In the Beginning... (38 page)

Josey thought for a moment,
watching the conversation flow around her. They weren’t arguing the
right of the Dardaptoans to try her grandfather. Not anymore, and
probably not ever again. They were discussing how the company was
going to handle it. No one seemed to care for the old bastard. Not
even her father. So she and her family were of one mind, then. Not
surprising; her grandfather had not been close to anyone in the
family. She looked at him one final time, then back at her
Rajni
. He might have
started off as the monster in her nightmares, but the true monster
stood in handcuffs near the guard. Josey wrapped her arms around
her
Rajni
and held
on.

No. I’m done with him.
My
family
is done
with him. Let Dardaptoan justice decide if he lives or if he
dies.

THE WARRIOR’S WOMAN

Copyright ®Calle J. Brookes

For my very own hero. Thank you for always
believing in me!

“That stupid, evil, old
bastard.” Mallory Taniss said the words out loud, punctuating each
syllable with a whack of the chef’s knife into the fresh fruit she
was preparing for the next day’s lunch. Her attention wasn’t on the
food, but still with the files and revelations she’d read that
afternoon. Her grandfather was a freaking thief. Who’d stolen from
thousands of people
and from the entire
Taniss family.

“I’m old, and some would say
a bastard
though my father and mother take
exception to that
but I am far from
stupid.” The voice came from behind her, close. Mal spun, clutching
the knife more like a weapon than a cooking tool.

The man was a damned giant, at least a foot
taller than Mal’s own five-ten. His arms were muscled and his chest
broad. More importantly, he held himself like someone who’d had a
lifetime of training in the martial arts.

She faced one hell of a fight, but she would
fight him until she couldn’t fight anymore. Her little sister was
upstairs. And she’d fight to the death to protect one of her
sisters. Mal yelled for Mickey to run, using the code word she’d
drilled into her sisters’ heads for the last eight years. Mickey
would do what she was told, while Mallory delayed this monster
bastard.

Her body tensed, and she prepared to defend
herself the instant he moved. With an attacker of his size, she was
better off doing what she could to evade. If Mickey hadn’t been in
the house, Mal would have fled. But her sister was upstairs, and
their cousins Josey and Emily were just next door. Mal wouldn’t
risk this bastard going after one of them, either.

“Well, come on, then, you son of a bitch.
Let’s get this party started.”

He wasn’t the only one with martial arts
training. She’d studied every day for the past eight and a half
years, learning to protect herself and her family. She would not be
some man’s victim ever again.

This was a beautiful creature, courageous
and fierce. Her red hair hung down her back and curled at the ends.
Her eyes were the darkest green and trained on his every move. She
was tall, but not thin, with a siren’s curves. Muscle tone and
definition lurked beneath the curves. This woman was in excellent
physical shape.

The way she held the knife shouted skill to
Aodhan. This woman was a warrior in every sense of the word. And
women warriors had always intrigued him. Heated him.

Pity she was a Taniss.

He feinted left, then spun
in. Made glancing contact with her knee. She’d anticipated his
move, and countered. He felt the blade whiz by his arm. She’d drawn
blood. Skilled. He pulled back and reevaluated. He knew he would
win
no human female, regardless of fighting
ability, could win against a Dardaptoan male, especially one his
size and skill. Poor little cat, she didn’t stand a chance. And if
she did manage to get away from him, his wolf Tajic waited outside
her front door.

She struck, but he’d anticipated. His
fingers wrapped around her wrist and squeezed. She would either
drop the blade or risk him breaking the bones beneath his fingers.
And it would be so easy for him to do just that; to crush the bone
beneath her soft, soft skin.

It was no less than any of the Taniss line
deserved.

But the girl didn’t drop the knife. Her knee
bounced off his abdomen, and he smiled. This cat was a fighter, but
she would lose. Simple as that. He used the wrist he still held to
swing her to him. She cried out as the move bent her arm at an
unnatural angle.

He stopped just short of breaking the
bone.

She may have been the
granddaughter of his enemy
and he planned
on killing her within the next few hours
but a warrior female such as she did not deserve unnecessary
suffering and pain. There was little honor in harming an
enemy
especially a weaker one
just because you could.

Her grip on the knife loosened. He grabbed
the blade and released her wrist at the same time. She countered,
used her elbow to strike at his face. He stopped her, wrapped one
hand in the soft red hair hanging down her back. He had her in his
arms with a single jerk on the hair.

Her ass was pressed into his groin, and her
hair wrapped around his forearm. He jerked her head to one side,
exposing her neck. He lifted the knife to her silky flesh. She
froze, and for the first time her fear was stronger than her fight.
The blade pricked her skin in a half inch long slice. The smell of
blood filled his lungs. Her blood.

He pressed his lips to her throat as he
threw the knife across the room. Her taste filled him. His head
reared back, before he returned his lips to her neck and sank his
fangs deeper into her skin.

It was the taste of
his...
Rajni
. This
Taniss cat was his mate.

Aodhan felt her shaking against him, her
fear and confusion palpable on the air. He gentled his hands, his
teeth. The strength of the emotions pouring through him threatened
to send him to the ground.

He’d found his
Rajni
. His mate. The
female he was destined to spend the rest of his days with. It had
only taken him 598 years to do it. Found her and she was
beautiful.

And a damned Taniss.

What was he supposed to do about that?

His curse was loud in the room and the girl
flinched. “Let me go.”

“Not going to happen.” Aodhan applied
pressure to the back of her neck, subduing her when she started to
fight him again. His woman was a fighter, and he respected that.
His family line was inundated with warriors throughout the ages.
This woman would give him strong children. Hopefully many.

Her nails raked across his cheek, her hand
headed for his eyes. He grabbed her wrist, pleased to feel the
muscle beneath her skin. His woman was sleek and toned. Beautiful.
“No! Hold still!”

“What do you want?”

“You.” As simple as that. His female. He was
taking her. They’d work out the details later. He tied her hands
with the silk scarf of his House that he’d worn around his waist.
He tied the fabric as tightly as possible, knowing his female could
slip free.

“Why?” She twisted and fought against his
hold, but even though she was probably a strong fighter by human
standards she stood no chance against him. He was the head of
Dardaptoan security for a reason. He was the largest and the
strongest of his contemporaries. And the fiercest warrior.

“Because you are mine.” She struggled when
he tried to pull her from her home, something he had expected. He
solved that problem by hefting her over one shoulder. His woman was
heavier than she looked. Muscled. He ran his hand over her ass,
thrilled with her physically. Once she finally gave in to him, he
would enjoy her immensely.

His friend and partner on this venture,
Theodoric the near-blind Prognosticator, met them outside after a
few moments. It took Aodhan’s eyes a minute to adjust to the dim
night light, but once he did his honed sense of sight allowed him
to study his friend. Theo had a strawberry blonde cuddled close to
his chest. She was a more delicate almost washed-out version of
Aodhan’s female. The younger sister, then.

When his
Rajni
saw her sister held by the other
man she went wild, kicking and cursing at him. She tried to reach
her sister, but Aodhan prevented that. He yanked on the silk
tether, harder than he’d intended. She jerked off-balance, but
righted herself. Her green eyes blazed when she looked up at him.
“I will kill you both for this. If he hurts her at all, you will
suffer more than you can imagine.”

“Of course, kitten. Now, either you walk, or
I carry you. I would far prefer to carry you, but...”

“Don’t touch me.”

“I’ll touch you whenever and however I want.
You will not be able to stop me.”

The fear that filled her eyes surprised him
at its intensity. Before she’d masked her fear with fight, but
now...

“I’ll die first, you son-of-a-bitch!”

Aodhan loaded her into the van, though she
kicked and fought. Theo and his burden climbed in behind her, and
Tajic hopped into the front with his master. Aodhan drove the dark
roads connecting the Dardaptoan city of

Dardanos to the mountain property that
housed the Taniss family as carefully as he could.

He had precious cargo in the back of the
van.

He could hear her
alternately cursing and pleading for her sister’s freedom. He
whistled, the tune one that had symbolized mating and
Rajni
bonding throughout
Dardaptoan history. He doubted the females understood the
significance of the song, but he knew Theo did. And it hadn’t taken
Theo’s confession of the sister being his for Aodhan to recognize
that his closest friend would soon also be his brother-in-law. But
how would their people take the news that two of the highest
ranking members of the council were now bonded to the
granddaughters of the Dardaptoan’s greatest human
threat?

First order of business
would be to convert her to Dardaptoan. He’d seen the procedure done
four hundred years ago, when a friend had found his human
Rajni
dying from a knife
wound. It had been a terrifying experience for them, but the female
had survived and become a beautiful Dardaptoan female.

His female would look glorious with little
fangs in her mouth. His body tightened when he imagined how it
would feel to have his mate feed from him for the first time. Her,
him, in the battle that was sex. He lived for that moment.

The drive took too long. He wanted his
female in his suite so that he could begin the conversion. Begin
their life together. Aodhan had never been a patient man. He pulled
the van up to the portico leading into the hotel.

He assisted Theo in getting
his
Rajni
out of
the vehicle. She looked up at him in awe and fear, with the same
shade of eyes as her sister. Both were beautiful
females.

His own woman spit and hissed, ordering him
not to touch her sister. Aodhan pulled her from the van. Even bound
she was strong.

Theo stepped closer, and ran a hand over
Aodhan’s female’s hair. Aodhan hissed a low warning before he could
stop himself. No one, even his best friend, touched her but
Aodhan.

He forced himself to remain calm. Theo
needed to touch others in order to see them for the first time. His
gift of foresight had come at the cost of his physical sight.
Sometimes, the other man could see snippets about the individual if
he touched them first.

Compassion filled Theo’s face and Aodhan
tensed further. What had he seen?

“Be careful with her, my friend. Your female
has suffered so much in a way no woman ever should. Her soul still
has the scars.”

Aodhan stilled. “What are you saying,
seer?”

“Just that ours is not the first act of
vengeance against her grandfather she has been the instrument of.
Treat her kindly, as gently as a kitten, rather than as the fiery
cat she presents. It will serve you well in the long run.” Theo’s
face and words were sad.

Aodhan fought the urge to shift her off of
his shoulder and to his chest. To carry her in the same manner that
Theo carried his own precious burden. His arms did tighten around
her hips. “The conversion process will hurt her. That’s
unavoidable.”

Theo nodded, and Aodhan knew the other man’s
attention had shifted inward.

He thought on Theo’s words as he carried his
female in the direction of his family wing. Opposite of her
sister.

Mallory watched the slightly smaller man
carry Mickey away and she fought the urge to scream. To cry. To
berate herself for not keeping the gun Rand insisted she know how
to use in the house instead of in the console of her car.

Only the knowledge that doing those things
wouldn’t accomplish anything kept her from them. Where was he
taking Mickey? Why was he so gentle when the man carrying her was
rough and violent?

What did these bastards want?

She took note of every turn he took down the
long hallway. Turquoise and gold covered the walls. Real gold. Even
with all of her family’s wealth, she’d never been in a hotel gilded
like this one. Where the hell were they? The man hadn’t driven more
than an hour in the van, so she knew they were still in Colorado.
But a hotel of this caliber? There were a few possibilities near
enough to the Taniss family land, but she’d been to all of them but
one.