Her Warriors (9 page)

The two tiger shifters prowled the wooded
perimeter of the land that had belonged to the Millers, and was now
Geir’s new domain. They went right up to the set of cabins the
Millers had kept for themselves in the real estate deal. Tad and
Mandy’s home, plus a cabin close to it that anyone in their family
could use. The deal had been written in such a way that Tad and
Mandy were precluded from selling their place to anyone other than
Geir or the Nyx. If they chose to sell, or if their children or
heirs chose to leave the mountain for good, their land would have
to be reunited with the larger parcel the Millers had sold to
Geir.

It was a friendly arrangement. Geir was
content to have Millers and their kin on the land, but no
strangers, and they had supported his idea to include that
provision in the contract. As it was, Tad and Mandy had volunteered
to be responsible for their part of the perimeter, which was low on
the mountain, right up against a public road. But they also had
made it clear that Geir was welcome to prowl there and send his
scouts along the perimeter to check for breaches.

The Millers had a cub to protect, and they
welcomed Geir and his students to help keep them all safe. By the
same token, they didn’t want to be the loose link in the chain that
protected the Nyx. There was a long tradition of being Royal Guards
in the Miller family, though they had always served the tiger
monarchs. Still, they understood the value of the oaths Royal
Guards—even the trainees—took, and the importance of dealing with
anyone who would try to interfere with shifter monarchs in this
troubled time.

So it was that Beau and Geir crossed over
the boundary of the Miller place and found themselves very close to
the public road. It wasn’t much of a road. It didn’t get a whole
lot of traffic, but some of the locals used it as a shortcut from
time to time—especially during heavy rain when the bigger road,
lower down the slope, flooded.

The few local kids picked up the school bus
each day from this road and that was about as exciting as the
traffic on it ever got. Except for today…

Both Geir and Beau paused at the same
moment. Something smelled off. Old cigarette smoke wafted on the
wind and the smell of oil and grease lay faintly on the ground. The
tigers went instantly on alert. Beau started to track the scent as
Geir played rear guard.

Keeping to the cover of trees, they found
the spot where a car had paused on the shoulder of the dusty road.
An oil stain could be easily seen several yards away. The vehicle
was long gone, but Geir found it disturbing that it had stopped at
all. The amount of oil indicated a slow leak and the amount of
smoke odor hanging on the leaves meant the occupant of the vehicle
had spent enough time here to smoke at least one, if not two entire
cigarettes.

Shifters didn’t smoke. At least not
casually. It might occur in a ritual occasionally—especially among
the more Native American species—but in general, it was very out of
character. So who had stopped their car up here to smoke, and
why?

This wasn’t good. Beau became immediately
suspicious of the vehicle and its smoking occupant. He didn’t think
it was more than one person. He could only see one set of tracks,
but he would have to come back in human form to get a closer look.
And he wanted to do that as soon as possible.

He turned back to Geir and jerked his head
back in the direction of the house. Geir nodded, clearly
understanding the gesture. They both loped off at a quick trot,
breaking into a faster pace as soon as it was safe to do so. The
sooner they got back to the road and checked things over, the
better.

All the other shit that had happened today
was immediately pushed to the back of Beau’s mind. He’d been in a
bit of turmoil since the big showdown with the ladies. Beau didn’t
know what to think about the idea of sharing Jacki with Geir.
Frankly, he wasn’t sure if he could.

While his tiger seemed okay with the
idea—much to Beau’s shock—his human side just couldn’t wrap his
head around it at the moment. Going furry and prowling the
perimeter had seemed like a good thing to do to clear his head, but
instead it had brought possible danger to their attention—which was
also a good thing, if not exactly helpful with the mating
conundrum. Ultimately, they needed to know if someone was watching
them, even from a distance. Security was of the utmost
importance.

Beau was a warrior first and foremost. A
perimeter incursion was something he knew how to deal with. The
emotional stuff was a lot harder.

They arrived back at the house and wasted no
time shifting back to human and throwing on their clothes. Beau was
glad they seemed to be on the same page about what had to be done.
They didn’t even need to speak much to know that they were both
thinking the same thing, which was nice.

Geir grabbed some keys and threw a set to
Beau. “The Millers had all kinds of useful things in the garages
and barns that they couldn’t take with them to Iceland,” Geir
explained on their way to one of the garages.

Beau whistled when he saw the well-stocked
motor heaven. There were snowmobiles, a tractor, something that
looked like an armored car, a couple of motorcycles and dirt bikes,
and the vehicles they’d come for. Beau and Geir set out on
four-wheelers moments later, heading for the road from a slightly
different approach this time.

When they got near the spot the car had
stopped, Beau used hand signals to tell Geir he would come in from
the opposite side, just in case anyone was lying in wait. They
worked well together, Beau had to admit. Geir was as skilled as
Beau himself and, contrary to what Beau had previously thought,
Geir knew very well how to use his skills in the field. He wasn’t
just a teacher. He could do the things he taught too. Beau was
relieved.

It was good to have reliable backup. If they
made a go of this strange mating idea Bettina had put forward, Beau
just might find himself partnered with Geir in the field for the
rest of his life. Now
that
was a daunting thought.

Beau had been a rolling stone for a long
time. Since leaving the military, he’d been a mercenary, never
staying long in one place, until he met Jacki. Only then had he
decided to put down roots and swear himself to the lion Alpha of
the Kinkaid Clan. He hadn’t done it lightly. In fact, he had
thought long and hard about it. He had even prayed about it, though
he didn’t go around talking about his faith in the Mother of All
the way some shifters did.

He had a deep faith in the Lady and Her
goodness. He always had. It was an intrinsic part of his nature
that he didn’t let other people see often, but it was there. His
mother had been a priestess. She had taught him about the Goddess
from an early age and he honored his mother’s memory, carrying on
the traditions she had taught him. He believed very deeply in the
Mother of All his own mother had served faithfully, until her dying
day.

Which was probably why he was even
entertaining the idea of a threesome. Because the idea had been put
forth by the High Priestess herself. A spiritual woman who had more
experience with the Mother Goddess than anyone alive today.
Bettina’s words about how the priestess, Allie, was mate to the
Lords and how Jacki was being groomed to take on Bettina’s role had
really hit home.

Jacki would need strong guardians at her
back. She would be the next best thing to shifter royalty, but she
wouldn’t have the same advantages of a Royal Guard corps all her
own. She would be a target, and she didn’t have the same level of
magical protections Bettina had. Somebody needed to watch Jacki’s
back.

Why not let it be Beau and Geir? The more
Beau saw of the
pantera noir
Guard Master’s skills, the more
he realized Geir was more than worthy of the title of Master. He
was probably a good teacher, but he was definitely highly skilled
at applying the things he taught his people. The
pantera
noir
Royal Guard had a badass reputation, and Beau knew from
recent experience, it was well-deserved.

With Beau and Geir watching over her, Jacki
would at least have two strong warriors to protect her. It would be
hard for one man to do the job alone. Perhaps that’s why the Mother
of All might be interceding in Jacki’s case.

Beau still wasn’t entirely sure that was
really what was happening, but he was entertaining the idea. He
would pray on it and see where his heart led him. If it was to
Jacki’s arms—and a threesome mating—well, he would have to get used
to the idea, but it wasn’t quite as abhorrent as he once would have
thought.

He kept coming back to the thought of having
two strong males to protect Jacki. She was going to be in increased
danger just by virtue of the fact that she was going to be a
priestess. Those sanctified women were always targets of evil
because of what they represented, and what they meant to the
communities they served.

Beau had seen first-hand how one man had
failed to protect his priestess mate. It was one of Beau’s most
painful memories. His mother and father had died together, fighting
evil, leaving Beau alone in the world. He had been an only child
and after he lost his parents, he had lost his way for a long time.
The military had given him some direction for his anger at the
unfairness of life and the evil that tried to wipe out the few good
things in it.

His mother had been purity and goodness
itself. His father had been devoted to her. But it hadn’t been
enough. Evil had found them while they were away from home and all
Beau had known was that they were dead and he was an orphan. He’d
been old enough to go out on his own—seventeen—but he missed his
parents to this very day.

Beau split off, heading for the opposite
approach to the area where the car had been parked. They slowed the
four-wheelers to check the ground as they came upon the scene. Beau
found the tire tracks on his side and scanned them carefully
without disturbing anything. He rode off to the side of the road,
going slowly and looking at everything.

He met up with Geir on the spot where the
car had stopped. And it was a car. He was certain of that now. The
size, depth, and tread pattern of the tires belonged to a car, not
a truck or van.

“Small hatchback, I’m thinking,” Beau
offered as they both studied what they could see of the tire
tracks.

“Heavy load in the back of it,” Geir agreed,
pointing to the slightly deeper depressions where the back tires
had been. “One person got out from the driver’s side. Nobody got
out any of the other doors. Might’ve been more people in it, but
they weren’t heavy, based on the track depth.”

“Agreed,” Beau said as he got off the
four-wheeler. He followed alongside the set of footprints that led
off toward the boundary. “Male. Maybe two hundred pounds. Smoker,
obviously.”

Geir joined him, walking on the other side
of the tracks. “Wearing boots. About a size ten. Big guy,” he
observed, digging in his pocket for something. Beau was only mildly
surprised when Geir pulled a plastic bag and a pair of
plastic-wrapped, sterile, disposable tweezers from his pocket. A
few feet away, he bent down and picked up a cigarette butt with the
tweezers and placed it in the plastic bag. “No filter. Guy’s
hardcore. We might be able to get some DNA off this.”

“You have access to a lab?” Beau was
impressed.

“The Clan has many resources—especially when
the safety of the Nyx is in question.” Geir’s blue eyes narrowed as
he scanned the area once more. “I don’t like this. What was he
looking at?”

“Tad Miller’s place is through those trees,
but you can’t really see the house from here,” Beau stated,
thinking through the options. “Our intruder stopped just before he
would be visible from the house. How did he know?”

“He must’ve been here before,” Geir stated
the obvious. Both men growled in agreement that even the idea of
some stranger prowling in their domain was not good.

Beau looked right and left, then right
again. His gaze zeroed in on something shiny in a tree to his
right, about fifteen feet up. “That camera is poorly placed. Even a
human could spot it.”

Geir looked in the direction Beau was
pointing. “I’m not entirely sure that’s one of ours.” Geir looked
concerned. “Let me call Tad and ask him to come out here. He knows
this system inside and out. His father installed it and all the
Miller cubs maintained it, according to what I was told when I
bought the place.”

Geir took his phone off his belt and punched
a few buttons. He moved off to make the call while Beau
investigated further. He found another camera in a rather odd
position as well as some boot prints under a loose layer of leaves
and other forest debris.

Beau was bent over an old print when Geir
found him a minute later. “Tad’s coming in through the trees. He’ll
be here in about two minutes.”

“Watch where you step,” Beau said,
unnecessarily, as it turned out. Geir was stepping as lightly as
Beau could hope for.

“What have you got?” Geir was instantly
intent, looking over Beau’s shoulder.

“More tracks. And look at the tree.” Beau
pointed upward at slight gouges in the trunk where someone had dug
into the bark with metal cleats.

“These were placed recently and judging from
the cleat marks, they weren’t placed by shifters. What the hell is
going on here?” Geir looked angry when Beau glanced up at him.

They both turned when they heard the snap of
a twig, indicating they were no longer alone. Sure enough, Tad had
arrived.

“Not yours, right?” Geir nodded toward the
camera in the tree. They were too close to be seen by the wide
angle lens at the moment.

“Never seen it before. Shoddy work. Too
visible and too low to the ground. Ours are placed much higher and
are a lot smaller. Better camouflaged too,” Tad noted, concern
furrowing his brows. “These are battery powered. They probably
haven’t been here long or one of us would’ve seen them. We’re
through here all the time.”