by A. C. Arthur
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Table of Contents
About the Author
Copyright Page
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GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Shadow Shifter Tribes
Topètenia—the jaguars
Croesteriia—the cheetahs
Lormenia—the white Bengal tigers
Bosinia—the cougars
Serfins—the white lions
Acordado—the awakening, the Shadow Shifter’s first shift
Alma—the name of the spa at Perryville Resorts Sedona. Means “soul” in Portuguese
Amizade—annex to the Elders’ Grounds used as a fellowship hall
Companheiro—mate
Companheiro calor—the scent shared between mates
Curandero—the medicinal and spiritual healer of the tribes
Elders—senior members of the tribe
Ètica—the Shadow Shifter Code of Ethics
Joining—the union of mated Shifters
La Selva—the name of the restaurant at Perryville Resorts. Means “the jungle” in Portuguese
Pessoal—secondary building of the Elders’ Grounds which houses the personal rooms of each Elder
Rogue—a Shadow Shifter who has turned from the tribes, refusing to follow the Ètica, in an effort to become their own distinct species
Santa Casa—main building of the Elders’ Grounds that is the holy house of the Elders
The Assembly—three Elders from each tribe that make up the governing council of shifters in the Gungi
PROLOGUE
“The time has come.” Baxter Utiera spoke solemnly. His folded hands were weathered from the years, the manual labor, the strain of working within these tribes his entire life. This morning his chest was heavy, his temples throbbing slowly from all the deep contemplation he had done over the past few weeks.
Across the table Umberto Alamar, one of the tribe’s Elders, stared at him knowingly. But he did not speak.
“Magdalena has foreseen it. The time is coming and I do not think there’s anything we can do to stop it,” Baxter continued. His eyes hurt, gritty from lack of sleep, his shoulders squared but aching from stress.
“We should not have come here. We should have stayed in the Gungi.” Umberto spoke, his voice heavy and stilted with his Portuguese accent.
Baxter shook his head. “Hiding was never an option.”
“They have vantage. They will luta. Derramamento de sangue e morte virá. Derramamento de sangue e morte virá,” the Elder repeated until Baxter stood from the table, going to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.
“It may not be helped,” Baxter told him, the words not comforting but alarming to them both. “This is what they were created for, this battle that now comes. It is all that they have prepared for. They will prevail.”
“They will die,” Alamar stated solemnly. “We will all die if this is not handled correctly. Everything is on his shoulders now. How will he lead?”
Baxter frowned slightly, finally pulling his glasses from his face, using his thumb and finger to squeeze the bridge of his nose. This was not an easy assignment. He’d known when it was handed down to him that it would not be. There had been good times, moments when he thought maybe the presence of the shifters in the United States would be a good thing, that maybe they would be able to fit in as the Reynoldses had hoped and worked toward before their untimely deaths. Now it was their son, Roman, who led the Stateside Assembly. He’d put together a good group of shifters to carve out the blueprint of the democracy that would govern their species. Rome had also begun to forge alliances with human leaders, in hopes that when and if the time came, they would stand alongside the shifters and not against.
They would need that alliance sooner rather than later. They would need all the connections they could muster, including ones with their neighboring tribes. So far the Topètenia had been at the forefront of the Assembly. Now, however, they would need the strength of all the Shadow Shifters, they would need a united front to keep the bloodshed and death Umberto had predicted at bay.
In short, they would need a miracle.
CHAPTER 1
He bolted up in bed, sweat pouring from his face, his bare chest heaving with the rapid rhythm of his heart. The conversation replayed in his mind as if it were occurring right at this very moment.
Breathing heavily, Eli dragged a hand over his damp face and cursed. Elder Alamar and Baxter, the Overseer, had chosen to meet before dawn in a conference room adjacent to Eli’s bedroom on the lower level of Havenway. The fact that Eli had been awake that night, as well as so many before and after, was not a pertinent issue. Still, he would admit that his senses had been in overdrive as a result of lack of sleep and lack of sex.
Upon pressing his ear closer to the wall, straining with all his power he’d heard only whispers and murmuring, nothing coherent and nothing more about the bloodshed and death Magdalena had foreseen for the Stateside Shifters.
He’d cursed his shifter senses that had been off for weeks now. One minute they were magnified so that he could scent a person who was outside of Havenway, while he was inside the training facility with new recruits. And in the next, Eli was trembling with exhaustion and fatigue, plagued with a longing such as he’d never felt before. It was strong and most times at night, debilitating, as his limbs actually weakened, his erection so hard it was painful.
All signs that he expertly ignored.
Until the moment he’d needed to hear what was being said in the room next to him, because as long as he only had bits and pieces of the conversation, Eli would keep it to himself. There was no need to alert the Assembly Leader until he had all the facts lined up neatly. Roman was a stickler for accurate information being presented to him in a studious and efficient manner. As his guard for more than ten years now, Eli knew him almost better than the only other two closer to Rome—Kalina, the First Female, and Baxter, Rome’s longtime butler. He knew that the Leader would want all the details of this conversation, especially with the situation the shifters now faced.
And he hadn’t told him. Not yet anyway.
Since sleep was clearly a pointless endeavor, Eli pushed back the sheets as if they’d offended him in some way and climbed out of the king-sized bed. His room, the spacious corner dwelling in the lower east wing of Havenway, only had one window that didn’t even span the length of his broad shoulders. All the windows in Havenway were small to prevent any break-ins. That was merely one of the security measures that X and Nick, the Eastern Zone Lead Enforcers, had designed to keep the shifters safe in their U.S. headquarters. The facility sat on six hundred acres of land just beyond Great Falls National Park in Arlington, Virginia. From the outside it looked like nothing more than an old dilapidated building, circled by an eight-foot-high electronic fence, marked PRIVATE PROPERTY. Inside, it was a technological fortress that housed over one hundred active shifter soldiers, including the First Family and their private security detail.
Eli didn’t mind living here. On a personal level, he liked the solitude he found in his room. A secret stair
well accessed through a door in Eli’s bathroom led directly to an entrance into Rome’s living space, facilitating his job as Lead Guard perfectly. To that end, he also wore a newly designed e-band that allowed Rome to communicate with him without using the global com links that would broadcast to all on-duty guards.
He made sure said band was in place on his right wrist after he slipped on sweatpants, a T-shirt, and his tennis shoes. In the next few moments he was outside of his room, walking along the steel-lined walls of the hallways that circled the facility’s U shape until arriving at the training area. It was still too early for anyone to be here, but Eli punched in the code and pushed through the glass doors until he was inside the large room with all the latest weight and fitness equipment.
The treadmill was his goal because he wanted to run, and run fast. In truth, he wanted to shift into the cat and soar through the forest without stopping, but he knew that was dangerous. The United States government, through what they called the Genesis Project, now had a genuine shifter in their custody. With that shifter they’d produced a supersoldier prototype, aptly named ADAM, that Eli’s twin brother, Ezra, had already destroyed. Considering those facts, they were all being extra cautious, even though Eli was aching to come across one of the supersoldiers so he could show him just what a born Shadow Shifter could do to a genetically engineered wannabe.
He was in a steady stride when he felt the first tingle at the base of his neck. It was just a ruffle of sensation that Eli let sit for a few moments. He continued to pump his arms, his breathing barely increasing as he entered into mile number one of his workout. His feet pounded the running belt, fists clenched, eyes focused straight ahead to the mirrored wall.
She was there. He couldn’t see or scent her, but he could feel her presence and his teeth clenched with that knowledge alone. He’d been feeling this particular female for far too long, but not scenting her, which was the normal route of acknowledgment for a shifter. He’d ignored both those facts for he wasn’t sure how long. Today, he wasn’t in the mood to dismiss her.
He continued his run, working the full thirty minutes that he’d punched into the control panel. All while she watched.
When he stepped off the treadmill he stood in front of the mirror, stretching—which he should have done first, but having been so eager to burn the energy simmering inside, he’d bypassed that part of the workout ritual. Now he bent forward, came up, tilted backward. He lunged first to the left, then to the right, stretching his hamstring to its full capacity, loving the burn of the muscles inside. He stood up straight, put his hands on his hips, and did one squat before disappearing across the room.
The move had been quick, a practiced one he’d perfected for times just like these. Okay, she wasn’t exactly the person he’d ever thought of using that little trick on, but since she was here and he was feeling particularly aroused by her scent this morning, he figured what the hell. When his feet stopped moving he was in front of her where she stood all the way at the other end of the training room, against the wall, hidden in the shadows.
She gasped when his hand went around her neck, the front of his body pressing tightly against the front of hers.
“Spying on me, guard?” he asked, his lips so close they rubbed along her earlobe as he leaned in to talk. “I’m not your assignment.”
“No,” she replied, her rich, throaty voice sending spikes of heat through his torso and downward until resting along the length of his dick. “You’re supposed to be my trainer.”
His thumb moved along her collarbone, smooth skin enticing him further, while his other hand found her waist, again skin touching skin. She wasn’t naked, wouldn’t dare leave her room and walk around a facility full of virile and virtually always aroused shifters without being fully dressed. He lowered his fingers quickly to confirm, feeling the band of her exercise pants and breathing a concealed sigh of relief.
“Then take notes because I’m about to teach you one of the first rules of spying on someone.”
Eli didn’t give her a moment to speak, but wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into a quick turn, then using his foot, clipped hers and fell to the mat on top of her without so much as a grunt. She let out a small gasp before she did what she probably thought was taking control of the situation and flipped them so that she was now on top.
“What rule is that, Mr. Preston?” she asked, looking down at him with a definite smirk of triumph on her face.
“Don’t get caught,” he said, seconds before grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her down to him. His lips took hers in a hungry connection that could have drawn blood if she hadn’t reacted fast and opened her mouth to him. His tongue thrust forward taking hers for a wicked tangle while his other hand cupped her ass, pressing her hot little pussy right up against his rock hard dick—just where she belonged.
CHAPTER 2
Nivea loved Eli’s eyes. He didn’t reveal them often, wearing those infuriating shades all the time. Most likely he knew how irresistibly hot they made him look.
Now, she thought with a quick catch of breath before sinking into an absolute abyss once more, there was another part of him to love—his mouth.
It was a clever mouth too, knowing and masterful, owning hers, directing, leading, guiding, actually fucking with complete potency. That was no exaggeration. From his kiss alone her already aroused center had reacted immediately. The tender folds were plump and now damp as her essence dripped from inside, just as his fingers had splayed over her ass and were now traveling downward. His tongue should be qualified as a weapon as he speared it in and out of her mouth, tangling with hers until she felt like he was doing the same thing between her legs. Or maybe that’s just what she wanted him to do. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered at this moment except that Eli was kissing her, finally.
How long had she waited for this moment?
Six long, grueling years.
She’d watched him as a new recruit, mesmerized by the sound of his voice—deep, yet smooth like fine wine. The slow and methodical way he taught every aspect of being a shifter guard. While she hadn’t been in any of his squads, ever, she’d always watched him and learned from the way he moved, the way he carried himself, how she should act as a shifter.
Whatever she’d done to warrant him being assigned to personally further her training these last few weeks, Nivea had no idea, but she would be forever grateful to whatever deity was responsible.
Her knees planted on the mat, she straddled Eli, her pussy rubbing over his engorged length, weeping with wanting. The blunt tip of his fingers rubbed against her scalp as he tore free the band she had holding her hair back. She barely registered him wrapping her hair around his hand, until he pulled, drawing her face away from his.
There were those eyes again, as green as the deepest depths of the sea, stormy and turbulent as they stared back at her.
“Your subject must never know you’re watching them. If they do you’re as good as dead,” he told her seriously.
Well, she wasn’t dead at the moment, but damn if she didn’t feel close to having a heart attack. Her body was on fire, every part of her sensitive to his touch, her skin tingling at the sound of his voice. She was trying to catch her breath as he released his grip on her hair, his other hand pausing between her legs. Her thighs shook and she wanted to close them tight, to hold his hand right there until the aching subsided.
Instead, Nivea backed away. She came to a standing position, taking deep steadying breaths, concentrating on not showing him how much his kiss and his touch had rattled her. After years of being around Eli Preston, she knew him very well. He’d kissed her passionately, touched her like he wanted her, and then reprimanded her. This was not the way she wanted him.
“First, I didn’t give my location away. You knew I would be here because we’ve been having these private training sessions every morning for the past few weeks, per your instruction,” she told him, her pulse steadying with each word, eyes narrowing as
he came to his feet just a few steps away from her.
His left eyebrow arched, something she’d seen only rarely since the sunglasses were normally his protocol. Her center clenched, minutely, at the action.
“Check your watch, sir. I’m right on time,” she finished before he could speak.
He didn’t look down at his e-band. No, his gaze stayed focused on her, which was uncommon, since during the weeks they’d been assigned to work together Eli had done everything in his power to only look at her when absolutely necessary. The same went for his touching her—the kissing part had been completely out of character. Nivea decided she would contemplate these inconsistencies later. She would keep everything professional, play on his level. That’s the way she would handle Eli Preston, for now.
“Shall we begin?”
His response was to walk away, stopping in the center of the room where they usually began their sparring matches. As she walked to meet him she thought about the years she’d been obsessing over this particular shifter, all the hours she’d spent dreaming about the moment they would finally come together physically. It would be hot, no doubt, and intense, filled with all the emotion and energy they’d stored up over the years. And it would result in their mating, the beginning of all the most important goals in Nivea’s life.
This assignment was a sign that her patience was about to pay off. The quick attack Eli launched when she was close enough to him was a sign that her calm dismissal of the kiss had ticked him off. Even as she worked through the maneuvers, countering his attacks, taking the falls to the mat while gritting her teeth, landing solid punches with a measure of pride, she knew he was off this morning. Something else was going on with Eli and it no doubt involved the Shadow Shifters.
* * *
Amina Cannon lounged on the small couch across from Nivea’s bed absently flipping through a fashion magazine as Nivea changed into the newly designed guard uniforms they all had to wear—navy blue mission pants and a lighter blue button-down shirt. Her boots lay across the room on the floor, where she’d left them last night. Immediately Eli’s words echoed in her head.