by Mel Teshco
Her father’s hand curled around her forearm, as if in warning. “Isabella, what is going on? Who is this man?”
She took a deep breath. “This is Reuben. He…he saved my life.”
“Then I am indebted to him.” Except as Jacob stared at him, he evidently recognized him as a hardened warrior. “Shame he’s a king’s soldier, therefore a protector of all shape shifters—including nightmix.” He spat out the last word as if toxin.
Reuben watched her silently, as if willing her to reveal her innermost thoughts. “Bella, tell your father the truth. He needs to know.”
“I…” She shook her head. “I can’t.”
Whether she revealed he was royalty or not, it wouldn’t matter. Once they knew Reuben was a nightmix he would be slaughtered. The whole village would attack him and then worry about the repercussions of their actions later.
“Please,” Reuben said, his attention fixated on her, as if willing her to tell the truth. “You know it’s all for us or nothing at all.”
He really thinks we have a chance together. A future.
The thought was incredible, enlightening. Freeing. He wanted to fight for their happiness, was willing to risk everything.
She lifted her chin and pulled free from her father’s clasp. Her own insecurities had been holding her back all her life. But no more.
“Isabella, what the hell is going on?” Jacob demanded.
In that moment she barely heard her father. His obvious disdain and undercurrents of panic was background noise to the hope rising within. All her attention stayed on Reuben. “You really mean that?” she asked him, scarcely daring to breathe.
He nodded. “With my life.”
His life was on the line. She just had to trust that he knew what he was doing and that good and right would prevail in the end.
She cleared her throat and faced her dad, only the crackling of the fire and a faraway hoot of an owl puncturing the silence. Her father wanted to know what was going on. She’d give it to him straight. “Daddy, the truth is, I think—I know—we’ve all been too quick to blame the evil deeds of one nightmix onto them all.”
A handful of people in the crowd released shocked breaths. A few others muttered their disbelief.
Reuben’s stare softened, not once wavering from hers. “Don’t stop now, my Bella.”
She nodded. But it took all her bravado to say out loud, “Reuben opened my eyes to the truth. Prince Reuben. The son of a Zaneean king and queen and therefore a shape shifter…and a nightmix.”
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears at the stunned, horrified silence. She squared her shoulders and added loudly, “He’s also the most honorable man I’ve ever met. And…I love him.”
Jacob’s outrage and revulsion was palpable when he bellowed, “Get him!”
The village women shrank back in terror even as six of the burliest men grabbed Reuben. He seemed immune to their hatred and rough handling. His eyes shining bright with emotion, he mouthed to her the three words she’d only just said out loud.
Something in her chest moved, a silly smile pulling at her lips, despite the dire circumstances.
Then one of the men put him in a chokehold. She pressed a hand to her mouth as she watched the scuffling break out before Reuben shouted, “I can prove I’m not like the nightmix who killed Bella’s brother. I’m nothing like him.”
She turned to her father, voice sounding not her own with the tightness in her throat. “Daddy, I beg of you to give him a chance.”
Jacob’s lip curled, disgust and utter betrayal stamped onto every harsh line of his face. “How could you defend him?” he snarled instead.
Reuben grunted as a thud sounded, and then another. She closed her eyes, fighting to stay clear-headed, fighting to think things through, though the blood pounded in her ears and her fingers twitched with longing for her bow and arrows. Her lashes flicked open and she looked back at her father. “If you truly don’t want to lose me—let Reuben become a nightmix. Let him prove he’s got none of the darkness inside.”
Another thud was followed by Reuben’s pained exhalation.
A scream built in her throat. Her friends were hurting the prince and she wanted to beat at them with her fists and force them away from him before they injured him beyond endurance—before their violence against him triggered something dark within him.
Jacob’s already gaunt face pinched with grief. Then rage took over once again. “A beast just like that one,” he snarled, throwing out his hand toward Reuben, “killed my son—your brother!”
“And people kill other people too, but it doesn’t mean we’re all murderers. Please,” she whispered, “trust me on this.”
At her father’s intractable expression, she drew the hem of her dress up, baring her thigh to reveal neat little stitches. “When I was thrown from Millie I would have bled to death.” She peered up at him. “But Reuben saved my life…more than once.”
More scuffling sounded, before one of the men threw a punch that landed on Reuben’s jaw with a solid crack. He doubled over for a moment before he managed to turn his head her way, as if in silent entreaty—as if he shared her concern that he’d not be able to control the inner darkness of his nightmix.
She resisted a whimper. The blood streaming from his nose only emphasized the crimson light in his eyes. The beast coming to life within. She turned back to her father, willing him to listen. “Reuben fed me, dragged me in from the cold when I was near frozen to death—”
His pained, ragged voice cut her off. “You laid with him, didn’t you?”
Her mouth snapped shut, her eyes narrowing with impatience. “Yes I did.”
Her father inhaled slowly, forcefully. Then he nodded to the men holding Reuben. One of them threw a final punch before they released him and moved away, a handful of men then stepping out from the shadows with their arrows nocked.
Reuben crumpled to the ground, seemingly oblivious to the latest danger with his shift already upon him. Jacob held his hand up, delaying the inevitable a moment longer when he asked her, “You’re in love with that…that devil?” he asked, the cords on his neck standing out. “Look at him! He’s not us…he’s not human.”
“No, Daddy, you’re wrong,” she said with quiet conviction. “He’s more human than all of us who’ve done everything in our power to kill him.”
“He’s corrupted your soul. Turned you against everything you’ve fought for…everything you’ve ever known.” His eyes bulged. “Traitor!” he roared.
He signaled to the semicircle of archers. “Finish him off.”
No. You. Don’t!
She leaped from the wagon even before the archers had drawn the string on their bows. She put herself between the armed men and the huge black panther, who lay immobile and panting. He snarled, as if furious she’d put herself in harm’s way, but she wasn’t afraid. His dying on her was a far more terrifying option than the very remote possibility of her being hurt.
She looked at the archers—all of them close friends. “You shoot him. You kill me.”
They stared at her, uncertainty etching their faces. Then one by one they lowered their weapons, unwilling to harm her. She pushed a trembling hand over her face. Reuben had trusted that her father and her people wouldn’t harm him if they knew the truth. It was now or never to show them they had nothing to fear.
She stood tall, hands dropping to her sides. “Promise me you won’t harm Reuben…won’t harm the nightmix.”
One of the men she’d danced with nodded, and then dropped his bow and arrow to his feet. “I give you my word,” he said, “as long as that beast doesn’t do you any harm.”
That was good enough for her. “Thank you. And he won’t.”
When the rest of the men followed suit and dropped their weapons to the ground, she felt almost dizzy with gratitude. She released a breath and turned to her father. He was stiff and watching her with nothing short of despair. “Daddy…will you at least give him a chance?”
“One swi
pe of his claws, that’s all it’d take,” he gritted out, “for you to fall to the ground dead. You expect me to risk that?”
“Daddy, you’re not going to lose me tonight—or any other night. Reuben loves me. Please believe me, on both counts.”
She didn’t give him a chance to respond, didn’t give him a chance to order the men to drag her away. She pivoted, moving to the big cat and crouching at his side. His eyes gleamed, a feral light, but he didn’t move, just watched.
“I’m sorry they did this to you,” she murmured. “I’m sorry you had to go to this extreme just to be accepted.” She slid her hand up and down the silky softness of his furred back. “But I think I love you all the more for wanting to put yourself through it so that we can be together.”
A deep, rumbling purr interrupted her, then the beast stood up, towering over her, and thrust his head into her chest.
She giggled, pushing her hands behind his ears and scratching him, loving the softness of his fur and the musky cat smell of him. “You’re as beautiful in this form as your human form,” she cooed, putting her head on his and reaching up to cuddle him—if only her arms would stretch fully around his neck.
The villagers stood frozen in utter disbelief before her father’s strangled voice broke the silence. “It’s not possible…”
Isabella turned to him, her voice catching. “You wanted proof, Daddy. Here it is.”
Her nightmix pushed to his paws to stand beside her, a united front. And though his eyes remained the crimson of his species, there was no aggression or murderous gleam in his stare. Only compassionate understanding.
He growled a little, nudging her with his head as if trying to tell her something. She saw his tail shorten, indicating he was starting the shift back into human again. She nodded comprehension before he slunk into the shadows, taking advantage of privacy this time before going through the torturous process of shape change all over again.
In the flickering flames of the torches and fire, Isabella faced her father, her people, and announced, “The prince has demonstrated his ability to withhold whatever darkness his DNA possesses. Now it’s time you all demonstrate the desire to overcome your prejudices and intolerances…the same way I did.”
Silence hung thick in the air. Her people weren’t fully convinced. She turned to her father. As leader of the nightmix dissenters, he was the one she had to win over. “Daddy?”
His shoulders stooped, voice all but breaking with what seemed to be the weight of the past. “We’ve been plotting revenge for so many years…”
“Exactly.” She looked around, catching the eyes of her friends, her neighbors, people she knew and loved. “Isn’t it past time we put our efforts into nurturing those we love and who are alive rather than fighting for those we’ve already lost?”
Reuben moved beside her, slipping an arm around her waist and tucking her close. She looked up at him with a relieved smile, aware his once-majestic robe wasn’t quite covering him the same way it had before and somehow loving him all the more for it.
“Bella is wise beyond her years,” Reuben said. His stare was open with adoration. “Just one of the many reasons I love her so much.”
“And I you,” she whispered.
“Why did you come here? What is it you want?” Jacob managed, anger throbbing in his tone but his expression conflicted.
Reuben faced him. “I would ask your permission for her hand in marriage.”
Her eyes closed for a moment as his words sank in. He wanted her as his wife…his queen. It all seemed so surreal, so wonderful and amazing.
“Isabella, is that really what you want?” her dad asked. “You’ll not only be married to a nightmix, you’ll be married to royalty. You’ll lose the freedom you value so much.”
Her father looked so deathly tired she wanted only to hug him. But not yet. Not until he knew exactly how she felt. “It is what I want. More than anything else in the world.” She bit into her bottom lip. “What’s the good of freedom if I don’t have the man I love to share it with?”
“And if you have children to this…prince?” her father added.
“They’ll have my husband-to-be’s sweet disposition.” She grinned up at Reuben. “Goddess help the child if it has mine.”
Her father climbed stiffly from the wagon, his gait jerky as he approached and came to a standstill before them. “Then as much as it pains me,” he cleared his throat and added, “I consent to this marriage.”
One or two of the villagers cheered—it was a start. She smiled, amazed and relieved with the outcome. Her father had taken a huge leap of faith for her, and she couldn’t be more happy and proud.
She stepped into his arms. “Thank you, Daddy.”
He pulled back, the hardness of his face softening a little in the flickering torches as he stared down at her. “So now what?” he asked.
She turned to Reuben. “When do you have to return to the palace?”
“When do we have to return to the palace?” he corrected.
Her smile was wobbly, her stomach fluttery. Everything and everyone around them faded into the background until it was just Reuben and herself. “Try keeping me away.”
Reuben’s eyes glimmered. “Try leaving me again.”
Her throat closed, voice coming out in a croak. “Never.”
Reuben’s head lowered, his brow touching hers and his startlingly red-hued stare seemingly reaching inside her and reading all her thoughts. “I really do love you.”
Her heart ached, her vision blurring. Right then she was an open book and she didn’t mind one bit. “And I love you too.”
When they kissed, more cheers broke out behind them before she and Reuben finally broke apart and stared at each other with big smiles.
“In answer to your question,” Reuben said huskily, “we have a week.”
Her smile got bigger. “Then I do believe there is a cabin where we can stay about half a day’s ride away from here.”
Reuben clasped one of her hands and murmured, “I do believe you’re right.”
About Mel Teshco
Mel Tescho lives in rural Australia with too many animals, too many children and not enough hours in the day to write!
Her loving husband is in training as a real–life hero and waits patiently to retire on the success of his wife’s writing.
Mel welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Mel Teshco
Alien Hunger 1: Galactic Burn
Alien Hunger 2: Galactic Inferno
Alien Hunger 3: Galactic Flame
Carnal Moon
Discovering Sofia
Enraptured
Kallie Revealed
Nightmix 1: Lusting the Enemy
Nightmix 2: Abducting the Princess
Moon Thrall
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Volume 1 anthology
Winged and Dangerous 1: Stone-Cold Lover
Winged and Dangerous 2: Ice-Cold Lover
Winged and Dangerous 3: Red-Hot Lover
Print books by Mel Teshco
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Volume 1 anthology
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Seducing the Huntress
ISBN 9781419945359
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Seducing the Huntress Copyright © 2014 Mel Teshco
Edited by Briana St. James
Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill
Cover photography by -Nejron, Leonic Tit/123rf.com, periodimages.com
Electronic book publication March 2014
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