YOU WERE MINE FIRST

He Came Back

CHAPTER 9: He Came Back

"Let them come."

My voice didn't sound like just mine anymore. It was mine and Lyra's braided together, one small and shaking, one cold and royal, echoing off black stone walls still cracked from last night. White light in eyes flared so bright furs around us started to glow, lighting Rhazien's scarred face from underneath, making gold-white eyes look like they had stars trapped.

For a second after I said it, nobody moved. Wind howled through broken windows carrying distant howling of hundreds of Lycans still celebrating their Luna, carrying smell of snow from courtyard below where three northern Alphas knelt with broken jaws because they dared laugh at idea of me.

Then Rhazien moved under me, huge hand sliding up from waist into tangled white-streaked hair, fisting gently, not pulling, just holding. Claws carefully in, huge body shuddering once like words shot straight through him to his beast and his beast liked it too much.

"Goddess," he breathed, gold-white eyes dark with hunger and awe and pride, thumb stroking new mark on throat, his mark, gold-white and glowing, still tender, making back arch and soft sound escape without permission. "Look at you. Look at my Queen. Eighteen hours ago you were crying in my shirt because my Beta saw your ankles. Now you want to let three Alphas who could snap werewolf's spine and a Vampire Queen asleep three hundred years come try to take you from me. Do you know what that does to me, little debt?"

Voice low and rough, wrecked from roaring last night, from purring all night while I slept on chest.

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? My Queen? I love that you two having very possessive, very newly-mated moment that is making every unmated male in entire castle need cold bath in snow, but Alpha Magnus is bleeding out on my clean courtyard and Alpha Jor trying to eat snow to stop nosebleed and they can both hear Luna say 'let them come' through floor and they just started whining. Also Blood Stone carriage now at outer gates. Guards asking if they should send him away or let him approach."

My white ears, which had been swiveling forward, proud, flattened so fast against skull I heard fur rustle. Blood Stone. Jaxon. He came. After he rejected me. After he called me defect in front of everyone and kissed Tanya while I knelt on altar. After his father traded debt contract and that black metal card still sat on broken offering table. After I glowed white in another male's bed and marked King and was marked back. He came to take back what he traded.

Lyra didn't purr now. She snarled inside, huge and white and cold, furious. _He dares. That boy Alpha who threw gift on floor and called us nothing dares set paws on our mountain after we claimed by King? He smells us now, little wolf. Through dead bond. He finally smells what he rejected because we awake and glowing and marked and that little wolf Fenric howling inside him he made mistake._

Rhazien felt me go rigid on top of him. Felt tail that had been thumping happily around thigh tuck tight around own leg. Felt claws prick chest. Gold-white eyes went from soft and awed to black in heartbeat. Not black with desire now. Black with murder.

"Jaxon Cole," he said, voice dropping to low, quiet, terrible King voice that made even Cain go silent. "At my gates."

Cain's voice came through door, grim and eager. "Yes. He alone. No Beta. No honor guard. Just him and father's old coachman who looks like wants to die. Wearing Alpha ceremonial furs, white ones, like he's coming to claiming. Holding... f**k, Rhazien, he holding wildflowers. Like little blue ones that grow at foot of mountain. Holding them like he going to give to your Luna and she going to forgive him. He told outer gate guards he here to 'correct mistake' and 'take back his fated mate' and that by werewolf law rejection not accepted by wolfed female not valid and she still his."

Room went silent. Even wind stopped. Breath stopped. White glowing eyes wide, fixed on Rhazien's face which had gone completely still. Too still. Kind of still predator goes before strike. Huge body under me which had been warm and soft turned to stone and iron, every muscle locking, claws extending fully tearing black furs under us, tail lashing once, hard, knocking over nightstand and shattering water glass.

"His," he repeated so soft almost didn't hear, gold-white eyes locked on mine, hand still fisted in hair holding gently while whole body screamed to end. "He told my guards you still his. That my mark not valid because you were wolfless when he rejected you. That my Queen, my wife, my Luna who marked me and bled for me and slept on my chest glowing all night still his fated mate he can take back with blue flowers."

Voice broke on last word, not sadness, rage so deep it made broken doors rattle and black stone under bed crack. From outside Cain added helpfully, "I told outer gate guards not to harm him yet because thought you would want to deal yourself, in front of Queen. Also Alpha Magnus heard him and laughed through broken jaw and said 'oh this going to be good' and Alpha Jor said 'I brought popcorn but I ate it.' Should I bring them all up? To courtyard? For judgment?"

Rhazien didn't answer Cain. He looked at me. Only at me. Huge hand cupped face, thumb stroking glowing white cheek, wiping tear I didn't know fell, silver-white and hot. "Elara," he whispered, voice raw, gold-white eyes searching white ones, looking for fear, for doubt, for little kitchen girl who still loved boy who rejected her. "My Queen. My little debt. Do you want to see him? You don't have to. Say word and I will have Cain send him away from outer gates and send him back to father with black card nailed to carriage and blue flowers scattered in snow. You will never have to see his face again."

He meant it. Every word. And for second old Elara, girl who scrubbed pots and loved Jaxon since six when he shared bread with her in kitchens, flinched. Then Lyra surged and I surged with her.

I sat up on his chest, black furs falling away, exposing bare shoulders, throat with his huge glowing mark, white hair tangled and wild, white ears pricked forward, white tail lashing behind me now, not hiding, angry, white eyes blazing so bright it hurt, lighting whole ruined bedroom, and said it in my voice and hers, cold and royal and furious, finally not scared, "Bring him up."

Rhazien's eyes flared white-gold, beast roaring inside him in approval and pride. "Bring them all up," I said louder, claws extending fully, white and sharp as glass, fangs dropping, mark pulsing gold-white in time with racing heart. "The northern Alphas who laughed at me. The boy who traded me. Bring them to courtyard. Let them see what he claimed."

_Yes,_ Lyra purred, vicious and pleased, _Let them see their Queen in King's furs, marked and glowing, and let them learn what happens to males who think White Queens can be traded and returned._

Rhazien stared up at me, lying beneath me, marked throat exposed, gold-white eyes wide with awe and hunger and so possessive it should have scared me, and slow, feral, proud smile spread across scarred mouth, showing fangs. "As my Queen commands," he whispered, voice raw with worship, and then shouted so loud whole castle shook, "CAIN! BRING THEM TO COURTYARD! BRING LAUGHING ALPHAS AND FLOWER BOY WHO THINKS HE CAN TAKE BACK WHAT HE TRADED! MY LUNA WILL JUDGE THEM HERSELF!"

Outside doors Cain whooped, actually whooped like young wolf given permission to cause chaos. "FINALLY! YES MY KING! YES MY QUEEN! ON IT!" Boots thundered away down hall, shouting orders, armor clanking, howls rising.

Rhazien sat up in one smooth move, pulling me with him, legs wrapping around waist on instinct, arms around neck, face buried in throat over own mark, breathing him in. He stood, huge and scarred and glowing faintly where my mark pulsed on throat, holding me like I weighed nothing, like doll made of snow and starlight, and grabbed huge black fur cloak off chair with one hand, King's cloak lined with white wolf fur that hadn't been worn five years, and wrapped around both of us, swallowing me whole in scent and heat and claim.

"Then let's go show them, little debt," he growled against white ear, making it flick and tail thump against back, hand sliding under cloak to grip thigh, holding to him. "Let's go show them what Beast King claimed when he claimed debt contract. Let's go show them their Queen."

And he carried me, barefoot, marked, glowing white in black cloak, through broken doors, past twenty kneeling guards who bowed heads lower as we passed and growled "My Queen" in reverent whispers, down black stone stairs toward courtyard where three bleeding northern Alphas knelt in snow and boy with blue flowers waited to take back girl who no longer existed.

Far below at outer gates Jaxon Cole shivered despite white Alpha furs, clutching wilting blue flowers, gold eyes fixed on black castle above where white light pulsed last night, where his wolf Fenric was howling _SHE'S HERE SHE'S HERE SHE'S OURS TAKE HER BACK_ so loud skull split, not knowing that white light was now coming down stairs wrapped in Beast King's cloak with mark on throat that was not his, coming to judge him.

Too late. He traded her by debt contract. Now he would have to kneel in snow and watch King who claimed her carry her like Queen while she decided whether he lived or died.