Mate Claimed

by Jennifer Ashley

  Iona’s little growl wasn’t helping. Eric smelled the feral being in her, uncontrolled by Shifter rules and a Collar. She was wild, free, and Eric wanted her.

  Iona touched kisses to his face, his nose and mouth, her lips featherlight. Her body rubbed against his as she did it, sending Eric’s blood searing. He had to have her, had to slake his need on her before he faced the world today.

  One burst, that’s all it would take. A few quick thrusts inside her, and Eric would be satisfied.

  He knew that was a lie. Eric wanted the lovemaking to last. He wanted to lock himself in this room with her and let the world go to hell.

  Iona gave him another kiss on the lips, then rolled away from him, so quickly that he lost his hold on her. “I think we should go have the pancakes now.”

  Eric growled. He grabbed her wrists, came off the bed, pulled her up with him, and pinned her against the wall. He kissed her hard on the mouth as she ran her hands along his naked body, his erection nowhere near tamed. Her breasts pressed into his chest through the nightshirt, the heat from the join of her thighs caressing his flesh.

  “You saved me last night,” he said.

  “You’re all right now?”

  He touched his forehead to hers. “Better than ever.”

  “You look it.”

  Eric grinned at her. He always wanted to laugh around this wonderful woman.

  He released her, his body protesting all the way, and shoved her at the door. “Breakfast. I’ll be right there.”

  Iona stopped before she opened the door, her gaze dropping to his groin. “Looks like you need to take care of something else first.”

  “Exactly. Get out of here.”

  Eric laughed softly as Iona opened the door a crack and slipped out, leaving him alone and aching.

  Iona heard the shower running for a long time after she’d washed and dressed and made it to the kitchen to join Diego and Cassidy. No pancakes. But Diego was whipping up a batch of eggs, peppers, cheese, and broken fried corn tortillas he called chilaquiles. He’d already made a stack of toast slathered in butter, cinnamon, and honey.

  Iona piled her plate high with the toast. She’d make good on her promise to go grocery shopping, because she was eating all the Wardens’ food. In spite of Eric’s reassurances, she knew that Shifters had little money, and food must be expensive for them.

  The way Diego was going through the carton of eggs and mountain of cheese, though, told Iona that he, at least, could afford it. Diego was human and ran his own business, no restrictions on him.

  “Where’s Jace this morning?” Iona asked as she dug into the steaming chilaquiles Diego dumped onto her plate. She quickly decided that chilaquiles were her new favorite breakfast food. “Still at my place?”

  Diego and Cassidy exchanged a glance. “No. He didn’t come home,” Diego said.

  Iona realized then that the shower had stopped running. Eric walked in a few moments later wearing jeans and pulling a black T-shirt over his head, his hair still damp. He radiated cold, which told Iona how he’d dealt with his pesky erection.

  “What do you mean, he didn’t come home?” Eric asked.

  Diego answered, still busy with cooking. “That’s why Shane wants to talk to you. Jace is fine, but he went…investigating.”

  “I didn’t tell him to.” The edge in Eric’s voice made Iona lift her gaze from her food. Eric’s mouth was turned down, his eyes hard with anger.

  “He’s not a cub anymore, Eric,” Cassidy said. “He acts on what he thinks is best at the time, like I do.”

  Eric’s growl was low but fierce. “Where the hell is Shane?”

  “Waiting for you next door,” Cassidy said. “Go easy on him. Jace outranks him.”

  Eric growled again, grabbed a piece of toast from the top of the stack, and munched it as he slammed his way out the back door.

  “Does he always wake up this crabby?” Iona asked, sliding her fork through more chilaquiles.

  Cassidy shot her a look of amusement as she took a seat at the kitchen table and started in on a plate almost as loaded as Iona’s. “That was radiant, for Eric. He’s just worried about Jace. Shane brought over a suitcase for you with some clothes from your house.”

  “He didn’t need to. I’ll go out and pick up some groceries for you all, then I need to check in with my mother. I can change clothes at home.”

  Cassidy’s smile vanished. “You won’t be leaving Shiftertown until the Challenge is over, Iona. Eric’s orders.”

  Iona’s fork stopped halfway to her mouth. “Orders?”

  Cassidy moved her hand to her abdomen, caressing it, as though she’d felt the baby move. “I agree with him,” she said. “Graham is dangerous. By Shifter law, you should be untouchable before the Challenge, but I wouldn’t put it past Graham to try to abduct you and use you to hurt Eric somehow. Graham is determined to be leader, and he’ll do it any way he can.”

  “But I can’t stay here. I have a business to run—my sister’s on her honeymoon, and my mother can’t do it all by herself.”

  “It’s Sunday,” Diego said. “You’re closed anyway, right?”

  “We catch up on Sundays. I can’t just disappear, no matter what Eric thinks. My mother will get frantic and call the police.”

  “No harm in telling her where you are,” Diego said. “Eric’s not trying to keep you prisoner, he’s trying to protect you. So am I. Eric’s right—you’re safest here.”

  Iona seethed, but even her frustration couldn’t keep her from resuming her breakfast. “What is this Challenge anyway? Why are you letting Eric and Graham fight over me?”

  “It’s Shifter tradition,” Cassidy said calmly. “The Challenge was created to keep Shifters from arbitrarily stealing one another’s mates. Shifters used to be pretty bloodthirsty, and with females scarce, males went all out to fight for them. The Challenge keeps it civilized.”

  “That explains almost nothing,” Iona said.

  Diego gave her a nod. “I’m right there with you. But go with it. I’ll put it this way—it’s better than Graham trying to rip Eric’s head off and run away with you slung over his shoulder. Eric knows what he’s doing. As far as I understand it, whatever the outcome of the fight, you can still choose whether to accept the mate-claim. Right, Cass?”

  “Right. Doesn’t mean Eric won’t keep trying. He can be persistent.”

  Iona laid down her fork, but only because her plate was empty. “You two are very sanguine about Eric bringing me home and fighting this guy because of me. You don’t know anything about me. Why are you being so accepting?”

  Both of them fixed her with stares, Cassidy’s green one over her plate, Diego’s dark one from the stove. They each seemed to know what the other wanted to say, and Diego got to go first.

  “I did some research on you after you called me the other day,” he said. “I didn’t know about you being part Shifter, but the info about your business and family is there for everyone to see. You work hard, make decent money, and pay your taxes.” He gave her a small smile. “Nothing underhanded about you.”

  “Scent tells me a lot,” Cassidy said, still tackling her flavorful eggs and cheese. “You’re half-Shifter, unmated, and fairly open and honest. You don’t hide anything. And to tell the truth, Eric’s lonely. Crazy lonely. He doesn’t admit it, but I see it. I think you’d be good for him.”

  Iona stared at her empty plate. “But will Eric be good for me?”

  Cassidy nodded, her expression matter-of-fact. “He’s the leader of Shiftertown, which means you’ll be the alpha’s mate. That’s a good place to be.”

  “I might think that if I’d grown up Shifter,” Iona said. “But I grew up human. I have a human life, a house, a career, things I worked very hard for. You and Eric expect me to give it all up without a fight.”

  “You’re also young, for a Shifter.” Cassidy’s voice gentled, and she laid down her fork. “I’m not. Iona, all those things—the house, the business, whatever place yo
u carved in human society—they don’t last. A hundred years go by, the world changes, and Shifters watch it all.” She glanced at the sunny backyard, and her hand returned to her abdomen. “This Shiftertown, the restrictive laws humans put on us—they won’t last either. Life in Shiftertown has been only a small part of my existence, and it will disappear in time. Humans will get used to Shifters, or figure out they can benefit by using us, or we’ll force the situation to change when we’re ready. Nothing is fixed and forever. In another hundred years, all this will be gone.”

  Diego finished at the stove, brought over the rest of the mixture in the frying pan, scraped more onto Iona’s plate, then finally filled a plate for himself. He returned the pan to the counter and sat down to start eating.

  “It weirds me out to hear her talk like that,” Diego said. “I grew up human, like you did. But Cass is right. Everything is mutable, even when it seems like it will last forever. What does last though—and I had to figure this out the hard way—is family. The people who love you and what you feel for them—that never goes away.”

  “Yes, it does,” Iona said, a little less hungry now. “You lose people. I loved my stepfather, and he’s gone.” She felt a pang, as she always did when she remembered sitting those last days with her stepdad in the hospital.

  “I know,” Diego said. “I lost my dad when I was a kid. But you still love him, don’t you? You still think about him—I bet part of why you work so hard is to keep up the business he built and not let him down. And that’s what I meant. They’re never really gone. You miss them like hell, but they’re still a part of you, part of your life. That’s what lasts—not houses, not businesses, not money. All that can change on the spin of a coin.”

  Iona forked up the last of her eggs and lifted a piece of the sweet toast, trying to push her emotions aside. Emotions made her jumpy, and hungry, moving her again toward frenzy. “You two should be philosophers or something,” she said lightly. “‘How to live life, the happy way.’”

  Diego laughed, his stern expression softening. “My mom wouldn’t think so. I’m mouthing things she said to me growing up, when she needed to get me and Xavier through some tough times. I guess growing up rough makes you philosophical.”

  “So does growing up Shifter,” Cassidy said. “Not to mention fighting Nazis.” She winked. “We’re not always this serious. You should stay with us, Iona, because we’re great at parties. And anyway, there’s plenty to do around here, and I could use your help. You like kids?”

  “Eric, do not blame this on me. Jace does what he wants.” Shane leaned his bulk against a post on his back porch and folded his massive arms. The post, built to withstand bear Shifters, didn’t budge.

  “Which means you didn’t try hard enough to talk him out of it,” Eric said severely. “Why did he want to go back out there?”

  Jace, according to Shane, had departed Iona’s house at four that morning to take his motorcycle out to the desert to again check out the buildings out there. Shane’s gaze kept flicking from Eric’s, Shane unable to meet Eric’s anger.

  “He said he wanted to watch them change shifts to see what happens,” Shane finished.

  “If he left Iona’s at four, he’s been gone five hours now. You didn’t stop him, you didn’t call me, and you didn’t go with him.”

  “Because I think he’s right.” Shane met Eric’s glare for a fleeting instant. “He can sneak around out there better than a huge grizzly can. Jace isn’t stupid, and I wasn’t going to wake you and Cass at four in the morning for no reason. Especially Cass. She needs her sleep these days, and she can be really snarly when she doesn’t get it.”

  “That’s my son out there, Shane,” Eric said. Shane looked nervous, despite the fact that he was six inches taller than Eric. Height didn’t make any difference in dominance. “My only son, and those guys were ready to shoot any stray noise they heard.”

  “Jace can take care of himself. I know it. I’ve seen him in action.”

  Yes, Jace was good at handling himself. But Eric was on edge, the mating need making him squirrelly, the problem of Graham and the Challenge not helping. Eric couldn’t call Jace to make sure he was all right without risking that a ringing or even vibrating cell phone wouldn’t be heard by one of the guards in the stillness of the desert.

  “Where’s Reid?” Eric asked, naming the Fae they’d captured earlier this year. The man was now living in Shane’s house.

  “I don’t know. Sleeping? Eating breakfast? Chasing Peigi? I just got home myself.”

  “Never mind.” Eric pushed past Shane and walked into the bear’s house by himself.

  Nell was in her kitchen making coffee, wearing a big pink bathrobe embroidered with darker pink hearts twined with roses. She gave Eric a black look as he strode into her kitchen.

  “Knocking would be good, Eric. Reid went for a walk.” Being Shifter, Nell would have heard every word of the conversation on her porch. “I get why you’re scared about Jace, but Shane wouldn’t have been able to stop him. Jace definitely is your son.”

  “Jace is my cub,” Eric corrected. “When Shane has cubs, he’ll understand.”

  “Granted,” Nell said. “You can guess which direction Reid went.”

  Eric could, and he walked down the common space between backyards toward the house where the female Shifters and cubs they’d rescued last spring had been housed. The bone-thin Reid was there all right, leaning on a low stone wall that marked off the porch, talking to a tall bear Shifter female called Peigi.

  Stuart Reid was a dark Fae—dokk alfar, he called himself, which was a different species from the high Fae, the hoch alfar, who’d created Shifters. Dokk alfar hated the high Fae as much as Shifters did.

  Reid had redeemed himself a long time ago, and Eric would have let him return to the apartment he rented in the city, but Reid had chosen to stay in Shiftertown. He’d also quit his job as a police detective to do security work for Diego and Xavier. The reason Reid stayed was Peigi—one of the Shifter women Reid had helped Diego and Cassidy rescue.

  Peigi had suffered some very bad shit and was nowhere near interested in mating yet, but Reid was smitten. He was gently helping Peigi readjust, and Eric knew that sooner or later, the two would be standing before Eric for their sun and their full moon mating ceremonies.

  Eric had made Reid one of his trackers, and Reid had been among those who’d found the mysterious compound in the desert. Reid couldn’t shift, but he had one talent that no one else did. He could teleport.

  “Reid,” Eric said, acknowledging Peigi by putting his hand on her shoulder. “I need to borrow you.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Eric had only teleported with Reid a couple of times, and both instances had made him sick. This time was no different. When they arrived at their destination, Eric spent a moment with hands on knees, trying not to retch.

  Reid had landed them about a half mile from the compound, probably to give Eric time to recover. Nice of him.

  They hiked along the ridgeline Eric and Iona had run down in the dark. Reid and Eric kept themselves below the lip of the hill so they wouldn’t be silhouetted against the bright morning sky.

  The compound didn’t look that much different in daylight. Prefab buildings lined up within the rectangle of the fence, and two guards strolled around. No sound, no activity, and again, no distinctive smell.

  Reid had brought binoculars, but Eric relied on his own vision. He scanned the quiet grounds and the desert beyond, again wondering what the hell was inside those buildings.

  Reid tapped Eric and pointed. “Got him,” he whispered.

  Eric looked and saw the faintest second shadow under a tall creosote bush on the other side of the compound. A snow leopard. Jace.

  “Good. Now I kill him.”

  Jace must have seen them, because he ever so carefully slunk out from under the bush and slid into a nearby dry wash.

  “Want me to teleport us down there?”

  Eric suppressed a
shudder. “I’ll use my feet. Will you carry my clothes?”

  Reid agreed though he looked a little annoyed to be designated clothes caretaker.

  Eric didn’t take long to shift, then he ran down the ridge and around a sweep of rocks to the edge of the deep wash Jace had used. Jace was climbing out of the wash, about a mile from the compound, when Eric caught up to him.

  Eric growled and swatted Jace with a big paw. Jace shifted, rising to his six foot seven height, scowling, hands on hips. Eric shifted and rose to meet him.

  “You checking up on me now, Dad?”

  Eric barely contained his rage. “What the hell are you doing coming out here alone? You decided danger doesn’t apply to you?”

  “What the fuck?” Jace looked at him in amazement. “I do solo jobs for you all the time. I thought you trusted my judgment.”

  “Not with something this weird.” Eric’s words ended with a growl. “Not with Graham threatening us. Your orders were to watch Iona’s house last night, then come back and help me protect her.”

  “So I took initiative. I didn’t have the chance to ask your permission. You’ve been hard to track down lately, if you hadn’t noticed, and distracted when you are. I’m glad you’ve met someone, Dad, but your brain is warping.”

  Fathers were supposed to be proud when cubs struck back. That meant the father had raised the cub to be strong.

  Eric’s hand sprouted claws, and he snarled. Jace looked surprised, then he snarled too, his eyes going flat.

  Reid popped in right next to them, displacing air. “You might want to keep it down,” he said. “Sound carries.”

  Eric forced his claws to recede, but his anger didn’t diminish. Jace took a step back, but the move was in no way submissive.

  “Don’t you want to know what I saw?” Jace asked, his voice quieter.

  “I do,” Reid said before Eric could answer.

  Jace let out a breath. “They did absolutely nothing until about five thirty this morning. No lights, no one moving around, just the guards smoking and talking. Then, jeeps, five of them. They came straight across the desert from the north.” Jace pointed to where coarse sand stretched, empty and white to the hills. “The guards opened the gates like they were expecting the jeeps. Each jeep had a driver and a passenger. They all got out and started unloading—one big cage from each one. Not mesh cages, but ones that looked like dog carriers, only much bigger.”