Page 54 of Shadow Boxed (Shadow Warriors #2)

Chapter forty-three

Surrounded by books of every size and genre, some of their covers cheerful, others grim, Muriel settled into a plush loveseat and pulled Olivia down beside her.

The settee was in one corner of a cluster of chairs, along with a sofa.

The seating arrangement was in the middle of the Book Nook, Mia Steele’s bookstore, where the book brigade held their monthly discussions.

She’d arrived at the shop a few minutes earlier, with Olivia in tow, to find the tiny shop bursting with laughter and lively conversation.

Before her and Oliva’s arrival, there were only five women in the seating area, but it felt like more.

A lot more. A coffee table, stuffed with pastries and wine bottles, sat between the chairs.

Muriel reached for Olivia’s hand, giving it an encouraging squeeze. Livvy didn’t respond; her hand just lay there, like she’d forgotten about it.

Muriel hadn’t wanted to read the fantastical romance novel Beth Brown had chosen for the book brigade’s March offering.

It was about werewolves, for goddess’ sake.

Only with a romantic, rather than horrifying plot.

She wasn’t a fan of romances, anyway, let alone such unrealistic plots and characters.

Besides, she’d never been much of a reader. Between her busy life as a mother of two, and running the refuge, she barely had time to breathe, let alone read. If she did scrounge up a few hours to enjoy a book, it was always a mystery, with a criminally cute or chaotic pet.

But Olivia needed this discussion. She needed reminding that love could be repaired or revived. She needed reminding that Samuel was not lost to her. Not yet. That the mate bond between them might be nonexistent now. But it could be resuscitated.

Muriel might not believe in the lesson romance novels taught—that love conquered all things—but Livvy did.

Livvy’s very soul was wired for love. From her gift of connecting spirit mates to her adoration of Samuel, Livvy thrived on all things romantic.

Hopefully, this book—this werewolf romance novel—would give her hope again.

So, Muriel had forced herself to read Moon Touched, solely so she could join in the upcoming book discussion and use the novel to subtly reinforce Olivia’s belief in love and soul mates.

For goddess’ sake, one of the main themes in this book was about fated mates.

A soul specifically gifted to each person.

Which was remarkably like Oliva’s belief in spirit mates.

The timing of this book was almost uncanny.

Or...maybe not. Maybe Beth had known about Olivia’s belief in spirit mates—aka soul mates—and hoped this book would revive her hope for a future with Samuel.

Muriel hadn’t planned to read the entire book, just enough to join in the discussion.

She certainly hadn’t expected to enjoy it.

...okay, love it. In fact, she loved it so much she’d devoured the entire trilogy while waiting for Samuel to agree to see her, or Gracie to lose interest in her exercising.

She could almost hear Daniel’s scoff in the back of her mind. A mixture of pain and humor tangled inside her as she thought of her son, and his scorn toward romance. He’d find Moon Touched laughable. Goddess above, how he’d used to make fun of Olivia for her belief in spirit mates...

“Muriel.” Kait shifted in her armchair until they were facing each other.

“How’s Gracie? Cosky says O’Neill is teaching her self-defense.

Which got me thinking...we should ask O’Neill to teach a class on self-defense down here in The Neighborhood.

A lot of women down here would benefit from learning how to protect themselves. ”

The more she thought about Kait’s idea, the more Muriel liked it.

Not all the women in The Neighborhood were mated to warriors.

Many had no one to teach them how to protect themselves.

And while nobody was vulnerable in this idyllic location, beneath Faith’s shield, they become vulnerable once they stepped outside.

Native women were disproportionately likely to be murdered or trafficked.

Teaching the women here how to protect themselves made good sense.

And O’Neill was a perfect choice to teach the classes. He was so patient with Gracie. Going over the moves repeatedly without irritation, without impatience, until she mastered each move.

“I’ll see if he’s available.” And interested. “He’s been pretty busy lately, between base duties and spending time with Gracie.”

And his schedule would get even busier if Wolf gave the go ahead for O’Neill to teach their daughter the warrior ways.

The thought of that possibility churned her stomach and shadowed her heart.

She’d lost one child to warriorhood. The thought of losing Gracie too made her want to curl up and scream.

She forced herself to smile at Kait and hoped the stretch of her smile didn’t look terrified. “I think O’Neill and Gracie are using the self-defense lessons as an excuse to spend time together and get to know each other.”

“How’s Gracie adjusting to having a father?” Kait asked. “That must be a difficult adjustment for her.

In Muriel’s experience, her daughter was much happier having a father than a mother. She tried not to let that truth sting...at least too much.

“They’re still adjusting,” she murmured. “But he’s been remarkably good with her, considering he never had a parental role model. I don’t think either of them consider him a father figure yet, but they’re building a relationship, a friendship even. Which is much more than I expected.”

He would have been an ideal father to her twins while they were growing up—protective, supportive, able to discipline them without breaking their spirits or crushing their confidence.

She should have tried harder to find him.

“I know Gracie misses him when he’s busy with base business, but considering how demanding his role in the Shadow Mountain hierarchy is, he’s been good about carving out time for her,” Muriel added.

“It’s difficult juggling training, PT, and base operations with family expectations,” Beth said. She tucked a swath of blonde hair behind her ear and turned to Faith Rawlings. “How’s Rawls doing? Zane says he ditched their last mission. They won’t admit it, but the clones are worried about him.”

Faith sighed and shook her head, her freckles flaring beneath the lamp overhead.

“He’s struggling with what happened to the Harbinger.

After his sister was tortured and murdered, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it, Seth committed himself to helping the vulnerable.

It’s why he became a SEAL and when that career collapsed, it’s why he joined Shadow Mountain.

But the decision to sacrifice so many innocent people has him reevaluating his choices. ”

Kait flinched. “It was a terrible choice they had to make. The mood around base was haunted after they returned.”

“Well, I hope Rawls can find his way past what happened. The clones need him. His cheerfulness keeps them from getting too dark and dire,” Beth said as she glanced at her watch.

“It’s getting late. We should start the discussion on Moon Touched.

The girls have Zane wrapped around their fingers, if I get home too late, we’re liable to end up with another pet.

” She sent Muriel a pointed look. Everyone knew Muriel had been trying to rehome Penny, the peahen.

“Or they’ll decimate our ice cream supply. ”

Muriel’s lips twitched. She hadn’t been in town long, but it had been long enough to watch Ginny and Patti, Beth and Zane’s precocious three-year-old and two-year-old daughters, practicing parental manipulation on their hopelessly devoted warrior daddy .

“Did everyone get a chance to read Moon Touched?” Beth continued.

“Since this was my month to choose the book, picking Moon Touched was a given. This series, the Zodiac Wolves, is one of my all-time favorites. I love Elizabeth Briggs’s world building.

It’s so original and clever. Like using the zodiac signs to give each wolf pack a zodiac inspired strength.

” She turned to Muriel. “You mentioned earlier that you weren’t a fan of romance novels.

” Her pale eyebrows rose. “Did you like it?”

“A lot more than I expected,” Muriel admitted with a sheepish smile.

“It hooked me immediately, which is still a surprise because—” she threw up her hands “—hello! Werewolves? Seriously? I never expected werewolves would feel so...human. But I needed to know what happened next, so I binged the trilogy in record time.” She turned to Olivia, who was staring vacantly at a bookshelf across the room.

“What about you, Livvy.” Her voice was gentle. “How did you like Moon Touched.”

“It was okay,” Oliva said in a listless voice, the hollow look stronger than ever in her brown eyes.

Before silence could claim the room, Mia, the owner of the Book Nook, where they were holding the discussion, rushed in to fill the void.

“Yes. The world she developed is amazing,” she gushed, her hazel eyes sparkling behind a pair of round glasses.

“I loved Ayla. She was so strong. No wilting lily there, even though the other wolves were so mean to her.”

“Did any of you notice how similar the Zodiac Wolves world is to our own world?” Mary suddenly asked.

She leaned toward the coffee table and helped herself to one of the chocolate eclairs that she’d brought to the meeting.

“And not just the fated mates stuff. There’s the gifts Ayla received from the moon goddess.

Plus, the trilogy has this good versus evil theme running through it.

” She leaned back, nibbling at the éclair.

“No, I can’t say I noticed any of that, probably because I was so preoccupied with Kaden,” Mia said, fanning her face so vigorously her short, red hair fluttered around her head like a halo. “He’s just so…” she flapped her hands harder. “Hot!”

“One of the best alpha heroes on the page,” Mary agreed, fanning her face alongside Mia.

“Courageous, grumpy, and protective. But that groveling scene after he drove Ayla away and tried to get her back—now that was my favorite scene in the whole series.” She dropped her arm, her smile moving from Kait to Faith to Beth, and finally touching on Olivia before shifting away.

“Since some of us don’t have an alpha hero of our own, we have to make do with the ones we find between the pages of our books. ”

“There’s a whole base of alpha heroes available.” Kait scoffed. “I could ask Wolf to arrange a meet and greet. Or I could set you up with a couple of sexy alpha warriors. Which will it be?”

As Mary and Mia debated the wisdom of deliberately seeking out their fated mates versus letting the meet cute happen naturally, Muriel wondered if O’Neill would be included in Kait’s prospective matchmaking.

Gracie’s father would tick all the alpha hero criteria—muscles everywhere, sexy as hell, protective, a good father.

He was certainly clone club material.

As she thought about his strong, hard body and those mesmerizing green eyes, her body warmed. Her mood, on the other hand, steadily soured. Kait probably would tap him as one of the warriors to toss at her friends.

Which was fine...fine...

She scowled and clenched her fists.

O’Neill was free to choose whoever he wanted as a partner. Just because they’d been lovers once, a long time ago, didn’t mean she had any claim to him now. Just because he was the father of her dead son and estranged daughter, didn’t give her rights to him.

Regardless of how much she might want them.