by M. L. Briers
It was as tempting a thought as he’d ever had and one that he’d tossed over many times throughout the night. He’d made love to her over and over again, never quite able to get enough of being one with her, being inside of her.
Just being with him put her in danger. He knew that the elders would never sanction anything happening to her, she was female and a human and no threat to them, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t get caught in the crossfire…
He had two choices, leave with her, or leave her. But what kind of a man would he be if he ran away from the mountain? He’d never feel whole again. There would always be a part of him that had to live with the shame of it, and that would make him less of a man, maybe not to her, but he’d feel it deep within his soul.
He could take on all comers and fight to the death, theirs or his, but eventually he would lose. Besides, on the whole these people were good, there was a few rotten apples like Dougie, but every community had that.
“I want to speak with the elders,” Lucy’s voice startled him back to the moment. He didn’t realise that he’d been away from her, lost in thought.
“That’s not…”
“It’s my life too, and they’ll damn well listen to what I have to say.”
“It won’t make a…”
“Because I’m female or because I’m human?”
She twisted her head around to shoot a curious look at him. He looked a little pained, a little sad, and she had to wonder what he’d been thinking about before she’d spoken to him.
“A little of both,” he admitted.
Lucy pushed up onto her elbow and turned her body in the bed. His eyes took her in, really drank her up, and she liked the intensity in them; the way that he looked at her, really looked at her, as if he couldn’t get enough, as if her face was a treasure map that he needed to study.
“Well tough. Because I’ll just follow them around like a damn lost puppy until they talk to me, hear me…”
“Lucy…”
“Go ahead, poop on my idea, but it’s happening, Declan.” She was adamant, and he had to smile.
Her face was serious with a little frown that made two ridges appear between her eyebrows, and he wanted to reach up and smooth them away with the pad of his thumb, but instead he gave her a slow nod of his head.
“Alright, you can try, but I’m driving you.”
“I think I know how to drive…”
“My way or not at all. I don’t want you driving the mountain roads right now, not with everything that’s going on.”
“Declan…”
“I’m your mate. It’s my job to protect you, and that’s what I’ll do until I’m boots up in the earth, do you hear me?”
It was his turn to be stubborn. He wouldn’t let her have her way on this one.
Lucy nodded her agreement. Just one nod, but it was a good one. It settled his mind and made him feel like she wasn’t about to do anything stupid.
~
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~
Declan kept snatching looks at her as she sat in the passenger seat. He knew every twist and turn on the long road down into town, and apart from other traffic, of which there was very little at that time of year, he could have driven it blindfolded.
He’d let her have her say with the elders, and then at least she could feel as if she’d tried to do something to intervene in the inevitable. He guessed he owed her that.
He’d claimed her as his and when he was gone she would never feel whole again. That was another thing that he could add to the list of wrong’s that he’d done to her.
His eyes caught a glint of winter sun hitting something reflective in the distance, and he noted that there must have been another car coming up the mountain. He turned his full attention back to the road as they travelled around the blind bend, he was glad that he had … there in front of him was a two truck roadblock.
Declan grumbled a growl at the sight of it. His foot hit the brake and his mind was on his mate once more. She was fragile and not easy to heal if they hit those trucks head on…
He cursed and growled as the tyre’s screeched to a halt on the roadway, spewing chippings of rock in the air behind them. His strong arm reached out across her chest to stop her from moving in her seat, better than any damn seatbelt that she could have worn…
“What…?” Lucy bit out...
“Don’t move…” Declan growled as he eyed the men, four of them, all shifters, and he’d never have gotten a bet on at any odds that they were there for him…
“Declan…?” Lucy’s breath caught in her throat. Just one look at the four men filled her with fear, and his bear reacted to the scent of it in such a small enclosed space…
Each man looked ready for the fight, although none looked eager for it, but as their attention travelled from Declan to Lucy, they seemed to shrink a little at the sight of her.
Malcolm Frost, the biggest shifter in the group growled something to the others that Declan couldn’t hear … His heart hammered within his chest and his blood rushed in his ears, but his mind was set on how he could get her the hell out of there should they choose to attack…
Then they started to back away. Two of the group climbed into their trucks and pulled them back from the roadway…
Declan didn’t think he’d ever been so grateful of anything in his life. His bear was ready, willing and able to take each one of them on for his mate, but he guessed that they got that message loud and clear…
Whether they didn’t want to end him in front of his mate, or whether they didn’t want to take him on knowing that he would fight tooth and nail because she was there, he’d probably never know… but as the road cleared ahead of them, Declan didn’t much care either. The fact was that she was safe, and that was all that mattered.
He eyed Frost as his truck started to roll forward. The man’s eyes were jet black and he could see the wolf just under the surface of the man’s skin.
He’d never had a problem with Frost, unlike Dougie, and the man nodded his head once in passing as he drove by them.
“They were going to fight you?” Lucy asked, and Declan let out a deep breath that he didn’t realise he’d been holding…
“Yes.” He didn’t want to get into it with her. He’d got a reprieve … for now.
“Why’d they stop?” Her voice sounded stretched, tight, pained. He didn’t like that sound.
“You,” Declan admitted, and heard her draw a breath. She nodded her head, not wanting to trust her voice in that moment…
Then I need to stick by his side like glue…
If they won’t kill him in front of me then there’s the answer…
He knew what she was thinking, and he knew that she was wrong.
“It’ll only work so many times, Lucy. You can’t stop the inevitable…”
“Oh, can’t I?” She snapped back. Her last nerve snapped under the reality of the moment.
If she hadn’t of been there then he might have been dead already. That wasn’t going to happen. Laws or not …
“There’s always one thing about the law, Declan… there always seems to be a loophole for the bad guys … why shouldn’t there be a loophole for the good guys for once?” She said.
She was fired up by what had just happened. Shock and fear had turned to anger inside of her, and she felt the irrational urge to scream, rant and cry mix with the need to make those people see that Declan didn’t deserve to die…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
~
“We’ve heard you out of respect for your position as a mate…” Tomas cut her off. They were going around in circles.
“Am I supposed to be grateful?” Lucy shot back on a scowl of disdain for the three of them. They had sat there pouring scorn on everything that she’d said, every reasoned argument that she had made, and some of the unreasoned ones too before they cut her off at the knees…
“That respect should flow both ways, Lucy,” Ronald warned her.
Lucy
tossed up a hand and felt like a child being berated by a parent. Yes, these men were elders, and yes they were shifters and knew the laws better than she did, and yes, she was a lowly human messing in shifter matters … but the point remained … this was her life, hers and Declan’s.
“I get that, but you make it so damn hard to show respect for you and for your laws when you don’t listen to a word I’m saying!”
“We hear you,” Ronald offered back. “We just don’t agree with you.”
“You’re being inflexible…” she rushed out in frustration.
“Laws aren’t meant to be broken or bent to a person’s will. That’s what makes them laws,” Tomas shot back, and she had a dislike for that man that went beyond the situation at hand. He was annoying to say the least…
“And yet if this was your son,” she eyed him before turning her attention back towards Ronald, “or yours…”
“The outcome would be the same,” Ronald assured her. “Nobody wants this, Lucy, but we can’t just…”
“Not just… this is a man’s life we’re talking about, a good man. And yes he claimed me when we were drunk, but who’s to say that I never gave consent? I was there, we’re you?”
“If you don’t remember…” Ronald offered back…
“I do!” she tossed up her hands. “I remember. I gave consent.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“There’s a little problem with that claim, Lucy … I can scent your deceit.” Ronald offered back gently and she snorted her contempt for him.
“Then hold your nose and listen with your ears!” She shot back…
“Ok,” Malachi said, stepping forwards and saving her from herself.
“Don’t you say another word.” Lucy bit out as the vampire pushed towards her from where he’d been standing. The impartial spectator that Declan had insisted accompany her inside the meeting room while he was forced to wait outside.
“I …” Malachi held up his hands at his chest.
“That’s a word right there, and I don’t want to hear another,” she bit out before she turned her attention back towards the three stooges.
“Females,” Tomas said on a shake of his head, and her eyes snapped towards him and narrowed…
“Yes, females, and without us you wouldn’t exist,” she snapped back.
“She got you there,” Ronald chuckled.
“The point is…” Tomas started, and she cut him right off.
“The point is I have a mate and I want to keep him, so instead of sitting their Lording it over everybody, why don’t you three put your heads together and come up with a way to make that happen,” Lucy looked to Ronald. The man seemed to be the more reasonable of the bunch.
“You could leave…” Tomas started…
“He won’t leave …” she bit out.
“Then…” Ronald shrugged his shoulders, and she snapped her head back on her neck.
“A shrug? I ask you not to kill my mate and you give me a shrug…?”
“Ok, like I said, this is getting us nowhere…” Malachi bit out, stalking across the room towards Lucy…
“You didn’t say that,” she sneered.
“I would have if you wouldn’t keep telling me not to speak.” He bit back. He reached for her arm and she sidestepped him, rallying back towards the elders.
“There has to be a law against murder, a human one I believe…”
“Lucy!” Malachi ground out, snagging her around the waist and yanking her towards him. “Too far.” He bit out against her ear as Tomas pushed up from his seat and eyed her with contempt.
“This is what happens when outsiders are allowed into our world,” he growled out, turning on his heels and stalking towards the door…
“Be careful of your next words,” Malachi warned her on a whisper just loud enough for her to hear.
“Malachi, you should take Lucy home … back to the city,” Ronald said as he pushed up to his feet with a shake of his head. “It’s no longer a safe place for her to be.” He warned.
Lucy felt those words and they sent her blood running cold within her veins. The sound of Malachi’s sigh felt like sandpaper against her nerves…
“I’ll say this only once, Ronald.” Malachi offered in a tone that had lost that melodic touch. It sounded raw to her ears. “Lucy is under my protection now.”
Ronald grunted in reply and nodded his head. Then he took a slow walk towards the door, his eyes averted from her.
“Let’s get out of here, Declan is waiting.” Malachi offered down to her.
“I screwed up,” Lucy said, not even to him, just in general.
“Let’s just say it could have gone better.” Malachi offered back, but she saw him flinch – the man had a tell all of his own.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~
“She needs to leave,” Declan growled out as the vampire finished filling him in on the meeting that had managed to go so horribly wrong.
“And you’re just the man to take her away from all of this,” Malachi shot back to the sound of a hard grunt from the shifter.
“You know that I can’t leave.”
“Feet nailed to the floor? Backside glued to the toilet seat on some holiday prank?” The sound of a deep, warning growl rumbled through the air towards the vampire.
“Don’t be a smartass,” Declan growled back.
“Fine, I won’t be a smartass if you stop being too damn stubborn and proud to take you mate and leave.” Malachi offered back.
“You know…”
“That someone tattooed made on the mountain on your backside and now you think the mountain owns you, sure…” Malachi tossed back.
He was done with reasoned arguments. He’d had so many homes and so many past lives that they blurred sometimes. He didn’t see the problem with leaving … nothing more than his shifter pride and honour.
“Smartass,” Declan bit out.
“Dumbass, stubborn, proud bear … oh look, we can both do the name calling thing, but maybe you should get over your pride and do the what’s right for your mate thing,” Malachi shot back, and that only led to more growling from the shifter.
“What I’m doing is right for my mate…”
“Leaving her alone in the world to fend for herself, no warmth, no love, no future happiness … if you say so, man, what do I know?”
Malachi heard that heady rumble once more and gave him a sideways look just to make sure that the man hadn’t decided to let his bear tear free and take a nice chunk out of his backside…
“It’s…”
“Not like that? Sure it is, you just don’t want to see it,” Malachi shrugged. He wasn’t going to sugar coat her future for a dumbass bear shifter that couldn’t see the wood for the trees.
“Will you stop…”
“Talking over the top of you? Maybe, when you start making sense.”
Malachi knew that he was getting on Declan’s very last nerve, but still he couldn’t stop. He wanted Declan to see things from all angles, leave nothing to chance when deciding his mate’s fate…
“You know you’re a real…”
“Yeah, I know. I keep hearing that, but I don’t believe it.” Malachi shrugged. Then he rubbed his hands over his face in frustration and groaned at all the crap that came with being a shifter…
“Just run with your mate, damn it. I’ve got houses all over this country and other places, if I can remember where I left them, I’m sure we can find one on a damn mountain somewhere…”
Malachi frowned at the thought, and just as Declan went to open his mouth to speak; he had an epiphany…
“Switzerland! I have a house in Switzerland, and boy do they do mountains … well, they call them Alps, but who’s counting, right?” He rolled his eyes…
“Malachi…” Declan sighed…
“Scotland! The Munro’s there are big, old…”
“Will you just shut the hell up?” Declan growled back. “Alps, and Scotland, and mountains … this is my hom
e.”
“This …” he waved his arms around. “Is just geography. Your home is wherever she is.” He pointed at Declan’s cabin and the bear gave another low, deep growl…
“Go boil you damn head!” Declan grumbled as he turned on his heels and started back towards the cabin.
“Yes, yes, we can all resort to childish feminine snotty remarks…” Malachi chuckled to himself when Declan’s head practically snapped around on his neck…
“Don’t test me, Malachi…” He growled out the warning.
“Then don’t be such an idiot. You, her, ankle biters…” Malachi shrugged. “It’s fate’s design.”
“Well, I guess fate didn’t account for the drink and the fact that I couldn’t hold mine.”
~
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“This isn’t right, just, or happening!” Maisie announced as loudly as she could over the din in the bar as she spotted Ronald walking through the front door.
Ronald’s hearing picked out her words just fine and he turned to look at her as the old woman stood at the door to the kitchen and eyed him with all of the venom of a rattlesnake. He sighed inwardly as he started towards her.
Maisie could be one cantankerous old woman when she wanted to be, but she was also a good friend to the shifters, and had been long before the world knew of their existence…
“Now, Maisie…” Ronald knew how to sooth most females, but Maisie was one of those women that seemed to want to roll up her sleeves and duke it out. He liked that about her.
“You can address me as Mrs Cartwright!” She ground out. Then she lifted her chin and stuck her nose in the air.
“Maisie…” Ronald tried again.
“Don’t you, Maisie, me you old goat!” She was determined to start as she meant to go on. He got the distinct impression that he was in for one hell of an ear bashing.
“You change your name since the last time we spoke…?” He grumbled back.
“Oh, it’s like that, is it? Is that how it is with the smarty pants comments?” She demanded, “because what you’re doing to those mates…”