Her Panther Protector [The Protectors 5] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Doris O'Connor

  Kenny nodded and, grasping her hand, pulled her along.

  “My go play.” Sasha’s heart turned over in his chest when the little guy turned to look at him and held out his other hand. “Sasha, too?” he asked.

  “Not today, baby. Sasha is gonna be busy,” Macey said, and Sasha’s panther growled in frustration at the way she wouldn’t look at him when she said that. He crouched on his haunches so that he was Kenny’s height, and smiled at his son.

  “I’ll make it up to you, I promise, okay?” he asked, and Kenny shrugged his shoulders.

  “K.”

  “Macey, if you need anything, call me, okay?” Sasha said, and she did look at him then. Even with his shifter hearing, he had to strain to hear her whispered reply.

  “I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”

  Turning her back on him, she took a firm hold on Kenny’s hand and made for the exit.

  “There is no need for an escort, I…” Her mouth fell open when Dimitrius moved so fast that no one saw him coming and opened the door for her. Kenny giggled up at him when the vamp gave an old-fashioned bow.

  “On the contrary, sweet things. It will be my pleasure to make sure you two get there safely. Where are you parked?”

  Seeing Dimitrius’s face fall when Macey indicated her old VW Beetle parked on the green was almost worth the agony of seeing his girl walk away with another man.

  “Interesting choice of transport,” Dimitrius murmured, and Eva laughed. Sasha took a step after them, but Ronan’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.

  “Give her some space. She’ll come round, and right now, I do need you with me. We have to figure out who the threat is and why, so get your head out of your dick and into the game.”

  Sasha’s panther snarled at the bear shifter, but even his volatile animal knew when it was beaten. Time to sink his energy into taking out whoever meant to harm what was his, but so help him, he would claim his woman, come hell or high water.

  Macey strapped Kenny into his car seat and laughed at something Dimitrius said as he folded himself into the passenger side of her car. Standing beside Sasha, Eva groaned.

  “Oh man, my ass is going to be sore for making him do this.”

  Ronan laughed and shook his head.

  “Too much information right there, Eva. Besides, he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t want to.”

  “That’s true, for sure. This human of yours had better be worth it, Sasha.” He dodged the playful punch aimed at his shoulder at the last minute, too caught up in watching the two people he cared most about in the world drive away from him. Shit, surely this shouldn’t hurt this much, not after the short time he’d actually known them?

  With a frustrated growl, he turned away from the window to find Ronan, Eva, and even Mrs. H studying him. Belatedly, he realized that he hadn’t given Eva an answer.

  “Of course she fucking is. That woman is my mate, and I’d rather die than have something happen to her or Kenny.”

  Eva grinned and Ronan wore a definite smirk, and Leon, who had walked into the room mid Sasha’s declaration, laughed out loud.

  “Says the man who calls us hen-pecked. Well, this is gonna be good.”

  Sasha would have torn the head off the lion shifter to wipe that amused look of the other man’s face, but the expression in his eyes stopped him. Grim determination to protect his mate at all cost. Well, they had that in common, at least. If only Macey would accept the fact that they were meant to be together.

  “Not the words I would use,” Ronan said. “Here, let me fill you in. This is what we’re going to do.”

  * * * *

  Macey’s head spun from complete information overload by the time she met Tina Bernhard at the charming little nursery Dimitrius directed her to. Was she really sitting in the car with a vamp who held a conservation with Kenny in broad fucking daylight? Okay, so he shifted slightly every time they changed direction and the sun shone in directly, and she didn’t miss the fact that he kept to the shadows of the trees when they parked up, but really?

  What had she ever done to deserve this…this “being thrown into the fucking Twilight Zone” thing? And that was without the inherent and very real threat to Kenny. What on earth was going on, and why had some unknown person stuck something inside the boy’s teddy?

  And why, oh why could she not shake the image of a wounded-looking Sasha out of her brain? The man was clearly a womanizer of the worst sort, and while the rational part of her knew that that blasted shifter woman had only said those things to hurt her, they still rankled. Though, if she was perfectly honest with herself, what rankled far more was the way the other woman had looked. She had been beautiful, stunning, in fact, and while Macey didn’t think of herself as ugly, all her old insecurities had surged to the forefront.

  Why would Sasha bother with her when he had women like that throwing themselves at him? How was she ever going to compete, and more importantly, did she want to? The painful truth, of course, was that she very much wanted to, which was why this all hurt so damn much.

  “I shall leave you both in Tina’s capable hands now. It was a pleasure to meet you both.”

  Dimitrius’s deep, accented voice shook her out of her musings, and she fixed a smile on her face for the dark-haired woman in front of her.

  “Thanks, Dimitrius. You best get out of the sun. I’m Tina, and I’m so glad to meet you, and you, little man, must be Kenny.” When he gave her a timid smile, she held out her hand and got down to his level. “You’re just in time for snack. Shall we go in and see what they’re having today?”

  Like always, the mention of food got Kenny on board immediately. After a quick and rather imploring glance up at Macey, and seeing her reassuring nod, Kenny followed where Tina led.

  Macey, too, followed Ronan’s wife, and some of her anxiety fled when she entered the actual nursery unit. About ten children Kenny’s age bounced up and down on their stools, sat at a cluster of tables in the corner of the brightly decorated room where the snack was being served. Tina went over to speak to the woman dishing up, and she smiled over at Macey and Kenny and then clapped her hands to get the attention of the room.

  “Listen up, everyone,” she said, and the general din quieted down somewhat. “This is Kenny, who might be joining us soon, so let’s show him what we do at snack time, shall we, children? You sit right here, Kenny.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Kenny parked his little butt on the chair the nursery teacher had pulled out for him, and Macey had to smile at the way his face lit up when she gave him a small bowl and cup and told him to help himself from the array of cut-up fresh fruit and breadsticks on offer.

  “Food always works, huh?”

  Macey wrenched her attention away from Kenny to look back at Tina, who gestured for Macey to follow her out of the room.

  “He’ll be fine there. Let me show you the rest of the nursery, and if you still want to place him here, we can fill out the paperwork. Let me just check my two are still asleep.”

  Tina opened a door off the side and tiptoed into the room where two dark-haired little toddlers were fast asleep on cushions on the floor. A couple of older children were also snoozing, and the blinds were drawn against the midday sun. Tina adjusted the blanket over the twins, and then shut the door again.

  “This is the quiet room. Any of the children can come in here when it all gets a bit too much.”

  Macey smiled and followed her as Tina showed her around the rest of the little school, including the classrooms for the older children, and by the time they were in the office, Macey was certain this was the right place for Kenny.

  “So, what do you think?” Tina asked. “We’re small and there are a few human children, obviously, but the vast majority are shifters. Middle Brook is a shifter village, after all, which can take some getting used to when you first realize that, can’t it?”

  Macey gave a somewhat hysterical laugh at that comment, and when Tina gave her an encouraging smile and
gestured for Macey to sit down, she did just that with an inelegant thump. The worn leather settee in the corner of this office held a myriad of scratch marks, and Macey shook her head at the further evidence of how odd this all was.

  “You can say that again,” Macey said, and when Tina didn’t react, just patiently sat and waited for Macey to continue, she burst into tears.

  “Oh, you poor thing. Just let it all out. Lord knows I know what it’s like.” Tina’s sympathetic words just made Macey cry harder, and by the time she finally stopped sobbing, she could hear Kenny’s screeches of excitement. His head popped up in the window every time he bounced on the trampoline in the school playground, and Macey smiled through her tears, seeing his happy grin.

  “Well, at least he’s happy.” Macey blew her nose noisily and then accepted the cup of coffee Tina offered with a watery smile in the other woman’s direction.

  “He would be,” Tina said. “He’ll be drawn to other shifter children like himself. From what I understand, it takes some getting used to, this controlling of one’s animal, especially when they shift early. I tell you my two certainly keep me on my toes, and I knew they were bears from the off. It must have been rather a shock to you to realize Kenny shifts into a panther.”

  Macey shrugged her shoulders and sighed. “Well, to be fair, I didn’t realize he did. I mean I knew there was something odd about him, but it wasn’t until we got here that his behavior really turned strange. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought he changed into a panther cub. I just thought his nightmares made him extremely anxious and that made him not only sleep walk but also tear his clothes up.” Macey gave a self-depreciating laugh, and Tina frowned.

  “Pretty stupid of me, huh?” she asked and Tina shook her head.

  “No, not stupid, just human. Trust me, when Ronan first shifted, that was bad enough, and then when I heard he was a Protector and what that entailed, not only for him, but also any future children we would have, yeah, I had a little freak-a-thon all of my own. Not unlike you’re having now.”

  Macey almost spat her coffee out at that. “I’m not freaking, not about the shifting, anyway, just—”

  “Oh, yes you are, and that’s why you’re pushing Sasha away.” Tina interrupted her and Macey had to remember to shut her mouth.

  “That is none of your business,” she said.

  “Maybe not.” Tina’s smile didn’t reach her eyes, and she sighed. “But when you’re making my husband’s life more difficult, that makes it my business. Ronan has enough to do making sure the countryside is safe from vamps, let alone babysitting Sasha’s mate, who insists on placing herself in danger.”

  Macey’s temper rose and she stood up, and placed her cup on the desk. “How dare you? This is none of your business, and I don’t believe this mating nonsense for one second. He only said that to get Kenny, and, besides, he doesn’t need me.”

  Tina shook her head and she, too, rose to her feet.

  “There is something you need to understand about shifter males in particular,” she said, and something about the tone in Tina’s voice made Macey’s insides clench in agitation. “No shifter would say you’re his mate unless you are. That bond is more sacred than you can imagine, and you most definitely are Sasha’s mate. He never would have been able to father Kenny with your twin sister, were you not. And before you say maybe she was his mate, let me enlighten you. As much of a bastard as he can be, and he certainly was back then, from what I have heard, he would never, ever have just walked away from her if she’d been his mate. It’s not physically possible, for starters. Once a shifter scents their mate, they need to stay close to them.”

  Macey knew she was staring at Tina with her mouth hanging open, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “So what you’re saying is that Sasha only wants me because of this mating thing? I’m not sure that’s much better than only being with me because of Kenny. Either way, he doesn’t want to be with me because of me, but because of circumstances. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s just not enough for me, not when I…”

  Macey clamped her mouth shut, all too aware that she’d almost blurted her feelings out loud, and Tina smiled.

  “You love him, don’t you?” While it was on the tip of Macey’s tongue to refute that notion, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Instead, she kept quiet and blinked away fresh tears.

  “For all the good it’ll do me,” she finally said when the silence in the room became oppressive, and Tina sighed.

  “And you think he doesn’t love you, is that it? That this is all forced upon him?”

  Macey shrugged her shoulders, not at all sure that her voice would work.

  “Well, I can’t speak for Sasha, but I know this. I had all the same doubts and worries about Ronan. I guess us humans just can’t help it. Those shifters are all so damn perfect physically, and then there is little old us, right? How will we ever compare next to those female shifters? Ugh.”

  Macey looked up and she had to smile at the other woman’s disgusted expression.

  “Right?” she asked, and Tina laughed.

  “Yeah, I get it, a completely normal and very human female reaction, but the thing is, we don’t have to. Our mates, they love us just the way we are. I would hazard to say they love us, because we are the way we are, so you need to put those thoughts behind you.”

  At Macey’s snort of disbelief, Tina stepped closer and grasped her hands.

  “Besides, I’m gonna ask you something Mrs. H asked me when I was dithering about all this. Can you really live without Sasha in your life? Bearing in mind, there is Kenny to consider as well. Like it or not, Sasha is here to stay, and unless you plan on taking his son away from him again, then you have to decide whether you’re going to follow your heart or not.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Two weeks later, Macey was no closer to an answer to that question than she had been when Tina asked it. In her heart, she wanted nothing more than to throw caution to the wind and just surrender herself to Sasha in every sense of the world, but her brain wouldn’t let her. At least they were making progress on whoever had tampered with Kenny’s toy. Ronan and Sasha had retrieved a coded list of some sort, and after Mrs. H has used her powers to decipher it, it had become clear that it was a list of names and addresses. Ronan had handed it over to the Scottish Protectors, and a number of arrests had been made by the police. The names had been drug dealers and their contacts that the drug squad had been after for some time. It meant that Fiona’s file was being re-opened and now treated as a murder case—small comfort, in a way, to know that Macey’s instincts had been correct.

  It was less comforting to know that her sister’s murderer was still out there and, according to the police and the Scottish and Cumbrian Protectors alike, most likely after Kenny and Macey, especially after they’d handed over that list. It meant Macey and Kenny were under constant shifter surveillance. At least Kenny was oblivious to that.

  Macey was all too aware of everything and, taking the bull by the proverbial horns, had spent an inordinate amount of time doing research. Not only had she read everything she could on shifters and mating, but she’d also thoroughly researched the BDSM lifestyle, once it had become apparent that every one of the Protectors was part of it in some form or another.

  Their individual dynamics had become glaringly obvious the more time she spent with them all, and as Kenny and she had been invited over to one or the other houses on a seemingly constant basis, she’d had plenty of occasion to observe them. Even when they were at home, she had seen the wolves patrolling her property. Macey would never admit it out loud, but knowing Kenny and she were protected meant she slept a lot easier at night—erotic dreams involving one cocky panther shifter notwithstanding. Not that Sasha was all that cocky these days.

  Nothing had brought it home more than last night. They’d all been at Dimitrius’s house for dinner when the loud roar of a motorbike had interrupted them. The unexpected visitor had been a Master Sab
er, a tiger-shifting Protector from London—that had been another jolt to the system. Knowing there were Protectors in Cumbria and Scotland was bad enough, but she could kind of understand that. All those open spaces to roam in. But London?

  The truth as she’d found out was, of course, that Protectors were dotted all around the world, and Macey had to shake her head at humanity’s cluelessness of their existence, especially when they owed the Protectors so much. Lord only knew what life would be like without them. They not only kept the vamps at bay, but also kept the peace between shifters, humans, and other paranormals alike.

  This Master Saber had been an imposing figure. Stood at well over six and a half feet with the muscle mass Macey was beginning to associate with the large animal shifters, his presence had filled the room. Long black hair framed a strong face, and she’d had to try really hard not to fidget under his penetrating gaze.

  He’d been grace personified with Kenny, but it had been the conversation between him and Sasha that she had unwittingly overheard that had given her pause for thought.

  “I take it you’re not going to take me up on my offer to come and work at Club Saber, then?” Saber had said with a smirk to a frowning Sasha.

  Sasha had sighed and looked so utterly miserable that Macey had almost rushed in there to hug him, which would have been an incredibly foolish thing to do. Macey could only imagine how sore her bum would have been after that stunt. Instead, she’d held her breath, when Sasha had run a hand through his hair and shaken his head.

  “No can do. My mate and my son are here. If she chooses to relocate to London, then yes, I’ll be knocking on your door—maybe.”

  Saber had slapped Sasha on the back and laughed.

  “Another one bites the dust. There’s clearly something in the water in these parts. Maybe I best not visit again. I don’t fancy being mated myself, not that you have yet. She being difficult?”

  Macey had bristled at that and Sasha had given a short laugh.