Authors: Amelia Jade
Jade Crew: Captive Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 4) (14 page)
He stood up, still holding Kierra tightly to him. The formerly arrogant liaison was thrashing about wildly while Garrett and Gabriel each held one of his arms tightly. Their grips were like iron though, and the weasely little man was going nowhere.
“Fuck you,” Kierra said and spat in his face before anyone could say a thing.
Darren blinked in surprise as she turned and walked away, headed for the entrance and the night sky.
“What she said,” he told the assembled shifters, doing his best to fight back laughter at the look of utter shock and humiliation that was currently playing across Nash’s face.
Then he turned and jogged after Kierra.
“Hey,” he said quietly, coming up next to her. He expected her to keep walking and take his hand, or lean her head onto his, or any of a number of things to take advantage of his stolid presence and support.
“Get down here,” she snarled instead, grabbing his jacket collar and pulling him down to her.
“Yes ma’am,” he murmured softly just before their lips met.
They ignored the catcalls and whistles from the other shifters, though he felt her lips curve upward into a smile at the same time his did.
“I missed you,” he managed to get out between frenzied kisses.
“Me too,” she whispered, holding him tighter.
Footsteps on the floor notified him of another presence. He turned in his embrace to see who it was.
Valen Kedyn dipped his head in greeting once again.
“Thank you,” Darren said, standing up straight. The man in front of him deserved his utmost respect. “But why did you do it? I thought—”
He cut himself off, not wanting to reveal more than he had to. The Kedyns were still an unknown factor in all of the goings-on. Everyone so far had assumed they would side with the mining crews, but nobody knew for certain.
“There are limits to what I am willing to accept,” Valen said. His voice was dark and brooding. “A massacre of those trying to do the right thing, in my own home no less, is not one of them.” His tone went from angry to hardened steel as he spoke.
“What will you do now?” Kierra asked.
“For now I will have to leave. I’m afraid that my actions will have escalated things to another level. Marcus will have to officially outlaw me and proclaim me of Unfound status. That should hopefully tide over our enemies in the near term. Allowing me to operate without being watched will also allow me to become more heavily involved.””
Darren blinked, having forgotten for a moment that someone held sway over the Kedyns. Whoever that person was, and whatever threat they were using, it had been enough to keep both of the Kedyns from acting in the growing conflict. That appeared to have changed tonight. As a consequence, however, Valen was going to have to go on the run. Doing so would allow Marcus to remain in power, and hopefully mitigate the response of whoever had the knife to his throat.
Darren shook his head. Unfound status was nothing to joke about. It meant that Valen was now designated as “Kill on Sight” to any shifter who came across him. It was one of the few things that applied outside the Valley as well. Word would get out, and Valen would find himself hunted. It wasn’t fair that he should have to go through with this, but Darren found it hard for him to regret that Valen had intervened when he did. After all, they would all be dead by now if he hadn’t.
“What is going on?
Why
is this happening in the first place?” His thoughts were on Kierra. If more conflict and strife were coming to Genesis Valley, he wanted her gone. The two of them could pack up and move somewhere that would keep her safe. Darren was
not
going to risk losing her a second time.
Valen frowned. “I don’t know for certain,” he admitted. “Whoever is behind this has been extraordinarily adept at keeping themselves hidden in the shadows, despite the power he—or they, I suppose—seem to be able to wield. But my suspicion is that they are after the stones.”
“The what?” Kierra asked.
Darren briefly explained to her about the dragon stones, and how they were used to hatch new dragons.
“Oh. So if they get their hands on these stones, they can breed dragons?”
Valen shook his head. “They would need a mature dragon to do that. Only the fire of a mature dragon can breathe new life into a dragon stone.” He pursed his lips in thought for a moment. “And there are very few mature dragons left,” he finished at last.
It was Darren’s turn to speak. “But just breeding dragons alone wouldn’t be enough. Whoever is behind this would have to raise them
and
find a way to ensure that all the new dragons they created would become as evil as them. The Dragon Council would intervene before then, wouldn’t they?”
Valen’s head dropped slightly as he shook it. “Neither Marcus nor I have heard from the Dragon Council in months. I have my fears that something may have happened to them. If that is the case, we are on our own,” he said heavily.
“This just gets better and better,” Darren muttered angrily, still contemplating leaving town.
“Why are you telling me all this?” Kierra asked. “I’ve been trying for
years
to find out what’s going on in the mountains, and now I know more than ever in less than five minutes of talking to you!”
Valen smiled thinly. “You are his mate. You won’t betray his confidence and trust.”
Her eyebrows rose. “That’s it? It’s that simple?”
Darren chuckled. “Finding your mate is no easy task,” he told her, squeezing her tightly to him once more.
Valen nodded in agreement. “Now that you’ve found each other, your bond will grow swiftly. Just look to the others for proof.” His arm swung out to point at Garrett, Russell, and Cole, all Jade Crew shifters who had found their mates recently. “There is likely a reason why so many mated pairs have been formed recently,” he said serenely. “You will need each other’s support in the coming days I am sure.”
“Where will you go?” Darren asked as Valen made to take his leave.
“Marcus and I have other friends out there. Now that I am free to act, it’s about time I reminded them of that fact,” Valen said with a grin that no one would have called pleasant.
He bowed his head and left the cavern.
The two of them watched him go. Beside him Kierra gasped as Valen shifted, and in a stroke of his powerful wings, launched his animal form high into the sky.
“Wow,” his mate said, her gaze lingering on the quickly disappearing form. As Valen’s gryphon faded into the clouds, she turned to him.
“I want to go now,” she said. It was the first time he had heard anything that sounded like a complaint from her.
“Absolutely. Home?” he inquired.
“My place, from what I understand, is a wreck,” she said wryly. “Can I crash with you for a bit?”
He smiled. “Only if we can discuss turning that ‘bit’ into forever,” he said, leaning down to tenderly brush his lips against her cheek.
Leaving the cleanup to Gabriel and the others, Darren and Kierra got in his truck and began the drive down the mountain.
Kierra was asleep before they were halfway.
“I hope Valen is safe,” Kierra said as they watched Marcus Kedyn pound his gavel down.
From the front of the room came the strangled cry of one former LMC liaison Nash Wrigley.
The smiles on Darren and Kierra’s faces did not extend into their eyes. They watched humorlessly as Nash was escorted from the room by an iron-faced Raphael, who took no pains to be overly gentle with his charge.
Unfortunately, as Nash was not a shifter, he could not be sentenced to ending. Darren rather regretted that, but he would take life in prison with no chance of parole.
“He will be,” Darren assured her.
Like Valen had predicted, Marcus had been forced to outlaw his twin brother, proclaiming him Unfound. It had taken two days for that pronouncement to happen, however, and in that time Valen had made himself vanish. Darren hoped he stayed that way.
“I still can’t believe that people will believe that Nash was able to do all of this on his own,” she said, the disbelief evident in her voice. The court had ruled that Nash had been responsible for everything. No mention had been made of Victor or the dead bodies at Gabriel’s mountain chalet. Those had been quietly disposed of.
Darren felt bad. Kierra had both been exposed to a lot of hardship recently, but she had also been forced to absorb a lot of knowledge about the inner workings of the shifter world. It had opened her eyes, and she hadn’t liked all of it. Several days after being rescued she had withdrawn from the local election, no longer interested in being an active part of that world.
Today marked two weeks to the day since Valen had saved them, and many of those nights she had spent with tears rolling down her face as she came to grips with the brutal world he lived in.
He couldn’t completely begrudge that fact however, for each and every one of those nights had been spent in
his
arms. Fourteen days straight he had held his mate as she fell asleep, and for fourteen straight mornings he had awoken next to her beautiful face.
Their relationship had blossomed, and the two of them had found a surprisingly steady rock in each other. He understood perfectly now how Garrett and Emma had made the decision to get married so quickly. There was simply nothing that he would rather have in the world than Kierra Valcke standing by his side.
In fact, he thought, his hand closing around an object wrapped in black velvet within his pocket, he very much hoped to make that a reality later that night.
THE END
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