The Shadow of Mist (3 page)

“You don't have to love me. I don't care. I want you, Siobhan Morgan, and you're a fool if you refuse me. I can give you everything. I can give you riches and security. I can make you a princess. And I can protect your family. All you have to do is obey me. That's all I ask in return.”

I kept my mouth shut. My family was coming off a rough spot. Six years ago, we'd been forced to leave our home in the Orkneys because there wasn't enough to eat—even the sea had turned fickle on us. We'd come to Queenstown and found a house. My brothers had found work on the docks and my mother took in washing. My father mostly drank. We kept to ourselves and managed to survive. But life was still hard, and my mother's back was always sore.

I tried to imagine accepting his offer. What he could do for our family . . . But another look in his eyes squelched any thought I had of saying yes. My heart was pounding out a warning. Terry wasn't safe. He reminded me of the Finfolk, a deadly and treacherous man.

“No, thank you.” I let out a long sigh. “But I appreciate the offer.” Not good to make one of the Pod royalty angry.

He let out a sharp laugh and jumped forward, grabbing my wrist.

“Then we're into the chase,” he said, his face red. I could feel the waves of excitement rolling off him and I stumbled, trying to get away. But Terry was heavier and taller than I, and before I could break his grasp, he knocked me to the ground and landed on top of me. As he pushed up my skirts, his hands fumbling along my thighs, his eyes gleamed.

“I'm glad you said no,” he whispered. “I like a challenge.”

I began to scream, but he clapped his hand over my mouth and gave me a wicked grin. “Now, now, you wouldn't want that sweet little brother of yours to go missing . . . to become shark food, would you?”

As his meaning echoed in my thoughts, I closed my eyes and thought of the sea. She was always there, and she would cleanse me and heal me when he was done. But Terry didn't want me to miss out on the fun, and as he drove himself into me, I let out a little cry and realized that no matter how many times I bathed, I'd never get the feel of him off me.

I parked in front of our house and raced up the stairs. The two-story cottage was modest, but it belonged to Mitch and me, and it was home. As I closed the door behind me, all I could think about was barring the past. I flipped the lock and started to call out for Mitch, but then stopped. He was off on a job. Mitch was a contractor and renovated old houses for a company of property flippers. And one other thing had occurred to me on the way home.

I'd never told Mitch the truth about my past. At first, I was afraid that if the Puget Sound Harbor Seal Pod discovered that I'd been engaged to Terry, they might make me return home and face the consequences. Then, after Mitch and I found out about our daughter, it seemed a moot point.

I forced myself into the kitchen where I put the kettle on and grabbed the chamomile tea, fumbling to get the bags out of the box. I had to calm down, to think clearly. As I slid into a chair at the table, waiting for the kettle to whistle, I pulled out my cell phone. Terrance's number came up as blocked.

So, point number one: I had no idea where he was, but he knew where I was. At least, he knew my phone number.

Point number two: He wanted me back, which meant I wasn't safe. And another little matter to consider: What would he do when he found out I was pregnant with another man's child? But even as I asked myself the question, I knew the answer. Terrance would take out his anger by forcing me to miscarry. I knew him. He was the prince of his people. And when dealing with royalty, especially in the Supe Community, bloodlines were everything. He wouldn't want another man's child crowding out his own.

I glanced at the clock as I moved to pour my tea. I
couldn't
tell Mitch, not until I knew how I was going to handle this. He'd freak out. He'd have to know at some point, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he'd go off half-cocked and get himself hurt.

And I didn't dare go to the Pod for help—not yet. Most likely they'd protect me, but I'd been a problem for them over the years because I couldn't conceive and Mitch was in love with me. They'd tried to break us up so he could move on to another woman who could bear his children. We were together only by the grace of my unborn daughter.

No, there was only one place I could turn. Camille, Delilah, and Menolly D'Artigo were the only women I knew who wouldn't hesitate to set Terrance straight. Taking a deep breath, I punched in their number and counted the rings until they picked up.

As the steel gray Lexus pulled to a stop in front of the house, with a Jeep Wrangler right behind it, I sucked in a deep breath. Camille and Delilah were here. I glanced back at the phone. Mitch was supposed to call. He was due home late and he always called to let me know how long he would be. His crew had gotten wrapped up in the restoration of an original fireplace and they wanted to finish it before the week was over. Which meant that he wouldn't walk in on our conversation.

I smoothed my dress and looked around the house. We hadn't even had our official housewarming, and I'd hoped to put off entertaining guests until after the Pod priestess came to bless our new home, but this was too important. Besides, the girls would never bring anything evil with them—at least not wittingly. They were fighting a group of demons trying to break through the portals to take over both Earth and Otherworld, and I was content to sit back and let them handle it.

The doorbell rang and I let them in, motioning to the living room.

“I don't know how much time I have before Mitch gets home,” I said. “He's going to be late, but I want to take care of this before he gets here, if you don't mind.” I rubbed my arms, feeling chilly even though I'd turned up the heat.

“What's shaking, babe?” Camille, the oldest, looked like a raven-haired cross between a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and an S and M bar's madame. A real vixen. Delilah, a six-one lean, athletic, golden blond werecat, followed her in. Their sister Menolly couldn't make it, though. She was a vampire and wasn't up before sunset.

“How do I begin?” I turned to them, biting my lip. How was I going to stand here and tell my good friends that I'd lied to them from the beginning, even though the lie was for self-protection. Deciding that it would be like pulling teeth—better to just yank it than try to wriggle it out—I sucked in a deep breath, and then everything spilled out in a rush.

Delilah stared at me, a dumbfounded look on her face. She slowly leaned forward, her motorcycle boots heavy on the floor as she rested her elbows on the denim covering her knees. “You mean you weren't sent over to the United States because of inbreeding?”

“Not really.” I shook my head. “I ran away. I spent the entire trip terrified that someone had slipped on board behind me and would drag me over the side and back home. But nothing happened. By the time I got to Ellis Island, I realized that I'd actually done it. I escaped.”

“And your parents were going to marry you off to a rapist? How sick can you get? Although . . .” Camille glanced at Delilah and snorted, “It sure sounds like some of the families back in Otherworld.
We've
got no use for people like that. You were brave to run away.”

“Brave? Maybe. But not wise enough to cover my tracks once I set out for the West Coast. Hell, some of the states were still barely coming to grips with being states. The cities here were rough-and-tumble, unlike the cities back east. I didn't think anybody would ever be able to find me and as the years wore on, I grew careless.” I jumped up and paced, too nervous to sit. “But now Terrance has found me and I'm terrified.”

“Try to remember everything he said on the phone. I take it you don't have his number?”

I shook my head. “He has call block.”

“Great. Okay, so we go from there.” Camille motioned to Delilah, who pulled out her laptop and fired it up so she could take notes. “We need to know everything about Terrance. About you running away, and the Pod you ran from. You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of him, would you?”

“No, but if he looks the same as he did back then, I can describe him. I look close to what I looked like back then, so there's no reason he shouldn't as well. Though I do dye my hair because I like this color, and I wear makeup now. That was a big no no back then.”

“Okay, ready. Give me a description of what he looked like the last time you saw him,” Delilah said, her fingers poised over the keys.

I closed my eyes and thought back to the last time I'd seen Terry. It had been the day before our wedding, and he'd been angry.
Very angry
.

“What do you mean, you want to move back the wedding date?” Terry's eyes flickered, his black hair gleaming under the early-morning sun. The mist was burning off the cove and it looked like we were in for a nice day.

“I thought we could hold off. At least until the solstice. I'd like to be married on a holiday,” I said, striving for some reasonable explanation. My goal: Put him off long enough to gather the money I needed for the boat ticket.

“Not going to happen,” he said. “Tomorrow we marry, and then you're mine. All mine. Your family will move out of that shack, and you'll move into my house. Into my bed,” he added, leering.

A goose walked over my grave and I shivered, wrapping my arms around my shoulders. “Terry, it's just another couple of weeks. Why are you so angry? You're going to get what you want, so why deny me this? Consider it a wedding present.” I forced myself to look compliant and lowered my eyes so he couldn't read what I was really thinking.

But he reached out and placed his finger under my chin, tipping my head up to look me square in the face.