Page 75 of Brutally Mated
Thorn follows in the man’s wake, flashing a cocky little wink at me. He doesn’t give a fuck about being in trouble, but I think I do.
“I didn’t do anything,” I say to Krall. “Thorn grabbed me, and…”
“I know, sweetheart,” Krall says, dropping a kiss on my head and patting my ass. “When it comes to matters of having your pussy bred, I’m never going to blame you. Now, what have you forgotten to do today?”
I look at him, a little confused.
“I don’t know?”
He leans down and kisses me sweetly. “What job did you have to do?”
“Uhm, none? Except get… uhm, bred?”
“Yes, and you did that, so what else?”
I don’t know. I look at him in confusion. “What else?”
He spanks my ass again, but lightly. “Live happily ever after, of course.”
“Oh!” I giggle. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“Don’t let it happen again,” he says, mock growling at me.
And I don’t.
EPILOGUE
Seven months later…
Tabby
My belly is swollen with pups. I waddle about the palace with a small retinue of ladies who are similarly resident. I never had friends in my pack. I had family, but that’s not the same thing. I’ve learned that friends hardly ever organize you to be pawned off to the nearest three warriors.
“You have three mates? How does that work?” Terri says. She’s a mate to one of the king’s favorite guards, and that gives her a certain amount of gravitas. She’s very nice, though. Everyone is very nice.
I shrug. “I don’t know. They just share me. It works somehow.”
“You must have favorites, though.” Liz nudges me.
“It would be nice to have three mates,” another lady, Lenora, says. “That way, when I’m angry at one of them, I can have two others to also get angry at.”
Everyone laughs at that.
The conversation continues. I’m partway aware of it, half concerned with the sensations in my belly. The pups are not far away from being born. There will be three, two boys and a girl. We know all about this because there have been all kinds of tests and things. I am well looked after here, and have access to wonders that simply did not exist where I come from.
There is peace in this palace, a peace I never thought I would know. I used to imagine my life would be comprised of birthing a few pups I might never be able to raise, and losing them or myself to the mountains. Here, the expectations for a life are so different. Here, the other wolves talk about getting old, retiring. There is no retirement on a mountain full of horrors.
I am enjoying myself. I am enjoying the recreation, the relaxation, but there is something missing. From time to time, I wonder if I am still truly myself. Did the girl who left the mountains die in the leaving? Is there anything left of the animal I once was?
Something moves in the shadows, flits over the roof, then drops into the hall. I see a glint in the figure’s hand. A silver knife.
In an instant, every old instinct returns.
I know instantly that the palace is under attack. It’s said that the wolf king has his enemies. There are the humans who loathe wolves, there are other wolf factions, and of course there are vampires. This is probably not a vampire, but it could be either of the other two. The politics of the palace have not interested me until now. It has been months since I experienced any kind of fear. Strangely, it does not feel bad. It feels like an old friend returning to me after a long absence.
The dark figure moves toward us at a sprint. The others haven’t truly recognized the threat at the moment I first notice it, but as the attacker turns its energies toward us, they react. Someone screams and drops back, dresses billow as finely dressed pretty palace ladies shift from their painted human forms and flow into glossy wolves.
I do not take my wolf form. I rely on my old instincts, the ones that kept me safe in the world from which I came. I forget that I no longer have my magic, and that means the attacker is almost on me when my hand makes the short jabbing motion that in the past would have ensured my protection.
