Charles smiled. “All the Peterson women run to curves. But Claudia is a grown woman. Probably blonde.” He shrugged. “These days, who can tell? Your own grandmother has gone quite auburn with age.”
“Grandmother always looks fabulous.” Why was Charles shilly-shallying around? “Is there some reason that Robin Fairchild, who has always seemed like a perfectly reasonable fairy, and a pillar of the community, has faked a marriage between me and Claudia?”
“I’ll cut a long story short. Claudia has a three-year-old son. Jimmy carries the Rutherford Y chromosome. For certain that boy is one of us. On the strength of that, the Mystic Bay Town Council is about to vote away our title to Cat’s Head, unless one of us marries Claudia and provides Jimmy with a shifter father. They are apparently afraid of hybrid vigor.”
What the hell? “Hybrid vigor?” Ryan narrowed his eyes. “Which is code for what exactly, sir?”
“Don’t you remember your West Haven history? How Cuthbert Rutherford came to acquire our land on West Haven?”
“Didn’t great-great-I-forget-just-how-many-greats-grandpapa help to clean out a nest of rogue shifters and save the island of West Haven for peace, justice and sensitives?” Ryan asked lightly.
Charles didn’t smile. “He did. Only the Haverstocks, while rogues, weren’t precisely shifters.” Grandfather placed both palms on his desk and leaned forward. “They were grizzly-fairies. Haverstock was a grizzly bear shape shifter who shacked up with a fairy. He and Olivia Fairchild whelped an entire brood of psychopathic killers.” Cougar One paused.
Ryan nodded his understanding.
“They terrorized the islanders for two decades before Cuthbert stepped in with his hand-picked vigilantes,” Charles continued. “Haverstock and his whelps had wiped out every non-sensitive on the island and were working their way through the sensitives when old Cuthbert showed up with his posse of cats, wolves, dragons and bears.”
“And was rewarded with land on West Haven as far as possible from town.” Ryan finished the familiar tale. Cat’s Head was a bulge on the coast of West Haven. One hundred acres of forest and cliffs. Cougar paradise.
“Rewarded?” murmured Charles. “Not exactly. Cuthbert paid cash on the barrelhead for our land. Which we only hold at the sufferance of the town council.”
“Right,” Ryan said grimly. “May I sit down, sir?”
“Of course.”
He lowered himself clumsily into one of Charles’ two visitors’ chairs. “Okay. The town council doesn’t like shifter-fairy hybrids. Except that we know Quinn Drake, who was still a dragon shifter last time I checked, just married a Fairchild.*”
“Indeed. I think the marriage went through without protest, because the council assumed that the match would be barren. They assumed a fairy in her sixties was no virgin.” Everyone knew dragons could only have offspring with virgin mates who could be transformed into dragonesses.
Ryan smirked. “Moira was pregnant on their wedding day.”
Charles snorted genteelly. “The council isn’t forbidding a match between you and Claudia. They are insisting on one. They want the boy under the control of our clan.”
“Why? If he’s a psychopath, what the heck could we do about him? Besides, it’s a stretch to assume that any match between shifters and sorcerers will automatically produce psychopaths,” Ryan pointed out. “Like there’s some sort of curse on interbreeding.”
“Not shifters, son, hunters.”
On West Haven, calling a cougar a hunter was supposed to be some sort of insult. As if. “And marriage will take away the threat that the kid will become a psychopath?” Ryan asked.
“They probably assume we’ll execute the boy if he turns out evil,” Charles said bluntly. “It’s nonsense genetics, of course, but I am not going to risk this coming to a vote. Not with so much at stake. It’s not just Cat’s Head either. Adam and Paige just bought the old lighthouse.”
Ryan knew an order when he heard one. Grandfather was head of the Rutherford clan and had to be obeyed. “Yes, sir.” Married! To a fricking stranger. Father to the love child of one of his own cousins. There was a recipe for a happy marriage. Not.
But Grandfather was still speaking. He tapped the marriage certificate that Ryan had thrown onto the desk. “Robin and Deputy Mayor Gordon Sullivan are also working to prevent Claudia and her son from being thrown off the island.”
Poor kids. “Isn’t banishment a little harsh?” He supposed it was less harsh than killing the boy. But still. Fear made good people do bad things.
Charles nodded. “Yup. But frightened people do stupid things. You know that.”
“Yes, sir. But why me? It’s not like I even know Claudia. I’m not sure I’ve even spoken to her since I was a kid.”
Cougar One raised perfect gray eyebrows over amber eyes that were still bright and fierce. “You’re a bachelor, Ryan. Last one in your cohort. Besides, the islanders already think you’re the father.” Grandfather paused. “Or they say they do.”
Ryan went cold. Which made a pleasant change from the fire in his veins. “I hope I don’t have to assure you that I’m emphatically not, sir?”
Charles shook his head.
Ryan pressed home his point. “Maybe we need some more DNA testing, sir.” The idea that his family thought him capable of dishonorable behavior mingled with the nausea caused by the cobra venom. He mopped his forehead and tried to think past the brain fog.
“And maybe we don’t.” Charles paused to emphasize the gravity of what he was about to say. “That boy is my great-grandson. All my other grandsons are married. Whose marriage, whose children, do we sacrifice, Ryan?”
“But I’m expendable?”
“You know how important Cat’s Head is to our clan.”
He did. Cat’s Head was where generations of Rutherfords had run free in cougar, exercising their inner cats and getting them well integrated with their human side. The idea of his children, or those of his siblings, growing up exiled from West Haven was unthinkable. Not that he was going to survive long enough to have any kids. Not with this damned venom weakening him more every day.
“There’s something you should know, sir.”
“What?”
“That cobra bite I got in Arizona is slowly killing me. I’m not likely to be Claudia’s husband for long. What happens then?”
Charles’ face lost its healthy color. “Are you sure?”
Ryan shrugged. “Of course not. I’m by way of an experiment. Every other shifter bitten by that cobra died within minutes. I got antivenin. Not cobra shifter antivenin, the regular stuff. But the punctures still haven’t healed. I’m burning up from the inside. It’s only a matter of time, sir.”
“No.” New lines bracketed Charles’ patrician face. “We’ll get you better medical attention.”
“I’ve seen the best of the best, Grandfather. There isn’t a cure. And amputation won’t help. We have to face facts.”
“I knew you should have stayed away from those shifter policers.”
Once again Ryan tried to explain why he took assignments from the FAs. “Someone has to deal with the rogues, sir. It’s in my blood. You might say that the FAs are doing what old Cuthbert did a hundred plus years ago.” The FAs dealt with rogue shifters who were invulnerable to the official authorities.
Charles’ chiseled features distorted. He passed a trembling hand over his eyes. He swallowed hard. “Do your parents know?”
“No, sir. I haven’t told anyone but you.” Not even his brother Adam who was closest to him in age and his best friend.
“Well, don’t. Let’s not advertise it. If the worst happens, Claudia will remain part of our clan. If she finds the boy too much of a handful – and apparently she is already finding him difficult – we can step in.”
Ryan picked up the marriage certificate. “How can a three-year-old be difficult?”
“Sorcerers,” growled Charles. “Bunch of damned sissies. Probably Jimmy seems a little hyperactive, or he wa
nts to wrestle, instead of learning his spells or polishing his wand.”
Ryan thought of his young nephews and nieces. From when they got up in the morning until they fell asleep exhausted by their day, they were living balls of energy. Typical healthy cougar cubs. He couldn’t imagine them growing up in a world where they were expected to be quiet. Cougar cubs were only peaceful when they were asleep or ailing. The rest of the time they were vigorous, muscular packages of mayhem.
“So when do I get to meet my family, sir?”
*Desired by the Dragon
CHAPTER TWO
Tidewater Inn
Town of Mystic Bay
West Haven, Oregon
Robin~
“Their auras don’t mesh.” Sully turned his back on the one-way mirror that overlooked the Tidewater Inn’s dining room. “Not in the least.” His broad handsome face registered his disgust.
Out of respect for her preferences, Robin’s widowed brother-in-law Gordon had dressed in a trim navy blazer and gray pants for his visit to her home. His customers would not have recognized the unkempt skipper of the Nightingale in this dapper gentleman with neatly cut gray hair and a pointed beard.
She and Sully were in her private sitting room. Claudia Peterson and Kevin Spicer were seated at her best table. Claudia looked bored. Kevin’s aura shimmered with strange energy. As suddenly as if she had flipped a switch, Claudia’s aura completely disappeared. The sorceress’ half-smile did not waver, but she put her hand in her lap and rubbed it under cover of the tablecloth.
“Did you see that?” Robin demanded of Sully.
Sully was once again peering into her mirror. “Yup. She shut young Spicer out as slick as a seal. Wonder what that young rascal did?”
Robin shook her head. “I have no idea. But judging from his aura, it isn’t really seduction he has in mind. He’s not attracted to her that way.”
Sully made a guttural noise in his throat. “He wants something, but I can’t figure out what. Know what I think? That nasty little low-rent wizard tried a hypnotic spell on her. Not a gentlemanly way to behave on a first date.”
“No, it isn’t, is it? Good thing she isn’t any more interested in him than he is in her.” Robin took another look. “That’s one less thing for us to worry about. It’s probably best if Spicer is out of the picture before Ryan Rutherford gets here. Hunters don’t share.”
“Damn straight they don’t.” Sully’s neat beard jutted. “Any more than sorcerers do. You’re sure Ryan Rutherford’s the one?”
“Positive. If you had seen their auras in the same room, as I did at Adam Rutherford’s wedding, you would be certain too.”
“And yet Claudia ran off and got knocked up by another cougar?” Sully commented skeptically.
“Anyone can mistake their heart, Gordon. If Ryan had met Claudia before his cousin did, things would have turned out differently.”
“Being in the same room wasn’t enough of a meeting?” Sully raised his eyebrows.
“It was a big wedding reception. Claudia was tidying the buffet table. Ryan was giving the best man’s speech. The room had two hundred other people in it. They didn’t even make eye contact.” Robin returned her attention to Claudia and Kevin. “Spicer is still trying, but she isn’t even fazed. See for yourself.”
Sully chuckled. “Told you she was powerful. Talent detector, my left foot.” He put both arms around Robin’s waist and kissed the back of her bare neck. “When are you going to make an honest man of me, sweetheart?”
A shiver ran through her entire body at his touch. “If I married you, Gordon, one of us would have to resign from the town council.”
“Probably,” he growled. “But I’m too old for all this skulking around. Gale has been gone for twenty years, don’t you think that’s long enough?”
It had indeed been twenty years since Robin’s only sister had opted to remove herself from the mortal plane. Nightingale had sailed west, as the Fae put it, leaving her husband inconsolable. Robin allowed herself to relax against Sully’s broad chest. Pleasant electricity energized her whole body.
“I’m not ready for marriage,” she admitted.
His arms tightened. “I should cut you off,” he said into her hair.
She felt herself blush. This was one of the reasons she believed marriage was probably a bad idea. Gordon Sullivan was the only person she knew who could disrupt her composure. Fairies weren’t supposed to tingle just because a man desired them. Nor lose their poise when kissed. “Give me time.”
Sully kissed her hair, but his arms didn’t loosen. “Do you think that son of a witch knows about Claudia’s talent?”
Robin gathered the thoughts Sully’s kisses had scattered. “I don’t see how he could. Her family knows better than to gossip about her power.”
Sully cleared his throat. “Half the council knows. Which means half the island does too. It’s an open secret. The Spicers are all hypo talents. Most of them are more powerful than Kevin. For years I’ve been watching them use their talents to winkle people’s secrets out. Kevin doesn’t get his underhanded ways anyplace strange.”
“I’m surprised you put up with that,” Robin said. She was. Her lover was an upright man who kept firm control of all the sorcerers on the island of West Haven.
“It’s one thing to know they’re dishonest, it’s quite another to be able to prove it,” he admitted. “And the Spicers are only summer people,” he added dismissively.
Like many resort communities, West Haven had a strict caste system. At the bottom, barely worthy of thought, were the tourists who came for a day or a week. Summer people who owned land and cottages came next. They were given tolerant respect because they paid stiff property taxes, but were kept out of the real life of the island. Year-rounders ran things. The Mystic Bay Town Council which made the rules and regulations, both written and unwritten, for the entire island was composed entirely of permanent residents.
“Kevin has set up a business on Main Street,” Robin said thoughtfully. “That makes him a year-rounder.”
Sully made another rude noise. “Maybe when he’s been here a decade or two. But don’t you worry about that sneaky wizardling. Between us, we sorcerers can handle the Spicers.”
“I hope you’re right.”
His arms tightened reassuringly. “If necessary, I’ll have a word with Kevin myself. Believe me, I can sort that youngster into two piles.”
Robin believed Sully. He was a very powerful weather worker, and like her, he could see auras. That was what made him such a terrific matchmaker. But matchmaking was only a side effect of his talent. He was able to manipulate the auras he observed. If necessary, he could turn Kevin Spicer from a two-watt sorcerer into a zero-watt non-sensitive.
She went back to observing Kevin and Claudia’s first date.
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About the Author
Isadora writes feel-good PNR stories about heroic shifters and the sexy, sassy BBWs who are their fated mates. She is the author of over 20 books. Join her for some rousing adventures and some spicy loving.
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Adored by A Dragon: A Shifters in Love Fun & Flirty Romance (Mystic Bay Book 4) Page 18
