Wolf of Sight

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

“I spent hundreds of years trapped in the dark forest. I don’t think I’m boasting when I say most other men wouldn’t have survived it. It took all of my strength, cunning, and patience. I had to fight countless creatures that would have torn lesser beings to pieces. After all, they don’t call it the dark forest for nothing. Who would have thought a creature outside of the dark forest would end up slaying me? And who would’ve guessed it’d be my own mate?” ~Lucian

Peri and Lucian sat alone in their bedroom. Well, Lucian sat while Peri paced and muttered to herself.

“How can I help you, my love?” he asked, sending visions of himself covering her with kisses through their bond. Propping himself up on his elbow in the center of the bed, he patted the space in front of him with a seductive smile.

“You can stop trying to distract me, for a start,” she replied as she turned from the alluring sight of her mate. She knew it was unfair to take her irritation out on Lucian, but unfortunately for him, he was the only person in her immediate vicinity and a myriad of problems weighed heavily on her mind.

“I’m not trying to distract you. I’m simply showing you what I’d like to do to you. If that somehow distracts you, well, that’s on you. I can’t be held responsible for everything that distracts you.”

His deep voice climbed up her spine like a living thing, burning every nerve ending with the very thing she couldn’t abide. Distraction.

“I’ll hold you responsible for the lives of those five girls if you don’t quit.” Narrowing her eyes at him, she pointed toward the door as if the five girls were pressing their ears against the wood to listen in.

“That’s a bit harsh,” he replied.

A taste of hurt leaked through their bond, and Peri stopped pacing. For a brief moment, she thought about telling him how harsh she could be, but then realized with a sigh how unfair she was being to her mate. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just so frustrated. I was tasked with keeping these healers safe and I muffed it from the start. It seems like Volcan is always one step ahead of us. He’s put our Jewel in an impossible situation and dragged Anna along with her.”

“As always, beloved, you focus on the wrong things.” Lucian’s voice was deep, rich, and maddeningly calm. He sat up from his prone position.

Peri pinched the bridge of her nose. “Meaning?”

“Like the fact you saved three healers from his clutches. Imagine what would’ve happened if your sister had gotten to them before we did.”

Lorelle’s face appeared in her mind, a bedraggled zombie rising from the dead with the desire to feast on Peri’s flesh. It shouldn’t have brought Peri comfort when Dalton ripped her sister’s head from her body, but having one less enemy to worry about certainly lightened the load. “Ugh, don’t mention that gutter-tramp to me.”

“That’s your own flesh and blood, Peri.” Lucian’s cautious chiding didn’t comfort her. Instead, it stoked the anger that hovered just below the surface of her mind. Peri’s hands formed into fists.

“No,” she pointed at him, “she stopped being my sister when she chose to betray the council and serve Volcan. She got what was coming to her.” Peri pictured Lorelle’s head rolling on the ground in a tangle of dull blonde hair.

“Guard your heart, Perizada.” Low and gentle, her mate broke the memory’s hold on her. Lucian’s eyes glowed with his wolf, visible protection for an invisible enemy.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped.

Lucian rose from the bed with feline grace and placed his hands on her waist. The wolf continued to make his presence known, but he didn’t take the man’s voice yet. “It means you’ve fought the darkness for far too long.”

“And?”

“And I worry about you,” he pressed his forehead against hers and breathed in deeply of her scent. The simple press of skin-on-skin comforted her soul just as much as it did him. “I wonder how much the great Perizada can take before she, too, loses her way.”

“You think I’d turn evil?” Perizada whispered. Lucian’s admiration of her mind and heart poured through the bond as he squeezed her closer. As he nuzzled her neck, his awe at her strength filled up the corners where her quiet doubts lived. Pulling back, she looked into his silver eyes.

“Not at all,” he stroked her jaw. “But you might become too hardened against the evil you’re fighting to recognize the goodness in front of you.” He thought so highly of her, but still didn’t rely on the strength he was attracted to? With a scoff, she pulled out of his arms. He sighed and released her.

“It’s a chance I’m willing to take,” she said with a flex of power flowing through her veins. “But don’t worry. I’ve bested Volcan before. Have you forgotten I’m the one who imprisoned him in the dark forest?” Smirking at her man, her confidence died on her lips at the look in his eyes.

Lucian grunted. “How could I? You trapped me in there, too, in case you’ve forgotten.”

Unnatural darkness filtered through the bond. Taking a liberty she wouldn’t normally take, she peeked to into his mind. Black trees rose from scorched earth like claws digging from their graves. The heavy weight of unrest crept through the landscape, a mist of unnamed fear. Something rustled the dead brittle branches to her right. Peri closed her eyes and forced away the vision of the dark forest. It took several minutes for her breathing to return to normal.

“A mistake I will eternally regret, Lucian. You have every right to hate me for it.”

Running a hand through his hair, he leaned into the touch, forcing her nails to scratch his scalp. She poured love through the bond.

“I could never hate my beloved. You had no way of knowing what you were doing. If I held any bitterness, I’d have mentioned it long ago. I’m just saying it’s different this time. Volcan has had more time to prepare. He’s laid traps. Set up surprises. Forced you into a corner. Again and again, Peri, you’ve been called upon to sacrifice yourself to save your friends. That kind of thing wears on a person. I don’t want you to fall into one of Volcan’s traps because you’re too exhausted to see it coming.”

Comfort and strength lightened the burden on her mind, but no amount of Lucian’s love could take away the doom looming over them. Pushing away from him, she hardened herself against him and closed down the bond. He could still feel her in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t influence her emotions. Lucian growled but didn’t follow her as she resumed pacing.

“Well, who else will do it? Who else can do it?”

“That decision may have been taken out of your hands. It appears that Volcan’s going to require our gypsy healers pay the price this time.”

His words were a slap to the face. “And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them pay it,” she replied.

“Which brings me to the elephant in the room.”

Peri was surprised Lucian’s wolf wasn’t speaking in guttural tones with how affected the man was. They were unified in their thoughts, the wolf willing for the man to maintain his interrogation of her. It spoke of Lucian’s strength, maturity, and power. If she wasn’t so annoyed by his words, she’d be proud.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the fact that you told everyone you were going to sacrifice yourself for Jewel.”

“And?” She raised her eyebrows. Lucian rarely showed any frustration with her, but when he did, his reasoning was fair. He wasn’t one to complain without cause, so Peri made sure she gave him all of her attention.

“And don’t you think that’s something you should have discussed with me before you made the declaration? After all, we’re bonded. It’s not just your life you are sacrificing.”

Peri interlaced their fingers and sighed. “I didn’t think I had to discuss it with you. I know you, Lucian, and I know you’d lay down your life for any one of those girls, especially Jewel, after what she’s been through.”

“That may be, but we are a team, Perizada. Even after all this time, you still refuse to allow my help.”

A sting of separation echoed in the bond. Everything a wolf was, and designed to be, was unified. The function of the man and his wolf, the wolf and the pack, and the wolf and his mate, was meant for unification. Loyalty and dependence upon a pack were encoded onto the spirit of the Canis Lupus. The fae weren’t made like that.

Peri sighed. “I know. I know. But thousands of years of independence don’t magically disappear overnight. Cut me some slack.”

“I can do that,” he said, “if you promise you’ll try to at least remember to consult me on decisions before you make them, especially when they involve the word sacrifice.”

While the fae weren’t created to be co-dependent, she could bend for her mate.

“I’m consulting with you now,” she said. “What do you think we should do?”

“Before or after we play out that little vision I sent you earlier?” he asked.

With the trace of betrayal gone, desire flooded their mate bond, causing her skin to flush.

“Don’t change the subject. As a matter of fact,”—she pulled away from him and stuck her chin up in the air—“I don’t think you should be touching me at all.”

“Perizada.” He growled. “What are you talking about?”

She shouldn’t push his buttons. Really. She shouldn’t. But if she could hold back, she wouldn’t be the woman he fell in love with, right?

“Well,” she said, “the healers and their mates can’t perform the Blood Rites, otherwise the sacrifice will kill them both. And I’ve forbidden them to touch so they all remain pure so the spell to save them will have a chance at success. And Dalton and Jewel can’t touch each other anyway or the darkness inside him grows.”

“Your point?” He hissed in a completely un-Lucian way as his head tilted in a wolf-like manner.

Keeping her face as serious as she could, she shrugged one shoulder. “You’ve heard of leading by example, Lucian. It’s only right that if the wolves can’t touch their mates, then their fearless leader should abstain as well.”

“You’re joking.”

There was nothing sexier than her mate with glowing eyes looking like he wanted to teach her a physical lesson. He was mouthwatering when he was calm, but he was pure temptation when he was so close to the edge of sanity, and the epitome of passion when he went over the edge.

One more push ought to do it.

“I’m not joking.” She raised her chin even higher and turned away. “It would be a nice show of solidarity from you. Restraint will be good for me, too. Like I said before, I don’t need any distractions right now.”

“Peri, you know me as a patient man …” His breath was on the back of her throat, sending her heart racing.

“The most patient, which is why you shouldn’t have a problem fighting off your carnal desires for a while, at least until this all blows over.”

The breath on her neck was gone.

“So, you want me to keep my carnal thoughts to myself?” he said from a distance. “And keep them from flowing to you through our bond?”

Turning, she found him across the room. Keeping the distance as she’d asked. Peri frowned. “Yes.” She breathed.

The curve of his lips told her she was the bunny to this wolf, the prey to the predator. Her muscles tightened in anticipation.

“And if I begin thinking about running my fingers through your silky, white hair, then I should just keep that thought to myself?”

She thought about his large hands and the strands of her hair entwined between them. A semblance of the experience grazed through her white hair. “My hair is silky, isn’t it?”

“The silkiest,” he said before sending her an image of himself running a brush through her locks as they sat together in front of a fireplace, her naked skin glowing under the warm flames.

Her own moan broke through the evoked romantic atmosphere, snapping her out of the image. “Definitely keep such thoughts to yourself,” she snapped.

“And if I begin to imagine myself slowly placing my lips on your ruby red ones, I shouldn’t share that either?”

A ghost of his lips rubbed over hers. His breath mingled with hers. Snapping her eyes to his, he still stood on the other side of the room looking too innocent for her liking.

“Nope,” she said flatly.

He sent her an image of them sitting on a blanket under a starlit sky, their lips a fraction of an inch apart.

“Stop it,” she said. “I know what you are trying to do.” His silver eyes swam in her mind’s eye, staring deep into her own as she imagined him putting his lips on hers. The pressure of his soft mouth had her trembling.