“More than ready,” he told her. “Whatever happens, after it’s done, finally, we get wild and free.”
“Wild and free,” she whispered, burrowing closer.
“Wild and free, baby. You and me for eternity.”
She kissed his chest, settled in, and held him tight.
It shocked the shit out of him, but his Delilah had no trouble finding sleep.
Abel did not have the same.
Staring at the ceiling, holding her tight, he did it hoping he hadn’t lied. Hoping he was ready. Hoping all of them were ready. Hoping that whatever was going to happen, he and his mate got wild and free.
After doing that for a long fucking time, finally, Abel fell asleep.
* * * * *
Gregor
Having not slept a wink, at six o’clock the next morning, Gregor moved into the room, which was already bustling with people and filled with equipment, including a large television camera aimed at an armchair set close to a fireplace, a warm fire blazing in its grate.
“We’re ready, sir,” a man wearing big headphones and sitting at a bank of monitors said to him.
Gregor nodded but kept his eyes on the woman standing by the chair.
He approached her, taking her in.
She wore a lovely frock, red satin embroidered with delicate wisps of green and blue flowers. Mandarin collar. Her graying black hair was smoothed into an elegant knot at the nape of her neck. Her makeup was dramatic, highlighting her exotic eyes.
She appeared calm.
The red was chosen as it was a power color, but the deepness of its hue and the delicacy of the embroidery, they were assured, would also communicate tranquility along with its strength.
“Are you ready?” he asked quietly.
“I am,” Jian-Li replied.
He nodded.
“They’re starting,” someone announced, and he turned his head to the bank of television screens.
“Volume, please,” he called.
The volume came up and Gregor watched a black woman with soft curls in her long bob of hair, who was wearing a smart and stylish but casual outfit all in taupe—woven cashmere turtleneck, ribbed cardigan with long lapels, expertly tailored wool slacks. With this, she wore understated gold jewelry but exquisitely elegant, spike-heeled pumps.
They’d been assured, with her history of demanding frank, in-depth interviews, prompting surprising candor and emotion from her subjects, that she was by far the most trusted member of the media, not only in the United States, but in all of English-speaking North America.
On screen, she was walking up a wide, sweeping set of stairs at the base of a castle. She moved toward the balustrade that led up from its end, which had a statue of a proud wolf carved in stone.
She did this speaking.
“I stand on the steps of Canis, the home of the king of werewolves, a man known as Callum. And I do it with the unprecedented honor of sharing with you the tales of the warriors who are on the brink of saving humanity from the shocking threat we learned we were under at the hands of a rebel faction of vampires, werewolves, and a race known as golem.”
She stopped and laid a taupe, leather-gloved hand on the balustrade.
“I am at Canis,” she went on, “but I’ll begin my report not with King Callum and his queen, Sonia. I begin my report with Lucien, a vampire whose strength is said to be unparalleled. A vampire who was the general in the last battle the immortal vampires fought alongside humans against a foe who wished the freedom to hunt, feed from, and kill members of the human race. This was a secret battle that was deadly, and great losses were suffered on both sides, but the vampires and their human allies prevailed.”
Her expression became grave before she carried on.
“But during it, Lucien lost his human partner, a woman he loved implicitly. She was captured by his enemies, tortured, and put to death. I tell his tale first, along with that of his human wife, Leah. A concubine, these being not what you might think they are when I say that word. They are a centuries-long line of strong women who swore duty to vampires, giving them their allegiance, and their blood, in order that vampires could sustain without hunting humans. Protecting us. Keeping us safe. Strong women who many saw brutally violated and murdered in recent videotapes streaming online.”
Pictures of Lucien and Leah, with Leah’s photos starting from birth, came on with the presenter’s voice telling stories of them, moving onward to photos of their Claiming Ceremony. Both of them smiling. Both of them clearly outrageously happy.
This moved on to the presenter introducing Sonia and Callum’s story, with more pictures as their tale was told.
And this continued with the presenter introducing Abel and Delilah’s story, a montage of photos of them also helped to tell their tale.
The stories were powerful and presented beautifully, but Gregor felt Abel and Delilah’s played the best. Although both of them were extraordinarily good-looking, each had led very humble lives and he believed theirs would be the one that would resonate the strongest.
By this time, the presenter was inside Canis, seated in a chair in what looked like a warm and welcoming (because it was) library.
She had an attractive earthenware mug sitting on the table at her side. Nothing extravagant, the power behind the throne was depicted by her walk up the steps to the castle. Now she was metaphorically seated in the lap of the werewolves—unpretentious, openhearted, relaxed, gracious.
In the meantime, in the room Gregor was in, they’d seated Jian-Li in her chair.
“And today,” the presenter stated, “I have the pleasure of speaking with one in a long line of Chinese American women who opened her heart and home to the hybrid werewolf vampire, Abel. Generations of her family kept him safe and hidden, with the immortal Abel doing the former for her family. Keeping them safe. Providing for them. I’m pleased to introduce you to Jian-Li Jin, a restaurant owner and mother of four sons, one of whom she counts as Abel.” She tipped her head to the side. “Jian-Li, it’s lovely to meet you.”