by A. C. Arthur
Ending the call with Nisa, Shya lay back on the bed. She really couldn’t be irritated with Nisa for not telling her what her and Decan might be planning. She hadn’t told her best friend that Cole Linden had been talking just an hour ago. But she was thinking about that as she fell asleep—Cole and the Desert Cat.
“What took you so long? You said twenty minutes? I came by and left when you didn’t answer.”
“Got distracted.” That was an understatement. He’d gotten way more than distracted and was certain that was going to come back to bite him in the ass at the first opportunity.
“You secure in there?” Gold asked.
Keller had already locked the door to his room and completed a quick sweep of the area before stepping into the closet to take the call on the secure comlink he carried in his front pants pocket.
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
“The room’s ready. Cars are parked down at the river, keys buried by the tree to the driver’s right. Money is in the glove compartment along with new phones and identification. There’s a rally scheduled for Thursday morning in the downtown area. Tavarus Mancombe’s expected to take the helm as the new director of the Ruling Cabinet. He’s got the police and military backing him so he’ll be guarded like he’s a fucking money pit.”
“By human guards. They’re no match for us.” Keller didn’t mind admitting that fact.
“Right. But we’re down in numbers. I know that doesn’t mean they’re any match for our strength, but we still need to keep that in mind. Did you find out what the Assembly’s been up to?”
“No.” Keller shook his head in the dark space. He hadn’t had time to do his nightly walk by Rome’s conference room where late night meetings were known to be held.
The Assembly Leader was extremely smart, by holding meetings after everyone was in bed, it cut down on the risk of anyone overhearing what was being said. Unless a shifter was assigned to a ridiculous babysitting gig that released him in the wee morning hours, at which time he could easily wander toward that private meeting space and use a specially designed transmitter to eavesdrop on the Assembly Leader and the top members of his crew—the ones that stuck closer together and were definitely keeping things from the Shadow Shifters that trusted and believed in them.
“Got distracted,” was his excuse for not doing that part of his job as well.
There was an immediate exhale on the other line.
“Look, just keep doing your part and I’ll do mine.”
“That’s what you said the last time before you got hemmed up by Rome and his goons. Now you’re acting like you’ve got to stay stuck down there, when we both know you could be out anytime you felt like it.”
Keller’s fingers gripped the phone, his lips going into a tight line as he recognized the truth in the other shifter’s words. He could have left Oasis whenever he felt like it and Rome would never find him—or it would take him a very long time to find him—and when he did, Keller’s job above ground would be done.
“Plans change.” He spoke through gritted teeth because he’d never liked changing his plans. Getting off track and letting a spirited little jaguar distract him wasn’t high on his list of crowning achievements either. “But we’re still a go. I’ll be at the rally, ready to take the Ruling Cabinet down once and for all.”
“And then what? Are you really prepared to go against Rome Reynolds and the Assembly?”
“Rome rules in the old-world way, down here in Oasis. He can have his underworld reign, but I’m not inclined to hide from these assholes anymore.” Vengeance boiled in the pit of his stomach like hot lava, pride bubbled at the surface. Keller would never forget what Ewen Mackey had cost him, or what the fight against the humans had cost his family. Sure, Rome had strong feelings against acting on revenge, but Rome hadn’t lived Keller’s life. He hadn’t lost the things Keller had and he damn sure didn’t feel the pain as raw and deep as Keller did. So, to hell with the Assembly Leader and whatever he thought about him, Keller’s goal went well beyond Rome Reynolds and beyond the sexy Shya Delgado.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t get distracted this time.”
“Don’t piss me off,” was his immediate reply.
Keller disconnected the phone and stuffed it back into his pants pocket. Once he removed his clothes to shower, he would put the phone in the box buried in the panel he’d dug into the wall of his bedroom. That’s where he kept his weapons and a second transmitter. Stepping out of the closet, Keller frowned at his.
He’d once been a billionaire living in a high-rise condo building in Miami. Parked in the building’s garage was his vintage Aston Martin Valkyrie and Bugatti Chiron—both in pristine condition—and his day-to-day ride, a fifteen-year-old Hummer which had been upgraded with the same specifications as the Tracer’s driven by the Shadows in Oasis. He loved cars and bikes and had been planning to find a storage place to really get into collecting before that sunny afternoon when Ewen Mackey had waltzed into his office for the first time.
That would go down as one of several days Keller would never forget.
Now, he had no cars, bikes or condo. He’d been all over the world preparing himself for a war that kept alluding him for one reason or another. And he was living in this room that felt like a posh jail cell. Why? Because his association with Decan and Gold had taken on more emotion than he’d planned. Closing the closet door and going to the wall to put the transmitter away, Keller sighed heavily. Plans changed, he just needed to keep his head above water and change with them.
Taking Shya in the conference room on a table felt like he’d taken a huge gulp of water and was just barely resisting the urge to choke it up.
After securing the transmitter and pressing the wall back into place he dragged his hands down his face and took a deep breath.
“Dammit!”
His hands smelled like her. A simple soft fragrance, not too floral and not the plain clean scent of the soap that was kept in the main supply hall for all the citizens of Oasis to gather. Shya’s scent was unique and now it was on his skin. Well, not for long. He stalked into the bathroom ripping off his clothes and boots before climbing into the shower.
Scrubbing that non-descript soap over his body Keller was determined to wash the remnants of what could turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life off every part of his skin. What had he been thinking?
That it had been way too long since he’d had soft thighs wrapped around his waist.
Why her?
Because she’d been in his peripheral for the last three months. Walking by, giving him a shy smile, appearing at the gym with her curious gaze burning into his skin every second of his workout. He had no idea why he saw her at every turn, or why his body reacted to her each time he saw her. His mind knew the deal—she was not only younger than him by almost ten years, but she was also fragile. He’d heard the whispers around Oasis about the poison that had almost killed Shya when she was born and he’d seen firsthand how her parents doted on her, keeping her in a cocoon within Oasis while praying for her continued health. While Keller had always been picky about the women he decided to sleep with, Shya had entirely too many red flags for him to ever consider. Until tonight.
His head dropped to his chest as he let the water drench his hair and hopefully his mind, because he had no idea why he’d made such a foolish and colossal mistake. One which he unfortunately, could not simply walk away from. He would have to deal with Shya first thing in the morning. He had the rest of the night to figure out how exactly that was going to be done.
Chapter 4
“Whatch’a writing?”
Shya jumped and clapped her notebook to her chest at the sound of his voice. “Nothing.”
“Liar.” Haven Perry bit loudly into an apple as he lifted a leg to straddle the chair beside her.
She’d been sitting in one of her favorite spots in the corner of the dining hall where there was a glass wall with a terrific view of a waterfall designed to appe
ar similar to the Gungi rainforest—the place where the Shadows originated. The breakfast crowd had dispensed an hour ago leaving the space empty except for the ornery jaguar shifter now sitting beside her.
“Nosey,” she snapped back at him.
He shrugged broad shoulders. “I prefer to call it curious.” He preferred to nag her any time he was here in any way possible.
“It’s a weekday, don’t you have training?” As a second-year guard, Haven was expected to train wherever he was in Oasis.
He took another bite of the apple which made two, one more and he’d be finished with the fruit. His thick hair was braided back into neat cornrows that hung past his shoulders, his eyes—the same as his father’s—a poignant gray that saw much more than they should have.
“We’re done. Got started earlier than usual so they could prepare for a big meeting this afternoon. You coming?” He crunched down on the last of the apple before lifting his arm and aiming toward the trash can at least twenty feet away. Seconds later it went in without a sound.
“I didn’t know anything about it.” She pulled her book away and closed it before setting it on the table in front of them. “I don’t have a comlink, remember.”
There was no use trying to hide the bite in her tone. She was more than salty about the fact that every shifter born into one of the Shadow tribes had a job selected for them by the time they were thirteen. And with that job came their own comlink so that they could always be in touch with their direct supervisors and other tribe members. Shya had no job and thus no need to communicate with anyone, other than her parents and the leadership who somehow always knew where to find her.
“But you’ve got me,” Haven quipped.
“And me!” Camryn Preston dropped down into the chair across the table from them. “There’s a meeting at three this afternoon and it’s big because my dad’s been locked in his office with Baxter since about six this morning. And my mom was in the training center running two tactical teams until they were all ready to collapse from exhaustion.”
Cam’s father, Eli, was a Seer and as a close friend of her Uncle Rome’s, a member of the Assembly leadership. Haven’s father, Bas, was the Mountain Zone Faction Leader. Bas, Priya and Haven normally lived in their zone, but since Cole had been found they’d been here.
“What’s going on?” Because it sounded like the leaders were prepping for something.
Cam shrugged. At nineteen he was taller than both his parents, Shya and Haven. He wore his hair cut close his honey brown skin already marked with several tattoos.
“Not a clue. But I’ll be at that meeting front and center.”
“So, will I,” Shya said before either of them could think of telling her otherwise.
Haven chuckled. “You’re always ready to break the rules.”
He was the youngest of their close-knit group at seventeen, but like most of the shifters he looked and acted much older than his given age. For all the things the shifters endured from birth they had to keep the upper hand in all areas, so for them, age really was just a number.
“Whatever’s going down, they’ve called in everyone. Uncle Jace and his assistant, Amelia, who my mom says has been hanging around him for a while. They’re all here. Plus, there’s a human down here too,” Cam told them.
Now that was unexpected. “A human? Who?”
“Some old dude,” Haven said. “My mom knows him.”
Haven’s mother, Priya, was a human but ever since she fell in love with Uncle Bas and used her job as a reporter to help the shifters before the Unveiling, she’d been considered one of them. She had given up that job, her family and everything she knew to stand beside her mate. Just like Shya’s mother had done, just like Shya believed she would do one day.
Oh no, she shook her head, she was not about to start thinking about Keller again. He was not her mate, the heat she’d felt when they were together last night had dissipated after a few hours in her room alone and she’d almost forgotten his scent. No companheiro calor, no mating. That was a simple Shadow Shifter rule and since she hadn’t seen him at all today, she was guessing he had no plans of being her lover again either. Which all made perfect sense—he’d been her first, but that didn’t mean he had to be her last or only, for that matter. She could have another man in her life, she could have whatever she wanted despite her condition, or her upbringing, or the fact that she’d spent most of her life in this underground haven, or jail cell, depending on the day.
Shya flipped through the pages of her book and when she found what she was looking for, stared up at Cam. “Is it Dorian Wilson?”
He frowned and glanced down at her notebook. “Yeah. How’d you know? And what else have you got written in there?”
“The names of all the young jaguar ladies you’ve snuck out into the Greenway since you had your acordado.”
The Greenway was the miles of space designed to also mimic the Gungi, so the shifters could run free in cat form. She slammed the notebook shut again and kept her hand on top of it. Haven chuckled and Cam’s frown deepened.
“That’s probably not too many names considering she still has lots of empty pages left in that book,” Haven added.
“Bite me,” Cam snapped at him. “And you’d better be joking.”
Haven shook his head. “Man, I’m glad I’m not here all the time. She’d probably watch me like a spy as well.”
“I don’t watch either of you like a spy. It’s not my fault neither of you know how to move in silence.”
“You don’t know anything about it either considering you don’t have anywhere to go in silence or otherwise.” Cam never could let anyone get the last word.
“Aw man, that was a low blow,” Haven said with a glance toward Shya.
He was sitting closest to her, so he heard the grumbling growl of her cat before Cam and when she stood, Haven had the good since to back away, scooting his chair across the cement floor with a loud screech. Cam only tilted his head so he could keep staring at her.
“You have no idea what I do or where I go because you think you know everything there is to know about me. But you’re wrong about me and so many other things.” She was thinking about throwing her notebook at Cam’s smug face when she watched his gaze travel over her left shoulder and the look in his eyes grew serious.
“Ms. Shya.”
The voice sounded gruffer than it had last night, but it still ran over every one of her nerves as smooth and as sweet as hot fudge. She turned slowly to see Keller standing a few feet away from her.
“Keller.”
“Do you have a minute?” Today, he was wearing the uniform of the shifter tactical team—navy blue cargo pants matching long sleeved shirt and black tie-up boots. The dark colors made the olive hue of his skin look a little darker.
“Yes.” Did she say that too fast?
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the medical center?” Cam asked.
Shya didn’t know when he’d moved from the other side of the table to stand to her left, but she now noticed that Haven had moved closer to her right as well.
“Not time for my shift yet. Aren’t you supposed to be in the training center?”
Until three months ago, Keller Cross was not a part of the STT. He was a wealthy computer engineer who’d built a secret bunker in Oasis and was accused of hacking into secure files hidden on the Holodeck. But he also had advanced experienced in something those above ground called marital arts which, after a vigorous run-through with her father and Uncle X, had put him in a Senior Guard status here in Oasis. That made him one of Cam’s supervisors.
“We’re done for the day while they prepare for this afternoon’s meeting,” Cam stated, his tone even—not disrespectful and not quite subordinate either.
Keller didn’t respond to Cam again, but instead looked at Shya and nodded his head toward one of the side doors. She didn’t bother to look at the two jaguars she knew would be frowning, they could stand there and wonder what the hell was going
on. Grabbing her notebook from the table she started across the floor, more than aware of three sets of eyes on her as she moved. Only one set of those eyes mattered because that was the set that had her cat on edge.
There was a thin line between acting unbothered by the sight of him again after what transpired last night and being unbothered. For starters, he looked way too good in that uniform, like being a part of the shifter defense force was his calling. And he smelled good, even better than he had last night with that cinnamon scent taking on a more potent and spicier tinge that had her nostrils tingling the second he’d approached her childhood group. As she neared the door Shya did everything in her power to rein in the urges she’d harbored in the last months she’d known Keller. They’d culminated last night that should have been enough.
But the moment she pushed through the steel doors and stepped into the hallway with him two steps behind her, she knew it wasn’t. Turning to face him she stared into his poignant eyes. “What’s up?”
It was as nonchalant as she could manage considering her insides were now caught in a low burning blaze. The heat she’d thought had passed throughout the night, had returned with a vengeance in the last few minutes.
“You weren’t as surprised as you should have been last night.”
No preamble, no pleasantries. This was certainly not the way lovers spoke after a night of passion. And she was no lovelorn heroine. Folding her arms over her chest, cuddling her notebook between them, Shya lifted her chin.
“About the sex on the conference room table or the comatose FL talking about an elusive killer shifter?” She could get right to the point as well.
A muscle twitched in his jaw and her fingers itched to touch it.
“Both, but let’s deal with the FL first. Why would you want the codes to his room?”