by Bonnie Vanak
Sienna brushed a soft kiss against Gabriel’s forehead. “Thank you for teaching me.”
His eyes flew open as she started to climb out of bed. “Leaving me so soon, pixie?”
Guilt flushed her. She turned and regarded him solemnly. “I must return to Cael and my duties.” Giving a tremendous sigh, she shook her head. “And report myself to the Elven Enforcer. Both she and Cael need to know of these new circumstances.” A dim hope filled her. “Maybe she won’t order my punishment if she knows I can control this and I helped you clean up the Everglades.”
“And will you return to me?”
Stricken, she felt her heart twist in pure anguish. “I can’t Gabriel. You’re panther and I’m Elven. We’re two different species and I can’t see how it would work out between us.”
Gaze solemn, he sat up. The sheet spilled to his lean waist. She sucked in a breath, desire slamming into her again at the sight of his magnificent, muscled body. She’d felt every inch of him as he’d loved her long into the night.
It was a memory she’d take with her when she left.
“Samantha, the daughter of Cael, is half-Elf and half-Lupine. She’s making it work with Darius,” he told her.
“But Sam had to choose to stay with Darius and his pack. She chose her wolf side. I am not a hybrid.” Emotion clogged her throat. “I don’t belong here with you and your people. You’re shifters and there is no place for an Elf among you, especially an Elf who isn’t accepted by her own people. You belong with your clan and I belong to…”
To a people who used her, but would never respect her and cherish her as Gabriel had, as his shifter friends had.
She expected protests, arguments, but he only kept studying her, his expression impassive. Then he reached out and took her hand, his thumb stroking over her skin, making her boneless with need all over. Gabriel’s touch scrambled her brain cells and switched off her resolve. But it was more than being skin to skin with this shifter. He saw into the heart of her, and carried her dreams when she thought she had no dreams left inside.
Biting her lip, she willed away the tears springing to her eyes. She didn’t want to leave him.
But she must.
“Stay another day. There’s something important you need to know before you leave. And someone I’d like you to meet.”
Sienna felt a prick of curiosity. He looked so solemn. “Who? Someone special?”
“My father.” Gabriel took a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know about my parents.”
Two hours later, they were in Gabriel’s truck headed south. Gabriel’s hands trembled on the steering wheel. When he’d called his father, Dave sounded eager to meet Sienna.
He had never brought anyone to meet his father. He’d only told Sienna his father had been a pureblood panther shifter.
He’d never spoken of his Elven mother. Not that bitch. Gabriel’s throat clogged with emotion.
At a small community park, he parked and shut off the truck’s motor. Gabriel slid out and opened Sienna’s door for her, clasping her hand as he escorted her to the park entrance. They walked along the paved trail wending around the marsh. Sunlight glinted the water as a great blue heron fished among the vegetation. Strangler figs, live oak and ficus trees ringed the lake, their leafy branches providing welcome shade.
“It’s very pretty, despite that it’s in the middle of the city.” She pointed to the houses ringing the park. “Your father lives here amid all the Skins?”
“He grew up here, long before urban sprawl. This once was a settlement belonging to Seminole Indians. My father was born here, lived here even after the Seminoles were attacked and fled in 1841.”
He thrust his hands into his pockets. “We panthers are creatures of habit, who seldom leave our areas of birth. Dad owned land around Florida and sold some acres he didn’t want to developers so he could hold on to the land our clan needed to hunt. When the area changed around him, he bought a house nearby so he could stay here. The county purchased the land in 1992 and preserved it.”
When they reached the lake’s south side, Gabriel guided her toward a bench beneath the branches of a sprawling live oak tree. A man sat there, his dark hair shot through with silver, his eyes a deep green.
“Hi Dad.”
“Son.” His father looked curiously at Sienna. “Is this her? The Elf you mentioned on the phone?”
Sienna stuck out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
His father smiled. “I’m Dave. Just Dave, no sir. Is my boy treating you well?”
She gave Gabriel an amused glance as he shuffled his feet, feeling ten years old again. “Your boy is treating me very well.”
Dave gave her a level look. “You staying long, Sienna?”
Pushing back a lock of long hair, she sighed. “I have to return to my people by tomorrow.”
“And you won’t be back.”
Gabriel scuffed a boot against the pavement, uneasy at the question because he hated hearing the answer.
“Probably not.” Her look at Gabriel was filled with sorrow.
“Did he tell you anything about me?” Dave leaned forward, his hands braced on his knees. “Anything about his mother?”
She shook her head.
“Ah. Give us a minute alone, will you, young lady?”
Sienna looked amused. “Of course. But I’m fifty years old. Hardly young.”
“When you’ve seen more than four hundred years, fifty is a spit in the bucket,” Dave said dryly.
As Sienna wandered the paved walkway, studying the marshlands and the birds, Gabriel waited for his father to speak his mind. His dad was thoughtful and liked to take his time. He supposed it was a side effect of living alone for so long.
One reason I formed my own clan. I couldn’t bear the solitude as he has.
He’d grown up here amid the marsh and the trees. Now it was a small preserve, surrounded by concrete homes and shopping centers. The park was a haven, but too small for his taste.
“You didn’t tell her about your mother.” Dave sounded accusatory.
“I’m trying. Give me credit.” Gabriel sat and stretched out his long legs. “It’s not easy, Dad. It was an effort to bring her here to meet you.”
“Because you’re ashamed of me?”
He shook his head. “Never. But once she met you, she’d ask about my mother. And that’s something I can’t tell her. Not yet.”
“If you’re involved with her, Sienna has a right to know your background.”
Gabriel rubbed the back of his head. He didn’t like discussing this. Talking about his mother always made him uneasy. He looked around the peaceful scenery and changed the subject.
“Why didn’t you ever leave this area? You own land around the state, you could have moved on.”
“I met your mother here.” Dave smiled, and his eyes held a dreamy, distant look of memory. “You were conceived beneath this tree.”
And you waited and waited for her to return after I was born, but she went back to her people. Gabriel looked up at Sienna, a small dot in the distance. Just as Sienna would return to her people. His chest tightened.
“Why Dad? Why have you spent your entire life here, wasting away, waiting for a woman who would never return to be with you?”
Dave’s smile faded. “Is that what you think of my life, son? That it’s a waste?”
“No, I didn’t…”
“I have my friends here, my Skin friends and space to release my panther to hunt at night. It’s been a good life. And I have you. For that alone, I will always be grateful.”
Gabriel rubbed his chin. “Tell me about your friends.”
“I have many shifter friends. Family of foxes live two doors away from me, and there’s a nice young couple, Wyldings as well. Red-shouldered hawk shifters. Few others. We all hunt here at night with me, small game, like mice and rats.”
“No unusual magick?”
At his father’s frown, Gabriel explained what
happened with Willow. His father rubbed his chin.
“Wish you would have come to me for help. Had I known you were in trouble…”
“I handled it.”
A faint smile touched his father’s mouth. “Stubborn, my Gabriel. Always were. We weren’t affected by the dark enchantment. Nothing can touch this land. These acres have been protected by Fae magick since the 1940s. Powerful magick.”
“Who cast the spell?”
“Someone powerful. Your mother reinforced it. We used to meet here in secret all the time, and for a while when you were born. She worried this area would be developed, and cast a spell on it to honor the Seminoles.” He grinned. “It’s one reason why the Skins realized its historical importance. And why no bad juju can infest it. Your mom wanted it as a safe haven for all shifters.”
Dave gave him a meaningful look. “She also wanted it as a place where she felt welcome to come and visit you.”
His heart hammered against his chest. Gabriel cursed softly. “Screw that. I’d want to meet with her as much as I’d want to throw myself into the spring of Danu.”
“Watch it, son. She’s still your mother.”
No, the woman didn’t deserve the title.
Dave sighed. “I kept hoping one day you’d understand why she did what she did. She came here at times to escape Fae politics. And left because she grew lonely for her people.”
He jerked a thumb at Sienna, who squatted by the pond and filled a test tube with water. “Same reason why your gal there won’t stay unless she knows exactly what you are and how you’re half Elf, too. Fae like to stick to their own kind.”
Gabriel’s chest felt hollow and he rubbed it, wishing he could ease the ache in his heart. Sienna would not stay, despite his dual nature. He knew it.
“My mother was wrong to do what she did.”
Dave leaned forward, hands on his knees, his expression earnest. “Your mother did what she thought was right.”
“I’m a damn biological experiment.” Gabriel fisted his hands. “All because she wanted to continue a dying species.”
“Don’t you dare question your existence or your mother’s reasons. Or mine. I knew what I was doing. You were wanted, Gabriel. Your mother did see your birth as a way to continue our species. We were dying and needed hope. Dying faster than the real Florida panthers. When you were born, my family rejoiced. Your birth gave us purpose and hope.”
“And left me a mixed breed, never accepted among my mother’s people.” Bitterness clogged his throat.
Dave sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. “Your birth marked you as half light Elf, half panther shifter. But you were meant to make your home among the swamp and the trees. Even if the royal Fae accepted you, do you seriously think you’d be happy with all their pomp, circumstance and rules?”
Gabriel realized his father had a good point. “No. But it would have been nice to have had acceptance by her people. To at least know I had that option. I don’t. I’m not regretting my life.”
But he would regret it if Sienna left him again. How the hell could he convince her to stay?
Dave pushed off the bench. “Come and walk with me, son.”
They strolled along the pathway, studying the water. Throat tight with emotion, Gabriel struggled to speak.
“My mother never loved me.”
Dave shook his head. “She loved you very much, Gabriel. Enough to let you go and allow me to raise you.”
“Because she’d never lower herself to raise a son who is a beast shifter.”
He thought of Sienna and her high regard for Wyldings. Unlike his mother, Sienna never looked down her nose at other species.
“I asked her to stay away, so I could raise you to be an individual.” Dave halted before a tall live oak tree. “I knew that when you went to the king’s court to see her and press your right to be accepted, that it was a mistake.”
Bitterness engulfed him. “She did not plead my case. She’s the one who advised me to leave.”
“Because your place isn’t with the Elven, son. It’s here, among us, among the swamp and the wildness.” Dave glanced over his shoulder. “But if you wish to talk to your mother, now’s your opportunity.”
“My mother’s here?”
“She will be soon. I asked for Lana to come here.”
The stately Royal Enforcer for King Cael would be present for only one reason and it had nothing to do with him. She wanted Sienna’s ass…
“Dammit! Why must you interfere?” He pushed a hand through his hair, trying to control his rage, wanting to shake sense into his father. Dave did not live in the cold, harsh reality of Sienna’s domain.
Frowning, Dave shook his head. “Calm down, Gabriel. She’s your mother and you haven’t seen her since you were born.”
“And I’d be happy to go another sixty years without a visit!”
“I’m doing this for you,” Dave said mildly. “I want to talk with her about finding a way to release you from your role as guardian of the spring. It’s too much a burden on you. I want to talk to her about your future, a future I assume will have Sienna in it.
His father had good intentions, but the timing sucked. “If my wonderful mother doesn’t have the Crimson Wizard fry Sienna’s ass first.”
Dave looked intrigued. “Why would the Crimson Wizard do that?”
But there was no time to assuage Dave’s curiosity. Panic clogged Gabriel’s throat as a beautiful, pale woman with dark gold hair, same as his own, materialized on the paved trail. Dressed in a flowing peacock blue gown with bell sleeves, a girdle of silver roping her slim waist, she looked ageless. A tall, handsome man dressed in crimson and gold appeared beside her. The tips of his gold hair were dipped in red.
His mother, Lana, the royal Enforcer, stood on the trail with Gideon, the Crimson Wizard.
His heart dropped to his churning stomach. “My mother isn’t here for a conversation with you, Dad. She’s here in her duty as King Cael’s Enforcer. She’s going to judge Sienna and drag her back to the Fae. Or worse.”
Gods, he’d hoped to avoid this, hoped to stall for time and beg mercy for Sienna. But he knew his mother and her absolutes. There was no murky grayness. She was the lady of Light and only the truth sufficed.
You self-righteous bitch. He clenched his fists, not speaking a word of greeting.
His mother glanced at him and smiled. Her smile faded as she headed for Sienna.
Damn them. They would not do this to his Sienna. He’d tear them apart with fangs and claws before anyone laid a hand on her.
Claws erupted from his hands. Snarling, he let the change take him, and shifted into panther.
And went charging down the path to protect the Elf he loved.
Sienna sensed the great stir of power in the air before she spotted them. Sweat popped out on her forehead as an icy chill skated down her spine. She flattened herself against the trunk of a shady ficus tree, wishing her glamour could disguise her.
Lana and Gideon, the Crimson Wizard. The last time she’d faced them both, pain had become her constant companion.
Immobilized, she stared helplessly. A snarl drew her attention to the left.
In panther form, Gabriel raced forward. He skidded to a halt before her, shielding her with his big, muscular body, and roared at the pair. Her heart melted at his fierce protectiveness. No one ever stood up for her before.
Gideon raised a hand and Sienna knew the wizard would strike Gabriel. She crouched down before the panther, sliding her arms around his neck. “He doesn’t mean it. He’s only trying to protect me.”
Sienna whispered into the big cat’s furry ear. “Please, I can handle this. Stand down.”
He hissed, but retreated a few steps, sitting on his haunches.
Standing, she addressed the royal Enforcer, the female who would decide her fate. Lana was neutral and emotionless. But perhaps this time, she’d listen to reason and judge fairly. Fear slid down her spine in an icy caress, but she managed to lift h
er chin and square her shoulders. She would not allow Lana to intimidate her.
“I found an alternative means to eradicating the darkness inside me, Lana.” Sienna gathered all her self-confidence. “I did not need the spring of Danu. I found a new means to control Terithen’s dark power.”
She glanced at Gabriel. “I violated my vow of celibacy again, but through sexually bonding with Gabriel, I found the means to turn the dark magick into a force for good.”
Lana blinked, then tilted her head as if listening intently. “You did not follow our king’s instructions. He told you to cleanse yourself and eliminate the dark magick, not control it. You were told to remain celibate and you violated your vow. You must be punished according to law.”
“The spring of Danu is putrid. It’s turned to an acid bath. I will not end my life,” she shot back, fighting the urge to shake the Enforcer and make her see reason for once.
But there was no understanding, no mercy in those green eyes. The lady of Light might as well be a robot.
“You know the punishment for disobedience, dark Elf. Thirty lashes and permanent banishment from court and our colony. Punishment will take place immediately.”
Stunned, she reeled back in her heels. Banished from her own people because she refused to kill herself? What about the good she’d done?
“I’m not dark,” Sienna protested.
“You are in my eyes,” Lana replied. “You always will be.”
Sienna glared at Lana. “Gabriel was right. You are a bitch.”
Surprise flickered across Lana’s face. Then she waved a hand. “Crimson Wizard, I entreat you to punish this wayward subject. Here and now.”
Sienna paled. Punishment she could take. Brutal pain she would survive. But in front of Gabriel, risking his life by making his panther attack whoever hurt her?
“Can we not do this back home?”
Gideon spoke up. “No.”
Shifting back to his human form, Gabriel stepped before Sienna. “You will not touch her, you bastards.”
“It’s all right, Gabriel. Please, go with your dad now. I’ll be fine. But I can’t….” Her voice broke. “I don’t want you to see this.”