Andromeda's Fall (Shadowcat Nation) (18 page)

Andie
ran more slowly than normal through the woods as she brought up the tail. She
started every morning with her group of soon-to-be protectors and guards with a
ten mile run around the lake.

Jaxon
had made her a Commander. She and Pete had immediately split up the duties
between them. Pete, who used to be in charge of all training, now concentrated
on his area of expertise, which was weaponry, and Andie took over the physical
combat side of things. Most dares had a group dedicated to constant
preparation. They were ready to defend the compound from the pack shifters,
fight those shifters in the wilderness, extract cougars in trouble, and much
more.

The
Keller people were already very skilled. They had to be in order to protect
themselves from wolves and other pack shifters. But attacks directly against
the compound had decreased significantly in the years since the Shadowcat
Nation had been established. However, they still weren’t unheard of. Just two
years ago, wolves had breached the Carstairs compound and killed eleven before
they’d been driven out.

In
addition to defensive needs for the compound, these days much of their physical
training was for when they were outside the dare’s walls. Most of the members
didn’t live in the compound year-round. With their cagy natures and need for
wide ranges, they’d couldn’t handle the constant captivity. So the cougars tended
to come and go. Any out in the wilderness now travelled in large packs of five
or more and were trained to defend themselves if necessary. Now Andie had a
hand in helping them be even more prepared.

But
Jaxon wanted to beef up their preparations. The wolves could be handled with
weaponry more than physical fights. After the wolf pack attack on Andie and
Jaxon in Montana, Pete was arming the people out in the field more. Andie’s
primary goal was somewhat different. When the battle with Carstairs happened,
and they were sure it was coming, weapons weren’t an option. The Shadowcat
Nation outlawed use of guns against other cougar shifters. But, more than that,
there were a lot of cougars in that dare who weren’t a part of Walter’s and
Kyle’s machinations, and they didn’t want to hurt any innocent bystanders.
Which meant hand-to-hand combat.

Now
Andie had a group that she was working with daily. She used a method that had
worked very well for her with Carstairs, and she saw no reason why it wouldn’t
be successful here.

Her
long warm-up run was deliberate. Cougars, while having a large range to roam,
were more sprinters than distance runners. Building their stamina for this sort
of continuous pace was important. They hated her for it now, but someday, in
the middle of a fight or having to run away, as she and Jaxon had with the
wolves, they’d thank her for the advantage this much stamina gave them.

Personally,
she reveled in the exercise. She sprinted the last short distance to their
destination of the sparring mats. Her entire group was there already, bent over
and heaving. Even Jaxon’s Protectors and Commanders – William, Dylan, Charlie,
Pete, and Nick – who often joined her group for training sessions, were a
little winded. Andie checked her watch.

“Good
job. You’ve dropped your pace by a minute a mile in only a few short weeks.”

They
perked up at that news. One or two exchanged slightly surprised looks as praise
from Andie had been nonexistent so far. First she had to break them down. She’d
told them from the beginning that she was there to be their leader, not their
friend. They’d never complained to her directly, but she knew by the way they
avoided her in social spaces that she’d done her job right. Now as their skills
started progressing, she could start building them back up.

“Assume
positions,” she said.

Immediately,
everyone paired off with different people than they had the day before. Each
person moved, thought, and reacted uniquely, so changing partners helped to
hone their skills even further.

She
walked around and tapped people on the shoulder in a certain pattern indicating
the style of hand-to-hand combat they were to practice. She used the silent
means of communication so their opponent wouldn’t know what was coming and
would have to adjust their own fighting accordingly.

“Go,”
she ordered, once everyone had received an assignment.

As
the pairs sparred, Andie walked around the mats, giving tips here and there,
but also causing distractions, jumping in to spar two-on-one for a moment, and
adding other elements to the practice.

After
a good amount of time, she called out, “Stop!” The fighting immediately ceased,
and each pair found new partners. They started back up at her “Go” command,
using the same style she’d assigned during the first round. She was just about
to hop in as an extra opponent with one of her pairs when a very slight sound
was her only warning that someone was about to pounce on her.

Timing
her motion perfectly, Andie executed a series of back handsprings just as Jaxon
dropped from the tree above her. As he stood up, she stepped in closer and
threw a punch which he blocked taekwondo style, only to clamp down on her wrist
and aim a kick at her stomach. But she wasn’t there. She had spun around the
arm he still gripped to drive an elbow into his face.

She
was quite a bit shorter than he, so the angle wasn’t right for her to get
enough force into it. But he did drop her arm. They squared off and worked
through a series of back and forth exchanges in various forms, testing each
other. Andie got a couple of good hits in and a high kick to the side of his
head. But Jaxon gave as good as he got, landing a solid fist in her midsection,
knocking the wind out of her.

Andie
grinned. Finally he wasn’t holding back with her as she suspected he’d been
doing before. She switched it up and moved to a version of Krav Maga that
allowed her to incorporate her more gymnastic abilities as well as reducing the
advantage of his size. The method emphasized threat neutralization,
simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers, and aggression.

When
Jaxon tried his next move, she grabbed his arm. Using it as leverage, she leapt
up in the air, threw her opposite leg around the back of his neck, hooked her
foot behind the knee of her other leg, and used their top heaviness and
momentum to flip him over.

She
should’ve used the leverage to pin him, but Jaxon, apparently trained in that style,
broke her hold on his arm as they rolled. He managed to maneuver them so that
they kept going, and then he was on top of her with his arm at her neck. He put
just enough pressure on her windpipe for her to know that he could crush it.

“Do
you give?” he asked.

“Yes,”
she grunted.

Jaxon
nodded, then stood up and held out a hand to her. She accepted it and let him
pull her up. Leaning over, she put her hands on her knees, sucking air into her
lungs.

“You’ve
been holding back,” she accused, as she rubbed at her neck.

“Maybe.
How’d you know I was there?” he asked.

“I
heard you.”

He
narrowed his eyes. “Seriously?”

She
grinned. “What? No one ever hears you?”

“Nope.”

“Well,
maybe you’re getting less careful now that you’re an old married man,” she
teased.

He
leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Remind me tonight to show you what an
old married man does with his wife as punishment for being a smart ass.”

She
pouted and batted her eyes at him. “I though you loved my… sass.”

He
just shook his head. “Minx.”

With
that she turned to her training group, all of whom had stopped their sparring
to watch their Alpha-pair go at it.

“That
was impressive,” Charlie said. A few heads bobbed in agreement.

“And
you’ll all learn how to do exactly that, and then teach it to others.” She
paused to let that sink in a little bit. “I asked Jaxon to come observe our
sparring today. I’ve been so pleased with your progress, I wanted him to see
what you’re already capable of.”

Rather
than let her words of praise linger in the air, as well as any feelings of
nervousness about their Alpha watching their practice, she clapped her hands.
“Positions!”

They
all paired off as they were supposed to. “Go!” she ordered.

She
stepped back and allowed Jaxon to form his own opinions. She was glad to see
him assume her role without any prompting. Instead of watching everything from
the sidelines, he moved from group to group, offering encouragement, but also
jumping in to add suggestions or tips of his own. His behavior so mirrored
hers, she wondered how long he’d been watching before he’d pounced or if he
always worked this way.

Damn.
Bet he was up there forever and I really haven’t gotten better at detecting
him,
she thought with consternation.

Finally,
she called out, “Stop!”

The
group gathered in front of Jaxon. “Andie has been quite vocal about your
progress, and I’m thrilled to see that she wasn’t exaggerating,” he said. “Keep
up the excellent work.”

Andie
nodded her agreement. “Dismissed. Take the rest of the day and tomorrow off as
a reward for all your hard work these last few weeks. I’ll see you on Monday
morning bright and early.”

She
and Jaxon headed to their room to shower. She always got so turned on sparring
with her husband, and she knew it was the same with him. So it would probably
be a long while before they actually made it to the shower.

“Boss?”
Charlie appeared beside the mats.

The
weekend had come and gone, and training had resumed the previous day.

“Take
a break,” Andie told the group. She caught a whispered, “Thank God,” through
all the heavy breathing as she walked over to Charlie.

“You
consider torture to be part of the job description, don’t you?” he asked with a
grin.

“More
like a perk,” she murmured. “What’s up?”

“Mind
if we talk in private?”

Interesting.
But he kept smiling, so she didn’t start worrying yet. “Sure.” Andie followed
him around to the back side of the rock wall. Charlie dropped the grin and
suddenly turned serious, something she didn’t often see from the jokester
shifter.

“Carstairs
called?”

He
grimaced. “Not exactly.”

She
narrowed her eyes and then took a sharp breath. “They’re
here
?”

He
nodded. “Most of the dare, from what we can tell. He’s demanding extradition.”

Andie
scowled. She’d actually expected them to pull something like this much sooner.
But the entire dare? That was a shock.

“Let’s
go.”

She
returned to her group and dismissed them. Then she and Charlie headed toward
the compound together. “What’s the plan?”

“Jaxon
invited Kyle, Walter, and their Protectors and Commanders to come inside the
compound for negotiations. They refused.”

“Hmmm.
Walter won’t want to leave the security that comes with being surrounded by
more members.” She scowled. They wouldn’t think of challenging Jaxon, would
they? The more she thought about it, the faster she moved to get to him.

As
soon as they entered the Council room, Jaxon stood up. She hurried to his side.
“What do you think about this?” he asked. “What’s their angle?”

“They’re
going to challenge you in some way. I’m pretty sure.”

“I
doubt they know of our marriage,” he said. Then comprehension lit his eyes.
“They’re going to try to imply that we took you and the others against your
will, aren’t they?”

She
nodded.

“But
when we reveal we’re husband and wife, that argument will fail,” he said.

Andie
sighed. “Do you remember the shape I was in the night you caught me sneaking in
here?”

Jaxon
glowered. “Yes.”

“Forced
matings are commonplace in the Carstairs Dare.”

Jaxon
gave a low growl. “So they’ll say I forced you?”

Andie
nodded again. “And they won’t accept my word that I was willing. They’ll say
you’re holding something over me to make me speak that way. And even if we
convince them, Kyle will likely challenge you for the mating.”

“Another
lovely tradition your old dare has upheld?”

She
nodded miserably. Then she thought about her father out there with the rest of
the dare and grimaced. “There’s something else.”

Jaxon
waited patiently for her to continue. As quickly as she could, she filled him
in on her father’s plans to try to gain control of the dare from the inside.
She gave him a desperate look. “I think… I think most of them are here to see
him fall. I think they’ll help push him into a challenge he can’t back away
from. It’s the only reason I can think of for so many being here with him.”

“So
they want a showdown?”

Andie
wracked her brain. “It makes the most sense to me, knowing what I do.”

“Don’t
worry, love. I can handle Walter Carstairs.”

“I
know you can, but Kyle and Walter together are another thing.”

Misery
clouded her eyes and pulled her mouth down. She was so happy here with him.
Despite the rare less-than-hospitable reactions to her presence, she felt as if
she was slowly winning over the dare and making a place for herself. And her
relationship with Jaxon… she’d never experienced anything like it. Acceptance,
love, tenderness, passion. It felt as though she were living a dream. And now,
she loved him too much to have him possibly lose his life in this challenge.

Jaxon
had obviously followed her thought process, because he took her chin and tipped
her face up to his. “You will let me do this. You’re not backing out now,
Andromeda Jaci Keller.” She smiled at his use of her new married name. She
loved the sound of it.

“Trust
me, Andie. This is going to work out,” he added, softly.

“I
just… don’t want to lose you. I don’t think I could survive that. I’d rather go
back to Carstairs knowing that you’re safe,” she whispered, looking down.

Jaxon
was silent for a long time. “That’s why you ran the first time isn’t it? To
protect me?”

She
shrugged sheepishly.

“Look
at me,” he said. She raised her eyes to his. “Something you’ve never asked me
is if Sarai indicated that we’re Fated.”

Andie’s
heart skipped a few beats. “What’re you saying?”

“I’m
saying that we are. She warned me not to tell you until I was convinced of your
love.”

Andie’s
mouth dropped open, but the only sound that came out was a little squeak. Jaxon
grinned. “I love it when I can render you speechless. I take it you’re okay
with being Fated?”

Andie
wrapped her arms around his neck and, ignoring all the other occupants in the
room, proceeded to lay a kiss on him that would’ve led straight to the bedroom
if they hadn’t had more pressing matters to deal with.

Pulling
back she said, “I’m great with it. They’ll still challenge you, but I’m your
Fated. I’ll challenge them right back.”

He
jerked in her arms. “You will not. I forbid it!”

“
Forbid
?”
she asked, stepping away slightly.

Jaxon
took in the determined tilt to her chin and the fire in her eyes. His lips
compressed as he clearly had to tamp down his protective streak. “Together
then?”

She
gave a single nod, satisfied. “It’s the only way for Fated.”

The
sound of a throat clearing snagged both their attention, and they turned back
to the rest of the room. Nick and Hannah were grinning from ear to ear. But
William just said, “Congrats. So what’s the plan here?”

Jaxon
and Andie glanced at each other. “We’ll accept the challenge together when it
comes. If the rest of their dare make a move against us, then you hold them
off. Otherwise, stand down, especially if they try in any way to help us.”

The
room got serious very quickly. They knew the implications. The challenge would
likely be not just for Andie as mate, but for the entire Keller Dare.

Zac
growled from the back of the room.

“I
know it goes against your promise to protect me, Papa Bear,” Andie said. “But
you have to let me do this.”

“I
don’t like it,” he grumbled.

“But
you won’t interfere?”

He
grunted and then nodded.

“Well,
there’s no reason to wait,” Jaxon said, rising to his feet. “Gather the dare.
Let’s get this over with.”