Tane's Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifter's on the Run Book 1)

by Serena Simpson

  “Hang onto that vision, it will come true.” Tane’s hand slid into hers.

  The waitress approached the table, she handed each of them a menu.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” She was tall and thin with black hair pulled back into a ponytail.

  “I would like a coke.” Leza looked down at her hands which were jittery. That’s when she realized fine tremors were going through her body. Could it be caffeine withdrawal? She noticed that the others seemed to be fine with water or milk and beer. Her mouth quirked up, of course they were fine with beer.

  They each asked for a glass of water and waited until the waitress walked away before they looked at her.

  “Are you all right?” Tane asked.

  “I’m fine, just a little jittery. I’m thinking caffeine withdrawal although I don’t have the headache yet.”

  “You drank soda after you received your animal?”

  “Every day they made sure I had a glass even if they didn’t feed me they made me drink.”

  “We can’t drink caffeine,” Jay finally volunteered as if that made everything understandable.

  “Why not?”

  “Our animals can’t take caffeine. Each of us reacts differently on it. It may act like a poison or a drug. Sometimes it has an erotic side effect, not a nice one. More like I will tear you apart when I get my hands on you. It’s dangerous to us,” Tane answered her question.

  “I wish Dev was here,” Dai said. “He understands our physiology better than I do. It’s possible that since you only have one animal caffeine doesn’t affect you like it affects us.” He looked at her hands that were shaking so much she looked like a junkie needing a fix. “Although it obviously affects you to some degree."

  The waitress came back with their drinks. It took everything Leza had not to snatch it from the waitress’s hands. Instead she waited and mumbled a polite thank you before she tilted the glass and drained it in one long swallow.

  “Wow, you were thirsty.”

  “I was,” she smiled at the woman. “Can I have another?”

  The waitress took her glass. “I’ll have it for you in a few minutes.”

  Leza slid back in the booth as her body began stabilizing.

  Chapter Nine

  Leza and Tane were sitting in the back of the SUV with her peering over into the trunk section.

  “You didn’t have to do that.” Her eyes were lit up like it was Christmas morning and she received the best gift ever.

  He looked back running his eyes over the cases of coke sitting back there.

  “Until we know why you need it; I think it’s best to make sure we have a good supply on hand.”

  She reached out and placed her hand on top of his giving it a small squeeze.

  “Thank you.” Her mouth quirked up as she remembered the look on the waitresses face when Tane ordered several cases of coke to go.

  The waitress sent them to a store not too far away where they were able to get what they needed.

  “Tane, you need to get some sleep.” She gave his hand another squeeze before letting go.”

  He nodded looking around at the cars speeding past and the surrounding landscape before he allowed his shoulders to relax against the seat. He reached out and took her hand holding it gently before closing his eyes.

  She bit her lip and gently rubbed his hand with the one he wasn’t holding until his grip went lax and he was finally a sleep.

  “You should get some sleep also, Leza,” Dai said from the driver’s seat.

  “I’m not tired, probably a side effect of the caffeine.”

  He nodded and went back to watching the road. She looked over at Jay who was in the front passenger seat to see he was dozing.

  Who were these men? She knew Tane was the leader, maybe even the unofficial leader but they all listened to him. Dai was obviously his twin but who were all the others? How had they all come together? What was their life like before they came to the facility?

  The facility was a large building. She knew that because she had been transferred around it even though she had never seen the outside of it. When she first got there she thought it was a mistake. All she had to do was convince someone to listen to her and then they would understand and allow her to leave. How naive she had been. It didn’t matter, time taught her.

  Now she was being naïve again believing in a fairy tale that said they could get away and have a life. Not a normal life, that would never happen but still they could live, love and be happy.

  Love. Her heart thumped at the thought that one day maybe she would love Tane, and he would love her in return. She wanted more than an overwhelming desire to sleep with him, because they were some sort of genetic match. How could they do that anyway? It didn’t make sense that they would know she was the one person he would be attracted to above all others. Maybe they had just rolled the dice and picked her because physically she was his type. They figured if they added an animal then he would have no choice but to fall for her.

  Her heart sank. She wanted more than that. She wanted to be needed and cared for, loved because of who she was and not because she was someone’s only choice.

  Then she’d make him love her. Back up, Leza, it’s not like you’re in love with him. She was in serious lust though and she liked everything she knew about him so far, even the fact that he grunted when he didn’t want to talk. It was seriously cute. Grunting was cute? Ok, maybe she liked him a little more than she was admitting but isn’t that what happened when people were thrown into a dangerous situation? She didn’t know so she closed her eyes and decided to take a small nap.

  “Are they both out?” Jay asked quietly.

  Dai looked in the rear view mirror. “Yeah.”

  “What do you think?”

  “About the fact that they sent the one female my twin can’t kill, or that they have other females that may be our mates.”

  “Take your choice, man.”

  “How did they know?” Dai turned his head to throw Jay a frown. “I’m not convinced that any female who looks like her with an animal would have made my brother this protective. How did they pick this female? Why this female? They went to a lot of trouble to get her. She’s not even military or ex-military and there were plenty of them that Tane had his eye on before we were captured.”

  “I talked about it with some of the others and Lore has a theory. Only someone with the nickname Lore could come up with it.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “He thinks there are others like us but with different abilities. Maybe even some who were naturally born. If science could do this, what’s to stop nature from doing it?”

  Dai head shook. “I hate to think that nature would do this to mankind, but no one ever accused Mother Nature of being nice.”

  “He suggested that maybe there was someone who could tell or predict pairings.” Jay laid his head back while he let Dai think over his words.

  “So you’re suggesting, or Lore is suggesting that someone the government has captured or created can tell what couples will come together or should come together?”

  “It makes sense if you think about it. I didn’t know you guys before we were taken, but I saw you around. It’s hard to miss a pair of twins that go everywhere together and look like they could take out a small army on their own.”

  Dai shot him a grin.

  “I was smart enough to know that the two of you, though twins, were attracted to different women. Tane was always surrounded, but he seemed to gravitate to the women who resembled Leza. You, on the other hand, were harder to get a handle on.”

  “You’ll never find my mate in the military. So why didn’t they pick one of them? Isn’t it easier to make military personnel disappear? They did it with us.”

  “I hate Lore’s idea, but it makes some sort of sense. It also means that the women they have are definitely our mates.”

  “I know, it makes a male want to run off and find his mate, but we don’t know whe
re to go.”

  “We’ll ask Leza again when we’re safe to tell us anything even if it was a smell. We’ll find them.”

  “Dai?” Jay’s voice was low as he said his name, checking the rearview mirror intently.

  “I see them; they’ve been on us for the last five minutes. I want to wait until I’m sure they’re tailing us. Then we’ll shake them and swap vehicles. We’re almost at the first swap point anyway.”

  *~*~*~*

  Leza woke when the car made a sharp U-turn and picked up speed.

  “How many?” Tane woke fully in an instant.

  “I see two, but I bet there are at least two more ghosting them.”

  Tane nodded as Leza looked out the back window trying to see who they were talking about.

  “Lose them.”

  “Really? I thought I’d just play with them. Hold on, Leza.” Dai shouted as he crossed the barrier on the highway and began driving into oncoming traffic.

  She screamed as she watched drivers cuss him out as he missed their cars by a hair and kept going. Twisting her head, she saw two cars whip around and start towards the wrong side of the highway.

  “They’re going to follow us. We are all going to die.”

  “We’re not going to die,” Tane said, hauling her body up against his. He waved out the window at the driver that just flipped them the bird.

  “There’s an exit coming up, see it on the right side of the road? We are going to over shoot it then cross the barrier and make our way back to it. They are far enough back that they won’t know we are no longer on the highway until it’s too late.”

  She watched as Dai turned the wheel and began crossing the barrier by doing a one eighty with the car. Her stomach was in her feet while her heart was where her stomach belonged and her animal was clawing her up on the inside. This was why she never went into the military or any other frightening arm of the law. Stunts like these scared the life out of her.

  The car skidded and leveled out on two wheels as they made it to the other side of the road. She was too petrified to even let out a squeak of protest as she waited to die in a heap of twisted metal followed by a fire.

  The car slammed down on all four tires and Dai raced to the exit. They took that exit at a speed she didn’t want to contemplate. He hit the brakes slowing them down and merging into traffic.

  “Clear,” Tane said.

  “Clear,” Jay echoed.

  Leza collapsed in Tane’s arms as her breathing tried to return to normal.

  “You guys live an exciting life.”

  “It’s your life now.”

  Tane’s hands rubbed her back slowly easing the tension out of her shoulders. They felt so good caressing then squeezing her muscles. His hands were deft touching her in magical places she didn’t know she wanted to be stroked.

  “What do we do now?” she asked on a deep sigh of pleasure.

  “It’s time to get rid of this vehicle. We have another one lined up.”

  “You thought of everything didn’t you?” She looked up into Tane’s eyes.

  “Not just me. This is a group effort; we all contributed because all of our lives are on the line. Also if just one person planned the whole op they would be on us because they know how we think. But together we can keep them off balance.”

  “Maybe next time I’ll be able to help.” He ran his hand over her cheek as she pressed closer to his chest.

  “Next time, for now keep those ears open. If you hear something that shouldn’t be here let us know. The military sometimes uses vehicles that use a different engine than the norm. You will be able to hear the difference.”

  “I’ll listen.”

  “We’re here,” Dai said into the silence of the car.

  Leza looked up to see a used car dealership on the side of the road. They had every make and model of car as well as several campers. Dai pulled into the dealership not stopping until he was in the back, hidden from the prying eyes of those driving the highway.

  She waited until Tane gave a nod indicating she could get out. Standing next to him she looked around for a sales person.

  A tall dark haired man came out the backdoor looking around before he came over to them.

  “It’s waiting for you. I already have the SUV in my system; it will look like it was traded a week ago for a smaller car.”

  The man shuffled from foot to foot looking nervous. She wondered why he was helping.

  The man looked at Jay and lowered his voice, “Janice says hello.”

  A soft smile hit Jay’s face before he shut it down. “Tell her I’m ok and kiss Olivia for me.”

  “I will, don’t die there’s no way I can tell her that. So stay alive.”

  “As far as anyone knows you never saw me. So it would be better if you didn’t tell her anything.” A small smile tugged at his lips as he thought about his sister.

  He nodded, “I know. If you were me and you were looking into those eyes what would you do?”

  “Anything to make her happy.”

  The man took the keys of the SUV. Tane quickly picked up the cases of coke and moved them to the camper. They emptied the SUV and the salesman drove it around front.

  Jay stared after him before climbing into the driver’s seat of the camper and taking off.

  Chapter Ten

  “We’re going camping?” Leza looked around the camper. When was the last time she had seen one of these? Heck, she didn’t know people still used them.

  This one looked more like a tour bus. A sleeping area in the back looked like it might have a double bed in it. There were two single bunk beds on one side of the camper, a kitchen with a small table, and a bathroom as well as a seating area. The place was nicely equipped for four people.

  She went to the fridge to put some of her soda in only to find that it was stocked with food. They wouldn’t starve.

  Tane was sitting in one of the chairs watching her as Dai sat up front with Jay. She grabbed a coke and came to sit across from him in the other chair.

  “I’d rather you not drink that.”

  She looked at him then back to the coke in her hand.

  “Why? I used to be addicted to this stuff when I was younger and I still like it.”

  “The doctors are ruthless and less than human as far as I’m concerned but they are also thorough. If they only gave you one a day, it was because you didn’t need more. You went for seven days before you began to feel the effects of not having it. I’d prefer not to find out what happens if you have too much.”

  She glanced from him back to the unopened can in her hand. When she was held captive, she had dreamed of being able to make her own decisions again. The thoughts of a swimming pool of this stuff flashed in her mind. Then there were the simple things, like going to the bathroom in privacy. Or the pop of color that was still on her toes. She wiggled them in her boots.

  Without a word she got up and placed the can in the fridge. She’d drink a can tomorrow. Freedom meant being able to make the best decisions for yourself and subjecting her animal to something she potentially couldn’t handle didn’t make sense.

  Her animal stretched in her and rubbed against her mind bringing a smile to her face.

  Tane stood up and held out his hand. “Come with me.”

  She took it knowing better but following anyway. He led her to the back of the camper and opened the door to the sleeping area.

  She tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. “Are we going to get some rest?”

  “Not yet.” He placed his hand in the small of her back encouraging her toward the bed.

  She crawled over and got on the bed sitting down in front of the door. He allowed his fingers to slowly move down her leg until he reached an ankle. His fingers flicked down to her boot and he untied the shoelace. He widened the enclosure and slipped the boot off placing it on the floor before he started on the second one.

  “I thought you weren’t the kind to wait on someone.”

  “I’v
e been known to make exceptions.” He slid the second boot off before caressing her instep.

  Her breath hitched at the feel of his strong fingers on her foot.

  “I haven’t been with anyone in a while.”

  “I bet I have you beat, Leza. It’s been seven years for me.”

  “How could you wait that long?”

  “I didn’t wait.” His hands traveled up to her neck, flicking it with his fingertips. “When you’ve been chained to a wall, stuck in a cell and then placed in a cage, you’re not really thinking about getting laid.”

  “Now you’re thinking about it.”

  “All I’m thinking about is tasting your lips again. I know there won’t be any interruptions. This way I can watch you melt for me and give you something to look forward to.”

  His head descended. It wasn’t the frantic desperate kiss she was waiting for. Instead it was soft, almost gentle as his lips touched hers. His tongue came out to caress the seam of her mouth encouraging her to open for him. He slipped his tongue in until he was able to lick and suck on hers.

  Her body jerked like she was being shot up with adrenaline. Her mind crashed from the pleasure of it, before she swiped her tongue around his. Dueling with him not for supremacy, but for the sheer joy of it.

  Her nipples puckered and she shivered just a little as his hands slid down her arms. His kiss was divine, the kind she used to dream of as she slipped off to sleep at night.

  “Are you real?” She broke away and whispered in his ear.

  “I’m as real as you are, Love.”

  She pressed her aching nipples against his chest. Love. It might be casual to him, but for her it meant so much more. To have a male call her that as if she meant something to him had her reaching for the dream even if it was a fragile thing that might die in her hand. This moment she needed to believe she was more than a tool the government had aimed at him. She needed to be his love.

  She licked his neck enjoying the feel of his heart pounding and his blood rushing through his veins.

  He stretched out beside her on the bed caressing the length of her neck.