Crossing Paths With The White Wolf
Chapter 87

Gonzalo POV

"I can just drink the bag before I do that. I don't want to take too much from you," Kassie protested on my lap, but I could see her licking her lips, her eyes locked onto my neck, where her mark shone.

"No. Take what you need from me. Let me do this for you." I whispered as I grabbed on to her hips and pushed her down onto my growing erection to show her how much I wanted this. I wanted to nourish her body as much as her soul. I wanted my blood to be the one that gave her strength. I wanted to be hers in every way possible. She closed her eyes when I brought her lips to mine. I waited for her to relax into the kiss before I pushed my tongue into her mouth. I wanted her to enjoy this as much as I knew I would. I didn't want her to think about anything but us and my blood flowing down her throat, bringing to life every cell in her body. I deepened the kiss while I pulled her hips into a gentle rhythm against me. I moaned softly as she started kissing down my jaw. She kissed her mark and I felt myself shiver. I felt her hesitate and I gently held her to my neck. "Kassie," I begged her. I couldn't help the moan that left my lips when I felt her teeth pierce my skin. I thought I would explode from pleasure as I felt her draw her first gulp. She was rubbing herself against me now, lost in our combined [**t.

My erection was straining against my jeans and before I could blink, Kassie had unzipped me and freed it. She began stroking it while she fed. I did my best to hold my moans, knowing we were not in a private space, but I'm not sure how successful I was. The pressure began to build and I was bucking my hips as she continued to drink. I felt her draw a long pull and I dug my hands into her hips as I felt myself c*m in her hands. My mind was still foggy from my o****m when I felt her finally remove her lips from my neck and seal the wound close with a kiss. She looked down at me with worry in her eyes.

"Are you OK?" she asked.

"I'm fine, Kassie." I smiled, reaching up to caress away the frown lines on her eyebrows. She kissed my hand before she got up and washed her hands in the sink. I tucked myself back in and just looked at her as she walked back to me.

"Are you sure you're OK? You look a little pale. I...I haven't fed from someone in a long time. I was scared of hurting you." She said softly.

"Hmm," I nodded as I pulled her back onto my lap, "That makes me feel a lot better. The thought of someone else feeling what I just felt makes me jealous to no end."

She shook her head and smiled. "I've never done that with anyone. It's never been s****l for me before. It was a necessity. I've only ever fed straight from a human willingly before I met you. It was a task. A meal. I made sure it didn't hurt them, but I never experienced that. After I met you, the only time I could bear to drink from a person was when I was close to death and I chose to let them feel the panic and pain as I emptied them of their blood. The only humans I've fed on in the last 200 years were enemies. If possible, the one that had hurt me to begin with."

I squeezed her harder in my arms. "Well, that makes me feel even better, knowing that I am special to you that way." I kissed her temple and closed my eyes, inhaling her wonderful scent.

"You are special to me in every way, Lalo." She snuggled closer to me.

"How do you feel?" I asked, curious as to what the blood of her fated mate would do to her.

"I feel....like I could tear apart 100 men and not break a sweat." She laughed.

"That's good. You may have to," I teased. I looked at the bag next to me. "Maybe we should empty this so they don't realize you're at your full strength." I said. She nodded and emptied the bag into the toilet before she walked towards the cell doors. "Hey! What about food for the wolf?" she called out.

"Kassie, I'll be OK." I told her, but before she could respond, we heard the door open and close again. I heard a few whispers and then a soft voice called "Princess!"

"Sabina?" Kassie's voice called out and, while the name sounded familiar in my head, I had no idea who this was. The moment her face came into view I recognized who it was: her maid. The one who had helped us. "What are you doing here? I thought they fired you?"

"No. They put me in jail for helping you, but Queen Karissa released me when she became Queen. She put me in contact with Master Braden a few years ago and I've been helping them since." The petite woman answered.

"She did?" Kassie asked. Sabina looked past her and her eyes connected with mine. At first she looked confused, but then her eyes widened in recognition and she looked at Kassie.

"Is that...?"

"Yes. The King doesn't know yet." Kassie warned as I came up behind her.

Sabina smiled warmly at Kassie but then we heard a noise and she remembered where we were. "I don't have much time. I brought you something. She pulled a small dagger from her dress. "This is all I can do. I'm sorry princess. If I can replace a key, I'll try." "Don't get yourself hurt, Sabina."

"You didn't deserve what they did to you. You were always so kind. I only wish I could have helped you back then, but I was so young."

"You helped me a lot" Kassie said, grabbing her hands and giving them a big squeeze.

Sabina looked over at me. "I'll see if I can replace some food for you, sir."

"Thank you." I said quietly as she left in a hurry. She came back down later with a bag of cookies and a bottle of water, apologizing that they didn't have a lot of actual food. We waited for another hour before someone came to get us.

We entered a big hall where Armand was sitting at the top of a platform, 5 people were on a table a few feet down. There were vampires sitting on benches on either side of the room. I felt Dario growling lowly behind the barrier between us as we saw another body in a corner of the room. Gavin Doyle sat in a corner of the room, smiling triumphantly.

As expected. The entire trial was a joke. By the end of it, I realized only King Armand and one other council seemed to be in the dark of this whole thing. King Armand looked more and more confused as the trial went on. It felt like the more things they added to Karissa's long list of crimes were putting a puzzle together in his head. He kept looking at the person that I realized was his father as they levied corruption charges on her. When it came time for Karissa to defend herself, I was actually impressed with the way she retained her grace and composure as she addressed the council.

"I have served as your Queen for 150 years. In that time, I will concede I was not the Queen you wanted or deserved, but I did my best for my people. I see what's happening now. What's been happening under my own nose. I was never the Queen. I was your puppet and when I decided to do better for my people, you threw me away the same way that you threw away my sister when she chose to love someone instead of sacrificing herself for you. I am guilty of many things but nothing that you have mentioned in this trial. I'm guilty of not sticking up for her. Betraying her trust. Not restoring her to the status of the Queen as was her birth right." She took a deep breath before a hand went down to her stomach. A motion that wasn't missed by anyone. "You may do what you wish with me. In truth, I'm glad this child will not grow up to know the kind of world Kassie and I had to endure. May you all rot in hell." She sat back down and Armand stood up. The entire hall had broken into whispers. The Queen being pregnant with the next heir was not something to disregard. Karissa had played her ace.

Gonzalo POV

"You're pregnant? Is that my child?" Armand demanded to know. I also wanted to know the answer as I looked over at Braden, who had yet to display any emotion during the trial. Natalia had confirmed her pregnancy when the Queen had arrived under the guise of prenatal care, but she wasn't a DNA test.

"You don't have a right to call it your child. You are sentencing both of us to death. Sit back down, Armand. Your time to act was long ago. The invoices, the transactions, the emails. I know all about it. I don't know how deep into this you are, but it doesn't matter. You helped these people plot against me and the entire vampire population. You would have us experimented on, used and changed. We are perfect the way the moon goddess made us. If you need further proof of this, just look at the people we have been ostracizing for centuries. They are still under the moon goddess's favor because they chose to follow her teachings." She took a deep breath and looked over at Kassie, who nodded, "My own sister, that we have all treated as less than trash, has been blessed with a fated mate. So tell me, who is wrong here? Who is the lesser being? The werewolves who are blessed with half of their souls by the mother who created us? Or us, who I sometimes wonder if we even have souls at all?" The entire room went up in an uproar of whispers as they learned that Kassie had a fated mate. It was very well known that vampires had gone centuries without fated mates. The questions were clear. Would others begin to replace fated mates? Would they be punished for killing the one vampire that seems to be favored by the moon goddess?

"You don't even know that she's pregnant or that it's yours." Armand's father spoke up when the King tried to motion for the trial to be set back. "Isn't it a little convenient that she comes back weeks after she's accused of murder and she's pregnant when she hasn't been able to conceive in 150 years?"

Armand looked at Karissa, a pained look on his face. He was trying hard to make the right choice. I could see that, but at the end, he showed how weak he was and sat back down. Karissa was sentenced to death and so were we. Before we left the hall, Armand ordered that we be allowed in the same cell, to say goodbye. It seemed a little suspicious to me, but I wasn't about to complain. I wasn't about to let anyone separate me from Kassie. Once we were back in the cell, Karissa finally broke down. She sank to the floor with her hands over her stomach, crying 'sorry' softly to her unborn baby, over and over. No one knew what to do. Braden tried to kneel in front of her but she wouldn't look at him. Finally, Kassie gave my hand a kiss and walked over and wrapped her in a tight embrace. She whispered soothing words in her ear until Karissa calmed down. We had two hours before we would head to whatever place would hold our execution. I was beginning to get worried about how long it had been without a word from Helios. I should be able to at least feel near him. I always had, even before we got our wolf. It was like a knowing. So that begged the question: Where was he?

An hour later, the door opened and I held onto Kassie. To everyone's surprise, Armand was alone and he looked disheveled. "We don't have much time," he said, as he struggled with a set of keys. He fumbled with them, looking for the right key and cursed when they fell to the ground.

"What is this?" Kassie said suspiciously.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know dad was doing all of that. I swear Karissa. He said he was just moving some things that required the royal seal, so things needed to move through the royal funds to not raise suspicions. I - I thought you killed him. The king. You need to get out of here. I don't know what they are planning, but you need to live so you can stop them. Give me another chance. I'll show you I can be a good father." He rambled quickly. Karissa looked at us. Kassie shrugged at her.

Karissa looked at Armand again. "All I can promise is that I will try." She finished as Armand ran in and hugged her. I looked back and saw the stoic look from Braden and I felt for him. It was clear that he had fallen for the Queen and now it looked like he would never get the chance.

We hurried out of the cell and up the stairs. We rounded the corner and were almost out the back door when we were suddenly surrounded by guards. I sighed, of course it wouldn't be this easy. Like a king could plan a proper escape plan. "I'm disappointed, son. I didn't think you would be so weak." Armand's father stepped into view.

"Please, I told you from the start he would be." Kassie's mother came up from behind us. "None of them are fit to rule. I told you my love. I'll give you another heir. One worthy of the throne." Well, I didn't expect that part, I thought as I watched Kassie's mother tongue wrestle Armand's father.

"You're so hot when you're right, Ethel." Ethel? That was the Queen's name? How....common.

"Let them go, father. I know what you did. I won't expose you if you let them go." Armand said, and I wanted to laugh with them.

"Son, you were caught trying to help prisoners of the crown escape. You think you're going to get out of this one so easily? You made your choice," he said. I saw Kassie's hand twitch towards her hidden dagger. I grabbed her hand and gave a small shake of the head. We were in very close quarters. We couldn't fight here.

They put us all in the back of a van. The moon was up. We were an hour away from the peak if the dashboard clock was correct. I closed my eyes and concentrated.

Dario, I need you - I said desperately.

I felt him push through slightly. I'm here. I need to reserve my strength for the peak. I won't let our mate down. - He finished before he receded to gather his strength again. We arrived at our destination about 20 minutes later. I held Kassie's body to me as they tried to separate us. No f*****g way was I going to let them take her from me now. The moon would peak soon. They broke my nose and a couple of ribs, but my priority didn't change. Finally, one of the guards handcuffed us together, which was fine by me. It was easier to keep her by my side.

To my surprise and total f*****g irony, I recognized the place we had been taken. "Why are you smiling?" Kassie asked.

"This is the cliff I used to try to end my pain. It's just funny." I shrugged.

"I don't replace anything funny about that," she grumbled.

"Because I was running from you that day. The pain I thought you caused. Now I'm fighting like hell to keep you by my side. We've come full circle, my love." I said to her as I tried not to wince as one of the guards pushed me on the side with the broken ribs. Dario was not healing it to conserve strength and I approved of his decision.

We stood in a line as the council arrived behind us. They began talking about s**t that I wasn't paying attention to. All I could see was the moon above us. It was almost time. I was so focused on it that I almost missed the blue wings.

Dario came forward then - It's almost time. Our brother is here.

Who? Where? I looked around at his words. I saw the pretty little Colibri(hummingbird) dancing around us. No one had noticed it yet. They wouldn't, he was small, but I knew what it meant. The Colibri was Helios' bird. He had often used it as a way to announce his attack would begin soon when we had fallen into a tough spot. They were the spirits of fallen warriors that had yet to replace new life. Still loyal, no matter their form.

I started laughing, making everyone stop and look at me like I had lost my mind. I could see their reasoning. I had blood running down my face, I was chained to my mate, I was about to die. They didn't know the s**t storm that was about to descend upon them. "What's so funny mutt?" Ethel asked me.

"You guys ever research my pack? Aside from what that traitor councilman John told you?" I asked.

"We know you're a new pack under the protection of the American werewolf council for a few more months. What's there to know?" Armand's father answered for her.

I laughed more. "You people. Everyone underestimates Helios because he's a new Alpha. Ever wonder what we were before we were a pack?" "Rogue Mutts?" Ethel said lazily.

I laughed more, "What the f**k is so funny?" Ethel hissed.

"You're about to replace out, Ethel. By the way, what a terrible name," I laughed. An unnatural shriek was heard from the woods. While everyone became alarmed and confused while they looked for the source of the sound, I grinned at Kassie and winked. That was none other than the Aztec death whistle announcing Helios' attack.

All hell broke loose as 4 people entered from the woods. One of those figures was unexpected. Before I could say anything, though, I felt Kassie begin to convulse by my side. I managed to grab her before she fell. Someone dropped in front of us and as I looked up to see if it was friend or foe, I heard him yell. "Mark her! Now!"

I felt Dario push forward and my teeth elongated. I didn't hesitate. I pulled her neck to me and I sunk my teeth into her marking spot. After a moment, everything went white and I found myself in the presence of a black wolf with red eyes. At my side was Dario standing in all of his reddish-brown glory.