Donahue: Foster’s Pride – Lion Shapeshifter Romance (Foster's Pride Book 2)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “It’s too bad he didn’t kill you as well.” Parker started to cry and shook her head. “I didn’t mean that. You saved my life that day. I can never thank you enough for what you did. Even spending all that time in prison, I knew it was because I was safe from him forever.”

  “You killed her father.” Jasper and Parker looked at him as if they only just remembered he was there. “I’m sorry. But you were the one that killed her father, and she went to prison for it.”

  “Her father decided he was going to kill Parker for her magic. Little did he know, her death would have been his death too. Not because she would have killed him, but because he’d not have been able to handle the power his daughter had accumulated. She’s much more powerful than any other witch I’ve ever come across.”

  ~~~

  Parker didn’t want to sit and eat with the family. It wasn’t because she was overwhelmed, but because there were too many people at the table that brought memories she wasn’t ready to deal with today. If ever. When Carmilla said her name, she looked at the woman who, like Jasper, had saved her life.

  “You might feel a good deal better, honey, if you were to tell us what happened that day. We know he killed your father, but nothing more than that. The papers didn’t say anything about how he was killed.” She looked at Jasper, then at Don when he took her hand. “They will never judge you for whatever happened that day. You’re here with us because of what Jasper did for you.”

  “His head was removed.” No one at the table spoke when she did. It was like the mute button had been pushed just for her to be heard. “My father, he’d been training me since I was born. For what, I was never sure. Magic just seemed to come naturally to me. To be honest, my power had always been there for me to use, and I knew how to use it. Jasper was there for me, as well. He had been since birth, I think. Then my father started training me for other things after I turned thirteen—black magic, I saw. It was...without Jasper being there for me, my dad might well have trained me to be something entirely different.”

  “Park, her father, saw she was powerful from the beginning, I think. Her birth drew me to her because of the amount of power she had from birth. I watched over her from a distance at first.” Jasper lifted his hand up and showed her, in a hologram sort of picture, what she had been doing when he’d watched her. He continued telling his part of the story. “There wasn’t any need for them to care for her as an infant. As you can see, she was able to care for herself, meet her own needs, even before they noticed the strength she had.”

  She was taking a bottle at one point, then changed her own diaper. Her clothing changed, as well. There was never any need for anything else in the room, but it was there, she could see. Jasper went on to say how she, even as an infant, was ignored by the world, including her father, until she was older. Her mom, Jasper said, was a good person, kind and loving to her child.

  “I would check on her. Not as much as I should have, I realize now. She was taking such good care of herself, I slipped up and didn’t see her again until she was about eight.” Parker told him she’d just turned eight, so he was right. “It was then I noticed she was being groomed for darker magic. It bothered her. That, I realized, was what brought me back to her side. At night I’d go to her room and untrain her on the magic her father was teaching her. I tried to turn Park from what he was doing, but he wouldn’t have it. I think to this day, there were stronger forces with him, telling him to train her the way he was.”

  “There was a man there—I would see him at times when they were talking to him. He wanted me to do things for him. I think it was his plan to take me from my parents to have me work for him. Even at a young age, I knew he was dangerous.” Don asked her what had happened to him. “He’s dead.”

  When no one asked her how he’d come to be in such a permanent state, she didn’t bother to explain to them. She’d done it, killed him when he’d snuck into the house and taken her from her bed. Parker had known somehow that screaming wouldn’t have brought her parents to her, so she killed him quickly and sent his body away. Parker wondered if anyone had ever found his body in the wooded area around the park where he lived.

  “Parker?” She looked at Don when he said her name, then around the table. “Jasper said you were to tell us the rest. This was your story.”

  “You mean me calling for him? I didn’t. Jasper had helped me a great deal, you see. And we could communicate much like you and I can. However, it was more than that when I was taken. Jasper felt my terror.” Don asked her if she’d saved him. With a short nod from Jasper, she nodded that she had. “He wasn’t caught at our home, but he had been caught by someone. They were going to murder him for a crime he didn’t commit. Or at least I didn’t think he’d committed. There were other forces around that had wanted me, you see. They thought to get me through him by having him suffer in a jail cell without windows or any way for him to survive. Jasper needs the outdoors as much as we do air in our lungs. To kill a witch, even as a child as strong as I was, would have netted someone a great coup. So I helped him escape from them as they were ready to chain him in iron.”

  “It would have killed me with only that. But as Parker said, the windowless cell, along with no way to feed myself on the perfume of flowers and trees, would have eventually killed me.” Don asked if he would have given her up. “Never. I would have gladly died for her to live. I still would. But that is, thankfully, not going to be a problem ever again.”

  “Why?” Parker asked Jane what she meant. “Why will you not have a problem with dying? I’m assuming you have some kind of power with being mated now. Is that it?”

  Parker looked at each of the people in the room with her. Did they not know? How could they not have been told they were all immortals because of what Ronan was? She looked at Jasper when he laughed.

  “I believe they’ve been hoodwinked, my lady. I cannot find in any of their minds that they were told of this.” Jane asked again what was going on. “You’re immortal. Nothing that either I or Parker have given you, but either of us would have if you’d not had it already. You’ve had it for a while now, at least since Ronan became king of the lions. None of you can be harmed or killed. You cannot be taken to be used against him to change a law or a ruling. With Ronan—and by being his mate, Brook—you all were made to be immortal.”

  “Wait. Wait a minute here. I don’t want to be immortal.” Jane looked at Parker and looked ready to cry. “I’m an old woman already, child. I ache at times so badly that I have no desire to get up from my bed. Even to move around in my own home sometimes is too much for these old bones. It’s why I never shift any longer. It’s just too painful.”

  Parker put her hand out before speaking. “I can take it all away from you if you wish. The choice is yours. I can also take the pain away—all of it. You won’t be any younger, I’m sorry about that. But I can either make it so you die someday or give you magic that would heal you. Not only the aches and pains of age but also the ache you have deep in your heart. The pain that keeps you up at night.”

  Jane looked at her for several seconds before she took her hand into hers. “I would like to not ache anymore, my child. But—and I’m not pressuring you at all—but I would very much like to have a purpose. Something that I can do to make a difference in not just my life, but those here and beyond. If you could do that for me, then I’d live—”

  “You don’t think you have a purpose? You think that we, as your family, don’t think it’s worth having you around?” Parker gave her some of her memories of the boys, as they called them, going to her for advice. “This is only but in a single day, Jane. Everyone, including Ronan, the king of your kind, comes to you for not just guidance, but also love and support. You must know that the love these people have for you would only grow exponentially even if you were to choose death.”

  “You too, Parker? Do you want me around? I have no idea why that’s important to
me, but it is. I’d like for you to think of me as your grandma, as they do. I’d like it if both you and Brook think of me as more than just an in-law that is old and cranky.” Brook spoke up from the doorway she’d been standing in with Ronan for several minutes. “I need to know that I’m not a burden on anyone.”

  Parker rarely looked into the future. She could, for centuries ahead. But all she gave Jane was a small part of what the future held for her. Jane helped in the birth of Brook’s child, saving not just the child’s life, but Brook’s as well. For without Jane, the child would not survive complications at birth, and it would hurt Brook enough that she would go to Jasper to take away her immortality so she could go with her son.

  Jane nodded. When Parker took a glimpse into the future away, tucking it away for later, she asked her again what she wanted from her. When there was no answer forthcoming, Parker smiled at her.

  “Grandma, would you like to be around forever with your family? A family that will grow and learn at your feet. A group that has never thought anything of you but love and kindness. You have no reason to think it was your fault that Rollin was such a person. You know why he was like he was. There is no blame for you in all that he did.” Jane said he had learned it from his father. “Yes. And it didn’t matter that you tried your best to change his mind about hitting people, stealing what he didn’t have or need. You aren’t to feel guilty for someone else having to take his life, either. Brook would have done it over and over just to have you here with us.”

  “I would have. I told you that.” Jane leaned her head on Brook’s shoulder when she sat next to her. “I’m telling you right now, if you choose death after being given this gift, I will beat you stupid. I swear, I’m not going to let you leave me when I’ve only just fallen in love with having you around.”

  “I want to live.” Parker let go of the magic that was at her fingertips. There had been extensive damage done to Jane’s body because of her son and husband. When Jane stiffened her body as hard as the iron particles that were racing through her bloodstream again because of her son and husband, Parker took it into herself and destroyed it. “Oh, my goodness. I can feel it.”

  No one moved when Jane stood up. She smiled, then laughed. As she grabbed her grandson Ronan, the two of them danced around the dining room as if they were in a grand ballroom all by themselves. Each one of the grandsons took their turn, giving her a twirl around the large room as the rest of them laughed.

  When they were all seated except for Jane, she came to Parker and pulled her up from the chair. The hug that she gave her was tight, loving, and didn’t bring out any of the feelings she generally had with being touched. Returning the hug to her, Parker could feel that not only was Jane happy with being without pain, but she was also happy just to be alive. Also, being here with the family she loved more than she did her own self.

  They were still sitting there well into the lunch hour. Questions were shot out like a scattergun on a turkey shoot. Answers were a little long in coming. Brook, Parker realized, was much like she was—ask me your questions, but be assured you might well not like the answers. As they migrated to the living room, a room that was as welcoming as the dining room had been, they stretched out and continued speaking of whatever entered their minds.

  “I have a question for you and Jasper.” Jasper’s wife, a tiny little thing, sat down next to her when Don got up to get drinks brought in for the rest of them. “You’ve been in jail. I’m sorry for that. But how did no one notice how much magic you had? I mean, I can feel it like it’s something warm to me. Wouldn’t others have felt it as well?”

  “Only other shifters.” She said she was human. “You’ve not been human since you found Jasper was your mate. Don’t you people take stock in yourselves? You all should have realized what you were the moment it happened to you. Not to mention, being able to heal each other by magic.”

  She was laughing until Jasper stood up. His other self, his fae counterpart, came out, and it was a beautiful sight. His wings, as old as time, were opened behind him, long and touching the floor. He didn’t say a word as his body took the shape of the fae he was. Anyone in the room would have been impressed as much as she was if there wasn’t a sense of danger in all of them.

  “She’s back.” Jasper looked at her, then repeated himself. “Your mother. She’s back. Judith heard you were released and has come to bargain with you—or just to talk to you. I can’t find a stable answer from her. Her mind seems to be more chaotic than I remember.”

  “Does she know where I am?” Jasper closed his eyes as his fae turned back to himself. The thought of danger, Parker thought, was what had brought him out. When he nodded, she looked around the room. “My mother isn’t insane. I don’t mean that she’s not having an issue right now, but there is something very wrong with her. I don’t know how she was able to free herself from the hospital she was in, but she’s dangerous, I was told. I don’t know how much of that I believe, to be honest. This is so out of character for her that I’m having a hard time equating the information I’ve been given to the woman who raised me.”

  “How long has she been locked up?” Parker had to think. When she gave them the answer, Ronan sat down. “That’s the same amount of time you were away. Is there a correlation between the dates? I mean, did something happen, other than your father being killed, that would have done this to her?”

  “I wouldn’t have thought so. She apparently thinks I’m out to get her since I was accused of taking out my father. I didn’t. Nor do I want to harm her in any way. But if she comes here, thinking to harm any of us in any way, I’ll— Actually, I think it would be better if I were just to talk to her. To see what she has to say about all this.” Ronan looked at Don, then back at her. “She’ll be all right. As I said, I don’t want to hurt her, and I won’t, but I won’t allow her to hurt any of you guys either.”

  “Then we’ll have to be ready for her.” He stood up, Don and the others following suit. “We’re all family here. She’d better realize we’ll stop at nothing to keep you safe too.”

  Parker wondered if he realized she couldn’t harm her mom any more than she could Don if he were in the same condition—a little off, and very confusing to be around. Mother would give a hug to a person she didn’t know. Parker didn’t know how to react to the person her mother had become, someone that needed to be hospitalized. Whatever happened now, she would try and work with the others. If they didn’t want to do things her way, she’d do it on her own. Parker had much more experience than they did in dealing with her mom. But with this person, Parker didn’t know if she should be better prepared for the unknown.

  Chapter 3

  Don didn’t know what to do with himself. He had a mate, but he didn’t want her to think he was going to jump her every time she was close. He wanted to, more than he did anything else in his head right now. But she was still a little gun shy. Not to mention, he could tell she was upset. It hurt him in ways he couldn’t nail down. Her pain was his pain. Don could do nothing to help her with it.

  “There is something I need for you to know.” She’d come into his office a few minutes ago and not said a word. Parker sat in the chair across from the only other place to sit in here. Don asked her what she needed to tell him. “First of all, can you try and cast? I’m not sure how you smell to me.” She laughed when he cocked his brow at her. “What I mean is, you don’t smell any different than you did the first time I saw you face to face. You might have taken on a part of me then. I have no idea how to tell if you’ve received some or all of my magic.”

  “I haven’t any idea how to cast things, Parker. Expect to toss trash out. If that’s what you mean, I’m exceptionally good at tossing things away that have no meaning to me.” She told him it wasn’t what she meant. “No, I didn’t think so. Tell me how to do it, and I’m game. I was just sitting here thinking how bored I am. Do you want to live here with me?”

&
nbsp; “Yes. But I have things at my home that I’d like to blend in with your things. You don’t have much, do you?” He told her why. “I can understand that, as well. But we don’t need to go anywhere to shop. At least I don’t. We’ll get to that in a second. I want you to think of the pillow on the chair in the living room. It’s the only one in there, so you should be able to remember it, correct?”

  “Yes. I think it’s ugly.” Laughing, she told him she thought so as well. “All right. I have an image of it in my mind. Now what?”

  “Okay. Tricky part now. Don’t think of bringing it to you, but that it’s right here on the desk.” When she laughed, he opened his eyes. He’d not thought of them being closed, but her laughter made him feel good. The pillow, the ugliest one he’d ever laid eyes on, was on his desk. “You can do it. Easily too, it looked like.”

  “Honestly, I only thought of tossing it out.” She laughed again, telling him to try something else. “What? I don’t know what I can do. This is sort of fun. Something I never thought I’d be able to say about magic. I lived a very sheltered life until I found you in the woods.”

  “That was extremely sweet of you. Okay. This magic is something that came with Ronan being king. You can think of clothing and it will appear on you. I have no idea why I think this is funny, but it might be kinda fun to know more than your brother about shit like this.”

  He thought of a pair of shorts he’d seen online a while ago. The fit of them was perfect on his body even though he’d not thought of that. Asking Parker about it, she nodded.

  “Since it’s for you to wear, it would be only for you. Even if you were to take it off at some point, it would only ever fit you.”

  He liked that idea. The more the two of them thought of things he could do, the louder their laughter got. It was fun, he thought, to do things he’d never even imagined before. As they made their way to the empty rooms in the house, he had an idea about what he’d like to see in the dining room. Before either of them stepped into the smallish room, it was twice the size it had been, with a beautiful long wooden table taking up most all the space in the middle of the room. The chairs surrounding it were a perfect match for the idea he’d had in his head.