I LAYON my back panting, sweat beading my brow. The force of the mecca had just thrown me across the room and Kade was not happy.
“You need to focus!” he said, his voice firm as he reached down to pull me up. I reluctantly took his hand and stood, meeting his molten gaze.
“I am focusing! The mecca is out of control. No one can handle this kind of power.” It had been three weeks since the fae had attacked us all at the king’s mansion. Three weeks and over a half dozen mecca training sessions with Kade.
We were struggling to fit them all in with my new queen duties. Kade was more establishedwithin his boroughs and didn’t have as much to do, so he was working around my timetable.
Kade pushed back at me again, one of the few shifters in the world who could without repercussions. “You’re wrong. I can see the mecca, and although I agree it’s stronger than ever, you can control it. I’ve never seen someone’s body so responsive to the energy. Almost as if you were made to harness it.”
My cheeks reddened at his reference to my body. Not only was the energy within us constantly pushing us together, the close proximity of our training was upping the sexual tension to a tangible level that was making him extra hard to resist.
Calista, my royal advisor, had been harping on about me taking a mate – at least for the short term, to kill off the rumors of my supposed affair with the king. The council was spinning it to say we were in peace talks, trying to form an alliance to figure out who had killed the former Red Queen, but rumors still abounded. My eulogy at Derek’s sendoff had helped a little – I heard less talk of killing bears anyway. But one speech was never going to undo hundreds of years of animosity. Slow and steady.
“There are new rumors about me,” I said to Kade after I caught my breath. “Apparently I’m sleeping my way through the bears in the hopesof conceiving a hybrid child.” I shook my head at the very thought. There had never been a hybrid child. It was strictly forbidden and I wasn’t even sure it was possible.
Kade snorted; his chest rumbled. “I think we need to start giving our people harder jobs. They have way too much time on their hands for gossip.”
“Yep, not enough toiling going on in the shifter world. They’ve had it too easy for too long.”
He straightened, waving his hand, which meant he wanted me to stop procrastinating and start training again. Stretching out my aching body, I let out a bit of an exaggerated sigh. As I stepped closer to him, his heat was everywhere, his scent all soil and earth and life. Dammit. Finding a wolf mate was probably the smart thing to do. It would solve plenty of my problems. But … I couldn’t, and I didn’t really have the time right now to try to talk myself into it. After the battle at Kade’s home, Derek’s death, and the very real threat of a fae war … well, my priorities were elsewhere.
My thoughts were cut off by Kade touching my cheek. I held my breath, barely moving.
“Eyelash,” he murmured in that husky voice. As he pulled back from my face I saw a tiny eyelash clasped between his strong fingers.
“Make a wish.” He lifted it closer to my lips.
There was mirth dancing in his eyes, and I knew he was toying with me. But still … the king of bears made eyelash wishes and tended to roses.Crap. These training sessions were going to be the death of me. Maybe literally. We could not be together, our people would tear us apart, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t appreciating all the sexy that was Kade. I blew on the eyelash, sending it flying away. Kade didn’t move so I cleared my throat and stepped back a pace.
“Let’s do the mecca thing again,” I said, trying to defuse the tension.
Still wearing that slight grin, Kade nodded and stepped back, both of us trying to get distance from the other in hopes that it would smother this burning fire that had started between us.
Yeah, right!
We were down in the basement training center of the royal home, where I had fought Selene for the crown. The wolf council begrudgingly agreed to our training sessions, but only on certain terms, and the king coming to my territory was one of them. He didn’t seem to mind, and most of the time brought only Gerald and another of his guard with him. Today it was Chelle, a female bear, tall and statuesque with golden-colored hair and dark burning eyes. She did not like wolves, that much was clear, and if looks could kill … well, the wolves would be screwed, because the way Chelle was looking at me, Selene would soon be their queen.
Selene!Ugh.No time to think about the spare heir right now. She was evil, and if I died in the first twelve months of my reign, she would step in as queen. If I died after a year, then another Summit would be held, as there were more shifter girls who would be of age. More queen heirs waiting in the wings.
“Focus, Ari.” Kade’s low voice knocked me out of my thoughts and I sucked in a deep breath, calling the mecca forward. It was everywhere, not just in the crystals or the vortex, it was life. I understood that now, I respected that. A flood of power coursed through me as I felt the mecca swelling in my veins to fill the very core of my being.
I’d been meditating a lot, working on centering and focusing my thoughts. This was part of training for all heirs, but now it was even more important.
“Now!” Kade said forcefully. He moved his body slightly, and I knew he was preparing to jump in and shield me if needed.
I aimed the energy at the tier of stacked cans we had in the corner of the room. This time, instead of throwing mecca, I just let it gently trickle out. Controlled it. It took every ounce of my focus to not let the power overwhelm me, butfor the first time I seemed to be managing it. Instead of exploding in a mass, the cans tilted slightly, and then the top can toppled over, taking the rest of the stack with it. I gave a small yell of success, and then the headache hit me.
“You’re holding the energy, let it go,” Kade said, stepping into me again, scanning my face.
I couldn’t; the headache had my focus shot and my control was lost. Calling the mecca was much easier than letting it go back. The stabbing pain in my head was increasing and I was seconds from dropping to my knees when Kade placed a hand on the side of my face, covering me from chin to temple. He stroked my forehead a few times and the headache eased, although my brain remained a jumbled mess. To be fair, not all of that could be blamed on the mecca. When Kade was this close to me, all sensible thought took a vacation. God, why was he so attractive? And his scent – smell was everything to shifters, it either dissuaded or attracted us – and Kade’s scent was enough to have my wolf howling silently as need clenched my gut. I had never wanted someone so badly, and I had never wanted someone I couldn’t have.
It caused an ache that I had no idea how to deal with, an ache that was strong and fierce, right in my chest. Why the hell couldn’t I feel like this around any of my wolves? They werebeautiful. Deadly. Powerful. But no … had to be a damn bear.
“Want to see something wild?” I blurted out, stepping back. We needed a distraction, the mecca was trying to push our energies together, and neither one of us were fighting very hard.
Kade shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and nodded. “I like wild,” he said, and I could tell from the low timbre of his voice that he wanted to say more but didn’t.
Uh, crap– what was I going to show him? I’d blurted out that last sentence without thought, but … maybe…
