The Protector (2 page)

Travis
pointed at the hunter in camo coveralls and the orange hat. “This guy here,
he’s the one that shot Brian. He says his name is Levi Clemmons. We don't know,
but we think the other one shot Nathan."

Warren
stared at Levi for a moment. “You killed a good husband and father.”

“I
killed a wild animal." He grinned. "So at the most, I will get a
ticket for illegal poaching.”

Warren
pulled out his gun and pointed it at Levi’s head.

“No!”
Travis yelled, shoving Warren hard. His gun fired as Travis took Warren to the
ground, the bullet barely missing the hunter's head.

Travis
put his hands in the air to placate Warren. “I do not want to see you lose
everything you worked for, Warren.”

Warren
slowly got to his feet. His nostrils flared, and his breath came in pants. His
eyes were bright with anger. “Travis, you ever knock my arm like that, and I
will
fucking
rip it off, cub. I am the
Kelach
and sheriff here. If I want to fucking kill a
murdering human, I will.”

Levi
knelt in the snow, his eyes wide in terror. “You want to kill me for illegal
hunting?”

Warren’s
eyes flared with rage.
“Illegal hunting?
You saw that
those animals you shot were more. They have families.”

Levi
shook his head. “I’m sorry. I was just having a bit of fun.”

Cole
watched Warren battle for control of his bear. He aimed his gun at Levi’s head
and fired. Levi fell to the ground, his blood staining the fresh snow red.

Cole
turned to see his uncle standing over Levi’s dead body, and watched Warren aim
his gun at the second hunter. Cole fought through his own fog of grief to try
to take charge. Warren was in a murderous rage. If he acted without judgment,
he could lose his place as
Kelach
and face judgment,
but not only that, he could lose Myra, too.

Time
seemed to pass in slow motion as Cole walked over to his Uncle Warren, holding
his hands out shouting. “No!”

Cole
watched Warren hesitate. The other man tried to roll away while screaming
unintelligibly.

“Warren!”
Cole yelled, but Warren re-aimed and fired the gun once more. The human slumped
over with a bullet wound in his head. Cole stood in place and watched as Warren
tossed the gun aside, and then fell to his knees. His head fell forward, and
his shoulders shook. Cole knew Warren was about to shift.

Warren’s
shift was not gradual, not how most of them shifted. Cole watched Warren’s
whole body quiver and his bear burst out, shredding his clothes.

Cole
braced himself in case Warren had lost his sanity. It was possible that grief
could drive a shifter temporarily insane, and they might have to work as a team
to bring Warren and his grief under control.

Warren
raised his face to the sky and let out a roar that penetrated the whole forest.
He then he collapsed to his side, breathing hard.

Cole
couldn’t move as he stood in stunned shock over the carnage. It almost felt
like hours before Cole managed to move forward on numb legs. He stared down at
the human hunters lying in the snow, dead. “Warren, what have you done?” Cole
asked in horror.

Warren
shifted back to a human, but stayed down on all fours, in the snow. Aaron
brought over some spare clothing along with his coat. Warren took them without
making eye contact. He lifted his face to the night sky, and as the snow slowed
to flurries around him, it was easy to see the tears fall from Warren's eyes.
“It was my right. I am now the alpha of our triad. I claimed the right of
vengeance for my female’s murdered alpha mate.”

Cole
stood in the snow, feeling nothing. Thoughts whirled in his head at the
possible outcomes. Cole hoped
Ilithyia
forgave Warren
for killing the other hunter. Warren could claim vengeance for Levi, but they
didn’t know which human had shot Nathan. They all assumed the other hunter shot
Nathan, but the other
cholan
were taking forensic
evidence to prove their theory.

Cole
worried about the trouble Warren faced. What if they stripped him of his position
as the
Kelach
, and beta? Warren might be in a lot of
trouble. Myra and Warren had never mated, so Nathan, although he was Myra’s
brother, was not direct family to him. He should have waited for Michael’s
judgment to act. If Warren had to step down, then that left Cole to take on the
leadership role, and he knew he wasn’t ready yet. There were so many rules he
didn’t fully understand. The laws were so complicated.

Cole
saw Michael, the Guardian of the territory, walking into the scene, and his
heart filled with dread for Warren. The snowfall had decreased to flurries,
making it easy to see all around now.
 
Michael approached Warren to question him.

“What
happened here, Warren?” Michael asked looking at the dead bodies in the snow.

Warren
pointed to Travis. “Ask him. I did this.”

Michael
looked from Warren to the bodies to Travis. “Travis,” Michael said in a grave
tone. “Come with me, please.”

Travis
followed Michael so they could speak freely.

Cole’s
heart pounded in his chest as he wondered what would happen to his uncle.
What if Michael banishes Uncle Warren
?
He doubted Michael would put him to death. These humans were far from innocent.

“Warren,”
Michael called out, distracting Cole from his thoughts. “Come here.”

Warren
held his head high as he walked into the grove of trees Michael was standing
in. Cole felt sick to his stomach, and his hands shook. The forest was deathly
silent making the atmosphere all the more foreboding.

Cole
waited, staring intently into the trees for any sign of movement. Cole saw a
glow coming from the middle of the trees. It became brighter, and he saw
Michael holding his hands over Warren. Warren fell to his knees, his face
turned up towards Michael. The two men glowed with their Goddess’s light while
Michael spoke too softly to be heard. The glow faded, leaving them in darkness
once more.
Please, Goddess, have mercy on
my uncle
.

Cole
tried to think about what to do now. Whatever punishment Warren received, Cole
could not interfere. Michael and Warren appeared out of the tree line. Soon he
would know the punishment that Michael had handed down.

 
Cole’s anger grew.
Warren might be banished for avenging Brian and Nathan’s murder. Those
hunters murdered my friends and fellow
cholan
.
Those humans knew they were not pure animals,
and they shot them anyway.
Cole turned and fell to his knees by Brian’s
body.
 
He felt like his emotions shut
down as he sat in the snow watching the chaos with horror
.
 
Brian and Nathan are fucking
dead. What the hell is Myra going to do?
Both her mate and brother are gone, just like that.
Cole closed his
eyes. Maybe
cholan
had no business mating and
creating children.

Cole
was unsure how long he sat there staring at his friend, when he felt a strong
hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Michael standing over him. His face
looked grim and sad at the same time. Warren was standing next to him looking
pale. Cole noticed the Sheriff badge was gone from Warren’s coat, and his gun
was gone, too.

“Is
it as bad as I feared it would be?” Cole asked, looking at Warren.

Warren
shook his head. “No, I was not banished. Our Goddess
Ilithyia
had mercy on me. I have resigned as
Kelach
and
territory beta, although I will stay close to train you, but right now, you are
Kelach
and beta.”

Cole
shook his head in denial. “No, I’m not ready. I can’t take your place.”

Michael
firmed his grip. “It is done.
 
He denied
these two men a fair judgment, even though I would have sentenced them to
death. They came onto our lands with the intent of killing shifters. I would
not have let them leave here alive.” Michael gave Warren a direct look. “Warren
chose to resign though.”

Cole
frowned. He thought Michael’s tone was odd, but he was too tired to think about
it.
 
Shaking off the thought he looked
back to his friend, Brian. “Who will tell Myra?” Cole stood up, Aaron covered
up Nathan and Brian’s bodies, and he needed to start standing up like a full
grown wolf instead of a pup.

Michael
looked him in the eye. “You and Warren will go, together. I do not want many
shifters knowing what happened here. None of you are to repeat what happened
today. Facts have a way of getting twisted, and before long it will spread to
nefarious shifters and humans. As far as anyone knows, Warren stepped down to
care for Myra and the boys after the death of her mate." He turned to the
other shifters in the clearing. "Does everyone understand?”

“Yes,
Guardian,” the shifters said together.

Cole
nodded his understanding. Warren, Brian, and Myra had never made their triad
formal, so technically, Warren had no right to claim vengeance. If they had
only gone through the ceremony, then Cole would not be looking at the
responsibility of being the territory’s beta and
Kelach
right now.

Michael
looked at Travis, who appeared agitated by the judgment. “If shifters go around
killing humans, we would be exposed, and probably hunted down. I understand
your anger. This is for the good of all of us.
Ilithyia
handed down her punishment to Warren. This matter is closed.”

Cole
had a cold dread growing in his gut. There was too much falling on him at once.
He couldn’t take this position and a new mate all at the same time. It was too
much to cope with and too much to put onto his betrothed, Blair. What if
cholan
showed up at her house to tell her he was dead? What
if he and Blair had children? He needed time to think.

Warren
handed Cole the brass sheriff’s badge. “I will formally step down tomorrow
morning, and I will make it known I am stepping down for Myra and the boys.
It’s not a lie. Even if I had not killed the humans, I would have wanted to be
with my family more. They need me more than ever now.”

Cole
felt tears form in his eyes, as Aaron, Travis, and Brad picked up Brian’s body
to carry it to a waiting ambulance. In an instant, their lives had changed in
devastating and tragic ways. Cole drew a shaking breath. He was on the verge of
breaking down. “What will you do?”

“For
now, you and I are going to tell Myra.”

****

Cole
and Warren walked up the walkway, carefully avoiding the snow covered toys
littering the front yard. Warren pulled the screen door open,
then
knocked on the wooden door. Cole’s sensitive hearing
could hear the baby fuss and Myra starting the swing.
I am about to ruin her happy life. At this moment, everything is fine
in her life.
Cole willed time to stop so she would never open that door and
learn her mate would never return to her, and her brother was gone forever.

The
door opened, and Myra smiled at them. “Warren, Cole,” she said cheerfully. "Come
in, it’s freezing out here.”

Warren,
still acting the part of a
Kelach
, took the lead.
“Thank you, Myra.”
 
They both walked into
the small entryway of their home. Warren grabbed Myra’s hands. “Myra, I need to
talk to you.”

Cole
could tell she sensed the tension in the air. She looked from Cole to Warren. “Ok,”
she said slowly, her face paling.

Warren
pulled her into the bedroom. He took both of Myra’s hands in his own large
ones, looking down at her.
 
The baby,
Andy, started to fuss in his crib. Cole walked over and picked him up. He
looked so much like his father, Brian. He would grow up without one of his
fathers
now. It wasn’t fair. He rocked the baby, as Myra’s
scream shattered the silence.

“No,”
she cried in a long, heartbroken wail. “Brian,” she cried again.

He
heard Warren murmuring, “Myra, I am so, so sorry.”

Thomas,
their older boy, came running over to Cole. “Mommy is crying.”

“Yes,
she is. She has gotten some sad news. Uncle Warren is in there with her.” He
would be willing to tell the boys, but he knew it wasn't his place to tell the
child his father and his uncle had died. That was Myra and Warren's decision as
to how that conversation was to happen.
 
Thomas clung to him looking worriedly towards the bedroom where Myra
continued to cry uncontrollably, and Cole rocked the baby while Myra cried for
her lost mate and brother. He knew he would be here for a while, so he took off
his jacket. He sat down in the recliner, and no sooner had he sat down, Thomas
was in his lap sucking his thumb. The baby looked around, concerned, and Cole's
thoughts went to his beautiful Blair. They had been best friends as cubs and
had always been together. Now they were seriously dating and he had planned to
mate her, but now, he was not so sure mating was a good idea.