CHAPTER 13

“If World War Three wasn’t about to go down tomorrow night, I’d say all’s well that ends well. True love abounds in the sidhe and several very evil Vampire viceroys had a date with the sun that they probably deserved anyway.   hey.” Sasha kept walking up the steep, winding staircase that led to the main castle hall. Why couldn’t life just be uncomplicated for once?

Hunter gave Sasha a sidelong glance as they reached a landing. “Were it only that easy.”

“Yeah, I know. Who am I fooling?” Sasha released a hard sigh and kept pushing forward. Her body was exhausted, but she knew sleep would be impossible with all of the issues racing through her mind. “It would have been great to see if maybe Amy could go into trance and give us any insight as a supernatural seer, but fat chance of that happening tonight. I can’t blame her, but damn. We’ve gotta find a way to figure out what opened Pandora’s box with the Erinyes and how to send them back before this Vamp war really gets further out of hand.”

“Sometimes just being still, daughter, is the hardest thing to do. But the answer is within the stillness. We sometimes learn that in the shadows.”

Sasha looked over her shoulder at Silver Hawk and gave him a smile, even though what he’d said made her want to scream. Right now her nerves couldn’t take an ancient parable. Right now her brain could not begin to process cryptic statements. But she loved the old man way too much and respected him far too much to respond with more than a simple nod. Still, she was sure he knew what she’d been thinking by the sly half smile he’d unsuccessfully tried to swallow.

“Don’t worry, Sasha,” Hunter said as they reached the guarded door. “Grandfather makes me insane, too, when he starts talking in old Ute riddles.”

“I will leave you,” Silver Hawk replied, unfazed. “Get some rest. Tomorrow will be eventful. I feel it in my bones.”

Two guards at the top of the stairs banged on the heavy oak door to have it unlocked from the outside and then moved to let them pass. Another castle guard stepped forward with a huge key ring in his hand and a question in his eyes.

“Milord.   where are the betrothed?” The guard looked first to Silver Hawk, who was the eldest in the small retinue of three.

Silver Hawk chuckled softly. “They have married wolf-style in your dungeon, and should be allowed their privacy.”

The Fae guard frowned, clearly not understanding. “Ah, you are a cleric amongst the wolves. A leader of your kind, then so be it. I shall inform Sir Rodney.   but he will be wondering about all the food and drink.”

“I think Sir Rodney will be okay with just allowing the party to go on regardless,” Sasha said with a smile. “Maybe in an hour or two you guys can send down some grub.   but I’d sorta wait until the couple asked for it before just barging in on them, you know what I mean?”

“Indeed!” the guard replied with a bow. “We Fae do love a festive event, and if our guests are happy we are happier.”

“I assure you,” Hunter said, giving Sasha a wink, “my brother and his new wife are very happy.”

“Then it is settled,” the guard said, striding away. “Fare thee well. I shall inform Sir Rodney.”

“The food and drink will not go to waste,” Sir Garth said, coming out of nowhere and startling Sasha, Hunter, and Silver Hawk. “Please follow me. We don’t have much time.”

Shogun’s kiss began with a gentle tasting of her mouth, the delicate probing of his tongue. Amy could almost feel Shogun breathe her in and allow her scent to flow over his palate before he’d swallowed it. She’d been the one to deepen the exchange, hungrily suckling his tongue and giving in to the insane warmth of his embrace.

His wide, hot palms splayed across her back as she arched against him, needing every inch of her skin to come in contact with his. Clothes were in the way. Fabric taunted her raw nerve endings; she wanted it off of her, off of him. Yet he was still handling her as though she were a fragile object made of glass. She could feel him holding back, keeping the wolf within him at bay, even after knowing what she had within her.

Before she could stop herself her nails scored his back, shredding the silk shirt the Fae had given him, drawing blood—she didn’t have to see it; she could smell it. The pungent scent hung in the air as she pulled back from their kiss and stared at him.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, her voice now thick and weighted with desire as her fingers gently played over his wounds. “I didn’t know my hands would do that..   I.  ”

Amy’s words trailed off as she stared into Shogun’s dark brown eyes, watching them slowly become lit from within. Anticipation swept through her, stoking her need. A split second gave way to a lightning-fast response and her windpipe was being gently held by sharp upper and lower canines. All she could do was breathe. The threat was implicit. The threat was exhilarating.

Searing palms lifted her, separating the flesh of her buttocks, straining the thin gauze gown, straining her patience, while his powerful jaws remained locked over her trachea. Arms around the crown of his head and the nape of his neck, she kept her eyes closed as he moved her across the floor, still holding her tightly in an act of pure wolf possession. He had her by the throat, had claimed her body as his territory. Short panting bursts of breath were her agreement to submit. It all happened in the jag of fractured seconds that awakened Were instinct within her core.

Species didn’t matter. He was male; she was female. Her body spilled its need for him, wetting her thighs, wetting his belly as he carried her, the scent straining his reason as he put her down hard on the small bed and blanketed her. Trembling, she couldn’t speak as he pulled back and stared at her, crouching above her. She studied the question in his eyes, then answered it, tearing away the remnants of his shirt, and then traced the ridges of his chest and his nipples, finally reaching around to gently touch where she had raked him, only to feel the wounds already beginning to heal.

A gentle nudge with the side of his jaw pushed her to lie back. Capturing her hands within his, he swept her knuckles with a passionate kiss and then stared at her hands in awe.

“So delicate and yet so dangerous,” he murmured, turning her palms over and kissing the centers of them.

She withdrew her hands from his, ashamed at how she’d accidentally hurt him, but her protest died under the press of his lips. Colors swirled behind her eyelids. His warmth erased all doubt as his fingers threaded through her hair and then found the edge of her dress. But pure shock made her eyes fly open the instant the fabric ripped.

His kiss deepened as her dress tore away from her body in a steady drone until it was halved. She watched him as he stared down at her, first drinking in her soul from her eyes and then giving himself permission to take in her nudity as though devouring her.

Yearning for his touch, she arched her body up to meet his but was rebuffed by a forceful kiss against her abdomen as he drew away.

“I’ll hurt you like this,” he murmured, and then shook his head.

Her palm cradled his cheek. “And I will heal..   Do what you must, but never let there be others.”

“How did.  ”

Amy placed a finger to Shogun’s lips. “I can see with my third eye. I may be a virgin, but I am not blind.   and whatever Lady Jung Suk left me when her spirit fled my body, it was not naïveté.” She allowed her gaze to linger on Shogun’s handsome face and then slowly rove down his sinewy physique. “And I should thank her for that,” Amy whispered.

Taking Shogun’s hands within hers, Amy placed them against her breasts and then dropped her head back with a breathy moan. The long-awaited sensation pebbled her arms with gooseflesh and made her reach for him, pulling at him, not sure how to stop the ache of passion within her.

An assault of textures set her skin on fire and she cried out as his full, smooth lips brushed over her tight nipples, then torso, followed by the trembling touch of his calloused hands. Everything he did deepened the ache and deepened the arch in her back. The dry heat of his touch gave way to the wet heat of his tongue as he laved her nipples, trailing kisses beneath the petite swell of her breasts, and across her belly. New beard shadowed his jaw and prickled her inner thighs, making her crave his mouth even more.

Her breaths had become ragged and her hands had become fists as his tongue sent spirals of pleasure through her until she dug the crown of her head into the pillows. Her voice was now a cross between female and feline, zigzagging between shrill cries of ecstasy and low, mewling purrs of profound release. No man had ever had access to her body like this, and certainly none of her self-pleasuring had produced climaxes as soul wrenching.

He’d opened her with his tongue, suckling her bud, French-kissing her swollen lips, now his finger played at the sensitive opening of her flower. It was too much to bear. She had to get away from him just to catch her breath.

In one lithe move, she slipped from his grasp, closed her legs, and balled herself up tightly at the top of the bed, panting. When she opened her eyes, his golden stare hunted her. He said nothing, just slowly wiped the slickness from his mouth with the back of his hand, breathing her in. It was such a sensual act that it sent a tremor of renewed heat through her. She watched his nostrils flare, watched the slow blink of his eyes, and then she quietly uncurled herself and moved onto her hands and knees before him.

“I wanted this to be different for you,” he said in a deep murmur, then closed his eyes and turned his face away. “Special.   not here but in a beautiful suite.   after a ceremony that would honor both you and your parents.”

“I am with you and that makes it special. I am yours alone, and that makes it beautiful. That you risked your life for me not long ago is the greatest honor you could have given me and my parents.”

She saw his breath hitch and something feral within her snapped. Seconds stretched as she lunged forward, pounced, and flipped him onto his back. It was his turn to have his throat in her jaws while she hurriedly ripped away the heavy fabric of his pants and spent buttons. He didn’t struggle, simply breathed, waiting for her to pull back and release his windpipe. She looked down at him, knowing half of his legs were still trapped by his pants. A single tear slid down his cheek. Her hand went over his heart and it felt like it was beating a path out of his chest. He bit his lower lip as he stared into her eyes. She understood agony. He’d just taught her the definition.

Straddling him slowly, she felt for his member, not taking her eyes away from his. Vein-corded heat filled her hand; his gasp as she touched him made her briefly close her eyes. By blind touch she studied the pattern of what would soon enter her. Each palm stroke along his wet, need-slicked length helped her memorize it, stopped his breath, and caused her opening to contract. Her fingers slid over the groove of the bulbous head, and she wondered how the two organs would fit, the disparity was so great, but desire won out.

Instinct told her she needed his girth to staunch the ache. Lowering herself down, she fit him against the entrance of her flower and then took a deep breath.

He quickly held her arms. “Not all at once,” he said, breathing hard. “You’ll tear and I’ll lose control like that..   There’s another way. You must let me guide you and move slowly.”

“You’ll lose control?” she murmured in a husky whisper.

He nodded, trying to shift her off him to change positions, but she shook her head and let him know just how strong she really was.

“Then lose control, Husband,” she said quietly, staring at him, and suddenly sat down hard to fully take him in.

His wail of pleasure drowned out her wail of pain. He arched hard as though an electric current had shot through his body, and she moved against him with frenzied purpose. In a hard roll they were on the floor. In seconds he’d kicked out of his pants and pulled her beneath him. Her hair was in his fist and his kiss swallowed her cries. Her punches against his sides and back to get him to stop thrusting slowly converted to a grasping hold as her legs anchored around his waist.

Pleasure melted away pain. The burning at her rim quieted as the deep ache within her canal ripened, then blossomed on her throaty moan. His hand slid beneath her waist and his angle shifted. Her eyes crossed beneath her lids as he found a sweet spot deep within her.

Tearing his mouth from hers, his head dropped back as she scored his chest. Her hands sought his hair, her mouth hungering for his, chasing the sensation, chasing the thunderous orgasm unfurling within them..   Then it roared to life on a spontaneous convulsion, one vertebra-cracking explosion that left them both a crumpled heap on the floor.

She couldn’t open her eyes as pleasure tore through her. The only thing that grounded her was wrapping her fists in his long, silken black hair.

“Are you all right?” he rasped, cradling her body away from the damp dungeon stones.

She simply nodded. “No other women. I am Were and I am your wife.”

“No other women,” he whispered, burying his wet face against her neck. “The ancestors have answered my prayers.”

Garth stopped at a stone door that was ajar, put a finger to his lips, and slipped beyond it. Sasha, Hunter, and Silver Hawk followed quickly, entering the dark cavern relying on night vision that the elderly Gnome apparently didn’t need. It was clear by the quickness of his steps that Garth knew every nook and crevice of the tunnel by heart. Things skittered; beetles and slimy things took cover at the invasion. But the group of three kept pace behind Garth until he cleared away a large stone by the wave of his wand and then moved back a hang of bramble with his arm.

“Does your human contraption work here, milady?” Garth asked, looking at Sasha. “We are outside the magic barriers. This section of the fortress is merely the craft of camouflage.”

“Contraption? You mean my cell phone?”

“Yes, that thing that allows you to talk to your human soldiers.”

Sasha pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Within seconds it began vibrating. She gave Hunter and Silver Hawk a glance, and then returned her focus to Garth.

“I’m assuming you know what this is all about?”

Garth nodded. “Our reinforcements are coming in from across the waters—riding Dragons. Your humans will be at risk if they try to fly their planes and use weapons against them. Our home allies ’ave combined their magic and come through the Fae Stonehenge portals. The human soldiers may not understand and it could cost them their lives; more important, it could tip off the Vampires.”

“Oh, shit!” Sasha looked at her BlackBerry. Colonel Madison had left a series of urgent messages that were blocked while she was inside the magic barriers of the castle. Walking in a circle, Sasha connected to the return call. He didn’t even wait to hear her voice.

“Trudeau, where the hell have you been?”

Sasha held the phone away from her ear. “Long story, sir, but your radar may show—”

“Something insane coming in hot over Lake Pontchartrain!”

“Aye, it would make sense that the Scots would lead by invoking the lake power of Loch Ness,” Garth said, quietly conferring with Silver Hawk.

“What? Who are you talking to?” Colonel Madison yelled.

“Friendlies who are aware of the situation, sir. I’m on my way.” Sasha looked at their pack shaman. “Silver Hawk, can you stay here at the sidhe with Garth while Hunter and I head to NAS? We need you both to try to make contact with the Dragon squads to ask for tolerance while we negotiate with the Air Force to try to get them to stand down.”

She and Hunter didn’t wait for the old men to nod. They were in and out of a shadow, and in the war room with Colonel Madison, stepping out of a darkened corner so quickly that they almost got shot.

“Jesus H. Christ, Trudeau—I still can’t get used to seeing you two do that.” Colonel Madison motioned for the men in the room to stand down.

“The radar is going nuts, sir,” a radar engineer said as Sasha neared his screens. “I think these guys are jamming. I set up one-minute tells and initially there was just a huge blob of fast-moving activity, then it looked like it exploded into all these smaller blips headed for New Orleans.”

“We’ve scrambled jets—”

“No, no, no,” Sasha said quickly. “Call them back!”

“That blob,” Hunter said, pointing to the screen, “is where a full European Dragon-rider Fae strike force is coming in from Scotland, England, probably the Netherlands, Ireland, wherever the Seelie strongholds are.”

“The Joint Chiefs will need an explanation.” Colonel Madison’s attention ricocheted between Sasha, Hunter, and the radar screens. “I’m in command of the Paranormal Containment Unit, but the commander of NAS is responsible for anything unauthorized coming into our airspace.”

“Then get that commander on the phone and tell him that not only will his men be in peril if they don’t stand down, but it’s also likely that a couple of billion dollars of aviation equipment could get fried out of the sky if they don’t heed your advice.” Sasha turned back to the screen, watching fighter jets close in on the scattered targets.

“Get me Commander Davis on the line,” Colonel Madison barked to his men. As soon as the line connected, he wasted no time with formalities, filling in his Air Force colleague quickly.

“We had to scramble F-16s, Madison, until we had a confirm that this was supernatural and not a foreign hostile,” Commander Davis argued. “But Dragons, are you shittin’ me?”

“Roger that. Get your men out of the air.”

“But if Dragons are headed toward New Orleans, our job is to protect the U.S. from any—”

“Get your men out of the sky, man!” Colonel Madison yelled, and then put Commander Davis on speakerphone.

“Tell your men to open a channel,” Sasha said, walking around the table. “By now they ought to have a visual. They are gonna be freaked out and will need you to talk them down and give the order to come back to base.”

“Who’s speaking?”

“Captain Sasha Trudeau,” Sasha said, without thinking, and then amended her title. “Recently retired, and on retainer with the PCU under Colonel Madison—special project of the POTUS and the Joint Chiefs.”

The room was silent as a disgruntled noise filtered through the speakerphone.

“Open a channel,” Commander Davis finally said to his men. “I want them to rendezvous back to base. Tell them to fall back.”

But as soon as the channel opened, the frenzied voices of men in the air filled the speaker:

“There’s fire everywhere! I’ve never seen anything like it, sir!”

“Something’s got my plane from beneath! I’m in a hard roll and can’t shake it, can’t eject—there’s something on top of my bird, sir. I’m going down!”

“I’ve got a visual, but I can’t fucking believe what I’m seeing, sir!”

“Tell them not to fire! Pull back!” Sasha shouted. “Tell them to stop pursuit!”

Sasha and Hunter stared at the screens. The fighter jets were inside what looked like an asteroid belt of fast-moving screen blips.

Gun reports from aircraft-mounted machine guns and explosions filled the speaker as men’s screams made Sasha close her eyes.

“Call them back,” she said firmly, and then leaned into the speaker. “This is not our war, call those men back.”

“What do you mean, this isn’t our war!” Commander Davis shouted. “I’ve just lost two pilots and—”

“Then save ten more and call them back!” Colonel Madison yelled. “If it is paranormal, and it is, I have the authority!”

“Fall back,” Colonel Davis grudgingly said after a moment. “Head back to base.”

No one spoke as they listened to the retreat. Sasha prayed that it wouldn’t be too late. Once a Dragon squadron sensed an attack, they’d go after the offenders until the last Dragon was in the air. But the eerie quiet and then hearing the base protocols to land planes finally made her release her breath. Obviously the Dragons had bigger fish to fry.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Hunter said to Sasha, and then looked at Colonel Madison.

Colonel Madison kicked over an empty chair. “A damned waste. It didn’t have to happen.” He turned toward the speaker and yelled, “It didn’t have to happen!”