16. Emrie

Iwas back to work within the week, using my shop to create bookcases. Mia and Draven had wanted them built out of maple and stained white, so Mateo and I had already gone to the home supply store in Moonhaven and picked up a full trailer load of maple wood. I think we cleaned them out, as a matter of fact.

I already had about five done—they weren't hard to do—and Mateo, who was on guard duty again for me, was helping. Mathan and Alpha Riggs had shifted our sentries so there were more around my house and woods without creating gaps in our border.

It made me feel safer, and I was really grateful, once again, for my Clan, who always made me feel valued and protected.

Roarke was coming by after work, and we planned to walk back to the lodge together with Mateo, eat dinner with the Clan, and try to relax. Tonight, Alpha Riggs had promised privacy in the hot tub for Roarke and I, and I was really looking forward to it. Also tonight, I was going to hear what Roarke had been working on with Draven and Alpha Riggs and Mathan, even if I had to pry it out of him.

Don't get me wrong. To have a mate that was protecting me? Looking after me? Holy honey it felt nice. But I wanted to know what was going on! It'd been a few days, and I was still in the dark. Roarke hadn't been trying to keep things from me, I knew. He'd just been super busy. He hadn't even been home except when he fell into bed beside me each night, exhausted. But tonight, he was going to be in early, and we were being given time alone by my Clan—time which we desperately needed.

I hoped his plan was better than find bad guy, kill bad guy. Because honestly, I could have come up with that.

I laughed and Mateo gave me a look. We couldn't talk right then because we were using the miter saw, and it was loud even with noise-cancelling earphones on. Once I got the pieces I needed cut, I turned the saw off and pulled my earphones down so they rested on my shoulders.

"About quitting time, yeah?"

He looked at his watch. "Yep. Roarke will be here soon."

I nodded and started putting everything away, using the blower to get the sawdust off of me and Mateo. Then I closed and locked the roll up door.

We'd only been standing there a minute when Roarke walked up and gave me a hug that seemed to swallow me whole. I adored his hugs. They made me feel so loved and safe. Not to mention, he always smelled really good. I'd always thought so, and I used to hope it was because he was my mate. Turns out I was right, but man, we had to go through some miserable times to get to the good times.

"Sullivan made enchiladas for dinner," he said, kissing me. "We'd better get there before the Clan eats everything like the swarm of locusts they are."

Mateo snorted and I laughed. "And you were doing so well being nice to them."

He lifted his brows. "We're Clan now. Company manners are out the window." We started walking hand in hand back toward the lodge. "Besides, I want to verify that it's okay to move my animals here. We've put up the fencing; I just want to get final permission to have them transported."

I nodded, rubbing my thumb over his hand idly. "What about your other hoards?"

Hoards were important to dragons. They were more than hobbies, they were their emotional support, and very much needed for a healthy mental landscape.

Roarke gave Mateo a perturbed frown, and Mateo held his hands up, laughing. "I promise not to say anything or make fun of you, no matter how ridiculous I might think your hoards are."

Roarke sighed in defeat. "My pillows are going into my room, your room, and your house, and some of my painting stuff will be put in my room at the lodge, while the rest will be stored at your house." He looked down at me. "I hope that's okay?"

"Of course! I'm just trying to figure out a good place to store them. They need a room that doesn't get a lot of sun, right?"

He nodded. "That would preserve them better. My UV sealer is only about 99 percent effective."

I hummed in thought. "I think the bedroom in the basement would work for now. It's carpeted and clean."

He kissed me in acceptance, and we strode into the lodge. Immediately I was hit with the amazing smells coming from the kitchen. We got there just in time to take a seat at the table as those on kitchen duty for the night brought platters and bowls to the table.

It was a small crowd tonight, with just a few of us crowded around the table.

"Thank you, Sullivan. It looks amazing!" I was starving, and my bear was making whining noises. She wasn't all that patient when it came to food. I loaded grilled corn salad, Spanish rice, green-chili refried beans, and a huge serving of enchiladas onto my plate, then laughed when Sullivan set a big salad bowl near me filled with fresh veggies and my favorite creamy dressing.

"Oh, wow. I needed those. Thanks." I smiled sweetly at him, and became amused when he focused on his food, blushing a little.

After dinner and clean up, I got into my swimsuit, a basic black swimsuit I'd had for years, and headed out to the hot tub with a towel and my flip flops. Roarke was already out there, and I tried not to trip over my own feet at the sight of his well-defined chest. Seriously, I did this every time. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I still wasn't. My mate was gorgeous.

"Thank you," he said, stealing my thoughts, and I cringed in embarrassment. Telepaths. "There's nothing embarrassing about you enjoying me, Emrie. I enjoy the sight of you just as much." He pulled me closer to him in the warm, bubbling water. "In fact, you always take my breath away."

My knees went to putty.

I loved how Roarke made me feel like his enjoyment of our kisses and his enjoyment of my appearance wasn't a shallow thing. But a deep thing. He enjoyed my kisses and my appearance, not because I was feminine, available, and attractive—interchangeable—but because I was me. Because I was his mate. Because he loved me. I knew for many the attraction came first, but at least on my end, I'd become attracted to Roarke the more I'd grown to know him. And I think that went for both of us.

He kissed my nose—I noticed that was a favorite thing of his to do, and I loved how adored it made me feel—and then pulled me onto his lap as he laid back against the wet, cool concrete of the built-in hot tub.

"Your plan?" I reminded him lazily. I was feeling lethargic at the moment, but still brimming with curiosity about everything he'd been up to the last several days.

"I'll start at the beginning."

"Thank you."

He laughed. "You're welcome, mo chroì. One thing first though. I noticed you were curious about my tattoo?"

I turned in his arms and studied it. I wasn't trying to be big-headed about this, I absolutely wasn't, but that was a cinnamon-brown furred black bear near a stream on our Clan property. I recognized the location. I was sitting by the stream, watching the water, with the forest surrounding me.

"Is that me?" I asked in a bashful whisper.

He nodded, letting me trace the design on his chest and arm. "It was the first day I saw you in your bear form. It was evening, and I was stretching my wings on a night flight. You were out alone on Clan property, probably trying to escape your Clan," he joked. I could hear Taco's "hey!" from inside the lodge, and I laughed. So much for privacy tonight. But then I could hear Taco yelp and take off running. I was betting Mateo was chasing him away from the back door.

Roarke and I laughed. He put his hand over the hand that was still tracing his tattoos. "From that moment on, I felt changed. Although I didn't know why. A stillness had settled in me. My dragon and I had been hurting for many years, but that night, peace settled upon us, and it stayed with us. The experience was so profound that I wanted to remember it always. It makes sense now when I look back on it. It was the first time we saw our mate, though we didn't know it at the time."

I kissed his chest where the tattoo was, not salaciously but innocently and gratefully. "Thank you for sharing that, Roarke. The artwork is beautiful."

He kissed my lips. "The moment was beautiful, and the bear is beautiful."

My inner bear preened, so unbelievably happy that her mate found her form beautiful.

He turned me around and I leaned back against his chest again. "Now, for the story. It occurred to me while you were in the hospital, that if the assassin had been around the person who contracted them for your life, I might be able to smell their scent and at least get a scent memory of it so we can move forward."

I nodded. A scent memory was permissible as evidence in paranormal law. And from someone as well established in this town as Roarke, it made sense that he would think to start there.

"It took me two days in the station's sensory deprivation chamber, but I finally whittled down the two scents of the person who stabbed you. One was the assassin himself, a small player in a larger game. I have his scent, and some of Draven's team are tracking him. He's wily, but they'll catch him."

I nodded.

"The other..." He turned me around so he could see my face, and I floated in the water above him. "It was Premier Drakis."

I blinked, utterly stunned. Premier Drakis was the head of the shifter Council. Why would he...?

"My mom?" I croaked.

Roarke's expression was full of tenderness and compassion. "Drakis is also a member of the Midwest Council. Draven's people did some digging and discovered that your mom and Drakis met and got together before she met your dad. Your dad was Clan alpha over a large midwest bear Clan, and your mom lived in a neighboring bear Clan. Drakis and your mom dated for a bit. From all first-hand accounts, Drakis soon grew to be controlling, jealous, and violent, and your mom didn't stand for it. She broke things off.

Months later, she met your dad, they discovered they were mates, and they mated and married immediately." His arms tightened around me, and I knew I wasn't going to like this next part. "Drakis hadn't made any noise about your mom leaving him. He seemed to accept it, and those eyewitness accounts thought that he'd cooled down and had finally moved on. But then, shortly after your mom and dad mated, a sickness, in one night, wiped out your mom's old Clan. Your grandmother and grandfather both died that night."

I gasped. Horrified, I put a hand over my mouth, and gaped at Roarke, tears pricking my eyes. I shook my head. "I don't understand."

"It was the first of Drakis' revenge," Roarke said grimly. "Your parents were stuck between a feral dragon who was our dragon shifter representative, very powerful and very insulated, on one side, and their Clan and the news that you were on the way on the other. They knew, even without evidence, that it had been Drakis. That he'd somehow poisoned your mom's old Clan. So, they hatched a plan, and they kept it quiet. They broke the Clan up, and the Clan scattered to different bear Clans across the world, and your parents came here, to Moonhaven Cove, to hide in a fairly small Clan, and get away from Drakis' reach. If nothing else, they figured that I was here, and if Drakis came for them, they could petition me for help. They'd investigated me enough to know that I'm nothing like Drakis."

Thank heavens for that! "How did you find out about all of this?" I asked, stunned.

Roarke rubbed my arm soothingly and kept me anchored to him with his legs while his other arm wrapped comfortingly around my back. "Your parents had two secret keepers, unassociated with the Clan. When Draven's people started discreetly looking into things, the secret keepers came forward."

I leaned into Roarke's body, and took comfort in his warmth and gentle, soothing hands rubbing my back. I thought about everything he'd said, amazed at my parents' bravery. It must have hurt their hearts to break up their Clan, but they'd done it for me, and for themselves, and for their Clan...because they had to have known that they would have been next.

Drakis didn't seem to be playing with a full deck of cards, and with the amount of power he had, it would have been easy for him to make two bear shifter Clans disappear with no evidence leading back to him. I was sure it had been investigated, but with no evidence pointing to a suspect, there'd been nothing law enforcement could do.

And he would have done the same thing to my parents and their Clan. In fact, I'd bet that killing my grandparents' Clan hadn't been a warning at all, but a promise.

"And now, he's after me," I said dully.

Roarke pulled me back so he could see my eyes. There was a promise in his. "And now, we destroy him."