chapter 9
Shyne slid off Michael's back when they reached the clearing. Someone had set up floodlights around the area so it was illuminated against the darkness. The wolves that had come to support Michael stood to one side of the clearing while Mason, Cairo and Dante stood on the other. She'd felt so awful at the gym earlier; they were clearly unhappy with her. Mason said hello to her, but Dante and Cairo never appeared. Although she was happy to have Michael now, she felt like she was losing three friends.
She'd spoken to Michael's mother Tina earlier about her desire to make sure the hyenas knew that, no matter what happened, she was off the table for them forever. That she chose Michael as her own, and that was it. Tina told her about an old ceremony that she could perform quickly, and when they got back after she cleaned up at the trailer, Tina cleared it with Jason. All Shyne needed was a penknife and a healthy dose of courage.
Jason stepped forward into the center of the clearing, and Dante joined him. "Tonight we right a wrong and erase the grievances between our groups," Jason spoke loudly enough for all to hear.
Dante looked at her pointedly as he spoke, "We accept the terms that you set forth for this match. Our best fighter against your wolf, Michael. To first blood and no further, to cleanse the debt."
Michael put his hand on her shoulder, and she put her hand on top of his. She wondered if he was nervous. She'd be shaking in fear right now. Although she hadn't felt much like talking today, her worry for Michael's well being was at the forefront of her mind. Tina promised that fighting to first-blood meant that the fight would be well controlled and that the damage would be healed while they were in their shift. Even if Michael did get hurt, even if he lost, he would be fine in a few hours. Even so...she didn't like anything so barbaric.
Tina had asked her point-blank earlier if she was sure that she wanted to be part of Michael's life, if she really understood what being a mate meant. Although she could admit that she didn't understand everything yet, she knew she didn't want to live without Michael. She couldn't just accept half of him, she had to accept both his human side and his wolf side, because the two together made up the man. And that's what she'd been so lost in thought about today.
Jason looked over at her, and she stepped forward fast as Michael hissed at her to come back and reached for her. She dodged his hands and slid the knife from her back pocket and opened it, joining Jason and Dante.
"What say you, Shyne?" Jason said, pride and happiness in his eyes.
She opened her left palm and sliced a straight but shallow line through the center, handing the blade to Jason with trembling fingers. Michael roared in disapproval, and a quick glance showed her that two of the wolves were holding him back. "I say that Michael is my truemate, and I am his. No matter the outcome tonight, my heart is his forever and ever." She squeezed her hand together until a drop of blood leaked from her fist and dropped to the ground. Repeating the words that Tina and Cadence had taught her, she said with a clear voice, "Laria bento farish nomarte." My heart is no longer my own. It was an ancient pledge from their history, when a human female would choose her mate and declare herself his forever.
She looked up at Dante and saw recognition flicker through his eyes as she turned and moved to Michael who had stopped struggling to get free of his friends' hold. Lifting his shirt with one hand, she pressed her bloody palm over his heart and said, "I love you, Michael. I'm marking you as my own." The words were foreign to her still, but she could see how moved Michael was by her actions.
His hand pressed lightly on top of hers, and he pulled her against him as he crushed her mouth with his. The wolves in the clearing cheered and howled, and Michael broke the kiss and pulled his shirt off with one quick movement, wrapping it around her wound.
Into her ear he growled, "When I get you home tonight, we're going to have a long talk about you doing blood-involved ceremonies behind my back."
"A naked talk?" she asked hopefully.
He huffed at her, kissed her once more and kicked off his shoes. Tina hugged her as they turned to watch the fight. Now it didn't matter whether he won or lost, because she publicly declared that she was Michael's and sealed the words in blood. Nothing short of death would change that.
Dropping his pants, Michael revealed he wasn't wearing underwear and flashed her the most magnificent cock she'd ever seen. He tossed his pants at her, and she grabbed them with her free hand and licked her lips in anticipation of their coming "long talk". Long was definitely a good word. And so was thick. And, she hoped soon enough, hard could be added.
On his chest was a dark smudge of her blood, and she was proud to see it. Like a badge of honor. She watched as Michael shifted, his beautiful human body twisting and rolling until a large solid black wolf shook himself out. The dark fur on his body glistened in the light. He trotted over to her, and she reached her right hand out to touch him. He snagged her wrist in his mouth and bit down, hard enough to break through the skin.
"Ouch, shit," she groused, extracting her wrist from his mouth. He licked the shallow puncture wounds and stared at her. She wasn't sure, but she thought he was glaring.
"He just marked you," Tina said, and Michael gave a low bark and moved back to the center of the clearing.
"Marked me?" she asked, looking at Tina.
Tina smiled, "It's a wolf thing, honey. The males like to mark their mates, and the way that you marked him made his wolf want to do the same. When they do it in their wolf form, it's a more primal thing than when they do it in their human form."
Michael snapped his jaws at the hyena as a growl slid from his mouth, and the hyena lowered his head and returned the growl. Shyne hadn't even realized that one of them had shifted, and she searched across the clearing and found Dante and Mason watching intently, which meant that Cairo was the one that had shifted. He was bigger than Michael, but Shyne suddenly wasn't worried about whether he would win or lose. She knew he would win. She had marked him in public, which according to Tina was as good as married to their people, and he had marked her back. He wasn't just fighting to settle things between them but also to claim her for himself.
They clashed together in a frenzy of snapping jaws and snarls of rage. They shoved apart, dirt flying as their claws scraped into the ground. Cairo loped around the clearing, his reddish mane billowing behind him. Michael moved more slowly, turning to watch him as he moved, his amber gaze never wavering from his target. Shyne had just a moment to appreciate the true predator that Michael was, and then he was airborne, landing on Cairo's back and rolling him to the ground. Michael kicked hard with all his legs, and Cairo flew into the air several feet and landed solidly, skidding across the dirt. He stood up, shaking his head as if to clear it, and growled loudly.
They circled for several minutes, a few feet away from each other, snapping and lunging but not contacting. Cairo dodged to one side, and Michael reacted, only to be caught off guard when Cairo changed course abruptly and landed on top of Michael. The snarls that ripped through the air cut Shyne deeply as Cairo tried to latch onto Michael's throat. Fangs bared as they snarled and fought, a tangle of black fur and blond and reddish brown spotted fur. For a moment, it looked like Cairo was going to win, and Shyne's heart began to pound as the hyena raised his paw to strike. Michael took the opportunity of his exposed flank and dragged his back paw down his side, splitting the flesh with his thick, black claws. Cairo yelped in pain and jumped off Michael who rolled onto his paws and sniffed the air. His head tilted up to the sky and unleashed a howl loud enough to wake the dead, and the other wolves joined in. She could hear the joyous sound of the howls as they celebrated the win.
Jason's voice came out over the din, as he shouted, "The fight is over, Michael has won, drawing first-blood on the hyena. The debt is clean."
He nodded at Dante and Mason who were standing with Cairo. She met their eyes across the clearing and was surprised at the coldness. Where she'd seen friendship and concern before, there was nothing there now. She shivered as they turned their backs and walked away, Cairo nursing his wounded side. She quickly forgot everything and ran to Michael, dropping to her knees and hugging his furry neck.
She felt tears prick her eyes as relief swam through her. Yes, she'd known he would win, but she was still happy that it had worked out that way. Pulling back from him, she wiped under her eyes and then laughed when he licked her cheek. "I knew you'd win."
Jason called her name, and she looked up at him. "You can hang out at our place until he's ready to shift again, should be three hours more, give or take."
"Thanks, Jason."
He nodded, and she straightened from where she had knelt next to her wolf. He trotted beside her as they walked back to Jason and Cadence's house. Cadence and Linus' wife Karly were there waiting, Karly holding her infant son in her arms. Shyne stood in the kitchen with Michael, watching as Jason moved to Cadence to hug her tightly, and Linus took his sleeping son from his wife's arms and hugged her against his other side.
She hadn't grown up seeing love so freely expressed like this. Her parents had been taken when she was three. She'd read somewhere that kids didn't form their first memories until age seven or eight unless their early years were marked by tragedy, which is why her earliest memory was of a police officer. Her parents had gone out to dinner for their anniversary, taking her next door to the widowed neighbor, Pauline Kennedy. Mrs. K took a picture of her that night, dressed up in one of her old ball gowns with strings of pearls, long gloves and high heels. In the midst of their tea party, the doorbell rang, and she clomped along after Mrs. K and stared into the sad face of a police officer. He came to tell Mrs. K that Shyne's parents had died in a car crash.
Mrs. K took her in and adopted her because Shyne had no other living family. When she died when Shyne was twelve, she was sent to live in the group home, where she learned the definition of "doing without", and what it meant to be an orphan. Six lonely years later, she aged out and met Travis. He'd become the brother she never had and the family she missed so dearly.
But here in this home was love and acceptance. Not just the couples in front of her, but the man in wolf form next to her. It brought a lump to her throat and an ache to her chest. Cadence looked at her and said, "I fixed up the spare bedroom for you. I'm sure you're exhausted; it's been a long day for all of us."
"Thanks." Shyne smiled gratefully.
Linus and Karly said goodnight and left for their own home, and Cadence led her and Michael upstairs. At the end of the hallway, Cadence opened the door on the right and ushered her and Michael into the room. A full bed sat against the wall, made up with a red and blue checked quilt. The drapes were open to let in the moonlight.
"Have a good night, Shyne. And Michael," Cadence said as she stood at the door, "if you tear up my quilt, I'm going to have your head."
Michael made a sound that was suspiciously like a laugh, and Cadence chuckled and closed the door. Clicking the overhead light off, Shyne climbed onto the bed and stretched out, staring at the ceiling. Michael leapt easily onto the bed and lay down next to her, resting his head on her stomach. He growled softly, and it ended on a curious whine. Something inside her broke, and she started to cry. He moved up the bed, and she curled her arms around his neck and cried into his fur.
It seemed like forever before she was able to gather herself enough to start talking, and once she did, she told him everything. Losing her parents, Mrs. K, the group home, and then her friendship with Travis, and her struggles to get through school to get a job so she could support herself. By the time she told him how sorry she was that he'd had to fight for her, she was too exhausted to keep talking and drifted off to sleep after snuggling against his furry belly and telling him that she loved him.
With the weight of her past off her shoulders and bared to her mate, she began to understand just what that word meant. Even though Michael hadn't been in his human form, she knew he understood her and didn't judge her. And more than anything, as she slipped into deep sleep, she knew that he loved her and that nothing was more important to him than keeping her safe and happy, forever.