One True Mate: Shifter's Solace (Kindle Worlds Novella)(17)

“I should have known sooner,” she said. “What a bitch.”

“A female foxen’s called a vixen, not a bi—” Rory began, then he caught her expression. “No, okay, I take your point. Are you okay?”

She took a shaky breath and nodded. “I’m fine. Thank you for coming.” She gave him a wavery smile. “I knew you would.”

“Of course I came.” He gazed into her gorgeous dark eyes, uptilted and elfin. “I’ll always come. You’re my mate.”

He stroked her hair again, and would have kissed her, except she put her fingers against his lips. The pain in her expression made it hard to breathe.

“But I’m not your mate, Rory. I can’t be. Look at me – in an emergency, I go all to pieces and start crying in your arms.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice muffled against her fingers. He gently took her hand and lifted it away. “What are you talking about? Of course you’re my mate. You couldn’t have spoken to me in ruhi if you weren’t. We wouldn’t have been…the way we were together if you weren’t. You’re my mate, and I’m going to claim you as mine and keep you safe from Khain.”

“That’s just it,” she said, her eyes searching his. “You’d have to keep me safe. The prophecy said the One True Mates are warriors. I’m no warrior, Rory.”

He looked at her delicate, tear-stained face and took her trembling hands in his. He didn’t know how to respond to that. He didn’t have the words. His heart was so full that he could hardly swallow, or breathe. He wanted to tell her that when he’d come into the room and seen her standing there, she’d been like an avenging angel. So strong, so beautiful. That if he hadn’t already been in love with her, from that moment on he would have been hopelessly lost. That he was utterly, irrevocably hers, and would follow her to the ends of the Earth if she crooked her finger.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” came Ben’s voice from the doorway, shattering the spell. “You kicked that foxen bitch’s ass so hard she’ll be looking for her teeth in her panties.” He paused, then shuddered slightly. “Scrap that thought. But you warriored her to a fuckin’ pulp.”

She smiled through her tears. “I did, didn’t I? I got the jump on her when the front door was kicked in. It startled her.”

Ben came across and slung his arm around Ivy’s shoulders, leading her from the room. “That was loverboy coming to the rescue,” he said. “We all told him you’d be fine, but he’s such an old woman about the littlest thing…” His voice trailed away.

Rory kind of wanted to shift, run after Ben, and tear his throat out with his teeth. At the same time he wanted to throw his arms around him and thank him until he was really, really embarrassed. Maybe a brother-figure was just what Ivy needed right now. After all, she’d never had any siblings, and now she was going to have four. Five if you counted the Chief, but he was more of a grumpy uncle. If she would stay, that was. His heart told him she would.

Outside, the cops and the firefighters were cooperating to sort the foxen dead from those who were unconscious or injured.

Rory handed Ms. Renard over to the wolven, who’d be coordinating the interrogation. The banter between them and the bearen revolved around which was more important: gathering vital intelligence against Khain, or graffiti cleanup duty. It was pretty good-natured for the most part. Khain’s plans had been foiled – for now – and another shiften had found his mate. Ben had been boasting to anyone willing to listen – and also people who were far too busy with other things – of the way Ivy had taken Ms. Renard down, and by the time Rory reached them, the story had evolved somewhat.

“So she swung at her with the katana – hiiii-yah! Then she backflipped across the room…”

Rory smacked him in the chest with the back of his hand. “Give me back my mate and go and do something useful,” he told him.

He was pleased to note that Ivy didn’t question the word “mate”. She came happily into his arms, and Ben wandered off to irritate someone else for a while. They really needed to find that guy another hobby.

Not cooking, though. The Light be merciful, not that.





Chapter Fifteen


Three months later…



Brady and Ben stood awkwardly in their tuxes, waiting for the bride and groom to appear. They were going to act as witnesses while the Chief officiated the ceremony. Ivy had insisted she wanted to keep the ceremony small, family only, and when Ben had pointed out that she had no family, she’d smacked him around the back of the head and said, “Think about it, dummy.” She’d got the hang of the brother-sister dynamic thing really quickly.

Brady looked across at Ben. Something had been weighing on his mind. “I get why you asked me to make the choice about which way to go. Back when Ivy was snatched, I mean.” Three months had passed since that day, but this was the first time he’d worked up the nerve to ask. “If Rory had chosen wrong and anything had happened to her, it would have broken him. But…why me?”

Ben cast him a scornful glance. “For the sensitive, empathetic type you really can be a numbnuts,” he said. “That’s not why I asked you to choose.”

“Oh.” Brady was taken aback. “Then why? I could have chosen wrong.”