Miri took a breath, held it until she knew her voice would be steady, and then released it. “Yes, she does. The pack can decide that the parents’ original wishes should be followed.”
“Derek would never let that happen,” Allie protested.
“Derek isn’t here,” Raisa pointed out.
“What happens then?”
Allie and Raisa both stared at her while they waited for her to answer. They weren’t going to like what she had to say. “In that case, the pack could require the council to make the decision, and that’s a majority rules verdict.”
A council decision could go badly for Peanut. There was no doubt that the little girl Jace loved so much had been abandoned. No doubt the Sanctuary had taken advantage of that, and experimented on her, changing her from what she had been—fully were. It wasn’t Peanut’s fault they’d altered her chemistry, but the fact that she wasn’t fully were anymore would be enough for some members to want to enforce the parents’ original choice.
“Jace won’t allow anything to happen to Peanut.”
“I’ll take this moment to point out that this compound is full of weres,” Allie interjected. “The Johnsons are outnumbered.”
“That won’t stop the brothers from protecting Peanut if it comes to that,” Raisa said, her talons extending.
Allie didn’t look any less fierce. “And warring among ourselves will accomplish, what? We need a plan, not a pointless fight. So”—she glanced at both women—“what are we going to do?”
This was all her fault. “We aren’t going to do anything.” Miri walked over to the window. “What I should have done in the first place.”
“And what would that be?”
Only a sliver of moonlight lit the courtyard. It was enough for her were vision to see quite clearly. Jace and Caleb were standing on the porch of the cabin. A group of weres approached. Even from here she could see the tension in Jace’s shoulders, see the way his hands were laid protectively across the baby’s back. He’d die for Peanut and not regret it for a moment. A ripple went through the weres. It increased as Caleb came to stand beside him, feet braced shoulder width apart. One thing the pack understood and respected was a fight to the death for family. And from the way Jace was holding Peanut, it was clear she was family. Unfortunately for Jace, without a female were to speak for the child, his claim was void. “I need to set a misunderstanding right.”
Allie came up to the window as Caleb invited the men inside. “And what would that misunderstanding be?”
Miri headed for the door. “That Jace is in this alone.”
Raisa grabbed her coat. Allie scooped up Joseph and smiled. “Now you’re talking like a Johnson.”
ALL sound stopped when the women walked into the living room of the small cabin. Everywhere Miri looked, male weres stood with shoulders squared in a way that said they had an opinion and they wanted it heard. Caleb, Jace, Jared, and Slade stood with the same determination. She hadn’t known the last two would be here, but it figured. What touched one Johnson brother touched them all. They were amazingly pack-like in their behavior. It was always comforting to realize that.
Tobias stepped forward, blocking their path, a slight smile on his face. “This is a council meeting.”
Allie breezed past him, striding through the group like a queen walking to her throne, undeterred by the frowning weres around her. She even went so far as to wiggle five fingers at an elder were and give him a saucy grin.
“Allie…” Caleb warned, his face a bit too serious, probably to counter the smile ghosting the corner of his mouth.
“What?” She looked innocent. “Just because it’s a council meeting doesn’t mean I can’t say hi to the people I know and like.”
Caleb caught her hand as she got close, pulling her in to his side and dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “Hate to break it to you, but pretty much, it does.”
“I’m sure kissing your wife at council meetings isn’t considered appropriate, either.”
This time it was Tobias who answered. “Pretty much.”
Raisa walked through the men with the same confidence in her step as Allie had showed, her gaze holding her husband’s as love radiated between them in an arc of energy so pure Miri could almost see it. “You-all really have to modernize your meetings,” she informed the weres in general.
“We kind of like things just as they are,” someone called from the back.
Allie gave the man a dismissive glance as she leaned back against her husband’s chest, little Joseph snug in his sling. “People always say that when it’s time to change.”
It was an intriguing idea, that the highest resistance occurred right before change. Miri looked over at Jace standing there between his brothers, prepared to fight for what he wanted. Had he truly always wanted her?
Yes.
The mental answer didn’t spark that familiar dart of fear and knee-jerk denial inside her. That was a good sign. Maybe she was healing. Maybe she could do this.
A murmur of displeasure went through the crowd, flicking over her upbringing. As if echoing the disapproval, pain flared in her abdomen. Across the room, Jace’s gaze met hers. Not with passion, but with a question. She didn’t know the answer. She didn’t know if she had any backbone left. Peanut fussed. With a rub of his big hand on her tiny back, Jace soothed her before handing the baby to Raisa. All the while he watched Miri, the question still in his eyes.
She pushed away from the doorjamb. If there was one thing she’d learned in the last year, it was that one couldn’t walk away from one’s heritage. The reality was that she was an Alpha were female. She had responsibilities to her pack, to the other wolves around her, to Jace, and to the baby he held in his arms. The baby who needed her now as much as her own baby needed somebody to be holding her. Miri stepped into the crowd. She would find the backbone to do what needed to be done.
The men immediately closed in around her, pressing close. She wasn’t surprised. Instinct alone would have them blocking her access to a vampire, but that reflex was totally out of place in this instance. Jace was her mate. Pack law gave none of them the right to come between him and her.
She growled low in her throat. A warning. On the other side of the crowd, she heard a “Jesus” and then Caleb’s caution to someone: “Stay back.” Even she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Jace wouldn’t let anything come between him and her, and the weres were obligated to put up at least a token fight. If for no other reason than to make a customary display, to prove her worth to them. From the snarling, to sounds of fists meeting flesh, Jace didn’t care much for custom. Two seconds later, several male weres were tossed to the side and Jace was beside her. His face was half morphed and his fangs were exposed, and when he reached for her, his talons glowed dully in the lamplight. He was a very scary vampire. The were nearest her snarled a warning. But he was also her Jace. She placed her hand in his.
Immediately he yanked her behind him, crowding her backward until they reached the fireplace and his brothers.
Weres poured into the path, closing it off. There was no retreat now. It was us against them. “Us” being the weres. “Them” being the vampires. Placing her palm in the middle of Jace’s back, she felt Jace gather himself for the kill, his instincts in overdrive.
“You can’t do this, Jace.”
Tobias laughed.
She glared at him. “This is not a laughing matter.”
“I guess that would depend on which side of the argument you’re standing on.”
“Back off, Enforcer.”
Jace placed himself between her and Tobias, every muscle tensed for a fight, his energy flaring out into the crowd, snapping back to stroke over her before flaring out again. “What are you doing, princess?”
She stepped out from behind him. “I’m fixing things.”
“It appears to me you’re starting things,” Caleb inserted.
“Fiddlesticks,” Allie snapped. “You men have had too much say in this al
ready.”
“This is a council matter,” one of the elders said.
“It’s a family matter,” Miri countered, feeling her former confidence flow over her, feeling the rightness of standing here beside Jace expand outward from her center.
She took a cautious breath and let the feeling spread. When it filled every cold, empty corner inside, she bit her lip and raised her hand. Silence crashed through the room. It was now or never. Pulse pounding in her temples, she reached toward Peanut, where she was cuddled in Raisa’s arms. Her fingers met air. She was too far away. The room blurred out of focus. Closing her eyes, she took the next step on faith, hoping against hope she wouldn’t freeze up. Her hand connected with a petal-soft blanket. She was touching her. Touching Peanut.
Please, don’t make this either/or. Don’t let saving Peanut cost me Faith.
Jace’s “You did it, princess” came to her on a thread of pride. She shook her head. Not yet, she hadn’t.
Another breath, another prayer.
Please, please, please.
The desperate prayer still playing through her mind, she opened her eyes, seeing Jace’s concern and pride, feeling his support. Not looking anywhere but into his eyes. Holding Faith’s image tightly in her mind, she announced:
“I’m Miri D’Nally. Alpha female of the Tragallion weres. And this is my daughter.” She couldn’t bring herself to officially name her Peanut by calling her that in a claiming.
She looked around before holding out her hand, palm up, to Jace. Without hesitation, Jace put his in it. She brought it to her lips, trapping his gaze with hers, noting how his eyes burned blue fire as she said, “This is my mate, Jace Johnson.” The flickers leapt to flames as he realized what she was doing. His energy swirled around her, rich and hot. She kissed the back of his fingers in a gesture of submission and acceptance all weres would recognize. Still holding his gaze, she finished the ritual. “All who wish to challenge my choice may step forward.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Miri saw Jared push away from the wall and stand at the ready for a fight.
“Shit. I don’t like the sound of that.”
Jace switched his grip to the back of her neck. His fingers pressed delicately, tipping her head back. He lowered his head, his shadow blocking the light but not his satisfaction as he said, right before their lips met, “I do.”
14
“FOR a were who prides herself on her control, you sure do have a temper.”
Not that Jace was complaining. He liked it when Miri got her dander up. Jace watched as Miri grabbed ice from the dispenser and dumped it into the towel. Residual anger reverberated in the way she banged it on the counter to break up the chips.
“They had no right to attack you.”
“It was a challenge. You invited them to.”
“All they had to do was put up a token fight and tradition would have been honored.”
“Princess, you’re not a woman to inspire token anything.”
She brought the towel over. Jace wanted to kiss her for the frown on her face as she pressed it to his bruised cheek.
“Even if they beat you, it wouldn’t have won them anything.”
“It would have won them you.”
“No, it wouldn’t.” She touched the cut under his eye. “Tobias didn’t need to hit you so hard.”
He cupped his hand over hers, pressing the pack to his cheek. “Is that why you went all Alpha on their butts?”
The way she went still against him made Jace wonder if she thought he thought that was a bad thing.
“I wasn’t raised to be meek.”
He nodded. “Just obedient. Interesting dichotomy.”
She very gently eased the ice pack down to his jaw. “It’s my job to balance pack law.”
“And that slash you gave Tobias? That created balance?”
“Yes.”
No one had been more surprised than he when she’d waded into the pile of weres on top of him. Snarling and slashing, driving them back with the force of her fury.
With the tips of his fingers he brushed the hair off her brow. “You could have gotten hurt.”
Her eyes glowed. “They were hurting you!”
“I was holding my own.” In truth if she hadn’t jumped in right then, making it impossible for him to throw the were off, he would have done some serious ass kicking. “Not that I’m not appreciative, but jumping in when you did put a crimp on my moment to shine.”
“You’re shining just fine,” she said, moving the ice pack to his blackening eye.
He caught her hand and took it from her and set it down.
“Ice doesn’t work nearly as well as kisses,” he explained when she gave him a questioning look.
“You want me to kiss it better?”
He tugged her down on his lap. “Yup.”
Her arms went around his neck. “This is some sort of secret vampire healing process?”
He shifted her legs over a bit to give her a better angle. “Very secret, known only to me.”
The anger left her eyes to be replaced by a spark of humor. The touch of her lips to the underside of his chin was a benediction of hope.
“So anytime I find a wounded vampire I should employ kisses to heal him?”
Despite the fact he knew she was teasing, his vampire snarled. He felt her inner joy at the possessive surge. She was were. She welcomed such displays. “It’s only effective on me.”
Those softer-than-soft lips grazed the line of his jaw. “Ah.”
He tilted his head to give her better access to his neck. “What does ‘ah’ mean?”
“It means I understand.” The sharp edges of her canines found the cord of his neck and traveled downward. His heart stuttered and then took off in a race of optimism. His skin sensitized, the nerve endings beneath aching in anticipation of her bite. Her mark.
From the other room, Peanut let out a wail.
Shit!
Miri leaned against him. Her shoulders shook. Her breath hit his skin in amused puffs. “She’s just lonely.”
“She’s got lousy timing.”
“She wants her daddy.”
He tipped her face. “Her daddy wants her mommy.”
Her eyes dilated at the blunt declaration. The pound of her pulse increased. He stroked his thumb across her lower lip. She still had a way to go until she reached his level of desire, but he’d take panting.
“I do not pant.”
He smiled. “Caught that, did you?”
“Yes.” She pushed off his lap. Peanut wailed louder. “It was not appreciated.”
“I’ll work on my aspirations.” He tucked his feet under him in preparation of getting up. Miri placed a hand in the middle of his chest, keeping him put. Her fingers slipped between the buttons, sliding across his skin in a brush of fire. “I’ll get her.”
“You sure?” Beyond that light touch at the impromptu council meeting, she hadn’t touched Peanut. Whatever had happened earlier had brought back more of the woman he remembered. Jeopardizing that recovery was not an option. “Positive.”
For all the confidence of the statement, there was just the barest of hesitations as she reached the archway leading to the second bedroom.
“You don’t have anything to prove to me, Miri.”
She looked over her shoulder. “But I have a lot to prove to myself.”
He didn’t know what to say to that.
Mentally racking her progress through the rooms, he felt as well as heard her stop before she reached the baby’s makeshift crib. “Hey, Peanut.”
Peanut wailed louder. She didn’t move forward. Her dread was as palpable as her hope. He rolled to his feet. The three seconds it took to get to her didn’t see any resolution to her dilemma. As he came up beside her she said, “I’m afraid to try.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist. “I know.” He looked over the crib to the red-faced baby. “Hey, Peanut. Anyone ever tell you that you have lousy timing?”
He
’d be damned if Peanut didn’t give him a watery smile.
“Did you see that?”
Miri’s chuckle was as weak as Peanut’s smile. “I did.”
“The imp is scamming us.”
She made no move forward. “I think she’s just very happy to be a Johnson.”
The statement opened a door he’d been longing to peek through. “And what about you? Are you happy to be a Johnson?”
Her hands came over his, pressing them into her stomach. He could feel the nausea building and the pain threatening right behind. It drove him crazy that she made herself suffer rather than take his blood.
“Giving up my pack was the hardest thing I ever did.”
“I know that.”
“But I’m beginning to understand that I didn’t give up a pack when I mated with you. I just moved to a new one.”
He sent energy inward, masking her discomfort while pretending outrage to distract her from what he was doing. “Are you calling me a werewolf, woman?”
Her fingers slid through his, tucking down his palms, squeezing lightly. “You and your brothers think so much like pack that I sometimes forgot you’re not.”
He made a face at Peanut, who stared at the strange contortion, fascinated. It kept her from crying, which was the goal. “I think I’ve been insulted.”
“You know you haven’t, so don’t try to distract me with false outrage.”
“Damn, you’re too quick for me.”
“And don’t you forget it.” She took a step toward the baby. His instinct was to snatch her back. He forced himself to let her go.
She stood there a second, heartbeat racing. His raced right alongside. He wanted this so badly for her. She bent. Reached out. Stopped breathing.
So did he. Don’t cry now, Peanut.
Peanut stared up at Miri, but didn’t twitch or fuss as Miri slid her hands under her tiny body and lifted her up.
Miri just stood there, holding Peanut halfway to a cuddle, her ribs heaving with the stress of what she was doing. “Quick, tell me this doesn’t mean I’ll never get Faith back, that I’m not condemning her to death.”
Ah, hell, was that what she thought? He wrapped his arms around her torso and dropped his cheek against her tear-dampened one. His beard-roughened skin slid on her smooth cheek. “You’re not killing Faith, princess. Faith will come home. Letting yourself give Peanut what she needs is just throwing good karma out there for Faith to catch.”
Jace Page 22
