by A. C. Arthur
“She hates hospitals,” I remember saying to no one in particular before we pulled into the parking lot with the huge EMERGENCY sign in bright red letters.
X had appeared at the passenger-side door just as I’d been about to get out. “I’ll take her in.”
“No,” I’d replied instantly. “I’ll do it.”
“No,” he came back, his voice deep, stern, authoritative. “You and your brothers will head back to Havenway, now. I’ll handle things here.”
“Bullshit!” I’d yelled back. “She’s my … my … fuck that, I’ll handle it!”
X’s hand came down on my shoulder just as I’d stepped out of the truck. “This is not a choice, kid. It’s an order, from the FL. I’m going to take care of this whole situation here and you’re going to get your ass back to the base.” Then the frown marring the big guy’s forehead had lessened only slightly, the muscle twitching in his jaw slowing a bit. “Look, I know what you’re feeling. I get it. But this is how it has to be, I think you know that.”
My teeth had clenched so hard I thought I’d break my jaw. My fingers tightened on Zoe and I dropped my head, looking down at her face, at the way her eyelashes fanned against her clear skin. She was a human, an innocent human that had seen more trauma and heartbreak than anyone should and I’d only brought her more. She was unconscious in my arms now because of the life I’d walked her into, because of my interference. I inhaled deeply, let her scent permeate every crevice of my body. Then I loosened my hold and let X take her out of my arms.
I climbed back into my truck immediately, telling Aidan to drive without even watching to see X take her into the building. I hadn’t looked back, hadn’t contacted her, had tried like hell not to even think about her since that night. But it was all a waste of time, my thoughts could grasp and hold onto nothing but her.
“Sometimes we have to go through trials and tribulations to get to the point of happiness we deserve. It’s the only way we truly learn to appreciate what we have.” Gil continued to talk.
I continued to half-listen, my gaze still focused on the beach, my eyes blinking with the slow measured rhythm of my breathing. Since arriving in Florida three weeks ago, all the time that hadn’t been spent at Marta’s bedside I spent right here in this spot, as if I expected something to happen here, something that would change my thoughts, my emotions, my …
It was a mirage, no, a figment of my imagination, come to life. No, I didn’t believe in any of that crap. But I did blink again, wondering if maybe I did need a little bit of rest or maybe something to eat.
“Life’s all about appreciating what has been given, not harping on what’s been taken away. You should always be focused on forward movement, on being made a better person by past experiences.” Gil was still talking.
At this point I was no longer listening. Instead, I was walking toward the end of the deck, toward the part of the beach where I saw as plain as the sand and the water, Zoe walking toward the house. Her hair was loose, long curly strands blowing in the breeze as she moved. She wore a short dress with straps that circled her neck, the top hugging her breasts tightly as the bottom flowed freely around her thighs. She held shoes in one hand, and the other was raised, pushing back hair that had blown into her face. Her head lifted then, her gaze linking with mine and she stopped moving.
I think I stopped breathing.
Then I was moving, my hands going to the railing of the deck to hold my weight while I vaulted over. I landed on my feet, of course, standing still for a fraction of a second before running toward her.
She opened her mouth to speak the moment I was close to her, but I silenced the words with my lips, cupping her face in my hands and thrusting my tongue into her mouth.
In that instant Gil’s words floated in the back of mind, like a narrator or some cosmic shit like that. My life, the good and the bad parts of it replayed behind my closed eyes, emotions swirling from the pit of my stomach rising upward to my chest. I sank deeper into the kiss, into the feel of Zoe’s palms as they flattened on my chest. Turning my head I took the kiss deeper, felt myself free-falling faster and faster as she matched my hunger with ease, our erratic breathing synced like our movements.
Around us the breeze kicked up, sprays of water prickling our skin as we stood so close to the crashing waves. I pulled away slightly, long enough for her to take one quick inhale and exhale, then my hands were beneath that sexy skirt, grasping her ass and hoisting her up. She had another second to gasp before she was wrapping her legs around my waist, her arms around my neck, and my lips were on hers once more.
A more fanciful guy would say this kiss was dreamy and delicious. Me, I went straight for the candid and the obvious, it was hot as hell and it reached so deep into my chest my next breath was clogged, my heart clenching then warming, my arms tightening around her, my mind knowing I would never walk away from her again, I would never leave her again. I would never leave my mate.
CHAPTER 16
Zoe
Fear had been the first thought as I’d opened my eyes that morning in the hospital, hearing the machines beeping around me, the soft muddle of nursing shoes against shining tiled floors as they moved around the bed. My fingers had clenched in the stark white sheets, my eyes closing and staying that way as I struggled to remember how I came to be here.
Then I remembered.
I remembered it all.
The day I’d met Dex Tavares I’d been awestruck by his good looks and easy conversation. He’d made me laugh a time or two and I figured, why not? After a few dates that question had been answered for me but I’d been either too blind, or too desperate to grasp my own little bit of happiness to realize it. The signs had all been there—the quick temper, the jealousy, the constant need to control me and everything else around him, including those goofs he called friends. I should have known he wasn’t good for me.
And then Caleb had come along and I hadn’t known what to think about him either. I’d wanted to keep my distance but had known that wasn’t going to be possible as something continuously pulled us together.
Two guys that were very different from others I’d met. And yet, I’d always felt like there was something about them that was also the same. A look that each of them had gotten at separate times, of course, but then again that night in the alley, they’d looked at each other like they knew something I didn’t. Like they were anticipating something that I couldn’t understand.
Now, I did.
A week after I left the hospital alone there was a knock on my door. I’d been packing, planning to take the money I’d been saving for college tuition and move. I wanted, no, I needed a fresh start and I’d decided not to think too long and hard about it, but to just do it. So I opened the door, not expecting anyone, since Hanna and I hadn’t really talked much since that morning at her apartment. She blamed me for getting her involved in my “drama-filled love triangle” and I blamed her for running her mouth to Dex about Caleb and then for calling Dex’s boys to— in her words again—“take care of Caleb.” Another friendship or connection cut. It was beginning to be the story of my life so I wasn’t overly surprised or emotional about it.
When I opened the door I was at first a little stunned by the gorgeous female standing in my doorway, then as she lifted a hand to push her hair behind her ears I was captured by the bracelet on her right arm. It looked just like the one I’d seen on Caleb’s dresser. I’d squared my shoulders and prepared myself for the altercation. Caleb obviously had a girlfriend—which would explain why I hadn’t seen or heard from him in days—and she was now here to tell me to stay away from her man.
Same drama, different day I thought, when I asked her what she wanted.
She introduced herself as Lidia Morales and asked to come in. I shrugged and moved away from the door, just wanting to get this over with.
“First, let me say, you’re exactly what Caleb needs,” Lidia had said and I’d stopped throwing stuff into the duffle bag and turned to star
e at her.
“What did you say?”
The rest of the afternoon had been filled with Lidia telling me about her brother, Caleb, and the tragic demise of his biological parents. So that explained his bitterness and his aloofness, and the gentleness of the man tortured by his past. I certainly knew that tune.
“He could have told me that himself. He could have just been honest with me. I told him about my past,” I’d said to her.
She’d only shaken her head. “There’s so much more to him, to his story than that. They weren’t sure you should know, figured maybe we should just let all this die down, but I knew. I knew once Brayden told me what had happened, who you were to him and how important it was for you to know and to understand.”
Everything she’d said had seemed cryptic, like there was more meaning to each word that I just wasn’t catching on to. It reminded me again of things I’d heard over the past weeks like “half-breed” and “shadows.” And then when I’d confessed to Caleb that I liked that he was different and his reply had been, “You have no idea,” I’d thought there was more but hadn’t known what. Blame this overactive imagination on the romance novels and the ability I had to be taken swiftly into another world, into another mind, to other emotions and … and it left me with what? More questions.
“What are you talking about? Why don’t you just tell me what you came here to tell me?” I’d said to Lidia.
And she did.
And I didn’t believe it.
I didn’t believe—no matter how many books I’d read, how many worlds I’d ventured into through fiction—that there was another species living among us. She’d left me then, after dumping a gigantic pile of “what the hell” in my lap, she’d just left, giving me a simple card with her name and her cell phone number.
That night I cried for hours, unable to get started on my new life, unable to believe what I’d just heard and swearing not to ever, ever, read another book again. I didn’t want to deal in fiction anymore, didn’t want to believe in happily ever after or to get lost in a world or people that just were not a solid part of this reality. My “flightiness” as my mother had often called my love of books and the unknown, had finally gotten the best of me. I’d balled up that card with Lidia’s number on it and just lay on the floor until morning.
With the new day I’d convinced myself it was time to start over once more and had headed out to do just that, only to find a big black truck sitting in front of the building when I stepped out. I dropped all my bags when two men, fine as hell and built like wrestlers, climbed out of the backseat. They both wore dark shades, one dressed impeccably in a navy-blue suit, while the other was more casual in black jeans and a black button-down shirt that molded perfectly over his bulging muscles. That one I remembered but couldn’t figure out why.
“Zoe Fallon.”
The one in the suit said my name.
I was so stupefied at this point I could only nod.
“I need you to come with us.”
I shook my head this time, vehemently. All books and fiction world aside, I was not getting into a strange black truck with these two big ominous-looking men. Hell no!
Then the one I remembered took off his glasses and stepped up beside me. “We’re not going to hurt you,” he said. “Just come with us.”
I’d heard those words before, at the hospital. This man had been at the hospital with me.
“No. I’m not going,” I insisted. “And if you don’t get out of my way I’m calling the police.”
The other one, the guy that looked really hot in his business suit, took off his glasses to display warm brown eyes. He smiled and I almost swooned, which I’m guessing was the desired effect, then he said as simply as if he were stating the time of day, “If you call the police, you’ll never see Caleb again.”
Against everything I’d convinced myself of the night before, the ban on romance and all that came with it, the hopes that all that girl had said to me was wrong, the hurt of Hanna’s actions, the memory of my mother and her issues, everything, just slipped away. I heard his name and all the heat and emotion that had been between us that night before the fights and the hospital came rushing back and I couldn’t help it, I replied without hesitation, “Alright.”
***
“What are you doing here?” Caleb asked when he’d finally stopped kissing me.
He’d carried me to the huge house I’d seen only from the beach, through a lower level patio door, where he’d quickly pressed me against the wall and kissed me again.
I loved kissing him, loved the way our lips fit perfectly and our tongues knew the steps to the dance without practice or thought. His hands were everywhere, up my skirt, clenching my back, in my hair, grasping my cheeks. I felt consumed and more than ready for more.
So when he finally pulled away I was a little dazed and giggled to keep what little bit of focus I had left from drifting away.
“I get the feeling you’re not overly upset by my presence,” I replied.
He was looking at me now, his dark eyes glazed with desire and filled with questions. It was my turn to run my fingers through his hair, to push the unruly strands back from his face and watch with pleasure as they dropped down over his forehead once more.
“I’m not complaining,” he said. “But I don’t understand.”
I nodded. “We might be a little more comfortable talking if we sat down.”
Caleb shook his head immediately. “I’m not letting you go, not this time.”
I’d read those words before, hoped to hear them in real life at some point and was elated that they were coming from this guy at this moment.
“I don’t intend to let you go either.”
He was shocked, I could tell, and it was an emotion he didn’t like. Then again, Caleb wasn’t the talkative or emotional type. I guess I’d have to fill that gap in this relationship. So I moved until he loosened his grip and my feet finally hit the floor. I took his hand and led us over to a huge futon on one side of the wall. The fading light from the outside still illuminated this room as there were no curtains at the patio doors. It looked like a changing room with one wall full of shelves that held towels and other beach items. There was another door which I assumed might be a bathroom, then the futon and two other lounge chairs, all sitting on a black-and-white tiled floor.
We sat and Caleb pulled me close. I entwined our fingers and looked up at him before saying bluntly, “I know what you are.”
“What?”
“I know about the tribes and about your parents.”
His entire body tensed, his eyes growing dark, just before he looked away from me.
It was exactly the reaction I’d expected, the same one Lidia had warned me about. After spending more time with her and the other females of the Topètenia tribe in FL’s big house in Virginia, I had a good taste for how their men, or rather, male shifters, responded to emotion and pent-up anger. If it was an outsider dealing with them then they should beware. But I wasn’t an outsider, I’d given up all that I knew to make this trip to Florida, to approach him, this guy, this Shadow Shifter that I was in love with. No way was I going to let his prickly attitude stop me.
“Lidia came to see me about a week after I was released from the hospital. She told me everything and then she just left. I didn’t know how to digest it all and wondered if I should even try. When I finally decided to just walk away, two guys that I originally thought might be from the Mafia or some kind of dangerous crime family came to get me and I really didn’t have a choice but to go with them.”
Caleb turned quickly then, eyes blazing as he glared at me. “Who came to get you? What did they do to you?”
I lifted a hand then, warmth spreading through my chest at what I saw. My fingers, only a shade lighter in complexion than Caleb’s lightly bearded cheek, grazed his cheekbone, then moved up to smooth his thick eyebrows. He blinked and I smiled because the dark brown eyes that I’d always thought were so sad were now golden orb
s, a slit of black down their center. He was looking at me with his cat’s eyes and I wasn’t afraid, I was enamored.
“They explained everything to me and they showed me your world, your family,” I said.
“I don’t have a family,” Caleb said, closing his eyes. “My parents are dead.”
“Like I sometimes wish mine were. My stepfather at least.” I cupped his face with both my hands then, waiting until he finally looked at me once more. “But you have so much more than a mother and father. You have an entire tribe willing to stand behind you, to support you, to go against their very beliefs to come and get me because they thought I was the only one who could save you for them.”
“I don’t need saving,” he said, jerking away from me and standing. “I don’t need their interference. I’ll never join them. Never!”
“Because your father despised them once he found out what your mother really was?” I kept talking but didn’t stand to join him. Instead, I gave him the space he felt he needed.
He spun around so fast I did jump, a little, but I kept my hands folded in my lap, my gaze focused on him. There was so much pain, so much anger, his shoulders were rigid with the weight he’d carried all these years.
“No!” he roared. “Because my mother ignored everything she was taught and fell for a man that could never understand, could never be what she needed him to be. His hatred killed her and her love for him cursed me!”
Every part of me ached for him, ached for the loss and the pain that he’d endured. I know I’d had my own tribulations through life, maybe that was why I could so easily accept all that I’d learned in these last weeks, and why I could so completely love this man.
“But I understand, Caleb. I know who and what you are and I understand what your people are and why they are here. You understand those differences too. You’re not like either of them.”
“No, I’m not like anybody and that’s exactly why I don’t belong with them and I don’t … I didn’t think …”