by Briers, M L
“To say the least, she was going to run until Grace talked her out of it, for now…”
“Run?” The old man’s voice deepened into a rumble like thunder. Every Lycans worst nightmare come true. “Son, I’ll be there by this evening, if you’ll grant me permission to come onto your land, one Alpha to another?”
Lucas’s lips turned up in a smile of thanks for the elders concern, at least now he would get to the bottom of it.
“That’s a standing invitation Alpha. You are always welcome among my pack and on our lands.” And the old man knew it. Still, it was his way, the old way, to show the respect to ask permission.
“I’ll be there by tonight. She’s such a little thing, sit on her if you need to. Just don’t let her run, Lucas.” The old man cut the line dead before Lucas could answer him.
Grace considered she had waited long enough for Shannon to calm down. Especially as patience wasn’t a virtue that she credited herself with, although she tried to make it one, it was just so damn hard.
Strolling into the back room, she stopped short of the long workbench that Shannon was sitting at and watched the woman grounding the herbs in the mortar. The pestle was taking as much of a beating as those poor herbs, any finer and they would be ground into nonexistence.
“I think they give up.” Grace bit out sarcastically. Her tone made Shannon’s hand stop in mid air, the pestle hovered above the mortar and her eyes locked onto Graces.
“Tell me you’re not going to run.” Grace had given up waiting for her to say anything, so she had decided to just jump in with two feet. Even if those feet were clad in concrete.
Shannon sighed and pushed the mortar away. The pestle dangled from her fingertips, as if she were going to use it for divination.
“I’m not going to run.” Shannon obliged and Grace snorted her contempt for the younger Fae’s attitude.
“Is that the truth?” Grace had a bone and she wasn’t giving it up, no matter who the other dog was, or how powerful that dog might be.
“Maybe…” Shannon conceded the fact that she didn’t have a damn clue what she was going to do in that one word, and she heard Grace groan.
“Damn it Shannon, you know what would happen when he found you, and he would find you.” Grace warned, as she planted her palms down on the top of the cold metal bench and stared down at the top of Shannon’s head.
“And if I stay, Grace…” Shannon just let go on the pestle and it hit the side with a loud crack.
“Lucas is a great guy. There are Fae that would give their right arm to be where you are…”
Shannon’s head and eyes snapped up to Grace’s face and her manner darkened considerably.
“Who?” She snapped out, territorial over her mate already, and Grace slapped the side in victory.
“Ha! See, you’re already mated in your mind anyway Shannon, you just need to let your body catch up.” Grace informed her victoriously. Shannon groaned rather loudly and dropped her forehead to the coldness of the bench with a small whimper.
“Go away, Grace. Leave me to my misery in peace.”
“Get to know him.”
“I do know him. I’ve seen Mr-Dark-and-Moody in full flow, thank you very much…” Her head snapped up and Grace flicked an eyebrow up on her forehead in an accusing way.
“And you were what? Oh so sweet? I’m guessing not. Beside’s, and that was the real reason I came to visit you, to warn you that the Alpha had heard about you’re little Wolf’s Bane gift to Corrine, and was none too happy. And that he was going to pay you a visit…”
“Too little, too late, Grace. But thanks for the heads up. You couldn’t have called?” Shannon tried to deflect her poor judgement back onto Grace. But the older woman had been around the block and she knew all of the tricks.
“I’m sure I told you Wolf’s Bane was banned?” Grace shot back and saw Shannon’s cheeks redden.
“She said she wanted it to wash her tools…” It was a stupid excuse and they both knew it. She shouldn’t have given the girl Wolf’s Bane and of course she could kick herself for it now. Hindsight was a wonderful thing, not.
“Well I think we’re past the blame game now. You and Lucas are mates…”
Shannon groaned as loudly as she could and dropped her forehead back to the bench. It was comforting, in some small, insanely illogical way.
“Will you please stop saying that?” Shannon gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes even though nobody but her knew it.
“Well I could, but it’s not going to make it go away, is it?” Grace was being pragmatic. Good for her, that wasn’t a place that Shannon felt comfortable in right now.
“Grace, I don’t know you as well as I should to say this to you, but here goes anyway… What will it take to make you go away right now?”
Grace felt the urge to chuckle. She liked Shannon and she certainly wasn’t going to take offence at that. Like it or not, Grace was the leader of the Fae, she was the High Priestess of the circle and she was the last person to take any crap from any of the local witches. But this was Shannon, and she respected this witch with a fierce loyalty, born from the knowledge of just how gifted she was.
It didn’t matter to her that if push came to shove Shannon could wipe the floor with her ten times over. She wasn’t power hungry and she didn’t use her magic for gain either.
If Shannon had the urge or the need to challenge her for the right to become High Priestess, she would gladly step aside. It was the fluidity and power of the magic and getting the job done that was important. But right now, she saw a fellow Fae in trouble and she needed to reach her.
“You know me well enough, Shannon. And I know someone is about to make the biggest mistake of their lives. I’m not going to let that happen. So cauldron bubble, and give it your best shot to make me leave. Because that’s the only way you’re getting rid of me right now.”
Grace watched Shannon’s indecision. She was going to raise her head from the bench, but didn’t. She let out a half groan and then stopped. She wanted to itch all the parts of her that needed scratching, but couldn’t. She was in a state of flux and she wasn’t about to walk away from that.
“I think when I stop resenting you… We’re gonna be good friends.” Shannon mumbled and Grace beamed a smile at the top of the other woman’s head.
“I think so too.”
Lucas had waited for hours outside the shop. He stood perfectly still and could have been mistaken for a statue, apart from the fact his chest was rising and falling with the breath he needed.
A few people had acknowledged him on their way past his location and he acknowledged them back. A short recognition of who they were and a greeting. But only his lips moved. His eyes stayed firmly bolted to Shannon’s front door.
As Grace hadn’t come out either, he wondered just what was going on in there. The two women were either whispering, or his hearing just wasn’t good enough to pick up a conversation in the back room from where he was.
He’d been tempted to leave his spot and move further forward. But he was happy with the knowledge that Grace was taking care of business.
The elder Fae wasn’t blind to the ways of the Lycan, and she would know what it would mean for a mate to be stupid enough to run from their intended, he was sure she wouldn’t let that happen.
When the old pickup truck rumbled down the road a few hours later, Lucas didn’t need to look to know that Julius still hadn’t given up on the thing that was older than sin itself. And when the old man unfolded himself from the worn seat and snapped his bones straight. Lucas’s dragged his eyes from Shannon’s shop and regarded the man with warmth, a look that was returned in those pale blue eyes.
“So, you’re fit to be mated with my daughter?” Julius asked on a slight huff.
That wasn’t the greeting that Lucas expected to hear come from the old man’s lips and it took him a long moment to recover from the unexpectedness of it.
“I am Alpha.” Lucas returned the steely ga
ze, as was befitting two Alpha’s eyeing each other up.
“Damn glad to hear it son.” Julius grinned from ear to ear and the lines and wrinkles of his weather worn face moved around accordingly.
Lucas gave a slight chuckle as he moved towards his friend and held out his arm for the two men to clasp each other’s wrists in greeting.
“So what’s the story, Julius?” Lucas asked finally, once the formalities of their meeting was concluded, and he watched as Julius lifted a hand and scratched an imaginary itch along his cheek, back and forth, as he winced.
“I’ll tell you what, Lucas. Let me speak with Shannon first and then I’ll give you the whole story of how she came to be here at your door. Good enough?”
“Good enough.” Lucas agreed and watched as Julius took a long breath and turned towards Shannon’s shop. His eyes taking it in for a long moment before he set off.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in!” Grace exclaimed when the bell went off above the shop door. Shannon’s skin told her that a Lycan was in the vicinity.
“Like to see the size of the cat that could do that, Grace.” Julius face showed his fondness for the woman as they greeted each other, and when he turned his eyes to Shannon, he saw the anguish that was there for a second before she mentally slapped it away.
“Child if you put your shields up to me, well, there’s gonna be trouble.” He warned and Shannon let the build up of energy she had summoned to do just that slip away.
“Am I that obvious?” She asked, considering herself well and truly berated in the way that only Julius could.
The grin on his face told her the answer was yes and she huffed, pouted and relented.
“Coffee?” She asked, knowing he would never refuse. But the fact that she pointed her nose in the air and raised that chin in defiance, showed him that she was still in one piece after discovering she was a mate.
“Ever known me to decline?” He shot back and she raised a brow to boot.
“Not too most things.”She knew he would catch the snide mumble on the wind as she disappeared out the back, and she heard his gentle chuckle follow her through the curtain. But that’s all that did follow her. She guessed he was getting the low down from Grace.
“I’ll see you later, Shannon.” Grace called right about the time she felt Julius walk through into the back room. She didn’t turn towards him. She knew he’d make his way to their favourite old armchair. Julius had been the only one that she would relinquish it too back home.
“So, I hear you’re to be mated to an Alpha. How’s that tickle your fancy?” Julius’s chuckle should have grated on her nerves, but it didn’t. She knew him too well, and she loved him as if he was her father.
“Oh, it’s just a grand turn of events. Don’t you think?” Shannon’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on him. Neither was the sheer irony of the situation. And he waited for her to finish making his coffee, knowing he would get sight of her face when she turned to hand him his cup.
“Tell me you’re not thinking of running.” Julius barked out the command as she turned, and he saw the answer he didn’t want to contemplate right there on her face.
“You’re the second person that’s asked me that.” Shannon handed him the cup, before walking to the bench to carry a stool back over to her Alpha. Although, he wasn’t her Alpha anymore, not now she had left his pack behind.
“Second person that’s seen your stupidity today then, or maybe the third, as you have a mate camped out on your doorstep to stop you from doing something so stupid…” He was growling each and every word, and each and every word echoed through her very psyche.
“Yes, yes. I know. I know, Alpha.” Shannon didn’t need to hear it all again. What was he, the male version of Grace? She mentally rolled her eyes and tapped her fingers in nervous anticipation on her thigh.
“You know, but are you smart enough to heed your own alarm bells child? Not even I can help you out of this one if you run.” The warning tone was there in his voice again, and she nodded and swallowed down her need to be back home with her own Lycan family. If only she could.
“How the hell did I get here, Julius?” It was a question, but not one that either of them needed to answer.
“Back luck and blind faith kiddo.” He replied anyway.
Lucas saw the black pickup roll slowly down the street and pass Shannon’s shop from his vantage point across the street, and paid it no mind. That was until the brake lights came on, followed by the reverse lights, and the truck rolled back to block his view of the front of the shop.
His eyes were good, better than any human, and yet all he could make out of the driver was the black baseball cap that was pulled down low over his face. Male, he could make that out. But the pickup was at the wrong angle for him to get any more than that.
Lucas scented the air, picking out all the familiar smells one by one until he latched onto the scent that he didn’t know. That was the owner of the pickup truck, and he imprinted it onto his memory as the truck moved off again.
He didn’t like coincidences. And someone new rolling into town just after Julius arrived was a coincidence. The fact the truck stopped and rolled back outside Shannon’s shop was a damned mistake on the part of the driver, because now he had peeked Lucas’s curiosity, and that wasn’t always a good thing.
Lucas met Julius coming back out of Shannon’s shop. From over the older man’s shoulder he could see that Shannon was getting ready to close up for the night.
“I know I said I’d wait, but I think someone just followed you into town.” Lucas let him have it straight and he got his answer. The worried look in the older man’s eyes as they darter up and down the street told Lucas all he needed to know.
“Damn, I was so sure I hadn’t been followed…” Julius bit out and then growled at himself for opening his big mouth too soon.
“Is she in danger?” Lucas’s tone was demanding. He wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines and cover questions with either patience or the niceties that the old man might be used to. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.
“Probably.” That was as far as Julius got before the sound of Shannon’s little bell ringing out behind him brought the realisation that Shannon had come out onto the street.
Julius moved aside so she could see that Lucas was standing there, although, he pretty much suspected that his mate could already feel his presence.
“Again? Really?” It was the look of sheer annoyance on her face that had Julius smirking, even though his mind was still half on what Lucas had told him about being followed.
“No, I’m a mirage…”
“We can only hope.” She rebuffed his sarcasm with some of her own. She was feeling slightly bolder within her own mind now that Julius was here with her.
“We may have a problem, Shannon…” Julius’s worried tone’s alerted her to her Alpha’s sudden change in disposition, and she narrowed her eyes on him and urged him on without words.
“It seems I might have been followed right to your doorstep sweetheart. I’m sorry.” Julius’s words caused Shannon to wince and neither of their reactions was lost on Lucas.
He was antsy. Hell no, more than antsy, his wolf was practically baying for blood within him with every second that ticked by. Something was going on, and one or both of them was going to come clean.
“Right. Everybody in my truck, dinner’s at my house and nobody is leaving until we get to the bottom of this and come up with a solution.” Lucas wasn’t issuing an invitation. He was demanding that they both comply. He instinctively knew that Julius would, but he seemed to hold his breath automatically waiting for his mates answer.
It didn’t matter to him either way. He would damn well pick her up and throw her in the truck if he had too. And when he got home, if she was still a handful, he would tie her to his bed and leave her there to stew on it for a while. At least he’d know she was safe.
Shannon’s eyes flicked to Julius and Lucas felt a sudden surge of irritation wash
through him. His mate was looking for guidance from another Alpha, and it did sting his ego, and yet, Julius had been her Alpha for a long time. It was only natural that she would look to him now, after all they weren’t yet mated, he had a claim on her, but it was only that, a claim.
When Julius gave a barely noticeable nod of his head Shannon took a long breath and let it out on a sigh.
Good. She was going to cooperate. Although, Lucas couldn’t help but wonder just how the throwing her over his shoulder, kidnapping her and tying her to his bed would have gone down with her…
“It was a confluence of events…”
Julius sat in the rocker on the porch and watched the closest person he had to a flesh and blood daughter playing with the pack’s pups across the grass from him. His eyes took in the scene while his mind recounted what Lucas needed to know.
“Shannon had practically grown up on pack land. We all knew that she was special from her earliest years. She never had much of a family of her own, so I unofficially adopted her into mine. Not having any daughters, my mate loved having her around, and my boys took to her straight away.” Julius smiled with the memories of his family growing up, as images of days gone by flashed through his mind.
“Shannon became our healer and I thought, maybe hoped that she would find a mate among my pack…” He heard the low rumble of a growl from Lucas and grinned accordingly. “Easy there, Alpha… obviously it never happened. She was closer to some of my pack than others. But one by one they found their mates and her interests were caught by an outsider. A human who seemed perfect for her…”
Another growl that Lucas could not control rolled through him and the old man eyed him from under his weather worn brows, a slight smile of amusement on his lips as he gave Lucas the chance to control his anger.