Tearing Down Walls (Miracle Book 5)

by Shea Balik

  That’s when he heard someone say, “But if he dies, who becomes Chief Council?”

  “I told you, he’s not going to die.” From Edrick’s tone, it was obvious he had already had this discussion before and was getting tired of having it come up.

  “But since he isn’t around to take control of the Council, shouldn’t we appoint someone else to take his place?” another voice said. The room erupted as people tried to make suggestions for Saber’s successor.

  Chadwick had no idea who had the nerve to make the suggestion but he wasn’t about to let anyone get away with taking Saber’s position away from him. “And just who would do that?” The anger in Chadwick’s voice cut through the chatter.

  The crowd parted to let Chadwick in. More than half the room had the decency to look away as they had been caught trying to undermine what Saber had done for all of them. But that wasn’t nearly enough for Chadwick. He wanted them all to feel like the shits they were for even discussing the topic.

  “If any of you honestly think you can lead the Council, I’m more than willing to take you on in Saber’s place.” He met the eyes of each of the twenty men in the room that he didn’t know. Chadwick knew his friends wouldn’t have been involved in the discussion other than to insist Saber would be fine.

  “No?” he asked when no one took him up on it. “You actually might stand a chance since I haven’t slept in two days as I took care of the only man who dared to take on that snake, Refugio. You know, the one who had ordered our deaths for being gay,” he reminded them. “The one all of you were too chicken shit to challenge yourselves.”

  This time, every man in the room bowed his head in remorse. Disgusted with them, Chadwick turned to find Jari with a tray that held two heaping plates of food and several bottles of water. “Thank you, Jari.”

  Jari smiled at him. “You’re welcome and congratulations on your mating.”

  There were several gasps at Jari’s announcement. Clearly not everyone had heard the news. “Thank you and you’ll all be happy to know, Saber woke up.” Then he stormed out of the room, hoping that put those greedy assholes in their place. Here he’d thought it was only the Council and their minions who were so callous.

  He stomped along the hallway and banged open the door, completely forgetting, in his anger, that his mate was sleeping. Nole glared at him when he walked in.

  “I get that those men are assholes, but Saber is trying to sleep,” Nole reminded him.

  “Not anymore,” Saber squeaked out from the bed, his eyes still closed. A grimace on his face let them know how much pain he was in.

  Guilt ate at Chadwick for waking Saber up. The man needed his rest but Chadwick hadn’t even thought of Saber’s condition when he came storming in there. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he set the plates of food on a small table. “How are you feeling?”

  Chadwick once more took his place in a chair next to the gurney Saber was on. It wasn’t until he’d once more taken Saber’s hand in his that Chadwick felt as if he were where he belonged. He couldn’t explain the feeling as he never had considered himself someone who depended on others before, yet with Saber, his entire being was out of sorts until he was near his mate.

  “Like I’ve been hit by a truck,” Saber joked, his voice barely above a whisper.

  Nole handed Chadwick a plastic cup filled with water and a straw. He stared at it, then back over at Nole, not quite sure what he was supposed to do with a cup of water.

  Nole shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Saber’s mouth and throat are dry. He could use a drink.”

  Heat flooded his cheeks and Chadwick knew he had to be as red as a lobster. Turning back to Saber, he ignored the slight grin on his mate’s face as he offered him the straw.

  “Just a sip or two,” Nole cautioned. “We don’t want to put too much in your stomach too quickly or you’re liable to throw it right back up.”

  Saber took a small sip and laid back. “Thank you,” he said those dark eyes staring right at Chadwick. “So, what happened?”

  Chadwick considered pretending he had no idea what Saber meant, but they were mates and even though he’d resisted the idea before, now that they had completed the mating, Chadwick had to admit he didn’t like the thought of lying to Saber. Even though he knew it would likely mean Saber would try to get out of bed too quickly.

  Already regretting his decision, Chadwick sighed. “I walked into the kitchen to find a group of men discussing who should replace you as Chief Council.”

  A low menacing growl rumbled around the room. Saber’s already dark eyes turned darker, more sinister. “And just how did they plan on killing me to do it?”

  Chadwick shook his head. “That’s just it, they didn’t. They figured either you were dying or you were too incapacitated to do the job, so one of them should be nominated to the position instead.” With each word, Chadwick’s anger grew.

  He hadn’t realized just how upset he’d gotten until Nole said, “Don’t make me put more stitches in him, Chadwick, or I will make you scrub this room from top to bottom.”

  Chadwick glanced first at Nole in bewilderment, then down at Saber. That’s when he saw red staining the sheet he was laying on. Horror filled him as he realized his claws had come out and he’d allowed them to pierce Saber’s hand.

  Instantly he dropped Saber’s hand and backed away from his mate, but Saber wasn’t about to allow that. He jerked into an upright position, the grimace on his face expressed how much pain that caused, and he reached out to grab Chadwick’s arm and pull him back to Saber’s side.

  “Stop,” Saber spat out when Chadwick once more tried to get away. “I’m fine. You just nicked a scab. I promise, it doesn’t hurt.”

  Not sure he believed Saber’s dismissive words, Chadwick turned his mate’s hand over to check for himself. Relieved to see that he hadn’t done any damage to any stitches or caused a new injury, he sagged against the bed.

  “Now, why don’t you help me get up so I can explain to anyone who thinks I can’t perform the duties of Chief Council how wrong they are,” Saber said as he started to swing his legs over the side of the bed.

  “No need.” Edrick walked into the room and went over to kiss his mate. Nole easily sank into Edrick’s arms, looking happy to be there. Before mating Saber, Chadwick used to scoff at the pair for looking so sappy. Now? He wanted the same thing. He even thought, maybe, they were on the way to being that couple. Well, maybe not so sickly sweet, but happy.

  When Edrick had his arms around Nole so his mate was tucked securely to his side, he said, “Chadwick took care of them.”

  Saber grinned at Chadwick. “Oh? And how did you manage that, Kitten?”

  Edrick choked. “Kitten? Chadwick?”

  Nole slapped his mate lightly on the stomach. “I know, right?”

  But Saber only had eyes for Chadwick and for some reason Chadwick couldn’t figure, that meant everything to him. “I just told them to back off.” It wasn’t strictly the truth, but it was close enough.

  “Who are you kidding?” Edrick asked. Then his alpha turned to Saber, his blue eyes sparkling. “Chadwick challenged each and every one of them to a fight if they thought they were man enough to take him on.” The pride in Edrick’s voice took away the irritation Chadwick was feeling about the big deal his friend was making.

  “It wasn’t like that,” Chadwick tried to insist.

  “Yes, it was,” Hudson said as he strode into the room with Kellach and Trygg right behind him. “I swear to you, several of those men peed their pants when you threw down that gauntlet.” His friend shook his head. “Whatever made any of those idiots think they had the balls to be Chief Council boggles my mind.”

  Kellach chuckled. “Yeah. I don’t think any of those pansy-assed, weak-minded assholes actually thought they might have to fight to become Chief Council. It was as if they actually believed someone would just hand them the position because they asked for it.”

  “Chadwick’s challenge definitely ab
used them of that notion,” Trygg joked. “I don’t think they will be making that mistake again.”

  “I still don’t understand why any of them thought to try something like that.” That had been bugging Chadwick the most. “I mean, they were supposed to be on our side. So why would they try something so underhanded?”

  Saber’s hand went slack in Chadwick’s. When he looked down, it was to see his mate had once more fallen asleep. He couldn’t help but smile as Saber started to snore softly.

  “Maybe we should have this discussion another time,” Nole suggested. “Saber needs to rest if he’s going to get back on his feet as soon as possible.”

  “Yeah,” Edrick agreed. “Chadwick may have squashed any uprising for now, but if Saber doesn’t show himself in the next couple of days, I fear there will be another one.”

  “They can try,” Chadwick warned. But there was no way he was about to let anyone take his mate’s right to Chief Council without going through him first.

  CHAPTER 13

  It had taken another day before Saber was able to make it as far as the front porch. He sat in one of the rocking chairs with Chadwick at his side most of the afternoon. The second day, he actually managed to walk around the house, twice, before he started shaking and had to sit down.

  Shifting several times had helped, but even that had sapped his strength. Now it was day three and he was back to training, sort of.

  “Come on, you have to at least pretend to try,” Krill taunted him as they sparred in the yard behind the house.

  A growl rumbled through him when the punch he threw not only missed but Saber was pretty sure it wouldn’t have hurt a fly if it had managed to make contact. “Damn it,” he cursed.

  “I keep trying to tell you, you aren’t ready,” Nole called from the back porch as he came down with two glasses of lemonade. “As your doctor, I insist you take a break.”

  Saber was ready to tell the annoying mouse shifter where he could put his suggestion, until Nole added. “Plus, Edrick said you were needed inside for that Council meeting they’re having before some of the others head back home.”

  “And I, for one, would like these people to leave,” Hudson said as he and Harper came around the side of the house carrying their ghost hunting equipment. “Since they arrived, we haven’t seen any trace of our ghost.” Hudson handed Nole a rod of some sort that they called a divining rod.

  Chadwick had told Saber about Hudson’s belief in ghosts. It was definitely a bit…unique, but then again, if one asked humans about the existence of shifters, he was sure most of them would think the person asking was out of his or her mind.

  Downing the glass of lemonade in one long swallow, Saber said, “I’ll see what I can do.” He couldn’t wait to get rid of the interlopers either. As appreciative as he was for their help with the Council’s soldiers, Saber knew they were starting to wear on Chadwick. Or, at least, he assumed that was the problem. It was hard to know since Chadwick refused to tell him why he’d been in a sullen mood lately.

  Saber went into the house and followed the voices to the kitchen. Seven people sat in chairs around the large wooden table all talking over each other. Edrick was the only non-Council member in the room. Since this was his house, not to mention his town, Saber wasn’t about to argue about his being there.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he announced as he walked in and took his seat at the table. “I think we need to have a moment of silence for those we lost, not only in the battle with the Council’s soldiers, but for the Council members who were defeated.”

  Everyone bowed their head.

  Saber wasn’t strictly a religious man, but he fully believed in honoring the dead, whether that was by praying or just remembering them.

  After a full minute, he raised his head. “Now, let’s get this meeting started.” He looked around at the table. Starting to his right was Tanis Cruz, a lioness, Marlow Dunn, a bear, Koen Dirks, a fox, Zara Snow, a wolf, Banyan Huff, a ram, and Jerzy Rocha, a Coyote.

  He’d had a chance to meet and talk with all of them leading up to the challenge and some of them while he was recuperating. They all seemed like upstanding shifters who wanted what was best for their community. With any luck, that’s exactly who they were but only time would tell.

  “First order of business, to vote on several laws that condemn members of the shifter community unjustly.” It wasn’t just gays the former Council had gone after and Saber refused to allow anyone else to be harmed because of the bigoted nature of those laws.

  He read each one, then looked each member of his new Council in the eye one by one as they voted on whether or not to abolish each of the laws he read. Without hesitation, they overturned laws against gays, against prey species, and, strangely enough, against those who preferred to live among humans. All things that the old Council would kill a person for. The fact that there were any prey species alive was a miracle.

  “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” Saber told them. “I want to thank each and every one of you for your sacrifice in volunteering to challenge the old Council. I will email you at the end of the day segments of all the laws on the books. Please read through them and make notes of which ones you feel we need to either change or get rid of.”

  “Actually, there are several that I believe need to be changed, as they impact several shifter species,” Zara said. “I know we are all anxious to go home but I feel these are too important to ignore.”

  Jerzy cleared his throat. “I have a few also. Actually, I have a long list, but only three I feel we should address before leaving here today.”

  Saber wanted to groan. He had hoped this wouldn’t take long so he could go find his mate. That morning Chadwick had seemed off when Saber mentioned the Council meeting and he really wanted to go find out what was wrong. If he’d thought things would take this long, he would have stopped Chadwick from heading into to town to finish the bar he was building for Kellach and Trygg.

  Saber glanced at his watch. “Fine, we have another two hours, then I insist on calling the meeting. Anything we don’t get finished will have to wait. I made a promise to have all of you out of here today and I plan on keeping that promise.”

  The men and women around the table chuckled. Saber was sure they wanted to get on the road as badly as he wanted them to leave. “So, let’s get started.”

  ***

  Three long hours later Saber was finished. He had been ready to throw them all out on their ear as they bickered over wording and syntax. Syntax. Saber rolled his eyes just thinking about anything so asinine. People were being hunted down and killed because of some of these laws, yet his colleagues were worried about syntax.

  Sure, detail was needed, but first, making it illegal to kill another shifter because the old Council had been bigoted assholes seemed more of a priority. But what in the hell did he know? Apparently not enough about syntax according to Koen, who had been a professor at one of the shifter universities in Canada.

  “Please, tell me they finally left,” Iniko said as he walked into the kitchen after escorting the other council members out and went to the fridge. He opened it, scowled and slammed it shut. “I’m sick of there never being anything to eat around here.”

  Saber chuckled. He could understand. No matter how much food Edrick and the others had managed to bring to town, it wasn’t nearly enough. In fairness, they were shifters with high metabolisms, but considering how many had shown up, it would have seemed reasonable for them to offer to go to one of the neighboring towns and bring food back, instead of just eating what Edrick provided for them.

  “There’s always The Mousetrap,” Saber suggested. His stomach rumbled at the thought of one of Jari’s pot roast dinners with all the fixings.

  Iniko snorted and rolled his eyes. “Why do you think I’m here where I have to make my own meal? They’re out of food, too.” Iniko yanked a chair out from under the kitchen table and sat heavily on it. “I swear, next time we invite so many people to Miracle, w
e need to insist on them bringing their own damn food.”

  “Quit your bitching,” Jari said as he walked into the kitchen with Krill and Harper behind him. All three were loaded down with grocery bags. “You don’t think I would allow them to eat all our food do you?”

  Iniko jumped up out of his chair and started picking through the bags until he found something he could eat right away, a block of cheese. “Where were you hiding this?” He grabbed a knife and cut off several pieces. “I searched the diner and here and found nothing.”

  Harper grinned. “Jari was storing them at our house since no one would dare take on Krill to search our house for food.”

  “Smart,” Iniko said as he happily munched on a couple pieces of cheese.

  Jari looked over his shoulder at Saber. “We’ll be eating in an hour, would you mind going into town and telling Chadwick and the others?”

  There was a look in Jari’s eyes that caused Saber a bit of concern. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed Chadwick’s weird mood earlier.

  Wincing as he stood, Saber did his best to ignore the stitch in his side as he strode from the room. Pain or no, it was time to find his mate.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Damn it.” Chadwick threw the hammer across the room not caring where it went. That was the second time he’d hit his thumb in as many minutes. Shoving his thumb in his mouth, Chadwick continued to silently curse his horrible luck.

  “I’m not sure a hammer sticking out of the wall was the decorating style I was going for,” Kellach said as he and Trygg came into the bar that was nearly finished.

  Chadwick just had a few more tables to put together and the bar would be finished. Well, other than whatever decorations Kellach and Trygg decided to put on the walls. He just wasn’t sure he even wanted to finish, for it would most likely mean he’d have to leave Miracle.