by Tami Lund
Chuck hated working for his father, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He wasn’t in line to be pack master, he was lousy at school so there’s no way any college would ever take him on, and besides, he had no frigging clue what he might want to do with his life. All he knew was what he didn’t want to do.
He didn’t want to be a nobody. He didn’t want to mate with Leah. He didn’t want to work too hard. He definitely didn’t want to pretend to fix the ice machine so Andy could decide if that muscle-bound shifter was worthy enough to consider accepting into the pack.
Unfortunately, like always, Chuck didn’t have much say in his own life. An hour later, he was skulking around the hotel, dressed in his equipment repair uniform, the logo embroidered onto the breast pocket, his tool box in one hand. His annoyance was short-lived, though, when he realized that the room into which the shifter had retreated wasn’t even there. Like it didn’t even exist. Room 312 and 316 were there, but 314 was just ... nonexistent.
But Chuck knew room 314 existed, he’d seen it plenty of times. He’d call upon this particular hotel plenty of times since he started working for his dad. The owner liked to do things on the cheap, so he almost never replaced the ice machines, no matter how many times they broke. He’d walked past room 314 plenty of times because the ice machine on that level was two doors down from that room.
So where the hell was it?
He considered pulling out his phone, shooting Andy a text, but he decided against it. If there was something curious or strange going on here, he wanted to be the one to report it to the pack master. Forget the middle man. Andy had enough glory under his belt. It was Chuck’s turn.
He walked past the seemingly nonexistent room as many times as he dared, and nothing changed. He could not see the door, could not see the brass numbers tacked onto the wood. He could not see the plate glass window that should have been next to the door. Nothing. Room 314 had just disappeared.
Chuck was really starting to freak himself out, as his mind began to play all sorts of tricks, and he wondered if he really did want the glory for this discovery after all. A shifter with the ability to make an entire hotel room disappear? Chuck didn’t think he wanted to deal with that shit. Too hocus pocus, too ... well, crazy.
He had his phone in his hand, resigned to sending Andy a text, letting him know that he hadn’t found anything—literally, anything at all, including room 314—when a woman materialized out of the nothingness surrounding room 314. She just appeared, as if she had stepped through an invisible curtain or some other crazy shit.
Chuck had the common sense to scramble away, to hide in the shadows of the nearest staircase. From his hiding place, he stared and stared. And stared some more.
The woman was beautiful, in an ethereal, dreamy sort of way. She wasn’t quite as hot—or sleazy—as the women Chuck was usually attracted to, but there was definitely something about her, something enticing.
Maybe it was the glow of magic surrounding her person?
“Holy shit,” Chuck muttered under his breath as he watched her lift the lid on the ice machine with more force than was necessary. She was clearly upset about something. And she was definitely magical. But not a shifter. There weren’t a whole lot of blonde shifters in the world, and they sure as hell didn’t walk around encompassed by a glowing ball of magic.
Magic?
Chuck thought about that idiot kid he and Derrick met at the bar a few weeks back. He insisted he was searching for Lightbearers. “They do exist,” he swore. “My pack master says so.”
Derrick and Chuck had given him a solid ribbing for that statement. Who the hell believed that kind of crap just because someone told them to?
But what if someone had proof, as in visual proof? As in, standing right in front of him, shoveling chunks of ice into a small plastic container?
Was this woman a Lightbearer?
What the hell else could she be? She sure as hell wasn’t human, and she definitely was not shifter, and Chuck hadn’t spent enough time in his misspent youth learning about all the other magical creatures that had supposedly existed at one time or another. Which left only one option.
A Lightbearer.
He lifted his phone, dared to take one very poor quality picture. Her head shot up and she looked as if she were listening intently, so Chuck stuffed his phone back into his pants and held his breath. He exhaled only enough to suck in the next breath when she turned away from him, as if anticipating someone else walking up.
A moment later, the shifter he met in the grocery store stepped into view, his scary, pale eyes focused intently upon the glowing woman.
Chuck was tapping out a text message before the other shifter even spoke.
Chapter 11
“You need to get inside,” Tanner snapped at Olivia, as soon as he spotted her standing in front of the ice machine, angrily shoveling ice into the hotel-issue plastic container. “Someone’s going to see you. I can smell other shifters.”
“You told us you met other shifters at the grocery store,” she replied. “And I want to talk to you. In private.”
Tanner almost groaned out loud. The very last thing he wanted was to be anywhere with the Lightbearer that could be construed as private. It was far too dangerous—for both of them.
The space tucked under the stairs, where the ice machine, a soda machine, and a snack dispenser were located was, unfortunately, far too private. It would be easy to push her up against the wall in between the machines and screw her until they both saw stars. Too damn easy.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said gruffly, his angry tone his one defense against getting too close to her. If he was mean to her, hopefully she would push him away. He needed her to do it because he was no longer certain he could.
“There most certainly is something to talk about. Let’s start with your attitude. I cannot understand why it is you are so upset about the fact that I am healing your mother.” She held the ice container in one hand and placed the other on her hip, giving him an expectant look. She looked like a tiny spitfire in a pale blue dress that was sexy as hell on her. His dick hardened.
Because I don’t want to owe you anything. Out loud, he said, “I’m not upset that you’re healing my mother.”
“You’re acting like I am a pariah. And despite that, your mother informed me that I reacted to your touch after I passed out from healing her yesterday.”
“She told you that?” Shit. That was the reason he insisted she not attempt to heal his mother further until he was back from the grocery store, because he wanted to be there for her in case she had another reaction like the one she had last night. But he hadn’t intended to tell her as much.
“Yes. She seems to be under the impression that—that— ” She sputtered and did not finish her sentence.
Tanner narrowed his eyes. “That what?”
Olivia waved her hand in an agitated fashion. Sparks of magic shimmered in its wake. Tanner had the ridiculous urge to run his hand through the magical currents. He had no doubt it would give him a tantalizing electrical jolt. Almost as good as touching the Lightbearer.
“That we have some sort of connection,” she finished in a rush.
Tanner reared back as if she’d slapped him. Then he thrust his face into hers, glaring at her and snarling as he spoke. “You listen to me, Lightbearer. We do not have a connection. Do you understand me? There is no connection. I do not have a connection with anyone. Especially with a goddamned Lightbearer. Now get your ass into the room before a shifter happens by and notices you.” He gave her a nudge with his elbow and then cursed himself for doing it, since any time he touched her, it took every bit of self-control he never possessed to keep from doing more.
*
She healed his mother while he and Lisa made dinner. She did it to spite him, because she knew he would be angry that she didn’t wait for him to be standing over her before she started. Bossy shifter.
She didn’t care that she angered him. Ac
tually, yes she did. She wanted him to be angry. He deserved it.
Unfortunately, healing drained her almost completely, especially the process of healing Ariana. She’d poisoned her own body for far too many years, and pulling all that poison out of her body took time and a great deal of magical effort. She focused every last bit of magic she had onto Ariana, until her body simply shut down, and she felt herself falling.
Something caught her, something with big, strong, surprisingly warm arms. She automatically turned toward the warmth, snuggling into it and sighing with contentment.
The next time she surfaced from sleep, she was in a bed, and dawn was breaking over the horizon. She was warm, almost uncomfortably so, and it took her a few disorienting moments to realize that was because she was not alone in the bed.
Tanner was there. They were lying like spoons, his much bigger body curled around hers, one leg thrown over both of hers, and one arm snaked around her waist, as if he never meant to let her go. Olivia tried to gently pry herself out of his grasp but when she moved, the arm around her waist tightened.
Then something peculiar happened. She felt it as he nuzzled her hair, and when he rolled his hips, her body temperature skyrocketed. Heat filled the base of her belly and liquid began to pool between her thighs. The arm around her waist moved and then his hand lifted, smoothing up her belly until it grazed the bottom of her breast. She bit her lip to keep from making a sound of pleasure. That small touch had her fighting the urge to roll over and wrap her legs around his waist.
Was he asleep? Surely he would not do this while he was awake. And what was he doing in her bed, anyway? She realized there were not enough beds to go around, but she would have expected Tanner to sleep out on the sofa sleeper, and his mother and Cecilia to share her bed. At least, that had been the arrangement they’d discussed before dinner yesterday.
Olivia recalled Tanner’s mother’s insistence that Olivia’s body reacted positively to Tanner’s touch after she healed Ariana. Was that why he was in her bed? She had to admit, she felt fine this morning, far better than she should, given the extent of the amount of energy she’d expended lately trying to heal Ariana.
Tanner’s hand lifted farther, until he cupped her breast. Olivia’s eyes crossed as she sucked in a sharp breath and arched into his touch. He rolled his hips again, and she felt his erection pressing into her backside. Would they do it like this, back to front? He was a shifter, barely a magical step away from four-legged mammals, so she guessed he had some sort of primitive desire to have sex in this way. She would happily tell him she didn’t mind in the least. Any way she could get it, so long as it was with Tanner. And happened soon.
“Olivia.” His voice whispered into her ear, feathering across her senses and sending her nerves tingling. “Tell me to stop.”
She twisted her head and saw that he was awake, and watching her. She rolled over to face him. He shifted his hand from her breast to her thigh, pulling it up so it draped over his hip. His hand lingered there, smoothing across her skin over the dress she wore to bed, making her ache for more. She wanted his hand to slip under the hem of the dress, and then again under the elastic of the silky panties she wore underneath.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“No,” she whispered.
His eyes flared, first startled, then hungry. Olivia shivered.
“I like touching you,” he murmured.
“Me too,” she said breathlessly.
One side of his lips lifted into a crooked smile. “What does it feel like to you?”
“Like—like heat, like fire against my skin. But in a good way,” she said on a nervous giggle.
“Is that normal for your kind?” He shifted his hips, so that his erection slid intimately against the juncture of her thighs.
“I—I don’t know,” she said and then she sucked in a breath. “I’ve never experienced a feeling quite so ... intense.”
“It’s definitely intense,” he agreed as he lifted his hand to cup her ass and pull her even more tightly against his erection. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“We should,” she amended.
He barked a short laugh. “You would give yourself over to a shifter? Your arch enemy?” He rolled his hips again. If he kept it up, they wouldn’t even need to have intercourse. Olivia was all but panting as his erection slid against the center of all of her nerve endings. She arched and spread her legs wider to accommodate him.
“You’re hardly my enemy,” she said on a gasp. “You saved me from my enemy, remember? Why don’t you let me show you how grateful I am?” She’d never been so brazen in her life, and she could hardly believe she was doing it now.
He rolled her over onto her back and covered her with his body. “Don’t do this because you feel grateful.” He growled, and then he rolled his hips again, as he dipped his head and sucked her earlobe into his mouth.
She arched and felt an orgasm swell. “Trust me—” She gasped. “—Not because I’m grateful—oh!” She wanted him inside her, now, now, now. She squirmed underneath him and clutched at his ass, grinding their groins together. Pleasure spiked through her system.
“I can’t believe I’m going to do this,” he ground out as he slipped his hand down between them and pulled the dress up to her waist. “We shouldn’t,” he reiterated, as his actions belied his words and he worked at the snap and zipper of his shorts.
“We should,” she contradicted him as she dropped her hands to help him with his shorts. “Lights above, we should.”
The door burst open, revealing Cecilia standing in the doorway, her eyes wide as she stared at Tanner and Olivia in the bed, very obviously involved in activities far different from sleeping.
“Oh,” she squeaked.
Tanner shot off the bed, tugging his shorts over his hips as he did so. “Jesus,” he snapped. “Don’t you fucking knock?”
“Not usually,” Cecelia replied. “I see you two have made up.”
“We were about to,” Olivia said demurely. Cecilia snickered. Tanner glared.
“Did you need something, or are you in the habit of bursting through closed doors for the hell of it?”
“Oh, right,” Cecilia said, glancing over her shoulder as if she just recalled why she’d walked into the room in the first place. “There are shifters outside.”
“What?” Tanner was through the room and into the parlor in an instant, leaving Cecilia standing in the doorway while Olivia rolled out of bed, smoothed the front of her dress and hurried after him.
Tanner stood next to the window, two fingers holding the curtain open only enough for him to peek through, with Dane and Lisa both hanging over his shoulder, and Ariana wringing her hands and pacing behind them.
“That’s half the frigging pack,” Lisa muttered, her gaze riveted to the small bit of window Tanner was allowing them to observe from.
“Not quite that many,” Tanner qualified. “But enough. How the hell did they find us?”
“Didn’t you meet shifters at the grocery store?” Olivia suggested.
“That’s my father’s pack out there.”
“Oh,” Olivia responded, her eyes going wide as the implication of his words hit. “How in the world did they find us?”
Tanner gave her a dismissive look. “We’re shifters,” he said, as if that were explanation enough. Then he softened and added, “It does seem fast, though. Either we were followed, which I don’t believe, or someone alerted them to our presence here.”
“If they found out yesterday, they would have had plenty of time to fly all night to get to us,” Lisa added. She glared at the window. “And they’re all probably pretty damn tired,” she snarled, cracking her knuckles.
Olivia watched the angry female shifter for a few seconds before turning back to Tanner. “Would the ones you met yesterday have told them?”
Tanner shook his head, but said, “Maybe. Although I didn’t get that sense from them. I really thought they were allies, not enemies
. My senses aren’t usually this off.”
“What are we going to do?” Dane asked. He turned to Olivia for guidance, and inwardly, she cringed, as Tanner gave her a curious look. If Dane should be looking to anyone for guidance, it wasn’t Olivia. Yet, she understood why he did. She also knew she had no intention of explaining his actions to Tanner.
“How do we get out?” she asked, directing her question to Tanner. “That door and the window are the only exits.”
Tanner turned back to the window. “I don’t think they can see the room, which means your wards are working. But they can obviously tell something is going on. Look at how they keep putting up their hands, like they’re trying to reach for the door.”
Olivia walked across the room and obediently stood next to him and looked out the window. It was difficult to be so close to him, especially after what almost happened in the bedroom a short while ago. Despite the dire situation, she wanted nothing more than to drag him back to the bedroom and finish what they started.
Tanner gave her a sharp look and then shook his head, almost as if he were reading her thoughts. He wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her away from the window. “Get back, in case they figure out a way to get through the wards.”
While Tanner and Dane continued to monitor the situation, Olivia instructed the women to gather their luggage and be prepared to leave on a moment’s notice. And then they settled in to wait.
“What are we waiting for?” Dane wanted to know.
“Are you prepared to battle so many shifters—and win?” Tanner snapped.
Dane gave him a sheepish look and did not reply.
For two hours they huddled in the hotel room, eating granola bars and drinking water. Tanner never left his post, watching out the window. Olivia took him a handful of granola bars and a bottle of water.
“Any ideas yet?” she whispered.
Tanner shook his head. “I keep hoping they’ll just give up and leave, even though I know they won’t. Not if they think you’re in here, which we have to believe is the case. Normally, when my father hunts me down, he only sends one or two trackers, not a dozen. If I ever see that Andy Pantera again, I’m going to kick his goddamn ass.”
