“Of course.”
Gaither paused for a moment, likely searching through his contacts, before he rattled off the number.
“And Hunter,” the Elder said before Hunter could hang up on him, “if Mrs. Graham cannot help Kylie with her control, call me immediately. I don’t need to tell you how important she is to the clan, and we, the Elders, will not allow any harm to come to her if it can be avoided.”
“Understood,” Hunter said shortly.
It was going to be a long night, he just knew it.
CHAPTER THREE
Kylie was damned near tears by the time she heard a couple of hard knocks on the front door, followed by her friend, Molly’s, voice announcing her arrival.
“I’m in the bedroom!” she called hoarsely, curling up even tighter as she lay shivering in a fetal position with both fever and lust beneath the comforter.
At this point, her arousal had become dreadfully painful, and she had already gone so far as to bring up Hunter’s number on her phone before forcing herself to shut it off. It was currently lying across the room where she had thrown it in frustration. She prayed that she hadn’t broken it.
“God, your dad wasn’t kidding when he said you sounded pretty bad when you called him,” Molly said with a worried huff as she hurried over to the bed. “Your face is all sweaty and redder than a tomato!”
Kylie lifted her head a bit to focus on her friend. She was relieved to see nothing but plain old worry and a bit of admonishment in Molly’s eyes and not the obsessive, hungry gazes she had witnessed in the club.
“You know I would’ve never called him otherwise,” Kylie said with a grimace.
Molly frowned. “He’s your father, Kylie. I think it’s high time you got over this ‘I’m a burden’ complex you have. If you would have gone in to see him earlier, you probably wouldn’t be feeling as shitty as you look right now. And why is your hair wet? Were you trying to give yourself pneumonia too?”
Kylie made a face. “The nausea hit me so suddenly, I didn’t make it to the bathroom in time. Some of it got on my clothes and in my hair.”
Molly set down a blue gym bag and a small white paper bag onto the bed before sitting down next to them. “I wondered why your dad wanted me bring you a change of clothes, too.”
Because he’s a genius. Kylie hadn’t even thought to ask for clothes.
“Wait, you can tell me later,” Molly said as Kylie started to explain her complete lack of clothing. “You’re shivering so badly that I’m surprised I can’t hear your teeth chattering. Let’s get you changed and then you can take the medicine your dad sent.”
Even in her misery, Kylie couldn’t help but chuckle. “You really do sound like my mom right now.”
Molly snorted then gasped when she realized that Kylie was naked beneath the comforter. “You should’ve at least put your underwear back on!” she fussed.
Kylie shut her eyes tightly and struggled not to groan as the thought of her torn bra made her remember Hunter’s mouth and hands on her breasts, sending a new wave of heat and arousal to her already aching sex.
“Never mind the clothes for now,” Kylie moaned. “I’m about two seconds away from puking again. Can you please go get me a glass of water for the meds?”
The redhead nodded and dashed out of the bedroom. Kylie wasted no time in tearing open the white paper bag and dumping its contents onto the bed. A silver charm bracelet with several oval-shaped charms the size of a dime, a caramel-colored pill bottle, and a small toothbrush tumbled out.
She reached for the toothbrush with a badly trembling hand, praying that it would indeed be her salvation. She squeezed the bristles tightly in her fist, unsure of what to expect.
A few seconds passed with no noticeable affect, and panic began to slowly creep into her mind no matter how much she told herself she was just being impatient. Then from one heartbeat to the next, like blood seeping from a sudden wound, the terrible heat in her body began to rapidly dissipate, and the throbbing between her legs slowly began to ease.
Kylie drew in a deep breath and couldn’t help the sob that burst from deep within her when she realized that she could no longer smell anything other than a faint ghost of Molly’s perfume lingering in the air. It had really worked!
Cautiously, she set down the toothbrush onto the bed and held her breath. When the painful arousal or the strong smell of human did not return after another few seconds, Kylie finally allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief.
Before Molly could come back, she used a corner of the comforter as an added precaution to shove the charm bracelet and toothbrush beneath her pillow, careful not to touch the bracelet with her bare skin. She then reached for the gym bag and began rummaging though the clothes.
She had just finished putting on a pair of underwear and was in the process of pulling a long, pale-blue oversized t-shirt over her head when Molly returned with a glass of water. Kylie was surprised that she had actually found a glass.
“You don’t have anything in your fridge,” Molly announced as she handed Kylie the glass.
Kylie went through the motions of taking a couple of the white “nausea pills” that Paul had sent her, recognizing them as just sugar pills as soon as they hit her tongue.
“The smell from the busted sewage line was just awful,” she replied as she settled herself back down onto the bed and curled up beneath the comforters with a fake groan. “This apartment building belongs to the son of an old friend of Paul’s, so I was lucky just to get in tonight. The movers won’t be bringing my stuff until tomorrow. I was here checking the place out when the nausea hit.”
Hopefully Molly hadn’t noticed that her car was nowhere to be found in the building’s parking lot.
Molly let out a long-suffering sigh. “I really don’t see why you insist on making things so hard on yourself. You should’ve just went back home instead of worrying about finding another apartment.”
“I promised myself I wouldn’t, so I won’t,” Kylie said wearily. True enough, but at least here, her past stubbornness and guilt of accepting too much of Paul’s kindness was a convenient cover for what was really going on. “Thanks tons for bringing me the meds, but you should probably head out before you catch my germs. Trust me, you don’t wanna catch this.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “Yeah, your dad lectured me about staying too long. Apparently, this bug’s been going around for the last few days. He said a few people have even ended up in the ER badly dehydrated from it. More reason for me not to leave you alone.”
Crap! She needed to get Molly out of the apartment so she could try to use her mother’s bracelet before the female jaguar Hunter promised to send arrived. That was a disaster that she absolutely had to prevent. Her future and Paul’s safety depended upon it.
Plus, she didn’t want to have to lie about the shifter’s identity. She was feeling guilty enough as it was about all the lies she had already told her friends.
“Sorry, but I don’t want you missing class on midterms week on my conscious,” Kylie said firmly. “Please, just do this for me. I promise I’ll call you or Paul if I think I might need to go to the ER. I don’t want to miss finals either, you know.”
Molly sighed noisily. “Fine,” she agreed reluctantly, “but I swear if I find you here half-dead in the morning, I’ll never trust your word again.”
“Deal,” Kylie agreed readily. “Besides, I’m sure Paul will come check on me once his shift ends at midnight.”
“That does make me feel better. See you in the morning.”
“But not too early,” Kylie warned, waving a hand weakly at her.
With one final worried look, Molly turned and barely managed to walk a couple of steps before a series of loud knocks sounded at the door. The redhead froze and turned towards Kylie.
“Were you expecting someone else?” she asked curiously.
Kylie made a big show of frowning towards the direction of the front door while inside she was beginning to freak out. Sh
it! She wasn’t ready for the shifter yet! She still hadn’t…
Her right hand inched beneath her pillow. “No,” she lied, “just you.”
“Well, you’ve only just moved in here today,” Molly said. “Maybe it’s someone looking for the previous tenants.”
Before Kylie could reply, a female voice she didn’t recognize yelled through the door loudly, “Kylie! My name is Jennifer Graham. Hunter sent me to see if I couldn’t help you get sorted out. Can you come let me in, or is the door unlocked?”
Molly raised an eyebrow. “Who the heck is Hunter?” she asked with way too much interest.
Kylie groaned. So much for keeping Molly in the dark about her shifter acquaintances. Could anything else go wrong?
“The person who lent me this apartment,” Kylie replied, deciding that the partial truth was best here and not only because she wanted to appease her guilty conscious. Thinking quickly, she added, “I suppose he was just trying to be helpful. Go ahead and let her in on your way out. I should at least thank her for coming face-to-face before sending her on her way.”
“Are you sure? You’re still looking pretty red in the face. I can just tell her you’re too sick to see anyone…”
“They’re doing me a huge favor, so I don’t want to be rude. I’ll survive.”
Kylie slowly sat up again, her eyes flicking anxiously from Molly to the door beyond, afraid that Jennifer would come in without invitation, a disaster to avoid at all costs. She had to stall her, even if only for a few minutes.
“Just let her know I’m sick before you send her back,” she instructed as calmly as she could.
Kylie only prayed having Molly speak with Jennifer would give her enough time to do what needed to be done.
CHAPTER FOUR
As Hunter drove back to Southern Glacier after borrowing Jennifer’s car, he couldn’t help but feel more than a little guilty about leaving Kylie with another—no matter how capable—while she and the situation were still so unstable. However, not only did he need to help his friend with any remaining damage control, for all of their sakes, he also needed to find out whether or not the wolves in Maxim’s security believed he was right about the piece of fabric he had found in his section of the forest.
The wolves had taken the fabric to another room in order to examine it without Hunter and Maxim’s scents getting in the way. However, Kylie’s explosion of pheromones had reached them before the wolves could return with their verdict.
Hunter scowled as his mind drifted back to what Maxim and he had been discussing right before they’d had to dash back among the club patrons in order to diffuse the brawl Kylie had accidentally incited. Sniffers—they couldn’t have breached the city at a worse time.
As Gaither had said, there was no doubt that word of what Kylie had done in the club had already spread among the shifter clans as well as the news that she was a Returner. It would only be a matter of time before both tidbits reached the ears of the lions and they realized both incidents concerned the same person.
Kylie was going to hate it, but there was no way that his clan could let her out of their sight for even a minute now that the Sniffers sent by the lion shifter clan currently trying to invade the region had managed to infiltrate the city. There was no telling how long they had been lurking within the city or what they had been doing, who if anyone they had been meeting.
Even if the Elders didn’t quite believe his suspicions about the lions’ involvement with all the recent disappearances of various shifters in the last couple of years from not only Riverford but also a few nearby towns, the fact remained that the lion clans were known to snatch or hunt the Returners of other clans.
The usual large crowd stood waiting outside Southern Glacier’s entrance, and Hunter felt some of the tension from his shoulders ebb at such a familiar sight. Apparently, Maxim had not been forced to completely close the club for the night as he’d feared.
As soon as the young valet opened his door, Hunter scented the air warily, but only the strong scent of the tiger shifter before him and a weaker combination of the club patrons’ various scents flooded his nose. Not even a trace of Kylie’s pheromones remained.
“Didn’t expect to see you back here so soon,” the valet said with a smirk as he took the keys from Hunter.
Hunter sighed and flashed the young tiger a half-hearted glare. “Don’t go spreading rumors, now. There’s been more than enough trouble tonight without that trouble bleeding into tomorrow, too.”
The valet nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, the boss already lectured us about wagging our tongues, so don’t worry. He hasn’t opened the club back up yet, but it’s okay to go in now. Mr. Clarke should be back in his office.”
“Thanks.”
The sharp smells of ozone and vinegar assaulted him the moment he opened the door to enter the club, though neither was enough to make his eyes or nose burn. He quickly made his way through the empty VIP lounge to one of the employee exits leading to the offices in the back.
The door to Maxim’s office abruptly swung open before Hunter could even reach for the knob. He had probably spotted him through the security cameras.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you back here tonight,” Maxim said, beckoning him into the office.
Hunter grimaced. “You and everyone else, apparently.” He sank into one of the thick, comfortable chairs in front of his friend’s desk and rubbed his nose irritably. “I see you used the ozone generator.”
Maxim perched on the edge of his desk. “I had to. My boys had a hell of a time getting everyone separated and then evacuated even after you dragged your little hellcat out of here. It was like a hundred females had suddenly blasted the place with their mating pheromones. No one could come in at all to start wiping down the place with vinegar without wanting to either rip each other to shreds or run out front to hump the nearest female in the waiting crowd. It was still pretty early, so the sibs and I figured we could salvage tonight by pumping in the ozone for an hour and then running the air through the filters for another. We were finally able to send the staff in for the vinegar wipe down twenty minutes ago.”
“I would say send Gaither the bill, but this one is completely on me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Maxim said with a shrug. “The gods of mischief were probably just bored today. Sasha thought it was hilarious.”
“She would,” Hunter grumbled.
If anyone was a hellcat, it was Maxim’s little sister. He still couldn’t quite believe Sasha had mated so young. She had seemed such a free spirit.
“Dare I even ask what happened after you left?”
“Almost the worst possible thing,” Hunter admitted.
“You slept with her,” Maxim said with a nod.
The fact that Maxim had accepted him mating a practical stranger as if it weren’t a really big deal really irked him. “I said almost,” Hunter growled.
“Really? Don’t tell me you locked her up in your bathroom or something. She’ll have your whole building’s tenants murdering each other in no time with that type of pheromone output! Although—I have to say you have some pretty impressive control if you managed to walk away from that brutal amount of ‘come fuck me’ scent screwing with your brain.”
Hunter ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “I don’t call rolling around with her on the carpet within two seconds of stumbling into my guest apartment, both of us half naked with one of her tits in my mouth, ‘impressive control,” he growled.
Maxim’s shook his head and smirked. “Well, maybe not control, but being able to still tear yourself away with such a delicious, eager meal in your hands shows quite the iron will, my friend. But would it have been so terrible if the two of you had ended up mating?”
“Not you too,” Hunter groaned, letting his head fall back onto the back of the chair momentarily in dismay before lifting it in order to fix the tiger shifter with a hard gaze. “You know why it would have…”
Maxim smiled at him sadly. “I
have my siblings at least. I would wish that you weren’t so alone.”
“Right now Kylie is as fragile and naïve as a newborn kitten. What kind of asshole would I be to drag someone that’s already been traumatized plenty enough into my problems? She’s better off with Jennifer Graham.”
“Is that who you left her with?”
“Yeah. I figured the best thing I could do for her was get as far away from that building as possible. Hopefully Jennifer can help her. At least here I can do something useful.”
Maxim waved him off. “Don’t worry about helping with the cleanup. My staff’s probably almost done, anyway.”
“I owe you big time.”
Maxim reached over and picked something up from his desk. “I think you have that backwards,” he said softly as he held out his hand.
Hunter’s eyes narrowed. It was the piece of fabric that he had left with the wolves earlier.
He reached over and plucked it from Maxim’s hand. “So was I right?”
“Only Jake has actually smelled one of the bastards before when they’ve been in their most natural state. He says that while the scent isn’t an exact match, it’s close enough that he can’t think of what else it could be.”
“Fuck. I found it deep within my territory. It just seems—I don’t know—sloppy? Do you think they know we’re on to them? Are they just toying with us now?”
“Depends on who that scrap of cloth belongs to—or, if deliberate, who left it there for you to find.”
Hunter blew out a frustrated breath. “It could be anyone. Hell, it could even be Gaither.”
“I’m sure he’d be thrilled if you truly thought so,” Maxim said, “but I’d honestly be shocked if he was the one. He just draws too much attention to himself, has his hand in too many pies. There’s no way he wouldn’t have slipped up by now if it were him. For now, just keep an eye on that patch of forest. If that piece of cloth wasn’t deliberately left there, then I sure as hell want to know what the hell they were doing out there. If they’ve somehow managed to find a way to breech our perimeter…”
Tempted by the Jaguar #2: Revelation (Riverford Shifters) Page 2