by Lisa Lace
As she watched his face contort and his eyes lose focus she felt him flood her with his sticky need, and in that moment she wished she wasn't already pregnant. She wanted to be everything to him, friend, lover, mate, mother to his cubs.
She was surprised at the urgency of her need to be all things to this man, this shifter, so soon after being so very against his kind's mere existence. She was also surprised when he answered her, since she thought she'd only thought the words, not muttered them aloud.
"But this cub is mine now, sweet Bella. Because you are mine. You are my friend, my lover, my mate, and as such, any child you bear is mine as well. We will fill my den with our cubs, as many as you wish, starting with this one."
Bella's heart swelled with emotion. She had no words to give him, as her throat was blocked with tears of joy, so she kissed him instead, holding him tight. She fell asleep with him like that, feeling his heart beat against hers until he rolled her and tucked her into the curve of him, spooning her, protecting her and keeping her warm in the coolness of the loft.
A few hours later she felt Mac leave her, covering her with the blankets he'd used to make his make-shift bed.
She started to stir, but he soothed her, saying, "You're safe here. It's my turn to patrol for a while, but I'd love it if you were still here to curl up with when I come back."
She nodded, still mostly asleep, and she heard the faint noises as he climbed down, spoke with David, whose place Mac must have been taking for the patrols.
Bella rolled some, peeking down at the two as they spoke. Mac nodded up at her general location, and David smiled, nodded, and she watched in fascination as they shifted.
David shifted back to the wolf form he'd patrolled in and curled up at the base of the ladder to the loft, obviously to sleep, between her and anything that could come for her.
Mac, of course, shifted bear. Bella watched in awe as his huge form gracefully padded out of the barn, to protect her family and his from the lion still on the loose.
When he left, her eyes fell again to David's sleeping wolf form, and she grinned, feeling safer than ever, and feeling almost sorry for anyone who might try and disturb them tonight, as she knew they'd never see the sun rise again.
Chapter 17
The next morning Mac and Bella, along with everyone else, sat down to breakfast. Actually, the men stood, eating as they leaned against the counter, since there weren't nearly enough chairs to go around in a house that normally didn't have this many visitors all at once.
They were in a bit of a hurry to get back to Naythan, Sandra and Enid, but no one wanted to leave without hearing what Aunt Patty had to say about why she had her doubts that Enid's mother had been raped.
"Look, I'm not normally the kind to speak ill of the dead, especially my own sister, but it's past time that I called it the way I saw it. Lauren was a bit of a slut, to be honest.
Now, when all of this was going on back then, I was young, and I didn't have the nerve to contradict her story. Especially since there would have been hell to pay.
Lauren was a few years older than I was, and she had no issue with kicking my ass. If I had spoken up and told dad what I'd seen, he wouldn't have literally killed her, but let's just say that her life as she knew it, would have basically been over. And she would have made sure my life was hell in return.
Back then, there was no sex before marriage. At least not out in the open. So when someone was caught with their skirts up, in the act or because of a bun in the oven, they were forced to marry to save face in the family.
When Lauren started in with the morning sickness, dad pinned her down until she gave up a name. Dad came unhinged, and Lauren saw it, so I think she panicked and said he forced her so that she wouldn't be on the receiving end of his rage. And honestly, I think she regretted it almost before the words were fully out her mouth, because she knew there was no way she could keep seeing him after that. But I don't think she was quite ready to marry him either, she was having too much fun with the boys. So instead of owning up, she pointed a finger at him, saying that he raped her.
When dad asked her why she never said anything when it happened, she made up more lies, saying that he threatened to do the same to me if she ever told anyone, and she wanted to protect me, her baby sister, so she kept it to herself.
But I think all of it was bullshit.
He was a good guy, and even if I could maybe stretch to believing that she tried to put a stop to his advances, and it was too late and he took her anyway during some petting that got a little too heavy, I'd never believe that he'd threaten anyone, let alone me, her kid sister.
Plus, I'd seen them together a few times.
Nothing concrete at first, just some sly but pointed glances. He'd catch her eye out around town, and she'd blush clear to her roots. But one time I stumbled upon them when we were all in town.
She disappeared for too long and once dad was finished loading up and wanting to head back home, he sent me to go find her. I found her alright. She was pressed between him and the back wall of one of the stores. Her lips were swollen with kisses and his head was buried in her cleavage with a hand burrowed up under her skirts. She saw me over his shoulder, and shot me a look that was meant to threaten me if I ever told.
I left them there without saying anything. I don't think he ever even knew I saw them back there. A few seconds later she came out, dress straightened, and we left. She never said a word about it, and neither did I.
So, do I know for a fact that she laid down with him willingly, and then called him a rapist? No. It could have happened that way, but from what I saw, and other things I heard, I don't think the word 'no' often passed my sister's lips in that regard.
Of course once she screamed rape, she couldn't exactly take it back. Everything went out of her control real fast. He was rumored to be a shifter, although back then rumors were all there was. Dad was certain that no one would marry Lauren with child as it was, but with a shifter baby? He was all set to send her away somewhere. Then Doug came by.
Doug had had a thing for Lauren since they both were little and she never gave him a second glance. But he was willing to marry her, despite her condition, and that was enough for dad.
When the baby, Enid, came, they'd only been married a few months, but out of respect for dad most people looked the other way and never said anything to Enid about her real parentage. I'm not sure when Enid found out, honestly, but obviously whoever told her must have mentioned the rape. And the possible shifter angle."
"Speaking of the shifter," Keelyn interrupted. "What happened to him? You said it almost cost him his life. If he was publicly accused of raping someone, and then also accused of threatening to rape her little sister if she told, I'd imagine things didn't go well for him after that. Did Grandma's dad not kill him?"
"I'm sure he would have, if he had gotten ahold of him. But no, Ace left town real quick. It was almost like someone tipped him off or something," Patty said with a sad smile.
"Did you? Tip him off?" Bella asked.
Patty shook her head, "No, not me. My money is on Lauren. I think she really did like that one, more than the rest, even. No the town basically became a posse, hunting him down for a while, but he'd had too much of a head start.
I heard stories over the years though. Things would filter back through here about some shifter named Ace. I heard that he never mated, and then I heard that he did. The only thing I heard that never changed was that he never stopped loving Lauren, and that he also never forgave her either. All the stories that filtered through here, true or not, always had one common thread to them- that Ace became a very bitter man. I haven't heard anything about him in a few months, though."
Mac noticed Ryker and David exchanging silent glances behind Patty. They'd been quietly listening, leaning on the counter as they ate, but it wasn't until near the end of the story that Mac noticed their exchanges, so he had no idea how long they'd been going back and forth.
Their
postures had changed, they were somehow even more on alert than normal, and Mac could tell something was passing between the two of them as the rest of the group kept talking, mulling over everything that Patty had said.
Mac knew it must be something big for David and Ryker to be obviously effected, since those two usually kept stone faced, never betraying anything they were thinking.
Mac looked to Bane to see if he noticed it, since Bane knew them even better than he did, them being his enforcers and all.
Oh yeah, Bane was watching the pair with narrowed eyes.
Mac looked around to see if anyone else had noticed the sudden shift in the room's atmosphere, but everyone else was ignoring David and Ryker, as usual.
Wait, Ivy's eyes seemed to flick over to Ryker, but she dropped them quickly.
It always amused Mac how everyone, everywhere, would ignore the pair, very obviously, everywhere they went. They had this caged quality about them that always seemed to make people nervous when they were around, but no one ever addressed it.
He smiled, remembering how long he himself took to get used to the heightened awareness in the room whenever they were around. It was like having a guard dog, or two, that everyone was glad was on their side, but no one was entirely sure they themselves wouldn't get bitten.
Mac waited, knowing that soon the two would tell Bane what they were silently communicating about, but until then, he amused himself by watching Ivy ignore the pair even more obviously than everyone else did.
Knowing them as well as he did, Mac had a bit of a suspicion that David had an interest in Ivy, but unless you knew them well, you never would have guessed it. It was only in the very subtle way that his glance lingered on her just a half-second longer than on anyone else that Mac even had an inkling, but now David was fully concentrating on Ryker, and the two men were practically buzzing with something obviously important.
Mac heard Bane address the pair in his low rumble.
"Is there something you two want to share?"
Ryker responded first, "I think it's important, Alpha, but you may want to hear it in private."
Patty spoke up, "If you know something about my sister, I'd like to hear it as well."
Mac watched Bane communicate with Ryker and David, the pack mind buzzing with information that Mac was only able to catch bits and pieces of. As far as Mac could tell, the info had more to do with the shifter named Ace than Lauren.
Bane nodded, obviously deciding that whatever was going on could be shared with the room at large. He motioned to Ryker to go ahead and speak.
"We know from Ivy's sudden and surprising shift into a lion, that Enid's father, rapist or not, is obviously also a lion. You also said that Lauren named an 'Ace' as Enid's father. One of the lions that attacked the castle, currently holding the king, is an older male, named Ace."
"He was older than Grandma, would he even still be alive?" Bella asked.
Patty nodded, saying, "They were both older than me, but not by more than a few years. Plus, the lion's blood makes aging different in Ace's case. That might explain why I haven't heard anything about him in a while, if they've been planning something that big. It's possible that it is the same Ace."
The room got very quiet. Everyone had been eating as the conversation had carried on, but now everyone was finished, and Mac could see the thoughts flying through everyone's minds, and read them on their various faces.
They had all been prepared to head back to Naythan and Enid once breakfast was over, but now it seemed more urgent.
If it truly was Enid's father at the castle, and one of the lions sent to kill Bane was still on the loose, then they needed to get back as soon as possible.
Patty spoke, putting everyone's thoughts into words.
"Well, what are you all waiting for? Go on with ya. Enid needs to know that her father may be close, and maybe, just maybe, if Ace knew that his daughter and granddaughters were part of Bane's life, and that Ivy is like him, maybe this will put a stop to this nonsense at the castle."
She paused in her words before continuing.
"Of course, with Ace's feelings about Lauren, and her accusing him of rape, keeping the child from him, and him being chased out of town, never to come back, it could also just make everything worse, couldn't it?"
"I guess there is just one way to find out," Ivy said, as she stood up. She took her plate to the sink, and continued speaking.
"Aunt Patty, I hate to eat and run, and leave you with all these dishes..."
"Nonsense, child. Your cousins can clean up. Go to your mother. Tell her what you know. And then go to the castle and end this shit."
Chapter 18
Bella gripped Mac's bear form tightly with her knees as he ran, carrying her closer to home with each passing mile. They'd left her horse back at Patty's, planning to get him at a later date, so he could continue to heal from the lion's attack.
Keelyn rode Bane's wolf form, Ivy ran beside them in her lion form, and Bella couldn't help but grin at the spectacle they all were, running through the woods like their asses were on fire.
Ryker and David had gone ahead, in their wolf forms, leaving wolf, bear and lion to run together, side by side, two human women clinging to the backs of their respective mates.
Bella could tell Ivy stayed with them out of some sense of duty. She knew Ivy would rather run ahead with the enforcers, but she stayed back, matching the somewhat slower speed of the other two, to help protect her armed but human sisters, if needed.
Mac was the slowest, being a bear against the speed of canines and a feline, but he kept up pretty well. Of course bears had their strong points, being huge, and fierce in battle, but prolonged cross country running wasn't what bears were made for.
The miles fell away quickly though, and Bella started to get antsy as they all got closer to home.
She berated herself for leaving home in the first place, since everyone following her left the house unprotected except for Naythan. But on the other hand, she knew that if they hadn't gone to Patty's, they would never have learned that her grandmother may not have been raped by a shifter after all, and that her grandfather might very well still be alive, and part of the group of lions that were reigning terror on the castle, planning to kill the king, and sending lionesses out to kill Bane, and Keelyn as well.
Bella wondered if the lion named Ace at the castle was in fact her grandfather, and if so, did he realize that the lionesses sent to kill Bane were also after his granddaughter, and that a third granddaughter was a lion, like himself.
Her brain swam with it all.
She was still quite shocked at how quickly she had gone from someone who hated shifters and wanted nothing to do with any of them, to someone related to them, in love with one of them, and now riding one, racing to defend her home from still more of them.
In love with one of them?
She let her mind linger there, for just a bit.
Mac had taken her heart by storm, and already she couldn't imagine her life without him in it.
The night they had shared in the hayloft, just hours before, she knew she'd remember forever. Mac had been kind and gentle, letting her take the lead in what she counted as her first time.
She'd decided that she wasn't going to count Sammy, since that hadn't been her choice, but that she would nurture the memory of Mac and the hayloft any time memories of Sammy came back. She was determined to heal and thrive after Sammy, and to become a survivor, not a victim.
She knew it would take more than just a decision to actually be able to move on, and that there would be many conversations in her future, with Mac, and with the rest of her family, to really put him behind her, but she was determined to do so, for her and Mac's sake, but mostly for the sake of the baby she was carrying.
She had decided to not only keep the baby, but to love it, as she knew she was already beginning to. She was grateful that her grandmother had kept Enid, and she couldn't imagine not existing herself, or not having any of h
er sisters, so she was finally at peace with keeping the child she carried, as the child was not only half her, but it carried pieces of her mother and grandmother within it as well, and she could no longer imagine giving a child of her blood up for anyone else to raise.
She was determined that her half of the genes, along with Mac, Bane and the others to help raise it, could overcome whatever its father was, since he was, after all, only human.
She didn't want to become her mother, bitter and angry, and she hoped that she could also help her mother, too. Maybe finding out that there was some doubt that her grandmother was raped, as well as hopefully getting to know the shifters that now were very much a part of this family, would in time, help her mother to heal as well.
But first, Bella knew, they had to get to Enid, to tell her what they'd learned, and then to team up with Naythan, Sandra and baby Ash to head to the castle, hopefully before any stray lions found their way to Enid's.
She suddenly wondered if the group would let her go to the castle with them, or make her stay here with her mother, since she was with child.
She knew Ryker and David would go to the castle, of course. And she expected that Bane, Mac and Naythan would as well. Keelyn, she knew, would go, whether they wanted her to or not, and Bella figured Ivy would go as well, to test out her lion-ness and help out.
That left only Enid staying behind for sure, herself maybe as well, if they insisted, but no one else? Maybe Mac would stay? As shifter protection and her mate?
She knew more were needed at the castle than here, of course, but surely some would stay behind to protect Enid. She was only willing to stay behind herself because otherwise her mother would be completely alone. If not for that, she'd demand to go with the others as well.
What if her mother went to Aunt Patty's? Then they could all go to the castle. Unless it was only shifters who went, so they could travel faster, and defend the castle better?
So would all the humans stay here?
She wanted to go, to find out about her mother's past, but she knew she wasn't a lion like Ivy, or a huntress like Keelyn. She'd probably just slow everyone down, and there was the baby to consider.