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BRIAN
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ELIZABETH HAD MANAGED to push down a few morsels of food, which promptly came out, but a cup of ginger tea with honey and lemon seemed to settle her irritated stomach. I tucked her into bed and she dozed off.
I sat beside her, holding her elegant little hand in mine, dazzled with the incredible feeling of the warm current of our eternal connection flowing between our bodies.
So, she was my bond mate, after all. I had been too messed up to feel it before.
She was mine forever.
I’d loved Elizabeth with all my heart, with all my mind and all my soul. I’d loved her for a long time, maybe even before she had given me her heart. I’d fallen in love with her before I’d seen her. Why had it taken me so long to realize it?
A feeling of enormous joy washed over me. We were bonded. Now she would stay. I was never going to lose her.
The fact that Elizabeth didn’t feel the bond didn’t concern me. She would, soon. Tristan Blake, who had been studying bonding for years, had some interesting theories. Bonds that develop over time were more common than we thought. On the spiritual level, he said, the bond was there all the time; the physical manifestations often came later. Heck, I hadn’t felt it up until now.
Or perhaps she did, but didn’t recognize it. We’d know soon enough.
Our bond was irrevocable and eternal, regardless of Elizabeth’s physical entity. But I knew, with every fiber of my being, that she’d become a blaidd benywaidd.
Deep inside me, I felt my wolf submit to my human authority. I wouldn’t turn tonight. Next time I did it, it would be of my own will, to run through the woods, for joy and fun, maybe with Elizabeth speeding beside me.
Twenty-six years since he’d taken over, my greatest ally stepped back knowing I would be okay on my own. With a deep sigh of relief, I imagined.
He’d stay an integral part of my mind, body and soul, as it should be. Together, we would be more than the sum of our human and wolf entities, but we’d live in peaceful unity, and not in constant competition, keeping an eye on each movement every time.
Brian Canagan, the dyn and the blaidd, had come home.
Without releasing Elizabeth’s hand—the feeling of our bond was so fulfilling, so exquisite that I simply couldn’t stop touching her—I fished out my cell from my pocket with my other hand and dialed Gerd’s number.
“Listen,” I said in a low voice, trying not to wake up my pale beauty when Gerd answered the phone after what had to be the seventh ring. “Elizabeth is having a bad migraine attack, the first one since she’s come here. She’s sleeping now. Do I need to worry?”
“Probably not,” Gerd said, slightly out of breath and I wondered what I had interrupted. “It’s likely she will have a couple of remissions before they’re gone for good. If she doesn’t feel better by tomorrow, tell her to come to my office. Or I’ll pop by tomorrow after work to check on her.”
“Thanks, Gerd.”
“Now that I think of it, she did look a bit pale today. Tell her to call me later if she wants to talk.”
“Sure,” I said and disconnected.
I wanted to marry her. I wanted to have children with her. Little dark-haired beauties and handsome boys with grey eyes. Or maybe blue-green, like mine.
I’d been ready for a long time. Yet I’d told her just the opposite because I didn’t have the courage to open up to her. “Please forgive me, Elizabeth,” I whispered and kissed her hand.
She stirred and smiled in her sleep.
I heard a car pulling in and walked to the window and looked outside.
Eve got out of her semi-pickup and walked to the house. I went down to let her in.
“I need to talk to you, Brian,” she said. “Where is Elizabeth?”
“Sleeping. She has a migraine.”
“Good. I mean, it’s good that she’s sleeping.”
“Glad you came. The conversation I expect we’re going to have is way overdue. Let’s go to the library.”
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WE SAT IN ARMCHAIRS in front of the fireplace. A small steady fire burned inside.
“I’m sorry I put you through this, Brian,” Eve said after a lengthy silence, moving her gaze from the fire to me. “I don’t know how I survived your death. It was like someone tore my heart out of my ribcage, took my soul, my feelings, my mind. What was left of me was an empty shell. You were dead, and I envied you. Part of me, the best part, died with you. What lived was anguish and pain.”
She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. “Almost two years passed before James mentioned his feelings for me. He felt he was betraying you. I didn’t love him. I didn’t want to love him. I couldn’t because I still loved you, and he knew that. He was patient, he understood. And I fell in love with him. It was my way to survive: to dig deep enough inside me to find a spark, a tiny flame of life and joy. We both believed you’d have approved if you’d had a chance to know.”
She stopped and rested her soft amber gaze on me. “You knew, of course, and you didn’t approve, did you?”
I smiled at her. “I understood. I was mad with pain, but deep inside I understood. Turned out, you and James are bond mates. It was I who didn’t fit into the equation.”
“You think if you didn’t die, James and I would end up together anyway?”
“At some point, yes, you would,” I said. “I’m sure of it.”
Because all the time the celestial power had another woman in its mind for me. The tiny woman that was now sleeping in our room one floor above. My bond mate.
“Why have you pulled the brakes then and refused to give me a divorce?” I asked. “Don’t you want all this mess with our valid and invalid marriages to be sorted out once and for all?”
“Are you aware that the moment we divorce, your Miss Chatwin will propose to you?”
I laughed. “Only if I don’t propose first.”
She looked at me to make sure I was joking, but I was dead serious. The next day I was going to talk to Magda Powell about an engagement ring.
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
“I am, Eve.”
“You’ve made us all believe you didn’t want to rush into marriage and family life. Where did this sudden change of heart come from?”
“From twenty-six years of solitude and loneliness,” I said. “From the blessing of having Elizabeth in my life. She brought love and joy into my life. I was dead inside, an empty shell, to use your expression, and she made me feel alive and happy again. Whole again. See, it’s not so sudden after all.”
“I didn’t know you felt so deeply for her.”
I hadn’t either. Now I knew I did. “I love her, Eve.”
She smiled, staring into the flames. “I love James as much as always. But you, Brian, you hold part of me, and I need it back. Can you give it back to me?”
I walked to her and pulled her to her feet. I closed my arms around her slender shoulders and pulled her into my arms. Tenderly, as if she was breakable. My body recognized every line, every curve of hers. She didn’t arouse me physically, of course not, yet for a long moment, I enjoyed the warm and soft familiarity of the body that had been mine for so many years.
“I do want you to be happy.” She sniffed. “I’ve behaved like a mother who thinks no girl is good enough for her son. I’m sorry.”
I lifted her chin. “I love Elizabeth with all my heart. She’s my present and my future. But I wouldn’t change a single moment of our lives together, yours and mine, even if I could. I’m part of you and you’re part of me. Forever. Nobody can change that. Not James, not Elizabeth. We should let those parts live and flourish, not try to destroy them. I love you, Eve. I always have, and I always will.”
I lowered my head and tenderly touched her lips, soft and warm. She sighed and rested her head against my shoulder.
She’d be okay, I thought. She’d go through it.
At that precise moment, a faint swirl of familiar orange blossom and jasmine scent reached my nostrils. My head snapped to the door.
It stood slightly ajar. Through the narrow crack, I saw a movement and heard Elizabeth’s hurried steps toward the staircase.
Eve took a step back. “Brian, go after her and explain.”
I uttered a dry laugh. “I guess Elizabeth was right on time to hear my love confession and to see me kiss you. Didn’t you detect her scent?
“Oh, I did.” She smiled. “It’s all over you. But I didn’t hear her approach if that’s what you’re asking. I heard our vardanni is almost impossible to trace.”
She reached for her handbag and pulled out a thick manila envelope. “Divorce papers. Can we talk about it without our lawyers?”
“I have to find Elizabeth first.”
“Tell her what you told me, and everything will be okay. I’ll wait here.” She sat back in the armchair. “Call me if you need my help,” she said, only half joking.
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ELIZABETH WAS IN OUR room, on the phone with someone. Her eyes were red from crying, but it was the utter terror all over her face that set all my alarms off.
“Someone ki-kidnapped Jacob,” she stammered. “Molly was with him. They took her, too.”
The next moment my phone rang. Ahmed.
“Did you hear, Brian?” he said. “Jack and I are leaving for Rosenthal right away.”
“I’m going with you.”
“You sure? It can be hours before we return, Brian. What about your transformation?”
“It’s not an issue anymore,” I said. “I’ll explain later.”
“Adam Mackenzie’s coming with us.”
“Good. Call Enescu and tell him to wait for us in Rosenthal,” I said. “I’ll call James.”
“Okay. We will meet at the heliport in forty-five minutes.”
Elizabeth watched me silently, an unspoken question in her wide open, swollen eyes.
“I have control over my wolf, Elizabeth,” I said when I ended the call. “It’s over, honey.”
“I’m glad, Brian,” she said and smiled tiredly. “This is great news.”
“Who told you about Jake?”
“Lottie. Call Sam first. Tell him you’re coming.”
Sam didn’t answer the phone, but I hadn’t expected him to. He was keeping the line open for the kidnappers.
“Talk to Sam’s neighbor, Mrs. Lester,” Elizabeth said. “She saw everything. Here, Lottie gave me her number.”
I dialed Mrs. Lester’s number. A single mother of a five-year-old boy, she lived two houses from the Wakefields. She was about to take her son for a play date with Jacob when she noticed a commotion in front of the Wakefields’ home.
According to Mrs. Lester, Molly had just picked up Jacob from school. She was in front of the garage when two cars flanked her. Two men dragged Jacob out at gunpoint. Molly threw herself at the man holding the screaming Jacob and managed to get a grip on the boy. The other kidnapper yelled at her to let go of the boy and fired the gun. Mrs. Lester saw blood on Molly’s shoulder, but the kidnappers couldn’t take Jacob from her arms, so they threw them both in the back seat of one the cars, leaving the other car on the street.
“This is a great help, Mrs. Lester,” I said. “I might call you again so please stay close to your phone.”
Her phone plastered on her ear, pale and shocked, Eve appeared in the bedroom.
“Have you heard?” she said, moving her eyes between Elizabeth and me.
“I have,” I said. “Is it James?”
She nodded.
“Let me talk to him.”
Eve passed me the phone. I asked him to get ready and meet the rest of us at the heliport, adding that Christian Enescu was joining us.
“Excellent. He and I will track them down in no time,” James said.
Well, if anyone could, it would be the two of them. “Get ready in fifteen.” I disconnected and turned to Elizabeth and Eve. “Why don’t you two go downstairs? You both look like you need a drink.”
Elizabeth made a quiet moan. “No drink for me. Maybe a cup of tea.”
I looked at her. “How’s your migraine?”
“Better.” She didn’t sound very convincing. “Brian,” she looked at me with her incredible silver eyes speckled with gold, “you’re going to bring them home, aren’t you?”
“If we have to go to hell and back to find them, we will.” I kissed her lips, savoring for a brief moment the gentle warmth of our bond. “I have to go. When I come back, we should talk. About us. Okay?”
She nodded and stood up. She framed my face with her delicate, soft hands and kissed me with indefinite tenderness. “I love you, Brian Canagan. Be careful.”
“I love you too. I’ll be back in no time, Elizabeth.”
Less than thirty minutes later, the five of us—Jack, James, Ahmed, Adam and I—were en route to Rosenthal. I only wished Tristan and Livia could’ve come with us, but they currently were somewhere in Europe, on vacation.