by Sammie Joyce
Yeah, life wasn’t so bad after all. I could get used to this feeling… at least until the other shoe dropped.
12
Inigo
The din was unbearable—no pun intended.
I was sure I’d never heard such an uproar, not that I really blamed the Council for reacting the way they were. Still, I would have done anything to be anywhere else right then.
It had been three nights since the incident at the movie theater. Apparently, bad news had not traveled as fast as I thought and while I had been plagued with an uneasy feeling that all hell was going to break loose, I had managed to enjoy the interim silence that led up to the emergency meeting being called. I’d spent the past seventy-two hours texting with Addy and making plans to see her on the upcoming weekend. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could wait that long but she had plans with her friend on Sunday and then, of course, we were back to work. I didn’t want to pressure her but I was champing at the bit to see her soon.
But for the moment, I had to address this problem, just like the rest of the shifter community for miles around. I felt like I was staring at half of Oregon in that moment.
It was more than just the Protectors and Council who gathered by Diamond Peak that night, a sea of shifters embracing the inner circle almost as far as I could see.
The claws, packs, sleuths, and prowls had gathered to hear what the Council had to say on this matter. I didn’t have to have supernatural sight to see the way the bear sleuths stood apart from the rest of the shifters but no one was being looked at nearly as harshly as Cronin, who stood alone in the depth of the shadows, in his human form for once. Usually, he was more comfortable in his bear skin but I knew why he’d avoided morphing that night and it was smart. No one wanted a reminder of the attack animal who was causing massive problems for all of us.
I wondered if his own sleuth had abandoned him in his time of need and as an act of solidarity, I ambled toward him to stand at his side. He growled at me, baring his teeth, but he didn’t shuffle aside, probably because there was damn well almost nowhere else for him to go.
“I SAID COME TO ORDER!” Nia screamed, her face red as she leapt onto a platform boulder and glowered at the group.
“Nia…” Jack sighed in his usual fashion, trying to talk her down, but it was clear that she was already in high gear, ready to snap. I shot Cronin a wary look but he refused to meet my eyes, his stare fixed stonily in front like I wasn’t there.
Nia’s shrieking caused everyone to settle down and all eyes fell on her as she struggled to catch her breath.
“Nia,” Homer said from beside Jack. “Maybe you should let me take the reins on this.”
The leopard councilwoman gawked at the bear councilman and for a moment, I thought they might go head to head right there. To Nia’s credit, she was crazy, not stupid. She knew better than to challenge a bear as powerful as Homer Adams.
“You better say something worthwhile about this,” she hissed but loud enough that everyone could hear.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Homer replied dryly, claiming her spot on the boulder.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began and I felt a slight shiver. The last time I’d heard those words had been at the theater where six people had been mauled to death by a rogue bear.
“Thank you all for being here tonight,” Homer went on.
“What the hell does he think this is? An inauguration speech?” Marcel muttered from nearby. I shot him a warning look but like Cronin, the wolf wasn’t looking at me either.
“I know we’re all a little on edge because of what happened,” Homer went on. “But right now, we’re working on very little information. For all we know, this is a rabid bear who needs to be put down and not a shifter at all.”
Bears are almost never rabid, I wanted to remind him but it wasn’t my place to contradict the Council. Lucky for me, Nia had no problem.
“You know that bears never get rabies.”
“Rarely get rabies,” Homer corrected her. “But it does happen.”
“I heard the bear looked exactly like Cronin,” someone yelled from somewhere in the crowd. I saw Cronin’s shoulders tense and I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Screw them,” I muttered. “I know you didn’t do anything.”
He gave me a sidelong look, his mouth twisted in a scowl, but I saw a glimmer of appreciation in his ebony irises.
“The bear may have looked like any number of black bears,” Homer replied nonchalantly. “Doesn’t make it true. Like I said, this might very well be a regular bear—”
“It isn’t.”
For a second, I didn’t know why everyone was looking at me. Suddenly, I realized I was the one who had spoken.
“I’m sorry, what was that, Inigo?” Homer called out to me. I balked, wondering if I had lost my mind somewhere and not noticed. I considered shifting and disappearing into the woods forever, but, of course, that was stupid.
“Mathis. Speak up!” Nia barked.
“Nia, Inigo, Dalton, and Marcel answer to us,” Lorna interjected, her eyes flashing. “Not you and not Homer.”
Homer bowed down to Lorna, who turned to me.
“You were saying, Inigo?” my boss pressed. I knew I had nowhere to run.
“The bear was definitely a shifter.”
“And you know this how?” Lorna demanded. I stifled a sigh.
“I was there, at the theater on Friday night.”
A swell of voices flowed together and everyone asked me questions in unison.
“So was it Cronin?”
“What color bear was he?”
“Why didn’t you protect? Isn’t that your job?”
Me and my big mouth. Shit. What was I thinking?
Lorna held up a hand but she looked over at Fernando, who stared balefully at me. Once more, I was in trouble with the elders but not nearly as much trouble as I was going to be if they found out about Addy.
“You didn’t think you should mention this to us?” Lorna demanded, the ice in her voice cutting me.
“What could I tell you?” I said defensively. “I mean, I was surrounded by humans so I couldn’t shift.”
“Did you know the bear?” Fernando wanted to know. I inadvertently looked at Cronin.
“Was it Cronin?” Nia screamed. “I knew it!”
“It wasn’t Cronin!” I yelled, glaring at her. “But he was a shifter.”
I hoped my voice rang true with conviction.
“He’s just lying for him!” a cocky panther cried out. “They’re best friends.”
“That would explain why Inigo didn’t bother to say anything to anyone about why he’d been at the theater. What other reason could there be?”
“That’s enough!” Fernando barked, taking over the lead. “Even if it was Cronin, which none of you can prove, we all know him. He can’t control himself when the magic is too strong over the community. He can hardly be faulted for it. He’s a Protector, not a murderer. That’s why we’ve entrusted him with the position. That said, we need to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
There was a low murmur but a sense of agreement seemed to flow through them.
“Going forward, none of the shifters are ever to be in the presence of the humans after dark.”
The announcement sent a new flurry of discontent through the groups.
“I work in a bar!”
“I’m a nanny!”
“How does that work?”
A thousand protests flowed through the beings, most of them indignant.
“You’ll have to move your schedules around so that you don’t have human interaction once the sun goes down. I would like to banish it altogether but I fear for the economy on the west coast if I dare try,” Fernando grumbled. He looked to the rest of the Council and unsurprisingly, they all seemed to agree with my superior’s words. For all their squabbling, there was a reason that they ran us all.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d already disc
ussed such a drastic measure.
“Also,” Homer added, his gaze resting on where Cronin and I stood, “if you have human peers, I would gently recommend to them that they stay indoors until this matter is resolved. Any of you caught consorting with humans after dark will be swiftly and severely punished. You’re dismissed.”
I felt my mouth gape open and I looked at Cronin in disbelief but he didn’t seem like he was even there anymore. He’d gone somewhere else, it seemed, disassociating himself from the proceedings.
“Cro,” I mumbled. “Did you hear all that?”
He looked at me, his expression blank.
“What?”
“We need to figure out who that bear is,” I told him urgently. “This rule about not seeing humans after dark—”
Cronin shifted then, rendering him unable to speak, but he fell back onto his hind legs and released a terrifying feral howl that chilled me to my core.
“Cro…” I said, blinking in confusion. “What the hell?”
Without warning, he leaned forward, gnashing his teeth so close to my face that I shifted on instinct.
We faced off for a long, unspeaking moment, my eyes glimmering in the darkness as I tried to understand what was happening with my friend.
But as I stared at him, I began to wonder if this was the Cronin I’d come to know and love because in that moment, I saw nothing but the cold, dead eyes of a killer.
Maybe I’d been wrong about him after all.
13
Addisyn
I woke on Thursday morning with a slightly uneasy feeling in my gut. It was hard to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from seeing as the past few days had been almost perfect from every angle.
I’d been texting with Inigo almost every night and I was looking forward to seeing him on Friday night as we had planned. Work was going as well as could be expected and even Vanessa had commented on my good mood when I’d seen her on Sunday evening for a drink.
“You’re glowing,” Van commented, a sly but suspicious look on her face. “Have you been hitting up Tinder again?”
I blushed furiously at the question.
“No! Of course not!”
Van had seemed insulted by my indignation.
“What’s wrong with Tinder?” she demanded. “I’ve had some good dates on there. In fact, I met this tall, dark, and very mysterious man recently.”
She winked at me but I could see she was daring me to contradict her on the subject. I quickly backpedaled, shaking my head. Online dating might be for her but it certainly wasn’t for me.
Not anymore.
“There’s nothing wrong with Tinder,” I assured her. “But I…”
I trailed off and Vanessa chuckled, taking a sip of her Tom Collins before throwing back her short, blonde bob and peering at me with intelligent blue eyes.
“You’re definitely hooking up with someone,” she insisted. “Who is he?”
I looked down at my drink, refusing to meet her eyes.
“Oh my God! I’m right!” Van squealed, attracting the attention of onlookers with her shrill tone.
“Keep your voice down!” I hissed, my face flushing with embarrassment. “I-it’s nothing.”
I hated myself for lying to her because the way I felt was anything but nothing.
“Who is he?” Van insisted but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her anything about Inigo.
Did I want to keep him for myself or was there something underlying and cynical that kept me from talking about him, as much as I wanted to?
“You’re drunk,” I shot back, knowing she hadn’t even finished her first drink.
“You’re avoiding the subject,” she countered but in the end, I didn’t tell her anything.
If not for the fact that my mother was acting strangely, I would have had no complaints about my life that Thursday morning and yet, I couldn’t shake the idea that something was wrong, was off.
I lay in my bed for a long while, stretching as I stared at the ceiling. A part of me was expecting the sky to cave in but I couldn’t say why.
Odessa had been going out more frequently without explanation and while I wanted to trust that she was doing better now, behaving herself, I would be a fool to be fooled again after all she’d put me through.
I wondered if that was what was bugging me.
Slowly and with great reluctance, I pulled myself out of bed and made my way into the bathroom to shower and get ready for work. I had a full day ahead of me and I wanted to get in slightly earlier to prepare.
I lathered my body, taking my time under the steaming water as if I expected the heat to wash away any of my insecurities. When I finally emerged, smelling of Moroccan oil and shea butter, I felt slightly less tense.
I selected a two-piece skirt suit with a silk tailored blouse and when I piled a chignon onto my head and finished doing my make-up, I knew I was ready to slay the day.
Or at least I felt that way until my phone began to ring.
Frowning, I glanced at the alarm clock on my bedside table. The green digital numbers read 7:02.
Who the heck is calling at this hour?
I moved toward my cell which sat charging next to the clock and started with some surprise when I saw Inigo’s number flashing on the screen.
Worry consumed me. Aside from the day he had called to ask me out on our date to the theater, he never dialed out. Usually, we communicated by text.
“In?” I answered in confusion. “Is everything all right?”
He let out a short laugh.
“Yeah, of course,” he replied. His voice sounded different somehow and my alarm increased slightly.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m fine, Addy, but I need to see you.”
My eyebrows raised, unsure of what to make of the request.
“We are going to see one another,” I reminded him. “Tomorrow, remember?”
“I need to see you today. Right now. Come and meet me in Coburg, off the I-5. How long do you need to get there?”
For a moment, I didn’t know how to respond.
“What’s wrong?” I asked again before letting my annoyance get the better of me.
“I told you nothing’s wrong. I just need to see you.”
See me in the middle of nowhere without a minute’s notice?
“I can’t,” I replied, trying not to snap at him. “I have to work today.”
“Forget about work. Just come. I’ll send you the GPS coordinates.”
I blinked, dumbfounded by the way he was acting. Did he honestly just expect me to drop everything because he said so?
I thought about breakfast and how much his disposition had bothered me. There had already been one red flag but I’d ignored it. I wasn’t about to ignore another one.
“No,” I said flatly. “I can’t.”
There was a small pause and I could tell he was stunned I’d refused.
He’s not used to women telling him no, I bet. Well, I’ve got news for you, Inigo Mathis, I’m not most women.
“You can’t or you won’t?”
Did I detect a threat in his voice?
I told myself not to overreact or overthink it.
“Both,” I retorted sharply. “I take my responsibilities very seriously, Inigo, and I’m not just going to brush them off.”
I didn’t add “for you” but I think the words were implied. I heard him inhale.
“Really,” he drawled. “You won’t come?”
A thousand questions rolled through my head. If he needed to see me so badly, why was he making me drive out to the middle of nowhere? He could come to me, not make me jump through hoops to see him.
I was right. If I want this to work between us, I’m the one who’s going to have to make all the sacrifices.
“I just told you—I have to get to work. In fact, now you’ve made me late.”
“Don’t let me keep you, then,” he growled back, disconnecting the call in my ear without so much
as a goodbye.
Did he just hang up on me because I refused to jump when he snapped his fingers?
I tried a thousand ways to justify what had just happened but I couldn’t read it any other way. Apparently there wasn’t going to be a honeymoon phase with Inigo. He was going to jump right into possessive, demanding male role.
I sank onto my bed, shaking my head in disbelief. Why was he acting this way? He hadn’t shown me any of this side of him until now and suddenly, wham! I was getting the raw story.
Hurt shot through me as I remembered how warm and protected I’d felt in his arms on Friday night, how much we’d talked and laughed. Even those texts over the past few days hadn’t shown an iota of this behavior.
But I guess I’m seeing the real Inigo now.
Straightening my spine, I pulled my chin up and set myself on my feet, spinning to look at myself in the mirror again. I’d known the guy all of four days. So what if it didn’t work out? It was better I nip that in the bud now than a year from now, right?
I studied my reflection in the glass again, determined not to let the pain I was feeling in my chest show in my face.
I’d gotten along fine for twenty-five years on my own. I didn’t need anyone.
But that didn’t change the fact that I desperately still wanted him.
14
Inigo
Long after I’d hung up on Addy, I was still upset. Her tone, her demeanor, and her attitude had taken me aback. All I’d wanted was to get her alone, to see her in private and away from the prying eyes of the shifters who were sure to be on high alert now that our interactions were forbidden with the humans. I wanted to meet her face to face and explain to her that we couldn’t go out in public anymore, that we needed to keep our relationship well hidden although I hadn’t really thought through how to explain why.
But that was all a moot point now because she’d brushed me off like I was annoying her.
It’s for the best, I told myself firmly. You probably shouldn’t be distracted by Addy right now anyway. Your focus should be on Cronin and what’s going on with him.