Flame

by Ophelia Sexton

  He continued to approach her one slow, cautious step at a time.

  Avoiding direct eye contact, which could be construed as a challenge, he deliberately kept all of his movements slow and gentle.

  He pitched his voice low and talked to her softly all the while he was closing the distance between them.

  Other than the warning hiss, Cassie showed no signs of overt aggression as he approached her, but her burning golden gaze never left him.

  With her cat in control, does she recognize me as her mate? If so, why did she try to attack me when I was in bear shape?

  Or am I just prey now, and she's the hunter waiting for me to come close enough to catch?

  It was an act of faith to come within arm's reach of her and to slowly, oh so slowly, extend his hand.

  Thor had to believe that this Cassie, fierce and wild, would recognize him as her mate. That she wouldn't attack him.

  The big sabertooth cat sniffed cautiously at his proffered hand. He held his breath at the proximity of those huge, blood-stained fangs.

  Then, to his immense relief, she lowered her head and imperiously butted his palm.

  Thor let out a relieved breath, took the hint, and began to stroke her. His fingers sank into her thick, soft fur as he caressed her head and neck, then rubbed her tufted ears.

  Catlike, she began to circle around him, rubbing her cheeks against his hips and waist and marking him with her scent.

  He was warmed by her display of open possessiveness and grateful that she seemed to have calmed down from her initial fury and bloodlust.

  Thor had always been told that a shifter's first kill was their most dangerous moment. Having given their beast the upper hand in a hunt or a crisis, the shifter's human half then had to fight hard to wrest back control.

  The shifters who couldn't regain control went rogue, frequently wreaking havoc among Ordinaries. A rogue forced others in the shifter community to hunt them down and eliminate them before they did too much harm and exposed the existence of shifters to the Ordinary world.

  "It's okay. You're my brave, beautiful girl," Thor continued to murmur, as he carefully examined her injuries, stroking her fur gently where she wasn't wounded.

  Thankfully, none of the bleeding wounds looked too serious. She might need a few stitches here and there, but Cassie would be all healed up by the day of their wedding.

  Thor was willing to bet that none of her injuries were going to leave scars like the long, savagely inflicted ones that marred the smooth pelt over her shoulders and back.

  Relieved, he sank to his knees and put his arms around her, burying his face in her ruff and inhaling her scent. My mate. And soon, my wife.

  He felt Cassie stiffen as crashing noises in the brush heralded the arrival of the Hot Shots at the crash site.

  Led by Ash, his crew emerged a minute or two later and stopped at the edge of the clearing, looking around and sniffing the air.

  "Damn," said Kara, her eyes wide as she caught sight of the two dead shifters and the unconscious Katzenberg. "We need to radio for a Medevac copter, pronto!"

  "And how the hell are we going to explain all this to the cops when they arrive?" asked Michael, to a chorus of agreement from the others.

  Kara went to Katzenberg's side and began to examine the wounded shifter.

  Michael brought over a big, soft-sided first aid kit, while two other members of the Hot Shots, Felicia and Steve, used their shifter strength to carefully lift the van so that Kara could extricate Katzenberg from where he was pinned.

  The rest of the team dispersed to examine Tigredientes and Baldwin, both of whom were currently beyond any aid.

  All the while, Justin paced restlessly around the clearing. Dane and Mark began their shift back to human shape, but Justin showed no signs of wanting to abandon his cat-shape.

  Thor rose to his feet but stayed close to Cassie's side.

  "Let's hope that the police are gonna believe whatever story we come up with to explain this," Ash said, looking at the carnage with a worried expression.

  It did look bad…War-zone bad, Thor thought. Sabertooth cat attack bad.

  "It's gonna be impossible to hide all this," Ash continued, "and with all these bodies, it's going to be all over social media even if the news doesn't pick up the story."

  Dane, who had shifted back to human, came over to them. "Sheriff Jacobsen owes us one," he said confidently.

  Mark, following close on his older brother's heels, added in a lawyerly tone at odds with his current nudity: "Since he refused to help the two of you before, I think he'll assist us now that it's clear that this gang of sabertooth shifters did, in fact, abduct Cassie, and we've got the guns and swords to back us up, plus whatever else a forensics team finds inside that van."

  "I've got a signal, so I'll call Sheriff Jacobsen now," said Ash. "He'll know what to do."

  * * *

  Hours later, after Katzenberg had been airlifted to the nearest hospital with shifter doctors on staff, and Sheriff Jacobsen had shown up at the crash site to help smooth things over with the Montana Highway Patrol, Thor and Cassie and the others were finally allowed to return home.

  True to Dane's prediction, an embarrassed Bill Jacobsen and his shifter police officers had scrambled to make contact with their Montana Highway Patrol counterparts to report the accident and to ensure that no hint of shifter involvement made it into the official police reports or the media.

  To Thor's relief, the first MHP officer to arrive at the accident scene was a wolf shifter like Sheriff Jacobsen. The officer took their statements, examined the crash site, and seemed to accept their version of events without too many probing questions.

  Perhaps it was because of Katzenberg and Tigredientes' previous criminal records and the numerous weapons found on site, all of them belonging to the injured and dead sabertooth shifters.

  In the end, Paul Katzenberg and Cassie were the only ones to survive the abduction attempt.

  The body of a female shifter, identified as Lionne Katzenberg, was found in the woods several hundred yards above the wrecked van. She had been thrown out of a window and apparently crushed by the vehicle as it tumbled downhill.

  Following the lead Cassie provided regarding Baldwin's threats against Amanda, MHP informed them that two more pride members had been arrested in the baggage claim area of the Missoula Airport, where they were waiting for Amanda's flight to deplane.

  Amanda was reported safe and sound and was planning to stay in Missoula overnight before renting a car and driving to the ranch tomorrow.

  As the police were finishing up their initial investigation, Elle, Margaret, Annabeth, Caitlyn, and Steffi arrived in individual vehicles to ferry them all home.

  While they were all waiting for their rides back to the ranch, Thor witnessed Cassie's initial reunion with her father once they had both shifted back to human shape.

  Justin approached his daughter hesitantly. She was wrapped in a blanket, and Thor had put a protective arm around her.

  Justin cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm so sorry for everything, babydoll."

  Cassie slipped out of Thor's hold with an inarticulate cry and flung herself into her father's arms.

  Justin embraced her tightly, and she hugged him hard in return before burying her face in his shoulder.

  "Oh, Daddy!" she said, her voice muffled by the blanket he'd wrapped around himself, toga-style. "I killed Lionne and Baldwin! But I didn't know what else to do!"

  "You did good," he assured her. "And you're all right, which is the only thing that really matters. Everything else will work out as it's meant to." He kissed her forehead, and added in a thoughtful tone, "Since you killed that bastard Baldwin, you could probably stake your claim to the position of Pride First."

  Thor saw Cassie shudder. "Not in a million years," she said, fervently. "You know how much I hate sabertooth politics!"

  "Well, then," Justin said, in that same thoughtful tone. "Since I took down Alfonzo, I guess I go
t some decisions to make when I get back home."

  "What do you mean, sir?" Thor asked warily.

  "Well, I've been thinking for a while now that our pride was going in the wrong direction to succeed in the modern world. Maybe I'll see about claiming Pride First for myself."

  * * *

  Cassie, Justin, and Thor rode back to Bearpaw Ridge in the spacious backseat of Steffi's BMW X5, with Ash in the front passenger seat.

  The rest of the group was divided among the remaining vehicles. Thor felt a vast sense of relief when they began the drive south in the twilight. The afternoon's long ordeal had finally come to an end.

  While Thor and Ash brought Justin and Steffi up-to-date on everything that had happened since Baldwin had forced Cassie to accompany him, Cassie sat unnaturally quiet and subdued, with Thor's arm around her shoulders.

  Cassie barely said another word after her outburst and answered all questions directed her way with monosyllables. She looked greenish-pale under her tan, and she avoided eye contact with Thor or any of the others.

  Thor guessed that given everything that had just happened, the shock of her experiences had set in as soon as the adrenaline wore off. Her condition aroused every protective instinct he had, and he held her close to his side all the way home.

  When Steffi dropped them off in front of their temporary lodgings at the ranch, Justin kissed his daughter on the cheek and asked if she'd like to have breakfast with him in the morning, so they could catch up.

  Cassie nodded and immediately went upstairs, leaving Thor to thank his sister-in-law for driving them.

  "Anytime," Steffi assured him before executing a neat three-point turn and driving away. She and Evan lived in town, in a spacious loft apartment located above Cinnamon + Sugar.

  As the plume of dust raised by the BMW's tires faded, Justin shook Thor's hand.

  "Son, thank you for taking care of her when I couldn't," he said quietly.

  Thor returned his father-in-law's handshake but shook his head. "It's the other way around, Mr. Long. Cassie's the one who's been taking care of herself…and me. She's a lot stronger than you're giving her credit for."

  Justin nodded. "Yep, I imagine so. And please call me Justin. We're kin now."

  With that, his father-in-law walked over to where Margaret Swanson was waiting to show him to his room in the yellow Victorian.

  Thor went in search of his mate.

  He found Cassie in the upstairs bathroom, frantically brushing her teeth, and he could smell that she'd thrown up.

  Cassie rinsed and spat, then met his gaze in the mirror.

  "I can't get the blood taste out of my mouth," she said dully, reaching for the tube of toothpaste and squeezing another dollop onto her toothbrush.

  Leaning against the bathroom doorway, Thor watched her with concern as she brushed her teeth twice more.

  "I've never killed anyone," he said quietly, "so I can't imagine what you're going through right now. But Mark told me that he's sure that the MHP and the Beaverhead County Attorney will see this whole incident as clear-cut self-defense during an abduction. Mark's a lawyer, so he ought to know. And Sheriff Jacobsen said that Tigredientes and Katzenberg both had a long rap sheet of assault charges, and the weapons found in and around the van will support your abduction claim."

  "And what about Lionne? What about Ed Baldwin? I'm pretty sure that neither of them had actual criminal records."

  "Maybe not, but both he and Lionne were active accomplices in your kidnapping and assault. And your dad gave a sworn statement that Baldwin had previously assaulted you and that you were afraid of him."

  Her mouth twisted into a grimace. "Yep, Miss 'Fraidy-Cat, that's me, all right."

  Thor moved forward and took his mate in his arms.

  "Don't be silly, beautiful. You're one of the bravest people I know," he murmured, placing soft kisses in her hair and along her forehead.

  She pressed herself against him. He felt the exact instant when she began to tremble. The trembling quickly escalating to violent shudders as she broke down at last. Sobs racked her as she clung to him, hot tears soaking the front of his shirt.

  Thor hated to see Cassie in such distress, but the tears were almost a relief after her blank-faced shock of the past two hours.

  "I'm a-a m-monster, Thor," she told him between sobs. "I s-sat in that van and w-wanted to kill them all, and then I-I did! I let my cat do w-whatever she wanted! I'm a m-murderer!"

  "No, you're not," he said, stroking her hair and down her back, over and over again, mindful of the bandages over her injuries. "You were outnumbered by people who wanted to harm you and who threatened to harm our family. You did what you needed to do to survive and to make sure they never came after you again."

  His words only made her cry harder. "But I never wanted to hurt anyone!"

  There was no answer to that, so Thor just wrapped his arms around her and held her until the storm of tears had run its course.

  When her sobs had calmed and she was standing quietly in his arms, she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt, "Do you hate me now that I'm just like all the other sabertooth shifters? Ugly, violent, bloodthirsty—"

  "Cassie," he interrupted gently. "You are the least bloodthirsty shifter I know, but you're also an apex predator, and you have fangs and claws for a reason. Believe me, I know bear shifters who have done worse—a lot worse—when someone threatened their families."

  He paused to tenderly brush one of her sun-streaked locks of hair out of her hot, blotchy face and tuck it behind her ear.

  "You won Dane's eternal gratitude, and Mark's, too, by the way," he continued. "The police found Baldwin's phone on his body, and there were a bunch of photos and videos of their kids, taken at their daycare place."

  "I know. That's how Baldwin got me to come with him. He said he'd hurt Matt and Ellie…and that he'd make them disappear."

  A surge of rage moved through him as she confirmed his earlier guess about how Baldwin had convinced her to go quietly with him and why she'd left Thor that voicemail message.

  "But what if something terrible happens again the next time I shift?" she asked, and he could sense the anxiety humming through every tight muscle in her body. "I feel my cat inside me, fighting me to get out again. She wants to kill again."

  "Do you feel like killing right now?" he asked, not letting go of her when she tried to move away from him.

  "N-no. But I'm in control right now."

  "And you'll be in control the next time you shift," Thor assured her.

  "But—" she began.

  "Cassie, if your cat was truly out of control, we wouldn't be standing here right now, having this conversation."

  "Oh," she said, in a tone that implied it hadn't even occurred to her.

  He tilted her face up with a finger under her chin and bent to kiss her. She tasted of toothpaste and pine sap, and underneath that, a faint iron tang of blood.

  My mate. Mine.

  "Are you sure?" She was beginning to calm down. He could feel her tension drain away and her pulse begin to slow.

  "Positive," he told her. And then he kissed her again.

  This time, when her pulse began to race, it was from an entirely different cause.

  He scooped her up in his arms. "Why don't we continue this conversation somewhere more comfortable?"

  Her reply was to hold on to him tightly and kiss him all the way across the room to their bed.

  Epilogue

  Three days later

  "Ready, babydoll?" Daddy asked as the processional music started up.

  As one, the guests rose to their feet, waiting expectantly for her to walk down the aisle under the pretty, flower-bedecked gazebo that Dane and his brothers had erected in the middle of the riverside pasture.

  The weather was perfect this morning. Caitlyn and Steffi had outdone themselves in decorating, and there were flowers everywhere. Wide blue-and-white ribbons tied in bows to the rows of folding chairs fluttered in the summer b
reeze.

  Justin and Cassie were standing at the very back of the rows of chairs facing a low podium. A long red carpet had been stretched over the grass between the chairs to mark the aisle. It led to a low dais where Thor and his Aunt Margaret were waiting for her, surrounded by their wedding attendants.

  Cassie nodded in reply, careful not to dislodge the white roses that had been painstakingly woven through her up-do. "Never been readier."

  He offered her his arm. "Well, then, let's not keep your groom waiting at the altar."

  As he and Cassie walked down the carpet with measured steps, Cassie saw all of Thor's friends, relatives, and neighbors crowding the seats. Kara grinned and gave her a tiny wave as she passed the row where the Hot Shots were seated.

  Ahead of her, on the dais, Amanda was smiling widely. Cassie's friend and former roommate looked stunning in her blue maid-of-honor dress.

  Next to Amanda stood Cassie's bridesmaids, Annabeth, Caitlyn, and Steffi. Three-year-old Matthew, clad in a miniature tux and proudly holding a lace-edged pillow with the wedding rings, was being firmly but lovingly corralled by Annabeth's hand on the top of his head.

  After all the hard work her three sisters-in-law had done to ensure that this wedding actually happened, Cassie felt she owed them a huge debt of gratitude. They were the ones who had truly made her feel welcome in Bearpaw Ridge.

  Dane was there as Thor's best man, with the rest of his brothers serving as his groomsmen.

  Evan had finally returned from his stint in the wilderness and was standing between Mark and Ash. He looked neatly groomed in his tux, his long dark hair drawn back into a neat ponytail. He winked at Cassie when she caught his eye.

  In the twenty-four hours since his arrival at the ranch, she had already figured out that Evan was an incurable flirt…but utterly devoted to his mate Steffi.

  At last night's rehearsal dinner, Cassie had enjoyed his wry, self-deprecating stories about his adventures in the wilderness. She had decided that she liked him.

  Margaret Swanson was clad in a long blue-and-white maxi-dress and a lacy white shawl. She held a copy of Thor and Cassie's wedding vows in her hand and smiled warmly at Justin and Cassie as they approached the dais.