It was a measure of Hawke’s bond with his men and women that he hadn’t even thought of the possibility of that outcome.
Alexei fisted his hand over the drop of blood and stepped back, the moment solemn … until he winked at Sienna. Hawke felt her tension ease at once, right before she was picked up off her feet and kissed on the mouth by Matthias, her startled hands flying up to land on the arms of the lieutenant who was built like a tank.
Hawke growled. “Careful.”
An unrepentant grin creasing the smooth dark of a face that had beguiled many a woman, Matthias put Sienna on her feet. “He ever chase you down a corridor again, sweetheart, you know who to call.”
Sienna held her own. “I think I rather enjoy being caught.”
Then Matthias was in front of him, swearing his allegiance. And so it continued until all ten of his lieutenants had completed the task. Each oath was different, because there were no set words for this. It was only the meaning that mattered. The loyalty. A sigh of happiness rippled around the Pack Circle as Riley closed his hand over the drop of Hawke’s blood.
It was done.
His pack had accepted both his mate and his mating. Not simply accepted, he thought when another multiharmonic howl went up, but celebrated. This time, he didn’t resist, and drawing Sienna’s back against his chest, threw back his own head to sing, his cut hand fisted tight to still the blood flow. Against him, he could feel his mate’s body vibrating with the beauty of the music, the wildfire of her blinding along their bond.
When Tomás grabbed her for a dance, Hawke didn’t protest. Possessive though it was, his wolf understood that Sienna belonged to the pack, too, and that they’d lay down their lives for her. It didn’t mean she’d have an easy road when it came to making her place in SnowDancer, but tonight, his wolves told her they knew she was the right mate for their alpha, regardless of her age and inexperience. They would stand by her as she grew into her strength.
It was a gift to Hawke’s heart.
Chapter 18
RILEY’S SHOULDER NUDGED Hawke’s, as in front of them, other couples joined in the dancing and Sienna was passed from Tomás to Kenji. “You do realize you’ll have to fight to get near her tonight?”
Hawke glanced at his senior lieutenant to see Riley’s eyes lingering on his own mate. Dressed in a graceful azure dress that hit a few inches above the knee and flared out when she spun, shiny black ankle boots on her feet, her red hair pulled off her face by two small combs, Mercy was currently dancing—and laughing—with Drew. She was the only leopard in attendance, because this was a private moment for the pack—and as far as SnowDancer was concerned, Mercy was theirs. No matter how much Lucas might disagree.
Lips curving at the thought, he said, “I promised my mate I’d dance with her from midnight to dawn, and I don’t break my promises.” He’d be patient until then, his wolf content with keeping an eye on her while she was claimed by SnowDancer on the deepest level.
“I’m scared. What I did … I’m afraid no one will look at me the same again.”
Words she’d spoken after the violence of her ability had devoured the pack’s enemies, and in one way, she was right. No one would ever again look at Sienna the same—because now, each and every SnowDancer understood the lethal power that ran in her veins. Yet there was no fear in the air tonight, only the cold-eyed approbation of the predator that lived within their hearts.
Well aware how much the man at his side had done to ensure that, to make certain respect didn’t turn to fear, he caught Riley’s gaze. “Thank you.”
“No need between us. Never has been.” A pause, quiet humor in his next words. “I seem to recall you allowing me to beat up on you once upon a time when I was courting Mercy.”
“I don’t remember you winning.”
“You have selective memory.”
Wolf and man both laughed, happy to be here in this moment with his friend, his pack, and most of all, with the woman who sent him a secret smile from the far side of the clearing.
ADRIA smiled as she felt muscular arms slip around her waist from behind. “I was wondering where you were,” she said, her throat raw with emotion from the haunting simplicity and beauty of the mating ceremony.
Nuzzling at her, Sam kissed her jaw. “Come, dance with me.”
She slid into the play of bodies, his hand clasped around her own, and danced until her pulse was a drum, her blood running hot through her veins. Sam did try to steal a kiss, and bubbling with the wild joy of the night, she let him, but pressed her fingers over his lips when he tried again. “No.”
Undaunted, he spoke against her fingertips, dimple denting his cheek. “We’d have fun. I have no hang-ups about your dominance if you’re worried about that. I’ll even let you bite.” A rub, nose to nose. “In fact, I’d like it if you did.”
Playful and gorgeous and intelligent, he was a lover who’d make her feel good, both physically and in the soul. There was only one problem—her body hummed with a near-painful awareness of another man, a man who aroused far more violent, dark emotions. And who was currently twirling a tiny, curvy woman whose eyes were a golden echo of his, shouting their relationship, his cheeks creased in a true smile.
It infuriated her that she couldn’t strangle that unwanted awareness, but she wouldn’t use beautiful, sexy Sam in an effort to do so. “I’m not ready.” One day, she thought, spine steely with determination, she would be ready to gather up her courage and take another chance, having conquered this unhealthy compulsion toward the wrong man. Sam, innocent and never broken, wasn’t the right one, her heart too scarred for him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t cherish him. “I wish I was, because you’re rather wonderful.”
Stroking his hands down her back, he took the rebuff with good grace. “In that case, be my friend. I like you.”
The direct opposite of the knife-edged words Riaz had flung at her, his statement made her miss a step before she cuddled a little closer into him. “I like you, too.” She turned her face deliberately away from the part of the Circle where Riaz stood with his arm around his recent dance partner and an older man Adria couldn’t see well. Deep inside her, her wolf snarled, but that wolf, too, remembered how brutally it had been rejected.
It didn’t fight Adria’s decision.
RIAZ’S eyes had locked on Adria the instant he’d spotted her, the strange, unique complexity of her scent in his every breath, though it should’ve been impossible to pick it up, given the number of people in the Circle. Especially when she was pasted up against Sam, the younger male’s lips by her ear as he said something that made her laugh, the sound soft and intimate.
His claws pricked at his palms.
Excusing himself from his parents after handing his mom back to his dad, he hauled Jem into a dance.
“Thanks for asking,” she said in an acerbic tone, but slid her arms around his neck. “Stop scowling. Your mother is going to think I’m torturing you.”
“Sorry.” Forcing himself to keep his attention away from Adria and Sam, he looked down at the blonde lieutenant … and had the sudden realization that she didn’t fit right in his arms. She was too small, her head reaching midway up his chest.
Jaw clenching at a thought that had its origins in his primal attraction toward a long-legged female whose voice was rough silk across his skin, he said, “Did you dance with Kenji yet?” The two had something going—no one was quite sure what.