Dawning of Light (16 page)

Finn was the first on both sides of the family to go to college. He recalled fearing that Quentin would deny him the privilege at the end of his senior year in high school, even though he had earned a full-ride academic scholarship, and the college was interested in him trying out for the football team, despite his never having played for a local high school. Finn knew, because they were first and foremost loyal to the pack, that his parents would stand behind whatever decision Quentin made.

Luck had been on his side, because Quentin had decided allowing Finn to go off to college really wouldn’t be a bad thing, because maybe, just maybe, he’d catch sight or whiff of a lightbearer while he was out exploring the human world. He didn’t, of course, and after he graduated, he returned to the pack and took his place as a tracker, quickly moving up the ranks to lead tracker, and storing away his experience out in the human world, but not really regretting or pining for it. It had been nothing more than that: an experience.

His parents had been thrilled when he returned to the pack. Shortly thereafter, Felicia had met Ben during a hiking trip she’d taken with a small group of fellow pack mates. While Quentin had tended to keep his pack physically close, other pack masters were not quite the dictator he was, and Ben and a few buddies had taken a trip out West to do some hiking of their own.

Felicia had returned from the trip with the tale of how she’d rescued Ben after he’d nearly broken his neck trying to impress her, and oh-by-the-way they’d mated and wasn’t everyone happy for her?

The mating wouldn’t be official, though, until both pack masters gave their approval, and while no one was concerned over Ben’s pack master’s decision, everyone held their breath over what Quentin Lyons would decide to do.

Finn couldn’t believe he’d actually told Cecilia that story. It had been one of the most painful experiences of his life—both physically and emotionally. His family had been tightly knit at the time, and letting his sister move away to Tennessee had been difficult, despite the fact that he’d stepped up and allowed himself to be pummeled nearly to death just to let her do it.

Finn’s parents weren’t reverent in their following of Quentin and his ideals, but he knew them well enough to know that they’d simply accepted Quentin’s decisions as law because he was their pack master, and that’s what one was supposed to do. He was, therefore, leery of how they would react to meeting Cecilia and Dane for the first time.

“We inherited a couple of extra guests yesterday,” he muttered as he groaned and pushed himself to his feet.

“You look like hell,” his mother proclaimed. “What in the world did you all do last night?”

Not what he wanted to do, that was for damn sure.

“Played cards. Drank too much beer. Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom.” Finn dragged himself across the room and down the hall. Cecilia stepped out of the bathroom just as he reached for the door handle.

“Oh,” she said as her cheeks reddened while she took a startled step backward.

If he were in a better state of mind, Finn would probably find it amusing that he could instantly scent her arousal. Unfortunately, at the moment, all it did was irritate him because there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

“I need to piss,” he muttered as he stepped around her. He grabbed her arm just as she was about to head out into the living room. “Hang on. Don’t go out there yet. Go back to the bedroom and wait for me to get out of here. I just need a minute.” He shoved the door closed and willed his erection to deflate so that he could piss in the toilet instead of at the ceiling.

After he quickly brushed his teeth and splashed cold water onto his face, Finn hurried from the bathroom, but it was too late. His parents had already learned that there were lightbearers in the house.

Dane was busy trying to appease them, working to convince them that their daughter hadn’t done anything wrong by allowing him and Cecilia into her home. Cecilia stood to the side, glaring at his parents in much the same way she looked at her own parents. She turned her head when Finn reached the end of the hall.

“Nice parents,” she commented coolly.

“Pretty sure I said the same thing about yours,” Finn responded.

“Your parents believe Quentin’s propaganda?”

“I don’t know, actually. They never talked about it. They never claimed to support him or said they disagreed with him. My siblings and I all formed our own opinions, for the most part. Although I had a little help from my own Pappy—er, grandfather—when I was probably about Austin’s age. He was pretty damn vocal about his disapproval of the pack master teaching all of us younglings to believe in his obsession.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“It was,” Finn confirmed. “Quentin killed him when I was eight.”

“I’m sorry.” He could
feel
her empathy.

He pushed it away and shrugged, tried to pretend indifference. He did not need the lightbearer to feel sorry for him because of something that happened more than half his lifetime ago. “Don’t be. It was a long time ago. Come on. Let’s meet the parents.”

They did not quite react with as much shock as Felicia had, and neither did they shift into the form of large animals and try to attack Cecilia and Dane.

They were coolly polite as they struggled with their shock over having discovered two lightbearers had just spent the night in the same home with their daughter, their grandchildren, and one of their sons.

“You aren’t the one Tanner stole from the pack master,” Finn’s mother remarked.

“No,” Cecilia replied with a swift glance at Finn.

“That’s Olivia,” he explained. “She’s the daughter of the king of the lightbearers. She and Tanner are mated now. Expecting their first pup, actually.”

“Oh my,” his mother said faintly. “A lightbearer, whelping a pup?”

His father was fascinated on a scientific level. “What will it be?” he mused. “A shape-shifting lightbearer?”

“No one knows,” Dane interjected. “But Olivia is being watched by the top healer in the coterie. Alexa is practically a miracle worker. She will ensure Olivia births her babe—er, pup—without issue.” His tone indicated that he was working hard to believe his own words.

The fact was, no one knew what to expect. A lightbearer and shifter had never mated before, let alone procreated. Not ever in the history of magical beings, according to Finn’s father.

“I’ve read a great many books about the various magical species,” he explained. “Unlike so many of our kind, I think it’s wise to have at least a base understanding of beings different from ourselves. And I can tell you without a single doubt that there is nothing written in the history books about lightbearers and shifters mating.”

“Well, it happened, just a few months ago,” Cecilia said, bristling and preparing to defend her cousin.

Finn pressed his hand against the small of her back. Magic sizzled between them, but he ruthlessly pushed away the immediate sexual thoughts.
Not the time or place
.

“The lightbearer king recognizes them as a mated couple,” Finn supplied. “But you’re right: we’re all just sort of waiting to see what will happen with this pup. Theoretically, it will be the heir to the lightbearer kingdom.”

Just as he predicted, his parents were both intrigued by that bit of information.

“A shifter, ruling the lightbearer kingdom?” his mother mused out loud.

“Actually, a half shifter, half lightbearer,” Cecilia corrected her.

His mother looked down her nose at Cecilia. “Yes, well, we all know which species is the top of the magical food chain.”

Finn curled his fingers into the back of Cecilia’s dress, to keep her from doing something stupid, like get into his mother’s face about her opinions on who was or was not at the top of the food chain.

“Grammy, Pappy, come watch me ride my bike,” Austin called from the kitchen. He darted out of sight, and a moment later, they caught a glimpse of him through the living room windows, shooting down the street on his bicycle.

“We don’t have sidewalks,” Felicia said as she hurried out the front door. “I can’t leave him out there alone.”

The rest of the entourage followed. While they stood in the front yard as Austin pedaled his miniature bike up and down the street, Finn’s mother gave Cecilia another cool look. He reached out and fisted the back of Cecilia’s dress again, and called out his mother on her poor manners.

Which felt weird. But he did it anyway.

“Mom, Cecilia and Dane are guests here. Maybe we could try being nice?”

“Yes,” Cecilia added. “Maybe we could.”

His mother narrowed her eyes and glared. Finn gave the dress a tug, and Cecilia stumbled backward. He let go of her dress and stepped between the two women, squaring off against his mother.

“If you can’t be nice, we’re leaving,” he warned her. He cupped Cecilia’s elbow. Magic flared around his hand. His mother’s eyes widened.

“What was that?” she demanded, staring at his hand.

“Nothing,” he muttered.

“Magic,” Cecilia quipped. “We have
a lot
of it.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “Knock it off, Cecilia.”

“She started it.”

“What? Are you five?”

She pouted. Finn wanted to kiss her. A smile tugged at his mother’s lips. He could feel his dad watching him, knew the wheels were turning in his far-too-intelligent brain.

“Don’t even…” he started, but his mother cut him off.

“I like her,” she announced, as if someone had asked a question.

“She’s different,” his father added.

“She can’t help that,” his mother replied.

“Hey,” Cecilia protested. Magic flared around his hand again.

“Finn, we’re out on the street,” Felicia said as she wrung her hands and her gaze darted back and forth, taking in the nearest houses. “There are humans who live in this neighborhood,” she hissed.

After a moment’s hesitation, Finn deliberately stepped away from Cecilia, distancing himself so as to keep the magical flares to a minimum. He wasn’t entirely sure why her magic sparked whenever he touched her, but he knew he did not want to take the chance that a human would notice.

His parents turned, as if they intended to head up the front walk and into the house. Before they could take three steps, however, magic flared again. This time, it wasn’t coming from Cecilia or Dane. Finn looked around, searching for the source.

Samuel leaped out from behind a nearby arborvitae, wearing the faintly medieval attire many male lightbearers still insisted on wearing and holding a magical sword in his hand.

“Leave her be,” he called out, waving the sword in warning. “Let her go and I shall not harm you. I have given you ample warning.”

“Samuel?” Cecilia said in a disbelieving voice.

“Let her go,” Samuel demanded, glaring at Finn.

Finn bared his teeth and growled.

“Samuel, what in the name of the lights are you doing here?” Dane asked. “And why have you summoned a sword?”

“The neighbors,” Felicia muttered. Ben wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tried to guide her into the house and away from potential danger. Finn’s parents simply stared at the strange sight. Bryan hung off the porch, pointing at the lightbearer holding the sword and chattering excitedly. Austin raced his bike back up the street and came to a screeching halt so that he too could stare.

Finn pushed Cecilia toward Dane. “Watch her,” he commanded, and then he strode over to deal with the idiot lightbearer.

Ultimately, there was nothing at all to deal with. As soon as Finn started walking toward him, Samuel released his magic, the sword disappeared, and he turned and ran the other way. Finn followed him to the end of the block and watched as he leaped over a row of low hedges and disappeared into someone’s backyard. He gave half a thought to chasing him, but he felt more of an urge to return to Cecilia’s side than to getting a hold of Samuel and knocking some sense into him. Besides, he was reasonably certain Samuel would be waiting for them when they returned to the coterie.

He headed back to the small group of shifters and lightbearers who were still gathered on the front lawn outside Felicia and Ben’s house.

“You aren’t going back without me,” he snarled at Dane and Cecilia both. Dane didn’t say a word. Cecilia began sputtering incoherently. Finn strode into the house.

Felicia followed him into Austin’s bedroom, which was where he had been storing his luggage while visiting. “What just happened out there?” she demanded. “Did I imagine it when I saw that guy carrying a sword—and then he wasn’t?”

“No.”

Felicia paused. Finn began tossing clothing into his duffle bag.

“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to give me? No? What does
that
mean?”

Finn sighed and paused in his packing to face his sister. “It means I’m not going to talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to stress you out. It isn’t good for the pup.”

“Telling me you aren’t going to tell me something because it will stress me out stresses me out far more than just telling me,” Felicia pointed out.

Finn ground his teeth. He really didn’t want to pull his family into whatever the hell was happening with Cecilia.

“It can’t be as bad as living under Quentin Lyons’ rule,” she added in a softer voice.

“It’s not.” No, it wasn’t anything like living in Quentin’s pack. He finally ran his hand through his uncombed hair and said, “That guy was a lightbearer, like Cecilia and Dane. When trained properly, they have the ability to conjure weapons, using their magic. Swords, bows and arrows. He’s actually one of the king’s guards.”

“And what was he doing
here
, with a sword in his hand?”

Damn good question. Unfortunately, Finn suspected he knew the answer. He rubbed a hand over his face and blew out a breath.

“I’m pretty sure that he figured out Cecilia was down here—with me—and he was either going to challenge me for her hand, or try to steal her away. Most of the lightbearers tend to have this deeply engrained belief that they should never leave their coterie.” Most. But not Cecilia. She was her own unique person, standing out amongst the beautiful, blonde species.