A Lion's Heart

by A. C. Arthur

  Decan’s fingers gripped the steering wheel as he recalled that two days after receiving the transmission via his comlink, he’d stood in Roman Reynolds’ office. There had been no nervousness, no anxiety, and no fear. He did feel immense respect for the shifter who had built a democracy for his species outside of the rainforest in Brazil where their kind had originated. It was an honor to be in his presence and Decan had no intention of ever forgetting that fact. Still, whatever he may have thought or felt before stepping into that room, Decan had tucked it securely away. It was a trick he’d learned after his first shift and one that had saved his life for a long time after. He pressed it all back, with the strength of the fierce cat that lived inside of him. Everything was moved out of his mind and his being so that there was just the basic human body. He’d done that so easily for so long that when the time had come he’d been almost useless against the attack executed on him. But that was long before the meeting with the Assembly Leader. And even longer before he’d first seen her.

  “I can do that,” Decan remembered his response to the Assembly Leader.

  “While you’re there Jace has some new information he’s uncovered through the help of some lycan friends above ground, to run past you.”

  “There are other shifters above ground?” he’d asked, astonished by that knowledge as there had never been any mention of another species besides the humans and the shifters.

  “There is a lot up there that you, nor I, know about,” had been Rome’s reply.

  Decan hadn’t been given a chance to think about that as Rome had continued to talk about Jace and the lead he had on Cole Linden’s whereabouts. He was the FL who had disappeared amidst the chaos of the Unveiling. Decan didn’t know if the shadow was still alive or not, but he wasn’t going to argue the use of resources and manpower for this continued search. His time in the human military had taught him to never leave a man behind.

  “Why me?” he had, however, asked because he’d needed to know.

  His father had been sure it was because Rome recognized what a good leader Decan would make, but then Jalil tended to think the world of his only son. Decan was to be everything that Jalil would not allow his girls to achieve. That’s why, when Decan was just ten years old, his two sisters had gone underground with the rest of the family while Decan stayed with his mother’s adoptive parents above ground and continued with his human education.

  “You are the one for this job,” Rome had assured him. “I trust you to take care of my daughter and to deliver her safely. Jace will keep me apprised of how things work out with you and his lead.”

  In other words, Jace would report back to Rome on how good or bad a job Decan managed to do. So this was a test. Decan had never failed a test before and he wasn’t about to start now.

  Clenching his jaw and staring straight ahead through the dark cavernous tunnel as he drove, Decan silently declared Jace’s report to the Assembly Leader would be phenomenal. So much so that Rome would have no choice but to name him the new Central Zone Faction Leader.

  “There’s another set of tunnels just past the Virginia marker that might get us down there quicker.”

  The feminine voice echoed throughout the otherwise quiet interior of the vehicle and Decan resisted the urge to turn to her. He knew how she looked. He’d seen that face on and off in his mind for the last six months, since the first time he had a glimpse of her at the quarterly meeting. He’d only been in Oasis for five months at that time, but his father had made sure he knew everything there was to know about the new haven for the Shadow Shifters the moment Decan had returned. Jalil had been excited to introduce Decan to all of the FLs at the meeting and finally, to the Assembly Leader.

  “We don’t need to rush. We’re not expected at Central Headquarters until tomorrow night,” he replied and continued down the bumpy path.

  After the initial tunnels were constructed, more emphasis had to be put on building the bunkers that would house all of the Shadows, as they’d been migrated underground fairly quickly. So most of the tunnel roads still remained unpaved. As evidenced by the multiple craters he drove over in the next few seconds. The vehicle took the shock like a champion and he was only slightly jostled as he continued to drive. She, on the other hand, dropped the board and cursed as she leaned forward to retrieve it.

  “The roads on the alternate route have smoother passageways,” she snapped.

  Decan did look over at her this time. He wanted to make sure she wasn’t hurt. He did not want to take in anymore details of her attire. She’d put on her jacket which had been a blessing, so her delectable cleavage was no longer on display. But her mission pants were tight, and as she’d bent over, her jacket and tank top rode up her back, giving him a glimpse of smooth chocolate toned skin that his fingers ached to caress.

  “The priority was to build the bunkers for the families to occupy and the leadership to meet. Oasis needed to function as our new world. Going back to re-do the roads is taking time, but they will all be finished soon,” he said, still staring at her body as she sat back slowly in her seat.

  “What are you a brochure for Nick Delgado’s construction team?” she asked.

  His lips clamped shut tightly as he dragged his gaze up to her face. Such a pretty face, even if she frowned frequently and spent a lot of her time arguing with others. She had a pert little nose and sexy lips. Her hair was a short cap of springy dark curls that suited her compact, no fuss appearance. She didn’t need any fuss, every natural part of her was enough. It somehow felt like too much, for him at least

  “It’s better if we stay on the main roads. Security cameras are embedded in the tunnel walls and there are always enforcers watching. This is the safer route, but I’ll do my best to hit the upcoming bumps as softly as possible.”

  As if in response to his words and probably because he was paying more attention to her than the road ahead, the vehicle traveled over another crater section in the road and they were both rocked by the sudden motion. Decan was positive, though, that his chest didn’t look half as alluring as hers did during the incident.

  “Wow,” she said then. “If that’s your best—”

  Her words and the curse he was silently reciting to himself for letting his physical urges override his professional training, were both interrupted by another thump and more shaking of the vehicle.

  Decan cursed as his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Nisa echoed his sentiment as she now saw what he did.

  Cheetahs, two of them, standing on the hood of the Tracer, teeth bared and ready to attack.

  CHAPTER 2

  Decan slammed on the brakes. Exactly what she would have done, Nisa thought as she quickly undid her seat belt and popped open the ready box to retrieve her weapon. She was certain she could take the two cheetahs that had just slid off the hood of the Tracer and were now growling and hissing from the ground. But tactical teams were now trained to avoid hand-to-hand contact whenever possible. Lead Enforcer and trainer Eli Preston, lectured the trainees relentlessly on the Assembly Leader’s new directives. They were not to shift during an altercation. Nothing was to be done to confirm the human’s belief that the Shadows were nothing more than animals.

  These opponents, however, were Shadows and they were underground, aggressive and in their cat forms. Nobody would blame her if she shifted and let her jaguar beat the crap out of them. Nobody but the Senior Officer who she’d been forced to travel with.

  Nisa jumped out of the vehicle, gun set on stun.

  “Stand down!” she yelled.

  The first cheetah came for her, stopped just about two feet away and then bobbed its small head and hissed.

  “We’re on official business and you’re out of order,” Nisa repeated. “Now stand down, or be shipped back to headquarters to face the Assembly Leader.”

  The second cheetah once again jumped on the hood of the Tracer, just as cheetah number one lunged at her. Without a second thought, Nisa fired, distributing a million volts t
hrough cheetah number one, and sending his wiry ass down to the ground instantly. At the same time, Decan grabbed cheetah number two by the neck, yanking him down and throwing him to the ground.

  “Get back in the vehicle!” Decan yelled at her. “Now!”

  Nisa ignored him, taking a step toward the cheetah she’d downed watching as he attempted to fight the stun but ended up shifting back into his human form.

  “I gave you an order!”

  That’s what Nisa heard next before her arm was yanked and she turned to see that Decan had moved very quickly to appear right beside her in just seconds.

  “I don’t take orders from you,” she told him and then noticed the other guards that were traveling in the vehicle behind them had stepped out with their weapons drawn as well.

  Nisa snapped her lips shut tightly. She would not make a scene. Nothing could happen on this trip that she did not want reported to her father. Standing here arguing with the mean ‘ole lion was definitely not going to show her father that she could lead an entire zone of shifters.

  “And anyway, they’re down now, so we can get back into the vehicle and keep driving,” she told him before snatching her arm away from him.

  The cat inside was quick and vicious as it hissed and pressed against her bones in rebellion. She wanted out, now, which confused the hell out of Nisa. She held her cat on a loose leash, letting her out as much as she could, but usually only when they were alone. This new press to break free was unexpected and just a little disconcerting.

  “Not so fast,” another female voice spoke.

  As far as Nisa knew, she was the only female in this travel party. In the vehicle behind them were four guards, all dressed in the navy blue mission jacket, pants and a lighter blue button-down shirt, which completed the guard uniform. Senior enforcers, such as Decan, wore all navy blue—mission pants, shirt and a jacket with their tribe insignia on the front left side and white stripes around the wrist cuffs which signified their rank.

  This female, Nisa noted when she turned quickly away from Decan, wore a skintight black bodysuit with a bright yellow jacket and steel-toe boots. Her black hair was pulled away from her face in a tight ponytail that hung long down her back.

  “We were only bringing you information,” the newcomer stated before tilting her head.

  She walked slowly, stepping around the cheetah that Decan had dispatched and the one who had shifted back to his human form, still writhing from the shock of Nisa’s gun. There was a twenty-foot ceiling in the tunnels, with a double lane capacity of seventy-five feet. Their vehicles were in the center of the tunnel and the female took her time coming around the vehicle until she was only a short distance away from Nisa. Decan, who had been still standing behind Nisa, moved forward until he stood between her and the newcomer.

  “Oh,” she said. “There you are. I knew the Assembly Leader wouldn’t send his only offspring out alone. Quite a yummy bodyguard you’ve got here, Miss Nisa.”

  “What’s the information and who sent you?” Decan asked before Nisa could reply.

  Again, the female’s head tilted, this time causing her ponytail to shift and dangle over her shoulder. Her cheekbones were high, eyes a simmering amber hue. She looked exotic, even to another shifter. But Nisa wasn’t impressed. She moved around to stand beside Decan.

  “Yes, tell us who sent you?” Nisa asked.

  “Nobody sends me anywhere,” she said. “I come and go as I please. Which is how I came to be in the possession of knowledge about the recent murders above ground.”

  Nisa paused. “Why should we care about that?”

  To her knowledge, in the years since the shifters had been underground—which equated to all her life—their dealings with the human world had been slim. Her father and his team had only been concerned with building and maintaining a safe environment for the shifters.

  “So naïve,” the woman quipped.

  Her lips spread into a smile that Nisa could only describe as breathtaking.

  “And cute too,” she continued. “Assembly Leader Reynolds and First Female Kalina sure did produce one lovely little jaguar.”

  She’d taken another step closer as she spoke and from behind Nisa could hear one of the guards growl in response.

  “You should get to the point,” Decan stated evenly. “Now.”

  There was definitely a tension here, one that filled the tunnels like an invisible smoke. Nisa kept her finger on the trigger of her gun, wondering if she should have switched it from stun to kill.

  The female nodded and clamped her hands on her hips.

  “The Ruling Cabinet family members are being killed. It’s a message to Ewen Mackey and his suit and tie band of murderers.”

  “Again, that has nothing to do with us,” Nisa said, but suddenly felt like her words sounded false and, as much as she hated to admit, naïve.

  The female chuckled this time and then looked to Decan. “I know you know better than that,” she said to him.

  “Continue,” was all Decan said in response.

  His entire body was tense. This was the first time Nisa actually let herself acknowledge that. He didn’t have his weapon drawn, but his hands were fisted at his sides, his legs spread slightly a part.

  “I picked up Lial’s scent at the scene of the most recent murder. He was there.”

  Decan frowned. His brow furrowed and his strong jaw, even covered by the light black and white beard, clenched. He knew what she was speaking about.

  “So he’s killing? For who?” Decan asked.

  “That’s what I figured you’d want to find out,” she stated.

  “Who are you?” Nisa asked.

  Her confusion was growing. She did not like that. Her father and Commanding Officer Xavier Santos Markland—another of her father’s best friends and the shifter who had taught her everything she knew about technology—hadn’t mentioned anything about murders above ground when this mission was first discussed.

  “I’m Kyss,” she said, purposely hissing the latter part of her name, Nisa was sure. “Croesteriia, like those two over there.”

  Her eyes shifted then, turning cat in seconds while she gave a very human and alluring smile. Nisa could only stare. Decan, on the other hand, had moved again, this time taking Nisa’s hand and pulling her toward the passenger door of the Tracer. She’d never had her hand held before, not by someone who wasn’t her parents anyway. It felt oddly comfortable, but she knew that wasn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to be right. But before she could think about pulling away, Decan was opening the door and edging her inside.

  “We continue as planned,” he told Nisa.

  Then he pushed the door to close as he turned back to Kyss.

  Nisa had quickly stuck her foot out so that the door didn’t close all the way and she could hear him speaking.

  “Do not repeat what you’ve just told me to anyone else,” he said and handed Kyss a card he’d taken from his jacket pocket.

  The cheetah woman moved closer, until her pert breasts rubbed against Decan’s arm. She leaned into him before whispering, “Yes, sir.”

  Decan moved around her in the same swift and efficient fashion he’d been doing everything in these last few moments. He came around the Tracer and Nisa hurriedly pulled her foot inside and closed the door just as he was opening his. When he was secure in the driver’s seat, Decan pressed the ignition start button and pulled off without further warning to the remaining cheetahs that were still in the road. They scuttled out of the way quickly.

  “What just happened?” she asked when curiosity threatened to strangle her and her cat.

  “Nothing,” he replied nonchalantly.

  “Liar!” she snapped. “I know about The Ruling Cabinet. If a shifter is killing these humans that means the war against our kind will be intensified. They’ll find out where we are and attempt to exterminate us.”

  Nisa knew she was overreacting. The scent of her rattled nerves was ripe and she chastised herself for not being
in better control of her emotions. But this was her first real mission, the first time she’d heard firsthand of the violence going on above ground and realized how deeply their species was still involved in the human world. Besides all that, her hand was still tingling from where his had once been pressed.

  “Our mission is to get you to Central Headquarters. You are to assist the FL and then I will return you to your father. That is all that is happening here.”

  “You suck at lying,” she told him as she picked up her board once more. The stench of untruth wasn’t potent, but it was definitely there. He didn’t want to tell her. That was fine. But she would know. She would simply find the information on her own.

  “Even your cat is rebelling against your lies. Or he’s aroused by that sexy cheetah with all the pertinent information,” she continued and then snapped her lips shut.

  Why had she just said that? How had she known what a lion was thinking or feeling for that matter?

  Decan was staring at her with his icy cool eyes silently asking her those same questions.

  Hours passed before either of them spoke again.

  A huge stretch of time traveling through the long tunnels with the other vehicle close behind. All the while thoughts flew with lightning speed through Decan’s mind.

  Yes, he’d heard about the killings above ground. After the first murder three months ago, he and his childhood friend, Gold, had gone above to investigate. Lial’s scent had been strong at the scene then too. This was why Kyss’ words did not shock him, but her appearance had.

  Decan had no idea who she was. He did not know why she’d come to him with this information or how she’d known that he would be traveling on this particular road with Nisa. Her knowledge was eerie and in Decan’s experience, eerie usually led to trouble. Which was why he’d communicated with Gold through their comlink to take Kyss with them. He’d done this the moment she appeared on the scene and came too close to Nisa because he’d first thought she was a threat to the Assembly Leader’s daughter. Now, he was thinking the cheetah might be a threat to something even bigger.