Page 99 of Brody
Around the perfect circular edge of the pool, the Bane pack members stood in a reverent ring, forming a complete circle around the water.I could see the joy in their eyes, joy for us, for what we’d found in each other after so many years apart.
Freya, head of the witch coven, stood at the water’s edge directly opposite the cave entrance, wearing a formfitting floor-length white dress that made her look like an ancient goddess.Her amber eyes glowed with magical energy that matched the luminescence of the water.She had positioned herself at what must be the most powerful point of the circle, where the energy of the COL seemed the strongest.
Nyx caught my eye and winked, the sequins shining on herGlitter Is Always An OptionT-shirt.Bessie smiled at me.
Rose dabbed at her eyes already, though the ceremony hadn’t even begun.
But my gaze was drawn to the figure standing directly beside Freya at the far edge of the circular pool.
Brody stood in a silver cloak that matched mine, waiting for me across the glowing water.When our gazes met over the circle, electricity arced between us so intensely that the water between us rippled as if disturbed by an unseen force.His eyes blazed with such fierce love and possessive need that my knees nearly buckled beneath me.The same reaction I’d had that day in the lab when his hands had circled my waist, lifting me off my feet as our breakthrough was confirmed.The same dizzying rush that had overwhelmed me in the forest as Swarmer venom coursed beneath his skin and I’d clutched his hand, terrified of a world without him in it.The same delicious ache I felt each morning when I caught him watching me through half-lidded eyes, his callused fingers tracing patterns on my skin as if memorizing every inch.
Mine,my cheetah sang with satisfaction, claws flexing beneath my skin with primal anticipation of the claiming to come.
Ours,I corrected her silently.Forever ours.
I began to walk the perimeter of the pool, my footsteps echoing softly off the ancient stone.The blue moss that grew exactly at the threshold where water met stone glowed brighter as I passed.
With each step I took around the circle, memories flooded through me, Brody’s arms around me as we’d danced in his cabin to no music at all, just the rhythm of our heartbeats.His voice, rough with desire as he’d commanded me to take my pleasure from him, then trembling with vulnerability as he’d surrendered control to me the next night.The way he’d looked at me across the lab when a breakthrough hit, his pride in my work radiating from him like physical heat.The countless ways he’d shown me that love wasn’t captivity but freedom, freedom to be more fully myself than I’d ever dared before.
As I made my way around the circle, I passed Quinn Bane and his mate Imani standing together at the water’s edge.The wolf-shifter who’d brought me to the Ridge a year ago, who’d trusted me despite my Dhahabu name, who’d witnessed our breakthrough and supported my vision for what the company could become.Beside him, Imani, the hybrid Arctic wolf-shifter who co-owned the Bane House B&B, gave me an encouraging smile.
Farther along the circle stood Rhett, the jaguar-shifter who served as the Ridge’s sheriff, holding hands with his hybrid jaguar-shifter mate, Nova.Next came Mack, the lion-shifter deputy sheriff, standing proud beside Aurora, his hybrid lioness-shifter mate whose baking skills had become legendary in the Ridge.Emmett, the rhino-shifter who owned the town’s only garage, stood tall beside his demon-hybrid mate, Seraphina.
Piper, Quinn’s mother and matriarch of the Bane pack, caught my eye from her position along the circle, giving me a wink that conveyed her proud support.Jasper, one of the pack’s enforcers, grinned at us.
The full circle of our chosen family had gathered around the water to witness our union in the very place that had given us the key to helping unmated males everywhere.I was surrounded by love, and the warmth in their eyes spoke of bonds forged in trust.While the rest of the town might have once viewed me with suspicion, the pack and coven had always really seen me, with hearts open and judgment absent.
The COL water in the center of our circle seemed to ripple with its own consciousness, the blue glow intensifying as I approached the spot beside Freya where Brody waited.This place had given us so much: the cure for pre-feral symptoms, the moss that stabilized neural pathways, the beginning of our journey back to each other.It seemed fitting that we would seal our bond here, at the threshold between water and earth, between science and magic, between past and future.
Finally completing my journey around the pool, I took my place beside Brody, facing Freya across the narrow edge of the water.The moment I reached his side, his scent enveloped me.His heat radiated against me even without touching, the mate bond between us already humming with anticipation of the ceremony to come.
“Love and magic are powerful,” Freya said, her voice carrying a resonance that made the crystals overhead sing with harmonic tones.“And so is the connection between shifters and their mates.”
Brody found my hand with his, his fingers intertwining with mine.Through our mate bond, I felt his own nervous excitement, his overwhelming love, his absolute certainty that this was right.He traced circles against my palm with his thumb, a small intimacy that spoke volumes.Soon his touch would claim every inch of me, just as it had countless times over the past year.Yet tonight would be different.Tonight would be forever.
A year ago, I would have scoffed at the idea of feeling someone else’s emotions as clearly as my own, but now it felt as natural as breathing.The way his desire fed mine, the way his joy amplified my happiness, the way his pride in my accomplishments made me stand taller—these weren’t chains binding me, but wings helping me soar higher than I ever could alone.
Freya raised her arms to the crystal ceiling where moonlight filtered through, casting prismatic rainbows across the water’s surface.“Luna.Goddess of the moon.We’re here tonight to ask for your blessing in the joining of Brody and his mate, Rozi.”
His mate.The possessive nature of that word sent heat to my core, igniting memories of that night in the Fae cabin when the mating heat had claimed us both, driving us to explore each other with primal need that transcended thought or reason.How he’d hunted me through the moonlit forest, our animal forms playing a game as old as time itself.How he’d claimed me with such tender ferocity that I’d screamed his name to the indifferent stars.How I’d dominated him the next night, commanding his pleasure and surrender until he’d begged for release.
Lowering her arms, Freya fixed her eyes on Brody.“Brody Thornbern.Who is this female you ask to mate?”
“Rozi Dhahabu,” he replied, his voice carrying across the cavern with absolute conviction.The rumble of my name in his deep voice sent shivers racing down my spine, reminding me of how he growled it against my skin when taking me from behind, how he whispered it reverently when making love face-to-face, how he shouted it when I brought him to the edge with my mouth and hands.
My heart swelled with love and certainty.He was my forever.
“Will anyone challenge Brody Thornbern’s right to mate this female?”Freya asked, her gaze sweeping the gathered pack who stood in their perfect circle around the glowing water.
Silence.Complete, perfect silence that spoke of acceptance and approval.A far cry from the suspicion I’d faced when I first arrived at the Ridge, the whispers about my Dhahabu name, the resistance to outsider science.Now I was one of them, not despite my science but because of it.Because I’d used it to heal rather than harm.
Freya nodded and turned to me.“Rozi Dhahabu.Who is this male you ask to mate?”
“Brody Thornbern,” I answered, my voice cutting through the silence.My tongue tingled with his name, the same name I’d sobbed when Swarmer venom coursed beneath his skin, my fingers digging into his flesh as if I could physically anchor him to this world.The same name I’d whispered in wonder when he’d first surrendered control to me in bed, his powerful body yielding to my command with a trust that had brought tears to my eyes.
My gaze locked with his.His jaw clenched.A muscle jumped in his throat.I watched his chest rise with a sharp intake of breath, as if my voice alone could steal the air from his lungs.
“Will anyone challenge Rozi Dhahabu’s right to mate this male?”
