by Azod, Shara
“Must we be subjected to this, this Euro-trash pawning you? It is bad enough you drug your own family in here like common criminals,” Mae sniffed indignantly.
Thane was shocked to see his hand playing in Dallas’ hair.
“My fiancé is affectionate,” Dallas retorted. “And you didn’t act like family when you threw me overboard.”
“If you had any evidence of that, we would have been arrested!” Mae snapped. Then obviously remembering she was supposed to be laying the part of the wronged but understanding and loving aunt, she quickly changed her tune. “I mean really, Dallas. You are my niece. Why would I do something so horrid?”
Dallas rolled her eyes at the saccharine tone, but said nothing. She wasn’t about to give “Aunt” Mae the pleasure. The bitch was mad if she thought she was going to get away with what she had done. She didn’t bother to let the older woman know she had the upper hand in this game. She much rather watch her sweat it out and let her break down then to let her know what was coming next. Mae had no idea Dallas didn’t ingest any of whatever it was that was in the vial Belle had poured into her wine.
“For all I know,” Mae went on, “you met this-this man on the ship and conspired with him to frame me…us.”
Dallas felt momentary sympathy for Belle when the girl noted her mother’s slip of the tongue with a cringe. Yeah, your mother cares for no one but herself, she silently noted. But then, Belle was a full grown woman. A young one, but a woman nonetheless. She should have known better.
“Why the hell would I do that?” Dallas asked instead of saying anything to Belle. There was no point, she had made her bed.
“Because you knew about the new will?” Belle asked snidely. “You knew Mitch-Daddy hadn’t cut us out of his will, but left everything to Mama.”
Dallas blinked at the younger woman in absolute awe. The poor thing believed that. Dallas knew for a fact there was no other will. Uncle Mitch hadn’t made the will read after his funeral until his last round of chemo hadn’t killed the cancer.
“There was no other will, Belle.”
“Of course there was!” Mae broke in, grasping her daughter’s hand. Her beady eyes darted everywhere but directly at Dallas. “It was found when we finally started clearing Mitch’s things-after we returned from the cruise. I could not stay aboard that boat after you disappeared.”
“Did you see this will, Belle?” Dallas noted Belle was getting increasingly agitated. More and more interesting.
“Of course she has!” Mae answered for her.
Dallas was about to explore this interesting little development further, but the doors opened and two F.B.I. agents walked in. A buzzing awareness swamped Dallas’ brain, the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. She was all too aware two things at once; the first was, those were no mere F.B.I. agents, the second was that her “mate” had some serious explaining to do.
Chapter 10
Thane knew he was in trouble. He could practically feel the molten heat of Dallas’ anger radiating in waves off her body. Mentally rubbing his hands together in glee, he leaned back with a grin. There were going to be some serious fireworks in the bed tonight.
You are so dead.
No yelling, no screaming, just a softly thought threat. Thane’s cock jumped. Dallas was at her most formidable when she was well and truly pissed.
Nae, luv. I am quite alive. More so than he had ever been in a lifetime.
Who, or should I say, what, are they?
Thane glanced at the duo who had walking through the door. Both beings stood about seven feet tall, heavily muscled with fierce expressions. The crone Mae started visible shaking and her cow of a daughter stared slack jawed as the huge men made their way to the table. They carried themselves like warriors set about a serious task. Although Thane had to admit while he found the situation most serious, he was more than a little unnerved at the two. Not that he would ever admit it. Their physical appearance was meant to inspire fear and trepidation.
Berserkers.
Dallas jerked her narrowed gaze from the two men who looked a hell of lot more like linebackers than F.B.I. agents to her man. Did he just say berserkers? Did such a thing even exists? Well of course they do, she thought to herself. If seal boy here can exist…
Woman doona think I will nae spank you right here in front of the old crone and her cow.
One of the men must have caught on to their unspoken conversation. He paused at the head of the conference table, his brow arched as he watched them mentally bicker. Dallas decided right then and there she had had just about enough of the whole mystical being thing.
“Look,” she said out loud completely unmoved by the berserkers implicate power. “I don’t know who asked you here, but I think we can let the normal human justice system take care of these two.” Waving her hand in Mae and Belle’s general direction.
“What in world are blabbering about?” Mae demanded. “You brought us here!” Immediately seeing how she might work the situation to her advantage. “Belle!” managing to clutch both her still open mouthed daughter and her chest at the same time, she did a parody of a faint. “That man has done something to her mind! He has brainwashed her. Something is wrong I just know it.”
Both men ignored Mae outright, focusing their attention on Thane.
“Your woman is bold.”
Dallas would have told the red headed one off, seeing as how he was the one who had spoken, but Thane placed a firm hand on her arm. Not a mental warning, not a word, just one hand. It spoke more than words ever could.
“She is,” was his only reply.
Turning their attention back to the other two women, the blonde spoke in a slow measured voice.
“Mae Craig, you have been found guilty of the attempted murder of a selkies’s mate. For such a crime, death is too much a mercy for the likes of you. An example must be made. You are hereby banished to the frozen tundra for a thousand years. You will be chained about the neck and exposed to the Elementals. The wind shall whip at your flesh, your blood will run cold, yet you will not die. At the end of your confinement, you will spend a thousand years in the desert plains. Such will be the pattern of your existence forevermore.”
The red head turned to Belle. His voice was neither slow nor measured. It was deep and dark, sending a chill through every person in the room. “You will be trained.”
“What the hell is going …” Mae never got to finish her sentence. She disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The redhead held out his hand to Belle. “Come.”
To Dallas’ shock, Belle went. The three walked out of the room just as calmly as you please.
“Thane, I am so going to kick your ass.”
Thane smiled, slowly climbing to his feet. “I look forward to it, lass.”
Epilogue
Months later…
Dallas could have sworn she could hear the sea wither head resting on Thane’s chiseled chest. She loved it here in the Scottish Highlands. Most of all, she loved it here in her man’s arms. His hand idly stroked up and down her cooling flesh, lulling her to sleep.
I’m sorry, Dallas, for what my mother and I did. I hope one day you will forgive me?
Dallas jerked upright in the bed. “Belle? Damn! How could I have forgotten? What the hell happened to Belle? ”
Right after her “cousin” had been escorted out of the F.B.I. conference room, she and Thane had gotten into a heated argument that ended the way all their arguments ended, with her legs in the air and his cock stuffed deep inside her. Right there on the table, until Thane had whisked them back to her apartment.
Thane smiled softly, pulling her back into his arms. “She is fine. She is-reformed.”
“You heard it to didn’t you?”
“Aye.”
“Where is she? Where did they take her? Is she all right?”
“Shhh, lass. The cow is fine. Happy ensconced in Finland with her berserkers.”
“Wait, more than one? How come sh
e gets two and she tried to kill me and I only get one?”
“Because lass, I am a thousand regular men. Surely I am two or three berserkers. Ye are blessed.”
“You are the most conceited…”
Thane cut her off the only way he knew how. Much, much later, he rolled over, pulling his woman with him. “See, lass? I told you. All the selkie you will ever need.”
