by A. C. Arthur
The half smile that I’d missed more than I was willing to admit.
“Hello, new friend Kyra,” I replied, only to receive a barely tolerant up and down glance from the girl that was a few inches shorter than my five-foot-five stance.
Kyra waved her fingers in my general direction and gave a half-assed “Hey,” before going up on tiptoe to kiss Brayden’s unpuckered lips.
The only reason I didn’t roll my eyes at the entire display was because I refused to stoop to her level or to give Brayden something to gloat about. I was so angry with him at this moment I wanted to punch something. And he knew it, the smug, infuriating jerk knew that I was ready to peel that chick off of him the moment I saw them. Blame it on the temper I’d never been able to tame. Just another part of me that mirrored my uncle the traitor.
Or was there something else? An unknown in this cafeteria putting me on full alert?
“Are you counting backward from one hundred or counting daggers instead?” he asked with a chuckle, nudging me on the shoulder like he used to do when we were younger.
I punched him in his shoulder with much more force. “Neither, for your information.”
He laughed then pulled me to him for one of his terrifically warm and comforting hugs. Even though I was still mad at him, I embraced him because it was what I was used to, what I’d missed all summer.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
“Fine. Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re holding me so tight I can barely breathe,” he said with a chuckle.
“Oh,” I said, thoroughly embarrassed now, and pulling away from him quickly. “I’m fine. Just haven’t seen you in a while.”
Brayden nodded. “Your choice, remember?”
I so did not want to go back over what had happened that day in his apartment or what we’d said to each other. I just wanted to put all that behind us.
“You let me go,” was my immediate retort. I’d thought about it all summer. He hadn’t tried to stop me from walking out and hadn’t come to get me. I wasn’t sure what the politically correct way to feel about that was but I knew for a fact I didn’t like it.
“Never,” was his deep-toned reply. His entire body tensed then, his face going somber, his eyes darkening.
Heat rose instantly from the pit of my stomach, circling up to my breasts, causing my mouth to water. I took a deep breath, counting as slowly as I could as I released it.
“Anyway, I applied for that internship I told you about,” I told him, knowing that changing the subject was my only saving grace. “Hopefully, I’ll get it.”
“You’re really serious about teaching?” he asked, a frown marring an otherwise pretty good-looking face.
“I am.”
He nodded, even though he didn’t agree. Brayden Sanchez was the son of dedicated and loyal Topètenia Shadow Shifters. His parents, Gil and Marta Sanchez, were ambassadors for the tribe and traveled the world in an effort to keep all the Shadow Shifter tribes united. The differences between shape shifters and humans should have been enough to bond the five tribes together forever, but as with every race, there had been dissension. Hell, there’d been dissension within my own family so I could sing that tune all night long.
Instead, I preferred to be thankful for what I had and to look excitedly toward the future—the one I would make on my own. So I loved Gil and Marta Sanchez for taking me in when everyone, including my own family was turning me away, and for teaching me what it meant to be a Shadow Shifter and for not judging me like the rest of the tribe had when my uncle had defected. I was also thankful to them for allowing me to grow up with their three sons, the brothers I never had and three of the closest people in this world to me. Unfortunately, with all that love and encouragement surrounding me, I was still going to end up disappointing them.
“We’ve been over this before, Brayden,” I said trying to reason with him. “I’m not like you and your family.”
“You’re exactly like us,” he said adamantly. “Exactly like you were trained to be.”
I shook my head, not wanting to go down this road with him again, especially after the time we’d been apart. I missed my friend, the only person I could really talk to and laugh with. The other females, the humans that had been with me at the conference were either shallow and not very smart, or extremely smart and rigid. I’d enjoyed the experience and the knowledge I obtained from the seminars, but I’d missed Brayden and our easy friendship like crazy.
“Let’s grab a pizza and get out of here,” I suggested. “I’m dying to see your new place.”
“Why? There’s no extra bedroom for you,” he teased, reaching out and taking the books I’d just purchased from the campus bookstore from my arms.
“Oh please, I have no problem sleeping on the couch,” I said, falling into step beside him as we made our way through the crowd and out of the café. “Or putting you on the couch instead.”
“Hey, you’re the one who likes this college life so much. You wanted to stay in the dorm and blend in with the rest of the students,” Brayden continued, his deep voice filling the night air once we were outside.
“And I’m not complaining. But when I need to get away, it’s good to know I have someplace to go,” I told him.
Brayden stopped walking and turned so that he was now standing in front of me. He lifted a hand, tracing a finger along the line of my jaw. “I am always here for you, Lidia. Always.”
“I know,” I replied, my voice sounding really small after the intensity of his words. I did know that he was there for me, had always been. After this summer I realized just how much I depended on that knowledge. “That’s what big brothers are for,” I finished and pushed past him, heading to where I figured his truck was parked in the student lot.
He’d been standing too close, looking at me too tenderly and I’d felt like I did when we were back in his old apartment that day, right after he’d kissed me. I never wanted to feel like that again. Ever, because that was the one thing that could destroy all that I’d worked for, all that I wanted to be.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
CHAPTER 2
Brayden
Lidia looked like she was ready to rip Kyra’s eyes out. I never figured that would be such an arousing sight, but damn, I was hard just remembering the scene.
Her eyes had been fierce, deep hazel-brown with the little flecks of green and gold that only appeared when she was becoming agitated and more so when she was full-blown angry. I knew the moment she’d entered the café because the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, the cat inside stretched languidly, waiting as patiently as it could for its mate. I saw her before she saw me and almost smiled the second she turned and saw the quick and impulsive cuddle I’d given the ever-so-cooperative Kyra.
Maybe I was being cruel and just a little unfair, but there was nothing fair about this world, about the hand we’d been dealt and there was no sense pretending it was. We, Lidia and I, were two of a kind, jaguar shifters from the Topètenia tribe. We were both born in the Gungi rainforest, which was nestled deep in the Amazon rainforest. Our native language was Portuguese, our personalities were volatile to say the least, our job, to live amongst the humans protecting them from the more dangerous of our kind. And while on the outside we may look like any other Hispanic citizens of the United States, we were not like them and never would be. It was the one point in which Lidia and I had chosen to disagree.
Another point was that I was in love with her and ready to claim her as my mate, while she was determined to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Waiting her out was proving to be a test of my patience and of my sanity as she’d hugged me so tightly and so close to her body I could think of nothing but sinking deep inside her and staying there until I exploded.
Giving her those three months alone had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Far worse than the most strenuous of training, but it had been necessary. For both of us. I believed
with every fiber of my being that Lidia and I not only belonged together, but would eventually be together. But she didn’t, and I needed her to feel that sense of loss, to wonder how she would feel if the three months were permanent. Even if I never intended for them to be.
“That’s what big brothers are for,” she’d said while we were walking in the parking lot, just before pushing past me.
I was grateful for the fresh air because being close to her never failed to cause instant heat. But the word “brother” and the way only Lidia could say it was like a bucket of cold water being tossed in my face. I followed behind her as she walked through the parking lot, no doubt looking for my truck. My eyes were glued to the sway of her perfectly rounded ass and I wasn’t about to apologize for it. Lidia had what some might call an athletic body, toned in all the right places, enticingly tight in others. I thought it was perfect because her breasts were just the right size to fit in the palm of my hand—although I’d yet to indulge in that pleasure. Her ass was round enough to fill out her jeans in a mouthwatering fashion and everything else was fit and trim because of all the running she did, in human and occasionally in cat form. She was also a vegetarian, but I tried to forgive her for that misstep.
“I’m parked over here,” I said when she was about to turn left.
I didn’t look at her as I spoke, but towards another line of parked cars to my left. There were five of them, all dark colored, two older models, one convertible, one with visible damage from some type of collision. There were no humans over there, no noises coming from that direction, and still I stared, unable to look away.
“Are you sure?” she asked coming to stand beside me, her nose crinkling as it always did when she frowned.
“It’s my truck, I should know where I parked it. Come on,” I said, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her along beside me. Whatever had drawn me to look at those cars, lost in the much more appealing sight of Lidia Morales.
Even though I was a lot taller than her she’d never failed to keep up her stride when we walked. When she was younger this had been funny, seeing her out of the corner of my eye, stretching her legs until she almost tripped to keep up with me, that familiar ponytail of hers bobbing back and forth with her motions.
After we were seat-belted and heading out of the student parking lot, she asked, “So why’d you decide to ditch the roommates this time?”
I shrugged, making the right turn onto the winding road that led down the hill and away from Faust University. “I need my personal space for when I decide to walk around naked.”
Lidia laughed immediately, a simple yet alluring sound that I hadn’t realized until this second, I’d missed over the past few months. “You do not walk around naked!” she said, still chuckling and looking out the window.
“I do now that I live alone. We can confirm that when we get there,” I told her, 100 percent serious about getting naked when we both arrived at my apartment.
Part of the reason I rented the place was so that when—not if, because I refused to believe that it would not happen—Lidia and I finally made love, I didn’t want anyone overhearing us, or restraining us. Optimistic should have been my middle name.
“You will keep all your clothes on while I’m there,” she replied jokingly. “I’ve seen your ass more times than I need to.”
She had, just as I’d seen some pretty strategic parts of her, but that had been when we were teenagers and not so much once the puberty bug hit us both and we’d made our first shift. From the time she’d turned sixteen and I was seventeen, and we were in the forest or someplace where we could shift and run freely in cat form, Lidia had found a place where she could change out of her clothes without me watching. What she didn’t count on was my excellent imagination, which had given me countless hours of enjoyment.
“Aw, come on, you don’t want to have any fun anymore.” I continued with the joking atmosphere because I figured that would be easier for her.
Lidia, for all that she could be extremely impulsive and was known for her quick temper and even quicker right hook, could clam up as tight as a shell in areas she didn’t want to tread. She and I, on a personal male/female level, was definitely a no-enter zone. At least for now.
“Whatever, seeing you naked is not fun.”
She’d said it. I’d heard it. But I don’t think either of us was really convinced by her words. I kept my head turned away from her so she wouldn’t see my smile.
“You heard from Aidan or Caleb lately?” she asked after she’d been silent for about a full minute—almost a record for Lidia.
I shook my head. “Aidan’s training with Rome, where he should be finally. Got a text from him a couple of days ago saying things were going fine and that my dad was ecstatic that he was there.”
“I cannot believe Rome let him bring that girl with him. Or rather I can’t believe Aidan has a girl he’s serious enough about to cart hundreds of miles around with him.”
“She’s his mate. How could he have left his mate?”
Lidia didn’t reply.
“Rome and all his Faction Leader duties couldn’t compete with that, no matter how angry it made him,” I told her, but the conversation was over.
Probably the moment I mentioned mates, because that was something Lidia neither wanted to discuss with me or to claim for herself. It just simply wasn’t in the plan she’d made for her life. Unfortunately, her excluding it from the plan wasn’t going to stop what was meant to be.
Just like I had no intention of letting her ridiculous misgivings about our relationship stop me from doing everything in my power to get her in my arms. Another man might have taken the three-month hiatus to find another female. To a certain extent, I did, or rather, Kyra had found me. At any rate, Kyra wasn’t and would never be a substitute for Lidia. There was only one woman for me and I’d given her more than enough time to figure that out.
This time around, Lidia would be mine no matter how hard I had to work to convince her.
***
“You have a really big bed,” Lidia commented when she was standing at the foot of my “really big bed,” looking down at it like it was some kind of demon.
I chuckled. “It’s a bed for a big guy, with big things.”
“Could you get any more conceited?”
I didn’t answer because she’d walked out of the room. I did, however, remove the sweatshirt I’d been wearing, keeping on my T-shirt despite my “going naked” comment to her.
“So this is the bachelor pad,” she was saying as she walked past the entertainment center with all the equipment I’d purchased. That and the black leather sofa were the only furniture in what would eventually be my living room.
“It’s my place for the time I’m here.”
When she looked up at me, her hand poised over a picture of me and my brothers, I felt like an ass, because she looked like she wanted to cry. Not that Lidia Morales would ever cry, for any reason. Still, she looked really sad and I knew it was because I said I didn’t plan to stay here in Pacifica.
“I know this is our senior year,” she began. “One of the instructors said I had a really good chance of being accepted for that internship at the charter school in L.A.”
She reached up, tucking her hair behind her ears as she talked, looking at me expectantly. I didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to rain on her parade, but there was no way around it. There was a plan for us that was much larger than school or internships.
“That’s great news, Lid. Really good news, but you know we have to leave after graduation,” I said in the most neutral tone possible.
Lidia was shaking her head before I could finish speaking. “No. You know that’s not what I plan to do. I’m not going back for the final training and testing. I’m going to become a teacher.”
We’d been over all this before. I listened while she talked, heard all her hopes and dreams and knew exactly why she’d put so much energy into them. But the fact was they didn’t change anyt
hing, at least not to my way of thinking. I wanted to say that to her, to yell it if necessary, whatever it took to get her to understand. But I wouldn’t do those things because I cared about her too much. The last thing I wanted to see was the look of hurt in her eyes, not again, not ever again. “I know, Lidia. You can teach, I’m not saying that you can’t. But we have other responsibilities,” I tried instead.
“I don’t want them. I didn’t ask for them and I don’t need anybody dropping them at my feet,” she protested.
Her hands had fallen to her sides, fingers clenching and unclenching, brow furrowing. She was getting fired up. Her eyes taking on another look entirely. The golden glint sparked as she stared back at me. I loved that look, loved how it never failed to shoot straight to my groin and make the cat inside roar with need. What I didn’t like was that the look was accompanied by her tearing down the tribe and its expectations of us.
“Look,” I said, moving closer and rubbing my hands on her shoulders. “Why don’t we order a pizza, watch some movies, and just chill for tonight. I’ve missed you like crazy.”
It was the truth. I’d thought of her every second of every day she was away. Every other hour I had to convince myself not to get in my truck and drive to L.A. to be with her. She’d needed space. It didn’t matter that I’d needed her to breathe, that each second without her had been like a knife to my chest. Lidia was an intelligent shifter, she was strong, and she was fierce when opposed. I knew we belonged together and I knew I would never stop until I had her. I was also smart enough to know that there would be no happiness until Lidia came to all those conclusions on her own. She sighed, looking up at me the same way she used to when we’d raced to see who could climb a tree the fastest. I always won, knowing she’d be ready to kick my ass if I didn’t give the race my all. She’d always been deflated but determined to try again. That undeniable spunk had been one of the first things I’d noticed and enjoyed about Lidia.