Hunger's Mate

by A. C. Arthur

  She’d parked her car right out in front of the Washington Plaza Hotel, knowing there would be someone at the front desk watching to see how long she stayed there. She didn’t plan to be long, but the constant watch would undoubtedly keep three to four Jeeps from pulling up and taking a break behind her.

  Crossing the art deco–styled front foyer she headed straight toward the elevators and up to the room Darel was in. Arriving at the door, she wrinkled her nose at the obvious stench as she slipped on black leather gloves, swiped her card in the slot, and pushed her way inside. Luckily for her, she hadn’t spent much time around the rogues and had yet to perform any real task that would cement her alliance with them, to carry their foul smell. That had worked tremendously to her advantage in gaining entrance into Havenway in the first place.

  “Took you long enough,” Darel spat the second she was inside. “This kid’s been staring at me and crying off and on like she expects me to do something for the last couple of hours.”

  He walked back and forth around the bed where he had laid the baby in the center. He looked like a nervous father-to-be and Rayna resisted the urge to chuckle.

  From what little she knew of Darel Charles, she didn’t figure he would find this funny. He appeared to be a strong and forceful rogue, having linked up with Sabar Tavares before his untimely demise. Even though Rayna had been miles and miles away at the time, she’d done her homework before that first instant message had been sent. She liked to know exactly who she was getting into bed with—or so she supposed the saying went.

  “It’s just a baby, Darel. All you had to do was pick her up,” she said, moving to the bed and doing exactly that.

  The little girl smelled heavenly but Rayna resisted the urge to nuzzle up against her, to sniff her and absorb what might have been. Instead she simply rocked her a bit, back and forth until the fussiness subsided and bright, keen eyes looked up to assess her.

  “He doesn’t have a clue, does he, Shya? Your parents are beside themselves with worry about you, little one,” she said, her voice lifting with a light lilt as she continued to walk with the baby.

  “So now you’ll take her back, and in a couple of days you’ll get me into Havenway so I can kill those bastards once and for all,” Darel stated gruffly, interrupting her thoughts.

  It was just as well, they were thoughts she probably shouldn’t have been having anyway.

  “Patience, Darel. We can’t blow this operation that quickly. Besides, you’re gonna need to lay low for a good long while because Boden’s going to be incensed at your betrayal. His instructions to bring him the child were perfectly clear,” she reminded him, knowing that Boden Estevez would be beyond enraged. He would be out for blood, Darel’s blood.

  “I don’t give a shit what he does or when he does it! This whole little plan you came up with was to turn the tables on him anyway.”

  She’d given in partially and touched a finger to Shya’s soft, plump cheek. “Yes, it was. And it’s working out brilliantly. The Shadows, especially Nick and Ary, will be so indebted to me for bringing their little girl back, they’ll never think to look at me when you mysteriously gain entrance into Havenway.”

  Darel laughed. A sick, ugly sound that she’d heard before and hated even more now. On the outside he seemed attractive enough, even if his hair needed combing—she wasn’t a fan of that unkempt afro look. He had a good build and knew how to use it. He hadn’t seemed interested in her sexually, which was just as well, and had made it a lot easier for them to both share this hotel room while they’d put their plan into action. Boden making Darel do the nasty with his whore Bianca had been just the push Darel had needed to agree to her plan. Now both of them would have their revenge against Boden the horrific. And then they would walk away to do whatever suited them separately.

  Yes, separately, she thought with a smile.

  “I don’t want to wait. I want this shit over with as soon as possible,” Darel was saying. “So you take that baby back today, give them a day or two to think everything is back to normal, and then I want in. You understand me? I want to know where their headquarters are and how many are there. Then I’ll get in there and do what I do best.”

  “What’s that, get caught or get people killed?” she asked flippantly.

  He got up in her face instantly. “Don’t fuck with me, little girl! You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  Again, Rayna held in her laughter. She knew exactly what Darel was capable of and what she would allow him to do. With a nod, she told him, “You’re right. I’ll do things exactly as you said. Get her to her parents, lull them into a false sense of security, and then let you in to kill them all.”

  Darel smiled, a new scar she figured he’d received courtesy of his impromptu reunion with dear old dad, jagged and still raw just beneath his right ear. “That’s exactly right.”

  She nodded. “Then I’d better get going.”

  “Yeah, you’d better,” he said snidely.

  Rayna didn’t even reply but began walking across the room.

  “Oh, Darel, I forgot something important,” she said, turning when she was halfway to the door.

  “What?” he asked, obviously irritated by the fact that she was still there. He was really ready to have his revenge on both the Shadows and Boden. She couldn’t say she blamed him, but he was going about it all wrong.

  Holding the baby in her right arm, she lifted her left, pointed the gun directly at his head, and pulled the trigger. Not once, not twice, but three times to make certain the deal was done. When his body crumpled to the floor, she dropped the gun and walked out of the room with a still-sleeping Shya Delgado in her arms.

  Chapter 27

  “This is not cool,” Eli said the moment he saw his brother and the human standing beside him. “Rome is not going to stand for this.”

  Ezra frowned. “It’s good to see you too, brother.”

  Eli shook his head. “You know what I’m referring to.”

  “Yes. I do. And I don’t give a damn. It is what it is. Now where are the Assembly Leader and Nick? I have something to discuss with both of them.”

  “I hope this is not what you want to discuss,” Eli commented, looking from Jewel to Ezra.

  “Don’t go there, Eli. This right here,” he said, looking back to Jewel, then returning his gaze to his brother, “is my personal life. And nobody has anything to say about my personal life.”

  “Not even me, huh?” Eli frowned at his brother.

  Ezra ignored the frown just as he was trying to ignore the urge to punch his younger brother in the mouth. He hadn’t known what reaction to expect when he marched Jewel Jenner, the jewelry thief and a target of Lawrence Crowe, into Havenway, but it hadn’t been this. And again, he hadn’t really given anybody’s reaction to her much thought. When he’d announced that Shya had been taken and that he was coming back to D.C., she’d immediately announced she was going with him.

  Leaving her father in Priya’s care, she’d boarded the jet and sat right beside him as he’d worried over Shya’s safety. She’d held his hand and assured him that the baby would be okay. Hell, she’d even come up with the answer to Shya’s illness. So to hell with the distrust his brother was trying to toss her way, and to hell with whatever anybody else had to say about Jewel being at his side, because that’s where she was and that’s where Ezra intended to keep her.

  “We’ve already gotten Shya back.” Eli tossed out the words as if he expected Ezra to react a certain way.

  If that way was elated and even more eager to speak to Rome and Nick, then that’s exactly what he got.

  “Are they in their suites?” he asked his brother, who kept looking at Jewel as if he wanted to lunge at her.

  It was in the next moment that Ezra knew without any doubt. He not only loved this woman, but he was proud to have her as a mate and the moment this mess with Shya was taken care of he was going to make damn sure she knew it.

  She moved past him, extending her
hand to Eli and introduced herself. “I’m Dawn Montgomery. Ezra has told me a lot about you, Eli. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  Eli, unable or unwilling to be any ruder than he’d already been, had grumbled something but took Dawn’s hand in his for a quick shake.

  “Yes,” he said in reply to Ezra’s question. “Rome is in his suite. Whatever you have to say you should probably say to Rome first so as not to disturb Nick and Ary. They’ve been through enough tonight.”

  “And you think I intend to put them through more?”

  “No, brother. That is not what I think. The first thing I believe you need to do is to get clearance to have Ms. Montgomery here, especially noting who she is and what strings come attached with her,” Eli said gruffly.

  “You mean because I used to be involved with Larry Crowe and he’s the devious bastard you’re trying to catch before he exposes the Shadow Shifters?” Dawn asked, one lovely eyebrow arched as she spoke.

  Ezra did not say a word when Eli looked at him angrily, he simply nodded signifying that Eli should answer Dawn’s question.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” Eli replied finally.

  “That’s not a problem. I am more than prepared to plead my case and to offer my help in this new situation. If he would rather I leave, then I will.”

  “And I’ll be going with her,” Ezra announced, shocking himself and his brother.

  “You wouldn’t,” Eli contended.

  “Watch me,” was Ezra’s reply before he took Dawn’s hand and turned her in the direction of Rome’s private suites.

  A few minutes later when Rome opened his door, he looked anything but pleased to see Ezra and his guest. It was Kalina who came up behind him and invited them in. When they had walked through the Leader’s living room space and they were closed into his private meeting area, Ezra spoke.

  “This is Dawn Montgomery,” he began, proud to call her by her real name and pleased with the fact that she’d felt it was time to finally stop hiding.

  “I know who she is, Ezra. And let me just say that the calor you two are sharing announces everything for you,” Rome told him immediately.

  “Please have a seat,” Kalina offered, motioning for Jewel to sit beside her.

  “I don’t really think that’s something that needs to be discussed, sir,” Ezra said, thinking of Bas’s words when he’d been in Perryville. Humans were what they were, just as the Shadows were. And the choice was his, plain and simple.

  “It will be discussed, at some point,” Rome told him. “But not now. There’s too much going on now to fight futile battles. Do you have an update on Crowe?”

  Feeling even more respect for their commander in chief, Ezra took his seat, leaning forward so that his arms rested on the table as he began to talk. “He had unpurified damiana in his basement, which tells me that he knew about the herb and its uses. I don’t know how he found out about it, but the information I lifted from the computer in the lab indicated they’d used it with the last couple of prototypes. The ADAM prototype looked like it was trying to balance the surge in emotions the drug is known to produce. It looked like it was fighting the same dark-assed demon that I was.”

  “Wait a minute, ‘demon’? What are you talking about?” Kalina asked.

  Rome nodded to his mate. “Years ago Eli and Ezra were inflicted with damiana smoke administered by a shaman in the Sierra Leone. The results were heightened senses for both of them.”

  “And a bunch of other freaky shit … ah, excuse me, First Female. A bunch of other side effects that the shaman had warned us about,” Ezra told them.

  “That’s where the good news comes in,” Dawn added, unable to hide her excitement. “When Ezra explained to me all the dark urges he had been experiencing, they sounded a lot like what Larry went through after he’d snorted the damiana that he was hiding in the basement, only Larry’s seemed more consistent. If ADAM had survived, I’m guessing he would have continued to battle with his unpredictable actions as well. While, on the other hand, Ezra’s bouts with that same darkness come and go. They’re temporary, because he was exposed to purified damiana.”

  Rome nodded. “Okay, I’m following you.”

  “Good,” Ezra continued. “The notes from the lab also indicated that ADAM was unstable from the start. They needed something to stabilize it. As they continued to study the DNA they’d taken from the shifter they’d captured and ADAM’s reproduced DNA, they realized they were missing something. That’s when Mario DiLaurent thought about the strange DNA strand he’d learned about from his cousin Croy, the one that Papplin had given Shya’s blood to. I’m betting that since Shya’s DNA can reproduce the damiana their plan was to use her to complete their hybrid.”

  “Because the ability to re-create the damiana will stabilize the hybrid, making it stronger and damn near indestructible,” Rome replied grimly.

  “Dammit,” Kalina cursed. “That means they’ll always be gunning for her. And even if they don’t she’s still going to suffer every day of her life with this stupid drug reinstituting in her system.”

  Ezra and Dawn shared a look and a smile, then he looked to Rome.

  “Now, we’re not doctors and we’re not analysts, but the darkness that had been inserted in me with the damiana smoke dissipated once I, I mean when I found, ah…” Ezra hesitated.

  Dawn decided to finish his sentence. “When we found each other is what he’s trying to say. On the plane out here, Ezra explained to me how intimate the connection between mates really is. The sharing we’ve done was enough to wash that dark entity right out of his body. And if that worked for him, then why can’t we use the same principle to help Shya?”

  “What are you saying exactly?” Rome asked Dawn, not even bothering to look at Ezra this time.

  “Well, like Ezra said, we’re not doctors or anything, but what if there was a transfusion of Ezra’s cured blood cells into Shya’s body counteracting her infected ones? What if the cured cells were strong enough to block any reproduction of infected ones?”

  “Shya could live a normal life,” Kalina answered with a relieved sigh. “Oh my god, I think you two have come up with a cure for her. I think this might work. Rome, what do you think?”

  Rome sat back in his chair, rubbing a finger over his chin as he looked from Dawn to Ezra, and then to his ecstatic mate.

  “We should talk to the doctors first. Last I checked, Papplin was conscious and healing well. We’ll go ask him about this before we say anything to Nick and Ary,” Rome replied eventually.

  Ezra nodded then, standing and going to take Dawn’s hand. “I think it’s going to work,” he told Rome. “I want this to work.”

  * * *

  Not even a full twenty-four hours after they’d arrived at Havenway, Ezra had been tested to make sure his blood type was a match for Shya’s, and the procedure that would hopefully save the little girl’s life had begun.

  Once they’d spoken to Papplin and he’d agreed that it was at least worth a try, the staff at the medical center had immediately begun to get things in order. But first, Ezra had wanted to speak to Nick alone about the possibility of saving his daughter.

  “What if it doesn’t work?” a very tired and still semi-angry Nick had asked as they’d walked along the outskirts of Havenway.

  “I’d like to think that it will work,” Ezra had replied. “And I’d be honored to be the one to try and save your daughter. You’ve been such a great teacher to me, it’s the least I can do.”

  Nick had been a mentor to Ezra, which probably said something about his quick temper and his frequent insubordination that Bas would no doubt be sharing with Nick whenever things within the shifter world calmed down. But at the root of everything Dominick Delgado was a good man, a powerful shifter, and a much better adviser than any of the Lormenians Ezra had trained with could ever be.

  Nick had nodded tightly at Ezra’s words, his frown still in place. “Ary and Shya are everything to me. With every breath in my bod
y I will protect them. You understand that now, don’t you?”

  Ezra nodded. He did understand because he felt that way about Dawn. The thought of her having his children and those children ever being in danger had rage boiling slowly inside of him. So yes, there was no doubt he understood precisely what Nick was going through.

  The procedure had taken a little more than an hour and two units of Ezra’s blood had been pumped into little Shya’s unusually strong veins. Dr. Papplin thought it would take at least a day or two until they began to see improvement, if there was any. Ezra was positive there would be.

  Now, he lay across his bed, naked after his shower, attempting to obey Papplin’s orders to get some rest, even though he felt like he could go out and fight a whole army … a whole supersoldier army that Ezra feared was still somewhere in production.

  When Dawn came out of the bathroom, he began to sit up.

  “Stay right there,” she said, switching off the bathroom light, then moving to the side of the bed to switch that light off as well.

  “What if I wanted to see what you were wearing?” he asked as she climbed on top of him, his hands going instantly to her waist.

  “One,” she replied, leaning forward and whispering into his ear, “I knew you wouldn’t keep your hands off me, so you’d instantly know I wasn’t wearing anything. And two, you have nocturnal vision. Did you forget you told me that already?”

  She chuckled as her tongue licked his earlobe and Ezra’s body instantly hardened.

  “Dr. Papplin said I should rest. I don’t know if I’ll be able to perform,” he joked, his hands rubbing over the round globes of her bottom.

  “Did I ask you to perform?” she asked, pulling slightly away from him, lifting herself until she was perfectly positioned over his erection.

  “Well,” he stammered because she was so wet, as if she’d been thinking about this all day long, or possibly longer. The tip of his dick slid effortlessly inside her, the candy-coated walls of her pussy gripping him tightly, instantly.