The Witch's Dream - A Love Letter to Paranormal Romance (Black Swan 2) (4 page)

“When I said that, how could I know that we would be makin' babies together and that one day you would propose somethin’ so fuck-it-all stupid as puttin’ yourself and our little one in harm’s way?”

“It’s supremely simple, Ram. If the baby’s father is going, the baby’s mother is going. Baby’s father stays home, baby’s mother stays home. Your choice.”

Ram's color reddened as he turned to face the wall to shout frustrated Gaelic at the top of his lungs.

She examined her nails nonchalantly, completely unfazed. “It will do you no good to curse in Irish. I can’t understand it.”

“You are the most fractious woman to ever walk the earth!”

“Nonetheless.” She rolled a shoulder in a pretty shrug indicating she would not be moved in this. “You know I’m good with dogs.”

Ram’s mouth fell open and he gaped at her with wide eyes. “Elora! Werewolves are not dogs.”

“If it looks like a canine…”

“It does no' look like a canine, Elora. It looks lupine.”

“Oh, what-the-hell-ever.”

Ram laughed. “Pub speak, my girl? Where’s Ms. Perfect Princess Propriety now?” He stopped and grinned. “Say that three times fast.”

She gave him a pointed glare. “Off topic, Rammel.”

Ram faced the closed suite door raising his arms and his voice in a mock plea of distress. “Help! She’s callin’ me Rammel. I'm in trouble now!”

“You know you are asking for it.”

Very slowly he turned his head and gave her a lupine smile if ever she saw one. In the spirit of giving credit when due, she had to hand it to the love of her life. He didn’t need to say what he was thinking out loud to be clearly understood.

There was no one near the east wing of the palace who didn't know an argument was underway between the prince and his soon-to-be bride. Not being used to the way the newly mated couple interacted, the staff gave each other poignant looks and donned personal listening devices to keep from eavesdropping.

Of course, the staff was aware of Ram's temperament or, rather, temper inherited from his mother. When he was a child, he had fought constantly, sometimes with his father, sometimes with his older brother, Aelsblood. When the environment of conflict became too much, even for him, he would run away to an uninhabited hunting cottage in the New Forest Preserve and stay for long periods of time.

When he wasn't fighting, however, he was more fun than a pint of Guinness. Emotional outbursts are hardly foreign to the Irish character. It's something of a cultural pastime. And everyone knows that fits are easier to overlook when the owner of the temper is also a renowned joy-giver as was the case with both Ram and his mum, the queen.

However, adding Elora Laiken to the mix seemed to have raised the intensity of Ram's tirades. Or at least the volume.

Having heard the disturbance on the way to breakfast, like everyone else in that wing of the palace, their teammate, Kay, decided to seek out Ram's little sister for help. Since coming to Derry for the wedding and meeting Ram's family, he had learned that the beautiful and lively Aelsong was an extraordinarily talented clairvoyant - just the thing needed to restore peace in a super-sized household.

After asking around Kay located her having coffee and croissant in the solarium while she pored over details of the pending handfasting. She and Ram's mother had taken it upon themselves to make this wedding the event of the century and that sort of staging required mega organization and dedication. Kay asked if - just between the two of them - she could please look to the future and see the baby.

Ram couldn’t remember ever wanting to throttle
anyone
more. Since that wasn’t a possibility, he did the next best thing, which, according to his somewhat unique logic, was to grab Elora and kiss her like he hadn't seen her for months.

Kay knocked on the door twice, but the occupants of the room were too preoccupied to take note. He opened the door, expecting to find his teammates locked in combat or throwing things at each other. Instead, he and Aelsong were greeted with the sight of Ram and Elora rolling on the floor and groping each other desperately, like teenagers in the back seat of a car.

Aelsong barked out a laugh. Kay blushed and looked at Song thinking that Ram and his sister really were like twins because laughing in such an awkward situation was
precisely
what Ram would have done.

“Song!” Elora laughed with embarrassment as she untangled herself from her mate and pulled at her zip-up sweater to make it come back together in front.

Ram sat up and glared, looking from one intruder to the other with lines drawn between his brows. "By all means. Please do no' be put off by the
closed
door."

Kay was clearly more embarrassed than Elora. "Sorry," he finally managed. "I thought you were fighting."

"We are." Ram didn't look at all less angry. "I'm tryin' a different form of persuasion. What has that to do with you?" His attention swiveled to Song. "And you."

"Well, Aelsong is psychic."

Ram gave Kay a look that was priceless. "I know that, Kay. She's my sister."

Kay gestured toward Aelsong. "Well, go on then. Tell them."

Aelsong looked down at the couple still on the floor and flashed them one of Ram's signature high beam smiles. Of course, Elora had fallen in love with her sister-in-law within seconds of meeting her. How could she not adore someone who was so very like Ram?

"'Tis a boy! He looks exactly like you, Ram, except for Elora's turquoise eyes and somewhat strange hair." She looked like she was going to tear up. "He's
so
beautiful. I can no' wait for you to see him."

The lines on Ram's forehead smoothed away. "You're talkin' about the baby."

Aelsong nodded enthusiastically.

Ram looked adoringly at Elora. "
Our
baby."

Elora sucked in a breath and jerked her gaze away from Ram. "Song. I’m begging you.
Please
tell me he has Ram’s ears. I mean, ears like Ram's and yours.”

"And why would he no'? Cosmetic surgery has no' affect on genetics."

Elora froze and stopped breathing. She'd just bungled the cover story. This business of hiding everything about themselves and their real lives was harder than it sounded. Then she noticed the gleam in Aelsong's eye.
She knows and is teasing me.

Aelsong's laugh was like the sound windchimes would make if they were vocal chords proving that she was well-named indeed. “Aye. Indeed his wee ears are comely elfin. And his name is….”

“No!" Ram held out his hand like a traffic cop, as if he could stop words in mid air. "Do no' tell us!"

Kay, with his ever-steady wisdom and calm demeanor, so necessary for keeping his berserker side in check, was good with solutions. "Look, my friends, the point is this. If Aelsong sees the baby in your future, then the argument is moot. Right?"

Ram seemed to be considering. "Song, did you also see Elora?"

"Aye, and..." She stopped.

"...and what, Song?"

"I do no' want to say too much. Much of the fun of livin' is in the mystery, findin' out what's to be."

"Mouths of babes and all that, Song."

Elora cocked her head to the side and looked at Ram. "What does that mean?"

"'Tis from very old writings, the beginnin' of a sayin' about young speakin' wisdom beyond their years."

"Oh. Well. Why is that part of this discussion?"

"My meanin' is that she must finish what she started because I'll no' abide her hidin' behind adages and the like."

Elora looked at Song. "I agree. Spit it out." Before Aelsong could say anything, Elora sucked in a gasp. "You did see Ram in this vision as well?"

"Aye. You two be at ease. I see the both of you, the sweet babe who is so pretty he could near break your heart with just one of his twinklin' smiles... And somethin' else."

Ram and Elora both spoke at once. "What?"

"He is sittin' in the green grass while black puppies crawl all over him waggin' their little tails and nippin' at his tiny fingers and toes. I can see him laughin' so hard in his adorable baby way that he is gettin' hiccups and his skin is turnin' adorably pinkish."

Ram and Elora exchanged a smile that said they needed the room cleared in a hurry as it was needed for overdue make-up sex.

Kay turned toward the door. "Well, seems my work here is done..."

On the way out, he said to Aelsong: "You know those croissants you were having? Where did you get those? Did they have some deer sausage and gravy to go with that?" As he pulled the door closed, they could hear him tell Aelsong. "
My
sisters are coming in later with my fiancée, Katrina. You'll like her. Everybody does."

An hour later Ram and Elora had showered, dressed, and were about to go down for breakfast.

"...and they've got us dressing up in these ridiculous sixteenth century costumes. I mean, what is it with royal families and period costumes?"

Ram laughed. "Do no' know. Maybe 'tis a heyday thing." Instead of opening the door he gently pushed her back into it with the front of his body and said in a voice that implied intimacy. "Do you mind? We could just run away to the New Forest and spend a week fuckin' like minks." He nuzzled her ear and then talked into the most sensitive part of her neck. "'T'would be fine by me."

Elora's laugh got caught low in her throat as she felt her body respond to the feel of her mate pressing against her, which was amazing considering that she had been so recently and so thoroughly loved and satisfied. On the floor. In the bed. In the shower. All before breakfast which meant that she was hungry. Really hungry. Eating for two and all that.

"There's a part of me that would very much like to take you up on that offer, my darling. All this is way too close to my own upbringing for comfort. But I can't take this away from your mother and your sister. You should see their excitement and dedication. It's become their raison d'être - a modest little affair for fifteen hundred people. How do you think they're going to come up with that many costumes? It's impossible, isn't it?"

Ram chuffed lightly at that one spot in her ear that always made her knees threaten to buckle. "If we're to be doin' this then let's have some fun with it. I very much plan to enjoy showin' you off to fifteen hundred of my mother's closest friends."

She laughed. "If only jokes would sustain me, I would never leave this room. But, alas, I need food as well."

"Did you actually say 'alas'?"

"See? The period costumes screw with your head. Now, feed me or get out of the way so I can find a man who will."

He pulled back and looked at her through half hooded, half smiling eyes. He lowered his voice to the tone he used for raspy pillow talk. "That's no' gonna happen."

Fond memories of the last time he'd said that to her triggered a rush of images that made her tummy flutter. He gently pulled her away from the door so that it could be opened. In unapologetic contradiction, after just saying no, she brushed past him suggestively and had to claim one more sweet, lingering kiss before heading downstairs.

Elora had only met Ram's family a few days before. They had come up with a cover story as to why her ears were different. Supposedly a childhood accident with a bicycle had left one ear irreparably nipped so her parents had decided the best cosmetic result would be to round both ears to match. It was a good story that she had almost blown by babbling about her acute desire that the baby have ears like his da.

Ram had said it was impossible to hide much from someone as psychic as Song, but that she was better at keeping secrets than anyone he knew. "She does no' tell other people's news or thoughts or secrets." There was no mistaking the pride with which he bragged about her.

His parents had turned the kingship over to Aelsblood for reasons that were unclear to her. Ram's older brother was nothing like him, but was very much like his father in looks and temperament. Both had light brown hair, grim, serious personalities and were buttoned up, tightened down, zip locked for better or worse. Judging by her first impressions, Elora was not the least surprised that the king was unmarried. Fate couldn't be so cruel as to mate some poor girl with a man who seemed so cold and distant. Except that, apparently it
had
happened to Ram's mother, Tepring.

Ram's mother and younger sister both looked and acted like Ram: emotionally effusive, bright as sunshine on snow, lively as a kickin' dance of the reel. Fortune had blessed the three of them with beauty, charm, magnetism, optimism, and golden auras that were just barely out of the range of human visual acuity, but sensed nonetheless.

When they'd arrived, Ram's mother had burst into tears on seeing the scar on his face for the first time and was inconsolable for two hours. His father, Ethelred, took one look at him and said, "An' how'd the other fella fare?"

Ram cocked his head for a second and then laughed, never taking his eyes away from his father. "Come to think of it, the other fella got away with no' so much as a scratch."

Elora watched her father-in-law-to-be draw his mouth into a judgmental purse of the lips. She started to rise up in Ram's defense, but he grabbed her around the waist and drew her into an embrace so snug that she almost lost her breath, while his smile never wavered. She got the message.
Families do no' know what we do
. But - oh, how she wanted to say - "I'll have you know that a few days from now my elf will be the first knight in the whole of this century to be inducted into The Order's Hall of Heroes."