It was why she’d come back when her godfather’s men had found her those weeks ago. She was tired of running, of surviving on nothing but the desire to not die.
Maybe, if her life hadn’t already been so bad, she could stay with Kel and just see how things played out. But her parents had run for years, and they still ended up dead. They’d spent everything and burned every bridge trying to escape, and it still got them nowhere. She couldn’t stand for that to happen to Kel.
There was no point in running anymore.
At least for once in her life, she could choose the ending she wanted.
The only happy ending she cared for was Kel’s.
At least he would be safe.
“I’ll do it,” she said, her decision becoming clearer by the second. “If you promise you’ll keep Kel out of this,” she demanded, making it very clear her compliance was conditional.
“You have my word on that.”
Last night had been the most amazing night of her life. She knew she could never love someone as she did Kel, and that meant keeping him from danger. She didn’t doubt he could protect her, didn’t doubt he cared for her, too. But she’d already lived her entire life trying to escape men like Domingo. She wasn’t going to force that upon Kel.
A satisfied chuckle came through the phone, interrupting her thoughts. “Marvelous. I’m glad we’re finally starting to see eye to eye on something. Drive out to the main gate where you first came in. I’ll have an escort there in fifteen minutes to pick you up,” he said confidently. “And, Sofia?”
“Yes?”
“If there’s any funny business at all, if your tiger or his dragon friends pull anything, you have my word that I will personally hunt you down to the very ends of the earth, as long as either of us is still alive. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
“Good.” Then the phone disconnected with a click.
Sofia slumped onto the bed and let the phone slip out of her hand and onto the floor. If Kel knew why she agreed to it, he’d try to stop her. Her head was in a full-out war with her heart now, battling between her love for Kel and the desire to stay at his side no matter what. Fighting against the knowledge that she’d be cursing him to a nomadic life of fear and insecurity if she stayed. Or worse, if they were caught.
It was all her fault. The fact that she was a jaguar shifter. But she hadn’t chosen to be such a rare creature. She hadn’t decided on the life that was given her.
She had decided to fall in love with Kel, to share with him amazing experiences that defied all earthly experience.
And she could choose how their story ended, rather than wait a month, a year, ten years to see if the fate that had chased her parents across the globe finally caught up with her and Kel.
Sofia stood and hurriedly starting packing her things, tossing them into the small suitcase she’d been living out of.
A minute later, Kel came in with a knock.
He had a tray with a delicious-looking breakfast spread across it, and was wearing a wide grin that made his light-blue eyes sparkle in the morning sunlight.
She could never punish such an amazing, perfect man with the curse that had become her birthright.
“What’s going on?” he said, his smile starting to fall as he surveyed Sofia standing there with her suitcase at her side, car keys in her hand.
“My godfather called. He said he wants me home now,” she said, steeling herself to do or say whatever it took to save the man that had saved her and loved her more than she could have ever deserved.
“What’s with the suitcase?” he said, setting breakfast down on a dresser.
“I’m leaving. Without you.”
“That’s crazy. We both know your godfather can’t be trusted. The man is involved in this whole scheme,” he said, sounding like she was saying the world was flat, not round.
“He can protect me better than you can. You’re just one bodyguard,” she said flatly.
“I’m much more than that, and you know it,” Kel said, rising to his full, incredibly intimidating height. If she had been one to change her mind easily, she would have backed down.
But it wasn’t the fear of the evil that she knew that scared her. It was the fear of the unknown. Of going her entire life being afraid for herself and, more importantly, for Kel.
“Regardless, I’m going now, whether you like it or not,” she said, moving to walk past him before she had to say anything else that would tear either of their hearts in two.
“I’m not letting you leave, Sofia,” Kel said, moving in front of her to stop her. His eyes softened for a moment. “I love you.”
The words cut her to the quick. Her own unspoken confession from last night carried on the very breath she let out.
All the more reason she had to do this.
“I’m sorry you got in too deep, Kel. But regardless of what you think, I’ll always be in danger with you. Especially the way you stand out. I could never be with a man like you,” she said critically, wishing this whole exchange was over and she could take back everything she said. But it was for his own good and the only way he would give up and let her leave.
I’m sorry, Kel.
“I see,” he said, looking darkly angry and totally still. “So that’s it? Just like the dragons, I’m not good enough because of who I am?”
“Yes,” Sofia said, trying to maintain her composure. “My godfather will have someone waiting just a little way away. He’s already promised to protect me from Domingo, and I trust him more than you.” She hated herself for telling the lie. “When he called, it snapped me out of the fantasy I’ve been living in. You’re hot, Kel. This was hot. But that’s all it was.” She wanted to smack herself across the face for how this would hurt him, but it was better than letting him waste his life always being in danger.
She marched past him and headed for the main door before they could attract attention. Sofia was almost running at this point, desperately fighting the tears that threatened to blow her cover. She was almost at the door…
“I would have done anything to protect you,” he said from behind her, his voice sounding deadened. Her feet stopped at the door leading outside, her will fading and her body refusing to move another step.
“I know,” she replied, a single tear streaming down her face as she breathed in deeply to fight the sobs that would surely break if she looked into those kind, loving eyes one more time. “That’s why I need to leave,” she said in a low voice only she could hear.
Then she pushed the door open and fled outside before Kel could answer. She knew she was being a coward, knew there was at least a chance at happiness with this man that had loved her in spite of her flaws, in spite of her past.
But the one thing she could never stand in this world was to have Kel, locked in a cage or worse.
Sofia jumped in the beat-up car and headed for the gate.
Good-bye, Kel.
I love you.
* * *
Kel let out a roar as he watched his mate drive away from the mansion.
He stormed back up to the bedroom and slammed the door behind him.
Everything in him screamed to go after her, but she had made her own choice. She wanted this. She didn’t want him.
A part of him had always feared that, always expected it. He punched a fist straight through the drywall, and it made a fearsome sound as it cracked.
He heard footsteps pounding up toward his bedroom and knew he’d alerted the dragons, but he didn’t care. He was beyond enraged. Beyond incensed.
Once more, he’d found something that gave him a purpose, and once more, it had been ripped away because he wasn’t good enough. Because someone judged him not to be strong enough or able to blend in enough.
Or whatever it was about him that made him so wrong.
The door swung open, and Tor looked in, his dark eyes flashing as he took in the room. “Where is Sofia?”
“You didn’t see her leave?” Kel asked da
rkly, studying his knuckles, which were already healing from punching the wall. He punched it again.
“Hey!” Perry said, coming into the room. “What’s going on?” He stopped a few feet from Kel and watched the angry tiger shifter pacing around. “Tor and I were on an important call. We didn’t see or hear anything until you started decimating that wall. Which I would rather you didn’t.” Perry folded his arms, looking intimidating.
“And what do you mean she left?” Tor asked, leaning against the doorframe, seeming unbothered by Kel’s temper tantrum. “She’s your mate. That’s impossible.”
“She’s not my mate,” Kel said, resting his forehead on the wall and letting out a harsh breath. “Not if she doesn’t want to be.”
Tor strode across the room and grabbed Kel by the collar, yanking him up. “Come on, dumbass. You really think she would just want to run out and leave you? We both saw her. The girl was totally smitten.” Kel put his hands up to pull at Tor’s, and Tor narrowed his eyes as he released Kel’s collar to grab one of his wrists. He yanked it up and looked at it.
“There,” he said, pointing to a small pink mark on Kel’s wrist that he hadn’t noticed. “She marked you. Cats mark their mates, if you didn’t know.”
“I knew that,” Kel said sullenly. Then his eyes widened in surprise as he surveyed the mark. It was oddly romantic. And weird for someone who’d just told him he wasn’t good enough and ran out on him to go to the safety of another man.
If she didn’t have any faith in him, why did she mark him? “Does she know she did this?” Kel asked Tor.
Tor shrugged, looking irritated. “Regardless, the feelings are there or she wouldn’t have done it. So what you need to think about is why she would feel that way about you and then run out of here, you stupid tiger.”
Kel erupted in fury, pushing at Tor as Perry ran over to step between them, putting up a hand.
Kel stepped back. “Why do you think I believe someone I thought cared about me could just toss me aside?” Kel spat. “You two did. You took us in when we were young, put us through so much training. And then you had Carter and Jace work for you, but no, not me. I was told I could do whatever I wanted. I wasn’t good enough to do the work I was trained for.”
Perry’s silver eyes softened in confusion and he rose to his full, intimidating height as he looked over at Tor, who looked equally confused but much angrier.
Tor shook his head. “You idiot tiger. What made you think you weren’t good enough?” He sighed, slumping in a nearby chair, tired. No, exhausted. “Look, we aren’t total monsters. We already felt bad about training you and your brothers to help us with our work, but the world needed it.” He rubbed his hands over his face and then through his dark hair. “But you were different. You had all the skills. You were whip smart, just as strong, but you had a different heart.”
Kel just stared at Tor, chest tightening as the dragon explained. Had he misunderstood all along?
“Perry had read your mind too much, I guess,” Tor said. “Not on purpose. But we knew you had a good heart. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you came out as a white tiger. But there was something about you. You weren’t meant to hunt and kill and spend all your time with the worst aspects of shifter society. You were meant to protect.” Tor looked to Perry, who nodded sternly. “That’s why we told you you were free to do what you wanted. Because we wanted you to use that big heart to decide what all of that strength should do.”
Perry nodded. “Because your heart is better than either of ours.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?” Kel erupted. “I was a teenager. I felt like a piece of thrown-out trash.”
Tor stood angrily and paced over to him. “I never said we were perfect. I never said we knew how to handle every situation. I thought you would take it as a reprieve. You hated the training. All of you did. If you hated leaving so bad, you could have said something. Hell, if you want to come back, we could definitely use you now.”
“It’s true,” Perry said. “If you want to get out of the bodyguard business now that you have a mate, we could use another interrogator, maybe someone to play good cop/bad cop with Tor.” Perry grinned. “He can only do bad cop.”
Tor shook his head. “I’m sorry we messed things up. But we’re all wiser now. Can we agree to let it go?”
Kel nodded, sitting on his bed in a daze. He’d been so wrong about things. His heart pounded. Had he been wrong about Sofia, too? His mind raced as he thought over their conversation.
Tor sighed. “You have to stop letting that color your opinion of yourself or you’re going to keep falling into traps like the one Sofia set for you. She had to know it would be easy to just trigger your unworthiness button and watch you shut down.”
Kel looked up at Tor. “Why would she do that?”
“Did you ever think about the fact that she’s maybe trying to protect you?” Tor asked, folding his substantial arms. “Did you ever think maybe she felt you were in danger and the only way to not involve you in that danger was to somehow make you let her go?”
Kel felt all the blood drain from his face. “That’s crazy. She wouldn’t have…”
Tor cocked his head impatiently, looking at the mark on Kel’s wrist. “Shifters will do crazy things trying to protect a mate.”
Perry stood up abruptly, pushing up his sleeves. He pulled out a hair tie and quickly bound his silver hair into a low queue. “All right, let’s roll out.”
“Where to?” Kel asked.
“To rescue your mate, of course,” Perry said, swinging open the bedroom door. “Obviously, there has been a big misunderstanding, and our treatment of you played a role, so there’s no way we’re letting you deal with it alone.”
Kel’s mouth dropped open, but he followed Tor and Perry out of the house.
Perry looked surprisingly dangerous, emanating a calm kind of anger as he walked out of the house and transformed into his dragon, a huge, shimmering, iridescent silver beast with a long, graceful neck and giant wings.
Tor walked next to him, changing into his giant red dragon as well, which was twice the size of Perry’s.
The two monsters looked down at him with glowing eyes, and Kel felt glad they were on his side.
And now he could also see Sofia clearly. Why she’d said what she said. How her actions with him, the loving moments they’d spent, overrode anything she might have said in anger or desperation.
And if he was wrong, he would still rescue her and help the dragons kick ass so he could at least talk to her again. Tell her once more what she meant to him and ask her about about her mating him.
In the past, he would have let someone tell him what to do or what he was made for, but now, he trusted his own instincts. His own strength.
The past could go suck its own dick.
He was going to rescue his mate.
11
The trip back to the mansion Sofia had called home for the past few weeks gave her ample time to replay the horror that had been her last minutes spent with Kel over and over in her mind. But every time she wished she could go back, she reminded herself it was the only option for both of them.
But mainly, it had been for Kel.
By the time they arrived, her tears were all but spent, and she was ready to face whatever terrible future awaited her at the hands of Domingo Arnal.
Hopefully, Kel could forgive her and just move on. Maybe even forget about her entirely and find someone normal to settle down with. Someone who wouldn’t have to put his life in danger just by being with him.
The sprawling home was just as large and unwelcoming as she remembered it, opulent and glamorous but entirely lacking the style and character as well as the sheer size of the dragon’s home far outside the city.
Sofia couldn’t help but wonder what Kel was doing right now.
She imagined her thoughts would never really leave him. Somehow, she felt joined to him, no matter the distance that separated them and no matter who he felt abou
t her.
The vehicle pulled up, and she saw her supposed godfather was already outside waiting with what looked like two dozen or so men, all of them armed.
It was like they were expecting Godzilla or something.
At the command of the men in the car with her, she got out, blinded slightly by the noonday sun overhead.
“Sofia, so nice of you to join us. Glad to see you’re all in one piece.” Her godfather beckoned, leading her into the house. To the side, she saw multiple cars parked at the end of the drive, ones that didn’t look like the same models Felding used.
They walked into the house, flanked by the small army of guards, and headed for the main parlor past the entryway. Inside, she could see even more men of all shapes and sizes. She could smell all kinds of shifters, too, mostly wolves, but a few cats and, if her scent was right, even a few bears maybe.
Apparently, this was serious business.
Inside, seated on the couch by himself with guards all around him, was a man with straight, strawberry-blond hair and a unique, craggy face that was neither ugly nor handsome. His eyes were hidden by small circle sunglasses, and even though he was sitting, she could tell he was very tall. He wore a black suit with a dark-blue shirt and no tie, and the way he lounged on the chair, you’d think he owned the place.
“Here she is, as promised,” her captor announced proudly as they came before the man.
At that, he stood to his full height. Nothing like Kel or the dragons, but intimidating still, made more so by the vicious, calculating air about him.
“Ah, my jaguar. At last I’ve found you,” he said, folding his hands behind him and stalking closer to her. His scent was entirely unique, like a mix of two shifter breeds. But he still seemed more man than animal.
“She’s all yours,” her once-guardian said.
But Domingo didn’t regard him at all. Instead, he moved closer to Sofia, walking with long, slow strides as he examined her intently from behind the small glasses that concealed his eyes. When he was no more than a couple feet from her, staring down but saying nothing, he took in a long breath through his nose.
A Tiger's Destiny (Tiger Protectors Book 3) Page 9