by Zara Chase
Chapter Nine
Talia was choked by panic as she watched Vadim and Zayd in a heated debate about his decision. She didn’t know why he was so hell-bent on putting himself in danger, but somehow understood it had to do with her. She’d already caused enough problems in Impulse, albeit unintentionally. The last thing she needed was the death of their alpha jaguar on her conscience.
She looked around the table for support, but no one met her gaze. The tension was palpable and they appeared as concerned as she felt. Even so, they’d clearly taken the view that this was Vadim’s decision to make and that they weren’t going to intervene. Her gaze landed on Rafe and she implored him with her eyes to do something, anything, to stop Vadim being so stupid. He shook his head, looking distracted but resolute.
“He has to do this,” Rafe said softly, his voice still audible above the hubbub.
“Why?” she asked. “Why do men always have to resort to physical violence?”
“Ask him why yourself,” Rafe said.
“I will, if he ever deigns to look my way.”
Talia felt like screaming with frustration. She glanced at Vadim, so tall and strong and handsome—and so fucking stubborn. For the first time ever she felt a modicum of sympathy for her grandmother’s plight when she got herself involved with a shifter whom she loved in spite of herself.
Talia’s heart withered inside her chest. She’d only known Vadim for a day, but it already felt as though they’d been connected for a lifetime. She loved this man, truly loved him. Zayd, too. One woman sharing two men appeared commonplace in Impulse, so the fact that she felt strongly about them both didn’t surprise her as much as perhaps it should. Must be something to do with the thin air, she thought.
If the agony she felt right now was the downside of love, then perhaps she’d have been better off never having fallen into its tenacious clutches. But it was too late now. She was in too deep. Love was what she’d felt for them both, even when a force greater than her own will had encouraged her to try and kill Vadim. She’d felt at home the moment she regained consciousness and saw concern etched in the handsome planes of Vadim’s face as it hovered above hers. She’d been a rudderless ship her entire life and now she’d stumbled upon the home she had been subconsciously seeking, only to have it snatched away from her in the cruelest manner imaginable.
Well, it wasn’t going to happen, not on her watch. Talia straightened her shoulders, ready to slug it out with the man who’d stolen her heart. She sensed an ally in Zayd and somehow they’d find a way to talk Vadim out of this madness, even if it meant turning him against her.
She continued to brood, accepting that Impulse could never actually be her home, much as she already loved the place. She had shifter blood, so Rafe would probably let her live in the colony if she asked his permission.
But she wouldn’t ask.
Living here would mean seeing Vadim and Zayd every day. She would see them but wouldn’t actually be with them, which would break her heart. Worse, they’d have to find a mate eventually, and seeing them with another woman, bestowing upon her the love that ought to be hers, would tip her over the edge. No question about that.
Zayd looked up from his heated debate with Vadim, caught her eye, and grimaced. It seemed that even he couldn’t change Vadim’s mind and Zayd obviously held her responsible for his intransigent stance.
But it wasn’t her fault!
Except that she felt so guilty she wanted to throw someone over her shoulder, just to show these alphas males that they weren’t the only ones with physical strength. Vadim was the obvious candidate.
“Okay, Vadim,” Rafe said. “How do you want to play this?”
“I figure Talia ought to call Wilson and ask for a meeting,” Vadim said, avoiding her eye. “He’ll agree, out of curiosity if nothing else.”
“Oh no he wouldn’t,” Talia replied. “We didn’t part on the best of terms. He freaked me out and I asked him not to come back to the studio. He’d immediately be suspicious if he got a call from me suddenly wanting to get all up close and personal.”
“Let’s take a step back and think it through.” Rafe’s voice cut through the brittle silence that ensued when Talia glared triumphantly at Vadim. “Will your mom have missed you yet?”
“No, probably not. We don’t talk every day.”
“Okay then.” Rafe’s eyes gleamed and Talia could sense a whole raft of scenarios playing out in what was obviously a sharp brain. “I suggest you call your mom, tell her you’re on St. Pete Beach. That’ll make sense if she tells anyone about the conversation. St. Pete’s right next door to Impulse and is the most likely place for you to end up if you got booted out of here.”
“I don’t see why we need to involve my mom.”
“Insurance,” Rafe replied. “Who’s the first person a girl calls when she’s in trouble?”
“Her lawyer,” Kane quipped.
“If you’re thinking the mom-and-daughter thing, Rafe, then forget it,” Talia said. “Mom and I aren’t that close.”
“Even so, if anyone wants to know where you are, your mom is the first person they’ll check in with. That’s probably why the wolves have manipulated Finch into taking up with her.”
“Perhaps, but I still have no reason to call Wilson.”
“Then we’ll just have to invent something believable,” Rafe replied. “How do you take bookings for your karate lessons?”
“Through my cell,” Talia admitted reluctantly. “I rent the studio by the hour at certain times of the week, but they won’t take my inquiries for me. All the flyers I use to advertise give my cell.”
“So you have all their numbers in your phone?”
“I did, but I don’t have the phone anymore,” she said, trying to keep the elation out of her voice. “I have no idea where Wilson works, so I have no way of contacting him.”
“I’m afraid you do,” Kane said, handing her cell phone to her. “It was in your pocket when you went into the ocean. Zayd asked us to see if we could restore it. I’m sorry to say that we dried it out, charged it up, and it’s still in excellent working order.”
She glowered at Kane. It wasn’t his fault and, in fairness, he didn’t look any happier about Vadim’s crazy plan than she herself felt. Even so, she needed to glower at someone and he just happened to be in her line of vision. She was being railroaded into doing something that would be dangerous for the guys who saved her life. If there was one thing that made Talia crazy, it was being manipulated into actions that she knew were just plain dumb.
“Call Wilson and tell him you’ve had a bit of a memory lapse. The last few days are a complete blank. You’re on your way back to Venice, can’t remember if you had clients booked and if so whether he was one of them.”
Talia transferred her glower at Rafe, who absorbed it without a qualm. “He’ll say no and that’ll be the end of it.”
“I suspect he’ll express concern and say you were due to meet. He’ll know you didn’t succeed in killing Vadim and Zayd and will want to know if you remember what happened. At the very least, he’ll hope to get information from you about the state of play here in Impulse.”
“Do you really think I’m gonna calmly entice him in, just so he can fight with Vadim?” she asked indignantly.
Rafe fixed her with a penetrating gaze. “It’s what Vadim wants, and if it’s the best way to protect Impulse, then yes, that’s precisely what I think.”
“No it’s not, you—”
“Would you prefer it if we all just sat back and did nothing until the wolves attack?”
“Or worse, until they think of you as a liability.” Vadim fixed her with a penetrating look. “An expendable liability.”
Talia gasped. “Now you’re just being fanciful, trying to find ways to justify your actions.”
Vadim quirked a brow. “Am I?”
“Yes you are and you know it. You don’t need to do nothing,” Talia cried passionately. “You know the attack’s coming so
you can prepare—”
“We’ve been in this situation before. Too many lives will be sacrificed if we’re passive. Vadim knows that,” Rafe said, speaking across her and Vadim as their gazes clashed and held. “It’s his call and he has my support.”
“Right,” Kane said in an obvious attempt to defuse the antagonistic atmosphere. “Talia gets him to go to her karate studio. What then? He won’t go alone.”
“We’ll go down to Venice in the boat, Talia, me, and Zayd,” Vadim said. “It’ll be safer that way because we can time our arrival so we’re not left hanging about in the open. I’ll need some of you guys to go down by truck and back us up, though.”
“Of course. Vilas and I’ll go,” Rafe said without hesitation.
“And us,” Kane said, speaking for him and Tyrone.
“Mikael, we’ll need you in your professional capacity,” Rafe said. “Just in case.”
“Right,” Mikael said with a grim nod. “I’ll be there.”
“Once you get Wilson into the studio, I’ll confront him,” Vadim said, his tone professional, the expression in his eyes cold and focused. It was hard to imagine this was the same man who’d sucked a mind-blowing orgasm out of her just the night before. “I’ll let him know that we’re aware of what he’s done and suggest we slug it out shifter to shifter, no one else gets involved.”
“To the death?” Kane asked.
Vadim clenched his jaw, unnaturally calm. “Of course.”
“What happens if he wins?” Talia asked.
“The wolves get Impulse.” Vadim shrugged, a little too casually. “That’s what all our fights are about.”
Talia hadn’t realized that and expected Rafe to object. When he merely nodded curtly her heart clenched with fear for Vadim, for the entire colony. There had to be an easier way to neutralize the threat.
“You can’t just give the place up,” she cried.
“We’ve lived with that threat hanging over us for decades,” Rafe said. “We’re in a permanent state of readiness to leave at a moment’s notice, every one of us.”
“But this is your home.”
“Yes, but there’s a certain honor amongst shifters. If the wolves agree to a one-to-one fight, alpha wolf to alpha jaguar, no one else will intervene and whoever wins gets Impulse. But,” Rafe added, “if Vadim loses, there’s nothing to say that we can’t start a campaign to steal it right back.”
“The hunters become the hunted,” she said softly.
“Exactly. We know every inch of this peninsula, and the surrounding waters, far better than anyone. And we have contingency plans that we constantly update to take the place back before the infiltrators can do any damage.”
Talia shook her head, understanding now that there was absolutely nothing else she could do or say to change their minds. The decision was made and they’d go through with this thing with or without her help.
“Okay, so we’re agreed,” Rafe said grimly. “Time to make the calls, Talia.”
“Before I do that, do you guys mind giving me a moment alone with Vadim and Zayd?”
“No need,” Vadim said. “We’re all set.”
“The hell we are!”
Several chairs scraped back and there was a mass exodus. “Shout when you’re done,” Rafe said, winking at her as he left. “We’ll be right outside.”
“Okay,” she said, turning toward Vadim, hands on hips, anger corroding her insides like acid. “I think it’s time you told me what this is really all about.”
* * * *
Zayd could sense Talia’s blistering anger at Vadim’s blind stupidity. She wasn’t exactly trying to hide how she felt. If she’d been less focused she might have noticed that Zayd didn’t speak a word during the discussion that had just broken up. What he had to say to his lover wasn’t for public consumption. He offered Talia a tight smile and went straight on the offensive.
“Were you planning to discuss this with me before making an arbitrary decision that affects us both?” he asked Vadim, his tone silk on steel.
Vadim sent him a supplicating look. “What would you have said if I had?”
“Ah, I get it. I don’t like the answer I’m gonna get, so I won’t ask the question. Is that how it works?”
Vadim swallowed. “You know this is the only way.”
“Fuck it!” Zayd thumped his clenched fist against the wall. “Do you realize just how damned stubborn you’re being, to say nothing of selfish? You have nothing to prove to anyone. Respect for what you’ve done these past years is unanimous here in Impulse. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Perhaps, but you of all people know I have to do this.” Vadim reached out to touch Zayd’s arm, but Zayd snatched it out of reach. “It’s the only way I can square things with my conscience.”
“You’re not responsible for your father’s mistakes.” Zayd threw his head back and roared. “This is like history repeating itself.”
“What do you mean?” Talia asked.
“Tell her,” Vadim said when Zayd didn’t respond.
“Why don’t you, since you know it all?” Zayd replied sarcastically.
“She doesn’t really need to know. It’s not relevant.”
“Yeah, she does,” Talia said, standing beside Zayd and adding her glare to the one Zayd was already focusing on Vadim.
Vadim expelled a long breath. “Kids in Impulse age at the same rate as humans, but that’s all they have in common with their peers,” he explained. “A lot of young shifters find it tough going, especially those with the makings of alphas who have to find human mates. All that fooling about at college passes them by because they can’t risk having sex with a woman.”
“Why do you think we’re the best there is at cunnilingus?” Zayd asked. “We’ve had a lot of practice.”
“Zayd got his degree but struggled to settle down to life here in Impulse afterward. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to keep his shifter status or to go for a life as a human.”
“You can do that?” Talia asked.
“Sure. Fuck a woman who isn’t compatible as a lifelong mate and it’s a done deal.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Zayd met a human whom he thought he loved. It was then a question of whether to mate with her and stay in Impulse or to go the human route, in which case she need know nothing about his shifter side. That fascinates some women, but puts a hell of a lot of others off.”
“I thought she was my soul mate,” Zayd said wistfully.
“He never got to find out for sure because she ended up dead in his apartment,” Vadim said. “Dead with her throat cut.”
Talia gasped. “She was murdered?”
“Oh yeah, and much as we look after our own affairs here in Impulse, we couldn’t stop the law getting involved when it came to the murder of an outsider. Zayd and the woman had had a very public argument just before she died. She was found in his apartment, and the murder weapon bore his fingerprints. It was open and shut as far as the police were concerned and they didn’t look too hard for other suspects. Zayd was arrested and it didn’t look good for him.”
“What happened?” Talia asked.
“Zayd and I weren’t especially tight at the time,” Vadim said. “My dad was still alive and I had my own issues with life in Impulse. Anyway, Dad was convinced our enemies had somehow gotten into Impulse and killed the girl to make life hard for Zayd. Like I said, he was obvious alpha material, and they were trying to deplete our alpha stock.”
“Vadim started looking into the girl’s background,” Zayd said. “He found a guy she’d recently dumped who bore a grudge. He was an ideal person for our enemies to use against us. Vadim managed to get his fingerprints, matched them to prints found in my apartment and to mystery prints on the murder weapon. It was enough to get me off the hook and for the other guy to be charged instead.”
“All in a day’s work,” Vadim said flippantly.
“But that isn’t why you did it.” Zayd fixed Vadim w
ith a steady gaze. “Tell her the rest.”
Vadim paced the room, clearly trying to decide how much of their checkered history to reveal to Talia. Nothing less than the complete truth would do for Zayd. She deserved to know, but it would be interesting to see if Vadim agreed.
“I had issues with my dad, with Impulse, with everything,” Vadim said. “But one thing I always knew was that I would stay in Impulse and one day take over from my old man as alpha jaguar. I also knew I couldn’t do it alone and that the wait for the right female mate could last for decades. I felt drawn to Zayd, just like I feel a pull toward you, babe. In Zayd’s case, there was something I could do about it. Once he was released from custody, we got friendly and…well, the rest, as they say, is history.”
“You love one another,” Talia said softly. “It shows.”
“Obviously not well enough,” Zayd said, glowering.
This time Vadim did succeed in touching Zayd’s arm. “You know that isn’t true.”
“I know zilch.” Zayd sighed. “I stopped kicking up about being a shifter after the scare I’d had and accepted that Vadim and I were destined to be the next alpha jaguars in the colony. And a lot more than that to each other personally, as you know. He saved my ass, which he now owns, and if he thinks I’m gonna sit back and watch him get killed just because he has these crazy notions about his father letting Impulse down, he has another think coming.”
“Why do men always have to fight?” Talia demanded savagely. “It never solves anything. If history teaches us nothing else, we ought to learn at least that much from it.”
“We’re not starting this fight,” Vadim said.
“Oh well, that makes it all right then.”
Vadim sighed. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, babe.”
“Just as well because I don’t.”
Vadim walked toward Zayd and folded him in his arms. “At least you know I have to do this, lover,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming and I need you to support me. Afterward, everything will be different. Trust me on this.”
