by Lacey Thorn
“Just leave the stuff here,” Logan said when he opened Clara’s door. “Someone will come get it.”
She shook her head. “No way I’m leaving what we purchased for someone else to bring up.”
He loved the way she blushed.
“I didn’t take you for a prude,” Logan said.
She grinned. “Hell, I have plans for those cuffs later, or at least one pair of them.”
Now he was grinning. “Grab those bags, leave the rest.”
She laughed as she rummaged and found what she wanted. She pulled a familiar looking case out and handed it to him.
“What’s this?”
“Has it really been that long?
He gave her a funny look.
“It’s a guitar, Logan. Tah said you used to play. I like music.” She shrugged it off as if it was no big thing, but to him it was a lot.
“Thank you,” he whispered, dropping a soft kiss on her lips.
“It was Abby’s suggestion. I just happened to be the one going into town with you.”
“And the one who picked it out and paid for it, I’m betting.”
She nodded.
“Then thank you. I love to play. It’s been a while, though.”
“Are you as good with it as you are in the kitchen?”
He grinned. “It’s a talent really.” He leaned close and whispered, “How good I am with my hands.”
She shivered, and he loved it. He could feel her desire as if it were a rope connecting them together.
“Finn’s awake,” Zane said, stepping out of the woods and spooking him.
“Jesus!” Logan said. “You scared ten years off my life.”
“Good thing I’m on your side,” Zane said. “Did you have a tail?”
“Not that I could see,” Logan answered.
Clara shook her head, as well. “I didn’t pick up on anything.”
“I’ll keep my eyes peeled anyway,” Zane said. “I’ll hang out here for a bit just to be on the safe side. Send one of the others back if there’s anything perishable in here. Otherwise, I’ll get it when I head back.”
“Nothing this trip,” Logan assured him. “It can wait until you head in.”
“See you there,” Zane said and turned to merge into the trees once more.
“You didn’t know he was there?” Logan asked her.
She shrugged. “I did. I just didn’t think about it. It was Zane.”
“How did you know?”
“He has a unique scent he gives off, a pheromone. We all do. Mates’ scents tend to merge and they both carry it.”
“I don’t smell anything.”
“You won’t. You’ll have an enhanced sense of smell above human standards, but it won’t match mine. When taught how to sort through smells, a shifter can always tell when another shifter is around. Unless they have the ability to block their scent.”
“Is that possible?” Logan asked.
“Anything is possible,” Clara said with a shrug. “I’m proof of that.”
Logan thought about that on the way back to the house on the four-wheeler. It was that or give in to the boner throbbing in his pants from Clara wrapped so tightly against his back. Her nipples pressed into him and he could feel the heat of her pussy. He wanted to take her to their room, strip her naked and have a night similar to the one before. But he needed to go check in with Tah, and he’d like to see how Finn was doing now that he was awake.
“Why don’t you take the bags up to our room while I check in with Tah real quick?” Logan suggested. “Then meet me back down here, and we’ll go to the labs together.”
“Sounds good,” she replied and reached up to pull his head down to hers.
She kissed him, using that tongue of hers in a way that reminded him of how it felt wrapped around his dick. Damn, he was going to be bursting his jeans at this rate. He groaned as she stepped back and watched as her gaze fell to his crotch. He shook his head when she grinned at him.
“You little vixen,” he muttered.
She knew exactly what she was doing to him.
“Just wanted to make sure you saved some time for me later,” she replied and turned away, squatting to pick up the bags and guitar she’d set down before kissing him.
He swatted her on the ass when she stood up and moved to head for the stairs. She threw a sultry look over her shoulder and put an extra wiggle in her walk.
“Damn,” he muttered under his breath and heard her laugh. He shook his head, adjusted his dick and went in search of Tah. He found Tah and Reno in the office.
“Anyone tailing you?” Tah asked as Logan stepped in.
“Not that either one of us saw,” Logan said. “Clara never picked up on it again. What did I miss? Zane said Finn’s awake?”
“Awake and moving,” Tah grunted. “Whatever is in that shit the Professor concocted is powerful. It’s like looking at someone who was never injured.”
“His face? The bruises? Swelling?” Logan asked.
“Gone. All gone,” Reno said. “The plan was to operate as soon as he was stable enough. Diane said within a few hours he was fine. Hell, you wouldn’t even know he’d been stabbed except for the scar on his stomach. Whatever the Professor’s been working on is some serious shit. We don’t even heal that quickly.”
“Wow.” Logan whistled. “That’s a little scary.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Tah said.
“Well?” Logan prompted.
“We were hoping to find out what happened from Finn. Find out who took him. We suspect hunters, but was it the Blanes or someone else? We were hoping to see if he remembered who came in and killed the guys holding him.”
“He looked pretty bad. Maybe he wasn’t conscious?” Logan suggested.
“Who knows?” Tah said, then dropped a bomb. “He has no memory.”
“What?” Logan asked.
“Last thing he remembers is getting Reno’s message and heading here to find us. Nothing since,” Tah said.
“Jesus,” Logan uttered. “That’s months lost. Is it from the shot?”
“The Professor isn’t sure. At this point, we don’t know if he’ll remember eventually or forget more,” Tah said. “The Professor’s running more tests,” he added with disgust.
“Whatever the outcome, Finn’s alive, Tah,” Logan said. “That counts for something. Besides, have you thought that maybe it has little to do with what the Professor gave him and more to do with his mind protecting him? You saw what they did to him. Hell, would you want to remember how you got like that?”
Tah sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I was hoping for answers. It would help if we knew if it was the Blanes who took him or not.”
“Zane said he took pictures. Have Amia look.” Logan glanced at Reno. “She’s seen worse, I’m sure, and if it’s the Blanes, she might recognize someone.”
Tah looked toward Reno.
“Yeah,” Reno agreed. “She might be able to. I’ll have Zane show them to us.”
There was a time when Logan would have teased Reno about the ‘us’, asking if Amia was allowed to do anything without Reno. But now that Logan was mated, he understood.
“Anything else?” he asked.
Reno shook his head. “So far it’s just the memory.”
“He’s already demanding to get out of the labs and help out,” Tah stated. “I think he might be worse than you as a patient as far as Diane is concerned.”
Logan laughed. “I was pretty rotten to her.”
“Knock, knock,” Clara said, pausing at the door. “Am I interrupting?”
“No,” Tah waved her in. “I wanted to see you, get your take on what you felt when you and Logan were in town. Where were you when it happened?”
Logan shared a glance with Clara, taking in her big eyes and understanding she was not down with telling Tah and Reno they had gone to the toy store. Of course just rememberi
ng all they’d picked up had his dick perking up again.
“We went to the North Plaza,” Logan said. “It was the closest place that had all we wanted to pick up.”
“That’s on the edge of town,” Tah said. “There’s a touch of woods to the left of the parking lot. Anyone could have been hiding and watching.”
“I didn’t feel a sense of danger,” Clara said. “I don’t know if that makes sense or not. It wasn’t like I felt threatened really or anything along those lines. It was just a knowing that someone was watching us.”
“I understand that,” Reno said. “I felt the same way when you were in the woods with Amia and me. I knew you were there, but didn’t feel a sense that you were there to do harm.”
“Exactly,” Clara said, then narrowed her eyes. “You think it was another shifter?”
“Makes sense,” Reno said, glancing at Tah.
“Wait,” Logan interjected. “Wouldn’t you have caught a scent, like you did with Zane?”
“You can scent other shifters?” Tah asked.
Clara nodded. “You can, too. All you have to do is know how to sort through the scents around you. It’s like being able to scent danger or lust or fear when you’re around other people.”
“Is it something you can teach us to do?” Reno asked.
She looked thoughtful for a moment then slowly nodded. “I can try. Honestly, it’s not hard once you get a feel for it. You’ll pick it up quickly. I’m betting you’ve already started picking up on it a bit.”
“Maybe,” Tah said. “But it would be nice to recognize what it is I’m picking up on.”
“It’s easier to learn certain things when you’re shifted. Your animal instincts are stronger, and you’ll just know what to do. Then you learn to bring that out when you’re in this form. It’s about learning perfect balance, learning how to enhance without doing a full shift.” She flicked her hands out in front of her and the claws of her lioness appeared. “Handy when I need them but don’t have time for a full shift.”
“Your eyes are glowing that sexy yellow again,” Logan murmured.
She also had a stripe of darker brown across her face this time, like a mask.
“All you need is a cape,” he said.
She laughed. He loved the sound of her laugh.
“My senses are on par with the animal at the moment. So a bit of it comes through, but just a bit. I’m in full control, a merged control. Not one or the other, but both.”
“So first we learn to do a full shift and then we learn to do a partial?” Reno grunted. “Jesus, this shit is complicated.”
“You have no idea,” Clara muttered. “But if it was a shifter watching us, they were too far away when I picked up on it. I scented something, but it wasn’t fresh and was too diluted with other scents for me to get a lock on it.”
“Do you think your uncle might be searching for you here?” Tah asked.
Clara shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d like to be able to get in touch with him or Gideon, just to find out exactly what’s going on.”
“Is Lydia a threat?” Tah asked and Logan saw Reno tense at the mention of Amia’s mother.
“I don’t know,” Clara admitted. “There was a time when I would have given you an immediate no. But now? I’m just not sure. She’s so filled with hate and a need for revenge. It’s polluted her mind to everything else.”
“Sounds like a threat to me,” Reno said.
Clara sighed. “It’s not a simple question, Reno. No matter what you think. I can’t look at her without seeing the woman who tried to save my father, the woman my father sent to us. And I get what you’re seeing, as well—the woman who abandoned her daughter to a group of people like the Blanes. But just for one minute, imagine a woman knowing she was going to die. She escaped but had to leave her daughter behind. Not by choice, but because there was no way to get to her and take her along. Imagine living with that guilt. I’m not making excuses for Lydia. I’m just trying to show you another side. Nothing is black and white. No one is pure evil or pure good. We all have a darkness to us.”
Reno said nothing, but Logan knew Clara had given his friend something to think about.
“The Professor wanted to see us down in the lab again,” Logan said.
Tah nodded, then dropped his head forward and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Logan wished there was a way to take the burden of everything off Tah’s shoulders. Even when they’d been in the Marines together, Tah had been the one stepping up and taking charge, taking responsibility for everyone on himself. He was still doing it.
“He looks so stressed, like the weight of the world is on his shoulders,” Clara whispered as they left the room and headed down the hall.
“He is,” Logan agreed.
“He isn’t alone in this. He shouldn’t have the burden of everything on himself. He needs a council or something. That way there’s a group of people in charge so they all share the burden.”
Logan stopped and pulled her to him for a quick kiss. “That’s a brilliant idea. I’ll bring it up to him when we’re done in the labs.”
“More blood?” Clara asked with a groan. “How much does the Professor need?”
Logan snickered. “You have no idea. Any time he sees you he’ll ask for more blood. Of course, now we know what he’s been doing with some of it.”
“You have to admit it’s really brilliant, what he came up with. Scary, but brilliant.”
“In theory, yes. From what I just heard, scary is winning out over brilliant at the moment. Finn’s completely healed, as in doesn’t even look like he was injured at all.”
“Holy shit!’ Clara exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Logan nodded. “Now we have to wait and see how Finn reacts in the aftermath to what he was given. As it is, he has no memory of what happened. Last thing he remembers is heading here.”
“Really?” Clara asked. “That seems like an odd reaction.”
Logan shrugged as they stepped into the lab. “Who knows? You saw what—” He broke off as he took in Finn standing before him. “Holy fuck! You look…”
“Like nothing happened to me?” Finn asked. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that a lot. Just wish I could remember what the hell did happen to me. Murphy isn’t saying much except I was at death’s door and the Professor saved me with some shot that might grant me superpowers.”
Logan’s lips twitched at that, but Clara burst into laughter.
“That’s one way to look at it,” she replied.
“Well, hello, gorgeous,” Finn said, smiling a little too much for Logan’s liking.
A growl sounded in the air, and both Clara and Finn turned to look at Logan with surprise. Shit! Was he growling? From the broad grin on his mate’s face, it was definitely coming from him. She cuddled into him, rubbing her face against his chest. He felt it expand with pride. Jesus! You’d think he was the one with a beast inside.
“So that’s the way of it, huh?” Finn asked, but he didn’t seem disappointed. In fact, he immediately turned to Diane when she walked in. “Hello, gorgeous.”
Diane sighed. Clara giggled again, and Logan shook his head.
“God save me,” Diane muttered before turning on Finn. “I told you not to just wander around down here. This isn’t a playground.”
Finn began fingering some paperwork on the counter.
Diane slapped his hand. “And for God’s sake, don’t touch anything.”
“We’re here to give more blood,” Clara said. “Should we find the Professor?”
“No, I’ll take care of it. He’s been in his office all morning and hasn’t come out,” Diane informed them, turning to pull the supplies she needed out of the drawers in front of her.
“Everything okay?” Logan asked.
Diane turned back to them with a smile pasted on her face, but Logan could see right through it. Something had the doctor shaken.
“You just missed Abby,” she said. “That little guy of hers is more active t
han I’ve seen him in a long time.” She glanced at Clara as she prepped Logan’s arm. “Any ideas on when I’ll need to give her another pint of Tah’s blood?”
Clara shrugged. “You’ll just have to watch her. When you see the signs of fatigue setting in again, give her more.”
Diane nodded as she pulled the needle out of Logan’s arm. She’d filled four vials this time. She immediately turned to Clara, tossing the used needle and grabbing a fresh one before grabbing four more vials and setting them out to be filled.
“So I heard we might have some kind of celebration?” Diane asked as she worked.
“Logan’s planning it,” Clara said with a smile that shot straight to Logan’s heart.
“Just a day of fun for a change,” Logan said.
“A whole day?” Diane looked surprised.
“Sometimes it’s important to remember what we’re doing everything for,” Logan reminded her then glanced at Clara. “And who.”
“It sounds wonderful to me,” Diane said, finishing with Clara and cleaning up. “So what are you two up to for the rest of the night?”
Logan glanced at Clara and swore sparks charged the air between them.
“Looks like something a lot more interesting than anything you or I have planned,” Finn said with a chuckle.
Diane smiled, but Logan could see sadness in her eyes. “I’m really happy for you two.”
“Thank you,” Clara said, and Logan gave Diane a one-armed hug.
“You better watch out, Nurse Ratchet. This mating thing seems to be spreading. Who knows who’ll be the next one bitten by it!”
Clara snorted, and Finn laughed. But Diane’s eyes got a little wide before she turned with a wave of her hand and buried her nose in the paperwork on the counter. She didn’t say anything and Logan understood they’d been dismissed from the labs. He took Clara’s hand again and gave Finn a wave before heading upstairs once more.
“Finn seem okay to you?” Logan asked her.
Clara shrugged. “I don’t really know him, but he seemed pretty happy-go-lucky to me. Doesn’t seem stressed about not remembering.”
“But did you scent anything on him?”
She was just opening her mouth to reply when the alarm went off.
