Mate Claimed

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

“This can blow up on us, Warden,” Graham said.

Eric got to his feet. He took the rifle from Iona, who still stood where she’d fired the bolt into the tiger, her face too pale.

“Get that fire we were talking about going,” Eric said. “Reid, take Iona and everything we brought and meet us at the roadhouse where Diego dropped me off. We’ll come cross-country. My clothes are there, and I don’t want them left around for police to find. Graham, everything here has to go. No DNA from any of our Shifters, nothing left of the experiments. Got it? No, Iona, don’t argue with me.”

Reid was already gathering up the sat phone and Xavier’s equipment, the researchers’ phones, and anything they’d left behind. He piled everything into Iona’s numb arms.

Iona glared at Eric as he bent to kiss her. “Don’t you dare blow yourself up, get caught, or get shot.” She melted into the kiss then, her look saying everything. “Come home to me.”

“Don’t worry, love. I’ve done this before.”

Iona smiled a crooked smile. “And I want to hear all about it.”

Eric dropped another kiss to her lips and stepped back. Reid folded his arms around her, and then they were gone.

Sabotage. Eric had gotten good at it during the last World War. It was amazing what a Shifter could do with a little gasoline, fabric, and matches. Shifters were good at getting away quickly and silently as well. The Nazis hadn’t known what hit them.

No gasoline here, but plenty of natural gas lines and tanks of oxygen and acetylene. Eric got the tiger Shifter up and shifted back to his human form to help them build piles of debris and make them so explosive they would bring down the building.

Eric took more tanks of acetylene and oxygen and went down into the basement with the tiger, setting the canisters leaking at strategic support points.

They raced back up the stairs and out onto the roof as Graham finished on the top floor. When Graham joined them, Eric dialed the cell phone he’d left down in the basement to set everything off.

They heard a distant boom that rocked the building. Tiger Shifter stood up in the dark and spit onto the roof. “It is finished,” he said.

Graham lit an alcohol burner he’d brought upstairs with the lighter he’d found, and threw it hard into the stairwell. The three of them sprinted for the fire escape, flowing over and down it as the windows blew.

Orange fire lit the dark as the building belched flame. The three Shifters, in their animal forms, leapt from the fire escape to the ground two floors below and sprinted into the darkness.

Behind them, the building exploded, lighting the sky. A giant ball of fire arced toward the runway. Security police and a fire truck raced toward the runway, more worried about whatever planes were there than a building that housed iffy experiments.

The tiger was running, following Graham, and Eric came right behind them as they headed west through the desert.

Reid and Iona popped back into existence in what looked like a dark parking lot full of pickups and Harleys. At least, Iona thought she saw that before dizziness spun her around, and she started to fall. Reid caught her in surprisingly strong arms and held her upright.

“That was weird,” she said breathlessly.

“Not what I said the first time I did it,” Reid said. “I didn’t know I knew that many swear words.”

“Where the hell are we?”

“The roadhouse on the Ninety-five. There’s Shane.”

Shane was running out to them, his big bulk made even bulkier by the heavy jacket he wore against the November cold. “Iona. Thank the Goddess.”

He caught Iona in a large hug that stole the rest of her breath. “Mom drove me up here. I take it Eric’s on his way back?”

“Running across the desert as we speak,” Reid said. “With Graham and…another Shifter. Hope your mom brought the big truck.”

Nell had, and by the time she pulled her F-250 around to them, Eric came walking out of the desert, fully dressed, Graham at his side, flanked by the tiger Shifter—in his tiger form now. Eric didn’t stop until he reached Iona, who shivered in the darkness, and pulled her straight into his arms.

“What do we do with him?” Iona asked Eric the next morning.

She sat in the circle of Eric’s arms on the edge of the back porch, the sun streaming warmth but the air cool. Cassidy lounged next to them on her favorite Adirondack chair with baby Amanda in her arms. She’d liked the sling Iona had fashioned that kept Amanda against her, but Nell had found her one that was soft and pretty. Diego sat on the arm of the chair, his touch never far from his mate and cub.

Graham was out making sure his Shifters were safe, while Reid was here, having decided to keep an eye on Tiger Man. The tiger Shifter was dressed now in sweatpants and T-shirt that Shane provided, the man as big as the grizzlies. Reid sat next to him on a picnic bench in the yard, Jace on his other side.

Kellerman had been reported dead this morning in a fire on a military base—news reporters never said which base. He’d gone into a deserted building alone, according to the guard that had been stationed in front of it, and the building had blown up not long later. No survivors.

The Shifter council said the appropriate things, such as, “He will be missed,” made noises about appointing a new head, and got on with it. The council people Graham had spoken to resigned. Tomorrow, the human council would come for the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Shifter houses. Life in Shiftertown would move on.

Liam Morrissey had set out lawn chairs for himself and Kim, the pair of them sitting together, baby Katriona on Kim’s lap. Liam took a sip of coffee that Iona had seen him spike with something in a flask.

“Well, now, I thought I’d take him home with me,” Liam said in answer to Iona’s question. “There’s room in my Shiftertown, and he needs somewhere to go. I’m also good with introducing Collars.”

“Will he have to wear a Collar?” Iona asked in trepidation.

The tiger Shifter was calm enough this morning, sunlight glistening on his tiger-striped hair. He’d showered and learned how to shave, courtesy of Eric, and Iona was struck with how handsome he was. Whatever unfortunate Shifters and humans had donated DNA to make him, they’d been fine-looking people.

“I think he’d better wear one,” Liam said. “They help keep us from going feral, and he’s going to need help. I hate to do it, but ’tis temporary.”

“The Goddess go with him,” Cassidy said softly. Diego, sitting on the wide arm of her chair, leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

“He needs a name,” Iona said. “We can’t call him Twenty-three or Tiger Man.”

“What name do ye want, lad?” Liam called to him.

The tiger Shifter looked up, but Iona had no doubt that he’d heard every word of the low-voiced conversation.

“I don’t know yet,” the tiger said.

Now that he’d had a chance to sleep and eat in a place he didn’t have to be driven by rage, the harsh throatiness of his speech had calmed somewhat.

“Don’t be in a hurry,” Iona said. “The perfect name will come to you.”

“She’s a generous lady,” Eric said.

Tiger Man, watching Iona, didn’t respond.

Eric still looked tired after the fight, his struggle with pain, and the charge back across the desert, but he kissed Iona with as much skill as ever. He’d been able to make love to her fairly robustly early this morning as well.

“And you,” Liam said. “We need to be fixing your pain problem.”

“About that.” Eric looked through the open patio door into the house, where Xavier sat at the kitchen table with Neal the Guardian, both of them taking advantage of another of Diego’s hearty breakfasts. “Xav, did you track down Murdock?”

“He’s standing by,” Xavier called, not looking up from his chilaquiles.

“Neal, what about that other thing?”

“Got it,” Neal said.

Iona gave Eric a questioning look. Eric leaned back on his elbows, his body as relaxed as ever, but something eager sparkled in his eyes.

“Can I know what that’s all about?” Iona asked him.

Eric closed his eyes and tilted his face to the sun. “Not yet.”

“Eric.”

Eric’s green eyes were warm when he finally looked at her. He touched her cheek, the slow caress heating her blood. “I have a couple of things to take care of before the full moon ceremony tonight. Then I’ll tell you everything.”

Iona wasn’t the least bit content with that, but Eric traced her lips, and Iona kissed his fingers. She liked the way heat flared in his eyes when she ever so gently bit his fingertip.

Dr. Murdock was retired, living in a small house in Boulder City, the only town in Nevada that didn’t allow gambling. Eric arrived at his house, accompanied by Xavier and Neal, and scared the man half to death.

Eric interrogated him for a couple of hours, until he knew everything he needed to know. Then he went to an airstrip out in the desert, well hidden from the humans, and asked the pilot called Marlo, who owned the place, to fly him to Idaho.

In a Shiftertown near Sandpoint, Neal led Eric to the house where one Ross McRae lived. The Shifter was unmated with no family, but he shared a crowded little house with another pride of Felines.

Eric talked to him for a time, then he helped the Shifter pack up his meager belongings. Eric met with the leader of the Shiftertown—a Lupine from Alaska—explained the situation, and got the leader’s blessing to take McRae with him back for a visit to Las Vegas.

Marlo, the thin man as cheerful as ever, flew them back the long way south, getting them home in plenty of time for the full moon to rise.

The full moon ceremony, Iona saw, was even more of a celebration than the full sun one had been. The entire Shiftertown was there, Iona once more wearing a flower garland and standing with Eric in the backyard.

Graham now stood in the front circle, which was reserved for family and friends of the pride. He’d brought a date, a human woman with dark brown hair. He had his arm draped over her shoulders and glared defiantly at anyone who dared give him a surprised look. Graham, who’d claimed he wasn’t interested in any females but Lupines—interesting. The woman gave him wide smiles, obviously seeing something in Graham past the blustering anger.

Iona had seen more to him too, as he’d helped Eric out in Area 51. Graham was aggressive and didn’t hold back his opinions, but he was smart, decisive, and knew how to take care of people. His Lupines trusted him, the little ones running readily to him without fear. He and Eric still needed to work things out, but Iona had stopped doubting they’d be able to.

Tiger Man was there too, he who still didn’t have a name. Liam would take him home with him tomorrow before the construction crews came. In Austin, maybe Tiger could start a new life.

Tiger Man looked uncertain, standing among so many Shifters, but the constant feral rage had gone from his eyes, to be replaced by a hope that maybe he could find more in life than mere survival.

The circles closed around Eric and Iona in the cool, white moonlight. Liam and Kim performed the ceremony, blessing Eric and Iona under the sight of the Mother Goddess. Her presence was here, Liam said, and the mating was now complete.

The party that followed was manic. Shifters danced, shouted, and howled in human form, between-beast, and Shifter. A full moon mating, even more than a full sun ceremony, tended to raise the mating frenzy in others. There’d be much sex in Shiftertown tonight.

“Warden.” Graham stopped next to Eric and Iona, interrupting their slow kiss. He was still with the young woman, who peered at them interestedly. “I’ve decided not to challenge you for leadership. At least not right away.”

Eric regarded Graham with his usual dispassion. “Nice to know you’ll honor my full moon blessing by not trying to kill me.”

“You’re not as incompetent as I first thought you were. I’ll let you keep your Shiftertown, as long as you don’t undermine my authority over my wolves. I rule them, you rule your Shifters. Got it?”

“You’re talking about joint leadership,” Eric said. “It’s never been done.”

“Not so much joint as you don’t step on my toes, I don’t step on yours. I’m leader over my Lupine clans, and you don’t mess with that. And I won’t tell your Shifters what to do. I don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of fucking Felines and crazy-ass bears anyway.”

He trailed off into growls, and Eric stuck out his hand. “Done.”

“Done.”

Graham shook his hand in the human way, but their hands remained clasped, sinews working as each tried to out-crush the other.

Iona stopped herself rolling her eyes and smiled at the young woman. “I’m Iona. Shifter males are rude. I’ll never know your name if you don’t tell me.”

“Misty. Misty Granger. It’s Melissa, but everyone calls me Misty. Do you like the garland? Graham said I should do it for you—I own a flower shop on Flamingo.”

“Yes.” Iona touched it. “It’s beautiful.” The garland had been delivered to the front door that afternoon, but Iona and Cassidy had been so busy getting ready for the ceremony that Iona hadn’t noticed where it had come from.

“I thought white roses and baby’s breath, since it was a moon ceremony.” Misty studied it critically. “Came out well, I think.”

Eric and Graham finally let go of each other’s hands, the testosterone contest ending in a draw. Eric slid his arm around Iona’s waist.

“It is beautiful,” Eric said, giving Misty one of his warm smiles. “Thank you. Now, I have another surprise for my mate.”

Eric led Iona away from Graham, who showed all his teeth in a grin as he watched them go.

Eric walked with her toward the largest bonfire built in the center of the yards, but before they reached it, Iona saw her mother break away from Diego, Cassidy, and Amanda, and walk, her body taut, to a Shifter male who stood a little outside the circle of firelight.

The Shifter was as tall as Eric but not so bulked. He had jet-black hair that was just going gray at the temples and a hard face that softened as he watched Penny approach him.

Her mother kept moving to him, bewildered. When Penny stopped in front of him, the Shifter looked down at her for a long moment, then his face crumpled, and he pressed his hands over it. Penny gently took the man’s hands, lowered them from his face, and raised them to her lips.

Iona’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “Eric, who is…”

Eric took her hand and started to walk her toward him. “I found your dad, Iona. Well, Xav and my Guardian did.”

Iona stumbled. Eric’s strong grip kept her upright, encouraging her along until they reached the Shifter and Penny.

The Shifter turned and looked at Iona, stunned. His eyes, Iona saw, were the same blue as hers, and in them she read pain, fear, loneliness, and shame. “I’m sorry, lass,” the man said, his Highland Scots accent thick. “Iona, my daughter, I am so sorry.”

“He didn’t know about you,” Eric said, his voice a warm rumble. “He was one of the first Shifters rounded up, and has been living in a Shiftertown in Idaho ever since.”

“You could have tried to find me,” Penny said, tears in her voice. “You knew who I was. You could have tried.”

“You were married, lass,” Ross McRae said. “You married the man you truly loved, and were happy. How could I take that from you?”

“But he died,” Penny said. “And I was alone.” She still had his hands, holding them as though she never wanted to let go.

“And I was a Shifter with a Collar. Life with a Shifter is hard, and I couldn’t force you to live it. And I had no idea that one of your bairns was mine.”

“I didn’t know how to find you to tell you.”

Iona’s eyes burned as she listened to them. With a moan that wrenched from her heart, she pushed past her mother and flung her arms around her father.

Ross McRae’s face streamed with tears as he swept Iona up into a tight hug. He held her there, shaking, while Eric’s strong hand on Iona’s back warmed her through.

“You can start making it up now, I think,” Eric said. “I’ve put the procedures in motion to move you to this Shiftertown, if that’s what you want.”

Ross lifted his head, his cheeks wet. “Do you want that, Pen?”

Penny nodded. “I think so.”

Ross wrapped one arm around Penny while keeping Iona within the embrace of the other. “Thank you, Eric Warden,” he said.

“My pleasure. Welcome to the family, Ross McRae. I love your daughter with all my heart. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, lad,” Ross said, trying to smile.

The look Eric bent on Iona had her heart speeding. “And now, if you don’t mind,” he said, “it’s our full moon ceremony. Which means we have lots to do.”

Ross relinquished Iona to him with a bit of reluctance. Eric instantly slid his arm around Iona as though he intended to be touching her in some way the rest of their lives.

Iona looked back as they started for the house. Her mother and Ross had turned to each other again, Ross enclosing Penny’s hands in his.

“How did you do that?” Iona asked. “Find him for us?”

“The Guardian Network. Don’t ask—I don’t understand it all myself. Guardians are the keepers of information, and once Neal had a place to start, he found Ross fairly quickly. I think he’s here to stay.”

“Thank you,” Iona said, heartfelt. “Thank you so much, Eric.”

They’d reached the house. Eric pulled Iona inside its stuffy darkness and warmed her lips with his kiss. “I’m your mate. I do everything for you now.”

Eric’s hard body came against hers, his wanting obvious. Their kiss was quiet, the solitude of the house a soothing contrast to the wildness outside. Eric’s firm, hot hands slid down Iona’s back, and she scented his frenzy rising.

“Wait,” she whispered. “Be careful. What if the pain comes?”

“It won’t.” Eric nipped her neck. “Not as long as I’m with you.”

“What did you find out about it? That was why you went to see this Murdock, didn’t you? Cassidy told me who he was.”

“Come with me.” Eric took Iona’s hands and tugged her down the hall to Jace’s bedroom—which was now theirs—but instead of making for the bed, he opened the secret door that led downstairs.

Eric took her into the stairwell and locked the door behind her, then led her down, not bothering with the lights, both of them seeing fine in the darkness.

He took her to one of the bedrooms in the hall, next to the one Jace had been using. This was a luxurious contrast to the rooms upstairs—a four-poster bed draped with airy hangings, a cavernous bathroom with a marble sunken bathtub, and a rug whose softness she felt under her sandals.

Eric lifted Iona to the edge of the bed and started unbuttoning her blouse. “Dr. Murdock was the one researcher twenty years ago who actually felt sorry for me as he stuck needles into me and shocked me almost to death. Which made him, in that place, a nice guy. I did see him today, and he confirmed what was wrong with me. I told him he needed to cure me, and in return, I’d let him live. He agreed.”

Iona’s Shifter felt a twinge of satisfaction at Eric’s casual threat of violence. She’d grown enraged when Cassidy had told her that Dr. Murdock had been one of the researchers who’d experimented on Eric. Iona had been ready to run after Eric and claw the man herself. These people who treated Shifters like lab animals—as they’d done to Tiger and had started to do to Amanda—deserved to be a little scared.

“And what did he say was wrong with you?” she asked.

Eric finished unbuttoning Iona’s blouse and pulled it open. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and the cool air of the underground room touched her bare skin as Eric’s gaze slid to it. He didn’t ogle, he admired, warmed.

He slid the blouse off her and started on her skirt. “You were right, and Kellerman was right, that what was done to me was part of humans trying to make a super Shifter, like the tiger. Only, they started with a full-grown Shifter in my case. They planned to take off the Collar but keep me programmed with the pain if I turned violent, but only if I turned violent on them. They were thinking that with a series of remotes and implants they would control me with pain when they wanted to, or let me kill for them when they pointed me at their enemies.”

Iona listened in anger and revulsion. “How could they do that?”

Eric shrugged. “They were humans who didn’t know what to think when they discovered that shapeshifters were real. What do humans always do when they find a new species of animal? Capture it, study it, tag it. Or kill it and hang its head on a wall.”

“But what they did to you didn’t work, did it? They stopped the experiments, obviously.”

Eric pushed the loosened skirt down, and Iona wriggled her way out of it. She sat bare, in panties only, and reached for the buttons on Eric’s shirt. “They stopped the experiments because Shifters’ rights activists started to raise hell. I told Murdock that what they were trying to do wouldn’t ever work. The Collars are partly magic, not just technology—a half Fae shithead designed them. Murdock and his colleagues were trying to recreate the effect with biotechnology—just like the humans in Area Fifty-one were trying to recreate Shifters themselves with biotech. They put an implant in me all right, one so tiny I never knew I had it. The implant was supposed to trigger a chemical reaction whenever I turned violent, but they never got the reaction right, and my Collar always went off before it did. Then they were forced to stop the experiments and let me go, so they never could fine-tune the implant.”

Iona opened all Eric’s buttons and skimmed her hands inside his shirt. “But why did the pain go away for twenty years and then come back now?”

“Because I started learning how to control my Collar,” Eric said. “When Jace began teaching me the meditation techniques to keep my Collar from reacting to my adrenaline, the little implant woke up. They’d never taken it out—either they forgot or hoped they could get around the new rules sooner or later and begin work on it again. Then the implant started malfunctioning—or maybe making up for lost time—who the hell knows? Any adrenaline spike set it off, even small ones that wouldn’t necessarily have triggered my Collar.”

“I’m so sorry.” Iona rubbed his warm, bare chest, hating how the pain had torn at him. “But Dr. Murdock is going to help you?”

“He started today.” Eric shrugged the shirt off and turned to show her the deep gouge in his right shoulder blade, the wound already closed and scarring. “I told him to get his scalpel and dig the damned implant out of me. It was so tiny, like a dot. I couldn’t believe something that small caused me that much pain.”

“What did you do with it? You didn’t let him keep it, did you?”

Eric’s smile was feral. “I crushed it while he watched, appalled that I’d destroy something that unique and expensive. Then I told him to dredge through his memory for any other Shifter he’d done this to, and find them, tell them, and fix them.”

“Good,” Iona said, her anger rising. “Good.”

“He needs to give me a few injections, he said, to put my adrenaline balance back the way it should be,” Eric said. “But it’s a start. I already feel better.”

Iona slid her fingers along the puckered skin of the gouge. “Are you sure there was only one implant?”

“He says so. I told him that if I discovered I had more, I’d come back and break his neck, so I’m pretty sure he told me the truth.”

“Good,” Iona said again.

Eric turned to face her again, stepping between her parted thighs, hands sliding up her arms. “But I would have died without your touch.”

Iona caressed his chest, not liking that he’d gone through so much. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Like I said, as long as I’m with you, I’ll be fine. The touch of the mate, your touch, is what kept me from going insane, no matter how close I came.” His breath warmed her cheek. “The Goddess sent you right when I needed you. I can talk all I want about the science, but you’re what keeps me alive. You always will be.”

She leaned forward and kissed his chest, feeling the heat of his body, the pound of his heart under her lips. “Then I’ll be here. I’ll be here always.”

“That was the plan.” Eric’s voice rumbled pleasantly around her. “Love you, Iona.”

“Love you too.” She slanted him a smile. “If you’re feeling better, then I can do this…” She let her fingers become claws and lightly scratched him down his chest. “And this.” She rocked up, scraping his throat with her teeth, giving him another love bite.

“Mmm. You can do anything you want, love. It’s not mating that hurt me, it was anger, and the need to protect you.” He licked her cheek. “Mating just makes me a little wild.”

Iona slanted a smile up at him. “Are these walls soundproof?”

His eyes flicked to Shifter. “Why do you think I brought you down here?”

Eric pushed her back to the bed, tearing her panties off her as she went down. He unbuckled, unzipped, and got out of his pants, then climbed over her, naked, trapping her wrists above her head.

“I think we started this way,” Iona said, her excitement rising.

“I held back,” Eric said, a growl in his voice. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I might have if I took you fully before you were my true mate.” He came down to her. “Which you are now.”

“And I always will be.”

Eric’s smile blazed, and the last vestiges of loneliness she’d seen in him vanished.

“And I’ll always be yours, Iona.” He nuzzled her. “Mate of my heart.”

Iona’s smile grew wicked. “Mate of my heart,” she whispered. “With the best ass.” She drew her foot up the back of his leg. “Don’t hold back now.”

Eric’s smile vanished. His weight pressed her down, his kiss hot and raw. He growled as he moved his mouth to her neck, nipping and biting, his cock hard against her abdomen.

Iona twined her leg around his, urging him. Eric pulled her upright, still on his knees, and holding her hips, he slid her down onto him. She groaned in pleasure as he filled her, her fingers turning to claws to dig into his shoulders. Eric widened her, filling her, winding up her mating frenzy until she wanted to scream with it.

His growls continued, the male Shifter finding his pleasure in his mate. He held her hard against him, Eric kneeling back, their bodies entwined, face-to-face. Eric nipped and kissed her, his cock high and hard inside her.

Then the joining grew wild. Iona never knew exactly what happened, but they were grappling with each other, licking, biting, laughing, shouting. The mate bond twined around Iona’s heart as their frenzy grew, changing her mating hunger into pure bliss.

“I love you.” Iona was never sure if she yelled it or whispered it.

Eric’s leopard eyes shone hot and green. “I love you, Iona. Mate of my heart.”

She was on her back now, with her mate on top of her, his warm weight making her rejoice. Her mating frenzy floated into the darkness as the mate bond grew, binding her forever to this man, this leader, this protector she loved with all her heart.

The panther inside Iona smiled and gave a little rumble of satisfaction.