The Mating Season: Werewolves of Montana Book 6 (2 page)

Seeing more strangers stare in their direction, Niki closed her eyes again as Tristan strode with her toward the elevator.

When they reached the room, he carried her inside and snapped on the lights. Niki opened her eyes. Her dreams paled in comparison to the reality. Gold and white silk paper lined the walls. An elegant white and gold sofa with matching armchairs, whitewashed furniture and an elegant marble coffee table overlooked a wall of sliding glass doors. These opened to a long balcony overlooking the ocean. There was an eight-seat dining table with cushioned chairs, a sideboard holding a spray of fresh lilies and a small chandelier made from seashells.

A small kitchenette opened to the living space, and next to it was a mirrored wall. She caught her reflection and shivered. No vision now, this was the ugly reality. The black streaks still marked her neck and her face looked pale and smudged with purple shadows.

Tristan gazed down at her. “I created an illusion for all the Skins that you do not look ill. The marks will fade when you rest. You will return to normal, I promise.”

She didn’t know what normal was anymore.

Tristan walked across the carpet into an adjoining bedroom with more elegant white furniture and a lounge chair by the sliding glass doors opening to the balcony. Waving a hand, he turned the covers down. Blue and white decorative pillows floated from the bed to pile neatly upon the lounge chair. He set her gently upon the king-sized bed. She curled into a ball, too miserable to appreciate the soft mattress beneath her, the fine Egyptian cotton sheets.

Tristan pressed his mouth to his forefinger, a whisper of a kiss, then reached out to touch her. Niki jerked away.

He sighed as he shook his head. “I see it will take you some time for you to become accustomed to my touch. I’ve waited more than eight centuries to have you in my arms again, my sweet. I am patient.”

Can you wait another full century?

Her stomach pitched and rolled as if she lay upon the deck of a ship in the midst of a churning ocean. Niki bit her lip.

Tristan waved a hand and suddenly she was clad in flannel pajamas with little hearts and flowers, her long hair done in her favorite French braid.

Niki looked down in stunned amazement. No silk nightgown or worse, bare skin.

“The pajamas are your favorites. I thought you’d like something familiar.”

It was sweet, but she was far too miserable to appreciate the gesture. Her bones ached and her stomach felt full of ground glass. Then he went into the bathroom and returned, carrying a gold waste bucket. Tristan set it on the floor next to the bed.

He sat on the bed. Niki turned, staring at the moon that glinted on the ocean through the partly-drawn drapes. It was lovely. Soothing, much more so than the intimidating man whose thigh was intimately pressed against hers.

He reached for her, but she shrank back, fearing the prophecy. A flicker of vulnerability crossed his expression. Tristan sighed. He waved a hand and the drapes opened to display the stunning vista. She glanced at him.

“I’m afraid you will not enjoy the view, no matter where you are. You are in for a rough night, my sweet. The potion I gave you has saved you, but it’s changing your cell structure. Your body is changing and the process can be…”

Nausea churned in her stomach and her throat tightened. She reached over the bed and retched into the gold bucket he held out.

“Brutal,” he finished. He stroked her hair as she continued vomiting. “I’m sorry, Nikita. I never intended to make you sick on our first date.”

She raised her head, taking the wet, warm washcloth he offered. Niki wiped her mouth.

She had not spoken much to him since bidding good-bye to her twin back at the ranch before Tristan whisked her away.

“Usually women don’t get sick of you until the second date?” she croaked.

His dark gaze twinkled. And then she flung herself over the bed and vomited again.

He sighed. “It’s going to be a long night.”

Eventually, she slept, a deep dreamless sleep. When she awoke, the sky outside was leaden, the sun peeking over the horizon of the ocean. Hugging her pillow, Niki rolled over. The most delicious smells pierced her senses. Sharp, pungent cedar, the salty tang of the ocean, and the sweetness of orange peels.

“I can vary my scent according to my mood. Or yours, and what pleases you the most, my sweet,” a deep voice murmured.

Clad in the same black tunic, black leather pants and soft doeskin boots, Tristan sat in the chair by the sliding glass door, looking at the view. The slider was open, allowing in a gentle ocean breeze that lifted the edges of his silver-tipped hair.

He glanced at her and his gaze softened. “Good morning, Nikita. How do you feel?”

“A little better.” She reached for the water glass he had refilled and drank. “I slept through the night.”

“You slept for a full day. You needed the rest after your ordeal.”

An entire day! No wonder she felt like Sleeping Beauty. Daring to sneak a peek in the dresser mirror, she was relieved to see her complexion back to its normal color, and the horrid black streaks gone from her neck.

“It’s the first time I didn’t dream in weeks.”

“I know. I gave you a little mental push so you could rest.”

Niki set down the glass with a steady hand. “You’re the one who sent me those dreams I’ve been having for the past month.”

“They were not dreams, but memories. I merely triggered your dormant memories of our life together.” He stretched out his long legs. “A life we shared as Lupines back in 1085 A.D. before I died and the goddess Danu made me into the Silver Wizard, guardian and judge of all shifters.”

All shifters. Not just Lupines like her. Nikita felt a chill rush down her spine at the idea of such power. Tristan was an immortal, powerful being.

Sensual awareness sparked his gaze. “It was a most pleasant time when you and I were mates. We had a very active love life. I seldom left you alone, but for when I had to travel.”

In those dreams, Tristan had made love to her and made her scream with pleasure.

A heated flush tinted her cheeks, and she knew it wasn’t from the fever, but her thoughts. “That was more than nine hundred years ago. I have a long-term memory problem.”

He flashed a roguish grin, reminding her of a pirate from her favorite romance novels. The kind who tore off the clothing of fair maidens and ravished them and kept ravishing them.

Niki smoothed down the flannel of her pajama top. Hearts and flowers. Hardly the type of seductive nightwear meant for bedding by lusty pirates. She had no clothing, no provisions. But she was at the beach at last, and even if she had no control over her fate at the present, she was going to enjoy herself before Tristan ravished her.

Or killed her.

After spending her entire life hidden away like a dark secret, she craved freedom and sunshine. Her natural sense of adventure surfaced. Maybe there was a really nice beach where she could walk and pick up shells. She craned her neck to study the cool blue sweep of ocean showing outside the sliding glass doors. And she could swim as well. All those movies she’d watched in her basement apartment had made her yearn to see the ocean.

She looked at Tristan. “Can you find me some jeans and a shirt? I’d like to shower and then walk on the beach.”

“Clothing, yes. Walk on the beach, no. You’re still weak and recovering.” He frowned. “You should not leave the room today.”

“Is that an order?”

Tristan raised a dark brow. “It is for your safety.”

Safety? Suddenly her fears began to fade, replaced with resentment. How many times had she heard that before? From her father when he was alive, and her brothers, and later her identical twin?
Don’t you dare leave this basement, Niki, it’s not safe. We can’t risk anyone seeing you. If Tristan finds out you’re alive, he’ll abduct you and you’ll die.

And now her family’s worst nightmare had happened. And the wizard she’d been taught to fear was going to imprison her like she’d been imprisoned for twenty-five years.

“I’ve remained cooped up my entire life on my father’s ranch to protect me from you. And now that you have me, you’re going to keep me locked up like a jewel?”

He set down the pen upon the table next to the chair. “You are a jewel, my sweet. I am thinking of your safety. My intention is not to incarcerate you. Does this look like a prison?”

Since strength had returned to her limbs and her stomach was more settled, Niki felt her courage rise more. “A prison, no matter how luxurious, is still a prison if one cannot leave it. The basement apartment Nia created to keep me hidden from you was filled with everything I needed, except I could not leave it.”

Tristan drummed his fingers on the armrest. “Now that we are together, you are vulnerable to my enemies. Trust me, Nikita, I am more than fourteen hundred years old and I know much of the world. There are dangers here in the mortal world and you cannot remain here long. We must journey to Tir Na-nog. Only there can you be fully safe, and your spirit and body healed.”

“Terrific,” she murmured. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, you had to walk into mine.”

The wizard knit his brows.

She sighed. “It’s a line from
Casablanca
. I watched a lot of movies. It was my only real entertainment.”

Tristan kept his expression blank, as if hiding his opinion of her movie watching.

“What kind of dangers are you talking about? If you’re a powerful wizard, why should you worry?” She swung her legs over the bed’s side, feeling more rested, but still fragile.

“Mara.” Tristan took the hotel pen and twirled it between his fingers. He had long, elegant fingers. She wondered how it would feel to have those fingers stroking over her bare flesh…

Niki glanced up and saw his lips curl in a knowing smile. She sniffed and hugged herself.

“What’s a Mara? It sounds ugly.”

“In spirit, yes, but outwardly, Mara is breathtakingly beautiful. She’s a powerful Fae who has lived more than two thousand years.” He lifted the pen by the tip of one finger and began spinning it in the air like a top. “I always did attract older women.”

Niki rolled her eyes.

“She cannot kill me, for I am immortal. But she can hurt you, badly, while you remain here on Earth. She is lethal and knows how much you mean to me and that makes her jealous of you.” Tristan’s piercing gaze settled on her, and Niki shivered.

It was unsettling, knowing she was the one this powerful being wanted above all others, wanted her because once, long ago, she had been his love.

And she remembered nothing of it.

Pressing her fingers against her forehead, she studied the soothing vista of the blue ocean. “Is this Mara someone from your, our, past?”

“Back in our day, she was a force of reckoning. I enlisted her help to find dragon eggs, the eggs that contain the most powerful magick from dragons. The eggs were pivotal to winning the Drakon War. She did, but the gold I offered wasn’t enough.”

The pen fell to the floor as he studied her. “She wanted to become my lover.”

Her throat tight, Niki looked away. “And you lay with her.”

Tristan left his seat and knelt before her. He put a finger on her chin, turning her face to meet him. “You were my mate. I was Lupine and we mate for life. I would not violate my vows and dishonor you.”

But I have no real memory of our time together. It means nothing to me.
“And what did she do?”

“Mara said she understood, but she is manipulative. She lies in wait for what she desires, like a fat spider spinning a sticky web.” Tristan dropped his hand and his expression grew hard. “She told me she would become my lover, when I lost the ‘impediments’ barricading our time together. Meaning, you and the child you carried in your belly.”

Niki’s nausea returned. She pressed her hands against her churning stomach, wondering why the idea of being pregnant made her want to weep.

Rubbing her aching temples, she shook her head. “Let me get the details straight, Tristan, and why you want me. You and I were mated, in the 11th century, oh, about 1085 AD. And then you died and became the Silver Wizard, the immortal judge and guardian of all shifters. And I died?”

“You died and the babe you carried in your belly died as well.”

Her lips parted. “I have no memory of this.”
I wouldn’t want it back, either.

Tristan’s gaze grew stormy. “I have enough for both of us. I carried it through the years, the decades, the centuries, waiting for you to become reincarnated and return to me.”

Fisting his hands, he stared at the silk-patterned walls. “After I died and went to Tir Na-nog, the heavenly afterworld, the goddess Danu asked me to become the Silver Wizard, the guardian and judge of all shifters. I did so on one condition. I told her I would protect, guard and judge shifters if you would eventually return to me and give me what I had been denied when I was mortal.”

She feared to ask. “And what do you want?”

His dark gaze gleamed. “A child.”

Chapter 2

His beautiful, brave Nikita stared at him, her lower lip trembling. She drew back as if he were a monster who wanted to rape her.