He sounded stern, but she was merged with him, and although he believed Andor should take a firmer hand with Lorraine, Ferro felt unfailingly gentle toward Elisabeta.
“That sounds like a good idea,” she agreed, feeling his hint of amusement and letting it wash over her, knowing it was just for her alone.
7
What once was a blaze, grows stronger than before;
A metal in the forge, turns a sword for the war.
Josef arrived with Traian and Joie, and he’s already begun to work on updating the programs for Tariq,” Andor said. “He brought tablets for the brethren and is going to be giving lessons.” Andor smirked. “Sandu is first. You know how resistant he is to learning actual technology. He does not mind in the least picking it out of someone’s mind, but to use it on a computer, no way.”
Lorraine laughed. “As if you’re any different. And Ferro won’t even look at a computer.”
“What is the need when I can look into the mind and get the same information?” Ferro asked. “I learn how to use one, and retrieve the information I am seeking at the same time.”
Lorraine rolled her eyes. “You need to come into this century, Ferro. And why isn’t Elisabeta allowed to speak for herself? You introduced us and yet she hasn’t spoken a word. Andor told me that ancients do not always want their lifemates to speak with other men. We’re family, right? Andor is your brother and I’m your sister, so what’s with the old ways?”
Ferro shrugged his shoulders, no expression on his face. He looked down at the woman he held close to him. Elisabeta was tucked tight against him, his arm around her, nearly swallowing her, making it almost impossible for Lorraine and Andor, positioned on his other side, to see her clearly. He had set up the chairs deliberately for Elisabeta’s comfort, not for that of their visitors. So far, Elisabeta hadn’t given any indication that she wished to engage with the couple. Until she did, he was going to shield her.
Lorraine gave an exaggerated sigh while Andor coughed behind his hand, amusement lighting his eyes. She glared at her lifemate. “Don’t encourage him. Elisabeta, really. Ferro only acts like he’s tough. He’s really a sweet teddy bear. A little gruff sometimes, but he would never, under any circumstances, hurt you. If you want to talk without his permission, go right ahead. If he glares at you, I’ll kick him in the shins for you.”
Ferro not only heard the ring of truth in her voice but knew she had the audacity and courage to back up her threat with action. More, the smallest sound escaped Elisabeta, just in her mind, but he could swear it was a girlish giggle. That pleased him to no end. He knew his larger-than-life warrior-sister would bring his submissive lifemate a completely different perspective, one he wanted her to see. He had no idea Elisabeta would find Lorraine as amusing as he did.
“You, I cannot put over my knee, but my lifemate, I assure you, I can, and will.” In his mind, he made certain that he was rubbing Elisabeta’s bottom sensuously, massaging her buttocks, not in the least hurting her. To Lorraine, he sounded archaic, as if he would spank his lifemate, but he didn’t want his little songbird to fear anything in the way of punishments other than what he’d told her would happen—his kisses.
Lorraine leapt to her feet and paced across the room, all restless energy. “You horrible brute of a man. Don’t you dare threaten that poor defenseless woman.” She stalked right up to him, both fists clenched at her side. “I really am going to kick you in the shins. She needs care, not threats, Ferro.” She drew in air, clearly struggling to calm herself down. “I understand that you’re as old as dirt, but seriously, do you have any idea what she’s been through?”
“Lorraine,” Andor cautioned. “She is his lifemate. That means that they merge minds, just as we do. He knows everything that has happened to her. You are reacting as a human and thinking with your human mind. Think as a Carpathian. Lifemates must provide what the other needs. Ferro knows exactly what his lifemate needs.”
Ferro narrowed his gaze at his brother. You do not need to ruin all my fun.
Lorraine’s hands went to her hips and she stood in front of him for a long while, just staring down into the expressionless mask he wore. “You are such an ass, Ferro. You purposely let me believe you were forbidding her to talk to us just so you could see my head explode, weren’t you?”
“I do not believe you will ever find your Zen, woman. You jump to a conclusion before all the facts are in. My woman needs time to process things, including new people. Now she most likely thinks you are insane, although I did try to prepare her by telling her you are a hothead.”
Lorraine’s eyes narrowed on him. “You did not just call me a hothead.”
“It was difficult trying to get her to understand what that means, although now I’m certain she knows.” Ferro kept his tone droll.
Lorraine burst out laughing. “You’re so impossible. Elisabeta, I love this man like a brother, but I want to wring his neck most of the time. I hope eventually you can come to accept me as a sister in spite of the faults Ferro believes I have.” There was vulnerability in Lorraine’s voice, even though she was smiling.
Beside him, Elisabeta stirred. Ferro threaded his fingers through hers, hoping to give her courage. He could feel that she wanted to speak, but she was so timid.
I would wish you to reassure her if at all possible.
Ferro felt her steeling herself, gathering her courage.
“Ferro admires and respects you so much, Lorraine. He speaks very highly of you always and told me he regards you and has affection for you as his sisar. For an ancient without a lifemate to bind his soul to a woman, especially a human woman, it is a sign of the highest esteem.”
Tears shimmered in Lorraine’s eyes. She blinked them away rapidly and then turned to her lifemate as she quickly went back across the short distance to throw herself in the chair beside Andor. He immediately held his hand out to her and she took it as if catching a lifeline.
“Thank you, Elisabeta. That’s the nicest compliment. Ferro would never have told me he thought any of those things about me.”
“There is no need,” Ferro said. “You should have that confidence already.”
Lorraine shook her head. “Ferro, you, Andor and the others have all the confidence in the world. Women aren’t the same way, at least the ones I know. We try to be confident, but we need a little reassurance now and then.”
“You are Andor’s lifemate. That is enough,” Ferro decreed.
Lorraine made an exasperated sound that caused Elisabeta to give Ferro another little girlish giggle in their merged minds.
“Just because you decree something doesn’t make it so, Ferro,” Lorraine argued.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Do not listen to her nonsense, minan piŋe sarnanak. When I decree something, it makes it so for you. I set the rules and you must follow.” He knew rules made Elisabeta comfortable, where as they would really make Lorraine’s head explode. Just to make her really crazy, he kept going. “My word is absolute law to you.”
Lorraine removed her shoe and threw it at him all in one motion, proving she’d been working at the techniques Andor had been giving to her since he’d converted her. Ferro stopped the missile in midair, not taking a chance that it would come near Elisabeta.
Andor burst out laughing. “They are like this all the time, Elisabeta. We will have to be the sane ones. If Julija and Isai are around, it only grows worse. Julija takes Lorraine’s side, and Ferro taunts them all the more.”
Ferro didn’t have the relationship with Julija that he had with Lorraine, but for Elisabeta’s sake, he knew he would need to develop one. Something. She had to know that in the end, he had his lifemate’s best interests at heart.
I will tell them, Eisabeta assured. I do not like them thinking you are treating me in a way that is considered bad when you are really taking good care of me and doing what I ask of you.
“My woman worries that you and Julija think badly of me when I am protecting her. I do not care what others think, only what she thinks. I do not want her upset, Lorraine. Everything is new to her. Everything. She must learn the smallest thing that even children take for granted, and she has taken on this daunting task. I do not want anyone to make her feel less because she does not know something or because she has need of me to shield her while she takes the time needed to get used to a different world. I would ask that you and Julija aid her in this, not make it more difficult by expecting her to take on the modern rules of society, which she cannot possibly comprehend all at once.”
Lorraine stilled, as if realizing he was reprimanding her as gently as Ferro knew how.
“She can barely breathe in the open without fear. She must learn to walk, and it goes without saying all the skills of a Carpathian must be learned. She does not know how to see without looking through the bars of a cage. Making a decision has never been done. These are things she has to conquer. Expecting her to know people she does not remember, such as her birth brother, is ludicrous. She was tortured for centuries and she never gave up my soul. She has immeasurable courage and a stubborn streak a mile wide. You do not have to fear that I would ever look down on her or treat her in a way that was disrespectful to her. I ask that you would not, either. I need you to be a sisar to her. To aid me in guiding her through this time so she knows she is not alone. It is important to me.”
Ferro had never really asked anything of anyone, and yet he found, for Elisabeta, he was willing to ask quite a lot of anyone he trusted. He wanted her to have female friends. He had thought quite a long time over the choices there in the compound. Julija was the first choice simply because she had sacrificed so much just to give Elisabeta the opportunity to escape. She had laid her own life on the line. She was truly Elisabeta’s first real friend.
Lorraine was his choice because he trusted her. She would guard Elisabeta as carefully and as fiercely as he did. She made him laugh, and she would make Elisabeta laugh. Other than her penchant for trying to modernize Elisabeta too fast, she was a perfect selection. He also knew Lorraine put his relationship with Elisabeta at the most risk. If she influenced her too heavily and his lifemate eventually became like her, they would cease to be compatible. Still, he knew Elisabeta needed Lorraine in her life.
Emeline was his third choice as a female friend for Elisabeta, and he wanted to find a way to bring her to the house. Dragomir kept Emeline and their daughter very close to their home. She was the most like Elisabeta in personality, and Ferro wanted to show her that it was okay to be different. That everyone was different and each relationship was their own.
“Of course I would be happy to help Elisabeta if she’ll accept my friendship,” Lorraine said. “I know I can get all about women’s rights, Ferro, but in the end, I really am all about sisterhood. I believe that whatever is right for a woman, whatever she chooses, I can support as long as it really is her choice.”
“You do understand Carpathians are not human, Lorraine,” Andor said gently. He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “We do not have choices. Not the male. Not the female. Or should I say, very few real choices. Once we are tied together, there is no way to break those ties. We are committed to one another’s happiness.” His thumb stroked caresses back and forth over her knuckles as he brought her hand to his chest. “Our laws and customs are very different from human ones and it can be difficult to remember that.”
“I am aware of that,” Lorraine admitted. “It is hard to keep it in mind sometimes, especially around certain ones, like Ferro.” She sent him a quick apologetic smile. “He never changes expression so it’s hard to tell when he’s teasing me, and he does act all feudal with Elisabeta.”
“Even so, mica, should Ferro act the part of a feudal lord, it is what his lifemate requires or he would not do so.”
There was such tenderness in Andor’s voice when he addressed his lifemate as he beautifully and gently pointed out the truth of their ways to her, that Ferro felt he needed to find a way to get that particular tone for his woman.
I like the way you speak to me, Elisabeta said. And I like that you call me your songbird. She struggles to understand the ways of the Carpathians and he is gentle with her.
Perhaps I should stop teasing her.
She likes that from you. She needs you to act like a brother, to feel as if she has family surrounding her. I can sense that she lost so much.
His woman had so much empathy for others. He could feel her reaching out to Lorraine, soothing her. They all had lost so much, not in the least, Elisabeta.
She lost her entire human family before meeting Andor.
“Traian is insisting that he meet with his sister, Ferro,” Andor said. “He has gone to Tariq and Gary and made his appeal to them. Gary has explained that she is very fragile and you are introducing the world to her slowly. He is claiming his rights as family.”
Ferro shrugged, in no way perturbed. “When she is ready, we will meet with him.”
“He has indicated that he wishes to take her back to the Carpathian Mountains where she might be near more familiar things.” Humor crept into Andor’s voice. “Apparently your reputation has preceded you and he worries that you might have, over the centuries, turned into something—how shall I put this delicately—beastly, no longer fit to be a lifemate, especially for one as delicate and fragile as Elisabeta. He wishes to take her back to the prince and have him decide.”
Elisabeta drew back, her breath catching in her throat, terror roaring to the forefront. Can he take me from you? Can he do that?
Breathe, sívamet. No one will ever take you from me. Very casually he lifted Elisabeta out of the seat and into his lap, his arms settling around her shivering body.
“I have a certain reputation for a reason, Andor. Should anyone try to take my lifemate from me, the ground would run red with their blood. I will never give her up as long as she wants me. I have given her my word of honor and I will keep it.” Deliberately, he was very calm and matter-of-fact about it. He felt that way because it was a fact of life, but he needed his lifemate to know he meant it. “Her brother will understand and be reassured once he meets me. He is only concerned because he cares so deeply for her.”
You already can feel that you are growing into your own power, Elisabeta. When you learn to wield it, and you will, together, we will be unstoppable. He wanted her to know he wasn’t the only one with power. She was capable of stopping others from forcing their wills on her—even him.
“It is best that you meet with your birth brother, Elisabeta,” Lorraine said gently, addressing her directly. “I know it will be difficult, but with Ferro there, nothing could harm you. Andor and I will stay close in case you need us.”
Andor nodded. “Know that Traian searched for centuries for you. When others gave up, he did not. There was no trace of you. You simply vanished. The moment he heard the news that you were alive, that you had been rescued, he arranged, with his lifemate and young Josef, to travel here to see you. He wants only to know that you are in good hands. Tariq has assured him that Ferro is doing right by you and can protect you from the vampire.”
A little shudder went through Elisabeta’s body, but Ferro was in her mind and he felt her gather her courage—and she had it in abundance. She might be terrified to face the world that had passed her by as it had him, but she forced herself to do it.
If Tariq reassures him you are protecting me, why would he want to take me to this prince? I do not understand.
Ferro knew she wanted him to ask the question of Andor. He sent his brethren a faint smile. “My lifemate is logical. She wants to know why Traian would want to take her from me if he has been reassured by the prince’s choice to rule here.”
Andor sent him a small grin back. “She’s quick, isn’t she?”
“She’s in the same room,”
Lorraine pointed out, making a face at them. “Elisabeta, men are annoying. I don’t know how you don’t find them so. Either I’m laughing or I want to kick them.”
“She means kiss me,” Andor stated. “She really likes kissing me.”
“I did, until you decided to start acting like Ferro, who thinks he’s some feudal lord in a castle and we should all bow at his feet.”
“Not everyone, Lorraine,” Ferro corrected with a straight face. “Only the women.”
He shared his amusement with Elisabeta, hoping his teasing of Lorraine would help his woman realize that it didn’t matter what others might be plotting or planning, their world remained theirs. He would see to her happiness and safety. Immediately, his little songbird relaxed in his arms. Her spirit slid against his, an intimate connection that was becoming more sensual in nature the more time they spent together, which would be every rising.
Without warning, a white-hot rage burst through his mind. At the same time he came to his feet, putting Elisabeta behind him, both Lorraine and Andor were also on their feet, facing the door, feeling that same threat as well.
“Sandu,” Lorraine whispered. “He does not feel. Why would he suddenly be experiencing such intense emotion?”
Ferro didn’t wait, waving toward the door, blasting it open, curling one arm around Elisabeta, clamping her to his side as he hurled himself outside and into the air. Andor and Lorraine were right behind him. They flew together straight into the middle of the yard in the center of Tariq’s compound, where Sandu towered over a young Carpathian male.
Sandu was a powerful ancient with broad shoulders and a thick, broad chest. He was tall, with long flowing hair tied back with a leather cord. His arms were corded with muscle and his thighs were twin, powerful columns. He was the kind of man others stepped aside for. Ordinarily, Ferro knew, Sandu wasn’t bothered by nuisances. Where a few of the ancients reacted to the rude modern-world behaviors, Sandu wasn’t one of them. It made no sense that he aggressively stood with his white teeth drawn back in a snarl as he faced the young Carpathian who looked no more than a teenager.
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