by Zara Chase
“What the hell are we supposed to make of that?” he asked.
Pascal rolled his eyes. “What indeed. I don’t think she likes us.”
“Course she does. She’s just confused, poor baby.”
“Yeah, perhaps that’s all it is.”
“Her grandfather must have had something to do with one of the shifters here at some point,” Kai said. “It’s the only logical explanation.”
“I agree, but it’s hardly one we can suggest to her. She needs to trust us before we can even think about telling her the truth.”
“We ought to let Rafe know that she’s turned up asking questions. We both know there won’t be anything in the records that’ll help. Our only hope is to learn something from an older shifter.”
“I hate it when you’re right.”
“Thought you’d be used to it by now.”
Pascal stood up and pulled Kai to his feet. “Let’s take a positive view. She’s here at last and it’s up to us to make sure she stays.”
“Yeah, it is.”
They strode toward the Cat’s Whiskers, side by side.
“Did you notice that cute dimple in her chin?” Kai asked with a dramatic sigh. “I could just see myself running my tongue down it until she squirmed.”
“It’s as good a starting place as any,” Pascal agreed, slinging an arm over Kai’s shoulder and grinning as he allowed himself to think of the fun they’d have bringing Nicole to heel.
Rafe, the colony’s leader, and his fellow alpha panther, Vilas, were both in their living room above the Cat’s Whiskers when Pascal and Kai arrived.
“You guys look as though the stock market’s taken a dive,” Vilas said, lifting one indolent brow. “What gives?”
“Our mate’s shown up,” Kai said, failing to suppress a smug grin.
“No shit!” Both panthers looked pleased. “Then why the glum faces?” Rafe asked.
“Details, we need details,” Vilas said. “Is she as cute as our Chantal?”
“Hard to say. She’s hiding behind a shapeless disguise at the moment for reasons best known only to her.”
Pascal gave them a quick rundown regarding Nicole’s sudden appearance in Impulse. “Right now she thinks we’re the bad guys,” he explained, “and that we somehow tricked her grandfather into investing with us.”
“We’ll get to that later,” Rafe said, hoisting one foot onto a stool and leaning an elbow on his thigh. “I’m more concerned about her being able to breathe our air. Are you absolutely sure she’s not part-shifter?”
“Yeah,” Pascal said. “We’re sure.”
“Now wouldn’t be a good time to let lust win out over caution.”
“She wasn’t trying to attract us, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Pascal replied for them both. “She’s been hurt by someone or something in the past and is deliberately trying to look dowdy.”
“She’s succeeding, as well,” Kai added. “If we hadn’t sensed she was the one for us, we wouldn’t have looked at her twice.”
“Is there any record of other humans being able to breathe more or less normally?” Pascal asked.
Rafe shook his head. “Not sure. I’ll have to do some research of my own.”
“She wouldn’t have gotten past Vadim’s patrols if she was even part-shifter.” Kai was referring to the jaguar in charge of Impulse’s security. “And even if she’d somehow managed it, we’d have sensed who she was when we had her at close quarters.”
“Unless someone’s invented a way to cloak her true origins,” Vilas said with a grimace. “Remember that fiasco with the bears and their higher-frequency pheromones we couldn’t interpret?”
“Yeah.” Pascal shook his head. “But my gut tells me she’s the real deal.”
“What do we know about her?” Rafe asked.
“Not much as yet. She has her own catering business, loved her grandfather, doesn’t have any other relations, has never been to America before.” Pascal shrugged. “That’s about it.”
“Hmm.”
They were all quiet while Rafe sent a pheromone to Vadim, asking him to see what he could dig up on her. Pascal tried not to feel offended, aware that Rafe had the welfare of the entire colony to consider and couldn’t afford to worry about a few hurt feelings. They were under constant threat of attack from enemies who were getting more creative by the day in their attempts to get their paws on Impulse and its unique properties.
“I’ve never heard of Charlie Fox,” Rafe said, closing his eyes and throwing his head backward as he thought about it, “other than seeing his name as a major investor in the fund. It’s funny, I’m suspicious by nature, but I never thought to wonder why a stranger would put so much cash into our fund before.”
“Seems to me, in order to find the answer why,” Vilas said, “we first off need to find out where old Charlie came by his ill-gotten gains.”
“It’s funny, but I’ve never considered his funds to be illegal in any way, and I’m sure they’re not,” Pascal said. “Even so, we ought to check, I suppose. Do we have any ex-Impulsarians now living in England, Rafe?”
“Someone who left us at least ten years ago,” Kai added.
“Good point,” Rafe said. “I’ll check the records and get back to you on that one.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
“No problem.” Rafe straightened up and shared a glance between Pascal and Kai. “Right, let’s see where we’re at. Right now we have Vadim looking into your lady’s background, I’m going to see if any shifters left the colony and finished up in England, and you guys are gonna keep the lady in your sights until we’re sure she’s the real deal.”
“Easier said than done,” Pascal said, grimacing. “She’s staying at the White Sands. We can hardly stalk her.”
Rafe grinned. “Then you’d best get her to move in with you.”
“Yeah, and how are we supposed to do that?” Kai demanded.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll come up with a plausible reason.”
“In the meantime, we need to tell her something about our search for her grandfather’s history when we take her to dinner tonight,” Kai said.
“Tell her you’re working on it,” Rafe replied. “And bring her here to eat. I wanna take a look at her for myself.”
“Where else would we take her?”
* * * *
Nicole walked slowly back to her car in the Cat’s Whiskers parking lot. It was like climbing a mountain, the air thin and hard to inhale, but she managed it without having to stop once. It was a matter of pride with her to always be self-sufficient. Showing any sort of weakness resulted in exploitation and she was done with being used.
This was Nicole’s first visit to the States and, under different circumstances, she would have enjoyed it. Impulse was as close to paradise on earth as she’d ever come. A thin strip of land with thinner air that wore a safe and homey feel. Swaying palm trees, warm breezes, a wide, white sandy beach fronting her hotel. If it weren’t for the reason for her visit, she might even be able to relax.
The winter sun beat down on her and she turned her face toward it. A dozen different shades of turquoise were reflected in the waters of the Mexican Gulf as they lapped lazily against the sand. The beach was almost deserted. Janine at the hotel had explained that was because visitors couldn’t handle the thin air. Well, Nicole didn’t appear to have that problem. She was bone weary but too wired to sleep. Besides, she loved beaches and it was years since she’d been on one.
She loved swimming even more.
Grinning, she parked her car in front of the hotel and made her way to her room. She thought about Pascal and Kai as she did so, her instincts for once letting her down. They had to be involved in coercion of some sort, and yet she felt as though she could trust them. Just because they looked like male models and made all sorts of suppressed feelings bubble to the surface, there was no reason to lose her objectivity. Gramps had wanted her to come here and she owed it to him to resolve this issue. It wo
uld help if she knew what that issue was, of course, but she figured that if she did enough stirring, something would pop up to make sense of it all.
Nicole stripped off her clothes and pulled on a severe one-piece bathing suit. She donned an all-concealing wrap, slipped her feet into flip-flops, picked up a towel and her book, and made her way back down to the deserted beach. It was as though she had the place to herself. She saw no one either in the hotel lobby or on the beach itself, which was fine by Nicole. The last thing she needed was company, or intrusive questions. She threw off her wrap and would have run into the warm ocean, except her lung capacity wasn’t quite that accommodating.
When she reached the water and waded in it cooled her heated skin. She dove into an incoming breaker, surfacing some distance away from shore. Controlling her breathing in the manner that was second nature to her, she swam strongly, setting up a rhythm and eating up the distance like a greedy predator. This was when she felt the most alive. Swimming was what she’d been born to do. It was what she really excelled at, and yet she hadn’t taken to the water for years.
Don’t go there and spoil the feeling. Don’t think about anything. Live for the moment.
Nicole had no idea how long she swam for. She lost all sense of time and simply allowed the water to soothe her troubles away, at least temporarily. She turned onto her back when she got tired and floated, eyes closed, allowing the sun to soak into her body. She’d always wanted to live in a warm climate. Perhaps, when she’d solved the conundrum of Gramps’s investments, she’d move somewhere hot. It dawned on her properly for the first time that she now had enough money to do whatever she liked with the rest of her life.
Shouting and splashing brought her back to reality. Obviously, she no longer had the beach to herself.
“I think we’ve gotten to her in time,” an urgent voice shouted.
She recognized that voice. It belonged to Pascal. Irritation surged through her. She didn’t need anyone’s company, and certainly not his. Before the thought registered, a pair of strong arms lifted her from below.
“I think she’s still breathing!”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’d say she’s definitely breathing,” said another amused voice—Kai’s, presumably. The pair of them appeared inseparable.
Pascal emitted an angry hiss. “Saving you from your own fucking stupidity.”
“I don’t need saving, thanks.”
“We can see that now, but that isn’t how it looked from on shore. You appeared to be drifting out farther and farther. We thought you’d lost consciousness.”
“Well I hadn’t.”
Nicole wriggled out of his arms and swam toward shore. Pascal swam right alongside her, keeping up easily. Not many people were able to do that. It seemed these two annoyingly protective alpha males could since Kai appeared on her opposite side.
“Are you two stalking me?”
“We saw you just kinda floating there,” Kai said. “We figured the thin air had gotten to you. It’s happened to people before.”
“Just so long as you don’t expect me to thank you.”
“The thought never crossed our minds.”
She could hear amusement in Pascal’s voice, which infuriated her. Damn it, what had she done? There was no way she could avoid walking up the beach with them and they’d see the real her, or as much of it as was on show in an ugly one-piece. She felt out of control without her disguise, but it was obvious she wouldn’t be able to get rid of them easily. Best just brazen it out like it was no big deal. As they got closer to shore, the thin air kicked in again. It made her short of breath, slowing her strokes and providing a legitimate reason to send them on their way.
“Go ahead,” she said. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do with your time.”
“Can’t think of a single one,” Pascal replied, grinning.
Shit, there was no shaking them off. Well, they might be determined to cling, but that didn’t mean she had to talk to them. Besides, she couldn’t spare the breath and they covered the rest of the distance in silence.
They reached the shore, their feet hit the shallow ground, and when they all stood up she realized both men were naked. That was all she needed. Her eyes drifted toward their genitalia in spite of herself and widened with surprise. She was no expert on the subject of the masculine form, but even she had to concede that these two were impressively well endowed.
“Do you always swim in the nude?” she asked, turning her eyes away.
“Hey, we thought you were drowning. We didn’t have time to worry about threads.”
A spontaneous smile sprang to her lips, but she was still turned away and they couldn’t have seen it. “Of course you were,” she said.
Pascal grabbed her hand, amusement turning to annoyance. “Look, you don’t seem to get it—”
She snatched her hand away. “Please don’t touch me.”
She grabbed her belongings from the sand and made a beeline for the hotel.
Chapter Five
“Shit, she’s even hotter than I’d imagined,” Kai said, scratching his head in admiration as they watched her walk away. “The shape of those legs. There’s so fucking long they go on forever. That’s one advantage of having a tall mate.”
“Not a bad butt, either,” Pascal agreed, watching the small globes, clearly visible through the wet fabric of her horrendous swimsuit. “Nice curves, too. Couldn’t help noticing when I lifted her from the water.”
Kai rolled his eyes. “Of course you couldn’t.”
They watched the sway of her slender hips as she made her way slowly across the wide beach. Pascal knew she’d hate them for watching, but neither puma had it in him to look away. Her hair, released from its tight bun, hung in a wet curtain that reached almost to her waist. Without the glasses to hide behind, they could see that her features were finely etched and perfectly complemented one another. High cheekbones, huge brown eyes, a small nose that turned up at the end, and a delicate, flawless complexion. Pascal sighed. She was perfection, and then some.
“Shit, she was worth waiting for!” Kai said, letting out a soft, appreciative whistle. “She’s like an exotic flower about to bloom. I wonder why she doesn’t like being looked at or touched.”
“Someone’s knocked the confidence out of her,” Pascal replied, reaching for his shorts and pulling them on over his wet body.
“The bastard!” Kai hissed, extending his claws and raking the air with them.
“Come on, she’s safely inside now. Let’s go back and see if anyone’s come up with anything.”
“What I wanna know,” Kai said as they walked the brief distance between the beach and the Cat’s Whiskers, “is how someone who looks like her can possibly be self-conscious. Something real bad must have happened to her.”
“We’ll just have to persuade her to trust us so we can find out, buddy.”
They arrived home, headed for the shower, and washed the dried saltwater from their skin. Vadim appeared just as they emerged.
“I come with news about your lady friend,” he said by way of greeting.
Kai quirked a brow. “That was quick.”
“We that serve also salute you.”
Pascal threw himself into a chair and scowled at nothing in particular. “So, don’t keep us waiting, man.”
“Okay, this is preliminary stuff. I’m still digging in case I missed something, but basically she is who she says she is.”
“We knew that,” Kai said, even though they hadn’t—not for sure. Wanting something wasn’t the same thing as it actually being so.
“Yeah, but what you probably don’t know is that her mom walked out on her and her dad when she was twelve.”
“Shit!” Pascal and Kai said together.
“Yep, just took off with another guy and, far as I can tell, hasn’t had any contact with her daughter since then.”
“What about all that maternal instinct stuff?” Kai aske
d. “I know men walk out on their kids all the time, but I thought women were wired differently.”
“Seems not,” Vadim replied. “Her dad had a bit of a breakdown. He was devoted to his wife and had no idea she was unhappy. Father and daughter moved in with Charlie, her dad’s dad—”
“What happened to the father, then?” Pascal asked.
“He offed himself. Three months after his wife left, Nicole came home from school and found him hanging from a rafter in their garage.”
“The selfish bastard!” Pascal felt ready to hit something, or someone. “Suicides never stop to think how their actions will affect others after they’re gone. Finding someone at that tender age would leave a person scarred for life.”
“So it was just Charlie and Nicole from then on in,” Kai said. “No wonder she felt so close to him.”
“Yeah, this was all documented in various newspaper articles online,” Vadim said. “I’ve probably only scratched the surface, but that’s the gist of her family history.”
“But there’s something else?” Pascal suggested, delving into the fridge and producing cold beers for them all.
“Yeah, there’s more. Did you know that your gal is—or was—a champion swimmer?”
“We just found out,” Pascal replied. “It might explain why she’s not too uncomfortable with our air. If she was trained to swim from a young age, she’ll know how to fill her lungs and control her breathing. Most people panic and breathe too quickly when they come here. I noticed that she does the opposite.”
“Right, that would probably explain it. Her dad was a swimmer and encouraged Nicole to take up the sport. Mom didn’t really get involved. Nicole showed promise, got taken on by a leading coach, and swam for her junior county team. Charlie Fox encouraged her to keep going when she became his responsibility. Aged seventeen she was on the brink of making the British Olympic squad. Then she quit.”
“Just like that?” Kai asked. “There must have been a reason.”
“Nothing I could find, but I’m guessing something bad happened. You’re gonna have to ask her about that yourself, or do some of your own digging online. I don’t want to stray into areas that don’t concern me.” Vadim popped the tab on his beer can and took a swig. “My remit was to ensure she wasn’t a threat to the community and, far as I can tell, she isn’t.”