After making love a second time, Cyrus and Cella fell asleep, bodies entwined. He’d never slept so soundly and contentedly in his life. He felt a peace that he’d never encountered before and knew it was because he’d finally found his truemate.
He liked the term she used though. Beloved.
Once they’d made it down to her chamber, they hadn’t talked much, instead spending time exploring each other’s bodies. He delighted in every inch of her, from the soft curve of her hips to the way her eyes glazed over when she was close to the edge. He even loved her fangs, finding it highly erotic to feel them scraping lightly over his neck. He’d been tempted a hundred times during the course of the night to ask her to at least feed from him, but he knew if she did, he’d be unable to stop himself from marking her, and once he did that, he’d want to bond with her as well.
He was glad they’d spent time talking before they came to the chamber. He’d learned a lot about her, but he knew he hadn’t even really scratched the surface of how amazing she was. Cella was three hundred years old. He didn’t expect to know her well after only a few hours. As they drifted off to sleep, his last thought had been how good she felt in his arms. How perfectly she fit against him.
And then he woke up with a warm mouth on his dick, licking him like a lollipop. He cupped the back of her head and sat up on one elbow, watching as she dived down on him, taking him deep. He groaned and gritted his teeth, a personal war inside him waging between letting her finish him in her mouth or sinking deep in her pussy. He opted to let her play, and relaxed his control, letting himself enjoy what she was doing. The swirl of her tongue, the heat of her mouth, and the way her gaze devoured him. He’d never seen anything quite as sexy as her in that moment. Cella was an angel and a vixen.
He dropped his head back and groaned as he came, his cat rubbing against his skin and demanding to mark her. The beast was a broken record when it came to that, and he reminded him that it would be good to wait. Although as she sucked every last drop of come from him and made a sweet, almost-purr sound in her throat, he couldn’t recall what waiting was supposed to achieve.
He settled on his back and crooked his finger at her. “Come here, baby.”
She crawled up his body, kissing and nipping as she went, then rose onto her knees above him. He scooted down the bed until he was between her thighs and ate her out until she came all over his face, her honey the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted. She leaned on the headboard and ran her fingers through his hair. “Good way to wake up?”
He licked his lips and grinned at her. “The best.”
She lifted her leg and rolled to her back, leaning against a pillow. “I can’t keep my hands off you. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Not in the slightest.”
She beamed at him. “I loved falling asleep with you.”
“Me too. It was the most restful sleep I can remember.”
She looked over him to the nightstand. “We’ve got about an hour until we’re going to meet with Mishka. Join me in the shower?”
“You got it.”
The bathroom was very feminine, with yellow rugs and towels, and floral wallpaper. She turned on the faucet in the glass-enclosed shower. “Do you want to call your parents before or after we meet with Mishka?”
“I was thinking after. And maybe we could do a video call so we can talk to them face to face.”
“Sure. We can do that in my office if you’d like, my laptop has a nice camera on it.”
He nodded. They stepped into the shower and she apologized for only having flowery body wash, but he didn’t mind. If the price he had to pay to see his mate all wet and covered with soap was that he walked out of the bathroom smelling like a flower shop, he’d happily pay it. Although thoroughly tempted to make love to her in the shower as well, he opted to wait until they had more time later in the evening. Mishka would be waiting for them, and he didn’t want to rush when it came to loving her.
She handed him a fluffy towel and he dried off as she wrapped one around her hair and one around her body.
“I was thinking,” he said, rubbing his hair with the towel, “that we could visit my family on Friday. That’ll give us a few days to get to know each other.”
“Sounds good to me. The full moon is fifteen days away.”
He anchored the towel to his waist and leaned against the counter. “Is that too long to wait for us to become beloveds?”
“There’s no time limit.”
“I mean does it bother you that I want to wait to become beloveds until after we join as mates in the ambush?”
She looked thoughtful. “No. I feel really connected to you already, and our mating isn’t just about my traditions and ceremonies, it’s about yours too. Waiting two weeks so that we can officially join as mates in the ambush before we become beloveds isn’t really a long time in the whole scheme of eternity.”
“Good point.”
Since he didn’t have a change of clothes with him, he dressed in what he’d worn the night before. She changed into a black dress and heels, then pulled her hair up into a high ponytail. They left the chamber and walked to the elevator. When the doors closed, Cyrus pressed the stop button and caged her against the wall, giving her a kiss that devastated her senses.
She hooked her hands over his arms and smiled at him. “I’m not complaining, but why did you stop the elevator?”
“I wanted to ask you about clothes.”
“What about them?”
His gaze slid down her body and back up. “You dress very sexy for work.”
“We have a boutique clothier that handles the clothing for the coven females. Mishka’s old fashioned when it comes to how he feels females should dress in the office. And by old fashioned I mean sexist.”
He laughed. “I don’t mind you dressing sexy. I think you could be dressed in sweats and still look like a goddess. But I meant for myself. I don’t really have any nice clothes. I work construction, so pretty much everything I own is made of denim or flannel.”
“I like how you dress.”
“I don’t exactly fit in though.”
She tilted her head. “Do you want to?”
He gave a half shrug. “I don’t want you to be embarrassed by how I dress.”
“I would never be.”
He pressed his lips together and then blew out a breath. “I guess what’s been on my mind is that I don’t know what I’ll be doing once the restaurant is finished. I mean... I wouldn’t want to be commuting to Whisper Creek every day to work for the construction company. But I’m not an office guy. I don’t do spreadsheets, I build stuff.” He trailed his finger along the neckline of her dress. “I was wondering where I’d fit in here.”
She hummed, realizing he was genuinely concerned about his future with the coven. “We can talk to Mishka. There’s never been an issue for a mate to find work in the coven, and I know you’ll find a place to be here. And I’ll help. I want you to be happy.”
“Well, I’d be happiest if I could just sex you up every night.” He nuzzled her throat and she shivered with a giggle.
“You’re insatiable.”
“Just for you.” He kissed her once more, and then pressed the button to send the elevator on its journey.
A few moments later, Cella knocked on Mishka’s door, and when he called for them to open it, she and Cyrus walked in and found Harmony standing next to the desk and Mishka seated in the chair.
“Hi you two,” Harmony said. She gave Cella a hug while Mishka stood and reached over the desk, and Cyrus shook his hand. Then Cella and Cyrus sat in the chairs across from the grand desk and Harmony pulled up a chair and sat next to him.
“Now, first I want to say congratulations again to you both,” Mishka said. “It’s a wonderful thing when a vampire finds his or her beloved mate.”
“Thank you,” Cella said. She linked her fingers with Cyrus’s and smiled at him.
“What are your plans?” Mishka asked.
“He means, when are you planning to join as beloveds and how much time will you want to take off? We’ll need to cover the food manager position as well as ensure all your other duties are taken care of too,” Harmony clarified. “And, of course, you’ll need to make arrangements with your leader, Cyrus, for your job.”
“Cyrus would like to wait until the full moon for us to become beloveds,” Cella said. “The ambush holds ceremonies traditionally on that night. After the ceremony, we’ll become beloveds and then take a week off for a honeymoon.”
“Is there a reason you don’t want to become beloveds right away?” Mishka asked.
Cella looked at Cyrus, who said, “When Cella and I become beloveds, it’ll change me. I’ll still be a shifter, but I’ll be immortal as well. It’s not that I think the ambush won’t accept me as an immortal shifter or Cella as my mate, but I don’t believe that Midas would officiate our mating if I’m not entirely tiger. Which means she wouldn’t get the welcome and protection of the ambush, and that’s important to me.”
“I don’t understand,” Harmony said. “You’ll still be you.”
“But my allegiance will change, right?” Cyrus looked at Mishka, who nodded.
“It’s true,” Mishka said. “Angie feels an allegiance to me over her alpha. We can’t say for certain that it would be that way for you since you’re a different type of shifter, but you’re thinking that Midas wouldn’t officiate a mating if the tiger in question wasn’t under his command.”
“Pretty much,” Cyrus said. “My tiger wants to belong to Cella in every way and for her to belong to me in every way also, and that includes following in my people’s traditions.”
“I get that,” Harmony said. “Our natures make demands on us and it’s hard to ignore those feelings.”
Cella cleared her throat. “Cyrus wants to take me to meet his family and king on Friday. We’ll be back later that night. I don’t anticipate taking time off until the full moon.”
Harmony made notes on a tablet. “I reserved one of the SUVs and asked Brone to assign some guards for you.”
“Guards? What for?” Cyrus asked.
“Did Cella explain about The First Church of Humanity?” Mishka asked.
“Yes,” Cyrus said.
“The night that Angie met her beloveds, Vex and Rage,” Mishka said, sitting back in his chair, “she left to return to her home. Unbeknownst to us, church members were watching the club’s parking lot and followed Angie and her friend, boxing them in on the highway and attacking. Angie and her friend were unharmed, but since that point, no coven members leave the club without a driver and guard at the very least. It’s for both of your protection, but I say this in all seriousness – it would be a terrible thing for the church to follow you two to the ambush territory and decide to attack them because of your relationship.”
“Church members are human, but they’re determined,” Harmony said. “They’re not above using violence against any and all they see as being in allegiance with the coven. They attacked the wiccans when Brone’s mate Arissa was with them. She almost died in the battle.”
“I understand,” Cyrus said. “I want Cella to be safe. I’d never put my ego above her safety.”
“Good man,” Mishka said.
“Cyrus was wondering about work,” Cella said.
“You’re in construction, right?” Mishka asked.
Cyrus nodded. “I can build and install just about anything, and I can do a little electrical and plumbing too. I’m currently supervisor on the restaurant job, and I’d like to finish that project.”
Mishka nodded. “After the restaurant is finished, we’re planning to do a redesign of the stage. It’s outdated and needs to be entirely redone from the floor up, including lighting and the sound system. You can join our construction company and be part of the planning process and work on the project. There’s a lot to be done, not only in redoing the stage but setting up a temporary stage while the new one is being constructed so we don’t lose any club goers. How does that sound?”
“Great,” Cyrus said.
“We’ll have a celebration for your mating when you return from your honeymoon,” Harmony said. “The coven loves to celebrate a new mating.”
“Sure thing,” Cella said.
She and Cyrus said goodbye and left Mishka’s office. “How about the grand tour?”
“Okay.”
They walked down the hall and out into the reception area. She greeted Angie, who stopped them. “Your cousin dropped off a bag for you,” Angie said, pointing to a large duffel next to the desk.
Cyrus made a surprised noise and lifted it off the floor. He set it on a nearby chair and unzipped it. Cella peeked over his shoulder and saw it was full of clothes and a pair of tennis shoes. Cyrus pulled a folded piece of paper from the duffel and read the note. “Thought you could use some things, Gavin.”
“That was so sweet of him,” Cella said.
Cyrus grinned. “It was. I’ll have to invite him to the club for a beer to thank him.”
He zipped the bag and set it next to the desk, then walked with Cella to the food office. She told him about that part of her job as she checked her email and ensured things were handled for the night.
“If you need to work, I could go to the restaurant to work too.”
“I thought we’d take the night off.”
“Oh?” His cat made an interested purr which made her smile.
“It’s not unusual for newly mated couples to take a day or two off. Plus, you wanted to video call your parents. I just wanted to make sure everything was handled here.”
“Good. I really didn’t want to go to work tonight.”
“Me either,” she promised.
After she finished checking on the food, they headed to the cubicles, where she’d lived not too long ago. Passing through the coven’s sleeping quarters, she showed him the storage rooms and the loading dock, where huge metal doors stayed closed unless a truck was being unloaded. They ended the tour in her office, where she logged into the video app while he texted his parents to tell them to open their laptop to accept a video call.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
He pulled a chair up next to hers and gave her a kiss. “Not at all. I get to share the most amazing news with my family and introduce them to my gorgeous mate. Nothing to be nervous about at all. How about you?”
She clenched her hands together to stop the fine tremble. “A little. I’ve never met parents like this before.”
“It’ll be great, I promise.” His phone buzzed and he looked at the screen. “They’re ready. Hit the button, baby.”
She pressed the button to connect the video call.
This was perhaps the most important phone call of their lives.