“Come with me. I’ll buy you lunch.”
Iona’s eyes flared hunger. That hunger touched Eric like a flame.
“Can’t. Too busy here, and we’d have to find someplace where no one knew me. Plus, you’re obviously a Shifter.”
Eric shrugged. “I go where I want.”
“No, you don’t. Plenty of places don’t allow Shifters.”
“You allow them.”
She made a noise of exasperation. “No, I don’t. One just keeps barging in.”
He held back his laugh. “Why don’t you throw me out, then? You could call your security guards or the police. Why haven’t you?”
He saw the catch in her breath, the tightening of her eyes. “I can handle you myself.”
“Sure about that?” Eric leaned to her again.
“Will you stop smelling me? It’s just weird.”
“Have you closed yourself off to using your scent-sense? That’s dangerous, love.”
“I had to. It was driving me crazy.”
Eric had some sympathy. Scent could be powerful, triggering emotions and sense memory, as well as physical hunger and mating need. The smell of burned matches took him back to the Second World War when he and his sister Cassidy had slunk through the night carrying explosives to sabotage the German army. The smell of strawberries transported him to the happy days when he’d first met Kirsten, his mate, passed long ago now. Iona, untrained and trying to deny her natural instincts, must be going insane.
“That roast beef smells good, even all squashed, doesn’t it?” Eric asked, glancing at the wrapped sandwich. “If you were in your panther form, you wouldn’t worry. You’d gulp it down and spit out the paper.”
Iona’s hunger came to him again. “That’s why I have to ignore scents when I’m in my human form. I’d make a complete idiot of myself.”
“Don’t ignore them. Control it.” Eric spread his hands on the desk. “Starting now. Use your nose on me and tell me what it tells you.”
Iona stared at him, her fear as palpable as her hunger. Then she swallowed, her slender throat moving, and she leaned to him.
Eric held himself still as her nose brushed the line of his hair. His impulse was to grab her, shove the sandwich remains and blueprints from the desk, and lay her across its top, spreading her and letting his body and hers do what both truly wanted. The coupling would be good. Intense. Memorable.
Instead, he made himself stand still as she roved his face to his neck, breasts lifting as she inhaled.
“You had eggs for breakfast,” she said. “You’ve been riding around on your motorcycle, farther than just between here and Shiftertown, and you’ve been very close to at least one other Shifter. You were also extremely angry this morning.” Iona lifted her head, puzzlement in her eyes. “Angry about what?”
“Not angry,” Eric said. “Frustrated. What kind of Shifter?”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
“You’ll know. Come on. Give it your best shot.”
Iona leaned closer, her eyes closing as she drew in a long breath. Her hair brushed his cheek, and Eric’s body tightened.
“Felines,” Iona said, opening her eyes and drawing back. “And another kind, but I don’t recognize it. I’m only familiar with Felines.”
“Lupine,” Eric said. “The Felines were my sister and son at breakfast. I hugged them both before I left. The Lupine is Graham McNeil, the asshole who’s being shoved into my Shiftertown. Which is why we need the new houses.”
“Which you want constructed to your specifications.”
“Without mentioning it to anyone,” he said.
Iona drew back. “How am I supposed to have my crew build houses without them noticing what they’re building?”
“You’re having your sister’s house remodeled without telling her.”
“Only until she and her husband get back from their trip. I think she’ll notice the guys hammering and sawing and putting up walls then. It can’t be done.”
He liked the way she stood and glared at him, not bowing her head and meekly promising him whatever he wanted. She was strong, this lady. A survivor.
“Find a way,” he said. “I’ll keep my Shifters from you, and the humans from finding out about you, and you alter the plans to my specs without telling anyone. All right?”
“And if I refuse? You’ll expose me?”
“You think I’m threatening you?” Eric came out of his nonchalant, Eric-is-everyone’s-friend stance, and leaned over the desk to her again, not stopping the predator. Iona stood her ground, but her eyes widened, and her wild scent washed over him.
“I don’t need to make deals with you, Iona. You’re an unmated, unprotected female in my territory. I could make you mine right here in this office, carry you home, and sequester you, and you couldn’t do anything to stop me. Could you? You’d fight, but in the end I’d win.”
He leaned closer, the desk no barrier, and she stepped back, catching herself on the chair behind her. Her eyes flickered, and he smelled her fear, but she wouldn’t look away.
She wet her lips, which made them red and sultry. “Is this how you romance all the girls?”
The little bit of defiance kicked hot need through Eric’s body. Having her was going to be good, so good.
“Sweetheart, an unprotected female raises the capture instinct in all unmated males, and most aren’t strong enough to control it. McNeil’s Shifters are just this side of wild, and they’re not about to control anything. Females protected by a clan or family are safe, but someone like you…” Eric reached across the desk and touched her cheek. “When Shifters see you, alone and unmated, their beasts will come out. The wild things we once were just want.” His touch grew firmer. “And they take.”
She drew a quick breath. “But you control your beast?”
“Barely.” Eric brushed her skin with his fingertips, liking how her cheek flushed. “I can keep it together, but whenever I see you, it’s one hell of a struggle.”
“But you hold it in. Is that why you’re the alpha?”
“One of the reasons.”
Eric felt his eyes change to Shifter, and Iona’s flicked to Shifter in response. He smelled her desires, the wild frenzy in her fighting to take over. She tried to tamp it down, but Eric’s own frenzy was responding.
He could do it. He could pull her across the desk to him, strip her down, make her his in the most inescapable way. It wouldn’t take long.
Eric leaned closer and licked across her lips.
Iona jumped, but she didn’t back off. He felt her body shaking, sensed her rise in temperature, tasted the mustard from her sandwich that lingered at the corner of her mouth.
He licked her again, and this time, Iona’s tongue came out to meet his.
Eric slid his hand to the back of her neck and gripped her while he played, licked, and nipped, chasing her tongue, her hot breath tangling his. Iona licked the pad of his lip, then the tip of his tongue, their mouths meeting and parting, soft sounds in the quiet.
The thick, female scent of her made him growl. Need and frenzy, long buried, rushed to the surface. Iona would be his, and no other Shifter would touch her, ever. She was his.
Eric dragged her closer, the desk still between them. He felt her nipples tight behind her thin blouse and bra, heard the little noise she made in her throat. He remembered her naked up in the cave, firm breasts pale in the moonlight, dark tips beckoning his tongue. He wanted to rip open the blouse, sending buttons flying through the room, to bend her backward and fasten his mouth on her. He would do it, taste every inch of her, lick up every bit of goodness. She was made for tasting.
Iona seemed fascinated by the Collar. As they kissed, she glided her fingertips around it to the Celtic knot fused at his throat—the “eternal” knot, the Fae thinking to make Shifters slaves eternally. Fools. The eternal knot meant two hearts bound together forever, and that’s what would free the Shifters in the end. Their strength and love.
&nbs
p; Eric would make Iona understand this, after he took her in every position known to humans and some they didn’t know.
Iona slid her fingers down to find the smooth line of his tatt. She swirled her touch around and around the tattoo, moving her tongue in his mouth in the same rhythm. She probably didn’t even know she was doing it, but Eric’s hard-on was about to dig through the desk.
He felt a sudden draft of air behind him, smelled the strong scent of human, then heard a gasp. “Iona?”
Iona jerked away, her face flushed, her eyes still her wildcat’s—blue, slit-pupilled, almost luminescent. She backed away from the desk, her arms coming up as though to hide herself.
“Mom,” she said breathlessly.
CHAPTER FOUR
Iona tried to make her eyes return to human, to the unscary daughter she tried to be. Wasn’t working. Eric’s mouth, his touch, his scent, had her wild side wide awake.
She wanted him. She needed to feel his body heavy on top of hers, Eric holding her down.
No, no, no, no. Eric was hot, and what woman wouldn’t fantasize about him? But if Iona succumbed to her need, that would be the end of her.
Sex with Eric would be more than scratching an itch, and she knew it. Sex with Eric would have a deep meaning, some Shifter connection, a mating thing she didn’t understand.
Iona’s brain told her that, while her body shrieked at the interruption.
“Mom,” she said again. “This is—”
“I know who he is,” Penny Duncan said crisply. Iona’s mother had dark hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, a short but sturdy body, and dark blue eyes. Iona’s black hair and Celtic coloring came from her Shifter father, but she’d never known him. Penny and Howard, Iona’s stepfather, were the ones who’d taken care of her, kissed her skinned knees better, and protected her at night. “Eric Warden, Shiftertown leader,” Penny went on, her gaze on Eric, not Iona. “What is he doing here?”
Iona’s words felt heavy in her mouth. “He came to talk about the plans for the new houses in Shiftertown.”
“Is that why he was trying to put his tongue down your throat?”
“Mom.”
“Honey, I know all about alpha male Shifters and what they do. They work their way into your life, seducing you with their charm and their protectiveness, their out-and-out attraction. And then…it’s too late. You can’t get away if you try.”
“You’re talking about Iona’s father,” Eric said. “Who was he?”
Watching, Iona realized she’d been sidelined. This conversation was between Eric, used to being in charge of everyone around him, and her mother, whose heart had been broken by an alpha Shifter male.
“Oh, a charmer, like you,” Penny said. “I was nineteen and spending the summer at my grandparents’ house up in Fallon. He came out of the night and found me on the porch, where I was looking at the stars. I wasn’t used to being out in the country, and I wasn’t used to talking to panthers who’d become human. Next thing I know, I’m sneaking up to his cabin to be with him, and then not much wanting to leave. He gave me Iona, and I’m forever grateful for that, but he tricked me good, Shifter.”
“Times change,” Eric said. “What happened to him?”
“Hell if I know,” Penny answered. “He disappeared one night, and I never saw him again. When Shifters were revealed and took the Collar, I was scared he’d come and find Iona. But he never did.”
“I could look for him,” Eric said. “Find out what happened to him for you.”
Penny stilled a moment, a sudden longing in her eyes, then she resumed her neutral expression. “Like you said, times change. I don’t care what happened to him.”
Iona did, and she’d seen, in that flash, that her mother did too.
“It’s unusual for a Shifter to abandon his cubs,” Eric said. “I’m guessing he never knew about Iona.”
“I raised Iona to be human. I’ve kept her away from Shifters, and I’d like that to continue. You understand, don’t you?”
“It’s easier to hide them when they’re cubs,” Eric said. “I grant that. But Iona’s made her Transition now, entered her mating years. She’s losing control, and it’s only a matter of time before another Shifter sniffs her out.”
“Transition?” Iona broke in. “What are you talking about? What transition?”
When Eric turned his green eyes to her, he’d gone from the teasing, hot, tattooed man who’d been kissing her to the wise leader of Shiftertown, who’d been alive far longer than Iona or her mother. “The Transition from cub to adulthood. It’s your body telling you it’s ready for you to find your place in the pride, to start looking for a mate.”
“Oh.” Iona flashed back to a few years ago, when she’d thought she was going insane. She’d hurt all over and wanted to fight everyone all the time, for any reason. She’d go up to their cabin in the mountains, trying to stay as far away from her mother and sister—from everyone—as possible, and let herself shift and run. And run. But no matter how far or fast she went, she couldn’t run from the fires burning her from the inside out. “Is that what that was?”
“All Shifters go through it,” Eric said. “You must be very strong to have made it through alone.” He sounded admiring.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“During my Transition I wanted to fight and challenge anyone—everyone. My sister had to hit me with a frying pan, those big cast-iron ones we had a hundred years ago. Several times.”
Iona suddenly wanted to meet this sister. “You obviously got through it.”
“Because I had help, had a family and a clan.”
“And a sister not afraid to smack you down.”
“That too. But you have no protection—no clan, no pride. That why I’m extending mine.”
“But who protects her from you?” Penny asked him.
Another stare down between Eric and Iona’s mother. Iona broke it by walking around the desk and planting herself between them.
“Both of you, stop it. Mom, I’m not you, and I’m not nineteen. Eric, I’ll send you the blueprints when they’re ready. But if you want to protect me so much—stay away from me.”
Eric looked Iona up and down and spoke around her to Penny. “She’s feisty. I like that.”
“You heard her,” Penny said. “Get out, Shifter.”
“I’m going.” But only because he chose to. Iona saw that. He could have done whatever the hell he wanted, including carrying Iona off over his shoulder back to Shiftertown. The reason Eric had told her about the Shifters’ instinct to capture her was so she’d understand that Eric wanted to do that himself.
Eric went to Iona and pulled her into a warm, tight embrace. His breath tickled inside her ear. “The Goddess go with you, Iona.”
He nipped her earlobe, then he released her, gave Penny a nod, grabbed his jacket, and walked out of the office.
They heard the rumble of his motorcycle starting up, the powerful throb as the engine revved. Iona went to the window as Eric lifted his feet and glided the bike out of the parking lot, sunlight gleaming on his dark hair and the jacket he’d resumed. He slid into the street and away, and the engine sound faded into the traffic.
Iona blew out her breath, moved back to her office chair, and sat heavily on it. The roast beef sandwich started to stink, and she shoved it away from her.
Her mother remained standing in the middle of the office, as though she couldn’t decide what to do now. “Iona.”
“Mom, I really don’t want to talk about it.”
Penny wasn’t put off. “Why didn’t you tell me that the leader of Shiftertown knows you’re Shifter? How long has this been going on?”
Iona heaved another sigh. “He saw me at a club last spring.” Iona remembered her shock when Eric dropped into the chair next to hers, asked who she was, and announced that he knew good and well that she was Shifter. “He just knew.”
“Of course he did. They can smell you. But why didn’t you tell me?”
/> “Why did you just tell Eric more about my real father than you ever told me?”
Penny sighed, looking suddenly older. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I guess maybe I didn’t tell you much about your father because I was ashamed I fell in love with him. But I wanted Eric to understand that I knew what Shifters did.”
If Iona’s father had been anything like Eric—strong, compelling, pinning others with that Shifter gaze—Iona understood her mother’s feelings toward him. But Iona probably wouldn’t have understood, she realized, before she’d met Eric.
“Why should you be ashamed?” Iona said, a little more sharply than she meant to. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was. I went to him, I knew what he was, and I didn’t care.”
“He was Shifter. I bet he made you do things you had no intention of doing until it was too late.”
Penny came alert. “Is that what Eric is doing with you?”
Iona shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m Shifter too, so maybe he can’t compel me the same as if I were human.”
“Don’t count on that, Iona. You’d be amazed at what they can do. Why do you think I’ve protected you from them all this time?”
“I can’t hide what I am, Mom. Eric proved that when he saw me in the club.” And I’m proving that by wanting to run wild all the time—with him.
Penny glanced out the window. “The guys are coming back to work. We’ll talk about this later.” She snatched up the tote she’d dropped and banged back outside without another word.
Iona dropped into the desk chair and put her face in her hands. Emotions poured through her—anger at her mother, anger at Eric, fear of her own reaction to him.
Even more powerful was her need to see Eric again, to go after him, to bask in his circle of warmth, even if they argued.
The scent of ruined roast beef sandwich was strong in the room, but stronger to her was Eric’s scent overlaid with the scent of her mother’s stark fear.
Eric rode his motorcycle far out into the desert, shifted, and went for a run. He ran to work off his frustration at being so near Iona and not being able to have her and also to cover Iona’s scent with his own. If he ran long enough under the warming sun, he’d get pretty smelly.
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