Warriors of Poseidon 02.5 - Shifter's Lady

we follow the ancient rules of alpha challenge. Nobody gets in or out of pride lands until only one of you is left alive.”

NINE
    Ethan held the phone a good six inches away from his ear. “Kat. Kat. Kat! ”
    Shifter’s Lady – Warriors of Poseidon 2.5

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    On the other end of the line, Kat finally quit yelling and took a breath. “Yeah. Sorry. But this ignorant fool says they aren‟t going to let me back onto Big Cypress for two days!
    He actually had the nerve to knock me aside when I tried to get my Jeep past him. What exactly is going on?”
     
    Deadly rage raced through Ethan at the thought of one of them harming Kat. “Are you hurt?”
     
    “What? No. No, it was nothing. He just kept telling me to „phone home,‟ for whatever that‟s worth. What is going on, Ethan?”
     
    He filled her in on the attack on Marie, the alpha challenge, and the rules about any of them leaving or entering pride lands. Kat started swearing. In spite of everything, he had to laugh. “Kat, those are words I didn‟t even know you knew.”
     
    There was a silence on the phone. “Do you really want to discuss my language right now?”
     
    The brief flicker of amusement died, and the alpha in him took command. “No, I don‟t.
    But here‟s what I want you to do. Can those thugs hear my side of this conversation?”
     
    “No,” she replied. “In fact, I‟ve been walking back to my Jeep while we talk. What‟s up?”
     
    “I want you to find somebody impartial. Maybe Jack. We need a witness who doesn‟t belong to any of the factions that have wanted to take over pride lands in the past.”
     
    “Jack the weretiger? The one Bastien knows?” Her voice cracked on her mate‟s name.
    “Oh, Gods. Bastien. When he finds out I allowed his sister to come to harm…”
     
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    Ethan snarled. “I‟m the one to blame, and I‟ll take any punishment he wants to dish out.
    I deserve it. But believe me when I say that no one else will lay so much as the tip of a claw on her skin and live.”
     
    There was another silence on the line. “Ethan? I‟ve known you since I was a child, and I‟ve never heard that in your voice. What exactly is going on between you and Marie?”
     
    He turned his gaze toward the chair where Marie sat wrapped in the blanket from his bed, and she looked up at him at that instant, as if his thoughts had called to her. She was so beautiful it almost hurt him to look at her—art made flesh and infused with grace.
     
    He‟d failed her.
     
    He could never deserve her.
     
    “Ethan?” Kat‟s voice in his ear yanked him back to more pressing matters.
     
    “Find Jack,” he repeated. “I want a neutral observer. They‟ll be forced to let him in.
    You‟ve got less than twenty-four hours, Kat. Do your best.”
     
    “I‟ll find him,” she promised. “If you hear from Bastien—”
     
    “Marie hasn‟t been able to establish contact with him or with their priest. When she does, I‟ll get a message to him to contact you.”
     
    He could almost hear through the phone lines her battle to focus on what needed to be done. “Fine. Call me if you can. I‟ll get Jack here if he‟s anywhere on the eastern seaboard, Ethan.”
     
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    “I know I can count on you. You‟ve always been one of the strongest of the pride, even before you discovered your ability to shift, Kat Fiero.”
     
    “Take care of her for me, Ethan. She‟s my sister now.”
     
    He looked over at Marie again. “I will protect her with everything I am, Kat.”
     
    As Ethan clicked his phone closed, he repeated his promise. Turned it into a vow. “With everything I am.”
     
    Several hours later, Marie struggled to wake from a dark and terrifying dream in which bears battled panthers, and the strange lizardlike creatures the landwalkers called alligators snapped at the flesh of the vanquished. She abruptly sat up on the couch where she lay, realizing that it would not take a dream-speaker to translate that dream for her. She was caught in a battle between opposing predators, and her gentle gifts of healing wouldn‟t be of any assistance at all to him.
     
    To Ethan.
     
    She watched as he stood at the table in his starkly furnished strategy room. Other than the couch where she‟d finally dozed off, only a few scattered chairs, a desk, and a large table covered with charts and papers