No, no, no, no. Eric was hot, and what woman wouldn’t fantasize about him? But if Iona succumbed to her need, that would be the end of her.
Sex with Eric would be more than scratching an itch, and she knew it. Sex with Eric would have a deep meaning, some Shifter connection, a mating thing she didn’t understand.
Iona’s brain told her that, while her body shrieked at the interruption.
“Mom,” she said again. “This is—”
“I know who he is,” Penny Duncan said crisply. Iona’s mother had dark hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, a short but sturdy body, and dark blue eyes. Iona’s black hair and Celtic coloring came from her Shifter father, but she’d never known him. Penny and Howard, Iona’s stepfather, were the ones who’d taken care of her, kissed her skinned knees better, and protected her at night. “Eric Warden, Shiftertown leader,” Penny went on, her gaze on Eric, not Iona. “What is he doing here?”
Iona’s words felt heavy in her mouth. “He came to talk about the plans for the new houses in Shiftertown.”
“Is that why he was trying to put his tongue down your throat?”
“Mom.”
“Honey, I know all about alpha male Shifters and what they do. They work their way into your life, seducing you with their charm and their protectiveness, their out-and-out attraction. And then…it’s too late. You can’t get away if you try.”
“You’re talking about Iona’s father,” Eric said. “Who was he?”
Watching, Iona realized she’d been sidelined. This conversation was between Eric, used to being in charge of everyone around him, and her mother, whose heart had been broken by an alpha Shifter male.
“Oh, a charmer, like you,” Penny said. “I was nineteen and spending the summer at my grandparents’ house up in Fallon. He came out of the night and found me on the porch, where I was looking at the stars. I wasn’t used to being out in the country, and I wasn’t used to talking to panthers who’d become human. Next thing I know, I’m sneaking up to his cabin to be with him, and then not much wanting to leave. He gave me Iona, and I’m forever grateful for that, but he tricked me good, Shifter.”
“Times change,” Eric said. “What happened to him?”
“Hell if I know,” Penny answered. “He disappeared one night, and I never saw him again. When Shifters were revealed and took the Collar, I was scared he’d come and find Iona. But he never did.”
“I could look for him,” Eric said. “Find out what happened to him for you.”
Penny stilled a moment, a sudden longing in her eyes, then she resumed her neutral expression. “Like you said, times change. I don’t care what happened to him.”
Iona did, and she’d seen, in that flash, that her mother did too.
“It’s unusual for a Shifter to abandon his cubs,” Eric said. “I’m guessing he never knew about Iona.”
“I raised Iona to be human. I’ve kept her away from Shifters, and I’d like that to continue. You understand, don’t you?”
“It’s easier to hide them when they’re cubs,” Eric said. “I grant that. But Iona’s made her Transition now, entered her mating years. She’s losing control, and it’s only a matter of time before another Shifter sniffs her out.”
“Transition?” Iona broke in. “What are you talking about? What transition?”
When Eric turned his green eyes to her, he’d gone from the teasing, hot, tattooed man who’d been kissing her to the wise leader of Shiftertown, who’d been alive far longer than Iona or her mother. “The Transition from cub to adulthood. It’s your body telling you it’s ready for you to find your place in the pride, to start looking for a mate.”
“Oh.” Iona flashed back to a few years ago, when she’d thought she was going insane. She’d hurt all over and wanted to fight everyone all the time, for any reason. She’d go up to their cabin in the mountains, trying to stay as far away from her mother and sister—from everyone—as possible, and let herself shift and run. And run. But no matter how far or fast she went, she couldn’t run from the fires burning her from the inside out. “Is that what that was?”
“All Shifters go through it,” Eric said. “You must be very strong to have made it through alone.” He sounded admiring.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“During my Transition I wanted to fight and challenge anyone—everyone. My sister had to hit me with a frying pan, those big cast-iron ones we had a hundred years ago. Several times.”
Iona suddenly wanted to meet this sister. “You obviously got through it.”
“Because I had help, had a family and a clan.”
“And a sister not afraid to smack you down.”
“That too. But you have no protection—no clan, no pride. That why I’m extending mine.”
“But who protects her from you?” Penny asked him.
Another stare down between Eric and Iona’s mother. Iona broke it by walking around the desk and planting herself between them.
“Both of you, stop it. Mom, I’m not you, and I’m not nineteen. Eric, I’ll send you the blueprints when they’re ready. But if you want to protect me so much—stay away from me.”
Eric looked Iona up and down and spoke around her to Penny. “She’s feisty. I like that.”
“You heard her,” Penny said. “Get out, Shifter.”
“I’m going.” But only because he chose to. Iona saw that. He could have done whatever the hell he wanted, including carrying Iona off over his shoulder back to Shiftertown. The reason Eric had told her about the Shifters’ instinct to capture her was so she’d understand that Eric wanted to do that himself.
Eric went to Iona and pulled her into a warm, tight embrace. His breath tickled inside her ear. “The Goddess go with you, Iona.”
He nipped her earlobe, then he released her, gave Penny a nod, grabbed his jacket, and walked out of the office.
They heard the rumble of his motorcycle starting up, the powerful throb as the engine revved. Iona went to the window as Eric lifted his feet and glided the bike out of the parking lot, sunlight gleaming on his dark hair and the jacket he’d resumed. He slid into the street and away, and the engine sound faded into the traffic.
Iona blew out her breath, moved back to her office chair, and sat heavily on it. The roast beef sandwich started to stink, and she shoved it away from her.
Her mother remained standing in the middle of the office, as though she couldn’t decide what to do now. “Iona.”
“Mom, I really don’t want to talk about it.”
Penny wasn’t put off. “Why didn’t you tell me that the leader of Shiftertown knows you’re Shifter? How long has this been going on?”
Iona heaved another sigh. “He saw me at a club last spring.” Iona remembered her shock when Eric dropped into the chair next to hers, asked who she was, and announced that he knew good and well that she was Shifter. “He just knew.”
“Of course he did. They can smell you. But why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why did you just tell Eric more about my real father than you ever told me?”
Penny sighed, looking suddenly older. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I guess maybe I didn’t tell you much about your father because I was ashamed I fell in love with him. But I wanted Eric to understand that I knew what Shifters did.”
If Iona’s father had been anything like Eric—strong, compelling, pinning others with that Shifter gaze—Iona understood her mother’s feelings toward him. But Iona probably wouldn’t have understood, she realized, before she’d met Eric.
“Why should you be ashamed?” Iona said, a little more sharply than she meant to. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was. I went to him, I knew what he was, and I didn’t care.”
“He was Shifter. I bet he made you do things you had no intention of doing until it was too late.”
Penny came alert. “Is that what Eric is doing with you?”
Iona shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m Shifter too, so maybe he
can’t compel me the same as if I were human.”
“Don’t count on that, Iona. You’d be amazed at what they can do. Why do you think I’ve protected you from them all this time?”
“I can’t hide what I am, Mom. Eric proved that when he saw me in the club.” And I’m proving that by wanting to run wild all the time—with him.
Penny glanced out the window. “The guys are coming back to work. We’ll talk about this later.” She snatched up the tote she’d dropped and banged back outside without another word.
Iona dropped into the desk chair and put her face in her hands. Emotions poured through her—anger at her mother, anger at Eric, fear of her own reaction to him.
Even more powerful was her need to see Eric again, to go after him, to bask in his circle of warmth, even if they argued.
The scent of ruined roast beef sandwich was strong in the room, but stronger to her was Eric’s scent overlaid with the scent of her mother’s stark fear.
Eric rode his motorcycle far out into the desert, shifted, and went for a run. He ran to work off his frustration at being so near Iona and not being able to have her and also to cover Iona’s scent with his own. If he ran long enough under the warming sun, he’d get pretty smelly.
He rode back into Shiftertown later that afternoon and drew his Harley up in front of his house in time to see a Shifter fight in his next-door neighbor’s yard.
He was off the bike and into the yard before the motor died. He grabbed Shane, his bear Shifter next-door neighbor, and hauled him off the half-shifted wolf he was pummeling.
Shane was a giant, but his Collar was sparking like crazy, reacting to Shane’s attack to drive pain and shocks through him. Eric peeled Shane out of the fight and shoved him away. Shane landed, panting, against the pickup with its hood up in his driveway, his eyes wild, but he stayed put.
The wolf, one of Graham’s, was in his half-shifted state, upright, covered with fur, eyes red with rage, mouth full of sharp teeth. He should have recognized Eric as alpha and dropped immediately, apologetically, to wait for Eric to decide what to do. But the wolf, crazed with fury and pain from his own sparking Collar, charged Eric.
Eric spread his arms and growled, feeling himself half shift, his clothes and jacket ripping as his half-Shifter body broke through. The wolf slammed into Eric full force, and Eric caught him in his arms.
The wolf clawed and fought as the two went down. The wolf’s Collar arced blue, the snakes of electricity slapping Eric’s skin. Eric’s Collar remained silent; Eric had learned how to control his Collar’s reaction somewhat. For now. Payback would come later.
The wolf ripped claws into Eric’s chest, and blood ran down Eric’s fur-covered skin. Eric snarled as he fought, the two rolling over each other, dust and gravel rising. Eric heard other Shifters coming out of houses, running to see the fight, sensed their anger and bloodlust rising. This needed to end. Now.
Though a good fighter, the wolf was young and inexperienced. Eric waited for his opening, then he plunged his mouth over the wolf’s throat and sank his teeth in, just enough.
Eric tasted blood, hot and satisfying. The wild thing inside him, harder to control in the half state, urged him to make the kill. The wolf had been fighting one of Eric’s Shifters, and Eric had the right to retaliate.
The tiny part of Eric that was still Eric, the coolheaded Shiftertown leader, knew that killing the wolf would bring down a firestorm from the humans, not to mention from Graham. Graham wouldn’t hesitate to kill.
But the beast in Eric didn’t care. It wanted the blood of his enemy, wanted to roar his victory with the ripped-up body of this wolf at his feet.
“Back off!”
The wolf went suddenly quiet under Eric’s teeth. Eric knew who stood beside them without looking—Nell, Shane’s mother, a formidable grizzly and the alpha bear of Shiftertown.
“Mom, put down the gun,” Shane said.
Eric put his half-shifted paw on the wolf’s chest, unlocked his teeth from his throat, and carefully looked up. Nell stood a foot away from them, a double-barreled shotgun aimed at the wolf’s head.
CHAPTER FIVE
“I’ll put down the gun when this stupid-ass wolf learns who he’s not supposed to fight,” Nell said.
The wolf snarled. Shane stood with hands on hips, face and arms covered with bloody scratches. Nell stood straight and unwavering, the large woman’s stare hard over the shotgun.
Eric stood up and planted his foot, still in his motorcycle boot, on the wolf’s chest. As he eased back to human form, he heard and smelled Graham coming up behind him.
“Put it down, bitch,” Graham growled.
Nell didn’t move. Eric kept his boot on the wolf and wiped blood out of his eyes. The wolf’s Collar still sparked but was fading, the wolf giving up the fight.
“Nell, put that fucking gun away,” Eric snapped.
Nell was high in the Shiftertown hierarchy, but she knew just how far she could push Eric. She lowered the shotgun.
Graham strode past Shane and Nell without looking at them, broadcasting that they didn’t matter to him. His gaze fixed on Eric, the only Shifter Graham considered any kind of equal. “Get your foot off my wolf, Warden.”
“After I kick his ass,” Eric said calmly. “He attacked my tracker and didn’t stand down when I told him to.”
“And your she-bear was ready to blow his head off!”
“To protect her cub and her alpha. That’s her right. But by Shifter rights, the kill is mine.”
“He’s my wolf.”
Eric met Graham’s ice gray gaze. “This is my Shiftertown, and you didn’t keep him under control.”
“Territory fights are natural,” Graham said, unflinching. “If that means one of your bears has to go down, they do.”
Nell growled. “Anyone who touches my cub gets lead in their ass.”
“Mom,” Shane, her seven-foot-tall cub, said.
“Looks like you can’t control your females,” Graham said to Eric without looking at Nell. “What kind of alpha lets women carry weapons and strip themselves for humans? How’d you stay alive this long?”
Eric took his foot off the wolf. The Lupine’s limbs flowed back to human—he was a youngish Shifter, little more than a cub, about the same age as Eric’s son, Jace. He didn’t look up at the other Shifters but lay quietly, breathing hard, his neck a mess of blood. He was naked, which meant he’d charged in fully shifted before Shane and he had even started to fight.
“Who is he?” Eric asked Graham.
“One of my nephews. Name’s Dougal.”
Eric took another step back, indicating he relinquished the disciplining to the culprit’s clan leader. As Shiftertown leader, Eric liked to let each clan take care of their own, intervening only when needed. Whether or not Graham appreciated that, Eric didn’t know or care.
“Take him home,” Eric said. “If he attacks one of mine again, he answers to me.”
“If one of yours attacks one of mine again, I’m taking him out.” Graham shot a glare at Shane before lifting Dougal to his feet by the nape of his neck. “You only have your tracker’s word that my nephew attacked him.”
Shane started to speak, but Eric signaled him quiet. Graham gave Eric one last hard stare before he shoved Dougal, still gripping him by the neck, out of the yard and back down the street.
Neither wolf looked back, but Eric heard Graham growling, “You’d better have good reason for this shit…” before they turned the corner out of sight.
Eric drew a long breath, feeling the twinge of pain around his neck that told him his payback was on its way.
The Collars were part technology, part Fae magic that sent deep pain through a Shifter’s nervous system whenever he or she got violent. Eric had been learning how to suppress the Collar’s reaction, a technique Jace had learned from the Austin Shiftertown leader and had taught to him. Once Eric had it mastered, he planned to teach it to others. He wasn’t as good as Jace yet, though he could stav
e off the pain long enough to finish a fight.
His shirt was ripped and bloody, his jeans and jacket as well. Only his boots had survived his half shift, because his cat feet weren’t as big as his human’s.
Shane looked contrite, but defiance glinted in his eyes. Nell still scowled, the shotgun hanging loosely over her forearm.
“Where the hell did you get that?” Eric asked her.
Shifters weren’t allowed firearms of any kind. Most Shifters didn’t like them anyway, finding teeth and claws more handy. Besides, guns took the challenge out of fighting and hunting—a naturally made kill was much more satisfying.
“Xavier lent it to me,” Nell said. “He’s teaching me how to shoot.”
“He’s an ex-cop,” Eric said. “He knows the laws—is he crazy?”
“Xavier is discreet, and he trusts me.” Nell slid the cartridges out of the gun and put them into her pocket. “Good thing I stopped the fight, because you were about to kill that wolf, and the dominance war would have started. It’s going to be bloody when it comes, but we’re not ready yet.”
Eric’s short temper didn’t want to hear Nell being right. Eric killing Graham’s nephew would have been unforgivable.
“And what if Graham decides that since you have a gun, he’ll arm his own Shifters? Give the damn thing back to Xavier and tell him to keep it out of Shiftertown.”
Nell’s scowl deepened. “Whatever you say.”
“Shane.”
Shane raised his large hands. “Don’t look at me, Eric. The little shit came running in here and decided it would be funny to attack me. I was working on Brody’s truck, bent over the engine…”
If Eric hadn’t been so wound up from the fight, he’d laugh. “He’s not much more than a cub. Why didn’t you stop him?”
“I tried, and then it got out of hand. These wolves are barely shy of feral, Eric. They’re used to living rough.”
Which was going to become an even bigger problem when the bulk of Graham’s Shifters arrived. Graham had moved down here with a handful of Shifters, leaving his second in charge back in Elko until the mass exodus of his Shifters to Las Vegas. Like Graham, they were arrogant, impatient, and this side of feral.
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