“I have a few friends who might be willing to help. They aren’t really friends, of course. They’re stinking Unseelie, but they’ll do anything for gold. Tell your mercenaries to expect a group of goblins. They can be quite devious. And, Chalen…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t expect to see my friends again. Do you understand?”
He would have to tell Roan to kill the goblins when the mission was done. Of course, perhaps the goblins could kill Roan. He would have to think on it. Treachery was a difficult business. “Absolutely, Your Highness.”
When the tablet blinked off, Chalen lay back down in his bed, his dreams filled with blood.
* * * *
“Dante, get off the poor girl.” Meg stood over Kaja, her eyes rolling as she looked at Dante. Kaja smiled up at her.
“I do not mind.” Kaja liked how Dante laid his head in her lap. She let her hand drift down to rub his scalp. The clothing she was wearing felt odd, but Dante had assured her she needed it. He’d given her some of his clothing. Like magic it had become a skirt and shirt for her to wear, and Dante’s own clothing had grown, manufacturing more so he lost nothing by giving to her.
His eyes drifted closed. “That’s nice, Kaj. As for you, Meg, don’t you have something to do?”
“Well, I thought the point of this exercise was to flee and attempt to survive. You’re the one who’s turning it into a honeymoon.”
Kaja was mightily confused. “Why does the moon need to be sweetened?”
Meg gave up and sat down beside her. Meg laughed. “I don’t guess the translators are completely up on Earth speak. You see, on the plane I was born on, when a couple gets married, they take a little trip together. It’s time just for the couple.”
Dante yawned, his arms stretching and then wrapping around Kaja’s hips. “We call it bonding time. It’s a special and sacred time between a vampire and his consort. It shouldn’t be interrupted by a harpy.”
Meg’s eyes narrowed. “Harpy? Have you forgotten that we were taken prisoner just yesterday? Torin is making his move.”
Kaja had learned a bit listening to Meg and Dante argue all morning. Meg was a queen. It was something like being the First among women. Her husbands were the kings of their plane. There were many planes and many doorways. She had been taken through one of those doorways by a creature called a demon. Dante was going to take her to his plane to meet his pack—family. She was going to meet Dante’s family.
Her heart sped up at the thought. What if they did not like her?
“Well, Torin could have picked a better time,” Dante complained. They were stopped by a lovely brook. The sun was warm on Kaja’s face, and she let her worries drift away. Her skin was still singing from the morning session with Dante. He’d proven true to his word, waking her up by rolling his body on top of hers. He’d kissed her and played with her breasts. By the time he’d thrust his cock deep inside her body, she was begging him to take her.
They’d stopped twice since they had left camp this morning. Each time he’d pulled her off into the woods and had what he called his “wicked way” with her. Once, he’d fed from her.
Oh, she loved when he was hungry. When he’d first caught her with his eyes, she’d lost her fear. After that first time, she had been happy to submit. The pleasure that coursed through her when he fed was like nothing she’d felt before. For the time he drank from her, she felt so connected to him. She felt warm and safe and loved.
But she no longer could see his soul. The first time he’d fed from her, she’d seen pieces of his childhood. It had been a little flash of Dante and his family. There was a bowl of something called punch and candles had floated on top. He was just a boy trying to blow out eight candles so he could have his toys. When she’d been in the moment with him, she’d felt like she belonged. Dante’s parents had loved him.
But then the vision had closed, and though she’d tried to get it to come back, she couldn’t see it again. There had been only pleasure, but none of the spine-melting intimacy of the first time.
Meg shook her head and relaxed back on the grass. “If I get murdered, it’s going to be all your fault.”
Dante’s eyes opened. “Kaj, love, do you sense an army coming after us?”
Kaja took the question seriously. She closed her eyes, because they often lied. Her nose didn’t. She breathed in the world around her. Dante was the strongest scent. She loved the way their scents mingled. He was on her and she on him. She could still smell the scent of their lovemaking. It was a comforting smell. She sensed Meg. Beyond that there was only the forest and the clean smell of the water.
“No, Dante. Though I do smell a small creature.” Her stomach growled. She glanced back around at the brush behind her. There was a slender tree standing right in front of the bush.
Kaja was absolutely certain it had not been there before. She remembered staring at the bushes, thick with brambles, and knowing she could find her meal there. There had been no tree in front of it. She studied the one there now. It was slender. A mere babe compared to the giants around it. The trunk was an ashen gray, and there were lovely, graceful branches sprouting from its top. She noted that the dirt around it was disturbed. It formed a near perfect circle around the tree’s base as though it had been planted by two hands rather than growing in a natural way.
Gently, she eased Dante’s head from her lap.
“Kaja?” Dante sat up, but Kaja was working on the problem. Her brain raced. There was something about that tree. She searched her memory. Trees looked alike. But smell didn’t lie.
Kaja got to her feet and walked to the tree in question. She touched it, feeling the bark. It was a youngling. The bark wasn’t rough yet. It was soft against her hand. She sniffed at the limbs. They smelled like another part of the forest. She remembered it from the night before.
“This tree is following us.”
Dante was on his feet beside her. “Kaja, maybe you don’t understand things on this plane. Trees tend to stay planted in the ground. You see, they have these things called roots.”
Dante continued on, but Kaja smiled. The little tree popped up. It was as though it knew it had been caught and gave up the game. One limb came out and patted Kaja’s cheek with playful affection before turning its attention to Meg.
Dante threw his hands up. “See, that’s just weird. Maybe we should chop it down.”
A single branch extended, and the leaves formed something like a human hand. Kaja thought the tree was going to wave, but it merely closed its “fist,” leaving only the middle finger extended.
“Now that’s just rude,” Dante said. “Since when do saplings give me the finger?”
Meg walked forward, tears in her eyes. “Cian.”
“Since when did Cian become a tree?” Dante reached out to Kaja, his hand finding hers. He pulled her behind him.
Kaja wasn’t sure what Dante was trying to protect her from. The tree didn’t seem to be hostile. And the tree seemed far more interested in Meg.
The tree reached a branch out and touched Meg’s hair. Kaja couldn’t mistake the tenderness of the gesture.
“It’s Ci,” Meg said, her breath hitching. “He found me.” Meg touched the slender trunk, and her eyes closed.
Dante’s hold loosened as he relaxed, but he kept a hand around her waist. “Cian came into his powers a few months back. He’s a Green Man. Do you know what that means?”
She didn’t, but she could infer a few things. “He has power over plants.”
Meg’s mouth curled in a secret smile. Her eyes remained closed as she placed both hands on the tree. “He has power over all things green and vital. He used the trees to track us. He’s coming for me. Always.”
Her face turned up as a light rain started.
“Beck is here, too.” Dante had a smile on his face. “Beck controls storms.”
Kaja knew she should be afraid. Beings that controlled the elements were witches, and the pack killed them. But the pack had b
een wrong about so many things. Beck and Cian had been nothing but kind to her. Kaja would not let old fears lead her.
“They know where we are?” Kaja asked.
“So it seems,” Dante replied. “Meg, the tree or the rain wouldn’t happen to be able to give you an estimated time of arrival? And tell them to bring my freaking bikes back. It’s a trudge to the Vampire plane, and I’ve been taking us in the opposite direction in order to fool the fuckers who tried to kill me. And they better have charged the batteries.”
Meg’s eyes opened. She seemed so vibrant with evidence of her husbands’ love and care all around her. “Cian is coming. Beck has to deal with things at the village, but Cian will find us. He should be here this afternoon. We’re to wait for him.”
Dante’s arms wrapped around Kaja’s waist, pulling her in front of him now. The danger had obviously passed. Dante’s hands slipped over her hips. “Well, if we’re supposed to wait and we have a little time, I can think of a few things to do.”
Kaja checked her laugh. He was constant in his affection. She let her hands drift over his. If she was gone, would he come for her? She watched Meg smile up at the rain caressing her and wanted so badly what she had. Her men had done amazing things to find her. Their love for each other was palpable.
Dante wanted her. He wanted her often, but what did it mean? Sven had wanted her, too. The feeling had obviously passed. Would Dante’s passion pass?
“And, Dante, Ci says he’s happy you and Kaja seem to be bonding.” Meg smiled at them. Kaja reveled in her approval.
Dante kissed Kaja’s hair. “Not as much as I’d like, thanks to Meg’s insistence on running. But now I can relax because there’s a tree and a little rain cloud to guard her. Now I can get in some serious bonding time with my consort. Tell Ci to hurry. I want to get home to my nice comfy bed and other things that make bonding time special. I hope I’m stocked up on double-A batteries.”
Dante took her hand and started to lead her away. “And Meg, I would be careful with the tree. It looks like it has thorns. I would watch for those branches. You might be better off playing in the rain, if you know what I mean.”
Kaja took one last look at Meg, her smiling face turned upward as gentle rain kissed her skin. If she heard Dante, she didn’t show it. She was lost in her husbands’ love.
Kaja followed Dante, her feet shuffling behind him. The grass beneath was soft on her bare feet, but her mind was in a different place. Meg was so loved.
It was easy to lose herself out here. The intimacy of the woods made Dante feel like the only person in the world. And she’d been the only female available to him. He was young and in his prime. He was male. She’d heard about young males. They mated at every given opportunity.
Was that all she was to him? An opportunity to mate—to fuck? What did any of it mean? Did he feel even the smallest bit for her that she felt for him?
Dante stopped once they were completely surrounded by thick trees. It was isolated, though they would be able to hear Meg if she needed them. Dante immediately pulled her into his arms. She could feel the line of his erection nudging her. “Alone at last.”
Would she be alone again once Dante’s passion was expended?
His lips pressed against hers, his tongue languidly invading her mouth. He kissed her, his hands pushing at the clothes she wore. “Baby, I promise I won’t let you out of bed for a week once we get home. I’m going to fuck you six ways from Sunday.”
Her body was already responding to him. He’d taught her so much in the days they had been together, but almost all of it was about how to receive and give pleasure. Kaja wanted more.
“What does it mean?”
Dante chuckled. His hands clutched at the globes of her ass, pulling her into the cradle of his thighs. “It means I’m going to be all over you, consort. We’ll say a quick hello to the family. I’ll receive praise for finding a gorgeous consort, and we’ll disappear for a week or two. I’ll have the staff bring you food, and I’ll just take my every meal from this lovely neck of yours. Although, there is a really nice vein that runs close to your pussy. Damn, I need to try that one. I’ll be able to smell it when you come. You always come when I feed.”
“That is not what I meant.” Kaja pushed at his chest.
Dante stopped as though he finally figured out that she was serious. “What the hell is going on, Kaj?”
Kaja bit at her bottom lip. “I do not understand what I mean to you.”
His eyes rolled, and a long-suffering sigh heaved from his chest. “Women. Kaja, do we have to do this now?”
She wasn’t sure what “this” was. “When would we do this?”
His shoulders came up, bunching in frustration. “I don’t know. If I had my way, we wouldn’t do it at all. Can’t we just have a good time?”
Kaja thought about Meg. She hadn’t been having a good time. When she’d realized her husbands were with her, seeking her, she’d looked blissful. She’d looked transcendent. Kaja would bet that Beck and Cian had never told Meg that their relationship didn’t have to last forever. They had never offered to buy her a nice house when they were finished with her. They would never be finished with her.
“I do not think this will be a good time.” Her heart was starting to hurt.
Dante’s face became hard, his jawline a razor’s edge. “Don’t try to tell me you don’t enjoy fucking me, Kaja. I know that’s a lie. I can still feel your cunt squeezing me.”
And she could still feel his arms around her. They still spoke two different languages, wanted two very different things. It was easier when she could feel his mind, but he’d shut that down. The last time they had made love, she’d felt the wall come down between them as though he’d slammed a door in her face. “I like the mating. I just don’t like the way I feel when I know it’s only for now.”
His body relaxed, his arms coming out, coaxing now. “Is that all, Kaja? Baby, don’t worry about that. I promise the future is going to sort itself out.”
Perhaps. Perhaps not. “I have lived my whole life hoping things would work out. They never have. Things do not work out, Dante.”
He smiled down at her, smoothing back her hair. “Of course they do. They work out all the time. Just relax, and it’s going to be fine. One way or another, you’ll be taken care of.”
But she didn’t want to be taken care of. She wanted to be loved. Perhaps he had taught her more than pleasure. If someone had asked her what she wanted weeks ago, she would have told them she wanted a warm bed, enough food to fill her belly, and peace. Dante was offering her all of that, and now she wanted more. She was worth more.
His hands moved to her shoulders, gentling her. “Kaja, it might have already been decided for us, you know. The way we’ve been going at it, you might be pregnant.”
A pup. Baby. Dante’s people called them babies. She might be pregnant, a baby growing in her belly. The idea had panicked her before, but now a strange tenderness filled her. She’d worried that the pack wouldn’t accept a child from her belly any more than they had accepted her, but the world was so much bigger now. Kaja was bigger than before. She could make her way in this world.
And if she could not, then she would find another. She would never stop searching. She would walk the planes until she found the place where she belonged.
She loved Dante.
“Kaj, don’t cry,” he said. His face had fallen.
She felt the tears coursing down her cheeks, but he didn’t understand. She wasn’t sad, not exactly. She was more than she’d been before. She was stronger, and it was because she loved Dante. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t love her back. Her love for him made her better.
A baby. She could have his baby. She could have a child to hold and love and show the world to. The thought blanketed her heart in warmth. It scared her before. Now it was something to want. A child with Dante’s green eyes. A child to pour her love into.
“Kaja,” Dante said, his voice achingly quiet. “I’ll
stop. We don’t have to make love again until I can get you on birth control. If you really don’t want to risk it, I can get you some medicine that will take care of it.”
She shook her head. That was the last thing she wanted. “I don’t want medicine.”
The wolf she’d been still wanted to run from him. He could break her so easily, probably would, but the woman she was becoming stood her ground. If she didn’t fight, would she always regret it? How did one fight for a man? Would it even work if he didn’t want to be with her?
She wrapped her arms around Dante, her decision made. She would spend this time with him. She would make all the memories her heart could hold. When the time came to leave, she would do it with dignity. And she wouldn’t slink away to the woods. She would find a home. She would build a life.
“Kiss me.” She turned her face up as Meg had done to the sun when she’d realized her husbands were there. Dante was Kaja’s sun for now.
Dante gazed down at her, his eyes searching hers. “Are you sure, Kaj? I really don’t want to hurt you. That was never, ever my intention.”
“Why did you buy me?” She needed to know the truth.
His face flushed slightly, but his hands tightened around her waist. “I needed a wife. You were the first one I found.”
She’d been convenient. She could accept that. She’d gotten something from the deal, as well. Her life. “But you don’t need a forever wife.”
He brought their bodies together with a little bang. “Damn it, Kaj. I explained this to you. I’m crazy about you. I just don’t think I’m going to be very good at the whole marriage thing. Look, it’s not like I’m going to toss you aside. We’re married forever. There’s no going back, but one day we might want to go our separate ways. I don’t want to lie to you. I just want to be happy for now. Now is all we have.”
Yes, it was. The present was certainly all they would ever have if Dante wanted it that way. She couldn’t force him to feel for her what she felt for him. She couldn’t make him accept her forever. She could only control what was in her heart. She could only want what she wanted—and she wanted him. For as long as she could have him.