The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  “No,” Yasmin answered. “They are Magi. We all are, just humans with magic. But, think about it. We Druids have a lot of power, so of course, our children would as well. It fades as they get further from the Druid, but immediate children are always so strong. My husband is very powerful, but he can only heal. Rogue…Quinn is exceptional. His natural abilities match ours to some extent. I can’t control the earth itself, only the things that grow and live on it.”

  Sawyer considered that, nodding slowly as she dipped lower into the water. She bathed in silence, unsure what else to ask. She felt a tug in her mind and flood of worry. She looked up to see the black jaguar.

  “Yes, Sombra. She is well,” Yasmin called out softly.

  “Sombra,” Sawyer whispered. The jaguar turned to her. She knew what that word meant in Spanish. Yasmin had called her new animal bond Shadow.

  Sawyer was bitter at the cosmic irony of it. She wanted to laugh and cry at the name.

  “She has waited a long time for you,” Yasmin continued. “I named her Sombra when she was born. Her mother is one of my bonds, but Sombra didn’t want me. She knew she was born from the death of another and was destined for someone.”

  She swallowed on a lump in her throat. Too much emotion filled her. A wave of uneasiness hit her that didn’t belong to her, as if Sombra was worried about Sawyer’s opinion of her.

  “She’s beautiful,” she mumbled honestly, looking away.

  “What’s wrong?” the Druid asked gently, wading closer. “She is your bond. Your lifelong companion.”

  “She’s a replacement,” Sawyer muttered. “I’m not sure…I’m not sure how to handle that.”

  “Do you want to know what we Druids think? We go through animal bonds, you know. Certainly, if they are strong, they can live for as long as we do, like any animal bond, but they are still wild like we are, can be injured, hunted, and die.” Yasmin touched Sawyer’s shoulder. “She is not a replacement. She is the same bond you once had, just come back. She knew her duty wasn’t over. She might not have those memories, but she has that magic. You grew and changed…so she did, born into a body that befitted the power you have, so that she could continue to be the companion you needed.”

  “Reincarnation isn’t real,” she said, feeling snappy and agitated. Sombra wasn’t Midnight. Not even the strange similarities of their feelings and looks could convince her. This massive black jaguar was not her tiny black housecat.

  “There was a time when people didn’t believe in magic,” Yasmin reminded her.

  Sawyer felt a flood of tears hit her behind her eyes. That feeling that the dam was about to break. She didn’t let it, but she couldn’t deny that Yasmin was right. There was once a time when the world didn’t believe in magic. Who was to say she wasn’t wrong about their bonds?

  “Why did you name her Sombra?”

  “Because she is a shadow. She’s elusive and dangerous, holding secrets from me even though she is a part of my family and lives in my territory. I mean, look at her. The name fit.” Yasmin made it sound so simple. The name did fit. In so many ways.

  “Do you know who I am?” Sawyer looked up to Yasmin and met the dark, endless-looking eyes.

  “No. Do I need to? There must be a reason a cat like her would wait for a woman like you. That’s all I need to know. She brought you and Rogue Wolf here to be helped, and I trust her judgement.”

  Sawyer cried then, covering her face. Yasmin backed away, leaving her to her tears. She sank to her knees in the water and nearly went under.

  A splash, and suddenly Sawyer had a large wet cat next to her, rubbing across her side. Sawyer wrapped her arms around Sombra and pulled her close, crying into wet fur. A hole was filled. A piece of her soul was returned to her, and Sawyer had never imagined she could feel that way again. Complete.

  Love filled her from the feline. Such a pure, but also mildly annoyed, love. She wanted to get out of the water. She wanted her Magi to be strong and stop crying. Human tears confused her and made her uncomfortable.

  Sawyer pulled back and glared into gold eyes. It was going to be like that?

  The jaguar just huffed, causing water to fly off her nose into Sawyer’s face.

  “Let’s get dry,” she told her cat, sighing. Then she laughed. She laughed harder than she had in a long time, still holding the jaguar. “Then we’ll get Quinn and find out how to go home…well, my home. I hope you’ll like it.”

  Sombra seemed unconcerned, moving towards the shore. Sawyer followed and dried off, trying to not watch Yasmin do the same.

  “Why did you help us?” she asked once they were dressed and on the way back to the village.

  “Sombra brought you here.” Yasmin shrugged. “There’s no reason to waste life in such a way, and…if you die, so does she. If your Quinn dies, so do his wolves. Wasteful murder by a young woman who knows better.”

  “Not survival of the fittest?” She was confused. Wasn’t this supposed to be a woman who thought that’s just the way the world worked? Like Quinn?

  Yasmin not only disagreed, she did so strongly. Sawyer didn’t know where the Druid’s physical strength came from, but the Druid grabbed her shirt and yanked her close.

  “Murder is a perversion. It’s not the natural order. It is not survival of the fittest. If you had been bitten by a snake while looking for food, I would say you made your own mistake.” Yasmin stopped, just holding Sawyer in place. She shook her head. “Forgive me. My husband and I have argued for months about the situation. He thinks I should just let it happen and step in if she comes for us here. I want to help all those in this place, not just those in my territory.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sawyer mumbled. She didn’t know why she was sorry. “And, um, thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. We must wake Rogue Wolf, and he will not be happy to be here.”

  Sawyer didn’t believe that. He would see how they helped him and her. This Druid was more in line with what she’d always thought about Druids. It wasn’t until she met Quinn and then this mission that she’d learned otherwise. They weren’t just peaceful, weird hippie Magi with too much power. They could also be the stuff of nightmares.

  Sombra followed them to a hut near the outskirts of the village. People ignored her. Strange. She’d thought they would watch her. She was an outsider and she was used to standing out, being watched.

  “My husband is waiting for us. Everyone else will clear the area just in case,” Yasmin spoke as they neared the last hut.

  “What’s his name?”

  “You should just call him Tez. You wouldn’t be able to pronounce his full name.”

  “I’ll trust you on that,” Sawyer agreed softly. She raised a hand when they saw him come into view. “Hi, Tez.” She said it in Spanish, hoping he would understand the words. Close enough to Portuguese.

  He grinned, nodding. He even raised a hand to wave back.

  “He’s not a talkative man, my husband. Not with newcomers, anyway,” Yasmin whispered to her, then launched a diatribe at him in the language that Sawyer didn’t understand. She couldn’t even recognize it.

  Tez replied, just as fast and passionate about something. His hands moved as he spoke, animated.

  “He says Quinn’s injuries are completely healed. We’ve kept him in a healing sleep and he will be very disoriented when he awakes. Tez thinks you should stir him and we should wait outside.” Yasmin motioned to the hut and Sawyer nodded slowly.

  She went in alone. It was the exact same as the hut she had been in. A cot covered in furs was the only thing inside.

  He looked so peaceful asleep, her feral, wild friend. Shade lifted his head and whimpered softly. Scout trotted to her and bumped his head to her thigh. She scratched both behind their ears and went to Quinn. Sombra didn’t follow her into the hut, and Sawyer wondered why that was.

  Sombra replied with a wave of ‘hurry the fuck up’ and she rolled her eyes. Of course she got a cat full of attitude.

  “Quinn,” she wh
ispered.

  She wondered when she fell in love with him. What had Elijah said? She gave away pieces of her heart like candy on Halloween? It made her want to laugh and cry. She really did.

  Tears filled her eyes as she went to her knees next to him and touched his face gently.

  His eyes flew open at the contact. He moved faster than she could. She hadn’t thought he would be so fast to wake up. She definitely hadn’t been expecting the takedown.

  One moment she’d been kneeling next to his cot, the next she was underneath him in the furs on the cot. He growled down at her. She wasn’t scared of him killing her, or even hurting her.

  She yanked his face down to hers and kissed him, hard. It was like kissing a wall, completely unreciprocated, but he didn’t stop it either.

  She just needed to do it. He was alive.

  She let his cheeks go and he pulled his head away from hers, looking confused.

  Silence fell on them.

  Time passed slowly.

  Still, he said absolutely nothing.

  “Quinn,” she plainly said, staring into his eyes. She decided they were just going to pretend the kiss never happened.

  “We’re alive.” He didn’t release her.

  “We are, but the situation is a little complicated.”

  “Explain.” Someone was cranky. She didn’t miss the growl in the word.

  “Let me up and I will.” Sawyer wiggled her fingers, trying to remind him that he had her wrists. She didn’t think this was a conversation to have with his body pressed to hers. He was nude. She figured he would be, and she’d seen it all before, but she hadn’t been expecting to be pressed up to the nude form of Quinn Judge.

  “No.”

  “We’re not with the team. A tribe saved us and-”

  “Druid,” he snarled, his head spinning to the opening of the hut. The earth rumbled.

  “She saved our lives. She’s not the same one,” Sawyer told him quickly, yanking her wrists free. She grabbed his head and forced him to look back at her.

  “Why?”

  “Apparently she raised my new animal bond.”

  “Ah,” Quinn sighed. “You’ve met her.”

  “You knew?” she asked, narrowing her eyes on his.

  “Shade and Scout found her. You weren’t ready for her yet, she thought, but I guess she didn’t want to fight alone.” Quinn relaxed, but only minutely. “Her name?”

  “Sombra,” Sawyer whispered, relaxing as well.

  “Good name,” he murmured.

  “Can we get up?”

  “No. You’ll stay here until I know it’s safe.”

  “They can hear us,” Sawyer drolly replied. “And I’ve already been out there with them. I got to get clean before coming to wake you up.”

  “You didn’t wake me up immediately?”

  “They told me no, plus I wanted to be able to give you the information I could get so you didn’t worry about it.” Sawyer watched him war with himself. She knew he wanted to trust no one, but so far, none of the innocent people in the village or Yasmin had given her a reason to be wary. She knew Quinn was realizing that. “Don’t hurt them. They raised Sombra. They saved us when she brought us here, trusting her judgement about us.”

  “Okay,” Quinn growled.

  When he still didn’t let her up, she grew worried. “Quinn. Up. Off the cot. Let’s move.”

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, jumping off her. She sighed happily to see him moving as she sat up and watched him check his wolves. New scars covered his body, just like they did her. The long tears to his chest and abdomen were now scars, looking long healed and faded, thinner than she would have expected. He turned his back to her and she gasped. He spun back around. “What?”

  “Let me see your back,” she demanded. He turned slowly, and she stood up. She reached out and touched him. For as long as she’d known him, his back was a mass of crisscross scarring that stood out. White bold lines, thin ones.

  They weren’t gone but they were barely there. They were no longer so apparent. From a distance, she wondered if people would even notice them.

  “A healing from my husband tends to be full body. Scars will never truly fade, but he can lessen them,” Yasmin called in. Sawyer saw her standing in the door, Tez at her side.

  “You are the Druid that saved us?” Quinn asked, frowning at her.

  “Who else would I be?” Yasmin teased, smiling. “Well met, Quinn Judge.”

  “You know my name, don’t play coy,” Quinn snarled.

  “She calls you Quinn, so I feel that must be the name you like more. But, if you wish to always be Rogue Wolf, so be it.”

  “Quinn is fine,” he said quickly. Then Sawyer watched him look at Tez, who grinned. Quinn’s eyes went wide. “You’re…”

  “His mother was a Druid in the area once,” Sawyer whispered to him. “He’s like you, but he can only heal. Though…healing at a power like you and him obviously is some impressive shit.”

  “We must talk,” Quinn told Tez. Tez tilted his head, not understanding and Yasmin translated. Quinn snapped his fingers and started off in the language Sawyer didn’t know, leaving her out of the conversation completely.

  Something harsh was said and Yasmin left, her hands raised in peace. Quinn relaxed more when she was gone, but Tez made an angry comment after that.

  Sawyer crossed her arms and walked out. She rolled her eyes and found Sombra laying in the sun.

  Shadow in the light.

  Sawyer didn’t miss the metaphor or the humor coming from the cat.

  “You don’t know anything about me,” Sawyer mumbled. “That’ll change.”

  The cat didn’t care about anything from before she met Sawyer, which irked her.

  “You should know who came before you.”

  That got Sombra’s attention, her eyes opening. Her head came up and bobbed.

  “Let’s go and I’ll tell you about Midnight,” Sawyer whispered to her jaguar. Sombra stood up and walked away. She didn’t follow until Sombra looked back, a wave of annoyance hitting the bond. “I’m coming.”

  She glanced back at Quinn, deep in conversation with Tez. He looked upset, but she waited until his eyes met hers. A blush, her first in a long time, crept over her face, heating it.

  His face softened, and he smiled.

  Her heart skipped several beats and she went to follow her new animal bond, trying to ignore how he made her feel. She had enough problems. She loved Zander, Jasper, and Vincent. Was she really so greedy to want Quinn too?

  Yes. She was. Her heart was greedy enough to take anything it could get.

  28

  Quinn

  Quinn wanted to hate Yasmin. The Druid that saved him and Sawyer was just that: a Druid.

  He didn’t want to trust her.

  He didn’t want to eat with her or see her.

  He was allowed none of those things.

  Quinn and Tez had argued that first hour. Quinn wasn’t foolish enough to attack the male’s mate, Druid or not. He’d just lost a fight with a Druid and wasn’t keen on losing a second with one who had a powerful healer for a mate. Husband. They had used husband. Married, bound together.

  Quinn had never heard of a Druid doing such a human thing. Marriage. His mother never had. Other Druids he knew never had. He’d also never met a Druid that lived with other people like this. He’d grown up in a region where the closest other humans were miles away, unwilling to go so far north to see the Druids unless it was short summer months.

  Sawyer liked her too, this Yasmin, the married Druid.

  Now, he was watching her play with the black jaguar. Sombra. A good name for the feline. Sawyer and the jaguar were wrestling, and the cat slowly swatted at Sawyer’s head, in a very non-threatening way.

  He forgot about the Druid and just watched his female play with the missing piece of her soul, entranced by the sight.

  His.

  He touched his lips and pondered what had happened. He knew what a k
iss was - that wasn’t what had him shocked.

  It was his first one. No one had ever given him one before. It was too intimate a gesture for him and Elijah. His previous encounters with lovers had never been close.

  She’d kissed him, though, which meant she had feelings for him. Which meant he needed to decide what to do about her. Did he offer himself? He wasn’t sure. Elijah was easy. Get him turned on and that was all that was needed. It wasn’t tied up in other problems.

  So Quinn just stood there, watching the sun go down, and her play with Sombra. Shade and Scout stayed close to him, also observing. They liked Sombra. They had found her three days into their trip into the jungle and she had taught them different things about the area behind his and Sawyer’s backs. It also had widened the search area for the Druid.

  Not like that had mattered. The bitch had still taken them by surprise.

  His pack. Only he and Sawyer were here.

  “Sawyer,” he called out. “We need to talk.”

  “I know,” she called back. “But we’re not allowed to leave for at least another day, Quinn. Yasmin and Tez made it clear.”

  He growled at her and she bared her teeth, which made Sombra snarl at him. Quinn didn’t react, but he wasn’t going to pick a fight with the jaguar either, so he dropped his gaze respectfully. He’d win, but the scars over his chest were a stark reminder of what a jaguar could do to him in the meantime.

  He knew Sawyer was right. When they ate lunch, Tez had explained that he had healed them, but they wouldn’t be ready to travel for a day, at least. He wanted to make sure the snake bite on Sawyer’s leg wasn’t going to lead to more problems. He wanted to know Quinn as well. He’d met others like them, children of Druids. They were apparently common in the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon.

  Quinn stomped down to Sawyer and looked down at her laying on the earth with Sombra to her side. “We should still talk.”

  “I’m not ready,” she answered.

  “What?” Quinn frowned at her.

  “I left them to find you. They could be dead. I don’t know and I’m not ready for it.” He heard the tiny shake in her voice, one she was nearly perfect at hiding.