My Captive Valentine

by Elyce de Reefe

  He gave her a wry smile at that. “Do go on, ma crevette. Tell me all the ways I please you.”

  “You see? You’re deflecting.” She raised her eyebrows at him, giving him a stern look. “Gage, are you really calling me a shrimp? Is that supposed to be some kind of a joke?”

  “It’s not a joke. I call you my lovely little shrimp because you are pink and succulent and have the tang of the sea about you. And when the wind blows, your hair waves around you like a mermaid’s.”

  She stared at him for a moment, her mouth just slightly open. He had the feeling he’d surprised her, but he didn’t know why.

  “Gage. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She gave him another one of her looks. “I mean, except for the succulent bit.”

  She looked a little shy all of a sudden, and there was a faint deepening to the pink that graced her cheeks. “Is that really the way you see me? Like a mermaid?”

  “I see you, Bridget. I see all of your beauty. You are like a mermaid. Strong and powerful, Beautiful and wild. And like spring. The first bright flowers to brave the snow, refusing to let anything hold them back. You take my breath away.”

  “Wow. That’s very romantic, Gage. I never knew you had it in you.”

  “Only for you, ma petite.”

  She smiled then, a slight twisting smile, but he could smell she was pleased. She wasn’t petite the way Mari was. But she was perfect. Graceful and lovely in the way she moved, even if she couldn’t see it herself. He liked to tease her, yes, but he also wanted her to know he found her exquisitely feminine in all the right ways.

  “So. What happens now? We lost the trail of the wolf pair we were following. Do we head back, or…?”

  Gage cocked his head. “We lost their trail? When?”

  “I mean… Didn’t we?”

  “No. They are still ahead of us. We will find them. When you are ready to travel. There is no hurry. They travel this area. I don’t think they will suddenly leave the territory they are trying to claim.”

  “Oh.” She looked relieved. “I thought I cost us the pair.”

  “You cost us nothing. I cost you pain and suffering by concentrating on the wrong things. I should have kept you close. But I was…” He trailed off. He didn’t really want to say that he was insecure enough to want to earn Cray’s respect by bringing back the pair. That he had let that cloud his thinking. And distract him from the fact that she was so far behind. “I was wrong. I will never make that mistake again.”

  “Gage, I’m the one who fell behind. I knew it was happening. I could have called out. It was a freak accident. And you saved me. So…” She broke off. “I was really surprised to see the young wolves though. How did you get them to do that?”

  “I didn’t. We heard you scream. And we came. I had to remove my clothes, which is why they got there first.” He didn’t want to say that he’d started shifting the moment her heard her scream and not removing his clothes first had caused considerable delay. He’d had to wrestle himself out of them like some kind of slapstick comedy routine while frantically trying to free himself so that he could get to her.

  “Seeing you on the ground with that wild boar charging... I will never forget that. My heart almost stopped in my chest.” He shook his head. He had almost been too late.

  Bridget didn’t say anything for a minute or two, and he couldn’t think of anything either. She gazed up at the sky. “The stars seem so bright tonight. I mean… they always seem bright up here with no light pollution. It’s so beautiful. But tonight—”

  She turned back to him. “Do you think it’s because… of what we went through today? Things just seem more vivid, more beautiful, after surviving such danger?”

  “Possibly. You seem more beautiful than ever. That I can say. But it’s also the dark of the moon tonight. The stars always seem brighter when there’s no moon.”

  “The dark of the moon…” She paused, tilting her head like she was thinking. “Is that the same as the new moon?” She gave him a quizzical look. “I think Lyla said that was when you have your mating ceremonies.” She raised her eyebrows.

  “Yes, that’s true. Tonight is the night when a pair would have the best chance of the Maiden blessing their union. Her power is strongest during the new moon. And the new couple has the whole two weeks while the moon is growing to strengthen their bond.”

  “Huh. So you always follow the cycles of the moon for that? Your mating ceremonies?”

  “Always. Otherwise, you risk a weak bond. And no one wants that.”

  “Yes.” She made a face. “Aster warned me about that. Tell me about it. The bond. The girls tried to explain it but… I wasn’t really able to absorb it.”

  “The bond is a gift from the Maiden to her People. It holds the packs together, binds us one to another, and to our Alpha. And to our mates. It binds us most strongly to our mates.”

  “How does it work?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea.” He gave her his sideways smile. “I have never done it before.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he went on. “But, I can tell you this. A mate can always sense where the other is. Can always point to the exact direction, like a compass pointing to true north. And they can sense each other’s feelings.”

  “Their feelings? They can’t read each other’s minds, can they?” She wrinkled her nose like this idea didn’t appeal to her. She looked so cute, he wanted to laugh, but had a feeling she might misinterpret that.

  “Not like mind reading or anything like that. More like… emotion reading. From what I understand.” He smiled again, using the ironic knowing one, trying to lighten the mood. “We could try it out?”

  She smiled and nodded. “Sure we could. Just try it out. But then, we could never change it, right?”

  “No. The bond is forever. The People mate for life.” He was unable to make light of that, even for her.

  The thought that she might not accept him, might have another path set out for her, had only just become apparent to him. And with it, the realization that if she did, he would remain alone for the rest of his life.

  “I see. No take-backs.”

  He shook his head, staring into the fire. “No take-backs.”

  “And how does it work, this ceremony?”

  He looked up at that. Was she considering…? “There is, traditionally, a mating run. The female leads the male on a merry chase,” he flashed her a smile, “and the male must prove he is worthy by catching her.”

  “Oh. That sounds… evolved.”

  He laughed. “Not so much. The People are an ancient race. I don’t believe we have evolved much over the centuries. Or at least…” he stopped, realizing that wasn’t true. In ancient times forcing the bond, fighting for mating rights, even fights to the death were common. Now… it almost never happened. Until recently, at least.

  He felt a stab of sorrow, remembering his parents. For the first time, he understood his mother’s sacrifice. If something had happened the Bridget today… He couldn’t imagine living with that.

  “Our ceremonies have not evolved. That much is true.”

  “So that’s it? You run through the woods, and you catch the female and boom— you’re bonded?”

  “Well, there’s the mating, of course.”

  “Of course,” she said dryly. “In the woods. How romantic.”

  “And the bite.”

  “The bite.” Bridget leaned forward in her chair. Not the reaction he was expecting. “Is that where that comes from? Huh.” She looked like she had just made a major discovery.

  “Where what comes from?” He almost didn’t want to ask.

  “All those stories. The legends. The myths. About werewolves. And biting.”

  “Ah… no. That’s not where it comes from.” He’d been right. “It’s something completely different.” Sort of. “The bite transfers a small amount of the essence from the male to the female, and thus the bond is formed.”

  “The bite does. Not the um…
mating?”

  Gage forced himself to grin, like there was nothing at stake here. “Well, that’s certainly a part of it.”

  “I see. And then the couple is bonded. For life. And that’s it. They are a couple forever.”

  Gage shrugged. “That’s it. I understand that it is very pleasurable.” He eyed her, gauging her reaction. “You can smell the satisfaction coming off a mated pair in waves.”

  “Eww. Gage.” She wrinkled her nose again and he laughed.

  “Not like that. I mean, true, bone-deep satisfaction. With their life, with their spouse. In general.”

  “Huh.” She eyed him again, this time like she was sizing up a fish she might be considering purchasing for dinner. He squirmed a little. “Bone-deep satisfaction. Now there’s an endorsement.”

  “Indeed.” He didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t. His heart was racing too fast and he didn’t want her to know how much this discussion was affecting him. He could smell her interest. Her curiosity and… more. The faintest stirrings of arousal. It was getting very hard to breathe normally.

  He stood suddenly and added more wood to the fire. If she was considering this—and maybe, just maybe, she was—then she needed to know it all. He steeled his nerve and turned to her.

  “I have a son, you know.”

  That got her attention. She sat up straighter. “A son?”

  Gage smiled, thinking of Mikey. “He is adopted.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “I did a bad thing. And then… I tried to fix it. And now— I have a son.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I… I ripped him to shreds.” He looked up, forcing himself to meet her gaze. “I almost killed him. It is a miracle that he survived.”

  She sat back a little, smelling uneasy. “Why?”

  He rubbed a hand over his face. “Well, he attacked Elizabeth—”

  “He attacked Elizabeth! And you let him live?”

  That made him smile, if only faintly. “When I say attacked… She was abducted. You know this?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “When?”

  “It was last summer. The spring actually. Right before the wedding. They took her from the bridal shop.” He grimaced. “Outside the bridal shop. I was on duty. Watching her. She was right behind me— and then… she was not.”

  “What happened?” Bridget’s question was urgent, and he suppressed a smile. She cared about Pack. He had that much anyway.

  “We got her back. Cray and I. She was not harmed. But I— I was incensed. And I…” He looked up, feeling the terrible bleakness that came over him every time he remembered that moment. “Bridget, there was blood everywhere. I took him apart. And he was just a kid.”

  “A kid!”

  “Eighteen.”

  “Oh.”

  “I was supposed to take care of the one up in the bedroom, the one keeping watch there, while Cray rescued Elizabeth, who was in the basement. So, after, I went downstairs to see if he needed help, but he had subdued the other two humans— without actually killing them. And she is his mate.”

  He shook his head, staring into the fire. “I don’t think I can describe the relief I felt when I saw that Elizabeth was okay.” He turned back, meeting her gaze. “Elizabeth is— well, she is special to the pack. She helps everyone. She has a very generous heart. And she has a way of… brining us all together. Holding us all together? The idea that someone might have hurt her—

  “But when I went back upstairs, and saw what I had done… It was like—something inside me knew—this is wrong. And I had to fix it. So I gave him blood. I didn’t know if it would work, but it did, and he lived. And now I have a son.”

  “Wait a minute. You have a son because you gave him blood?”

  “Yes. I hadn’t thought of it at the time, but that is the consequence of healing a human by gifting them blood. It is an adoption ritual.”

  “And you didn’t realize this?” She sounded incredulous.

  “It’s not done, Bridget. It’s not like I’ve ever heard of anyone doing it before. In real life. There is a folk tale, I guess you would call it— an old woman saving a human child that way, and it popped into my head. The part about her adopting the child kind of slipped my mind.”

  “I see.” She rubbed a hand over her mouth.

  “I could do that for you.”

  She blinked at him. “What?”

  “I could give you blood. And you would be safe. Adopted into the Pack. You would not need the Ceremony.”

  She looked at him. “Gage. I am not going to be your daughter. You can just get that out of your head. It’s a nice offer, but— No.”

  She smiled, a soft, confident smile he hadn’t seen before. “I think we should do the ceremony.”

  Chapter 19

  Gage swallowed. “Bridget, don’t tease me. You will not even agree to let me kiss you.”

  “You haven’t asked me in a long time, Gage.”

  He took a step towards her, feeling suddenly unsure.

  “And you have to admit, I’d be pretty easy to catch. In my current condition.”

  “I think we can dispense with the run, under the circumstances.” He moved closer. He was pretty sure this whole trip could be considered a mating run.

  She pushed up out of her chair.

  “Bridget. Your leg.”

  “It’s fine. I took Tylenol. Come here.”

  He came, placing his hands hesitantly on her hips. She titled up her face to him, waiting. Feeling a deep surge of longing, he bent his head and kissed her. The first taste was like roses and honey, the soft velvet touch of her tongue against his, the sweet tender heat of her mouth, and he delved deeper. Without even thinking, his hands stole around her back and down, cupping the perfect curves of her derriere and pulling her too him.

  He groaned, deep in his throat as everything he’d been holding back from suddenly came into his waiting hands. This was what he’d been longing for, for so long. The feel of her body against his, even through the thick fabric of her winter parka was like warm oil over his skin, enveloping him in a sense of peace and rightness.

  He kissed her like he was never going to let go, and she kissed him back, beautiful, sweet, eager kisses, her tongue dancing with his, her taste perfect and precious, easing a tension deep inside him he hadn’t been aware he’d been carrying. It was like coming home after a long absence and feeling things fall into place around him.

  But he couldn’t keep her standing like this.

  “Bridget. We should wait. The bond is forever. You should be sure.”

  “I’m sick of waiting. We could be dead tomorrow.”

  “No. I will watch out for you. I will never let you die.” Just the thought of it sent a stab of pain though his chest.

  She giggled. “Gage. You can’t promise that.”

  “I will.” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll watch over you.” He kissed the soft place just behind her ear. “I will never let anything happen to you.” He kissed her neck and then the hollow between her neck and her collarbone. “I will always take care of you.”

  He stopped, stepping back slightly. “We should lay you down. You shouldn’t be standing.”

  She shook her head at him, but her expression was fond. “I’m fine. Really.”

  “Come in the tent. Please. I’ll feel better. But I don’t think we should do the Ceremony tonight. I want you to be certain.”

  “So we can…um, get to know each other without the um… bonding?”

  “Not the way I think you mean. Not tonight. Not until after the full moon.”

  “What? Why?”

  “It wouldn’t be safe. We don’t want to risk an incomplete bond. But when the moon is shrinking, then there’s no danger.”

  “So, that’s like two weeks from now.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, let me review my options. I can mate you now. Or mate you later? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  He shrugged, feeling helpless. “I don’t want you t
o feel pressured. You should be certain.”

  “But I have to mate someone, eventually. Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me?”

  He shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t particularly like that phrasing. “Yes. Essentially.”

  “Well, I’m certainly not going to mate anyone else.”

  He shuddered. He couldn’t help it— And she laughed.

  “And I think I want to check out some of that pleasure you’ve been talking about. That bone-deep satisfaction. That sounds like just what the doctor ordered.”

  “Are you sure, Bridget? It seems a very sudden… decision.”

  “Gage.” She reached up and stroked his cheek. “You’ve been winning little pieces of my heart since we first met. Well, after you took me off your shoulder, anyway.”

  He winced. “Sorry about that.”

  She smiled. “When you got me brandy, and crackers and cheese that first night, do you remember that?”

  “Yes.”

  “And then when I wanted to go back to work, you took on your brother, even though he was already not too happy with you, so that I could. I know that couldn’t have been easy.”

  Gage couldn’t quite suppress another wince. That had been a very difficult conversation.

  “And you never even mentioned it.”

  He shrugged.

  “And that beautiful valentine.” Her smile was tender. Her eyes glistened with moisture. “That was really something. That you thought of that, did that for me, planned it…”

  “I will give you anything. Everything. I will be your slave.”

  She laughed. She thought he was kidding. “Now there’s an offer a girl doesn’t get every day. Gage.” She stared up into his eyes, looking earnest and so lovely, it brought a lump to his throat. “I think you were right all along. I feel… comfortable with you. Like I can just be myself. That I’m… enough.” She shrugged, looking helpless. “I can’t really explain it, but that’s pretty special to me. That’s not something I’ve felt with anyone else.”