“He said you were touched by your sister. Hugged, too, if he doesn’t miss his bet. Marcus said you were cured of the cancer the moment she held you in her arms. However, he is very happy you’ve come to visit them.” She said she didn’t understand. “Marcus said they explained to you about the magic they used on your sister. Also, telling you they didn’t know how it would work with her. She can apparently heal people with just a touch. Even the cut on your leg you did this morning while shaving is gone. He said you missed a spot on your ankle.”
“Does he have any manners at all?” Collier laughed and said all of them did, usually. She looked at where she’d cut herself badly this morning and found that not only was it gone, but there wasn’t a scar. “I don’t understand this. We came here…Rowan has a gun. She planned on using it on your family if they didn’t help me.”
“Not that it matters, but since you’re healed, we don’t have to worry about that.” She asked him why it didn’t matter. “We’re all immortal, including you and your sister. Are you coming in for dinner? I’m starved.”
When he walked away, she looked at the tiger. He was staring at her like her cat did, who she had left in the back of the car. Going to get it out of the cage, she warned the big tiger that she wasn’t too keen on bigger cats. As soon as he leapt from her hands, the cat was gone.
“Micky? Are you coming in or staying out there all day?” She looked at her sister, then at the tiger. “Come on. We’re all waiting on you?”
“Something is going on here, isn’t it?” He nodded at her. “Do you suppose we’re going to be unhappy with whatever it is?” The cat shrugged like a human would. Then he took off for the side of the house. “I’ve entered The Twilight Zone. I just know it. I’m going to start hearing that scary music, then end up in some cornfield where I’ll never be heard from again.”
Going into the house, she felt calmed. The aroma coming from the dining room had her following her nose. Whatever they were serving, she wanted some of it. Sitting down next to her sister, she started piling up her plate. The tiger, in the form of a man, came in and sat down too. This was just going to drive her over the edge. She knew it.
Chapter 1
Micky was so full she was sure she was going to need a nice long nap before she could go to bed. Smiling to herself, she made herself comfortable on the couch and was startled awake when someone came in and sat down beside her. She didn’t know him, even though she’d been introduced to them all at some point. He smiled and told her he was the cat in the yard.
“They said your name was Marcus.” He said that was him. “Please tell me we’re not related in some mysterious way. You have to know I’m not a very good catch. I’m flaky and have my head up in the clouds all the time. At least that’s what my family tells me.”
“No, we’re not mates. However, I do feel something for you.” Micky asked him what that meant. “I’m not sure. But I have a feeling you and my brother Harley are going to be mates. I might be wrong, but I have the same feeling towards you as I do my other sisters-in-law. A need to protect you and to make sure you’re not hurt in any way.”
“I can take care of myself, thanks.” He just nodded. “Don’t humor me, please. I’ve been so sick of late that I don’t think I can take much more. That other man, he said my sister healed me. Is that right?”
“You no longer are ill, if that’s what you mean. You won’t ever get sick or die if I’m right. I would think you’re also immortal. But as I said, I could be wrong.” She snorted at him. When he laughed, she asked him what was so funny. “You. You’re going to fit right in around here, if I’m correct. Harley is a wonderful person. I could be just a little bit biased on that, being that he’s my brother, but he’s well liked.”
“I’m not. I’m not liked at all.” He told her that he doubted that. “Don’t. I’m a pain in the ass. I have this wonderfully talented family, and I’m the black sheep. If they tell me it’s raining out, I’m going to try my utmost to prove them wrong. I don’t do well around stupid people. In fact, I’m not good around people at all.”
“I don’t believe that either.” Micky asked him why not. “You didn’t walk away from me when I sat here, even though you were having a nice nap. When I met up with you in the yard, you didn’t kick me or run screaming into the house. Nor did you seem the least bit afraid of me, now that I think about it. Why is that?”
“I worked with this shithole name Patrick. Milner is what he went by. Anyway, he worked with me on two projects before I figured out he was chasing the girls that worked the line on nightshift, therefore making my turnover rate very high. Once I confronted him about it, he shifted into this large black snake. My first shifter was a snake, by the way.” Marcus told her he’d seen a few of them. “He was a fucking prick, but when he shifted in front of me, I pulled out a gun, and I shit you not, fired into his mouth three times before his head came off. And since no one ever came to me about his death, I just figured everyone who knew him was glad the fucker was gone. Silver or not, you’re not going to be walking away from something like having your head taken off.”
“Good for you.” She smiled at Marcus, enjoying their talk. “Harley is coming here now. Not this room—he’s in the kitchen with my parents. If you want to just sit here and wait to find out— Where are you going?”
“To get answers.”
She didn’t have to search for the kitchen. When she’d arrived, she and Rowan had been asked to help take plates to the dining room table. It was the best part of the house, and not only that, she could tell it was a gathering place for family.
She knew who Harley was the moment she walked into the large warm room. Not one to wait to be invited to a party or whatever was going on, she walked up to the man and buried her nose in his throat. At his moan—or her own, she wasn’t sure—she knew as surely as she was standing there who he was to her. Stepping back, she looked up at the man.
Pulling her back to him, he sniffed her throat as well. The lick, long and hot, rolled through her body like water falls over the cliff and fills the waterways below. And her below was filling out nicely with need, Micky thought. She felt the turmoil and the need from him like it was her own. As soon as he let her go, stepping back from her this time, Micky realized it was just the two of them in the kitchen.
“You must be Micky Bronson.” She nodded, not sure she could form words yet. “I’m Harley Prince. I’m ever so glad to meet you. Christ, you smell like my mom’s homemade apple pie with ice cream and sex all at the same time.”
“Do you usually think of ice cream and sex when you have your mom’s pie?” He laughed. It was long and hearty, and she joined him. “Yes, I’m Micky. Up until like three hours ago, I was dying of cancer. They tell me that my sister Rowan healed me.”
“And I made you immortal. Marcus, one of my brothers, told me he thought you and I might be mates. I’m glad to know you’re not pissy about it.” She told him not to get too excited. She wasn’t sure yet. “I’m not positive, but I believe you’re sure about us. What do you have for me in the way of questions? I have a few myself. Like, how on earth did all of you get such beautiful red hair? I thought it was a recessive gene or something like that.”
“Both our parents were redheads. And I think my grandparents were as well. I never met them. My dad, he was murdered when Rowan was shot to hell.” Micky cocked her head and looked at him. “Black tiger. You’re one of them too, I guess.”
“Yes. All of us are. You’re not going to believe the things that have come to our family since we were changed. My mind is blown away by the number of changes since the first wife, Harper, came to my brother, Bryant.” She told him how her sister had been healed by magic. “That’s right. Kylan and Bryant went to help her. I was glad to hear those things worked well for her and your family. And I’m profoundly sorry for your loss. I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I were to lose one of my parents again.�
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“Again?” He told her. “Your mother died and was gone for a decade? I would have pissed myself if my mom would have just shown up in the house one day. And to know that the faerie queen had her all this time healing her? That must have been—well, I honestly have no words for how that might have been for you. I’m happy for you. She’s a really nice person. Can we get out of here for a minute or two? I’m not good in closed up places, especially when I know it’s been snowing— Never mind. I don’t have any winter stuff to…. What the fuck just happened?”
Micky had on a parka and boots. Gloves that were so soft she wanted a blanket made of the same thing. Looking at Harley when he laughed, she glared at him, not thinking this was the least bit funny.
“Whatever you’re thinking about right now is going to be at our house.” Asking him what he was talking about, as she had no house, he laughed harder. “I found this house in the woods behind…let me just take you there. I’ll explain as much as I can on the way. You’re going to be good for me, Micky. I know it.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get yourself all hard and ready. I’m not that good for you just yet.” He was still laughing as they made their way out into the big backyard. “Isn’t it wonderful? I so love snow and the things that come with it. Fireplaces. Hot cocoa. I love huge meals that you can pick at for days afterwards. I don’t cook, but I do love a good meal.”
“I have, or rather we have, a cook. Her name is Peaches. If she has adopted a last name, she didn’t tell me.” He turned back to her when he realized she was no longer with him. “What?”
“You have a cook named Peaches, and she might have ‘adopted’ a last name? What the hell kind of drugs are you on?” He smiled, took her hand, and took her to the path that was cleared of snow and seemed to be made of flower petals. “Harley, what the hell is going on? Seriously. This is the coldest it’s been since last winter, I think. And we’re walking on pretty yellow petals along a path that I hope doesn’t lead to my doom.”
“No, you’re immortal, remember?”
She was going to test that theory, she thought. The man was certifiable.
Stepping off the path for a few steps, she listened to the crunch of the snow beneath her boots, the sounds of it echoing not just in her heart but around her as well. Lifting her face to the snow now falling, she let flakes hit her cheeks before she closed her eyes. Winter had always been her favorite time of the year. Micky had forgotten how much she loved the freedom she felt every year when the first snow of the season made its appearance. She heard the crunch of snow coming toward her and spoke to Harley.
“Wherever I was working, I’d try my best to be in a place that would have snow at the beginning of the season. It meant that everything was sleeping. That things would be fresh soon. The trees, the grass. Everything in the world would begin anew. That I’d—” The person cleared their throat, and she fell back when she realized it wasn’t Harley. “Who are you, and what are you doing on this land? You aren’t welcome here.”
“Harley? Harley, I’ve met your mate.” She remembered she was unarmed and was suddenly afraid as he continued to yell for Harley. “Harley, she’s going to pull a gun on me if you don’t get your ass back here and tell her I’m a friend, not foe.” The gun suddenly appeared in her hand.
“I should let her shoot you for scaring her like that. Micky, as much as I hate to admit it, this is a friend of mine, Toliver Coal. Toddy, you have the pleasure of meeting my mate, Micky Bronson Prince. He doesn’t usually go around scaring beautiful women.” She didn’t waver her weapon even after knowing who he was. “What is it, love? Do you see something about him that I can’t?”
“He’s a bear.” Harley told her that he was. “There is something wrong with him. He’s not bleeding, but there is something…he’s been wounded. A knife to his back. It’s not bleeding right now, but he’s done something to it, so you can’t smell it.” She looked at Harley. “Can you smell blood?”
“I can. Take off your shirt, Toddy.” The big man didn’t take his eyes off her as he pulled his shirt off his back. “You actually put tape on your skin? That’s going to hurt like a bitch when I pull it off you.”
The man screamed when Harley pulled the tape from his side. When he fell to the ground, his bear seemed to not know what was going on. As his other half seemed to come and go, Toddy was crying out in both languages, both his man self and his bear.
When the tape was off, Toddy lay on the ground. He was breathing hard, his back now exposed and showing what he’d worked so hard to hide from them. Mickey got up on her knees and made her way to him. Touching him after taking her glove off, she asked him if he was all right.
“No, I’m not fucking all right. I fucking hurt.” She slapped him on the side of his head. “What the fuck was that for? Don’t you think I hurt enough?”
“I was only trying to help you, you fucking moron. You don’t have to snap at me. We both know you’re not going to get any better without help. Who did this to you? They should be dealt with the same way. You tell me, and I’ll hunt their asses down and teach them what pain feels like.” He stared at her for a full ten seconds before he burst out laughing. “Now you’re laughing. There really is something wrong with you. Both of you are insane. Where is this house of yours? I’m going there right now and leaving you both here to freeze. And before you point out to me again that you’re immortal, you’d better remember that immortality does not mean I can’t hurt you. Both of your dumb asses.”
Mumbling to herself, she stomped through the snow. Calling them every name in the book and making some up as she made her way to this supposed house, she was startled from walking much further when a little tiny thing landed on her shoulder and spoke to her. It caused her to fall back on her butt.
“I am sorry, mistress, but I didn’t want you to fall in the water that runs behind the house.” She asked him where the house was. “Behind you a bit. In your…distraction, I do believe you slipped by it. There it is. Right there.”
She turned and looked at the house. Thinking she had to be seeing things, she sat up enough to rub her eyes and look again. While the little man went on about—well, she didn’t know what he was talking about—Micky made her way to the home. Good Christ, she thought, it was the home she’d thought about her entire life.
~*~
Harley let her walk around the home. He’d had some improvements made to it since the first time the faeries had come and done all the work, adding Internet, cable, and other things that he knew wouldn’t have been possible where he was located. When Micky didn’t speak but wandered from room to room with her hands behind her back, he was sure she hated it.
“We can change anything you want.” She turned to him so quickly he found himself on the floor. “You’re very good at that, aren’t you? Changing your path in the middle of the walk. But that’s all right too. I can get used to—”
“Don’t.” Harley smiled at her. “You’re still on my shit list, mister, so if you want to walk around with me, keep your comments to yourself. For now, anyway. I’m trying to equate this home with the one I saw a long time ago in a book my grannie read to me. It’s the same. Colors and everything.”
“The house was just sitting here—” Laughing, he pretended he was zipping his mouth closed when she glared at him. “All right. How about if I just stay in the kitchen and you come to find me when you’re done looking around?”
When she turned and looked at him, his cat snarled at him. Pain was there. Also mistrust. He’d been so busy showing off that he’d forgotten how much of this was new to her. Getting up, Harley moved to stand in front of her.
“I’m afraid.” He took her in his arms as she started to cry. “I was dying when I woke up this morning. Now you’re showing me a house that has been on my mind since my grannie passed away. I’m afraid someone is going to come along and tell me it’s all a joke. That none of what I’ve been t
old is real. Even you.”
“I’m not a dream, love. I promise you. I’m here for you too.” She sobbed harder until he wanted to shift and keep her safe, make her believe what he’d not been able to do so far. “Would you like to see my cat?”
“I’m not four, Harley. You don’t have to bribe me with treats of seeing your kitten.” He smiled down at her. “You’re serious? You can just shift without having to, I don’t know, work up to it?”
“I’m magical.” She smacked him on the chest. “I’m serious. I’m extremely magical, and I can do things that will boggle your mind. Sometimes it does me as well.”
Putting out his hand, he thought of a rose, the same blushing color as her hair. The way her lips were when she nibbled on them. When the rose appeared, he put it in her hands and told her just what he had thought of when he’d conjured it for her.
“You’re a romantic, aren’t you?” He said he was, forever for her. “I don’t know what to think about anything anymore. It’s too easy. I know to you and your family it’s old hat, but to me, this is something I’ve only dreamed of.”
“What is it, love, that frightens you? A man who has already fallen in love with you? A home you’ve wanted all your life? Or is it just being healed that has you disbelieving what’s right before your eyes? You’re healed, Micky, thanks to your sister. And as of the moment we touched, you’re never going to die—I made you immortal to everything that would take you from me. The home is here just for you. It’s magical. I will tell you that it does take some getting used to, but you’ll get it.” She asked him what sort of magic was in the house. “May I show you? I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you too far with things, so you tell me when you want me to keep going.”
“Don’t make me have to hurt you, Harley.” He promised her he didn’t want that either. “What is there that I should be happy about? I’m assuming it will be something that will make life easier.”
Harley: Prince Of Tigers, Book 5 Page 2
