Her eyes were dazed and satisfied, and she looked at him with a tired smile. “That was freakin’ amazing.”
Unable to resist, he leaned in, kissing her softly. Grabbing his shirt, he said, “Don’t pull your pants up yet. I’m gonna go wet part of my shirt in the lake and clean you up first.”
She nodded lazily at him, and he smiled as he stood and strode to the edge of the lake. She was far more than he deserved, and he didn’t only mean because of how great the sex. It was phenomenal, but it was just a small part of it. Her heart, her drive, her personality, her smile—the list could go on forever and he’d never finish naming all the reasons she was so damn amazing.
He’d truly lucked out to have her as a mate, and he’d never stop showing her how he felt, or how much she meant to him.
Chapter Fourteen
My oh my. A smile stretched Arya’s lips as she stretched her sore body in the grass. Her muscles were still weak, and the faintest of aftershocks were still rippling over her body from that mind-blowing orgasm. She’d never imagined that sex could be like that. She’d heard people talk about how intense, how amazing it was between true mates, but still, she hadn’t imagined that. And she had an excellent, vivid imagination that she put to use many times on the subject.
She didn’t have anything to compare it to, but even if she did, she knew in her bones sex with Karis was a million times better than sex with someone else would be. Heck, he practically put her in a coma. No way could anyone else top that.
Feeling some strength return to her limbs, she pushed herself up on an elbow and looked for her mate. He was crouched down at the water’s edge, but as she watched, he pushed himself back up. Even after being pleasured nearly senseless, her breath still caught as she watched him start to turn around. He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen—
CRACK!
She startled hard as her heart started racing. Was that a freakin’ gunshot? Heart stopping as Karis dropped to the ground, she started to jump to her feet to go to him and then stopped. Hell, if she stood up, she’d become a target. She’d do Karis no good if she was shot, too. Her brain was frozen, though, as terror poured through her body. Think, Arya, think!
Belly crawl. On your elbows and knees. The grass will shield you. Go now! her tiger urged desperately.
Thank God for her tiger. Quickly yanking her leggings back up, she began belly crawling through the grass. She went as quickly as she could, but it felt like it was taking forever, and her terror and panic built more and more. Her breath was coming in gasps as she realized she could have already lost Karis.
He’d been shot. Shot. Guns were banned in Durga Valley. They always had been, and that was one rule Kian hadn’t changed. A gun in the hands of an asshole War Cat was a scary thing, because they were mostly volatile, with quick tempers. She’d never been around guns, and they were one weapon she didn’t know how to fight.
Shit, why was it taking so damn long to reach him? She was quickly turning into a mess, and her tiger was pacing and shredding her chest in turn, over and over. She wasn’t trying to get out, though, understanding that wouldn’t help anything. Thank God, because Arya didn’t have the control to fight her right now.
Finally reaching him, she nearly sobbed with relief when he turned his head and looked at her. He was alive, thank fuck, and he didn’t look like he was mortally injured. He was livid, though, that much was clear.
“Where are you hurt?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “The bullet just barely grazed my arm. I only fell so they couldn’t try again. Don’t stand up. They could still be here.”
“I won’t, but I feel like we’re sitting ducks. How are we going to get out of here? And let me see your arm.”
He rolled up on his good side, showing her his other arm. The bullet left a deep groove, and there was a lot of blood, but even as she watched, his tiger was healing the wound.
“I doubt they’ll come searching for us. Odds are, they took off as soon as they fired the gun. Something like that will draw a lot of people. We don’t have guns here, and it was loud enough to be heard all over the whole village. I just don’t want either one of us standing up and chancing it. Better to wait until we hear people coming.”
Raising her head, she heard shouts and footsteps through the grass. “I hear them already.”
“Stay low,” he said, sitting up so his head was visible over the grass. “The warriors and some other tribe members are coming. Jameson, Kian! Over here.”
Turning to her, he sat up and held his hand out to her. His wound was almost completely healed, so she took his shirt and used the wet portion to wipe the blood away. Hissing a breath in, he glared at her. “Could have waited another minute. Then it wouldn’t have hurt.”
“Oh, don’t be a baby,” she scolded. Then her eyes started burning, and she sniffed, trying to hold her tears in.
An alarmed look passed over his face. “What? What is it, sweetheart? Are you hurt?”
Shaking her head, she scrubbed at her nose where it was stinging with the tears she was holding back. “No, I’m fine. I just thought I’d lost you. I saw you fall, and then it felt like it took years to get to you, and every second that passed was another piece of my heart breaking. I can’t lose you, Karis. Ever.”
Shaking his head, he kissed her quickly, pulling back to gaze into her eyes as Kian and Jameson came close. “You’ll never lose me, sweetheart. It took me thirty-five years to find you. I’m not letting anyone or anything take you from me, or me from you. You have my promise on that.”
Before she could reply, Kian and Jameson reached them as the other shifters went to the woods where the gun was fired.
“What the hell happened?” Kian asked, a scowl on his face.
“Someone fired a gun at me. I didn’t see who it was. I dropped to the grass so I wasn’t a target, and Arya crawled over to me. We heard you guys coming right after that. That’s all I know.”
Jameson frowned at where she was cleaning the last of the blood off Karis’ arm. “You were hit?”
“It just grazed me. No big deal.”
Arya frowned at him. No big deal, her ass. He was shot, even if the bullet didn’t lodge in his body. She thought that was a huge deal.
Chad spoke up from a few feet away. “I found the bullet. It’s a nine-millimeter casing.”
Kian narrowed his eyes on him. “How do you know so much about bullets that you can tell what kind it is?”
Chad shrugged. “I haven’t always lived in Durga Valley. I used to go to the gun range a lot in Denver.”
Zane walked out of the woods and headed toward them. “No sign of whoever it was, and there are a lot of scents over there. Too many to pinpoint the shooter. I’ve got tigers in animal form and human searching the area, but I’m not sure we’ll find him.”
“This motherfucker is too clever. He always chooses a place where there’s a lot of foot traffic,” Karis said with a scowl as he stood, holding out a hand to help Arya up. “Come on. I don’t like you being out in the open.”
They started walking to his house, Kian, Jameson and Zane walking with them. Arya sighed, her stomach still churning from their near miss. “Well, we know that whoever this is, is out to get Karis.”
“What makes you think that?” Jameson asked, looking at her in surprise. “You had a note attached to your door and cameras in your house.”
She shrugged. “Maybe it’s two different people. Or maybe they’re trying to warn me to back off, but kill Karis. He had a bullet shot at him. And we were never sure who the arrow was meant for. We just assumed it was me because of the note. But today makes it likely they were aiming for him.”
“You’re not out of danger,” Karis bit out, glaring at her.
“She has a valid point.” Kian held up his hands as Karis switched his glare to him. “I agree that it doesn’t mean she’s out of danger. But the things done to her weren’t life threatening. They were to you.”
“The questi
on becomes is it one person messing with both of us for different reasons, or is it two separate people?” she wondered.
Jameson shrugged. “There’s no way to be sure, but I’d bet money on it being the same person. Someone who wants Arya to back off her course, though not enough to kill her. And who is willing to kill Karis for allowing her to become a warrior.”
Karis shook his head. “The arrow was before that, when we were just about to start her training.”
“So maybe they found out you agreed to train her and wanted to nip it in the bud before you had the chance to begin.”
“You’re all assuming this has anything to do with me becoming a warrior,” Arya pointed out.
Kian glanced over at her. “It’s all assumptions at this point. But the note seemed to point to just that.”
Pursing her lips, she nodded reluctantly. Alpha definitely had a point with that. She’d known chasing her dreams and freedom would rub some of the tribe members the wrong way, but she’d never imagined it would lead to this. If they were trying to kill her, it wouldn’t be hitting her so hard.
But they hadn’t tried to kill her. They were trying to kill Karis. Her mate. If something happened to him, if he were hurt or, God forbid, actually killed, she would have no one to blame but herself. Her stomach churned at the image of Karis lifeless on the ground, and she almost lost her lunch.
Maybe it was better for everyone if she stepped down as second ranked warrior. Lord knew, she didn’t want to. It was the last thing she wanted. But maybe she should, at least until whoever was stalking them was caught. Maybe they’d back off if she wasn’t a warrior any longer.
They reached the house and all went inside. Turning to the others, she forced a smile and said softly, “I’m going to go shower. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Not waiting on a reply, she turned and went upstairs, heading straight for the master bathroom. Turning on the shower, she stripped her clothes and stepped in as soon as the water warmed.
And once she was under the spray, she let her tears have free rein. She couldn’t remember the last time she truly cried, and as she stuck her head under the water, she had to cover her mouth as a sob slipped free. She didn’t want any sensitive shifter ears to pick up on the sounds of her crying.
She wasn’t crying because she planned on stepping down, though the thought of doing so hurt to the core. No, she was crying because she came far too close to losing her mate this afternoon. Losing Karis. He was her world, her everything. And he was shot today, because of her.
Wrapping her arms around her waist, she leaned into the cold tile of the shower wall and cried like she’d never cried before.
Karis cast his eyes up toward the second floor, worry filling his chest. Arya’s smile had been forced, her bright blue eyes full of sadness. She hadn’t been herself, at all. Understandable under the circumstances, but his mate was fierce, and didn’t let many things get to her. When they did, she bounced back quickly. But this felt different.
She’d been scared, he knew that. But on the walk here, she was her usual self, trying to brush it off, and contributing to the speculation on who the fucker was that was doing this. It wasn’t until they neared the house that he felt, rather than saw, the change in her.
Fix her. Fix mate, his tiger pleaded, scrabbling in his chest.
I will. Soon, he promised.
A knock sounded on the door, drawing him from his thoughts. Kian studied him as Jameson went to answer it. “You okay? You looked a million miles away there for a minute.”
“Just worried about Arya,” he replied, trying to sound casual, and knowing he failed spectacularly. “She was pretty upset when she went upstairs.”
“Do you blame her? How would you feel if she had been shot at? If a bullet grazed her skin?”
His tiger hissed inside him as his body went cold at the thought. Before he could reply, Trevor walked in, carrying something wrapped in a cloth. Karis was on his feet in an instant.
“Did you guys find him?”
Trevor shook his head. “No, and we searched every inch of Durga Valley. We didn’t want to leave tribe lands, though, not in tiger form. And odds are, he lives here so he just casually went about his day amongst the tribe.”
“Fuck,” Karis growled, pacing through the living room.
“Did you find any clues?” Jameson asked.
“Nothing, except for this.” Holding up the cloth, Trevor unwrapped it and gingerly picked up a gun. “It looked like it was tossed toward the water, but didn’t quite make it. Chad found it. Said it’s a nine-millimeter Glock, easy to get access to.”
Kian stalked forward and took the gun, checking the chamber. “Empty. And there were no other clues?”
“None,” Trevor replied with a shake of his head, before looking around. “How’s Arya?”
“Shaken up, obviously. You can leave now.”
Trevor nodded and left silently as Kian frowned at Karis. “Rude.”
“Trevor tries my patience at the best of times, and I have none to spare right now.”
Jameson slapped his shoulder. “We’ll find him before he can hurt your mate.”
“We better. If he’s stooping to using a gun, he’s completely out of control. No one in this tribe is safe. A gun in the hands of a War Cat isn’t a good thing, and this incident might have given tribe members ideas.”
Kian scowled. “It better not. I’ll call a tribe meeting soon. Make it clear what the consequences are for having a gun.”
Jameson headed for the door. “I’m gonna go see if there’s anything else I can do to help with the search, or look for clues. There has to be something.”
Kian nodded. “Zane and I will get out of here, too. Reassure Arya. Make sure she knows we won’t let anything happen to either one of you.”
The door closed behind them, and Karis continued pacing. The water in the shower was still running, and he took the time to figure out what he could do to put a smile back on her face. Reassuring her would only go so far. He would, of course, but he wanted to do something to cheer her up. Much like he couldn’t live without her, he couldn’t live without seeing her smile.
A moment later, his lips curled up. Of course. Quickly pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Mikhail’s number, waiting impatiently for him to pick up.
“Karis, how are you? I heard what happened. Is Arya okay?”
“We’re both okay. Look, could you and Caroline come over in about two hours? Nothing to worry about, I just needed to talk to you about something.”
“Sure, no problem. We’ll be there.”
“Thanks. See you then.”
Ending the call, Karis smiled. He’d decided to tell her father anyway, and the timing seemed perfect. Letting her parents know, not hiding what they were from the tribe any more—that was sure to put a smile on her face.
The stairs creaked, and he turned around to see her coming down the stairs, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, her long black hair hanging free and still damp. She was smiling, but when she got to the bottom step and looked at him, her eyes were red. Fuck, she’d been crying, and the knowledge gutted him.
Rushing to her as she stepped onto the floor, he pulled her in his arms and held her tightly. “Oh, baby, everything’s going to be okay. I promise. I got you, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you or me.”
Arya sighed, burrowing into Karis’ hard chest as his big arms wrapped around her. She should have known she wouldn’t be able to hide the crying jag she went on in the shower. Her eyes were too red. But she’d been hoping he’d think she was just tired, although that seemed like an idiotic hope now.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, pulling back to look him in the eye.
“Of course,” he replied, unable to hide his worry as he brushed her hair over her shoulder. “What is it?”
Steeling herself to say words she’d never wanted to say, she inhaled deeply. “I think I should resign from being a warrior.”
Hand freezing,
he stared at her with stunned gray eyes. “What? Why would you do that? Being a warrior is your dream.”
“A dream that could kill you, Kare. I don’t want it if it will hurt you in any way. That’s a nightmare, not a dream.”
Mouth opening and closing a few times, he finally took her hand and led her into the living room. Sitting in an armchair, he pulled her down onto his lap and looked into her eyes.
“Now listen to me closely. Nothing is going to happen to me, or to you. I won’t let it. We’ll catch whoever’s doing this. And I will not let you give up your dream. It’s not necessary, sweetheart.”
To her horror, she felt tears pressing against her eyes again. Lord, she was a watering pot. She hadn’t cried in years, and it seemed like her body was trying to make up for all the time without doing so, all in one day.
“If my dream is hurting someone else, especially you, then it’s what I need to do.”
“Do you want to resign? Don’t think about anyone, or anything, else right now. If no one was being threatened, would you want to?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. Being a warrior is what I’ve always wanted, always dreamed of. But I couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt because of my dream.”
“That’s not going to happen. But let’s think about this some more. Let’s say you gave up being a warrior. Would you be willing to move back in with your parents and start wearing a sari again, indefinitely? To pretend the rules never changed?”
Just the thought made her twitchy. “No, absolutely not.”
“I think that’s what it would take. My gut says this is one person targeting us both. And you being a warrior is only part of it. Remember what the note said? Learn your place. And the spaghetti—I think that was to imply you needed to do women’s jobs. This person won’t be satisfied unless you go back to how you lived before the rules changed. And you can’t do that. Not only because you’d die a little inside if you did, but because what you’re doing is too important. Yeah, Kelly ditched the rules the second she was able, but the tribe still considers her an outsider. But you, you were born here. You’re a true War Cat. The women, they’re paying attention. They’re watching. You’re the one they’re going to trust and follow.”
Karis Page 15