Page 139

I stood by the ute with my hand on the cool metal, just trying to process what had happened.

Guys scurried about, getting crystals into the cars, packing away equipment and assessing damage.

I should have been doing something, anything, but all I could focus on was the feel of the car under my fingertips, the sounds of people moving around me.

“You OK, love?”

Brandon stood before me, scanning my body.

“I feel like I dropped a tab of ecstasy.”

He snorted at this, then sobered. “What?”

“I’m all warm and fuzzy, and my heart hurts, but I want it to keep hurting. I feel really full, like too full, but I love it.”

He moved in closer, shifting me away from the car and into his arms, and I closed my eyes as I laid my head on his chest. God, I just wanted this to last forever.

“That’s love, Jules.”

“I know, and it feels so good, and I’ve felt it for every single one of you. Fuck, I love you guys so much, it makes me ache.”

“I reckon you’re a bit pack drunk,” he said, kissing the top of my head.

That was so nice, that little loving gesture.

I could feel the care and amusement and satisfaction radiating down the bond, and it kept feeding that feeling inside me.

Fuck Leifgart, fuck the Volken and Sylvan and his secret agendas.

Fuck all of this shit. I could spend my days moving between each member of my pack.

It didn’t even need to be sex, I just needed to touch them, feel them, see them for who they were.

They were such amazing guys, and they chose me.

My mouth filled with venom. I needed to mark them, all of them, and they needed to mark me.

The desire to do just that throbbed within me like it was a living thing.

“Mark me,” I pleaded, looking up at Brandon. I could feel the itch on my shoulder where Aaron’s was, my skin screaming for him. “Please.”

“Jules, you don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“I do. I can feel it in here,” I said, thumping my chest. “You want to, don’t you?”

He just watched me, stricken, but when I parted those plush lips with my thumb, I saw his fangs were out and felt the sizzle of his venom on my skin.

“Brandon?”

“What’s going on?”

Finn and Aaron had appeared at our sides, looking from one to the other in concern.

“She wants me to mark her,” Brandon rasped out.

“Mark her?” Finn said, obviously confused.

“I…I bit her, the other night. She’s wearing my mark as well as the seer’s,” Aaron said.

“Fuck, I have been out of it,” Finn said with a shake of his head. “We need to…have family meetings or something every morning, to keep everyone in the loop of what’s happening, because it seems to change from moment to moment.”

I ground my teeth, fighting back tears, which should have alerted me that something was seriously wrong.

I fucking hated crying. Instead, the world went blurry, and the feeling, the longing to have them all around me, touching me, making me theirs as I would make them mine just rode me harder.

It hurt, the small distances between us, the careful, logical conversations, that were usually my bag, being had about me.

“We ready to go?” I heard Jack say.

“Love, are you OK?”

Hawk’s hand went to my arm, and then he hissed at what he felt down the bond. He surrounded me, narrowed my whole world down to him as he held me close. His body was against mine, his scent filling my nose.

“Hawk, I need you.”

“I know, love. I’m here.”

My fangs snapped down, my mouth was fire as the venom began to pool.

I pushed my face into his hair, searching for his neck blindly like a pup for its mother’s teat.

I felt his heart begin to race under my hand, a tumble of elation, joy, and love, always love, so much fucking love.

It was a fiery torrent, and it burned everything—caution, awareness, sense, all of it away until there was only love.

My hands scrabbled at his collar, jerking it to one side, the venom sweet as honey as the brown flesh was revealed. I hung there for a moment, like a predator about to strike. “Yes, Jules…” he said, pulling my hips closer.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I was hauled back, a godawful growl rumbling in my chest. I twisted in Aaron’s grip, turning around and breaking his hold on my shirt. He looked at me wild-eyed, dropping his hand and taking a step backwards.

“Jules, what’s going on?”

“She was about to mark me!” Hawk shouted. “She was going to make me her fucking mate!”

Jack rocked on his heels, his eyes darting from me then Hawk.

“And doesn’t that seem awfully sudden?” Brandon said. “Why now? I came up to see if she was OK, and she wanted me to mark her. Doesn’t that seem odd?”

“Jules making Hawk her mate is odd?” Jack’s tone was indignant as he rushed to his mate’s defence, but that wasn’t it entirely. There was a slight waver there, which I needed to fix. I took a step towards him, needing to mark him as well.

“What the fuck is going on?” Finn said, grabbing my shoulder and stopping me from moving closer.

“I need to mark all of you. You are my pack, we need to take that final step. I need your marks, you need mine. It’s only then we’ll be complete.”

“We’re already complete, Jules,” he said gently. “Marking, making people mates, it's just another step, a step you take when you’re ready.”

“How do you know she’s not ready?” Hawk said, shouldering forward. “You already have her mark. Were you ready? Was she when she did it?”

He blanched at that, remembering the fevered moment that had happened against the photocopier.

“And you deserve it too, all of you.” Finn’s eyes scanned the group.

“If Jules chooses you, and it appears she has, you deserve it. But if this is what we’re going to do, if we’re going to create mated bonds between everyone, if we’re going to flout Sanctuary laws and mark Jules, let’s create a safe space for it.

It’s fucking beautiful when it happens. It’s gonna deepen things in ways with her that you don’t yet understand.

Both of you have known each other forever.

You’ve really only just met Jules. Let's get back to camp, salvage what’s there, and create a space to talk this out, yes? ”

“Hey,” Slade said, running up to the group. “We’ve got a—” He looked around and then sighed. “There’s drama, isn’t there? Fuck, I was only gone for ten minutes! Look, we’ve got potential hostiles wanting an audience. Any chance we can put a pin in this for a second and deal with it?”

“Jules?” Finn said.

I wanted to scream ‘No!’ I didn’t care about anything else but the need that throbbed within me, but love’s not selfish.

I could see the tension in their bodies, their eyes straying to the space beyond the cars, searching for possible threats.

They just wanted to keep us safe. Finn’s compromise sat OK with me, so I nodded.

“How do you want to do this, Aaron?” Finn said.

“You guys stay here, look after Jules. I need someone I can trust if shit goes pear-shaped. Who are the hostiles?”

“Those pale blokes from the stampede,” Slade said.

“Fuck. They look like they want retribution or something?”

He shook his head. “Said they wanted to talk to you. Said they had an offer.”

“So potentially talking shit. Alright, keep your guns on you. There’s more ammo in the tray,” he said, patting the car.

Aaron swept in close to me, brushing a kiss across my lips, while I forced myself not to grab at his shirt and haul him closer like I wanted.

“Make sure you come back,” I said, hating how small my voice sounded, but he smiled in response, pausing for a second, as if enjoying the fact that I was worried for him.

“Of course, love. Always.”

I closed my eyes, feeling that casually delivered promise deep inside, even as I knew I was investing way too much into it.

“So, what’s going on now?” Slade said, pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket.

“Jules is feeling a bit…odd. She wants to mark the rest of the boys and for us to mark her,” Finn said, keeping his voice carefully neutral.

“Not wants,” Brandon said. “Jules, I’m going to touch you for a second, OK?”

Hawk jerked away from the car and took a step towards us, hands balled, but then stopped moving any farther, something that was noted by Brandon’s keen eyes. I nodded, and he placed a hand on my forearm.

His eyes flicked up instantly, widening at what he felt down our bond. “You need to do this?”

Of course I did, and it hurt me that they didn’t know that, even though a small, saner part of myself wondered how the hell they would.

Then I looked at Slade. He lit a cigarette with practised motions, seemingly glad for the opportunity to do something else than look at me.

Fuck , I thought, that ache in my chest twisting tighter, I’ve left him out of the loop again.

I moved to go to him, but Finn’s hand whipped out, placing a gentle, but firm grip on my shoulder.

“What's going on?” Slade said, frowning.

“You’re stopping her from going to her other mates,” Hawk growled, getting in Finn’s face. “What kind of bullshit is this?”

“Love…” Jack said, grabbing his arm.

“Everyone just needs to stay calm,” Brandon said through gritted teeth, sounding anything but.

“What are you fucking doing?” Slade snapped, moving between Hawk and Jack, reaching out to pull Hawk’s hand away, and that’s when our link was formed.

If I thought the feeling was burning hot within me, I had whole continents of emotion to discover yet. We were connected through love, intended violence, and just glancing caresses, but the bond didn’t care. Whatever had been aching in me all this time settled, then bloomed.

That was a funny way to put it, but how else could I describe it?

The power seemed to bubble effortlessly from within us, rocketing through our connections, and out it all came.

Emotions—from the profound to the prosaic—spiralled inside me, moving too close for me to pay too much attention to, and then they moved up.

My head fell back, and I stared blind eyed at the sky, the grey clouds, then witnessed a bolt of white light slice through them.

We were a circuit, generating the power and unleashing it on the world, and the crystals, in our pockets, in the backs of the utes, were singing now, the sound getting louder and louder.

And with it came peace. No need, no wants, just…satisfaction-recognition-comfort-pleasure-closeness. There was no real word for it, as it was so foreign to a human mind.

When you are united, you reach for me.

The voice was not my Tirian’s, but it was familiar. I saw a brief flash of green eyes and white fur, and then she was gone.

The shouts were what finally roused us from our collective brain snap. All of us came to at once and pulled apart, the crystals instantly going dark, the note falling away.

I felt a wrench as I realised at least one of the voices was Aaron as I walked over to the ute tray, and strained to look over the back of the car.

“That sounds like Aaron,” Brandon said, appearing by my side.

“Unity…” I breathed, and I moved forward, out of the cocoon of my recovering men, the ring of the crystals still echoing in my ears as I wove my way around the car and to the other side.

Aaron looked devastated when he saw me appear, his hand straying to his rifle, but the albino LOTR rejects straightened when I appeared.

“It is you that makes the stones sing,” one said by way of introduction.

“Yes.”

They slipped from their vaguely horse-looking mounts, and dropped down to one knee.

“My queen,” the spokesperson said. “You must accompany us to our village. We wish to invite you to celebrate a successful hunt.”

Do not want , I thought, my eyes darting over to Aaron. He nodded, but his gaze went to the bows currently strapped on their backs.

“We have…collected your entourage’s equipment and supplies, and have them safe, waiting for you.”

Aaron’s smile when it came was bitter, because we both knew how this was gonna go.

All this queen talk might be one thing, but the fact that all our supplies were with these guys and we had no way to get replacements was going to be the deciding factor.

But there was nothing wrong with going in as a queen.

I nodded my head regally. “We would be honoured to accompany you to your village for the feast.”