by A. C. Arthur
“Looks like you’re pretty deep in thought there.”
The male voice coming from a room I thought I was in alone was more than a little unnerving. But I didn’t jump, barely even flinched as I looked right up into the stony eyes of Jace Maybon, Pacific Faction Leader and owner of this house—who was supposed to be out of the country.
I stood immediately, tucking my shoulders back and keeping eye contact with the leader. The fact that I was definitely trespassing in his house was a problem and reason enough for him to kill me where I stood. But I’d at least face him with the pride and strength of a soldier and a man.
“I’m Brayden Sanchez, Leader Maybon. My brothers and I are in the upcoming class of finalists,” I said, extending my hand to him.
I’d been sitting in his living room, staring out the patio doors to the ocean that Lidia loved so much while she’d been in the shower. Giving her space had seemed like a good idea and now I was even more grateful that I had. Having Jace catch us coming out of the shower would have been more embarrassing than this already was.
Jace removed a hand from his pants pocket, gripping mine as he continued to stare solidly at me.
“Why are you here instead of on the East Coast training with Rome?”
“We had a problem and had to get away soon,” I began, then proceeded to run down the events that had taken place.
“Why didn’t you call me when it happened? Why didn’t you report the exposure immediately?”
Good questions, I thought, and probably the course of action I should have taken. But I hadn’t and the reason for that fear was burning a hole in the center of my chest right at this moment.
“She’s not a rogue,” I told Jace. “Lidia Morales is not like her uncle Sabar. What happened in Pacifica had nothing to do with rogues,” I said emphatically. It was what Lidia believed and what I had been too good of a brother to mention, and what I knew the Faction Leader was thinking as he continued to study me.
“She’s your companheiro,” he said slowly, matter-of-factly.
I nodded. “Yes, she is.”
“And you want to protect her. You want to keep her from being judged and convicted based solely on a set of circumstances she had no control over.”
He was absolutely right but something about his tone kept me quiet.
Jace moved to the bar on the other side of the room. I watched him retrieve a glass from a shelf on the wall behind him, then reach into the refrigerator to pull out a bottle of water. After opening it he poured it into a glass and took a couple of swallows before flattening his palms on the bar’s surface and leveling me with another gaze.
I still stood at attention in the spot where he’d left me, still looked up to him as the leader he was, but for the life of me couldn’t figure out how this was going to play out.
“The first thing you should have learned about being a Stateside Shadow Shifter was that we have integrity. That in addition to being loyal to our race we’re also very aware that we live in a different time and place than the Elders who previously dictated our laws. We honor and protect our women, similar to the way you’re standing here ready to fight me, a Faction Leader, to the death if I even think about coming down on Lidia Morales. We do that with pride and with dignity, we do not hide and hope for the best. You should have contacted me immediately as this all went down in my zone, which means I have to answer to the other FLs and the Assembly for this situation.”
All I could do was nod at the validity of his words. I’d messed up. In all that I thought I was so ready to become a shifter guard, I’d probably just flunked one of the most basic of tests. But I wouldn’t apologize for what I’d done. In fact, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
I was the only one there watching as they attacked us and I’d dispatched the humans as best I could without too much bloodshed. Only I saw the fear on Lidia’s face when she looked down at the one I’d killed and felt not one inch of remorse, or when Kyra jumped out the window and Lidia had wanted to breathe a sigh of relief but couldn’t because it might mean she was truly connected to Sabar Travers.
I hated that look on her face, hated how it made me feel and how the conflict in her still raged. So my gut instinct was to run and to think of the rest later. It was what I believed was the best plan, no matter what the FL thought.
“You’re right,” was what I managed to say as the only concession I planned to make in this regard. “And my plan was always to tell you and the Assembly what happened. Just not this soon.”
Jace was quiet as he took another sip of water. When the glass and the bottle were empty he leaned his head to one direction and then the next, soliciting a loud cracking of bones with the motion.
“You were also right,” Jace added finally. “Lidia Morales is not a rogue. However, the humans that broke into your apartment were sent there by one.”
I took a step toward him then.
“What are you talking about?”
“Sabar is actively recruiting. He’s hitting high schools and college campuses in an effort to get his recruits before they’ve had a chance to take the finals and become full-fledged guards. He singled you out.”
“Why me?” I asked.
“Because of me,” Lidia answered from behind.
She had apparently finished with her shower, her hair in a damp ponytail, her white shorts barely passing her upper thighs, and her light blue T-shirt hugging the rounds of her breasts.
“He thought if he could recruit Brayden, I’d follow because Brayden and I are companheiros.”
It was the first time I’d heard her admit it, the first time she’d actually said the word that bonded us as surely as the feelings we’d both finally admitted to.
“Smart and pretty,” Jace said, coming from around the bar, passing me until he stood directly in front of Lidia. “You’re not what I imagined when I heard about you.”
“I’m not what everyone in the tribe would like to believe I am,” she said, her chin up, voice just a notch away from being fully offended.
She’d struggled with this all her life, tried her damnedest to be the female she wanted to be instead of the one they all thought she would eventually become. I watched her train while simultaneously embracing all that she could about the human world, taking the human tutoring much more seriously than Caleb or I ever had. In that way Lidia was a lot like Aidan, as they’d both wanted desperately to get away from the shifter world as they became adults. Unlike Aidan, whose rebellion was rooted in his own conflicts, Lidia had carried on her shoulders the conflicts of an uncle she’d barely known.
“It has never been my intention to go against the Shadows. I only wanted to have some semblance of a normal life on my own. That’s why I pushed so hard to come here to go to school. It’s my fault that Brayden followed me and my fault that Sabar targeted him.” She paused, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly. “So I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to stop Sabar from this reckless crusade, whatever it takes to get the ugly stain of his betrayal off my family’s name and memory forever.”
No. I wanted to yell the word but it didn’t come out. All I could do was stare at her, at the female that I thought I knew so well. A few minutes ago I’d been ready to walk away from the Assembly, from all that I’d thought I’d wanted out of life so that I could live the normal human life she wanted, so that I could live happily with her forever. Now, if I’d heard her correctly, she was standing here, committing to working alongside the Assembly in their fight against Sabar. I was speechless.
“You may have to face him,” Jace told her.
“No,” I immediately interrupted. “That bastard comes within a hundred miles of her and I’ll break his neck!”
“He comes near her we all take him out and the rogues cease to exist,” Jace said, noticeably calmer than I was. “But before that becomes an issue, we have to go back and deal with things in Pacifica.”
“No!” Lidia all but yelled. “They’ll arrest Brayden for killing t
hat guy.”
Earlier this morning I’d seen Lidia cry for the first time, it had all but ripped my heart right out of my chest. Now, standing here just after hearing her accept what we are to each other, the scent of fear covering her like a blanket, my cat wanted to break free and kill again, to do anything to keep whatever was scaring her at bay.
“It’s okay,” I said, taking a step forward and touching a hand to her shoulder. It was instant heat, radiating up my arm and throughout my body.
The way she turned to stare at me confirmed she felt it too. Jace’s eye roll and audible sigh indicated that even he was aware of the strong connection between us.
“I don’t know how any of us are expected to survive around mated couples. You two reek of the calor,” he said with mild irritation.
When I opened my mouth to speak next, Jace held up a finger to stop me.
“When my assistant called to tell me you were here …” He paused, giving us a smirk. “She knew the moment you walked inside. FYI, there are cameras all over in here.”
Lidia immediately looked at me, her cheeks going red as I took a protective step closer to her. Not that I wasn’t embarrassed, especially if those cameras had caught everything that went on in that bedroom last night, but I wanted her to know that just as I’d told her before, I wouldn’t leave her.
“Infrared readings tipped her off that you were shifters, in the midst of the companheiro calor, instead of just trespassing humans,” he said with an arching of his eyebrows that put me a little more at ease, but had Lidia looking away from Jace once more.
“She ran your pictures through the shifter database Xavier Markland is designing and came up with an instant match since you’re both listed to take the finals next year. Once she had your names, she ran them through all human databases, local and abroad and the APB on Brayden instantly came up.”
“So they’re already looking for me?” I asked.
“And Nick Delgado is already communicating with one of the shifter attorneys here in California to see how we can get you out of this. They have absolutely no proof except that all this happened in an apartment that you were renting. From what we can tell so far, there are no witnesses.”
“What about the other two that were there?” Lidia asked. “He didn’t kill those two?”
Jace looked perplexed. “Yes, you mentioned there were others. My assistant didn’t say anything about any witnesses or anyone else being hurt. She only mentioned the girl that jumped out of the window.”
“What? Wait a minute,” I said, trying to keep all that Jace was throwing at us straight in my head. “Kyra was the female. After she came inside, I remember I didn’t get a chance to close the door because I wanted to make sure she didn’t get into anything physical with Lidia.”
“Which wasn’t necessary,” Lidia chimed in. “I’d handled her before, I could certainly have done so again.”
I gave her a frown and when I turned my attention back to Jace it was to see him not doing a good job of hiding his amusement.
“That’s why I didn’t shut the door in any case, and a few seconds later three guys walked in. They were all dressed in black, two carrying guns.” The memory of the gun pointing at Lidia’s head came flashing back into my mind and anger flared fresh. “I broke the one guy’s wrist and the other I knocked out cold.”
“The other one I was handling before Brayden took over,” Lidia added once more, folding her arms over her chest as if that act alone would make us take her words and I guess her participation in the event more seriously.
“He’s the one I killed,” I told Jace, who looked at me as if he knew exactly why I’d had to kill the guy.
Jace nodded and frowned slightly. “Just sit tight for tonight. Let me give Nick a call and see if we can get a copy of the police report. I think it’s better that we appear proactive in the matter.”
To keep from looking guilty, I figured. I’d never heard of a shifter going on trial in a human court for murder and didn’t like that I might be the first. But the tangy scent of Lidia’s fear had me squashing those thoughts and instead reaching for her hand.
“Why don’t we go for a ride,” I offered.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Jace added. “Go out and get some air. Try not to think about this too much. We’re going to take care of it,” he said, looking first at me then to Lidia. “So don’t worry.”
“Thanks,” I said, giving Jace a nod instead of my hand because Lidia had already laced her fingers through mine.
“Yes,” she said simply. “Thank you, Leader Maybon.”
“Call me Jace,” he told her with a smile. “And don’t go too far or stay out in the open too long. I don’t want you getting picked up by the cops.”
“Right,” I said tightly, pulling Lidia from the room because I didn’t want her hearing any more about me possibly being arrested.
CHAPTER 13
Lidia
The ride with Brayden hadn’t gone very well. He wanted to talk and I really didn’t feel like it. Big things had happened, and I was still trying to process them. So he’d driven around for about an hour before we ended up back at the house. Then he’d sat in front of the big-screened television in Jace’s living room while I played a game on the computer, neither of us speaking, but something definitely brewing between us.
I knew what my problem was but wasn’t clear on Brayden’s. To be honest, I wanted to be self-absorbed in my misery because in my way of seeing things, Brayden Sanchez was getting what he’d already wanted. Unless of course, he was arrested and tried for murder, then convicted and sent to a human jail for the rest of his life.
That thought had me dropping my head as I sat on the side of the bed. It was dark outside, probably after nine since it had been eight-thirty when we’d finished the pizza Jace had ordered for us and I came upstairs instead of watching another one of the Fast and Furious movies that Jace and Brayden seemed so interested in.
I couldn’t sleep, or rather didn’t want to lie down and close my eyes because morning would inevitably come and with it the possibility that Brayden would be taken away. In all the time I’d thought of walking away from him because of the growing attraction between us I don’t think I’d ever really considered how that would feel. Well, now I had no choice and I didn’t like it at all.
Running my fingers through my hair I breathed in and out deeply, hating the sting of tears once again. Squeezing my eyes shut, I cursed. “You are not doing this again, Morales, no freakin’ way,” I warned.
I stood up then, walking to the window without looking out then turning back to pace over to the bed. I felt just like Brayden doing this. Back and forth I went, trying to quiet my thumping heart, hating the panic forming a huge ball in my throat.
He’d killed that guy because he’d been threatening me. I knew the moment Brayden shifted into the cat what the outcome would be. The other two lives he’d spared, but this one he hadn’t hesitated and I felt like crap because now that act might take him away from me forever. While Jace didn’t seem to think there was mention of anyone else being in Brayden’s apartment, I was sure there were. I’d been there and dead bodies don’t just disappear.
My hands shook, my knees wobbling as I moved back and forth. Brayden would go to jail because of me. He’d be a criminal because of me. I stopped in front of the window this time, watching the rise and fall of the waves on the beach. I loved the water, even loved the feeling of sand between my toes. Brayden hated that. I smiled at the thought and my entire body warmed.
The cat inside stretched as if saying, “It’s about damned time.”
I was in love with Brayden Sanchez. The thought came as easily as my next breath. If I closed my eyes right now I’d see his face. If I thought about his smile when he was trying to cheer me up, or his laughter when I fell for one of his corny practical jokes, my chest swelled with emotion. Remembering the nights he’d held me through my nightmares, whispered soothing words in my ear, or simply support
ed me through the mess that was my life, I felt the need to reach out and hug him tight. And if I thought about the way he kissed me, the way he touched places on my body I hadn’t known were places of pleasure, my breasts would tingle, my center throb and ache.
I loved Brayden and I wanted him, even if it meant living in the Shadow Shifter world with him. Because living without him was not a possibility, it was that simple.
On that note I left the room, heading down the stairs to the living room where I knew he was still parked in front of the television. I was a little surprised to see that Jace wasn’t there. On the walk down the steps I’d thought of what I would say to get Brayden away from Jace without the Faction Leader knowing exactly why. Even though, like he’d informed us, there were cameras all over this house so there wasn’t much he didn’t already know about me and Brayden anyway.
“Take a swim with me,” I said the moment I entered the room and went to stand in front of him, hopefully blocking his view of the television.
He didn’t speak at first, which made me feel a little nervous. What if he was done with me and my psycho nightmare drama? What if what I’d hoped he would do these last few months—leave me alone—was finally coming true?
“Bray,” I called his name again, unclasping my hands and letting them fall to my sides. “Please.”
He looked at me then, just stared for a few seconds, before finally standing up and closing the distance between us. I thought about taking a step back when he didn’t seem like he would stop before colliding into me, but I remained still. We were maybe a breath apart when he lifted his hands, letting his palms run down the sides of my head, his fingers pushing through my hair until the ponytail holder broke free and my hair fell down my back.