by Riley Storm
The huge shifter stood stoically, taking her words, taking her fists. He stared straight ahead, unblinking as she unloaded upon him.
“Well let me tell you, Klaue, I can’t. I can’t say it’s fine. I can’t toss them away. They died for me. Because of me, Klaue. That’s something I’m going to have to live with the rest of my life. And we didn’t even succeed. We failed. My sister is still there, and people are dead because of me. I should never have come here.”
Pushing past Klaue, she grabbed her sweater and pants from the edge of a chair in the bedroom and stomped back toward the door. “I shouldn’t have said anything. This is my fault, my mess. I should have gone and cleaned it up myself. If they kill me, then at least nobody else will die for what I’ve done!”
“This isn’t your fault,” Klaue said, speaking at last. He moved to block her path.
Jessica looked up at him, ready to lash out, but the coldness in his eyes stopped her in her tracks. She’d seen that look in him before, on several occasions, but never directed at her. When he’d looked her way, there’d always been warmth brimming at the edges, or filling his eyes.
Now they were cold. Devoid of all feeling. And pointed directly at her.
“Don’t ever accuse me of not caring again,” he said, his voice so quiet she took a step back, terrified of how angry he was. “Those men were my friends. I trusted them. You don’t know what that means for me to say, not recently, not after everything that’s gone on. I trusted them so much I asked them to break the rules. They did so for me. Because I asked them to. I will have to bear that guilt for the rest of my life.”
She opened her mouth to speak but Klaue slashed his hand violently between them. He wasn’t done.
“We failed, yes. Guess who’s to blame for that?” he growled, shaking with anger and emotion. “Nobody anticipated that the mage would be there, on Canis property. We all expected him to be out running from Kvoss and his crew. That is my failure, Jessica. I should have planned better. Should have done more to ensure we were trained to defeat him. But I didn’t. I was arrogant and thought we would be okay with what we had. I was wrong, and because of it, my people, my brothers, died.”
He inhaled slowly, shuddering. “Don’t tell me that I don’t care just because I haven’t shed tears. I will grieve. But right now, my duty is to those still living. The men have been cared for, and those still alive will heal. You are my biggest worry now. It is you that I fear for, because I can see in you much the same I’ve seen in others before. You’re about to do something stupid.”
Jessica finally found her voice. “Leave me alone, Klaue,” she said heavily. “I think I need some space. From you.”
The shifter slumped. But he didn’t give up. “Going to see them isn’t going to help. They’re just going to kill you, then your sister, and rid themselves of the trouble. They aren’t like you, Jessica. They’re shifters!”
She glared at him. “And so are you.”
The instant the words left her mouth, Jessica knew she’d screwed up.
Klaue reared back like he’d been slapped. “Is that what you think of me?” he whispered. “Do you think I’m like one of them? That I would hurt you like they have? Has all I’ve done been for nothing?”
“No, wait. Klaue, I didn’t mean it. It’s just—”
“Save your excuses,” he said tiredly, holding up a hand. “You wouldn’t have said it if you weren’t feeling it.” He turned and trudged toward the door, ignoring her calls for him to come back.
“Dammit!” she shouted when the door closed behind him, kicking the wall out of frustration. “Ow. Sonofabitch, that hurt!”
It’s probably the least I deserve. I can’t believe I said that.
She knew better. Klaue wasn’t like them, not in the slightest. From the instant he’d thrown himself to her defense as she crawled away from her crashed vehicle, to the way he’d protected her from his own brothers and sisters, she hadn’t seen anything that would make him deserving of a comment like that.
“I’m sorry,” she said sadly, slumping down into a corner between a table and the door to the washroom, pulling her knees into her chest as the tears came once again.
She cried for the two men who had died in vain that night. She cried for her sister, still stuck in that house of horrors with a man Jessica suspected loved her much less than he let on. And last, she cried for Klaue, for a man who deserved better than he was getting from her, on so many levels.
At some point, the tears themselves stopped falling, the sleeves of her shirt soaked through and much of her pants as well from where they had fallen. It was then she decided there was no more need for crying. It was time she ended this. No one else would suffer for her. Not Zoe, not Klaue, not members of House Ursa.
Standing up, she brushed herself off, adjusted her clothing and pulled on the big baggy sweater. Fear at what would happen to her weighed heavily on her shoulders and slowed her steps toward the door. Klaue was right, this was stupid, but what else could she do? Jessica wasn’t going to ask anyone else to sacrifice themselves for her. She couldn’t, not anymore. What choice was left to her then?
The door opened, and Klaue entered, his head down.
“I want to talk with you,” he said softly before she could tell him not to try and stop her.
“About what?” she asked, crossing her arms, then wondering why she was trying to appear tough to him. She’d thrown him out, not the other way around. There was no need to look tough, she’d already been a bitch.
“Us,” he said heavily, looking up at last, meeting her eyes.
The cold was still there, but it was…dulled, somehow. What was going on?
“Just what is that supposed to mean?” she asked a little nervously, hugging herself as she waited upon his answer.
“There’s something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you a long time ago, but I didn’t know how. It didn’t feel right. So I waited, and now I’m afraid I may have waited too long.”
“Klaue, you’re scaring me,” she said, nervously shuffling her feet. What could be so important to tell her now?
“It wasn’t random that I was assigned to guard you,” he admitted, holding her gaze as he spoke. “There was another purpose behind it.”
“What’s that?” This was it. She knew it. There was more to it. How much of what she knew about him was an act?
Klaue stood up straight, squared his shoulders and spoke with a pride that she didn’t see coming. “You’re my mate.”
34
“What?”
He tried not to laugh, but he did anyway. The buildup of tension in her neck and around her jaw had been unmistakable. The tenseness of her knees gave away her readiness to run. This was not at all what she’d been expecting to hear from him.
“How much do you know about shifters and their mates?” he asked slowly, not wanting to overwhelm her.
“Not much. My sister is apparently mated to a wolf. I never really asked what that meant, I just assumed it was a term you used interchangeably with loved one, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc.”
“It’s all of those, and much more,” he confessed, watching her face for the reaction.
“How?”
He tried not to let his relief at her willingness to listen show through. When he’d left the room, Klaue had been well aware of what she was planning to do. It had become evident in the way she spoke, her body language, just everything. On top of that, he knew her better than she thought, and he’d been able to read her like a book. Jessica wasn’t thinking good things about herself, and she was getting ready to sacrifice herself in the hopes it would set her sister free.
Nothing of the sort would happen, not with Canis acting the way they were lately. Klaue knew he had to stop her before she did anything drastic, but using force was out of the question. If he restrained her, it would destroy any trust the two of them may have been building. That left only one option; showing her what she truly was.
“Mates ar
en’t chosen at random,” he said. “Human pairings are often random chance. With shifters though, there is something that bonds us together with another person.” He hesitated. “And only one other person.”
“You only ever have one mate? Is that what you mean?”
He nodded. “Yes, and that person is you. We are destined to be mated.”
“How can you know that for sure?” she countered.
“The Hunter told me. He can…sense, the strings that bind us together. It was he who was with me at the gates. We weren’t there by chance.”
Jessica lifted her eyebrows. “You were waiting for me.”
He nodded.
“So you were stalking me.”
Klaue rolled his eyes. “Not in the slightest, and you know that. I never forced you to stay. Heck, I didn’t force you to crash your car outside my house.”
Jessica walked across the length of his quarters, processing the information. “But you did know about this…this mating thing.”
“Yes,” he admitted. “Don’t tell me you haven’t felt anything. That things between us didn’t seem to work smoother than any other relationship you’ve been in before. I know you aren’t blind, I know you felt it too. I didn’t force you into anything.”
“Maybe, but why tell me now?” she said, brushing aside his point.
“Because you need to know I’m not going anywhere.”
She smiled. “I know. But I am. I’m leaving, Klaue. I’m going to turn myself in, in exchange for my sister’s life.”
“They’ll never do it. They’ll kill both of you.”
“And if I stay here, they’ll kill both of us eventually and a bunch of you. What would you have me do?”
“Tell me what you know,” he said strongly. “And if you won’t do that, then at least don’t fight me when I say I’m coming with you.”
Jessica frowned, pulling at her hair in confusion. “You just said you weren’t going anywhere.”
“I meant in regard to you. Not physically. I’ll go wherever you go.”
“Why?”
He snorted. “To give you the best possible chance to run away when they turn on you. Which they will.”
Jessica threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t just leave her there, Klaue! Who knows what they’re doing to her?”
“Nothing,” he said firmly. “If they were, they would tell us, to make you do exactly what you’re doing. No, they’re holding off on doing that, in the hopes that they can avoid having to make things formal. By using the mage to do their dirty work, they can pretend like it isn’t them, even though everyone knows it is. It’s politics,” he added when she went to question him. “I know it’s dumb, but that’s the way it is.”
“Great. Reduced to politics. Is that all I am?”
He didn’t bother responding to that. She was pouting and they both knew it, and this time, he just let her vent. Jessica was frustrated and worried sick over her sister, and that was perfectly natural.
“The only way we’re going to get her back, is to be smart about it.”
Jessica snorted. “That didn’t work too well for us the first time.”
He noted carefully the way she referred the group as us, including herself in it. That was good, she was starting to associate herself with House Ursa.
“That wasn’t smart,” he said, shaking his head. “That was me, acting rashly, charging into battle and trying to prove myself to you more than us being smart about it. This time around, I’m going to be smart. I’m going to think.”
Jessica stopped her pacing, biting at her lower lip. “What are you going to do?”
Klaue winced. “I don’t know yet,” he admitted. “But I’m going to figure it out. Whatever it takes, I will find a way that doesn’t involve you sacrificing yourself.” The last words came out with more force than expected, startling both of them.
There was a long, drawn-out period of silence between them. He looked at her, searching her eyes, looking past the intensity for the softness, the caring, the laughter—for everything he’d come to like about her. In return, she gazed upon him. Klaue let his walls down as best he knew how, letting her in, so she could see just how determined he was.
“You do care about me, don’t you?” she asked, speaking so quietly he almost didn’t hear her.
“Yes. I do.”
“It’s not just an act.” It was a statement, not a question, but he felt the need to respond anyway, not understanding what she meant.
“Why would it be an act?”
Jessica shook her head. “I don’t know. The Canis, they never had good things to say about you. About Ursa, I mean. They were also saying how evil you all were, that you were a bunch of liars, cheats and never to believe one of you if you said you cared.”
“How pleasant,” he muttered. “But I do care, Jessica. Nothing was an act. I should have told you earlier that I knew about you, about us. But I didn’t want to force it on you. I didn’t want to scare you off. I…” he sighed. “I hoped you would come to care for me on your own, without that knowledge. I wanted you to like me for me.”
She looked at him, her expression and stance softening. “Oh, Klaue.”
Feeling more confident, he walked over to her, taking her hands in his. Just the touch of her sent a spark through him. “I don’t like arguing with you,” he said softly.
“Me neither. I’m sorry for what I said. I was lashing out because I’m scared, Klaue. I’m so scared. I never meant for any of this to happen. I was just walking past the door when I heard them talking. You have to believe me.”
“Shh,” he said, putting one arm around her, drawing her close. “I believe you. It’s not your fault.” He kissed the top of her head once, then again, stroking her hair, letting his size and strength comfort her.
“She’s going to be okay, right?”
“Yes. We’re going to get her back, Jess. I promise you that. I don’t know how, but we’ll figure out a way.”
Jessica shifted under him, so she could look up. Her eyes were rimmed with red from where she’d been crying, but no more tears fell now. Instead, he saw hope shining through the middle.
“I won’t let you down.”
She reached up as he spoke, caressing the side of his face. “I know, Klaue. I know. I believe you.”
He bent down to kiss her forehead, but Jessica surprised him, grabbing his face and pulling him all the way down to her. The dam burst the instant his lips brushed hers, all their pent-up feelings tumbling away, scorched clean by the physical contact that said so much more than their words.
It wasn’t desire that had them pawing at one another now, stripping off layer after layer. It was something more basic, more primal, that stirred in both of them as their emotions calmed.
It was need.
35
Frantically, she tore at his clothing, pulling it off. The tips of her fingers dug deep into his muscles, seeking the protection they offered. She kissed him, feeling the tenderness that lay just beyond his hardened exterior. Most of all, she basked in the simple experience of his skin pressed against hers, that warm, fuzzy feeling, like being wrapped in a warm blanket fresh out of the dryer.
It was protective, comforting and soft. Exactly what she needed, even as he pressed hard against her stomach, obvious signs of the arousal building within her. Every breath he took, his chest rubbed against her nipples, rendering them hard and sensitive to his wandering touch. He cupped her breasts, caressed her sides and never forgot to squeeze her ass, growling delightedly as he reached around and dug his fingers into both sides equally, eliciting a sigh of pleasure from her.
His growl deepened abruptly, and Jessica cried out in surprise as he lifted her off the floor and carried her to the bedroom. Cradled in his arms, she was safe. Even as he lay her on the bed and she sank into it, staring up at him, lower lip curling under her teeth at the magnificent sight of his gleaming, completely naked body, Jessica never felt the slightest worry or hesitation. Not this ti
me.
They had made love several times since the first, but this was different. Jessica knew what was at stake now, what her acceptance of these actions meant. She might not have found the words just yet, the words to describe how she felt, but she knew that there was no going back now. Not anymore.
“Klaue,” she breathed, amazed as always that someone so full of power and strength could so easily restrain it around her. He eased himself onto the bed, covering her body with his own in an age-old ritual. Her legs spread almost as much on instinct as from her command.
Their bodies knew the dance, they knew what would happen. Neither was holding back this time, instead simply giving in to the call of their feral selves, the part of them that needed such carnal lust. After such a close call with death, she ached to reaffirm that she was alive in the most primal way possible. Sex.
Klaue came to her, and she welcomed him inside. His groans mixed with her soft cries as they rocked back and forth. There was some pain; she hadn’t yet become accustomed to his girth, but it faded quickly, and Klaue was nothing if not gentle with her. He was willing to wait for her as long as necessary. He never said it, but his eyes told her the true story, the lengths to which he was willing to go for her.
She felt sweat bead upon her chest and her temple as heat raged from Klaue like a star being born. There was no escaping it, nor did she try. He lifted her knee up higher, toward her head, and she gasped as he pushed deeper than ever before.
Her body had responded instantly to his touch, and while it had rocketed to full preparedness, Jessica now found herself floating in the sea of desire that bound the two of them. Time slowed, or sped up, she didn’t know nor care. Everything became irrelevant except for the look in her lover’s eyes. The look he cast upon her, that said she was the only one for him.
They rarely spoke, and then only to change positions as he rolled her onto her side and entered her from behind, one arm tight around her chest. Jessica’s front grew cool as it was exposed, but the differing sensations only heightened her pleasure and she began to push back against Klaue, much to his delight.