Sibeal stiffened in his arms, “I know she is clan-less, but she can always petition to rejoin. What if she takes what we tell her and uses it to get back in the clans. Do we know if she left on her own or was removed?”
“Darling, does it matter at this point? We can’t hide what Craig and Kate are doing forever. For all we know their mating shook the magical world and Miranda is still tracking that release of magic. The only good thing about that is the distance from here to where it happened. All she would find there is an empty prison and it isn’t like any clan could smell what the prison was used for so there is that. Do you think, back when we first mated, that the magical world could feel us like we can feel those two?”
“Oh gods honey, I would hate to think they could. Surely over the years Jolene would have said something to me, or Ira to you. Embarrassing to know when your child and her mate are, are…”
“Making love? Having sex? Doing the horizontal dance?”
“Stop it. I don’t want to think of my baby doing those things.” Sibeal grimaced but before she could say more Conall leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“We could always cover their release of magic by making love. Then we would never notice.” The thunderstruck expression on his face stopped Sibeal from commenting and his next words lifted a burden from her shoulders she had not realized she carried since the first time her and Conall had realized the sudden release of magic they kept feeling come from their daughter having sex with her mate. “Sweetheart, I think you can stop worrying about whether anyone in the magical world can feel us. They would have found us centuries ago if we released buckets of magic like those two every time we made love. But,” he waggled his eyebrows at her again and leered, “if you are worried about it we can always go experiment.”
“No, you said I should call Kate and get Casey’s number. Now behave.”
“Such a spoilsport. I am definitely telling our daughter how cruel her mother is to me.”
“Oh? So I will put her on the phone with you and you can tell our daughter how her mother will not make love to her father. I am sure she will only stop talking to you for a week at most, no more than two.”
“No no, that is quite alright. I uh, you know I think I smell something burning in the oven.”
“We aren’t cooking anything you coward.”
Conall laughed and kissed the tip of her nose. “You call and I will pop us a bag of popcorn. Then we will decide what we are going to say when we call Casey.”
“Alright, deal.”
Chapter Sixteen
“No mum, I don’t have Casey’s number, why would I have her number, I don’t know her that well. Hold on though I will ask Craig.”
Sibeal heard the two talking and was writing down the number she heard before her daughter picked the phone up again. She took a deep breath as she realized they had told Marcus who they were but their own daughter had no idea. She looked worriedly toward the kitchen where she could hear the popcorn popping in the microwave. Guilt swamped her at the realization she and Conall had been so caught up in trying to hide the other two and figure out what to do they had neglected to tell the two most important people in the equation what was going on. She gathered her courage.
“Mum did you hear what he said?”
“Yes dear. Now love we have some information for you and Craig but your father needs you to come over so he can tell you.”
“I heard that. Quit throwing me under the bus woman. We have information we need to tell them.” Conall called out from the kitchen.
“Mum? What is dad talking about and why are you throwing him under the bus? Craig and I are a bit busy at the moment, can it wait?”
“No. It can not wait. The two of you need to get over here right now. And don’t talk to anyone on the way. Straight here.”
“Oh yeah mum, now that isn’t at all worrisome. Craig said we will be right there.”
Sibeal watched as her mate walked back in the room with a bowl of popcorn. His look of shame rivaled the shame she was feeling. He sat the bowl down in a lackluster manner on the table in front of the couch and shook his head as he sat down. “How could we have forgotten something so important? What if they run into Marcus on their way here? She is never going to forgive us for hiding something so important. What are we going to say? We have hidden the truth and lied to her for the entirety of her life. What if she never forgives us?”
“You know love, I am the one who should be worrying. She is going to blame me for all of this. After all, you mated to me and you are the innocent one in all of this.” She made a sweeping motion with her hand before bursting into tears and burying her face against his chest.
He rocked her as he whispered assurances to her, “Hush now love, hush, we were both innocent. You mother is the guilty one in all of this. The magic that bonds true-mates is never wrong and it was not for us. Your mother had no business trying to go against magic to try to keep us apart.” He stroked her hair and brushed his lips against her hair. “Come now, we did what we had to and no one who has ever true-mated could ever blame us for what happened. Think on that for a moment. Marcus and Krystal, as in love as they may be, and I don’t doubt they love each other greatly, are not true-mates. They can not know what the bond does to one and how far one will go for their mate. I am sure Marcus would go to great lengths for Krystal, but love, I doubt he would end the world for her. The difference between a true-mate love and just true-love, one would save the world for his mate and one would destroy the world for his mate.”
“But we lied to her all her life. She is never going to forgive us. We could have told her.” The deep heart rending sobs continued making her words almost impossible to understand.
Conall looked toward the door when the knock sounded and showed no surprise when it suddenly burst open. He knew his daughter would have heard her mother sobbing. Kate rushed into the room with Craig close on her heels.
“Mum? Mum what’s wrong? Dad, what’s wrong with mum? What happened? Did she get hurt? Mum? Show me where you got hurt. Did you fall, cut yourself, bad news? What happened?” Kate wailed.
“The two of you need to sit down, we have something to share. NO! Not there, sit in, no, sit there,” Conall pointed at the the love seat. Fire-resistant and with added protections from Sibeal he hoped it would weather whatever firestorm they were about to endure when the two found out the truth. He continued to stroke Sibeal’s hair as he looked at the pair in front of him.
“Craig perhaps you should sit a bit closer to my daughter and possibly wrap your arm around her.”
“Sir? I mean, I will be more than happy to do so but you have grumbled and snarled these last three weeks every time I touch her around you. Are you feeling alright? Should I call Marcus?”
“NO!” The choked scream came from Sibeal and all eyes turned her direction but she only buried her head in Conall’s shoulder again.
“Okay kids, since Sibeal really is going to throw me under the bus, I don’t suppose either of you brought band-aids with you?”
“Dad? What’s going on? Why is mum so upset and why do you keep accusing her of throwing you under the bus? What did you do?”
“Well pumpkin, it isn’t exactly what I did as what someone else did to me, to us.” He drew a deep breath and exhaled quickly before looking up at the ceiling. Kate looked at Craig and back at her father. She had been frantic with worry when they burst into the house, but now she was getting upset. She started tapping her foot.
“Now pumpkin, no need for all that. It isn’t as bad as you think.”
Sibeal burst into startled laughter mixed with heartbreaking sobs, “Is worse. Quit trying to shield her, it is so much worse.”
Conall shifted his eyes from side to side and almost sagged with relief when the gentle words drifted into him mind. He often forgot about being able to talk with others besides his mate and daughter. For hundreds of years all he had was Sibeal and he had gotten out of the habit of sharing with a pack.
>
Sir, what can be so bad to cause the two of you to act this way. How badly is this going to hurt my Kate and what can I do to help her?
We tried to protect her all of her life. You have heard us tell of how shifters forgot us from one meeting to the next but in the early days it was so much worse. You see we, I mean, our history is darker than even you could imagine.
I dunno sir, unless you are going to tell me your mate is the child of the witch Miranda I don’t think anything could be worse.
Craig watched the expression on Conall’s face go blank. The thousand yard stare that saw nothing, the way his grip tightened on Sibeal told Craig more than words that his joke had hit a nerve and the joke was no joke at all.
“Oh holy fucking shit. No fucking way. Ow, why did you hit me?” He turned startled eyes toward Kate.
“I told you about using the f word around me. Now, what am I missing?”
“Missing? I don’t know what you are talking about. What makes you think you are missing anything? No, nothing to see here, move along. Come love perhaps we should go home and give your parents some space. Yes, space, that is exactly what they need.” Craig stood up and tried to tug Kate along with him but she refused to budge.
“Oh my god, what is with you people? Now you are all hiding something from me, mum won’t answer me through the mind bond, Dad won’t answer me and now you want to go home and dad has this look like he just got kicked by a kangaroo. Sit down, shut up and somebody better start talking right this minute. I mean, now. This isn’t funny, and I am not amused. I want answers or I will turn my wolf loose on everyone here.”
“Sweetheart, we share a wolf and that is not how it works and you know it.”
Kate raised her eyebrows and tapped her foot. “Well let me tell you something buddy, I better get some answers pretty quick or you will be sleeping alone tonight.”
She smirked as she saw him send a frantic glance at her mum and dad before he blurted out, “You’re Miranda’s granddaughter.”
Kate closed her eyes and twisted her head a bit before opening her eyes again, her eyelids blinked frantically, the foot which had been tapping just moments before stilled. She looked at her parents, who were staring at Craig in horrified disbelief. The only sound in the room the hiccuping sobs of her mother. She could not process what she had just heard.
“You threw us under the bus for sex?” The hushed whisper of her dad finally broke the silence.
“Sir, no sir. She said, you heard her, I mean, no sir not for sex. No, I was just, it, you know, I mean…”
“Sit down. Mate I swear. Kate darlin, are you sure you want to keep this one? He is kinda dumb.” Conall snarled.
“Now sir, that is not fair. Shock and all that you know. Shock makes you say, you know what, it wasn’t me. It was that damn golden wolf. Not my fault at all.”
Kate rubbed her forehead, the words the others were saying sounded far away. She tried to think but her thoughts seemed foggy and she couldn’t hold on to them. She felt Craig’s arms go around her and he eased her head to his shoulders. “Come love, I am so sorry. I am the worst mate alive. Look at me, no, look at me. There that’s better, now I believe your mom and dad have something to tell us so maybe we should listen huh? What do you say?”
“I want to go home. Take me home Craig.” The hushed whisper heartbreaking in the sudden silence.
“Now love, I would love to take you home, only we can’t, not until we find out what is going on. I mean, if you are who they say you are then we need to know more. I mean, think about it, if you are Miranda’s granddaughter we don’t need to worry about the clans killing you anymore. They would never want to kill their leader’s granddaughter.”
Conall cleared his throat. “That is not precisely true. I mean, it is the furtherest from the truth you could get actually.”
“I’m sorry? I don’t understand you. This is great news for us right?”
“No.” Conall’s shoulders drooped as he started his tale. It took far longer to tell than the abbreviated version he had given Marcus, mainly because his daughter and her mate kept interrupting.
When the tale was finally finished and the couple brought up to speed Kate was the one who wore the look that saw nothing. Craig looked at her in worry and then to her parents, “She won’t answer me through our bond, is she talking to you?”
When both parents shook their heads he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the numbers till he landed on one. With a swipe of his finger he sent the call. The person who answered was not who he expected and the news the person had was shocking.
Chapter Seventeen
“Well do you see her anywhere?” Trey growled at the phone. His men had made it to Casey’s and called him. They had not made it into the cabin yet because of the ten foot crater in front of the door. The windows were shattered so getting in would not be a problem but they could smell death in the air and were concentrating on finding the body in the rubble.
“Look man, just go in through the window. I don’t care about the visitor’s car in a tree unless the visitor is in the car and has some answers for us. Can anyone get close enough to the car to find out?” Trey listened for a moment before continuing, “Well fuck it then. Find Casey first, and we will worry about the stranger later. Keep your eyes peeled for her though, she must have attacked Casey, no telling where she went, you know what, better yet have the men circle the cabin and search for her scent. If her attack sent her own car into a tree she will have to come down that mountain on foot. Get someone in the cabin, oh, okay. Well stay on the phone and follow him. I want to know as soon as they find her.”
Trey paced at the bottom of the mountain. He wanted to be with his men but David was already up there and they could not afford to lose both the Alpha and Beta of the pack if the stranger was still in a position to attack. While he listened to his men work their way around the cabin he ordered the ones around him to spread out and keep an eye out for the stranger trying to flee on foot. He didn’t think she would get far in all the snow but he also didn’t know who or what she was so he wouldn’t be taking any chances.
“Wait, Kyle? Did you say the cabin seems to be intact? I thought you said the blast blew out the front of the cabin?” he listened a moment longer, “Well then can you work your way to the front door. Shit, okay, yeah I gotcha. No, I don’t know how to get through the protections she has blocking you from getting in. Did you try all the blasted out windows?” Trey scratched his head. “Well hell, can you get something over the crater to get to the front door? You said it is gone so can you see into the cabin at all? A foot? Alright, have someone stay in that spot and watch that foot. You sure the crater is too big to jump? David should be able to clear a ten foot crater in his wolf form. Oh, yeah, good point. I will send some men up with some wood and tools and you can try to build a bridge of sorts across the crater. What do you think you need?”
Trey called back through the pack bond to the pack member who owned the small hardware store and told him what he needed. He had ordered a lock down on communications through the bond until they found out what they were dealing with since no one really knew what witches were capable of when it came to their powers.
“David don’t think he can make the jump? Wuss.” Eric snickered.
“David probably could make the jump. But no one is sure if the protection will be open on the front door so make the jump, hit the protection and fall to the bottom of the crater or wait for wood? I mean, if you want to head up there and try it be my guest.”
“Ah, no sorry Trey, I didn’t catch all the conversation.” Before Eric could continue Trey threw his hand up.
“Say that again? Ah, yeah, okay I will let the guys know. Keep watching that foot.”
“Eric.” Trey turned to tell Eric the news but Eric was already off and running with a hand wave to let him know he had heard the news. The others had found the stranger’s body, well parts of it. The blast had scattered it pretty well all over the place o
nce they got away from the immediate blast zone. So now they knew the foot they could see just inside the door belonged to Casey but they could not hear any sounds coming from her house and they could not get past the protections on the windows to get inside.
Well hell man, I was going to tell you I was dropping the pack communication ban since the stranger is dead but if you want to run and find all the others be my guest. I am going to head up the mountain though so if you need me you know how to reach me. Send Cain up with the material when he gets here with it. It is starting to snow, dammit.
Dammit Trey, why didn’t you say so. Go ahead, I will let the others know and, did you want us up there or what?
Yeah, get everyone together and bring them on up. No telling how long it will take us to get in the cabin. If the protections start at the door and the crater starts at the door we might not even get the wood across the hole. Not if we have no place to put it on the other side. Damn what a shitty day. Fucking snow. Listen up everyone, the snow is expected to get heavy today so we need to put a rush on this shit. Cain get that material up here on the double. Kyle see if you can toss a pebble or something through the doorway. We may be wasting our time trying to build a bridge but we need to try.
Everyone heard the jubilant shout through the bond as the small pebble Kyle threw crossed the crater and continued into the cabin.
***
Two hours later every pack member on the mountain had used their fair share of swear words.
“Toss a bigger rock, we have to find out how big something can be before the protections repel it back. David, get Casey’s plow out of the shed out back and see if you can get some of the snow off the road.” A piece of metal went flying past Trey’s head. When he jerked around he could see Cain dancing around throwing his fists in the air. He looked back at the door to see a piece of rebar jutting out of the house.
“You got more?” Trey looked over to see Cain’s son lugging several pieces of rebar. The men had all but given up on building a bridge, any wood they slid across hit the edge of the door frame and stopped just short of being far enough in the cabin to support any weight. Several of the men were working on building a ladder down into the hole but they were having to use hand tools since their batteries had gone dead earlier. The longest ladder they had would not reach the bottom of the crater so building a ladder to get to the bottom of the hole then climbing down and flipping the ladder around to the other side and back up was their only option. No one had figured out how they would get inside once they did make it across. The snow was getting heavier and Trey had no idea whether Casey’s protections would keep the heat in the house or whether she was laying there slowly freezing to death if she was even still alive. The men used found some plastic to cover the windows since the snow was blowing in the back. Fortunately the snow was blowing from the back so the door was not filling with snow. Kyle was keeping an eye on the foot and he had seen it move very slightly, but that was over an hour ago. Time was running out when Cain threw the rebar into the house. Now the men were sliding the long metal poles across but after laying three the others were not going anywhere. They tried to spread them out and the fourth one still did not clear the door frame. Trey looked back at the men building the ladder.
Miranda Page 7
