Page 98 of Blood and Magic
“Well, the safeword is Cowabunga, so if you get up there and it all starts going sideways, work that into your vows and I’ll rescue you,” Guin said with a snort.
“Do you think you’ll ever get mated?” I asked Ginny.
She shrugged. “Maybe one day. I’m only nineteen, so I still have a long way to go. My transition will hit sometime, but I want to go to college and all that before.”
I nodded. That was reasonable. Ginny had a good head on her shoulders.
“My father says he and my mother would have been mated if she had lived,” Ginny continued. “But I think if it was going to happen, it would have while she was alive.” She dipped her paintbrush again and finished the triskelion on the back of my hand. “We go rabid if our mate dies and we survive. It’s what happened to Kerrick, and why my father had to put him down. Better that mates die together than one survive the other.”
It was a somber thought, and I again wondered if I was making the right call. The sinking weight of realization settled in my gut, but there was no other way. Mill and I were already so connected. We’d died twice and returned together. So long as he walked this earth, I would be by his side. There existed no other reality for me.
“So Kodiak could still mate?” The thought almost made me laugh. He’d need someone willing to stand up to his dominance, someone who could put him in his place. Was there anyone in the pack capable of that? They all seemed to wilt under his commanding presence, even Orion.
“I hope so,” Ginny said with a small smile. “Not that I spend much time thinking about it, but he needs to get laid.”
“Ginny!” Sol laughed and smacked her arm.
“What?” Ginny said. “It’s true. He’s all pent up and repressed, and it’s been over a decade since my mother died. I hate to think of him so secluded all the time.”
When they’d finished their paintings, I looked at my reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath. I wore a black knee-length dress with a sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps across the shoulders. My hair fell in soft ringlets down my back, the top half pulled into a cute bun. Designs sparkled across my skin, each representing a different part of shifter lore and history. I hardly recognized myself, but my inner fox yipped with delight and wagged her tail in my mind. My eyes glowed, my canines tingling with anticipation of what the night would bring.
I missed my twin, and once again, I prayed that Ava would go through her transition soon. I wanted her here. It was like missing half of my body, and I didn’t know how much longer I could go on like this.
“Wow,” came the voice from the doorway. We turned to see Fenris leaning against the jamb with a huge smile. “You look amazing. Mill is going to lose his shit.”
I laughed and smoothed my hands over my dress. “You think?”
“Oh, I know.” He nodded toward the hallway. “C’mon. It’s time.”
Guin took one hand, and Sol took the other. Together, we walked outside, following the torch-lit trail that led into the sacred grounds where all the mating ceremonies occurred. The humid night air clung to my skin, but the sky was beautifully starry. Cicadas and frogs chirped in the distance, and I trembled again. When we got to the clearing, my focus narrowed to the male standing next to a cement column with a dark chalice on top.
Kodiak stood on the other side, but I only had eyes for Mill. He was dressed in dark trousers, his naked chest and arms bearing the same spirals and dots as mine. Guin placed my hand in his, and the moment our skin connected, a rush of magic danced down our bond, warming me, wrapping around my soul with a gentle caress.
“Hiya, sweetheart,” he said telepathically, his grin stretching wide. His bright eyes flashed red, indicating his wolf was close to the surface. I returned the look with a glowing response of my own, my fox entirely too pleased with the whole experience.
“Hi there, my big bad wolf,” I replied.
“Friends, brothers, sisters, and pack,” Kodiak said, opening a small leather-bound book that had seen better days. “We’ve come tonight to celebrate the mating of Maeve and Vermillion.”
He continued talking, explaining the intricacies of mating and how it has been in our history for millennia, but I didn’t have the attention span for that. I stared at Mill and willed time to go faster. I wanted to get this over with so I could steal him back to our bedroom and have my filthy way with him.
“Maeve,” Kodiak said. “You are about to swear a blood oath to the pack. You will become family in both name and spirit. Do you so agree?”
“Yes,” I replied, almost too eagerly. Mill laughed as the crowd chuckled around me. I didn’t care what they thought. I was ready to do this.
Kodiak held up a knife with a handle carved with intricate and beautiful designs. He sliced a tiny clean line across his palm before holding it out to me, palm up. Mill put my left hand in Kodiak’s before the alpha turned the handle of the knife around to me. I had to do the same, and it had to be of my own will.
I hardly felt it as I cut my palm open, knowing it would be temporary. Once I sealed the blood pact with the alpha, I’d be tied to him forever, almost like the mating bond, but not as intimate. Mill would always have access to my mind and magic, but Kodiak would only use it if needed. He’d explained it like a computer network. He could hack in if he wanted, but he only did it if circumstances required.
When blood pooled on my skin, I turned my hand around and placed it in the alpha’s, mixing my blood with his as Kodiak covered our embrace with his free hand.
“I recognize you as one of my family, Maeve,” Kodiak murmured, maintaining eye contact with me. “And my wolf recognizes you as one of my pack. You have the strength of the Royal Bastards behind you, should you need it. And should the Royal Bastards need your strength, you will be required to give it. Are you willing?”
“I am,” I replied. The alpha’s magic poured into me, tightening the tiny tether between us. I gasped as it coated my molecules, reinvigorating me with the energy of those around us. I sensed Sol’s magnetic vitality and Fenris’s warm spirit. I felt Poe’s mysterious power and Morwyn’s calm determination. Moose, Larentia, Lycan, and Serpent all filled my bones. There were more, some I hadn’t even met yet, some I didn’t know very well. They were all there. I had been tied to them and them to me. But the most powerful of all was Kodiak, who shone like a sun at the center of a vast solar system of love, respect, and loyalty.
“The bonds of pack and mating are not to be taken lightly,” he said. “Once you are family, the only way out is death.”
It didn’t scare me as much as it might have once. I’d greeted death on multiple occasions. That sucker would have to fight a lot harder if he wanted to snatch me into his terrible embrace.
