Claws (6 page)

Vivvie got angry then. She had no
intention of being shown to the bottom of any mountain, or being
sterilized against her will. She went to the bedroom and changed
into jeans and a sweatshirt quickly. She whipped open the closet
and yanked out suitcases. She threw open drawers and tossed
whatever she could find into them. Her eyes filled with tears to
think of leaving. Eli renounced her. What did that mean?

What had she done? A sorrowful mewl
escaped her to leave her children. Eli wouldn’t let her see them
again. She assumed exile meant she wouldn’t get visitation. A
hoarse sob escaped her then.

Vivvie took all her things from the
bathroom and looked down at the large round diamond on her finger.
She was angry Eli wouldn’t listen to reason. He claimed to love
her, yet refused to believe in her.

To hell with him!
She pried the ring off and left it on the vanity.
She made short work of finding all her important papers, driver’s
license, and whatever other documents she needed. Grabbing her
purse, she shoved all the papers inside and took her keys off the
hook in the kitchen. A picture of them and the kids in Australia
was still on the refrigerator door. Seeing how happy they were only
a few weeks ago made her rip it down, blinded by frustrated tears.
She bent down and picked it up where it fell, putting it in her
purse on afterthought. She had no other pictures of her
children.

She found the back entrance to the
compound with a wounded look back. The opening to the outside was
created during the war so the tribe wouldn’t be trapped below if
the elevators and parking garage went down. Tears streamed down her
cheeks as she walked up to the top; her steps heavy and echoing
within the shaft.

Vivvie made her way to the main road,
hefting her suitcases. She stayed off the road; worried members of
the tribe would see her. She knew Jericho thought she would lie
down and go to sleep. It could be hours before they knew she was
gone. She planned to be as far from here as she could
get.

~ ~ ~

Eli glared at Jericho. He was informed
him his patient disappeared in the night. Jericho made sure he
waited all day to let him know; to give Vivvie a head start
wherever she went. No patrol was sent out. Eli refused to go after
her.

Tania was moving into his suite by
then. Eli was furious and wanted to hurt his mate as much as she
hurt him. He wasted little time in taking Tania up on what she
offered, showing up at her old room and giving into the rekindled
desire.

“I know the way this looks, Eli,”
Jericho said and looked miserable. “I believe her. I don’t think
she’s lying.”

“We’ll never know; will we?” Eli
snapped harshly and looked away. “It’s done, Jericho. She made her
choice when she did this.”

Jericho nodded and watched his leader
stomp out of the conference room. He knew the female elder was now
living with Eli. He was angry to know Vivvie had been gone one full
day and he moved on with Tania. The thought of how she got her way
so quickly didn’t escape his notice.

Tania entered some moments later
looking serene and untroubled. Somehow her expression seemed smug.
Jericho sensed her pleasure. She looked like she bathed in the
cream crock. The female elder looked gorgeous that day, wearing a
casual dress that accented her figure to perfection. Her long dark
hair was held back in a stylish headband.

Jericho expected to feel the old
reaction to her but he felt nothing as she approached, her gold
eyes simmering with amusement. He knew she’d overheard the
conversation. Tania liked to listen at doors.

Jericho tried to bite back a sarcastic
comment. It wasn’t his place to say anything. Eli was acting like
an idiot and put his wife out over a misunderstanding. Thoughts of
Vivvie wandering the streets alone made him furious he could do
nothing for her.

“It appears you got your way, Tania,”
he said coolly. “Eli cast out his mate. You know how to make up for
lost time, don’t you? She’s been gone less than a day and you’re
already propped up in his bed. You haven’t lost your
touch.”

“Really, Jericho, did you think it
would last?” she asked in a stung tone. “He was only too eager to
have me back. Is it my fault she helped matters by breaking one of
our laws?”

“It wasn’t the law that pushed her off
the cliff, Tania,” Jericho mentioned suddenly, taking her off
guard. He sensed her unease for a fraction of a second, enough to
know Tania knew what happened to Vivvie. He stared at her. “It was
you, wasn’t it? You wanted Eli back so badly you pushed her, didn’t
you?”

Tania looked incensed. Her eyes turned
a smoldering gold, shooting sparks at him. “You would try to blame
this on me? I didn’t make her abort her children, did I? No, it
would seem your precious Vivvie did that. She brought it upon
herself, Jericho.”

“Eli is angry and not seeing reason
right now, Tania. Eventually, he’ll come to his senses. I sure hope
it wasn’t you out on that mountain that night. Hope you stocked up
on sunscreen.”

Tania smiled with acid sweetness.
“Where do you get these delusions, Jericho? If I didn’t know
better; I’d think you were smoking catnip again.”

Jericho watched her leave the
conference room, his eyes boring into her back. His yellow green
eyes narrowed. He considered going after Vivvie to make sure she
was ok. He sighed and decided to stay out of it. Eli was so angry
right now he knew any interference on his part would incur a
rousing fight.

~ ~ ~

Vivvie hitched a ride from a trucker
into Denver. She had forty dollars in cash in her purse. She sat on
a bus stop bench and refused to cry. She didn’t have enough money
for a motel and didn’t want to use credit cards. Thoughts she’d be
dragged back to the compound and forced to endure the sterilization
process kept her seated.

Her eyes narrowed as she recalled the
corporate apartment her husband had downtown. He seldom used it
anymore. At least she would have somewhere to stay until she
figured out what she would do next.

Vivvie took the bus downtown and walked
to the building. She was relieved she had the sense to grab her
purse. Eli made copies of all his keys for her. She knew the key to
the apartment was somewhere on the ring.

As luck would have it, the doorman to
the building stepped away and she scooted inside. She took the
elevator up to the penthouse and fumbled with her keys until she
found the one that opened the door. She stood inside the huge,
luxurious apartment and set down her suitcase.

A quick inspection of the cleaning
roster hanging inside the kitchen revealed the apartment wasn’t
serviced since her husband’s last stay. That was around the time
she arrived at the compound with Ty. She breathed a sigh of relief.
The maids would only be notified if Eli was in
residence.

She was still sore from the fall and
mentally battered by her husband’s assumptions. Tears sprang to her
eyes to think he would think her capable of such a thing…but she
had thought of it. Guilt made her tears more of self-loathing now,
knowing how it all must look to him.

She couldn’t deny her intention when
she took the drug from Jericho’s med drawer. The intention was
enough to seal her fate. Misery washed over her to know she would
never be allowed to see Devon and Elaina again.

The sobs that escaped her were covered
with her hand as she looked around the quiet apartment. She carried
her suitcases into the bedroom and lay upon the huge bed that
dominated the room. Her eyes grew heavy and she slept.

When she woke up, she was hungry and
wanted to hunt. That wasn’t happening in downtown Denver. She was
relieved to see the freezer was stocked with food and the pantry
was full.

Within an hour she had a meal in front
of her she barely tasted. The desire for meat, bloody gobs of it,
made her salivate. For now, she had to eat like she used to and
recall how unsatisfying some of those meals were.

She cleaned up and looked around,
relieved to find his spare laptop and a working Wi-Fi connection.
Within minutes she emailed Ty. The phone rang within the hour. She
answered quickly, seeing the Florida area code on the Caller
ID.

“What are you doing at the penthouse,
Vivian?” Ty asked worriedly on the other end. By his tone, she knew
he’d been informed of her exile.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to go,”
she told him with a note of hysteria in her voice. “Please, you
have to believe me, Ty. I didn’t do this.”

“I believe you, Vivian, but I can’t
make Eli.”

“Someone pushed me off the cliff that
night, Ty,” she told him in a rush. “I smelled a strange scent that
I never smelled before, a female, one of us. I was distracted and
that’s when I was pushed.”

“What are you going to do now, Vivian?”
Ty asked in concern. “Where will you go?”

“I’m going to stay here for awhile and
get Eli to talk to me,” she said and heard him sigh angrily on the
other end.

“Do you know what exile means, Vivian?”
he asked her in a harsh tone. “You can’t go back there. If you
force the issue; they’ll be forced to kill you. It’s the law,
Vivian. I’m sorry, but you can’t go back to the compound unless Eli
relents.”

“What am I going to do now, Ty?” she
whispered in dread. “I can’t go there. I can’t go home to
Sebastian.”

He paused on the other end. “I’m wiring
you some money. I want you on a plane to Orlando by tomorrow. Call
me with the flight information. We’ll figure this out when you get
here.”

“If Eli finds out you helped me it
could cause trouble for you, Ty.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he
replied in irritation. “I’m sorry about everything, Vivian. About
the babies; I mean. I know you wouldn’t have done that. I told Eli
that and he hung up on me. Stubborn ass. He’ll come
around.”

Vivvie was past caring anymore. Her
husband refused to believe her and cast her out of his life. She
didn’t care if Eli came to his senses or not. She came to hers.
Whatever they had was over. A pang of sorrow filled her and she
went silent on her end of the phone.

“Are you going to be ok?” Ty asked
gently.

“I don’t know, Ty,” she answered with
heavy sarcasm. “My husband dumped me. I can’t ever go home, can’t
see my kids, and everyone who used to know me thinks I’m dead. You
could say I’m a little bummed out right about now.”

Ty chuckled at her joking words despite
the seriousness of the situation. “We’ll figure something out.
Gideon left for Denver today. He’s not coming back anytime soon;
doesn’t like playing second fiddle to me.”

“How does it feel to be a Chief these
days?”

“Exhausting and there’s not enough
hours in a day. I don’t envy Eli. This is a thankless
job.”

Vivvie listened to Ty explain his new
position, all it’s pros and cons and realized for the first time
how much she missed him. He didn’t hesitate to believe her or help
her now. She shivered to think if Eli found out where she went. He
was insanely jealous of her former relationship with Ty.

She hung up feeling relieved to know Ty
was on her side. She got into the shower, marveling her bruises and
scrapes were gone. The healing process was fast. The aches and
pains were gone. She felt somewhat better physically, if not still
crushed mentally.

A look of hope filled her gaze
suddenly. She could see her children. With her gift; she could
enter their dreams and them hers. Eli might be able to take them
away from her in this world, but in her dreamscape, she was the
Chief.

~ ~ ~

She stared at the door to their suite,
hand shaking as she opened it. She looked around and tiptoed to the
nursery. She opened the door and stepped inside.

Devon was sitting up in his crib in his
human form, his blue eyes lit up at the sight of her. In her dreams
they could talk quite well. It was only in the real world they
muttered gibberish. She envied Eli’s gift of being able to
communicate with them with their mutual gift. She always felt left
out with the three of them.

“Where have you been, Mother?” he asked
joyfully and hopped up and down in his footed pajamas. She smiled
as she came forward and lifted him out. Her expression must have
warned the little boy something was amiss. “You’re not coming back,
are you Mother?”

They woke up Elaina by then. The other
toddler stood inside her crib, green eyes glowing at the sight of
her Mother. “Mama, you’re home! Where have you been? Father won’t
tell us where you went.”

Vivvie held Devon tightly and looked at
her adorable daughter. “I can’t come home right now, baby. You have
to listen to me. You can’t tell your Father you’ve seen me. This
will be our little secret, ok?”

They both agreed readily. She knew it
was a lot to ask them to go against Eli in anything. With their
combined gift, their thoughts and words passed freely between them.
The risk of them slipping and mentioning seeing her made her
anxious.

“What happened, Mother?” Devon implored
softly, his blue eyes sad. “Why did Father make you leave
us?”