Chapter Two
So many people. At least a hundred, if Elise had to guess, all of them milling from one group to another in the wide gorge behind Priest’s big lake-view home. From her place between Jade and Priest’s mate, Katy—or Kateri, as Priest insisted on calling her—Elise kept quiet and soaked in every detail. The torches that Katy had lit with nothing more than a flick of her hand. The treetops full of rich green leaves softly rustling overhead. The comforting rumble of easy conversation peppered with genuine laughter, and the strains of a laid-back alternative playlist piped through speakers she couldn’t pinpoint.
A chance for a clean slate.
Finally.
From the year Elise had turned fourteen and been brutally indoctrinated into just how cruel teenage girls could be, she’d wanted to rewrite her life. A do-over to see if she could handle things differently the next time around and come out whole on the other side.
Now her chance was here. A new town more than four times the size of the one where she’d grown up, new people who had no knowledge of her past, and a clan of shifters gifted with varied types of magic. Granted, fate’s gift had come with a nasty flip side. Namely, her being a prime target for a rogue Volán shifter who everyone said either wanted to possess her or steal the magic she hadn’t even earned yet.
A strong hand clamped on her shoulder just as a man squeezed between Elise and Jade on her left. “Ladies, I come bearing female reinforcements and ice-cold beverages for your pleasure.”
The second the rich voice clicked and her eyes settled on the big rugged blond man next to her, Elise’s muscles uncoiled and she let out a relieved exhale. Not many men put off a vibe that made her feel instantly safe in their presence, but Katy’s brother, Alek, was one them. Him and Priest. She still hadn’t figured out why. Maybe it was merely the fact that Priest was the clan’s high priest and Alek the clan’s warrior primo, but she’d not once struggled with the need to shield herself from them.
And then there was Tate.
The same light and giddy buzz that always followed behind thoughts of the man who’d all but consumed her waking hours blossomed beneath her sternum and sent her pulse thrumming. She felt safe with Tate, too.
Sort of.
Not in the brotherly, tousle-your-hair and bear-hug way she got with Alek and Priest, but more like a protector. As if some part of her sensed that, if she needed him, he’d be there in a second. Which was insane because he rarely got close to her. Certainly not within touching distance. And if she’d learned nothing else about Volán culture in the last few weeks, it was that they were a physically affectionate lot.
But he’d watched her. Not once had she caught him in the act, but she’d swear she felt it. Knew every single time he’d walked into her house to help her mom with odd jobs and shivered at the sound of his voice.
Alek dipped his head to a late-twenties dark-headed girl who’d moved in next to Katy, handed one Dos Equis to Jade and another to Elise. “Elise, this is Sara. Sara, meet Elise.”
Rather than offer her hand, Sara aimed a sheepish smile Elise’s direction and semi-bounced on her toes like she was trying to keep her excitement in check. “Hey. It’s really nice to meet you. I’m part of healer house, too.”
Ah. That explained the excitement. Priest and everyone else seemed certain she was destined to lead the clan’s healers someday. “Well, I don’t know what my magic is yet. I haven’t had my soul quest.”
“You don’t know for sure, no, but you’re the best bet for our healer prima,” Sara said. “Primos almost always stay within a family line, and no one remembers anyone outside your family ever leading healer house. If you had a brother or sister maybe things would be up in the air, but as an only child?” She blushed, jammed her hands in her jeans pockets, and shrugged. “Well, everyone’s just super excited you’re here.”
They were?
Directly behind Sara, three couples stood chatting, two of the women quickly shifting their gaze from Alek and Elise back to the others around them. An older bunch of women sat around a fire pit in comfortable patio chairs, some of them balancing plates of food and chatting, while others openly stared her direction with happy glints in their eyes—one of them being Katy’s grandmother, Naomi.
But it was the handful of women standing in a cluster just behind them that struck the hardest. Five to be exact. All of them roughly Elise’s or Jade’s age and dressed to impress despite their casual attire. And every one of them aimed suspicious, almost calculating, glances her way.
She knew that look. Had suffered the backlash that inevitably followed.
Elise tried to shift slightly behind Alek’s broad body and out of everyone’s line of sight, but he caught her with a strong arm around her shoulders and guided her back to his side. “Whoa. What’s that about?”
A quick glance at the rest of the women gathered around them showed the same concerned expression etched on their faces.
Dammit.
Clean slate.
Clean slate.
Clean slate.
She didn’t have to be something she wasn’t. Didn’t have to hide what she thought, or what she looked like to fit in. Not here. Not this time. She forced her shoulders back an inch or two, even if it did make her breasts stand out even more than they already did. “I get self-conscious when people stare at me.”
Katy scoffed, but the sound had a boatload of empathy behind it. “Boy, do I understand that feeling. The day I walked out in front of the clan knowing I was the first sorcerer since Draven worked his bad juju and nearly killed everyone was one of the hardest of my life.” She frowned, zigzagged her attention between the beer in Elise’s hand and the one in Jade’s. “And where the hell is my beer?”
Just that fast, the awkward moment was over. Swept under the rug like it was no big deal.
Alek chuckled and tucked Elise tighter to his side. “I only deliver beer to pretty girls. I mean, you’re pretty and all, but you’re my sister, so that knocks you off the auto delivery list.”
An indescribable awareness danced beneath her skin a second before Tate’s low and eerily menacing voice registered close behind her. “Take Elise off your list, too.”
Before she could spin to face Tate, Alek’s arm clamped down tighter, holding her firmly in place, and she’d swear Alek grinned before he masked the humor with a blasé expression and peeked over his shoulder. “Oh, hey, Tate. ’Bout time you got here. I was just about to introduce Elise around to the rest of the clan.”
Katy covered her mouth and ducked her head.
Sara’s eyes got big as dinner plates.
Jade just snickered and grinned like she’d just pulled off a huge coup.
A warning growl that was unmistakably animal rumbled behind her and rippled up her spine. Jade had told her Tate’s companion was a mountain coyote. A big one with above-average hunting skills, but she’d never seen it. And while logic told her Tate was fully human behind her, there was no mistaking his beast was close to the surface. “Let go of her. Now.”
Alek squeezed her shoulder as if to reassure her then lowered his arm and casually turned, placing himself slightly in front of her. “You sure?”
Elise twisted just in time to catch a muscle at the back of Tate’s jaw twitch. The impact whenever she saw him was always a punch. Sandy-blond hair to his shoulders with a wave to it that made him look like he’d just ambled in from a day at the beach, a full, but well-trimmed beard slightly darker than the rest of his hair that made her wonder what his kiss would feel like and a lean, but muscled body that always crackled with a lethal energy. Dressed in a black T-shirt and faded jeans, he looked like the predator he was, and the way he was holding his body made it appear he was a nanosecond from tackling his primo.
Which was insane. He’d barely spoken to her. Barely looked her in the eye since the first day they’d met. But here he was,
trading some silent but deadly man-to-man communication she couldn’t translate. Given the amused expressions from Katy, Jade and Sara, she was the only one in need of subtitles.
Tate’s nostrils flared, and he edged closer to Alek, shifting as he did to put himself between Alek and Elise. When he spoke, his words came out grated and pulsing with power. “Don’t push me. Primo or not, I’ve got incentive in the fight you’re pushing.”
“Enough.” When Priest had moved in behind Katy, Elise couldn’t say, but the single word vibrated with such command the whole clearing quieted.
For a second, neither Alek or Tate moved.
Then one corner of Alek’s mouth twitched. “Something tells me I just earned payback when the time comes, but I figure it was worth it.”
“You think that now,” Priest said, his tone shifting to something closer to wry amusement. “Wait ’til it’s your ass in the wringer.”
Alek’s smirk shifted to a full smile, but he dipped his head in a silent truce toward Tate. “If she’s half as amazing as the one Tate lucked out with, I don’t care what he dishes out.”
“Who’s amazing?” The question was out of Elise’s mouth before she’d even realized she wanted the answer, the frustration of not knowing what was going on while everyone else watched with avid curiosity fueling her impatience.
An ugly snarl ripped up Tate’s throat.
“Alek,” Priest warned.
Alek barked an unrepentant laugh and threw up his hands in surrender. “Yeah, yeah. I’m going. I’m going.” He snatched the beer Elise had all but forgotten from her fingers and saluted with a naughty glint in his eye. “Don’t think you’ll be needing this.” Then he eyeballed Jade. “Come on. You started this mess. The least you can do is keep me company while your brother plots my murder.”
For the first time since the standoff started, Tate’s focus broke from Alek and whipped to Jade. While he didn’t look like he was a hairbreadth away from shredding anyone anymore, Elise wasn’t sure he’d found the same mental grounding Alek had.
Jade didn’t seem to care. Just giggled and waggled her eyebrows at Tate. “Ya gotta admit. It was effective.” Not waiting for a response, she sidled up to Elise, wrapped her in a friendly hug and whispered, “Don’t worry. Tate’ll take care of you. I promise.”
“Take care of what?” she whispered back.
She pulled away, squeezed Elise’s shoulders and winked. “Everything.”
Chapter Three
The frantic beat of her heart. That mysterious yet sweet and innocent scent he’d come to crave. Her body well within touching distance and a wealth of unmarked skin on display. The weight of at least half the clan’s attention, if not all of it, was firmly locked on Tate and his mate, but those were the only things he could process. That and staking his claim in a way no other man would dare to put his hands on Elise.
Although, given the maneuver Jade and Alek had engineered to trigger his protective instincts in front of everyone, no one gathered here tonight would question what she was to him going forward.
Well, no one except Elise.
Beside her, Priest, Katy and Sara waited and watched. While he knew Priest only lingered to make sure Tate kept his shit in check and Tate appreciated the mix of sympathy and humor in Katy’s expression, he could have done without Sara having such a front-row seat. She was a sweet girl. As honest, open and sincere as a woman could be, but talkative, too. Whatever happened in the next few minutes would be grapevine fodder for the whole clan by morning.
Elise twisted, peeling her gaze away from Jade and Alek as they sauntered away and peeking over her shoulder first before she fully faced him. “What was all that about?”
A question that should be simple to answer. One that would’ve been painfully obvious to her if she’d been raised with knowledge of their clan. Not that her mother hadn’t tried to share what it meant to be Volán and the things they could do. Elise just hadn’t believed her. And, since Jenny had rejected her gifts, she couldn’t prove a word of it. “Alek touched you.”
“So?”
This was it. Once he gave in and made physical contact, she’d grow to crave his touch every bit as much as he needed hers. Would feel the pull that started as a subtle tug and grew toward something neither one of them could fight. An inextricable bond that would tie them to one another.
He’d tried to give her time to adjust. To grow accustomed to their clan and the gifts of their race. But he couldn’t have stopped himself any longer even if the hounds of hell descended in mass, determined to kill them all. He dragged in a long, slow breath and inched forward, careful not to startle her. “No man touches you.” The denim at her hips whispered against his palms a second before he settled his hands more firmly against the luscious curves. “No man but me.”
Her breath hitched on a tender gasp and her body jolted at the careful, yet intimate contact. Whether it was the surprise of his words, his touch, or a combination of the two, he couldn’t say, but the impact was heady. Her full, parted lips. Each ragged inhalation and exhale. Those gorgeous and expressive green eyes of hers, wide with surprise and untapped sensual awareness.
Her gaze dipped to his mouth and she pressed her hands to his pecs. She jerked them away almost as quickly and nearly knocked herself off balance in the process.
Tate moved in tighter, bringing her body flush to his and anchoring one hand low on the small of her back and one at the back of her neck. “Easy.”
The need to pair the soothing word with the brush of his lips against her neck—across her forehead or cheeks—nearly crippled him. But he held it in check. Barely. Her mother had all but confirmed Elise’s past was a difficult one. And while she’d insisted the details were of a personal nature and up to Elise to share, she’d made it painfully clear the scars ran deep. No way was he opening those old wounds when they weren’t in a place he could give her the attention she needed to heal them properly.
Instead, he stroked the length of her spine and centered himself in her scent. In the feel of her soft body trembling against his. “Just breathe. I’ve got you.”
Her fingertips skimmed the length of his triceps and up to his shoulders, the touch tentative and uncertain. She shifted just enough to meet his eyes and opened her mouth, more questions than he had a prayer of answering without scaring the hell out of her burning behind her eyes.
“Tate?” Priest’s low inquiry saved him before Elise’s questions could meet air. “You good?”
In the last two weeks, runs in animal form with Priest in the darkest hours of the night had been one of the few things that had kept him sane. That and the patience Priest had shown in listening to him ramble about every fear that bubbled up. Tate twisted his head just enough to meet Priest’s gaze and gently squeezed the back of Elise’s neck before grudgingly releasing her and letting her get her bearings. “We will be.”
Priest’s tips twitched in that smug way mates who’d already run the gauntlet seemed prone to do and tucked Kateri closer to his side. “Right. You will be.”
On the other side of Priest, Sara beamed like she’d just confirmed she was the owner of a grand-prize-winning lottery ticket, and her cheeks were flushed enough to rival Elise’s. “Wow. That was sooo rom—”
“Intense,” Katy cut in before Sara could dig Tate an even deeper hole to climb out of. “When I first got here, all the male posturing weirded me out a little bit,” she said to Elise with all the exaggeration of a woman well-versed in clan life. Which was funny as hell considering she’d only shown up at Priest’s shop for the first time a month and a half ago and had been in an almost identical situation to Elise, barely having any knowledge of what it was to be Volán.
Still, she was throwing him a bone and giving Sara what he hoped was a solid clue to shut the hell up, so he rolled with it and moved in close to Elise’s side, settling his hand low on her spine. “Sorry if
the thing with Alek startled you.”
Elise twisted as if to confirm his hand really rested where she thought it was, then studied him like she couldn’t decide if she’d actually experienced the last ten minutes or conked her head on a hard surface and dreamed it all.
Yet again, Katy moved into damage control. “Hey, Elise. Why don’t we plan some time away from the house tomorrow? Maybe see if Tate and Priest could take us along the strip and let you explore some of the shops. They’re super touristy, but a fun way to turn your mind off for a while.”
“She’s got finals on Wednesday,” Tate said, startling even himself with the answer.
Elise craned her head to stare up at him. “How do you know that?”
Because he’d stalked her from the day he first saw her. Because he’d been fascinated with the degree she’d chosen and had spent an inordinate amount of time wondering how she’d ended up choosing it. Because he’d just spent an hour and a half prying every detail he could out of her mother so he could arm himself to win her and not hurt her in the process. “Your mother mentioned it when I was painting her bathroom,” he said instead.
“Then we’ll go after your finals are over that night,” Katy said. “Make it a celebration.”
Tate scowled.
Katy took one look at his face, apparently realized maybe taking the first open slot on Elise’s agenda wasn’t the best idea and adjusted plans. “Or Thursday. Maybe Friday.” She waved her hand in one of those no big deal maneuvers and smiled up at Priest. “You’re flexible, right?”
Clearly, Priest thought the whole debacle was hysterical, but he was doing his damndest to rein his laughter in. “We’ll work it out, mihara.” He squeezed her shoulder and lifted his chin toward Tate. “I think we’ll let you focus on introducing Elise to everyone.” Thankfully, he shifted his attention to Sara and handled the last remaining complication while he was at it. “How about you help my mate make the rounds and make sure everyone’s got what they need?”
Healer's Need Page 2
