by Julia Mills
“There will be a prayer led by Niamh then a welcoming that includes instructions for both males led by Jackson, Noah’s older brother and the leader of the males, a position he has held since his father’s death. After that, you and Noah will meet in the center of the Hallowed Circle, shake hands, and the fight will begin…”
An uncomfortable silence followed Tara’s words. There was something she wasn’t saying, something she didn’t want to say. Waiting for someone to speak, Brannoc looked around the room and was shocked when the youngest among them, Aimee, quietly said, “We all know that you hope to end this Fight of Dominance without killing Noah, but please, be aware that he is coming with the express purpose of taking your life. He will stop at nothing and I,” she paused and looked around the room before correcting herself and continuing, “we, fear if you do not end his life, this fight will never be over.”
The weight that had been lifted from the room had now been squarely placed on Brannoc’s shoulders. He needed to talk to Rian, the leader of his clan, or at the very least Pearce, the only of his brethren he could count on to be level-headed, but Annie had made it clear when he’d earlier suggested calling the others of his Force, that it was expressly forbidden. There could be no contact between he and the other Guardsmen until the Fight for Dominance was over.
Taking a moment to play back everything he’d just been told, the Guardsman nodded his head, looked across the fire at Tabitha, and said, “I choose you as my second.”
Annie was immediately on her feet, shaking her head and throwing her hands in the air. “Wait just one minute. You’re going ahead with this?” She took a step forward and laid her hands on his chest. “And you’re taking Tabby with you?” Annie leaned into him and through gritted teeth asked, “Are you crazy?”
Smiling despite the situation, Brannoc leaned forward, kissed the tip of her nose, and chuckled. “No, Annie, mo ghrá. I’m in love.”
Chapter Six
It had been three days since Annie had kissed Brannoc goodbye and watched him walk out of the Elder’s Chamber with Tabitha. It had also been three days since Niamh had made them block their mental connection. The Matriarch cautioned them against having any contact, telling them she knew they would still be able to feel one another through their mating bond, but under no circumstances could they communicate or share thoughts. Annie felt as if a piece of her soul had suddenly been locked away when her dragon pushed his mental blocks into place. It only added to her anger and frustration at the whole damned situation. Being connected to Brannoc, sharing thoughts, and speaking in the way of mates had immediately become second nature; something she now missed in the worst way.
Pacing a groove in her grandmother’s floor, Annie had bitten her nails to the quick, eaten her own weight in Bit ’o’ Honeys, and even played gin rummy with Niamh, who undoubtedly cheated. There was absolutely no way anyone could win as many times as her grandmother did; it was unnatural. But nothing could distract Annie from her worry over the impending duel and the fate of her dragon.
Not only was it nerve-wracking knowing her mate was training to fight in the way of their ancestors, but her heat was quickly approaching critical levels. Annie felt as if her insides were on fire and her brain might simply implode at any moment. She was achy and jittery, unable to sit still for longer than a minute, and so irritable that even the sound of the wind through the trees made her want to scream.
She’d tried cold showers then hot showers. Walking, talking, eating, sleeping, pacing, bitching and eventually, punching the wall, but nothing calmed her raging libido. She’d even given in to her family’s demands and taken the herbal concoction her mother swore had helped every female in their sloth through her heat since the beginning of time, and it was like drinking a can of flat soda – no fizz, no flavor, no help.
It might not have been so bad if she only had herself to worry about, but as it stood, her bear was in an even worse state. The poor beast was battering the confines of Annie’s mind, pushing to be set free. Roaring one minute and then whimpering the next. When that didn’t work, she would roll on her back and whine for hours on end, calling for Brannoc and his dragon. It was a lose-lose situation; a ticking time bomb that was nearing detonation. All Annie could do was pray to the Mother Ursa for patience and hope her mate took Noah out with a one-two punch so he could quench the burning desire within her.
“Staring at the wall isn’t going to make time go by any faster?” Niamh teased from across the room where she was crocheting.
“I know, but it’s better than tearing my hair out or breaking the Laws of the Fight.” She glared at her grandmother. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about running out of here, grabbing Brannoc by the hand, and getting the hell outta dodge?”
“As a matter of fact,” Niamh tapped her temple with her forefinger and grinned, “I do. The deeper into your heat you go, the worse you become at shielding your thoughts.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry.” Annie knew she was being petulant but it was either that or bitchy, and she was sure bitchy would get her smacked upside the head, so she stuck with petulant.
Laying her yarn in her lap, Niamh leaned forward. “Besides, not that I think you would ever do it, but if you did try to run, Brannoc would never go along. Your dragon has too much honor for what you’re suggesting. There’s no way he would let you run from your sloth in shame and spend your life hiding. This is the path he has chosen to walk, and you, my beloved granddaughter, must walk it with him.”
She knew her grandmother was right, but it was hard to see logic when she was being betrayed by her own body. Nodding her head, Annie could only sigh and once again pace around the cave. Finally fed up with herself, the young bear grabbed a book from the shelf, headed down the corridor, and hollered over her shoulder, “I’m going to lay down and read for a while. Maybe I can even get a nap before tonight.”
“Good for you, dear. The rest will be good for you.”
Shaking her head at Niamh’s grandmotherly response, Annie flopped onto the soft bed and stared at the words on the page until she finally fell asleep. Her chaotic dreams came almost at once. It was as if every significant moment of her life was on fast forward, running through her mind, giving her a play by play of all she’d experienced so far.
Traveling at break-neck speed through a hundred and twenty years of life was enlightening, but when it stopped on a dime with a picture of her father, Dominick, Annie’s heart skipped a beat. The image was so real it was as if she could reach out and touch him. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch the puckered skin of the scar that started above his right temple, stretched the length of his cheek, curved under his jaw, and ended right above where his jugular pulsed at the base of his neck. She smiled in her sleep remembering how his low rumble of a chuckle would fill the room as she tickled his scar and begged for him to tell the story of the day he got it.
“Well, Annalissa, my sweetling, it was a very dark day for our sloth. Hundreds of bear lives were lost. The wizards surprised us by attacking in broad daylight. Something they’d never done before.”
“They rode over the valley like a menacing horde. The grass beneath the hooves of their horses withered and died. The skies turned black as night and the pungent stench of evil filled the air.”
“The largest among us called forth our beasts and charged toward the enemy. The women and children ran for the mountain. You were little more than a month old. I wanted to stay with you and your mother, but my duty was to defend the sloth. So, like my brothers, I transformed and raced toward the valley as your mother ran in the opposite direction with you in her arms.”
“The battle was bloody. Not only were we battling wizards, but all manner of demon and creature warped by black magic. We gave as good as we got. Wizards were being exterminated at an astounding rate. Unfortunately, I also watched, unable to help them all, as more and more of my brother bears fell to their deaths.”
“Hours later, with our losses greater th
an we’d ever experienced, unsure how much longer we could battle their unending magical assault, the wizards and their allies simply retreated. We stood in awe, wondering what had happened but thankful for the victory.”
“I had just turned to make my way to you and your mother when a blood curdling scream ripped across the fog of magical residue floating above the battlefield. It was your mother calling for me.”
“I don’t remember how I got from the far side of the valley to the base of the mountain. All I know is that I had never heard your mother so fearful and had no doubt something terrible had happened to you. Bounding up the trail, I flew through the mouth of the cave, straight down the tunnel in front of me, and headlong into the cavern where I could feel you and your mother were being threatened.”
“I roared at what I saw. A tall, soot-covered demon with red eyes, black leathery skin, and fingers that looked like the roots of a tree was holding your mother by the neck while a wizard who couldn’t have been any older than twenty-five with pale skin and sunken green eyes held you upside down by your ankles while chanting, ‘Teacht chugan’, over and over.”
“It was then I knew the wizards had been after you all along. They wanted the Magic of the Ancients. They didn’t care who they had to kill or even if they died in the process. They were on a crusade to steal the very magic the Mother Ursa gave to the Original Bear, the first person She first graced with the soul of a bear. The evil bastards wanted to use it to destroy not only us, but all shifters.”
“And what did you do then, Daddy?” Annie chuckled in her dream at the way her younger self lisped and her voice resembled a chipmunk.
Smiling, her dad brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek and continued, “I looked at your mother and heard her voice in my mind telling me to save you, but there was no way I was willing to sacrifice either of you. That one minute of hesitation gave my oldest friend and your godfather, Isiah, time to arrive.”
“He ran toward the demon while I jumped at the wizard and in a feat that still makes my heart skip a beat, we defeated both adversaries and saved you and your mom.”
“But what about the part where Uncle Isiah made the demon’s head roll across the floor and you painted the walls with the wizard’s blood.”
Dominick tried to hide his smile at her mother’s reprimand of, “Dominick, I thought you said you left out the parts with the blood and guts,” rang out. But he ended up laughing when Annie answered with, “But the blood and guts is the best part.”
Laying her down in bed and tucking her in while getting his laughter under control, Annie’s dad, the person she loved more than anyone else in the world, kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “Sweet dreams, my little Matriarch. I love you a bushel and peck and a hug around the neck.”
Snuggling under her blankets, little Annie looked up at her dad and giggled, “A barrel and a heap and I’m talking in my sleep.”
Once again, she was caught in a whirlwind of recollections and this time when it stopped, Annie was in a much different place on a much darker day when the bears had not been the victors. She was sixteen and she was saying goodbye to her father for the last time.
He’d been out with a scouting party when the wizards had attacked. The zealots had been ruthless, cutting ten male bears down where they stood and then delivering their dead bodies to the sloth at the base of the mountain the Elders called home.
As the next in line to be Matriarch, it was Annie’s job to light the funeral pyre and tend the flames until they extinguished, however long that took. It had been several hours since the others of her sloth had gone home. The little bear sat wrapped up in her father’s favorite woolen blanket, staring into the flames, deep in thought, when the low rasp of his baritone voice sounded within her mind. “Thank you, my little Matriarch.”
Sure she had lost her mind but overjoyed that she could once again hear her father’s voice, Annie immediately asked, “For what?”
“For tending the fire and seeing my soul into the Heavens.”
“But…”
“But nothing. Remember your teachings. That is why you are here. It is your responsibility as the next in line to lead the Golden Bear Sloth and Keeper of the Magic of the Ancients to tend the flames and guide our souls to the other side. Only you possess the magic and the purity of heart to achieve such a task.”
“But I don’t want you to go.”
“Oh, my sweetling, I don’t want to go either, but I must.”
“I know,” she choked back her sobs. “I know, but I don’t like it.”
His warm, loving chuckle filled her mind. “Neither do I, but you know what?”
“What, Daddy?”
“I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.”
And as she watched his spirit ascend into the Heavens, the young bear whispered, “A barrel and a heap and I’m talking in my sleep.”
Waking with a start, Annie sat straight up and with a smile on her face, looked at the picture of her parents her grandma had hanging on the wall and whispered, “Thanks, Dad.”
Jumping off the bed, she made her way back to where Niamh still sat crocheting. Ignoring Aimee and Lorna as they walked into the grotto, the bear turned to her grandmother just as the Matriarch asked, “Did you have good dreams?”
“I did,” she nodded.
“Learn anything new?”
“Not really, but I did remember something.” Annie paused, waited for Niamh to look up, and then went on, “Who I am and why I’m here.”
A knowing smile crossed Niamh’s face as she stood and headed toward the exit, calling over her shoulder, “Then you’re ready and just in time to watch your dragon change the way the game is played.”
Rushing to catch up to her grandmother, an exasperated Annie yelled, “What does that mean?”
Chuckling as she stayed one step ahead, Niamh answered, “You’ll see. Good things come to those who wait.”
“Grandmother,” Annie growled. “Have you never heard the saying don’t poke the bear?”
“Oh yes, my dear. I invented it,” Niamh laughed out loud.
Chapter Seven
Training with Tabitha had not only been enlightening, but a true workout in every sense of the word. From the onset, she repeatedly said that if he treated her like a girl, she would kick his ass, and the Guardsman was finding out the hard way that she hadn’t been kidding.
“You better be punching with all your strength, dragon man. Noah’s sure as hell not gonna pull any punches,” she panted, jabbing with her left hand then slugging him in the jaw with a right cross he didn’t see coming.
Shaking his head to stop the ringing in his ears, Brannoc asked, “But what if I hurt you? Annie will string me up, not to mention what kind of torture your mother and grandmother can come up with.” He ducked and swerved to the side, barely missing getting pummeled in the ribs with an especially aggressive roundhouse kick.
“They won’t do a thing. They all know I can take my lumps. But I promise you one thing,” Tabby paused as she faked right than landed a wallop of a punch to his midsection with her left. “Annie will string you up by the family jewels if I tell her you didn’t give this training your all.”
Feeling the truth in the bear’s words, Brannoc set aside a hundred plus years of beliefs with the regards to the sexes and began to fight Tabitha just as he would any of his brethren in a training match. It was difficult at first, but the more the bear beat at him the easier it became, until the two were truly brawling like prize fighters.
The Guardsman gave as good as he got, learning that bears do not subscribe to the theory of honor in fighting. Instead, they punch, kick, bite, poke, and taunt with a vengeance. The only things out of bound were crotch shots and eye jabs, but even Tabby had to admit that he should be ready for absolutely anything where his new nemesis was concerned.
“Jackson will tell you both what is off limits and ask for a fair fight, but you better be prepared. Noah wants to win in the
worst way. I’ve heard he thinks that once he gets to mate Annie, he’ll take control of the sloth from her.”
Ducking to avoid a left jab, Brannoc countered with a foot sweep that had Tabby’s butt landing on the mat then chuckled, “Bastard doesn’t know my Annie very well, does he?”
“Not at all,” the bear grunted as she got to her feet and bounced on her toes. Smiling, she teased, “And it’s ‘your Annie’, is it?”
Knowing she was trying to distract him with her question, Brannoc kept his fists up and his body loose as he gave her a single nod and answered, “You know it,” just as she spun to the left and barely missed his ribs with yet another back kick.
Turning back to him with a grin on her face, Tabby raised her eyebrows and nodded, “You’re getting there, dragon man. A few more hours and you’ll be ready.”
Barking with laughter as he attacked with a flurry of jabs that ended with Tabby against the ropes and raising her gloves in surrender, Brannoc shook his head. “Oh, hell no, I’m not falling for that again. I drop my gloves thinking you’ve forfeited and you sucker punch me in the nose.” He raised his eyebrows. “Not happening, Tabby.”
“Finally, the dragon’s learned his lesson.”
“You know it,” he danced back, fists up and at the ready. “And not a moment too soon. It’s only five hours until midnight.”
Sitting on the stool just outside the mat, Tabby took a huge drink from her water bottle, threw Brannoc’s to him, and asked, “You wanna do another round in the water?”
