A big brown mass plowed through the oncoming creatures—Harper’s pig. The sow snorted and charged, but she couldn’t touch the siths. They turned to smoke around her, reforming unharmed after the boar had passed.
Then Riblet made eye contact with me—fuck. That’s all I needed.
I shook my head and held out my hands in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “We’re friends. We’re on the same side.”
The sow stomped her foot and charged.
We really didn’t need this right now.
I stepped away, and the pig trampled the circle, digging the chain into the dirt. The glow flickered just a little, where the chain was pressed into the soil. That was it.
Thank you, Riblet.
I turned and searched for sign of the pig. Knowing her, she was probably behind me preparing to charge once again.
Shots rang out into the night.
No Riblet.
I ran to Harper and wrapped one of the chains over her shoulders. It was armor, as much as the rifle on her back. And if I was taking what she had, she needed a replacement.
“What are you—” She fired a shot and I missed the rest of what she said.
I shook my head, trying to clear the ringing.
“I need this.” I pulled the second gun from her back. “The chains aren’t working.”
She nodded, and took aim, and fired again, this time taking a step back.
The sith were advancing. There wasn’t much time.
I returned to the circle, and stabbed the muzzle of the gun into the fluorescent dirt.
A shriek echoed through the woods, not that of a single sith, but of a forest filled with sith, all of them crying in unison. I stabbed again and again.
Teeth and claws tore at my shoulders, and my eyes went dark with the pain.
I refused to relent, stabbing and scraping at the circle until the glow began to fade and the shape was broken.
Pain turned to numbness and heat as darkness fought at the sides of my vision. My body gave out and I collapsed to the ground, rolling only to see Harper running for me.
She looked afraid, tears streaming down her face.
But the siths—all at once, they stopped their assault. All at once, they turned to dust.
My head grew cloudy, my eyelids heavy, as I watched Harper’s beautiful face above me. Her lips moved but the sound was muffled like I was underwater. She looked so worried, but I wasn’t. I was content. We’d done it, and she was okay.
Chapter Fifteen
Chase
The soft scent around me was sweet, and I knew it as well as I knew myself. A welcome feeling of comfort filled me—Harper. I stretched my arms out, searching for her, but there was only cold.
I forced my heavy eyelids open and found myself in Harper’s bed. Sunlight poured through sheer curtains. But she wasn’t here.
My chest felt tight, constricted by bandages. I sat up slowly and pulled on the cloth that was wrapped not only around my ribs, but over my shoulders and my right arm. Everything hurt.
Hurried footsteps carried up the stairs. I watched the doorway, knowing by the sound that it was her.
“You’re awake. Your dad said so, said he heard you, but it’s still weird to me to just accept these things.” A smile crossed her face, and I smiled back. There was no better way to wake than—
“My father?”
“Yeah, he’s downstairs.”
What was he doing here in the Wainwright house? Last thing I remembered, we were in the woods, just me and Harper. It was the middle of the night and we were trying to close the gateway.
“I told him you were here,” she said. “He’s been downstairs waiting for you ever since.”
She was so beautiful, leaning there in the doorframe. Her arms were crossed and her hair hung down over her shoulders. The morning light shining through the window glimmered against her blue eyes and highlighted the smoothness of her tanned skin.
I didn’t want to see my father. I wanted Harper to join me in bed.
“He wanted to march up here to talk to you, but I wasn’t having it,” she said.
“You got my father to do something he didn’t want to?”
She shrugged.
“How’d you do it?” I asked, awe in my voice.
Her hips swayed as she walked over to the bed and sat down beside me. “I told him what I need to tell you.”
She took my hand in hers, and I could feel her heartbeat quicken. I could hear it, and I could see something in her eyes as she looked at me. There was vulnerability, and love.
I held my breath.
“Watching you last night, I thought I lost you. Not like the first time, where you ran off into the woods and I was worried you’d get yourself killed. When I saw you tackled to the ground by those things...the way they hurt you…” Harper sucked in a breath and her eyes glossed. “I knew you were going to die.”
“I didn’t. I’m—”
She squeezed my hand. “I know. But when I thought I’d lost you, I realized something beyond a doubt. Even if it’s completely crazy because we practically just met, Chase, I love you. I can’t explain—”
I kissed her, claiming her lips, showing her exactly what she meant to me. She kissed me back, and I knew somehow I’d found my place in the world. She had been here, right next door all along, and I’d just never known. Harper Wainwright was my mate, and I wanted nothing more than to spend my life with her.
She leaned her forehead against mine. “That was…”
“Yeah. I have something I have to tell you, too.” I took both her hands. I wasn’t afraid to tell her anymore. Now, I was more excited that I knew that it was right, that I knew she’d say yes. “For shifters, there’s one person out there in the world for each of us. One person we’re meant to be with. One person we’re meant to spend our lives with. And from the moment I saw you, I knew that person was you.”
Harper looked down at her hands, considering. And for a moment, my certainty cracked.
Then she met my gaze, and as quickly as it had appeared, that little doubt disappeared.
“In the hospital? Where I treated you like a creep, even though you’d saved my dad’s life?”
“As soon as you walked through the door, I knew.”
“Wow.” Her eyes widened and a smile crept across her face.
“Yeah.”
“Does this mean that you want to get married and have babies and the whole thing? Just as soon as we met you knew you did?” Her nose wrinkled in the most adorable way.
“Pretty much.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” I smiled.
“And what about the military training you’re supposed to do...how long will you have to go?”
The Tribunal. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll wait for you,” she said. “I’d rather come, but I can’t leave the ranch.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.”
“Chase.” My father’s booming voice came from the hall. We both turned.
He stepped into the frame. I was glad to see that he’d completely healed.
“Harper tells me you two share a bond.”
“We do. She’s my mate.”
He nodded. “She also tells me you closed the gateway and destroyed the fey.”
“We did.”
Harper squeezed my hand.
“Then it appears there’s no need for you to join the Tribunal,” my father said.
“What?” Harper and I both asked at the same time.
“You’ve proved your competence in defending pack territory. You may remain at the manor, or stay here if you wish.” He looked at Harper, and I swear he cracked at least a little bit of a smile. Then he turned and walked out the door into the hall. I listened to his footsteps on the stairs, and to the squeak of the front door opening. In a low voice that only I could hear, he added, “And Chase, I’m glad you’re okay.”
With that, the door clicked shut, and we were alone.
“I d
id not see that coming,” Harper said.
“Me, either.”
“Do you want to stay here with me, on the ranch?”
“More than anything.”
Her lips brushed mine, and she guided my shoulders softly. I leaned back, my injuries stinging just a little as I settled down onto the mattress.
Harper pulled the hem of her shirt up slowly over her breasts, and my cock hardened. She swayed her hips back and forth as she pulled down her shorts, as if she was dancing to music only she could hear. Standing bare in the sunlight, she was perfect, and she was mine.
I reached out for her and she caught my hand.
“You’re not allowed to strain yourself, or your wounds could tear.” She grabbed the corner of the blanket and pulled it back, raking her gaze over my skin. Her eyes lingered on my hard cock, rigid and ready for her.
“Is that so?” I asked.
“Mmm-hmm.” She wrapped her fingers around the base of my cock, and I gasped at the contact of her soft, warm hand. “And this mating thing, maybe we should seal it somehow.”
“It’s customary,” I agreed, tilting my head back and tilting my hips up into her palm. “We have to.”
“Maybe by joining together as one.” She climbed on top of me and dipped down over my tip. She was slick and ready, and it took every ounce of self-control I could muster not to flip her onto her back.
Instead, I grabbed hold of her hips and guided her down onto my cock. Her tunnel squeezed around me, and I promised us both, then and there, we’d renew our bond, just like this, every day for the rest of our lives.
Epilogue
Harper
Little legs moving like the wind, Dylan giggled as he made his seventh lap around the barn. He looked just like his father, and he certainly had the energy of a wolf shifter. Or maybe all kids were like that at age three.
An arm reached around the side of the barn, and Dylan squealed, picking up his pace.
Chase jumped out and scooped him up. Dylan threw his arms around his daddy’s neck and snuggled in.
“All right, buddy, we have to go feed the chickens. Do you want to stay here with Grandpa, or do you want to come with me?”
Dad waved to Dylan from his rocker on the porch. With so much ranch help from the pack, Dad was able to take breaks when he wanted, which it turned out was pretty often. We were able to double our head of cattle, and even bought a few horses again.
“Chichens! Chichens!” Dylan jumped up and down with a smile that lit up the whole ranch.
“Chickens it is! Are you going to be a good helper and throw the corn?”
“Yes, Dada!”
Chase picked up the grain bucket from the doorway, giving me a beautiful view as he bent over.
“How about you, Momma?” Chase smiled at me, his little mini-me beaming from his arm. “Do you want to stay with Grandpa?”
“Chichens!” Dylan balled his fists and lifted them to his chubby little cheeks.
“Looks like we’re all going.” I pulled two apples from the tree by the entrance to the forest path and slid them into the pockets of my dress. Coveralls sadly didn’t come in pregnant-as-a-house size, so I had to make do.
Chase walked ahead, bucket in one hand, and Dylan on his shoulders.
Dylan pointed to every squirrel on the path and tried to reach down for the blackberries.
“We’ll collect those later, buddy,” I said. “Hold onto Daddy.”
“Okay, Momma.”
Chase froze.
“What? What’s wrong.”
“Where’s that apple?” Chase’s voice went from playful to serious in a matter of seconds.
I reached into my pocket and pulled one out, then rolled it across the ground.
Riblet burst through the brush, scooped up the apple, and chomped it merrily. Her tail was wagging and she went right for Chase, rubbing on the bucket and his hand with her neck.
The bushes rustled again, and out waddled not one or two, but six little piglets, smaller than Riblet had been when I’d first found her.
“Piggies!” Dylan clapped his hands in delight.
Chase set down the bucket and the piglets climbed onto its side, spilling the corn all over the dirt path. Their little tails wagged as they chowed down on their meal.
Chase turned to me, Dylan lifting handfuls of his hair like steering levers on the lawn mower. “Looks like someone else found her happily ever after, too.”
He leaned down slowly and touched my belly. As I stole a kiss, I couldn’t imagine how life could be any better than it was right then. But then again, I thought that every night, and every day, just from being together.
Also by Keira Blackwood
The Protectors of Sawtooth Peaks
Running to the Pack - Cole & Hailey, part one
Defending the Pack - Cole & Hailey, part two
Uniting the Pack - Lance & Trixie
The Protectors of Sawtooth Peaks Box Set - Books 1-3
Howl for the Holidays - Harkins & Amy
Revenge - Axel & Penny
The Protectors of Riverwood
Grizzly Bait - Liam & Emma, part one
Grizzly Mate - Liam & Emma, part two
Grizzly Fate - Liam & Emma, part three
The Protectors of Riverwood Complete Series Box Set
The Protectors of the Pack
Bodyguard - Reynolds & Alex
Enemies - Witt & Zoe
Heir - Hunter & Grace
The Protectors of the Pack Box Set - Books 1-3
The Protectors Unlimited
Can’t Prove Shift - Mason & Caitlyn
Suave as Shift - Lincoln & Juliana
In Deep Shift - Zane & Mia
Want more Protectors stories? Continue reading for a preview of Can’t Prove Shift!
Can’t Prove Shift: Chapter One
Lyn
His heated, hazel eyes devoured every one of my curves. Desire poured from him in waves. Even from my seat, forty feet away, the stink of my mark’s arousal tainted my nostrils. It was the loudest thing in the hotel lobby, even with the musician bellowing Frank Sinatra as he smoothly played the piano. The tune was flawless, just loud enough to dull the sounds of the casino in the next room—drunken chatter, clinking coins, and the never-ending electronic dinging from the slot machines.
The lounge was filled with dark, rich woods. And rich patrons. A redheaded waitress flirted with a middle-aged suit at one of the small, round tables, then mocked him when she returned to the bartender. A thin, elderly woman in a satin evening gown sat at the next table over. Her silver hair was styled like that of a movie star from the twenties, and her confidence matched. The seats beside her were filled by attractive men, young enough to be her grandsons. But with their proximity to the aging starlet, and her hands on their thighs, I assumed no relation. Whispered innuendos passed, glasses clinked, taps poured. I took it all in while I kept my body turned toward the performer at the piano. But my attention remained focused on my target.
Salvatore ‘The Weasel’ Girardo—sixty-three, five foot seven, two hundred twenty-five pounds, and most importantly—loaded. His reputation preceded him, a reputation for wealth and a love for curvy brunettes. During my research, I’d learned that Girardo was drawn to short skirts and low-cut tops. Which was exactly what had drawn him to the woman on the stool next to him. It was also exactly the reason I wore a blond wig and a modest pencil skirt. Every button on my blouse was done up to the collar and I sat as far from the lech as the Obsidian Resort’s lounge allowed.
Not only did Girardo attempt to conquer a new woman every evening, but also the hotel’s poker tables. His vices ruled his nights. Legal defense of Monaco’s sleaziest criminals ruled his days. That, and shady deals with shifter mafia—the Sanguine Syndicate.
My inner cat was ready to pounce with one look at my prey—some sort of weasel shifter a few times removed. Guys like him made easy marks. Hell, he was asking for it wearing that custom Bangaudi suit and thickly layered gold
chains. Only one thing bothered me. There was a quality to him that didn’t fit the rest of the package. It was his eyes. The way that he looked at the woman beside him was lewd, sure, but at the same time predatory. It didn’t matter though. I kept my distance, so even if Girardo had a surprise ferocity held beneath the doughy surface, it wasn’t my problem.
The brunette cackled in exaggerated amusement as he leaned close and whispered in her ear. His thick, sausage fingers brushed the fair, freckled skin just above her elbow. A heavy blush tinted the tops of her ears and the center of her cheeks. He almost had her. It was nearly time.
“Hey, sugar. Next round’s on me.” A tall, dark, and overconfident distraction slid onto the stool beside me. His black hair was slicked back in a fifties-style poof that appeared to be made of plastic. The ten gallons of cologne that wafted from him threatened to drown me. And the wide, bleached-white, self-assured grin on his square face told me he was accustomed to hearing yes.
“I have a drink,” I said, sparing the man only a small glance before turning back to the pianist in the center of the room. The glass was cool against my lips, the Cabernet Sauvignon smooth on my palate.
“A fine lookin’ lady like you shouldn’t be left to drink alone,” the man said. “The name’s Chad, and I can promise you’ll be screaming it. All. Night. Long.”
He placed his clammy palm on my bare knee, still sporting that self-assured grin. Clearly he was not the type to take no for an answer. And if I could have afforded making a scene, I would have made him regret touching me. Break a finger, bloody a nose. Not tonight.
“Chad,” I said, looking him square in the eyes, “you’ll remove your greasy paw from my leg and make your way back to the casino.”
“And why—”
“If you don’t,” I said, leaning close enough that only he could hear me, “I’ll tell your wife exactly what you’re doing on this ‘business’ trip.”
Midnight Wish: A Werewolf Shifter Romance (The Protectors Quick Bites Book 1) Page 8
