MASON
I almost collapsed against the wall. “No.” I gave my head a shake, hoping to get the betrayal out of my skin. It was a poison. My own family? “Why would he do that? Why would she let him?”
Cassius stood to his full height. “When one makes a deal with an angel… when one sells his soul… blood must be spilled. A life for a life. When Bannick saved you, fused your blood with Serenity, he bonded your lives together. Together you’d have strength beyond your wildest imaginations. Apart, you would always thirst, always yearn for more. You would experience an emptiness in your soul.” Cassius nodded. “I finally understand. I can finally see.” His eyes were white as he looked to Mason and whispered, “You must fight.”
He disappeared in a flash of light, much the same way he came.
Tarick’s mouth dropped open. “He always do that?”
“Unfortunately.” I licked my lips and tried to think. “Tarick, how many of the men are loyal to me?”
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.
I’d thought it was all evidence of what I was no longer worthy of.
But she made it worth it. Made me feel like I had the strength.
There was no insecurity in her arms, and when she pressed me against the wall with her lithe body, there was no doubt in my mind, no fear that I would hurt her or that she would call me heavy.
Or a brute.
No, if anything, my mate wanted me hard against her; she wanted her nails scraping down my back as I licked pleasure through her skin, as I laved up the taste of her skin and spread it across my tongue.
My eyes rolled back when she gripped me in her hand, her touch firm, then soft.
I grabbed her wrist and tugged her into my arms, turning her back against the same dirt wall, and we joined together. As we mated in the very castle where years ago I’d been born.
The dirt around us began to shake.
I clung to her body as we broke apart.
Tiny diamond-like pieces of dirt began to break away from the walls. It twirled in the air and then surrounded us in a circle of light and dark.
Warmth spread through my chest as her eyes flashed green like the grass, blue like the sky, then brown like the earth surrounding us.
The very dirt around us reflected in her eyes with wonder.
A music so old, so beautiful filled the room, and she kissed me again.
The pounding on the door didn’t stop us.
The yells only encouraged me to keep claiming her.
And when I could no longer stand the pulsing need clawing at me, ripping me from the inside out, I took her one more time and marked her as mine with one last bite to her neck.
She cried out, while I felt my body surge with power.
And then the dirt fell around us, creating more of a mess than I’d seen in years of being in my room.
“What was that?” Her chest heaved as I dropped her back to her feet.
“The earth approves,” I whispered, kissing her gruffly across the mouth again before stalking naked toward the door.
I jerked it open and eyed my brother, ready to wipe the smirk right off his face.
“So…” He bit down on his lip like he was having trouble not laughing out loud. “…you must be quite the lover if you create earthquakes with your giant co—”
“Enough.” I cut him off, knowing exactly what he’d been about to say.
He took a step back, “Dinner’s ready. I’m sure after that you’re… ravenous.”
I growled.
“Remember to wear pants, brother. Father is niver forgiving.”
I rolled my eyes and slammed the door in his face then turned to see Serenity’s hair. She looked thoroughly loved.
“Is dinner formal?”
She started digging through her bags, her naked ass begging me to grab, to claim again and again until I needed rest, until my eyes closed on themselves as I pulsed inside her body.
“Mason?”
I gulped guiltily. “Yes?”
“Stop staring at me and help!” she said frantically. “I don’t think I made the best first impression I want to look nice.”
“You always look nice,” I said truthfully. “And wear the red.”
“The red dress?”
“He hates red.”
“Then I should wear black.”
“Nae…” I smiled. “…red is a symbol of power. Wolves aren’t allowed to wear it. We are to be humble even in our ruling of the earth itself. But you’re no wolf. You’re more, and it’s about time he recognized the power you have.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I’m still part vampire—”
I swallowed her protest with a kiss. “That you are.” I nodded. “But your blood sings with the earth, I can feel it pulse beneath my fingertips, dancing, singing the song from the Earth to the Heavens. Give it some time, and maybe you’ll be singing to the moon as well.”
Tears filled her eyes as she grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “I would love that… my king.”
Desire so intense attacked me. I pushed her back against the bed, spreading her legs wide. “We can be late.”
“You just said—”
“I’m an idiot.” I growled, devouring her next protest. “And I will be king if only so I can be late to my own damn table…” I lowered my head. “…and feast on my mate instead.”