Heart's Sentinel

by PJ Schnyder

  “Too loud.” He bit off the words.

  “Adam,” she hushed him from behind his protective arm. This wasn't the man she knew. She turned to Stephie as best she could, Adam's hold preventing her from approaching Stephie again. “It wasn't on purpose, how would she know?“ To Stephie, she pitched her voice as calmly as possible. “Stephie, this is Adam. He's a Sentinel with the River Gap Pride.”

  Shock had worn off Stephie's face. Setting fantastic green eyes on him framed in long, bronze lashes, she gave a trembling smile instead. “P-pleased to meet you.”

  The lack of sincerity in her voice tweaked at even Mackenzie's untrained ear and Stephie's scent came across the intervening space as sour miasma of fear and something darker, like the sickly sweet smell of rotting fruit.

  “You didn't have to yank her away.” Stephie pouted. “I've been through the worst experience and I haven't seen Mac in forever. She's my best friend.”

  “You're a danger.” He spared no pity for her.

  “Adam!” Mackenzie turned to him, anger burning from low in her chest and stirring up a growl of her own. There might be something off, but Stephie was her friend.

  “He's right.” Marcus interjected in a cold, flat voice as he came up behind Stephie. She squeaked and scrambled to one side until her back hit the railing on the steps of the porch. “She's a completely untrained shapeshifter, Mackenzie. She has less control than even you do.”

  “No.” She took in Stephie's tear streaked face with growing horror.

  “Her scent gives her away.” Marcus stood with his arms crossed, looking at Stephie. Cold and implacable, he gave no sign of the stern but open man Mackenzie had met a short time ago.

  She tried to sympathize. “Oh, Stephie, I'm so sorry. I thought, I hoped, he hadn't managed to Change you.”

  Stephie started shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around herself and rocked. “Change? Is that what you call this? I'm a freak.”

  Mackenzie felt Adam stiffen. She tried to go to Stephie again, but Adam wouldn't allow it.

  She fell to her knees to meet Stephie eye to eye instead. With everything she had, she projected her voice to calm and soothe. “You're safe now. The pride here will help you, if you ask. They're helping me.”

  “You're not a freak!” Her friend sounded angry, but the way she said it seemed off. “He didn't mark you up and take you as his.”

  “I'm not his.” She agreed, and Adam seemed to ease a tiny bit at those words. “But Van did Change me. He did it without my consent and he's here, hunting me. This is the safest place for you, Stephie, because the River Gap Sentinels won't let him have either of us.”

  “Changed you?” Stephie's delicately arched brows drew together in puzzlement. "Did he?"

  Adam stooped and pulled Mackenzie back up, unable to allow her so close to the other girl. Even if she hadn't heard the anger in her friend’s voice, he couldn't help but smell the girl's rage.

  And he didn't think it was for Mackenzie's sake.

  He caught Marcus' eye and the two came to a silent agreement.

  “Stephie will stay here.” Marcus made it an order, not a suggestion. “I'll assign a Sentinel directly to her.”

  “To instruct her?” Mackenzie had focused on helping her friend, watching her, listening to her, oblivious to his attempts to catch her attention.

  He wanted to reach out and shake her, make her recognize the malice directed towards her.

  Marcus' eyes softened for Mackenzie and his voice became a shade gentler. “To guard her and instruct her, if she'll take instruction.”

  The puzzlement in those deep brown eyes tipped Adam over the edge. He caught her up in his arms and gripped her firmly against his chest as she squeaked and tried to struggle out of his hold. “You're coming back with me.”

  “She's going where?" Stephie's voice rose in volume and pitch to piercing levels again. “You can't just take her! Don't leave me here! What kind of barbarians are you?”

  Mackenzie clamped her hands over her ears against the aural assault.

  “The kind who won't let you hurt her.” He turned cold, his words concise. “Control yourself.”

  For the second time in the night, Mackenzie truly felt Adam's power roll across her skin. Liquid lightning flowed over her, tingling as it passed. Stephie whimpered and quieted, glaring at her with sullen eyes.

  Before she could say anything, Adam turned away with her in his arms and started running. The trees swept past them in a blur and she caught the sense he hadn’t taken a direct route back to his lair. Twice, he changed direction and Mackenzie caught the scents of one or the other of the two Sentinels. She’d improved at catching scents of individuals but she still struggled with the nuances indicating moods. Adam's musk filled her nose, and she could smell his lingering aggression but couldn't decipher the other hints in his scent. Of course, moving as quickly as they were, the air whizzed past them stealing away the scents before she could really register them.

  “Hold on.” He murmured finally, and she threw her arms around his neck as his legs gathered under them and launched them upward. Another jump and he carried her through the sliding glass door on the second level of his home again.

  She wiggled immediately, but Adam strode to the couch first before he let her down. He stared down at her with an inscrutable look for a long moment before he turned away.

  “Why did you take me away?” She shifted on the couch to watch him walk into the bedroom area.

  “Because she hurt you.” He answered from out of sight. He must be rummaging in a closet or something based on the sounds and to Mackenzie, he still sounded angry.

  “She's afraid.” He had been insensitive, which differed from what she knew about him. “And now she's alone with strangers. She called me, came here, and you bundled me up like some infant and rushed me away.”

  He returned from the bedroom carrying fabric in one hand, his eyes almost glowing with temper, his cat still very close to the surface. “You don't get it, do you? You’re too new.”

  “Get what?”

  “There's something wrong with her. Her reactions to you were all wrong. My cat tells me she's a danger, and I won't let anything harm you.” He froze there, a few steps away, staring down at her with an intensity squeezing a place deep inside her chest.

  “She's been through something awful, Adam.” She tried to reason with him. “She's not herself. But when she's had a chance to calm down, to pull it together, you'll get to know her. She's always been a good friend.”

  And a touch of guilt whispered through her heart. Disturbed, she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on top of them.

  “What is it, kitten?” Suddenly there, he kneeled down beside the couch, his body heat inches away and still seeping into her skin.

  “She's always been a good friend,” repeated Mackenzie. “And I always admired her.”

  “And it’s a bad thing?” His handsome features quirked. He looked more like a cat considering some sort of odd, hoppy bug at the moment than any other time since she'd met him.

  She laughed, as much at his expression as at herself. “I'm…shallow, I guess. And I'm insecure.” The admission galled her to say out loud.

  “How?” He sounded genuinely confused.

  She lifted her head and looked at him in consternation. “How not? She's beautiful. She's athletic and capable, confident and sexy. She's definitely sexy.”

  He snorted.

  “You can laugh if you want, but I try sexy and I make an idiot of myself.” Both of them knew the exact moment she referred to. Before he could do more than open his mouth, she pressed on. “We were always together in school. And trust me when I say, despite how much people said we were a pair, it became obvious which of us managed be the more interesting.”

  Adam waited and she scowled at him.

  “Fine.” She spit out the rest. “A tiny little part of me cringed when she came running all gorgeous across the meadow, bec
ause I figured you'd find her more attractive. Maybe you wouldn't have decided she was too much of a kid for you.”

  Tears welled up hot in her eyes, and Mackenzie tasted shame as she choked on her confession. “I thought shallow, pathetic stuff when the real priority is obvious. Stephie’s a victim like me. She deserves the same help, the same kindness you've all shown me. What kind of a person am I?”

  Too disgusted with herself to speak any further, she balled her hands into fists so he wouldn't see her claws threatening to break through her finger tips. She bit her lip and refused to look at him, hating to see disappointment in his handsome face, or worse, pity.

  Struck speechless, Adam could only sit in awe of the amazing heart beating inside such a shining soul. She stayed so brutally honest, her light shone on any person and bared them for what they truly were. Of all people, she remained hardest on herself, when her heart forgave everyone else their sins.

  Her distress pulled at him, his cat wanting to curl around her and give comfort, protecting her from whatever caused it.

  Carefully, so carefully, he cupped her face in his hands and made her look at him. “Kitten, you are a warm, intelligent, fallible person with a heart way too big.” Her eyes glimmered bright with tears. He brushed them away with his thumbs as he continued. “You're so busy seeing the good in people. I'm going to have to make up for how you don't seem to see the good in you.”

  Twisting her mouth in disbelief, and she tried to pull away, but he refused to let her go. “Do you know what I saw in your friend? I saw a hurting woman who knew she hurt those around her. She used her misery to cause others pain with deliberate intent.”

  “Stephie wouldn't…” she began, but Adam hushed her.

  “She wasn't happy to find out you'd been Changed."

  “Of course not…” she started, but this time he pressed a thumb firmly over those plump lips.

  “She wasn't concerned for your sake, Kitten.” He insisted. “Oh, the news angered her, and she wasn't angry for your sake either. Her scent, her posture, the look in her eyes…she was jealous, insanely jealous. What she projected could be hazardous to your health.”

  She shook her head, but didn't speak with the distraction of his thumb. He lightened the pressure and brushed his thumb across her lower lip instead. His groin tightened as he enjoyed the way her lips parted slightly at his touch.

  Suddenly, those straight white teeth flashed and nipped his thumb firmly before she pulled her face out of his hands.

  “Focus,” she snapped, but her cheeks flushed hot, and he could smell her sweet scent, holding the spicy hint of arousal.

  “Trust me, Kitten, I'm focused.” He drawled, full of feline arrogance. Finally, he let his choke hold on his cat loose a notch.

  Her eyes widened and blinked twice as she regarded him. He wondered if he had ever seen eyes so wide and so deeply stunning.

  “I don't believe you,” she said slowly, warily.

  He instantly snarled. “I wouldn't lie to you.”

  “Okay, then.” She took it back, changing tack. “Then you're misjudging her. Once you get to know her, you'll see she couldn't inflict that kind of hurt.”

  “She said herself she went with the male dating you.” He resisted the impulse to shred something.

  Her mouth dropped open. “How?” Realization dawned on her face. “You heard the whole conversation over the phone, and I didn't even think twice about it.”

  He sat back on his heels and folded his arms across his chest to keep himself from shaking sense into her. “She went behind your back and went with your male. What kind of friend does those things?”

  “She said she thought I wasn't interested anymore, didn't she?” Mackenzie still fought, but he could hear the doubt. “My family didn't tell anyone why I left, otherwise, we wouldn't have had Devo wandering around here either.”

  “Here's something you can be sure of with any River Gap Pride male or female, Kitten. We might compete, we might Challenge, but we don't poach. It's not just wrong. It's a danger to the entire pride.”

  “Why?”

  He sighed. Too many lessons in one night. “You know shapeshifters are capable of seriously damaging violence.”

  He watched her carefully, and though she paled beneath her gold-kissed skin, she nodded.

  “And we react strongly—very strongly and emotionally,” he continued. “When it comes to the mating dance, there would be bloodshed all over the place every time a female went into heat if it weren't for a set protocol.”

  “Protocol,” she repeated , as if trying to absorb the word.

  “Chryssa should be here to tell you this.” But Chryssa wasn't there, no other females patrolled nearby who Mackenzie would trust, and he'd promised to teach her. “If a female is in heat, the other females take themselves out of her way. One dominant female in heat can accidentally set off other females, especially the inexperienced. It's dangerous to have too many females in heat at the same time. It'd drive the males insane, cause bloodshed. If a female has focused her favors on a male, the other females stay away.”

  “Wouldn't you be more worried about the males?" The wheels turning inside her head were almost visible as she struggled to understand.

  “No male would intentionally hurt a female of his pride. Females are more dangerous to each other.” All youngsters learned the lesson earlier on, before hormones took over. “When females attack, there is no mercy.”

  “Is it always the female's choice?”

  He felt a headache coming on. “No. The choice is usually mutual. Males don't go into heat, but they are driven. When a male focuses on a female, he can stake a claim. The other males in the pride will back off until the female makes it clear whether she's decided to give her favors to the male or to turn him away.”

  “And this mating dance, it's permanent?” She hesitated on the thought.

  “Again, choice is mutual. The pair can choose a mating for a season or for a full turning of the seasons without permanently binding to each other. A lifetime commitment is bound by blood, flesh and …something else.”

  Her delicate eyebrows drew together in puzzlement. “Else?”

  “You haven't shifted yet, kitten. But explain how a man can become a jaguar.”

  “Magic,” breathed Mackenzie. Or nightmare, she thought, remembering the madness glittering in Van's black eyes as he partially shifted to rake claws into her flesh. No, it could be magic, Mackenzie insisted to herself. Other things made the magic something innocent and special, like jaguar kittens.

  “I understand the scent on the wind, the dirt beneath my claws and the taste of my prey in my mouth.” He waxed unusually eloquent. “I don't understand what lets me be what I am, I accept it. But, those who make the bond permanent bind themselves with a touch of the magic that makes us what we are, and there is no turning away from it once it is done.”

  A chill ran through Mackenzie.

  “Bound by blood and by flesh too, you said.” She thought hard, her own inner cat restlessly stalking a stray memory inside her. A fragment, something about the night Van had Changed her.

  “Yes.” Out of the corner of her eye she caught his sudden scrutiny of her face. She knew he must have seen something in her expression.

  “Van.” Dismay rose in her throat like a scream, evolving into awful nausea as Mackenzie forced out words instead. “Van licked my blood when he…when he hurt me. He clawed his own arm and pressed it against my mouth. I could taste his blood…and mine…could taste them and tell the difference.”

  Suddenly Adam had her upper arms in twin vice grips, his eyes completely cat. “Did he feed you any of his flesh? Did he eat yours?”

  “N-no, I don't know.” She cried out in panic. “I couldn't swallow by then, almost unconscious. He didn't feed me anything, but I don't know if he took mine.”

  “There would be a scar.” He started to lift her shirt hem. “The wound wouldn't heal without a scar if he took your flesh for a permanent mating bond.”


  “S-stop!” She struggled with him. “Wouldn't I know?”

  “I won't hurt you." Adam wouldn’t be denied, his voice grim. “But, we need to know, Kitten. He could call you right out of the lair if you fell asleep or if you let your attention wander. You're too new to recognize the bond separate from all the other new things.”

  Whimpering, more afraid of Van than of Adam, she uncurled from her place on the couch and stood up. With those gentle hands, he lifted her shirt away from her, tossing it to the floor, and examined her upper body. Her pants followed. It took every ounce of will she had to stand instead of run.

  She shivered, not from cold, but from the heat of Adam's scrutiny as he examined every inch of her skin. He turned her away from him and undid her bra, examining her back and sliding her panties down to bare her behind before turning her to face him. Closing her eyes, Mackenzie couldn't look at him as he scrutinized every inch of her, completely bared for him to see.

  “Shh.” His voice gruff but soothing in her ears. “It's okay, Kitten. It'll be okay, let your arms down.”

  Trembling, she let her arms fall to her sides. Adam took her hands and placed them on his shoulders, anchoring her as he completed his inspection.

  “No scars. He didn't take your flesh.” She could hear the relief in Adam's voice. Suddenly, his heat surrounded her as he wrapped the strength of his arms around her. She pressed her face against his chest, and she could feel the anxious pounding of his heartbeat. Her skin cooled where he dropped one arm and reached behind him. “Here, Kitten, you can wear this to sleep.”

  Soft fabric pressed against her until she took it into her hands. He stepped away from her slowly, reluctance in every line of his body as he turned his back to give back her privacy.

  She looked down at the fabric in her hands and found a well-worn T-shirt. She pulled it over her head, drawing comfort from the softness of the fabric and his scent. His shirt hit her right below mid thigh, covering her.