2
“Whyis she unconscious?” A high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek jerked Vanessa from her ‘happy family’ dream like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head. Then came thecrash, smash, and shatterof something extremely heavy, hitting a wall, followed by theting-a-lingof about a million pieces of expensive glass clattering onto a wooden floor.
“I know I’m awake, but I’d swear I’m still caught in a nightmare,”she mentally whispered to the Polar Bear Princes with whom she shared her soul. Then to the babe she carried, she whispered,“Thank the Heavens that you’re okay, Little One. Your Auntie Celeste made sure of that, didn’t she?”
“I damn sure did.”
Refusing to open her eyes or acknowledge the chaos on the other side of what she assumed was a wall, Vanessa’s hand immediately went to her stomach as Celeste, the Polar Bear Princess with whom she shared her soul, called for Cyrus through the Mating Bond they shared with the Guardsman. Roaring within the confines of her mind when their powerful Ursus Magic ricocheted right back and smacked her in the face,Celeste snarled,“Of course, the asshole has us locked down tight. If you just would’ve let me skin that bastard Wolf alive when I had the chance, we wouldn’t…”
“No, you’re right,”Vanessa cut into her alter ego’s thought with a fair bit of sarcasm. “We wouldn’t be here.”Exhaling, she continued as calmly as possible,“Instead, we would be sitting in one of the Council’s prisons for murder without a reasonable defense.”
“Murder?” Celeste scoffed.“Pfft! That rat bastard was guilty as sin, and that’s just one of the things we were pretty sure he’d done.”
“Exactly,”Vanessa countered.“Things we thought he had done but had no solid proof of.”
“Oh, we knew…”
“Okay, we knew- but again I say, we had no proof. Without it, the Council couldn’t do a damn thing. They would’ve looked at us like we had three heads and not a lick of sense in any of them.”
“I could’ve claimed justifiable homicide for all the trouble he caused you and that blasted Dragon. After all, the useless bag of fur and fangs forced us off the road and kept us from getting back to Cyrus when you lost your mind and showed your butt.”
“Yes, but…”
“Yes, but that alone was kidnapping.”
“More like persuasively persuading to listen without consent. I wasn’t bound and gagged. He just wouldn’t let me leave until I heard what he had to say.”
“Isn’t that the definition of kidnapping?”
“No, you know it’s not the technical…”
“Girl, tell me again why you decided not to practice law?”
“Well….”
“Nope, not buyin’ it.”
“I didn’t even…”
“We share a brain. I know what you were gonna say, and…”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t you dare whatever me. You graduated top of your class every damn time and even passed the BAR exam the first time with one of the highest scores in Texas history, then…”
“You know damned good and well what happened. I don’t want to…”
“I am not making you relive that day.”
“It sure feels that way.”
“Oh, stop being the petulant damsel. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I am not being…”Getting more irritated by the moment, Vanessa tried hard to scream as Celeste continued to walk her down the dark and dreary twists and turns of an especially nasty block of Memory Lane.
“Yes, you are.”
“No. I. Am. Not.”She slowly exhaled, not wanting her captors to realize she was awake or to upset her unborn child.“Now is not the time to discuss the Council or that nasty asshole, Fogarty Petersen. We have more pressing issues, don’t you think?”
