The Minotaur's Kiss

by Erin St. Charles

  These same eyes had made Diana falter as she sang in Jacob's' backyard. They had glinted at her under the gloom of the willow tree. They watched her from the alley behind her house in the wee hours of the morning. Now...those eyes focused on stopping the creature, by any means necessary.

  With numb limbs, Diana sidled out of the closet. This ferocious creature was terrifying...and beautiful. Her eyes stretched, and her bottom lip quivered.

  Fake Julie Wheeler’s struggles gradually ceased. Mac stared at it and continued to squeeze as it went completely limp.

  "Mac...stop!"

  Mac frowned at her, his expression softening the brutal planes of his face. He tossed the creature across the room, where it hit the wall with a thud, and held out his hand for her. It was warm and calloused and swallowed hers completely as he gently helped her find her footing.

  Her eyes traveled over his body, taking in the bulky width of his shoulders, and the impressive muscles straining against his skin shirt. His shoulders slumped, and he turned away from her, but she put her hand on his arm. She threw herself into his arms, her body shaking, half laughing, half crying. His scent was so much more intense when he was shifted.

  She sobbed. "I don't think that was Julie Wheeler."

  He was holding her and caressing her back. He made soothing noises and rocked her. Pent-up emotions surfaced. Relief at having been saved, and the confusing realization that she needed to be close to him even as she knew she was opening a can of worms by letting him in. The man who had pursued her inappropriately and over her objections was now her island of safety. She knew nothing could hurt her now.

  The veneer of their professional relationship crumbled. Coarse hair tickled her nose through the fabric of his skin shirt, and she allowed herself to feel, and be, protected.

  Chapter 18

  As far as he could tell from her broken recounting of her confrontation with the changeling, Diana had sensed the creature in the closet...but she went in anyway. Despite the danger of the unknown, and the possibility that she might run into whoever had taken Julie, she went in. It was brave, but also, unbelievably stupid.

  "Please don't ever put yourself in danger like that ever again," he said.

  She looked at him from her side of the truck, screwed her face into an expression that conveyed clearly, "stop bossing me," then looked away again, eyes open and unblinking. She'd cried and trembled in his arms for a few minutes after their encounter with the creature until she pulled herself together, whereupon she reverted to Ms. Independent.

  They waited outside for the backup from Mac's agency, but when they had arrived, the creature was gone. Neither he nor Diana mentioned Mac's shift, and he couldn't help but wonder what was going on in her mind. What did she think about him, now that she'd seen him in his shifted form? He still didn't know how it happened, since he hadn't been trying to shift at all.

  They pulled up to her house. He put an arm around her shoulders, and they walked in together.

  "I can't believe I screamed like a little girl," she said, offering a weak chuckle.

  Was she serious? Berating herself for being afraid?

  He held her close and stroked her back. "Don't do that-" he started.

  "Do you know, your scent gets really intense when you shift?"

  He stiffened. No, he didn't know that.

  "Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm going to take a shower."

  He was about to tell her she had nothing to be sorry about, but she had already disappeared into the bathroom down the hall. He heard water running, then the sound of the shower. Despite the fact that they had been attacked by the weirdest creature Mac had ever encountered, and he should be thinking protective, not prurient thoughts, he imagined water sliding over her long, brown limbs and his dick surged to attention.

  So inappropriate at a time like this.

  Mac shook his head to clear his thoughts. He engaged his Omni, making a call while sitting on the comically undersized velvet sofa, sinking into the plush upholstery. His knees practically jutted up to his chin.

  Bubba Cermak answered the call and turned on his Omni screen. He was still in bed despite the late hour, flanked by two women Mac had never seen before, who lounged nude and drowsy in the background. Mac hastily turned off the video feed. He paused and heard the sound of Diana's shower still going. He sighed.

  "Man, what's up?"

  Mac gave him a heavily edited version of the wellness check, posed as a hypothetical situation without a lot of specifics, and ending with, "So what do you think?"

  Mac heard a harsh sigh on the other end of the line.

  "I can't talk about this with you unless it's in person," said Bubba. His easy-going manner was gone. As much of a fuck up as Bubba could be about some things, the man was all business when it came to threat assessment. "Where are you? I'll come to you."

  "This is hypothetical, I told you. We can talk about it later." Mac tried to sound nonchalant, but he could tell Bubba wasn't buying it. He could hear sheets being thrown off and bare feet hitting the floor.

  "Hang on," said Bubba. The sound on his end went completely mute, and Mac imagined Bubba moving to another part of his house for privacy. Mac wandered back to the kitchen looking for something to drink. He peered into Diana's fridge and found a six-pack of beer, a container of non-dairy milk, cherry tomatoes, a container of mixed greens, a plate of raw hamburger, veggie burgers, and a fruit tray. He shuddered at the raw hamburger and closed the door.

  He was searching for water bottles in her cabinets when Bubba came back on the line.

  "Back."

  Mac heard rustling in the background, drawers being opened and closed as if Bubba were looking for something to wear. "I'm coming to you. This is more serious than you know."

  "Listen, don't do that." The members of their team were able to track each other through their Omni signatures. Mac had no idea how Diana would react to Bubba showing up at her house out of the blue. She was still shaken up, and he wanted to make sure she was okay. Maybe make her a cup of soothing herbal tea, and give her a back rub...

  "You don't need to concern yourself with this. I'll tell you about it later."

  He hung up abruptly and didn't answer when Bubba called him back. Bubba had few boundaries and little restraint. Private security work suited him better than working the shifter unit of the Dallas Police Department, which was how he and Mac had met in the first place. The man was a lone wolf, an enforcer who eschewed pack rules and carved a place for himself in the human world. He was a top-notch investigator who had an eidetic memory and could size anyone up, human and shifter alike, in just a few minutes. To the casual observer, his candid manner and seeming lack of knowledge of society's rules and protocols made him seem like an idiot. Bubba knew a lot about shifter lore.

  Mac would be glad if Bubba took his back on a mission. But thank God he hadn't invited Bubba over.

  The doorbell rang just as the shower stopped.

  "I'll get it!" Mac called out. He strode to the front door and opened it.

  Chapter 19

  Diana stepped out of the shower only when the creepy sensation that came from having touched the changeling's skin dissipated. She dried off in a hurry and was shrugging into her kimono when the doorbell rang. She remembered her conversation with her sister earlier that morning when they confirmed their lunchtime get-together.

  Shit.

  She hadn't told her sister the whole story of Mac, and she cringed thinking about the conclusions Vanessa must have come to when a man answered the door and Diana emerged from the bathroom half dressed.

  In the living room, Mac stood there holding the door open, his large hand making the doorknob look like it belonged in a dollhouse. Her feet carried her over to him as if drawn by a magnetic force, and when she stood next to him, her body swayed toward his heat.

  Vanessa Miller stood on the porch, holding a large bowl of potato salad, her caramel eyes narrowed to slits as she took in the strange man standing in her sister'
s living room. She wore a pair of cutoff shorts, a t-shirt, and an Afro puff about the size of a baby's head. She looked from him to Diana, who was wearing nothing but her kimono, the edges of her hair damp and her eyes red and bright. Vanessa's twins shifted into their coyote-wolf forms, and sat politely behind their mother on the porch.

  "Hey!" Diana said, a little too brightly, waving them inside.

  Vanessa gave her sister a shrewd look, one eyebrow raised. Diana grinned like a jack o' lantern. Mac just looked confused, gaping at Vanessa, but especially Vanessa's twins. They all stood there for a few awkward moments, and Diana spoke.

  "Vanessa, meet Mac. Mac, this is my sister Vanessa, and my nieces Billie and Carolyn." Vanessa's eyes flared with interest at the mention of Mac's name. "Mac is, ah, my co-worker."

  Vanessa pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Girls, go play in the backyard." The girls trotted to the back of the house. Vanessa smiled up at Mac but spoke to Diana. "Sister, can we talk?"

  In the bedroom, Diana poked in her closet for something to wear.

  "Your ‘co-worker?’ " Vanessa said, making air quotes.

  "Yes," said Diana, pulling a pair of cutoffs out of the closet and tossing them on the bed. She pushed past her sister and opened drawers, looking for underwear and a bra. She slid on a set of red satin underwear then pulled on a matching bra. She finished dressing and grabbed a basket of laundry she had washed the night before and began folding, all while her sister eyed her thoughtfully.

  "Your co-worker?" Vanessa raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, a mannerism they both shared.

  "Yes! My co-worker!" Diana hissed. "This isn't even any of your business."

  "You put on red matching bra and panties for your co-worker?"

  Diana rolled her eyes. "He's helping me with my new assignment. We'll be working together for a couple of weeks." What would happen after the supervisory period was over? Would he want to see her afterward? As much as she'd kept pushing him away, she couldn't deny she still wanted him.

  "I thought Mac was the guy you took home with you a few days ago?"

  "He is."

  "But he's your ‘co-worker?’ Mac and Ulysses are the same person?" Vanessa made air quotes again and eyed Diana as she sorted through the basket of laundry. "Do you really need to fold laundry right now?"

  "Why shouldn't I?" She continued to fold clothing into piles on the bed. "I didn't find out until afterward that we would be working together."

  "You know I am just looking out for you," said Vanessa, hands on hips, head cocked to one side.

  "I know," said Diana. "He's a good guy-" Given that she'd spent the last few days rejecting him, it felt weird to defend Mac to Vanessa.

  "I knew something was off when you first mentioned him to me."

  Diana shrugged. "We had an... incident at the wellness check this morning...and he was there for me." Diana thought about how tenderly Mac had held her, even as he was shifted to his Minotaur form. She was embarrassed by her behavior after she'd told him how well she could take care of herself. Instead, she shrieked like a little girl and tried not touch the creature in Julie's closet. Pathetic.

  "What happened?"

  "It's not worth getting into." Anything she told Vanessa would be repeated to their mother. Her sister already knew too much. "Let's just go hang out, okay?"

  "Is Mac staying?"

  Well damn. "It would be rude to ask him to leave."

  "And what about the after party?" Vanessa gave Diana a pointed look.

  "That part of our relationship is over. We're co-workers."

  "Yeah, co-workers." Again with the air quotes. "Judging by the way he looks at you, I'm not so sure he agrees with you."

  Diana blushed, then twisted her mouth into a smirk. "Why did you never tell me what they say about shifter men is true?"

  "What do you-" Understanding dawned on Vanessa's face, and she flashed her dazzling white smile. "You are such a slut."

  Diana shook her head and smiled to herself. "Maybe he and I will get together again...when we aren't working together."

  "Easier said than done. I have a feeling about this guy. I don't think he's just lusting after you. Shifter men are crazy persistent when they find someone they like. He may not want to wait that long."

  No shit.

  This was a well-known fact. She didn't know how this played out with Minotaurs, but when a shifter male found a female with compatible chemistry, they tended to do whatever it took to claim her. The doorbell rang again.

  "Who could that be?" Diana said. "I don't even know that many people."

  "I'll get it." Vanessa headed to the front door, and Diana followed.

  It was that guy from the other day. The shifter with the crazy scar, who had crashed her lunch with Mac.

  Bubba stepped over the threshold with the cocky confidence of a predator, a grin on his not-quite-handsome face. Vanessa gave Bubba an appraising up-and-down look, taking in the casual t-shirt and jeans, well-worn boots, strawberry blond buzz cut and the scar trailing down his face from temple to jaw. The sisters exchanged a look. Vanessa's nostrils flared and wrinkled, and Diana made a sniffing gesture. Vanessa didn't have Diana's nose for shifters but could identify them through a weird sixth sense. The expression that passed between the sisters was their way of communicating "shifter."

  "I'm Bubba," he said. "I'm looking for Mac?" Diana was confused. Mac had invited him?

  Bubba loomed over Vanessa, looking down at her with clear appreciation. His turquoise blue eyes met her caramel ones, and Diana felt as if she were watching a nature program about an apex predator stalking prey. Bubba looked as if he wanted to eat Vanessa, but also eat Vanessa. He stepped forward, and Vanessa stepped back. The door swung closed.

  "Uh, I'll take you to him."

  They headed to the backyard, first Diana, followed by Vanessa and Bubba

  Chapter 20

  Mac couldn't believe it. He had explicitly told this fool not to come to Diana's house. He glared at Bubba, who ignored him. Bubba was too busy leering at Diana's sister, who in turn rolled her eyes and stalked away.

  "Ladies, can you please excuse us?" Mac said, gesturing at the back door. The other man began to protest, and Mac gave him a hard shove.

  "I thought you said she didn't like shifters?"

  Yeah, seeing Diana's nieces shifted into canines was a bit of a shock. It completely undermined an important assumption he'd had about her, and with it, another excuse not to pursue her. But he said nothing about this revelation out loud and let Bubba ramble on.

  "Why didn't you tell me she had a sister?"

  "Why on earth would I tell you that? I want her to like me!"

  Bubba went on as if Mac had not spoken. "I mean, your mate, she's hot. But her sister..." He made a "hubba hubba" gesture with one hand. "Is she seeing anyone?"

  Mac let the "mate" comment go and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He reminded himself that he could not kill this man because the law protected even annoying fucking wolves. "Can you focus, please? As long as you're here, I might as well tell you what's going on."

  He gave Bubba a more complete, but abbreviated version of the morning's events which left out Diana's ability to scent shifters.

  "I strangled it and tossed it across the room. I thought it was dead, but when the clean-up crew came, it was gone."

  Bubba nodded, his expression going from playful to serious. "It was a changeling. The gods thought it would be a good idea to create a creature that can assume the identity of any animal it comes into contact with. Changelings play dead better than a possum."

  Bubba had lost his wolf shifter parents at an early age and was raised in foster care, being shuttled from one shifter home to another. As a result, he had lived in a number of shifter cultures and had probably forgotten more about shifter lore than Mac would ever know.

  "Well, what do we do about it?"

  Bubba shrugged. "Not much to do. They aren't supposed to exist, outside of the legends. The gods brought them to Ear
th when they colonized the planet. The gods tried to hybridize changelings with humans as they did with our ancestors, but they could never get it to work. Officially, they stopped trying to breed them."

  Mac thought about the strange appearance of the changeling. He had guessed the creature was in the process of changing into Julie Wheeler's double when Diana had discovered it. But why?

  "Does this creature have Julie Wheeler?"

  Bubba shrugged again. "Probably, though I have no idea why. Only the gods can control them, so your freaky friend is one of their minions."

  Mac nodded, wondering how Diana would react to this news. It would be better not to tell her about what Bubba knew.

  "If you see the changeling again, you'll be lucky to walk away unscathed. The hybrid program didn't work because changelings were too unstable. Vicious too."

  Mac thought about how the creature had thrashed and clawed at him as he crushed its windpipe.

  "If there is a next time, I'll make sure it's dead when I'm done with it."

  "So, are we good?" Bubba's eyes were bright and eager and drifted toward the backyard. The wolf angled his head this way and that, evidently to get a look at Diana's sister. She was definitely a good-looking woman, tall like Diana, but her skin was a bit darker and her figure more boyish than Diana's womanly curves. And they were both redheads, interesting since they were dark-skinned.

  Mac swiveled his head and peered into the backyard, where the sisters fussed over the grill. Grilling was man's work, and Mac decided that he was the man to do it. He strode outside with Bubba on his heels and took the implements from Diana. Vanessa gave her sister a knowing smile and an arched eyebrow, a mannerism Mac had seen Diana do many times before. Vanessa sat down at the picnic table to watch her pups roll around on the grass. Bubba approached Vanessa, looking almost bashful. Mac enjoyed watching his friend behaving as if he were at a middle-school dance.