“Wish that were true. But it’s not. I’ve chosen plenty of times to live to fight another day. There’s no shame in it. A couple of months ago, I watched one of my Guardsmen hauled into the sky by a powerful wraith-pair, while I battled three on the ground. I could have gone after him and part of me still wishes I had. But I would have been slaughtered in the air.
“Yes, I fought off the three that were coming at me. Even then, I quit the field as more wraith-pairs moved in. I would have been killed by not retreating or by trying to save the one I lost. We make hard choices in war and I’m telling you right now, you did the right thing. You survived.”
Elias nodded.
“How about we get you home.”
Cole pivoted slightly in Stone’s direction. “Delia will be waiting for Elias at the farm and the second wave of Guardsmen have just hit Charborne. I have good news: The Invictus are retreating.”
“That’s wonderful,” Aralynn said.
Stone issued orders to have the men fly the troll home.
Elias straightened his shoulders and since Stone knew he was going to offer to remain and help with the clean-up, Stone shook his head. “You’re leaving. Delia’s expecting you and if I don’t have you home within the hour, she’ll quit my employ. And I don’t have to remind you she’s the only woman who can manage me.”
At that, Elias cracked a smile. “As to that, my woman’s never been happier than serving at your side.”
“She’s been a blessing to me.” Stone then nodded to Cole.
Cole had brown eyes and long dark hair and offered Elias a smile. “Let’s get you in the air.”
Elias thanked Stone and Aralynn, then moved outside with the two powerful Guardsmen. He accepted Cole’s extended hand.
Because trolls were short and Vampire Guardsmen on the massive, muscled size, Cole swung Elias in a practiced move up to his shoulder where the troll perched, one hand hooked into the opposite shoulder strap of Cole’s coat. The vampire immediately took to the air. The remaining Guardsman followed on his heels, rising swiftly as well, but watching the skies while they headed southeast toward Rutland where Elias and Delia lived.
Once they disappeared from sight, Stone opened up his pathing frequency and contacted Harris. Tell me what’s going on?
We’ve got Charborne contained. The electronics were jammed, as we’d suspected, but the Com Center says the feed is now back online. What we don’t understand is that there aren’t any dead, except the wraith-pairs we battled.
Stone was mystified. You mean realm-folk? You haven’t found any deceased among the villagers?
That’s right.
Then they must be in hiding.
That’s what we hope, but we’re not sure. I know the mayor of Charborne had taken great precautions against an attack, ordering the construction of secret hiding places inside dwellings and out in the farmlands and the forest. And he had a large number of the villagers on constant patrol each with the ability to sound the alarm. Stone, I think it’s possible the mayor saved his people. Wait, here is he now. Give me a sec and I’ll get his report.
Stone stood very still. Was it possible that no villagers were lost?
After a moment, Harris pathed, Yup. It happened just like I told you. The mayor said that they’ve been running drills every single night for months, with the full participation of the residents. No matter where everyone is or what they might be doing at the time, they have to know where the nearest hiding place is and get there. Anyone left wandering around is fined. He’s calling his people in now. I’ll have more information over the next hour, but I think we have reason to celebrate.
It sure sounds like it. By the way, we have four dead Invictus out by the mine that will need to be processed.
I’ll take care of it. And what about Elias?
Stone heard the sudden tension in Harris’s voice. Cole and one of his team are taking him home as we speak.
Thank the Goddess. Harris sounded relieved. The last thing any of us wanted was for Delia to lose her man.
I think it would have killed us all. Okay, so bring in the troll clean-up crews to process the Invictus bodies. Aralynn and I will be heading back to the Com Center.
Will do. But one last thing. No word yet on either Gerrod or Ethan. I wasn’t able to raise Quinlan either.
Stone had an uneasy feeling about the mastyrs. Were they missing? He sure hoped not. Stay on top of it, Harris. And let me know the moment you get definitive word.
You got it.
When he ended the telepathic conversation, he turned to Aralynn and shared the news with her about the villagers. She lifted her fist and gave a shout. “That’s the best news you could have told me.”
The brief battle, however, still had his blood pumping and he became acutely aware he hadn’t been with his doneuses yet this evening. He should have made a stop before he went to the Communication Center. But his thoughts had been full of Aralynn and how he’d almost kissed her the night before, so that he’d forgotten about his chronic blood starvation.
Until now.
And unfortunately, he could smell Aralynn’s blood which made his mouth water. He couldn’t believe the layers he could detect, a rich wine and something again very herbal with a woodland aroma. She was definitely a woman of power, which he believed must have also given her blood the same scent that came off her skin. Initially, he’d thought it was her perfume, now he realized it was just Aralynn. And he loved it.
There was only one problem. Aralynn was in no way prepared to take on the duties that belonged to his harem of doneuses. To ask her to donate was impossible. She’d become his battle partner and taking from her vein was definitely crossing the line.
“I’m so glad Elias is safe.”
“Me, too.” Brilliant response.
She glanced at him quickly, a brief fluttering of her eyelashes in his direction then away as she stared out into the night. Something was on her mind.
He flared his nostrils and drew in a slow deep breath, taking in every subtle scent of her. Besides the heightened quality of her blood, he could now smell her growing desire for him. The wolf wanted him … bad.
He salivated. Aralynn was athletic and strong. She’d make a perfect lover for him. He’d wanted her all this time, craved her in ways he’d never before experienced.
Her red hair was wild around her shoulders. But the upper half was pulled back and revealed her strong cheekbones. She was a beautiful woman with large brown eyes and arched brows.
Something about her reminded him of Rosamunde in a way he couldn’t explain. But Aralynn hadn’t just served in the Castle Guard, she’d studied under the queen. Apparently, Rosamunde had served as her mentor, which he considered an unfortunate circumstance. Yet he saw little of the queen’s influence in Aralynn. She was an excellent warrior-partner, had all the courage he could ever want in a woman, and she was game for about anything.
Above all, Stone trusted Aralynn. She’d proven herself over and over from the time she first showed up at the Com Center ready to serve.
And yup, he wanted her bad, too.
As though understanding the trend of his thoughts, she slowly turned to face him. Last night, she’d disappeared before his lips had touched hers. But right now he knew something had changed with her. This time, she would stick. He could feel it in his bones. Her brown eyes glittered and her desire became a beautiful resonance moving over his skin.
It would seem she’d finally come around, that they could enjoy each other for a time, while the terrible war against Margetta and her wraith-pairs played out.
She didn’t say anything, but waited, her breaths high in her chest.
Her lips called to him, luscious and full. He was barely a foot away from her now, standing like a massive shadow over her. He was taller than most Guardsmen, and heavily muscled, a perfect counterpoint to her lean female wolf’s body. He didn’t fully understand the hold she had over him, because even the scent of her blood had him rock hard.
/> His heart pounded in his chest. He’d wanted this from the same night they’d worked together for the first time. She’d had a vision about a busload of troll kids and he’d gone with her to see if her vision was accurate and it had been, down to the last detail.
At the time, a small river had flooded and the bus had tried to cross the bridge. But part of the supports had been damaged and threatened to collapse. The driver had started backing up, but one of the supports had given way and the right front wheel had lost traction. He’d basically kept the bus from plunging off the bridge and she’d somehow added a burst of power that had helped him get the bus back on solid ground.
He’d been hooked since.
He doubted Queen Rosamunde would be happy if he established a liaison with Aralynn, yet somehow he didn’t care.
This time, when he drew close, she didn’t pull away or vanish as she had in the past.
Instead, he could feel her surrender like falling into a warm pool of water. He dipped his head ready to take the kiss he’d wanted for so long.
~ ~ ~
Rosamunde stood so close to Stone her whole body vibrated with need. Her heart felt heavy yet excited. She knew what she was doing was very wrong, but she couldn’t help herself. She was a wolf in this moment, Aralynn, who ran missions with Stone, who’d learned to anticipate his thoughts and moves, who’d wanted the vampire like she was a dry desert plant and he was rain.
She could also sense the depth of his blood starvation, a chronic condition that afflicted all mastyrs. Each lived with tremendous pain and she wanted to ease his suffering. Maybe because she knew what it was to endure pain every night, she felt as compassionate as she did.
But it was the thought of his vampire fangs breaching her vein that caused her gaze to fall to his lips.
Sweet Goddess, those lips that she’d dreamed about so many times, dozens in fact since she’d first shown up at his Com Center. But Vojalie was right about one thing. She’d had a thing for Stone since he’d made his first formal visit to Ferrenden Peace.
He leaned in, ready to kiss her, but she put a hand on his chest and met his gaze.
He frowned. “You’re stopping me? Again?”
“No. I wouldn’t be so cruel. I wanted to tell you something. It’s important to me.”
His expression softened. “You can tell me anything.”
For a moment, his words made her pause. Could she tell him anything? Could she tell him she was Rosamunde? The part of her that understood him knew she couldn’t, not if she wanted a kiss. So she let it go. Guilt hit her, but she ignored that, too.
Instead, she told him what was on her mind. “Do you remember the first mission we ran together?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Of course. I was just thinking about it, too. The troll kids on the school bus.”
She nodded. “You were so reassuring with those kids as well as the driver, then you pulled the bus back with the sheer strength of your arms.”
A smiled played over his lips and he slid his hand beneath the mass of her curly hair and caught the nape of her neck. “You’ve forgotten.”
“What?”
“I didn’t do it on my own. You joined your power to mine, remember? I couldn’t have pulled that bus back on my strength alone.”
She chuckled and even grinned. “You’re right. I forgot I’d helped out. All I know is you were absolutely magnificent and that’s the reason I want you to kiss me.”
“I don’t think you could have said anything better to me. Thank you, Aralynn.”
He tilted his head slightly, and the thing she’d been craving was suddenly hers. She closed her eyes and centered every thought, every sensation on the press of his moist, warm lips against hers. She wanted to remember it forever, that despite what might happen in the future because of her subterfuge, she would always have this moment with him.
He used the pressure on the back of her neck to move her just so, to pull her closer and deepen the kiss. When she parted her lips, his tongue slid inside, a penetration that felt as sensual as if he’d entered her body with all that was male.
She moaned heavily, not for his sake but because she couldn’t help it. It felt like heaven, especially to her wolf. She loved his hand on her neck and would like even more being controlled from behind.
She melted against him. He tightened his hold on her because he must have sensed what she felt, that she’d fall to the mine floor if he let her go. Stone, I’ve wanted this night after night for so long.
He groaned, a gravelly sound that forced her arms to snake around his neck. He pressed his body fully against hers. She felt the brute strength of his muscled arms and heavy powerful thighs. She could feel as well that he was hard for her.
Something like a sob caught in her throat. So this was what she’d been missing for so many centuries. She tried to be reasonable, to pull back and let the kiss just be a kiss, maybe a sedate beginning of sorts. But she couldn’t. Her own hunger demanded she keep going, keep feeling the pulse of his tongue and the way he ground his hips against hers.
She wanted him to the point of desperation.
But the part of her that was more fae than wild wolf, began to come to the fore. This was Stone, the man who disliked ‘Rosamunde’ with a passion. To keep kissing him was a lie and her conscience could hardly bear it.
She began to ease back until her hands were on his chest.
“What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t meet his gaze so she leaned her head against his chest. “There’s something else I need to tell you, I just don’t know how.”
He chuckled softly. “I’m guessing you’ve been with other men.”
He’d given her an out. “When I was much younger.”
She felt him grow still. “It’s been awhile, then?”
“Yes.”
“You want to slow this down?”
“I do. I think it would be wise.”
He rubbed her back and she could feel his chest rise and fall as he took a series of slow, deep breaths.
She had to tell him the truth, but it was so hard.
A memory flew back at her, biting her with sharp teeth. When it had become widely known that Ferrenden Peace really did exist and was ruled by a queen, Stone had requested an audience with her. She’d received him formally, sitting on her throne, feeling like an imposter, but holding her head high. This was months before she’d learned she could transform into ‘Aralynn’.
Even then, she could recall how she’d responded to the sight of him, to his muscled body and the tattoos that she could see rising on his neck. She wondered how many his Guardsman outfit concealed.
He’d begged her to become more engaged in the war effort against Margetta. In vague terms, she’d told him that the mist she sustained required her constant vigilance and that the same mist kept Margetta from gaining access to a kind of power in Ferrenden Peace that would enable the Ancient Fae to take over the Nine Realms.
He’d stared at her with lips that turned down and such terrible disdain that color had risen on her cheeks. “I don’t believe you. What power?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.” And she hadn’t been. Davido had forbidden her to ever discuss the true, elf-lord nature of the power that resided in her kingdom. The elf-lords that had once conquered the Nine Realms had created a terrible stretch of realm history, something horrendous in the ancient documents. To even use the term ‘elf-lord’ was to strike fear into the heart of all Realm-folk.
He’d lowered his chin and flared his nostrils. He’d looked like a powerful bull ready to tear into her. But he’d held his temper in check. “Here’s the deal, my Queen, I can sense the innate power that you possess and I know in my gut that if you’d made a push, we’d have had Margetta on her heels by now. That’s what I know.” He’d hit his chest with his fist. “I know it here. You’ve held back and thousands of Realm-folk have died because of it.”
When he’d left, she’d wept for nights. He’d been wrong, but she’d
found no words to persuade him otherwise.
Now he was holding her in his arms, only it wasn’t really ‘Rosamunde’, but Aralynn whom he trusted and valued.
When she drew back, he looked at her, frowning. “Why the tears?”
“I was remembering something, but it doesn’t matter.”
He caught her chin. “It always matters. Have I hurt you?”
The warm compassion on his face made her chest ache all over again. “You couldn’t hurt me, Stone. You always act from a place of truth and honesty, from your devotion to Tannisford. There’s nothing you could do that could harm me in any way.”
He tilted his head slightly, mossy-green eyes narrowed. “That’s the way you see me?”
“It is.” But as the words left her mouth, a new frequency hit her, striking deep in her brain, one that felt horribly familiar.
Margetta.
“Stone, we’ve got to get out of here. The Ancient Fae is coming toward the mine. Sweet Goddess, how fast can you fly?”
He gripped her arms, staring into her eyes. “You should leave. Teleport now. I’ll escape somehow.”
“I’m not leaving you. No. Way. Stone, she’s gunning for you. I can feel it.”
“Okay, then.” He didn’t ask permission or give her the smallest warning. Instead, he caught her up in his arms, levitated, then flew straight out of the mouth of the mine and headed into the air.
But a terrible gold wind already filled the dark, starry sky. Margetta’s signature.
Rosamunde had seen it once before, the night her mother had died.
Her first instinct was to teleport, but she couldn’t leave Stone. Though she’d learned a lot over the past few weeks while serving beside him, she didn’t know what to do or even what she could do.
Stone spun them in a circle. “She’s surrounded us.”
Margetta’s gold wind tossed them in the air. If she caught them, Rosamunde knew she would die. But she knew something else as well: Margetta didn’t want Stone dead, she wanted him for herself. But why?
Rosamunde had to act quickly. She had only seconds to get herself and Stone away from Margetta.
The Ancient Fae appeared, beautiful in a long purple velvet gown and blond ringlets dangling past her shoulders. She had a softly-pointed fae chin, arched brows and looked like a princess.