The young woman visibly straightened, giving a little shiver. Humans joked a spirit walked through them when that happened, when it was usually energy from one to another. When she turned her head, Shain approached her, tracing his fingertips under her forearm.
“Hello again,” he said in his deepest, most seductive voice. He came around and locked eyes with her, an essential tactic in order to use his power of persuasion to its fullest.
“Oh,” the hostess breathed, eyes dilating. A sign he already had her cooperation. “Hi, again.”
He didn’t want to break eye contact to look at her nametag. “What’s your name?”
She swallowed. “Maria.”
Every Maria he’d ever met was sweet as she was passionate. “Maria. I need your help and you need mine. If we can help each other, I would be eternally grateful.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, what can I do for you?”
“There’s a…dog in one of your restrooms. I’m not sure how it got there, but I’m certain you don’t want your customers to see an animal coming out near the kitchen.”
“Omigod. A dog? Really?”
No, a beautiful metallic gray wolf with white feet and gorgeous eyes, but I can’t be honest with you. “Yes. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. I’m going to pull my car up to the back doors. I need you to stand guard and make sure no one comes around.”
“O-okay.”
“How can I sneak her—uh, it—out with minimal trouble from the rest of the staff?”
“Um, the freight doors, where we get our shipments. It’s past the kitchen, so you won’t have to go through there.”
He held her gaze for a few more seconds. “Perfect. Come with me.”
She followed, and ignored Andy the bartender when he asked what was up. Once they got to the family restroom, Shain slowly opened the door.
Maria gasped. “Is that a…?”
Before she could scream, Shain came up behind her and covered her mouth, crooning soft words in her ear. “It’s a dog. A unique breed.”
She instantly melted into him, his words doing their magick, persuading her to believe him over her own eyes. He removed his hand, and she nodded. “Oh, I see.”
For fuck’s sake. Had she screamed, every man in the joint would be in the hallway, and that would’ve been unfortunate. “Stay here and guard her. I’ll be but a minute.”
Kimber growled as he grabbed his umbrella from the corner and closed the door.
Maria looked up at him worriedly. To put her at ease, he captured her hand and kissed the top of it. “Wait for me,” he whispered.
The whimper from Maria told him she would. He whipped open his umbrella with a curse.
Out of the café, out to the parking lot, a roar of his Range Rover’s engine, and he was speeding around to the rear, spotting the double doors she spoke of. He left his car running and shot for the doors, finding them unlocked.
The moment he walked in, he was face to face with Andy.
“Hey man, what do you think you’re doing?”
Not another one. He slapped a hand on the man’s shoulder and caught his gaze. “Nothing’s wrong. Go back to the bar. I’ll be gone before you’re done polishing one glass.”
Andy’s brows shot down for a moment due to his natural resistance, but Shain continued his stare. The bartender’s eyes dilated as he nodded. “Yeah. Fine.”
Hopefully, he was the last obstacle. Finding his way back to the restroom, Shain found Maria with the door open a crack, staring into the restroom. She gave a start when he touched her elbow and stood back while he took her place.
From there, it could be smooth sailing or a shit show. He didn’t have a leash—not that Kimber’s wolf would tolerate one for a second—so she’d have to follow him to the car. He didn’t know what the hell he’d do if she ran.
He went in, closing the door partially. “Kimber.”
She jumped up, scratching the wall.
“I’m your way out,” he said, waiting until she met his eyes. Though they weren’t her beautiful light blue, part of her was looking through them. Every time their eyes met, he felt a kick in his gut, like confirmation she understood. “Follow me?”
The wolf bowed her head in graceful acknowledgement.
Incredible. Why did his kind want to kill these creatures again? He couldn’t remember or fathom at the moment.
“Um, sir?”
He snapped out of it, pulling the door open and smiling at Maria. “We’re ready.”
Her eyes dilated more, a blush coloring her cheeks. “I went and told a few others you’re a friend of the owner, and that you stopped by to see him to like, show him your cool dog. No one should give you any problems.”
Grateful for her cleverness, he caressed her cheek and emitted some of his sensa for her to absorb, to give her that incomparable giddy feeling all day. “Thank you, Maria.” He grabbed Kimber’s clothes. “Come on, girl.”
With a parting wink to Maria, he started down the hall and let out a sharp whistle. He was relieved when Kimber came out behind him. His heart thudded with every step. All it took was one vampire to see Kimber’s wolf, or one scream from a human, and the situation could turn sour. It was a short walk to the freight doors, but took an eternity to get there.
“What the fuck!” A server leaped out of the way, sloshing water on the floor from the pitcher.
Shain ignored him and pushed through the freight door, holding it open for Kimber while sliding on his sunglasses. “This way.”
She jumped down to the ground.
He opened the back passenger door. “In here.”
Her hesitation concerned him. “You both need to trust me now.”
Heads peeked out of the door, one by one, as Kimber’s wolf sprung onto the backseat. He shut the door, then gave the nosy kids a casual salute before getting in the driver's side.
“Now what?” he muttered. Driving out of the park, he looked up in the rearview mirror. “This is a first for me, you know. A wolf in my Rover. If only my allies could see this…”
He drove around the city for a while, but Kimber remained in wolf form, seemingly enjoying him chauffeuring her in circles. His eyes watered, burning. Even with the clouds and the limo tint on his windows, the UV rays were getting to him, that ick feeling that his vitality was draining making itself known.
Where could he take her so they’d both find sanctuary?
It hit him, almost as if the gods smacked him with the answer.
As he sped beyond city limits, his eyes dry and tired, he hoped he remembered the directions. It’d been years since he’d been in the area. Kimber perked up as soon as the air changed from city smog to fresh pine, letting out a bark akin to approval. Everything clicked once he saw the sign for the diner, and after half a dozen turns toward the woods, he pulled in the overgrown drive.
The house had changed little since the last time he saw it. A long-abandoned, small, two-story wrapped in vines and branches.
The moment he opened the car door, Kimber sprang from her seat.
“Hey.”
She stopped and looked at him.
“Come back to me when you’re done.”
His shiya trotted away, as though to tell him she was just happy to be out of the car, and didn’t intend to run.
Once she was out of sight, he yanked the rusted padlock from the front door and went inside. Cobwebs, critters, dust…it wasn’t the most welcoming refuge, but he’d had to find cover in worse conditions than this.
That piercing noise behind his eyes set in like a train slamming on its brakes, just as he plopped on his back on the kitchen island, hands on his stomach, bending one knee, closing his eyes. The darkness settled on and around him like a blanket.
If someone would’ve told him he’d be hiding in the country, waiting for a shiya to come back to human form, he would’ve laughed them out the door. With a kick to their ass.
Sleep claimed him before he debated if it was wise to sleep.
Late
r, he woke with a start, sitting up.
How late was it? He checked his cell phone. The service was practically nonexistent—one bar that flashed in and out—but he was relieved to see it’d only been a couple hours.
Feeling better, he slid off the kitchen counter, swiping dust from his shoulders and arms. A tingle at the back of his neck slowed his movements.
Shain.
Kimber called for him, but it sounded so soft, so far, almost as if he heard it in his mind, and not with his ears.
Every day it was like their connection transformed even more.
He went outside and waited on the front steps.
The sun set, casting an orange hue over the sky.
When he saw a feminine figure in the distance, his pulse thrummed in awareness. Nude, walking with the elegance of a goddess, Kimber emerged from the trees. Leaves were caught in her tresses, dirt marked her knuckles, and yet he couldn’t imagine a more earthy, beautiful vision.
She stopped a good twenty feet away, seemingly nonchalant about her nudity; though, why would she care? He’d buried his face in her, after all.
“How did you know?” she asked. “To bring me here?”
“Instinct.”
She looked confused. “Really?”
“I don’t know how else to explain it. Something told me being surrounded by nature is where you would want to be.”
“And you waited.”
“Of course, I did. I’m a gentleman first, remember? I would never leave you alone in the middle of nowhere. Naked.”
By the gods. So naked. He swallowed the frenetic desire building inside, trying to maintain that gentleman status by keeping his eyes from drifting lower than her collarbone.
“Thank you,” she breathed. “For not running away.”
Was she that surprised? What kind of behavior was she used to? “No man should ever run when you need him.”
Her eyes flashed that distinctive yellow, her raw energy pouring toward him like an oncoming flood.
“Kimber?”
She jumped into his arms before Shain could think, her strong legs winding around his waist. He stumbled back a few steps before getting his bearings, steadying their momentum before they could fall to the ground. Her lips locked on his, a desperate kiss.
He pushed her against the car door, his shaft swelling with need. It’d feel so good to free his cock and sink into her right now, legs spread, all naked flesh against him. But did she want that too, or was she just caught up in gratitude?
For some unknown reason, he didn’t want it to be the latter, didn’t want grateful sex against a cold car.
Kimber wasn’t just some woman he wanted to hook up with anytime, anyplace. Sex with her would not be for sustenance, or habit, or for the sake of lust.
He’d meant what he said: He wanted hours, he wanted to take his time, he wanted her to beg him before he was inside her.
With that, he drew back and released his hold.
She appeared dreamy, but bewildered. He was, too. Since when would he ever stop a woman from jumping his bones? Literally? He traced his fingertips down her cheek, neck, around the side of her breast, to her hip.
She shivered with a gasp.
With the strength of a god, he stepped away and opened the car door to retrieve her clothes. “I should get you home,” he said, voice rasp and unrecognizable, even to him.
Almost as if snapping out of a reverie, Kimber looked at the clothes in his hands, then nodded, taking them.
“Whose house is this?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It’s been for sale for a while.”
“How far are we from Atlanta?”
“Less than an hour north.”
She walked past him toward the house and dressed with no sense of urgency. “More than a world away.”
Unfulfilled desire continued to hum, warning him it would detonate if he didn’t get her away from him soon.
But of course, he followed.
“What a shame,” she murmured, looking around. When he came in after her, she added, “Single shiyas and shiefs live in studios and bungalows, built in a row like a motel. I’m the oldest one still living in one of them. The thirty-year-old bookkeeper who won’t take a mate.”
“Don’t you live on a vast plot of land that you share and can roam at your leisure?”
“On ten thousand uncorrupted acres of Wisconsin’s best.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Still feels like confinement. Everyone knows your every move. Everything is shared with the pack. Your talents, your income, your food, your secrets. It’s almost impossible to be left alone. No real privacy.”
“Where do the married couples live?”
“Anywhere they want. They can buy a house off pack property, away from headquarters, if they choose to. None do. They build small homes where the alpha approves, or they move into an empty one. The support system is too good. Practically free daycare, food, utilities. As long as you follow pack rules, contribute, and share. If I meet my mate, we’ll move as far away from the pack as we can. Live our own lives.”
“If he wants to.”
She glided her fingertips along the dusty windowpane. “I admire how covens operate. You have your own homes, your own businesses, your own social circles, and you convene on your own time. Right?”
“More or less. We’re beholden to attend covenant meetings or obligatory social gatherings. But yes, you can reside wherever you want. Vampires don’t tend to want to be on top of each other. Except in the sexual sense.”
She looked back at him with a laugh. “I see.”
A shifter envious of a vampire’s way of life? How unexpected to hear. And what a regimented life she lived. Sounded more like a base camp for a military operation than a family.
“How did you find this place?” Kimber asked.
“I overheard locals talking about it when I stopped at the diner nearby. They claimed it was haunted, no one would buy it. I was intrigued, so I came to assess it. So far, zero paranormal activity. Once in a while, if I’m driving this way, I’ll stop and see if it’s been sold.” He leaned a shoulder on the wall. “Here she sits.”
Kimber walked around the kitchen island. “I would give just about anything for my own house.”
“Why don’t you leave the pack? Are you forced to stay?” Then again, what should he care about their ways? Check yourself, Trevyn.
“Leave the pack? It just isn’t done. If I claimed independence, they could banish me altogether. Then I’d have no one. A shiya without a pack is like a lamb wandering the forest.”
“I hardly think of you as a lamb, Kimber. You’re brave, strong. With spirit and imagination.” He bumped a fist over his chest twice. “Your heart beats with fire that will never be quenched inside the perimeter lines of your pack’s property.”
Her eyes glowed at his words, then dimmed. “You don’t understand. I’d enjoy the freedom, but eventually, word would get out I was on my own. And then…” At the look on his face, she emphasized, “Other shiyas have tried it. They either go back to their pack, or they disappear, never to be seen again…or they end up dead. It doesn’t matter how strong we are, Shain. A shiya’s strengths are only valued within a pack. A shief could claim me, and I’d have no family to stop him.”
It appeared Shain didn’t know everything when it came to shifters. He was led to believe they treated their women as equals. Evidently, that only applied to the women who stay within the circle.
“Am I understanding this correctly? A shief is basically a modern-day caveman who knocks you over the head with a club and drags you to his lair so you can bear his children and cook him meals?”
“Don’t be so melodramatic. Most shiefs want a shiya’s acceptance first. But I’ve heard there are some packs who allow shiefs of high rank to make a claim on who they want, and convince themselves that she’ll grow to accept him in her heart with time. They believe that, because they want the shiya so badly, the shiya will eventually want them in re
turn. Learn to love them. Alphas especially think this way. They usually get what they want. After all, being chosen to be an alpha’s mate is no small matter. Our version of a queen. It’s an honor.”
“I apologize for my ignorance, but I cannot grasp how being taken against your will to be forced into an unwanted union is an honor.”
“That rarely happens, as far as I know. Most packs have abandoned that custom. Most of the heinous ones, in fact.”
“There’s more than one? No. Don’t tell me. I’ve heard enough.” He sighed, giving her a look of sympathy. “You should get what you want, Kimber. Damn everyone else. Live your own life.”
She made a circle in the dust with her finger. “Is there anything you want that the gods might deny you?”
He wouldn’t push the subject. It wasn’t his place to call out her kind’s traditions, however barbaric they used to be. Hello, kettle calling the pot black. “Of course. The alliance I told you about.”
“Oh, right. You mentioned that before. Don’t you already have a good number of allies?”
“He’s worth all of them combined and more.”
“How so?”
“Tanaka’s in a league of his own. Nearly a thousand years old. Answers to no one, even his allies, which he has only a few of. One of which is a Nine, the royalty of the vampire realm. To be one of his allies would set me, my family, and whoever I choose, for eternity in this realm. Nothing would be out of my reach.”
Though, lately, he had a hard time remembering what exactly he wanted that was he denied. He’d been pursuing this alliance for so long, it was hard to fathom it’d come true. “He’ll reject me. That’s almost a given.”
“Do you really believe that or can’t you believe he’ll accept you?”
Her bright observations continued to surprise him. “I can’t offer him anything he doesn’t already have. He doesn’t need me. Every alliance is an exchange, Kimber. I have something they seek; they have something I desire. Tanaka, however, gains nothing by bringing me into his sphere. At his level, it’s more of a…charitable gesture, in a way, to become my ally. It’d only be to show the gods his gratitude for all he’s been blessed with, by sharing the wealth, so to speak.”
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