The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,109

remember Lily,” Jasmine said with a smile. Jasmine had short dark hair and very blue eyes, her belly softly rounded with the cub she carried.

“Of course they do.” Lily unlinked herself from Jasmine and pulled Rhianne into a warm hug. “My cards and crystals told me about some very bad shit going down along this ley line,” she said as she released Rhianne. “I called Jazz, she told me what was happening, and I couldn’t sit still. I had to come and make sure you were all right.” She turned and embraced Ben with as much enthusiasm as she had Rhianne, then stood back and studied him. “You look good for a man who stepped beyond the veil.”

“Thank you.” Ben saluted her with his beer bottle. “I’m glad to be back.”

“What did you see?” Lily asked in frank curiosity.

“Not a lot. I saw the mate bond, and that was pretty much it. I climbed that bond back to the land of the living.”

Ben spoke in his usual jovial tone, but Rhianne saw the flash of darkness in his eyes. She slid her hand in his and squeezed it.

“Was that the danger you divined?” Rhianne asked Lily. “The one you warned us about?”

“Hmm?” Lily studied her in puzzlement, then waved an elegant hand. “Oh, no, there’s much more danger to come. I’d say what you did here, killing that evil guy, is the beginning.”

Rhianne’s heart beat faster as she and Ben exchanged a worried glance. Ben was the first to speak. “Can’t the big, bad universe give me a day alone with my mate?”

Lily laughed and slid her arm through Jasmine’s, who listened with interest. “Of course you can. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’ve been doing some research, poking at many things. This danger is coming, but some time from now. You’ll have a nice stretch to kick back and enjoy life. And it looks like it will encompass more than just you. I’d say all Shifters will be involved.”

Jasmine regarded her friend with raised brows. “We need to talk about this.”

“Yeah, we do.” She patted Jasmine’s arm. “We’ll pull out some crystals and have a chat.”

Ben relaxed. “Shifters live and breathe danger. Business as usual then?”

“Looks like. For now.” Lily’s smile warmed her face. “So good to see you two together.” Her smiled widened. “I knew you were a couple.”

Jasmine laughed, and the two moved off, their laughter floating back to them.

“Well, that was interesting,” Ben began, but he stopped, his gaze going to the tall, red-haired man who strode toward them, having waited until Lily and Jasmine moved off.

Eamon halted a few feet from them. He studied Rhianne, not in an awkward way, but as though learning her.

“My daughter,” he said.

Rhianne swallowed the lump in her throat. She had so many things she wanted to ask him, so many things she wanted to say. The words clogged inside her and wouldn’t emerge.

“There will be time,” Eamon said, as though guessing her dilemma. His voice was rich, with just the hint of a Scottish accent. “For both of us.”

“Since when are there eagle Shifters?” Ben blurted one of the questions in Rhianne’s mind.

A smiled tugged Eamon’s mouth. He had much quietness about him, the patience of a bird of prey.

“My father was the only one I knew. His father the only he knew. The story I was told was that the emperor of the hoch alfar wished for a raptor Shifter. One was bred for him. But the other Fae were afraid of what havoc a flying Shifter might wreak, so the project was abandoned. My ancestor apparently escaped with his mate to the human world, to live in secret, and so has passed down the eagle from father to son. And now to daughter.”

Rhianne still couldn’t speak, so she did the one thing she knew another Shifter would understand. She stepped to Eamon and enfolded him in an embrace.

Eamon stilled a moment before he wrapped his arms around Rhianne, holding her tightly, his arms bearing the strength of his wings. Rhianne felt the love in him, the love of a true father, the one thing that had been missing in her life.

“I couldn’t tell you, dear.” Lady Aisling came out of the darkness in her gardening clothes and sensible boots, her long hair in braids looped on her head. “I wanted to—so many times—but it was far too dangerous for you with Ivor always hovering in the background. It was all I could do to guard