Odin (Alien Adoption Agency #5) - Tasha Black Page 0,41

And ribbons of smoke slid from his nostrils.

So they hadn’t been afraid of her. They had been afraid of him.

And though her heart could not fear her mate, her mind saw that he couldn’t shoot a fireball at his enemies without it going through her.

She leveled the gun at the men.

“Hold your fire,” someone called from the woods.

Liberty nearly cried with frustration. How many rustlers could there be?

But the men who emerged from the trees wore marshals’ uniforms and carried regulation rifles.

She watched in wonder as they rounded up the gang of rustlers and marched them away.

“Are you all right, madam?” one of them asked her earnestly.

“Y-yes,” she replied, the tremor in her voice belying her projection of confidence. She’d never had anyone pull a gun on her before, or pointed one at someone else. It wasn’t as dashing as the holo-films made it out to me.

“And the girl?” he asked, referring to Cora.

Liberty spun around to check on the babysitter, who was staring in open admiration at the giant dragon.

“We’ll be just fine,” Liberty told him. “Thank you so much for coming.”

“Old Alney alerted us that you’d had some trouble with rustlers,” the marshal said. “That’s unusual for us here. But when we got a tip that the Sons of Sirius were in town, it all started to add up.”

“Did you find my sheep?” she asked, hope building in her heart.

“I’m afraid not,” he replied. “But hopefully we can get these jokers to talk.”

He seemed pretty optimistic, but Liberty wasn’t so sure.

At the moment, she was mostly just glad to be alive.

“Thank you again for your help,” she said.

“Our pleasure,” he replied. “But it looks to me like you had the situation well in hand yourself.”

“Oh,” she said. “This isn’t mine. It belonged to one of them.”

She handed over the gun, glad to be rid of it.

“Also,” she admitted, “the real hero here is Cora.”

“The girl?” he asked, doubtfully.

“She pulled some kind of incredible martial arts move to disarm him,” Liberty said.

“She’s your sister?” he asked.

“Cora, come talk to the marshal,” Liberty said.

Cora trotted over obligingly, but she stole a last glance over at Odin.

“Cora is our babysitter,” Liberty told the marshal. “But she’s also a volunteer with the Lachesis emergency service squad, and she’s trained in several forms of self-defense. She took out an armed assailant in about two seconds just now - saved all our lives.”

Cora puffed up with joy as if she had just been awarded an Intergalactic Games medal.

“A young woman like you could wind up serving as a marshal one day,” the man told her. “We have a paid internship for one gifted student each year. Here’s my card. Have your parents call my office if you might be interested.”

“Thanks,” Cora said, staring rapturously at the card as the marshal walked away.

Odin stepped forward to join them, in his man form once again, and wrapped an arm around Liberty.

“I just have to tell you—” Cora began.

“We know, yes, you have axe training at dawn,” Odin said. “I’ll get you home right away.”

“That’s great,” Cora said. “But what I wanted to tell you is - I really like babysitting for you guys. Call me anytime.”

36

Odin

After their statements were taken, Cora was dropped off at home, and the marshals had left the farm, Odin walked slowly back toward the farmhouse by Liberty’s side.

Though it was barely dawn, Colton was wide awake, making happy gurgling sounds.

“I can’t wait for you to get a little older,” Liberty told the baby. “I want to know what you’re saying.”

“I think he’s as adventure-happy as Cora,” Odin said. “We’re in real trouble if he decides to take after the babysitter.”

“On the contrary, he’ll protect us in our old age,” Liberty said with a smile.

“Liberty,” Odin began, not really sure what he was going to say. “Liberty, I feel like I owe you an explanation.”

She nodded, but didn’t speak, allowing him the space to find the words.

He opened the front door and they headed automatically to the kitchen. He grabbed a cell of milk for Colton and went about warming it.

“I served on active duty for most of my career,” he said, realizing it was easier to talk when he had something to do with his hands. “I was pretty good at it. Good enough that they assigned me a new recruit to mentor.”

Liberty nodded and sat down at one of the stools, cradling Colton in her arms.

“He was barely of service age, a boy, really,” Odin said fondly. “But he was