Eric smiled up at her, his flash of teeth predatory. “That’s where the real Shifter houses are. Downstairs. We like burrows. Especially the bears. Sometimes, in deep winter, getting Shane and Brody to come out is a hell of a job.”
Iona didn’t laugh. “I’ve never heard of this.”
“It’s not something Shifters share. That’s why you tell no one.” He pinned her with a stare.
“Not tell my crew why they’re digging the foundation so deep? They’re not stupid or blind.”
“Shifters will do that work,” Eric said. “We’ll cover it up. We’ve done this before. Your job is to get an altered set of plans into the hands of your head builder and make him think there’s nothing wrong.”
He looked up at her, his eyes warming. Iona realized that she leaned over him, her bare arms and half-bare breasts about an inch from his face. Eric didn’t bother pretending not to look, his gaze sinful.
Iona stood up and rubbed her arms, the itch returning. “That’s all? Give him altered plans and make him think there’s nothing wrong with them?”
“I have Shifters who can redraw them for you. They’ll look legit. And the original, real plans will stay with the human committee and be public record.”
“The guys we hire aren’t stupid,” Iona said. “They’ll know something’s wrong.”
“Be persuasive. And their bank accounts will have some nice bonuses in them, far more money than the humans will pay.”
Iona thought about her foreman, who’d worked in Las Vegas, a city once run by criminal families, his entire life. If people wanted hidden rooms in their houses or hotels, he probably wouldn’t blink, nor would he bother to tell anyone about the sudden influx of money to his checking account.
“Shifters are going to come up with this money?” Iona asked. “You all lived in poverty in the wild and aren’t allowed to have high-paying jobs, right?”
“You let me worry about that,” Eric said.
“You’re seriously trusting me.”
“I have to. I have no choice.” Eric stood up. “Sit here. I’ll show you exactly what we need.”
Iona’s body kept flushing hot, then cold, like she had a fever, and she was hungry again. The finger food from the reception wasn’t cutting it. A gallon of beer wouldn’t go down too badly either.
Eric leaned over the plans, his torso close enough for her to lick. She wanted to lean into him, fasten her teeth in his shirt, maybe tear it to little shreds with her panther teeth to get to the man inside.
His gaze flicked to hers. “You paying attention?”
“Sure.” Iona licked her lips. “Sure.”
The hunger, the itching, the heat—she knew what it was. Need for Eric. She didn’t want a big, juicy burger; she wanted to devour him. If she rubbed herself all over him, that might soothe her burning skin, her boiling blood.
She reached out and covered his big hand with hers. It was so warm, so strong. Iona raised his hand to her lips and kissed his palm.
“Eric,” she whispered.
“I know,” Eric said, voice low. “I know—”
The door of the office slammed open and a large man Iona had never seen before barreled in. His dark hair was buzzed ultra short, his eyes were gray and glittering, and flame tattoos wound around muscular arms bared by a short-sleeved T-shirt and biker vest. A Collar hugged his neck, but even if he hadn’t worn one, everything about him, including his rife scent, screamed Shifter.
Eric was up from the desk and in front of him before Iona could rise or ask what hell he was doing there. The Shifter met Eric face-to-face, not even glancing at Iona.
“What are you doing here, Warden?”
“Get out,” Eric said.
“Fuck you. My trackers say you’ve been coming here and talking to the women who own this company. You sleeping with one of them? All of them, maybe? To get them to do what you want—and to help you screw over me and my wolves?”
Eric tried to force the other Shifter back out the door, but the big man wasn’t budging. “Is she one of them? Not bad. I get why—”
McNeil stopped, his eyes fixing on Iona and becoming white gray. He inhaled once, sharply. “Son of a bitch. She’s Shifter.”
Eric’s snarl rumbled through the trailer. He blocked the other Shifter with his body, his teeth becoming Shifter, lips pulling back from fangs.
McNeil’s eyes lit with feral fire. “Fair game,” he said, triumph in his voice.
Eric swung to Iona. His eyes were shining green, his pupils black slits. “Iona Duncan, I claim you as mate under the Goddess and before a witness.” He spoke rapidly, drowning out the growls of Graham McNeil, who was trying to get around him.
“I Challenge,” McNeil said.
The two Shifters faced each other again, both bulking large, barely containing their shift. McNeil’s hands grew coarse black hair, claws like thick needles sprouting from spread fingers. Both Shifters’ eyes were glittering, primal.
They weren’t men anymore—they never had been. The beasts of their true selves shone through, uncaring of human rules and restrictions, of anything civilized. They were males confronting each other over a very basic conflict—wanting a female.
Graham spoke, his voice guttural. “Name the time and place, Warden.”
“Fight club. Tomorrow night.”
“Done.”
They remained in place, neither giving way. Graham’s Collar sparked once, but Eric’s stayed silent.
Though they didn’t move, tension crackled between them. At any second, one might strike, and then the fight would be on. To the death.
Iona didn’t know how she knew this, but every nerve hummed it. She came around the desk and shoved her way between the two Shifters.
It was a scary place to be, but Iona put her back to Eric and glared up at Graham. “Get out. You’re trespassing. Go before I call security.”
Graham, as though he just now noticed that Iona stood in front of him, switched his gaze to her.
His eyes were terrible. McNeil’s irises had become very light gray, almost white, the red rage of his wolf glowing in the black of his pupils. His lips curled back from fangs, and his stare skewered her like a rabid dog’s on a rabbit.
Iona kept her head up and returned his gaze, somehow knowing that if she looked away, he’d crush her, even with Eric standing there. Graham growled low in his throat, and Eric gave him an answering growl.
Finally Graham moved his gaze from Iona to Eric. “Tomorrow night. Then I take her away from you.”
Eric said nothing. His enraged snarls filled the room, his body vibrating against Iona’s back.
Graham kept his gaze on Eric as he took three steps backward to the door, then he turned, contemptuously, and made his exit, slamming the door behind him. Iona heard his footfalls, the rattle of the fence, then a motorcycle started up and glided away.
Iona swung around. “Eric, what…?”
She stopped, her words dying. She’d never seen Eric like this, his eyes blank with rage, his body so tight that when he moved his head to look down at her, it was like he bent his neck on a stiff hinge.
“Get the blueprints,” he said, voice harsh and strange. “We’re going.”
“Going where?”
“Home,” Eric said. “My home. In Shiftertown.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Eric’s entire body hurt as he half dragged Iona in that luscious dress out of the office and toward her red pickup. She had the blueprints in a tube under her arm and was still protesting.
“You said yourself I can’t go to Shiftertown,” she said. “Shifters will know I’m Shifter, remember?”
“I mate-claimed and scent-marked you. They’ll know you’re my Shifter.”
“But you scent-marked me before and still told me to stay away.”
Eric yanked the keys out of her hand and unlocked and opened the truck. “That was when no one knew about you but me. Graham won’t keep his mouth shut, and he’s right. You’re fair game.”
“
You just said all the Shifters will know you mate-claimed me.”
Eric stopped and faced her. “Iona, listen to me. You’re part of no pride and no clan. You’re unprotected, even with the mate-claim. If I’m not constantly with you to support my claim, others can cut you out and steal you away. Remember when I told you Shifters liked the chase and the capture? You’re fresh blood, ripe for the plucking. In Shiftertown, you’ll stay in my house where you’ll be protected by me, my sister, and my son, the three most powerful Shifters in Las Vegas.”
Iona started to answer, and Eric all but shoved her into the pickup, telling her to slide over so he could drive. She lost hold of the tubes, and Eric grabbed them and dropped them behind the seat.
The pickup roared to life, Iona frantically tugging at her seat belt before Eric shot out of the gate he’d opened.
Iona protested about leaving the gate open behind them, but Eric didn’t slow. He’d send Jace and Shane back to pick up Eric’s bike, lock the place up, and go to Iona’s house to fetch clothes and whatever for her.
“What about the human side?” Iona said as they raced down the street. “They’ll arrest me. They might arrest my mother…”
“As far as the humans know, you’re human. Graham hates humans more than he hates me, and my Shifters will obey me. We’ll say I met you when I came to see you about the Shifter houses. I liked you, invited you to shack up with me in Shiftertown, and you came along. You wouldn’t be the first human to do that.”
“Shack up with you in Shiftertown,” Iona repeated. “Don’t make it sound so glamorous.”
Eric laughed. His blood was up, his body pulsing with excitement. He’d made the mate-claim, and she was his, this glorious, beautiful, lush-bodied woman.
“Only until we get this sorted out,” Iona said sternly. “I told you, I’m not giving up my entire life to live in Shiftertown.”
She would. But Eric would deal with that later. My mate. My mate. My mate.
“What fight club?”
Eric blinked, realizing that Iona was talking to him, and that he’d gone several intersections without noticing. He slowed the truck, trying to calm down.
“Shifters fight each other in organized matches to blow off steam. Humans forbid it; we don’t listen. I pretend I don’t notice my Shifters slipping off to fight each other illegally. They know I know, but we don’t talk about it.”
“What will your Shifters do when you show up in their secret club tomorrow to fight this McNeil?”
“They’ll live with it. I have to fight him there, because what happens at the fight clubs doesn’t count as a dominance change.”
“Dominance change? Which means?”
“If I lose the fight, it doesn’t mean McNeil gets Shiftertown. Nothing in the hierarchy changes. But I won’t lose.”
“But if you do lose, he thinks he gets me?” Iona’s glare intensified. “This is the twenty-first century. You don’t do battle over a woman, and I’m not meekly submitting to whoever wins.”
“I will win. And even if I didn’t, you could reject his mate-claim.”
“Then I reject it now! Take me home.”
“You can’t reject him until the Challenge is settled, and you still need to be protected. I won’t lose, Iona.”
“You’re saying I’m supposed to sit around and wait while you two fight over me? Forget it. I’m not playing.”
“It’s not play. It’s deadly serious. When I win this fight, the other Shifters will know they’ll have to Challenge me for you, and they won’t dare.”
Eric knew that Graham didn’t really want Iona—he’d made it clear he’d mate only with a Lupine and wouldn’t taint his line with a Feline. Graham had Challenged for Iona simply because he wanted to take her away from Eric.
A Shifter could mate-claim a female, even officially mate with her under the sun and moon ceremonies, and then never use her to make cubs. Pride and pack leaders of old had kept their packs and prides in line by mate-claiming all females not related to them and doling them out to the other males when they reached their mating years. Graham seemed the type to keep up that old tradition if he could.
Eric tasted the primal excitement of the rivalry. He hadn’t felt like this about a female since Kirsten, a need for a mate he thought he’d never experience again. He’d told himself he’d been keeping quiet about Iona all these months to protect her, but in truth, he was as old-fashioned as Graham, sequestering Iona from prying eyes while he worked on winning her. He laughed.
“Eric!”
Eric came out of his reverie to avoid slamming into a truck stopped in front of them.
“Maybe I should drive.” Iona was already halfway out of the truck.
“Don’t try to run away from me, Iona. I’d just have to catch you again.”
No, let her run. Hunt her. Bring her in…
Eric shut off the thought.
Iona didn’t run anywhere. She came around to the driver’s side, and Eric slid over for her. Another driver whistled as Iona climbed into the driver’s side, the slit in her bridesmaid’s gown riding up her thigh. Eric barely stopped himself from leaping out and ripping out the guy’s throat.
Iona put her foot to the gas and glided the truck down the road again. “I’m not going to run away. I like my truck. Besides, the sooner we resolve this, the sooner I can get back to my normal life.”
Eric sat close enough to her to touch her, loving the way her body moved beneath the satin gown. “You won’t have a normal life ever again. Your mating hunger is calling to you. You can’t fight it forever.”
“Not the best sales pitch you could make.” Iona gripped the wheel and turned through streets without asking directions, heading north to Shiftertown.
Iona had driven past the Las Vegas Shiftertown before, unable to stem her curiosity about it, though she’d never been through its gates. She’d seen that, behind the high chain-link fence, Shiftertown was a grid of streets with small, neat homes.
The fact that the gates were left wide open, the fence not topped with barbed wire or anything, had always made her feel better. The fence and gates were more symbolic than imprisoning.
A number of Shifters seemed to have motorcycles, she saw as she followed Eric’s directions down a street a block away from the gates. She also saw that, though it was dark and around dinnertime, Shifters were out and busy, some carrying boxes from house to house, some stacking furniture on front porches.
“They’re moving in with their families and neighbors,” Eric said to her curious glance. “Doubling up because Graham’s Shifters get here day after tomorrow. Stupid humans wouldn’t wait for the houses to be built.”
“We can get them done quickly,” Iona said. “But that still means a couple of months.” She slowed and turned where Eric indicated. “The new Shifters arrive day after tomorrow? After your fight?”
“Why do you think I picked tomorrow night? Graham and his seconds will have to follow the rules of the Challenge and the fight club, but I wouldn’t trust the bulk of his wolves not to do something dumb-ass while he fought me.”
Iona was surprised. Eric had been in a flat rage when he’d faced Graham in her office, ready to kill him. He’d made no sign that he’d been coolly calculating the best time for the fight. “Do you always plan everything so carefully?”
“I do, my love. Remember that.”
Iona pulled into the driveway of a long, low house with a deep front porch that looked little different from its neighbors—except that the driveway and yard of this house were full of Shifters.
In the center of the driveway, standing in front of Iona’s pickup as she halted it, was a tall blond woman who was obviously pregnant. She stood shoulder to shoulder with a Latino human, and another Latino, resembling him, stood next to him. A younger version of Eric stood at the tall woman’s other side.
Two enormous men came to flank the truck. They were accompanied by a dark-haired woman who was a bit smaller than them but no less intimidating.
<
br /> Eric hadn’t called anyone after Graham had gone and before they’d left the office. He’d helped Iona roll the blueprints into the tubes, and then he’d hustled her out the door and opened the gates. That meant Graham McNeil must have alerted the Shifters that Iona was on her way.
Iona set the brake, but she didn’t turn off the truck’s engine. She doubted she’d be able to ram the truck through the surrounding Shifters, but it never hurt to be prepared.
Eric got out, unworried, and came around to the driver’s side of the cab. He reached in, shut off the truck, and took the keys, then opened the door and held out his hand to Iona.
Swallowing, Iona got out.
It was dark without the truck’s headlights, though a small porch light on this house and the one next door provided some illumination. But Shifters didn’t need light—they could see fine in the dark. Iona knew they were all scenting her, knowing she was half-Shifter, knowing she’d been all over Eric, and Eric all over her.
Eric led Iona to the younger man. “Jace,” he said. “This is Iona Duncan. Tonight, I mate-claimed her. Iona, Jace Warden, my son.”
Jace was no kid—he was a full-grown adult. He had the same hard build and dark brown hair as Eric, and he looked back at her with his father’s measuring green stare.
“Iona,” Jace said before she could speak. “I acknowledge and respect the claim.”
The next thing Iona knew, Jace had opened his arms and folded them tightly around her.
Iona started, but Eric’s hand warmed her back. “It’s all right. Hug him. You’re supposed to.”
Tentatively, Iona brought up her arms to return the embrace. Then Jace really hugged her, pulling her in so tight that her breath left her. Her nose picked up how similar his scent was to Eric’s and yet had a unique character of its own.
Jace was grinning when he released her. “Welcome to the pride, Iona. Dad, I commend your taste.”
Eric took Iona by the shoulders and moved her to the pregnant woman, who was regarding Iona with great interest.
“Cassidy Warden,” Eric said. “My sister and my second.”
“I acknowledge and respect the mate-claim,” Cassidy said, sounding delighted.
Mate Claimed su-4 Page 11