by Zoe Chant
“We’re being watched,” Ivy reported tersely.
The bleariness vanished instantly from Hugh’s face, his muscular shoulders tensing. “Gaze?” he asked, striding to join Ivy at the window.
Ivy moved over to give him room, though her right hand twitched as though she’d nearly reached out to touch him. “One of his minions.”
“She’s not—“ Hope started, but neither of them was listening to her anymore. They both stared out the window with inhuman, predatory focus.
“Shifters,” Hope said under her breath, like a swearword. She waved her hands futilely, trying to attract their attention. “Come on, guys. Snap out of it. I’m not going to let you eat Betty.”
“I know that girl.” Hugh’s ice-blue eyes didn’t warm at all. “She’s the one who called the fire department the other night. She told us that Hope was trapped in the elevator.”
“There, see?” Hope said triumphantly. She started to swivel her wheelchair round. “I told you Betty was good. I’m sure she’s just here to check that I’m okay. Let me go out and talk to her.”
Ivy grabbed onto her handlebars, hauling her back. “You aren’t going anywhere. I’ll handle this.”
Hugh’s hand shot out, gripping Ivy’s shoulder before she had taken more than a step. To Hope’s infinite satisfaction, he held her in place.
“I’m not letting you risk yourself,” he said. “It could be a trap to lure you out.”
“It could be a trap to lure you out,” Ivy countered, glaring at her mate with the protective possessiveness that Hope knew so well. “You’re not going out there alone either.”
“Oh, good.” Hope folded her arms in exasperation. “So I guess we’re all just going to sit here until we run out of food and are reduced to eating cat kibble.”
“No.” Hugh’s jaw tightened. He looked like a soldier steeling himself for a deadly battle. “It’s time to call in reinforcements.”
Chapter 13
“They’re here,” Rose announced, coming back into the Full Moon’s private meeting room. There was a small crease of worry between her eyebrows. “Do you want me to show them up?”
“I’ll go down,” Hugh said, rising from his seat. “It’s best if I prepare them.”
“I’ll get some drinks then.” Rose headed off, shaking her head. “I think we’re going to need them.”
“I still think it would be better if I wasn’t here,” Ivy muttered, her face pale above her black scarf. “Hugh, are you really sure about this?”
He squeezed her shoulder, as best he could through the many layers of clothing she was wearing. “It’ll be fine. They’ll love you, once they get over the shock.”
Despite his confident words, his apprehension rose as he descended the stairs. He paused in the corridor behind the bar, squaring his shoulders. Then he pushed open the door.
“Hugh! The man of mystery!” Chase sprang up from a bar stool, his black eyes alight. “What’s this all about?”
Hugh winced as the pegasus shifter’s electric aura stabbed his senses. Chase’s energy was turned up to eleven even at the best of times, and he had clearly spent a very enjoyable time with his mate recently.
“Where’s Connie?” Hugh asked, glancing around for Chase’s wife.
Chase’s exuberant grin flickered. “Sorry. She wasn’t feeling up to it. She found out all the other mates were going to be here, and, well…you know. It’s hard on Connie.”
At the other end of the bar, Dai and his mate Virginia were laughing as their eighteen-month-old daughter Morwenna cajoled Fire Commander Ash into a game of peek-a-boo. John stood smiling a little way off, one arm round his own mate, Neridia. The sea dragon knight leaned down to whisper something in his Empress’s ear, his other hand gently stroking the proud curve of her pregnant belly.
Hugh winced again, this time out of guilt. Chase and Connie had been trying for a baby for two years now. It had been getting harder and harder for the couple to watch their friends effortlessly spawn.
Hugh had tried to sense what might be going wrong, but the only thing he’d gained had been a splitting migraine. The energies involved in reproductive issues were far too powerful for him to even focus on, let alone handle.
“Sorry,” he said to Chase. “For not thinking. And for not being able to do anything.”
“You can’t fix everything, my friend.” Chase clapped his hands, his customary cocky grin springing back again, though there was something a little forced about it. “But enough of that. I normally have to drag you kicking and screaming to the pub, so I’m agog to find out why you’ve called us all here. What’s so urgent? Why did you want us all to bring our mates too? Speak, oh enigmatic one! I breathlessly await your words!”
“Clearly, since you aren’t letting him get one in edgeways,” Dai said dryly, coming over. “Is Griff joining us too, Hugh? Are we waiting for him?”
Hugh shook his head. “He’s busy doing something else. And he already knows what I want to talk to you all about.”
Hugh hadn’t actually had to do very much explaining, when they’d dropped Hope off again at Griff’s house for safekeeping. Griff’s eagle eyes had deduced what was going on the instant he saw Hugh and Ivy together.
In fact, from the rather restrained, cautious way that Griff had congratulated them both, Hugh had an uncomfortable suspicion that Griff knew exactly what was going on. Still, if the uncannily perceptive griffin shifter had worked out why Hugh finding his mate might not be a cause for celebration, he was at least holding his tongue about it.
“Huw! Huw!” Little Morwenna abandoned Ash, toddling over to clutch Hugh’s knees. “Up!”
“Morwenna!” Curvy Virginia hurried after her daughter. “You can’t just grab Uncle Hugh, he doesn’t like it.”
“I don’t mind her.” Hugh picked the child up, putting her on his shoulders. “Want a ride, dragonet?”
She giggled, fisting both hands gleefully into his hair. Despite the tugging, she was actually soothing some of his headache. Her innocent warmth was a tiny oasis of peace amidst the boiling energies of all the adults present.
Hugh took a deep breath, drawing comfort from Morwenna’s baby-soft aura. It was time.
“Thank you all for coming at short notice,” he said, looking around at them all. “I don’t quite know how to say this, but…there’s someone upstairs I want you all to meet.”
At the back of the group, Ash looked at him sharply, opening his mouth. Chase, however, beat him to it.
“Someone? A special someone?” Hugh flinched as Chase slapped him on the shoulder. “You sly dog! Come on, what are we waiting for?”
Before Hugh could stop him, Chase barged past, heading for the stairs. With a lurch of fear, Hugh realized that the pegasus shifter was about to crash in on Ivy without any preparation whatsoever.
“Chase, wait!” Hugh sprinted after him, ducking to avoid hitting Morwenna’s head on the low oak beams of the old building. The toddler shrieked with laughter, clutching his face and nearly making Hugh miss his footing. “Stop!”
Too late. Chase had already flung open the door to the private room.
“Welcome!” Chase announced—and stopped dead.
Only the child on his shoulders stopped Hugh from swearing a blue streak. Heedless of the pain, he grabbed Chase’s arm, hauling him round. Ivy had flattened herself into the corner, bare hands raised defensively. She must have reflexively yanked off her gloves when Chase had burst into the room.
Hugh interposed his own body in between the two. “Listen, Chase. For once in your life, just listen.”
Chase’s grin had frozen on his face. “No.”
Hugh held onto Chase even though the pain of prolonged contact was near-blinding. “I know this will be hard for you, but—“
“No,” Chase said again, flatly. He jerked his arm away, anger glittering in his eyes. “It’s not hard, Hugh. It’s impossible. That creature hurt my mate.”
“That creature is my mate!”
“Shield-brother, sword-brother, what is amiss?” John had caught up with them, stooping to fit his seven-foot-tall bulk through the door. “If shield-brother Hugh has found his true mate, surely that is—”
He saw Ivy, and froze just as Chase had. “You.”
“What is it? Why’ve you all stopped?” Tall as Neridia was, even she couldn’t see over John’s shoulder. “John? What’s going on?”
John caught his mate as she tried to duck past him. His expression had settled into grim lines. Hugh had a nasty suspicion that if the sea dragon had been carrying his sword, it would have been in his hand by now.
“Stay back, my heart,” John said to Neridia, keeping his body between her and Ivy just as Hugh was protecting his own mate from Chase. “That is the wyvern shifter who poisoned Chase’s mate. The merest brush of her skin brings death. She taints the very air she breathes.”
Hugh’s fists clenched. Even though Ivy was behind him, he could sense her shame and misery.
“She’s my mate,” he snarled, hating them all for the way they were staring. “And she needs our help.”
“I won’t ask you to choose between a friend and your mate, Hugh.” Chase turned on his heel, pushing past the others. “Don’t ask me to.”
“Wait,” Ivy called after him, stepping forward. “You don’t understand, Hugh needs your—“
Hugh caught her hand, squeezing it in warning. They’d agreed—though Ivy had argued against it—that they weren’t going to tell the team that Gaze was after him too. It would lead to too many questions about why.
“Let him go, Ivy,” he said in defeat. “It’s for the best.”
“I am sorry, shield-brother,” John said, still holding Neridia back. His deep blue eyes were filled with regret. “I owe you my life, and I will gladly assist you in any way that I can. But at the moment my duties to my own mate and Empress take precedence. We too must depart.”
“John!” Neridia exclaimed, pushing futilely at his arm. “You’re being abominably rude. If this is Hugh’s mate, then of course we’re going to help her. More than that. We’ll welcome her as a new friend, like everyone welcomed me.”
“My Empress,” John said, turning to her. “You carry our child and the future of the whole sea under your heart. As your Champion and mate, I will not have you in the same room as someone as dangerous as her. We are leaving. Now.”
Neridia could only fling a helpless, apologetic look over her shoulder as John steered her out. “I’m so sorry, Hugh, Ivy. I’ll try and talk some sense into him.”
“In this, you cannot command me, my Empress,” John said. He cast a glance at Hugh. “But you still have my sword, shield-brother. Once my Empress is safe under other guard, I will return.”
“Don’t bother,” Hugh spat, incandescent with fury. “If you can’t be civil to Ivy, then I have nothing further to say to you.”
John bowed his head, his eyes shadowed. “I understand, shield-brother. But you too must understand. No shifter could stand to expose his mate to such danger. I am sorry, but you cannot ask this of us.”
Ivy’s hand was trembling in his. Hugh gripped her harder, pulling her closer against his side.
“Well?” he said, glaring across the room at Dai, Virginia, and Ash. “Anyone else?”
“Pretty,” Morwenna announced from his shoulders. Leaning over, she stretched both chubby fists toward Ivy’s green-streaked hair. “Want.”
Ivy flung herself out of the toddler’s reach, even as Dai lunged. The dragon shifter collided with Hugh, knocking all the breath out of him.
Morwenna wailed in protest as Dai snatched her away. “Noooo! Wenna want!”
Dai’s green eyes were ablaze with dragonfire. A hint of red scales rippled over his bare forearms with the instinct to shift to protect his daughter.
“Virginia,” he growled, thrusting Morwenna at his mate. “Go back downstairs.”
Eyes wide with alarm, Virginia clutched her struggling daughter tight to her chest. “Dai—“
“NOW!” Dai’s hands crooked into claws.
“Noooooo!” Morwenna howled, stretching her arms over her mother’s shoulder as she was carried away. “Dadda, dadda, daddaaaa!”
“I should go.” Ivy’s voice shook. “I should never have come.”
She took a step toward the door, but stopped dead as a vicious snarl ripped through Dai’s throat. His eyes were still a luminous green-gold, his shoulders heaving as he fought to control his dragon.
“Sorry,” he gasped, backing away. “Instinct. We’ll talk later, Hugh. But John’s right. Don’t ever bring her near my family again.”
That left Ash, and Rose, who’d just reappeared with a tray of drinks. She took one look at the three of them and sighed.
“Well, clearly that went well,” she said, putting the tray down on the table. “I’ve brought you a double Scotch, Hugh. Two, in fact. Sit down, have a drink, and give everyone a little while to cool off. They’ll come round eventually. They’re your friends, after all.”
Hugh took the proffered drink, tossing it back in one swallow. The burn of the whiskey did nothing to soothe the bitter anger tightening his throat.
“I thought they were,” he said.
Ivy fumbled for her gloves, pulling them back onto her hands. “I’ve ruined everything. This isn’t going to work, Hugh. Every shifter in the city is going to shun you, just like they do me.”
“Oh, sweetheart. Not every shifter.” Rose advanced on Ivy with open arms, her soft eyes filled with compassion. “Those silly lads can’t help being over-protective idiots when it comes to their mates, but I’m not afraid of—“
Ash’s hand slammed into the wall. Hugh hadn’t even seen him move. One second he’d been standing silently by the door; the next, he was between Ivy and Rose, his arm barring her way.
“No,” he said.
“Ash!” Rose shoved hard at his chest, with absolutely no effect. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Ash didn’t answer her. Wisps of smoke spiraled up from where his bare palm made contact with the wood paneling. He looked over his shoulder, at the white-faced Ivy.
“Leave,” he said to her.
“Ash!” Rose kicked the most powerful shifter in Europe in the ankle. “You’re not my mate, so don’t you dare start acting all possessive. This is my house, and I say who is welcome in it!”
Ash continued to ignore the furious swan shifter, his burning gaze fixed only on Ivy. He took his hand off the wall, leaving behind a blackened handprint scorched deep into the wood.
“I will help you if I can,” he said, his voice perfectly level. “But you will not come here again.”
Hugh reached for Ivy, grasping her gloved hand. With his other, he fumbled in his pocket, for the identification he always carried.
“Don’t worry.” He flung his firefighter badge at Ash’s feet as he pulled Ivy out the door. “We won’t.”
Chapter 14
Six unhappy cats trapped in carriers and crammed into the back of a small car were not shy about making their displeasure known. Ivy was grateful for the cacophony of feline complaints. It made conversation impossible during the long, uncomfortable journey.
Hugh drove with single-minded focus, his eyes fixed on the road ahead and his jaw tight with anger. He’d barely said a word since he’d tossed a grenade and walked away from the smoking ruins of his life. He hadn’t so much as glanced back as Brighton had disappeared behind them.
I destroy everything I touch. Ivy stared unseeing out the side window. She couldn’t look at Hugh’s grim, set profile without guilt churning in her gut. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t let him do this.
Why not? In contrast to her own black mood, her wyvern was positively jubilant. Good mate. Good plan. Old territory too dangerous. Find a new lair, where our treasures will be safe.
Her wyvern did have a point. They had to be safer out here in the middle of nowhere than they were in the heart of Gaze’s territory. Surely even his influence cou
ldn’t stretch across half of England.
They were hundreds of miles from Brighton by now, in the ridiculously pretty hills and forests of the Wye Valley. It felt like they’d travelled back about four hundred years in time, too. The meandering road was the only sign of the modern world. Even the few villages that they passed through were just teeny thatched cottages clustered around crumbling medieval churches. Ivy, who had spent all her life in big cities, couldn’t shake an impression that the entire landscape had been Photoshopped.
“At the risk of sounding like a cliché,” Hope said from the back seat. “Are we there yet?”
“Nearly.” Hugh turned down an even narrower country lane. “My parents’ place is just over the next rise.”
“Are you really sure this is a good idea?” Ivy couldn’t help asking. “I mean, just the fact that we’ve run is going to tip Gaze off that…uh, you know. Confirm his suspicion.”
“His suspicion about what?” Hope asked.
“Nothing,” Ivy said quickly.
She hadn’t told her sister Hugh’s secret, and she didn’t intend to. Hope would only start spamming Instagram with unicorn pictures or something equally dumb.
Hope glared at her in the rear-view mirror. “I can tell when you’re not telling me something important, you know. I’m not a little kid. You can trust me with whatever’s really going on.”
“Says the girl who made friends with a basilisk crime lord,” Ivy muttered.
“I heard that!”
“You were meant to.” Ivy turned back to Hugh. “Anyway, if Gaze does chase us, I don’t want to bring trouble to your parents’ door. Won’t your family be the first place he’d look? Maybe we should keep driving. Pick a random destination.”
Hugh shook his head with a tight, curt motion. “I want to take you somewhere secure. My parents’ house is…protected, shall we say. Generations of my family have lived on that land. There’s a strong bond between us and the soil.”
Hope perked up. “Ooooh. Are they farmers? Are we going to a farm?”
