Scent Of A Mate: League Of Gallize Shifters

by Dianna Love

  “What’s Lincoln’s deadline and meet point?” Her eyes brightened again, something Gan began to realize meant her animal pushed close to the surface.

  He fisted his hands, wanting to pound this Lincoln. That tiger had hurt Scarlett once. Never again.

  Zink said, “He said if you want to make the trade, to be at the entrance to his property at midnight tonight.”

  “Do you have any idea where the prisoners are being held on his property?”

  “Does a hobby horse have a wooden dick? Of course, I have that. I make a point of knowing as much as I can about everyone on my radar.” He gave her a rundown of the property and where shifter cages were inside the compound.

  She sat back holding her forehead. “Thanks, Zink. Give me a day to find a computer and I’ll wire your money.”

  “Not worried about it. You’ve always been good for your word. Call me if I can deliver anything else.”

  Gan worked hard to hold his reaction in, hoping Scarlett would not realize he’d heard it all. He should have known better.

  She rolled her head to the side, worry for the captives in her tired gaze. “We need a plan.”

  “Baby must be safe. I go.”

  “Oh, hell no, Gan.” She sat up and slapped her hand on the console. “Do you really think I would hand you over to this maniac?”

  “We talk, but baby needs mama. I go and free two women.”

  “No, no, and no. You are not sacrificing yourself to Lincoln.”

  He grumbled. “What is plan then?”

  “I don’t know yet, but we’ll have one by tonight.”

  She’d tried to sound confident, but Gan surprised himself by picking up an emotion from her scent. Doubt. Scarlett did not believe they could save the women.

  But this woman would not walk away and leave them to Lincoln any more than she would allow Gan to trade himself.

  He could see what she had on her mind.

  Scarlett would trade herself for the wolf shifters. She would convince Lincoln to give up two female wolves for one cougar.

  Worry hit Gan’s stomach heavy as a boulder.

  His tiger growled, Must protect mate.

  Gan replied, Yes. He’d agreed on two points. Scarlett had to be protected and confirmed to his cat that she was their mate.

  By the time they reached the motel, he would have a plan of his own.

  One that he could not share with Scarlett.

  Chapter 27

  Clouds blocked the moon from shining through the sky that had gone pitch dark outside the motel. Time normally worked against her, ticking too fast.

  At half past six, every second dragged along.

  Scarlett paced the narrow walkway between the beds and dresser, explaining her idea to Gan. “I told the Guardian that Adrian had definitely been captured with my friend and I would inform him once I knew exactly where they held Adrian.” That must have worked, because the eagle shifter hadn’t called her a liar again.

  Gan peppered her with questions on Lincoln’s operation.

  She explained what she’d known of him years before, stopping in front of Gan. “I don’t think he’s changed much. Probably just darker shades of the monster he’d been back then. He expects everyone to jump when he snaps his fingers, but he had little discipline when I knew him. I’m thinking that his operation might be just as lax, because he’s so confident in his strength.”

  She had spoken to Zink again. The contact provided more specifics.

  Gan must not have understood exactly what Zink had shared. “Where is his land? Where are prisoners?”

  She began explaining the local geography.

  Gan lifted a hand. “I know south, west, north, east.”

  “Okay, that makes it easier.” She described the general direction of Lincoln’s property, how it was west of Roanoke and butted up to a national forest.

  He still frowned. “What is plan to save them?”

  She had danced around that the best she could, because she didn’t want him to get his tiger worked up. Her idea had been to get him thinking about the rescue mission, not worst-case scenario where she’d have to trade herself if she couldn’t save the wolves.

  Lincoln would make that deal.

  He wanted female cat shifters first and foremost, but he’d love to get his hands on her.

  To avoid thinking about that, she launched into her plan.

  “We have five hours to work out the details. Lincoln’s guards run in twelve-hour shifts, starting at one in the morning. That means the ones on patrol should be most lax between eleven and midnight. Zink confirmed that word is Lincoln’s security is loose. He still has no discipline. He just kills anyone who crosses him.”

  “Why hunt female shifters?” Gan sat in the same wooden chair he’d used to rock Spud. His body acted restless, fingers tapping, arms moving around, legs shifting position.

  Was he missing the baby?

  She could only imagine. Just like she kept thinking about the hell Fayth had to be going through, but Scarlett hoped Jazlyn had a chance to pass along that her baby was safe.

  Gan remained quiet.

  She kept pacing, feeling as agitated as if she were caged.

  He waited for an answer.

  “Lincoln has always wanted a dynasty of cat shifters. Tigers are his first choice and I heard he had three female tiger shifters, but my resources say only one cub has survived. That makes me think something might be wrong on his part of baby making.”

  “We make trade for all three,” Gan suggested.

  “Your heart is in the right place, Gan, but Lincoln won’t do that. He’ll trade the minimum to get what he wants. We have to go in and pull them out.”

  “Too many shifters to fight. Must call Guardian.”

  She’d paused her pacing and took in what had to be his game face. “I would love to have a team of apex predators going in with us, but there are problems. First, if we’re successful, your boss would turn Jaz over to shifter law enforcement, where they’d shove her into an underground titanium box. He has a black and white way of looking at the world and can’t make exceptions when it comes to supporting law enforcement for shifters with her criminal record or he undermines his authority.”

  “Why criminal?”

  Scarlett frowned at the odd question, then translated it in her mind that he had asked about how Jaz had become a fugitive.

  Nodding, she explained, “Shifters hate going to sanctuaries, which are just a large piece of land where they have to reside next to different species, some of which are prey to their animals. Most prefer to live alone or in a pack. Shifters are allowed to have a pack, clan, or whatever they call their group, if they have an alpha capable of enforcing the laws.”

  “What laws?” Gan had stopped fidgeting and focused on her every word.

  “Shifter laws. Too many to list, but basically it’s the alpha’s job to put down an out-of-control member or someone who kills a human, or kills without reason. That sort of lethal ability. Jaz was part of a wolf pack ruled by a powerful alpha. She’s accused of killing that alpha’s first son.”

  “She is innocent?” he asked.

  “She told me it was a justified kill. I did not smell a lie when she said that, but I also did not ask for details. She did a large favor for me and saved my life once, so I’m determined to help her.”

  “What favor?”

  “Fayth needed help getting pregnant and Jaz had medical connections for shifters. She held a rare position as a shifter healer, trained by a human doctor.”

  After staring off at nothing in particular, Gan cocked his head at her. “Fayth is wolf. Why is Spud cougar?”

  Ah, shit. She’d been surprised that he hadn’t commented on that when she told Naomi. Gan had proven himself to her again and again. She could share this with him.

  “My mother was a cougar shifter and I was her first child. She hated my father, who deserved that hate. So she hooked up with a wolf shifter and ended up pregnant. My father kille
d the wolf when she gave birth to Fayth. Remember I said how Lincoln might be the reason he only had one cub alive?”

  Gan nodded.

  “Fayth had physical problems, too, which is normally odd for a shifter, but we aren’t perfect from birth. All she wanted was to have a family, because she had an awful childhood.”

  “You have same childhood.” Gan made that statement as fact.

  Scarlett shrugged. Fayth had suffered because Scarlett’s father was a monster to beat all monsters. “I guess. Anyhow, Fayth and I left home together as teens. A little over a year later, she met a wolf and they mated. But she could not get pregnant no matter what they did. They lived with his wolf friends in a house up in Ohio, hidden deep in the woods.”

  Watching her every move as if he could see past her words, Gan sat back and crossed his arms. “Yes?”

  She kept going. “I had Fayth call me on a regular basis to let me know she was okay. She cried more and more about just wanting a baby so I made a decision. I got in touch with Jaz who helped me get Fayth pregnant.”

  Gan’s eyes widened. “How does woman make woman pregnant?”

  She didn’t think anything could lighten the mood, but at that she burst out laughing. Leaning against the old dresser, she smiled at him. “It’s not what you’re thinking. In modern medicine, they can remove an egg from a fertile woman and put it in another woman. That’s what Jaz helped us do. She’s a healer, not a killer.”

  He didn’t look convinced.

  She took a moment to explain how it all worked and assured him she had way more than one egg.

  Gan finally sat back, still frowning. “Spud is ... your baby?”

  “Sort of, but not really. She is Fayth’s child. Think of me as the godmother.” Then she had to explain what a godmother was and how she would always be Lily’s protector. Poor Gan kept getting a crash course on life outside a camp.

  He had a thoughtful look. “I am godfather.”

  She laughed. That man oozed confidence. “I think Fayth might just agree with you.”

  He didn’t laugh. “Family important. Mother and baby should be safe.”

  That pinged something she’d been meaning to ask him. “I understand that you and Siofra watched over each other in the camps, and that’s why you are as close as brother and sister. But do you have any blood relatives?”

  “No. Guardian tell me I am stolen as I am born. Jackal shifters kill mama and baby brother still inside her. Kill whole village. I never meet any family.”

  His voice held so much longing. He may not have met his people but he still hurt over the loss.

  Gan cleared his throat. “Tell Guardian what Jazlyn tell you. He will smell truth.”

  Sometimes that man flipped subjects so fast Scarlett risked whiplash. He was determined to bring in the cavalry, but he didn’t understand that life as a shifter was not so cut-and-dried. “SCIS alerted law enforcement that Jaz has the ability to trick shifters. She can pass a lie as truth. No one trusts her. The Guardian would smell the truth on me, but in the end he is not judge and jury. His people work with SCIS to police the shifters. It’s a good thing they do, because we have plenty of bad shifters just as the humans have bad people.”

  Gan sat back in the chair. “You risk your life for someone who might not tell truth?”

  Good question.

  She shook her head. “It’s hard to explain, but if you know her as well as I do, the lie may smell like the truth, but she has what you call little tells, things like facial movements that give her away. You have to know her really well to call her on a lie.”

  Scarlett wanted Gan to understand that she would not protect a criminal and definitely not a murderer. “I told you that Jaz has a medical background. Besides helping Fayth, Jaz has come to the aid of hundreds of shifters. That’s one reason she has stayed free so long. She has a reputation as a healer who shares her gift freely with shifters who cause no harm.”

  While Gan took that in, she added, “Jazlyn would be turned over to SCIS. She won’t last a day before her wolf goes mad. She told me she’s innocent, but the alpha’s daughter claims she saw Jaz kill her brother. Jazlyn won’t speak about the incident even to me. She won’t put me at risk for knowing the details. I would never betray her confidence, but I also can’t swear I’ll never be captured and have a drug used on me. She can’t come forward until she has evidence to clear her name. By now, I’m worried Adrian has figured out who Jazlyn is and will give her up to his boss unless I can get her free first.”

  “Maybe not.”

  That brought her up short. “Why wouldn’t he?”

  “Adrian said his wolf made crazy in another country. He was put in Wyoming to heal. If not here when Jaz is criminal, he would not know.”

  Huh. There was some encouraging news. Even so, she had another concern. “I still have another just as important reason I don’t want the Guardian here. I’m not letting him take you back to Wyoming. I will figure out a way to keep you free.”

  “I am good for Wyoming.” A muscle in his jaw twitched.

  She rolled her eyes and looked back at him. “That’s a lie and clearly your tiger is not okay with it.”

  Arms crossed again, Gan’s words carried conviction this time. “I will make tiger okay. We save three lives.”

  Scarlett admired Gan beyond words, but he had no idea he had no choice in this. “Thank you, but we can save them without your boss. I have ...” She had not spoken these words since being a teen and that had kept Fayth safe. Maybe it was time to stop hiding everything from this man and step forward.

  “Have what?” Gan’s eyebrows dropped low over his eyes.

  “I have powers that are more than a shifter.”

  Surprise lit his face. “What powers?”

  Oh, boy. She couldn’t back up now, but explaining was going to tick off Gan. “I can stop a shifter from moving in human or animal form.”

  Gan stilled, no longer restless. He had laser focus. “How?”

  One word alerted her he might be figuring out what she’d done. “I was born with some magic in addition to shifting.”

  He angled his head. “Why did you not use power when cats attack?”

  “I can’t always isolate it. With everyone battling, I would have caused our friends to stop, too. I’ve never tried it in a large group. In fact, I’ve never been able to test my full capability. When I have used it to halt a shifter, it only lasts thirty seconds to a minute. If one of the predators had broken free before one of our people became mobile again, the predator would have ripped him or her to pieces.”

  He propped his elbows on his knees and his chin on his fists, staying like that for a long time. When he glanced at her again, suspicion led his tone. “You use power on me?”

  She chewed on her lip, stalling until guilt shoved the words out. “Yes, but I was not trying to control you. When you first saw Adrian at the lake house and Chica told me your tiger was in trouble, I ran up behind you and did the only thing I could to stop you from shifting. It was clear that you fought against the change. I didn’t know Adrian was there and I’m hoping he didn’t see something.”

  “Why did I not stop like stone?”

  She had wondered the same thing. “I don’t know. That shocked the hell out of me. I’ve never had a partial failure. I was just glad you were able to stop changing, though.”

  “But I did not make happen. You did.”

  She heard the disappointment in his voice. “Gan, you can manage being a shifter. You blocked my magic somehow. That means you are a force of nature and just have to work things out with your tiger.”

  “He does not listen. Is arrogant.”

  She clamped her lips to keep from laughing and telling him his tiger was just like him. How strangely interesting. She and Chica were nothing alike. Other shifters had mentioned how their animals had their own personalities.

  But it sounded as if Gan and his hardheaded tiger had a lot in common.

  That reminded her about
what Chica had said. “Gan, do you know what ghosts are?”

  He had been staring down and lifted his face. “Yes. Dead people. No body. Spirits.”

  “Chica sees one with your tiger.”

  “What?” He looked down at himself as if he could find this ethereal being then back at her. “Do you see?”

  “No, but my shifter is special, too. She picks up on things others don’t, but it’s usually from scent. She’s never told me about a ghost before.”

  Chica rumbled softly inside Scarlett, a sound she’d come to understand as Chica stretching as she woke. Scarlett had heard other shifters say their animals never slept, but Chica enjoyed her beauty rest.

  Scarlett asked her about the ghost.

  Chica said, Ask Gemelo.

  Shaking off the odd comment, Scarlett asked her animal, Is that the tiger’s name?

  I call him Gemelo.

  Scarlett explained what her cougar said. “Can you ask your tiger about the ghost?”

  Opening his hands wide, Gan said, “I will try.” He dropped his hands to his hips and stared away from her as if concentrating. He grimaced once then spoke to her. “Tiger say he is alone. Only him. Now tiger is angry.”

  “Why?”

  “He likes cougar only look at him.”

  The tiger was jealous of a ghost?

  Switching gears, Scarlett started to suggest Gan try out the name Chica mentioned, but caught herself and said, “Tell your tiger that Chica has named him.”

  That shocked Gan. “When?”

  “I just found out. She calls him Gemelo. See what he thinks of that.”

  Gan remained silent with no expression until his face relaxed and he started smiling. Glancing at her, he said, “Tiger very happy Chica named him. He is now Gemelo. He stop being loud. As if he relax.”

  One minute Scarlett was enjoying seeing Gan exhilarated about his tiger being at peace and the next he had launched himself at her. Gan had her in a bear hug and kissed her with so much happiness she felt it flood all around her.

  He swung her away from the dresser and around in a circle, stopping with her back to the wall.

  She wanted him more every time he came near her. She had no sense when he touched her. Cupping his face, she returned the kiss with plenty of heat.