Light Beyond the Darkness

by Tami Lund

  She needed to wait, but she knew now that she had to do it. She could not string him along any longer. It wasn’t fair. Not when he was so obviously trying to bring them closer than they already were.

  She rolled onto her side, pressing herself against him, smiling up into his face, while she snaked her arms around his neck. She surprised herself with her flirting ability.

  “Are you sure you want to have such a serious discussion…now?” She rolled her hips, rubbed against his hardening shaft.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist and lay on his back, pulling her on top of him. “You’re a damned persuasive woman,” he said before he lifted his head and nuzzled her breast through her nightgown.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s because it’s you I’m persuading,” she quipped, relieved that she was able to distract him. Now was definitely not the time for conversations that would inevitably put a stop to what they were about to do. Possibly forever.

  His hands found the hem of her nightgown, and he pushed it up, over her hips, up her back and—

  “Reid, get up. I need to talk to you.” The masculine voice was accompanied by a tap-tap-tap on the bedroom door.

  Reid tugged her nightgown into a more modest position, and with a gusty sigh, he shifted her off him, tugged his boxers over his hips, and climbed to his feet to answer the door. When he opened the door, she could see Finn on the other side. The look on his face was grim. He and Reid talked in hushed tones for a few moments, then Reid closed the door and turned back to Carley.

  “I need to go talk to him. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

  “What is it?” Was it Miguel? Had they found him? Was Finn about to tell Reid? She scrambled to her knees, began sifting through the contents of her overnight bag.

  “I don’t know, but it sounds serious. What are you doing?”

  “Getting dressed. If it’s something to do with coterie, I want to know, too.”

  Reid snagged a pair of sweatpants and pulled them on. “Okay. We’ll be in the kitchen.” She marveled that he didn’t even try to talk her out of joining him, but she did not allow that thought to distract her from rushing to get dressed, so that she could play interference, if Finn indeed intended to tell Reid about her mate.

  *

  “There’s been another flurry of attacks. In the coterie.”

  Reid watched as his brother raked a hand through his overlong, gingery hair, sending it into even more disarray than it was a moment before. The older Hennigan brother began pacing the small, square kitchen, back and forth, eating up the space in less than three strides each way.

  “A few months ago…” Finn flapped his hand, clearly trying to figure out how to describe whatever happened as succinctly and briefly as possible. “Cecilia’s brother. We thought he was dead, but it turned out that for the past ten years, he’d been recruiting followers, planning a coup. When Tanner and me, his mother and Lisa joined the pack—er—coterie, this group of insurgents or whatever the hell you want to call them began making plans in earnest. They intended to kill the king, Cecilia, all the shifters, anyone they considered sympathetic to our living there.”

  He paused, and Reid nodded, encouraging him to continue talking. Carley appeared at that moment, looking harried and nervous. Reid watched Finn while he studied the female lightbearer. He felt a pinprick of anger and lifted his hand, cupping her neck and glaring at his brother. A warning. If Finn didn’t stop looking at her, Reid knew he’d start growling. A second warning. If Finn still didn’t modify his attentions, then he and Reid would eventually reach the point of fighting it out. Like a couple of shifters. Mated or not, Reid did not like the intensity with which his brother looked at Carley.

  “Anyway, we figured out what was going on and stopped them,” Finn finished his story, while moving his gaze away from Carley. Reid felt himself relax, if only marginally. Not entirely, because there was a reason his brother was telling this story, and Reid was reasonably confident it would not be a good one.

  “Cedric—the leader—was killed. We rounded up his followers—those we could find, anyway—and turned them over to the king. Apparently, they do this thing called rehabilitation…”

  “Lightbearers need a steady dose of sunlight in order to live,” Carley interrupted, presumably for Reid’s benefit, since she was looking at him while she explained, and he assumed Finn already knew this information, given his mate was a lightbearer.

  “Rehabilitation involves cutting a lightbearer off from sunlight, except for the barest minimum needed to live. There are healers trained in the process, and they work with the one who is being rehabilitated, to convince them to change their ways. A sort of…” She trailed off as a look of frustration crawled over her face.

  “Hypnosis or something like that?” Reid suggested, trying to help her out.

  “Kind of. The healers basically train them to believe differently from whatever action led them to be rehabilitated in the first place. Most lightbearers do it with only the barest amount of pressure. As I understand it, being cut off from sunlight is a very painful and miserable process.”

  “It is,” Finn said, as if he himself had gone through the process. “Cecilia has experienced it. Her parents punished her in that way when she was a teen and snuck out of the coterie the first time.”

  Reid whistled. “Damn. They probably would have loved Quentin.”

  “No doubt,” Finn agreed. “They’re dead now. Cecilia never has to worry about anything like that happening again.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “Or maybe she does. Like I said, there’s been another couple of attacks, just since we’ve been gone. I have to go back, first thing in the morning. Olivia—Tanner’s mate—is due to whelp their pup any day now, and he’s having a damn heart attack over it. He wants me back there, to oversee their protection. But that’s not really my forte. It’s yours.”

  The question he wasn’t asking slammed into Reid’s chest with the impact of a fist. He actually staggered backward a couple of steps before bracing his hand on the wall and twisting his head to look at Carley. Her face had gone white, her bright blue eyes huge in her small, heart-shaped face. One hand clutched at the front of her shirt, the other covered her mouth.

  “I’ve been training them to fight. We have a solid army of guards, but I’m not their leader. You know I’m the tracker. I can find them if they run—well, most of the time.” Reid noticed his gaze darted to Carley, while hers dropped to the floor. He assumed Finn referred to the fact that Carley had run away to Chicago four months ago, and he had apparently been unable to track her.

  “Tanner is their leader. Except he’s too busy taking care of his mate. Everyone’s nervous because a shifter and lightbearer have never mated before, so no one has a clue what’s going to happen when she finally starts whelping.”

  He focused on Reid. The intensity of his stare would have unnerved someone who wasn’t a shifter, and wasn’t used to their ways.

  “This is what you do. What you did. You were damned good at it, Reid.”

  “I protected a house that was empty half the time.”

  “You protected the pack master. A pack master that many hated. I’ve seen you in action. You are exactly what the lightbearers need right now.”

  Reid cut his gaze to Carley. During the course of their conversation, she had backed up until she was pressed against the wall, almost as if she was trying to melt right into the wallpaper. He started to reach for her.

  “I’m not asking for forever,” Finn added. “Just help us get this latest issue under control. Maybe stay until Olivia whelps. Once she and the pup are recovering, I’m sure Tanner will be able to get his head on straight and take over again.”

  Reid barely heard him. He was too busy watching Carley, waiting for either her assent or refusal. Whatever she decided, he would honor. He would not ask her to do anything she did not want to—could not do.

  “No one will harm you, Carley,” Finn said, guessing her fear, guessing that Reid�
�s decision hinged on her opinion. “You can both move into the beach house.”

  “Beach house?” Reid asked.

  “It’s the king’s house. That’s where Olivia and Tanner live, so it makes sense that you should be there, and I’m guessing wherever you go, so does Carley. Whether I agree or not, it’s just as well. I’m sure the residents of the beach house would love to have you back in the kitchens, Carley.”

  Her breathing was shallow. Reid could feel her fear, her indecision, the fact that she was torn. She did not want to return to her home, but unless he was mistaken, she would be willing…for him.

  “We’re going back to Chicago.” While he felt for his brother and his plight, and while he was honored at Finn’s offer, Reid had sworn he would never hurt Carley. Considering he was no longer part of a pack—any pack—he no longer had to make the choice between his lover and his pack. There was no choice.

  “She’ll be safe,” Finn insisted. He pinned his gaze on Carley. “We haven’t found any proof one way or the other, but we believe he’s left the coterie,” he said evenly. “It’s the safest place for you.”

  He. The one who abused Carley. Reid wanted to ask, but he did not want her to feel pressured. His brother was doing a damn fine job of that all on his own.

  “Knock it off, Finn. She doesn’t need this.”

  “We need him, Carley. We need you, too. The king does, anyway. He complains practically every day about the food coming out of that kitchen. Your kitchen.”

  “Leave her alone.” Reid wrapped his arm around Carley’s shoulders and pulled her against his side. She hadn’t said a word, hadn’t changed her stance since she’d backed into the wall when Finn first started talking. “We’re going to bed.”

  “We need to leave in the morning. Sunrise.”

  “We aren’t going.” He turned, intending to lead Carley back to the bedroom, and promptly ran into Cecilia, who had appeared almost out of thin air, half-dressed and looking frantic.

  “What the hell?” Finn demanded, his angry gaze sweeping her bare legs, up to the edge of the shirt that just grazed the top of her thighs. She hadn’t even fully buttoned it, and was clutching the front to keep from exposing her breasts.

  “It’s Olivia. She’s gone into labor.”

  Chapter 10

  She was back inside the coterie.

  How many times over the course of the last four months had she sworn she would never return? Even if word had gotten to her that Miguel was dead, she hadn’t thought she would return. Too many memories, most of which were bad.

  Including the memory of her pregnancy, which had ended after Miguel pushed her down the stone staircase built into the cliff upon which the beach house was perched. While she had no love for the man who’d put the babe in her belly, she had wanted the babe, had already fallen madly, deeply, thoroughly in love. He had taken that from her, along with so much more.

  He hadn’t, luckily, taken her ability to trust. Or was that truly lucky, considering her trust and faith in Reid were the reasons she was back. While Finn had been the one to swear she would be protected, it was Reid she turned to for said protection. So long as he did not learn that Miguel was her mate, she knew he would protect her, care for her, possibly love her, with every fiber of his being. She threw away her intention to tell him the truth the moment she agreed to return to the coterie. He could not possibly find out now. She would be lost and she would potentially be in danger.

  “Hey, we can’t stay that long,” Reid had tried to pacify her. “You’re supposed to be back at work next weekend, right?”

  Right. She supposed she had that to look forward to. If she could keep Reid from learning the truth for the next four days, they could return to Chicago and resume their lives. While she knew they would no longer cut off ties between themselves and the coterie, at least if they were living far enough away, he might never learn of her infidelity.

  Finn had not been happy when Reid said he could give him four days and no more, but Cecilia’s proclamation that Olivia was in labor had convinced him to take whatever he could get.

  The princess was having a babe. After Reid guided the rental car into the pole barn situated a few dozen feet away from the beach house, Carley climbed out of the passenger seat and pressed her hand to her flat abdomen. Had she not lost the babe, she would be more than halfway through her own pregnancy by this point.

  “Are you nervous?” Reid asked as he came around the back of the car, holding their bags in his hand. His sister had been understandably disappointed that they were leaving so quickly, but Reid assured her they would not be strangers, so she hugged the five of them, even Dane, and had promised to explain everything to her parents later that morning.

  Carley shook her head, but then admitted, “Yes. Even though Finn and Cecilia keep insisting the king will welcome me back, I cannot help but worry that he will not be pleased that I left in the first place. Lightbearers are not supposed to leave the coterie without permission. Not to mention, I walked away from my job, too, without any notice.” Although she had been laid up in bed for days prior to leaving, and had, at one point, been so near to death that she had almost wished for it, just to stop the pain.

  Cecilia hurried to her side, interrupting their conversation. “Come on, Carley. Let’s go see Olivia. Maybe you will distract her from the pain of birthing, if only for a few moments.” She hooked her arm through Carley’s and dragged her toward the house.

  Cecilia reached for the doorknob, but before she could twist it, the door was pulled open and a female shifter stood blocking their path. “It’s about damn time you got here. The princess has been crying, demanding your presence, and you’re too—holy hell, is that the cook?” She peered at Carley, squinting, and then whistled.

  “Hot damn, it is. You went off to visit a shifter pack and found a lightbearer? I’d be even more impressed, except you were with Finn, and if anybody can find a needle in a haystack, it’s him.”

  Except for Miguel. Finn hadn’t found Miguel.

  “Well, get in here,” Lisa demanded when the two women simply stood on the porch. “It’s still cold outside. There’s still snow on the ground, for the love of Fate. Dane!” Lisa shifted her focus to the men who stepped up behind them.

  “Fuck me, Reid Hennigan. Are you shitting me? Goddamn, Finn, you really are impressive.” She shoved Cecilia and Carley out of the way and strode across the porch to throw herself at Reid, who looked mildly shocked by the exuberant greeting.

  “Er, hey, Lisa,” Reid said, as he attempted to disengage himself from her embrace.

  Dane cleared his throat. Finn chuckled. Carley glanced at Cecilia, who rolled her eyes.

  A shriek drew everyone’s attention back to the house.

  “Cici! Is that Cici? Where the hell is Cici?” Cecilia and Dane both took off at a run, rushing through the foyer and up the massive staircase to the bedroom level, following the sound of the shouts.

  Lisa pulled away from Reid and scowled. “Lightbearers. They act like whelping isn’t a perfectly normal, everyday occurrence.”

  “I see you haven’t changed much, Lisa,” Reid commented as he ushered everybody inside and pulled the door closed behind him. “There’s magic here,” he said, looking at Finn. “It feels extra potent around this house.”

  Finn nodded, looking pleased by Reid’s assessment. “Wards. While the entire coterie is warded against detection by other beings, this house is warded against other lightbearers, since inside the coterie, they’re the threat. Come on, let’s go find a room where you can drop your stuff. Then, Lisa, can you take Carley to Olivia? Cecilia seems to think her presence will help distract her. Reid and I are going to head to the king’s library to start talking strategy.” He shrugged. “We might as well. My limited experience with whelping is that it isn’t a quick process.”

  While she would have liked a hug, or maybe a brain-searing kiss, Reid did nothing more than squeeze her hand for a moment before he and Finn left her and Lisa in th
e foyer. She supposed it really was for the best, considering everyone in this place knew she had a mate, and that mate wasn’t Reid.

  “So you and Reid, huh?” Lisa asked as she nodded at the stairs, indicating Carley should follow her.

  “Umm…”

  “Guess you’re assuming that asshole you were mated to is dead?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Does Reid know?”

  She and Lisa had never been what one might call friends. Lisa didn’t spend nearly as much time at the beach house as Tanner and Finn did, and her personality was abrasive when she was there.

  Without waiting for an answer, Lisa shrugged and said, “Hey, to each her own. Just keep in mind shifters are a jealous, possessive bunch. If you aren’t being honest, and he thinks there’s something going on between you two, he’s going to be pretty damn pissed when he finds out you’re mated to someone else.”

  “He could be dead,” Carley protested.

  “Don’t recall seeing that bright flash of light that indicates one of you all just died. But I suppose if he left the coterie like you did…”

  “Please let me handle this my own way,” she whispered urgently, when they stood outside the door to Tanner and Olivia’s suite.

  Lisa knocked on the door and shrugged again. “I’m not a tattletale. But I will have my boy’s back, if you end up screwing him over. Just know that, lightbearer.” She turned and walked away, without waiting for the door to open.

  When it did, Jake Azenor stood in the doorway, a surprised look on his face. Jake was the largest lightbearer Carley had ever seen, one of the very few who was about the same size as the male shifters who had taken up residence in the coterie. His blond hair was always slightly disheveled, his blue-green eyes always watching, calculating, analyzing.