by Maia Dylan
Liam watched the inevitable happen. The guy’s eyes narrowed and lines of anger bracketed his mouth. No man, even dementedly insane fuckers with no soul apparently, hated to have their manhood called into question. He heard the rustle of leaves as Agnes started to move, and he sent up thanks to the gods that she had the brain to get the hell out of the way.
His relief became anger when he felt her press herself up against his back. Despite the coppery tang of her blood that hand heavy in the air, he could scent her arousal. What in the hell was up with that? “You know, I thought you would be harder to capture. Five of my men came to Freedom Springs to hit two separate marks. Two are in prison, refusing to accept early release and three of them were ever heard of again. Now, why was that do you think?”
It suddenly all clicked into place. This guy had come here looking for the two that had shot Casey at the beginning of the prophecy and the three that had come for Neve. Liam’s anger spiked even further. This bastard was the reason Neve had been shot and hurt on two separate occasions. Judging by how insanely fucked up the guy was, Liam figured he had a direct line to Aeron somehow.
“Probably because if the two who are currently incarcerated step out of that prison, they will be met by one pissed off park ranger looking for blood. As for the other three? Who knows? The forest is a big, dangerous place. Perhaps they cut themselves getting firewood and bled to death looking for a Kleenex.”
Agnes began to make a cuffing rumbling noise behind him and was currently rolling herself against him. His entire body tensed. Something was seriously not right with whatever the hell was going on here. The loud crack of thunder cracked overhead and where the gunman cringed and shot a nervous look skyward, Liam grinned. It seemed his woman was on her way.
A deep threatening growl game from the forest to the left of their left, and an answering one rang from the right. A third sounded from behind the gunmen and Liam had to fight back a grin as the man spun like a top, trying to keep an eye on him and watch as three huge wolves stepped from the forest around them. Liam recognized them as Micah, Cole, and Travis and figured that Ryan must be close to.
“Crazy gun man, I’d like you to meet the guardian and protectors of the women you feel should be killed. Winters brothers? This is the fucker who sent those bastards after our women!” Liam snarled and stepped toward the man who had now lost all color and was spinning in a crazy circle. The wolves all stepped in closer, their snarls and growls becoming almost deafening. He almost felt sorry for the bastard. Almost.
A single shot sounded and the gunman dropped to the ground, blood swelling from the hole that bloomed on his forehead. Ryan stepped out, holding a smoking rifle. Micah shifted back swiftly, and threw his hands in the air. “Goddamn it, Ryan! How come you get to kill the bastard and not us?”
“Because, Micah,” Ryan answered as he double checked that the weapon he carried was unloaded. “I wear the uniform and made the call that he was about to shoot a member of my team, and potentially take out three wolves on national park land, both of which gave me the right to take him out with extreme prejudice! So pull on your big boy panties and stop with the moaning.”
Cole and Travis shifted and added their grumbles to the fight, and Liam grinned at their interactions.
“Liam!” Neve’s shout had Liam turning and running in her direction, meeting her as she made it into the area, and wrapping her in his arms. He inhaled deeply, taking her scent into his lungs, calming himself and his bear. “Thank god you’re okay”
Liam pulled back to look into Neve’s eyes and he cursed himself when he saw the pain and torment that shimmered there. Damn it! He’d scared her. He reached up and gripped her face, pressing small kisses to every inch of her beautiful face as he murmured how sorry he was.
“Um, sorry to interrupt the whole apologizing thing you got going on there, but who’s the naked woman currently shooting visual daggers in your direction,” Fiona asked out the side of her mouth. Liam winced as he realized he had forgotten all about Agnes.
“I’m Liam’s mate, Agnes.” The reply came from behind him and he watched as Neve paled, and her eyes widened.
* * * *
“I thought she was dead?” Neve whispered in shock.
“Although it is true that I was shot the day you claimed me, Liam,” Neve jolted a little at the sound of Agnes’s, voice. Surely she was too far away to have heard Neve whisper. “It didn’t kill me. I allowed you and everyone else to believe I was dead as I was confused and stunned by what had happened between us, and coming to terms with the fact that you were a bear shifter. I came to in the morgue, put my name on the drawer housing a vagrant that had been found dead, and left. I have spent the last ten months working my way back to him.”
Neve caught Liam’s grimace out of the corner of her eye, but never took her gaze off the naked woman, who was currently laying claim to her bear. She remembered Liam telling her about the day he lost his mate. Hell, I couldn’t even look at her in the morgue. He’d had them seal the casket before he claimed the body. But none of that mattered now. Liam was hers. There was no doubt in her mind that he belonged to her. She turned so that she faced Agnes directly and caught a glint of challenge in the other woman’s eyes.
Agnes stood tall despite the fact that she was standing naked in front of a group of men and women she had never met before. She had dark blonde hair that fell to the middle of her waist, and green eyes. She was quite beautiful, but had the presence of someone who knew they were. Neve felt a chill roll over her when she stared into Agnes’s eyes though. They were blank, almost empty and they made Neve think about the demons Aeron sent through the rift.
“How did you find him here in Freedom Springs?” Neve asked, watching the woman carefully.
Agnes wrapped her arms around her middle as if cold. Micah walked over and handed her a t-shirt he had produced from a backpack Casey had brought with them. Agnes smiled gratefully at him and pulled the shirt over her head. “Thank you. It’s colder here now that winter has set in, and with the blood loss from my wounds I am feeling it even more.”
She swayed a little with that statement. Liam cast Neve an apologetic look and moved over to stand by Agnes, gently wrapping a hand around her waist. Neve felt a painful slice of jealous pulse through her at the sight. Agnes tilted her head up and smiled at Liam, and leaned heavily into him. Her sigh of relief was clearly laced with pleasure.
Neve fought back the anger that she could feel building within her. “As I said before, how did you find Liam here in Freedom Springs?”
Anges turned back to her and this time there was no doubt in her mind. There was smugness in her smile and her eyes glittered in challenge. “I stuck around Dallas, talking with his friends until I was able to determine where he had gone. Then, once I was close enough to town, I could scent him. As his mate”—Agnes stressed the word, looking pointedly and Neve—“I can scent when he is near, just as he can with me. All of my senses are heightened since he Turned me.”
Neve blinked slowly. Liam had Turned her? The silence that fell over the entire group was almost palpable. Had the situation been less serious and nothing to do with her potentially losing her man, Neve might have found the look on Liam’s face comical. It was a mixture of shock, confusion and fear.
Liam turned to Agnes and stepped away from her slightly so he could look directly at her. “What the fuck do you mean, I Turned you? Turned you into a bear shifter? Is that what you are saying?”
All challenge and smugness had disappeared from her face, and was replaced with a serene innocence that had Neve gritting her teeth. “Why, of course you did my love. That day when we cemented our relationship and you claimed me in the station gymnasium, you forced your venom into my heart, and Turned me into the mate you need. One that understands everything about you, and can be everything you need me to be.”
Neve frown deepened at that. Liam had Turned Ariana that day at the Pagan Stone, in order to save her life, but he hadn’t remembere
d he was able to do that. It had taken Olwen’s intervention for him to remember. Something just didn’t ring true.
Ariana stepped forward, her expression disbelieving. “Really? He turned you and you were able to get up and walk away without him realizing what he had done? That seems a little unlikely.”
Agnes turned hate filled eyes on Ariana. “And what would you know of that, human?”
Ariana tilted her head and grinned. “Because when Liam changed me, there was no stopping my shift. My bear ripped from me almost unconsciously. And speaking of my bear, she doesn’t scent you as a shifter. All she is getting is the acrid smell of sulfur.”
Agnes waved her hand in Ariana’s direction dismissively. “Why am I even bothered talking to the likes of you? Obviously, you are the bitch to one of these wolves.” The distasteful way she said wolves had her other Elemental sisters seeing red if the wave of anger coming from her Elemental bond was anything to go by. “If you were unable to resist the change then it is obvious you are not as strong as I. I control my bear. I say when I shift and when I don’t. This is between me and my mate. And has nothing to do with any of you!”
Cracks were appearing in Agnes’s calm façade of serenity.
The Earth shuddered. “Oh, no you didn’t just talk shit about my sister.” Casey stomped forward to stand beside Ariana, her eyes glowing. “You couldn’t even begin to understand her strength and abilities. You think to compare yourself to her? Bitch please. You couldn’t measure up to her on her worst day.”
All sign of her calm exterior was now gone. Agnes stood tall, a look of distain and anger on her face. Neve was a little shocked that she hadn’t reacted to the fact that the happened to have been an Earthquake right then. Liam moved so that he stood between her and Agnes, as the Winters brothers all moved into positions to protect their mates. The more this woman opened her mouth, the more suspicious Neve became of her story
“How dare you talk to me like that?” Agnes shrieked in outrage. “Who the hell do you think you are? You think your little display of puny power would have me quivering in fear? Ha! You are nothing in comparison to me.”
“What puny display of power were you referring to just then?” Fiona asked from her position between Cole and Travis, huge smile on her face. “Could you have perhaps meant that little naturally occurring earthquake a few moments ago?”
Agnes’s eyes narrowed and Neve had to fight the urge to cry “gotcha.” Then it looked like she took a deep breath and turned a sad expression on Liam. “Liam, my love.” Her voice quavered in fear and she seemed to curl into herself slightly, making herself seem smaller. She was the picture of a woman in need, and as far as Neve was concerned her performance was Oscar-worthy. “Please, I am your mate. I have been hurt and stand here bleeding before you. Your friends berate and yell at me, and yet you do nothing. What kind of a mate are you?”
Neve frowned when Liam seemed to tense under her questions and she knew he was starting to feel guilty. Agnes saw it to, and there was no disguising the look of victory she cast in Neve’s direction. And it was that look that did it. Neve might have been able to stand by and let Liam take the lead in what happened next. Neve had no doubt that he would have told Agnes about Neve and that they were truly committed to each other. Neve’s trust in Liam and their relationship never wavered.
But to see him jolt with guilt and start to feel anything but rage at this woman who had put him through so much? That just drove her from calm observer to pissed off lover in one second flat. She moved around Liam to stand beside him, taking a perverse sort of pleasure in the narrowing of the woman’s eyes.
Neve grinned at the woman, letting her know she was unfazed. “So let’s recap shall we? You say you’re Liam’s mate, and I have to be honest with you, Aggie, I’m starting to have my doubts about that. Liam is mine, and I don’t share well at the best of times, let alone with someone like you. But, just for the sake of argument, let’s say that the Fates were high on drugs one day and chose you as his mate. You are stating that during the claiming, he Turned you at the same time. Correct?”
“Yes, that is correct,” Agnes snarled. “He was mine before he ever even laid eyes on you.”
“Again, I will have to disagree with you there. He’s been coming to me in my dreams for the past twenty years.” Neve turned to Liam. “Baby, do you remember the day you made the unfortunate mistake and slept with that charming piece of work over there?”
Liam frowned. “Yeah, I do. Mostly.”
“Why mostly?” Neve knew the answer, but she wanted the skank behind her to hear it, too.
“Well, I can’t remember the act itself, but I do remember finally being able to focus. I looked down at her and—” Liam’s bear flashed in his eyes as he suddenly caught on to what Neve had already pieced together. He turned his head to level a look at Agnes. “I only bit you on the neck. To Turn you, I would have had to have forced my venom into your heart. I never fucking did that.”
Agnes’s whole demeanor changed. Her head went up and her shoulders went back. Gone was the lost, scared form of a woman looking for protection and in its place was the posture of a woman who believed she was superior to everyone around her.
“Well, look at that,” Agnes’s voice changed then, too. A strong Irish lilt filed her tone. “You’re not as stupid as you look, and you look pretty fucking stupid standing there thinking you might lose your man.” Agnes threw her head back, and screamed, which changed to the roar of a pissed of bear that suddenly ripped from her.
The bear rose to its hind legs, swinging its massive paws in her direction. Neve rapidly drew the patterns that pulled the water to her, and brought with it the power of the storm that she’d had brewing overhead. Throwing her arms out toward the bear, she threw the power of the storm directly at it. When the water hit what looked like a force field over the bear, the force of it drove Neve and her friends to the ground.
Neve struggled to her feet to the growls and roars of the men around her who had all shifted as soon as they could. They all froze on their spot when they saw nothing left of the bear in the place it had been standing. There was nothing there but a large piece of scorched earth.
“Damn it, Neve!” Ryan yelled from her left. “Did you have to incinerate her? I had questions for her for Christ’s sake. Thanks for getting rid of the douchebag’s body because that is sure as hell a bonus, but it would have been handy to interrogate the psychotic bitch Liam claimed as his mate!”
Neve blinked, thinking back to that moment. She had only called the rain.
“Ryan, you ass,” Casey snapped as she walked to stand closer to the scorched patch of earth. Micah wrapped and arm around her and pulled her back a little when he thought she was too close. “Breathe for a minute. Can’t you smell the sulfur? The air is practically thick with it. This was Aeron.”
Neve didn’t know what the fuck had just happened, but what Casey was saying made a crazy kind of sense. Aeron had been fucking with them from the beginning, so it made sense that whatever the hell had just happened, he was at the center of it.
“Neve, you shouldn’t have stepped into her like that, you could have been hurt.” Liam complained from behind her.
Neve spun to glare at him. “Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me! You do not get to yell at me. Right now, you do not even get to speak above a whisper to me.” Liam opened his mouth to talk and Neve slapped her hand over his mouth. “Oh hell, no. Not a word from you. What in the fuck were you thinking? You fucked that, that…”
“Big old lying, might be a bear shifter, but wasn’t bit by you, disappearing in a cloud of sulfur, Aeron-loving piece of camel shit whore?” Casey supplied for her, and Neve nodded.
“Yeah! All of what Casey just said. You took all of that as your mate! It is going to take you a long time to live that down, boy-o.” Neve glared at him then walked quickly past him. She had only taken a few steps when she was suddenly spun around and pulled into Liam’s arms. She looked up into hi
s eyes, her anger crumbling a little in the face of the love and joy shining in his eyes for all to see.
“Yep, I was a fucking idiot for thinking that woman was meant for me,” Liam murmured softly then lifted his hand to cup the side of her face, his thumb sweeping across her cheek. “But how was I to know the most perfect woman in the world was out there waiting for me to find her.”
“Technically,” Neve said on a sign as she settled further into his arms. “I found you.”
“True and I will be forever grateful that you did,” Liam whispered before he claimed her mouth with his own. She lost herself to the force of his kiss and was enjoying the hell out of it when someone cleared the throat just beside them, and the pulled apart.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Travis said with a grin, not sounding one little bit sorry at all. “But I think the two of you may have forgotten that Liam has a gunshot wound. I’d like to check it out.”
Neve gasped and stepped back, letting Travis get to the wound. “Oh my god! Baby, are you okay? Are you in pain?”
Liam grinned and shook his head. “Nah, baby girl. I’m okay.” Neve shot a quick glance at Travis to make sure Liam wasn’t just sugar coating, but from the relaxed grin Travis gave her, she reckoned it wasn’t life threatening.
“Alright, Team Elemental,” Ariana said as the rest of them wondered over to them. “Let’s all head back to Mum and Dad’s. We need to regroup on this one. A lot happened today, and we are going to need to think about what this means for the prophecy and getting this thing solved. There is a connection between Aeron and Liam’s mate.”
“Can we not keep referring to that woman as my mate,” Liam grumped and Neve had to agree. She hated the fact that Agnes had a claim to Liam that she would never have. But she had Liam. And as far as she was concerned, that meant she had the much better deal.
Chapter 7
“Why do you make me do this, my love? Do you think I enjoy it?” the voice of his tormentor, captor and torturer made his skin crawl. Rohan tensed then gritted his teeth against the pain of the whip as it cracked down against the skin of his back. Despite his back being one large sheet of scar tissue by now, that whip still fucking hurt.