Why not? There are shifters roaming freely through these streets.
Taking her time, she walks through Freebasin. She is supposed to meet with her contact at the Freebasin Lodge. It’s hard to want to go inside when the streets are full of people. Nora can’t remember the last time she was in a city where the people felt safe enough to leave their homes for extended lengths of time.
She becomes vaguely aware that someone is watching her. There are watchtowers all around the city but many of them are vacant. Perhaps they found a way to harness power again for electricity and have video surveillance like back in her early childhood before shifters decided to make themselves known and demand more rights than everyone else.
Holding onto that bitterness, Nora looked around at the ignorant people again. They were stupid to believe they were safe. A change of whim from the shifters and this temporary peace would be gone. The Rizer pack would tear this town apart one day.
Not if I have anything to do with it.
Circling back to the lodge, Nora opens the door ready for the humid taste of recycled air. The windows are open she sees when she enters and wonders how good the contact could be if he’s keeping the windows open like he’s one of the stupid people of the town who actually believes they are safe.
Once the door shut behind her she sees the racks for the metal bars lined up on each side of the double doors. At least they can lock them out for a little while. The floor of the entryway is made of stone just like every other floor in the town.
It is cold and an unwise choice considering they will be dealing with all four seasons including winter. There is a long desk and behind it sits a man with a round face and a mouth that appears to have no lips. It’s like he has a straight line opening for his mouth. He’s bulky which at first looks like strength but as she watches him raise up onto his feet she can see his weighted slowness.
“I would like a room. Do you have one with a view of the forest?” She asked using the code phrase view of the forest.
He blinked at her looking her over and sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. “A woman? You are traveling alone?” This wasn’t his passcode.
“No. Do you have a view of the forest?”
“The forest is nothing but trees,” he grumbled his answering passphrase. Leaning forward he scribbled a piece of sharpened charcoal over a piece of paper as he continued. “what good is it to see more of them? How long will you be staying?”
As long as it takes.
“A couple weeks. Will you take Sugar as payment?”
“Yes,” he answered licking his chin as if searching with his tongue for that missing lower lip leaving a trail of saliva.
This is the best contact we could get?
He slides the paper across the desk at her and Nora read it as she set my pack down on the desk.
“Rizer pack territorial. Must be invited onto their mountain property. Many loyal humans who will betray you if they learn what you are here for.
She pulled out a brown bag that held four cups of sugar. “How much for two weeks?”
“That should cover it,” he said reaching for the bag.
Nora pulled it back and out of his reach. “I should cover two months and I only want two weeks. What name do you go by?” She asked him.
“You can call me innkeeper,” he growled folding his arms. He wasn’t about to put his neck on the line by giving me an actual name. That didn’t matter, as long as his intel was reliable.
Nora followed his lead and took the stick of charcoal from his hand turning the page over she wrote, “Routines? Food sources for them? Forest borderline?”
The innkeeper was lazy because he pointed at the first question shook his head. No noted routine. Skipped the second question altogether and shook his head again for the forest borderline. Then he took the scrap of paper and dropped it into the fire. It was only then that Nora heard the door shut.
She glanced at the entryway. A tall man with blond hair that he allowed to hang loosely around his tan face entered. “Morning Boris,” he smiled giving Innkeeper a name for Nora. Boris a waved in greeting.
“I’ll be right with you Ian. Good to see you back,” Boris said his tone suddenly so much friendlier than it was before. He bent over and put up his collection bucket. “Two cups will cover you,” he said to Nora.
She poured the sugar from the bag into the cup he provided filling it twice. Then she looked in the mirror behind Boris, her own green eyes looked back at her with calmness, even though she felt anything but calm.
Her auburn hair appeared redder than brown in this lighting, and though she was very fair skinned she couldn’t help noticing how ghostly white her complexion was because of all the hiding she’d had to do for so many years. The paleness of her skin really accentuated the cluster of freckles she had on her cheeks. Freckles she’d once hated and now loved because they gave her a look of innocence that she planned to use to her advantage.
Once she felt confident enough she looked at the other occupant in the front entry. She smiled a friendly smile as she tapped her pinky finger lightly on the desk, his blue eyes bounced down to her hand and back to her face so swiftly it was almost impossible to tell.
The mirror showed Nora more of his face than she’d been able to see in her fast glance at his entry. He bore scars, three long razed scars that appeared to run from his forehead, down his left cheek, down his neck, and continued lower, disappearing under the collar of his shirt.
It wasn’t a scratch mark, or bite which is what shifters often leave on humans. The fact that someone decided to burn this huge guy with some sort of metal instrument, combined with his fast observation skills she was pretty sure he was a shifter. No wonder Boris preferred to write everything down. The shifter would have heard us were we to speak.
“Yours is the third room on the right,” Boris said handing Nora two magnets and a key with a pattern on it. “Thank you.” She takes the keys and magnets from off the desk and turns around facing Ian, a shifter.
Her heart beat sped up as she smiled at him. It was harder than she thought to keep her emotions hidden from her face when she was staring into the face of a shifter when she was standing alone without a team of HRAF behind her or even just a partner to step in if the shifter lost control and attacked.
Strange though that her heart was slamming in her chest yet she felt nervous, not terrified why couldn’t she get her heart under control?
Turning with her key and magnets she faced him. “Good morning,” she smiled ready to receive a cold and distrustful response.
When he smiled instead it was actually more frightening than if he’d snarled at her baring all sharp teeth.
It shouldn’t be this easy.
“Good morning to you. I don’t recognize you. You’re new in town, where are you from?” he asked his eyes were friendly and a clear sky blue that almost had Nora believing he was actually able to feel human emotion.
“I traveled from a small town outside of San Francisco. Layton, they were calling it but it folded. Not enough resources.”
“And you chose to come here?” He asked her his smile sending little jolts of need through her body. “Why?”
Nora smiled back at him like she’d practiced, this smile he assured her was her most alluring. “Everyone knows Freebasin has an alliance with the shifters. It was the safest place I knew of to come. Why are you here?”
The shifter chuckled glancing over at Boris and then back at Nora. “I’m here with my family but you are alone. Don’t you know it’s dangerous for a woman to travel alone?”
“I… didn’t have any other choice. There are friends that I heard came here and I plan to seek them out.”
He stepped closer to her, Nora did her best to remain calm. Reacting in defense would give her away completely. The shifter held his hand out toward her, “I’m Ian, what is your name?”
Nora lowered her gaze to his hand. She didn’t have time to hesitate, didn’t need to give him call to d
oubt her intentions. Her fingers curled around his hand in a handshake.
I hope my parents forgive me for this.
CHAPTER FOUR
“It’s her. She’s ours. Claim her.” Ian’s spirit wolf pushed.
His spirit wolf didn’t have to tell him who she was. He’d known this woman was his destined mate the moment he’d seen her walking up the street. The scent of her, the way his heart skipped a beat to take pace with hers. It was like in that moment he was dedicated to her by a power so much stronger than any force he’d ever known.
When the pack spoke of being in need of their predestined mate Ian figured they got really horny and wanted to mate not putting much more thought into it since that was pretty much what the paired off shifters were always doing. Mating.
This was so much more than just lust. This feeling he had for this woman of whom he still didn’t know her name, was the one woman his spirit and that of his wolf could love together and so even if she rejected him he knew he would never love another.
Somehow, he would win her heart.
“Nora,” she answered at last. “My name is Nora,” she shivered a little, goosebumps raising up on her skin. Her heart was pounding just as fast as his and Ian wondered if she knew what it meant. He could only hope she had some kind of inkling that her heart was racing with joy.
“That is a beautiful name. I won’t forget it,” Ian said releasing her hand. He wanted so much to kiss her hand, or at least to continue holding it and keep the physical connection.
She laughed. “You’re being far too sweet to me. Is there a shortage of women here?”
Nora’s flirting with me? She must feel this connection too.
Only, if she felt it too, why was she withdrawing her touch? Ian couldn’t be sure but with his horribly scarred face, her interest in him had to be their destined connection. There was no other sensible reason.
“Are you staying here too?” Nora asked running her tongue over her lower lip.
“I am,” Ian answered following the path of her tongue with his eyes. “So, if you need anything. I hope you’ll ask me. Maybe I could help you find your friends.”
Nora nodded as her fair cheeks flushed a sexy shade of pink. “Maybe.”
He watched her go down the hallway, heard the magnets pressed into the correct pattern before the key turned and he heard her door close.
“Here you are,” Boris said as he set the key down on the countertop. “Do you think you’ll be staying long?”
“I don’t know. Do you know how long she is staying?”
Boris shrugged his gaze darting away. “She said a week, maybe two. Then again, she said she was looking for her friends. Probably she’ll stay with them when she finds them.”
“I want the room next to hers,” Ian told him wrapping his knuckles on the desk. He pales but doesn’t argue, humans rarely do when they deal with shifters. Ian wondered what his concern was as Boris turned to find the key and magnets for the room next to Nora’s. Maybe Boris liked her more than he should or was planning on pushing himself on her.
Ian feels his spirit wolf’s hackles rising. The connection is going to make him fiercely protective, he knows this and yet he still feels completely unreasonable toward Boris. Ian takes the magnet and keys and leaves the front room before he lets his overprotective spirit wolf get the best of him and warn Boris off of her.
He doesn’t get further than the beginning of the hallway before he turns back. “Boris?”
“Yes?”
“Make sure you don’t disturb Nora in any way. Understand?”
Boris’s jaw dropped open. “Uhhhmm I… yes I will make sure.”
“Good,” Ian answered his spirit wolf pushing forward enough to get a better look at Boris causing Ian’s eyes to shift into those of his wolf.
The gasp and step backward told Ian what he needed to know. Boris would not cross him.
Ian walked down the hall. His room was just past hers. He looked at the pattern on the key and then inserted it into the lock. He put the first magnet on the second strip and the second magnet on the fifth strip. When he turned the key, it opened and he retrieved the key and magnets.
Inside the room he listened he sat down on the bed his cock hard and aching the more he thought of Nora. He listened, straining his ears to hear all that he could from Nora in her room.
Was she excited that she met him? Was she scared? Was she hot like he was, ready to claim him as her predestined mate?
Her heartbeat was slowing, she was taking deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths. She sniffled and the sound of a choked sob tore at his heart. Ian sat stiffly still on the bed listening to her and wondering what had her crying as if her heart were breaking?
CHAPTER FIVE
Three days have passed since she first arrived and as well as she thought she did with Ian that first day she hasn’t been able to catch him very often. He doesn’t stay at the hotel very much and when she tries to follow him he’s too fast for her to keep up with.
Deciding that she needed to take it up a step, Nora put on the shirt that Slade guaranteed would make any male drool for her. He was her boyfriend though so she didn’t know if he really meant it but she hopes so because the information she had so far was enough to do any good.
The top was tan, fitted with a heart shaped neckline showing off her cleavage. Paired with the short, flowy, black skirt and high-heeled boots she hoped she would catch Ian’s attention and hold it long enough to get the information out of him that the HRAF badly needed.
Brushing out her hair she left it down hoping it would add to the appeal. It felt like another life that she’d once had a full closet of clothes. So long ago, it seemed that she’d once had a family that loved her.
Touching Ian the shifter with kindness felt like such a betrayal. Even though she knew she was doing it just to turn on him and take out shifters, it just felt so wrong. She kept having that dream and every time she did, it was like her mother’s objections to the way her father was handling things became louder, and louder.
Nora pushed her mother’s pleas to her father to be reasonable out of her mind. Her mother just hadn’t understood what was happening like her father had. Somehow though Nora felt like if her mom could see her wherever she was, she wouldn’t be proud of what she was doing.
“Stop,” Nora said aloud to herself in the mirror. “Enough, acting like a child.” Going over to the tiny closet she took out the black cloak and tied it in place.
When she left her room and locked it she could hear people in the entranceway with Boris. That meant she wouldn’t be able to check with him today. As she crossed through the entranceway she noticed the large group of men and saw their colors, blue and black. They were the group of nomads people called, The Nothings because they didn’t ever set down roots and they didn’t have more than what they could carry.
The Nothings were a group that supposedly believed in freedom and living without responsibility. They said they were peaceful but Nora heard many stories about them that spoke of the exact opposite being true.
She continued moving her awareness on high alert. Looking back over her shoulder as she pushed the door open she spotted the three men that separated from the group and started toward the door. They could be going somewhere else but Nora didn’t think so. They were all looking at her, unblinking, and intense.
Nora pushed the door open and walked out into the busy dirt streets. There was a haze of dirt that seemed to float in the air about waist high never having the chance to settle.
It made it easy to take the knitting needles from the basket of the woman who lugged a cart behind her as she walked down the street. Nora slid one needle in each sleeve as she continued to walk. She took a side glance spotting the trio of nothings still following her.
They were following her for sure. All three of them were watching her even when there were so many other people on the street. Following the flow of traffic headed toward the well, Nora wasn’t worried that they wo
uld strike. They would wait until she was alone or at least until they could get her alone.
Nora got in line like many others for the well. It was the best place in town to get information, better by far than listening to Boris. She heard some of the men talking about the wolves at the waterfall. It was the fourth time Nora heard the reference of the wolves going to the waterfall in the woods. It might be a place that she could find Ian or another shifter.
When she someone slid in right behind her she knew what was coming. “Walk out into the woods and we won’t hurt you too bad,” the man said pressing his lips to her ear.
The people that noticed what was happening backed away, some started leaving without their water. There was no such thing as law. Not these days. People said it was different with this place that these people were protected by shifters.
So, where are they?
Nora heard a woman gasp behind her and turned to see that one of the three men had taken hold of a woman who was standing next to a large bell. “You want to come to, do ya love?” He laughed yanking her away from the bell and shoving her into the hands of the other guy.
“Stay with the bell,” the one behind Nora told the other one. “We’ll trade out,” he said taking hold of the back of her neck and pushing her out of the line and toward the forest.
It was more complicated now that this other woman had been dragged into this mess but Nora had no intention of allowing the other woman to suffer. She put herself at risk to ring the bell though Nora doubted any shifters would have come anyway.
The woman was pushed forward so she was walking next to Nora. They looked at each other and Nora recognized fear in the other woman’s blue eyes. Nora tried to give the other woman a look that would give her comfort but it didn’t appear to work.
The two Nothings walked them both only six or seven feet under the shelter of the trees. It was clear they felt no threat from the people of the town intervening.
Breathing fast the other woman reached toward Nora as if to block her but Nora shook her head and gently lowered the woman’s arm. Truly touched that such a person still existed Nora promised herself that she was not going to fail because she could not let this woman be hurt or die.
In Love with the Enemy (A Rizer Wolfpack Series Book 4) Page 2
