by Rosanna Leo
He felt lost in her black eyes, sure his world had tipped on its axis. “I don’t know. Under the right circumstances…depending on the kid…I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Well, bless you for that non-committal maybe. I’ll take it,” she replied, a sultry lilt to her voice.
Even as he wondered about the new, coquettish tone in her voice, even as he struggled to maintain control of a growing erection, a memory from the past zoomed into his frontal lobe.
His mother and father, forcing him and his brothers Percy and Byron to fall to their knees.
Bless the Lord of the Alphas for your superior strength. Pray that we may one day obtain dominance over the vile humans. We shall rip their kind to shreds with our animal teeth and enslave them. We shall prove our dominance and rule this land, the land in which our ancestors reigned. The Universe deems it so.
“Killian,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Are you okay? You’re really pale.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He stood, not trusting himself in her presence for a couple of reasons. “I’ll see you later.” He rushed out of the room, leaving Nina alone.
Damn. Why did being with Nina make him think about his parents? He hadn’t spared a thought for those bastards for ages. From the time their parents pledged allegiance to the Alpha Brethren, the Moon brothers had made their own way in the world. Their folks had always been tinged with fanaticism, but when they joined the Brethren, Killian and his brothers said good-bye to Mary and Lawrence Moon. Their priority hadn’t been their children anyway. It had always been religion, in whatever format. In pursuit of their religion, they’d tormented their sons. Killian had been uncomfortable with any sort of spirituality since.
Being around Nina, a woman who oozed a certain spiritual sensuality, he couldn’t have felt more uncomfortable.
Okay, so maybe she’d helped Dawn in this case, but that didn’t mean the girl wouldn’t go home and have issues later. Pretending to be a warrior princess wouldn’t solve everything.
No, he had to remain on guard. Nina might think she understood his people, but she didn’t. And every moment she spent on Gemini Island brought her closer to danger. He could feel it.
Chapter 5
NINA caught herself staring at Killian that evening. They’d been with the teens all day, indulging in every physical activity known to man. They’d raced around the lake again, hiked into the woods, climbed a few hills and to add insult to injury, finished off the day in the weight room. Now, by the waning light, he taught them how to start a fire using nothing but a couple of rocks and the sheer force of his iron will. As she sat and allowed her sad muscles to scream, it occurred to her Killian had a real talent for setting fires. Literally and figuratively.
While a couple of the boys took turns trying to light the fire, Killian did jumping jacks on the spot behind them, coaching. Shouting like a drill master. When he tired of doing jumping jacks, he began running on the spot.
Running. Always moving. Was the man’s energy boundless? Did he never stop running?
It made her wonder what he was running from.
She would ask if she managed to get two minutes alone with him. However, today he seemed on a mission to evade her at every turn. Each time she’d tried to run with him, he’d sped up, his shifter muscles helping him peel away. When she’d asked a few questions about Gemini Island, he’d provided clipped answers. And whenever she’d even hinted at talking some more about Janine’s death, he’d shut her down with one of his patented death glares.
She wanted to crack this rigid nut, but was beginning to think she didn’t possess the right nutcracker. Just when she thought she made strides with him, he retreated.
Picking up a stick, she poked at the ground. So concentrated on Killian’s stubbornness, she didn’t notice when the stubborn man himself appeared at her side. The glow from the fire lit up one side of his face, making him resemble the mysterious embodiment of the element.
“Your yoga pants are torn.”
She looked down and plucked at the ripped fabric at her knee, a casualty of their marathon day. Ah yes, how could she forget the glorious moment when she’d fallen in front of him? That was another bright segment in her reel of highlights. “Damn. So they are. They’re Lia’s. I’ll have to replace them.”
“I guess I worked you kind of hard today.”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” This, from someone who hadn’t seen the inside of a gym since her teen days. At twenty-nine, maybe it was time she invested in a membership.
He smirked. “Oh, yeah? You work out a lot?”
“Sure. If running away from the gym counts.”
He blinked a few times, in quick succession, and then turned his head. Whoa! Did she almost get a smile out of Killian Moon? Someone, stop the presses.
Okay, Nina. You’re not exactly the personification of sunshine and light right now either. Maybe you should recite some of those affirmations you taught Dawn.
They sat quietly for a moment, both staring at the fire. When he spoke again, it was so quiet she almost didn’t hear him.
“You have freckles.”
“Pardon?”
He spared her a glance. “I noticed you have freckles on the bridge of your nose. I usually only see them on pasty folk like me.”
Pasty folk? She’d spent a good portion of the day raking her reluctant gaze over his bare chest and back, and knew for a fact not a single inch of his golden flesh was in any way pasty. “I get the freckles from my Scottish grandmother. My background is, well, eclectic.”
“How so?”
“Japanese dad. Guyanese mom. Some Scottish and Algonquian thrown in for good measure. You know, just to keep the pasty folk on their toes.”
He looked her in the eye, as if trying to glean her past, as if to visualize her hurts and dreams. His gaze unnerved her, made her feel naked. And when his gaze grew dark and dropped toward her breast line, she felt naked and wanton.
She tempted fate and kept the conversation going. “What’s your background?”
Something in his eye flashed and hardened. He stood. “I’m all shifter. Jaguar to the core. My parents would refer to me as pureblooded. No human in me at all.”
“You don’t trust humans much, do you?”
“It’s not a matter of trust. It’s a matter of survival. I’d like to believe in a world where species can mingle and where shifters can live in peace with humans, but it’s hard for me to visualize. Unfortunately, as you’ve seen with the teens in the program, humans don’t always inspire confidence.”
“I would never tell anyone about what I’ve seen here. You have to believe me.”
“I want to, Nina, but there are a whole lot of other people out there I just can’t trust. And they’re not all humans.” With that, he stood and stared into the growing fire, seemingly mesmerized by the flicking flames. His face assumed the aspect of disgust, but for whom she could not tell. His lip curled and his nostrils flared. After a moment, he turned to her. “I am sorry about your friend. More than you know.”
He walked over to talk to a couple of the kids, leaving her sitting alone. As the night air brushed across her neck, she pulled her jacket tighter. It didn’t matter. Cold had already infiltrated her blood stream, turning all her warmth into icicles.
* * * *
He walked her to her cabin that evening. Even if they hadn’t been bunking next door to each other, he would have. After spending an entire day ruminating on Nina’s various and substantial charms, Killian knew he had to walk her home. She was on his mind, more than he cared for her to be. Every time he tried to convince himself he was just preoccupied with her situation, he knew it was more than simple concern. The strange emotion told him, in no uncertain terms, he had to walk her to her door and make sure she got into her cabin safely.
Hell, he would have done it with any other woman, too. Being a red-blooded shifter male, he didn’t like to think chivalry was dead. He’d always t
reated his dates well. Only with Nina, he felt a compulsion to do more, to extend himself. To try harder. To shine brighter. To fucking lasso the moon, like Jimmy Stewart in that black and white movie.
Maybe it was because his jaguar wouldn’t leave him alone. After more or less ignoring every other woman he’d bedded, the feeble-minded cat seemed intent on raking its claws all over Nina’s skin, nipping her and licking her. Killian’s body responded to the internal prompts, remaining stimulated for hours on end. Every time she spoke to him, he had to turn away. Every time she touched his arm, questioning him about Janine, he had to change the subject.
He couldn’t have a normal conversation with the woman without becoming harder than sun-dried cement. She must think him rude and surly and probably perverted.
And so, they walked in silence to her cabin, while he tried to forget the chaos she created with his senses. While listening to the night air whistling through the branches, it struck him Nina’s silence seemed pensive and poignant. When they got to her door, he turned to her. “Are you okay?”
She peered at him with interest. “Were you and Janine really in a club together?”
He chuckled. “No. I just didn’t know how to broach the whole shifter thing.”
“I guess it’s not easy revealing it to strangers. I can see why you’d feel the need to disguise the truth.” She looked at the ground, her shoulders drooping.
He reached for her hand. “You miss her, don’t you?”
She didn’t look up but nodded. As she did, a tear dripped down her nose. She swiped at it, her movements quick and angry.
“Hey.” He put a finger under her chin and made her look at him. “If it makes you feel better, when I find out who terrorized her, I’ll make sure he pays.”
“You’d do that for Janine?”
Yes, but he mostly wanted to do it for Nina. “Hell, yeah. We shifters don’t take kindly to thugs who mistreat women.”
She gazed at him, still holding his hand, as if he were some sort of savior. Heaven help him, he enjoyed the rush. He savored the heady excitement of the moment. Who’d have guessed he’d get off on being her hero?
He was in big trouble with this woman.
“I should let you get to sleep. It’s been a long day.” Despite his words, he didn’t let go of her hand.
“I wouldn’t be upset,” she whispered, “to find out you and Janine had a relationship. I know you said you were friends, but if it ran deeper…”
“It didn’t. Janine and I met each other a few years back through a mutual shifter friend. When I visited my buddy in Toronto, we had dinner with Janine a few times and had some laughs. It was on one of those visits that she confessed to us she was interested in a group called the Alpha Brethren.”
“Oh, no.”
“She was just curious about them and their message. You have to understand, we shifters don’t have many outlets or people to talk to. That’s why the work we do here at the Ursa is so important to all of us.”
She nodded.
“I told her about my parents’ involvement and about the Brethren’s more sinister philosophies. I begged her not to attend their meetings, but she told me she’d already reached out to them. I convinced her to end all contact with them, but clearly they didn’t lose interest in her. After that, we traded a few emails and fell out of touch. I don’t think Janine ever officially joined the Brethren, but I do believe her initial curiosity kept her on their radar. They wouldn’t have wanted to let her go.” He let out a sigh and brushed his fingers against her cheek. “I didn’t sleep with your friend, Nina.”
Her echoing sigh sounded a lot like relief. Interesting.
She rubbed her cheek against his hand. Her chest rose and fell with a shaky breath. “Would you like to sleep with me?”
Oh, fuck.
His jaguar led a charge inside his body, aching to touch her and taste her. Yes, he wanted to cry. God, yes, he wanted to bury himself in her lush body and forget about August Crane and his crazy parents and the rest of the world. He wanted Nina like he’d never wanted anyone before.
He just couldn’t have her. If he bedded a human, not only would he put himself on the Alpha Brethren’s hit list, he’d endanger her as well. He couldn’t give into his base urges and hurt her in the process. He had to be strong, for both of them.
While he hesitated, she pulled away, her face creased with obvious disappointment. “It’s okay, Killian. I get it. I’m not your type.” She turned to her door.
Oh, no, you don’t. He pulled on her arm and whipped her around to face him. She gasped as he pulled her against his length, making her feel his rigid cock. He wound one arm about her waist and used his other hand to dig into her hair, anchoring her against him. “Let’s get one thing straight. You are exactly my type. You are so much my type I’ve done nothing but think of you since you arrived. And I’d give my right arm to take you inside that cabin and fuck you ‘til the cows come home.”
Her jaw dropped.
“But I have responsibilities. To my people, to this community, and believe it or not, to you. You don’t understand my family. If they ever got wind of us, there would be hell to pay. I won’t expose you to that.”
“But…”
“No buts, Nina. I’m sorry.” He released her, wincing with the pain of a good, hot scalding, and took a few steps back. “I can’t.”
He waited until she pulled out her key card, and couldn’t miss her trembling hands. Shaking himself, he watched her head inside and lock the door and then he turned around.
Although his cabin was next door, he had trouble finding his footing, like a newborn colt trudging through quick sand. Even though the night was unseasonably warm, the walk home felt like as long and cold as a trek through the North Pole.
* * * *
Killian sat alone the next morning, nursing a coffee before heading out to see his brothers. Still horrified at turning Nina down, his jaguar, even more horrified, snapped and bit at his insides, making him feel three feet tall.
I know, I know, he said to the great cat. I’m an absolute fool. I should be put down.
He picked up the plastic menu again and smacked his head with it, several times.
Soren walked over and made a face. “Dude. What did that menu ever do to you?”
“What’s happening to me?” he whispered. “If I were insane, you’d tell me, right?”
Soren plunked himself down and did a drum roll on the table with his index fingers, ending with a crash on an imaginary cymbal. “Good news. I’m pretty sure you’re not insane.”
“Nina asked me to sleep with her last night, and I said no.”
“Jesus Christ, Killian! Are you a fucking lunatic?” He looked around the restaurant, as if seeking someone to corroborate his opinion. “Dude, you want her. Admit it. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s your mate.”
His jaguar got up on its hind legs and purred at Soren, as if happy someone finally grasped what it was trying to say. Killian wrestled the jaguar to the ground and forced it into a corner. “Nina? Impossible. Besides, I’m not looking for a mate.”
“No, but sometimes they creep up on us.” He grinned, no doubt thinking of Gioia. He leaned in and got serious. “Look, I’m speaking to you as someone who was dead set against the whole mating thing. You know me, Killian. I wouldn’t bullshit you on this. I wasn’t looking for a life partner either when Gioia tumbled into my life, but I’m so glad she did. We got over the obstacles. You and Nina can, too.”
“Not this time. She’s human, Soren. I’m already sick to death the Alpha Brethren might come looking for you and Ryland and the girls. That they might try to harm my friends. I can’t do that to Nina, too. This situation scares the shit out of me.”
Soren frowned. “Don’t you worry about Gioia and Lia. Ry and I will go to our deaths before we let anyone touch them.” He ran a hand over his face and they both remained quiet for a while. Finally, he spoke. “Have you tried
talking to your brothers about her?”
“I’m headed to see them now. I can’t help thinking they’d agree with me. Percy and Byron were terrorized by our parents, too. They wouldn’t want to subject some poor human woman to monster in-laws either.”
“Well, keep an open mind. Besides, what makes you think Nina would be any better off without you? If trouble came looking for Gioia, I’d want to be right by her side to make sure I could end her troubles. End them. You know what I mean?”
He did, and he knew Soren had already put his life on the line for his woman.
But mates? With Nina? A woman he barely knew?
Yes, his jaguar purred, licking its lips. She’s ours. Now make it right.
As a barrage of emotion sizzled in his core, Killian jumped up from the table, eager to settle his mind. He had to talk to his brothers. They weren’t mated, but they understood his parents as well as he did. Maybe he was overreacting after all.
Yes, Percy and Byron would set him straight. He’d check in with his brothers, and then he’d see if Nina had it in her heart to talk to him again.
* * * *
His brothers lived on Gemini Island, too. However, where the other employees of the Ursa Resort tended to live in cabins around the lodge, Percy and Byron had chosen a remote location on the other end of the island. Quiet men, identical twins, they liked each other’s company and preferred staying away from the activity at the lodge.
They, too, were on Ryland’s payroll, working as landscapers for the resort. The geniuses behind all the manicured paths, pruned bushes and seasonal flowers, their work elicited praise from everyone. There wasn’t a single visitor to the island who didn’t comment about the beautiful surroundings, and those compliments always made Killian even more proud of his brothers.
He drove an all-terrain vehicle over the hills and meadows leading to their large cabin. Percy and Byron lived on a big piece of land, generously offered by Ryland, so they could experiment with cuttings and cultivate various plants for the resort. It also provided them with the privacy they craved.