by Cecilia Lane
With one last look, she yanked open the door hard enough to make poor Nolan jump. He narrowed his eyes at her, thought better of whatever he wanted to snap, and jogged down the porch steps. Everly followed, pausing long enough to reach into Sawyer’s truck and pull out the bag she’d brought with her in case Becca went into labor on their trip to retrieve their men.
Nolan waited impatiently by his open door. “She’s back here,” he grumbled and swept past her.
Becca gestured grandly at the fortress of pillows she was propped against. “Welcome to my boudoir. Are you my server tonight? I’m still waiting on my ice cream and waffles.”
“She went to change clothes and that’s when it happened,” Nolan filled in. He paced from one end of the room to the other.
Everly took a seat next to Becca, then reached into her bag for the supplies she needed to check her over. “I said you shouldn’t travel so close to your due date.”
“That’s what you’re going with? Not, ‘Oh, Becks, looks like you’re about to pop!’ You’re going to chastise me for wanting to get to my mate.”
“Pretty much. How far apart are the contractions?”
She waved a hand and frowned in Nolan’s direction. “Who knows. The first big one only happened fifteen minutes ago. I don’t know why Nolan was so worried. There’s a bit to go, right? The books say it’s not full steam ahead until five minutes.”
“For singles. Twins are a whole other ballgame. You really should go to the clinic.” Everly took Becca’s hand and started timing her pulse.
“Have you done this before? Twins?”
“Yes. Now quiet for a moment.”
“Is there anything wrong, like with Faith?” Becca’s pulse shot up under Everly’s fingers.
“Not that I can tell, but—”
“Then we’re staying here. Everything is ready. Shifters have given birth outside hospitals and clinics for years. This has been the plan since the beginning.”
“Becca.” Everly held her hand tightly and firmed up her voice. “Twins are hard. Promise me that if I say so, you will let me take you to the clinic. I get to make that call. Okay?”
Nolan spoke before her and made an earnest vow. “I’ll personally carry her there and slap a gag on her to cut the complaints.”
Becca glared at them both. “I’m going to have the easiest birth possible, just to spite the both of you.”
Becca held her daughter in her arms with an expression Everly had seen time and again. Pure love and devotion mixed with a dash of bewilderment made for a perfect look.
“She’s so beautiful,” she said softly.
“He’s not a bad looker, either,” Nolan said from where he cradled his son. The man swallowed hard and tore his eyes away from the boy. His eyes watered when he smiled at his mate. “I got ten fingers and toes over here. What about you?”
“Eighty, I think. I lost count around seventy-three.” Becca looked up and matched Nolan’s brilliant grin. “We did it.”
“You did it. All I did was fetch things and let you break my hand in three different places.”
“I never promised I’d make this easy on you,” she teased. “You want to show them off to everyone?”
“Don’t you want to? You kept on about presenting them like royalty and making the others swear oaths of protection on a ring just for a glimpse.”
“Staying awake for an entire day has changed that perspective. You two got your little naps, but it’s hard to sleep when your body is trying to turn itself inside out. I want to get five minutes of sleep before one of them wants to eat again.” With Everly’s help, Becca transferred the infant in her arms to Sawyer. He beamed down at both babies and rushed off.
Becca shooed Everly out the door after him, eyes already sliding closed. “Watch him. He’s liable to go door to door to everyone in town.”
Everly pushed out the front door to oversee the presentation of the clan’s first cubs. No sworn oaths were needed. Fierce protection shined in the eyes of every last person viewing the next generation.
Leah wrapped an arm around Callum’s middle and switched her melting smile to her mate. Cole pulled Rylee close and rested his chin on her head. Meghan and Gray grinned a private joke to each other, then Meghan snapped a picture of Nolan and the babies. Hudson and Sawyer hung to the side, but they were just as enthralled with the sleeping duo as the rest.
This was what family and pride were supposed to be about. It took a clan of bears for Everly to learn that.
“This is Eli and Ellie Byers.”
Chapter 26
Sawyer waited at the foot of the steps leading to Nolan and Becca’s cabin. A crack of light spilled into the darkness along with the last muttered instructions from Everly. Call her if the new family needed anything. She threw all her energy into walking Becca through her birth and still gave herself up to the needs of others.
He loved it. His heart swelled with pride. She cared and gave and expected nothing in return.
Well, he’d give it to her. Night was hours from edging into day, and it was his turn to care for her. She looked dead on her feet and her shoulders were tight with tension. He would draw her a bath, undress her slowly, and make her feel good before she fell into much-needed sleep.
His bear rumbled an agreement.
Reestablishing the tentative bond between them could wait. Completing it was far from his mind. She needed the tender care she provided others first.
Finally, the door shut, and his mate trudged heavily down the steps and into his arms. He folded her against his chest and rubbed at any stiff muscle he could reach. “Let’s get you home,” he whispered in her ear.
“That sounds wonderful,” she murmured, rubbing a cheek against him with a sleepy smile.
Crack.
Sawyer’s bear rushed to the surface. The pleasant relaxation Everly brought them cleared, away and the animal’s attention focused on finding that sound.
There were others that followed. Paws landing against the ground without much care for keeping silent.
The noises came from behind Callum’s cabin. His alpha’s home was set as far from the road as possible, with nothing but empty land behind it. No one but his alpha should be back there, and the cabin was utterly quiet.
Everly stiffened beside him, all hint of exhaustion falling from her. The stinging scents of anger and fury soured the air.
“It’s Wade.” Her jaw clenched with the fire that burned in her eyes. “He wasn’t taken with the others. He’s here for me.”
“Fuck that. He’s not getting near you.” Rage sprang to life inside him with the first growl of his bear. The cats wanted their mate? Everly belonged to them. Fuckers didn’t stand a chance against his huge claws and fangs aching to be buried in their bellies.
Snarls and feline screams filled the night. War cries. They weren’t looking for a silent hunt. Those coming for the clan wanted bloodshed.
Sawyer pushed Everly behind him and bared his teeth to the unseen attackers. “Get inside and stay there.”
“No, I can help.”
One by one, the males stepped out onto their porches, summoned by the beginnings of a fight. War in the enclaves wasn’t as common as on the outside, but no shifter lived without seeing hostilities bubble over at some point in their life.
A large, spotted cat padded across the clearing, leaving the darkness behind Sawyer’s cabin. He knew immediately it was the head shitbird himself. Wade already entered territory he didn’t belong and then had the audacity to tread right where Sawyer’s mate would take her place? He had no chance of escaping.
Back and forth, just out of reach, the cat paced with his tail lashing from side to side. Daring Sawyer into the first move.
“What’s the play, Sawyer?” Callum shouted from his porch. His voice was rough with the shift threatening to take hold.
Good. The more the bloodier.
Sawyer stared Wade in the eyes. His inner bear shoved forward. The night was quiet enough to hear a
leaf flutter to the ground.
The calm before the storm broke.
“They won’t stop. You know that. Not until they’re beaten.” He lifted his lips and bared his teeth at the cat.
Wade hissed and jumped for him, but Sawyer was ready. He shoved Everly back a step, then swung clawed fingers at the cat to knock him to the side. The jaguar twisted in midair to avoid the blow.
The space between cabins flooded with the remainders of the pride. Bears ripped out of humans and answered the challenge that came to their doorsteps.
Sawyer circled Wade and let his bear take his skin.
Everly picked herself up from the ground in time to see Leah racing for her with a rifle in her hand. A large bear swatted cats out of her way as she grabbed Rylee’s hand and dashed past Everly. “In here,” she insisted.
The bear peeled off and ran for a group of jaguars circling another beast of a fighting machine. Callum barreled into one, then another.
Everly watched with horror, frozen at the war raging around her. For a second time, the Strathorns fought the pride. “I can’t. This is happening because of me.”
She should have known. They had deserved a warning. Wade had slipped out of the SEA’s hands, and he would focus all the rage of his downfall on the one who had set it up. Everly had put the Strathorn clan in danger when she had decided to stick around.
She balled her hands into fists. No! She had too much to live for now. She wouldn’t let Wade ruin everything!
Strong fingers wrapped around her wrist and spun her. Leah’s eyes glowed silver. “Your duty is to Becca. We’re to keep her, the cubs, and Rylee safe. Now, get inside.”
There was no disagreeing with the fingers that dug into her wrist. The wails of cubs disturbed by the fight tamped down the fury inside her, and Everly followed Leah indoors.
Rylee had already found a spot next to Becca on the bed and cradled one of the babes. She adjusted her glasses and glared at a particularly loud crash of bodies colliding together.
“These asshole wants to disturb my first hours as a parent? Take away my mate?” Becca growled. “I’ll rip them apart if they take one step over the threshold.”
Everly tried to block out the screaming cats and roaring bears. Her inner panther paced with every snarl and growl they heard. She had to yank on the chain between her and the animal to keep her locked inside. They wrestled for control with one another, silently, locked in Everly’s mind, until the beast conceded. The beautifully ferocious creature bared naked fangs and let a growl trickle from her throat, but they found a measure of peace.
Right until a shoulder knocked into the front door.
The tips of claws darkened her fingertips. Both she and Leah rushed from the bedroom, ready to defend the others.
Another thud hit the door.
Leah cocked her rifle and pointed it straight at the flexing wood.
Why didn’t she prepare to shift? Everly glanced behind her and into the bedroom. Becca had the babies and wouldn’t shift so soon after giving birth. Rylee had no animal in her middle. Everly inhaled deeply and sifted through the scents of the other women.
She was the only one who could shift. Leah was pregnant.
The flash of excitement dimmed under the rage that built inside her.
How dare he! Why couldn’t Wade accept his loss gracefully? Too many were sentenced to death or imprisonment for his wrongheaded beliefs. Fuck Wade and all his ideas. She wouldn’t be pushed around by him and she absolutely wouldn’t let him hurt the others with her.
Her cat snarled inside her, ready for the blood of battle.
The back door slammed in a quickly paired beat to the front.
“Go!” Leah commanded. “Don’t let anyone in!”
That wouldn’t work, though. She was the only one that could shift. Two threats were trying to knock down the doors. The shifters on the outside needed to be knocked away.
The control Everly had over her cat slipped away with every knock against wood, every growl from outside, every thud of her heart. She needed to protect the others, and the danger was right there.
Everly held her beast just under her skin and readied herself for her shift. She flung open the door to a face she didn’t expect to see.
Emery.
Her sister shot a panicked glance behind her. “Everly, come home. This can end now.”
“Wade sent you, didn’t he? He used you to lure me in once and now he’s trying to use you to bring me down again.” Red anger swam in her vision. She wanted to hate Em for her role, but she couldn’t. Emery was mated to the man and spent all her hours under his control. She had her alpha’s and her mate’s commands directing her actions.
“Run, Em. Run away and never look back. He’s not a good man. He will get you killed.”
“It’s not that easy, Everly. He’s my mate. I can feel him crawling inside my head when I don’t obey.” She squeezed the heels of her hands against her temples. “Even now, I feel him. He wants the heirs you’ll give him.”
“Fight it,” Everly ordered. The thought of getting close to Wade turned her stomach and fueled her fury. “That hole inside without him will be better than kneeling at his side for the rest of your life. Make your own choices, Em, but get out of my way until you do.”
Emery stared at her with wild, uncertain eyes. Then she blinked, and a wall closed her off. Her sister jumped off the porch and ran into the night.
With the final thread to the pride severed, Everly entered the fray.
“Watch this door. I’ll clear the front,” she called to Leah and followed Em over the railing. Unlike her sister, she zipped around the cabin and scaled the side of the front porch.
A big, naked male slammed his shoulder into the wood. The door creaked under the blow. It wouldn’t hold for long.
Everly struck with clawed fingers. Blood arced into the air, and she shifted between the steps that carried her away from the cabin and to the dirt. Pain flashed through her awareness as her cat took hold. Too fast, too dizzying, but necessary for survival.
She spun on four paws and snarled at the jaguar lunging for her. She twisted out of the way and dragged her claws down the male’s soft belly. He didn’t move when he hit the ground.
She didn’t have time to process the death. Too many cats filled the clearing between cabins. Females fought alongside the males. War was for males. Babies were for women. That Wade pulled in all his leftovers spoke to his desperation.
Everly was the catalyst for their change. Wade couldn’t allow her to escape without threatening his hold over the others. But drawing on the full strength of those remaining under his control would change them anyway.
A pained roared filled her ears. The bear was almost difficult to see under the mass of cats jumping for him.
Sawyer.
Black as the night, Everly sped through the darkness and knocked a cat from Sawyer’s back. She screamed in another’s face and lashed out with the fury caged deep inside her entire life. Then she sprang for a third and sank her fangs deep into his hide, dragging the beast from her mate.
They wanted her? They could have her, fangs and claws and all.
Bears swatted at other cats, but her focus was entirely on Sawyer and the largest jaguar still clinging to his neck and kicking back legs into his chest.
Sawyer threw the cat away from him, but there was a wild light in Wade’s eyes. There was no pain. No now. Only the battle, and he wouldn’t stop until he won.
Or died.
Everly crouched at Sawyer’s side. Bears surrounded them and held off the other cats. Metallic blood filled her nose, covered her muzzle, muddied the ground under her paws.
Wade’s tail flicked, then he leaped for her.
She jumped at the same time her former alpha did and their bodies crashed together. After years of being pushed around, it was her turn to hit back. Their claws cut into each other’s sides and legs. Fangs snapped and bodies jerked before the bites could connect.
A
furry black paw the size of her head crashed into the middle, sending Wade sliding away. Before Everly could lunge for him again, Sawyer stole her kill with a swift clamp of his mouth over Wade’s neck and a sharp shake of his head.
Wade’s reign ended with the screams of a defeated pride running into the night.
Chapter 27
Everly snarled at the bear. Her ears pressed against her head and her tail lashed in obvious anger.
The wails of two upset newborns cut through the night and triggered something in the rest of the bears. One by one, their bones cracked and shapes shimmered. All but the one staring at her like he was ready to keep on fighting.
The others faded into the background. Her ears flicked to track their movements and make sure they didn’t sneak up behind her. And she kept snarling at the beast that stole her vengeance. She wanted to taste Wade’s blood, feel the last breath leave his lungs, neutralize the poison that kept her weak for so long.
Nolan rushed into the cabin at her back. Callum and Cole exited with their mates and vanished inside their homes. Gray and Meghan, Hudson, everyone backed away.
Sawyer’s form pulled in on itself until his human side crouched on the ground. Eyes still gold and the scent of fur still strong, he straightened to standing. Blood marred his skin, but most of the damage taken during the fight had healed with his shift. Only the deepest wounds remained. Naked and vulnerable, he held up his hands. “Everly, shift. Let’s talk.”
Talk? She hissed and swiped a paw at him. She didn’t want to talk.
“Fine. You’re pissed you didn’t get to strike the final blow?” He pointed to Wade’s still form. “I couldn’t let you take alpha.”
She didn’t want the role. She just wanted the man dead. He lied and attacked and sapped everything from the lives he touched. His brand of crazy wasn’t happy to stay in his head. He had to make others hurt.
“They would have begged you to accept it and then turned around and fought you until someone else killed you and claimed it. I’m not part of the pride. They’ll sort out the order for themselves and leave you alone.”
