by A. C. Arthur
I talk about them as if I do not belong to their culture, because I don’t. I won’t, not ever again.
I’d barely noticed the car had been parked before Daniel was pulling the door open for me. Unclasping the seat belt, I stepped out into the crisp night air and sucked in a quick breath. If I didn’t want to be a shifter, the only other choice I had was to be a human. A human on a first date with a really nice guy.
“Are you alright?” Daniel asked, quickly coming to me and grasping me by the elbow.
I yanked my arm away instantly as his touch had been painful, or almost, kind of. It just hadn’t felt right and so I reacted. Daniel frowned.
“I’m sorry. Yes, I’m okay, just a little jumpy for some reason.” Praying that would be enough to stop him from looking at me like I’d just grown another head, I stepped closer, touching a hand lightly to his. “Let’s have that drink.”
He seemed to soften, his quizzical look changing slowly as he closed the door, then took my hand, walking us into O’Shea’s.
The atmosphere here was drastically different from the Olive Garden, with its jukebox music and loud conversations. “Maybe I can find us a booth,” Daniel said.
“No. The bar is fine and it’s probably quicker,” was my reply because I didn’t feel like being boxed in. I felt like stretching, like being free.
Shaking my head of those thoughts I reached for Daniel’s hand. “Here, let’s sit over here.”
He followed and we snagged two seats at the very end of the bar. I smiled at him as we settled onto the stools, trying like hell to focus on him and not the strange vibe I was getting from this place.
“I’ll have a beer,” Daniel ordered when the bartender came over.
“Cranberry and vodka,” I added to the order.
Daniel laughed and looked at me when the bartender left us alone. “Wow.”
“What?” I asked, after looking over my shoulder to see who was behind me. I felt someone there, someone watching me, I thought.
Daniel shook his head. “Just never knew a girl that drank vodka before.”
“It’s not a big deal.” I shrugged. Brayden had introduced me to vodka. Or rather, I’d forced him to let me drink the same thing he and his brothers were drinking one night when we were in Costa Rica. We’d stayed at a resort until the transportation had arrived to take us deep into the Talamancan forests where more of the tribes lived. After their parents had gone to sleep the brothers had crept out of the suite we all shared. I knew they would and had followed them right down to the resort bar where Aidan, since he was the oldest, had paid some desk clerk who was over twenty-one to buy them two bottles of vodka. I followed them out to the pool and threatened to go upstairs and tell if they didn’t give me a drink. Caleb, with his sullen and generally gruff personality, had still refused. Aidan tried to unravel me with reproach. But it was Brayden, the middle brother, who knew I was dead serious and that I’d definitely tell if they didn’t give me what I wanted. He’d held that bottle to my lips and gave me the shortest sip I’d ever experienced. Then I’d grabbed the bottle from his hands and took a gulp that almost knocked me right on my ass.
I was smiling with the memory before I could stop myself.
“Wherever your mind just wandered off to, I can see it makes you very happy,” Daniel was saying.
“Oh, it was nothing. Just thinking about my first taste of vodka.”
His brow furrowed with that remark and I instantly followed it up with, “I like it so much better with cranberry juice,” I told him, and that wasn’t a total lie. I liked drinking cranberry juice by itself as well.
“That she definitely does,” came the familiar voice from behind me. “Maybe you should have ordered plain cranberry juice instead.”
I spun around on that bar stool so fast I would have fallen right off if Daniel hadn’t reached out, grabbing my arm first. Amidst the conversations and the music and the instantaneous roaring of my heart, there was a growl. Low, deep, and deadly. Did I forget, familiar?
“Hi, Kyra,” was the first thing to come out of my mouth as the female was just about glued to Brayden’s hip.
“You must be the boyfriend,” Brayden continued, extending his hand to Daniel.
“Ah, yeah, I mean, ah, I’m Daniel,” he stuttered over the greeting and I felt like an ass for lying about having a boyfriend and for getting caught in that lie, because there was no doubt Brayden had known I was lying. He always knew.
“We just came from dinner and we’re having a drink,” I volunteered even though Brayden didn’t need any explanation from me. “How about you two? What are you doing here?”
I guess he didn’t owe me an explanation either, but hell, I was asking anyway.
Kyra blinked like she was bored. “We were just leaving, right, babe?” she asked Brayden.
Her hand, with long, red-painted nails, moved up and down his arm as she spoke, like the contact was needed for him to digest her words. I huffed because I was being pretty bitchy about this situation, when I shouldn’t care at all.
“You’re out drinking on a school night?” Brayden asked, his dark gaze pinning me.
I felt like I couldn’t move, like altering from this position would set things into motion that I wouldn’t be able to control. It was weird having Brayden standing so close to me, while my date was even closer. There seemed to be this invisible tug-of-war going on and I didn’t like the feeling of being jerked in both directions. It was the story of my life and I was beyond tired of it.
“I’m having one drink, with my date. And you’re about to leave with your date,” I said tightly, looking directly at Brayden so he’d know I wasn’t really feeling this confrontation he’d started.
“I worry about you,” was Brayden’s next remark. One that totally threw me off guard. Not because of the words, because he’d said that to me before and I worried about him too. But the way he was looking at me and the way Daniel’s hand tightened on my arm, and the quicker-than-light flash I saw in Brayden’s eyes was like a volcano waiting to erupt.
“There’s no need to worry,” I told him just before there was a shift in the atmosphere.
I think Brayden noticed it too because his shoulders visibly tensed, his gaze traveling to the entrance.
“It’s nothing,” I told him, trying like hell to convince myself of that fact as well. But deep down I knew I was wrong. There was something here, had been for a few weeks. If I felt it, I was positive Brayden did too.
His gaze was hot, his brows furrowed as he turned back to face me. “It’s here,” he said, barely moving his lips, his tone so low I know I was the only one to hear him.
I shook my head quickly, adamantly. “No. Not now. Not here.”
“Lidia.” He said my name, reaching for my arm at the same time.
“Baby, let’s get us a table over there,” Kyra interrupted, her hand rubbing along Brayden’s chest.
The chest that looked as if he’d been working out more and buying smaller, tighter T-shirts to show off that fact. She saw me looking at Brayden’s chest and she smiled in triumph. I wanted to slap her but that would seal the whole jealousy thing as tightly as a Ziploc bag. But that would be wrong, I wasn’t jealous of Kyra, not at all. I was suspicious.
“You and your date can join us,” Brayden said, looking around the bar once more—not seeming to really notice Kyra was there and touching him at all.
“No.” I shook my head quickly.
It was past time for us to go, for me to get away from here and all these eerie feelings stalking me. I slipped off the bar stool, reaching for my purse and turning to Daniel. “I changed my mind. I don’t want a drink. Can we go?”
Brayden frowned. Kyra pouted. And Daniel looked confused. My head was spinning even though I hadn’t gotten my drink. I felt like I was on a roller coaster, one where Brayden was in charge of the speed, the ups and downs, and the plummeting in the pit of my stomach. I needed to get away from here and from whatever was causing this unsettled feeling at the b
ase of my spine.
“Yeah, I’d like to sit down, Bray,” I heard Kyra say from behind.
Brayden looked like he wanted to shake her off his arm, but he didn’t. He stood there staring expectantly at me, his eyes widening as if he were trying to tell me something, trying to warn me of something. I had nothing to offer him so I looked to Daniel.
“I mean, I really have a lot of homework to do so it probably isn’t smart to have a drink now and then go home and try to do some work. You understand, right?”
Daniel nodded, but I knew the end half of this date wasn’t working out as well as the beginning. “Yeah, sure.”
I gave him my brightest smile and waved over my shoulder without looking back at Brayden or his arm candy.
“So that was your ex?” Daniel asked when we’d pulled up in front of my dorm.
“What? Oh, no, Brayden’s not my ex. He’s a friend. A really close family friend that tends to act a little overprotective at times. I’m sorry he interrupted,” I said, all the while unbuckling my seat belt and reaching for the door latch so I could get out of the car.
My body was in overdrive, heat soaring throughout my limbs, the feeling of something rolling around beneath my skin, and the scents, they were conflicting and annoying and I really needed to be by myself so I could get it together. Everything had intensified the moment we entered O’Shea’s. Alarm had attempted to penetrate and when Brayden appeared a totally different bout of confusion had erupted.
“Because he seemed like he was kind of mad that we were together, in the bar, and that I was buying you a drink,” Daniel said slowly, like he wanted to make sure I was hearing him.
If he only knew there was nothing wrong with my hearing, or smelling, or sight, or any of my senses. In fact, they were all ranked above average, courtesy of my shifter DNA. That and the heightened sex drive that I swear was starting to beat me over the head like a jackhammer.
“Well, I just don’t want to encroach on someone else’s territory,” he was saying.
His voice was going in and out because there were so many other things running through my mind, like the fact that despite all the other scents in the whole goddamned world, I couldn’t get Brayden’s out of my head. It was a basic scent, if you came from the Gungi like we did. Earthy and manly, fresh and damned enticing.
I jumped when Daniel touched the back of my neck.
“Relax,” he said, leaning over the console, bringing his face closer to mine by way of guiding my neck.
I went with it because this was the end of our date and the Olive Garden had been sweet and nice. I inhaled deeply knowing the infamous good-night kiss was coming and decided it might not be such a bad idea. Maybe if Daniel kissed me the other two kisses I’d had recently would be washed from my memory.
“Right, I’ll just relax,” I whispered against his lips.
My eyes closed because I think I may have threatened them and my lips parted because Daniel’s were parted when they touched them. So the first kiss was moist but a little off, as I didn’t feel any stir of emotion. Daniel held my neck a little tighter and came closer once more. This time his tongue was out for greeting, barging in without an invite. I accepted and waited. I didn’t gag like I wanted and I didn’t push him away because I needed this to get better. I really, really needed kissing Daniel of the nice Olive Garden date, to get better. Please.
It didn’t.
The scent, however, intensified, to the extent I would have sworn that Brayden was in this car with us. He wasn’t, thank God, but still. So I did push Daniel away this time. I shook my head and was about to say something but thought my actions might speak a bit louder. I was out of the car in the next five seconds, running up the front steps of the dorm like a scared kid. Once inside and the security door closed behind me, the cursing began.
I wasn’t a scared kid. I wasn’t a coward. And I damn sure wasn’t a prude. I’d had sex and been kissed before so going on a date and doing the good-night-kiss thing was not new to me. And it shouldn’t have been awkward with a guy I’d met months ago. But it was and I was so pissed I pushed past whoever the girls were standing near the elevators but not stepping inside when the door opened.
I went into my room yanking my jacket off, tossing it on the floor somewhere in the vicinity of the coatrack. Then I plopped onto my bed, stomach first, and when Cora sat up and looked like she was going to say something, I flipped her the finger and dared her to speak one freakin’ word!
CHAPTER 4
Brayden
Kyra straddled me in the truck. The steering wheel was most likely biting into her ass, but she didn’t seem to mind as she pressed her crotch closer to my totally uninterested dick.
“God, I wanted you all night,” she was saying, her hands rubbing down the back of my head then going to her blouse. “Didn’t you want me?”
So, I’m a guy, I breathe in and out, I get up every morning to a hard-on that I have to wish away so I can take a piss. I’m also a Shadow Shifter, which basically means all these male human hormones are magnified by maybe a trillion. All this adds up to me being ready to fuck at the drop of a dime.
Normally.
Tonight, even though Kyra was wearing the shortest skirt ever and no panties and was at this very moment unbuttoning her blouse, showing me her melon-sized tits that all but fell out of her bra, I was barely getting aroused. I mean, I saw what was before me, scented the smell of aroused female, and now that she’d flipped down the front of her bra, saw the blushing pink nipples of her breasts, all receiving a lukewarm reception on my part.
“Yeah, I wanted you too,” I said although the words didn’t actually ring true. The reality was Lidia didn’t want me in her life, at least not in that way. At least not tonight.
She was content with us being friends but nothing more. She wanted a life in the human world while I had my feet firmly planted in the shifter world. Could I have gotten it wrong all along? Could my habit of knowing everything, as my brothers always accused, have been out of context all along? I didn’t believe so and yet, look where I was and who I was with.
“Then kiss me, babe. Kiss me and touch me and make me feel good,” Kyra continued.
Yeah, that’s what I needed to do. I needed to touch, to feel, to forget, and so I did. I cupped her breasts, letting the soft feel of flesh send false signs of contentment to my mind. I leaned forward and kissed her, mainly to keep her from talking again because I was tired of her high-pitched voice. Her tongue did the dance with mine and I tried like hell to keep my eyes closed but they wouldn’t listen to reason.
I opened them to see Kyra’s face, her eyes closed, head moving with the sounds she made as the kiss continued.
“Come on, Bray, I can’t wait. I need you inside me now,” she insisted, taking her mouth away from mine. “I need to finish this.”
I moved a hand down the flat skin of her stomach and farther until it was under her skirt, feeling the moistness of her pussy. She was so ready and hey, what do you know, my guy had decided to at least wake up. So the kiss deepened and one of her hands slipped between us to unzip my pants. This was going to happen. I was going to fuck her right here in the parking lot of O’Shea’s Bar & Grille and dammit I was going to enjoy it. I had to or risk losing my mind over the female I really wanted. So yes, I was doing this, right here and right fucking now, I was doing this with Kyra.
Then I made a mistake.
I inhaled deeply as my tongue scraped along the line of her jaw and dammit, just like that, it was done. I jerked back like Kyra had slapped me instead of running her fingers over the tip of my now freed cock.
“You like that, huh?” she asked playfully. “Well, let me show you what else I can do,” she continued, pulling on my erection, trying to get it into her hot little core as fast as she could. “Let me show you why they sent me.”
My teeth clenched as my hands fastened on her waist. In the next instant I’d lifted her off my lap and set her on the passenger seat. Stunned silence f
illed the cab of the truck just before the undeniable click of the locks disengaging.
“Not tonight,” I told her without even looking her way, without giving a second thought to the things she’d said.
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? What does that mean, not tonight?”
Her already high-pitched voice elevated another octave, scraping against my temples until I wanted to scream. Instead I adjusted my pants and started the ignition. “Get a ride with one of your friends in the bar. I’m going home.”
“You bastard!” she yelled.
I saw her open-palmed hand coming from my peripheral and caught her wrist just before it made contact with my cheek. “Get. Out. Of. My. Truck. Now!”
Thrusting her arm away from me, I took another initiative and leaned over to open the door for her. “Now!” I reiterated.
“You’re one stupid-ass outsider,” she said on her way out. “I knew I shouldn’t have fucked with you in the first place.”
Such lovely language coming from what was basically a pretty attractive mouth. I could only shake my head. “Yeah, well, that feeling is pretty mutual right about now.”
She was gone seconds later and I pulled out of the parking lot so fast I might have left half the tread from my tires back there. I drove until I ended up outside of Lidia’s dorm. Sitting in my truck I looked up to her window like some love-struck idiot. Slamming my palms on the steering wheel I cursed her and the fucking companheiro calor that I knew was taking over me. I wanted her beyond all reason. I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted to be a Shadow Shifter, and that was more than life itself.
I was so screwed.
I wanted to get out of my truck and go knock on her door. She’d talk to me when we were alone. I’d tell her I loved her and she’d have no choice but to listen to me, to hear me, to believe me.
With a hand on the door handle I was determined to get things on track with me and Lidia before the night was over. Then I saw them. No, I scented them, just as I had back at the bar. Several cars behind me, parked with the headlights turned off, was a black sedan. Inside of it, I couldn’t see anyone, but I knew they were there. Rogues.