Damn Shifters and their sense of smell. Ben’s scent must have screamed itself to her loud and clear, not to mention the sight of his clothes strewn all over the floor. Jaycee was probably laughing her ass off.
Ben rolled from the bed after he heard Jaycee depart and close the door. He snatched up his jeans and shirt, stuffing himself into them as the shower went on down the hall. Jaycee’s and Rhianne’s laughter floated to him.
He stood still a moment, letting Rhianne’s golden mirth surround him.
He jammed his feet into his motorcycle boots. What the hell was he thinking, falling for a woman like Rhianne? This could not end well.
He stomped down the hall to the kitchen. It was Ben’s thing to make breakfast for guests, and he needed to get started. Dimitri was nowhere in sight—either he was sleeping in after their long night or he’d gone out for a run.
As Ben cracked eggs and shoved toast into the toaster, he pondered Rhianne’s sudden shifting ability and her fear of it. Would scare the crap out of anyone, he reasoned. Walking around in human shape and suddenly becoming a critter with claws, a tail, or feathers and wings.
Rhianne worried she wouldn’t be able to control the change. Shifter cubs seemed to control it instinctively, even the first time it happened, but Rhianne, as she’d said, was an adult, and adults were bad at trusting their instincts. Maybe she could be trained.
Great idea, but who to train her? Jaycee and Dimitri might be too enthusiastic for her—they’d lived by their wits a long time. Plus, the two wanted to get home to their cub, needed to be with Lucas.
Ben did not want Dylan to know Rhianne could shape shift, not yet. Dylan was a good guy at heart, but he was also ruthless. He’d already not been happy that Rhianne refused to spy for him. If he knew she could shift, what would he do to coerce her to use that ability for Shifter benefit?
So that let Liam and Sean out. The brothers didn’t like to keep things from their dad.
Tiger … he might be best. Poor guy had grown up in a cage, and he’d understand how weird it was to be a shape shifter who hadn’t been raised around other shape shifters.
The problem was how to pry Tiger from Dylan’s side without Dylan knowing about it. Plus, Tiger had his own mate and cubs he didn’t like to be far from.
Anyone from the Austin Shiftertown answered to Liam, and therefore Dylan, so they were out too.
Of course, there were other Shiftertowns, Ben mused as he cooked. Towns full of Shifters who didn’t give a rat’s ass about Dylan or his dominance. Something to think about.
By the time Ben had made a ton of scrambled eggs, a mess of bacon, a pile of toast, and a large pot of coffee, Dimitri wandered in, Jaycee following closely behind him.
“Rhianne’s finishing dressing,” Jaycee said to Ben. She grabbed a cup, poured coffee into it, and sat down at the table. “Ben slept with Rhianne last night,” she informed Dimitri.
Dimitri, who’d started pouring his own coffee, flicked his wolf’s gaze to Ben. The coffee kept streaming into his cup and then flowed over.
Dimitri jumped and slammed the pot back to the coffeemaker. “Yeah?” He shook out his hand then licked it.
“I didn’t sleep with her,” Ben snapped. “Okay, yeah, I did, but the operative word is sleep. She was having nightmares. Scared shitless. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”
“I notice you didn’t wake me up.” Jaycee sent him a severe glance. “I could have spent the night in her room to make sure she was okay.”
Ben’s face went hot. “You were with Dimitri. I didn’t want to disturb you. She was shaking, Jaycee. I couldn’t not help her.”
Dimitri sauntered to the table, continuing to lick spilled coffee from the back of his hand. “Right, Ben. We understand.”
“I don’t think you do.” Ben broke off as Rhianne herself glided into the room. She’d donned jeans and the New Orleans T-shirt he’d bought her yesterday, along with the new shoes.
Rhianne moved directly to the stove, inhaling the fragrance of breakfast. “That smells good. I am very hungry this morning.”
Dimitri chuckled, but Jaycee kept her mouth straight. Ben loaded a plate for Rhianne, and she carried it to the table. Ben glared at the two Shifters, warning them to be cautious.
“An eagle,” Dimitri said after Rhianne had seated herself. “That’s cool. What’s it like to fly?”
So much for caution. Fear flared in Rhianne’s eyes, and Ben watched her force it away. “It was interesting.” A wistful smile crossed her lips. “Glorious, actually. I was terrified, and at the same time, it was … I can’t explain. I study the stars in Faerie. It was amazing to fly under them—it was as though I could touch them. I know that’s impossible, but it’s how it felt.”
Ben set steaming coffee by Rhianne’s side. “Leave her alone about it.”
“It’s all right,” Rhianne said quickly. “Maybe talking about shifting will make it less difficult to understand.”
“I feel a lot like that when I run,” Jaycee said. “Glorious, as you said. Like the world can’t hold me. Nothing else matters.”
“Exactly,” Rhianne said.
“What do you mean, nothing else matters?” Dimitri demanded in mock indignation. “Your mate. Sitting right here.”
Jaycee studied the ceiling. “My mate who always takes things so personally.”
Rhianne laughed, her mood lightening, which Ben realized had been Dimitri’s purpose. Ben saluted his thanks with a coffee mug.
They dug into breakfast, everyone hungry. Shifters were always ravenous, but their adventures last night, plus Jaycee and Dimitri relieving tension in Shifter fashion, put an extra edge on their hunger.
“So, what now?” Dimitri asked as he scraped the last of the food from his plate. The pans on the stove were empty, the stack of toast gone.
He spoke casually, but Ben sensed his tension—he and Jaycee were feeling their separation from their cub.
“You two have probably done all you can.” Ben slurped his cooling coffee. “You have a life. Go back to it.”
Jaycee glanced uneasily between Rhianne and Ben. “Things aren’t exactly safe for you two.”
“I know. But I have many more Shifters in my contacts. They can babysit us.”
“Huh,” Dimitri said to Jaycee. “He means Shifters who won’t report to Kendrick, who often reports to Dylan.”
“Something like that.” Ben casually set down his mug. “I’m thinking that Kendrick, your great leader, doesn’t need to know everything that has happened here.”
“Like your houseguest suddenly turning into an eagle?” Dimitri asked.
“Exactly.”
Jaycee said nothing, studying her plate as she drew her fork across it. Jaycee was loyal to Kendrick, more so than to anyone except Dimitri.
“Jaycee?” Ben prompted.
Jaycee flicked her gaze to Ben. “Thinking it through, I believe that right now, what Kendrick doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Rhianne relaxed, shooting Ben a relieved glance.
“Kendrick could keep something like this to himself, you know,” Dimitri added. “I’m saying that in case he drags it out of us. He doesn’t tell Dylan absolutely everything. Kendrick likes a little space.”
Kendrick, a white tiger in a Shifter world that didn’t have many tigers at all, had made being secretive a science.
“Well, swear him to silence for a while, then,” Ben said. “Until we know what’s going on with Rhianne.”
“What does Rhianne want?” Jaycee turned to her. “Males. They decide everything like we’re not even in the room.”
“And females talk about males like they’re not in the room,” Dimitri countered.
“I’d like to speak to my mother,” Rhianne announced, cutting through their banter. “I want to ask her why I didn’t know about this shifting ability.”
“Makes sense.” Jaycee reached into her pocket and pulled out a crystal. “Try this.”
Rhianne reached for the crystal
, turning it over in awe. “This is a ghastal.”
Jaycee’s brows drew down. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a very precious stone. Extremely rare.” Rhianne gazed at Jaycee with increased respect. “My mother wouldn’t give this to just anyone.”
“Yeah?” Jaycee moved uncomfortably.
“They’re valued for their crystalline structure. A good conductor of magic.” Rhianne studied the stone again. “You use this to summon her?”
“To let her know I want to talk,” Jaycee said. “I doubt I could summon her.”
“Ha,” Dimitri said. “They’re besties, and we know it.”
“Not helping, sweetie.”
“My mother has always distanced herself from me. And me from her.” Rhianne kept her eyes on the crystal. “I don’t resent you for connecting with her, Jaycee.”
Jaycee shrugged. “Probably easier for her to unload to a stranger.”
Rhianne didn’t answer. Jaycee remained troubled, but Rhianne seemed resigned that her mother preferred to speak at length to Jaycee rather than to her own daughter.
Rhianne rose and moved to the door that accessed a balcony over the veranda. Ben quickly followed her. Jaycee and Dimitri stood, ready for any danger, but they hung back, giving Rhianne space.
Ben stepped out into the cool morning, sun slanting through trees behind the house. The view looked across the grounds to the thick stand of live oaks that separated the old plantation from the newer industrial area beyond it.
Rhianne lifted the crystal to catch the sunlight. The crystal Lady Aisling had given Ben was similar, but Ben hadn’t offered his because there was a much better chance Lady Aisling would answer a call from Jaycee than she would from Ben.
Rhianne kept her gaze on the crystal as she spoke in the little Tuil Erdannan that Ben understood. “Lady Aisling mac Aodha, heed me. Across the barrier, I call you.”
Ben waited for Lady Aisling’s impatient, What is it? That was how she responded to Ben’s rare calls. On the other hand, she could call and bug him anytime.
Silence answered. Sunlight glittered through the stone, throwing a rainbow of spangles onto Rhianne’s face.
“Lady Aisling mac Aodha, heed me.”
Ben noted her avoidance of the word Mother, or any other endearments. A sad thing.
More silence. The wind chimes on the porch below them tinkled, as though the house tried to boost the magic, but nothing happened. Lady Aisling didn’t answer.
“I guess she’s busy.” Rhianne lowered the crystal and quickly turned from Ben, but he saw the tears shining in her eyes.
* * *
Dimitri and Jaycee departed. Jaycee had taken back the crystal, nodding to Rhianne’s quiet thank you. Both Shifters knew the call had been a failure—their Shifter hearing let them easily eavesdrop.
Jaycee volunteered to call Lady Aisling for Rhianne, but she got the same response. Not unusual, Jaycee said quickly. Lady Aisling didn’t always answer. Rhianne thanked her for trying.
Rhianne and Ben waved them off. When the motorcycle roars had faded into the distance, Ben slid his arm around Rhianne’s waist.
“Have to make some phone calls. Will you be all right a few minutes?”
“I think so.” Rhianne lifted her chin, as though determined not to break down. She had a lot of guts, and Ben silently cursed Lady Aisling for ignoring her.
“Explore the house,” he suggested. “No tourists today.”
Rhianne’s lovely hair flowed around her, unbound, stirring in the breeze. She nodded absently and wandered back into the house, leaving Ben alone on the front porch.
Ben slid his cell phone from his pocket and scanned through his contacts. He’d been pondering who could help Rhianne, discreetly, come to terms with her shifting ability, and had finally settled on one person.
“Kenzie,” he said in hearty tones when Kenzie Dimitru O’Donnell, mate to the leader of the North Carolina Shiftertown, answered his call. “How are you, darling?”
“You want something.” Kenzie’s jovial voice was suffused with her deep contentment as Bowman’s mate and mom to two cubs. “You never call me darling unless you want something.”
“Guilty. What I have is an unusual situation, and I need to ask you to stay quiet about it. Don’t even tell Bowman, if you think he won’t keep his mouth shut.”
“Good thing he’s not here, or he’d have heard you. You have a loud voice, my friend.”
“That’s because I’m agitated. Or, as your son, Ryan, would say, freaking out a little.” Ben then told Kenzie about Rhianne, who she was, why she was staying at the haunted house, and what had happened to her the night before.
When he finished, Kenzie, a wolf Shifter with deep wisdom, said nothing.
“Kenz?” Ben checked to see whether the phone was still on. “You there?”
“Yes.” The word was thoughtful. “You know, Gil—or Ben, whatever you’re calling yourself these days—I can think of a much better person than me to teach Rhianne about shifting.”
“Yeah? Who? Zander, maybe? He’s a bit over the top, though. I want to ease her into it without too much bullshit, which is why I thought of you.”
“I’m flattered. Not Zander. Not at first.”
“Tiger then?”
“Would you stop interrupting me? The best person to teach her right now … is you.”
Chapter Twelve
Ben shook the phone at Kenzie’s pronouncement, not certain he’d heard her correctly.
“Me?” he demanded. “Why? I’m not Shifter.”
“Neither is she,” Kenzie said reasonably. “But you change shape. And vanish at will, and pretend to be a ghost, and other weird things no Shifter would ever do.”
“Huh. You haven’t known all the Shifters I have. I have no idea how to help her.”
“No? Think it through. Not that I’m saying it would be a bad thing to have her talk to a Shifter at some point.” Kenzie paused. “Maybe bring her here to our Shiftertown later. My uncle might be a good person to consult.”
Ben blinked. “Your uncle. Christian Dimitru, the Fae-hating, ice-cold killer wolf Shifter. That uncle?”
“Uncle Christian doesn’t hate all Fae. He’s getting along very well with the Fae woman who came here when Bowman and I were going through all that shit a few years ago. They talk all the time about her returning permanently to Faerie, but so far, she hasn’t gone.”
“This would give him the compassion to understand Rhianne?”
“It might.”
“Huh. What would your sweet mate Bowman do if he knew a Tuil Erdannan could become an eagle? Would he trap her? Make her work for him? I’m trying to avoid that. It’s why I’m confiding in you and swearing you to secrecy.”
“Bowman isn’t so bad, Ben.” Kenzie spoke with the warm conviction of a woman who loved her mate.
“Yeah? I remember when you didn’t believe that.”
Kenzie’s merry laughter rang through the phone. “I know—I thought he was a total asshole even while I was falling in love with him. I was wrong. I admit it.”
“I’ll concede he’s not so bad because he is madly in love with you, which means he has brains and good taste. Still, I don’t trust him with anything concerning me. Right now, Rhianne concerns me.”
“Which is why I say you’re the best one to teach her,” Kenzie said. “Sorry, I gotta go, Ben. My daughter is screaming her head off, which could mean she’s hungry, bored, saw an ant, the world is ending, or she can’t find her favorite toy. Just think about it.” Click.
“Think about what?” Ben demanded, but he knew. Everything, she meant.
Ben tapped the silent phone to his lips. He was tempted to call Zander, in spite of the overblown devil-may-care attitude the big polar bear approached every situation with, but he had the suspicion that Kenzie was right.
Rhianne didn’t necessarily need a Shifter. Rhianne and Ben were both creatures of Faerie and bound by those compulsions, no matter how hard each were tr
ying not to be.
Ben heaved a sigh, climbed the front porch steps, and walked back into the house. The noise the fluttering rose vines made sounded exactly like a snigger.
* * *
“You don’t have to take care of me.”
Rhianne sat on the bottom step of the main staircase in the house, folding her hands to keep them from shaking. Ben tucked his phone into his pocket and leaned on the newel post next to her.
“I like taking care of you.”
“My mother asked you to bring me here. You’re not obligated to babysit, as you called it.”
“I’m not obligated to do anything.” Ben rested his arm on top of the post, muscles pulling at his T-shirt. “Neither are you, except to sit tight and wait for your mom to give you the all-clear. But that would be boring.”
Rhianne peered up at him, but as usual, Ben kept what he really felt deep down inside. He’d had to hide his true nature for centuries, she surmised, which had made him the master of camouflage.
“Why do you appear that way?” Rhianne indicated his body with a flutter of fingers. She very much enjoyed the way Ben looked, but she was curious. “I glimpsed what must be your true self when you took me out of the dungeon and then again last night when we fought the snakes. Your real form would frighten humans, I understand. But most of the human men I’ve seen so far are, well ... taller.”
Ben’s sudden grin flashed like a beam of sunshine.
“Is that all you’re worried about? Well, I’ll tell you.” He left the newel post and sat down on the step beside her, his warmth comforting. “When I first entered this world, about a thousand years ago, humans, at least ones in the area I’d landed in, weren’t very big. There were some tall men, but so few they were given nicknames like Longshanks. Over the centuries, people grew bigger boned—they had better nutrition in some cases, or just changed for whatever reason. But when I first arrived, I took on the average height. I couldn’t afford to stand out.”
“You could have made yourself taller as things changed.”
The Last Warrior: Shifters Unbound Book 13 Page 13
