by Selena Scott
Emin tumbled over the edge after her, grinding into her, holding her close and growling into her ear. “I promise you, kvietka. Only you. Only us.”
She sprawled across him, breathing hard and playing absentmindedly with the hairs on his chest. “How did my little cat do that time?”
He laughed, a full laugh that she could feel reverberate all the way through the cavern of his chest.
“Your little cat, ah, I don’t know the words.” He thought for a second. “It makes me not. It, it unmakes me.”
Glory, moved and delighted with his answer, reached out to press a small kiss to his lips. “If I’m your little tiger with a little cat, then you’re my bear with the secret eyes.”
“Hmm?”
“Your eyes,” she murmured, snuggling into his arms. “They’re lighter than they look at first. It’s like a secret.”
Those eyes stayed open through most of the night, stroking her hair and watching the stars out his window. For the first time in longer than he could remember, he had peace.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Anton sipped his beer and looked out at the people milling around. He liked beer, sure. But it still mystified him that people would choose to drink it in loud public places, when you could drink one at home in the quiet. But he was trying to be more social. Glory was the one who had told him that he should be.
His brothers, Glory, AJ, and Dora were all going to the bar tonight. And Glory had said that he had to come, too.
She was the first person to ever tell him that he was hurting his family with the way that he was.
Instead of scowling, he kept his face neutral. Because she’d also told him he needed to look less scary now and again.
He hadn’t meant to hurt anybody. Especially his family. But sometimes the things that had happened to him, the things that Navuka had done to him, well, sometimes they snuck up on him. The memories were like unexpectedly getting pins shoved under your fingernails. It was enough to make anybody testy. He found himself absently toying with the shock of white hair behind his ear.
He watched as they all leaned forward, clinking glasses and grinning. Dora’s finished article on Navuka had run last week. It was getting a lot of press. A lot of attention. She hadn’t mentioned animal shifters, of course. But she had gone into great detail about the animal abuse and testing that Navuka was currently performing. The shipments of chemicals, the smuggling, the experiments. Anyone who already knew that animal shifters existed would be able to read between the lines of that article easily.
And since then, things had been quiet in the forest. Navuka, who had come to the Spokane area a few years ago, probably to find Anton, had all but disappeared. He had Dora to thank for that. And he had Glory to thank for getting him to sit at this table and celebrate the victory with his family.
He looked across the table at Glory sitting next to Emin. He liked her, and he liked her with his brother. If you asked Anton, Emin had gotten a little too cocky for his own good these past few years. It was nice to see him knocked down a peg or two. Anton watched in amusement as his brother nudged a glass of water toward Glory, brushed her hair back, whispered something in her ear that made her laugh.
Wow. He’d never seen Emin like that before. He was acting a hell of a lot like Danil. Who currently sat with Dora draped across his lap, having a heated argument, punctuated only by the demanding kisses he gave her now and then.
Who would have thought? Two brothers down in half a year. He knew, with a kind of smug satisfaction, that that was never going to be him. If there was one thing he’d learned in the last decade, it was how to keep a lid on his feelings for a woman. He was never going to be springing to the side of any woman.
“So your father is home for good?” Maxim asked AJ where the two of them sat to Anton’s side.
Anton’s back went ramrod straight as he immediately leaned forward, trying to catch AJ’s answer. Her father was back in town? She hadn’t mentioned anything to him about that.
AJ cleared her throat, acutely aware that Anton had just started paying attention to them again. He’d been a bit removed all night but now his eyes were burning into her. “I guess so,” she answered Maxim. “At first, a few weeks ago, he’d said that it was just for a short vacation, but he hasn’t gone back out since then. I think he wants to spend more time in Spokane.”
“He wants more time with you,” Maxim said.
AJ couldn’t help but scoff. “Yeah, sure.”
“Of course he does,” Anton said without thinking. What person in their right mind wouldn’t want more time with her? But then he saw the look on her face. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him through the stylish curtain of her dirty blonde hair. He backtracked, waved his hand in the air as if the topic were trivial, obvious. “He is father. He wants to spend time with daughter.”
AJ looked at him for another second before she shrugged, turning back to Maxim. “Maybe. I just don’t understand why now. You know? Why not spend time with me after Mom died? Why not spend time with me after the mountain lion attack? Why come back now and spend time with me when half of my day is at school and the other half is with you all. Just doesn’t make sense.”
Maxim shrugged back at her. “Does it matter why? Doesn’t it only matter that he wants to be close to you again?”
AJ furrowed her brow and worried her bottom lip between her teeth, a lobe of her hair falling across one eye. Anton leaned back in his chair in self-defense. He hated when she did that. It made him want to suck that lip into his mouth. It always had. Since the day he’d met her ten years ago.
He needed that little worried look off her face and he needed that damn lip out from between her teeth before he lost his regular mind.
“How is school?” he blurted, getting her attention on something else. It worked. Her lip popped out from between her teeth as she looked up at him.
“It’s good,” she said. “I’m much more interested in all the hair cutting stuff than I am in the makeup or nails and oh my god,” AJ trailed off in horrified amusement as Charlie, the bartender and Emin’s ex-whatever, sauntered over to the table.
She placed a round of drinks on the table and then turned to Emin, boxing Glory out. Charlie traced a hand lightly through Emin’s hair with the ease and confidence of someone who’d done it many times. A very uncharacteristic look of frozen discomfort was pasted on Emin’s face.
Anton and Maxim exchanged looks of glee.
“You haven’t been around much, handsome,” Charlie said in that husky voice of hers, still standing in between him and Glory.
“Oh. I, um. Oh.” It was the best Emin could do right then. And he knew it was nowhere near good enough. He’d thought this was Charlie’s night off or he would never have brought Glory here. At least without explaining.
“Hello,” Glory said from behind Charlie’s back, craning around to catch the woman’s eye. “I’m Glory.”
“Charlie,” Charlie said brusquely, barely turning toward Glory before she’d turned back to Emin.
“That’s a funny way to touch Emin,” Glory said, observing the fingers that Charlie was currently walking up his shoulder. “Oh! I see, did you used to be romantic with him?”
Dora’s mouth dropped open, but that was pretty much the only movement at the distinctly uncomfortable table. Emin’s brothers were all split between the pure joy at seeing him finally caught out with a woman and a wincing discomfort.
“Um. Yeah?” Charlie said, finally turning toward Glory, totally disarmed by the look on this chick’s face. Who the hell was she?
Glory lifted a hand to Charlie’s and held on tight, her eyes large and sweet. “I am so sorry to tell you that you won’t be that way with Emin anymore.”
“Oh my god,” Dora whispered in fascinated glee, reaching out for AJ’s hand and Danil’s at the same time. “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
Glory, completely blind to the vibe at the table, just plunged on, genuinely sorry to deliver
the news to the other woman. Emin was such a good man after all. It would be so hard to learn that you didn’t have a future with him. “We only do that with one another now. Make love.”
Charlie scoffed and turned back to look at Emin, like is this girl for real?
“We’ve made each other promises,” Glory continued, making all of Emin’s brothers snort into their beers. “That forever I’m his and he’s mine. I know that must be sad to hear. But you’re so beautiful, you shouldn’t have trouble finding a mate.” Glory stood and pushed Charlie’s milk chocolate hair back off her shoulder. “All that brown hair and those blue eyes, just lovely. Anyone would be lucky to have you. In fact,” Glory said as she started to tug Charlie across the bar, “I noticed that man there at the end of the bar, he’s been looking at you the way Emin looks at me.”
“Russ?” Charlie asked, genuinely flustered. “No way, we’ve known each other for years.” She was torn between ripping her arm out of Glory’s grasp and letting herself be tugged along in the happy effervescence this woman was exuding.
“Let’s find out!” Glory said, pulling Charlie along to Russ. “Excuse me, are you Russ?”
“Um, yeah,” the stocky redheaded man said. He took a deep breath and tried to calm the flame that was fast making its way up his neck. He could barely talk to Charlie on his own, much less when there was a second beautiful woman staring him straight in the eye. Not to mention half the bar that had turned to watch the interaction.
“Okay, great to meet you. I’m Glory. I was wondering,” Glory said and tugged Charlie up to stand a little in front of her. “Do you love this woman? Because I was watching you and it seemed like you might.”
Russ’s mouth dropped open. His eyes bounced between Glory and Charlie. He legitimately considered stiffing his tab and getting the hell out of dodge. But then, when? When was this perfect moment for telling Charlie that he’d dreamed about her for years? He’d ordered drinks from her for years, sneaking looks when she wouldn’t notice. And then he’d sat around like a chump while Emin had broken her heart. And all while he waited for some moment when he’d suddenly get taller or cooler? Just so that she’d suddenly notice him and ask HIM out?
That was bullshit. And he knew it. He was a firefighter for Christ sakes. He was as brave as they came whenever he was on duty. How different was this?
Russ took a deep breath, the way he did right before running into a fire. “Actually, yeah,” he said, looking right into Charlie’s eyes. “I do.”
“Oh,” Charlie said, letting one hand flutter up to her hair before she jammed it back in her pocket. “Oh.”
Russ stood, put his own hands in his pockets. “And I’d like to take you out on a date. There’s a fair over in Chesterfield this weekend. Would you wanna go?”
“Oh,” Charlie said again. “You mean like a real date?”
Something in Russ’s chest did a little jig. “Yeah. I’ll wear a button up shirt.”
A smile flashed like lightning across Charlie’s face. “Okay, Russ. Yeah. Um. No pressure, right?”
“None at all,” Russ said, rocking back on his heels, suddenly becoming quite a bit cooler than he ever had been before. It hadn’t been so hard at all. Like ripping off a band-aid. “Just a date. To see if you like me enough to go out with me again. Or at least enough to let me kiss you on your doorstep at the end of the night.”
Charlie’s cheeks flushed a little as she stepped closer to him. “I’ve got a break coming up, if you wanted to, um, chat with me a little?”
Glory melted back, away from them, toward her group.
“If you don’t marry her, I will,” Dora said across the table to Emin.
“You’re already married,” Danil reminded her, a playful growl in his voice as he took her beer out of her hand and took a swig.
“I don’t care. A woman like that? You reevaluate your life for her. Jesus! That was the most skillful brush-off I’ve ever seen in my life.”
They all turned and watched Glory sit back at the table, grinning and pleased, and flushed with happiness over her success.
“So skillful she doesn’t even realize it was brush-off,” Maxim said, chuckling into his beer. His brother was toast, that was for sure. And that was a good thing. Glory was a good woman. Maxim scanned the bar while they all leaned in over the table, laughing and chatting.
Maxim felt a tug in his chest when he realized that Anton had a small smile on his face. His little brother, Anton. So injured, so sad for so long, was smiling. Maxim knew he’d never get over the guilt of not being able to save Anton from Navuka. But his brother’s smile went a long way toward soothing that particular pain.
He sat back and scanned the bar some more. He knew almost everyone here. He didn’t miss the furtive glances from a few of the women at the bar that he knew… well. They’d been fun, lovely girls. And all of them he genuinely cared about. He wasn’t the kind of man to brush off someone he’d made a personal connection with. His heart was too big for that.
But he’d never felt anything close to what Danil so obviously felt for Dora. Or what Emin was obviously starting to feel for Glory. He didn’t let it make him sad. Someday it would happen. Or not. And he’d get by on liaisons. He had his family for companionship and his fellow firefighters as comrades.
He tipped his beer to Russ, down at the other end of the bar, and the man’s smile could have powered a small city. Something flashed over Russ’s shoulder, though, and caught Maxim’s eye.
Something green? Blue? A tail. A ponytail. Brightly colored hair. He could see it lying flat on a woman’s back, between her shapely shoulders, but he couldn’t see her face. Hair like a mermaid. Well, he thought, picking up his beer. He’d never slept with a mermaid before. He crossed the bar to see if he had a shot.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Glory laughed as Emin left a trail of bites across her stomach. Her eyes weren’t open yet. The morning sun had just started to turn the blue room yellow and they were caught in that in-between time. The time when, in Emin’s mind, nothing ever counted. It wasn’t real life yet as far as he was concerned.
He wanted to make love with Glory during that time, the in-between. Actually, he wanted to make love with Glory all the time. And generally speaking, he did. He thanked god that he didn’t have a nine to five. Because suddenly, pulling her onto his lap at noon or going down on her at four pm or over breakfast, these were the things he lived for.
“Wake up, kvietka,” he muttered as he nuzzled one of her hip bones and then the other.
She laughed again and spread her legs under the sheets, but her eyes remained closed.
Emin narrowed his eyes and reared up over her. If she wanted to be woken up, well then, he was absolutely going to-
He frowned at his front door when he heard steps bouncing up his front stairs. And then, wham! His front door slammed open and Dora came prancing in. He’d barely had time to drag the sheet up to cover Glory’s bare chest. Not that Glory would have cared, she loved being naked. But Emin cared.
“Whoa! Wow, sorry,” Dora said, slamming her eyes closed and feeling her way around the kitchen table toward the coffee maker. “Didn’t mean to interrupt your wake-me-up-buttercup.”
She quickly started making coffee while the two lovebirds slid some clothes on.
“Why are you coming here so early?” Emin grumbled, his English a little choppy so early in the morning.
“To make you coffee,” she grinned at them. “And of course, I have some really good news.”
Glory squeaked and had to jump up and down just once. “About my mother?”
Dora nodded and poured an inch of coffee in three mugs; it was all that had brewed in that amount of time.
Glory squeaked again, kissed Emin on the cheek, and dashed off to the bathroom.
Dora raised an eyebrow at Emin and handed him his meager share of coffee.
“She goes to brush teeth,” Emin clarified. “It is her favorite thing now. She says it is like back scratch fo
r mouth.”
Dora laughed. “She’s certainly got a way with words.”
“I can’t do anything without brushing my teeth first, now. I’m addicted!” Glory yelled to them, popping her head out of the bathroom, her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth.
“Well, you’ll have to pack toothbrushes and toothpaste when you head off into the Canadian wilderness, then,” Dora said, grinning at Emin.
“You really found her?” Emin asked quietly, his face sober.
The smile fell off Dora’s face. In all her excitement at being able to give Glory this gift, she’d forgotten that it was bittersweet, too. It might mean that Glory went back to where she had come from, stayed with her mother. And what would that mean for Emin?
Her eyes searched his but he was closed. Wanting only the information that she could offer.
Glory came rocketing out of the bathroom, skidding up to her coffee cup and planting herself at the table. She stared at Dora. “Tell me, please!”
Dora took a deep breath. This was more complicated news to break than she’d thought it might be. “So a ton of people have reached out to me ever since my article came out. There have been a ton of crazies, you know, people just saying nothing. But there've also been a few really good leads on more info about Navuka and other locations they might have."
Dora warmed her hands around her coffee cup, looked up at Glory's dear, innocent face, and decided to get right to it.
"A lady called me. She lives up in Canada. She’s got a house on the edge of Woods Buffalo National Park up in Alberta. She said that no one ever believed her, but she's seen tigers in those woods. Orange ones. She's seen as many as three all together, but that was a long time ago. And since then she's seen two. But for the last year, she's only seen one. She was worried that poachers got them. But after reading my article, she started to connect some dots about suspicious activity in her neighborhood and she thought that maybe the animals had been caught by Navuka."
"Woods Buffalo National Park," Glory repeated breathlessly, thrilled to potentially put a name to her motherland.