Prince of Shadows (25 page)

Cale stopped in the foyer to shed his heavy coat and shake the ice from his hair. It was a near blizzard outside, heavy, biting flakes that piled up quickly. Hopefully, Silas had Kendra in the car and was on the way down the mountain. That was one extra worry Cale didn’t need on his mind. He wanted them out of his family’s reach, the sooner, the better.

Kip trotted over like a welcoming pup in Armani the minute Cale entered the hall. The boy eyed his attire and lifted his brows. “If you’re looking to piss the old man off, that’ll do it.” His grin faded as he stared at the second diamond in Cale’s bloodied, freshly re-pierced ear.

Before his brother could jump in with questions, Cale asked, “Would you walk with me? Here on this side. I’m having trouble navigating after yesterday’s go-round with MacCreedy.”

“Sure.” Kip reached out to lift the dark glasses and winced. “That looks bad. You must be seeing double.”

He wasn’t seeing at all. That was the problem. His left eye was completely blind. He couldn’t afford to have the others guess his weakness, or they’d never go along with his plan.

Cale felt the hair go up at his nape when James broke off a conversation with Stephen to grin at him. “Tell us, brother,” he called out with seeming good nature, “after pounding all of us into the ground, how does it feel to be the one on the floor?”

Cale smiled and even laughed, saying lightly, “I’ll have more sympathy for you the next time we mix it up. My bells are still ringing.”

James’s expression hardened from pleasant to mocking. “That’s twice now that you’ve let an outsider put you down. Must be kind of embarrassing.”

Cale shrugged it off. “Naw. We’ve been beating on each other since we were kids. It was his turn to get the upper hand and to my advantage to let him take it.” He watched James recalculating. Let him wonder and worry about what he’d meant.

With Kip sticking to his side like a Seeing Eye dog, Cale went to pour coffee. Wesley joined them. “What do you think the old man wants?”

“Don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think after that spell he had yesterday, he’s gonna be passing the crown.”

Cale shrugged at his speculation. “Maybe. Whose head do you want to see it on? Yours, mine, James’s?”

“If not mine, better yours than Jamie’s. If you want it to be you, you might want to change your clothes.”

That surprised him. Cale had thought his brother was firmly on the noncommittal fence. “Why not James?”

“No reason.” Then Wesley stared. “You’re wearing both diamonds.”

Cale smiled thinly. “They looked good with the outfit.”

Wes was looking over Cale’s shoulder, grinning. “Trouble coming with your name on it.”

Cale turned to see Kendra at the door, where Tony was trying to restrain her. She looked windburned, out of breath, vulnerable. And furious. “Back in a minute,” he murmured.

Wesley laughed and called after him, “Still enjoying that monogamy thing, brother?”

As Cale strode across the hall, shoring up an impassive front, he saw Silas enter to offer an apologetic shrug.

Kendra’s stare bored into his. “I’d like a word. Now.”

“This isn’t the time, Kendra. Perhaps later—”

“What
later
would that be, my prince? I don’t believe your plans included any
later
. I want my diamond and an explanation. Then we can discuss
later
.” She never raised her voice or appeared other than respectful, but her tone was raw, and her eyes glistened with hurt and anger.

“We can’t talk here,” he began stoically.

“Fine.” She turned to go into the foyer, Cale following. He growled as he walked by Silas, “Thanks for nothing.”

Silas spread his hands wide. “Happy to help.”

The only privacy offered was the mounting storm, the open coat room, or the bathroom. Kendra chose the bathroom, locking the door after he followed her inside. It was nothing like the industrially tiled restroom at the Shifter club. The elegant room boasted ultra-modern fixtures, cut stone, and a plush carpet before the vanity mirrors. It smelled of pine, reminding Cale of the forest where he’d taken her virginity. She rounded on him, her dark eyes welling miserably.

“I thought you wanted me with you. I thought we were going to have a life together. If you wanted to be rid of me, you should have told me yourself instead of leaving that to Silas.”

He couldn’t lie, so he hedged with bits and pieces of the truth to hopefully convince her that leaving was the better option. “James is getting the crown. I’m going to have to fight and struggle just to survive. I don’t want you here for that. You’ll be in my way. Unless you want to be his queen, go with Silas. That’s what I want.”

“So you can die alone? Is
that
what you want? You said you could be a better man with me beside you. I’m not letting anything come between us again, not our families, not our fears, not our failings. I’m a better, stronger woman with
you
beside me, and I don’t want to lose that or you. I don’t want anyone or anything to take me away from you. If you don’t feel the same, tell me. I’ll leave with Silas without another word. Tell me!”

“Kendra, I can’t give you the things you need.”

“What things? What
things
do you think I need?”

“Security. Protection. Happiness. Freedom. Family. Children. You’ll never have them here with me.”

“It doesn’t matter where I am. If I’m with you, I have everything I need.”

“Stop being so naive!” He raked his fingers through his hair. “What if I can’t give you children, Katy?” His words fractured and chipped away.

Her eyes glittered, reflecting his pain and worry. “Because of that poison Sylvia gave you?” She swallowed hard and took his hands in hers, squeezing them tightly. “I’m not going to throw everything away on what
might
happen. That’s not naïveté. That’s a fact. And if it’s just you and me, I will never have regrets. Not ever. What about you, Cale? Will I be enough if there’s no crown, no heirs, just the two of us?”

Would she be enough? What an absurd question.

“Fuck yes.”

His hands scooped her tear-damp face between them, drawing her up for a deep, urgent kiss. Once he’d tasted her, Cale knew there’d be no letting her go again. “I love you, Katy.” The words tore his soul.

“Claim me,” she moaned against his mouth. “I want you to. I want us to belong to each other.”

She was tugging off his sunglasses and T-shirt, reaching between their bodies for the fastening of his jeans, pushing them off his lean hips. After a slight hesitation, he gripped the bottom of her soft winter-white sweater and pulled it over her head. Then he went to his knees, tugging down her slacks and panties. His palms were warm as they firmly caressed her hips, pressing her to him. His cheek was smooth, his breath hot and fast against her belly, as he whispered roughly, “I love you, Kendra. Be with me. Bond to me.”

She tipped back his head, straddling him, easing down to take him inside her, kissing him with a fierce possessiveness while he groaned and shuddered as he filled her. His mouth moved over hers with a wild, hungry passion before he positioned her head against his shoulder to nuzzle and lick the tender curve of her throat. His body began to shake and shiver, his skin burning, quivering beneath her palms, as it shifted in texture to that luxurious pelt of rich gold and fiery red, as soft and thick as Brigit’s coat beneath her cheek.

Kendra clung to him, trembling with eagerness instead of fright while his proportions grew, lengthening, impossibly thickening. Stretching, straining, creating the harsh friction that excited all her nerve endings as she began to ride him.

His mouth scorched at her neck as he placed quick, savage kisses along the slope of her throat and shoulder. A low, fearsome growl vibrated through his chest when his muscles tensed and began to quake.

“Make me yours,” Kendra urged. “Make me your queen.”

The cut of his teeth was swift and exquisitely painful, but only for an instant. Even as she cried out, her senses flooded with a shattering new awareness of her mate.
Cale, my love, my prince, my king.
Like a powerful aphrodisiac, his scent enveloped her, hot, rich, seductive. She drew it in as if her body had been starving for it, frantic for it to feed her desire the way oxygen fueled her blood. His pulse thundered against her, within her, primal, fierce, demanding. Hers mirrored that compelling rhythm until it raced through her body to center, pool, and throb at her core.

Though he hadn’t relinquished his bite, Kendra no longer felt the discomfort. There was only heat and the quickening of desperate need. Building a suspenseful tension until her legs shook and her body bowed.

Then the hard, explosive punch of her orgasm, stealing her breath away. Making her world reel and expand with dizzying force as his hips continued those pounding, claiming thrusts, keeping her at that frantic peak. Her head fell back when her body convulsed, squeezing about him until he gasped and growled against the burning flesh of her shoulder, unwilling to release her. Finally, his powerful body seized up, and with a mighty shout, he emptied into her in great, pumping waves.

They held on to each other, panting raggedly as Cale’s form changed beneath the stroke of her hands into warm, wonderfully contoured muscle and flesh. He remained firm and full inside her, still moving within her, slowly, as if with satisfaction, while licking, kissing, applying an exquisitely stimulating suction to the wounds he’d made. She was so drained that she could do little more than hang on and whisper, “Oh. My.”

“I’ll never let you go again.”

“We’re in this together now,” she murmured, deliciously sated and wishing she could fall asleep in his arms.

“The thought of you in the middle of all this is scaring me to death. The thought of not having you at all was just plain killing me. I don’t know what to do, how to keep you safe.”

“I don’t know how to keep
you
safe.”

He chuckled, amused and moved, and gently kissed the savage tears he’d made in her shoulder.

“We could leave here, Cale. We could go to New Orleans or any place else you want to go. We could live anywhere in the world and be happy and safe. Or we can stay and rule together. I don’t need a crown, but I’m not afraid to be your queen.”

“I want to rule,” he said softly. “I want to rule with you beside me. Together, we can strengthen our clan and restore their pride. There’s nothing I fear except not being the man you want me to be.”

It took effort, but Kendra lifted up from his shoulder so she could meet his somber gaze. “Do you know why I chose you over Silas?” When he shook his head, she explained, “Silas never needed me, never saw strength in me, never looked at me as if I were his sun, moon, and stars. I loved him the way a child worships a hero, not the way a woman loves the man she wants to live with for the rest of her life. That’s the way I’ve always loved you. I’ve always wanted to be a part of you.” She smiled and touched a kiss to his lips. “And now we’re a part of each other.”

A brisk knock on the door pulled them apart.

“Cale,” Silas called. “Your father’s here.”

Cale kissed her again, once, twice, a leisurely, luscious third time, then lifted Kendra off him. They washed up at the same sink, Cale gently tending her torn neck and shoulder. Dressing in silence, they were about to leave the room when Kendra tugged him to a halt. “My diamond. I want it now. And that explanation later.”

Cale eased it from his swollen ear and slipped it back in hers. “Now you hold all of my love and loyalty.”

Silas was waiting in the foyer, his expression tense as he took in his cousin’s appearance. Until she flung her arms around him to whisper, “Wish me well.”

“I always have.”

She gave him a quick squeeze and returned to the enveloping curl of Cale’s arm as the two males exchanged stiff nods. Silas stepped forward to open the door for them, then followed behind into the great hall.

Bram was seated in his chair with Bull at his back. His sons were lined up before him, still and silent. Their king’s waxy features turned florid when Cale approached, his stride full of confident swagger, his attire ferociously utilitarian, his female clutched with unmistakable protectiveness. Even if the princess hadn’t been leaning in to him, her expression both dreamy and defiant, the shoulder of her pristine sweater showing a dark telling stain as the thick pheromonal scent of primal sex swirled about her, none could miss the dangerously territorial edge to their brother’s manner—as cuttingly sharp as the diamond returned to his mate’s ear. They were bonded.

“My king, forgive my tardiness. I was claiming my future with due diligence.”

Bram, nearly purple with rage, struggled to control his jerking breaths. Finally, he seethed, “How dare you approach me with such disrespect, with such disregard for my commands. On your knees!”

When Kendra began to drop, Cale’s grip on her arm tightened, keeping her upright at his side. His soft reply echoed like a shot. “No.”

“No?” Bram blinked, aware that his other sons had taken a startled step back and waited with keen attention to see what he would do.

Cale’s voice strengthened with unwavering authority. “I am a prince in the House of Terriot. I do not kneel. Nor will my queen. I’ve come for the throne I was promised. Give it to me.”

For a long moment, no one breathed.

“You arrogant boy! I’ll give you what you deserve.” Bram gestured to Bull. “Kill them where they stand. Then find his mother and kill that bitch, too.”

Cale snapped into a lethal defense pose, the brace of his arm pushing Kendra behind him. The orderly line of princes was broken as Rico, Kip, Colin, and Turow moved to stand with him. There was nothing to defend against.

Bram looked up at the immobile figure behind him. “Did you hear me? Do as I say!”

Bull’s focus was on Cale. “I await orders from my king.”

First crisis averted, Cale expelled a shaky breath, hugging Kendra close and turning to his brothers. “It’s time to stop fighting our own kind. Our vanity, our greed, our refusal to compromise is more dangerous than any enemy.”