Claws by Karolyn Cairns Page A

surfer. His long hippie-like golden hair and
short goatee made one wonder at his intelligence. One had only to
listen to him talk to know he was brilliant. He was a teacher, a
doctor, and by all accounts the wiliest of all the Alphas. If
anyone could help her it was he.
    She laid a hand upon him and he jumped;
eyes glowing and wide as he saw her standing over his
bed.
    “Geez, Vivvie. Can’t a guy enjoy a wet
dream? What are you doing here?” he grumbled as he sat up in bed
and regarded her with his glowing yellow green eyes.
    “I need you, Jericho,” she told him as
she sat at the edge of his bed.
    Jericho sat up against the pillows. His
eyes traced her figure in the knit sleep set. His eyes grew heated
at once, reminding her he was an Alpha. He no doubt wondered why
she invaded his dreams and thought the obvious.
    “I’m flattered, Vivvie. If this is a
rebound thing; I’m up for it.”
    “Oh shut up! I’m not here for a rebound
thing,” she muttered and he grinned. “The woman who pushed me
sleeps with my husband. Who is she?”
    Jericho’s smile faded in an instant.
“You’re sure it was she who pushed you?”
    “I smelled her at the rock ledge. I
smelled her tonight when I watched her lying in my husband’s bed!
Who is she?” Vivvie demanded, her eyes narrowing to
slits.
    “The elder, Tania; she’s Ty’s sister,”
Jericho told her, and got out of bed. Vivvie had to chuckle at the
sight of his Superman sleep pants. The sight of his muscular naked
chest did strange things to her; however, and she hastily averted
her gaze.
    “She’s the one who pushed me that
night,” Vivvie told him in outrage. “I’d know that funky smell
anywhere.”
    “I’m not surprised it was her,” Jericho
acknowledged with a tight expression.
    Vivvie stared at him in dismay. “Why
would she push me? I’ve never even met her. The last I heard; she
was in a coma.”
    “She woke up while you were in
Australia. She wants Eli back,” Jericho informed her and shook his
head. “I should have known something like this would
happen.”
    “I like how she goes about it,” Vivvie
grumbled, sore to think she aided the woman’s efforts with her own
stupid actions. “So much for woman to woman; just push somebody off
a cliff.”
    Jericho smiled sadly. “Tania isn’t your
problem right now. Eli won’t see reason. He’s hurting right now.
I’m sorry Vivvie.”
    “I’m sorry too,” she replied and fought
the urge to cry. “I refuse to be denied my children, Jericho. He
can have her, as far as I’m concerned. I need your
help.”
    “Tania isn’t going to admit she pushed
you, Vivvie,” Jericho told her sadly. “It’s your word against hers.
An elder’s word goes much farther than a Newbreed’s. I don’t know
what you think I can do. Eli won’t listen to me. He moved her in a
day after you left.”
    Vivvie looked like she’d been punched
to hear this. “I’m going to Florida to meet with Ty. I have to
figure out some way of getting through to Eli. He has to believe
me.”
    “He started divorce proceedings,
Vivvie. He hired an attorney,” he told her sadly, looking like he
wanted to bite his own tongue to see her misery. She had to know
how far things had been taken after her flight from the
compound.
    “He will listen to me, Jericho,” she
assured him and grinned suddenly. “I heard you had seven more born
recently from Ty. All girls; I heard.”
    Jericho grinned proudly. “I blew the
balls off.”
    “Eli said he’d neuter you if you keep
it up,” she teased. “I’m surprised I didn’t find one of our four
Newbreeds here with you tonight.”
    Jericho rolled his eyes. “Fickle she
cats; every one of them. They moved on to others. You know the
drill.”
    “Try to sound a bit less relieved,” she
commented with a smile. “When are you going to ever settle down
Jericho?”
    “When humans of the same sex are
allowed to marry in the human fashion,” he proclaimed with a
self-righteous expression and