River was afraid of hyperextending the foal’s joints, so she hesitated.
“Don’t worry about hurting the foal. It’s probably dead. We need to save your mare.”
River hated to lose the foal, but she’d raised and trained Sugar herself. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. She gritted her teeth and forced the foal’s foot into the birth canal. As soon as she let go to grab the other foot, the foal jerked its leg back into the uterus. “Hey!”
Reuben chuckled. “Looks like I wrote her off too soon.”
“Her? How do you know it’s a filly?”
“Only a female would be this stubborn.” Reuben tilted his head towards the steaming bucket of water in the far corner of the stall. “Grab a couple of bandages and tie slip knots in the ends.”
River resisted the urge to wipe her hands on her apron and used a sterile pair of tongs to pull the strips of fabric out of the scalding water.
She had to wait for the bandages to cool and for Sugar’s next contraction to end before she could try again. This time when she got the foot into the birth canal, she positioned the looped end of one of the bandages above the fetlock and tightened it like a noose then repeated the procedure with the left leg.
Reuben pulled his hand out and grabbed one of the cloth strips. “You take the other one and when I say ‘go,’ pull back and down as hard as you can. Don’t stop until the foal’s all the way out.”
“What if Sugar stops contracting before we get it out?” You were supposed to work with the mare’s body, not against it.
“The umbilical cord is going to be pinched closed before the head’s delivered. This little one’s not out of the woods yet.”
River followed Reuben’s lead and wrapped the end of the cloth strip around her wrist three times then across her palm twice before tightening her fist.
Reuben nodded and grinned at River. “Pull!”
As soon as the shoulders were delivered, a gush of amber liquid poured out of Sugar. Reuben wrapped his free arm around the foal’s upper body and lowered her to the straw-covered ground. Reuben had guessed correctly. The foal was female.
River dropped to her knees. “She’s not breathing!”
Reuben slid an arm under the foal’s flanks and lifted her rear into the air. More of the amber liquid poured out of her nose and mouth. The filly coughed and wheezed then shook her head and looked right at River.
She didn’t want to risk the foal not bonding with Sugar, so she resisted the urge to pet her and joined Reuben on the other side of the stall. He pulled a sterile bandage out of the bucket and handed it to River then grabbed one for himself and wiped the muck off his upper body. “What’s her name?”
River’s lips parted in a grin. “You want me to name her?”
“Without your help, she wouldn’t have made it.”
Reuben’s prize stallion, Thunder, sired the filly. She had a blaze on her forehead shaped like a lightning bolt, but Gabriel’s horse, also sired by Thunder, was already named Lightning.
“How about Thunder’s Storm? We can call her Stormy.”
Reuben nodded. “I like it.”
River’s chest swelled with joy as she watched Stormy scramble to her feet for the first time. “I’ll never get tired of witnessing the miracle of birth.”
Worry lines creased Reuben’s brow and deepened the wrinkles around his eyes.
“Reuben? What’s wrong?”
“You’re eighteen. We need to discuss your future. Let’s go to the cleansing pools. We can talk about it while we soak.”
Hannah had been on bed rest for months with a difficult pregnancy but Reuben refused to use a whore or servant girl to meet his needs.
River’s mouth went completely dry. Reuben was going to ask her to mate with him.
The trek to the cleansing pools was only a twenty-minute hike, but River’s heart raced as if she’d been running for hours. She’d known this day was coming ever since Reuben had first claimed her five years ago. She’d dreamed of becoming his beta and bearing his children. She was nervous about mating, but merge fever would change that. Maybe he’d already trapped a wolf for her.
When they got to the cleansing pool, Reuben unlaced his vest. “Did you hear the wild pack howling last night?”
River nodded. This is it.
“I told Gabriel to set a couple of live traps this morning.” Reuben peeled his shirt off then dropped his hands to the rawhide ties on the front of his breeches.
“Oh?” River dropped her gaze. Surface dwellers were accustomed to nudity. She’d seen his naked body hundreds of times, and he hers. There was no reason to be self-conscious.
“Most women your age have already merged.”
“I know.” River turned her back and untied the laces of her vest with shaking fingers.
By the time she finished undressing and turned around, Reuben was already half submerged, arms stretched out like eagle’s wings on the smooth stones bordering the cleansing pool.
River trembled as she descended the steps into the hot mineral water. She took her usual seat, across from Reuben…and waited.
He closed his eyes and slid lower, resting his head against the boulder behind him.
River chewed on her thumbnail as she studied her soon-to-be mate. He was a blacksmith, as well as an enforcer, so he kept his hair trimmed short and his beard shaved. Even relaxed, his muscles bulged as if straining under a heavy load.
Reuben’s lips parted, releasing a soft snore.
River squeezed her fist and squirted a stream of water at him.
He jerked awake and blinked then swiped the water off his face. “What was that for?”
“You said you wanted to talk to me.”
Reuben sighed then stared at her, as if deciding how to broach the subject. Was he nervous? As Zebulon’s son, Reuben could take any woman he desired, whether she agreed or not. But Reuben would never take a woman against her will.
River rested her chin on her knees and held her breath. She turned her head, exposing her neck.
Instead of biting her, Reuben closed his eyes and settled deeper into the steaming water. “Have you experienced any desire to mate?”
Had she been too bold? Even though exposing her neck was an act of submission, maybe Reuben wanted to instigate all acts of mating. She ducked her chin and pulled her braid over her shoulder, covering her neck. “I’m not sure.”
“You’d know if you had.” Reuben smiled. “How do you feel about Jesse as a potential mate?”
Jesse? River blinked and shook her head. Quick little jerks that did nothing to help process what she’d just heard. “But…I belong to you.”
Reuben’s eyes flew open as he bolted upright, sloshing water out of the pool. “I can’t mate with you.”
“I know I’ll never be as pretty as Hannah, but as soon as I have your baby in me, my breasts will grow and—”
“That’s not the problem.”
“I’ll spend more time in the house, I’ll learn to cook and clean and—”
“River, stop.” Reuben dropped his head into his hands.
“If I’m not good enough to be your beta, take me as a concubine.”
Reuben’s head snapped up. “With your bloodlines, you deserve nothing less than alpha status.”
“I don’t care about status.” River loved Hannah as much as she did Reuben. Some alpha mates treated beta mates and concubines like servants, but Hannah wasn’t like that. River wouldn’t find a better home than the one she already had.
“River…” The pity in Reuben’s voice stung worse than his rejection.
“Why did you claim me if you never intended to mate with me?” River kept her tears at bay, but couldn’t keep the tremor out of her voice.
“It was your mother’s last request.”
River had never been so humiliated in her life. She hopped her butt up onto the stone border and climbed out of the cleansing pool.
“Where are you going?”
“My
nose is a little stuffy.” She sniffed to prove it. “I’m going to sit in the steam cave for awhile. I’ll see you back at the stable.”
River’s congestion was caused by unshed tears, but she didn’t want Reuben to know just how deeply his rejection had wounded her. She couldn’t bear another moment of his pity.
Eli
ELI SWORE AND RUBBED HIS arms as he cursed the North wind. It was too cold to hike naked but with his outsider disguise buried under a ton of rubble and his own clothes stowed on Old Red’s back, he didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t shift back early enough to give his wolf’s scent a chance to fade it’d spook Old Red. Eli was in no mood to deal with a belligerent horse.
What a fiasco. That should’ve been a simple mission. Slip in, set the charge, slip out and wait for it to go boom. No witnesses, no casualties, no problems.
Everything was going fine until those two kids showed up. Letting an outsider see you in wolf form was a serious crime, but Eli’d thought he could stay hidden in the dark and scare them off with a few vicious growls. He hadn’t expected the boy to shine a light on him. And he sure as hell hadn’t expected him to stand his ground, or knock him out with a rock. Outsiders were usually such cowards.
Eli rubbed the still growing lump on his forehead. How was he going to explain that? Or the fact that he’d miscalculated the amount of C-4 he needed to flood the mine? The blast was supposed to take advantage of a fault under Turquoise Lake, not blow up half the mountain. The council wanted it to look like a natural disaster, not a terrorist attack.
He needed to hole up and lick his wounds before reporting back to Jesse.
When he got to the spot where he’d tied Old Red to a tree, all he found was a broken rope. “Damn your sorry hide, Red!”
He shouldn’t blame Old Red for bolting. That blast would have spooked even the calmest horse. It had stopped Eli’s heart, and he knew it was coming. He pressed his palms against his ears, but it didn’t help. What if the ringing never went away?
It took him half the night to find his horse and the rest of the night to make it back to New Eden. He was exhausted, in pain, and in no mood for a dressing down by his commanding officer. A couple of hours relaxing in a steam cave would go a long way towards restoring Eli’s spirit as well as his body.
The steam cave and cleansing pools were on the edge of Reuben’s territory. Technically, he should ask before entering, but Eli was family so he wasn’t exactly trespassing. Still, the last few time’s he’d run into Reuben, he’d been about as friendly as a wet cat. The man’s only mate was on bed rest until she whelped his pup so it was no wonder he was testy. Reuben needed to take another mate, or at least use a whore.
Eli tied Old Red to the hitching post with what was left of his rope then stripped and stuffed his clothes back inside his pack. He ducked his head and crawled into the steam cave.
“Hey! Get outta here!”
Eli jerked his head up and banged it on the cavern’s ceiling. He mumbled a few choice swear words under his breath and rubbed the sore spot.
A skinny, adolescent female with waist-length black hair, tear-streaked cheeks and dark eyes glared at Eli. She scooted her butt across the stone bench and plastered herself against the back wall of the cavern. “Stay away from me.”
Damn, that wall had to be at least a hundred and ten degrees. “I’m not going to hurt you, kid. I just want to unwind a little.”
“Well, do it somewhere else.”
“This is the only steam cave within twenty miles—”
“Go back to your mountain. Use your own steam cave.”
So, she knew who he was…or at least that he was an heir of Sanctuary. “It’s too far.”
“Not my problem.”
She looked familiar, but Eli couldn’t quite place where he might have seen her. She had the golden, tanned skin of a surface dweller so there was no reason he should know her. No servant would dare speak to him with such disrespect but she was too young to be anyone’s concubine or mate. “I know your laws. As long as I remain unaroused—and believe me, that won’t be a problem—there’s no reason we can’t share the cave.”
“I’ll give you a reason, but you won’t like it.”
The little vixen was feisty. “How old are you, kid? And what’s your name?”
“Old enough to kick your ass. And none of your business.”
Eli laughed.
The girl’s hand moved so fast, it was a blur.
He didn’t even have time to duck. The rock hit him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs.
Until last night, no one had dared throw anything at Eli. That was twice in twenty-four hours that someone had hit him with a rock.
“Get outta my cave!”
Feisty females could be entertaining. Belligerent, disrespectful of authority and rock-throwing brats were not. “This is not your cave and you need to watch your mouth, little girl.”
“I’m not a little girl. I’m eighteen.”
Eighteen? Eli doubted it. She looked to be about fifteen, maybe sixteen at the most. But however old she was, she had a good arm. He’d come here to relax, not get pelted with rocks.
He held up both hands and backed towards the entrance. “Okay, okay. I can tell when I’m not welcome. See you around, kid.”
“Not if I can help it.”
She hurled another rock but Eli was expecting it, so he had time to duck. It whizzed past his ear and struck something behind him with a dull thud. Eli whirled around and nearly ran into Reuben.
He grabbed Eli’s arm with one hand and rubbed his bruised shoulder with the other. “What’s going on in here?”
Eli shrugged and twisted out of Reuben’s grasp. “It looks like you have a trespasser.”
The girl stood up and marched towards Eli. She was skinny and underdeveloped with narrow hips and small breasts but much older than he’d originally thought. Maybe she really was eighteen.
She shook her finger at him as if he were a wayward child. “You are the trespasser.”
Ordinarily, Eli wouldn’t have been attracted to her at all, but he hadn’t been with Aspen, or any other woman, for over a month. He couldn’t keep his body from responding to the naked girl any more than he could keep from breathing.
He turned his back to hide his predicament from the girl, but unfortunately, that meant he couldn’t hide it from Reuben.
Reuben growled and bared his teeth as he moved between Eli and the girl, guarding her. He’d given up half his power—as well as half his life expectancy—when he shared the gift of his wolf with Hannah. But he was still a one hundred twenty-year-old alpha, in his prime, and extremely dangerous.
Eli ducked his chin, but Reuben continued to growl. His eyes shifted from brown to amber.
Eli couldn’t keep from whimpering as he lowered his gaze and turned his head to the side, exposing his neck.
Reuben continued to glare at Eli as he spoke to the girl. “Get dressed and go home. I want to have a talk with this young pup.”
As soon as the girl left the steam cave, Reuben’s eyes returned to their normal shade of brown.
Eli waited until the girl disappeared from sight then jumped to his own defense.
“I just finished my mission. I was tired. I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t know she was in there, I swear.”
“Eli.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What happened?”
“She threw a rock at me and told me to get out.”
Reuben nodded. “That sounds like River.”
The bands of anxiety around Eli's chest loosened, but he remained guarded. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ll bet you are. She has a good arm.”
Eli rubbed his chest. “You can say that again.”
“Looks like she wasn’t the first.”
“What?”
“Your forehead?” Reuben picked his breeches up off the ground and stepped into them.
Eli touched the egg-sized bump and grimace
d. He didn’t want to admit that an outsider had gotten the best of him. But Reuben had been an Enforcer for nearly a century. His interrogatory skills were legendary. He’d know if Eli was lying, but a half-truth might work. It would also give him a chance to try out his story before he had to report to Jesse. “That happened during my mission to sabotage the McKnight mine.”
“So, what do you think of her?”
“Excuse me?” The abrupt change of subject surprised Eli.
“Are you attracted to River?”
“She’s a little young…”
“She’s eighteen.”
“Who’s courting her?” Eli slid past Reuben and pulled his clothes out of his pack.
“No one.”
“What’d she do? Chuck a rock at her betrothed?” Eli relaxed a little as soon as he tugged his breeches on.
“River was never betrothed. I had a first stage courting contract on her, but annulled it last year.”
The girl must be the orphan Reuben claimed after her mother was executed for murder. At least he knew where she got her temper and violent disposition—and why Reuben changed his mind about taking her as a mate.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Reuben’s back and chest expanded as he pulled his tunic on over his head. The man could crush Eli like a fly if he were so inclined. “Are you attracted to River?”
This felt like a trap. “Why do you ask?”
“I love River as if she were my own daughter.”
“Then I would never—”
“I want you to court her.”
“Mother is choosing my alpha and beta mates.” Since Eli had no chance of claiming the woman he loved, he didn’t care who filled those highly coveted roles. As long as it wasn’t some hateful brat that thought it was okay to throw rocks at him.
“Did you see the brands over River’s heart?”
“No.” He’d been too busy looking at other parts of her. His heart belonged to Aspen, but he was still a man.
“River, daughter of Asher and Issachar’s daughter, has excellent bloodlines. Shula will approve the match.”
Using River’s full name was a low blow. Eli’s father was an unknown outsider so his own name—Eli, son of Zebulon’s daughter—was pathetically simple. Not only was he two generations removed from the only alpha in his line, it was on his mother’s side. “Asher and Issachar were both powerful alpha’s but they were surface dwellers.”
Believe: The Complete Channie Series Page 109