Dominion: A Shifter of Consequence Tale (Shifters of Consequence Book 4)

by Mazzy J March

  “Good morning, female of mine,” Escher said as I came out of the back door. He opened his arms for me and, while it physically pained me not to go to him, I instead went to stand behind Christie.

  “I’m here to train,” I announced, and Christie whirled on me, a grin on her face.

  “Not you, too,” Cash interjected but didn’t really seem upset.

  “You have to let the males fight. It’s our way,” Samson stepped forward, assuming the same stance as the others.

  “Okay, let’s say you all get beaten down,” Christie said, met with growls from the others. “Let’s pretend, okay, boys?”

  They each grunted.

  “And Wendi and I are at home, being the good little females we are. And those motherfuckers come for us. They are clawing down the door, teeth bared, hungry for blood. What would you have us do? Stand there and invite them in for tea? God forbid we have pups one day and you aren’t around, any of you. Long gone is the time where we females sit around like lambs waiting for the slaughter, hoping our men can defend us. If I’m gonna go down, it sure as hell is going to be with the fight of my life. So, teach us to defend ourselves and our home. Our young.”

  Damn, a speech if I’d ever heard one. And it gobsmacked not only my mates but every male in the vicinity. Females gathered around us, some holding their babies and toddlers tight, nodding in agreement while the males looked to the ground.

  She was right. There was no other way around it.

  We had to defend what was ours, even if it meant bruising the males’ pride a little bit.

  From the looks of it, it was more than a little.

  “Escher, are you willing and able to teach the females some defensive and”—he held up his hand as Christie poised to protest—“offensive moves so in our absence they are protected?”

  Escher’s eyes met mine, and I stepped around Christie. “Escher, maybe if I had known some things, I could’ve defended myself against them before. Maybe prevented the kidnapping altogether. And if Mirella needs me…”

  My dark-haired mate kicked at the dirt. “I can teach them.”

  Samson exhaled and looked at Christie.

  Her face reddened, but she gave him a faint smile. “Good. Let’s start now. We don’t have any time to waste.”

  For the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon, Christie, I, and the other females, along with the males, were trained. We shifted back and forth from wolf to human and back again, posturing and practicing moves and techniques. Escher was like a general, never treating me any differently than the rest, and I knew it was for my own good. Rattlecreek wouldn't be gentle with me, healer or not.

  They had proven the point many times.

  “When in doubt, take out the thigh or the calf, and that goes for human bodies, too. If they can’t walk, they are going to have a hard time fighting. Get them on the ground. That’s your best chance at killing or at getting away.”

  Every time he made a point, he made sure to hold my gaze. He was worried for me.

  But I felt empowered.

  On four legs, I bit down on Cash’s Achilles tendon, and he yelped, immediately shifting to two legs, but had mostly already healed. I thought I might’ve hurt him, but he smiled. “Wendi, that was good. You bite one of those Rattlecreek jerks like that and they will be down and helpless against your next attack. Remember, they are smaller and weaker than us, but their size tends to make them faster as well.”

  I nodded and shifted back to two legs, bending over to catch my breath.

  “Okay.” Escher clapped his hands, trying to get everyone’s attention. “Tonight at midnight, we spar. Fighting at night is a lot different, but I am convinced everyone in this pack needs training. Eat and rest. Meet here.”

  We dispersed in seconds. Christie, who was staying at the house, said she was going to take a shower, and I headed straight for the kitchen and slapped together the messiest sandwich that ever existed. I’d gone straight from bed to training and was starving.

  “You did well today, female. I can see the strengths of having the females be able to fight. I feel like I owe you an apology for doubting it.” Escher’s head hung low, and his brow was drawn down.

  “It’s okay. We just want to defend our families and our pack like you do. We deserve the chance to prove that.”

  My mates nodded and made their own late lunch and another sandwich for me.

  “Did you see how Wendi rounded Christie. It was like one minute she was facing her off, and the next, she had her teeth sunk into her ribs. We have a warrior female on our hands, boys,” Brandon said with a huge grin.

  “That we do. Warrior, healer…what else are you amazing at, mate?” Moss’s words slid over my skin like warm honey, coating every part of me.

  “I guess you just have to wait and see,” I openly flirted back, and he laughed.

  Damn it, I wanted him. It was like the need built up inside me more and more by the second, but something was holding him back.

  I had to find out what.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The guys eventually wandered back outside for more practice. It seemed they’d all focused on Christie and me and still had their own moves to practice. I tried to feel guilty but couldn’t. If they’d allowed Christie into their little boys’ group to start with, she’d be part of them already without needing to be separated out for basics.

  Her warrior’s soul had been fed by our activities, and as we fought, I’d been able to see the difference between us. I was a healer, and while I fully intended not only to learn how to defend myself and those I loved, my main job, my function was to mend those injured or sick. Christie, on the other hand, had it in her to fight. To protect. To go on the offense as necessary and lead. I’d only thought of her as my buddy until now, as a fun girl to shop with. Someone who helped me get comfortable with my new town and learn how to navigate the school both on wheels and on legs.

  As a member of the pack, she’d also helped ease me into the group. But I recognized I’d underestimated her. Thought of her as just a co-ed and a fun-loving friend. And a wolf, of course. She was swift as the wind and could leap higher than anyone else I’d ever seen, landing on a branch overhead with grace and precision.

  Reappearing while we were eating our sandwiches, she’d gobbled one herself and, when the guys went back outside, she followed them and took a place in the group as if it were hers all along. Which it really had been, if they would allow her to be.

  Another thought occurred to me as I stood on the porch, watching the formerly reluctant males include her in their warfare. Were there other females in the pack who could have her abilities? Certainly, most could learn as much as I could. To defend our families. I’d seen the fire in the eyes of the mothers who’d stood a distance away, holding their babes to their chests or the hands of their small children. In the “traditions” it seemed our pack, indeed our race, had neglected to recognize nobody was fiercer than a mother.

  I decided to discuss with my mates and Christie a plan to train the women who would like to learn. There was no need for all the males to stand around as they had this afternoon, gawking. They could continue their own preparations while Christie and perhaps one of my mates worked with the females, so if, as we’d pointed out earlier, worse came to worst, we were more than helpless victims.

  And for those who had real gifts, it was a chance to explore them. After all, the goddess would not have bestowed the abilities if she did not intend them to be used. I turned away from the fighting, grinning at a ferocious growl from my bestie, and returned inside.

  They would be hungry when they finished, and while I was not the most skilled cook in our household, I was the only one not outside getting beaten up and banged around. I gathered the ingredients for a quick marinara sauce. Spaghetti I could manage, and a salad. Cookies would have to do for dessert.

  When the sauce was simmering and the salad chilling in the fridge, I wandered back to the porch, but before I made it outs
ide, Moss appeared at the door. I jumped. “Oh, you startled me. Is everyone coming? Dinner isn’t quite ready.”

  He grinned at me and held up his arm. “No, just me. I had a slight mishap.”

  Mishap? The gouge sliced right through the muscle, blood dripping on the wooden boards. Alarm rocketed through me. He needed to shift, but with something this deep, I was glad he came to me first. “I see.” I forced my voice to stay level. “Careless of you.”

  “Yeah. I was working with daggers with Christi, and she overestimated my abilities not to get injured.” He winced. “Can you help me so I can get back out there?”

  Outrage suffused me. “Christie needs to be more careful! If she takes out all of you, we’ll be in big trouble.”

  “Uhh…I think the fault is mine. I was anticipating what she’d do and, in essence threw my arm right in her path. I thought she’d be making newbie moves, and she isn’t.”

  I stared at him a moment and realized while I was overthinking, he was bleeding out. Or not quite, but close enough to make me look bad as a healer. Putting a hand under his forearm, I guided him into the room I’d set up as a clinic.

  Not quite like a regular doctor’s examining room, I had a sofa and comfortable chairs as well as a modified exam table. My cabinets were starting to fill with equipment, and I felt sure I had what I needed to handle a deep cut.

  “Climb up and sit down. I want to clean that up before we do anything else.” I was concerned with the dirt they were all rolling around in—even if he shifted and healed, something might remain deep inside and cause infection. It didn’t happen often, but it could. “Are you dizzy or anything?”

  He chuckled “ No, but I might be if I lose much more blood. I think I need to shift.”

  “Why didn’t you do it before?” Not that I wasn’t glad he hadn’t.

  “The alpha wouldn’t let me. He sent me in here.” His grimace told me how much he hadn’t wanted to make the move. “But since you’ve seen it, I’d like to shift because it hurts.”

  He didn’t often admit anything hurt or bothered him. My schoolmate mate was cordial and friendly and helpful and sexy but never complained. It must hurt a hella lot.

  “In a minute.” I fetched a basin, some sterile gauze, and other things to clean out the wound. In my spare time, I was learning all I could about basic and beyond basic first aid. I wasn’t ready to do surgery yet, but I thought I probably could stitch someone up if necessary. “Now, hold still.” I hated to make his pain worse, but I soon found there were indeed some bits of dirt and grass and other debris way in the wound, and I had to pick them out one by one. “Tell me if you need a break.” I needed to get someone to find me some lidocaine or something to numb people because my stoic mate’s jaw was gritted so tight I feared he’d crack a tooth. Finally, after a hundred years that was really about fifteen minutes, I was done.

  “Rest a few minutes before you shift.” His skin was covered with a fine layer of perspiration, and shifting took a fair amount of energy. “But I think you’ll be fine, then.”

  He looked at his arm, which actually appeared worse, if cleaner, after my efforts. “I really don’t want this open long. It’s grossing me out.”

  “Yeah, pretty yucky there.” I grinned at him. “Maybe you’ll take a woman with a knife more seriously now.”

  “I will if it’s that woman. I know we all argued about her joining the fight, but she was born for it.” He winced again. “I’m gonna shift.”

  “Go for it.” I stepped back and watched him, knowing he needed it but hoping it wouldn’t cause any issues in the long run. What if I missed a tiny pebble or something? No, I’d been careful. “And after you get a good night’s sleep, I think we need to talk. Or something.”

  His eyes lit up, and I giggled. But then they dimmed again. “Okay, shifting.”

  What was he hiding?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Despite all the craziness and war preparations, my mates were determined not to cancel the wedding. As Escher put it, “I’ll be damned if anyone is going to stop us from living our lives.” I did not reply they’d already put our lives into an uproar, and it wasn’t the first time. He’d come a long way in dealing with his anger, but this level of stress wasn’t doing anyone any good.

  I did manage to convince them to tone it down, to have our ceremony with the local pack members and a cake and punch, maybe sandwiches reception. We all wanted a big party, with everyone in the region—by “we” I meant the alpha. He seemed to feel my mating affected more than the locals due to my being the long-awaited healer. Myself? I’d have gone for an even smaller ceremony, just us and an officiant. But the alpha only got on board for the pack event with our agreement for the reception he dreamed of once the war was over. I had a vague hope he’d let it go then, but all my guys assured me he never would do anything like that.

  Even such a small ceremony required planning, and while I told myself I was only doing it to please the others—after all, could we be more bonded than we were now?—when Christie and I, accompanied by Brandon as bodyguard, traveled to the party store in the next town to purchase necessities, I found excitement rising in me.

  “It feels good to get in a car and go somewhere,” I said, hanging out the window of a borrowed pack van like a dog desperate for a scent of the passing countryside. “You know?”

  Christie giggled, and Brandon laughed hard and slapped the wheel, but once he got himself together, he gave me a big smile. “And it’s for our wedding…”

  “Of course!” I was appalled he might have thought I’d forget that. “Are you excited? I thought it was the bride who was usually into all the preparations.”

  All levity disappeared from his expression. “Mate, I want us established in all ways legal and otherwise. You do know that’s why the alpha is so insistent we not postpone our plans? Even though he wants the bigger event later? We need to cement our connection to give us leverage if the Rattlecreeks make another move on you.”

  My joy in the day was dissipating rapidly. “As in possession is nine-tenths of the law? Like I’m a…a thing?”

  He jerked the wheel and brought the van to a stop on the shoulder then turned to face me. “You are never going to be a thing. You know better. We love you. I love you. But perhaps that is how the Rattlecreeks see you. An asset. Something they have the other packs do not. Something they can use. Charge for your skills.”

  “What?” I was outraged. “This is a gift from the goddess, and I would never ask for money to heal someone.”

  “It isn’t that horrible to do so, you know. Tradition long has it the healer is supplied with all her needs or how would she survive? Many are not mated, in fact few have been. With no one to support them, and their time occupied in helping their pack, they do in essence get paid.”

  “But in food, right? Shelter?” I blinked at him. “Surely, not cold cash.”

  He shrugged. “She was provided with an income. Mirella has one, and you will, too. Things have been a little chaotic, or it would already be done. It’s not a lack of respect for the goddess’s gift. It’s a way of ensuring the healer can do it without starving to death.” He took my hand, stroking the fingers. “Not that we wouldn’t be happy to provide for you, of course.”

  “I never intended to be dependent on you. I have the little income from my house and my job at the library, and when I finish school, I will get a job.” As I said it, I saw my future fluttering away. “That’s not going to happen, is it?”

  His smile was warm but a little sad. “Anything you like can happen, but I think in giving you this gift, the goddess has made a career decision for you. It might be hard for you to be the pack healer and run some other business or whatever as well.” His fingers tightened on mine. “But whatever you do, you have our full support.”

  “I think it’s time for a change of majors.” I’d never considered this, but here it was in front of me. “I’ve been picking up medical knowledge online, and while a lot of it isn’
t specific to shifters, it’s helpful. Do you think it would be weird if I went to medical school? I’ve been so worried about what might happen if someone needed surgery, say. Not that my gift won’t help, but after fixing Moss’s arm, I realized I’d like to have all the skills and knowledge possible.”

  “I think that would be great. As I said, you have our support, and the pack will be grateful for your dedication.” He leaned in and pecked me on the lips. “But for now, we have a wedding to plan, and a very short honeymoon in place. Even if we have all made love already.”

  The sting of his words shot through me. “But I haven’t…” Oh goddess, I hadn’t spoken with any of them about the others.

  Brandon’s gaze was laser focused. “I assumed. I mean…”

  I heard a rustle from the back seat and remembered we weren’t alone. Oh no!

  “Let’s talk about this later?” Or not at all. After all, the person I needed to have the conversation with was Moss. “But it’s all fine.”

  Chapter Twenty

  We arrived at the party store slash bridal outlet without any further stops, and Brandon escorted us as far as the door then agreed to wait outside. I think the flurry of women inside, shopping for events like ours was enough to scare even my valiant warrior mate away. Since he could sit on a bench and watch both exits, he could prevent me from being dragged off by any Rattlecreeks disguised as maids of honor or party planners.

  The place was the size of a Walmart or Costco, and I paused just inside, jaw dropped. Christie, already halfway down the first aisle, stopped and turned back. “What are you doing? We have things to buy!” Her excitement should have washed over me, but I was both overwhelmed by the sheer number of balloons and streamers in sight and trying to remember what I’d said to my mate when I thought we were alone. Why did I think that?

  “I’m coming. Remember, we aren’t doing the full-scale event yet, so we need stuff for the cake-and-sandwich party. You know, paper plates, cups…maybe a balloon.”