Winter's Dawn (45 page)

Susie shouted. Her entire body shook with pleasure and it only took a few strokes to have her pitching beneath him. Magic pulsed off her again, but instead of being angry and violent, it wafted out of her in waves of pleasure Max could actually feel in a warm tingle that ran down his back and drifted into his limbs. It was a minor miracle she didn’t force him to climax from the sensation, because actually
feeling
her pleasure was incredible. An unexpected bonus he would have never dreamed of before this moment.

Susie panted when it was over while Max looked down at her in awe. She blinked up at him after several breathless second, her eyes still bright silver.

“Gods, that was amazing. I need it again,” she confessed with a wince. “Can you do it one more time? I need it. Just once—” Susie gasped when he pushed his fingers into her again. “Oh yes, good. Wait, not good, it’s not—” He leaned down and bit her and she screamed. “Yes!”

She climaxed even more violently the second time and instead of calming her like it would other females it just seemed to fuel the fire. Her scent got stronger, making him drunk with need. Nature designed it to appeal to Max, to rip down the defenses of the strongest and most dominant male of their species and it simply wasn’t in him to deny either of them.

“Again, Maxwell, it wasn’t enough.” She reached between their bodies, holding his hand to her when he moved to pull it away. She snarled when he grabbed both her wrists and forced her hands over her head, pinning her in the snow. She arched her back and struggled to break free as she flashed her teeth at him. “No!”

“Be still and I’ll give you what you need,” his voice was lower than he had ever heard it, making him realize the wolf had taken over at some point without Max realizing it. He admired her struggling and shifting under him in frantic desperation. “I’ve been waiting for you. So long I’ve been alone. I missed my queen.”

Susie stilled and blinked up at him in questioning. “Dominant wolf?”

He nodded. “Oh yeah.”

She took another quivering breath. Then closed her eyes in surrender and tilted her head to the side in invitation. He leaned down and licked at the long, slender line of her pale neck, tasting the salty tang of adrenaline seeping from her pores.

“I’m going to take you now,” he whispered in her ear. “Say you want it.”

If the full moon had been high in the sky, things would have been different. The way it was now, his wolf was still subservient to hers. Even with the need nearly blinding him, he needed it to be her will to be taken.

“I want it.” She moaned. “Do it, Maxwell. Now. Make me queen.”

Max did as told. He took her with one hard thrust that had Susie shouting and arching into him as he stole her puppyhood and her dreams of a college degree and any sort of peaceful existence outside of the burdens of a royal alpha pair. Then he sealed their fate even more permanently by biting her as he moved over her in hard, powerful strokes. His teeth sunk into her jugular, allowing him drink from her when the wound didn’t close up like it usually would. At the same time he fisted Susie’s hair, lifting her head and forcing her to bite him.

He could feel the magic of their bonding as the heady taste of her blood on her lips gave birth to an addiction he knew there was no cure for. The impact of it made the pleasure dazzling. Susie stiffened under him quickly and they were so tightly bound together she jerked him down with her into the oblivion. He swelled inside her and it extended her release, leaving the two of them shaking with the ecstasy of it for several long minutes.

When it was over, he collapsed over Susie, the two of them bloody and sweaty in the snow. He wiped at his neck curiously, feeling the wound that hadn’t healed, meaning they truly were mates in every sense of the word. They’d bonded and the open wound meant it was permanent. If it had healed, the bond wouldn’t have taken, but neither of them ever doubted the Gods approved of their union.

He stared at his hand stained crimson with blood. He had a small moment then, when his humanity found itself way past the madness of sexual need. The blood jarred the memory of thousands of nightmares and he realized his seed was in her now. He’d planted it without thinking of the repercussions.

“Max, please.” Susie arched under him, her voice was heavy with longing that had only been fueled by their first mating. “I need you again.”

She turned her head to the side, showing off the wound on her neck, which was deeper and wider than he’d seen on other werewolves after a bonding ritual. It was going to leave a very visible scar. He felt his neck again, knowing his was the same. Both their wolves had wanted to make sure everyone knew they were taken.

“Max,” Susie growled insistently, forcing his attention back to her. “Now. Take me again. I want to feel you. Gods, that was divine.”

“Susie,” he whispered as he fought past the instinct to blindly obey her. “You have to tell me not to get you pregnant. Maybe if you tell me my body will somehow obey and—”

“No,” Susie’s voice was pure wolf, low and feminine with the primal need to reproduce. “I want your body as the Gods made it.”

He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to hers. “Gods, Susie Bee. I wish you’d—”

She snaked her hand between their bodies and stroked him, forcing him to get hard again. His breath caught at the feeling of her touch. It fractured his fears, making them splinter out to something hard to grasp under the surge of pleasure.

He leaned down and licked at her neck, tasting her blood and groaning from the indulgence. “Maybe just once more.”

Susie guided him to her as she agreed, “Yes, just one more time. Then we’ll stop.”

They were king and queen. Their words were sacred and deceit wasn’t supposed to be part of their makeup. They would just keep it to themselves that on the night of their bonding they both told each other the most blatant lies to ever leave royal lips.

The two of them didn’t make it back to the palace until two days after the running had ended.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Late Autumn 1966

Max’s father was wrong.

They didn’t need to have the spring and fall pairs in order to restore balance to their people. All Max and Susie needed to do was bond and it was more than enough to give birth to a puppy-boom that created a whole new set of problems for Max.

“We could set up the schools in the charter buildings.”

Max shook his head as he leaned back against his chair. “No, the buildings are broken up into omega and beta chapters and I don’t like the idea of separating puppies based on barking order. I want them to learn to cohabitate with each other. We’re going to have to fund new buildings for schooling.”

“Wolves are educating them at home now,” Serena went on. “It’s how I was educated and there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Yes, but you were privileged. Your parents could afford tutors. Many others can’t,” Max sighed in frustration. “I’ll need to think on this. Funding new schools will be expensive. It’ll require rearranging the budget drastically. I’ll have to get approval from the queen.”

“Is she well?” Serena’s voice was clipped, but Max chose to ignore it.

“She is.” Max nodded. “Are you?”

“Fine,” she huffed dismissively. “Give my love to my sister and her useless mate.”

“He’s not useless,” Max cut in on John’s behalf. “He runs the Human Relations Department now. He’s very helpful.”

“The only thing he’s useful for was my nephews,” Serena sounded extra bitter today. “Not that I get to see them often.”

“If you were kinder to her mate, Katrina might move back,” Max couldn’t help but point out. “It’s been five years. It’s probably time to get over it.”

“I don’t need your help in dealing with my siblings. My niece practically lives at my palace. I’ll spoil her instead and my brother’s mate is pregnant again. Gods blessings.”

“Indeed,” Max agreed and then knowing this conversation couldn’t go anywhere productive said, “Back to work.”

He hung up the phone and stared at it for a long moment. Things with Serena had never been anything less than tense since he and Susie mated. They were both dedicated to their jobs and Serena was still a valued advisor, but Max would be lying to say he didn’t miss the companionship with her. Serena was the one great tragedy of the dark years while he waited for his queen. There was no way to heal what he created by pulling Serena too close. Susie’s boyfriend claiming Katrina on the eve of their bonding didn’t help the situation. She lost her sister too.

The guilt of it was one of those burdens he bore silently without sharing it with Susie. If only Serena could find a mate, but she was a picky, demanding female and there weren’t many males up to the task. Max huffed in defeat and looked to the door when it cracked open. He smiled when he saw bright brown eyes looking at him mischievously.

He growled playfully and said in a low voice, “I smell a little brown wolf.”

A loud, girlish shriek hurt his wolf hearing and he saw a flash of braids decorated with pink bows disappear as the door closed. He leaped out of his seat and jumped over his desk. He ran to the door and opened it, finding Carl’s daughter Sophia practically vibrating with excitement.

“Did you disturb the king while he was working?” he asked, his voice still low like that of the big, bad wolf.

“Yes,” she squealed and took off running towards Carl’s desk.

Max caught her before she could hide underneath it and tucked her under his arm like a football as peels of laughter burst out of her. He turned to Carl, grinning madly. “Lose something?”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.” Carl winced. “She got bored and—”

“Oh no, it’s fine.” Max waved off his apology and then hoisted Sophia onto his shoulders. “You want to go with me to see the queen, Miss Sophia?”

“Oh, yes.” Sophia wrapped her small arms around Max’s neck. “I like the queen. She has sweets in her desk drawer.”

“She is a wise queen,” Max agreed as he looked to Carl. “Can I take her?”

Carl nodded humbly. “Of course, Your Majesty. We’d be honored.”

Susie’s office was on the other side of the palace. Max didn’t love her being so far away, but their people tied Max and Susie’s rule so closely with religion that there needed to be a decent amount of space between where Max served the Gods as a leader of their people and Susie did her work as queen.

If things had been normal, Susie wouldn’t need to be in her office every day, but with only one king when there should have been four, Susie took up a lot of the slack that had left Max drowning for the three years while he waited for her.

“Hello, Your Majesty.” Susie’s assistant Sara looked up from her work and smiled at him. She was an omega artic wolf, with dark eyes and a pleasant smile that lit up as she spotted Sophia. “Come to see the queen?”

“I have,” Sophia said happily. “She has sweets.”

“You may have company.” Sara laughed. “I spied a few other little wolves in there.”

Max frowned and sniffed the air, before he walked to Susie’s office, only to find her sitting at her desk reading a book. On the floor at her feet were Katrina’s two sons, John Jr. and Dylan. Between them sat a two-year-old black wolf with inky black hair and dark eyes like his father.

“Does my father know he lost Aubert again?” Max asked with a frown.

“He’s allowed to spend time with his cousin the queen,” Susie announced as she looked up from her story to smile at Sophia. “Would you like some candy?”

“Yes, please,” Sophia said.

Max put her down and she ran to Susie, who set the book on her desk and pulled open her desk drawer. “What would you like? I have all sorts.”

“Luring little puppy’s into your den with candy is moderately disturbing. Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Max arched an eyebrow at Susie as she helped Sophia pick out a sweet she liked. “Does Emma even spend time with her own puppy anymore?”

“Emma takes pity on me.” Susie lifted her head to narrow her eyes at Max. “Seeing as I have no puppies of my own I have to borrow Aubert.”

“Your puppies wouldn’t be like these puppies,” Max shot back, using the same sugary voice Susie was using. “They’d be mean little puppies who start deadly storms when they got angry.”