Clawed (Black Mountain Bears Book 1) (6 page)

“I think I can do this for you,” she said, voice quavering with uncertainty over the sudden shift in the course of her life over the past twenty-four hours. “Be your heir, find a . . . ” She hesitated over the word, but finally got it out. “A
mate
.” She already had a couple candidates in mind and smiled to herself at the thought. Could she have them both? Would that be too indulgent of her to ask?

“You don’t have to decide yet, honey,” her father said. “But if you do change your mind, we just ask that you stay with us here where it’s safe. Jade is second in line after you, and she’d take your place when your cousins are old enough to make the passage through the portal.”

“What do you mean? Jasper and Jade came with me. They should have come through, too. At least August said they probably came through another portal. They were right behind me for the entire hike, at least until the end. But I lost them somewhere. If they really aren’t inside, I
have
to go back out, to find out if they’re all right.”

“Oh, Gaia, no!” Her aunt Mona stood up abruptly. “Tell me my babies didn’t try to come through. They won’t come of age for three more months.” She turned to Emma’s uncle. “Edward, if they passed through the portal before they were ready, they’re in danger. The barrier won’t be ready for them until the Spring Equinox, after their birthday.”

A chill ran down Emma’s spine. She’d had strong reservations about letting them come with her to begin with, but had given in to their desire to join her.

“What’s happened to them? What do you mean about the barrier not being ready?”

Her uncle stood to calm Mona down. She brushed him off and left the room, agitated. “I’m going to call the guardians and the other clans in the Sanctuary. We need to start a search for them immediately.”

When Emma turned back to her parents, they both looked grim.

“I should have left you clearer instructions, baby. I’m sorry,” her father said. “It’s never safe to leave too many overt clues in the human world of where to find us. We have enemies who would exploit anything they could to find their way inside. The safety of the Sanctuary is the reason Ted and I left with you and your cousins when you were infants to begin with—usually the inner guardians are sufficient to maintain the strength of the barrier, but when it started growing weaker, we needed the power of royal ursa on the outside to strengthen it. You and your cousins were the keys to the Midsummer rituals we always performed, even though you didn’t realize it at the time.”

Emma gaped at him, then whispered, “They were never just stories, were they? When we were on the hike last night, I told a story I thought I was just making up, but it was true, wasn’t it? You’re not one of them, are you, Papa? You’re human.”

Maia shifted in her seat and looked at Emma’s father with naked adoration. “We knew the barrier was failing and that our children were the key to replenishing its power. Mona and I had no choice but to find mates, to produce offspring with fresh magic, who could perform the rituals from the outside to heal it. But ursa males wouldn’t do as mates if we wanted you children to be raised in the human world. We didn’t choose by accident, though, as your father learned after he joined us the first time.”

Emma’s dad chuckled, and explained. “I had a bit of an unexpected discovery of my own, when I first met Maia. I knew my family had unusual secrets going back generations. Old legends and tales that were passed down for hundreds of years, since long before this country was settled.”

Emma listened, rapt. She knew there was Cherokee blood in their family, and some of the old stories her father had told her were fantastic. Before he could finish, she knew what he was about to say and cut him off.

“It’s true, isn’t it? The Stonetree clan’s always been allied with the ursa. You were destined for her, weren’t you?”

Her father actually flushed, and for the first time in her life, she believed he was speechless. After a second, he finally found words again.

“Ah, something like that, yes. We took the family name of the ursa leaders to prove our loyalty. My family’s existence was to provide a loyal bloodline to the ursa queen, and any other member of her family who needed a mate in the event the barrier’s failure would come. Now that its strength is restored, a worthy ursa male has been chosen for you as your mate, if you choose to accept your role as heir. He’s the son of one of the other clan leaders. Of course, if you change your mind, he would belong to Jade.” He eyed her, seeming to sense her uncertainty. “We would understand if you left someone behind, but only a handful of humans are allowed to know about this place. If you choose to leave once we’ve found your cousins, you can’t come back.”

“I didn’t leave anyone behind. What do you mean a worthy male has been chosen
for
me? If I can choose to leave, why can’t I choose who . . . who impregnates me if I stay? Why can’t
I
decide who’s worthy of me?”

Before they could answer, Mona bustled back in, agitated. As if conjured by her thoughts, the two men she believed most worthy rushed into the room in Mona’s wake. Emma stood up and took a step toward them, but Mona diverted her, gripping her by the arms and staring into her eyes, frantic. “You came in by the Stonetree portal, didn’t you? How long had my babies been lost before that?”

Emma closed her eyes, remembering the strange apparition in the icy winter dawn of the tree sprouting through the boulder in full leaf: the harbinger of summer in the middle of winter.

“Yes, that’s where I came through. I think they disappeared within half an hour of me reaching it.”

Mona nodded, looking slightly relieved. “Good. They can’t be much farther back, then. A few of the males with the best tracking skills are on their way, but these guardians will leave now to start searching.” She waved at August and Julian without even glancing.

Emma raised her head and met Julian’s eyes. “Find them, please,” she said. Her gaze drifted to August and settled there, sending him a silent, pleading message. He nodded.

“We are at your service, Princess,” August said. His voice carried a deeper message that sent a tingle down her spine. Then he and Julian turned and were gone.

A little shiver coursed over Emma’s body. Her core ached. She felt a little dizzy from the brief encounter and sat down. She’d been hungry just moments ago, and all the food laid out still enticed her, but she couldn’t eat, not with this overwhelming fear for her cousins or the need for the two men who had just been in the room.

“The guardians will find them,” her mother said gently. “They found you, and took care of you after you came through. They’ll do everything they can to find your cousins.”

Emma felt suddenly indignant about her mother’s tone where it concerned August and Julian.

“Do you even know their names, Mama? Do you know who they are? The two men who found me and . . . took
care
of me. They took very good care of me, by the way, so good they’re worth more to me than any man I’ve ever met.”

Her mother sat back, took a breath, and closed her eyes. “Yes,” she breathed. “I know their names, but they are guardians. When you mate, you need a worthy ursa male. One from a powerful clan. Not a lower-ranking male. You’re in estrous and will likely still need their help before you can mate the one chosen for you, but don’t let yourself get attached to the males who service you through it before then.” Her mother sighed, a dark cloud passing over her face. She looked pained for a moment, and Emma couldn’t tell whether it was from actual pain, or from emotion.

“Were you worthy, Papa?” she asked her father.

The question made her mother’s eyes open wide. Her father started to speak, but her mother cut him off.

“Your father was an exception. I was happy to sacrifice having a true ursa mate to have him. I’ve never regretted the choice, and the clans understood the necessity.”

Emma didn’t think there could be any other men who could satisfy her as thoroughly as August and Julian had. Or be as sweet and deferential to her needs. Her heart fluttered a little at the memory of August’s kiss when they were alone in his room, and the way he’d fled afterward. Oh, God he wanted her.
Her
. They both did. And she wanted them, too.

“Why can’t I have them?” she asked, irritated at the rise in her voice. Her entitled tone irritated her. She sounded exactly like a spoiled princess told she couldn’t have everything she wanted. If she had to find a mate and get knocked up to please her dying mother, she would in a heartbeat, but she’d like some say in the matter, at least.

“Baby, you’re royalty. The clan leaders would revolt if one of their sons wasn’t promised to you. Aidan Sundance is every bit as impressive as the pair who greeted you. Please, give him a chance.”

Emma let out an exasperated breath and nodded. If it meant so much to her parents, she would give the guy a chance. It was the least she could do, under the circumstances.

After that, they waited. Emma had more questions, but was so anxious that she didn’t speak. She just ate. At least the food was good.

Her father stood after a while and wandered to the window. He’d never been good at sitting for long periods. Emma finally spoke, hoping to distract them all from worry.

“Got any new projects, Papa?”

He’d always been busy with something or other when she was growing up, whether it was adding on to their house or smaller things. Woodwork, in particular, but other projects occupied his time, as well.

His eyes lit up and he grinned at her. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” he said. “Let me show you, instead.”

He took her hand and, after kissing her mother on the cheek, led her through a door that opened into a flowery garden. At the end of the walkway was a monolith carved from wood, and so beautiful Emma’s breath caught in her throat.

It was a clock, hand-carved and lovingly burnished. The face was a perfect, polished piece of quartz, the hands carved from obsidian. At the position of each number was a different colored gem, uncut, but polished, shining in the sunlight in a rainbow around the circle of the clock’s face.

At the moment, the hands said it was half-past four. The gems the hands pointed to were an emerald and an aquamarine. A huge ruby nestled into the mark at the apex. The gems the hands pointed to glowed.

“Papa! This is beautiful! Wow, and it’s nothing like the things you used to build.” Emma reached out to touch the smooth stone that represented the six, but her father grabbed her wrist.

“No touching. It’s delicate, and your power could throw it off time. It’s more than just a clock, honey. It’s a timer. Your mother helped me make it and poured all but the very last of her magic into it. Something bad is coming, and we need to know when it’s going to happen. This clock will tell us.”

“Something bad? Papa, what the hell is going on here? Tell me!”

Her father gripped her hands in both of his and rubbed her palms with his thumbs. The gesture soothed her, just as it always had when she was younger. His heavy brows drew together, his lips pursed in the midst of his thick beard.

“Tides are changing for us. For all the races. You’ve done the research outside already. I’ve read everything you’ve written, and you have all the details right. There are four races, just like you believed. We have a common enemy, and this clock is meant to measure time until we have to meet that enemy and fight them.”

Emma looked back at the clock. She noted smaller marks around the outside of the face. The second hand ticked away, the minute hand lazily following. Her eyes rested on one of the outer gems that glowed red right near the five.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“Those are years. And that little gem is when we have to fight them.”

“That’s twenty-five years from now, Papa. Why the hell are you worried about it?”

“Because you will be the Queen by then, baby. You need to be prepared to lead the ursa alongside the other races, to ensure the enemy fails.”

“Ah, I kind of need a little clarification on our role here . . . care to elaborate?”

He led her to a bench in the shade of a willow tree and they sat.

“Your mother is centuries old. She could have lived centuries more, but spent too much of her energy to help me build this clock. As a race, the ursa are the guardians of the elements. All of them. And they can use their magic to predict what Fate has in store for us. The other races asked us to build this, to monitor the conflict.”

“And you’re the builder in residence?” Emma asked.

“It’s what I’m good at, honey. Don’t knock it.”

“I’m not. It’s just a lot to take in. All of it. I don’t want a mate. I want . . . ” At first, Emma thought of her career. If there was anything in the world she’d left behind that would draw her back, it wasn’t a man—it was her work. She’d spent years on her research, and committing to a life here would mean giving all that up. But committing to her old life would mean giving all
this
up. Her family could be together again—
all
of them. Mate or no mate, that was something.

Then her mind wandered to Julian and August, and she immediately felt a little warm between her legs. She tried to tell herself it was just hormones—that they had been the first, and so far only, full-grown ursa males she’d met. Maybe there were others like them.

“You want what you want,” her father said. “You always were very decisive as a child.”

“What do I do about it?”

He let out a sigh that turned into an ominous rumble. “I want you to be happy, but ursa politics are tricky. If you choose to be the Queen, it will be a challenge to maintain the respect of the clans—to effectively lead them—without taking a mate the other clans deem worthy.”

Emma gazed back up at the clock, eyeing the glowing red mark he’d pointed out to her. “What do I need to do?”

Her father rested his warm hands on her shoulders as he answered. “Be the Queen you were meant to be. If you do not, it will have to be Jade, and she may not have the constitution for leadership that you have. It’s in your blood, honey.”