Holding Honor (Ashland Pride Nine)

by R. E. Butler

  * * *

  Friday morning, Honor got out of the shower and patted her skin dry, glancing at the decorative clock hanging over the towel rack. She had to leave with Hope in twenty minutes if they were going to get coffee and make it to school on time.

  “It’s your fault I’m running late,” she said to her mates as she hustled from the bathroom and opened the dresser.

  “Aw,” Holden said. “We were distracted by how sexy you smelled this morning.”

  “Very sexy,” Jax said, punctuating his words with a purr.

  “Nuh uh,” she warned, backing away toward the closet. “Purring’s what got us in trouble in the first place. You guys are too sexy for your own good!”

  “No such thing, sweetheart,” Jax said, wiggling his brows.

  She rolled her eyes with a smile and pulled on her jeans. By the time she was ready, Jax and Holden were dressed and out in the kitchen talking to Hope. She joined them, greeting her daughter and giving her mates a kiss goodbye. Hope waved to Jax and Holden, and walked out of the house with Honor.

  “Did you sleep well?” Honor asked as she opened the car door.

  “Yeah. The bed is super comfy. You?”

  She thought back to how her mates had expertly worn her out before bed, and then woken her up with their talented mouths and fingers. Every day they showed her in some way that they cared deeply for her.

  “You’re making a weird face,” Hope said.

  “What?” Honor backed out of the drive and put the car into gear.

  “You get a goofy look on your face sometimes. What were you thinking about?”

  She opted to not be entirely truthful about where her thoughts had been. “Jax and Holden.”

  “They’re pretty great.”

  “They sure are. I’m lucky to have found them.”

  “I overheard you talking to Pop about going to Ashland this summer.”

  She hummed and put on her blinker, waiting for the light to turn green. “Do you remember me telling you about Jilly and her panther mates?”

  Hope thought for a moment and then said, “The first one to have the curse broken, right?”

  Honor pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop and turned off the engine. “Yep. Panthers are nomadic, so they don’t put down roots anywhere, they just move from place to place throughout the year. Once Jilly and her mates were officially mated, they left Ashland, but they’ll be back there in June. Aside from seeing Melody and her family, we want to be there to meet Jilly’s new baby. She’s due on the sixteenth.”

  “I’m not done with school until the twentieth.”

  Honor glanced at her daughter as she got out of the car. “We can wait to leave for Ashland until you’re finished.”

  “Pop has to go a few more days after the last day.”

  Honor shut the door and met Hope on the sidewalk. “We can wait. I can help him, too, so maybe we’ll be able to finish up a little earlier. I’m glad you want to come with us.”

  Hope nodded as they walked into the coffee shop. Honor inhaled the smell of roasting coffee beans, and her cat let out a happy purr.

  “I think you and your cat like coffee, huh?” Hope asked with a laugh.

  “I adore it. I especially like coming here with you, so we can chat.”

  “I like it, too.”

  They stepped into line and Honor scanned the board listing all the options. When they reached the front of the line, Hope ordered an iced mocha latte, and Honor got a coffee with a shot of caramel and steamed milk.

  They found a little table by the window and sat, enjoying a few minutes of time together before they had to head to school. The day was overcast, rainclouds looming in the distance.

  Hope stirred her straw in the cup and said, “I want to stay with you tonight and tomorrow night. Then stay with Pops on Sunday night.”

  Honor smiled. “Sure thing.”

  “It’s weird.”

  “What is?”

  “Well, I mean, you’re my mom, but I never thought I’d get to meet you, let alone spend time with you. Now here you are, with two mates, and living in King. It’s pretty cool. It makes me feel normal, but also not normal.”

  “How so?”

  “Because of the curse. You weren’t ever supposed to want to be with me. When I was little, I wanted a mom so bad. Did you know that the school never celebrated Mother’s Day? We never once made gifts for moms, because the males didn’t have moms involved in their lives, so out of respect for the pride they ignored the holiday entirely.”

  Honor stared down at her coffee with a frown. “That’s really sad.”

  “Yeah, especially for the human kids, who had moms who naturally wanted to be with them.”

  “I feel like I should apologize again.”

  “Stop,” Hope said with a smile. “I’m just glad you’re here. The longer we spend together, the more I feel like a family.”

  Honor’s heart soared. “Me too.”

  Hope’s gaze darted to the side. “Can I…call you Mom, maybe, sometimes?”

  Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them away. Reaching for her daughter’s hand, she gave it a squeeze and said, “Of course, honey. I’d love that.”

  “And maybe Jax and Holden wouldn’t mind me calling them Dad?”

  “I’m positive they’ll adore it.”

  “Okay. Mom.” Hope smiled, her cheeks pink and her eyes wide.

  Honor could have cried at the sweet tone in her voice. But she didn’t want to have a weep-fest in the coffee shop, so she sniffled instead and smiled. “I’m so glad we’re here.”

  “The coffee shop?” Hope asked with a grin.

  “No, silly. You and me, in King, no more curse.”

  “Me, too.”

  Honor’s phone beeped with the alarm she’d set so they didn’t stay too long and end up late to school. “Time to get going.”

  “If we have to.”

  “Unfortunately.”

  They tossed their containers in the trash and walked outside. Honor pulled the keys from her pocket. She was about to press the fob to unlock the doors, when the hairs on the back of her neck rose and every instinct within her warned of danger.

  She turned her head as a work van pulled up behind her car. The side door opened to reveal Victoria, crouched in the opening.

  “Come quietly or she’s dead,” Victoria said.

  Hope gasped out, “Mom!”

  With a snarl, Honor turned to her daughter, who had a knife pressed to her throat by Raquel.

  “I’ll come willingly,” Honor said. “Let her go.”

  “You’re not in control here,” Raquel said. “Move. Now.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Honor said to Hope. She trusted she sounded more confident than she felt. She walked to the van, glancing over her shoulder at the coffee shop. No one inside seemed to realize that she and Hope were being abducted, and there were no other people in the parking lot.

  “Please let Hope go. She’s innocent,” Honor said.

  “Shut up,” Victoria said, jerking Honor into the van by her shirt. She crashed to the floor, banging her shoulder on a toolbox. Raquel shoved Hope into the van, and the door slammed shut.

  “Go!” Victoria shouted to Rose.

  Honor rose to her knees, aware of her cell phone in her back pocket. If she could get to it, she could text her mates. As if sensing her thoughts, Victoria spun to face her with her hand out.

  “Phones, now.”

  “I don’t have one,” Hope said.

  Raquel slapped Hope across the face. “We’ve seen your social media accounts. Try again.”

  “Don’t touch her,” Honor said, pulling her phone from her pocket and handing it to Victoria. Hope followed suit, pressing her hand to her cheek. “What do you want with us?”

  “You need to be fixed,” Victoria said.

  “Fixed? What are you talking about?”

  “You don’t act like a lioness should. We heard our claws make females the way they sh
ould be, so we’re going to change you back to the way you were. And your daughter, too.”

  “How do you know she’s my daughter?”

  “A little bird told me.”

  The van lurched to one side, the brakes squealing as Rose cursed.

  “What the fuck?” Victoria yelled, leaning forward to look out the windshield.

  Honor sat up straighter and looked over the front seat, gasping at the line of police cars blocking the way.

  “Back up!” Victoria yelled.

  “I can’t! We’re surrounded,” Rose shouted.

  “Fuck this, let’s run,” Raquel said.

  Victoria growled and rolled her neck. “No. Let’s do what we came to do. When they’re fixed, they won’t want to go with the males anyway.”

  “This won’t work,” Honor said. “It’s a curse. Once the curse is broken, a female can’t be cursed again.”

  She hoped, anyway. She didn’t actually know if it was possible to be cursed a second time. And what about Hope? She’d been poisoned once in the past, but could she be turned fully at fifteen?

  “I think you’re wrong,” Victoria said.

  She lunged at Honor, knocking her to her back. With a vicious grin, she extended her claws and sank them into Honor’s arms. Her skin burned as the claws pierced her skin. Instead of releasing her grip, Victoria dragged her claws down Honor’s arms, shredding her skin. She screamed and struggled to get away, trying to shift into her cat to escape but unable to reach her beast because of the pain.

  “Hope! Hope, I’m sorry!” she shouted, blinded by tears.

  “Mom! Mom!”

  Chapter 13

  Jax’s phone buzzed at the same time as Holden’s, just as they were heading out of the house to go to work. He took it from his shirt pocket and glanced at the screen, seeing Daniel’s name.

  “Yeah?” he asked as he answered, sliding behind the wheel and turning on the engine.

  “I need you to get to Oak Road, a half mile past the coffee shop, just before the Adlers’ farm. Females abducted Honor and Hope at the coffee shop. We’ve got them surrounded, but they won’t come out of the van.”

  “What?” he bellowed.

  Holden cursed.

  “They’re alive in the van?”

  “Yes, we can see them in the back.”

  “Did someone call Eli?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll be right there.” He tossed his phone on the dash and backed out of the drive.

  “Who called you?” Holden asked.

  “Daniel. You?”

  “Griffin. How the hell did this happen?”

  “I don’t know, but if they give me a few minutes with the females I’ll fucking find out.”

  “You and me both.”

  He pushed the speed limit, racing toward the coffee shop. Honor’s words buzzed in his mind; she’d said she didn’t think Victoria would leave her alone.

  “We told her to not go anywhere alone, and she didn’t. She had Hope with her,” Jax said.

  “Yeah. I wouldn’t have thought the females would care about Hope either.”

  “I think we underestimated them.”

  “I feel like our people do that all the time.”

  Jax ground his teeth together, his gums tingling as his cat urged him to protect his female.

  Holden clapped him on the shoulder. “The police were able to stop the van, though. That’s something. If they’d taken them out of town, who knows what we might have found.”

  He nodded, pulling over to the side of the road just behind three police cruisers. Vehicles had surrounded a Tippett’s Remodeling company van, and Jax could see a female sitting in the driver’s seat.

  “What’s going on?” Jax asked as he and Holden met with Daniel at the cruisers.

  “The females are refusing to open the doors or let Honor and Hope out. The female in the front is named Rose, and she’s the only one talking. There are two other females in the back with your mate and daughter.”

  Jax looked at the van, his mind clicking. “That’s Frank and Ryan’s business. How did the females get their van?”

  “That’s the fucked-up thing,” Frank said as he walked between the cruisers and joined them. “When I went to work this morning, the garage door was open and the damn work van was gone. I found Ryan beaten all to hell and tied up in the office.”

  “He’s been spying on the pride for Victoria,” Daniel said.

  “What?” Holden asked.

  “I didn’t know,” Frank said. “But he’s obsessed with his daughter, Carolee, who’s apparently living with Victoria up in Canada. She promised to let him see her if he spied, and then she made him help with the abduction. He followed your mate and reported on her activities. I’m so damn sorry. I should have known he was up to something; he hasn’t acted right since the pride meeting.”

  “Fuck,” Jax said.

  “She double-crossed him, though,” Frank said. “Carolee wasn’t with them. When he demanded to know where she was, they attacked him and tied him up.”

  “He shouldn’t have trusted them in the first damn place,” Daniel said.

  “I called the police as soon as I found him and heard they were going to snatch Honor and Hope at the coffee shop. I just wish I’d been fast enough to stop it from happening.”

  “What’s the plan?” Jax asked.

  Just then Honor screamed, and his blood went cold. She sounded in pain and frightened. He pushed past Daniel, racing toward the van.

  “Honor!”

  Holden was on his heels. The two of them reached the van together and pounded on the windows. “Let them out! You’ll never get out of here with our mate and daughter,” Holden shouted.

  “Fuck you!” Rose yelled, giving them the finger.

  “Honor! Hope!” Jax shouted.

  Honor screamed again, and then the van rocked violently as a mountain lion roar rent the air.

  “What the hell?” Jax said.

  A paw came up behind the driver’s seat, and Rose shrieked as it raked across her throat, blood spurting from the wound as the female struggled to press her hands to it.

  There were more screams, followed by another roar.

  And then silence.

  * * *

  Hope’s whole world narrowed down to the lioness bitch on top of her mother, and the metallic scent of blood heavy in the air. Under her skin, she could feel her cat rolling and stretching in a way she’d never felt before. Her fingertips burned, and her gums tingled as the lioness within roared in dismay. These females were trying to turn them? To go back to a time when Hope’s own mother didn’t even recognize her?

  Fuck. That.

  The female holding her was distracted, staring worriedly out the windshield at the police vehicles and flashing lights. Hope was too young to shift, but her cat didn’t care that it was early, because it was the only way.

  “Hope!” her mother yelled. “Hope, I’m sorry!”

  “Mom! Mom!”

  Everything within her went white-hot, her nerve endings sparking and her lioness roaring in her mind. Her body felt like it was splitting apart, her skin flaying and her bones cracking. The female holding Hope shouted for her to stop, but it was too late. The lioness was coming, and there was no stopping her.

  She heard Holden and Jax outside of the van, pounding on the door and window. The females were distracted, and she took that moment to push through her shift. With a scream of fury, Hope lunged at the female attacking her mother. She hit her, knocking her into the back of the driver’s seat. Snaking a paw up, she clawed the driver’s throat before turning her attention back to the ringleader.

  Something burned her shoulder, and she screeched and rolled away, seeing a screwdriver embedded in her flesh. Locking eyes with her mom, she watched as Honor shifted swiftly and attacked. The two females didn’t stand a chance against her rage.

  After putting down the other female, her mother threw the ringleader against the back of the van, making it
rock on its tires. She leaped into the air and landed on her, jaws wide and around her throat in a heartbeat. There was a loud crack, and the female went still.

  Hope sat on her haunches and stared at her mother.

  Bad. Ass.

  The pounding outside the door had ceased. She canted her head and listened, wishing she could speak in her shift. She let out a tentative yowl, hoping that the males would know she was really trying to say that everything was okay now. Because it sure as heck was.

  Her mother padded over to her, stepping carefully over the bodies until she could sit down next to her. Hope leaned against her and sighed deeply. Talk about a bonding experience. If she hadn’t been certain before that she was ready to call Honor “Mom,” she sure was now.

  * * *

  Holden looked at Jax. “Did I just hear a yowl that sounded like ‘everything’s okay?’”

  “I think so.” Jax looked at Daniel. “Do you have some way to open the van?”

  “I’ve got the spare keys,” Frank said. He jogged to them, unlocked the side door, and pulled it open.

  The female behind the wheel was dead; so were the two in the van. And sitting right in the middle of the carnage were two beautiful shifted females, one slightly smaller than the other.

  Holden was furious at the abduction, but crazy proud of his girls. He saw a flash of something on Hope’s shoulder. “Damn it, she’s injured. Hey, Hope needs help,” he said to Daniel.

  Daniel spoke into a walkie and called out, “EMTs are on the way. Three minutes.”

  “Good. Just stay there, honey,” Holden said. He ruffled the top of her head and she let out a stuttering purr.

  “How you doing, sweetheart?” Jax asked Honor.

  She yowled loudly.

  “Damn straight,” Holden said with a smile. Sobering quickly as he heard the siren approaching, he looked at his mate and her daughter. His daughter. “I’m so fucking proud of both of you. Things could have gone so differently. I don’t know what Jax and I would do if something happened to either of you.”