* * * *
The Clan Council reconvened inside the building. Some of the audience returned. Others, knowing the best part of the show was over, left.
Daniel called Ain, Cail, Brodey, and Elain up to the dais. He smiled at them. “Who claims this woman as their mate?”
Ain nodded. “We do, my brothers and myself.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Aindreas, Brodey, and Cailean Lyall hereby claim Elain Pardie as our mate and seek Clan recognition.”
Daniel looked out at the gathering. “Does anyone object to this mating?”
Elain couldn’t help but snicker. She couldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind objecting at this point.
Daniel grinned. “The Clan hereby recognizes Elain Pardie as the mate of these men.”
Ain grinned, grabbed her, and kissed her deeply, leaving her breathless.
She barely had time to utter, “Wow!” when he let her loose before Brodey grabbed her and kissed her, too. By the time Cail had finished his lip-lock, she was ready to fuck all of them right there.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the time nor the place. As she stood there, swaying slightly on her feet, Ain guided her out of the way as Daniel called Micah, Jim, and Mai up to the dais.
“Micaiah Donovan,” he said, “I hear you did things a little differently than most.”
Micah nodded. “Yeah, as was pointed out to me, the Goddess apparently has a sense of humor.”
Daniel laughed. “True dat. Well, since we’ve never had this happen before, I’m going to make it up as I go along.” He looked back at the rest of the Council. “Any objections?”
They all shook their heads.
“Good.” He looked at Micah again. “Name your mates, Alpha.”
Micah smiled. “I declare Jim Dixon as my first claimed mate. I also declare Mai Gallatin as our claimed mate. I seek recognition for them both from the Clan.”
Daniel nodded. “You have witnesses to your first claiming?”
Ain stepped forward. “Yes. He claimed him in front of our pack.”
“And your second?”
Daniel whispered something to Mai. She turned around and let him pull the back of her shirt down just enough to expose her mating mark.
Daniel nodded. “Does anyone object to these two matings to this Alpha?” He barely waited a breath before adding, “The Clan hereby recognizes these mates of Micaiah Donovan.”
Micah kissed Jim, then Mai, then Jim kissed Mai, too.
Daniel and the rest of the Council congratulated them all. Then Daniel grinned. “Party at my house. Right now. Unless we have to go help the rest of the Scooby gang with the cockatrice, of course.”
* * * *
Rodolfo Abernathy angrily brushed off all assistance as he climbed out of his wheelchair and into the back of the limo. Two of his men had already loaded the caterwauling Paul inside.
“Where are we taking him? He needs a doctor,” one of the men, his driver, asked.
“Just drive,” Rodolfo growled.
Three miles from the scene of the embarrassment, they reached a heavily wooded section of road. Rodolfo hit the intercom button to speak to the driver. “Turn down that fire road.”
Without any questions, the driver did, although the three men in back with Rodolfo and tending to his screaming grandson looked at him quizzically.
Once they’d driven several hundred yards into the dense forest, Rodolfo hit the intercom button again. “Stop here.”
The limo had no sooner stopped moving before he was climbing out of the back. “Bring that,” he growled at his men, indicating Paul.
Paul tried to fight them, but between his injuries and their combined strength, his struggles proved useless. Rodolfo carefully picked his way off the fire road and into the woods until he found a slight ravine where a trickle of water had softened the ground.
He reached into his pocket and drew his knife, then pointed at the ground.
The men dropped Paul and backed away.
Rodolfo knelt over Paul and gripped him by the throat with one hand. “You have disappointed me for the last time.” With that, he slit Paul’s throat. Then he rinsed off the knife and his hands in the water. He pulled off his shirt. “Bring me his shirt from the car,” he ordered as he dropped his sodden shirt onto his grandson’s body. “And get a fucking shovel to bury this piece of trash. There should be one in the trunk.”
One of the men ran to do as he asked, meeting him halfway back with Paul’s shirt and carrying the shovel. Rodolfo snatched the shirt from him and put it on. “Get back to the car as soon as you men are done burying him.”
Alone, he stormed back to the limo and climbed inside, pulling the door shut behind him. His anger seethed. He wasn’t the invalid everyone thought he was, and he’d taken great pains cultivating that image. Regardless, after seeing the Pardie bitch quickly take Paul down, he knew even he in his prime days would have had a difficult time subduing her.
Paul hadn’t stood a chance.
Although he grudgingly admitted a little respect for the bitch and her fighting skills, they should have rightfully been put to use improving his Clan’s lines. When she came of age, she should have been turned over. She easily could have given them several pups by now. Pups with good, strong genes.
With his own genes. He could still get it up when he wanted to. He could have had a whole new crop of sons, Alphas who wouldn’t be disappointments.
He stared out the window, waiting for his men to return from their grisly task. No, by all rights, she belonged to his Clan. He didn’t give a shit what that damn Blackestone wolf and his damn Council decreed. In the old days, she would have been immediately awarded to his Clan without question, and her so-called mates told to buck up about it or be killed.
I’ll be damned if I’ll let my line die out. No matter what he had to do, hell, if he had to kidnap, drug, and rape her himself to get her pregnant, he would get satisfaction, and the blood oath would be settled.
If it’s the last fucking thing I do.
Chapter Eighteen
Lina and her men returned to Daniel’s house later that afternoon from their cockatrice scouting mission with Mark, Doug, Oscar, Wally, and Callie. Elain still felt edgy, irritable. When Lina heard about the challenge and the result, she hugged Elain.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”
“No, it’s okay. I didn’t know things were going to go the way they did.”
Callie laughed. “Sounds like you made an impression on those guys.”
“Well, at least on that one, I surely did.”
Lina got the car keys from Zack. “Where are you going?” he asked her.
“Us girls, including Mom, need to go talk to Lacey,” she said.
Mai looked up from the couch. “We do?”
“Yep.” Lina hooked her arm through Elain’s and brooked no resistance. “We do. Come on, ladies.”
“What about the burgers?” Brodey asked with a whine. “We’re just about to toss them on the barbecue.”
“We’ll be back, don’t worry,” Elain reassured him. “Go ahead.”
They all piled into Lina’s car and made the drive to Lacey’s house. The Seer opened her front door and stepped out onto her porch before Lina had even shut the car off. Jasper wagged his tail and bounded down the steps to greet them.
As Elain made her way up to the porch, she joked to Lacey, “Did you see us coming?”
Lacey smiled. “Lina texted me.”
Elain laughed. “Not so mysterious, then.”
“The only thing mysterious,” Lacey said, “is that my cell coverage is up to five bars today for some reason. Usually, I only get three.” She looked at Elain. “I’m guessing everything worked out?”
Elain felt her face grow red. With the heat of the battle fading, shame began to fill her over what she’d done. She could have stopped herself. She just hadn’t wanted to. “Yeah. It worked out.”
“Can we all go down to the thinking place with you?” Lina
asked her.
“Of course. The more, the merrier. At least with this group. Are you sure you’re up for the walk?”
“I’m not due to download these two for a couple of months yet,” she quipped as she rubbed her belly.
Lacey retrieved Jasper’s leash and snapped it to his collar. They all headed down the path. Elain didn’t have the stomach to retell the events, so Mai did it for her. Elain’s shame grew as the story unfolded for the old Seer. Elain held back from the group as they walked until Carla slung an arm around her waist.
“You did what you had to, honey,” she whispered in Elain’s ear. “Maureen would have been proud of you.”
“I don’t feel very proud of myself.”
“He got what he deserved.”
“I could have stopped. I didn’t have to go that far.”
Callie hung back and flanked Elain’s other side. “Listen. Those kind of people only understand force. Period. Rodolfo Abernathy will think twice before fucking with this Clan or your pack. And I guarantee you Paul won’t make any more waves, either.”
Elain wished she felt the same. A nagging, shadowy feeling at the edge of her conscious wouldn’t go away. Like, no matter what anyone else said, this wasn’t the end of the war.
That maybe it was just the beginning.
Once they reached the rock on the shore, the women gathered around the old Seer.
She favored Elain with a kindly expression. “I know you’re not liking what you did, but see it for the act that it was.”
“What, me popping his balls like grapes?” Elain snarked.
Lacey smiled. “Protecting your pack and your Clan. It’s what a good Alpha wolf does. They stand up for their pack and Clan. They protect those weaker than themselves in their pack and Clan.”
Elain looked at her hands. She’d slipped off to the bathroom several times at Daniel’s house and scrubbed her hands again, so that her flesh looked red and felt nearly raw.
Lacey’s hands closed around hers and the old Seer waited until she looked up at her. “This isn’t the end of our Clan’s troubles by any stretch of the imagination. But today you established yourself as an Alpha not to be messed with. You did good, whether you like what you did or not. It’s our way.”
“I could have let him go.”
Lacey smiled. “Be honest. You wanted to kill him.”
Elain’s face heated even more, but why lie about it? She nodded.
Lacey laughed. “Elain, you haven’t known your inner wolf until just a few days ago. That is normal. That is what happens. What you should be proud of is you did have control. You might see what you did as going too far. There are those who would argue you didn’t go far enough. In olden days, had you not wanted him for your mate, it would have been completely acceptable for you to rip his throat out.”
Elain felt a little queasy at that despite what she’d felt earlier.
“In other words,” Lina said, “cut yourself a break.”
“He wouldn’t have cut you one,” Mai added. “If he’d come out on top, he would have gladly killed you if his grandfather told him to finish you off.”
“Without hesitation,” Lacey said.
Callie grabbed Elain’s hand. “Come on. I know what you need.” She led Elain off the rock and over to the surf, where they knelt beside the water. Callie held Elain’s hands in hers under the water, against the sandy bottom.
“Goddess above,” Callie chanted, “Goddess below. Goddess within, Goddess without. Goddess of all, hear my call. Clean and pure, swift and sure, bless this wolf, and bless us all.”
Elain felt a slight tingling in her hands, then a white light engulfed them both, startling her.
Callie apparently expected it, and didn’t let go. After a moment the light disappeared and Elain felt the pleasantly soft and yet gritty sensation of the sand against her palms.
“Clean,” Callie whispered, finally pulling Elain’s hands from the water while still holding them in her own. “Clean and pure. Innocent. Strong and protecting.” After a final squeeze, she released Elain.
Elain knelt there, staring at her hands for a moment, then looked at Callie. It did feel better somehow, lighter. Like a little of the stain on her soul had disappeared.
Callie smiled and nodded. “Perk of the rank,” she quipped, then hugged Elain.
Elain closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She felt the sun on her face, smelled the cool salt air from the ocean in her lungs, the scent of damp sand underfoot.
“Thank you,” she whispered in Callie’s ear.
“Hey, that’s why I’m here. They’re right, you did good. Now go home with your pack and enjoy life for a while until we have to kick those cockatrice’s asses again.”
Chapter Nineteen
The return drive to Florida took longer because they decided to hit tourist attractions along the way. With the mood lighter, Elain, Lina, Mai, and Carla became nearly inseparable at their stops. It wasn’t uncommon for Liam to get politely evicted from Carla’s car to make room for all the women. Then he took turns riding with the other men.
Four days after their return to Florida, Lina got Mai an appointment with her ob-gyn in Tampa.
Mai nervously sat between her men in the waiting room and held Micah’s and Jim’s hands. When it was her turn, as one they all rose and followed the nurse into an exam room. The nurse took her vitals before giving her a gown and instructions to disrobe. Then she left them alone in the exam room.
The men helped Mai put the robe on and assisted her up onto the exam table.
She looked into Micah’s blue eyes. He smiled. “It’s okay, sweetheart. This is just routine. Everything’s going to be fine.”
She didn’t know if it was paranoia on her part, or a result of the dreams, but she couldn’t shake the fact that she felt like something was wrong. “But why haven’t I had any morning sickness?”
He shrugged. “Maybe it’s a coyote thing. I don’t know. We’ll ask the doctor.”
“Please relax,” Jim said. “It’s not good to work yourself up like this.”
“Lina said she puked her guts up the first couple of months she was pregnant.”
“Lina is also carrying dragon twins,” Jim reminded her. “I’d be surprised if she doesn’t have permanent heartburn.”
The doctor walked in a few minutes later and offered up a kind smile. Her shoulder-length sable hair was streaked with grey. “Mai Gallatin? I’m Doctor Alberto.”
Mai nervously smiled. “Nice to meet you. These are my mates, Micah and Jim.”
“Nice to meet you all. Before we start, I wanted you to know some of my nurses are human, so when they’re in the room, keep things hush-hush. Also, I use a very small, privately owned lab run by a cousin of mine. We are very careful to keep all results anonymous, but sometimes it takes a couple of days longer than using a larger lab.”
Mai nodded.
“Now, let’s take a look at you.”
“I haven’t had morning sickness at all and I should have. What’s wrong with me?”
Dr. Alberto smiled. “I don’t understand the question. Are you worried there’s something wrong, or are you missing the puking? Because I have patients who’d love to trade places with you.”
Mai realized she must have looked scared, because the doctor patted her arm. “Relax, it’s okay. Everyone’s different. Some women don’t even experience morning sickness the same way from one pregnancy to the next.” The doctor examined her and performed an ultrasound.
“I keep having dreams,” Mai quietly admitted.
The doctor looked up from the ultrasound machine. “What kind of dreams?”
Mai blushed as the men stared at her. She’d never revealed this to them. “After I realized I was pregnant, I started having them. They’re always the same. It’s a girl, and as she’s being born there’s something horribly wrong with her.”
Dr. Alberto kindly smiled. “It’s common to have dreams about your baby,” the doctor said. “Lots of
moms have dreams like that. It’s all right.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Really.” She returned to her work. “Do you want to know your baby’s sex?” the doctor asked.
Mai nodded. “Please.”
Dr. Alberto took a still shot and used her cursor to highlight a place on the screen. “I hope you like pink.”
Micah grinned. “We’re having a girl?”
Mai let out a soft sob. If that part of her recurring dream was right…
The men mistook her sound for joy. Jim kissed her. “A beautiful little girl to spoil rotten,” he said.
“You had a fifty-fifty shot of dreaming about the right sex, Mai,” the doctor tried to reassure her as she continued the ultrasound.
Mai didn’t like the slight frown that appeared on the doctor’s face a few minutes later. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
The doctor shook her head. “I’m not sure anything’s wrong. When dealing with shifter babies, there’s always a few little irregularities. One patient, her baby kept shifting while in utero. I’d never seen that happen before. I could never have one of my nurses in the room with me when I did the ultrasounds. Half the time, I was looking at a cougar kitten and not a baby. I ended up delivering the mom at her home out of fear of what would pop out.” She smiled. “Fortunately, her son decided to be born with two legs and not four, but he’s been a little hellion for them.”
After completing the ultrasound, the doctor went through the chart. “Do you want me to do an amniocentesis? It’s not required, but it is a helpful diagnostic test to put your mind at ease. Don’t worry, it’s very normal for moms-to-be to worry something is wrong when there isn’t.” The doctor explained the procedure and the risks and benefits.
Mai looked at her men after the doctor finished the explanation. Micah kissed her hand. “It’s up to you. Whatever you want to do.”
Mai nodded. “Okay. Let’s do it. Maybe my dreams will stop. Or at least I can ignore them.”
“I’ll get my nurse. Keep in mind, she’s human, so normal talk. All right?”
They nodded. A few minutes later, the doctor returned with her nurse and the instruments needed to perform the procedure. After spending quite a bit of time using the ultrasound machine to decide where to take the sample from, they wiped and sterilized a place on Mai’s belly. Then, the doctor carefully inserted the needle and drew up a sample of fluid.