Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
“Your crown, Your Highness.” Liam bowed his head and held the golden circle up in both hands.
Like the blood adorning his body, Kael had not expected to wear one of these again. As the sovereign, he had several crowns for different occasions. This mating crown had been made new, completed just a few hours before by the Warrior Ronan, who was also a skilled goldsmith. Kael settled the metal atop his head and adjusted it. “The hood, please,” Kael managed in a raspy voice.
“Yes.” Liam lifted the wide hood over Kael’s head, careful not to snag the pointed ornaments on his headdress or the jewels in his braid.
Now he was ready.
Together, the men made their way through the manor house to an older part of the underground compound. Once again, the halls were empty and candlelit. It seemed to take forever to arrive at their destination, but finally Liam was opening the arched doors to the Hall of the Chieftains, where the mating ritual took place for all who lived herein.
All eyes turned to Kael as he entered the room. Six clan warriors formed a circle around the center of the room, each standing at a marked symbol tiled into the floor—symbols that represented elements of the heraldic badge of Clan MacQuillan. The vampires present were his senior clan warriors, his oldest compatriots, the closest thing he had to a blood family. Indeed, he was tied to each of them by a blood connection.
Kael watched as Liam crossed to the far side of the room and disappeared through a similarly arched door.
Then Kael took his place at the center of the circle, dropped to one knee, and waited.
“I do believe it is time for you to be mated,” Ciara announced.
Shayla nodded and accepted the woman’s hand. With assistance, she rose from the seat in front of the ornate vanity where she had been readied for the ceremony. Nervous energy gripped her, but so too did something else. An urge she’d never before felt, and somehow knew would only be eased by Kael’s presence, flowed through her, held her muscles taut, resonated in an empty ache in her gut. She clenched and released her left hand.
“Thank you,” she said, smiling at Ciara and Maeve.
The women had spent the day with her while the men assisted Kael, or at least that’s what she’d been told. Ciara and Maeve were warriors’ mates and great sources of information and reassurance for Shayla. Ciara was the mate of a warrior named Marcas, and though she appeared Shayla’s age, she’d been born in 1922. Even more stunning was Maeve, who was mated to Ronan and had been alive for three hundred years.
Shayla had taken an immediate liking to both of them. They’d helped prepare her for the mating ritual and surrounded her with friendship and sisterhood, easing the pang in her heart that no one from her family could share in the ceremony. Kael had explained the previous night that they would be notified and invited for a special wedding dinner soon.
She was the only human who could attend the mating ritual.
Ciara helped her put on the velvet cloak over the rich silk gown she wore. With its plunging V neck and thin lace straps, it was more lingerie than gown, but it was gorgeous, bejeweled with glittering beads along the neckline, empire waist and bottom hem.
“Lower your head,” Maeve said. Shayla stooped down and bowed her head. Maeve and Ciara lifted the cloak’s hood over the bridal circlet, careful not to muss the intricate braiding and bejeweling of her hair.
“Now, remember,” Ciara said with warm smile, “that should be the last time you bow your head to anyone, save your king. In an hour’s time, you will be queen.”
The very idea made Shayla’s head spin. Flustered, she tried to speak but no words came out. She didn’t know what to say. All three women fell together, laughing.
Finally, she calmed herself. “Well, my new friends, my future husband does not strike me as the most patient man. So, should we go?”
Ciara and Maeve led her through stone hallways where priceless art decorated the walls and sat atop pedestals. But Shayla’s need to see Kael was intense and she could not pay the pieces the attention they deserved. Forever seemed to pass in the time it took to arrive at the arched wooden door of the room they’d shown her earlier in the day.
The Hall of the Chieftains.
Liam waited next to the door and offered her a warm smile when their eyes met.
“Liam will take you from here,” Ciara said, her expression affectionate.
Shayla nodded at her new friend and exchanged hugs with both women before they departed.
Liam turned to her and held out his left arm. “It would be my honor to escort you to your mate.”
Trembling, not out of fear but out of an urgency she could not fully explain, Shayla grasped Liam’s forearm with her unmarked hand. He opened the door and guided her forward.