Yet there was still the risk of other infected wolves roaming GreyFire’s land, especially since they didn’t yet know what had caused the wolf’s eyes to turn purple or what made them go insane. Her sentries had searched the mountain, but had come up with nothing.
She needed access to both the location where the attack with the sick wolves had taken place and to the rest of DarkStalker’s land, but the cougars’ leader, Kian, had given her the worst possible answer. He couldn’t spare any of his other clan members right now. If she wanted to investigate the place where the attack had happened and/or visit the remaining purple-eyed wolf on his land, she’d have to ask Sy to guide her.
Oh, and she could only bring two people from her clan with her.
She understood Kian’s caution considering the relations between her uncle and DarkStalker’s former leader. They had not been friendly with one another. However, she was determined to work hard to change the old perceptions and to start building trust between them. That way, if something happened again in the future, both of their clans would be prepared.
In addition, if they were extremely lucky, they might one day get ShadowClaw, the bear-shifter clan in the Cascade Mountains, to trust them both too.
However, her grand schemes would have to wait. For now, she needed to talk with Sylas.
She had put off questioning him as long as possible, but with the immediate threat taken care of and Sy and his people deemed “clean” of infection, she had no excuse to avoid talking with him. She was clan leader; her past didn’t matter. Only the future well-being of her clan was important.
It was time to set things straight.
Leaving her office, she maneuvered the web of corridors carved out of the stone of the mountain, careful to take a path that would steer clear of Erika or any of Kaya’s other commanders. It’d taken her time to work up her nerve to talk with her ex, and being sidetracked might make her lose it.
As she moved through the corridors, she ran her hand against the smooth, cool rock that made up most of the walls of her clan’s home. GreyFire hadn’t always lived in rooms carved out of the mountains. At one time, they’d been forced to eke out an existence in the woods.
But after World War II, each shifter clan had been granted a parcel of land to call home. While their original living spaces had been crude, the advancement of technology now allowed the shifters of the Cascades to power their small subterranean cities inside the mountains via geothermal energy.
Still, as she finally hit the cool air of late-September, the wolf inside of Kaya wanted to howl at finally being outside.
All too often, her clan duties kept her cooped up. She itched to shift and go for a run, but that would require shedding her clothes. The last thing she wanted was to be naked when she faced Sy face-to-face for the first time in more than a decade.
All of a sudden, memories of the final time she’d been naked with Sy, while he’d taken her from behind under the full moon, filled her head. His touch had been warm and rough, his caresses loving. Add that to his hard cock pounding into her and filling her to the point of almost pain, and she couldn’t remember ever screaming as loud as she had when she’d come back then.
A longing she’d tried to deny, about wanting a male to fuck her because she was a female and not because she was clan leader, rushed forth, but Kaya quickly pushed the feeling aside. Seeing Sy was going to be painful enough; she didn’t need a reminder of how he’d wanted her back when she’d been nothing but a slightly naive young woman.
Irritated with herself, she picked up her pace. Why the hell was she thinking about sex with Sy in the first place? The man had promised her the world, only to leave her when her uncle, GreyFire’s former clan leader, had applied the slightest amount of pressure.
The asshole hadn’t even bothered to say good-bye. He sure as hell didn’t deserve her lusty thoughts, no matter how much she’d enjoyed his cock or the feel of his hot, hard body over hers.
Stop it, Kaya. You’re not a damn sex-crazed teenager. She walked faster. The sooner she reached the sentry shelter, the sooner she could finally kick Sylas Murray out of her life for good.
~~~
Sy shuffled the deck of cards in his hands, and then looked to Aidan and Danika, the two clan members who’d accompanied him here. “Double or nothing?” he asked.
Aidan pushed his chair back from the table and put up his hands. “I’m done. If I bet any more sentry duty hours, I’ll be fifty before I can finish them.”
Sy grinned. “You’re no fun.” He looked to Dani. “Are you up for it, missy?”
Dani narrowed her eyes. “Call me ‘missy’ again and see what happens.”
“I would, but I’d rather stay conscious just in case our host ever decides to make an appearance.”
Aidan crossed his arms over his chest. “Remember, she’s the leader here, Sy. Irritating her too much might cost the clan.”
Sy’s grin faded. “I know.” He placed the deck of cards in the middle of the table and leaned back in his chair. “But it’s been two days. If she doesn’t come soon and let us know what her researchers discovered with their tests, I might have to irritate her, if only to get her attention.”
Dani shrugged. “She’ll have to let us out eventually. I’m sure she doesn’t want to make Kian into an enemy, especially since DarkStalker is due to upgrade some of their geothermal turbines over the next year.”
Sy stood up. “They could always find someone else to do the upgrade. Everyone keeps talking about our truce, but it hasn’t been more than a formality since we were children. That forest fire twenty-five years ago was the only time I remember seeing the wolves and cougars working side by side.”
Aidan gave him a long look. “I suspect it’ll be different one day. Things have changed dramatically in just the last decade. You even hear of a few humans pairing up with shifters now. I imagine cross-species pairings will happen more often, too.”
Sy turned toward Aidan. If his friend was going to touch on his painful past, Sy was going to do the same. “The day you mate a human is the day I’ll start to take your words seriously.”
Aidan’s jaw clenched. “Never.”
Dani moved between them and looked from Sy to Aidan and back again. “Really? You two are going to play the game of ‘who has the biggest dick’ when it comes to shitty pasts?”
Rather than answer, Sy turned away and moved to the window to check for any sign of Kaya. But it was just Jonathan and one other sentry still guarding them.
With no GreyFire leader to distract him, Sy was about to turn back around to apologize to his friend when he saw her. He felt like he’d been punched in the gut.
Kaya was striding toward the house, her walk full of confidence and control. She was older, but no less beautiful. Her long, black hair was pulled back from her face into a messy ponytail-bun crossover, which only highlighted the bronze-tanned planes of her face and the plumpness of her lips. Her long legs were encased in tight jeans, and her form-fitting t-shirt showed off her breasts.
Damn, she was beautiful. Despite everything that had happened, he remembered what it’d been like to lick every inch of her smooth, bronze skin. He’d lapped between her thighs and had never been able to get enough of her taste. He could remember what it felt like to have her beaded nipples rub against his chest as he held her close and fucked her senseless.
Judging by the amount of blood rushing to his cock, it remembered too.
Fuck. He wasn’t about to let Kaya see him with a hard-on.
He pictured old, overweight grannies in bikinis and his semi-hard dick started to soften. By the time Kaya was a few feet from the door, his erection was gone. And you’re going to stay that way, buddy.
He turned and moved to stand next to Aidan and Dani as he said, “Kaya’s here.”
He kept his gaze trained on the door and willed his face into a mask of cocky indifference. There was no way in hell he was going to let Kaya know how much he was still hurting from her pa
st actions, let alone how he still thought of her as the most beautiful woman he’d ever met.
~~~
Kaya’s stomach had been twisting in knots the entire walk to the sentry shelter. As much as she hated it, she was anxious to see the man who’d haunted her dreams for a decade. He’d been an asshole, yes, but he was still the only man she’d ever loved and the best fuck she’d ever had. Her girlish memories refused to let him go.
Because of that, if he looked at her with hatred, or worse, indifference, she wasn’t sure how she’d react.
Damn him. She usually had confidence in spades. She was clan leader, for fuck’s sake, and that hadn’t been an easy thing to accomplish. Yet in this moment, she was as insecure as a fifteen-year-old girl.
The sooner she banished Sy from her life, the better. Hopefully, a one-on-one meeting could finally put all of this mess behind them. Erika had been right about the clan needing their leader to have a mate. She wasn’t in a hurry, but she knew deep down that until she stopped comparing every man to Sy’s looks, sense of humor, and his ability to please her when naked, she’d never find someone else good enough.
As she reached the shelter and saw her two clan members standing guard, Kaya was reminded of her duty. She was clan leader, and she needed to protect her clan. Screw Sylas Murray. She wanted answers, and he was going to give them to her.
She nodded at Jonathan and said, “Any trouble?”
“Apart from him punching me in the face two days ago, no. They mostly sit around and play cards.”
She shrugged. “You’d probably do the same thing if you were cooped up without any internet or TV.”
“Yeah, but they’re cats. I had expected them to nap all day and play with string.”
Kaya laughed and then shook her head. “I’ll be sure to suggest that. Now, open the door.”
As he unlocked it, Jonathan said, “Do you want us to come in with you?”
“No, but if I need help, I’ll call for it.”
He nodded and stepped aside. Kaya took a deep breath to calm her stomach, turned the handle, and opened the door.
And there he was, standing on the far side of the room, his two clan members flanking him on either side. While he was still tall with piercing green eyes, pale skin, and dark hair, his shoulders and arms were more muscled than the last time she’d seen him. And his two-day old dark whiskers gave him a rough, grizzled appearance that sent a little thrill through her at the thought of those whiskers rubbing against her inner thighs as he fucked her with his tongue.
Ah, yes. She remembered his tongue.
What the hell am I doing? She pushed the emerging sexual fantasy out of her head, squared her shoulders, and shut the door behind her. In a calm, cool voice she said, “Hello, Sylas.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So her highness finally decided to grace us with her presence, huh?”
She resisted taking his bait. “My researchers finished their examinations and determined the wolf isn’t contagious as long as it’s locked up tight. Also, you three have been cleared of charges. But before I send you home, I want to talk with Sylas. Alone.”
Sy stared at her a second and she wondered if she’d have to pull out her attitude card to get him to agree to the demand. But then he said, “Okay.”
Leave it to the man to be unclear. “Okay to the meeting, okay to you leaving, or to both?”
“For now, let’s say okay to the meeting.” He looked from one of his clan members to the other and said, “Dani, Aidan, stay right outside. If she starts ripping out my guts, then I’ll call you.”
The older DarkStalker male to Sy’s right said, “Knowing you, if she starts tearing out your guts, you deserve it.”
“Whose side are you on?”
The red-haired DarkStalker female to Sy’s left rolled her eyes, leaned around him, and grabbed Aidan’s arm. “It’s Sy’s job to piss her off, not yours. Let’s go before you two males fuck up things beyond repair.”
Kaya resisted a smile at the DarkStalker female’s words.
But as the female passed Kaya on the way to the door, she stopped and fixed her with an intense stare. “You’ve hurt him enough, and even though he can be an ass, if you cause him any more pain, I’ll gouge out your eyes myself, treaty be damned.”
While her inner wolf growled at the comment, Kaya didn’t blink an eye. She’d encountered much tougher and severe threats in the three years she’d been leader. She merely tilted her head and said, “I’d like to see you try.”
The woman growled, but Aidan opened the door and pulled her through. Once the door clicked shut, she was finally alone with Sylas Murray. But as he stared at her with his green eyes, assessing her, she hesitated.
Sure, she was clan leader, but right here, right now, she was just a woman standing in a room with the man who had broken her heart.
~~~
Judging from Kaya’s interaction with Dani, the wolf who’d once been strong but naive had morphed into a confident leader who didn’t take shit from anyone. An average person might think she was fearless, but he noticed how her thumbs rubbed the pinkies on each of her hands. Kaya always did that when she was nervous.
That thought unsettled him; for some reason, he didn’t want her to be nervous around him. A part of his brain suggested pushing her up against the wall and kissing her until she couldn’t breathe, and he nearly startled. The woman had broken his heart. Kissing her should be the last thought on his mind.
With a deep breath, he got his shit together and decided he needed to ease the tension in the air so they could get this over with. “It’s not like I’m going to shift and attack you or anything, so calm the hell down and tell me what you want.”
Her hands balled into fists. Good. He’d rather she be angry. “I see age hasn’t brought you manners.”
He shrugged. “They come out for special occasions.” He took a step toward her. “I’m assuming you already talked to my brother about what you found, so what was so urgent that you needed to talk to me?”
“First, I never said it was urgent, just that I wanted to talk to you alone.”
She took a step toward him. She was now close enough that he caught the uniquely feminine scent that was Kaya. It took everything he had to not walk over, lower his head to her neck, and take a deep whiff of woman and grass that was uniquely hers. His cougar didn’t care about what had happened between him and the wolf; his cat just wanted to scent-mark her.
Kaya didn’t seem to notice his struggle as she continued, “And second, if we’re going to work together, I want to lay a few ground rules.”
He blinked. “What? Since when are we working together?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and it took every iota of his being not to stare down at her breasts. “You can thank your brother for that one. I need to investigate where the attack took place, and apparently, you’re the only one he can spare for the job.”
Damn him. This had the scent of Kian’s meddling. There were plenty of lower-downs who could show Kaya’s people around.
That made him realize something. “Why you? I’d think you’d have more than enough to occupy you here.”
“The reasons are my own, and I don’t need to share them with you.”
Well, then. “Okay, Ms. Leader, can you at least tell me your planned ground rules? That way I can approve or veto them.”
Kaya clenched her jaw and moved in front of him. “This, right here with you trying to hold sway over what I do, needs to stop. Yes, you’ve seen me naked, and yes, we had planned to be mates. But all of that is over, so it’s time for you to accept the choices you made and treat this situation with the seriousness it deserves.”
Any lustful thoughts he had vanished. He narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t about to let her remarks go. “Me? Yes, I fucked up. I was scared of your uncle and I ran, but I tried to make it up to you. Hell, I wrote you a letter nearly every day for a year, but you never replied in all that time, not once.”
Kaya blinked
. “What?”
He itched to grab her arms and bring her close, but somehow he resisted. “Don’t pretend you don’t know how your uncle and DarkStalker’s old clan leader forced me to join the army to get away from you. I was young, and had fucked up, but I loved you and tried to make it right. You were the one who was childish and couldn’t even bother to send a one sentence letter to tell me how your feelings had changed.” He leaned his face down to hers. “You’re the one who broke my heart, Kaya Alexie, so stop trying to blame me for the shittiness of your decision.”
Chapter Four
Kaya stared at Sy and tried to make her mouth work, but his words just kept repeating inside her head. I was young, and had fucked up, but I loved you and tried to make it right.
The way he’d said it, full of anger and a little pain, put a crack in the wall she’d built around herself on the way here to make her feel nothing for Sylas Murray.
Her uncle had never supported Sy as her choice of mate. When she’d brought him to the autumn celebration all those years ago and introduced him as her boyfriend, her Uncle Frances had taken one look at Sy and turned away. The majority of her clan had followed his lead.
But Sy had kept her close to his side the entire evening. He’d even managed to tease a laugh out of her as they danced in the middle of the room with her clan watching, their glares not fazing him one bit. If anything, the stares and looks had made him draw her tighter against him.
To this day, that had been one of the happiest days of her life, and all because of the man now standing less than a foot away from her.
His eyes were hot and angry, burning straight into her, and Kaya decided to put aside her visit to DarkStalker’s land for a moment. She needed to know his side of the story, and this might be her only chance to get it. While she’d investigated Sy after he’d left, she’d never come across one of his letters. Even after he had come back from his tours in Iraq, she’d kept her distance, afraid to see him happy with anyone else.
Reclaiming the Wolf (Cascade Shifters Book 1) Page 3