Healing His Soul's Mate (2 page)

“About the ferry.” Rekkus hesitated, a dead giveaway something was wrong.

“Rekkus, what is it?” She frowned at their worried faces. “Why is Sarka looking like I might lose it? For that matter, everyone.”

“Dana, there’s something I need to tell you about the ferry.” Rekkus hesitated again, something Cyrus hadn’t believed the were-tiger capable of. “There are some unwelcome passengers on the boat at the moment.”

“Unwelcome, how?”

“For the love of the goddess. Dana, your mother, father, and sister have reservations here for the week,” Sarka announced as if ripping a Band-Aid off. “There. It’s out now. Can we move on?”

Dana paled and swayed. “Why were they allowed to make a reservation? Rekkus? I don’t want them here. Not now.”

“We don’t know, but I am going to find out.” Rekkus pulled his mate close and wrapped his arms around her. “Myron….”

She put up a hand. “I swear it wasn’t me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have a clue how to log them into the system.” Hell, the last time Cyrus had turned on the computer it had crashed.

Only one person hadn’t denied responsibility.

Sarka stood defiant, not moving. “Fine, I might have taken the reservation.”

Cyrus had heard Rekkus growl before. He had seen him angry enough to tear a man or paranormal limb from limb. He watched Rekkus dive into the water to destroy a were-shark who’d hurt his mate. Rekkus turned on Sarka and growled like nothing any of them had ever heard before. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in a matter of seconds as he hurdled the desk.

Cyrus moved between them, and Sarka took a step back, but Rekkus reached over his shoulder and pinned Sarka by the neck to the wall. His chest heaved. The fact he had not ripped out Sarka’s throat told more about his self-control than anything else.

“Rek, my friend, you need to release my sister.”

“I could kill you for what you have done,” Rekkus growled but loosened his grip. He didn’t move other than to withdraw his hand.

Cyrus put his arm out as if doing so would protect her, and without turning to her he said, “Sarka, in the office now.”

“Do as he said.” Cemil rounded the corner in a run. His voice held a nervousness which belied the fact Sarka may have crossed the line this time.

But, in true Sarka fashion, she defied any order. “How dare he? I will not—”

“You will do as I say and do it now.” Cemil’s voice brooked no argument as he went over and pulled Dana toward her mate. “Dana, I need you to control your man.”

Dana stumbled and Cyrus prayed it wouldn’t set Rekkus off. She righted herself and approached. “How?”

How indeed because it wouldn’t take much for Rekkus to get through him or the door to tear his sister to shreds.

Cemil’s voice calm and light said, “Have Rekkus touch your belly. I need you to talk him down before he shifts.”

Dana squinted at Cemil as if she had been in a trance, and perhaps she had been, but Dana was aware of the electricity her mate put off. So far, he remained in human form, for had he shifted, not one person or security guard on the island could’ve stopped him. Hurt a shifter’s mate and no law could protect you.

“Rekkus, please.” Dana’s voice cracked as she moved his hand over her extended abdomen and reached up to kiss his cheek. As he turned toward her, his shoulders relaxed.

Cyrus released the air he had pent up and gave Dana a reassuring nod.

“We will deal with this issue together. But I can’t do it alone. I need you to be strong for me.” She scanned the room. “I need everyone here to be strong because you are my family, not the three people on the boat who disowned me.”

Cyrus took the other side of Dana, and, placing one of her hands in his, he squeezed. “Cemil, you’ll deal with our sister? Make sure she understands if I ever catch her doing this again, she will have to deal with me, because if it’s between losing Rekkus and Dana over stuff like this, I will vote her off the fucking island.”

Cemil nodded and this time he did not walk on air. He stormed into the office, slamming the door and closing him and Sarka into the small room. She’d stepped over the line this time. Cyrus didn’t know if Cemil’s emotions got the better of him because Rekkus’ emotions were so volatile or perhaps he was as sick of Sarka’s bull as everyone else.

Dana broke the silence. “Shall we go greet the Stones?”

“Together,” Rekkus said.

Cyrus squeezed Dana’s hand again, and Myron gripped her shoulders, all of them infusing her with their strength. “Together,” Cyrus agreed. No one was going to hurt his family again.

No one!

Three weeks earlier, New York City

Ashlynn Stone bit her lip as her nerves got the better of her. The kindhearted nurse stood above her, she wondered if she had the courage to go through with this.

“Ms. Stone, are you sure you’re ready to see the scars?”

“No, but sometimes our imagination is worse.” She accepted the mirror from the nurse and closed her eyes. Brave words, but she would never be ready. With shaking hands, she raised the mirror and let out a cry. She traced the scar above her left eyebrow moving down to the place below her ear on her neck.

She returned the mirror with a thank you and laid her head back on the white hospital pillowcase. The plastic surgery had done little to hide the ugly and ragged mark. Her career as a model was over, and any hope she had lay like those bandages on the floor. The headaches kept her up at night with such pain it split her head in two. Hurt so fierce she thought she would die from it. To hell with a career built on fake beauty. What she wouldn’t give for some inner peace.

The nurse touched her arm. “Bad luck the light falling from the truss.”

“Indeed.” What else could she say? At least this nurse hadn’t mouthed platitudes, saying it would heal, or it didn’t look so bad. At least she hadn’t lied to her. Because it was bad, but her beauty would’ve faded anyway, right?

So far, she was less upset about the loss of her career as a top model than she’d expected to be. Her mother seemed more devastated by the turn of events, but she always put a great deal of credit on appearance and name, and what a coup it had been to have a beautiful daughter to brag about. Her daughter the model. But now her mother could barely bring herself to look at her. In the last two weeks, she’d visited only once for a moment.

Her father, who had through her life always been less hands-on, came every day, sitting with her for hours on end. He would come between his rounds to check on her and stay with her while she slept. For the first time in her life, she saw her father as a person, not only the top OB/GYN in New York or the society husband she’d always thought him to be.

The soft knock filled the room, and she flinched as the sounds bounced around inside her skull. The nurse frowned at her. “Shall I send them away?”

“I think it depends on who they are.” She would prefer her mother went away, rather than rattle on about how much weight Ashlynn had put on or some top-notch surgeon she had found.

“Okay, but if you want me to get rid of them, just say your head hurts and you need your meds.”

“Thank you.”

“Jessie?” The last person she expected to see walk through the door was Jessie Ranata, her estranged sister’s best friend. As Dana had been disowned by her mother over a year ago in front of friends and family and had shown no interest of keeping in touch with anybody else, Jessie’s visit shocked her. A small part of Ashlynn had expected Dana to call or show up. If anything would’ve brought her back, this should have, but having been on the receiving end of her mother’s displeasure, Ashlynn had to acknowledge it sucked enough to send her running away.

“I hope it’s all right. I thought about calling but chickened out. In the end, I figured a surprise might be best.” Jessie glanced at the nurse before walking in, her voice low as if mimicking the darkness of the room.

“Jessie, of course it’s okay. I’m simply surprised.”

A larger-than-life smile came over Jessie’s face. She was weighed down with the shopping bags of a woman with too many credit cards and too much time on her hands. “I have to admit I have paced outside the hospital today for about an hour, wondering whether to come in or not. Then I spent another twenty minutes wandering the halls, wondering if I should enter your room.”

“I’m glad you stopped in. It’s nice to have visitors.” Ashlynn watched as Jessie fought with the bags in her arms and then dropped them on the table across the room, a gigantic shopping bag with blue bears on it from one of the uptown baby boutiques on the top. “Someone’s having a baby?”

Jessie paused. “You’re joking right?”

“I saw the baby bag and wondered if you were….”

“No I’m not pregnant, I thought you…. It’s Dana.”

“Dana’s pregnant!” Ashlynn screeched and regretted it as her head reverberated all the way to the base of her neck.

“I thought you knew.” Jessie stood and reached for a wet cloth from the sink. “Headaches? This might help if I place it over your eyes. I promise not to stay long. I wanted to see if I could help. I never meant to make it worse.”

“Does she know?” Ashlynn asked then clarified. “About my accident. I assume she knows she is preggers.”

Jessie shook her head before laying the cloth over her brow. “Did you call her? Did anybody think to inform her?”

“The news played the damned video of the light falling on my head for days on end.”

“Yes, well, The Wiccan Haus isn’t known for its TV and Internet. Someone should have given her a call.”

“Why would we call? She hasn’t called us since she left, didn’t even bother to tell us she got married until after the fact.”

After a long silence, Jesse spoke. “I can’t imagine she would’ve said anything to anyone after the way your mother disowned her.”

“I didn’t disown her.” And she hadn’t. She and her sister had never been close, but she wished they had been.

“No, but you didn’t stand up for her either, so perhaps she found your silence agreement enough.” Jessie flipped the wet cloth. “I shouldn’t have come. I heard about the accident, and then I heard about the scar tissue and I thought I’d give you this.” She fished something out her bag.

“What is it?” Ashlynn asked peeking around the cloth.

“It’s a cream. It might not help. It won’t take away the scars, but it should soften them, make them less visible, less noticeable.”

“What is in it?”

“Oh, don’t open it yet, smells horrid but it works. Sage Rowan at the Wiccan Haus made this for me. There isn’t a lot left, but if you want more, I’ll ask her to make some.”

“Thank you. That is kind. I wonder if she has something for these headaches.”

“You might be surprised. Perhaps you should book a week or two there. When all else fails, they seem to be able to work miracles.”

“That might not be such a bad idea.” The deep voice of her father, Dr. Eugene Stone, pulled her attention back to the door which had opened without her noticing.

“Dad?”

“Have another headache, do you? Hello, Jessie, what a surprise.”

Jessie fidgeted in her seat. “I wanted to stop in and see how she was doing and give her something.”

His smile held sadness. “Very kind of you.”

An awkward silence followed as Ashlynn wondered when Jessie would check her watch and make the inevitable is that the time? excuse. But it didn’t happen, and after some time, her father said in a voice choked with emotion, “How is she?”

“Dana?” Jesse asked, her voice strained.

“Yes.”

“You have to say her name if you want me to answer. You have to acknowledge she exists.” Bitterness laced Jessie’s comment.

Ashlynn’s head hurt from the tension in the room, but she needed to know more about Dana’s life than her marital status and intent never to come home again. Shock ran through her at the tears glistening in her dad’s eyes.

Ever since the night Dana left her fiancé at the altar, nobody had spoken her name in their house. Even the day a courier delivered the exact amount of money spent for the wedding that never happened, no one talked about her. Almost as if Dana never existed.

“Is Dana all right. Is she happy? Does her husband treat her well? I don’t even know his name.” Dr. Stone rubbed a hand over his weary face.

Jessie’s shoulders relaxed. “She’s very happy, and Rekkus treats her like a princess. He adores her. His last name is hard to pronounce. Don’t ask me to try, I can’t, it’s some old Welsh family name.”

“This Rekkus, what does he do?” Her dad took a seat in the rolling chair at the foot of her bed. He inched closer to Jessie, waiting for information on his daughter.

“Officially, he is head of security for the Wiccan Haus, but I will eat my purse if he is simply a security guard. And, he isn’t your run-of-the-mill mall cop. This guy screams Special Ops.”

“You seem to like him,” he noted, leaning forward.

“I do but I don’t know him very well. He isn’t a get-to-know-you kind of guy. I think he tolerated me because Dana wanted me there.”

“Do you think she’s happy?”

Jessie nodded. “I think you need to consider taking Ashlynn to the Wiccan Haus. You’ve tried every bit of modern medicine to help her. It’s been in every paper on every newscast. I have seen them work miracles on the island, and Dana has talked about the amazing work they do. It would be worth a try.”

“You think they can help?”

“I do, and what have you got to lose?”

“Feeling as she does about us, do you think she would even want us there?”

Jessie shrugged again but nodded. “There’s only one way to find out. Make a reservation. If they accept it, then you go. If they say no, you have your answer.”

“I did some research on the island when your sister decided to stay. They seem legitimate. I worried at first they were a cult who’d gotten their claws into her. But the more I read, the more impressed I became. I am very worried about these headaches, and if they can help, I think we need to try.”

“Me, too, Dad.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “There’s something else. Jessie told me she’s pregnant.”

“Pregnant?”

“I don’t think it’s been an easy pregnancy, either. My last visit was at Rekkus’ request, not Dana’s. He thought a visit from me would cheer her up, and when you meet your son-in-law, you will understand why I am concerned.”