by Jae
“You took a chance when you told me about the Wrasa and shifted in front of me,” Rue said.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. I needed you.” Kelsey paused as she echoed Rue’s earlier words. Her gaze darted up to meet Rue’s before she looked away again. “I mean...I needed you to trust me and work with me to find Danny. But telling Paula isn’t necessary and would only put her in danger.”
Her whole life, Rue had preferred to deal with things head-on, out in the open. Your son is a shape-shifter. It still sounded surreal. You better get used to keeping secrets. “All right,” Rue said. “I’ll follow your lead.”
At her uncharacteristic words, Kelsey looked up, but before she could answer, the coffee shop’s door jingled open and Kelsey’s gaze zeroed in on someone behind Rue.
Chapter 46
A tall woman in her late thirties rushed into the coffee shop, pulling a small roller bag behind her. Long, auburn hair bounced with every hurried step, and a laptop case swung back and forth on a thin shoulder. A crumpled blazer peeked out from under her coat. The odor of recycled air, coffee, and a lot of people squeezed into a small space clung to her.
When Rue turned to follow Kelsey’s gaze, the woman homed in on Rue and strode toward their table. Without glancing at Kelsey, she bent and kissed Rue’s cheek.
A growl started in Kelsey’s chest, and she forcefully held it back. What’s the matter with you? First you almost eat food from her plate, and now you get possessive? She’s a human, not your mate. Reluctantly, Kelsey moved her chair to the left so that Paula could pull up a chair and sit between her and Rue at the small round table.
“Want some coffee?” Rue asked.
“No, thanks.” Paula slid her laptop case off her shoulder and turned away from Rue. Her bloodshot but alert green eyes drilled into Kelsey.
Kelsey raised her chin and refused to look away.
Finally, Paula offered a slender hand, which Kelsey took. “Paula Lehane.”
“Kelsey Forrester,” Kelsey said after a moment’s hesitation. She trusted Rue and would later tell her she had lied about her name, but it was better to be careful around Paula.
Paula stared at her for a few seconds longer before she turned toward Rue. “The police still haven’t found Danny? Are they even looking?”
“Oh, yeah, now that he’s a person of interest in a murder case, they’re looking,” Rue muttered.
“What?”
Rue massaged her neck. “They found Danny’s wallet and ID on a murdered boy, and Danny’s pocketknife was the murder weapon.”
Paula’s pale skin blanched even more.
“He didn’t kill anyone,” Rue added, the fire of conviction in her eyes. “The police found someone else’s fingerprints on the knife, so Danny is not a suspect anymore. They think he might be a witness.”
Paula’s chair scraped across the floor. She leaned toward Rue. “Are you telling me Danny is out on the streets without any money? And he saw someone being killed with his own knife? Jesus Christ, why isn’t he calling one of us?” She whirled around and glared at Kelsey, then turned back toward Rue. “Does Danny’s running away and his reluctance to call have anything to do with your new girlfriend?”
Stunned into silence, Kelsey squirmed in her chair.
Rue stiffened and glared back at Paula. “His cell phone was stolen. And Kelsey isn’t my girlfriend.”
“Oh, no?” Paula reached over and tugged on Rue’s shirt collar.
Another growl rose up Kelsey’s chest but then instantly stopped as Rue’s collar fell open. She stared at the large hickey on Rue’s neck. Did I do that? For a moment, the mark of possession on Rue’s neck made Kelsey sit up straighter, but then she rebuked herself. One crazy night doesn’t mean anything.
But no matter how often she told herself that, she could still smell Rue on her skin, even after her long shower earlier, as if Rue was ingrained in her body and soul now.
Rue batted Paula’s hand away and pulled up her collar, covering the mark. “I don’t owe you any explanations. Danny’s running away has nothing to do with Kelsey.”
“Yeah, sure. Maybe we should reconsider. Once we find Danny, he should come live with me.”
Fierce protectiveness shot through Kelsey. “No, you can’t have him.”
Paula whirled around, fire in her green eyes. “This is a family affair! What gives you the right to interfere?”
A family affair, that’s right, so back off, bitch! Kelsey held Paula’s challenging gaze but said nothing. If she voiced her thoughts, she would make things worse.
“I give her that right.” Rue leaned forward and put her hand on Kelsey’s arm. “If not for Kelsey, I wouldn’t have made it through the last few days.”
Paula fell back against her chair like a marionette whose strings had been cut. She stared at Rue. “You’ve changed. You never let me be there for you.”
“Bullshit,” Rue said. “I’m the same. Let’s stop this useless discussion and go find Danny.” She threw money onto the table. Just when she was about to stand, the door opened again.
The scent of coconut and cat hit Kelsey’s nose. She looked up.
Griffin was striding toward them with Jorie almost running to keep up with her mate’s long legs. “Sorry we’re late,” Jorie said when they reached the table. “Couldn’t find a parking spot.”
“Paula, these are Griffin and Jorie,” Rue said. With a slight hesitation, she added, “Friends of mine. They’re helping us look for Danny. I thought it might be better if we split up. You could search with Griffin and Jorie while Kelsey and I—”
“Oh, yeah, that’s what you do when things get tough, isn’t it?” The bitter aroma of old hurt wafted up from Paula. “Split up.”
Leaning across the table, Rue glared at her. “Splitting up is what I do when it’s clearly the right thing to do. Now, can we leave the sideswipes for later and focus on finding Danny?”
“Why doesn’t she,” Paula pointed at Kelsey, “search with your friends?”
“Because Jorie and Griffin have never met Danny, and I think it’s better if both search teams have one person who knows Danny well.”
Paula blew out a breath before she stood and shouldered her laptop case. “All right. Let’s go.”
* * *
“Thank you for taking Paula off our hands,” Kelsey said, voice so low that only Jorie could hear her.
Jorie gave a tense nod. “It means we can’t help with the search for Danny, though. We’ll pretend to ‘search’ for him in all the places no Wrasa would ever go. You’ll be on your own.”
“I know.” It was a price Kelsey was willing to pay to keep Paula away from Danny. And from Rue, a tiny voice inside her head added, but she ignored it. Her gaze wandered over to where Rue was helping Griffin and Paula to stow Paula’s baggage in the trunk of Griffin and Jorie’s rental car.
Griffin was scowling. Clearly, she didn’t like having to play babysitter for a human and leaving the most important task to Kelsey.
A grin tugged at the corner of Kelsey’s lips as she imagined Paula being dragged around the city by a surly Griffin. She shook her head at herself. Stop behaving like a jealous lover!
“Kelsey…”
Something in Jorie’s voice made Kelsey turn and look at her. Jorie’s scent evoked images of a coconut grove during a hurricane.
“I had a dream last night,” Jorie said.
Tendrils of grief and despair brushed Kelsey’s nose. She swallowed. “About Danny?”
“No. About you. In my dream, Tala Peterson had caught you. The council ordered her to kill you. And Tala won’t refuse to follow the order, like Griffin did.”
“I know,” Kelsey whispered. She had met Tala once. With her delicate features and diminutive build, Tala looked like the runt of the pack, but people who underestimated her usually ended up dead. Kelsey shook off her fear. She had wished a thousand times she had died in Garrick’s place. If she had to die to save Danny, Garrick’s son, so be it.
Kelsey nodded.
When the group split up, Rue glanced back over her shoulder. “Griffin is one grumpy cat. She doesn’t like letting you handle things. Why doesn’t she trust you?”
Kelsey swallowed. She couldn’t lie to Rue. “I almost killed Jorie.”
“Killed?” Rue stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, making people veer around her. She let her gaze travel over Kelsey, then shook her head. “You’re not a killer.”
“I’m a wolf-shifter and a Saru,” Kelsey whispered, just loudly enough for Rue to hear. “When my alpha told me that the council wanted Jorie dead, I followed orders and hunted her.” She peeked at Rue out of the corner of her eye. What would Rue think of her now?
Shadows darted across Rue’s clear blue eyes, darkening them. Rue opened her mouth and then closed it again. Finally, she asked, “So the Saru are assassins?”
Kelsey wanted to shake her head but then hesitated. “If need be, yes.”
“That job doesn’t seem like a good fit for you,” Rue said. “I mean…you obviously didn’t kill Jorie. Why did you become a Saru?”
“My brother, Garrick, was a Saru. After he died, my father wanted me to follow in Garrick’s footsteps.”
“And you? What did you want?” Rue asked as they walked down the street side by side, keeping an eye out for Danny.
Kelsey shrugged. “I wanted to get away from it all. Being a Saru gave me a chance to leave home and live with other packs, who didn’t expect me to be someone I’m not. I’m not dominant like Garrick, and I never will be.” Amazing how easy it was to talk to Rue about the things she had carried around with her all her life.
“So how did you go from almost killing Jorie to working for her?” Rue asked.
Just as Kelsey was about to answer, something across the street caught her attention.
Two teenagers spray-painted a tag on a wall.
“Do you see them?” Kelsey whispered.
Rue glanced across the street. “It’s not Danny.”
“No, but they know what happened to him.”
“What?”
Kelsey pointed at the spray-painted symbols and words on the wall. “They might look like normal teenagers, but they’re not. They’re Wrasa sent out to alert our people that a young pup close to his First Change is on the loose. This says he was last seen in the ER at the corner of First Avenue and Twenty-Sixth Street.” What were the chances of two Syak teenagers running around Manhattan unsupervised? It has to be Danny.
Rue frowned. “The ER? Is he hurt?”
Kelsey read the words in the Old Language again. “It doesn’t say.”
The Wrasa teenagers on the other side of the street added more symbols.
Oh, no. Dread settled in Kelsey’s stomach like a clump of metal. “The council has declared a state of emergency, and every Saru in the city is searching for Danny!”
* * *
Kelsey breathed a sigh of relief when they left behind the stink of fear and sickness in the psychiatric ER and made it past the Saru team patrolling the neighborhood.
Chests heaving, they leaned against a wall and stared at each other.
“Christ, how could this Dr. Carson think Danny is faking to get attention and just discharge him?” Rue repeated what the nurse had told them.
Kelsey shook her head. “Something isn’t right here. No psychiatrist worth her salt would overlook Danny’s symptoms. Maybe Dr. Carson is one of us, and that’s why she discharged Danny. She knew Danny’s mutaline level would spike if he’s locked in an isolation room.”
“But then why is she letting him run around New York alone?”
“Guess we’ll have to ask her.” Kelsey had caught a glance of the names on the large magnet board behind the nurse’s desk. “How many S. Carsons do you think there are in New York?”
Rue pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “Let’s find out.”
* * *
They hit the jackpot at the apartment building of the second S. Carson they found in the phonebook.
Kelsey recognized Danny’s peanut scent as soon as she stepped out of the taxi. She turned to Rue. “I think this is it. You should stay down here while I—”
“You think you can get rid of me like you did with Paula?” Rue folded her arms across her chest. Her ice-blue eyes sparked. “Forget it. I’m coming up with you.”
But this time, Kelsey couldn’t give in, no matter what her submissive instincts said. “If Dr. Carson is really a Wrasa, I can’t show up at her front door with a human in tow.”
“Then I’ll pretend to be one of you.”
A tired smile inched onto Kelsey’s face. She’d make one impressive Syak. “That won’t work. One sniff...” She inhaled demonstratively, letting Rue’s scent fill her nostrils. The spicy aroma sent images of Rue’s naked skin through her mind’s eye. She could almost taste a drop of sweat running down the side of Rue’s neck.
“One sniff?” Rue prompted.
Kelsey blinked, dazed. “Um... One sniff and a Wrasa would know you’re human. I need you to trust me and wait here.”
Trust. The word vibrated in the cold air between them.
Rue blew out a long breath. “All right.”
Kelsey nodded. She straightened her shoulders and walked toward the apartment building.
The front door opened, and a woman tried to maneuver a stroller through it.
With a polite smile, Kelsey held the door for her. Good. This way, she could sneak up on Dr. Carson without giving her too much advance warning. If she kept the doctor off balance, the woman might not notice that Kelsey was alone, even though most Saru worked with a partner. She stepped inside the building, one hand still on the door. A fading peanut scent wafted around the staircase.
“Kelsey!” Rue called.
When Kelsey turned, their gazes met and held.
“Be careful,” Rue said.
* * *
When Kelsey rang the doorbell, a dog started barking. A female voice shushed the dog, and then hurried footsteps came down the hall.
Kelsey took a centering breath and settled the authority of a Saru around herself like a cloak—a cloak that covered her but didn’t fit well.
A sniffing sound came from the other side of the door.
Is that the dog or Dr. Carson taking in my scent? Kelsey breathed in through her nose. The jasmine notes of a perfume dabbed on human skin drifted through the door. Human? She looked at the number on the door again and confirmed that she was standing in front of the right apartment. “Ma’am, can I talk to you for a minute?” she called through the door. “It’s really important.”
The door opened, and the first thing Kelsey saw was the bared teeth of a tiny black-and-brown dog.
“Hush, Goliath!” A human woman leaned in the doorway. Her curly black hair was tamed into a ponytail, and a faded T-shirt clung to her curvaceous body. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m looking for Dr. Carson,” Kelsey said.
The sweaty odor of nervousness nearly drowned out the pleasant jasmine scent. The woman’s gaze flickered to the back of the apartment. “Um, why?”
“I’m not at liberty to tell you, ma’am.”
“Who did you say you were?”
Kelsey hadn’t introduced herself, but she had a feeling the woman had a good idea of who or what she was anyway. The musk of a coyote-shifter was all over the apartment, and it mingled with the human’s jasmine scent, combining into the more complex scent of a mated couple.
A coyote-shifter and a human? Except for Griffin and Jorie, Kelsey had never met a Wrasa/human couple. Having even a short fling with a human was taboo among Kelsey’s people—especially since revealing their existence to a human, by accident or on purpose, meant certain death. The Saru wouldn’t rest until they had hunted them both down and killed them.
Great Hunter, my family would have my pelt if I dared bring home a human! Rue’s face, lips curled into a confident half-grin, fl
ashed before Kelsey’s eyes. She chased the image away with a shake of her head. “Where is she?” Kelsey asked without answering the woman’s question.
“Shelby is asleep. She had the night shift at the ER all week.”
“I need to see her. It’s really urgent. Would you mind letting me in?” Kelsey tried to set foot into the apartment, but the human started to close the door.
Kelsey sprang forward and pushed back.
Chaos ensued as the dog barked, Kelsey growled, and the woman cursed.
“What’s going on?” A woman padded down the hall, barefoot and wearing pajamas. Light brown hair hung disheveled into a narrow face and alert hazel eyes. Her nostrils flared as she caught Kelsey’s scent. Her lean frame stiffened. “Who are you?”
“My name is Kelsey Yates. I’m a Saru. Are you Dr. Carson?”
Eyes wide with fear, the woman nodded. She tried to pull the tiny dog out of the other woman’s arms and usher her out the door. “My neighbor was just leaving. Thanks for dog-sitting, Nyla.”
“No need to pretend,” Kelsey said. “I know she lives here.”
“Oh, shit! Nyla, run!” Shelby Carson leaped and tackled Kelsey.
They crashed against the wall.
Pain exploded in Kelsey’s head. Darkness threatened at the edges of her vision. She slid down the wall, and only the fire flaring through her skin kept her halfway conscious.
She touched the back of her head. Her hand came away bloody. The metallic smell of her own blood made her bones groan with the urge to shift. She barely held back an angry howl.
Floors below her, she heard Dr. Carson and her human girlfriend leap down the stairs.
With a growl, she stumbled to her feet. Get them! Get them! She raced down the stairs.
The front door crashed open.
“Stop!” Kelsey shouted. “I won’t harm you!”
But the running footsteps didn’t stop.
Shit! They’re getting away! Kelsey jumped down the last few steps and burst through the door.
Chapter 47
The front door flew open.
Rue straightened and pushed away from the wall she had leaned against. Kelsey?