by A. C. Arthur
Fuck!
Why was she talking?
Eli went back for her mouth, sucking her tongue deep into his mouth, feeling only a small measure of triumph at silencing her, even though her words continued to echo in his head. His hands were moving then, searching for something to silence the words, the logic of what she’d said. He ran his finger up and down her spine, then around to where his thumbs brushed along the slight curve of her breasts. She had her uniform jacket and shirt on, too many damn layers for him to feel the warmth he knew was awaiting him beneath. He was just about to pull away, just about to curse all that was real and complicated about this world they lived in, when his body went still.
His cat went on alert and he whispered over her lips, “Don’t move.”
She blinked as if confused, but remained still. Eli did not blink, he kept his cat’s eyes open and focused on what, he didn’t quite know. And then he did, he could see it as clear as day.
Agent Wilson alive and well, driving a dark sedan down the highway, surpassing the speed limit.
Eli did blink then, trying to figure out what he was seeing and why. He heard another sound and in the next instant, was up. Jumping away from her, Eli had his gun drawn and pointed into what was now darkness, not a car driving down the highway. His heart hammered in his chest as he struggled to grasp what the hell was going on. He was lost in the goddamned forest and wanting Nivea like he’d never wanted another female before. And he was seeing crap he knew wasn’t there. He wanted to yell with the rage of helplessness, a feeling he despised more than fear, but admitted to feeling more of in the last few weeks.
It was as he was taking a deep breath, trying to convince himself that he was overreacting that Eli looked into the darkness once more, his finger tapping the trigger of his gun lightly, readily. That’s when the tall, broad form appeared.
“Mom isn’t going to appreciate it if you shoot me,” Ezra, Eli’s older twin, said glibly, taking the couple extra steps until they were face-to-face.
Eli lowered his arm with a scowl on his face. He’d heard the noise, the barest swipe of an arm against a tree trunk and he’d scented an intruder, the soft scent of warm chocolate. But he hadn’t known it was his brother, hadn’t picked up their blood connection, nor that of the other guards that came from the trees at that moment.
“She might be happy to finally get rid of you,” Eli quipped, clicking the safety back on his gun and slipping it down the back band of his pants. He’d already turned away from Ezra, not wanting his brother to see his querying look.
“I doubt that since I’m her favorite,” Ezra continued, moving past Eli to offer his hand to Nivea, who had shockingly remained seated on the tree stump.
Of course she refused the help, coming to her feet on her own and using her hands to dust the leaves and debris from her clothes. Eli watched her hands moving over taught thighs, the curve of her ass, then down her legs again. Cursing, he looked away from her as well.
“You ride with me and tell me everything that happened,” Nick Delgado, one of the Eastern Zone Lead Enforcers, said once he’d made his way over to where Eli was standing. “Let Nivea go in the other car with Zach and Tobias.”
“Where’s X and Caprise? Why aren’t their guards with them?” Eli questioned immediately. Ever since the first threats against Rome and Nick surfaced, each high-ranking Shadow had been assigned a personal guard. Zach was X’s and Tobias was X’s mate, Caprise’s, guard. If those two were here, then who was guarding the other Lead Enforcer and his mate?
“They’re at Havenway for the night so they’re covered,” Nick answered testily. “Now, follow me to the truck.”
Nick Delgado was not one to be questioned. He was the most volatile of the Eastern Zone Shadows, with a reputation for a temper that preceded him in and out of the courtroom. Considering it had only been about two weeks since his daughter, Shya, had been kidnapped and returned, the fact that he was in human form and not a cat looking for everyone at Comastaz Labs to kill, was a high point. Eli was irritated and carrying a certain attitude himself, but he wasn’t foolish enough to tempt the raging bull, so he followed Nick. But not before looking over to where Nivea was being led away by Zach.
“She’s cool,” Ezra said, clapping a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “They’ll get her side of the story and we’re all gonna meet up with Rome when we get back to Havenway.”
Falling in line beside his brother’s sure gait, Eli continued to frown, his gaze averted. “What’s with the divide-and-conquer routine?” he asked, being careful to keep his voice low since Nick was just a couple of feet ahead. Knowing the Lead Enforcer, he could probably still hear every word they were saying, but Eli wasn’t going to be overly concerned about that. He had a right to know what was going on, and what the higher-ups were thinking about tonight’s development.
“X got a tip from one of his FBI buddies that someone within the department has gone rogue and launched their own investigation into the law firm,” Ezra told him as they made their way through the trees.
Eli noted they were going in the opposite direction from where he and Nivea had been traveling. No doubt, she’d noticed the same thing and was eager to rub it in his face that he’d been going the wrong way. Bad sense of direction, faulty senses, heightened sex drive. Damn, he thought with a sigh. Just, fucking, damn!
“Another investigation into Rome and Nick? Why? Didn’t they already bark up that tree and get shot down?”
More than a year ago the First Female, Kalina, had been sent to investigate the firm that Rome and Nick ran together. She’d been unsuccessful in proving they were embezzling money, but positive in bringing out her true shifter form and joining with the current Assembly Leader.
“One of them never let go,” Ezra said solemnly.
Eli sighed. “Wilson. We followed him from his office out here tonight. That’s how this all got started.”
They’d just stepped through the trees onto the bank of grass that led up a small incline to where six black Jeeps and one Suburban—all filled with shifters—were parked along the shoulder of the highway.
“That’s why it’s imperative we figure out who was in that cabin with him. Rome wants to know who else Wilson has convinced to help him with this witch hunt.”
“He thinks it’s someone from Comastaz, doesn’t he?” Eli asked when they’d reached the SUV.
“Get in and we’ll talk about it,” Nick directed as he opened the passenger-side door.
Eli gave Ezra a questioning look but his brother only shrugged as he moved around to open the driver’s-side door. Eli climbed into the back, avoiding the urge to look back once more to make sure Cannon was safely tucked in one of those Jeeps behind him. She wasn’t his personal concern. There were other guards here now who’d be there if something should go down. They would protect her. Hell, she would probably end up protecting them, he thought, letting his hands fall to his knees as Ezra pulled out into traffic.
He had just about convinced himself not to think about her any more when once again she was thrust into the forefront of his mind.
“Tell me everything you know about Nivea Cannon and her investigation of Agent Dorian Wilson,” Nick said the moment the SUV was on the road.
* * *
Eli’s forehead touched the tiles of his shower as he rested his head, wondering not for the first time in the last few months what the hell was going on in the shifter world.
The conversation with Nick had been tense to say the very least. Most of that was attributed to the instantly defensive stance Eli had taken against Nick’s questioning of Nivea and her motives where Agent Wilson was concerned. No, correct that, the Lead Enforcer was hinting around at the fact that Nivea might not be as loyal to the shifters as she pretended to be.
“She’s one of the best damn guards we have at Havenway, sir,” Eli had responded tightly. “There’s no other guard as dedicated to fighting for us as Nivea is. I’d venture to say sometimes I think she’s too dedicated to
her job and perhaps needs more of a personal life.”
Why he’d said the last, Eli had no idea. The words had immediately been regretted as Nick—astute and practiced litigator that he was—pounced instantly.
“My point exactly,” he replied. “All she does is work. Lately that’s consisted of following Agent Wilson. But today, her sister came to visit her. All the way from New York. Did you know about that?”
He hadn’t known.
“Should I have?” he replied instantly, drawing a look from Ezra through the rearview mirror and a glare from Nick as he turned in his seat.
“You were assigned to her for a reason, Eli. And that was to find out everything she knows,” Nick told him. He’d been looking at Eli as if he should have already known what his job was, and that his question, along with his ignorance, was not going over well.
“I thought my assignment was to give her additional training and to see if she was ready for a promotion,” he deadpanned.
“We can’t promote her if she’s working against us, now, can we?”
“What the hell do you mean working against us? Nivea’s been dedicated to the shifters since the first day she came here. If you doubt that why not call Bas and ask him. He’s known her since she was a kid.”
“And that makes him biased,” Nick snapped. “Besides, this intel we just received is about Nivea and the real reason she left New York. Considering how long I’ve known you I’ll let you slide this one time if you don’t know what that reason is. But I’m telling you right now that we need to know everything about her and her family and we need to know it soon. So do your job and get the information.”
“So you think I know why she left and I’m not telling you?” he asked Ezra specifically. “You really think I would do that to you or the tribe? If I knew something about her that affected us all, I would have told you already.”
Ezra turned in the seat, looking his twin directly in the eye as he spoke quietly this time. “You haven’t been yourself lately and you know it. Maybe she’s the one that will make this all go away for you. I don’t know, so forgive me for having to ask where your head is right now.”
Eli hadn’t replied to that. He hadn’t known what to say. Instead, he sat in the back of that truck for the next two hours, steaming over the fact that Nick actually believed there was something disingenuous about Nivea and that his brother obviously didn’t trust him.
He yanked the cloth and the sponge roughly from the rack beneath the showerhead and began to wash, all the while grumbling about the newly focused assignment he’d been given. It promised to bring him even closer to Nivea Cannon, when in all actuality he’d been trying like hell to stay away from her.
There was no other choice for him where she was concerned. If she were dangerous to anyone at Havenway, it was Eli. Ezra’s comment in the truck proved he still believed all that BS the shaman Dagar had told them after blowing that foul-assed black smoke into their lungs. Eli, on the other hand, believed none of it. He’d agreed to the shaman’s treatment to ebb their sexual desire when they were in the Sierra Leone because the addiction to Acacia had gotten out of hand. It was interfering with their goal to become guards and their family’s reputation. Not to mention, they’d learned that to Acacia it had all been just a sick joke anyway.
The damned smoke hadn’t even worked. Eli had lain in his bed that night still wanting to touch Acacia, to taste her, to fuck her one more time. And when her minions had summoned him and Ezra, Eli had gone willingly. Just as he’d killed her readily when it was clear that she planned to kill him and Ezra.
The black smoke did not possess him as Ezra believed it did him. It did not control Eli’s already acute senses—the senses that were jacked the hell up at this very moment. And the supposed remnants of that smoke in his system damn sure weren’t going to subside and do his bidding the moment he came across his so-called mate. That was all myth and fairy tales that Ezra chose to believe because it worked well for his situation. Eli, fortunately, had learned long ago that if there was going to be a change in his circumstances, he would be the one to make it. He was the one in control of his destiny, not some spirit-filled holy man or his drug-induced treatments.
Even with all that he’d learned over the past years, everything that he’d come to terms with, Eli could not deny the obvious. There was something going on with him. Just as Ezra said in the truck, he hadn’t been himself lately. He knew that and hated the fact almost as much as he hated his brother being the first to vocalize it.
Slamming his palm against the faucet, Eli turned off the water and stalked naked out of the shower and straight into his bedroom, yanking the towel off the edge of the bed. He was bent over, drying his calves when he paused, his head turning toward the door, his focus trained on who was approaching. He couldn’t scent anyone, and wasn’t expecting any company. Yet, he knew she was there.
The sound of her footsteps was muffled, but if he closed his eyes Eli knew he’d see her as clearly as if she were standing right in front of him. He knew because he’d done so before. Her boots came up to the quarter point of her leg, black leather tied precisely. The bottoms of her uniform pants would be tucked neatly inside the top half of the boots. Her pants fit her tightly, had just enough space for her to run, kick, and jump comfortably and still managed to outline her delectable little ass in the sweetest way. Her dark blue T-shirt was more form-fitting, cupping hand-sized breasts and holding them high. She wouldn’t be wearing her top shirt with the buttons and right breast pocket while inside Havenway and certainly not at this time of night. Her hair would be pulled back into that ponytail that drove him insane with the need to tear it free and watch the thick strands fall wildly around her face.
Coming to a standing position, Eli inhaled deeply, slowly, his eyes fastened on the door. On the exhale, about twenty seconds after he’d first sensed her presence, there was a sturdy knock.
He dropped the towel and walked slowly to the door, turning the knob and pulling it open just as she was about to knock again. She looked into his eyes, then down to his chest, then to his groin where his dick was growing steadily aroused in response.
“You gonna stand and stare or did you want to come in?” he asked after another few seconds of watching her appreciate him.
If he were a different type of man that appreciation would have gone a long way. It would have puffed his ego, maybe made him smile, and most certainly would have aroused him even more. As it was, Eli, the deeply scared shifter, was only wary of her look, of the desire she so quickly tossed his way. He had good reason to be cautious, to want to keep her as far away as he possibly could. But still he stepped to the side, inhaling deeply as she walked by.
Her scent was there now, when he should have picked it up before. Shifters relied 100 percent on their scenting abilities, of enemies, feelings, situations … mates, or in Eli’s case, simply females. Gritting his teeth once more at the anomaly he was presently experiencing, Eli closed the door, locked it, and turned to once again find her staring at him.
“I want to know what they said to you in the truck tonight,” she said, holding her hands down at her sides, looking into his eyes this time, as if she wasn’t as sexually aware of him as he knew she was.
Eli walked to her. It wasn’t by choice, he swore it wasn’t. The cat within was instantly drawn to her feline, reaching out for the similar being, wanting desperately to forge a connection. The man knew better, he knew what would result from this and yet, he couldn’t stay away. He’d never been able to listen to the warning and stay away.
“I don’t think that’s what you really want, Cannon,” he told her seriously, standing so close to her now the buckle of her belt brushed against his thick length. The touch was cool and sent spikes of desire flaring quickly throughout Eli’s body.
Every muscle tensed, every nerve stood on end, his breath growing more labored as he tried once again to make the effort. Pull away, back up, grab that damned towel, and get rid of her!
“I’m not here to play your games, Eli. Not tonight,” she replied, breaking his concentration with the deep husky sound of her voice.
He reached around her then, grabbing the band from her hair before she could think to stop him and yanking it free.
“This is far from a game,” he told her, watching with amazement as all that thick and wild hair fell loose, landing on her shoulders, framing her face. “Everything that happens from this point on will be serious and have consequences.”
She kept her gaze level with his. Never backing down. It just wasn’t in her nature to walk away from a fight or a challenge. How many times had he watched her in the sparring ring with shifters twice her size and weight? When she should have cowered or could have hidden beneath the “female” shield, she never did. She stood her ground and she fought, most times winning over the cocky male who thought far too little of her. Those thoughts made what Eli said next seem futile.
“If you plan to run away, now would be the time.”
She squared her shoulders. “I was never the one running, Eli. That was always you.”
Like dropping a match into a gallon of kerosene, her words sparked an inferno inside and Eli was immediately wrapping his arms around her waist, drawing her to him. “Not anymore,” he murmured before crushing his lips down over hers. “Not anymore,” he repeated as he pulled slightly away, only to plunge back inside again, his tongue taking hers in an intimate duel.
She tasted like fresh rain, like water to a parched thirst that threatened his speech. Her tongue was warm and tangled expertly with his. Her hands grasped his biceps, the palm of her right hand flat against the head of his cat tattoo. Heat pooled in his arm, grew into a ball of molten lava that seeped quickly throughout his bloodstream. The feeling was intense, immediate, and climactic. Inside Eli shook. Outside, he reacted.
He kissed down the line of her neck, loving the way she let her head fall back, giving him what he wanted without any argument. This wasn’t the usual way she reacted to him. And this wasn’t the usual way he treated her.