Redeeming Rue AP4

by R. E. Butler

  Aaron said, “You’re our brothers’ mate, and that means you’re family. One thing you’ll figure out really quickly with our pride is that once a mate is claimed, she becomes part of the pride in a heartbeat.”

  “I’m not claimed,” Rue said.

  Sam’s brow arched. “You have marks on your neck.”

  Rue’s hand covered one of the marks and she blushed. “Oh, right.”

  James growled softly, and John frowned. She couldn’t have forgotten about them marking her neck. It hadn’t been a traditional marking – they hadn’t been making love and marked her in the throes of passion – but that didn’t make the marks any less binding in John’s mind. She was their mate. Period.

  Aaron’s brows raised but he said nothing, reaching to Sam and tugging her back. “I need to get to the station, love.”

  While Aaron and Sam seemed to forget that there were other people in the room as they began their goodbye kiss, John tugged Rue’s hand and led her out of the kitchen and into the large family room. The flat screen TV that hung over the fireplace was turned off for a change, and all three couches were full of kids.

  On one of the couches, a large white panther was stretched out, and Henry sat next to him, his head resting on his hand and his eyes closed in sleep. Aaron’s and Grant’s kids played quietly on iPads.

  Owen looked up when they walked into the room and whispered, “We’re watching over them so they can sleep.”

  It never ceased to amaze John how caring mountain lions were. It wasn’t a learned behavior; it was just their way. At least for the males, anyway. The females were an entirely different story; one that he and James needed to apprise Rue of at some point.

  Rue sank down to her knees in front of Dom and gently placed her hands on his fur. John was pleased to see that most of his wounds had healed without leaving scars. There were some marks that remained even after the shifting. He wasn’t sure if Dom could continue to shift and heal, or if he was going to be stuck with scars. The important thing wasn’t the scars that would be left behind, but that Dom had survived.

  John brushed his fingers through Henry’s hair and his eyes popped open. “Oh, hey,” Henry said, stretching and yawning.

  “How are you doing?” John asked.

  “Okay.” He glanced at Dom. “He’s okay now.”

  As if Dom knew he was being talked about, the big cat rolled onto his back with a purr and kicked his feet against Henry’s shoulder. Henry laughed and shoved back. “Stop putting your paws on me, man.”

  Dom snorted, his whiskers twitching under blue eyes that sparkled with mischief. He rolled to his feet and slipped down to the floor, stretching first and shaking himself out, before butting his head against Rue’s shoulder.

  “Hey, baby,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.

  Dom yowled and rubbed against her shoulder once more before he padded away behind one of the couches. There were some pained grunts and a few soft curses, and then a young male with short, white hair stood up behind the couch. A scar ran diagonally down his chest, stopping at his navel, and another scar seemed to wrap around his waist to his back, but otherwise, he seemed healthy.

  Henry stood and grabbed a pile of clothes from the coffee table and tossed them to Dom. Dom dressed and Henry said, “Micah brought clothes for Dom earlier.”

  “That was nice of him,” John said.

  “He was naked,” Ben said, shaking his head. “Mom said that was not okay.”

  Rue looked up at John from where she still knelt on the floor. “Mom?”

  “Sam is their mom,” James answered, “Technically step-mom, but we don’t split hairs here.”

  She stood and turned to watch Dom tug a shirt over his head before she passed between the couches to stand in front of her son. There was only a brief moment of silence before they hugged, and Rue began to whisper I’m sorry over and over. John wanted to go hold her tightly and promise that nothing like that would ever happen again, but he didn’t want to intrude on their time.

  John turned toward the younger kids and shooed them out of the room to give Rue and Dom privacy. Not that he and James had any intention of going anywhere, and neither, apparently, did Henry.

  When their hug ended, Rue brushed tears from her cheeks and sniffled with a smile up at her son. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I went ten rounds with a whip,” he said wryly.

  Henry snorted from where he sat on the couch. Dom looked at him and said, “Thank you, brother.”

  For a heartbeat, Rue frowned so fiercely at her son that John would have winced to have that look directed at himself. Why didn’t she like Dom and Henry calling each other brother? Rue smiled sweetly at Henry, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thank you.”

  Henry frowned, but didn’t say anything.

  Tense silence followed for a long moment and then Dom said, “Mom, aren’t you going to introduce me?”

  She blushed and cleared her throat. “Sure. Domino, this is James and John Fallon. I think you know John’s son, Henry.”

  Dom strode over to them and extended his hand. James shook it first and then John did. Dom tilted his head and smiled lopsidedly, and then he grabbed John in a hug. “Doesn’t feel right shaking hands. Henry told me that you guys were going to take the whipping meant for my mom. Thank you.”

  John hugged him back and then released him, watching him hug James. “It would have been our honor to stand in both of your places.”

  Dom looked between James and John and then said, “Because we’re family.”

  Before John could agree with him, Rue hissed, “Dom!”

  Dom looked both confused and guilty as he turned to face his mom. “What?”

  “We need to talk, honey.”

  James growled and John echoed the sound. What was she planning to talk to her son about?

  “Henry, why don’t you take Dom into the kitchen and let him raid the fridge?” James suggested.

  Dom’s face lit up at the prospect of food, and he and Henry walked out together. As he watched the two males walk away, John was surprised at how quickly the two had taken to each other. They really did seem like brothers, even though they didn’t physically look like each other. When the mountain lion males had started pairing up to share a mate, John had wondered what would happen to Henry, because he was the odd one out of the kids. Aaron and Grant had five kids between them, and even though they were still fairly young, they had seemed to take to pairing up lately, as if they were already choosing the male they would share a mate with. James’ son, Alek, had wondered who he would share a mate with, or if being alone meant that he would never have a mate to share, but he’d found his mate in were-bear Lachlyn and Lachlyn’s were-bear lover, Jericho. Jericho and Alek acted like brothers now, sharing Lachlyn and taking care of her.

  Some lions didn’t share, though. He supposed that sharing a mate wasn’t a rule necessarily so much as a choice or a feeling that it was right to share. He hadn’t really given much thought to sharing a mate until James mentioned it after his disastrous date. Now, though, he couldn’t imagine being with Rue without James sharing in their lives together. Of course they had to convince her to stay with them. Judging by her reaction to Dom’s declaration that they were now family, John imagined that might be a more difficult task than he’d originally believed.

  “I should go take care of Dom,” Rue said, stiffly. She attempted to walk by them, but James snagged her arm and pulled her between them.

  “He’s fine. We need to talk,” James said sternly.

  Her whole body went rigid, and she narrowed her eyes at the two of them. “Let me go. I want to take care of my son.”

  James shook his head. “Do you really think he’s not safe here? What is it going to take for you to realize that you’re safe and free?”

  She smiled, but not in a friendly way. “How about you let me go? Then I’ll feel free.”

  John decided to try to be a little less hard-edged than James. J
ames had a tendency to act like a bulldozer sometimes, when he was trying to do what he thought was best for the people he cared about. “Rue, your former clan is gone. No one in this house, or anywhere else, cares that you have white hair or that your cat is albino. You are absolutely free to do whatever you’d like with your life.”

  “I know that,” she said irritably, tugging on her arm but finding James’ hold unrelenting.

  “What do you want?” John asked.

  “I want to feel safe and I don’t.”

  “How can we help with that?”

  “You can’t. It’s my brain that’s not registering the truth of the situation. I know what Race said, and I understand what he’s done to give me back my life and mine and Dom’s future, but I’ve been on the run for a long time. I’m not just going to do a one-eighty and be all sunshine and roses.”

  James snorted. “We don’t want you to be fake for our benefit, but we don’t want you rushing off trying to protect yourself and Dom. The threat is gone, but even if it wasn’t, we aren’t going to let anything hurt you or your son. I know that us asking for your trust, when you don’t know us very well is difficult, but we’re asking you to trust your cat. She knows that we are your mates and that we will keep you safe. Let down your defenses and relax.”

  She opened her mouth and then closed it, sighing loudly. “Give me time. I can’t flip a switch and suddenly be different.”

  John took a step closer to her, and the sweet natural scent of her skin made his cat purr. He brushed his fingers down her arm and captured her hand, twining their fingers together. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the top, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. “We’ve got the rest of our lives, Rue, so there’s no rush for anything. What’s happening between us can go at your pace. Just don’t shut us out.”

  She smiled wanly. “You’re dangerous, John Fallon.”

  * * * * *

  If Rue was going to find a way to get her and Dom on the road back to Michigan so they could move to Canada, she was going to have her work cut out for her. The two males seemed intent on staying very close to her.

  As they seemed to be engaging in some kind of stare-down, she considered her options. The odds of them just relaxing their guard and letting her skip out of the house with Dom in tow seemed slim to none, at least for the moment. She’d have to wait until they were asleep and sneak out that way.

  “Where is my rental car?”

  James raised a brow. “It’s at the repair shop in town getting the window fixed.”

  She blinked in surprise. “I was just going to return it and pay for the damages, since I didn’t pay for the insurance.”

  John, who was still holding her hand like it was made of glass, said, “It’s cheaper for us to get it fixed first. Holden and Jax work at a garage in town, and they’re handling it personally.”

  “When it’s fixed, we’ll go with you to your home and help you pack up your things,” James said. She turned her head to look at him. The soft set of his mouth — almost a smile — made her feel as though he found the whole situation humorous, but the serious look in his eyes told her that he dared her to figure a way to get free of them.

  “The hotel…”

  “Hunter, Chase, and Dylan went to the hotel and packed up everything that had been left behind and brought it here. They also paid the bill,” James said.

  She tried very hard not to show the disappointment that she was feeling at her inability to just walk away right now. If she didn’t get away, she was going to do something stupid like fall in love with them. Then she’d let down her guard, and something horrible would happen. She also recognized that if she just sat around looking like she was planning to escape, they were never going to give her the opportunity to actually escape. So she would play along for now. Eventually, she’d get the rental car back, and she and Dom would be able to take off. Her cat yowled in distress, but she ignored the sounds as she thanked James and John for taking care of her loose ends and asked if they could find Dom in the house.

  * * * * *

  When James woke Monday morning, he half expected to find Rue gone and the bed cold, so it was a surprise to find her tucked securely between him and John. He was hopeful she actually was starting to let down her guard a little bit. He wasn’t really sure what to do. Although he’d tried to woo his sons’ mother into a relationship, it had been a study in futility. Mountain lion females were devoid of emotion, and the mother of his sons was no different. She had only agreed to have children with him and refused any other sort of relationship. She left the hospital as soon as possible after the children were born and rejected any type of contact with them.

  James had thought he was going to spend the rest of his life alone, and then they’d come to Ashland where he’d had the chance to date and meet women who actually wanted to be in a relationship. Not that he’d had any luck, but at least he’d been out there. He didn’t want to just date Rue, or just make love to her; he wanted to have everything with her, be everything to her.

  He looked down at her as she slept, her lips parted slightly and her lashes casting shadows on her cheeks. Her pure white hair made her look like an angel, and her curvy body made his mouth water. Peering at the side of her neck, he looked at the mark he’d made, but he didn’t feel pride filling him so much as worry that it didn’t mean anything to her.

  After Dom woke, Rue had seemed determined to take off, but he and John had taken precautions to stop that from happening. Jax and Holden had taken the car and had a glass company replace the window, and it was already fixed and simply stowed at the garage until Rue asked them to take her home so she could pack up her life there and come home with them.

  He knew he was being an ass by not giving her a way to leave immediately, but he thought if she just stayed with them for a little while, she would see she was really safe now and could stop hiding. He felt bad for what she’d endured all those years…alone and afraid, raising a kid without any family support or even a true friend. Everyone in her life was a friend on a superficial level, because she didn’t trust anyone enough to tell the truth about what she was. But he and John knew, and now the pride knew, and no one would hold her identity against her. She’d figure it out. He wasn’t sure how long that would take, but it didn’t matter as long as she was theirs in the end. He’d had a taste of her, been surrounded by her scent for long enough that it was imprinted in his brain forever, and there was no way in hell he was going to let her go.

  Rue rolled over with a yawn and tucked her head against his shoulder. He pressed a kiss to her temple and whispered, “Good morning, sweetheart.”

  She yawned again and it kind of sounded like good morning, which made him smile.

  John stretched next to her and said, “Morning.” He rolled to a seated position, cracked his neck, and then leaned over and kissed Rue on the cheek.

  “I told Henry he could play hooky from school today. I promised him and Dom that I’d take them hunting this morning.”

  Rue sat up so fast that she cracked her head on James’ cheek, and he saw stars for a moment.

  “Ouch, damn it, sorry,” she grumbled, rubbing her forehead.

  “It’s okay,” he promised, rubbing his cheek with his fingers.

  “You’re taking my kid hunting? Why?”

  “Because he asked me to.” He paused for a long moment and then said, “Do I really need to tell you that it’s safe for him to be out in his shift in our territory? The boarding house and the woods around it are part of our territory, and no hunters are allowed on the land. And aside from that, I would never take my own son, or yours, anywhere they might get into trouble. I’m not going to insult myself by asking if you trust me, so you’re just going to have to suck it up.”

  He got out of bed, and Rue rubbed her neck with a groan. “Damn it, John, why do you have to throw guilt onto everything else that I’ve been dealing with? Two days ago I thought I was going to be killed by my clan. Forgive me for being cautious.”


  John tugged his jeans on with jerky motions. “There’s cautious and then there’s insulting. The clan of your childhood is gone. Hanai and Dag’s clan escorted them out of the state, and the other clans that were visiting for the ceremony left yesterday as well. No one cares about the color of your fur anymore, Rue. Race promised that you were free. You have to start trusting someone sometime. You might as well start with your mates.” He stormed out of the room, slamming the door.

  Rue cringed and looked as guilty as hell. James thought that was progress. If she felt something toward them, then hurting John would make her feel bad. It seemed like a start.

  She slipped from the bed and walked over to one of the windows in the bedroom, pulling the cord to open the slats. The bedroom overlooked the backyard, so James assumed she was looking for Dom.

  He watched her as she gazed out at the yard, and to his surprise, a blush seeped into her cheeks. He inhaled silently and caught the scent of her arousal. She watched intently out the window, with the blush sweeping up her neck, and her lips parted slightly.

  James moved off the bed and walked to her. He stopped behind her, the scent of her arousal stronger and sweeter now that he was close. Looking past her, he could see through the open blinds that she was watching John strip and shift.

  “Who is that again? I’ve forgotten their names,” she asked as John stopped undoing his jeans and straightened, talking to a trio who came out into the yard.

  “That’s Melody and her mates Micah and Tristan. She’s a lioness, but she was raised away from females and was never poisoned by them, so she never became the frigid, uncaring creature that the others are.”

  Her posture relaxed slightly, and James wondered if she was jealous of Melody being near John, or if she had seen Melody as a threat. “I don’t understand the curse.”

  James placed his hands on her hips, feeling the heat of her skin through the thin pajama shirt she wore. “A long time ago, a goddess cursed the mountain lions, so that the females would be compelled to claw the young girls three times over the course of their youth. The poison in their claws works to slowly change the girls from sweet and caring to cold and heartless. They really care about nothing except the furtherance of the mountain lion race.”