Claws (5 page)

Tania avoided his eyes and he tensed.
He could always tell when she hid something from him. “I don’t know
where it was. It was dark and sometimes I was aware; sometimes
not.”

“We’ll talk more tomorrow. I want to
know what you saw there. I have many questions,” he said and his
blue eyes appeared sad. “I’m married in my mind and my heart,
Tania. Vivvie is my life. I know you think you were betrayed. I
can’t help what I feel now.”

“I will never accept this, Elijah!” she
cried bitterly. “We belong together!”

“I’m mated to another. If you don’t
understand that then you will be hurt, Tania,” he said uncaringly
and walked away, shifting and bolting away from her.

She watched his paws flying across the
meadow, rage reflected in her eyes to hear him profess to adore his
new mate. The desire to find his mate and rip her apart made her
hands begin to tremble once more. She squeezed her palms together
tightly to stop it. Usually that worked. Tonight it did
not.

~ ~ ~

Vivvie stroked her daughter’s fur as
Elaina dozed. Tears left her eyes red and swollen, brightening her
gaze. After she thought of everything involved; she couldn’t do it.
She flushed the pill down the toilet and threw away the evidence.
There was no sense in Eli realizing how desperate she
was.

She knew her actions would never be
forgiven. These laws were rigid and unbending. Abortion was against
the law unless it endangered the Mother or she became feral or
unhinged during breeding and would hurt her young.

She had the unhinged part down. The
thought of having another litter made her panic. She hadn’t gotten
a handle on caring for the twins yet, saw the dangers she protected
them from daily. Her two got into so much mischief she could see
adding more to the mix would cause her to lose it.

Their immortality made the other
nonexistent now. No, he would never allow her to end the pregnancy
even though he had a child with his own ability in Devon to take
over the tribe one day. Her husband adored all his children; talked
to them and bonded with them in the womb. He could not bear to hear
their screams if she aborted, he told her once when they talked
about it.

His gift made it impossible for him not
to hear them, feel their horror and pain, and be unable to help
them. She was being selfish by asking that of him, she knew now.
She was too upset to find out she was pregnant again to remember
that one little factor.

Eli went out for a run and hadn’t come
back. The sudden desire to hunt came upon her. It usually calmed
her down as nothing else did these days. She left her daughter
dozing and left the suite. She hurried to the elevators of the
underground compound.

Once up top, her night vision adjusted
and looked for her husband along the tree line. She knew where he
went when he had something on his mind. She removed her clothes and
shifted into her panther form, running down to the rock
ledge.

She stood at the edge, picking up his
scent from earlier. Then she picked up the other scent. She sniffed
and growled low. The impassioned, heady, and musky feline scent of
the other female was obvious. Fury filled her. This scent was
secreted when a female was aroused, alerting the male of their
interest in mating.

Vivvie was too lost in sniffing the
ground to gather evidence her mate gave into that impulse to hear
the sleek panther moving stealthily up behind her. The female moved
in from the shadows. The panther lowered its head, ears back as it
made ready to pounce.

Vivvie worked herself up, her emotions
blinding her to the danger. Low snarls of fury covered the sounds
of claws scraping against the rock ledge behind her, of soft,
urgent panting.

She was sure her husband betrayed her,
heartsick and seething, when she was struck from behind. Her paws
grabbed at the rock ledge to find purchase. She slid, snarling and
flailing before she was tumbling over the side.

~ ~ ~

Eli stood over his mate with a ravaged
look. Jericho put a hand on his shoulder and he flung it off. His
rage was a palatable thing; thick and heavy in the air. His eyes
were glowing and fierce with emotion.

Vivvie was unconscious lying unmoving
on the stainless steel table in Jericho’s clinic. Almost every bone
in her body broke in the fall. Their children were lost. The
regeneration was just starting when they found her a day later. It
would be many days before she woke up and could tell them what
happened.

“She’ll feel like shit for a couple
days, but she’ll live, Eli,” Jericho said and frowned at his
leader’s dark expression. “The fall will leave no lasting damage.
You know that. Already her bones fuse. The healing is going
well.”

“Did she fall or jump, Jericho? Did you
sense anything?” Eli asked harshly and glared down at her unmoving
frame.

“I can’t sense her feelings anymore,
Eli,” he replied sadly. “I haven’t been able to since the children
were born.”

“I can’t read her thoughts anymore
either,” Eli confirmed softly, staring at Vivvie’s pale, bruised
face with a furious expression, recalling her anger to be pregnant
once more. His own feelings were very obvious.

“Whatever you’re thinking, Eli, you’re
wrong!” Jericho snapped and his yellow green gaze glowed fiercely
as he realized his leader’s assumptions just by his emotions. “She
wouldn’t have done that!”

Eli swung to face him. He withdrew the
empty pharmaceutical package from his pocket and tossed it onto the
table next to her. “Did you give that to her?”

Jericho saw it and picked it up. He met
Eli’s tortured gaze and he shook his head. “She came to me and told
me she wasn’t ready for more young. I told her to talk to you. I
refused to do anything without your consent. You know I wouldn’t do
that, Eli!”

“It appears Vivvie did it on her own,
Jericho. I found that in the trash bin in our bathroom.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. Let her
wake up and finish healing and ask her what happened.”

“There’s no need!” Eli growled and
turned and stalked out of the treatment room.

Jericho stared down at Vivvie sadly,
wondering why her thoughts and feelings were hidden from them. Even
Ty could not see her future.

Vivvie either developed some new power
they’d never heard of or the broken prophecy when her children were
born changed her somehow. Either way, they couldn’t verify her
innocence or guilt in this. Eli assumed she took the morning after
pill and jumped to cover her actions.

Jericho tucked the sheet around her and
opened the IV line to allow the pain medication to flow faster. He
knew after his own fall off the cliff when he fought with Ryken; it
would be days before she was up and around. She might wish to die
when she was on the receiving end of Eli’s wrath then.

In his gut, Jericho knew she didn’t
jump off that cliff. Vivvie might not have wanted more children
right away, but not enough to do this. Eli was too hurt and upset
to see that, thinking the worst.

Jericho wasn’t certain she didn’t take
the pill. She did take the time to steal it. He blamed himself for
not listening and talking to her more that night a week before. As
much as he wanted to side with her in this, her actions raised
enough questions.

He sat with her, wondering what she was
doing at the rock ledge that night. He was troubled none of them
could read or sense Vivvie anymore. It might have helped her cause
now.

Jericho never saw Eli so angry or hurt
before. He had no choice in what he had to do now. The tribal laws
were clear. She would learn of it when she woke up. Under their
laws; the killing of her unborn offspring meant her status would be
stripped and she would be exiled from the tribe.

~ ~ ~

Vivvie groaned and opened one eye,
seeing the fluorescent lights over her. She stiffened from the pain
she felt from head to toe. She tried to sit up but strong arms held
her down. She looked up, seeing Jericho there. He wore a look of
sorrow.

“I’m hurting really bad. What happened,
Jericho?” she asked in a choked voice.

“You fell from Eli’s thinking spot,” he
supplied gently. “Do you remember anything?”

Vivvie’s hand went to her abdomen then.
Her eyes filled with stark grief. “Did I lose my
babies?”

“Yes, I’m so sorry, Vivvie. They were
lost in the fall,” he told her with a pain-filled stare. “Did you
jump from there?”

Vivvie stared at Jericho in confusion.
She recalled sniffing the area, then recalled the hard force of
being barreled into, then nothing. “Jump? What…what do you mean? I
didn’t jump! I was pushed!”

Jericho looked surprised and looked
over at that moment towards the door. “Did you take the pill you
got from my office?”

Vivvie’s eyes filled with tears,
disgusted to be reminded of what she almost did. “No, I couldn’t do
it. Not without talking to Eli first. I knew it would be
wrong.”

Jericho looked beyond the table again.
Vivvie craned her neck in that direction, seeing her husband
standing there. Eli didn’t approach, just stared at her accusingly.
She was growing more confused by the moment, still grieving for the
miscarriage.

“Vivvie, you came and asked me to give
you the pill behind his back,” Jericho reminded her. “Are you sure
you didn’t take it?”

Vivvie pushed herself up onto her
elbows and glared up at him. “I didn’t take the damn thing! I
wasn’t thrilled about having a boat load of kids in two months but
I chickened out. What is this all about?”

“Who would have pushed you off the
cliff, Vivvie?” Eli asked harshly as he came forward, his eyes so
cold she flinched from the way he looked at her. “Is that the best
you can come up with? Your thoughts on having my children were
well-known to me that night.”

“It’s the truth!” she cried and saw his
eyes ice over. “I was pushed! I didn’t see who it was!”

“Vivvie, we detected no other scent but
yours at the ledge,” Jericho informed her gently and pushed her
back down, coming between her and his leader, seeing the violence
in Eli.

Vivvie saw Eli’s angry, unrelenting
features and realized what he thought in an instant. “I swear to
God I didn’t do this, Eli! You have to believe me! I changed my
mind and flushed it down the toilet!”

Eli raised an eyebrow. His eyes were
cold. “The proof against you was found, Vivvie. Why you felt the
need to jump too only makes me realize how dearly you wanted to get
rid of my children. Well, you won’t have to worry about that
anymore.”

“What do you mean?” she cried and
struggled against Jericho to sit up.

“From this day forward you’re renounced
as my mate,” he began in a toneless voice. “You are exiled from
here. Jericho will fulfill your wish and make sure you can never
bear another of our kind.”

Vivvie stared at him in shock as the
edict was given. She shrank from his unfeeling stare. “Please! Eli,
please don’t do this! You have to listen to me!”

“I’m done listening to you, Vivvie,” he
said coldly and turned on his heel and left.

Jericho looked down at her with a sad
expression. “Try and get some rest. I increased the meds. I have to
run into Denver to get some anesthetic for the procedure. We can
put that off a day.”

“I don’t want it done! I don’t want to
sleep!” she cried and felt tears falling. “Why won’t he listen to
me, Jericho?”

“Vivvie, he’s hurting pretty bad,”
Jericho replied and looked sad. “There’s nothing I can do. He’s our
chief. I can’t go against him. It doesn’t matter what I
believe.”

“He won’t listen to me!”

“What were you thinking stealing that
pill, Vivvie?” he asked and shook his head. “You have to admit; it
looks pretty bad.”

“I wasn’t thinking at all, Jericho!”
she snapped and sat up, groaning at the aches and pains. “I
wouldn’t have done it. He can think what he wants. I flushed it
down the toilet. I don’t care how it looks.”

“It’s our law unfortunately,” he
stated. “A woman can’t abort without the permission of her mate and
the chief. In your case; that’s just Eli.”

“Will he really kick me
out?”

“It was voted on while you were
unconscious, Vivvie. It’s done. The tribe voted for your exile.
After the procedure; you’re to be taken to the bottom of the
mountain.”

“And go where?” she asked, paling to
realize she had nowhere to go. Everyone she knew and loved thought
her dead. She had no money, no means; nothing.

Jericho couldn’t finish. He looked
upset and left the treatment room; shutting off the light. Vivvie
stared into space, unseeing, unable to think of leaving this place.
The fear she felt made her tremble as she got off the
table.

Her legs were a bit wobbly and unsteady
when she slid off the treatment table. She managed to make it out
of the clinic. She avoided being seen as she made her way to their
suite.

He wasn’t here, she knew; sniffing the
air with a pang of hurt. Her children weren’t there either. A wave
of sadness washed over her to realize her exile meant she left
Devon and Elaina behind. Eli closed himself off to listening to
anything she said.