Changing Focus

by Marilu Mann

  “You let her leave?”

  “I had no choice.”

  “Bullshit. She’s your mate. She’s a shifter. Why’d you mate with her if you were going to let her leave you?”

  “She doesn’t accept what she is, what we are.” Micah shrugged, forcing his pain back down deep where the other man couldn’t sense it. “She has a life elsewhere.”

  “So you’ve tied yourself to a woman who wants nothing to do with you? And I thought I was the screwed-up one when I left Joie. Oh, and who was it who told me what a jackass I was? Wasn’t that you? Wasn’t it you who told me I should go back?”

  Slade pushed away from the doorway to stand in front of Micah. “You don’t practice what you preach, Shaman?”

  The emphasis and insult he put into the word had Micah’s ire rising. Only Tante Kay Joie’s godmother called him Shaman on a regular basis.

  “Leave it alone, Slade.”

  Slade bristled. “You’re such a fraud, Micah. Here you are, screwing up your own life but you can preach to the rest of us about how to live?”

  “I said leave it. I have other worries. My child is also gone.” Micah slammed his hand down on the counter, growling low in his throat. Slade answered the growl with one of his own, in spite of the fact that he was in Micah’s territory. The two men, nearly equal in size, were inches away from one another.

  “Both of you, stop it!” Joie’s voice cut into the charged atmosphere. She ran across the room, grabbing her husband’s arm and yanking hard.

  “Stop it! I put you back together twice, you stubborn jackass. Don’t make me have to do it again. Besides, I don’t have my medicines with me. Stop it, right now! Malcolm Slade, you stop it! Micah, you had a child with this woman?” Joie’s stunned look seared Micah.

  “No, the child is not mine by birth. She was Shelly’s daughter. Shelly and apparently,” he growled at Slade, “apparently Curtis was the father. Had you done your duty by your Pack as Alpha we would have known this by now and none of this would have happened. Talia wouldn’t be at the Compound Pack now.”

  In spite of his aggression, Slade gently shook Joie off his arm to shove Micah hard in the chest. “My fault? How is this my fault? You can’t keep your woman or your kid and I’m to blame? Yeah, fuck you, Micah.”

  Joie grabbed Slade’s arm again. “You do one more thing to push Micah over the edge, Malcolm, and I’m never sleeping with you again, you great big couchon! And I’m gonna make any stitches I have to take in your sorry hide so tight you won’t be able to bend.”

  Slade pushed her behind him, never taking his eyes off Micah. Micah heard her cursing in French, saw Slade’s lips twitch as his anger and frustration disappeared even as his mate pummeled his shoulders with clenched fists. Micah’s own emotions settled to a low simmer. It constantly amused him how easily Joie pushed her much larger mate around, but he knew he’d have been the same if Olivia had stayed. The two women were about the same height, just as he and Slade were separated only by a few inches.

  Thinking of Olivia in that light made him realize that he’d been about to come to blows with a man he’d like to consider his friend. Taking a deep breath, but not taking his eyes off Slade’s, Micah backed up a step. Slade raised his head, nodded once, then stepped back himself, pulling his wife around in front of his body and wrapping his arms around her.

  “Shh, it’s okay, baby.” Slade leaned down to kiss her neck and Joie stilled, her tirade against both of them stopping as abruptly as it started.

  “You’re not going to fight?” She glanced up at her mate, then at him and Micah smiled briefly.

  “No. My apologies to both of you. I’ve never fought with a guest in my home and I don’t intend to start today. I’ll check on your room. I leave for New Orleans in four hours. You are all welcome to stay as long as you like. I’ll let Gareth know you’re here.”

  He left the room without looking back, the low murmur of Slade’s voice following him. Micah had no doubt that Slade was explaining things to Joie. He only wished someone would explain to him how he could have let his mate leave. He should have convinced her to stay. But short of tying her down on his bed until she accepted what she was, what else could he have done? Now he’d lost his daughter as well.

  Soft footsteps and the light fragrance of lilacs told him Joie had followed him.

  “Micah, I’ll be going back to New Orleans with you. Tante Kay can watch the babies. You’re going to need your friends close. Malcolm has some business to take care of and he’ll join us when he’s done.”

  The steel under the soft voice reminded him that if Joie Landry Slade could wear a wolf like Malcolm Slade down, it would be best for him to just smile and agree. So he nodded his head as her red curls bounced with her responding head toss. Flipping around on her heel, the petite redhead went back to her family.

  Micah began to wonder if the world had tilted on its axis when later that afternoon he sat at the wheel of Slade’s rental with Slade’s wife and children packed in around him. Standing on the porch, Slade cupped his mouth and yelled, “You let any harm come to my family and I will tear your head off. Have a good trip.”

  The sincerity and incongruity pulled a chuckle from somewhere deep in Micah. Joie looked at him and patted his arm, “You don’t worry now, cher. We are gonna fix this right up.”

  Slade stood on the porch until he couldn’t hear the car anymore. He knew Micah would protect his family and he knew better than most that Joie could take care of herself, but this was the first time he’d ever spent any significant time away from her or their children. He missed them already. Determined to make it as short a time away as possible, he slammed back into the house and grabbed the first phone he came across.

  “Yeah, I need a cab and a flight to New York today. Can you make that happen? Good.” Hanging up, he paused to run a hand through his hair. One hurdle down, let’s get on with the next one.

  He went to find Gareth who sat at the kitchen table looking shell-shocked. He didn’t know much about Gareth, only what he’d heard when he’d first moved in with the Turn Skins. Gareth had left the Pack a few months before his arrival.

  “Gareth, here’s the deal. I’m going to New York to try to straighten Micah’s bitch out. You need to tell me how to find her and then you need to put out a call to Micah’s Pack. He might need some backup in New Orleans, whether he wants it or not. For pretty fucking obvious reasons I won’t be able to set foot on the grounds.”

  Gareth didn’t ask questions, he knew Slade was officially dead to the Turn Skins. He just nodded and went to work. Slade wasn’t surprised. In spite of Micah’s claim not to be a Pack Alpha, the loyalty Gareth and the other shifters in the area felt for him marked him as Alpha whether he accepted the title or not. Slade listened in as Gareth made a few phone calls, alerting several people in the area to what was happening.

  Armed with a work address and phone number, Slade paced restlessly, his mind on his family and the task he’d given himself until the cab to the airport arrived. Micah had saved his ass more than once. It felt good to be able to pay him back at least a little, even if he didn’t know it was happening.

  * * * * *

  “Olivia Decatur?”

  “Yes? May I help you?” Olivia looked up at the stranger standing in her office door, unsure why he was there. He’d only told her assistant the matter was a private one and that he’d take just a few minutes of her time.

  Olivia held her breath as he moved into the room, looking at the pictures on her walls before stopping to look out the window at Manhattan. He wore jeans, a formfitting t-shirt and tennis shoes and had a heavy leather coat over one arm.

  The way he moved reminded her so much of Micah she had to catch her breath. The pain in her chest at the thought of Micah faded slightly as the stranger faced her again.

  “Somehow I figured you’d be a hell of a lot bigger.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just thought anyone who could break someone like
Micah would have to be more,” he smiled, showing his teeth and his flashing eyes, “Amazon sized.”

  “You know Micah? Did he send you here?”

  “I’m no one’s errand boy.” Olivia watched his eyes flicker, saw them turn almost gold before going back to their normal brown. “Micah and I are…” He hesitated, his lip curling slightly as he seemed to carefully choose his words.

  “We’re friends for lack of a better word. I’m Malcolm Slade. Most people call me Slade.”

  He picked up a small jade statue from her bookshelf, turning it over in his hands before placing it carefully back in the same spot on the shelf.

  “Why are you here, Mr. Slade?”

  Grinning, he faced her fully. “You do have spunk, I’ll give you that.”

  Olivia took a deep breath as he dropped his jacket and pulled his t-shirt off. “What in the hell are you doing?”

  She noted the tattoos on both arms and on his chest. She saw a circular mark on his chest, like the one she’d left on Micah. His brown hair just brushed his shoulders as he bent forward to push his jeans down and toe his shoes off. She couldn’t help but notice that he went commando and that he was built a lot like Micah. Jumping to her feet, she grabbed the phone to call Security.

  “Don’t panic, Olivia. I’m only here to show you something. I’m definitely not into blondes. Besides my mate would have my hide, literally, if there was anything else on my mind. That mark on your neck, it’s been aching, hasn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The bite mark, the one Micah put on your neck, the one I can smell from here. It’s been aching lately, hasn’t it?”

  Despite her reluctance to give this stranger any personal information, Olivia nodded. He huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah, that’s what happens when you’ve been away from your mate for too long. We mark one another as mates, it’s expected we stay together. That’s one reason I never marked a shifter bitch. Hell, never wanted to mark anyone until I met Joie. She might be human, but she’s mine and I am most definitely hers.”

  With that, the man disappeared and a large gray and black wolf with luminous gold eyes stood in his place. Olivia sat heavily in her chair. She’d known, as soon as he walked into the office, she’d known by his evergreen scent alone. But still, seeing it again caused her breath to catch, her heart to race and a longing to fill her from the souls of her feet to her throat. She wanted to see Micah, not this wolf. She yearned to let her own wolf loose and run through the woods again.

  He shook from head to tail and changed back into a man. She saw the mark on his chest, an almost circular mark on the left side of his chest, right where she’d left a mark on Micah. Dressing just as casually as he’d undressed, Slade pulled a chair up to her desk and sat. Propping his feet on the edge of her desk, he put his hands behind his head.

  “Yeah, Shifters, like real wolves, mate for life. Being away from your mate this long has made your mark hurt, Micah’s hurting too, I imagine. Once we mark one another, the idea is that we’re together for life. Unless you release him from the mating, admit you both made a mistake, he’s in it forever.”

  He moved his hands from behind his neck as he stared at her. “If you’re away from your mate for more than a day or two, the mark will hurt. If you’re away for longer, the male will get sick. Not sick enough to die, but sick enough to wish he would.”

  Olivia started to say something, but he kicked his feet from her desk, startling her back into silence. “That goes away, or so I’m told. See, even if you break up permanently with Micah, he’ll never mate again. You’re free to do whatever you want with whomever you want. One of the perks of being a female shifter, I guess, but once a male is mated, he’s done. No other female will satisfy him, sexually, physically, in any way. Basically, we get screwed in the deal and not in a good way.”

  A solid thump echoed as he balled his hand into a fist to strike her desk. “I’m going to share a little bit of wisdom with you, Olivia. Something our mutual friend said to me a couple of years ago. Something that opened my eyes and set my feet back toward my destiny. He looked me right in the eye and asked me how many times I could reinvent myself before I forgot who I was.”

  Her breath shuddered as she tried to suck in a lungful of air. Slade growled softly, but when he spoke, she heard pain in his voice. “Now I want to ask you, how long can you run until you don’t have anywhere else to go? You’re one of us, how long is it going to take you to accept that? You marked Micah as your mate, Olivia. You let him mark you as his. Now you’re condemning him to be alone, to be in pain for a very long time and you don’t give a shit.”

  “That’s not true.” Olivia got deftly to her feet, unwilling to let him intimidate her. “I do care for Micah. I care more than you could possibly know. But I’m not like you.”

  “Bullshit. You’re a shifter. You’re a wolf.” He laughed softly, but there wasn’t any real humor in it. “Hell, you’re a real Alpha bitch, even if you don’t acknowledge it.”

  He leaned forward then gave a short bark of laughter. “Think about this, your staff is scared shitless of you, none of them will cross you, especially when you’re on the rag or just pissed about something. You’ve scared the shit out of men twice your size, gotten them to back down from you when there’s an issue you’re really passionate about, and if you ask them, they’ll tell you it’s something about your eyes.” At that, Slade’s eyes started to glow.

  Olivia watched, fascinated and angered at the same time. “Get out.”

  “Not fucking likely, babe, not until you hear what I’ve got to say.”

  “I’ve heard what you’ve said. You’re telling me I’m a shifter, like you. The same thing Micah told me. I refuse to accept that.”

  “Refuse to accept it?” Mockery clear in his tone, Slade lunged to his feet, leaning over the desk so they were face-to-face. “You can’t refuse something that’s an integral part of yourself, Olivia. You can’t refuse to be a shifter. You can refuse to be stupid, but you damn sure can’t deny your own nature.”

  He growled-a dark, contemptuous sound. “Try it. Take off that starched shirt and change your life. You don’t have a clue what true freedom is, what true power is. Micah offers you his life, his world and you’re throwing that away for this? You’re content to stay in this stinking concrete jungle when you could be so much fucking happier in the middle of the woods with someone who loves you? You’re fucking stupid.”

  “I am not stupid.” They were both breathing hard. Olivia felt anger rise up inside her. Black emotion roiled just beneath her skin, clawing to get out. She wanted to lunge at him, to bite and tear. To make him back down and leave her alone.

  Before that feeling would have sent her running to the medicine cabinet or the shrink. This time she didn’t cower away from it. She didn’t reach for pills like she would have. Instead she met his eyes dead on. She stood her ground.

  He held her gaze. His lips twisted as he rasped out. “Prove it. Strip and shift.”

  “Get out.” Olivia picked up her phone. “I’m calling Security.”

  “Don’t bother. Just do the man a favor and release him from the mating. He won’t accept it, but do it anyway.” Slade stormed back to the office door. He yanked it open then turned to face her again. “Micah deserves better than you. And he needs to be free of you so he can focus what energy he’ll have after that on getting his kid back. If not for him, do it for Talia.”

  He exited, slamming the door behind him. Olivia sank down into her chair, shaking. She replaced the phone in the cradle, folded her arms on her desk, put her head down and sobbed.

  A few minutes later, she sat up, wiping her face. Slade was right. The past two weeks she’d felt like she was walking through a fog. Micah did deserve better from her-better than her.

  With that in mind, Olivia picked up her phone again. “Kim, get me a flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota, please and book me a car with four-wheel drive. I’m taking some personal time. I’ll let you k
now how long I’ll be gone no later than tomorrow.”

  Setting the phone down, Olivia replayed Slade’s last words. What had he said about Talia? Talia was gone? She snatched the phone back up and dialed a number she’d partially been punching in for several days. This time she hit the last number and let it ring.

  When Gareth answered, her heart broke again as he filled her in on what had happened to Talia. Olivia’s mind raced-Talia needed to be with Micah as much as Micah needed that child. With a determined thank-you, Olivia hung up the phone then dialed her assistant again.

  “Kim, cancel that Minneapolis flight. I’m going to New Orleans. I’ll still need a car but you can cancel the four-wheel drive.”

  Chapter Ten

  Micah shook his head as he helped Joie pick up luggage. They’d needed special assistance to get on and off the plane but Joie acted as if it were old hat. He supposed it was to her but he found it nerve-racking. All he wanted to do was to get to the hotel and then meet with his lawyers.

  Two days before he could get in front of the judge. Not even having a shifter judge could take away the heavy case load. His lawyers had done everything they could and he supposed that in the legal world, this had been lightning fast.

  Micah grabbed the twins, one under each arm, and headed out the door to hail a cab. A sharp whistle got his attention. The sight of the small, plump woman flagging him down from the old boat of a car was a welcome one.

  “Kay, it’s good to see you. I wish the circumstances were better.” He released the wiggling children into the care of their great-godmother and turned to find Joie on his heels.

  “Tante, sorry for the short notice. Here’s Emil. You kids behave now or I’ll feed you to the gators when I get home.” Gales of laughter gave proof to her parenting skills. Micah leaned down to Kay who bussed him on the cheek.

  “Shaman, what you done got yourself into is not as bad as you think. I’ll be praying for you and that woman of yours.” Tante Kay gave him a wink and slipped back in behind the wheel.