Heart's Sentinel

by PJ Schnyder

  “It'll do me some good to be busy anyway.” She began to bustle through his kitchen searching for the tools she'd need.

  In many ways, Mackenzie felt exposed in his home. She hadn’t acclimated to the open layout. Being able to see into and over the forest for miles and miles, without another building in sight, unsettled her. Stars came out in the night sky that had never shone down through the perpetual artificial lights of the city night.

  And yet, the new part of her embraced the wild. It welcomed the unrestricted freedom such living offered. She’d felt pent up and restless in the confines of the hospital room and her family's apartment. What had once been comfortably close turned cramped and suffocating. She’d paced when she’d been able and always found herself aware of doors, windows or any other exits. The shapeshifter aspect of her had always been looking for a way clear.

  Unable to reconcile the feelings yet, she ached for something to do. In the past, the kitchen had always been her place to work with her hands while her mind found peace and also had the most familiar layout of any of the rooms. Regardless of the amenities, a kitchen was still a kitchen, with all the same basic design elements.

  “How long do you need?” She heard him shift his weight from one foot to the other. “One of us could get the groceries you bought earlier and bring them here.”

  She didn't turn to look at him, still unbalanced from the earlier conversation on top of the unsettled feelings and the turmoil caused by Van's nearness. She had too much to process. Instead, she spoke over her shoulder. “About an hour. You all okay with pasta-type food?”

  “Sure.” An awkward pause followed.

  “Making sure you all liked it, even if it didn't run from you before you took a bite out of it.” Keeping her eyes on the food she prepared made it easier to keep things light. “Everything I need is right here.”

  His low chuckle sent shivers down her spine. “We make exceptions once in a while.”

  “I figured when I saw you eating noodles.” She filled a pot with filtered water and ignored his additional chuckle with set determination, refusing to acknowledge what it could do to her. “But it doesn't hurt to check.”

  “One of these days I'll take you on a hunt. And you'll get a real feel for running something down and taking a bite out of it.”

  “Part of the lesson plan for us children?” She'd meant to keep her words light, but the edge came out. She didn’t take them back or try to say more to soften them.

  He remained silent but the strength of his scent increased. She couldn't read what it meant yet, but her jab had gained a reaction.

  Ignoring his silence, she selected a few packages of ground meat from his refrigerator. He must stock his refrigerator fairly frequently to keep meat fresh instead of freezing it. It didn't matter what kind of meat it was, in her opinion, most red meats tasted good sautéed with the right seasonings.

  As she started to heat a small amount of oil in a large skillet, she heard Adam leave. Without him there, staring at her back, the tension in her shoulders eased.

  “How's she doing up there?” asked Marcus. Solid muscle and even more unyielding authority, he stood with his back to a wall, watching as Adam climbed down from the upper level

  Adam grimaced at his pride alpha. “She's sulking.”

  “How's that?”

  “Ah, nothing.” He’d rather swallow his frustration rather than tell any of them what had happened to trigger her refusal to even look at him. Faced with her back and nothing to look at but her curved behind, he’d retreated from his own lair. He had to keep reminding himself he'd been the one to point out her inexperience. Instead, he kept facing the reality of her having been an adult before her Change and people didn’t revert just because they became shapeshifters.

  Leaving her with Liam had been a mistake. She hadn't been prepared for the way the younger males might compete for her. She wouldn't have known her subtle hints about friendship wouldn't get through their thick skulls. With predators, a negative had to be more than definitive, it had to have bite behind it. She blamed herself for what she hadn't been equipped to handle.

  “She didn't seem to be the type to sulk.” Mack pitched in his uninvited opinion.

  “You met her?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.

  “Sorta.” They'd decided in martial arts class to call her Big Mac, because compared to Mack's towering bulk, she wasn't. Actually, compared to any of the males in the class, even some of the juveniles, Mackenzie's petite frame made the nickname a potential long running joke. “Big Mac enrolled in one of Jake's blended classes. She seemed pretty solid to me.”

  “Get her riled up,” advised Adam. “Then tell her like it is, even if it isn't the way she thinks, and you'll see what I mean.”

  “Dunno about that.” Mack shook his head, his doubt obvious. "Seems to me, she kept pretty open to instruction in class. She listens better than most."

  “What's she doing up there now?” asked Marcus. They could all hear the sizzle of meat. The mouthwatering scent of salt, pepper, onions and garlic wafted down.

  “She asked if she could cook for everyone.” Adam gestured toward the level above them. “Wanted something to do with her hands besides fret.”

  “Sounds constructive to me.” Marcus kept a neutral tone as he ventured his opinion.

  “Most of the juveniles couldn't cook to save their lives,” Mack added, slanting his eyes sideway at Adam.

  “Can we talk about security measures instead?” He ended the probing about Mackenzie. “We need to catch the bastard.”

  Grinning, Marcus watched Adam as if he had done something unusually interesting. “The target's home pride sent us what little intelligence they had. He's a former Enforcer. He's also known for unpredictable tactics which explains how he got past our security. Our people planned for convention and this guy is the embodiment of the ridiculous. His pride also made it clear he's no longer an Enforcer."

  "Because he's gone rogue?" Mack puzzled over the demotion.

  Adam didn't blame him for wondering. Sentinels and Enforcers usually kept their posts until they retired, too slow to fight effectively. It might be different in another pack, but Adam hadn't encountered it in the other prides or packs he had visited.

  He gave Mack the answer at the same time Marcus gave another. “He's insane.”

  "No honor code.”

  All of the shapeshifters exchanged somber looks. The code of morals, ethics and honor they each held themselves to separated shapeshifters from true beasts. The level of the code of honor might vary from pride to pride, pack to pack, but it always intrinsically became a core value. A shapeshifter acting outside of a code of honor acted beyond right and wrong, perilously close to evil.

  “He had to know we'd scent him around the guest house,” Adam took it forward, balling his hands into fists. “He left his stink hanging thick around the entire area. According to Mackenzie, he laid it on so even as a human she couldn't miss it in the city.”

  Mack growled. “Arrogant son of a …”

  Marcus cut off the anger, bringing them back to the facts. “He didn't leave a trail leading away from the guest house. He's in the wind and good enough to only leave a scent trail when he wants to. No signs on the ground or in the trees either.”

  “There's something wrong about his scent.” With effort, Adam thought through the red haze of his anger. “Not only rotten. There's something off about the musk left around the guest house.”

  “I'll go check it out again.” Marcus folded his arms as he studied Adam more closely. “In the meantime, how do you want to guard your girl?”

  Adam's lips lifted in a silent snarl but Marcus only grinned. After a minute, Adam focused on the main point of the question, turning to Mack. “You and the two others divide the perimeter in sectors. Two of you patrol at a time and rotate with the third in shifts. Watch for anything and everything.”

  “You going to guard your girl up close and personal?” Marcus didn’t let his question go.<
br />
  Adam growled. “It's not like that.”

  “Funny.” The alpha scratched his chin. “Looks that way to everyone but you. You're acting all sorts of territorial. You're unhinged.”

  “She's too new a shapeshifter to tangle with a mature male.”

  “You can't seem to see the forest from the high tree you're perched in, Cat.” Marcus fixed an unwavering stare on Adam. “You might want to come down and get a good look at her before someone else does.”

  “I see her fine.” Hell, he could see her even when he closed his eyes. “She doesn't need what I can be.”

  “Happened a long time ago.” Marcus wasn't teasing anymore.

  “It's not going to happen again.” Adam's vision blurred with the sight of the little girl, liberally splattered in the blood of the man he had torn apart, her eyes fixed on Adam in utter terror.

  “You did what you had to.” Marcus held firm. “Back then, you were a guardian even before you officially became a Sentinel.”

  “Not the way she saw it.” Adam choked out even as the bitterness strangled him. The little girl had screamed and screamed, unable to stop. After the incident, she filled the room with the acrid scent of her terror whenever she saw him, too traumatized to even look at him. Her human family moved to get her away from him, back to the city, to humans. Away from the monsters.

  “Mackenzie has lived through worse.” Marcus let the reason she had come to them hang in the air. And then he continued, “She survived torture and came to us for protection.

  “So she knows it takes a beast to protect her from one.” Adam took a shuddering breath and then dragged his hands through his hair. “It doesn't make any of us less a beast in her eyes.”

  “No way to know for sure.” Marcus shrugged. “Nothing to do but give her a chance to decide on her own. There's no need to shut her out, and it doesn't do her any favors to protect her from what we are, what she is.”

  “She's thinking she's broken, dirty,” Adam admitted, filled with misery. “I left her with Cal and Liam and wasn't there to help her handle their reaction to her.”

  “I heard.” No anger, but the alpha's words were short. “They said she tried to tell them, but didn't put any force behind it. She's dominant enough she could have made it clear, but she didn't know how.”

  “I told her I'd be there to help her.” Adam's gut twisted. “But, I hung back figuring the socialization would do her good. Now she's even more withdrawn.”

  And, she took the blame on herself as if she had control of her actions. It would have been easier if she’d cut herself a little slack, accepted she'd been too inexperienced.

  His beast growled inside his head. There would have been no issue if Adam had claimed her, marked her. The boys would have known then and Mackenzie wouldn't have had to fend for herself.

  “You got your head straight?” Marcus brought Adam's attention back to the conversation at hand. “Quit going against your beast. Otherwise she's going to think she should be battling her beast, too.”

  Mack stepped forward and drew in a deep breath. “Whatever she thinks, she's willing to feed a beast, that's for sure.”

  The simmering smell of dinner wafted down to all of them, eliciting rumbles from every one of their bellies.

  They heard her pad across the floor and approach the trap door. “Dinner's going to be ready in about five minutes.”

  Adam moved with unnecessary speed, meeting her at the trap door and blocking her from coming down. “Dish it up and I'll bring it down to everyone. We're still talking security.”

  Taken aback, Mackenzie blinked, her eyes wide. “Okay. I'll set out the plates then.”

  She studied him for a moment before straightening and turning to head over to the kitchen.

  As Adam stepped back down to the lower level, every shapeshifter looked at him with a wide grin. Mack dared to open his mouth. “Definitely unhinged, man.”

  Mackenzie watched Adam stalk across the room to where she sat on a stool at his kitchen counter. Once she’d dished up five plates of the casserole, he’d taken most of them down, leaving his plate next to hers.

  So she’d waited, staring down at one of her favorite comfort foods. She’d browned the ground meat with a few simple seasonings and then diced and added fresh tomatoes, simmering it all down to a light sauce. The entire box of lasagna noodles had been broken, which suited her perfectly. After preparing the entire box and she’d tossed the cooked broken noodles with her meat sauce. A little extra searching had turned up a small cheese shredder she'd used to add mozzarella. The end result turned out hot, melty, cheesy and savory, exactly what she needed to chase away the cold knot in the pit of her stomach as she wondered when Van would find her again.

  “Smells good.” Adam hooked another stool with his foot and sat next to her.

  “Hope it tastes good,” she said in return. “I've no idea what kind of meat I used.”

  He used a fork to scoop a mouthful and chewed slowly. “It was venison and it is good.”

  Her cheeks flushed despite her annoyance at him earlier. So much for holding a grudge. “Something about hot and filling makes me feel a little better.”

  He smiled, shoulders relaxing a touch. They ate in silence for a few moments, enjoying the taste of the food and the quiet company.

  “It's going to rain tonight.” He tipped his fork towards one of the transparent walls, indicating the cloudy skies. “This kind of thing is good to keep a body warm out in the chilly rains we have this time of year.”

  “I'm sorry.”

  He glanced at her sharply. “Why?”

  “It's my fault, isn't it?" She stared down at her food, unable to take another bite. "It's my fault you all have to go to this trouble, because Van followed me here.”

  He put his fork down and looked her straight in the eye, enunciating every word. “None of this is your fault.”

  She froze at the intensity in his words and face. He meant more than just the patrols in the rain.

  Releasing her from his gaze, he picked up his fork and continued talking around mouthfuls of pasta. “Besides, we all run patrols of the territory on regular shifts anyway. This only adds a little spice to our nights.”

  Doubtful, but since she didn't know what to say she stuffed a forkful of pasta noodles and venison into her mouth. Wincing, she sucked in air to cool her mouth.

  Adam's snicker made her swallow the steaming mouthful. She pretended not to have an issue as it scalded her throat all the way down.

  “I suppose you think that's all sorts of childish, don't you? Like a person can't forget how hot their food is.”

  He didn't even bother to stop snickering. “Well, it is cute. The look on your face was priceless.”

  “Lovely. I'm overjoyed I could amuse you.”

  Still smiling as he ate, his eyes held a different look. She scowled back at him as she applied herself to her food, careful to cool each bite. He watched her and it seemed as if his intensity changed slowly. She didn't know what to think of it.

  “I'm sorry I called you a child.” Still watching her.

  “Sorry you called me one, or sorry you think of me as one?”

  “Both, maybe,” he admitted, pausing before he added, “But mostly the first.”

  “I'm a big girl.” She hopped off her stool and took her plate to the sink. Somehow, it didn't ruin her point. “I've had my share of guys turn me down. But if you're going to turn me down, be honest and say it's because you're not interested. Don't give me some excuse about me being too immature to know what I'm doing.”

  She turned to face him and stumbled back into the counter.

  He stood inches from her. Solemnly he leaned in past her and placed his own empty plate into the sink. As he straightened, he brushed so close he whispered roughly in her ear. “It wasn't because I'm not interested, Kitten.”

  Those amber eyes were like molten gold as he stared down into her face. Mackenzie barely dared to breathe as his hand came up and brushed
a lock of hair away from her cheek.

  “You didn't know what you were starting to tangle with there.” His voice low, darkened with a sensuality she hadn't heard before. “I'm not some human boy looking for a few hot kisses.”

  His hand slid along her jaw, turning to caress the back of her neck and then it slowly tightened, tilting her head back. Mackenzie's heart picked up speed and her breath came in shallow gasps as she trembled, held captive. She felt things low in her belly tighten in response to him. Even her nipples hardened as her back arched in response to the way he had her head tilted back.

  “Playing with a jaguar is a more dangerous game, Kitten,” he continued with a low growl in his throat. His nostrils flared and his pupils seemed to dilate and elongate as they changed to his cat form. “You need to know before you initiate anything.”

  From some hidden reserve of pride, she managed to strap some steel to her collapsing knees and pulled her lips back in a slight snarl. “I didn't initiate anything this time.”

  He went still. Slowly, the grip of his hand on the back of her neck loosened and he backed away a bit. It was enough.

  She straightened, trying to get her composure back. “You'd be damned lucky if I ever took it into my head to offer you a kiss again. I'm not a glutton for rejection.”

  He was on her in a split second, the entire length of his body pressed against hers so she couldn't miss the hard length of his erection pressing against her lower belly. His arms caged her in on either side of the counter and his lips caught hers before she could say anything else.

  His mouth burned against hers in a searing kiss. He gave her a brief moment before he sucked at her lower lip, then gently nipped and licked at the same spot until she opened for him. His tongue swept in, exploring and tasting, teasing as he drew back. She leaned after him, following his lead and uttering an inarticulate request.

  Then he settled his mouth over hers and sent them both drowning in sensation. His arms wrapped around her, urging her to arch her back even more and meld her curves against the hard planes of his body. His hands ran over her spine and the curve of her behind, encouraging her.