by Lane, Soraya
Riley was used to boys stealing glances at her in class. Faces stained red and spinning away if she caught them. But the way Hunter watched her, let his eyes rove over her, his cool green gaze appraise her, it was like a predator watching prey. Only she knew he wanted her to be his equal, not his dinner.
Maybe a touch weaker than him, so he could still be the alpha. But he didn’t want a wallflower, someone he couldn’t challenge. And that’s why she wanted him. More than another other boy she’d ever met.
She wanted to know what it was like to truly challenge him. To fight him. To race him. To love him.
The thought embarrassed her. She’d often wondered what it would be like, to do it, but she hadn’t been that attracted to a boy before. Not enough to actually consider going that far.
But Hunter …
“You decided yet?”
She knew what he was asking her. Riley had thought of nothing else but changing again, with the exception of her fantasies about Hunter, since they’d made it back to the house. She wanted to experience the thrill of the change again. Of the intense burst of pain and the flash of red, before her body took on the lithe, sleek form of a leopard. There was so much to learn, so much to experience.
Riley was scared, but she wasn’t afraid. Not even of the other leopards who were hunting her. Not with Hunter around.
His eyes questioned her again.
“Yes.” She exhaled the word, felt it pass through her lips.
Hunter’s eyes jumped and danced. She could feel the electricity of his excitement.
He’d made no apology for his attraction to her, but she had a feeling he liked her even better in cat form. That he wanted her to shift.
“You ready now?”
She grinned at him. How could she not be? “I’m not going to be a pussy cat today.”
He laughed. His head thrown to the sky. “You’re ready, aren’t you?”
“For what?” She had a feeling he meant more than just changing.
“You’re ready to test yourself. To test me.”
Heat traced a burning slap across her face again. Riley shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe.”
“Come on then, let’s go.”
She was curious to know if they were being watched by any other shifters. By any other leopards. But she didn’t ask him. Didn’t want to ruin the feeling between them.
He wouldn’t take her anywhere he thought was unsafe, not by choice. Sophia had probably put an end to the other cats loitering. For now, one snarl, one snap of Sophia’s teeth in cat form, wasn’t that what Hunter had said? When they’d gone inside, she’d known something was being dealt to outside. Her grandmother wasn’t just walking the garden at twilight for nothing.
“Hunter, about my sister…”
He shook his head. “You can’t ask me about her, remember? You need to trust me.” He looked away then blew out a breath as he turned back around. “I can’t talk to you about it now, but I will. Soon.”
Riley sighed. She’d had to ask. “Okay, let’s go.”
Hunter turned, his body away from the tree now, angled toward her.
She didn’t hesitate this time.
Hunter’s eyes made her stomach turn to liquid. His piercing gaze made the breath pump hard through her lungs. His body sent an energy through her that she’d never known possible.
She wanted to change partly to experiment, to play with her new other self. But also because she was braver around him when she was a leopard. Stronger, more determined, more attractive. Riley could show him that she was interested when she shifted, without worrying about blushes or awkwardness. Plus she wanted him to teach her.
“Just one rule, okay?” he said.
She turned her head toward him.
“Go easy on me.”
That made her giggle. Her go easy on him? “I thought I was just a little itty bitty cat to you?”
He reached out one hand, catching her arm. His fingers were warm, strong on her skin.
“You’re a leopard, Riley. The strongest of the strong.” His eyes, widening, held her in place. “I like to tease you, but soon you’ll be as good at hunting, running, searching, than any cat out here. Me included.”
A lump in her throat stopped her from answering. Did he really believe that?
“You have a guider, Riley. Someone to show you the way. That makes you stronger than any of us.”
It seemed surreal, this entire conversation. Just the thought of what they were about to do. And what was a guider anyway?
“Are you sure?” It was like she’d been mistaken for someone else. What had happened to school books, cafeterias and movies? Now it was forests, changing, predators and the future.
And loss. Claudia was still in her heart and her mind. But for some reason, being leopard made her feel closer to her sister than ever.
Riley jolted back to the present. Hunter’s hand hadn’t left her arm.
He tugged her along, gently, his fingers curling so softly around her skin.
“We need to go.”
She turned her face to him.
“Why the hurry.”
“We’ve got a lot to get through today.” He let his fingers glide slowly from her arm. “Before the predators come snapping at your heels again.”
Oh.
Riley had decided that the time they spent together after they’d been leopards was almost as enjoyable as the changing itself. There was a chilled out sense of relaxation, a calmness that stopped any awkwardness.
They lay, spread out on the floor of the forest, the sun teasing them as it glinted through the branches high above. Riley felt almost feline still as she basked in the warmth, being careful not to stretch out so far as to touch Hunter.
“I’ve met her, you know.”
Riley stopped dead. Her heart hammered, pulse thumping. There was only one person he could be referring to. “When?”
“She’s waiting for you.” He took her hand cautiously. “Are you ready to hear about her?”
Riley didn’t know what to say. Hunter seemed to understand. He’d said he couldn’t talk about her, not yet, but he must have changed his mind. Must have found it too hard to keep it from her. Or could they talk here because he was certain?
“She has auburn hair, red like the changing leaves of autumn.”
Tears formed a shallow pool in her eyes.
“Go on,” she croaked.
“Her eyes are green, the same as yours, but her skin is pale. Like she’s never seen the sun.”
He was describing Claudia. Her sister. Her twin. “How can you see her? Where is she?”
Hunter pushed back from her, like he was giving her space to breath. She needed it. It was as if a hand was clamped to her throat. Squeezing. Trying to suck the life from her.
Riley didn’t want to get her hopes up. Couldn’t go through losing her sister all over again.
“Claudia is our healer, and she’s your guider,” he explained. “She guides you, because you’ll be our leader one day. But she heals us all. She saves our kind.”
Riley swallowed another lump of emotion. She wanted to ask about exactly who their enemy was again, but it just wasn’t the right time. Claudia was more important to her. Why wasn’t Sophia telling her all this?
“Will I be able to touch her?” she asked.
He let his fingers flutter from her shoulder down to her fingers. “She’s as real as you or I, Riley.”
“So why hasn’t she come to me yet?”
Hunter was being very patient with her, she could tell. His eyes were soft, an aqua green now rather than his usual intense, flaring emerald.
She just couldn’t get her head around what was going on. Riley had seen her sister’s body, cold and lifeless, lying on her bed. Seen her empty. Unmoving. Dead.
It just didn’t seem possible, what Hunter was saying. But then none of this seemed possible.
“You have to be a leopard to see her. To hear her.”
“Let’s go then.”
>
Hunter reached out one hand, forcing her to stay seated as he clamped down on her shoulder.
“I’m here for you, Riley, but it’s too soon.”
Riley gave him a brave smile. She tried not to cry.
“You will see her again.” His eyes flickered over her face. “We can’t be long out here today, but you’ll be with her again soon. I promise.”
Riley knew she was in danger, that her being out in the forest at large meant they were both exposed. That Hunter was risking his life every time he took her out, down to the beach, anywhere far from Sophia’s direct control. Especially in human form.
But seeing Claudia again would be worth any risk. Just like being with Hunter, at his side, was worth the danger.
It made her realize just what kind of man, what kind of creature, Hunter was.
She hauled her thoughts into check, sucked back a deep lungful of air and nudged him with her shoulder. He looked at her, his gaze locked on hers. Riley recognized the familiar flutter of attraction that she so often felt for him, and this time she didn’t even try to fight it.
“Thank you, Hunter.” She leaned forward, just close enough to touch him. Before whispering a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for making me hope again.”
He stiffened, but he didn’t move.
“You’re welcome,” he muttered.
A buzz tore through her body. From the way he’d reacted, it wasn’t just her hiding an attraction.
It should have scared her, but it didn’t. She’d never felt so excited.
Or conflicted.
And she still didn’t really understand what was going on. Or who their enemy even was.
Or how her sister could be alive.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“So what are my options?”
Hunter slumped back into Sophia’s outdoor rocking chair, his big frame dwarfing it. Riley stayed perched on the wooden rail that wrapped around the porch.
They were both exhausted from a long day outside again.
“You don’t need to think about that yet, just…” He kept rocking, but not talking.
“Just what?”
“See how you feel in a few weeks.”
She wasn’t the kind that could just roll with the punches. Riley liked plans, liked to know what was going on. She needed some more information here. “If I stay with you, what happens?”
He looked exasperated. “I think you should be having this conversation with Sophia.”
She snorted. “So I’m told that you’re meant to become my husband,” it seemed the most appropriate word. She wasn’t happy with mate. “And yet we can’t even talk about what will happen if I go along with it?”
“Fine.”
She hadn’t heard him snap before. Show a flash of anger like he had just now. Hunter stood, taking a few steps toward her.
She suddenly wasn’t feeling quite so confident. It was better when they had some distance between them. He didn’t come any closer, just shoved his hands in his jeans pocket and glowered at her.
“What do you want to know?”
She hesitated, but saw in his eyes that he was serious. That he was actually going to answer any questions that she fired at him.
“If I go along with the plan, will I go back home at all, or do I have to stay here?
“You’ll go home.” His voice was flat, like he didn’t want to be having this conversation but felt he had to.
“So I’d just go back and pretend like nothing happened?” Riley didn’t get this at all.
“No, you’d go home to make everything look normal, then we’d figure out a plausible plan to get you back here for good.”
Riley gulped. So it did mean she’d be living here forever. It made sense; she just hadn’t really given it much thought. “So I’d finish out the school year and plan to come back after that?”
“Yeah, something like that,” he muttered.
It amused her, how touchy he was over this discussion. The usually cool, laid-back Hunter actually seemed rattled.
“And I would, ah, move in with you?” She cleared her throat, repeatedly.
Her question made him look up, eyes flashing with adrenalin, with the confidence she’d become used to from him. “That depends.”
It was taking all her power to stay seated on the rail. He was making her go all hot and bothered again and she was craving some distance from him to order her thoughts.
“On what?” Her voice was whisper-soft.
“Whether or not you’re ready.” His wry smile made her change the subject. Fast.
“Let’s say I choose not to stay, what then?”
A dark cloud settled over his eyes, turning them dark and brooding. He was clearly trying not to make a deal out of it by shrugging.
“You go home, pretend like none of this happened, and carry on like normal.”
Normal. She didn’t even know what that felt like anymore. With her sister gone but really here, a bond developing with a grandparent she’d barely ever spent any time with before, and a growing attraction to a guy she hardly knew, she didn’t feel anything even close to normal.
“And if I did,” she said slowly, thinking out her words, “if I left all this behind and tried to just go home, would I still be able to change. Later I mean?”
Hunter started to pace, slowly, back and forward down the porch.
“You’re trying to ask me if you’ll ever be normal again, right?”
He already knew her too well. Riley nodded.
“Changing doesn’t come easily to you yet. You can do it,” he assured her, pausing to look at her before resuming his pacing, “but it’s not second nature to you.”
It felt like second nature but she got what he meant.
“I’ve been doing it so long that I just think it and bam. I hardly feel the change anymore, it’s just me. Like brushing my teeth in the morning, but then I’m a guy and that means I’ve been able to change since I turned thirteen.”
She watched as Hunter paced toward her instead of back and forward. He stopped close, his hand reaching for the rail, leaning against it. He was close enough to be intimate, but not so close he was touching her.
“You have a talent, Riley. A talent that makes you special.” His voice was husky, soothing. “But if you go soon, you’ll still be able to change, but it won’t be easy. While you’re here, you’re in the right environment to learn and practice. Going back to your other life will be such a distraction that you’ll find it difficult, mentally, to do it.”
She knew all about distractions. He was a big one. But she’d still been able to change with him nearby. “But I’d be able to forget all this ever happened?”
His eyes clouded again. “Could you really forget this?”
She knew the answer to that, but she didn’t want him knowing how much he already meant to her. Not to mention being able to see her sister here. When he finally took her to Claudia.
Claudia. How could she ever leave here when Claudia was here?
“I just don’t know if I’m ready for all this.”
He shuffled closer, reached out a hand and let the back of it curve down the side of her face. “What is it you’re not ready for?”
She closed her eyes as the soft of his skin teased her. “You,” she whispered.
His hand dropped away. “You can trust me, Riley.”
She knew that, but it didn’t make her internal battle any easier.
Hunter pulled her gently into his arms, talking softly into her hair. Like they’d been doing this forever already. “I can wait for you as long as it takes. I would never, ever hurt you. Or take advantage of you.”
Riley let her hands find their way around his waist. She didn’t understand how it felt so natural to touch him, for him to hold her. But it did.
“I do trust you.”
He rocked back so she could look up at him. “What is it then?”
“I’m scared.” She couldn’t help the catch in her voice or the tears that w
elled in her eyes.
He looked frightened by her emotion, but he didn’t let her go. Hunter watched her as the tears pooled then dropped, big tumbling tears, as they started to pelt down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, trying to pull away. “I just don’t understand everything. It’s so much at once.”
His grip tightened. Hunter drew her closer, one hand holding her in place, the other rubbing in soft, big circles over and around her back. Soothing her.
Riley didn’t ever want him to let go. Wanted to stay cocooned in his big warm arms, protected, forever.
She wanted to stay.
She could see now. See that it was her destiny, and that it was what she wanted. But to tell him that, to tell him she wanted him back, might want to share this life, to share it with him, it frightened her. When she didn’t even understand the bigger picture yet.
“I’m going to take you to your sister,” he whispered.
His voice drew her from her thoughts. Claudia. “Where is she?”
“In the morning, I’ll take you to her.”
Riley collapsed further in to his arms, holding him back tight now. “Promise?”
He stiffened. Had she pushed him too far? “I think I’d better go. Let you get some sleep.”
She shook her head against his chest. Listened to his heart as it started to beat faster beneath her touch.
The house was dark, Sophia had already turned in for the night. Riley wanted him to stay. She didn’t want to be alone. Her mind was too jumbled, too confused, to face lying in the dark alone.
“Stay?” she asked, her voice low.
His arms dropped from around her. Hunter looked… frightened. Like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding truck at night. The first time she’d ever seen him look as vulnerable as she felt.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
It might not be a good idea, but it was what she wanted. To have him near, protecting her. “Please?”
His eyes looked to be weakening as she watched him, pleading with her own. The deep green was growing paler, his pupils wide. Hunter shook his head. “I…”
She liked that he was unsure of himself. It was the first time she’d seen him falter. Not in control. And it only made her bolder.