by Tamsin Baker
“Natalia has no idea what you are talking about! Yet you tied her up for two days, and you have badly wounded her mate. Come inside, and we will talk. Work something out.”
More large birds shifted into human form and stood in a row behind the man Jeremy assumed was their leader.
Harry, an elder and coyote shifter, stepped forward.
“This isn’t just about Natalia. You were pushed into this fight today, weren’t you?”
Jeremy saw the bird shifter flush, with anger or embarrassment, and he shared a glance with several of the other men.
“What do you know about it, old man?”
Harry limped closer.“This fight has been going on longer than you have been alive, young man. Come, sit and we can work out the terms of the settlement. No one will be harmed.”
Jeremy’s mother rushed forward with clothes and a blanket.
Jeremy pulled on his pants without taking his eyes off the bird shifters.
His mother laid the blanket over Tommy.
“We need to get him inside.”
Several people rushed forward including Tommy’s parents.
“Oh my God, Tommy!” His mother sobbed as they lifted him up.
Jeremy couldn’t stand to watch and stepped forward, taking his mate into his arms. Tommy! I’m so sorry!
He was still warm and a heavy weight in Jeremy’s arms. He took a deep breath and pulled his mate closer, resisting the urge to drop a kiss onto his head.
“Where should I take him?”
Tommy’s mother nodded. “This way, bring him into our house.”
Jeremy nodded and followed Tommy’s mother, a clothed Natalia close on his heels.
He laid Tommy down onto his bed, resolution and responsibility stealing over him.
“I’ll sort this out, Natalia. No one will ever touch you again. You or Tommy.”
Natalia nodded and knelt down next to Tommy, running her hands over his face.
She looked up, her blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “Thank you, Jeremy. Please, go. Do what you need to do, and I will stay with Tommy.”
Jeremy bent down and kissed her, tasting her tears and wanting to howl in frustration.
But he stood and walked away, wanting to stay, yet knowing there was bigger things to sort out tonight.
He strode over to the meeting area where the bird shifters were being handed blankets to cover their nakedness.
“Where can we sit and talk?” he asked Alex.
Alex nodded towards a large building that Jeremy had never even looked at before.
“The meeting hall would be best.”
Jeremy nodded and moved over to the men that for all intents and purposes were the enemy.
“Follow me. We’re going to conduct this meeting in the town’s meeting hall.”
The bird shifters looked at him as though he were insane.
“We can’t go with you. How do we know we can trust you?”
Jeremy let out a growl as he felt his tiger wanting to shift back.
“You tied up one of mates for two days and almost killed the other! If I had wanted to kill you I would have cause and would have already taken up the opportunity.”
Jeremy heard the murmur around him and clenched his teeth. He had called Tommy his mate because he was. God damn it, he was, and Jeremy would fix that aberration as soon as he could.
“Now, follow me, and we will sort this out because you will never get your claws on my Natalia or Tommy ever again.”
With the entire town and the bird shifters staring at him, he stalked off in the direction of the meeting hall. Fucking hell!
****
Jeremy paced the meeting hall, and within five minutes, all the relevant parties were seated.
He sat, though restless and uncertain.
“Tell me why you kidnapped Natalia three days ago.”
The man he assumed was their leader, who had a badly damaged shoulder injury and was refusing any care, stood up and answered. “We didn’t kidnap her. She was on our land.”
Jeremy’s father stood up and glared at the man.
“There are no official boundaries. They were never drawn up.”
That seemed to give the man pause, and Jeremy took the opportunity to move forward.
“So we need boundaries and restrictions on hunting. We can thrash that out later. Can you agree that Natalia had no way of knowing where our lands ended and yours started?”
They held their breath, and the bird shifters grumbled amongst themselves.
“Yes, we need to write something down.”
Jeremy took a deep breath and shuddered with the need to do more, fast.
“Secondly, why did you think you had the right to tie her up as you did? You have mentioned the death of a bird shifter, yet Natalia doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”
The bird shifter leader glared at him. “We tied her up so that she couldn’t escape before her trial, which was to be for the following day. My cousin Damian was a small eagle shifter. We found him dead in our forest, with huge canine teeth through his chest.”
Jeremy frowned. “So? Why did you assume it was Natalia? She is a tiger shifter. Her senses allow her to tell the difference between a normal bird and a shifter. She would never have attacked a shifter knowingly.”
The man looked shocked, a shadow crossing over his face.
“Our senses allow us the same.”
Jeremy clenched his teeth against the need to bash the man in the face.
“Then why did you capture an innocent woman and tie her up against her will?”
The man looked to his right, and his friend stood up.
“We were told by one of our elders that the teeth marks were that of a tiger, though none of us smelt her scent on him.”
The man laid a hand on the leader, and together they shared a look.
“So, this all could be a case of mistaken identity, and as such, you will owe my mate one hell of an apology.”
The leader nodded stiffly. “We will get a proper autopsy done.”
Jeremy looked to his left, remembering something that Alex had said after the fight.
“Alex, you mentioned an old disagreement between our two communities. What did you mean?”
Alex looked at the bird shifters with narrowed eyes. “You were encouraged to attack us rather than come and speak to us like civilized human beings, weren’t you?”
There was a shocked silence, then a grumble from both sides of the room.
Jeremy stood up once again and shouted. “Quiet!”
When there was calm he leant forward on the desk and glared at the man he had heard called “Chase”. “Well?”
Chase cleared his throat but glared back. “He is right. Our elders encouraged us to attack, though I thought a meeting would be better. I assumed we would be contacted after we had held the female tiger for so long.”
Jeremy bared his teeth, then snapped his jaws shut. “You were to be contacted today, but we … had our mating today, and it seemed more important.”
He flushed at the idea. How could he have forgotten how dangerous and serious the situation was? One night with Natalia and Tommy and his brain was mush.
Alex stood, and Jeremy collapsed into his chair once again.
“Almost fifty years ago a wolf shifter mortally wounded an eagle shifter.”
There was a hiss from both sides, and Jeremy closed his eyes for a moment. He could see where this was going.
“Both sides pleaded innocence. The eagle had been injured already during flight and was on the ground. The wolf said he didn’t know the eagle was a shifter and only responded to the eagle’s attack.”
Everyone was silent as they listened, and Jeremy knew that these stories should have been shared, not hidden.
“But the shifters of the air always said that the wolf had killed the eagle on purpose, and it was never resolved. When I saw you attack, I knew it had been because your elders pushed you into this fight to settle
an old score that no one even knows about.”
Jeremy forced himself to his feet—he felt like a jack in the box—and placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Alex. I think this needs to be confirmed and then shared. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Chase gave a stiff nod. “I will speak to my elders.” He then turned to his second, “And if what they have said is true, he will pay.”
Jeremy sat once again and inhaled sharply once again. There was much more to discuss.
They continued to talk, argue, and scream all afternoon and into the night. By the time everything was sorted, Jeremy was utterly exhausted, emotionally and physically, yet he had to see how Tommy and Natalia were. If he didn’t love them as much as he did, he would never have been able to stay physically upright long enough to walk the distance over to Tommy’s parents’ house.
Yet he did. His mum was waiting for him outside.
“Hey, Mum. How’s Tommy?”
She reached up and cupped his jaw, sorrow and pride mingling into a strange combination in her blue eyes.
“Tommy’s sleeping still, Jeremy, and you need to rest. Natalia was taken back to Tommy’s lodge an hour ago if you would like to sleep there with her?”
Jeremy just nodded, too exhausted to argue with his mother.
“Yes, I will.”
He staggered a few steps and sensed a familiar warmth beside him.
“Let me help you, son.”
His father lifted one of Jeremy’s arms and draped it across his shoulder.
Jeremy let out a huffy laugh. His father, twice his age, was helping him home. It was ironic, yet it confirmed to Jeremy just how important it was to be around family. He was grateful for the help.
“Not exactly the start to the marriage that you were expecting, huh, Jeremy?”
His dad’s voice cut through Jeremy’s fatigue, and he laughed properly. Was it really only a few hours ago that he had been mated?
“Yeah, I certainly didn’t envision one of my mates being unconscious.”
Jeremy’s dad didn’t respond, but helped Jeremy up the steps of Tommy’s small home. The house, just this morning, he had claimed Tommy in.
Tears clouded Jeremy’s vision, and he closed his eyes against the pain.
His dad did something he hadn’t done in twenty years. He wrapped his arms around Jeremy and held him.
Jeremy let out the sob he had been holding in all day, and his dad moved a hand to the back of Jeremy’s head, squeezing him tight.
“It’ll be fine, son. Get some sleep.”
Jeremy cleared his throat and stepped back, embarrassed despite his father’s understanding.
“Thanks, Dad.”
His father nodded and moved back towards the forest.
Jeremy took a deep breath and pushed open the door. Natalia was lying on her side, staring wide eyed at him.
“You’re not asleep?” Jeremy’s voice sounded thick with the tears he was refusing to shed, so he cleared his throat again.
Natalia shook her head and threw back the covers, inviting him in.
She lay naked and beautiful, yet Jeremy’s body didn’t stir. He ached to hold her, nothing more.
He slipped his clothes off and crawled onto the bed behind her.
“What happened?”
Jeremy broke in. “Shhh, we’ll talk in the morning, my love. We need to rest first, and then I’ll explain everything.”
Natalia turned her body so that they were chest to chest and burrowed into him.
“Did I really kill someone, Jeremy?”
He sighed and held her tighter.
“We don’t know, Natalia, and neither do they. The bird shifter died still in his bird form and was found with large canine markings over his body. They have assumed it was you, because you were on their land. If it was you, which I don’t think it was, you would have known. You would have smelled the shifter blood, felt the difference.”
She settled against him and kissed his chest. “I hope it wasn’t me.”
He hoped so, too, and ran a soothing hand down her spine.
“I don’t think it was you, Natalia, and they will owe you more than just an apology if they are at fault. Now sleep, baby.” It was many hours before Jeremy’s busy brain and broken heart let his body sleep.
****
Natalia woke early and dressed, needing to get back to Tommy. She left Jeremy sleeping. She was loath to leave him, but he was exhausted.
She sat by Tommy’s bed all morning. She wiped his burning brow with a wet towel and crooned to him when she wasn’t crying. What else could she do?
“My poor baby.”
She leant forward and kissed his cheek, the skin hot beneath her lips.
I can’t believe I still can’t remember killing that bird shifter. Such a stupid mistake might cost me my Tommy.
Tears welled up, and she choked on a sob. Oh please, I can’t lose him now that we’re finally bound together how we always planned to be.
“Is he awake yet?” Jeremy’s voice sounded from the door way.
Natalia pulled the blanket up over Tommy’s shoulders and turned towards her Alpha, her mate.
“No. Not yet. Those cuts on his back and near his eyes aren’t healing either.”
As a shifter, even the deepest of cuts began healing within minutes of an injury. Tommy’s wounds were red and still seeping blood. It was unheard of, though one of the elder women had said that it happened in men who were battling with their own self worth. If they didn’t want to heal, then they wouldn’t.
The thought that Tommy was in that boat made her sick. How could he feel that way after their mating?
Jeremy stepped closer and put an arm around her, pulling her into his embrace. His attempt to soothe her meant more than anything. She had loved the idea of the man for so long, and now that she knew him, her love had grown into a real love. Mature and strong. She could only hope that one day he would feel the same way about her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t protect you both better.”
Natalia let out another small cry and cuddled into her mate’s warmth, needing his stability, his strength.
“You can’t blame yourself, Jeremy. If anyone is to blame it is me.” Natalia couldn’t help the sob that escaped her throat as she said the last few words. It was true, and she knew it. None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for her going onto the bird shifters’ land. She knew not to run in that area, but it was so beautiful, so perfect for running. How could she be so selfish?.
Jeremy squeezed her tightly against his chest.
“It is not your fault, Natalia. And the bird shifters owe you.”
Natalia could still feel the hurt and anger boiling through Jeremy, and she held him tighter, cleaving onto his emotions as an escape against her own guilt.
She whispered against his chest, grateful beyond measure for her powerful mate. “Thank you for saving Tommy.”
Jeremy kissed the top of her head then stepped away, the loss of contact making Natalia cold.
“He’s my mate, too, Natalia. I just hate that I didn’t get to him soon enough.” He stepped closer and knelt down beside their mate. His head dropped and he let out a sob.
“I’m so sorry, Tommy.”
Tears fell down Jeremy’s cheeks, and Natalia’s heart wrenched hard in her chest. To see her huge, strong mate on his knees, broken by the pain inflicted on their mate was almost too much to bear.
Natalia laid a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder and squeezed, hoping to give him some reassurance. She needed to distract him.
“Tell me what happened with the bird shifters.”
Jeremy coughed, clearing his throat loudly.
“Ah, we found out that the original reason that the fight between the land shifters and the air shifters happened, came from a similar incident. An accidental death, or so they say. The bird shifters have agreed to draw up land borders and to investigate their man’s death. I believe no
w an actual wolf probably killed him. No shifter would have mistaken him for a normal bird.”
“Thank you so much, Jeremy. I don’t know how to thank you.”
Jeremy shook his head as he lifted his head to stare up at her.
“You’re my mate, my wife by all rights. I will do anything to keep you safe.”
Natalia gasped, love and gratitude winging through her body. This man who she had believed to have abandoned her for so long had returned and saved her in more ways than she could count. She would be eternally grateful for Jeremy.
She cupped his jaw and stared down at him, hoping he could see the love she was projecting into her eyes.
He smiled, a shimmer of tears appearing in his eyes before he blinked them away.
She knelt beside her Alpha and picked up his large hands. She pressed a kiss to his huge, strong palms and placed them on Tommy’s chest. They needed to focus on Tommy. She could thank Jeremy properly later.
“Touch him. He knows we are here.”
Jeremy moved one of his trembling hands to Tommy’s leg and the other over his heart.
“Please come back to us. We miss you so much.”
Another tear slipped down Natalia’s cheek as she remembered their shared pain the night before. Natalia had slept on top of Jeremy the whole night, unable to get close enough, nor feel enough to compensate for the loss of Tommy. It was like a huge gaping hole had been ripped out of her heart.
She moved up and over Tommy, lying on her side on the small bed and holding him.
Jeremy did the same thing and awkwardly lay on his side facing her.
“We aren’t complete without you, Tommy. Please get better, pup.”
The moment they were both settled, Tommy groaned.
They lifted their heads, and Natalia saw Tommy’s eyes flicker open for the first time in almost a day.
“Oh thank God!” she cried and laid her head down on Tommy’s chest squeezing him with her arms.
She heard kissing noises and knew their Alpha had taken the comforting to the next level. That was fine with her. She loved the passion her men shared.
“We were so worried,” she whispered against Tommy’s chest and thanked God for returning her mate to them.
Her selfish error hadn’t cost her part of her soul, after all.
