Fever Claim (The Sigma Menace)

by Marie Johnston

  “Kaitlyn’s out here?” Cassie’s concern for her friend added to the concern for herself and Jace.

  “Helluva shot she is, too. Which is good for us.”

  “We keep heading toward town, then.” Jace stated more than questioned.

  Christian nodded. “Keep following me, we stay ahead of them we’re good, but…” He shook his head and looked out, his predator eyes reflecting silvery green. “Even if X doesn’t turn, we’ve got to move. She can still fly faster than a motherfucker and that E isn’t a vamp, but he ain’t normal, either. They both can haul it.”

  “E’s the driver, then? The Guardians won’t take them on?” Jace asked, scanning the area, his eyes reflecting like his boss’s.

  Christian shook his head. “Commander Fitzsimmons wants X taken alive, but her and E are too good, been partners too long. They can hold off several Guardians and cause major trauma.” Christian rolled his massive shoulders, moved his head side-to-side, stooping. “Besides, they don’t want to kill you and we need to know why.”

  He dropped to all fours and his skin transformed into dark fur as he flowed into the form of a large wolf in seconds.

  Cassie looked into Jace’s now silver hologram eyes. “If you shift, you can move faster.”

  “I’m no good to you out here naked on all fours.” He leaned in and planted a quick kiss on her.

  She closed her eyes briefly, wanting to enjoy the sensation, but feeling as if there was a vice squeezing her around her ribs. “It’s not right. This mating.”

  His face was grim. “No, it wasn’t.” He grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll work it out when we get back. We’ll be good.” And he started moving forward, picking up the pace, the dark box still tucked into his side.

  “But it’s not right,” she repeated, wishing they could stop and talk all this out. That’s what she did. She talked things out—with herself, with her patients, with Dad… But this feeling of wrongness that settled deep into her after the ceremony would take more than a quick peck and a few words of reassurance to repair what was really wrong. Their flight for freedom, and burning through much of the hormonal overload from the drugs, left the vice of evil around her chest a prominent feeling.

  They were making their way through the woods at a decent pace, but Cassie knew it wasn’t enough. She’d run five days a week for over ten years, but she could not compete against supernatural creatures born to rule the woods. Nor could she compete against enhanced humans who were probably enhanced to hunt supernatural creatures in dark woods.

  Her hand slipped out of Jace’s, both of their hands not healing well from the ceremony, and she went down with an umph. Jace bent to help her up. “We’re almost to Christian’s car. The main road’s close.”

  Cassie couldn’t tell if he was lying to make her feel better and give her courage to keep going. Weeks spent camping with her father had given her an appreciation for the outdoors as he’d taught her how to navigate the land. It wasn’t enough under the circumstances. “Sorry to slow you down.”

  She saw a flash of teeth as he shot her a quick grin. “You’re actually doing pretty well. I’m even having a hard time on two legs.”

  “Yeah, well,” she got out between breaths as they rushed on, “my dad was big on survival shit. You know, scared the government was after us and all so he took us ‘off the grid’ as he called it.”

  Jace turned and gave her a confused look. “The government was after your dad?”

  She shook her head to save a breath. “He only thought so. After mom died, he quit taking his meds, he had schizophrenia. Lived in paranoia and took me with.”

  “How’d it end?”

  “Troopers found our car we’d been living out of by the river. Took us in. He went to inpatient psych and I went to Kaitlyn’s.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  If they weren’t running, she would’ve shrugged. “Mom’s passing devastated him. They lived for each other. I don’t hold going crazy against him.”

  Jace grew quiet, she knew what he was thinking. This whole mating, binding their souls together, was outside of her comfort zone for a good reason. Tie herself eternally to someone who became her everything so she could lose her ever-loving mind if he died before her? Oh wait, her life force would be bound to his. So if he went before her, good-bye Cassie. Would she do that for him? Maybe. If they figured out this disgusting mating ritual that made her hand continuously burn and her insides feel slimy. This isn’t right.

  They continued moving as quickly through the terrain as they could, dodging branches and remaining upright. Christian was up ahead, guiding them, but Cassie couldn’t see him, instead relying on Jace’s supernatural sense to pick up where the large, black wolf was. The howling in the distance was getting closer, the Guardians could only hold off the two Agents for so long against gunfire.

  So Alex—X—had been watching her, studying her. Enough that she knew when Cassie ran and where. Cassie wasn’t stupid, she took different routes and wasn’t routine about her times. Those weeks without Jace, she ran a lot and if it was at the same time, it wasn’t the same place. That wasn’t her daddy’s paranoia shining through, it was simple street smarts.

  But Sigma still found her, knew she was a shifter’s mate, knew where to find her, and when both of them were together. No one in her personal or professional life knew about Jace except Kaitlyn. Pale Moonlight. If it was a known hangout of shifters, then it would make sense mates could be found there, too. But why?

  “Why us Jace?” she asked quietly, not needing to speak up with his sensitive ears. “Why did they come after us?”

  She glanced over at him, his face grim.

  “They’re all about opportunity, Tinkerbell. They must’ve recognized what I am and my interest in only you.” That part set a smug glow warming its way through her. Take that, khaki and cardigan wearing naysayers. “As for forcing us to mate and watch…” The warm glow was gone, replaced by cold dread. “I can only guess,” he hesitated, “they thought you being human would be easier to capture. And humans have more fertile cycles, although it tends to be harder for them to reproduce.”

  Two shots sounded closer, Cassie jumped, a wolf yelped. Jace gripped her hand harder, tugging her along even faster. From up ahead, Christian gave two sharp barks.

  “We’re almost there,” Jace assured her.

  Cassie thought she saw a lighter clearing up ahead, must be the road. Jace pulled her up over an incline where she could see the car, and a very naked Christian pulling up his pants. They raced toward him through the ditch down to the clearing. Cassie saw puffs of gravel pop up beside the car.

  “Fuck! They caught up.” In one smooth move, Jace shoved the box into Cassie’s arms and swung her up into his arms so her vitals were protected by his body. Frantically, she tried to hold on to the box while being bounced against his hard chest. She was unable to wrap an arm around him.

  “We need the Agents to undo this. To unmate us,” Cassie looked up from his arms.

  He frowned, looking down at her. “It’ll be all right. We’ll get to safety and talk. I’ll take care of you.”

  No, no, no, she shook her head. “It’s not right,” she stressed.

  “It will be. Don’t worry.” He ran straight to the car and opened the door to set her in. Christian was mostly dressed now, standing with the driver’s door open, holding his own weapon toward the woods they came out of, covering them. She slid down, but didn’t sit, Jace turned, his back to her. The gun he’d taken from Agent D trained on the tree line.

  “Commander,” an unseen X called in a sing-song voice from the woods. Cassie couldn’t make out where she was, but E must have been close, too, unless the wolves got him. The wolves were silent, stalking. “I wouldn’t try that,” she laughed. “My partner has his sights on you.”

  X slowly stepped out from the edge of the woods onto the high rise above the road, her green eyes developing a faint glow.

  “And I’ve go
t my sights on the newly-mated, here,” she finished, looking down her barrel toward Jace.

  Half of Cassie wanted to freeze in terror, crawl into the backseat face down and let the wolves rescue her. The other half, wanted to do something, anything, that would help.

  Seconds ticked by, but the standoff held. There was no way out of this without someone dying. Jace would die protecting her. The Guardians would die protecting her and their species. Christian would die protecting his pack, which she was now part of.

  Jace raised his arms higher, his aim directly on X. “Don’t come any closer.”

  “Oh, but you see, Boo,” X purred, “you’re nice and newly mated. And even better, to a human. So you see, I need you. I’d hate to hurt you, but you’ll heal. She might not if we take this to the next level.”

  Another beat of silence.

  “No offense, Baby Boo,” X’s vibrant green gaze flicked to Cassie, “I wouldn’t be after your man if he wasn’t attached to you.”

  Cassie’s gaze was captivated by X’s strong pull. Something X said earlier rang through her mind. We wouldn’t want that thing to plunge into one their hearts. Did she really say that earlier?

  X darted behind a tree as bark flew off exactly where her face had been. Snarls and growls in the distance suggested that E was taking on one of the Guardians while shots were exchanged between the edge of the woods and the car. Jace and Christian kept X from advancing.

  “Get in the car, Cassie!” Jace pumped off shots slower than his boss to save ammo.

  Cassie quickly turned and dropped the box onto the seat, fumbling with the clasps. X’s voice continuing to burn in her mind, Nullify this whole deal…

  Her hands shaking, she gripped the handle with both hands knowing she’d have to shove hard and fast for this to work.

  Jace peeked over his shoulder. “Get in!”

  Trembling from head to toe with what she was about to do, but knowing with no uncertainty this was exactly what she had to do. She raised the dagger up, gathered all her strength, and plunged.

  “Stop her!” X ordered.

  Praying her aim was true, the blade slid into the middle of Jace’s back, through his ribs, into his heart. Searing pain tore through Cassie’s side.

  As if in slow motion, Jace’s arms fell to his sides, he dropped to his knees, toppling face-first into the gravel.

  “Jace?” Christian barreled around the front of the car. X had disappeared, there was no more gunfire. Wolves in half transition came sprinting from the trees—Commander Fitzsimmons and Bennett.

  Cassie pressed her hand to her side, the pain increasing. Wet. Warm. She stared dumbly at her bloody hand, at her torso covered in red, at Jace, lying face-down on the road. Then… complete darkness.

  Chapter Twelve

  She’d ripped his fucking heart out. Literally.

  He sat there, in the stark white hospital room that was kept way too warm. Cassie’s form covered in drab white blankets, a sterile odor perfuming the air. It’d been three days. Three days of watching, at first with machines breathing for her, at nurses and aids coming and going, at Cassie not move. She was finally breathing on her own now, but still unconscious.

  He shouldn’t be here at all. He’d give her the freedom she wanted from him. Fucking Guardians. They talked him into this. No, not the bedside vigil. That, he couldn’t help himself. He’d leave when she regained even a semi-conscious state. No, they needed his power. It got tricky bringing a human with a gunshot wound into a hospital and not being able to explain how a secret agency was after supernatural beings and Cassie got shot stabbing him in the heart. Doctors and police don’t take “I don’t know, it just happened” as much of an explanation.

  For the last three days, he stared so many people in the eyes convincing them it was a misfire—some poacher out in the woods when she was out for a run, no need to look further, it’d do no good. Whoever it was long gone. It was almost harder to convince some of the hospital staff that he could hang out in her room, looking as haggard and heartbroken as he did.

  That night they were nabbed was pure hell—the worry about Cassie, meeting the infamous Madame G, getting caught between Guardian and Sigma crossfire. But for a brief couple of hours, he’d felt whole. Like all that waiting, watching her and being patient, paid off. She was his. They’d get out from Madame G’s clutches, do up the ceremony right so they had something sweet to remember, instead of something from a horror movie. Then get down to the mating basics.

  When he came to the next morning, after they’d pulled the dagger from his heart, he’d felt empty. So completely empty. He suspected before Christian told him what had happened. Feeling manipulated by him after what X revealed, she must have begun to despise him, and was desperate enough to not be bound to him, she was willing to try to kill him.

  Initially, he refused to come down to the hospital. The human docs would take care of her, she’d be fine. He’d be fine. That was a lie, but if he told it enough, he’d start to believe it. Fucking Guardians. Fucking Bennett starting in about protecting their race and needing Jace’s special form of persuasion. Trying to convince him it’d be like the other times they utilized Jace’s skills. It wasn’t. This woman, who was his everything, had become his only family, hadn’t been lying near death those other times. He couldn’t stay away. But he would move on. She didn’t want him.

  Dawn was approaching. His keen ears heard the docs on their rounds mention that she was making progress and should be coming around soon, and if all went well by tomorrow, Cassie would be moved. They anticipated a quick recovery; she was young and healthy. No major damage had been done, the units of blood they gave her after surgery doing their job.

  He’d go back to the club. Do the books, maybe bartend a little. Commander Fitzsimmons offered him a spot on the team. He wasn’t a born Guardian, but Sigma’s network had become encompassing, advanced, and multi-dimensional. The Guardians already used his talents on several occasions, but they could use the rest of his mind and body. Someone who could go out and do field work, then come back and keep their finances in order and growing, the commander had said. The Guardians needed to start adapting to match their foes: advance their technology, learn about the experiments being carried out on their species and why, and take control of their gifts.

  The rumors were true. Most of the West Creek Guardians struggled with their mental gifts for unknown reasons, relying instead on blades, bullets, and brawn. It was the main reason they were dispatched to West Creek, their lack of finesse would be an advantage dealing with the pack on the wrong side of the tracks, or river in this case. Master Bellamy was confident that he could work with Jace, that his gift may not be dependent on eye contact, but could also influence through his voice like when he calmed Cassie down in the shack. Since Jace appeared to have a good mastery of his skill all the times he’d used it, Master Bellamy was confident they could build Jace’s mental strength and dexterity wielding it.

  Jace exhaled and rubbed his face, his decision made.

  A deep sigh came from the bed. His gaze flicked up. Her head was turned away, but her eyelids fluttered. That was his cue and he was gone.

  ***

  He wasn’t answering her calls. She’d tried every day. She woke up feeling his presence and then, nothing. He was gone. When she was released two days later, her dad had brought her home. He was her only emergency contact, even though they hadn’t had much contact over the last fifteen years.

  Her dad who’d been staying with her to care for her was worried. At least that made one man in her life. She called into work, needing a few weeks of medical leave to recover and wanting some time off to regain a foothold on her life. And to track down Jace.

  Why wasn’t he answering? She hit the end button, not nearly as satisfying as slamming a good old-fashioned phone down.

  “You gonna tell me anything yet?”

  She looked at her dad, the concern spread across his face, wishing she could unload the last few weeks on him,
but refusing to risk setting him back mentally. Get this, Dad. There really is a secret agency and they were after me. He’d been stable for years, after his long stint in the mental health ward. She kept him at arm’s length, admittedly feeling guilty for not helping him more, for turning him in to authorities. Her grown-up self would claim she had been just a kid and her dad needed help. That little girl who missed the time with her dad, hunting and fishing, trekking through the wilderness, bonding over missing her mother would disagree. She could have lied to the trooper who found them in the woods that day. Could’ve said they were fine, instead of the truth that led to tearing them apart for so many years.

  Gray Stockwell looked at her with fatherly love, never having held a grudge against his only child for both saving herself and distancing herself from him. “You can talk to me, you know. I won’t break.”

  Maybe she should talk to him. Give him an edited version, for sure. She last spoke to him when she was cancelling wedding plans. He asked what happened. All she said was Grant dumped her. End of story. Only it was the beginning.

  With a sigh, she put her phone down. “I met a man after Grant and I broke things off.” That sounded good. A little better than I went out to get smashed after I was dumped and brought a strange man home that same night. That’s not a line to tell her dad, no matter what the rest of the story was.

  Gray remained silent, waiting for her to continue. Her mind whirred at how to phrase the rest of the story.

  “I tried not to get serious fast. He was patient with me. He’s liked me for a long time. Then I fell for him—hard—but I think he thinks I betrayed him.”

  “And he’s avoiding your calls?”

  Cassie swallowed hard and nodded, pacing her living room. Not usually a crier, tears burned the back of her eyes. Home for three days, she needed rest, but tried to be up and moving more and more each day. When she got off the pain meds, she would hunt that frustrating, big, bald man down. Fantasies of being strong enough to slam into Pale Moonlight, like a scene from an old western, demanding to talk to her man, kept the pain at bay so she could work on getting strong again.