Light Beyond the Darkness (18 page)

That, as far as he was concerned, was the beginning of all his troubles. That was when Carley’s father had approached him about mating with his daughter. They had met through the Chosen One’s meetings, which Miguel had initially gone to simply out of curiosity. By the third meeting, he’d been hooked. The Chosen One was like a god; his beliefs, his plans, were scripture. He was brilliant.

Carley, according to her father, wasn’t falling into the fold as readily as her parents would have liked. Mating her to someone who was a devout believer struck them as a good idea. Somehow, he knew about Miguel’s debt, too, and sweetened the pot by offering to pay it for him. A fresh start. The tavern owner had begun to make vague threats to Miguel’s person, so he was starting to feel desperate.

Miguel knew her by sight, although he’d never actually spoken to her before. He didn’t really have interest in women, other than for the necessary physical release on occasion. Unfortunately for him, that apparently came across in his demeanor, so he didn’t have much luck at all with the female population. The idea of taking a mate, one he could mold to do whatever he wanted, was appealing. So too was the idea of being debt free, at least until the next race or boxing match or betting opportunity of any kind.

Unfortunately, the reality had been different from his fantasy. Carley had been deathly afraid of him, that first night, after the mating ceremony. He’d taken her innocence anyway, because hell, that’s what a guy deserved when he took a mate. It hadn’t been particularly thrilling, but he’d gotten his rocks off. He kept trying, but she never really figured out what the hell to do, so their sex life had been pretty damn boring, frankly. He still managed to get off regularly, but there hadn’t been any creativity, anything interesting about it.

Last summer, when the Chosen One stepped up his meetings, began to get serious about his plans to take over the coterie, Miguel managed to catch the attention of a young female lightbearer who was just as devout a follower as he. Well, maybe not that devout, considering she was more interested in diddling with him during the meetings, instead of paying attention. He’d actually been pissed the first day she came on to him. He’d been running late for the meeting, and as a result, had been forced to stand in the back of the room, instead of up front, where he usually stood, at rapt attention, soaking in the Chosen One’s every word, every inflection, every dire warning about outside beings.

The first time he felt something brush against his groin, he assumed it was an accident. The second time, he’d been annoyed, because he really had been trying to pay attention to the meeting. But she had been persistent, and before the meeting was half over, her hand was stuffed into his pants, he had one hand pressed against the wall, and the other guiding her wrist faster and faster until he squeezed his eyes shut and bit his tongue to keep from groaning out loud, and then he came all over himself.

For little over a month that had been a regular occurrence, and Miguel found himself looking forward to the meetings for an entirely different reason. Until the day she asked him to go home with her, and he snorted and told her he was mated. She hadn’t been pleased to learn that little bit of information.

Carley never discovered an understanding of the Chosen One’s ways either, like her parents had hoped. As a result, they’d begun shunning him, had cut off the payments they had been making to his various debtors. Soon, he was knee-deep in debt again and had a mate who didn’t like him and was a pretty lousy lay. The girl on the side had lost interest, too.

The only thing he had going for him was the Chosen One. So he shifted his focus back to the meetings, moved to the front row again, drank in the dogma like wine. The Chosen One believed in Miguel, just as much as Miguel believed in him. When he confessed his issues, the Chosen One had suggested that once he became ruler over the coterie, he might dispose of Carley, so that Miguel was free to hook up with the younger hottie, despite her refusing to acknowledge his existence by that point.

That day Carley was supposed to stay resting at the cottage, he knew, he knew damn well she wouldn’t. The stupid bitch never did what she was supposed to. Shit, she was a great cook, but did she ever cook for him? And who the hell didn’t participate in sexual activities with their own mate? She was the worst possible mate he could have ever picked. Pushing her over the cliff had been the smartest decision he’d ever made in his entire life.

When the Chosen One was killed, Miguel had taken advantage of the chaos and fled. The shifters were rounding up followers left and right, and he had no idea what they intended to do with them. Probably eat them for dinner. They were a bunch of savage beasts, after all. No way was he going to be a snack for a freaking animal.

Unfortunately, he had no clue where to go, since he’d never left the coterie before. But he knew he couldn’t stay.

He’d made it to the bottom of the steps built into the cliff before he thought about his mate. He had paused, taken a moment to revel in the fact that he was now free. Free of everything, frankly. He could do whatever the hell he wanted. He could fuck whoever he wanted. Screw that little bitch who jerked him off during the Chosen One’s meetings and then gave him the cold shoulder when she found out he was mated to another. There were plenty of other willing women in the coterie.

Or outside it, he supposed. The reality was, he had to leave, because eventually the shifters would figure out he was one of the followers. Not to mention they would undoubtedly start looking for an explanation for the death of their favorite chef. It pissed him off that she saved her best dishes for those motherfuckers. Goddamn animals.

That was the point at which it occurred to him that there was no body. She had fallen down the steps and landed at the bottom, a broken doll lying in the snow. Except she wasn’t. Panic welled as Miguel strode around the area, searching for a sign of his dead mate. She was dead, right? She could not have possibly survived that fall.

He found disturbed snow where her body had presumably landed. Footprints. Two sets. Shit. Someone found her and took the body.

She was dead, right?

He had become more and more nervous as he wandered about the area, trying to figure out what the hell to do. Did he go looking for her, to make sure she really was dead? He realized he hadn’t seen the bright flash of light that indicated a lightbearer had died. Holy hell, she hadn’t survived…Had she?

Eventually, the sounds of people at the top of the cliff had forced him to leave the scene. He had rushed to his own cottage, pulled out a bag and threw clothing into it. It was time to leave. He hated that stupid cottage, anyway. Carley had done nothing to take care of it, and Miguel didn’t think that was a man’s responsibility.

He’d made it to the top of the stairs undetected, and had been planning to steal a horse from the royal stables to help get him out of the coterie. But then he had rushed into the woods, using his magic to hide his tracks as he went. He still hadn’t had a solid plan. The only thing he had been able to focus on was Carley. Was she really still alive?

He had to know. Because if she was, he would finish her off. Stupid bitch had been the cause of all of his problems. She needed to die. The Chosen One had promised to do it for him, but he was dead now too. Miguel’s life was falling apart, and it was Carley’s fault.

So, instead of slipping from the coterie, out into the freedom the human world offered, he found an abandoned animal’s den, crawled inside, and huddled there for the rest of the night and most of the next day.

People passed nearby, undoubtedly searching for other followers, but no one thought to check his hidey-hole, and he’d been lucid enough to ward it against shifters. They probably could have sniffed him out, had he not summoned the wards.

Eventually, he began sneaking out of his hiding place, usually in the middle of the night, and pilfered food from nearby cottages. Occasionally, he even snuck into other lightbearers’ cottages and showered. His existence had been reduced to that of a wild animal, but he did nothing to change it.

He had to know if she was still alive.

And now he knew. The bitch had survived the fall. He could see it clear as day. She looked…good. Too damn good. Better than she had when she lived with him. Somebody had fixed her up nice and right. Probably that female healer who always talked excitedly about helping to birth the shifter spawn the princess had been carrying in her belly. Stupid damn healer.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that his mate was still alive—she was with a shifter. He watched with first a sense of smug satisfaction as she froze at the top of the stone steps, unable to even take that first step, petrified because of the fall she’d had several months prior.

But his satisfaction quickly turned to rage, as a shifter, one he’d never seen before, hurried back up the steps to her side. Put his hand on her back. Leaned in close. Intimately. Talked to her. Held her hand. And then slowly, slowly, he guided her down the steps, placing her hand on his shoulder and, no doubt, promising to catch her if she fell.

Fucking bitch. She’d survived the fall that was meant to kill her, and now she’d taken up with a shifter. Miguel watched their descent with blood in his eyes. And he vowed: this time, he really would kill her. She’d killed his Chosen One, after all. He had to repay her in kind.

The pup was born less than two hours later. Three healers were in attendance, although Alexa was the one to actually do the job of slicing the pup from his mother’s belly. Dane and the other one, whose name Finn couldn’t recall, continually siphoned away the pain while she worked. He didn’t know how the hell he ended up in the room while the process was happening, but he knew it would be a damn long time before he broached the subject of pups with Cecilia.

While Alexa sealed the wound with the precision of the most knowledgeable of human surgeons, Finn glanced at his pack master. Tanner had stood by his mate’s side throughout the ordeal. When the pup was pulled out of her body, he reflexively reached for it, but Dane beat him to the punch, muttering something about, “Cleansing the babe and running preliminary tests.” At the moment, Tanner looked more afraid than angry that the healer would not let him hold his own pup.

The sun was just dipping below the horizon when Alexa pronounced the wound sealed and then promptly passed out cold. Jake was there, catching her as she fell, and swept her into his arms and then out of the room. Finn had heard those two had split, but judging by the way Jake hovered and then realized she reached her limit even before she had, he suspected there were residual feelings still simmering. Maybe this would help them work things out. From what little interaction he’d had with them, they seemed like the perfect couple.

Dane was the next to crumble. He had been struggling with the pup, who was having difficulty breathing on his own. The third healer had just finished cleansing Olivia and the bed, and while Olivia slept, she hurried over to replace Dane as the pup’s caretaker. No one caught Dane when he fell. Finn dragged him out into the hall and down to a guest room, where he deposited the snoring lightbearer on a bed, fully clothed, and without turning down the covers. He’d probably sleep like the dead and wouldn’t even notice anyway.

Finn headed back to Tanner and Olivia’s chamber, but when he caught sight of his brother, he suggested they head down to the village to find more healers. The pup was not doing well, Tanner was stomping around like an angry bear, and the third healer was probably going to pass out soon.

They shifted into the form of hawks and flew over the cliff to the village at the bottom, rounded up four more healers and herded them up the steps to the beach house. Once the healers were in place, doing their jobs, Finn ordered Reid to take Carley and get some sleep, suggesting she might be willing to make breakfast in the morning, after she had a full night’s sleep. He then dragged his protesting mate out of the chamber and guided her down the hall to the room they usually slept in when they spent the night at the beach house.

“But Olivia—”

He cut off her protest. “Is sound asleep, and probably will be, until they put the pup to her breast. And then she’ll be too focused on him to care about anything else. The best thing you can do right now is get some sleep, so you’ll be lucid enough to function tomorrow.”

As soon as he closed the door behind him, he began working on the buttons to her dress. It was a mark of her exhaustion that she did not even comment, but simply stood there and allowed him to have his way.

“What about the babe?”

“I’m not sure,” Finn said with a frown. “But he’s in as capable hands as he can be right now. Those healers will stay with him round the clock.” He pulled the dress off her shoulders and pushed it down to her waist. “Let’s go to bed.”

He gave her a nudge, guiding her toward the bed, and then he climbed in behind her, snuggled close, and wrapped his arms around her waist. He buried his face in her flaxen hair and assumed she would fall immediately asleep.

He should know better than to assume anything at all about his mate.

“Are you happy to see your brother again?”

He nodded. “Sure. I’m glad he’s doing so well, too.”

“I suspect he is because of Carley. Do you think they’ll stay?”

Finn took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking. “I think Carley is not convinced her mate is dead. And Reid, I suspect, will do whatever he has to, to make her happy—and keep her safe.”

“Are you implying what I think you are?”

“That Reid is in love with Carley? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m implying. Although the whole thing worries me.”

“Because you aren’t convinced Miguel is dead either.”

Despite their differences, his mate knew him well. “I’m not. Although I am convinced he left the coterie, which means Carley is safer inside than outside the wards. The problem is that Reid doesn’t know she’s mated to another.”

“I don’t think she deliberately deceived him.”

“It doesn’t matter, at this point. Reid was burned before, badly. Because of a woman who belonged to someone else. It was years ago, but to tell you the truth, this is the first time since it happened that he’s appeared…normal. Healthy. Sane. I don’t know.” He shook his head, unable to find the right word to describe the state his brother had been in since Quentin Lyons had whipped him for banging one of his paramours.