by Eliza Gayle
“I get it. You know I do. Finding out your mate wasn’t at all who you thought she might be comes with a certain set of—challenges. I literally had to fight for my mate in more ways than one. I suspect it will be even more difficult for you. And speaking of…have you heard anything about their plans here?”
“Considering Kenzie is avoiding me at all costs right now, don’t expect my spy mission to produce any results. Besides, I think I’ve done enough.”
He and Rafe both looked towards the microscope as his Alpha nodded his head. “I agree. Your breakthrough sounds amazing, I only wish it didn’t have to risk lives.”
“That’s an impossibility in science. I think even you understand that.”
“I do. However, if I’m not willing to risk my own mate, how can I ask anyone else to?”
He shook his head. “You don’t. Ask for volunteers. I guarantee more than you think will step forward, even with the risks involved.”
Rafe pushed his hip from the counter and paced toward the exit before turning back. “I’ll think it over and then talk to Bhric and maybe Kane. I trust them more than the council. However, I’m not interested in creating more ‘scientific situations’ like those that you or Niki were embroiled in. We have to tread carefully.”
“That’s why you’re the Alpha. I don’t want that kind of shit weighing on my mind. I can barely take care of myself.”
Rafe looked like he wanted to say more, but after a few seconds he must have changed his mind as he turned away and disappeared through the door. The door he quickly crossed to in order to reengage the locks.
If he was going to keep progressing and take the next steps in his research, he had to make damned sure no one else interrupted him. If Rafe thought that serum might cause trouble for him, he had no concept of what might happen next. Genetics had become a touchy subject in their territory thanks to first, the creators of the engineered white cougar soldiers, and then, the Blackwoods with their desire to use human females and genetic splices to create yet another version of a super soldier.
That information he would hide to his grave. As for his goals…
He just wanted his mate.
And he would do whatever, or sacrifice whatever it took to make that happen.
Chapter Twenty
Kitty took a deep breath and forced herself to knock on Niki’s door. When she’d accidentally overheard her mate Rafe and the Dark Moon leader Bhric talking about a new serum that Simon created, she’d barely been able to breathe.
After so many failed attempts at conception, she had nearly given up ever being able to give Rafe the heir he needed. Then she’d finally gotten pregnant and she’d believed the fight was over. Until she miscarried.
Then again.
And again.
Her mate assured her he didn’t care, but she knew better. That’s not how their world worked. Her mate was the Alpha of the Comyn wolf pack. He needed an heir.
Yes, there was always the chance that his brothers would mate and it looked like if they mated with a human, they would be able to produce children. Then there would be a nephew that Rafe could call on to become the next Alpha when the time came.
Somehow that didn’t erase the pain she felt every time she failed to produce. The intrinsic need she carried to have a child had nothing to do with pack politics or Alpha lineage issues and she wasn’t alone. Female shifters everywhere were suffering.
Now there was a new hope for them and it looked like the men in their lives were going to suppress it “for their own good”.
Fuck that.
The door opened and Niki’s face widened in a dazzling smile. Even with her long, white blonde hair nearly obscured by a dark hoodie, she looked radiant. As one of a very few shifter women left from a scientific lab experiment gone wrong where the females were genetically bred to be the perfect blend of super soldier and alluring woman, she looked amazing no matter what she wore or what condition you found her.
But since her daughter had been born, that beauty had grown exponentially. Motherhood agreed with her. An amazing feat all of its own considering the white cougars had originally been bred to not bear children.
Not that she was jealous. She’d like to think those days were behind her after the hard lessons she’d had to learn. Every time she saw her friend with her child it made her happy. But she did want to see more women in their clans find that joy.
However, there was no denying that Niki was special and meant for great things. Kitty needed some of that Niki magic right about now and hoped her friend would help her.
Niki stepped aside and waved her inside. “Oh my Goddess, come in. I didn’t know you were coming by today. Hannah, is going to be so excited to see her auntie.”
Kitty smiled and walked through the door. “I came by on the spur of the moment. I hope you don’t mind. Rafe is here talking to Bhric and well, something came up and I really wanted to stop by and talk to you. I need your help.” She figured she might as well get to the point. She had no idea how much time she had before Rafe came looking for her. An hour or so maybe? They’d have to move fast.
“Oh yeah? What’s up?” Niki closed the door and walked toward her.
“I kind of overhead Rafe and Bhric talking and well, I need someone with a certain skillset to help me break into Simon’s lab.”
“Uh…”
Kitty swung sharply at the unfamiliar voice and was shocked to find Lara, the cougar witch who’d mated with Kane, the cougar clan guardian, sitting at Niki’s dining room table. “Oh shit. I didn’t realize you had company.”
“Don’t mind me. I’m just killing some time waiting for Kane to be finished with his official business. With Rafe and Bhric.”
Kitty stared at the other woman, dumbfounded to find her sitting in Niki’s home. They hadn’t seen each other in a very long time and only once since she’d gotten into Lara’s face about stealing Kane, the Guardian cougar who she’d once been promised to. She didn’t even know that they knew each other.
“Kitty, Lara, I assume you know each other.”
Kitty nodded. That was kind of an understatement since she’d once considered the other woman her number one enemy.
“It’s been a while.” And thankfully the animosity they’d once had for each other had passed even if they were never going to be best friends.
Now she didn’t know what else to say. In a rush to get Niki on board with her plan, she’d blurted out details that could get her in a lot of trouble.
“So you were saying you want to break into Simon’s lab. Care to elaborate?”
She looked at Lara and then at Niki and shook her head. Fuck. She was going to have to find a different way.
Lara smiled at her. “Don’t mind me. Just because my mate likes to consider himself the supernatural police chief around here doesn’t make me a snitch.”
Kitty choked on a laugh that quickly turned into actual choking from that little statement. Supernatural police chief? Her laugh-coughing worsened. How could it not with that kind of gold dropped into her lap? Good Goddess. Any other day she could have had so much fun with that.
But today she had something far more important on her mind.
“I’m sorry,” she said after she finally got herself under control. “But that was hilarious.”
Lara smiled at her again and Kitty felt infinitely better. Maybe there was more to the woman than she knew. Which wasn’t all that much beyond the fact she was half shifter and half witch. Some of that DNA Lara shared with her. I guess she technically was supposed to call Lara half sister? That about summed up the details she knew about Kane Gunn’s mate.
They shared a demented father. They used to be bitter enemies. And they hadn’t spoken to each other in ages.
Oh boy. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Okay, enough chit chat,” Niki said, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You can’t come in here and declare your intent to break into Simon’s lab and then not follow up with every juicy detail. Wh
at’s going on?”
She hesitated only for a second more. It looked like she’d have to take a leap of faith in more ways than one.
“Well, like I said I ‘accidentally’ overheard Rafe talking to Bhric. It seems Simon has finally found a cure for the female shifter procreation problems. He’s created some sort of serum that could fix everything.”
Niki’s eyes widened and her eyebrows raised with them. She could see the skepticism already.
“How is that possible?” she asked.
Kitty shrugged. “I don’t know, but does it really matter? We’re talking about a cure. Do you realize how much that means to our clans?”
Niki rubbed her head. “Yeah, I do. But why in the world would Rafe and Bhric want to not use it? That doesn’t make sense. They are as desperate for the problem to be solved as the rest of us. It could mean the difference between war or peace within our clans. We all know tensions are at an all-time high in the councils because of this crap.”
She didn’t want to tell them the truth, but Niki was no pushover and if she wanted her help it would have to be based on all the facts.
She stayed silent too long and Lara interjected. “This serum is risky, isn’t it? I can think of no other reason.”
Kitty took a deep sigh. “Yeah. Apparently without shifter trials Simon has no way of knowing for sure if it will have any bad side effects. Although Rafe did say that Simon was fairly confident that it wouldn’t be fatal.”
“Fatal!?” both women said in unison.
Kitty frowned. Why hadn’t she found a softer way to say that? Because she was in the midst of a time crunch and she didn’t have time to be creative, that’s why.
“Look, they talked about finding volunteers. No one would ever force this on us.”
“They wouldn’t have to,” Niki said, narrowing her eyes. “Being unable to produce heirs to their mates makes women desperate. Desperate to try anything. I think I’m starting to get why they don’t want to risk it. Do you really think there is a male shifter out there willing to let his female die in the name of science all because he wants a child?”
Both Kitty and Lara laughed harshly.
“Yes. Maybe not Dean or Rafe or Bhric. But I guarantee you there are plenty out there willing to take a chance. Not every shifter in our clans is honorable like our mates. But forget that for a minute. Put the men and their uber protectiveness aside. Why should they get to make this decision for us? That’s not right.”
Both women nodded and Kitty breathed a tad easier as she saw them move a little more towards her thinking.
“Look, as much as I would like to debate this and take considerable time to contemplate the consequences, we simply don’t have that luxury. That meeting downstairs is going to end before long and this may be our only shot at getting that serum before they do something dumb like destroy it. We’ve got to take our chance while we can, ladies.”
Lara looked at Niki. “She’s right. It shouldn’t be their decision alone. We need to take possession of that cure and then we can take some time and consider.”
“Agreed,” Kitty said. “Are you going to help?”
Niki smirked. “Of course I’m going to help. Just because I feel the need to be the voice of reason doesn’t mean I’m not going to help steal that shit. This is far too good of an opportunity to pass up. I’ve been sitting idle for too long. It’s time I got back to work in some way and this kind of thing is right up my alley. If you two try to do it without me, you are going to get caught.”
Kitty snorted out a laugh. Leave it to her friend to interject a little ego into a heist. Although it was the exact reaction she’d expected. Niki wasn’t one to be left out of any kind of scheme that involved breaking and entering. After all, it was literally in her blood.
A slight pang of guilt jerked in Kitty’s chest. Playing her friend against her weaknesses was just the kind of thing the old Kitty would do and she didn’t want to be that person again. But this was so damned important she had to risk it.
“I just need to drop off Hannah with Sienna and then we can go. Do we know anything about the whereabouts of Simon or what kind of security he has?”
Kitty shook her head.
“Okay, I think we can still work around that. We’ll need a diversion for Simon and I’ll grab some extra equipment from my office that we may need depending on how paranoid the Doc is with his goodies.”
Kitty bit her lip. “I think I have an idea on the diversion. Apparently that female dragon who’s been spotted around town the last few weeks has a connection to Simon. But she’s been avoiding him and that’s making him miserable. We can probably use that to our advantage and kill two birds with one stone.”
Niki lifted her brow again.
“What?” Kitty panned. “Do you know what a pain it is to deal with a grouchy Simon? I thought he was bad after the Blackwood situation, but this is so much worse. If she’s his mate and they need a nudge to make the connection…”
“You are evil, woman! Okay, you do you and I’ll grab my crap. We’ve gotta go.”
As Niki disappeared into her office, Kitty caught Lara staring at her. She tried not to squirm, but her past bad behavior with her and Kane wasn’t that far off from what she planned for Simon and his dragon lady. Although her heart was certainly in a better place.
That should count for something, right?
Right?!
Chapter Twenty-One
Kenzie approached the clinic with trepidation. Whatever emergency Simon had that made him summon her wasn’t going to work. Although she had to admit she was dying to see him.
She’d taken to showing up in town far more than necessary this past week in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him. Not that she enjoyed admitting that she missed him. But she did.
In fact, her pining for him had gotten so out of hand she’d begun convincing herself that they could be friends. Not friends with benefits. That she knew she couldn’t handle. Just friend friends.
Although deep in her mind, in an area she refused to acknowledge at the moment, she knew better. Her feelings for the wolf had grown infinitely stronger with distance.
So far she’d seen him zero times and that was probably in her favor more than she knew. So what if that made her grouchy? Galen could shove his complaints were the sun didn’t shine as far as she was concerned.
Kenzie spied the rooftop of the clinic through the trees and flapped her wings to slow her speed. She hated that every flight she took reminded her of her night with Simon. His ability to trust her as she flew him up the side of the mountain still awed her. Although making him go back down on all four paws hadn’t been her finest hour. Galen told her she was being mean. Although he did laugh about it and she noticed he did nothing to lift a finger to help Simon.
With anticipation running alongside her nerves, Kenzie glided to the clearing around the back of the building and gently reached for the ground until her claws collided with the soft dirt. She immediately took note that a dozen or more trees had been cleared since she was last here that gave her some much needed breathing room for her dragon. Had Simon done that for her?
Her heart softened at the thought.
Maybe he’d been missing her as well. She took a deep fortifying breath and conjured the shift and some clothing as well. When the magic faded, she shook out her hair and ran her fingers through it until it rested across her back and around her shoulders in easy waves.
She refused to acknowledge that her appearance mattered as she rounded the building and approached the front door of the clinic. While there was a back door, she’d noticed last time she was here it was a coded entry. Since this was a friendly visit there was no reason to force the use of that door and instead would use the public entry.
Unlike her last visit, it appeared the clinic was empty of patients. Soft music greeted her in the lobby as well as the perfectly set temperature that suited most shifters. She also noticed a sweet aroma she hadn’t picked up on before. Vanilla m
aybe?
No, sugar cookies. Her stomach grumbled. Too many hours had passed since her last meal and she suddenly found herself ravenous. Maybe if she followed the scent…
Two doors later she found a small break room with an empty oven, an untouched microwave, a large refrigerator, a sink big enough to handle lots of cutlery and a small candle burning inside of a jar. No cookies.
She sighed, disappointment warring with her ravenous hunger. She made a mental note to stop again at that cute bakery in town before heading back up the mountain. She’d need a stash of sweets for her busy days ahead.
While the candle accounted for the delicious aroma, it did not explain why she’d come across no people this far. Where the hell was everyone? Particularly Simon, if he intended to meet with her.
She backtracked to the lobby and took the other hallway she knew led to his office. She imagined him there, hunched over his work, lost in thought and losing track of time. She’d learned a lot about the man who worked tirelessly to help his people in the last several weeks. Particularly to his unfettered devotion to finding a way to help the local shifters procreate.
A sharp pang of guilt hit her in the chest at backing out of her agreement to help him. That had been unkind, but under the circumstances and the mating heat that had been affecting her at the time, she hadn’t thought of strangers being her top priority.
Since then she’d had some time to reconsider her position as well as consult Galen on the possibility of their magic having some kind of influence over the troubles plaguing these clans. They’d both agreed it would be worth looking into, at least on a limited basis. They needed to tread carefully so as not to open a can of worms that would lead to more trouble.
Galen didn’t yet trust the local population and he vehemently believed that she needed to stay away from Simon. To the point he’d continually tried to convince her to return home to Scotland.
She flat out disagreed. This would be her home now. Especially since she’d overheard a conversation between Galen and her other brothers about them all relocating here. Apparently they were planning some kind of gathering that would help them locate mates. Which should prove interesting considering how little humans here knew about shifters.