“Yes. But we will discuss this later.”
“No, we will not. We have done much for Merry but we owe no explanation to you and she will never ask for one because she will never know. She is young and the young often don’t see what should be obvious, but then, you didn’t see what had to be done either. She was faced away so she would not be forced to watch as you gave the appearance of burning, to see him burn, to see the bodies which should not have been. No, this we will not speak on again. It matters not as the past can never be changed. Go, get your mate and let us rest for we are in sore need of rest also.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Your pack made a grave error. Your people birthed a failure and that failure cost me my daughter.” Miranda stood staring at Seamus, many of her clan at her back. Her brother stood by her side, the red, puffy eyes and tear tracks on his face gave evidence of his grief. The pack stared in dismay at the clan members. They did not understand why the clan had shown up and threatened them. They had no knowledge of a shifter named Donovan nor his mate Merry. Never had the two been in the pack.
“Look, Miranda, we haven’t your daughter nor her mate. We have never heard of the ones you speak of. Why come you to our territory and threaten our alliance over a stranger?”
The argument had raged for awhile, pack members gathering around to find out what was going on. So far no one understood the witch’s accusations or the purpose of the visit. They had never seen the woman’s daughter and had no pack member named Donovan but the witch refused to listen.
“You claim you will do anything for your mates. Protect them unto death if that is required but when it came time to protect my daughter your worthless wolf called upon an enemy. Instead of learning what he should he went behind my back to call an enemy forth to do battle. A battle he could not win and he knew he could not. A shifter against a witch tis no fight at all. He brought the enemy within my home, invited the man, and let my daughter die. Your people claim to keep your females safe, tis no safety you offer. You let the filthy animal within you have control of your senses and cause naught but death and destruction to your own. How many of your people die by the hands of humans cause you think not of your future but only of the hunt. How many wolf? How many villages have you seen in your lifetime fall to the hunter when you fail to keep your wolf leashed?”
“Witch, we know not what you speak of, we tell you true we do not know your daughter. We have naught to do with her death nor the death of her mate. Never have we seen these you speak of and you can not think to come here and accuse us of things for which we hold no guilt.”
Miranda threw her hand up and flames shot forth barely missing Seamus. Growls around the pack rose up and men started shifting. The flames and lightning lit the village as Miranda and her clan raged forth. Screams echoed as the fires burned and the scent of roasted flesh filled the air. When the wolves saw they had no chance of getting close to the clan members they ran. The clan found them where they hid and burned the houses down around them. Unholy glee upon her face Miranda joined hands with Nathaniel.
“Come, we will make an end to the shifters.” With the village on fire around them and the cries and screams of the dying echoing in their ears Nathaniel and Miranda began to chant.
***
The hoarse screams of Merry and Donovan went unnoticed that day hidden as they were in the shadows. When the four had awakened and made their way to the village they saw the flames in the distance. When Donovan would have rushed to the aid of his pack Ira held him captive with his magic. Secluded in a bubble of silence, invisible to others the four watched the horror unfold. They couldn’t hear the words of the curse over the screams of the dying, over their own screams trapped within the bubble around them. The stench of sickness rose in the bubble as first Merry then Jolene cast up their accounts followed by the two men.
Only when the once beautiful village was clear of all clan did Ira release the bubble surrounding the four. He watched in sorrow as Donovan staggered toward his former home. Donovan searched the village for a faint sound his wolf heard while Ira kept watch for any clan who might return. The three surged toward the village at Donovan’s shout of survivors.
They dug through the rubble that day but only found five small children, shielded by the dead bodies of their parents. Donovan knew each of them by name though none remembered him despite the small size of the pack and how often he had played with them. He had even read bedtime stories to a couple of the children in the past. Some of the children were badly burned and Ira and Jolene used what magic they thought they could safely use to help heal the children. Toward evening the four heard others approaching and shielded the children and themselves until they found the others to be missing shifters from the pack.
They likewise did not remember Donovan or Merry and scarcely cared after seeing the devastation of their home. Since his and Merry’s name had been mentioned often that day by Miranda he introduced them by different names. The adults spent a couple of days trying to salvage what they could and making plans to leave. Donovan was the one to mention relocating to the new world.
Having to introduce himself and Merry each day to the shifters became a pain. If they turned from him they immediately forgot him and after the couple of days were over he realized he would not be able to travel with the small decimated pack. They didn’t remember him, they didn’t trust him and the stories the children were beginning to tell were too mixed up for the adults to understand the true events. Ira and Donovan discussed with their mates what action to take and when the small pocket of survivors made their move the four traveled with them, from a distance.
So it went as the survivors picked up others along the way and made plans for the future. After many months the new pack had settled in the land that would one day be called Australia and over the next century Donovan kept watch from a distance. His cautious approaches never ended well and his heartbreak was such that Merry eventually asked him to stop trying.
Chapter Fifteen
Present day
“So you see Marcus, we think Craig and Kate are the best chance we have of defeating my mother. The power the two of us have has grown over the last three centuries, but our power is nothing to what the pair of them should have were they to train. But we don’t have the knowledge to train them as they need to be trained. Ira trained us as he knew how over the centuries, and had he and Jolene not been killed in the fight to take Kate I know they would have helped us train Kate and Craig. But we only know what Ira knew and no more than that. And that knowledge never covered much of the power of a shifter-witch bond so I fear we do not know enough of a hybrid bonded witch to train her and Craig.”
Marcus just stared, speechless at the couple in front of him. Conall and Sibeal looked at each other then back to Marcus.
“Let me get this straight, correct me if I get any of it wrong. You, Conall, were born Donovan Grady of the Flanagan pack, which was wiped out in the 1700s by Miranda the first. You mated to Miranda Cunningham, who everyone called Merry, daughter to Miranda the first. Because of your mating the Flanagan pack died and the shifters were cursed to extinction. Did I miss anything?”
“That is not exactly what we just told you Marcus. The mating did not cause the eventual events. And we were never sure what the curse was exactly. We only had the words of the children, small children at that. Their words made little sense in the beginning. Truthfully until recently we didn’t understand the terror filled babbling we listened to in those days following the attack. When you combine the inability of us to approach shifters and find out any information with our inability to hear what was said that day it can be no wonder we knew so little. We guessed at much. But we had no where to turn to with the information we held. And the children, what memories could they have to back up what we believed. When we would have sought help we found signs which led back to your highest office both in the shifter world and in the political arena. We dared not chance our daughter and our future on guesses an
d speculation. But from what we have heard, Trevor remembers more than we realized. Is this true? Does he know more than we realized?”
Marcus held his hand up before Conall could go any further, ignoring the last part he demanded, “Stop right there. I heard everything you said, but you see, the whys and hows will not matter to anyone. They don’t matter to me. I can’t see anyone taking your side in the situation. You faked Merry’s death to escape her mother. That lie, and it was a lie, caused a domino effect which is what brought us, the shifters to this, you know what, I can’t even deal with this right now. I need some time to process what you just told me. I think the High Council should implement a new rule, if you were instrumental in destroying the shifter race you can not join a pack, any pack.”
“Does this mean you are going to throw us out? I beg you will rethink that if it is indeed your intention. I am not saying I blame you, but you see, Craig and Kate do need us more than we may have let on.”
“The fuck? No, just fucking no. Stop right there. You know what, this is not even a strictly Alpha problem. You brought this problem to my pack and I will be damned if you will take my pack down like you caused the Flanagan pack to go down. Do you have any idea what would have happened if you had come forward with this a few days ago when the Australian pack Alpha’s were still here? Is Trevor the reason we did not see you for days?” Marcus raked his hand through his hair. This was unexpected and unwelcome. What the hell was going on in the shifter world that all the crazy females and their families suddenly ended up in his territory. First Trina, and wasn’t she turning out to be interesting with having killed someone and no one willing to tell Jaden. Well, to be fair Marcus couldn’t find it in him to tell his brother his little mate was a killer who seemed to have no remorse. Jamie had finally came to him a few days ago worried about Trina and Craig backed him up on the claim. Of course Craig was in no position to say anything, not after what he brought into the pack.
Marcus sent one last look of disgust toward the couple before he walked to the door. Every instinct he had wanted to pound Conall’s face in but that would not fix anything. He contented himself by slamming the door on his way out. As he strode toward his home he called through the pack for Jaden. This was not a situation he wanted to call on his own, and Jaden was too young to have the history he needed, but he was his Beta.
Conall looked at Sibeal, “Well, that went better than we expected. Do you think he will listen more after he cools down?”
Sibeal smiled, but it was a sad smile, “No, probably not. Why didn’t you tell him the reason he didn’t see us the last few days?”
He sat down on the sofa beside her, “Sweetheart, do you think he would have been reassured to know that you were using every bit of stolen power you could muster to keep those two kids hidden while they went on that rescue mission?”
“You should have stopped them. You should have put your foot down and forbade the two to go on the mission instead of training Craig. We can’t keep hiding those power surges he has forever. What happens if I don’t blanket them with…” Sibeal sagged back heavily.
Conall got up and paced a few more steps around the room before stopping in front of the couch. He sat down and wrapped his arm around his mate and pulled her closer. He turned her face toward him and kissed her. “Stop. I have watched you this last year become a shadow of yourself. We have weathered the storm that is Miranda for three hundred years. We have fought against her curse, we have fought against her binding, we have fought ourselves out of the command she imposed before she sanctioned our mating. We will continue to beat her, we have no choice. And the only way to beat her is to help Marcus and the others. I have to, we have to break the oath of clan silence.”
Sibeal shook her head. “You only feel that way because of the oath we gave to Marcus. What if you say too much, or say the wrong thing, what kind of backlash will that cause on me, on us?”
“No, listen, I have a plan. Jaden was telling me about the meeting they had last week, the one with Casey? You remember hearing about it, I am almost sure I mentioned it to you.”
“No, you neglected to mention that small little detail to me. Is she the reason they suddenly know so much about the curse? Surely she didn’t tell them? I thought, I was sure it was Trevor who told them. They knew nothing before he came, and he is one of the only ones who lived from the pack she destroyed. But, since nothing has ever been said in the shifter world, and they still keep making the same mistakes, surely if he had known about the curse he would have helped others, How did she tell them and live? She can’t, unless, no, I tried to say something to Marcus about the clans back when they rescued Kate. I thought, if she was part of his pack and then we gave our oath, I thought we would have the freedom to say what we wished. It hurt. Then I feared for days that even the trying would be felt by Miranda and she would come to find the one who had broken the binding we have upon our tongue. ”
“Yet you said nothing to me? Why?”
Sibeal snorted and raised her head from his shoulder, “Because you worry too much. If I had told you of my pain what could you have done? Nothing and you know it. If it were of a different source, but that pain comes from a source you can’t share. Just as I couldn’t share the pain in the beginning, I couldn’t lessen your pain when you tried to go against the oath, you can’t lessen mine.”
Conall tucked her head back to his shoulder, “But you could’ve told me. I would have held you. I could have done that much. No the telling of the curse came from Trevor, not Casey. She still holds the secrets of the clan, but here’s the thing, she doesn’t hold them as tight as you do.”
Sibeal struggled to lift her head again but her mate kept it pressed against his shoulder and kissed the top of her head, “No, wait, I am not done. Wait before you interrupt me. Casey has found a way to work around the binding on her tongue. We could do that, I think.”
This time when Sibeal lifted her head Conall let her. She shook her head and stared at him in disbelief, “No, she couldn’t. She is not young nor is she stupid. You must have misunderstood something.”
“I think we can. We need help but I think it can be done. At least we can tell enough to get them started on our defense. We can’t leave it on the shoulders of those two kids. They don’t know enough and we may not have time enough to train them to protect themselves much less the rest of the pack. And what if we are wrong about how much power they should have? Or what if it comes slowly as ours did?”
“Tell me, how did she break the binding?” Sibeal looked hopeful for the first time in weeks.
“Riddles my dear. Riddle me this and riddle me that. She used riddles to give them clues. I don’t know all the ins and outs of what was said but apparently she would say something and they had to figure out how it related to the clans. He said one time the riddle was something about wine in a bottle being the same as wine in a glass or something. Maybe it was beer?”
Sibeal looked sideways at him for a moment before she laughed. “Darling, clans and alcohol have nothing to do with each other. How is that related to clan secrets. Admit it, you are having me on. Don’t be pulling the piss on me now, this situation is too serious by far to be joking.”
Conall gave a sly smile, “Baby, you know I would never.” He placed his hand over his chest, “I am mortally wounded you would think such a thing about me.” He ducked his head and looked at her sideways with a sorrowful expression. “Wounded to the core I am.”
She laughed and smacked him across the leg, “Oh I bet you are. Remember the time you told me the meat eater ants would not hurt me because they only ate meat? You jerk, do you realize it was two weeks before I realized I am meat? Oh darling no, they would never hurt you, they only eat meat.” Sibeal shook her head and laughed some more as she imitated him.
“Well, in my defense, I don’t see you as meat. You are more like a yummy dessert to be licked and nibbled.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and leered at her.
She rolled her eyes
, “Be serious. And get your mind out of the bedroom and back on our problem.”
“See now that is not fair. My mind was no where close to the bedroom.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, really! Why would my mind be in the bedroom when your body is right here.” Conall leaned down and nipped her shoulder. When she squealed in surprise he smiled and winked at her.
“Fine, get your mind out of my pants and back on the subject and your hand too.”
“Alright, but you are no fun and I am not going to share my dessert with you later.”
“I didn’t cook a dessert tonight and neither did you.” Sibeal realized what she had said almost as soon as the words left her mouth but it was too late. She watched the pout form on his face as he looked down into her eyes.
“So, no dessert? I thought I smelled cake earlier.”
“Nope, sorry, new air freshener.”
“You know the thing I hate about the modern world?”
Sibeal raised her eyebrows and waited.
“I never know if you cooked something yummy or if you just popped an air freshener in the outlet. Alright then, so no dessert, I think I am going to tell Kate you are being mean to me. You were hoping I would get so distracted I would not ask for dessert tonight weren’t you? Admit it, you are trying to put me on a diet and shifters don’t even need diets.”
“Well, you may be getting a bit of a paunch,” Sibeal smirked and poked his six pack abs. “Sweetheart, thank you. I know you are just trying to make me smile and I love you more than words can say for giving me laughter when I can’t see anything to laugh about. You are the best thing that ever happened to me and I would watch Mother destroy the world before I ever gave you up.”
Conall grimaced, “That may be closer to reality than we want to admit. Come now, call Kate and get Casey’s number and we will see what we can work out.”
Miranda Page 6
