Tremble: A Shifter of Consequence Tale (Shifters of Consequence Book 7) Page 6

  The last thing I remembered was my ears ringing and my vision fading to black.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “She wasn’t alone, for the twentieth time, Samson.” Tris was beyond frustrated at his brother, and I was as well. His protective instinct was working overtime, but none of us were at fault. Sometimes, bad things just happened, and it didn’t have to have anyone to blame.

  “I know but…how in the fuck am I supposed to protect my pack from someone I can’t fight? What defense is there against telekinesis? Is that even it, or was it magic?” He directed his anxiety at me, but there was nothing angry in his eyes. In fact, there was nothing but love. “If so, how in the every-loving hell am I supposed to keep you safe from that?”

  “She has to keep herself safe. That’s her job and her legacy.” Gigi walked into the meeting with her arms crossed over her chest. She’d gotten a new spiky hair style, but this wasn’t the time to compliment her on the do.

  “What does that mean?” Samson barked at her, but in an instant, he softened as Gigi gave him the murder-stare of the century. Seriously, all other stink eyes should bow down and give praise to that hell of a stare.

  “You have finally come into your own. It is time to take up the sword.”

  I had done some fighting before, when we were first under attack. But it hadn’t seemed like something I’d pursue long term. Oh, gods, I wished someone would make sense. Wait a minute. “Opal said I was the warrior. That the mating had completed me—something like that.”

  Gigi took a seat next to me and patted my hand. “I told you it was who we were—who we are.”

  I scoffed. “No, you told me tales of ancestors. They had dragons to slay and kingdoms to protect.”

  She smiled and sat back, looking like she was unscathed from any of this while I nursed a goose egg on my head and Tris was still recovering from a broken rib, all thanks to Opal and her tossing skills. “A pack is like a kingdom. And a warrior emerges when she is needed. Clearly, you are needed. Either that”—she looked at Samson, nailing him to the wall with her glare—“or you forfeit your pack and your people to her. Simply hand the lands over and this will all be over with.”

  Gigi was officially the queen of keeping secrets.

  “That is not going to happen.” The resolve in Samson’s tone twisted my stomach and chest as the weight of the entire situation slammed down on me.

  “I don’t even know how to use a sword,” I laugh-said. “At least not well enough.” My nervous giggle filled the room. “I mean, this isn’t Rattlecreek we’re dealing with.”

  “Then I will teach you. Get the sword from the healer. It is time to train you like the warrior you are. Samson, you and Tris have to help. Her mates’ presence makes her stronger. Plus, the two of you need a lesson or two about blocking your minds. You gave Opal too much access. It hadn’t crossed my mind that she had risen to that kind of power.”

  “You can train us?” Samson asked.

  “I can. But we have to get on it immediately. There’s no time to waste. She’s shown herself. If history is a marker for these things, she shows herself right before she’s ready to fully attack. We can’t be unprepared when she does. We have a pack to protect.”

  “Wendi…” I muttered, remembering my best friend in all of this. She had to be safe, her and her mates and her baby. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “Yes. It is one of your duties to protect the healer. She carries the future of this pack in her belly. And you…you must protect us all. I know it’s a weighty thing, but it’s the truth. There’s no time to waste. We have to begin training now.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I had no idea my grandmother was a warrior of any kind. She was a great cook and reasonable homemaker. Comforting and kind and a great reader of stories and teller of tales. All those grandmotherly things.

  But a warrior? I was having a heck of a time wrapping my mind around the idea. If you’d asked me before, I’d have sworn grandmothers couldn’t be warriors, but then they hadn’t always been grandmothers, had they? At some time in the far distant past, hidden by the mists of time, Gigi had been a young woman, my age, who faced her own challenges.

  I had spent some time training with the pack earlier in the year and even fought with them, thanks to Wendi’s intervention, but that was nothing compared to what I faced when I joined Samson on the training field later that day. Gigi, my beloved grandmother, was dressed in leathers that fit her too well to be anything but made for her. And the sword she held in front of her in both hands was magnificent, the hilt bejeweled and the curved blade engraved with some sort of characters or runes that looked like nothing I’d ever seen before. The late afternoon sun caught it and sent a blinding shaft of light right at me.

  Rubbing my eyes, I waited for my vision to return, feeling like a great warrior already. “I guess I don’t need any training. I’ve already learned not to look at the sword.”

  “No,” Gigi said, from right in front of me somewhere. “You’ve learned one way to use the sword without coming into direct contact with your enemies. When I was young, few people had guns of any kind so most battles took place close up. Now you’re likely to be a distance away, and what I just did to you could save your life.”

  “You mean you did that on purpose? What if it damaged my eyes permanently?”

  She waved the sword in a manner I thought careless, and I ducked. “Of course, it was on purpose, but it wasn’t going to harm you. It’s meant to be a distraction technique is all. Don’t be dramatic, Granddaughter. If you can learn to do it, you’ll be able to incapacitate your enemies for a few seconds, which may make the difference between winning and dying.”

  I had no idea. I’d learned how to wield a sword and swipe it…to use it in many ways to stab or smite my enemies, but I was getting the impression there was a lot more to it than I’d ever dreamed. “Gigi, how can I possibly learn everything in such a short time? I mean, I don’t know precisely when I will be asked to use these skills, but with all that’s been going on, I want to say it could be anytime.”

  “Granddaughter”—When had she gotten so formal?—“there’s no guarantees of anything in life, and the skills I want to impart to you are not cut and dried. Not a limited number of skills that you can learn in a particular number of days. A warrior is always learning. Even now, I learn more every day.”

  “Every day? You mean you’ve been practicing sword fighting every day since you came to stay with me? How did I never know?”

  She chuckled. “You’re not always home.”

  Okay, another question? Because this one I wanted an answer to. “Why didn’t we start this sooner? I might have been much further along.”

  She shrugged, swinging the sword as if it weighed nothing, which was not the case at all. “It wasn’t the right time.”

  “And that’s it? With all the crazy going on around here? Gigi, I was spinning in the air not very many hours ago. You always seem to know what’s going to happen before it does. Didn’t you recognize I’d need to defend myself?”

  “You’re still in one piece, aren’t you?” She tsked. “Now, are we going to chat about it all day, or are you ready to learn something.” Gigi leaned in toward me. “And it’s not really learning. You are not trying to become a warrior. You are a warrior. It’s encoded in your cells just waiting for you to embrace it.” Gigi set her sword carefully on top of a flat stump and picked up a pair of wooden practice swords. “Alpha, take one of these and spar with your mate. I want to see both of your techniques.”

  Samson bristled. “With respect, I have trained my whole life, as have my brothers, to fight in many ways. I’m here to support my mate.”

  Gigi marched up to him and though she was much shorter, she managed to meet his eyes. “You think you know everything there is to know about fighting? You cannot learn anything from one of my line?”

  Her line. I was of her line, and I was starting to believe there was a lot more to me, to us than I
’d ever known.

  “No. I didn’t say that,” Samson replied. “But we don’t have much time, and training Christie should be our priority I believe.”

  Gigi stepped back and gave him a nod. “You make a good point. But if you pay close attention, you may accidentally learn something, too. Now, begin!”

  Samson, at first, was being so careful not to hurt me that he was not challenging me at all. After ten or fifteen minutes of that, I decided to show him what I had and surprised him with a solid whack across the thigh. It seemed to waken him and, while he never hit me, he did speed up and use techniques I would expect.

  Gigi, who had been watching in silence until then, began to coach in earnest. She had us try different stances and strikes and repeat them multiple times with slight variations, sayings we needed to be prepared for anything and by the time the sun went down, I was aching in every fiber of my body, but I’d impressed the dickens out of myself with my ability to counter Samson’s moves.

  As we prepared to head inside for dinner, Gigi drew me aside. “I see your expression, Granddaughter, and while I am pleased to see how well you did, remember that a lot of that is built in and not something you can take credit for. Still, good job. You are well on the way to becoming a force to be reckoned with.”

  It might be my heritage, but I still walked into the house, wearing a smile so big I had to duck my chin to keep from being asked questions. I would do my best to represent my pack and my family, but I still thought a little earlier training might have been helpful.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Yes, now. I need to get out of here. It’s all training and evil females coming to get us,” Wendi expressed while her mates chattered about some of the same concerns in the background.

  “Look, I don’t think Opal is going to attack me in the middle of the diner filled with humans, do you?” I pointed out.

  They agreed but insisted one of them accompany us to the diner and then home.

  I shook my head but agreed while Samson winked at me from across the room. “I’ll drive you two. It would be nice to get out of here, even for a minute. But you have to get me one of those cheeseburgers.” He hunched over a bunch of bank statements and whatever pack paperwork he had to go through. He was always busy, but after moving into the alpha house, I really got a taste of how much bureaucratic bullshit he had to deal with. And at the same time, most of it was necessary to get things done.

  “I will. I promise. Are you ready?” I got up from the sofa.

  He nodded and came toward me, and I recognized that look in his eyes. Tris has gone to work. “We’re all alone. Are you sure there isn’t another way you would choose to spend this time?” He put his strong hands on my hips and pulled me toward him so our pelvises lined up. My heart thrummed like a snare drum, and heat flooded my core.

  This honeymoon phase was incredible.

  We were both insatiable.

  “Well, I can, but I need energy. All this training and running for clues has me needing more food. Plus, all the extra activity. I mean, I do have two mates to please.”

  He reached up and ran his thumb along my bottom lip. “There are no complaints from your mates. Trust me. Let’s go get you some food. But when we get back, I have another hour to kill. We can lock the front door. Pick a spot to christen.”

  Sexy Samson had been unleashed.

  “The faster we go, the faster we get back,” I said, trying to use a sultry voice.

  I tugged on his hand until we were out of the house. We had plenty of time for sex. Like, the rest of our lives. When we got onto the front porch, Wendi was waiting at the bottom, Escher behind her, arms crossed over his chest. A smile played on his face as Wendi turned to look at him.

  Samson rested an arm over my shoulder. “I’m taking them, Escher. Unless you don’t trust me to keep them safe.”

  Gods, these males and their challenges. Everyone knew the hierarchy of this pack, but it didn’t stop the flow of testosterone, even for a second.

  Boys, I swear.

  “Of course, I do, alpha. Have a great time.” He kissed Wendi quickly and gave a little rub to her belly and left.

  “Let’s go! I’m starving,” Wendi said.

  “You’re always starving,” I quipped and received a weak punch in the ribs from my best friend.

  “Are you sure? I mean, you’ve already had pie.” Leila, the waitress at the diner, was second-guessing Wendi’s order since she’d already had two cheeseburgers, tater tots, and a slice of pie a la mode.

  But who was I to try and stop her from drinking a mint-chocolate-chip milkshake? I knew better than to stand between Wendi and her food.

  “It’s not for me. It’s for Cash. He loves these. Trust me, I’m full as a tick—for now.”

  Whistling a tune, Leila walked away before calling out the order to the young woman who handling the super blenders. They made their shakes with big scoops of delicious ice cream and fresh milk from the dairy. Everyone wanted one.

  “Well, look what we have here. No school today, or are you skipping again?” I recognized that voice and hadn’t heard it in too long.

  “Dean, what are you doing here?”

  If he had showed up before Samson and I had mated, I would have to hear about it, but as it was, Samson and Tris knew Dean was my friend and my friend only.

  Besides, he had the hots for Sierra, even though she’d nonverbally denied him over and over. One day, I feared he would force her hand. She would have to tell him to back off or go away. Poor Dean.

  “No classes for me today. We needed a lunch date.”

  Wendi nodded but had picked up the menu. Full, my ass. That girl was about to get more burgers.

  “I haven’t seen you since…well, since that uncomfortable conversation in the quad at school,” he said.

  Wendi smiled at him over the menu. “Oh, do tell. What was the conversation about?”

  Shit. I didn’t want to get into this in a diner filled with humans, but he had opened the basket.

  “About harems and multiple…people we’re in love with.” I’d almost said mates.

  “What about it?”

  Dean stiffened next to me. “Well, it’s ridiculous. Don’t you think? I mean, someone is bound to get hurt. I know I wouldn’t want to share the woman I loved, not that I love anyone.”

  Liar.

  Wendi set the menu on the table and targeted me with her stare, and she and I shared a silent conversation. She was not going to let this go with a laugh. Damn it.

  “It’s one of the most gratifying ways to live, actually, Dean. I am blessed to have not only the love of one man, but four men. There is no jealousy because we are in this together. No one is lying to each other or keeping secrets about where we stand. We all knew what we were getting into when we started this. How can more love ever be wrong?”

  Wendi dipped her chin at me, pleased as could be with her reply to Dean’s disapproval of our life.

  “It’s just not normal,” he answered, moving to get out of the booth.

  “Thank the gods for abnormal. I wouldn’t want my life to be any other way. Would you, Christie?”

  “Nope.” There was no need for me to say any more. Wendi was doing just fine on her own. Pregnancy made her sassier than usual.

  Dean lifted his hand in a half-hearted wave. “Well, I have to go. Some of us have to study.”

  With that, he left, and even though Wendi had made a good point, I didn’t think Dean was any more convinced.

  “One mint-chocolate-chip milkshake. Anything else?”

  I paid the ticket before Wendi could change her mind about ordering more.

  “Everything okay?” Samson asked me before placing a kiss on my temple. My body flooded with warmth and satisfaction at his touch. While we ate, he had chosen to answer emails in the car.

  “Everything is perfect. You know, right this second.”

  He chuckled, and we got into the car. “Seems like that’s all we can ask for lately, snipp
ets of peace.”

  All of a sudden, my stomach soured. Trouble was never far away.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tris tells her she needs to actually get together with Samson before they can go forward. And he’s really missing her in his bed. Some hugging and kissing and hot and heavy make out.

  Tris and I hadn’t had any alone time since the incident with Opal, and that had definitely been an interruption. And since I’d been spending all my time with Samson, or almost all, I sought Tris out after breakfast a couple of days after Wendi and I went to lunch. I peeked out the window beside the door and found him outside sitting on the porch swing. Grabbing the quilt from the back of the couch and wrapping it around me, I headed out there.

  “It’s a little chilly here, don’t you think?” He wore a thick, lined hoodie, but the temperature was definitely coat-worthy, and we’d had a hard freeze the night before. The grass still stood up in stiff, gray-green peaks, although the sun would probably melt that off by noon or so. “Don’t you want to come inside for some hot chocolate?”

  He raised an arm, an invitation for me to sit on the swing next to him, and I did, unfolding the quilt so it covered both our laps and up to our shoulders. “We just had breakfast, mate.”

  “I know, but cocoa is always good in cold weather. Is something wrong?” Not that a man couldn’t sit on his own porch, but I’d never seen him here before. The swing should be put away for winter by now, anyway.

  “No, not really.” He tightened his arm around me, bringing me in close enough to share the heat under the quilt. “This does feel much better though.”

  “Mmm. It’s nice.” I snuggled in, breathing his scent and the calm, amazing feel of him. “Penny for your thoughts.”

  “Does anyone say that anymore?” He rubbed his hand up and down my arm. “I don’t think I’ve even heard your grandmother use the phrase.”

  “I don’t know.” I sighed. “But you’re changing the subject. You’re clearly out here deep in thought, and I wondered if I figured into those thoughts.”