Matt: Tales of the Were (Redstone Clan Book 5) (14 page)

“I’ve never told anyone about it,” she whispered after a long pause. “My father used to lock me in a closet if I did something bad. I hated it.”

Matt read between the lines. She didn’t just hate the closet. She hated the man who had put her in it. And Morgan, being a decent sort of person, probably had a lot of guilt over the idea of hating her own flesh and blood. But Matt had seen this before, in some of the folks who sought refuge with the Redstone Clan. Not all shifters were nice people. Some folks, Matt had decided, should just never be parents.

“I hear you, Morgan,” Matt said gently, wanting to sooth her and just be there for her. He rubbed her arms and held her close, speaking in non-verbal ways of his love and support. “That can’t have been easy. And it explains a bit more about why you had such a bad impression of the shifter community.”

“I’ve learned a lot since your people have come here. Just in the past couple of days, I’ve gotten to see Redstone Clan members in action, and if they’re anything to go by, my home Clan was nothing like what it should have been—what your people have.” She was quiet for a moment, but Matt sensed she still had more to say. “That closet actually saved my life, so I guess I should be thankful for it now.”

Matt grew concerned, sensing, somehow, what she might tell him next would be just awful. Did he really want to know? Yeah, he had to know. He wanted to know every hurt his beautiful mate had suffered so he could understand her and help her…and hunt down every last bastard who had hurt her and slay them.

“What happened, Morgan?” he asked quietly, prompting her, but trying not to pressure her. He carefully kept his tone as neutral and comforting as possible.

“They came in the middle of the night. I never saw who it was, but someone—a group of someones—came through the house and shot every member of my family.” Her tone was weary. Defeated.

But Matt didn’t understand. Shifters were strong. Mere bullets couldn’t keep them down for long.

“Were they silver bullets?” he asked, still in that same, careful tone.

“Worse,” she replied. “Tranquilizers. Really strong ones. I heard the
fwap-fwap-fwap
as the rounds left the rifles. Multiple rounds of fast-acting tranqs. That’s what I think happened, anyway. I could scent the chemicals, and they were heady. I couldn’t actually see anything because—as usual—I was locked in the hidden closet.” She sighed and seemed to be calmer as she related the story. “I heard a lot of banging and dragging sounds as they took my family out of the house, none too gently. I didn’t dare breathe. I knew, if they realized I was still there, they’d get me too.” Her hand on his chest clenched into a fist as she continued to tell her tale in broken segments.

“You must have been very brave,” Matt commented.

“Scared spitless,” she quipped, giving a delicate snort. “Then, about an hour later, they started screaming. One by one, I heard the screams of my family. My mother, my father, my aunts and uncles. I was the only cub, thank goodness. I guess the folks who killed the adults of my family didn’t realize there had been any young.” Matt placed his hand over her fist, grateful when she uncurled her tight fingers and laced them with his before she went on. “I must have slept at some point after the noise stopped. I was stuck in that closet and couldn’t get out. I was too scared what might be outside if I managed to break out. So I stayed there, silent and scared, for the rest of that day. That night, Marc came. He had been in the area, for a while. I know I’d heard my father curse the bloodletter that lived up the hill. We had been alone in the swamp before then. There was a house—a mansion, really—up on the hill, and at one time, there had been a plantation, but the house had been empty for years, and our Clan expanded farther into the swamp, seeking areas away from the humans who were encroaching on our lands.”

Her words drifted off, and Matt let her go at her own pace while he reflected on what she was telling him. What she’d been through was even more horrific than he’d expected. She was a strong woman to have come through that and made so much of herself. And now Matt finally understood a little bit more about why she was so close with the Master vampire.

“Marc had noticed something off in the swamp, the night before, but the attackers had come close to dawn, and Marc had to go to ground. The following night, he came to investigate, and he sensed me in the closet and let me out. I was so scared, at first. I thought he was going to kill me too, but he didn’t. He saved me. He protected me. He got me out of there and made sure I didn’t see the horror of what they’d done to my family. From that night until this one, Marc has been my protector, my savior, my dear friend. He even moved out of the house on the hill and came here, because he didn’t think it was good for me to be in that environment where so much had taken place. He brought us to California and made a fresh start here. Soon after, he stepped into the role of Master, and everything fell into place for him…and for me. He paid for my education, and I went to the finest schools in California. He kept me close, but also allowed me to grow and learn and spread my wings as far as I was willing to go. And, when you showed up last year…he nudged me into meeting you.”

She looked up at him again, her gaze full of wonder that made Matt’s heart fill with hope.

“You were the first shifter I’d met since leaving Florida,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to. I never wanted anything to do with shifters ever again after getting out of that closet, but Marc knew I’d need to learn more about my own kind, eventually.” She squeezed his hand. “I’m glad you were my first re-introduction to shifters. And I’m glad you turned out to be so much different than everything I remembered and feared.”

The moment was golden. Full of emotion and portent.

“I’m glad too, Morgan,” Matt admitted in a solemn tone. “You intrigued me from the moment I scented you.”

She blushed. He couldn’t help himself—he rose up so that they were sitting on the pile of discarded clothing and took her into his arms and kissed her. It was a kiss of acceptance and caring, of tenderness and joy, of loneliness banished and terror forgotten.

When they came up for air, the faint light in their little cavern was decidedly dimmer.

“Night is falling. Our cavalry may arrive soon,” Matt said with a slight grin.

“I sincerely hope so.” Morgan shivered, a little of her fear entering her gaze as she remembered where they were.

“I promise you, Morgan…” Matt stilled to make her a solemn vow. “If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’ll get you out of here.” He smiled, breaking the tension, a heartbeat later, before she could get scared. “But it won’t come to that. We haven’t even tried digging yet, and our friends know where we were headed. Marc has moved for you before. You have to believe he’ll move this little bit of dust and rock to get you out of here. Have faith, sweetheart. You’re part of a bigger family now. One that protects its own. We’ll be out of here lickity-split.”

She looked at him doubtfully but seemed to take heart from his words, finally drawing away and sorting through the messy pile of clothes to find her bra. Matt was sorry to see her getting dressed, but he also knew they should probably try digging a bit. There might not be all that much between them and the outer portion of the tunnel. But digging naked wasn’t recommended. For one thing, the rocks were sharp in places. For another, there was a lot of dust that would mix with sweat to form uncomfortable mud.
No, thank you.

Matt reluctantly followed Morgan as she stood and helped her sort out her clothes, stealing kisses in exchange for her garments as he handed them to her. He pulled on his shorts and pants, then his shirt, glad he’d packed a few things in his cargo pockets. He fished out a granola bar and handed it to her.

“Nibble on this while I take a look at what we’ve got. There might be some unstable sections we should avoid.”

Morgan looked like she wanted to argue, for a moment, but then she took the granola bar and shrugged. “You’d know more about that sort of thing than I do, seeing as how you build things for a living.”

Matt smiled and leaned down to give her a quick kiss. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. For the record, that’s the reason I wanted you to stay back here while I checked things out. I’m familiar with the signs of stable rock and what constitutes a dangerous situation. My goal here is keeping you safe, not keeping you in a corner. Okay?” He waited until she nodded before moving cautiously away, closer to the debris zone.

The light was dimming quickly now as night began to creep across the landscape up top. Matt had a small penlight in his pocket, which he used to examine the pile of rocks and dirt that blocked their path.

“This doesn’t look too bad, actually,” he reported as he continued his inspection. “I think it’s safe enough if we dig in line with this wall.” He ran his hands over the layer of loose dirt, shaking some loose. “With any luck, there won’t be too much damage to the tunnel past this point, and we won’t have far to dig. Plus, our friends will probably be digging from the other side as soon as we let them know exactly where we are.”

Morgan reached for her phone, but didn’t power on. “It’s not really dark yet,” she stated. “Best wait until full dark so I’m sure Marc is awake.” She put the phone back into her pocket and moved closer to Matt, reaching out to brush away some of the dirt near the low ceiling of the tunnel.

“We’ll go slow, at first, just to be sure everything is stable,” Matt cautioned, joining her, reaching for the highest point and working downward.

They worked together for at least a half hour and had dug several feet into the debris pile. They hadn’t broken through to the other side, yet, but Morgan felt better that at least they were making some kind of progress. Sitting around feeling helpless wasn’t high on her list of favorite things to do.

She was still freaking out at being confined, but Matt’s presence helped. In fact, when he’d been making love to her, she hadn’t realized they were trapped, at all. Matt had a way of narrowing her focus to just the two of them. Together.

It was a heady thought. She wondered if their joining had been as epic for him as it had been for her. She had zero experience of shifter lovemaking, but even so, she thought Matt must be pretty special, even among shifters. He had shown her a fiery passion she hadn’t known was inside her. He’d introduced her to hungers she hadn’t known she possessed. And she was very much afraid that he’d ruined her for anyone else, ever again.

She wanted only him. Her inner cat stood up and yowled in agreement. It had a single-minded determination where Matt Redstone was concerned. Her cat wanted him for all time. She wanted him as her mate.

The absurdity of that thought was almost enough to get her mind off her fear of being trapped down here in this hole. Almost.

A nearly crippling anxiety crept in, and she did her best to hide it from Matt, but she knew he knew. How could he not, after she’d shared that shameful bit of her past with him. This small chamber in what had once been a tunnel brought back all kinds of trauma from her childhood. She was just barely holding herself together, but Matt’s gentle touches and pats on her shoulder—his reminders that she wasn’t alone down here—helped considerably.

The other thing that helped was prayer. As she worked, Morgan kept up a steady litany of prayers to the Mother of All, asking for her guidance and help. Morgan wasn’t ashamed to admit she might even have begged for assistance from the Goddess who was known to sometimes intervene directly in the lives of those who worshipped Her.

Morgan truly didn’t expect a response to her prayers, but when the wall of dirt in front of her began to glow, she stopped digging and just stared. It was Matt who pulled her out of the way, just in time, as a…portal…of some kind opened in what had been a blank wall of dirt and rock.

A glowing portal, swirling with energies not of this realm. Morgan’s inner cat had the knowledge, but Morgan had never seen or even heard of anything like what she was seeing in her human existence.

And then, a man stepped through the portal.

No. Wait. Not a man…

A fey.

CHAPTER NINE

The newcomer stopped short and looked around, a puzzled expression lighting his fair-skinned face.

“Now, what do we have here?” The stranger surveyed the small chamber. “Matthew Redstone, as I live and breathe.”

“Cam?” Matt asked, stepping forward in the suddenly much smaller space. “Where the hell did you come from?”

“Underhill,” the one Matt had called Cam answered briefly. “This mine has been a sort of doorway to the fey realm for centuries, lad. But what’s happened to the tunnel? Are ye trapped?”

“Earthquakes. Unnatural tremors caused by bloodpath mages we suspect are
Venifucus
. We were spying on them deeper in the mine when everything started shaking,” Matt explained as Cam’s expression grew more concerned with each word. “We ran, but we only made it this far before the tunnel collapsed around us.”

“This is grave news, lad. Grave news.” Cam scowled. “But who is your lassie?”

“I guess you never met the Brotherhood’s lawyer the last time we worked together.” Matt’s expression brightened as he turned to Morgan. “Miss Morgan Chase, this is Cameron of the fey realm. He was an ally during the trouble at the time of Sebastian and Christy’s mating.”

Cam came closer and took Morgan’s hand, bowing over it in a charmingly old-fashioned way. Morgan couldn’t help but smile, even as the walls felt like they were closing in with two big men taking up all the space in their dirt and rock prison.

“Pleased to meet you. Can you help us get out of here?” She knew she sounded weak, but she couldn’t help it. She’d held off the fear as long as she could and was now on her last legs of courage and resolve. Surely, a fey would be able to get them out.

Cam rose and looked deep into her eyes. His smile made her feel a little better, but his words were music to her ears.

“Of course, milady.” He let go of her hand and turned to face the wall of dirt and rocks they’d been digging through.