Page 143 of Ulune's Daughter

The two panthers stretch out ghostly front paws, their chins brushing the ground.

My heart swells. I know these men. These Cait. My body knows them. My blood knows them. I loved them for years. I watched them die.

I kneel and place my hands on Marcher’s bowed head, curling my claws into the gray whisps of his once-blond curls. “Rest in my hall. Be at peace.”

His hands reach up and brush my wrists. My thighs tingle as the two panthers brush by me. With a last gleam of their eyes, thousands of Shades sink into the floor.

“Well, that’s going to piss off the Oak King,” Lawson says, satisfaction as thick as molasses in his voice.

Chapter44

Yuletide Misgivings

LAW

Iwatch my mate pace.

I should be more concerned about Kellan’s agitation. There have been some nervy moments today. She seemed on the verge of realizing Luca’s my twin when we were in her museum. She nearly had a meltdown thinking a shadowy alter-ego was taking over her mind. And she worked monumental magic without a chant, a sigil, or a flicker of her feather cloak.

I should be worried.

But all I can feel is overwhelming satisfaction.

The souls of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of my kin were pulled from the Umbra Woods today and laid to rest. If I die tonight, I die happy: knowing I’ve served my people better than any Heir before me.

But I want to live. I want to see how much we can become. I didn’t miss the four thrones in the audience hall of Kellan’s castle. Caileán said our souls would be one again. Will that happen when we take those thrones? Is there some ritual we need to do? That sounds exciting, particularly since I’m getting her pussy when we all claim her. My cock throbs dully at the thought.

I stretch in my bed and roll over. Kellan’s all mine tonight. No annoying human to steal her attention. No sulky twin slipping in and out while she’s asleep because he’s pining for his boyfriend and mate. After an extremely amusing jealous fit from my twin, Rhodes has made an effort to spend more time with Luca. They’re doing something absurd involving knocking over pins with balls tonight and sleeping at the den. Or not sleeping. I don’t care what they do as long as I get a whole night with my mate.

I’m getting her drunk and breeding her again.

I think of that night constantly. The only night I’ve been able to give my mate everything she wants, everything I need to give her. As much as I crave fucking her, night after night of servicing her without being able to come in her is turning me into a madman. I have a constant, nagging erection that spraying over every towel in Cait House does nothing to relieve. I don’t dare look at my balls; I’m afraid they’ve turned black.

On those nights when my mate remembers everything she is, she begs me to breed her. It’s unbearable. But I’m caught in my own lie. If she connects the pain of my raking to the last time she woke so sore, she’ll know I was in her bed long before she met me at the equinox.

Yule, I swear to myself. To my twin. To his human. To Aine and my parents. I’ll tell her everything at Yule.

I should be ashamed of my own cowardice. I picked Yule arbitrarily in response to my twin’s prodding. But as Kellan’s memories awaken more and more, I’ll admit I’m waiting in the hope that she’ll remember everything by then and I won’t need to face her hurt and anger.

Caileán knows what I’ve done; she absolved me. Caileán and Kellan are one; Caileán’s told me so time and time again. Somewhere in Kellan’s mind, she knows what I’ve done and she’s forgiven me. What matters is my devotion, not my deception.

I cling to those words on nervy days like today when she seems close to discovering the truth on her own. It could all go wrong in one flash of insight. But Kellan seems stronger, happier, more confident in what she’s becoming every day. Is there a timeline for becoming a goddess? If so, it would be convenient if someone would post it somewhere so I know how far along Kellan is.

Fumbling along in the dark, I can only go by how relaxed she seems when she’s not the Crow Queen and how often the Crow Queen appears, which is every night for the past five, eight nights in the two weeks since my mate and my twin returned from Italy. I relish every moment we spend together, despite Caileán’s disconcerting desire to take me flying. She tells me the things she remembers, her past that spans centuries I only know from bedtime stories when I was a kit. She teaches me magic I’ve never heard of and I’m sure has been forgotten. I didn’t think an Air-mage could teach a Fire-mage much, but Caileán’s magic is more than Elemental. It’s ancient, wild fae magic.

It's what she used today to summon the Cait souls. Without her cloak. Without her full memory.

My Kellan becomes my Caileán more and more every day.

“What’s troubling you, my mate?” I ask, watching her pace.

I’ve created a ritual for us every day when I bring her back to Cait House. We have a bath together and a glass of wine. Then we have a cuddle, and an orgasm if she hasn’t already had one in the bath, and a short nap. We join my parents, my sister, and a rotation of Cait for a late dinner. We’re working through my dozens of cousins. I want her to be among friends at the All-fire. After dinner, if I have an obligation to our people, I leave her in the library, often with Aine and a few times with Luca, although he’s made himself scarce since she moved in. When I return, I bring the human and wear my fur so she can have time with her pet. My family thinks her crooning over me, brushing me, clipping my claws with that ridiculous little pincher, and feeding me treats that she carefully saves from her own dinner is hilarious. I’m sure I’ll hear about this for years. Perhaps decades.

It doesn’t matter. I’ll endure it for my adoring, adored mate.

“There’s something I’m missing,” she mutters, flapping her soft robe as she turns and paces back.

I climb out of our bed, my perpetual erection slapping against my thigh. I tell it to be patient. It won’t be wasted tonight. I pad up behind her silently so that when she turns, she’ll be in my arms. She reaches the end of the room, turns, and collides with my chest. She huffs but wraps her arms around me.

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