by Amelia Jade
Her only warning that it was all about to change were the sudden winces and looks of disgust that filled the eyes of the girls that formed their circle. Before Karri could react, she felt hands on her waist.
Oh come on. Why me?
She tried to step forward, to pull away, but the hands were stronger than expected, pulling her close. Whoever it was had absolutely no sense of rhythm, and they bumped and jostled against each other until Karri accepted that just trying to shake him off wasn’t going to work. She spun, finding herself looking way up at the face of her unwanted dance partner.
He was tall, muscular but in a lean, sort of athletic way. He had a light cover of facial hair on his strong jaw. Blue eyes flashed at her and his wavy hair was pulled to one side in the current fashion. In another setting she realized, she might actually find him attractive.
But the drunk look on his face and the unwanted accosting on the dance floor ruined everything for her.
“No.” she said firmly, using her lips to emphasize the word in case he couldn’t hear her over the music. She also shook her head, hoping to get the point across. Once again she tried to remove his hands from her hips, but he kept them there, instead pulling her close.
Having had enough, Karri took both hands, placed them on his chest and shoved, putting her whole body into it. She might not be large, but she’d learned a long time ago how to use her whole body to do things like this. It should have worked, especially with him being drunk.
But it felt more like trying to move a brick wall. She looked up at him once more with sudden understanding. He wasn’t human. He was a shifter. Shifters weren’t common in Cloud Lake, but they were far from uncommon either. It was the first time she’d ever been drunkenly targeted by one of them however, and for good reason. Karri knew that if they got out of line while in the human town, they were in for big trouble once they were sent back to Cadia, the territory where they lived several hours to the east.
This one, it appeared, didn’t realize that.
“Get. Off. Of. Me,” she said.
He just sneered and pulled her close once more.
Karri’s hand rocketed up and slapped him across the face. The whole bar seemed to stop what they were doing as a ripple of awareness of what had just happened spread throughout with her as the epicenter.
The shifter’s eyes turned from one of sexual lust to anger instantly.
“I said, get away from me!” she shouted. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the human bouncers making their way through the crowd. She hoped they knew he was a shifter.
“Come on,” he said, his words slightly slurred. “Jus’ a dance. I promise. That’sss all.”
“No,” she replied, crossing her arms, trying not to gag at the feeling of his hands still on her hips.
Finally the human bouncers arrived. Judging by the caution they showed, she felt relieved to know they were aware of who—and what—they were dealing with.
“Come on, Al. Let’s go. Don’t make a scene,” one of the humans said, cajoling the drunk shifter. “You know it’s not going to end well.”
She tensed as one of them reached out to remove his arms from her sides. The shifter had stayed frozen until then, but at the touch he flung his arm out, sending the human reeling backward into a group of clubgoers, all of whom were standing watching. Then, to her immense relief he stepped back, taking his other hand from her. Then he spun and slammed his balled fist through the nearest table, reducing it to kindling.
The guards apologized to her and escorted him from the building. As he cleared the dance floor the DJ cranked the music back up and the crowd cheered. Several people slapped her on the shoulder, telling her that she’d done well in dealing with him. Each touch made her jump a little more.
“Hey, are you okay?” Kenzie asked, tugging her off the dance floor.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Listen, Kenzie. I’m so happy for you, girl. So happy. But I think I’m going to go home.”
“I understand,” Kenzie said, not looking upset at all. She knew her friend, and she knew when Karri was rattled. “Do you need company?”
She smiled. “No, no. I’ll be fine. Thank you though. You celebrate, and have a drink or three for me, okay? That’s an order!”
Kenzie smiled and cheered as she drained her drink. “I can do that.” They hugged and she said her goodbyes, grabbing her jacket and heading for the entrance.
Outside a cool summer breeze had struck up and Karri pulled the jacket tight to her to help ward off the chill as she walked toward her car. She’d been very careful about consuming little alcohol after the first shot and glass of wine, to ensure that she would be okay to drive. The dancing had burned off a lot of it, and now she craved nothing but a glass of water.
The sun was down and she walked swiftly, not wanting to be out in the cold for longer than necessary. The heated leather seats of her car called out her name, promising luxurious warmth.
She never heard a thing. One moment she was walking alone, the next she was slamming to a halt as a shadow appeared in front of her.
“You know,” a familiar voice said angrily. “What you did back there wasn’t very nice.”
Her blood chilled at the tone of his voice.
“Leave me alone,” she said, trying not to show that she’d lost her resolve. This man was a shifter. A predator. If she showed weakness, he would pounce. She had to appear strong and unbothered by his advances.
At least, that’s what she assumed. Encountering a drunk shifter who wanted to sleep with you wasn’t exactly a course they taught in school.
Karri took a gamble and quickly stepped to the side before accelerating, trying to get past him. A hand reached out and grabbed for her shoulder, but she twisted out of it and broke out into a run. Her car was still the better part of a block away, and the streets were mostly empty. But she ran anyway, her little legs churning as fast as they could. She ran daily, and now she used that experience to propel her farther.
Big footsteps pounded off the pavement, but they never grew closer, nor did they fall back. She frowned after having run half a block. The shifter really should have caught her by now. From what she’d heard about shifters, they were incredibly fast if they chose to be. More so than her, at least. Which meant that he wasn’t really trying to catch up with her. She was being followed, being toyed with.
So Karri came to a halt. That was a mistake. The shifter immediately corralled her into the little alleyway between two of the houses next to them. His face was covered in shadows, but she could still make out the leer on his face as he approached.
Was this really happening to her? The situation began to settle in and fear hit her like a freight train as she accepted that the inevitable was about to happen.
“Listen,” she said, hating the way her voice trembled slightly as she pleaded with him. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Of course I don’t have to,” he sneered. “But I want to.”
She backed away from him. Whether he was drunk or sober, he wasn’t listening to her. If Karri wanted to get out of this before it happened, she would need to get help. Sucking in a deep breath she inhaled, preparing herself to scream.
A hand that felt like it was made of metal clamped over her mouth, gripping her face so tight she thought she could hear her bones creaking under the pressure.
“None of that,” he whispered in her ear. She felt icky warm breath on her skin and her gag reflex kicked in, causing her to retch. With the hand covering her mouth and nose she couldn’t breathe while doing so. It created a weird sensation that made her lightheaded and threatened to knock her out.
No. Not now. Please.
He chuckled nastily and his free hand came up to touch her neck. Karri shivered and tried to kick him, but her foot just bounced off his leg.
Irritated, he took a fistful of her shirt, looking like he was about to rip it off. Heartbeats thundered through her head as she panicked, struggling mightily tryi
ng to get away from him before he could touch her.
No matter how much she twisted and turned though, he had her held tight. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“You aren’t going to get away with disrespecting me like that,” he snarled, hot breath washing over her face. It was warm, sweaty and smelled like rotten garbage mixed with alcohol. “I’m going to break your little neck for that rudeness. Teach you and all the others a lesson.”
Acceptance flooded through her and she sagged, retreating inside her mind without planning it. There was nothing more she could do. He had her. She was dead. Even now her shoulder blades pressed into the brick of one of the houses, the rough pattern imprinting itself on her skin through the thin material.
“Enough.” The single word shot through the dark and cracked like a whip.
The shifter froze in his attack on her. She thought his eyes widened in surprise, with shock and perhaps even fear.
Could it be? Had someone come to rescue her? The voice had spoken with authority. This wasn’t some random person coming to her aid. This was someone who knew her assailant.
“Remove your hands from her,” the voice spoke again, cold and cool. Almost detached, even.
The shifter—Al, she thought she recalled them calling him—stood up straight, removing his hand from her mouth. Karri gasped for breath, falling to her knees, bent over.
“Did he harm you?” The voice was speaking to her now. She could see the booted feet of her rescuer, black-clad in the darkness, but she dared not look up. Al was still in between them, though he’d spun to face the newcomer.
“Look, A—”
“If I want you to speak, I will tell you to speak,” the voice snarled threateningly.
“I-I’m okay,” she stuttered. “He didn’t really get to any more than cornering me, if that’s what you mean.”
“Hey, she said—”
Karri wasn’t sure what happened next, but the next thing she knew her attacker was lifted from his feet, something like bone sounded like it was snapped, and then he was tossed back out onto the street, screaming in pain.
“I apologize for his actions,” the voice said, softer. “I wish we were all better than that, but like you, some of us are violent too.”
Then, without hesitation the booted feet turned and walked down the alley back to the street. Karri watched as her rescuer reached down, grabbed one of her assailant’s legs and then walked off down the street, dragging his charge with him. The attacker screamed and cried out in pain the whole time.
Karri waited in her little kneeling ball until the cries had faded into the distance. Then, and only then, did she rise, attempting to still her trembling arms as relief overcame her.
She was safe. She’d escaped mostly unharmed. Somehow. Her sense of security was shattered though, and she jumped at every shadow during the run to her car. Only when she was home, in her house, doors locked and security system engaged, did she allow herself to curl up in her bed with a tub of ice cream.
The day hadn’t started well, and now it hadn’t ended well either.
What the hell was tomorrow going to bring?
Chapter Three
Andrew
He tossed the wolf shifter across the floor, not even bothering to look when he slammed into one of the marble columns and cried out in pain. They were back within his domain now. Every move that he made was calculated, such as where he’d thrown Al.
“What the fuck were you thinking, Al?” he snapped, his voice echoing through the room.
They were in the lobby of the Cadian embassy.
In reality it was the lobby of the old Mineshaft Motel, an old building that the Cadians had acquired to use some time before. Once its original purpose as a headquarters for their fight against rival shifters had been no longer needed, they’d turned it into a place of peace, instead of war.
An oval reception desk greeted anyone who walked in through the large double doors. Dual staircases lined the walls to either side, a grand look for a motel that must have been quite prominent back in the golden age of Cloud Lake, during the prospecting and subsequent gold-mining rush that had filled the mountains just to the east a century or two ago.
Andrew Raskell hadn’t been around for that, but he could appreciate the old-style beauty brought back to life by the tireless efforts of the various shifters who had inhabited it. The bear shifters who had been there before him had done a decent job, but he’d been working hard at it in the two years since they’d turned it over to him to bring back some of the original shine as well.
After all, if he was to be the Cadian Envoy to Cloud Lake, his embassy had to look the part. Now though, he stalked across the marble floor and once more picked up Al by his broken leg and began to drag him. They moved into the back right of the lobby, where a flick of Andrew’s hand sent the wolf shifter bouncing down a set of stairs.
Before he’d reached the bottom two massive bear shifters had poked their heads around the corner to see what the commotion was.
“Put him in a cell,” he ordered the guards. “And don’t be gentle.”
Grins spread across their faces, and he heard Al begin to shout once more, trying to stop them. The shouts turned to squeals of pain as thick hands gripped his battered and bruised body.
Andrew hadn’t been overly gentle in bringing the would-be killer back to the embassy.
Now he let his lips turn up slightly in a smile as he headed back to his office, the false smile a mask for the anger and frustration that seethed within him. It had been close. Too close.
Dammit, he’d told them not to allow Al into Cadia. He’d rejected several applications, making it very clear that he knew if the wolf shifter was allowed into Cloud Lake, that he would cause trouble for the human residents. It was obvious to anyone with half a brain! Yet somehow the mongrel had wrangled up enough political support back home to ensure that they could find a way to pressure Andrew into signing off on the application.
All potential visitors to Cloud Lake from Cadia were screened rigorously, and only ones who appeared as if they would be able to mesh well with humanity were allowed out. As it turned out, that wasn’t very many of them. There were perhaps two dozen shifters in Cloud Lake at any given time under his jurisdiction, not including his embassy staff. That staff consisted of him, the three guards, and two assistants to help him with the ridiculous amounts of paperwork that always seemed to pile up.
Personally he thought they were there to watch over him, to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Not that he could tell anyone that, though. That was the whole game of politics. To say what you wanted and then get it, without actually saying it.
Andrew hated politics.
Still, he’d been learning to play the game. Slowly, and with a lot of catching up to do. But as a gryphon shifter, he could comfortably expect to live for another three centuries, if not four if nothing untoward happened to him.
Plenty of time to play catch-up with these pompous assholes.
Assholes who would likely have died off before he even felt somewhat confident playing their game. Alas, that was the life for the shorter-lived shifters. If he ever got too angry with them, Andrew just contented himself with the gentle reminder that he only had to deal with them for a few more decades at most.
Though they’ll probably be replaced by others who are just as bad.
That sobering thought did absolutely nothing to improve his mood. Nor did it help him deflect the decision that he would have to make regarding Al. The worst offense a shifter could commit while in human territory was to kill a human. In all honesty, while Andrew didn’t want anyone to die, the ugly truth was, if Al had just gone and done that, it would have made everything so much simpler. If he’d killed a human, Andrew would have killed him. Easy, end of story.
But Al hadn’t done that. In fact, he hadn’t technically committed a crime. That was where the technicality—and Andrew’s frustration with the whole scenario—lay. If he’d come upon Al any later,
he could have charged him with murder, and that also would have been sufficient to end him. Al was a shitty excuse for a wolf shifter—and that was saying a lot!—but Andrew had to play by the rules. Technically Al had assaulted her, not killed her, and even the assault bit was tricky to prove, since he’d done little more than shove her up against the wall. Everyone in their right mind knew what the shit-stain had been intending to. The first thing he’d had to do was stop the attack from happening. After he’d known he would have to deal with Al, but at the time, stopping the human woman from suffering any further was priority number one.
Now though, he had to decide what punishment to mete out.
“I hate this job sometimes,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair.
The office chair creaked, but it didn’t explode as his powerful bulk shifted position in it. He eyed the pile of plastic shards in the corner that were the remnants of several flimsy folding plastic chairs that were all he’d had to use at first. Now at least he could lean back while he contemplated what to do. Unfortunately, that was the worst part of it. As the Cadian envoy to Cloud Lake and the one who had witnessed the attack, it was entirely on Andrew’s shoulders to decide what punishment he handed out.
Did he end the wolf and remove his stain from existence? Or did he just beat him silly and send him back to Cadia? If it were anyone else, he would probably have gone with option number two. But Al was a different problem. Al was connected back in Cadia. He had friends in high places, the same friends who had forced Andrew into giving him permission to come here in the first place. So if he sent him back with instructions to imprison him there, he doubted the orders would ever even be carried out.
Al escaping punishment was not an option.
That left ending him then, didn’t it? Andrew unhappily looked up at the ceiling. He had killed before, and would likely do it again. But he’d had enough killing. Too many shifters had died when the rival shifter territory of Fenris had tried to invade Cadia. Thousands of them had perished. Andrew didn’t want to be responsible for more death, even if it was in regard to a scumbag like Al. Plus there were those connections to consider. If he killed Al, who knew what they would do to him once they found out.