by Dianna Love
“That’s horrible.”
“Trust me when I say by that point, it’s an act of mercy for the shifter. None of us want to leave a raging animal lose to kill innocent people.”
She had a hard time agreeing, because she kept picturing that happening to Cole.
Could he mate with another woman?
Why did that send her stomach into turmoil? She couldn’t be with him. Tess did not want him with anyone else. She also didn’t want Cole to face that curse.
Maybe it didn’t exist.
She had a bad feeling it did. She asked, “So you’re hunting Sammy to deliver him to your guardian?”
“Not exactly. Sammy has one more option, but the woman he loves would have to ask him for it and he’d have to believe she wanted it.”
“What’s that?”
“To change her into a shifter, because that would give her the best chance at surviving the bonding.”
Tess tensed.
“Relax. I would never ask that of any woman, Tess, and neither would Sammy. Now you see the dilemma he’s in. He kept it secret that he was seeing someone special, because she was human. He knew he screwed up by not telling her he was a shifter first. He fell in love, asked her to marry him, which she accepted, then told her he was a shifter. She panicked and ran.”
“Where is she?”
“I hope to know soon. We have a lead on her and if it pans out I’ll be able to talk to her in person.”
Tess worried her lip between her teeth. “Are your people going to force this woman to come in to be with Sammy?”
“Hell, no. None of our shifters would do such a thing. Even as bad a shape as Sammy was in, he wouldn’t go after her. He was afraid he’d frighten her more. I just want to talk to her to find out if I can answer questions and maybe get her to talk to Sammy on the phone if we can find him. I want to see if she feels a bond toward Sammy. If she does, then maybe she is as worried about him as he has to be about her. If she wants nothing to do with any of us, we’ll protect her for Sammy until he can ... or if he isn’t able to in the future.”
That sounded ominous. Tess asked, “Why would she need protecting?”
“If the Black River pack has plans to use Sammy, they would want his fiancée to use as leverage to make him do horrible things. If his bear wasn’t out of control yet, that would do it. He’d snap and everyone would face death by teeth and claws.”
“I don’t see a good ending on any of this, Cole.”
“There isn’t one other than if his fiancée is willing to allow Sammy to spend his last days with her. To have Sammy back and give him that, would be ... would make losing him easier.”
The awful sound she heard in her head was the crack of her heart breaking for Sammy and his woman.
“That’s all I can share—”
“Oh, come on, Cole. It’s me. I’m not going to screw you over and blab what you tell me, so no holding back.”
His deep voice rumbled with a chuckle. “If you were a shifter, you’d be a tiger. A tigress.”
That was the second time someone had said that to Tess. Her heart thudded at what he was saying. Did he wish she was a shifter? She couldn’t do that.
Cole’s face fell. “I was teasing. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Lie.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “So you can tell a lie from the truth?”
“Pretty much, but it has to do with physiological change.”
“What about the jackal shifters? Can they tell?”
“They should be able to tell if you’re lying, too, but you can’t trust anything they tell you. I’m not being prejudiced against a different shifter group. I’m just telling you how it works in our world. So what were you upset about?”
Her mind had gone back to SCIS and wondering how much the jackal shifters had figured out with the unaware humans.
Cole nudged her shoulder.
“I’m just thinking,” she groused. “I wasn’t upset, but when you said if I was a shifter I’d be a tiger, it made me wonder if you’re disappointed I’m not ... like you.”
Moving slowly, Cole turned her to face him. His eyes were solemn and his voice held a longing that hurt to hear. “I would never wish this on you or anyone. It’s my destiny, but not something for you. I wish ... I wish we didn’t have this between us, but you’re perfect the way you are and I’ll hurt anyone who tries to change you.”
She knew by the way he said change that he meant if someone tried to turn her into a shifter.
Her emotions went on a roller coaster ride. She was happy to know he didn’t wish for her to be a shifter, but did that mean he didn’t want to be with her as a human? What about him finding a mate?
The selfish bitch inside Tess, who loved Cole, raised her ugly head and said, “Mine.”
Then there was a third hurdle.
If Tess met him halfway and tried to make this work to have time and figure a way they could stay together, what would she tell her dad?
It would be a catastrophic nightmare.
“Where’d you go, Tess?”
Into Fantasy Land, the only place where they ended up together.
Lying to Cole was out of the question now. Not when they were in the same room anyway.
This was a man who’d gone up against three mercenary jackal shifters who had kidnapped her. She didn’t want to think about how much more risk he’d be in if she said what she was thinking.
“You all sound like a bunch of badass men.” She glanced back at him.
He winked. “We are, but we’re marshmallows around our women.”
Returning to face forward, she smiled, glowing under his attention. “Confidence is clearly not an issue.”
“Not when we know we’re the most powerful beast in a fight, but the enemies we have aren’t the garden variety. They even the odds with magic and now synthetic drugs.”
“You said you were overseas. Are you back here for good?”
“Pretty much. We had to come back to the US because the Black River Wolf Pack criminal operations had turned into a cancer that was spreading too quickly.”
“Why is that?” she asked. “SCIS was formed last year to get a handle on the problem, but it seems the more we do the worse it gets.”
“You can’t win a war if some of your people are helping the other side.” He held up a finger in front of her face to stave off her objections. “The jackals were brought over from Asia and Africa. From what my people have determined, the decent ones who want to live in harmony and help their neighbors stayed in their home country. The Black River wolf pack located the ones who wanted to leave home and trained them to fight. A jackal we captured in a bloody wolf shifter territorial battle admitted the final step in being accepted by the Black River pack was to kill any shifter not a wolf in front of the pack.”
“Just murder someone? Sounds like some of our really bad human gangs.”
“It is, but worse.”
She dropped her head back. “I have years of studying behind me and feel like there’s so much more for me to learn.”
“You can’t know all the dark side and politics of shifters without a tour guide.”
Sitting up, she asked, “Are you offering to be my guide?”
“Not on your life. I don’t want to ever come between you and your father. Nor do I want you anywhere around my world.”
Just like that, her heart fell to her feet.
He’d never consider having her around his shifter life even if she could figure out her end. She shouldn’t feel hurt, but if she was willing to take a step forward, why couldn’t he?
Maybe because he doesn’t know I’m willing to take that step. Would telling him make a difference?
The day was catching up with her and she needed a clear brain to figure out anything else.
She pulled out of his arms and stood, stifling a yawn as she turned to face him. “I need a bed.”
Heat deepened the blue of his eyes.
> A sizzle of vibration whipped through her, pooling down south. She didn’t dare look at herself and draw attention to the tips of her hard nipples pressing against his shirt.
She stood there, unsure what to do next, but she wanted the same thing he wanted if she was reading his gaze right.
Glancing away, he said, “The bedroom attached to the bathroom should be warm now.”
She looked around. “Where are you going to sleep, and don’t say out here because I would be stiff sleeping on this thing.” She dipped her head to look down around the bottom. “Unless it’s a fold out.”
“No fold out. I don’t sleep a lot. I’ll find somewhere if I get tired.”
Turning back to him, she debated on putting words to her thoughts.
What the hell?
Would this moment ever happen again?
Probably not.
She gave him her best smoldering look and hoped he didn’t think she was having a brain seizure. “Are you saying you won’t sleep with me?”
His surprise was so sudden and honest she laughed and asked, “Is that such an awful idea?”
“Hell no, I just didn’t think you’d want, you know, me in there.”
“Oh, but I do.”
His eyes were full of calculations in progress. After a few seconds he said, “Go ahead. I’ll come in a bit later.”
Damn. That didn’t sound like a man excited about being in bed with her.
I deserve that subtle rejection.
Cole had changed, a lot, since she last saw him.
He didn’t realize she’d changed a bit herself, but she guessed he hadn’t noticed.
She didn’t have to be a shifter to sense that he had no intention of coming near her unless he was stepping into danger to protect her.
Chapter 27
Cole let out the breath that had backed up in his lungs until Tess left the living room.
He leaned back, then dropped his head back against the couch. In one corner of the peeling ceiling, a spider was busy perfecting its web for the unsuspecting tiny moth flitting around up there. The moth kept bouncing up and down against the ceiling as if it expected an attic door to open for escape.
Then the moth fluttered toward the corner as if drawn by some invisible light.
Wings hit the sticky web and panic set in. Fragile wings beat harder. The moth twisted back and forth until it had trapped itself good.
The spider raced out from where it had been hiding and put the final screws in the moth, wrapping it up like a web mummy.
While Cole admired the spider’s skill of spinning a damn good trap, he sympathized with the moth facing its end.
One minute a creature was moving along, thinking its life was perfect, then out of nowhere it slammed into a death sentence with no way out.
Cole had experienced that same panic the first time he found out he was a shifter. He’d thought that was the end of his life, because his wolf scared the devil out of him. It wanted to fight everything and he was forced to observe the vicious attacks with no idea how to stop them.
But Sammy had shifted into his massive bear the first time Cole worked with him, and had shown Gray Wolf that he wasn’t the only one with jaws and claws.
Cole had gained control slowly, in small steps. It took months and months of getting his ass kicked until he’d had enough, before he finally started paying attention to the Gallize shifters trying to teach him, the human, how to be a shifter.
That’s when Sammy decided to spend day and night with Cole for two months of misery.
Gray Wolf didn’t like the grizzly sleeping in the same room.
Early on, Cole would wake up in wolf form with a giant grizzly towering over him. Cole’s wolf was a beast, but Sammy’s grizzly was a monster that stood over ten feet tall and sounded like someone had released it from the depths of hell.
Gray Wolf learned respect and Cole finally got a grip on his control.
Later, Cole found out that Sammy had come in to keep the Guardian from putting Cole down. Everyone had run out of patience with Cole and his out-of-control wolf, especially since Cole had been doing little to help.
But Sammy believed every shifter deserved a chance.
Now with Sammy suffering from the mating curse and possibly under the magical control of the Black River pack, Cole felt useless.
This was his chance to save his friend and he was failing.
At the rate the mating curse was moving through Cole’s body, Cole hoped he had ten days, but worried it would probably be less, before he’d have to submit to the Guardian. There was no exact time period to depend upon because there had been so few incidents over past centuries, and many had not attributed the problems to the mating curse.
The Gallize lacked information their shifters desperately needed to survive.
The only person who could stop Cole’s downfall had just walked out of the room.
Tess was never going to be his mate.
Our mate, Gray Wolfe snarled.
Quiet down or we’ll be sleeping outside to keep her safe.
Gray Wolfe lunged, giving Cole a pain in his side, but Cole ordered him to stand down or not see her again.
Gray Wolf quieted and pulled back deep inside. That’s how much the wolf wanted her as their mate.
Cole now understood exactly what the Guardian had been saying. That Gray Wolf had likely come to life sooner than he should’ve back in college, because Cole had chosen a mate. His wolf had wanted to be part of the bonding.
Maybe down the road if Cole had been given enough time to let Tess get used to the idea, and understand that he might not live more than a few years, she would have considered marrying. Cole would have taken that and been a happy man until his time ran out, but he didn’t have that option now. Also, he didn’t want to burden her with his impending death.
She could do nothing about it and that knowledge wouldn’t change the outcome, only put a dark blanket over the time they had left together.
He’d take whatever she would give him for now.
Like the change in her scent he picked up on when she’d hinted about him spending a night with her.
In plain words, she wanted to have sex.
Part of that was the reaction to almost dying, and he had no doubt that she’d thought she was going to die tonight.
Another part of her flirting might just be curiosity.
Give her more credit than that, asshole.
Okay, no way would she treat him that way. Likely, she just needed someone to make her feel safe. Once she got to sleep, he’d sit in the wooden chair by the window where she’d find him if she woke up.
He had to go meet with Katelyn tomorrow and he still had to find Sammy.
How was he going to do that and keep Tess away from SCIS and any other threat?
The Guardian was allowing Cole room to work right now because the Guardian understood that Cole had chosen a mate years ago.
Saving Sammy came before saving himself.
Katelyn had told Isabella she loved Sammy. Tomorrow Cole would find out if she would come in with him to be available for when they found Sammy. Then they’d see what happened once the two were together again.
Cole’s plan was simple.
Sammy had a chance to survive and Cole would make it happen if that was possible.
Chapter 28
Brantley stood on the roof of a ten-story building in downtown Spartanburg, enveloped in a misty night. The drizzle had cleared, but a storm wouldn’t have stopped him.
Opening his arms, he said, “Mother Cadellus, I call upon you to help your child.”
She couldn’t come in person except during a full lunar eclipse, but he didn’t need her actual body, just to speak to her.
A mouse ran out from the door he’d left open when he stepped onto the roof.
The small creature scurried up to him and stood on its hind legs. Slowly it grew three feet tall. Once the mouse’s eyes changed to solid, empty black, like Mother Cadellus, the
mouse said in a husky female voice, “I am here, Bastien.”
He loved hearing his birth name on her lips. “I have found the Gallize known as Cole Cavanaugh who took my brother’s life.” Brantley had been raised with another Cadell who’d died last year while attacking Cole’s black ops team. His brother foolishly thought to impress Mother Cadellus but lost his life instead.
It took Brantley a while to narrow down where the Gallize, known as Cavanaugh was located. Once he learned that the shifter had returned to this country, it was simply a matter of asking Mother Cadellus to call upon her minion creatures to give Brantley and the Black River pack aid. Ironically, her minions had followed Sonic, which eventually led Brantley to Cavanaugh. Then Sonic spilled even more during motivational therapy.
“Did you kill the shifter?”
That miserable Cavanaugh had survived the food bank explosion only because Brantley had allowed him ten seconds. He’d wanted Cavanaugh to feel bone-deep fear before being captured. Even better that the wolf shifter had been stupid enough to try to save the old woman and thus suffered massive injuries.
“No, but I have good news,” Brantley hurried to reply. He’d intended for his jackals to deliver Cavanaugh to a secret location in the mountains. Even if the shifter ended up with an arm pulled off, he’d have shifted and healed enough to survive the trip.
That was fine. Brantley had a solid plan in hand this time.
“What could be better than the death of a Gallize male?”
He smiled, “Finding his mate and allowing him to bond before I kill him.” If those bloody jackals he’d hired to capture Tess had been successful, Brantley would be informing Mother Cadellus about her new daughter-in-law-to-be.
This time, Brantley would handle things himself.
Admiration churned in the mouse’s dark eyes. “Well done, my child. How is our new alliance with the Power Baron mage?”
“Not bad. I don’t trust him, but then I trust only Cadells.”
“As it should be.”
“Definitely,” Brantley replied, enjoying this moment to shine. “He has agreed to help the Black River pack as long as he remains anonymous.”
