Page 17 of Mitchell’s Untamed Mate (More Than Human #2)

T he low chatter faded as he entered the ring gathered around the fire and walked over to stand next to Tracy. He sealed her place among the group by sliding his hand in hers and entwining their fingers. He could feel the eyes of every member of the clan, young and old, focused on their clasped hands.

“We’ll eat first, then talk,” Connell announced.

The murmurs exploded when Margo, Hope, LaTrisha, and Mallory began handing out bowls of stew. Mitchell glanced around for Jayden. She was standing near the makeshift table, her eyes locked on him and Tracy. She looked away when he stared back at her and continued filling the bowls.

He and Tracy sat down on one of the half-dozen logs that had been placed around the central firepit decades ago. Tracy took the bowl Hope held out to her with a smile. It wasn’t until the girl passed that she leaned into him.

“This has meat in it,” she murmured.

“I’ll get you something else,” he replied.

She shook her head. “Not now. I’ll grab one of my meals later.”

He frowned and shook his head. “You need to eat.”

“I will… later,” she murmured.

“Is there a problem, Tracy?” Jace asked.

Mitchell shot Jace a murderous glare when the other man grinned at him. Jace knew that Tracy was a vegetarian. The other man was being a jerk.

“Not at all, Jace. All’s good,” Tracy replied.

Rand looked back and forth between them. “The stew is good.”

Tracy smiled at Rand and nodded. “I’m sure it is, but as Jace already knows, I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat meat. I have some food I can fix later.”

“Nonsense. What do you need?” Mallory asked.

“I’m fine, Mallory, really. It’s nothing to be worried about,” Tracy insisted.

“Don’t argue. Trust me. It only makes my mom more determined,” Jayden muttered, walking over and sitting next to Tracy.

Tracy looked at Jayden in surprise. Jayden gave Tracy a crooked smile, shrugged, and dipped a piece of hard bread into the stew. Jayden eyed the stew Tracy was holding.

“If Mitchell doesn’t want that, I’ll eat it,” Jayden continued.

“I want it. You don’t deserve anything after the way you tied Tracy up,” he growled, reaching for the bowl.

Jayden shrugged again. “Whatever.”

“Nonsense. We are not uncivilized, despite how we live. What can you eat?” Mallory insisted.

“I have some food in my pack. I just need to boil some water,” Tracy conceded.

“I’ll get it for you,” Mitchell said, placing his half-finished stew down on the log.

“I can do it. You finish eating. It won’t take but a few minutes,” she said, placing her hand on his shoulder and rising.

He hesitated before giving her a brief nod. He pursed his lips when the group fell silent again to watch her walk back to Mallory and Rand’s sleeping area. With a sigh, he picked his bowl up and continued eating.

“Don’t grizzlies eat meat?” Timmy asked.

Mitchell turned to the six-year-old boy and smiled.

“Some do, some don’t. Tracy doesn’t,” he said.

“Does that mean she ain’t going to eat us?” eight-year-old Hallie inquired.

He sighed. Several of the teenagers in the group snickered. He shot the teens a scowl of disapproval. They quickly looked down at their bowls. It was obvious tales of shifters eating humans were circulating again.

“Shifters don’t eat humans,” he replied.

Hallie frowned. “But… we eat animals? Do we eat shifters?” she asked with growing horror.

“Enough of that. We don’t eat shifters and shifters don’t eat humans. If I hear any more such nonsense, there will be extra chores for those making mischief. Do I make myself clear?” Anna said in a stern voice, glaring at the teens.

“Yes, Miss Anna.”

The chorus of admonished teens focused on their meal. He looked up when Tracy returned with one of the freeze-dried pouches. She gave him a questioning smile before sitting down. Her eyes widened when Hallie stepped in front of her.

“I’m glad you don’t eat humans,” the little girl said shyly before hurrying back to her seat.

Tracy looked at him with a confused frown. “What was that about?”

“Kids being kids,” he muttered, glancing at the teens.

She looked over to the group who looked like they would rather be anywhere else. Her lips parted as it dawned on her what the group had been talking about while she was gone. She scowled at the three boys and one girl before shaking her head.

“And I thought Jace was bad. He’d fit right in with the kids,” she murmured.

Jayden smothered a snort of laughter. She grinned at Jayden and began eating. Mitchell breathed a sigh of relief. Jayden could be hard-headed, but it was because she was very protective of those she loved—and she was afraid of being hurt. Tracy was slowly winning the other woman over with her sense of humor, her quick wit, and her refusal to be intimidated.

“How is… Ella?” Jayden asked in a quiet voice.

“She’s doing good. She has my brother wrapped around her little finger. I love how she keeps him on his toes,” Tracy said.

Jayden nodded. “That’s good. She’s happy.”

“Yes, she is.”

Mitchell reached into his pocket and pulled out the small cloth-wrapped gift, reached across Tracy, and held it out to Jayden, who looked at the gift with a frown.

“Ella asked me to give you this. She also wanted me to tell you that she misses you very much,” he said.

Jayden slowly reached for the gift. She curled her fingers around it before tucking it inside her tunic. He watched as she suddenly rose.

“I’ll take your bowls if you are finished. The elders will want to start the meeting soon,” she said.

Mitchell handed his wooden bowl and spoon to Jayden. Tracy was still eating. He waited until the collection of bowls and utensils was collected before he rose and walked over to stand near the firepit. All eyes were on him.

“I have come with a proposal from the president of the shifters,” he announced, lifting his chin and turning in a tight circle so he could study each person’s reaction. “She has offered us a safe haven amongst the shifters. A chance to live… and thrive without fear.”

“Lies!”

“They want to cage us and kill the last of us!”

“Traitor! You are leading the shifters right to us!”

He had expected the resistance to his remarks, which is why he made the announcement the way he did. He wanted them to get their fear out. Until they did, they would not be able to listen. After a few minutes, he noticed the group growing quiet and lifted his hands.

“I address not just the elders, but all of you. I know you are afraid. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t,” he began.

“Then why are you doing this? Why did you bring her here?” Paulette demanded.

“Maybe he wanted some—” Tom called out.

“What’s the matter, Tom? Jealous?” Jayden interjected.

“Why don’t you grow a pair, Jayden,” Tom retorted.

“I already have. They’re called boobs,” Jayden responded, jumping to her feet and cupping her breasts. “Something you’ll never see.”

“Enough!” Rand ordered, standing. “Mitchell, please continue.”

Mitchell glanced at Jayden who smirked, shrugged, and sat back down beside Tracy. He cleared his throat and returned his attention to the group which had finally calmed down. He made eye contact with each person, wanting them to know he was focused on each of them.

“We can’t continue the way we have been. We’ve lost too many of us,” he said.

“Can we move farther north?” Hope asked.

He shook his head. “I’ve seen a map the shifters have of this area. We are on land they protect, but are surrounded by their developments. It was only a matter of time before we were found.”

“This is Ella and Jayden’s fault. If they hadn’t gone past the barrier, we would still be safe,” Tom accused.

Jayden stood again. “Don’t go blaming Ella. I’ll take responsibility, but don’t you say anything about Ella,” she growled, pointing a finger at Tom.

“What happened may have accelerated us being found, but if you could see the map?—”

Mitchell sighed and looked at Tracy. She nodded and rose. A minute later, she returned with the folded map. She held one side while he unfolded and opened it so everyone could see it. They turned in unison, completing a slow circle.

“I’ll leave this out so you can take a better look. This map shows details of our homeland and the surrounding settlements of shifters. They have technology—” He paused again, visions of the lab, the flying machine, and Tracy’s home flashing through his mind. He shook his head. “Trust me when I say we don’t stand a chance.”

“That’s not true,” Tracy interjected, touching his arm. She looked around at the group. “You do have a chance. You have a chance to do more than survive. You could thrive. My aunt is the President of The United Species of North America. She, along with a group of scientists like myself, have developed a plan to help you. A temporary complex is being built as we speak here in the Olympic National Park. A permanent location is also being constructed, one that will allow you to have everything you’ll need to grow and prosper.”

“Cages! You want to put us in cages!” Tom growled, surging to his feet and taking a threatening step toward her.

“Shut up and sit down, Tom, or I’ll have Jayden make you,” Connell snapped.

Tom opened his mouth before he clamped it shut and glared at Connell with a mutinous expression. Tom’s hands clenched and unclenched with emotion. Mitchell stiffened and moved into a protective stance.

“While I agree with Tom, I’d be happy to put him back in his seat. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” Jayden commented.

Tom turned his hostile glare on Jayden before he mumbled a curse under his breath and sat back down. Paulette gripped his arm and whispered in his ear. Tom shrugged and looked away.

“It’s not a cage. You’ll be able to come and go as you please… within reason at first. You have to understand that the discovery of humans is a shock to us. We thought you were extinct,” Tracy continued.

“Because of shifters!” a chorus of voices called out.

Tracy shook her head. “Because of poor decisions made by our ancestors. We are better than that.”

“Tracy, are you saying that we would be welcomed—safe—in the shifter world?” Anna asked.

Mitchell felt Tracy’s hesitation. She wouldn’t lie to his people… and neither would he. He lowered the map in his hand and folded it.

“No, not by everyone,” she answered.

Mitchell inwardly groaned when the voices of dissention rose once more. It took nearly ten minutes before everyone calmed down again. He knew he was losing the argument. If he didn’t say something to change their minds soon, he might as well forget it.

“I think we should accept their offer,” Margo proclaimed.

Shock held Mitchell speechless for a moment. Margo blushed but didn’t look away when all eyes turned to look at her in silent disbelief. She gave Mitchell and Tracy a tentative smile and then stood, nervously wiping her hands down the front of her pants.

“Go ahead, Margo. We’re listening,” Mitchell encouraged.

Margo looked around the villagers before focusing on the group of elders sitting across the fire from her. She opened and closed her mouth as she struggled to begin. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, then opened her eyes and said, “I’m pregnant. I don’t want to raise my child like this.” She waved her hands outward toward the cave. “I don’t want to watch him or her die in my arms because I can’t provide food, clothing, shelter… medicine. I can’t— I can’t.” Tears glittered in her eyes. “If there is a chance for us to live a better life, I want it. I don’t care if it's in a shifter cage. If it means giving my child a better chance at life, I’ll gladly step into it. I have to believe that times have changed. Humans are no longer a threat to the shifters. Look at us! We can barely take care of ourselves. Chaz, don’t you want a better life for Hallie? LaTrisha, you lost both of your parents over the last two years. Are you ready to lose your brother as well?”

LaTrisha wrapped her arm around Timmy’s thin shoulders. Mitchell knew the younger woman could feel the thin frailty of the boy’s shoulders through his clothing. LaTrisha looked up and shook her head.

“No. I don’t want to lose him,” LaTrisha said.

Margo looked at Tracy. “All I want to know is will my child be safe if we go?”

Tracy nodded. “I swear we will do everything in our power to protect you and your child. I won’t lie, there are some shifters who don’t feel the same. We will have security in place to protect you, but we’ll need your help to keep you safe. You'll need to stay where we can best defend you, but once the novelty wears off, I believe interest in humans will fade and you'll simply be part of our society, free to come and go in far less danger than you are in now. It may take a few months or years, but in the meantime, our government will be there to do everything they can to make this transition as smooth as possible.”

Margo gave her another shy smile and placed her hand over her stomach. “That is good enough for me.”

“We will vote,” Rand said.

“Wait a minute. What if we don’t agree?” Jayden asked, rising. “Not all of us may want to live with them , away from our home!”

Mitchell gritted his teeth and turned to face Jayden. “You know the rules, Jayden. Majority vote. At least see what they have to offer before you turn it down,” he said. “Blind ignorance serves no one.”

“Cages usually have doors that only open when the captor wants it to. Do you really think if we don’t like it they are just going to let us go?” Jayden scoffed.

“You’ll be able to leave whenever you want, Jayden, but if you do, we won’t be able to guarantee your safety. We’ll do our best, but… well, unfortunately there are some shifters who want to capture a human and it isn’t for the good of the human. Ella was taken from our home. We were na?ve enough to believe she would be safe there. We learned the hard way that she wasn’t. We’ve made a lot of changes since that happened, but the people who took her are still out there,” Tracy admitted.

“They are searching for us even as we speak,” he added. “Two other shifters were with us. They doubled back to find out who it is and try to stop them. Even with all the precautions Tracy and I took, it is possible they will still find us. We need to make a group decision. You’ve seen the map. We are surrounded. It is only a matter of time before these shifters or others with similar intentions catch one or all of us. At least if we agree to this, we have a real chance of survival.”

“I vote yes,” Margo said.

LaTrisha stood with her brother. “Timmy and I vote yes.”

Mitchell counted as each member of the group rose. He was surprised when Tom agreed. He had a feeling it was only because Paulette had voted yes and nudged him in the ribs. A reluctant yes, was still a yes.

His expression softened when each of the elders rose, some with assistance, and voiced their vote. It wasn’t until he turned to the last person that his stomach sank. Jayden remained seated, her focus not on himself nor Tracy, but on the fire. She kept her expression neutral so it was difficult to know what she was thinking.

“Jayden? What say you?” he asked.

She finally looked at him. Rising to her feet, she cast a look around the group, pausing on her parents. A flash of regret passed through her eyes before she looked back at him.

“I’ll make sure my parents are settled, but my answer is no. I like living free. I’ll take my chances in the wild,” she stated.

Mallory released a shocked cry of dismay. Mitchell's eye caught on the ground where a scrap of material lay near the log. It was the unopened gift Ella had asked him to give Jayden. Regret filled him at Jayden’s stubbornness. He knew she felt guilty about Ella’s discovery. That guilt had compounded after the clan had banished Ella. But it was the sense of betrayal Jayden felt that had been the straw that had cracked the hard wall Jayden kept around her heart. Ella choosing Ty over their people and Jayden had severely hurt her. He knew she missed Ella deeply.

“Mitchell,” Rand said, looking at him desperately.

He gave Jayden’s father a tight smile. “I’ll speak with her, Rand. She’ll come around.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded to Rand. Tracy cupped his hand and squeezed it in empathy. With a loud sigh, he pulled her into his arms and held her tight against his body.

“Please tell me I’m making the right decision,” he murmured, staring after Jayden’s retreating figure.

Deep in the forest of Olympic National Park

Lucien gritted his teeth in pain and frustration. It hadn’t taken him long to realize that the predator had become the prey when he noticed the dot on the tracking device wasn’t moving. He had spent the last few days crisscrossing the damn river, closing in on the last location of the beacon, only to realize that he was slowly being boxed in between Van, Peterson, and the river.

The two wolf-shifters had damn near caught him the night before. His only recourse was to slip into the frigid waters and let them take him downstream. What he hadn’t expected was the rapids or the boulders that had left him battered and bruised.

He clung to a fallen tree that lay partially submerged in the water. The current pulled on him, threatening to rip the grip he had on a section of the log. He pulled himself hand-over-hand along the trunk, blindly feeling for knots or crevices where he could hold on without being ripped away.

His breath swooshed out of him when his feet touched the rocky bottom. Stumbling forward against the strong current and under the weight of his soaked pack and clothing, he collapsed along the bank. It wasn’t until he rolled onto his side and ran his hand down along his leg that he realized that he was injured worse than he realized.

The icy water had numbed the deep gash that ran from his upper thigh down to his knee. He was losing a lot of blood. Lying back against the rocks, he kept the lower half of his body in the water. It would wash the blood away.

He blinked, trying to clear the fog from his brain. Sliding his hands up, he fumbled with the chest strap on his pack. His numb fingers kept slipping as he tried to depress the clasp. It took him several precious minutes to release the clasp and push the straps off his shoulders.

“Bloody hell,” he cursed, rolling onto his side and forcing his body to respond to his commands.

Droplets of water ran down his forehead and into his eyes. He wiped his hand across them, trying to clear his vision. A glance at his left leg made him feel sick. His pant leg was ripped open and the cut looked as if it went almost to the bone.

“I should’ve just fucking killed them,” he groaned when he tried to move his leg.

Fumbling with the clasp on the top of his backpack, he unfurled the waterproof closure and felt inside. The tips of his fingers grazed the first aid kit he had with him. He needed to doctor himself up and get the hell out of there before Van and Peterson found him.

Wiping his hand over his eyes again, he groaned. He figured he had half-an-hour, if he was lucky. Black dots danced in front of his eyes when he moved his leg.

He had a choice: take his chance in the river again and see if he could put some more distance between himself and the wolves or try to doctor his leg and make a run for it. Neither option sounded viable. He didn’t know what lay ahead in the river. Another set of rapids like he had gone through or a waterfall and he’d either drown or be bashed to death.

He assessed the rocky riverbank where he had come ashore. There was no way he could climb the cliff with his leg the way it was even if he clung to the trees growing in the rocks. Rolling back onto the river-polished rocks, he closed his eyes.

“Fuuuck!” he gritted out.

Rocks shifting under foot warned him he was no longer alone, causing his low curse to transform into a threatening growl. His cougar hissed at him to move. Rolling onto his stomach, Lucien reached into his backpack once more to retrieve his weapon. His defensive move came too late. As the hard butt of a rifle collided with his temple, pain surged through his skull, obscuring his vision. In his final seconds of consciousness, he could only make out a pair of worn military boots.