by A. C. Arthur
“Why? You could have come to Oasis and begun your training there. But you wanted to stay above ground. You felt you were more needed here.”
Decan shook his head. “I felt it was beneficial for me to know everything I could, about both worlds. The shifters that stayed above ground had either been found and killed or knew how to hide in plain sight very well. I could hide better than anyone. It kept me alive.”
Until it almost killed him.
“How did you do it? Can you teach me?”
“Teaching you will not change your father’s mind.”
“Not teaching me will not stop me,” she countered.
And Decan knew she was right. He knew just as surely as the companheiro calor was now lingering between them, that Nisa was going to go above ground more and more. She felt she had a place here. That she could do some good. Was it so different from what Decan was doing? Could he really stand with the others who would hold her back?
On the other hand, could he stand losing her if something happened?
It wasn’t a matter of love. No, Decan didn’t think he was capable of that. But she was his companheiro. That was an unbreakable bond. Or so he’d heard.
“Let’s get some sleep,” he told her. “We’ll head back to Oasis in the morning and give Jace our report.”
“But you will not teach me? Once I’m back at Oasis, your job is done and you will walk away.”
She sounded so certain. Very irritated by her own words, but still sure that they were true.
Decan closed the space between them, lifting his hands to cup her face when he was close enough.
“I won’t be walking away from you, Nisa. Not tonight and definitely not tomorrow.”
Not forever.
Those two words lingered in his mind, but instead of speaking them Decan kissed her forehead. When she brought her hands up to circle his wrists, he kissed her temples. She tilted her face up to him and he kissed the tip of her nose.
“Open your eyes,” he whispered and she immediately did as he asked.
Her cat’s eyes were staring up at him. Decan blinked until his lion’s eyes could respond.
“I won’t walk away from you.”
She nodded slightly at the commitment he’d not only made to her as part man, but as the fierce beast that lived inside.
Coming up on her toes she kissed him this time. Touching her lips lightly to his and whispering, “Thank you,” before wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her body into his.
Decan held her close as they stood in front of the window. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and breathed in their now shared scent. On a ragged exhale he kissed the top of her head and was just about to lead them back downstairs when he sensed something beyond the window.
Turning his head ever so slightly and being careful to only open his eyes a slit so that the brightness of the lion’s eyes did not alert anyone to their presence, he looked out. His training on restraint came in handy because what Decan saw would have definitely frightened Nisa. She would have reacted to that fear defensively and been ready to go out and fight. But Decan knew this was different. The eyes staring directly back at him were not eyes he’d ever seen before. They weren’t the eyes of any Shadow cat, and they did not resemble the eyes of the wolf he’d seen tonight.
This was different.
And it was scary.
It was meant to be scary, he decided, because its next step was to kill.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Rome yelled after Jace’s excuse.
Jace didn’t cower. Instead, he stood tall—albeit a relatively safe distance from the Assembly Leader—and stared him in the eye.
The distance was only safe because Kalina had positioned herself so that Rome would have to push her out of the way to get to Jace. That was a shame because at the moment Rome wanted to wrap his hands around the neck of a man he’d called friend for the better part of thirty-five years.
“You said finding Cole was our priority,” Jace continued.
“At the expense of my daughter’s safety? Are you really going to stand there and try to sell me that load of crap?”
“Rome,” Kalina said, placing a hand on his arm. “Let him speak.”
He didn’t reply. He didn’t give permission, nor did he deny it. He simply stood there trying to bite his tongue because words were quickly leaving his mind. In that instance the only thing left would be the physical and Jace Maybon was definitely not ready to receive what Rome had kept stored for anyone who dared to threaten his daughter’s life.
“She knows, Rome,” Jace stated. “She knew that someone broke into the files and obtained the confidential information on Jacques and Cole. She said it had to be someone with the access codes, meaning it had to be a shifter. She knows every shifter in that database. Not sending her up there to look for the culprit would have been unconscionably stupid.”
“No, Jace,” Rome said in as even a tone as he could manage. “You’re simply vying for the unconscious aspect. She’s my daughter and I expected you to keep her safe! Not send her into the arms of danger! That is not acceptable. None of this is.”
“What I think he’s trying to say, is, where is Nisa now, Jace?” Kalina asked.
Jace cleared his throat and admitted, “We don’t know.”
It was Nick who stepped in front of Rome this time, blocking the path to Jace. “You gotta come better than that, man. This is his only child.”
“She’s with Decan,” the guard that Rome recognized from being with Decan back at headquarters, said.
“Decan will keep her safe,” he continued.
“What’s your name?” Rome asked as he turned all his attention to the one that seemed to have some answers for him.
“Gold, sir,” the guard replied.
“Okay, Gold. Where is Decan?” Rome asked.
“I don’t know—” Gold began.
Rome was already shaking his head.
“I mean that I did not have the location to where he was going. Last night, that lycan said he had a place for Decan to go that would be safe. I figured Decan took the information,” Gold continued.
“But you haven’t heard from him since then?” Nick asked.
“No. But that’s not unusual. Decan knows better than to make too much outside contact. Especially above ground. We all knew to get back down here as soon as it was safe. For us,” he said looking toward a cheetah sitting in a chair with her legs propped on the conference room table.
“It was safe at first light because mostly everyone in the hotel was still asleep. We were able to get out undetected and we took two vehicles to get back to a doorway down here. We used the underwater entrance,” Gold said proudly.
Rome couldn’t bring himself to say that was smart. He was still too pissed off that his daughter wasn’t here to give any type of commendations for good work. Especially not to Jace.
“You sent them all up there and what did you get out of it? Nothing. They were run out of the gala without finding any more information about the murders or the shifter that betrayed us,” he told him.
“That’s not true.”
Every head swung to the door that had slid quietly open as Nisa stepped through.
“We received confirmation from Graham Parker that Ewen Mackey is working with a shifter. Why he would have that shifter killing for him? We don’t know, but at least now we are certain that a shifter is doing the killings,” she said looking directly at Rome.
Never in all his life did he think he would love so unconditionally and as deeply as he did his only child. She was, as Kalina had stated before, the best of both of them. She was also the future. Nisa was everything that Rome had worked for so hard to accomplish in these last twenty years.
Inside, he breathe a sigh of relief that she was alive and well. Outside, he was still pissed. The muscle in his jaw twitched and his gaze narrowed on his child. Her mother, however, was across the room in seconds, wrapping her arms around Nisa and
pulling her into a hug that looked as if it might suffocate her.
“I’m fine,” Nisa whispered to her mother.
“I know,” Kalina said as she pulled back and looked in her daughter’s face. “You are capable and knowledgeable and you’re fine. But you are also my daughter, so allow me the time to fuss and assuage the worry.”
Nisa smiled into her mother’s hazel eyes. She’d never seen a female as beautiful as the woman standing in front of her at this moment. Everything that Nisa aspired to be was inspired by this person.
“Whatever you say, First Female,” Nisa said using the term that shifters not related to Kalina called her.
Her mother smiled and did that tilt of her head that had long since served as a warning to Nisa.
“Yes, she’s fine,” Kalina stated. “Sassy as ever. And you?”
Kalina was looking at Decan who had remained close to Nisa as they’d entered. He’d remained close to her since lifting her into his arms last night. Nisa wasn’t complaining, but she wasn’t thinking too hard on that fact either. What it meant, what anything about last night between the two of them had meant for that matter. Now, just was not the time.
“I am fine, First Female. Things did get a little rough last night, but I can assure you and the Assembly Leader that once the situation was under control, I kept a close eye on Nisa. She was not injured in any way,” he told her.
His voice was stilted, almost as if he were nervous for some reason. Probably because her father’s jaguar eyes had appeared and a low angry grumble was coming from where he stood.
“Then I thank you,” Kalina said, ignoring her mate and approaching Decan. “For taking such good care of my daughter and of yourself. I know that the Assembly Leader thinks highly of your abilities.”
“As do I,” Jace interrupted. “So, if we can move to another conference room, I believe the leadership needs a debriefing from Decan.”
“That means they’re kicking us out,” Kyss said to Nisa.
She swept her legs from the table and stood. Today she wore a gray one piece outfit that molded over her slim curves and a waist length yellow jacket. Her yellow polka dot boots came to her knees and this time her hair was wrapped in a messy bun and piled atop her head. Nisa momentarily looked down at the dark blue jeans and fuchsia off the shoulder blouse she’d thrown on in the ten minutes Decan had given her to run to her room and change. They’d left that cabin as soon as Decan thought it was safe that morning, but he’d insisted they take a very long route to find another entrance into Oasis.
“I’m not leaving,” Nisa said and looked directly at her father who had yet to say anything to her. “I was a part of this mission. I should be present for any debriefing that takes place.”
Jace folded his arms over his chest and looked at Rome. Gold wisely remained silent while Kyss looked thoroughly entertained.
“Shya came with us,” Nick offered. “She’s in one of the guest rooms and I know she’s anxious to see you.”
Nisa gave him a knowing look. “Shya can wait until after the debriefing, Uncle Nick.”
“She does have information that could help,” Decan said and Nisa almost took a step back toward him.
It had been that way all morning. He kept close to her and she felt an overwhelming need to get even closer to him. It was weird and took a great deal of strength to resist as they stood in the room with so many people.
“We all have information that can help,” Kyss continued. “The guy that was all hands, groping me like a horny teenager, he told me that Ewen Mackey was there last night and that he’d had a meeting with his shifter friend that’s why he hadn’t been seen at the gala.”
Jace turned to Kyss. “So are we thinking that the shifter that’s working for the Ruling Cabinet—”
“Lial Johansen,” Decan injected. “I have it on good authority that Lial was working for the Ruling Cabinet. But that he is not officially working for them now. But Lial wasn’t there last night and neither was Dorian Wilson.”
“Good authority?” Rome asked. “Whose authority?”
Decan nodded and looked to Jace.
Nisa watched them both, wondering if Decan was going to share with all of them who the person with “good authority” was. She hadn’t had a moment last night to ask him where he’d been or how he’d known where she and Kyss were. They’d been talking about and doing other things. Now, it seemed imperative that she know the answer.
“Maybe it’s time we all sit down and get things straight,” Kalina suggested.
Her mother walked around the long table to take a seat next to the chair at the very head of the table. Jace had been standing next to that chair, but with a nod of his head to the First Female, he moved to take the seat across from her. Nick glanced at his companheiro and the Lead Curandero at Oasis, Ary, and then took the seat next to Jace. Ary followed her companheiro.
Nisa jumped as she felt Decan’s hand at her elbow. When she looked up at him, it was to see his stoic features. His eyes were clear today, his bearded jaw squared. That same face had looked softer last night and in the early morning hours. His beard was softer than she’d figured it would be and her body immediately warmed as she recalled how soft it was when it rubbed against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.
Nisa sat next to her mother and Decan next to her. Gold and Kyss remained standing, along with the Assembly Leader who everyone now looked to.
Rome moved slowly to take the seat at the head of the table. He rested his elbows on the edge of the table and clasped his fingers together. “Tell me everything that happened last night. What we now know. What we still need to find out. And what our end game is going to be,” he said in his deep rumbling voice.
They’d told the Assembly Leader everything, Decan thought as he walked out of the conference room.
Everything except where Keller and Gold had been while Nisa and Kyss were with Graham Parker. That was a private conversation, one Decan was going to have the moment he returned to his room.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” the Assembly Leader was saying as he held Nisa in his arms.
They were standing in the hallway now. The First Female smiling at her companheiro and her daughter as they embraced.
“I didn’t meant to frighten you, Daddy,” Nisa said in a tone Decan had never heard her use before.
Small pangs of jealously speared into him as he saw how Nisa looked up at her father. There was nothing but love and adoration in her eyes. Decan wanted that same type of look for himself. It was silly, he knew. He’d never planned on taking a mate. But here they were and their scent…it was beyond obvious. Gold had arched a brow when they’d walked in and Kyss had smiled knowingly. If the others recognized it, they hadn’t spoken a word. For that, Decan was glad.
“Let’s have lunch,” Kalina said. “We’ll get Shya, Nick and Ary and all head to the main dining room for something to eat. You must be starving since you’ve been traveling all morning.”
Decan continued to eavesdrop, not feeling one ounce of shame for doing so. Nisa was a part of him whether he liked it or not, which meant what she did and when she did it was his business. Case closed.
She must have felt the same way, at least a little, because she immediately looked over to where he stood. No, she wasn’t asking his permission to have lunch with her parents, but she was wondering what he was going to do. Where he would be while she was with them? She had no idea, he thought. No idea, how hard it was going to be for them to be away from each other now that they shared the calor.
Neither of them spoke, mainly because Decan didn’t know what to say. Was he really supposed to tell the Assembly Leader that Nisa wasn’t going anywhere without him? No, that probably wasn’t going to go over too well. Besides that, he had to meet with Keller and Gold. Her parents keeping her busy would actually be a favor to him.
Rome turned, glaring at Decan. The Assembly Leader hadn’t asked to speak to him alone yet, but Decan knew a private meetin
g was coming. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but recognized that these were all steps to his future. Even the jagged little edges that pulled him away from the straight path he’d created for himself. Everything was leading to his own personal end game, one that he deserved.
“Let’s go,” the Assembly Leader said and kept his arm around Nisa’s waist.
He moved until Nisa had no choice but to look away from Decan and walk with her father. The First Female, however, stood in place a second or so longer. She looked at Decan with golden specks highlighting her light eyes. Her arms folded slowly across her chest as she tilted her head slightly and continued to stare.
“Have a good lunch, ma’am,” Decan finally said because his legs threatened to buckle under the intense scrutiny.
It was one thing to stand strong like any other soldier against their commanding officer, because that was not the time or place to show any weakness. The Assembly Leader expected that of him. But as for Kalina Reynolds, being in her line of fire was not something Decan had ever expected, nor did he believe would be as easy to handle.
When the edge of her mouth tilted in a slow smile, he almost breathed a sigh of relief. But it wasn’t until she’d turned and walked away that he let out the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.
“Bravo,” Kyss said and clapped from behind him.
Decan turned his head to look at the cheetah that was now coming to stand in front of him.
“You managed to make it through the first round.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked her.
“Oh come on, Decan. You can stop the act with me. Your scent is acrid and has been burning my sensitive nostrils since the moment you and Nisa walked through that door. And if you think her parents didn’t sniff out the fact that you’d slept with their daughter…no, you mated their daughter, then you aren’t as smart as they give you credit for.”
Decan’s hands briefly clenched and he rolled his head on his shoulders before speaking. He was not in the mood for her candor.
“Don’t you have something else to do?”