Dawning of Light (Lightbearer Book 2)

by Tami Lund

  “Sasha, one of the undercooks, says that word in the village is he is a fabulous catch.”

  “Finn? A fabulous catch?” She snorted.

  “Sure he is,” Olivia said. “He’s terribly handsome and smart and brave—and did I mention handsome?”

  “Twice,” Cecilia confirmed.

  “Sasha says there is even a betting pool. Copies of A Shifter History are selling so rapidly the bookstore owner can’t keep them in stock. Everyone is whispering about the way shifters mate, and all the single females are clamoring to be the one with whom he mates.”

  “I had no idea Lightbearers were so eager to mate with shifters,” Cecilia said drily. “Only a few months ago, we were all deathly afraid of them.”

  “Yes, well, now there are shifters living within the coterie. And Tanner has made contact with at least two other packs that do not hold to his father’s beliefs. He is even talking about letting them visit us here as further proof that we are not enemies.”

  “If all the single females in the coterie are trying to mate with Finn, I don’t see how that is necessary.”

  “Maybe it will relieve some of the pressure on Finn, if there are other shifter males for them to pay attention to,” Olivia suggested lightly, and Cecilia looked at her cousin.

  “What are you not saying?” Cecilia asked.

  Olivia shrugged. “Only that I think you would be better for Finn than any of these other females who are vying for his attention.”

  Cecilia lifted her hand, palm out. “Wait. Stop. First of all, I am in no way vying for Finn’s attention.”

  “So you are perfectly fine with him having a liaison with someone else?”

  “No.” The word burst from her mouth before she could stop it. She blushed and averted her gaze.

  “If it helps, I believe he feels the same way.”

  Cecilia made a rude sound. “Hardly. The man can barely tolerate being in my vicinity.”

  Olivia gave her a thoughtful look. “I think that’s because he is attracted to you, and for some reason, he doesn’t want to be. Why do you suppose that is?”

  “Because he doesn’t like me,” Cecilia instantly replied.

  But Olivia shook her head. “No, I don’t think that is it. I think it’s something different. Something more substantial. I wonder what?”

  This conversation had gone on long enough, so Cecilia returned to quizzing Olivia, throwing question after question at her, so she would not have time to contemplate why it was that she imagined Finn was attracted to Cecilia, but did not want to be.

  Cecilia did not want Olivia to think about it, because she didn’t want to think about it.

  Chapter 6

  “I’m telling you, someone shot an arrow at us.”

  “What were you doing when it happened?”

  Finn clapped a hand onto the back of his neck, to hide the blush creeping there. It was none of Tanner’s damn business what they had been doing.

  “Practicing. She was pissed because she thought I didn’t pay enough attention to her during the regular practice. So I told her I’d give her a private lesson.”

  “You didn’t pay her enough attention,” Tanner pointed out. “You blatantly ignored her, and she did every damn thing wrong. Hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d say she did it on purpose. The two of you are worse than siblings.”

  Finn thought about his brother, Reid, and his sister, Felicia. Sure, they’d had occasion to argue and fight over the years, but they had nothing on him and Cecilia.

  “She drives me fucking nuts.” Probably because whenever I’m around her, I want to fuck her.

  “Maybe I should assign someone else to watch over her,” Tanner mused.

  “No,” Finn said too quickly. He cleared his throat and added, “Is there anyone else you’d trust with her life? Because the woman manages to get herself into sticky situations on a damned regular basis.”

  Tanner contemplated his words. “Good point,” he said after a few moments. “I guess you’re stuck with her. Just…just…I don’t know—try not to talk to her.”

  Finn imagined the two of them, locked in a bedroom, sans clothing. They sure as hell wouldn’t get any talking done. Maybe Tanner was right. Less talk, more action.

  Maybe Finn needed to leap off the nearest steep cliff, too.

  “I need to figure out who the hell tried to put a magical arrow through my head.”

  Tanner looked doubtful. “You sure they didn’t think you were animals or something?”

  Finn recalled how he and Cecilia had been wrestling, struggling for dominance, while they continued to paw at one another and kiss with a desperation that had been both tantalizing and maybe a little frightening. They’d been making all the appropriate noises, too.

  “It’s possible,” he said, even though he didn’t for one moment believe it. “But it seems to me they would have come closer to see if the shot hit its mark, but they never did. In fact, as soon as we went still, the culprit took off the other way, pretty quickly.”

  Tanner grunted. “I’ll make some inquiries. Quietly. Unfortunately, I have a feeling I’m going to discover that you have a bunch of enemies here.”

  “Why?” Finn asked, startled that his friend, his pack master, would say such a thing.

  One corner of Tanner’s mouth lifted. “Because there’s a bet going on among all the single females. You, it seems, are the equivalent to the latest and greatest pop star to the Lightbearers. And every one of them knows how a shifter mates, which for some damn reason makes you even more fascinating.”

  “Okay, that’s just bullshit,” Finn said, dismissing Tanner’s observation. “But even if it was true, then none of those women would be trying to kill me.”

  “No, but you were with Cecilia at the time, and jealousy is a powerful emotion.” Before Finn could retort, Tanner held up a hand, palm out. “But I don’t think it was a woman either. While some of them have shown real promise during training, I doubt very much one of them could conjure a bow and arrow yet, let alone sneak up on you like that. No, I think it’s a male Lightbearer. And he’s coming after you because he’s jealous that all the females want you, instead of the guys who have been here all along, waiting to earn their affections.” Tanner clapped a hand on his shoulder.

  “Maybe you should think about taking a mate. Maybe that’s all it will take. Once the rest of these women find out you’re taken, they’ll back off and the problem will solve itself.”

  “I don’t want a mate,” Finn said on a growl. “And I sure as hell don’t want a Lightbearer mate.”

  The comment hung in the air between them. Finn realized his mistake almost as soon as he said it, but he couldn’t very well take it back now. After several heartbeats of silence, Tanner spoke, very deliberately.

  “Is there a problem with taking a Lightbearer to mate?”

  Finn raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “No, not for you. But come on, Tanner. I lived under your father’s rule for ten full years longer than you did. I don’t hold to his beliefs that we should kill the Lightbearers for their magic, but it’s hard to break the habit of thinking that shifters should be with shifters and Lightbearers should be with Lightbearers.”

  “You think my relationship with my mate is an abomination?”

  “No,” Finn shot back. “I think you got damn lucky, but I’m not stupid enough to think that I’ll have the same thing with the first hot piece of ass who’s willing to turn around and let me fuck her like a shifter. What the hell do I do in a month, in a year? In ten years?”

  Finn watched as Tanner forced himself to stand down. He had been ready to defend his relationship with his mate, through a challenge, if necessary. Finn didn’t want to fight with his friend, but he needed Tanner to understand his reluctance to look at any of the Lightbearers as mate material.

  “Tanner, I’m so fucked-up in the head right now, I’d drive a mate crazy, if I took one.”

  “How so?” Tanner asked curiously.
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  Finn shrugged and looked away, taking a moment to admire the various vehicles and pieces of machinery that took up space in the massive pole barn. They’d retreated to this building at Finn’s request, to avoid anyone eavesdropping on their conversation.

  “I hated living in your father’s pack. I thought about leaving a thousand times, but I couldn’t leave my family there, and you know how we are.”

  “Shifters have a bone-deep need to be part of a pack,” Tanner said quietly. “Yeah, I get that.” He himself had left the pack ten years prior, because of his father’s screwed-up beliefs. Finn still had no idea how he’d managed for ten years without a pack to call his own.

  “Then I run into you again, and it’s because you’re trying to rescue a damn Lightbearer. Here I always thought they didn’t exist, always thought your father was just completely wacked for continuing to chase after what I thought was an urban legend. So I help you, because it feels more right than giving you up and letting Quentin kill the Lightbearer.”

  “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for that.”

  Finn waved away his gratitude. “Twice I helped you escape with your Lightbearer.” He thought about Cecilia. It was his strange attraction to her, even then, that pushed him over the edge and forced him to help Tanner rather than give him over to the pack master. It made no sense. None of it did.

  “Then I killed the pack master, because I figured you didn’t want the guilt of doing it yourself.”

  “Another thing for which I am thankful,” Tanner said quietly. “I owe you a great debt.”

  Finn waved away his comments again. “Then I asked to join your pack, because I know I’m not a leader, not in that way. I don’t want to rule my own pack. I just want to be part of one I can believe in.”

  “And the fact that I’m pack master over a pack that is actually a Lightbearer’s coterie is fucking up your head,” Tanner guessed.

  “Yeah.”

  Tanner’s gaze swept over the motorcycles, cars, and trucks within the pole barn. “Believe it or not, I know how you feel,” he said quietly. “It’s just that I don’t have a choice. I love Olivia, I consciously chose to mate with her, and now she’s carrying my pup in her belly. I have to stay and figure out a way to make this convoluted pack work.” He looked his friend squarely in the eye.

  “But you don’t have to. You have no bonds here, other than maybe to me. I won’t stop you if you want to leave, Finn. Go back to Wyoming, where your brother and your parents are still living, if you want.”

  “My brother disappeared shortly after Quentin died. My parents packed up and moved to Tennessee to be closer to my sister. I guess she’s pregnant again, going to whelp her third before the end of the year.”

  “So go there,” Tanner suggested. “Didn’t you tell me you haven’t even met your nephews? Maybe that pack will take you in. I’ll put in a good word, if you want.”

  Finn thought about the four months he’d spent living in the coterie. He thought about training the guards and the female Lightbearers. He thought about the friendship he’d renewed with Tanner, and how much he respected that shifter as a leader. He thought about the lofty Lightbearers and their general unwillingness to accept him as one of their own.

  Yet the females were more than happy to welcome him into their beds, and supposedly they were vying to mate with him. Considering none of them really knew him as a person, he figured the reasons were entirely superficial, which both pissed him off and reaffirmed his belief that he most certainly did not want to mate with a Lightbearer.

  Then he thought about Cecilia, about their shared kisses, their arguments, her sensual, if ridiculously thin body. He thought about how desperately he craved her, wanted her, almost felt as if he needed her. He hated the feeling of losing control, every time he was around her.

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

  “Maybe, without you around for a few days, all those randy females will turn to the Lightbearers trying to catch their eyes. Maybe, by the time you come back, no one will feel the need to shoot arrows at your head.”

  “But what about Cecilia?” He was starting to warm to the idea of visiting his family, meeting his nephews for the first time. But duty came first. Cecilia came first. He briefly considered taking her with him—she was always trying to slip out of the coterie, so she’d probably relish the trip—but he was too afraid of what would happen if the two of them were alone for any length of time. She was a large part of the reason he was so fucked-up in the head.

  “I’ll keep an eye on Cecilia. Dane and I. We can manage it for a few days. Or a week.”

  Finn’s mouth quirked into a reluctant smile at Tanner’s dubious tone.

  “You’re welcome back,” he added. “But you’re free to go, too, if you get down there and realize you like it better. Trust me, I’ll understand.”

  Finn shifted his focus from the collection of motor vehicles to his friend, his pack master. And suddenly, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

  Chapter 7

  Cecilia’s life had taken a decidedly miserable slant. Her parents had suddenly developed an interest in her life, which was highly unusual considering they’d all but dumped her on her aunt and uncle’s doorstep when she had become what her mother used to refer to as an “irrepressible toddler.” It had not taken Cecilia long to translate that as meaning she, even at a very young age, refused to hold to her parents’ severe outlook toward the world.

  Lightbearers, according to her parents, should be wholly exclusive. They should not intermingle with any other species, not even the fae, from whom they had been born, a thousand years ago.

  When Cecilia discovered she could slip in and out of the coterie without anyone else the wiser, she also discovered humans, and discovered that her parents were ridiculous for believing the way they did. There was absolutely nothing wrong with humans. Even shifters—some shifters—were worthy of the friendship of Lightbearers. Olivia and Tanner had proven that point quite well.

  Cecilia liked Tanner’s mother and Lisa, too, and she adored Lisa’s little ones, especially young Sofia, who idolized Cecilia and liked to spend time with her at every available opportunity. While Cecilia was not the maternal sort, as Finn pointed out, she had no problems fawning over other people’s younglings.

  Unfortunately, her parents’ recent interest in her life made it difficult for Cecilia to do any of the things she preferred to do. Even simply hanging out at the beach house with Olivia had become a challenge.

  “Stay home,” her mother admonished when Cecilia pulled on a pair of boots and pushed her arm into a coat. It had snowed overnight, another few inches. Winter was in full swing. Even the Great Lake had a thin coating of ice that morning.

  “I’m going up to see Olivia,” she replied.

  “I want you here,” Lacey Druthers insisted. “We’re having friends over. A small get-together. I want you to join us.”

  Cecilia did not want to join the gathering. She barely knew her parents’ friends, and was perfectly fine with that fact. As little as she knew of them, she understood that they all held the same rigid beliefs. The rigidness had been tolerable when the entire coterie had believed all shifters were evil, but now that Tanner and Finn and the rest lived within the magically protected village, it seemed as if her parents and their friends had gotten even more zealous with their beliefs. Tanner and Finn and the rest had proved that not all shifters were the same, yet Cecilia’s parents seemed to believe that was even more reason to cling to their exclusive behavior and ideas.

  Unfortunately, Cecilia ultimately was not given a choice. Her mother insisted, her father appeared and backed his mate, and Cecilia felt obliged to obey, at least for a short while. They were still her parents, after all.

  The gathering consisted of about thirty Lightbearers, most of them mated, and most were her parents’ age and older. There were only a handful Cecilia’s age. Including Carley, the head chef at the beach house, and her mate, the sleazy, slimy Miguel.
She felt sorry for Carley, who had been forced by her own parents to mate with Miguel.

  Cecilia supposed she ought to be grateful that her parents had not tried to force her into mating with someone, although she suspected her close relationship with the king and queen was the reason it had not happened. The king would have to condone the mating, would have to conduct the mating ceremony, and Cecilia was reasonably certain that between she and Olivia, they could convince him not to do it, if Cecilia really did not want to mate with whomever her parents chose.

  Carley, who was also a distant cousin to Cecilia on her father’s side, had not had the same direct connection to the king and queen, and as a result, was stuck mated to a horrible man. Because she was the only person at the party who Cecilia really knew at all, and because she actually liked Carley, Cecilia made her way to that woman’s side. She offered Carley a drink. It was warm cider, minus any spirits. Cecilia’s parents did not drink spirits.

  “Thank you,” Carley said as she accepted the mug of steaming liquid. “I’m surprised to see you here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at one of your parents’ gatherings before.”

  “I wouldn’t be at this one either, but my mother has suddenly determined she wants to bond with me,” Cecilia muttered. She pulled a small flask from the folds of her skirt and offered it to Carley. “I’m happy to share.”

  Carley laughed and shook her head. “I’m fine for now, thank you. Why do you suppose your mother suddenly wants to bond with you?”

  “She is determined it’s time for me to take a mate. But she wants to be sure she approves of that mate, if not chooses him herself. Undoubtedly he will hate all shifters.” Not that she would ever let that happen. Not ever. Cecilia did not hate shifters, and she doubted she ever would, no matter what her parents believed.

  Carley’s gaze darted around, and then she leaned close and whispered her next words, as if she was afraid of being overheard. “I do not hold to those beliefs.”

  “I figured.” She doubted Carley would be able to handle running the kitchens at the beach house if she held to her parents’ rigid beliefs, considering there were shifters currently in residence.