Claiming Valeria (3 page)

They discussed the night fae. They both figured Tyrus had sent
the two men after Rui to make sure no one got out of the house alive. Dion was furious,
but there wasn’t much he could do. Tyrus was a powerful fae, the son and heir of
the night fae prince himself. The clan was too weak to go up against him. All they
could do was take the bastard’s payment and then never work for him again.

And then Rui left Rock Run and went to a bar in nearby Grace
Harbor. He started to toss back shots of whiskey, but no amount of alcohol could
drown out Valeria’s accusing face and Merry’s small, clear voice asking,
Are
you a bad man?

But he couldn’t blame the whiskey. He was sober enough when the
sun fae queen, Cleia, strolled into the bar on the prowl for another fada lover,
dressed in a flirty little red nothing. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He’d
seen what she’d done to the men before him—how they returned drained, and fit for
little but fishing—but he hadn’t cared. All he wanted was to sink himself into that
long, golden body and sex his brains out.

So he went home with Cleia, intending to stay for a night. He
told himself it was to give Valeria a chance to cool down. But even then he knew
he was lying to himself. What he was really trying to do was forget all the men
and women he’d killed—and the children he’d left father- or motherless.

Are you a bad man?

Just one night, he told himself. What harm could that do?

But Cleia was a powerful fae, with a glamour that made her damn
near irresistible. He’d lost himself in their dark, hedonistic play. The night turned
to a week, and the week to a month.

Each evening he told himself:
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll go back
to my mate.

But each morning he found himself staying another day, caught
in the fae queen’s seductive net.

In the end, he stayed a year.

An entire fucking year.

He returned to find he’d lost his mate—and he had no one to blame
but himself.

The Present

Rui’s glass held only a few dregs of red wine. He raised
it. “This is empty,” he said in a soft voice that had the half-dressed blonde on
his lap—a human named Katie—scurrying to fill it.

They were in a small, shabby house near the Baltimore waterfront,
not unlike the one from which he’d taken Merry Jones. He ignored the twinge of guilt
that accompanied the thought of the little earth shifter.

He’d taken Merry back to Rock Run, and Valeria had adopted her
as her own. Both females seemed to be thriving. He had nothing to be guilty about.

If you discounted the fact that he’d murdered Merry’s father
and left Valeria for the sun fae queen practically on the eve of their mating ceremony.

Katie poured wine into his glass with hands that trembled. He
smoothed the frown from his face. She’d wanted to be with a fada, had come onto
him in the Full Moon Saloon with a mixture of boldness and innocence that had pricked
his jaded senses. But now that she had him, she was stiff and skittish, fear oozing
from her pores in acrid waves.

She wasn’t wrong to be afraid. But it irritated him all the same,
carving like a knife through his wine-induced haze.

Across the room, Jorge and Benny were occupying themselves with
three other women—a sea fada from Jamaica, a slumming night fae who’d conjured a
plush rug for them, and Rui’s own sometime-lover Beatriz. He eyed the limbs entwined
in a sensuous knot of dark and pale.
Was that even possible?

Like him, Jorge and Benny had been Rock Run warriors. Like him,
they’d been taken as lovers by Queen Cleia. And like him, they’d returned different
men: colder, more cynical, weaker in mind and body. Rui had turned to wine and women,
but Jorge and Benny had given in to their animals and left Rock Run to travel the
oceans in their dolphin forms.

Dion thought the two men lost for good. He’d be furious if he
found out they’d returned and were attempting to resurrect the bacchas right under
his nose. The wild, orgiastic rituals had been banned for a good reason—they brought
out the worst in fada, bringing their feral side to the fore so that a fada in the
grip of the
Delírio
—the Frenzy—was more beast than human.

Rui should’ve informed his alpha the first time he’d seen the
two men, late one night in a bar just a few miles from Rock Run. But he hadn’t,
and he wasn’t sure why, except that maybe it was his way of thumbing his nose at
Dion, who made no secret of his contempt for Rui and the way he lived his life now.

If Dion found out that Rui was here today, he’d be out on his
ass. Banished from Rock Run.

He stared into the dark red wine and wondered why that didn’t
bother him more. Lord knew, Dion had put up with enough from him. No longer fit
to be a warrior, Rui had become a fisher instead—the worst frigging one in the clan.
Somehow his Gift for tracking failed him when it came to fish.

Or maybe it was that he just didn’t give a damn.

Once, he and Dion had been inseparable, raised together from
the time they were pups. They’d been born days apart a little over a hundred turns
of the sun ago, when the clan still lived in Portugal. When Rui’s mother died a
few weeks after giving birth to him, it was Dion’s mother who’d nursed him along
with her son. And ten years later, when Rui’s father was killed in the battles over
territory that had led to the clan leaving for America, Dion’s parents had taken
him into their family—and their hearts. The two of them had played together, trained
as warriors together, chased their first women together.

When Dion took over as Rock Run alpha after his father’s death,
it had been a foregone conclusion that Rui be his second-in-command. Rui hadn’t
challenged Dion for leadership, although he knew his friend had half-expected it.
Whenever a new alpha took over, there was a period when everyone in the hierarchy
jockeyed for place. They both knew such a battle would be too close to call.

But frankly, Rui didn’t want the headaches that went with being
alpha. He was content to be second, a powerful position in its own right, and one
where his hunting and tracking abilities were best utilized. He and Dion had quickly
settled into a comfortable routine, working more as partners than alpha and second.

And then came the night he’d killed the half-blood.

Katie shifted uneasily on her feet, drawing his attention. He
ran his gaze over her with an almost clinical interest: blond hair, blue eyes, creamy
skin set off by two black scraps of lace that functioned as a bra and panties. He
crooked a finger at her.

“Come here.”

She flushed, the color tinting her pale breasts in an interesting
way, but obeyed. He drew her back onto his lap where she perched tensely, the fear
scent overpowering.

He growled lowly, but that made her go even stiffer.
Damn
it anyway
.

He hadn’t had a woman in over a month. At the bar he’d been more
than ready, but now all she was arousing in him was his instinct to protect. Not
exactly a turn on, especially since what she apparently required protection from
was him.

He tipped her chin up so she was forced to meet his eyes. “Why
so afraid,
menina
?
I don’t bite.” Not unless the woman asked nicely.

“I’m not—”

He placed a finger on her soft pink lips. “I can scent a lie.”

Katie gulped and nodded. “S-Sorry. I just want to go, please.”

A slap sounded across the room. Katie flinched and darted a glance
at the tangle of bodies on the rug. The night fae was on the bottom, her pale buttocks
marked by someone’s hand. Jorge speared his fingers in her black hair and jerked
back her head. The night fae moaned, caught between pleasure and pain, and Katie
pressed her hands to her mouth.

Deus
, what had he been thinking, to bring her here? It
was like introducing a baby seal into a pool of killer whales. But she’d begged
to go to a baccha and this was the closest thing these days.

Rui opened his arms wide. “You’re not a prisoner here.”

“Thank you,” she whispered and leapt from his lap.

“
De nada
,” he muttered dryly but she was already out of
the room. He pulled on a T-shirt and shorts and followed.

Out of nowhere an intense uneasiness swept over him. He opened
the front door and scanned the dusk, all his senses straining to detect anything
out of the ordinary. Nothing, save for the young toughs hanging out on the corner.
They knew what he was, were careful not to meet his eyes.

Still uneasy, he shut the door.

Katie emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed. At the sight
of him waiting in the hall, her eyes widened and he scented another spike of fear.

He blew out a breath. “Calm down, woman. I’m not letting you
walk back to the bar alone in this neighborhood—especially not now that it’s getting
dark.”

She swallowed noisily and ducked her head. “Thank you.”

He slid on a pair of sandals and exited first, sending a hard
glance in the direction of the young humans on the corner that ensured they wouldn’t
so much as look at Katie, before standing back and waving a hand toward the sidewalk.

“After you,
querida
.”

When he returned fifteen minutes later, the others were still
at it. He considered joining them, but he was still on edge. He rubbed his nape,
watching as Jorge crawled over Benny and nipped his ear with a rough tenderness.

Rui’s brow raised.
So that’s how it is.
He’d known the
two of them had been Cleia’s lovers at the same time, but he hadn’t realized that
the two of them had become lovers as well.

Beatriz lifted her head. Seeing he was alone, she rose from the
tangle and came across the room to him, all smooth, dusky skin and sensuous curves,
her full red lips curved in a bold, almost predatory smile.

As she reached him, she shook her head in mock-dismay. “Did that
silly little human leave you unsatisfied,
meu amor
?”

He just looked at her. Undeterred, she interlaced her fingers
around the back of his neck and rose on her toes to nibble at his lips, her lush
body pressed against his from chest to thighs. Beneath his shorts, his cock sprang
to life. Beatriz purred and rubbed her pelvis against him. With a growl, he gripped
her bare ass and thrust his tongue into her mouth.

Beatriz murmured contentedly and opened to him, sucking his tongue
deeper and twining a long leg around his thigh.

Without taking his mouth from hers, he kicked off his shorts
and then hitched her higher so that both her legs were wrapped around him and walked
with her until her back was against the nearest wall. He kissed her, hard and savage,
his erection thrusting against her moist center. She moaned and dug sharp fingernails
into his nape.

Taking her hands, he set them against the wall on either side
of her head. “Leave them there.” He set her down to drag off his T-shirt. She disobeyed
him to run her palms over his bare torso. Busy fingers pinched his nipples, teased
the wiry black curls on his chest.

He grabbed her jaw and pressed her head against the wall. “I
said, leave your hands on the wall.”

She moistened her full lips and placed her hands back on the
wall. “I’m sorry.”

He kept one hand on her jaw and with the other, fingered a large
rose-brown nipple. “This is what you want,
sim
?”
He pinched, a
bit too hard. “To be punished a little, hm?”

“Goddess, yes.” She moaned, her musk saturating the air. “Punish
me, Rui. Make me sorry.”

Taking in her slit eyes, her dazed expression—from drink or drugs
or both—his lip curled in disgust. Not at Beatriz—Lord knew, he had no right to
sneer at anyone—but at himself. At the lazy, wine-soaked womanizer he’d become.

“Rui?” She pouted up at him. “Is something wrong?”

He shook his head. “Not a thing.” Grasping her ass, he hefted
her higher and thrust into her. Hard.

Grr…yip…Yeow!

Valeria glanced at the ball of pups rolling around on the rug:
Merry, in her jaguar form, and Trina and Marco, her two best friends, as otters.

“No claws and teeth,” she reminded them. The three halted long
enough to nod, their furry faces the picture of innocence, and then with a mutual
growl threw themselves back into the fray.

Valeria shook her head, but she was smiling as she returned to
the snack she was preparing in the kitchenette of her apartment. It was good to
see the little ones enjoying themselves. The whole base was in an uproar. Their
alpha, Lord Dion, had been kidnapped by the sun fae when they’d teleported into
his quarters to rescue their queen, Cleia, whom he’d been holding prisoner. The
children didn’t really understand what was happening, but they knew their alpha
was missing and the adults tense, making them anxious as well.

Marco and Trina’s parents, both warriors, had been called to
duty, so Valeria had volunteered to take the children overnight. As a fisher, she
wasn’t much use right now, but at least this way their parents wouldn’t worry.

They had to get Dion back
. She briefly closed her eyes.
Maybe he shouldn’t have gone up against the sun fae, but she knew he’d believed
he had no choice.

She’d never forgotten how kind the alpha had been after word
came that Rui had chosen to live with the sun fae queen. Valeria had waited a month,
and then asked Dion for an apartment in the wing where her friend Sabela and her
family lived.

The alpha had given her a sympathetic look.

She dug her fingernails into her palms. Sympathy she could take,
but it was humiliating to see the pity lurking in his eyes.

“You don’t have to move out,” he told her. “No one expects you
to.”

“Thanks, but I’d like to be nearer to my friends.” And she wanted
out of Rui’s quarters. He was everywhere: his clothes in the dresser; his spicy
male scent; the sturdy wood furniture…even the shaving gear on the bathroom shelf.

Oh, yeah, she needed to move.

“Then the apartment is yours.” Dion enfolded Valeria in his arms.
Nothing sexual, just an alpha comforting one of his own. His scent enveloped her,
calm and reassuring. He smoothed a big hand down her back and something in her loosened.
In that moment, she knew she’d been fully accepted into the Rock Run clan.

She sighed and rested her head on his broad chest. She’d felt
so alone ever since Rui had left. Her parents had stayed a couple of weeks—her father
had even offered to go to the sun fae and kick Rui’s ass for her—but they’d never
intended to stay in America permanently. They’d urged Valeria to return to Portugal
with them, but she’d seen how uncomfortable they were around Merry. Earth and water
shifters were like oil and water, and on top of that, Merry had night fae in her
as well. The Rock Run clan was younger, less steeped in tradition than the clans
back home. Merry had a better chance of being accepted here.

And Valeria hadn’t been ready to give up on Rui. Not then.

So she’d stayed.

Valeria realized she was staring down at the apple in her hand
without moving. She resumed slicing, her stomach a knot of worry. Rock Run was hanging
on by the skin of its teeth. The loss of the alpha could be a killing blow.

A knock sounded on the front door, and Sabela poked her head
inside. “Oh, good, you’re here.”

She sauntered the rest of the way into the apartment with the
languid grace of a pampered koi, tall and striking with black hair and a short
dress in an eye-popping chartreuse. But that relaxed, colorful exterior was matched
by a sharp wit. It was Sabela who bargained with both the fae and the humans to
sell Rock Run’s vinho verde, getting the best possible price. More than that, she
had a heart as wide as a river.

Valeria didn’t know what she would’ve done without her these
past two years.

“Any news?” Valeria set a plate of apples and cheese on the rug
for the pups before crossing the room to her friend. They kissed each other’s cheeks,
European-style.

“Nothing you don’t already know.” Sabela glanced at the happily
munching pups. “I see Merry’s okay.”

The knot in Valeria’s stomach twisted a little tighter. “Why
wouldn’t she be?”

Sabela drew her into the kitchenette. “The Baltimore earth alpha
was here,” she said in a low voice.

“Lord Adric? In the base?” Valeria’s heart gave a hard thump.
“But how?”

“He came in with the sun fae. He must’ve been the one who tracked
Queen Cleia to Rock Run.”

“But no one said—”

“Luis wants to keep it quiet for now. People are upset enough
about the sun fae.” Luis had become Dion’s second after Rui had been ensnared by
Queen Cleia. “But he was here, Valeria. Rodolfo told me.”

“
Madre de Deus
,” she breathed. Adric was alpha of Merry’s
mother’s clan. He had every right to demand her back. Everyone knew he was determined
to rebuild his clan. He’d be eager to claim any child, even a mixed-blood like her
Merry.

Or worse, execute her for being a mongrel. Adric had a reputation
for being ruthless, and some fada were as fastidious about their bloodlines as the
fae.

“I know.” Her friend’s dark eyes were somber.

Sabela had been with Valeria through the worst of it, when not
only had she lost Rui to Queen Cleia, she’d suddenly become a mother—of a sad-eyed
earth shifter. No one knew better than Sabela how hard it had been, but Valeria
had never regretted a moment of it. Merry had become her daughter in every way that
counted.

Agitated, she paced the floor. Merry was
hers
. No one
was going to take her away.

She threw up her hands. “What was Lord Dion thinking, to capture
a fae? He was asking for trouble.”

Then she instantly felt disloyal, especially after the welcome
the alpha had extended her and Merry. But it was true; Dion had been holding the
sun fae queen prisoner for the past two weeks, believing she was somehow sucking
energy from Rock Run’s men. And not just the men—the women and children too. According
to Dion, it was either stop Cleia—or stand by while one by one, the Rock Run
fada sickened and even died.

But no one, not even the people who’d disagreed with Dion’s decision
to kidnap the queen, had expected this. The base was concealed by a powerful spell
which hid its location from everyone, fae or not. Adric and the sun fae
shouldn’t have been able to find it, let alone get in.

“It was the only way,” Sabela said. “You’ve seen Luis—how weak
he is. And now his son, little Xavier, is sick too, with the same wasting disease
as the others.”

“No.” Valeria swallowed sickly. “Not Xavier.” He was barely more
than a toddler.

“
Sim
. And then there’s Rui—”

“Don’t,” Valeria interrupted. “Just…don’t.” She didn’t need anyone
to tell her what a drunken S.O.B. her “mate” had become after his year with Cleia.
She saw it every day. She swallowed over what felt like a jagged rock lodged in
her throat.

“Sorry.” Sabela met her eyes in wordless understanding. “But
things have been bad ever since the queen started taking our men as lovers. The
alpha didn’t have a choice. He had to do something before she wiped us out.”

“Adric can’t have scented her. She was in the creche with the
other children when the sun fae came for Cleia. And Lord Dion’s quarters are on
the other end of the base.”

“That’s good. As long as he doesn’t know she’s here, she’s safe.”

“I can’t let him find out about Merry.” Valeria stared at Sabela
unseeingly. “I can’t. I should’ve taken her and gone back to Portugal as soon as
I realized Rui wasn’t coming back. But no, I had to stay, hoping he’d—”

“Stop it.” Sabela grabbed her shoulders. “You stayed for Merry,
too, remember? And you were right—look how much everyone loves her. She’s safe here
at the base. Adric doesn’t know she’s here, and who’s going to tell him? And don’t
forget, the earth shifters have never come looking for her. If they wanted her,
wouldn’t we have heard something?”

Valeria glanced at Merry, who was staring at her, eyes big, sensing
her distress. She took a deep breath and sent her a smile. Reassured, Merry went
back to her snack.

“That’s true,” she allowed.

Sabela gave her a quick squeeze and released her. “Look, I’m
sorry I scared you, but I thought you should know.”

“Thank you. And don’t worry, I’ll be all right.”

“Hey, we’re all on edge tonight. But I had another reason for
coming—Luis has called a clan meeting for after dinner. You can leave Merry at the
creche—they’re going to hold a sleepover for them so that as many of the adults
can come to the meeting as possible. It’ll settle them, too.”

Valeria nodded. With the alpha gone, the children were upset.
The best thing was to distract them with something fun like a sleepover, and they’d
be happier in a group with the other young.

“Now,” continued Sabela, “why don’t you pour us both a glass
of wine? There’s still a half hour until dinner.”

When Valeria returned with the wine—some of Rock Run’s own vinho
verde—she was on the couch in a very Sabela-like pose, half-reclined against the
cushioned arm, one slim brown leg crossed over the other. Valeria handed her a glass
and took a seat at the couch’s other end.

“
Obrigada
.” Sabela took a sip and then slanted Valeria
a glance. “There’s something you should know before the meeting.”

Somehow she knew it concerned Rui. Her fingers tightened on the
wine glass. “Oh?”

“You know they called in the fishers when it happened.”

Valeria nodded. “I was out on the river myself when they sounded
the alarm.”

“Well, Rui didn’t come in with everyone else. No one knows where
he is.”

“So? How is that different from any other day?” She meant to
sound indifferent, but it came out bitter. Still, everyone knew Rui made only a
token effort at fishing. If he and Dion hadn’t been such old friends, he’d have
long since been asked to leave Rock Run.

“It’s not.” Sabela studied the pale yellow wine, avoiding Valeria’s
eyes. “But people are saying that someone must have helped the sun fae. They couldn’t
have teleported into Dion’s apartment unless they knew exactly where it was—and
that that was where he was holding Cleia.”

“No.” Valeria’s denial was instinctive. “He wouldn’t. He doesn’t
even
like
Cleia. I didn’t see him talk to her once the whole two weeks she
was here.” And she’d been watching, even though she’d pretended to herself that
she hadn’t been.

Sabela’s teeth worried her lower lip. “I don’t believe it myself.
But it looks bad. He did spend a year with her, and he’s the only person missing.”

“No,” she said again. “Not Rui.”

But she couldn’t help wondering. He’d always had a hard edge,
but his time with the sun fae had honed it knife-sharp. He behaved as if their nascent
mate bond had been severed—and perhaps it had, for him—but she still felt the connection.
Not all the time, and when she did it was a mere shadow of what it could be. But
when she did, the emotions emanating from him were so cynical, so full of self-revulsion
that it tore at her heart.

She hated his drinking, hated how he took woman after woman,
some of them right in front of her as if she were less than dirt to him. Sometimes
it made her cry, and sometimes she wanted to slap him—hard—until he snapped out
of whatever black pit he was wallowing in. Couldn’t he see that he was using alcohol
and women as a band-aid? That he could indulge as much as he wanted but it wouldn’t
erase the darkness?

But somewhere underneath was the man who’d been Dion’s second.
A strong, proud warrior who’d done everything he could to keep the Rock Run clan
going. She refused to believe he’d changed that much.

“It wasn’t him,” she asserted. “I
know
it. We’re not mated,
but I still feel him.” Sometimes, anyway.

Sabela set her glass on the coffee table to hug Valeria. “I believe
you. The alpha’s like a brother to him. He’ll probably stomp into the meeting and
tell everyone they’re out of their fucking minds.”

Valeria made a sound that was half-laugh, half sob. “That sounds
like Rui.”

She let herself sag against Sabela, their cheeks touching, her
animal—sad and lost at losing its mate even after two years—craving a reassuring
touch. “Not that I care,” she muttered.

“Of course not,” her friend said agreeably.

They sat there for a few moments and then Valeria sat back
up. “I’d better get these three ready for dinner.” She came to her feet and clapped
her hands at the pups. “Time to eat. Everybody back to their girl or boy.” When
they whined without shifting, she added, “Did I mention that if you’re good, there’s
a sleepover at the creche tonight?”

Three enthusiastic yelps split the air. Iridescent sparkles shimmered
over their pelts and for a few moments, the pups were nothing but glittering points
of light, stars picked out in the air above the rug.

As always, Merry’s shift took longer than the others. When she
finished, she lay on the rug, panting. Trina and Marco were used to it, but Valeria
always held her breath until she completed the change. By age seven, a fada should
be able to move easily from one form to the other. Was it because she was an earth
shifter—or was there something wrong with her?

But then she was up and joining the other two in chanting, “We
get to go to a sleepover. We get to go to a sleepover.”

“Thank you, Mama Ria.” Merry grabbed Valeria around the waist.
“I love you.”

Valeria bent down to cup her sharp little face. Goddess, she
adored this child. Losing her now would be like losing a piece of her heart. She
rubbed her nose against Merry’s. “I love you, too,
querida
. So much.”

She straightened up and spoke over the din the other two were
making. “All right, you three, what did you do with your clothes?”