I bite his jaw and he laughs. “I gave myself to you a long time ago, Ty,” I remind him. “You’re the one who wanted to fight about how.”
“Baby.” He shifts beneath me, wrapping his arms around me and that easily, that smoothly, taking complete control. So that now it’s like he’s the one using my body to fuck himself. So hard and deep and hot that I can feel the orgasm barreling toward me. “We’re always going to fight. And we’re always going to win.”
Then neither one of us speaks for a long while. He plays with me, almost taking me there and then backing off, repeating this irritating pattern until I’m writhing against him, out of my mind.
“Ty,” I whisper. “Please.”
He laughs, his beard in the crook of my neck, then he growls out an order. “Come,” he finally grits out. “Now.”
When I do, I throw my head back and I scream loud enough to be heard all over this valley, and truly, I hope that everyone, everywhere, hears it.
If that’s not fealty, I don’t know what is.
Ty lets me buck and shake all over him, but he’s not finished. He leans back, shifting the angle, and he keeps rocking into me so I brace myself above him for more.
I let the storm take us both.
Down below us, all around that fire, I can hear the rest of our people celebrating in the way we do, earthy and gritty. Dirty. I realize that this is the first time I’ve taken part in this so directly. Normally, Ty takes me off somewhere, because it’s tradition to treat the queen differently. To keep her hidden, even though there is no other female in the pack who doesn’t enjoy the freedom she finds on these fires at least once in her life.
None of us are hiding any longer.
I start coming again, harder this time, because he’s given me this, too. Without even discussing it, he’s making it clear that I’m more free with him than without him. And when he finally releases deep inside of me, I can feel the heat of him everywhere.
I can hear the laughter from below. I can hear the fire crackle and dance. I tip my head back up, kiss him on his beautiful face, and smile.
“I hope the grand high king isn’t too tired,” I say. “Because I think I may have to do that again.”
“Your wish is my command,” he tells me.
Then he shows me, again and again.
Ty and I spend the whole night up on the hilltop. Not always on the ledge, though I think that I’ll remember our time there for the rest of my life. We sit and drink a few beers here and there. We talk with the other wolves, tell stories and share laughter, and as the longest night takes its sweet time heading toward daylight, we work together to build connections.
To make it clear that Ty has no intention of being any kind of tyrant. To prove that he meant it when he said that he’s for wolves.Allwolves.
And at sunrise we are there to howl at the sun and welcome back the light.
But then, for a moment, I think I can feel the whole earth shake beneath me.
“Did you feel that?” I ask him as the sunlight pours in all around us. I know it won’t last. I can already see the fog developing at the base of the trees. I should bask in the light while I can. But that shaking unnerved me. “It seemed like some kind of ...”
I don’t know where I’m going with that. I’ve greeted the morning after the darkest night of the year before, but it never felt quite like this. Like an explosion, and not inside me—but we don’t get earthquakes around here.
“It’s been a long night,” Ty says, and if he feels that strange uneasiness the way I do, he doesn’t show it. “And we’re not getting any sleep anytime soon, babe. Suck it up.”
He throws his arm over my shoulders and we walk down into the grand cavern, where he spends the rest of the morning engaged in morediplomatic wrangling, going over all the rest of the things that have to happen in the wake of such a huge change for wolfkind.
His first official act is to hand out weapons, ammunition, and explosives to the packs that are leaving at first light rather than letting them all continue to fight about stolen property.
“Consider it the kingdom’s property,” he growls at everyone. “Take my shit and shut the fuck up, because it’s allourshit.” He pauses for a moment, then grins at the wolves in question, all of them taken back. “Safe travels.”
By late afternoon, most of our visitors have headed out. It’s down to pretty much the usual Rogue Valley pack again, so the den feels both empty and cozy around me as we set it back to rights. I don’t go and sit with my family the way I would have done before last night. I’m over with Ty now, on the raised rock shelf where I first slept in his furs as a girl.
It’s another indication that everything between us has changed. That everything is different.
I would know that anyway, though, because no one is talking to me like they’re disappointed in me today. Females who only looked at me sideways before make a point of coming to ask my advice on small, insignificant things. What do I think the weather will be for the full moon? What are my thoughts on the mysterious elk herds that seem to choose new and random seasons all winter long, making it harder all the time to hunt them?
These are all olive branches. I accept them.
