Chapter Ten

A hush fell over the crowd as Tala and Marrok appeared. Then, as if an unseen signal had been given, all the wolves bowed to the alpha pair. After a pause, they both lowered their heads in return to the assemblage, then walked through the group to lead them all back to their cars. The celebration was set to be held back at the hotel.

Tension coiled in Castor’s shoulders, tightening the muscles until they strained against his bones. Leia still hadn’t shown up, but he had to act as though nothing were wrong or all her efforts would be for nothing. He followed the bride and groom and got into the limo with them along with Tala’s maid of honor, her sister Astra.

Other than flushed faces, Tala and Marrok appeared well put together given what they’d just been up to. The couple sat close together on the back bench seat, with Castor and Astra taking opposite side seats.

“Was that Leia?” Tala asked as they pulled away from the parking lot, breaking the awkward silence which had descended.

“Yes.” Worry had the one word grinding from him.

“Where is she?” Marrok asked.

“I don’t know. She disappeared under a wall of water.” And he couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.

“We should go back.” Marrok reached for the button to lower the window between them and the driver, but Castor shook his head.

“She’s a water nymph,” he said. “She can handle it. Besides, she’d be upset if we ruined her work by giving away the secret to everyone. She’ll be fine.” She’d promised him she would, and he’d made sure Kaios had left with the crowds.

You’d better be fine, he thought. If she wasn’t, he’d wring her neck for taking that kind of risk.

The rest of the interminable ride was completed in silence. Castor shifted his position a few times. While the worst of the pheromones were released with the mating, being near the couple was still like a constant bombardment of lust, like standing chest deep in ocean waves. Marrok couldn’t stop touching Tala—not overtly, just constant contact. All Castor could picture was Leia’s big blue eyes, her hair fanned out on a pillow like a golden halo as he moved above her, the sound of her husky voice groaning her pleasure.

Where was she?

The valet handed them out onto a red velvet carpet. A woman with deep red hair approached with a come-hither light in her eyes. “Congratulations, Alpha. You as well, Alpha.” She nodded to Tala and Marrok in turn. Then she hooked her arm through his. “And who might you be, handsome?”

“Mine.”

Relief and lust warred for dominance at the sound of Leia’s warm voice behind him. He shrugged off the redhead and turned, the impact of just seeing her like running chest first into a gorgon’s fist. He pulled his nymph in close where he could wrap his arms around her and feel for himself that she was unharmed and inhaled her rainy-day scent.

“I can take a hint.” The other woman’s parting comment hardly penetrated.

He was too busy with the woman in his arms, bending his head close to murmur in her ear. “I didn’t see you after the ceremony.”

Wolves had phenomenal hearing, which meant he couldn’t ask her straight out if she was okay. A question like that would sound odd to anyone who overheard.

“I made it safe and sound.”

She did appear to be unharmed. In fact, she looked perfect, her hair back up as it had been at the wedding, not a drop of water in sight anywhere on her person. Unable to resist the urge, he leaned forward and planted a light kiss on her unsuspecting lips. He wanted to linger, sample, taste, and take. However, now wasn’t the time. Not yet at least.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t protest.

He grinned, relief and triumph raising his spirits like a balloon in strong wind. Question and answer time could come later. After she faced the werewolf who’d destroyed her life.

Castor sobered. Be damned if that werewolf would ever harm her again. He offered her his arm. “Shall we beard the lion?”

Her lips quirked, but she accepted the gesture, hooking her hand through. “By all means.”

Forcing his body to calm—at least he wasn’t the only man walking around in discomfort—he led her into the hotel.

Off to the right the sounds of a lively gathering drew them through a set of double doors into a ballroom with windows all along one wall and the original bar along the other. A dance floor took up one end, and the rest of the room was dotted with large, round tables set with fancy linens and china. Large bouquets of flowers graced each table, filling the room with the sweet fragrance of spring, helping to mask the natural outdoorsy scent put off by the large gathering of wolf shifters.

Castor searched the room for Kaios, tensing against the werewolf’s presence, but didn’t see him among those gathered. Leia found their table while he was detained by one of the elders from Marrok’s pack. As he watched, she circled the table, fiddling with something by the plates. Then she dropped off her purse in a chair and rejoined him.

Before he could ask her what she’d been doing, the newly mated couple was announced. Then everyone found their assigned places for the sit-down dinner.

“My, my, my,” a rough male voice intoned from behind them. “I thought that was you earlier, Lyleia.”

She didn’t so much as twitch, but her sudden tension radiated to Castor nonetheless. The demigod in him wanted to wrap himself around her and shoot lightning bolts through the man, but he understood this was Leia’s fight. Holding back with effort, he reached under the table to take her hand, which was clenched in her lap. Her fingers loosened up to link with his. She plastered a fake smile on her lips, one Castor recognized from when she’d first started working with him, and turned to face her tormentor.

“Kaios.”

No doubt even the wolf shifters starting to join them at the table picked up on the tension radiating from her. It pulsed like a living thing.

“How lovely to see you after all this time.” The werewolf actually had the audacity to lean in for a kiss.

“Touch me and I’ll stab you with my fork.” Leia delivered the threat with her polite smile in place and a friendly tone to her voice.

Pride swelled along with his dick. Damn, she was amazing.

For his part, Kaios froze, took a moment to assess how serious she was, and apparently concluded she meant it. Castor had zero doubt she did. He kind of wished Kaios would try something, just to see Leia fork him somewhere that would cause permanent damage. Weren’t werewolf balls a delicacy in some societies?

“I took the liberty of moving your seat as far away from mine as possible.” Leia glanced meaningfully across the table.

Castor choked back a laugh. So that’s what she’d been doing earlier. He and Kaios, as the most powerful beings present—even if the werewolf was an unexpected addition—were both treated as guests of honor, seated with the bride and groom, but that didn’t mean Leia had to sit close to the man.

“Out of respect for Tala and Marrok, I won’t share our story with them,” Leia continued.

Kaios’s lips flattened then pulled back in a silent snarl that had Castor’s fists bunching. Werewolves were notorious for hair-trigger tempers and a tendency toward crazy.

Visibly schooling his features to amusement, Kaios stepped back. “I would have thought you’d learned from the last time.” He tut-tutted. “Still high and mighty. Even without your spring, hmm?” He made his way around the large round table to the opposite side.

Castor’s entire body tensed with the need to lunge for the man’s neck. Leia’s only reaction was to tighten her hand around his, holding him back. Rage burned a cruel path through Castor’s chest—at Kaios as well as at himself. He shouldn’t have let her do this.

“She’s not alone anymore,” he said, biting off the words.

Deliberately, provocatively, Castor trailed a finger across the smooth skin of her upper back and placed a proprietary hand at her nape. Claiming.

She turned her head to blink at him, a question in her eyes. He returned her gaze with a warm smile, solely for her. One he meant. Satisfaction zoomed through him as she shivered beneath his touch and her eyes darkened to the hue of a midnight ocean. He’d started this for their audience of one, but Leia’s shiver had him laser focused entirely her. With wicked intent he trailed his fingertips down her spine in a feather-light touch designed to tease. At the same time, he dropped his gaze to her strawberry-colored lips, eager for another taste.

“I see. Found yourself a new lover, Lyleia?”

But beyond a scowl at the use of her full name—his name for her—Castor kept his gaze locked with Leia’s. He swallowed at the need he could see in the color in her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes.

“Castor is a wonderful man. I’m lucky to know him.”

Suddenly, with everything inside him, Castor wished she meant it. That she did think him wonderful. That she felt lucky because she was his.

He gave himself a mental shake. “I should thank Brimstone.”

“You know Delilah?” Tala asked, clearly happy for a different topic.

He nodded. “She found Lyleia for me.”

“She’s fantastic.”

“She must be a fantastic pimp,” Kaios said with a sneer.

Castor leveled a hard glare on the werewolf. “Watch it.”

“Or what, demigod?” the werewolf spat.

Castor sent an enigmatic smile across the table and had the satisfaction of seeing the werewolf pause. Between the two of them, he’d know Castor was more powerful.

The waiter appeared and set down a steak in front of the wolf. Castor flicked a hand and lightning shot from his fingertip, zagging across the table and hitting Kaios’s plate. A small thunderclap followed, making everyone in the room jump. The tang of burnt ozone mixed with the smoky scent of charred meat. What had been a rare piece of meat was now black and crispy.

Leia turned her head into Castor’s shoulder, trying to hide her laugh in the silence that followed his small demonstration of power.

Usually he let people guess his parentage, letting what they didn’t know worry them. Even more rarely did he whip out his control of lightning in a blatant display, but Kaios was too full of his own power and importance. The guy needed knocking down a peg. He might have bent Poseidon’s ear, but Castor’s father was Zeus, and the king of the gods trumped his oceanic sibling.

And now Kaios knew that Castor could turn a bigger wrath on him.

In fact, that sounded like a damn good plan.

Kaios had realized the implications if his glare, even as he pinched his lips closed, was anything to go by.

Castor picked up his knife and fork, cut a small piece from his own steak, which was still a lovely pink, and offered the morsel to Leia. She shook her head at his actions, the amusement dancing in her eyes. Amusement and gratitude. She opened those lush lips over the bite then gave a delicate groan of delight that stoked the tension inside him, like coal to a steam engine.

“Delicious,” she murmured.

Unable to resist any longer, he leaned forward to kiss her lips. “Delicious is right.”

An adorable blush stole up her cheeks. He wanted to take her back to their bedroom and find out if her entire body blushed the same way.

Marrok cleared his throat. “And I thought we were throwing off pheromones tonight. I think you two are giving us a run for our money.”

They both laughed at the alpha’s attempt to break the tension, though Castor could tell Leia’s giggle was forced. He didn’t miss the flash of hatred in Kaios’s eyes. Disguised quickly, the burn was unmistakable. Pure, unadulterated hatred.

Castor scooted closer to her, needing to protect. What had Leia done to him?

Dinner over, at Tala’s sister and maid of honor Astra’s prompting, Tala and Marrok stood and moved to the center of the room.

Castor knew his role as best man. A tradition at alpha mating ceremonies was for the alpha to put on a display of his skills. He gave Leia’s hand a squeeze and reluctantly left the table to retrieve Marrok’s weapon of choice for his display. As maid of honor, Astra also got up to get Tala’s for her.

Tala and Marrok laughed when they discovered they’d each chosen throwing knives. Duties done, Castor returned to his seat. The alpha pair put on an impressive showing, culminating in both throwing a knife at the other as they stood still against opposite walls.

“Wow,” Leia whispered when it was over. “They’re very evenly matched, but in different ways. Good thing they mated rather than battled for the right to be alpha.”

Castor agreed.

Following their display, the bride and groom shared their first dance, after which the floor was open to everyone. And it was needed, because the sexual tension had built back up in the room with the physical displays.

Needing to get her away from the werewolf—and also closer to himself—Castor pushed his chair back, stood, and held out a hand to his date. “Dance with me?”

She stayed where she was and pursed her lips. “Maybe that’s not a good idea.”

“What? Don’t dance?”

“And if I said I didn’t?”

“I’d say you can put your feet on top of mine.”

She shook her head, biting down on her smile.

“Come on,” he urged.

“I’ll pass.”

He leaned down and placed his lips close to her ear. “I want to dance with you.”

Still she hesitated.

“Please?” He found himself holding his breath like this was the first woman he’d ever asked to dance. If Pollux could see him now, his brother wouldn’t let him live it down.

When he’d about decided to give up and sit back down, she placed her hand in his and got gracefully to her feet. “Just remember whose idea this was.”

Not hers. He got the message.

He led her out onto the floor. The DJ was still playing slower songs as people wrapped up eating. He pulled her into his arms, and his hand at her waist encountered bare skin, warm and silky under his fingertips.

“I can’t believe you did that,” she whispered. “Lightning? Really?”

“No one threatens you around me.”

She shook her head, but he could see a warmth in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“Every man in this room hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you tonight in this dress.”

She chuckled softly. “The same way every woman hasn’t been able to stop stripping that elegant tux off your body with their eyes. We’re all driven by the same urges tonight, and they don’t come from us. They come from them.” She tipped her head at Tala and Marrok, currently circling the room together greeting guests.

He was tempted to challenge that idea, knowing this thing between them had started before coming to Colorado. At least for him. Knowing Leia, she’d pull away if he did, and he wanted her close. Besides, he could hardly argue with his erection pulsing and the pressure inside him needing release.

She stepped on his foot.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry.”

“Was that in retaliation for saying you’re beautiful?”

Another clash of feet, only this time she managed to plant the spiked heel of her stiletto on his instep. “Sorry,” she muttered again. “I did warn you.”

She pulled a disgruntled face. He chuckled at how cute her consternation was, only to receive a glare. He sobered. “Yes, you did.”

Despite his clamoring body, he kept the rest of their dance PG, managing to get stepped on only a couple more times, and escorted her off the floor when the song ended, feet sore and body on fire. Thankfully, Kaios had moved away, talking to wolf shifters on the other side of the room. Though Castor continued to watch him closely.

They spent the rest of the evening together, except when Marrok needed Castor for various best man duties. At those times, Castor made sure he left Leia with Tala’s sister or one of Marrok’s many cousins, the female ones at least, determined to never leave her vulnerable.

Several hours later, even though the party showed no signs of winding down, Leia tugged on his sleeve. “I’m dead on my feet.”

He’d hoped the connection that had been forged between them would lead to greater intimacy in their room, but she did appear to be drooping and pale. Had using her powers in such force today wiped her out? He swallowed back his disappointment even as his protectiveness where she was concerned kicked in hard. “Have Astra walk you up. I won’t be too much longer.”

He watched as she threaded through the crowds to wish Marrok and Tala goodnight before she disappeared out the side door with Tala’s sister.

“She’s quite a woman.”

Castor glanced over to find Kaios standing beside him. Rather than bothering to answer, he went to move away.

“Did she tell you about how we met?”

Castor ignored the question. “If you value your life, you’ll stay the hell away from me.”

“It was a ceremony similar to this one only for werewolves. The effect of a wolf mating can be amazingly heady. Don’t you agree? Imagine it when the mating pair are more…powerful creatures.” The werewolf’s implication was blatant.

A lie. Leia had already told him how things went down. But had she held back? Not told him everything? Something to explain the werewolf’s hatred.

Suddenly picturing Kaios possessing Leia’s body as the sexual tension drove them to greater heights had Castor wanting to punch a hole through the arrogant smirk on the werewolf’s face.

Instead, he forced himself to turn and walk away.