Her Warriors (15 page)

“Sam is kin. He’s more like a pesky older
brother than a king.” Jacki laughed at her own description. “Okay.
Maybe that’s just how he is to me because I know him so well. He
definitely can roar with the best of them.”

“So I’ve heard,” Bettina agreed with a
smile. “What do you think of Ria and Jake?”

“Nice people. Ria’s kind of amazing and
Jake’s a total badass.” Jacki giggled as she said it, hearing the
pitter-patter—okay, the stomp and glide—of Beau and Geir coming
into the kitchen.

“Who’s a badass?” Geir asked.

At the same time Beau said, “Talking about
me again, sweets?”

Jacki stood, relief flooding her that they
looked okay. Both were dressed and though Beau was yawning, neither
of them had the dark circles under their eyes that she’d feared.
She rushed to them, giving each a hug and a peck on the cheek. She
couldn’t control her smile of relief.

Chapter
Nine

“So who’s the badass?” Geir repeated as he
pulled out her chair for her.

“And why are you looking at anyone’s ass but
mine?” Beau teased, goosing her butt playfully as she sat down.

“I was talking about Jake. He seems like a
badass for a human. That’s all. I wasn’t commenting on his actual
ass, though I have noticed that’s also rather fine in an objective
sort of way.” She teased them right back as Bettina laughed her
tinkling laughter that invited everyone who heard it to join
in.

“No more noticing anyone’s butt but ours,”
Beau shook a spatula at her as he took up a position in front of
the stove. Geir was raiding the fridge, tossing out ingredients to
Beau as if they’d done this a thousand times before. Apparently the
men were going to make eggs and bacon for breakfast. “But I’ll give
you a pass this time…” Beau added, “…because you couldn’t have seen
him since we mated. So the assessment had to have been made before
we hooked up. Now that we’re official though, we’ll have no more of
that, if you please.”

He tried to sound stern, but failed,
although he didn’t seem to care. He turned back to his stove,
breaking eggs into a frying pan and turning into a short order cook
before her eyes, while Geir went to work making a small mountain of
toast. Her men appeared to have hidden talents.

Jacki marveled at the way Beau had changed
in such a short time. The tiger who was angry all the time and
never far beneath his human surface, had become a pussy cat nearly
overnight. It was amazing what a little thing like a mating could
do for a bad-tempered kitty.

They were well into breakfast when there was
a tap at the back door to the kitchen. Geir opened it to admit Ria,
Jake, and a small contingent of their Royal Guards. Unfortunately,
neither Ria nor Jake looked like this was a purely social call.

Geir invited them all to sit in the giant,
family kitchen and everyone soon found seats and cups of coffee. A
few took advantage of the leftover toast or bacon, grabbing a quick
nibble while they got down to business.

“All the teams have reported in and although
we didn’t find any more cameras, we did find evidence of that same
vehicle stopping at different points around the property. The guy
has been prowling our perimeter for at least the past few days,”
Jake reported, all business now.

“We also found two instances of tigers being
filmed on the cameras you found. There could be more, but the techs
are pretty confident that we recovered at least ninety percent of
the old data that was set to be recorded over,” Ria added.

“Damn,” Beau commented, the angry tiger
coming to the fore now that other people were around. Jacki reached
over and placed her hand on his, feeling him calm a bit at her
touch.

“So the watcher now knows there are tigers
here, if he didn’t before,” Geir stated. “And now he has
proof.”

“That’s about the size of it,” Jake
confirmed.

“So what’s the plan?” Beau asked, impatience
clear in his tone, though he seemed to be holding his usual anger
at bay for now.

“I think we need to go hunting,” Geir said
in a low, deadly voice. Jacki felt a quiver in her tummy at the
look in his eye when she realize this lethal warrior was her mate.
She looked at Beau’s determined face and felt the same little
quiver. He looked just as fierce.

“If we do this right, he’ll come to us,”
Jake said softly, drawing all eyes.

It was pretty well known by now that Jake
was a seer. He had foreseen things that had helped win the last big
battle against the
Venifucus
in North Carolina. Although he
couldn’t shapeshift, he had the respect of every person in the
room. Hands down.

“What do you recommend?” Geir asked, his
head tilted as if in respectful consideration.

“We should set traps where the tall pines
converge near a rocky meadow. We’ll catch him there, and if we play
it all very carefully, we might be able to work this to our
advantage. Exactly how, I can’t say yet. It might come clearer, or
it might not. All I know is, we need to handle this guy very
carefully.”

“Right now, he only knows about tigers, so I
suggest we limit the people he deals with to the tigers among us,”
Ria said. Jacki felt a little pang of dread. She looked at her
mates.

Geir and Beau had a gleam of satisfaction in
their eyes when they heard Ria’s words, but Jacki worried. Her new
mates and the Millers were the only tigers left on the mountain.
The Millers had a small cub, so they shouldn’t be asked to deal
with an individual that could be potentially dangerous to their
child. And cubs needed their parents. Neither Beau nor Geir would
ask the Millers to knowingly walk into danger at this point.

Jacki listened as the warriors planned out
the traps they would lay, and organized coverage to check them
around the clock. It was decided that the Royal Guards could help
watch, but when it came to confronting the watcher, Geir and Beau
would take point. They would have to be on call at all times until
the trap was sprung.

Bettina surprised her by volunteering
herself and Jacki to set the traps. Apparently these were going to
be magical traps, not just conventional man traps. Jacki wasn’t
really sure what help she would be with something like that, but it
was yet another unexpected thing she would have to learn if she was
going to be Bettina’s backup.

As the impromptu meeting drew to a close,
the Royal Guards filed out first to run a search of the area and
check with those who had been left stationed outside. Only after
the Guard was confident that there were no hidden dangers outside
the house would Ria and Jake be permitted to leave.

Jake seemed impatient with the procedure,
but willing to humor the Guard—at least for a little while. Jacki
secretly wondered how long it would be before the human warrior
would get completely fed up with the precautions and strike out on
his own. Jacki gave him another few weeks before the first big
confrontation, but she didn’t tell anyone her thoughts. Not yet.
She might share her observation with her mates later, but that’s as
daring as she would get speculating about the
pantera noir
royals.

Ria, more comfortable with the precautions
for her safety, used the time to speak with Jacki somewhat
privately. She stood near the coffee pot where Jacki was pouring
another cup for herself and her mates.

“We didn’t bother you with all this last
night because Bettina told us she needed all three of you to help
Tom,” Ria said. “I volunteered to help too, but Bettina said my
power would be counterproductive. Something to do with the moon…”
she trailed off, but Jacki thought she understood.

“We called on the Light represented by the
light of the moon. Which is why we had to wait until the moon rose
last night to do the spell,” Jacki answered the unspoken question.
“Your power is of the new moon—when the face of the moon is dark
and the veil between worlds is weakest.”

Ria seemed to take in the information with
interest. “So it’s true then that you’re going to be Bettina’s
apprentice?”

Jacki wasn’t sure how to answer. Then again,
this was the Nyx—the queen of the small, but mighty
pantera
noir
Clan. Jacki had to be honest with her.

“That appears to be the plan, milady.”

“Call me Ria. And congratulations on your
mating. Jake was a little scandalized when he foresaw you with both
Geir and Beau, but I say more power to you. Although I wouldn’t
trade Jake for anything in the world, I’m a little envious. Just
don’t tell Jake I said that.” Ria’s engaging laugh invited Jacki to
join her mirth.

Somehow the Nyx’s words and easy acceptance
made Jacki feel better. If others felt the same, then maybe Jacki’s
worries would turn out to be unfounded. If not, well, they would
deal with that as it happened. No way was she giving up her mates.
They were hers now and no small-minded attitudes from anyone would
tear them apart.

Jake came over and put his arm around Ria,
kissing the top of her head. “We’re ready to go now,” he told his
mate. Jacki could see the glow of happiness around them, despite
all the challenges they had faced—and would face—as a couple.

Being the monarch of an entire race of
shifters wasn’t easy. And being the target of evil was certainly no
picnic. But they had weathered the storm and come out the other
side. For now.

“Congratulations,” Jake said to Jacki. “I
hope you’ll be very happy.”

Jacki couldn’t help but smile. It was clear
the human seer was more than a little confused by the threesome,
but he seemed willing to go with the flow. Jacki felt her respect
for the man, which had already been high, grow even further.

“Thank you,” Jacki responded simply.

A Royal Guard came over and ushered the
royal pair out through the kitchen door. The kitchen was empty
except for Jacki and her mates, and Bettina.

“Well,” Bettina said, standing and putting
her empty coffee mug in the dishwasher. “It appears we have a great
deal of work to do this morning.” She looked directly at Jacki.

“We do?” Jacki had thought the plan was to
set the magical traps that afternoon. Had she missed something?

“You bet we do,” Bettina answered brightly.
“It takes preparation to set the kinds of traps they were talking
about. And you, my dear, are a babe in the woods. A fish on dry
land. Out of your depth, so to speak.” Bettina chuckled at her own
analogies. “I’ve got to show you a few things before we attempt the
work they want us to do later today. There’s no time to waste.”

So much for a relaxing morning spent with
her mates, Jacki thought morosely.

“It’s okay,” Beau came over to Jacki and
hugged her with one arm around her shoulders. “We have a lot to
prepare as well. Securing our home territory—and our mate—has to be
our top priority.” He kissed her and let her go.

“The guy who’s watching the border isn’t
after me, silly. He’s probably after the Nyx,” she reminded
him.

Beau frowned. “Either situation is totally
unacceptable.”

Geir grinned and stepped forward to give
Jacki a quick hug and kiss. “Watch it, Beau, you almost sounded
like a Royal Guard there for a moment.”

Beau paused with one hand on the doorknob of
the kitchen door. He looked thoughtful. “I did, didn’t I?”

Geir clapped him on the back, joining him by
the door. “We’ll make a respectable warrior out of you yet, my
friend. I think your mercenary days are over.”

“Truth be told, they were over the minute I
laid eyes on Jacki,” Beau admitted. Jacki felt a little rush at his
words but there was no time to pursue that feeling. They all had
work to do.

The men left to go do whatever they needed
to do in way of preparations and Jacki spent the rest of the
morning with Bettina, learning all sorts of things she had never
expected. The ways of magic were both complex and beautifully
simple. It really was an honor to learn these things from a master
of the craft. Hours passed in the blink of an eye and before she
knew it, they were making lunch in the big kitchen.

They all dined together, plus a few of the
Royal Guards who had been helping Geir and Beau make preparations.
There wasn’t a chance for any deep conversation with all the other
people around, but Jacki just enjoyed being in her mates’ presence.
She felt better when they were around—more complete.

After lunch, they all trooped out to the
woods together and began the real work of laying the traps—both
magical and mundane.

“Tom’s spirit still dwells in darkness,”
Bettina said later that night after they’d had dinner.

Tad and Mandy had again stayed close to the
house, looking after their cub and Tom during the day. Now it was
just the four of them—Bettina, Jacki, Geir and Beau—gathered in
Tom’s bedroom, looking after him and plotting their next move. Or
rather, Bettina was plotting. She led the group, since magic was
her specialty.

Beau didn’t know how old the High Priestess
was, but she had been High Priestess for as long as anyone he knew
remembered, which was quite a long time indeed. She’d had decades,
if not centuries, to perfect her skills.

Rumor had it Bettina was at least part fey,
so it was very possible she’d been around that long. Shifters were
long-lived, but fey…well, they were the next best thing to
immortal. Or so the stories said.

“So how do we bring him back to the Light?”
Jacki asked, worry clear on her pretty face. She was very anxious
about her brother and Beau would do anything he could to help take
that worry away.

“We’ve made good progress the last two times
we tried to intervene, cutting off the source that was draining him
and beginning to reverse some of the damage,” Bettina reminded
them. “Tonight we’ll try to do even more. I propose a change in
tactics. We’ve been coming at this from a healer’s perspective.
Tonight, we must adopt the attitude of a warrior. We’re going on
the offensive.”