by Jackie May
The affection in his voice makes me smile, as does Nell’s enthusiasm. Once she calms down enough, Terrance steps out of the way and allows her to wrap her arms around me. She’s almost as big as Terrance, and her hug engulfs me just as much. “I’m so excited!” she cries, letting me go to grin at me. “We’ve all wanted Terrance to start his clan for years. Surprising that it’s a human, but my brother’s never been much of a rule follower.”
Terrance and I both snort. “Well, I’ve definitely found the right family, then,” I say, making Terrance unleash his booming laugh.
“Nora, meet my little sister Nell. Nell…this is Trouble. And trust me, she lives up to the name.”
My grin only widens at his stern look. I look around the room and shrug. “I won’t deny it.”
Nell squeaks. “Oh, you guys are just perfect for each other! I’m so glad my big brother isn’t alone anymore. Now if we can only find him a mate…”
Terrance sighs, exasperated, but I can’t help casting a glance toward Shandra. She and the two other trolls are headed our way. “I thought…”
Nell follows my gaze, and her face falls. “Nope. They didn’t bond. Shandra isn’t the one.”
“It happens right away?” I ask, startled. I’m not much of a fan of the love at first sight theory.
Nell and Terrance both shake their heads. “No,” Nell explains, “but if it was going to happen, it would have kicked into place when she went missing. Or, at the very least, when Parker brought her out of the warehouse unconscious. A male troll’s instincts for his mate are even stronger than for those in his clan. He was concerned for Shandra, but his instincts didn’t take over like they did for you.”
I blush and shoot Terrance a look. He understands what I’m asking. “No. You are not my mate. My instincts for you are clan only. I promise.”
I huff out a breath of relief that has Nell snorting. “So you’re as afraid of commitment as he is?”
I laugh. “Something like that. Told you we’re a good fit for each other.”
I hold up my fist to Terrance, and he smashes his meaty knuckles against mine just as his friends reach us. Shandra is the first to speak. “I heard you’re the one who found me. Thank you for saving my life.”
“It was no problem. Happy I could help.”
She blinks, seeming stunned by my response. I hold back the urge to sigh. This is the part I hate—the gratitude. The awkwardness of feeling like they owe me something. I’d tell her she doesn’t, but if she’s anything like Terrance, I know it won’t matter.
One of the men clears his throat. He’s frowning at me, but I think it’s just his normal expression, because he doesn’t seem angry when he speaks. “Miss Jacobs, you are in favor with the Mackinac Clan. If there is ever anything we can do to repay you for your service to us and to Shandra, please let us know.”
“I will,” I agree, because, yeah, this guy definitely won’t accept a not necessary answer. “But honestly, I’ve got Terrance now. Seems like a fair trade to me.”
Terrance chuckles.
The two male trolls exchange wary looks. “It is…unconventional for a troll to claim a human as clan,” the first one says.
The second shakes his head. I can recognize his bewilderment through his permafrown. “It has never been done in the history of trolls.”
“But there is no denying that Terrance’s instincts have kicked in where you’re concerned. He is a good man, and you have proven yourself worthy, so we will honor the claim.”
He holds out his hand, which is a third of the size bigger than Terrance’s giant one. I place mine in it, and my entire hand fits in his palm, so he covers my hand to shake it instead of gripping it. “Welcome to the family, Miss Jacobs.”
“Thanks.”
With that, both men bow to Terrance and me and then tell the girls it’s time to leave. They need to get Shandra home, the poor, traumatized girl. I don’t blame her for wanting to get away from here as quickly as possible. Detroit isn’t a city for just anyone. It takes a special kind of psycho—or someone with no other choice—to stay here.
“We should get you home, too,” Terrance tells me after they walk away. “You should rest for at least a week.”
I’m so weak I can’t really stand on my own. Terrance has to hold an arm around my waist. He offers to carry me, but I’m determined to walk out of here on my own two feet. If it were just us, I’d let him, but I don’t want to look weak in this room full of underworlders. Thankfully, Terrance understands this and lets me walk even though he’s struggling with his instincts to take care of me.
On our way out, Director West stops us. Parker and Nick both follow her over. “Hang on a minute, Nora.” She flashes me that small, stern smile that seems forced even though I don’t think it is. I think she’s just naturally a little prickly. “We still need to get your statement before you go.”
I try not to be rude, but I’m starting to get a headache, and I’m tired as hell. “Can it wait? Elijah took too much of my blood the other day, and then I had to feed Parker in order to wake him up and get him out. I’m really feeling the blood loss.”
Director West shoots me a startled look. I try to make her feel better by saying, “Come over to Terrance’s place after all this is cleaned up, and I’ll tell you everything, I swear. I just need to sleep for a while, and maybe eat an entire cow.”
Terrance laughs at that. Parker looks green with guilt, and Nick is glaring at me for some reason. I’m not sure what crawled up his ass, but I know there’s a lecture he wants to give me about something. That should be fun.
“Talk to Maya,” I say, meeting Nick’s scowl with a frown before turning back to Director West. “Maya, Nadine, and that other werewolf guy know everything that happened here since I woke up. Maya will tell you. She was in the cell next to mine.”
Director West narrows her eyes in thought, then nods once. “Very well.” She gives me another curt smile. “Go get some rest, and we will come to visit you soon.”
“Thanks.”
“Just one thing before you go,” Nick says, stepping forward, his glare as severe as ever. “What the hell were you thinking, Nora? We were supposed to be partners on this. You promised if I let you help me, you wouldn’t go off on your own. Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
I’m surprised that I detect as much hurt as anger in his voice. It makes it impossible to jump on his case back. My anger has to find a different target. Good thing Henry is standing across the room with Nadine. Two of my least favorite people in the world. “You can blame Henry for that,” I tell Nick.
Everyone looks in Henry’s direction. And thanks to Henry’s super vampire hearing, he hears me say his name and returns my gaze. I glower at him. “It was his compulsion that forced me into this mess. I was just out having a burger when Elijah and Mark tracked me down. Once I learned they wanted to kidnap me and bring me to the sanctuary, I had no choice but to let them. Henry compelled me to do everything I could to find Nadine. Coming to the sanctuary, even kidnapped, would accomplish that. I guess the compulsion didn’t know the difference between me finding her and being in a position to rescue her.”
In a flash, Henry is standing in front of me, face crumpled with regret. He isn’t going to find forgiveness from me anytime soon. I glare at him before ignoring him completely, and turn back to Nick. “I wanted to bolt. I tried to call all of you for help, but the compulsion wouldn’t let me. Somehow, the magic knew that if I called you guys, you’d come rescue me, stop the kidnapping, and I might not get to the sanctuary to find Shandra. My fingers literally couldn’t dial the numbers to call for help. The only thing I could do was leave that message for Oliver, because he wasn’t online at the time. I knew he wouldn’t get the message right away. I’d have time to go to the sanctuary and find Nadine first before you all could come rescue us.”
Henry makes several choking noises throughout my speech, and when I’m done, opens his mouth, trying to find the right words for an apology.
I hold up a hand. “Nope. Don’t want to hear it. I’m too raging pissed for an apology right now. Just get out of my face before I ask Terrance to hulk out on you.”
He looks like he wants to argue, but Terrance’s low growl scares him enough that he snaps his mouth closed, gives me a sad nod, and goes back to Nadine. I turn my attention back to Nick. This time, I do find the will to scowl at him. “I didn’t ditch you. We made a deal to work together. First of all, I’m not stupid. Second, I don’t break my promises, and third, promise or not, I don’t punk out on the people who trust me.”
Nick narrows his eyes at me, but then breaks into a smile. “Acceptable explanation, Spitfire. And all things considered, you made a hell of a partner.”
I chuckle. “You weren’t so bad yourself, Cowboy.”
He laughs. It seems playful banter is sort of becoming our thing.
“All right.” His gaze shifts to Terrance. “Get her home and in bed.”
Terrance puffs out his chest proudly at the order. I get the feeling he likes being in charge of my care. I won’t admit it out loud, but I like it, too. “We’re going,” I say. “I just have to say good-bye to Oliver first.” I glance around but don’t see him. “Where is he, anyway?”
Everyone’s faces fall, making my heart kick up into a panic. “What? What happened? Where’s Oliver?”
Director West sighs. “Oliver’s fine. He’s outside.”
“Pouting,” Nick adds.
“Pouting? Why?”
Nick rolls his eyes. “He’s blaming himself for Elijah stabbing you. For not using his magic sooner to get into the warehouse as soon as the location was discovered.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. He’s a hero for breaking the shields on this place at all.” I somehow find the energy to stomp outside. “Oliver!”
I find him sitting on the curb in front of the parking lot, looking completely forlorn. “Ollie. Stop it right now. No blaming yourself.”
He looks up with pain-filled eyes. “I stood by for three hours, Nora, watching those sorcerers try to break the wards on the sanctuary. Three hours. You were hurt because I was too scared to use my magic. He could have killed you.”
“Oh, hush.” I sit down on the curb beside him and bump my shoulder against his. “I got hurt because of Elijah. And because Henry compelled me. Blame them from now on. That’s what I’m doing. It’s much more satisfying, I promise.”
When Oliver still can’t manage to nod or smile, I drop the play from my voice. “Why were you too scared to use your magic?”
His face becomes desperate, as if he’s pleading with me for understanding and forgiveness. “I knew I was powerful enough to break the wards, but I haven’t used my magic in years. I’m not trained. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able control my power, just like the night I killed those guys in the park. I was worried I’d blow up the entire building with you inside it. It wasn’t until Parker came running out, with Shandra in his arms, unconscious, and said Elijah was still in there but you refused to come out without the werewolves, that I panicked enough to help.”
“So you were protecting me,” I insist. “You didn’t want to use your magic because you didn’t want to risk hurting me. There’s nothing shameful in that. And then you did break those wards when no one else could. You got everyone inside to help me. Who knows what else Elijah would have done if you hadn’t come when you had.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Plus, it was you who tracked my phone, wasn’t it? After you got my message, you tracked my phone and found the sanctuary, didn’t you?”
Oliver flinches in surprise and finally smiles a little. Grinning back, I pull him into a hug. I’ve hugged more people in the last day than I have my entire life. Oliver squeezes me back and is blushing slightly when I let him go. “You found me,” I tell him. “Then you broke the wards. You’re as much the big damn hero of the day as I am. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Some of the stress seems to melt out of him. “Thanks, Nora.”
“No. Thank you for coming along on this crazy adventure with me. No more moping, okay?”
The light finally returns to his eyes, and he bumps my shoulder the way I’d bumped his. “All done. Promise.”
There’s my bestie. “Thanks, Ollie. Now let’s get me home before I pass out.”
Oliver helps me to my feet and puts my arm over his shoulders to help me walk to Terrance’s car. Terrance hovers behind us the entire way and actually buckles my seat belt for me like I’m a child. “Terrance.”
He graces me with one of his ever so eloquent grunts.
Before he can close my door, Director West stops him. “One last thing, Nora.”
“Yeah?”
“I know you mentioned planning to leave town after you found Shandra,” she begins reluctantly. “Before, I agreed it might be best for you, but now I would advise against it.”
“How come? What’s changed?”
Director West blinks at me. “What hasn’t?”
“Word is already spreading about you,” Nick says. “The strange little human girl who saved a dozen underworlders out of the goodness of her heart.”
“You’re a personal hero to half the underworlders in this city, and a puzzle to all of them,” Director West says. “The rumors and curiosity will follow you if you leave town. The underworld will not stay away from you any longer, I’m afraid. Here, we can keep an eye on you, and you have friends to protect you.”
Director West and Nick both stare me down, almost daring me to say I’ll stay, while neither Terrance or Oliver will meet my gaze. I clear my throat and put as much confidence into my next words as possible. “Then I guess it’s a good thing I’ve decided to stick around.”
Both Oliver and Terrance whip their heads up to gape at me. “You have?” Terrance asks.
I shrug. “If you’re sure you don’t mind a permanent roommate.”
Terrance glares at me. “You are clan, Nora. I don’t just not mind having you; I want you to stay.”
That’s exactly what I need to hear. My smile stretches to reach my eyes. “That’s just what I was hoping you’d say. After all, I finally have a real family. I’m going to need you to keep me out of trouble.” I wink at Oliver and add, “Especially now that I have my best friend to help me get into more of it.”
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
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Jackie May
Jackie May is a pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team. Josh and Kelly live in Phoenix, Arizona with their four children and their cat, Mr. Darcy. Jackie May is their only daughter. (And she keeps asking for her cut of the profits since we’re using her name).
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Table of Contents
TITLE
NEWSLETTER
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
ABOUT JACKIE MAY
Jackie May, Don't Rush Me (Nora Jacobs Book One)