“They’re welcoming you,” he whispered, his chest vibrating with the need to add his voice to the song, “not as my mate, but as their alpha’s mate.” The distinction was important, and when untrammeled sunshine lit up her face, he knew she understood.
A rustle of giggling and whispering sounded on the last echo of the harmony, and suddenly, they were faced with the pups. Tarah stood unobtrusively to the side, where the youngest ones could see her. A graceful wave of her hand and the children began to sing, their voices high and sweet and full of innocence fragile as glass.
He saw from the surprise on Riley’s face that the kids had managed to keep this a secret. His wolf’s heart burst in pride. Tucking Sienna’s hand to his side, he glanced down to see an iridescent shimmer over the night-sky of her gaze. Her cousin, Marlee, was among the singers, as was her brother, Toby—still young enough to not mind joining the children, but old and lanky enough that he’d had to find a space right at the back. He held a chubby two-year-old in his arms, her singing enthusiastic if not altogether coherent.
It was on the final chorus that his mate surprised him, adding her voice with a playful grace that delighted the children. Afterward, hands linked, the pups took multiple giggling bows while thunderous applause filled the clearing. When a little girl escaped on sturdy legs to make a beeline for Hawke, he scooped her up and received a bright-eyed and somewhat sloppy kiss for his trouble.
Grinning, he passed her to her laughing father, her baby pink dress frothing over the man’s sun-browned arm. “This one’s going to give you trouble.”
“She’s the nursery flirt,” the other man said, tapping at the pup’s nose in loving reproof.
It was a far more elegant female who came forward next, her petite body sheathed in an ankle-length cheongsam of deep yellow silk, her glossy black hair in a neat twist. Nell represented not simply the maternals, but everyone in SnowDancer who didn’t identify as a dominant. In her arms she held a beautiful handmade quilt, the craftsmanship exquisite. “Each family in the den contributed a piece to this, thus each block is unique.” She handed the precious gift to Sienna.
Reaching behind her to another one of the maternal females, Nell accepted what appeared to be an old-fashioned tapestry. “We created this from threads sent in by families across the territory.” This, she put into Hawke’s arms, pressing her lips to his cheek before turning to do the same to Sienna, the evocative brown of her uptilted eyes shimmering with affection. “You are loved, and you are ours.”
Handling the gifts with the care they deserved, Hawke and Sienna gave them into the gentle keeping of two of the elders who stood with them. A moment later, quiet, often reserved Alexei stepped forward and leaned in to kiss Sienna’s cheek, one strong hand cupping her left shoulder. “Welcome.” The young lieutenant’s hair glinted gold in the colored lights strung across the Pack Circle as he turned to Hawke and began swearing his fealty.
It was an unexpected development, but Hawke responded automatically, slicing his palm with the knife Tomás threw him, so that a single drop of his blood splashed onto Alexei’s open hand.
Sienna watched, calm as a mountain lake, but he could feel her tension along the mating bond. He’d forgotten to explain to her—because it had slipped his own mind—that when an alpha mated, or bonded to a permanent partner, his lieutenants had to reaffirm their allegiance. It was a directive meant to protect the pack if an alpha chose a woman the pack couldn’t trust or respect—because even the most powerful wolf couldn’t rule without the loyalty of his strongest packmates. In such a situation, the pack inevitably split, the old alpha leaving with his supporters.
It was a measure of Hawke’s bond with his men and women that he hadn’t even thought of the possibility of that outcome.
Alexei fisted his hand over the drop of blood and stepped back, the moment solemn … until he winked at Sienna. Hawke felt her tension ease at once, right before she was picked up off her feet and kissed on the mouth by Matthias, her startled hands flying up to land on the arms of the lieutenant who was built like a tank.
Hawke growled. “Careful.”
An unrepentant grin creasing the smooth dark of a face that had beguiled many a woman, Matthias put Sienna on her feet. “He ever chase you down a corridor again, sweetheart, you know who to call.”
Sienna held her own. “I think I rather enjoy being caught.”
Then Matthias was in front of him, swearing his allegiance. And so it continued until all ten of his lieutenants had completed the task. Each oath was different, because there were no set words for this. It was only the meaning that mattered. The loyalty. A sigh of happiness rippled around the Pack Circle as Riley closed his hand over the drop of Hawke’s blood.
It was done.
His pack had accepted both his mate and his mating. Not simply accepted, he thought when another multiharmonic howl went up, but celebrated. This time, he didn’t resist, and drawing Sienna’s back against his chest, threw back his own head to sing, his cut hand fisted tight to still the blood flow. Against him, he could feel his mate’s body vibrating with the beauty of the music, the wildfire of her blinding along their bond.
When Tomás grabbed her for a dance, Hawke didn’t protest. Possessive though it was, his wolf understood that Sienna belonged to the pack, too, and that they’d lay down their lives for her. It didn’t mean she’d have an easy road when it came to making her place in SnowDancer, but tonight, his wolves told her they knew she was the right mate for their alpha, regardless of her age and inexperience. They would stand by her as she grew into her strength.
It was a gift to Hawke’s heart.
Chapter 18
RILEY’S SHOULDER NUDGED Hawke’s, as in front of them, other couples joined in the dancing and Sienna was passed from Tomás to Kenji. “You do realize you’ll have to fight to get near her tonight?”
Hawke glanced at his senior lieutenant to see Riley’s eyes lingering on his own mate. Dressed in a graceful azure dress that hit a few inches above the knee and flared out when she spun, shiny black ankle boots on her feet, her red hair pulled off her face by two small combs, Mercy was currently dancing—and laughing—with Drew. She was the only leopard in attendance, because this was a private moment for the pack—and as far as SnowDancer was concerned, Mercy was theirs. No matter how much Lucas might disagree.
Lips curving at the thought, he said, “I promised my mate I’d dance with her from midnight to dawn, and I don’t break my promises.” He’d be patient until then, his wolf content with keeping an eye on her while she was claimed by SnowDancer on the deepest level.
“I’m scared. What I did … I’m afraid no one will look at me the same again.”
Words she’d spoken after the violence of her ability had devoured the pack’s enemies, and in one way, she was right. No one would ever again look at Sienna the same—because now, each and every SnowDancer understood the lethal power that ran in her veins. Yet there was no fear in the air tonight, only the cold-eyed approbation of the predator that lived within their hearts.
Well aware how much the man at his side had done to ensure that, to make certain respect didn’t turn to fear, he caught Riley’s gaze. “Thank you.”
“No need between us. Never has been.” A pause, quiet humor in his next words. “I seem to recall you allowing me to beat up on you once upon a time when I was courting Mercy.”
“I don’t remember you winning.”
“You have selective memory.”
Wolf and man both laughed, happy to be here in this moment with his friend, his pack, and most of all, with the woman who sent him a secret smile from the far side of the clearing.
ADRIA smiled as she felt muscular arms slip around her waist from behind. “I was wondering where you were,” she said, her throat raw with emotion from the haunting simplicity and beauty of the mating ceremony.
Nuzzling at her, Sam kissed her jaw. “Come, dance with me.”
She slid into the play of bodies, his hand clasped around her own, and danced until her pulse was a drum, her blood running hot through her veins. Sam did try to steal a kiss, and bubbling with the wild joy of the night, she let him, but pressed her fingers over his lips when he tried again. “No.”
Undaunted, he spoke against her fingertips, dimple denting his cheek. “We’d have fun. I have no hang-ups about your dominance if you’re worried about that. I’ll even let you bite.” A rub, nose to nose. “In fact, I’d like it if you did.”
Playful and gorgeous and intelligent, he was a lover who’d make her feel good, both physically and in the soul. There was only one problem—her body hummed with a near-painful awareness of another man, a man who aroused far more violent, dark emotions. And who was currently twirling a tiny, curvy woman whose eyes were a golden echo of his, shouting their relationship, his cheeks creased in a true smile.
It infuriated her that she couldn’t strangle that unwanted awareness, but she wouldn’t use beautiful, sexy Sam in an effort to do so. “I’m not ready.” One day, she thought, spine steely with determination, she would be ready to gather up her courage and take another chance, having conquered this unhealthy compulsion toward the wrong man. Sam, innocent and never broken, wasn’t the right one, her heart too scarred for him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t cherish him. “I wish I was, because you’re rather wonderful.”
Stroking his hands down her back, he took the rebuff with good grace. “In that case, be my friend. I like you.”
The direct opposite of the knife-edged words Riaz had flung at her, his statement made her miss a step before she cuddled a little closer into him. “I like you, too.” She turned her face deliberately away from the part of the Circle where Riaz stood with his arm around his recent dance partner and an older man Adria couldn’t see well. Deep inside her, her wolf snarled, but that wolf, too, remembered how brutally it had been rejected.