by A. C. Arthur
“There was nothing you could have done or said that would have kept me away,” he said defiantly, honestly.
“And you don’t see how wrong that was? You didn’t realize then that this was heading in the wrong direction?” I inhaled again, reaching both hands up to tuck strands of hair that had fallen from my ponytail behind my ears. “We both should have stopped it when we first felt the change,” I added quietly.
“I don’t mind the change,” was his reply.
I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t watch as he told me about the one thing I absolutely despised about being a Shadow Shifter.
“It’s as natural as breathing, Lidia. It’s what we were made for,” he continued. “And no matter how hard you try to ignore it, or perhaps even run away from it, this will not go away. You know it as well as I do.”
I hated Brayden Sanchez. In this moment I absolutely hated him. So I turned to leave the room, to go into the living room, maybe to run away as he’d just mentioned. I don’t know, it was just too hard to stand here and tell him I never wanted to see him again, that for my sanity and my well-being I needed to get as far away from him as possible. As tough as I’d always had to be against the people of my tribe and then the human females of this school that in the beginning thought I’d be an easy target, I didn’t think I had the guts to do what I knew needed to be done where Brayden was concerned.
His hands on my shoulders stopped me as he drew me back up against him. My body stiffened, the cat inside instantly awakening.
“I would do anything for you, you know that, Lidia. Anything in this world I could give you or make happen for you, I would.” He spoke softly into my ear. “But don’t ask me to walk away from you, from what’s inside us both. Please don’t ask me to do that.”
My chin dropped to my chest and I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the heat whirling through my body, the desire scraping along the surface of my skin. “I need you to, Brayden. I need you to do this for me.”
He was shaking his head, I knew it without even seeing him. “I can’t.”
“Please,” I whispered, feeling the length of his arousal pressing into my backside.
“It’s not going to work, Lidia. Denial is just not going to work,” he said, turning me around then and staring down at me.
I gasped because his eyes weren’t his. Well, they were but they were his cat’s. I closed mine, holding them tightly shut no matter how juvenile the act made me feel.
“I know who you are even if I weren’t looking at you through cat’s eyes,” he said, leaning forward and kissing each closed lid.
I shivered with the contact.
“And with your eyes closed, you know exactly who and what I am.”
He kissed over my cheekbones, down to my jaw, and my neck.
“You know what we are together, o meu melhor amigo. Meu companheiro. Parte di mim.”
My eyes didn’t open, they didn’t need to. When Brayden’s lips brushed over mine, they parted willingly. My hands went to his bare chest, rubbing over damn perfect pectorals as my tongue met his in a heated duel that promised more to come. He held me around my waist tightly, as if he might actually be afraid to let me go. But I wasn’t going anywhere, just like Brayden had said before, I couldn’t.
Not once he’d walked us backward until my back hit the wall and he grasped my butt with hungry fingers. I moaned, deep and long and his fingers pressed into my crevice seemingly right through the material of my yoga pants. My nipples tingled, my hands clenching against his chest. It was a good thing I wasn’t the long-fingernail type of girl or I might have caused some serious scarring.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he instructed, his teeth scraping along the line of my neck as he spoke.
I did what he said, giving my weight over to him, trusting he wouldn’t let me go, possibly ever. When my ankles were crossed behind his back Brayden pressed closer into me, his hands going beneath the band of my pants, under my ass, until his fingers slid right into my moistness. I sucked in a breath, letting my head loll back at the contact.
“Sweetness,” he whispered. “From now on I’m gonna call you sweetness.”
He could call me whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t stop touching me. “Bray.” I gasped his name when his nimble fingers parted my folds, two thrusting inside my center. Another breath whooshed out of me just before his tongue was dipping inside in search of mine once more. He was kissing me and his fingers were milking me and I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t figure out why I was going to never see him again, why this was so wrong.
And then there was a knock at the door.
“Ignore it! I don’t know anybody I want to see right now,” Brayden said, pressing his rigid erection against me while his fingers continued their in and out torture.
I’d grasped his shoulders by that point; the ripples of pleasure soaring through my body were so intense I felt like I might actually take off if I didn’t hold on. “But they’re still knocking,” I told him even though the thought of him not touching me anymore was just about painful.
Brayden paused then, looking at me with golden eyes that all but glittered with passion. I couldn’t help it, I leaned in and took his lips, sucking the bottom one into my hungry little mouth, pressing my swollen breasts against his bare chest. Dammit, I wished I were naked, wished we were skin to skin and that there wasn’t anyone ready to knock down his freakin’ front door!
“You have to answer it,” I said after reluctantly pulling my mouth away from his. “They don’t seem to be going away.”
“Stupid bastards,” he muttered. “Probably some damned salesperson…or…” His words drifted to nothing while pulling his hands from my pants.
His body had tensed, his face fixed into a frown. I let my legs down until my feet were on the floor, but I didn’t move right away, I was still too wobbly from the pleasure of his touch. I knew his mind was someplace else, knew that he’d gone into defense mode and was now all about finding his prey and…I swallowed deeply, looked away from him. I hoped and prayed, but I also picked up the scent, I also knew.
When he grabbed my chin, lifting my head up so that I could look at him, there was something I thought I should say to stop him, to aid him, something. And yet, there was nothing.
“Don’t move until I come get you,” he said sternly, seriously, his gaze holding mine.
“Brayden,” his name was a sigh even as I shook my head.
“Do. Not. Move.” he reiterated through clenched teeth and then he moved away. He left me in that room, to go out there to face an enemy.
I knew it with each inhale, knew from the look in his eyes that this would not be good.
CHAPTER 8
Brayden
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked the minute I yanked open the door to see Kyra standing on the other side.
Her dark hair had been pulled back into a tight ponytail and she wore practically no makeup, so I might not have known it was her, except her scent was undeniable, wanton—strong and potent like mint. She was also dressed drastically different than I’d seen her before, tight black pants with a long-sleeved black shirt that hugged all her curves. It was a good thing my mind was on another set of women’s parts.
“I wanted to give you another chance,” she said, taking a step so that she was now directly in front of me. She looked up at me with those big gray eyes that seemed to see too much.
“No, thank you,” I said, taking a step back. Proximity made no difference, she smelled like a rogue, there was no mistaking. Aidan’s words had echoed in my head at the second knock on the door, to be followed by the scent. But I knew that Kyra was human, which meant she must have been with a rogue, in the sexual sense.
I hadn’t figured out how that made me feel, nor had I anticipated she would follow me into the apartment.
“Really, Brayden, this disinterested act is getting kind of old. I mean, you were the one panting after me just a few weeks ago, then all of a sudden you look the other w
ay. I know it was because of her. But like I said, I’m willing to give you another chance. He’s willing to give you another chance.”
All the while she’d been talking she’d come farther into the apartment until she was now standing in the middle of the living room floor, hands on her hips, head tilted slightly as she waited for an answer.
“Who is giving me another chance?” I asked, remembering things Kyra had said to me in the past, trying to piece together her scent, her persistence, her entire being in my apartment at this moment.
I grabbed her by the shoulders then, shaking her until the gold chandelier-like earrings wiggled at her ears.
“I’m not going to ask for the truth again, Kyra. Tell me why you’re here, what you want.”
She laughed then, letting her head fall back. “It’s not about me, it never was. Never is actually,” she added, attempting to shrug out of my grasp. “He’s always wanted you,” she insisted. “Of all of them, you were the strongest, the best.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, pulling my hands away from her as if she’d been a live flame. The scent was strong, but that wasn’t all; for the first time in all the weeks I’d known Kyra I noticed the tattoo, or rather the branding mark, just beneath her left ear. It was a paw print.
“I’m not leaving,” she insisted. “Not without you.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I told her, hands clenching at my sides as the rogue stench grew more potent, fresher, closer.
“Oh yes the hell you are,” Lidia said, coming out of the bedroom and giving Kyra the death stare I’d seen her administer only a few times before.
Things were about to get live in here and despite how some human guys loved to see a chick fight, I knew better. Lidia Morales was not your normal chick and if I had to place a bet I’d put all my money, Aidan and Caleb’s money, and let’s just go ahead and add all the money in the humans’ Fort Knox that Lidia would come out on top. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind.
“Oh great, her again. I tried to warn you, bitch!” she spat in Lidia’s direction. “Now you both go.”
Instinct, the need to protect my mate at all costs overrode the desire to toss Kyra out on her ass and find the answers to my questions later. My temples pounded at the thought that I’d missed something, that I’d missed this all the time I’d been trying to figure out how to get Lidia to acknowledge our connection. For all the training I’d done all my life, when it had really come down to a test, I’d fucked up royally. My teeth clenched as I took a step closer to Lidia, those thoughts still prevalent in my mind.
In the next seconds, three guys dressed in the same black garb as Kyra came rushing through the door, guns drawn, all shouting, “Get the hell on the floor!” “Get down now!” “Get the fuck down!”
If I said this situation wasn’t going to end well before, glancing over at Lidia, I knew for certain it wasn’t now. The really bad thing was, there was absolutely nothing I or Lidia—even with all the training we’d received as shifter guards—could do to keep the next events from taking place.
***
Lidia didn’t get down. I knew she wouldn’t. Kyra, on the other hand, didn’t know shit, and moved across the room quickly, pushing Lidia until she fell over the leather chair. “Didn’t you hear what they said, bitch? Sit your ugly ass down!”
When Lidia stood again she looked remarkably different. Her hair was now loose, hanging down past her shoulders in wild strands and her eyes had shifted to gold.
Things happened quickly after that, with me reaching out to grab the wrist of the first gun-toting idiot, cracking the bone almost instantly and watching as he cried out in agony. Another gun was quickly pointed in my direction and to his credit, fired almost instantly. I say almost because the assholes could never have anticipated my speed or the preparation I’d endured most of my life. While I leaned to the side the bullet whizzed past my shoulder and I lunged for the dumbass. I had him on the floor, the gun skidding across the room when I heard a female scream.
For a second I thought maybe, but no, Lidia was just as good, if not better, at hand-to-hand combat as my brothers and I. In fact, there was an ongoing bet to settle that very dispute. So I knew it wasn’t her screaming. Still, I didn’t like the idea of her taking on two opponents while I was just about finished with this one.
The cat in me was programmed to kill. My teeth had already grown sharp, the sounds coming from me no longer human, but pure animal. The dude beneath me tried to punch and kick his way free, but it was futile, my strength outweighed his easily.
“You can come easily or we can drag you kicking and screaming. Whichever, as long as he gets what he wants,” he said, staring up at me as if he really thought I’d just go along to wherever with them.
Instead I reared back and punched him once, blood splattering quickly from his nose. “No deal. You tell whoever ‘he’ is to go to hell!” was my reply as I hit him again, just for good measure, his head bobbing against the floor for a second or so before going still.
A quick look toward the door and the first guy was still on his knees, crying like a bitch, staring down at his crooked wrist. In the living room Kyra lay on the floor holding a hand to the bleeding side of her face while Lidia went toe to toe with the guy I figured might actually be the ringleader.
“All you had to do was let Kyra bring you in,” the guy was saying as he looked over his shoulder to me before moving closer to Lidia. “Now, I’m going to kill your bitch!”
Being cocky, tossing out ridiculous threats, and looking away from his opponent, all big mistakes when dealing with a Shadow Shifter.
Lidia whirled around, lifting her left leg into the air and letting her foot crack against the guy’s jaw the second he turned back to face her. He stumbled back then lifted his gun arm while spitting all sorts of expletives at her. I was across the room in seconds, my body shifting as it moved. In the blink of an eye I was the cat and the cat was mad as hell at the thought that its mate was in danger. Sharp-edged teeth sank into the human skull without warning or regret. A gunshot sounded seconds before the gun fell from his grip to the floor. The cat held firm until the human went still, then released its hold and instantly looked for her.
She was standing across from where the human lay dead on the floor, her cat’s eyes looking down, and claws extended from her hands. Unlike the other female who was now screaming at the top of her lungs, Lidia was barely out of breath. Her hair was sticking up wildly as it framed her face, her body taut, ready to strike.
“Go,” she told the cat. “Go, now.”
The scrambling of furniture Lidia was pushing out of the way after the fight and the sound of sirens in the distance moved the cat toward the bedroom, but not before it roared, the command for its mate to follow so loud the windows actually shook.
“I’m coming, I gotta take care of her, just go!”
“No!” I yelled to her, the human part of me ripping free and refusing to leave her to kill Kyra. “We go together.”
Lidia shook her head. “The exposure, we can’t,” she insisted.
“Oh my god, you’re just like him. You’re all just like him!” Kyra shrieked when she’d finally been able to stand up from the floor. She was shaking as she stared at us, fear circling her like a hurricane. “I can’t do this anymore. I won’t,” she said before finally yelling, “What the hell are you?”
Lidia made a move for her first, but I reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. I was completely naked but didn’t give a damn, I wouldn’t have this death resting on Lidia’s shoulders, not when she was already against living out her destiny in the first place. “I’ll do it,” I told her and instantly turned back to Kyra, walking toward her.
Kyra, who I never would have guessed had any guts in her gorgeously built body, shook her head vehemently, reaching into her back pocket for something. “Stay away from me,” she warned. “I’ve had enough of this, of him, of you! Of all of you! Just stay the hell away f
rom me!” She yelled, her eyes wild with fear, lips trembling as she spoke.
I didn’t pay much attention to what she was reaching for, or her words for that matter, because whatever she had was going to be futile against me. But the moment I went to lunge she fooled the shit out of me and ran for the window, throwing her body through it as if falling to her death was better than the instant kill I would have inflicted.
“Oh my god, she jumped,” Lidia said from behind me. “She actually jumped.”
The sirens were getting louder and I noticed the front door to my apartment was still open. I was on the top floor and for whatever reason the two remaining apartments up here hadn’t been rented out, so for the moment we were up here alone. “I gotta get some clothes then we have to leave.”
Lidia nodded. “Right, we’ve gotta leave.”
She hadn’t moved from the window, just stood there staring down at where Kyra had probably landed on the sidewalk.
Seconds later we were heading down the fire exit stairs, slipping out into the parking lot that was quickly filling with people wondering what the hell was going on. Luckily for us, they were all pooling toward the front of the building where Kyra lay. Still, it was going to be hard trying to get to my truck.
“We’re gonna have to stay here, at least until this dies down,” Lidia said.
“No,” I said, looking around. “We can’t. It’s too dangerous.”
Lidia grabbed my arm to get me to turn and look at her. “If we go running through those people we’re going to look guilty as hell. If we make it to your truck and pull off into the night, they’re going to take down the license plate and tell the cops the first chance they get. We need to just stand here and blend in until it’s safe to ease away.”
“They’ll still know it was us because it was my apartment,” I rebutted, adrenaline flowing rapidly at the thought of her possibly being hurt.
“Most of these apartments are student housing so they’re most likely going to look for a student. You’re not an enrolled student this semester and by the time they figure that out we’ll be long gone,” she insisted.
