Jace (21 page)

Immediately he yanked her behind him, crowding her backward until they reached the fireplace and his brothers.

Weres poured into the path, closing it off. There was no retreat now. It was us against them. “Us” being the weres. “Them” being the vampires. Placing her palm in the middle of Jace’s back, she felt Jace gather himself for the kill, his instincts in overdrive.

“You can’t do this, Jace.”

Tobias laughed.

She glared at him. “This is not a laughing matter.”

“I guess that would depend on which side of the argument you’re standing on.”

“Back off, Enforcer.”

Jace placed himself between her and Tobias, every muscle tensed for a fight, his energy flaring out into the crowd, snapping back to stroke over her before flaring out again. “What are you doing, princess?”

She stepped out from behind him. “I’m fixing things.”

“It appears to me you’re starting things,” Caleb inserted.

“Fiddlesticks,” Allie snapped. “You men have had too much say in this already.”

“This is a council matter,” one of the elders said.

“It’s a family matter,” Miri countered, feeling her former confidence flow over her, feeling the rightness of standing here beside Jace expand outward from her center.

She took a cautious breath and let the feeling spread. When it filled every cold, empty corner inside, she bit her lip and raised her hand. Silence crashed through the room. It was now or never. Pulse pounding in her temples, she reached toward Peanut, where she was cuddled in Raisa’s arms. Her fingers met air. She was too far away. The room blurred out of focus. Closing her eyes, she took the next step on faith, hoping against hope she wouldn’t freeze up. Her hand connected with a petal-soft blanket. She was touching her. Touching Peanut.

Please, don’t make this either/or. Don’t let saving Peanut cost me Faith.

Jace’s “You did it, princess” came to her on a thread of pride. She shook her head. Not yet, she hadn’t.

Another breath, another prayer.

Please, please, please.

The desperate prayer still playing through her mind, she opened her eyes, seeing Jace’s concern and pride, feeling his support. Not looking anywhere but into his eyes. Holding Faith’s image tightly in her mind, she announced:

“I’m Miri D’Nally. Alpha female of the Tragallion weres. And this is my daughter.” She couldn’t bring herself to officially name her Peanut by calling her that in a claiming.

She looked around before holding out her hand, palm up, to Jace. Without hesitation, Jace put his in it. She brought it to her lips, trapping his gaze with hers, noting how his eyes burned blue fire as she said, “This is my mate, Jace Johnson.” The flickers leapt to flames as he realized what she was doing. His energy swirled around her, rich and hot. She kissed the back of his fingers in a gesture of submission and acceptance all weres would recognize. Still holding his gaze, she finished the ritual. “All who wish to challenge my choice may step forward.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Miri saw Jared push away from the wall and stand at the ready for a fight.

“Shit. I don’t like the sound of that.”

Jace switched his grip to the back of her neck. His fingers pressed delicately, tipping her head back. He lowered his head, his shadow blocking the light but not his satisfaction as he said, right before their lips met, “I do.”

“F
OR
a were who prides herself on her control, you sure do have a temper.”

Not that Jace was complaining. He liked it when Miri got her dander up. Jace watched as Miri grabbed ice from the dispenser and dumped it into the towel. Residual anger reverberated in the way she banged it on the counter to break up the chips.

“They had no right to attack you.”

“It was a challenge. You invited them to.”

“All they had to do was put up a token fight and tradition would have been honored.”

“Princess, you’re not a woman to inspire token anything.”

She brought the towel over. Jace wanted to kiss her for the frown on her face as she pressed it to his bruised cheek.

“Even if they beat you, it wouldn’t have won them anything.”

“It would have won them you.”

“No, it wouldn’t.” She touched the cut under his eye. “Tobias didn’t need to hit you so hard.”

He cupped his hand over hers, pressing the pack to his cheek. “Is that why you went all Alpha on their butts?”

The way she went still against him made Jace wonder if she thought he thought that was a bad thing.

“I wasn’t raised to be meek.”

He nodded. “Just obedient. Interesting dichotomy.”

She very gently eased the ice pack down to his jaw. “It’s my job to balance pack law.”

“And that slash you gave Tobias? That created balance?”

“Yes.”

No one had been more surprised than he when she’d waded into the pile of weres on top of him. Snarling and slashing, driving them back with the force of her fury.

With the tips of his fingers he brushed the hair off her brow. “You could have gotten hurt.”

Her eyes glowed. “They were hurting you!”

“I was holding my own.” In truth if she hadn’t jumped in right then, making it impossible for him to throw the were off, he would have done some serious ass kicking. “Not that I’m not appreciative, but jumping in when you did put a crimp on my moment to shine.”

“You’re shining just fine,” she said, moving the ice pack to his blackening eye.

He caught her hand and took it from her and set it down.

“Ice doesn’t work nearly as well as kisses,” he explained when she gave him a questioning look.

“You want me to kiss it better?”

He tugged her down on his lap. “Yup.”

Her arms went around his neck. “This is some sort of secret vampire healing process?”

He shifted her legs over a bit to give her a better angle. “Very secret, known only to me.”

The anger left her eyes to be replaced by a spark of humor. The touch of her lips to the underside of his chin was a benediction of hope.

“So anytime I find a wounded vampire I should employ kisses to heal him?”

Despite the fact he knew she was teasing, his vampire snarled. He felt her inner joy at the possessive surge. She was were. She welcomed such displays. “It’s only effective on me.”

Those softer-than-soft lips grazed the line of his jaw. “Ah.”

He tilted his head to give her better access to his neck. “What does ‘ah’ mean?”

“It means I understand.” The sharp edges of her canines found the cord of his neck and traveled downward. His heart stuttered and then took off in a race of optimism. His skin sensitized, the nerve endings beneath aching in anticipation of her bite. Her mark.

From the other room, Peanut let out a wail.

Shit!

Miri leaned against him. Her shoulders shook. Her breath hit his skin in amused puffs. “She’s just lonely.”

“She’s got lousy timing.”

“She wants her daddy.”

He tipped her face. “Her daddy wants her mommy.”

Her eyes dilated at the blunt declaration. The pound of her pulse increased. He stroked his thumb across her lower lip. She still had a way to go until she reached his level of desire, but he’d take panting.

“I do not pant.”

He smiled. “Caught that, did you?”

“Yes.” She pushed off his lap. Peanut wailed louder. “It was not appreciated.”

“I’ll work on my aspirations.” He tucked his feet under him in preparation of getting up. Miri placed a hand in the middle of his chest, keeping him put. Her fingers slipped between the buttons, sliding across his skin in a brush of fire. “I’ll get her.”

“You sure?” Beyond that light touch at the impromptu council meeting, she hadn’t touched Peanut. Whatever had happened earlier had brought back more of the woman he remembered. Jeopardizing that recovery was not an option. “Positive.”

For all the confidence of the statement, there was just the barest of hesitations as she reached the archway leading to the second bedroom.

“You don’t have anything to prove to me, Miri.”

She looked over her shoulder. “But I have a lot to prove to myself.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

Mentally racking her progress through the rooms, he felt as well as heard her stop before she reached the baby’s makeshift crib. “Hey, Peanut.”

Peanut wailed louder. She didn’t move forward. Her dread was as palpable as her hope. He rolled to his feet. The three seconds it took to get to her didn’t see any resolution to her dilemma. As he came up beside her she said, “I’m afraid to try.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist. “I know.” He looked over the crib to the red-faced baby. “Hey, Peanut. Anyone ever tell you that you have lousy timing?”

He’d be damned if Peanut didn’t give him a watery smile.

“Did you see that?”

Miri’s chuckle was as weak as Peanut’s smile. “I did.”

“The imp is scamming us.”

She made no move forward. “I think she’s just very happy to be a Johnson.”

The statement opened a door he’d been longing to peek through. “And what about you? Are you happy to be a Johnson?”

Her hands came over his, pressing them into her stomach. He could feel the nausea building and the pain threatening right behind. It drove him crazy that she made herself suffer rather than take his blood.

“Giving up my pack was the hardest thing I ever did.”

“I know that.”

“But I’m beginning to understand that I didn’t give up a pack when I mated with you. I just moved to a new one.”

He sent energy inward, masking her discomfort while pretending outrage to distract her from what he was doing. “Are you calling me a werewolf, woman?”

Her fingers slid through his, tucking down his palms, squeezing lightly. “You and your brothers think so much like pack that I sometimes forgot you’re not.”

He made a face at Peanut, who stared at the strange contortion, fascinated. It kept her from crying, which was the goal. “I think I’ve been insulted.”

“You know you haven’t, so don’t try to distract me with false outrage.”

“Damn, you’re too quick for me.”

“And don’t you forget it.” She took a step toward the baby. His instinct was to snatch her back. He forced himself to let her go.

She stood there a second, heartbeat racing. His raced right alongside. He wanted this so badly for her. She bent. Reached out. Stopped breathing.

So did he.
Don’t cry now, Peanut.

Peanut stared up at Miri, but didn’t twitch or fuss as Miri slid her hands under her tiny body and lifted her up.

Miri just stood there, holding Peanut halfway to a cuddle, her ribs heaving with the stress of what she was doing. “Quick, tell me this doesn’t mean I’ll never get Faith back, that I’m not condemning her to death.”

Ah, hell, was that what she thought? He wrapped his arms around her torso and dropped his cheek against her tear-dampened one. His beard-roughened skin slid on her smooth cheek. “You’re not killing Faith, princess. Faith will come home. Letting yourself give Peanut what she needs is just throwing good karma out there for Faith to catch.”

“Karma?”

“Hey, I haven’t been a total recluse the last couple centuries.”

She still didn’t move. He could feel the discomfort in her muscles, in her mind. Peanut, bored with the position, started to pout.

The plea came in the barest of whispers. “Help me, Jace.”

He’d give her his soul if she needed it. Comparatively, putting his hands under hers and providing the muscle power to cuddle Peanut against her chest was a piece of cake.

As soon as the baby leaned against her chest, her breath released on a soft “Oh.”

“What?”

She shook her head. She cradled Peanut’s head in her palm and pressed her against her throat. She turned to face him. Tears were pouring down her cheeks, and the most poignant of smiles filled her expression. “It just feels so good.”

Emotion poured from her to him, waves of it, so many intertwined it was hard to sort them out, but when he did, the predominate ones were love and elation.

His heart twisted in his chest. “Yeah, it does.”

AN
hour later, with the dawn creeping through the window and Peanut hopefully down for a good sleep, Jace sat on the edge of the bed and listened to Miri fuss in the bathroom. Moist air from her shower flowed out from under the door, redolent with the scents of wildflowers and rosemary. He loved the way she smelled. He leaned back against the headboard and enjoyed the intimacy of the moment and the satisfaction of knowing that the woman in the other room was his wife, that when he woke come nightfall, more than a memory would be beside him.

He closed his eyes. At last.

The water turned off. Jace imagined Miri standing on the other side of the door, hesitating, nervously licking her lips. The way she had their first time. He cracked his lids. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time that he’d made the last, though. Left too much to her own thinking, Miri could work herself up into a self-defeating lather.

The doorknob turned. Apparently Miri had learned some things, too.

He opened his eyes all the way. The door slowly opened, spilling yellow light into the shadows. He sat up, desire throbbing with the heavy beat of his heart. She stood, hands stroking down over the sheer material that barely covered her thighs. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.”

She didn’t move.

“Is there a problem?”

She licked her lips. “No.”

“I hear a ‘but.’” He swung his legs off the bed. She jumped. “You’ve been thinking, Miri.”

“Just a little.”

“Any angle in particular you’ve been playing?” When he got close enough, he held out his hand, palm up. She placed hers in it. So much smaller than his. So much more fragile—he rubbed his thumb across the back—yet possessing so much strength. He drew her to him with a slow motion, giving her time to resist. She didn’t. She just flowed into his embrace, waiting until he had her tightly in his arms before confessing.

“What if it’s not the same?”

He wrapped his hands in her damp hair, tugging her head back. “Baby, every time I’m with you is unique.”

Her gaze ducked his. “I’m no longer beautiful.”

He kissed the scar on her right cheek. “You really did have a long think.”

“It was a long shower.”

“It wasn’t that long.” He turned his attention to the scar on her left cheek, giving it the same special care.

“There has never been, nor ever will be, anything more beautiful in the world to me than this face.” He kissed her mouth, feeling it tremble. “Nothing that could sound more perfect than the sound of your voice.” He turned her around and toppled her onto the bed, coming down over her, catching his weight on his elbows. “And nothing that could feel better than this body against mine.”

Her arms came around his neck. “Are you sure?”

“Never been surer. And to prove it, I’m accepting your claim.”

“What claim?”

“The one you made downstairs.”

She blinked. “I was getting you out of trouble!”

“Uh-uh. You claimed me.” He slid his fingers up her arm, teasing her sensitive skin with his nails, not stopping until he reached her hands so he could weave his fingers between hers. “Maybe not according to pack policy and maybe not in any way that the pack could formalize, but you claimed me, and now you’re stuck with me.”

“I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair to you.”

“Do you hear me complaining?”

“You should be. I’m still such a mess inside, Jace.”

She said it like it was a secret. He brought her right hand up around his neck. “But you’re my mess.”

He brought the left hand up next, pausing with his fingers on her wrist, and she said, “You should reject me.”

“Now, why would I want to do that? When you fit me so well?”

He pushed her hair off her face, stroking the back of his fingers over her cheek, marveling in the softness of her skin, feeling the ridge of the scar. Her lower lip slid between her teeth. He felt the brush of her energy and, just as immediately, its retreat. “Talk to me, Miri.”

“About what?”

“About the real worry you’re chewing on.”

“What if I’m not ready to talk?”

“You have to anyway. If you can’t find the words, then I’ll help you. And if you’re not ready, then you’ll tell me and we’ll work around it. What you can’t do is keep it all inside and hide, because this isn’t something from which either of us can walk away.”

She stared at him, the shadows in her eyes multiplying, all but obscuring the glimmer of hope that peeked between the swirling edges. Her fingers curled into fists beside her head. He placed his hands over hers, prying her fingers open one by one. The scent from the shampoo she’d used on her hair teased his senses—wildflowers and Miri. A combination indelibly etched in his mind. Miri naked and lying in the white moonlight, reaching for him with her mind and body, offering him the home he’d always sought, without fear.

“Remember our first time, princess?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t even hesitate. You opened yourself to me so sweetly.”

He kissed her cheek, her nose, her lashes, smiling when they fluttered shut.

“You lay down amid the daisies and dandelions, accepted me flaws and all.”

“You have no flaws.”

“If you weren’t immortal, you’d have to worry about going to hell for that whopper. I’m far from perfect.”

“You were perfect for me.”

“You sure thought so, but the truth is, you had a lot more to fear from me then than you do now. Then, I was an unknown vampire lusting after your nubile young body.” The corner of her lips twitched. “I was intent on having my wicked way with you.”