Iron Master

by Jennifer Ashley

  “Ben!” Peigi growled.

  “So many people have been saying my name, lately. At least the short version, which I guess gets the point across. They all come to the house, where I’m trying to eat my lunch, and suddenly there’s doors, and Tuil Erdannan, and magic talismans.”

  “Tuil Erdannan?” Reid asked sharply. “Who? Lady Aisling? Where is she?”

  “Not here. She drags me kicking and screaming—I mean, seriously kicking and screaming—through a door, dumps me at the edge of town, shoves a talisman at me, and tells me where Cian lives. I figured I’d park in the garden and blend in, and it would be only a matter of time until you showed up. Which you have.”

  Reid felt a modicum of relief. “I’m glad. Another powerful being is what we need.” With Ben, they might be able to finish the mission faster. Ben was good at moving around without anyone seeing him, he didn’t have an aversion to iron, and—

  Reid never got to complete the thought. Ben dug into his pocket, and then a deep blue light filled his hand, along with the flash of metal.

  “Goddess, I hate this part,” Ben groaned, and the garden, houses, trees, and sky ran like watercolors in the rain and were gone.

  Gray space filled in where Faerie had been, and then Reid found himself face down on solid, scraping stone. Peigi, still half bear, half human, landed on top him, and Ben’s weight completed the pile.

  It was dark, stuffy, and cold, and Reid heard thumping, like boots against a door.

  “I wish you all would stay the hell out of my basement.” The Lupine who’d let Peigi and Graham into his cellar when Stuart had first disappeared waited impatiently outside the door he’d wrestled open. “Graham needs to pay me compensation.”

  “No worries,” Ben said. “This should be the last you see of us.”

  Ben looked awful, his face wan, his dark eyes haunted. Stuart slid out from the bottom of the pile and pulled Ben off Peigi, his movements silent and tense.

  Peigi was shaky and sick to her stomach as she dressed in the clothes Stuart had been carrying when Ben transported them. She had to agree with Ben that traveling through the ley line took some getting used to.

  Kurt held the door, his planted feet telling her he wanted them out. He slid his gaze to Stuart, probably again thinking of him as that creepy Fae shit.

  “Thank you for your hospitality,” Stuart told Kurt as he exited. “I’m sure Graham will be happy to help you out.”

  Kurt’s eyes flickered. Asking Graham for anything, even the time, was not for the faint of heart. “Just go.”

  Ben thanked Kurt then ushered Stuart and Peigi out through the basement and up the stairs, bringing up the rear. Covering them, Peigi surmised, in case Kurt decided he’d keep two beings of Faerie and a bear Shifter from his cellar in the most permanent way he could.

  Once they were out of the house, striding past Kurt’s interested mate and his open-mouthed cubs, Peigi shivered. Her jacket had been good in New Orleans and even Faerie, but the cold of the desert evening was sharp.

  “Before anyone yells at anyone else, let’s go home and get warm,” she said. “We’ll have coffee and a meal. I’m starving.”

  “Yeah, come to think of it, I’m peckish,” Ben said. “Dinner would be nice.”

  “Only if you help,” Peigi told him. “I’m not doing all the cooking while you lounge.”

  “Did I say that?” Ben gave her innocent eyes. “I’d never dream of it, Pegs.”

  Stuart did not speak at all. Whether he was glad or sorry to be back in the human world or in the Las Vegas Shiftertown, Peigi couldn’t tell. He walked beside her, mouth closed, taking in everything, including staring Shifters. They always watched Stuart, and Peigi also. They were oddities together.

  Peigi’s steps quickened as she approached her house, her joy and eagerness growing with every stride. She wasn’t the biological mother of any of the cubs inside the house, but that didn’t matter in her heart.

  She was running by the time she crossed the yard and darted in through the front door. Plenty of noise led her to the large kitchen and dining room in the back, where four cubs were playing a noisy board game at the table, and the two youngest were engrossed in a separate venture that involved a lot of running and dodging around furniture.

  In the middle of the dining room Shane roared, “Will you two stand still? It’s almost dinner time, so you four put all that stuff in the living room.”

  “When’s Nell coming?” Donny demanded.

  “Yeah,” Noelle chimed in. “We want Nell. We want Nell.”

  The chant was taken up by the other cubs who began pounding on the table. “We want Nell!”

  Shane jammed his hands over his ears. Peigi walked in, laughing. “Will I do, instead?”

  Shrieks filled the air. There was a blur, and then six cubs were clinging to Peigi, each trying to climb higher up on her than the others.

  Shane exhaled in relief and lowered his hands. “Thank the Goddess.”

  Stuart entered behind her. “I’ve seen you do battle against hard men, Shane. A few cubs taking you down?”

  “Stuart!” More shrieks. Noelle, Donny, and Kevin leapt from Peigi and ran to wrap arms around him. The other three remained with Peigi, kissing and hugging and beaming happy smiles at Stuart.

  “About time you got home,” Noelle said loudly. “Where have you two been?”

  “On an adventure,” Peigi answered, ruffling Hannah’s hair. “We’ll tell you all about it. Shane, you said something about dinner?”

  “Mom’s bringing it. Or part of it.” Shane moved back to the kitchen, visibly relieved. Ben, who’d hung back while all the greeting went on, joined him. “I agree,” Shane went on. “About time you got home.”

  “How long were we gone?” Stuart asked. He sounded curious, not alarmed.

  “Five days,” Shane said. “Five very long days.”

  “Five?” Peigi counted two. Three at most. One day to reach Texas by plane and on to New Orleans that night. They’d spent the next day at the haunted house and then gone out dancing in the evening. This had led them through the gate, where they’d spent half a day at most.

  “Time difference,” Stuart said. He dislodged Donny but kept hold of the boy’s hand as they approached the kitchen. The other cubs let go and actually began to clean up the game at the table.

  “Time difference?” Peigi asked.

  Ben answered her. “It flows differently in Faerie. Either direction.”

  “Oh.” Something cold formed in the pit of her stomach. They possibly could have been caught there for weeks, or months. She felt dizzy.

  Stuart gave her a glance that said he’d explain more later and offered to help Shane prep dinner.

  Peigi gave the three cubs she still held a tight hug before setting them down. They wouldn’t leave her side, so she joined in helping put away the board game, one that involved many colorful pieces.

  “I don’t remember this one,” she said.

  “Nell got it for us,” Patrick informed her. “Me and Lucinda are the best at it. We were winning.”

  Noelle gave him an indulgent nod. “You were. Patrick and Lucinda are very smart.”

  Noelle was definitely an alpha, praising the strengths of others and not finding them a challenge to herself.

  Nell arrived, which entailed more screeching and shouting, including from Nell herself, who reamed out Stuart for keeping Peigi away so long, and Ben for taking his time fetching them back. Jaycee had called and told her all about it.

  Shane pretended not to hear as he pan-fried burgers on the stove, or maybe he was so used to his mother yelling that it rolled off him.

  In the middle of the chaos, Peigi excused herself to take a shower and returned in fresh clothes to find Stuart had done the same thing in the other bathroom. Peigi satisfied her hunger quickly then lingered at the table to make sure the cubs all had enough, and simply enjoyed being with them.

  As the meal wore on, she noticed Ben had slipped away. Of co
urse he had, before she could interrogate him. Or maybe she’d find a small tree had sprouted on the edge of her yard.

  Shane and Nell departed after first helping clean up the meal and calm the cubs, never an easy task. But finally, finally, the cubs wound down, tired and unwinding now that Peigi and Stuart were back.

  “You won’t leave again, will you?” Donny asked as Peigi straightened the covers on his bed and kissed him good night. She sensed the other two boys listening hard. “It’s just that the younger cubs were worried.”

  He spoke with the nonchalance of an eight-year-old who was fine on his own.

  Peigi stroked his hair then leaned to Patrick in the next bed, kissing his cheek. “I’m not going anywhere. Not for a long, long time.”

  She meant it. Peigi had found safety here, and peace. She wouldn’t jeopardize that.

  “Will Stuart stay too?” Kevin asked from the far bed. “We need him to make pancakes and teach us football.”

  Peigi couldn’t lie to them, but they wanted reassurance. “I’ll talk to him. I know he doesn’t want to leave either.” She was reasonably sure that was the truth.

  It was a while before Peigi could turn off the light and leave them, then she repeated the good nights in the girls’ room, answering the same questions.

  Finally she shut out their light, closed the door, and crept down the hall to the kitchen. She didn’t stop walking until she’d grabbed a heavier jacket and was out the back door, off the porch, and into the yard. There she halted, letting out a long breath.

  “It’s good to be back.” Stuart materialized from the shadows of the porch. He stepped down to join Peigi, lacing his arms around her from behind.

  Peigi leaned into him, enjoying his strength, his arms encircling her protectively. She rested her head on his shoulder, the wall of his body firm behind her. The night was clear and dry, the stars a wash of light in the darkness.

  “I didn’t know what to tell them,” she said softly. “When they asked whether you would be leaving again, I didn’t know what to say.”

  Stuart was silent a long time, then he released his breath, brushing Peigi’s ear. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  Peigi thought that might be his answer. “Cian has you worried.”

  Stuart unwound himself to turn Peigi to face him. “Cian’s not wrong. If the talisman isn’t returned, it will lead to a long and bloody war. I liked your idea of making another one, but we can’t count on persuading Lady Aisling to do it. The spells might be lost in any case.”

  “Won’t know until we ask.”

  Stuart gave her a faint smile. “I always like how you think.”

  “When you have to take care of twenty cubs in a basement, you become resourceful.” Peigi studied the half globe of the moon above them. “You know we left Crispin and Miguel bound in iron in Cian’s house.”

  “Yeah.” Stuart chuckled. “I feel so bad about that.”

  “I suppose Cian will find some way to cut them free.”

  “Possibly. He might decide to leave them as decoration.”

  Peigi’s laughter swelled, years of fear and anger flowing out with it. “If I’d known, when Michael kept me prisoner, that he’d end up as an iron-bound ornament in the house of a dark Fae, courtesy of you …” Peigi’s laughter died on a sob. “I wouldn’t have been so scared of him. Or angry. Not angry at him—at me. Well, him too. But I loathed myself for deciding to stay with him.”

  Stuart slid his hands up her arms to her shoulders, his touch both comforting and awakening need too near the surface.

  “You never talk about it,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to.”

  “Because I was ashamed.” Peigi stepped closer to him. “I believed in him. I thought he’d rescue me from my empty life. No one wanted me around, but Michael did. He made me feel good, included.”

  “It’s understandable. Though I’m surprised you say no one wanted you around. What idiots were they?”

  “My clan—extended clan, that is. I was orphaned as a cub, and the rest of my clan kind of passed me around—who gets the cub today? They made sure I was taken care of, but they weren’t interested in me for myself—I wasn’t very high in the hierarchy, and I knew that. Plus, Shifters can’t mate within their own clans, so I wasn’t mate potential. When I ran off with Michael, who at that time was calling himself Michelangelo, they were relieved.”

  “I’m sorry.” Stuart closed his arms around her again, the solidness of him an anchor in the darkness. “Michelangelo?”

  “He liked being grandiose. He changed his name to suit the occasion and the locale, which I thought was romantic. See? The idiot is me.”

  “No.” Reid drew her into him, his lips brushing her forehead. “You were young and needed to be needed. Michael is an alpha Shifter. I’ve seen how Eric and Graham can make anyone think the way they want just by looking at them. You were in a position of vulnerability, and Michael took advantage.”

  “So were you.” Peigi lifted her head, enjoying the darkness of his eyes. “You were alone and vulnerable when you came to Shiftertown. But you don’t do what Eric wants just by him looking at you.”

  He gave a light shrug. “That’s because I’ve kicked around the worlds a bit. I help Eric because I’m grateful to him for giving me a place to stay, and Diego for giving me a second chance.”

  “I felt the same way about Michael—he gave me a place and a chance to leave the family who didn’t know what to do with me.”

  Stuart traced her cheek. “But my case is different. Eric respects me and what I can do, lets me be myself. Michael wanted you to be his little groupie.”

  “He did.” Peigi’s breath caught. “Even when I realized that, I didn’t shun him or try to walk away. He only pushed me aside when I couldn’t give him cubs.”

  That had hurt, kicked her hard, awakened her from her stupor. She’d realized in the space of a heartbeat that Michael had duped her and used her.

  “I thought about running,” she went on, nestling into him. “But by then, there was nowhere to go. He’d taken me to a place so remote it would have been hard to get away.”

  “That’s not why you stayed with him,” Stuart said gently. “You could have found a way to a town if you had to.”

  “Possibly. By that time, though, Shifters had been rounded up into Shiftertowns. I knew it was useless for me to try to get back to my clan.”

  “Still not why.” Stuart’s voice was a point of softness in the crisp night.

  Peigi nodded into his chest. “I couldn’t leave the other women and the cubs. I could protect them from Michael and his Shifters at least.”

  “And that is why you are strong,” Stuart cupped her face, raising her to him. “The strongest person I know.”

  Peigi should protest that he was wrong, but she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Not with Stuart holding her, his lips a breath from hers.

  She rose to him and kissed him full on the mouth.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Peigi’s lips were warm in the night, her body soft against his. Stuart pulled her up to him, imbibing her heat, mouths meeting hungrily. He moved his hand down her waist, cupping her hip, his hardness impossible to hide.

  Stuart was finished with hiding it. He wanted this beautiful woman. Wanted her next to him, her kisses on his skin, to lie entwined with her in the night.

  His wanting had only grown through the days, weeks, months, he’d lived in this house. At first coming over to check on them, which had grown to him spending the night to free up space in Nell’s house. And then he’d decided Peigi needed protection from the new Lupines in town, so he might as well stay over most of the time.

  Now Stuart couldn’t imagine living anywhere but in Peigi’s home.

  Stuart eased from the kiss, but not because he was finished. Not by a long way.

  Peigi gazed up at him, moonlight touching her eyes. She parted her lips as though she’d speak but moved to him for another kiss.

 
This kiss was stronger, more needy. Stuart responded in kind, their mouths tangling, tasting, wanting.

  To have this woman for always, to be with her strength and her caring … Stuart’s heart cried out, urging him to not let go.

  His body urged him as well. He wasn’t about to admire Peigi from afar. Stuart wanted her near, next to him in bed, bodies locked together. He’d do anything to stay with her, to hell with Cian, the dokk alfar, and the hoch alfar who did nothing but cause Stuart problems …

  “Peigi?” A small voice cut through the night.

  It was Donny, his cry tinged with fear and an unspoken wail. Where are you? Don’t leave me.

  Stuart emerged from a place of yearning to find cold air slapping at him. I’m right there with you, kid.

  Peigi broke the kiss abruptly and swung back to the house. “It’s okay, sweetie,” she called. “We’re here.”

  “Oh.” Donny exuded relief. He cleared his throat and spoke in an offhand tone, though Stuart noted the tremor in his words. “Kevin and Patrick were worried when they didn’t hear you and Stuart in the house. I told them I’d check it out.”

  “We didn’t mean to frighten you.” Peigi went to him, at her most reassuring. “We were taking a little walk. Not far. Just to get some air.”

  “No, you weren’t. You were kissing.” Donny sounded satisfied. “I saw you. Does that mean you’re mates?”

  Peigi hesitated. Stuart knew she was thinking of a way to tell Donny no, and a reason why she’d been kissing Stuart if not.

  Stuart put an end to the question. “Yes,” he said. “We are.”

  Peigi started, rising from comforting Donny. “It doesn’t quite work that way.” Her voice trembled as much as Donny’s had, and she too tried to hide it.

  “I know. I’ve been around Shifters long enough, and seen my share of mating ceremonies.” Stuart’s heart felt light, the rightness of what he was about to do filling him.

  “Peigi of the Las Vegas Shiftertown, under the Mother Goddess and in front of a witness, I claim you as mate.”

  He still didn’t understand, Peigi thought the next morning as they went to Eric’s for what Stuart called a debriefing.