“Noah healed it.” He covered her hand with his and wrapped his free arm around her, keeping her close.
“Does it still hurt?” Sleep made her voice husky and her lower lip trembled. He’d scared her.
“It aches.” He needed to be truthful. She deserved it. “But more like a bruise than a burn. It’s okay. I’ll live. I promised I would. I didn’t want you cross with me.”
She shuddered and hugged him fiercely. “Don’t ever do it again.”
“Survive?” He teased and she pinched him. Laughter clawed its way out of him and he chuckled, capturing her hand again. “I will do my utmost to never allow anyone to shoot me again. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
“There was so much blood.” She pressed a kiss to his bare skin and the contact sent a wave of need through him. He squashed it. The last thing he planned to do was seduce her. She deserved special care and planning, not a rough tumble when they were both exhausted.
“Shh.” He rubbed her back. “I’m all right. I’m pretty hard to kill.”
“I couldn’t help you,” she confessed in a quivery voice. “I was trying to stop the bleeding, but I couldn’t do anything else. If Cody and Mariska hadn’t been there…”
“But they were there.” He’d really scared her. “I knew they’d have my back. I’d told them where I planned to take you.”
“You risked yourself to take me there.” The shakiness in her voice gave way to anger. “That was my fault. I was being stubborn.”
God, he loved her. “No, it was my fault. You needed me to explain and I wasn’t letting you in, which wasn’t fair to you. You were right, part of the reason I took you there was it’s the ugliest place I know. The saddest place. I was going to tell you ugly truths about me and it seemed fitting to do it there.”
“We’re not back to that, are we?” She lifted her head, facing him. “You aren’t going to try and leave me again? Or make me leave you?”
The bruise on his shoulder couldn’t compare to the damage the idea of losing her did to his heart. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Suspicion blew through her expression. “You promise?”
Scanning for any nearby minds and satisfied no one would be interrupting any time soon, Jason fisted a handful of her hair and pulled her down to claim her mouth in a kiss. She let out a low squeak of surprise, but she opened to the invasion of his tongue with a welcoming murmur.
He delved inside and lost himself to the taste of her. She met him stroke for stroke. When she cupped his face and moaned, his good intentions began to slide away. He slanted his mouth, deepening the kiss. Violently aware of how slight she was against him, he tumbled her onto her back.
With regret, he pulled back. She wore a dazed expression and he smiled. “I promise,” he told her. “But we’re going to San Antonio as soon as I can make the arrangements.”
“All right.” She was soft, warm, and agreeable. “Why?”
“Because I want to get you in front of a justice of the peace and marry you.” Today, if he could manage it, tomorrow if necessary. It would take them the better part of two days to get there and he needed to make sure they had security. “I’d send for one, but that could take weeks.”
“I don’t want to wait weeks.” She bit her lip.
With a groan, he kissed her again. It was harder than hell to stop, but the other minds in the house were drawing closer. They wouldn’t be put off much longer. “We’re not waiting weeks—”
“What if those other men are out there?” Worry coated the words and he pressed a finger to her lips, stopping them.
“You let me worry about that. We’re not going alone, you will be in no danger.”
“You didn’t let that man hurt me.” She nipped his finger and it dragged another smile out of him. “You wouldn’t let anyone hurt me.” The confidence she held staggered him. “But I want you to be safe, too.”
The idea of dying had never bothered him. It had simply been an element he had to consider when doing his work. Still, if he died now, it would hurt her. That wasn’t acceptable. If that meant relying on family and allies, so be it. “We’ll take care of it. We will both be safe.”
Seemingly satisfied with his promise, she tried to drag him back down for another kiss. It ached to have to deny her. “We have to sit up.” He shifted to his side of the bed. “Others are coming.”
Her cheeks pinkened and she scrambled to rise. Jason chuckled, catching her hand and refusing to let her escape the bed fully.
“Sit up, not leave. We’re engaged, and if they want to invade the room they can get used to the idea that it’s you who belongs here, not them.”
A delighted smile melted the resistance from her expression and she relaxed against the pillows next to him. “I’m not…disheveled too much am I?”
Her hair was a riot of curls and he helped straighten her blouse. It would be so easy to slip the buttons open, but he curled his fingers away before he gave into the temptation. “You’re stunning.”
“I think you’re biased.” She grinned, her blush deepening the color on her face. She needed more rest, but she wore happiness beautifully.
“Only where you are concerned.” Right on cue, a knock announced his father.
“Come in,” he called. Jed’s worried expression faded the moment he opened the door. His gruff frown eased when he got a good look at Jason, and relaxed further as he took in Olivia. Micah came in after him and Cody leaned against the door with Buck still in the hallway. Jo peeked through the men and her grin widened.
“All right, gentlemen, don’t spend too much time in here. He still needs to rest. We’ll keep it to a minimal disruption…” Jo trailed off as Delilah squeezed into the opening. The siren’s smile widened. The number of minds beyond the room suggested nearly everyone had found a reason to be in the house.
Threading his fingers through Olivia’s, Jason sighed. It promised to be a long day.
“Shh,” Olivia whispered. “You might convince him people care if you keep coming in.”
“Good,” Micah said without an ounce of remorse and a flash of a grin towards her. “He needs to get that through his head.”
“Agreed,” Olivia beamed and everyone laughed.
Mariska, The Flying K
“Are you sure he’ll be fine?” Olivia asked for the third time and only the plaintive note in her voice kept Mariska from laughing.
Threading her arm through Olivia’s, Mariska tugged her gently through the door and down the steps. The young woman had barely left Jason’s side since he’d been injured, and even took her meals in the room with him. Pale and fragile as she might appear, she’d demonstrated remarkable strength during the attack. Mariska remembered only sections of it, having been in her wolf form and not her human, but she remembered enough of the girl’s fear and terror that it still left an acrid aftertaste in Mariska’s mouth.
“He will be fine,” she told her patiently. “His brother is there and it is good for men to have time to talk without us present.”
“Oh.” Olivia sighed. “I didn’t consider they may have wanted privacy.”
Neither man had. In fact, Jason looked annoyed when Mariska insisted that Olivia needed to go for a walk with her. When she’d brought up Olivia’s pale complexion, the man had acquiesced swiftly. “I don’t know that they wanted privacy,” she offered to soothe the younger woman’s upset. “But there are things men do not like to talk about in front of women.”
Arm in arm, they walked in the late morning sunshine. It was a perfect day, warm enough to not need a wrap, but not so warm that they would be too hot. After a moment of silence, Olivia canted her head to the side. “What kind of things?”
Not bothering to hide her smile, Mariska shrugged. “Women. Animals. Drink. Sometimes they talk about nothing.”
“If they don’t talk about anything, why would they need privacy for it?” Olivia’s brow furrowed.
“Ah, menfolk often feel the need to entertain their women and if we�
�re present, then they have to give us something to do or talk to us. Even when they don’t want to.” Even Cody at his most taciturn would try to talk if she were there and it never failed to amuse her. The persistent itching beneath her skin relaxed ebbed away for the first time in weeks.
“That is…” She seemed to struggle with the words.
Mariska decided to help her. “Ridiculous?”
“Yes!” The younger woman laughed and gave Mariska’s arm a squeeze.
Amused, Mariska patted her hand and dangled a piece of bait. “In their defense, they could also have wanted to discuss something indelicate.”
Olivia didn’t disappoint her. “Dare I ask what could be so indelicate?”
Another knot in the pit of her stomach relaxed. Olivia reminded her of Zevra, young and fiery, but altogether sweet and gentle, and she couldn’t resist teasing her. “You can ask.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I didn’t say that.” She slowed her pace and wandered along the bank of the lazy creek. “We have a lot of things that have happened in the last few months. Not all of them are for gentle ears.”
She stopped abruptly and Mariska paused rather than pull the girl off her feet. Olivia canted her head.
“What’s wrong?” Mariska asked.
“I wanted to make sure we were alone.” She gave her a half-smile. “I don’t hear anyone else, but we’re walking along grass and the water is a little noisy.”
Nostrils flaring, Mariska tested the air and did a visual sweep. “We’re alone.” And she was damn curious as to why that was important.
“Oh, good. I’m not sure who knows or who doesn’t, but does this have anything to do with the fever? Jason told me about all of you, and—well, I couldn’t miss the part where you become a wolf.” The last words sounded almost like an apology.
“Yes and no.” She answered the question, before asking one of her own. “It doesn’t bother you, does it? That I can become a wolf?” Oddly, Mariska found herself holding her breath.
Instead of answering immediately, Olivia appeared to consider the question. “I think it did when Jason first explained it,” she admitted. “There was a moment when I was trying to leave the ranch and Cody picked me up. I didn’t know it then, but I think he was naked when he did it.” Her face went scarlet. “I didn’t realize he was the wolf or that I’d called him a dog and I have no way to apologize for that…”
Mariska stared, rooted with a kind of shock that quickly transformed into laughter. “You don’t have to apologize to him.” She giggled. Dog. She’d called Cody a dog.
Olivia disentangled their arms so she could rub at her face. “Oh, I felt like a bit of an idiot. What did you think when you saw him change the first time?”
“Well, considering I was tied to a wagon wheel?” Mariska pursed her lips. “Pretty much terror and yet…” She had no way to phrase it without being indelicate. “Filled with wildly inappropriate thoughts. He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and I don’t think that part has changed. I love his wolf, his coat is the most beautiful shade of sunshine and sand and gold. And his eyes…” Trailing off when she noticed Olivia’s perplexed expression. “I’m sorry, I suppose you don’t know what gold looks like.”
“No, but that wasn’t the part I’m having trouble with.”
“No?” Mariska asked.
“No.” Olivia shook her head slowly. “Why were you tied to a wagon wheel?”
Another bubble of laughter burst free of her and tears filled Mariska’s eyes in the same breath. It was the most wonderfully complex feeling, affectionate amusement amidst sadness. “That is a very long story, and I think…I think I’d like to tell it to you.”
“All right.” Olivia smiled faintly. “Let’s find somewhere to sit and then I would love to hear it all.”
The afternoon waned into evening as Mariska regaled Olivia with the tale of how she met Cody and Kid. From spiking their food, to being abandoned by her family…at one point, her tears wouldn’t stop flowing and Olivia held her hand. It was the first time since meeting Cody that she had talked about her clan without the loss boring into her soul like an infected wound—or maybe it was just that she lanced the boil left behind.
When she was done, Olivia sat for the longest moment and then sighed. “I feel bad for what I am about to say, because I think it’s positively awful of your clan that they would abandon you like that…”
Her defense was immediate. “I broke guesting laws. I broke the basic tenants of my clan. They were within their rights.”
Olivia snorted. “Within their rights doesn’t make it ‘right,’ nor does it make it ‘just,’ but you didn’t let me finish. I am sorry they did that to you, but a small part of me is glad. Because you met Cody and Kid and they brought you back here and now I am able to know you, too.”
Wiping away the last of her tears, Mariska nodded slowly. In a way, she’d been grateful for the abandonment as well. Had her father not left her tied to that wheel, she would never have known Cody or discovered the joy in loving him. She would never have become a wolf or journeyed to live in this place...
“Mariska?” Worry coated Olivia’s tone.
“I am well. I was considering your words. I think you are right. All this time, I’ve been wrestling with this conflict in my heart. I resented my father, my clan, and sometimes even Cody.” Sorting through the pieces, Mariska tried to put the puzzle in order. “I hated that I felt that way, because I want to be with Cody. If my family were to arrive tomorrow…”
“I’d thump them,” her young friend announced, displaying a ferocity that was almost too sweet. “Family is family, and you don’t treat family that way.”
A familiar scent of sun, and grass, and wolf teased along Mariska’s senses and she caught sight of her wolf on the opposite bank of the creek. He lay in the grass, his eyes half closed in a doze. Of course he was nearby, watching over her. A part of her wanted to resent the intrusion into her privacy, but that wasn’t why he did it. Cody couldn’t not take care of her, he couldn’t not watch over her and everyone else he considered his.
They were pack and it had taken her a long time to comprehend what that meant. He treated his brothers and even some of the Kanes as pack, but Mariska was his mate and that made her special. Pack.
Clan.
The last piece of the puzzle fell into her lap. “I am such a fool,” she whispered.
“No you’re not.” Olivia found her hand and gave it another squeeze. “Papa didn’t like my friendship with Jason, not entirely. He always thought I was too young. He never quite understood how he never asked me for anything or behaved unseemly and I think a part of him always worried that Jason would break my heart.” The delicate, fragile-seeming woman lifted her chin. “I told Papa if he ever made me choose between them, I would choose Jason. That was when he and Mr. Kane decided to send me away to school, it was a victory and a loss in the same moment.”
“Because you had to leave, to become yourself.” Mariska understood.
“My papa loved me,” Olivia’s voice cracked, revealing a sadness that called to Mariska’s own. “Both of my parents did. I wish they were here, but I have Jason and I can’t be sorry about that.”
“No, you can’t.” Mariska smiled and glanced at her wolf. He gave her a lazy blink and her heart fluttered, her own wolf rousing inside. Her wolf’s love for Cody was complete without reservation. He was her mate, her pack, and her clan.
That was the part that Mariska had missed. She needed family and she hadn’t opened her heart to Cody’s. The struggle with her wolf, the change in lifestyle, even the change in location—it had all taken its toll. Save for this one heartbreakingly delicate girl. If only she weren’t so vulnerable.
But what if she didn’t have to be…?
Chapter 10
Olivia, The Flying K
One Week Later
* * *
If not for his breathing, she wouldn’t have known Noah
was even present in the room with her. Despite Jason’s plan to leave for San Antonio immediately, nearly everyone had nixed the idea. He needed time to heal and when they’d explained that Noah had closed the wound, but the damage still required rest. When Jason couldn’t disguise the fatigue in his voice, she’d added her vote to the delay.
Rubbing her hands together, she tried not to fidget. Noah had a hand extended in front of her face—she could feel the heat of his palm’s nearness. He’d wanted to test her eyes and see if he could do anything for them. She’d abandoned her initial reluctance to the idea after the shooting. If they’d been alone, she would haven’t been able to save Jason. Years she’d spent on learning to be independent, to survive in the darkness had all been for naught. Had Cody and Mariska not been there, Jason might very well have died.
Because Olivia couldn’t even see his injury to help him much less get him back to the ranch. When Jason mentioned his enemies, she hadn’t really thought it all the way through. He would never let anything happen to her, of that she was absolutely certain. It bothered her that she couldn’t repay him in kind, she couldn’t protect him.
It wasn’t fair to him.
“I can’t find anything wrong,” Noah said, reminding her abruptly that she wasn’t alone.
The heat of his palm retreated and she blew out a breath. It was unnerving to have anyone so close to her. Except Jason. His nearness bothered her in other ways. His kisses even more.
“So there is no injury to heal?” Disappointment crashed through her. She’d told herself it didn’t matter, that she’d been blind her whole life—it was a part of who she was and not a bullet wound or illness to be ‘healed.’ Still, she’d hoped…
“I’m sorry, no.” Regret deepened Noah’s voice. “When illness or injury are present, I can feel the imbalance and a part of me can see it, too. Some injuries are more difficult than others, but I’ve spent years understanding how the body works. Your eyes are healthy, they just don’t work.”
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