Page 46 of Stolen Mate

Journal Entry, December 1st

I need to be more circumspect. I think there are those who have figured out I’m going to try and run. Henry and his thugs are keeping a close eye on me. Several of the older she-bears have made mention of the fact that turned humans who try to run are hunted down.

If Henry’s people find them, they are dragged home and either their mate ensures their obedience or if unmated, they’d be forced into a pair bonding not of their choice. If Henry can’t find them, he puts out a notice that they are missing and are a danger to the shifter society as a whole, because they could tell non-shifters.

If the Council gets involved, they issue an order to “neutralize” the escapee. The Council is also reported to send members of the so-called Shadow League to find and kill the person before they can tell anyone.

Rumors are rife that if the escapee is a woman, she does not die easy and not until the members of the League catch her and have their way with her. Bastards.

I will not let stories of these boogeymen stop me. I would rather be dead than have to live here. I will be free. There is no other choice.

Teresa had lived under horrific conditions and must have been so frightened. But she had also been convinced she needed to give her baby the best chance at a happy life, and she had done that. She’d paid with her life, but she had accomplished her goal of giving her baby a wonderful future. Tess just hoped that somewhere, Teresa Travers knew that.

Grabbing the things she’d brought with her, she and Derek boarded his boat and headed down to Otter Cove. She loved being out on the water with Derek. She’d always loved being close to the water and watching it in all its glory, but to be out on it in an open boat with the man she loved—loved? Where did that come from? Tess thought about it and tried to tell herself it couldn’t possibly be love, but deep in her soul she knew it was. Derek was the answer to the dream she’d never even allowed herself to dream. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but then again, neither was she. All she knew was that he was perfect for her.

Derek stood at the wheel with Tess in front of him and his arms around her as the boat skated over the choppy waters of the Gulf of Alaska. When she saw two boats rapidly approaching, she stiffened.

“It’s okay, Tess. They’re from the lighthouse compound. They’re Zak’s people. Our people.”

Derek throttled down and let the boats approach. As they got closer, Tess could see Annie’s mate, the enigmatic Deke, standing onboard. When they got close enough, he jumped from the boat he was on to theirs.

“I got some news, and Zak asked me to come. That bastard you three call a sire has gone off the deep end. Apparently, he was very offended when your mate there got the drop on him and two of his men.” Deke looked at Tess. “Well done.”

Derek chuckled. “Yeah, neither he nor his thugs were too happy about that. So, what’s the problem?”

“Well, he’s gone to the Council and leveled two charges at Tess. The first is that she is the child of a traitorous female whom one of his warriors had taken to mate, and who then stole the offspring of that union, which by Henry’s reckoning belonged to the warrior and then to Henry.” The cave lion shifter lifted his hand to stave off an argument. “I know; that’s just Henry trying to spin an old tale. The second charge is one he lobbed at both Tess’s birth mother and Tess, as well.”

“That I told my sister, a non-shifter, about shifters—but how would anyone know what my mother told anyone?”

“Apparently the belief is that she had to have told the people who adopted you either by actually saying it, or by allowing them to see the fight between her and the bear who sired you. Most likely both. It makes sense. If she knew she was dying, she probably asked them to look after you before shifting back into a bear.”

“So, Henry’s making trouble. What of it?” said Derek, suspiciously.

“We have enemies on the Council. This is the excuse they need—and no one is blaming you or Tess—to try and move against us. The Council, and more specifically their bully boys, the Shadow League…”

“Teresa Travers wrote about them in her journals,” said Tess.

“I don’t doubt it. My guess is, Henry used the Council and their thugs to track down those who got away from him, making them pay with their lives. Your birth mother wasn’t the first, nor was she the last.”

“I don’t remember many people leaving the clan until Zak came back,” said Derek.

“By the time you were old enough to notice, Henry had pretty much terrorized everyone at Akiak to the point they didn’t dare leave. If anyone ever starts digging at Akiak, I think they’re going to find a lot of bodies buried there, including the Shadow Sister that tried to help Tess’s birth mother.”

“Are you saying the Council knew?” asked Derek.

“Not only did they know, they probably buried some of the bodies themselves. None of that is important. What is important is that those who were looking to make a move against us now have an excuse.” Deke looked directly at Tess. “And that is all that it is. An excuse for them to make a move to test our strength and our resolve. Trust me when I tell you they have woefully underestimated both. As much as you are the poster child for the Council to come at us; you are just as much our symbol of all that’s wrong. Bottom line, Zak wants Tess and Lara at the lighthouse.”

“I get that we need to be careful,” said Derek.

“You don’t understand,” said Deke. “The Council has issued orders to the Shadow League—the first time they’ve done so openly—to ‘neutralize this threat against our society.’ That’s a direct quote.”

“Would it do any good if I took Lara and ran?” asked Tess, not wanting to have people die on their account.

“None whatsoever. For one thing you wouldn’t get far before they caught up to you. Much as I hate those slimy bastards, they’re good at their job and efficient. And for another, even if you managed to get away, they’d say it was because of Zak and the lighthouse clan and move against them. This is the excuse they’ve been waiting for.”

Derek cursed, long and low. “They have to know they won’t get far with this—that it will involve far more than just me and Tess.”

Deke nodded. “For sure.”

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