As I disentangled myself from her and covered her up in my bed, I drew the curtains to make sure the morning light didn’t wake her. Splashing my face with water from the tap, I dressed quietly, careful not to wake her with any rustle or step.
As I dressed, I could tell that something inside me had changed. That she’d changed me already.
When the lone wolf finds his mate, everything changes for him. For good. Knowing that, part of me thought that it might all be needless worry to even so much as think about Petre being angry.
There was no fucking way I’d let him marry her; there was not a goddamned chance in hell that anybody would ever take her from me. He could be as angry as he wanted; it wouldn’t change a goddamned thing.
But still, I had to be ready if he lashed out…. at me, or worse, at her. Or her family.
If protecting her was my new purpose, then I was fucking fine with that. For her sake, I was all in.
Crouching in front of the stone fireplace, I made a stack of a few dense logs and set them alight. I waited until the fire started to draw and then replaced the screen in front of the flames so that no stray sparks arched from the logs into the room. Then I picked up my boots and approached the bed again, memorizing her beauty.
I’d be counting the hours until I was back here with her. Counting the goddamned minutes, even. I leaned down and placed a long kiss on her cheek.
But though everything felt like it had changed, she was still a wild little thing, and a night of life-changing fucking wasn’t going to change that. I hoped not anyway, because her wildness was at least half the fun. Like a new horse, needing to be broken in. And that idea made me remember some wise words from my father’s groom: “Wild young fillies stay wild, until they’ve been bred.”
Christ. I ran my hand down my jaw, grating my palm against my stubble. The thought of breeding her made me fucking crazy, and it took all my strength to ignore my quickly engorging hard-on in my pants.
I adjusted my balls and forced myself to refocus on the problem facing me. As soon as Petre found out she had been with me, her freedom and very possibly her life would be in danger. And that was fucking unacceptable. I needed allies, the right allies and I needed them fast.
And there was only one person I knew of that could provide the kind of help I needed. Even though I knew his help wouldn’t come cheap, I had little choice.
Slipping out of the bedroom without waking her was easy enough. I left a note for her folded on the mantelpiece, explaining that I would be gone for some time and if she needed anything I had left her in the capable hands of the singular member of the estate staff I employed at the manor.
Last night’s exertions surely would have her sleeping a few more hours. By the time she did wake, I’d be halfway on my way to securing our futures. Taking her with me wasn’t an option in my mind and every moment I was gone was a moment danger could find her, but if she came along, I’d be riding her right into the heart of it.
Outside, I braced myself against the cold and headed around to the stables. The wind had gained strength in the night, and had brought with it a few snow flurries, but the drive and the walk around the side of the house had already been cleared.
“Daniel!” I called out as I slipped in through the doors.
My horse whinnied at the sound of my voice and I smiled.
Vela and I had been together ten years this last spring. I’d been traveling nearly two days, heading east to my uncle’s to start my new life. I saw her the first time from the window of my carriage; tied to a fence post, barely more than a filly, head low, hip bones protruding as her owner, a drunk farmer whipped her flank with a willow branch trying to break her.
For one second, half a second, her deep brown eyes flicked upward and caught mine. Something between us connected and a rage unlike anything I’d ever felt rose up inside of me.
I’d pounded on the roof the carriage for my driver to stop and I tore across the field and laid her owner out with one punch letting him know staying down was in his best interest and coming after me wasn’t.
I took her, holding her lead out the open door of the slow-moving carriage soothing her with my voice until we arrived at the next village. There we’d stopped, staying four days for her to rest, feed and get some sound veterinary care.
I named her Vela, after the constellation that shone in the southern sky that first night unsure if she would make it through until morning.
She made it that night, with me tending to her in the stall myself and when she was bright eyed again, we’d forged forward, and we’ve been together ever since.
She trusted me with her life, and I trusted her with mine.
My friendship with Vela was one of the closest relationships I’d ever had until I met Valeria. The irony that I’d taken Vela without permission the same as I’d taken Valeria was not lost on me.
Daniel appeared from the open back door of the stable with a bow of his head greeting me.
“My lord, I—”
“Daniel,” I started cutting him off. “I’ve told you not to call me that. And for fuck’s sake, take one of the bedrooms in the house, man. There are enough of them.” I shook my head at the sight of him in his working clothes so early. “I assume it’s you that
