She lunged for his hand and then tugged, yanking him to her and turning him. She ran her hands all over his back. “Where did they go?”
He fought the urge to laugh. “Away for now.”
“That is so freaky,” she said with a snort. She stepped away from him. “And cool. Hold up. In the parking lot, when you grabbed me. Had you just flown to me or did you drive? I didn’t see your car, but the parking lot is packed.”
“I flew. I was in my realm and learned of a plot against you by my enemies. I left at once and sought you out,” he said, turning to face her once more. “I was so scared that I’d be too late. That the vultures would have you.”
She came right for him, her hands finding his torso.
He liked that she wanted to touch him. He wanted to touch her too. Actually, he wanted to lick his way over her entire body and then sink into her again. He’d never felt anything like being in her. Taking in her scent, he fought the urge to hike her dress and drive home once more.
“Why would these vulture dudes plot against me? I’m nobody,” she said.
“You’re my mate,” he stated clearly so there could be no confusion. “They had hopes to take you for themselves.”
“You said a mate is like a spouse,” she offered, her voice low.
“I did.” He slipped an arm around her waist and jerked her to him. “And you are not like a spouse to me. You are my spouse. My wife.”
A snort broke free from her.
He’d have taken offense, but he knew it was all overwhelming on the best of days. “Lisa, I claimed you. When we were joining, I said the binding words. You accepted me. Therefore, you accepted my claim. You agreed to take me as your husband, as your mate.”
She gasped. “That was what that was?”
“Yes.”
Her gaze smoldered. “Gardy, your proposal could use some work. So could your big reveals. Anything else earth-shattering you want to share?”
He bit the inside of his cheek as he waged an inner war on how much, if anything more, he should offer. She appeared angry enough with him for now. He knew her temper well enough to know he didn’t want to provoke it. “Hmm. Nothing comes to mind.”
She stared blankly at him. “Dude, you’re shit at lying.”
“Fine. The vulture captive we have said they have someone planted close to you, watching you—someone powerful who wants to breed you.” The second the words left him, he wanted them back.
Lisa stumbled and slapped his hand away as he tried to steady her. “Breed me? Like breed me, breed me?”
“Is there another version of that?” he asked without thought.
“Gardelle!”
He flinched. “Yes?”
She pointed at him. “I’ll rip any other guy’s wings off if he comes near me. You’re the only bird dude who gets to touch me like that.”
“Bird dude?” he asked, fighting a grin. He liked hearing she only wanted him and no other.
She paled. “Sabrina is going to kill me for having sex with you. We can’t tell her. Ever.”
He waited for her to take a breath before he bothered speaking. “Lisa, she was there when I realized who you are to me. She understands what being mates means. Lazar is her mate. They share a pull to one another. They balance each other. And they cannot deny their feelings for one another. He would die to protect her and his offspring, as a man should. As I would do for you.”
“Hold on. Die for me?” She pointed at him. “There will be no heroics. Got it? I already saw what you look like with a sword rammed through you as you spiraled out of the sky. I don’t need you doing anything stupid on my account. Not with all the men coming this way.”
Gardelle tensed. She’d had a vision of when he’d been injured in battle months ago? “What do you mean by all the men coming this way?”
She shrugged. “All the guys with vulture wings. They were converging on you here. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
He eased her closer to him, noting that her eyes had flecks of gold in them once again. The color wasn’t one found in human eyes. But it was one found in the bird realm.
He took a deep breath in again, catching the faintest hint of something he’d never noticed on her before—shifter.
Not just any kind either.
Eagle.
No. That couldn’t be. Could it?
“Lisa, we need to go now.”
Voices sounded from the other side of the door.
“No way is she in here. Lisa never uses the rooms. She doesn’t have sex with anyone,” said a male with a deep voice. “You’d better not let her hear you saying you saw her go in here. That woman will never let you hear the end of it.”
Lisa turned as the door opened—and a man Gardelle knew well filled the doorway. The man was a vulture shifter he’d faced on the battlefield more than once in his long life.
He snarled and charged him, only to have Lisa plant herself in his path.
“Stop it!” she shouted.
Gardelle stared down at her. “Woman, he is the enemy! Step aside.”
“He is Allan!” she shot back. “And he’s my friend. He works here. He’s not the enemy.”
Ignoring her protest, Gardelle moved her out of the way and went at the shifter male full-force. Allan countered the blows, and it took Gardelle a second to realize the other man wasn’t fighting back. He was simply trying to avoid being hit.
He stopped. “Why is it you do not fight?”
Allan stared at him and then Lisa. He shut the door to the room, closing himself in with them. Something no sane enemy would do.
Gardelle crossed his arms over his chest. He stared at the vulture shifter. “Speak.”
Lisa huffed and went right for Allan. “Are you hurt?”
Allan touched Lisa’s arm lightly, infuriating Gardelle. “I’m fine.”
“Take your hand from her.”
Allan eyed him. “Calm down. The music is loud enough that the others might not have heard us arguing. Keep shouting and they will. Trust me when I say you and I can’t stand against all the vultures here tonight.”
“There are more vultures here?” asked Gardelle.
Allan nodded. “Yes.”
Lisa blinked several times.
Gardelle put his hand out to her and drew her close. “Ta’konima, all will be will. I will not permit any to harm you.”
“Your love? Gardelle?” asked Allan.
Gardelle nodded. “I claimed her.”
Lisa rubbed her temples and hissed. When she looked up at Gardelle, her eyes were totally gold. “Ouch. So many. They’re closing in on the club. Some are already here. More are coming. It’s a trap, but not for you. For another.”
“Lisa?” asked Gardelle, worry lancing through him.
Allan let out a long breath. “Lisa, did you stop taking the herbal mixture your mother makes you?”
She lifted her head and peered at him through partially closed eyes. “How did you know?”
Allan stared past her at Gardelle. “Her mother is a healer. The mixture hides Lisa’s scent and blocks her seer abilities. Her parents have been making her take it since she was three and it became very obvious she possessed the gift of clear sight. She has a direct connection to the Oracle.”
“Why is it her parents hid with her here?” demanded Gardelle. “The eagles are as the hawks—their birthrate slowed to nearly nonexistent for centuries. They would celebrate having a child, a daughter. No whispers spoke of a child born to them in recent years.”
“Recent?” asked Lisa, still holding her head. “I’m almost twenty-five.”
“Yes. Recent,” he returned.
Allan went to the door and peeked out. He looked back. “He’s right, Lisa. To us, you seem very, very young. We have been alive a long time. More years than you would be comfortable hearing about.”
She lay her head against Gardelle’s chest. “Allan, you’re like Gardy?”
“Gardy?” mocked Allan.
Gard
elle flipped him off.
Chapter Thirteen
Allan closed the door quickly and spun around to face Gardelle. “The club is full of my kind. They’ve been planning something big for weeks. They kept me out of the loop. I think their trust in me is shaken. I only just found out the truth tonight.”
“Why warn me of this?” asked Gardelle, skeptical of the man’s intent.
“Because I want Lisa safe as much as you do,” confessed the vulture shifter. He looked to Lisa. “I reached out to your father. I got his voicemail. I can only hope he gets the message and comes in time. Zalse’s plan will leave you hurt or dead. He thinks to breed you against your will if need be. I can’t let that happen. I owe Brimlah my life. The least I can do is protect his daughter.”
“Brimlah?” Gardelle tensed at the name of one of the most notorious generals in vulture history. There was no way the man could be Lisa’s father. She smelled of eagle shifter, not vulture. And Gardelle would have smelled vultures in the vicinity. He smelled none. In fact, he didn’t even smell Allan as he should.
Something was amiss.
Lisa moved to the center of the room. “Hold up, are you talking about my dad? His name is just Brim. Not Brimlah. And you can’t reach him because he’s on a flight to California right now to see my mom. And what do you mean, Zalse’s plan will hurt me? And breed me? Eww. Who says that? He would never hurt me. He was nothing but nice to me on our dates.”
“Dates?” demanded Gardelle. “You went on a date with the enemy?”
Allan groaned. “She did. When I learned, I was less than pleased.”
“Did you sleep with him?” Gardelle stared at his mate, wanting an answer.
The response he got made his cock want to tuck and run. His mate glared at him with a crazed expression. “And if I did?”
He squared his shoulders, ready to tell her exactly what he thought of her sleeping with Zalse, when Allan jumped up and down behind Lisa’s back, shaking his head as if warning Gardelle to shut up and not speak. Gardelle kept his mouth closed.
Allan exhaled, appearing relieved.
Lisa continued to glare holes into Gardelle. She put a hand to her hip. “I’m waiting for an answer. Because who I sleep with is not your concern.”
“Actually, it is,” said Allan.
Gardelle rolled his eyes. “I thought you wanted me to be quiet and say no more?”
“Well I did but then I remembered her temper,” Allan added. “You clearly know her. Her temper is notorious. Want her pissed at you for being protective like a mate should be?”
“Good point,” said Gardelle, earning him another scorching stare from Lisa.
He tried a partial grin.
It didn’t work.
“My love, have I told you how beautiful you are?” he asked.
She groaned. “Oh please.”
Gardelle winked.
She faced Allan. “How do you know my dad? Does my dad know bird dudes are real?”
Allan offered a sympathetic expression. “Lisa, I’ve known your father for hundreds of years. There was a time I followed him blindly into battle. When we both believed what we’d been taught. That our kind should rule the world. Rule all realms. But he started to change around fifty years ago.”
“Your kind? Meaning my dad is like you guys?” Lisa shook her head and stepped back into Gardelle’s embrace.
He hugged her.
Allan continued, “Yes. He’s like me. He and your mother had finally gotten with child. They were thrilled. They’d tried for centuries. He stepped away from his position as general to watch over her, wanting to be sure she and the babe she carried were safe.”
Lisa tensed.
Gardelle rubbed her arms and kissed the back of her head.
“The people we answer to weren’t happy with him stepping down from his duties. They forced him back into service. While he was away, your mother lost the babe. It devastated them both. She sank into a dark head space. She remained that way for decades. And then one day, nearly twenty-five years ago, Brimlah and I arrived at a village our army had ransacked. It was already engulfed in flames. The other men, our soldiers, were doing unspeakable things. Brimlah ordered them to go,” Allan said, before glancing at the floor. “They did. What was left in their wake was an entire eagle village destroyed. We thought our men had killed every resident. But when Brimlah heard the faint cries of a baby, he ran in the direction of the sound.”
Gardelle squeezed Lisa tighter.
“We found a dying older woman, a healer, holding a small baby girl to her, trying to keep her safe,” confessed Allan. “Brimlah and I tried to assist the woman. We tried to save her. Brimlah may have been a feared general, but he did not earn that title by harming women or children. It was clear the woman could not be saved. She told us that the child’s mother was a seer of their village. That her father died standing against the other soldiers. And that word had only just reached the village that her older twin brothers had perished in battle as well. That she had no kin to speak of. No one to care for her. No one to love her. No one to protect her.”
Gardelle’s chest tightened.
Allan stared at Lisa. “You were so tiny. So small. The second Brimlah took you from the dying woman’s arms, you stopped crying. You went right to sleep as if you trusted him fully.”
Lisa froze.
“I suggested we take you to the nearest eagle village that was left untouched by the fighting and leave you there to be with your own kind,” said Allan. He sighed. “We tried. But you screamed and cried each time Brimlah tried to separate from you. Each time, it broke something in him. Something in us both. Finally, we just took you with us and left. He returned home to his mate with you in hand, fearful she would reject you because you were not of her body, of her kind. She didn’t. She looked at you and began to cry. She then told Brimlah that they had to run with you. That our kind could not be permitted to know of your existence. That they must leave the home realm.”
“And they found a way to hide what she is from everyone?” asked Gardelle.
Allan swallowed hard. “Brimlah’s mate is an expert healer. She knew of ways, of herbs that would hide who and what Lisa was. Herbs that would hide her scent and that would keep her from showing traits of a seer. It’s how they’ve hidden from others of our kind too. I’m here, watching over Lisa for her mother. Her father doesn’t know about this place or the fact she works here. He’d lose his mind and burn the place to the ground. No matter what you think of us, Gardelle, Brimlah sees her as his daughter and he loves her greatly.”
Gardelle wrapped his arms around Lisa tighter. She was strangely quiet. He had to assume it was all a lot for her to take in. It would be for anyone. “Lisa?”
“My parents aren’t my real parents? They’re bird people?”
Allan sighed. “They love you with all they have, Lisa. So much that they walked away from the only life they ever knew, from powerful people who would rather see them dead than to abandon the greater mission, all to keep you safe. And they have always been good to you. They’ve given you everything. They’ve protected you.”
Had Gardelle not seen it for himself, and known that Lisa had been cared for as a child, he’d have thought it a lie. Never had he known vultures to be anything close to nurturing or loving.
The door to the room opened quickly. Gardelle exhaled when he saw it was Lazar.
Lazar took one look at Allan and made a move to attack.
It was Gardelle blocking the strike this time. “No. He is on our side.”
Lazar strained against Gardelle’s hold. “He is one of them! He is of the Vultures!”
“Trust me, I know. I’m struggling with it all too, but I can tell you that he seems to really care for Lisa’s well-being,” supplied Gardelle. “There is more.”
Lazar sniffed the air. “I smell eagle shifter. And it’s coming from Lisa!”
“That would be the more,” said Gardelle.
Shaking his head in disbelief
, Lazar looked to Gardelle. “No. We’d have smelled that on her before now.”
“Long story,” said Lisa. “Apparently, my mom and dad, who aren’t my biological parents by the way, cooked up something to make me seem less like a parakeet and more like a person.”
“A parakeet?” Gardelle lifted a brow, and then saw the glint of mischief in his mate’s eye. “You are trouble.”
“Of the worst kind,” she said with a wink. “Feel bad for claiming me now?”
Lazar grabbed Gardelle’s upper arms. “You did it? You claimed her? She is your mate?”
“Yes, yes, and yes,” said Gardelle, unable to hide his excitement. “She is my wife. She is mine.”
“Yeah, we’re going to have a long talk about that whole ‘mine’ thing, Gardy,” pressed Lisa, giving him a hard glower.
Lazar snorted and clasped Gardelle’s shoulder. “Congratulations, old friend. And I’m sorry. She is the mate most likely to castrate someone in their sleep.”
Gardelle laughed. “That she is.”
Lisa stared at Lazar. “You can turn into a falcon?”
“I can,” said Lazar. “You’re taking this news better than I thought you would.”
“I’m fifty-fifty on having lost my mind,” returned Lisa. “On a good note, if this is a delusion, it’s full of hot guys. Not to mention Gardelle is hung like a frigging horse.”
Gardelle groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Lisa, my love, we can probably keep that to ourselves.”
“Pfft. I’m planning to shout it from the rooftops. So should you. That is something to be very proud of,” she said, making Gardelle’s cheeks flame pink.
He groaned again.
It was official.
Warriors did blush.
“Hold on,” said Lisa. “Lazar, why are you here? If you even think of looking at another woman in this club, I’ll rip your eyes out and give them to Sabrina as a gift right after I hand her your balls in a jar.”
Lazar put his hands up, appearing scared of the threat. “We tracked Gardelle here. I was voted as the one to come in and retrieve him. They thought he’d be less likely to kill me since I’m mated to his niece. I also walked in holding my hands up like this.” The man put his hands to the sides of his head, much like he had horse blinders on. “I saw nothing I was not supposed to.”
Under His Wing Page 9
