A Dangerous Legacy Pt. 11

He sighed. "I did want to talk and had hoped it would be after you screamed my name, but perhaps we should speak first. Summon a blanket. How about a bottle of wine, if you can manage?" He let me go and stepped back.

"Wine?"

"My love, I am French."

"Fine, tell me what you want."

"Château Découverte, the Bordeaux, ninety-eight, if you please. You'll enjoy it. Goes excellently with sharp cheese and water crackers."

I took the hint and summoned the wine, glasses, and a plate of cheese and crackers for the hungry wolf. We sat down and he pressed next to me, comfortingly. "Let it breathe for a moment. Shall I tell you about my life?"

"Please do."

He shoveled in an impossible tower of cheese and carbs and swallowed it with ease, grinning toothily. "My sister Diana was born first. Like me, she's an alpha. The firstborns usually are. She's my full sister, we have the same mother. My mother was one of three wolves, treated like concubines. In all fairness the witch of the line they were pledged to at that time was a duke's son, he probably didn't know any better.

When another wolf bore Pierre, Diana was heartbroken. She knew there would be no pack for her, she would be a lone wolf. You'll like her. She's firm, resolute and deeply passionate. She never does half measures, and she looks much better with this shade of red." He indicated his hair.

"Diana is a lovely woman, but when we were young, as two alphas, we were at each other's throats. She's much closer to Pierre who is two years younger than I, but Julian was a babe who had just learned to walk when she left. When she was twenty-five and I was twelve, she was sent off to serve the Council. She's been a secretary most of her life, but thanks to her I was educated, as were my brothers.

"When my father became duke he had my brothers and I educated alongside his own sons, acknowledged bastards. As soon as Julian, the youngest, was twenty five and full wolf, we should have gone to the Council to be assigned, but our mothers protested and Diana interceded on our behalf.

"So for seventy years we loafed about, gentlemen of leisure if not means. Our mothers are wonderful women, and they softened up the duke. It got even better when he pretended to die to the world and leave the seat to his eldest proper son. Since we were not officially recognized as a pack nor property of the Council, we were free. And oh, how we wasted it on simple pleasures, such a beauteous waste. Here."

Abruptly my mind was pulled from eleventh century France to the glass of deep red wine he held out. I sniffed at it and caught interesting scents, but the taste was incredible. My eyes widened. "This would go well with chocolate!"

Andre laughed. "Summon some, then, my dearest witch."

I laughed. Despite the madness it was still so easy to forget my new abilities. I waved my hand and a few strawberries covered in dark chocolate appeared. He'd eaten the cheese plate so I summoned a new one and added some meat to it, and Andre kissed me for the consideration.

For a long moment we both ate and drank and watched the sun slide past the top of the volcano.

"Go on," I urged, wishing we could stay there all night. It seemed so peaceful, and the Gods only knew what "delightful entertainment" awaited us after dinner.

"We were called to the Council when Inga, your ancestor, died, her pack as well. A new pack was needed to test her descendent, Sigrid. Of course you know she passed.

"Like ay good Viking she had slaves. She kept her husband in the dark about our nature and hers, doted on her children, and kept us as slaves. When her husband died and she had to leave her village for fear people would notice she wasn't aging, it got better.

"I won't bore you of stories, but Sigrid was a good queen, if traditional and cautious. She loved us in her own way, but always saw us as second, as less. She had constant affairs with witches and produced in her lifetime enough children to populate her own island. She was a Viking, through and through.

"When she died, it was because she had taken a lover, the very witch she had asked to father a child on one of her daughters. In your line those born of a witch and a human often have serious health problems. Sigrid was trying to discover why. She herself had been a sickly child. That was why she had so many children, and all of them she asked to mate with witches, but never to create a first child, always a second or later. So many witch lovers, and then there was the last.

"They both died. She had snuck out, but it was common. She almost never took us all together to her bed, and she had so many other lovers. We did not know she was gone until she did not appear after breakfast. I confess, the hardest part was not losing a woman I loved, it was the fear. Seven direct generations had sprung from her and we did not know who the one facing the test would be.

"The day after Sigrid died, Alessandra came. She took custody of us as she administered the tests. For seven centuries in her care not one of your line has passed the tests. There has never been a line interrupted for so long. My brothers and I felt it our duty to question it, but Alessandra forbade it. After the fifth failure, when the record was passed, no longer were we treated as wards. We became Alessandra's property."

Setting down my wine I covered his hand with mine. Andre refused to meet my gaze and moved suddenly. I barely had time to transport away the wine and food before we were laying down, like spoons. With his arms around me I sensed he drew comfort.

"If you wish to speak no more, I understand."

"I will just say at first she abused us greatly. We followed her as she traveled and served her most often in the lowest, most degrading of duties. Then, through death came a blessing. In eighteen oh seven we were in Leiden. She had taken a lover, a human she cared greatly for. She ignored us and her own two wolves, Duncan and Gerard. Her lover was killed when a munitions ship exploded, killing dozens. She became depressed, horribly depressed, and charged us to the Council to be recalled only for future tests.

"Diane once more helped us. I wanted to know more about the government and so she placed me in records so I might read the histories of witches, wars, and human interaction. Let Julian and Pierre tell you their own story of where they went, for we have been together every day but for those hundred and fifty-five years, until Alessandra recalled us permanently back in nineteen sixty-two."

"So you were a librarian?" Sometimes I could see Andre as a professor, and I confess I'd entertained a fantasy or two of being the student seducing the teacher, but seeing my alpha wolf as a librarian was too straining.

"At first. I was more a scribe, transcribing and cataloging. Sixty-two years of studying, learning the histories of human governments, of the wolves' when we ruled ourselves, the vampires, the dragon kind, the sorcerers. I read of battles and treaties. Shin-Zan of the council began consulting me during the final active days of war. I sat with the Council at a few treaties.

"Once it became a cold war, I became what the British call a spy-master. I trained spies, assigned them, oversaw them. I devised codes, and assembled gathered information to help the Council make policy. It was an exciting time, but not what I expected."

"How so?"

"I was a Council wolf. I was granted some freedoms Alessandra did not give me. I could never seduce a witch, and if one bade me I had to service them, but only with mouth and fingers. Luckily where I worked there were almost no female witches. With humans it was the same, a spell kept me from enjoying the full fruits of physical love, but with other wolves I was free."

Petty as it was, I felt a twinge of jealousy, but I knew it was stupid. He'd been alive almost one thousand years. Of course he had loved others, fucked probably thousands. Jealousy was wasted, but I couldn't get my heart to listen to reason.

"Do not fear, my love. By nineteen fifty I had despaired of it. I dreamed that one day, there would come a witch of the Inrisdotti line who would love me truly. Better yet if she was sweet, innocent, and I could make her blush."

As he nuzzled behind my ear, I found myself doing just that.

I reached back and placed my hand behind his head, inviting him to do more of the same. The barest nip of teeth made me shiver and my nipples hardened. Crass but uncaringly for manners, I wiggled my butt against him, hoping to entice Andre to action.

His hand slid up just under my breast, holding my rib cage, and his lips and teeth pulled back. "Oh, Anna, so eager, so honest in your needs. You have no idea how refreshing that is."

"I'm beginning to have an idea," I said dryly, pouting.

He kissed my cheek and laughed."Shall I finish my story?"

"Please do. Hurry up and finish." That won me a small laugh.

"In nineteen fifty I had come to realize I no longer found solace in casual or easy sex. I think I also began to realize there are many kinds of love, and what I had with Sigrid was not what I needed. So I did something stupid and volunteered to be an assassin."

This made me turn back and found him half smiling, merely raising a single eyebrow in response to mine. "Dragons still lived, and, forced into hiding, those left had become mostly vicious creatures. We stopped their terror. In just eight years we finished our work, and I lost my appetite for death, that of others or myself. In my travels I became familiar with the wolves that belong to Sebastian's group. I saw that what I desired was possible.

"And then, in sixty-three, Alessandra recalled us. Blessedly she left us unmolested, but still gave us low, dirty jobs. I had once commanded a thousand wolves, helped shape policy, and then I was scrubbing her bathroom. Humbling."

Though I feared the truth, I wanted to know. "Tell me about my grandmother and mother."

"Your grandmother was a good woman. She passed the first two tests, but not the third. Never once did she try to bed us, she loved your grandfather too much. She hoped a fraternal kind of love would suffice, but then when she found out what the final ascension ceremony entailed, she couldn't go through with it.

"Your mother we never even met. She failed the first test on purpose, I believe. Alessandra said she begged to have her memory wiped. But then things became worrisome when we realized your half sister has not a drop of magic in her. It became clear she had an earlier child, but somehow your mother had earlier wiped that from her memory, probably with the aid of a witch. The spell was irreversible. We feared your line was lost, possibly even to Malachi."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because only you or Malachi has enough power to unlock a memory binding spell. Through my diplomatic contacts I approached Malachi and asked him to unlock the spell from your mother. He refused, and laughed in my face."

"So far, I have yet to met anyone in my family I actually like. Why should he be different?"

"My love, your relation is so far back you're probably more closely related to me than him."

"Gross."

He laughed and turned me onto my back, remaining on his side. "My life has been a lonely one. I have been lucky to have my brothers, and for a time even my sister. But always I have felt as if I have no home."

I let the words hang in the air. Yes, I loved him, but there were many kinds of love. Did he feel like home to me? No, not quite yet, and I'm sure it was the same for him. That kind of feeling would take time. What w e had was beautiful but small, and needed time to grow.

So I reached up and stroked his handsome face. I'd gotten some color but was still pale. His skin, naturally olive, had darkened quickly in the tropical sunlight. It was just one more thing that made me feel small and feminine in his presence. Puppy love was what we had, but I knew with time and effort it would grow into so much more. But for now we had affection, passion, and lust.

He smiled. "So many strange thoughts flit across your face. What are you thinking?"

"That you are a most remarkable man. Werewolf, scholar, spymaster, and diplomat, not to mention a ferocious lover."

Finally his hand slid up to cup my breast. "Glad you noticed."

The mood changed rapidly once more. Returning from serious recollection to intensely sensual once more. A quick spell made our clothes disappear so that when our bodies pressed together it was warm flesh to warm flesh.

I turned onto my side facing him and slipped a hand between us. His cock was hard and hot, and when I stroked him he trembled for a moment. The feeling was powerful and arousing, and it thrilled me to feel his response.

Andre pulled back after gently biting my lip. "Would that I had magic and could hold you down, witch."

I conjured up a silk scarf into my other hand and extended it. "Will this do?"

"A blindfold," he huskily whispered, dragging the pad of his thumb across my nipple.

I arched into him, silently begging for more.

"Anna," he chided lightly.

"Sorry."

I conjured up the blindfold and he took it from me slipping it immediately over my eyes before kissing my nose.

"Why do you like blindfolds so much, Andre?"

He did not reply as I felt the scarf winding around a wrist. He dragged both hands over my head and tied them together, and then I felt his warmth withdraw.

"I know I am handsome, every wolf is. But even among wolves I know I am more, so are my brothers. It is why were chosen for your line. Should you not have the best? The smartest, the most dexterous and agile, the strongest? But my looks have been a curse. I will say no more, but there have been times when my guardians have been cruel and capricious and I have been punished for my looks.

"It pleases me greatly that you look at me like I am the most handsome man alive. I know you would never hurt me. But, my love, I feel...safer without eyes upon me. With that blindfold on, I know you feel me. You hear me. But you hear only what I wish and feel only what I wish."

I didn't think he realized that halfway through his confession he'd slipped into French, an older version than what I knew and I hoped I'd truly understood him.

This explained his dominance perfectly. I too had been dominant at the point in my life I had felt the least in control. Andre was an alpha wolf, control was bred into him, and witches had robbed him of it for damn near a solid century.

So I let my body go lax. I would b rewarded for my submission, and he would take joy. Still I felt no touch, and I knew just what he wanted to hear.

"S'il vous plait," I breathed out in a sigh.

He kissed me then, as gently as he ever had. His hand cupped my cheek but nowhere else did he touch me. I tasted the wine and the natural flavor and spice that was Andre. He kissed me as if we had all the time in the world, and it was beautiful.

I started to reach for him without thinking, and Andre growled and pushed my hands down to the blanket. Still his kiss was gentle, coaxing, and wildly more arousing than I had thought possible. I kissed him back with all my passion, but he stilled my fervor, forced me to slow. Once I did his mouth left me groaning as he slid across my skin to tease my jaw line.

The humid air stirred with ocean winds, caressing my body, and now the only part of him that touched my skin was that wicked mouth. He teased my neck and I cried out, shivers coursing over me. He captured my ear and I fairly purred. Never had we gone this slow, and I wondered what game was afoot.

Suddenly he moved over me, settling between my legs, and before my mind could register that fact fully he thrust in. The invasion was burning heat and icy shivers. I was aroused, but not expecting it, and cried out. My legs wrapped around his and I tried again to reach out only to have my wrists pinned.

"Naughty girl," he coed, and began to thrust.

Slowly he drew in and out, over and over again. All the while he kept my hands pinned with ne of his own and the other toyed with a nipple. Over and over, it went on and on. Slowly my lust changed from roaring fire to slow burn and still it only got hotter.

"Anna," he sighed out, and I heard the strain in his voice, thought it seemed less than mine.

"Please, please let me come." My world was the feeling of his cock thickly stretching me, his rough warm skin against mine, the surging of his muscles, the teasing slide of his hot mouth. It was madness.

He just pulled out and his hands left me. I cried out, body lurching. What game was this?

The his hands cupped my ass and raised me almost painfully high. A low growl was my only warning before his mouth descended. Despite the threat of the rumble in his voice, Andre's actions were slow. Not delicate, but entrancingly firm as he licked me up and down. I couldn't tell if he was just teasing me or building me towards something. I couldn't focus on anything other then the powerful pleasure.

He suckled my clit, flicked it, filled me with his tongue and generally feasted. Sweat covered me as I struggled helplessly, succeeding only in rubbing against his face. Andre seemed to like this and rumbled in approval. Then he did something clever, and before I could register what dexterous action it was I crested with a keening cry.

My entire body throbbed with the orgasm, and my hands scrambled against the blanket for purchase. I forgot to breathe as pleasure swam over me. Where our flesh touched I burned, but everything else was shaking, trembling ice. Andre gave me no quarter. I cried out again and again and he just kept up, pushing me into a zone that I thought was bliss.

Only then did he pull back, but it was just to move with that incredible speed. I screamed in pleasure when he thrust in. In that moment I warred with myself. I wanted the blindfold off, I needed to see, but I knew wearing it was for his benefit, not mine. Quelling my magic and meeting his body with mine as just an ordinary woman and no witch was beyond difficult.

Once more he began to thrust, filling me so beautifully over and over, playing with pitch and angle until I was mad. But then, when I thought I would feel the ultimate pleasure once more, he just pulled out. This time it was thick fingers filling my creaming cunt while his mouth teased my breasts. I reached the pinnacle and it was a nearly holy experience. I thrashed and screamed with it, riding his hand, bucking against his mouth as my entire being pulsated.

This cycle went on at least four more times, I thought. Gun to my head I couldn't have counted, the pleasure was so immense. All I knew was when he finally joined me, when Andre roared out his climax it was so loud all birds took flight from the trees and it drowned out my own scream. I could have cast a spell to keep sound in but I was too far gone.

I felt like I was made of liquid, flowing and hot beneath him. Andre was as firm and hot as fired steel. We held together, clutching one another until it seemed to me he had softened and I had firmed a bit. All this happened in darkness, making me keenly aware of the sensations he evoked.

After long, panting minutes he removed the blindfold, untied my hands, and laid on his back drawing me to his side. I felt the very feminine temptation to introduce serious conversation but squelched it. Just because sex cleared my mind, I knew it wasn't the same for men. I wanted to reassure him that I understood what it had been about, but I guess my submissiveness would just have to do.

Everything was so uncertain in this new world, but not the way I felt. I loved Andre, and I loved Pierre, and Julian. It would grow and mature in time, but for the moment it was the shining new kind of love that makes one feel foolish and invincible. I would just relax and enjoy it for it was.