Page 27 of Vicious Wolf Mate

“I am not. As the Broken Maws Tribe, we keep to ourselves.”

“Interesting,” Remus adds. “You are the chieftain, Uzul. Psychically I pick up what Blair said. Gideon targeted Blair to get to you.”

“Now that the veil has fallen, ensuring that all beings have equal opportunity for personal sovereignty is more important than ever,” my mother Mara tells the room. She sits up stiff as a board when she says this.

“I am with you on this, Mara,” my father Phineas chimes in. “We need to promote and support equal opportunity for everybody whenever possible. I am not sure of anything regarding the Gideon character. I agree that until we know more, it’s best to assume he is after Uzul and targeted you, Blair, to get to Uzul.” My father pauses to take a breath and direct a serious stare at both me and Uzul. I can see rage, turmoil, and fear tearing through my father’s heart and mind at the idea of a bounty hunter targeting his daughter to harm a diplomat like Uzul. “It is imperative that you two stay here tonight. We will figure out who this Gideon guy is.”

“I know we will,” I say to the room. “I feel loved and safe.” I do feel loved and safe with my family. Loved and safe with Uzul at my side. But in the back of my mind there is a voice reminding me that Uzul will soon go back to his tribe.

Will I fall to pieces?

“I also insist that you stay here tonight,” my mother Mara adds. “We have a room for each of you. And we will enhance the already in place protective spells.”

My family’s love for me and their spell-craft abilities are tight. What scares me is a full night’s sleep in a room away from Uzul. It has been a few days since I have had to brave such a desert without that handsome loving orc. Will I be in his dreams the way he is in all of mine?

There is one other thing that bothers me. Uzul will be returning to the mountains and the Broken Maws Tribe. This will be sooner rather than later now that Gideon is a problem.

We finish our family discussion about how it’s best to stay the night here until we figure out who this bounty hunter Gideon guy is. We also agree that a full night’s rest will be the best medicine. “Thank you for this,” I tell my family. “I am grateful. Uzul and I will help straighten this sitting room back to normal, and then retire.”

The family stands, we hug, issue “So mote it be” prayers for the successful conclusion of our plan, and then adjourn to our respective rooms.

Uzul might as well be a million miles away. This one night I hate the night. The morning light when I can see Uzul again cannot come too soon. Perhaps not to be, not to exist, is how it feels to be without his presence.

Of all the things I have done these last few days, doing things with Uzul is what I want to keep on doing. Of all the things I have touched, his flesh is what I want to be touching.

This is very unfair. And what will come of me when he returns to his beloved Broken Maws Tribe? I know he must. I am already coming undone. I am a rose of fire that never blooms.

19

MACE

Yes. The howl. This howl cut bone deep, and it was not exactly a love serenade.

Someone is upset, and they want answers or a pound of flesh.

There are likely two of them.

Natalie had seen one of them running along beside us under cover of the ponderosa pines. Jax had heard someone following us. I was starting to get a picture of how this Sand Rock Clan confrontation was going to play out. Then the howl sealed it for me.

“Let’s get moving,” Jax growls. I see Natalie and McKenna nod in agreement. We are still crouched in the shadows knee-deep in Sand Rock Clan turf.

“It’s not worth it,” I tell Jax. “Save our energy. We’re about to be confronted.”

“I knew it,” Natalie whines. I do not like Natalie, cute as a button and fake as hell.

“Here’s how I bet they play it,” I add. All three are listening, but I am speaking directly at Jax. “The one running in the trees, I haven’t seen him, but I bet he’s huge. The one in the rear is fast and lethal and will stay out of sight until violence is needed. The one Natalie saw in the trees will do the confronting, and will be first to try and hit us because he’s big. The one in the rear we heard but can’t see will strike when we are distracted by the big one.”

The whole time I am filling in my rushed theory with half-whispers, I can’t stop thinking about McKenna, protecting McKenna.

“Our top priority is to protect the girls,” I continue. “Our second priority is to find out what the Sand Rock Clan wants. Given we are in their territory, I suspect they will want us to pay a painful price.”

Again I find myself focusing on McKenna. The smell of her skin, her laugh, her feisty attitude and quick wit exacerbate my angst to protect her. So do memories of being pressed against her skin-to-skin.

We don’t have to wait long, and I didn’t think we would, for the Sand Rock Clan to confront us.

I see him first.

He steps out of the shadows of a desert willow. He’s taller than me. Wide shoulders, thin waist. Explosive power. I can smell testosterone and see it in his walk. He’s less than fifty feet away. He hasn’t shifted, not even partial, but he’s about to, and nothing I may answer or say will stop him.

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