by A. C. Arthur
In less than an hour they would be at the Central Zone Headquarters. Then he could drop her off, hear what Jace Maybon wanted to tell him about the search for Cole Linden and get the hell out of there. There’d already been one glitch in his plan. He didn’t want to adjust for anymore.
And Nisa was definitely a glitch.
“Is that how you usually let women know you’re interested in them?” she asked.
She’d been talking for the last half hour, but he hadn’t really been listening. In fact, he’d been trying his best not to get any closer to her than he already had. Even through words. But this last question had him swearing.
“What are you talking about?” he asked as he stared over to her.
She shrugged. “I’m just asking if that’s the way you normally pick up women.”
“I don’t pick up women,” he said.
“Well, not if you go around stalking them first. That’s certainly not romantic at all.”
“And I don’t do romance,” he continued, ignoring her previous statement.
“Oh. Well, yeah, you don’t have to convince me of that fact. You definitely suck at romance,” she quipped.
“I don’t—” he began and then paused to clench his teeth tight enough to possibly break them. Instead it gave him the few seconds he needed to regroup. “I don’t have to convince you of anything. In addition to watching you sneak out at night, I saw the way you cut down any shifter that showed interest in you. The baggy clothes during training sessions, practically staying arm-in-arm with your pal Shya or locking yourself on the control deck to work for endless hours, all the shields you love to employ.”
“I’m not denying them,” she replied, even though he’d caught the quick tightening of her hands on the steering wheel. “I haven’t had a lot of experience with the opposite sex, in that way.”
That’s not something Decan wanted to know. Actually, he did. It made him feel a hell of a lot better than thinking of another shifter with his hands on her.
“It’s not a big deal,” he mumbled and then looked out the window.
The tunnels here were tinted an electric blue color, signifying they were approaching what was considered royal territory in Oasis. The perimeter surrounding each of the zone headquarters were colored passageways to help document where they were in their underground haven. They did not use street or highway names as were helpful to traveling above ground. Down here, they relied on the maps of the tunnels which were programmed into the control board in each of their enhanced vehicles. The lighted passageways were an added notification method.
“Of course it’s not,” she stated. “I mean, it only leads to the continuation of our species.”
Sarcasm was one of her favored shields as well.
“That’s not all it leads to,” he said before rubbing a hand down his face.
“Have you ever been in love, Decan?”
He definitely did not want to answer that question. But Decan knew she wasn’t going to stop just because he wanted her to. Besides, she could be asking him deeper questions—like why the tracking system had been disengaged, or revisiting the inquisition about Keller and the bunker where they’d spent the night. None of which he wanted to answer either. So with reluctant resolve, he figured he’d have to settle for this topic of discussion, no matter how uncomfortable it was making him.
“No,” he replied. “Have you?”
“No,” she answered.
“Well, you’ve got plenty of time for that,” he said, hating how bitter the words tasted in his mouth.
“I’m not looking forward to it,” she told him and turned the vehicle down a narrow passageway. “I mean, I know that some shifters are very focused on finding a companheiro and living some type of happy life thereafter. But I have other plans.”
Curious, Decan looked over at her again.
Her hair was a riot of bouncy dark brown curls. Silver clips gripped the top of her ear and her Topétenia tat was just beneath her right lobe. The jaguar drawing was long, stretching along the skin from the end of her ear, down to almost the start of where her neck spanned out to her shoulders. It was surrounded by colorful flowers and spirals which, to someone not paying attention, might think was just an exotic floral design. But Decan saw the cat, he saw the pulse of her heartbeat vibrating through the primal creature and his heartrate increased.
The heat started then, moving down his neck, spreading throughout his torso and lower, until the hardening of his cock was inevitable. This was insane. He was just looking at her and she was fully dressed and still, there was something undeniably happening between them.
“And those plans don’t include any type of pleasure?” he asked, his hands going flat on his thighs.
Why couldn’t he stop this conversation? Why couldn’t they talk about something simple, like what the Central Zone Leader would possibly serve them for dinner?
“I know how to take my own pleasure,” she replied.
She’d said that as nonchalantly as she may have answered when someone asked her name. As if it were perfectly normal for an attractive twenty year old to be responsible for her own pleasure. To be clear, Decan wasn’t against anyone bringing themselves release. Especially not a Shadow Shifter because their genetic make-up made sexual urges so strong and intense that they could not be ignored as a human probably could. So Nisa could bring herself to climax. That was fine. But the pleasure he wanted to give her, and no doubt would receive himself from doing so, was something he knew she’d never be able to match.
“Do you?” she asked and the look that was most likely meant to be innocent landed on him. Decan almost exploded.
She’d looked over to his face and then, as if she’d known something was amiss, her gaze had dropped to his groin. His erection was unmistakable and she did not instantly look away.
“I always do what is necessary, Nisa,” Decan replied through clenched teeth.
“Oh,” she said and then dragged her gaze back to the passageway ahead. The blue light from outside did not penetrate through the dark tinted windows of the vehicle, so it felt as if they were cocooned, wrapped in privacy just in case.
Decan wanted to refute any “just in case”. There was none. There was only this mission. But his body was saying something totally different.
“What do you want to do right now, Decan?”
“Don’t ask me that,” he groaned.
“I want you to tell me,” she said. “I’ve never heard anyone say it to me before and I know you won’t sugarcoat it because you don’t do romance.”
But that’s what she deserved, wasn’t it? She was the Assembly Leader’s daughter so she should have a jaguar shifter born from a family that her parents approved of, giving her every dose of romance possible. That wasn’t him. Decan, the lion and the former prisoner, should not be the one touching her or thinking about pleasing her.
“What do you expect me to say?” he asked as his head fell back against the seat rest, eyes closing and his fingers tingling.
He was resisting the urge to free his erection and stroke it in lieu of being able to sink inside of her. His thoughts drifted again to her mouth surrounding his length, sucking him deep and strong, but that had him growling, his claws trying to break through his skin.
“Tell me what I could do to make you feel better,” she said.
Her voice was so low he’d barely heard her. So naïve he wanted to scream with the joy of being the one she chose to ask this. It was the best privilege for any shifter. Just not him.
“Nisa,” he said and then let out a whoosh of breath that he prayed would give him some clarity. “I shouldn’t have touched you before. Shouldn’t have kissed you, or anything else. You are a job.”
“I am a female shifter who could have just as easily driven myself to the Central Zone without you. You’re older than me, yes. More experienced, obviously. But I’m not a child and neither am I a fool. I know when I’m feeling intense arousal and can see that you’re havi
ng as difficult a time with it as me. So I’m asking you a question and all you have to do is answer.”
That’s all he had to do.
“Put your hand on me,” he said, eyes still closed, claws digging into his thighs as he’d tried desperately to hold on.
He could feel her even before contact was made. Warm and enticing as she cupped him, squeezing with her fingers the way her mouth would when his length was freed. Painful as the heated iron was slammed against his skin. The smell of burning flesh filling the air and making him nauseous. Echoes of cheering in the back of his mind as they tried to break him, to kill the man and the beast. Blood, warm and putrid as the lion was unleashed taking a life with no regrets.
The vehicle jolted and came to a sudden stop. Decan’s eyes opened quickly to see that they had come only inches from crashing into the steel doors leading into the Central Zone Headquarters. He looked down and was startled by his fingers gripping Nisa’s wrist. Her hand was just inches from his erection. The look on her face when he turned to her was filled with confusion, shock, and disappointment.
CHAPTER 7
The mahogany multi-paned door opened by lifting from the floor to the ceiling. Nisa and Decan stepped inside. Their booted feet fell on gray marble tile that stretched the length of the circular shaped room. About fifteen feet from where they stood, black tiles created another circle on the floor. More gray marble filled this circle and surrounded an intricate black and silver shield design with each of the Shadow Shifter tribes’ insignias set in its center. This design marked the entrance of every zone headquarters bunker throughout Oasis.
Black columns stood tall around the two curving stairways leading down from the upper level. That’s where Nisa and Decan looked to see Faction Leader Jace Maybon and a female shifter descending the stairs slowly.
For just a moment Nisa was nervous. This was the moment she’d been waiting for since her father had suggested she might be able to help bring some stability to the Central Zone. She’d met Jace Maybon before as he and her father were close friends and the Faction Leaders met with the Assembly Leader several times a year. So it wasn’t nervousness at seeing him, or being in this lavish facility that was causing her hands to shake slightly. No, that was caused by the shifter standing next to her.
Decan had told her to touch him and Nisa had wanted to. Oh, how she’d wanted to. The bulge in his pants had looked so big and intimidating. Yet, she hadn’t been intimidated at all. She’d been ready. There was no doubt in her mind that sex with Decan would be drastically different from any of the things Nisa had done to pleasure herself. And damn if she wasn’t counting on that fact.
Now, however, she was simply trying to keep a lid on her sexual frustration while she met with the Faction Leader.
“It’s always a pleasure to see you, Nisa,” Jace spoke as he came closer and reached for her.
Nisa easily went into his arms for a hug. “It’s good to see you again, too,” she replied, holding back the urge to call him Uncle Jace. This was a business visit, not a friendly one.
All of the FLs had been there when she was born and they’d all played a part in her upbringing so she’d grown up feeling as if they were all her family. All of them except Cole Linden.
“And you’re Decan Canter,” Jace said after releasing Nisa and turning his attention to where Decan stood beside her.
“Yes sir,” Decan answered and accepted Jace’s extended hand.
“Let’s go over here to the conference room,” Jace suggested when he took a step back. “Then I’ll let you two get settled.”
Jace had already taken a step away when the woman that was with him cleared her throat. As Jace turned back she shook her head and stepped forward, extending her hand to Nisa first.
“Hello, I’m Amelia Sanchez, Pacific Zone Executive Assistant. It’s a pleasure to meet you Ms. Reynolds. I’ve had a chance to meet your parents and am not surprised at all by how beautiful you are.”
Amelia may have thought Nisa was beautiful, but this woman was stunning with her olive hued skin and raven black hair. Her eyes were exotic, her accent reminiscent of Magdelena, the Seer, who had been born and still lived in the Gungi rainforest in Brazil.
Nisa shook her hand and smiled. “Hello Amelia. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” she said.
“And you too, Mr. Canter,” Amelia continued. “Jace…I mean Faction Leader Maybon, has told me a lot about you.”
She was shaking Decan’s hand now and Nisa was looking at the lovely woman and wondering how long she and Jace had been co-workers…or rather, friends. She was certain that look Amelia had just tossed Jace’s way when he’d obviously forgotten to introduce her was one only two people who were very comfortable with each other would share.
“It’s nice to meet you, as well,” Decan told her as he shook her hand.
Then everything Nisa had been thinking about Jace and Amelia vanished in a jolt of aggression that seared through her. The feeling was so potent Nisa had to take a step back. She felt as if the room was spinning and lifted a hand to her forehead as she closed her eyes and tried to steady herself.
“Are you alright?” Jace asked.
He was immediately by her side, concern clear in his voice.
“Yes. I’m…ah…I’m fine,” she replied and managed to look up at him and offer a tentative smile.
Jace was not smiling. In fact, his frown had creases forming in his forehead as he turned his attention to Decan.
“What happened before you came here? Was she hurt?” Jace fired the questions at him.
“No,” Decan answered, but did not look at Nisa. “She was not hurt. And our trip here was uneventful.”
Considering she hadn’t forgotten the reported bunker they’d stayed in, or the strange shifter who had been tapping on that wall trying to get her attention before she’d gone above ground without permission, Nisa remained silent.
“Let’s move into the conference room,” Amelia said and took Nisa’s hand.
Nisa followed the shifter’s lead, crossing the entranceway and stepping into a room after another door opened upon their approach.
This room was all glass that offered views out to the crater filled walls that surrounded it. There was a glass and steel table in the center of the room with matching chairs and white carpet on the floors. Nisa took a seat as she continued to rebound from that strange feeling she’d just had. Jace and Decan came in and the door closed behind them. Once they were all seated at the table, Jace immediately began.
“First thing tomorrow morning you’ll meet with Amelia and Marco, one of the Central Zone Lead Enforcers,” he said to Nisa. “They’ll be with you in the security room to walk you through all that’s been going on here and issues specifically related to the Central Zone that VeriSecure doesn’t cover. Decan, you and I will meet privately to discuss an event I’d like you to attend the day after tomorrow.”
The moment he said that Nisa sat up in her chair and squared her shoulders.
“It’s late but we can have some food brought to your rooms since you’ve been traveling so long tonight,” Jace continued. “I’m glad you could make it here as quickly as you did and I’ll be sure to let the Assembly Leader know.”
He’d looked at Decan as he said that and Nisa felt irritation take over the spurt of anger she’d felt only moments ago. Was he really giving Decan the credit for simply driving her from one place to another? She could have done the same on her own.
“I know it’s late but I really don’t see the point in putting off the discussion of the anniversary gala the Ruling Cabinet members will be attending day after tomorrow,” she stated evenly and was rewarded with the combined looks of shock on the face of every person in the room.
“Especially since we know that Lial Johansen, the shifter we think is now leading the Rogues, will be there.”
The last was spoken just to make sure they knew how much she now knew. Of course none of this information had been shared with her by th
e people she trusted. No, they’d preferred to keep things like this from her. But now Nisa knew. She knew a lot and she wasn’t about to let them talk and plan around her again.
“How did you hear about that gala?” Jace asked.
“Yes,” Decan added. “How did you hear about it?”
“Not from either of you,” she announced. “But that doesn’t matter. I’m guessing that this is the reason Decan was sent here with me. I was the cover so that none of the rogues that have been planted down here in Oasis to keep an eye on what we’re doing could report back to Lial that you’re planning to corner him and take him down.”
Nisa had learned all of this last night as she’d sat in that room, searching on her board. It had taken her an unusually long time to find some of the information, but the minute she’d searched Gillian Patterson’s murder, familiar names had begun to pop up. For instance, Agent Dorian Wilson, who was a human FBI agent had been present at some of the meetings her father and the other FLs had attended with a human named Wilson Reed, the last president of the United States. Two years after the Unveiling, the human world took a turn for the worse. Wilson Reed was accused of aiding and abetting the Shadows and subsequently assassinated. After which time, instead of having the Vice-President assume the role as Commander-In-Chief, as was the well-documented protocol for the human democracy in this country, a group of young radicals being led by former congressman Ewen Mackey used fear and intimidation to destroy the remaining government. Ewen Mackey became the leader of the Ruling Cabinet, a group devised to not make fair and legal laws for the country, but to use the humans’ fear of shifters and his promise to eradicate them from their country as a way to gain control.
“We’re not having this discussion,” Jace immediately stated.
He stood and was about to push his chair under the table and probably order her to leave the room, but Nisa continued.
“Yes. I think we are,” she stated. “When my father said you needed help bringing this zone together I knew he meant something beyond what was going on here in Oasis. Your problem isn’t just that you have unreported shifters somehow getting inside and going out without anyone knowing. It’s that you fear Lial has infiltrated, not just your security here, but also your intelligence. You want me to go in and create an impenetrable cyber shield the way I did at Assembly Headquarters to protect your classified files. That’s fine, I can do that. But not without telling you first that if Lial has gotten into your files and has shifters down here working for him, then your problem is much bigger than you think and a new computer shield isn’t going to stop him.”