Hell or High Water (Gemini Book 3) (5 page)

Graeson emerged last, his eyes only for me, and his visual caress gave me chills.

Hair slicked back, he’d fastened the curled length with a white ribbon at his nape. His jaw was clean-shaven and as sharp as the razor responsible. Stacked with thick muscle, his bare abs quivered under my appraisal. The ivory silk pants worn low on his hips managed to be every bit as sheer as my dress.

I had seen Graeson naked, many times, and I always fought gravity to keep my focus above his navel. The subtle flicker of candlelight over his skin invented shadows that ensnared the eye, tempted my focus lower and left my breaths shallow.

Stifled laughs humiliated me for the millionth time this evening. The urge to turn and run was a twitch in my calf until Bianca released a dreamy sigh at the sight of Jensen all cleaned up and, if the tenting of his thin pants were any indication,
very
excited to see his mate.

“They’re like bunnies,” Nathalie grumbled. “Those pregnancy hormones must be some good shit.”

“Bunnies aren’t that vocal.” Dell ribbed me with her elbow. “You can always tell when they’re getting it on because you’ll be minding your own business one minute and the next you hear
aroo aroo arooooo
and notice Bianca and Jensen are missing.”

Covering a snort with my hand, I hoped the lovebirds didn’t take offense, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t even notice the rest of us snickering at their public display of affection.

“Alpha.” With a flourish, Dell dropped into a low curtsy that sent her skirts fluttering. “May I present your mate? She didn’t bite or scratch anyone during the preparations. She deserves a cookie.”

“You look beautiful.” Graeson leaned forward and brushed his lips over my knuckles before I lowered my hand, bumping noses with me in the process. “You’re always so beautiful.”

“You’re not off the hook that easily.” I swatted him with my bouquet. “You should have explained all of…” I swept an arm down my body, “…
this
to me.”

“Why?” He dodged my next swing. “So you could apply fae logic to warg tradition and bolt before you saw there was nothing sexual or wrong about it?”

Cutting my gaze to Bianca, I raised an eyebrow as she swayed in her mate’s arms while he nibbled his way across her collarbone.

“That has nothing to do with the ceremony.” He cleared his throat loudly in their general direction. “They’re mated and expecting. Jensen would have carried her in his arms the entire nine months if she’d let him. He’s been so paranoid he doesn’t want her feet touching the ground.” Pride shone in Graeson’s eyes as he looked at me. “You gave him a measure of peace today. That was kind of you.”

“I’m glad I could help.” I tapped the flowers across my palm. “You’re still not forgiven.”

“Challenge accepted.” Smugness radiated from him. “We’ll make it up to you.”

We
as in him and his wolf. Damn it. The wolf was so fluffy, his eyes so big and honest, that when my fingers buried in his soft white belly fur, I had trouble remembering why I was angry at the man he concealed.

Wary of the apologetic shenanigans both halves of Graeson had in mind, I noticed my bruised flowers and spruced them before the girls saw. “Tell me the truth, the whole truth, up front, and there won’t be any reason to make amends.”

The concept rattled around his head, and his lips pursed as if asking permission instead of begging forgiveness was a foreign idea.

For a dominant male warg, it just might be.

Contrite as a schoolboy, Graeson dusted flower petals off his chest. “Would you like me to outline the next hour for you?”

“At this point…” I scanned the clearing, gaze touching on a ceremonial dagger the length of my forearm, “…I think I’m better off not knowing.”

His lips parted, ready to contradict me for asking to be kept in the dark, which was exactly what he had done and obviously still believed to be right as well as
his
right to decide on my behalf.

As a reward for giving me the option to choose to bury my head in the sand, I leaned forward and kissed the hard pectoral muscle shielding his heart. “I appreciate you letting me decide for myself.”

Nostrils flared and eyes gone molten with heat and wonder, Graeson grazed his knuckles down my cheek. “That’s the first time you’ve ever kissed me.”

Licking my lips, I tasted clean sweat and tart skin. “We’ve kissed several times.”

“No.” His voice reverberated through my bones. “
I
kissed
you
. There’s a difference.” He leaned down, rubbed his cheek against mine and whispered in my ear, “I knew you liked me back.”

Like was one word for it. There was definitely a four-letter word starting with L involved. I had trouble breathing when he stood so near, even though half the time I still wanted to strangle him in such close proximity.

“I do like you back,” I rushed out before losing my nerve. “A lot. Even if I’m not great at showing it.”

Blame it on the candlelight or the moon. Admitting how he affected me, here and now, ensconced with our people, felt important, as if we were laying the foundation for a future that left my mouth as dry as cotton balls.

“Aww.” Dell clasped her hands together. “I foresee pups in the new year.”

“Then you should blink harder.” I tore off a flower head and tossed it at her. “You’ve got something in your eye.”

“It’s time.” Graeson checked the moon’s position in the sky. “Dell?”

Wriggling between us, she grasped my wrist and hauled me down into the portion of the creek bed they’d purified with a dusting of powder-fine salt, then she shoved on my shoulders until I sat in the crackling dirt. She positioned herself to one side of me, and Nathalie flanked the other. Bianca sat next to Dell, and Jensen joined his mate as the men followed Graeson and began filling the gaps in the circle. Once we were all seated, my fellow alpha directly across from me, the mystery began unraveling.

“Each of you made the choice to be here. Being present means you accept my dominion over you, and it means you acknowledge Ellis as my partner and equal.” Gold eyes met mine, so bright his gaze burned through me. “She is my mate, and if you put me in a position to choose her or you, she will win every time. Yes, she is fae. Yes, she is different. And yes, that will alienate us from securing alliances with some packs.” He raised a finger. “It will also open doors for new opportunities we will be in a unique position to seize.”

Almost the exact second my throat constricted, Dell squeezed my hand in reassurance.

From the moment the gas station clerk dialed me from Isaac’s phone to the percussive blast of Aunt Dot’s pride and joy detonating yards away from me, my family had occupied my thoughts exclusively. No, if I was being honest, it had started the moment Charybdis painted a target on their backs because of me.

That single-mindedness had been a mistake, if an unavoidable one. Becoming alpha, shouldering the title of Graeson’s mate, accepting that these people were mine to protect too, had seemed so abstract when I agreed to this. As though I had been bobbing my head at Graeson without comprehending the ramifications because my fears and worries were otherwise engaged.

Tonight there was no ignoring the magnitude of the sacrifice these people had made in leaving the security of the Chandler pack. The veil had been ripped from my eyes, my own problems shelved for later, when I had solitude to mourn, and I sat exposed to the full consequences of my union with Graeson.

The ever-present tremor in Isaac’s fingers, his car keys a talisman, a promise of escape, twitched in mine.

I won’t lie. I wanted to run. I wasn’t this person. This woman had friends and a partner who cooked her meals and remembered the little things, like her favorite flavored water additives. She was putting down roots, if not in this place then with these people. Her family was blossoming, expanding, and even though she fit with the wargs about as much as she fit with other Gemini, they accepted her. She
belonged
.

Oh, I wanted to be her. I wanted her to be me. I wanted…all of this. The friends, the trust, the security.

And I wanted Graeson, wanted to belong to him, more than I had ever selfishly wanted anything in my life.

The wild presence in my blood sang her approval to the moon. Graeson called it—
her
—my inner she-wolf, though the phenomenon must be a recalled magical remnant. Either way, the feral possessive urge that lived inside me these days hummed with approval.

“Examine your souls,” Graeson continued in a somber tone. “Search your hearts. Be certain this is the right path for you, for your family. It won’t be easy, not at first, maybe not ever. Our people cling to tradition, they nurture fear and embrace superstitions where the fae are concerned.” His gaze panned the circle. “Keeping your seat means you understand and accept that this pack will value our members regardless of their origins or species. Keeping your seat means you’re willing to place faith in the greater world and accept nontraditional allies.” A growl entered his voice. “Keeping your seat means you understand that a hand raised against Ellis is a hand raised against me. The punishment for harming a fellow pack mate will be expulsion. Blood will answer for blood.”

A murmur of agreement rippled around the circle, clashing with other, grimmer mutterings, but I didn’t dare meet any of their gazes. I was too afraid of what I might find staring back at me. Resentment, anger, fear, hope. The last was most terrifying.

“Everyone close your eyes,” Graeson ordered. “This is your last chance to leave without facing repercussions. If you can’t abide by the rules I have set, go. Return to Bessemer with my blessing.”

The quiet stretched, and my nerves strung taut with the waiting. Rustling noises popped up here and there, but the scuffs were too faint for me to tell if someone—or someones—rose and left or if the shuffling was the natural impatience of predators unhappy sitting for so long while at a tactical disadvantage.

“Eyes open.” Graeson’s molten gaze awaited mine. “It’s time.”

He lifted the thirsty-looking blade from his lap and set its scabbard aside. I figured unsheathing the dagger might explain some of the murmurous sounds until a quick head count told me I had cost Graeson two members of his already small and vulnerable pack. Still a part of his six, the two deserters had been strangers to me. Honestly I had half expected Haden to make a break for it when given an out. Or maybe Jensen and Bianca now that they grasped the magnitude of what was at stake for their fledgling family. But the wargs known to me remained in their spots.

“Tonight this gathering becomes more than a sum of individuals,” Graeson continued. “We become pack. We become family.”

The mood in the circle as we scooted closer to banish the empty spaces was both somber with the loss of the men and excited for what was to come.

“Take the knife with your left hand. Score your right palm until blood flows. This symbolizes your willingness to bleed for your pack.” He illustrated making the cut, and my gut quivered. “Mark your neighbor’s left palm, a promise that their hurts are yours to share.” A red line appeared across Jensen’s palm. “Then pass them the knife, clasp hands and let our blood bind us.”

Around the circle the dagger traveled, biting the hands of those who fed it. When my turn came, it was Dell who cut me, and deep. Jaw clenched, I made my own slice across my palm then marked Nathalie. Dell’s hand slipped in mine, our essences mingling. Nathalie finished with the male beside her, and we clasped hands too. The warg blood tingled in my open wounds, feeding magic and excitement into my veins until I was drunk on the sensory overload.

Done wetting its sharp tongue, the blade returned to Graeson. Reverently he placed it inside a carved box then completed the circuit. Power, raw and wild zinged through my arms as he fed a part of himself through us all. This was a kind of earth magic I hadn’t known existed, and I marveled at the rich texture of its caress.

Light flashed behind my lids, blinding me, burning his radiant visage in my mind’s eye. The fierce white glow I associated with Graeson was ten times more brilliant than ever before, and it engulfed me, branded me on a cellular level.

“These are your people too now.”
His voice brushed my mind.
“Feed your power into the circle. Bind them to you.”
A husky plea.
“Bind
me
to you.”

“I don’t know how.”
I writhed in the supernova that was an alpha claiming his pack, my old self charring and my ashes scattering.
“Gemini magic is self-contained. I can’t affect others with it.”

“Relax your mind. Magic is in the blood, in the mind and in the heart.”
A phantom kiss pressed to my forehead.
“Picture your magic as a butterfly rising up from your core. Now, will it to fly all the way around the circle and return to you.”

“Here goes nothing.”
Running with his analogy, I fixed the image of a butterfly in my head and imagined it rising up from my center, wings caressing my rib cage on its way to freedom. Focusing until sweat popped out on my forehead, I pictured it fluttering over the wargs’ heads, christening each with its pixie-dust residue, until it landed on Graeson.
“Is it working?”

“Yes,”
he rumbled, voice low and as sensual as a caress.
“I can sense you melding with the others. Now finish it.”

Biting my lip, I urged my imaginary ambassador to take wing once more, floating over the other half of the circle until that kiss of energy lit on my shoulder. As its ethereal legs touched down, a jolt shocked my eyes open, the static punch like sticking fork tines in a live outlet.

Incandescence radiated from me and Graeson in a blast that seared my flesh as light pierced my soul. White-gold and intoxicating, it baptized each warg, each link in the chain, and when it swept past me like a tsunami, silvery threads of magic glinted in my mind’s eye, tethers spun from my heart.

“We did it.”
We had sewn the small pack together, to us.
“I can feel them.”

“You did good, Alpha.”
Dell butted in, chuckling in my head.
“Now you’ll never be rid of me. I don’t even have to mentally knock. I can just blast down your brain door.”