Chapter Twenty-Two

When the sun had set the next day, two SUVs of coven members escorted Cella and Cyrus to a neutral meeting place to check in with Midas. She was nervous, and most of it was related to whether Cyrus would be able to stay in the ambush as a tribrid, or if he was too different. It was dependent upon how Midas’s own tiger reacted to Cyrus as much as it mattered how Cyrus felt about his king.

“What are you thinking about so seriously?” Cyrus asked.

She turned her attention from the scenery to her beloved. “The meeting mostly, but I was also just wondering why some shifters call their leaders king and some alpha.”

“I never really thought about it. I think a lot of it has to do with the hierarchy. Midas is the head of the ambush, period. He’s got a right-hand and an elder council, but he’s the be-all and end-all for what happens in the ambush. It’s also a hereditary position, so when he mates and has cubs, one of them will take over.”

“If he doesn’t have cubs?”

“The position would go to the next eligible member of his family. If there happened to be none, then the ambush would elect a new king, and future kings would come from that new family line.”

“I know the bears call their leader a king.”

“So do the dragons and falcons. The falcons merged their nest with a white lion pride, who also call their leader a king. I believe the wolves are the only one who call the boss alpha.”

“Why do you suppose that is?”

“Because wolves are hung up on hierarchy. No one else in the tiger ambush is ranked, just Midas. But the wolves fight for position, from the alpha to his beta and down to the lowest ranked male. I guess that it’s ingrained in their beasts to need that ranking. With other shifters, it’s just not as much, I suppose.”

“I’m glad the coven isn’t like that. I’d hate to have to fight someone to be part of it.”

“Rankings like that have their pros and cons, but I’m glad I don’t have to fight either.”

The SUV, driven by Temple, parked and he looked over his shoulder. “If you need us, holler.”

“Thanks,” Cyrus said.

He got out and Cella followed. The park was deserted save for three vehicles, which Cella assumed belonged to the ambush. Midas sat alone at a picnic table, freshly dusted free of the fallen snow. She glanced at the other vehicles and saw the shadows of people through the windows.

“Why is he by himself?” she whispered to Cyrus.

“He’s testing whether I can stand to be around him without attacking to feed. It would be foolish to bring a whole bunch of tigers with him before he knew if I could be trusted or not.”

She nodded. It hadn’t occurred to her how deep the worry went with the tiger king, but she understood. Better to be cautious than take an unnecessary risk.

“Midas,” Cyrus said. “Thanks for meeting with me.”

Midas stood and came around the picnic table. He walked slowly, his gaze on Cyrus. Cella gave his hand a squeeze and stepped away. She didn’t want to influence Cyrus in any way. He needed to stand on his own and let the chips fall where they might when it came to how he handled himself. Silently, she prayed to whatever deity handled tribrids that he’d come out on the other side of this able to be part of the ambush like he’d wanted.

Midas stood a few feet away, eyeing Cyrus critically.

“I feel fine,” Cyrus said. He even took a deep inhale, sorting through the scents in the air that included the wild smell of Midas’s cat.

“You don’t feel like taking a bite out of me?” Midas arched his brow.

“Really, I don’t. Can I come closer? I promise to keep my fangs to myself.”

Midas nodded. Cyrus moved close and Cella could hear him scenting the other male. She inhaled and caught the scent of Cyrus’s tribrid, the vampire and tiger mixture that was uniquely his.

“I’m not saying you don’t smell tasty.” Cyrus groaned and took a step back. “That was gross, sorry. I mean that you smell good to my beasts, but my natures are satisfied right now. I fed from two shifters at the club – a wolf and a puma – the night I woke from being turned, and I’ve been eating a lot of rare, red meat as well. It seems to keep me sane.”

“Bitty and Lorene came to visit this morning and shared what they’d learned in research about what happened to you. They didn’t believe you’d be a threat to me, but I needed to see for myself. If you’re up to the challenge, I want to bring some other males over so you can test your reaction. Know that I will stop you if you try to feed from them.”

“I’m okay with that.”

He glanced at Cella and gave her an encouraging smile.

Eight males got out of the vehicles and joined them. She didn’t recognize any of them, but Cyrus greeted them all by name. He moved to each male and inhaled but showed no visible reaction to any of them. When he looked at her, she saw that his eyes were the pretty golden and blue mixture, and she knew that both his beasts were firmly in control. Pride filled her at how amazing her beloved was.

“I think this is why vampires killed tribrids in the past,” she said.

“Oh?” Midas asked.

“He got control over his natures quickly. Newly turned vampires can be volatile and overly aggressive, which is why they aren’t left alone to feed. Once he fed for the first time, he’s had no problem keeping his beasts in check. Vampires, at least back in the old days, didn’t like anything that was different.”

“Shifters have a similar history. From what Bitty and Lorene said, shifters killed tribrids because they were worried the tribrid might kill them during a feeding. I think it sucks that people were killed before they did anything to warrant such a harsh and final action.”

“Me too.”

“Can you shift?” one of the males asked.

“I have access to my cat, but not to shift. I have enhanced senses – scent and hearing – and I have retractable fangs.”

“I want to test you with my cat,” Midas said.

“Of course.”

“Since I can’t call you to shift, I need to know if your cat is still thinking of me as his leader. If your fealty has changed, you won’t be able to be a member of the ambush any longer.”

“I understand.”

Cella didn’t even blink as she watched Midas and Cyrus lock gazes. Her sexy beloved was the ultimate predator, an immortal tiger with the added power of the vampire. This was the scenario that had worried Cyrus.

Midas’s eyes changed color to a brilliant gold. Fur sprouted on his cheeks and a growl rumbled in his chest. Cyrus rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Tension filled the air, and Cella had the sudden urge to drop to her knees and offer Midas her neck. She’d never done that for anyone, even Mishka.

But wasn’t that exactly who Midas was?

A king. A tiger, but a king all the same.

Cyrus dropped to one knee and Midas let out a roar that made the center of Cella’s being snap to attention. Without another thought, she joined Cyrus on the ground.

“What are you doing, Cella?” Midas asked.

She lifted her head and shrugged. “I have no idea.” She rubbed her chest over her heart, feeling an odd pang. “I can’t explain it.”

“I think I can,” Cyrus said. He took Cella’s hand and brought it to his lips. “She’s got my memories banging around in her skull thanks to our beloved bond. I believe that when you called my tiger just now, her memories were strong enough, vivid enough, for her to feel the need to take a knee too.”

Midas hummed. “That’s interesting.”

Cyrus gave Cella a sweet smile. “We haven’t had a whole lot of time to explore what being beloveds means on top of me being a tribrid.”

Midas didn’t say anything for a moment, and then he offered his hand to Cyrus. He took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, bringing Cella with him. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re tiger enough to show fealty to me. I suspect you also feel the same about Mishka?”

“I do,” Cyrus said.

“There were two issues that needed to be addressed today. One, whether you could handle yourself around shifters without trying to feed, which you proved quite easily. And the second, how your tiger – no matter if you could shift or not – felt toward me as king. I believe you’ve proven that you still feel an allegiance to me, and clearly so does your mate. Which means that you’re still part of the ambush, and we can perform the mating ceremony to bring Cella in as a member as well.”

“Thank you,” Cyrus said as he shook Midas’s hand. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me to stay in the ambush and for Cella to be able to join too. It’s been weighing on me.”

“I’m sure,” Midas said. The other ambush members joined them, congratulating Cyrus and introducing themselves to Cella.

“I had a thought,” Melo said, running a hand through his hair.

“About what?” Midas asked.

“Blood. You said you need shifter blood twice a month, right?”

Cyrus nodded.

“Doc Harrison has the equipment to draw and store blood. He doesn’t keep a lot on hand because we heal pretty quickly, but I was thinking that we could put out a call to the ambush to ask for volunteers for you so you could feed from donated blood without having to bite your family. I mean, unless you want to sink your fangs into your mom’s wrist.” Melo shivered and made a face, and Cyrus chuckled.

“That’s a good idea.”

“I was wondering if shifters had a blood bank,” Cella said. “There are vampire-owned blood banks that pay a nice fee to humans willing to donate.”

“I thought people worked at the club and fed vampires?” Melo asked.

“They do,” Cella answered. “But some people want to donate without having fangs in them. A sterile room and a human with a needle is easier for some people, particularly when they can’t control who they feed at the club. It’s not for everyone.”

“I’ll put out the word to the ambush and you can talk to your family directly about it.”

“I will.”

“We’ll join you as mates on the full moon,” Midas said. “Then Cella will be a full member of the ambush.”

“The sooner she’s an ambush member, the happier I’ll be,” Cyrus said.

“I understand.”

They talked a little while longer and then parted ways, Cyrus opening the door of the SUV and helping her inside. “How’d it go?” Temple asked as he backed out of the parking spot.

“Good,” Cyrus said. “I didn’t attempt to forcefully feed from anyone, and I’m still enough of a tiger to give authority to Midas.”

“When Angie, Vex, and Rage became beloveds, she didn’t feel like Adam was her alpha any longer. Her fealty switched to Mishka.”

“I think if I’d become Cella’s beloved in the usual way, that would have happened.”

Cella leaned on Cyrus’s shoulder and squeezed his hand. “You’re happy?”

“Very. But even if my cat didn’t want Midas to be our king anymore, I would still be the happiest male on the planet. I’ve got you in my arms for eternity. Life’s good, baby.”

She chuckled and tipped her face to his for a kiss. He brushed his lips over hers with a soft growl.

“Love you, sweetheart.”

“I love you too.”

When they returned to the club, Cyrus took her hand and walked with her through the garage and into the club offices. “I’ll come back to get you when we’re done for the night. I have something I want to do after work.”

“Okay,” she said, giving him a hug. Before he walked away and left her at the food office, she squeezed his hand. “I’m so thankful things worked out for you with the ambush.”

“Me too. But I wasn’t lying when I said that if it hadn’t worked out, I’d still consider myself the luckiest male ever because I get you.”

“I know,” she said, tapping the space over her heart. “I felt how serious you were.”

He winked and walked away, and she sat behind the desk and checked her messages before diving into work. When the night was nearly over and the offices were closed, Cyrus came to her door and knocked.

“How’s it going?”

“Not bad. I put new ads out for the coat check and food manager positions. They’re using social media to post the ads along with the print and online job boards, so maybe we’ll have better luck. How was your night?”

“Good. We’ll be able to get into the restaurant and start cleaning up after the full moon.”

“I wish the church would have to pay for what they did.”

“Me too. But the better revenge is to carry on despite what they tried to do.”

“I don’t know,” she said, as she rose to her feet. “Revenge is also pretty fun when someone is screaming in pain and terror.”

He chuckled. “True.”

He led her out of the offices and down the hall, where the coat check was dark, and the club was in the throes of being cleaned now that food and patrons had left.

“Where are we going?” she asked, when he didn’t go into the dance floor.

“I want to test the day-walking ability.”

She blinked in surprise. “Oh! Cool. Okay, but how about we don’t go out the front door where there isn’t much security?”

He turned and faced her. “The garage?”

“Let’s go up.”

She took him back to the offices, through several security-coded doors, and up a long flight of stairs to the roof. “Vex and Rage made a sanctuary of sorts for Angie after she decided she didn’t need to be around her pack on the full moon because of her beloved bond with them. They wanted her to have a place to go to be out in nature without having to leave the club.”

At the top of the stairs, she unlocked a security door and they walked out onto the rooftop that had been converted into a beautiful garden, with trees, shrubs, and flowers, strewn among a winding stone pathway. There was a fountain and a firepit in the center.

“Damn,” Cyrus said. “This is cool as hell.”

“I thought you’d like it. I can hang out in the stairwell out of the way of the sun. If you’re not sun tolerant, you can hustle back in here to safety.”

She walked with him while he explored the rooftop and explained that when Mishka built the club, he’d envisioned a rooftop dancefloor and bar as well.

“What happened?”

“It was a security hazard. He didn’t own the buildings in the vicinity, and worried about coven enemies getting to the roofs of other buildings and taking aim at club goers, so he abandoned the plans. It’s nice to see it being used finally.”

She could feel the rise of the sun before the sky lightened, and she kissed him and walked back to the stairs, propping the door open and settling back far enough that the sun’s rays wouldn’t hit her where she stood.

“Even if you’re not able to walk in daylight, you can move things with your mind and that’s awesome.”

“Yeah, but it would be nice if I could be outside in the daytime, in case it was ever a necessity. I saw a show once where vampires put on sunscreen and could be out in the sun. Did you ever try that?”

She giggled. “That’s fiction. There isn’t one strong enough to protect us from one hundred percent of the rays. I did hear of a coven who experimented with substances to put on the skin in an effort to allow them to walk in the daytime, everything from sunscreen to paint to liquid latex.”

“Any of them work?”

“No. The only thing that has any chance of working is to cover yourself from head to toe in clothes, and it’s hard to ensure that not even a sliver of skin shows. Sunlight burns are painful, so most vampires just don’t even bother trying to go out.”

“I get that, I’d avoid it if it hurt too. Which I hope it doesn’t.”

She did too.

He turned and faced the rising sun, and they watched together in silence as it lightened the sky until she had to squint and shield her eyes from the brightness. It took forever for the sun to rise above the buildings, and she was thankful she was back in the shadows and not exposed to the light, even though she worried about Cyrus. She didn’t want him to get hurt.

“That’s bright,” he said, putting his hand up and turning his head away slightly.

“Are you burning?” She was tempted to rush out to him and drag him into the safety of the shadows.

He smiled at her and dropped his hand. “Nope. Not a bit. It’s warm, but it should be because it’s sunlight. It’s just bright. I haven’t seen the sun since we met.”

“How long do you want to stay up here?”

He looked at his watch and then her. “Are you okay? Are you getting harmed at all?”

“I’m fine.”

“How about an hour? I think it’s pretty proof positive that I can walk in daylight, but I’d like to give it time.”

She settled on the top stair while Cyrus sat on a chair and watched the sun. It was the most surreal thing she’d ever done that also bordered on utterly normal for humans. People who weren’t affected by the sun didn’t give it any thought. The ability to walk around in the daytime without causing harm to her body wasn’t something she’d been able to do for three hundred years.

“Do you ever miss the sun?” he asked.

“I did at first. But three hundred years ago, humans lived entirely by the sunlight. There weren’t lightbulbs and electricity to keep us going after the sun went down, just oil lamps and candles. Before vampires were known to humans, we lived outside of large cities and ventured out at night to hunt humans for feeding and we had to handle our business at night or use other supernatural creatures who could be out in the daylight in our place.”

“You must have had to use a lot of compulsion.”

“All the time. We were constantly worried about being discovered and killed. It was strange to come out of the coffin, so to speak, to humans and fight for equal rights, but it makes things so much easier in the long run.”

He hummed and started to unbutton his shirt.

“Not that I’d ever tell you to keep your clothes on, but what are you doing?”

“I figure I should strip and make sure that this experiment is as detailed as possible. If the clothes are helping me tolerate the sunlight at all, then I don’t have a true day-walking ability.”

“Good point. Proceed, sexy.”

He stood and faced her, giving her a strip tease as he shucked all but his boxer briefs. He stretched, the sunlight making his skin look like it was dusted with gold.

“Fuck, I wish you could be out here with me.”

“Me too.”

They talked while the sun shone on him and she sat in the shadows, and even though they had each other’s memories through the beloved bond, she still enjoyed hearing about his childhood exploits and sharing the things she’d learned about herself as she remained youthful thanks to her immortality. When he was sufficiently convinced he was able to walk in the daylight, he dressed and joined her. His skin was warm to the touch and he smelled like a mixture of sunshine, tiger, and vampire.

“We don’t have too long until we’ll be joined as mates in the ambush,” he said, as he opened their chamber door.

“I’m excited.”

“Me too.”

He closed and locked the door, and then the overhead light went out suddenly, the room bathed in darkness.

“Cyrus?”

“Turn around, beloved, I have a question for you.”

She turned around, unable to make out anything in the pitch black. Then a single candle flared to life, followed by others that were scattered around the room. Cyrus was in front of her, down on one knee, with a glittering diamond ring in between his finger and thumb.

She inhaled sharply.

“I want to say something super romantic so that when you remember this moment, you’ll think about how awesome I am to be able to string together a lot of eloquent words. But you know that’s not me. I just love you, sweetheart. From the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, and every inch in between. You’re everything I ever wanted in a mate, and I get you forever, which is the biggest bonus possible. I want us to belong to each other in every way, and that means being married too. So I kneel before you, heart in my hands and this ring in my fingers and ask you – will you marry me?”

For a moment she couldn’t speak.

Then she smiled and held out her left hand. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you!”

He slid the ring on her finger and stood, sealing their engagement with a kiss that left her toes curling with pleasure and her mind spinning with excitement.

“You’re wrong,” she said as he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed.

“About what?”

“That was very romantic, and I’m one lucky female to have a beloved like you.”

“Trust me, Cella. I’m the lucky one.”