by Dana Archer
“And?”
Devin gave the bottle a twirl. He watched it until it stopped spinning. “When the gods or goddesses speak outside of the realm they own, their words become divine law for all those who are descended from them. The decree involving non-Royal mates was specific to their Royal sons, not their daughters.”
Devin sighed. “And honestly, they never intended Royals to mate humans. The ability to share our immortality was supposed to be a gift so we didn’t lose any single shifter female we decided to mate. They wanted us to have the option of being able to carry on our family lines, even with the dwindling Royal female population.”
“How did the Royals learn that they could mate humans, then? Trial and error?”
“Stubbornness.” Devin snorted. “At least that’s the story I’ve been told. A Royal male met his true mate, but she was human. He refused to lose her.”
The dream Josh had had about the babies in his house came back to him. “Well maybe Mira is supposed to be the first female to take a human mate. That would definitely change the world.”
“For Mira and for you, I wish that were true, but it truly is impossible. She is tied to the goddess who birthed our ancestor. Therefore, she’s bound by the laws of the Heavens.”
“Laws can be broken or remade. It happens all the time.”
“Not for us. The gods and goddesses cannot break their laws. That’s why they rarely speak to their children outside of the dreams they share with alphas. It’s too dangerous.”
Josh heard Devin’s words and waited for a sense of defeat to settle over him. It never came. Eternity with Mira would’ve been a miracle, but he’d settle for a lifetime. Actually, he’d take a single night in her arms. Being human and mortal, he might not get another tomorrow. Having Zoe home reminded him of that cruel fact. Death could claim their loved ones in the blink of an eye.
He allowed the determination to fill him. A sense of rightness came with it.
“I don’t suppose I can get an audience with your goddess?” He’d already asked Zach the same question, but sometimes persistence paid off. Well, that, and finding the right person at the right time to give the answer he wanted.
“Sorry, doesn’t work that way. It’s a one-way communication path with pride leaders or pack alphas only.”
“Another divine law?”
“Yeah. Besides, the Alexander pride’s goddess has already delivered her warning. Maybe she’ll choose to elaborate by sending Kade another vision. Maybe not. But I know if I were in Mira’s shoes, I wouldn’t risk your life for the slim chance the prophecy might allow her to be the exception to the rule.”
Josh ground his teeth. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought, including Mira. He’d bet money she’d been debating her options since the night in the bar when he’d fought with Aron. No way was he going to allow her fears to get in their way, but he also sensed her anxiety. If he pushed too hard while she was in that state of panic, he’d lose her to another man.
She’d had her space. It was time to claim Mira as his—girlfriend, lover, wife—he didn’t care what label was used. They belonged together. Simple. Everything else would work itself out.
Josh jerked his chin in the direction of the sink. “Do you need help with the plumbing?”
“I have a couple of Xander’s brothers coming over.” Devin bent his head, studying Josh as if he was trying to understand him. “No comments about the vision or Mira?”
Josh slipped his water bottle into the back pocket of his jeans and grabbed his keys. “Nope.” He walked to the stairs. “Megan, grab your bag. We’re ready to rock and roll.”
Megan came bouncing down, lopsided pigtails and all. She had an infectious smile on her face, a T-shirt with a cat on it, and the pink capris Zoe had bought for her. A pack full of toys was slung on her back, and her favorite stuffed wolf was clutched under her arm. She hopped up and down in front of him, the bag flopping with each bounce. He tugged it off her arms and motioned her forward.
“Let’s go, munchkin. Molly’s waiting.” He followed his niece to the door, paused with his hand on the knob, and glanced over his shoulder. “Try not to burn my house down while I’m gone.”
Devin spread his hands out, all innocent. “Have a little faith.”
Josh grinned. “I do, Devin. I do.”
It was about time he convinced Mira to take a leap too.
Chapter 19
Mira reached for the handle on the door at Kade’s house. The door opened before she touched it. Zoe squeaked and jerked back.
“Oh… Hi, Mira.” Zoe ran a hand through her tangled hair. “You startled me.”
Mira stood there with her mouth hanging open. She glanced from Kade’s button-down shirt, haphazardly fastened, to Zoe’s bare legs and finally to her untied sneakers. Silently berating herself for being rude, Mira jerked her attention back to Zoe’s face. Her flushed skin and the edge of a hickey peeking from behind the upturned collar added details Mira didn’t need.
Unable to stop herself, she drew in a breath. Although she didn’t pick up on the scent of sex, Zoe reeked of Kade and booze.
And why, exactly, would she care if they had sex or merely made out?
Mira snapped her jaw closed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Kade asked me to—”
“No need to explain.” Zoe pulled the lapels of her shirt closed. “I hadn’t realized how late…I mean early…” She groaned. “Look, I fell asleep and…ugh…I’ve got to go.” Zoe squeezed past her and rushed to the garage.
“Don’t say anything.”
Mira glanced at Kade. Sleep pants, hanging low on his hips, and a bare chest finished the tale of what had happened between him and Zoe. Mira grinned. “Does this mean—”
“Nothing. It means nothing. She got drunk and passed out.” Kade turned and headed toward the library.
The hickey on Zoe’s neck didn’t support Kade’s claim of nothing happening, but the tension radiating off him stopped Mira from mentioning it. She followed him and took a seat on the couch.
“Why did you order me over here?” It had to have been important to pull him out of bed when he had a female warming it, even if Zoe had only been sleeping.
He grabbed a manila folder, slammed it on the table in front of her, and proceeded to wear a path in the carpet. No words, no growls. Nothing. He simply prowled.
Not once in all the years she’d known him had she ever seen him distressed. That worried her. Since he didn’t appear as if he’d talk anytime soon, she reached for the folder. He stopped mid-step and snarled. She eased her hand back.
“What’s wrong?”
He ran a hand through his hair and took several deep breaths. Finally, he faced her. Pure rage showed on his face. With glowing eyes and extended fangs, he appeared fearsome.
“Somebody close to our family has betrayed us.”
Of course. Loyalty among the pride or pack was sacred. “Tell me.”
“I received a letter from the Council highly recommending I allow Edmund’s relative to court you now along with the suitors already selected. They feel as though you’ll miss out on the opportunity to fulfill the prophecy as the goddesses had intended if you choose a Royal.”
She stood and strode to the far end of the library, needing a moment to school her features. “No. I don’t want any member of the Krisban pride anywhere near me.”
“You don’t have a choice. I’ve approved of his visit. He’ll be arriving today.”
She swung her head so fast hair whipped across her face. She shoved the strands out of the way and leveled a threatening glare at Kade. “How dare you.”
Instead of matching her anger, he pressed the heel of his palms to his eyes and groaned. “I’m sorry. I truly am, but I had to allow it.”
Her rage fizzled, and she closed the distance between them. She laid a hand on his arm. “Kade?”
“Anton called me.”
Anton, Kade’s older cousin and Aron’s twin, was the only feline Royal on t
he Shifter Council. Anton rarely called anyone. He lived and breathed politics and was the only Royal among those shifters who’d first approached the humans to establish the set of laws protecting shifters. Trepidation settled over her. She licked her lips.
“Do you think Anton was behind…” She couldn’t finish her words. Even considering the idea that Aron’s twin would betray her filled her with guilt.
Kade covered her hand and shook his head. “Anton would never betray us. On that I’d stake my life.” He stepped back, breaking the comforting touch. “I told him of my worry concerning the Council’s so-called approval of Molly’s arranged mating into the Krisban pride. Anton was furious.”
As they all were. Arranged matings had been illegal since the beginning of the century, primarily because of Anton’s insistence for basic rights for their females. Although she hadn’t talked to him in years, he’d been her biggest protector and supporter when she’d first arrived in Alexander territory. It had actually surprised her that he hadn’t stepped up with an offer to court her too, not that she minded. She had enough males after her.
Kade picked up the folder but didn’t open it. “Anton is investigating the traitor amongst the Council and believes it’s one of the single shifters.”
“What did he find?” She prompted when Kade merely stared at the papers he’d brought.
Instead of answering, he handed her the folder. She wiped her sweaty palms on her thighs and took it. Inside was a single picture. Her heart skipped a beat. The photo showed Josh with Megan in the backyard of his new house. Josh was crouched next to her, pointing off into the distance.
She looked from the bull’s-eye drawn over Josh to Kade’s concerned face. “This was taken the day he moved into his home.” She swallowed hard as the implications became clear. “We were all there. Our pride, Xander’s pack…we all showed up to help him.”
Kade nodded. “Exactly. One of our own betrayed us. Anton found this picture in the trash of the Council’s boardroom. It had the fingerprints of most of the single shifters groups and none of the Royals.”
“Gods…” She traced the red circle over Josh’s image. “Would they—”
“Yes, Mira, they’ll kill him.”
“Just to stop me from being with him?”
“I doubt they care about him at all. It only matters to them that you’d be crushed.” Kade motioned toward the photo. “They left that for Anton to find. I’m sure of it. They want us to know what will happen if you deny them.”
She pressed the photo to her chest and fought to contain her emotions. “I love him, and I think…” She cleared her throat. “I think he’s my true mate.”
Kade didn’t comment. He wrapped her in his arms and held her. In his familiar embrace, she gave herself over to her pain. Her heart cracked, a wound forming that she’d never heal. Her inner animals’ angst added to her misery. They slammed their heads into her chest and snarled at her when she tried to calm them. They knew what she planned and didn’t approve. She ignored their agitated prowling, focused on the image of Josh marked by the bull’s-eye, and came to terms with her fate.
Kade pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “Then you’ll do what’s best for him.”
She pulled away and nodded. “Set things up, and I’ll go through the motions.”
He took the picture from her hands and crumpled it. “I wish you could have the future you desire.”
“Me too, but my fate was sealed at birth.”
Kade sighed but didn’t argue her words. “Zach has asked to be removed from your list of suitors. So that leaves you with the choice of me or Aron.”
“You? What about Zoe?”
A mask slid over Kade’s features. “What about her?”
“Didn’t last night—”
“I held Zoe. Kissed her. She’s a beautiful woman who slept in my arms all night.”
She cocked a brow. “Are you sure? Maybe Zoe is—”
“What Zoe is to me is none of your business, nor will it change anything. I will still mate you if you choose me.”
And…Kade’s defensive response pretty much confirmed her guess. Zoe was his true mate. Or at least he suspected she was his.
“If she’s your true mate, that changes everything and leaves me with the male selected for me at birth.”
“Do not allow your father’s choice of Aron as your mate or my actions to influence yours. I’m male, and Zoe smells of me. There’s nothing else to be said concerning her so don’t allow what you saw to sway you.”
“No, I only have the goddesses doing that for me. Take all my choices away except the male promised to me.”
He tipped up her chin. “The goddesses never said who they intended your mate to be. In this, I believe they deferred the decision to you.”
“Lucky me.”
“You are. Whether you want to admit it or not. You do remember the wording of the prophecy, don’t you?”
She rolled her eyes. “How could I forget? Father repeated it every single time I complained about the cursed prophecy hanging over my head.”
At his raised brow, she dutifully repeated the goddesses’ divine decree, “From this babe’s womb, the link which should never have been broken will be reformed. Her young will usher our children into the next era and save us all. Protect her, love her, cherish her, and she will choose wisely.”
“You see? The choice is yours. Not your father’s, which is why it had to wait three centuries. With cultural norms the way they were, you didn’t have a say then. Now you do.”
“Between you or Aron. Big choice.”
Kade dropped his hand and shrugged. “It could be worse. Remember that.” He walked to the door, but stopped with his hand on the handle. “By the way, Devin asked me to mate you, not Aron. He believes we’ll get along better.”
“What did you say?”
He laughed, the sound bitter and rough. “Does it matter? The choice is yours, not mine.”
With that, he walked out of the room. She stared at the closed door in silence for a long moment before her knees gave out and she dropped to the floor.
She wanted to scream at the goddesses, beg them, anything if they’d just take their blessing back, but there’d be no reprieve for her, no changing her destiny. In her soul, she knew the bitter truth. The goddesses had spoken, and as a child of their blood, she had to obey them, even if it destroyed her.
Chapter 20
Mira stared at the computer screen while her cats’ snarls echoed in her head. Knowing she couldn’t avoid it forever, she clicked on the email from Micah Krisban, her newest suitor. The screen filled with the image of her worst nightmare. Black hair, a narrow face, and eyes that still haunted her after three centuries. Her vision wavered. The memories of Edmund assaulting her blended with the image of his relative. Instead of the warm smile the picture showed, she recalled the demented sneer of her rapist.
She choked on bile. With her hands pressed to her eyes, Mira rocked in her chair. Her screams, his laughter, echoed in her ears. The pain, the shame—it all rushed up, squeezing her chest.
She turned off her computer and ran to the bathroom, barely managing to get the lid up before the contents of her stomach were offered up to the porcelain gods. She wiped her face and flushed. With her gut roiling, she leaned against the cool tub and took shallow breaths to settle her nerves.
The idea of sitting through a meal with a replica of the male who had taken her innocence and destroyed her life chilled her. If she couldn’t even look at his face without superimposing Edmund’s over it, how would she manage small talk?
She hated this whole situation, but for Josh, she had to go through with it. Her acting skills had helped her survive through the centuries. She’d have to plaster a smile on her face and suck it up. How bad could it be?
With her determination wrapped around her, she brushed her teeth and went over the list of mundane topics she could talk about to fill up the time with Micah.
It’d be okay
. It was just a couple hours out of her life.
Ugh…it wouldn’t be okay. Who was she kidding? Nothing would be okay ever again. She slammed her toothbrush back into the holder. It circled the rim of the ceramic cup before stopping. Two weeks ago, there’d been two brushes there—hers and Devin’s. He’d moved out of their little trailer so he and Lena could have more privacy.
Mira was happy for him but hadn’t realized how much she relied on him for company. She was lonely in the hunk of metal she called home. She didn’t have to hide out here. There’d been plenty of offers from her friends and her suitors for dinner or gatherings. However, she couldn’t deal with anyone. Her mind kept spinning.
Confusion over Aron and the miscommunication that had changed both of their lives left her saddened and full of regrets. When he’d found out about Edmund, he’d offered to take her punishment for killing him. The distance between their families’ territories delayed word of her attack from reaching him. By the time he’d arrived, Devin had already gone in her place. After he’d returned half-crazed, Aron had been the one to help him learn to control his cats.
Aron had tried to talk to her, too. At the time, she’d hated all males, except her twin and younger brother, and had pushed Aron away. He’d left but had promised to return for her. Why hadn’t she questioned the cruelty of his letter? If she had, she might’ve had kids of her own and fulfilled the prophecy. Guilt rose with the thought, not because she’d missed out on a family, but with the relief it had never happened. If she’d mated Aron, she never would’ve moved to America and met Josh.
She dug her fingers into her hair and tugged. Every thought led back to the male she could never have. She fell asleep with Josh’s image in her mind and woke up reaching for him, disappointed when only sweaty sheets met her fingers.