Birthright (Pale Moonlight Book 1)

by Marie Johnston

  “Bennett, please.” Jace yanked Cletus to his feet and shoved the bleeding male forward. “Don’t fuck around, wolf. A damn good sniper’s got you in her crosshairs.”

  “This is Maggie Maggie?” Bennett eyed her dubiously.

  Both Jace and Porter nodded.

  Bennett scowled, but he untucked his shirt to pull off while Mercury waved Brutus and Porter to start walking.

  Porter didn’t move. “I’m with her.”

  Mercury’s expression turned droll. “What about this situation makes you think you can call the shots?”

  “I’m her mate.”

  Jace’s head whipped up, glaring at him, assessing him. Porter withstood his scrutiny.

  “Maggie?” Jace wanted her confirmation.

  Porter tensed wondering what she’d say.

  The wolf managed to lift one shoulder in the canine version of a shrug.

  “That idea’s new to her, too.” Porter explained.

  Bennett tossed his tech shirt to Jace. The wards must be down to allow them through.

  “This is how it’s gonna go. You two brutes take the lead.” Bennett gestured to Brutus and Cletus. “You,” he waved to Porter, “walk behind. Jace and Maggie bring up the rear. One suspicious move and I’ll tranq your ass and drag your bare bottom through the woods so you can get dirt in all the right places.” His navy blue eyes were full of promise. “Uh, except you, Maggie.”

  “Move it,” Mercury ordered. “Don’t forget Kaitlyn likes to test her range.”

  Porter moved into place, looking over his shoulder. Jace held the shirt out toward her, facing away. Maggie was intelligent enough to figure out shifting in reverse was the same. She flowed into her statuesque form, snatched the shirt, and pulled it on. Porter didn’t like another male’s scent on her skin, but he smelled female all over Bennett’s shirt. The strength of the scent suggested he and the female were mated. Mercury smelled the same, only his mate’s scent indicated a human woman.

  Two mated males and her brother. Porter couldn’t have asked for better Guardians to protect her.

  Chapter Seven

  Holy shit.

  Holy shit.

  For real?

  Maggie shuffled along, holding down the hem of the shirt the blond gave her. He was a big male, and if she was a normal sized human, she’d swim in it. But she was a solid shifter female and the bottom of the shirt rested just below her ass cheeks. None of the males gave her a second look even when every inch of skin had been bare. The two brutes hadn’t leered at her, their primary goal to persuade the Guardians they were carrying out Seamus’ perfectly valid orders.

  She concentrated on navigating through the trees. Wherever they were going, there’d better be clothing. She needed a few years to get used to the clothing optional way of shifters.

  Porter walked in front of her, Jace next to her.

  Her brother. Next to her. Tears pricked her eyes. Porter stiffened and Jace glanced at her.

  “You, uh, look different.” Yet, he didn’t.

  He was just as tall, more muscle had been packed on, and his thick wavy hair had been shaved. Eyes even lighter than hers stared back at her. The combination made him appear more sinister than he ever had before.

  Taken aback, he ran a hand over his stubble. His expression darkened. “Well, get used to it. I was shorn with a silver blade in prison.” Meaning it’d never grow back thanks to the silver, and being abruptly reminded about it when she’d been the reason behind it brought out his defensive side.

  Maggie inhaled sharply, the reminder of all he’d been through for her slammed back. “I’m so sorry.”

  How inane it sounded. Like three little words made up for her abandonment.

  He shrugged. “That man who kidnapped you deserved to die. I had to pay the price.”

  “Jace—”

  “Not here.” He angled his head toward Porter and the two hulks she still didn’t know by name. Where could the third shifter be, the one from the van? “We’ll talk at the lodge.”

  Maggie fell silent. The lodge Jace mentioned appeared like a magical illusion puzzle, the ones she’d have to stare at to make out the picture.

  It was a giant log cabin. Much like the ski resorts she saw on TV for the rich and famous. But it should have a sign that read No trees were harmed in the making. Except for the building material, of course. The lodge was situated within the trees like it’d grown up among them. The rugged road that circled to the front door was like an accessory to the unique beauty of the building. Large pane windows reflected nature back to the viewer making it seem as if it was part of the woods.

  She studied their surroundings. Cabins were tucked deep into the trees, hardly visible in the foliage. Did these males live in those?

  For a girl who’d been raised in the city, it seemed like an alien concept to live so completely in nature. The feeling of rightness couldn’t be ignored, her shifter side sighing in satisfaction at the idea.

  Her shifter side.

  She’d shifted. Into her wolf.

  Oh god, it felt like such a bigger deal than losing her virginity to the fumbling college boy who thought he was more experienced than he was.

  The change had been wild—pun totally intended.

  She’d never felt more alive, all four limbs stretching and bunching with each stride. The race had been exhilarating and it had nothing to do with the males chasing her.

  Okay, maybe a little, but she didn’t think the intense craving to run would be leaving any time soon.

  Maggie trained her eyes to the ground. If she looked up, she’d see Porter’s firm ass cheeks, and she didn’t need to spike the air with arousal around a bunch of strangers.

  Then there was her naked brother next to her. Awkward.

  The two burly males ahead of Porter sickened her and not because they were covered in dried blood. Their resolution to take her back to their boss was palpable. A smug cloud hung over them, like they had an ace up their figurative sleeve.

  The two dressed males with guns eased her fears a bit, ironically. Like Jace, they oozed confidence and resolve to get to the bottom of her story and what was going on. She smelled a significant female on each one and wondered if that’s why she didn’t feel an intense attraction to them like she did to Porter. They were stunning male specimens, and she was learning shifter sexual appetites were powerful and instinctual, but her libido said “meh.” Her sex drive wanted nothing to do with Hulk One and Two, but they’d tried to kidnap her. It would’ve been beyond disturbing if she had felt anything hot around them other than her temper.

  The other female hidden in the trees, the sniper, piqued her interest. She’d never officially met another female shifter. She’d never officially met another shifter period, other than Jace and her mom, and now she was surrounded by them, in their territory.

  Ma! Maggie gasped and tugged on Jace’s arm. “Did Ma make it here?” Jace appeared baffled. She released Jace’s arm to surge forward, intent on her two attackers, prepared to draw blood for answers. They tensed, as if daring her to assault them, but she was restrained by her brother and blocked by Porter. “What did you do with her you bastards?” she shouted.

  “Wait, Maggie. Why would Ma come here?”

  “Because these assholes attacked me last night to try to take me back to Lobo Springs. I called her, worried for her safety. She said she’d find you.”

  A myriad of emotions passed through Jace’s features. Maggie’s heart wrenched with each one—puzzlement, anger, hope, alarm.

  “I know not where your mother’s at.” Hulk One threw back to them.

  “And you’re a lying sack of shit, Brutus,” Porter snarled.

  “Enough!” The one called Bennett monitored Jace’s reaction carefully, in case he charged the captors. “We’ll get all of your stories in a minute.”

  They entered the lodge. Jace tossed her a pair of sweats from a stack sitting on a cabinet by the door. He grabbed two more pairs. Bennett picked up a couple
more, and Mercury led her two attackers down a hall to the right.

  Bennett gave Jace a hard look. “You good?”

  “Yeah, man. I’ll talk to these two.”

  A tall, willowy redhead rushed in. Maggie recognized her scent as the sniper.

  “Did I miss anything?” she asked, shouldering a long, menacing rifle.

  “Just in time, Kaitlyn.” Jace tossed Porter a pair of sweats and climbed into his own.

  Kaitlyn assessed Maggie, who examined her in return. “This is Cassie’s sister-in-law, huh?”

  Jace nodded without looking at either one of them. “Maggie. This is Porter, her…”

  “Mate,” Porter finished.

  Jace’s jaw ground together. Maggie wondered how badly their first encounter turned out that that much hostility remained.

  Kaitlyn ignored the tension. “Interrogation Two or somewhere else?”

  Interrogation? Maggie’s heart sank. There was no reason for Jace to give her special treatment. He’d saved her from getting mauled, it was more than she deserved from him.

  “Yeah, we need to record everything,” he answered.

  Maggie trudged with them to the interrogation room. Room one was reserved for the thugs. She heard voices rumbling from inside.

  The stark room contained a table and four chairs. Porter pulled one out for her. She couldn’t help but notice how his sweats slung low on hips, revealing the trail of hair that disappeared under the waistband. She tried to look away, but found herself staring at his chiseled abs. It only got worse from there because the other places to look were his defined pecs and bulging biceps. Carpentry did a body good.

  Lifting her gaze further to keep her out of emotional turmoil, she found his dark eyes lit with humor and a faint smirk on his face. How must she look? She was a frumpy mess with a baggy shirt and sweats too big she had to hold them up. She hoped the shirt hid her braless state. And what about her hair?

  Accepting the chair, she settled in, Porter taking the seat next to her. Jace sat across from her, and Kaitlyn leaned against the door, her arms crossed.

  Jace spoke first. “The last I heard from this guy is how I needed to save Lobo Springs.” Jace pinned Porter with a glare. “I didn’t cooperate so you went after her?”

  “One of you can save your home without violence and bloodshed.” Porter’s voice was full of hostility.

  “I haven’t seen that place since I was nine. And my last memory there is the slaughter of my father and brother. It’s no home to me.”

  Maggie’s focus stayed on the table top. Their brother. She couldn’t remember him. Sometimes in her dreams, she saw a boy with laughing blue eyes twirling her around, and then…darkness. She’d only been four, but it seemed another betrayal, to not remember her dad and brother very well. Like if she’d truly loved them, they should be etched into her memory.

  Porter matched Jace’s intensity. “It’s your birthright.”

  “Yada, yada, yada.” Jace waved him off. The movement drew Maggie’s attention to her brother’s tattoos, or rather, the scars that lay underneath. They ran down the side of his neck, down his arm and across his chest.

  “Jace, what happened?” she breathed.

  He turned his vexation toward her. “After all these years, now you want to know?”

  “Easy,” Porter warned.

  She could crawl up in a shell, break down into tears, or…be honest. “Ma was so adamant that you threatened our safety. She cut you off so readily, I was afraid that’d she’d do that to me, too. I had nowhere else to go. Knew no one else. It was selfish, Jace, and I’m sorry. I’ve thought about you every day. Regretted it every day. I should’ve tried to find you.”

  The anger drained from her brother. He slumped back, scrubbed his face, looking exhausted—not physically, but emotionally.

  She should know. She felt the same.

  “Forget it. It’s done. I get it. I know how maniacal Ma was about secrecy and forgetting we were shifters.”

  “She hasn’t changed.”

  “I believe it.” Jace studied her for another moment before switching to Porter. “What happened after we talked?”

  “Seamus got worse. Things have really deteriorated in the last few years. The whole colony fears he’s turning feral; the clan leaders are becoming as good as powerless. He bribes, blackmails, extorts, whatever it takes. I found the name Mage goes by and sat on it until Seamus came after me and my livelihood.”

  “And you thought to take my sister back to face a psychopath?”

  All eyes were on Porter, who smoldered with ire. “No. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

  “Was that before or after you realized she was your mate?”

  Porter sat forward, gaze narrowed on Jace. Kaitlyn inched forward, ready for trouble. “Always,” he bit out. “I don’t hurt innocents like Seamus does.”

  Maggie needed to dissolve the aggression in the room or they’d get nowhere. “He found me at work. I told him to hit the road, but he followed me.” She wouldn’t mention hunting perverts. Not the time. “When I pulled into my apartment complex, I was attacked by Hulk One and Two out there.”

  Jace blinked. “Who?”

  “Brutus and Cletus,” Porter answered.

  “There were three hulks who came after me,” Maggie filled in.

  Kaitlyn snickered, covered her mouth to mask a fake cough when all three of them turned toward her.

  “Do you know what their intent was? Kill or kidnap?” Jace spoke to both of them. Porter would know the details; Maggie would know from experience.

  “Kidnap,” Maggie answered. “I heard them say to bring the van around to throw me in.”

  “It could’ve been to hide your body.” Jace stretched an arm across the empty chair next to him. He eyed Porter. “What’s your opinion?”

  “Either one would fit Seamus’ needs. He’s tied up any loose ends that could cost him his leadership position. I was the next one because I’m a vocal supporter of voting.” Porter’s jaw tightened, his eyes filled with regret. “It’s possible someone found out I was searching for you. You’re a Guardian and untouchable for Seamus, but Maggie he could use.”

  “Because I’m a Guardian, I’d think he’d stay far away from her.”

  “Seamus is ruthless. We knew he was more aggressive, some hoped it was a good sign. No one realized just how aggressive he’d be until it was too late. He didn’t have to kill for power, but he did.” Porter’s nostrils flared. Maggie wondered what memory caused the anguish in the air. “Then it was the rumors he was rough on the females. Clan leaders who spoke against him soon found major trouble in their lives, enough to take their focus off Seamus. Any who thought to overthrow him met with suspicious accidents, but by then, everyone was either too afraid of him or under his spell.”

  Jace considered Porter’s story. “But not you?”

  “Obviously not under his spell. I knew he always had a mean streak, but I won’t let him continue to terrorize.”

  “Then why didn’t you fight for power?” A hint of derision lit Jace’s tone.

  Maggie shifted, her first instinct was to stand up for Porter. But she wanted to hear the story, too.

  A muscle flexed in Porter’s jaw, his dark eyes bright with anger. “Do you remember that night?”

  Jace’s brow creased, knowing exactly which night Porter referred to. “I remember enough,” he said gruffly.

  “I’m surprised, Jace. You were pretty young.”

  “I wasn’t allowed to fight, and Maggie was only four.”

  “I was twenty-nine, but the chaos…it messed with all of us. I don’t think there was a single family in the colony untouched by the devastation. My mom…my baby sister…” Porter wiped his face like he was trying to scrub the memory away. “My father hung on, using the challenge against Seamus to end himself. I just—I had so many to bury, the pack was looking to me for guidance, I couldn’t…” He shrugged helplessly. “I should’ve. If I challenged him now, my cla
n would suffer.”

  Jace’s features softened, his faraway stare told Maggie he also went back in time. She had always wished she could remember more, but the anguish from Porter’s memory alone…maybe she was the lucky one. Too young to know what she’d lost.

  Her brother blew out a heavy breath. “Ma took us away the next night. I had to help with,” he glanced at Maggie, “cleanup. We were asleep and she woke us up and that was all for Great Moon. Literally.”

  Maggie’s recollection was vague, dulled. She’d been so young and Jace and her mother had protected her from the worst. “I hardly remember Dad, or Keve.”

  Uttering his name summoned tears. She hastily wiped them away. It’d been so many years, but occasionally she was reminded of all that had been taken away. Maggie considered her abduction the worst day of her life, but if she’d had any recollection of the village slaughter, it would no doubt make it pale in comparison. How drastically her life must’ve changed, and she didn’t know enough to realize.

  Porter rubbed her back, comforting her. Kaitlyn stood silently, not interfering with their moment.

  Someone tapped on the door. Maggie hastily wiped her eyes, Jace cleared his throat, and Porter’s hand stalled mid-stroke.

  “Go ahead,” Kaitlyn called.

  The door opened to a grim-faced Bennett, an ominous cloud accompanied the shifter. He sat in the chair next to Jace, whose brows were drawn, his shoulders bunched. Maggie’s gut churned, she waited for the shoe to drop.

  “Denlan,” Bennett began, “tell us what happened when you followed Maggie back to her place.”

  Porter straightened in his seat, his expression guarded. “I parked a block away to wait and see if she went anywhere right away. I planned to talk with her again in the morning. I saw a familiar van, one I’ve seen Seamus’ cronies use. Then I heard the scuffle in the garage. I found a hammer in my toolbox, but it was enough to sneak up on Dugger and knock him out. I jumped Brutus and Maggie knocked out Cletus. We took off.”

  Relief oozed out of Maggie. She didn’t need any more uncomfortable moments and admitting she’d spent the night with Porter would do it.