Dark Wolf

21

Skyler’s entire body went hot, tension coiling tight. She nearly groaned with wanting him. Everything about him was sexy, but watching him devour the nectar as if it was her feminine cream he was consuming made her go a little weak.

“Kneel back on your heels, sívamet, your thighs open for me,” he instructed. His voice went a little rough.

Her heart jumped and more liquid spilled between her legs. Keeping her gaze on his, she slowly sank down in front of him. The ground was covered in soft petals, cushioning her. He put the blossom right at the junction between her legs, so that the open petal caught any liquid spilling from her body.

Her heart pounded as his fingers brushed across her thighs. As he straightened, standing very close to her, her face was almost level with his erection. All she would have to do was kneel up. Her mouth watered, craved more of his taste.

“Tied vagyok. Yours I am, csitri,” he said softly, his gaze growing even hotter. She couldn’t look away from him. “Sívamet andam. My heart I give you. Te avio päläfertiilam. You are my lifemate.” He put his hand on top of her head. “Do you understand, Skyler? I’ll always be yours. This body, this heart, my soul, belongs to you.”

She nodded. She did know. He always made her feel as if she was the most important woman in the world to him and everything he was, belonged to her.

“Bring the flower to my cock, and hold it there while you repeat the same words back to me.” His voice dropped another octave and she shivered with anticipation.

Cupping the blossom in her open palms, she inhaled his scent deeply as she slowly knelt up. Keeping her eyes on his, she brought the flower beneath his heavy sac, so that his balls rested inside the open petals. Leaning forward she took a long, slow lick up the shaft, over the head seeking more of his addicting taste.

His hands caught the back of her head, fingers fisting in her hair. “Say the words back to me, sívamet.”

His scent was heady, all around her, as hundreds of blossoms in the field took on his fresh, masculine aroma.

“Tied vagyok. Yours I am,” she whispered, and opened her mouth to draw that large, glistening head into her mouth. She suckled strong, pulling out more nectar. He shuddered, his strong thighs bunching with tension. She slowly drew back, licking down the shaft. “Sívamet andam. My heart I give you.” Her tongue danced underneath the very sensitive head and then licked all the way down to the base, until she could sip at the nectar in the flower and stroke her tongue over the velvet flesh nestled there.

“Skyler.” He hissed out her name, his voice edged with tight control.

She smiled. “Te avio päläfertiilam. You are my lifemate.” She kept her gaze steady on his, wanting him to see she meant every word. “I belong to you, Dimitri, all of me, heart and soul. This body is yours as well. I know I’m safe with you.”

He had earned her trust over several years. She knew with an absolute certainty she wanted their relationship to progress. If at any time she was afraid, she knew he would stop instantly. That knowledge gave her more freedom than anything else ever could.

“If we weren’t already lifemates, I would braid your hair with the smaller flowers and stems, but because you are, you feed me the petals and I’ll feed you and the ritual will be complete.” When she started to rise, he kept his hand on her shoulder, holding her there.

Skyler smiled up at him, pulled the flower to her and once again licked along the stigma before pulling a petal free. He bent down to reach her hand, taking the petal with his teeth. As he did so he fed her one. She wasn’t surprised that it was velvety soft and bursting with the taste of him.

When the petals were consumed he slipped a blindfold of soft petals woven together around her head, the fragrance heady with passion. The world went completely dark. Her heart jumped, but again she felt a coiling tightness building in her deepest core. The wind caressed her body and teased her hair. There was a small silence and then his hand stroked through her hair, down to her shoulder and lower, until he cupped her breast. Deprived of sight, every nerve ending was heightened. Her entire body shuddered with need.

“Do you want to try this? You don’t have to.”

Her body pulsed for his. She could barely breathe with the hunger for him coursing through her. She would do anything for him, try anything, but more, she wanted to do it for herself. She wanted to prove to herself she could trust him no matter what and feel only pleasure in everything they did.

She nodded. To steady herself, she reached out and found his thigh. The moment she touched him, the trembling lessened.

“Feel the wind on you. Feel the way your hair falls so soft and sensual down your back and slides over your skin.”

His voice was commanding. Mesmerizing. She shivered again. Fear? Excitement? Anticipation? Her core was on fire, a melting liquid heat that demanded fulfillment. Her mouth watered for him. She’d been so close to her goal, wanting to give him the same kind of pleasure he gave her. He knew her body, every square inch of her and she had been too shy to make her own demands of his.

She had caught some of the erotic images in his head and she wanted to be all those things for him. Right now, kneeling on the soft petals unable to see, the cool night air playing over her body so that she was acutely aware of her breath, her every movement, she found herself growing even more slick and hot.

Silence stretched. She could hear the creak of tree branches around the meadow as the wind played in the leaves. It whispered over the flowers and insects droned. Several frogs called in the distance, and she even caught the sound of running water. She didn’t move, waiting for him. Her breath came and went, but she remained silent, her heart pounding.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when he caressed her right breast with one large hand. His fingers settled around her nipple, the tug more insistent than he’d ever used before. An electrical shock ran straight from her nipple to her core. She gasped, her lips parting, a rush of air escaping. She smelled his spicy scent and then he rubbed nectar across her lips.

“Open your mouth for me, sívamet.”

At last. She would truly feel as if she was his. As if he belonged to her. She felt the lash of heat against her mouth and her hands moved up to cup his sac.

“Place both hands on my thighs,” he instructed. His voice sounded a little rough, a little hoarse.

Her sheath clenched, melted, dripped wild honey, calling to him. He sounded so sexy. She felt sexy. Through her palms she could feel the slight shudder of pleasure that ran through his body as she licked at the drops of pearl liquid, with that addictive, rare taste. She opened her mouth and allowed him to push inside. The taste she craved so desperately exploded against her tongue and burst through her mouth. Without thinking she suckled, flattening her tongue, wanting to feel pleasure blossoming through his mind. She surrounded him with warmth, enfolded him with love.

She reveled in his groans, in the way his thigh muscles twitched and danced under her fingers. She found herself happy, enjoying the moment, feeling sexy and strong, her mouth tight and hot around him, worshiping him, showing him her love, claiming his body for her own.

He began to move with small, deeper thrusts. Her newfound courage faltered, a small schism of fear skittering down her spine. She was helpless there, blind and unable to stop him if he choked her. A million nightmares rose out of nowhere, flooding her mind, driving out everything around her until she felt rough hands and loud voices, slaps and kicks. Just that fast, her world went from bliss to panic.

Before she could react, his hands were gentle on her head, fingers massaging the tension from her. “You’re safe, here with me, and nothing, no one, can ever harm you again. You aren’t really blind at all, csitri. You’re in my mind and you can see and feel what I do. See how beautiful you look to me. Feel what you do to me, the pleasure you brought to me.”

His soft whisper calmed her as nothing else could. Behind the mask of petals, she closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. That male fragrance, so familiar to her, was as reassuring as his voice. Her heart continued to pound, but she didn’t lift her hands to remove the mask of petals.

“It’s still there, Dimitri,” she whispered, wanting to cry. “It’s never going to go away.”

“Of course not, sívamet,” he replied, his voice so tender, her eyes did burn. He removed the mask of petals and gently brought her to her feet. “Your past, like mine, shaped who you are now. That steel running down your spine, that incredible will and determination that allows you to do things no one expects—those attributes came from your past. It’s part of you.”

“A nightmare.” She laid her head on his chest for comfort, feeling she’d failed both of them. “My childhood was a nightmare.”

Instantly his arms swept around her, holding her tight to him, surrounding her with his strength and love. “Nothing in our future changes our past. You know that, Skyler. You’ve always known it. We talked of this moment happening. There is no right or wrong. No failure. We both expected it to happen. It is. That’s all.”

She let herself find a small smile. “Talking about it and having it happen are two different things, Dimitri. I wanted to please you.”

“You did please me.”

“I wanted to show trust. How could I be feeling happy, enjoying giving you pleasure and have my past creep into our private moment?” She looked up at him, unable to prevent the tears from swimming in her eyes. “I do trust you.”

That was the worst of it. She had let both of them down. How could she think Dimitri would ever harm her?

“You didn’t think I would harm you, Skyler,” Dimitri said, gathering her into his arms. He lifted her, cradling her trembling body close to his chest. “I wasn’t there in that moment.”

Her heart jumped. She gave a little shattered cry and buried her face against his neck. He hadn’t been with her. She’d lost him and panicked. Just that one act of aggression on his part and instead of feeling his familiar form—in a field of flowers holding his scent—her past still had such a powerful grip on her that she’d lost the man she loved more than anything. That seemed so much worse.

“I want to go home,” she whispered, feeling defeated.

It was as if those men, those terrible monsters from her childhood, had defeated her. They’d won. She’d let them come between her and Dimitri.

To her astonishment, Dimitri put her feet back on the ground. “You are home, Skyler. Wherever I am, is home. There is no more comfort in that house than there is here with me. No one has defeated you—or us. It is impossible unless we allow it.”

There was steel in his voice, and the butterflies in her stomach took flight. She threaded her fingers through his to gain courage. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

He sighed. “Csitri, you’re hurting yourself, not me. Why are you so upset over something we knew would happen?”

“I didn’t really think it would,” she confessed, more to herself than to him. “Not once I committed to you. Every time we’ve made love it’s been so perfect. I honestly thought I could do anything because I do trust you, Dimitri.”

“You can do anything,” he replied. “What happened here is nothing at all. It will happen again and again at unexpected times and it’s perfectly all right. This is not a defeat. It isn’t a failure. It simply is.”

Skyler swallowed hard. Allowing his wisdom to sink past hurt was difficult, but his calm logic was difficult to ignore. He wasn’t upset with her.

She moved in his mind and all she could find was his love for her and the memories they’d made in the field. She could see the image of herself before him with the petals wrapped around her head, covering her eyes, kneeling in the field of flowers. She did look beautiful and sexy. Her body stirred all over again.

“I don’t know why I lost you.” That was the real problem. How could she have let him go out of her mind for even a moment? That was all it had taken, and she had allowed the monsters in.

“When we make love, the chemistry is very intense and powerful between us,” he said. He stroked a finger over her breast and watched her shiver. “The slightest touch and our bodies respond. That’s how it’s supposed to be, Skyler. Sometimes, when we’re really enjoying what we’re doing, we get lost in the act of it, in the doing. It feels good, so how could we not?”

“So I was thinking of myself, not you?” She tried to puzzle it out in her mind.

For months, long before she had committed to him, she’d thought about whether or not she’d be able to perform oral sex when the very idea of it terrified her. Whether she would like it. How to do it—could she actually please him.

She had loved giving him so much pleasure. At the same time, it had brought her pleasure. The field of flowers with his scent, the mask of soft petals, even kneeling before him with her hands on his thighs, feeling that heavy erection against her face, her mouth. All of it was sexy and wonderful. She had gotten lost in the moment, her own body on fire.

He shook his head. “You were definitely thinking of me, sívamet. Had another man crept into your mind I would have banished him immediately. I have always touched you gently. Reverently. Even when I become a little aggressive, you can feel my love in the way I touch you.”

She frowned. She hadn’t considered that, but it was true. She loved it when he was aggressive, but he was there in her mind, holding her to him. She had always felt surrounded, even protected by his love.

“Shift, Skyler. Let’s take to the sky. We can circle around together above the trees and head home. I want you to feel who you are. What you are. Carpathian. A formidable being without me. You have never needed me to be strong. In your own right, you wield more power than most. You are not insignificant or weak. You are Skyler. Dragonseeker. Mage. And most of all, that elusive mother of yours we know so little about, provided you with an indomitable spirit. That is your true self. We all have monsters in our past. We shrug them off as no consequences because we will never allow them to devour us.”

Tears burned in her eyes again. She turned away from him and spread her arms, calling to the bird in her mind to come forth. A night owl, one that would take her soaring through the sky. Feathers burst through her skin and for a moment the world around her shimmered into strange colors and then she was in the sky.

She was lucky to have Dimitri. He saw her worth when she couldn’t. He held the way he saw her out to her, that strong love he felt, giving it to her like a gift to wrap around her when she couldn’t find her own way.

It was impossible to cry, not for joy or for their lost moment, while she was in the form of an owl. Instead, they flew together over the meadow of flowers. Above them was a canopy of white stars and below them there was that same sight, hundreds of stars looking up at them. It was a beautiful sight, and one she knew few would ever see.

I love you, Dimitri. And I loved the ritual we performed tonight. I loved seeing myself through your eyes. And I loved giving you pleasure the way I did.

I was the one on the receiving end, csitri, so I will admit to you, it was a wonderful evening for me as well.

She took a breath and let her failure go. If Dimitri didn’t see it that way, then she wouldn’t either. She had panicked. It was simply a fact, and it probably would happen again. She knew it would take a long time for her to accept those moments in the matter-of-fact way Dimitri did, but someday, maybe a century or two away, she would.

She dropped down into the canopy of the forest, flying lower through the branches, playing a little, as she had to maneuver through the openings between boughs.

Don’t get carried away, he cautioned, the male owl shadowing her flight.

She changed direction abruptly, dropping out from under the male, swooping through a narrow opening to glide low over the grass growing on the forest floor.

She was Carpathian. She embraced the fact that she could fly like this, that she could see the world through the eyes of an owl.

If you were blindfolded, csitri, you could still see through the eyes of the one you merge with. It is well within your power.

Of course that had been the lesson all along. Dimitri had told her, but she’d been too upset with herself to listen to him. He had found another way and simply waited until she realized what she should have known all along.

She’d been merged with Dimitri. When they made love, he always merged with her. She knew it was not only for their heightened awareness of one another’s needs and pleasure, but to protect her. All she had to do was reach out to him and she could have been in complete control.

I will remember. She made the vow more for herself than for him.

Dimitri was—well—Dimitri. He never seemed ruffled or annoyed or angry at her over anything, least of all lovemaking. He hadn’t expected her to come to him and offer herself and he really took everything they did together as a miracle.

Let me show you what you gave to me, this great gift of love I will treasure always.

She flew just beneath him, heading for their home. She could see the structure in the distance, nestled in the trees. One by one they had gone through the rooms in the old stone house and remade them to their liking. There was a fire already roaring in the fireplace. Of course there would be. Dimitri saw to details.

He was always there for her, her steady rock. No matter what happened, she could count on him. She felt a burst of pure joy. Nightmares didn’t have a chance against a man like Dimitri. He could say all he wanted that she was strong without him—and maybe that was the truth—but she was better with him. Always. Forever.

Show me, my love.

The images slipped into her mind unfiltered. With them came his feelings. The absolute ecstasy of her tight hot mouth surrounding him like a velvet fist, sending fire dancing through his groin, down his thighs and up into his belly. She had done that.

The sight of her, so trusting, that blindfold of petals, her hands on his thighs, her complete gift of herself, it had all combined together to make him lose his control and get lost in the feeling of bliss she created, that paradise he’d slipped into.

Your trust is your absolute gift to me, Skyler. Not the way you make me feel. You put on a blindfold in the middle of a field and gave yourself to me. Look what memories I have. I’ll cherish them for all time.

Show me the moment I panicked. I want to feel what you felt. That was all important. She needed to know if she’d ruined that beautiful memory for him.

Dimitri didn’t hesitate. The intensity of his hunger for her overwhelmed her, that need surging through his veins, centering in his groin, a roaring firestorm building hot and fast. She found herself caught up in the heat, her own body coiling with sexual tension, hunger for him moving through her even deep within the body of the owl.

She felt that first flicker of uncertainty moving through his mind. Skyler. His world. Instantly the focus went from what he was feeling to her. His mind completely and utterly focused on her. There was no thought for him or his building desire, no regret, no anger, nothing but the need to made certain she was all right.

You are my life. Your happiness is placed above my own always. Just as you trust me to do these things for you, I know that you will do them for me.

The little owl came to rest on the wide stone railing around the verandah, spreading her wings and flapping them before she shifted back to her human form. She stood on the broad, stone rail, holding her arms out to the night. She didn’t bother with clothes, their home was far from any others, and she had scanned the area around them just as Dimitri had taught her.

The male owl landed on the stone floor of the porch, shifting fast, so fast she barely caught the change as she turned to face him.

“How do you do that?” she asked, swinging around to face him. “Shifting is way cool, but I really have to think about what I’m doing.”

His hands closed around her waist and he lifted her off the railing to set her on the stone flooring of the porch. “I’ve had centuries to practice.”

“You say that so casually,” Skyler said. “Centuries. I’m still thinking in terms of years. My next birthday.”

He brushed a kiss on top of her head, and then threaded his fingers through hers, tugging her closer to him until she felt heat radiating off his body. “Eventually time passing means nothing at all.”

“I guess. I suppose if I thought in terms of years, you’d be old and decrepit,” she teased.

“Fortunately for me, we don’t age past a certain point,” he said with a small grin. He reached around her and opened the door as if he was human.

Again she realized he did little things to make her comfortable that she hadn’t even considered. The house itself was for someone human. He’d modernized it and included even a kitchen, so anyone coming to visit would think they were just like everyone else. She knew that would be his explanation, but she had actually gone to the refrigerator several times and opened it, looked in and examined the food he changed nightly in it. It was a human habit and one that would take time to overcome.

“What do you miss most?” he asked.

“You mean food? Chocolate.” She laughed softly. “Most women love chocolate, Dimitri, and I have to admit, I’m one of them.”

“What does it taste like?” he asked.

She frowned. She’d never really thought about it. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Don’t explain it, csitri, you’re Carpathian. Bring the memory into your mind and then transfer it to me.”

Skyler nodded, squeezing his hand. It was always the little things she had to remember to do. She knew she’d get used to doing them, but still, there were so many details. She pulled up her best memory of chocolate. She’d been in the college library studying for hours, forgetting she was hungry, and her aunt Jaxon, Lucian’s lifemate, had come to see her.

The visit was unexpected, but welcome. Seeing a familiar face made her happy. Jaxon, like Skyler, had been human and she knew what long hours were. She’d brought dark chocolate, an entire bar, with her. Skyler had sat there talking to her for a long time, enjoying every moment while the chocolate melted in her mouth.

She had savored that bar, eating one small square at a time over the next week. Each time she ate one of the pieces, it conjured up her visit from Jaxon and she’d been happy all over again. She loved college, but she missed her family and somehow that small gift had made her feel very loved.

The taste of the chocolate poured into her mind and into her mouth. She turned to Dimitri, circling his neck with her arms and pressing her body tightly against his. She lifted her face to his in invitation.

Dimitri bent his head to hers, his blue eyes going dark, setting off the butterflies and causing her sheath to clench hotly. She brushed her lips featherlight over his.

“You let it melt in your mouth,” she advised softly.

Her fingers bunched in the hair at the nape of his neck, as she felt his tongue trace along the seam of her lips. She opened her mouth to him, allowing his tongue to sweep inside. Along with the taste of dark chocolate, she held the feeling she got, the joy that bar had brought to her uppermost in her mind, sharing that as well.

His arms went around her, pulling her close, imprinting her soft body onto his. She felt his groin stirring against her stomach, already full and hard. His mouth was hot, his skin radiating heat. He kissed her thoroughly, over and over, robbing her of breath first, and then her ability to think.

Chocolate is very tasty, he agreed.

Mmm, yes, she said. But so are you.

I’m taking you into the bedroom.

You must be reading my mind.

She kept her eyes closed because he didn’t end the kiss. She felt herself floating, but then his kisses tended to make her feel that way as a rule anyway. His teeth nibbled at her lip.

He placed her gently in the middle of the bed on her hands and knees. Skyler opened her eyes slowly. The room was lit only with the soft light of flickering candles. The scent was a spicy cinnamon. Mirrors surrounded them, as if the walls had been constructed of them, as if the ceiling had been.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. “I wanted to look at your face when I make love to you in this position.”

There was something very decadent about kneeling on a bed perfectly naked, her hair falling around her, her breasts swaying gently, her hips moving seductively—and she couldn’t stop them—in invitation. Flames seemed to burn between her legs, and even the cool night air couldn’t put out the fire.

He knelt behind her, his fingers dancing up her inner thighs, to that waiting heat to slide inside, testing her readiness. Now the images weren’t just decadent, they were erotic. Her eyes met his in the mirror.

Already her breath came in ragged gasps as anticipation made her tremble. He pressed his fingers deeper.

“I love how you get so wet for me, sívamet. No matter how many times I reach for you, you are always ready for me.”

“Because you drive me crazy,” she admitted softly. “I love your body. Just looking at you can make me want you. And then there’s the sound of your voice. Hearing you can do it, too. If you touch me, or kiss me or take my blood, I’m completely lost.”

It was the truth and she wasn’t in the least ashamed to admit it.

She felt the hot head of his erection press tightly into her entrance. He always felt too large for her initially. Her body seemed to resist his invasion, even when she was so eager for him to be inside of her. His hands went to her hips, fingers anchoring there. Her heart beat hard as he waited. Heat coiled. She felt her slickness bathe him, her muscles clenching, desperate to draw him in.

He surged forward, filling her, driving through tight muscle, deeper and deeper until he seemed to lodge in her very womb. She screamed as lightning streaked through her, white-hot, fiery, sending flames from her thighs to her belly and up to her breasts.

Dimitri sank deep, watching her face, watching her eyes glaze as he drove into her again and again, setting a wicked pace. He was aggressive and rough, wanting her to see that she wasn’t afraid of that side of their lovemaking. Anything could trigger her panic. It would never matter. They would accept it and move on.

Her eyes met his in the mirror. She was so beautiful, he wanted to weep with joy. With every thrust, her breasts swayed and her head thrashed. Her mouth opened as she panted. She pushed back into him, taking him as deep as she could, matching his rhythm and riding him all the way, no matter how strong or hard each thrust was.

He began to lose himself in the beauty and fire of their passion. Control began to slip. There was always that moment of danger, when she realized he abandoned all constraints and just allowed himself to give himself over to the pleasure.

She surrounded him with scorching hot heat. Her muscles were a tight vise, the friction exquisite. She took him to places he hadn’t known existed, her sheath a fist of velvet, squeezing and massaging until he knew he wouldn’t last.

Every muscle in his body seemed to contract. Coil with tension. With anticipation. He watched the color on her body, the flush of red, the telltale little pleas escaping as she pushed back frantically, her own release building and building.

So beautiful, he whispered.

She gasped as her body clamped down hard on his. He felt the first wave like a tsunami ripping through her, taking him with her. She screamed out his name as wave after wave followed, her clenching muscles milking him dry.

Skyler collapsed forward on the bed, gasping for air. Dimitri blanketed her body, falling with her, his arms caging her in. They were still locked together, hearts pounding and lungs burning. When he managed to pull in some air, he let his body disengage from hers, and rolled to his side so that he wouldn’t crush her with his weight.

It took him a few more minutes to wave away the mirrors, stop the roaring fire and get rid of most of the candles.

“Do you think we can just sleep here?” Skyler asked. “I don’t want to move.”

He laughed softly. “We never sleep where we can be found. You know that.”

“What are safeguards for?”

He cupped her breast in his palm and locked one leg over her thigh. “It is never safe to sleep where we can be found,” he repeated. “Even with safeguards.”

She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. “Can the Sange rau stay out during daylight hours?”

He frowned, nuzzling her neck. “So far, no. Sange rau is rogue wolf and vampire. A rogue wolf can walk in daylight of course, but a vampire cannot. Fen says he can be out in the sun longer than he’s ever managed it, but he still burns if he stays too long. I was out in the sun when hanging in the trees. Fortunately, the sun never really penetrated the canopy and fell across my body, but I still blistered. Had I been fully Carpathian that may have killed me. I don’t know. Our Carpathian blood will always be Carpathian blood and the Lycan blood will always be Lycan. It’s our ability to utilize the gifts of both species that seems to increase. With that may come the ability to walk in the afternoon sun, but it’s too soon to predict that.”

“Were you listening to Arno’s voice when he talked about mixed bloods?” Skyler asked, turning over to face him.

His fingers traced her frown. “Yes.”

“Not just his words, but the passion and loathing in his voice? He’s a good man, Dimitri. He thinks of himself as a good man. He tries to do his best, tries to do the right thing, and yet he was so adamant that anyone with mixed blood needed to be exterminated. He believes that, deep down in his heart and soul. He even recognizes the difference between Sange rau and Hän ku pesäk kaikak but he wants them all dead.”

Her distress ate at him. He stroked back the wild mess of hair. He liked her hair messy. She looked as if she’d just thoroughly been made love to. “I know, csitri. Don’t let it get to you. We have no control over others. If we’re lucky, maybe in time just being around us, he’ll feel differently. The council members have voted to stay to attempt to come to some agreement. I believe a couple of the others have opted to come as well, although I don’t know that for certain.”

“He really worked hard to save Zev’s life. He knew Carpathians were giving him blood, but he didn’t object or try to stop us.” Skyler bit her lower lip. “Right then, he was so torn. Zev saved his life. Had he not covered Arno’s body with his own, Arno would be dead. Zev should have been. Fortunately he had enough Carpathian blood mixing with his Lycan blood that he held out until help came.”

Dimitri leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. “In the form of my amazing and talented lifemate. From what Fen and Tatijana told me, you were incredible.”

“It took all of us, but it certainly has made me curious to know more about my birth mother. I feel her sometimes, guiding me when I lose my way healing someone. She’s a force inside of me, unexpected and rare, but she sometimes comes to me. I can’t remember her healing people, but I dream of it sometimes. I think it’s possible I was there with her when she helped others. I had to be very young, maybe a toddler, and she showed me what she was doing.”

“I could find those memories for you,” Dimitri offered.

Skyler squirmed uncomfortably. He knew everything about her past, the fact that as a child she’d been sold to men, but he would have to get past those memories to find the ones of her mother. As much as she wanted to know as much as possible about her birth mother, she wasn’t ready for him to replay those monstrous memories.

“Sometime. When things aren’t happening so fast for me,” Skyler said. “There have been so many changes, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed. I know everything could blow up any moment between Lycan and Carpathian and the thought terrifies me. I’m still getting used to being fully Carpathian and learning everything that goes with that.” She smiled at him. “And there’s you. The love of my life. The intensity of us is a little disconcerting at times.”

He gathered her up, nuzzling the top of her head. “Dawn is breaking and you need sleep. We’ve got another big day ahead of us. Ivory and Razvan want us training hard all day, every day so that the pups accept us.”

“When they first called them pups, I thought they would be little things, but they’re huge,” Skyler said.

“Do they intimidate you?”

She shook her head. “Not anymore. When I first saw them, they did. I think they accepted me because I must have some of Razvan in me. They certainly recognized the alpha wolf in you right away.”

He growled in her ear as he opened the floor and floated down to the basement. “Of course they did.”

“Very funny. I don’t find you intimidating either.” She sniffed for emphasis.

He laughed. “After watching Ivory show you how to use the crossbow and throwing wedges she has, I think I’m becoming a little intimidated by you.”

She grinned at him. “I am getting good at it. I actually love it. Especially the wolves. In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d have my own wolf pack like Ivory and Razvan do.”

They both dissolved and slipped through the cracks in the stone floor to the ground below. Dimitri opened that for them as well. Skyler was too excited by the prospect of renewing her training with the wolves the following evening to have her usual brief moment of fear as they floated into the rich, welcoming soil.

Dimitri wrapped her in his arms, as he did each dawn, holding her close, commanding her to sleep before he settled the earth over them and secured their safeguards for the coming day.