“An arranged marriage implies the woman is aware. In our case, only the male knows. At least to begin with. It’s the man’s responsibility to win his mate. Her respect. Her trust and her heart. Only when her soul accepts him is the bond formed.”
“What happens if she doesn’t?”
The thought cut through him with all the kindness of a jagged blade of ice, and the inky ugliness that drifted and swirled inside him went deathly still. As though it, too, waited for the answer. “The same as any other person who denies their destiny. They suffer. Live half a life. Empty.”
Still rooted in front of the window, Kateri and Naomi watched them. His mate might not be scowling and seconds from charging out of the house to interfere, but her focus was intent, taking in every little detail. Logically, he knew she couldn’t hear him. Not yet anyway. But the part of him that existed only for her didn’t care. Relished the chance to say out loud his new truth. “I would put your sister above anyone else. Would give up my life and my clan to keep her safe. It’s why she needs to stay protected. Draven can never get his hands on her or he’ll use her as leverage.”
Alek frowned and shuttled his gaze between Kateri and Priest. “What are you saying?”
Priest met his stare, the beast and darkness merging with him to make his claim. “I’m telling you, she’s my mate.”
No response. Just stunned silence.
Not exactly a surprising development considering Alek had been raised with zero knowledge of their ways, but it spoke volumes of how far Priest had to go in teaching him. He motioned Alek to follow him and started toward the house. “Come on. Jade will have dinner ready soon. She might not have given me grief for putting her on food detail, but she’ll rip us both a new asshole if we’re not there when it’s ready.”
He’d made it all of two steps, when Alek clamped him on the shoulder and tugged. “Hold up. You can’t seriously plan to keep Katy in the dark on this.”
Priest pointedly dropped his gaze to Alek’s hand.
Alek released him and stepped out of slugging distance, but crossed his arms in a show of stubbornness Priest couldn’t help but appreciate.
“Your parents died two weeks ago,” Priest said. “Likely by my brother’s hand. You know almost nothing of our race and Naomi tells me Kateri barely believes even what she sees with her own eyes. When I tell her what she is to me, it will be in my way, when my instincts tell me it won’t scare her more than she already is.”
His logic must have resonated with Alek because he unwound his protective stance, raked one hand through his hair and shook his head. “Man, this is whacked. Seriously, insane shit. Though, after everything else I’ve heard and seen, I guess it shouldn’t be all that much of a shock.” He planted both hands on his hips, checked the window, as if to ensure Kateri couldn’t really hear them and lowered his voice. “Any other surprises you need to throw me? ’Cause I’d just as soon field ’em now and only have to unscramble what’s left of reality once.”
Priest huffed out a chuckle. “Nope. Not today. Though I’ll give you some damned good advice.” He started for the house.
Alek fell in step beside him. “Yeah? What’s that?”
Priest hesitated only a beat. “If you value your life, don’t ever step between me and my mate again.”
Chapter Five
Normal. For the last thirty minutes the world around Katy settled into a nice normal rhythm. No fantastical conversation about companion animals or shifting. No growling, hissing or flame throwing like she’d watched take place in the giant gorge outside Priest’s home. Certainly no mammoth panthers flashing in and out of existence in the space of seconds. Just regular people eating dinner like normal people. Even the simple tacos Jade and Tate had whipped up while she’d stood rooted in terror by the kitchen’s wide window were beautifully ordinary. Exactly the balance she’d craved since finding her parents dead.
And here she was eager to push things back off-center again.
Because you want justice.
Katy tightened her grip on her fork and pushed a bite of taco salad around on her plate. Her cheeks heated and the cold fury she’d kept buried deep shoved harder against her control. She couldn’t lose sight of her goals. What had been done to her parents was an abomination. Pure evil. She owed it to her parents to find their killer and make sure he paid for what he’d done. Only she’d do it the right way. Not give way to the dark need that pushed her to pay Draven back with the same cruelty he’d dealt the people she loved.
Across the large trestle-style table, Alek handed off the bowl full of seasoned ground beef to Tate beside him. The last streaks of sunshine danced through the softly swaying treetops outside the large window, lending a semblance of peace to her rioting thoughts.
Something had happened outside between Priest and Alek. Something deeper than just two men beating their chests and acting like idiots. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure it out. But Alek was different. Calmer than she’d seen him in weeks and deferring to Priest like he’d been his wingman for years.
Very weird.
Not that everything else in her life these days wasn’t beyond the realm of belief.
She stole a peek at Priest beside her. As it had when he’d helped her from the Jeep, the slow, pulsing warmth blossomed low in her belly, and her heartbeat fluttered in an unsteady, but eager rhythm. It didn’t make sense. She’d known him only hours, but just looking at him stirred her in an inexplicable way. Never mind the breath-stealing response when he actually touched her.
His gaze slid to her plate and her barely touched salad. He’d done that a few times since they’d settled in. Both times he’d followed up the cursory study by frowning and handing her another food option off the table. This time he stood, prowled to the kitchen and yanked open the refrigerator door. He rummaged around inside and pulled out a medium plastic tub. The last thing she expected was for him to jump into the conversational lull he’d created by leaving the table, but he pulled down a clean plate from the cabinets and focused on Naomi. “You said you had a vision after you found your son. Tell me about it.”
Katy straightened in her seat, the impatient part of her eager for any kind of information that might lead to action instead of more waiting.
Priest’s gaze cut to her, considering, before he went back to laying out whatever was in the tub on a plate.
“There were two, actually,” Naomi said. “One the morning it happened alerting me to trouble, and another when I saw Draven’s talisman.”
“You saw him?”
Naomi shook her head, eyes aimed to the table but unfocused. “I saw the marks of primos from our past. I felt the chill of Draven’s magic, and I saw a jaguar stalking through the dark.”
Priest put the lid on the plastic tub and put it back in the fridge. “You’re sure it wasn’t a memory?”
“No. It was the present. Our old world had a different feel to it. Today’s world is more electric and connected. The darkness was thick, but there were newer buildings in the distance. Someone was being chased. And there were screams. A man and a woman.”
Priest moved her taco salad out from in front of her and slid a plateful of fresh fruit in its place. For late March, the quality of what he’d selected was impeccable—plump strawberries, blueberries and blackberries mingled with cantaloupe and watermelon.
Such a simple gesture. Uncomplicated and done without any fanfare, but deeply thoughtful.
He eased his big body into his seat with a grace that echoed the panther she’d glimpsed, braced his elbows on the table and shared a tense look with Jade across the table.
Something in the unspoken message that moved between them prodded Katy’s instincts. Spurred her to do something. “What’s that look mean? What do you know that we don’t?”
Priest paused long enough to cast a pointed look at the fruit and cocked an eyebrow. A tit
-for-tat nudge if she’d ever seen one.
Barely fighting back one of the scoffs her father had always called uncouth, she snatched a blueberry and popped it in her mouth.
Priest’s mouth twitched as though he wanted to smile, but his eyes countered what he’d kept in check, a healthy amount of mirth shining behind the odd gray color. “Jade had a vision around the same time your parents were murdered. It was her first after earning her gifts.”
“What’d she see?” Alek said.
Jade ducked her head and focused on what was left of her taco. Considering how outgoing she’d been throughout the day, seeing her so uncertain and vulnerable rubbed Katy all wrong. “Someone hunting. Lots of blood, but no details. It only lasted a minute. Maybe less.”
“A new seer’s early visions are always brief,” Naomi said. “Especially an uncomfortable one. They’ll get stronger. Longer. And you’ll learn to disconnect from the emotion as you grow.” She turned her focus to Priest. “But the feelings she felt confirm my belief. Draven is hunting our primos.”
Everyone at the table grew silent.
Elbows still planted on the table, Priest laced his fingers and rested them against his mouth. Thoughtful and distant.
“You don’t believe her?” Katy said.
Priest’s gaze slid to her and this time his mouth crooked in a semi-wry smile. “Your grandmother is one of the strongest seers I know. I wouldn’t question her judgment.”
“Then what are you thinking?”
His expression sobered and the gray in his eyes seemed to shift and swirl like an early morning fog. Only that couldn’t be right. Eye color might change based on lighting or other environment elements, but to actually move?
Then again, she’d watched her grandmother shift into a hawk and witnessed the biggest panther in history pin her brother on his back—even if it had only been for a handful of seconds. So, what did she know?
“The same day Jade had her vision,” he said, “I was pulled into a soul quest. It was fast. No warning. But when I got to the Otherworld there was no one there. At least, not that I could see or feel. I was just about to return when a scream sounded from somewhere out of sight. The next thing I knew I was here.”
Jade shifted in her chair, the creak of the wood overloud in the room’s otherwise quiet. “My vision happened at the same time.”
“Maybe what you heard was my parents,” Alek said.
Priest considered the suggestion for a moment then shook his head. “Your mother wasn’t Volán and your father refused his quest. There aren’t any second chances with the Keeper. Refuse her once and you’ll never go back.”
Done with the overloaded plate of food he’d taken on, Tate tossed his paper napkin to the table and reclined against his seat back. “I don’t understand. If Draven’s hunting primos, why wouldn’t he go for the sorcerer line first? Outside of Priest, they’d hold the most power.”
“A better question is why aren’t you hunting the primo lines?” Alek said to Priest. “If they’re so important, then shouldn’t you be doing the same thing?”
Not the least bit ruffled, Priest met her brother’s stare head-on. “I had no need. I thought my brother was dead, and I’m called to the Otherworld when anyone answers their soul quest.” He shifted his attention to Tate. “As to why he started with the warrior line instead of the sorcerer line, it could simply be the only lead he had.”
Sighing, Naomi leaned into the table and cupped the mug of herbal tea she’d made shortly after Priest and Alek had finished their he-man one-on-one. She’d tried to foist the allegedly calming concoction on Katy, but the lavender and chamomile combo was no match for a decent cup of coffee. “I’ve only kept in touch with a few other families since our clan broke apart, but I’ve heard many changed their last names to better disappear.”
“But yours didn’t?” Jade asked.
Naomi shook her head. “We believed Draven was dead. My son just wanted as far from his heritage as he could get. To forget the things he’d seen that night.”
Katy couldn’t blame her father. She’d only seen glimpses of the power her race was apparently capable of. None of it ugly, but all of it shocking. If that night was on par with the carnage she’d found at her parents’ house, she’d have distanced her family from all of it, too. “So, you think Draven tracked us by name?”
“Or through his gifts,” Naomi said.
As he had with all his other questions the last half hour, Alek turned to Priest for answers. “What house is he?”
“Sorcerer.”
One word, but the ominous undertone behind it stirred more than Katy cared to process. A flight instinct her father had no doubt wrestled his whole life combating with a white-hot need for vengeance. “The most powerful house. And now he’s looking for me and Alek, right?”
“He won’t touch you.” Priest’s gaze bore into hers, the strength behind it instantly seizing her chaotic thoughts and anchoring her on solid emotional ground. “My brother is powerful, but there is absolutely no gift I won’t use—no advantage I won’t leverage—to keep you safe. He will not beat me. Not if you’re at stake.”
The same electric surge she’d felt the two times he’d touched her reignited. A pull that seemed rooted in the center of her chest and urged her forward, all the while nudging a dormant part of herself to life.
And why such importance on her? Why not Jade or Tate? Or even Alek, for that matter. He was the fighter in her family. If this Keeper person was going to put a primo label on anyone, it sure wouldn’t be her.
As soon as the questions surfaced in her head, she tamped them down. Emotions and physical responses weren’t important. All that mattered was finding the person who’d wrecked her family and the reality that went with it. “So, outside of records and technology, how would he trace us?”
Priest studied her, the intensity of his scrutiny so deep it felt as if he’d stripped away her flesh and peered straight to her soul. “If he had something of your line—something of significant meaning or filled with emotion—he could use it. But only if the person had accepted their gifts.” His gaze dropped to the mostly untouched plate in front of her and he nudged it an inch closer. “Since your father never accepted his, he’d have had to use traditional means.”
Katy ignored the fruit, her stomach churning too much to even consider adding food to the mix. “He’s your brother. If he has something of yours, what’s to stop him from finding you?”
“Priest marked us,” Jade said, cutting through the thick connection between her and Priest. Not the least bit concerned with the mixed genders gathered round the table, she twisted in her seat and pulled her tank top up and over her head.
Alek coughed as though he’d nearly swallowed his tongue and all but gaped at Jade’s now exposed back across the table.
Tate and Naomi chuckled, but it was Priest who spoke. “Another lesson about our race—modesty doesn’t carry the same weight it does with the singura.”
Scoffing, Tate stood, plucked his and Naomi’s plate off the table, and sauntered to the kitchen. “And if you do have any, you learn quick to get over it the first time you shift back to human form in front of other people and forget your clothes.”
“Sorry.” Jade peeked over her shoulder, but the mischievous grin on her face said she really wasn’t. “You have to admit, the marks are pretty awesome. I just got mine today.”
Awesome was an understatement. Done in red, black and every shade of gray imaginable, they exuded power, yet held a feminine grace that matched Jade’s personality.
“Tate has them, too?” Katy said.
“Hell, yeah,” Tate answered before Jade could so much as nod. Rounding the kitchen counter that separated the dining nook from the kitchen, Tate peeled his T-shirt off and bared his heavily muscled torso. She’d barely had a chance to appreciate the artwork dipping over his shoulders in a
half-arc along his collarbone before he turned and displayed his back.
“Whoa.” Gone was Alek’s awkward response to Jade’s bold behavior, replaced with pure appreciation.
Like Jade’s, the design exuded tremendous strength. But where Jade’s featured soft feminine lines, Tate’s was pure male. A mix of Nordic and tribal influence. The detail was so impressive anyone who saw it would be tempted to touch and trace each bold line. She forced her gaze away from the beautiful work and found Priest’s attention rooted on her. “You did that?”
His lips didn’t move, but something in his expression shifted. Something important she couldn’t quite categorize.
“Everything Priest does is awesome.” Tate turned, jabbed his arms back into his shirtsleeves and pulled his T-shirt over his head. “You wouldn’t believe how much people pay for his ink. And that’s without the extra mojo added to it.”
“That’s why I couldn’t find you before the Keeper gave me direction,” Naomi said. “You put protection spells in the marks.”
Priest nodded. “And a locator so I can find them if they ever need me.”
“Well, your brother can’t find us yet outside traditional means,” Katy said, “but shouldn’t you at least start looking for the others and beat him to the punch? Maybe see if you can find someone still around from Nanna’s generation?”
“We’d need a sorcerer to help us,” Naomi said. “Do we have any?”
“None,” Priest said. “I thought the house was dormant until I learned Draven was alive.”
The heaviness in his answer drew Katy on a visceral level, a foreign impulse to soothe and comfort him pushing against her tight control. To wipe away the thick regret in his voice with a soft touch. Which was absolutely insane. She barely knew this man. Had zero obligation to him or his troubles except where it aided in finding her parents’ killer.
Undaunted, Naomi crossed her arms on the table and narrowed her gaze. “Jade and I could see if our visions bring us anything. We wouldn’t be able to pinpoint as clearly as a sorcerer could, but if there are other seers nearby, we could pool our strength and perhaps narrow the area to search. Surely we have active seers in the clan?”
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