Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) (20 page)

His Collar stopped sparking and winked
out.

"Ronan, you stupid, stupid . . ." Elizabeth's
words gave out, and she simply hung onto him.

Ronan gathered her against him. He didn't
care that he was naked, her enemy dead at her feet, with other
Shifters and a human looking on. This was his moment with
Elizabeth, when the mate bond in him connected to the mate of his
heart.

"I love you, Ronan," she was sobbing.

Ronan kissed her hair, nuzzling the red
streaks in it that he adored. "Love you, Lizzie-girl," he said. "My
mate."

*** *** ***

Pablo also offered to dispose of the body. He
gave Elizabeth an amused look as he checked over the Sig Elizabeth
had lifted from Zach's holster in her struggle with him. "Remind me
not to let you get close to me," he said as he unloaded the weapon
and handed it to one of his seconds. "You have a gift. If you ever
need a job . . ."

"No," Elizabeth said decidedly, and let Ronan
lead her from the grisly scene. Julio Marquez was gone--who knew
where, and Elizabeth didn't want to ask. She had no doubt that
Pablo would gleefully claim that Zach Casey's territory was now
his. He was not the kind of man who did favors without thought of
personal gain.

By the time they reached the barn again,
Ronan was staggering, and he collapsed at the same time Ellison
broke out of the crowd with a Shifter medic behind him.

Ronan was in incredible pain, Elizabeth saw.
He'd lost a lot of blood, his body torn where the wolf had clawed
and bitten him, his neck bruised and blackened from the Collar's
abuse. He needed a hospital, but the Shifters weren't about to take
him there.

The medic cleaned the wounds and then ordered
Ronan to change back into a bear, a form in which he'd have more
strength for healing. Ronan groaned as he shifted, and three
Shifters had to help him climb into the bed of Ellison's pickup.
Ronan looked for Elizabeth, his gaze betraying so much pain that
she climbed into the truck with him.

Ellison and Spike lifted a blue tarp over the
pickup's bed and began to tie it down.

"Hey!" Elizabeth called. "Suffocate us, why
don't you?"

Ellison pulled a rope tight. "All loads in
Austin have to be tarped, and he qualifies as a load. Besides, I
don't want cops wondering why I'm driving around with an injured
Kodiak in the back of my truck."

Elizabeth understood his point. They
positioned the tarp so that Elizabeth and Ronan had plenty of
airflow, their skill telling her they'd done this before.

The tented truck bed was warm in the night,
Elizabeth cuddling against her bear. Elizabeth held on to Ronan as
the pickup bumped down the long dirt track, Ronan grunting in pain
every time the truck hit a rut on the washboard road.

Elizabeth held Ronan close and buried her
face in his fur. He smelled of blood but also of warmth and
himself. She'd fallen hard in love with him, but that was not so
surprising, she thought as she stroked him. Ronan had helped her at
every turn and never asked anything of her. He never did, from
anyone.

She was quietly crying by the time Ellison
pulled up at Ronan's house and shut off the engine. Rebecca came
running out as Ellison untied the tarp, Cherie, Mabel, and Olaf
following. Mabel pulled Elizabeth into an embrace while Rebecca
helped Spike and Ellison get Ronan out of the truck. Rebecca
instructed them to put him in the Den--there was a big bed there,
she said, and they wouldn't have to try to get him upstairs.

Ronan shifted back to human as he came to his
feet. He tried to stagger inside on his own, but Ellison and Spike
ended up half-dragging him between them.

Ronan groaned as he hit the bed. His face was
wan from too much blood loss, the bite and claw marks again oozing
blood. His breathing was shallow, his pulse too rapid.

Elizabeth and Rebecca covered him, and
Rebecca brought out bandages and antiseptic. But who knew what was
going on internally, or what damage the shocks from the Collar had
done?

"He needs a hospital," Elizabeth said.

Rebecca shook her head. "The human medical
world still hasn't figured out Shifters. They might kill him trying
the wrong thing."

"We have to do
something
. . ."

Elizabeth broke off as the door darkened and
Sean Morrissey strode in, the Sword of the Guardian on his back.
Both Rebecca and Cherie jumped to their feet, eyeing Sean with
similar looks of terror.

"No, Sean, not yet," Rebecca said, pleading.
"We don't need the sword yet."

"I know that, lass," Sean said. "But you do
need my mate."

Andrea stepped inside, her pregnancy evident
behind her loose, light shirt. Without a word, Andrea came to
Elizabeth, gave her a brief hug, and then sat on the bed next to
Ronan. In silence, she peeled back the sheet, laid her hands on
Ronan's bare chest, bowed her head, and closed her eyes.

She stayed in that position for a time,
unmoving except for her brows drawing together in concentration.
Cherie buried her face in Rebecca's shoulder. Mabel, next to
Elizabeth, squeezed her hand. Olaf said, in his loud, child's
voice, "Ronan will die?"

"No, lad," Sean said. "Not tonight."

The sword on Sean's back emitted a soft
ting
. Elizabeth's gaze went to it, but the others in the
room didn't seem to notice. Maybe it was supposed to do that.

Andrea drew a long breath. Then, to
Elizabeth's amazement, the big cuts on Ronan's throat started to
close. As she watched, the wounds narrowed, dried, and fused,
leaving long scabs in place of the chewed and serrated flesh.

The bruises and cuts on Ronan's face and
around his Collar started to fade, and Ronan's breathing eased.
After a long time, he let out a sigh and opened his eyes.

He looked around at the people who encircled
his bed--his family, Elizabeth and Mabel, Sean and Andrea, Spike
and Ellison--and he flinched. "Oh, this is embarrassing."

"Better embarrassed than dead," Andrea said,
patting his arm. "Stop doing this, Ronan. I'm getting tired of
patching you up." She started to rise, then winced and put her hand
on her distended abdomen.

Sean was at her side. "All right, love?"

"Fine." Andrea rubbed her belly. "There's a
lot of kicking going on down there. I think she wanted to help me
and was mad that she couldn't."

"Oh, can I feel?" Mabel asked brightly. "I
love babies."

Andrea let Mabel place her hands on her
stomach, while Sean looked on, both fond and protective.

"Hey, what about me?" Ronan asked. "I'm the
fallen hero, here."

"
You
are going to be fine," Andrea
said. "You're good inside; the wounds are only surface ones, thanks
to your thick bear fur. You'll have one hell of a hangover, but
that's your own fault for agreeing to fight a feral."

"A fight I won, woman. You should have seen
the other guy. What happened to him, by the way, Sean?"

"He's with Dad," Sean said. "For now. Dad
will take him to Liam for debriefing in the morning."

"Poor bastard," Ronan said. "Better him than
me."

Everyone started talking, weighing in with
opinions about the fight or the feral, or asking for details about
it. Elizabeth strode into the middle of the group.

"Out. Everybody, out. Ronan needs to
rest."

Instead of arguing, they obeyed, to her
surprise--instantly, quietly, and quickly. Mabel was the last to
go. She paused to hug Elizabeth.

"Congratulations, you two. I knew you were up
to nookie in here last night. I'll have a Shifter for a
brother-in-law. That is so cool."

Another squeeze, a wave to Ronan, and Mabel
banged out the door.

Elizabeth came to the bed. She started to sit
at Ronan's side, then gave in to her emotions and lay down next to
him, wanting his arms around her.

"News travels fast," she said. "Mabel wasn't
at the fight--at least, she'd better not have been. How does she
know what happened with the mate-claim?"

"All of Shiftertown knows, love." Ronan ran a
bandaged hand through her hair. "Half of them heard you stand up
and declare that you accepted me, and you'd better bet half of
them
got on their cell phones right away to spread the word.
Matings are a big deal around here. Shifters love them, and they
love to gossip. 'Course, now Liam knows everything too. He's not
going to let me hear the end of it."

"Tell him to get in line." Elizabeth lost the
rigidity that had been holding her up all night. "You almost died
tonight. Damn you, Ronan. And don't tell me everything's all right,
because you won. You almost
didn't
win."

Ronan kissed her hair. "I won because of you,
Lizzie-girl. Because the mate bond wouldn't let me die."

"Mate bond . . ."

Ronan twined his fingers through hers and
brought their joined hands to his heart. "I feel it right here. It
means that you and I belong together, that we have a bond no one
can break. I hope, in time, that you feel it too."

He sounded so quietly hopeful that tears
stung Elizabeth's eyes. "I do feel it, Ronan. I love you. I've
never felt like this about anyone before. You're funny and
warmhearted and strong and brave and generous, and I love
you
. And wonder of wonders, you love me back."

"You bet I love you back." Ronan's eyes
darkened. "You rescued me, Elizabeth."

"No, you did a lot of saving my butt. Andrea
is the one who healed you . . . how did she do that?"

"Fae magic." Ronan said it offhand, as though
Fae magic was a common thing to find lying around. "Andrea's half
Fae, and the magic manifested in her as a healing gift. Lucky for
us. But that's not what I meant."

Elizabeth raised herself on one elbow.
"You've done so much for me. All the Shifters have. I've done so
little in return."

"No," Ronan said. "I've been alone a long
time, Lizzie-girl. Even living here with Rebecca and taking in the
cubs--I've still been alone." He released her hand and brushed the
backs of his fingers over her cheek. "I'm not alone anymore."

Elizabeth pressed a feather-light kiss to his
lips, her heart full. "Neither am I."

Ronan slid his hand to the back of her neck,
rising into the kiss. They explored and touched for a little time,
in the newfound wonder of feeling.

"You know," Ronan said, smoothing her hair.
"I think I'm feeling a
lot
better."

His sudden, wicked smile made Elizabeth's
blood heat. She ran her hand down the blankets until she found a
very large bulge under them. "I can see that."

"Mmm, did you lock the door behind my nosy
friends?"

"I did."

Ronan chuckled as he pushed back the covers
and rolled his warm weight over her. "I knew I picked the right
woman."

"You did." Elizabeth smiled into his kiss and
wrapped her arms around his broad body. She was safe and warm
beneath him, not ready to go anywhere for a long time. She licked
his ear and then nibbled it.

"My bodyguard," she whispered. "My
mate
."

End

Want more Shifters?

Read on for previews of

Wild
Cat

Book Three

of Shifters Unbound

January 2012

and

Pride
Mates

Book One

of Shifters Unbound

Now Available

* * * * *

Wild Cat

Shifters Unbound

Book Three

by Jennifer Ashley

Chapter One

Heights
. Damn it, why does it have
to be heights?

Diego Escobar scanned the steel beams of the
unfinished skyscraper against a gray morning sky, and acid seared
his stomach.

Heights had never bothered him until two
years ago, when five meth-heads had hung him over the penthouse
balcony of a thirty-story hotel and threatened to drop him. His
partner, Jobe, a damn good cop, had put his weapon on the balcony
floor and raised his hands to save Diego's life. The men had pulled
Diego to safety and then casually shot them both. Diego had
survived; Jobe hadn't.

Diego's rage and grief had manifested into an
obsessive fear of heights. Now, going up even three floors in a
glass elevator could give him cold sweats.

"Way the hell up there?" he asked Rogers, the
uniform cop.

"Yes, sir."

Shit
.

"Hooper's pretty sure it's not human," Rogers
said. "He says it moves too fast, jumps too far. But he hasn't got
a visual yet."

Not
human
meant Shifter. This
was getting better and better. "Hooper's up there alone?"

"Jemez is with him. They think they have the
Shifter cornered on the fifty-first level."

The
fifty
-first
level? "Tell me
you're fucking kidding me."

"No, sir. There's an elevator. We got the
electric company to turn on the power."

Diego looked at the rusty doors Rogers
indicated, then up, up, and up through the grid of beams into empty
space. He could see nothing but the gray dawn sky between the
crisscross of girders. His mouth went dry.

This cluster of buildings in the middle of
nowhere--which was to have been an apartment complex, hotel, office
tower, and shopping center--had been under construction for years.
The project had started to great fanfare, designed to draw tourists
and locals away from the heavily trafficked Strip. But construction
slowed, and so many investors pulled out that building had ground
to a halt. Now the unfinished skyscraper sat like a rusting blot on
the empty desert.

Tracking Shifters wasn't Diego's department.
Diego was a detective in vice. He'd responded to the call for help
with a trespasser because he'd been heading to work and his route
took him right by the construction site. Diego figured he'd help
Rogers chase down the miscreant and drive on in.