Kassuim had given up all common sense. She looked at her husband sleeping beside her with a sigh. His body was magnificent and strong. She knew the man had needs. She let her hands roam over his muscular chest with unbelievable boldness. The smell of him was of the sea, wine and intoxicating. The mixture delighted her.
"You'd better be careful with those nervous hands, my lady." Morgan sighed, the blood pounding in his veins. As daring as that mouth of yours with its stinging tongue.
Richard stretched his legs arranging himself on the bed under the covers and pulled her close.
The surprise in her green eyes smote him. She was staring at him in bewilderment and very aware of his hands continuing a pleasant path. Carefully, he rolled over the woman, sighing.
She was seductively scented. She smelled like sex. Kassuim descended a dangerous trail of kisses that set him on fire. She was going.... Suddenly a surprised cry from the woman put him on alert. The woman hid between the covers red with shame while he was fully awake and cursed loud and clear..
An awkward silence fell in the room. Annoyed, Richard sat up as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He just didn't believe it. It was a curse! They weren't alone!
-Good night, Richard- Philip's voice was calm despite everything.
Richard was as embarrassed as Kassuim. Rays! He should have let you know he was going to come in. The whole situation was embarrassing. That bastard never gave up?
-Morgan, I...Rick, we need to talk and- He didn't know what to say. Hells!
Morgan shook his head. He was frustrated, miserably aroused, and his groin was aching. And completely naked. Rick cursed with excellent temper.
-Hell, I didn't think you were accompanied.
-I'm a married man. I guess anyone would assume my wife would be in my bed. Or even if I was far away that there would be people to take care of her safety..
-Hell, Ricky.
-You scared my wife. – he complained laughing.- Not that red doesn't suit you, sweetie. Let me introduce you to my wife. Kassumim. You can call her Cassie.
Slowly, the young woman emerged her head from the profusion of blankets. Stunned.
Was it Richard? What did she intend by teasing Philip?
-Business is not going well and...
-After you bribed and got so many people in trouble? Or has your lack of scruples been providing more demanding moneylenders by collecting owed favors?
Richard looked at his brother very seriously. It could only be provocation. The woman was a sorceress. It was more than that. A witch. He was the alpha of the pack. Wolves and warlocks were natural enemies.
Philip growled. Since when was the woman Rick's wife, sir? Richard had lost all his mind. He knew about the kids, but...
-Wife?-He asked rudely.- What do you mean wife? I thought it was just a hobby and...
Richard nodded as he took a deep breath. His gaze was firm and determined, making it clear he wasn't going to tolerate comments. He got up tensely and looked around for a towel to cover his body. The movement allowed the brother to stare at Kassuim even more surprised. It wasn't possible. The woman... the woman was... Pregnant?
-You're not serious! Goddess, is the woman pregnant?- Richard smiled at Philip's fury when he complained and began to rage.- This woman is... - the words failed.
Did Richard know that Cassie was James' daughter? Beloved God!
- She's a sorceress! Is this her child?
-She is a mestizo. She's not just a sorceress. It's much more than that. She is paramount. A witch. The coven... The Rising Moon coven no longer exists. It is the last descendant. The entire clan was murdered. You bet. The child is my son. Did you think it wasn't? My son. My wife. My family. And I don't want you and your ilk around.
Philip was stunned as he stared at the woman. For years the pack had no children. Was it a mestizo? The daughter of their worst enemy was the mate of the alpha of the pack. It was unbelievable. Richard Morgan naturally didn't know yet. But one look at her belly stopped him. Worst. It was hell how the family suddenly grew. They were nephews. Uncles. relatives. A curse. It was getting more and more complicated to secure the damn inheritance.
He clenched his jaw. The night was going to end with a terrible argument. What the hell did Rick mean?
The two faced each other with hostility, Richard cursing when he noticed that his brother had Balthazar's stone in his hand. Kassuim's gaze shone an intense silver as she rose gloriously covered in the sheet. That man was in Chabone.
-Stay away from Ayla... You don't belong to our family.
-L'enfer, Zagorra! -
The outburst came desolate. - I need your help. She... she's alive. She heard what they said... Will you leave me alone?
-Transformed. - Zagorra corrected it very seriously.- Forget it. Leave your stubbornness and ask the wolves for help. When the magic of the two of you unites...
Wolves?! Ask him for help?
Ah, power was not used with impunity. The Pieces of 4... Altering reality... changing the memories around people... He had done everything that was most forbidden. Interfering with the line of fate... He had the opportunity to save that man's life.
- He'll remember if he tells you who he is...- Zagorra bit back a groan.- I know the pack. Wolves never abandon their own, woman. Him...
She rolled her eyes impatiently. She wanted to scream no... Only the mark she wore on her body burned in a warning light. She bore his mark.
- We discussed it. He has a...- She wasn't going to think about Mayra...It meant very little to him. Inwardly a treacherous little voice stabs at his hopes. She had hoped that everyone would forget about her, but he... He didn't know who she was!
A new explosion filled the air with smoke. The ship would not take long to sink.
-You can't save me. You know I'm going to die!
He would inevitably.... She flinched. The Duke's Revenge... That end of day the cursed ship would once again pick up the dead souls in the seas of Ravlen. A lich. Just the thought brought chills. There were creatures in their world that humans should never know existed. Ichichos and Sepultores.
One did not challenge the mistress of the visible and the invisible... Hecate was a vengeful goddess. Jack-Will had doomed an entire race to fall. Steal the Cross from the goddess's ways... Only Hecate interfered with the line of fate drawn by the moirae.
The smoke was suffocating, billowing across the quarterdeck. She couldn't even feel the hand anymore. Her body was starting to go numb.
I'm using more magic than I can, she thought.
- Let me go, woman. Your path is not the same as mine.
She was going to protest vehemently. But time seemed to stop. There was actually no air. The intensity of the emotions she managed to capture was suddenly stabbing. Was it cannon fire?
-It's shots... I know those double cannons. It's the Gaia. My prayers were answered.
Green eyes stared at him in disbelief. Prayers?! Zagorra was certainly delirious. It couldn't be Black Coral. The captain of that fluyt... he was the Commodore of the Armada. It was also...
Mon Dieu! What do I do?
The privateer's hand gripped hers with surprising strength. He didn't show there the face of the body that agonized wounded, but the strong spirit he possessed.
-It's him. I know it is. He won't be alone. Will ask for your help!
Ask for help? And what else?
You know, I just altered the reality line a little bit. Little thing. Nobody noticed. It wasn't that I'd forgotten who I was. I never trust or make pacts with a lich. Ah, there were also ichichos and a Sepultor. Nothing much. Are you going to be very angry with me? He doesn't remember their first date...
It was Philip Morgan who commanded the helm of the Corsair Armada vessel now. He was a commodore. He was the leader of his people. He was an alpha. Wolves engaged in sea trade as humans never liked to trade with them. Richard was far from power.
It's her? She was Kassuim. Usually people called her Cassie. She was the clumsy, troublemaking cabin boy who knew how to handle swords and pistols better than most men. She had grown up among them. She was a half-breed. Her eyes glowed blue with a glittering intensity. She bore that alpha's mark on her skin.
She was by the most ancient law of wolves his mate. And it was the goddess's punishment. She hated that man more than life itself. But he wasn't the chosen one. Was there a price he refused to pay for a great love? He had taken everything from him for staying with her and...
Traitors... All it took was magic... Summoning the ancient power... She was a primordial. Restore the natural order of the past.
- No... Don't waste energy on me. The wound is mortal. They must not remain with the Stone of Baltazar. It is ancient, dangerous and forbidden magic.
-Please... keep your strength...
- None of this will change my destiny. And no tears.- the haughty and strong black man spoke with sadness. -You will promise me, Cassie, like a woman. He sighed patiently despite the pain. Just give it a chance... Is that... Is that mortar fire?
"Cornor will pay for this betrayal. I...
-Do you like him... Do you like Richard...
- I don't like him at all.
"Focus, you fool. This isn't going to work. He's going to find out!"
But what if there was a chance that wouldn't happen...?
-Of course I don't like him. - the statement was painful.
-Not too proud to admit it. What happened...
- He probably doesn't even remember.
-You'll remember if it was...
- Will you defend Richard?
-I know Richard and Philip. Don't let your grudge... Philip was never good-natured. He was nothing more than a spiteful bastard child.
- That's not why you ran away from him. And Richard Morgan will find her sooner or later. She just stay away from Thalagar.
-They're good people, Cassie. I know the Morgans.
She sighed. They said there was a curse that haunted the family. Everyone inevitably commented on the strange deaths. In general, members of that clan intermarried. Unexplained deaths afflicted the young of that clan in those lands. They were savages and barbarians. Rumors ran. The people of Glenhouse had given a name to what they were. The legends were so old... Only nobody had actually seen one of them. His entire clan had been slaughtered like lambs in a slaughterhouse. She was the only survivor.
-Just promise woman. Undo the spell, Kassuim You cannot postpone the inevitable and where I'm going you won't be able to accompany me. There's no way to protect me. It is far from being a child not to accept fate when it is inevitable.
The stone of light that the young woman wore around her neck glowed brightly, and then its glow wavered. Kassuim took a deep breath.
-Zagorra!
Oh, Goddess, he was dying… She felt it.
-Give... Give him at least the merit of the doubt. - Those were her last words.
She was mistress of her fate. He had grown up free and independent. To marry? Well, the idea was revolting, but Willian, since she turned fifteen, had decided to worry about his daughter's unusual lifestyle. And then over the years... With Richard Morgan? She acted only out of obligation.
He started talking about how a young woman should have her own home, husband and children more often after being wounded in combat. Faith's death had reinforced his point of view. He kept saying he couldn't bear the thought of maybe dying and leaving her alone and unprotected.
Cassie had by all means assured her father that she was fine. She had her own resources and could live independently. But her foster father kept tormenting her about the same issue. He even went on to say that the life she was leading was not normal. He wanted her to have children! That he had a man to take care of her and all the things he was suddenly starting to find right and natural for a woman. Things he had never worried about before.
After the summer when Willian had called her, she had listened irritably to her father commenting on Thalagar's proposal. The argument had been inevitable. She just wasn't Faith, she knew, of course, to take care of herself. Her sister was dead. If she didn't find Thalagar interesting enough she could arrange the marriage. Or a season in the city. Away from the Armada. Thalagar was a disgusting, insufferable wretch. Cassie would naturally take advantage of the occasion to order dresses and ask Madame Lili to teach her how a young girl should behave.
Her reaction had been the worst. She had moved away from the ship and the Armada. She needed to think about how to convince her father that she didn't need a husband. Or maybe like Faith inventing one. It was perfect.
It was enough to know how to invent the details. Only her father's anxious look had weighed on her conscience. Will was going to ask questions, he was going to want to meet the happy lucky man, he was going to make this all very difficult. Maybe if she told her father that the object of her worries and neglect had died an early death, Willian would buy her some time. She was beginning to think seriously about the details of a tragic and violent death for a suitor who had never existed.
Cassie didn't intend to get married. Wives did not have any freedom. A wife was expected to obey her husband, be able to bear healthy children, and keep a house in order. Just it. Even the woman's property came to belong to her husband, it was absurd! She wanted more than anything a mate and...
She had an excellent education. She could read and write, she had the ability to command and organize a ship and was enviable in swordsmanship. Zagorra simply despaired. Heavens, why couldn't William just forget about that nonsense?
Everything was fine. Well, mostly under control, there was still Thalagar. She could easily arrange a tragic death. A fatal disease? Or maybe an attack? Perhaps to bring a tragic end to a romance that never existed. Heavens. What were they talking about?
The Council hadn't seemed to like the situation. From Scarlet's exile to Chabone and finally to the events of the Siege battle, a lot had happened. He had been wounded with wolf herbs and subjugated and imprisoned by sorcerers. Ah, he was a wolf. Warlocks weren't supposed to get involved with wolves. What had she done?
She was a sorceress and had decided to equalize forces. Worse, she was a witch. The rebellion in her blood surfaced with total naturalness.. The skill with swords. All it took was a little spell. No one was going to find out. She sure as hell wasn't going to tell Will. Bad luck was indeed a curse. It had spurred the wolves into an unprecedented battle.
He was a wolf and a predator, everything about him was attractive. So far, she'd managed to keep quite a distance. She had reined in all her impulses to run into his arms.
She couldn't just go back. The marks left by the war were serious. Distressed she had done everything that was most forbidden to her. Not even tear powder would be able to disguise her witch mark. She knew portions and had called on every resource to save his life.
She couldn't go back or she would be found out. Her father was away on Muir. Richard had returned to Garrone shortly after Faith's death. There was another detail even worse. Someone from the Armada had ordered the ambush. Who could she trust? None of the Morgans were there. Once again fate put them to the test. That reunion.....
Maybe he remembered... She refused to think that everything they had lived through could have been forgotten.
She recovered little by little. But those days had changed everything. The once distant looks were forgotten. She admired the shapely, muscular, defined body that lay beside her every night in the same bed.
He was teasing her, very slowly wrapping her in the web of seduction around him until it was too late. And she didn't, did she? She was leaving. One last night. At the stable entrance, the encounter had sealed different paths in the confrontation between them. The kisses became more avid.
She had the impression that she could melt in those arms. The caresses started to become more intimate and the man was willing to convince her at all costs to leave with him. Without waiting, she was in his arms, skin to skin, her body sighed for the touch of those hands, delighting in the most daring caresses. She had never thought about that. The body on top of hers was terribly provocative, it smelled like him and made her shiver, intoxicating faster than liquor. The damned man was willing to use any means and leave her without any defense. She didn't even know where she was anymore. There was just him, that wonderful body that teased, teasing, exploring, driving her crazy. It was awful. She was in love with him. How had that happened? When?
The man was rubbing where he'd been hit, and his gaze gleamed with an animal hatred so intense it made her freeze. It was an emblem of the Crescent Moon clan.
She was in trouble. And a lot and no weapons. She didn't know that man and didn't need to. Since she had found out that she was his daughter, her life had never been the same. It was awful. She had successfully evaded him thus far, but they had managed to find her.
-What are you doing here? she asked tensely.
He did not answer. Usually they said little, but the man tried to grab her once more. A low moan escaped her mouth as she dodged and scrambled to her feet.
The door. She needed to get out of there. Lord, it was impossible that there wasn't a single weapon in that place! Her hand shakily touched the light stone without any energy. If only she could shapeshift… As she decided what to do the man held her.
-Where are? - the question was low.
-Where is what? – she managed to ask
-Don't play with me, your highness. Where are? The Pieces of Four? - the man was now squeezing his shoulder so hard that it would inevitably leave marks.
His voice was almost a growl.
-Pieces of 4? But what Pieces of 4?
The man again advanced on her without any patience. She still tried to scream before being silenced by being hard slapped.
-The sentry guard in the hallway died pretty quickly. - He removed something from his tunic. "You may, of course, choose, Guardian.
Cassie swallowed hard. The weapon he held was very sharp. Maybe a not-too-bent wooden scythe. Concentration. She desperately needed concentration. Magic didn't work under pressure like that. At least not voluntarily. She wasn't making it. The pain in her body was agony.
-Where are?
He lowered the scythe until it reached the strings of the shirt she wore. In fact, she wore nothing but that. Where the hell were her clothes? The fabric of the shirt ripped at the shoulder from the sharp scythe blade.
-Why aren't you wearing the medallion?
He played with the gun, rubbing it back and forth before bringing it to the woman's face. On the one occasion she'd met James of Macgrover she'd thrown the bloody rebel locket at the biological father. It didn't belong to those people.
- My lord will be disappointed, my lady. You are a princess of your lineage and you deny your heritage. A holy guardian.
Cassie might laugh. Only she actually struggled to stifle a sudden panic. Concentration failed miserably.
Were there more of them there? A cold sweat bathed his face. It was the fault of absurd weakness. That sickening smell of clams and sea urchins filled the air, making her nauseous.
Goddess! He was going to kill her for sure. He didn't play with that man. She had challenged him in every way possible.
She had the feeling that her insides were suddenly melting. Her head was about to explode. He was forcing... Damn it forcing her mind. The cabin seemed to disappear around her. The succession of images blended together like a whirlpool.
When had everything gotten so complicated in her life?
The cabin... Memories erased. The spell to save Richard Morgan's life two years ago. Right after the attack on the castle. The confrontation with James...
That day in the woods... Oh, he was going to kill her. It was by no means the first time they had met.
And it was terrible.
Philip had found out. He threatened to tell everything... Ah, the damn test with the guardians...
A damn treacherous animal. He threatened to tell everyone that she was a witch. She had even agreed to leave and go into exile, but Richard would never call her his wife. That required trust. He had doubted her.