Winter's Dawn (47 page)

Sometimes it was good to be king.

By some miracle, despite the pheromones fogging their thinking, Susie came up with the idea of turning the running into a charity event to raise money for the new schools. They charged an outrageous amount of money for an invite and damned if those wealthy wolves didn’t pay it.

It helped that it was the Winter Solstice Running and that one was always the most popular. Susie was in an extremely festive mood and as usual, when his queen was happy, Max was too.

“Can I get everyone’s attention?” Susie called out, her voice echoing over the ballroom. She had asked the band to stop playing and the silence forced everyone’s attention to her. “For just a moment, before we leave to start the running?”

“Hey!” Max shouted when others in the back hadn’t stopped talking. He snapped his fingers. “Look this way!”

“Tactful, Max.” Susie giggled and then turned to Emma, who was standing next to her. She reached out for Aubert. “Oh, give him here. Let me hold him.”

Susie snatched Aubert from Emma. He was wearing a small tuxedo and looked very uncomfortable in it. Max knew how he felt. Susie held Aubert close despite her fashionable dress, the short blue sequined one she had bought in California that showed off enough leg to have Max desperate to skip the speech when the full moon had already risen.

“We just wanted to thank every single one of you for the donations to our new schools,” Susie went on when she had the crowd’s attention. She spoke so loud she was practically yelling but she still had a poise and elegance few could pull off. “The puppy-boom has been such a blessing to our people and caring for every single new puppy is our top propriety right now. Each puppy deserves a proper education and the king and I truly believe these schools are going to be the first step in huge advances for our people. We’re so excited for the next generation of werewolves. We have such high hopes for them and I’m sure you do too. Gods blessings that the running will be fruitful for all of you.”

After her speech Susie was crowded by werewolves who all wanted a moment to speak with the queen. She held Aubert the entire time. It said a lot of royal werewolf breeding that he didn’t fuss despite the crowd. Like Max, he’d been brainwashed since birth to behave for the masses.

Poor wolf.

Max had half a mind to take his brother from Susie and send him back to the nursery with the other puppies, who would be cared for through the running by the mated couples who were pregnant and therefore weren’t forced to mate for the full moon.

“Hey, Max, you look miserable.”

Max turned to John and then took a drink of the whiskey in his hand. When he spoke, his voice was raspy. “You know I hate the last hour before the running starts. I’m about to claw my way out of this tux.”

John laughed, looking remarkably composed despite the full moon. His blond hair was slicked back and he was wearing an expensive tuxedo like Max. He and Katrina had donated a sizable amount to the school charity despite their invitation being a given.

“What’s got you so cool and collected?” Max asked, because despite being part human, John had gotten enough werewolf in him to be as antsy as the rest of them when his mate was about to go into full heat. “I need to learn that trick.”

“The trick is easy.” John gave him a wide, pleased smile. “Get Sue pregnant and you’ll find out how it works.”

Max coughed over his whiskey and looked to John with wide eyes. “Is Kat pregnant again?”

John held up his hands. “It appears so. Neither of us have any desire for the running. We’ve suspected it for days now.”

Max reached out, clapping John on the back. “Congratulations. You keep having puppies and we’re going to have to kick you out. You’re taking up half the palace.”

“About that, Max.” John grimaced. “Kat and I know that we’ve been taking advantage of your hospitality for too long. Five years is the point where we’ve officially outstayed our welcome.”

“Hell, John, it was a joke. We’ve got plenty of room for however many puppies you two end up having. You’re more than welcome here.”

“We’re moving to Canada.”

Max paused from taking another drink and looked at him in horror. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, my parents are starting to notice we don’t age.” John gave him a look as if begging for understanding. “If we’re gone it’ll make it less obvious and Katrina wants to be close to her family. Her brother has been having as many puppies as us. She feels John Jr. and Dylan should be real packmates with their cousins. She wants them raised together to form the bond before it’s too late.”

“Gods,” Max whispered, because he couldn’t fault any of John’s reasoning. “Sue is going to loose her mind.”

“You think so?”

Max gave John a look. “She kidnaps your puppies every chance she can get. Haven’t you noticed? They’re always in her office.”

“I work all day,” John reminded him. “My office is on your side of the palace. Hell, maybe we should stop Kat from telling her.”

“She’s telling her now?” Max gaped in horror. “Less than an hour before the running.”

“Yeah, she’s talking to her now.”

“Oh shit.”

Max handed his drink to John and started pushing through the crowd to get to Susie. He was less than polite in his attempt to get to his mate. More than a few wolves stumbled under the force of his strength, but once he broke through to where Susie was he saw he was too late. She had a hand on her chest and tears spilled out of her eyes, which had turned pure silver at some point since he left her.

“Please tell me you understand,” Katrina pleaded as she stood next to her, holding Aubert as if she had taken him when Susie became overwhelmed. “My puppies need their packmates. My brother and his mate are breeding again like us and—“

“No, of course.” Susie nodded as she wiped at her cheeks. “I understand completely. Puppies need packmates. It’s important. Aubert’s been their packmate.” Susie gestured to Aubert as if grasping at straws. “But, I know he’s not close family.”

Katrina sighed. “I think it’s important they grow up together and Serena misses us. Even if she doesn’t say it, I know she does.”

“Yes.” Susie wiped at her cheeks once more. “I do understand. I just—“ she covered her face with her hands. “I’ll miss them.”

Max wrapped an arm around Susie and she turned to him, burying her face against his chest. “Oh Gods.”

“Come on, Susie Bee.” Max rubbed her back softly. “You know the hormones make you emotional.”

“They’re the only artic puppies in the palace,” she sobbed. “It’s like loosing my own.”

“Sweetheart, you wouldn’t have artic puppies,” Max reminded her. “Autumn could never be ruled by artic wolves. Nor could spring.”

“I could have beta wolves.”

“No.” Max shook his head. “You know that’s not going to happen.”

“My heart is breaking,” Susie let out choked, broken cries of misery. “I feel like I’m dying.”

“This was probably bad timing,” Katrina said miserably.

Max looked over Susie’s head and glared at Katrina, but he held back from reprimanding her. He pulled Susie tighter against him and said, “Guess what? This party is over for us. We’ll let my father and Emma kick off the running.”

Susie nodded against his chest. “Okay.”

He led her out of the ballroom, ignoring the curious stares and hushed whispers. Once they were in the hallway and free from prying eyes he swept Susie into his arms. He had half a mind to skip the running oil and just take her into the woods where their hormones could take over and distract her from the heartache.

“I like this dress,” Susie mumbled as if reading his thoughts. “And you know we need the oil.”

Their first running they had skipped the oil out of necessity, but there was no denying it made things easier for them. Once the running was in full effect things could get very heated. If any wolves needed running oil it was Max and Susie.

He carried her to their rooms, where he took care with her dress as he stripped it off her. He was far hastier with his tuxedo, which he had been longing to be rid off for hours now. He ripped his tie and lost several buttons as he stripped down.

All the while, Susie sat on the bed, making slow work of peeling off her stockings as she stared ahead with tears running down her face. Seeing her so distraught was tearing at Max’s soul. It was made all the worse for knowing he was the cause of it. His wolf, who until now had been more than content to keep Susie from getting pregnant in a selfish need to have her all to himself, started to go wild with desperation to sooth her and give her whatever she needed to find peace again.

Max couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. He made quick work with oiling down himself before he turned to Susie, who still hadn’t taken off her bra or underwear. He rid her of her underclothes while she let him, being oddly passive when her hormones should be raging.

“What’s the point, Maxwell?” Susie asked when he started rubbing the oil into her skin. “The Gods bless everyone but us.”

“Not everyone,” Max argued as he fell down to his knees between her spread legs and worked oil into her thighs. “Adam and Danielle have none.”

Susie tilted her head down and closed her eyes, making more tears roll down her cheeks. Max knew it was her hormones that made her so completely irrational on this topic, but he had been bred to serve her. This was tearing him apart.

“Come on, Susie Bee. I’ll make sure you have a good running,” he promised her solemnly. “On my word as king, I promise it’ll be the best yet.”

Susie nodded, obviously willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, which made him swell with male pride he couldn’t hide. He leaned up, kissing her quickly. She opened to him, letting his tongue slip past her lips as he moved his hand up to her waist, rubbing more oil into her bare skin.

He pulled back, only to pour more oil into his open palms. He pushed her back against the bed and turned the running oil into foreplay as he rubbed it into her breasts, her thighs, her shoulders and then growled against the curve of her neck, “Turn around.”

Susie did as told, rolling over beneath him and letting him work it into her back. Her hair was still hanging long and loose and it was getting in the way. He would have to take the time to braid it when what he really wanted to do was spread her legs and take her before they made it to the woods.

“One is fine,” she said when he growled and shoved her long, blonde hair in frustration. “Make quick work.”

Max jumped up to grab her brush and hair tie off the dresser and then worked on getting it out of the way. It was a messy, uneven braid, but he did it tight enough to last through the course of the three-day running.

“Let’s forget the running clothes,” he suggested because he was at his wits end. “We’ll just come back to the palace in our wolf forms.”

“That works.”

Susie transformed into a beautiful, white wolf without another word. It was obvious she wanted to be free of her human emotions that always made life so much more complicated.

Max walked over to the balcony doors and opened them before he followed Susie’s lead and changed forms. Together they leaped over the balcony, landing on the palace grounds before any of the other wolves made it out to start the running.

They ran towards the woods as the snow started falling by Max’s will. The cool air felt good in his fur and brushed away the last of his human heartaches. By the time they burst into the woods and found their spot by the lake that had been theirs for every running they spent at the palace since their first, he had forgotten the problems of being king. Even when he changed forms, he was still all wolf. Susie changed with him and he pressed her against the nearest tree, forcing her back to him as he leaned down and bit the tender curve of her neck in hard, vicious ownership of his queen.

He liked that she was naked. It saved him from ripping her running dress off her body. He licked at the wound he caused when it healed and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “You’re mine now.”

Susie nodded, because the full moon was high in the sky and they both felt the flip in ownership. “I know, Maxwell. Just do it.”

Her body was still, making it obvious she hadn’t forgotten as much of her humanity as he had. He was confused for one long moment, before he realized she was waiting for him to use his ownership of her body for the full moon to demand that she not get pregnant like he had every single running since their first.

He reached around and touched her rather than demand his seed not take root. He willingly let the thought splinter out to be lost in the haze of need. It just didn’t seem all that important this time around and when Susie gasped and pushed herself back against him he forgot it completely.

He pulled her hips back, bending her over as she wrapped her arms around the tree and took her instead.

Chapter Twenty-Seven