Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (122 page)

If only all days could be like this
.

Here was the male she’d dreamed of, all those long, lonely nights. He didn’t scoff at her, but listened, treating her with respect. He made her laugh, and when he focused his attention on her, she felt as if she were the only person in the room.

Aurora found herself craving more, like an addict desiring a fix. The realization alarmed her, it meant she was falling in love.

Still, it was nice to dream, if only for one day. Reality would intrude soon enough. Robert wouldn’t, couldn’t, continue to put her needs above his pack’s.

When they returned to the property, she gave a happy sigh as he held her hand. Such a wonderful day. All of his undivided attention. She truly could believe, if only for a moment, that she mattered most.

But then Guy hurried out of the lodge, his expression grim. “Rob, come quick. It’s bad. Real bad.”

One glance at Aurora and the beta shut up.

Robert went still. Then he dropped Aurora’s hand. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I have to go. I’ll be back soon as I can.”

As he took off with Guy, warning chimes rang, sounding like a death knoll. Aurora’s heart leapt into her throat and she remained immobilized as dozens of pack members rushed past her without a word. Worry carved into their expressions, they raced forward, shifting into wolves as they ran. She heard one murmur, “dragon,” before shifting.

Such a crisis must mean only one thing. The dragon. Someone had compromised the sacred silver dragon.

***

Robert hurried to the back field. The silver dragon lay upon the ground, its chest heaving in and out.

The inner circle of his pack gathered around in a circle and began to solemnly chant the sacred words he had taught them long ago.

But Scales remained pale, his sides heaving.

“He’s been like this since you and Aurora left today,” Guy whispered.

The beta did not draw close to the dragon. No one dared but Robert. Only he could withstand the tremendous heat of the flames, should the dragon react.

They’d almost run out of time. It was essential he take Aurora as his mate, and plant his seed in her belly.

All the joy of the day faded as the sun sank into the sky. The dragon’s sides continued to heave as he labored to breathe. Robert found himself, too, struggling to draw in air. He rubbed the dragon’s head.

In Aurora, he’d found a woman who understood him and dared to speak up to him. Yet she demanded nothing. He could relax and lower his guard and be himself. No longer Robert the alpha of the Keynes pack, who strove to maintain the legacy of his father, and his father’s father, and many before that.

He was simply a man. Not even a wolf. Just a man, needing a woman, enjoying her company during the day. Bantering with her.

But now, his responsibilities rushed back like a tidal wave. The delights of the afternoon faded. He had a pack to lead and keep safe.

Robert took the ceremonial silver blade Guy offered him. He drew a deep breath and slashed his wrist. Blood welled up. It hurt far worse than the last time. He knew it would, for his life force was tied to the dragon’s.

Guy did not know this. No one in his pack did. All they knew, and understood, was that Robert was the beast’s caretaker.

Robert let the blood drip to the ground. It sank into the earth and the ground shook.

Scales lifted his head and roared. Flames shot out of his mouth.

But a temporary measure at best. Robert bound his wrist with the clean white cloth his beta handed him.

The full moon was in two nights. He would take Aurora in the sacred grove, take her as a man took a woman, and hope the hell consummating their union would save his people.

Aurora saw little of Robert the following day. She spent her time tending to the plants in the garden. She looked for her little caterpillar, but to her sorrow, she found it dead on the ground. She wept over it, for the tiny creature had given her hope and delight. New life, now dead.

What was going on around her? She didn’t understand. The plants and earth and animals had all seemed healthy when she’d arrived. Now they did not.

After eating a picnic lunch she’d packed for herself, Aurora wandered the gardens. At the cottage where Robert had shown her so much pleasure, she went to push onward, but was stopped. Try as she might, her feet would not move forward.

Aurora held out her hands and pushed, and felt an invisible barricade. She knew this. Ancient magick prohibiting the wrong people from straying into protected territory. Excitement filled her. The dragon surely lived back here, why else would they need to protect this area?

She returned to the lodge as dusk fell. In the kitchen, she nibbled on freshly baked cookies Susan drew out of the oven.

“Where’s your brother?”

Susan cast a worried eye at the ceiling. “Upstairs. Fiona went into labor early, and refused to go to the Skin hospital. He’s helping.”

Aurora nearly choked on a bite of cookie. “He’s delivering the babies?”

A smile touched Susan’s mouth. “He can do anything. He’s our alpha.”

Okay
. Stuffing a cookie into her mouth, Aurora headed up the stairs. She hoped to hell Robert hadn’t gotten himself into something that called for more powerful magick.

Halfway down the hallway, Robert emerged from a bedroom, rubbing his hands on a towel. He saw her and nodded. “The twins are fine.”

Dual wails from the bedroom echoed his sentiment. She followed as he headed into the bathroom across the hallway and washed his hands. Aurora hovered in the doorway. “Good to know.”

He took care of everyone in the pack. He watered the plants, cared for the land and the people.

“Who takes care of
you
?”

Bracing his hands on the sink he blinked, as if the question startled him.

“You’re the alpha, and you care for everyone else. But who cares for you?”

When he didn’t answer, she sighed. “Let’s go to your house. You need time away from your pack.

Robert led her downstairs, outside to the pathway leading to his private house.

Once inside, she pushed him forward. “Shower first, then food. Hot food. Chicken and rice, more raw chicken than rice since you’re wolf? I can cook that. Or not cook it.”

He paused before heading up the stairs. “Why are you doing this?”

Aurora wanted to laugh. Such an innocent question, yet filled with innuendo. “Because I’m supposed to become your mate, silly. Someone has to take care of you, and that’s me.”

“I don’t need taking care of.”

Of course. The big, bad alpha had to assert his independence. Aurora noted the lines of strain around his green eyes, the whiteness bracketing his sensual mouth. “You do, and I’m doing it.”

She gave him a gentle push toward the stairs. “Take a shower, and when you’re finished, I’ll have dinner ready.”

An hour later, they sat at the kitchen table eating from big bowls of chicken stew. As Robert dug into the meal, she gave her future mate a furtive look. “How is everything in the nursery?”

Robert patted his mouth with a paper napkin. “Fine.”

“The twins… were they born prematurely?”

A guarded look came over him. “Not really. Fiona’s healthy, and the twins are in good shape. She just needed a little extra help with the home delivery, more help than what the midwife could give her.”

“And you’re the help she needed.”

A shrug from those broad shoulders. “I have experience delivering babies.” He spooned up more stew. “This is excellent. Thank you so much for making dinner. I’m more hungry than I cared to admit.”

There was more here than he wanted her to know. “If you’re so good at preserving life, why does it seem like everything is dying? My caterpillar did.”

Robert’s spoon paused halfway to his mouth. He set it down carefully. “What do you mean?”

“Yesterday he was healthy, eating up a storm, and today he dropped off the leaves of the milkweed. Even the plants are dying.” Troubled, she stared at him. “Why is that, Robert? Why do some creatures and plant life appear healthy one minute and then then the next they die?”

“Everything dies,” he said gently. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t be condescending. I’ve had enough of that in my life.” She pushed back her bowl of stew.

Robert gave her an angry look. Sucking a breath through his teeth, he set down his spoon and spoke slowly. “I am not meaning to be such, if that is your perception. I was only trying to offer reassurance. This pack is… different.”

“Different. Does that mean each time you wake up, someone else dies?” she whispered.

He reached across the table, squeezed her hand. “No more. I promise you this, it will get better. Everything will be fine. No more odd deaths or unexplained sickness.”

“When?” She wondered what kind of magick he possessed.

“Tomorrow night,” he said, his voice husky. “Tomorrow night, we come together as mates.”

Their mating ceremony was at sunset.

Dressed in a flowing white gown, a circlet of red roses upon her head signifying she mated the alpha, Aurora stood with Robert on the ground in front of the wedding gazebo, for this formal ceremony with the pack’s alpha must take place on the earth itself.

Her heart thudding hard, she stared at Robert, so handsome in his black tuxedo with the pearl buttons on the starched white shirt.

The eighty-one members of Robert’s pack sat in folding chairs, watching as Warren, the eldest member of the Keynes pack, lanced their palms with a silver ceremonial knife. The cut stung, but she barely felt it. Blood welled up on her hand and she shivered, remembering the other ceremony that would soon take place in the sacred grotto when her virginal blood would be spilled.

The gown felt soft against her chilled skin, and the slave collar tighter than usual, reminding her of her enslavement. Susan, her matron of honor who stood by her side, had decorated it with tiny red rosebuds to mask its appearance.

She and Robert clasped hands, their mingled blood dripping to the earth and sinking into it. Warren tied their right wrists together with a leather cord. “May you always be tied together by the bonds of loyalty, courage, strength, and love.”

Aurora’s heart was pounding so hard she feared it drowned out Warren’s voice.

She forced her voice to remain steady as she spoke her vows to Robert, wishing with all her heart she could honor them to her last dying day. “I, Aurora Seville, take you Robert Keynes, of my own free will, as my mate. I promise to honor and respect you, to love and cherish you with my body and my spirit, to stand by your side as our alpha leader and support you above all others, and to be yours, forever.”

Robert stared into her eyes, his expression soft. Tenderness filled her as she noticed his hand shook a little. Then he gathered her hands into his, his palms strong and warm, such lovely warmth.

“I, Robert Keynes, alpha leader of the Keynes pack, take you Aurora Seville, of my own free will, as my mate. I promise to honor and respect you, to love and cherish you with my body and my spirit, to stand by your side as my alpha female and support you above all others, and to be yours, forever. And I promise to always put your needs above all others.”

At that last line a few Lupines gasped, but Robert silenced them with an icy look. Then he smiled at Aurora. “I added that vow because it is a promise I intend to keep.”

Emotion clogged her throat. She could not speak, only close her eyes as he kissed her, his mouth firm, warm, and authoritative.

When he pulled away, he signaled to Warren. Suddenly several Lupines placed cages upon the lawn and opened them. Aurora cried out in delight as dozens of orange and black monarch butterflies took to the skies.

He watched her and smiled. “I know how you enjoy caring for the caterpillars.”

“Are any from the milkweed I helped to grow?”

His expression darkened for a moment. “No. They are a gift from another nursery. But you will grow more, and they will now flourish.”

Warren bowed to his alpha and to Aurora, and they headed for the white tent stretched over the lawn. Robert guided her to the head table, decorated with white and red roses. A cool wind blew through the trees, rustling the leaves, raising gooseflesh on her bare arms.

Robert noticed her shiver. He beckoned to Susan and Susan fetched a white lace shawl. Her new mate covered her shoulders.

Aurora smiled at him, but she was too nervous to talk.

Covered with red linen tablecloths, each table bore a squat glass vase of red roses, white hyacinth, and honeysuckle. Robert sat and then pulled Aurora onto his lap and fed her the ceremonial first bite of their wedding dinner - a slice of rare prime rib.

“So you may never go hungry. I will always keep you satisfied, in every way possible,” he murmured.

Their hands still tied together, Aurora lifted the silver cup filled with water to his mouth.

“So you may never thirst for another’s touch except mine. I will always quench your spirit,” she told him in the traditional vow Susan had taught her.

Would she? For how long? As he kissed her, his mouth settling on hers with possessive intent, dozens of doubts raced through her mind. She was falling for Robert Keynes, hard and fast. How could she protect her heart from being shattered when he discovered the truth of why she was really here?

How could she take the dragon’s living heart and kill such a beautiful, magnificent creature? Aurora shivered again, despite the warm shawl around her shoulders.

“Hey.” Robert lifted their joined hands and settled his palm on her face. “Don’t be frightened. I’m going to take very good care of you, sweetheart.”

Then they untied the leather cord and settled in for the wedding feast.

She barely tasted the dinner. She danced with Robert, but everything became a blur. Aurora was too focused on the rite beneath the full moon that would consummate their union. And then there’d be no turning around, no going back.

As she sat at the table, he took a glass of the absinthe. Robert dropped a sugar cube onto a silver slotted spoon, poured cold water over it and then handed her a glass of the green liquid. “Drink,” he said softly. “It is the custom.”