by Amira Rain
The Alpha jumped in his seat, jumped on the bed, almost – caught himself just before he could do so and crush his mate into the mattress. Mary-Lou regarded him with shock-blown eyes, blinking slowly in the tight embrace in which Jonas had captured her body.
“Mary-Lou!” Jonas rasped. He pulled away from Mary-Lou for a moment, needing to reassure himself that his mate was indeed awake and cognizant. Mary-Lou smiled tentatively, more than a bit thrown at the eagerness with which Jonas studied her face.
“W-what happened?” she finally croaked out, grimacing at the sharp pain in her throat. A thought seized her mind at Jonas’ pained expression; Mary-Lou put two and two together and sighed, “How long?”
“A week,” Jonas told her. Mary-Lou flinched, briefly squeezing her eyes shut. She quickly opened them again at Jonas agonized whine; right. “I am sorry,” she said, repeated the sentiment with a soft kiss to Jonas’ lips. She knew it was not enough – could not imagine the pain her mate, her pack must have gone through as she laid unresponsive before their eyes.
Jonas hummed softly in the kiss, eyes half-closed in bliss. The animal within him purred, happy and content to have his mate – his Alpha – by his side once again.
“It is alright,” he mumbled against her lips, “I would have waited much longer. I would have waited forever.”
That’s precisely why I am sorry, Mary-Lou thought, hiding a pained grimace behind a wan smile. She was not as strong as Jonas, not as invulnerable, and one day she might—
Well. There was no need to think of that right now.
“Jonas, I am fine,” Mary-Lou said once. Jonas had pressed a glass of water to her lips, helped her sip at its contents until her throat did not feel quite as raw. One week; Mary-Lou shuddered. “It was not – I was not unconscious. Not really.” She smiled at Jonas’ mistrustful expression and pressed closer into her mate’s side. “You should probably tell the others I am awake,” Mary-Lou said reluctantly. She did not wish to share Jonas, not quite yet, but it would be cruel to keep her family from knowing she was well even a moment longer. “I would rather not repeat the story twice.”
Jonas seemed equally unwilling to move. He solved the problem by letting out a single, low-pitched roar; Mary-Lou laughed as feet clattered up the stairs a moment later, Sasha and Cara bursting into the room like the place was on fire.
“Wha—MARY-LOU!” Cara exclaimed. Before Jonas could as much as warn her off, the Fox had pounced on the bed and its occupants, enveloping the human woman and the rumbling Lion into a teary hug. “I – I missed you so much! We were so worried! What happened? Do you know how weird it was to watch you lay there like a fish out of water? And then there was Jonas’ incessant grumbling—”
“Cara,” Sasha sighed, exasperation and fondness equally present in his voice. The Snake Shifter had moved to the side of the bed, kneeling to take one of Mary-Lou’s hands in his, “Let her breathe, for goodness’ sake.”
“It’s alright,” Mary-Lou assured the younger woman before she could launch into a series of equally incessant and rambling apologies. She then smiled at Cara, at Sasha, let them touch and nuzzle her to their hearts’ content. Pressed against them in return, reassuring herself of their presence and health.
Shifter practices were getting less and less strange to Mary-Lou the more her family was thrown into harm’s way.
“What happened?” Jonas asked some time later, when all four had maneuvered themselves into a pile of limbs and softly-purring Shifters. Mary-Lou sighed, trying to organize her thoughts as she stroked long fingers through Cara’s hair.
“Gloria—lingered,” Mary-Lou said eventually. Jonas let out a low growl, and she hurried to explain: “She did not mean any harm! In fact, it was a favor – she healed me, Jonas,” she smiled, recalling the warmth and kindness that had knitted deep, bleeding wounds shut – righted wrongs that no doctor could ever reach. “She helped me establish order within myself, integrate my powers within my sub consciousness. No more fainting for me,” Mary-Lou finished with a smile. Sasha let out a soft snort and what sounded like, Will believe it when I see it.
“So what now?” Cara asked. “Can you use your powers? Influence people and whatnot?”
Mary-Lou shrugged in response. “I believe so. It is not something I want to do, mind you,” she explained, “Which is why it was so important for me to learn to control that particular aspect of my…powers. Gloria was an immense help.”
“Where is she now?” Jonas asked.
“Gone,” Mary-Lou sighed, a bit wistful. Having another presence in her mind had been strange, scary. Unexpectedly, having someone else to share her thoughts with – fears and hopes she could not find the strength to utter aloud, even to Jonas – had also been somewhat comforting. Mary-Lou had spent too much time alone, uncertain of what was right – what she was meant to do. Gloria had been a beacon in the dark, her confidence and kindness a most welcomed comfort. Mary-Lou missed her – missed the certainty of her knowledge, the sureness of her words. “She said I was ready, that I did not need her any more, and she… left,” Mary-Lou finished, remembering the cold numbness that had taken hold of her after Gloria’s departure.
The shock of being alone once more within the dark confines of her own mind had been what awoke Mary-Lou in the end. She did not think she would ever share that particular piece of knowledge with Jonas.
“Good,” Jonas said, voice sharp. Mary-Lou rolled her eyes, but did not comment on her mate’s possessive anger. It was a deserved reaction, on his part.
“Alright, enough cuddling. How does dinner sound?” Cara bounced to a sitting position, dislodging Sasha’s arm in the process. The Snake Shifter hissed lowly, obviously more than half-asleep himself. Cara ignored him in favor of grinning at Mary-Lou, “You hungry, Mary-Lou?”
Mary-Lou’s stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of food. The human woman blushed, laughing slightly at the unexpected reaction of her body. “Starving,” she told the amused Fox.
Cara nodded and jumped off the bed, hauling Sasha along with her. “Leave it to us! Come on, Hissy, I need help carrying everything upstairs.”
Mary-Lou laughed, grin softening into a smile as she felt Jonas smother a chuckle against her skin. Her family.
She would protect them with her very life.
Sometime later, after Cara’s sandwiches had been eaten and the present company enjoyed, Mary-Lou had lain down next to Jonas in a bed that was theirs again. Jonas had his arms about her – tight, a bit tighter than he would normally allow himself, but understandable given the situation. He had not told Mary-Lou what he had been doing while she lay comatose in their bedroom; Mary-Lou suspected it had involved a lot of brooding and not much actual sleeping or eating. The thought that she had caused Jonas agony pained her. Although Mary-Lou could not change the past, she was very determined not to repeat its mistakes.
Wiley Turbo was not to be underestimated, pitied, or sympathized with. Never, ever again.
Jonas’ breathing evened out, body slacking in much-needed sleep. Mary-Lou remained awake, mind buzzing with plans and half-formed strategies even as her eyes studied Jonas’ tired face. She knew what she had to do – tomorrow, the day after that. Her entire life stretched before her in a series of flashes, of Herculean tasks. Mary-Lou could not wait to take them upon her shoulders, did not wish to waste a second more when so much depended on her action. Power did not come without responsibility, and hers was vigilance.
Tonight, she would watch over Jonas.
Jonas woke to the strange feeling of someone watching him. For a moment, he forgot the events of the day prior – panicked at the thought that he had fallen asleep, that he had let his injured mate out of his sight. The Lion Shifter pushed up from the bed in a hurry, muscles bunching in his upper arms as frantic blue eyes sought Mary-Lou’s face.
“Good morning,” Mary-Lou smiled, green eyes gentle as she regarded her mate.
Jonas let out a long, relieved sigh, before collapsing back into the wa
rm nest of blankets and Mary-Lou. “Morning,” he mumbled back, a stupid smile stretching his lips.
“How did you sleep?” Mary-Lou asked, shimmying down from where she had been resting against the headboard until she was fully in Jonas’ embrace. Jonas muttered something unrecognizable but happy, stretching contentedly. Mary-Lou smiled, carding a hand through Jonas’ sleep-mussed hair. The man sighed, pushed closer into the caress with a satisfied rumble as his own hands slid up Mary-Lou’s body.
Soft touches turned into gentle kisses, into heated words and muted moans. Jonas’ hands were hungry against Mary-Lou’s body, trembled with desire and something darker, a need that Mary-Lou was just beginning to understand. Mary-Lou pulled him toward her in response, arced in his touch and kissed his lips as Jonas panted and thrust against her, all finesse gone in favor of satisfying his body.
“Come on,” she urged, voice rasping – a growl of passion, of lust, “Let go, come on.”
Jonas groaned, low and pained, and bit her – clamped his teeth in the space where her neck curved into her shoulder. Mary-Lou moaned in pleasure so stark it tumbled into agony, prompted her to spread her legs and give beneath her mate’s touch. To let him take and take, until there was nothing left.
It was all a bit of a blur after that: Mary-Lou did not remember Jonas moving away, did not recall pulling away from her mate’s golden body long enough to remove clothing. Yet they were naked all the same, skin hot and giving beneath eager fingers. Jonas cupped Mary-Lou’s hips, slid his palms down to the soft mounds of her ass even as he bent to take one of her nipples in his mouth. Mary-Lou choked on a scream, the pleasure sharp and unforgiving after so long without such touches. She buried her head in Jonas’ shoulder, muffled pleasure-filled cries in sucking kisses against the man’s flesh. When large fingers slid beneath her ass to play with the soft, moist flesh there, Mary-Lou’s entire body lurched in an upward spasm and she tasted blood between her teeth.
“Now,” the human woman panted once she could breathe, once words had meaning once again, “In me, now.”
Jonas rumbled his agreement. He played with her a bit longer; indecent, slick-soaping sounds accompanied the movement of his thick fingers in her warmth. Mary-Lou was embarrassed by how much she wanted to hear more, how little she cared about who else could hear them.
A moment more, a minute of increasingly incoherent demands on Mary-Lou’s side and Jonas finally deemed her ready, trusted himself enough to do more than grind helplessly against his mate’s skin. He trailed hot hands to Mary-Lou’s soft thighs, parted them wider beneath his body. Mary-Lou moaned when he ground his cock against her – a teasing warmth, hardness wrapped in velvet softness – relaxing at the feel of the thick head finally breathing her body. Jonas groaned with her, hands leaving red imprints as they squeezed her pale flesh. He thrust shallowly, slowly – watching her body give and take him in inch by inch with a naked hunger in his gaze.
Moments, a small eternity later, Jonas was finally as far as he could go. The Lion paused, human brain urging him to check on his mate even as his primal instincts tightened the muscles in his back, his thighs – prepared him to thrust and take and take. It took strength, inordinate control for glazed blue eyes to move up to Mary-Lou’s face, to focus enough to discern the expression there.
Lust. Love.
A smirk.
Jonas groaned as Mary-Lou tightened about him, blue eyes rolling into his head as the human woman lifted her hips and ground. A second later, an answering grin curled his lips and he thrust back, powerful and deep. It was Mary-Lou’s turn to swallow a scream, to grasp the covers and pull as the tempo picked up, hard and unforgiving from the start. She moaned, growled, raked her nails down Jonas’ back. Her mate gave as good as he took, mouthing against Mary-Lou’s throat, shoulders, sucking at her heavy breasts. It was a meeting of passion, a show of strength and love and life –
It was theirs. This – they belonged to each other, and no one was going to make it otherwise.
Jonas felt the tell-tale burn, the tightness in his stomach and groin that foretold an oncoming end. He moved a hand down Mary-Lou’s side, curled large fingers to where they were joined. Felt Mary-Lou shudder, her body convulse and tighten as he rubbed gently against the slick hardness of her clit. She was coming, she was—
The Lion roared, muscles tightening as he thrust once, twice, three times more into his mate’s trembling body. He pulled out just as the first wave of orgasm bowled him over, watched with dazed eyes as thick whiteness streaked his lover’s belly and thighs.
“Jonas,” Mary-Lou gasped. She pulled him up with weak hands and he went – to kiss her, to bring her closer into his arms.
“I love you,” he whispered into her mouth, added More than you can ever know in his mind.
Mary-Lou nodded, thinking the very same thing.
CHAPTER TWO
“Is everything ready?”
Mary-Lou was met with a twin set of nods. The human woman bowed her own head briefly, eyes serious as they studied Cara and Sasha’s wary faces. Her pack was worried, agitated – and with good reason. The last time Mary-Lou had attempted to talk sense to Shifters had not been a disaster, but had not led to any visible change, either. With the exception of a few dozen furtive phone-calls and a couple of hooded Shifters pledging their loyalty throughout the month that followed, no one had truly taken a stand against the current Order. More importantly, no one had dared challenge Wiley when the Shifter – a convicted criminal – had waltzed back into Mary-Lou’s life and thrown it into an uproar.
Indecision. Fear. Basic animal need for survival. It was what guided most, human and Shifter alike – what prevented progress, impaired vision. It was all going to end tonight.
Mary-Lou felt the weight of Fate, the cold focus of certainty as she readied to face, once again, those who raised their hands and voices against her family. Gloria had been the catalysis, but the knowledge had always been within Mary-Lou. She knew what had to be done, what she had to do. It was, after all, the very reason why the current Order still stood even as it choked the life out of those who followed it.
Living beings detested chaos.
Human history was littered with examples of what happens when disorder shakes a nation, when turmoil poisons the mind and hardens the heart against others’ suffering. Horrors and misery that should have never come to pass did so with terrifying efficiency, with unrepentant boldness that has people scratching their heads and turning their eyes in disgust decades later. Who could ever believe genocide just, torture moral, murder kind?
No one. Not unless, of course, it was all hidden behind a thin veil of “necessity.”
Order was necessary. Law was necessary. Blind obedience and unquestioning loyalty – all necessary, all good, and just, and needed if society was to survive: The end justifies the means.
But what could the end ever be, when the means carve the future to the bone?
Mary-Lou knew fear, knew the terror of having her whole life turn upside down. She knew, too, what had helped her – what could pull others onto the side of goodness, right their worlds without sacrificing their souls. Lines were to be drawn today: Clear-cut definitions and straight-forward explanations of what was happening, what had happened, to bring it all to a head. The Old Order was obsolete, was cruel and brutal beyond tolerance. Those who enacted it did not do so out of any love for their people, but out of desire to keep their own power. Mary-Lou would tell those willing to listen that disintegration of the Order will not lead to chaos, that all will thrive under a kinder system of Law. Those who do not – the many (and they will be many, Mary-Lou was not naïve) who will remain silent, choose to lurk in the shadows and observe instead of taking up one side or the other – well. Mary-Lou would just have to show them, wouldn’t she?
“The car is ready,” Sasha told her, voice steady, eyes expectant. Mary-Lou felt Jonas’ presence at her back, felt the unshakable support of her pack surround her and fill her with hope.
&nb
sp; “Lead the way,” she said.
Irma had wasted neither time nor resources when she had taken charge of calling together this meeting.
Mary-Lou had given herself three days –seventy-two hours, to reassure family and friends of her health, think over her actions at the length and depth the occasion deserved. She told Irma of her decision to speak to all Shifters willing to listen on day two, asking her mother for help in spreading the message.
Irma had received two-hundred and twenty positive replies within twenty-four hours. Mary-Lou had been exhilarated by the response, becoming even more determined to do all she could to set things on the path of rightness. Not all who would attend would be supportive, not many would be convinced outright, but the magnitude of the reaction was telling: The current Order was not well-received. Not anymore. Mary-Lou would have to convince those who mattered that a new system of governance was possible, that tolerance among Shifters and eventual integration within the larger society would benefit rather than hurt the dwindling Shifter tribes.
A tall order indeed.
The car stopped before a large, red-bricked building. An elementary school, its halls and classrooms empty for whole two weeks due to Spring break and associated holidays. It was a busy time down at the Center, with Easter decorations and other seasonal exhibits bringing in visitors around the clock. A spike of melancholy broke through Mary-Lou’s concentration; how long had it been, since she last stepped foot in her old workplace? How long since sticky-handed children and disruptive patrons were her greatest concerns? In that moment, Mary-Lou was shocked to realize how much time had passed – how quickly and thoroughly her life had changed.
