Grabbing her bag from where she’d dropped it, she moved out from the deserted area they had appeared in, willing her stride to stay steady. She walked up to the check-in counter, trusting the two of them to follow her.
“Katrina,” Macy exclaimed with a huge grin. “So good to see you back!”
Kat grinned at the younger woman as she set her bags on the floor. “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to be back so soon, but there you go.” Katrina had spent some time in Detroit over the years whenever her cat itched for a fight, and it was the staff here that brought her back to this particular hotel time and again.
“Well, it’s always nice to—” Macy’s voice cut off as Alak and Aeron moved to stand on either side of Katrina. “Well, hello to you.” Kat heard a distinct change in Macy’s tone and frowned. “Are you here with Katrina?”
“We are.” Aeron smiled, and Katrina heard Macy’s quick inhalation. “I am Aeron Faraday, and this is my brother, Alak. We would like to secure lodgings here in order for us to conduct business in this fine city over the next few days.”
Katrina rolled her eyes. She was going to have to tell them to leave all the talking up to her from now on. If the two of them continued to talk like they’d both stepped out of an episode of Downton Abbey, then they’d be pegged as foreigners in no time at all. No matter what their new IDs said.
“I’m sure I can service your request just fine,” Macy said in a syrupy voice that had Kat’s inner feline growling with displeasure.
Alak turned a pointed look in her direction at the sound.
“We just need a room for a few days. Thanks, Macy,” Kat said, and if Macy heard the clipped tone Kat used, she chose to completely ignore it.
“Of course. So is that three individual rooms?” Macy used that moment to lean forward, showing off her ample cleavage and looking up at Alak from beneath lowered lashes. The only thing that would make her appear more available would be if the words “fuck me now” were tattooed on her forehead. “We can give you the same room you had before, Katrina, and I can book your brothers into two king suites on the top floor. If you’d like, Alak, I can show you all the amenities in your room and make sure that everything is to your liking.”
“They are not my brothers,” Katrina spoke through gritted teeth.
Katrina felt the scowl on her face as she stared Macy down. Perhaps, she’d find a new hotel to stay in after all, she thought, just as she noticed Aeron glancing between her and her new skanky nemesis in her peripheral vision.
“I can assure you, Macy, that Kat is most definitely not our sister,” Aeron said, “and we will require a suite for our stay. One that would accommodate all three of us.”
Katrina shouldn’t have enjoyed the shocked look on Macy’s face at that announcement, but she did. A lot. She should have also insisted on having her own room, but she wasn’t about to do that either—for reasons she wasn’t prepared to analyze right at this moment.
“Oh! Well, I—I see,” Macy spluttered as she started clicking away on her mouse, color rising into her cheeks. “The only room we have that would accommodate all three of you would be our Presidential Suite on the top floor. It is a lot more expensive than the standard cheap room you usually use, Katrina.”
Kat didn’t think she was imagining the pointed slur Macy had just thrown her way.
“I’m sure you’ll find this will cover it all,” Alak said with a growl in his voice that Kat would have concluded was his animal close to the surface had he been a shifter. Kat glanced down at the card he’d placed on the counter and had to fight to keep her jaw from dropping. Where the hell did he get a damn American Express Centurion card? Those things were invitation only, and you had to have serious coin to be invited to that particular party.
Macy’s lips tightened even further, and she went through the motions of getting them booked into the room. “You’re all set, Mr. Faraday. Any and all charges to the room will be placed against the card on check out.”
Kat grinned at the woman, who was no longer trying to hide her sour expression. “Thanks, Macy. If you could arrange for our bags to be taken up to our room, we’d appreciate it.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned back to the front door, pushed her arm through Alak and Aeron’s arms as they turned beside her, and strolled out of the hotel.
When they were out on the street, she led them in the direction of the bar she’d fought in last week. Once they were out of sight, she withdrew her arms and sped up.
“Katrina,” Aeron called as he and Alak simply lengthened their strides to keep her between them. “Were you perhaps a little jealous of Macy’s attention?”
Kat frowned, refusing to acknowledge the warmth that had spread into her cheeks. When the hell did I start blushing? “Of course, I wasn’t.”
“You do know that we can sense a lie, Katrina?” Alak said in a dry tone.
Nope, she didn’t know that at all. Rather than compounding it by acknowledging his comment or the heat in her face, she barreled up the sidewalk and tried to ignore the two men following her until they finally arrived at their destination. The dive they wandered into was tiny and only had a half-lit sign that read “Watering Hole” hanging precariously over the doorway. There were perhaps six bedraggled humans scattered throughout the space concentrating on their own drinks, and she could practically feel the confusion of the men with her as they stared around the room. The man standing at the short bar looked briefly at her and nodded as she walked past him to a dark hallway at the end of the room. She heard the click of the electronic lock the bartender had disengaged for them, and she continued onto their real destination.
Blood and Tears was strictly a paranormals-only bar that hosted an underground fight club. The ruling councils didn’t like it, but they knew the consequences of aggressive species living amongst humans in a large city when there wasn’t any safe location to blow off steam, so it was tolerated … barely. A smile spread over her face as she scanned the room. As luck would have it Hatton was standing at the bar. Kat would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the way he flinched when he saw her. After all, what woman didn’t like to be acknowledged for her dedication to a particular skill set?
“Damn it, girl!” Hatton placed both hands on the bar to glare over at her. “I can’t have you back here so soon. I’ve already got that whining hyena calling for vengeance against you for the last time you were here. Do you know what that kind of shit does to my insurance premiums with the shifter council?”
Kat grinned as she slid into the bar stool in front of him. “Aw, come on now, Hatton. I know for a fact that you’ve earned enough off of me in the past to cover those premiums and then some.”
She was aware of Aeron and Alak moving to stand behind her, and from the way Hatton’s eyes shifted to them and back to her, she figured they were doing their intimidating scowl and glare routine.
“Ignore them,” Katrina said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “They’re with me. Now, speaking of that whining hyena, I’ve got a few more questions for him.”
Hatton scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure he’s going to be too willing to answer a damn thing for you, girly. He’s only just now able to communicate to where people can understand the fucker. Do you have any idea how long it takes to grow back a tongue? There’s been a couple of his kind by here looking for you, too. There’s a bounty on you now, Kat, and the value’s high enough even I’m contemplating taking a run at it.”
She felt the pressure in the room build and knew that Alak and Aeron were none too pleased with Hatton’s words. She spun in her chair to level them both with a glare, ignoring the way her body heated at the sight of them looking all delicious and possessive with their eyes daring the man to make a move, and promising a grisly death at the same time.
“Chill the fuck out,” Kat growled.
When neither of them looked away from a now cowering Hatton, she reached out and placed a palm on each of their chests. She inhaled at the shot of
sensation that rocketed through her when the connection was made. She pulled her hands away and stared at her fingers, sure that she would see them glowing or something.
“Katrina,” Aeron said in a deep voice that had her cougar purring within her. “We can discuss the growing bond between us later. Let us just take care of this man who dares to threaten you.”
“There was no threat,” Hatton blustered, and Katrina turned to see him with his hands in the air in surrender. “I would not go after her … I … I mean, I was just joking—Kat knows I was just pulling her leg, right, Kat? She has no reason to fear me.”
Kat shot him a look over her shoulder. “As if, Hatton. The only thing I would fear from you is a potential communicable disease from just being this damn close to you. Now, I know you wouldn’t have risked getting the cage fighting shut down, so that hyena is still here. Let us talk to him and then we’ll leave.”
Alak leaned forward. “Now, little man. Before I lose my patience.”
Once again, Kat’s body surprised her as it reacted to the possessive, commanding tone they used. Goosebumps rippled their way down her body in carnal awareness. She’d always thought that because she had been blessed with a cougar as dominant as hers was, and the fact that Braxas was more brother to her than anything else, that she would never experience that shiver of delight that came when a woman contemplated ceding sexual control to a man. But damn if she wasn’t seriously thinking about it now.
Chapter Eight
Alak guessed that the weasely looking male leading them up the back stairs was a wolf shifter, but he was weak. There was no doubt in his mind that he and Aeron could end him with just a flick of a wrist, no weapons or magic needed, and he would have in a heartbeat, simply for daring to threaten Katrina. There were two halves warring inside of him, one wanting to set the world ablaze in the defense of this beguiling female, and the other half trying desperately to remain rational as they fulfilled their roles as the Goddess’s High Dorum. Never in his life had Alak battled with his inner demons as he was now. Primitive instincts clamored to be let out.
Claim her. Take her. Pleasure her until she screams her submission to us … until she knows who she belongs to.
He felt the scowl on his face as he followed behind Katrina and the male. His brother must have sensed the turmoil building inside of him. The expression on Aeron’s face as he looked back towards him was concerned, and Alak forced himself to pull it together. It was humiliating for a Dark Fae of his power and position to be losing control like this—yet another reason to distance himself from the temptation Katrina presented.
When they finally stopped in front of a closed door, the wolf turned back to Kat and gave her a pleading look. “Now promise me you won’t kill him, Kat. His sister rules the hyena clan around here, and if her boys come back and Dunc’s had an ‘accident’ she’ll take it out of my hide. You know how crazy those hyena females are.”
“I promise, Hatton. We just want to talk to him,” she answered honestly. “It’s important. These orders come straight from Braxas. You have my word.”
That seemed to mollify the older shifter, and he turned back to lightly knock on the door before using a key to open it. “Dunc, I’m coming in, but I’m not alone. Don’t freak out.”
The wolf’s warning clearly hadn’t worked, for as soon as they walked into the room behind him and the battered male on the bed got a look at Katrina, an awful noise began to come from the hyena’s throat, and the stench of his fear filled the room. Alak had only encountered this particular breed of shifter once before during the battle in which Katrina was rescued, but none of them had made this kind of high-pitched noise, which sounded halfway between a whimper and laughter, and it was quite unsettling. Nyx, second in command to the Rogue leader, though not particularly bright, had at least presented the appearance of being in charge of his faculties.
“Get a grip, Dunc.” Katrina sighed and moved closer. “We’re not here to hurt you. We only want some answers.”
“You won’t hurt me?” His words were somewhat slurred, no doubt on account that his tongue was still healing from what Kat had done to him. The look that he gave Katrina was part fear and part adoration, though, and it was perplexing to Alak.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Kat snapped at the hyena. “If you hadn’t tried to mark me while we were fighting, that tongue of yours would be just fine. As it is, you’re lucky to be breathing at all.”
“I’m a hyena.” The smaller male just shrugged. “It’s what we do.”
“I’m well aware of how fucked up your species’ breeding rituals are, Dunc. Like I said that’s the only reason I didn’t kill you. Now, we need to know more about these weapons that Nyx and Zayden procured. More importantly, we need to know where they came from. Do you know anything?”
Alak thought the male was going to answer her, but then he finally noticed the two of them standing behind Kat and the male cowered at the glare Alak threw his way.
Then he spoke. “Nyx wanted a meeting with my sister, Melanie. That’s why he sought me out. She runs her clan pretty tight in this city, and he knew if he could get her support then the other hyena queens would follow. He and Zayden…” The hyena’s eyes widened in fear for a moment. “They’re crazy. Especially the tiger.” His body shuddered.
“Yes, unfortunately, we’ve already had a run-in with them at home,” Kat answered quietly. “So did your sister meet with Nyx?”
“She sure did. Mel ain’t someone to pass on an opportunity, and we’d heard through the grapevine that they had some kind of magical weapons. She even went with that crazy bastard to see where he got these weapons, but when she came back…” Another shudder. “Let me tell you, Mel ain’t one prone to exaggeration, but she said that Nyx had sold his soul to demons and that she was certain that the Goddess would forsake us all if we joined in with him. She said she wasn’t going to bargain with monsters, and she told him not to return to our territory.”
“That’s the term she used … ‘monsters’?” Aeron asked.
“Yup, she said they were unlike anything she’d ever seen, horribly disfigured creatures with vast amounts of dark magic. Nyx took her through some kind of portal. I don’t know exactly where. She wouldn’t tell any of us. But she did forbid any of the clan from traveling to your city.”
“The portal is in Vancouver?” Kat’s surprise matched his own. The portal to the market had been right in Gabe’s backyard all this time. These rogues were bold enemies indeed.
“I overheard Mel telling our other sister that they went to that big park in the middle of the city. She was shocked the humans didn’t stumble upon it until she went in and saw the extent of the dark magic being used to hide it from plain sight.” Dunc paused for a moment, and then shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen my sister actually scared of anything before, but these things, these monsters, they scared her good.”
Alak could almost see the fury igniting within Katrina as the male’s words sank in. The enemy had been making themselves right at home in Gabe and Braxas’s territory all this time, right under their noses.
“Those bastards! They could expose us all to the humans. No wonder Mel was afraid of them starting a war. If we don’t shut this down, it could very well happen.”
“It’s more than just exposure they want,” Aeron stated, echoing Alak’s own conclusion.
“Frederych and his experiments,” Katrina whispered.
“Precisely.” Alak and Aeron had had lengthy discussions with their Goddess about the traitor’s actions, and his motivations were now becoming clear. He was working with them—the monsters. They wanted to enslave the humans.
Katrina’s aggression was beginning to leak out. Alak was now familiar with the scent and the hyena shifter was getting nervous again as he eyed her from his perch on the bed, but there was something else mixed in with the smell of his anxiety—is that arousal?
Katrina must have scented it the same time as he did, because
she swung around, pinning the strange shifter with a glare.
“Good Goddess, Dunc. Cut that shit out! You hyenas are so messed up. Keep on looking at me like that and I might take that tongue out for good.”
“You’re such an aggressive female. I can’t help it.”
The hyena appeared scared and hopeful at the same time. It was obvious this male was no threat to Katrina—her disgust was clear—but Alak found it offensive nonetheless that any male would attempt to court his female right in front of him and Aeron. The possessive fury was once again building to a rage inside of him.
“Well I suggest you do help it, or my brother and I will make certain that you can’t assault another female ever again.” Alak crossed his arms over his chest and let his glamor slip just enough so that Dunc could see they weren’t to be messed with.
“What are you?” Dunc whispered as his face went deathly pale, and Alak’s anger was placated when he cowered away, no longer looking in the direction of his female.
Katrina turned just in time to see the flash of their true skin color, and the expression on her face said she clearly wasn’t pleased.
“What are you doing? Is this you keeping a low profile?” she hissed at him, then looked over to Aeron, who shrugged.
Thanks for the backup, brother.
“He was out of line. He deserves more than a fright for what he tried to do to you when you were last here.” Alak’s anger was feeding off of hers, and even though he had a feeling his mouth was getting away from him again, Alak couldn’t stop the words from tumbling from his lips. “I cannot decide if you are extremely brave or extremely reckless, putting yourself in a cage fight here with males three times your size. And then picking a fight with this miscreant straight after when you are still injured and could have been forcefully mated. How can Braxas let you run amok alone and unprotected?”
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