Dawning of Light (11 page)

When he was certain they were once again alone, he cautiously lifted his head and looked around. When no more arrows came whizzing past his head, he stood and pulled Cecilia into a standing position. She used her magic to restore order to her dress and hair and then asked him what happened.

“Someone took a potshot at us.”

“Potshot?” She arched her eyebrows in that cool, sexy way she had. Finn wished like hell they could pick up where they’d just left off, but he was too worried for her safety to do so.

He spotted the arrow, stuck in a tree a few feet away. He stalked over, jerked it out of its resting place, and returned to Cecilia’s side. He lifted the arrow to eye level.

“Does this look familiar?”

She frowned. “Why would that look familiar?”

Finn regarded the basic shaft, the standard white feathers, the smooth, unadorned arrowhead. There were no unique markings whatsoever.

“Sometimes archers personalize their arrows, whether for vanity or to make it easier to identify them.”

“I don’t see any personalization whatsoever,” she commented. “And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. I have no idea whose arrows look like what. Wait—are you saying someone shot an arrow at us?” Her voice rose with her disbelief.

“Let’s get back to the beach house,” Finn said, and he guided her that way. After a few moments of silence, he mused, “I wonder if it was your boy Samuel, pissed off because of what we were doing?”

“Samuel wouldn’t do that,” Cecilia defended the bastard. “And for your information, he is not
my boy
. I don’t have feelings for him.”

“He sure as hell wants you. And I get the impression that it’s because he’s already had a sampling, at least once.”

She flushed, confirming his suspicion.

“How long ago?” he demanded as they cleared the trees and headed across the lawn toward the beach house.

She rolled her eyes. “Ages. Trust me, I’ve hardly spoken to him in the past ten years.”

He felt unaccountably jealous that Samuel had touched her at all, even as he felt distinctly relieved that whatever they’d once had, it had been a decade ago. It was curious that Samuel was renewing his interest all of a sudden, but then again, Finn had a feeling that he’d be the same damn way, and so far, all he’d done was kiss the woman.

He found Olivia with the queen and Tanner’s mother, Arianna, in a room located in the wing in which Olivia and Tanner maintained their private quarters. The small gathering of females were discussing the merits of turning that particular room into a nursery for Tanner and Olivia’s pup. Finn turned Cecilia over to her cousin and then strode away to seek out Tanner to inform him of what had just happened.

* * * *

“I couldn’t help but notice that you and Finn are on speaking terms again,” Olivia remarked later that day. She was studying for her first healer’s exam, and Cecilia had obligingly offered to quiz her. A fire danced in the stone fireplace in the main sitting room, staving off the chill of the early winter day.

Cecilia thought about how angry she’d been earlier in the day, when Finn kept deliberately ignoring her and Olivia during practice. She hated the fact that it bothered her at all, because in truth, she should have been grateful for the distance between them. She had still been smarting from the way she threw herself at him and he had so casually pushed her away, as if he felt nothing whatsoever for her.

Then she goaded him after practice, letting her anger and frustration talk for her. Only she hadn’t been talking about practice, and they both knew it. They ended up in a tangled embrace on the ground in the woods, and Cecilia had been wholly unable to feel any regret whatsoever for the situation. Her body craved Finn like a normal, sane woman craved food and water.

I’m desperate
, she told herself at the time.
I haven’t lain with a man for far too long. My body just wants release
.

She had herself more than half convinced that if they simply had sex, all of those strange, overpowering emotions and feelings would go away.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to find out, as someone took that very inconvenient moment to shoot an arrow at them.
Who?
she wondered, even as she regretted the fact that she still had not been able to couple with Finn.

I just need the release
, she sternly reminded herself yet again. If she kept repeating that to herself, maybe, hopefully, it would become true.

“I wouldn’t say that, necessarily,” she answered her cousin. “We still can barely tolerate one another.”

That much was true, at least when their lips were not locked. But when he responded to her kisses, when his lips trailed along her cheek and nibbled on her ear, the very last thing in the world she wanted was to argue with Finn.

She wanted to climb on top of him and ride him like a wild stallion, except she didn’t want to tame him or break him. Not ever.

She conjured a fan and waved it as she read off a question and waited for Olivia to piece together the answer.

“Sasha, one of the undercooks, says that word in the village is he is a fabulous catch.” Olivia watched her closely, but Cecilia kept her features carefully schooled.

“Finn? A fabulous catch?” She snorted.

“Sure he is,” Olivia said. “He’s terribly handsome and smart and brave—and did I mention handsome?”

“Twice,” Cecilia confirmed.

“Sasha says there is even a betting pool. Copies of
A Shifter History
are selling so rapidly the bookstore owner can’t keep them in stock. Everyone is whispering about the way shifters mate, and all the single females are clamoring to be the one with whom he mates.”

“I had no idea lightbearers were so eager to mate with shifters,” Cecilia said drily. “Only a few months ago, we were all deathly afraid of them.”

“Yes, well, now there are shifters living within the coterie. And Tanner has made contact with at least two other packs that do not hold to his father’s beliefs. He is even talking about letting them visit us here as further proof that we are not all enemies.”

“If all of the single females in the coterie are trying to mate with Finn, I don’t see how that is necessary.”

“Maybe it will relieve some of the pressure on Finn, if there are other shifter males for them to pay attention to,” Olivia suggested lightly, and Cecilia looked at her cousin.

“What are you not saying?” Cecilia asked.

Olivia shrugged. “Only that I think
you
would be better for Finn than any of these other females who are vying for his attention.”

Cecilia lifted her hand, palm out. “Wait. Stop. First of all, I am in no way vying for Finn’s attention.”

“So you are perfectly fine with him having a liaison with someone else?”

“No.” The word burst from her mouth before she could stop it. She blushed and averted her gaze.

“If it helps, I believe he feels the same way.”

Cecilia made a rude sound. “Hardly. The man can barely tolerate being in my vicinity.”

Olivia gave her a thoughtful look. “I think that’s because he is attracted to you, and for some reason, he doesn’t want to be. Why do you suppose that is?”

“Because he doesn’t like me,” Cecilia instantly replied.

But Olivia shook her head. “No, I don’t think that is it. I think it’s something different. Something more substantial. I wonder what?”

Cecilia decided this conversation had gone on long enough, so she returned to quizzing Olivia, throwing question after question at her, so that she would not have time to contemplate why it was that she imagined Finn was attracted to Cecilia, but did not want to be.

Cecilia did not want Olivia to think about it, because
she
did not want to think about it.

“I’m telling you, someone shot an arrow at us.”

“What were you doing when it happened?”

Finn clapped a hand onto the back of his neck, to hide the blush creeping there. It was none of Tanner’s damn business what they had been doing.

“Practicing. She was pissed because she thought I didn’t pay enough attention to her during the regular practice. So I told her I’d give her a private lesson.”

“You
didn’t
pay her enough attention,” Tanner pointed out. “You blatantly ignored her, and she did every damn thing wrong. Hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d say she did it on purpose. The two of you are worse than siblings.”

Finn thought about his brother, Reid, and his sister, Felicia. Sure, they’d had occasion to argue and fight over the years, but they had nothing on him and Cecilia.

“She drives me fucking nuts.”
Probably because whenever I’m around her, I want to fuck her
.

“Maybe I should assign someone else to watch over her,” Tanner mused.

“No,” Finn said too quickly. He cleared his throat and added, “Is there anyone else you’d trust with her life? Because the woman manages to get herself into sticky situations on a damned regular basis.”

Tanner contemplated his words. “Good point,” he said after a few moments. “I guess you’re stuck with her. Just…just…I don’t know—try not to talk to her.”

Finn imagined the two of them, locked in a bedroom, sans clothing. They sure as hell wouldn’t get any talking done. Maybe Tanner was right. Less talk, more action.

Maybe Finn needed to leap off the nearest steep cliff, too.

“I need to figure out who the hell tried to put a magical arrow through my head.”

Tanner looked doubtful. “You sure they didn’t think you were animals or something?”

Finn recalled how he and Cecilia had been wrestling, struggling for dominance, while they continued to paw at one another and kiss with a desperation that had been both tantalizing and maybe a little frightening. It was entirely possible that someone could have mistaken them for wild animals. They’d been making all the appropriate noises, too.

“It’s possible,” he said, even though he did not for one single moment believe it. “But it seems to me they would have come closer to see if the shot hit its mark, but they never did. In fact, as soon as we went still, the culprit took off the other way, pretty quickly.”

Tanner made a sound of resignation. “I’ll make some inquiries. Quietly. Unfortunately, I have a feeling I’m going to discover that you have a bunch of enemies here.”

“Why?” Finn asked, startled that his friend, his pack master, would say such a thing.

One corner of Tanner’s mouth lifted. “Because there’s a bet going on among all the single females. You, it seems, are the equivalent to the latest and greatest pop star to the lightbearers. And every one of them knows how a shifter mates, which for some damn reason makes you even more fascinating.”

“Okay, that’s just bullshit,” Finn said, dismissing Tanner’s observation. “But even if it was true, then none of those women would be trying to kill me.”

“No, but you were with Cecilia at the time, and jealousy is a powerful emotion.” Before Finn could retort, Tanner held up a hand, palm out. “But I don’t think it was a woman either. While some of them have shown real promise during training, I doubt very much one of them could conjure a bow and arrow yet, let alone sneak up on you like that. No, I think it’s a male lightbearer. And he’s coming after you because he’s jealous that all the single females want you, instead of the guys who have been here all along, waiting to earn their affections.” Tanner clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe you should think about taking a mate. Maybe that’s all it will take. Once the rest of these women find out you’re taken, they’ll back off and the problem will solve itself.”

“I don’t want a mate,” Finn growled. “And I sure as hell don’t want a
lightbearer
mate.”

The comment hung in the air between them. Finn realized his mistake almost as soon as he said it, but he couldn’t very well take it back now. After several heartbeats of silence, Tanner spoke, very deliberately.

“Is there a problem with taking a lightbearer to mate?”

Finn raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “No, not for you. But come on, Tanner. I lived under your father’s rule for ten full years longer than you did. I don’t hold to his beliefs that we should kill the lightbearers for their magic, but it’s hard to break the habit of thinking that shifters should be with shifters and lightbearers should be with lightbearers.”

“You think my relationship with my mate is an abomination?”

“No,” Finn shot back. “I think you got damn lucky, but I’m not stupid enough to think that I’ll have the same thing with the first hot piece of ass who’s willing to turn around and let me fuck her like a shifter. What the hell do I do in a month, in a year? In ten years?”

Finn watched as Tanner forced himself to stand down. He had been ready to defend his relationship with his mate, through a challenge, if necessary. Finn did not want to fight with his friend, but he needed Tanner to understand his reluctance to look at any of the lightbearers as mate material.

“Tanner, I’m so fucked-up in the head right now, I’d drive a mate crazy, if I took one.”

“How so?” Tanner asked curiously.

Finn shrugged and looked away, taking a moment to admire the various vehicles and pieces of machinery that took up space in the massive pole barn. They’d retreated to the pole barn at Finn’s request, to avoid anyone eavesdropping on their conversation.

“I hated living in your father’s pack. I thought about leaving a thousand times, but I couldn’t leave my family there, and you know how we are.”

“Shifters have a bone-deep need to be part of a pack,” Tanner said quietly. “Yeah, I get that.” He himself had left the pack ten years prior, because of his father’s screwed-up beliefs. Finn still had no idea how he’d managed for ten years without a pack to call his own.

“Then I run into you again, and it’s because you’re trying to rescue a damn lightbearer. Here I always thought they didn’t exist, always thought your father was just completed wacked for continuing to chase after what I thought was an urban legend. So I help you, because it feels more right than giving you up and letting Quentin kill the lightbearer.”