I stared into my memories, allowing the day I had witnessed him ‘shifting’ to come forth. My head cocked as I remembered the wild animals chasing after each other and rolling around on the green grass in the sunlight.
I whispered, “You like to play.”
He glanced down at me. “Pardon?”
I sucked in a sharp breath and steeled my courage. “I’ve seen you shift before. You like to play when you’re a white tiger.”
His smile was slow coming, all his white teeth showing. A tiger grinning at me. He murmured, “Yes, I do. And thank you for putting your trust in me. As I said, I won’t harm you.”
My lips pinched, but I nodded.
“I do need to ask two questions before you begin yours.”
Another nod.
“Who else saw me shift? And who else did you see?”
I blinked. “No one else saw it.”
Mother… It was my mother.
I wouldn’t name her.
He lifted his white brows. Silent. Watchful.
The white tiger didn’t believe me.
I moved on as if he did. “I saw you and your four best friends shift. Though, I guess I should clarify that I’ve never seen Cassander shift. I didn’t know he was a…shifter… until he told me as much. I believe he indicated he’s a fox.”
Finn led us to a bench directly in front of the largest part of the waterfall, brushing off the seat of grass bits—the lawn freshly mowed—before motioning for me to sit down. He sat next to me, his side smashed against mine even though the bench could fit two more people. His arm lazed behind me on the back of the bench, and his eyes roamed over the mother and children walking past and the family having an early lunch in the gazebo nearby.
With his gaze turning to the sparkling waterfall, he pushed for the truth. “You won’t tell me who else saw?”
I kept my mouth shut.
“That’s very loyal of you. Which means, it’s someone you love. I know your parents. They love you very much.”
I sighed. “No one else saw. I already said that.”
His eyes stayed on the scenic view. “Your father?”
I didn’t comment, my eyes narrowing.
“Your mother?”
My shoulders tensed—just the smallest bit.
His lips curved up at the edges, barely a smile. “Your mother then.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Finn turned his attention toward me, his glacial eyes staring into my glare. “No harm will come to your mother, either. You have an extremely intelligent family. They know what they want in life, and they know how to succeed in their agenda. That does not include pissing off a shifter.”
I still glared, hissing, “I will ruin you if you touch a hair on her head. Do you understand me?”
His lips twitched. “I like how fierce you are for those you love. It’s passionate and respectable.” Those sinful lips trembled once more. “And a little adorable coming from you.”
“Answer me,” I demanded.
“I already said my piece. I didn’t lie.”
I eyed his strong features, my hands fisting. “You better hold up to it. My mother means the world to me.”
His head cocked. “What about your father?”
“Our relationship is different, but, yes, he means the world to me too. I love both of them with everything I have in me. They have been wonderful parents, and I’ve learned so much from them about life, business, and caring. I don’t want anything to happen to them.”
He nodded. “That’s understandable. I feel the same way for my best friends. They are what keep me sane most days.” His attention swung back to the waterfall, the blue of his eyes shimmering in the sun. “Which is damn near comical because they also drive me insane every other day.”
I ran my gaze over his profile. “You love them.”
“Yes. All five of them. That does include Cass.”
I pressed my sweating palms onto my legs, the silk of my dress sticking to my hands. “It’s good to love and be loved in return. Without it, life would be miserable. And long.”
He grunted, his gaze now on a tree to our right, examining each green leaf. His voice was soft, purring, “Ask your questions, Mina. You reek of anxiety.”
I chewed on the inside of my mouth, and then spewed, “Speaking of a long life. How old are you? And are you immortal?”
“I’m one hundred and ninety-nine years old.”
He didn’t turn to watch my expression.
Finn allowed me the privacy I needed.
Astonishment ran through my veins. I didn’t breathe, my chest unmoving. My hands pressed harder down onto my legs, and my fingertips dug down into my muscles. His age ran on repeat inside my head, trying to comprehend a man who had lived for so long. Had seen so very much.
A person who had experienced life before the final war had ravaged our planet. The beauty and places he must have seen. A life completely unlike what I had grown up with.
He cleared his throat. “And yes. Shifters are immortal. Mates are too after they’ve mated.”
My eyes widened. “Truly?”
Finn did turn his regard to me then. Blue eyes searched mine, and he nodded. “Yes. Shifters and their mates are immortal.”
“You can’t die,” I repeated.
Maybe if I said it enough times, it wouldn’t be so hard to believe. An undying man sat next to me. The world was limitless to a being such as him.
“Actually, there are two ways a shifter can die. One, if their mate kills them. Or two, if the seer kills them.”
“What’s a mate and a seer?”
“A mate is forever. Magic chooses the human female, the perfect female for the shifter. And only a mate can provide a shifter offspring.” He sighed with extreme aggravation. “And you’ve met our seer. It’s Cass. The seer has certain powers that allow him to keep the shifters in line, the extreme soldier of sorts.”
My blonde brows furrowed. “I understand a seer for shifters. But why can a mate kill her shifter if the magic picks perfection?”
“Forever is a long time to live…”
He remained quiet, allowing me to comprehend the gravity of his words. Two people who live forever may not want to stay living forever.
“Oh,” I whispered.
He nodded, not commenting further on the topic.
I drummed my fingers on my legs while I deliberated my next question—versus everything he had told me. “You said a mate is immortal after they mate. How does someone become ‘mated?’”
“Sex.” Finn smirked.
I stared wide-eyed. “What?”
He explained, “We don’t mate with the first person we sleep with. The magic ultimately picks. A shifter could be alive for three thousand years and not have a mate yet. Or a shifter could only be nineteen and suddenly find their mate. It happens when it’s supposed to.”
“So you know during intercourse,” I mumbled, confusion still riding me hard.
“Not during. After.” His gaze was kind, attempting to clarify. “The mating does occur during sex, but we don’t know until after. A simple scratch from a different shifter proves if they are or not. If they heal immediately, they’re the mate to the shifter they had sex with.”
I stared for a full minute until I comprehended his words. “The other shifter must be used because a mated pair can hurt each other. The scratch wouldn’t heal if he personally did it, resulting in a non-answer because humans aren’t immortal and shifters can hurt their mates.”
“Exactly.” He peered back to the waterfall.
I stared with him, the water mesmerizing as it fell in a rush of wild beauty. I whispered, “What’s it like? Being immortal.”
“As you would imagine it would be. It can be daunting but also miraculous. I’ve seen such beauty. There are no words that could do it justice.” His jaw clenched, the muscles on his face jumping. “But I’ve also experienced horror.”
I swallowed. “The war.”
He nodded on
ce in a curt jerk. “And everything that is war. Nothing about it is kind or gentle. It leaves its unpleasant mark long after it’s over.”
The blue rush of the water continued to entrance me, loosening my cautious tongue. “Then why are you a weapons distributor? The biggest weapons distributor…”
“Weapons don’t kill. People do.” Finn grunted, his arm tightening over my shoulder. “After the war, Godric removed all the weapons that were being abused or could annihilate the entire world. But people still need something to defend themselves with. Evil won’t go away. It never does. So I provide individuals with weapons that help keep the lawbreakers at bay.”
“You aren’t worried about them falling into the wrong hands?”
“That is inevitable. But the punishments for criminals are much more severe than they used to be. Death makes them think twice before acting to steal my merchandise. And the Corporate Army is amazing at what they do—not all thieves die. My friends and I learned a lot from the war, and we know how to keep people safe now. The world has never known peace like it does now under our reign.”
I nodded. “You’re correct. It hasn’t.”
His eyes flicked in my direction, a smile flirting on his lips. “What made you want to become a history professor?”
“Everything about it.” I rushed to speak, excitement lacing my tone. “If we ever want to move forward, we need to know the past—the good and the bad. And the students in my advanced class are hungry for knowledge about the world as it once was. They remind me of me when I was taking that class. The era doesn’t matter. They just want to know more—the languages, the cultures, the architecture. It is addicting when you truly think about it, how societies have changed over time.”
Finn was fully grinning, his eyes alight on my face. “You are addicting, Mina. There’s such light in you.”
I blushed and turned my attention back to the waterfall. I replied politely, “Thank you.”
He started chuckling, his shoulder shaking against mine.
I cleared my throat. “Stop that.”
“It’s too much fun. You are a delight.” He stood to his feet and held his hand out for me. “Would you like an ice cream before we go?”
My eyes widened. “Oh, yes. I’d love one, please.”
Again, his gaze wandered over my features. “Beautiful.”
I placed my right hand in his and allowed him to help me to my feet. Then I peeked at him from under my lashes, asking, “Finn…have you already found your mate?”
The heat in my cheeks burned so horribly, I grasped my hands in front of my stomach to keep from touching my skin to cool it.
His head tilted, his white hair shimmering under the sun. “If I had, I wouldn’t be here with you. I’m loyal through and through.”
I nodded and then gradually linked one of my arms with his—on my own. Trusting this beast. With a smile on my face, I stated, “Take me to the ice cream. Strawberry is my favorite.”
“Strawberry for you. Vanilla bean for me.”
I chuckled as we walked down the path to the vendor cart. “Like your tiger’s coat?”
He grunted. “I’ve got stripes, not little black spots.”
“Fine. Like the colors then.”
“I suppose so.”
I swallowed down my lingering nervousness. “Finn?”
He glanced at me, my tone alerting him to my seriousness. “Yes?”
“The master? Why did he come after me?”
“That’s currently unclear. We’ve dealt with the golems before, but that was a situation that involved a mate.” With his eyes on my face, he asked carefully, “Are you ready to talk about your experience with your kidnapper yet?”
My eyes narrowed. “You didn’t give Megan any time.”
“You and Megan are nothing alike.”
I stopped us under a tree, the shading cool and refreshing. I peered up at him. “I have an excellent memory. It’s why I did so well in school. I believe my information may help you find him, and I’d like to get this out of the way so I don’t dwell on it.”
He nodded, understanding I was serious, and released my arm to tap on his bracelet. “I’ll be recording this like I did with Megan. Take all the time you need. Take breaks. Do what you need to do.”
Finn the intellectual flirt was gone.
In his place stood a professional, his gaze solemn and focused on his target. He asked once more, “Are you sure you want to talk about it now?”
I sucked in a deep breath and leaned my tall frame back against the tree. “Yes. While it’s fresh in my mind. But I will want ice cream afterward. Probably two scoops.”
He tapped once more on his bracelet and then crossed his arms. “We’re recording now, Mina. Please start at the beginning.”
My eyes lifted over his head. I stared at nothing as I focused on the hard facts of how the nightmare had started. I let the traumatic events in, and then I started to speak.
I didn’t stop, never once looking at him.
Everything that I had experienced I stated.
Any questions he asked, I answered.
I never wanted to say those words again.
He was right. Megan and I were nothing alike.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“What is that man doing?” I mumbled.
“Who?” Finn asked around a mouthful of vanilla bean ice cream—and a spoon. His head whipped from side to side, searching the area.
It was pretty adorable for a monster, really.
The sun was high in the sky now and our ice cream was melting too swiftly in the heat of the day. So we were eating it as quickly as possible. I didn’t bother to explain I normally ate ice cream like this. It was a favorite of mine.
I pointed with my spoon. “Up there.”
Finn’s eyes narrowed to where I had indicated.
Then they widened almost comically. “Good fuck.”
Confused, I spoke slowly, “Is he…naked?”
“I believe so,” he spoke quietly, almost in a whisper, as if he were afraid of being caught. “We should go.”
“We should report him. There are children here.”
Finn’s lips thinned, and in the oddest move, he ducked behind a tree. He peeked around it for a beat, hissing, “That’s Theron. God’s dad.”
“What?” I shouted.
My eyes flew to an outcropping near the top of the waterfall where the gentleman was sunbathing in the nude. The man certainly didn’t appear old. In fact, he looked to be in the prime of his life.
Oh, yes. Immortality kept the body pretty.
“Really? That’s his father?”
“Keep your voice down. He’ll hear you.”
My head jerked back to Finn. I whispered, “Is there a reason why you’re hiding behind a tree like a child?”
“Theron is…,” he shuddered, his whole body shaking with it, “…different. He’s not horrible right now with God as the alpha king, but before that, when he ruled, he was scary as fuck. He’s over two thousand years old.”
I stared at the cowering beast. “What…”
My mind just couldn’t. It just couldn’t.
Today had been hard enough.
“Exactly. A person that old is allowed their oddities. We accept those things like we do any of the Ancients. But he ruled the shifters with an iron fist. No one, and I mean no one, stepped out of line.”
My eyes burned. I hadn’t blinked in a while.
I did so and swallowed. “There are still children here.”
“Theron will do as he pleases. He’s on vacation.”
“What does that even mean?” I hissed, keeping my voice lowered. I even tiptoed across the grass to stand behind the tree with a grown man. I peeked around the other side of it to stare at the apparent Ancient.
Finn sighed. “There’s only supposed to be one alpha king, the shifter with the most power to control them. But God was born…and he has just as much power as his dad. It’s all because of a curse—or a shift
er behaving badly—but it still happened. So Theron and God decided they would take turns ruling to give each other a break. Theron is currently on vacation.”
“From ruling his people.”
“Yes.”
“Do he and God fight? Powerful men have through history, especially over territory and people. That’s probably the same thing as two shifters with the same capability for ruling.”
“Sometimes they do, but Theron has an immense amount of control. And he loves his son—both sons actually—and he understands God is still a baby compared to his own age. It rarely gets out of control if they argue.”
“What kind of curse fucked up the system?”
It was odd how far I had fallen. But it felt right.
Monsters were real.
I just had to deal with it.
Finn sighed. “We called it a curse forever. And it probably is an actual curse. But we’ve just recently understood that a shifter is behind it. Just over two hundred years ago, six shifters found their mates at the same time. They even conceived on the same day and gave birth to their sons on the same day.”
“You’re one of those sons, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he grumbled.
“I thought the three of you being born minutes apart was odd.”
“All my best friends and I are the offspring of the curse.”
“Keep going,” I whispered.
“You see, the matings were tainted. The mates smelled of darkness. It wasn’t a magically perfect match. And for two hundred years, no other mates have been found.” He ate another bite of his ice cream, peeking around the tree again before his attention returned to me. “Until Poppy showed up. She is God’s mate. And she doesn’t smell of darkness to any shifter who has met her. It’s a perfect match, the magic back in place.”
“Um, Cassander told me at your party that she has a dark air surrounding her.”
His entire body froze. “Excuse me?”
Transcend (Origin Book 2) Page 6