Impassable Force: Force of Nature Series (14 page)

Tristian picked her up into his arms
, and she had no strength to protest. It wasn’t just when she was going to die tonight, it was how quickly. He put her on her bed a few seconds later, and she felt her body begin its process of closing down. She looked up at him when he kissed her forehead softly.

“You’ve everything you need, love
?” She nodded at him and watched as he moved to the door. She stopped him with a word.

“You’ll watch over them for me?” He nodded
, and she could see his tears, and her heart hurt for this man as much as it did for her children. “You can’t say you’ll miss me again. You’ll have me blubbering like an old woman.”

“I shall not say it then. But you’ll know the truth of my words.” He moved back to the bed and took her hand into his and kissed it.
“You are the greatest woman I’ve ever met. You’re leaving a legacy behind that all will envy. Your name will be said with reverence and love. Your children’s children’s children will talk about you as if they had known you. And in a way, I suppose they will. You can die in peace, my lady. For you have done so much.”

She laid back on the silken pillow that had been hers and her mate
’s on their wedding night and closed her eyes. A small sound had her opening them again, and there he stood. Her love, her mate. The one who had died so young but had given her the world.

“You’re ready for me then?” She smiled at him and stood up. Nancy was amazed at how good she felt and wondered if the vampire had given her his blood. “Nay,
‘tis your new life that gives you this. See? You are mine now and have moved from this world to the next. I have missed you.”

Turning
, she saw her body at rest. Breath no longer moved her chest up and down, and she knew that she had died peacefully. Looking back at her true love, she held him in her arms as she thought they moved from this world to another. But when they started away, she felt the tug of the spoon. Moving toward it, she knew what they were to do.

“Aye, we’re her magic.” The
y stood in front of Molly as she held the spoon to her heart. The others stood nearby, and Nancy knew that she’d be able to watch over them and help this girl do so. All at once, they were sliding into it and being greeted by all their families. It was them, all of them that had helped her all these years as she would her own children. Nancy felt at peace and knew that everything would be fine now.

~~~

CJ found Austin in his mother’s room again. Since the funeral two days ago, he’d been in there more often than not. The man was dying inside and all of them could see it. CJ moved into the room and sat on his lap. He held her, but she knew that he wasn’t really seeing her. He had been so close to his mother that he was hurting more than any of them were.

“I found her photo album today. It was as if she’d put it out for me to see. I looked over her old pictures and saw you and your brothers in a lot of
the past faces.” He nodded but stared at the bed. They would never take this room apart but leave it as she’d left it. “Did you know that your dad had a brother?”

“Yes. He died when he was small. I don’t know from what
, but I wasn’t born yet. Mom said he’d been young, but he’d never shifted.” He shifted under her weight and tried to set her away from him, but she wouldn’t let him. “I’ll be down for dinner soon. I just want to sit here for a little while longer.”

“Dinner was nine hours ago, Austin. We’re now on our way to breakfast.
And the children want to know if you’ll come hug them goodbye as they head off to school. Or will you ignore their grief for your own?” He looked at her, and she knew he was trying to gauge if she was kidding or not. But he finally nodded his head and they both stood up. As he left the room with her, he turned back once more to look at it.

“I’d never been in here when she was alive. I had no idea she’d done this to it.” The room was covered in framed photographs.
They covered every flat surface too. Some of them were old, and a good many of them were new. There was even one of Randy and Molly when they’d been over for dinner the week before the pack meeting. She’d kept them with her even in her death. He was glad now that she’d come up to rest and had left them peacefully in here and not on the ground somewhere.

“She loved to take pictures.
And she’d get frames from us every time we went into town. I think I would pick up more frames for her than I would groceries for us in any given week.” Austin nodded as they made their way to the stairs. “Some of those pictures are in the album I found. I think she had prints made of the ones she loved.”

“
She did. Mom had me take a bunch of them to the print shop to be reprinted. I’d had most of them framed for her while I was there thinking it would be a nice treat for her. She fussed at me for two days. Said that some pictures had to pick their frames, not have some man shoving them in a wooden box like they needed to be there. I had to take them all apart for her and vowed never to do that again. I can see now that she was right. Some of the pictures I had had framed look so much better in the ones she put them in.” He laughed a little, something she’d not heard him do for a while. “I miss her so much.”

She started to tell him they all did
, but they were moving into the kitchen then. She’d been surprised when his brothers had shown up an hour ago, and since she’d been gone getting Austin, more family had shown up. They filled the kitchen like they did most spaces, with loud voices and a deep love for each other. There were even a few arguments about what to have for a snack, which usually meant an entire meal.

“Ah, there you are. We thought you’d never get down here.”
Gordon handed him his daughter and a spoon with some liquid in it. “Taste this. Molly swears she followed the recipe to the letter, but I think she left something out. Like flavor. It sort of tastes like water with salt in it.”

“You know I’m standing right here.”
Molly slapped Gordon and took the spoon from Austin. “I told them I couldn’t cook. And they insisted that I could because I’d been given the spoon. And it has flavor. I put about a cup of that spice in it I saw on the counter.” She laughed with them all, and Austin declared it unfit. Which she supposed was what Molly had been working toward. If you couldn’t cook, then no one would ask you to.

Molly
hit Austin in the head and grinned at him. Austin looked like he was going to hit her. Then his face broke into a smile. “She gave it to you then? I suppose you think you’ll be able to get away with it as much as she did. But it doesn’t work that way. She was my mom, and you are my sister. Big difference.”

“I do
, as a matter of fact, and why shouldn’t I? When she handed it to me, she said I was being given the power of protection and that no one was to harm me or face the squad of children.” Austin looked at her before looking at Molly again.

“Squad of children?” About that time
, the door flew open and Austin was brought down by the squad. The children from the entire family tackled him to the floor, kissing and hugging every part of him that they could get to. When he started laughing, the children doubled their efforts until parents started to pull them off him. Austin laid there for several seconds before he spoke to her. He held onto her leg when she started to move out of his reach.

“This was your idea
, I suppose?” She shook her head at him and watched as two of the men pulled him up. “You didn’t have anything to do with this?”

“Oh
, I didn’t say that. I said I didn’t come up with the idea.” They looked at Phil when he cleared his throat. “He did it.”

“I had to get you down here. I have to talk to you all.” CJ didn’t like the look on his face and nearly told him some other time. But he shook his head. “I
t’s time. I have to read the will. Once we get the children off to school. It’s important that we do this, not just for us but for Nancy as well. She would be pissed if she knew that we’d put if off because we were hurting.”

An hour later they were seated around the large dining room table and CJ wanted again to tell Phil no. They had sobered up after he’d told them why he’d done this and now it was time. She looked at Austin when he reached for h
er hand. She could feel his pain like it was her own. And she supposed it was. They had both loved her so much. Looking around the room, she could see that the rest of them were holding hands as well. This might be harder on them than her funeral had been or finding her that morning.

She’d found her.
CJ had called up to her room twice and when she didn’t answer, she went up to see if she was going into town with her. They’d been planning this trip to the mall for a few days, and Molly was going to meet them after her interview. CJ stared at her for several minutes, knowing that she had to check on her but knew the moment she’d opened the door that she was gone. It was the smile on her face, the serene smile that had her believing that Nancy had simply slipped away in her sleep and had not suffered at all. CJ looked down the hall when she heard Austin coming toward her.

He’d stopped moving when he saw her. CJ was sure he saw she was crying
, and he dropped to his knees. Tears fell down his cheeks unchecked as he kept telling her no. Over and over he cried out until CJ finally went to him. Helping him up, he staggered with her to Nancy’s room to see his mother. They both held her hands while they waited for Reid. She was glad now that he’d been the one to come to them and not some stranger. Reid had made sure that she was taken away and things were set into motion to have her buried. Austin had talked to him after the funeral and CJ still had no idea what he’d said to the young man.

“This is the last will and testament of Nancy Gordon Force, wife of Austin Dallas Force, deceased.” Phil looked at them all
and CJ realized that this was going to make things final, more so than her being put into the ground had done. “It’s not as bad as you think. She was a very wealthy woman after her mate died and never touched it in all her years. But she did with it what she thought best. It’s what I would have done; it’s what I think she had planned even before she called me to help her.”

He handed them each an envelope
, and CJ noticed that even Molly got one. As they held them, Phil went on to explain that all her money was to be divided up among the grandchildren, and each of them were to use it to start something. She had anticipated that there would be in the neighborhood of about seventy, Phil said with a straight face. She’d provided for them in ways she thought would make them remember her.

“
Nancy thought if they ever wanted to have their own business, then it would be their start money. Seed money, she called it.” CJ nodded. She’d heard her call her cookie jar money just that. “And the things she wanted especially for you, she put there in those envelopes. I don’t know what is in them, for those were sealed when she handed them to me. She handed me Molly’s just before the pack meeting. Each of you are to keep what is there to your heart, where she said it would do you the most good. The old bat even gave me one. I found it in the envelope when I opened it yesterday.”

No one opened their envelope.
Tears were flowing freely now as some of them looked at their treasure and some even held it to their hearts. CJ knew that she’d wait to read hers, coming to grips with this way hard enough. She’d loved that woman almost as much as she did her own grandmother. She traced each letter of her name with her finger and thought of the wonderful woman who had written it for her. Her name across the seal made her heart ache a little more.

“I’d like to propose a toast.”
Everyone stood up when Austin did. He held his glass high, and CJ thought it appropriate that it was just a glass of water. Nancy would have loved it. “To the greatest woman ever to touch our lives. May each of us remember her all our days and the sage though sometimes strange advice that she gave us. To my mother, to the mother of all of us in one way or another. Mom, we will always miss you.”

Each of them agreed and drank down what they had.
CJ looked around the room and realized at that moment that these people were her family. And nothing in the world would tear them apart.

Epilogue

Randy sat in his chair and held his opened envelope in one hand and his drink in the other.
He had no idea what to do about either. He heard his brother coming down the hall and had to smile. He knew that he’d come over sooner or later. Randy was sure his letter said basically the same thing. Randy sat up when he came into his office.

“Did you open yours?”
Reid poured himself a drink at the bar before sitting down across from him. Randy nodded. “Do you believe this shit? What the hell was she thinking? We’re grown men and now she springs this on us? I ask again, what the hell was she thinking?”

“That she loved us?”
Reid didn’t say anything as he watched the fire crack and pop in the grate. Randy wasn’t sure what Nancy had been thinking either, but he loved her for it. “I called Phil. I asked him when this was done. He said two weeks after we came here.”

Reid looked at him and smiled.
“That might explain a bit. I called him too. He was pissy about me calling him. Said I should come here and talk to you. We had a lot to discuss. He said…did you know she’d done this? I mean, did Phil ever tell you anything about what she’d done?”

Randy shook his head.
He’d had no clue. Looking at the adoption papers again, he nearly wept when he saw that he’d been Randal James Force since he’d been seventeen years old. And had he known, he would have called himself that. He started to say something to Reid when he spoke first.

“I don’t know if I would have changed my name or not.
I mean, I might have back then but thinking now, I don’t know.” Randy waited for him to explain. His brother smiled before he continued. “I would have loved to have been called that as a kid, I mean, who wouldn’t? But now…. Now, knowing that she’d done this for us without any fanfare makes it all the more special. Like she’d given us a great gift to have forever. Am I making any sense?”

Randy liked that idea. Forever. She’d given them something they’d have as their own. Something as physical as a hug.
She told them that she loved them as a son. And more than that, she’d given them something no one could ever take from them.

When Reid left just before sunrise, Randy heard Molly coming down the stairs. She had her interview this morning
, and he wondered why she was nervous. As soon as she appeared around the corner to his new office, she smiled at him and leaned against the doorjamb.

“I can smell Reid.
When did he get here?” He told her just before midnight. “I guess you and he were talking about what Nancy gave you. Is he all stuffy about it? Or did he take it like a man?”

“We were.
And yeah, you know Reid. He’s the really stuffy sort. She adopted him as well, I guess you know.” Molly nodded and moved into the room and sat on his lap. He’d long since taken off his shirt and sat there now in only his pants and socks. “You have entirely too many clothes on.”

She had on a tee
-shirt and maybe a pair of panties. He reached under her shirt when she shifted over his lap so that she was facing him, and he cupped her full breast. Her moan had him leaning forward and suckling on her nipple through her shirt.

“I’ve been thinking you need to relax me some.
I’m very nervous.” He nipped at her breast before sliding his hand up her thigh to her hip and discovered she was pantie-less as well. “I told you I was thinking about this. Will you help me? I want to make a good impression today.”

“I love the way you think.”
Picking her up, he sat her on the desk and spread her legs. “You’re already wet, too. I think I’d like to have my breakfast now. And in the meantime if you’re relaxed when I’ve had my fill, then all the better.”

He didn’t wait for her to answer but buried his face between her legs.
She lifted her hips to his mouth when he toyed his tongue around her clit. Opening her wider with his fingers, Randy suckled her clit into his mouth as he slid his fingers deep into her pussy. She tasted better every time he did this and decided that he’d die a happy man if she would allow him this every morning until the end of their days.

She tasted of the sweetest wine and the most addictive drugs.
He drank from her, losing himself in her as he filled himself with her juices. Every time she would raise her hips up, he’d slow his exploration of her and wait for her to settle again. His cock began to hurt when she curled her fingers into his hair. Her breaths were coming in short pants, and he had to adjust his cock or hurt himself more.

“Finish me.”
He smiled around her but didn’t stop teasing her. He loved drinking from her and wanted more and more of it. When she lifted his head, he could see that she was hurting. Freeing his cock, he stood up and moved between her legs.

His cock fit her. It was all he could think about as he moved slowly into her.
She wrapped around him like a sheath, and he never wanted to leave her. As he moved in and out of her, taking his time, she laid back on the desk and tore her shirt from her body. Randy watched as she cupped her breasts and rolled her nipples between her finger and thumb. He loved that she took her pleasure when and how she wanted it. He loved her.

“You look so delicious laying here all spread out for me.” She moaned and wrapped her ankles around his hips
to bring him closer. Leaning over her, he braced his hands on either side of her and took her mouth. She moaned as she licked her cream off his mouth. When she pulled him over her, he felt her hard nipples brush against his chest, and he moaned with her.

“I want to mark you.” He looked down at her, his balls so full and achy he nearly released when she spoke.
“I need to make you mine. Will you let me, Randy? Will you let me bite you and leave a scar so that everyone can see it and know that you’re all mine?”

He looked at her and fel
l in love with her more as she looked up at him. She was waiting for him to answer her but his throat was full of emotion and he wasn’t sure he could talk around it. When he nodded, he pulled her body to his and stood up. She wrapped her arms around him as he moved to the wall, her ankles already locked at his hips.

He wanted her hard and fast
, and this was closer than the bed upstairs. As soon as her back touched the wall, he started pounding into her hard with quick punches. Her tongue licked along his throat, and he knew she was waiting for him to say something. Tilting his head for her, he cried out when she sank her teeth deep into his neck. His cock exploded, and her body tightened around him as she joined him. Their climaxes screamed from their bodies. As he bit into her shoulder, he tasted her and realized that she was in heat.

Smiling
, he felt his cock fill again and he took her to the floor. This time he was going to fill her with a child if she let him. Randy could think of nothing better than to see her swollen with their child.

“I want a child with you.” She nodded. “I mean now. You’re ready.
If you say yes, we’ll create a child tonight. And I’m betting it will be a daughter, just like you.”

“Nancy.” He nodded. The name was perfect.
“Fill me, Randy. I want to have your baby. I need her, we all do.”

Randy made love
to his mate and knew that first thing in the morning…or at least later today…he was going to marry her. He wanted his wife to have his child, and he knew that Nancy Force would approve.

~~~

The Force men and women went on to have generation after generation of children. The packs grew until it was time to split them again, Austin to his son and Randy to his daughter. The pack became one that others would model their own by, adults would compare their own leadership by, as well as legends would be written about. And through it all, the spoon was passed from female to female, keeping them all in line and in good health.

“Do you believe anyone knows what we’ve done for them?”
The first woman looked around at the magic that gave it what it was. “Do you think they believe in us?”

Nancy Force moved forward
, a woman that had been with them the least amount of time but had taught them all so much. She smiled at her, and Daisy smiled back. But she didn’t let the smile fool her. She’d never known a woman who could say so much with just a look.

“I think they know just who we are. Can you not feel their love whenever anyone uses our magic?”
Daisy nodded and thought of how much stronger they were all because of it. “I daresay that in the years to come they will use the magic to do more than any of us ever dreamed of doing when we were there. Can you imagine watching what they’ll do with it?”

Daisy nodded. But she really couldn’t. In all the time she’d been here she’d seen so many changes herself that sometimes she had to take a deep breath. And now so much more was being said and done. Plus
, there were the children. That had been the most pleasant surprise.

“It’s taken us to them.” Nancy nodded
, and Daisy knew she was still basking in her newest grandchildren. Molly and Randy had had triplets, and each of them as beautiful as the next. But her heart was held by the oldest girl…Nancy, they’d called her.

When the children were born, Nancy had wanted to touch the children.
Daisy had been standing next to her and had been pulled from their place to stand over the sleeping babe. When she opened her eyes, she didn’t cry but stared at the two of them as if she could see them. It was then that Daisy had realized that she could. They’d been seeing the other children as well.

“When they shift, they can no longer see us
, but they know we are there.” Daisy nodded at her own mate. Randall had been with her twice today to see the others. She was sure it was what was making them all nearly fly with happiness.

Nancy had said that they needed not just to look at the children but to teach them.
At first Daisy had wondered what they had to teach children of this day and age, but Nancy had pointed out that they needed to know about them. Daisy had been asking the others to write out some of their history so that all of them could teach the children. It was working out beautifully, too. Daisy watched as Nancy was pulled away. One of the children must need her. Daisy moved to the portal that had previously only been used to send out magic and moved through it. Her descendant was sitting in the corner with tears on his face.

“What are you doing here when you should be out playing with the others?”
He glared at her but smiled when he saw it was her. “Have you pulled your sister’s hair again?”

“No. I was bad at school. They told us to tell about our family
, and I told them about you. She said I was making things up. Mom said I needed to learn to curb my tongue. I didn’t know what that meant, and she punished me for it.”

“That doesn’t sound like you
r mom. Tell me what really happened.” She knew that Chris, his mother, was a good mom and if he told her he was seeing them, she’d be more inclined to encourage him rather than sit him in a corner. He looked at her again and sobbed.

“I was mean to her. My mom, I was mean to her when she said that I would have to tell Mrs. James I was sorry. I’m not sorry
, and I told Mommy she was a poo head.” He cried more, and Daisy found herself hiding her laughter. This boy was so much like her own mate that it was not hard to tell that they were related. “I don’t want her to be mad at me, but I’m not sorry I told Mrs. James she was wrong.”

“I told you that she was wrong
, too. But I also told you that you had to be nicer about saying so. You can’t just tell people that they’re liars when they don’t agree with you.” Daisy looked at Chris, who was swollen with another child. “Ben, didn’t we have this talk about your speaking to your relatives? What did I tell you?”

“
You said that I was lucky to be able to talk to them and that if others didn’t believe me it was their problem. But she was so mean about it. Why did she make me feel like I was stupid?” Chris picked up her son and held him as he cried.

“
Your uncle Austin has had a talk with her. And as much as I hate to agree with him because the man already has a big head, he fired her.” Daisy looked at the boy who was smiling. “This does not justify you being mean to either of us, but she was wrong in making you tell the class you were retarded. I will not tolerate that, and neither will Austin.”

After he left to go outside, Chris sat there for a little while. When she spoke, Daisy felt her heart fill with
admiration and love for this woman.

“You do know that
the other children are jealous, don’t you?” Daisy looked around and realized that while she couldn’t see her, Chris was speaking to her. “Not because of the gift you’ve given him, all of them, but because you side with his parents. They think it is so cool that you never let him get by with things. I think in a way, Ben does too. I wanted to…I want to thank you for that.”

Daisy wanted to speak to her but was afraid to be disappointed.
Instead she got up and made her way to her and touched her face gently. She knew that Chris felt her because she put her hand on the area.

“Thank you.”
Tears were rolling down her face, and Daisy had to wipe several times at her own. “We were talking…the others and me, the women of this pack, and we were wondering if you could tell Nancy how much we miss her. And, of course, how much we love her.”