Crescent (Tribes, Book 1) [completed]

Chapter 10

Liana sat quietly where Kat and her aunt, Maren, told her to sit. The glen was lovely. Bushes and flowers and trees guarded them from the world beyond, and for the first time since she left Conner's side, Liana felt safe.

She didn't know what this place was, but it seemed to her all the women felt better together. Here. Their spirits visibly lifted as they shut themselves in the gorgeous hidey-hole.

Kat scrambled onto Liana's lap and held up a brush. "I'm going to brush your hair now, okay? I'll be careful of the tangles. Okay?" She held the final word out for several seconds.

Liana smiled and nodded her head. She never had been excellent at conversation with strangers. Her cashier spiel was mostly memorized unless a customer asked questions.

Kat squealed and jumped up so she could carefully pull the brush through Liana's unruly blonde hair.

Maren sank gracefully to the ground beside Liana. "You'll have to excuse Kathryn. She doesn't often get a chance to meet new women. She's overly excited."

"I don't mind." Liana looked down at her hands and gathered her courage. She could relate to these women, she was sure. They couldn't be so different from the women she knew back home. "Who are all these women andgirls?"

Maren's eyes turned sad as she looked around. "They are those who remain of mates and daughters."

"Remain?" Liana, startled, forgot that Kat stood brushing her hair and jerked her gaze to Maren. She winced as the brush pulled through a tangle.

Maren smiled sadly at her. "Years ago, before I came here, a rival pack launched an attack on ours. The men were away on a protection detail. Many women and children fought valiantly, but few survived."

"You're not a shifter?" Liana tilted her head back as Kat pulled the brush through her hair again.

Maren shook her head. "I am human. Vallin saw me on a protection mission and filed papers for me."

"And you're okay with that? You didn't even know him. How do they know so definitively that they want us forever? What if we don't want them? Aren't they violent?"

"Liana, stop! Stop." Maren laughed and shook her head. "Shifters aren't like humans. They mate for life and their wolves always know who their mate is. Always. As for them being violent..." she shook her head again. "Sometimes they like things a little rough, I suppose, but... Vallin has never been anything but caring and understanding toward me."

It was hard to digest, that they could so effortlessly see who they were meant to be with. Liana sighed and looked away. "What if I don't want to be with him forever?"

"You will," Maren assured. "Your body knows it even if your head hasn't caught up yet. He will stir you in ways you didn't think possible."

Liana swallowed and tried not to think about the way she already reacted to Conner. She was never going to survive thirty days here without giving in. "What about Kat's mother?"

"Oh." Maren rolled her eyes and flicked her fingers toward a tall woman with scraggly brown hair. "Hilda. She has shifter blood. No one knows how she caught her mate or how her daughter is so beautiful. Hilda is pretty crude, so stay as far away from her as you can."

"Then her mate and your mate..."

"Are brothers," Maren confirmed. "Kathryn spends more time at my house than at her own. Hilda isn't exactly a doting mother."

"Then why bother with having a child? Or getting married in the first place?" Liana wondered aloud. Hilda seemed more concerned with helping the other women pull out makeup supplies and oils than she did with making sure her daughter was alright. Kat left the woman's side ages ago.

Maren sighed and shook her head. "No one knows. She isn't even from a pack who likes us. It must be the mating bond keeping her here."

"What's a mating bond?" Liana turned her attention back to Maren and let Kat continue with her hair.

Maren smiled again. "When you're fully bonded, your mate will be able to read strong emotions from you and he'll be able to track you if you're lost. Shifters don't like to be far from their mate for long. It drives them batty and shifts their focus until it's all they can think about, being with their mate again."

"Oh. Wow." That was... intense. Liana didn't quite know how to process that, but she would. Eventually.

Maren plucked a flower from a bush nearby and twirled it between her fingers. "I know it's hard, coming here for the first time. I was terrified when Vallin claimed me. I was terrified when he met me at the gates and escorted me to his home. It gets easier. You have to trust your mate."

"How do I trust a man I've never met, who didn't meet me when he was supposed to and whose first act after I saw him was to practically assault me?" Liana sighed and plucked at the bottom of her shirt. This was not an outfit designed for wearing outside the house.

"Liana..." Maren scooted closer and took Liana's hand in her own. "He saved you from the unmated males' voracious appetite. He claimed you so they wouldn't take you away from him. It was a noble act to humble himself like that. To prove you belong to him."

"I'm a person, not a doll."

"I didn't say you were." Maren shook her head. "But everyone needs someone to take care of them. Especially us. You just don't realize it yet."

Was that really true? Liana wondered. Would it be so bad to allow someone to take care of her for once? To be protected and cherished for the first time in her life? She sighed and looked up at Maren. "Alright. I'll try to give him a fighting chance. But I still don't like it."

"You don't have to like it yet. Just trust it." Maren swiveled to her feet and extended a hand down to Liana. "Now, come. We have much to do and we have to find you some clothes."

Liana still wasn't sure what was going on, but she trusted Maren enough to take her hand and follow along. She didn't understand these people or their ways, but for the first time all day, she wanted to.