by Abigail Owen
Without touching anyone, without sound, or sensation, in an instant, she and her two bodyguards stood among a squad of wolf-shifters. She’d asked the Alphas of their wolf pack allies to send their best for this particular assignment. The rest of the packs, with a handful of Zula’s own people to direct and guide them, were positioned all across the two continents of North and South America, awaiting the order from her generals. They had planned this mission for months. All attacks would happen simultaneously.
Now.
Chapter Six
“Are you coming?” Shane called through Tieryn’s locked bedroom door. He didn’t bother to disguise his annoyance.
No answer.
He’d raised his hand to knock on the door when her voice stopped him. “Just a second.”
Right. Tieryn’s version of seconds translated to half-hours, as he’d learned with much waiting and very little patience over the last week. “We’re late.”
“Not that late.”
Shane checked his watch and shook his head. “Late enough.”
“I can’t go naked, Callahan. You’ll just have to wait.”
Unwanted and unwelcomed, an image of Tieryn’s pale skin, without hindrance of clothing, entered his mind. He could picture her, dark hair spilling over those pert breasts. Would they be pink tipped or a darker hue? He’d bet pink.
Shane forced his mind back to the issue. His body was a different issue.
“Move it, or I’ll come in there and dress you myself.” Not that he would. His imagination was bad enough, had been from the moment he’d met her. He didn’t need to add reality to the mix.
He was about to pound on the door when the lock clicked, and she swung it open with a sharp movement. Once upon a time, he might’ve considered the scowl on her face cute but not anymore. Now, he had zero patience for spoiled, inconsiderate brats. “Do you ever get anywhere on time?” he accused.
Her scowl deepened until her eyebrows almost met in the middle. “Unlike some people, I didn’t have the luxury of bringing changes of clothes with me.”
Shane frowned. “So?”
She shifted her feet. “So I have to wait for my underwear to dry,” she mumbled.
Shane grunted, not about to touch that topic.
He led the way out of their room and down a series of hallways. Their polar bear allies had consented to allow the Kuharte conference to take place in their underground bunkers—the safest place Sarai could find. Cement walls curved up overhead like a tunnel. Fluorescent lights hung every twenty feet or so and cast a sickly greenish glow over everything. Being underground made Shane feel itchy. Cougar shifters didn’t like to be closed in or confined for long.
“Didn’t Sarai give you clothes?”
She shrugged a slim shoulder. “She let me borrow hers, but I can’t wear another woman’s underwear. Gross.”
“You could not wear underwear.” The words popped out before he could stop them.
He opened his mouth to tell her not to answer, but she beat him to it.
“I’m not,” she muttered.
Looking down, he caught a hint of panic in her eyes that told him she hadn’t meant to answer him. At least his wasn’t the only mouth out of control. Shane’s gaze dropped to her lips, and her shocked expression returned to her earlier scowl.
She whipped her head to face forward. “Tell anyone, and I’ll—”
“What? Tell Daddy?” Hell. What was with him today? The sarcastic comments were dropping like bombs.
Instead of snapping at him, as any of his polar bear shifter friends would have, or Andie for that matter, her shoulders slumped. “Forget it.”
They’d reached a set of double doors that led to the large general room where the negotiations had been held for the last two days. He reached for the handle, but she got there first. With a jerk, she pulled it open, walked through, and let the heavy door shut in his face.
Shane rolled his eyes, any guilt at upsetting her now tinged with annoyance. She might not speak up, but she let her feelings be known in other ways. Annoyance rolled into bitterness, the taste of it acrid on his tongue, as his mind turned toward how he could have dealt with his wife’s killers by now. Instead, he was stuck babysitting an ungrateful Kuharte who’d been sheltered and spoiled her entire life.
Shane stalked into the room just as Tieryn exchanged a hug with Sarai. How she’d befriended the usually reserved Seer so quickly, he had no idea. He circled the room as Tieryn sat down in the chair she favored toward the back corner and silently took the one beside her without so much as a glance in her direction. Her scent of flowers and fresh air and spring wafted his way. He tried to breathe shallowly. The wall of silence grew to a palpable gulf between them as more and more people filtered into the room.
“I could help with your ear, you know.” Tieryn leaned over to mutter from the side of her mouth. “Would that make you less of an ass?”
“Nope.”
“I see. So this has always been an affliction for you.”
He tipped his chair back on two legs and crossed his arms.
Her eyes tracked the movement, and her lips pinched. “Done with the conversation I see.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What tells you that?”
She raised her own in a perfect imitation of his sardonic expression. “You cross your arms and shut up when you’re done talking.”
Not good. He’d had to conceal his thoughts and emotions most of his life, especially after Brenna. He thought he’d gotten damn good at it, but a tell like that was a problem when you had secrets to keep.
“Don’t worry,” she reached over and patted his hand. “I don’t think anyone else has noticed.”
Shane sat forward with a thump as his chair returned to all four legs. Her realization that he’d been thrown by her observation only increased his concern. Worse, Tieryn had no problem invading his personal space with little touches. No one else ever got close enough to try it. The “back off” vibes he gave off kept folks at a distance.
“How are you today, minha querida?” Rafael, the Kuharte from Brazil and one of the two Seducers of the bunch, appeared beside Tieryn. The man placed his hand over hers, and Shane pictured what the Brazilian might look like without that hand…a ridiculous reaction he shoved away and refused to acknowledge. He turned his head and tried to tune out the conversation.
Tieryn’s laughter sparkled on the air. The sound reaching his good ear had him gritting his teeth. How could she find that tool remotely interesting? Didn’t she see he treated every woman in the room with the same easy charm? No one was special to him, something only enforced by his rare gift.
After a moment and some more flirting, Rafael left, promising to find her again later. Once again, they sat in silence.
“You realize he’s a Seducer,” he blurted.
She turned her head. A frown puckered her black brows. “So?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Nothing he says is sincere. You get that, right?”
A look of scorn scrunched up her face into something closer to adorable than ugly and would have drawn a laugh from him once upon a time. She reminded him of one of the cub-shifters in cat form when swatting at a ball.
“If you say so.” But the roll of her eyes and utter disgust lacing her voice belied the words.
He leaned back in his seat and stuck his feet out, crossed at the ankles, under the table. “I’m just saying don’t fall for the guy.”
“Why don’t you go rain on someone else’s parade,” she muttered.
Once again, the odd urge to chuckle tickled deep in his chest. Odd because Shane didn’t find much to laugh about these days.
Chapter Seven
“All right.” Sarai called the meeting to attention. “Last night we left off with terms of the number of Kuharte in a dare.”
Tieryn only half-listened…she couldn’t believe Shane was being such a jerk. Strike that. She could believe it after the last several days, but his last comment had been personal, as thou
gh he couldn’t imagine someone like Rafael would be interested in her. That stung. Besides, she had no designs on the guy. She just found the Seducer funny and easy to talk to. What was wrong with inter-dare and inter-Kuharte friendship anyway?
Damn Shane for ruining her enjoyment of the simple relationship. The man had all the markings of an Alpha, including the arrogance. Had he not lost his ear, she suspected he could have been in strong contention for a high-ranking position within the Reynolds Dare.
She turned her thoughts away from the frustrating man at her side and focused instead on the meeting, discovering the discussion had moved on to the topic of arranged marriages.
“Tieryn,” Rafael called her out. “You are the only one of us currently in an arranged marriage. What do you think?”
If stares were physical, Tieryn was sure her skin would’ve scorched by now given the way Shane was looking at her. She ignored him.
“Are you asking for my personal reasons to agree to it, or my thoughts on the method in general?”
“As far as anyone here is aware, you weren’t forced,” he pointed out.
“That is true,” she agreed. “My personal opinion is an arranged marriage can be just as successful as one based on love and attraction. Possibly more so.”
“Why do you say that?” Andie asked.
Tieryn heard no censure in the female Alpha’s voice. She hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Andie much in the last few days, but what she’d seen of the spunky shifter, she liked.
“Logic,” she answered. This was a topic she’d thought about a great deal. “An arranged marriage often means the couple has similar social, educational, financial, and religious backgrounds—all important for a strong marriage. Divorce rates show marriages based on love aren’t guaranteed to be any more stable, and in the case of the Shadowcat Nation, there’s the additional benefit of ensuring our survival in the face of constant attacks and dwindling numbers. Arranged marriages to strengthen our people make sense.”
“So you’re a proponent of arranged marriages?” Rafael insisted. She wondered at the satisfied smirk that crossed his face.
Tieryn tapped her pen on her notepad. “Do I feel an arranged marriage is logical? Yes. However, if you’re asking if I think it should remain a part of our laws, my answer is no.”
A murmur rippled through the room. “How can you say that given what you’ve just said?” Rick Delaney, the Alpha of the southwestern US dare, demanded.
“Because I agreed to it. My father would not have forced me had I not wanted it. No matter what the benefit is to the Nation, we are still dealing with people’s lives. Freedom of choice must not only be granted, it must be mandated.”
That started a heated discussion which Tieryn contributed to here and there, but she’d said her piece and mostly sat back, allowing the chatter to flow around her. They were about to break for lunch when she lurched forward in her seat as a familiar tingle raced down her spine.
“What’s wrong?”
She turned dazed eyes Shane’s way. His question hadn’t been annoyed or lazy. It had been urgent, as though he’d realized such an abrupt move from her, small though it was, would be unusual.
“I don’t know yet.”
Before she stopped speaking, the double doors at the end of the room were thrust open. She stood up without a conscious decision to do so as her father and Gage entered the room. The second their gazes connected across the long table of shifters, she knew he’d come to take her home.
“You’re not staying,” her father said.
She winced at the fury underlying his deceptively calm tone.
She hadn’t realized Shane was also on his feet until his hand landed at the small of her back. The unexpected show of support, as if he wanted to instill in her his own strength, tugged at something soft inside her. Not that she needed his help to deal with her father—but Shane had formed his own opinions about that.
She shut out both Shane and her father to focus on a nagging suspicion. Had her father’s appearance here been the source of the warning her body had just given her? Tieryn frowned. It couldn’t be. Her father would never put her in physical harm.
Another zing shot straight up her spine.
“Dad, I’m sorry.” Without further explanation, or a move to follow his orders, she turned her focus elsewhere. “Sarai?” she called.
The blond woman she’d come to trust more and more the last few days swung her gaze away from Paul McGraw to where Tieryn stood.
“Something’s wrong.”
She knew she’d got her point across when Sarai’s eyes widened, then went hazy for a split second. Then urgency made her movements sharp as she leaned over to Zac to whisper in his ear.
Zac was on his feet faster than a man that big should be able to move. “Protectors on me,” he barked.
At the same time, Sarai turned back to the group. “Paulla? Lucas?” she called to the other two Seers. After a brief moment, both shook their heads.
“Are you sure?”
The question was directed to Tieryn. She gave a sharp nod, trying to ignore how her nerves were electrified—a sizzling sensation pulsed through her. She clenched her fists at her side. Shane’s hand against her back was the only point where her skin was not on fire.
“What’s going on here?” Victor Silva, the Alpha of the Brazilian Dare, demanded at the same time.
“Everyone evacuate the compound as discussed,” Zac, who’d been talking in low, urgent tones with the group of Protectors, ordered.
“Fast!” Tieryn burst out. The sizzling was layered with itching now. Her skin crawled.
Before she could step around her chair, a bright flash illuminated the room in blinding white light, followed by a resounding boom as an explosion ripped through the cement wall to her right. Pandemonium erupted around them, but Tieryn had one single thought.
Get as many of her fellow Kuharte out of the room as she possibly could.
She didn’t have much time before her gift would kick in. She had no control over when or how it worked. Before she took even two steps toward the chaos, a rough hand circled her wrist and jerked her to a stop.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Shane demanded.
Before she could answer, he started to drag her away from the fray toward the nearest door. Desperate, Tieryn clawed at his hand. “I have to help them,” she screeched. She glanced back over her shoulder at the fighting going on; just as a wolf shifter tackled one of her fellow Kuharte.
“You’re not a fighter,” he yelled, yanking her back.
“But—” She gasped and doubled over as a wave of nausea rolled through her.
“What happened? Are you hurt?”
She barely comprehended Shane’s concerned words or even the cacophony of screams and chaos that filled the room. Her vision blurred and blackened.
Knowing what was coming, she pictured her suite of rooms. With no other warning than her pitching stomach it happened. Her body floated, weightless, for a split second as she vanished from the room and was instantly transported.
“What the hell?” Shane’s voice startled her.
Tieryn’s vision cleared to reveal she was in the living area of their suite with Shane. “Holy crap!” It’d worked. She’d never taken anyone with her before.
“What just happened?” he demanded.
“I—”
But before she could squeak out an explanation, he held his hand up to her lips. “Someone’s coming.”
Tieryn stilled. Fear made her heart beat like a trapped bird inside a cage. “Ours?” she mouthed.
He shook his head. “Different smell,” he whispered in her ear. “Mix of shifters. Wolves. Coyotes.” He cocked his head. “Something else.”
The tingling sensation started up her spine yet again. “Shane.”
He ignored her as he moved to put his body between her and the door.
“Shane,” she tried again. “I—”
“Whatever comes thro
ugh that door, stay at my back.”
She gagged against the feeling in her stomach. Her vision started to go again. She pictured the conference room they’d left. If she could get back there, maybe she still had a chance to help the others.
With a crash, their door burst open. Before he could move, Tieryn wrapped her arms around Shane’s middle. Again, that weightless sensation for a blink in time. Her vision returned, and she found they were in the small break room attached to the conference room. If she had to hazard a guess, potential bodily harm to her triggered her gift, which took her to the safest room close by.
“Seriously. What is going on?”
“I’d love to hear that myself.” A voice had them turning toward the door where a gorgeous woman with mahogany skin and short hair stood flanked by, of all things, two male African lions. Shifters, of course.
Tieryn’s body skipped tingling and when straight to sizzling. Spots danced before her eyes.
Hope fled. She was out of time. She couldn’t help the others. She needed to help herself now.
Tieryn sucked in and tried to fill her lungs with oxygen. “Shane,” she murmured as she forced her body to move and face him. She lifted arms that felt weighed down by sand. Shane grunted his surprise when she placed her hands on either side of his head. Somewhere deep inside, she registered that he didn’t step away from her touch, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the fact.
“Think of the safest place you could hide,” she slurred. She could barely keep her eyes open now.
“What?” He tried to shake her hands loose, and she could see in his eyes he’d consigned her to crazy-land.
She laid her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Trust me,” she whispered in his ear.
He stilled beneath her fingers, though tension radiated from his big body.
“Safest. Place.” She forced the words past lips that no longer wanted to open.
The electric currents skating her nerves exploded inside her with such force that existence no longer seemed possible. And yet was. She could feel herself slipping away.
Darkness consumed her.
