The Jaguar's Arranged Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (15 page)

CHAPTER 13

Miera had fought as if her life, and the life of her unborn baby, depended on it. A small part of her wished she had never left her bed, but she would never be able to live with herself if she had been a coward. She was heir. She would be alpha one day. She wouldn’t run away and hide. Fighting was in her blood.

Was she more cautious than she had been during the battle in the warehouse? Absolutely. She didn’t have a death wish. In her weakened state, it would be easy for her to be killed. Hell, the Brutal Claws could strike down were-jaguars who were in their prime.

But she still fought. Fury that they would attack the hospital filled her, and she channeled that into energy. At first, there were so many Brutal Claws facing against her and the few were-jaguars who had turned up to fight them, but as they slowly cut down the Brutal Claws, more and more Blood Roses and Teal Warriors joined them.

Just when it seemed like they had won, that all of the Brutal Claws had finally been killed, more showed up, and they were bigger and stronger and taller. Monsters instead of were-jaguars. Plus, they wore armor.

Battling them was a nightmare. Even though they outnumbered them for once, and they could team up to fight them, the armor made it so hard to land any blows. To her right, Teal Warriors tackled one and stripped him of his armor to kill him. A sound tactic, and it helped to kill another one.

And the last, but only after that Brutal Claw had ripped out the throat of Beric’s father, the alpha of the Teal Warriors.

Miera rushed to his side. He stared at her, then closed his eyes.

Cold washed over her, and she shivered. Where was Beric? She dimly recalled him heading inside the hospital. Was he still alive, or had he fallen too? Numb. A part of her felt numb, and she couldn’t move, rooted to the spot.

And then Beric was standing beside her, nuzzling his father, and she wanted to weep. She could feel Beric’s pain, although she also couldn’t imagine what he was going through. If her father had been the one to fall, would she be able to handle the mantle of being alpha right now? With the Brutal Claws breathing down their necks, who knew how much longer any of them would have?

Beric’s body shuddered, and he transformed from jaguar to human. He stood and twisted around to see all of them there. “I’m alpha now,” he said, his voice odd, almost detached.

She also shifted and went to touch him, but he didn’t seem to even realize she was there.

“Gather everyone to the mess hall, everyone who is healthy enough,” he instructed a Teal Warrior.

The were-jaguar rushed off.

Beric stared down at his father.

“What can I do to help?” she asked.

He shook his head, gaze remaining on his father. “I’m beyond needing help,” he said, his voice still detached.

What was that supposed to mean?

“We’re married now,” she said. “Let me—”

“You need to heal. And to stop fighting.”

“Stop?” She couldn’t have heard him right. “How can you expect—”

“I expect you to listen to me.” His gaze finally landed on her face. His expression was unreadable. “I outrank you now. I’m alpha. You’re—”

“Just an heir,” she said bitterly. “We’re married, but we aren’t equals, is that what you’re saying?”

“I have work to do.” After one last look at his father, Beric pressed his way through the crowd.

Now that the battle had ended, Miera could feel the burden of her new injuries, and her old ones, weighing her down. Beric did have a point to some extent. She did need to rest more. She was pushing herself almost too hard, and considering she was pregnant, she had to watch and be careful.

Even so, she ordered for all of the bodies to be gathered together, separated based on their packs. The Blood Roses they would bring back to their home to be buried. Beric could determine what to do with his dead. As for the Brutal Claws, they would all be burned.

She waited to see the fire burning and watched the flames for a long while before she stirred herself to go to the mess hall. She’d taken too long, however, and no one remained inside. With a sigh, she turned to leave.

“Miera.”

She stilled, recognizing the voice. “Charles.”

Turning around, she spied the were-jaguar approaching from the back of the mess hall. His body was covered in small bandages and bruises, but he walked easily enough. He stopped a few feet from her. “You saved me.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“It…” Her stomach cramped uncomfortably, and she rubbed it.

Charles stepped toward her.

She glowered at him. “Don’t you touch me,” she snapped.

He held up his hands and backed up a few paces. “I don’t understand,” he protested. “You seemed to be quite insistent when you told me you wouldn’t ever see me again, but then, the first time you do, you rush to my rescue—”

“I already regret saving you,” she retorted. Another cramp, this one so painful it took her breath away. She really did need to be more careful.

“No, you don’t.” He grinned.

“I’ll wipe that smile off your face if you don’t knock it off,” she warned. Her fingers twitched, curling and uncurling into fists.

“Now, now, is that any way to treat the—”

“You may have supplied the sperm, but that’s it. You will never have anything to do with the child.”

“The child is half mine.”

“No.” She shook her head, her fingers changing into claws before she even realized it. “The child is half Beric’s.”

“He might be your husband, but he didn’t impregnate you.”

“What the hell do you want, Charles?” she all but roared.

“I just want you to admit it.” He held out his hands as if he was defenseless. She knew better.

“Admit what?” Miera really was regretting saving him. Her head started to ache. She should be lying down and resting, trying to recover. Being pregnant and fighting so much wasn’t doing her poor body any favors.

“Admit that you miss me.”

The gall! “Of course I don’t!”

“You miss me,” he insisted.

“How can you think that?” He was delusional. One time and he acted as if he had a claim on her.

“Why else would you be so insistent on staying away from me unless you feared you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off of me?” His grin was leering.

It took all of her self-control to not slash him across his face. “You have it all wrong,” she said, trying to keep her voice level and not reveal that he was getting to her.

“Do I?” He stepped closer, gripping her wrists, holding them tight by her side. “You can’t tell me you feel something for Beric. Not after what we shared.”

She kicked his kneecap, hard. He stumbled back, his grip loosening enough for her to yank her wrists free. “What we shared meant nothing.”

Charles rolled his eyes and stared pointedly at her swollen midsection. “Oh, it means something all right, and you’ll never be able to forget that.”

“Charles, if you ever—”

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone about us.” He stepped closer to her. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t be thinking about us all the time. You’re always on my mind, Miera. You might not have been my first, but I want you to be my last.”

“Then you’re looking at living the rest of your life celibate,” she retorted.

“Oh, I think you’ll be singing a different song soon enough.” He leaned forward as if to kiss her.

She jerked backward. Her feet stumbled, and she fell. Her balance was off. Damn pregnancy.

He reached down to help her up, but she tossed his hand aside and got up by herself. “I’m married now. To your alpha! Don’t you know that Beric is your leader now?”

“For the moment.” Charles shrugged. “If one alpha can die, so can another.”

“Yeah? Well, so can I. And so can you.”

“I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not going to die anytime soon.”

“I don’t see how you can be so certain.”

“I’ve gotten everything I wanted out of life so far.” He smiled. This one was almost tender, and it reminded her of that one time when she had given in to her body’s desires, when she had been foolish. Regret would always fill her to some extent. She knew she would love her child, that she would never blame him or her, but the child’s father? He she could hate all she wanted, and right now, she did hate him. She hadn’t previously, not immediately afterward, and not even when she had learned she was pregnant. But for him to come up to her here, now, with so much chaos going on around them…

Actually, that was probably why he was here in the first place.

“Charles, your life will be very short if you don’t leave me alone. I promise you that.”

“You’re worried and anxious that I will—”

“I’m not worried or anxious about anything.” She brought a claw up and touched it against his cheek, digging hard but not pressing with enough force to cut his skin. “You will stay away from me, and the child, and Beric, or else I will kill you myself.”

The crestfallen look on his face was real, she knew it was. He might have been acting a little during their conversation just now, but his eyes revealed how hurt he was. He swallowed. “Miera…”

“Go ahead and say goodbye. This will be our last conversation.” She forced herself to press with her claw a little more. She didn’t really want to hurt him, but he had to realize his place, and his place was not by her side.

“I will always love you. And our child.”

She shuddered at his words and closed her eyes. When she opened them, Charles was gone.

Miera would never love Charles, had never loved him. It didn’t matter that he loved her. She wanted to one day give her heart to Beric. She wanted to love her husband. Maybe one day, Beric would be the one to say “I love you” to her.

She hoped so, but with the craziness of their lives, especially now that his father had died and Beric was alpha, she had a feeling that they were not going to spend much time together at all, and if one of them should be the next one to fall…

A sob broke free from her, and she kneeled down, hugging her body, and wept.

*

All of the training and preparation his father had tried to drill into Beric
for when he would eventually become alpha was severely lacking. He didn’t know how to bring two packs together. He’d been naïve and thought the wedding would be enough. And he didn’t know how to stop the war, to stop the suffering, to stop the bleeding.

The doctors from the Blood Roses were helping their people, and many of them were now fit for fighting… well, as fit as they could be considering they needed more meat to eat, and Beric had halted all patrols outside the fence, and no one was allowed to leave the compound, not even to hunt. They would have to suffice on whatever food sources they already had. It wasn’t going to be easy. None of this would be easy.

Especially when he looked at the devastation the attack on the hospital had caused. Out of the one hundred and two wounded Teal Warriors, less than half had survived. All of the nurses had been killed, and only three of the twelve doctors still lived. If the Blood Roses wouldn’t lend them their doctors, and soon, the number of Teal Warrior casualties would only continue to grow.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Every day, at most every other day, the Brutal Claws were back. They never sent a large number, but those they sent were fierce and capable warriors who brought down many before falling themselves. At this rate, the two packs, whether they worked together or not, wouldn’t survive through another three weeks, if they even lasted that long.

The Blood Roses’ council… he didn’t even know how many members of it still lived. He and Miera had intended for there to be a meeting immediately after their wedding, but the Brutal Claws had ruined that. Now, he hardly saw Miera. His duties as alpha had him so busy he couldn’t even think, let alone spend time with her. Considering she still needed to heal and that she was spending most of her woken hours with her people, they hadn’t had any alone time, and they hadn’t shared a bed either. For being married, he sure didn’t feel as if anything had changed in his life.

It should bother him, he knew that, but he had so many issues to worry about that he hadn’t the strength to fret over that, too. Although, maybe if he were to be on the same wavelength as Miera, they might be able to better work out how to bring the two packs together.

He had never felt so lost before. So many of his friends and comrades had fallen. Even if they were to find a way to get the Brutal Claws to leave them be, how many would be left to enjoy that freedom?

His fingers rubbed his temples, but the headache that had been plaguing him for days now would not relent. Stress induced, he knew, and there would be no shortage of stress for a long, long time.

Kathy had been a huge help to his father, and she had picked up her duties with Beric when he became the new alpha. She was the only other one to be with him in the alpha’s quarters. His quarters. It was so hard to remember that, or maybe he just didn’t want to think of it as his.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, everything looked peaceful, but that could only last for a moment. The Brutal Claws were wearing them down, and Beric could only hope they would continue to send small contingents of warriors, as they had been. Otherwise, the next battle would be their last.