“It was Lady Flora who told us that Valerie was not our mother,” Naomi confirmed. “Without that knowledge, Maroulla wouldn’t have begun looking for missing clouded leopard children.”
“We owe her so much,” Janette said, her voice trembling, eyes misted with tears. Their father put his arm around her, and they held each other a long moment.
“There’s a dragon, too,” Naomi told them. “But we haven’t met her.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“A dragon!” So many voices spoke in unison, Mark’s joining in with their parents, that Naomi had to laugh.
“Yes! Apparently dragons can hear truth, and this one came to the Shifter Council, when some caracal shifters were being questioned about their involvement in the debacle in Morocco.”
Their father sat up straight, frowning. “We all heard about that, of course. The news spread through the shifter world like wildfire. It was an absolute disgrace, what had been going on there. People from here were involved in the rescue?”
“More than that. Tamera, the caracal woman who was kidnapped, that led to our finding out about what was going on, was taken from here. Well, from the woods,” Naomi gestured toward the trees visible from the windows. “Several caracal families were brought here, to the inn, and stayed until just before Thanksgiving. They moved into the local wolf alpha’s pack house as the next step in their transition to independence.”
“Disgraceful,” tutted Russell. “I can’t imagine how they could have gotten away with that, in this day and age.”
“They’re all captured now… and their leader is dead.” Naomi felt her cat rise up, a particularly vicious snarl in her throat. She soothed her cat, but allowed a smug smile to show on her face as she said, in an intentionally bland voice. “The woods ate him.”
Everyone stared at her, while Beth giggled behind one hand. Next to her, still perched on the arm of the chair, Liam fell into a fit of coughing as he choked on a suppressed laugh.
Their father inquired, “Did you say… the woods ate him?”
“Mmhmm.” Taking pity on their confusion, she explained. “Angus and Renee are Others, also. We have no idea what they are, no one does, but they are…” she paused, trying to find the right word.
“Powerful?” Liam suggested.
“Yes, but… benevolent. Except when they’re not. So, after Tamera was kidnapped, Angus and Renee put some kind of protection spell on the property, on the woods.” She gulped, still amazed she’d been able to run through those same woods with Liam and Beth. “They’re almost… well, I guess you’d say kind of… sentient?”
Aware she was mangling the story beyond belief, she looked up at Liam for help.
“The land itself is able to sense if someone has ill intentions for being here,” he took up the tale, keeping it simple. “If they do… the ground beneath their feet turns into quicksand, with the inevitable result, if the person is not rescued.”
“And he wasn’t,” Naomi said with satisfaction.
Janette wrinkled her nose. “Oh, dear. Not a nice way to go at all. Not that he didn’t deserve it.”
“Everyone has been so freaked out about it, hardly anyone will go for a run in those woods anymore,” Liam reported, chuckling.
Everyone’s agreement was so fervent, Naomi had to laugh.
“It’s perfectly safe. Beth and Liam and I all went and had a wonderful run in there, and there are fabulous trees for climbing.”
“I’m a Great Pyrenees,” Liam volunteered. “Let’s just say, they’re a lot faster than me.”
“Pup,” Naomi scoffed.
“Pussy!”
Russell chuckled, while Janette beamed at them both.
“But wait! There’s more!” Beth announced with a grin. She leaned forward in the chair, eyes sparkling with delighted anticipation. “There’s a Djinn!”
“A Djinn, here?” Russell exclaimed.
At their nods, Janette asked eagerly, “Have you met him?”
“Her,” Naomi said, nodding. “Her name is Jacinth, and she’s married to one of the partners at the vet clinic where Liam works. They’ve adopted one of the teenage girls from the Morocco compound, who was left orphaned since the bastards killed her mother when she was too old to have more children.”
