Blood of Eden: A wolf shifter romantic suspense (The Guardians Book 1)

by JJ King

  “Yeah, stupid right? I’m almost three hundred years old and I’ve never experienced this before. God, Leigh, what if I had been alone? I was completely useless!”

  “Most wolves don’t experience this. I just have a lot of stupid brothers who think that going through a silver poisoning is a coming of age event. They’ve all done it on purpose and Dad approves. I’ve seen it more times than I want to remember and it helps most if you act quickly. Don’t sweat it, you were great out there. No one was the wiser.”

  “Victor’s probably freaking out.”

  “No, he’s alright. He’s just paying the bill now.”

  “Damn it, Leigh, this was supposed to be my treat.”

  The pain was completely gone now and the only evidence of the accident was a slight pink line across her skin that would fade to her normal skin tone in a few minutes. The only souvenir she would be left with from this experience was the memory of the pain and the intimate knowledge of just how dangerous silver really was to her kind.

  Experience taught much faster and deeper than books and a classroom. Maybe Leigh’s family had something in their little coming of age ceremony. She made a mental note to bring it up with her father the next time they spoke.

  Victor was waiting for them just outside the restaurant with a grin and a cookie. He passed the chocolate chip monstrosity to her after taking a bite and breaking off a piece for Leigh. “All better?”

  She nodded that she was fine, the cookie taking up most of her mouth. Then she thought, if my co-workers or clients could see me now. I’d lose more than just my edge.

  Still, she finished off the giant cookie, leaving the chocolate smudges from the chips in the corners of her mouth until she finished. She deserved it; she’d just been stabbed, after all.

  Chapter Two

  After hugging Victor and Leigh goodbye, Katherine jumped into her convertible and turned it West toward her bayside apartment. The drive didn’t take long and traffic was relatively quiet for a Saturday afternoon. Most of the cabin traffic had left the city the night before, young families eager to leave the hustle and bustle of town for the quiet of the countryside. She felt a tug of regret that she hadn’t been able to see any of that wild land for so long.

  No, she corrected herself. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been able to, she chose not to.

  It had been a few years since she had let herself give in to the lure of the wild. Victor and Leigh understood how quickly timed passed in the city so they never spoke out against her decision.

  Her parents, on the other hand, would have been aghast at that revelation so she chose not to share it with them. Oversharing with parents was way too costly at times. They tended to make you feel overwhelmingly guilty for a decision that wasn’t that bad.

  Besides, it wasn’t as if she had meant to go two years without shifting, she just had a lot on her plate and the days, weeks, and months flew by so quickly.

  Besides, it wasn’t as though she was forfeiting her nature. No, her wolf instincts were invaluable to her career as a defense attorney and to her general feistiness as a woman.

  Then again, even she could admit that it had been far too long since she had reverted to her lupine self and roamed the forests of British Columbia. Many of her pack chose to live as humans, reverting to wolf only when the lure was too strong to ignore but she was pretty sure that most never held out as long as she had.

  She had her reasons and they were good ones, even if her parents didn’t quite agree. She worked in a high-stress environment and always had to be thinking on her feet. Even though she was raised as part wolf part human, changing constantly from animal to human still took a toll psychologically.

  It got confusing sometimes and, understandably, mistakes were sometimes made; a growl when a sentence would have been more appropriate and a socially acceptable gesture when a mouthful of teeth was necessary. She found it easier to live in the human world if she remained as human as possible for as long as possible.

  Besides, she kind of thrived on challenges.

  Katherine pulled her Mustang into her driveway and turned the key.

  She gathered her purse and a few things that had fallen on the passenger’s seat since the day before. A yellow sticky note with a single name written on it in marker caught her attention.

  Natasha Green.

  Fun time was over now, she had a case to get back to. She had a client to focus on.

  Her client was innocent, a truly rare thing in her experience, and she was confident that she could win his case easily with the new information she had received just yesterday from one of her contacts out east.

  Law was a game for her, a fact that kept her job fresh after all these years. She defended criminals, thieves, and murders, with a passion that made juries listen. As far as she saw it, she had a unique perspective into human nature.

  Unlike her kind, most regular people couldn’t accept that humans as a whole had baser emotions and responses which often led them into trouble. Her past clients were mostly individuals who had gotten into extraordinary circumstances which led them to commit murder or some act of lawlessness. She sympathized with them and treated them as human, not monsters.

  Of course, there were real human monsters out there, and she had been involved with getting one of them released back into society. She didn’t let that fact affect her, however, especially seeing as how she took care of those monsters herself, or with the help of friends and family. Her kind watched and helped when they considered it necessary.

  Katherine brushed aside her thoughts as she fit her house key into the lock of her home and brushed a speck of dirt from her ancient cast iron door. The door was one of her greatest sources of pride when it came to her home. She had gotten it made special in Italy years ago when she had found her house, long before the area was deemed popular. Since then, the population of Vancouver had expanded, shot off the charts actually and the neighborhood was now full of young families building their lives under the poplar tree lined streets.

  She had gotten away with owning the same home for almost forty years, although at the expense of being first a young woman, then adult, then her own grandchild to the neighbor’s point of view. Always she would change her hair and small details of her appearance when she brightly introduced herself to her neighbors as the new inhabitant of the house.

  She would explain, once again, how her mother or grandmother had moved to Europe and had left her in charge of the house and yes, wasn’t it coincidence that she was a single working woman like most of the women in her family, though they had somehow managed to have families at some later point in life. They were always stunned by how much she resembled the other women in her family. It shouldn’t work, but it did, because the human mind refused to accept any other possibility. Preternatural long life was just not in their rule book.

  The fresh morning wind followed her into her front porch, bringing with it the smell of wild roses and wisteria. The house itself always smelled of fresh cut flowers; either her own during the spring and summer or from her favorite florist during fall and winter. She couldn’t stand to live without a touch of nature inside her home so she made do with flowers, even when evergreens would have suited her longings more aptly.

  Katherine stepped out of her man-eater stilettos and padded barefoot into the kitchen, removing her clothing until she stood before the refrigerator wearing only a skimpy pair of lace thongs and a matching black strapless bra. Even though she’d just eaten enough for three strapping young men, the little incident with the silver knife had left her feeling famished. She picked through the contents of her fridge and settled on a traditional second breakfast of fried eggs, toast, bacon and hash browns, a gut filling, though not so heart healthy, version of what she really craved....a very rare juicy steak cut straight from the source itself, or rather, bitten from the source itself.

  She chuckled at her primitive craving. It wasn’t very often that she felt the urge to eat as a wolf. In fact, she rare
ly craved food that wasn’t expertly and deliciously cooked.

  Her thoughts and meal were interrupted by a loud buzzing. Katherine set her plate down on the counter and grabbed her oversized purse from the nearby table. She rummaged through it wondering once more why she always felt the need to cart around purses big enough to house a medium size dog or a kitchen sink when it always ended up meaning that it took her forever to locate her precious iPhone in the depths of the designer swank. Her fingers closed around the buzzing phone and she made a mental note to start carrying clutches from this point forward. She glanced at the caller I.D. and smiled.

  “Well hello to you, Trini.”

  The voice that answered was throaty and rich with the softly rounded vowels of the Islands. “Good morning, Kitty Kat. Sleep well last night?”

  Katherine grinned and sauntered over to the nearest chair, dropping into the deep cushions. Trini was a gorgeous brunette from Trinidad who Katherine had met through her law firm. Her real name was Susan but she preferred to go by the nickname, especially in her line of work. She was a Dick, or a private investigator if you had to use modern terms. Katherine had a fondness for old black and whites so it amused her to think about her friend as her own personal Sam Spade….only with a skirt.

  The two women had known each other for around four years now and had been enjoying the benefits of said friendship for just as long. Katherine’s blood had turned hot the first time she’d laid eyes on the petite brunette and, it was safe to say, Trini reciprocated the attraction. Within the boundaries of their professions both women presented themselves as ball busting women who would do anything to get the job done. But outside of those limits, there were no boundaries. Trini was open to anything sexually that didn’t involve monogamy. They were playmates and friends, and the relationship suited both women perfectly.

  “I slept like a baby. In silk sheets. Curled up between two extremely competitive twin brothers. So, probably not like a baby at all.”

  Trini’s laugh was a low rumble. “Sounds like a fun time was had by all. Too bad I didn’t get the invite.”

  “Next time we’ll go hunting together,” Katherine said, wishing not for the first time that Trini was a wolf like her so that her vernacular could be literal, rather than metaphorical.

  “It’s a deal. But that’s not the reason I’m calling. I got those pictures you requested. Do you want them delivered by courier or in person? You know I do a fine in-person delivery.”

  The invitation was clear and instantaneously lit the blood surging through Katherine’s body on fire. It baffled her that after such a satisfying night she could want so much so soon.

  She looked up at the clock on her wall and groaned. It was already 1:14 pm and she had a very long day of prep ahead of her if she wanted to win this case.

  “As much as it pains me to say this, beautiful girl, I’m going to have to pass on that personal delivery today. I have way too much to do and I would need hours and hours to do what I want to you. There’s just not enough time in the day.”

  Katherine could practically hear the smile on the other side of the phone. “Rain check then Kitty Kat. A very, very wet rain check. I’ll call the courier right now. Bye love.”

  Allowing herself a single pout, Katherine got up and went back to the kitchen, food once again top priority and a convenient way to dull the ache of the sexual tension that filled her body.

  She chewed intently on a piece of bacon and poured herself a tall cup of coffee, black as night, then, hands full, she pushed open the back door with her elbow and stepped onto her patio. The hot mid-day air mixed with the sweet scent of wisteria and lavender, creating the perfect oasis of senses.

  She had decorated her patio with the help of Ty Pennington at the first sign of summer and enjoyed the soft pastel blues and greens of the fabric upholstery as many days as the weather afforded. Of course, it wasn’t as though she lived in rainy Newfoundland. Vancouver enjoyed amazing weather, for the most part, that is if one enjoyed the heat.

  The heat had never really bothered her much. In human form her skin radiated heat from her dual physiology, so a bit of added heat wasn’t really much to worry about. The oblong pool dug into her back yard didn’t really hurt the situation either.

  She snuggled deep into her outdoor cushions, casually flicking away a small wayward spider that had been trying to make itself a nice home on her furniture. She pointed her feet and wiggled her toes in utter relaxation, reveling in the glow that can only be described as “the morning after” feeling.

  She breathed in the smoky scent of her coffee, sipped the hot beverage, and let her mind drift. It took a concerted effort to keep her dirty mind off Trini’s body and how the day could have gone but, if she was going to get anything done with the rest of the day, she had to focus.

  Her assistant had scheduled an emergency appointment with her client later this evening, to go over every inch of the photographs Trini had taken. That should kill a few hours and the stack of legal papers that she needed to pour over before Monday would take up the rest of the evening and much of Sunday. It was time to get back to the reality of her job. Not that her job was such a terrible thing, really. She was actually savoring the idea of hitting the prosecution below the belt during her morning court session.

  She absently drained her now lukewarm coffee, stood, stretched, and headed inside with her dirty dishes. Careful to lock the door behind her, she fastidiously placed the dishes in the dishwasher, rinsing off the egg yolk first, and wiped the countertop clean with a new dishcloth. She wasn’t obsessed with cleanliness and order. She just enjoyed seeing a clean kitchen. Her home was her sanctuary and with her wolf nose, any small amount of leftover crumbs quickly became an issue.

  A quick second shower, a blow dry, and a five-minute face completed her not in court ritual, leaving her ready to get back to work by 12:03 pm.

  Twelve hours later, she slid into bed, exhausted, the proud owner of one envelope full of photographs. This time, she actually slept like a baby.

  Chapter Three

  The courtroom was abuzz with the sound of murmuring and shifting papers. Katherine ignored the stench of body odor and the perfume that was supposed to be banned from public areas and focused on the folder in her hands and her client who was seated next to her. Her client, although thoroughly innocent, was acting guilty as hell and it was pissing her off. Not only did James St. Laurent’s case look dismal to anyone watching, with the prosecution’s case well stocked with facts and his own alibi questionable, but now he was sitting beside her excreting an alarming amount of sweat and fidgeting. How was she supposed to win his case when he was acting so guilty? She leaning towards the damp young man and whispered, “You’re innocent, remember? And I’m the best there is. So stop sweating and look innocent!”

  Katherine could smell his fear lessen and she sensed his muscles relax somewhat as he took a few moments to breathe deeply, exhaling with intent. This was to be their final day in court, although neither her client nor the prosecution knew this fact. All the prosecution knew was that, under full disclosure, she had given them pictures of a young woman entering and leaving a park. She knew that the opposing council would have ascertained the woman’s identity by now but she was fairly certain that they had no idea what the photographs meant in relation to their case against Mr. St. Laurent. No, the prosecution sat at their table fully satisfied that her defense would fall to pieces against the myriad of evidence they had against her client. Unfortunately for the prosecution, she held the ace in this particular case and, despite her client’s intentions to lie on the stand today and keep his secret love affair out of court, Katherine had other plans. She had just one chance to attack and she wasn’t going to let her prey get away easily. She casually climbed to her feet, shifted her papers, looked at the Judge and announced her first witness.

  “The defense calls Natasha Green to the stand.”

  Katherine heard her client gasp for air as she called forward the one person
in the world that he wanted to be kept safe and the only person who could help him be found innocent of murder. As she stepped forward, Katherine could feel her client’s eyes boring into her back, urging her to turn so that he could plead with her silently to withdraw her witness. Katherine ignored the sensation. She had blindsided her own client in a court of law for his own good and she wasn’t about to back down now. Soon all would be revealed.

  A beautiful woman with silky black hair styled classically in a bob approached the stand awkwardly and was sworn in. She looked around the court swiftly, her eyes darting back and forth between Mr. St. Laurent and Katherine. The smell of fear and desperation seeped through her classic Chanel perfume even though outwardly she managed to appear unruffled.

  She ignored the now overwhelming mixed scents of both her client and her witness and stepped forward to address the woman directly.

  “Ms. Green, could you be as kind as to tell the court where you were on the night of December 3rd, 2006.” Katherine kept the questioning light and casual, her approach kind and understanding. Natasha answered every question with short succinct answers, all of which sounded good to the Judge, jury, and prosecution, none of whom noticed that she was clutching her purse on her lap with whitened knuckles or knew that inside that purse was a delicate lace handkerchief that smelled of James St. Laurent’s aftershave.