71. Hurts Like Hell Part I

Kiran left Castle Night feeling stupidly disgraced.
After the owner of the room they’d fucked in twice walked through the door and screamed in terror, Selene kicked him out on his ass. She allowed him to keep the robe, at least. Though he shredded it when he Shifted into his werewolf form, breaking into a run toward Apollo’s Keep.
*Time to make things right with Seff*, he thought, though his heart wasn’t in the required effort it would take. *Maybe tomorrow.*
He trotted to a stop at the top of the hill when he heard arguing barks and howls. Even in the dark and the thrown light of the torches at the entrance, he saw several bodies strewn from his orchard to the riverbank.
Most he recognized as either Sun pack members or his offspring, but the white-stained-red pelts belonged to Magnolia.
Kiran barreled down the hill toward the river, heart stopping. Closer, closer. He recognized Allium first, her stance protective as she faced three lesser Alphas. He didn’t recognize the male, but he did recognize who she was holding:
Seff, her naked body blood-soaked and prone.


Kiran’s body curved around Zinnia’s, her back to his chest, their arms and legs a tangle. It was before dawn but it was still snowing outside the frosty windows of the cottage in the woods.
He stirred and tightened his grip a little to hold her warmth, for even with their werewolf blood and the heavy bear pelt overtop them, the chill seemed to find its way to their bones. Her skin was hot, her heart beating seemingly through her spine, her breathing even in sleep. She was so small and he was so large and it felt so right that he had this tiny female to protect; in return, she loved him enough that it became armor against any foe.
Kiran pressed a gentle kiss to the skin below her earlobe. Zinnia eased into awareness and hummed a laugh, moving her limbs to wake them as well. She took his arm and moved it to press her own kiss to the back of his hand. “G’morning,” she mumbled.
“I liked my arm where it was,” he groused.
“Oh, right, sorry. I’ll put it back.”
Zinnia released him so he could rest his forearm over her breasts, cupping her ribs in his palm. “There we go.” Kiran nuzzled her neck with his eyes closed to avoid getting poked in the eyes with her mass of white hair. “Mm, let’s never leave. Fuck eating.”
“You’d deny me early morning buck?”
“You can eat *me*.”
His love’s breath hitched, and then she purred. Beneath his arm, Kiran felt her breasts start to peak. He started to make the journey of his palm slide down the slopes of her body toward her vulnerable sex. His fingers encountered the raised flesh of the ragged permanent scar curving horizontally across her belly. Even though she told him she made peace with it, the familiar pang of anger in his heart would never go away. Someone hurt her and Kiran would never let that happen again.
Zinnia Amaranth of the Magnolia pack deserved nothing less than a painless life.
She squeaked and her knees jerked forward. “Your hand is cold!”
Kiran was near-seven feet tall; she was a mere five-six. His shoulders were three times as broad as her slender ones. She was slim but curvy and her skin was pale, stark against the rich gold of his that strained against his muscles. They were everything but similar.
And yet she could bring him to his knees if she smiled.
As if commanded, Kiran pulled his hand away. “But it was just—”
Zinnia was sly not like a wolf but a fox. She gave a heave of her body to push him onto his back—so she could sit atop him with her legs on either side of his waist, palms pressing onto his pectorals as she looming above him with a wicked glint in her green eyes and equally pleased grin. “Gotcha.”
Kiran blinked. Then his own palms slapped her outer thighs, fingers squeezing the flesh and muscle of her ass. The sound of the slap surprised her out of her mischief for only a moment. She didn’t give him the chance to admire her breasts before leaning down to kiss him sweetly. Sweet, and then teasing. She took his lower lip between her teeth and tugged, smiling all the while, even as Kiran pulled her closer so her sex dragged up his abdomen. There was a trickle of wetness—her slick.
A growl rumbled in his chest. “I almost forgot it’s the first day of your cycle.”
“What are you going to do about that?” she groaned against his mouth.
“This.” In a sudden and rough movement, his hands caught the backs of her knees and yanked her forward—until her sex was in the perfect position for him to take a long, slow lick.
Zinnia moaned. “Kiran… Oh, fuck, do that again.”
So he did. A few pleasurable times. As many as it took to make her lose herself in bliss. And when she was satisfied, it was his turn.
But that didn’t happen because of the gunshot.
Zinnia’s scream was cut off by Kiran’s hand over her mouth, spinning onto his knees with his back facing the door, willing to take bullets for his soulmate without question.
They remained still and quiet for several minutes. No other shots rang out.
Kiran unfurled himself but kept his arms around her. His heart was pounding and there was no hiding that from her wolf hearing, but he could at least steady his voice. “Are you okay, my love?”
“Yes, my love,” she breathed back. She was trembling, unabashed in her terror.
Living in the small cabin Kiran built himself just for them had benefits as well as downsides. It was in the middle of the forest they dubbed the Gray Woods. If it had another name, they would never find out. They wanted nothing to do with the human town half a day’s walk away.
Apparently for them, the forest on the opposite side of the town wasn’t good enough. They had to hunt with their godsdamned rifles on *his* side of the forest.
Kiran knew Zinnia wasn’t okay. She feared for herself, but she more feared for *him*. He’d been shot already. A month ago in the leg by the small pack of human hunters who thought he was a wild wolf a threat to their sheep herd.
Well, he was a wolf of sorts, but he had no damn interest in tamed livestock.
Recovery only took a few minutes, but it rocked Zinnia to the core—she realized that while Kiran was immortal, he could be injured just like anyone else. No matter how many times he reassured her that it would take a hell of a lot more to kill him, she fretted like a mother over her pup.
Like any mother, she was tougher than she appeared. Kiran had to hold her back from going after the hunters with every ounce of anger her body could store. That night they held each other and didn’t sleep.
Now, Kiran wanted to propose they enact revenge, but simply making eye contact with her dashed that idea. Her gaze sharpened and she pointed a scolding finger at him. “Don’t even think about it, Kiran. It’ll only cause more problems than it’s worth. I don’t want you being tracked down like a rabid animal.”
Kiran bared his teeth. “I *am* a rabid animal,” he growled playfully, burying his face in her neck and nibbling.
She pushed him away and slipped out of bed to pad over to the chair where she’d hung her fur blanket. She climbed onto it and pulled the furs to hide all but her head, which she turned toward the window, even though it was rendered opaque from the frost and sticky snow.
Kiran sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He found long strands instead of bristles; she needed to trim his hair again. In the spring she would cut it and shave his beard.
He stood at the back of the chair and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “Zinnia…”
“I’m fine,” she said crisply. “You’re fine. We’ll just eat leftovers.”
Conversation over. The fierce little white wolf’s word was law. Testing her patience, much less trying to ease her mood, was not in Kiran’s itinerary. “Yes, my love.”
He dressed and laid out an outfit for her on the arm of the chair. Wordlessly he started a small fire in the pit he dug inside the cabin. A stone wall encircled it tall enough that even if the flames decided to get excited, they wouldn’t be able to reach any wood. He heated up the dried strips of deer they’d saved from yesterday’s hunt on the spit over the crackling pyre.
Before he could bring it over, Zinnia had already dressed and came over. She seemed to forget she was just standing there as she gnawed on it halfheartedly. Sadly amused, Kiran took his strip in one hand while using his other on guide her to the longer couch by her waist. She lounged between his legs until they finished. Then she curled in his lap and nearly fell asleep.
“Zin, wait,” Kiran murmured, brushing hair out of her eyes. “We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“Why this made you think of *him*.”
Her hand automatically went to her flat belly. Zinnia didn’t like to talk about her past, but she also didn’t like skirting the truth or lying to her soulmate. “I just imagined you getting shot, and all the blood… It reminded me of it covering me when my flesh was torn open. The pain and suffering… I’d never forgive myself if you had to go through something similar, whether for my sake or not.”
Kiran rested his cheek to the crown of her head. “The pain and suffering are over, my love. That bastard is dead and damned would I be if I let myself get shot again.”
“You can’t know if they’ll show up again?” she insisted. “We won’t be able to go out if they think there’s a pack of wolves running around.”
“You’re thinking too far ahead. It’s fine. We’ll just have to scout what times and days they come out, avoid them that way, and we’ll hunt further away if we have to. It’s easy to fool humans. Trust me.”
“I *do* trust you, Kiran, but…” Zinnia untucked herself to look at him, those beautiful green eyes searching his face. “But I don’t trust them. Humans may be stupid but they *are* unpredictable. We don’t know how many there are of them. It could take weeks to figure out any sort of pattern.”
Kiran’s brow knitted. He started to rub her thigh because he felt her growing cold. “Are you saying you want to move?”
She bit her lip. “Maybe? I don’t know. The Keep you’re building…it’s not too far away, right?”
“Three days away if we walk.”
“That’s safer. We could wait a month or so there.”
“Zin…it’s unfinished. Other Omegas and Alphas are staying as they build. It’s not very romantic to live in a construction area.”
She tugged gently on his beard. “But it’s *safe*.”
Kiran rested his forehead to hers, closing his eyes. “You are safe. With me. No harm will *ever* come to you, I promise.”