Carroll: Morgan’s Leap – Leopards Shapeshifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Nay, it is not. The banker says I owe him great funds for a loan my parents took out before they died. Also, I have a man who is trying his best to catch me unawares, so he might rape me to take my lands. I don’t think he means to keep me around much longer than it takes for me to say, ‘I do.’ They only want what I have.” Tellus said she could help her with those things. “Thank you, my lady. But I’m sure you have enough to do now with the earth as large as it is.”

  “I do. But helping you is not something I take lightly, my child. We, all the creatures in charge of the parts of the earth you now own, are happy to help you. And in doing so, they will get the help they need as well.” Morgan asked her what they wanted her to do. “You will do it, will you not? Even not knowing what it is we ask of you.”

  “I will help the earth for as much as it gives back to us here. And that, as you know, is a great deal. We are self-sufficient here. Water is ours to use as we see fit. There is a roof over our heads when necessary. The fields, as you have pointed out, are rich and give us back so much more than we can eat. I share what I cannot have put up or preserved.” Tellus told her she knew that as well. “If you need me to do more, I will do it to the best of my ability.”

  “Thank you.” Tellus looked at her, then at Golden as she continued. “Golden will stay with you until the kittens are born. Her children will be the first of many creatures that will take on this new magic we wish you to help with.”

  “She’s going to die.” Tellus nodded but didn’t look at her. “I thought when I’ve seen her around this time, she wouldn’t make it for long after. You do know she’s the only friend I have besides the people that work here? I’ve thought about, for long hours, how I will make it without her counsel. Without her snuggling up to me when I need it. I don’t know that I want to. But I must, for the others.”

  “Yes, you will.” Tellus told her of the magic that would be given to her. About the babes Golden would have, and how they would go on to be great men, to help her in ways that Tellus and the others hadn’t thought of yet. “The magic they will get will help them to be a part of the world of men. To breach such places that even now frighten us a little. We will need you to help them blend into such places. To walk, talk, and act like real men. The abilities we will give them will make them a prize should anyone find out. So it is important they do not give themselves away while men. Do you understand?”

  “Yes. I’m to be their teacher.” Tellus told her that she would also be their mother. “I have questions now, but I know I will have so many more when the time comes. I will teach them everything I can. Give them whatever step up they’ll need so long as I live. I promise you they will be the best of men. Not like the ones that come here sniffing out an easy way to my home.”

  “You will not die either, Morgan. You will be around for their children to come into the world, as well as all the shifters that are to be born.” Morgan asked her about the men coming around. “They will not come around again should you wish it. Button will have an army of faeries that will come to your aid in that and anything else you might need them for. Do not be fearful of using them either. Rightly so, they are excited to serve one such as yourself. You have been titled with the name Queen of Shifters.”

  “You don’t have to do that, my lady. I said I would help you.” Tellus laughed, and it made Morgan smile. “I will do as asked. The rest I will accept as part of my duties, but I don’t see myself using it overly much.”

  “I foresee you using the magic given to you much more than you think you will.” Tellus laughed again, bringing yet another smile to Morgan’s face. “I will also give you a list of things you will need to invest in. They will fund you better than a bank will, and you will remain self-reliant at the same time. Also, the bank has been taken care of. He will no longer bother you about funds he thinks you owe him.”

  “Thank you for that.” Morgan looked down at her friend and ally in all this. “What will become of me when you no longer have a use for me, my lady?”

  “There will always be a use for you, child. A creature such as you will forever bond with the earth and make everything around you a better place. I have such faith in you.” Morgan told her she could only do her best. “And that, my child, is all I could ask for.”

  The two of them talked throughout the morning and into the evening. Ending up in the living room where there was a fire roaring in the hearth, they were served their tea there, as well as juice. She was told she’d need to be drinking a great deal more of the elixir. And that the fresher it was, the better it would be for her after using magic.

  At some point, Tellus took her hand into hers and gave her the magic she’d need. The power of it washed over her in waves. So much so that for several minutes she had to sit still in her seat and wait for it to settle out. Not only did she receive the magic, but the knowledge of how to use it. Also, things she’d been told she must invest in. Things that Tellus told her would be worth a great deal in the future.

  After Tellus left her to rest, she was told, Morgan sat in the yard at the back of her house. Lincoln came to sit with her a spell, telling her there were faeries in the kitchen now that would make sure the household was safe. Also, he said, he’d been given magic as well.

  “It is to keep the house in order. To build out, when you need it, my lady.” She said she’d been told she’d need to have a larger house. “I find that hard to believe, but I will do what it takes to have you safe.”

  “I now have more land as well. Tellus told me there are now five thousand acres here that will be used for the animals in need. No one will be able to enter the land if they wish to harm anything that calls this place home. What am I do to with all this knowledge and wealth, Lincoln? I know I’m to teach the next generation of cats born to Golden, but how much do you think they’ll need from me? What am I to do when they go out and have their own leap? I shall be an old woman with only you to keep me company.” He asked her if he was immortal as well. “You are. But I was told if at any time you wish to die, I could take it from you. No harm will come to you with it either.”

  “I think I shall stay with you, my lady. I think we will need each other in the coming years, don’t you think?” She said she needed him every day. “You are so kind to me, Morgan, that I wonder at times why your parents wanted you dead.”

  “They were in love with themselves.” She knew that to be true as soon as she said it. Looking at the older man, she smiled at him. “You and I will do the best we can and hope it’s right. Someday, I think we’ll look back on this and wonder what all the fuss was about. Don’t you?”

  “I think I will hold my thoughts on that until such time as it comes to an end.” He laughed a little. “Do you believe it will come to an end, my lady?”

  “No. I don’t. I don’t have any idea why, but I think we’re going to be having something new and strange happening as a daily routine.” She stood up when he did. “Let us begin this new phase of our life, Lincoln, and hope we make it work better than the thoughts in my head are making it. All right?”

  “Whatever you wish, my lady. We will do well together, I believe.”

  She hoped so. It seemed like a great deal was depending on her doing just that, making it work for the safety of all involved. She only hoped she knew enough and was strong enough to make it work for all of them.

  Chapter 1

  Carroll didn’t say anything to his mom while she seemed to be killing the dough she was kneading. Something was bothering her. That much was obvious. If he were to ask her about it, he knew just what she’d say. She was good, or she’d work it out on her own. Today it didn’t seem to him like either one of her answers was going to work. So, instead of getting her more upset, he spoke about the things he’d come in here to talk to her about.

  “There are over six thousand faeries working in the greenhouse today. I’d not thought of it being so close to spring wher
e they’d be needing to put seeds in the dirt. Also, there are a great number of people asking if you’re going to be selling the tomato plants you’ve done for the last ten years. I told them what I tell them every year, yes.” No response to him, but the dough wasn’t going to be fit to eat if she kept hitting it the way she was. “Also, you might not know this, but Walker’s Market isn’t going to be selling this year. I think we might have an opportunity to purchase it. He said his children didn’t want to—”

  “She sent them back.” Waiting for more, he didn’t have to wait all that long. “Leslie and I took ten bushels of apples to the school yesterday for the kids to have as a treat. The woman in charge of such things, Blanche Mission, sent them back here with a note saying they no longer want our products. How is it possible they can’t use fresh fruit and vegetables for the kids?”

  “I don’t know. Did she happen to tell you why they couldn’t use the things we sent to the schools?” Mom told him she’d only said they wouldn’t be using them. “I can make a couple of calls and find out. There has to be more to this than just her deciding the kids aren’t to get anything fresh to take home.”

  “I think she doesn’t like me.” More than likely, that was true. Most women disliked their mom on sight. Her beauty would make even a nun jealous. “I’ve not done anything different than I usually do around here.”

  “No. You have a large heart and do what is necessary to get things to the people that need it most.” He had a thought since he’d not seen the apples, nor his brothers. “Where did you take the fruit? I’m sure you didn’t just dump it in the compost pile.”

  “Do you have a death wish?” Laughing, he told her he didn’t but did get up and push her back from the dough. “Oh my. That will be terribly tough, won’t it?”

  “No matter. Tell me where the others are and what they’re doing with the apples.” She told him. “Mom, that is brilliant. And since you’re not on the school property while they’re being handed out, that makes it all the better. I do hope Ms. Mission sees what they’re doing. It will make her all the angrier, I think.”

  “Angry people make terrible mistakes.” He knew that too. “She needs to be stepping down from her position, Carroll. This isn’t the first time she’s turned away help from this place. If she keeps this up, we’ll have to take matters into our own hands again, and I don’t want to do that.”

  “No, you wouldn’t. Let me make a few phone calls, and I’ll see what’s going on.” She thanked him as she tossed the dough into the compost pile. “I wanted to get with you today about a couple of things that have come up. And now that I think on it, this might well have something to do with the principal at the school. I got a call from one of our families that works in the federal building. She said someone has complained about how we’re not inspected by the government in order to give food to the shelters.”

  “Since when do you have to be inspected to donate foodstuff?” He said that was on his list to look into as well. “Carroll, what am I to do?”

  “I don’t understand the question. You mean with this thing? I’ll take care of it, Mom. There has to be a reason for her having a burr up her ass.” She frowned at him. “That’s not what you meant, is it?”

  “You don’t need me anymore. Every day, I keep thinking someone is going to come along and say, well, you did a great job. The shifters are doing just what we needed you to teach them, and it’s time for you to die.” He asked her why she’d think such a thing. “I don’t know. I’ve been around for so long now I don’t remember even the littlest things about my parents. Not that they were the type to make lasting impressions, but I can’t even recall what they might have looked like now.”

  “Mom, why do you think we don’t need you?” She said they were grown men. “We are, thanks wholly to you. We’re good men too. None of us have had any trouble blending in because you took it upon yourself to learn everything you could so we’d be able to do what was needed of us. If you think we don’t need you now that we’re grown men, that’s just not right. I find I need you more now that I’m an adult.”

  “You’ve been an adult for a lot of years, Carroll. Don’t pull that malarkey on me.” He laughed. “I feel useless. I work hard—I never haven’t gone to work when it was needed. I just feel like if I weren’t to show up for something, no one would notice.”

  Button came into the room, and he shook his head at the little creature. This was something his mom had been thinking about for some time, and he wanted to get to the bottom of why she’d think that way. Button said that he’d talk later and left them to their conversation.

  “I would notice. All of us would. I’m betting you see us at least twice a day, if not more. Because we come to you for your advice. Also, your love. No one could have asked for a better mother than you have been for us.” She said again that they didn’t need her. Pulling her into his arms, he felt her shaking with her pain. Crying, especially tears from his mom, could tear him apart in seconds. “Mom, I don’t know where you got the idea that now we’re grown men, we have no need for you, but that is simply not true. I think I need you more now than I did as a child. You’re my hero. Every decision I make, I ask myself, ‘What would my mom think of me if I did it this way?’ Or what would you do had you been in the same circumstances.”

  “You don’t have to say that, Carroll.” He told her he did if she was feeling like he didn’t need her. “I love you guys. And to be honest with you, I do the same thing when I think of an answer for you guys. What would Golden think? Would she allow you to do this or that? She was the very best. I hope you always remember that.”

  His mom had passed away on their first birthday. They didn’t remember her any more than Mom did her parents. She had given birth to them, helped their new mom with them. Then, having been old, she had gone to sleep and didn’t wake.

  Golden had been buried in the family cemetery that day. No other animal had been put there before or since. But they all knew their biological mother had meant everything to this mom. There were still days, he knew that she would go out to the cemetery not to visit her own parents but to visit Golden and tell her about her day spent with their children.

  Where are you? He told his brother Bailey where he was and what was going on. I thought as much. I just came from the apple handing out thing we started today. There is trouble brewing with the head of the grade school. She’s got some heavy things coming down on us soon. She’s called in the Food and Drug Administration about the chemicals we’re giving to the children when we hand out food. Christ almighty, Carroll, Mom is going to have a fit when she finds out.

  I’ll tell her. I think she has it in her head that’s what is going on anyway. By the way, make sure you let the rest of them know too. He asked about Mom or the FDA. Both, I guess. She’s feeling kind— What’s today? Christ, no wonder. It’s Mom’s birthday. I completely forgot. Will you figure out something for us to do with her tonight? And we’ll also take her to dinner. How stupid are we? Let me know what you figure out for her, and I’ll go in with you. We need someone to keep track of this shit.

  They were both laughing when the connection closed. He told Mom about the FDA, as well as what they thought they were doing with the apples. Carroll watched her face. It was amazing to him the way she could hide her emotions as well as any poker player. So when she spoke, he knew this was something she’d been thinking about. The plan she had was just perfect.

  “I want you to call Jacob. He has been working in the offices of the FDA since well before this woman was born. See what kind of things they’re going to be testing when they get there. Also, if you can narrow down a time, that would be good too. We might as well put out the welcome mat. Since we use no chemicals here, I’m not worried about what they’ll find. I just don’t want them to harm the trees.” He pulled out his phone and made notes on it. “Also, have Marley look deeply into this woman’s past. I have a feeling we’ve c
rossed paths someplace along the line, and she didn’t come out on the upper end of it. Marley has the best luck with searches.”

  “All right. What do you want to be done with the search? You or the school board. I know two of the shifters from here are a part of the board.” She said to make sure to keep them in the loop about what they were doing and the reason why. He wrote this all down. “Mom, I forgot to tell you, two more faeries have been injured in town. I’ve checked on the places they’re working, but there doesn’t seem to be anything associated with their jobs.”

  “Ask Button to see what he can find out. I think he’s working with the faeries that came in last night, finding them places to rest up.” Carroll knew Button would have more information than they had and decided to seek his help first. “He mentioned to me again that you guys still haven’t found yourselves faeries. He said you need to do that before the next season. The faeries are falling all over themselves to be with you guys.”

  “I’ll get with the others, and we’ll have a decision by tomorrow. It might be easier just to pick one out of a hat, I think.” She said that however they did it, it needed to be done. “I’ll get on the others about it too. All right. Anything else you need for me to do? Besides the things to do with the school?”

  “There is one other thing.” She came around to his side of the table, where she’d been working on making another batch of dough. “I need you to check into some land I’ve been keeping an eye on. We own just about every bit of the land between us and the town, but there is one patch of land that has never come up for sale. Not only that but the people who used to live there haven’t been seen in some time. Like a month, I think I was told.”

  “Do you think they’re gone? If I remember correctly, they were an elderly couple that we helped.” She said that was them. “All right. I’ll go out there and have a look around. What do you want me to do if I find they’re both gone?”