Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (29 page)

“Angus did the right
thing. Unless I asked him for help, he couldn’t have of interfered.
He would have gotten us both killed. What deal did you make with
Gabriel?” I asked.

“I explained to him who I
was and what you meant to me. To his credit he didn’t agree right
away, and he did check into what I told him. I was with Angus when
they brought you in, after the fight with the forest troll. I
almost lost my mind when I saw the condition you were in,
unconscious with broken bones and bleeding claw marks all over your
back. Gabriel finally agreed but he had one condition. You had to
recognize me as your mate and then we would swap spirits.” His
voice was weakening as he spoke
.

I leaned forward and
touched the side of his face and pressed a gentle kiss on his
lips.

“I’m going back to my
house to research what you have told me. It is easy to fool people
when they don’t know where to look for information and Angus may
have verified that your mate was named Branwen or McKenna, but
doesn’t mean it was me. You had better pray to Luna that I can
verify what you have told me or I’m coming back to kill you.” I
told him.

I already knew that parts
of his story were true. I could even believe that we could have
been mates at one time, but nine hundred years ago? That was the
one fact I just couldn't wrap my head around.

“Take some men with you,
my love and do your research quickly. I don’t want you away from me
any longer than needed, Branwen. If
,
you are not here, when I awake
again, I will come after you.” He told me peering deep into my
eyes. “And there won’t be anywhere you can hide from
me.”

His kiss was possessive
and made me want to stay. I wanted to explore all the emotions that
he had awakened in me.

“Trust me, Celt. I won’t
be gone long.” I whispered against his lips and looked into his
tired passion filled eyes. “Sleep and hope I can confirm your
entire story.” I told him and pushed my power at him.

Chapter 19

Werefolk have the world’s
greatest storytellers. So our history dates back almost to the
first pack. It had taken me almost three hours to confirm almost
every part of his story. I couldn’t find a record of the old witch
woman named Faith, not that I had truly expected too. It would have
been gratifying to find her, but I had enough information. I could
have found a spirit that might be able to tell me if the woman had
lived during the given time, but that would be time
consuming.

I looked at my group of
body guards wandering around the room. They had just come in from
the backyard and were talking a mile a minute. I loved the sound of
them and realized that was what the house had been
missing.

“Do you think that she
looks like me?” I asked the group showing them a
picture.

It was a painting of a
young couple standing in front of a lake somewhere in Scotland. The
painting, if it still existed, would be over nine hundred years
old. The young, slender woman wore an ordinary green gown. She was
tall with long, black hair. Her black eyes reflected the
mischievous smile on her beautiful face. Next to her was an
enormous man dressed in a green tunic and black leather breeches.
He was devilishly handsome with black hair and black eyes. He did
look a lot like Gabriel. The painting was labeled King Cullen and
Queen Branwen. I studied the happy couple, they seemed to fit
together.

They all took turns
looking at the picture and agreed that she did look like me and the
man, standing beside her, also looked a lot like
Gabriel
.

I put all the books up. On
the way back to Gabriel's house, we stopped for dinner. Over
dinner, we discussed what an appropriate gift would be for all
their hard work. We were still in negotiations when we walked
through the front door of Gabriel’s house.

The Celt was barely
standing up at the bottom of the stairs. If, Angus and Sam hadn’t
been holding him up, he would have fallen on his stupid face. I
crossed my arms over my chest and looked at them.

“You didn’t give me a time
limit
,
Gabriel.”
I said to him.

“You didn’t take any
guards with you when you left.” He growled at me. “I told you to
take my men with you.”

Really? I grinned at
him.

“I took my men with me,
Gabriel. You didn’t specify which group of men I had to take.” I
replied. “Come on
.
Let’s get you back to bed before you fall on your face and I
have to kill all the witnesses.” I motioned to the two men holding
him up to go back upstairs.

We all followed them back
to the bedroom. After
,
Angus and Sam had Gabriel back in bed. I sent everyone out of
the room.

“Don’t play word games
with me again, Branwen. You knew I wanted you to take my men with
you, and you took those damn kids.” He was angry, in pain, and it
showed. “They’re too young to defend you if you get
attacked.”

“Honestly, I’m so tired of
over protective men. If, ya’ll keep it this up I just may start
showing you who needs the protection.” I pulled the blanket over
his stomach. Sitting down on the bed next to him, I touched his
sweaty brow. “I found enough information to confirm your story,
Celt. The kids think that we both look a lot like the couple in the
picture I found. Now we need to figure out what name to call
you.”

“Gabriel is fine it’s my
middle name anyway.” He bit out, still in pain. I stood up. “No. I
want you to stay.”

He quickly grabbed my
wrist.

“I need to get Angus to
help me ease your pain.” I told him. “Don’t make me show you just
how weak you are right now.”

He let me go. I opened the
door and called out to Angus. The healing chants work fast and
Gabriel felt better in no time. We spent an hour with him, and he
was asleep again when we left.

A few days later, I had
the boys and Jennifer all helping me plan our new adventure. We all
had made the pinky promise and were sworn to secrecy about what we
were doing. We had called all of the local pet stores to find out
how many live rats that they currently had in stock and how much
they would cost. It was close to a hundred. Now we were trying to
figure out the best way to transport the little beasts, and release
them without any problems.

I sat back on the couch,
and picked little pieces of confetti off my legs. Jennifer and I
had been cutting up the shredded paper into little tiny pieces. We
had collected all the paper from all the paper shredders throughout
the house.

I was still working on how
to get back at Gabriel. It didn’t matter to me in the slightest
that Gabriel and Celt had swapped spirits. Someone still had to pay
for the double chocolate cake incident. Some things were just too
serious to let go of.

The bedroom door flew open
and slammed up against the wall, as Gabriel’s solid body filled the
doorway. We all jumped and stared at him in shock. He stood there
with a blanket wrapped around his waist leaving his massive brown
chest bare and he was angry. I placed a hand over my chest to still
my beating heart.

“Tigress, I called for you
and you didn’t answer.” He said and leaned against the door frame
and glared at me.

Really? I haven’t heard a
thing. Not that I had been really listening. We were planning a war
after all. I remember that I needed to check his bandages. I moved
to him and wrapped an arm around his waist.

“Let’s get you back to
bed. You can apologize to the kids for scaring them to death later.
Keep working on our plan guys. Jennifer would you please bring in
some of the soup we made?” I asked her.

Closing the door behind us
we moved back to bed.

“I’ll change your bandages
while you’re awake.” I told him.

It’d been two days since
he had been shot and the wounds were healing nicely. One of the
great things about being a shape-shifter is we heal remarkably
quickly. Wounds inflicted by silver can take a couple more days to
heal than a normal wound.

Sitting down on the bed
next I started pulling off his bandages.

“You look tired Branwen.”
He said and ran one thick finger down my cheek.

I hadn’t slept well in
days. I didn’t want to sleep in bed with him. I was scared that I
would roll over and hurt him. I had also called my water spirit
that morning to check on the demon I had given him. The calling had
been draining, and I seriously needed a nap.

“I have been busy taking
care of you.” I told him pulling the bandage off of his chest. “Are
you hungry? Jennifer and I made some chicken soup for
you.”

I studied the wounds. They
had all closed up. Only three small scars would be left, that was
good to know. Angus and I had been chanting healing spells over him
every morning and evening. I moved to look at his back. The wounds
looked the same way.

“How do you feel?” I asked
and moved so he could lean back against the pillows.

He pulled me across his
lap and nuzzled my neck.

“I feel great and so do
you.” He purred against my skin.

When his big hand moved up
to cupped my breast. I let out a moan and buried my hands in his
thick hair. He felt so right and so good. All I wanted to do was
lose myself in his touch.

A sharp knock echoed
through the room. Gabriel slid his hand to my waist as Jennifer
entered the room. She headed towards the bed and gave him an
enormous smile. The tray she was carrying contained two bowls of
soup and a glass of tea. I moved to sit on the other side of him,
so she could place the tray across his lap. Gabriel touched her
face, when she bent down and it made her blush. She placed a quick
kiss on his cheek, and I saw a look cross his face.

When had we made this
little family? I wondered to myself.

“Thank you little one.” He
said and reached for the glass of tea. “Have you been keeping our
Tigress out of trouble?” he asked her.

“Yes.” She answered him
with a smile. “I was so worried about you. Sam has doubled the
guards around the house and nobody can leave the grounds without
permission or guards. McKenna and Angus have been taking turns
sitting with you, and they have started teaching me the healing
chants. So I can help the next time this happens.” She told him
when she sat down next to him and watched him eat. “I told McKenna
that she could sleep with me instead of sleeping on the couch.
While you were hurt, but she told me that she was okay. Now that
you’re feeling better I bet she can get some sleep.”

I groaned to myself, when
the Celt gave me a hooded look.

Jennifer just sold me out.
Hmmm, what to do?

“I will make sure she gets
some sleep tonight, shewolf.” He promised her. “What were you and
the boys planning just now?”

“A battle scene for a
role-playing game we are playing.” She replied without a
thought.

I reached for his tea as I
watched her in fascination.

“Now that you’re feeling
better, maybe you could help us later.” She suggested.

Taking, a drink I wondered
how far she could go with her innocent act.

“Maybe I will, after I get
things caught back up.” He told me. He finished off the second bowl
of soup. “The soup was very good, thank you Jennifer.” Reaching
over he took the glass from me and finished drinking the tea, then
placed it back on the tray. “Jennifer if you don’t mind, would you
gather up your pack, and go see if Angus needs any help? McKenna
and I are going to take a nap.”

Jennifer jumped up and
kissed him on the cheek before picking up the tray and headed for
the door. There was no doubt that the Celt was in control now. He
reached for me with a wolfish grin.

“After our nap, little
Raven. You’re going to tell me what you were really planning out
there.” He said cupping the back of my neck in his large hand and
pulled me closer to him.

I settled against his
chest with a small smile and kissed him.

Maybe I would, but then
again maybe I wouldn’t.

“Are you well enough to
take a nap with me?” I asked seductively and trailed kisses
teasingly down his neck to his chest.

A growl rumbled deep
within his chest and made me look up at him with a smile. He
flipped me under him.

“Oh I’m well enough,
Branwen. Are you ready for a nap with me?” He countered gazing down
at me.

I lost myself in his warm
smiling amber eyes. I knew at that moment I loved this man with
every inch of my being, and I would pay any price to keep him.
Cupping, his face between my hands I kissed him.

“Ah, my love, I have
missed you.” He said softly and gathered me closer to him. “I can’t
believe I finally have you again after all this time. My mate
forever until the end of time, we will never be separated again.”
He vowed against my lips and then kissed me long and
deep.

Chapter 20

Four days later the kids
and I sat on the roof of the SUV. We were eating Milky Ways and
watching the chaos below us in the little cluster of buildings
through night vision monoculars. It had taken us less than twelve
hours to plan out the whole adventure, but if had taken three days
to execute the plan. On the first day, we made a Walmart run, the
list of supplies was short. Enough plastic tubs to hold the rats,
yet small enough to fit into the back of the SUV, six marauder
night vision monoculars, paper cups, duct tape, drinks, and Milky
Ways.