Vulfen Alpha's Mate (12 page)

“Ellie. Ellie, please wake.”

A beautiful voice disturbed her sleep.

Ellie mumbled a response and tried to pull the blanket up around her face. The blanket resisted.

“Ellie, please.”

The voice was starting to sound desperate. How long had it been calling her? She couldn’t have been sleeping very long, she still felt exhausted.

“Ellie, the Crowning Ceremony is in less than an hour. You must wake up.”

“No.”

The voice sighed.

The blanket disappeared, and she was lifted into a pair of strong arms. She snuggled her nose against a warm chest and inhaled. Mmm. Her mate.

Mate?

The events of the day came rushing into her consciousness. Her eyes popped open and she gasped.

“I’m a wolf. You said it wasn’t possible!”

Her words came out as an accusation, and Rylek grimaced.

“I am so sorry, my heart. Sorry that I brushed away your question and doubly sorry that you went through your First Change in trauma. Your wolf rose to protect you. You are a true vulfen female now. I did not know such a thing was possible. To my knowledge, no human has ever been fully turned before.”

He looked thoughtful. “There are legends, of course…” His voice

trailed off. “Perhaps we will set our historians searching for an answer.”

“Mura would enjoy a project like this one, I think. And she knows already,” Ellie ventured and was gratified when he nodded.

“Every vulfen will know soon enough,” Rylek said as they entered the master bath. “The news of a First Change in a human who was unguided and in distress will spread like a wildfire through our people. The estate will be inundated with vulfen in the coming days and weeks. They will all want to see you, scent you, and marvel at the strength of their new queen. And of course, the unmated warriors will be even more attentive to you than they are now.”

He didn’t sound pleased about that.

He twisted the knob and stepped into the shower with Ellie still in his arms. He set her on her feet and gently but thoroughly washed them both.

“You are so beautiful in both your forms,” he murmured against her sensitive shoulder. His breath flowed over the faint imprint of his bite, and it tingled in vivid response.

Ellie leaned back and let him support her weight. His arms came around her, and they stood for a moment under the cleansing spray.

“Rylek, I need some time to get used to this,” she said. “I feel—” She didn’t have words to describe how she felt. Terrified. Magical. Nothing she could think of quite covered this.

“I understand. I can help you, Ellie, tell you the stories we tell our young, guide you until you are more comfortable. Mura will help as well. There is no hurry. You have all the time you need.”

He urged her out of the shower. His touch was affectionate as he dried her, and she let him reassure her. She just let go and basked in his love and support. It had been so rare in her lonely life. That made it all the more precious to her now.

They dressed together, Ellie in scarlet silk and Rylek in a stunning tuxedo, exchanging small kisses and caresses along the way. When they emerged from their suite and greeted Rylek’s seconds and the

lone Queen’s Guard, they were just a little late.

Valeri grinned at them and tapped his watch.

Ellie couldn’t help but laugh, even as Rylek bared his teeth in warning.

They descended the stairs with their Honor Guard leading the way and walked into the large room where she had been introduced to the vulfen people two nights before. So much had happened in those brief days that it seemed like a lifetime ago.

The room was decorated in red, black, and gold. The stage area now held two huge, beautifully ornate wooden chairs carved with wolves wearing crowns and lined with plush red velvet.

Ellie looked sideways at Rylek in time to catch his eye.

“Just for the record, you told me it wasn’t a throne,” she whispered to Rylek, and his quick answering grin made her heart beat fast.

She heard Valeri laugh under his breath only to have his sister shush him.

In an unknown world with unfamiliar rules, Ellie was surrounded by friends. It was a warm and wonderful feeling.

Her smile was radiant as she ascended the dais on the arm of her gorgeous mate. It didn’t falter even when Vasily approached in a long black robe, flanked by two other Elders to ask her the ritual questions to confirm that she understood and accepted the responsibility of her new position. She gave the required responses with joy.

She could feel Rylek’s pride and approval flowing over her from his position of support behind her. For the first time in her life, she was exactly where she was meant to be.

“Kneel to accept the crowning, and rise as queen,” Vasily intoned, and Ellie knelt. He lowered the hammered gold circlet over her forehead. There was a rustle of fabric as Ellie rose and the crowd bowed.

“No!”

The hoarse cry shattered the peace of the ceremony.

Roga Gabrov sprang from the side door. His eyes were wild and his face was torn apart, but Ellie would recognize her kidnapper anywhere. He wore her mark. A gun gleamed in his outstretched hand and it was pointed at her face.

Ellie didn’t have time to move before the gun barked once, twice. A horrible roar sounded in her ear and a ripple of unleashed power

blasted out through the room. The marble floor buckled and the walls

bowed outward. Ellie felt a blow to her arm and staggered just as a body brushed by her.

Eva Sidarova dropped to the floor at Ellie’s feet, blood pouring

from her throat. Her limbs were sprawled at odd angles.

Rylek’s big body vaulted the prone form of his fallen cousin. He landed several yards away on top of the traitor. The force of his leap bore the other man to the ground. They slid across the floor with Rylek’s fangs buried in Roga’s throat. The gun clattered to the marble in front of the agitated crowd. One of the Elders scooped it up.

The Cadre enclosed Ellie and Eva in a circle of protection. Miros was kneeling by Eva, swearing, and Vasily was working to help save his daughter. Ellie struggled to see past the wall of male bodies, but they blocked her and no amount of shoving or begging could budge them.

The noise from the crowd cut off suddenly, and when the Cadre shifted positions, Ellie caught a glimpse of Rylek rising, mouth and chin bloody, coat in shreds, to stand over the torn form of Roga Gabrov. Something twitched on the floor. Was that Roga’s…arm? Oh, dear. She winced at all the blood before her view was barred again.

Vasily shouted and Ellie’s attention was drawn to the flurry of activity around Eva. Ellie’s stomach lurched. She thought she might faint. A strange heat began to build in her hands and arms. She stepped closer and knelt beside Vasily.

Eva’s blood pumped out through his fingers. It was coming too fast, a bright river of red pumping out onto the dais. Ellie’s hands itched at the sight of it. She reached out to cover Vasily’s bloody

hands with hers. She felt so hot, like she was burning with fever, consumed by it. Her vision was blurring with a film of red, flickering at the edges like a bonfire.

Rylek appeared by her side, and she turned to him blindly.

“Help me,” she said, and her voice sounded strange in her ears. “Rylek, help me.”

His eyes widened and he put his hands on top of Ellie’s. His Alpha

power flowed through her and some unknown part of her recognized it, welcomed it. She pulled it in and absorbed it until she felt swollen with the blaze of sparkling energy. Her mind was on fire.

She screamed with the scorching pain of the conflagration as it reached the bursting point and exploded. Waves of power surged out through her hands and down into Eva’s torn body. It went on and on, pouring out until she depleted the terrible overload and was herself again. She was exhausted, leaning against her mate for support, but still Ellie.

She saw the people crying and clinging to one another, heard the hushed whispers, but everything seemed far away and unreal. Even when Eva, who had been so close to death a moment ago, sat up with the aid of her father, it took Ellie another minute to comprehend what had happened.

Eva had been healed. Her clothes were saturated in blood, but the skin of her throat was smooth and there was no sign of a wound. Not even a scar.

She turned to Rylek for confirmation, and was shocked to see tears standing in his eyes. He hugged her tight. The muscles in his strong arms had a fine tremor.

“You are a miracle,” he choked out. “My own miracle and a miracle for my people.”

She didn’t feel miraculous, just bone-tired. Her limbs seemed too heavy, and she didn’t want to move. Breathing deeply was an effort.

“Did we…?” Ellie stopped before she uttered the words. It was too farfetched. She had been an ordinary human just a few days

earlier, a woman who was a bit too curvaceous with no illuminating talent and no special powers. It was too much for her mind to believe that she could heal a bullet wound, but her spirit believed.

“You healed my daughter,” Vasily said. Tears ran down his face and he didn’t bother to wipe them away. “You saved her life. She is the Queen’s Guard. She put her body willingly in front of her chosen queen. She understood that it was her life for yours.”

Ellie gulped back a sob. The blow she felt must have come from Eva shoving past her to intercept the gunshots. To take the bullets meant for Ellie.

Eva was sitting up, supported on either side by two stone-faced warriors who looked enough alike to be twins.

“The injury was too severe, right through her vulnerable throat.

She was dying.” Vasily’s voice caught. “She was dying, but you saved her.”

Vasily reached out to Ellie, and when she saw his hands, she cried

out. His palms were red and blistered; the flesh on the backs of his hands where hers had covered them melted smooth as if he had held them in an open flame.

“Vasily, your poor hands!” Ellie was distraught over the damage she had caused.

“His hands will be scarred, but they will heal,” Rylek murmured

in her ear. “He would have traded his life for his daughter. Be at peace.”

“The power moved through me,” Vasily said with wonder, gazing

down at his injured hands. “Such power that I felt the healing begin in Eva when her heart was already faltering. She was slipping away from us. You have blessed my family. We are all blessed to have you for our queen.”

He stood and raised his burned hands in the air and the crowd roared with him.

Mura wrapped her arms around Ellie and Rylek and whispered her thanks to them over and over. Valeri joined in, and the couple was

encircled by the entire Cadre in a collective hug, including Eva. The vulfen people stomped their feet rhythmically.

Ellie looked at her mate, standing so tall and straight beside her. When the people began to draw away, she leaned against his side and he pulled her closer in his warm embrace.

“Your tuxedo is ruined. We’ll never get all the blood out,” she said. He nodded.

Rylek raised his hand, and the Cadre backed off a few feet. He looked out on his people.

“The traitor is no more, but the threat to our people still exists,” he

said. “Nasja, a vulfen female who drugged and helped to capture our Queen, has escaped. She will be found. And we must be wary still of the small group of human hunters who seek to destroy us. We must be more careful now than at any other time in our long history. I will count on each one of you to keep your eyes and ears open and listen for any warning of danger in the outside world. Together we will survive.”

The Cadre roared. The people roared.

Ellie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She smiled instead. Rylek squeezed her hand.

One of the Elders turned off the lights and another threw open the wide doors. The scent of cedar and pine rode in on the cool wind. The moon was round and full and bright moonlight poured into the room.

The people began to shift and run out into the forest.

Rylek caught both Ellie’s hands and brought them to his mouth for a lingering kiss.

“Run with me,” he invited and the hope in his voice sent shivers down her spine.

Ellie rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. He responded by taking over the simple kiss, drawing it out until it took on the character of an intimate promise.

“Ellie, you have seen the threats we face, the ugliness of betrayal. Let me show you the beauty of my world. The moon is calling to us.

Run with me.”

Ellie looked up into his glowing black eyes. Her mind was unsettled and her heart was racing. She felt nervous, exhausted, and exhilarated all at the same time. A cautious person would refuse, but Ellie was discovering that she was braver than she ever thought she could be. She wanted to run with her mate.