Ella
I cry out Ryatt’s name as he thrust in from behind. He grips my hips, adjusting me so I’m where he wants me, and begins to absolutely lay waste to my body.
It’s like every piece of me–every cell, every nerve–is honing in on his movements. He lowers himself over my back after a moment, pressing me into the mattress with one of his hands pinning my wrists above my head.
He kisses the base of my neck, then bites down, holding me there.
For whatever reason that bite ignites something in me I’ve never felt before. It’s something ancient. Maybe something tied to my powers? I don’t know. But whatever he does awakens that spark of light deep in my soul, and soon my skin is glowing a pale gold.
Each stroke of his cock has me edging toward a climax I already know is going to be stronger than anything I’ve ever experienced. I lose sense of place and time. The bed is threatening to fall to pieces beneath us. His free hand smooths over my side, clutching the slope of my hip, and he thrusts into me as deep as he can go.
“Ella,” he groans, holding himself there as I slip over the edge and fall headfirst into a wave of ecstasy. I spasm around his cock, and he grunts, his grip on my hip tightening. Another thrust and he’s coming undone as well, spilling himself deep inside of me.
It takes several minutes for us to calm down, and even then my skin continues to glow like a fucking lantern.
He flips me over so I’m facing him again and rests beside me, his fingers tracing lines down my heaving breasts as I try to catch my breath.
“Was that–I think I blacked out for a moment there, I…” Ryatt uncharacteristically fumbles over his words. I roll onto my side so we’re chest to chest. He continues apologetically, “Did I hurt you?”
“No, the opposite.” I place a glowing hand on his chest.
Ryatt jerks, then inhales sharply, drawing away from me.
“Oh, my Goddess! Did I just burn you?” I frantically sit up to inspect the glowing handprint on my mates chest.
He sits up as well, and we watch my power soak into his skin, then disappear.
Seconds pass. Neither of us breathes. Then he chokes on a breath and looks me in the eyes. “What did you just do?”
“I don’t know. Does it hurt?”
He shakes his head and extends an arm toward the end of the bed. In the dim sunlight passing through the moth holes in the curtains, I can just see the outline of his roping tattoos, but there’s something else.
Shadows curl between his fingertips–faint at first. I feel it then, those powers of his, the powers he sacrificed to save me and Kenna but….
His eyes meet mine, and they glow.
“How is this possible?” he asks in a whisper.
I open my mouth to reply something along the lines of, “I have no fucking idea!” when a sharp knock on the door cuts me off.
The knock is followed by a wail, and we both let out a sigh of relief that it’s just someone bringing us our daughter.
“Hurry,” I urge, and smile at Ryatt. He smiles back, and for a few seconds, we hold each other’s gaze, unable to break away.
Whatever just happened between us… we’ll have to talk about it later. I did something to him, but I don't know what it means or why it happened.
I pull on my dress and quickly walk to the door while Ryatt dresses as swiftly as he can.
I throw open the door and come face to face with Granger who’s holding a squirming and very unhappy Kenna in his arms.
He takes a single step into the cottage and stops, glancing between me and Ryatt.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he says dryly as I take Kenna in my arms. He gives Ryatt a look, and Ryatt just smirks as he adjusts his belt.
“Poor thing,” I coo to my daughter. “Was Granger mean to you?”
Granger glares at me. “She didn’t want me anymore than she wanted Commander Westfall. I wasn’t mean to her.”
“I’m just teasing,” I tell him before settling into the rocking chair next to the window. Ryatt strides over and opens the curtains, which highlight the crumpled sheets and the pillows that have been tossed from the bed.
Granger chews his lip looking more than uncomfortable, but I find it amusing.
“Jealous?” I whisper as Ryatt sits down on the edge of the bed to tie his boots.
Granger scowls, rolling his eyes to the ceiling in what I imagine is a prayer for the gods to strike him dead rather than continue with this line of conversation.
The Beta closes his eyes and exhales. “Actually, yeah, I’m jealous. I want nothing more than to be heading home to my wife. But instead, I just spent the last half hour talking Westfall off a ledge.” He turns to Ryatt, who is still lacing up his boots. “He told me his mate has returned to him. I was sure he was having a stroke because that would mean your mother is alive.”
“She might be,” Ryatt says, entirely too casually.
I watch the exchange with interest. Ryatt and Granger have known each other since they were kids, and Granger is a lot more shocked about this than Ryatt.
“The witch who's been helping Ella is your mother?” he presses, jabbing his thumb in my direction for emphasis.
Ryatt shrugs, standing. “I don’t know.”
“Wouldn’t you recognize her? Wouldn’t you have known–”
“I don’t have many tangible memories of her. I don’t remember her voice or the way she smelled. I don’t have a clear picture of what she looked like,” he says coolly. “I don’t know, Granger. Either Westfall has lost his mind, or that witch is really his mate, and my mother.”
Granger turns pleading eyes to me like I can do anything about this. I’m just as stumped as the two of them. “I think,” I say, gently rocking Kenna back to sleep, “that we should do whatever Westfall thinks is best.”
“He was debating throwing himself off a cliff, Ella,” Granger says hotly. He turns to Ryatt. “Seriously, Ryatt. We’ve seen this before, remember?”
Ryatt smooths his tongue along his lower teeth and crosses his arms over his chest. His eyes darken a shade as he looks down at his boots, nodding.
“What do you mean?” I ask, pulling down the straps on my dress as Kenna continues to fidget. She finally got the hang of nursing this morning, but I still fumble with it. It hurts, too. Ryatt watches me closely as I help her latch and then lean my head back against the rocking chair, grimacing.
“He’s talking about something our kind calls Mate Fever. It’s rare, but in Westfall's case, we can’t rule it out.” He walks over to me and rests a hand on the top of the rocking chair, tilting his head to get a better view of Kenna. “It usually happens when someone’s mate dies. You can slowly go insane.”
“Westfall isn’t insane,” I persist, scoffing at the notion. “He’s the most level headed person I know.”
“We have to consider it,” Granger says, nodding at Ryatt.
“He recognized her voice, and before he turned around and spotted her, he told me that he sometimes hears her voice. It was like he saw a ghost.” Ryatt smooths his hand over Kenna’s fuzzy head, and she momentarily stops suckling, then starts again with a vengeance.
I take a deep breath and glare up at him. “Do you mind?”
He only smiles at me then looks back at Granger with a sigh. “Westfall wasn’t going to leap over the cliff, Granger. I’ve already decided that the witch is coming back to Veiled Valley with us, so she’ll be traveling in our company. I’m guessing Westfall might have gotten his hopes up that she was, in fact, my mother, and is now just going through the motions when it comes to broken hope and grief.” I narrow my eyes at Ryatt as he claps Granger on the shoulder and continues, “I’ll talk to him.”
“You’re being incredibly casual about this,” I snap.
Both men turn to me.
“You are,” I say with more emphasis. “You act like the mate bond is just something you can ignore, which we all know isn’t the case. If Westfall believes she’s his mate, then she is. Maybe she’s not actually your mother, but he’s feeling a new bond, and that’s why he’s acting this way.”
“Having two mates is impossible,” Granger cuts in.
“It happened to my dad,” I argue, shrugging.
They exchange glances, then Granger sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t know what to think, but I’m not going to babysit him, Ryatt.”
“I’m not asking you to do that,” he says hotly. He turns to look at me again, his expression softening. So much so, actually, that I feel a blush begin to prickle across my cheeks.
“I’d recognize Ella’s voice anywhere. I’m sure you feel the same about Amanda.”
Granger nods. “Then we’re going to believe him. This witch is your mother, and she somehow survived Kane?”
“She has no memory of Westfall, or me, for that matter. Right now, she’s just a witch with no name and–” Ryatt cuts himself off abruptly and furrows his brow. Granger, too, turns toward the door, hanging his head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mind-link,” Granger murmurs, and a few seconds later his head snaps in Ryatt’s direction.
Ryatt meets his eyes and raises his brows.
Then they both slowly turn to me.
I slouch in the chair. “Great, what’s happening now? Another war?”
“Your brother is here, in Eastonia,” Ryatt says. “He fucking did it. I knew he would.”
“What are you even talking about? There’s no way–” I bite down on my reply. Actually, yes. Isaac is extremely powerful and stubborn enough to come here despite the dangers. “Why is he here?”
“I talked to him before everything happened with you and the baby.” Ryatt clears his throat, looking peeved, to say the least. He looks at Granger. “This is likely why I wasn’t about to get through to him these past few days.”
“Where the hell is he now?” I growl. I try not to shout, especially since Kenna is on the verge of sleep.
“He’s being escorted to Veiled Valley,” Granger says. “From what the scouts we have in Rifthold just told us, Artyom’s band of warriors found him, and he’s in good health. He’s safe.”
“I’m going to kill him,” I say, then laugh sharply. “Is he seriously here?”
Ryatt nods.
Oh, great. And none of us are powerful enough to get him back to the other side after everything we’ve just been through. “Oh, Maddy,” I groan. “She’s just as livid as I am, I’m sure. How long is it going to take to reach Veiled Valley from here? A week? Two?”
“Three, since you’ll be on foot with the baby, and Ryatt can’t shift–”
“I can,” Ryatt cuts in. We both look at him. “We can jump, I think.”
I lean forward a bit. “Your powers–”
“Whatever you did to me, Ella,” he says, motioning to his chest. “I think it changed something. The witch did say she wasn’t sure if my powers were gone or just completely depleted.”
“What about Kenna? Can she handle a jump like that?”
“We can’t go straight to Veiled Valley, no. But to Rifthold? Possibly. She’s a Firestone witch. She can handle it.”
He looks at me and the baby with nothing but certainty in his eyes.
I gather her a little closer. She’s so small. Not even a week old.
But Ryatt is sure, so I’m sure.
“Let’s go home, then,” I tell him.