“What the hell is this?” Kal asked coolly. “Welcoming committee for my own territory?”
I turned and saw a tawny, tall man with all-gold angles and a careless grace leaning against a tree. A wide, delighted smile was on his face, and his amber eyes glinted with amusement. When he saw me looking, he winked, and Kal made a noise in his throat.
“We came to check on you,” said another voice. Deep and melodic, with a stern note that reminded me of Kal. My eyes left the grinning shifter and moved to a dark, storm-blue-eyed man who was standing next to him. Power hummed through the air, and he gave me a small smile.
Oh my God, I thought as the realization hit me. Tristan Llary and Xander Bane.
“Don’t look so starstruck, sweetheart,” the tawny-haired one said, and grinned. “You’ve already met Kal, so there’s really no reason to be nervous if you’ve tamed the big ice bear.”
“Tristan,” the dark man warned as Kal tensed next to me.
Letting out an irritated huff, Kal said, “Iris Lisay, Tristan Llary and Xander Bane." He ground out their names with an irritation that only siblings could invoke. I knew it well. As much as I loved Leon, he'd driven me insane sometimes. "Welcome to Winfyre."
“We’re glad you’re here and all right, Miss Lisay,” Xander said.
“Oh, wow, thank you,” I said and clamped my elbows in my palms. I suddenly felt absurdly petite in their presence even though I was a perfectly average height. Glancing at Kal, too, it struck me again how tall and robust he was, even with two other Alphas. “Nice to meet you.”
“Aren’t you a cinnamon roll?” Tristan said cheerfully and grinned at me. “Sierra and the girls are gonna love you.”
From the way he said the name Sierra, I knew she had to be his mate. I’d loved that story. The Tiselk scout who’d stolen the Tiger’s heart.
However, part of me was nervous to meet her. A scout was someone who did any number of odd jobs in the Tiselk. Usually collecting information on the territories. In a way, my job for the Burnfur and Greyclaw had been to help foil them.
While I knew the Tiselk and the Northbane had a decent relationship, the other Northern Wilds didn’t take so kindly to the wide expanse of packless shifters to the west. I hoped Sierra wouldn’t hold my Greyclaw and Burnfur liaisons against me.
“Did Cassidy rat me out?” Kal rumbled and then seemed to regret his words. “I mean…” he trailed off, and Tristan grinned more widely. “Why are you here?”
“Of course Cass ratted you out. She told Niles and Rogda, then Reagan, who told Luke, who told me, and I told Sierra. I think Reagan told Laia and Rett, then Rett told Xander, if you must know," Tristan said, and Xander chuckled. “And we wanted to make sure you were okay, moron.”
Kal snorted. “I’m not you, Tristan.”
“That was a bad storm that rolled through yesterday,” Xander added, and I saw he was studying his friend. “I’d hoped you’d take the Southern Pass, not the Anklebiter.”
“Anklebiter?” I asked.
“Anklebiter, Neckbreaker, the Crack—that hellish, eighty-five-degree incline full of rocks this ice bear brought you up yesterday,” Tristan said.
“It wasn’t that bad,” I demurred. Kal already felt bad about that. Were these two here to bust his balls? “And we’re here. We’re okay.”
To my surprise, Tristan looked even more amused and delighted, and even Xander’s hard-to-read face flickered with a shit-eating grin. I glanced over at Kal and saw that he was glaring at his pack brothers, his face drawn. He suddenly looked exhausted to me, and when he met my eyes, a guilty light jumped into them.
I went to say something, when Tristan said, “So, how’d a Northbane girl wind up running errands for the Greyclaw and the Burnfur?”
To my surprise, the edges of Kal’s mouth twitched, as though fighting a smile, and he shot an unreadable look at Tristan. Almost gratitude, if I had to guess. I looked over at Tristan as well, and it hit me. He’d meant me.
A Northbane girl.
A burst of joy hit me, and I smiled, even as I said, “But I’m not a shifter.”
“Yeah, whatever—we used to be like that, only shifters could be Northbane, but whatever. We all live in Winfyre Ridge, shifters, stasis, and Riftborn, and we all keep ’er runnin’.”
“Tristan’s right,” Xander said. “And Kal said you were moving here. We’ll find you appropriate lodging as soon as possible.”
“What, when? How?” I asked.
Kal shot me a small, smug smile and tapped the side of his head. “Northbane secret.”
At that moment, I knew I should refuse, I should set things straight and tell him I didn’t think I could move up here. Even if the Tiger said I was Northbane, and Xander Bane had come all this way to greet me. But those two things paled in comparison to Kal’s crooked smile.
I’d thought he’d mentioned that in passing last night, even though nothing about Kal suggested he did things on the spur of the moment like I did. Knowing he had meant it and had somehow passed it along to his friends, friends who’d made it a point to make me feel welcome…
It was another unexpected and unfamiliar, nice feeling.
So much so, that I began to wonder if I should’ve come to Winfyre in the first place.
Chapter Nine
Kal
“We have a problem.”
I was sitting outside the southern gate barracks, sipping coffee and watching the sunrise. We’d gotten here late last night, and even though Iris was in capable hands, I’d decided to stick around and spend the night here, too. I hadn’t gotten much sleep, though, going over reports and discussing the book, which had been whisked off to Veda a few hours ago.
So, I’d been enjoying the bite of winter and the nice, peaceful quiet. Alone.
Then Xander had appeared, with all three Alphas striding along with him. A sigh had escaped me at the sight, and I’d gulped the rest of my coffee.
This can’t be good.
“Isn’t it a bit early?” Rett asked and rubbed his face. His dark beard was wilder than usual, and his hair was a mess, while his clothes looked thrown on. “Also, why do I have to be here?”
“Luna still fighting that cold?” Tristan asked.
“Yes,” the father of two groaned. “And now Laia is coming down with it, I think. I made her go to bed, but Luna couldn’t sleep, so I stayed up until a few hours ago with her.”
Fatherhood suited my cousin. But of course, he’d be overly worried about a small case of the sniffles affecting his daughter and his mate.
“Mm, well, Laia is more of a bear than you and Kal combined when she’s sick,” Tristan said and yawned. He was Laia’s cousin, as Winfyre was extremely crisscrossed when it came to Deacons and Llarys. “I wish you luck.”
“Cass was there when I left,” Rett said and rubbed his face. “Although I think Laia is more upset about not being able to tag along and meet Iris.”
“Yeah, I had to sneak out on Reagan and Caleb,” Luke said with a soft laugh, naming his mate and son. “Reagan wouldn’t stop asking Cassidy a million questions about Iris.”
A gnawing discomfort settled in my gut. “Why?”
Rett, Luke, and Tristan laughed. Xander didn’t. Instead, he shot them a shake of his head and turned to me. “I received a message from the Greyclaw early this morning. Norson.”
“And?” I prompted as my pack groaned. “What did he want? To say thanks?”
"Not exactly. Demanding we send Iris and the book back to them.”
We all stared at him.
Tristan began to laugh, then stopped. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
I knew that the Northern Wild territories could contact each other in case of emergency, now more or less instantly with Riftborn gifts helping, but this was the first time I’d heard of demands being made for a specific person. My person.
“Kal stops a black market auction on their doorstep and saves a woman’s life, and they’re upset about it?” Trista
n demanded.
“This is a problem,” Rett muttered.
“Yes,” Xander said. “They’re considering it either an act of aggression”—I made an angry noise, and Luke patted my shoulder—“or Northbane interference. They felt you should have accompanied Iris back to the Greyclaw, and they should’ve been alerted sooner.”
I frowned. “That didn’t make sense at the time—the woods were crawling with Sarrow’s goons and packless. It wasn’t safe to linger or try to get around them so Norson’s precious feelings wouldn’t get hurt.”
“Kal, you don’t have to justify shit to me,” Xander said impatiently and rubbed the back of his head. “But you did act impetuously, and it’s almost like the Greyclaw are trying to use that against us. Complaining we should have involved them.”
“Ah, they’re getting childish about us making the right calls at the right times and not looping them in for the credit,” Tristan observed. “Think we’re acting superior and mighty when we’re just trying to keep everyone safe.”
“We’re the more powerful territory,” Xander said. “Keeping the peace is crucial, but we have to be careful our hands don’t tip the scales against it.”
“What are you saying?” I asked. “That I have to bring Iris back to them?” A hollowness spread through me, and something squeezed hard around my heart. “I can’t, Xan, she—”
“No, I don’t want you to bring Iris back,” Xander said. “Beylore and Yana are already concerned about this book. Iris may be an unwitting pawn in a larger scheme. We need to keep her as safe and secure as possible.” He paused, and the silence pushed between us as Xander tipped up his eyebrows. “We need to calm down the Greyclaw, distract them.”
At a loss, I shook my head at him and glanced around at my pack brothers. Tristan looked torn between amusement and worry, while Rett was frowning, and Luke was avoiding my eyes. All of them were trying not to smile. What had they figured out that I hadn’t?
Suddenly, my gut roiled, and I knew exactly where Xander was going with this.
Claiming Iris.
Oh, hell no. “What kind of sick joke is this?” I asked hoarsely.
“It’s damned clever,” Luke said slowly. “They’d have to back off.”
“No, there has to be another way,” I said. “That’s outdated as hell. And…I can’t. I was planning on heading back out and following up leads.”
“Fallon and the Vixens will be handling that, along with Jeques,” Xander said. “She’s not happy about it, but I need her skills. Like I need you, here.”
“What am I supposed to do? Sit in Veda and babysit?” I groaned.
"No, you are going to help Iris crack that book and keep her safe," Xander said. "Besides, we all know there's a connection—"
“No.” The word sliced through the air, and Xander’s jaw tightened. “There isn’t. There’s nothing. I acted like an honorable Northbane and in the interest of Winfyre. There was nothing more.” I ground down my teeth as skepticism filled four gazes. “She’s not even a friend.”
I couldn’t even think of claiming Iris, especially since the Alphas of the Northbane had a bad habit of claiming a lady and then…well, look at Reagan, Laia, and Sierra. That alone had sparked giddy rumors and had led to more than one new female refugee attempting to get claimed by myself or Xander. Something that Luke and Tristan thought hilarious, the bastards.
Nowadays, too, with the Stasis Bureau and Skrors in the past, and Excris attacks rare—it was unnecessary. Besides, why should one Winfyre resident be singled out?
“Like it or not, you’ve put us in an awkward position, Kal,” Xander said. “People know what you did, and if you don’t take these steps, we’re going to have serious fallout with the Greyclaw. Maybe the Burnfur.” I didn’t respond. “This isn’t about survival or the Stasis Bureau, not anymore. Now it’s about the territories and the Tiselk, especially the Tiselk because the other packs worry that if the mess in the southern lands ever came north, we would need the Tiselk.”
“Politics,” Luke said, sounding disgusted. “Power jockeying. Norson is such a small—”
“I think it’s more out of fear,” Tristan interrupted. “I’ve been to those territories, and they want the same thing we do—peace. The Greyclaw have been through a lot, almost as much as we have. The Tiselk is its own beast, though; I don’t know why the other packs can’t just leave it alone.”
“You’re prejudiced because of Sierra, though,” Rett said, and Tristan gave a careless shrug, a small smile on his mouth. “And Kal has spent time in other territories, too. He gets it. He’ll do it.”
“No, I don’t,” I snapped with more vehemence than I meant. “And I won’t. It’s ridiculous.”
“When Laia arrived in Winfyre, Xander asked me to leverage claims on her. And I did it. Luke claimed Reagan, too.” Rett’s expression became exasperated as I tried to stare him down. But we were roughly the same height, so it didn’t do a damn thing. “What’s the big deal? You must like her a little, or you wouldn’t have acted like that in the Delvik.”
I said nothing, just gritted my jaw and tried to think of another way.
“You dug your heels in, too, there, Rett,” Luke pointed out. “Maybe it’s for the same reason? You are both Deacons.”
“True. But don’t try and pretend things went so smoothly with your claim,” Rett chuckled.
“Knock it off,” I growled, growing more impatient with this idea. “You sound like idiots.”
“Actually, that’s a good point, Rett,” Luke said and grinned at me. “Do you see what—”
“Yes, I see what you’re getting at,” I said and rubbed a hand across my forehead. “But this is not the same situation. There is no connection or any reason for me to claim Iris.”
Xander blew out a sigh and sat down on the table, bunching up his legs to place his feet on the bench. I couldn’t tell you the number of times we’d sat out here and talked or gathered for some impromptu meal after a long day. There was a firepit smoldering at the far end, filling the air with the crisp and smoky scent of burning logs.
I also couldn’t take it anymore. I got up and walked over to the pit, tossing on more wood from the pile. When I was done, only Xander was left. The other three were heading inside.
“I have work to do,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”
“You have to do this,” Xander said in a low voice. “I know you don’t want to, but listen to me—think about how it looks if you don’t claim Iris.” His eyes darkened as I stood there. “Well?”
Hissing out air between my teeth, I tipped my face to the sky and watched the smoke vanish against it. “It looks like the Northbane throwing their weight around at the border and acting superior.” My voice was dull as I summarized what Tristan had been getting at. “Dammit, Xander, I don’t want her to get the wrong idea. And I think it would be wiser if she stayed with someone else.”
“I’ll explain everything to Iris,” he said. “And I think she’d be safer with you.”
Several moments passed where neither of us said a word.
“Yesterday, I would have thought you’d be happy to hear this,” Xander said, and I dropped my gaze to the ground. “Am I missing something? Do you not care about her?”
“I want her to stay in Winfyre,” I growled, avoiding his gaze and his stupid questions. He made some noncommittal noise. “What? That’s all. It’s safer. Something is going on, Xander.”
“You care," Xander said, amusement and heaviness edging through his voice. “And it’s killing you that you do.”
The silence between us was even longer and tenser than the last. Finally, I tried a different tactic. “I made a mistake. I should have waited and figured out a different way to get her out of there instead of making a spectacle.” Xander said nothing. “This is the first time I’ve ever made a mistake like this. Don’t make that poor girl have to put up with me.”
Xander’s face gave away nothing. He used to be such an easy read, if not the most ou
tgoing guy. I hated the still way he held himself, as though one wrong move and Winfyre would fall apart.
That will never happen as long as I am breathing.
“What’s done is done,” Xander said. “You saved her life and pissed off the Greyclaw. Claim her, and it looks like you did this for noble, Northbane reasons instead of power-hungry ones.”
“You’re really going to make Iris pay for my mistake?” I asked.
“I don’t think it was a mistake,” Xander said and stretched out his legs, grinning a little. “I doubt Iris would think so, either. And she has to pay the predator’s price like everyone else.”
“Claiming someone is going to ruin my reputation,” I grumbled, only half-listening.
I was trying to avoid that little spark of satisfaction under my annoyance and wariness. That little spark that fed the protectiveness and contentment when Iris was at my side.
But there was no way to avoid the colossal relief.
Getting up, Xander slapped my shoulder as he passed me. “It’ll humanize it. Very heroic.”
“Wait a minute…” I said, and his words suddenly hit me. Predator’s price. “No.”
Xander glanced back, face impassive. “No, what?”
“You bastard—hell, no,” I exploded. “I don’t agree to that price. I mean, you can’t be serious.”
“About calming the other territories the hell down and keeping Iris here?” Xander asked coolly, and an amused glint leaped into his eyes. “Where she belongs? Absolutely.”
Wordless, I watched as my asshat genius of a friend walked away. At some point, I sank down on the bench, legs a little weak and head spinning. Predator’s price for sanctuary. I thought it would be Iris helping out the other Riftborn with Orion’s book.
But Xander, diabolical and devious, had something else up his sleeve. The last few times an Alpha had claimed someone, that someone had been a woman who'd wound up being a mate.
That was exactly what he wanted—for everyone to think Iris was my mate.
Ice Bear's Bid (Northbane Shifters Book 4) Page 7
