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29: Labors of Love
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Rite of Power 30: Sub-Servant
After wrapping a towel around me, he stayed behind to drain the tub and blow out the candles. I sat on the edge of the bed watching as the doorway grew darker with each flame extinguished. I didn’t know how I felt about what he said. Hadn’t I already changed in ways that couldn’t be undone? His body filled the dark space I was watching, his wet shirt pasted against his skin. “I’m going to change into something dry; do you want me to get you something to wear to bed?” No one had a right to look so damn good when I wanted to not want him. He was doing so well at being good. So why was it the more he behaved himself, the more I wanted him not to? He looked at me expectantly, but not in the way I was used too. He’d asked me a question. What had he asked me? “Selene?” Oh, no. Now he looked concerned. He’d asked me if I wanted something. What did I want? I wanted to not be me, even if it was just for a night. I wanted to pre
Rite of Power 31: Answers in the Aether
This was home, where I was always meant to be. Even though I know they wouldn’t, it felt like his arms wrapped around me like this could shield me from all the evil and pain in the world. Here in the dark, no one would ever find us. I stretched against him and tried to look around our room to determine what time it was. My cheeks burned as I took in all the twinkling lights watching us from the dark inky depths of the Aether. When had I willed myself here? No, how had I willed myself here and pulled Dmitri in with me? Sitting up, I was taken aback by the golden thread of light that seemed to be wrapped around us over and over again like a cocoon. It shielded the fact that we were naked from all the eyes watching us, but it didn’t feel like that was its purpose. It felt like it was a part of me, or us, I couldn’t tell which. I looked around again, trying to find the black furry form of Arkadi, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. His abse
Rite of Power 32: Memories of the Soul
This was my body, but it wasn’t my body, at least not the body I was just in. I tried to fight through the dizziness that blended all the thoughts in my head together and kept my eyes from focusing. Where was I? This wasn’t the Aether, and it wasn’t our bedroom or even the pack hospital. I could only steady myself enough to sit up. I brought strange hands up to my face and tried to determine if I was damaged in some way. Everything felt the same, except my hair. There were smooth strands where I’d expected to find curls, and the color was brighter, a more rose gold color than red, as I pulled a strand forward where I could inspect it. “Nane tooyi Isis!” a small girl ran into the room and jumped up on the bed beside me with a grin. When I didn’t respond she frowned and patted my cheek gently, “Isis?” Was I Isis, or was that a question. I gave her a light shrug. Her big brown eyes stared up at me with concern, but I didn’t know how to an
Rite of Power 33: The Bigger They Are...
“What time is it?” I pushed through the pain in my head and tried to climb out of bed, “There still enough time for me to knock Caleb on his ass before breakfast?” “Maybe you should give yourself a few hours to recover from whatever the hell it was that you just went through before trying to pick a fight with another Alpha,” Dmitri tried to tuck me back into bed. “Really?” I stared up at him and brushed his hands away, “After everything that you just witnessed, you think that smug meat head can beat me? Even on my worst day I think I could still knock him down a peg or two. So move.” He held up his hands in surrender, “Yes Ma’am,” he gave me a sly smile. “Don’t try to distract me,” I climbed past him out of the bed and walked into the closet to throw on some leggings and a sports bra. He’d already slipped into a pair of basketball shorts and a sleeveless shirt, one of my hair ties dangling in his fingers as he waited o
Rite of Power 34: Just a Kiss
“Would you please behave yourself,” I huffed having to wriggle out of Dmitri’s arms for the third time since he got me alone behind closed doors again. “I seriously want to talk to you about something.” He leaned back just far enough to read my face, “We’ve got a couple hours until anyone expects to see us again and you’ve clearly recuperated from whatever was going on when you woke up.” His lips quirked up into a devilish grin, “I’m just trying to make sure you get in a proper workout so you’re not grumpy all day.” “I don’t get grumpy,” I frowned at him, making him laugh. “Damn it, Dmitri! Don’t make me have to knock you on your ass too; it took me ages to pick out this furniture.” That seemed to do the trick, I hated shopping and he knew it. “If anything, Caleb is just going to want another chance to prove himself, now that he knows better than to underestimate you.” He let out a heavy sigh when his words didn’t offer any relief. “Ok
Rite of Power 35: Loyalty and Trust
I could already feel the headache forming in the back of my skull, “I don’t see how I’m going to make it through these daily meetings without wringing his neck. I know that he’s supposed to be helping us use this to our advantage, but I really don’t want to sit there and listen to him tell me that Candice should be pampered and catered too.” Sophie wrung her hands before her as we walked, “I could always kill her on accident for you and claim it was because I was still new to this whole shifter thing.” I smiled at her, “No, if anyone is going to kill her it’s going to be me. Besides, I’m trying to show that female shifters aren’t the defect everyone believes them to be. So you’ll have to be an example of control and strength for me.” “That sounds a lot less fun than I thought this was going to be,” she pouted. This time Blake chuckled, “It will be after your first moon. When your wolf finally gets to stretch its legs a
Rite of Power 36: Plan B
Caleb jumped out of his chair, clambering to get as far away from me as he could, as fast as he could. Dmitri’s laugh was a deafening roar as he watched the Alpha scurry like a frightened mouse. I frowned, “That’s not helping.” He shrugged, still chuckling. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t make him unsee what he just saw.” “Remind me to threaten to yank Bo’s ass back to the Aether later,” I grumbled and frowned at the man cowering in the corner of the room. “Still, he’s taking it better than you did.” Dmitri’s laughing choked to a stop, “I don’t think that’s a fair comparison, he hadn’t spent several days doing very intimate things with you before he saw you as you really are.” “And all the spanking,” I teased, “there was a lot of spanking that happened.” “I’ve since gotten over that and I’m not opposed to putting you over my knee right now,” he was serious. “Promises, promises,” I r
Rite of Power 37: Breaking Some Eggs
‘I’m on my way up to check on Sophie,’ I wasn’t sure where Blake was, but he should’ve made his way back down to the office already. ‘Is everything ok?’ ‘Samuel is halfway across our territory, on patrol and he’s trying to make his way back as fast as he can, I thought it best if I didn’t leave her alone.’ Blake was too good at knowing what I needed from him without my asking. ‘When I get up there, maybe you should go spend some time with Kelly. I’m sure that she would appreciate the extra attention.’ I could feel his gratitude as I closed out the link and continued making my way up the stairs. Hopefully Dmitri could contain Caleb’s overzealous ideas to start some kind of revolution in my absence. I didn’t know if I could force him to block out memories or not but I also didn’t want to have to try. I had enough on my plate to deal with and even that was spiraling out of my control. Blake was pacing back and forth in th
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