The Last Warrior: Shifters Unbound Book 13

by Ashley Jennifer

  Ben stepped closer, his voice quiet. “You mean a happily ever after? Not just happy for now?”

  “Happily ever after.” Rhianne erased the last bit of space between them. “I want that, yes. More than anything.”

  While Ben stared at her, stunned, Rhianne leaned to him and kissed him. She took her time, tracing his lips, tasting them, before licking inside his mouth.

  Ben started, then he slid his arms around her, strong hands molding her back as the kiss deepened. He’d certainly recovered swiftly.

  “I can take happily ever after,” Ben said softly when they eased apart. “Can you take it in a house that makes decisions for you?”

  “I think we have to.” Rhianne glanced at Liam’s porch, now lit up in the darkness, the strand of silver wind chimes hanging from it. “Kim says she never bought any wind chimes, and Carly said she didn’t know where they came from. I met Jasmine, and she said she didn’t bring them either. I think the house helped you.”

  Ben’s brows twitched. “The haunted house that’s five hundred miles away?”

  “Five hundred miles on a ley line. You’ve traveled the lines, you said. Distance on them is nothing.”

  “True …”

  “So why couldn’t the house reach its magic to blend with Millie’s talisman and the mate bond?” Rhianne traced Ben’s lower lip. “I think the house loves you too.”

  “Aw.” Ben feigned amusement, but moonlight glittered on the moisture in his eyes. “It’s such a sentimental pile of bricks.”

  “Everyone here loves you. They’ve come from Shiftertowns all over the country to make sure you’re all right.”

  “Dylan called them for backup,” Ben said as though he believed that.

  “He did before the fight. Once the fight was over, they stayed, or they kept coming. He didn’t call the Las Vegas Shifters. Or the New Orleans ones. Or the North Carolina ones. They arrived to make sure you were okay.”

  A gruff wolf called Graham, and his sweet mate, Misty, had been waiting outside the house when Ben first emerged. Misty had flung herself into Ben’s arms, and Graham had blustered, then pulled Ben into a tight hug. The Lupine had been wiping his eyes when they finally parted.

  Then a tall Lupine woman called Kenzie had likewise embraced him fervently, her mate thumping Ben on the back so hard he almost knocked him over.

  After that, a young Shifter woman with bright red hair had bounded to Ben, giving him a similarly enthusiastic embrace. When she’d straightened up, she’d bumped Rhianne’s shoulder with hers.

  “Tell your mom Tamsin said hi.”

  “I will,” Rhianne answered, bemused.

  Tamsin had laughed and told Rhianne an exciting tale of how Lady Aisling had helped her defeat bad Shifters and Shifter Bureau and discover her own happily ever after.

  “It makes us sort of sisters,” Tamsin declared. She’d turned and embraced Rhianne, holding her tightly until her mate, a large Lupine with gray eyes, had pried her away.

  Dimitri and Jaycee had come by next with more hugs and congratulations. They’d gone home to retrieve their cub, Lucas, a red-haired, sweet little boy with big brown eyes. Dimitri had held him with incredible gentleness.

  Lucas had clasped Rhianne’s finger, hard, and given her a wise Shifter look. Rhianne had been instantly smitten, to proud Jaycee and Dimitri’s delight.

  “You see?” Rhianne told Ben now. “They all love you,”

  “Stop it. You’re choking me up.” Ben sent her a thoughtful glance. “They’re pretty happy with you too.”

  “Yes, because I saved you.”

  “Not only that.” Ben pulled her close again. “You saved all of them from a perilous threat.”

  Rhianne grimaced. “That I caused. Ivor wouldn’t have come here if I hadn’t.”

  “Shifter Bureau sent you here, and anyway, danger always lurks around Shifters. Instead of letting them be slaughtered, you walked in and solved the problem.”

  “With your help,” Rhianne reminded him.

  “Yeah, we’re heroes.” He brushed back a loose strand of her hair. “I love you, Rhianne.”

  The words were a whisper, but an impassioned one.

  “I love you too.” Rhianne touched her forehead to his, her heart in her words.

  They stood near the ring of trees, which were quiet now, where Ivor had met his end. Inside the ring, the white-braided Fae was speaking with Dylan, a glass of ale in his hand.

  “You’ll have to burn this ground.” Fionn’s words wafted to Rhianne. “Any dust from this Tuil Erdannan getting into the soil won’t be a good thing. And you don’t want any of his followers seeking it as a shrine.”

  “We’ll burn it, then,” Dylan said in his low rumble. “Will that mess with the gate?”

  “It should not,” Fionn answered. “Ivor de Erkkonen was a very evil being, trust me. I tried to stop him when he came to the gate, but he put me into the stasis on my side, as he did to your Shifters. When Tiger broke you free, I was freed as well.”

  “With a timely intervention.” Dylan’s voice held respect. “I thank you for your help. Again.”

  “You take care of my daughter and grandson every day.” Fionn lifted his glass. “I think we’re even.”

  Their voices drifted into indistinct rumbles, and Rhianne’s focus moved to two young women, arms linked, who headed their way.

  One was Jasmine, the other Lily, the psychic from New Orleans. Rhianne almost didn’t recognize Lily, who wore a trim white skirt and a flower-print blouse, a far cry from the flowing, colorful garments she’d sported in the woo-woo shop.

  “You remember Lily,” Jasmine said with a smile. Jasmine had short dark hair and very blue eyes, her belly softly rounded with the cub she carried.

  “Of course they do.” Lily unlinked herself from Jasmine and pulled Rhianne into a warm hug. “My cards and crystals told me about some very bad shit going down along this ley line,” she said as she released Rhianne. “I called Jazz, she told me what was happening, and I couldn’t sit still. I had to come and make sure you were all right.” She turned and embraced Ben with as much enthusiasm as she had Rhianne, then stood back and studied him. “You look good for a man who stepped beyond the veil.”

  “Thank you.” Ben saluted her with his beer bottle. “I’m glad to be back.”

  “What did you see?” Lily asked in frank curiosity.

  “Not a lot. I saw the mate bond, and that was pretty much it. I climbed that bond back to the land of the living.”

  Ben spoke in his usual jovial tone, but Rhianne saw the flash of darkness in his eyes. She slid her hand in his and squeezed it.

  “Was that the danger you divined?” Rhianne asked Lily. “The one you warned us about?”

  “Hmm?” Lily studied her in puzzlement, then waved an elegant hand. “Oh, no, there’s much more danger to come. I’d say what you did here, killing that evil guy, is the beginning.”

  Rhianne’s heart beat faster as she and Ben exchanged a worried glance. Ben was the first to speak. “Can’t the big, bad universe give me a day alone with my mate?”

  Lily laughed and slid her arm through Jasmine’s, who listened with interest. “Of course you can. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’ve been doing some research, poking at many things. This danger is coming, but some time from now. You’ll have a nice stretch to kick back and enjoy life. And it looks like it will encompass more than just you. I’d say all Shifters will be involved.”

  Jasmine regarded her friend with raised brows. “We need to talk about this.”

  “Yeah, we do.” She patted Jasmine’s arm. “We’ll pull out some crystals and have a chat.”

  Ben relaxed. “Shifters live and breathe danger. Business as usual then?”

  “Looks like. For now.” Lily’s smile warmed her face. “So good to see you two together.” Her smiled widened. “I knew you were a couple.”

  Jasmine laughed, and the two moved off, their laughter floating back to them.

  “Well,
that was interesting,” Ben began, but he stopped, his gaze going to the tall, red-haired man who strode toward them, having waited until Lily and Jasmine moved off.

  Eamon halted a few feet from them. He studied Rhianne, not in an awkward way, but as though learning her.

  “My daughter,” he said.

  Rhianne swallowed the lump in her throat. She had so many things she wanted to ask him, so many things she wanted to say. The words clogged inside her and wouldn’t emerge.

  “There will be time,” Eamon said, as though guessing her dilemma. His voice was rich, with just the hint of a Scottish accent. “For both of us.”

  “Since when are there eagle Shifters?” Ben blurted one of the questions in Rhianne’s mind.

  A smiled tugged Eamon’s mouth. He had much quietness about him, the patience of a bird of prey.

  “My father was the only one I knew. His father the only he knew. The story I was told was that the emperor of the hoch alfar wished for a raptor Shifter. One was bred for him. But the other Fae were afraid of what havoc a flying Shifter might wreak, so the project was abandoned. My ancestor apparently escaped with his mate to the human world, to live in secret, and so has passed down the eagle from father to son. And now to daughter.”

  Rhianne still couldn’t speak, so she did the one thing she knew another Shifter would understand. She stepped to Eamon and enfolded him in an embrace.

  Eamon stilled a moment before he wrapped his arms around Rhianne, holding her tightly, his arms bearing the strength of his wings. Rhianne felt the love in him, the love of a true father, the one thing that had been missing in her life.

  “I couldn’t tell you, dear.” Lady Aisling came out of the darkness in her gardening clothes and sensible boots, her long hair in braids looped on her head. “I wanted to—so many times—but it was far too dangerous for you with Ivor always hovering in the background. It was all I could do to guard you all your life, encouraging you to go far from home, out of his demesne. You were strong, with my magic in you,.”

  Rhianne went to her, her throat tight. Again, many questions swam at her, and she finally focused on one. “How did you and Eamon meet?”

  Lady Aisling rested her hands on Rhianne’s shoulders, her face holding sorrow and the weight of keeping too many secrets. “I often visited the human world to think. I wanted to leave Ivor, but I was afraid of him—I was so very young still. I met Eamon while I was wandering among the Highlands in summer, and he saw me.”

  “I was in eagle form,” Eamon put in. “I followed her. I’d never seen such beauty.”

  Lady Aisling’s cheeks reddened. “He has always been very flattering. He revealed that he was an eagle Shifter, and I was intrigued. We had—a passionate fling.” She cleared her throat. “When I returned home, I discovered I was pregnant with you. If Ivor had believed the child not his, he would have killed you. And possibly me.”

  Rhianne nodded. “He would have.” She hesitated, glancing at Eamon. “Did you know about me?” she asked him.

  Lady Aisling answered. “I told him right away, but Eamon agreed we should not let on about your true parentage unless it became absolutely necessary. He gave me the courage to send Ivor away. That terrible journey in which Ivor destroyed the hoch alfar caravan—we were traveling to my home. I hadn’t told Ivor of course, but I’d planned to dismiss him once I was on my own territory, where I’d be strong enough to fight him, and I did just that. Ivor had given me plenty of reason, even before that horrible day on the road. My marriage with Ivor had been empty—he’d married me to use me and my magic, he fully admitted. He’d conducted plenty of affairs of his own, so I had no shame about falling in love with Eamon. And Eamon gave me you, the greatest gift I’ve ever known.”

  She let out a breath, her arrogance and self-assurance falling away. “I am so sorry, my darling,” Lady Aisling said softly to Rhianne. “For all of it.”

  She drew Rhianne into her embrace. Rhianne held the mother she’d often found so distant, tears springing to her eyes as the pieces of her life fell into place.

  The times her mother had seemed to push Rhianne away, she realized now, had been to protect her from Ivor, to not let on to Ivor how much Lady Aisling cherished her daughter, and to prevent him from seeing any hint of the Shifter in her.

  Her mother had been keeping Rhianne out of Ivor’s focus, to prevent exactly what had happened now—Ivor pursuing Rhianne to use her for his own machinations.

  Lady Aisling had been in a tough position—let Rhianne and Eamon have a loving relationship and risk their very existence, or keep them apart and alive and well.

  “Ivor did find out about me,” Rhianne said as she released her mother. “He tried to give me to Walther to breed more like me.” She swallowed on her revulsion.

  “Yes, Ivor had me followed on a trip to Paris not long ago. I visited Eamon there, and Ivor must have put two and two together. I did not know this until he’d helped Walther kidnap you. I was most displeased,” Lady Aisling finished with a hint of her usual haughtiness.

  “He was there when you didn’t answer when I called you with Jaycee’s crystal,” Rhianne said with conviction. She remembered how angry she’d been, anger she regretted now.

  “He was indeed. I was fighting him, and at first, he bested me. Then he forced me to call you, to coax you to come home.” Lady Aisling smiled shakily. “I see you understood my code.”

  “You’d never eat Aunt Freya’s pie if you could help it.” Rhianne grinned, then sobered. “I wanted to come home anyway, to save you.”

  “I am very glad you did not.” Lady Aisling’s crispness began to return. “He might have killed you, and that I could not have borne. I knew that in this world, the Shifters would help you, and Ben would be your greatest protector.” A twinkle entered her eye. “I knew that the moment I met him.”

  Ben listened in surprise. “Is that what you meant when we were out at that trailer in Shreveport?” he asked. “And you said Perhaps ...”

  “Indeed,” Lady Aisling returned. “I knew you’d suit Rhianne. But that was not the time to discuss it.”

  “Shit,” Ben said softly.

  “I do thank you for keeping her safe, Ben dear,” Lady Aisling said.

  “Sure.” Ben appeared shaken. “Any time. My pleasure. I mean that with all my heart.”

  Rhianne’s own heart warmed. She pulled her mother close again, giving her a soft kiss on her cheek. “Ivor’s gone,” she said quietly. “May we be a family now?”

  Lady Aisling’s eyes filled with tears. “I’d like that.”

  Rhianne reached out and took Eamon’s hand. “I’m glad my mother kept you safe.”

  Eamon’s voice went soft. “It was hard not to be with you, Rhianne. Your mother told me everything about you, everything you did, every honor you took in your studies. She brought me drawings of you and then photographs. I knew all about you, but I never realized how beautiful you would be.”

  Rhianne gave up on dignity and threw her arms around Eamon. “I want to know everything about you. Thank you for coming to help us.”

  Eamon held her hard, and the Shifter in Rhianne relaxed. This was right. This was family.

  When Rhianne and Eamon parted, Lady Aisling slipped her arm through Eamon’s, and he clasped her hand lovingly.

  “Rhianne is right,” Lady Aisling said. “Now that Ivor is no longer a threat, it is time to be a family. There is ample room around my house for you both to fly.” She sent Eamon a fond look. “Though I will miss sneaking off to meet you in Paris. There is something about that city …”

  “We can keep the pied à terre,” Eamon offered. “Will be a nice place for a vacation. You can shop to your heart’s content. You as well, Rhianne.”

  “Aren’t you sweet?” Lady Aisling tugged him closer. “You will love it there, Rhianne.”

  “I’m going to live here,” Rhianne announced. “Not here, but in New Orleans. With Ben.”

  Lady Aisling’s wise eyes softened. “Well, of course
you are, dear. I plan to be at the Sun and Moon ceremonies. And the house will be a convenient respite for when we attend Mardi Gras.”

  Rhianne burst out laughing, Ben rumbling beside her. It felt good to laugh.

  Rhianne still had many questions, but Eamon was right. There would be time. They’d sit on the porch of the New Orleans house, or in her mother’s garden in Faerie, and talk about all the things they needed to.

  For now …

  Rhianne laced her fingers through Ben’s. “Thank you for sending me here, Mother. And for asking Ben to guide me. You were right. I belong here.”

  Lady Aisling smiled warmly. “You are very welcome, dear. Ah, I see that the Shifters have gathered for dancing.” She gestured to the howling, laughing, yowling Shifters who were forming a circle under the moonlight. “I say we join them. I do love to dance.”

  Lady Aisling embraced Rhianne one more time, her tight arms around her daughter saying more than words could. Eamon, after embracing Rhianne again himself and giving a squeeze to Ben’s shoulder, led Lady Aisling away, the two clasping hands.

  Ben tugged Rhianne back to him. “You and your crazy family. We’re going to have a fine time.” He nuzzled her cheek. “I love you, my mate.”

  “I love you too, Ben.” Rhianne’s voice dipped shyly. “Mate of my heart. Thank you.”

  “Hey, it’s what I do. Make people happy. This time, I get to make me happy too.”

  Ben kissed her, the intensity of it strengthened by the mate bond that wound around them. When they eased apart, Ben studied her, his eyes like pieces of midnight, his love clear.

  “Now,” he said. “Let’s go join the knees-up.”

  Ben started across the green, towing Rhianne behind him, his hand the warm lifeline it had been the first time she’d touched it.

  They headed for where Connor cavorted in a series of gravity-defying moves inside the ring of happy Shifters, to Tiger-girl’s obvious delight.