by Tami Lund
“Dane,” she said in a hushed voice as she reached out and grasped her brother’s arm. “There’s a creature in your house.”
Dane’s head whipped around, but when he only saw Sofia peering out the window, he sagged with relief. But then he stiffened again, as he realized his sister, whose nickname was Gossip Queen, recognized that whatever Sofia was, she wasn’t a Lightbearer. He stepped away from the door with the intention of leading Raquel away from the cottage.
Alyssa darted in through the open front door.
“Alyssa—no,” Dane and Raquel shouted at the same time. They both chased after her.
Inside, Alyssa and Sofia stood in the small front entry, staring at one another. Sofia was, undoubtedly, much more fascinating to Alyssa than Alyssa was to her. Sofia had already become used to being around Lightbearers. Alyssa had never before seen a shifter.
“What are you?” Alyssa asked.
Sofia puffed out her chest. “I’m a shifter,” she announced proudly.
Alyssa’s eyes grew wide. Behind her, Raquel made a noise of distress. Dane grabbed her arm. “It’s fine, Raquel,” he said. “I can explain— ”
“Are you going to bite me or something?” Alyssa wanted to know.
Sofia giggled. “I don’t know. Do you taste good?”
Raquel made another strangled noise, while Alyssa giggled.
“I don’t think so,” Alyssa replied. “Why are you in my Uncle Dane’s house?”
Sofia shrugged. “Our pack leader killed my daddy, so my mommy said she will never live under his rule again. We called Tanner and we met him and he rescued us. He had a bunch of you all with him and brought us here.” She shrugged again.
Raquel gave her brother a questioning look, while the girls continued to chat like miniature adults.
“What is she talking about? Is that really a shifter?”
Before Dane could respond, Ariana stepped out of the guest bedroom. “Dane, dear, do you think—oh.”
With a grim look on his face, Dane introduced the two women. “Ariana Lyons, Raquel Vollens. Raquel is my sister. Ariana is— ”
“Another shifter,” Raquel finished for him. She stared at the older woman, who nervously patted her hair and offered a tentative smile.
Raquel turned to her brother. “How many are there?” she demanded.
“Um...”
Lisa chose that moment to step into the room, holding her sleeping infant son in her arms. She saw Raquel and froze in place. Her gaze darted around the room and settled on Sofia, who was now on her hands and knees with Alyssa, playing with the toy train.
“Lights above,” Raquel whispered, and then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to the ground. With shifter speed, Ariana rushed to catch her before she hit the floor.
“This isn’t good,” Dane muttered as he wrung his hands and watched Ariana place his sister on the sofa. “This isn’t good at all."
* * * *
Tanner was lounging in Olivia’s bed, having refused to leave after Cecilia interrupted their lovemaking session that morning. The bed was still rumpled from when they’d resumed—albeit in a different position—after Olivia returned from breakfasting with her parents and cousin. Olivia had brought with her a platter of food, heavy on meat product. Tanner claimed he couldn’t resist expressing his gratitude for her thoughtfulness.
There was a knock on the outer door, and before Olivia could tell him to shift, he had already taken on the form of a housecat, and lay curled in the middle of the bed, looking innocent and perfectly ordinary. Olivia had the urge to laugh because innocent and ordinary were hardly words that would describe Tanner, regardless of his form.
A servant named Mandy stood in the hall. She was positively quivering with excitement. “I’ve come to clean your chamber, princess.”
Olivia winced. Mandy was still young, having only passed fifteen summers, and so refused to call her Olivia, like the older servants did. She did not want nor appreciate the constant reminder of her obligation in life. Especially now that she was sleeping with Tanner and was dangerously close to developing feelings for him. If she hadn’t already.
She thought about the one her father promised her to, and she thought about Tanner. No contest. To make matters worse, while Tanner had figured out she was a princess—the only heir—he had not yet figured out just what that meant. She was reasonably certain he would not handle it well when he did. Tanner was the possessive type, and he was by no means ready to give her up. While on a very selfish and utterly pleasurable level she appreciated that sentiment, on an entirely different and all too real level, she knew that eventually he would have no choice.
“You seem awfully excited about cleaning my chamber,” Olivia commented.
Mandy giggled nervously. “Not hardly,” she admitted. “It’s just I heard the most insane rumor.”
Olivia’s heart began beating rather erratically. Considering the utter lack of excitement there normally was within the coterie, she was afraid to ask about the nature of the rumor Mandy heard. Yet she had to. In case...
“Oh?” she inquired weakly. She glanced at the doorway leading into the bedchamber. She could not see Tanner from this vantage point, but was certain he could hear their conversation. Just yesterday he’d commented that shifters had remarkable hearing…
“I know something else that’s pretty remarkable,” she’d teased as her hand snaked down to wrap around his as-always eager appendage.
He had fallen back against the pillows and closed his eyes and let her have her wicked way, remarking, “That’s only because of you,” and she thought it was one of the sweetest compliments she’d ever been given…
She wasn’t ready to give him up, either.
“Jayne and Anna were in the kitchens whispering, and Carley overheard,” Mandy explained as she automatically pulled on her magic and began dusting the sitting chamber. “Carley told them to stop talking nonsense, but Jayne swore it was true, because she’d heard it from her aunt and her aunt had gotten it from her best friend.”
Olivia wondered if she’d ever actually get to the point of explaining the rumor. She wasn’t particularly concerned with how it all started.
“...And her best friend heard it directly from Raquel Vollens, and she actually saw—”
Olivia finally interrupted. She knew Raquel was Dane’s sister, and she knew Raquel’s reputation as a rumor monger—although at the moment she thought Mandy could give the woman a run for her money.
“What was the actual rumor, Mandy?” she asked more sharply than the situation might have warranted, if Olivia weren’t so nervous about the subject matter.
“Oh,” Mandy said, drawing up short. She blinked rapidly, as if trying to adjust her train of thought. Then she said, “It is about shifters. Raquel Vollens swears there are shifters here, in the coterie.”
Olivia’s suspicion hadn’t been wrong, although it was still a jolt to hear it spoken out loud. Mandy continued talking.
“At her brother’s house. Dane Metaldyne. He’s a king’s guard, too. And isn’t he— ” Her eyes grew wide as she stared at Olivia.
“Yes,” Olivia confirmed, cutting her off before she said something that Tanner should not overhear. Not yet. If she could, she would keep Tanner from learning that particular bit of news forever.
“Well, anyway,” Mandy said as she straightened the papers on the desk that sat facing the floor-to-ceiling windows in the sitting chamber. “Some other king’s guards are going to investigate, to figure out if the rumor really is— ” She sputtered to a stop, as her eyes widened further and her mouth formed a perfect O in her face. Olivia turned around and saw that Tanner was standing in the entry to the bedchamber, in human form, dressed in a pair of black cargo shorts and nothing else. Olivia could understand why Mandy had gone speechless. It was a positively breathtaking sight.
“I have to go,” he said, looking at Olivia. “I have to protect them.”
She could do nothing more tha
n nod mutely. His arm lifted, as if he meant to reach out to her, but then his gaze slid to Mandy, who was still immobile and staring, and then he turned and strode into the bedchamber again. Several heartbeats later, Olivia finally broke from her own trance and followed him.
The door leading to the balcony was open and Tanner was nowhere to be seen. She hurried across the room and looked out in time to catch a glimpse of a hawk, just before it swooped over the edge of the cliff and out of sight. Then she turned and raced from the room, past a still dumb-struck Mandy and out into the hall. She flung herself down the hall toward the stairs.
If the king’s guard was really heading to Dane’s cottage, she had to get there to ensure they did not harm any of the shifters.
Especially Tanner.
Chapter 15
“Father, you aren’t listening to me.”
“What knowledge do you have of shifters, daughter?”
“A great deal more than you,” Olivia said wearily. They’d been arguing for hours, and she’d gotten nowhere.
By the time Tanner arrived at Dane’s cottage, Ariana, Lisa, the pups, and Dane had all been taken into custody. Dane had put up a massive fight, injuring five guards before they’d subdued him as well. When Olivia arrived, there were a dozen guards surrounding the cottage, and not a one would let her get close enough to ensure Tanner and the others were not hurt or abused in any way. When she saw them leading Dane away with iron manacles on his wrists, she knew the situation was worse than she could have even imagined. Dane, of all Lightbearers, could do no wrong in Olivia’s father’s eyes.
Sander did not believe her. “I’ve read the same books,” he said. “Undoubtedly, I’ve read more than you. As the king, it is my responsibility to ensure I understand everything about my enemy. You, on the other hand, were always more worried about reading those healer journals.” The look he gave her was disapproving.
It barely registered to Olivia that he had been aware of her habit of sneaking into the library and slipping the thick tomes off the shelves. She thought she’d been so careful about it.
“Reading about them is not the same as living with them, which I essentially did for over a week. Cecilia too. And Dane. When are you going to free Dane? All he did was come to my rescue and take care of the shifters at my insistence.” The very least she could do was convince her father that Dane was innocent in this charade.
“I’ve no doubt Dane did what he did because of his feelings for you,” Sander replied.
“That is not it at all,” Olivia insisted. Why would her father not listen? Why was she really so surprised? For nearly her entire life, he’d made decisions based upon what he determined was best for her, without taking into consideration her own feelings on the subject.
It’s my life, she wanted to scream. Except it wasn’t. She was the Lightbearer princess, the only one who could provide an heir to the Lightbearer throne. She had an obligation to carry on the family line, to produce a son for Sander to declare as the future king. Her life had never been her own, not from the moment she was born. The last several weeks had been nothing more than a pretense.
I cannot give up Tanner.
“Dane will be pardoned,” Sander went on. “However he must still be punished. My subjects will not respect me if I allow him to be pardoned without acknowledging that he was wrong.”
“They’re your subjects,” Olivia pointed out. “They have to respect you, or at least obey you and accept whatever decisions you make. You are the king. That means if you want to accept shifters into your coterie, you are perfectly within your right to do so.”
Sander gave her a disbelieving look. “But I have no desire to accept shifters into my coterie.”
“Father, please listen to me,” Olivia pleaded. “Lisa is all alone in the world, with those two pups— ”
“Pups? She refers to her children as dogs?”
Olivia bit back an irritated sigh. “That is what shifters call their children, yes. But they are children, just children. They cannot even shift until somewhere between their fifth and eighth year. And Ariana, she nearly died until I— ” Sander cut her off again.
“I could tell she had your magical residue about her. The male as well,” he said disapprovingly. “Practicing healing without the proper training is a very dangerous game, daughter.”
“Well I do not have a choice, do I?” Olivia spat, her temper flaring. “You have never allowed me to train. And I certainly could not allow the woman to die.”
“Why not? She would not return the favor, I am certain.”
“You are wrong,” Olivia insisted. “In fact, she did return the favor, when we were attacked by another pack of shifters. She and Tanner and Dane and Lisa— ” Once again, he cut her off. Olivia wondered if she’d ever been able to talk to her father, ever in her entire life, without the man interrupting to add his own opinion. More proof that he never really listened to her—ever.
They were in the library, her father’s sanctuary, the place he retreated to when he needed to think through a difficult situation. The place he locked himself into when he had to balance the royal ledgers. Olivia knew he kept a bottle of old faery wine tucked into a hidden drawer in the cabinet near the far wall, for those situations that warranted a little boost of liquid courage. She wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled out the wine at any moment. She was half tempted to ask for a nip herself. She could certainly use it.
“Go,” Sander said dismissively. “I have a great many things to do. The guards outside the door will escort you to your chamber.”
“Guards?” Olivia repeating, turning and looking at the closed door.
Sander nodded. “That lot was able to get into the coterie. There may be others that have as well.”
Olivia gritted her teeth and very nearly growled. “I brought them into the coterie, Father,” she ground out, but it was pointless. He’d already dismissed her. He was seated behind his desk, perusing the papers spread there. Feeling so frustrated she wanted to scream, Olivia stalked to the door.
She wrenched it open and found two guards standing in the hall. Samuel, the one who had carried a flame for Cecilia ever since he understood the difference between girls and boys, and another guard named Micca, who under normal circumstances was a pleasant enough person. They immediately fell into formation, as if they intended to protect her with their lives.
“I do not need nor want your company,” she snapped, feeling only slightly guilty for taking out her frustration on the two men, who were only doing their jobs.
“We are following the king’s orders,” Samuel explained. He walked next to her while Micca followed a step behind.
When they reached her chamber, Olivia gave Samuel an imperious look. “I mean to go inside and change my clothing. Do you plan to follow?”
Samuel looked aghast. “I would never— ”
“Good,” Olivia said, and she opened the door and hastily closed it in his face. She wasn’t terribly surprised to turn around and find Cecilia standing in the middle of the chamber.
“This is terrible,” Cecilia cried dramatically. “What are we going to do? They are saying Uncle Sander plans a public execution. And what about Dane?”
Olivia walked over to the desk and her own secret stash of faery wine. She pulled out the crystal decanter, poured the burgundy liquid into two tiny crystal glasses, and offered one to Cecilia. Then she walked over and dropped onto the settee that faced the fireplace.
“He is going to pardon Dane, but only after everyone in the coterie understands that he has been properly punished for his transgressions.”
“And what of the others?”
“I have no idea, although I highly doubt my father would perform a public execution. The man cannot abide violence.”
“So what do you think he will do?”
“No idea,” Olivia repeated. “We’ve never experienced a situation like this before.” She opened one eye to look at her cousin. “He says he knows more than I do about shifters
because he’s read a bunch of books about them. He also knows that I’ve been sneaking healer journals from the library.”
“Speaking of that,” Cecilia said. She walked over to the settee and held out her hand. It contained a small, thin book. The ancient, leather-bound tome looked as if it hadn’t been preserved very well. “Crazy enough, I found this in my parents’ cottage. I thought it would be amusing to read. It’s called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Dangerous Shifters.”
“What a ridiculous title,” Olivia spat. She did not take the book. “Unless it tells us how to get out of this sort of situation, I’m not in the mood to read what is undoubtedly a very slanted view of shifters.”
Cecilia placed her wine glass on a side table and gently opened the book. The pages were so thin and delicate, Olivia was mildly surprised they did not simply disintegrate in her hands.
“Did you know they fight with one another to claim the title of pack master?”
“I’ve heard that, yes,” Olivia said absently.
“They can live as animals, without ever shifting into human form,” Cecilia continued to read.
“Perhaps I could convince my father to let them be our pets. Do you think he would choose that as a form of punishment?”
Cecilia chuckled at her wry tone. “Doubtful. Oh, here is a very interesting tidbit about sex.”
“Oh? What’s that?” That shifters were utterly amazing at it?
“It says that if a male shifter wants to mate with a female, he asks her permission, and then they have sex shifter style. Once it’s over, they’re mated.”
“Shifter style?”
Cecilia nodded and pointed at the book. “There’s a picture.” She lifted the book to show Olivia. The picture was a basic sketch of a male and female, having sex like animals, with the woman on all fours and the man entering her from behind.
Just like she and Tanner almost did the day Cecilia walked in on them. Olivia clutched at the arms of her chair. “What else does it say? What if a shifter inadvertently has sex like that? Are they still mated?” Her voice was breathless.
