Chasing Love (13 page)

Christiana raised an eyebrow and refused to comment on the obvious.

“You better ask really nicely if you want to get out before tomorrow morning.”

Edward smiled and leered at her. “Pretty, pretty please with chocolate on top. May I go now, ma’am?”

Christiana laughed. “Well, if you insist,” she said, digging into her bra for the key.

As she unlocked him, he promptly turned her over and started nibbling her neck, marking her. Five minutes later, when they were both straining together and panting like crazy, he pulled back, letting his sweat-soaked forehead rest on hers.

“Aha! Now you’re mine!” he panted.

Christiana squirmed, but didn’t really try to get away. As he lapped the spot where he had marked her, she laughed and squirmed but what was the use of running from the one place she had always wanted to be?

She laughed. Everything was just fine.

* * * * *

“Come running with me,” a husky, sexy voice whispered in her ear. Christiana snuggled deeper into the warmth of the blankets and masculine arms and chest she was entwined with.

“Cold,” she murmured. The chest her face pressed against rumbled with deep laughter.

“It won’t be cold and you know it. Come on, Sweet One. I have this incredible urge to run with you again, like we did back when we were kids.”

The light pinch to her ass had her yelping and lifting her head, opening her eyes blearily.

“It’s in the middle of the night,” she complained teasingly.

When Edward dragged himself from beneath the covers he shivered only slightly, naked in the chill night air. Christiana pouted slightly at the small warm spot he left in the bed where he had lain. Damn it, but she’d have to follow him now. Without his large, heated presence the bed would cool fairly quickly.

The feral grin Edward gave her let her know he knew the exact train of her thoughts.

“Come on, Sweet One,” he chided, “Come run with me.”

With that, her large pirate, her True Mate, shimmered and, with the blink of an eye, Changed into a huge black beast of a wolf.

Christiana sighed and dramatically pulled herself, naked, from the bed. Standing straight and tall, in no way intimidated by her naked state, she wagged her finger.

“This is bribery or emotional blackmail or something my too-tired brain can’t think of.” She placed her hands on her hips, confident her wolf knew exactly what she spoke. When he came and nuzzled her hips and thigh, his wet nose jolted her. She sighed.

“Fine, fine. Lets go run then. I suppose the exercise will do us both good.”

With barely a thought, she shimmered and Changed.

Looking out of her wolf’s eyes, Christiana found herself momentarily wondering how she could have ever doubted Edward was her True Mate. He complimented her in every area. He would be a strong mate, a rock of strength for her throughout the years to come. He would never stand between her and the Pack, yet he was confident enough to deal with her as equals in their home.

Christiana knew he saw a much lighter colored wolf, a mixture of her father’s brown and her mother’s blonde hair. Her blue eyes shone with happiness in the light from the moon.

With an impatient snap at his heels, she tagged him in their old manner from childhood, nudged the slightly-open cabin door wide open and ran out into the woods. A game of Chase was what he wanted?

He was “It” now and he damn well knew it. Now she just had to try and escape.

Laughing inside herself, she let the scents and sounds of the night wrap around her. She would never escape Edward, never leave him or have to question him. He might let her wander around for a while but she knew he would always be just a step behind her.

As the large wolf pounded on her from a tree ahead of her, she laughed.

Or maybe a step ahead of her. Who knew with Edward? He had always seemed a step ahead of her when she thought him a step behind.

At least he’d always keep her on her toes, she knew as she watched him dart into the trees deep in the woods.

Scenting him on the wind she gave chase. She’d catch up to him, always.

Chapter Sixteen

Six weeks later

Christiana hugged her father for the fourth time in as many minutes. Feeling rather weary, she pulled from his possessive, fatherly embrace and handed him her last tissue from her purse as he tried to sniff away his tears of happiness.

“Honestly, dad, you’d think I was moving to Australia or something. I’m going to be less than an hour away, and seeing you most workdays. Not to mention evenings when I need some cooking tips from mom or when I want a moonlit romp in the backyard…”

Sophie came up to rescue her from decking her father and hugged her again.

“Really, Artemais, give the girl a chance to talk to her other guests. I thought it was the mother of the bride who is supposed to take over everything. So far I’ve been allowed to organize the food for the reception and nothing else. Go and talk to your brothers, beat your chests or drink some beer or something, but leave the poor girl alone.”

Christiana hugged her mom as her father stalked off muttering, and whispered in her ear, “Please keep him away from me. You’d think I was going to the guillotine, not moving in with my new husband.”

Sophie patted her on the back, as if she were a baby with gas and not a fully grown, newly married young woman.

“Don’t worry, dear. It’s just taking him a bit of time to come to terms with the fact his eldest baby is grown and mated. These things take time.”

Christiana smiled. “Think I should drop the bombshell that he’s about to become a grandpa?”

Sophie snickered. “You might want to save that one for a few days. You can’t possibly remember what a bear he is to be with when he’s in protective-baby mode. Think of how he’s been the last few weeks and magnify it tenfold at least. I bet he still has some of those damn books we got when I found out about you. The man is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to pregnancy and baby tidbits.”

Christiana wrinkled her nose. “Edward is the same. He’s bought every book the local store has on prenatal care and pregnancy-for-dummies. He’s insisting I eat the required amount of folate and calcium and he jeers at all my cravings. He doesn’t believe a sundae with fries is normal for me.”

Sophie frowned. “Where is Edward?”

Before Christiana had a chance to look around the small gathering of her wedding, a large pirate paced toward her.

Well-known and well-loved black curls bobbed in the sunshine and dark eyes flashed lovingly at her. Thin, black, almost-but-not-quite-see-through breeches ruffled in the slight breeze. Christiana noted the gold threading on the side, where he must have had help fixing them up after she had “altered” them.

“I’m sorry, mom,” she laughed as she recognized the evil glint in her new husband’s eyes. She had seen it any number of times in the last six weeks. Something, however, told her he wouldn’t be sidetracked this time. Nothing on earth would stop him now they had exchanged vows. “I’m not sure I’m going to make it to the reception.”

Christiana only half paid attention to her mom’s sigh of resignation. As Edward swept her into his large, strong arms, she dimly heard her father pull her mother aside and whisper fiercely, “Our baby was
not
just talking to you about being pregnant, was she, Soph?”

Christiana snickered. She had forgotten how good werewolf hearing could be on occasion. Her father in particular had a radar for her and her siblings. Leaning in to her True Mate, her soul’s love, she whispered into his ear, “You sure I’m not too heavy? Bub might object to being carried about like this.”

“Our little girl will deal with it. She’s going to be a feisty little thing. Between your pigheadedness and my stubborn streak and both of our tempers, she’s going to have us and all your uncles at her beck and call. Besides, my ego needs the boost. I’ve had your uncles hovering over me like maiden aunts, giving me dire warnings and, if your dad reads me one more lecture, I’m likely to puke. We need to get away for a while and I figured only a Pirate would be allowed to do so.”

Christiana laughed.

“I had wondered where he had gone to these last few weeks.” Kissing him on the ear, nuzzling his cheek and neck, she murmured, “I missed him.”

“He’s back,” Edward promised as he gently placed her in his truck, “back and he’ll never be far away again, though we might need to invest in new pirate breeches. I have a feeling these will never be the same after your altering them. This is the start of the rest of our lives, Christi-girl. I figure we need to start it right. With me being the pirate, and you the willing captive.”

Christiana smiled, grateful she had packed her handcuffs in her purse, just in case.

A girl could never be too prepared.

She leaned over and continued to nuzzle Edward as he started the truck. She didn’t even think to ask him where they were going. They were together and that was all that counted in her mind.

Like the true pirate he was, Edward drove them away into the hills, one arm on the wheel of the car, one arm around his Mate.

He wanted this time between them to be special. Their little girl would be diverting their attention soon enough. Not to mention his explanations to Artemais and his brothers. Zachariah Rutledge had urged him to do this and he had been profoundly grateful for the Old Man’s assistance in packing all the gear the two of them might need.

But he could see, could
feel,
how happy Christiana was to be here with him so everything else would work itself out.

Edward smiled as they drove off into the woods.

Epilogue

Zachariah leaned back from the window. The newest addition to his family lay screaming up a storm in the garden outside his ancestral home. Margaret Naomi Rose Rutledge Matthews was beginning to teethe and he knew his time had come.

All was well, the fates had balanced, and he could see his Naomi walking into their bedroom. He stood up and crossed over to meet her.

“You’re finally ready, are you?” she commented to him in that teasing wifely manner he had always adored. “You’re worse than an old woman you realize? Meddling all the time,” she groused.

Zachariah laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Come on, Naomi. You know I had to make it right. Besides, it has been you these last few years kicking my ass to keep on going. You know little Janine Simmonds had always had that childish crush on me. She never believed I was way too old for her. I felt awful over all her problems. I considered her practically family. Anyway, it’s all turned out well. Roland and Helene have their children and health and, now that Edward and Christiana are so happy together, we can finally go on that adventure you were always promising me, hmm?”

Naomi Rutledge came forward and pulled her True Mate and soul-love close. They hugged companionably. Then she leaned closer, and lifted her head. Zachariah lowered his head and kissed her passionately.

“Mmmm,” he murmured against her lips, “I’ve missed this. Let’s start that adventure. I’m ready now.”

Without even letting his True Mate answer, he went back to kissing her, sliding his tongue erotically inside her mouth, just the way he knew she loved.

Leading her over to the bed, he gently lowered her there, and promptly lost himself in her body.

* * * * *

Feeling something strange in the house, Artemais climbed up to the Old Man’s room to ask if he could scent it as well. Artemais admitted to himself he also had this burning need to see the Old Man. He had been acting strangely all day and secretly Artemais was a bit worried.

He was saddened, but not shocked, to find the Old Man lying on the bed, fully clothed. He had his eyes shut with a huge grin on his face. Artemais bent over him, planning on covering him with a comforter.

Until he realized his chest neither rose nor fell. Suddenly, he knew what or, more accurately, who the strange presence was. He sat back on the chair, feeling happy and incredibly sad at the same time.

“Take care of him, Grandma,” he said, feeling foolish, but remarkably right at the same time. “Gramps has been hanging around a bit too long. I’m glad he finally let you come and take him back. May we all be so blessed at the end.”

Outside, Artemais heard his new grandbaby laughing and shrieking. Smiling sadly, he headed back out to his family.

About the author:

Elizabeth Lapthorne is the eldest of four children. She grew up with lots of noise, fights and tale-telling. Her mother, a reporter and book reviewer, instilled in her a great appreciation of reading with the intrigues of a good plot.

Elizabeth studied Science at school, and whilst between jobs complained bitterly to a good friend about the lack of current literature to pass away the hours. While they both were looking up websites for new publishers, she stumbled onto Ellora’s Cave. Jumping head-first into this doubly new site (both the first e-book site she had ever visited, as well as her first taste of Romantica) they both devoured over half of EC’s titles in less than a month. While waiting for more titles to be printed (as well as that ever-elusive science job) Elizabeth started dabbling again in her writing.