Unleashed by Shadows (By Moonlight Book 10)

by Nancy Gideon

  Slowly, Cale straightened to sit back on his heels. He lifted his head to stare up at her, expression hard and determined. “You know nothing about me. I always have a backup plan when it comes to protecting my own.”

  “And what might that be?”

  He simply smiled and dragged himself to his feet, taking a wobbly step back when she reached to steady him. “I don’t need you or your pity. I haven’t forgotten what you told me. That there’d come a time when I’d need your help, but you wouldn’t give it to me. I don’t need anything from you, from any of you.” But after posturing arrogance confronted reality, he added with a bit more humility, “Except a ride back to my queen.”

  *

  Kendra couldn’t remember a longer evening. Knowing Cale was with Silas gave little comfort when she had no idea what they were involved in. Something risky. Something so dangerous neither would trust her with the truth.

  Something had happened to Cale in this city far away from his home. Had changed him, tormented him. Scared and scarred him. All her protective instincts screamed for her to grab him up and drag him back where he belonged, even if the assistance of his brothers was required.

  As leader of his clan, his people depended on Cale during this uncertain transition of power from his father’s cruel fists to his broad shoulders. He should be at their mountain top retreat strengthening his hold on the crown, playing diplomat, not here, allowing Silas to manipulate his remorse over past events that had been out of his control.

  She paced, fearing she’d lose her soulmate to the darkness he carried inside. Finally, she perched on the edge of one of the chairs, muscles tight, stare unfocused, trying to calm her apprehension by absently turning the huge diamond in her ear. The symbol of his willingness to sacrifice anything for her.

  How to reclaim a prince turned king, now made pawn to whatever Silas was involved in?

  Kendra sensed him before he opened the door to their sumptuous suite. She stood, scarcely breathing. Impressions channeled through their shared bond. Sensations of pain and exhaustion rubbed against a strange dark energy she didn’t recognize. As if someone else wore his familiar skin.

  The main room was dark, lit only by the lurid red of atmospheric LEDs. That light reflected in his gaze as he stepped in and shut the door behind him. For a long, tense moment, they regarded each other, wary, weary combatants as their angry parting words chafed between them.

  She broke through that wall with a soft, “I’m so sorry.”

  Cale advanced, his steady stare never leaving hers until crushing her up against him, his heart pounding like her own. That frantic rhythm grew faster, harder until Kendra pushed away to regard her harshly handsome mate. As he braced defensively, almost fearfully, she caught his face between her palms, holding him hard to take his mouth in savage possession. Bruising his lips, cutting them on her teeth as she nipped and tugged in her need to devour.

  “Don’t you ever leave me like that again,” she panted fiercely.

  Groaning, Cale found her eager lips once more, whispering hoarsely against them, “I need you, baby. Need to have you, claim you, love you.”

  He spun her suddenly, tossing her onto her knees on the leather cushions, forcing her to clutch at the chair’s back for balance. She couldn’t see him, could only hear the rage of his hurried breaths as he tore down her silky pajama pants, impatiently ripping them off her. His hands rushed hot and strong over her hips, her thighs, gripping her knees to pull them wide.

  With a low, rumbling sound, Cale Terriot shed human form as hurriedly as his attire, becoming what prowled within. This time, not to destroy life, but intent on creating it.

  The clamp of his hand on the back of her head muffled her welcoming cries against the cushions. His guttural growls timed to each deep thrust. No romance. No tenderness. Just biology in its most primitive form, the same way he’d taken her in the woods for their rough consummation. No kissing. No touching. Just the instinctive need to procreate.

  Pride. Control. Strength. Those things defining a Terriot male drove him. Things that excited and frightened her when they’d mated on pine-scented earth. Excited and still frightened her now as the powerful male at her back was hers, but somehow still unreachable.

  A roar exploded from him as he emptied inside her. Then she understood and shared his furious urgency.

  Give me a child.

  Cale swept her up, taking her into the bedroom they shared, kicking the door shut. Locking it against the world as last night she had against him.

  He carried her to their bed, laying her down on the crisp spread, spreading her so he could bend and taste all of her. Filling her again until she keened in search of satisfaction. Gasping, shaking, crying out as it rolled over and through her.

  Give me his son!

  *

  Stretched out on her belly, completely sated, Kendra touched the back of her mate’s head. He sat on the floor, leaning back against the bed, his breathing still ragged.

  “Join me, my king.” She used his title reverently.

  Cale found her hand, slipping his fingers between hers to draw it down, brushing his lips along her knuckles. “I hurt you after I promised I wouldn’t.”

  Not sure if he referred to their earlier words or his aggressive claim or something totally different, she assured, “Minor hurts, already forgotten.”

  “Not by me.” He took a deep inhale, letting it out heavily. Drawing her to the edge of the bed with his despondency.

  With all the love in her heart, she whispered, “I forgive you.”

  He looked up, such bottomless fatigue in his drawn features, his gaze raw with unexplained misery. “You wouldn’t if you knew.”

  She touched his cheek, stroking away the evidence of his anguish, that same tenderness softening her tone as she tried to convince him to tell her, to trust her.

  “I’d forgive you anything, Cale. Anything.” She patted the mattress with her other hand, voice pitched persuasively. “Come up. I need your arms around me.” He couldn’t say no to that.

  Entwined together, sharing heat and comfort, Kendra finally fell asleep, but Cale found no escape from his distress.

  I’d forgive you anything.

  If only she knew.

  *

  A determined knocking on the outer door woke them. Kendra reached for her mate, wanting to hold him close a bit longer, but he was already muttering as he pulled on his jeans.

  “If that’s one of my brothers, I’m going to eat his kidneys for breakfast.” He shuffled out of their room, yawning hugely. There, she heard him stumble over his discarded boots, inciting a grumbled curse.

  Kendra dragged on a pair of leggings and one of Cale’s tee shirts. Six o’clock. She was starting to agree with her mate’s choice of breakfast meats when she heard him exclaim, “Hey there, sexy mama!”

  Kendra came upon the sight of slender arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a lusty lip lock. With a fierce narrowing of her eyes, she strode across the room intent on serving up whichever Terriot groupie was feasting on her man’s mouth.

  Until she got a glimpse of flaming red hair.

  “Bree!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Cale Terriot had never been Brigit MacCreedy St. Clair’s favorite person. In fact, when they were children, she regarded him the way she would an annoying parasite that had burrowed under her young cousin’s fair skin. No matter how much scratching, pinching, and burning she’d done, she’d never managed to pry him loose.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t like him. He just had no purpose in Bree’s life. He wasn’t an eligible suitor. He never flattered her, or for that matter paid her much attention at all. He’d been a skinny little thing with the most irritating laugh and a direct stare that could always see right through her artifices. Worse, Kendra adored him and spent her time hanging on his words instead of her own.

  And he was a Terriot, one of the brutal ogres who ripped her pampered life to pieces then broke Kendra’s already cru
mpled heart by turning his back on her pain. The very last thing she’d ever wanted to hear was her sheltered cousin sighing, “I’m so in love with him I forgot how to breathe.”

  Brigit would have preferred killing him to welcoming him into the family. Until he’d gone and proved himself to be worthy of her cousin’s love. More annoying was the fact that she had grown fond of him. She’d saved his life and in return made him promise that she’d never regret it. She’d begun to fear she was about to.

  What had he done now?

  While Kendra clung to her rather desperately, Cale murmured something about getting ready for work and made himself scarce in the bedroom. Brigit looked about to exclaim, “Have you found Sodom and Gomorra?” The fact that her cousin didn’t laugh alarmed her.

  “Cale’s trying to keep himself and his brothers under the radar.”

  “Oh, I get that. By moving into the big tent of a circus and jumping through flaming hoops in the center ring. Nothing to see here.” She moved through a gaudy room so ripe for depravity she had to squint her eyes. Gaze catching on a silky garment, she lifted the remains of Kendra’s pajamas and arched a brow.

  Kendra snatched them away, blushing furiously. Her glare dared her to make something of it.

  “So where’s the rest of the happy family? Sleeping with hookers or just reeling home from the clubs?”

  “I haven’t seen them this morning. It’s early.” A pointed look. “Especially for you.”

  “My hubby had a breakfast meeting here in the city. I had him drop me off. So you’d better appreciate the extra effort it took for me to look this effortlessly attractive.”

  “Your husband.” After a meaningful pause, Kendra added, “Congratulations on your marriage. Silas told me.”

  There it was, that quiet, near fatal cut, because Brigit had excluded her from the most important event in her life.

  “Kendra.”

  “Oh, I understand. No need to explain. Silas did that for you, too. It was a hurried affair. I wasn’t there for his so why should I have expected to be there for yours.”

  Oh. Hell.

  Brigit’s instinctive move to embrace her was waylaid by Cale’s reappearance. Kendra rubbed at her eyes and turned to smile at him. Brows lowered suspiciously, he came to slip an arm about her shoulders, pulling her close to kiss her temple. Sheltering, gentle. Brigit decided to hate that about him this morning.

  “I gotta go, baby. You okay?”

  When she pressed her face into his shoulder and nodded, he engulfed her with a heart-twisting tenderness, making Brigit doubt the dissension she’d sensed in earlier conversations. Until he glanced up, features solemn as a head stone.

  “Bree can help you pack your things and take you to Savoie’s without anyone seeing you leave.” He looked to Brigit for confirmation, relieved by her quick nod. “Is Savoie back?”

  “In a few days,” she answered. “I’ll take her.”

  He buried his lips in the tousled blonde hair and whispered huskily, “Go now. I need you safe.”

  He tried to straighten, but Kendra caught his face between her hands. Her voice faint, she demanded, “What about you?”

  “I’ll be fine, mama. Don’t worry about me, and don’t give me any reason to be worried about you. All right?” He searched her expression intently. “Kendra?”

  “All right.” She lifted up to kiss him, the gesture becoming a lengthy demonstration. Concluding with a quiet vow. “I love you, Cale. I would forgive you anything.”

  Brigit couldn’t mistake the sudden stiffening of his features. Her neck prickled protectively. What had he done?

  Kendra watched him go, her heart in her eyes. After the door closed, she drew a purposeful inhale and turned to Brigit, her earlier testiness forgotten. “Help me. We need to hurry.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Tell me.”

  She wavered, almost buckling then was strong once more. “Later. Let’s just go.”

  Brigit followed her into the bedroom where the scent of lots of sex struck as potently as the wall color. Kendra tossed a bag on the bed and started pulling clothes out of the closet, leaving Cale’s hanging alone. Brigit started with a dresser drawer only to stop and stare. She lifted an item between thumb and forefinger.

  “What exactly do you do with this?”

  Kendra snatched it from her without a blush. “Use your imagination.”

  “I tried, but I started picturing Cale and . . .” She broke off with a shudder. Eying the rest of the drawer’s contents, she asked, “Did you host some kind of home party and not invite me? I would have enjoyed seeing the demonstrations.”

  Kendra shoved her aside to scoop up the inventory and dump it in her bag. “We’re adults. And what we do is none—” The rest fractured and fell away. And suddenly, Kendra was in her arms, trembling fitfully as she cried, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  Brigit hugged her tight, exclaiming, “There’s no place I’d rather be. Let’s finish up and get you tucked in safe and sound.” On that, she and Cale could agree.

  *

  Things were not right with the Terriot king.

  Cale knew it before the reactions of others confirmed it. Wound so tight his insides trembled, he responded to the greetings of his co-workers with a growl instead of a grin. By midmorning, all steered clear of him, fearing his warning rumble would precede a sharp bite. His eyes hurt. Even his darkest glasses couldn’t ease the ache. His system knotted in a near agonizing demand for sustenance. Not for food or drink or rest. But for something he refused to provide.

  T-Ray pulled him aside when the others broke for lunch. Leaning back in the shade of a shipping container, the other regarded him and frowned.

  “What’s up with you, friend?”

  “Under the weather, I guess.”

  “That what it is? Some rain cloud of misfortune turning you into a right ornery sonofabitch? Or is it something else?”

  Before Cale could stop him, T-Ray reached for his sunglasses, leaving him squinting like a mole above ground.

  “Aw, man. What the hell are you doing, Mick? I thought you was a smart boy.”

  Restoring his glasses, Cale scowled but embarrassment had him turning away.

  T-Ray heaved a regretful sigh. “Heard some talk but didn’t want to believe it.”

  “What kind of talk?”

  “That you was mixing it up for Casper Lee.”

  Cale swiveled toward him, ignoring the hard cramping protest the move cost him. “What do you know about Lee?”

  “Was a kid here 'fore you started. Boze Reading. Good kid. Lots of stupid ambition. Ended up dead.”

  Anger and uneasiness twisted through Cale. “Overdose?”

  “Yeah, of blunt trauma to his stupid head. Lee, he comes down here trolling like a pimp, reeling in them that thinks he can get them a better slice of the pie. All he gets them is dead. No matter what you think you’re gonna get from your deal with Lee, it won’t be coming out on the other side alive.”

  “Tibideaux okay with this going on during his watch?”

  “Oh, hell no. Tib, he be a straight arrow. He finds out one of his has the Black-eyed Shakes, they’re done here.”

  “So if not here through him or his crew, how’s the stuff coming in?”

  T-Ray glanced about carefully. “Word is, through legal channels.”

  “The law?”

  “Hush. We ain’t supposed to be talking about such things or we’ll be sharing a dumpster.”

  Cale lowered his voice to a taut whisper. “The NOPD is running drugs on the docks? I don’t believe that.”

  T-Ray’s features firmed. “You’d better. They be working with some hot shit outta the West, frying these here good boys’ brains up like pork sausage on a Sunday griddle.”

  “Out in the open? I can’t believe Philo hasn’t caught on.”

  “Naw. They mostly work outta a pussy parlor called Maisy J’s over in Algiers. You stay the hel
l away from there. You need a pinch of something to keep you even, I can get that for you.”

  “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

  “Hell, you’re rattlin’ around inside like a possum in my grandmere’s kitchen.”

  Temptation swept over him, clutching in his belly, kinking through his veins. Gritting his teeth, he muttered, “I’m good.”

  A sad smile. “Sure you are. They all think that until they eat a bullet or rip the guts outta their girlfriend. You take care, Mick, that doan end up being you.”

  *

  Isolated out on historic River Road between rice fields and swamplands, Max Savoie’s massive old plantation house sat decaying, surrounded by high walls and high tech surveillance. Part of Kendra’s anxiousness fell away the moment the heavy iron gates closed behind Brigit’s sporty rental. The rest would disappear when she had Cale safely within to keep her company.

  “Let’s get you settled in Cale’s room.” Brigit started up the graceful curve of the stairway at the end of the wide entry hall. At Kendra’s puzzled look, she added, “Most of his things are still here. He left in kind of a hurry.”

  Something she’d never had explained by the source. “Did he wear out his welcome?”

  “Along with a pint of blood over there by the study doors.”

  When Kendra drew up in alarm, Brigit realized she’d crossing into sensitive material. “He didn’t tell you any of this?” At the shake of her cousin’s head, she sighed. “Men and their secrets.”

  “Will you tell me, Bree? I can’t help him if I don’t know what he’s involved in.”

  “Let’s get you settled in first, and then we’ll find a nice Chablis and pull the cork on whatever you need to know.”

  *

  A prudent glass in, Brigit’s tongue loosened.

  They lounged on comfortable veranda chaises, looking out over a patchy lawn, erratically trickling fountain, and overrun rose garden. The cool stickiness of the noon hour softened into a light breeze as afternoon shadows lengthened.

  “Silas brought him here to go undercover with him, Nica, and Charlotte Caissie. They needed someone unrecognizable, an outsider they could trust.”