by Eva Chase
Aaron had promised he wouldn’t engage them. If they never knew the eagle soaring overhead was a shifter, they wouldn’t bother him, right?
I rubbed my temple. “Well, the rest of us can’t just sit around waiting for him. What are we going to do in the meantime?”
“There’s a welcome party already set up for tonight,” Nate said quietly. “I didn’t want to cancel it. We’ll have to keep a close eye on who comes into the estate.”
“All the more reason for me to stick to Serenity like glue,” Alice said, sliding her hand around my elbow. Her grip was gentle but confident.
A chilling thought struck me. “It’s the guards we’ll be counting on to check who comes and goes, isn’t it?” I said. “What if the raccoon shifter isn’t the only one the rogues have gotten to?”
Nate’s posture stiffened. “I chose the guards for this estate carefully. The people I knew I could count on.”
“One of them already proved you wrong,” West pointed out.
“If I find out any more of them...” Nate couldn’t seem to finish the sentence. A frustrated rumble emanated from his chest.
“Why don’t we at least talk to them?” I said. “I’m pretty sensitive to people’s motivations. If we gather the rest of the guards together and I talk to each of them for a bit, then we know we don’t have to worry about any more traitors.”
Nate sighed. “You’re right. I can call the ones who are off-duty in for a briefing, and you can talk to them during that. I’ll get that round-up happening now.”
He pushed to his feet and made for the door. As I moved to follow him, West exhaled with a mutter under his breath. “Well, this should be an interesting show.”
I decided not to even dignify that comment with a glare.
Chapter 5
Ren
“Line up along the wall,” Nate ordered the group of guards. This new set, a couple dozen shifters, shuffled to spread out through the massive dining hall.
I waited until they’d settled in against the exposed tan brick. They’d just come off duty after I’d spoken to the guards who’d now relieved them. So far I hadn’t seen any reason for concern. As far as I could tell, Nate had chosen his guards pretty darn well.
The other alphas had wandered off on their own business, but Alice had stuck around. She was sitting perched on the edge of one of the big pine tables. The way her sharp eyes scanned the line-up made her look every bit the eagle even in human form.
“This is our dragon shifter, Serenity Drake,” Nate said, pitching his voice to carry through the room. He stumbled slightly over my full name, so used to using the nickname I was most comfortable with. “On her first visit here, she wanted a chance to meet and speak with all of you. As your alpha, I know you’ll do your kin proud.”
We weren’t telling them the full reason for this gathering, but I knew word had passed on about my talk with the rogue. They knew this was more than just a friendly chat.
“Hi,” I said to the first guard in the line, dipping my head slightly so he could catch my scent. He did the same in return—a ferret. He looked it. His dark eyes studied me warily from his pointy face. But he was tough, too, his arms ropey with muscle. “Like Nate said, I’m Serenity, but I really prefer if you call me ‘Ren.’”
“Mitchell,” he said. “It’s an honor to meet you, dragon shifter.”
He didn’t totally mean it. I could taste his hesitation. But that wasn’t new. I’d gotten the same impression from about half of the other group too, as if they weren’t quite sure their kin were better off or worse with me around.
“What made you volunteer to serve as a guard here?” I asked.
His gaze slid to Nate, and I sensed nothing but warm devotion from him then. “It is the greatest honor to be at my alpha’s service. If I save my kin even a little trouble on his behalf, I couldn’t ask for more.”
I caught a thread of what he didn’t say in the dip of his voice. He blamed the trouble they’d just had here on me. Well, fair enough. The rogues wouldn’t have launched their assault if they hadn’t known I was on my way to the estate. I’d gotten the same vibe from the other doubters.
Of course, some of Nate’s kin still gave off those wafts of dragon-shifter awe I was in the process of getting used to. A little farther down the line, a mountain goat shifter bobbed on her feet almost giddily as she bowed her head to me. Her eyes shone with excitement.
“I heard you got the truth out of that rogue with your dragon fire last night,” she said after she’d answered my questions. “That he couldn’t do a thing to stop you! It sure is a good thing having a dragon shifter around again.”
“I’m glad you think so,” I said with a smile. I just hoped I could live up to her expectations.
I’d spoken with about half of the guards when I reached a muskrat shifter who greeted me with a wide grin. It should have looked friendly, but there was something slightly twitchy about him that set my nerves humming.
I gave him the same greeting I had the others. His bow was a little jaunty. I’d have liked him if it wasn’t for that aura of discomfort he was giving off.
“The name’s Orion,” he said. “Big name for a little guy. My mom had the idea it’d make me more impressive.”
The corner of my mouth tugged into a smile despite myself. “You must be decently impressive if your alpha chose you for his guard.”
“Ah, I do what I can. A little stealthy sneaking here, a little rat-jitsu there.” He winked.
Again, I was struck by the sense that he wasn’t anywhere near as at ease as the front he was putting on was meant to imply. He wanted me to laugh and move on. And the sooner I did, the happier he’d be. But the emotions roiling beneath his jaunty demeanor weren’t annoyed or skeptical.
No, if anything he was scared of my attention. Hmm.
Well, I’d let him think he was getting what he wanted. “Keep up the good work, then,” I said, and moved on.
None of the other guards rubbed me the wrong way. When I reached the end of the line, I could see several of them shuffling their feet, eager to be dismissed. They’d just finished a long shift on duty. With this scheme, I’d probably irritated all the ones who already weren’t impressed by me.
I touched Nate’s arm and leaned close to him. “They can all leave except Orion. I want to have a one-on-one chat with him.”
Nate’s eyes darkened. “You think he’s in league with the rogues too?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “So don’t go into full grizzly mode on him right away. There’s just something off about him. Different from the ones who are just thinking I might be causing more problems than I’m solving.”
Nate bristled. “If anyone says anything—” he started, and I patted his arm.
“It’s fine. I don’t blame them. Let’s find out what’s going on with the muskrat, all right?”
Subtlety might not have been Nate’s strongest point, but he managed to single Orion out without being totally obvious about it. My bear shifter ambled over to the doorway before telling the guards they were dismissed. As they filed past him, stances relaxing, he caught the muskrat shifter and tugged him to the side.
“Just one more thing I wanted to go over with you,” he said, as if it had nothing at all to do with me. A couple of the other guards looked over curiously. From across the room, I felt the tension clench through Orion’s body.
No, he wasn’t happy about this development at all.
Alice hopped off the table. “Should we go somewhere a little less... expansive? I feel better when I’ve got the walls closer at my back.”
“Yes,” Nate said. “I think a little privacy is in order for this talk.”
“I... don’t understand?” Orion said as Nate ushered him to a side door at the other end of the hall. “What’s this about?” He carefully did not look at me.
“I think we’ll figure that out once we’ve gotten to the talking part,” Nate said. “Come on.” He gave the muskrat shifter a light
cuff to the head to nudge him onward. Maybe not that light, actually. The smaller guy winced.
Orion had done a good job playing the joker in the middle of the line, but as we tramped deeper into the palace, his nerves started to show. He raked his hand through his bristly black hair. His narrow jaw worked. When Nate opened a door down the hall and motioned him in, his legs balked for a second before he complied.
I followed, glancing around approvingly. Nate hadn’t picked anything that resembled a chilly interrogation room. The room looked like a study: built-in bookcases stuffed with books and binders, a desk at one end and three leather chairs at the other. Alice, who seemed to enjoy a higher vantage point, hopped up to sit on the edge of the desk. The rest of us took the chairs.
Orion twisted his hands in his lap. His gaze darted to me and then settled back on his alpha.
“You have to know,” he said in a strained voice, “I had no idea that attack was going to happen. I haven’t done anything to threaten the security of the estate or my kin here. I wouldn’t.”
“I thought I knew that,” Nate said in a low voice. “But after what happened the other night, I’m sure you can understand we need to be absolutely sure of all of you. If something is bothering you, you can tell us.”
Orion’s choice of words hadn’t escaped me. He’d picked them very carefully. He hadn’t known about the attack. He hadn’t done anything to hurt his kin. That left a whole lot of other things he might have known or done—or that he might mean to.
“Orion,” I said, as gently as I could manage, “you can obviously tell we singled you out for a reason. Something is eating at you. Something that wasn’t a problem for any of the other guards. I don’t know if you realized, but one of a dragon shifter’s abilities is a sensitivity to people’s emotions and motives. I know you’re scared of me. I just want to know what it is you’re afraid I’m going to do.”
He wet his lips. “Isn’t it normal to be a little nervous of someone who can transform into a mythical creature a gazillion times bigger than me?”
Damn it, he had me smiling again. “My dragon form isn’t quite that enormous. And actually, from what I’ve seen, your reaction isn’t normal. Most of your kin and the other kin I’ve talked to know that my job as dragon shifter is to look out for all of you. I’m on your side. An ally, not an enemy. Unless you’ve been doing something you know would make you my enemy.”
The muskrat shifter looked at his hands. His fingernails had ragged edges, as if maybe he’d been nibbling on them. His mouth twisted. “I haven’t done anything,” he said.
“But maybe you’ve been thinking about it?” I suggested. “I’ve got to assume that if the rogues got to Keith, they’ve tried feeling out some of the other guards too. Maybe you’ve talked to them. Maybe you’ve considered doing more.”
His shoulders tensed. He didn’t need to say anything. I could read his guilt as clearly as if it was printed on his shirt.
It radiated off him strongly enough that Nate picked up on it too. He stood up, looming over his guard. His voice came out in a growl.
“If you’ve had any contact with the rogues at all—”
I held up my hand, and Nate swallowed the rest of his threat with a rumble.
“Just tell us,” I said to Orion. “We’ll figure out the truth one way or another. If you really are loyal to your kin and your alpha, then after what the rogues did here today, you should know that helping them at all is going against everything you’re supposed to stand for.”
“I just wanted to hear what they had to say,” Orion blurted out. “Some of the things they said, it sounded as if they had ideas that would make things better for all of us kin, not just them.”
He snapped his mouth shut as if he hadn’t meant to say even that much. His fingers dug into the seat cushion.
“Okay,” I said. “Fine. Like what? I want things to get better for all the kin too.”
Orion shot me a frantic glance. I felt the emotion in that too. “No,” I added, “I’m probably not going to like your answer. But I still want to hear it. I swear on my blood as dragon shifter that I’m not going to punish you just for sharing your thoughts. All right?”
The forcefulness of my oath seemed to convince him to speak. “I’m still deciding what I agree with,” he said. “I had to meet you first, I had to see— They’ve been saying things like maybe we shouldn’t be ruled by a shifter who doesn’t have any ties to any of our kind. That—” His eyes twitched toward Nate. “That maybe our alphas should be focused completely on us and not on trying to make all the other groups happy.”
“Doesn’t have any ties?” Nate said, his voice rising. “The woman you’re looking at is the daughter of the alpha who ruled our kin before me. Hell, Orion, we don’t even have a kind other than not being one of the other main kinds of shifters. And you were ready to see blood spilled—”
“No!” Orion protested with a squeak. “I told you, I didn’t know—I never wanted—”
“Now look,” Nate said, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. Energy rippled over him as if he were about to shift. I jumped up too. This wasn’t how I’d wanted this talk to go.
I pushed Nate back with a hand on his shoulder. His anger rolled over me, but his expression softened when he met my eyes.
“It’s okay,” I told him. “I asked for those answers. I can handle it. Maybe you should wait outside for a few minutes? I think it might be better if I talked to Orion alone.” Without an alpha’s temper in the room with us.
Nate let go of Orion’s shirt. The muskrat shifter cringed in his chair. Nate’s hands closed into fists at his sides and opened again. “We can’t trust him. I don’t want to leave you alone with that traitor.”
“He hasn’t betrayed anyone yet,” I pointed out. “And I can turn into a dragon, remember? I think I can handle one muskrat.”
“I’d bet she can too,” Alice put in. She strode over and motioned to Orion. “Stand up. I just need to make sure you haven’t got any weapons on you.”
He stood stiffly as she patted him down. She stepped back, setting her hands on her hips. “All clear. Come on, Mr. Grizzly. What’s he going to do—batter her with books? We can wait right outside the door.” She arched an eyebrow at me. “Scream if you need us.”
Nate grumbled wordlessly, but followed her out. As the door shut with a thud behind them, Orion sank into his chair. I sat back down too. He peered at me with eyes that suddenly looked flat and hopeless.
“Are you going to fry me now?” he asked. “Like you did the rogue you caught?”
Ah. I guessed I knew what he was most scared of now.
I leaned forward. “I wasn’t planning on it, but I will if I have to. It doesn’t hurt—at least not much. Not enough to kill you.” He didn’t look all that comforted by those facts. Moving on... “I only used it because your rogue friend wouldn’t talk to us at all. What matters the most to me is protecting all the kin. I don’t want one more person dying on my watch.”
Orion rubbed his mouth. “He isn’t my friend,” he said. “I’d never associate with anyone who’d do what they did.”
“But you’re still not sure you want to turn your back on the rogues completely,” I said, reading his body language. “You still think they might have a point. About me.”
He sucked in a ragged breath. “We haven’t had a dragon shifter since I was five years old. I only just met you half an hour ago. I don’t know.”
But he wanted to. I felt it underneath the uncertainty and the fear. He wanted me to convince him that he could believe in me. As much as he’d probably hoped the rogues would offer guidance he could believe in when he’d entertained their ideas.
I didn’t know how to give him that. The best I could think of was to be honest.
“Can I tell you a secret, Orion?” I said.
His expression turned puzzled. “All right.”
I dragged in a breath. My chest clenched before I forced it to release the words. “I’ve bee
n worried about all the same things you have. Whether I can really help. Whether me being here is changing things for good or bad. And I’m still figuring that out. I didn’t even know I was a dragon shifter a month ago. I didn’t even know there was any such thing as shifters.”
Orion stared at me as if he couldn’t imagine not knowing. I guessed he probably couldn’t. “But you’re supposed to be leading all of us.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s the sticking point, isn’t it? But I can tell you this. I’m doing everything I can to learn and accept my role as quickly as possible. I know I want to be the dragon shifter you all need. I’ll do whatever I can, whatever it takes, to see all of you happy and safe. And from everything I’ve seen, the rogues want the exact opposite of that. They’ll be happy to tell you otherwise so they can use you, but look at how they treated your colleague. He helped them, and they killed him to protect themselves. Maybe you can’t trust me yet, but you have to see you can’t trust them.”
He lowered his head. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. “So what do you want from me?”
Good question. I considered it. “I want to know anything you’ve found out about the rogues and their plans, so I can make sure what happened here yesterday doesn’t happen again.”
He nodded. “I can’t tell you very much. They wouldn’t tell me very much unless I proved I was allying with them. They approached us when we patrolled outside the estate walls, the times when we ended up on our own for a moment. I think they must have had people watching the area just for that—but maybe not anymore. The one I talked to was a fox shifter.”
“How were you supposed to reach out to them if you decided to join their cause?”
“I’m not sure.” He spread his hands. “They said they’d reach out to me. I don’t know how.”
“But if they did, you’d tell us now?”
He raised his head. “Yes,” he said. “I’d come straight to my alpha.”
I tasted the honesty in his words. He was still scared, still unsettled. But he was upset by what he’d seen the rogues do too. He truly hadn’t done anything to hurt us yet.