Chapter 26
TARIA
Laid in bed beside Bronze, my muscles ache, and not just from our mutual exercise over the last hour or two. Climbing the trees with Adaline and Ember was great fun, though I could only beat those two when I cheated. They were up and down the trees like squirrels. Drake found my attempts to win hilarious and even when he gave me a ‘Luna’s head start’ they would catch me easily.
“I know I am fit, Bronze, but compared to those two, I might as well be a hippo climbing those trees. You should see them go!”
“My darling, I’m sure that there are many others out there that can’t hold a candle to your tree climbing abilities. Hippo or otherwise.” His comment earns him an elbow in the ribs and I smirk as the air rushes from him.
“Be careful, my love, this hippo may sit on you.”
“I would certainly have no objections to that.” Grabbing me, he swings me on top of him, but I continue rolling and slip from the bed. “Hippos perform better in the water, so do you care to join me in the shower?”
An hour later and back in bed, we discuss Adaline’s appointment to the chief warrior position.
“What made you have Drake assess Adaline for the position? Surely not because she was female alone?” I had been meaning to ask since I was at the Wolfsfoot Pack, but it kept slipping my mind.
“She began her warrior training and immediately showed an amazing aptitude for it. I was impressed greatly, and so was Dixon. We knew we had something special there and when I created the training position especially for her, she made it her own from day one. Her idea for the rucksacks and toy pups was nothing short of genius.”
“Rucksacks and toy pups? That you will have to explain further.” Propping myself on one elbow, I look down at him as he explains it to me. Hearing how competitive all the females became has me laughing until I cry.
“Seriously, my darling, their attitude went from not interested to death before dishonor in seconds. You’ve never seen such brutality over a stuffed toy in your entire life. Male warriors wouldn’t go in the ring if the rucksack was in there with a female.” I’m sure there was some exaggeration in his story, but I got the message that Adaline could be creative and get the job done.
“Having Drake do the assessment was to protect Adaline from some of the jealousy and backbiting, that the promotion would surely bring. Others would see themselves as better qualified, longer serving warriors, more experienced. This way, she would have a weapon in her arsenal that no other Eclipse warrior would have.”
“The seal of approval from an outsourced trainer. That’s pure genius, Bronze.”
“Better than that, my darling. You may not know it, but Drake is a legend, as both a warrior and a trainer. He plays down his reputation, being the modest shifter that he is, but he has been involved in battles, rescues and some say, even secret operations. Even shadow warriors have been known to defer to his knowledge and experience.” Bronze speaks with a reverence that I have only ever heard him use before when he speaks of his father.
“Drake mentioned something to me in passing today about his warrior past,” Before I say more Bronze sits upright, looking shocked.
“He must think extremely highly of you, Taria. He never speaks of it to anyone. He has made council members apologize for merely mentioning his past.”
“Don’t be jealous of Drake as well as Herb, my love. I couldn’t cope with every male I speak to causing you to become a green-eyed monster.”
“Envy maybe of Drake. To be held in high regard by such a shifter as he, is something to aspire to. Even alphas can be guilty of a little hero worship, you know,” Bronze replies.
Laughing at the look he gives, thinking it somehow depicts hero worship, I have to laugh. “That, my love, makes you look like you’re suffering from gas! I have my hero. I need no other.”
“And who, may I ask, m’lady, has that place of honor within your heart?” Bronze asks in what I think, he thinks, is his regal voice and with his brightest smile.
“Why, brave sir, it can be none but the brave and righteous receptor of my love. The good Sir Titan, of course.” Watching his eyes flash with Titan, Bronze grabs me and scoops me from the bed, walks me back to the bathroom and as he puts me down below the shower head, he flicks it on at the coldest setting. Squealing at full volume as the cold-water hits my warm skin, I expect Ember or Wesley to burst through the door at any moment. Bronze rushes out of the bathroom as Maya bursts out without me being able to stop her, and stands below the cold shower until her coat is plastered to her skin, then runs into the bedroom.
As Bronze is laying on the bed he has no time when Maya leaps onto the bed on top of him before she shakes her coat for all she is worth. Hearing him squeal too, has me laughing on the bedroom floor as Maya shifts back.
Didn’t see that coming, did he? I giggle.
Waking in the morning, we shower yet again and this time in a warm spray. Sitting in the dining hall later, having breakfast, I watch as Xander wanders in. This reminds me of the inner council meeting we had.
“Bronze, what is the issue between Xander and Eve?” I watch as Xander picks at the food on offer and places next to nothing on his plate before finding an empty table and sitting alone.
“I’m not aware of an issue between Xander and Eve. What makes you say that?” Putting down his cutlery, he looks to where my eyes are pointing. “He has never had any issues with anyone, as far as I know.”
“Well, there is definitely an issue between them and I think it comes from Xander. I sense nothing from Eve, although there is certainly sadness in her demeanor, not surprising when you consider what she went through with that male she had.”
“That reminds me. She has to reject him as her mate. I told her she had to do it as I wouldn’t allow her to suffer the pain from him severing the bond.”
“Make it an Alpha order and do it quickly. I think you’ll find that you’ll make two lives much happier with that one order. I’m sure that there will be a resolution to Xander’s behavior and Eve’s sadness, if you do it.” I look at Bronze and I see him make a connection.
“Of course. I was so blind.” Seeing him concentrate on the Alpha order, he takes only a few seconds. “Xander came to see me and asked my advice on a relationship issue. He felt drawn to a female, but she was in a bond. He wouldn’t divulge anymore than that and I didn’t make the connection to Eve. I think you may have some Goddess in you, you know that? First that couple in the Blackshadow Pack, now Xander and Eve.” Bronze wiggles his eyebrows at me, and honestly it looks ridiculous from an Alpha.
“Well, let’s not get carried away with the Goddess stuff just yet. How about we wait and see what develops?” I don’t know how long it could take for a mating bond to form, especially as it could either be a second chance, or have to be a chosen mate.
Leaving the dining hall, we are nothing short of accosted by Luna Sage, who grabs my free arm, and apologizing to Bronze, she quickly drags me away to my Luna office.
“I have so much to show you and so little time, Taria. Come sit by me.” Still dragging me by the arm, she sits me at the conference table where I see piles of paperwork in neat stacks. I look at them and she must read my face as she smiles.
“Don’t worry, Taria, it’s not as bad as it seems. Some of it is just sort of reference stuff in case you need it later. Let me go through it quickly and we can discard any piles that we don’t need right away.” Managing only a feeble smile, I prepare myself for what is probably going to be a long dreary slog.
Luna Sage starts to run through page after page of information, and far from being bored, I find it interesting. She has recipes galore, and although I’ll probably never need to cook anything in my life, I’m already thinking of Chef Ash. I could get her to prepare some of Bronze’s childhood meals for special occasions, or perhaps I’d have a go myself. I’m quite sure that I’d have to defer to Chef Ash in the end, though. Never having boiled an egg, I don’t see myself creating a meal reasonably similar to something his mother used to make.
When she’s done with the recipes, she takes another pile of papers, and this time there are mainly photographs with some descriptive pages attached.
“These are all places that are on the Eclipse Pack lands. You’ll no doubt get to see them all in your own time but it took me far too long, and because of that I didn’t get to enjoy them nearly as much as I would have liked. This will give you the head start I wish I’d had.”
Flipping through some of the photographs, I see beautiful woodland scenes, waterfalls, creeks, sunrises and sunsets. “I could spend years walking the pack lands and never stumble across half of this stunning scenery. Thank you, Luna Sage. I will treasure these and try to visit them all.”
“You are Luna now, Taria. I’m going to be Council Member Sage,” She smiles at me and I can’t help but think she’s going to be an outstanding council member.
We spend another hour at the table before there is a knock and Bronze peers around the door. “Mother, I need to steal my Luna away from you. You’re taking up too much of my precious time that I could be spending with her.” Grinning, he steps in, closes the door and walks over to us. Standing behind us, he rests a hand on one of our shoulders and makes a tremendous fuss of doing an eye roll. “No. Not the dreaded Luna Sage lists of everything in the world. I’m sorry Taria, I should have protected you from the dreaded lists. Mother has a passion for them, as you now see.”
“You need to take me to all these wonderful places in the pack lands. There are some stunning locations that we just have to see for ourselves,” I show him some of the photographs and I see that he hasn’t seen some of them himself.
“It would be something to tell our pups, wouldn’t it? Where each of them was conceived.” He wiggles his eyebrows again. I have to stop him from doing that or he’ll do it in front of the wrong people and they’ll think that the Alpha has gone mad.
“Just like his father. May the Goddess help you, Taria. She didn’t do much for me, though!”