Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(81)

Lyon turned to Kougar. "We'll need the Ilinas' assistance to get home."

Kougar nodded, joining him. "What about the vortex? And the Mage?" Though the wind was whipping it up, Mother Nature was far from throwing a tantrum as she would have if they'd killed many more than Hookeye.

"The vortex closed on its own a few minutes after you left," Lyon said. "As for the other . . ."

Jag chuckled. "Had us a little Mage-throwing contest, right off the mountain. Sorry you missed it, Kougar-man."

"I won," Wulfe said.

Jag scoffed. "No way, Dog. It wasn't how many you could throw at once, it was how far you could throw them."

"I won." A smile twitched at Wulfe's scarred mouth. "And don't call me Dog."

Kougar left them to their good-natured argument and started toward the throng of Ilinas and their queen. A low, warrior-type cheer went up from the women, and Ariana turned away from them, starting toward him.

They met halfway between the two groups, Ariana's eyes once more laser-bright and clear of the grief and worry of the past hours, her cheeks flushed with a health he hadn't seen in her since she'd been poisoned all those years ago. If possible, she was even more beautiful than before.

As she reached him, her eyes filled with a love his heart couldn't contain. She reached for him, and he took her hands, but neither spoke, their eyes sharing all that was inside them.

"I'd thought I loved you," Kougar said quietly, breaking the warm, full silence. "And I did, but with my heart all but closed, that love was a shadow of what it should have been." He released her hands and took her face in his palms. "A shadow of what I feel now. Be my mate, Ariana. For now. For always."

She met his gaze with eyes swimming in love. "Yes."

He grinned, a swift, fierce, triumphant baring of teeth. "You're mine, Ariana. I refuse to live without you again."

"And I, you."

They stared into one another's eyes, and he felt as if he were drowning in love, in the rightness. And yet some things hadn't changed. Some of his happiness slipped away.

"We're at war with the Mage. I can't forsake my brothers. And I know your maidens need you; but when it's over, we'll be together. Somehow, we'll be together even if I have to . . ."

She lifted a single finger and pressed it against his lips, silencing him. "We'll be together now."

His heart clenched. "I can't . . ."

"But I can. I realized something today in the midst of all this. All these years, I've believed my mistake was in thinking I could be both queen to my people and mate to you. I thought that if I hadn't tried to be both, none of this would have happened. I thought I had to choose one or the other. And being queen isn't a choice."

"And now?" he asked quietly.

"I've realized my mistake wasn't in trying to be both. It was in not learning how to do it well. I need you, Kougar. I'm not giving you up again. It's not even in the best interest of my race to do so. In the coming war, the Ilinas need strong allies, and there are none stronger than you and your men."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the Ilinas can help in this war, and you're going to let us this time."

A smile softened her words, but the steel in her eyes told him there would be no talking her out of it. And, truthfully, he didn't want to.

"I'll be fighting at your side, Kougar, living at Feral House, if your chief will have me. Melisande and Brielle have been ruling the Crystal Realm for centuries. They don't need me for that. And, unless I'm mistaken, I'm needed here." She reached out and placed her hand over his heart. "With you."

Kougar felt his mouth stretch, widening into a fierce, primal smile as his world righted itself, finally. Completely.

He hauled Ariana against him, still grinning, loving her with his eyes as he leaned forward to kiss her. Lilies of the valley filled his senses, love singing its Ilina song in his head--the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard aside from Ariana's sweet voice. His heart overflowed on a rush of love that cleansed him, inside and out.

"You're needed," he murmured against her soft lips. "By the Ferals, but more, far more, by me. Be my mate, Ariana. Renew the mating bond in the ritual with me. Be mine for always."

She pulled back to look into his eyes, her own shining with the same endless well of love and glistening tears.

"I always have been yours, Kougar. And I always will be. Always."

Epilogue

In the ritual room deep beneath Feral House, Lyon intoned the ancient rite of mating as he dribbled the combined blood of the Ferals in a circle around the mating altar, a job that was usually Kougar's. That night Kougar played a different role. As the chanting continued, he drove into the woman beneath him, the glorious love of his life, her bright blue eyes shining with love and heat and power as they joined in this most elemental way, opening minds and hearts and souls to the power that would bind them for eternity. This time, without the interference of her maidens.

The room was nearly full to overflowing, the Ilinas acting as a privacy curtain as they circled the altar, their backs to the mating pair, a shimmering curtain of energy. Beyond them, the Ferals stood, their own power riding the floral-scented air, for before the mating ritual, Kougar had filled the room with flowers.