Gulping down some water, she walked over to Jonah and handed it to him. He took it from her with a nod before finishing off the bottle.
“Well, I have bad news…” Mike said. Maggie’s stomach dropped. “You’re gonna live.”
“Quit being an asshole, Mike,” Al chided behind them. “You’re going to stress out his mate.”
If Al hadn’t said something first, Maggie probably would’ve started yelling. She hadn’t realized how on edge she’d been. The past few days had been one thing after another. At least now she knew that Heidi was okay, but she was still worried. Worry gnawed her about Heidi, about Jonah, even about the other two shifters – Dan and Ronnie – who they’d still seen neither hide nor hair of.
Mike chuckled before wrapping his leg back up again with a clean piece of what had probably been a t-shirt. “Lighten up.”
Jonah shook his head, not saying anything.
“Let’s get some sleep. We head out again in a few hours,” Mike said after finishing up with Jonah’s leg.
Jonah scooted inside the sleeping bag and Maggie followed, zipping it up around them. It was close quarters once again, but she was not going to sleep without being right next to him.
“You two look like a burrito in that thing,” Al commented.
Jonah chuckled. “Tomorrow night I have every intention of being in my own bed with my mate, but for now this will suffice.”
“It can’t be comfortable.”
“It’s not,” Jonah said.
Maggie smiled, sensing the humor in her mate’s voice. “I’m comfy.”
“That’s all that matters,” he said against her forehead before kissing her skin. “Get some rest.”
Maggie was able to drift off for a little while. Jonah held her close and eventually she noted the changes in his breathing, indicating he slept. She’d wake up for a little while before drifting off again, only to wake up when the noises around her changed.
They were surrounded by wildlife and she couldn’t help but feel slightly apprehensive about what else may be out there. Jonah’s arms were wrapped around her and she felt secure, so she tried again to relax and soon drifted off once again.
It was almost dawn when something jarred her awake. She jumped, and Jonah’s hand clamped over her mouth.
“Shhh…,” he whispered next to her ear.
Instantly alert, her ears strained to pick up on what had woken her. Then she heard it. It was the huffing sound of a nose not far from the ground, followed by heavy steps. It was a large animal, most likely a bear.
She felt him move next to her and heard him when he inhaled deeply. He dropped his hand from her mouth a second later and reached behind her to unzip their sleeping bag.
He was sitting up when she heard Mike’s voice. “Dan, we’re over here.”
There were more indistinguishable noises as a wave of cold air hit her back. Jonah sat up next to her and she sat up, immediately missing his warmth, but happy that Dan and Ronnie had found them.
“Did you find the girl?” she heard Dan ask.
“Oh, man. The girl is the least of it,” Al said.
“What happened?” It was another voice, probably Ronnie’s.
Jonah cleared his throat. “The girl’s safe. The fae attacked Maggie and me.”
Someone cleared their throat. Maggie just sat silently next to Jonah as he spoke to the men. She couldn’t see them but could make out from what direction they were talking, although nothing but silence greeted her ears now.
“It’s alright,” she heard Mike say, “Jonah mated the Alfieri girl and the human is with the dragon.”
It was the permission Ronnie and Dan needed to speak freely, she realized.
“Duncan’s not going to be happy about that,” she heard Dan say.
Jonah tensed next to her. “I’m not worried about Duncan. We have bigger issues.”
“Congratulations, brother. It took you long enough,” Ronnie said.
“The fae are planning to hit the town,” Jonah told them.
Maggie gasped, disbelieving. The men fell silent.
“They wouldn’t dare.” It was Dan who spoke first.
“They would, and they are. I spoke with Liam. They tried to wrestle him into joining them.”
“Fuck. We’re no match against the dragon,” Ronnie said. “We should’ve taken him and his uncle out when they first settled here.”
“They kept the vampires at bay,” Dan said. “They were allowed to live here for a reason.”
“But that reason is gone. We haven’t had issues with vampires since we joined the Netherworld.”
“How do we know it was because of the Netherworld? I always felt it was Mordecai who ended that war for us,” Dan insisted.
Jonah was tense next to her. “No. Liam won’t help them. They’re after him as well.”
She heard Al’s low whistle. “Jesus.”
“They’ve lost their ever-loving minds,” Mike said. “That crazy fairy king…”
“If the dragon isn’t helping them, then we have a fighting chance,” Al asked.
“You’ll fight them?” Maggie asked.
Jonah was the one to answer her. “Of course. This is our home. We’ve been here almost as long as the fae have and we have no intentions of leaving.”
A chill spread through her body and her stomach turned.
“You’re the lead enforcer, Jonah,” Dan said. “What do you want us to do?”
Enforcer? She hadn’t realized he’d ascended to that position. Enforcers were like police but for their own communities, so it fit considering his job.
“Well, I have a poisoned arrow wound in my thigh, so I’m not able to move too quickly. Ronnie, Dan, you two go on ahead and let my father and Travis know what’s coming and what happened here. He’ll be able to inform the Elders. Al and Mike will stay with us and we’ll head out as soon as the sun starts to rise.”
“No,” Maggie said, realizing then that the only reason why they’d stopped at all was that she had demanded it. She refused to slow them down any more than she already had. “We head out now.”
12
Jonah knew better than to try to stop Maggie at that point. He knew that she wouldn’t be able to see more than a foot in front of her face for the next hour at least, until the sun started to come up. He would just have to be extra careful in guiding her, he told himself.
Dan and Ronnie took off, leaving their packs behind. They’d shifted and were gone before he even had his shoes on. After a brief discussion, they decided that both Mike and Al would shift, and they’d work as pack horses, carrying everyone’s equipment. They’d stay with Maggie and Jonah to make sure that in his weakened state they’d have some sort of backup in case they were to cross the fae again.
Maggie strapped the equipment to the men’s back with as much speed as she could muster in the dark. Jonah’s chest swelled with pride at seeing her determination.
He used his walking stick and her support to make his way through the forest. He pointed out tripping hazards to her, but she still stumbled a few times. Before long, however, the sun began to creep over the horizon and she had more than enough light to see where she was going.
That’s when they began picking up their speed. It took a few hours, but then they were at the bottom of the ravine where they started. After taking a moment to rehydrate, they pushed on.
“Are you in pain?” Maggie asked him when he grimaced. They were climbing up the ravine and Maggie was holding onto his arm to help stabilize him.
The pain was excruciating, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “I’m fine.”
“You’re so full of it,” she said, the worry evident on her face.
“It hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, but it’s better today than it was yesterday. Does that make you feel better knowing?”
She snorted. “Yes.”
“Good. Now help me over this damn boulder, woman, before I fall on my face.” When she laughed, he smiled. Lord, she had a w
ay of making his heartbeat quicken. He couldn’t wait to get them back home and in the relative safety of his cabin. He was sure she would love a good shower and he would love to spend nothing more than a few hours in the bed with her.
They could sleep, make love, it didn’t matter. He just wanted to be close to her and not in the middle of the damn woods, worrying about the fae at every moment.
Although he knew as soon as they were back, he’d remain worried about the fae. Sighing, he knew it would be a while before he and Maggie were able to have some uninterrupted time to themselves.
When the cabin came into sight, he breathed a sigh of relief. Mike and Al shifted back onto two legs. Maggie’s eyes widened, and she quickly turned, not realizing what they were about to do. He chuckled.
“Will you run Maggie’s CRV to my place? It’s still sitting at the station. I have to radio Travis to let him know we’re back.”
“Sure thing. We’ll head there now,” Mike said.
“We can drop you off.”
“No, Jonah. Get home. We can walk another mile.”
Maggie beelined for the cabin. “I’ll get my things and the keys.”
She came out a few minutes later with a few bags and car keys in hand. Locking the cabin door, she tossed her keys toward Mike, who caught them effortlessly. Jonah sat in the driver’s seat of his department-issued SUV, radio in hand.
“Travis,” he said into the radio. “Travis, come in.”
“I’m here,” Travis responded a minute later. “Where are you?”
“At the Alfieri cabin. We’ll head to my place in a minute.”
“Dan and Ronnie gave me a heads up. I’m already at your place,” he said.
“Ten-four.”
Maggie hopped into the passenger seat after throwing bags into the back seat. “You should let me drive,” she told him.
“If it were my other leg or manual transmission, I would.” He waved to Mike and Al, who were starting their hike into town.
She was shaking her head as the SUV bumped along. It felt good to be back in New Freedom, but his mind was still racing with everything they were going to have to prepare for. At least he could get his mate home and get food in her belly. He hadn’t said anything about how much it bothered him to continually hear her stomach rumble, knowing she was hungry. They hadn’t had a decent meal since the trout the night they mated.
The ride to his place didn’t take long. He lived only five miles from her father’s cabin. When he pulled up his narrow gravel driveway, there was already a police cruiser there, as well as a battered red Ford truck.
“Damn,” he muttered when he saw the truck.
“What is it?”
“My parents are here,” he groaned. “My mother is probably about to have a stroke.”
Maggie chucked.
“What?”
“You’re probably right,” she said, pointing to where his mother was running toward the vehicle at full speed, her arms stretched in front of her.
For a stout little woman, she was all personality. Sometimes stifling, but generally well-meaning. He put the vehicle in park just as she was yanking open the driver side door.
“Oh my god! Oh my god! Are you alright? Why are you driving? Can you stand?”
She grabbed his face and jerked him toward her until he was inches away from her. She peered at him; it was the same technique she used since he was in diapers. Her grey eyes didn’t miss a thing.
“I’m fine, Ma,” he reassured her as he tried to pull himself out of her grasp.
“Rick!” she screamed not far from his face. His ears rung. “Ricky! Come help your son.”
Jonah swung his leg out and hopped down from the cab. His father ambled over to him and gave him a good once over.
“You’re not dead.”
“No, sir.”
“I’m surprised,” he commented, glancing toward Maggie who was walking around the front of the SUV toward him. “Poisoned arrows have a nasty habit of killing people.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard.”
“I don’t suppose this little lady had anything to do with the fact that you’re walking around, let alone still breathing.”
“She’s the only reason. Dad, this is Maggie Alfieri.” He didn’t miss his father’s reaction when he said her last name. His eyes widened and then narrowed as he studied her as if searching for the Alfieri family resemblance.
“Alfieri? You’re Duncan’s daughter?”
“I am,” she said, extending her hand toward him.
His father took it and gave a quick shake. “I don’t suppose your father knows about this? Or that you’ve mated my son?”
Maggie’s face paled. “No, not yet.”
“Perhaps we should leave it that way for a little while.”
“I was thinking the same,” she said, her mouth a thin line. They’d have to face Duncan eventually, but he could only deal with one thing at a time. Dealing with Duncan would wait until she was ready.
His mother’s nose flared. “Mated!” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, Ma. Mated.”
And then the tears started. “My little boy! He’s mated, Rick!”
Travis stepped out onto the porch of the log house and waved at them. “Do you need help?”
“No,” Jonah responded, although he wasn’t sure if Travis meant with moving or with his mother.
“Get in here, then. Pecora wants to see you.”
Jonah couldn’t enjoy being home for longer than thirty seconds. His father helped him into the house and immediately the doctor was on him. Pecora had been two years ahead of him in school and while the two had never spent much time together, it looked like they were about to start making up for it now.
The doctor had Jonah stripped and laying in his bed within a few minutes, prodding and poking at the entry and exit wounds on his leg. When the doctor shoved his index finger inside the opening, Jonah almost clocked him in the face. The only reason he was able to restrain himself was that Maggie was lingering in the doorway, watching everyone making a fuss over him.
It was embarrassing. He laid there, sans clothes and only a thin blanket to cover himself. His mother was bustling around, demanding to know everything that had let up to that point. Pecora kept poking at him and his father was making strange grunting noises as he stared at the chaos his mate was creating.
Travis stood next to Maggie, occasionally asking her a question to which she would respond. He would have loved to know what they were discussing and would’ve heard without issue if his mother wasn’t in his face the entire time.
“Did you have enough to eat? Are you hungry?”
“I could eat something.”
“I’ll have to get that for you. Were you able to sleep? You must be exhausted.”
“Really, Ma. I’m fine,” he strained as Pecora prodded him again.
“How can you say you’re fine? You could’ve died! I could’ve lost you and…and…”
When his mother dissolved into a fit of tears, it was the doctor who finally snapped. “Mrs. Cowan, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to step outside.”
The tears were gone in an instant and she growled at Pecora. “Outside? You’re kidding. I’m his mother!”
“Penny,” his father interrupted. “Leave him alone and go do something useful. He said he was hungry, why don’t you go see about getting him something to eat?”
“Frederick Cowan don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m not, Penny. I’m asking nicely.”
When she took a deep breath, a frown still plastered on her face, Jonah knew she’d concede to his father’s wishes. She always did, even if she put up a fight first. After squeezing Jonah’s arm, she left the room and Maggie followed behind her.
“Maggie told me bits and pieces,” Travis said, walking over to where Jonah laid on the bed. “Congratulations on mating her, by the way. Took you long enough.”
He snorted. “Thanks.”
“Bu
t tell me what the McIntyre dragon told you. Maggie didn’t know.”
Jonah glanced at his father. He frowned at hearing the dragon’s name but said nothing. The old man didn’t approve of the dragon living so close to town, but he had accepted it with everyone else after Liam’s uncle Mordecai was killed. Liam had killed the slayers who had murdered his uncle. The knowledge that slayers had been so close to their home had left the town in an uproar. Shifters, as well as dragons, were potential slayer victims. The secret human group targeted anything supernatural or anyone who wasn’t as human as the slayers thought they should be.
“Roarke had asked him to join them to stand against us. The fae are ready for war.”
“After the way they murdered Jimmy Schram, I’m not surprised,” Travis said, pushing the shaggy blond hair out of his face.
“Is he going to do it?” his father asked.
“What?” Travis’s mouth dropped open.
His father didn’t look at Travis. Instead his dark gaze focused on his son when he asked his next question. “Is he going to join with the fae?”
“No,” Jonah said with a shake of his head. “He killed one of them when he escaped Péine with Maggie’s friend. He’s as much their enemy now as we are.”
It was Pecora who asked the next question as he uncapped a large plastic bottle. “Where’s the human now?”
Jonah didn’t want to explain his argument with the dragon, nor Liam’s reluctance to let Heidi go. “She’s still with him,” he said, hoping they’d leave it at that.
They wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Pecora, who at that moment chose to pour alcohol over the wound. Jonah cursed and hurled his fist at the doctor. Before it could connect, Travis leaped for him and pinned his arm back to the bed.
“You son-of-a-bitch!” he howled, struggling against Travis. If he’d been feeling up to par, the shifter wouldn’t have been able to keep him pinned. “You could’ve at least warned me first. Fuck!”
“Easy!” his father shouted, sobering him.
Pecora stood up and took a few steps away from the bed. “Hard part’s over, but I suggest you shower. You stink.”
Maggie had just gotten Penny to calm down when Jonah began roaring. She had taken over the cooking duties and had sat the woman at the island and poured her a glass of wine. A very tall glass of wine.
When Sparks Fly (Netherworld Series Book 3) Page 16