YOU WERE MINE FIRST

Let Them Come

CHAPTER 8: Let Them Come

I woke up warm.

Not the kind of warm from kitchen fire that never reached my cot in corner. Not thin blanket I shared with two servant girls that stank of old soup. This was warm like being inside sun. Like being held by furnace that decided it loved me.

Something huge and hard under cheek, rising and falling slowly. A heart, hammering. Slow. Steady. Loud in ear. Scarred chest. Hot skin. Black hair tickling nose. Huge hand stroking my hair, stroking white ears over and over. Gentle. Possessive. Like he had been doing it hours and would never get tired.

And his scent. Snow and smoke and male, so thick I could taste it. All over skin. In hair. In mouth. Deep under skin where his bite still throbbed gold-white.

My mark.

I gasped and eyes flew open. White. Still white. Glowing faintly even in daylight, lighting black furs around us. Morning light poured through broken windows, cold and bright off snow on Black Mountain, cutting across huge black bed. Dust floated. Fireplace dead, blown out last night when Rhazien roared after I marked him. Whole room freezing except furnace I lay on.

Rhazien. Beast King.

He was awake. Watching me sleep. Lying on back in ruined bed, black furs pulled to waist, huge bare chest exposed, long black hair spread over pillows. Gold eyes not just gold anymore. Ringed white now, with my mark. Soft. Dark with sleep and awe. Fixed on me like I would disappear if he blinked.

His throat. My mark. Delicate white fangs, glowing faint silver-white, right over pulse. Over old faded bite he burned off. Already healed into perfect scar that would never fade. Mine.

My hand flew to own throat. Felt it. Raised. Hot. Pulsing. His mark. Huge black-gold fangs, bigger than mine, covering side of neck from jaw to shoulder, glowing faint gold-white. Still tender. Still humming with bond.

I had been marked. I had marked him. True mated.

Lyra purred inside, sleepy and full and smug, like white cat who ate entire kingdom. _Good morning, little wolf. Look. Our King watched us sleep all night. He didn't let guards fix door. He didn't let maids light fire. He held us and purred and kept us warm with own body, like good mated male should._

"Good morning, little debt," Rhazien whispered, voice morning-rough, shredded from roaring. Hand never stopped stroking white ears, making them flick, making tail thump around thigh without permission. "Did you sleep well, my Queen? Did my mark keep nightmares away?"

I nodded, face on fire, hiding in chest, white ears flat with embarrassment. Shirt twisted in night and shoulders bare under furs, exposed to cold. Wearing nothing but fur and his scent and his bite.

He chuckled, low and dark, chest rumbling under cheek, that purr starting again. Rare Lycan King purr only Queens ever hear, vibrating through ribs.

"Don't hide, White Queen," he murmured, huge hand sliding down from ear, down back, over waist. Careful. Claws in. Just hot palm, making me shiver and arch without meaning to. "You marked Lycan King in front of his guard. You made twenty best males kneel and cry. You lit my mountain like second moon. You have nothing to hide. I have seen your soul and it bit mine and kept it."

From outside broken doors, still blocked by huge black dresser Rhazien dragged there last night, came very loud, very deliberate throat clearing.

Cain.

"My King," his voice came, strained, like he stood there long time trying to decide whether to interrupt. "Sorry to interrupt morning worship of newly marked Luna who glows even through door crack and making every unmated male in five-mile radius whine like pups. But we have problem. Three problems, actually. Four if you count vampire raven that slammed into wards and died screaming."

Rhazien went rigid under me. Gold-white eyes snapped from face to broken doors. Purr cut off. Hand tightened possessively on hip, pulling fur higher over bare shoulders, covering completely.

"What problems, Cain?" he growled. King voice back. Cold. Sharp. But thumb kept stroking ear softly, secret tell he was furious but trying not to scare me.

"Problem one," Cain said, and I heard grim smile. "Northern Alphas here. All of them. Alpha Magnus of Frost Fang, Alpha Jor of Stone Howl, Alpha Kade of Red River. Arrived at dawn with Betas and honor guards. They say they felt White Queen aura last night fifty miles away and thought we lying to get them to bow. They demanded to see Luna. When gate guards told them Luna newly marked and sleeping and not to be disturbed, Alpha Magnus laughed and said, quote, 'Rhazien finally got so desperate he painted servant girl white and told pups to howl.' So I punched him. He currently bleeding in courtyard with broken jaw. He still wants to see her to apologize."

I gasped inside furs. Alpha. Bleeding. Because of me.

Rhazien's mouth twitched. Almost smile. Feral and proud. "Good. Leave him bleeding. What else?"

"Problem two," Cain continued. "Witches. Moon Coven sent hawk. Not letter. Live hawk with message burned into feathers. Says, 'You have something that was caged. Return it or we will come and unbury our dead to take it back.' I killed hawk. Its feathers spelled out your mate's name in old witch tongue before died. Elara. They know her name, Rhazien."

My white ears flattened against head. Tail tucked tight around thigh, hiding. Witches. Ones who caged Lyra when days old. Ones who put iron around wolf's soul. Lyra snarled inside, cold and furious, waking fully. _They dare. They dare claim what is ours after they sold us._

Rhazien felt flinch. Huge hand slid up to cup back of head, holding glowing white face to chest, shielding.

"They will not have her," he snarled, loud enough for Cain to hear through door. "Burn hawk's ashes and scatter off north cliff. If any witch sets foot on mountain without invitation, skin them and hang from walls. Continue."

"Problem three," Cain said, voice lower now, serious. "Vampire raven. Got through outer wards before inner wards killed it. Carried scent. Old blood. Very old. Like from before Temple burned. Ward witches say sent from Sanguine Court. From her."

Her. Even through door, I felt Rhazien's whole body go ice cold under me, despite heat.

"Elisande," he whispered, gold-white eyes going black.

Cain silent two seconds. "Yes. Vampire Queen. She woke up. After three hundred years sleep. Last night. At exact hour our Queen marked you. Vampires saying their Queen sat up in crystal coffin and said one word: 'Sister.'"

Sister. Blood went cold, then hot. White eyes flared bright enough to light furs. Lyra didn't purr now. She stood up inside me. Huge. White. Ancient. Teeth bared. _Elisande. Little bloodsucker who drank from Temple font and called us sister while her people burned it. She slept because we cursed her to sleep when she betrayed us. She wakes because we woke._

Rhazien's arms locked around me like steel bands, like thought I would be ripped from bed by shadow.

"No," he snarled to Cain, to world, to vampire queen fifty miles away. "No one calls my mate sister except me. She is not her sister. She is my wife. My Luna. My White Queen. And if Elisande wants her, she can come try to take her from my cold dead hands. And even then, my beast will rip her apart."

I pushed up on his chest, white hair falling around us, glowing white eyes locked on his black-gold ones, new fangs peeking, mark glowing gold-white on throat, his mark glowing silver-white on his.

"I am not scared," I whispered, and first time, I meant it. Voice layered with Lyra's, small and cold and royal. "Let them come."

Outside, in courtyard below, three Northern Alphas knelt in snow with broken jaws and bleeding noses because they laughed at me, while their wolves whined and pressed bellies to snow in submission to scent on wind they hadn't smelled in three hundred years. White flowers and first snow and Queen.

And far down mountain, carriage with Blood Stone colors rattled up icy road, carrying boy with broken altar and black card in pocket who thought he could take back rejection he traded for gold.

Too late. Beast King claimed my rejection by debt contract. And he paid for it with mark that glowed like crown around throat.

Let them come and kneel. Or let them come and bleed.