by RJ Blain
The donkey sighed, turned around, and splashed into the mud on the other side of me. “Why not? Mud’s good for my complexion anyway.”
I stretched out, found a spot shallow enough I could rest my head on my paws without inhaling any of the muck, and made myself comfortable. In a way, I appreciated my inability to speak as a tiger. It made listening easy, and I could relax without needing to answer unwanted questions.
“You should probably start with the whole name issue. It’s really tiresome having to avoid using her name, Cleo. Anatoly’s tying himself in emotional knots, and if he snaps, we’ll have to heal a lot of mauled, half-dead idiots who are enjoying yanking his tail too much for their own good.”
I flattened my ears and snorted while I twitched the tip of my tail. I considered lashing it from side to side, but the amount of mud weighing down my fur convinced me it was wasted effort.
“While Runs Against Wind is a very fitting name for you and well-earned, we all know you’re Jesse, and most of us have known since you delivered that horse to Blossom. None of us said anything because you’ve had enough shit to deal with without us adding to your problems. Some of us were a bit slower to figure it out, but there you have it. So, before you go running off in a panic, everyone also knows about your side occupation. If they wanted to do anything about it, turn you in for a bounty, or otherwise act against you, they would have already.”
I turned to Henry and stared at him with wide eyes, tense and ready to leap out of the muck and bolt at the first sign of trouble. Holding my breath hurt, but I didn’t dare make a sound or move a single muscle.
“It’s true.” Henry lifted his hand free of the mud and gave my flank a solid slap. “If you run, the idiots will chase you, and it’ll cause a national incident—another one. Please don’t run. I’m too tired and achy to chase you, and if I let you make a break for freedom, they’ll crucify me. I don’t think any of them have any intention of letting you slip through the cracks this time.”
I wanted to believe him, but the doubts I’d harbored for so long rose to the surface, and the memory of stabbing Abraham Adams over, and over, and over refused to leave me in peace. Unable to reply, I huffed and dropped my head to my paws, although I couldn’t force myself to relax.
“This is going better than I expected. She hasn’t run yet.” Cleo reached over and pressed his finger to my nose. “Jesse, no one blames you for you taking off when you did. Hell, they practically told you to do it and gave you the opportunity just to see if you would. Of course, they didn’t expect the mayor’s daughter to be so enthusiastic about joining forces with you, but I consider it a lesson learned. What we didn’t expect was how damned good you are at disappearing. After the first few months, when everyone realized if they wanted to find you they’d have to pull out every weapon in their arsenal, we started making bets.”
I lifted my head and stared at the donkey mystic, one ear perked forward while the other twisted back, offended they had made bets about me but also curious about what they were betting on and why. While I understood Todd placing bets, as mercenaries enjoyed a challenge, why would Anatoly join the betting?
Cleo placing bets came as no surprise. Few were more stubborn than a donkey, and once they got an idea in their head, they didn’t understand how to quit until they got what they wanted. Then again, I went out of my way to breed the most stubborn donkeys I could find to the foulest tempered horses on the planet.
“Well, she hasn’t run yet. Looks like I owe Todd twenty,” Henry complained.
I whipped my head around and grabbed his shirt in my teeth, careful to avoid his skin. Mauling a mystic would have ugly repercussions, no matter how tempted I was to give him a scar or two as a reminder to watch his mouth. I growled and tugged. Henry’s shirt tore under the abuse.
Henry chuckled. “I don’t think she likes us betting on what she’ll do.”
“What gave you that idea?” Cleo reached over, jammed his muddy fingers into my mouth, and jabbed my gums until I released Henry’s clothing. “It gives the worrywarts something to do, Jesse. Trust me when I say I’m very, very tired of dealing with worrywarts, especially the striped one convinced the sky is falling.”
“They’ve all had rather short tempers lately. Every time we thought we’d found your trail, we lost it, right up until the Hope Diamond burst. When we reached the area, all we found was that tiny horse, which we assumed belonged to you since she had a faint hint of your scent on her. Oh, and your broken katana. At that point, Todd decided he’s had enough, shifted, and bolted for Fort Lauderdale, figuring your kidnappers would have taken you to the city. After Todd left, we found the bodies. More accurately, your horse found the bodies washed up on the beach. For such a sick little mare, she rather enthusiastically attacked the corpses. There’s only one tigress I know who has an affinity with horrible animals.”
I turned to Cleo, inhaled, and roared my disapproval of his slandering of my horses.
Anatoly emerged from the pavilion and snarled at the mystic. “What did you do, donkey?”
“He told her she kept company with horrible animals.”
Cleo snorted. “Suck up.”
“I just don’t want to get mauled by tigers today, Cleo. You should be a bit more worried. Anatoly likes me. You’re just an appetizer.”
Anatoly sighed and turned around. “Hey, Gentry? Todd? The mystics are playing in the mud, and they seem to have taken leave of their senses.”
Cleo laughed. “You can call her by her name. She knows you know, and she didn’t even try to run.”
“You both owe me twenty,” Todd called from within the pavilion.
I surged out of the mud, pounced on Cleo, and snapped my teeth at him, planting my front paws on his shoulders. The donkey yelped, sinking deeper into the mud.
Since I was well aware tigers had rough tongues, I licked him from chin to brow, pressing as hard as I could. The donkey thrashed beneath me and turned his head. “Damn it, not the tongue! Not the tongue!”
I unsheathed my claws, pressing until I could feel the pressure of his skin, careful not to dig in. Once I secured him, I gave him a second lick.
“All right, Jesse. Don’t flay the skin off him. I know he can be obnoxious, but he did help put you back together.” Henry lurched out of the mud, wrapped his arm around my throat, and pulled hard enough the Hope Diamond’s necklace dug into my skin. I relented, but not before I hooked my claws in Cleo’s shirt and ripped the fabric.
“You tore my shirt.”
Todd emerged from the pavilion and crossed his arms over his chest. “Better the clothes than you. Stop whining, Cleo. I’m sure you deserved it. Jesse, you’re an idiot. Get that mud off, get your ass back in here, and come talk like a sensible woman for once in your life. Don’t you even think about running, either.”
I climbed out of the puddle to the driest land I could find and shook, spraying water and mud before heading for the nearest waterway dividing the islets. Anatoly followed me and hissed when he passed the mystics.
Anatoly guided me to where the islet met the sea, and I waded into the surf, rolling and jumping in the water to clean the muck out of my fur. Swimming proved an easier endeavor than I anticipated, and I circled until I no longer dirtied the water with mud.
When I finally emerged, Anatoly approached, smiling down at me.
Shaking and drenching the tiger counted as rude. At his dismayed complaints, I chuffed my amusement and rubbed against his legs, waiting for the right moment to shove my shoulder against him and knock him into the sand.
“What did I do to deserve that?”
Since I couldn’t answer him, I headed in the direction of the pavilions erected in the heart of the islet. He caught up and rested his hand between my shoulders, grabbing a handful of my fur. Even with his shifter strength, he wouldn’t be able to restrain me, not for long. When we reached the temporary shelters, I tilted my head and watched Anatoly.
He pointed at the larger one. “People go ther
e. The other’s for horses and supplies.”
I’d only seen part of the pavilion, but without the drugs hampering me, I realized it was split into numerous sections, offering several private areas and a larger space meant to be shared. Anatoly guided me through a canvas flap, where Todd and Gentry sat cross legged on the canvas-covered ground looking over a map.
“Gentry, mind fetching her some clothes? Todd, give me your cloak. I’ll help her shift, then we can all sit down and have a long talk.”
I braced for the unwanted conversations, including discussing my life in the years I had spent away from Charlotte, what I had planned for my future, and their disappointment in my long captivity. Shame I hadn’t been able to escape or stop the Hope Diamond’s burst welled up and smothered me from within, and I turned my head away so I wouldn’t have to look any of them in the eye.
Anatoly slid his hand to my head between my ears, giving me a brisk rub. “Relax.”
Whirling to face him, I snapped my teeth over his hand and growled, lifting a paw in preparation to strike.
Todd rose to his feet and grabbed his cloak, tossing it over my head. “Maul him later, please. We need him for our talk. Gentry, I’ll take care of the clothes, you find her something to eat so the mystics don’t accuse us of starving her. While you eat, we’ll bring you up to speed.”
The stallion left with Gentry at his heels. Heaving a sigh, Anatoly knelt beside me, adjusting Todd’s cloak over my back and securing the golden chains around me. “On the bright side, you’re shifting a lot faster than you used to. Hurts like hell but it’s over fast, right?”
After what felt like an eternity but couldn’t have been more than a minute or two, I shifted to human, shivering from the fading pain. Gasping, I ended up on my hands and knees, tugging on Todd’s cloak to make sure it kept me covered.
Anatoly took hold of my elbow and hauled me to my feet. “You all right?”
I stared at him, not sure what to say, exhausted to the point I struggled to stay on my feet. My shoulder ached a little, as did my throat. “I’m so tired.”
Anatoly smiled as though everything was okay, as though I hadn’t been responsible for an untold number deaths because I hadn’t prevented the Hope Diamond from bursting. I was baffled he had any reason at all for happiness. I didn’t notice him move until he knocked my legs out from under me. I fell against him with a gasp, and he caught me, hauled me to him, and sat, sprawling me over his lap.
I struggled to pull free, but he pinned me with some help from the cloak.
“You may as well give up. I’m not letting you go. You might escape. You’re very good at escaping, but I caught you fair and square.”
A blush heated my cheeks, and I grabbed Todd’s cloak and made sure it stayed in place. “Anatoly, I need to get dressed.”
“I’m of the opinion that’s not necessary. You’re lovely as you are.”
“Let me go.”
“No, I don’t think so. I like you where I have you.”
I snarled at him in warning, which he ignored. When he refused to release me, I roared in his face. Instead of discouraging him, he hugged me even tighter. “Anatoly!”
“Are you mad enough to bite me yet?”
Sucking in a breath, I twisted around in his arms to stare at his throat, so stunned I couldn’t say a word. He was trying to get me to bite him? “Are you insane?”
Todd stuck his head through the gap in the canvas and threw clothes in my direction. “No, he’s just too manly to admit how much your disappearance frightened him.”
“Todd!” Anatoly roared.
My blush intensified, and I wiggled out of Anatoly’s hold, snatching the fallen clothes. “Go away.”
“We’ll turn around, but we’re not going anywhere. Accept it, Jesse. That’s all you’re getting. If you leave our sight, bad things happen. We’re not taking any chances.”
I waited for them to turn around and changed under Todd’s cloak just in case either one of them decided to sneak a peek. I was dressed when Gentry returned with a platter loaded with grilled fish. “I’ve been informed a well-behaved tigress get to eat as much fish as she wants. If you’re still hungry after this plate, someone will go catch more until you’ve had your fill.”
I devoured every scrap of fish on the platter, pausing long enough to spit bones. A full stomach and a sense of security conspired against me. Within ten minutes, I dozed, leaning against the nearest warm body, which happened to be Todd. For a while, I listened to their voices without hearing a word they said. At one point, Anatoly tried to wake me, but it took too much effort to do more than grunt my displeasure at being disturbed.
I decided I wouldn’t be participating in the discussion, and Todd served me as a living pillow, much to Anatoly’s displeasure. He sat nearby, growled curses, and grabbed my feet, resting them across his lap.
Sleep captured me with gentle hands, and I surrendered willingly.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
After two months of captivity and the mystic healing of my shoulder, no one was surprised when I caught a menagerie of illnesses. If I’d been healthy, Cleo or Henry could have encouraged my body to heal faster, but neither was willing to take the risks required to speed my recovery. Until I gained weight, their magic might hinder more than help, and they worried the consequences would be worse than the illnesses I battled.
I couldn’t remember the trip to Pompano Beach, but I rode Todd, and someone had had the bright idea to coerce the stallion into wearing a saddle to tie me to. From my understanding of the situation, we had both argued against that humility. What sort of courier couldn’t ride a horse, even an egotistical shifter stallion? I wanted to ride one of my horses, but they wouldn’t let me. Todd’s tantrum easily beat mine, and he complained about the insult to his delicate sensibilities at every opportunity.
He refused to shut up until Gentry suggested they hitch the obnoxious stallion to the carriage so we could reach Jacksonville faster.
I swore to never again take a train while ill. The swaying sickened me, and unlike the carriage, where I could beg for mercy and a halt at the side of the road, I had to endure sixteen hours of continuous hell.
Simmons met us at the train station in Charlotte, and I was so relieved to escape my duo of mystics, my trio of overprotective shifters, and Randal I burst into tears and begged Simmons to make them go away. I offended them all, so they stuck around to spite me.
A week or two after arriving in Charlotte, although I hadn’t been issued a clean bill of health, Cleo betrayed me by declaring me coherent enough to handle non-rigorous exercise and abandoned me to the wolves. Only one of them was an actual wolf, and Mayor Longfellow only stopped by long enough to say hello.
I had no idea who had thought the Oval Office would make a good place to stage my interrogation, but I wanted to maul them.
Unfortunately, the likeliest suspect sat behind her desk, and after an uncomfortable glaring match between Gentry, Todd, and Anatoly, she focused on her brother with a frown and an arched brow. “I don’t suppose you’d care to explain why my desk has been littered with complaints that you three have been making complete and utter nuisances of yourselves around here? You have your own homes. Go live in them.”
“Wife’s orders,” Gentry replied, grinning without any sign of concern. “She said, and I quote, ‘If you even think of leaving that little girl unattended, you will live to regret it.’ I’m a smart man, Steph. When my wife issues ultimatums, I know better than to argue with her.”
“Don’t you have a job you should be doing?”
“I used to, but my wife stole it. I’m sure she’ll get tired of browbeating the guild eventually and let me back in. I tried to go to work yesterday. My own mercenaries kicked me out. My wife escorted me back here, poking me in the ribs with her sword every step of the way.”
“You disgust me. What about you two? Todd, why don’t you go first?”
“Hey, don’t look at me. I’ve been going to my guild every
day, and I even sleep at home. I just visit. Ask your goons. They’ll verify it. So I may have kicked down a door once when they wouldn’t let me in, but that’s not my fault. If they had opened the door, I wouldn’t have had to kick it down. I did you a favor. You learned the door could be kicked down. You should be thanking me.”
The President pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I now remember why I try to avoid allowing you three to inhabit the same space for any length of time. Alone, you’re insufferable. Together? Putting up with you should classify as cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Amen to that,” I muttered.
Anatoly hissed at me, Todd snorted, and Gentry glowered, crossing burly his arms over manly his chest.
“Let’s hear it, Anatoly. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I haven’t talked her into biting me yet, Madam President. I’m working on it. I’m optimistic she’ll be more receptive to my advances when she’s feeling better. I’ve been hoping annoying her into biting would work, but I may have to change my tactics.”
The President sighed again. “I should have you all kicked out and tossed into the lake.”
“To be fair, Sam told me I had better things to do than bother him, and he asked me to kindly find something to do with myself until he needed me. For some reason, none of the feline clans have anything they want me to address right now. It’s like someone went out of their way to clear my schedule so I could grace your home with my presence.”
I glanced over at the First Gentleman, who was perched on the edge of the President’s desk. “That wasn’t very nice of you.”
“How dare I ruin my reputation as a sweet, gentle, kind man. So terrible of me. Drink your tea and stop whining, or I’ll assign him as your primary babysitter for the next week. I’m sure he’ll love having to wear an earpiece and report in until we’re back. For some reason, your real detail is more than a little edgy over any potential reassignments.”
I grimaced at the reminder of Abraham and Edmund Fitzgerald’s treachery. In the silence following the First Gentleman’s words, I weighed the advantages and disadvantages of the offer. Of the trio of hovering shifters, Anatoly was the least likely to treat me like glass. His favorite hobby involved goading me into violence in the hope I’d bite him, which drove Randal and Simmons to the brink of insanity.