But peace was a surprisingly difficult commodity to come across at the moment.
A hand squeezed his shoulder, and a quick glance to the side told him Marc had been greeted thusly as well.A quick sniff told him it was Ryan.“She handled that marvelously.Didn’t she?”
Trip nodded.“Better than I think any of us could have expected.”
“I wonder if it’s her Lioness in charge tonight.The way she’s resonating with the ceremony makes me think she is.I’ve attended a lot of funeral rites with humans for Lunas, and I’ve never felt this kind of communal mourning,” Marc said softly.
Ryan pondered that, then shrugged.“I don’t know, maybe you’re right, but whatever.I’m just grateful that she handled this so well.It could have been a real disaster, and instead, not a dry eye in the house.”With that, he squeezed their shoulders again and pushed through them to make a path for himself through the crowd.
As was their way, the Lions within everybody’s soul reacted to their leader’s presence.Without even having to turn around, they were aware he was near and backed away to allow him free passage.Trip watched as Ryan rounded the table that had housed the gifts the fallen’s mothers or oldest female relative had lain there earlier, and reached for El’s hand.He lifted it high, turning her hand around so he could press a kiss to her knuckles.
“My Luna,” he said, the pride in his voice throbbing through those two words.But more than that, his pride seemed to echo around the clearing.
There was no way the highest echelons of their people could be unaware of Ryan’s feelings for his mate.
Trip smirked, amused at the way in which Ryan had laid his claim.With those two words, he had informed the Pride that she was his, and that they would fuck with her to their peril.Marc chuckled softly under his breath.“Neatly done.”
Trip shot him a look and winked.“A move worthy of a Grand Master,” he commented softly, watching as Ryan raised there now joined hands to the sky.
For the first time, El looked unsure of herself.It was no wonder either.Ryan was completely off script here.But the added flourishes, the tender affection and gentle touches between them, displayed more clearly than words ever could the caring between the leaders.
Ryan dismissed the crowd, urging them to feast and break their fast at Pride House.Trip and Marc hung back, watching their people disperse as they headed away from the clearing.Ryan tucked El’s hand through his arm, and as a duo, they approached Marc and Trip.
Ryan let her go the instant they stood before them, and Trip placed his hands on El’s waist.Holding her against him, he hugged her tightly.“Well done, darling.”
She nuzzled her forehead against his cheek, and the tender gesture filled him with such warmth that once again these confusing feelings of love flooded him.He breathed in her flowery scent, loving it and loving her at that moment.Claudia’s words were a distant memory, but though they still were packed with the power to hurt, they didn’t hurt him nor did they damage in anyway the feelings he had for his mate.If anything, he was angry that somebody could think so poorly of this wonderful woman who constantly surprised him with her generous self.
With a final squeeze, he relinquished his hold on her and let Marc greet her similarly.
The eldest Triad brother pressed a kiss to her temple, forehead, nose and then her mouth.The chaste caresses were unlike him, but then, this was a somber moment.“You did our fallen proud,” he murmured softly, almost breathing the words against her mouth.
El jolted in surprise.As she stuttered out her thanks, she slotted her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly.“I’m glad you think so, because I wasn’t sure.That was horrible.”
A gentle laugh escaped Ryan.“You’d never have known it from your performance.”
She shuddered.“It was, wasn’t it?A performance, I mean.I don’t know where it came from.That voice?I’ve never spoken like that before my life.”She sighed.“Yet another mystery, I suppose.Because if you’re surprised by it, then that means it isn’t a Lion trait.”
Though Trip was relieved their mate was no dummy, it would have been handy at times like these to able to pull the wool over her eyes.Sadly, there was no evading this topic of conversation.“It must be a Pantera trait,” he said softly, an apologetic smile on his lips as she peered at him from within Marc’s embrace.
She closed her eyes on a deep exhalation, like his admission was just too much of a weight on her mind.“I wish tonight was over.I don’t feel like playing nice.”
Ryan rubbed a hand down her back.“It will be soon.”
When she steppedinto Pride house, El curled her nose at the myriad scents flooding the room.For people who were sensitive to strong smells, the Pride wore a surprising amount of perfumes.She’d have thought, that as a collective, they would have avoided such strong smells.Apparently not.The mass of perfumes and aftershaves combined to give her tension headache, and that tension headache had already been there since the ceremony.
Just as she’d found the rumble of the Lioness and the purr of the Panther could affect her throat and voice, whatever the hell had happened tonight that enabled her to project so deeply and so poignantly affected her head.
When she told her mates she wished the night was over, she hadn’t been lying.
The truth was, at that moment, she wanted to be nowhere else but in Shawn’s arms.
For too many days now, she’d been surrounded by her paranormal half.The truth was, she missed humanity.Missed it so much that she knew tomorrow, whether they liked it or not, she’d have to go and visit her family or Persia at the bakery.She needed some normality.
Her new reality was so beyond anything anyone could handle, she realized.The pressure was immense, and while she was accustomed to pressure, ifshecouldn’t handle this, then nobody could.
It was just too much.
On the back of the heat as well, where she almost raped her mates with the insane urges flooding her system, she really needed to do something that wasn’t weird.
