Nico hung up and entered the bathroom. Aylia was sitting with her knees curled to her chest, and he’d never seen her so pale. He rushed forward and opened the water, squatting down beside her to help her drink.
“Nico,” she said hoarsely after gulping down several swallows. “I’ve been around the Society and seen women who were pregnant. They were sick like this when they first conceived. I know it’s impossible for us but I just have to ask. Are you in season?” She held up a finger. “Hold that answer.” She leaned over the toilet and threw up again.
Nico sat there, feeling stunned by the question. She was right. It wasn’t possible but yet...“You can’t be pregnant. Wolves and humans can’t reproduce.”
“I’m a witch,” she said falling back against the tub. “We have a different genetic code.”
A witch. Right. A witch. “I don’t believe this is really happening. You’re pregnant.”
“Are you telling me you’re in season, Nico? And you didn’t think that was important to mention?”
He pulled her into his arms. “I didn’t think it mattered. I know I keep saying this, but I can’t believe this is really happening. We’re going to have a baby.”
“You should have told me, Nico,” she whispered. “I had a right to know.”
“You don’t want this,” he realized, drawing back to study her expression. “Because I do. I want this. How could I not want you to be the mother of my child?” His gut tightened, thinking about how hard it had been to get her to put that ring on. “I think I’m starting to understand. You just really don’t want to be back here with me, do you, Aylia? Is that it? Do you regret coming back here?”
“Nico, you don’t want me as the mother of your child.” She dropped her head to his chest, and softened her voice. “You don’t.”
He slid his hands to her face and forced her at look at him. “I do.”
“No. No, you don’t.” Her bottom lip trembled. “Think about my necklace, think about my life. Every offspring in my Coven is cursed. Our child will be cursed.”
***
Thirty minutes later, Aylia sat against the headboard waiting for Nico to return after letting the Society’s primary doctor out. She’d been given some kind of herb that had worked wonders to cure her nausea and there was no question about her condition. She was pregnant. It was hard to believe that it was really possible. Guilt twisted inside her over her initial reaction. She’d hurt Nico and she knew it. She didn’t want to hurt him, not now or ever. He appeared in the doorway and immediately crossed to the bed and sat down. “You okay?”
“I don’t care about me right now. I care about you. I didn’t mean to upset you. I love you, Nico. I do. I want to be your wife and I want to be the mother of your child. I was just scared. Okay, I still am. I already worry about the day someone jerks the necklace off of me and I die. How do I, how do we, endure that fear with our child? I feel like I’ve cursed you to live in the same hellish world that is mine.”
He settled against the headboard beside her and pulled her into his arms. “Our child. Our life. We’ll deal with two necklaces and we’ll live happily ever after; no matter whom I have to kill to make it so.”
She blinked and then laughed. “That was such an alpha statement.”
“You like it when I’m alpha. Admit it.”
“I’ll never admit it.”
“I bet I can make you admit it.” He leaned in to kiss her when Marcus and a strange man appeared at the end of the bed.
Aylia sat up instantly. “Marcus?”
“Do you ever knock?” Nico growled, pushing to his feet.
“I was eager to congratulate you two on the little bambino. And so was Ariel.”
Alyia stood up, and tugged on the hem of her dress, studying the stranger with long hair so black it was almost blue and odd eyes that matched. ”Ariel? Like the Archangel?”
“He’s my twin,” he said. “And I’m definitely not angelic.”
Marcus smiled at Nico. “Ariel is the one who loaned us that room in the third dimension a while back.”
“You mean the one I was locked up in for a week?” Nico asked, grumpily.
“That one,” Marcus said. “Ariel is my wedding gift to you two.”
Ariel held up his palm, showing them the marking there.
“My pendant is etched in your skin,” Aylia gasp. “Why? How? What does it mean?”
“I am Benedanti.”
“Benedanti?” Nico asked. “As in the legend about the werewolves that hunt witches?”
“We don’t hunt witches. We’re the offspring of wolf and witch. And unfortunately, it was a Benedanti that cursed the Coven of the Rain. I’ve done what I can to remove the curse, but could not. The pendants your coven wear became my solution and the gift of a longer life was my way of compensating for what your people have been through. But your situation is now different than that of your coven. Your child is Benedanti, already alive with powerful magic, so that I can give you a more permanent solution to the curse.”
“What kind of solution?” Nico demanded, distrust in his voice.
“The kind that works,” Ariel replied without looking at Nico, his focus on Aylia. “Hold out your hand.”
Aylia lifted her hand. Nico grabbed it and looked at Marcus. “You’re sure about this?”
Marcus gave a nod. “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
Nico’s eyes met hers and he let go of her.
Aylia extended her hand again and Ariel pressed his palm to hers. It tingled and burned for a moment before Ariel lifted his hand from hers. She blinked at the etched pendant on her hand.
“Now I need you to press your palm to Nico’s,” Ariel instructed.
She flatted her hand on Nico’s and Ariel held his hand over theirs; a light poured over them. The instant Ariel pulled away, Nico snatched his hand and looked at his palm, where the pendant was now etched. Aylia reached for it but suddenly her necklace heated and disappeared.
“The pendant is now a part of you, Aylia, and so is the counter spell to the curse. The magic of the necklace will forever run through every cell in your body, impossible to remove. If you wish to call on the magic you can do so as you do any of our natural born magic. You no longer need the blood of your coven members to cast powerful spells. You will be capable of doing so on your own.” His attention turned to Nico. “You are now Benedanti as well, Nico, and your destiny is one that has long been leading to this day. You are needed in a war much more dangerous than the one you fight now. I would like you to visit our operation and consider joining us.”
“I have a responsibility here,” Nico replied, pulling Aylia close.
“Your war is over. It was a Benedanti pulling Andres’s strings, and we have dealt with this traitor. Your second in charge should be able to handle the rounding up of the remaining rebels. After, of course, you get Kole’s head back on straight.”
“How do you know what is going on with Kole?” Nico demanded.
“I’m old and wise,” Ariel said, his lips twitching.
“What’s going on with Kole?” Nico asked.
Ariel’s lips twitched. “That’s between you and Kole.”
“How old?” Aylia asked, growing more and more curious about this stranger.
Marcus laughed. “He’s too damn old, I can tell you that.”
She cut her gaze to the vampire warden, also curious about him now. “And how old are you?”
“Depends on the day you ask. One day I’m ‘too damn old’ and others ‘not old enough’.”
Ariel’s odd eyes settled on Nico. “I will extend an offer of Benedanti support here in the Society, if you so wish, until you join us.”
“If I join you,” Nico corrected.
Ariel’s eyes flashed before he said, “You will.”
Nico narrowed his eyes on Ariel. “You seem sure of that.”
“I am.”
Nico stared at Ariel a moment and then shook his head. “I’m not going to ask how, b
ecause I know the answer will be magic that I don’t intend to understand. But you gave me Aylia’s safety and I am indebted to you for doing so. I’ll visit you and I’ll hear what you have to say.”
Ariel inclined his head. “I’ll have a formal invitation extended immediately with details.”
“I’ll be expecting it,” Nico replied and scrubbed his jaw. “You wouldn’t happen to know if I have any more traitors in my operation?”
“Three,” Ariel said. “And no I do not have names. It’s simply a number I know. You will figure it out easily with your new abilities.” He glanced between them. “You no longer need a crescent moon to be bonded. You are bound by magic, for now and evermore.”
Aylia’s eyes collided with Marcus’s and he winked before he and Ariel disappeared.
Nico immediately went down on his knee in front of her and held her hand. “Now I ask you again. Will you marry me?”
She blinked down at him. “I don’t understand. I already said ‘yes’ before.”
“You said ‘yes’ with a silent ‘but’. Say yes like you mean it.”
She bent down on her knees in front of him, and pressed her hands to his face. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
He pulled her down on the floor and settled on top of her. “We have much to talk about my little witch, my mate. Later though. Much later.” He kissed her with a passion that promised this was going to be one heck of a wicked Benedanti night.
The End.
Wicked Werewolf Secret
By Lisa Renee Jones
THE WEREWOLF SOCIETY
Copyright 2012
Book 1: Wicked Werewolf Night
Book 2: Wicked Werewolf Secret
Book 3: Wicked Werewolf Passion – Shi’s story
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the supplier and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at
[email protected] All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination. www.lisareneejones.com.
“The Past….”
Chapter One
He was the kind of wolf that made a girl want to pant like a dog. That was saying a lot about just how alpha and hot Kole Smith was, considering that she, Sarah Duncan, blackjack dealer and daughter to the family who oversaw Vegas’s Hotel Italy, the cover operation for the Werewolf Society headquarters, didn’t pant.
She dealt him a card, reminding herself of the many warnings her parents had given her and her younger sister, Dana, about avoiding the wolves of the Royal Guard, the law of their race, unless they wanted to be dominated and owned. And this man, this wolf, was not only part of the Royal Guard, Kole Smith was second in charge to Nico Moore, the pack leader. He was an alpha male, as controlling as they came, and while she would swear she didn’t want to be controlled, this wolf made her wonder. Oh yes. If she was someone else, or this was an alternate reality, she would be panting and running her fingers through the long blonde hair that was tied at his nape. The color was a drastic contrast to her long blue-black hair and it turned her on in some indefinable way. Perhaps it was a symbol of alpha and female, or some nonsense her body seemed to understand when she didn’t. Or better yet, she’d save the hair for later and just run her fingers, and her mouth, all over his rock-hard body. A body that was especially easy to drool over in the absence of his typical leather jacket to match his leather pants. Tonight there was just a snug black t-shirt that let her admire every little ripple he owned which was a jackpot times ten.
Since he was the only player at her table, she settled another card on the felt in front of him, then turned her final card face up, showing him that she had a King. He arched a brow and she knew why. The odds said that a face card meant the dealer had a strong hand, a twenty or a twenty-one. She didn’t peek for confirmation as she would with a human or lesser wolf. No dealer ever did when they were across from a wolf who could smell their emotions. Extra care was taken when an elder wolf like Kole was involved. He might appear no more than thirty-something, but the Royal Guard was made up of wolves who’d had a century or more to hone their senses and their combat skills. And Kole’s family was ancient Guard, both his father and his mother instructors in combat in the European division.
His blue eyes twinkled with mischief and heat, a combination she’d come to find alluring in the three weeks since she’d returned home. She had a new law degree in her possession, and had begun interviewing to be the first female legal aid to the Werewolf Council. He’d visited her table nearly each night and talked to her, and she’d found herself getting to know him, and liking him way too much. He had an amazing knack for making her talk about her family, her likes and dislikes. Probably because he openly talked about his, which was something the Guard wasn’t exactly known to do. They were rigid, alpha wolves, who shared sex and war and conquests, not family and favorite foods, and chitchat. Only he did with her. Never in her life, no matter who the man or wolf, had she felt so drawn, and so intimate with, and she’d never even taken her clothes off with this one.
He flipped his card and showed it to her. “Blackjack, my little tulip.”
Her lips curved and not just at his hand. At the silly names he was always calling her. Bluebonnet. Apple Pie. Twinkles. “Seems the big, bad wolf at the table is ridiculously lucky,” she commented, swiping his cards away.
“I’m big and bad, and happy to prove it to you some time soon, but as for luck, only at your table.”
Sometime soon. Oh yes. No. Yes. Yes. “I doubt your luck is that limited,” she said, placing his chips in front of him and thinking the man wore black leather like she imagined a girl would feel in a perfect pair of three hundred dollar heels – really damn sexy.
“In fact,” he added softly, “until three weeks ago, I hadn’t stepped foot inside a casino for pleasure in years.”
It was a declaration of his intent to have her. She knew it. She was, after all, a twenty-six year old wolf, three years past ‘The day of the Wolf’ when a female not only stopped aging for fifty years, but became fertile and able to mate if she found the right partner, during the right season. She, like all wolves of age, was sexual by nature and he called to her every primal instinct she owned.
Another dealer appeared by Sarah’s side. “You’re up.”
“Break time for me,” Sarah explained to Kole, thankful for the excuse to escape. “Good luck.” And then she was gone, rushing out of the center ring of the table and into the casino, her destination the break room. She just hoped Kole was gone when she got back and then she had to come up with some plan to deal with him. She was going to forget every warning her parents had issued about the Guard.
She wove through the clang of slot machines and was about to enter the private employee doorway behind one of the bars when she felt a strong hand on her arm. His hand. She knew it was Kole even before she was pulled around a corner and inside a retro phone booth with solid red walls, one of the only places in the casino without a camera. In an instant it seemed, the doors were sealed, and Kole’s powerful thighs enclosed hers, his big body framing her smaller one.
His fingers laced into her hair and freed the clip at her nape. The scent of him, wickedly male and dominant in a wild, sensual way, flooded her senses. She was hot, burning alive, and yet she was cold where he wasn’t touching, where she wanted him to be. “What are you doing, Kole?”
“I’ve wanted to know if you taste as good as I think you will for three weeks now, so unless you tell me not to, I’m going to find out.”
“I...” She intended to say ‘no’, but everything female screamed to say ‘yes’, and both the wolf and the woman, in her, crie
d out for him... “should.”
His mouth came down on hers hot and fiercely passionate. His tongue pressed past her teeth, stroking against hers with delicious command she shouldn’t have welcomed. Yet she did. She moaned with the pleasure of it, the heat of his body branding her, the flex of his muscles beneath her palms driving her wild. The feel of his hand settling on her waist and sliding to her lower back to mold her closer was almost too much to bear. She met his demand with her own, her tongue tangling with his, the fog of desire like she’d never known clouding her mind.
“When do you get off your shift?” he asked, pulling back to stare at her with a possessive glint in his eyes that had her squeezing her legs together with the depth of its impact.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, breathless, unable to stop the rasp in her voice. “We can’t... I-”
He kissed her again, a deep, drugging kiss that made her knees weak, before he demanded, “Why can’t we?”
“You’re Royal guard,” she whispered.
“And that means what?”
Her chin lifted slightly. “You’re off limits.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
His hand went to the wall above her head, his body lifting from hers as he stared down at her. He was tall, a good foot and several inches above her five foot four height. “Why?”
“I don’t need another reason.”
His eyes narrowed, darkened. “You want me.”
There was no sense denying it. He could smell her desire, and no doubt he’d tasted it on her lips. “We don’t get everything we want.”
“Why not?”
Why not? Right. Why not. “Life isn’t fair,” she countered.
“Either answer is not telling me the real reason you don’t want to meet me.”
“I’m not some chew toy for the Royal Guard, Kole.”
“In the past few weeks there are any number of things I’ve contemplated doing to you, and with you, and words like lick, kiss, and perhaps even bite came to mind, but not chew. I do not chew.”