He stayed where he was for the longest time. Then he set her back from him and slowly bowed to her. Taking her hand, he lifted the Saturnine Ruby he had given her all those years ago,running his thumb back and forth over the huge stone. She’d put the gem back on before they’d met with the Brotherhood earlier, and she’d made sure he’d felt it on her.
“Okay. As you wish…my Queen.”
Wrath straightened at the same time she started pulling him to her. As their lips met, she felt an even stronger level lock on between them, so much deeper, and even more meaningful.
A new connection.
A new mating vow.
As they eased back, he nodded at her. “Anything for you.”
A relieved curse brought their attention to Tohr. Behind the desk, the Brother closed his eyes and let his head fall back in his office chair.
“Thank you, baby Jesus,” he said under his breath. “Fuuuuuuck. Can I go back to bed now before I go into cardiac arrest. I can’t take much more of tonight.”
Chapter Nineteen
The following evening, Beth stepped out of Fritz’s house and tucked her parka more closely around herself. As she waited in the cold, she exhaled and watched the white plume roll up and disappear. Behind her, in the parlor, Wrath was still talking to the Brothers about the nightly schedule, and she was content to give him whatever time he needed.
She’d slept hard all day long. So had Wrath. In fact, she could have sworn they woke up in the same position they’d crashed in—then again, the last couple of hours of the night had seemed to last a month.
The blessings of those two slain males had been beautiful and heartbreaking. The way Wrath had stood over each of the beds, his hands resting on the feet under the blankets that covered up the brutal damage, his head lowered in respect and reverence as the parents had wept. Throughout the ceremony, his voice had been low and steady as he’d spoken ancient combinations of words in the Old Language, and then the parents had said their final goodbyes.
After that, both males had been cremated—along with the other four—and they were going to take the ashes to all the families later tonight.
The closing of a heartbreaking chapter in so many lives. God, it was just awful…
And given how emotional that was going to be, she was glad to have a moment to gather herself here on the porch. As shelooked off into the crystal-clear night sky, she wondered where her own son was. What he was doing. How he was doing.
Shuli had refused to leave his house, and said he didn’t know where L.W. was. And sure, the Brotherhood could surveil the hell out of the property, but something told her if her son didn’t want to be seen…he wasn’t going to be.
She just wished he could let them know he was okay. The estrangement was never going to be easy, and she did find herself praying Wrath was right and there was something under all that anger.
If there was, she hoped whatever it was would come out soon.
Before something happened—
“Okay, let’s go.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she forced herself to snap out of it and smile at Wrath. He’d carried George out with him, the dog overflowing even his master’s heavy arms—paws and golden locks everywhere.
Oh, that was one happy canine, wasn’t it.
“You good in Dad’s hold?” she asked as she ruffled his ear and then kissed his smiling face. “Yeah? Yes, you are…”
“He’s hismahmen’sgood boy. He sure is.” Wrath’s lips lifted a little. Then he got serious. “I want you to follow me.”
“I thought we were going to go hit PetSmart for lambies?”
“Not yet.”
“All right…where are we heading, then?”
“You’ll find out.”
As her mate dematerialized, she closed her eyes and followed the signal of her own blood north and east. When she re-formed, she wasn’t all that surprised to find them in the driveway of the Audience House. And while she stared at the cheerful, yellow light spilling from the windows onto the snowy landscape, shethought of the many nights she had come here with a pit in her stomach.
And then Wrath had returned, and she’d stopped having a reason to be up here on a regular basis. Almost at all, really.
