by E A Price
The crow let out a loud squawk, letting Evans drop to the ground. He pointed the gun at Mal and fired. As the bullet thudded into Mal’s protective vest, Mal fired. The crow was dead before he hit the ground. Bullets laced in silver worked pretty fast.
Riker thudded to a stop as Evans gasped on the floor.
“Shit,” muttered the wolf shifter.
“Yeah,” agreed Mal.
Chapter Two
“Would you like to see the dessert menu?” offered the waitress with a wide smile. She was really working hard for a good tip, though Ariel wished that she wasn’t quite so attentive. She needed some time alone to figure out how to break up with him. Oh, she knew how to break up with him – she had written a three-page break-up speech to give him – she just needed to figure out how to segue into that.
“No, thank you,” replied Ariel.
“Definitely,” replied Hollis at the same time.
“Great,” said the bouncy waitress, as she bounced off to get it.
Ariel tried to withhold the sigh her inner reindeer desperately wanted to let out. She wished she could just be direct about it – just tell him outright she didn’t want to date anymore, but she had to be careful. Hollis belonged to a huge deer herd – the alpha stag of which was his godfather. She had to diplomatic so that she didn’t offend him, and therefore offend his entire herd, and thus affect her own reindeer herd.
Ariel’s herd owned holiday resorts all over the world, and the deer herd mates were very good customers – either vacationing at their resorts or booking them out for weddings and family reunions. True, Ariel’s herd would easily survive without their business, but Ariel didn’t want to be the reason as to why they would.
Plus, Ariel was too polite just to tell him to ‘sling his hooves.’ She was part of the alpha family. Good manners had been deeply ingrained in her since she was tiny. Ariel had to be the perfect daughter and sister, and while that occasionally grated, she was too polite to really be annoyed about it.
Though, as Hollis reached across the table and grasped her hand, she did wish that she wasn’t quite so disposed to be polite. She hadn’t meant to start dating Hollis. Certainly hadn’t wanted to, but it had just kind of happened. She was still kind of fuzzy on the details as to how. They were in college together; he pursued her no matter how many times she protested that she wasn’t interested in dating anyone – not just him! He just kept showing up wherever she was, she didn’t tell him to flip off, and people just started thinking they were dating. Then, his great-grandmother was on campus – Ariel still wasn’t clear why she was there – and she didn’t speak much English, and she was very frail, and she assumed Ariel was his girlfriend… ugh. So Ariel indulged her, and Hollis got the wrong idea so… here she was, apparently his unwitting girlfriend.
If she was completely honest, she was kind of flattered by his attention. She wasn’t used to any males being interested in her. Most males she met were herd mates, and therefore terrified of upsetting their alpha – her brother – by pursuing her. But mostly, she didn’t think males saw her as a sexual being. She had been born into an alpha family, and it had always been her job to take care of others, to help out and be charitable. This led to her being dubbed Saint Ariel. But it wasn’t said with affection or awe, more like jealous contempt. She was considered to be a bland, asexual do-gooder – and she just didn’t have it in her to be anything else.
So yeah, maybe Hollis’ attention had been a little nice… at first, at least. Now that they were allegedly dating, she just wanted him to move on and find someone more appropriate. If he minded that they had never done anything more than hold hands and kiss on the cheek, he never said anything. But, that didn’t matter, because they were definitely breaking up…
The waitress returned, and Ariel was grateful for the excuse to remove her hand from his and grasp the menu.
“I’ll give you a few minutes,” said the waitress.
“No need,” piped up Ariel immediately, not wanting to give her a reason to come back yet again.
“Yes,” said Hollis with a grin, “we’ll take the chocolate lovers’ platter.”
Ariel winced. It wasn’t a platter for people who loved chocolate. It was a platter for lovers – a dish designed for two people to feed each other in what was supposed to be an erotic way. She considered that having his hand that close to her mouth really would test her resilience for being polite.
“Actually, I’d rather have the fruit plate,” she said quickly before flashing a nervous smile at Hollis. “I’m… ah watching my weight.”
He nodded in understanding. “In that case, I’ll take the white chocolate cheesecake.”
She might have preferred a denial that she definitely didn’t need to worry about her weight, but since she was trying to break up with him, she wasn’t going to nitpick.
The waitress beamed and left them. Ariel could feel her inner reindeer pushing at her to hurry – they were down to their final course, she really needed to bring it up now. People in her herd were actually starting to spread rumors about her mating him – she needed to shut it down.
“I wanted to talk to you…”
“The reason I asked you out tonight…”
They both started talking at once. Hollis laughed, thinking it cute. Ariel just grimaced, thinking they were very ill-matched.
“You go first,” she said.
“No, you.”
“I insist…”
It went on for a while until he eventually gave in. She even allowed him to take her hand and give her full-on eye contact. “Babe,” he started, and given the eye contact she tried to repress the wince at the hated endearment, “we’ve had a lot of fun these past few months.”
“Umm, yeah,” she agreed half-heartedly.
“And you are far and away the hottest girl I’ve ever met…”
“Thanks,” she muttered morosely. But even as she sank a little deeper, her reindeer chuffed in dawning happiness.
He gave her a cartoonishly sad expression. “But, babe, we have to cool things.”
“Cool things?” she repeated in confusion. Was what she thought was happening actually happening? Was he – dare she hope – dumping her?!
“Yeah, babe, my alpha wants to send me to Europe – wants me to work in our French office.”
His herd owned an import-export business. Like her own herd very few herd mates were not employed in the herd business. Hollis had just graduated with a degree in business, so it figured that the alpha wanted to throw him into the business. Apparently, he was throwing Hollis to the other side of the world.
“That’s… that’s wonderful for you,” she breathed, smiling genuinely for the first time that night. Her reindeer was throwing a party.
“It’s just that I’m going to be there at least a year and while I’m there… I mean, you know, females…” He almost looked pained as he carefully tried to join the dots about the fact that he was going to France and wanted to boink a lot of females.
“Hollis, it’s fine. I mean it,” she said with only a smidge of the enthusiasm she felt. “It’s not like we ever… ah…” She was even worse at joining the dots.
It was a surprise and a relief that he hadn’t actually pressed for anything more than a quick, reluctant kiss to the cheek. It was weird that he was so keen for her to be his girlfriend and yet not interested in pressuring her into any kind of intimacy. She did wonder if he didn’t actually find her attractive. Ego aside, that would be fine with her – but then why waste his time pursuing her?
His brow creased, and his sad expression ramped up to puppy-dog pathetic. “You sure, babe? You’re going to be okay with that?”
Do fluffy bunnies frolic in the woods?! Ariel placed her other hand over their conjoined hands. “Hollis, I’m sure. You’re… a great guy,” she said with barely any hesitation. “I want you to go to France and have a blast. I mean we’ve,” she managed to swallow the knot in her throat, “had fun. But, I really think you should g
o on and date other females.”
Hollis grinned; he really was handsome and could be charming when he wanted to be. Half the shifter females in college were dying to be in Ariel’s shoes given the attention he showed her. While he did nothing for her picky inner reindeer, Ariel wondered if perhaps in another life she could have been attracted to him. A life that didn’t encompass a gruff reindeer shifter who looked like the nuclear apocalypse would barely slow him down, and who haunted all her ridiculously saucy dreams.
“I knew you’d be cool,” he said in a proud voice.
“Yeah, that’s me – cool, cool, cool. Cool beans central. The coolmeister. Agent Coolson.”
She was polite, but she could be a total dork without any effort whatsoever. She cleared her throat as he gave her a mildly puzzled look.
“So what are you going to do with your apartment?” she asked, wanting to move on from the cool comment.
“Another herd mate is moving in. I don’t know how long I’ll be in France so I thought I’d hang onto my apartment.”
“Good thinking. So, you must be excited about France – will you be living in Paris…”
Ariel managed to politely prattle about Paris for a good half hour until their ‘date’ finally ended. So pleased, she actually allowed him a double kiss cheek for goodbye and didn’t try to dissuade him when he told her he would call her from France to let her know how things were going.
She wasn’t entirely au fait with break-ups, but she was pleased about how that one went. True, he did the breaking, and merely waiting to get dumped was hardly a good strategy in future relationships.
Her reindeer hooted. Not that she was exactly planning on having any future relationships. How could she when every living, breathing thought was taken up with a guy who barely knew she existed and was unlikely to be anywhere near her for the foreseeable future?
*
Ariel threw out her arms and actually let out a laugh. On a high from how well the break-up went, she decided to go for a run. Hell, she might even shift and give her reindeer a little freedom. The beast chuffed in excitement at the idea.
She had been dreading the night, but it had been so easy. Course, she was still annoyed at herself for being dragged into a non-relationship with a guy who didn’t so much as tap her bell never mind ring it, but it was no longer a problem. Yep, now she could just go back to her usual, dateless, loveless existence… Both woman and beast sighed. But that was what she got for falling in love when she was eighteen and refusing to fall out of love. It was just a kiss for heaven’s sake! Just her first kiss…
Ariel slowed to a gentle jog as she neared Carrie’s house. It was pathetic, but she ran past his sister’s house every day, and every time she did, she looked for his car, hoping against hope that it would be there. It seldom was.
But no, she wasn’t going to look this time. Nope, she refused. Ariel put her head down and sped up – determined to pass the house without looking for him. Determined that she would…
“Oof!”
She careened straight into a large, warm, solid body. His arms clamped down on hers as he steadied them both. Her reindeer hooted excitedly, and Ariel knew just what that meant.
“Malachi?”
Ariel blinked up at the stoic face of the male who just would not leave dream-Ariel alone – not that dream-Ariel ever asked him to do so.
His clean, masculine scent curled around her senses.
“Ariel,” he murmured in that low, resonant voice that made her toes curl.
“You’re back,” she breathed, stating the obvious, but needing to do something to try and distract herself from the burgeoning excitement inside her.
“Yeah,” he agreed, unable to deny it. “Call me Mal, will you?”
She tried to search his expression for some kind of indication of how he felt about that, but as usual, she came up with a whole lot of nothing. He was harder to read than a particularly stony stone. On the few times she had seen him over the past few years, he had never been rude or dismissive toward her, but he hadn’t been interested in seeking her. It was always her who sought him, who tried to start a conversation with him. Whatever there was between them, it was utterly one-sided.
Ariel cleared her throat, trying to remind herself and her soppy inner animal of that fact. “So, how long are you visiting for?”
His usually inscrutable expression slipped, and she actually managed to detect a wince. “Not sure.”
“Oh?” In spite of herself, she twittered expectantly.
He flickered in hesitation for a moment before he let out a small sigh. “I’ve been suspended. I might be here for a while.”
“Oh.” She breathed in and bit her lip, hoping the happiness she felt inside didn’t show on her face. Happiness at someone else’s misfortune was hardly good behavior, not that she could bring herself to feel any guilt over the matter. “I’m, ah, sorry to hear that.”
Their eyes met, and a tiny part of her thought he might actually kiss her again. She tried to lean forward, tried to make it easier for him, but all her movements did was remind him that he was still holding her arms.
He dropped his hands and grunted, folding his arms across his intensely impressive chest. Any vulnerability she had glimpsed on his face quickly evaporated, and he regarded her with a hard look.
“I guess congratulations are in order,” he said gruffly.
Ariel canted her head to the side, wondering what she had done that required any kudos. She wasn’t like him – she didn’t go off to heck knew where and chase bad shifters. She didn’t put her life on the line every day as he did. Ariel had lived at home with her family her whole life – even when she went to college and now worked at the family business. She was the least adventurous or exciting person in the entire world. It wasn’t such a surprise to her that he regretted their kiss.
“What for?” she finally asked after he wasn’t any more forthcoming. He would actually make an excellent statue.
If anything, his face turned even stonier. “Your mating,” he gritted.
Ariel frowned, and her beast huffed. Why on earth would he think she was mating someone? Was this some more stupid herd gossip?
“I’m not mating anyone.” Mating really didn’t seem to be on the cards for her.
His nostrils flared. “You’re not? I thought…” She looked at him expectantly. “Doesn’t matter. It’s late; you shouldn’t be out on your own. Not safe.”
“It’s 8:30,” she retorted in amusement. “There’s a kid out on a bike over there.”
She pointed to the pigtailed child and their pink bike, but he didn’t look round. “I can scent that she’s a bear shifter. They’re biters.”
“Well, maybe I’m a biter.”
His eyebrow twitched, and she considered that what she said might have had sexual overtones, and proceeded to blush.
“I’ll drive you home,” he declared, and she was too embarrassed to argue.
“Okay.” She paused getting into his car. “Mal? It’s good to have you home.”
He looked mildly surprised, but she quickly shut the passenger door before she could say anything else. Perhaps this wasn’t the best thing for her, but she couldn’t deny that having him near was wonderful. Yes, Mal was back! Hoot, hoot!
Chapter Three
One year later
Mal silently made his way into the house, careful not to make a sound. Through his hunter training, he had become pretty good at not making any noise when he wanted. He didn’t get the nickname silent thunder for no reason. He wasn’t entirely sure that the nickname made sense, but getting a nickname was kind of a right of passage for hunters. Though, when training, he had no idea how useful being quiet would be.
After all the shifters he had tracked and hunted, he had never known one who was so sensitive to sound like this one…
Mal crept into the living room to find Carrie dozing on the couch and baby Mikey trying his darnedest to eat his rattle. Mikey looked up and giggled at Mal,
and his inner reindeer – usually so stern – melted a little at seeing his nephew.
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping, little man?” asked Mal softly
If Mal didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that Mikey gave him a sneer – which was crazy right? Babies didn’t sneer… did they? Mal didn’t have much experience with babies – hardly any really. He remembered when Carrie was a baby, but back then his mom hadn’t been such a basket case and had actually managed to take care of Carrie pretty well… most of the time. But Mal was sure that babies should sleep more than Mikey did, plus the kid had super-sonic hearing.
When Mal got suspended, he was surprised to find out that Carrie was pregnant. She hadn’t wanted to tell him over the phone. She wasn’t mated, and much to his irritation didn’t want to discuss the father. As frustrating as his suspension was, he was glad he could at least be there for his sister, even if he didn’t slip into ‘family’ mode easily. Family wasn’t something he had ever been good at, having had so little practice.
Mikey started making sounds of fussing, and wanting to give his exhausted sister a small reprieve, Mal scooped up his nephew and made his way to the kitchen.
“C’mon, little man, you can help me make a sandwich.”
The past year hadn’t been the easiest of his life, but it hadn’t been the worst. After the incident with the crow shifter, he wasn’t entirely surprised by his suspension. Riker had argued in his favor – maintaining that what happened was entirely Evans’ fault. But at the end of the day, Evans’ was still in training, and Mal should have been paying more attention. The council didn’t exactly see the death of the crow as a great loss to society, though they were taking a lot of heat from the crow’s murder - a very apt collective name for that bunch of criminal shifters.
The crow’s family had been petitioning the council that Mal, Evans, and Riker stand trial for his death. Out of the three of them, only Riker had retained his job – the council perhaps fearing that dismissing Riker would have a hugely detrimental effect on the number of shifter criminals ever caught. Evans had been outright fired. Mal was on suspension indefinitely while they decided his fate. They sure were taking their sweet time over it, so much so that it was unlikely to be good news. For a year now, both man and beast had been impatiently itching to hear something – anything, good or bad – but whenever he made contact, it was to be told that the council was still deliberating.