Claiming Her (Keeping Her Series) (15 page)

When Miley woke up, she
was in Lucas’ bed.  She did not have to look to the side to see Lucas was
hovering there in a chair he had pulled up.  Why he was not in the bed with her
she didn’t know, but she could smell Cleo, too, and the rest of the visiting
Lionsgate pack in the other room.   She could hear Ian flirting with a voice
that was vaguely familiar to her.  One of the wolves?  Patricia.  That was it. 
A pretty, brown-eyed wolf with a nursing degree.  She was the nurse they had
stationed on the island. 

“You’re awake,” Lucas
said, drawing her eyes back to him and Cleo, who jumped up from her own chair.

Miley swallowed against
a dry throat.  “Rebecca?”

“Unharmed, not even a
scratch,” Cleo said quickly.  “Slept six hours and woke up raring to jump out
of bed.  Her mates have been sitting on her for hours to keep her there, until
you wake up and they understand what happened.  Her blood count was low. They
are trying to talk her into a transfusion but, so far, no go.”

“She should be fine
without one, but I’ll make sure.”  She pushed her hair back behind her ear and
only then thought to look at her hands.  No blood.  She looked down and saw she
had been cleaned up and placed in one of Lucas’ many t-shirts.  On her, they
were big enough to be considered a dress.  She gave a brief thought of thanks
that when doused with blood she was not wearing anything she really liked.  At
least it was only a sarong and bikini that was stained beyond repair. 
Sigh.
 
“Just give me a few minutes to wake up.”

“You slept longer than
she did, by about three hours,” Lucas announced grimly, his cerulean eyes
seemed to shimmer with the heat he was suppressing.  His voice deceptively
mild.  “Healing a gut wound is hard on the body.”

Miley looked from him
to Cleo who was looking just as intense, and sighed, “It can be.”

“That shot should have killed
her.”  Cleo looked from her to her father and back again.  “I’ve heard of
healers before, but I thought they were a myth.”  She whispered low enough that
even wolf senses would have a hard time hearing.

“You mean a myth like
shape-shifters?” Miley asked smiling a little.  Cleo shrugged.

“This is the secret you
were keeping?” Lucas interrupted his voice just as mild.

She swallowed hard and
nodded, meeting those heated eyes with an effort.

“And Rickarts knows?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why he won’t
let you go.”  It wasn’t a question.  Healers were rare, as in there was one
born every 500 years or so.  The power one brought to the pack went way beyond
the ability to heal any wound.  Ideally, a healer would be revered by her pack,
and everyone else who might one day need her services.  A pack with a healer
was a powerful thing, because while shifters did not usually need a healer,
when they did, having one in your pack or as an ally could make all the
difference.  So the leaders of that pack would be courted.  But a disreputable alpha
might also see a healer as a commodity to be used and controlled to gain status
and allies.  Clearly, Rickarts was one of those, and he was intent on playing
the ultimate card.  No one would interfere with a mate pairing, even if it was
forced.

The only thing that had
saved Miley from that fate was the fact that she did not have enough wolf for
the claiming to take, or at least that was her theory.  Lucas’ was that it didn’t
take because she belonged to him.  Always.  But then lions were known for their
arrogant nature. Always.

“Isabella?”  Linc’s
voice was low with suppressed emotions when he walked into the room.  “How are
you feeling?”

“I’m fine, Linc.  How
is Becca?”

“Alive, thanks to you.”

She blew out a breath
and sat up.  “I’d like to see her.  Just to make sure.  He yanked me away
before I had a chance to finish.”

“From the look of you,
Rebecca is better able to come to you.  Should you be healing so soon after
passing out like that?”

“I’m fine,” she said. 
Just as Lucas said.  “No.”

She gave him a warning
look and then said it again.  “I’m fine. But if she feels up to it, she can
come to me.”

Linc squeezed her
shoulder and stepped back.  “I’ll get her.”  He left the room at a fast clip.

“You can barely sit
up.  You are not healing anyone right now,” he growled, while Cleo glared down
at her with the same idea.

“I don’t need to heal
her.  Probably.  Just check.  If there is anything I missed, it’s a lot less
work to catch it quickly.”  Not that she had a lot of call to use her gift in the
past, but that seemed logical, and she wasn’t going to be able to stop worrying
until she checked.

Lucas gnashed his
teeth, but let her have her way.  He was smart enough to know it would take
more energy to fight about it.

Rebecca seemed to have
enough energy for both of them when she arrived with Griffin and Linc in tow. 
She hugged her close.  “What.the.hell?” studying Miley carefully, “You sure can
keep secrets good.”

“Well, I’ve had a lot
of experience.  I grew up hearing that no one should know I could heal until I
was firmly mated, and only then my closest pack.  My great-grandmother was a
healer and it had not gone well for her.  My mom and dad were the only ones
that knew about me most of my life, and they took the secret to their graves.”

“Right,” Griffin said
from behind his mate, his arms going around her shoulders to pull her back
against his chest.  Miley had a feeling the already intensely protective alpha was
going to be even more so for the foreseeable future.  Linc also had joined them,
taking her hand in his.  He stood close enough to probably feel her breathing. 
Both of them had an intensity about them, even more so than usual, and Griffin’s
eyes were still very much wolf gold.  

“There is no way to
ever repay the debt,” he said quietly, “No way.”  They had almost lost their
mate, clearly they were feeling it.

“There is no debt,”
Miley assured them just as softly.  “He was after me.  Rebecca never would have
been in danger if she hadn’t been with me.”

“Bullshit.  Some full
human sneaks onto my island and shoots my mate.”  His face went decidedly
grim.  “He was dead before his foot hit the beach.”

Knowing Griffin and the
way they all felt about their mate, she had no doubt.  Isabella did wonder how
much the humans had known about their assignment.  And why humans?  Was it
because no shifter would have been foolish enough to do it?  One sniff of
either woman would have been enough to tell any shape-shifter they were mated
and to what.  Even if she couldn’t be marked, she still reeked of lion male. 
Lucas rubbed against her enough to make sure of it.  And taking a lion’s mate? 
Suicide by mauling. 

“You’re not the one who
hired him, or shot her,” Linc spoke into her thoughts.  His voice had an edge
to it that was not normally there.  “You did save her.  And you did it knowing
you would be leaving yourself too weak to protect yourself, even from a full
human.  We will not forget.”

“Or forgive,” Griffin
growled, his gold eyes heating further, as he was clearly thinking of the men
responsible.  If Rickarts wanted a war, he was going to get it.  There was no
longer any way of stopping that.  Rebecca rubbed her free hand across the arms
holding her, doing her best to soothe her mate.  Griffin did not look to be in
a soothe-able frame of mind.

Miley shivered.  “Okay. 
Can I check her now?”

“Please.”  Griffin let
her go with a noticeable effort but he did not back up, neither did Linc.

Figuring that was as
good as she was going to get, Miley placed her hand over Rebecca’s belly and
pushed heat through her again.  A moment later, she was sighing her relief.  “It’s
fine.  The last bit I did finished the job, and the baby feels secure.”

Everybody froze.

“Baby?”  Griffin
finally growled, while Rebecca fell back into her mate’s arms and stared at
her.

“Baby?”

Miley looked between
the three shocked faces. 
Oops. 
“You didn’t know?  I’ve known for a
week or so, but I figured you were just keeping it close for a while, and I
couldn’t very well ask about it without explaining how I knew.”

“No.”  Rebecca’s hands
went to her still flat belly, and they were met with Griffin’s and Linc’s hands
as they all had the same idea.  “I haven’t . . . I would know if I was pregnant,
right?”  She looked at Miley, clearly overwhelmed.

“You aren’t really that
far along yet,” Miley said smiling at her friend’s bewildered look.  “And you
have been pretty busy with your three guys.”

Rebecca snorted out a
laugh that was skirting on hysterical.  “Right.”  Then she turned to the other
two.  “We have to tell Jacob.  He should know this with us.”

“We will,” Griffin said
then cleared the obstruction in his throat.  His eyes had softened to a deep
chocolate brown and he ran his hand down his mate’s hair with open tenderness. 
“After he’s done helping Logan interrogate the prisoner.”  At the reminder,
Miley watched as Griffin’s eyes flashed back to wolf gold, his eyes going to
his mate and then resting on her hand that still covered her belly where their
child slept.  His hand followed it, and once again covered the spot with her.

Again Linc moved to
stand shoulder to shoulder with Griffin.  He leaned down and kissed Becca
softly on the lips, and then each cheek, the love in the gesture obvious to
everyone watching. 

“First priority is to
see you safe.”  His eyes melted to smoke and he smiled into his mate’s eyes.  “Then
we get Jacob, and celebrate.”

Rebecca blew out a
breath and managed to smile shakily at her mates, before turning back to
Miley.  “Thank you, Isabella.”

“Miley,” she corrected
with her own smile, her eyes glassy from watching them together.  “Might as
well get my name back since clearly that ship has sailed.”

“Miley then.”  She
pulled away from her mates and hugged her, whispering in her ear as she did.  “You
ever need anything.  A lung, a kidney, you know
anything, ever
.  You
know where to find us.”

Miley looked from the alphas
to the hovering lions.  It felt good to have people around her who cared about
her and each other; the problem was, with so much gained, she had way too much
to lose, and so did they.  Instead of dwelling on it, where there was
absolutely nothing she could do about it at present, she smiled at her friend. 
“Ditto.”

Miley felt Lucas’ hand
bunch into the hair at her temple.  She turned to find his eyes on her. 

He was studying her
closely.  He seemed to be calm and controlled, but she could not miss that his
eyes continued to flash from cerulean to gold and back again.  “You know she is
healed and the baby is fine.  Time for you to rest.  Everything else can wait.”

She sighed, but she was
too tired to argue anymore, and that probably meant he was right.  “Alright, Viking. 
But just so you know, I was about to go asleep without you ordering it, anyway.”

“We’ll let you then,”
Rebecca said, stepping back into her mates.

Griffin eyed Lucas and
Miley on the bed.  “So, can we assume that you are tendering your resignation
and re-joining the Lionsgate pack?”

“Effective immediately,”
Lucas rumbled, his eyes doing that flash to gold.  He tightened the hold he had
on her hair; probably thinking it would stop her from arguing.

Griffin raised a brow
and looked directly at Miley.  “Effective immediately?”

Miley rolled her eyes,
but sighed another huge put upon sigh, her eyes meeting Griffin’s.  “Sorry
about the short notice.  And for bringing my troubles to your door in the first
place.  Hopefully, they’ll leave you alone once they know I’m gone.”

Griffin lost whatever small
glimmer of humor he had.  “Won’t matter if they do.  They sent armed humans to
my island to take a member of my pack forcefully off.”  His voice dropped to a gravelly
rumble, his eyes went cold.  “Even without the attempted murder of my mate, it
would be war.  But . . .,” he looked from her to Lucas, “the only question now
is who will get to the bastard first.”

“The wolves got the
human gunman,” Lucas rumbled, and Miley could feel the ratcheting tension, “but
Rickarts is mine.”

Griffin smiled with a
lot of teeth.  It was not a happy smile.  “He came
here
, and attacked
one of
my
pack.  For that alone he would pay.”  Griffin looked at
Rebecca, who was watching him worriedly.  He pulled her closer, his gold wolf
eyes so hot they seared.  “For this?” he asked no one in particular, his hand
at her side, his thumb rubbing over the place where she had been shot, “For
this, he dies in his own piss, begging for mercy that will not come.”

Rebecca caught her
breath at the rage he had been hiding, and Miley was right there with her,
thinking bad things for Rickarts’ future.  Then Lucas spoke, and with a mild
phrase and a will of solid steel, he confirmed it.

“I can do that.”