by A. C. Arthur
That’s probably why she was up so early this morning, already dressed and ready for the day. Only she had no idea what the day would entail. She had no real job, which was still a bit bothersome since she had qualifications to work at the school. No, she hadn’t had formal dance training since her tween and teenage years, but she was good and the school had accepted her ten years prior as a student.
She’d thought she was content dancing at the club, but something told her that was going to be a little more difficult to pull off this time around. So here she was in her room, all dressed up with no place to go and memories that were more than ready to haunt her.
“How was Sedona?” Ary asked, totally ignoring the fact that Caprise hadn’t said a word since they’d entered.
“It was pretty, as usual” was her reply after another second of futile hesitation.
Caprise had taken a seat on her bed and for lack of something better to do with her hands, picked up a pillow, pulling on the decorative fringes at its edge.
“And how’s X?” Kalina asked.
Caprise looked at her. She was a pretty woman with a natural golden tan. That was reason enough for a woman to hate her, never mind the fact that she’d married Roman Reynolds. Her eyes were pretty, a warm hazel color. And her hair, which Caprise could tell she was trying to let grow out, cupped her chin neatly in a fiercely cut bob.
“X is the same as usual” was her reply. She found herself wanting to say more, needing to say more. Her chest had actually begun to hurt with all that she’d been holding in. Still, because she wasn’t used to behaving any other way, Caprise waited to see if they would ask her first, which they probably would: This was definitely a tag-team interrogation no matter how they masked it with smiles and soft tones.
“Are you still sleeping together?” Ary asked, coming to sit on the bed beside Caprise.
She was about an arm’s length away. Caprise figured that was why she could smell her perfume so clearly. Something floral and soft, it fit Ary perfectly.
“We did in Sedona. I mean, we shared a suite.” She tossed the pillow. The damn thing was making her more edgy.
Kalina watched, from her perch on the chair next to the dresser, as the pillow tumbled and fell off the other side of the bed. “Hmmm” was all she said.
“What does that mean?” Caprise asked, her defenses all ready to go up. But the pounding in her chest continued and she took a deflating breath.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Kalina said. “Caprise, you can trust us you know. Whatever you tell Ary and I won’t go beyond this room. We’re family, we want to help.”
Family? They weren’t her blood. She’d walked away from the only blood she had to find—what? She still didn’t know. Leaving after her parents’ funeral and traveling the world did nothing to still the restless feeling she carried like luggage. Each time she’d thought she was someplace where she could be happy, where she could be safe, that feeling reared its ugly head and she ran again. She was so damn tired of running.
“He’s just a guy, right?” she asked quietly. Her pride wouldn’t let her hold her head down in shame at the weakness she heard in her voice. Instead she looked from Ary to Kalina and back again, waiting for their reply.
Both of them stared back at her with compassionate looks on their faces. Like pity—No, she told herself before her mouth started going again. It wasn’t pity, but understanding. But how could they possibly understand what she was going through? They had no idea what had happened to her in the Gungi all those years ago. Nobody did.
“He’s just a guy that acts like he’s my father. And does everything else like he’s some kind of perfect god,” she said with exasperation.
“He’s a powerful shifter,” Ary said slowly. “He’s one of the commanding officers in the Stateside Assembly.”
“And he’s your brother’s best friend,” Kalina added. “And you knew all this when you slept with him. So what did you think was going to happen?”
Caprise ran a hand over the loose braid she’d put in her hair. “I thought it was just sex,” she answered finally.
Ary seemed to let out a breath before shaking her head. “And now what do you think it is?” she asked.
“I think we’re both too screwed up to think beyond sex. I mean, he’s like got all this stuff going on in his head and it makes him almost crazy. And I’ve got my crap. We’re just a mess.” And when she’d finally said that out loud it didn’t seem totally true.
Kalina nodded. “Wouldn’t it be better if the two of you sorted out your mess together?”
That sounded too logical for it to make sense. Or Caprise simply wasn’t trying to hear the logical explanation and resolution for what was going on between her and X. Besides, there were other important things going on.
“Look, we’ll figure it out. I mean, I guess we’ll do what we need to when the time comes.”
“You’ll have a joining ceremony?” Ary asked.
Caprise was already shaking her head. “I was talking about when it’s time to part ways. I enjoy sex with Xavier but I don’t know about all these shifter rituals.”
“How about the companheiro calor?” Kalina asked. “You don’t know about that one?”
“I know about it, but I’m not trying to get caught up in it. I live in a different world than the two of you,” Caprise told them with a sigh.
Ary reached for Caprise’s hand then. “You’d be surprised how quickly you get caught up, Caprise. Almost even before you realize it you’re mated and then there’s nothing you can do—nothing you want to do—besides have a joining ceremony. Because to be apart from your mate would surely be like dying.”
Been there, done that, Caprise thought with an inward push at her cat, which was slinking along the surface as if it, too, belonged in this conversation.
“It’s not like that with me and X,” she said but wasn’t totally sure that was the truth. Her head was throbbing, matching the rhythmic beat of pain in her chest. “We’re too different.”
It was Kalina’s turn to shake her head. “On the contrary, I think you’re too much alike. He’s just as stubborn as you are. But eventually you’re both going to have no choice but to face the facts.”
Caprise took a deep breath. “The fact is that a young man is dead because of me.”
“You’re talking about Seth?” Kalina asked. “No, honey, he was killed by another shifter. You had nothing to do with that.”
“But I did,” she said. “That shifter is looking for me and he found Seth because Seth was my guard. It’s my fault.” One tear slid free, falling to leave a dark spot on the comforter.
* * *
Nick only wanted what was best for his sister. That was all. When his parents died he’d wanted to take care of her because he knew that was what they’d expect of him. But she’d disappeared. And truth be told, he’d harbored a shitload of guilt over not carrying out his parents’ wishes.
When he first found out about her and X, he was livid. He’d wanted to kill Xavier Santos-Markland and shake some sense into his little sister. But then he’d realized two things: Xavier was one of his best friends, and Caprise wasn’t little any longer. She was an adult and so was X, a healthy male shifter and a beautiful female shifter. Logically it made sense they’d come together. But logic had been clouded by emotion—in Nick’s world, nothing new.
So it had taken him some time to decide confronting his sister was the right thing to do. X wasn’t backing down where Caprise was concerned. Nick didn’t blame him; if someone had tried to take Ary away from him after he’d found her in the Gungi, he would have been ready to do bodily harm. This morning at breakfast, X looked like he was at that point, like he would get physical without a doubt should Nick take a firm stance about him seeing Caprise. Nick wasn’t a fool, he knew that at the end of the day Caprise was going to do what the hell she wanted. She always had. And X, that crazy shifter, hardly ever did what he was told.
He was just about
to knock on Caprise’s door when she came out. She looked the same, her dark eyes flanked by long lashes and thick arched eyebrows. She looked like their father.
“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. “I was just coming to talk to you.”
She sighed as if he was the last person in the world she wanted to talk to. “Nick, I don’t have time for this right now. I have to go see Seth’s parents. Then I’m going into the city.”
Nick took her by the arm, leading her down the hallway and into one of the meeting rooms on this floor.
“Look, give me a minute, Caprise. I’m trying to get some things off my chest.”
“When will you learn everything isn’t about you, Nick? You called me a couple of days ago yelling and screaming about who you thought I should be with and what I should be doing with my life. Now you want to tell me what’s been on your chest. Did it ever occur to you that I have my own life, my own problems?”
She was absolutely right. Nick didn’t mind eating crow if it meant the women in his life would eventually end up happy. He’d watched X this morning, listened to his reaction to Rome’s questioning about him and Caprise being joined. Standing here, in this close proximity to his sister, he could see that even though she looked the same, she’d definitely changed. His first clue was the heavy musky scent that circled her like a cloud. It was the companheiro calor, he knew that without a doubt. What he wondered now was if Caprise and X knew it.
“I apologize,” he said instantly. “You’re right, I’ve been a selfish goof. But here’s the thing: I’m your brother and I just want what’s best for you.”
“What’s best for me is to live the way I want. If I want to dance on a pole I should be able to dance on a pole without anybody giving me the stink eye. And if I want to sleep with your cranky-ass friend, then I’ll do just that.”
Her saying she was sleeping with X still didn’t melt like butter over Nick, but he was trying to accept the facts. “You’re an adult. You sleep with who you want and work where you want. I get it.”
He could tell his easy acceptance of what she’d just said shocked her. She’d actually opened her mouth, prepared to argue with him some more, then snapped it shut.
“Well, I’m glad you came to your senses.”
He smiled. “Yeah, well my wife has a way of bringing me around.”
“She told you to back off, didn’t she?” Caprise asked with a smile of her own.
Nick shrugged. “Yeah, something like that.”
They shared a laugh together. It felt really good, like old times. And for a minute, just this small snatch of time, Caprise looked happy.
“What if he’s your mate?” he asked, because he didn’t want his sister disillusioned about X or the man he was. No matter how loyal to his friend Nick was, he knew there was a darkness to X, a place he went where neither he nor Rome had ever been with him. He wondered if Caprise knew this.
“You know I don’t live by those Gungi laws,” she said flippantly. A little too flippantly for Nick to believe she was sincere.
“There are signs you cannot ignore, Caprise. Telltale signs that a couple has mated.”
“We did not mate, dammit! We had sex!”
“Please,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Don’t keep saying that. I’m getting a visual and its making me nauseous.”
“Then stop bringing it up,” she snapped.
“If it’s true, you can’t hide from it. Mating is a natural part of being a shifter.” Nick held up a hand when she tried to say something else. “I know you want to believe you’re not a shifter, but you are. You can’t run away from that any more than I can get away from what you and X have done. So I’m telling you to be careful. Because once you’ve crossed that line there’s no going back. No running away, because he’ll find you. He’ll track you to the ends of the earth once he’s mated you. And I don’t want to lose my sister and my best friend.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. X and I cannot mate. It’s impossible according to those laws of the Ètica you like to live by.”
Nick wanted to ask her why she thought it was impossible but Caprise—true to form—had already left the room. She was finished talking and way beyond her quota for listening.
He thought about going after her but axed the idea in favor of thinking harder on what she’d just said. The laws of the Ètica said Shadow Shifters would find their mates, and they would be joined for their entire life span. It also said that there was only one mate for every shadow, one true love, one life’s connection. He frowned with his next thought. Had Caprise already been mated?
* * *
It had taken too long for night to fall, too long for X to wait for Athena’s to open.
But he’d waited, and he’d used the time sitting in the front seat of his truck to research Slakeman Enterprises and all its connections a little deeper. Robert Slakeman was one corrupt individual, the trail of illegal dealings he’d made following him like a bad stench. Miraculously, he’d never been caught, never prosecuted. Which said pretty damn clearly to X that somebody with lots of money and even more clout was protecting him. First thought was Ralph Kensington, but he’d only become senator-elect on the death of Senator Baines a few months back. However, Kensington had also known Baines personally.
X tapped a finger on the steering wheel as he looked over at the laptop he’d positioned on his passenger seat.
Kensington, Baines, and now Athena’s. Baines and his daughter were mauled to death. Two strippers were killed in the same fashion just weeks after that. Diamond Turner was, too.
It was starting to add up, but X wasn’t happy about what the math was proving. The connection between these men and Sabar wasn’t coincidental.
X stopped, all thoughts of the connection and the connotations paused. His entire body went still, his senses prickling, his cat ready.
Someone was coming.
Hitting the ESCAPE button on his computer to instantly lock the machine and shut it down automatically after three idle minutes, X moved only his hands as he reached for the door handle. He was out of the car in a flash, standing with his booted feet planted firmly on the ground, legs spread, fists ready at his sides.
“Trespassers will be prosecuted,” the man now standing in front of him said.
It took about two seconds for X to figure him for a shifter. His scent was dull, as if something was muting it. But it was there, the scent of the cat. Only this was no Topètenia. His eyes were too blue, his hair too black, his stance cockier, as if he had a right to be that way. He was no cheetah, either.
“Stalkers will be beaten to death” was X’s response, finally.
The man had the audacity to feign innocence. “Excuse me?”
X was in his face in the next instant. “Don’t jerk me around, cat. I’m not in the mood. You’re the one who’s been calling Caprise.”
It was a hunch. But X’s hunches were never wrong. Ever.
And this time was no different.
The corner of the guy’s mouth lifted slightly, his eyes alight not with humor, or with disinterest—either of which would have garnered a more acceptable reaction from X. No, it was lust, pure and simple lust at the mention of her name. X wanted blood. Right here, right now, he wanted to rip this motherfucker’s throat out.
“Why would I need to call the woman who belongs to me?” he asked.
Again, wrong words, wrong time, wrong fucking shifter.
The fist that plowed into the man’s jaw was powerful, knocking him back a good couple of steps before he was able to shake it off. Almost. His next step was a little wobbly. But X didn’t care; he moved in for more.
“I told you not to call her again. Now you can take this as your final warning.” X punched him again.
The man’s head snapped back. The next hit had his head jerking, then falling forward as he spit out a mouthful of blood. X could have finished him off right then. He could have completed the human ass kicking and broken a few of his bones. Or
he could shift and crack his skull. He did neither, only because he wanted the bastard looking right at him when he died.
Instead the man came to his full height, which was a couple of inches shorter than X. His eyes had changed, the blue even brighter, almost to the point of being iridescent. X didn’t need to look down at his hands to know that his claws had sprouted. The white Bengal tiger was about to emerge.
But the man held it back.
“She belongs to me. I own every inch of her magnificent body,” he told X.
“You don’t own shit! This is my town and she’s my female. We can stop with the talk and settle this once and for all if you’re still liable to believe otherwise.”
“You have no idea who she is or what she’s done,” he said clearly.
The alley was dark, the back sides of three buildings caging them in. An urban jungle prepared to host a feral battle.
“I know what I need to know” was X’s heated retort.
“Did you know she was a killer?”
The pause in X was minute. Nothing about his outward demeanor changed. The word killer rubbed him the wrong way, especially since it was referring to Caprise. But this shifter would never know that.
“You’re a dead man,” X said and made another move forward.
The tiger wasn’t about to take more hits without dishing some out. It lifted its head, blue eyes sparkling in the dark of night.
“Stop!”
The female voice had both males halting. Then X inhaled. His body paused. His cat stiffened.
What the hell was she doing here?
* * *
He was about to tell X.
Caprise hadn’t wanted to see him. She actually thought she could come down here and bring X back to Havenway without any altercation at all. She was dead wrong.
From the moment she’d admitted to Kalina and Ary that the shifter who’d killed Seth was really after her, she’d known she’d end up here. X was determined to find out who was calling her; it was logical that he’d want to come to Athena’s to see if that person worked here, since this was the only place Caprise went outside of Havenway. He would also want to look for the shifter who’d killed Seth. No matter what the FL had ordered, X would want to take care of that situation sooner, rather than later. Knowing all this did not mean she cared for this man or felt connected to him in any way. It just meant she was perceptive. She’d known him before she went away and had been forced to spend time with him in close confines these last couple of days. That was all.