Nico and I took off at a trot that turned into a breakneck sprint. As the forest scents filled my nostrils, I realized something. I might not have been a monstrous Edemas-sized wolf, but I was different. My senses were more heightened, and it was like I was more in tune with my wolf than I ever had been before. I even overtook Nico in our race, leaving him in my dust—I’d never been able to do that before. The contents of the vial had changed me in more ways than one. Even though I wasn’t the size of a polar bear anymore, I still felt like I wasmorethan I had been. Maybe that had been Edemas’s intention all along.
Once we’d exhausted ourselves on the run, we shifted back and lay in the grass of a small clearing. Nico was panting for breath.
“When the hell did you get so fast?”
I giggled. “Guess you’ll need to step your game up, won’t you?”
“Apparently,” he said and settled his head on the grass.
After a few minutes of silence, I rolled over and rested my head on his chest. “I can’t believe it’s finally over. Can you?”
Nico shook his head. “Not really. I’m grateful it is, though. It’s like we can finally breathe. Before, it was sort of like a belt was tied around our chests, squeezing tighter all the time. Like any second could be our last. This is… nice.”
I trailed the tips of my fingers over his chest. “We can finally really start our lives together.” Moving up, I kissed him. “I’m not sure if I’ve ever said this, but thank you for saving my life. I’d have been dead a long time ago if not for you.”
Nico brushed my cheek with his knuckles. “You think I saved you?” He shook his head. “Maybe, but it goes both ways. You saved me too. I never realized how much I was missing until I had you. I was living a hollow life until the day I met you.”
There was a pleasant tension in my chest when he said that. I was wanted and needed. He loved me. It was everything I’d everhoped for and more. As the moon began to rise, I kissed him again.
142
NICO
Aweek after Maddy and I had our run in the woods, we held the memorial ceremony. Dad, Maddy, and I decided it wouldn’t only be for the lives lost in the battle but for all the lives lost during the royals’ rampage. I put the call out to all shifter packs and clans around the world who wanted to attend. I’d thought the influx of people who came for the battle had been big, but in the days leading up, every hotel and rental house within a two-hour drive was filled.
I hadn’t completely understood how pervasive the royals’ reach had been until shifters from as far away as Tokyo and South Africa came. The royals had ruined lives for centuries, and what had begun in Europe had spread like a plague across the globe.
We held the ceremony at my pack lands. The power of the land coursed through, reaffirming that it was the best place for it. It may have been one of the only places that held the true power of shifters and would do the ceremony justice.
The night of the ceremony, alphas and their entourages arrived in droves, along with the media. I’d wanted to keep themout, but it would be more trouble than it was worth. Besides, the world needed to see this. To know we were still here.
I said a few words, but I honestly couldn’t remember what I said. Looking out on a sea of over ten thousand faces had sent shivers of anxiety through me. Whatever I’d said, it must have been good, as there was thunderous applause after I was done. Over the next hour, alpha after alpha went to the microphone and read prepared statements or simply read the names of those who’d been killed, tortured, or driven mad by Viola and her family. It was intense and heartbreaking, especially when a bear alpha from Colombia read a list of names of children killed in a small village. Back in the nineties, a blood test had shown one of the kids was a descendant of Edemas, but records weren’t clear on which child. Rather than doing more research, Viola’s father had sent mercenaries in to murder them all. It made me even more relieved that the entire family had been wiped out or arrested over the last several months.
At the end of the ceremony, Sinthy had used her magic to cast a dazzling display of fireworks into the sky. They rumbled and crackled across the sky, and everyone in attendance shifted to their animal form and cried out to the moon: growls, roars, and howls. Then we all rushed into the forest, running wild and exultant in our newfound freedom.
Adrenaline was pulsing through my body when we got back. Donatello had arranged an enormous feast. He’d flown in nearly a hundred different chefs and their teams and had to have spent at least half a million dollars on food. Our guests made their way to the huge tents that had been erected to accommodate the meal, but I had different ideas.
I found Maddy at the edge of the forest right as she was shifting. I took her by the hand and damn near carried her back to our house.
She giggled when I scooped her up and carried her through the front door and up the stairs. All I wanted was to have a few minutes alone with her. Now that the danger was gone, I wanted her. I wanted her more than I could ever comprehend.
In the bedroom, I kissed her. There’d never been a time when I’d desired her more. It was as though nothing could satisfy me but Maddy.
We panted as we tore at each other’s clothes. She seemed equally as desperate for me to take her as I was to have her. Maddy kissed and sucked at my neck as I yanked my pants down. Once I was finally naked, I laid her on the bed and kissed her again, this time deeper than I had before. I wanted her to know exactly how much she meant to me.
“I love you,” I whispered after pulling away.
Maddy ran her fingers through my hair. “I love you too.”
We were safe. She and our baby were safe. I could truly believe that this was our happily ever after. We could lose ourselves in each other’s bodies for a time. Nothing to worry about but our own love, our own passion. With that on my mind, I kissed her again.
Maddy’s fingers ran along my side, down my hip, and across my ass. My breathing grew heavier with her touch. My cock was already throbbing as it lay nestled along her thigh. My own hand drifted down, finding her breast soft, supple, and growing fuller as her pregnancy progressed.
She broke the kiss to suck in a breath as my fingers slid across her nipple, each finger slipping slowly over the dark, puckered flesh. Maddy gripped my ass and pulled me closer.
“I want you inside me, Nico,” Maddy whispered with her lips against my collarbone.
I rose onto my knees and gently nudged her legs apart, kissing each of her knees as I did. She looked so beautiful, lying there, looking up at me. I fisted my cock and placed it right at heropening. Maddy’s eyes closed as I slid the head of my dick across her clit, down the wetness of her pussy, and back up again. I moved it up and down slowly, never quite sliding inside her.
