Sarai's Fortune

by Abigail Owen

  She patted his arm. “Time to eat,” she said, then she moved toward the buffet table.

  She felt bad for Andie’s father. As Walter Carstairs’s second-in-command, Mark Reynolds carried a lot of guilt. But blame never benefited anyone.

  After piling a plate with eggs and bacon, Sarai started toward Andie’s table. As she walked, her gaze strayed to another table close by, landing on Zac Montclair. Her heart skittered.

  The polar bear shifter sat alone at a table set slightly apart from the rest of the folks in the room. He looked deceptively casual, dressed in his uniform jeans, black t-shirt, and combat boots. He propped his elbows on the table as he ate. Despite the relaxed position, the muscles of his arms stretched the seams of his t-shirt.

  At close to seven feet tall, he was intimidating by any standards. Maybe that’s why people would walk out of their way to give him a wide berth rather than risk coming into his space. Even now, two female cougar shifters doubled back around their table to leave the hall without passing by him.

  But something about his unsmiling demeanor intrigued Sarai. She didn’t feel like he had a naturally off-putting personality. That perhaps the world had forced him to become so stoic a person. She had the bizarre urge to get to know the true man.

  Zac angled his head her way, and their gazes tangled briefly. She looked down, mortified to feel an unaccustomed blush warming her cheeks. She felt like a walking cliché. He was possibly one of the best-looking men she had ever seen. His dark brown hair was sprinkled with gray at the temples, his chiseled jaw also covered in salt and pepper scruff. Then there were his deep brown eyes that seemed to see all the way into her soul anytime they fell upon her.

  And he seemed to look her way often.

  She’d never reacted to someone she barely knew like that before. Granted, she usually didn’t allow herself to get close enough to most people to react to them one way or another. Either way, though, she’d never act on her attraction. So it didn’t matter.

  Since she was walking with her head down, she just barely avoided stumbling into a table of breakfast eaters. “Sorry,” she muttered as she gave herself a mental kick.

  “Walk much?” Andie grinned as Sarai sat down beside her.

  “A lot on my mind,” Sarai murmured.

  And then some, she thought. Zac was a major distraction she just didn’t need right now. Not with Kyle still on the loose.

  She forked a bite of fluffy scrambled eggs into her mouth but didn’t really taste them as she thought about Zac. The problem was she’d had visions of the polar bear shifter.

  Most of what she saw wasn’t clear, like looking through a mud-splattered windshield. Which likely meant the visions involving Zac involved her in some way, because they were hazy, patchy in a familiar way. Perhaps her involvement explained why she’d never seen Zac’s longstanding friendship with Andie…because she was tied to it in the future somehow.

  And then there were the flashes she’d had of Zac lately—the clearer ones—that made her pulse race. Images of him in the throes of passion, ecstasy molding his face into something harshly beautiful. She’d heard his groans, felt his leashed strength under her fingertips. So real she’d woken still tingling from the warmth of his skin.

  But the other images of Zac were what had her running scared: Zac in his polar bear form, incredibly powerful, going down under a pile of cougars and wolves with a mighty roar; Zac bleeding profusely, looking completely broken; Zac on his knees before Kyle Carstairs—the man whom Sarai feared above all.

  What made this doubly frustrating was the fact that she saw what happened if she told anyone her vision—Zac, Andie, Jaxon. No, she had to deal with this on her own. She’d be damned if she’d just sit back and let any of that happen. Not if she could help it. She’d just have to stay well away from Zac Montclair.

  Free will. Choice.

  Those were the key to changing the future.

  CHAPTER 3

  The morning light filtered into the hallway from a window as Zac made his way to Andie and Jaxon’s room after breakfast. While Zac found the Keller compound impressive, he also found it somewhat claustrophobic. The mansion was huge, more like a hotel than a house, but all enclosed. Granted they were housing and protecting an entire community of cougar shifters. Zac’s own home was a far cry from this megalopolis Andie had married into. He preferred the homey, more traditional feel of his own Timik’s village.

  Zac hadn’t been too surprised when Andie had visited his table earlier to ask him to stop by her room when he was done. Now that Jaxon and Andie were back from their honeymoon, they were getting right to business.

  He was fairly sure he knew the reason behind Andie’s request…Sarai. Just before the wedding, he’d agreed to become her protector.

  When Andie had first come to him, confided Sarai’s dilemma, and her proposed solution, Zac had wrestled with two emotions.

  He’d felt a fury toward Kyle Carstairs that had surprised him in the way it was disproportionate to his nonexistent relationship with Sarai. Something about the reclusive, delicate Seer had gotten under his skin. The thought of her living in such fear for that long had his protective instincts roaring to the surface.

  With a wry twist to his lips, Zac conceded to himself that his reaction could have something to do with the intense attraction he felt. Even just a hint of her warm vanilla scent in the air, and his body would tense in anticipation.

  It had not gone unnoticed—by him at least—that Sarai avoided him. He got the impression she didn’t like him. Any time he looked over to find those piercing blue-gray eyes directed his way, her gaze would skitter away, but not in a shy, flirtatious way.

  She almost seemed to look at him like a Rubik’s cube she couldn’t solve, rather than a man. More than once he’d caught her frowning at him. If she saw him in a room, she was quick to leave, and while she was there, she kept to the opposite side of the room. Based on those actions alone, he worried Andie’s plan didn’t bode well, though he agreed it was the only viable solution.

  Zac had kept all this to himself. Things would play out however they did. Protecting a Seer was paramount. Shifters who possessed additional powers were rare. Only a handful of those were Seers. They were a supernatural version of an early warning system for their people. Essential these days.

  He didn’t examine too closely why protecting Sarai—not the Seer, the woman—seemed even more important. He’d focus on his mission and, at the very least, he hoped Sarai would accept the plan. He didn’t think friendship was in the cards. Maybe a partnership was doable.

  Sarai’s survival depended on it.

  He reached Andie and Jaxon’s door—one of several in the long stretch of hallway—and knocked. He liked that Jaxon didn’t show his status as Alpha with some ostentatious display or some penthouse suite just for his use. He lived and worked among his people.

  As he waited, Zac worked a crick in his neck. The bed in his room was definitely not built for someone his size. Polar bear shifters tended to be huge in stature, especially the men. His father had once said their human bodies needed to bear the burden of the shift into such a large animal.

  Male cougar shifters weren’t exactly small. Jaxon was a good chunk over six feet. Still, they had nothing on polar shifters, and Zac was tall even for his kind. Cougar shifters were leaner, just as muscled, but built more like distance runners. Polar bears were more like professional fighters.

  The door swung open to reveal a petite woman with dark hair tumbling over her shoulders who stood there, a smile gracing her lips.

  “Hello, kuluk,” he murmured.

  He only used the Inuktitut term of endearment for Andie. She was the only one who’d earned the word in his opinion. Not only was she his closest friend, like a little sister to him from the moment they’d met as children, but she’d also saved his life—dragging him, unconscious, across the frozen lands of Northern Canada.

  “How’s married life treating you?”

  He al
most smiled when a rare blush swept up Andie’s cheeks. Very little could fluster the cougar shifter. Usually she had a snappy retort for everything.

  Jaxon’s amused chuckle sounded from within the room behind her.

  Andie glared over her shoulder. “You, zip it,” she told him. To Zac, she said, “It’s dandy. Come on in.”

  Zac stooped as he entered the room. Like the beds, the doorways in this building were made for men much shorter than he. Yet another difference from his own village, where the buildings were all built for polar bear shifters.

  Briefly he glanced around the room. Andie hadn’t wasted any time putting her own touches on the suite of rooms the Alpha claimed. Several framed pictures of nature scenes, a couple of pillows, and peach scented candles now graced a room that, like the rest of the compound, was done in rustic, natural hues.

  Zac glanced at Jaxon, who lounged on the brown leather couch.

  “Treating her right, Keller?” Zac deadpanned.

  Andie elbowed Zac in the ribs. “Leave him alone. We’re married now. You can let up.”

  He merely grunted in reply. He had initially been distrustful of Jaxon’s intentions toward Andie, and as Andie’s quasi-older-brother, he’d appointed himself her chaperone and protector. In truth, Jaxon had earned Zac’s respect long ago. Messing with the guy was just for his own entertainment these days.

  Zac moved to the corner of the room, standing to one side of the fireplace, his arms crossed over his chest. He got straight to the point. “I assume we’re here to put the plans for Sarai into effect.”

  Andie nodded.

  “She’s too valuable to lose,” Jaxon said. “A Seer is too vital to the Shadowcat Nation. We’ll do anything to keep her.”

  Zac narrowed his eyes. He got the impression that Sarai had been used all her life. Was this just another form of control over one of the Kuharte, the supernatural gifted shifters?

  “And I’ll do anything to keep her safe,” Andie murmured.

  Jaxon leaned forward to give her hand a squeeze. “Me too.”

  Andie gave him a small smile in return.

  Zac relaxed slightly. He should’ve known that Sarai meant more to Andie, and Jaxon was only speaking for the Shadowcat Nation. He gave himself a mental shake. For a ridiculous moment, he’d been tempted to growl at Jaxon. Over a leggy blond who wouldn’t look at him.

  “So she still sees Kyle capturing her if she goes home to her old dare?”

  “Yes. Unless things have changed while we were on our honeymoon.” Andie paced a little, her agitation with the situation obvious.

  Zac didn’t blame her. If she and Jaxon had taken Kyle out when they had the chance—when Andie had killed his father to become Alpha of her old dare, usurping Kyle—they wouldn’t be in this situation.

  Andie paused in her pacing. “We’re anticipating that once she knows the plan, her visions will change. There has to be a way out of the future she’s seeing.”

  Zac’d had some contact with a Seer in the past. Consequently, he knew that was possible. He hoped, for Sarai’s sake, that would be the case. Still, they had to convince her first.

  “I don’t think she’s going to like this idea,” he muttered.

  Andie’s eyebrows shot up, and she glanced curiously over at Jaxon, who shrugged. “What makes you say that? I think she’ll be relieved.”

  Zac doubted that but held his own council. They’d see who was right soon enough.

  Suddenly he tensed as he caught a trace of a scent. Vanilla, unmistakably Sarai, which meant she had to be close by. Zac sniffed the air again, focusing the heightened sense he got from his polar bear side. She had to be right outside the door. He looked over at Jaxon and Andie, who didn’t seem to be aware of Sarai’s presence. Maybe he was just hyper-aware of her—where she stood, what she was doing, sometimes even how she was feeling.

  Why was she just waiting out there? Why didn’t she just come in?

  CHAPTER 4

  Sarai stood in front of Andie and Jaxon’s room frozen in place mid-knock. Her chest rose and fell with each rapid intake of breath. Anyone walking by would have seen her standing there, staring blankly at the door, practically hyperventilating. Except she wasn’t seeing the whitewashed wood before her. She was watching the images of a vision flashing through her mind.

  She’d tried to explain it to Andie once. Sometimes her visions came softly, peaceful moments of clarity or dreams. Sometimes, like now, they beat at her mind. Like watching someone flip through a pack of pictures, not always in sequence.

  What made things worse was that she had the ability to change the images…to see different outcomes as she mentally adjusted small moments or decisions, like moving chess pieces on a board. There could be a lot of ways to change the ending.

  Now—with this vision—she watched the images in horror. She knew exactly what Andie was about to tell her. If she followed that path, if she did as they were about to suggest…then Zac Montclair would die.

  The hazy images she’d seen of him before this now came to a gruesome conclusion. She saw those animals rip into him. In her mind she screamed—calling for him to shift into his great polar bear form. But he didn’t, or couldn’t. In the end, his body lay on the ground, unmoving and covered in blood. His open, dead eyes seemed to stare right through her as if to blame her for his fate.

  Sarai felt the pain sear through her soul. She’d done this. Her decisions had led to his death. She wanted to sink to her knees or double over with the agony, but when she had her visions, her body couldn’t move. It was like being trapped in a nightmare, unable to wake.

  Instead, she started to move the chess pieces. If her decision to go along with Andie’s plan led to this, then what would happen if she didn’t?

  A small whimper escaped her lips. Staying in the Shadowcat Nation wasn’t an option. She’d already seen that Kyle would find her if she stayed in Andie’s newly named Reynolds Dare. According to the laws, staying in the Keller Dare, or any of the other eight dares, wasn’t an option. They already had Kuharte of their own.

  Which meant her only option was leaving the Shadowcat Nation and going rogue. She tried that decision, watching the vision shift and alter as she fought back her nausea.

  Now she watched, sickened, as that path ended in her own death. In multiple ways. Leaving now, before talking to Andie, meant Kyle would find her and hold her prisoner for years, doing unspeakable things to her until he got the Seer child he wanted before killing her. Leaving later today, she would die at the hands of a wolf pack or coyotes. Making her way up to Alaska, where her father’s family was from, would lead to a very bloody death at the hands of a grizzly bear.

  Heaven help her. No matter what she did, if she didn’t go along with the plan, she died.

  Sarai finally stopped trying to find another ending to the future which now rang clear as a bell inside her mind. She released herself from the vision, starting with a long slow blink. She resisted the urge to rub her eyes. Pulling out of a vision always felt similar to waking from a particularly vivid dream. Her body didn’t want to let go yet, but her mind said it was time to get up. To her, she’d taken ages to ride each possibility to its conclusion, but, in reality, she’d only been standing there a few minutes. She gave her head a little shake to clear it.

  Every decision she tried, in an effort to alter the outcome, laid out for her a future she couldn’t stomach. She was cornered. The acrid taste of fear welled in her mouth.

  Slowly, she lowered her shaking hand, needing a moment to collect her thoughts. With a swallow, she glanced down the hallway, making sure no one was watching. Then she wrapped her arms around her middle as she leaned back against the wall opposite the door.

  Sarai faced a choice…a terrible choice. Save herself or save Zac.

  Hell, what a mess.

  The question was an impossible one to have to answer in normal circumstances. Her recent visions of herself and Zac together, making love in ways that made her wake up at night with h
er body clamoring, made this even harder. Because she wasn’t just picking who lived and who died between herself and an acquaintance. She was choosing between herself and her lover.

  Granted, he was only a future lover at this point, depending on what she decided to do now. That fact didn’t make the connection she felt with him any less real, any less potent.

  The only thing keeping her from freaking out completely was the amount of time—weeks, maybe months, but at least not days—before any one path played itself out.

  With a deep breath, she put off a final decision for now. Perhaps following one path a little ways would open up some options she couldn’t see yet. Either way, right now she needed to go inside and pretend she was fine, or they’d wonder where she was.

  Sarai spent only another minute focused on calming her nerves. Finally, she stepped forward, raised her hand, and knocked.

  ****

  Finally Sarai’s knock sounded at the door. Zac had just been on the verge of going out there to check on her. Instead, he relaxed back against the wall as Andie moved to usher her in. Sarai hesitated when she spotted him, and Zac would have sworn for a moment that there was desperation in her eyes. It was gone before he could be sure. She blinked but said nothing as she moved further inside.

  As both girls took a seat in the chairs facing the couch, Zac looked down and studied his feet. He took a moment to school his features. A pretty face didn’t usually get his heart rate up. Besides, up till now she’d barely spoken two words in his direction. His reaction continued to baffle him.

  Andie jumped right to the point. “We’ve come up with a solution to your problem.”

  “Oh?”

  Zac felt Sarai’s gaze brush over him like a physical touch. He didn’t have to look up to know she was watching him. He resisted the urge to shift positions—or to flex his muscles like a high school boy trying to impress a girl. He was only a few short years away from thirty, for Pete’s sake. He should be past such urges.