Her Warriors (2 page)

Geir had done his part to protect her during
the aftermath of her spell, when her own power reserves were too
low for her to even move. He had hidden her in a circle of bushes
and done his best to protect her. The other tiger shifter—Beau—had
done his part too, climbing a tree above her and acting as a
sniper, keeping the enemy well away from her hiding place.

But then Beau had been shot and he had
fallen hard, right out of the tree. Geir had dragged the other man
into the hiding spot and tried to help him. And then Jacki had
turned the tables and trapped Geir inside a dome of protection she
created with the very last of her power.

Geir had been torn from the very beginning
of the battle. His heart wanted him to stay at Jacki’s side and
keep her from all harm, but his duty lay with the Nyx. It was his
place to protect the queen and fight alongside those he had
trained—to the last man, if necessary.

During the initial strategy session, Geir
and Beau had been placed with Jacki and her brother, Tom. Jacki and
Tom were both highly-magial selkies—seal shifters—and their mission
was to look after the waterways on the mountain. But they needed
backup to help watch their backs while they watched over the
waterways. Tom had taken the lake and had been quickly overrun.

Geir had been with Tom and was eventually
able to push back the attack enough to get Tom clear. He was badly
injured and Geir had brought him to where Jacki was hiding. And
then she had sealed all four of them—the two wounded, herself and
Geir—inside a magical circle from which he could not escape.

He still didn’t really understand why she
had done it. She had begged his forgiveness before she cast the
spell that left her unconscious. That told him she knew he would
have had to leave her side to fight with the Royal Guard elsewhere,
but why she had kept him from his duty remained a mystery.

Had she meant to protect him? Or had she
simply run out of time to let him out of the circle before she cast
it? Was he included in her spell by design—which might mean she
cared for him—or was it simply an accident?

Either way, Geir had spent the rest of the
battle inside an almost impenetrable dome, tending three wounded
and looking for a way to get out so he could rejoin his comrades.
It wasn’t until the battle was well and truly over that someone
discovered them, and helped bring down the ring of protection from
the outside.

By then, Geir was at his last shred of
patience and frustration. He had simply picked Jacki up in his arms
and carried her down the mountain. He hadn’t known what to say to
the queen he had sworn to protect. He hadn’t been there for her,
but she didn’t seem to mind. Those he had trained in her Guard had
taken casualties, but to his surprise, none of them looked at him
with disdain either. Somehow the fact that he had been unable to
fight with them didn’t seem to matter to them.

But it mattered to Geir.

How could Jacki have done that to him? And
had it been on purpose? Her motivation somehow mattered more than
the act itself. She had recovered from the ordeal, but he hadn’t
had much chance to talk with her. She had spent almost all her time
at Beau’s side, caring for him as he healed, and Geir had left
North Carolina before he’d had a chance to get a moment alone with
her.

But even if he had managed to corner her
away from everyone else, what would he have said? Geir wasn’t the
most eloquent of men. Far from it. English wasn’t even his first
language and Jacki sure as hell didn’t know Icelandic. How was he
to express himself when he wasn’t even sure what he wanted to ask
or how he could possibly do it in a way that didn’t expose him to
either ridicule or pity if she rejected him?

What it boiled down to was that Master
Geir—badass sensei of the elite
pantera noir
Royal Guard—was
scared. Of a woman. Who could possibly wound him more deeply than
any other creature on earth.

Chapter
One

Jacki Kinkaid was mostly recovered from the
huge expenditure of energy she had made during the battle. She was
better physically, but emotionally, she was all at sea. She had
stayed in North Carolina, wanting to help nurse the injured, but
they hadn’t really needed her. The fox Pack that ruled the
territory had an abundance of highly trained medical personnel in
its ranks, and didn’t really need her amateurish attempts at
nursing.

So she had spent a lot of time at Beau
Champlain’s bedside. He had been unconscious a lot of the time, but
yesterday he had taken a turn for the better. He was awake and as
frisky as any tiger shifter left too long idle. He wanted to go,
go, go, but the doctors wouldn’t let him, and they had appealed to
Jacki to sit on him if she had to, to make him stay in bed.

Why that simple phrase had brought such a
blush to her cheeks, she didn’t know, but when one of the
well-meaning doctors said the same thing in front of Beau, the
frisky tiger shifter had winked at her. That little, knowing wink
had set her cheeks aflame and she had fled quickly, seeking a
moment alone to calm herself.

Jacki was a selkie by birth—a seal shifter
about whom many legends existed from the old country of Ireland.
Not much of the old stories were factually accurate. For example,
she didn’t have a seal skin she put on like a coat and had to hide
when she took human form on land. She was a shifter like any other.
Her two forms simply came when she called them. No icky skin suits
involved.

But selkies were a little different than
other shifters too. For one thing, they were way more magical than
most. And Jacki herself was discovering a deeper well of magic
inside herself than she had previously realized. She had trained to
use her magic most of her life, but just recently her personal
power had ramped up a notch…or three. She wasn’t sure why or how,
but she definitely felt a need to learn more about why she was
suddenly so much more powerful magically than she had ever
been.

Selkies of the Irish myths were purported to
be beautiful. Jacki had never felt it. Sure, she knew her brother
and her kin were above-average handsome, but they were her family.
She would love them regardless of what they looked like. Jacki
herself perpetually fought against the fat her seal form wanted to
line every part of her body with. Sure, it would keep her warm in
the ocean, but on dry land, Jacki sometimes felt more like a whale
than a seal. At least compared to the svelte ground-based female
lion shifters in her Clan.

There were more than a few selkies in the
Kinkaid Clan too, of course, but most of the Clan was made up of
lions. They were tall and lithe, the women were fit and some were
skinny in a way Jacki would never be. After all, she was a seal
when she shifted. Not a sleek jungle cat.

And she thought she resembled her seal in
human form too. In a word—fat. Maybe she didn’t have Jabba-the-Hut
style body rolls, but she was definitely a lot curvier than her
lion shifter cousins. She had hips. Big hips. And though she was as
strong and as flexible—if not more so—as her lion shifter cousins,
she was shorter and plumper than any of the lion girls she had
grown up with.

It had made Jacki shy. And though, like most
shifters, she’d had her share of sexual experiences over the years,
she had never formed any long-term relationships with men. The
longest her relationships lasted were a few weeks. Usually less. It
was kind of depressing and it didn’t give her a whole lot of
experience dealing with attractive men on a long-term romantic
basis.

When she fled Beau’s knowing smirk, she
headed for her comfort place—the water. Higher up on the mountain
ridge, the small lake and stream running near the stone circle
sacred to the Goddess beckoned. Jacki intended to seek the lake,
but instead found herself at the stream in the very place she had
fought in the last battle.

She didn’t know where the strength had come
from to do what she had done all those days ago. Jacki hadn’t even
known she
could
do something like that before it had
happened. She was still a little shocked by it. But her beloved
Aunt Sophia was a seer. She had told Jacki where to go and hinted
at what to do. Aunt Sophia’s words had given her the guts to
try.

When Jacki’s cell phone rang, she almost
laughed. That ring tone was the one she had assigned to her aunt.
Sure enough, as Jacki answered the phone, her aunt’s voice came to
her over the connection.

“Are you at the stone circle?”

No hello. That meant her aunt was on the
move. Impatient. It was a quirk of hers when she was in the grips
of a vision, or shortly thereafter. Jacki knew enough not to argue
or delay. Her aunt’s visions were powerful and they demanded a lot
of the woman. Jacki wouldn’t complicate matters by fooling around
at a time like this.

“Not quite,” she replied just as abruptly.
“I’m at the stream, just below the circle.”

“Go to the circle. Go now,” Sophia
urged.

“All right.” Jacki was moving quickly
through the woods as she spoke. She broke through the last of the
sheltering trees and into the small stone circle, hidden among
them.

“Is she there?” Sophia’s voice was hushed,
almost reverent.

Jacki looked into the circle and it was
glowing with an unearthly light. In the center of the circle, by
the stone altar, was a being. The small creature was human-shaped,
but this was no human. Not by a long shot. Jacki blinked and tried
to focus her eyes on the person in the center of the circle.

“Someone’s there. It’s glowing,” she told
her aunt in a whisper.

“Good.” Sophia sounded relieved. “I’ll hang
up now. Go to her. She’ll tell you what comes next. Good luck,
little one. I’ve always had faith in you. It’s time you found your
own faith.”

And with those characteristically cryptic
words, her aunt hung up. Jacki returned the phone to her pocket and
squared her shoulders. Her aunt wouldn’t have led her into anything
bad. Quite the opposite. If Aunt Sophia wanted her to be here to
meet this person, it must be a good thing. An important thing.

The question was…did Jacki have the guts to
meet her destiny?

Well, there was no time like the present to
find out. Jacki braced herself and walked into the stone
circle.

“Hello, child.” The voice came from the
glowing being at the center of the circle. It was a voice filled
with music and clear tones that touched something deep inside
Jacki. “Be welcome here.”

The closer she stepped, the more she was
able to see the being. It was a woman. A petite woman with a fey
grace. Jacki had seen this woman before. Only once, but she had
made an impression.

“High Priestess?” Jacki was confused and it
sounded in her tone.

“Call me Bettina, child. For you are soon to
be one of us. One of the Lady’s priestesses.” Bettina’s smile lit
the circle with its warmth.

“You’re kidding.” It wasn’t an elegant
answer, but the High Priestess had just floored Jacki.

Bettina’s musical laugh floated through the
circle, echoing off the standing stones with a chiming sound.

“Nope. Not kidding.” Her expression sobered
a bit. “What you did here during the last battle proved your worth
and your dedication to the Goddess. You skipped all the normal
training and went straight for the big banana. You called on the
Lady’s power when it was most needed and She favored you. You are
already Her servant whether you realize it or not. She has chosen
you. All that remains is for you to be consecrated—if you
agree.”

“Big banana?” Jacki was dumbfounded by what
Bettina had said, but her mind was stuck on hearing such casual
words from such an exalted being. Bettina wasn’t human. At least
not completely. She hid it well, but Jacki had always suspected the
small woman of immense power was at least part fey.

Bettina laughed again, her eyes crinkling a
little at the corners—the only sign of any age at all on her
beautiful face. Yet, she was older than Jacki’s own mother. Bettina
had been the High Priestess of the Lady for as long as anyone could
remember. Which, for shifters with exceptionally long life spans,
was a very long time indeed.

“You expected me to be more formal with a
lot of thees and thous in my sentences?” Bettina walked closer and
the glow diminished even more until she was just a very pretty
woman, no magical aura around her at all.

And she was short. A lot shorter than Jacki.
Which seemed incongruous since the woman had such immense
power.

“Sorry?” Jacki wasn’t sure how to
respond.

“It’s okay, Jacqueline. I suspect we’ll get
to know each other much better before all is said and done.”
Bettina began walking slowly and Jacki naturally fell into step
beside her.

“Call me Jacki. And why do you think
that?”

“Well, for one thing, you accomplished a
task here a few days ago that would have been impossible for almost
anybody else. It makes me think that perhaps I’ve finally found my
successor.”

“What?” Jacki was hearing things,
surely.

Bettina turned to look at her and they both
stopped walking. “Think about it. The High Priestess has to be the
most magical of all the Lady’s priestesses. You’re a selkie. You’re
used to being more magical than most shifters. And you—either
knowingly or unknowingly—called on the Lady’s power in that last
battle and She answered you in terms no other priestess alive today
could have handled. Yet you took all that power in stride. I think
you were born to serve Her and it only took that battle to bring
out your true talents.”

“But I’m not even a priestess. I’ve never
trained—”

Bettina cut her off with a gentle raised
hand. “Sometimes it happens that way. In fact, it happened that way
to me. I was just a regular girl doing regular things when a crisis
hit and I asked for help from the Goddess. She chose to answer my
plea. That’s what happened to you too, Jacki. I think it’s clear
that you’re to be my successor, if I should fall in the coming
battle.”