by Ally Summers
I balled my hands into fists. I didn’t want to slug my shifter brothers, but I felt the feeling coming on. I’d punch every one of them to the ground.
Eli added, “Because that’s the only way this makes sense. The bond has been evoked, and you are living with your fated mate and you haven’t taken her yet? A girl on the side would be shitty, but we could forgive that. She might not, but we would understand the frustration of being side by side every day with a girl that hot you can’t sleep with.”
I told Tessa I would do anything for her. I would lie for her. I would protect her. Save her. I’d fucking die for her if I had to.
“Tell his majesty, the wedding is being planned.” I had to hide the resentment in my voice.
Noah slapped me on the back. “That’s good to hear. I love weddings.”
I looked from one of them to the other. I tried not to judge them. They didn’t know how I felt. They didn’t know what Tessa and I experienced together. But right now I knew they didn’t care. They were here on the king’s orders.
“Why don’t you come in and have that coffee? Meet Tessa?” I offered. I wanted things to appear normal, but inside I was boiling with rage.
“That’s all right.” Noah waved the group behind him. “Next time.”
“But she’s gettin’ me cream and sugar,” Trev whined.
I wasn’t sure why he was part of this recon trip. Maybe they brought him to boost his ego.
“I’ll tell the king we’ll expect an announcement soon.”
I stuck my hands in my front pockets. “Yep. And don’t forget the part about the dove.” I gritted my teeth together.
I waited until they were loaded up in the black SUV before I returned inside.
Tessa was in the office, pouring cups of coffee.
I closed the door. “About that trip…”
18
Tessa
The tears welled. I couldn’t stop them. My hands shook and I cried into Josh’s shoulder. “But when? When can we come back?”
He tipped my chin toward him. “I don’t know. When it’s safe.”
“And how are we supposed to know that?”
He hung his head. “You shouldn’t have to go through this. I told you I’d make the sacrifices. Not the other way around.”
“No. No. I’m the one who asked you to break the laws. I should make them too.” I had an urgent need to console him. I could see the weight of our decisions pressing on him.
We didn’t know exactly how they knew the bond had been evoked by my words other than when we saw the wisps of light and glitter it must have alerted a magical agent or someone who reported it to the council. We were stupid to think none of this would get out.
What they didn’t know was that we were already bonded. At least for now we had that going for us, but Josh told me the guys were suspicious. They didn’t believe we could live together, evoke the bond, and not rip each other’s clothes off. I had to agree. It would have been completely impossible.
“I don’t want to offer a life on the run. I’m not asking you to be a fugitive with me.” Josh stared in my eyes. “But we need to get away from here just for a little while until we can come up with a plan.”
I nodded. “We do need a plan.”
“We are fighters, Tessa. We’re going to fight through this.”
“The Tribe doesn’t scare me.”
He grinned. “Nothing scares you.” He chuckled. “Except spiders.”
I slapped him on the shoulder. “That one spider was incredibly hairy and it could jump.”
“Spiders or not, I don’t want to fight my brothers. I grew up with those guys. And they don’t see it now, but the old ways are wrong.”
I touched the side of his face. “God, I love you.”
He closed his eyes, then opened them. “I drove into this town, thinking I’d sweep you off your feet, marry you, start the next line, and leave for my next wife.” It made me sick hearing him say those words. “But then I saw you. I heard your voice. I touched you.” He brushed my hair away from my neck and kissed my throat. “And that’s when you changed me. You showed me what this should be. What a bond should mean.”
“I wasn’t trying to start a revolution.”
“I know. But you bring me to my knees. I would give up everything I’ve known to have this bond with you. Everything.”
It would be easy for us to plan a wedding and invite the council and enough shifter friends to witness the ceremony. We could take a honeymoon and come home, announcing I was already expecting a cub. We could do all the traditional things that we were taught to do, but that wasn’t who we were anymore.
In our bond we had found power and strength in each other. The kind that solidified our union. Strong enough to go against the king or the council. We didn’t want to cave because we had to.
We wanted to be together because our souls were meant to be together. We were one.
I kissed Josh, tugging gently on his lips until he lifted me in his arms.
I felt the upward motion as he climbed the stairs.
“We have to pack. We have to get a lot of things ready,” he whispered. “But first, I need to make you mine again.”
“And maybe again.” I pressed into the kiss, knowing time was lost to us when we were together, but I didn’t care.
I needed his arms around me, and his skin heating my body. I needed his tongue tasting me, and his cock buried so deep inside me we would scream from the intensity. I needed all of that with my mate. Now.
19
Josh
I squeezed Tessa’s hand. “You ok?”
The airport in Atlanta was a madhouse. We had found two seats together in the boarding area.
“Nervous I guess. I don’t want to feel like we’re running.”
“It’s not running. It’s buying time,” I reminded her.
“Right.”
She checked her phone again. “And your mom is going to be fine. I swear.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder. “I know. I’m worrying about everything and nothing.”
“Is there any part of you excited about our honeymoon?”
She giggled. “Two weeks with you in Venice? Oh, I’m a little excited.”
“Good. I like the whole honeymoon no wedding thing anyway. I can’t believe some guy didn’t come up with this already.”
She punched me in the shoulder playfully. “So how did you explain the trip?”
“I called Drew.”
Her eyes widened.
“Don’t worry. Yes, he is Case’s brother, but he’s also my best friend. And if anyone gets what we are going through, he does. He’s going to cover for us with Case, okay? That’s all that matters.”
“No Tribe surprise visits while we’re gone?”
“Nope.” I knew I could trust Drew with my life. I would trust him with Tessa’s too. “We have two weeks of total naked honeymoon time.”
“I thought we were coming up with a plan.”
“Well when we take breaks for air we come up with a plan.” I grinned at her.
There was nothing more serious than what we were facing, but I was trying to shield Tessa from the danger. I could give my mate a beautiful romantic honeymoon. There was nothing wrong with that.
“Oh, I think we’re about to board.” She pulled our tickets from her purse and handed my boarding pass to me.
She stood to get in line, but I tugged on her wrist.
“Gorgeous wait.”
“What is it? We’re boarding.”
I reached in my pocket before dropping to one knee. Tessa covered her mouth, but I still heard her say, “Oh my God.”
I opened the velvet box where the diamond glistened. I think everyone around us stopped and stared.
“Tessa, this is a ring I bought. Our ring. Nothing about us is conventional, but I want you to wear it to symbolize our bond. Will you?” I looked up at her.
She nodded. “Yes, yes. Put it on.” Her hand shook while I slipped the diamond o
ver her ring finger. She threw her arms around me while the other passengers clapped and cheered.
I crushed her lips against mine. “Thank you,” I whispered in her ear.
She pulled back. “It’s not an emerald.”
“No. It’s not. It’s our own ring. Our own symbol. It can mean whatever you want. And if one day you want to walk down the aisle, I’ll be there at the end of it.”
“Oh shit,” she whispered.
I held her, lifting her off the ground. “Okay, let’s board this flight to Venice.”
She wiped tiny tears from her cheeks. “You completely surprised me, you know that?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I was hoping it would be a surprise. Your mom knows about the ring.”
“She does?”
“Yep. And she is fine with whatever we decide Tessa. She loves you. She wants you to be happy. For you to be safe.” I kissed the top of her head.
She stared at the ring, twisting it on her finger.
“This is a freakin’ huge diamond.”
I laughed. “I thought you deserved it. Besides, it’s just one more way to show everyone you’re mine.” I didn’t realize I was the jealous and possessive type until I saw how other men looked at my mate. She was too beautiful to leave any open questions.
She threw her arms around my neck. “Only yours.”
I growled against her ear. “I can’t believe I have to wait ten hours to take you again.”
She purred. “Maybe.”
I laughed so loud the guy behind me cleared his throat. But that guy had no idea what life had in store for me.
I had the most beautiful and intelligent woman by my side. A mate that was my partner. A goddess in bed. A gentle heart and spirit.
In two weeks when we landed in the US, I’d have a plan. Because nothing would tear Tessa away from me. Nothing. She had taught me how to love. She had taught me how to open my heart. And she taught me that sometimes those were worth making a sacrifice.
Seize
1
Donovan
Nothing about this felt right. Nothing. I hadn’t felt this strongly about something since—I huffed. Since my family lost everything.
I peered onto the beach, watching the last few beachcombers pick up shells and walk in for the night. I didn’t belong here. I didn’t like the water, or the way the heat felt. Jaguars weren’t meant to live here.
I turned from the boardwalk, pulling my sunglasses over my green eyes to block the last rays of the sunset. I’d been here three days and I already missed the forest. I missed creeks and tall trees. I missed the seclusion of the woods. I missed my home. My birthright. My territory. This sand pit was no place for a cat shifter. It was great for tourists and humans, but Charleston was getting under my skin.
But this was the assignment. The king of my tribe, Case, had sent me here. He wasn’t the kind of man I could question. I strolled across the street to the apartment I rented. I paused for a trolley car to pass.
Charleston was fine, but it wasn’t as if I’d ever put roots down here. I was bored. Nothing was happening here. I climbed the stairs, shuffling the sand from the bottom of my feet.
I groaned, knowing there wasn’t a safe place I could run tonight in my true form. I’d have to take to the streets and burn off this pent-up frustration like a man.
I pulled the keys from my pocket. I was staying in a rented apartment on a week-to-week lease because Case didn’t know how long he needed me to stay in the coastal town. This building was one of those old Charleston-style narrow town houses that the owner had divided into four units.
My apartment was one of the two on the top floor. I had a balcony where I could sit and watch the ocean, but it seemed to make me more restless.
I hadn’t noticed anyone staying across the hall from me. The downstairs units were rented by a bartender who worked at a restaurant around the corner, and the other by a guy who I swore surfed every waking minute. Other than the occasional nod and a “hey” I didn’t talk to them.
They weren’t shifters. They weren’t even supernatural. As far as I was concerned they couldn’t help me with my mission here. I needed to keep an ear to the ground. Case was worried about someone stepping this far east into his territory and it was my job to figure out who.
I grabbed a beer from the fridge and twisted off the top. I walked to the balcony. The beer tasted cold, and for the first time all day it took the edge off. I didn’t like being stuck. I didn’t like being ordered. And I sure as hell didn’t like waiting around for nothing.
I kicked my feet up on the ottoman and watched the last flicker of the red and orange glow disappear.
I reached in my pocket when I heard my phone ring.
“What’s up?”
It was Eli, one of my Tribe brothers. “I’m calling to see if you’ve heard anything.”
“Nope. No one is coming this far east. What shifter would want to be in Charleston?”
“That’s not what I asked.” He sounded more surly than usual.
“Eli, this is fucking insane.”
“Have you heard anything? Seen anything?”
I gulped the last of the beer. “No. All is quiet on the beach front,” I reported.
“I don’t know if that’s good news or not.”
“Considering I don’t know who I’m looking for and what they want with the city I couldn’t really comment.”
Eli exhaled. “Just call me if you hear anything.”
I snarled. “I don’t report to you. I report to the king.” I wasn’t going to take orders from someone who held the same rank as I did.
“Whatever. Just do it.”
“Tell Case I’ll let him know if someone other than a voodoo queen shows up in the city.” The town was crawling with fortunetellers and women who promised they had mystical powers, but I couldn’t sense anything magical about them. The tourists loved them anyway.
“Don’t let your guard down.”
I rolled my eyes. “Eli, you’re as bad as Trev. There is nothing happening in Charleston. No rumors of a shifter war. No one is talking about an invasion or takeover.”
“Something is happening,” he whispered.
I walked back inside to get a second beer. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. I’ve got things covered here.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
I laughed. The Tribe may have been separated, each one of us on a different quest, but there was a still a brotherhood that brought us together. And sometimes that meant giving each other a hard time.
I hung up, and settled back on the wicker chair covered with palm tree print cushions. I could hear the waves crash on the shore. I didn’t know why this was my mission. I didn’t know why I was the one who had been sent.
What pissed me off the most was that my mission didn’t include the list of mates I was expecting.
All the other Tribe members had been given their orders and those orders included a list. I was the only one I knew of that was sent to keep an eye on a territory that didn’t have a single panther in its city limits.
Hell, why hadn’t the Council generated my list yet? That would be a cause I could get behind. I wanted to meet my first mate. Finding her would be a worthy cause. Not sitting here drinking alone on a dark porch, waiting for a shifter apocalypse that was never going to happen.
2
Caroline
I wasn’t running, I told myself. It wasn’t an escape. It was a vacation. A regular normal vacation that any other girl would take. I turned the radio to low so I could listen to the GPS call out the directions as I meandered through Charleston’s cobblestone streets.
It was a last minute decision to rent out an apartment for the week, but it was almost my twenty-second birthday and I couldn’t sit around Gables anymore waiting for my mate to show up. He should have been there by now.
So I was taking the reins in my own hands. I wanted a last hoorah. One last thing to check off my bucket list before I became Mrs. Jaguar So
mebody. It was crazy. Ludicrous. Insane. I didn’t even know my future husband’s name.
“Turn right,” the device ordered.
I steered onto a side street. I could smell the salt as I rolled down the windows. I inhaled the ocean breeze, feeling the freedom of vacation wash over me.
My long black hair fluttered over my shoulders. This was the opposite of the north Georgia mountains. I was already in love.
“You have reached your destination.”
I put the car in park and looked up at the house. My apartment was upstairs in the divided home. It was like something out of a Southern postcard. I smiled. It might only be a week, but this was going to be my one last epic live-it-up trip before my world had to change.
That was the reality. It had to change. I had been raised to be a she-panther to fulfill her duty. I lugged my suitcase out of the trunk and started up the wide staircase. This was one week I didn’t want to think about my shifter duties. I didn’t want to think about getting married and the responsibilities associated with being someone’s mate. This week was about me.
A week to soak in the sun. A week to hear the waves crash. A week to make memories that I’d have the rest of my life, so when my mate did show up I’d have something to savor forever.
The breeze made the palms sway overhead. I looked up and my spine tingled. I saw a guy sitting on the upper deck, but as quickly as I saw him, he disappeared inside.
I had the instant sensation that he was carrying a shifter aura, but I shrugged it off. I had been thinking about my fate too much. I had been carried away with my obligations. This was the last place a shifter would show up. I was probably the only panther who loved the beach as much as I did.
I loved the freedom of the open shoreline. I loved the wind in my hair. I loved the way the salt smelled. Every sensation poured through me here. I wanted to experience it one more time before I got married.
