Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) (9 page)

"Do you want to make that official?" Liam
said in a quiet voice. "Be responsible for her?"

"Vouch for her, you mean?" Ronan let Liam
hold his gaze. He'd already vouched for Scott, Cherie, and
Olaf--clan-less, family-less Shifters with bad pasts. No one knew
what the cubs would do or what kind of adults they'd become. Ronan
had vowed with his life that they'd not be threats. Liam was asking
him to do the same for Elizabeth.

"No," Ronan said.

Liam's eyes went wider, and Kim stirred.
"Liam, stop it. You too, Ronan. This is Elizabeth's choice. She's
not a cub. She's not even Shifter. The same rules don't apply."

"Much as I hate disagreeing with you, love,
they do," Liam said. "Will you let him vouch for you, Elizabeth?
That means that, if you are lying to us, or you put a foot wrong,
it's on his head."

"No!" Elizabeth said fiercely. "What is wrong
with you all? I didn't ask you to bring us to Shiftertown. I'm
grateful for your help, but I don't have to stay with you. So thank
you, but I'm leaving."

Again Ronan stopped her by being too big for
her to walk around. "I said I wouldn't vouch for you," he said.
"But that's because I'm going to go one better, and mate-claim
you."

"Ronan," Liam said, warning in his voice.

"Mate-claim?" Elizabeth said. She took a step
back, which put her against Liam's desk. "What does that mean?"

"It means not only do I vouch for you, but I
ensure that all Shifters stay away from you, always, including
Liam. The bond of the mate supersedes the authority of the clan
leader and even the Shiftertown leader. If Liam has a problem with
you, he has to come through me first. Trust me, he doesn't want to
have to go through me."

Liam, instead of getting upset, sat down and
leaned back in his chair again, grinning his annoying Irish grin.
"It's an interesting solution," he said. "Very interesting."

Elizabeth looked from Liam to Ronan. "What
are you saying? That I'm now your mate? I don't want a mate!"

"Tell her she can reject the claim," Kim
said. "Be fair. She doesn't understand complicated Shifter
rules."

Liam shrugged. "A mate-claim only means that
Ronan now protects you, and that you're off-limits to all other
Shifter males. Doesn't mean you're mated. Yet. And yes, you can
reject the claim. He can't force it on you." Liam said the last
part reluctantly, as though he'd be happy for Elizabeth to be stuck
in the claim.

"Then I reject--"

Ronan put his fingers over Elizabeth's mouth.
"Wait. Let it work, first. If you stay under my claim, then Liam
can't make you tell him about your past, or any other detail he
wants to poke his nose into. I stay with you and protect you from
angry gang leaders who want to kill you. Once the danger is over,
you can reject the claim. We can't stop you. That's Shifter
law."

"I'm not Shifter," Elizabeth said, her breath
warm on his fingers.

"Doesn't matter. I am. Elizabeth Chapman, I
mate-claim you, witnessed by Liam the leader of the Austin
Shiftertown, Sean the Guardian, Kim the leader's mate, and
Katriona, the leader's firstborn."

As Elizabeth stared at him over his blunt
fingers, Ronan sensed a
click
inside himself, as though
something that had long been unresolved had at last completed.

Elizabeth was a survivor. Ronan saw that in
her. She was a survivor as much as he was, as much as the cubs in
his house were, as much as Liam and his family were.

Elizabeth drew a breath. "All right. For now,
I won't reject it."

Ronan relaxed, feeling a tightness in him
loosen and flow away. Elizabeth held his gaze, her chin lifted.
Nothing submissive about her.

"But that doesn't mean I'll do everything you
say," Elizabeth said.

Ronan growled, feeling suddenly playful. Wait
until he got her home and she looked at him with that challenge in
her eyes. He'd never mate-claimed anyone before. Was this how it
felt, an unexpected lightness, sudden joy? An excitement,
anticipation of the next moment, of every moment? Ronan no longer
wanted to work his shift. He wanted to take Elizabeth home and
simply
be
with her.

Liam looked past Ronan to his brother. "Sean?
You've not said a word. What do you think?"

Sean came out of his relaxed stance,
unstrapped his sword, and tossed it to the battered sofa. "I'm
thinking you brought me back here, away from my mate, for nothing,"
he said, moving to the door. "Elizabeth knows what she's doing, and
you don't need me."

Without another word, the quiet Morrissey
opened the door wide and walked out into the noise. Ronan watched
him make straight for Andrea, and Andrea smile up at him in her
warm way, welcoming him back.

*** *** ***

Elizabeth sensed the change in Ronan as he
led her out of the office again. He guided her with his hand on the
small of her back, gentle pressure, but one she couldn't
ignore.

She noticed that every Shifter outside the
office looked at Elizabeth in open curiosity as they emerged, then
they glanced at Ronan, then again at Elizabeth, then their
expressions blanked, and they looked away or backed off. They did
it subtly, pretending they didn't, but they did it. How they knew
Ronan had made this "mate-claim," Elizabeth didn't know, but it
didn't matter. They knew.

Sean was now sitting in the booth with Mabel
and the dark-haired, pregnant woman, and Elizabeth headed that way,
Ronan tightly beside her. Scott had vacated one place, though Mabel
and Connor remained, sitting firmly together.

Before Elizabeth and Ronan made it across the
floor, a tall, blond man in cowboy boots and a button-down shirt,
sleeves rolled up to expose brawny forearms, walked right in front
of them, longneck in hand. The jukebox had started up with a
country tune that was part gritty rock.

"Hey, there," the Shifter said. "I'm Ellison,
and I need someone to dance with. Someone female. That lets you
out, Ronan."

He hadn't looked at Ronan, keeping Elizabeth
pinned with his gaze. His gray eyes held the predatory tinge of a
wolf's.

Elizabeth shrugged, feeling itchy. The music
had a good beat, and she liked the song. "Sure, I'd love to."

Ellison started to reach for her, then he
inhaled sharply and looked at Ronan. Ronan never moved, never said
a word, but Ellison's face fell. "Aw, hell, Ronan. Why does every
pretty woman who comes near Shiftertown get grabbed before I even
meet her? You all could save one for me."

"You snooze, you lose," Ronan said.

"You can reject it, you know," Ellison said
to Elizabeth. "The mate-claim."

"So I've been told." Elizabeth was suddenly
fed up with everything. She'd been anxious about Mabel and about
her store, which one of Marquez's men could be torching even at
this moment. Now she had to add Shifters, mate-claims, and macho
males who passed females around like pieces of meat. All right, so
maybe the last thought was unjust, but they seemed to regard women
as things to protect from each other and the rest of the world.

Elizabeth straightened her shoulders. "I said
I'd dance. Don't you have to work or something, Ronan?"

If she thought Ellison would laugh and waltz
away with her, she was wrong. Ellison kept his gaze on Ronan. "Do
you mind?" he asked. "Promise I won't touch."

Ronan considered a moment, then he nodded.
"Take care of her."

"Hot damn. Come on. Before the song's
over."

Ellison led Elizabeth off but carefully
didn't touch her until they reached the dance floor. Elizabeth
looked over her shoulder at Ronan, who watched them go, unmoving.
Ronan stared at them for a while, then he turned his broad back and
made for the entrance of the club, where he stationed himself like
a sentinel.

Ellison could dance. He had a long-legged
grace despite his large size, and could two-step with the best of
them. He never lost the beat and led Elizabeth so she didn't,
either. He twirled her and spun with her, all with great enjoyment.
Through it all, she never lost her awareness of Ronan. The entire
club separated her from Ronan, but Elizabeth sensed him at the
door, solid as a boulder, his big arms folded, his gaze taking in
everything.

When the song ended, another similar one
began, and Elizabeth readily kept dancing.

"Are you the Ellison that Ronan said he'd
have help me with some carpentry?" she yelled over the music.

"Yep," Ellison said. "Spike and me will come
by tomorrow. You close up on Sundays, right?"

She did, but Elizabeth usually went in to
catch up on paperwork, ordering, inventory, accounts, and
everything else. "Tell me something," she said. "Why is everyone
acting like Ronan owns me?"

"He does, if he mate-claimed you. It's hands
off for all other Shifters."

"To keep me safe, I thought," Elizabeth said.
"Not to dictate every move I make."

Ellison stepped in close. "Honey, we're
Shifters. It means we're horn-dogs most of the time. The minute you
walked in here, every unmated male--which is most of them--wanted
to howl. But now that Ronan's claimed you, we know we have to back
off. When you reject the claim, though, you'll be fair game again,
and we can go back to being rabid males after you. Rivals with each
other instead of friends. Until someone else beats us to the
claim."

"Are you serious?"

"Damn right I am."

The dance had them part again, and Elizabeth
pondered what he'd said. She'd spent her life struggling to remain
independent, to keep from having to rely on a man for . . . well,
for anything. She'd watched girlfriends become victims to abusive
men they were certain they couldn't live without.
If
I
leave him, who takes care of me?
they'd ask.

Elizabeth had learned to take care of
herself. So much so that when she'd had to cut her losses and run,
she'd been able to do it. If she hadn't run, her life would have
become pure hell, and she shuddered to think what Mabel's life
would have been. Much of her decision had been for Mabel's
sake.

Now she'd walked into a society where the
males thought nothing of saying openly,
That
woman is
mine. Hands off.
Animals in mating season fought each other,
sometimes to the death, and Shifters had a lot of animal in
them.

She glanced over at Sean and Andrea. They
were sitting alone in the booth now, Mabel and Connor dancing
together not far away. Sean sat against the wall, Andrea leaning
back against him in the circle of his arms, and he had his hand on
her abdomen, where his child slept. Protective, yes, but also
loving. One didn't always go with the other, in Elizabeth's
experience.

She thought of Liam and Kim, with their
closeness, so comfortable, and Liam holding Katriona on his lap
with a look of open love. Perhaps these Shifters had discovered
something that had eluded Elizabeth all her life.

Elizabeth looked at Ronan, who was standing
at the open door, watching people go in and out. He caught her eye
and sent her, not a smile, but a reassuring nod.

A little warmth wound through her heart.
Elizabeth would make him pay a bit for so obviously giving her his
"permission" to dance with Ellison, but it was nice to think that
Ronan was there for her. If she was going to have anyone stand up
for her, Ronan was a good person to do it.

Meanwhile, she had fun dancing with Ellison.
For the first time since the robbery, Elizabeth relaxed. She
realized that no one was going to come into this bar and threaten
her or try to kill her, not with Ronan on guard and this many
Shifters in here. Marquez or whoever he sent wouldn't make it a
step inside the door.

Strange to think that in a Shifter bar right
outside of Shiftertown, she was safe. She decided to enjoy the
feeling while she had it.

The bar closed at two, but when Elizabeth
finally stopped dancing at midnight and sat down, she was
exhausted.

"Mabel, let's go home. I mean, to Ronan's
house."

Mabel looked at her in surprise across the
table. "Are you kidding me? The night is young."

Mabel, at least, was good about not drinking
too much. She enjoyed a beer or two, but she liked talking to
people and dancing more.

"You lazed around all day," Elizabeth said.
"I need some sleep."

"Go, then. Connor or Liam will get me home.
Or Glory."

Mabel had adapted to Shiftertown quickly. But
then, Mabel had always liked Shifters.

In the end, Andrea and Sean walked Elizabeth
home. When Elizabeth said good night to Ronan on the way out, he
stopped her and drew her into his arms for a big hug.

Ronan's arms were strong and lifted Elizabeth
off her feet, but as he'd been at the house earlier that morning,
he was as gentle as gentle could be. Elizabeth found herself
looking into his big face, at his scarred nose and his warm brown
eyes. She felt not only safe in his arms, but
right
. As
though she belonged there.

He touched a kiss to her lips--brief and
tender, almost chaste, but the spark behind it held heat.

"I'll be home soon, Lizzie-girl," he
said.

"Good," was all Elizabeth could think to
say.

Ronan set her down and gave her another brief
kiss. "Go on, now."

Sean and Andrea waited a discreet distance
away. When Elizabeth caught up to them, she saw that both of them
looked amused.

"Is something funny?" Elizabeth asked,
annoyed.

They started walking through the field that
led to Shiftertown. "No," Andrea said. She was a wolf Shifter,
Ellison had told her--like Ellison himself. A Lupine. She had gray
eyes, as Ellison did. She was very pregnant, but she walked swiftly
and strongly, as though she barely noticed her condition. "Ronan's
a good friend."

"And a good man," Sean said, his Irish lilt
like music in the night. "He's done me many a good turn. Now he's
doing you one."