Reaching for My Angel [The Royal Wolves 5] (Siren Publishing Allure) (5 page)

His heart clenched at her words and the feeling of the hot wetness on his neck. “I love you, too, Evangeline,” he whispered back gently. Stroking her hair lightly he kissed her cheek and looked around. Seeing the couch he moved toward it slowly and sat down carefully so she was draped over his lap. Rubbing her back he rocked her gently. “Don’t cry, love, please,” he whispered softly, her tears cutting through him.

She nodded and rubbed herself closer to him. “I can’t believe you’re here and not laughing at me,” she whispered finally when she was able to find a voice. “And you gave the words back to me. You love me for who I am and not what I may or may not have.” It was a blessing, it was heaven. “I want to bottle up this moment and keep it forever, Benedek, I want these moments for the rest of our lives together.”

“Honey,” he breathed, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her close. She had been hurt, bad, and those words in that moment told him that clearer than any others she could have given him. “You have my love for all time. Wolves mate for life, Evangeline. You have had my heart from the moment I saw you in our dream. This is just the beginning for us, I promise.” Pressing a kiss to her shoulder, he squeezed her gently.

She nodded and finally worked up the courage to pull up and look at him. Her hands cupped his cheeks as she looked into his eyes. “It is a beginning.” She licked her lips and grinned. “I know they mate for life. I have a couple of friends who are mates and the way he looks at her, and she him.” She traced her fingers over his lips and then his eyes. “It’s that look you are giving me now. I am a blessed woman, Benedek.” And she was. She had never felt particularly blessed, but now she knew, now she knew she was. It was more than the look though it was the feeling that the look gave her. It was knowing that she was the singular most important being in the world. She was blessed, she was loved, and that was all conveyed in that one single look.

Smiling at her he caught her hand and kissed her fingertips one at a time. “I’m the lucky one,” he told her softly. “I have my mate. I’m truly blessed to have you,” he said rubbing his thumb over her palm. Leaning in he kissed her softly. “As much as I want to stay right here with you, I think we might be more comfortable if we go and lay down.”

“Right.” She felt his cock still locked deep inside of her pussy and grinned. “You will have to carry me. I’m the last door at the end of the hall on the right.” She would later ask him about that. Her friends had told her a lot, but not this and not how long they would be connected as they were. Secretly she hoped for forever.

Sliding to the edge of her sofa, he stood up slowly and headed for her bedroom. “I don’t mind carrying you, not at all,” he told her with a smile. Kissing her cheek he pushed open her door and stepped in, shutting it behind him. He didn’t bother with the lights. With the little bit of light filtering in off the street, he didn’t need further lights. Sitting on her bed he moved back a little and then lay down with her. Letting out a sigh he rubbed her back as he pulled up the blankets.

She nuzzled close against him as she felt her comforter and sheets pulling up and settling over her back. “I could get used to this.” She had always wanted to be able to have this closeness, not just of body but heart and soul as well. She knew that their bodies, their hearts, their souls would always be as one.

“You’d better,” he told her with a chuckle. “I intend to do this a lot.” Kissing her cheek softly he nuzzled her flesh gently before nipping at her carefully and lightly. “You know,” he said long moments later, his fingers lazily drawing random designs on her skin. “You can ask me questions, honey. You probably have a few hundred rampaging through your mind so while we lay here, you should start asking a few.”

“How long will we be connected like this?” Her cheek was on his chest, eyes closed as she asked her questions. “Will you always get bigger when you come? Why didn’t you put a mark on me like Cindy Lou has?” She yawned slightly and buried in closer to him. “How long is the forever we have before us?”

Smiling he stroked her spine gently. “Until I start to relax and loosen up, it can last anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. Yes I’ll always get bigger when I come, it’s part of being a wolf. We enlarge upon coming so that our mates can’t push us out while we fill them with our seed. As to the mark.” He shifted slightly so he could see her face. “When I mark you as my mate it will be from behind that I take you, in the submissive position. And forever can be either your lifetime or if you want to be changed, however long we live as wolves.”

“I don’t think that my lifetime will be enough,” she admitted quietly. “I want whatever lifetime you have for me. I never want to give this, us, up.” She had just met him, but she loved him with all she had. She knew the reason she loved him so much so quickly was because of having such hurt and hate in her first marriage. “For now though, I’m exhausted. Ben, can I nap?” Once more her head lay on his chest. She hugged him tightly again and let out a sigh of a breath.

“Of course you can, honey,” he said, stroking her hair as he watched her with a gentle smile. “Close your eyes, baby, and just relax. I’ll be right here with you the whole time.” And in the dream with her, too. “Sleep, Evangeline. No one’s ever going to hurt you again, baby.”

“At least until he finds me,” she whispered sleepily. “He will try because he wants what I have.” She had her eyes closed and was drifting more in sleep than not. “He will be pissed to learn I won the last lotto. Beyond pissed, really.” She had held off on telling Ben about the lotto winnings for fear that he would want her for more than just her being her, but in the end she mentioned it because it was a part of who she was right now. She knew that Ben would care for her no matter if she had a million dollars, or owed a million dollars. It was all about them being together.

“Your ex, love?” he asked her softly not wanting her to wake too much and think too long on her answers. He just wanted her to let it out, a little at a time and give him some answers, too. “I won’t let him hurt you, Angel. You’re my mate and under my protection.”

“I was married before. I finally got free of him when he nearly killed me on Knight’s lot.” She yawned again and sighed. “It’s nice to be able to know I am safe. That is something that is rare and something that I couldn’t pay for.”

Hugging her tighter he repressed the low growl he felt building, he and the Wolf in sync on the fact that her ex had to die, painfully. “You are always safe with me, Evangeline,” he murmured, kissing her hair lightly. “No one will ever hurt you again.” He’d make sure of that permanently.

She was asleep so she didn’t hear his whispered promise, but it was as if her soul heard it because she let out a sigh of contentment and happiness as she settled deeper into sleep, hoping she would once more see him in her dreams.

Holding her until she was sound asleep, Benedek rolled them to their sides, hitching her one leg up high over his hip and tucking them both in again. Kissing her cheek he buried his face in her neck and slid into sleep to join her in the dream.

Chapter 2

Waking, he looked around at the darkness and frowned, bringing out light and spring air. Turning he smiled as he saw the home where he’d been born on the hill and Evangeline moving toward him. “Hello, my love,” he said softly as he took her hand.

Turning, she looked up at him and smiled, squeezing his hand lightly. “This is beautiful, Benedek. This has to be your dream because I have never been anywhere like this before.” It was magical. The place was wild and had an air of intensity to it, but it was perfect, delicious, and looked like home.

“It is my dream,” he told her pointing toward the Palace on the hill. “That’s where I grew up.” He paused his hand falling. “For a time anyway,” he murmured his tone turning sad. “I don’t even know if it still stands or if they destroyed it after it all went down.”

“Oh wow.” She leaned back against him and then looked up. “You should come back home, come back and at least see if it is still standing, honey. No one should wonder if their family home still stands or not.” She knew that hers didn’t. It had been wiped out in a freak of a flood several years ago.

“I wish I could but if any of my family re-enters this country we’re to be seized and imprisoned until the death warrant can be fulfilled,” he said softly staring up at the pale gray stones. “Doesn’t matter really,” he told her with a shrug. “Home is where your family is. And I have that here, in this country with my brothers and now.” He smiled down at her. “And now with you, Evangeline.”

Evan grinned up at him and nodded. “I’m sorry for all that you have lost, Ben, and please don’t think me horrible for my next statement.” She wet her lips and hugged him close. “I’m glad you had to leave your home, not with how you had to leave but that you did. Because if you hadn’t, we wouldn’t have met.”

“It’s not horrible to say what you mean and what’s in your heart,” he told her hugging her back. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head he let out a sigh. “I’d have been very upset to have missed finding you, honey. It’s better this way. We have each other and that’s all that really matters to me.”

“I would have been pretty upset about that, too.” She hugged him close and breathed out a sigh. “Would you like to walk the halls of your childhood home? If only in memories to show me?” she asked softly. She wanted to know about his past, about his childhood. She wanted to learn about his parents from him and what better way than through the shared dreams?

“I’d like to show you the Palace, I think you’ll like it,” he said with a smile. Taking her hand he led her across the fields to the main entrance. Guiding her into the empty Palace, he led her through the halls pointing out this or that as he walked slowly. Reaching his childhood room he pushed the door open. “And this is where I slept and played pretty much for my whole childhood.” What he didn’t say was that once they left here, his childhood ended and adulthood was thrust upon him harshly.

She looked at the room and grinned, touching this and that she paused before a painting of a beautiful woman standing with her hand on a small boy’s shoulder. She touched it gently, reverently. “Your mother?” She simply knew that was who the woman with the laughter in her eyes was. “She was beautiful, Benedek,” she whispered and turned to him. “There is so much love in her eyes, in the lines of her face and yours.”

Staring up at the portrait he nodded slowly reaching up to touch his mother’s face. “She had one commissioned for each of us, something that we could do with her to have time just for ourselves,” he murmured. “She was a marvelous woman, strong and yet so very gentle. She had a smile that could make anyone feel better and her laugh.” He smiled slightly. “Her laugh was crystal clear and pure, no one that heard it could be truly sad.”

“I want this kind of love,” she said and grinned when he simply looked at her as if asking why and what. “You can tell that she is looking off to your father. I don’t know why but I can just tell that she is looking for him, and it makes me smile. I want this with you.”

Smiling he nodded and pulled her into his arms to hug her tightly to him, needing the comfort of her touch. As it always was for him, remembering his mother hurt even as it warmed and comforted him. They had all lost her so early in life that they’d missed out on too much. “We can have anything if we truly love each other and believe in one another always.”

“I love you, Ben, and I believe in you. I never had much to believe in but you, you I believe in and I have only just met you.” She smiled for him and hugged him back, offering Ben all of her love and affection to help ease his still too raw hurts and pains.

“Thank you, honey,” he murmured closing his eyes as he held her to him letting her touch soothe everything that hurt within him. “That means so much to me to hear you trust and believe in me, Evangeline. I know how hard it must be for you to even say the words let alone mean them,” he whispered softly pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“It is hard for me to give that trust, but it comes so easily to trust you. When we dream, I feel your very soul, Benedek, and no one could ever mask the complete depth of that particular part of yourself. Yours is good, Benedek, so very good that I’m honored that I have been chosen to be yours. It stuns me, but I refuse to raise question for fear that Fate will realize their mistake and give you another.”

Holding her tighter he shook his head. “Not going to happen. You are mine, for now and all the time we will have in this world until we move on to the next. No one is going to take you from me, Evangeline, no one would dare,” he finished with a small growl.

She winced and coughed. “Too tight.” She breathed and patted his shoulders. “Too tight, Benedek.” She was all smiles when he sheepishly pulled back and looked like a flame had taken permanent residence on his face. “It’s all right, honey, no harm done at all.” She loved that he wanted to hold her so close and tightly.

“Sorry,” he said softly as he rubbed his hands up and down her back. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he whispered softly as he stroked her face gently. He really hadn’t meant to and he’d promised he never would and yet he’d just broken that promise to her. Stepping back he stuck his hands in his pockets. “Come on, there’s still lots to see,” he told her quietly.

She moved to him and made him stop, made him look at her. “Stop, Ben, you didn’t hurt me. You squeezed a little too hard but it was nothing painful at all so you haven’t broken your promise to me. It’s still there and still in effect.”