by Ravenna Tate
“She’s inside.”
“Go. Please.”
Makenna kissed him with more passion than she’d ever done. It was very difficult to pull away from her, but he finally did. She still had tears in her eyes as she ran back into the house. Stone waited until the front door closed behind her before joining Canyon, Arizona, and Luke to face the coming fight.
****
When Makenna closed the front door behind her, it was to find Fiera and Gillian standing in the foyer. “Come on,” said Gillian, her voice a whisper. “I know a place where we can watch.”
“Does Leah know you’re gone?” asked Makenna.
“She’s cooking.”
“Seriously?” Only Leah would cook during a time like this. The woman was both fearless and an absolutely mystery to Makenna.
“‘They’ll be hungry when they’re done’,” said Fiera. “Those were her exact words.”
“Come on, before she hears us.” Gillian hissed. They followed her upstairs and into a back bedroom, where Makenna watched, convinced Gillian was going to hurt herself, while the woman stood on a stepladder and pulled a chain next to the ceiling fan.
“It’s a hidden trapdoor. I found it by accident one day when I came into this room and needed more light. I thought this chain made the lights on this thing brighter, but instead it leads up there.”
“Leah is going to kill you,” said Fiera.
“Forget Leah,” said Makenna. “If Arizona finds out you did this, he’ll kill you.”
“You want to hide in the closet while our mates fight outside? I don’t.” Gillian hoisted herself through the trapdoor.
“How did you two get away from Canyon’s sisters?”
Fiera grinned. “We told them we had to pee.” Makenna watched Fiera climb the ladder and pull herself up into the darkness. She shrugged and followed.
“Might as well join you two. I sure can’t go back down there without you.”
Gillian lit a candle, placing it on a table that didn’t look very sturdy to Makenna’s eyes. When she closed the trapdoor, Makenna had a moment of panic. What if the candle fell and started a fire? They’d be trapped up here.
“Don’t worry,” said Fiera. Had the woman read her mind? “We’ll be okay.”
Gillian was already at the large window overlooking the front yard. “Come on, you two. The glass is too grimy for them to notice us up here, but we can still see what’s going on.”
Giving one last glance toward the tiny flickering flame, Makenna joined Fiera and Gillian at the window.
****
Stone smelled the leopards before he saw them. The men from the village had passed around weapons, but he, Arizona, and Canyon each had declined. All three were more comfortable fighting without them. Makenna’s face floated through his mind as every nerve ending sprang to attention. His senses were heightened even before he shifted.
Glancing back at the house for a split second, he swore he could feel her eyes trained on him, but knew that wasn’t possible. She was hiding with the others, and that’s where he wanted her to be. He was ready to fight to keep her safe. His one true love … his mate. This was the day he eradicated this threat to her life and to her happiness, once and for all.
“What a surprise. Tommy Floyd is leading the pack.”
Stone wasn’t sure how Arizona knew who the man out front was, but as soon as he shifted, so did Canyon. The three friends, along with Luke and Cletus, were the first lynxes to run straight for the leopards.
****
Makenna gasped as she spotted Tommy Floyd out front. Stone had already shifted. Luke and Cletus were next, followed closely by Arizona and Canyon. Next to her, Fiera grasped her hand, and took Gillian’s on the other side. Makenna felt stronger holding hands with the other two women. They could concentrate all their gifts on their men below. Gillian might be human, but she, too, had gifts she wasn’t yet aware of.
As they clashed, Makenna tried to keep her eyes on Stone, but everything was a blur of fur and arrows flying through the air. Each time a leopard fell, she was afraid it was Laredo, or one of those from their village. There was no way to tell. A shifted male who died in that form didn’t revert to his human form. They’d have to identify the dead another way when this over.
“There they are,” whispered Fiera. “By the largest shed.”
She was right. All three of their mates were fighting together, next to the shed where Gillian and Arizona had stored much of their furniture while their home was being built. Even without weapons, the leopards were no match for the women’s mates.
Makenna’s stomach roiled as she watched the three friends tear apart the other cats. She was suddenly grateful she hadn’t insisted on staying down there to fight. She’d have been throwing up by now. There was no way she could actually smell the blood this far up, but Makenna swore she could in her mind, and it was strong.
The fight was over so quickly that the three gave each other confused looks. Surely there must be more leopards on their way.
“We’d better get downstairs,” said Gillian.
Leah was calling their names as they descended the main staircase. She motioned them to follow her into the kitchen. “They’ll need food.” Giving Fiera a disappointed glance, she asked her to go and retrieve the three girls. “It’s safe for them to come out now. No more leopards are coming.”
Once Feira left the room, Leah turned on her and Gillian. “Of all the women in this house, I’d have expected you two to have more sense than to take off like that. I thought you were outside. Where were you hiding?”
Before either of them could answer, Leah held up a hand. “Never mind. I don’t even want to know. We have too much work to do.”
Luke came into the house first, and Leah ran to embrace him. “It’s over. Laredo and Hidalgo have asked Gavin to take a few Council members with him to the leopard village. They want to have a formal meeting where a contract is drawn up, declaring this feud to be at an end.”
“And if they refuse?”
The look Luke gave her was sad. “Leah, we’ve just killed fifty-two of their people. Fewer than fifteen of our villagers and the men from the other village are dead. They won’t want a repeat of this massacre. And from what Cletus told us, no one else in their village wants to fight.”
“So it’s really over?” asked Makenna. “Gillian and I are safe from them forever?”
“Yes, you are.” Stone... She ran into his arms and held him as closely as possible, not caring that he was covered in dried blood. “It’s really over, my love. No one from that village will ever bother you, Gillian, or any of us again.”
Makenna had no words. Tears ran freely down her face, and her breath came out in hitching sobs. She wasn’t sorry she had hidden in the attic with Fiera and Gillian to watch. She only knew two things. Her mate was safe, and now they could spend the rest of their lives as they were meant to. Raising their children, and loving each other.
They were free. Free to love, to laugh, and to be together every second of each day and night. Makenna felt safe—truly safe—for the first time in her life. And she intended to spend every moment of that life making sure Stone knew how very, very much she loved him.
Epilogue
One year after the fight on the Benedict property…
Makenna bounced her six month old son, Dallas, on her knee as she watched nine month old Ainsleigh and ten month old Calvin play on a mat together. Gillian’s and Arizona’s daughter already showed evidence that she’d been born a shifter. Fiera’s and Canyon’s son, of course, was a lynx shifter. Although he hadn’t been born under a blood moon, no one had any doubt of his future gifts or abilities.
“I swear they recognize each other as mates already,” said Fiera, taking a seat next to Makenna.
“I told Stone the same thing the other day. Whenever they play together, there’s a quietness about them, as though they’re already comfortable in each other’s presence.”
“Wouldn’t that be a
mazing? If one of our sons and one of our daughters grew up to be mates?”
“I think Gillian is simply happy her girl is a shifter. She was worried she wouldn’t be.”
Gillian was pregnant again, and although she wasn’t very far along, Makenna already saw the glow about her. “Of the three of us, I would have guessed she’d be the one who didn’t want to have another child right away.”
“She’s come so far in a year.”
Makenna smiled down at her son, who currently had a lock of her hair curled in his chubby fingers, and was pulling hard. “She still has nightmares about the battle once in a while. Mine have finally stopped.”
“I didn’t think Leah would ever forgive the three of us for sneaking away to watch it.”
“In retrospect, it was a selfish thing to do.”
“I know. But all I could think about was Canyon’s safety.”
Makenna glanced toward Fiera and smiled. “Does he know yet that you’re with child again?”
“No. Not yet. I didn’t want to tell him today. This is a solemn occasion, even if we’re having a party to mark it. I’ll wait until tomorrow.”
Most of the village was gathered together on the Benedict property to commemorate the day. Everyone had pitched in and brought food, and Leah had made sure there were plenty of things for the children to do.
The men recounted their memories of that fateful day, including the months afterward when the remaining Elders and Council members from the leopard village had agreed to a formal treaty.
“I’m glad the people from the other village could attend as well,” said Makenna. “It wouldn’t be right if they weren’t here.”
Representatives from the other village had also signed the treaty. Even though that document guaranteed the leopards from Makenna’s home village wouldn’t be bothered by the people in either neighboring village, before winter set in, the leopards had moved away. Their village was now abandoned.
Arizona had told them he’d heard through business contacts that they’d relocated to northern California, where there were forests to hide in.
Gillian came over to join her friends, tickling Dallas under his chin as she took a seat. “I swear he looks more like Stone every day.”
“He really does. How are you feeling?”
“Good. Really great. Hey, I was going to wait and tell all of you this together. I finally heard about the Medinas. None of them will stand trial.”
“What?” Fiera sounded angry until Gillian put up a hand.
“Hang on. Let me finish. They took plea bargains. Every single one of them. Each of them will spend the next ten to fifteen years in prison.”
“It’s about time.”
“Things move slowly in the courts, even at the Federal level.”
“So all of this is now truly behind us,” said Makenna.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
As Makenna gazed out over the property and watched people talking, playing, eating, and laughing, she reflected on how far all of them had come in a year. Most of the people in this village now knew her real heritage, and had accepted her for who she was.
She and Stone had named their son Dallas to keep alive the memory of the surname her family had been forced to take in order to survive. They had truly come out the other side, and the threat was gone for good.
Stone caught her eye and winked. She smiled at her mate, overcome as she always was with love for him. He’d changed, too. He was now more playful and relaxed than he’d ever been, and she couldn’t wait until she was carrying their second child.
Her life was everything she’d never dared to dream would be possible for her, and she intended to live it to its fullest. That was possible now, with Stone by her side. Her mate. Her own true love. The man who had patiently waited for her, and who had finally found her.
The End
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