Taze (Rise of the Pride, Book 11)

by Theresa Hissong

  “I’m trying.” She paused to look into his eyes. “I’m really trying.”

  “Don’t fight your nature, Calla,” he tacked on. “You can find balance between your work and your life outside of that law office. I’m not going to sugar coat things with you, and you know that.”

  “You never have,” she chuckled, and he smiled down at her when she relaxed without his command.

  “If you find love with Taze, he will support you,” Talon added.

  “He irritates me to no end,” she growled.

  “I know you feel torn between your brother and Taze, but you have to remember something.” He sighed and knelt down to take her hands into his. It wasn’t very often an alpha would come to an even level with one of his pride, and Calla’s shock reflected it. “In the end, when your life is over, it’s you who will go. Not them. You. Do you want to be on your funeral pyre with regrets? You can’t take a lot of things with you, but you can take your memories and the love of the people around you.”

  “You’re right,” she agreed and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “I have a lot of decisions to make.”

  “Yes, you do,” he replied and stood. “I have one more thing I need to ask you.”

  “What’s that?” She looked confused, and Talon could see the questions in her eyes.

  “Is what I’ve asked of you, to help track Holden Manzelli, too much for you?”

  “Gods, no,” she gasped, placing a hand on her chest. He felt her determination through their magical link. “I actually enjoy tracking. Plus, I want to find him so this can be over. The Guardians and Protectors are in enough danger out there on the streets. I want this stopped as much as everyone else, and if I can get the information you need, then I’m going to do everything in my power to help my pride.”

  “Thank you for that.” He smiled and returned to the chair behind his desk. “If it becomes too dangerous or you feel like it’s too much, you must tell me.” His words were a command, and Talon saw her eyes flash amber sparks when she felt the magic behind his words.

  “I promise to come to you should I have any issues,” she promised.

  “Okay, you may go,” he offered. “Take care of yourself, Calla, and I hope you find your true happiness. Remember what I said.”

  With a nod, she left his office, and Talon covered his face with his hands. The amount of pain and suffering that female was going through seeped into him through their magic, and he found himself wiping away a tear as he wondered what she wasn’t telling him.

  Chapter Six

  Calla fired up her computer and left it to start a pot of coffee for the lawyers. She’d thought a lot over the weekend about the conversations with the healer and her alpha. Malaki and Taze were on duty all weekend, and it gave her a bit of a reprieve.

  Her panther had not settled until Sunday afternoon. It took a shift and a three-hour run through the woods to get her to stop nagging about mates and cubs. Calla wanted to roll her eyes. She was only twenty-two, and having a mate and cubs this soon was dumb. Her own mother had been almost thirty when she’d had Malaki.

  Every time Taze would cross her thoughts, she’d have to find something to do. As of that morning, she’d cleaned every inch of her house…twice. She’d even rearranged her bedroom. It helped, but the odd sensations she’d been feeling lately were starting to concern her.

  She’d broken out in a sweat again that morning, but there was no anxiety that time. There had been a slight pain in her lower belly, but it wasn’t enough to cause concern. Before she left for work, she’d shot off a text to Harold, and the healer had asked her to come by after work for a checkup.

  It was probably from the stress and fighting she’d been doing with her beast and nothing to worry about. Taze and Malaki were grown ass adult Guardians. They needed to work out their differences on their own. After talking to the alpha, she realized she did need to live for herself. By the time she finally settled in bed the night before, she’d convinced herself she would ignore the two males and take care of her own life. If her brother or Taze came at her with orders and angry scowls, she would distance herself when she felt the anxiety creeping up.

  The day began, and as the clients came and went, Calla’s shoulders slumped with exhaustion. It was Monday, the busiest day of the week for the firm. She’d spent a lot of time on hunting down a person for Mr. Hanes, calling every number she could find related to the human male. When she finally got him on the phone, she patched him through. A quick glance at the clock shocked her, because it was well after six and she needed to get home.

  The lawyer sent her on her way after his phone call, promising to lock up on his way out. She took care of her closing duties and grabbed her unfinished homework. She had so much to catch up on, and if she didn’t have the assignment in by Wednesday, she’d be screwed. After she had her appointment with the healer, she would spend the rest of the night working on her online class assignment.

  She liked the online classes better than the two she’d taken last semester where she had to actually sit in a class with the other students. Online classes just worked better for her. She knew there would be a time when she would have to start going to an actual classroom, but that was another bridge she’d cross when she got there.

  Once she arrived at the pride, Calla didn’t even go inside her house to drop off her things. She just parked and crossed the gravel road to the healer’s home. Luna answered the door with a wide smile. “Hey, Calla. Come on in.”

  “Thank you,” she replied and accepted the hug from her friend.

  “Go on in the room, and I’ll let him know you’re here.” Luna waited until Calla was settled before disappearing down the hallway. A few minutes went by before the healer entered the room. He wore his trusty white coat, but underneath, he wore jeans and a cotton shirt. He looked more like a lumberjack than an actual doctor.

  “How’s the head?” he asked as soon as he closed the door.

  “It’s fine,” she said, waving off his concern. “The knot went away by morning.”

  “That’s good,” he said and made a note in her chart. “So, what’s going on with these hot flashes?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered, honestly confused. “I usually have them when I feel a panic attack coming on, but for the last twenty-four hours, I’m getting them without having any anxiety. It’s weird.”

  Harold tapped the pen on his lips as his keen eyes scanned her body. Calla didn’t know what he was looking for, but she waited patiently as he thought over what she’d said.

  “Let’s start with a physical,” he suggested as he set her chart aside. “Then we will go from there.”

  Calla inhaled when she was asked to inhale, said ahh when she was asked, sat still when he listened to her heart, and extended her arm when he checked her blood pressure. The entire time, she watched his face, but he never gave away any concern on his features. It drove her crazy sometimes, but she knew he’d always take care of her if she was ever sick.

  A bead of sweat appeared on her arm as he turned away to place the cuff on the table by the wall, and she felt the exhaustion rear its ugly head. “I think I’m having a feverish moment coming on.”

  Harold looked over his shoulder and nodded. “Tell me what you’re feeling right now.”

  “Like my blood is trying to boil under my skin,” she replied, using the back of her hand to wipe away the sweat that’d built there.

  Harold quickly grabbed the thermometer and stuck the plastic-coated stick under her tongue. When the thing beeped, he pulled it out and discarded the cap.

  “Calla,” he sighed. “Have you had your first heat yet?”

  Oh gods!

  “Um, no,” she blushed. “I haven’t.”

  “You should’ve had two already.” He frowned, showing a rare sign of emotion. “I think that’s what’s happening, and it’s just beginning.”

  “Wait!” she barked. “No, no, no! I can’t be. How am I going to go to work?” She felt a panic a
ttack coming on, but Harold’s gloved hand on her wrist stopped her from crossing her arms over her chest.

  If she was going into heat, that meant…

  “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

  “Calla, I need you to calm down,” Harold began, taking her hands into his. “This isn’t life threatening. It’s better than the alternative.”

  The alternative being the infection some shifters could get that would eventually take their life. It was the one thing they had no protection against.

  “What am I going to do?” she asked, looking at him for guidance.

  Being in heat meant one thing…she needed a mate to make it go away immediately or she’d have to be sedated for five to ten days. The pain would be excruciating, and the need to mate would drive her insane.

  “I can sedate you, but I need to know if you want to do that at your house or here,” he informed her.

  “I don’t want to do it here,” she replied, knowing that males came and went from the clinic a lot, and she didn’t want any chance of being seen by Taze. If he knew she was in heat, he’d press the mating issue. The males couldn’t stand seeing their females in pain, and if she knew Taze, he’d be just as upset as the other mated males who stood by and watched their mates being sedated so they couldn’t conceive a child.

  Hope had gone through heat over the years, admitting to Calla one night that they used condoms to keep from conceiving, but it didn’t stop the heat. It dulled it, but she was still in pain. At first, she’d rode it out with Ranger, but by the next year, she asked to be sedated.

  “I know Savage has a cabin off the pride’s land. He and Mary Grace go there for peace and quiet sometimes.” Calla swallowed hard as she felt her panic rising. “He will let me use it. I know he will. We have to call him. I have to call him.”

  “Take some relaxing breaths, Calla,” Harold cooed. “You don’t have to call him. I’ll do it for you, but first, I need to know if you are feeling any pain?”

  “No, not yet,” she promised, mentally taking stock of how she felt. Her panther, on the other hand, was snarling inside her mind. The animal didn’t want sedation. It wanted to find Taze.

  “Please hurry, Harold.”

  Taze blinked as he came awake. A quick look at the clock said he’d been out for the entire day. He was off rotation for the night and planned on spending a lot of time in the training facility working off some of his stress. The rest of the night, he’d shift and prowl around the land to give himself something to do.

  He told himself he wasn’t going over to Calla’s. As much as he wanted to give in to his panther’s need to touch her, his human side knew it was best to leave her alone. She would come to him when she was ready.

  After grabbing a shower and some food, he jogged over to the training facility in the old Guardian’s dorm. It was vacant now, and he kind of missed living there with the others who weren’t mated. When he first moved in, it had been a change from growing up in his parents’ home. His mother kept everything quiet. She wasn’t much for television, but she did play the radio on occasion when she was in the mood for some Christmas music or easy listening while she cleaned.

  The males who lived in the dorms were loud, and at times, the games of pool or movie nights got a little wild. He didn’t like it at first, but with time, he grew to love his time with the others. As he matured, and the other males decided to move out on their own so they could have a home ready should they find their mates, Taze made the decision to stay for a little longer. He hadn’t bet on Malaki staying, too.

  They had lived on opposite ends of the dorm, only seeing each other in passing. They’d come to an unspoken agreement in their living arrangements. The only time they had come together without fighting or arguing was when Jade had moved into the dorms and they’d had a few drinks with the female while she was settling in to the pride.

  Since then, both of them had built their own cottages and moved out. Taze’s house was a few doors up from the healer and Malaki had built his on a new road on the other side of the alpha’s home. It kept them away from each other, but he’d specifically chosen his land because it had a direct line of sight to Calla’s tiny home.

  The lights flickered overhead as he dropped his bag on the bench by the door. He grabbed the remote for the sound system and fired it up to drown out the hum from the fixture over his head. Once he found the local rock station, he slipped on his gloves and made his way over to a hanging bag in the corner.

  Bouncing on his toes, Taze prepared his body, stretching every muscle he could before taking out his frustrations on the red bag hanging from the ceiling. Feeling his muscles bunch, he swung and connected. For the next hour, he worked until he was bent over at the waist, panting heavily as his heart raced from the workout.

  It was well after dark when he finally sat on the bench and leaned back, using his teeth to tear away the Velcro on one of his gloves. His body was sore, but it was a good feeling to take some time to himself with the old bag.

  His head jerked to the side when the door opened. His immediate response was a harsh curse word under his breath the moment he saw Malaki enter the room. “I was on my way out. You can have the place to yourself.”

  He stood, slinging his bag over his shoulder with every intention of slipping past Calla’s brother, but it didn’t work out quite that way.

  The punch Malaki threw connected with his jaw. “Where the fuck is my sister!”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Taze replied, feeling his canines extend as his body tried to shift to heal the damage.

  “Did you run her off?” Malaki accused. The blond male circled Taze as if he was about to attack. “What did you say to her?”

  “Malaki, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Taze defended. “I’ve been asleep all day. I just came here for my morning workout, and I sure as hell didn’t stop by your sister’s house. I’m pretty sure my scent would’ve been all over her doorstep if I had.”

  Okay, Taze pushed that a little. He wanted her brother to accept the fact the two of them were mates. If goading him was one way to do it, then so be it. He’d take the beating Malaki thought he was entitled, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  “She’s gone,” he replied. “No one knows where she is, and she called out of work for the week.”

  Taze’s panther snarled in his head. “Have you talked to Talon?”

  “Not yet,” Malaki cursed. “I thought you’d know where she is.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t.” Taze tried not to show any emotions in front of Malaki. If Calla had left, it was for a damn good reason. Worry turned to fear as his mind went over everything from this past weekend. He prayed she wasn’t in danger.

  “Fuck! Fine!” Malaki snarled. “If you hear from her, I better be the first person you contact.”

  “If you’d calm your anger at me, maybe we could work together to find her,” Taze offered. “It’s not like her to disappear.”

  “No, it’s not.” Malaki’s eyes were sparking amber, and Taze knew he wouldn’t agree lightly to work with him to find her. It didn’t matter what her brother was going to do, because Taze would take it upon himself to find her. “She shouldn’t be out there alone.”

  “No, she shouldn’t.”

  “I’m going to Talon,” Malaki said as he spun on his heel.

  “So am I,” Taze replied, following her brother out the door. He flipped the light off and let the door close behind him. He’d come back for his bag later.

  The house was bustling with pride members as both of them entered through the back door. Talon was sitting at the head of the table when they arrived. He took the napkin from his lap and dropped it on his cleared plate. He stood and leaned down to kiss his mate before narrowing his eyes on the two males.

  “In my office,” he ordered and excused himself from the table.

  Taze pretty much ignored Malaki. He’d been doing it for the last two years, anyway. It kept them from killing each other,
and he was certain if they broke out in a fight in the alpha’s home, they’d both be put down.

  “Where is my sister?” Malaki asked the moment the alpha’s door closed. His voice was a hell of a lot more respectful than it was when he swung at Taze.

  “Want to explain why your fellow Guardian has a busted jaw?” Talon bellowed. Taze wiped the back of his hand over his lip and tensed when it came away with a spot of blood. The bruise was probably gone already, but he didn’t have a mirror handy to be certain.

  “I thought he knew where she was,” Malaki answered, standing his ground.

  “I don’t think either of you have the right to come barging in my home for information on a grown, emancipated female.” Talon was pissed, and the magic coming from him was enough to bring the males to their knees. Their leader’s eyes glowed with the presence of his beast as Taze and Malaki bowed their heads in submission. “Neither one of you have rights to Calla.”

  Taze had a flashback of when he was in that very same office for an awakening over his behavior after he’d hit his maturity. There was a reason why Talon was the alpha, and the power he was putting out was proof of his heritage.

  “As far as you are concerned,” Talon began as he paced. “Calla is away on a short vacation. She is not going to be home until this time next week. I assure you she is safe and protected, but I will not tell you where she is, and if I find out that either one of you is looking for her, I will have your Guardianship revoked.”

  “Yes, sir,” they said in unison as they looked up at the alpha. He nodded for them to rise to their feet.

  “I suggest you two use this time to find some common ground between you two so when Calla returns, she doesn’t come back to you two at each other’s throats.” Talon came around the desk and stopped in front of both males. “Do not make me have to give you an order.”