by Jenny Penn
Jezie frowned, not jumping on that idea as he thought she might but slowly accepting it with a nod of her head. “I would like that.”
“Good, then come.” He held out his hand. “It’s time for you to see your new home. You can map out where you want the planter beds to be placed, and I will get the men on it.”
* * * *
“The spirit infusing the land needs to be loved?” Jaxon repeated that line, looking helplessly at his brother for some kind of guidance on what the hell that meant, but Kragen had none to offer him. “That’s all she said.”
“Yep.” Kragen turned from the window where he stood beside Jaxon watching the men build the flowerbeds that Jezie had requested.
Bridget had gone off to town to buy seeds. By now everybody had heard about Jezie’s little sprouts. Murmurs of hope had already started to circulate through the pack. They were mixed with equal amounts of skepticism. None of the other men, though, were half as confused as Jaxon was right then.
“I don’t get it. How are we supposed to make the land feel loved?” Jaxon demanded to know, but again his brother had no ideas to offer.
“I don’t know…make Jezie happy?”
“Make Jezie happy? Haven’t we been doing that every night?” Even as Jaxon said it, it really hit him. “Hey, maybe that’s why the dirt is working. Maybe the cure is fucking Jezie.”
“Maybe you’re crazy.” Kragen snorted. “I don’t think that has much to do with anything, and the woman is still not stretched enough.”
Jaxon sighed and shot Kragen a dirty look but didn’t argue the point. He knew his brother was right. Jezie was still too tight, and they feared hurting her, preferring to err on the side of caution when it came to her.
“Fine.” Jaxon conceded defeat. “Then what do you think we should do?”
“Why don’t we try to think about this rationally?” Kragen suggested. “I mean there has got to be logic here.”
“No there doesn’t.” That was just why Jaxon hated magic.
“Still, Jezie seems insistent that we got our facts wrong. She says that the witch’s heart broke, which could only mean she gave birth to the first female Jaris. That would explain where Jezie’s true power comes from. I mean the woman put a whole town down. That’s impressive.”
That it was.
“And that still gets us nowhere. What are we supposed to do about loving the land?”
Kragen wasn’t listening to him but had moved back across the room to his desk, where he settled down to scribble out notes and stare blindly at them. Jaxon left him to his musings, allowing his own to take hold as he considered his brother’s argument. Putting all logic aside, he began to treat the matter much like a bad movie and could come to only one ridiculous conclusion after another.
While they were all mostly laughable, his mind did center on one possibility. If Jezie was right and a heart had been broken, then it would have been the witch’s. Jaxon remembered the old Shardars, and they had not been lovelorn, but witches tended to be peculiar.
“Jezie may have a point.” Jaxon spoke aloud, mostly to himself but aware of Kragen glancing up at him. “I mean what would drive a woman to commit suicide? Especially when she had a newborn to care for?”
“What?” Kragen frowned, glancing up.
“Unless, of course, she didn’t have the girl.” Jaxon frowned at that thought. “What if her child had been taken away from her?”
“Who would do something like that?”
“The coven.” Jaxon glanced over at his brother as the pieces began to take shape in his mind. “We always knew they took the girl, but what if they took her before the witch committed suicide? What if that’s why the land is sad? It’s heartbroken.”
“Then hope is the solution,” Kragen answered softly. “There is reason to hope. The Great Owl’s presence is testament to that.”
* * * *
There might be reason to hope, but Kragen was still plagued by thoughts of the past. Between Jezie’s revelations and Jaxon’s questions, he couldn’t help but start to doubt the tales of what had happened long ago. For the first time, he had questions.
Those were questions best kept secret from the clan. The men were already on edge. Unfortunately, somebody had been listening, and the rumors began that night. They spread like wildfire, according to Khan.
The men were anxious, and Kragen could sense the fledging beginning of hope begin to spread through the clan. They were spurred on by the presence of the Great Owl and the sprouts shooting out of the soil around the Dead Tree. The tiny stalks were being monitored by the men, and Kragen knew that if they died the men would break.
It was up to him and Jaxon to assure that didn’t happen. Of course, Kragen didn’t know how the hell they were supposed to do that. Jaxon wasn’t any help. He still thought keeping Jezie orgasming was the solution. It was a dumb thought, but one Kragen didn’t argue with. Why would he?
Fucking Jezie was the highlight of his life. The least Kragen could do given all she’d done for them was to assure she came as often as he could make her. While her satisfaction filled him with a sense of contentment, Kragen also ached for something more.
Tired of working through the endless clutter of papers, Kragen gave in to the longing filling him and shoved away from his desk. Heading out to the garden where Jezie spent most of the day, he sought her out, needing to see her, to talk to her, to just be near her.
What he walked into, though, did not lighten his day. Instead, it soured instantly as he stepped out of the double doors leading from his and Jaxon’s private study into the area they’d cordoned off for Jezie’s planter beds. There she was, kneeling down over a planter with big, fat tears welling up in her beautiful eyes and rolling down her flushed cheeks.
She was crying, and he saw red instantly.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Kragen roared, ready to rip into Khan for failing in his duty.
They’d assigned the man the task of watching over Jezie and making sure she didn’t get into trouble. Clearly there was trouble, but before he could take his commander to task, Jezie drew his attention with her startled shriek.
“What? What’s going on?” she asked, jumping up and looking all around as if expecting to find some kind of villain lurking in the shadows.
“I’m talking about you,” Kragen snapped, exasperated when she blinked in surprise.
“Me?” Jezie planted a hand on her chest and straightened up as if he’d somehow insulted her. “What about me?”
“You’re crying.” Or she had been, though she seemed perfectly fine now. Kragen still wasn’t satisfied. “And I want to know why.”
“You do? Why?” Jezie asked as if the answer wasn’t obvious.
“Because I’m in charge of you, and if you are upset, I will fix it. Now tell me why you were crying.”
“It’s the land,” Khan offered up, apparently having grown tired of Jezie and Kragen’s circling argument. “Apparently to heal it, the woman has to take in its pain.”
Kragen blinked that in, not at all certain of what the hell that meant. As was often the case when talking with Jezie, he was left more confused, but Kragen did understand one thing.
“You’re taking in pain? Making yourself cry? Is that it?”
“In a way.” Jezie nodded.
“Well then, stop it!” Kragen snapped, amazed that he even had to issue that order. Even stranger, he had to argue with the woman over it.
“But⎯”
“No buts!” Kragen was putting his foot down. “You are not to harm yourself. Do you understand me?”
She didn’t. That was clear from the set of her chin and from the sharpness of her tone. “Yes, Shardar.”
“Very good.” Kragen released his breath and allowed himself to relax. She was not pleased with his dictates, but he knew she’d obey them. Jezie was nothing if not dutiful, which was just why she skipped a step over to him as he held his hand out. “Come, wench, let’s walk. I have a need to cl
ear my mind.”
What he really needed was to spend some time with Jezie, but he didn’t dare admit that, especially not within Khan’s hearing. The other man would, no doubt, find such an admission a weakness, but just being near her lifted his senses and eased the worries from his mind.
With her small hand tucked into his, Kragen did something he had never had done before and just wandered the grounds, enjoying the feel of the sun and beauty of the day. It felt filled with possibilities with Jezie at his side.
Her mind, however, appeared to be worried.
“Shardar? May I speak frankly?”
“Haven’t you been?” Kragen retorted, unable to help but smile at the disgruntled grumble that muddled her response.
“Not as freely as I normally would, no.”
“Well then, allow me to offer you a new rule. When dressed and not in the bedroom, you may speak as freely as you wish to me as long as we are alone.” Kragen thought that was very charitable of him, but again Jezie sounded less than impressed.
“Why must we be alone?”
“Because I am the Shardar,” Kragen stated simply because that should have been enough but he could tell from Jezie’s frown it wasn’t. “Nobody is allowed to argue with me.”
“But Khan⎯”
“Is special,” he finished for her. “If anything happens to Jaxon or me, he would assume our role within the pack.”
“Because there always must be two Shardars.”
“That is correct.” Kragen nodded before offering her a quick smile. “Besides, when Khan steps out of line, I am allowed to beat him down. You⎯”
“You just spank,” Jezie cut in dryly with another hint of annoyance.
“I don’t know why you say it like that,” Kragen complained. “You enjoy spanking, and trust me, Khan does not enjoy his beatings. Speaking of more pleasant things, you have adjusted well to your harness, wench. I do think it has served its purpose.”
Jezie swallowed as her face went up in flames and her eyes quickly dropped to the ground. All hints of irritation were replaced in her tone by a deep, huskiness that was like a stroke to Kragen’s senses as she nodded and answered.
“Yes, Shardar.”
“And you are looking forward to when we don’t need to use the harness anymore, are you not?” He already knew the answer. Kragen could smell her body heating with want and lust…for him. Only for him and Jaxon.
“Yes, Shardar,” Jezie finally whispered back, her ears now burning red.
“Me too, wench. Me too.”
They didn’t speak after that. The silence thickening between them as they strolled in the sunny afternoon held a peaceful hint of calm and coolness that lured Kragen into forgetting all his thoughts altogether and simply enjoying the moment. After all, if he had been thinking, he wouldn’t have led Jezie so near to the Dead Tree, but somehow they ended up close enough for her attention to be drawn to the old gnarled tree, and instantly she was pulling away from him.
“What is this?”
“It’s nothing.”
Kragen met her scowl with his own, but Jezie wasn’t impressed or intimidated. That was what happened when wenches liked their punishments too much. There were other punishments, though, ones that she wouldn’t enjoy nearly as much as her spankings, but Kragen didn’t have the heart to threaten her with them. Instead, he heaved a massive sigh and gave in to the inevitable. After all, she would learn the truth one day. She might as well hear it from him.
“It’s the Dead Tree.”
Chapter 11
The Dead Tree. Jezie’s eyes widened as she turned to stare at the old, barren trunk that still held on to its limbs. She’d heard Bridget mention the tree often enough and knew that this was where her foremother had hung herself. This was a place of great sadness and anguish.
As Jezie walked toward the tree, she could hear the whispers from the ground. They grew into a scream, and she knew in that moment that her great-grandmother had possessed a great power. The land had welcomed her, its heart becoming one with hers.
When it had broken, so, too, had the land taken on her pain, but it hadn’t died. Death would have been a release.
“This is not right,” Jezie murmured as she ran her hands over the tree’s rough bark, feeling it call out to her. “It’s not dead.”
“No?” Kragen didn’t sound too interested but, strangely, a little amused. “Let me take a guess. It’s in pain.”
“Yes.” Jezie pulled her hands back and stared at the tree, her thoughts swirling. “It aches. You aren’t cursed…or, if you are, you’ve done it to yourself.”
“But the land⎯”
“Just wants to be loved.”
It wouldn’t have shocked her in that moment if Kragen had laughed or dismissed her comments. She knew they confused him, but he took them seriously anyway. He certainly didn’t call her naïve for suggesting the land needed love. Instead, his gaze narrowed on her.
“How do you love the land?”
Jezie shook her head and stepped back from the tree. “I don’t know. There is so much pain… Leave me and I will⎯”
“No!” Kragen denied her instantly, not even allowing her to finish her sentence. “I forbid it, Jezie. Do you understand me? I will not have you out here weeping over a stupid tree.”
Jezie didn’t know whether to be annoyed that he was being so dictatorial or moved by the fact that he obviously cared about her well-being. She decided to go with the latter and ignore the former. As long as she didn’t agree, then she wouldn’t be breaking any promise when she blatantly disobeyed him. Jezie had every intention of disobeying.
She kept that thought to herself as she crossed back over to wrap her arms around Kragen and hug him in a blatant attempt to distract him. It didn’t appear to work at first.
“I want your⎯”
Jezie cut him off the only way she knew how, tipping her head up and rising on to her tiptoes to brush her mouth against his. Kragen growled, and she knew he knew what she was trying to do. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t work. With another feral sound of annoyance, he took her lips in a consuming kiss that even had her forgetting what they’d been talking about.
It came racing back to her as Khan came jogging up, calling out for Kragen.
“Shardar, your brother is looking for you.”
Khan came to a stop next to them as Jezie quickly backed away, blushing more than simply from the passion that had sprung up between Kragen and her so easily. The want churning within her left her flustered and all too aware of the harness she wore. Jezie had become accustomed to wearing one, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have her moments.
Worse, she knew Khan knew she was having one right then, thanks to the twinkle in his eyes. It matched the grin pulling at his lips as he glanced between her and Kragen before asking a very stupid question.
“Am I interrupting something?”
Kragen growled as Jezie felt her cheeks heat further. Thankfully, though, his annoyance with his commander distracted him from remembering that he didn’t want her to linger there. In fact, he didn’t even mention it as he barked at Khan to watch over her before storming off.
Khan glanced at her, that grin warning her of just what kind of thoughts were circulating in his head. Unfortunately they didn’t stay there.
“You’re not going to kiss me, too, are you?” Khan held his hands up and backed slowly away as if she was some kind of threat. “Because I’ve got no interest in becoming whipped by any pussy.”
Jezie frowned at his choice of words and couldn’t help but wag a finger at him. “You should not speak that way to women.”
“Yeah, but you’re not just any woman.” Khan dropped his hands, but he continued to eye her like prey did a predator. “You’re the one turning our leaders into milquetoast.”
“Please.” Jezie snorted and rolled her eyes. “I’d like to see you say that to either Kragen or Jaxon.”
“They’re not soft enough to hear that yet.” Khan snick
ered and nodded back to the compound. “Come on. Let’s head back.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay and study this tree for a while.” Jezie turned around to gaze over at it, not really waiting for Khan’s agreement before approaching the thick trunk once again.
“Yeah, okay.” Khan sighed behind her, calling out one last obnoxious warning before leaving her to her thoughts. “But if you start crying, I’m going to have to interfere. After all, I did hear what Kragen was trying to get said before you shamelessly used your feminine wiles to distract him.”
Feminine wiles. That was something nobody had ever accused her of even having before. The very thought was foreign to her. So was the undercurrent pulsing through the ground. The sadness was so overwhelming it was easy to miss the slight thread of fear that was tangled up in the soil.
It wasn’t just sad. It was afraid. Terrified…but of what? Jezie knelt before the Dead Tree for over an hour, allowing her soul delve deeper and deeper into the Earth until she was touching the heart of the despair lurking within the ground.
Then she saw it. She felt it. It was alive and shifting around her. It was the heart of misery with the soul of a beast. It was an empty monster that lusted only for destruction and vengeance. Trapped within it was the soul of her great-grandmother. The beast was feeding upon her, allowing her anguish to poison the ground.
That evil turned its want toward Jezie, reaching out with frigidly sharp tentacles of emotion to wrap around her soul and pull her in. Jezie tried to break the spell, to pull back, but she was crippled by the despair filling her, assuring her there was no escape.
The anger and hatred that radiated out of Earth distorted everything, infusing Jezie’s very heart with a confusion so great she found herself drowning within the sensations flooding through her. It was too late to escape. Even as the world faded away, she could feel the ground shifting beneath her, the thick, rough brush of the roots coming to suck her deep into the Earth.
