by Kaye Draper
A pair of golden-brown eyes met mine, and he gave met that mystery smirk again. "Oh, no. Not this time, Sam, thank you. Political niceties can wait until I have less pressing things to attend to back home."
He picked up his Godsdamned war strategy book and buried his nose in it, leaving his cousin and her bodyguard to the mercies of Ahura, Fin, and Emerson.
Yeah, something was definitely up with him. But fuck if I cared. I just wanted to get home and get paid. Then I was going to enjoy some fucking quiet time by myself. I wouldn't have to take another hunter gig for a while, with the money Theo paid me. I could just picture it now—nothing but me, my quiet cannery loft, a bottle of vodka, and some rare grilled steak.
A person's gotta dream big sometimes.
Chapter 7
Unfortunately, we hadn't even gotten ten feet from the town walls before Ada and Theo were at each other's throats about our destination.
"I'm the one driving this fucked up party bus," I said, raising my voice to be heard over all the damned arguing going on behind me. "I was hired to come get you and take you back to Westhold," I narrowed my eyes at the assholes. "That's it."
Ada turned her angry blue eyes on me. "I'll pay you for the detour then." She placed a hand over her stomach. "I need my mate by my side when this baby is born! He's suffered in exile far too long as it is."
I glared at Theo. Had he known all along that his cousin was going to insist on a detour to pick up her baby's daddy? At some shack town in the middle of nowhere?
"Back the fuck up," I growled, eyes pinned to the dwindling road leading away from Golding. "Mate? Humans don't have mates. They have husbands. Girlfriends. Life-fucking-partners. Not mates."
Silence stretched out its awkward fingers, giving me a little tickle of hell no.
"You're right," Ada said with a sigh. "But shifters have mates. My husband is a cur—a canid shifter similar to a coyote."
I glanced at Theo in the rearview, to find him studying his cousin with his lips pressed together. His eyes were glinting with that dangerous look again, the one that reminded me that he might look like a weak human, but he had to have climbed to the top of the politics ladder somehow…probably by sheer ruthlessness. "Babies are born without fathers every day. This one will survive too."
The woman let out a high-pitched whistling shriek and I was pretty sure I was going to see the precious human sovereign gutted with a set of pink manicured fingernails. Luckily, the bodyguard stepped in, catching Ada's wrist and setting forward on the bench seat to insert herself between the two cousins. "Ada, he's just trying to push your buttons. You know he'll eventually do anything you ask."
Ada huffed and tugged her arm free, crossing her arms over her swollen midsection and looking at Theo with tears shimmering in her big blue eyes. Fuck. The bodyguard was probably right. Human males were notoriously ill equipped to deal with crying pregnant women. Not that I blamed them. I was feeling attacked myself.
Theo sighed. "Ada. If it really means this much to you, we'll go. But...are you sure? Is it worth the price you'll pay—your parents' disapproval, the political fallout, the shit you're going to have to deal with every day?” I rolled my eyes. Fucking humans. Of course, it wasn't just about a dangerous and inconvenient detour. It was also a Godsdamned spiritual quest for her to stand up to societal norms for a taste of shifter ass.
Humans were so weak and stupid. Sure, the whole discrimination thing sucked—on both sides—but humans had it good. Only a chick from a rich family would go looking for trouble, while the rest of the population was perfectly happy to stay separated as long as they had food and shelter for another day.
"It's worth everything," the stupid woman whispered, her voice hushed, but fierce.
I rolled my eyes.
"Sam," Theo said, resigned, but still perfectly capable of trying to order me around. "Head east."
"Double," I growled. "And if any of my team or my equipment are damaged, it's coming out of your fucking weak human skin."
Theo just stared me down in the rearview, his light brown eyes steady and confident, like someone who always got his way. Well, tough titties. This was the fucking wastelands, not a courtroom full of old rich people.
I swerved around a rock, then met his eyes again. He arched a brow at me in challenge. "I'll pay you triple, if you just do it without bitching."
I bit back a laugh. "Throw that stupid strategy book of yours out the window, and we've got a deal."
He rolled his eyes. "Strategy is everything, Sam. Brute force, stubbornness, and luck will only get you so far."
I flicked my eyes back to the road, but I could feel his gaze boring into the back of my head. Whatever. Like he knew anything about me. Dumbass.
We stopped a couple hours later. If Emerson's patchy satellite info was any good, we should be getting close to the stupid shack camp. Whether anyone would even be alive there when we arrived was anyone's guess. Settlements didn't stand much of a chance outside the walled protection of a city.
I slipped out of the driver's seat and stretched my whole body, feeling like I needed a good fight to loosen up my muscles. I eyed the bodyguard—Jenny—where she stood near Ada, close enough to defend the woman if there was a need, but far enough away to almost look professional. I noticed Ada was always looking for the other woman, darting glances, turning her body to keep her in sight as she talked with the others.
I sidled up to the tall, muscular woman as she fingered the knife at her waist. "So," I said in a low voice. "Does the husband know you guys are fucking?"
Cold gray eyes met mine. "How is that any of your business? You're just a high-paid bus driver."
I arched my brows at her. "Wow. Thanks. Look, lady, I'm not blind." I waved a hand toward Ada. "You're all over that. And I could give a fuck less. But I don't want to show up to collect this random shifter at a fucking shack village that's probably filled with low-lives who got thrown out of a real city, only to get my ass caught up in some stupid drama about mates and who's bumping uglies." I shrugged. "I drive, and I kill shit. I don't deal with drama."
She snorted. "Don't worry. Our relationship isn't a secret. Even from that asshole."
I sighed. "So, there is going to be drama."
She lifted one leather-clad shoulder in a half-shrug. "I don't care for the fucker. But for some reason, Ada loves him. He doesn't ask about her relationship with me, and I return the favor."
I nodded. That was the way some poly relationships went. Not one I think I'd particularly enjoy, but each to their own.
"How about some sparring?" I said, twisting from side to side to limber up. I hated sitting still on these long drives.
She eyed me up and down. "I'm part Jackalope," she said in a dry voice. "Just in case you were hoping for an easy human target."
I laughed. "I've never met a Jackalope before. Sounds fun."
She grinned, but it wasn't any warmer than her usual glare. "I'd be happy to kick your scrawny ass, for demonstration purposes."
And that's what I proceeded to let her do. The others watched with varying levels of concern, irritation, or boredom. But I enjoyed every minute, gloried in every punch I took, every vicious kick from her powerful legs.
There was no better way to learn than by getting your ass kicked. I felt Ahura's sharp red eyes on us the whole time. She understood, and I bet she was cataloging all of Jenny's weaknesses, just like I was. When I finally held up my hands to call a halt to the brutality, the bodyguard stood over me, smirking, sure of her superior strength and speed.
"Get up bus driver," she said, extending a hand to pull me to my feet.
I wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of my lip and waved to the others. "Round it up. We need to get moving if we want to get to the village before full dark."
Fin was shaking my head and muttering about my need for violence. Emerson was making puppy dog eyes that made me think he'd like nothing more than to come hug me and fix my boo-boos. I glared at them both until they got
in the camper.
Ahura arched a brow at me and winked before she followed. She knew what was up, for sure.
Theo stopped me as I went to cross to my side of the camper. I looked down at his hand on my arm, then pointedly lifted my gaze to meet his.
"Don't let Jenny get to you," he said gravely. "I know she's abrasive, but she's been a good companion to Ada since Hans was wrongfully accused and sent to the wastes."
I stepped closer to him, angling my body so no one else could read my lips. "Do you really trust any of this?"
His brown eyes glowed in the sinking sun, and I felt the flare from his purchased wards as I got into his personal space. He lifted a hand to stroke my hair behind my ear, and I froze under the unexpectedly intimate gesture. Then he leaned in, bringing his body closer to mine in a way that must look like something sensual to anyone watching us. They'd all think we were flirting. I tilted my head as he leaned in, his lips brushing my earlobe. I definitely didn't shudder a little at the warm caress of his breath, or his scent of hot sunshine and fine clove cigarettes.
"Not one bit," he whispered. "Keep your eyes open Sam. I'm pretty sure there's a snake in our midst. But sometimes you have to let these things play out."
His fingers slipped from my hair and he stepped away to casually walk back to the camper.
That's what I'd thought. Just fucking great.
I should have asked for way more money for this job. Like enough to buy a new house in a different city, far away from this asshole and his stupid games.
Chapter 8
I eyed the gages and the landscape as we crept closer to the settlement of Valhalla. People were so stupid. Like it was heroic or something, to get yourself kicked out of the protection of a city and try to live out here in the middle of nowhere with the monsters. I narrowed my eyes at the way little hills started to dot the barren landscape. Those could be a natural effect of the ever-changing wind and weather. Or they could've been created by something large enough to disrupt the dry, shifting earth when it moved. The landscape gradually evened out though, and the little hills were the least of my worries.
Valhalla was built right up against a massive wall of natural stone, the gray surface pocked and weathered by time. It was little more than a huddle of shacks, all made from cobbled together pieces of rock, petrified wood, and the occasional tarp. The one thing it had going for it was that it blended into the landscape, so there was some protection from predators—at least the ones who hunted with their eyes. Wouldn't do a damned thing about beasts that could scent. But I supposed there was some safety in numbers.
I pulled the camper up beside the first shelter we came to and shot an irritated glance back at the occupants of the rig. "We are not sticking around here," I warned. "We get the guy, then we head back and find somewhere else to spend the night."
Ada frowned at me. "Wouldn't it be safer to stay here with a group of people than go out in the night by ourselves?"
I eyed the sinking sun. "That would only be true if you trusted the group of people. Which I don't." I turned in my seat to meet her eyes, but my words were for everyone. "There are reasons people live outside the safety of a city. And they aren't good reasons." I curled a lip in distaste. "Besides, it's easier for a predator to sense a whole herd of prey."
"Sam's right," Jenny said gruffly, checking her weapons as she stood. "We need to grab Hans and get going. There's no sense in lingering around here longer than absolutely necessary."
I sighed and turned back to open my door. While I appreciated someone agreeing with me for once, I hated that it was her. She probably had some reason for wanting us to hurry up and move on—and I didn't think it was concern for our safety.
I slid out of the camper and stood, crossing my arms over my chest while the welcoming committee came out to meet us. A rag-tag group of people slowly crept from around corners or watched from beneath their lean-to shelters. A trio of big guys with knives and clubs formed a ring around our group. I thought I scented a few humans among the curs.
"Don't worry," I said flatly. "We come in peace."
"What Sam means, is we're just here to pick up a passenger, then we'll be on our way." Theo made to walk past me, but I snagged him by the back of his fancy-assed collar and hauled him back.
His brown eyes burned as he looked at me, but I ignored his righteous anger at being interrupted and manhandled. "Get back in the fucking camper," I ground out. "I'm not going to a prison camp or an execution because you did something stupid and got shanked."
He huffed, but stopped struggling, and he stayed put when I released him.
A soft chuckle drew my attention back to the gathered villagers as a man pushed past the thugs to join us. I uncrossed my arms, pulling my gun from its holster, but keeping it pointed at the ground. "It's about time someone put you in your place, Theo," the scruffy guy said with a smile.
Theo raised an eyebrow, his expression saying just what he thought of that.
The camper door opened, and Ada rushed out, closely followed by Jenny. "Hans," the massively pregnant idiot said, throwing herself at the poor guy.
Honestly, I didn't know how she stood it. He looked like he hadn't bathed in a couple years, at least.
His hazel eyes went wide as he wrapped his arms around his huge mate. "Ada?" Pulling back, his eyes wide with wonder, he placed his hand on her swollen middle. "A pup?"
She grinned. "Yours, of course."
For fuck's sake, the guy looked like he was about to cry. I rolled my eyes. Fin had come to join me, and he reached out to pat the side of my thigh in sympathy. I had lost my last bit of patience like an hour into this trip. But this point, it was a wonder I didn't murder the first person who dared to emote.
"It's time to finally come home, love," Ada whispered to her mate, her eyes going all…gooey. There was some history there, but I absolutely did not care. I wanted nothing to do with any more human drama.
"Grab your shit, coyote," I bit out. "We're leaving in ten minutes."
My fellow companions groaned, but a quick glare from me stopped the noise. For the most part. Ahura put her hands on her hips and stared me down. "I'm not getting back in that smelly tin can until we're ready to leave.”
At my silence, she winked. "I bet there's some big, strapping outlaws around here who'd be more than happy to entertain a girl."
I wrinkled my nose at her. "If you like the smell of sweat and the feeling of grime on your skin. I get the feeling showers aren't a thing around here." For one thing, water would be hard to come by in this parched landscape.
For another, I got the feeling these people were past caring about a little thing like personal hygiene. The feeling of weathered desperation was heavy in the air.
Ahura laughed and slipped her arm around my waist. "There's one thing I've learned in this hard, hard life," she said, her voice dropping a bit. "You take what you can get, and you enjoy the fuck out of it, because there might not be a tomorrow."
I shrugged her off. "Get in the camper."
She smirked and turned to saunter off, all curves and danger.
I tried not to imagine her lush little form wrapped up in a grimy, sweaty fuck-fest, and failed miserably. It was disturbing how not grossed out I was.
I think I needed to cleanse my brain with straight bleach if I ever made it back home after this stupid trip.
In the end, it took them fifteen minutes, but they did load the fuck up. Ada and Hans were making doe eyes at each other, while Jenny played cold and aloof, clearly not happy about the return of her lover's mate, but determined to be the better person. Emerson was tinkering with some piece of equipment, and Fin was using luck magic to absolutely ruin Ahura at cards.
Theo had somehow ended up riding shotgun again, and I had to endure his hooded looks.
"What?" I finally snapped at him as I slowly drove away from the settlement.
He sighed, glancing toward the back, then speaking in a low voice. "Thank you. For taking this extra risk. Ada is
…important to me, in a way you wouldn't understand."
I huffed. "I'm just in it for the money."
He smiled, slow and warm, and…completely wrong. Theo should not be giving me that fond look. "I appreciate it all the same. And…I'm sorry for what you had to go through…with the cur."
I shook my head. "Stop right now. I have stupid-assed nightmares. I've had them for years. It has nothing to do with killing curs. That's my job. Like exterminating cockroaches."
He pressed his lips together but was, thankfully, silent.
We didn't drive too far before stopping to make camp. I wanted to be safely away from the settlement, but I really didn't want to try driving at night in the wastes. We pulled up close to the edge of the rock formation, which started to peter out past this point. It had some weird holes drilled into it, but after closer examination, I decided the swiss cheese look was probably just from natural erosion. I parked us close, so we would be protected from anything trying to approach from the rear. There were a couple of those odd hills at either side, which should shelter us from anything approaching that way, meaning we'd only have to guard one side.
I insisted on setting watches through the night. For all I knew, someone from the village might be following us, waiting to ambush us while we slept. My camper was nicer than most of their houses, and it was filled with stuff that could be sold for a good price. Plus, it never hurt to be on the lookout for fiends. I took the first watch, using the time to stretch and pace, burning off some of the excess energy that came with being cramped up and stressed out.
Emerson joined me, and at first, I was scared we were going to spend the next few hours with him trying to talk to me about…things. My nightmares. Our relationship, or lack thereof. My feelings. But he seemed to sense that talking might get him stabbed. He spent the time hunched over a dimly lit screen, tinkering and muttering to himself while he tapped buttons.
I found myself smiling softly as I watched him from my perch on a nearby petrified tree stump. I hadn't wanted to risk making a fire, in case it drew things to us, but there were a couple of low-key lights on the side of the camper, powered by a long-life battery cell. The lights bathed Emerson's greenish skin in blue-white light, making him look kind of…gray. The square, black-stubbled lines of his face were intent as he worked on whatever piece of tech he was tinkering with, alight with that kind of fervent joy people get when they're doing something they love.
