by K. C. Wells
He hadn’t been able to shake the tiger from his thoughts.
Did I miss it in my notes? Rael pulled the folder from his bag and then grabbed one of the complimentary bottles of water. He sat on the couch, opened the file, and read through his findings.
By the time he finished, he’d found a couple of mentions of Anson’s exotic pet, but no pictures. There was, however, plenty of information about Anson Prescott’s father. Tom Prescott had been a genius. He’d founded Global Bio-Tech, which right from the get-go had been a high-flying pharmaceutical company. He would still have been in charge if cancer hadn’t reared its ugly head a few years previously. Anson had been almost twenty-one at that point. But it hadn’t been in young Anson’s hands that Tom Prescott had left his company. No, he’d entrusted it to his stepson, Dellan Carson, sixteen years older than Anson and, from what Rael could glean, Tom’s right-hand man for several years.
Makes sense, I suppose. Anson was too young to be running a company.
Then why was he running it now? And why was Dellan no longer on the scene?
Rael booted up his laptop and opened a search engine. After half an hour, he was no better off. There was no mention of Dellan once Anson had taken over the company.
Did something happen to him? And if so, why isn’t it out there? Because people didn’t vanish into thin air. There had to be some record somewhere.
Rael reached for his phone. There was one route he could take that might prove useful. He scrolled through his contacts until he came to Kyle. Rael mentally prepared himself for Kyle’s reaction to his call.
Kyle didn’t disappoint.
“Hey, gorgeous. So you’ve finally come to your senses, huh?”
Rael chuckled. “No, Kyle, I am not going on a date with you.” They’d worked together on the same newspaper when Rael was starting out. Kyle was an experience not easily forgotten.
“Why the hell not? I’m witty, charming, sexy, devastatingly handsome….”
“You forgot modest,” Rael added.
“Yeah, that too.”
Rael laughed. Sarcasm went right over Kyle’s head. “Listen, I’m calling because I need your help. You still have your contacts in the police department in Chicago, right?”
“Honey, I have a zillion contacts, but yeah, I do. What do you need?”
“I’m after anything you can find on a Dellan Carson. Stepson of Tom Prescott. About thirty-eight years old. Was the acting manager of Global Bio-Tech in Chicago until Tom Prescott died a year ago, leaving him in charge. Since then he’s disappeared off the radar.”
“Okay, I got all that. Gimme a while to get back to you, all right?”
“Sure.” Rael glanced around the luxurious suite. “I’m chilling in an awesome Chicago hotel for the night.”
“Alone?” Rael didn’t miss the hopeful note in Kyle’s voice.
“Yes, I’m alone. And I still don’t want to go on a date with you.” It wasn’t that Kyle was unattractive. Rael would fuck him in a heartbeat, it had been that long since he’d gotten laid. It was just….
You know exactly why you won’t go on a date with him. Kyle wouldn’t be happy with a one-night stand. And that was all Rael had to offer. Anything more and there were consequences.
“I could come over, and we could have a drink for old times’ sake,” Kyle wheedled.
Rael let out a heavy sigh. He really didn’t want to hurt Kyle, but….
“Hey, it’s okay,” Kyle said softly. “I know how I get around guys. I cling. I obsess. After two dates, I’d be proposing. After a week, I’d be turning up at your place with a U-Haul containing all my worldly goods.” Kyle laughed, but Rael knew how much truth lay behind his words.
“Someday you’re gonna find the perfect guy. You know that, right?”
Kyle snickered. “From your mouth to God’s ears. Lemme go see what I can find.” And with that he disconnected.
Rael picked up the dining card and checked out the menu. Hey, if Anson’s picking up the tab…. He shook his head. That wasn’t Rael’s style. Besides, it was way too early to be thinking about dinner. He’d only just grabbed a sub after leaving his no-show interview.
And there he was, back to the tiger again. Okay, seeing a tiger in such a setting was impressive, not to mention bizarre, but that voice had really shaken him. He kept replaying those words over and over. Did I imagine it? Too little sleep and too much coffee might explain it, but….
In his heart, Rael knew it had been real. Because it wasn’t only the voice. There was the way he’d felt when the tiger had gazed into his eyes, the way Rael had wanted to lie at its feet in submission.
It all added up to one damn big mystery.
Rael kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the couch, a pillow stuffed under his head. A little nap couldn’t hurt, right? Who knew when Kyle would be getting back to him? He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, focusing on the rise and fall of his chest as he sometimes did when he needed to relax. He was succumbing to the warm fuzzy feeling that preceded falling asleep when his phone vibrated its way across the coffee table.
Blinking, Rael answered it without glancing at the caller. “’Lo?”
“Hey. You sound drowsy. Did I wake you?”
Rael struggled into an upright position. “Damn, you work fast.”
Kyle laughed. “That’s me, a regular Speedy Gonzales. Okay, you ready for this?”
“Hit me.”
“Dellan Carson is listed as missing.”
That woke him up. “Say what?”
“And it gets better. So is his dad. Well, sort of.”
Rael snorted. “Sort of missing?”
“Jake Carson disappeared when Dellan was seven. Seven years after that, Dellan’s mom had him declared dead. I guess she figured he wasn’t coming back. Not long after that, she married Tom Prescott. She met him when she was working as a barista. One of three jobs, mind you. Hardworking lady. Then two years later, Anson is born.”
“Who had Dellan declared missing? His mom?”
“Uh-uh. She died about a month before Dellan disappeared. Anson had him declared missing. The word is he’s running the company until Dellan shows up again.”
“And from the look of things, he’s running it very successfully.” Rael tried to piece it all together. Dellan was in charge of the company, then disappeared, leaving Anson to oversee it in his stead.
“To have one Carson disappear is unfortunate. But two Carsons?” Kyle chuckled. “If I was a suspicious kinda guy, I might smell a rat.”
Something smelled rotten, that was for sure. Rael frowned. “Wait a sec. How come there’s nothing online about Dellan being missing?”
“Beats me. It’s in the police records, but it’s not being made public. Maybe someone is pulling some strings. And it would have to be someone pretty rich or powerful—or both—to quash the story. Put it this way. I had to call in a few favors to get my source to even tell me.”
“What kind of favors?” Then Rael reconsidered. “Wait. Don’t answer that.”
Kyle laughed. “Is that it? Is that all you wanted?”
“You did good,” Rael told him.
“Anytime, honey. You know that. Now get off the phone and enjoy your awesome hotel—alone.” He paused. “I’ll bet you’ve got a king bed too. Sure you won’t get too lonesome all alone in that big ol’ bed?”
“Nice try. Thanks, Kyle. Talk soon.” Rael disconnected the call, then made a few notes. Looks like I’ll have something else to talk about tomorrow. He yawned. Time for a nap. With the phone on silent.
Except he couldn’t sleep. His stomach was in knots, and his brain wouldn’t quit. After half an hour of restlessness on the couch, he gave up and went to the bed. Maybe that would prove more conducive to sleep. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to breathe deeply and slowly, willing himself to fall asleep.
Eventually, sleep came, and he sank into it, only to find himself standing inside the glass cage. What shocked him was that he wasn’t afrai
d, not even when the tiger dropped down from its branch as it had done that morning. It stilled, its gaze locked on Rael. Then it launched into the air, a graceful arc of stripes and sinew, and landed right in front of him, its heavy paws connecting with a dull thud as it hit the ground.
Rael couldn’t resist. He knelt on the floor of the cage, his pulse racing, and reached out to bury his hands in soft fur, stroking the noble head, the tiger’s breath warm against his own face. He ran a single finger down one curved incisor, feeling its sharp point but still without fear. Next Rael ran his hands over the tiger’s flanks, aware of the heart beating beneath the fur. He pressed his face into it, breathing in the tiger’s scent.
It was glorious.
Then the fur was gone, and Rael was left holding a naked man. A beautiful man with rich brown hair, tinted with bronze. And God, his eyes. They were green, but with amber flecks around the iris. A short, stubbly beard, peppered with gray, covered his jawline and chin. The man was thin, and Rael swore he could feel every one of his ribs. The man clung to him, gazing up at him, those gorgeous eyes locked on his.
“Help me.”
Oh fuck. That voice. It was the same as before—only now it pulled at Rael, tugging at his heart.
“Who are you?” Rael demanded. Before the man was able to reply, Rael drew him closer and kissed him, unable to stop himself from responding to that voice. The moment the man’s lips met his, a warmth rushed through him, spreading to every part of his body.
They parted, and the man frowned. “I have a name?”
Rael smiled. “Of course you do. Everyone has a name. What’s yours?”
The man’s frown deepened. “It’s… so difficult to remember.”
“Try,” Rael urged him.
“Kiss me again,” the man implored.
Rael pulled him until he was in Rael’s lap, Rael’s arms around the thin body. The man looped his arms around Rael’s neck, and Rael leaned in to kiss him, leisurely, aware for one brief moment of an odd taste. Something… chemical, almost.
Then the man pulled back and smiled, and an overwhelming feeling of happiness surged through Rael, bringing tears to Rael’s eyes.
“I remember now! I’m Dellan.”
With a shock, Rael found himself awake and cold in a dark room. Shivering, he switched on the bedside light and glanced at his phone.
Fuck. It was one in the morning.
He touched his face, disturbed to find tears there. Rael shivered again, unable to shake the dream. But was it a dream? He could still remember how the tiger’s fur had felt. The significance of the tiger becoming human wasn’t lost on him. Clearly, Rael was imagining him as a shifter. But as for it being Dellan?
He sat up and shoved pillows behind him. He needed to talk to someone, and there was only one person who fit the bill. Thank God she’s still a night owl. He speed-dialed, listening as it rang once, twice, three times….
“What’s wrong?”
He breathed more easily at the sound of his mom’s voice. “Can we talk?”
She laughed. “That is why you called me at this hour, right?” Then her voice softened. “What is it, sweetheart? You sound… strange.”
He told her about his meeting that day. The tiger in the cage. Dellan’s disappearance. The dream. And when he was done, he waited for her to respond, to tell him everything would be okay and there was nothing to worry about.
He wasn’t prepared to hear her crying.
“Mom?” he said in alarm. “Mom, what’s wrong?” He waited as she got herself under control, hiccupping as she tried to stop her tears.
“Oh, Rael. You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what? That I’m dreaming about a tiger shifter?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Think about it. Think about how you reacted when you heard his voice. How you felt when you stroked his fur. When you kissed. When you touched each other. When he smiled.” Laughter bubbled out of her. “Oh, my sweet boy. He isn’t just any shifter. He’s your mate. Your fated mate.”
“My—” Whatever words he was about to say died in his throat.
I have a mate?
Chapter Three
THIS MADE no sense. For one thing, if mates were even a thing, she would’ve told him about them when he hit puberty. When they first had “the Talk” about what was coming up fast—his first shift.
Then it hit him. Mom obviously hadn’t told him everything.
“Mom?”
She sighed. “I know what you’re going to say, and I should have mentioned it before now. But sweetheart, I never, ever thought it would happen.”
“Why not?” Rael was trying to digest this new information, but it kept sticking in his throat.
“Rael… mates are rare. Like, unbelievably rare.”
“And how rare is that, exactly?”
Mom sighed. “The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,000,000. Finding your mate? You have a better chance of winning Powerball, trust me.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell me about them?”
There was a pause. “Why should I tell you about something that is so rare among our kind, it’s almost a myth?”
He stilled. “But… then, Dad isn’t your mate?”
Another soft sigh filled his ears. “I love your father very much. I know he loves me. But no, honey, we aren’t mates. I just happened to meet another lion shifter who was this gorgeous guy with eyes that made me melt, and we fell in love. And to be honest, I’d have still fallen in love with him if he hadn’t been a shifter.”
“So how do you know Dellan is my mate?” Rael’s chest tightened, and that fluttering sensation in his stomach was back.
“Because you heard him in your head.”
“And how do you know that makes him my mate, if they’re so rare?” Rael’s head was reeling.
“I listened, that’s all. Every chance I got to be around shifters, I listened. I guess you pick up stuff. Well, I picked up enough to know that between mates, there’s supposed to be some kind of telepathic communication. A psychic link. Maybe that’s how he got to be in your dream. I’m just guessing, of course.” He caught the expelled breath. “You need to talk to someone who knows about these things. All I could tell you was you were a shifter, and as far as humans are concerned, shifters are a myth. They think if we ever did exist, we’ve all died out. So we let them think that. And as for mates… no one I listened to had ever met anyone who’d found their mate.”
From puberty, his mom had instilled in him the rule of law for all shifters: in a shifted state, he was not to approach humans or attack them. His prey was to be animals. Then his parents advised him to find a space where he felt safe and to shift there once a month. The Salmon-Challis National Forest was perfect, big enough that he could get about unseen by human eyes.
Then he realized what really bothered him about this whole new state of things.
“Wait a minute. Don’t I get a say in this? I mean, is that it? He’s my mate, so I just deal with it?”
There was silence. When she finally spoke, her voice was low but firm. “I don’t know how these things work, but I don’t think for a moment some… higher power is sitting somewhere, giggling to themselves because they’ve put two assholes together. I’d like to think they’ve put you two together because you complement each other. Because you’d be good for each other. And if I’d just found out I had a mate, the last thing I’d be doing was complaining.”
“What?” He’d never heard her so riled.
“Are you for real?” Her voice grew louder. “I’ve just finished telling you that what you’ve experienced is so rare virtually every shifter you’ve ever met would tell you it’s not possible, that they’ve never heard of such a thing, and you want to complain?”
“Yes, but—”
“But nothing. Think about your dream for a second. Didn’t you feel good when you held him? When you kissed? That’s your own body telling you who he is. But put that aside for a minute. You know w
hat I’d be thinking if I were in your shoes? I’d be planning how I’m going to get my mate out of there, because this stinks. This feels really… wrong.”
“You’re forgetting something.” Rael swallowed. “I’m not saying you’re wrong about him being my mate, but we’re kind of overlooking one important question. Why is he in there? What if he’s attacked and killed a human? Maybe that’s why they’re keeping him caged.”
There was a pause. “This is your mate. What does your heart tell you?”
Rael stilled. Everything in him was telling him Dellan was a good guy. Scared, maybe. Desperate even. But Rael didn’t sense any badness in him at all.
“What you need are answers, and the only way I can see for you to get them is to free him. So what are you going to do about it?”
Her words finally sank in. “Wait—what?”
“Well, you can’t leave him there. Maybe he is dangerous, but then again, you’re a lion, so you are too. What if they’re keeping him against his will?”
“If that was the case, surely he’d just shift and escape.” That was what Rael couldn’t get his head around.
“So he chooses to be in his tiger form and live in a cage? Is that what you believe?”
When she put it like that…? Then common sense took over. “Mom, he’s in a cage on the top floor of a skyscraper. How do you propose I get him out of there?” Even as he said the words, he knew how they sounded.
Like he was making excuses. Avoiding the question. Avoiding the solution.
“Hell, you got into that warlord’s enclave last year. If you can do that, you can do anything.”
“But that was different. Someone else got me in there.” Another excuse. What’s wrong with me?
“Then someone else can get you into that skyscraper. Don’t you know people?” Then she drew in a long breath. “I’m sorry. I got carried away. It’s just that… oh my God, Rael, you have a mate. And he needs you. He keeps asking you to help him.”
And there it was, the one argument he couldn’t ignore. Because… that voice.