by Amelia Jade
“Well, I hope they find someone like you to do it,” Darren said, tilting his beer glass in Garrett’s direction.
“Trust me,” Emma said dryly, “We don’t need anyone else like him. One is enough.”
Darren laughed, glad for the humorous reprieve and the ability to change the subject.
“One thing all this shit lately has led to,” Garrett said into the silence that followed, “is a nice lessening of tensions with the Emeralds.”
“Speaking of which,” Emma said. “Hi Anna!”
“Emma! I just heard the news. That’s so great. We need to talk!” Anna said as she approached, holding a small baby in her arms.
“Oh dear,” Garrett said, looking away.
“Get used to it Garrett. Soon enough she’s going to have a bouncing baby boy—or girl!—on her hip you know.”
“Trust me, I know,” Garrett said with a laugh, shooing his mate away.
“Come on Trestin,” Emma said, grabbing the somewhat more visibly-pregnant woman out of Cole’s arms. “If I’m having the talk, you may as well have it too.”
The men all chuckled at the look of distress on not only Trestin’s face, but on Cole and Garrett’s as well.
“I see what you mean,” Darren said as the women left, giving Garrett a knowing wink.
“If these chairs weren’t so comfortable, I’d lean over there and throttle you,” Garrett growled. The assembled shifters all laughed.
It felt good, Darren thought. The crew was all here, minus the troublemaker Evan, and things were just going smoothly for once. No drama, no attempts to hide tension between folks. There was just good, clean fun. The sort that he had seen the Emeralds having for some time, the type that he had desperately wanted to achieve with the Jade Crew.
“Glad to see you’re all having fun.”
Darren groaned inwardly as the mood suddenly died at the sound of the new voice. Suppressing the urge to snarl, he looked up at the figure who had come to stand behind Garrett’s chair.
“What do you want, Nash?” Garrett said, not standing or turning around. Everyone heard the unspoken threat in his words. It had better be good, otherwise go the fuck away.
“Just checking in on my favorite crew,” the senior liaison for the LMC said in a cheery voice full of nasty sarcasm.
He had heard Garrett’s warning. He didn’t give a damn. The liaison was a human assigned to the mining crews for the express purpose of ensuring that they obeyed the rules and didn’t do anything that might harm the humans of Genesis Valley. Doing so would find a shifter instantly sentenced to be ended. Most of the liaisons were good people, like Emma, who was the Jade Crew’s liaison. Then there were the ones like Nash.
“We’re all here. Now scram,” Garrett said, speaking for his crew.
“You are? Funny, I only count six of you. I thought there were seven of you.”
Darren bristled at the subtle insult to Garrett’s command ability, as well as the tone of voice, which made it clear that Nash wouldn’t be upset if there were one less Jade shifter to go around. He sat back in his chair at the small wave of Garrett’s hand. Nash knew perfectly well where Evan was; he was just taunting them because he could.
“Can I see your invitation please?” Gwen had returned from showing someone else around the bar to confront Nash.
“My what?” The liaison seemed genuinely confused.
“This event is invite-only sir,” Gwen said, maintaining a perfect professionalism about her. “If you don’t have one, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“I don’t need an invitation,” Nash said haughtily. “Do you know who I am?”
“No sir, I do not. I’m sorry, should I? I was quite positive I knew everyone to whom I extended invitations. Did you receive one?”
“I’m with her,” the liaison said angrily, trembling with rage at the polite treatment he was getting. Darren was doing his best to conceal his laughter, though he wasn’t succeeding very well.
Gwen followed the angry jab to see who Nash was talking about. Darren glanced over as well, though the woman was turned away, preventing him from seeing if he recognized her. Gwen, on the other hand, clearly did.
“You’re Ms. Valcke’s date?” she asked incredulously. Darren snorted as he heard the insult hidden in Gwen’s voice, as if she thought Nash was far too substandard for Ms. Valcke, whoever that was.
“No,” Nash gritted out. “I’m her escort. The LMC has decided that all candidates running for mayor shall be escorted by a liaison when they attend events with a heavy shifter presence. Now, if you’ll excuse me?” He stormed away as Gwen turned to face the Ridgebacks, a huge grin on her face.
“That was fun,” she said excitedly, then looked over her shoulder. “I should really go say hi to Kierra though,” she told Russell, kissing the top of his head where he sat seated in front of her.
Kierra.
The name and her occupation piqued Darren’s interest. He knew the election for mayor was soon, but he hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to it, because LMC-employed shifters were not eligible to vote. Only residents of Origin, the only town in Genesis Valley, were eligible.
“Hey Gwen,” he said, rising and using his long legs to catch up to her before she had gone more than a few steps.
“What’s up Darren?” she asked, stopping to look up at him, then falling in step as he continued to walk toward her original destination.
“Do you think you could, uh, introduce me?” he said awkwardly, still completely unsure of why he was doing what he was.
“To Kierra?”
“Yes please,” he said, feeling his cheeks heat slightly under her gaze.
“Sure,” she said slyly.
“No, that’s not what I... come on Gwen!” he said awkwardly as she grabbed his arm and pulled him forward.
“Kierra?” Gwen said, entering the conversation.
Oh shit. Here we go.
Chapter Two
Kierra
She turned as a voice she recognized called her name. Her eyes glanced first at Gwen, whom she knew from their weekly yoga class. But it was the person next to her that drew her immediate, unfocused attention.
“Hi Gwen,” she said in automatic greeting, glad her brain could at least function on autopilot for a few seconds. Because she was going to need it, Kierra realized. Her eyes were locked, unwavering, on to the steel-gray orbs looking back at her. Her mouth suddenly dry, Kierra realized that Gwen was talking. The only reason she knew that was from the vague sound of a voice in her ears. It sounded off though, as if Gwen were talking from the other side of a long metal tube. It made her voice sound tinny, and gave it an odd echo.
“Kierra, this is Darren,” the voice said.
Kierra nodded, sticking out her hand. She fell back upon her political training, allowing the ingrained responses to flow to the surface. It made her voice sound fake and uninterested, but it did allow her to respond. Which was critical, she knew. Kierra couldn’t afford to be seen getting struck dumb by a shifter, no matter how handsome he might be.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Darren. Is this one of your normal hangouts?” she managed to eke out, surprised at her ability to add an original question to her response.
He nodded. “We come here probably too often for our own good,” he said with a grin, his cheeks dimpling ever so slightly under the slight scruff he was cultivating on his face. It was short and well-groomed. It looked good on him.
What wouldn’t look good on him? He’s gorgeous. I bet he would be a lot of fun in—
Kierra chopped that thought off with a vicious mental slash, shaking herself and bringing her focus back. It took another strong effort, but she managed to tear her eyes away from Darren and focus back on Gwen.
“This place is wonderful,” she complimented, meaning every word of it. I hadn’t been inside in a long time, so I barely recollect it, but this is just beautiful. I love the fireplace.”
“I do too! I was so happy when I co
nvinced Ferro to let me put it in. He seemed strangely reluctant at first,” she teased over her shoulder as Ferro was close enough to overhear. “Almost as if he were afraid of fire.”
Everyone in the circle knew that Ferro was a dragon-shifter, and they had a small laugh at his expense. Even Ferro cracked a smile at it.
As the laughter died, Kierra felt her eyes drifting back toward Darren. She had no idea why Gwen had brought him up to her, but she wasn’t complaining. His strong jaw flexed and his iron eyes drilled into her mercilessly, but Kierra didn’t flinch away from the gaze. Gwen excused herself, going to get them drinks and taking Nash and Jenny, one of her campaign aides, with her. Leaving her alone. With Darren. A shifter.
Hoooo boy.
“So, Gwen tells me you’re running for mayor of Origin?” Darren said brightly.
She blinked. It wasn’t the subject matter that shocked her. Everyone wanted to talk about the elections with her. In fact, it was often the only subject most people wanted to talk to her about. No, Kierra was stunned by the fact that Darren actually seemed sincere in his interest.
“You actually want to talk about that?” She frowned in disbelief.
Hurt played across his face before he could conceal it, and all of a sudden Kierra felt horrible.
“I find it fascinating,” he said, though some of the interest in his voice had faded.
Kierra sighed. “Listen, I’m sorry Darren. It’s just that everyone wants to talk about the upcoming election with me lately, but only a fraction of them actually give a damn. It’s all because of the job, or because they want some sort of concession from me if I get elected. I’m not used to someone who is genuinely interested in the fact that I’m running for mayor. And it’s actually of Genesis Valley, not just the town,” she said. “Not that there’s much outside of it, but the territory does encompass the whole Valley.”
“It’s okay,” he said, his shoulders loosening up as he accepted her apology. “I can understand how it would be such a drag on you after a while. It probably kills some of your initial interest in doing the job to begin with I’d assume.”
She sagged slightly with relief, both at his willingness to forgive her, and the accuracy of his statement. “You have no idea. No. Idea,” she told him, emphasizing the words. “Don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “I am absolutely still interested in the job, but the dull repetitiveness of it definitely gets to you at times. I’ve found, so far at least, that the best way to counter that is to get out and talk to people, real people. The ones whose votes actually matter. Not the folks at the top, though thankfully there aren’t very many of those in a town the size of Origin.”
Darren’s eyes flashed with bright silver as his nostrils flared in an agreeing snort. “Unfortunately we still have room for a few pompous jerks,” he said, glancing over at where Emma and Nash were having a heated conversation. “Remind me to thank Emma for distracting him.”
“Yeah, he is rather pretentious, isn’t he?” she agreed.
“You have no idea,” he told her, half-mocking her earlier statement with his tone. “He was briefly assigned to my crew for a few weeks, and let me tell you, it was a living hell. Can I buy you a drink?” he asked suddenly at the end.
Kierra grimaced. “No, thank you. I’m theoretically here on business. Nash said I should come here, meet some of the prominent shifters in town as the bar reopened.”
“Prominent? Well, how nice of him to say that,” he said with a smile, smoothly moving past her shutdown of his offer for a drink.
Kierra was thankful for his tact, because she didn’t want to tell him the other part of the reason behind her denial. He didn’t seem like the type to deserve it, but deep-rooted reactions die hard, despite his good looks. It was also a nice change, in terms of accepting her answer. Most of the time when she brought up the “work defense” as some called it, people pushed her to ignore it, and to have just one drink. It was nice to see someone respect her wishes so readily. Kierra wasn’t used to that sort of treatment.
“Is there anything I can do to help the campaign along?” he asked brightly.
He asked, so that makes it okay to voice the question.
She didn’t want to though. It would ruin the conversation.
He’s a shifter. Who cares? Isn’t that half the premise of your campaign?
Kierra winced at the internal fight going on. In the end, however, duty won out over…over… whatever the hell the past ten minutes had been.
“Do you have any information you can share about the shifters who have disappeared in such large numbers recently?”
She watched as Darren’s face clouded over. It didn’t feel good to see it happen. In truth, Kierra felt sick about the way she had treated his kind offer. Darren was—she was becoming convinced—a good guy. Rather genuine. He wore his emotions openly for the most part, and spoke what he thought. He didn’t deserve to feel manipulated by her. To think that she had been talking with him and playing nice just in the hope that he might spill some shifter secret to her for no reason.
That’s just the way the game works, she thought, trying to convince herself that what she had done was okay.
“I’m just a miner,” he said politely. “I’m not even an Alpha or a second. I just go and break stuff all day long. They don’t tell me much.”
She could tell he was playing up the simpleton claim. It was easy to spot the intelligence within his eyes. That was the hardest thing to cover up, and Darren was unable to do so. But he must also know she couldn’t call him on it, because it was the truth. Nothing was officially shared on the disappearances. Kierra was positive some of them had been killed, but in the past few months literally dozens of shifters had gone missing. That was an abnormal rate, even for the shifters of the Valley.
The Mining Consortium was keeping the humans in the dark over the goings-on, and she didn’t like it.
“Why do you ask?” Darren continued. “Were you close with any of them?”
He was probing to see if she had been “involved” with one. Part of her wanted to smile. Despite the change in her attitude, he was still trying to learn more about her. Subtly, she had to admit, but it was definitely there.
“No. I don’t get ‘close’ to shifters. You smell bad,” she added, belatedly trying to take some of the sting off her first sentence. It had come out rather more cold and uncaring than she had intended.
Or had it? Who are you truly trying to convince of this? You’ve never been a fan of shifters before. Why the sudden attempts to justify being polite?
Kierra wasn’t prepared to go down that path, not at that particular instant. So instead of exploring why she was flip-flopping on her attitude, she put it down to her desire to strike a good image for her campaign. She wanted everyone, shifter or not, to think she was polite, not rude.
“I see,” Darren responded. “Why are you so interested in the shifters that have disappeared then?” There was a slight edge to his voice, as he caught her in a trap of her own making.
“Because I think that your company needs to become more transparent. They’ve been operating here for hundreds of years, and they believe they own the Valley. As a non-shifter in Origin, I want to feel safe walking down the streets, and lately, there are a lot of us who just plain don’t. We should not feel threatened in our own town.”
Darren looked at her thoughtfully. “That’s a good point. And you know what? I would tend to agree with you that lately things have felt…off. Even we wish we knew more, but we don’t. The company tells us very little too.”
Kierra wanted to frown as she read between the lines. She was sure Darren was trying to tell her something with that sentence, but what?
He’s said twice now that the company tells him very little. He’s also said that he feels things have been different. Could it be that there’s multiple factions within the LMC? That he’s purposefully being kept in the dark, but has seen enough to know something is up? Hmmm.
“So you have
no idea where the entire Sapphire crew went?”
Darren hesitated for just the briefest moment, then shook his head. “Not a clue, sorry. It could be that they just moved them out of the city to get them away from the human population.”
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “No, I don’t think that’s it. There’s something more going on with the LMC. The citizens of Origin deserve to know what it is.”
“You seem like a smart woman,” he said, then continued as she looked at him expectantly. “There is one thing you should know though. About what you’re doing.”
“And what is that?” she asked. Part of her wondered just what advice he had for her.
“You’re making the assumption that you’ll understand what you find out.”
“I am?” She was confused now.
“Yes. You’re assuming that any information you find will fit neatly into your human ideas of how things should be. But you’re forgetting one very important thing.”
This time she didn’t say anything, just looked at him. Kierra let her eyebrows narrow slightly, letting him know he should spit it out already.
“Shifters aren’t humans. We don’t operate by human law here. We have our own rules, and they aren’t the same as yours. You can’t hold us to your standards. We may look like you half the time, but don’t forget that we aren’t.”
Kierra was taken aback. She opened her mouth and then closed it several times before finding her words. “While that is a good point—and though it may pain me to admit it—you’re correct that I was trying to use human logic to explain things. But that doesn’t mean that your rules should be allowed to overrule ours. Not even in Genesis Valley.”
“I agree,” he said simply, surprising her once again. “Typically, they don’t.”
He seemed ready to say more, but just then Nash returned, having finally managed to extricate himself from Emma.
“Okay Kierra, time to head on out,” he announced.
“Listen,” Darren said, his steel-gray eyes meeting hers. “I’d like to see you again. So, tomorrow? Dinner?”
