Claiming Valeria (16 page)

“All right. I’ll wait and see what he thinks. But
I’m
her mother.” Valeria shot him a ferocious look. “Whatever Lord Dion decides, she’s
mine now. If Adric tries to claim her, I
will
take her and run. And no one
will stop me.
No one
.”

“Val.” He spread his hands. “If it comes to that, I’ll take you
myself. But give me some time, okay? Let me see what I can do. She’s safe here.
Adric can’t get her, not here in the base.”

“But he got into the base once. What’s to stop him from doing
it in again?”

“He only did it with the sun fae’s help—and that was to rescue
Cleia. Otherwise, the sun fae couldn’t care less about the fada. Trust me, Valeria,
I lived with them. The fae—even the good ones—only help the fada when there’s something
in it for them. And besides, Cleia’s mated with Dion now. That changes everything.”

“Adric had sun fae help? I didn’t know.” She brightened, then
shook her head. “But we can’t hide Merry at the base forever. And what if they’re
right, that she needs one of those damn crystals?” She put a hand on his arm and
lifted her eyes to his. “What are we going to do, Rui?”

“She does have problems shifting,” he pointed out gently.

Her fingers dug into his skin. “Damn it, do you think I
don’t know that?”

He set his hand over hers and waited until her fingers
unclenched. “We’ll work it out,
querida
. I promise.”

Footsteps sounded outside the room. Valeria pulled away as a
jaguar cub hurtled through the door, leapt onto the bed and shifted into a little
girl. As usual, it took longer than it should. Valeria watched with a tiny
frown between her eyes, but Merry was grinning as she came out of it.

“Tio Rui! You’re still here.” Her smile faded as she took in
his bruises. “I thought you’d be all better today.”

“I
am
better,” he said, reaching for her, “but I could
use a hug.”

As Merry obliged, he met Valeria’s eyes over her head. He ached
in places he didn’t even know he had, his belly was throbbing again, and he was
more worried about Merry than he was letting on.

But he couldn’t stop that tendril of hope from setting roots
in the soil of his heart. When the chips were down, Valeria had instinctively turned
to him: last night at the festival, and again this morning.

What are
we
going to do?
she’d asked.

They’d figure out this thing about Merry. And then, please
Deus
,
Valeria would be his again.

* * *

By evening, Valeria could see that Rui was well on the
road to healing.

Branco had stopped by after breakfast and confirmed that his
patient was coming along nicely. “In fact,” he told Rui, “you’re doing even better
than I expected. Tomorrow, change to your shark and go for an easy swim. The healing
will go that much quicker.”

They had spent a quiet day in the apartment, with Rui sleeping
on and off. When he was awake, he’d played Go Fish with Merry or listened patiently
to her endless chatter.

To Valeria’s relief, he hadn’t tried to have another serious
conversation with her. She needed time to get used to this new Rui. One who wasn’t
drinking. One who seemed to truly regret what he’d put her through. One who wanted
to make a family with her and Merry, and prove that he loved them both.

So, after eating dinner in the apartment, they ended up in a
cozy tangle on the couch, Rui at one end, Merry cuddled up with Valeria at the other.
She and Merry listened, enthralled, as Rui recounted stories of growing up in Portugal
a hundred years ago. He’d come of age in the middle of World War II, and although
the clan had moved to America in the mid-1930s, he and Dion had returned to work
with the Portuguese fada who’d helped the Allies by sneaking food and goods past
German blockades.

Valeria was wearing a sundress that left her legs and arms bare.
Somehow her feet ended up on Rui’s lap. As he described strapping explosives to
his body and swimming out to attack a U-boat, he was running his hand up and down
her bare calf. Her eyes slit with pleasure even as she cringed at the risks he’d
taken.

“Did the boat blow up, Tio Rui?” asked Merry.

“
Sim
.” For a few seconds, his hand ceased stroking her
calf as his gaze went inward. When he glanced at Valeria, his eyes were bleak. She
suspected his orders had been to leave no survivors. It was one thing to blow up
a boat, but to methodically hunt down injured and defenseless men…and Rui hadn’t
even been out of his twenties.

She instinctively leaned forward and touched his hand. Just touched
it, but he let out a jagged breath and the moment passed.

“After the war,” he told Merry, “all I wanted to do was forget
all about it. I spent the whole summer as a dolphin, touring around the Mediterranean
with Dion and a couple other males my age.”

Trolling for females, Valeria thought dryly. But hey, he’d
been a young, unmated man. That’s what they did.

Merry was frowning at Rui. “But if you never went home, what
did you eat?”

“Fish, of course.”

“But how did you cook the fish?”

“We didn’t. We ate it raw.”

Merry wrinkled her nose. “Ew.”

Rui raised a brow at Valeria. “We’re going to have to introduce
this child to sushi.”

“What’s that?” Merry asked suspiciously.

The two of them grinned at each other, and Valeria realized she
was enjoying herself. “Yes,” she replied, “we will.”

Rui was massaging Valeria’s foot now, starting at the top and
then working around to the sole and back up. Her breath sighed out. She listened
with half an ear as Merry continued asking questions about the war.

“Did the cats and wolves help, too?”

“There aren’t any earth fada in Portugal,” Rui replied. “But
I heard the ones in North Africa and America were very brave fighters.”

Merry nodded, satisfied.

Rui moved on to Valeria’s toes, gently pulling each one in turn.
Then it was time for her other foot, his fingers working her expertly, the pressure
just right. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the pleasure.

If this was how the man intended to win her back, she might just
have to let him.

Beside her, Merry gave a huge yawn.

Valeria reluctantly pulled her feet from Rui’s lap. “Time for
a snack. And then it’s time for a bath, young lady.”

As usual, Merry dragged out her snack time as long as possible,
but Valeria was onto her tricks, and fifteen minutes later Merry was in the bathtub.
As Valeria added bubble bath, Rui wandered in.

He took a rueful look at his still-bruised face in the bathroom
mirror. “Do you have a razor? I was too bruised to shave this morning.” He rubbed
a hand over the black stubble covering his jaw.

“There’s one on the shelf at the left.” She indicated one of
the shelves chiseled out of the wall on either side of the mirror. “But you don’t
have to shave on our account.”

She meant to sound matter-of-fact, but if he had any idea of
how sexy he looked with that stubbled chin and wearing nothing but a white ribbed
tank and the loose cotton shorts she’d retrieved from his apartment, then she might
as well surrender here and now.

Their gazes met in the mirror. Rui’s green eyes went smoky. His
nostrils flared, and she knew he scented her arousal. She moistened her lips, unable
to drag her eyes from his.

In the tub behind them, Merry squealed. “Mama, the water’s running
over!”

They both jolted. Valeria hurried the few feet to the tub to
shut off the faucet.

Merry giggled. “Look, Mama. The water’s up to my neck.” She gazed
up at them, her wet head emerging from the bubbles, an adorable sprite with sparkling
eyes.

Valeria dropped a kiss on her nose as she knelt on the bathmat
and reached for the washcloth.

To her surprise, Rui sat on the edge of the tub to help, handing
Valeria the washcloth and soap and then carefully rinsing the shampoo from Merry’s
hair. The little girl played up to him, diving under the bubbles and coming up grinning,
showing him how long she could hold her breath underwater, challenging him to a
toy-boat race. He was a good sport, allowing her boat to beat his by a good two
lengths.

A curious ache settled in Valeria’s chest. Rui was so good with
Merry. He was going to make a great father someday. She’d wondered…

Abruptly, she rose to her feet. “Time to get out,
princesa
.”
And when had she adopted Rui’s nickname for Merry?

The little girl stuck out her lower lip. “Not yet, Mama.”

“Merry,” Valeria warned, but Rui grabbed a bath towel and scooped
her out of the water.

“You heard your mama,” he said as he wrapped her in the towel.
“Time for bed.”

The imp gave in without a murmur. “All right. If you read me
a book.”

Rui glanced at Valeria, seeking her permission, and Merry
poked her head out of the towel to say, “
Please
, Mama.”

Valeria hesitated. Things were moving a little too fast for
her.

Then she caught Merry’s pleading gaze and wondered why she
was fighting it. The little girl didn’t cry for her daddy anymore, but the way she’d
latched onto Rui told its own story. From what Valeria had pieced together, Merry
had slept through the fight where Rui had killed her father. All she remembered
was that he’d saved her from the bad men.

Night fae
. Valeria shuddered to think what would’ve happened
to Merry if they’d gotten ahold of her. The night fae fed on any energy, but they
especially craved darkness: fear, despair, hopelessness. They’d have tortured her
mercilessly.

“All right,” she replied. “But just one.”

The two of them grinned at each other. She pretended she hadn’t
seen.

With Merry in bed, Rui took himself off to bed as well. “I’m
sorry,
querida
,” he said as he smothered a yawn, “but I’m half-asleep.”

“Of course. You go ahead.”

She took her time joining him, puttering around the apartment
for another hour, straightening things up and then relaxing on the couch with a
glass of wine. By the time she came to bed, Rui was asleep, but he woke up enough
to tug her closer for a kiss.

“’Night,
boneca
.”

Boneca
had been his pet name for her. It was a little
old-fashioned, meaning “baby” or “pretty woman.”

Funny. When Petros called her baby, she hated it—but she’d never
minded
boneca
.

She let her lips linger on his. She’d learned in the past two
years that she was tough—she could work, raise a kid, survive and even do well in
a clan far from home. But it was so good to have Rui in the bed next to her, to
have his spicy male scent wrapping around her like a comforting blanket.

She placed a hand on his just-shaved cheek. “
Boa noite
.”

He pressed a kiss to her palm. “Tomorrow,” he murmured. “Tomorrow
I’m going to start courting you. Like I should have the first time.”

“Mm,” she said noncommittally.

He put his head back down on the pillow, and it wasn’t long before
his breath changed and she knew he’d fallen back asleep. But she lay there for a
long time, wondering what she’d started.

Jace slammed his fist into his palm. “I can’t believe
those S.O.B.s had Merry all this time. And here I thought she was dead—” He paced
across Adric’s living room, so agitated his jaguar was a shadow on his skin, his
voice more animal than human.

“I know,” Adric said from where he sat on the couch, waiting
for his friend to calm down. This conversation had been two days in coming. First,
they’d brought Lucas and Marjani to their best healer and spent a tense night making
sure they’d recover. Marjani was home with him now, healing nicely but still weak
enough that she’d spent most of the day in bed.

But with her out of danger, he’d invited Jace to the spacious
five-room den he’d carved out twenty feet beneath a run-down house leased to a drug
dealer. The seedy setting—along with a powerful concealing spell—made for an excellent
cover. Not even the most inquisitive fae—or rival fada—had been able to ferret out
his home.

“I’m not any happier than you,” he told Jace. “But Merry would
probably be dead if it weren’t for them.” Much as he hated that the Rock Run clan
had bested him again, he had to admit that Jace’s niece had appeared healthy, if
a little too thin.

The tips of Jace’s fingers sprouted sharp hooked claws. “Whose
side are you on, anyway?”

Adric stiffened. “Yours, asshole. Now sit down and get control
of your animal.”

Jace hesitated long enough that Adric’s own claws sliced out.
Then the other man muttered an apology and dropped onto the couch. “Just tell me
one thing. Are you going to leave her there? Because—”

“Are you questioning me?” he asked in a soft voice. Jace might
be a lieutenant and one of his oldest friends, but he was seconds from being slammed
up against the wall and taught a lesson about the respect due his alpha.

Jace averted his gaze. “No. I—it’s just she’s my only family,
Ric.”

Adric blew out a breath. “Hell, if it were Marjani’s kid, I’d
be just as bad. But she seemed happy enough, well-fed.” Better than the last time
Adric had seen her, actually—and wasn’t that a kick in the balls? “And Jace? She
called the woman Mama. She—Valeria—wasn’t lying. Merry thinks of her as her mom.”

“I heard. But damn it, she’s an earth shifter. She belongs with
us. She’s all I have left of Takira. And you saw—she didn’t have a quartz.”

“That’s not unusual. I didn’t find my own crystal until I was
almost nine.”

“I could give her a piece of mine. But we’d still have to train
her how to use it.”

“You could,” he allowed. “But that’s not the real issue.”

Their eyes met. There were only a dozen or so earth shifter clans
in the entire world, and although for the most part they rarely interacted, they
were all pledged to guard the secret of their quartz with their lives. Because if
the fae ever learned an earth shifter could be controlled through their quartz,
they were doomed. As it was, too many fae treated shapeshifters as their personal
servants and errand boys. If they discovered the secret, they could turn the earth
clans into slaves.

Adric would sooner slit his wrists than trust someone from Rock
Run with their secret. There was too much bad blood between the two clans. And now
Rock Run was allied with the sun fae. No, Adric could never allow the secret to
be shared with anyone from the river fada clan. Not even the woman raising Merry.

“We have to get her back.” Jace’s tone held a craving Adric understood
all too well.

The Darktime had been years of terror and backstabbing, culminating
in his betrayal by the man he’d thought of as his father. He and his small band
of friends and family had survived only by digging in and protecting their own by
any means possible. He’d have wanted to claim Merry Jones as one of their own regardless,
by virtue of her being Takira’s daughter and Jace’s niece. But seeing her had aroused
his every protective instinct. The too-big eyes in her thin, mobile face; the hair
that, like Takira’s, seemed to have a mind of its own; the way she’d strutted alongside
the Rock Run woman, so clearly proud of her new dress.

His clan had so few young ones. Only a handful of cubs had been
born during the Darktime, and of that handful, only a few had survived, dead of
either starvation or murder at the hands of a rival faction. Leaving Merry behind
had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done.

He set a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We
will
get her
back.”

“How the fuck did they get her anyway?” Jace burst out. “I spent
the past two years thinking she was dead. It was either that or go crazy, picturing
Takira’s little girl enslaved by a night fae. And now I find out she’s been at Rock
Run the entire time.”

“I’d like to know that myself.” Adric rose to his feet and went
into the kitchen for some beer. “Merry is ours, Jace,” he said as he handed him
a can. “We’ll get her back. I promise you that as both your alpha and your friend.
But we can’t just bust in there and drag her out. We need a plan.”

“Like what?” Jace’s hand tightened on the can. “The clan’s tried
to break through their defenses before. You’re the only one who ever got inside—and
you had help from the fae.”

“If I did it once, I can do it again. But it may not come to
that. We’ll patrol their outer boundaries, keep our eyes peeled. She’s a cat. She
needs to roam. Sooner or later, we’ll have our chance. Meanwhile, promise me you
won’t do something stupid like try to break in there on your own.”

Jace glanced away.

“I mean it,” Adric said with all the dominance at his command.
“Give me your word or I’ll make it so you can’t take a step outside this den.”

He could do it, too, by keying his quartz to Jace’s. He had an
unusual amount of power for a man so young, power that had been boosted by the hardship
he’d endured. He preferred not to use it against his friends, but he would if it
meant saving the other man’s life.

Jace scowled. “Fine. You have my word. I won’t try to break in
there on my own.”

The talk moved onto other things, but Adric knew he had only
a few days to think of something before Jace moved on his own. He stifled a sigh.
The man would end up dead or in some dank Rock Run cell, and it would be his, Adric’s,
fault. Because if the Rock Run alpha had even half a brain—and he did, unfortunately—he
would keep Merry close to home. In fact, that’s apparently what the clan had been
doing for years. He’d hadn’t heard even a whisper of an earth shifter girl at Rock
Run.

So to get her back, he and his lieutenants would have to infiltrate
river fada territory. They couldn’t go into the actual base, not without the concealing
spell protecting it. But they could get close, watch where the sentries entered
and exited.

And then they’d pounce.

* * *

Tiago’s palms were sweating. He rubbed them on his shorts.
He’d been in hiding for the past ten days after leaving Dion and Cleia’s mating
ball in a panic. Now he’d returned to the base, but only to gather his things before
leaving for good.

Dion
knew
. He still felt sick when he let himself think
about it. Not only had Tiago helped Cleia, he’d given the Baltimore earth alpha
the location of Dion’s quarters. When the sun fae teleported into Rock Run to rescue
Cleia, Dion had been with her. If his brother had died, it would’ve been Tiago’s
fault.

Dion couldn’t let that go unpunished. Tiago figured the alpha
had two choices—banish him from Rock Run, or order a quiet execution. Rather than
wait to find out which, Tiago had slipped away from the mating ball and gone to
ground in the den of his friend, Fausto, an otter whom Tiago had once saved from
a trap. The patriarch of a large family, Fausto had been happy to give Tiago sanctuary,
but he couldn’t hide in his friend’s den forever. His animal had been content, but
the man needed to walk on two legs again, to speak in something besides grunts,
chirps and squeals.

Worse, his mind was becoming hazy, the animal gradually taking
control. And Tiago’s animal was a dark and frightening beast.

She should be ours
, the beast whispered.
If Dion were
dead…

So Tiago had come home. In his otter form, he was large and obvious,
his scent recognizable to those fada who knew him well. His dolphin would be equally
recognizable, so he shifted to a form he almost never used—a rockfish. It had been
years since he’d taken this form. It felt odd, his vision unusually sharp due to
the fish’s large eyes, his mind confused by the additional information coming in
from the lateral line, a sensory organ that detected movement and vibrations in
the water.

He was careful to stay deep underwater until he reached the base’s
marina, located on the Susquehanna River near the mouth of Rock Run Creek. Surfacing
beneath the dock, he listened to the workers going about their chores. He soon learned
that Dion had taken Cleia on a honeymoon, leaving Rui in command. That was all he
needed to hear. He swam downstream until he reached a hidden tunnel. Built as an
emergency escape route, it exited in a pool in the alpha’s bedroom so was rarely
used by anyone but the alpha and his family.

As he’d hoped, Dion’s apartment was empty. He changed to man,
snagged a pair of his brother’s shorts, and was settling down to wait for evening
when he caught sight of himself in the mirror and winced. His hair was a tangled
black mass and stubble shadowed his face.

Well, that he could fix. He washed his hair and worked out the
snarls before scraping it back into a ponytail, then used Dion’s razor to remove
the stubble. When he was done, he felt a little better, more in control.

He still had a half hour to kill until dinner, when the halls
would empty as the clan gathered in the dining hall. He sat down by the pool and
dangled his feet in the cool water, listening to the soothing flow of the waterfall
that rippled down one wall.

The last time he’d been here, Cleia had been with him, her face
and hair illuminated by a shaft of sunlight like an angel come down to earth. He’d
been steeling himself to reach out and touch when Dion had come home and ordered
him to leave. Treating him like a boy in front of the woman he loved.

At the memory, Tiago’s face heated. He should’ve stood his ground.
Maybe then Cleia would’ve chosen him instead of his brother.

Dinnertime arrived, the scent of freshly-grilled fish making
his mouth water.
Deus
, he’d give anything to join the people making their
way to the dining hall, to go back to the way things had been just ten days ago.
But it was too late.

He waited until the halls grew quiet, then slipped through the
base to his room where he filled a waterproof backpack with clothes and a few necessities.
As he exited the room he came face to face with Chico.

He froze, but his friend merely grinned and clapped him on the
back. “
Tiago
. Where the hell have you been hiding?”

Tiago relaxed a fraction. So his treachery wasn’t widely known,
although that didn’t mean Dion hadn’t told his top men. He thought quickly. “My
brother assigned me to scout the Baltimore shifters. There was a rumor at the ball
that some of them are going to move against Lord Adric.” He swallowed the bile that
the lie induced.

“Yeah?” Chico gave him an odd look, and Tiago wondered if he’d
scented the lie. “What did you find out?”

He shrugged. “Nothing.” That much was the truth.

Chico glanced at the backpack. “Where are you off to now? Aren’t
you going to eat?”

Tiago hesitated. Sweat trickled down his spine. What reason could
he give for leaving the base without having dinner? His stomach clenched at the
thought of another lie, so he told a half-truth.

“There’s this woman…”

“Human?” Chico’s lips curved in a knowing smile.

“Yeah. She has a thing for fada.” Tiago edged backward, hoping
Chico wouldn’t scent his nervousness. “I promised to look her up when I wasn’t so
busy. But, Chico? My leave hasn’t been officially approved. Can you forget you saw
me?”

“Saw who?” his friend returned.

“Thanks, man.”

Tiago waited until Chico had turned the corner before heading
back to his brother’s apartment. A minute later, he was in the pool and strapping
the backpack on. This time he shifted to dolphin. When he reached the river, he
headed toward the Chesapeake Bay and from there turned south to Baltimore.

It was as good as place as any for a man to go to ground.

* * *

From beneath the surface, Rui watched Tiago shift to
dolphin and then shoot away from the base. As Rui had healed, he’d taken Branco’s
advice and swum for hours each day, first as his shark and later as a man.

Now he watched as Tiago disappeared downriver. He could give
chase, but he had a hunch this was for the best. Before leaving on his honeymoon,
Dion had updated Rui on what had happened. An older man would’ve been
banished—or even executed—but Dion hadn’t wanted that—and Rui had agreed.

“I can’t let him get away with it,” Dion had told Rui. “But I
can’t send him away, or order his death. He’s my
brother
. And so damn
young. But what the hell am I supposed to do? He gave Adric the coordinates to
my quarters—in the very heart of the base. The Baltimore alpha, for
Deus
’s
sake. I can’t ignore that. If anyone finds out, I’ll be fighting off challengers
for the next year.”

Rui had wrapped his arms around his friend, shocked at how taut
he was, a wire stretched close to breaking.

Dion exhaled. “I’d like to whip his ass for putting me in this
position.”

“Go on your honeymoon,” Rui advised, releasing him. “Nobody knows
but you and me.”

“And Lord Adric and Cleia and her bodyguards.”

“And them,” Rui acknowledged. “But they’re not going to tell
anyone at Rock Run. He’s a fada male in his first heat. Remember us? Hell, I nearly
caused a human-fada war.”