Chapter Forty Five

Lillian

Everything is dark, but it’s so warm. I feel like I’m floating on air. Something soft is against my back and I enjoy the feel.

I might just stay like this forever.

My eyes crack open and I’m in my room at the house. It’s bare like always, but my nose picks up another scent. I roll to look behind me and am surprised when I spy dark colored fur covering the other half of my bed.

“Lucian?”

His head jerks upright as he looks at me. He watches me for a moment, studying me closely before licking me up the side of my face.

“Stop it. You’re like an overgrown puppy.” As I pull away to look at him again, my heart sinks in my chest. “The curse wasn’t broken, was it? You’re still this enormous beast, though I admit some of your fur grew back. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.”

Lucian rolls his eyes and shifts, his bones snapping as he takes his human form. My eyes widen with amazement. “I’m very much able to shift again, thanks to you. The mating bite you tricked me into worked well and possibly saved your life.”

A smile spreads across my face. “It was the only thing I knew to do. I thought if you bit me, it might wake you up and you’d realize what I was to you. But I was fully prepared to die if that is what it took.”

My wolf huffs as she settles. The sight of him is driving her wild and she can’t wait to be set free to run with his wolf, even though he’s twice her size.

“Well, it worked and because you returned the bite, I have been set free. We broke the curse.”

Tears line my eyes. “What about Natalia?”

“So, there was a part of the curse I didn’t know about, but your grandmother did. When she placed the curse on me and tied theirs into mine, the requirements were to have a mate and kill them because of them being bonded. Or by blood from your family that breaks curses. When I bit you and consumed some of your blood, it fulfilled the requirements. Emmeline is alive, but Natalia is dead. The coven bond between them is broken because of your blood in my system. It fulfilled everything. So we are free.”

I throw my arm over him, and he pulls me closer. My breath hitches in my throat because of the pain in my side and he grimaces.

“I’m sorry about the pain. Ma gave me some stuff to rub into your muscles, and I hope it helps. Grandmother is at her cottage with my parents and brother. Everyone in the village is a mess right now because they felt you almost die.”

I chuckle. “No one can kill me that easily, I guess. So, what about Corbin and Emmeline?”

He rolls his eyes as he leans back. “Emmeline is going to that realm called Dark Sun. She has promised once she is there, she can never leave because she feels her magic waning. Apparently, it’s their combined magic and now that she’s gone, it won’t work or it won’t be enough to return. Corbin is in the alpha house packing up his stuff.”

“Why?” I ask, wondering what happened after I almost died.

"Well, there is no agreement between the two of you, so he's moving out of the alpha house to make room for the new alphas. It's no longer his. Plus, he is the last of Natalia’s line. It’s up to you now on where he goes. He is letting you out of the deal that you two made, especially since we already marked each other. I guess he knew there was nothing he could do.”

I sigh as I think it over. Right now, I don’t have it in me to make a decision of that magnitude. After all he had put me through, it is just too much to think about. “Not right now. I can decide all of that once I’m better and moving around. I’d rather lie here with you and enjoy what time we have together.”

He smiles. “Me too. Hence, everyone is leaving us alone today and we’ll have our official ceremony on the next full moon.”

As I stare at the ceiling, I’m not even sure what day it is. He laughs as he realizes I’m lying there wondering about the day.

“The full moon is in a week, if that’s okay with you. I personally can’t wait that long, but since it is our tradition, I guess I will have to. After everything, I don’t feel like invoking the wrath of whoever and dooming our mating.”

My body is sore, but not the worst I have ever felt. A week almost feels too long to wait, but it is tradition, and I don’t want to jinx what we have, either. “Fine, a week it is.”

He leans forward, capturing my mouth with his, his hand trailing down my side. It reminds me of the times he scraped his teeth down the back of my neck and sent shivers down my spine, but this time, he is right here.

Oddly, I feel it even now, though his teeth are nowhere near the back of my neck.

It’s the bond, Lily.

There’s his voice, filling my mind again. Oh, how I have missed it. I love you, my big bad wolf.

I return the teeth scraping feeling now that I know how to do it and he shivers.

He chuckles under his breath, breaking the kiss. “Stop thinking about it and doing that or I won’t be able to wait a week. I’m already yours and you are mine, so this is torture.”

I laugh as I stroke his face and peck his lips lightly again. “But it’s so much fun to torment you like you did to me. You are such a tease.”

Lucian leans back and glances toward the door. “That full moon better hurry up, but we have a lot to keep us busy until then.”

“We do? Like what?”

He laughs. “Well, there’s the alpha ceremony and speaking with your pack. Grandmother is helping with that right now, but after today we need to go out of the room.”

Oh great. I have to see people.

“Do I really have to see people? Can we just not seal our bond behind closed doors and call it a night? I don’t even want to run with the pack. It sounds silly now that I say it out loud, but after all I’ve been through and they stood by, watching it happen without interfering, I don’t know that I want them at our ceremony. Honestly, we’re already marked, so I think we should just seal it.”

Lucian nuzzles my cheek with his nose, his hand still rubbing up and down my side. “As much as I hate to admit it, I feel the same way. They screamed at me, called me a beast, and feared me. I honestly don’t know how things are going to work now that I’ll be by your side as your mate.”

“You mean as an alpha.”

“Alphas,” he corrects. “There is no alpha and luna business. If I’m an alpha, then so are you.”

“But you’d make a darling luna, beasty.”

He huffs out a breath and rolls on top of me, but once I wheeze, he pulls his weight back a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Stop teasing me, woman. You know, there is nothing dainty about me or anything that suggests I’m a luna.”

I giggle at the look he’s giving me, then take him in. This is only the second time I’ve seen him in his human form. “You’re going to make this even harder. I don’t want to wait either. You’re so tall and handsome.”

His smile fades as a serious expression surfaces. “Stop it. We need to have our official ceremony so it’s not jinxed.”

“Who even started that? Do you know?”

His brows furrow together as he thinks about it for a long moment. “You know, I don’t know why. It’s always been our tradition. My best guess is something in the past happened to change everything. I heard stories during my time that wolves used to just claim each other whenever the mating bond pulled, but something changed. I think it was about eight hundred years ago.”

We study each other for a minute, both wondering the same thing.

“Do you think it has something to do with Natalia and Emmeline? Didn’t she say she had a thing for your ancestor?”

He nods before leaning down and kissing me slowly this time, savoring each touch of our lips. I can feel his wolf urging him to finish it all, but he also knows I’m a little tender right now.

I break the kiss and stare into his dazzling red eyes. My hand tenderly reaches up, caressing his face. “Your eyes are beautiful. I guess you are from the other original line, too. You know, I had no idea that there were other types of alphas before not too long ago.”

He shrugs. “You know, I don’t really know. My father was an alpha long ago, but never of a pack and has always had red eyes, too.”

“Corbin’s family doesn’t,” I admit.

“Maybe it has something to do with what Natalia spoke about. They were different. Witch blood doesn’t affect your eyes, but maybe it’s something in his family line that does.” He pauses for a second, then leans down to kiss me gently. “I don’t want to talk about Corbin and his family anymore. I’ll get up and do something with myself so I’m not tempted.”

As he rises from the bed, I lay there sinking into the plush feel of the bed. I realize they must have gotten me a different bed because mine never felt this good.

I look around and notice my house looks a lot cleaner. Not that it was dirty in the first place.

“Have you been cleaning my house?”

He calls out from the kitchen while banging around with what few pots I have. “Yes, and I made sure it smelled like me.”

I chuckle under my breath. Of course he would do that.

As I lie back on the bed, there is only one question remaining. Is there more to Corbin’s alpha eye color and how long before it comes back to bite us?

After a long moment, I dismiss my thoughts. If Lucian isn’t worried, then neither should