by Sara M Zerig
Kent stood from the table then. He looked pointedly to his younger peers, who stood and followed him out of the dining room without a word. Kimi paled as they left.
“What have you brought upon us, Ritt?”
“Mom, she’s my mate.”
“But she’s not one of us. Is she even human?”
When Ritt didn’t respond to that, Chloe felt obliged to jump in. “OK, obviously, I’m human.”
“Your eyes aren’t human,” Kimi jabbed. “You see things others can’t see.”
“And you have an extended family that’s weirdly secretive, but that doesn’t make you inhuman,” Chloe returned.
Kimi looked to Ritt. Ritt looked away, and a shiver crept into Chloe’s spine. The elders returned before she could question him. Nathan and Joseph invited Chloe and Ritt to join them out back, while Kent asked Kimi to remain inside with him.
Chloe followed Nathan through the house feeling nervous, excited. They passed through a long kitchen equipped with double the stainless-steel appliances: two stoves, two refrigerators, and two dishwashers. A pair of black square dining tables sat side by side. They exited the home through a sliding glass door beside the kitchen. It was dark, but the moon, not quite full, was enough to illuminate the concrete patio and immediate surroundings.
Nathan blew out a breath and gave her a long, hard look. “Ritt has asked us to welcome you into our family as his mate. But this family carries a secret that you must swear on your life to protect. There is no returning from this point, Chloe. If you have any doubts in accepting Ritt as your mate, you should leave now.”
On my life? Ritt slipped his hand into hers then. Chloe recalled his earlier words: There is nothing too strange or too scary to keep me from you. He was willing to stand by her through her strange and scary. It was her turn to stand by him through his.
“I’m not leaving,” she said resolutely. “I will protect your secret.”
Nathan heaved another deep breath, and Chloe felt his inward struggle. He had never shared this secret with an outsider before, she sensed. The words were there, and his mouth was poised to deliver them, but his eyes were uncertain.
“You know this Earth to be home to humans and animals, but there exists a hybrid of the two,” he began, scrutinizing her reaction to every word. “Shifters who transform from human to beast, at will. There are thousands of us across the Earth, werewolves and werecats.”
“Werecat,” Chloe parroted, the creature from the vision taking form in her mind. Ritt stared straight ahead. She could feel a tension building inside of him. “That’s what you are. That’s what changes your eyes.”
“Thousands though we are, we are greatly outnumbered by the common man, who has sought to hunt, cage, and exploit us over the centuries,” Nathan told her, emphasizing the gravity of the secret he was sharing. “The secret we guard is for the sake of our families and our future generations.”
Ritt let go of her hand and moved away from her. He shuffled about, and it took Chloe a moment to realize he was shedding his clothes. She stepped closer to him but stopped when Nathan cautioned, “Not too close.”
Ritt looked at her then, locking onto her from about fifteen feet away in the low light of the moon. Fully comfortable in his naked form, Ritt took one, maybe two steps forward as if to break into a run. Then it happened.
Quickly, seamlessly, impossibly, it happened. Ritt’s leanly muscular frame shifted from man to a sleek, black wildcat—like a panther, only bigger. Chloe stepped toward him. Bright yellow eyes pierced through the darkness and tracked her closely.
“Can he understand me?” she asked.
Joseph answered, “He can, but communicating back is difficult. In this form, Chloe, animal instinct will win out over human intellect every time. In our animal form, there is no guarantee of anyone’s safety, except that of our mates. We would never intentionally hurt our mates.”
Intentionally? Chloe swallowed back her anxiety and walked on to Ritt. The panther lowered himself in a non-threatening repose. He won’t hurt me, she told herself. He’ll never hurt me.
Never, the voice in her head confirmed.
Standing before the majestic cat, she touched the top of his head tentatively. She was rewarded with a loud purring that vibrated through his fur, beneath her fingers. Chloe had seen the transformation with her own eyes but still couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Ritt?” she whispered. “Is that really you?”
There was something of a groan in response. Right. Because she had just been told it was difficult for them to communicate in this form. She knelt beside him and let her hand glide down his back, marveling at the dense, soft fur over thick muscle. They sat like that for some time when Nathan called to them to come back.
Chloe and Ritt got to their feet at the same time, and the cat stepped backwards, away from her. The change back to human form was also a matter of seconds, but standing this close, she could make out more of it. Fur dissolved into skin, claws retracted into fingers … she flinched as the body contorted from four-legged creature to two. It looked painful.
Ritt’s bare human body glistened in the moonlight with a fine sheen of sweat from head to toe. Chloe wasn’t sure which form was more impressive. They closed the distance between each other, meeting in the middle.
Ritt cupped her chin. “You didn’t freak out.”
“Oh, I’m actively freaking out,” she corrected him. “I’m half-expecting to wake up from all of this.”
“But you’re still here.”
Chloe raised to her tiptoes to kiss him, speaking against his lips, “I’m still here.”
A loud whistle from the patio interrupted them. “All right, you two.” Nathan shook his head. “You’re mates. We get it.”
Kimi Carter was numb, attempting to process everything the elder and lifelong friend had imparted. There were other worlds of inhuman creatures, witches and warlocks, and elves. There was even a separate world made up entirely of shifters—the shifter’s paradise that fairytales were made of, where their people could shift freely—that the elders here communicated with from time to time. The two worlds were meant to coexist but not cross over.
Fascinating though that was, it all really boiled down to this: Chloe was probably from another world, and if she was, she and Ritt may not be able to stay together in this one. There was possibly some common ground for them in the shifter world, but Kent thought it doubtful that they would be able to stay here. As Kimi’s heart struggled with that, her pride insisted she stay sharp.
She knew Chloe wasn’t human when the elders first left the room. If she had not been so intent on challenging her as Ritt’s mate, she would have known it right away. Chloe did not smell like a human or a shifter, but Kimi was too busy sniffing for a marking to pick up on that.
The other tip-off was the supernatural way Chloe had managed to get inside her head and learn the truth about Ritt’s father. Kimi did not know why the rape sprang to mind in that moment. As soon as the flashback surfaced, she knew Chloe knew—it was there in the girl’s eyes. At least the realization that Chloe knew seemed to redirect Kimi from the pain of the memory.
Chloe did not share with the elders that she had learned Kimi’s secret. They already knew the truth, but Chloe could have offered it as proof of her psychic ability. That did not mean Chloe would honor Kimi’s wishes and keep what she had sensed to herself. Kimi was conflicted on whether or not she should. On the one hand, if Chloe was Ritt’s mate, she had better be honorable and keep her word. On the other hand, mates should have no secrets from each other.
Shifter mates had an unbreakable bond. Unlike a marriage that could easily be dissolved, shifter mates were forever connected. Chloe couldn’t possibly know what it meant to be mated to a shifter. And Ritt—well, how could he know what he was getting into? No one knew for sure what Chloe was.
It had been several moments since Kent had said anything.
“So, she shows up from another dimension and
my son’s life gets turned upside down?” Kimi voiced her concern. “Does he even know what he’s gotten himself into?”
“She may be from another realm,” Kent informed her. “And neither of them knows.”
“We have to tell Ritt.”
Kent disagreed. “Not until we have spoken to the elders of the Shifter Realm. Chloe is learning our secret now.”
“Now?” Kimi folded her arms under her chest stubbornly. “I don’t trust that girl.”
“You don’t trust anyone.”
Her chin lifted at that. “That doesn’t mean she is trustworthy.”
A frustrated sigh slipped away from the normally inscrutable old male. “She is his mate. We don’t choose our mate, Kimi. Fate chooses for us. You know this.”
“What if he’s wrong?”
“We’re never wrong. Not about our mates.”
Kimi wouldn’t know, firsthand. She had never found a mate for herself, and no one had ever declared her to be his mate either. She used to wonder if the rape had affected that. If, but for that, would she be mated now?
In the normal order of things for her kind, you were an obedient child, an independent young adult, then a mate, and then a parent. But Kimi had gone from a child to a child-mother. Her parents helped when Ritt was young, and she took to mothering well, but there was no adolescence for her. No crushes, no dating, no time even to daydream of such things. Not for Kimi.
Still, her son had managed a normal shifter life despite all of that. And he had found his mate. It was hardly too soon. He was almost thirty, after all.
Kent was right, of course. Any mated shifter would tell you that the attraction was instant and intense when you met your mate. Ritt had never mistaken lust or infatuation for a mate before. If he insisted Chloe was his mate, then she was. And didn’t Kimi want that kind of happiness for Ritt, even if she couldn’t have it for herself?
Kimi found Kent watching her. He could tell she had worked it out on her own. “We will send word to our brethren of the Shifter Realm.”
Chapter Ten
Aaron St. Cyr ran the track around the protector’s field a few times and practiced his skills on climbing walls. He was solo today. Will Kincade was assisting his father, Wyatt, with the mission to increase the Shifter Realm’s wards, and the Lachlan brothers were still on a mission in the Elven Realm. It was more fun to be here with friends, even if Aaron did not train with them. When you were capable of zapping someone with a bolt of lightning, sparring partners were hard to come by.
He spotted Will’s younger sister, Delia, standing just outside her storefront, her arms full of clothes. Being the Coven Realm’s oldest resident to have not discovered her talent, Delia Kincade was no less busy than any other witch. While others continually studied and practiced their talents, she was turning her knack for creating attire and jewelry into a successful, inter-realm business.
Delia wore her dark blonde waves down, a few tightly kinked tendrils framing the sides of her oval face and her bangs sweeping low, reaching the tops of her eyelashes. The bronze gown she wore was a bold choice for the Coven Realm, where pastels were favored among witches, but it set off the amber flecks of her eyes and complimented the honeyed tone of her skin. The dress passed her ankles, but Aaron could see her bare toes peeking out. He did not know how her feet were not cold or raw from going barefoot across the cobblestoned square, but Delia did not care for slippers.
He approached her, noting the lightweight material of the scant garments she held. “Shifter apparel?”
Delia nodded, muttering, “This square may as well be an Earthen ghost town.”
It was hardly a ghost town. People milled all about the square, procuring groceries from the market, borrowing books from the library, and visiting on the patio of the tea shop. Children ran circles around the effervescent fountains at the center of the square that would convert to fire pits in the fall. Public sessions were still held in the white stone courthouse at the other end of the square, near the rolling fairgrounds where musicians played. But the people were all Coven.
Pureblood shifters and elves were once permitted to transfer into the Coven Square, during the day. Since they had learned of Chloe’s abduction, though, the wards had been tightened to allow escorted access only. The brick storefronts where the Coven Realmers sold medicines, charms, and other goods were seeing far less traffic as a result of the increased wards.
As if knowing what he was thinking, Delia said, “Yes, I understand the need for the stricter wards, and yes, I know that transferring to the Shifter and Elven Realms is necessary anyway.”
He regarded her with a raised brow. “However?”
“However, now, instead of purchasers coming to my shop to view my designs and order in bulk, I have to bring all the new designs to them first. Then come back, create the order, and go back again.”
Aaron contemplated the vertical Dressmaker sign hanging outside Delia’s shop. “I know Wyatt and Will are assisting with the Shifter Realm wards. Do you need my help?”
Delia shook her head, fussing with the bundle of garments. “No, no, I can carry them.”
“I meant to escort you to the Shifter Realm.”
“Thank you, but I do not need an escort,” she told him absently before her black and amber eyes widened, realizing her slip.
“Delia, you know you must travel with a protector as escort.”
“It is customary to do so but not required by law,” she reasoned.
Aaron gave in to a laugh. “And what would your brother and father say to this? Or my father?”
“They are all too busy to be bothered with the likes of me, and this is only temporary. When your sister is home and trade resumes in our realm, I will not need to travel this much,” Delia pointed out before beseeching him, “Please do not raise this as an issue. I assure you I am very cautious when I transfer on my own.”
Had she really managed to make multiple trips out of the realm without alerting her brother or her parents? Will usually kept close watch over his sister, but Aaron supposed he should not be surprised. Delia was a clever and resourceful witch. He hoped for her sake—and her family’s—that her talents would surface soon.
“I suppose that, with the mission to recover my sister, and if the travel is only to safe places where we have allies—”
“It is,” she put in.
“This cannot go on indefinitely, though,” Aaron warned.
Delia dipped into a curtsy. “Of course.”
Nikki was back at Mania with Tad, who had left his credit card there the night before. She had sent several WTF texts to her friend before Chloe called her back to assure her that she had not been abducted by the man she now called her boyfriend. Apparently, the relationship had gone zero to sixty, and Chloe was going to meet his family. Maybe it was an overzealous response to Ritt being her first; maybe it was the real thing. Whatevs. If her friend was happy and safe, who was Nikki to judge?
Tad was attempting to track down his card at the bar when a cute boy with spiky blond hair and a nose-ring approached her. “Hey, I know you. My buddy showed me the picture he took of you and that girl with the crazy green eyes.”
“I can’t believe that guy took our picture,” Nikki returned, unimpressed.
“Joke’s on him, he lost his phone before he could post it.”
Nikki responded with a slight nod.
“So, what, she just goes around wearing Halloween contacts all year?” Nikki gave a bored shrug, and the guy took a swig of his drink, appraising her figure. “What’s your name?”
“Nikki,” she replied with an automatic bat of her eyelashes.
“I’m Scott. We’re having a party at my house. You should come. It’s not far from here—just off Crestone and Elbert.”
“Which house?”
“The loud one.”
“Come on, man,” one of his friends called from behind him.
“See you later?” Scott asked.
Nope. “Maybe.”
>
He touched a hand to his heart as though she’d wounded him, and Nikki giggled as his friend pulled him away. She found Tad in the crowd, scowling at her. Ugh.
Some guys could make macho-jealousy sexy. Tad was not one of those guys; it was just pathetic and a total turn-off. Nikki gave herself an internal pep-talk. It was cheaper to deal with Tad’s jealousy than call a cab.
Aaron kept watch over a large scrying mirror hovering above his father’s desk. The mirror was a live view of the club Chloe had visited in the Earthen Realm. Abby had re-cast her search, starting from the club and expanding out. She had come up with new coordinates, but they were problematic. The residential area was densely populated, making it more difficult for Abby to zero in on Chloe. They were working within a 10-mile radius.
They did not know when or if Chloe would return to the club but had borrowed a car from a local dealership and kept it parked in the club’s lot, should they need transportation in the Earthen Realm. The car would be reported stolen soon, but they added plates spelled with a pinch of Elven dust to avoid suspicion. Elves, Aaron mused. Few of them could be trusted, but their gift of trickery came in handy sometimes.
Aaron thought he recognized the human girl from the cell phone pic with Chloe, walking into the club. He had set the image of Chloe as the screen display on the cell phone and kept it on the desk in front of him. A little over half of the other girl’s heart-shaped face was captured. Her auburn hair contrasted a milky complexion, and her large, deep-blue eyes were leveled at the photographer in clear warning.
He lifted a hand to enlarge the view from the scrying mirror. It was the redhead, but Chloe was not with her. Having been there once before, Aaron transferred directly to the familiar spot on the side of the building. It was still risky but a calculated risk this time. No one was about.
Aaron inched up the side of the building and waited not-so-patiently in the shadows. He did not have to wait long. The young woman left sooner than he had expected, striding out the doors with her escort trailing behind her. She was clad in a short navy-blue dress that tied at the waist and clung to her generous bosom and hips. High heels boosted her height by about an inch, but she was still on the shorter end of the average range for human women.