A Mighty Chieftain, The Finale

A Mighty Chieftain in here! This final book (#8) in my Romancing the Guardians series unites all seven Guardians and their true mates in a fight to the death to fulfill their sacred vows. High voltage action, romance and ominous prophesies lead to a startling and apocalyptic conclusion.

mybook.to/AMightyChieftain – universal link

NOTE: Before you read A Mighty Chieftain I suggest you read at least one or two of the earlier books in this series to give you a better idea of what leads up to this conclusion. See links below.

BLURB: Lara Flewellen, the High Guardian of Danu, faces a lethal test. Can she defeat the vicious Hellhounds or will they force her and the other six Guardians to hand over the prophetic scrolls they and their ancestors have safeguarded since ancient times?

Balor, the Hellhound leader, and his followers have discovered the Guardians’ sanctuary in Canyon de Chelly, heart of the Navajo Nation. Trapped along with their mates and their native protector, the Guardians must run from one hiding place in the canyon to another using their supernatural powers and raw courage to survive. Fear and suffering are their constant companions.

Tearing Lara apart, Balor holds her twin sister prisoner, threatening her life. How can she save her twin and uphold her vow to guard the sacred prophecies at the same time? It seems impossible. A desperate prayer to Danu the Great Mother may bring a miracle . . . or catastrophe.

BOOK EXCERPT

Dev Medina burst through the front room’s outer door like a charging bull, making Lara Flewellen gasp and jump with fright in her chair at the kitchen table. Hot tea sloshed over the rim of her cup onto her hand. Fingers stinging, she hastily set the cup down. Close on Dev’s heels came Michaela Peterson, the brawny man’s tall, blonde mate and one of Lara’s most trusted advisors on the comhairle – the High Guardian’s council.

“The Hellhounds are gathering in Chinle!” Dev shouted loud enough to wake everyone in the house and the attached Navajo hogan.

Heart thumping in alarm, Lara pushed back her chair and rose. “Are you certain?” she asked, tightening the tie belt of her flannel robe as she rounded the table to face the frowning, wild-eyed pair.

“Yes!” Michaela said, moving past Dev into the kitchen. “You know about the shifty strangers we spotted in town a few days before you and Conn returned from Africa with Adam and Ellie. We weren’t sure they were Hounds, but in the week since then several more suspicious looking characters have showed up, and this afternoon we saw the whole bunch gathered in the hotel lobby.”

“Yeah, they were huddled in a corner with their heads together,” Dev added, raking back long hair, a few shades darker blond than Michaela’s. “We moseyed over to a rack of brochures, pretended to look at them, and heard one of the bums say something about a leader who’s supposed to get here soon.”

“Sounds like the Hellhounds, all right,” Conn remarked, appearing in the hallway that led to bedrooms at the back of the house, drawing Lara’s anxious gaze. Denim shirt hanging open and shaggy dark hair mussed from sleep, her ruggedly good-looking mate walked barefoot over to her and curved his arm around her back. “Couldn’t sleep again, hmm?” he murmured in her ear, to which she nodded with a tired sigh.

Addressing Dev, Conn said, “I heard you bellow, old buddy, and caught part of what you said. Looks like we might be in for a fight.”

As he spoke, their Navajo host, Leon Tseda, and his Parisian Guardian mate, Delilah Moreau, trod up the hall from their bedroom. Delilah clung to Leon’s arm, looking half awake, her pink sleep shirt peeking out from under a long black shawl. Her cap of short raven hair gleamed in light from the kitchen, her eyes squinting at the brightness.

“We heard shouting. What has happened?” Leon asked, his brow furrowed deeper than usual, making him look more his age, somewhere in his fifties. He’d donned jeans and a snug white t-shirt that revealed his slight paunch.

Dev started to answer, but Lara raised her hand, stopping him. “Why don’t we wake the others, in case they didn’t hear you come in, Dev. They all need to know the situation.”

“Right. I’ll go roust them out of the hogan.”

“Not necessary. We are all awake,” Gabriel Valdez said from the doorway that connected the modern house with the traditional hogan, through which Dev and Michaela had charged moments ago. The handsome Colombian Guardian spoke English with only a slight accent. Walking in beside him, fingers twined with his, was Josie Tseda, his diminutive but fierce Navajo mate – and Leon’s daughter. Like Dev, she was a friend of Conn’s from his days in the Special Forces. An Army helicopter pilot turned crop duster, she’d hunted down Gabriel in the mountains of Colombia and had flown him to sanctuary here in Canyon de Chelly – pronounced de Shay – in the Navajo Nation of northeastern Arizona.

Behind the pair entered Charlotte Dixon, an empathic Guardian and private nurse from New York, and her ex-cop mate – now a celebrity chef – Tristan Jameson. They were followed by Guardian and tattoo artist Nathan Maguire and his mate, Talia Werner, an FBI profiler on indefinite leave from the Bureau. At the same time, from the third bedroom in the house, came Adam Dvorak, still limping slightly from a gunshot wound in his leg, suffered while escaping Hellhounds in far-off Kenya. At his side was his mate Ellie Graham, also a registered nurse whose skills might be necessary, Lara feared, if they faced an attack by their enemies.

“Now that you’re all present,” Conn said, “let’s drag some chairs into the living room and let Dev and Michaela report what they’ve learned.”

Doing as he suggested, they soon sat or stood in a tight circle, except for Charlotte who stood back a few feet in the hall with Tristan. Being an empath, she avoided getting too close to anyone but her mate. Everyone’s wary expression turned grimmer as the two messengers repeated their distressing news. Seated next to Conn on the room’s small sofa, Lara watched the group exchange worried glances, Guardians and their mates clasping hands.

“How the hell did they find out where we are?” Nathan exploded when Michaela and Dev finished speaking. “And what do we do now?” He turned his eyes to Lara as did the others, seeking answers from their High Guardian.

What was she to say? She had no concrete plan in mind, only vague ideas that might or might not save them from capture by their enemies, who would surely stop at nothing, including torture, to obtain the ancient prophetic scrolls they desired. Lara laced her finger together in her lap, prayed for guidance from Danu the Great Goddess, and gazed from one anxious face to another.

“I have asked myself time and again how the Hounds found each of us in such widely scattered locations, and now here. We may soon learn the answer, I fear.” She crossed her arms and took a deep breath. “But for now, there’s no point in speculating. What we must do is come up with a way to defend ourselves should they invade the canyon.”

“They will not find that easy,” Leon said, dark eyes glittering and copper features stern. “My people have fought invaders before.”

Lara smiled gratefully at him. “But this is our fight, not theirs. None of us want any of your people to get hurt.” Several nods and mutters of agreement backed her up.

Leon shook his head. “This is Navajo land, the heart of our nation, guarded for long years by our ancestors. Outsiders who enter the canyon uninvited, who threaten our friends and dear ones . . .” He encompassed the group with an outstretched hand, then cupped Delilah’s shoulder, bringing a tremulous smile to her lips. “. . . must be punished.”

“Even so,” Lara argued, “you have said most Navajo who live in the canyon during summer have not yet returned from their winter quarters.”

“That is true, but a few like me stay here over the cold months. I will speak to them and they will help send word to others. We are a peaceful people, but when the Hellhounds come, they will see we are not tame rabbits.”

Rescuing Lara  mybook.to/rescuinglara

Decoding Michaela mybook.to/decodingmichaela

Capturing Gabriel mybook.to/capturinggabriel

Touching Charlotte http://mybook.to/touchingcharlotte

Profiling Nathan http://mybook.to/profilingnathan

Beguiling Delilah http://mybook.to/beguilingdelilah

Tempting Adam mybook.to/temptingadam

A Mighty Chieftain mybook.to/AMightyChieftain