Commando Cowboys Entice Their Beauty [Wyoming Warriors 6] (3 page)

“I am none of your business. As soon as possible I’m going back to the cabin Mitch loaned me. I have paintings to finish, and I like to be alone.”

Aleron put his face close to hers. Her sweet scent curled into his nostrils, and her lilac eyes turned dark purple in her anger. “If you stay at any cabin, it’ll be at ours. And you are our business. We’re making it so.”

“Back off, buster.” Jewel pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move.

“Never, not from you.”

When he stood back he realized all the others were intently watching him and Jewel. He shrugged. “What can I say? She’s special to Raoul and me. She just doesn’t accept us yet.”

“You are crazy. We hardly know each other.” Jewel got her face close to his. “And you aren’t special to me.” When she looked around, the other women were smiling.

“What’s funny?”

“You. We all said about the same thing at some point, and we were wrong,” Rae said.

“I’m not.” Jewel wrapped her arms across her chest. Inside, she shivered. She had to keep saying those things to convince herself. She had no intention of loving a man, especially not two. Her secret prevented her from seriously considering marriage, even if her heart jumped every time one of them came into the room. She had to fight her feelings for her sake and theirs.

Aleron started to speak, but Daren and Cad had arrived.

“What’s going on?” Daren asked. He went to Sara’s side and brushed his hand across her hair. “You all right, babe?”

“Just fine. They didn’t need to call you.”

“Of course they did. We’re to be notified when anything unusual happens to you.” Daren glanced at Phillip.

Phillip gave them a brief review of the earlier incident. He grinned at Jewel. “She shot up one corner of your study, but she saved the other two.”

Cad had already gone to Rae’s side. He held her close in his arms. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

“We both have a slight headache from the strain of fighting him or her off. But I’m leaning toward agreeing with Cad’s earlier speculation that we’re dealing with a woman.”

Daren turned to her. “Why?”

“The words, the feelings pouring at us were like an angry woman, a jealous woman.”

“Do you think you injured her?” Cad looked across at Jewel.

“I don’t know if you can hurt a mass that isn’t solid, but the dark blob exploded outward and disappeared.”

“As soon as the fire’s under control we’ll have a meeting downstairs. We’ve got to get back.” Daren and Cad turned to go. “Are you two coming?” He looked back at Ethan and Aleron.

“I’m staying to help Phillip guard the people here,” Aleron said.

“That’s a good idea. I like having an extra man with them. Not that you don’t do a great job, Phillip.” Daren smiled.

“No offense taken. I appreciate the help. I’ll walk with you to the door and then check on the others downstairs.” Daren, Cad, and Ethan followed Phillip out of the kitchen.

Jewel pushed on Aleron’s arm. “Go with them.”

“No.”

She squinted her eyes at him. “I don’t like you.”

He took hold of her chin and stared into her eyes. “Yes, you do, and it frightens you. But neither Raoul nor I will ever hurt you. You know that. You’ve seen how the men here at the ranch take care of their woman.”

“I am not your woman.” Jewel stomped her foot. She hated that her heartbeat went into the stratosphere when he just touched her chin.

Leaning down, Aleron brushed a kiss across her mouth. His scent of smoke, musk, and his own personal fragrance filled her head. Just the lightest touch of his lips on hers had her heart pounding and a coil of desire flickering in her belly.
I’m only reacting this way because it’s been so long since I’ve responded to a man. I’ve been comfortable in my cocoon and he and Raoul are breaking through my defenses no matter how hard I try to fight it.
Then she realized she smelled smoke on him. She pulled back.

“You’ve been fighting the fire.”

“Some.”

Eyeing him warily, she joined the others in making sandwiches and tea. Her body still flushed with heat from the touch of his lips on hers, and her pussy clenched with a hunger she was trying to deny. She was drawn to them, but she couldn’t marry even if she wanted to. Her father always said no one must know her secret. Later today, she intended to talk with him.

* * * *

“What the hell happened to you?” Nate asked his wife Linda when he got home after the disastrous fight with the large eagle. He’d barely escaped with only one small cut from a beak. He’d taken the antidote they kept in their cars for such an occurrence. But he still felt some of the aftereffects.

Linda’s spell had weakened after taking the medicine. If he wasn’t worried about his son and parents he’d go straight to Mitch and Daren, but he feared for his family’s well-being.

He rued the day he met Linda. He was introduced to her a few years after he left the tribes. He’d been thinking of returning to Rae, his first love, but that ended when Linda got him under her spell. Nate had never imagined Linda had plans to destroy his people. She seemed secretive at times, which worried him. Apparently she’d been in constant contact with whoever was the major person in charge of the attacks.

“You don’t look so good yourself,” Linda sneered. “Those two, Sara and your old girlfriend, Rae, had opened their minds, trying to find out information. I threw a mental net across and held them.” She paced the floor. “I was doing well and almost had their minds weakened enough to turn them to our side which would have made our success in taking over the tribes easier and quicker. But the stupid woman sitting to the side of them shot me.” She put her hands to her head. “The pain hit in all directions. I had trouble bringing myself back into my body. My head still rings, and my body hurts like hell.”

“How did she see you?”

“I don’t think she did, but I was pouring on power to get into their minds. My wraith appearance had become darker. The fool shot at a dark spot in the corner.”

“Not too much of a fool, my dear. She got you.”

His wife strode across the floor to stand almost against his body. “You still care for Rae, in spite of what I’ve given you.”

Nate tried to move, but she held him in a mental grip. She placed her hands at each side of his head.

“I ought to destroy you now. I can. I can slowly push my hands together until your brain is mush.”

The familiar pain gripped his head as she gave him another example of her power then finally relief. Her mind bored into his, claiming him, instructing him, and making him hers again.

* * * *

Jewel and the others welcomed the men back at dusk. The red glow in the sky was gone. “Is the fire out?” she asked Mitch.

“Just some embers left. The firefighters are staying through the night to be sure it doesn’t start burning again.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Tessa called from right outside the kitchen.

“She’s been up here cooking?” Mitch asked.

“Tessa, Rae, Sara, and I,” Jewel said. “We weren’t alone.” Jewel nodded at Aleron. “He insisted on being right in the kitchen with us.” She smiled tauntingly at Aleron. “We made him put on an apron and help us.” When Aleron’s face flushed, Jewel grinned.

He really had looked delectably cute wearing a blue-checked gingham apron stretched across his muscled body. He’d reluctantly agreed when they promised to quit harassing him.

But the apron took none of his masculinity away. In some ways it emphasized how strong he was and how easily he could stop their games, if he wanted. Jewel suspected he allowed her to annoy him to keep her mind off of what happened earlier that afternoon.

“Give us time to clean off some of the smoke, and we’ll join you ladies for dinner,” Mitch said. He and Daren headed down the hall.

Garth hugged Rae before he and Cad headed across the street to Rae’s house. Raoul and Aleron waved as they left.

“We’ll help Tessa take the food downstairs to the others.” Sara started to walk back toward the kitchen.

“Do you mind if I run by my father’s real quick?” Jewel asked Sara. “I’ll be right back.” This was her only chance. Once Aleron and Raoul returned they’d never let her out of their sight.

“I don’t think our men would agree.” Sara wrinkled her forehead.

“They’re not here to get a vote. My parents’ home is only two blocks over. I’ll drive the truck I’ve been using and be right back.” Without waiting for another comment, Jewel strode out to the truck and drove off. She’d deal with the men later if they were angry.

As she’d hoped, her father was sitting on the porch. He liked to enjoy the early evening in relative quiet and puff on his pipe. Inside, her mother, sister, and sister-in-law would be preparing dinner. She wasn’t sure where her brothers were, but thankfully, Dad was alone.

“Hi, Jewel. Are you settled in the cabin?”

“Not quite, Dad. I saw the fire when I was unpacking my car. When I notified Mitch, he insisted I stay at the ranch house today.”

“I’m glad. I don’t like the idea of your being by yourself at this time.”

Jewel sat in the swing across from him. “Dad, I needed to talk with you. I’m almost certain you haven’t heard that some of the men from the third tribe can shape-shift.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“I guess with all that’s happened Mitch hasn’t had a chance to announce it. Maybe he’s uncertain of the reaction from our people. Rae shared the information with me privately, just before she got married. Her husband and his brother and friend are all shape-shifters. Please don't mention this to anyone else just yet.”

“I expect Mitch prefers to wait until this battle is over to tell all the tribe, but he may not be able to hold off that long,” her father said. “You aren’t thinking about telling them about you?”

“I am. I’ve met several of the shape-shifters. Two of them say I’m their woman. And I am strongly attracted to them.”

“But you have no idea how they or the others will react if you show yourself as a shape-shifter. I worry for your safety. I expect it may be hard enough for a man who’s a shape-shifter to be accepted, but a woman may find more danger in her exposure.” He puffed on his pipe. “Most of our people don’t know much, if anything, about shape-shifters and probably nothing about women shifters.”

“I don’t think I can hide much longer. Being around the others makes the desire to shift stronger in me. In Oregon, I shifted whenever I wanted. That was the freedom I got in exchange for staying far from family and friends.” She blinked the tears from her eyes. “Dad, I’m beginning to want more. Husbands, a family, just like all the rest here on the ranch. I’m tired of hiding who I am.”

Her father moved onto the swing beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. “I understand. When I met your mother on one of my vacations away from the ranch, I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. You look almost exactly like her. I left the ranch, and we lived together. When she became pregnant, she finally agreed to marry me.”

He stopped talking and stared off into the distance. “I didn’t know until just before our wedding that she was the rare exception, a woman shape-shifter.

“When she was small her mother told her about her grandmother’s decision for them to leave the tribe. Something had happened to one of the other female shifters. Your great-grandmother feared it could happen again. So she took your grandmother and left the third tribe. Your grandmother and mother, like you, learned at a very young age to not shift around anyone.”

He took a deep breath. “As you know, your mother died having you, but your grandmother had your mother without a problem. That is the strange part. Why did she survive and your mother didn’t? I drove myself crazy for a while trying to answer that question. Your grandmother died about three years before I met your mother.”

Jewel saw the tears in her father’s eyes. She squeezed his hand.

“I suspect with your mother there was some type of interaction between her genes and mine that reacted badly in her body. She suspected she might have a problem. If I’d known there was any risk to her life, I wouldn’t have agreed to her getting pregnant.” He smiled at Jewel. “But she wanted a child very much, and we were so in love.”

“Why did you decide to come back to the ranch after her death?” Jewel asked.

“Since I’d lost my wife and had a baby girl to raise on my own, I wanted to be near my parents. I thought I’d need their help and advice on taking care of you. My heart was broken. Without you, I don’t know how I’d have survived. Then, a while after my return, I met Clara. I love her in a different but good way.”

Jewel was surprised at how open her father was with her this evening. They hadn’t talked much about her mother. At first because Jewel was too young and it hurt him too much. Later, with Clara around, it didn’t seem fair to bring up Jewel’s mother.

“You’d already warned me not to shift by the time Mom came to live with us.” Jewel had started calling Clara “Mom” soon after their marriage. Other kids had moms, and she had wanted one, too.

“Thank goodness you and I were alone the first time you shifted. You were eighteen months old but bright and understood instructions as well as a child much older.” He patted her hand. “You’ve done well. No one suspects you are any different.”