Chapter Twenty-Six
Sonya
Ty’s warm, hard chest shuddering with ragged breaths felt amazing but didn’t make sense. A second ago I had been fighting James. My eyes flew open and I drew back from him. Cool rain poured down as if someone in the dark skies above were dumping a bucket on me. The metallic scent of electricity hung heavy in the air, as did the pressure of lightning. A residual buzz pumped through my entire body.
“Did we get hit by lightning again?” I asked Ty.
His red-rimmed eyes gazed down at me with so much emotion that they took my breath away. Rain had plastered his short blond hair to his forehead and molded his shirt to him. It seemed wrong that I could find him so completely hot in a moment like this, but I did.
“Yes, you did, but you are okay now,” he said as he moved a wet lock of my hair from my cheek.
“Where are James and the others?” I looked around.
We stood on a massive metal structure—a bridge I think—with the woman who had been held captive with me. My wolf vision made out that the bridge spanned a deep hollow. Hundreds of shining animal eyes stared up at us from all over that hollow. Wolf eyes.
“They are gone. We had to bring you here to heal you, they got away, but do not worry about them, we will get them,” Ty said.
I turned to the small blond woman. She looked like a different person, a hardened one filled with acceptance. For a second I almost thought it wasn’t her. Then I felt the connection between us like an invisible cable. It was definitely her. But how had she transformed so fast? Myself, I was still trying to grasp exactly what had happened. My mouth worked with a dozen different ideas of things to say and ask, but none of them felt right. I settled on, “I’m so sorry my touch awoke something in you that you didn’t want.”
A slight smile came to her as she looked at the sky. “Don’t be. I was wrong. This is Odin’s will.” She stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You fought honorably and well. You’ll make a fine leitar.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure I know what that means.”
“It means you are the one who seeks out the newly bitten and tries to help them come to terms with what they are so they can control their wolf,” she explained.
It explained why I had been drawn to Candice and that boy in the park. “But I awakened something in you. Doesn’t that mean you’re the leitar?” I had a bad feeling I knew the answer, but I was praying I was wrong.
Her face became unreadable. “No. I’m the uppskera, the one who slays them if they fail to control their wolves or lose their mind.”
Suddenly my calling didn’t seem so bad. There were no words that could make up for turning her into that. Hell, I wasn’t sure there were any actions that could. My problems with Raul melted away, ceased to matter. All I could do was stare at her. After a while, Ty came around and stood between us, taking my face in his hands.
Through the blur of tears and rain I saw acceptance…and something else. Seeing him so vulnerable forced me to do something to lighten things. Taking his hands, I leaned into him. “Thanks for coming for me, even if I didn’t need rescuing.”
A low sound vibrated through his chest and up into his throat, more of a purr than a growl really. “I will always come for you.” The double meaning of his words wasn’t lost on me, not at all considering that sultry tone.
Despite the desire thickening his voice, he kissed my forehead and simply leaned against me for a moment.
“The packs will try to use you. You and Ayra are the most powerful varúlfur in over three hundred years. I am sorry. This is incredibly unfair to you. To be twice turned, not just once into a varúlfur but also into the leitar,” he said.
I looked up at him, searching his eyes. “It doesn’t sound so bad. At least, not my part of it. Listen, Ty, I know how hard it is for you to be here, and now this. You don’t have to be a part of this because of me.”
His eyes turned dark and serious. “Sonya, there is not anything in any of the nine worlds that could keep me away from you, so long as you want me by your side. But be careful how you respond.” His eyes flicked out to the hollow and his head inclined in that direction. “Those gathered can hear us. If you want to be with me, it will mean being mated to me, a bond stronger than marriage to them. If you are not ready for that, that is all right. I can wait.”
The warm flush that spread through me turned my lips up into a smile. I stood a bit taller and lifted my head. “I want to be with you, Ty Viðrrson, now and always. If you want to be with me, that is,” I announced loud enough for even those gathered an acre away to hear clearly, which really wasn’t that loud considering their heightened sense of hearing.
Those gorgeous blue eyes pulled me in closer. I rested my hands on his chest. The look in them. I knew what it was now—love.
“It is the only job I want, and you are the only person I will ever want.” He pulled me into his arms, leaned over, and kissed me long and sweet.
It felt like he was claiming me right there in front of everyone, and I loved it. Tongue pushing through his lips, I turned the kiss into something far more intimate, making it clear he wasn’t the only one laying claim. Yips and howls carried up from the hollow below. Some sounded celebratory, some mournful, others angry. I pulled back from the kiss.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said.
He put an arm around me, resting his hand on the small of my back as we walked. Ayra fell into step beside us. I couldn’t get off that bridge and leave those other people behind fast enough. Once we were on the ground and had scaled down the cliffside wolves poured in around us, tongues licking at our hands, noses touching our arms. Not one for physical contact, I had to force myself not to flinch or draw away. A few in human form whispered words of praise and awe. They called us Valkyries, heralds of a new age, some even whispered the word messiah. None of those titles felt right. I was only an out of work bartender-turned-varúlfur who had no family to miss her.
With Ty on one side and Ayra on the other, I realized that wasn’t true, not anymore at least. I had Ty, and maybe even Ayra. And messed up as it was having a reaper for a friend and a werewolf for a boyfriend, it felt right. Finally, I had found who I belonged with and what I was meant to be.