Romancing the Paranormal Page 23

  Conn turned his face away and mumbled something.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand.”

  When he turned toward her, Lessie could see that she was right about the fact that his face was flushed. He appeared to be nervous and fidgety. “Wolf lover,” he said under his breath.

  Lessie stared for a moment and then chuckled. “Of course.”

  “I’m goin’ to need to go get some tools to fix this. I can prop it open so you can get inside and will be back before ye’re ready to go.”

  “Alright. You don’t have to do this though. I can get someone to fix it.”

  “I’m someone,” Conn countered.

  “Well, of course, you are.” Lestriv was blushing again and her hands were fluttering nervously. “I meant one of the men who live here.”

  The lie spilled out without having been thought through as well as it could have been. “Actually I’ve been assigned by the Council to look after ye and make sure that ye have everythin’ ye need. Ye and yer family.” He glanced at Lily.

  Lessie shifted her weight back on her heels. “That was very thoughtful of them, but I’m not sure we…” She looked down at Lily.

  “Do no’ give it a care. I’m happy to do what I can.”

  Lessie opened her mouth to say something, but Conn wrenched open the gate with brute force. “In ye go before the chicks take to the hills.” She grabbed Lily’s hand and the two of them stepped inside. “Back in a few minutes.”

  Lessie nodded and gave him a small, shy smile. “Alright.”

  True to his word, Conn was back with tools before Lessie had finished gathering eggs. She was alternating between watching Lily play and watching Conn work on the hinge, when she heard a deafening roar and looked up to see the alpha, Stalkson Grey, bearing down on Conn with rage written all over his face and posture.

  When Lessie married Jimmy Clear Eyes, Stalkson Grey became her alpha as well. She had no fear of him because she knew him to be both fair and kind, but she had also seen enough to know that an infuriated alpha is a very bad thing.

  To his credit, or his foolishness, Conn did not step back when his uncle stopped within inches of his face. “Uncle,” Conn acknowledged with casual simplicity and a calm that seemed entirely out of keeping with the situation. He held the alpha’s gaze and refused to look away, which Lessie took as an indication that Conn was ready to die.

  Stalkson Grey was seething. “Before I rip the throat from your neck, would you care to explain why you left my mate tied to a chair?”

  “Aye. We had a disagreement. One that could no’ be resolved otherwise.” Grey’s eyes went wide at the audacity of Conn’s response. “I had no’ wish to hurt her, and would ne’er do so, o’ course, but she had set herself against my purpose and was refusin’ to allow me through the door.”

  Grey blinked three times. “You’re saying that my mate attempted to prevent your departure from the clinic? Why would she do that?”

  Conn glanced toward Lestriv. “Because she disagreed with the Council’s decision to assign me as the widow’s caretaker, in her husband’s absence.”

  Grey shook his head in confusion. “She…”

  It was then that Grey noticed Lessie holding a basket of eggs and anxiously observing the exchange. Grey turned back to Conn whose eyes were silently pleading with his uncle to not blow his cover. Grey’s face softened when he recognized the mate fever written all over his nephew.

  The alpha quickly turned his back on the chicken coop because he knew he could suppress outright laughter with enough exercise of will, but would not be able to stop the smile pulled at his mouth over Conn’s predicament. Conn looked aloof on the outside, but was a bundle of nerves within as he waited for his uncle to finish whatever he was doing with his back turned.

  When Grey swung around, he nodded to Lessie, acknowledging her presence for the first time. She said, “It was very nice of the Council to make sure that Lily and I are taken care of. I know we haven’t had a chance to talk about it since…” She trailed off as if she couldn’t finish that thought. “But I suppose I could go back home, since Jimmy is… gone.”

  Grey looked at Lestriv with such compassion. He’d been a widower himself and knew a thing or two about grief and being left with a child to raise. He’d also been lucky enough to get a second chance at love and hoped that Lessie would have the same good fortune.

  “Of course we want you to stay with us, Lessie. This is your home. You’re as much a part of the tribe as anyone here.”

  Lestriv was genuinely honored by that simple speech. “Thank you, Alpha.”

  “As far as the Council assigning Conn to look after you,” he glanced at Conn, who was shaking his head slightly with an expression so pained it looked like he was having a heart attack, “I agree that it was a nice idea.” Conn let out the breath he was holding in a whoosh of relief that made Grey smile again. To Conn he said, “I’ll give your aunt your profound apologies,” he said pointedly, “and make explanations. I know for a fact that she’s forgiving about desperation.”

  “Thank ye, Uncle.”

  “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of you?”

  Conn almost beamed. “I suspect so.”

  “Good day, Lessie.”

  “Good day, Alpha.”

  Conn turned to Lessie and smiled looking confident and at ease for the first time since he’d arrived at the chicken pen. After a few minutes he had the hinge working properly and tested the gate by letting it swing back and forth a few times. One of the hens, who apparently didn’t know the difference between a human and a werewolf, tried to get through the gate. Conn swooped her up in a blur of movement and threw her into the air so that she flew for a few seconds before lighting in the middle of the pen. Lily let out a delighted squeal followed by a heart-melting series of giggles.

  Conn grinned at her. “Want to see it again?”

  Lily nodded enthusiastically and showed off a grin that was missing a tooth.

  For the next half hour, Conn gave the hens the thrill of a few seconds of flight, while Lily and her mother laughed. He treasured that laughter, embedding the sound deep in his heart, and thought that curbing the widow’s sadness, even for a short while, far overshadowed the usefulness of fixing the chicken coop gate.

  Conn insisted on carrying both the eggs and Lily on the walk back to the cottage. “Is there something else around the house that I might do while I’m here?”

  “No,” Lessie shook her head and smiled politely. “We’re fine.” She turned toward the door, but hesitated and turned back again. “I’ve had an elk stew simmering on the hearth since this morning. If you’d like to join us for midday meal? Before you start home?”

  Conn was about ten inches taller than Lessie. As he looked down at her, he had the errant thought that ten inches was probably the perfect difference in height between a wolf and his mate. “I’d be honored if ye’re certain there’s enough.”

  “There’s plenty,” Lessie said.

  The cottage was small and humble, but comforting in its homey rusticity. It also had that elusive factor, a sense of harmonious energy. It was a sense that the occupants loved each other and that arguments were rare.

  The stew was to Conn’s liking. When he reached for the salt, Lessie smiled.

  “What?”

  “Jimmy liked a lot of salt on his food. Maybe werewolves like more salt than humans.”

  “Maybe. We’re lucky to have the great salt plain on the other side of the mountain range. ‘Tis big enough to keep all the tribes satisfied. There will no’ be any salt wars here.”

  “Salt wars,” she said. “Sounds so silly compared to dragon wars.”

  Conn put down his spoon and said slowly, “We have a plan. They will no’ be here much longer.” His gaze locked on Lessie’s eyes. “Do ye want to tell me about him?”

  “Him? Jimmy?”

  Conn nodded.

  “Well,” she smiled sadly, “you know the story about how the young wolves witho
ut mates came bride-shopping to my world.” She looked away like she was remembering a happy time. “I guess I fell for Jimmy the instant I saw him. I was the first girl he saw. Literally. And I guess I was lucky that he didn’t just nod and keep looking. For something better.”

  Conn wanted to interrupt and assure her that there was no such thing as ‘something better’, but he kept quiet.

  “He was my first and only romance. We had a good life and I never thought that I’d be the one lighting a torch to his pyre. He was the one who was practically immortal.” Conn noticed that her eyes had glazed over and that she was absently tracing circles on her belly. When her eyes refocused, she said, “I’m pregnant. I don’t know if you knew that.”

  Conn nodded. “I guessed as much. ‘Tis hard to keep secrets from werewolves. We notice details, if no’ with our eyes, then with our noses. We can even smell sadness.”

  “You can?” She seemed amazed by that. “I wonder what that would be like.”

  “Has it been hard to live with wolves?”

  She grinned in response. “Oh, no. Not at all. In some ways werewolf society makes more sense than human society.”

  “In what ways?”

  She looked thoughtful while she chewed a bite of stew. When she was finished, she said, “Well, for instance, assigning someone to watch over a widow? That’s pretty special.”

  For the first time Conn felt guilty about the lie. “I’m no’ sure ‘tis a common thin’. But I’m glad I’m the one privileged to make sure that the two of ye are well.”

  “Yes. Thank you, Conn.”

  “Ye’re an excellent cook, Lessie. I could eat yer stew every day.” And he hoped the time would come that he could prove that declaration to be true.

  “Nice of you to say.”

  “Speakin’ of food. How are yer stores?”

  “Well, we have a small root cellar. The chickens are producing enough eggs for every family in our co-op to have two or three a day. We have meat packed in salt in the little building out back. Jimmy was a hunter, you know. So meat was never a problem.”

  “And ‘twill ne’er be a problem for ye. With yer permission I’ll check on that before I go.” She nodded. “About the dragons, please stay close to shelter, where ye could duck in if they came. Whate’er ye do, do no’ go out in the open areas. No’ until the problem is resolved. And keep the wee one with ye always.”

  Lessie understood the deadly seriousness of the warning. “I understand.” She looked at Lily. “I hope it isn’t this way forever. Children should be able to play.”

  “Aye. They should. And they will. Just give us a little time.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Days turned into weeks as Stalkson Grey patiently waited for someone from Black Swan to show up, either for a visit or just to check in and see how they were. On Deliverance’s last visit, he’d been told that his son and the remains of the original Elk Mountain Tribe were close to being ready to join them. Grey had asked Deliverance to take a message to Windwalker saying that they would be ready to reunite the tribe and welcome them at any time. And that he missed seeing his grandchildren.

  When Deliverance dropped by to deliver the news that Win was ready to immigrate with the Elk Mountain werewolves, the last thing he expected was to have Grey say that the wolves of unarmed Lunark Dimension, needed weapons. Heavy duty, high tech weapons and lots of them.

  “Tell Win that, if they want to wait until this problem is behind us, we’ll understand. On the other hand, if they decide to come notwithstanding the dangers, we could get every one of them to carry something that could be used to obliterate that scar the dragons built on the mountaintop. We could shoot the devils from the sky and, well, that would be good.”

  “No love lost with the dragons then.”

  “The fuckers are nothing but cold-blooded thugs with big wings.”

  Deliverance nodded. “That’s pretty much what every culture that’s come in contact with them has to say. So you want me to go to Black Swan and beg for human weapons.”

  Stalkson Grey nodded. “If you have to.”

  “You know this friendship thing isn’t as easy as it sounds.”

  “I’d do it for you.”

  “You would?”

  “Hell yeah.”

  Deliverance said goodbye, but before he left he decided to pay the dragon shifters his own kind of visit. The partially finished fortress was a great room, big enough for a dragon to accidentally shift indoors without bending his wings. It had a soaring ceiling. The place looked like the aftermath of a biker party with bodies passed out wherever they fell from the party they’d had the night before. Giant tankards had rolled to a stop on the stone floor or tipped over on makeshift tables. There were females as well in various states of undress.

  Deliverance climbed on top of the longest table and gave a shrill whistle. Some of the inhabitants roused to a semi-animated state. Some simply slept through. Those that were half-awake tried to pull themselves into a threatening posture.

  Deliverance wasn’t impressed. While he loved real dragons, he ranked dragon shifters at the bottom of the list of creatures deserving regard.

  “Here’s your warning, miscreants. Get yourselves sober and leave this dimension now, while you can. If you do, you’ll live to trash another world. If you don’t, you’re going to find that you’re responsible for destroying the very thing that attracted you to this world. Your choice. And let me make it easy because you don’t seem that bright. Leave and live. Or stay and die.”

  Just as the strongest of the dragons was beginning to pull himself up, Deliverance vanished. He didn’t think his speech would have any effect on the future course of the dragons, but he could feel good about trying.

  Within minutes the demon was in Loti Dimension standing at the foot of a bed where Stalkson Grey’s son, Windwalker, and his mate, Cloud, were making love. When he cleared his throat, Cloud shrieked, jerking the sheet up to cover herself while Win took Deliverance to the floor with a roar and a mid-air tackle. There was no macho satisfaction in it because the demon seemed to enjoy it. Win could tell by the laughing.

  “For all that’s holy, Deliverance, don’t you have any understanding of propriety?” Win said as he shoved his legs into his jeans.

  Deliverance shrugged, and ran his eyes over Cloud, who was scowling and grasping the covers under her chin. “Not really. I have news though. You want it or not?”

  Win simply made a motion toward the door while he continued to scowl.

  The demon followed Windwalker into the living room and watched the werewolf pour himself a drink. Begrudgingly, he offered the bottle to Deliverance. “It may be months before my dick unshrivels. And longer than that before Cloud feels like fucking again,” he said miserably.

  “Well, maybe you shouldn’t be so shy.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re infuriating?”

  Deliverance grinned. “Frequently. I can think of worse things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like not being noticed.”

  Windwalker sat on a leather ottoman by the hearth and stoked the embers into flame. “Okay. I’m awake now with blue balls. What’s the news?”

  “Your pop’s got a dragon problem.” Win made a circular motion with his hand to indicate that he wanted to hear more and to cut out the dramatic pauses. “You know they have a no-tech, no-gunpowder policy on Lunark. Well the dragon shifters moved in, without permission, took up residence in the mountains and proceeded to terrorize the place.

  “They’ve left your dad and his bros no choice but to revise policy.” Deliverance sat and leaned closer. “The Council sent a delegation to invite the dragons to a meet. They called werewolves food.” Windwalker recoiled at that just as the members of the delegation had. “The next day the dragons killed three hunters for no reason. Just to make a show of power. Or maybe for fun. I don’t know.

  “Anyway, he asked me to tell you that, with the dragon thing going on, he’ll understand i
f you want to postpone plans to join them.”

  Win sat in silence for a few minutes. He took a drink of Scotch and stared at the fire. “I think that, when this contingent of Elk Mountain hears that the others are in trouble, they’ll want to go sooner.”

  Deliverance smiled. “Your dad said, just in case you leaned that way, to tell you to have every single person carry something that can be used to blast the fuckers out of the sky. Or something like that.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “He wants us to ask Black Swan for arms.”

  “Like what? Heat-seeking missiles.”

  “Well, sort of. I think heat-seeking missiles would work if you were trying to kill the dragons in human form, but if you were doing that you could just snap their necks with your jaws. If you want to kill dragons, heat-seeking won’t work. They’re cold blooded. Reptiles. You know?”

  Win nodded. “I’m not stupid.”

  “I didn’t say you were.”

  “Anybody could have made that mistake.”

  “Sure. None of us are arms experts.”

  “Right. Who is?”

  “Storm.”

  “I know him. He came here once.”

  “Yeah, I know him, too. He’s my son-in-law.”

  “No shit? Well, call him up. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Deliverance was a little surprised by Win’s enthusiasm. “You sure you understand what I’m saying here? There’s going to be ugliness. Three werewolves have already died.”

  “I get it, demon. Let’s be quick before more are added to that number.”

  “Well, seems like your dick has unshriveled.”

  “Funny. You gonna call Storm or do you want me to?”

  “Let’s just go pay a visit. You want a shirt and footwear. Personally I’m not much of a fan, but I don’t get cold as easily as humans.”

  “I’m not human.”

  “No offense. You know what I meant.”

  “No. I do not know what you meant.”

  “Do. You. Want. To. Go. Visit. My. Daughter’s. Home. Like. That?”