Two days flew by and Saturday dawned gorgeously sunny and warm as Sarina sat in a chair, her hair up in huge rollers. Her Aunt Aurora was smudging a smoky eyeshadow over her lids to bring out her light green irises. Her lips had already been stained a red rose hue and the last thing to go on was the necklace her mother would put on just moments before she walked down the aisle.
“You are breathtaking,” Amanda said with a sigh, her tears quickly patted away with the tissue in her hand. “And here I told myself I was done crying.”
“Me too,” Sarina said, giving in to the happy tears that started to well up in her eyes. Her makeup was redone and half an hour later she stood in front of a huge mirror looking at herself in her mother’s dress. New pearls had been sewn on so that it looked as if the dress had been dipped in a pool of them. Her hair hung in soft curling waves halfway down her back. Her mother’s necklace, one that had been handed down from her grandmother, hung around her neck. It sparkled and twinkled in the sunlight that streamed in through the huge windows in her old room.
The morning after their encounter with Lilith, she and Brody had moved their little family back to their own house. Now her room had become Amanda’s studio as she’d taken up painting to kill some of her down time.
“You ready?”
Sarina turned to see her father standing in the doorway and smiled.
“I’m ready.” She could barely speak, nervously smoothing down the skirt of her dress. Romeo Traverse, alpha of the Delta pack, looked impeccable in his tailored tux. “You’re looking mighty good, Dad.”
“Oh sweetheart,” Romeo said, his face caught between pride and heartache. “You are breathtaking and thank you for the ego boost.”
Sarina felt her heartbeat start to speed up with anticipation as she took her father’s arm.
“Think Brody will like it?”
“I think Brody would have to be six feet under for a hundred years in order to not be effected by you, darling.”
Sarina beamed at her father’s words. Leave it to Dad to cheer up a nervous girl.
“Don’t be nervous. In a matter of minutes the formality will be over. Then we can party.”
“No one throws a party like us Traverse’s.”
“Damn right,” Romeo agreed.
The ceremony, just as her father had promised, lasted all of ten minutes from the very start, until they walked down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Brody Chase Duscene. The boys, dressed in their matching tuxes, danced right along with their adult counterparts and even tried howling as the moon rose high in the sky. Appropriately on a full moon, Brody and Sarina enjoyed their nuptials.
“I have to admit, I’m surprised that you’d pick a full moon for a ceremony so special and long overdue.”
Sarina turned to see a gorgeous, older version of her mother standing behind her. “Do I know you?”
“Not well enough,” the older woman said, sadness lingering in her eyes. “I died long before you came into the picture. In my own way, however, I’ve kept an eye on you and your family. I’m your maternal grandmother, darling. Someone who helped pass those lovely powers onto you.”
“You were a Radiant,” Sarina said with a sigh, reverence thick in her voice. “Thank you.”
“Your thanks isn’t necessary, but it’s appreciated all the same. I want you to know that Lilith was one wickedly evil woman, but she is the least of your worries. Your mother and father have forgotten that they are not human. If anything, tonight should drill that point home when your father and your husband make the change.”
“Is there a problem with the humans around here specifically?”
“As they become more mobile,” the woman said, “I’m afraid those who see our kind as a threat will either kill us off like a witch hunt, or simply legislate us into extinction. The ones around our region are of the most immediate concern as they are closest to us. However, humans in general, across our great country and out in the rest of the world need to have an eye kept on them to say the least.”
“What can I do?”
“Warn them, remind them that there are stark differences between us and that being friends, even friends with that understanding, might prove to be more dangerous than they’d hope.”
“Alright,” Sarina said, shaking her head in agreement. “I’ll tell them.” Sarina didn’t know exactly what to say or do. Her hands trembled as she stood there talking to her deceased grandmother. “I’m sorry, I just…” Tears choked her words and Sarina gasped when strong arms wrapped around her. Turning, she saw Brody standing behind her, a soft smile tugging his lips.
“You okay?”
Sarina turned back around, but her grandmother was gone and the moment, so precious to her, was over.
“I’m so happy,” she said, bringing her mouth to his. “I’m Mrs. Brody Duscene. Nothing is spoiling this night.”
“Even though we have to change?”
“I’ll be here when you come home. Tonight and every night with a burning candle to welcome you back.”
“Does that candle come with a little romance?” Brody asked, making Sarina smile when his eyebrows wagged at her.
“Maybe,” she said with a grin. “It’ll depend on how I’m feeling and if I’m even awake. I’m beat.”
“Even after the other night? I’ve never felt more rested.”
“Yeah well, you’re not the one carrying a baby in your belly now are you?”
“A…a baby?” Brody stammered, his hand instantly, protectively settling over Sarina’s middle. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I need to be, yes.”
“Have you told your parents?”
“No,” Sarina said giggling. “I thought this baby’s father might want to be the first to know.”
Sarina caught the instant the light in Brody’s eyes dimmed and her mind knew what he was thinking. Smiling, she rested her hand against his cheek, enjoying the two-day stubble that grew there. “This baby is our baby,” Sarina assured him. “There is no way that I’d know I was pregnant this quickly if Lilith had mothered this child. And regardless, she’s dead and I’m me again and I’m not a firm believer in nature versus nurture.”
“You’re not?” Brody asked, seeming truly amazed.
“No,” Sarina said. “Why would I be? We’re werewolves Brody. There’s no nurture in that. It’s natural to us, like breathing. Humans, they’d never understand that level of natural being.”
“Ah, I don’t know. The humans I’ve dealt with were cool. I’m not even sure they can tell when one of us is amongst them. If they can, they don’t start any trouble. I think the humans, at least the ones around here, want to live in peace.”
“My grandmother seems to think otherwise.”
“I didn’t think any of your grandparents are alive,” Brody said, clearly confused.
“They aren’t.” Sarina tried to explain. She started to say more when her parents stepped off the patio and came toward them.
“Your boys are missing their parents, and we have to get ready for the change.”
“I’ll be right there,” Brody said, thankful when his new in-laws took the hint and left them alone.
“I don’t like leaving you alone,” he said, clearly remembering the times before when he had, all the terrible times they’d gone through.
“I’m fine.” Sarina comforted him. “I’m staying here with everyone for the night.”
“But a bunch of women—”
Sarina punched him hard in the arm, cutting off his argument.
“Point taken.”
“We’ll be fine,” Sarina said, smiling. “Plus, I’ll probably be up when you get home, planning Gina’s wedding.”
“Oh?”
“Her parents gave the okay once Dad talked to them. They seem to think that if my father approves, then the man must be amazing. I’m not sure whether they just don’t want to worry about it, or if they’re ecstatic to have found someone who wants their daughter.”
“Sarina,” Brody started when she held up her hand.
“I love Gina,” Sarina said. “I will always defend her. But my aunt and uncle are a different story. I love them because they’re family. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I agree with their parenting style or lack thereof.”
“I didn’t know you felt quite that strongly about it,” Brody quipped lightheartedly, holding out his hand. Sarina could tell by the way he tensed that the change was already starting. Holding it off could be painful and she moved quickly to get inside where Brody would know she was safe and secure. He wouldn’t make the change until he knew his wife and sons were settled inside the Traverse home.
She watched from the big bay window as her mate and now husband began to shift. It always started in his eyes first, something she still found incredibly sexy, even to this day. His eyes would go from crystal sky blue to a deep amber brown as his wolf started to take over. The rest of Brody’s shift came in sections, spreading over him much like a suit of clothes. His once rounded head became a long muzzle and tapered head with massive ears that gave him excellent hearing. Then his shoulders would shift and hunch down as Brody became the alpha wolf he was meant to be, even if he didn’t claim the position as pack leader. They both knew he was Romeo’s right-hand man, whether he was in his wolf or not. That was all either of them needed.
Sarina, drawn by the constantly present attraction she’d always had for Brody, opened the door and walked confidently to him. As their sons grew into men, she’d begin making her own change again, accompanying him on his once a month hunt. She couldn’t help hoping that the baby she carried now would be a little girl. Already having the boys, it gave her freedom to think about a sweet faced, pink loving little girl. Now, however, she knew her place was at home, with Brody Jr. and Jedidiah. Touching his shoulder, Sarina smiled softly as he sat down, towering over her by a good foot. He bent his head and playfully licked her jaw. “I love you,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around him. “I have loved you from that first cocky grin. Come home safe to me.”
She looked him deep in the eyes as he turned to step up next to her father, who was a stunning alpha male as well. Rarely growing up had she taken the time to admire the stealthy and peaceful way her father did his duty. Now she smiled knowing the two most important and dear men in her life would die to protect their family.
“Brody?” she called. He turned back and waited. “Bring my dad back home as well, okay?”
He bowed his head slightly in understanding and then shooed her back inside with a swish of his long, furry tail. Once she shut the door she watched with her mother and the other women in her family as Brody, Romeo and the other beta and omega males and accompanying females headed off toward the wooded area.
“They’ll be okay, right?” Sarina said, turning toward her mother.
“They’re going to be fine,” Amanda reassured her. “Let’s make sure they have some good food when they return. If they don’t catch anything tonight, they’ll be in dire need of sustenance by the time the sun comes around again.”
“True,” Sarina said with a smile. “So did you ever find out what was up with Brandt’s cabin?”
“Not yet,” Amanda said. “I plan on taking a trip out there with your father this weekend. After tonight though, he might not be up to that long of a journey so soon. The change wears him out in a way it didn’t when we were younger. Back then he was almost cocky about it, always swishing his big, furry tail. He liked to think that every female wanted him. Even when he was courting me, he couldn’t help but be arrogantly cocky about it.”
“Really?” Sarina said, a look of feigned shock crossing her features before she gave a crooked smile. “I’d never suspect Dad of being arrogant and cocky.”
“Never.” Amanda snorted. Together, with Gina and Shawna, the women made pigs in a blanket, biscuits, homemade sausage, gravy, enough scrambled eggs for an army and chocolate chip cookies.
“So, Gina. Any ideas for your upcoming wedding?” asked Sarina.
“I just can’t believe it’s only a week away,” the pretty young woman said. “Are you sure you don’t mind that we’re marrying just a week after you?”
Sarina smiled at her cousin. For all the ways she wasn’t like them, she was the best of their family where it mattered.
“Absolutely not. By next weekend I’ll be an old married woman.”
“Please.” Gina giggled. Then her cheeks filled with a blush that had Sarina’s eyebrow rising. “Turk hasn’t touched me. He said we should wait until we’re married.”
“That’s commendable for a man like him. It can’t be easy waiting.”
“It’s not.” She blushed again. “But neither is the prospect of being bedded by a man like Turk. I love him, but I’m nervous.”
“Every woman’s nervous her first time,” Sarina tried to assure her. “Unless she’s toasted. Even then, the next morning she’s probably feeling less than stellar.”
“Sarina!” Amanda gasped.
“What? It’s true,” Sarina said chuckling. “I’m a woman speaking from experience. Brody is… endowed, we’ll just say with enough that I was sore the next day, to say the least.”
“Please no,” Gina blurted with an embarrassed giggle.
“I’m sure Turk will be exactly what you’d like him to be. It’s commendable that he’s willing to wait until you wed. Mating should be a breeze afterward, considering. So many of us do the mating before the wedding that we don’t know what the reverse is like.”
“I’ll be sure to take notes,” Gina said as she carried more trays of cookies to the large dining table that would serve as a buffet for everyone within the next few hours. Sarina chuckled again as she and the women in her family made food for the members of their pack who would be coming back at dawn, tired and hungry. The time they shared was fueled by a mutual love for each other and the Delta pack. They’d added so many new members in just the last year, it was impossible to keep up with the growth, to know every wolf by name. Still, Sarina knew she needed to try. If she and Brody did take over the Delta pack, it’d be imperative to know the members within it.
“How did you do it, Mom?”
“Do what, honey?”
“Learn it all? I can’t imagine just stepping into all this as if it was normal. Not when I’d grown up as a human.”
“I loved your father,” Amanda said, as if that answered all her daughter’s questions. “It wasn’t easy, nor was it great fun, but it was important.”
“Must have been,” Sarina whispered. She grabbed a muffin and headed upstairs alone.
***
By the time Brody shifted back with the rising sun, his whole body felt as if he’d been run over by a steam roller. He ached everywhere, especially his head and he was dog-tired, no pun intended. He wanted a shower, his wife and a bed.
He tiptoed quietly into their room, hoping he wouldn’t wake anyone. With their wedding less than twenty-four hours in the past, the Traverse mansion was still packed with family, friends and pack members of the reigning alpha couple. He showered quickly, thankful for the intense heat and high pressured pulse of the showerhead. Romeo Traverse knew how to do up his home to benefit both the human and its wolf counterpart. Brody stepped out, toweled his hair dry and wrapped the towel loosely around his hips.
He turned around and nearly plowed Sarina over in the process. “God, babe!” he yelped. “Are you okay?”
“I’d be better if you came to bed,” she said with a giggle. “I haven’t been able to sleep since you left.”
“Why didn’t you join me in the shower then?”
“Honestly?” she smiled. “We’ve done that a million times. Well, maybe not, but I wanted something different. And I knew you needed the heat to yourself.”
“I would have made room for you, love.”
“I know,” she purred. “Just like I know, without looking, that you’re hard as a rock right now. I plan to take full advantage of that fact. Come here, lover boy.”
“Gladly,” Brody responded, ready to oblige his beautiful mate. Catching her wrist, Brody pulled Sarina closer and captured her laugh against his lips as he drank her in. Her flavor, always that sexy, first slug of it, poured through him like a balm to all the places that hurt. That was just one small benefit of knowing this amazing woman. She could heal him with just the touch of her heart against his. He knew no other woman who could do that. “You taste like blueberries.”
“Mom and I made muffins with Gina and Shawna.”
“Hmm,” he said, smiling and pressing his forehead to hers. “I like muffins.”
Her giggle swept over him, pulling out his own smile, despite the bone-tired feel of his body. He kissed her then, needing and wanting that contact in equal portion. He’d spent his wedding night as a wolf. He’d spend the morning after lying in bed with his wife, as long as their sons managed to sleep in. “Think the boys will sleep for a while yet?”
“We can hope,” he offered, holding her hand as he led her to their bed. “Think your parents will mind?”
“No one will hear us,” she whispered conspiratorially. “Dad had sound-proofing installed after we mated. He said that the last thing he wanted to hear was his children and their mates. It’s also the reason my parents’ room is all the way downstairs, tucked under the staircase.”
“Always did think your dad was a smart man.”
She laughed again and Brody drank in the sound. Gone was the shy, insecure girl he’d picked up outside a boutique in town. Now his wife was a beautiful, confident, sexy woman who still turned him on just by being herself. “I’m sure he thinks you’re rather intelligent too.”
“Uh-huh,” Brody smirked, kissing her neck as they walked over to the window. The sun was well up now and time ticked away, but Brody couldn’t bring himself to initiate anything more than playful flirtation. Despite their incredible night in the room full of magic, being in reality made him realize just how close he’d come to ruining everything. The thought still haunted him. “You excited about Gina’s wedding next weekend?”
“I’ll still be flying on the coattails of ours, but yes. I think she’s more nervous than anything.”
“Weddings aren’t too bad. It took us what, three years to get around to ours? She’s got nothing to worry about.”
Sarina chuckled. “She’s not worried about the wedding. She’s worried about what happens after everyone leaves.”
“Oh,” Brody said, desperately searching for a way to change the subject. The more they talked about sex, the more uncomfortable he became. “So, how’d food prep go while I was gone?”
“Oh no you don’t,” Sarina said, turning around. Her green eyes pinned him to the floor as if his feet were wrapped in cement boots. “You’ve been avoiding this for days now. Why are you so anxious around me? I know you want me, so what’s holding you back?”
Brody sighed. He’d never been good at keeping things from Sarina. Even when Lilith had control of his mind, he still fought for honesty. Secrecy was never a good thing. “I keep thinking about how many times I came close to losing you, especially this last time. What would have happened if you hadn’t been able to reach me? What would have happened if Lilith had succeeded?”
Sarina knew intimately the feeling Brody was struggling with. She, herself, had gone through that same line of questioning. On the other side of that internal conversation she’d come out all the more grateful that they’d persevered.
“She didn’t,” she reassured him, touching his hand. She pulled it up to her lips, pressing a kiss to his fingers. “She didn’t succeed and I owe that to you and my mother. Without your intense faith in me, without the love we share, Lilith may very well have pulled it all off. If for only an instant I had doubted what we have, I’d still be in the pits of Hell trying to claw my way out. It’s because of you that we’re standing here, like this, today.”
Sarina watched his blue eyes fill with relief and smiled as tears brimmed in her eyes.
“I’ve never once doubted anything about you and me,” Brody said. “Not even when Fenris and that evil woman turned me into an older man. Even then I managed to catch your interest.”
Sarina giggled. “No offense, but I’m thankful that everything went back to normal after that.”
“Me too,” Brody said with a smile. He pulled her close and Sarina met his kiss with her own need, asking as much as she gave in return. Her arms wrapped around Brody’s neck as she opened to invite him deeper. Her lips met his in a heated kiss that teased her senses, bringing to life the hunger that only he could satisfy.
“Make love to me,” she whispered against his mouth, loving the spicy scent of his soap. Already her body was primed, ripe for him.