Nails scraped the wooden floor as the wolf entered the cabin and crossed over to me. A natural wolf, canis lupus , stood thirty inches tall at the shoulders and weighed 150 pounds. Canis Monère , on the other hand, was much bigger. Or at least the one before me was. His weight was closer to 250 pounds. And his shoulders topped a natural wolfs height by more than half a foot. No wonder the timber wolf that Id encountered at High Court, a wolf that had looked upon me as food, had backed away beneath Dontaines growling threat.
A shimmer of light, a pulse of power, and Dontaine stood before me naked and unadorned, breathtakingly handsome with hair as blindingly bright as sunshine, and eyes a lush and deep verdant green in his human form. He was tall, and what I would have called of average build. But average was not a word you used with Dontaine. With broad shoulders, arms roped with sinewy strength, a chest sculpted with rippling muscles that flowed like flesh-silk beneath his pale, flawless skin, he was more heavily muscled than Gryphon, my beautiful, dark, departed angel, and much less massive than my towering Amber, my Warrior Lord, my other love.
Dontaines hand reached out and I felt that electric, jolting dance upon my skin, a sensation that came from him alone. He touched me. And his touch was not like that of a guard but of a new lovermy new lover.
Mona Lisa. He whispered my name and title both. The emotions that crossed my face when I looked at him, truly looked at him and saw himnot just the surface beauty but the generous, valiant heart that lay beneath itmade his eyes swirl a deeper green.
He was achingly handsome with bold and noble features, like a blond sun god. And like most men blessed with fair face and exquisite form, he had the confidence, the touch of arrogance that usually came with the looks. And he wasnt just beautiful but powerful, even for a Full Blood Monère warrior. He had been Mona Louisas favorite, before she had tried to kill me, her territory forfeited to me as punishment. Shed tried to regain it, and one of the means she had used was the tall, sumptuously handsome man who stood before me now, looking at me with soft wonder in his eyes. Hed been left behind to spy and betray me, but he hadnt. Hed saved me instead. Not just once, but again at High Court when I had been questioned there for Mona Louisas death.
Id taken him not just into my body but into my heart. In the midst of sadness and loss, Id found love again, unexpectedly. It was because I loved Dontaine that I needed to talk to him now. So that he did not continue to look at me that waywith love and happiness.
It had only been one day since wed returned from my testimony at High Queens Council. And wed spent most of it reassuring my people here that I would not be blamed or punished for Mona Louisas death, that everything was okay. But that was a lie. While things may be okay Council-wiseor as much as it could be after a stir like thatI wasnt okay. And only Dontaine knew the truth of this.
I stepped back from my lovers touch. Dropped my eyes from his compelling male beauty, from the tempting loveliness of his form, from the raw and tender heart he offered up to me with those expressive green eyes. I took a hard step back from it all and said, We need to talk, Dontaine.
A beat of silence. When he spoke, it was with quiet tension thrumming in his voice. That
never bodes well.
I guess that was a rule that held true not only for humans but for the Monère also.
I will dress, he said quietly, and I retreated to a corner chair as he opened the armoire and began to pull on clothes. I would have stared out the window had there been one, but there was none in this simple cabin. I passed the time instead with an intricate study of the wood-planked floor.
I felt his presence as he neared and sat by my feet. There were no other chairs. I would have felt better had he stood instead of seating himself on the floor below me, a gesture that placed him lower than I, made him even more vulnerable to me.
My eyes lifted from my perusal of the floor, met his, and flicked away. I couldnt say what I had to say to him while looking into those unshielded eyes.
Dontaine. Just his name for a moment, so lovely upon my lips. Then came the blow. We cannot be lovers.
He didnt say anything, so I rushed to fill in the pregnant silence. I care for you. You know that. It was a truth that hed seen in my eyes. But you also know that there is something very, very wrong with me. Youve asked no questions.
There has been no time. No opportunity.
There is now. Do you have any questions for me?
A strained silence. Then he asked not what I would have asked after all that confused madness that had occurred two nights ago, but what was most important to him. Why can we not be lovers?
His hands, long-fingered and elegant, an aristocrats hands, were folded neatly around his bended knees as he sat there on the wooden floor. I focused on those hands, remembered how they had felt on me, in me, caressing me, and looked blindly away.