by May Sage
Clari’s head hurt trying to understand what she meant. “So, you’re saying if you don’t leave now, you’d change the future, which may change the past?”
Yeah, that made sense. Not.
“A lot of people think visions are a one-way street; but if you want them to come to pass, sometimes you have to work for them.”
No one seemed to quite buy that.
“Right, let’s try something. I’m staying,” she announced. “I’ve one hundred percent decided to stick around.”
Tria then turned to Hsu.
“See anything?”
The girl closed her eyes, and her mouth dropped open.
“It… changed. The vision. We’re not in the lounge, we’re outside. I still can’t see but the block has changed. It’s not just red anymore.”
“Let me guess, some blue, some yellow, with a sprinkle of apocalypse on top?” then she turned back to Niamh. “I have to go. We have a plan that relies on the information we have at hand; in Hsu’s vision, I wasn’t around at the start of the battle, and I came back right after. That, we can deal with.”
The Scion spoke softly to Niamh. While she seemed to look at all of them with something akin to indifference and contempt, there was real affection between her and the teenager.
She then turned to the Alpha.
“You need to contact me the moment your patrol spots them, and we know I don’t come in until you’re all standing in this lounge, in a circle. After that, we’re flying blind. I will do my part, but in the meantime, it’s up to you to survive this.”
Just before she passed the threshold, Ace stopped her, calling, “Wait.”
The two women had barely spoken to each other in the three hours Tria had stayed and everyone could feel the tension between them.
“You have no reason to help us. I want to trust you, but this…this is wagering our child’s life.”
Tria considered the words, before nodding.
“Yes, I understand how you may need some reassurance, given that everything is at stake for you, and I have nothing to gain in offering my aid. But three years ago, before you joined this pride, your mate took in Niamh. I do owe you a great deal for that. So, if it is of comfort to you, you have my word. When you call, I will come and I will do exactly what I said I would. I swear it on the River Styx.”
On that note, she was gone.
Those last few parting words felt heavy, although Clari didn’t understand why.
“I’ve heard that before; or read it in a book, maybe. That’s a vow to the death; I mean, if we said it, it wouldn’t matter at all, but in Greek mythology, nothing is as binding.”
Ace turned to Niamh.
“You better tell me your friend is Greek.”
Chapter 21
The End
The tigress approached silently, but Daunte felt her; more importantly, he smelled her.
“Perfumed shower gel, really?”
Clari shifted back to her human form before cursing out loud.
“Dammit! Can’t you just tell me what I’m not supposed to do, so I can surprise you once? Just the once.”
To his surprise, the day after Tria had left, she’d asked about potentially being trained.
“I need to be able to hold my own if there’s a fight coming. No way am I sitting in the middle with the kids.”
“That’s exactly where you will be,” he’d replied. But he had to relent on the second part. “However, I think we’ll all breath much easier if you had some basic training under your belt. We’ll start tomorrow.”
If he was honest, Clari was a quick learner. Very quick. Her instinct was to let her animal take over during fights which meant she’d had no technique, but a lot of speed, strength, and dirty moves. Jas had given her technique on top of that.
But his mate hadn’t wanted to stop there, fully intending to drive him insane. As soon as she could hold her own, she was asking, “I’d like to start patrolling with you guys.”
Yeah… that was a no. Never. Not in a million years. Non-negotiable.
But when he’d said just that, she played dirty, and took sex off the table until he stopped being – her word – “unreasonable.”
“Clari,” he said, “they’re coming for you. To kill you. So, no, you’re not going to the front line. Especially not since you can’t move quietly to save your life.”
Hence why she was now attempting to prove that she could.
She’d gotten much, much better over the last week – but he wasn’t going to relent on this.
“I’m supposed to be Beta female, and patrolling…”
“Is the Enforcer’s job. I wouldn’t be doing it if our pride wasn’t so small, and if…”
He stopped talking, stopped breathing.
“What...”
Daunte lifted one finger to his mouth, gesturing her to keep quiet as he turned south, where he’d heard a noise.
He crouched, slowly, ready to shift and pounce. But a slight form came out of the shadows; a face he recognised, although he’d only seen it twice. Once on an application, another time, face to face.
The small blond Clari had pounced on the first time she’d shifted. Daunte never saw her again, which meant Rye had dismissed her…
If she’d made it to the pride house.
Was she spying on them?
He didn’t think so; something made him believe she wasn’t, although he couldn’t place what.
“Five miles, on the other side of the river, there’re bears on foot” she said. “More people are coming by road. They’re close.”
Then, the girl took a step back, returning to the shadow.
“Wait…” he called, needing a little more to go on; numbers, perhaps.
But he felt the change in the air that always preceded a shift, and, a second later, a large bird of prey flew away.
Daunte didn’t have the time to go after her. “Shift back, and stay close to me,” he asked Clari, who for once, did as she was told. Thank all heavens for that.
They ran at high speed back to the pride house; Daunte burst into Rye’s office in his animal form, the large panther making a mess of the files as he bumped into the furniture. He shifted, reaching for the closest phone.
“It’s starting. Call everyone back.”
Clari had genuinely believed she’d been ready for it; that at the very least, she knew what to expect. What a load of bull crap.
She remembered all the things she’d told herself she’d do later. Call her mom to tell her about Daunte, see her aunt and uncle for dinner, visit her cousin, add apple muffins to the menu at the bakery they hadn’t opened for nearly a month.
Now, if she messed up, there would be no tomorrow.
“Where is everyone?”
Her voice didn’t relay even half of her panic, although it was shaky.
“They’ll come. Jas and Ian are patrolling with the recruits. It’s gonna be just fine.”
How did Rye manage to sound so collected, damn it?
“It will,” Daunte insisted. “That eagle girl gave us a huge advantage. We’ve been warned a good ten minutes earlier than planned. It’ll be okay, beautiful.”
Ace, who’d gone to call Niamh as soon as they’d arrived, came downstairs with all the kids, Zack held against her chest. She headed right to Clari, and put the sleeping child in her arms.
“Fitting to let this end exactly how it started,” she said, attempting a smile.
“I can’t…”
“You’ll take care of him for me. And, if you need to, you just take the kids and run like hell. Run to the end of the world.”
Clari couldn’t speak, her throat dry and her heart about to explode, so she just nodded. She hated the very thought of it, but, if she needed to, she’d run; Zack and the other children deserved as much.
On that note, the Alpha left the house, Daunte, Rye, Faith and Vivicia on her heels.
Rain remained behind with her, chanting words in French, or perhaps Latin.
<
br /> Then, she heard it as it started.
Daunte had never loved his sister as much as he did when she made his mate stay behind. Because she would have died.
It looked like they all would.
Ace was the only one amongst them who hadn’t shifted; in her human form, she was more powerful, as she managed to call to the beast within, using her fangs, her claws, and her raw power to dismember anyone who came close. Rye’s curved canines punctured lungs and he clawed heads clean off. Daunte channeled everything his father ever taught him, becoming one with his beast, letting him loose on their enemy.
But wave after wave, they came at them, unrelenting. He heard the others around the house, although he couldn’t see them. He felt them through the pride link. Some were wounded already.
Three minutes. They’d survived three minutes when the first one died.
Ace yelled out, her ferocity renewed as she felt their pridemate fade through the link.
She turned towards a cheetah to her right.
“You can go,” she told him. “This is a damn massacre, you can just fucking go before…”
The cheetah jumped before her, his claws latching onto a bear’s neck, and ripping it out.
There are children inside, Luke replied through the pride link, like nothing else mattered.
He shouldn’t have been able to speak to them without being officially part of their pride, but the simple fact that he was there now changed that.
Although his attention was entirely engaged in the present moment, Daunte felt he wasn’t the only addition. Ariadna, Sawyer, and Theo had also stayed.
He’d barely noticed them when another one faded away, Daunte couldn’t tell which.
Four minutes, twenty-three seconds had passed.
They were all going to die.
Daunte had barely stopped a bear from slashing through his midsection when he saw another one charge from the corner of his eye. He didn’t have a chance in hell to stop him.
At least his end would be quick.
* * *
The one word to describe his state of mind right now was confused. For a second, he wondered if he was dead and there was an afterlife, contrary to his beliefs. Then, he winced as just about every single muscle in his body hurt; opening his eyes, he saw a hand extended, offering him help standing up.
He took it gracefully.
“Thanks, man.” Then, it had to be said, “Who the hell are you?”
The guy was cocky, dark haired, and a complete stranger. But Daunte was favorably inclined towards him given the fact that after his arrival, close to a hundred bear shifters lay dead in their garden.
“The name’s Jason,” the stranger replied. “We may have an acquaintance in common.”
Then he lifted his head just as a flock of eagles darkened their view. “Pretty, socially awkward, too prompt to give a vow that may haunt her for all eternity.”
Jason’s eyes flashed, turning silver, and a colossal, unnatural lightning bolt tore through the sky.
“That would be my cousin Tria,” he concluded, as three dozen birds fell on the ground, lifeless.
“Well, that was scary. And sexy.” Ace thought it out, before amending, “Mostly sexy.”
Rye lifted a brow, and she just shrugged. “What? It’s not like I haven’t seen you drool over Tria. They’re weird and hot as fuck. Deal with it.”
Daunte wasn’t sure the man needed anything to further feed his ego, but his previously cocky grin turned goofy.
“Thanks, lady.”
“I can feel the rest of the pride is safe.”
Those amongst them who hadn’t died before the Scion’s arrival, in any case.
“Did you get to them before coming to our aid?”
Jason’s response was cut off by a sugary sweet voice coming from the other side of the house.
“That would have been me,” a tall, pale blonde piped in, waving her hello. “Daphne,” she introduced herself. “You owe me a pair of shoes. I’ll never get the mud off the velvet.”
They all stood in a circle, surrounding the children, just like they had in Hsu’s vision.
Well, not all of them. Clari didn’t fail to notice two of them were missing. She didn’t want to ask. She didn’t need to either. She’d felt it in her bones. Sawyer and Tracy were gone. She didn’t know the first one well, but Tracy- she couldn’t wrap her head around it. Just last night, she’d said she’d finished her latest book. It would be her last, now.
Before she could wallow in that thought for too long, the doors opened in front of Tria. She’d come through for them – and, if she hadn’t, Clari would have died. So would have Zack.
“It’s done,” she announced cheerfully, like she hadn’t just accomplished something that defied the realm of possibilities.
Everyone breathed out, and Clari relaxed her posture. Daunte’s arms wrapped around her waist and squeezed her hard.
* * *
Her plan had been simple, and positively impossible, at least according to their witch, Rain, and every other member of the pride.
“The Council is coming; all twelve of them, conveniently in one place,” she’d said. “And imagine if they all so happen to suddenly depend on the wellbeing of this little pride to survive. Well- you’ll see just how quickly laws and decrees can be changed.”
No one had understood what she’d meant at first.
“I can link their life force to Zack and Clari. If someone kills them, they’ll all die, too.”
“Impossible,” Rain had replied, unable to wrap her head around it. “There’s no spell that could accomplish that. Even if there was, if it went wrong-”
“It won’t go wrong.”
She’d been matter of fact.
And, apparently, she’d been right.
* * *
Where are they?” Rye asked darkly.
“En route to their evil lair, I’m sure. And good thing, too, by the looks of it. If you’d killed them, they wouldn’t be able to go home and change the laws, now, would they?”
“Do you really think they will?” Hsu asked.
Tria smiled at the child, before turning on her heels. “Why don’t you see for yourself,” she said, before walking out of door.
Epilogue
The Council was quick to act. Two days later, they’d made an announcement, and newspapers around the world were in danger of running out of ink over it.
Turners, they’d said, were nothing more than legends until now. A lie, and every shifter knew it. They’d existed all right; for a time. Then, the moment their nature was discovered, they’d been ruthlessly executed for the greater good. But we have recently become aware that some very, very rare shifters are born with the ability to bestow the gift of an animal to human beings.
These shifters are bound by very strict laws that will prevent them from exercising that gift without consent, and a careful vetting process.
They are a beautiful part of our heritage and will be protected at all costs.
Rye got the champagne out, and Ace drunk-texted Tria, to tell her she was a jerk for leaving so suddenly, without giving them the chance to thank her.
PS, she added, we owe you everything.
* * *
Tria smiled. She wasn’t very good at dealing with thanks. Besides, it wasn’t like she did everything to be nice.
There were three dozen groups of shifters, twenty-two powerful people, one witch, and an endless stream of loners who owed her. She liked it that way.
“You know, you can pretend that you’re just a mastermind creating an army of servants, but you’re not fooling us,” Daphne told her- not for the first time. “You’re acting that way because that’s in your DNA. Your father’s fatal flaw was also compassion.”
“And your father’s was hubris. You may be onto something, it must be genetic,” she retorted, rolling her eyes.
“I don’t get it, though,” Jase butted in. “I mean, not the part about lending a hand to save the pretty kit
ten – that begs no question. The kid was cute. But that girl? Niamh? You’ve paid her a little too much attention.”
“Don’t you just wish you knew.”
Clari didn’t think she’d ever felt as awkward in her life. Ever.
“So, let me get this straight. One of his people bit you and made you into a, a…”
Marissa Thompson didn’t finish her sentence, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that her sister had stepped on her toes. Hard.
“You must have been through a lot, dear,” her aunt said, squeezing her hand in a sign of support. “I do wish you’d come to us about your problem.” Then, she turned to Daunte, and sent him a smile. “But it sounds like your young man was wonderfully supportive.”
“You’re joking, right? You’re supporting this farce? We should sue them. Set the PIA on them and…”
Train wreck. This was a train wreck.
She had no clue why Daunte had insisted on meeting her family. Or, rather, why he’d wanted her mother to be there.
Bethany and Andrew Turner had taken the news better than expected, but Marissa Thompson was… Marissa Thompson. Some people were cut to understand the whole parenting thing; others weren’t. Marissa didn’t have a supportive bone in her body – she never had, and never would.
“Please, feel free to attempt to do so,” Daunte replied pleasantly. “However, you may want to know that, firstly, the Agency is fully aware of the situation – secondly, I have the resources to outlast you in court twenty times over at the very least. And, if that’s not enough, our pride is sitting on a few million. Above and beyond all that, our Alpha so happens to be royalty. You may want to rethink threatening me, or my mate.”
Marissa narrowed her eyes, and added nothing, but Clari had to laugh, reading her easily, as she looked at Daunte more carefully now. She scrutinized the crisp suit he’d put on, the watch on his wrist, his posture. Daunte had made an effort today; he looked like a sexy, sexy businessman.
