A Guardians Passion (40 page)

Skittish yet handsome as ever, the chocolate omega approached at Freya’s command. While useless in battle, the quarter-fae wolf had all the talents necessary for recovery afterward.

“I, um, I can grab some food and drink,” Ezra offered. “The kitchens should still be in one piece.”

“Do that, omega,” Rayne suggested. He needed sustenance and release, of the basest, roughest sort, and while Fenris could provide something rough and cruel, his alpha could neither take it nor love it. “Bring lots.”

Freya chuckled, but Fenris was all seriousness. Freya had one hand on him and the other upon Fenris and was urging them forward. Although Rayne moved, the sound of shuffling behind him brought him to a stop. The asprega had gotten to their feet and padded forward. They really were following.

Rayne exhaled, telling himself that the additional audience didn’t matter. He had no idea why Freya wanted to keep the creatures, but he prayed it wouldn’t be long. They were docile and obedient now, but was that a certainty?

Freya’s hand was upon the small of his back, guiding Rayne forward despite his worries. She was the mother of Fenris’s and his child, and he would not challenge her decision.

Although when she asked Dona to join them, Rayne seriously considered saying no.

* * * *

Ezra was quick coming to them with fried chicken, yeast rolls, and a sack of green apples. He had help. One of Vaegar’s pack accompanied him, bringing out two gallon jugs of distilled water to the small patch of land not five hundred yards away from the front door of the mansion. Beneath a tall elm, seated on the trimmed lawn with her entourage, Freya enjoyed the cool night breeze. It would be around three hours before the sun rose and truly killed all suspicions for another attack, yet Freya believed her mother.

The fight was done.

The vamps had played their best hand and lost. They no longer had the stealth and brutality of the asprega at their command, they had little hope of maintaining their victims, and any measure of deniability they had had was lost. Freya looked at the vampires’ former slaves and thought of old tales told by elders, of weres who lived and breathed at the command of vampire lords just as the asprega before her seemed to have.

Vampires hadn’t been able to retain their stranglehold on weres before. What was it that had made them ambitious enough to think that they could keep both asprega and weres now, she wondered.

“Freya, are you all right?”

At Rayne’s voice, she blinked out of her contemplations to find that Ezra had arranged the food upon a blanket between them, but no one had touched a thing. Everyone’s eyes were traveling between her and the edibles Ezra had set out. “I’m fine. Absolutely. Eat. Go ahead and eat,” she urged wolves, wytchen, and asprega alike.

No one was willing to make the first move save Dona, who got up from his seat and walked over. He leaned down and attempted to get his hand on an apple before a rumble of thunderous growling began.

Freya turned her head at the vibrations coming over her right shoulder. The great pale wolf with dual sets of tusks and an ominous set of curved, bull-like horns was trying to communicate. He had decreased somewhat in size and mass but had refused to revert back completely.

“N-n-no.” Fenris narrowed his eyes, scanning eagerly for the first to disobey him. His body was a concrete wall leaning forward against Freya’s shoulder. He wrapped his paw around Freya’s back and held tight.

Freya cocked her head at her alpha, not because she didn’t know what his intentions were. They had had countless discussions about her ability to speak and act for herself, and while most of them had ended in sex, Freya was in no mood to argue.

“Gimme a piece of the goddamn chicken,” she demanded with her hand outstretched to Rayne. He was swift to place a thigh quarter, crispy skin and all, into her hand. She brought it to her lips and tore a good-sized portion of meat. “Happy, wolf?” she asked once she had finished savoring and swallowed.

Fenris relaxed but didn’t loosen his hold. He returned every ounce of scrutiny that Freya gave to him.

It worried her that Fenris had yet to relinquish his Luna guise. The asprega were eyeing him warily along with Dona. She had to wonder if the females knew what her mates and the wytchen had done to Birathan and the other males or if they even cared. Not one had so much as bared her teeth since leaving the mansion, and although they had developed a fascination with grass, it didn’t stop them from throwing wary glances toward Fenris.

Freya pressed back into Fenris’s chest, giving him her submission as well as her attention. Still working on her chicken, Freya implored, an act she might have once detested. “Come on, babe. Drop the act and chill with us.”

Fenris gave a deep, defiant huffing sound that ceased once she switched her piece of chicken to her left hand and moved her right into the warmth of his lap.

Dona gaped. Most folk would think her crazed to stroke the sex of such a beast, but Freya didn’t give a damn. Fenris was hers, no matter what shape he took, and even he acknowledged it.

Her alpha grumbled a bit more, yet before she cleaned all the meat off the bone, his fur was receding, his body reshaping. Freya found herself against firm, naked male, his smooth skin searing with heat. It took some time, but eventually the breath behind her hair came softer than vigorous bellows.

“I see that you’re getting the hang of it.”

“Yeah.” Freya caught Rayne’s glance, her beta’s eyes revealing the sadness that his voice tried to hide within mirth. She knew it wasn’t just jealousy that caused him to look away. He had always spoken of her having the capacity to placate Fenris, but the past few days had done irreparable damage to his confidence. The frequent, snatched glances toward his father, the worried looks he gave to the asprega and the mansion gave his state away. Later, she promised herself, out of the earshot and eyesight of others, would she deal with him. Just as Fenris was her responsibility, so was the affirmation of Rayne. “But still, it works better with you over here.” She beckoned him close. “Right, Fen?”

“Of course. He knows.”

Rayne chanced a look at Fenris but lowered his eyes quickly as if he had been reprimanded. Still he hesitated.

As much as she wanted to send Dona, Ezra, and the asprega away, she didn’t have the strength to deal with a battle of emotions. The wind brushing across her face, the beauty of the predawn grounds—she wanted just a while to savor them. She had questions and doubts of her own that needed to be dealt with just as surely as Rayne’s. “Butch up later,” she begged. “Can’t we just enjoy ourselves and our victory, the fact that nobody’s wearing a fucking collar or locked up in a cell tonight?”

Rayne winced before yielding with a series of nods. His suffering was starkly visible before he dropped to all fours and crawled over to her. “I am sorry, alpha. I just—”

Freya threw her cleaned chicken bones aside and grabbed her beta. She pulled him against her body. She didn’t need to hear the excuses, not in mixed company. More importantly, she had no intention of allowing others to hear it.

Rayne folded against her like a babe, resting his head against her breast, heated lips just inches from skin. He wrapped a protective arm over her belly.

With Rayne before and Fenris behind her in her favorite, familiar configuration, Freya was content. The bag with Birathan’s head inside was beside Dona, who had no shame in his attention. The pale fiend’s lips were stretched wide, his grin irking the shit out of her. He knew what was wrong with Rayne and was grinning as if he couldn’t wait to share it. His spooky pale eyes shimmered with mischief that Freya refused to acknowledge. The aspregas’ wariness had begun to wane as the largest of the females reached out for an apple. She brought the fruit to her mouth and bit off a small portion. Her eyes went wide, and she smiled with pleasure as she chewed.

Her sisters were watching as she swiftly devoured the fruit. Then they too reached out.

Freya didn’t want to think of what conditions they had to have been kept in to find such joy in something so simple. Sure, they could be frightening weapons, but the glee they showed, apple juice glistening on their lips, silent joy and smiles over every bite, only confirmed the rightness of her decision.

Even wild dogs needed to be shown pity. After all, wasn’t that what Helena and her pack had tried to do? Show the ferals something nice. Reach out to them.

Freya closed her eyes and imagined herself back at the Sohon mansion with its sumptuous meals and proximity to crystal-blue waters. Amazingly enough, she even thought of the delight of the vendors’ room.

The gifts, the froufrou shit she had amassed for her cub, Freya tried to recall it all. Perhaps it had seemed insignificant before, but no. The retreat and the wolves who had catered it knew damn well how to make a wolf feel special.

The old her would have scoffed at baby harnesses, chew toys, and tiny clothes. Now she wanted nice things for Bun. She wanted moments of silence and just a little bit of relaxation.

It could happen. Helena had said that it could, but that it would have to be demanded. Rather than wax melancholy over how many things the Sohon matriarch had been right about, Freya concentrated on the execution of her request and making it sound believable. “So now that my little vacay is done, I’ve been thinking. I kinda like pampering. That doesn’t make me soft or anything. But I can cope with a foot massage, a back massage here and there.

“You know, at first I was feeling a little smothered. But, I think I want to be coated in all that seaweed, mud, oil stuff you’re always mixing.” She leaned forward and whispered against Rayne’s brow, “And I really want my feet rubbed.”

Rayne kissed her breast, chaste but hot all the same. He sat up and scooted down by her feet. Ever eager, her beta asked, “Would you like that now?”

Fenris brushed his lips over her shoulder. He moved in close, allowing her to feel the heavy iron of his sex against her side. “I have no problem with exhibition. Still, Dona, take the females away.”

“Ah, no. No. Don’t take them anywhere,” Freya exclaimed. She sat up and scowled at her alpha male, who looked like 100 percent pure and defiant sin. She didn’t bother with a reprimand, knowing that it would do no good against her were.

Slapping his hand when he moved to regain his hold on her, Freya looked to Ezra. “You. I need you to show my boys how to do a proper foot massage. I don’t need any fucking tongue, and your lips don’t go higher than my ankles. That’s what I asked for, and that’s all I fucking need right now. Got it?”

Ezra nodded vigorously as he moved down beside Rayne. He shot swift, wary glances at Rayne but placed his hands upon Freya’s bare foot. Soft, gentle fingers kneaded her sole from heel to ball, his thumbs delicately pressing against the sides of her foot.

Rayne smelled of spite, even as Freya recaptured him and dragged him back to her. She lay down upon Fenris but turned slightly in order to avoid his cock prodding a hole in her back. The side of her hip was not so lucky, however. He hugged her just as tightly as she held Rayne.

There would be time for reward later, she promised silently and with her fingers, keeping hold of Rayne and dropping a hand to Fenris’s thigh. She massaged the skin her fingertips touched with gentle caresses that spoke the volumes she could not.

As she stretched her foot in Ezra’s grip, she felt the power of command, felt pulses calm and temperatures return to normal. “Not only a beautiful, spying fae but a damn good masseuse too,” she said to Ezra with a sigh before jostling Rayne. “Seems like we all made a good choice.”

Dona chuckled, lips shining with juice from the apple he was eating.

Rayne’s restlessness returned, and he slid from her hold. He sat up and met her gaze with angst in his eyes. “Freya, w-we just wanted you to…”

Freya waited for Rayne to complete the excuse but wasn’t surprised when his voice trailed off to silence. They valued her. She got it and appreciated it. Bravado aside, she had needed the fucking help. “It’s okay, babe. I know exactly what you intended, and it is more than okay.”

“I’m not apologizing, female,” Fenris huffed. “You are safe. And you will be protected, warrior or not.”

Freya turned her head, ready to let loose a string of rebuttals, declarations of independence and fire, but in dark blue eyes that could melt her defiance within seconds, Freya recalled what her body was certain of. She belonged to the big wolf. With a sigh, she settled. “Right. Fucker.”

He gave a
hmpf
as if to say
I know.

She allowed him the last word, even as Rayne moved down beside Ezra and gripped her other foot.

“Move over. I can help,” he growled softly.

Ezra obeyed the order, but with Rayne bristling and growing warmer by the second, she could sense the omega’s uneasiness. Rayne had the aptitude to deliver a pointed caress, to address the needs of each toe, tendon, and nerve, but the edge of submission was barely there.

She recalled the moment they first met and wondered how she could have ever thought of Rayne as an omega. His submission had always been laced with restraint. While Fenris and she could control him, Rayne would terrorize the omega at every turn.

“You’re a beta through and through, Rayne. Our heart and mind,” she said, speaking for their alpha.

“And soon, he will be your strength,” Dona muttered, looking over to the mansion, where Vaegar’s men were bringing out the corpses of the dead and stacking up a funeral pyre. With supernaturals, it was always about the cleanup.

Freya had no fear of wytchen, but she had learned that Rayne’s father was not exactly one to underestimate. “What are you on about?”

Something venomous passed between father and son as Rayne shot his father a warning glare.

“Nothing,” Dona replied, looking over into the basket that had held the apples and finding none inside. He reached for a piece of chicken instead. “I think the ladies really like the fruit. They may be vegetarians.” As he changed the subject, he gestured over to the group of asprega who were truly enjoying the fruit, cores and all. “What will you do with them? You could find a different pack of asprega to assimilate them with. Not Birathan’s, though. They’re all…in a better place. I could take them to the outer realms, or will you be taking them to the lodge? Someone should watch over them.”