Fever Claim (The Sigma Menace)

by Marie Johnston

  The drive took well over an hour and she suspected that Bennett took them through several unnecessary twists and turns. She’d tried to memorize the way, but soon gave up. All she knew was that they were still south of West Creek and hadn’t crossed the river. Some of the roads they took, she had no idea they’d been there until Jace turned onto them.

  Nervous about the hidden, top-secret world she was entering, Cassie jumped when Jace softly put a hand on the small of her back as she got out of the car. How’d he move so fast? Reluctant to leave Kaitlyn’s side, her friend gave her a small smile as she climbed out and shut her door, blanket still wrapped tightly around her. Cassie didn’t look at Jace as he walked by her side to the majestic building in front of them. She felt safer with him next to her, in his warmth, but didn’t trust she wouldn’t take one look at him and jump into his arms, and didn’t trust that his arms were the safest place for her.

  His hand hot on her back, the walk up to the doors had her stomach fluttering. This was it. What was going to happen to her? Were there more Guardians waiting to haul her off for questioning? Were they waiting to attack her and Kaitlyn in the privacy of their lodge? The massive wooden door opened and they stepped in.

  ***

  Jace sensed the tension building in Cassie as they walked into Guardian headquarters. She avoided him as much as she could. It stung but he refused to let her run from him, physically or mentally. He made sure he kept physical contact with her as often as possible. When they crossed the threshold into the house, she stopped. He gently pulled her off to the side so Bennett and Kaitlyn could enter.

  “It’s empty,” Cassie muttered.

  “Not quite.” The male voice came from their right. She jumped. No one else moved, they’d been able to sense the new shifter once they entered, but Cassie’s human senses couldn’t pick him up.

  “Sorry to startle you, Dr. Stockwell.” The man came out of the hallway into view. He was another Guardian, wearing the same type of tactical clothes, but not as loaded down with gear. He was older, his salt-and-pepper hair in the same short military cut most the Guardians seemed to prefer. “I’m Master Bellamy. Commander Fitzsimmons called ahead and explained the situation. I’d like to lead Miss Savoy to the locker room where she can clean up and get into some clothes before I talk with her. Bennett, take the other two to talk. I hear Dr. Stockwell needs to catch up before we discuss current events.”

  “Yes, sir.” Bennett nodded, exchanged a knowing look with Master Bellamy, and started toward the stairs.

  “Wait!” Cassie exclaimed. “I’m staying with Kaitlyn.”

  “It’s okay, Cassie,” Kaitlyn reassured her. “I’ll be fine and Jace will be with you.”

  Cassie’s expression said Jace’s presence wasn’t reassuring to her. Jace forced himself to remain calm, Cassie was still here with him, hadn’t panicked after all she’d seen. Despite their difference in titles, hers of “doctor” and his of “ex-con,” he would win her. He had to; she belonged to him. His hand on her lower back, he gently urged her to follow Bennett.

  There was little by way of decoration in the place. It didn’t need any, the skylights and large front windows lit up every corner, highlighting the natural beauty of the logs and decorative rock. Even the mortar used to place the stone was uniquely colored to blend with the elements; it was a work of art. It didn’t surprise Jace that the Guardian compound would be built from nature, into nature, by those who were intimately familiar with living off the land itself.

  They followed Bennett down the wide hallway with large doors on each side. Each door had an electronic reader on the outside allowing only secure access. Jace didn’t see any on the main door they entered, but there had to be some type of security. The Guardians wouldn’t let just anyone walk in.

  Bennett stopped and put his thumb on the reader by the first door on the right. It unlocked with a muffled thunk and swung open to display a modern, sterile interrogation room, much like one he’d been in before going to prison. The contemporary room was in stark contrast to the rest of the rustic manor. Jace could only guess what the rest of the lodge hid inside, given what the Guardians sometimes had to do to protect their species.

  “You two head on in and have your little chat. I’ll be in to talk with Dr. Stockwell when you’re done,” Bennett said.

  Cassie stalled at the doorway, reluctantly wandering inside.

  Jace started in, then turned back to Bennett. “You’re going to listen to everything, aren’t you?”

  Bennett flashed a wicked grin as he left.

  “Asshole.” Jace growled quietly as the door shut out Bennett’s chuckle.

  Cassie sat behind the table in one of the metal chairs. She folded her arms and glared at the wall. If that look she was giving the wall had been turned on him, Jace was sure he’d be reduced to a pile of dust.

  He quietly pulled out the chair next to her, turned it facing her and sat down. He could hear her breathing hitch faster, his eyes wandered down to her breasts, shoved up by her arms folded under them. His desire flared as he remembered exactly what they looked like. He wondered what color bra she put on, if it cupped and held her, like he had last night. His hand itched to trace its outline under her shirt.

  “Well?” she said tersely. She’d crossed her legs and the top leg bounced rhythmically. It was her only movement otherwise. “Quit looking at my chest and talk. I won’t interrupt. I’ll save my questions until you’re done, cuz I’m sure I’ll have a few.”

  Now that Jace found himself exactly where he wanted to be, other than nestled between her soft thighs, he had no idea where to start. He’d rehearsed this conversation in his head countless times, like a fifteen-year-old boy planning to declare his love might practice in the mirror. At least his voice wouldn’t, shouldn’t, crack and he wasn’t covered in post-puberty zits.

  “Start at the beginning,” Cassie said, as if she knew the reason for his hesitation.

  The beginning… okay. When he first saw her? No. His childhood. No, that wouldn’t do. His parents? Yep. Aren’t parental issues always a good place to start explaining why life got a little fucked up? And he still had the whole “I turn into a wolf” thing to talk about, too.

  “My mom wanted to raise us like a normal family,” he began. “A normal human family. Some shifters live in colonies, hidden in the woods like this place. They can be freer with their lives, not live in so much secrecy.

  “My mom and dad met in a colony called Great Moon where they grew up together and stayed after they mated to raise a family. But Agents, sadistic humans and vampires who hunt our kind, found the colony…” Jace drifted off, old memories threatening to take over – distant screams, his mom calling for his dad… “They almost destroyed it. But they didn’t. The wolves were too strong for them, but we lost a lot of our own, including my dad and brother. He was older than me, Keve. He’d been through his first transition so he could fight. Mom hid me and Mage, my little sister, and defended the house. I was nine, Mage was four.”

  Jace dropped his head and his gaze hit the floor. He thought he had worked through his past during his years behind bars. He sure had a hell of a lot of thinking time. But talking about it again came dangerously close to reliving it. He could feel Cassie looking at him, no longer glaring at the wall.

  “After that,” he continued, “Mom wanted to integrate with humans as much as possible. She did all she could to blend: adopted a mainstream surname, got a job, put us in public school. We were completely cut off from everything about our heritage. My first transition was something I endured. It was the only time we went to the woods, and then pretended it never happened.

  “We lived in a bad part of town. Some colonies are pretty progressive, have a lot of tech and investments. Not Great Moon. We left with next to nothing and stayed that way. I protected Maggie, watched out for her at school and when she started working at a diner. One day, I was waiting in the parking lot for her to get off work when I noticed this guy hanging around. I�
��d noticed him before. His vibe was creepy, man. I mean, creepy. I think they coined the term just for him. He was older and the way he looked at Maggie… I knew he was bad news. I tried to dissuade him from ever being interested in her.” And he had, but even Jace’s special power of influence did nothing to lessen the obsession the stranger had for his sister.

  “He was there every day, waiting for Maggie. Sometimes he’d talk with her, sit in her section so she had to serve him. She was only fifteen. He was in his forties. Even when I couldn’t see him, I could feel him there.

  “One day, my bike got a flat and I was late to pick her up. She closed the diner that night and when she locked up there was nowhere to go. He got her.” By now, Cassie had turned in her chair facing him, hands folded on her lap, their knees an inch apart. He wanted to haul her to him, nuzzle into her neck, and forget the past and present.

  “I pulled up in time to see his car drive off. The diner was dark and Maggie was nowhere. Nowhere. I tried to follow him but he was gone.

  “I knew where he lived, though. Maggie got the information for me off of his credit card one time when he paid, and I got everything I could on him. I went to his house in this fancy little part of Freemont. His car was in the drive so I broke in. But he didn’t hear me. He was in the basement with Maggie.” Jace stopped. Explaining the shifter bit wasn’t nearly as difficult as what was coming up.

  “She was unconscious. He had tied her to a four-poster bed and was undressing her. I don’t know how I managed to stay human when I beat the shit out of him. I was about to untie Maggie and call the police when the bastard started laughing. Laughing! He said, ‘They’ll never believe you, you filthy piece of trash. I’ll tell them she was obsessed with me. That she broke into my house to get close to me. Who do you think they’ll listen to? Two street kids? Or a high-powered attorney?’”

  Jace paused, staring at the floor, elbows resting on his thighs. He wasn’t seeing the floor, he was seeing everything that had happened.

  “When I ripped him off Maggie and threw him to the ground, he knocked over the end table and some papers spilled all over the floor. I was trying to figure out what to do when I saw what the papers were.”

  Cassie still hadn’t moved, keeping her promise to not interrupt. What kind of doctor was she, to remain patient and not interject with questions while his memories threatened to overtake him?

  “They were photos… of girls like Maggie—young, long dark hair, naked, tied to a bed. They appeared dead, their bodies battered. I knew he got away with it all and he was right. He’d get away with kidnapping Maggie. Maybe even try to finish the job another time. He had to be stopped. It all had to end, so I finished him.”

  Cassie seemed to quit breathing. Then she folded her arms across her chest again. Her knee brushed his as she re-crossed her legs. He waited for her to get up and ask that one of them be removed from the room. He waited for her to cry You’re a murderer? And yes, he was.

  “Go on,” she said. She was still looking at him. He hung onto that and looked up. She was guarded, but not disgusted or hostile. His head was even with hers since he was hunched over, elbows on thighs. He gazed into her warm brown eyes, the rest of his story was easy, except for the unknown ending of what she’d do.

  “His family came after me with their legal team. Blamed me for the girls, for his death, everything. I pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and got eight years in prison and two years probation. My mom cut me off, my sister even cut me off. I brought attention to our family when Mom sacrificed everything to hide us in plain sight. Even the wolves wanted nothing to do with me, I might bring attention to our species.

  “Commander Fitzsimmons came to talk to me in jail before my sentencing. All he said was ‘Human crime, human time. We have someone on the inside; you lose it in there we’ll put you down.’

  “I did my time, got out, and got a job at Pale Moonlight. Christian’s a pack leader, takes in poor fucks like me who have no one and nowhere to go. Then you walked in, Cassie.”

  She held her arms tighter, her crossed leg started bobbing again.

  “I saw you and knew you were mine.”

  Cassie ceased all movement, the rest of his story temporarily forgotten. Was he kidding? What did he mean she was his? He was sitting there, dressed head-to-toe in black with his shaved head, piercing eyes, and boots that screamed “my other car is a Harley.” He worked in a bar with bombshells showing off their artillery. Constantly. All. Night. Long. She was pretty secure and didn’t feel like she lost out in the looks department. She liked her shower-and-go hair and, with a wicked running habit, she enjoyed her desserts enough that she didn’t lean out too badly and lose her T&A. But for this guy to call her his? Like they were destined to be together?

  “But you were with that guy,” Jace bit off the word, interrupting her thoughts. “I knew you were out of my league – the way you moved, the way you dressed, fuck, even your ex screamed class. I decided to wait. You’d realize he was wrong, you’d be drawn back to the club, we’d be together. I was impulsive once. I lost my life and my family. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with you. So I waited.” Jace shrugged, as if it was the most logical thing in the world. Except she knew differently, practically seeing lightning rods of tension course through him.

  She continued to stare at him. Her leg twitched again.

  “Ask me anything,” Jace prodded.

  “Are you saying you saw me and it was love at first sight?” she asked incredulously.

  “We mate for life. You’re my mate.”

  The leg stopped bobbing again. “And this wolf stuff. It’s real?”

  “Yep.”

  Cassie took a deep “so help me” breath and tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. Dr. Stockwell, you are not allowed to lose your shit.

  “But I’m human,” she said, feeling slightly absurd for having to make a point of it.

  “Cassie, look at me,” Jace said.

  She did. He reached forward and grasped her hands. His fingers brushed her breasts as he did so, making them sensitive and heavy. How did he still have that effect on her? Confessing that he wasn’t human, murdered someone, that she was his, and she got turned on when he brushed her breasts?

  “We sense our mates, shifter or human, when we meet them. Human mates aren’t unusual but they aren’t common. We can spend decades looking for our mate, hoping we’ll be drawn together.”

  WTF, did he just say decades?

  He was so earnest, so sincere, and after all he told her, all she wanted to know was about the whole mate thing. “And what does mate mean exactly, in the werewolf world?”

  “Shifters,” he corrected. “We are linked. For life. And Cassie, we live longer than humans.” He stopped to let that sink in.

  “How much longer?”

  A bit reluctantly, he said, “Centuries.”

  “What?”

  “As a human, when you bind with me, you’d share my lifespan.”

  “Share lifespans,” she echoed, her mind reeling. Her rational mind argued with her buzzing emotions.

  Abruptly, she stood up, dropping his hands, losing the warmth of his body, and paced at the end of the table in the tiny room. He stood slowly, but didn’t move toward her.

  “Look, Jace, this is all,” she gestured all around her, “a lot. I need some time, room to breathe.”

  “Cassie, I—,”

  “You need to go.” She kept pacing, hands on hips. “No, you know what? I need to go. Where’s Kaitlyn?” She walked to the door and tried to open it, but they were locked in. She banged on it with her palm.

  “Bennett!” Cassie called through the door. “Open up. I want to talk to Kaitlyn.”

  She was about to pound again when the door swung open. She jumped back.

  Bennett walked in. “Jace, you wanna give us a minute? I’d like to chat with Dr. Stockwell before I take her home.”

  “Where’s Kaitlyn?” Cassie demanded.

 
; “She’s talking to Master Bellamy. Jace, wait in the hall.”

  “I’m not fucking leaving,” Jace said. He squared off with Bennett. The fair-haired man was only an inch shorter than Jace and not the least bit intimidated.

  Cassie resumed pacing.

  “Look man, give her some room,” Bennett said quietly. “I’m not going to hurt her. You know my life is protecting our people, including human mates.”

  Cassie could just make out what he was saying. Some of the tension eased in the tiny interrogation room. She needed to learn about all of this world, find Kaitlyn, and with Jace next her, all she could think about was the word “mating.” When she heard that word, she remembered what his naked skin felt like on hers and wanted more.

  “I’m okay, Jace. Please wait in the hall for me. I’m sure it won’t take long.” She hoped she hit on his major concerns and he didn’t argue.

  Hurt flashed across his handsome features and was gone just as quickly. He turned to leave and Cassie yearned to go after him, suddenly not wanting to be alone in the room with the other male, craving only to be by Jace’s side. But she needed answers.

  “Leave the door cracked,” Jace muttered.

  ***

  “Dr. Stockwell, please have a seat.”

  “Unless you’re my patient, it’s just Cassie.” Unless you’re me. I call myself Dr. Stockwell all the time. Especially when crazy happened—like when a patient breaks down mid-session and breaks her office window trying to escape when she was having him committed. Or when her best friend kills two people, then her BFF and the one night stand end up being werewolves. That’s full “Dr. Stockwell” territory.