Broken Pieces Read online

  Almost like a crown.

  People oohed and aahed as she passed, bowing to her and her beauty. I was at the end of the hall but I saw her clearly, and I knew my mouth was hanging open. Not that I cared. She was magnificent. I watched as her father took her hand, kissing the back of it before turning her and showing her off to the rest of the clan. Everyone cheered, hooted, and hollered for her, but I stood there, completely engrossed in her.

  I don’t know if she saw me or felt me staring, but as they turned for my side of the room to cheer for her, her eyes locked with mine and I couldn’t move. Couldn’t form a word. Couldn’t make myself smile, nothing. I stood there as she drank me in, her eyes darkening before she turned to her father, kissing his cheek, and he started his speech.

  But I didn’t hear a word, not when her eyes met mine again.

  It was like seeing each other for the very first time.

  Breathing wasn’t an option, but when she started for me, only to be stopped by a person I assumed was an admirer or whatever, I realized she probably hadn’t even been looking at me. Though it had felt like she was, why would she? This was her world, the wolves and their traditions. Not only was I not a part of it, being an outsider, but I knew what the rules were.

  And she couldn’t be mine.

  No matter how much I wanted her.

  Deflated and maybe even a little broken, I decided it was time to leave.

  I turned, ready to leave and never look back, but glad I was able to get my last look. My last memory of the beautiful Taegan Conner. But then a hand slid into mine, a soft one with fingers that laced with mine, stopping me. Looking over my shoulder, I met the bear head since I was so tall, but when I looked down, Taegan was grinning up at me.

  “Still stalking me I see, von Stein?”

  “Me? Never,” I said, trying to play it off. But maybe I had become a stalker. And what a beautiful creature to stalk. “Why? Was there an opening for the job?”

  Her lips quirked. “Unfortunately, no. But there is an opening for the first dance.”

  My heart stopped. Everything did. All I saw was her. “Are you asking?”

  She scoffed. “This is my party, ya see, and I’m the big deal around here.”

  “I did see that. Mighty fine kill you have there.”

  She grinned proudly, running her hands down the front of her fur. I took notice that there was no ring on her finger, nothing binding her to another. “My Herb? Yes, he was an awesome grizzly, ya see. Took me almost an hour to take him down. I got an awesome bite on my belly from him.”

  I wanted to kill the bear ten times over for hurting her. “I’d love to see that sometime.”

  Her lips pursed. “I’m sure you would, which is why you should ask me to dance. Never know what can happen by the end of the night.”

  I almost choked on my tongue. “It would be a pleasure to have the first dance with you, Taegan Conner. If you’ll have me.”

  Her eyes fell shut a bit as our hands locked. I wasn’t even sure how or when I moved, but I knew I had with the way her lips curved. “I’d love to have you, Oceanus von Stein.”

  While she may have meant to sound innocent—and truly, her words weren’t even suggestive—her eyes were seductive. Breathless, I smiled. “You can have me any way you’d like me.”

  Leaning in, her brows waggled a bit. “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  That’s when it started. We danced. All night. We laughed. We drank. We kissed under the night sky, her body pressed against mine and my heart becoming even more hers.

  Her father didn’t say anything, but when my father found out, he said enough for both of them. He forbade it, told me it wasn’t worth it, that I was wasting my time.

  It is against the code, Oceanus. Don’t disappoint me.

  I want to say I complied. That I did what was expected of me, that I respected my family and my father, but I didn’t. Instead, we met in secret. We made love anywhere we could. I told her I loved her, and she told me the same. I knew I was playing with fire, that it could end badly for me, but it didn’t. We’ve made it work these last four years, and I just know my time is coming.

  She’ll be my queen.

  As our laughter subsides, I cuddle her closer, moving my nose against hers…until she stops all of a sudden. I watch as her nose twitches, then her eyes darken, before she sits up quickly, her arm coming across to hold her breasts. “Jonas is at the door.”

  I grin, amazed by her talents, before I look toward the door as a knock comes.

  “Yeah?”

  My brother pauses and then asks, “Osh, are you coming down for dinner?”

  Bringing Taegan down to me, I wrap my arms around her and kiss her forehead. “Not hungry for food.”

  She laughs quietly against my neck as Jonas says, “Rebekah is asking for you.”

  I stiffen against Taegan as she looks up at me, her voice a whisper. “I have to go anyway.”

  I swallowed hard and then nod. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

  But I don’t move.

  “How is Rebekah? Her surgery go well?”

  I suck in a breath as I nod, heavy with worry for my sister who has just been given brand-new legs. Not at her request, though. Father said she needed new ones, and while I didn’t agree, Rebekah got her new legs. “Her legs are working, thank God, but I don’t know how much more she’ll take.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, she’s getting fed up with it all.”

  “Poor thing,” she whispers, and I know she means it.

  She knows the truth about Rebekah, even though no one is to know. But Taegan is my love, and I trust her with my life. Tipping her head back, I kiss her earnestly, our legs tangling together as her hands come up to hold my face. “I don’t want you to leave,” I whisper against her lips.

  “Do ya ever?”

  I smile against her lips, her nose pressing into mine. “Never.”

  “One day, I won’t have to,” she says, patting my chest before kissing me once more. As our lips move together, I can’t wait for that day to come. I’m pretty sure I’d never leave our bedroom. I’d be with her every second.

  “That day can’t come fast enough.”

  “That’s the darn truth,” she laughs, pulling back. “But I’ll wait.”

  “For me?”

  Coming back to me, she straddles my body and wraps her arms around my neck, almost choking me. “Only you.”

  “It might be a bit longer. My father is resistant to letting me be in control.”

  “Hasn’t he always been? But it’s fine, our day is coming,” she whispers against my lips.

  “I hope so.”

  “No hope, it will. I won’t agree to marriage with anyone because I want to marry you.”

  A rueful look covers my face. “Only because your sisters married the last two. Someone will come, Tae, and your father will force you.”

  “I’ll tell them to fuck off. I am Taegan Conner, the princess of Clan Conner, I don’t marry but for love. I’m not like Colin, I’m not betrothed, and my father won’t force me. He loves me too much, wants me to be happy. So, no worries.”

  I laugh. “I worry all the time.”

  Leaning down, she kisses my nose. “I’m yours, Osh.”

  Holding her face, I kiss her nose right back. My time is running out, and I’m aware of this. I have to stay on my father. I have to get control so that I can marry this beautiful and stunning creature. “I don’t deserve you, my love.”

  “Well, you only get me,” she says simply, tapping my chest again before rolling off the bed and pulling her hair up, her naked body glowing with marks of our lovemaking. The bear bite she had spoken of that night taunts me from her side. The scar is jagged and, to some, horrid, but I am made of scars, so it doesn’t bother me at all.

  I think she is lovely.

  “I only want you,” I call to her, and she grins back to me.

  “Good,” she says. And then, without much warning, she