Please, Goddess, let it be me.
"We're doing a Pairing," Lyon announced. "Now."
Paenther nodded. "I'll start getting things ready."
"I thought we already did the Pairing," Wulfe said. He looked at Hawke, shaking his head. "I feel like I stumbled into the Twilight Zone."
"Join the club," Hawke muttered.
Ten minutes later, the men stood once more in a circle around the Radiant's pedestal, the ritual fires lit, the blood drawn. Kara was still locked against his side.
Mine, his beast roared.
"It's time," Kougar said.
Kara slipped out of his hold, meeting his gaze with eyes alight with love and promise. A promise he could read clear as day, for it echoed that in his own. No ritual was keeping them apart.
She stepped onto the pedestal without help, proud and confident, so different from the scared, confused woman he'd lifted onto that platform just two days ago. Her gaze met his, held his as Kougar intoned the incantation.
All eyes turned to him.
Kara held out her hand, and he went to her and took her hands, linking her fingers with his.
"You're mine," he said, staking his claim for all to hear.
Tears shimmered in her eyes. "As you're mine. No matter what happens, Lyon. You're my heart and my breath. My soul. And I will love you until the day I die."
Her words echoed the declaration in his heart. "Why are we doing this?" he growled. She was already ascended.
For a terrifying moment, he wondered what he'd do if he wasn't the one chosen to be her mate. Because despite her words, he'd lose her. Sooner or later she'd fall in love with the man who was meant for her. The Pairing never failed.
She lifted their joint hands and pressed them against her lips one after the other. "We're doing this because you need to know. Because if we don't, you'll always doubt that my love for you is for always." She released his hands and slid her palm against his cheek. "Kiss me, my warrior."
With shaking hands, Lyon slid his fingers into her hair and prayed, prayed, she was right because he would never love another.
Slowly, so slowly, he leaned toward her, praying to the heavens and the Earth. Let her be mine.
The moment their lips touched, he knew. Even before the cheers nearly brought the walls down around them, he knew. Power, energy, fire, and love rushed through him into her and back again, filling him with a gladness, a completeness, he'd never known a man could feel.
Kara pulled back from the kiss first, tears streaming down her cheeks, her smile brilliant.
"Let me see your hands."
Letting go of her in that moment was the hardest thing he'd ever done, but he did what she asked and pulled his hands between them so they could both admire the blue fire burning from his fingertips.
"It was always you," she said, choking on her happiness.
"It was always us," he countered. Then he hauled her into his arms and kissed her. His mate. His love.
His heart.
The celebration feast was, necessarily, makeshift given that Pink had spent the day locked up with the Ferals, but two hours after the happiest moment of her life, Kara found herself with tears in her eyes again as Pink took her hand in her feathered one and led her to the dining table. In the middle of the buckets of fried chicken and barbecued ribs, sat a perfect, round chocolate cake. In pink frosting on the top were the words, "Welcome, Kara."
Kara wrapped her arms gently around the bird-woman. "Thank you. Chocolate is my absolute favorite."
She couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw tears in the flamingo's eyes.
As the men ate, the discussion returned to Vhyper.
"If that blade stole his soul, he may be lost to us," Hawke said dismally.
Paenther growled. "If magic took him, magic can bring him back. I'm going after him."
"And it looks like we're going to have to track down my evil twin," Tighe muttered.
Kara walked to the end of the table, behind Lyon, and slid her arms around his neck from behind.
"Have a seat," he murmured.
"In a minute." She liked touching him too much.
Lyon reached up, clasping her hands in his.
"What about the Daemon blade?" Tighe asked. "The witch didn't complete her ritual, but it doesn't mean someone else won't find another way to free those bastards. That blade holds all our blood. No one's safe until we get that thing back in our hands."
"We've got our work cut out for us. But we're strong again. Stronger than we've ever been, thanks to Kara." Lyon raised one of their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, then lifted their hands in the air like a fist.
"Victory to the Feral Warriors!" Lyon yelled, like some kind of Marine sergeant.
"Victory to the Feral Warriors!" the other men responded, fists thrust into the air in unison, and Kara realized this was for real. A true Feral war cry.
Behind them, Pink thrust her fists into the air, one after the other, like a pink-feathered cheerleader, grinning as she winked at Kara. If Kara had ever wondered if the flamingo could smile, she did no longer.
Kara burst into laughter, drawing the attention of all the males.
Tighe, having seen the whole thing, wadded up two napkins and lobbed one at each of the women, dimples flashing. "Show some respect, you two."
Kara only laughed harder, drawing chuckles and grins from every one of the men.
"We're not going to solve anything tonight." Lyon rose and with a single fluid move, scooped her into his arms, like a bridegroom about to carry his bride over the threshold. He proceeded to kiss her thoroughly.
"Oh, hell, here they go again," Jag drawled. "Someone get the fire extinguisher."
Lyon pulled back, gazing down at her with such « love, such need, her vision blurred all over again. "How hungry are you?" he asked.
"Ravenous," she replied softly. "For you."
A growl rumbled low in his throat. "Right answer."
As he carried her from the room, Kara yelled, "Pink, save me some cake!"
Ribald laughter followed them down the hall, melding with Lyon's own.
"What's so funny?" she teased him, then dissolved into a fit of giggles, too giddy with happiness to do anything else.
Lyon laughed with her, then turned almost serious as he stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked into her eyes.
"You're mine," he said simply, his own eyes overflowing with rivers of love. His gaze deepened until she felt as if she were tumbling all the way to the center of his soul. "Seven hundred years I've waited for this moment. You in my arms. Mine."
Kara pressed her hand to his warm, beloved cheek, the love inside her too much for her heart to hold, love that had to be shared. "Yours, Lyon. I'm yours. For always."
She and her heart had found their home, at last.