Into the Light Read online

  “Can you feel it?” he asked, and Olivia gave a little jump, certain he’d just read her thoughts.

  “F-feel it?” she stuttered.

  Tanner nodded but did not look at her. “Every time I touch you, it’s like a jolt of electricity. I don’t feel it when I touch Dane or Cecilia, so it must be you. I thought it was a Lightbearer thing. But while I can tell they have magic, it isn’t the same. Why do you suppose that is?”

  Well hell, he really had read her thoughts. Olivia licked her lips and clenched her hands around the balcony railing. “Probably because of the fact that you rescued me,” she managed to say, even though she knew it was a lie. She knew precisely what he was speaking of, and she’d felt it too, the very first time they met, when she’d been locked in Quentin’s basement. They hadn’t even needed to touch.

  “I don’t think so,” he said, and he turned his body so that he faced her. “I think it’s some weird sexual attraction between us.”

  “Weird?” Olivia repeated, as her heart began to pound in double time.

  Tanner shrugged. “Do you have a better word for it? A shifter and a Lightbearer, attracted to each other? It’s the definition of weird.”

  Olivia cleared her throat. “I suppose that’s true.”

  Tanner’s presence filled the balcony. Somehow, he seemed closer than he had been just a moment ago. So close that she could touch him. She saw the scratches on his face and his arms. They didn’t look bad anymore, because she’d pumped a little healing magic into him while they’d been in the car earlier. If he’d noticed, he hadn’t given any indication.

  “Your—your injuries are healing well.”

  Tanner stared into her eyes. “Shifters heal fast. Plus, I know you magically healed me earlier. I could feel it.”

  Well, there was her answer.

  “It felt good,” he murmured. He reached out, snaked his arm around her waist. He pulled her toward him and she came, without resistance. “Really good,” he added, while looking down at her, staring at her lips.

  “I don’t think I thanked you,” he whispered. Olivia watched as his mouth descended and his eyes closed. He tilted his head and she held her breath.

  His lips brushed across hers, just a feather light touch, and Olivia opened her mouth as if to protest the far too innocent gesture. A scant second later, his lips crushed down onto hers, hungry, devouring her, tasting her as if he was a starved man and she was the first sign of food in days.

  She made a strangled noise in her throat, shocked by the contact, shocked some more by her primal reaction to the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him as if she never wanted to let him go. Her lips parted. He thrust his tongue inside and her tongue twisted round, warring for control. She ground her hips against him, felt the hard ridge of his erection. She wanted to strip them both naked and wrap her legs around his waist and—

  The sliding glass door slid open and Cecilia’s voice said, “Olivia, are you coming to— Oh! Oh my.”

  Tanner wrenched himself away from her, backed up two steps, and then pressed his palm against the wall, breathing as heavily as if he’d just run a marathon. Olivia leaned against the railing, afraid if she moved her knees would buckle. She’d had enough experience with the opposite sex to know whatever just happened between she and Tanner was anything but ordinary. Her experience was limited to Lightbearers, however, so perhaps that was normal with shifters. If so, she determined that Lightbearer females were most certainly missing out.

  She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, saw Cecilia step back inside the room and quietly pull the sliding glass door closed. She closed her eyes and grasped the railing, holding on as if for dear life.

  “Well,” she said, clearing her throat and striving to sound normal. “That was...”

  “That should have never happened,” Tanner snapped, his voice gone cold. He did not look at her as he added, “And it won’t happen again. Stay the hell away from me, Lightbearer.”

  With those cutting words, he strode into the hotel room and slammed the glass door shut behind him, so hard that Olivia instinctively used her magic to reinforce it, in case it meant to shatter under such abuse.

  Olivia slumped against the railing again, both relieved that he was gone and already desperately missing his presence, even though he was only a few dozen feet away. She waited until her heart rate slowed, until she saw Dane wandering through the parlor with wet hair and fresh clothing. She pulled open the glass door and as calmly as she could, inquired after Tanner.

  “He’s in the shower,” Dane replied, and Olivia sagged against the door with relief, before hurrying through the room to the bedroom.

  Cecilia and Ariana were sprawled on the bed, presumably asleep. Olivia quickly shed her dress and pulled a nightgown over her head. As she climbed into the bed, Cecilia stirred.

  “I would have kissed him too,” she whispered into the dark, and Olivia felt a little better for her decision. Just a little.

  Chapter 9

  He shouldn’t have kissed her. He should have stayed the hell away from her, at least as much as he could given they were stuck together at the moment. Luckily, they had a large enough entourage that it was damned difficult to find any time strictly alone. Otherwise, Tanner was fairly confident the Lightbearer would be naked, on her back and with her thighs wrapped around his hips by now. Or even better, on her knees, with him pounding into her from behind, in the way of the shifters. He had absolutely no doubt whatsoever it would be the best sex of his life.

  It would also give him a mate. When a shifter took a woman from behind, when she consented to have sex with him in that way, it was the equivalent of a human wedding ceremony. Couple of thrusts and an orgasm and they were hooked, till death do they part.

  No fucking way.

  Not that Tanner wouldn’t like to bury himself inside the Lightbearer and let her beautiful, lithe body milk an extraordinary orgasm from him. Maybe a few times. Maybe a dozen times. But mate with her?

  No fucking way.

  Tanner vowed a long time ago to never take a mate. When a male mated with a female, there was a certain expectation that at some point, that female would want him to help her procreate, to raise a pup or two or more. To carry on his genes, his name, his bloodline.

  His father’s tainted bloodline.

  Luckily for Tanner, he managed to avoid all possibility of that happening by simply allowing himself to only spend time with the sort of human women who never expected such a thing. Strippers, whores, the young, carefree humans who trolled nightclubs, looking for a man-for-the-night.

  He wondered if it was because she was a Lightbearer. Was there something about them as a species that caused shifters to want to fuck them mindless? He knew the answer without even considering, because he didn’t feel a damn thing other than the hum of magic when he was around Olivia’s cousin, Cecilia. Or, thankfully, that pansy-ass Dane.

  It was Olivia. Which wasn’t good. At least if he’d felt an attraction to any other Lightbearer, he could convince himself it was a Lightbearer thing. Since the attraction extended to Olivia and Olivia alone, he knew that wasn’t good.

  Even if he were inclined to pursue the attraction—which he wasn’t—the timing was lousy. He was responsible for this motley pack of shifters and Lightbearers, and he knew they would not be safe until he saw them to the Lightbearer coterie. Then, the only ones who would be safe were Olivia, Cecilia, and that dolt, Dane. After depositing them back where they belonged, he would have to take his mother and Lisa and her pup and figure out where to hide them well enough that Quentin and his pack would not find them.

  The world was not a big enough place.

  He thought about Olivia and the kiss. How well she fit against his body, despite how petite she was. How uninhibited her response to him had been. The little noises of pleasure she’d made had nearly been his undoing. If Cecilia had not opened that sliding glass door, Tanner couldn’t be certain he wouldn’t have taken her, rig
ht there on the balcony.

  Would it really be so bad?

  They couldn’t have forever, that much was clear. But could they have right now? A few days of unadulterated pleasure, to help ease the stress of their situation? Would there really be any harm in it?

  Somehow, without meaning to, he made his way to the bedroom where Olivia, Cecilia, and his mother slept together in the overlarge bed. Lisa and Sofia were curled up in the other bedroom, seeking comfort in one another. Dane was on his back, snoring quietly, on the sofa bed. Tanner had told Olivia he could sleep on the floor and it was true. He could simply shift into a dog or cat and curl up and go to sleep. The carpet was plenty comfortable enough.

  But he didn’t really want to do that. He wanted to sleep with Olivia.

  Why shouldn’t he? They had agreed to only rest for a few hours, and he would not allow them any more than that, before he insisted they move on toward the coterie, although none of the Lightbearers had yet to disclose its location. Where was the harm in curling up on the bed, against the curve of her belly? She was sound asleep, so she wouldn’t even know.

  Deciding to hell with reason, Tanner shifted into the form of an ordinary house cat and then padded across the carpet. He lightly leapt onto the bed and then, just as he wanted, he curled up against the curve of Olivia’s belly and closed his eyes and slept. Although it was short, it ended up being the best sleep Tanner had ever experienced.

  * * * *

  The plans to rest for only a few hours shattered with the quiet as a scream rent the air. Everyone in the bed immediately shot awake, including the cat curled up next to Olivia’s belly. She gave it a curious look as she pushed it out of the way so she could climb out of bed to go see what happened. In a split second, Tanner stood in the room where the cat had been, and it finally clicked that he’d slept with her last night, or at least for a few hours this morning.

  She found it difficult to be annoyed, considering she felt more refreshed at the moment that she normally would after only a precious few hours’ sleep.

  “Stay here,” he commanded, his stern look encompassing all three women, and then he turned and strode from the room.

  “What was Tanner doing in here?” Cecilia mused as she yawned widely.

  Olivia did not have a chance to answer her, because a moment later, they heard shouting, followed by what sounded like a growl, and she rushed from the bedroom, certain that Dane and Tanner were fighting. Instead, she found Lisa, in the other bedroom, clearly in labor, while Dane struggled to get to her, past Tanner, who was steadily refusing to let him anywhere near her. Sofia sat in a corner, curled into herself, looking at her panting, laboring mother with stark fear in her eyes.

  Ignoring the two arguing men, Olivia called out to Sofia, who gratefully rushed into her arms. “Momma,” she whimpered, and Olivia petted her head.

  “She is going to be fine,” she assured the little girl. “She is just in a little bit of pain right now, because that babe in her belly is ready to come out. You are going to have a baby brother soon. Is that exciting?”

  Sofia looked uncertain, and Olivia continued to assure her that her mother would be fine, as she turned and carried the child out of the room and into the bedroom where Cecilia and Tanner’s mother sat, waiting nervously to hear what was happening.

  “Lisa is birthing her babe,” Olivia announced without preamble. “Help keep Sofia occupied, while I go figure out why Tanner and Dane are fighting over who gets to be in the bedroom with her.” She deposited the child on the bed and left the room again.

  As it turned out, Dane was trying to get to Lisa to help her labor, as he was a healer and that was what healers did. Tanner didn’t remotely trust the Lightbearer and wouldn’t let him into the bedroom.

  “What do you know about whelping shifters?” Tanner demanded, adding a growl apparently for emphasis. Or maybe because he was so angry he didn’t realize he was doing it.

  “Whelping? She isn’t a dog, for the love of the light.” Dane gave Tanner a determined shove, and then slipped around the shifter and hurried into the bedroom.

  “Actually, technically, she is. Well, she’s an animal. Sort of. Shifters refer to childbirth as whelping.” Tanner sounded annoyed by the fact that he had to explain the process of whelping to someone who was supposed to be a healer.

  Dane paused in the act of using his magic to sterilize the bedroom. “Lights above, is she going to birth an animal?” He looked utterly horrified.

  Lisa growled like one.

  “She’s having a contraction,” Dane announced.

  “I’m not going to whelp an animal, you idiot,” Lisa said through clenched teeth, just before she let out a shriek of pain.

  Olivia stood in the doorway, watching the scene unfold. Dane gave her an exasperated look. “Olivia, I have to say, this is well above and beyond my duties to protect you.”

  “This has nothing to do with protecting me, Dane,” Olivia said with a sharp glance at Tanner. “And I’ve told you a thousand times, I don’t need you to protect me.”

  “You’ve been missing for a week and when you finally show up, it is with a pack of shifters in tow. I’d say you need someone to protect you.”

  If that were the case, Olivia knew who she wanted that person to be. It wasn’t Dane.

  “Whelping a pup here,” the birthing mother grumbled. “Can you take all the inane conversation somewhere else?”

  “Get out,” Tanner commanded, his gaze narrowed on Dane.

  Olivia reached out, grasped Tanner’s arm. He shifted his focus from Dane to her. She noticed his gaze did not warm, but she chose to ignore that.

  “Please help her, Dane,” Olivia implored. “She just lost her mate. She’s all alone in the world right now. She really needs you.”

  Dane was not remotely one of the strongest, or largest, or even smartest Lightbearers Olivia knew, but he had a ridiculous need to protect those around him, and he too had a natural ability as a healer. His mother had birthed six of her own children, and all but Dane had birthed at least one of their own by this point. Dane had assisted in nearly every one of his nieces and nephews’ births, besides the variety of other Lightbearer babes that had been born over the last two decades. He had ample experience as a midwife.

  Just as she knew he would, Dane puffed out his chest, as a look of determination came into his eye.

  “This pansy is not helping me whelp my pup,” Lisa snapped, just before another contraction washed over her. Dane was at her side in an instant, cooing soothing words, one hand cupping her tightening belly, the other brushing hair out of her face. Lisa squeezed her eyes shut and panted through the contraction. When it was over, both she and Dane were sweating and breathing heavily, although Dane actually looked as if he’d suffered more pain than she had.

  “Come on,” Olivia whispered to Tanner. “They will be fine.”

  “I’m not leaving her,” Tanner insisted.

  “Get out,” Lisa yelled. She fisted her hand in the front of Dane’s shirt. “The Lightbearer’s going to take care of us. Get out of here.” She twisted her hand more tightly, until Dane winced and tugged his shirt free.

  Tanner looked as if he wanted to argue, but when another contraction hit, he turned away and strode from the room. Olivia hurried after him and tried to tell herself he was simply feeling responsible for one of his pack and that it wasn’t any more personal than it should be. She tried to tell herself that he would feel the same for any female in his pack that was birthing a child.

  She did not do a very good job of convincing herself.

  “Why don’t you do it?” Tanner asked abruptly. He looked harried, nervous, worried for Lisa and the unborn pup. They stood in the parlor, near the sliding glass door that led to the balcony where, the night before, they’d shared a kiss.

  “You said you’re a natural healer,” he added.

  “I have natural healing abilities, yes. But I have never been trained, and I have never before assisted in birthing a babe.
Dane has. He is fully trained and has helped birth more babes than I can count.”

  “Why was he trained but you weren’t? Is it some sort of sexist thing?”

  Olivia realized he was talking to try to keep his mind off of what was happening in the bedroom, so she kept up the flow of conversation, even though they were treading into territory that she would rather not discuss.

  “No. There are several female healers. The best healer in the entire coterie is a female, as a matter of fact. It is just that my father would not allow me to go through the training.”

  “Why not?”

  She bit back a sigh. “It is complicated,” she said. “I am an only child. My mother had complications at my birth, and we both nearly died. As a result, she was unable to have any more babes. Because of this, I have certain ... responsibilities that I must see to, as their only heir.”

  Tanner focused most of his attention on her. “Are you saying you don’t get to decide what to do with your life? Your parents made that decision for you?”

  His question irritated her. “It’s no different than being a pack master’s only child,” she pointed out.

  “True, except I did determine my own fate.”

  “Yes, well, I believe we all now realize how incredibly dangerous that would be for me. And the coterie is far too small for me to stay there and determine my own fate.”

  Tanner opened his mouth as if to ask another question, but before he could formulate the words, Lisa screamed his name. He gave Olivia another harried look and then rushed back into the bedroom.

  * * * *

  When it was over, Lisa sat in the bed, nursing her healthy, pink newborn son, looking exhausted but serene. Tanner sat propped against the headboard on her right, sound asleep. Dane lay to her left, on his stomach, sound asleep and once again snoring quietly. Olivia had used her magic to clean up the afterbirth, so that when she brought Sofia in to see her mother and new baby brother, the room was as sparkling clean as if maid service had been there. Sofia crawled onto the bed, took one peek at the hungry baby, and then she curled up between Lisa’s leg and Tanner’s and went to sleep.