by Selena Scott
He cut off. He really wasn’t sure what he’d thought. But he definitely hadn’t expected to be staying alone in his house with Valentina.
“John,” Milla started.
“They’re going swimming,” Alec cut in.
“I’m not,” Valentina asserted.
“Look, it’s either that or you come with me to the bar.”
He’d already told her all about bars and he watched suspicion rise in her face. “Where people go to dance and drink?”
“And celebrate. Look, Val, you’re all healed up! We should party!”
“No,” her eyes went dark and still. “It’s the opposite. I’m all healed up so I should be getting ready to go back to Herta.”
John Alec stiffened up but Kain merely waved a lazy hand. “There’s always tomorrow for that. But today we p.a.r.t.y. So, you choose. Swim or bar.”
Milla was used to her brother. The flirty fun thing he did with girls. Especially pretty ones like Valentina. But she was also very confused by the vibe in the room right now.
Her husband was widening his eyes at her, trying to communicate something, Valentina was turning the handle of her tea cup one way and then the other as if she were trying to talk herself out of something. And Kain was leaning way too far across the table toward Valentina, his hat tipped back on his head, like a small boy.
“Yeah. I’m… gonna go pack, like Alec said. If you go to the lagoon, you should show her where the portal used to be.” And then Milla slipped away.
Valentina looked up at Kain. “What portal?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you the whole thing while we’re there.”
Valentina crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s only noon. If we go to this lagoon then what will we be having for lunch?”
Kain was up like a shot and sticking his head in the fridge. “I’ll pack sandwiches for us. And look, two Cokes, aaaaaaand yup! Leftovers from the other night, roast chicken and mashed potatoes. And we’ve got some of Ruby’s cookies for dessert.”
“Fine.” Valentina rose. “I’ll come to the lagoon.” She was two steps out of the room before she turned back. “But you’d better not talk the whole time.”
Kain mimed zipping his lips and flashed her two thumbs up. He turned back to Alec, huge grin falling away. “What?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Kain parked his car in Griff’s driveway. “This is where Ruby and Griff first moved in when they came to Green Mills. It’s just Griff here now. Although, I don’t think he’s home. Must be at Ansel’s with the coyotes again.”
“They lived here all by themselves?”
“Their parents were gone when Griff was just a kid.”
“Gone?”
“Disappeared. Probably into Herta. They were never found.”
Valentina was quiet as Kain pulled her out of the car and she followed him down the driveway. There wasn’t a car in sight when it was time to cross the street, but even so, he led her across with a hand on her back. It was strange, all these Earth rules about men and women. He was teaching them to her one by one. You take a man’s hand when you’re getting out of the car. He lifts the heavy things down from a shelf. He puts a hand on your back when you cross the street. None of these were things that Valentina required. Earth was confusing to her in so many ways.
“Herta isn’t all terrible, you know,” she said as they entered the cool, mossy forest. Sun dappled the fresh green leaves and pine needles crunched under their feet. Somewhere she could hear the call of a Northern Flicker.
“I know,” he glanced at her. “I’ve been there a dozen times.”
“It’s just hard, living around a bunch of shifters and their families. Everyone here hates Herta. And I get it. It’s dangerous for you. But even John Alec has forgotten the parts of it that are worth loving.”
Kain cleared his throat. A weird tug in his chest was happening as he looked at her honey-brown eyes, so big he could see the forest reflected in them. He felt the urgent need to console her. “Herta’s cool, Val. I actually really like it. I mean, sure it’s uncomfortable for me to spend a lot of time there. But it’s gorgeous. Unspoiled. And all the extra kinds of plants and herbs you guys have? That’s really awesome.”
“That’s one of my favorite parts,” Valentina nodded. “There’s so many ways to heal in Herta.” She side-eyed him. “For those of us without superhuman healing powers.”
She had no idea how many times over the last weeks Kain had wished to heaven that he could have given her his healing power.
“I didn’t like the way they healed me here,” she continued. “Those pills took the pain away, but they took everything else, too. I couldn’t feel what my body was telling me. I was so sleepy all the time. I wanted my herbs from Herta.”
“You should have told me! I would have gone and gotten some for you.”
Valentina turned and looked at him, utterly startled by the idea of that. “That’s insane.”
Kain shrugged. “Look, we’re still a mile from the lagoon.” He took a hearty sniff of mountain air. “There’s no one around. Just some squirrels and birds, rabbits too. And a mama bear about three miles that way.” Maybe he was trying to impress her with his shifter senses. It was hard to say. “I’m gonna shift and then carry you the rest of the way.”
“I don’t need to be carried!”
“Fine, you can walk beside me then, but the fresh air is calling to me and I’m shifting one way or another.”
She shrugged and wandered over to sit on a stump while she waited.
Kain had never been shy. Not about his personality or his body. He’d gotten naked in front of his siblings thousands of times. And now their spouses as well. Not to mention the countless women he’d been naked in front of during sexy times. He’d never blinked at it. Being naked was a part of Kain Keto’s life. But as he quickly shucked off his clothes, shoving them in his backpack, he had to admit this was a little different.
Valentina watched him with no expression on her face. Her eyes searched his body in a matter-of-fact sort of way. There was no indication of her thoughts. And when Kain was standing in front of her in just the black cap on his head, he wondered, for a brief second, if she was liking what she was seeing.
It didn’t matter, he reminded himself as he shoved his hat away and triggered his shift. She was with Williams. Even though she’d barely talked about him since the injury. But Kain hadn’t asked, either. He hadn’t wanted to know the details.
For the sake of his sanity, though, when she finally rose from the log and took steps toward him, she was with Williams and that was just the way it was. Off limits.
Besides, she was John Alec’s sister. Double off limits.
But his brother-in-law floated right out of Kain’s head as Valentina stood a foot in front of him, her honey-brown eyes roving all over him. “I’ve never seen it before, you know. Your bear. Not really.”
He’d never shifted on Herta for obvious reasons and the one time he’d shifted for her on Earth, she’d been passed out from blood loss.
She raised her hand, as if to touch his wide face, the golden fur, but then she dropped her hand away.
Kain chuffed and pushed his huge head forward. Perhaps he’d moved a little too fast for someone who wasn’t used to being face to face with a 1400-pound bear, because she jumped back. But he didn’t wait for her to get used to it. He pushed forward again and this time got his head under her hand.
She got the message and dug her hand into his fur. Kain was delighted when she didn’t explore him so much as give him a nice firm scratch.
“Alright,” she conceded. “I’ll ride on your back.” Her eyes narrowed. “But only because I want to be able to say I’ve done it conscious.”
Kain immediately dropped down so that she could slide on with the bag and then they were off.
Valentina looked down at the golden bear underneath her, the dapples of sun on his fur as he ambled along, sniffing this and that. He was a gaspingly beautiful cre
ature, and for the first time since her injury, Valentina was perfectly happy. The fresh air and the birds on the wind soothed her. She scented sap and pine and fresh water. As she sank her fingers into Kain’s coarse fur, it hit her that she actually couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this happy. Perhaps when she was a child.
The walk to the lagoon was too short for both of them.
When they arrived, Valentina laughed, hopped down and crossed right to the water. Kain took the opportunity to shift and slide into his swim trunks. He didn’t think he could handle her watching him naked again.
“It’s silly,” she called. “Because the two worlds mirror one another. But I hadn’t realized that I would have been here before. On Herta.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes. Where was the portal?”
“It was through the waterfall there, until we closed it last year. It was the one that lured Griff originally.”
Valentina strode over to the waterfall and stuck her hand right in, feeling around. “Those bastards. Hunters, I mean. They like to hide the portals so that a shifter can’t see it when they’re being lured.”
Kain grunted and tried not to watch when she crossed back to where he’d dropped the bag and started tugging off her clothes. She wore a black T-shirt and a pair of cargo pants he was pretty sure Ruby had bought for her.
“I still can’t believe your brother is the Griffin.”
Kain grunted. And then her words sifted to him. “It’s nice that you call him my brother, because that’s the way I feel, though sometimes I think Griff still questions his place in our family.”
Her back was to him when she dropped her pants.
“Well, the Griffin deserves family. He endured so much while he was on Herta. Not to mention the loss of his mate.”
“What the hell is that?” Kain demanded, his eyes trained on Valentina’s half-naked body.
“What?” She looked down at the hot pink bikini she wore. “Ruby says it’s a swimsuit. She bought it for me with all those other garments a few weeks ago. Is it wrong?”
“Uh, no.” Kain cleared his throat. “It’s not wrong.”
He was delighted to see that she’d filled out since her injury. Kain just wished he weren’t quite so delighted. But there she was, looking all healthy and normal girl, her breasts pushing against the triangles of the bikini, her ass spilling out either side. He cleared his throat again. Double off limits, he reminded himself.
“I was just surprised about the color, I guess.”
“Oh, I know,” she acknowledged, looking back down at the suit and adjusting the fabric at her chest. Kain turned quickly away. “It’s a ridiculous color. Like so many earthly garments.”
She’d never understand why Earthlings dressed the way they did. Like they wanted every hunter in a thirty-mile radius to take them from this world with a single, well-aimed arrow.
She followed Kain to where he sat at the edge of the lagoon, swirling his feet in the water. She started undoing her braid as Kain turned to her.
“What was it you just said about Griff? Losing a mate?”
She squinted her eyes at him. He didn’t know this? The man was his brother. “The story that everyone knows in Herta, though perhaps it’s just legend, is that he had to leave his mate when he escaped bondage. The princess, they call her when they tell the story. Some people say she’s the daughter of the man who was attempting to break Griff. To enslave him.”
Kain’s mind churned. Milla had told him that Griff was screaming to a girl as they dragged him away. To a girl who he swore he’d return for.
“What do you mean by ‘mate’?”
“Oh,” she nodded. “I just mean that they’d mated.”
“Like made a baby?” His blood ran cold. Was it possible that Griff had a child on Herta?
She laughed. “No! Like had sex.” She cocked her head at him, suddenly suspicious. “You know that you can have sex and not make a baby.”
Now it was Kain’s turn to laugh. “I’m aware. I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Valentina nodded and slid herself gracefully into the water. Barely disturbing the surface, she went right to the bottom of the crystalline pool. It was just as lovely as on Herta. Smooth sheet rock at the bottom, scattered round pebbles here and there. It must have been fifteen feet deep in the middle. Something touched her fingers and when she looked, Kain was swimming beside her, disturbing the water as little as she was.
They surfaced at the same time and Valentina blew a small fountain of water. The sight of it zinged a bolt of jarring happiness through Kain. He’d never seen her play before.
They floated and watched the sun through the leaves of the trees for a while before hauling out of one side of the lagoon. Kain immediately wrapped Valentina in one of the towels, snuggly covering her from shoulder to knee. But he let himself drip dry and laid his own towel out for them to sit on.
But the sun called to her and when she was warm enough, she let her towel fall. Made a pillow under her head. She closed her eyes in the bright sun and blindly munched at her peanut butter sandwich.
“Your scar is looking good.”
Valentina absently brushed a hand over it. It was still pink, a little puckered in a few places, and already silvery where the cut had been shallowest. “Yes. It tells a good story.”
“You’ve said that before,” he noted, remembering something she had said on one of their missions on Herta. “About scars and stories.”
She nodded. “Scars tell where you’ve been. I always thought it cruel that most broken bones don’t leave outward scars. It’s like no one ever knows how much pain they caused.”
He was quiet for a second. “Have you had a lot of broken bones?”
“Of course. I’ve been a warrior since I was three years old. John Alec himself gave me a fair few of them. But most have been in the last few years. The hunters are getting worse.”
Don’t go back, Kain’s mind screamed. But his mouth said nothing. Instead his hand slid across the towel and one cool finger traced the scar on her upper thigh. The other injury she’d sustained.
Her eyes fluttered open now and she watched him. First she watched his hand at her leg. And then she watched his face. He wore an expression she hadn’t seen before. Thoughtful and slightly pained.
She felt that same rising need she’d felt that night she’d found him by the creek in Herta. No pain. There would be no pain for him. Not if she could do anything about it.
“Fine,” she conceded, watching his eyes dart to hers. “I’ll go to the bar with you.”
The instant grin that spread across his face made her heart beat like a club against a skull. It was startlingly fierce.
***
They’d gotten cleaned up at home first. He’d changed into nice jeans and a button-down, his black hat tipped to one side. She changed into a pair of skinny jeans and she wore Kain’s big, blue zip-up over top. Her wet hair was in a braid down over her shoulder. Worked for him. He’d been worried she’d come out of his guest room in a black leather skirt or something else equally ludicrous that Ruby had bought for her.
He wondered briefly, as they pulled up to the club, if he should have extended the invitation to his siblings. Was it weird that it was just the two of them headed to the bar together? She was, after all, off limits. Whatever. He found he didn’t care when he pulled up to the bar. Her eyes automatically cased the area. Always on the lookout for danger, for an escape. It both charmed and pained him.
It felt natural to take her hand as he led her into the loud bar. He’d chosen this one because there was always a pretty healthy dance floor. When he looked back, her eyes were comically large.
“What do you want to drink?” he asked her.
“Nothing,” she replied immediately. Her eating habits had become a lot more normal in the last month. She ate three healthy meals a day and wasn’t saving food for later anymore like she used to do, as if she were always scared there wouldn’t be eno
ugh later. But her drinking habits were still strange. She never sipped a drink, besides tea. Once she was thirsty, she’d chug a drink down to the bottom. Kain knew it was because she was used to glutting on water in case there was a dry day or two in store.
“Alright, well if you’re not drinking, then you’re dancing.”
She raised an eyebrow at the crowded dance floor, dim and sweaty. “That’s not dancing. That’s a mating ritual.”
He laughed. “Maybe so.”
“You’re not drinking?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I’m driving you home, remember? Besides. I don’t really drink very much. But you’re welcome to try something if you want.” He pointed at the girl’s drink right next to her and Valentina surreptitiously sniffed at the frozen blue substance.
She winced and stepped away. “That smells like poison.”
“Yeah. That’s headache in a glass.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Great,” he shrugged. “Dancing, then.”
Maybe, in the back of his mind, he’d expected to have to teach Valentina to dance. She’d never been on an earthly dance floor before. And she’d certainly never heard music with so much bass it shook the lungs. But he watched her look around at the other people and immediately start imitating them. She was a natural. And that didn’t surprise him at all. He’d seen her flying kick two people in the face on Herta. He’d seen her catch a falling sword out of the air. He’d seen her rope a hunter from twenty paces. She was obviously very in tune with her body.
Then her dance moves veered away from imitating the others. She moved in a way that was purely Valentina. It both acknowledged the music and ignored it at the same time. He wasn’t sure why that was so sexy. But yeah. He found himself worrying about her injuries when she started dropping it to the floor, but she unzipped that hoodie and he saw the tank top she wore underneath. He stopped thinking about much else after that.
He wasn’t dancing on her, exactly. But he was definitely close enough that other dudes weren’t dancing on her, either. The bar was filling up fast and the dance floor got a little tighter.