Potty-geddon had only inconvenienced an afternoon and their washing machine. What Armana and Cassie had to say was on another level. He didn’t know how he knew that.
The room went silent. Cassie stared at Armana, her eyes wide. Armana wrung the cloth and drops splattered to the floor. A muscle jumped in Jace’s jaw, but he stayed by Cassie’s side. He was staring at his mother, but his expression was carefully measured to hide any emotion.
Cassie opened her mouth first, but Armana interrupted. “You called me Armana when you woke, so you have your memories back, yes?”
He nodded. His aches and pains had vanished, his curiosity too strong.
“That’s to be expected,” she muttered. “It only works on humans.” Her gaze jerked to Jace. A muscle popped in his jaw. She met Gray’s gaze again. “I mated you to save your life.”
“Excuse me?” He’d heard every word. None of it made sense. He’d had that feeling a lot recently.
“You’re still human, but you’re not.” Armana pressed her fingers to her temples. “I’m messing this up.”
“Ya think?” Jace’s eyes sparked icy fire. “Go back further and tell the commander what was going on.”
Armana folded her hands together. Her gaze dropped to the floor. “We were seeing each other.”
“But Dad found her,” Cassie said. “She didn’t—”
“She didn’t walk away,” Jace growled. Cassie snapped her mouth shut and narrowed her gaze on Jace, displeasure rippling through her expression.
Gray had little clue what was going on, but they obviously knew she’d been going by Amy and continuing to see him. He would not let his drama come between his daughter and her…mate.
Armana had said she’d mated him. What exactly did she mean? That could wait until after he cleared up the issue for Jace.
He struggled into a sitting position. Armana was at his side, but she didn’t stop him. She held her hands away as if she were afraid to touch him in front of the others.
“I dreamed of Armana.” Her brows shot up at his confession. He wished he could pull her next to him. “I ran all over town like a madman.” Probably not the best choice of word. “I was driven by some instinct. I found that cabin.”
The cabin. Oh yes, he had all his memories. He cleared his throat and persuaded his brain to not dive into the memories or he’d be sporting an inappropriate erection.
“Oh my God.” Jace stepped forward, but Cassie caught his arm. “You two were sneaking around even then. Armana, don’t you think about anyone but yourself?”
“Don’t talk to her like that.” Gray had never heard himself speak like that. Low. Dangerous.
Jace’s gaze flickered and he eased back. “Explain.”
Armana’s hand lifted and Gray grabbed it, twining his fingers through hers. She didn’t look at him.
“Yes,” she answered. “We were attracted to each other instantly, and we acted on it.”
“But then I found her and asked her out.” Gray smiled at her, coaxing a ghost of a grin from her. Was she remembering how he’d charged up on her like a maniac? “She turned me down.”
“Then I didn’t.” She lifted a shoulder. “I couldn’t stay away. But eventually… I couldn’t see a way it wouldn’t end in disaster. So I broke it off.” She squeezed his hand. “I didn’t want to.”
“Then Jenna started hitting on me.” He told the rest of what he remembered. When he was done, he looked at Armana. This was the part he needed to know, but he didn’t really care. His daughter was in the room, safe, and with her mate, who was also unharmed. And Armana was with him.
The rest was the small stuff.
Cassie jumped in. “He covered me when the shifters opened fire. I got hit, but”—her eyes brimmed—“he got hit.” Jace hugged her to him.
“We couldn’t go to the hospital without the shifters finishing the job and probably taking out me and Cassie, or calling attention to our kind.” Guilt. He inhaled. It was like he could smell the emotion coming off of Armana. Was this a new symptom of his disease? She squared her shoulders and looked her son in the eye. “We made it here, but Doc couldn’t help him. I mated him to save his life.”
Mated. “Is that why I feel different?”
Cassie nodded. “Your senses will grow stronger over time, but you won’t be like a natural-born shifter. And you won’t have their abilities.”
“But you’ll share my life span,” Armana said softly. “And I’ll share yours. One of us goes, the other goes.”
Because he was human. Sort of. He waited for the voices to tell him how she was lying and how she was trapped with him, and she was, but they were quiet. They couldn’t gain ground beyond his astonishment.
“So, we’re, like, married?” he asked. “Wait. I thought mates could tell they were supposed to be…you know, mates.”
Commander Fitzsimmons broke his silence to explain. “Most wait until they sense their mate. There’ve also been cases of shifters losing their mates and meeting another. But we can tempt fate and bond with whomever we want.”
Even when they were unconscious, apparently. “Will this be a problem?”
The commander cocked a rusty eyebrow. “Depends. When you two were dating, did she reveal herself?”
“No,” Gray said. He’d been happily ignorant.
Armana shook her head.
“Then what happens next is in your hands. Do I have to deal with a shifter who mated someone without their knowledge or their consent?”
“But she saved my life.”
The commander shrugged. “I have to report to the Synod. You’re going to tell me what to say. But…” He planted his hands on his hips, the move intent and intimidating. “You don’t have to decide how violated you feel now. Take some time, think on it. Alone.”
They all stared at him.
“With Armana,” the commander clarified.
“What?” Jace sputtered.
Commander Fitzsimmons leveled him with a burning stare that’d drop a lesser male. “Because I don’t want Cassie’s ‘thank god you’re not dead’ to influence his decision to spend his life with your mother. And I don’t want you filling Gray’s head with old resentments that are between you and your mom and not Gray and your mom. I’m not forcing Gray to spend a life with someone he doesn’t want to; neither am I forcing it on your mother. Gray feels violated, he comes to me. Armana feels trapped, she comes to me.” The hard gaze turned on Gray. “But ultimately, since this was forced on you, the final say is yours. Let me know what you decide.”
He stalked out the door, opening it with a clang that made them all jump.
“I trusted you,” Jace said to Armana. “I trusted you to take care of Cassie, and you…” He shook his head and stormed out.
“I’ll talk to him.” Cassie didn’t leave right away. She crossed to him and threw her arms around his neck.
“It’ll be all right, peanut.”
Would it? Jace was angry at his mother. Gray had a new life to adjust to and he had the commander’s words echoing in his head. Armana feels trapped, she comes to me.
***
Evening had long since fallen by the time Armana and Gray reached his house. Unloading her luggage from her car, Armana dreaded the night to come. Gray had been quiet after the commander had made his decree. Jace and Cassie hadn’t seen her off. Gray’s car had still been at the marathon parking lot. Armana had given him a ride to his car, but he’d been lost in his thoughts all the way there.
That was one tense drive she’d rather not experience again. In his home, she’d be able to retreat somewhere, anywhere, if he continued his silent treatment.
How upset was he? She couldn’t tell. A lot of things had to sink in for him and how they’d settle was a mystery.
She’d parked on the street and Gray had pulled into the garage, leaving it open behind him. She hefted her bag and followed in his wake, glad he was unlocking the house door.
“It seems like forever since I’ve been back,
” he said.
She was about to say, “Me, too,” but that would only highlight how she’d given him a fake name, led him on, then broken up with him. So she swallowed the words and went inside.
The familiar smells of his house sank into her psyche. She liked how it always smelled like he’d just made a meal. A pleasant hazard of cooking at home so often. The air was laced with his shampoo and conditioner and aftershave, all simple department-store buys.
“Hungry?” he asked.
How could she be with the mess of emotions inside of her? She wasn’t here to win him over. Her first reaction at the commander’s orders had been a surprise. Either he wasn’t worried that she’d seduce Gray with her wiles, or he didn’t think she could, or he thought it’d solve enough problems if she did.
She wanted to seduce Gray, that was the problem. But she couldn’t. He had to decide whether or not he could spend the rest of his forever with her.
“You need nutrition,” she said. “Lots of red meat if you have it.”
“I do, actually. I usually feast on chicken, but I’d planned to celebrate my race with a few steak nights.”
She followed him from his garage through a small coatroom and into the kitchen. He went straight for the fridge and withdrew some steaks, along with bell peppers and onions and mushrooms. Was he going to make kabobs?
Her stomach rumbled. She had her own healing to do and hadn’t eaten anything all day.
She caught herself staring at his back as he prepped their supper. Her main excuse was admiring the play of muscles across it, but mostly she didn’t want to ask the next question.
“Where should I put my bag?”
He paused midslice and faced her. “Where do you want to put your bag?”
She pressed her fingers to her temples. “God, Gray. I don’t know. I mean, I do, but I don’t know what I should say.”
He was in front of her within seconds, his hands on her shoulders. When she dropped her arm, she was staring into his concerned gaze. He was worried about her after what she’d done?
“Say what you want to say,” he said.
The desperately held dam she’d constructed since she’d seen him abducted broke. “I want to put it in your room and not leave your bed for days. I want you to say that this will be all right, that if you were allowed to know me as me and I was allowed to associate with you, that we would’ve ended up here anyway. I want to say I’m sorry.”
He dropped a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m sorry, too. There’s not much we can change, but I’ve come to the decision that I wouldn’t want to anyway.”
“Really?”
He brushed a tear from her cheek. She hadn’t known she’d been crying. “Really. I haven’t met anyone since Lillian that made me wish I could spend my life with them. You know about me.” Unease infused his eyes.
“Are you worried about that?” She looped her hands around his wrists. “Because I’m not. You won’t be miraculously healed, but you did do well after they tampered with your mind, so…”
“So maybe all I needed was a memory wipe?” His eyes crinkled at the corners.
She smiled. The ice between them broke and the comfort that she’d had with him as Amy returned. “We have shifters who can do what human doctors and their medicines can’t. We also have Jace and his power of influence.”
“He could talk my voices down on a subconscious level?” Understanding dawned and a grin spread over his face. “This is my wildest fantasy come true.” His expression fell. “But you’re stuck with me, too.”
“Oh, Gray. I wouldn’t have mated you if the thought of losing you didn’t destroy me.” She held up his palm and stroked the mark of their bonding. “I switched hands, you know. At the time I worried that I’d done that because I was afraid of feeling like a traitor to Bane. And that was part of it, but I also wanted you and I to have our own start.”
“We’ll never overwrite what we had before, and we don’t need to. We’re starting over with you and me.”
Her breath caught. “You’re serious? You want to be with me? Forever?”
His smile was a line straight to her heart. “Armana, you captured my heart as soon as you busted down my back door.”
He claimed her mouth. She hugged him hard, their lips smashing together. His arms came around her waist. It’d been too long since he’d held her like that. Only a couple of weeks, but too damn long.
He broke away to stroke her cheek. “Think dinner can wait?”
It shouldn’t. He had to be starving after all the healing he’d done. Plus, there was one thing he didn’t know about. “We should eat first. You need the strength and I need to explain the mating frenzy.”
His brow cocked and male interest shone in his eyes. “I can’t wait to find out. But I’m not calling the commander for a few days.”
She stiffened. Had something changed his mind? Had he interpreted her streak of responsibility as meaning she wasn’t truly interested?
“No, I haven’t changed my mind. But after having to sneak around because of our kids and because I’m human, they can all sit and wonder for a while. You and I are taking this time for ourselves. Do you agree?”
She’d already be naked if he weren’t holding her. “Oh, Gray. I had to walk away from you twice and almost lost you for good. You’re finally mine.”
“And you’re mine.”
Dinner would have to wait after all.
Epilogue
Gray watched Armana as she squinted down the road. Her target walked out of a designer clothing store, one of those that didn’t have a clearance rack and offered one-of-a-kind pieces that would devour one of Gray’s paychecks.
“There she is,” Gray said around a bite of his burger. “How can she afford a store like that when she drives that jalopy around?”
Stakeouts were fun. Each time he joined Armana, he enjoyed it more and more. It was an excellent outlet for his natural suspicion.
“My guess is that her next stop will be a car lot that sells sporty, expensive vehicles,” Armana said.
When Gray had called Commander Fitzsimmons and said that he’d claimed her right and proper, all the commander had said was “Good. Now choose a pack.”
That decision wasn’t easy. Armana’s old pack, the one she was technically a part of, where Maggie lived, wasn’t a viable option. The pack was in a small village with even fewer options for employment and recreation, especially since he couldn’t shift and run in the woods. Sure, they could’ve made it work, but was that how they wanted to start their life together?
After they spent three days eating and ravishing each other, Armana moved her things into his home, what little she had. She didn’t want to leave Freemont and neither did he.
As she and Gray talked about their options and went over the time she was Amy to him and protecting Cassie, the answer revealed itself. He went with her when she approached the commander. Did the West Creek Guardians need a private investigator?
“You two will have to go through training,” he said. “You might not be Guardians, but you might find yourselves in another shoot-out.”
Armana’s brow furrowed. “But Gray’s going to stay at the Sporting Warehouse.”
The commander came the closest to rolling his eyes that Gray had ever seen. “You’re telling me he won’t ever go into the field with you? Or that once he has to move on from the store, he won’t start working with you, or for us in some other capacity?”
The guy was sharp. Any time Gray dealt with him, the male’s innate nature to lead was clear. “Commander, did you know I wasn’t upset over the mating?”
“Despite your mind being wiped, and amid all the people in Freemont and West Creek, you found her. So, yeah, I had an inclination.” Commander Fitzsimmons pinned Armana with his steely gaze. “And you risked Jace’s wrath to be with him. You wouldn’t do that for someone you didn’t love.”
Yes. Jace. He’d been upset with her. Gray invited him and Cassie over and after a tens
ion-filled dinner, the icy wall around Jace’s heart started to melt. “You two are really into each other,” he said.
“I told you,” Cassie replied. “You weren’t around to see them together, and if I hadn’t been so worried about you and Dad, I would’ve caught it earlier.”
Before they left that night, Armana and Jace went outside for a long and overdue talk. After they left, Armana admitted that it was the first time in years that she wasn’t second-guessing herself or looking over her shoulder.
Now she was back out hunting, only this time it was for humans who were working for rogue shifters to sell out both species.
Their target had gone into a jewelry store. This one the Guardians suspected of recruiting her friends at school to parties where they were drugged and used for sex, only to wake in the morning utterly violated with no memory.
While the girl was in the store, Gray figured it was the right time to spill his news. “I put in my notice.”
Armana’s bright gaze landed on him. “Are we going to be partners?”
“Miller and Stockwell Security will be a full-time team.” The Guardians didn’t have the time or shifter-power to do what they did: drive around and spy on people.
“M&S Security, I like it.” Armana had kept her last name. He had thought it because it represented the person she’d grown into after she’d run with her children. But she’d said that it was generic and wouldn’t link her back to a Guardian. His crafty female. “I think we should recruit more shifters. Jace mentioned a buddy at the club he used to work at.”
“Pale Moonlight?” Gray hadn’t been there, but Cassie had told him just enough about the shifter bar to read between the lines. Carnal desires in a safe place.
“I told him I thought there was a need for bodyguards for human mates when they’re away from the pack. Guardians can’t cover it all, but it could be a service we offer. Maybe we could hire on his friend Waylon. I think Jace is worried this guy is getting restless, arguing with his pack leader more, and going rogue might be next.”
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