Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (74 page)

Shit, he’s gone completely insane.

“What are you talking about?” I whined; never had I felt that mentally exhausted, and I knew that it was only going to get worse.

Tanis pulled something from his pocket and looked intently in my eyes. “For m
e
entire life I was locked up in a shell…me mum said m
e
heart was incased in ice, and, sadly, it surely felt as if it were…and then, as if I was living, seeing, breathing, and
feeling for the first time in me
very
long life,
an earthbound angel effortlessly saved me from meself. You walked into m
e
heart without m
uch effort, and without even trying,
your soul seamlessly blended with mine, and for the first time in me very long life, I knew what it meant to know happiness, to experience love, and to be subjected to
abysmal
melancholia
simply from the thought of losing you.”

My eyes widened when he got down on one knee and opened the black velvet ring box in his
hand
.

“Miss Jay Dee, I was blessed with the dark gift merely to wait for you to be born, and I started living the day you loved me without question, despite me few flaws and many indiscretions, and permitted me the honor and privilege of
being by your side. Your mark I wear proudly and without
regret…I beg of you, Miss Ja
y Dee, please accept this token, a jeweled
mark
to tell the world that you have given your heart and soul to a groveling vampire who will stop at nothing to see you smile, to keep you safe, and to be the man that I was too scared to show the world.”

Both of my hands covered my mouth and tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Me Duckie, will you do me the honor of being me wife.”

Unable to answer him, I simply nodded.

A smile filled his face and the
silver
in his eyes appeared to swirl with excitement.

He took my hand in his and slid one of
the
two rings in the box on my finger, pocketing the other, and stood. “I love you so much,” he whispered against my lips.

I nodded quickly, unable to speak.

He leaned back and smirk
ed
, that mischievous smirk of his that caused my heart to race and a whimper to build in my chest. “Do you like it?” he asked, tenderly kissing my hand.

Again, I nodded.

The ring was beyond words. I had honestly never seen anything like it before. T
he metal was polished and shiny with engraved filigree; the metal
wasn’t gold or platinum, it felt warm but that could have been because of the roller coaster of emotions that
I was on at the moment. In the center was a princess cut red diamond that was
slightly smaller than t
he one in Tanis’ ring, and the two red diamonds flanking it were nearly as big. Along the band was a channel with black and red diamonds which alternated, encircling the entire band.

“I love you,” I mouthed and smashed my mouth into his and kissed him passionately before pulling away. “Your mouth tastes of….” My eyes widened and I smacked him. “Who did you kill?” I demanded.

Tanis cocked an eyebrow. “Duckie, does it matter?” he countered.

I glared at him. “Should I be pissed?” I
groaned
.

The smirk was back and he wrapped his arms around me and pulled into him, holding me tight. “Not at all, consider it an early wedding
present
.”

“Damn it,” I mumbled; he constantly made it so damn hard to be mad at him.

Without him having to say it, I knew what he did; he got rid of the competition.

He opened the door for me and I slid into the passenger seat of my BMW and jumped, startled, when two strong arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Congratulations, Girlie,” Steffen whispered.

I looked back and him and my
smile fell. “He staked you all?
” I surmised, noting the bloody shirts each wore.

They exchanged looks as Tanis put the car into drive and pulled away from my childhood home for what would, most likely, be the last time.

“Claw marks,” I whispered, eying Abigail’s pants.

“Already healed,” she assured me. “The bitch was a fighter, but I was better.”

I nodded. “They were the last of my kind,” I whispered, turning back around and looked out the window.

Romeo dropped a wad of silver in my lap. I picked it up and gasped
: rectangle with a square in the middle and a starburst
. “They weren’t your kind, Girlie,” he informed me. “That bitch’s carpet didn’t match the drapes, to say the least.
We got them before the pack could.
”

Tanis took my hand in his and pulled it to h
is lips and tenderly kissed it. “Me wife to be,” he beamed, “where would you
care
to go?”

I looked from the
Aslak
necklace in my other hand to him. “Vegas,” I said and rolled down the window, then threw the necklaces over the bridge we were driving across.

A smile filled his face. “Brilliant idea.”

“And along the way, I’ll need Abby’s help to pick out a wedding dress.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Duckie, unfortunately I am still married to Sam.”

“Do you want to be?” I countered.

He gave me a look.

“You haven’t been married to that money grubbing whore since she screwed half of the vampire legion while you were at work.”

The three in the backseat roared with laughter and Tanis groaned.

“Tanis, if you can still love me, want to be with me, marry me, despite the fact that my love will most likely kill you and everyone you love and have ever cared about, I can still love you and overlook that you made a mistake over three hundred years ago, when you were human mind you, so we can start living the life that we’ve been waiting our whole lives to live. Agreed?”

He kissed my hand again. “Sadly, you make an inarguable point, and yes, I still love you despite everything you mentioned as to reasons why I should not love you.”

Sadly, in his mind that was a compliment.

“Some people’s vampires,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“Not some people’s, yours and only yours,” he corrected and tenderly kissed my hand again.

Thirty-six hours after she said yes, Jay Dee Lightfoot, daughter of Reign and Sky Lightfoot of the
Lhaq'temish
,
crowned Queen of the Varulv,
said I Do to a vampire who had waited his entire life to hold her in his arms, to love her and be loved by her…

It was more than I deserved.

Vampires, by nature, were selfish creatures.

Men who had the adore and devotion of a beautiful woman were co
nsidered selfish creatures, as well.

But a
man
who
just happened to be a vampire
. W
ho
had waited more than three hundred years to hold the woman he was born, created, and blessed with a gift that he had always considered a curse,
simply to love said beautiful woma
n. W
ho
was
the last of the Varulv, a beautiful and rare breed of werewolf
hailing from the frozen north. W
ho coincidentally
was their crowned Queen. And let’s no fail
to mention, their love and union was foreseen,
which would result in a war that will spill more blood than the mythical world had ever seen. Who are
on the run from a purist sect of werewolves who
were
hell bent on killing them and everyone they had ever
loved
, all to prevent a well overdue
blending of the species
…

It
was beyond selfish, to say the least.

The moment
d’Artagnan
pulled the stake from my chest, I knew
what I had to do, and that was to defend and protect my heart.

Toran was right, in a sense. I had no idea how to properly protect Jay Dee. I was a
cynical bastard, not a fighter, but that was what I needed to be. I had to protect her, even if it meant protecting her from her own people, who coincidentally, turned out not to be her people, and in fact, were
Aslak
soldiers or spies. I hadn’t figured out which, but I knew that they needed to die…even if they weren’t
Aslak
, they needed to die because I could smell the resolve emanating from
Mikkel’s
pores: he was going to
take
Jay Dee from me, and that I couldn’t permit.

The moment Jay Dee said I Do, and wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me passionately, I knew that there was nothing that I wouldn’t do for her, wouldn’t sacrifice simply to protect her and see her smile, from that day forward until the end of time she was mine and only mine.

Our battling lips never slowed as we took the elevator to the penthouse
; her legs were wrapped around my waist and my hands greedily grabbed at every inch of exposed flesh
they
could find as I navigated us to our room
. Jay Dee loosened my tie and started on the buttons to my dress shirt while I grabbed her firm arse with one hand as the other blindly
strugg
led to get the key in the slot
marking our room
. More than once I thought I had it and accidentally slammed her back against the door
trying to open it
, getting a choked gasp in return which quickly turned to a deep growl of raw sexual desire.

“I’m going to do many naughty, naughty things to you,
Husband
,” Jay Dee softly snarl
ed then snapped her teeth at me and ripped my dress shirt open
, losing patience for the last four buttons
.

“Bloody hell,” I
whimpered, finally getting the door to u
nlock and hurried into the room
and went straight towards the bedroom
.

“Now this is rather disturbing,”
a
waking nightmare commented from the couch
.

I spun around, my eyes wide.

“Sam, what in bloody hell are you doing here?” I choked.

Samantha smirked. “It’s nice to see you too, Husband.”