by Liza Street
“Margot, what are you doing?” Erena hissed. “This place isn’t our home, it’s—”
“It’s my home, sister. Maybe not yours. But it’s mine.”
Erena stood still, hands on hips, and then slowly shook her head. “Fine. I’ll go without you.”
Carl kicked a pine cone into the tree line. “I’m out.”
“You’ll be missed,” Jameson said, but he didn’t sincerely mean it, and probably the lie came through in his voice. Oh well. He needed to focus on the trouble coming, not on the disloyal clan members he’d lose in the meantime. It was time for the Rock Creek Clan to come together as one unit, one community. Banishing Jake had been the first step. Letting Carl and Erena leave was the logical next step.
He hoped everyone left survived to enjoy the new clan. There was a bright future ahead of them, he could feel it, as long as they could get through the darkness.
Erena and Carl walked back to the cabins, presumably to pack. Neither of them would bother saying goodbye—it wasn’t their way.
Nina shared fighting strategies with Nolan and Margot. After a few minutes, Gemma interrupted them. “You say they hide in the shadows, as shadows, right?”
“Yeah,” Nina said.
“What if there aren’t any shadows?”
Jameson nodded. “I like where this is going.”
“We have time,” Gemma said. “We’ll flood the place with light. All over the cabins, bulbs everywhere.”
“Even if they knock out a few,” Nina said, her voice eager, “they wouldn’t be able to get all of them.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Jameson said. “Nolan, I want you to head to the home improvement store and buy all the outdoor lighting you can find. We should rest up before the night,” Jameson said to the rest of the clan. Their much-smaller clan. He could have really used the help of those who had left, but he had to believe that they would be stronger, even with smaller numbers, when the people remaining were committed to their clan. “We’ve prepared as much as we can until Nolan gets back with the lights. Get some sleep.”
Jameson made his way toward Nina, but Nolan stepped in his way.
“I told you everything was going to change,” Nolan said.
“And it has.”
“Right,” Nolan said. His gray eyes, usually pale, looked dark and intense. “But for the better?”
“Yes.” Truth rang through the word.
Nolan lowered his gaze. “You really believe that.”
“I do.”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Nolan ambled back toward the cabins, and a few minutes later, Jameson heard Nolan’s Bronco roar to life.
Grabbing Nina’s hand, Jameson walked with her to his cabin. Wordlessly, he led her to the bedroom where he removed her clothing, one article at a time, until she was naked in front of him. He helped her into bed, then curled around her. She nestled her head against his shoulder—such a common, easy gesture that he never thought he’d experience again.
She took a deep, shuddering breath.
“We’re going to get through this,” Jameson said, but even he could hear the doubt in his voice.
Tears leaked from her eyes onto his chest.
“Nina?” he said, rubbing her back.
“I’m scared,” she whispered. “I just found you. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Jameson said.
With worshipful hands, he pushed her gently onto her back and caressed her hair, her face. He kissed her lips, tasting her sweet mouth and her desperation.
And when her legs widened beneath him, he slid in easily. Each stroke brought them closer together, and closer to the battle they’d soon wage with the vampires. He never wanted their time together to end.
After they were both sated, and still breathing hard, Jameson eased out of her.
“I love you,” he said, falling down to lie beside her. “I love you. Mine.”
Twenty-Five
Nina shivered as she looked out of the cabin window. Jameson was behind her, resting on the sofa. A couple of hours ago, Nolan had returned with enough lighting to illuminate a baseball field, and the clan had worked tirelessly to set everything up. For the moment, though, the lights were off and the Ring of Fire was shrouded in an expectant silence.
“They could be here any minute,” Nina said. “It’s almost dark.”
“Do you know for sure that they’ll come tonight?” Jameson asked.
“No.” She stood up and began pacing back and forth in front of him. “I can feel it, though. The night is…it’s waiting for them.”
“Try to distract yourself,” he said. “Maybe write a blog post.”
“Maybe I will.” She forced herself to sit down at Jameson’s kitchen table, and opened up her laptop. Her blog had gotten numerous comments since she last checked in, but she hadn’t written anything about how she and Jameson had gotten together—not yet. Their relationship was still new, and it still felt like a happy secret. At the same time, she knew her reader-friends were going to flip out.
“What are you smiling about over there?” Jameson asked.
“You.” She felt a happy warmth spread through her at the look on his face. Love, amusement, joy, so much more than that, too. Completion. He was happy and content, and so was she.
Except for her damn nerves. Everything was perfect right now, and she was terrified she was about to lose it all.
Darkness fell. Outside, the trees creaked in the wind, but otherwise a deep hush had come over the Ring of Fire. Nina shivered and walked over to Jameson. She wrapped her arms around him.
A scratching sound came from the window. Nina and Jameson both jumped.
“Shit, this is creepy,” Nina whispered.
A pale face glared at them through the glass. “Come out and play, little kitty,” the vampire taunted. A gorgeous woman, or she’d once been gorgeous. Now her face had been twisted by anger and evil.
“I know you,” Nina said.
“You know her?” Jameson asked, standing next to Nina, holding her hand.
“She was in that red house, when Rafe and I went to save his mate.”
The door was unlocked, but no vampire tried to come in. Nina wasn’t sure if it was because they couldn’t, or because they didn’t want to.
Jameson walked to the door. He flipped a switch, and the numerous search lights they’d assembled lit up. The rest of the clan would see the signal, and they’d know it was time to fight.
Without a word, they each took off their clothes and shifted to their animals. In her lion form, Nina looked up as Jameson grew taller and taller behind the shimmery cloud of magic that covered him while he shifted. She heard the popping of bones, the groan of muscles forming and reforming. And then he stood above her powerful and tall.
He roared.
Nina didn’t imagine it—the vampire totally flinched.
Jameson used his foreleg to open the lever door handle, then they tore out of the house together. At their movement, several of the other cabins opened up, and the rest of the clan joined them, ready to fight. Vampires leaped from the tops of the cabins, hoping to come down on the clan, but they’d all been prepared for this.
The vampires weren’t shadows, though. The lights were helping. Although they were so fast they looked like blurs of movement, Nina could see the individual vampires. The gorgeous vampire with red hair was here, and a blond woman Nina thought she recognized.
Maybe ten or fifteen vampires were in the Ring of Fire. It was hard to count when she expected one to land on her at any second. The clan leaped at them and swatted them with powerful paws. Twisting in the air, fighting on the ground.
A vampire jumped at Nina, but she spun and swatted it with her paws. Unable to get purchase, she watched as the vampire hit the ground and bounded upward again, into the trees.
This was the perfect spot for the fight—they’d planned it well with their flood lights going up and in all directions. Nothing could hi
de from them here. Any shadow would stand out; there was no way for the vampires to blend in with anything.
Nina went after the vampire, climbing the tree with her strong legs, ready to force it back down, but by the time she reached the vampire’s branch, it had already left again.
Fighting in the trees was stupid, apparently. She leaped back down, and another vampire landed on her back. She roared, angry, and spun to kick it off, but suddenly it was gone again.
Why had the vampire left? Someone else must have distracted the vampire, but Jameson was on the other side of the clearing. Rex and Margot were a few yards away. She looked again, and saw it was Nolan who had helped her. Nodding in acknowledgment, she turned again to the fray.
A vampire had Rex in a grip, and was pulling his head back to take a bite of his neck. Nina bolted forward, colliding with them both, knocking the vampire away. Rex’s face was bleeding—his eye was covered in blood, and Nina felt a sick, cold feeling wash through her at the thought that he could be permanently damaged.
He didn’t deserve to be hurt. But he raised his muzzle and howled in encouragement, in the thrill of battle.
Nina turned at the sound of a pain-filled roar. Jameson! Two vampires were on him, one on his back, the other clinging to his side. Nina ran, swiping her claws against the one on his side. The vampire fell, screeching, and the one on Jameson’s back catapulted itself away with his legs, to avoid Nina’s wrath.
She felt another vampire behind her and whirled around, but it was already gone. Odd. It hadn’t attacked. She turned back to the fight, and saw two sets of vampires going after Nolan and Margot. She wanted to help them both, but she had to choose. Margot was closer, so she went there first. A little fox wasn’t as much of a predator, but Margot was holding her own, racing and dipping through all the fighters, biting and leaping just as much as the vampires were.
Nina distracted one of the vampires reaching for Margot. It changed direction and leaped at Nina, but she twisted to lie on her back to spring it away with her powerful hind legs.
No time to wait. Immediately, she scrambled back up. The same vampire was already in the air. Nina spun and locked her claws into him. He snapped forward, sinking his fangs into her shoulder. Nina screamed.
The vampire’s position left his neck open. Through the blinding blaze of her pain, she saw her opportunity and clamped down on his neck. She bit down until he turned to dust in her mouth.
Shaking, she straightened up. She felt that presence behind her again. She turned. She caught a glimpse of a blond vampire—it was the woman who had made everyone stop fighting back at Argothan Lodge, back when she was with Rafe and Brigitte. She had a name—what was it? Lacey? Gracie? It was Gracie.
The thought of killing was harder when the enemy had a name. But still Nina continued to fight, protecting her clan. Margot stood on a vampire’s chest and ripped out its throat, and the vampire turned to dust beneath her. Jameson stood over another pile of dust, roaring, and then pounded toward a vampire who had Nolan in a headlock. He batted the vampire away and stomped after it, faster than Nina would have expected, given his size. He was brutal grace, brutal beauty.
She was his, and he was hers.
Suddenly, she wondered if the vampire court knew that. Would they be here if they knew Nina wasn’t a Corona Pride member anymore? She hadn’t pledged to the Rock Creek Clan formally, but she couldn’t belong to the Coronas when her heart was here.
Maybe it would be enough.
But how could she tell them?
The blond vampire, Gracie, charged Nina. Her face was impassive, her blood-red lips in a firm line. Somehow, Nina needed to communicate with her, but she had less than a second.
Her breath whooshed out of her as Gracie landed on her back. Turning, Nina pinned Gracie down and clamped her teeth over Gracie’s neck.
Gracie’s eyes were dark. Black like a moonless night. Nina was terrified, but she stared directly into them. Slowly, she released Gracie’s neck, but she didn’t break eye contact. Despite the danger of battle pumping through her body, encouraging her to stay in her mountain lion form, she forced her shift back into human.
If this didn’t work, she was dead.
From across the circle, Jameson roared. Angry. Fearful. He’d seen her shifting.
“I’m okay,” Nina shouted. To Gracie, she said, “I don’t belong to the Coronas. I belong to this clan—my mate is here. Make your people stop.”
Gracie jumped to her feet, dislodging Nina. Nina felt lucky that she’d had enough time to speak, because as soon as she’d shifted, Gracie could have ended her. Trying to force the shift back to lion would be excruciating, especially to do it quickly, but Nina had no time to waste. As a human, she was nearly defenseless. She was a target. She hunched in on herself, but Gracie spoke.
“Stop.”
Twenty-Six
Jameson kept an eye on Nina. He couldn’t handle it that she was so far away, across the clearing. The blond vampire called a halt to her kindred, but Jameson could only see that she was too close to Nina, and Nina was human. Why had she done that? Every muscle, every bone, every thought in his body urged him to protect his mate. He barreled forward, unable to stop, and slashed his claws against the blond vampire.
She dodged, but not quickly enough, and a single, long scratch appeared on her cheek. She backed up a step, yelling out in pain.
But she didn’t retaliate.
Jameson stopped, his foreleg raised high, ready to strike again. Nearby vampires crowded closer, ready to pounce.
The vampire held up her hand. “The Rock Creek Clan isn’t holding any Corona Pride members.”
Everyone froze in place.
Jameson sniffed the air. Her face was bleeding, and she smelled like old roses, ancient. She smelled like something mysterious and dark.
“The lion we’ve been searching for is mated in this clan. She is no longer a Corona Pride member. Why should we be fighting the Rock Creek Clan?”
A tiny, pixie-like vampire stepped out of the shadows. Her movements were slow and fluid, she was like flowing molasses.
“Gracie Jane is right,” the tiny vampire said. When she spoke, her voice rang with power. If Jameson had been in his human form, he would have covered his ears. Beside him, Nina winced. The vampire continued, “We don’t have a quarrel with the Rock Creek Clan. We lost three of our own, but there will be no retribution. Ours have gone to their long rest honorably, in battle. Let’s go.”
Jameson watched in amazement as several shadowy forms appeared from beyond the reach of the flood lights. They lifted from their hiding places, or fell from the nearby trees. Jameson thought they’d had an okay handle on their opponents, but there had been dozens more waiting.
The Rock Creek clan wouldn’t have stood a chance against these numbers.
His mating with Nina had saved the entire clan—and he could see that Nina was having the same thought at the same time. Her mouth fell open in shock as one by one, the vampires left. They seemed to glide away, until only the blond vampire was left. Her cheek and chin were covered in blood.
Nina held out a hand to stop the blond vampire.
“I’m sorry for your wound,” Nina said. “My mate, he was trying—”
“I know,” Gracie said, smiling through the blood on her face. The effect was spooky. “It must be nice, to be able to feel love.”
With that, she continued away, blending into the shadows beyond their lighted circle.
The other shifters stayed in their forms—fox, polar bear, wolf, and Jameson’s grizzly.
“We’re okay now,” Nina said to Jameson.
He shifted back to human, encased in that magical light that surrounded them during a shift.
“Why aren’t they shifting back?” Nina asked, pointing to the others.
“Because of this,” he murmured. He stood next to her, as a fox, wolf, and polar bear lined up in front of him and Nina. Margot stepped forward first, and touched her nose to Nina’s hand.
Jameson felt his heart expand. Warmth. Completion. Nina’s smile was pure happiness. Margot stepped back, and Rex repeated the gesture.
Gemma burst out of her and Rex’s cabin and barreled to Jameson and Nina, pulling them both into a hug. “I knew you could do it,” she said through a tearful smile.
“You’re one of us now,” Jameson said, planting a kiss on Nina’s head.
Nolan still hadn’t moved, but stared impassively at Jameson and Nina.
Nina wiped the slow tears leaking from her eyes. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Finally, Nolan came over. He was massive compared to Nina, a giant white wall of fur and muscle. He lowered his snout to her hand and snuffed against it. She ran her hand over his muzzle.
And Jameson felt the magic connecting them all.
Nina didn’t just belong to Jameson now—she belonged to all of them.
His clan had been brought together with the help of this one amazing woman.
Twenty-Seven
One week later, Nina sat in front of her big picture window at the drafting table. Her computer was open, and she was typing away.
She paused, looking around the cabin. It wasn’t where she slept anymore, and her clothes weren’t here. There were some snacks and drinks in the fridge and in the cupboards to fuel her during her long writing days, but she was so busy sometimes that she forgot to eat.
Jameson would come by and remind her to have lunch or dinner on the days he wasn’t at the university, but she mostly lost herself in her writing and reading every day. This was the perfect life for her.
She finished the last sentence in her HEA blog post. She hit publish, and then sat back. It was a beautiful day in Idaho. The sun made patterns of shadow and light all through the Ring of Fire, and the wind made faint shushing music as it flowed through branches. She could hear birdsong, and the faint sounds of Margot and Nolan arguing about something on the other side of the fire. Even their constant bickering felt like home to her.
She glanced back to her computer screen. Already people were leaving comments on her blog post. Congratulations!
I knew you’d end up with the alphahole! I mean, the nice guy who is your forever and ever.
