Read Online The Reluctant Amazon (Alliance of the Amazons) by Sandy James - Free Book Online Page A

going back. Ever.”
    Rebecca wanted to throw something heavy at his arrogant
Scottish head. He didn’t understand how much some of her things meant to her or
he wouldn’t expect her to abandon all of it, to just walk away from her life.
Her awards, her pictures, the finger paintings her students had given her.
    My students! They needed her. She
needed them. “But I have to go back. What about my kindergarteners?”
    “They shall have to manage without you,” Artair said with a
shrug of casual dismissal. “You have more important duties now.”
    Easy for him to say. He hadn’t been a substitute for two years
until a teaching position came open. He wasn’t the one the other teachers would
be gossiping about, nor was he the one who would miss those kids she loved so
much. “That’s not fair. I’m supposed to walk away and give up everything I love?
My house? My car? My friends? Just like that? Stop being Rebecca Massee and
start being some—some—Amazon?”
    “Aye.”
    She looked around for something to throw.
    “Let’s get back to the caretakers giving us anything we want,”
Megan said, rubbing her palms together. “All we have to do is think about
something?”
    “Wish and you shall receive,” Sparks replied with a nod. “At
least within reason. And there’s no need to hunt the little guys down. Come to
think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen either of them more than a dozen times in
all the years I’ve been doing this. Of course, they’re changelings. You know,
shape-shifters. So I might’ve been looking right at them and never known it.
Watch for rabbits. That’s what they like to be most of the time.”
    “Beagan and Dolan?” Rebecca asked, hoping she had the names
right and trying to ponder how people could turn into rabbits.
    “Aye,” Artair replied. “Beagan and Dolan. You just ask them if
you require anything, but I don’t think lobster is required. ”
    Gods, goddesses, demigods. Now shape-shifting servants. Things
just kept getting more and more complicated. “What is this place?” she asked
Artair, trying to focus on what she could see.
    “A home where we can all enjoy a wee respite from malevolence.”
The gates closed behind them with a resounding clank. “’Tis always spring in
Avalon. You won’t find a place more beautiful.”
    The moonlight dimmed as the group headed toward a thick grove
of trees. It all but disappeared when they walked under the canopy of leaves.
Artair took the lead, taking long, purposeful strides as Sparks and Megan fell
in behind. With a resigned sigh, Rebecca joined their ranks, hoping she didn’t
rub up against any poison ivy or step on something sharp. They weaved their way
through the maze of low-hanging branches and undergrowth. After several minutes
of beating a path, the number of trees began to thin, the moonlight returned,
and a large camp came into sight.
    She hadn’t formed any pictures in her head about what her new
home would look like. She didn’t know whether to be thrilled or disappointed. Rustic was the only word that came to mind.
    I’m giving up a three-bedroom Cape Cod for
this?
    There were several small cabins and one rather large building
that was probably some kind of mess hall. Off to one side sat an enormous area
much like a sand court people used for volleyball games. Glancing to the other
side of the compound, she gawked at a large tower constructed of enormous logs.
Just the sight of it brought a painful memory bubbling back to the surface.
    Her boss had wanted to encourage teamwork amongst the teaching
staff, so he’d sent all the teachers to a day camp where they scaled what the
guide called a “victory tower.” Climbing ropes was the only way up and
rappelling a vertical wall the only way down. Deathly afraid of heights her
whole life, Rebecca had fretted through the whole horrifying exercise. Now, it
appeared history would repeat itself, and she would disgrace herself on this
tower just as she had on that damned