Lucien’s eyes lit up. “What are you suggesting?”
I gave everyone in our little meeting a sly grin. “Axil and I ride as a team with one of you on our wolven backs. We use our power to hold off any attacks and walk you right into the queen’s inner camp.”
Drae gasped slightly. “It’s brilliant. Yes! And Arwen and I can circle above trying to keep any air assault away from you.”
“I want to do it,” Raife said suddenly and everyone turned to look at him.
“Do what?” Lucien asked his friend.
The normally peaceful healer fisted his hands. “I want to be the one to slit her throat and whisper the names of my family in her ear before she burns in Hades.”
Whoa. It was a well-known rumor that the Nightfall queen had taken out his entire family, though it was one I hadn’t believed until right now.
Axil placed a hand on Raife’s shoulder and squeezed. “You can ride with me.”
“I’ll manage the troops at the front line with Madelynn. Freeze anyone who gets through,” Lucien said.
Madelynn nodded, stepping up next to her husband.
“And I will ride on Zara,” Kailani said and peered over at me. “If that’s okay? I know the Nightfall realm the best. I grew up there,” she added, a little shamefacedly.
I gave her an easy smile. “That’s perfect.” I’d given wolf-back rides to Oslo and his friends all the time, sometimes three of them at once. My wolf was ten times stronger than I was. I’d be slower than normal but that was okay: it was my mental acuity that would need to be up to the task if I were going to … control people against their will.
A nursemaid suddenly came over then holding two infants, one in each arm and I gasped.
They were so perfect and tiny.
With bright grins, Drae and Arwen each reached for a baby and pulled them to their chests, peppering their faces with kisses.
“They’re adorable,” I told Arwen and she looked up at me beaming. Twins were common in wolven births too. Sometimes triplets.
It made me think of the life growing inside of me and whether that had been one hundred percent true or not.
“Raife, can I speak to you for a minute?” I inclined my head to a spot a few steps away by the roaring fire.
He nodded and followed me.
Once he was standing before me, I grasped my flat stomach. “Am I really with child? I won’t be mad if that was a trick because it saved Axil’s life.”
He beamed at me. “You are. It’s very early but I see it as a small flicker of golden light in your womb.” He glanced at my stomach and I couldn’t believe how incredible his healing gift was to detect life even before a mother could. “And I don’t think using any mental gifts will interfere with the pregnancy at this stage.”
Tears lined my eyes but I blinked them back. “Thank you,” I told him and we walked back over to join the others. I knew with Axil’s sensitive hearing and the fact that we hadn’t stepped too far away that he’d probably heard. When I stepped back up beside him, he ran a hand over my belly and grinned at me. “Okay, I’m going to need some time to train Zara,” he said.
Lucien looked like he was mentally half here, and half with the storm outside. “When will your wolves be here?” he asked dreamily.
“It might take two days or more with such a large contingent but I can have a smaller elite force here within hours if Arwen and Drae are willing to fly them,” Axil said, peering at the dragon king and queen.
The husband and wife shared a glance and then nodded. “We can fly runs all night, holding two to four people each until we have enough.”
That was a relief. If they could get the Royal Guard here then the necromerians didn’t stand a chance.
Raife cleared his throat. “I appreciate that you’ve called your entire army for us, Axil, but if your power is great enough, we may not need them. We can end this tomorrow morning.”
“No pressure.” Axil laughed nervously.
Raife clapped his dear friend on the back. “I saw what you did back there with the necros. It was incredible. We just need that on a larger scale.”
Axil turned to face me. “Then if you’ll excuse us, Zara needs to train.”
We walked out of the living room and into a small library. It was cute that Axil seemed to know where he was going, which meant he’d been here before. Probably as a kid.
Axil looked around, seemingly stuck in his memories and then glanced at me. “You know what it feels like to pull on your dominant power and hold another dominant’s gaze?”
I nodded. As a female in a pack of strong males I’d had to do it often.
“Well, controlling another person against their will is a lot like that. But instead of holding eye contact you …” His lips thinned as he stared off into the rows of books in the distance, seemingly at a loss for words. “You hold the image in your mind of what you want them to do and … push it over them. You wrap them in it until they are forced to do it,” he finished and then shook his head. “I’m sorry I’ve never had to explain this to another person before. My father taught Ansel and I when we were younger.”
I nodded. “That’s okay. I think I know what you mean. It’s like holding a thought in your head of a person kneeling, and they kneel?”
“Sort of, yeah. Do you want to try it on me first?”
My eyes widened. Control Axil? Against his will? The thought felt so wrong and yet I knew he was the best person to practice with.
“Uh, sure,” I said hesitantly.
“You won’t hurt me,” he said, and then placed his arm over mine. “Hold my gaze.”
I had friends who were submissives and they said it was uncomfortable to hold a dominant’s gaze, that when they locked eyes with their alpha for too long, their insides churned.
Not me. It gave me a thrill. My heart would pound in anticipation of how long I would be able to hold it.
“I’ll have to bring you into Death Mountain pack,” he stated.
Even though I knew that was inevitable, my heart pinched a little at the thought of leaving Dorian, Amara, my brothers … Eliza. They wouldn’t be pack family anymore. But Axil was my family now, and so was this child in my belly and I’d have to join Death Mountain pack to truly be queen of the wolven.
“Okay.” I handed him my wrist upturned.
I locked eyes with Axil fiercely, gritting my jaw as he dragged a clawed finger down my arm and drew blood. The dominance of the alpha king was unlike anything I could describe to an outsider. Looking at Axil now, there was a knowing that he could take me in a fight, that he could take over my will, but also that he would protect me at all costs, that I could depend on him for anything. That’s what true dominance was in a wolf pack. My leader, my protector, my mate.
I gasped when he pressed his bloody wrist to mine.
“Zara Moon …” He gave me his last name and I had to suppress a whimper of surprise. It felt so right. “I claim you for Death Mountain pack and I share this burden with you. The magic of my forefathers.”
I gasped as I felt a literal tearing away from my brother, Dorian, Eliza, everyone in the Mud Flats. It was like a constant knowledge in the back of your mind that someone was there and now they were suddenly gone. It was replaced with new people, Axil and all of the Death Mountain wolves. Then I felt his magic, and I wasn’t prepared for the hot buzzing sensation to crawl up my veins and into my chest. I shuddered as the magic completely entered me and settled just under my skin.