“I want to be bound to you in all the ways. If there is a penguin way of doing it, let’s do that too. Isn’t there a vampire ceremony?” gushed Dean passionately.
Silas stared at him a moment longer. Then his eyes watered. “You’re daft,” he whispered.
Dean grinned and rolled off of his mate so Silas could turn over and pretend he wasn’t being all emotional and crying tears of happiness.
“You can go all penguin and give me a pebble, if you want. But I can’t marry you,” sniffed Silas, with his back to Dean.
Dean pulled his mate into a spoon. “Why not?” he asked, more confused than hurt.
“Human things require human documents. I don’t have a birth certificate.”
Dean silently cursed himself. Most shifters registered their pups and created human identities. Shifters then often grew up and got driving licenses, bank accounts, social security numbers and so on. To all intents and purposes, most shifters were legally human. But some stayed well away from all that and never registered their pups. Creating people who legally did not exist. He should have known Silvanus would have been an ass like that.
The thought that Silas didn’t exist as a person in the human world really pissed Dean off. He needed to do something about it.
“I’m sure between the Grand Master of the Council and Alpha Darkstar, a birth certificate will not be a challenge to get a hold of,” said Dean confidently.
Silas relaxed in his arms, going all warm and pliant. Dean nuzzled Silas’s neck, inhaling his delicious scent whilst feeling delighted that the necromancer seemed like he was going to agree to a human marriage.
“Damn you for being so ridiculously sweet. Now I’m going to have to give you the most mind-blowing sex ever,” teased Silas.
“Yes, please!” agreed Dean enthusiastically as his cock sprung to life and all other thoughts melted away.
Silas laughed and Dean realized life had never been more perfect.
Chapter four
Acoupleofdayslater, Dean was just walking out of the bathroom when a portal door appeared in front of him. A blond woman jumped out of it. Dean vaguely recognized her as a mage that worked in the Council Chamber.
“We need you!” she exclaimed, her blue eyes wide.
Fear hammered at Dean’s heart. Was Silas okay?“Angel?”He tried down the mating bond, even as he realized with a sinking heart that he had felt little of Silas all day. Silas must have shut off the bond. It must be a petition day, when the Council heard pleas from people for help on all sorts of matters. The cases were usually grim and dark and Dean did not like feeling those emotions down the bond. He was too much of a wimp and trying to work whilst crying was no fun at all.
He had never asked Silas to temporarily shut off the bond, he never would have asked that. Nevertheless, although Silas never mentioned it, Dean knew his mate had started doing it out of consideration for him. And now it meant Dean had missed something important, potentially awful.
Before Dean could respond, she grabbed his arm and pulled him through the portal. Dean grimaced as the wave of nausea and dizziness temporarily left him blind. When it cleared, he found himself in the main hall of the underground Chamber. The huge cavernous room Silas jokingly called the throne room.
The room was nearly empty. Only himself and the female mage who had brought him here. Silas and Eifion. Dean blinked. Silas and Eifion were locked in a silent magical battle. Silas’s purple transparent wall of magic, pushing against Eifion’s green one.
The pulse of ether and magic was strong. Dean could taste it swirling on his tongue, feel it raising the small hairs on the back of his neck and humming warmly against his skin. His wolf was terrified and wanted to run away from the things it sensed but were beyond its ken. Dean’s wolf knew they were outmatched. And Dean didn’t need his wolf to sense the dark threat in the air. Danger and death swirled, nearly as visible as the magic and light.
Dean looked at his mate in alarm. The necromancer looked furious. Silver sparks ignited in his hair that seemed to move of its own accord. Then his scent hit Dean. Sweet, sickly, wrong, but definitely heat. Dean sniffed again in confusion, his mate’s heat wasn’t due for another six weeks.
Comprehension struck Dean like lightning. Someone had thrown Silas into a heat. Someone had scared and intimidated his mate so severely it had triggered his omega innate, biological self-defense system. His body had decided the best course of action was to please the aggressor. Placate with sex.
White hot rage boiled through Dean. He strode towards Eifion, determined to rip him to shreds. He was four steps away when one tiny part of his mind that was still capable of rational thought, stopped him. Eifion was a creep. Sinister and spooky, but he did not possess the aggressive, violent nature it took to throw an omega into a heat. It couldn’t have been him.
Eifion’s magic wall slid back to nearly touching his toes. Dean realized it was about to break. Hurriedly, he stepped in between Eifion and Silas.
The necromancer’s dark eyes met his. Full of rage and fury and dark, dark power. But there was also recognition. A huge ball of purple magic whizzed past Dean’s head as Silas redirected it at a pillar.
Dimly, Dean was aware of Eifion and the other mage fleeing. Silas strode up to Dean, sent him sprawling on his back with one magic aided shove to the chest. Then the necromancer was straddling him, pinning Dean’s wrists above his head.
“Angel,” breathed Dean, his heart hammering.
Silas stared down at him. His dark eyes were full of many things, but there was not much Silas in them.
“Angel, whatever has gone wrong, we can fix it. Everything will be okay.”
