Queen of Death

Solana

~5 years later

“There you are! Everyone’s been wondering where the bride and grooms disappeared to.” Calla sings as she sashays over to me and throws her arms around my neck, squeezing me in a vice grip that she passes off as a hug. “I can’t believe my baby sister is married! Oh, Sol, you’re absolutely glowing.”

I roll my eyes over her shoulder and begin to extricate myself from her claws. “For the last time, Calla, I’m not pregnant.”

She’s been dropping not so subtle hints all week about her theories on the goings on of my womb. Either she’s super ignorant or genuinely that rude to keep pestering me about it.

Obviously the conversation of children has come up, but I’ve left the how’s and the who’s up to the guys. Whether each of them wants a child specifically from their seed or they leave everything up to chance doesn’t matter to me. We’re a pack. All of them will be fathers to any and all children we have. So I’ve left it up to the guys to hash out just how territorial their wolves are going to be over DNA.

“I’m not sure you can say that after what just happened upstairs, wife,” Hunter purrs salaciously loud enough for Calla to hear.

You love saying that, don’t you? I link him before nuzzling into his chest, soaking in his scent.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted. You are all I’ve ever wanted. He links back, dropping kisses to my neck and shoulder that get progressively closer to his Mark.

Hunter finally got what he wanted. Ten years ago he asked me to marry him and I said yes on the condition that we wait until our Centennial. That was before our lives imploded and well before I met the rest of my pack. But after finding our way back to one another I knew that waiting for our birthdays was still the way it was meant to be.

“If you’re done mauling each other, we should probably head back to your party.” Calla pulls me along with her, dragging me away from the peaceful isolation the guys and I had found and back to the limelight of a party I was strong-armed into agreeing to.

As a thank you to us for helping get justice for Elder Rimori and for putting an end to the corruption inside the council, one of the newest Elders insisted on planning our wedding. Elder Ianthe, also known as my grandmother.

When I implored my mom to stop her she threw up her palms and said she’s never successfully swayed Ianthe’s mind on any matter, especially party matters.

“Solana, be reasonable. Caligo can’t accommodate an event of this magnitude. It’s your pack’s wedding, and yours and Hunter’s Centennials. No. We’re having it here in the Grove.” My grandmother Ianthe spoke with finality. Not even my mother was willing to challenge her on it even though I desperately wanted something very small. Something very opposite of what my grandmother had in mind.

“Don’t try to fight it, Sol. We all lost that battle,” Rhys said with an amused grin. Unlike me and my older twin siblings, Rhys embraced Grandma Ianthe’s meddling. His Centennial turned into a week-long Bacchanalia. Eli woke up naked in the gardens more than once that week despite my previous warnings not to accept anything Rhys offers you to drink.

“Let’s get married here, baby,” Dean gently coaxed me into agreeing. “Then we’ll take you back to Caligo and have a proper after party. Sound good?”

***

“Are you having fun, birthday girl?” Ace grumbles in my ear.

“You shouldn’t be back here,” I admonish him playfully but otherwise ignore him and continue about my task.

“You shouldn’t be working at your own party.” Ace doesn’t relent. He plucks the bottles out of my hands and laces his fingers through mine. “Your real party.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t come straight here and skip the Grove altogether,” I mutter under my breath but I know he heard me because I can feel his hackles rising.

“I’m inclined to agree with him, wife.” Hunter throws wood on the proverbial fire before pinning me with smoldering eyes.

“Say the word, Alpha, I’ll tie her up right here, right now.” Tate pops out of the shadows, reading through the Nightshade tickets by the register dedicated to my hobby.

Tate clicks his tongue and prowls over to me and Ace with the grace of a panther stalking its prey. “Looks like our Queen wants to go hunting on our honeymoon.” He holds up a slip of paper between his fingers for Ace to examine.

“Tate, get your nose out of my business,” I admonish him with no heat, but he succeeds in distracting me long enough that Ace is able to teleport us up to the VIP lounge.

“I thought we agreed to no more names,” Ace’s eyes darken with disapproval. “You’re already spreading yourself thin. Between Illicit, HQ, and your newest project with the hospital...” he trails off, but he’s already made his point.

When we condemned Ace’s father to die in the basement of Illicit, the abandoned tattoo studio, we never gave him another moment’s thought. Four years to the day after we had left him, we returned to watch him take his final, agonized breath. It didn’t bring me the satisfaction I hoped it would because my wolf still feels like any death was too good for them. But I have to let it go. I won’t let my anger infect me like a poison. I refuse to suffer any longer.

I may have smiled a little when Alec pissed on his father’s ashes. Of course my guys made sure I couldn’t see Alec’s member, only the puddle he left on the floor.

Then they took me upstairs and presented me with the keys to the studio and told me I could do what I wanted with it. Leave it, burn it, clean it up and make something of it, whatever I wanted.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that they’d do something like this. They may be ruthless and cut-throat when they need to be, but where I’m concerned they’ve never turned down an opportunity to spoil me.

Ultimately I chose to keep the tattoo studio. We renovated the entire space and vetted the best artists in the business both for humans and for non-humans. What started off as one little storefront in an abandoned part of town turned into our own little burrow. Every building and every home was renovated and filled with small and local business owners and families.

The guys kept up with their business helping people escape from abusive situations and ridding the world of those who perpetuate those actions. But the majority of our service is to our new little community. Our Death Row.

I still accept Nightshade requests on occasion, but the guys have been trying to convince me more and more to let that be for a while.

“Did we agree to that?” I feign ignorance and snatch a glass of water off the low coffee table in the VIP lounge. All the stress of the day must finally be catching up to me because I’m having an incredibly hard time regulating my body temperature. No matter what I do and how much water I drink I can’t bring it down.

Something wicked and wild flashes behind Ace’s eyes for a fraction of a second. “Yes we did, my wife. My Queen. My mate.” He says the words between featherlight kisses to my forehead, nose, and lips. By the time he says “mate” and I get a taste of his tongue I’m bathed in a blanket of flames coating my skin.

Hunter and Eli groan nearby so loudly that I feel it pulse through me. Tate ignites, cool blue flames lick across his inked arms and up beneath the collar of his dress shirt.

“Sol,” Dean rasps like he’s in pain. One look in his eyes and I don’t need his Gift to tell me how the guys are feeling and why they’re acting this way.

“I think...I think we should go home.” My words sound slurred even to me. I’m going down fast, succumbing to the heat. It’s never come on this fast.

“Tell us what you want, princess,” Ace whispers. His mouth descends down the column of my neck nipping at his Mark.

“I want to have your baby...take me home and put a baby in my belly.” I can’t stop the moan that escapes my lips when Ace sinks his teeth into my neck, Marking me again as his.

When my eyes flutter open, I note that we’re already back at home. Clothes are flying, and each one of them is radiating feelings of love, hunger, and desire. Ten years ago now my world was broken, my chest hollow. Who could have known that I’d find myself in the broken shards of five amazing men, and that Death would give me back my life.

The End!

As always when I reach this point I feel bittersweet...

I’m so happy their story is complete but sad to be leaving them and moving on.

Which brings me to the big question. What’s next?!

Book 5! - More Than Words

This is Cole’s story...we will absolutely see Sol and her crew in book 5, as well as the other sibs. But this one is for Cole.

It is still an ongoing work in progress...it’s a little (a lot) more “real” than the stories so far. A bit more human. ;) There will still be badassery and smoke and fire and all the fun things. You’ll just have to see for yourself :)

Book 5: More Than Words will debut next week! It’ll be one chapter a week for now...but like I said it’s not done and it’s taking me for fucking ever so I need to get my ass in gear.

I hope you liked Sol’s story, and I hope you’ll like Cole’s.

So be on the lookout next week for a new book!!

Book 5: More Than Words

<3