The Society Series Box Set 2

by Mason Sabre

  Satisfied that she couldn’t see Henry or Karl, which meant they hadn’t run into each other yet, she took in another breath and climbed back down. She had no idea where to go, so she dashed toward where she had last seen Karl and hoped with every piece of herself that he was nearby and just hiding.

  When she got to the water’s edge, she snarled out a huff. Karl wasn’t there. The faint scent of him lingered in the air, teasing her, tempting her, reminding her. She teetered on the edge of her sanity and panic.

  Shit.

  Hunkering down at the edge of the water, Gemma lay predatorily still. Silence surrounded her, and the only sound was the gentle lapping of the water and the occasional happy chirp of an insect close by. This was the perfect place to hunt—the perfect place to kill someone. Her ears twitched, picking up every sound with the utmost accuracy. But Henry … he was a constant hum on her radar, and it gave her no directional help to locate him.

  Henry was like Cade, and the tiger mixed them up because they both called to her on a fundamental level. The connection with them both was strong, solid, unyielding even. A long chord ran through the universe and somehow linked them together in ways she couldn’t understand.

  To the side of her, she picked up the easy movement of a tiger. Karl. He was prowling. Good. If he did that, then he wasn’t hurt. It was Henry who was the real issue. For all she knew, he could have been standing right behind her, and she wouldn’t know it. Only a vampire could bypass the acute hearing of a tiger. The thought made her turn, and she narrowed her eyes and squinted into the darkness. She had no trouble seeing as if it were daylight. He was hiding.

  Damn him.

  Pushing herself up, she snuffed out a short, sharp snort. Her top lip rose, and her snout crinkled in warning. If he could see her, and she was sure he could, he’d get the message. Back off.

  There was no way over the stream from what Gemma could fathom, except through it. She wasn’t averse to water, but if she’d had any other choice, she’d have gone around. Instead, she slid herself in. It was biting cold, and it seeped right through her fur to her skin and made her shiver all the way to the tip of her tail. She'd kill Henry for this alone when she got hold of him.

  Gritting her teeth, she tensed her muscles and held her breath. Every movement she made, made the coldness bite in a little deeper, and when she reached the other side, her stomach lurched. The bank was too high for her to jump to. A little way up the stream there was a point that was low enough for her to take a running leap at.

  Digging her paws into the mud and keeping her focus on the grass verge above, Gemma pushed back against herself and stretched out her tail. As she took in a breath and readied herself to lunge, something big and heavy crashed down beside her and splashed her with a wash of cold stream water. She lashed out, slashing with claws and hissing, but she was met with the sound of a tiger, and she knew he was laughing. Karl …

  He ran off again in the opposite direction with the same suddenness. He sloshed through the water and navigated through the rocks and raised tufts of earth that hadn’t yet been claimed by the stream. Gemma growled and set off after him. The shit. If there was no Henry in the shadows, this would have been fun, and her growl would have been a call of revenge, but instead, it was one of warning and it echoed around them. Karl ignored it, though, thinking it was a game. He ran on.

  Running full out, Gemma went in the direction Karl had gone, but when she got past the rocks, he wasn’t there. Whatever way he had gone, the water had stolen his scent, and she wasn’t wolf ... she didn’t have that same ability with her nose. Hearing was the tiger trait, but everything was silent, again.

  The sound of rocks against rocks and then a splash made Gemma spin, but too late. Furred paws wrapped around her middle and lifted her from the water, only to bring her back down in a ball of paws, claws, teeth and wild hisses. She let out another roar at Karl, warning him, but she couldn’t get out of his hold, and he wrestled her down into the water, dunking her.

  Gemma tried to push him back … tried to push herself back. Her broken and pining heart found solace in the male tiger, so dangerously close to her. But not just that … the fragment of her soul was close by. If she closed her eyes and reached out, she was sure, right then, Henry would take her paw.

  Between the two of them, Karl and Henry caged her mind and her tiger. They made her need to open and give herself over. The struggle between what she was, and the nature of who she was, battled around in her head. But she had to do this. It was the only way to heal the wounds of her heart.

  Without warning, Karl let her go, and she fell forward, sinking into a deeper part and coming up growling at him.

  The shit was laughing, oblivious to the dangers lurking as he sat himself on a rock and watched her. There was hunger in those green eyes, delicious hunger and a dominance that called to her tiger and made her want to respond in a way she was unsure of. She’d never let herself close to another tiger for this very reason. They’d want to possess her, to claim her, and with someone like Karl, maybe she would give in.

  Just behind Karl, Gemma caught sight of Henry. He was far back along the edge of the stream, his form covered by the shadows of the trees, and the angle of the moon’s night-light made it harder to see him. He wanted her to see him, though. That was the point.

  Henry moved closer, but he kept himself in the trees. Gemma gave a shake of her head, and Henry nodded in response. She snarled. He grinned, and Karl took it that Gemma was playing the game along with him. He angled his head, waiting for her. She took slow creeping steps forward and let a low growl rumble along her throat, but Karl kept his place, refusing to back down, and when she was close enough to him … so close that whiskers touched, she stared right into his eyes, holding his focus.

  Unseen to Karl, she sheathed her claws and raised her paw. When it was just below his peripheral vision, she met his eyes again, grinning this time, and then she brought it up and swiped it across Karl’s snout before turning and racing away.

  She hissed at Henry as she ran. Telling him to leave and pleading in her head he would hear her. Karl followed her like she’d hoped, and she took a sharp turn to head back to the clearing.

  They were tigers. She hid, and he was supposed to sneak up on her. That was how the mating dance went, but she kept herself low, just out of sight, but not so much that he would lose her. Alone, they would have played the game of hide and seek. She would have hidden, and he would have crept. Alone he would have been safe.

  Each time Karl got close enough to her, Gemma reared, paws slashing, and just as he was about to roll onto his back, she dashed away again, making him follow her.

  He let out a series of growls and snarls. He was trying to make her stop. It urged her on and, they raced the whole way around until they reached the point where the stream gave out to a waterfall. Gemma dashed across it and leapt onto the rocks, creating a distance between Karl and Henry.

  Henry stayed back. He was fast—all vampires were. If he wanted to catch Karl, he could, but that didn’t stop Gemma wanting to get out of there. She would not play this game with him.

  “Shift back,” she tried to say to Karl, but her words were just tiger sounds, and she snorted at him. The only thing she could think to do was to go slow enough, so she wasn’t racing. Maybe he would see the game was over, but it wasn’t until Gemma reached the clearing, where their clothes were, did she dare to stop. Karl was behind her, but he stayed at the tree line. If he had been in man form, he would have held the expression of confusion. She was ending their run early.

  When she ran to her clothes, it gave Karl no misunderstanding what her intentions were. She squared her paws and commanded her tiger to hand over control and shift back, right now. Her heart hammered faster than it had when she had run. Karl stood there not yet moving, and she growled at him. Come on. She wanted to yell. Shift.

  She pushed through everything, forcing her bones to move and her muscles to reshape. Her bones ached like they had b
een bent in so many wrong directions, and she knelt on the ground, panting and breathless. Her body shook with it, and when she had shifted back, her body dripped with perspiration, but she sighed, relieved. Karl was in front of her … safe.

  He began to shift back, too, although not as fast as she had done. As she pulled on her clothes, she kept her senses sharp to give Karl protection. She was fairly certain Henry wouldn’t come. If he was there, he was only watching, gauging his moment, or playing with her. This was just a warning perhaps—stalking his prey. Except, he had the wrong shifter.

  Karl shifted and before he came to Gemma, he pulled on his jeans. “I’m sorry. I was only messing around.” His face was full of sincerity, and she wanted to dash that look from his pretty green eyes. If Henry hadn’t shown up, she’d have played right back and dumped Karl’s ass in the mud.

  She breathed hard and nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. It wasn’t … it isn’t …” Her words came out in a jumble, and an unexpected sob caught in her throat and choked her. She had to gasp, one hand on her chest and the other going to her face before every pent-up emotion spilt out of her. “Fuck …” She closed her eyes and tried to push down her emotions and regain an element of control on herself. She’d not cry. Not here … not later.

  “Hey.” Karl’s hand was a calming gesture on her shoulder and she bunched up instinctively at the strange touch, but then she relaxed and let her body press against him, her ear to his chest. He was big and strong. He was protective and tiger, and she didn’t have the strength to fight her own cat’s needs. “Just take a minute.” His voice was calm, soothing. He stroked a calloused hand down her back, and without hesitation, she let go of her walls and pressed her face to his naked chest and inhaled the scent of him to ground herself.

  “Sorry. I …”

  "It's okay." He wrapped his arms around her tighter and lowered his head so that his mouth rested on her hair. It was the right move for him, but the wrong move for her and her tiger reached out to him and grabbed him with both paws. She was making him hers, and Gemma didn’t fight. The tiger did what was needed. She knew the way.

  Henry watched from the trees.

  Chapter 2

  Natalie

  Natalie curled her legs under herself as she sat on the sofa, alone, in the lounge. She tried to push herself back to get comfortable and then focus on the book she was reading. Her legs ached from sitting for so long, but she needed to busy herself and not watch every minute pass by with a painful tick. Between calls from her mother and her sister, plus doing stuff around the house, the hours had gone quickly enough, but still, each minute had been a slice of agony through her chest.

  Cade had slept all night once they had got back to the house. He’d not said a word after they had administered more medicine to his wound, just crawled up the stairs, showered, and then closed his bedroom door. He’d been there all day. Except for bathroom trips and a visit to his home office, he hadn't left his room. Every time there was a movement upstairs, Natalie’s heart leapt, she would pause, listening for the possibility that this time, he would come downstairs.

  It was growing dark. Natalie put her book on the coffee table and sighed. She didn’t draw the curtains, or even turn on the lights. Instead, she took herself to the kitchen and stood in the back doorway to watch dusk roll in. She loved both dawn and dusk—the passing of a new day or night. It reminded her of her father sometimes. He always liked dusk. He would sit in his garden, close his eyes, and his face would have a relaxed peacefulness across it. He said there was something about those times that made his mind stop, and he could sit and get a moment of peace from all the voices clamouring in his head for attention. The changes in the day helped to build his mental walls so he could keep the images out—something he had taught Natalie and her sisters to do at a very early age.

  Natalie was okay, though. She could control her images most of the time. Only when a strong enough vision came—one that demanded attention–would she lose it, but they were few. Even Jessica’s death and the images that came with that were now locked safely away in her head. Kara had control, too. It was only Beth … poor Beth with the gift of present sight, who struggled. The world was so ugly and so awful every minute of the day; it was hard to find a moment’s peace to shut that out.

  The sky morphed into pretty shades of orange and red, and Natalie let out another tired sigh. There were clouds scattered around, but not too many. Not so many that it took away the beauty of the world or stopped the feeling of the last rays of sun as they touched her skin.

  “I wish you were here, Dad.” A lump formed slightly in her throat as she whispered his name. So many years since he had gone, yet it felt like only yesterday when she had last seen him. “I wish you could tell me what to do.”

  The sound of doors opening upstairs, and then the sound of Cade walking into the bathroom, made Natalie bite on her lip and listen, waiting for the sounds of his footsteps coming down. He had done this all day, and the only reason she could think of was that he was regretting what they had done the night before. He had been sick … fraught with fever and the vampire’s poison and silver invading his body. Maybe she should have stopped him. Maybe she should have asked him to wait until he was of sound mind and making love to her was something he actually wanted. She quashed the tug in her gut at that last thought and then let out another long sigh and leant against the jamb of the door. She leant her head to the side—her heart heavy with shattered hope.

  Even with all the fear in her heart, the thought of Cade caused heat to flush through her body and her wolf to rise under the surface. Her skin ached with longing for the wolf upstairs. Her wolf craved him. If she closed her eyes and thought hard enough, she could almost feel his touch against her heated skin. He was gentle, but with a firmness—safe. Her wolf responded to him completely—to the dominance of him, and she had submitted to him gladly.

  Earlier, Natalie had considered giving Cade an apology. She had got so far as to get to his door. But she wasn’t sorry. Not even a little. She had gone to sleep in the bedroom next to him with his delicious scent on her skin and the warm ache between her thighs. Her stomach fluttered just thinking about what they had done, and somewhere in her daydreams, she hoped that maybe they had created something special together.

  The stairs in the hallway creaked, and Natalie couldn’t stop the way her heart rose in her chest and flipped at the sound of his footsteps. She fisted her hands to her sides and prepared herself for another bout of disappointment, but when the kitchen door opened, and Cade stepped in, she caught her breath. He was dressed differently. Cade always wore shirts and trousers—he was always ready for the office. But this time, he wore a t-shirt and jeans. He wore it so well it showed off his firm physique and did nothing good for the fluttering of her stomach and the desire that rose along her skin. She had to bite her lip again, but this time it was because she wanted to go over to him and nip along his skin. He was intoxicating, beautiful. Every muscle showed under his clothes. Her brain stalled at the sight of him and the rush of hormones in her body.

  It didn’t help that her wolf had already had a taste of him. She knew what she was missing, and god damn, she wanted more of that. She rose through Natalie’s body, demanding, pushing. She prowled, and it took every ounce of energy Natalie had to keep herself from going across the room to him.

  “Are you feeling any better?” She dared to ask him, feeling the shake of her own voice.

  He stopped at the doorway a little disorientated. He frowned at her and lifted those sexy blue eyes to meet hers. Even across the room she could see the brightness of them; his wolf was present, not fully in control. “My arm is almost healed.” He lifted it to show her although he didn’t make a move to come into the kitchen. After they had come back to the house, they put more of whatever the powder was onto the wound and more black shit oozed from it. Cade had winced, but not like before, not to where she worried his fever would send him into a seizure.

  “I defroste
d a rabbit for you. Would you like me to heat it up?”

  His gaze travelled painfully across the room to where she had left dinner on the counter. It was almost like his eyes and mind were in a sleep haze “I can do it,” he said, his words clipped.

  “Okay.” She tried to remind herself that he wasn’t being hurtful on purpose. That wasn’t Cade.

  He strode across the kitchen and went to where she had put the rabbit. They heated the food to the temperature of an animal that had just died. They didn’t want cooked, just warm—the pretence of the fresh catch. It had been in Cade’s freezer since whenever he had caught it.

  Most others lived like that … catching their kills in bulk and then freezing them and keeping them for when the Humans called a ban on hunting. It was safer that way. Humans were tantruming toddlers, prone to change their minds about things on a whim.

  “Do you want a coffee?” Natalie walked over to where they kept the kettle, and she filled it before he had the chance to answer her.

  “I don’t know.” He had his back to her, but he glanced over his shoulder when he answered. Progress at least. He moved stiffly, his body tense, and it made the air around them so thick she would need claws just to get through. She tried to hold herself and not let her mind race off in the wrong direction.

  “It’s just coffee.” She never really dared to answer him back like that. Not that she was a weak submissive woman, but she didn’t want to be difficult, or forceful.