Galen's Lovely Mate (Saber Chronicles Book Four) (3 page)

“You’re fucking awesome,” he said,
chuckling.

The door opened, and Alaric returned with the
fight doctor. The doctor was a wolf shifter. He said, “If you’d
like to slide over just slightly, I can examine your mate.”

“I really don’t need a doctor.”

“Humor me, love,” Galen said as he moved from
between her thighs and stood next to her. He linked their fingers
and stayed as close as he could without getting in the doctor’s
way.

He gave her a cursory once-over, asked her a
few questions, and said, “I’m not a fairy expert, but I do know
they heal as fast, if not faster, than shifters. If she was injured
in the fall from the sky, or when you grabbed her before she hit
the ground, she’s clearly feeling fine now. Can you put your wings
away?”

Her wings disappeared from view, sliding into
her back swiftly. Galen peeked over her shoulder at the two
openings in her top that allowed her wings to be out while she was
still wearing a shirt.

“I’m feeling really good, doctor, thanks,”
she said, leaning against Galen.

He nodded and said, “Congratulations on your
mating. Word is getting out that Belle Terra is the place to be for
those who want to find their truemates.”

Alaric said, “I’m sure shifters found their
truemates in the area before we came along.”

He shrugged. “Occasionally, but your entire
family found truemates within a week. That’s unheard of.”

The doctor left, and Alaric looked at Galen.
“Jonathon said he’s taking the floor repair out of your
winnings.”

“Whatever,” Galen said. He inhaled his mate’s
sweet scent.

“I should pay for the damage I caused,”
Serena said.

“I don’t think so. I’ll handle it.”

She relaxed even further against him. “Thank
you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s what mates
do for each other.”

“He also said if you’d like a rematch against
the bear that the crowd would enjoy that.”

Galen lifted Serena into his arms. “I’m going
to be busy taking care of my mate for the next eighty years or
so.”

He introduced his mate to his family and then
followed them out of the room. Jonathon’s assistant Krel waited
just outside. “I took the liberty of deducting two thousand dollars
from your winnings for the damage.”

Slade took the envelope from him. “How do you
know how much it will be without seeing the room?”

“You forget what I am, Slade. I felt her
power when she reacted to finding her truemate. I know what fairies
who control plants are capable of doing and coupled with the
near-earthquake, I’m guessing the floor needs to be repaired.”

Galen had known that Krel was a fairy, but he
didn’t know what kind or what his powers were. Serena spoke
something to Krel in a strange language, and Krel said something
back and then bowed slightly. He walked swiftly away from them,
heading into the room they’d just left.

“What did you say to each other?” Galen
asked.

“I thanked him for his help and wished him
well in his life, and he congratulated me on finding such a fierce
truemate.”

Galen carried Serena out into the crisp
night, stopping at the SUV as Slade held open the passenger door
for him. “Where do you live?” Galen asked as he sat in the middle
of the row and she wiggled against him, settling comfortably in his
lap. Her curves were a tantalizing tease under his hands, and he
ached to strip her and discover all her secrets.

“I live at the supernatural hotel, on the
same floor as Gretchen.”

Gretchen turned around from the front seat as
Slade turned the SUV on and pulled out of the parking lot. “I live
on fourteen now.”

“Those are nice suites,” Serena said.
“Congratulations on your mating.”

“Thanks, same to you. How was your
flight?”

Serena lifted her head from Galen’s shoulder
and stared at him. “Apparently, I took too long to think.”

“What are you talking about?” Galen
asked.

“I live here. If I hadn’t been away when you
showed up, we would have met earlier. I feel like I wasted a
week.”

“Why were you gone?”

She frowned. “My sister, Alanah, is being
forced to mate with a fairy chosen by our king. I rejected him a
year ago, and now she’s in the same boat.”

“Why can’t she just say no?”

“Because saying no means expulsion from the
commune where our family lives with other fairies. I never get to
see my family because I was exiled. If she doesn’t marry the male,
then my parents will also be exiled and my dad really, really loves
being on the fae council.”

“If you can’t talk to your family, how do you
know what’s going on with her?” Gretchen asked.

“My sister’s powers are with woodland
creatures. She can communicate with them, and she and my mom send
notes to me with them. A week ago, a mouse delivered the news. I
was distraught, so I went for a fly. I was toying with the idea of
going back to the commune and begging for forgiveness from my king
and taking her place.”

Galen’s cat howled in rage, and his fangs
punched from his gums. “No.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Obviously
things have changed, Galen. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

Slade and Gretchen both chuckled, and Galen
snarled. He gripped the waistband of her jeans and tugged her
closer. “You’re mine. You’re not begging anyone for anything.”

She sank her fingers into his hair and
pressed a kiss to his ear. “Not even you? Not to beg you to make me
come while you’re deep inside me? Not to beg you to mark me and
make me yours forever?”

He let loose a low growl, sliding his hand
under her shirt and feeling the heat of her skin. “You don’t need
to beg. Anything you want from me is yours.”

She bit his earlobe and then licked the small
mark. His fingertips tingled as his cat tried to extend his claws
and rip off her clothes. He fought the cat, reminding the beast
that they were in a vehicle with his family and no one was going to
see his truemate naked but him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and
hugged him, the teasing gone from her voice as she whispered, “My
sister has to make her own choices the same way I did. I have zero
regrets except wasting a week away from Belle Terra when I could
have been in your arms.”

He was thankful she didn’t regret anything.
She told him how she’d had a bad dream about her sister and left,
the same night that he and his family had come to the hotel. Hours
had separated them, and he was disappointed that he’d missed her,
but thankful she was in his arms now.

“If we’d met that night, would you have known
I was your truemate?” she asked after he explained the mating
dreams and how they had appeared to them in age-order, except for
Lia, who was the youngest and had leap-frogged over Galen when she
scented her truemate in the master vampire of the city of Belle
Terra.

“I don’t know, love,” he said, a purr
rumbling in his chest. “We’re together now. We can stop wondering
what could have been.”

“And concentrate on what’s coming next.”

He definitely liked that idea.

When they reached the hotel, she said, “I
need to stop into the flower shop for a little while.”

“Why?”

“Because I know that by this point, all the
bouquets I made before I left have been sold or are wilted, and I
have a feeling that when we get up to my room, that we aren’t going
to come out for…a day?”

“Two days,” he said with a growl.

She mock pouted. “Just two?”

He grabbed her close and kissed her neck. “As
many days as you can handle, but I’ll never, ever be done.”

She sighed, and it sounded like a purr, which
made his dick even harder. He could probably punch a hole in
concrete with it at this point. His truemate, the one causing the
pink and gold dreams, was his now.

She unlocked the metal security screen
covering the storefront, and they said goodbye to Slade and
Gretchen, stepping into the shop. He pulled the screen back down,
and she locked it from inside so they weren’t disturbed.

“This won’t take too long. I just have to
coax the flowers I need and arrange them.”

“I’m curious about your powers,” he said,
following her into a back room. The front of the store contained
shelves and refrigerated cases with a small counter and cash
register. Baskets, wreaths, and stuffed animals were tucked into
every available space.

She flicked on the overhead lights, which
illuminated her workspace – three long, sturdy wooden tables, glass
vases and containers, and tools.

“I can manipulate plant life. My powers come
from the earth, so anything growing is mine to control. I can make
fruit grow on trees out of season, cause plants to grow at will
like I did with the vine wall, and even change the coloring of
plants. It’s perfect for me to own a flower shop, because all I
need are seeds and plants, and I can make anything. I order seeds
from all over the world, and when hotel guests come in and ask for
custom bouquets or arrangements, I can make them very quickly.”

“Does the hotel do a lot of weddings?” He sat
down on a stool and watched her arrange a dozen different glass
vases on a table and drop seeds into each one.

“Yes, we have at least two weddings a month.
In the summer, it’s busier. This past June we had six weddings in
one day. It was crazy.”

“Does it hurt you to make things grow? Does
it sap your power?”

“If I tried to do too much at one time, yes.
The vine wall made me a little tired, but I was panicked and still
a little dizzy. Just making bouquets grow like this doesn’t bother
me at all, but if I tried to make an entire orchard bloom out of
season – I’d probably pass out for a few hours.”

She sighed softly and her wings extended. The
beautiful gold and pink wings fluttered. They extended past her
ears and reached her waist and were three feet wide on either side
of her. “Can you carry another person with your wings or just
yourself?”

“If the person were small enough, like a
child, I could, but I can’t put a ton of weight on my wings. Male
fairies have feathered wings, and they can carry a second person,
but the translucent wings like I have aren’t meant for that sort of
thing.”

She filled the vases half full with clear
marbles and water. Then she paused in front of the first vase with
her palm down over the opening. The marbles jostled inside the vase
and the water rippled, and then tiny green stalks shot up between
the marbles, swiftly growing toward the opening. She lifted her
hand as if she were drawing the foliage up, and the stalks
followed, thickening and lengthening as leaves sprouted and buds
appeared and bloomed. She wiggled her fingers, and he met her
gaze.

A dozen crimson roses had risen from seeds
within the vase. He’d never seen anything like it. “That was
amazing, love.”

She winked. “Thanks. Red roses are my best
seller.”

As she moved to the next vase, he said,
“What’s your favorite?”

“I like daisies.”

“Really?” He crossed his arms and leaned back
against the counter. “Daisies?”

“What’s wrong with daisies?” she asked,
peeking around the second vase of perfect red roses.

“You could make any flower out of seeds, but
your favorite is the daisy. It’s just…surprising.”

“Oh, I’m full of surprises, Galen.”

“Are you?”

Her eyes darkened slightly, and he felt
something tickle his wrists. Glancing down, he found vines snaking
around his wrists. As he watched, the vines thickened and then
tugged with surprising strength, pulling his arms straight out to
rest against the counter.

“I stand corrected,” he said, chuckling. The
vines released him and slithered away under the counter.

As she continued to grow roses in the vases,
she told him about growing up in the fairy commune, with the king
who expected everyone to tow the line and the fairy council, of
which her dad was a member, backing him up. She’d been exiled for
only a year, but she clearly missed her family and was worried
about her sister. He thought it was admirable that she was willing
to marry a man she didn’t love to save her sister from the same
fate. He was just thankful she’d come home to Belle Terra first and
they’d found each other.

“Is there nothing we can do for Alanah?” he
asked. He helped her carry the completed vases of red roses out to
the refrigerated cases.

“Not without getting in a lot of trouble. I’d
be jailed for even stepping onto the commune’s property. And thank
you.”

“For what, love?” He tucked a lock of hair
behind her ear and kissed her gently.

“Asking what
we
could do, not what
I
could do.”

“I said you weren’t alone any longer, Serena,
and I meant every word.”

She rose on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms
around his neck, drawing him close. Their lips met and parted,
their tongues touching and dancing like old lovers. He felt like he
knew her already, as if she’d already been part of his heart and
soul all along, he just hadn’t known it.

He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs
around his waist. He carried her back into the workshop and kicked
the door shut. Her wings disappeared. Laying her down on an empty
counter, he pushed her shirt up her stomach and kissed her navel.
He inhaled her wildflower scent and nuzzled her soft skin. Her
fingers fisted his hair and she tilted her hips, making him
chuckle.

“We’ve got at least two beds waiting
upstairs,” he pointed out, pushing her shirt up a little higher
until he could see her pink bra.

“You’re the one kissing my stomach.”

“I can stop.”

“Don’t you dare!”

He straightened, leaning over her and cupping
her face with one hand. “Be mine, Serena. I promise to be the best
mate.”

“I’m yours, Galen.”