Page 45 of Great Falls Protector
“Ahem…” Gavriel’s quiet cough is my first reminder that we aren’t alone—though how I managed to overlook the librarian’s bright red face, I can’t begin to imagine. “Allow me to express my congratulations,” he says, stuttering through the words. “And oh, do be careful. Things like that can make you lose your wits completely.”
It takes me a moment to realize that Gavriel is speaking not about my pregnancy but the broken amulet I don’t remember having picked up. Dangling from a leather cord, the two pieces of rune-inscribed stone look dull and harmless, but I can feel confused magic rippling inside.
“Maybe… I’ll get Arisha.” Without waiting for a response, Gavriel flees his own library, moving more quickly than I’d have thought a limping man could. My mouth is still half-open to call to him—not that I’d know what to say—when the door shuts, the merry bells jingling.
Right. I tuck the broken necklace into my pocket lest one of the humans picks it up.
Pulling away from me with an impatient growl, Coal stalks over to Shade and grabs his shoulder. “She… I mean them… They… Stars take you,dosomething.”
“Enough!” With a roar of command, Shade uncoils from his patient, twists and clamps his hand to the front of Coal’s neck. The two males lock gazes, Shade’s tan skin covered with a thin sheen of sweat, Coal’s pale face darkening with fury. With his hand still on Coal’s neck, Shade shoves the other warrior against the library wall with enough force to send the nearby books cascading to the floor in athump-clatter-thumpcascade that would have Gavriel whimpering if he were here.
“I don’t have time to deal with your meltdown, Coal.” Shade leans in close enough to Coal’s face that there is barely an inch of space between them. Shade is the second-in-command of the quint, but he pulls his authority out so rarely that even Coal flinches from the shifter’s low, powerful voice. “Not now, not for a damn good while. So shut up. Go kill something. I don’t care what you do, so long as you are not doing it here. Understood?”
The entire library seems to hold its breath as Coal pulls back his lips to flash his canines before looking away. When Coal brushes away Shade’s hold, the healer’s eyes flash one last time before he lets go.
“I’ll go check the area.” Coal says, heading toward the library’s back entrance as my own mind finally snaps back to function.
Yes, I’m pregnant—but so early in the process that only Shade’s wolf could sense the growing lives. The cubs are safe inside me for now, and before I drown in the shock of what this all means for the future, I have the present to deal with. A quint mate to help and a realm to liberate. I have things to do to ensure the pups enter the kind of world I want them to live in.
Seeming to have read the swirling thoughts on my face, Tye has returned to my side now, smoothing my hair back from my temples. Reaching up, I squeeze his shoulder and nod toward Coal’s retreating back. “I think he needs company more than I do just now. Or at least a minder.”
“Hmmm…” Tye rests his cheek on the top of my head, his breath tickling my hair. “Perhaps I could go after the wee kitten. But only if you give me something first.”
“Give?” I turn in Tye’s arms to find a breathtaking smile growing over his face. Before I can say another word, he leans down to cover my mouth with his own, the slow leisurely kiss turning my bones to molten lead. When he scrapes his teeth on my bottom lip before pulling out, the tiny sting shoots straight to my sex, making my thighs clench together.
With a grin that says he knows exactly the kind of effect he just had on me, Tye saunters after Coal, his shoulders shaking when I mutter, “Bastard” under my breath.
With Coal and Tye gone, I turn back to Shade, who’s still fully occupied with River. While he’s still unconscious, the warrior’s color is returning, his powerful chest expanding with greater ease. My heart pinches painfully at seeing my beautiful, powerful male so still. I need him to wake up so badly it aches under my skin.
But what if he still doesn’t remember you?The tiny voice whispering in the back of my mind is like a shard of ice. We still don’t have any proof that what happened to Shade when we joined also happened to River. And I can’t imagine how we’ll defeat Owalin if it didn’t.
“How is he?” I ask Shade through a tight throat.
“He’ll be fine once—” Shade cuts off as the silver weave of magic slips along River’s skin, muttering curses about working without his instruments.
“I’ll fetch them from the infirmary,” I say, the ability to contribute something—no matter how small—a comfort in itself.
“No.” Shade’s attention stays on River.
I frown midway through straightening my dress—for all the good it does to improve the tattered red silk. “I know where they are.”
“You aren’t going anywhere by yourself, Leralynn.” Looking up from River’s body, Shade jerks his chin at my midsection. “Not while you are with pups.”
“That’s ridic—”
“This isn’t up for debate.”
I stare at him, my pulse beginning to speed. “I was stating a fact, not asking permission,” I say with more control than I expected as I start toward the exit.
Pushing away from River, Shade interposes himself between me and the door, his broad, chiseled chest rising before me. He uses every inch of his towering height to his advantage, his fresh earthy scent tinged with anger, his legs tense like a wolf standing his ground.
Beyond the door, raised voices in the courtyard prove that the crisis unfurling there is alive and well. Children cry over missing parents, families and mates calling on their kings, and guards, and stars for help.
I gaze up at Shade, my chest aching. This isn’t how the return of our quint was supposed to go. This isn’t the way Shade—always the one I could turn to for gentle, steady support—should have returned.
I shake my head, my gaze falling on the book Gavriel was reading before he left to find Arisha. The old pages lie open to a too-familiar drawing of a young fae holding up a sword. Gavriel’s prophetic protection. I may not be that, but I am a warrior, for better or worse. And I will fight while I can for the future I want.
“Shade.” I put a soft hand on his ridged stomach, the first time I’ve touched his male form in months—but my voice is anything but gentle. “I’ve been on my own from the moment we arrived here, surviving—no, more than surviving, protecting your bloody hides. I deserve more respect than this.”
