“Want to me to corral the others?” Tucker asked behind me.
“Yeah. Let me prepare Iris. And please stop using that word. ”
Iris didn’t need preparing. She shuffled out onto the porch in her black orthopedic shoes and looked hard at the line of newbies. Tyler was behind her, wiping his hands on a dish towel. And there was why Iris didn’t need preparing.
I met her at the top of the stairs.
“Hairball,” Iris grumbled.
“Old lady.”
I leaned forward and gave Iris a small kiss on the cheek. She still smelled like dust and cashmere and I took a moment to burn it into my brain. That smell was home. I joined her on the top step and we looked out at the new recruits.
“They’re a pretty tame bunch,” I started. “We’ve got enough sleeping bags for everyone to sleep out in the barn.”
“They’re not sleeping out in the barn like a bunch of animals. We’ll find places inside.”
I was going to protest there was nothing wrong with the barn, but the set of her jaw and the squint of her eyes looked like she was preparing for something, so I wasn’t going to fight her on this.
“We got groceries for everyone, working on a potato salad right now,” Tyler said.
“Iris, you didn’t have to.”
“Don’t think you’re not reimbursing me, little miss millionaire.”
I looked to Tyler, who only shrugged. “She deserved to know.”
I couldn’t blame him. Iris was damn intimidating despite the silvery bun and apron. She probably broke him with one taste of her sweet tea. “We probably need to discuss some of that.”
Iris nodded. “Already have the iced tea ready. Chaz going to make an appearance?”
I again looked to Tyler, who threw his hands up and went back into the house.
I forced a smile. “You now how those Garrett boys can’t resist a free meal.”
Iris frowned. She knew both Chaz and I too well to know everything wasn’t all right. “Strapping you two to chairs to work it out is the last thing I want to do, but it’s still on the list.”
“Understood. Ready to meet the troops?”
“Guess so.”
“I could really use that whole How to be a Prima talk now.” I rocked on the porch.
After getting everyone settled and fed, which was more of a feat that I’d imagined, Tyler took some of the more skittish ones out to the fields to work on some borders and control. He volunteered for the job, actually, surprising me and Tucker most of all. Peter worked on his computer in the living room and somehow Nash had gained access into Iris’s secret back room of Wanderer knowledge that I hadn’t even ventured into. I’d given him the grimoire the second I’d gotten out of my car and he grabbed it like it was the last piece of birthday cake with the extra icing.
Keeping up the front of put togetherness before the pack had made my skin begin to ache, and when Iris suggested that we take to the porch for some girl talk, I didn’t refuse.
“I keep telling you. It’s different for each person. This is your pack. Your set of rules.”
“Then at least tell me how you did it.”
Iris’s eyes trailed across to the light of the dying sun. “It took me a while. We were just shifters though, and I had the Cause on my side.”
I shook my head. “We don’t play nice.”
“You don’t play nice with anyone.”
“Managed to keep the elementals at bay.” I was still proud Inez and I hadn’t ripped each other’s heads off.
Iris sighed. “I kept it simple. Meetings once a month. Let them live how they wanted. Set out some pretty simple rules.”
“Which were?”
“Don’t eat anyone. Don’t tell anyone. And don’t put me in a situation that I won’t like.”
“That’s it?”
Iris looked over at me with an arched snowy brow. “It was a simple code. Everything seemed simpler back then.”
“Before Haverty, you mean.”
Iris shook her head. “He changed the game. Made it more about power than it had ever been before. And that was before he started in with the demon.” She shifted in her rocker to face me. “It’s going to be hard for you to serve your people.”
“What?”
“You’ve got the heart in the right place, but your pride and power aren’t going to help.”
“Iris, that hurts.”
She sighed. “I’m old and tired of wasting all this wisdom on the birds.”
I wanted the wisdom. I wanted to absorb every ounce of wisdom that I could get. But a rumble echoed across the field, a rumble I would have known anywhere. Chaz was back.
“You need to go to him.” Iris slowly pushed herself up and off the rocking chair next to me.
“Know something that I don’t?” I watched her shuffle toward the kitchen door.
“Yes. Now mind me for once in your life.” The slamming of the screen door punctuated her command.
Chaz had to park at the end of the long line of cars down the driveway. Which was probably a good thing. I needed a moment to convince myself he hadn’t left me again when I needed him. He’d just gone to do his job, just like I had gone to do mine.
At least he came back in one piece. I came back a little chewed on.
His boot steps were heavy as he climbed the porch stairs. He dropped his bag on the wooden slats and trudged toward me.
As I stood, his slid his hands around my waist and rested his heavy head on my shoulder. I fought a wince as he slammed it down on the shoulder with the still tender wounds. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he tightened his arms around me.
“Chaz?”
“Just be still.”
I pressed my lips together and wrapped my arms around him. Only as I relaxed into his embrace and my power pulsed around us did I feel how incredibly exhausted he was.
I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know if anyone had touched him because I’d just have to rip their head off. I wanted to know because suddenly I was scared.
I heard him grunt as my embrace grew a little too embracey.
“Sorry,” I said as I loosened my arms around him.
Chaz pulled away and his golden green eyes looked down at me, complete with the dark circles I was getting known for having.
“What happened?” I kept my voice to a whisper.
“I chose you.”
I pulled away further to focus a little better on his words. “Huh?”
His hands rested on my hips as his gaze rested somewhere around my left ear. “I went to Andrea. Explained I couldn’t work cases anymore. Couldn’t be running all over the country.”
“But . . .”
He raised an eyebrow and I swallowed my protest.
“I’m out.”
I frowned when I realized what he was saying and looked down at the inside of his left forearm where the Cause’s mark used to be branded into his skin. His skin was perfect, like there had never been a spell there at all.
“I’m choosing this life, this fight.”
The smile that overcame me was contrary to the tears that welled up in my eyes. I wrapped my arms around his neck and for a moment the sunset was brighter, the birds were chirping, and there wasn’t an evil bastard trying to bleed me through the Veil.
“Vi,” he squeaked.
I jumped back and giggled. Actually giggled. “Sorry.”
“I’m still not ready to be part of the pack.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “I need at least one person left to Taser me.”
The furrow that appeared between Chaz’s brows might have beat his world record for the fastest and the deepest.
I sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“There’s more. You’ve got to give a little, Violet. You’ve got to make some decisions too.”
“What?”
“Things have got to change. It’s not working, for me, for you, for them.” Chaz sounded like he had a plan as he pulled me to the ra
iling of the porch and sat me down. “First of all, give up that planner. The guilt on your face when you missed an appointment was painful. It’s not you. You’re not a planner.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“You’re welcome. Second. You’re going to ask Drew for a hiatus.”
I gasped and tried to stand but Chaz clapped his hand on my injured shoulder and pushed me back to the railing. “But I’m a writer, Chaz. It’s who I am.”
“Being a writer is part of who you are. I know your writing brain has saved our asses a few times but the world won’t end if you don’t oversee MoonBlood. It actually might end if you don’t focus on this story, our story.”
I wanted to protest. But he was right. I wasn’t just a writer anymore. I was a Prima and an aunt. I still smiled when I thought about that. “Well, when you put it like that . . .”
“It’s not forever, Violet. Probably better that you keep writing, but you don’t have to work anymore. The money took care of that. And if you still see it as blood money, then look at it like this: the money is helping you be a better Prima, which makes them a better pack.”
“I bought the coffee shop.” The confession seemed to jump out of my mouth. “To make sure it stayed a haven for the pack. I suppose using a little of it to pay off my mortgage wouldn’t make me totally evil.”
“Exactly,” he nodded. “And I really don’t care if you fight me on this one, but I’m moving in. The boys can have my house and it’s going to be hard, but you’re right. There is no us anymore. There is we and my part in this we for now is to be your Guardian. Protect you, even if it’s from yourself.”
As the tears welled up in my eyes, I nodded and stood. He let me.
“Agreed. On all terms, Mr. Garrett. And no more house guests, either.”
Chaz let out a long breath. “Good. Because I was getting really nervous about walking in on another one again.”
He pulled me to him and kissed my cheek. I took in a deep breath of his musky scent and burned it into my brain.
“Now what was this about you being Tasered?”
So I told him. Caught him up on the intel from the Shades, the location of the grimoire, what happened with Inez, and even gossiped to him about Jessa and Tucker.
“Huh,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me.
We’d ended up in one of the rockers together. As I talked, his warmth surrounded me and I was probably the most relaxed and rested that I had been in six weeks.
“Yep.” I rested my head on his shoulder. It was amazing that a five-feet-eleven woman could curl into such a tight space, but it was the best tight space to be in.
Chaz sat up and listened. We were still keenly aware of the silence. “Where is everyone?”
“Tyler has them doing something.”
I felt Chaz shift underneath me.
“How is he doing?”
“He just lost the love of his life. He’s doing what everyone else would do. He’s burying himself in something constructive so he doesn’t have to think about it and I’m not going to stop him. Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing? Over-managing everyone so I don’t have to think about losing anyone.”
“Because you think you caused it?”
“No,” I sat up and looked down at Chaz. His raised an eyebrow, catching me in another lie. “Yes. But at least Tyler is good at it. His whole nurturing side came out the moment he saw some of these guys. I think we’ve found our Shala.”
“What about Iris?”
“She thinks she should stay out of this. A fresh pack.”
“But we are here.”
“I didn’t say that she doesn’t care about us as people. She just doesn’t want to get involved in the politics.”
Chaz looked out across the field. The spring sun was going down and I was postponing the inevitable while on the porch with my love.
“You need to go, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Want me to stay in the house for tonight?”
“Yep.”
“Want me to make breakfast in the morning?”
I nodded with a wide content smile and leaned down to kiss him. It was a simple kiss. We didn’t need the big theatrics anymore, because we’d already made our choice. Though I was pretty sure that with a little convincing, I could get some serious theatrics going.
Chaz pushed off the porch chair and I was forced to stand. Plans were foiled again.
“Go be that girl I just gave up my sacred destiny for.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tyler had them all standing just on the other side of the barn. He knew I needed to have Prima time. That I needed to be me for a little while before I was what they needed of me. That’s why he was going to be our new Shala. He seemed to know what we needed to make us better.
I waited on the periphery of their circle and slipped off my tennis shoes. It was still amazing to see all of them together. It hadn’t happened yet. I’d taken them all on individually, but together like this, their eyes wide in the full moonlight as they listened to Tyler and the rules for that night, they were a force to be reckoned with.
I slid my hand over Tyler’s shoulder and his speech stopped. “I think most of us got this.”
I flicked my eyes over to the youngest, Remy, and then back at Tyler. If anyone was going to need his help tonight, it was going to be Remy. And frankly, I wasn’t sure how a white-tailed deer was going to fare during hunting season.
I turned to my pack. “I’ve got nothing you haven’t already heard. I can’t show you anything you haven’t already done yourself.”
The crowd was getting antsy. The full moon was pulling on all of us, and it was stronger than I’d ever felt before. Twenty times stronger, to be as precise as possible.
I released my borders, getting rid of any pretenses that I was not their leader and just another shifter.
The Fang sisters rolled their necks as they stepped out of their wedge sandals and pulled off their huge dangling earrings. The Rosario brothers took off their shirts and looked like something from that teen dream movie we’d been watching with Lexie.
“Simple rules, people. No bringing back souvenirs. But you come back. And if something happens, then you call out to me or Tucker and we will get you back.”
I heard Peter pop his neck to my right and the relief of it jittered down my spine.
“And I know that this is going to sound cheesy, but look at the person to your left.”
I looked over at Tyler, who was looking over at Remy.
“Now look at the person to your right.”
I looked over at Tucker, who wasn’t even trying to catch a peep down Praline’s shirt, though the smallest of the Fang sisters wasn’t trying to hide her ample assets.
“What do you see?”
“Dark roots,” Praline snapped.
Lucy, another petite blonde with more rhinestones per inch than I’ve ever seen, whipped her head around and stung Praline on the arm with her sharp, perfectly manicured nails.
I chuckled. “What else?”
“People,” Kandice said softly.
I smiled. “And what don’t you see?”
“A pack of mutts,” Tucker filled in.
“Exactly.”
I looked around and knew it was time. The commune was the fundamental of the pack. If all of Nash’s big books had taught me anything, it was that. The difference between a pack and every other group of Wanderers was that the Prima shared her power. The pack was only as strong as its weakest member and it was the Prima’s responsibility to keep her pack strong.
And not to do what I’d done and take from them. A sharp stab of fear ran through me and I looked to Tucker. What if I did it again? What if my default was still set at take instead of give?
Tucker put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a little shove forward. That was his older brother coming out, telling me to get the job done. That he was right behind me.
Hesitantly, I shared my power with them and
they accepted it. It was easy, felt natural to be around them, open with them like this. The power coursed along their skins, ran rampant up their bare spines, slipped around them like satin strands. It filled in holes from stress, sadnesses, making each of them stronger as they let my power wrap around them.
When I felt Remy’s head go a little dizzy, I pulled back to just being radioactive. Their eyes were wide and their animals ready. I’d done it. I’d actually done something right. I really was their Prima.
“Now play nice and protect your pack mates.”
“And last one back to the house has to do breakfast dishes,” Tyler put in.
With a little flick of my hand and a crack of my energy, I sent my pack off into the fields for their first shift together.
The Fang sisters didn’t even make it to the tree line. They shifted into their wolf forms within two strides. Jane and Gator were galloping the other way across the field and the rest of them scattered to the wind. Even Peter eventually trotted off into the darkness, his silver mantle catching the moonlight.
Except my boys.
Tyler put his hands on his hips. “I got the kid, right?”
“Lords, yes. I saw the way that Lucy was eyeing him and I wish she had carnage on the brain.”
“I’ll stay at the house,” Tucker said.
“Only if you want to. Chaz has it pretty well secured.”
Tucker’s eyebrows jumped. “Chaz is back?”
“Yep. Chose this fight above all others. He chose us.”
Tucker gave a deep nod before he pulled off his shirt.
Nash’s voice was the oldest I’d ever heard it. “And there is going to be a fight, isn’t there? Something major if the Cause is letting their players go. Something they can’t handle.”
“Yes.” I couldn’t lie to him. Not like this. Not after what I’d just preached about. “There is. Something they can’t predict and if Chaz’s assumption last fall is still true, they just want it to play out and be over with.”
“God, I hate those guys,” Tucker grumbled.
“I’m not exactly a fan either.”
Nash shrugged. “Guess I’ll keep reading.”
“And I’ll keep training those who need it,” Tyler said.
Nine Lives of an Urban Panther Page 18