanna bet?” Mari’s eyes flashed red and she ran, thinking the whole way this was better than anything she could’ve imagined.
This was her fairytale.
* * *
The End.
Stealing the Heiress Page 14