The groping guy slid his phone back into his pocket and strode across the lot. She tensed. He was headed their way. Josh noticed him too. He cursed and started the car, but the guy walked down the next aisle to where a cab waited. He opened the door but turned his head and locked gazes with her. He winked, got in the cab and was gone.
She shivered and Josh reached for her. He took her hand in his. It was warm, comforting. Didn’t chase the chill away. She reached for the knob to turn the heater on. Josh frowned but didn’t say anything. It was early summer and over eighty degrees outside but she couldn’t stop shaking. The blast of hot air helped a little bit and she faced Josh.
She blew out a breath, ignored the ache in her heart and said, “Let’s just go. I’ll explain everything on the way.”
Chapter Eleven
Rafe woke with a smile on his face and reached for his female. Cold sheets met his fingers. He sat up, looked from the floor where Jasmine’s clothes had been to the door. He parted his mouth and inhaled. She was gone, had been for a while. Terror whipped through him, instantly agitating his cats. His inner animals paced, growling their displeasure while he choked on fear. He jumped from the bed, grabbed his pants and yanked them on. Then he stood there, unsure what to do, only knowing that he felt as if somebody had kicked him in the gut. His whole damn chest hurt.
His female had left him. Why? Gods, he couldn’t come up with a reason. She’d allowed him into her body. Twice. Accepted his seed. Slept with her head pillowed on his chest. Dammit, why?
He ran a hand through his hair, then reached for his phone to call Kade. It too was gone. His gaze swept the room, looking for some clue. The bathroom door was cracked open. The scent of shampoo and Jasmine drifted from it. He walked forward. Found his phone on the counter. He picked it up, made his way back to the bedroom. He rammed his feet into his boots without bothering to tie them and grabbed his shirt.
The elevator seemed to take forever to travel three floors. It opened once. The two men waiting to get on took one look at him and told him they’d catch the next one. He slammed the button and paced the confines of the square enclosure. It finally opened and he nearly knocked over an elderly human. He righted the woman, mumbled an apology and jogged into the lobby.
Smells assaulted him. Quite a few people had been through the room but Jasmine’s fragrance was strong and familiar. Because of the scent-claim he’d added to her cut, his fragrance was twined with it. It eased the possessive edge of his persona. One whiff and all shifters would know that Jasmine was a beloved human. His female. He took in another deep lungful but the signature lingering in the air ruined his enjoyment and brought his animal side out.
Josh. She’d run to the human. Left him.
Rafe curled his fingers and bent his head so the fall of his mane hid his feline eyes. He pushed his anger back. Giving in to it here was unacceptable. Once colors replaced the grays, he strode to the desk. The woman there was a different one from last night but she had kind eyes and lines wrinkling her face. Hopefully she could help him.
“I’m looking for a woman. Blonde, beautiful, gorgeous gray eyes. About this tall.” He motioned to his chest.
The clerk nodded. “Yep, she was here a little while ago. Thought I was going to have to call security.”
“Excuse me?”
“One of the other customers was giving her a hard time but her boyfriend showed up and the two of them left. Nice-looking man. Seemed very protective too. Not many young boys these days are.” She gave a little shake of her head. “Shame really. In my day—”
He snapped his teeth together. “Thank you,” he said and walked away.
He strode across the room and out the door. The phone in his pocket vibrated. A quick look at the display showed Devin’s number.
Megan. The pain in his chest increased.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I was going to ask you the same thing. I thought something might’ve happened to you.”
“Something has. I lost my female.” To a human.
A long pause filled the line. Finally, Devin cleared his throat. “Well, I found her. She and the human, Josh, just picked up Megan and are heading toward her house. What do you want me to do with her?”
“Stop them,” he grunted. His guttural voice betrayed his loss of control. Thankfully there weren’t any humans close by.
“You sure that’s wise? Megan might freak. She hasn’t been around adult shifters in years, if ever.”
As much as he wanted Devin to intervene and get Jasmine away from his rival, he couldn’t, not if it stressed a child. There was no reason beyond his own jealousy to justify it.
“You’re right. Follow, keep them safe. I’m headed out there.”
And when he got his female back, he was going to make sure she knew to whom she belonged and that leaving him was no longer an option.
* * * * *
Jazz stared out the window at the passing landscape without seeing it. It had started raining so the rhythmic swoosh of the wipers and splatter of rain were the only sounds. Megan slept in the backseat and Josh was lost to his own thoughts. He’d barely said a word to her since they’d picked up Megan. That left her with plenty of time to think. The more she did, the more she wondered if she hadn’t jumped to the wrong conclusions.
She’d called Mr. Wilkins and he’d assured her they were safe. He didn’t know why Seth and Levi were frightened, only that they were locked away in one of the bedrooms. He’d said Kade had introduced himself, apologized for frightening the dogs then taken up a spot on the porch. He hadn’t even asked to come inside. And Josh said nobody had bothered them last night or this morning.
She blew out a breath. Forced her fingers to unclench. She’d overreacted. Learning Rafe was a shifter had freaked her out, made her fear the worst. Now that she had time to think about it, she could understand why he hadn’t told her the truth—he probably feared she’d react just as she had. Irrationally.
She pressed against the ache in her chest that had grown since she’d walked away from the hotel. It was silly to miss Rafe. Less than an hour had passed since she’d left him. But she did.
Had he discovered her gone yet? There was a chance he was still asleep. He had looked tired. Sated. Damn, damn, damn. She had to stop picturing him naked in bed. Or think about how it’d felt to have him packed deep inside her. She’d met him two days ago and one night of sex shouldn’t have this kind of effect on her.
But it did. She missed him and regretted jumping to conclusions and leaving him. Besides, they had a lot to discuss. Last night. Her kids. The little detail of his nonhuman status. Why he was really here.
She bit her lip and glanced at Josh. “Can I borrow your phone?”
He pulled it out. “Sure. Why?”
“I’m going to call the hotel and see if Rafe is still there. I want to talk to him.”
She reached for the phone. He pulled it back.
“No. That’s not happening.”
She took in the hard stamp of determination tightening his features. She sighed and admitted, “I think I overreacted.”
“No. You did the right thing.” He slid the phone back into his pocket.
“I freaked out when I realized he was a shifter and automatically assumed he was like the hyenas that had tried to hurt Seth and Levi.”
He flicked his gaze to her. “Hyenas? What are you talking about?”
She pointed to the road. It was raining too hard not to pay complete attention to his driving. He faced forward.
“They’re the ones associated with the trafficking rings I told you about.” She worried her lower lip and thought about Calum and how he’d sold his and Nina’s little girls, and added, “Or at least they’re the only ones I ever ran into.”
“God, Jazz, I wish I’d known. That’s harassment. We could’ve gotten the cops involved and—”
“And alerted others to the fact my kids aren’t human?” She shook her head. “Shifters don’t play by the
same rules we do, Josh. Hate to be the one to break it to you but you’re a part of a whole different world. Sometimes it’s kill or be killed.”
Josh slowly turned his head. “Are telling me what I think you are?”
The weight of her actions sat on her shoulders. She nodded, couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“Dammit, Jazz, you should’ve trusted me.” He glanced to the road, then back to her. “I could’ve—”
Eyes wide, she pointed at the lion in the road up ahead. Josh cursed and swung the wheel to avoid it. They drove around the animal. The lion’s eyes—glowing brown—locked on to hers as they passed but it didn’t move or follow them. She watched it in the side mirror until the road curved and blocked him from view.
Heart pounding hard against her ribs, she muttered, “Hurry, Josh.”
Josh ran a hand through his hair and cursed some more. The car picked up speed. The rain fell harder. Josh flicked the knob to turn the wipers on to the next speed. They whooshed faster but didn’t do much to clear the pounding rain. Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. She jumped.
The groping man’s face from the hotel filled her vision. Brown eyes. Cold. Exactly how a predator’s eyes would be. Her breaths came quicker. A whimper escaped. It was him. She knew it.
“Uncle Josh? What’s wrong?” Megan’s sleepy voice came from the backseat.
Jazz turned in her seat and reached a hand behind her to rub Megan’s leg. “It’s okay, kiddo,” she soothed.
Megan nodded, accepting the calming words, but they did nothing to ease Jazz’s panic. She couldn’t stop the fear tightening her chest. She glanced from Megan to Josh. She couldn’t breathe.
Josh took the next bend in the road too fast. The car hydroplaned into the other lane. Megan screamed and Jazz grabbed the door handle but Josh eased up on the gas, got the car back under control.
“Slow down,” she said.
“No. That guy showed himself for one reason—to warn us. He’s either following us or knows where we’re going. Either way, time’s against us.”
“What if he already has Seth and Levi?”
Josh started to curse but clamped his jaw shut before the four-letter word came out. “Call the house.” He shifted in his seat and pulled out his phone.
She took it and dialed but Megan’s scream filled the closed car. Josh slammed on the brakes and Jazz flicked her gaze up. The sight of the uprooted tree blocking the road filled her vision. The car jerked. The world spun. The forest, the road behind them. Screeching tires and the sound of branches scratching along the doors mixed with Megan’s cries. The car hit something. Her head flew forward then back to smack against the headrest. The airbags deployed. Dust and gas filled the air.
Silence stretched for a brief moment before Megan’s sobs started. Jazz cringed at the sharp pain in her neck but reached for her seatbelt. She fumbled with the button, groaned when it wouldn’t work. She pushed the release again. It popped free and she leaned between the front seats. Megan had her stuffed lion clutched to her chest and tears filled her frightened eyes.
“Are you okay, sweetie?”
Megan nodded but her eyes widened. Her small hand lifted and pointed. Jazz followed the direction and sucked in a breath. A lion with a dark tan mane watched them. He lay crouched next to a hole in the ground. Broken pieces of tree root stuck through the dirt. The tree that had once stood there was stretched over the road. Jazz swept her gaze over the area. Their car was a few dozen feet inside the woods and the lion sat between them and freedom.
“Oh god.” Jazz reached for Josh. She shook his shoulder. “Josh?”
When he didn’t respond, she glanced at him. His eyes were closed. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead. Panic rose. Jazz looked from an unconscious Josh to the lion advancing in a slow, crouching crawl. She hit the button to lock the doors but they didn’t work. The engine was dead, smoke billowing from it.
She bent down and fumbled for the phone she’d dropped. It wasn’t anywhere she could see. She reached farther under the seat, touched the edge of the rubber case and wrapped her fingers around it. Something slammed into her door. She jumped up and the phone slipped out of her hand. A lion bared fangs inches from her face. Only the window separated them. She jerked away and pressed her back against Josh’s slumped form.
The muffled sounds of screeching tires reached her. The lion whipped his head in the direction of the road then hissed. He turned back and snarled at her before taking off. She looked to see what had frightened him and saw a man running toward their car. His hair was brown, not the patchwork multicolor dye job, but his face matched the man on Rafe’s phone. He stopped a few feet away, hands clenching and releasing at his sides, and chest heaving. He glanced from them to the woods.
After a moment, he lifted his lips, revealing a set of fangs. He swept his gaze over the area before making his way to the car. Jazz stared at the fangs denting his lower lip. He was a shifter. Like the lion he’d chased off. Like her kids and Megan. Like Rafe.
“Jazz, I’m scared,” Megan cried.
So was she, but she grabbed Megan’s hand and squeezed. “It’s okay, honey. He’s one of the good guys.” She hoped.
“How do you know?”
Jazz watched the man’s slow, cautious approach. He moved with his hands held up and out to the side. It was an attempt to show he wasn’t a threat but it was a lie. With a thought, he could sprout claws and fur, but he hadn’t done anything threatening so far. He’d scared off the other shifter and now sought to calm them. And he was Rafe’s friend.
“I know his friend and I…I trust him.”
Josh groaned and reached for her. “Jasmine? Megan?”
She grabbed his hand and forced her gaze from the approaching man. Josh’s unfocused eyes met hers. “I’m here. So is Megan. We’re both fine.”
“Thank god,” he grumbled as he sat up. He shook his head, blinking hard, but leaned forward to peer out the windshield. “Son of a—”
She grabbed his arm to stop him from opening the door. “Wait. He’s Rafe’s friend.” He turned questioning eyes to her. “I saw his picture on Rafe’s phone. He just chased off the lion we saw in the road.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. We don’t know Rafe’s story. I don’t trust him and I sure as hell don’t trust his friends.” He popped the seatbelt, tried the door. When it didn’t open, he threw a shoulder into it.
Jazz hooked her fingers around his waistband as he climbed out. She tugged and he looked over his shoulder. “I do, Josh. I don’t know what’s going on but I trust him, should never have left him.”
Anger darkened the blue of his eyes. “So you can trust a guy you just met but not the one who’s stood by you for twenty years?”
She released him. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you. I—”
“No, Jazz. I don’t care if you trust him or got involved with him. I’m not letting anyone get between us this time.”
Rafe’s friend opened the door before she could respond. The man’s nostrils flared. Mouth parted slightly, he inhaled. His brown eyes flicked between them before focusing on Megan. The hard lines of his face softened as he studied her. His reaction eased the last bit of tension in Jazz’s shoulders.
“Be calm, little cub,” the man said. His voice was rough and gravelly but the timbre had a soothing quality to it. “You’re safe now and so are your humans.”
“Who are you?” Jazz asked.
He faced her. “Devin Moore, your male’s friend.” His gaze slid from her to Josh. “And the one who will ensure Rafe doesn’t tear Josh’s throat out for daring to touch what belongs to him.”
Chapter Twelve
Rafe ended the call and pressed his foot to the accelerator. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d experienced true terror in his life, but the crippling emotion had consumed him since he woke and found Jasmine missing. He could excuse her desertion if they’d met under different circumstances. Waking up in a near stranger’s arms could
be frightening, especially for a female who didn’t have much sexual experience. The morning-after regrets were forgivable. But running from him to another man while a demented shifter was in town was not.
Calum. Oh gods, he didn’t want to believe it, but Devin had seen his lion. His cats recognized him, even if Calum’s scent was masked.
Rafe’s growls filled the car, warning him how very close he was to losing it. He needed to calm down but he wouldn’t be able to until he held Jasmine in his arms.
He slowed the car and pulled behind Devin’s vehicle. A few leaves and branches remained on the road but the uprooted tree that had caused the accident was pushed into the woods. Rafe glanced from the thick trunk to the broken and crushed bushes next to it. Josh’s SUV was sandwiched between two trees at the bottom of the small embankment. If it had hit either, the accident might’ve been worse. Possibly fatal.
Another wave of distress swept through him. Jasmine could’ve died. Or worse yet, fallen into Calum’s hands. Claws threatened to emerge. The points burned the skin of his fingertips. He rubbed the ends with his thumb to ease the itch and looked for Jasmine. Didn’t see her. Rafe jumped out of his car and her scent hit him. She was close. He followed her fragrance around Devin’s car and into the woods on the opposite side of the accident.
Rafe spotted them near a group of boulders. Megan sat on one and Devin was crouched on the ground in front of her. But it was the sight of Josh standing with a hand on Jasmine’s shoulder that forced the talons free.
He snarled and quickened his pace. Devin turned his head, glanced from his clawed hands to his face, then slowly stood and moved closer to Jasmine and Josh.
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