Until a knock sounded on the door.
Both of them froze.
“Lydia?” It was Ashe, in her lovely singsong voice. “You awake? I have breakfast downstairs if you’re interested.”
Lydia’s eyes flew to Roch. He looked murderous. Like he might actually turn into his cat and attack.
“No hurry,” Ashe continued. “But there are beignets. They make the best beignets here in the Wildlands.”
With a nearly inaudible curse, Roch lifted her up and placed her down on the mattress. He was off the bed in seconds, running his hands through his hair. He looked wild and gorgeous.
“I’m awake,” Lydia called out, worried Roch would do something foolish. Like snarl at the woman to get lost. “Sounds good. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Okay, great!”
Lydia waited for the sound of the woman’s footfall to disappear before she turned back to Roch.
“Don’t go,” she said to him. “Stay and have breakfast.”
“That wouldn’t be wise,” he said, jaw tight. He wasn’t looking at her. Anywhere but at her. Playful Roch was gone.
“Why not? You were here for dinner.”
“I’m in no mood to be sociable. Besides, I’ve got to get home, shower and change before work.” He turned to her then and stilled. For several long seconds, he took her in. Her eyes, her mouth, her naked torso. “You truly are the most beautiful woman, Lydia.”
Her heart melted like a damn ice cream cone in the sun. She reached for him. “Stay.”
“I can’t.” But he went to her anyway and kissed her. It wasn’t a hungry, desire-filled kiss. It was more like a goodbye.
When he pulled away, Lydia couldn’t help herself. She had to ask him. “Do you want to know, Roch? About the cub?”
Dread glistened in his blue eyes. “Of course I do, but—”
“You’re scared?” she finished.
“Fuck, Lydia, of course I’m scared.”
She scooted to the edge of the bed. “I’m scared too. Everything’s changed for me. In the blink of an eye. My whole life. Where do I belong? What do I do?”
He sighed. “You will always belong here if that’s what you want.”
“What do you want?”
His jaw looked so tight Lydia was afraid it might crack. “You don’t understand. The ways of a Pantera male are very different than that of a man. We have honor. A code we live by. But more important than that is the fact that our kind can finally, after fifty years, reproduce. We can continue.” He took a deep breath. “This cub…”
“Is very important,” she said.
“Yes.” He was silent for a moment, then, “I have to go.”
She didn’t put up a fight this time. She understood the gravity of the situation. Love didn’t or couldn’t always trump practicality and allegiance. She may not have liked it. But she understood it.
“How are you planning to get out without anyone noticing?” she asked.
“Same way I came in.” He gave her a small smile. “Have a beignet for me?”
She returned it. “Sure.”
Then watched him go out the window with the supreme grace of the cat who dwelled inside of him.
CHAPTER 7
“Nothing?” Roch said incredulously. “No samples? No files?”
“How’s that possible?” Damien asked in between bites of ham sandwich. “Did they search the entire facility?”
Raphael glanced up from his laptop. They were gathered in his private office inside Suit headquarters. “Not exactly. They were stopped before they could search the basement.”
“Stopped?” Roch repeated, leaning back against the window. “By who?”
“The man who supposedly owns The Haymore Center. A Stanton Locke.” He returned his gaze to the screen of his computer. “I put a few of the Geeks on it, and it seems Mr. Locke has friends in very high places. From politicians to celebrities to law enforcement. One of our Hunters was actually taken to a humans’ jail.”
“Holy shit,” Damien exclaimed, putting down his sandwich and taking out his iPhone. “Which one?”
“Keira. She was protecting Reny.”
“Sebastian’s mate?”
Raphael nodded. “With her experience in the FBI we thought she’d be an asset in the field. She was. Until she saw this Locke bastard. She was convinced she knew the man. Wouldn’t stop with the questions. When he got pissed and grabbed her arm, Keira stepped in. And you know Keira.”
“Ballbuster,” Roch said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Best Hunter I’ve ever known.”
“Damn right. NOLA PD showed up pretty quick after that and Locke said Keira attacked him.”
“What a pussy, and not the good kind,” Damien said with a rare growl. “Is she still in jail?”
“No. Sebastian got her released. He headed to New Orleans the second he heard about Reny. They’re all on their way back now.”
Roch turned to face the window and the view of the meadow where the Pantera took meals together. “With nothing.” In one sense he was relieved that there was no file on Lydia. If it got leaked to the human press that she was carrying a Pantera cub, she’d never be able to live easily outside of the Wildlands. Not that he wanted her to. Shit, he really didn’t want her to. But with no records, no samples, no nothing, it was going to be near to impossible to track down any women who may have been given a Pantera sample.
“I say we question Hiss about this Stanton Locke, see what he knows,” Damien suggested.
“You really think there’s a connection?” Raphael asked.
Roch glanced over his shoulder, watched as the newbie Suit warred with himself on how to handle his leader’s question. Finally Damien said, “I think it’s worth a shot. If anything, I’ll see how his eyes change, and his expression, when I ask him.”
Raphael didn’t contemplate this idea very long. “Do it. Head over to Medical.”
“Now?” The male’s eyes widened. “Alone?”
“You can handle it.”
Damien tried like hell not to grin like a Pantera young, but it was impossible. He nodded at Raphael, and quickly left the room.
“That was nice,” Roch said, pushing away from the window and walking over to Raphael’s desk.
“Nothing nice about it,” he replied. “He’s going to be a formidable Suit. Just wanted him to find his balls and speak up.”
Roch laughed. Then he dropped into the chair opposite his boss. “You think Hiss might know this guy?”
Raphael lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “My guess is no. I think Hiss is telling the truth when he says he was working with Shakpi’s disciples. Don’t think Locke has any connection there. But who the hell knows?”
“We need to find those samples,” Roch said darkly.
“Damn right, we do. We can’t have Pantera cubs being born outside the Wildlands. They’re too important to the survival of our species.”
The male’s words raked through Roch. Lydia’s cub. They needed to protect it. They needed to know who had sired it. He needed to know. Or Christ, did he? Would it truly make a difference? Now, or six months from now, or ten years from now? Would anybody remember, or care? And would she care?
“Just because they found no samples with the words Puma Shifter written on them doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Roch put in.
“I know.” Raphael lowered his voice even though they were the only two males in the room. Outside his door was a group of Diplomats, and some of the Geeks, working on a variety of issues. Including the very one they were discussing now.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of the rookie,” he began. “But we still have two Hunters inside. And when the lights go out and the alarm goes on, they’ll continue their search.”
Roch sat back, impressed. “You’re damn good at keeping secrets, boss.”
“Back at you, brother.” Raphael too, leaned back in his chair.
“What does that mean?”
Raphael’s brow
s lifted. “Loved that lasagna so much you came back for seconds?”
“You knew I was there.”
The head of the Suits laughed, closed his laptop. “Are you really asking me if I knew someone was in my home with my mate and cub?”
Right. That was a pretty stupid question. Of course, Raphael and Ashe had been the last things on his mind last night. Or this morning. “And you allowed it?”
After a heavy exhale, the male said, “I am hoping…” He shrugged. “Ashe is hoping.”
“For what?”
Green-gold eyes flashed with interest. “We want the woman to remain here. With her cub. You have a connection to her. A need to be around her constantly. It’s like my connection to Ashe. And to Soyala. It’s impossible to turn from. It’s all-consuming.”
Roch growled softly. “Yes.”
“And you want her to stay.”
“I want her, period,” Roch ground out. “But what if the cub isn’t mine?”
“Will it matter to you?”
“Of course not. I would claim it if she’d let me. But that’s not the point. You know how we are, Raphael. Do you think a Pantera male would allow me to get close to the female carrying his young?”
That question weighed on the Suit leader. He scrubbed a hand over his chin. “It could cause a problem.”
“Try a fight to the death.” Because as much as he wouldn’t want to rip any of his Pantera brothers apart, Roch was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to watch another male touch her.
Christ, just the thought of it made his cat feral.
“And fuck.” He hadn’t thought about what Lydia might want. “What if she wants this other male in her life?” I lose my damn mind completely.
“She wants you,” Raphael said with a snort. “Shit, we all heard how much she wants you.”
Roch snarled at him. “Don’t make me make you fire my ass.”
Raphael laughed. “What is the answer to this then, my friend?”
“The truth?”
“They say it sets you free,” Raphael remarked.
At several points in his life, Roch would’ve appreciated that answer. Reveled in it even. But not today. Today there was nothing he wanted less than to be free. Of Lydia Page or the tiny life growing inside of her.
***
With a bluff of rugged hillside to her left and a curve of mysterious caves to her right, Lydia felt as though she was in a foreign land. Not that she’d been to all that many foreign lands. But she could imagine.
Thick, gloriously green vegetation hung from the rocks above her and rested languidly on the surface of the warm water of the bayou pool she was swimming in.
A bayou pool.
Never in a million years would she have thought she’d be doing this. And doing it buck-naked with three other women.
But seriously, that’s what “recently fired, recently discovered by a puma shifter and brought to a magical spot in the bayous of Louisiana” people did, right?
“Are you sure Keira and Bayon aren’t going to be around today?” Julia asked Genevieve with a quick glance at the beginnings of the couple’s new home that was being built near the caves above them.
A Diplomat, Genevieve Burel was the Nurturer Jean-Baptiste’s mate. She was a gorgeous blonde with pale blue eyes and a friendly smile. And she’d welcomed Lydia into the circle of friends like they’d known each other for years.
“Positive,” Genevieve told her. “They’re both on assignment.”
“Top secret stuff?” Julia asked.
“If I told you I’d have to kill you.”
Ashe and Lydia laughed while Julia splashed the female. Genevieve grinned and swam backwards toward a small alcove under a thick patch of greenery.
Growing up, Lydia had several close friends. But after high school, they’d grown apart. And well, she hadn’t tried to make more. There just hadn’t been time. Or maybe that had been an excuse not to get close to people. Fear of losing them again, or something. She had the same fear when it came to a certain Pantera male.
She looked at the women around her now, and wondered if there was truly a place for her here.
“Well this is very decadent.” Ashe remarked before diving beneath the water and emerging five feet away with a wide grin.
“We all deserve a little decadence,” Julia put in, making small circles on the surface of the pool with her index finger. “Especially the new mama.”
“I can’t tell you how excited I am for you,” Genevieve said, swimming over. “It means there’s hope for us here. To bring more Pantera cubs into the world.”
It was shocking how different the reaction to her pregnancy was here in the Wildlands versus out in the wilds of New Orleans. Where the Pantera saw her half human, half shifter baby as a blessing, the assholes at Haymore had seen it as a terrible mistake. How would the rest of the world react, she wondered. And would she find out sooner rather than later? After all, she’d only agreed to stay here for a few days.
Her heart seized in her chest at the thought of leaving.
No. At the thought of leaving him.
“How long has it been since a Pantera cub was born?” Lydia asked.
“Not counting Soyala?” Ashe said. “Over fifty years.”
“There was a curse put on our species,” Genevieve explained. “Soyala changed all of that.”
Curiosity pushed her to ask, “How?”
“Females,” came a male voice at the shore. “Remain below the water, please.”
Genevieve gasped and submerged herself to her neck, Ashe grabbed a piece of water plant and placed it in front of her, and Julia remained where she was, her eyes narrowing on the man—the male—standing on the bank.
“Roch, how the hell did you know where we were?” Ashe demanded. Then she glanced over at Lydia and sniffed. “Never mind.”
Lydia stared at him. Standing there in a pair of faded jeans and a white t-shirt. She mentally sighed. The guy could sport casual or career and he would always be the sexiest male in the room.
Or the bayou.
His eyes, those summer sky blue eyes, captured hers. “I need to speak to you.”
“Hey Roch, we’re swimming here,” Julia called out. “You know, girl time.”
“Yeah, go back to the house, Roch, and wait for her there,” Ashe said, though her tone was far from dictatorial.
“No.” He said the word to them, but his eyes remained on Lydia.
As Lydia was held captive by his hot stare, Julia and Genevieve groaned simultaneously.
“If you hang out here and any of our mates see you they’re going to kill you,” Julia said, then turned to Lydia and explained. “Sounds uncivilized and barbaric, but there it is. It’s what you sign up for if you get with any of our males, FYI.”
Lydia nodded, but decided not to say that the idea of an uncivilized and barbaric Roch was intriguing as hell.
“She’s not going for any of our males,” Roch said tightly.
“Someone’s acting a little possessive,” Genevieve remarked. “Especially over a female who doesn’t belong to him.”
“Lydia,” he called to her, ignoring the women’s barbs. “Please.”
“I’m not kidding about our mates, Roch,” Julia called out.
He growled, and for the first time, he turned and glared at each woman in turn. “Let them come.”
“Oh Jesus,” Julia uttered.
The last thing Lydia wanted was for him to get into a fight. Get hurt. That gorgeous face did not need any bruises. “I’m coming,” she called, then started swimming toward him. When she was ten feet from shore, she stopped and addressed him. “What’s wrong?”
He looked tense. “I need to say something to you.”
“We can talk back at Ashe’s—”
“No. It can’t wait.”
She glanced behind her, then back at him. “Even for some privacy?”
“I’m not ashamed of what I have to say, Lydia.” He came to the very edge of the water
and dropped onto his haunches. His jeans hugged tight to his muscular thighs, and the white t-shirt strained against smooth, tanned, muscle. “Have the testing done.”
Surprise caught and held her. “Roch…”
“We need to know the truth.”
“We?” She held her breath.
“You, me, the Pantera.”
A tight knot forming in her throat, she swam closer. “What if it’s another male’s—”
“Then the male should know.” His nostrils flared, but he continued. “It’s not about you and me anymore. It’s about the Pantera. Pack first. The cub is what’s important here. The cub and its safety is everything to our species.”
Lydia stared at him, her heart pricked and bleeding inside her chest. Yes, she was grateful for what he was saying, how he felt about her child. But gone was his fight. For her. Or for the male who might try and claim her.
Pain lashed through her, but she pushed it away. It was important to know. Her value and importance was in her cub.
“That’s what I came to say.” He stood up, nodded to the females in the water. “I apologize, and will speak to each of your mates.”
As he shifted into his puma and took off up the hillside, Ashe, Genevieve and Julia all surrounded her. They didn’t say anything, but they didn’t have to. It was something all females understood and sympathized with—Pantera or human. The pain of rejection.
CHAPTER 8
He despised himself.
He despised everyone around him, too.
It was a good thing that the one male Roch had told about his adventure to the bayou pool happened to be a Nurturer. Because as soon as Jean-Baptiste had given him the black eye he’d deserved, the male had quickly set about treating it.
Roch stalked through town in his puma state, a file folder between his teeth. According to Damien, Hiss had claimed to know nothing about the human male, Locke. But Roch had done some unconventional research on the man with Xavier, the head of the Geeks. Locke had been a foundling, taken in by a very rich man. A man who was rarely seen and rumored to be gravely ill. Seemed that Locke was devoted to him. Among his vast holdings, The Haymore Center was one of several research and/or medical facilities he owned. And though they offered a wide range of infertility options including egg donation, testing and surgery, it looked as though experimentation was their primary focus.
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