“Jewel.” Dillon answered having heard the other healers discussing their injured friend. Dillon waited to see if he would say anything more, but Dalton was never one for small talk. He only chose to form words if there was no way to get around it. “Peri needs to take her to the house so they can give her the transfusion and Sally can begin to get to work on these wounds.”
Dalton’s growl at his words did not surprise him. If it had been his own mate lying before him cut to shreds he would be doing a lot more than growling.
“Only Peri and Sally will touch her,” Dalton said slowly but purposefully.
Arguing with him would just keep the girl from getting what she needed longer so he simply nodded and then motioned for Peri to join them. Unsurprising, Lucian stayed where he was. He was a cunning, wise wolf who knew how dangerous a male wolf could be with an injured, helpless mate.
“If you will hold her in your arms, I can flash you both,” Peri explained.
Dillon nearly smiled at the sly, old fae and her meddling. She knew as well as he did that the closer Dalton and Jewel were, the calmer he would be, even if he didn’t realize it himself.
She turned and looked at him and winked. “I’ll be back for you two―maybe,” she added at the last minute before she and her cargo were gone.
Chapter 24
“This isn’t over. He didn’t win and we didn’t lose. So maybe we didn’t completely eradicate evil from the world, big surprise there, but we did save our girls, and Dalton beheaded my sister (it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for). Now we’re going to heal up a bit, rethink our strategy, gather some allies, and decide how many casualties is acceptable in the event that we have to zap all of Texas. Why Texas you ask? Because he is probably hiding out there. Uh, did you not see the size of that psycho’s ego? He’s like the poster boy for “everything’s bigger in Texas.” It’s a totally viable option for where he ran like the yeller chicken (isn’t that how they talk there?) he is.” ~Perizada
“I have something for you,” Lucian whispered in his mate’s ear. Her back was pressed to his chest and he had pulled her as close as he could without actually absorbing her into his skin. They stood in the secret place where she had first taken him to show him just how powerful she was.
“If it’s not Volcan’s head on a plate with an apple shoved in his mouth, I don’t want it,” she grumbled.
He kissed her neck and let his touch sooth over her ruffled feathers. They’d only been back for two days and she was still extremely emotional, which she continually blamed on him because you made me love you with all your Hallmark crap and beloveds this and beloveds that. If I’m emotional it’s your own damn fault. His response had simply been to kiss her to silence her. Costin had advised him of that strategy, and he said Decebel, his Alpha, had been the one to fill him in on it. Apparently being mated to dominant wolves made the females talk faster, yell louder, and use foul language. When kissing did not work, he resorted to desperate measures, and he found that she did not seem to mind his measures, desperate or not, at all.
He continued to simply press his lips to her neck, waiting for his prey to come to him.
She huffed and turned in his arms. “Fine, what is it.”
He smiled down at her. “I thought you did not want it.”
A coy smile spread across her lips as she looked up at him and batted those ridiculously long lashes at him. So apparently she had figured him out as well. There was only one thing stronger than his desire for her and that was his love. She knew it, and exploited it when she could. “Wolf,” she whispered as she rose up on her toes so her lips were just barely brushing his.
“Yes, beloved,” he murmured as she held him captive by her eyes and the love that shined through them.
“I would like to see the gift you have for me.”
“Then so you shall,” he told her as he reached down to her hand and slipped the ring he had been holding on to her finger.
Peri stepped back from him but he refused to release her so she leaned her back against his arms forcing him to hold her up while she examined the ring.
“It’s beautiful,” she said softly. “Is it an infinity symbol?”
“It’s called a lovers knot,” he said. “It’s an added bonus that it resembles an infinity symbol. So it’s pretty fitting as a bonding gift I think.”
“A lovers knot,” she muttered as she tilted her hand this way and that so that the moonlight caught on the diamonds.
The ring had been in his family for a very long time and Vasile had kept it safe. When he realized Peri was his mate, his brother had given him the ring and with a wink said good luck. At the time he did not understand, it was crystal clear now what he had meant.
The ring was platinum, one solid piece that had been molded by heat into the knot. Then small diamonds had been set into half of it. He especially liked that one side was unadorned and the other shined brightly. It was a picture of them. He was simple, no fancy trappings, but his beloved shone like the sun at its highest peak in the day.
“There is no way to undo a lovers knot. Once it is tied it is permanent, just as we are permanent; bound to one another by our souls, our love, and our lives. The infinity symbol is a representation of how far I will go to show you how precious, how worthy, how beautiful and how loved you are to me.” He reached for her hand and kissed the ring then pulled her back into the shelter of his arms.
Peri pressed her face into her mate’s chest and thanked the Great Luna over and over for knowing what she needed more than she did. Lucian was all the things she wasn’t and he made her better. She had no single idea what she could possibly do for him or how he could need her, but she knew that without him she would become callus and cold. The cool metal of the ring on her finger was surprisingly comforting. Even though she knew that he loved her, knew that he was hers forever, the outward symbol of the ring showing everyone that this is how he loved her, that this is what she meant to him, was something that soothed her doubts and quieted her fears.
“I love you, wolf,” she whispered and knew that he would hear her.
“You are my beloved, Perizada, and if you need a ring on every finger and toe to feel confident in that, then that is what you shall have.”
“I swear you’re a walking Hallmark card,” she told him as he picked her up and waited for her to flash them to their room. He laid her on their bed and followed after her, wrapping her tightly against him.
“You keep saying that, and yet I am beginning to believe that you have a thing for this Hallmark business.”
“Why is that?” She asked with a smile.
“Because every time I say something that you claim is a Hallmark card, you take me to your bed.”
Peri blushed at his old fashioned words and found them strangely more intimate than any of the language used in this day and age.
“Perhaps I like you there,” she smiled.
“It is a good thing then, that I like being there.”
They stared into each other’s eyes and Peri drew on his strength, his never ending calm, so she could let go of her worries and fears. She didn’t know where Volcan had run to. She couldn’t track him down right that moment and she couldn’t fix the horrible things the healers had been through, at least not in just a few days. But she could have this time with her mate. He was here with her, holding her, loving her, giving her everything he had to give. And she would give him nothing less than that of herself. She wasn’t alone anymore. She didn’t have to face the coming storm by herself and knowing that freed her to reach through their bond and whisper words she’d never whispered to anyone. “I need you.”
His answer was always the same. “And so shall you have me.”
∞
“How is she holding up?” Stella asked Sally as she entered the room given to all the new healers.
Sally took a seat on the empty bed that would be Jewel’s if she lived, and looked at the faces of the four women. She couldn’t call them
girls, not after what they had been through. Anything girlish in them had been taken from them by Volcan and his puppet. She knew what it was like to have the rose colored glasses torn off.
“She’s hanging there. Her mind is protecting her. Though that might have been a good thing while she was suffering at Lorelle’s hands, now I’m worried she won’t find her way back,” Sally told them gently.
“You mean she might just stay unconscious?” Anna asked.
“Sometimes the mind is too damaged to handle the reality of something horrific. She has more cuts on her skin than I could count and several bites. I was able to minimize some of the scarring but it was a fae blade that cut her.” She saw Kara reach up and touch the faint scar on her own forehead that had been marred by the same blade. She nodded to her. “She did a great job with yours, but on her there was just too many. I did the best I could.” A tear slipped free and she quickly wiped it away. She was tired, two days back and not more than a few hours of sleep.
She hadn’t asked any of the ladies before her to help with Jewel’s healing because Dalton wouldn’t allow anyone but she and Peri near the injured girl. He reminded her of another brooding male she knew, and like Decebel, Dalton was deeply troubled. He wasn’t just quiet or antisocial, he had demons in his past. She could see it in his eyes when he stared at Jewel. And knowing the males of their race as she did, he was struggling with the idea of anyone, especially his mate, seeing those demons.
Heather listened to the weariness in Sally’s voice. She was wearing herself out. But even with her mate Costin snarling at her to share the burden and get some rest, she respected Dalton’s wishes and kept caring for Jewel on her own. Heather’s stomach twisted into knots as she thought about the young girl and all she had suffered. Why couldn’t it have been her? She had asked herself over and over. At least if it had been her she would never see the scars so it wouldn’t really matter to her if they were there. But Jewel, she would see them every time she looked in the mirror.
“We’ll be here for her,” Heather spoke up suddenly. She could hear the rustling of sheets as they all turned their attention on her. “She’s not going to have to do this alone. None of us are.”
Anna smiled inwardly at Heather’s words. For the past day they had spent their time talking quietly, sharing their stories of how they came to be sitting in a house, owned by a fae, in another realm. What amazed her was just how similar their circumstances had all been. No, they hadn’t all suffered the same trials, or experienced the same loss. But they had all been alone in one way or another. And now, save the one who lay fighting for her life, they sat in a circle surrounded by the comfort of knowing they no longer were.
Stella caught Anna’s eye and gave her a knowing nod. She understood what was happening in the gypsy’s mind, knew that look in her eyes because she was feeling it too. Stell was perhaps the most guarded of the group. Her past was filled with memories that she constantly tried to avoid. It had been difficult when she lived in New York City and worked at that dingy club. As she sat here with Kara, Heather, Anna, and Sally, she knew that she might actually be able to heal the wounds that just wouldn’t seem to close. She smiled to herself as she considered each of their pasts. They all needed healing, and where better for that to take place than surrounded by gypsy healers? If she had been asked that a week ago, she would have told you to lay off the dope, but it wasn’t a week ago. It was today and she had seen and experienced things that she never dreamed possible. So for the first time in a very, very long time she had hope.
Kara listened as they continued to talk. They asked Sally questions about how she had become a healer, and about the wolves, and mates, and on and on the questions flowed. Kara saw it for what it was, a distraction from the pain they could all feel radiating off of Jewel. The only times she ever felt her distress abate was when that huge, incredibly handsome, and yet very scary looking man called Dalton would go in to her room. She didn’t know what he did in there, if he talked to her, or held her hand, but whatever it was, Kara was convinced it was all that was keeping their little Jewel intact. When Sally tried to explain to them what it meant that Dalton could possibly be Jewel’s mate, and how that would keep her alive and help her heal they had all been skeptical. Even after everything they still couldn’t grasp the whole true mate thing. They had a few laughs about how bossy the wolves were and Sally shared with them a few stories of her friends Jacque and Jen who were mated to very dominate males and Kara had to admit that it would be nice to be loved like that. Okay, no it would be better than nice, but she wasn’t going to hold her breath. Sally said it could take centuries for a male to find his mate, and with the pattern of her life, she would be the very last female on the planet that would finally find this man who would supposedly love her unconditionally. As Heather cracked another joke, which she was good at, and the girls grinned and laughed with much needed mirth, Kara decided for now this was all she needed. She’d never had friends or family before and she would bask in it for as long as she could.
Heather heard the door close as Sally left for the night. She had wanted to stay with them, claiming she needed girl time, but Heather figured what Sally needed was healer time. This girl who was even younger than Heather has so much responsibility and, even with her mate and the friends she so obviously loved, she had been lonely for those who could truly understand what she was. Sally had finally relented to leave when Costin had poked his head in the door and threatened to tell the group about Sally’s first experience as a bartender. Based on Sally’s reaction that was one story Heather would have to hear.
So now it was just them. Heather was so used to climbing into bed at night, surrounded by silence, encased in darkness, alone. It had never really bothered her before, or so she thought. But now, listening to the laughter, as Kara told Anna and Stella about their trek through the dark forest and about Heather threatening to shoot her like an injured horse, she realized how very wrong she’d been.
Epilogue
“Everything hurts. It hurts to breathe, to move, to talk, even to wiggle my toes―except when I feel his touch. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know what he looks like or what his voice sounds like or if he is even real, but I know his touch. Right now, it is my lifeline. Without it, I don’t know if I will ever be able to claw my way back out of the darkness my mind has retreated to.” ~Jewel
“Why are you standing out here?” Dillon asked him.
Dalton looked up from the place on the floor that he had been staring at for at least half an hour. He met his Alpha’s gaze for a count of three and then looked away. He didn’t like to talk. Talking led to sharing and sharing led to digging up old pain.
“Sally’s in with her,” he finally answered.
“Has she woken up at all?”
Dalton shook his head, but he didn’t mention that she had spoken to him. It had only been a whisper and he had no idea what it meant. Five minutes longer, she had said softly. She had seemed restless and so he’d brushed her cheek gently with the back of his hand. She relaxed and whispered thank you. The simple appreciation she showed him in those words made him feel after having been numb for so long . But that hadn’t been the worst of it.
Before Sally had entered the room to do whatever it is she did while she was with Jewel, Dalton had heard the healer walking towards the room. So he had stood up and started to let go of her hand. She had squeezed like a vice grip, her brow wrinkled and her lips trembled as she spoke. Don’t go. Please. I need you. Her words had been a knife to his gut. I need you. They reverberated around in his mind digging into things better left alone. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had wanted him, let alone needed him. The only way he was able to get her to release him was when he leaned down next to her ear and whispered I’m always with you. And if she was who Peri claimed she was, then he had been telling the truth.
“She seems better when you’re with her,” Dillon pulled him from his thoughts.
Dalton nodded.
/> “Why don’t you want her to be your mate?” His Alpha finally asked bluntly, getting tired of his evasion.
“I never said that.”
“Well you sure as hell aren’t smiling like a dumb fool like most males who find their mates. Would it bother you if she was somebody else’s?”
He gave no response.
“Would it bother you if another male tended to her instead of you? Held her hand, ran his fingers through her hair, whispered in her ear?”
Dalton’s glowing eyes met his Alpha’s and for the first time in his life his wolf challenged him.
“I’m going to forgive that because I goaded you. But because I’m granting you grace you are going to take the gift that is lying in that bed and treasure her, protect her, and heal her. Give yourself to her and take her as your own as is your right and privilege as her mate.”
That was it. The tightly controlled pain that he kept safely locked away was on its way out. He made a beeline for the door and had to ignore the small moan he heard from Jewels room. Yet more evidence that she was his—it hurt to be away from her.
Dillon followed the huge wolf out. Dalton turned on his Alpha the minute Dillon was out of the house. “I know what a gift a mate is and I know what an honor being blessed as the mate of a healer is.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You said I could heal her,” Dalton bit out. “That I could take her as my own and give myself to her.” Dillon nodded and then waited.
“I can’t be her mate, Alpha. I can’t heal her when I’m already broken. I can’t give myself to her when I cringe at the idea of being touched, and I can’t take her as my own because then she will see what I am.” Dalton closed his eyes and steeled himself to say words that shouldn’t be hard to say, but felt as though something had clawed its way into him and was ripping them from him. “She deserves better than what I can give her. She is going to need a gentle mate after being handled so horribly. There is no gentleness left in me.”