• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

I love you, he mouthed. She smiled back at him and pressed something into his hand. Her necklace.

“You keep this on you always,” she whispered. “For good luck.”

He kissed her hand. “Always.”

Abruptly Wrath rose to his towering height, lifted up his champagne, and tilted back his head. In a tremendous, booming voice, he hollered so loud, you could have sworn the walls of the mansion shook.

“To the young!”

Everyone shot to their feet, raised their glasses, and yelled at the top of their lungs, “To the young!”

Ah, yes… Surely their chorus of voices was bold and deafening enough to carry to the Scribe Virgin’s sacred ears. Which was precisely as tradition demanded.

What a true and proper toast, Z thought as he tugged Bella down to kiss her on the mouth.

“To the young!” the household all shouted once more.

“To you,” he said against Bella’s lips. “Nalla.”

Chapter Fifty

“Yeah, well, I could have done without the passing-out part,” Z muttered as he pulled into the driveway of the safe house Bella’s family was living in. “And that whole bawling-my-eyes-red routine, too. Definitely could have lost that one. Christ.”

“I thought you were very sweet.”

With a groan he killed the engine, palmed his SIG Sauer, and went around to help her from the Escalade. Damn it. She already had the door open and was stepping out into the snow.

“Wait for me,” he barked, grabbing for her arm.

She shot him a level stare. “Zsadist, if you keep treating me like a wineglass, I’m going to go nuts over the next sixteen months.”

“Listen, female, I don’t want you slipping on this ice. You’re wearing high heels.”

“Oh, for the love of the Virgin…”

He shut her car door, kissed her quickly, then put his arm around her waist and led her up the front walkway of a big, Tudor-style house. He scanned the snow-covered yard, his trigger finger itchy as hell.

“Zsadist, I want you to put the gun away before you meet my brother.”

“No problem. We’ll be in the house by then.”

“We’re not going to get jumped here. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”

“If you think I’m taking even the slightest chance with you and my young, you are out of your mind.”

He knew he was being overbearing as hell, but he couldn’t help it. He was a bonded male. With his pregnant female. There were few things on the planet more aggressive or dangerous. And those bastards were called hurricanes and tornadoes.

Bella didn’t argue with him. Instead she smiled and covered the hard hand on her waist with one of her own. “I guess you should be careful what you ask for.”

“What do you mean?” He moved her in front of him as they came up to the door, blocking her with his body. He hated the porch light. It made them too conspicuous.

As he turned the thing off with his mind, she laughed. “I always wanted you for a bonded male.”

He kissed the side of her neck. “Well, you got your wish. I’m deep bonded. Way deep bonded. Deep, deep, ultra—”

As he leaned forward and hit the brass knocker, his body came into full contact with hers. She made a little purring sound in the back of her throat and rubbed herself against him. He froze.

Oh, God. Oh…no, he was instantly erect. All it had taken was that one little move of hers and he had a big, flipping—

The door swung open. He expected to see a doggen on the other side. Instead there was a tall, slender female with white hair, a long black gown, and a whole lot of diamonds.

Crap. Bella’s mother. Z hid the gun in the holster at the small of his back and made sure his double-breasted jacket was buttoned all the way down. Then he linked his hands together right in front of his zipper.

He’d dressed as conservatively as possible, in the first suit he’d ever worn. And he was even plugged into a pair of fancy-dancy loafers. He’d wanted to wear a turtleneck to cover up the slave band at his throat, but Bella had nixed that, and he supposed she was right. There was no hiding what he’d been, and there shouldn’t be. Besides, no matter what he was dressed like, and even though he was a member of the Brotherhood, the glymera