“You’ll do it, then?”
She gave him a curious look. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”
He grinned. “Never. You’re as fierce as a shifter when you put your mind to it.”
“I’ll need you to point me in the right direction. I don’t have your nose.”
Before she knew what was happening, he had her pressed against the solid muscle of his naked body, one arm banded behind her like an iron bar. He gave her a quick but thorough kiss. “I’ll be a heartbeat away.”
Rachel threaded her fingers through his long hair, brushing it over his shoulder. She cared way too much about this man. Leaning into his embrace, she touched her lips to his, letting her tongue glide along his lower lip and between his teeth until he growled and gripped her even tighter. And the kiss became something more. Passion and heat and possession. Until her arms were wrapped around his neck and the hard length of his cock was nestled between her thighs.
Aidan broke away with a hissed breath. “Fuck.”
Rachel could only nod her agreement. She hadn’t meant to take it this far, but Aidan was temptation itself all wrapped up in golden skin and muscles. “I should probably—”
“Yeah,” he agreed, still holding her close. “Half the clan will be here soon, and…”
He didn’t need to finish that sentence. She could still feel his erection like a brand, hot and hard and dangerous as hell. And probably embarrassing if his cousins showed up.
“I’ll just…” She gestured toward the ground.
“I’ll go first and spot you.”
“You sure?” She pulled back enough that their bodies were no longer touching, but they were both aware of his cock between them. She gave him a doubtful look, and he gave her a narrow glare in return.
“It’ll go away when I shift.”
She bit back a laugh then patted his chest and stood back even farther. “Let’s do this.”
With a low growl, he brought his mouth to hers one more time. But instead of a kiss, he bit her lower lip and licked away the pain. “Bad girl,” he whispered, then released her all at once and leaped to the ground, shifting in midair.
“Very pretty,” she murmured, smiling from her perch in the tree when he growled up at her, pretending to object to the compliment. And it was pretense. Aidan was feline to his core. He loved being petted and admired.
A sudden noise in the distance had them both turning to listen. When she looked back at Aidan, his golden eyes were glittering with anger and intent. There was no more time for kisses and quips. The hunt was coming their way, and she had a job to do.
Settling her pack over her shoulders, she started downward, descending nearly as fast as a shifter could have. The minute her feet hit the ground, Aidan was there, stroking the full length of his big cat body against her leg. He stood like that for a long moment, perfectly still, his attention focused on the path to the city. Rachel knew he was hearing and seeing things she’d never be able to, no matter how long she spent on Harp. He moved suddenly, turning to match gazes with her a moment before he took off, disappearing into the trees with an astounding leap at least twenty feet straight up. She heard the slight scratch of his claws on the bark, a signal to her of his presence, and then nothing.
She looked around. This area of the Green was a riot of growth, with trees so close together in some parts that she could barely distinguish one from the other. Far overhead, crisscrossed branches closed off most of the sunlight, which should have made it cool on the ground. But instead, it was warm and humid, with the canopy preventing even the slightest cooling breeze from penetrating. She was tempted to remove her long-sleeved top, but she knew better by now. This was the Green, where everything that moved could be deadly.
Reaching around, she grabbed her canteen for a long drink of water and then set off toward the city, exaggerating the limp from her bandaged leg, letting all of her exhaustion show. If Wolfrum was watching, she wanted him to see a woman who’d been hiking for days, who’d made her way through a deadly forest with more than one dangerous encounter and was eager to reach the safety of the city.
As she walked, she was aware on a subliminal level that she was being stalked. It was the same instinct or awareness that made her such a successful wilderness guide. The shifters didn’t make a sound, but she knew they were there, high overhead, circling around and out as they drove their prey in her direction.
It wasn’t long before she heard something, or someone, crashing through the brush ahead of her. Taking nothing for granted, she readied her crossbow, and was perversely disappointed when the approaching figure turned out to be Guy Wolfrum. Or at least someone who resembled him. She’d only met the asshole that one time at a formal reception, where he’d been wearing a dinner jacket and bow tie. She hadn’t expected him to look like that, obviously, but she hadn’t expected the human wreck who confronted her, either.
Every inch of visible skin was scratched and bleeding, his eyes wild with fear, his clothes torn and disheveled. He carried no pack or weapons that she could see. And when a cat’s serrated yowl had him spinning around to study his back trail, Rachel gasped out loud at the state of his back and legs. Only fear could have kept him upright. It looked like a wild animal had attacked him. Or a shifter. After hearing Aidan’s report, she had a fairly good idea of which one it was.
“Dr. Wolfrum,” she said urgently, running to meet him and playing her part. “What in God’s name happened to you?”
He spun around in shock, eyeing her suspiciously for a long time before recognition seemed to click in. “Rachel Fortier,” he said. “I’m sorry, Doctor Fortier.”
She nearly laughed out loud at the ridiculous formality. “Rachel is fine, sir. Please, you’re wounded, let me help you.”
The life seemed to drain out of him all at once. He slumped downward, his shoulders drooping, head falling to his chest, and then he was crumpling to the ground as she hurried to brace him.
“Here,” she said, placing her canteen against his lips. “Drink. Where’s your kit? Your water and the rest of your gear?”
He gulped from her canteen and would have taken more, but she stopped him. “Not too fast. It’s not good for you.”
He licked his lips, sucking up every bit of moisture as he nodded his head. “You’re right, you’re right. It’s just…” His eyes were still wild with fear. “It’s been a nightmare, Rachel. You don’t know this place, these people. They’re frighteningly primitive.”
She nodded. “They attacked the ship, sir. I was outside, gathering samples, when… It seems fantastic, I know, but I saw it with my own eyes.”
“What? What did you see?”
“A pride of huge predator felines. They acted in unison, clearly following well-honed hunting techniques, probably learned behavior, passed from mother to cub, like the lions of—”
“Rachel, please,” he impatiently interrupted her scholarly recounting of the attack. “What happened?”
“Sorry, sir. I get caught up sometimes. Just fascinating… Uh, right. They attacked the ship and…” She drew a deep breath, letting tears fill her eyes, before leaning forward to whisper, “They killed everyone.” She wiped a rough hand over her eyes. “I only survived because I was outside the ship.”
He seemed to stop breathing when he stared at her. “Ripper? The others? They’re all gone?”
She nodded. “I went onboard after they were gone—the cats, I mean, thinking I could help the survivors, but…they weren’t just dead, sir. They were torn apart. There was nothing I could do.”
“Of course not,” he reassured her faintly.
“I tried, but couldn’t raise anyone on the radio, too much interference, and I was terrified the beasts would come back. So I packed my gear as fast as I could and headed for the city, looking for you. I didn’t know what else to do.”
All at once he seemed to recover his pompous self, sitting up and tugging at his clothing as if that would make it better. “You did the right thing, Rach
el. In fact, it was quite brave of you. I’m impressed. But now”—he gripped her arm and stared, pulling her gaze to his—“we need to escape this place. Fleet needs to know what’s really going on here. They have to be warned.”
“Fleet? The cats are wild, sir. I’m sure the local—”
“Cats? You think that’s all they are? There was a second ship, did you know that? They killed everyone there, too, and destroyed the ship. This forest…” He studied the greenery all around them with such fear in his eyes, that for a moment she thought he was going to succumb to terror all over again. But then he shuddered and said, “It’s unnatural.”
“Second ship?” Rachel said, playing dumb. “There were two?”
Wolfrum sucked in a breath, as if aware he’d said too much. “I forgot,” he said finally. “You were confined onboard for most of the journey. It was a matter of mission security, you understand. You couldn’t reveal to others what you didn’t know.”
She frowned. “But I thought we had permission—”
“I told you this is a primitive place. Their so-called Ardrigh rules nothing beyond the city limits, certainly not in the areas where we needed to land in order to complete our studies. We had fleet permission, which is what matters.”
“Of course. Were you with the second ship, sir? Is that where you were injured?”
“Exactly.”
“I should look at your wounds. In this environment, infection—”
“There’s no time. We have to keep moving.”
“But, sir…” She frowned in confusion. “There’s nothing out here. Nowhere to go. We should return to the science center in the city and get you the help you need. We can contact fleet from there.”
“Right, right. But it won’t be fleet that comes to save us. They can’t be openly involved with this. You understand.”
“But if not fleet, then—”
“A private investor, of course. One with fleet contacts and enough money to buy off the right people.”
Rachel tilted her head. “Is it Leveque? Amanda Sumner’s mother must visit here, and she’s—”
“Not Leveque. He’s far too proper. But not everyone in his family suffers under the same scruples, and they all have access to the necessary transport. It’s good that you reminded me about the science center. I’ve been so rattled since the attack. But I can arrange a pickup from there. And in the meantime, the center is still fleet property. We’ll be safe there while we wait.” He spun in a circle, slapping a fist into the opposite palm as if it helped him think. “We can’t chance it in daylight. They’ll try to stop us.”
“Who’ll try to stop you? Who’s chasing you? I think we should—”
“I don’t care what you think!” he yelled, suddenly furious. “You’re nothing but a glorified tour guide with some academic credentials to your name. You don’t have the right to question me. I’ve been with fleet for decades. I’ve sacrificed and scraped and for what? So that I could die on this dirtball of planet with a bunch of freaks? Not in this lifetime. Now help me up or get the fuck out of my way.”
“But where will you go until you can reach the center?” she persisted. “It’s not safe out here.”
Wolfrum stilled as he turned to stare at her. “You know about them, don’t you?” he whispered. “You’ve seen them.”
Rachel stared back at him then admitted. “If you mean the shapeshifters—” She shrugged. “I couldn’t believe it, but yes, I’ve seen them.”
“Rachel,” he said urgently. “You’re a scientist. You must see their potential, their value to fleet, to humanity.”
“But what about their value as people? To their families? They’re human. You can’t just sell them to a lab somewhere.”
“Human? You saw what they did to Ripper and the others, how they tore them apart. Is that human?”
“Yes,” she said calmly. “I saw what they did. But I also saw what Ripper did, and what she would have done if she hadn’t been stopped. The shifters defended themselves, just as people have since the beginning of time. War is hell, Dr. Wolfrum. All those years with fleet must have taught you that, too.”
His lip curled in a sneer as he studied her. “They’ve already brainwashed you, haven’t they? Are you fucking them yet? That’s why they let you survive, you know. You and that Sumner bitch. Thinks she’s so superior to the rest of us because she survived a damn camping trip. But you’re both fools. You’re nothing but incubators for their offspring. Fresh blood for a dying race. It must be a pheromone,” he muttered to himself, and then suddenly spun, pulling a knife from the folds of his filthy clothing. “Out of my way, or I’ll gut you where you stand.”
Rachel gave him a disgusted look, as if he actually had the skills to defeat her. But she pretended to comply, stepping out of his reach…and pulling her tranq gun.
He eyed the weapon and laughed. “A tranq gun? You don’t even have the balls to kill me. At least Sumner tried. But I killed her filthy brood instead,” he snarled. There was such hatred in his eyes that Rachel took an instinctive step back.
“Amanda’s babies aren’t dead,” she said mildly. “But, you’re right. I’m not going to kill you.” She fired the tranq gun, hitting him in the neck. He fell to the ground, paralyzed, eyes wide open in confused fear. Rachel leaned over him, grinning. “Special formula of my very own. Something I invented during my glorified tour guide days to deal with cowards like you. You can’t move, but you can feel. It’s what you planned for the shifters, isn’t it?” She straightened and backed away. “I want you wide awake for every minute of your trial, for every second of whatever punishment they choose to inflict upon you. And I think we both know what their version of justice looks like, don’t we Doctor Wolfrum?”
The small clearing was suddenly filled with cats—in the trees, on the ground, on every branch overlooking Wolfrum where he lay on the ground, helpless, his eyes rolling white with terror.
Rachel caught the golden shimmer of a shift from the corner of her eye, and then Aidan was touching her back. “We’ve got it from here, Rachel.”
There was something in his voice that had her turning to study him, something that suggested she needed handling. She grinned in sudden recognition. “You thought I was going to kill him, didn’t you? You thought I’d gone over the edge.”
His face relaxed into a smile. “I’ll admit, you scared the hell out of the cousins with that bit about him being paralyzed, but able to feel everything. That’s a fine torture technique you’ve developed there.”
“But you weren’t worried at all?” she asked skeptically.
“Of course not. Though, for the future, I will remember you’ve a bloodthirsty streak.”
She laughed, then toed Wolfrum’s paralyzed form. “You’ll get this thing back to the city?”
“The others will. You and I will be taking our own path.”
“Yeah? Is there a hot bath at the end of it?”
“A hot bath and more,” he murmured, nuzzling her ear.
She sighed in relief. She was more than ready for this adventure to be over with. “Let’s go. Wait,” she said, digging into her pack and producing a pair of the drawstring pants the shifters favored. “Put these on first. We don’t need any more embarrassing displays for the cousins.”
“Shifters don’t get embarrassed.”
“That’s not what you said an hour ago.”
“That wasn’t embarrassment, sweetheart. I just didn’t want them to feel inadequate.”
She laughed at the chorus of groans that met his statement, not to mention the expertly targeted pieces of fruit and less savory bits that pelted Aidan while missing her entirely.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing his arm. “I’ll protect you.”
“A few days ago, I would have laughed at that,” he said, draping an arm over her shoulder. “But not anymore. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Twenty
Two weeks later
It was the biggest scandal Harp had ever seen.
Hell, it was very possibly the only scandal of any note. Harp wasn’t a perfect society. There was no such thing in human or any other history. But it was a small planet with a population that had fought together for generations just to survive. The idea of selling each other out simply didn’t compute.
Guy Wolfrum’s plot to capture shifters for experimentation, and then his desperate attack on the pregnant Amanda, had drawn a great deal of attention from the Shifters Guild, which was understandable. But the mountain clans, who typically ignored what was going on in the city, were also deeply involved this time. Not only because Aidan was one of their own, but because it was Rhodry’s pregnant wife who’d been attacked. Rhodry was the de Mendoza clan chief, which made him overall leader of the mountain clans. His sons were the future leaders of de Mendoza, and his people were taking Wolfrum’s attack very personally. There were more Devlins, de Mendozas, and every other kind of clansman in the city than anyone had ever seen at once, all there to support their leader.
They’d had to wait two weeks so Wolfrum could heal from the damage Rhodry had done in defending his family. It wouldn’t do for him to face Harp justice with a bad leg, after all. But the time had finally come, and Cristobal had decided to hold the hearing in the palace’s grand ballroom, so that all interested parties could attend. A room which normally saw elegant parties with ladies in gorgeous gowns and men in formalwear was now filled with row after row of people who’d never seen the inside of the Ardrigh’s palace before today, unless it had been as part of a children’s tour when they’d been in primary school.
Aidan stood in the back with Rachel and most of the Devlin cousins. There were chairs up front, but he was too tense to sit. It was everything he could do not to pace back and forth liked the caged animal that Wolfrum and his cohorts had tried to make of him. Rachel slid her fingers into his at the same moment that Rhodry’s heavy hand fell on his shoulder. His cousin was standing next to him, with Amanda sitting in the last row, right in front of them.
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