He braced himself with the chair. I hadn’t noticed how much he’d matured and grown, from this awkward wolf to warrior himself, from his wise tawny brown eyes to the way he braced himself around me, as if he was ready to do whatever it took to draw blood on my behalf. Every sinew of muscle flexed with the ability to kill, to maim effortlessly.
His jaw clenched. “All of them.”
“Tarick…” My voice held warning. “I won’t punish them if they side with my father. I abandoned our people, but I need them united now. The Watchers—”
“So it’s true?” His eyes lit up with shock. “Is that why your hair has those funny red streaks? Never seen sooch colors on a wolf.”
“Long story,” I mumbled, sharing a cautious look with Serenity. She had questions, and I had no answers. And I was sick with the thought that all of my life I had never questioned those around me, questioned authority, or even questioned the mating process. I’d done my duty blindly.
And stupidly.
I had not been fit to rule then.
I hoped to The Creator I would be fit to rule now.
“Come.” Tarick slapped me on the back. “You’ll want to get cleaned up for dinner.”
He led us down a black marble hallway. The walls were lit with torches while lights shone overhead. Edinburgh Castle had been built to honor the wolves, but after years passed, it had turned into something for humans.
We’d allowed them their separate space.
Taking jobs as warriors and protecting them as was our duty for the earth, but that didn’t mean we didn’t try to grasp modern technology.
I gripped Serenity’s hand. “The last time I walked these halls there wasn’t even electricity.”
“Grumpy old wolf,” she teased under her breath.
My throat caught on a laugh as I pulled her closer. We rounded the corner to the family suites, each of them over three-thousand-square feet.
The door to mine was locked shut.
The picture of my wolf shone across the wood grain. I ran my hand over it and shuddered at the power that sizzled beneath my fingertips.
“Dinner’s at six,” Tarick said and then seemed to want to say more; instead, he slapped me on the back again and walked off.
Serenity gaped when I thrust open the doors. A massive four-poster bed was pushed against the east wall. A large in-ground tub took up half the space in the middle of the bathroom, and petals swirled around the jets. There were no windows, but we were used to living within the earth. We didn’t need to see outside of the dirt to know
its secrets. There wasn’t any need to see the sky when creation, when the dirt itself, covered us in its splendor.
Serenity gasped out. “It’s beautiful.”
“It was mine. Or it is mine.”
She walked over to the bed and stared. “Did she share this bed with you?”
I’d known the question was coming. It hadn’t made me any more prepared. “No.”
Her shoulders sagged as she leaned back against me. “Good.”
“Jealous?” I nipped her ear. How had I ever thought I could survive without a partner? Without love?
She turned in my arms so fast I almost stumbled backward. Her green eyes flashed with hunger, and they pierced through me to my soul. “You’re mine.”
I leaned down and took her lower lip, squeezing it between my teeth before whispering, “Then claim me.”
Within seconds, her clothes were discarded. I didn’t pay attention to where they went. All I knew was that my mate, my true mate, the one meant for me from the beginning of time, was standing in my room naked.
I worshipped her mouth while I kicked down my jeans, my need so strong that my release was already pulsing. Our tongues twisted while her fingers scratched my head, digging, tugging. I pressed her onto the bed, the one I swore I’d never return to, just like that damn room.