I swallowed hard. She didn’t scare me in the sense that I knew I could outrun her—not how I usually felt with a wolf. But I was beginning to see why the servants had all been so nervous. She was the kind of person who looked at you, and it felt like she could see through your clothes and read your thoughts.
And she wasn’t impressed by anything she found in either place.
“Thank you for seeing me—” I started, trying to be polite. But she growled.
“Girl, you sent for me as if I am a common wolf, submitted to your will. Even the King—your mate—does not do that.”
~ JESSE ~ The guard made a little whine in his throat, his eyes darting back and forth between us like he was uncertain who to listen to. But Maya ignored him. Her brows rose so high her forehead wrinkled even more. “So our Queen does have fangs.” I scowled, wishing I had a snappy comeback, but before I could come up with one, the older woman turned away from me and her expression softened. “You did well, Sven. Thank you. Return before the lunch hour. Our Queen will be ready to leave me by then, I’m certain,” she said with an amused huff. Sven—the guard—nodded and bo
~ JESSE ~“I can see that you grasp what true strength is,” Maya said carefully a moment later, but her face was still firm, still skeptical. “But knowledge and understanding are not the same thing.”“That’s why I need help. I know the pack functions in a hierarchy, but I don’t understand how it works. I know Cazz has been wounded and that’s why he lashes out, but I don’t understand why he chose me if I trigger that. I know wolves are having conversations in their minds all the time that I can’t hear, but I don’t understand how the packmind works… or if I can access it without that stupid drink.”Maya frowned. “All things your mate should have explained and helped you understand,” she grumbl
~ JESSE ~After getting a grasp on the bare skeleton of the hierarchy, there was the whole issue of the dominance challenge. I had thought a challenge was just a physical fight. One wolf fighting another for dominance based on strength. But I’d been wrong about that too.“A wolf’s sheer will can take dominance without so much as anyone snapping teeth,” Maya had sighed. “Your human way of seeing strength, of believing it is only brute force, is so narrow—”“No, we don’t see strength as only physical,” I had argued. “But I thought that wolves did. I thought this whole submission and dominance thing was won by fighting and whoever wi
~ JESSE ~ On the sixth day meeting with Maya, I returned to my chambers later than usual. Usually I left her before lunch, but we’d been making progress, so she’d had food brought to us there at her rooms. By the time I got back to the royal wing I was utterly exhausted, still slightly pissed at Maya, but also elated. She had insisted that we spend the entire morning working on my awareness of the packmind and ability to link. Then she had proceeded to spend hours poking at me, goading me, and venting her frustration when I didn’t make progress. At first I had despaired. It was the closest I had come to giving up since she started meeting with me. As if she knew that, she grew disdainful—and kept pressing. “Is this what you believe a Queen should be? Flinching and self-pitying? Or is it a ruse? I know there is strength within you. Do you pretend weakness to disarm an opponent? Is that how you work?” “Maya, you aren’t my opponent!” “Oh no? You fight the submission. You resist m
~ JESSE ~I gaped at him, my head screaming with protests. My chest roaring with anger. My whole body flinching with the unfairness of it all.“You’re saying it’s my fault that I’m not pregnant? You haven’t touched me in two weeks.”His eyes narrowed and the fierce disapproval on his face cut me like a blade, right through the middle. Those fucking tears rose without my permission, and my vision of him blurred.I cursed and turned my back on him, wiping at my face and biting my lip, trying desperately to get myself back under control, but pissed because I had thought I was getting stronger. I hadn’t cried more than a minute since
~ CASIMIR ~I stormed through the tunnels of the Palace, furious at her and furious at myself, and even more furious about that because I didn’t understand it.But one thing was becoming clear; I should never have claimed her. I should never have invoked the immutable bond. I should have known. I did know! But I’d been caught up, and the pack was descending and…“Fucking fuck!” I muttered. One of the servants passing me squeaked and cowered.I kept walking, muttering to myself, my mind closed like a steel trap so no one else could overhear it.She is my mate. She is a breeder.
~ JESSE ~The next morning I woke feeling pale. I didn’t even have to look in the mirror, I knew what I would find, because it felt like my entire body was… less there. And when I forced myself to get up, it felt as if at any step the floor might fall out from under my feet.I had barely slept, haunted by those images of Cazz, fierce and disapproving, despising me.I had to scramble to push away the chittering fear at that thought, the desperate hurt, and make myself move. Make myself dress and brush my teeth, and be human. But my eyes ached with tiredness. I didn’t want to eat.
~ CASIMIR ~“Where have you been?” I asked abruptly as the other wolves settled and stepped back to allow Jesse to greet me first as was our tradition. She was my mate. She had first right to my attentions. But she didn’t seem to realize it was an honor they bestowed upon her and she blinked nervously, glancing at them over her shoulder before turning back to me.“We were… playing hide and seek, I suppose. I’m learning to sense others. I was using a group link to find them.”My heart rose sharply—she was linking? I was stunned.“You can access the packmind without an aid?”She shrugged, but a hint of th
~ CASIMIR ~I was pretty sure if I didn’t get inside her, I was going to eat her alive.Scooting with her in my lap, still straddling me, I got her so both my knees and her back were flat against the wall. Then I flipped open the wide, leather cuffs that had been secured directly to the wall and first lifted one of her hands, to strap it in so her hand was levered above her shoulder, but with her arm comfortably bent so she could relax. Then I did the same with her other hand on the other side.So I straddled the banana-seat, while she straddled me and her hands were secured to the wall behind her.Her breasts rose and fell with her heavy breathing, and her eyes were bright with desire.Overwhelmed again with how much thought she’d put into this, for a moment I just took her face in my hands and kissed her. But that drew us together—my cock pressing against her, and I couldn’t resist rolling my hips, teasing
~ CASIMIR ~“I made a new Den,” Jesse whispered, her hands over her mouth, staring up at me—those beautiful eyes wide, but also a little fearful. “I know it’s not the same, but I got Ghere to help me because he remembered what things you’d had before and… I hope you like it.”Like it? Was she serious?My heart was slamming against my ribs, and I was having trouble breathing.The room seemed smaller than I remembered because the walls were painted a dull black. But the tighter space than what I’d had down next to the Den just made it feel more intimate.There were two lamps, one on each end, and a chandelier high above. Candles everywhere, though she hadn’t lit mo
~ JESSE ~It was Cazz’s turn to plan the monthly date. But I was humming about this one. Things were finally ready, and impossibly, Ghere had helped me successfully pull off the surprise. But I still had to figure out how to get Cazz there without ruining it.He’d taken me out to the meadow again—my favorite date. Though we’d enjoyed several others now too—and we’d just finished eating. He was leaning back against the cab of the truck, looking out at the city lights, his brows a little heavy.“What are you thinking about?” I asked him, though I had a hunch.He had his arm around me and I was leaning on his shoulder. His hand trailed up and
~ CASIMIR ~I came out of the bathing room after a long bath rubbing my hair with a towel, to find my mate standing in the middle of the chamber with her arms folded and looking sternly at my daughter, who sat on the floor in nothing but a diaper, with her chubby legs straight out. She, too, had her arms folded and her lips pursed in the perfect reflection of her mother.The two glared at each other and half my heart went cold, while the other half wanted to splutter with laughter.“Abigail, I have told you—”“No!”Our daughter could only get her tongue around a few words so far, but
~ JESSE (a few weeks later) ~I had just finished nursing Abigail and was holding her on my lap while Reeca sat with me on the couch.Her eyes were bright and she was beginning to smile, so I was tickling her cheeks to see if I could get her to do it. But she was sleepy because she’d just eaten and only yawned and cooed.“She’s a very calm baby,” Reeca commented from the other end of the couch, smiling. She loved babies, and had been so helpful when I was tired—and just for reassurance for me.She was a calm presence in any room, and with Abigail, she showed a lot of delight and joy that she seemed to stifle in other areas of her life.“Reeca,” I said carefully, because I’d b
~ JESSE ~I was too tired to do more than lift my hands to his neck, so I just curled my face into his chest and let him settle us into the chair, cradled in his arms with my ass in his lap.When he’d sat, I had my head resting on his shoulder and my body curled in his arms.“Do you hurt?” he asked quickly.“No, just tired, like I said.”I felt him relax a little then and another chill started in my blood.“Cazz… what’s happened?” I asked quietly.He turned his head to meet my eyes and lifted his hand to comb hair back from my face. His throat bobbed, but his touch was g
~ JESSE (Hours later) ~My dreams were disturbing—my body in pain, screams of terror, darkness, the floor shaking, the mountain falling, humans fleeing and wolves…I tried to break free, tried desperately to open my eyes and to speak, because I knew I was asleep. But all I did was fade… in and out. The nightmares, or nothing.And through it all, his voice.“Heal… live.”My heart ached. My body hurt. My chest didn’t want to expand. It was as if my flesh fought his words, and I didn’t understand.But finally, the dreams faded and I could hear a heartbeat. Little, and quick. And feel warm flesh. And the breath of my m
~ CASIMIR ~I felt the moment the power went out of Jesse. The entire mountain felt it.I howled with triumph and shifted, sprinting towards the room, ecstatic when there was no sense of Maya gripping my mind or stealing anything from me. But of course, there was no power left for her to steal.I prayed and pleaded and ran, Rory and the others coming in my wake. And the moment I broke through that door in my wolf—the only power left to me anymore—everything slowed. Though my body whipped and my mind was singularly focused, it was as if everything happened in slow motion.I caught a bare glimpse of Jesse on the bed, and at first my heart leaped. She was moving, awake, aware,
~ JESSE ~Maya had me sitting up in the bed, curled forward, gripping my knees. Reeca on one side, helping prop me up, a guard on the other.My body was nothing but a conduit for pain. Wave after wave, my entire lower body condensing, contracting, pushing to get this baby out. I could barely think.Cazz was there, so quiet, so distant, but there, calling his encouragement and pushing love at me through the bond.There was a moment when I thought I wouldn’t make it, when I thought my body would give and I would just drift away.But then I caught Maya smiling. Leaning forward between my legs, reaching, grasping, for