Mating Rights (13 page)

A chorus of growls
flared from beyond their walls.
Dozens of ursine
charged, growling in fury.
He saw them coming.
Jaxon refused to give up. He bayed to his clan, beckoning for reinforcements
that he knew couldn’t come, not with the wolf’s bane flowing through their
veins.

The new ursine reached
their kindred, but instead of pushing past to tear through the wolves, they
attacked their own kind. Jaxon stared, frozen for a moment as the realization
that they were there to help them sank in. They pushed the attackers back,
forcing them through the gates and back to the mountainside.

A huge brown bear
lumbered forward, his sides heaving as his breath puffed in the air. Slowly, he
made the change back to human, holding his hands up for peace. Jaxon and the others
also shifted to human form. Nicodemus stepped up to greet the bear clansmen.

“We’ve come to your
aid, Nicodemus. For peace,” the man spoke. He stood a head taller than
Nicodemus. Behind him, his clan shifted with him and bowed to their knees,
showing their lack of aggression toward the wolves.

Jaxon and his men stood
down, uneasy, but willing to listen.

“Ah thank ya for your
help, Elias of the Brown Bear Clan. Who were these that attacked?” Nicodemus
said.

“Rogues. Former
clansmen that chose to part with us after they learned our intention to draw a
truce. When the horn sounded, we knew they’d made good on their plan to attack
your people despite being ordered to stand down and relent. With your
permission, we’ll enter your lands and chase them off for good. Will you allow
this?”

“Aye. And tomorrow you
will join us on the final night of our festival, for drink and food, and to
celebrate a new friendship between the clans,” Nicodemus announced for all to
hear. Elias clapped arms with their alpha leader.

Jaxon breathed a sigh
of relief and slipped away to find Mali and assure himself she hadn’t been
hurt.

***

Mali stood by the
window in the inn, chest aching as she waited for news. Kimber hugged her from
behind, lending her strength.

“I’m sorry, Mali. I shouldn’t
have made you come back with me, but I was scared. I didn’t want to be alone,”
Kimber said, brushing Mali’s hair over one shoulder.

Mali glanced at her
from the corner of her eye. “It’s okay. I didn’t want to distract Jaxon by
being in the way—”

The door burst open,
slamming against the wall. Both women jumped and yelped.

Mali glared toward the
doorway. “You scared the life out of us,” she yelled, rushing across the room.

Jaxon took her in his
arms, holding her tight. He’d redressed in a shirt and breeches, for which she
was thankful. If he’d come to her naked, something might have happened, and she
couldn’t have Kimber see how weak she was for him.

She breathed in the
scent of his chest, reassured by the beating of his heart. “Are you hurt?”

“No. The rogue bears
fled. There are injuries, but in a few hours
they
will be all right. I’m no worse for wear than I was before the battle. I just
had to come and make sure you were safe. When I went home and didn’t find you
there, I came here.”

Mali looked up at him,
hoping for him to say something else, but he just looked at her with relief in
his eyes. She pulled free, hating the knowledge that she needed to distance
herself from him. She was a liability and she knew it. Better to do this now.
Tomorrow, after the festival ended, she would return to her home and he would
remain here.

“You should go,” she
said, choking on the words, feeling misery sicken her stomach.

He stared at her in
silence. “Is that your final decision? We’ve come to an end?”

Mali turned from him.
She
saw Kimber pretending to look out the window
as if she couldn’t hear the exchange. “Yes.”

“So be it,” he said.

Mali listened to his
footsteps as he walked out of the room and shut the door with force.

Kimber rushed to her
immediately. Mali allowed herself to be led to her bed. They both sat, and
Kimber hugged an arm around her shoulders. She covered her face with her hands.
Tears wouldn’t come. Bitter anguish strangled her emotions and made her feel
numb and cold.

“Why can’t you be with
him?” Kimber asked softly when Mali dropped her hands and stared blankly across
the room.

She had to share the
truth with someone. It hurt too much to keep it inside any longer. If she
couldn’t trust Kimber as a true friend, she couldn’t trust anyone. She needed
advice. “My blood is tainted. I…cannot shift into a full wolf. If he knew, he
would never agree to the match.”

Kimber absorbed her
words in silence. She sighed. “You won’t even try to tell him?”

“No clansman wants a
woman who cannot run the wolf way. I can’t bear the rejection.”

Kimber stood and looked
down at Mali. “You make me want to throttle you! It’s so obvious he wants more
and you won’t do a damned thing about it. You go and stand up for yourself
tomorrow night. Tell the clan, do what you must. I will be there with you. You
can do this, and you must. If the altercation with the ursine hasn’t taught us
that our way of life could disappear at any moment, then nothing will.”

Mali shuddered, hugging
herself. “No more secrets. This one has tainted my whole life. I’m afraid, but
it will be a relief to finally have it out in the air. I’ve been ashamed of
myself for so long, it’s destroying me.” She looked at Kimber, smiling a
little. “Thank you for being my friend.”

Kimber smiled. “You are
welcome.”

Strange how the dreams
didn’t come when she needed them the most. Almost as if the strain of finally
breaking her truth before the clan had obliterated all sense of forewarning.
The future was dark and clouded.
Mali wasn’t
sure if that portended good or ill. In her gut, she felt the latter.

The bear clan came as
guests of the wolves to partake in the festivities. They were enormous and easy
to spot with their broad shoulders and tall builds towering over the wolf clan.
One look told her why she’d been taught to fear the ursine for so long.

The night sky roiled
with dark grey clouds swirling around a gold hued moon. Bathed in its
brilliance as well as the flames from an immense bonfire and dozens of torches,
there was no place to hide in the dark should she want to run. She knew there
would be no running at any rate. The danger inside would go with her
everywhere. If death be her sentence, so be it.

A solemnness held sway
over what should have been a night of raucous joy. The penetration of the rogue
bears and poisoning of the wine had taken some of the enjoyment of the festival
from them. There was an edge to the men, in the slanting of their eyes and the
set of their jaws.
The unmated females were
equally subdued knowing tonight was the night for choosing a mate. Minstrels
played slow tunes, adding to the unease.

Maybe she read too much
into it. Maybe it was her own inward feelings projecting on the others. Beside
her, Kimber squeezed her hand and ducked her head against Mali’s shoulder in support.
Mali squeezed her hand back, turning her attention toward their leader as he
stood from the head table and addressed the crowd.

At the head table, she
could see Jaxon sitting, staring across the distance towards her. Nicodemus,
with his red beard and hair brushed and braided, looked fierce as he raised his
arms for silence. “Friends and guests, the pinnacle of our festival has come.
Tonight, under the golden moon, we have our run as wolves. Maidens, rise and
come forth. Undress and shift, for ‘tis time for you to choose yer mates.”

Mali’s heart pounded.
Her mind screamed to run, to bolt from the town through the gate before anyone
could stop her. Kimber pulled her to her feet, nudging her forward.

“Nicodemus!” Mali
called, standing on unsteady feet.

He turned toward her.
“Yes, gel?”

She swallowed,
practically choking on her heart. “I…I have an admission I need to make before
the clan.”

Nicodemus frowned.
“Come forward and speak.” He held his hand out for her.

Mali noted Jaxon
sitting on the edge of his seat, attentive with his face drawn. She walked
slowly to her leader, her feet feeling heavy as lead. An eternity seemed to
pass until she was standing before the crowd, all eyes upon her.

“Speak. What is your
admission?” Nicodemus boomed.

“I…I cannot partake of
the run.”

“Why not?”

She sucked a sharp cold
breath through her flared nostrils, steadying herself for judgment. “I cannot
shift into a full wolf. Only a partial change.”

Shocked gasps rebounded
through the crowd—murmurs of disapproval.

“Abomination!”

“Tainted!”

“Disgrace!”

She kept her eyes on
Nicodemus, hearing the words in the background, feeling them like slashes
across her soul. The words were nothing that she hadn’t used against herself
many times. She’d expected it, and still it stung.

“Quiet! Everyone, hold
your tongues!” he yelled. To her he said, “This is serious, gel. Serious
indeed. You must choose your outcome. You can be outcast from the clan, or you
can take your chances and run the gauntlet and we will accept you as you are.
So which is it, gel?”

“I choose the
gauntlet,” she said for one and all to hear.

***

The women formed a
narrow tunnel for Mali’s gauntlet. She stood at one end and faced twenty
females, ten on each side and each holding a long cut off branch culled hastily
from the forest. Most of the branches still had rough knots and sprigs of
needles on them.

Jaxon’s gut clenched as
he watched the proceeding. Beside him, Nicodemus, Ranger, and Torolf stood.
Sandwiched between Ranger and Torolf, he knew his brethren kept close to offer
support in more ways than one. When the beating began, he wasn’t sure he
wouldn’t run out there to stop it. And that couldn’t happen.

Mali didn’t look at
him, only straight ahead.

So much made sense now:
why she wouldn’t commit to him, why she’d only given in to her body’s demands.
She hadn’t trusted him enough with her secret out of fear. Had she feared he
would reject her or feared that he’d turn her in himself? He’d bound himself to
her, and she hadn’t realized it. She hadn’t been affected the same because she
was not full blood. Somewhere in her line a trace of human lay.

The drummers beat the
drums, signaling the start of the run. The women tapped sticks, cracking in
time to the rhythm.
Nicodemus raised his hand
and dropped it.
Mali ducked her head, covering
it with her hands as she began the gauntlet and the beatings commenced. The
first strike hit her arm, then her shoulder. She plunged forward, taking hit
after hit.

Jaxon could smell
blood. He
saw the frenzy of the women striking
her and knew they smelled it too. Jaxon lunged forward, intending to put a stop
to this, his brain on meltdown as he saw the woman he loved bruised and
bloodied and struggling to continue.

Torolf and Ranger
grabbed his biceps, halting his descent into madness. He choked back the bile
in his throat. “Run, Mali,” he screamed above the pounding drums and mad yells
of the crowd.

She turned her head,
taking a strike against her temple. She fell to her knees and the women stopped
just long enough to allow her to struggle to her feet. Mali limped now, almost
to the end, almost to freedom from the pain.
Another
branch struck her face, swelling an eye shut instantly. She stumbled against
the row of women then was pushed to the other side, pushed along, closer to the
end. Were they helping her?

Jaxon saw Kimber and
Angelica at the end, pushing her with their sticks instead of hitting her,
guiding her to the end. She punched through the opening, collapsing on the
ground in a heap. Kimber rushed to her as did Angelica. They stood her up. Her
once white dress was covered in dirt and blood, shredded along the back and the
arms. His gut twisted and still, they held him back.

Nicodemus raised his
hands and the drums and chanting stopped. All was silent except for the blood
roaring in Jaxon’s ears.

“Mali has survived the
gauntlet and cannot be outcast. You must choose a mate, gel. If he accepts your
claim, you and your children will be part of the clan, now and forever. No one
can dispute your rights as a full clan member. Do you make a choice of your
mate?” Nicodemus announced loud for all.

“J-Jaxon,” she said on
a strangled cry and went limp.

The smell of frying
bacon and fresh brewed tea tempted Mali’s nose and beckoned her eyes to open.
She cracked her lids, looking beneath her lashes at
the familiar room.

“Jaxon?” she croaked.
Her mouth was dry. She tried to lick her cracked lips, but her tongue felt
coated in sand.