Kade

by Dana Archer

  “I still don’t agree with this whole sham of an alpha meeting.”

  “You don’t need to agree. This little show has nothing to do with you.”

  “Yeah, it’s so you can parade yourself around in front of the other alphas as the biggest and baddest of them all.”

  “I’m not the biggest or the baddest. I’m the one willing to risk everything and everyone to protect what’s mine.” Too bad I can’t promise I won’t lose.

  Thirty-One

  Zoe

  The decorations jazzing up the old barn on Josh’s property are more elaborate and sophisticated than the pink, yellow, and blue balloons and cardboard cutouts that had transformed the original Black Widow’s main barroom for my baby shower.

  With all the stealth I can manage, I close the barn door but don’t latch it so the clank doesn’t draw attention to my late arrival, then I edge along the rough-cut beam wall until the shadows of the loft mask me. None of the shifters or human true mates present glance my way. I can’t imagine they haven’t noticed me, even with my knack of hiding in plain sight.

  Kade’s scent clinging to me is a signal I can’t conceal without stooping to masking his scent with the artificial animal cover-ups that bother all those who showed up to my sister-in-law’s special day. I don’t want to ruin it, which is why I’m here, sans gun and flashy outfit. Today, I’m as normal as I can be, my goal to hover in the background, not draw people’s gazes. All eyes and attention should be on Mira.

  Mira deserves to have nice memories of this day. The laughter of those present and the huge smile on Mira’s face lead me to believe this party is proving to be one Mira will treasure. Josh’s warm glow and his adoring attention focused on Mira adds to the moment. He’s proud. I see it in the way my brother beams under all the attention and the congratulatory “man hugs” from the dominant shifters living in this area.

  I scan the crowd, picking out Ethan, the lawyer whose business card is on my fridge, another very pregnant woman with a long-haired man at her back I could’ve sworn played in a band I saw live out in California, and countless members of the Winchester pack, but not a single adult Alexander member. All Kade’s brothers and cousins and their significant others are hosting the alpha’s meeting. Seth and Levi, the only Alexanders in attendance, haven’t started kindergarten yet. Everyone else could’ve been a stranger. They’re all important to Mira and Josh, however. They’re all here to support them, just as the dozens of people who came to my baby shower aimed to do.

  The prospect of new life spurs this elemental happiness that should be celebrated and treasured. I know that. Feeling my baby move inside me was nothing short of a miracle. I dreamed about looking into his eyes and seeing this brand-new life I helped create.

  It didn’t work out. My life took a different path, just as my baby’s soul will. He’ll get another chance with another mama who will love him. I want that, for both my baby boy and whoever’s lucky enough to bring him into this world.

  My throat thickens, but the soul-crushing ache I normally experience doesn’t choke me or threaten to send me spiraling into an emotional breakdown. The acceptance is freeing. And hard-won. I can’t ever forget that.

  “Your baby’s not dead, Zoe Jane. I kept my promises to you. Soon, you’ll keep yours to me.”

  My demon’s voice drifts through my mind with a clarity it never had before. My attempts at bringing her to heel this morning strengthened her. Jarah warned me that would happen if I didn’t succeed. And I failed. Miserably.

  Her laughter echoes between my ears, then fades, lending me the impression she’s left me alone. It’s not true. She’s with me, watching and waiting for her chance to trick me.

  “Not trick you. Force you to uphold your end of our bargain.”

  With a trembling hand, I touch my ear, where her whispered threat is amplified by the sensation of her lips against my ear. Shaking my hand out, I inch farther into the shadows so as to avoid anyone noticing me standing here looking all creeped out, and bump into something.

  “Sorry.”

  The young voice spoken quietly to my right tears a squeak from me. I whip my head and take in the little blonde-haired girl I’ve never met but know much about. I crouch down and throw my arms around the child, who automatically stiffens in my embrace.

  Silently cursing my actions and knowing I’m nothing more than a stranger to Josh’s other adopted daughter, I release Molly and hold my hands up and back in an apologetic manner. “I’m sorry too, Molly. I shouldn’t have hugged you like that. You probably think I’m some weird stranger, but I’m family. Adopted family, anyway. I’m Josh’s—your daddy’s—little sister. That makes me your aunt.”

  “My adoption is for legalities in the human world. Only. Here, among other shifters, I’m leader of the Burnett pride.”

  Nose scrunched, I bite my lip. “Okay, then I’m your adopted legal aunt? Aunt by adoption? Aunt on paper only? I don’t know. Call me whatever you want, but I’m so happy to see you here.”

  Molly pulls back, features pinched and a calculating expression in her eyes. “My twin is here.”

  “Where is Megan?”

  Molly points to where a group of kids—Kade’s nephews, Seth and Levi, the two redhaired girls I saw at Josh’s house but still don’t have names for, and Megan—are giggling and chasing each other behind the group of adults gathered around Mira and Josh. I look from them to Molly. “Don’t feel like joining them, huh?”

  Eyes narrowing, Molly shakes her head. “I shouldn’t be at this party. I should be at Kade’s.”

  Because Molly’s an alpha too. I take in her bitter stance and make a choice that very well might put me at odds with my true mate. It wouldn’t be the first time, however, and I doubt it’ll be the last. “The alpha party doesn’t really get started until after dark. This is supposed to be mingling time or some nonsense. Sounded boring to me, so I came here instead, but I promised Kade I’d be at his side once dinner started. Do you want to leave when I do and go with me?”

  Molly’s eyes widen. “Really? But I wasn’t invited.”

  “I just invited you.”

  “Yes.” Molly grabs my hand. “I’ll stay out of trouble—in the shadows. I’ve been working really hard at that. I’m getting good at it.”

  “Me too.”

  A smile lights up Molly’s face, and when Megan yells and waves her over, Molly runs, weaving around the massive males in her path.

  Grinning, I watch the kids until they slip out the back door, off to do whatever it is kids do or maybe to hear another story told by the spirit of the Ammon shifter who’s bonded to Megan. Who knows? They’re happy. That’s the important thing.

  After a few minutes of watching the crowd, hairs stand up on my arms, tempting me to scratch at my skin until blood runs down my arm.

  Rolling my shoulders when all I want to do is hunch over and back away, I scan the room. None of the shifters appear distressed. With their enhanced senses, surely, they’d react to danger if there was one. I sidestep farther into the shadows, where the angle allows me a fuller view of the open barn and the possible danger awaiting, and bump into another alpha shifter, an ancient male I should fear. The oldest assassin isn’t a threat to me, however. I’ve given Jarah plenty of opportunities to end my life.

  Yet knowing Jarah’s not a threat doesn’t negate the itch creeping over my skin. Then again, after spending the morning bleeding at his hands and failing at my goal of bringing my demon under control, I’m not all that surprised by my reaction. I don’t like to lose, but that’s exactly what I did today, over and over. It was hard not to fall for my demon’s tricks. Is it so wrong for me to wish against hope my baby somehow survived?

  The moment the thought surfaces, I smack it back. Breathing life into such dreams after finally finding some sort of acceptance is exactly what she wants. My demon doesn’t want me to give up hope. I’m too easy to manipulate when I literally ache to hold my baby.

  “You made her night.”
Jarah’s low voice draws me deeper into the shadows.

  “Molly’s?” I’ve got to ask because I’m sure I made my crazy doppelgänger’s night too. She’s stronger than ever, and I’m running out of time to bring her in line.

  “Yes.”

  I shrug. “It seemed the right thing to do at the time.”

  “I agree.”

  Studying Jarah, I frown. “Why are you here? I assumed you’d be at the pre-party meet and greet.” What Kade described as a way for the other alphas to assess each other’s alliances and enemies, new and old, before the main festivities start.

  “Firstborns without a family are an anomaly. The other alphas don’t quite know how to take us or understand why we walk through the centuries alone.” Jarah scans the crowded room, then turns to me. “But more importantly, they don’t fear us. No matter how strong we are, we stand alone. A large group hunting together can take any individual down.”

  “And the alpha meeting is all about posturing. Right? Showing the other alphas who has the largest and strongest supporters.”

  “Yes.”

  I motion to the crowded barn with a tilt of my head. “But a lot of very powerful people turned out for this little congratulatory party, not for Kade’s alpha gathering. Only his pride members attended. That’s got to say something.”

  “Yes, that Josh and Mira have a lot of friends who don’t need to crash an alpha gathering they have no reason to be attending. Only Alexanders need to be there to support Kade, as is customary.”

  “Mira and Josh do have a lot of friends.” I grin. “They deserve them.”

  “They have billions more who’d rather see their blood spilling on the ground. Or mine. Or Kade’s. Or the blood of any shifter.” Jarah takes up a relaxed slouch against the wall at his back. We could’ve been talking about the weather and not violence against the shifter community.

  “You’re talking about humans.”

  Jarah nods. “We’ve always known it. Living hidden but in plain sight has been enough to nullify the threat. If our identities were ever questioned, we disappeared.”

  “And you can’t now.”

  “No. Especially when the human government knows what we look like, has our fingerprints and DNA on record, and the sheer number of bodies to hunt us.”

  While I understand the danger and have listened to Kade say the same thing, I don’t have a solution. I sigh instead of responding with some hopeful statement. The truth is, once humans learn what has been living among them, the predators in this room will become prey.

  “The humans have vowed to protect us.” Jarah’s tone says more than his simple statement does. He doesn’t like that option. Not one little bit.

  “The alphas meeting with Kade would rather protect themselves.”

  “Through fear.” Jarah slides me an amused, knowing look. “Just as the ancient shamans used fear to protect their own. For thousands upon thousands of years, they embraced what they were—feared hunters, practitioners of the dark arts, úlfheðnar, berserkers, warriors of Odin. They gloried in the titles, drank from the skulls of their enemies, ate their flesh, and left the bodies of those who threatened them in the streets as a warning.”

  “Mess with them and meet the same fate.”

  Jarah laughs. “Yes. The villagers knew not to mess with the crazy shamans. After a time, humans came to accept those brutal ancients as a part of their world. The two groups lived somewhat peacefully for many years like that, even after the group of shaman warriors who’d been chosen to become the first shifters were stolen from this earth. Their human bloodlines—much like your bloodline—live on now, hidden but in plain sight and waiting to regain the glory of their forefathers. Some human witch bloodlines are even actively practicing the dark arts and teaching their children how to control the world around them. They’re growing powerful. The alphas gathered around your true mate recognize the threat they pose, and now, it’s become a race to—”

  “To put the fear of God into the humans.” I rub at my arms, the tingling of Jarah’s earlier approach not lessening. I’m not surprised. This topic isn’t a happy one. Actually, it’s not one I want to be having at all, but I’ve learned when Jarah talks, it’s wise to listen. The man is practically a living god himself. He’s almost as old as those first shifters who caught the eye of the heavens.

  “Not god.” Jarah gives me a pointed look. “The walking gods and goddesses among humans.”

  I glance at my brother and the conversation we had about the Alexander goddess wanting to walk among humans returns. If everything works out as Josh described, the impossible will be reality very soon.

  “War is coming, Zoe,” Jarah says under his breath. “The greatest war of all time.”

  “And the goddesses need warriors to fight it.” That’s what Josh said. That’s what Kade’s said too.

  “They have warriors. They’re sharing the same air as you, and their numbers are growing at unheard-of rates.”

  “Soul-bonded shifter males.” The answer is one I already know. Kade told me. I can make him powerful.

  “And their soul-bonded females.” Jarah makes a low sound deep in his throat, not quite a snort, but something similarly amused. “Anyone who discounts the threat posed by the gentler gender will watch their heads fall to the ground. Do you remember me mentioning the bodies left in those ancient streets? They weren’t left rotting there on purpose. Initially, anyway. The corpses were too heavy for female shamans to move, so they left them, and those decaying bodies became a calling card the berserkers were all too happy to leave once they learned the effect of seeing the putrid corpses. Such things will not have the same results today as they did then, however.”

  “So the goddesses have their warriors and are preparing for a war between shifters, shamans, and humans. Right?”

  “They’re planning for the worst, hoping for the best. We all are. War is something all want to avoid, but we have to be ready.”

  Pain pierces me, traveling along my forearm to my wrist. I flex my fingers, but the random itch intensifies. Scratching until I’m bloody is tempting, but I squeeze my wrist to avoid ripping my skin open and focus on the many shadows obscuring this section of the barn we’ve retreated to. “That’s why the alphas gathered with Kade want a leader.”

  “Someone”—Jarah’s voice comes from somewhere off in the distance as the sound of my rushing blood drowns out everything—“even other shifters will fear.”

  Laughter mixes in with the whooshing of blood, then takes over, obscuring my racing pulse. The hearty laugh isn’t in my head. It’s not coming from the speakers or any of the other shifters in this room. And it’s not just me hearing it.

  The tension that’s left me uneasy spreads to the shifters gathered here. Males move in front of their women. Everyone looks around, casting cautious glances at those near them. Jarah growls and straightens, looking around him as many of the other shifters are doing. And I focus on a section of the wall a few feet from me and Jarah, where the shadows that drew my gaze grow thicker.

  Dark fog undulates in sensuous waves, creeping outward and revealing a small field mouse. I step closer to it, something about it calling to me or more accurately, the demon living within me. Obviously knowing his cover’s blown, a flickering light sparks in the tiny mouse’s eyes. The brightness flares. The air warms around the mouse, and a ghostlike aura pours from it as steam does from a squealing kettle. The image of the man I met twice—years ago with Vince by my side and last night with Kade—takes shape a few feet away. Life rushes into the apparition, giving it a solid form, and between one heartbeat and the next, Asa steps forward and smiles at me.

  “And after tonight’s festivities, that someone to fear will be me.”

  Thirty-Two

  Zoe

  “Nice trick.” I cross my arms. “Please do tell us how you pulled it off.”

  “Don’t worry. The rodent who lent me his body wasn’t harmed in the display of power you just witnessed.” Asa’s a
musement lightens his tone. “And that trick was one of the many a true shaman can accomplish. It’s time our society learns all the little tricks I’ve learned. Don’t you agree?”

  “What? Are you going to show everyone how you can conjure a demon and force a mouse to—”

  “Only the weak need to resort to having demons do their bidding.” Asa studies me, head to toe, and if the expression on his face is any indication, what he sees is lacking. “What I can achieve is exactly what the early shamans did—control the world around them through magic and sheer will.”

  Asa’s jab narrows my eyes, but the brush of Jarah’s arm to mine stops my smartass retort. Jarah steps forward, putting me safely behind him and blocking my view of the Yuran alpha. I know why too. All Asa needs is to catch my gaze, and he can draw forth my demon as easily as Jarah.

  “Only the weak”—Jarah’s voice booms, shaking the walls of the barn—“need to resort to taking over a little rodent’s body to crash a party he wasn’t invited to.”

  “My honor demands I take whatever steps necessary to share my knowledge with Josh and Mira. The safety of their unborn children depends on it.”

  “Does it?” Josh strides forward with the commanding grace he’s always held, but tonight, power sweeps ahead of him, exactly as it does when Kade moves. “And how do you figure that?”

  “The prophecy spoken to Mira’s father isn’t the only one that was given that night. The goddesses appeared to me also.”

  “Blasphemy.” Mira spats the word and joins her husband, standing at his side, not behind him. “The goddesses would never—”

  “The goddesses spoke to the alphas affected by what they were about to set into motion. Your father, Kade’s, and…me.” Asa leans forward, lowering his voice in a threat. “May the goddesses strike me down here and now if my words are lies.”