The Shifting Storm (Book 4)

by Jeff Hale

  “Yeah, I am, thanks ta Aerick. But he got hurt, Kat, and I don’t know how bad because he’s… he’s not human, did ya know?” Celeste said the last part as almost a whisper.

  If Aerick held his own against Henry and his pack, then Celeste must have seen Aerick use his powers. There was no need for me to cover for him anymore. “Yeah, I knew. He’s the ex-boyfriend I was telling you about that’s a Sentinel. I just didn’t feel it was my place to share his secret, so I kind of white-lied in class that day. And if you think he was hurt, then he was probably actually hurt a lot worse than what he was letting on.”

  She was quiet again, then she sighed. “Well, I can understand ya not tellin’ me the truth, if ya were protectin’ his secret. I jus’ wish I knew how he was doin’.”

  “You said he just disappeared?”

  “Yeah.”

  “He can teleport, that’s probably what he did. I haven’t heard from him at all, but there’s someone who might know, if you want to try to call them,” I suggested. Lucien seemed to know everything, especially in regards to Aerick.

  “Sure, that would be great, Kat.” She listened attentively while I gave her Lucien’s phone number and I could hear Travis complaining in the background. “Did ya want me ta let ya know what I find out? Or are ya gonna call this Lucien guy yerself?”

  Did I want to know if Aerick was okay? Of course I did. “I’ll call Lucien later. Sounds like you have your hands full there.”

  “Yeah, Travis woke up. Okay, I’ll talk ta ya later, Kat. Bye.”

  I just stared at the cell phone as the call ended, unsure what I wanted to do, but after a moment I found myself reflexively dialing the number for Lucien’s office. He answered after six rings.

  “I really need to see about getting a receptionist,” he said first thing in irritation. “This is Lucien.”

  “Sorry, Lucien. Maybe I should call back later?” I apologized.

  “Katelyn? No, dear, it’s fine. I just… I’m not a huge fan of technology, and while I find the telephone quite useful, sometimes it just never seems to quit ringing. Is everything all right?” he asked me in concern.

  “Not really, but I actually called to ask if everything was all right with Aerick?”

  “You heard about his altercation with Henry’s pack?”

  “Yeah.”

  Lucien sighed into the phone. “He’ll be fine, if he takes it easy. He overtaxed himself. Raven’s looking after him.”

  “Of course she is,” I muttered.

  “Raven is a valuable ally for Aerick to have, Katelyn, despite her… interest in him.”

  “I’m sure she is,” I agreed, not wanting to argue it. “But Aerick’s all right?”

  “Yes, dear. And you?” he pressed.

  “I’ll be fine, Lucien. It’s just a broken heart, right? Anyway, I should probably call Darien, about the whole Henry thing. He’ll want to know.”

  “Probably. Have a good evening, Katelyn.”

  I hit the speed dial for Darien’s number before I could chicken out on the call. It made it halfway through one ring.

  “Kat? Everything all right?” Darien wanted to know, almost echoing Lucien.

  “No, not really. Henry and his pack attacked Aerick earlier,” I told him.

  “That stupid sonofabitch! Did Aerick kill him this time? Would save me some trouble.”

  “I don’t think so. But it wasn’t just that. You remember my friend, Celeste?”

  “Yes.”

  “Apparently she and that ass, Travis, and some of her other friends were there and Henry’s pack threatened to harm them as well. Aerick got hurt and Travis is in the hospital. Is this something we need to deal with?” I asked him. I wasn’t sure, since it was a dispute involving shifters, a Sentinel, and humans.

  “Did Celeste get hurt? Or her other friends? Or was it just Travis?” Darien asked me.

  “Just Travis and Aerick, and I guess Aerick killed the shifters that were there,” I said.

  “Henry too?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Technically, yeah, it’s something we need to deal with. However, being that Aerick didn’t die and he was killing in self-defense, what more can we do?” I could hear the resignation in his tone.

  “What about Travis?” I asked. “He’s human.”

  “Henry’s pack hurt him, and Aerick took care of them, still not much we can do. Not that I wouldn’t have put that boy in the hospital myself if Celeste had said the word,” Darien pointed out.

  “I know. I think we all would have. Okay, then, I just figured I’d better let you know,” I said, trying to end the conversation.

  “Kat?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Look, I bought some land out here, with a house. I’d really like for you to see it. Maybe you could come out?” Darien’s question was full of hope.

  “Not tonight, Darien, I’m… I’m kinda tired,” I said lamely, trying to brush him off. Part of me wanted desperately to see Darien, and part of me was still mad at him. The rest of me was still trying to reconcile Dave’s comment that Aerick still loved me, and the knowledge that it didn’t make a difference if Serena was back in Aerick’s life.

  “Tomorrow then?”

  “Sure, I guess. Just text me the address,” I said, fighting off feelings of impending despair. “Bye, Darien.” I snapped my phone shut and tossed it in the direction of the coffee table, pulling a deep breath through my nose and willing myself not to cry.

  I was going to have to figure out how to let Aerick go again, only this time for entirely different reasons.

  TWENTY-TWO

  DARIEN

  “So what do you think?” I asked Alex, gesturing ahead of me.

  He put a hand up to shade his eyes, turned his head from left to right to take in the whole thing, before turning back to me. “It’s a bit big, isn’t it?”

  “Well, yeah, I guess. But I wanted something big enough for all of us, and any additions we might get eventually.” I strode up the stone walkway and up the steps of the long porch of the big ranch style house, put the key in the lock and opened the wide front door.

  “You’re really taking this whole pack thing to heart, aren’t you,” Alex asked rhetorically, following me inside and staring around the huge front room. The walls were painted a light rust color, the floor hardwood, and there was a white stone fireplace right in the center.

  “Yeah, I guess I am.”

  It was a big house, sprawling across a large chunk of the front section of the thirty acres that went with it. The land ran out into unclaimed desert and brush along most of it, with a stunning view of Red Rock less than a couple miles away. I had chosen it because it reminded me of some of the better times when I was younger, as well as wanting to have some sort of permanent base to come and go from that had plenty of breathing room.

  Besides the spacious front room, there was a good sized kitchen with all modern appliances, three bathrooms, three bedrooms downstairs, three more bedrooms upstairs, a dining room off the kitchen, laundry and utility, and two other large rooms that could be used for anything. Separate from the house was a workshop, a barn and a corral.

  “Have you talked to Katie lately?” Alex plopped onto the extra-long leather couch that dominated one side of the room. It and the large screen television directly opposite it were the only pieces of furniture I’d picked up so far.

  “She called me yesterday, told me that Henry was causing problems again, but it’s nothing we can deal with. I invited her out to see the place today though. She should be showing up anytime.” I shrugged out of my duster, hung it on one of the hooks that ran along the wall near the door.

  “Yeah, she told me about Henry last night. Doesn’t surprise me much.” Alex gave me a sideways glance. “She’s got your stuff all packed up.”

  I smiled wryly. “Wondered when she’d get around to it.”

  “Oh, hey, I don’t think she did it out of spite or anything, I reckon she just figured you might need
it.”

  “Oh.” I leaned on the stone of the fireplace with one shoulder, arms crossed on my chest. I missed Kat, terribly, but the compulsion her familiar had put on me was still there. Obviously it was a one way thing because it didn’t keep Kat from contacting me.

  “You doing okay?” Alex gave me a sad, hopeful look.

  “You asking if I’m slipping back into depression because she and I aren’t together anymore?” I let out a soft laugh. “Yes and no. I’m depressed, yes, because I’m not with her, but I’m not like I was when we left for Europe if that’s what you’re asking. That was different.” I frowned. I had hated myself then. I would still never be able to forgive myself for what I had done, but Kat had and I could live with that.

  “You going to let your hair grow back out?”

  I ran fingers through my short hair. It was only about two to three inches long, a far cry from when it had fallen to my waist. I had cut it off and burned it when I had joined Grimm’s pack, a symbolic gesture to myself of what I was trying to lose.

  “No.” I shook my head. “Maybe one day, but for now I kind of like it this way.” I glanced over to the huge picture window on one of the outside walls, saw the bright glow of the sun over top one of the hills. “So, is Kat still seeing that human gorilla?”

  Alex chuckled. “Warren? No. I guess he and Aerick got into it over her, and Warren decided she wasn’t worth it.”

  “She’s been around Aerick again?” My blood went cold.

  “Yeah, a couple of times.”

  “Are they…?” I couldn’t bring myself to add the last words.

  “Seeing each other? Fucking each other?” Alex supplied, and I could tell he was trying to get a reaction out of me. When I kept my calm, he smiled and continued. “No, actually. Katie’s been rather mopey because I guess Aerick is in love with some other girl. She wouldn’t say who, though.”

  I let out a breath that I didn’t realize I had been holding. While I was sympathetic with Kat about having someone you love being in love with someone else, it meant that Aerick wouldn’t be actively pursuing her.

  My ears perked up when I heard a car pull up into the drive outside, and I felt her in my head. I pulled on my duster, headed out, Alex following. Kat was just getting out of her Civic.

  “I’ve got your things in the back of my car, Darien. Did you want to get them?” She moved to open the hatchback.

  “I’ll get them,” Alex piped up, hurrying over.

  Kat let him, gazing out over the property. “Damn, Darien, you don’t do anything small do you?” She laughed. “Way out here in the toolies to boot, but I can see why you’d pick this place.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly then turned to me. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s your home, too, if you want it to be, Kat,” I told her. Alex was studiously ignoring our conversation as he made trips from the back of Kat’s car to the house.

  “Thank you, Darien, but I can’t. Not right now.” She headed up onto the porch, leaned on the railing with her elbows so that her hair hung down past her face, the sun shining through it like bloody flame. “I have… things… I need to sort through in my head.”

  I leaned on the railing next to her. “Aerick?”

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  “He doesn’t love you anymore, Kat,” I said matter of factly.

  “Dave says he does. I don’t know what to believe.”

  “I saw the way he looked at you, heard what he said. What more proof do you need?” I asked her.

  Her shoulders shook and her head bowed down further. I put an arm around her, drew her in so that she was snuggled inside my duster while she cried. She didn’t cry long; I think she’d been crying over Aerick for a long time now and she didn’t have much left in her over it.

  I put a finger under her chin, tilted her head up to look at me, her blue eyes still shining with wetness. “I still love you.”

  A soft sound came from her and she was on her toes, pressing her mouth to mine as though she were trying to drown herself in me. My hands went under her green tank top, reveling in the feel of her skin under my fingers again. I picked her up so she was sitting on the railing, her teal cotton skirt up around her hips, legs around my waist under the coat.

  “I missed you,” I whispered against her cheek, pulling the scent of melon into my nostrils. I supported her back with one hand while the other moved to her breasts, playing with them through her lacey bra.

  “I missed you too,” she breathed, her fingers pulling my belt loose and undoing the buttons of my jeans.

  I pushed her panties to one side and then I was inside her, the duster doing its best to cover us. A few moments later I heard Alex exclaim from the door, “Oh, for fuck’s sake, I know the neighbors are too far away to really see anything but there’s a whole bloody house full of bedrooms back there! Christ!” Then his footsteps on stone as he headed back to Kat’s car.

  I lifted her against me, not wanting to lose the feel of her skin, and stumbled us both into the nearest empty room off the great room, dumping us both to the floor so we could continue what we had started. Afterwards, I made love to her, slowly, so I could savor the experience, and then we lay in each other’s arms on the pool of my coat.

  “We can move your stuff in over the week if you want,” I said to her as I ran my fingers through her hair. “Alex was already planning on doing that this week anyway, we can do both and you can let the apartment go.”

  “Alex is moving out?” she asked softly, her body going still against me. “Never mind, he’s your best friend, he’s pack, of course he’s moving out here with you.”

  “You’re pack too, you’re my mate, remember that.”

  She pushed away from me slightly, looked up at me. “This doesn’t change anything, Darien. I’m not moving in here.”

  I just stared at her, confused. “Then what the hell was this just now?” My gesture encompassed both of us.

  She gave me a heartbroken look, then lowered her eyes.

  Anger and resentment flared through me. “Is that all it was, Kat? You feel a little worthless and depressed because of that sonofabitch so you fuck me to make yourself feel better?” I stood abruptly, pulling on my clothes haphazardly, knowing I needed to get out of there and go blow off my feelings in a more constructive way.

  I stopped at the bedroom door, glaring at her where she huddled on my duster, her knees drawn up, arms around them protectively. “You know what? The next time you want a little comfort sex, go find someone else to use! I’m not interested anymore!”

  I stormed through the house, ignoring the baleful look Alex threw my way, and headed out the back door and across the property to the barn. Some old junk had been left there from the previous owners, things that needed to get moved out of the building and either sold or taken to a landfill. I spent the next couple hours wrestling machinery and other odds and ends, wondering if I would ever have Kat’s heart entirely to myself.

  When I felt I had calmed down enough, I headed back into the house, figuring on a shower since I was all sweaty and dirty now. I could see Alex’s head over the back of the couch when I came back in, the television on and playing some movie on one of the pay channels. As I came up next to the couch, I could see Kat lying on it, sound asleep, her head on Alex’s thigh, his arm resting over her shoulder and down her side.

  Suspicion and jealousy leapt through me. “You didn’t…” I said harshly.

  He looked up at me with disbelief. “Knock it off, Darien. She came out here and cried herself to sleep, that’s all. I know you’re upset with her, and rightly so, but you didn’t have to be so bloody mean.”

  “When the woman you love is in love with someone else, and uses you as an outlet because she can’t be with that someone else, then you can tell me I was being mean,” I snarled at him, ignoring the way his eyes darkened.

  “Knock it off, both of you,” Kat muttered, sitting up and throwing a hateful glare my way. She lea
ned in and planted a kiss on Alex’s cheek, then got up and headed for the door. “Just let me know when you’re getting your things, Alex.” But before she could open the door there was a very loud, very insistent hammering on it. She took a few steps back, startled, looking back at me and Alex.

  “What in hell?” I demanded softly. “No one but you and Kat know about this place yet.”

  “Neighbors upset about the show earlier?” Alex said.

  I shook my head as I made my way to the door, yanking it open as the pounding continued.

  “Can I help…?” I started to ask, but froze when I saw who was on the porch.

  Henry.

  A Henry who looked like someone had run him through a meatgrinder. Aerick hadn’t succeeded in killing him. He was covered in dark bruises, still healing cuts and gashes across his skin and he seemed rather frazzled and frustrated and definitely not in the frame of mind to start any kind of altercation with me.

  “Show me,” he said abruptly, his voice filled with annoyance and something else I couldn’t place.

  “Show you what?” I demanded. I was being rude, but so was he.

  He grumbled and reached out with one huge hand to pull the neck of my shirt down, ripping the material in the process. I grabbed his wrist, put enough power behind it to stop him, but he’d already seen what he needed to.

  “Fuck me!” he exclaimed softly, eyes on the small scarred ‘Justice’ symbol. “I didn’t want to believe them when they said I had to bring it to you. Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  I let his wrist go, stood there and blinked at him as he muttered more obscenities.

  “Did you need to talk to me about something in my capacity as an Adjudicator, Henry?” I finally asked him. He’d turned his back to me as though he were deliberating with himself, and all I could see was the wide expanse of the black leather biker vest he wore, no shirt underneath. Henry was a huge man, and it must have been special made.

  He finally turned back to me. “Can I come in?” It must have taken all his willpower to ask that one polite question of me.

  I stepped to the side, gestured into the front room. “You know what will happen if you abuse the privilege,” I reminded.