Free Claws by Karolyn Cairns Page A

The dark-haired vision on his arm in all
the photos had her claws in too deep; three centuries deep to be
exact.
    Tania must have seen her as a threat if
she pushed her from the cliff that night. Her rival wanted her out
of the way; that much was certain. Eli refused to see the obvious
and it cut her heart in two to know he could shut her out of his
life.
    Each night, she lay awake, thinking
about all the mistakes she made. She wished she could go back and
undo the past now. Even when she consoled herself she wasn’t out on
the streets; she felt alone here.
    Ty did his best to keep her company. He
was busy running the compound. Over two hundred people lived here;
all needing his attention daily. Days sometimes went by and she
wouldn’t see him. Each night they hunted together though, but for
the most part, she was alone to dwell upon her misery.
    Vivvie clicked off the computer,
tortured by the pictures of Eli kissing his gorgeous companion in
some of the photos. A part of her seemed to snap inside; realizing
she lost him. She closed her eyes and found sleep, finding her way
to her children first, hearing about their day.
    She chuckled as she saw her son. He was
dressed as an Indian and Elaina was his squaw. They made a teepee
with their crib blankets and the room was trashed. She got angry to
think they weren’t being supervised as they should be.
    Obviously the Mother of the tribe
wasn’t so perfect. The litter box hadn’t been changed since her
last visit and their laundry was piled up in the corner, undone and
starting to smell.
    “Mother, you came!” Elaina said
excitedly, jumping up and down and urging her to sit. “We were just
about to make a campfire but Devon can’t figure out Father’s
lighter.”
    Vivvie’s eyes flew wide with alarm. She
snatched the lighter from her son and glared at him. “No, that’s
very bad, Devon. You can’t light a fire in here. You’ll burn the
place down.”
    Her son grinned in response, making her
cringe at the obvious deviance in his expression. Obviously the
thought of burning down the suite intrigued her son.
    “No more campfires, Chief Firebug!” she
warned sharply. “What were you thinking?”
    Devon had the grace to look chastised.
Still, she knew the little boy was getting into all sorts of
mischief in her absence. Both had her rolling with how they
tormented Eli’s new woman, satisfying Vivvie to a certain
extent.
    Elaina made short work of Tania’s
wardrobe, ripping everything she could find to shreds before the
pair gnawed on her expensive shoes. After being punished by their
Father the pair did their business on her fifteen hundred dollar
Chanel handbag.
    Eli saw that their litter box was
unchanged and spared them a spanking, asking his current woman to
do the honors for him. Tania never lifted a finger and the pair
enjoyed tormenting her any way they could.
    “I appreciate you thinking of me but
don’t get into trouble with your Father over it,” she advised as
she held her daughter. “Stay out of Tania’s way. She is not a very
nice person.”
    “Mommy she hurts us,” Elaina whispered
then and Devon gave her a furious look.
    Vivvie froze. “What do you mean? What
does she do to you?”
    Her heart stopped for a moment. Anguish
filled her to know this woman who took her place abused her
offspring. Anger surged within her, making her eyes light up the
room.
    Devon glared his sister into silence.
He looked up at her with a look she’d seen in Eli’s eyes before.
The violence in her son’s expression assured her that whatever
Tania had done would be avenged.
    “We’re planning on killing her in her
sleep, Mother,” he informed her in a conspiratorial whisper. “We
just need to figure out how to do it without Dad finding
out.”
    “No, you will do no such thing!” she
said harshly, keeping her voice down.
    Devon looked disappointed. “She
scratches and bites us all the time when Father isn’t around. We
heal before he sees the