He smiled, threading his fingers through my hair before he pulled my ear to his lip. “I don’t care what you want, Aria. You should be afraid. You should be very afraid of what I want from you.” His nose brushed against the rapid pulse in my throat before he backed up, staring at me through black eyes that had filled with embers.
“You should go now.” I entered the herb room and picked up the tiny bodies, moving out of the room to find him blocking my path. Silent tears slipped down my cheeks as he spoke.
“Aurora told me about the note. I want to know who put it on your car, and how the fuck you missed them doing so.” His eyes dropped the swaddled bodies cradled in my arms, and he frowned. “This isn’t finished.”
“Oh, it’s so finished,” I countered, moving past him to take the bodies to the altar. Outside, the alphas lined the street, sensing the birth of a male wolf. I exhaled as my eyes captured Dimitri’s, and he swallowed hard as he took in the tiny bodies I carried. His dark head bowed until Knox left the house behind me, following me to the altar.
I carefully placed the babes on the stone slab, igniting the candles the moment they touched it, lighting the crystals all around the yard. I felt the moment the connection to the afterlife opened, and stepped back, bumping into Knox.
“You need to get out of the yard,” I whispered. “Leave, Knox.”
“No,” he growled, slipping arms around me as he pulled me against his chest. He didn’t stop there; he continued backing up away from the altar as my sisters came out with sage and other things, each one playing a part to send the boys to a new mother. “What are they doing?”
“Blessing the babies, to give them strength for their journey to a new mother,” I whispered softly. “The sage will cleanse the negative energy from the birth. The crystals keep anyone wishing to harm them away, or any sprits who think to intervene. Too bad it doesn’t erase whatever you are too, or at the very least, repel you.”
“It soaked your cunt at the idea of my teeth claiming your throat; that’s dangerous, Aria.”
“Knox?” I whispered huskily.
“Aria?”
“It’s a funeral, behave.”
He turned, and I didn’t need to look to see he was staring at Dimitri with a triumphant glare. He purred, and I mirrored it, unable to stop it from escaping. I could feel both sets of eyes on me, and I stood silently, watching my family as they added herbs and flowers around the altar until rainbow-colored stones and flowers were laid out on the ground.
“What are they doing now?” Knox asked again, and I turned my head, whispering against his cheek.
“They’re blessing the gods who we don’t worship. It’s the best chance the boys have at escaping our bloodline. Next, they will sing and then dance around the altar as they aim to please the gods to accept the male offspring, allowing them to escape the curse.”
“You’re not dancing,” he pointed out.
“My magic isn’t like theirs. Mine is something else, and we don’t want it to influence blessing spells.”
“I like to watch you dance,” he rasped against my shoulder, and my chest rumbled with a purr. “How do they know if another god accepts the boys?”
“We don’t, but we pray that they’re never cursed to be carried in our deadly wombs again. You weren’t even watching me dance, prick.”
“The fuck I wasn’t,” he chuckled darkly.
“Oh.”
“You danced to show me everything I couldn’t have. You forgot one small thing, Aria. You’re mine, whether you like it or not. I claimed you and that can’t be undone unless I decide to allow it. Plus, your beast chose me too. I marked her too, which means you’re both mine.”
“We apparently have horrible taste in men,” I whispered as candles burned in the wind while my sisters moved in a graceful dance that was raw with power. Tears slipped from my eyes, and his mouth kissed my shoulder, calming the struggle within me. Sweat beaded on my brow as my body sagged against his body with need. I’d been fighting my body’s needs for days, and I was fully aware that I was losing the battle. Especially with close proximity and scent filling my senses, making the needs impossible to ignore.
“Careful, Aria,” he warned thickly.
“I don’t like what I am becoming.” Admitting it was dangerous, considering I was sure the beast within me understood everything I said.
“That’s because you’re fighting the change. Stop fighting the inevitable and let it happen. It’s evolution, and it’s beautiful. You’re beautiful in both forms, and you’re not a monster. You’re a queen among beasts since most women in the Nine Realms cannot even take their beast form and show no physical attributes of what they truly are. You, Aria, you have fangs and claws. Most females are created to be bred, but you, you were created for war. Embrace it, little lamb.”
“It’s easy for you to say. I don’t even know what I am, so how am I supposed to accept it? What if what I am doesn’t belong in this realm? What if I hurt someone?”
“What if suppressing it does more damage?” he countered, kissing my shoulder.
“If you keep kissing me, I’m going to end up needing to go change.”
“Change what?” he chuckled huskily, but the vibration of his lips against my flesh made my back arch, and my core released molten need.
“My panties.”
“Behave, woman. We’re at a funeral,” he swallowed a growl as his chest trembled. His hands yanked me back, holding me against his cock, which was resting on my lower back. “Fucking hell.”
“I agree, we’re being very inappropriate right now.”
“You need to go inside, because in a moment, I’m going to leave, and you will be exposed, with the scent of your arousal thick in the air. Walk, Aria.” He moved me toward the house without releasing me. I could feel the eyes of the alphas on me as we passed them and stopped on the porch. “Go bathe now.”
“Knox,” I whispered. “Whatever happened to you, I hope you find peace from the demons that haunt you.”
“Don’t talk to me about fucking demons, woman. You can’t even imagine the ones I house.” I watched as he moved into the street, pushing his shoulder into Dimitri as he walked past him on his way home, itching for a fight.
Chapter 45
It was a tense week before Luna finally started to recover, and no matter what we did, she still refused to come out of the shell she’d become. Aurora had tried everything, including figuring out who the father was to see if his breed might have played a part in creating male offspring.
No one breathed until Luna had finally eaten. Brander said she would recover from the heartbreak of losing the babes, but it would take time. The last few days had changed for the worst, and she’d become crazed and violent, mostly against me, which we assumed was because unlike the others, I was stuck in the house until we figured out who was trying to get to me.
Death wasn’t something we had ever dealt with before. People in our line didn’t die. It was a blessing we hadn’t realized until we’d stood there, chanting to send the souls of Luna’s infant sons into a new life. It was surreal. The alphas stood silent sentinels, watching and protecting the babes until flames had consumed them. The moment the babies’ souls crossed over, they’d turned on their heels, going back to the House of Alpha, all except Dimitri, who waited for me to turn, to see the anger burning in his eyes.