She draped the clothes over the back of a patio chair smoothing out wrinkles here and there as though they were costly evening gowns rather than what looked to Saige like ordinary cotton shirts and pants. She then proceeded to expound on the fabrics, the styling and the absolute need Lariah had for clothing that could grow with her as she continued to blossom. Saige watched Lariah and Darleen carefully but she couldn’t make up her mind whether Darleen knew that Lariah wanted to rip her eyes out of her sockets and didn’t care, or if she was truly oblivious.
Before long Saige began to get suspicious. There were only half a dozen items of clothing altogether, and they were, as she had suspected, nothing more than basic stretch pants and a few maternity tops, two of which were the most horrendous shade of mustard yellow that Saige had ever seen. Not exactly high end couture fashions for the trend conscious socialite. Besides which, Lariah was only ten days from delivery. She obviously did not need any new maternity clothes. Yet the woman seemed unable to stop talking about them. She just went on and on.
Saige wasn’t sure why Lariah didn’t toss the woman out, but she had heard enough. She was just about to make an excuse so she could escape when she felt Faron, Dav and, thankfully, Ban approaching. It was a huge relief for her to sense Ban up and walking, apparently fully healed. As much as she had wanted to know how the healing was progressing, she had managed to prevent herself from checking on him.
She looked up at the patio door in time to watch them step through it and onto the patio, and then freeze as they stared for a long moment at Darleen. Darleen met their stares with a smile so bright Saige thought it was a wonder they didn't all go blind. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the woman set aside her “helpful friend” personality and put on the “woman hot for man” personality which, quite honestly, fit the woman much better.
“Hello Faron, Dav, Ban,” she said, her voice an octave lower than it had been while she was talking to Lariah. “I didn’t expect to see you here. How are you?”
Faron’s face remained a stoic mask, as did Dav’s, but one corner of Ban’s mouth turned up in a half smile.
“Greetings Darleen,” he said.
Darleen’s smile got impossibly brighter.
“Saige, we would speak with you,” Faron said, evidently deciding to simply ignore Darleen.
Saige caught the flash of anger in Darleen’s eyes though nobody else seemed to. She looked at Lariah and changed her mind. Lariah had also seen it.
“Well, I will get out of your way then,” Darleen said, still using her new, deeper, sexier voice as she turned back to the table and her now empty bag. “Ban, would you be a dear and help me with this?” she asked.
Ban nodded politely and picked up the empty bag. Saige opened her mouth, closed it, then decided what the hell.
“Darleen, you are not leaving all of those...things, are you?” she asked, keeping her voice as sweet as she could possibly manage.
“Of course I am. I brought them all the way out here specifically for Lariah,” Darleen replied with a delicate frown that Saige noticed did not detract from her beauty in the least.
“Oh,” she said, revealing all of her doubt in that one word. She made a show of hesitating, then shook her head slightly as though she had no choice. “Darleen, Lariah is due to give birth in just a few days. She has no need for more maternity clothes. She isn’t going to wear those so you might as well take them back with you.”
Darleen froze for a long moment, completely stumped. She had been using Lariah’s advancing pregnancy as an excuse to visit the ranch on a regular basis for so long that it had not occurred to her that the woman would eventually give birth, and no longer need more maternity clothes. Her face flushed an ugly, brick red and she hastily grabbed up the clothes she had brought and shoved them into the bag that Ban was still holding.
“Goodbye Lariah,” she said, her voice high pitched and somewhat screechy now, her smile no more than a stretching of her lips and a baring of teeth.
Saige raised her brows in mock surprise at the woman’s behavior, though she saw Lariah raise a hand to her mouth to hide a grin.
“Come along Ban,” Darleen said for all the world as though she were ordering a dog to heel.
“Wait,” Saige growled softly, surprising herself as much as everyone else. Everyone on the patio froze, including Darleen.
Saige forced herself to stretch her lips into a semblance of a smile. “Darleen, Ban is just recovering from being seriously injured, so I am sure you will agree its best if you carry your own bag. After all, you carried it in here all by yourself, so I’m certain you will have no trouble carrying it back out again.”
Saige actually felt Faron smile, though a quick glance showed that his expression had not changed one bit. Dav’s mouth kicked up at the corner, but Ban grinned openly as he faced Saige and bowed.
“As our Arima wishes,” he said. He held Darleen’s bag out to her and waited for her to take it from him. After a long moment Darleen snatched the bag from Ban’s hand and stormed off the patio and into the house through the patio door. Dav frowned, murmured a quick, “your pardon,” and followed after the woman to show her out, and to make certain she caused no mischief on the way.
Saige suddenly realized what she had done and wondered briefly why she had done it. She was forced to admit to herself that the way Darleen had spoken to Ban had infuriated her. She had felt possessive of Ban, and of Faron and Dav as well. She wasn’t really sure that was a good thing.
She noticed Ban look at the palm of his hand before wiping it absently on his jeans. Without thinking, Saige stepped forward and reached for his wrist, lifting it up so she could see his hand. There was a long, deep scratch in his palm where Darleen had caught him with a fingernail.
Saige was abruptly so angry that instead of the usual red tinge at the edges of her vision that warned of an impending seizure, she was suddenly engulfed in a red fog. Before she had a chance to do more than realize what was happening, the seizure she had been struggling against since she'd awakened in that damn box closed in on her.
Chapter 17
“Shhh…amada, you are safe,” Faron was saying as Saige swam up through the remnants of the thick red mist that had strangled her mind. She opened her eyes to discover that Faron was holding her in his arms, talking softly to her while Ban gently stroked her hair.
“Uh oh,” she said. Faron was watching her far too intently, his eyes looking far too worried. “I had a seizure didn't I?”
Faron had no idea what it was called, but the sight of Saige falling to the floor, her body trembling uncontrollably as her eyes rolled up into her head had scared the life out of him. He glanced at Lariah. She nodded her head.
“Yes, Saige, you had a seizure,” she said slowly.
“Please let me down now,” Saige requested.
“I will put you down if you will tell us what just happened,” Faron replied.
“All right,” she agreed reluctantly. Faron lowered her carefully into the guestroom bed, which was a surprise to her. She had thought they were still on the patio. “We will wait for Dav to return,” he said. Saige nodded before looking at Lariah who stepped up close next to the bed.
Lariah’s face was pale, and Saige felt badly about that. “I’m sorry I frightened you, Lari.”
Lariah shook her head gently, frowning as she continued to study Saige carefully. She gasped with sudden understanding and her face paled further. “No,” she whispered. “Saige, is that why you didn’t come to Jasan when I invited you months ago?”
“I’m sorry Lariah,” Saige said again. “I didn’t want you to find out about this because I didn’t want you to be upset. I should have stayed on Earth,” she finished miserably just as Dav stepped in from the patio with an expression of surprise on his face.
“Please explain what you are talking about,” Faron said as reasonably as he could manage through the fear that was beginning to choke him. “That Saige has an illness is clear. We must know what type
of illness.”
“Saige has an illness?” Dav demanded. Faron shot Dav a look over his shoulder, glanced at Ban and then looked back to Saige. Ban took Dav aside and began murmuring to him, and Saige knew he was filling Dav in on what had happened.
“Faron, I will leave the four of you alone to discuss this in a moment,” Lariah said. “Before I do, I must ask you Saige, did it get caught in time, and why do you not have meds with you?”
Saige swallowed hard and bit the inside of her cheek to prevent the tears she felt threatening from actually falling. “No, Lariah, it did not get caught in time,” she said, fighting to keep her voice as neutral as possible. “And I do not have my meds because most of them were in my purse which was in my compartment on the Cosmic Glory. I don’t know what happened to it. I had more in my toiletries bag in my suitcase so I was able to take some last night. But now that is a melted blob and I don't have any more.”
Lariah nodded and opened a drawer in the bedside table. She retrieved a small pad and stencil and handed them to Saige. “Write them down please,” she said. “I will ask Garen to call Doc to see if he has them on hand. If not, we will contact the physician in town and have them sent out for you.”
Saige quickly wrote down the medications she was taking to control her condition and handed the pad back to Lariah. “Thank you Lari,” she said softly.
Lariah bent down and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you, my friend,” she said. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do,” Saige replied at once.
“Then listen to me now. Trust these men, and follow your heart.”
Saige shook her head. “I said they did not catch it in time,” she reminded her.
Lariah smiled. “Trust me,” she whispered.
A moment later Lariah was gone and Saige was alone with the three Lobos surrounding her.
Darleen could not remember ever being as angry as she was right that moment. First that ugly little nothing of a redhead came and snatched the Princes right out from under her nose. And now, after all of the time and energy she’d put into those damn Lobos, that mousy nobody comes along and scoops them up. And all because they thought she was some damn Arima.
Darleen knew what an Arima was. She just didn’t care. Arima or not, those Lobos owed her better than this. She’d catered to them for months and now, just because of that smart-mouthed, pushy, bruise faced bitch, she was sent packing? No. Absolutely not. Darleen decided when to drop men, not the other way around. It made her so angry she wanted to scream.
But she didn’t. She would not lose her temper until she was off of Dracon land. She doubted that anyone aside from a bunch of stupid cows would actually see her out in the middle of nowhere, but she had learned to be very careful. So she waited until she had driven her ground-car slowly and carefully along the seemingly endless gravel road through acres and acres of cows and more cows until she finally reached the main gate. She drove through the gate and around the first turn before pulling over to the side of the road and cutting the ground-car’s power. Then she got out and threw the biggest, loudest and most energetic temper tantrum she could manage.
She screamed, swore, and stomped her feet until she broke the heels on her new pumps. That made her even angrier so she took one off and threw it, then looked around for something else to throw. There was nothing around besides rocks and grass so she picked up rocks and threw them as hard as she could. It was not very satisfying but throwing rocks at nothing was her only option. She could have thrown them at the ground-car, and she considered it. But she didn’t want to damage it so she refrained.
She thought about tearing up the cheap clothing she had brought out- for Lariah. But if she did that, she wouldn’t be able to return them to the discount mail-order house that she’d bought them from. Darleen had been endlessly amused over the last several months by Lariah’s inability to tell the difference between the cheap, poorly made items she’d been bringing out to the ranch for her, and the high quality merchandise Caitlyn carried in her shop. As if Darleen would really spend so much money on clothing for someone other than herself. As it was, Darleen had a difficult time paying for the discount clothes, and she certainly wasn’t going to destroy them when she could get her money back instead. Which left her with nothing to do other than scream and stomp her feet a lot.
Eventually she exhausted herself, if not her temper. After retrieving the remains of her pumps, she got into the ground-car and drove to her sister’s house, stomped awkwardly into the house wearing her broken pumps, and slammed the door behind her. That, at least, provided her with some small satisfaction. By the time she reached the small guest room that had become her bedroom over the past year, all she could do was throw herself on the bed and cry hot tears of utter frustration. She wanted more than anything to make the Lobos and that bitch friend of Lariah’s pay. But she couldn’t think of a single way to make that happen.
Saige felt silly lying on the bed, so she sat up and swung her legs over the edge. She glanced up at Faron, then shifted her gaze to Dav, and then finally to Ban. “Are you going to just stand there and stare at me for the rest of the day?” she asked just to break the uncomfortable silence.
“Actually, I thought it would be best if we take you to the house we are staying in so that we can have some privacy,” Faron said.
Her heart skipped a beat as the arousal she could not seem to control increased at the thought of being alone with the three of them. Faron knelt down beside the bed so that he could look directly into her eyes. “Saige, we promise you that nothing will happen that you do not wish,” he said sincerely. “However, we would very much like some time with you alone. We ask that you grant us that request.”
Saige looked into his pale blue eyes and knew that Lariah was right. Her heart was telling her that she needed to be with these men. Her body obviously wanted them, but so did some other, unidentifiable part of her. She knew that she could trust them and that they would never, ever harm her or allow her to be harmed in any way. She wanted to feel differently, but she didn’t.
“All right,” she said finally. “But you have to promise me that if I want to come back here, you will bring me.”
“Agreed,” Faron said immediately. He stood up and held his hand out to her. She took a deep breath, feeling that this was an important moment, and placed her hand in his. The touch of his hand against hers sent a hot shiver racing through her body. Her eyes widened and she looked up into Faron’s face to see that his eyes had widened as well. She didn’t know what it meant, but she could not deny that it felt good and right.
She stood up and allowed Faron to tuck her beneath his shoulder, close against his side. She liked the way she felt there, as though she were not just safe and protected, but also wanted. Saige could not remember ever feeling wanted before. She assumed her parents had wanted her, but she didn’t remember enough of her early childhood to know how it had felt. She knew that Lariah wanted her as a friend, but this was different. These three men, for whatever reason, truly wanted her. She hardly knew how to wrap her mind around that.
Faron guided her out of the bedroom to the patio, and through the garden to the back gate. Ban stepped forward to open the gate for them before returning to his position half a step behind them to their left. Saige knew that Dav was half a step back and to their right, and everything in her felt that it was natural and normal, just the way it should be. She shook her head at such strange thoughts.
Faron led her away from the house to a narrow graveled path that was obviously designed for walking. A short distance away was a wider graveled path that she guessed was for vehicles. She gazed around her in wonder at the animals grazing, the trees and flowers, the dark blue grass that seemed to go on forever until it met the pale lavender sky in the distance.
“My dream guardians told me stories about a place with blue grass and lavender skies, where people turned into animals and little girls were always kept safe,” Saige said softly. “I never imagined t
he stories could be real. I thought they were just part of my imagination, like the dream guardians themselves.”
“I do not know how or why it is that you dreamed of us, and of Jasan,” Faron said. “But I am glad that you did, as it seems they helped you in some way.”
“Yes, they did,” Saige replied. “They helped me a great deal.” Saige decided that she did not want to talk about her childhood any more just now so she changed the subject.
“Do you remember promising me that you would let me see your lobo form?” she asked.
“Our loboenca,” Faron corrected gently, “and yes, I remember every word you have ever spoken in my hearing, and every word I have said to you.”
Saige felt her face grow hot. Why did they have to be so...nice? Why couldn't he be mean, like he'd been to Lariah that morning? She blushed again, knowing that she was being unfair. He had not been deliberately mean to Lariah, and she knew that.
“Would you like to see our loboencas now?” Faron asked.
“If you wouldn't mind, yes,” she replied.
Faron stopped and turned around to face Dav and Ban, who were both smiling.
“A chance to show off for our lady!” Ban said with a grin. Dav shook his head at his youngest brother and the two of them stepped back several yards from Faron and Saige. And each other.
Fascinated, Saige watched as the two men began to expand, transforming into two gigantic wolves with long fangs, razor sharp claws, black and white striped fur and pale blue eyes .
“Fantastic!” she exclaimed, laughing as she stepped away from Faron and hurried towards Dav and Ban. Their loboencas were so big that the top of her head barely reached their chests, but she was not afraid of them. She reached out to touch the striped fur on Dav’s foreleg with gentle fingers, then stroked it lightly.
“You are so beautiful,” she breathed as she gazed up at his pale blue eyes in wonder. After a few moments, the two loboencas began to shrink as Dav and Ban retook their human forms. Saige laughed out loud as they once again stood before her in their jeans, t-shirts and boots.
The Lobos' Heartsong Page 14