Page 41 of Primal Bonds

Do Mar was a large man with shoulders the width of a door and the cold eyes of his shark. Jace was never going to warm up to him, but the man would stop a bullet for Merry. The Rock Run second stared back with his usual stony expression, but a muscle jumped in his jaw.

“I told her you probably used up one of your nine lives,” he said, “but that means you still have a couple left.”

Merry rolled her eyes at her dad. But the joke worked, because she stopped crying.

Jace reached around her to clasp the other man’s hand. “Thanks for letting me see her.”

Do Mar tugged one of Merry’s curls. “She asked,” he said simply and then added, “I’m going to stick around today. Just in case.”

The two of them exchanged a look over her head. The first year, either Rui or Valeria had always been there when Jace visited, but over time, they’d trusted him to be alone with Merry. That trust hadn’t been easy for them, and Jace appreciated it. But he didn’t fault Rui for sticking close today. Hell, if the shoe were on the other foot, he’d do the same.

Merry gave a last sniff. Jace swiped the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “I’m hard to kill, you know that.”

Her slim dark brows snapped together. “No, you aren’t. You almost died. I felt it—here.” She touched her neck, where a shard of his own quartz hung next to hers. Six years ago, he’d broken off the piece to save her life at a time she’d been dangerously weak, and she’d kept it even after she’d found her own.

“But I didn’t. Now give me a smile.” He slung his arm around her narrow shoulders.

She crinkled her nose at him and then giggled when he waggled his brows at her. They started walking, following a path along the creek. Do Mar trailed at a distance, allowing them privacy but keeping them in sight.

“School’s out,” Merry said, “so I went fishing with Mama Ria this morning. I used my jaguar to scare the bass into her net.”

“Poor bass.”

“She says she catches twice as much fish when I come along.”

“I’ll bet she does.” He squeezed her shoulders.

This. This was what he wanted for Merry—a safe, happy life with people who loved her. It tore him up that he couldn’t give it to her himself. Cubs were everything to the fada, and he was her only living relative.

For two long years, he’d thought Merry was dead—and then she’d turned up at Rock Run. At first, he’d have done anything to bring her home. When Valeria and Rui had refused to give her back, he and Adric had tried to kidnap her back. But in the end, Jace hadn’t been able to go through with it. Merry barely remembered him. Valeria and Rui were her parents now.

Adric hadn’t wanted to leave Merry with the river fada. The clan needed their children; they’d lost so many in the Darktime. But he’d allowed Jace to make the final decision, and Jace had left her with Rock Run, even though it had gutted him to do it.

It had been the right thing to do. She had a whole family now—Rui and Valeria had had two more children since adopting Merry—and the powerful Rock Run Clan behind her. All Jace could offer her was a den with five males and a place in a dirt-poor clan that might never fully accept a mixed-blood, whatever Adric might say.

Merry wrapped a wiry arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’ve been practicing with my quartz.”

“Good girl. You can show me what you learned next time.”

She nodded. She understood that the lessons between them were private. When she was younger, she’d run to Valeria with every new skill she mastered. Some things were instinctive, like soaking up energy from vibration of the crystals. But there were tricks to using the energy—how to focus it to heal yourself, or turn it outward to make a shield—and for those, she was sworn to secrecy.

When she turned sixteen, he’d teach her the final, dangerous secret, but Adric had to be present for that.

Merry slanted him a grin. “Do you know how to tell a smallmouth bass from a largemouth?”

“Uh—count their teeth?”

She bumped her hip against his. “No, silly.”

And she proceeded to give him a lesson about something called a maxillary, a large flap on a bass’s upper jaw, which apparently extended further on the largemouth than the smallmouth. There was something in there about vertical and lateral stripes, too—Jace didn’t catch which belonged to which. He was just enjoying being with his niece.

He stayed an hour, and then reluctantly took his leave.

Do Mar sent Merry into the base. The two of them watched as she trotted off.

The air snagged in Jace’s chest. He made himself say the words, because do Mar deserved to hear them. “You’re doing a good job with her. Her mother—Takira—would’ve been so damn proud.”

“My mate deserves the credit. Without her…” Do Mar grimaced. “I was in a dark place, that first year after I brought Merry home. I don’t know what would’ve happened to her if not for Valeria.”

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