I smiled, crossing my legs and resting my head on my hand as I watched him. “Was your home so bad?”
“Not so much, I suppose. I told you before they left me alone most of the time. To my father, I’m a blemish on his life more than a son.”
“What about your mom?”
“Like yours, from what you’ve told me. She stands by and lets my father do what he wishes. But it’s more understandable in her case. Female shifters must know their place, most of them are arranged for a Blessed Union from birth. She knows that to go against my father means bruises for her. She learned that early on. But she did her best with us. I know she loves me if that’s what you’re asking.”
“She’s trapped.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. It’s one reason I avoid going home. I can’t stand seeing how he treats her. The more I stand up for her, the worse he behaves when I’m gone. It’s his way of gaining control over me. Over her.”
Taking his hand in mine, I dared to ask. “Who’s Andora?” He took in a sharp intake of breath. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“It’s fine,” he sighed. “I don’t mind.”
“Kaleb…”
He briefly stroked my cheek. “It’s fine. She’s a girl I lost a long time ago, one who I loved. One who turned rogue. But unfortunately, her family didn’t rank high enough to please my father. Even if I am just his second son.”
“What happened?”
“We saw each other in secret for a while. Eli, the snake, told my father about us. But that didn’t stop us from sneaking around. I loved her. A teenage love, I guess. But I thought myself head over heels.” He hesitated. “Her wolf was late coming, so when it did, she couldn’t handle it. She turned rogue.”
My heart hurt for him. A rogue shifter never has the chance of a normal life once they cross that line.
“She hadn’t gone too far,” he continued. “Far enough that any potential future for us had gone, yes. But I’d have dealt with that knowing she could at least stay with her family. But Eli, again, went running to my father. I didn’t realize he’d followed me the day he found out. After that, my father manipulated things to make Andora come off worse than she was. He used his connections to have her tested and to coerce the results, so they took her from her family. I will never forgive him for that alone.”
“I’m sorry.” A tear escaped me, hurting for both him and Andora. I quickly wiped it away.
“She died only two months after entering the Territorial Shifter Hold. She wasn’t far gone enough to handle such an environment. She didn’t have her family to lean on. She refused to hunt. Refused to eat.” He looked off into the distance, a tearful shine to his eyes. “When I heard the news she’d passed away, I lost it. I went for Eli. My father intervened. Then so did Cole. He was the one who proposed I attend the academy. My father couldn’t agree fast enough. Better I am out of the way in the city, doing an acceptable job, rather than slumming it with the girl of a family of a lowly bloodline.”
I placed my hand on his knee. “You should have told me all this before. I’ve dumped enough of my problems on you in the past.”
He gathered both my hands in his. “You had enough of your own shit to deal with. What your grandparents did to you… those at the hospital… your mom…” His jaw clenched.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I shuffled forth, and climbed onto his lap, wrapping my legs around him. “I’m sorry for Andora. I truly am. It sounds like she loved you very much.”
“It was a long time ago,” he whispered, the hurt still swirling in his eyes.
“It doesn’t matter. She loved you. And there’s a beauty in that, Kaleb, even if it comes with pain. She loved you. So honor that. Honor the love you gave her in return and know those memories would have soothed her when nothing else would have.”
“You’d have liked her.”
“I know I would have.”
He gazed upon me with curiosity. “Why?”
“Because she loved you.” I smiled. “That shows good taste.”
“You’re biased.”
“Maybe. But she showed better wits than me.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because she saw the deeper side of you when I hid from it. You’ve had to work hard to get past my defenses. And I’ve taken you for granted a lot over the years.”
“No, you haven’t. Not when I’ve taunted you, teased you, annoyed you.”
“So you’re saying you did all of that on purpose, eh?”
“Hey, I had to discover ways to keep you engaged. And you let me in, eventually. As a study buddy. A trainer. A friend. A partner. And we’ve had fun over the years, haven’t we?”
“Yes. We have. And I’m sorry it took me almost getting it on with your brother to realize that.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry.” I grinned, not sorry at all. Not when it erased the sadness from his eyes. I leaned in to kiss him, to distract him, my tongue wily and determined.
“You’re gonna,”—he kissed me—“pay for that, you know.”
“You’ve already had your vengeance.” I kissed him again. “With Libby.”
He leaned back, pulling my ass closer to him. “Why didn’t you and Cole sleep together?”
My cheeks flamed. “Seriously?”
“You brought it up.” He laughed. “I’m just curious.”
“We tried once,” I replied sheepishly. “Got disturbed.”
His face lost all humor. “I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry.”
“If it helps, I felt liked you’d punched me in the gut when I saw you exit Libby’s room that one time.”
“That doesn’t help.” He frowned. “I never want you to feel hurt.”
“Yet you kissed her in front of me?”
“I’d just found out you’d been seeing my brother behind my back. I was pissed.”
“And I was just finding the right time to tell you. The thought of you sleeping with her…”
“We didn’t sleep together.”
“So you claim.”
“We tried to,” he admitted, and I held my breath, the hurt fast and furious. “But I couldn’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“She wasn’t you.”
Oh boy.
“Kaleb,” I whispered, the love for him deepening, digging out the freaking trenches. I melted, every bit of hurt falling away into oblivion. “We’ve both been assholes.”
“Yes. We have. But Fate has our backs, right?”
“Yes, it has.”
“And even though it would have changed nothing between us if you had taken it further with Cole, it thrilled my wolf to hear you hadn’t.”
“And the man?”
“Over the moon.”
I laughed heartily. “Same here. I’d say we’ve done pretty well not to screw this up so far wouldn’t you?”
“I think we’re smashing it.” He gently took my face in his hands and lured me toward his mouth.
Drawing me into his succulent blaze of fire, I burned.
14
“Thought I scented you out here,” Brent said, disturbing our heavy make-out session. Anya stood by his side, her arm interlinked with that of her mate. She had a knowing smile on her face.
“And I thought you’d still be at the fire,” Kaleb replied, the huskiness in his voice lined with impatience. His heavy-lidded eyes blinked a few times, focusing on Brent. “You choose your moments, brother.”
“Maybe I do. Or maybe I like getting vengeance on you for stealing Nora Hulpocket from me.”
“Hey!” Anya playfully nudged Brent’s arm.
“Who is nothing compared to you, sweetheart,” he rushed on. Turning to me in the way of explanation, he said, “We were seven.”
Smiling, I swung my legs around ready to jump down. But Kaleb got there first. He leaped off the rock with no effort at all, taking me with him. He landed, both feet on the ground, with me in his arms.
“Warn me next time, why don’t you?
”
“What?” His innocent expression had me hiding a smile. I wriggled out of his grasp.
Keeping a possessive hand on my waist, Kaleb said to his friend, “You want to talk here?”
“No. Our cabin will be better. All the cabins are shifter-proof, as Anya calls it.”
“It’s great having such sensitive hearing,” Anya explained, “but not when you get to hear everything your neighbors are doing. Come on. Let’s go to the hearth. We have some cold beers in the fridge.”
“So,” Kaleb began, his knee touching mine on the comfy couch that sat before the open fire in the living room of Anya and Brent’s cabin. As their private domain, Brent assured us no one would disturb our conversation, and we relaxed, the fire crackling in the wooden home of comfort.
Delicate floral patterns meshed with the sage and gingerbread walls and floors uniting both that of Anya’s and Brent’s tastes. It drew me in with coaxing arms, and I knew I’d have to cut myself off after the one beer if I didn’t want to start snoring on their couch.
Kaleb found comfort with his arm around mine, nursing a beer in his other hand. “Want to tell me why you sold us out at the burial?”
“I didn’t sell you out,” Brent replied. “I saw an opportunity and took it.” He sighed. “There’s been some unrest in the pack since I took on the position as Alpha. More so with the older generation who worshipped my father’s archaic ways, spurning on the young to fire verbal arrows.”
“It’s a minority,” Anya reassured him, “but, unfortunately, it’s enough to cause us some issues. We both idolized Brent’s father, but his ways were of the old traditions. They didn’t fit anymore. And many people like the changes. But others don’t, so they rebel through not following orders. Some blatantly go against them. And there’s some questioning Brent’s leadership. It’s causing disharmony in the pack, and now the killing of Varden has only fueled the fire.” She shared a concerned look with her mate. “But he wasn’t the first to get hurt.”
“We know,” Kaleb replied. “Two injured.”
“Not only two.” Brent played with the bottle of beer then said, “There have been more attacks than two. And not just on these lands. Several attacks occurred across a few wolf packs, a bad one on the lands of the Noremacayan pack. That’s why your father brought everyone together. It’s why they locked down the borders.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told you their reasoning.”
“This is bullshit,” Kaleb muttered.
“Freddie Gellen is a shifter who was attacked on our land,” Brent explained. “He was hunting on the border of the two packs when something jumped on his back and took a chunk out of his neck. We weren’t sure what it was, but it didn’t have the scent of a wolf. It was foreign, something we didn’t recognize. That’s when we began to worry.”
“Did it smell rogue?”
Brent hesitated. “Rogues smell different. You know that. Sometimes they carry the scent of a wolf, sometimes of their pack, sometimes human. That’s why we believed your father when he pressed the rogue shifter escape.”
“What about the other attack?”
“Simon Houndsrun. His leg got torn up some when he bathed in the hot spring. Also near the border. He thought he’d got caught up on some reeds at first, but then the pain came. His friends got him out, but there were bite marks on his leg.”
“Rogues don’t like water.”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “I know. Putting the pieces together, I know deep down a rogue isn’t responsible for this. We put the curfew in place after the second attack.”
“People think Brent is wrong to doubt your father,” Anya explained to Kaleb. “They think he should believe the rogue shifters are loose. Many family members live hoping their kin has come home. They’re happy to discourage outsiders coming in.”
“Then why the cheers tonight?” I asked out of interest. “When you announced Kaleb and I are here to help?”
“Because I said you were part of the PCA,” Brent replied. “Many here believe they have the PCA in their back pocket because mostly shifters work as field agents. And because Cole—a wolf shifter—runs it. It also helps they know Kaleb, and he lost someone to being rogue. Many will also think Theodulf has sent you to help in a way that won’t hinder or hurt the rogues. It’s best we continue letting them believe that.”
Kaleb shared a glance with me before turning back to his friend. “We wanted to leave in the morning. I haven’t discussed it in full with Terra yet, but I’m concerned with what I scented down by the lake. Enough to evoke my concerns in bringing the IET team onto the lands in an official capacity.”
“You can’t do that,” Brent snapped, his nostrils flaring. Anya put her hand on his arm to calm him.
“Why can’t we?” Kaleb snapped back. “And so you know, I’m not the leader of the IET. Terra is. And I’d love to understand why you don’t know that bit of information if my father is so eager to share. I’m sure Cole would have told him the details.”
“He didn’t say who leads it.” Brent went quiet, his brow furrowed as he looked toward me. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked me, “You do?”
“Don’t look so goddamn surprised, Brent,” Anya urged from beside him, nudging him with her elbow.
“Sorry,” he muttered, but then he looked relieved. “You don’t need to make the investigation on our grounds official, do you? Surely the two of you can find the culprit. Arrest him. No one needs to know.” He glanced at Kaleb. “Including Theodulf Cipher.”
Kaleb stirred beside me, and I patted his leg. “I think Kaleb and I need to discuss this further before we decide, especially after what I discovered at the lake, too.”
“What?” Kaleb asked from the side of me. I ignored him.
“I want to go back down to the lake tomorrow, and to the hot spring where the other attack happened. I’m a Sapphire Citizen. A psychic. I sometimes have visions when visiting the places where the tragedy occurred. I’d like to see if I pick up on anything.”
Brent cringed at the word ‘psychic.’
“Brent’s backward with such things as psychics and witches,” Anya explained. “He throws them all into the same pile of ones to watch your back against. But he appreciates it.” She elbowed him. “Don’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered quickly. “Sure.”
“You can stay in one of our guest cabins tonight,” she continued. “I’ll also take you to the hot spring in the morning. We can go early dawn, before breakfast. There will be fewer people around to poke their noses in that way.”
“Thanks, Anya.”
She smiled. “Think nothing of it. These boys will bite at each other all night if we let them, but deep down they’ve missed each other. Thick-headed fools.”
“Hey!” Kaleb and Brent said in unison.
“See?” She shrugged, and I grinned.
Sobering, I turned to Brent. “If we confirm our suspicions on who might be behind all this, then I may have no choice but to bring in the rest of the team.”
“But you’ll try not to?”
“We’ll try not to. I don’t relish catching the attention of the other packs. And I would like for us to resolve this without our chief catching wind of it. My name is already getting dragged through the mud amidst political circles. I’d rather not get it any dirtier.”
He appeared relieved. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank us yet. For if what I think is here, hiding out on your lands, then we have no clue how to catch it.”
“Oh don’t fret about that,” Anya waved off the worry. “If there’s one thing we’re good at, it’s hunting.”
“Even in the water?”
Her face drained. “I see what you mean.”
“Let’s take it one step at a time. Who knows? Maybe it is just a rogue?”
Kaleb snorted from beside me.
“What?” I snapped.
“Babe. It’s you. You know it will never be that easy.”
&
nbsp; “Asshole,” I muttered as the others laughed.
“Just saying it like it is.”
“Yeah. Like you sleeping alone?” His smile dropped. “Thought as much.” I raised my beer with a wink, chuckling to myself when Kaleb called it an early night.
15
Brent and Anya gave us the keys to the guest cabin and showed us around before leaving us to it.
With only one floor, the cabin housed a large bedroom, a bathroom, and an open-space living room, flowing into a small kitchenette. Wood met fauna in the sprinkling of house plants blooming in plant plots, with pretty floral, homemade sofa and chair coverings of soft blue and pink.
In the bedroom, the bed took up most of the space, the mattress high and the metal bed frame structured no doubt to manage the sturdy builds of shifters. But the room enveloped us in its care, love reflected in the paintings of shifters and moonlight on the walls, the tended flowers in the vase, and the woolen rug beneath our feet. The intention of the room was clear. It was a home away from home.
Throwing on the one set of PJs I’d packed, I brushed my teeth and then grabbed the fang I’d shoved into my jeans pocket. While Kaleb escaped into the bathroom, I made us both some hot chocolate from the supplies in the cupboard. I grabbed the soft throw from the back of the couch and settled down before the fire Kaleb had lit earlier.
Even though the days remained in the holds of summer, the nighttime still brought the cold with it. The only heating available in the cabin came from the fire, and whatever we could find to wrap around us.
“Hot chocolate?” Kaleb said as he walked out of the bedroom. “Any marshmallows?”
“Is that a shifter thing, too, then?” I smiled. “I found some in the cupboard.”
Taking the cup, he sat down next to me, his chest bare. Mammal shifters can bear the cold better than humans. He lifted my legs onto his lap. “It’s a staple food for Brent and his kin.” He took a sip from the cup. “Ah,” he sighed. “Delicious.” He rubbed my leg. “I like this.”
“What? Being thrown into another investigation where we have no clue what we are doing.”
Death Be Shifted (The Terra Vane Series Book 6) Page 9