She turned into Bryant’s chest and sounded like her heart was broken when Harper started crying. If he wasn’t this close to her, he would have sworn that she was really upset. As Mark was being hauled away, she held onto him and looked at his brothers and father.
“I learned that trick when I was in Indonesia. This guy, he was harassing me about my lack of luggage, and I couldn’t handle him— Are you guys all right?” Bryant looked at his brothers. All of them seemed to be in the verge of shifting. “I’m not hurt, not at all. He really didn’t even touch me. I just wanted him gone.”
“We need to be able to know that.” Harper nodded, and Kylan asked her if she knew what that meant. “I don’t want you to think that we’re going to know your every mood and movement. Not unless you’re needing us.”
“You take a part of my blood.” Kylan nodded. “I’m sorry that I frightened you, or whatever it was that happened. But that guy had to go. He already fired your brother, for no reason other than his ego was as big as his dick is tiny.”
Pops was the first to laugh, then the others. She was, Bryant thought, a breath of fresh air when it came to saying what she needed or wanted.
Mr. Talbert cleared his throat. “I have a check here for you, Ms. Wilson.” She corrected him. “All right, Harper. The safe that your parents purchased was one of the first that was ever made. And with it came a stock option. I wasn’t there when it was taken out for them, but I’m to understand that they wanted more. The stocks should have been given to them over a period of time—quarterly. But somehow it fell through the cracks. If you’d be so kind as to tell me who to make the check out to, then I can be on my way.”
“Buck Prince.” Pops stopped her by telling her no. Harper asked how much money he had charged for gathering up the families to bring in the crops. Pops said nothing. “Then I want the check to go to you. It might not be all that much, and you’ll be able to pay for a movie to rent or something. But if it’s enough, I’m hoping that it will take the worry lines off not only your face, but the rest of the men too.”
“What if it’s a great deal? I mean, it could be hundreds of dollars, honey. You might need it.” She told the man to make the check out to Bryant’s pops. “I don’t know what to say. As you said, it might be a little, but it’ll certainly come in handy.”
Mr. Talbert was smiling when he handed the check over to Harper. When she only glanced at it, she too was smiling. She knew that Pops was going to lose their home if they didn’t have some help.
Pops staggered back when he looked at the check. “It’s too much.” She said that as far as she was concerned, because of what his wife had done for her, it wasn’t nearly enough. “Harper, you have no idea how much we wish we’d done more. Stepped in when it was obvious that you children weren’t getting what you needed in the way of love and shelter. But we never knew about the rest of it. And when Sara took you to the hospital and you all ran, we were never so happy for anything in our lives.”
They hugged. It wasn’t like any other hug that Bryant had witnessed before—this one was of love, friendship, and also trust. Pops asked her if he could ask her a favor. Harper told him that he could forever ask her anything he wanted.
“If you need this money, you’ll let me know. After I pay the taxes on the house, I’ll put this away and you can come get it anytime you want. All you have to do is ask.” She hugged him again, and then leaned back into Bryant’s chest. Bryant held her tightly as she spoke again.
“I’m smart, Buck. Very much so. I invest low, sell high. I never buy anything unless I really need it or it’s for work. Then I go all out with my camera equipment. Also, because of the fact that I can take pictures that no one else wants to, from animals to war zones, I get paid a great deal of money for my photos. I am—and now this would include Bryant—a millionaire several times over.”
Bryant looked at his brothers, then at his dad. He wondered if their reaction to her announcement was the same on each of their faces.
“I’m sorry. I must have misheard you. Did you say that you were millionaires?” Harper nodded at Pop’s question. Then she told him several times over. “You don’t look like a millionaire. Not that I know anyone with that much money, but you look as down on your luck as we do.”
“And that, my dear sir, is why I’ve never been taken advantage of. Besides, when I am—when some asshole thinks that he’s smarter than me, or stronger, I put him in his place right now and don’t think another thing about it.” She looked up at Bryant. “I wanted to tell you this earlier. Or even later tonight. I have already contacted my—our attorney, and you are on all my accounts. Whatever is in this thing, we’re going to toss it all away or start fresh. Just as soon as we can get a contractor here to build for us.”
“I don’t care how much or how little you have.” He kissed her then. “But I have to tell you, I’m relieved. When you were talking about a house we were going to have build, I was terrified that we were going to be in deep trouble. Even if we’d have gotten the house built, what were we going to do for furniture? I mean, you slept in my room last night. What did you think of sleeping on a single bed?”
“Believe it or not, I’ve slept in worse conditions. Once I was in the mountains, trying to get a good shot of the people that lived there. They deal with the outside world, but only a couple of the people—men—could leave the village and get the supplies. I caught a terrible cold, and one of the women, out harvesting the fresh snow for water, found me.” Bryant asked her if she got the shot. “I did, as a matter of fact. A great many of them. The woman dragged me to her hut and warmed me up, and gave me some of her herbs. As I recuperated, I walked around the village and snapped shots of the everyday goings on of the women there. Most of the men, it turned out, were off hunting for goats that were higher up, and they hadn’t returned as yet.”
“You’ve had yourself a great many adventures, then?” She nodded at Marcus. “I’d love to see some of your pictures. I mean, if you don’t mind sharing.”
“No, I’d be honored to show them to you. But there are a great many of them. I don’t use digital all the time. I’m hooked on a regular camera that I can hold onto the shot when I’m finished. But you’ll be happy to know that they are in albums, all marked as to where I took them. But as I said, there are even hundreds of those.” She looked at him. “I’m sorry.”
“Why on earth are you sorry? You, in one hour, have made my entire family want to die for you.” Harper looked at his family, then back at Bryant when they were nodding that they would. “And someday, if you have a mind to, I’d like to marry you. Make you as much a part of this family legally as you already are in our hearts.”
“Okay.” Everyone laughed. Pops dug into his pocket and pulled out a long chain. He handed it to Bryant and kissed Harper on the cheek as he walked away. “This was your mother’s, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. She wore it every day after she was changed into a human. My dad couldn’t afford much, but he bought her this ring by paying a little every week until he could get it for her.” Taking the chain off, he bent on one knee. “Harper Wilson, will you consent to be my wife, to love me like no other? I will forever be yours. I already love you with all that I am. Please?”
“Yes. But you should give the ring back to your father when we marry.” Bryant asked her why. “So that each of his sons can use it to ask the woman that they find to complete their lives.”
It was only a plain band of gold, nicked and worn in places. There was a small cut down the middle of it that would stretch when his mom had shifted.
After placing the ring on her finger, Bryant kissed her, giving her all the passion he had stored up for her. When they pulled back to look at one another, he could see that she was happy. And to Bryant, that was worth everything in the world.
“Now, let’s see what is in this sucker. Please, can one of you take pictures?” Fisher said he would record it all. “Thank you very much. I’d hate for us to find a body or something i
n there, and have the death blamed on me.”
She was kidding, he thought. Then he thought of her parents, the things that he’d heard about them, the first-hand knowledge he had of them. Looking at the safe and then back at Harper, he was almost afraid for her to open it up.
~*~
Samson had brought boxes to put whatever was in the safe that was to be disposed of in them. The only thing that had ended up in them was cash, and a great deal of it. Thinking that there was some sort of magical hole or something in the safe, he thought that there was an endless supply of cash. There were Baggies of gems too. Some he knew by color. The rest, he only knew that they were pretty when the sun hit them just right.
There were other things as well. Books by authors that he hadn’t heard of. Torture magazines that made him sick to touch them. Bondage items that hadn’t been used, as well as a stack of books that looked like a kid’s school notebooks. They were all dated and put in order.
A drawer at the bottom of the safe had a lock on it, but lucky for them, the key was hanging in the safe. When he opened it the ground shook, and he fell back on his ass. Whatever was in the black bag, the only thing in the drawer, it was powerful.
“Don’t touch it. That is mine.”
He looked up at Aurora. She was as beautiful as ever with her wings spread out behind her, the sun shining through them to cast sparkles all over the ground beside and behind him. But there was anger too. Not to mention, several million faeries with their arrows pointed at them that brought home that point quickly. “You have stolen from me, and I shall have my revenge.”
No one moved. The faeries moved closer to them all as Aurora moved closer to the safe. He’d been wrong about her anger. She wasn’t just mad, but pissed, and Samson thought that if any one of them so much as farted, they’d all be so full of the arrows there would be no coming back from it. He knew for a fact that the points were all covered in the deadliest poisons known to any creatures. Bryant told Harper that this was Aurora, queen of the lands.
“My lady, whatever you think we have done to wrong you, I swear to you that we’ll make up for it. We’ve only just opened this up. My parents, you see, they were the ones that owned this.” Aurora turned all her attention to Harper when she spoke. “Whatever is in this thing, I don’t care if it’s every last item in it, if you were robbed of it by them, then please, I wish for you to have it, with my heartfelt apologies.”
“The older couple that lived here—they are now dead?” Harper nodded. “They were your parents, those monsters? I have no ill will toward you then. I am sorry, but when I felt that it had been unearthed, it was all I could do not to murder the person who had it.”
“You can have it, my lady. If it’s that important to you, then I want you to have it. I have to tell you, however, I knew nothing about whatever it is being here. Please, take it.” Aurora said that she only wanted what was hers. “It is yours, my lady. Again, I’m sorry. And my parents were monsters—the worst kind. And if they stole from you, then all I can tell you is that I had nothing to do with them, and wished them dead for a great many years. Can we be released now? Please?”
“Yes, my child.” A word was said and all the faeries stood down. They didn’t leave, but they no longer were ready to take them all out. Aurora looked at the black bag, then at Harper again. “You would give it to me freely? Without knowing what treasures are in it?” Harper asked the faerie queen if it was something important to her. “It is. It’s important to a great many people and species.”
“Then it is nothing that I wish to keep from you. I’m assuming, but I don’t know, that my parents took this from you a long time ago. They were killed a few days ago, and we are only just getting around to getting things taken care of.” Aurora nodded, then shook her head. “However they came to have it, I’m sorry for it. They weren’t nice people, and I’m glad that they’re gone. I want you to have that, whatever it is.”
“They would be able to lure my people to them. I know not how. I even forbade them to come to this land and the area surrounding it. But they would capture them and tear their wings from their small bodies.” Aurora wiped at her cheek, and a diamond dropped to the ground. She looked right at him. “Take it, Samson. I have a plan for you, and such a bauble will serve you well.”
He didn’t want to. For some reason he had a feeling that whatever it was going to be, he’d end up with a mate as well. Laughing at himself, he picked it up and moaned at the warmth of it, the feelings that it brought to his mind. Samson looked up at Aurora when she laughed as well, and was granted a wink from her. He knew then that he was in bigger trouble than he’d thought.
“Will you hand it to me, young Harper?” She reached into the drawer and pulled the black velvet bag out. Just as their fingers touched, Samson felt the earth move, and once again he held onto the ground so that he’d not fall back and hit his head. Harper and Bryant were laying on the ground, a soft glow around them. “Harper, you are Bryant’s mate. And that is why you will share in the riches of a pure clean heart. This, I have been waiting for since I first touched the little cub that was born on a night with much thunder and lightning. You are, my ambush, the children of my heart, and will have more riches than you ever imagined.”
“Wait, wait, wait a minute.” Pops got up from the ground and stood in front of the queen. “I don’t know about the rest of my boys and Harper, but we don’t really need your riches. I mean, it would be nice to be able to help out a few people that need it a great deal, but we don’t need for you to make us something we’re not.”
“And what, my leader, would you think you’d be that you aren’t now?” Pops said that he didn’t know, but he didn’t want it. “You are and always have been a good creature. Not a man, not a cat any longer. You will not allow riches of any kind to make you into something that you are not, Buck Prince. I give this to you for several reasons. But the most important one is that you have never, not once, asked me for anything. You could have. I would have granted you any wish that you asked of me. Money so that you’d not have to go without. Good health so that you’d not get cold in the winter months, or too hot in the summer. And then, when I have nearly given up all hope of finding my lost magic, you returned them to me without a single thought as to what you could have gotten from me.”
“Why would I do something like that? Holding something back from you that didn’t belong to us in the first place? You do know that Harper is my future daughter-in-law, and doesn’t know what you’ve already done for us. You should be putting the riches where they belong, my lady. I mean, we were put here, and we’ve been helping in making our kind, the black tiger, a thing of beauty. There wasn’t any harm to us in helping out the people around us either. What a thing to say to me after all this time.”
Aurora laughed. Her body shone brighter for it, her wings a thing of beauty that made Samson think of jewels and waterways, with just a touch of sun shining down upon them.
“You don’t think that I’m having fun with you, do you?”
“No, Buck, never you. But had you asked, at any time, I would have been able to help you all. You should be aware, however, that because you didn’t ask, found ways on your own to help yourself and others, your riches are so much more.” She looked behind her, then at Harper. “You have suffered more than these men—I know this, my child. You should tell them all of it. Tell them of the things that haunt you still. The stories that would, even though they are men that have been on this earth for more years than anything else, turn their stomach and lighten their hair. Yet, here you stand, giving me what was taken from me without a thought as to what it might be.”
“I don’t care what it is.” Harper blushed. “What I mean is, if I could give back all that was taken from my family I would do it. For you, I’m able to help by returning this item. For that, I can feel like I’ve been helpful in some way to my family.”
“You are, Harper Wilson Prince, a woman that I will take to my heart too.”
&nbs
p; Samson watched as the bag was opened. He was as curious as the rest of them as to what it contained. Also, he wondered how the Wilsons had gotten it from the queen. When the four stones were dumped into Aurora’s hand—one green, one purple, one a milky white, and a red one—Samson felt the one in his pocket vibrate when they started to rumble in her hand.
The diamond tore from his pocket and landed with the others in Aurora’s hand. Another stone, this one of such a brilliant shade of blue that he had to blink several times before he could see again, brightened the others. A sixth stone, this one of the purest shade of green he’d ever seen, settled with the others and rose above Aurora’s hand. All of them stood up to look at the beauty of the circling stones in the air around them.
“Bryant, I give you the jade. It will be something that you will need to help you along your path. Please keep it on yourself at all times. Samson, you will have the diamond. It too will help you on your path. And someday you will meet your other half, and she will be more valuable than even it will be. Fisher, the amethyst is for you. You have a rough road ahead of you, but like your brothers, who will be there to help you, you will do well and be happy with your own mate.” She looked at Kylan. “I’m glad that you are going to work with your brothers on a new adventure in your life. The ruby will be your shining light in the years to come. And your mate, she will be a shining light that will dull even this ruby I give to you. Harley, you will have the emerald. The color of it will be nothing compared to the beauty that comes to you, with eyes so green that the color of this stone will no longer be bright. Marcus, I wish for you to have the moonstone. It is as rare as the women who will not just own your heart, but they will be the family that you need, and will be cherished by all.”
The gems landed on each of their hands. Samson’s diamond was brighter than before, and much larger. Samson noticed, too, that the others were larger than they’d been in Auroras hand. He wondered what she had meant about all that she’d said when Aurora stood in front of their dad.
Bryant: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 5