by May Sage
Niamh beamed when no one questioned her word.
“Doesn’t she work for the Paranormal Investigation Agency?” Daunte asked, and the rest of the pride stiffened.
Clari felt compelled to take his hand and squeeze it, as some of his anxiety bled through to her. She could feel it in her bones, although she knew it didn’t come from her; she didn’t know enough to be suitably worried.
Her confusion must have hit him, because, he turned to her and explained, “The PIA is run by humans. If they hear about this, it means our secret is out. Our kind might want to kill you and Zack, but the PIA would probably make you test subjects.”
“Right. Well, for the record, that was one of the instances where I would have felt better not knowing why you were freaking out.”
He bumped her shoulder, and smiled. “No one is going to touch either of you. We just have to figure out how to survive. We always do.”
Being bonded to him meant she could tell he wasn’t feeling nearly as confident as he liked to appear, but she also saw that he had hope.
“Look, I know the PIA sucks, but we’re not talking about them, we’re talking about Tria. If she spoke for them, I’d be in a cell right now. Or dead.”
Niamh got her phone out of her back pocket and held it up.
“So, we can just assume she’s the enemy, and let her come against us without knowing what she’s been sent for, or we can give her a call now and see if she’s shielding us to help us. Remember, Hsu isn’t the only Seer in the country.”
Ace and Rye exchanged a glance, then Rye turned to Daunte, who nodded. Strangely - to her, in any case - they then looked at her. She tried not to feel too self-conscious as she also bobbed her head.
“So, let me get this straight, you want to take the advice of a thirteen-year-old and call someone who could potentially lead you all to your doom?” Rain asked, her tone perfectly even.
“That’s about right.”
She rolled her eyes and started furiously typing on her phone. “Better get Vivicia and Faith here, too. Wouldn’t want to miss that party.”
Niamh was practically skipping, and it was hard to ignore her unwavering faith in her friend, or her enthusiasm, for that matter. Plus, the fact that his mate clung to him, giving him all the support he didn’t know he needed, helped through the worst situation they’d faced yet.
The Shifter Council wouldn’t want to kill them all - although they would, if they had to - but they’d try their damnedest to get to Clari and Zack. The PIA was the opposite; and by far the worst of the two. They’d want to destroy the Wyvern pride, and the only member they’d care about saving would be his mate and his nephew, so they could be dissected and studied by their mad scientists.
Truth was, they didn’t have a choice. Not really. If there was a chance - even a slim one - that the PIA may not end up being their enemy this time, they needed to take it.
“Wait,” Daunte thought out loud, “What about avoiding the issue altogether? Can’t we just prevent everyone from knowing what’s happened? It’s not like we socialize with other prides every other week. Maybe we can just…”
“It’s too late,” Rye replied, his ton curt.
Too late? They’d already been discovered? It made no sense. None. Clari had only just shifted a week ago.
Unless…
The very thought was poison to his mind, but he had to formulate it. Unless someone inside the pride had betrayed them. The temporary newcomers couldn’t have - there was no way they’d connected the dots; they’d barely spent any time with them.
Daunte turned to his pridemates. Every adult was there, except Christine, Ola, Coveney and Tracy. Coveney was on patrol with the newcomers who’d applied as fighters, Tracy was upstairs with the kids, Christine, out on assignment. But Ola?
They never thought too hard about one of them being out for a few days. It was normal; they had a life, and their respective jobs sometimes demanded their presence elsewhere.
However, normally, he knew what the other members of the pride were up to. Ola…
He wasn’t Alpha, but as Beta he still had the authority to search through the pride link. When he needed to. Closing his eyes, he concentrated as hard as he could, trying to find every member. He could feel them all - even Christine, faintly, despite the fact that she was out of town.
Everyone except Ola.
“She betrayed us.”
He couldn’t believe it, yet there was no other possibility.
“She did what she believed was just,” Ace replied coldly. “And so did I.”
She wouldn’t say more in front of the kids, but taking in the glint in her eyes, he knew exactly what she meant. His sister had hunted her down the second she’d suspected the betrayal, and her body had been dumped in a ditch somewhere.
Good. Saved him the bother of doing it himself. He’d never hurt a girl, but he would have made an exception for her. Ola was kind and passionate, sweet, and fair. But she’d put his family and his pride at risk. There was no forgiving that. Not in their world.
“If she went to the Shifter Council, they may never stop hunting us. They might have relented, if they’d had nothing but rumors and suspicion; but a testimony from a member of the pride? They won’t let this go.”
Chapter 19
Arrivals
Daunte remembered a time when he’d had a thing for Vivicia; now, he couldn’t see it. She was pretty enough, he appreciated that – he even recognized what had drawn him to her to begin with: her spirit. But he was completely indifferent to it now. He’d been told that being mated or bonded dulled any feeling towards any other female, but he hadn’t expected it to be so easy to ignore his old crush.
Plenty of bonded males still strayed on their females; Daunte knew he never would.
“You know, if you’re gonna get in trouble twice a year, maybe we should just get to decorate one of your lake houses and call it a vacation home,” Faith proposed, and Ace shrugged indifferently.
“Be my guest. But, guys, this is seriously going to get ugly. You may not want to…”
“Blah, blah. We’ll stick around and help, if only because I know your mate is hiding an impressive wine collection he only pops open when you avert annihilation. So, should we talk strategy? You must have a plan.”
Ace looked at Rye, who gestured her to go on.
“We think we can make them think they won. Create an illusion of sorts, making them believe Zack and Clari are dead. I have the body of a female at hand – that might help.”
“Ooh! Who did you murder?”
“Our healer. She’s the one who sold us out. So, if Rain could disguise her body…”
“Not a problem, but we still need a child. And regardless, that’s short sighted. Yeah, they can believe they died, but then, what’s step two?”
Daunte bit his lip, asking himself the same question. Only one answer came to mind.
“Then, we leave. Clari and I, with Zack. We take another name, and leave the continent. In a few years, once Zack is trained to control himself, we can come back to the pride.”
He’d never seen his sister cry. Never. One single tear fell down her cheek as she nodded.
They had no other choice.
“There’s also the matter of this… Tria. We need to know how she comes into play. Because she does; we can’t afford to ignore what happens with Hsu’s vision.”
“She’ll come,” Clari said. “We’ve called, and as you said, the vision is clear. We’ll get through this, you wait and see.”
And wait, they did.
Clari could deal with a change of domicile, a change of marital status, and a change of race all in the space of a week, but if they expected her to stay cooped up for one more second, god help her, she would add laxatives to all their coffees and escape while they were otherwise engaged. Or she’d find something equally evil if there weren’t enough laxatives at hand.
The males, with Jas and Tracy, patrolled in turn, while Christine and Ace looked
after the children. In the fortnight since she’d given birth, the Alpha had completely healed; the only reason why she didn’t patrol was that they needed the most badass person available to stay around the kids. That was her.
Rye wasn’t patrolling, either; he spent his time in his office, drawing lists of his allies, and discussing who they could call to their aid. With Ola’s betrayal fresh in their minds, the list was short. It wasn’t about finding people who were loyal to them; it was about trying to judge who would see past the fact that Zack was a Turner.
The first person they’d called was Ace and Daunte’s parents; they were on their way to join them, no questions asked. Rye still hadn’t called his, though, not quite sure about them, since the Royal Pride went against them in Hsu’s vision. Niamh had also gotten in touch with the elusive Tria, but they hadn’t received a response yet. The pride members tried their best to avoid showing it in front of the teenager, but that was the main cause of their anxiety. That woman was dangerous in every possible way - her connection to the PIA, and the way she interfered with Hsu’s visions showed it. They needed to know where they stood with her; everyone wanted to believe that she would be on their side, but Niamh’s word mattered less and less every day.
Meanwhile, as Beta, Daunte spent most of his time with the potential recruits, which majorly pissed Clari off, because her sole directive was to spend as little time as possible in their company. They weren’t supposed to know about her yet; not until Rye included them in the pride, anyway. Given the fact that she’d either googled, or asked for clarifications on half of what they were talking about, she’d blow her cover in minutes if they’d hung out.
Still, it sucked. Because she, and her animal, wanted time with her new mate, she was bored, grumpy, worried, and, finally, although she would never say it out loud, she hated the fact that one person amongst those recruits was a pretty, unmated female. A sensual brunette with bigger boobs than Clari’s, rounder hips, and a petite figure she would have killed for. Ariadna, she was called.
Thinking the name was enough for her animal to want to push to the surface.
“You should let it out when it wants to be freed, you know.”
Clari jumped up from the sofa where she’d been hosting her pity party, and turned towards the direction of the unfamiliar voice.
It was lower than any other female she knew, sounding husky, sensual, and when she saw the woman it had come from, she fit it to a T.
The stranger was perched on top of the kitchen countertop like she belonged there. She wore a tight, stretchy black fabric with a dozen pockets, and some hard, reinforced parts; it looked like a modern day armor. Wavy curls so dark they almost seemed blue were pulled in a messy bun on top of her head, staying clear of her sweetheart face, with a little turned up nose and a pouty mouth. She looked young, yet her dark eyes weren’t. She looked relaxed, yet Clari’s cat paced, wary.
“What are you doing here?”
The woman jumped down from the countertop with so much ease she may as well have been the cat shifter.
But she wasn’t. Clari would have sworn she wasn’t one of them - and certainly not a human being, either.
She tilted her head and smiled.
“I was called here,” she replied in guise of explanation.
Clari stayed put. When she’d risen to her feet, she’d positioned herself between the woman and the entryway; she wasn’t moving. Past the entryway, she could go towards the stairs. Ace and the kids were in one of the recreational rooms on the first floor.
The stranger stared at her, assessing her, before chuckling.
“You definitely have a backbone,” she told her. “Knowing I can kill you without breaking a sweat, and yet standing your ground. It’s not something I see often. They should train you.”
Clari froze as the woman advanced towards her. But, when she reached her, she just offered her hand.
“Demetria Winters. I go by Tria.”
Her jaw practically hit the floor.
“You made me squirm on purpose.”
She shrugged.
“Just a little. No better way to get to know people. You’re the recently turned shifter.”
That made her stop; had Niamh shared that already?
Catching her glance, Tria just smiled indulgently.
“Information is my currency of choice. I have my ways. Earlier, your cat wanted out. You want to give in when she does, especially at first. It makes the transition easier with time, and it also means she’ll give in quicker, letting you shift back to your human form when you ask for it, rather than resisting. They should have told you that. Although, I’m sure your pride is currently occupied… Where’s Niamh?”
The woman spoke at a thousand miles an hour, changing subjects so quickly Clari’s head practically spun.
“Sorry,” she grimaced. “I don’t socialize much.”
Suddenly, rather than noticing the fact that she was too perfect, moved too quietly, too fluidly, and had eyes that seemed to see right into her soul, Clari saw Tria and wondered if she was much older than her.
“Cool about the information; not cool that it’s out there. Thanks for the tip about my cat. And yes, they’re busy, but mostly, they don’t really know what to tell me, because the shifter thing is normal to them. They never needed to adapt. As for Niamh- she’s upstairs. I’d better call Ace and let her know you’re here so you don’t rip each other to shreds. She’ll attack if you just turn up.”
Tria shrugged indifferently.
“She’d try.”
Chapter 20
Tria
Tria owned any room she entered without even trying, and the same could be said for Ace, so thrusting them in the same room was the equivalent of throwing a lightning bolt at a laser beam to see which one would explode first. After a staring contest that may have lasted until the end of time if Clari hadn’t cleared her throat, the two females nodded, silently acknowledging each other’s badass level.
After the proverbial game of mine is bigger than yours, Tria opened her arms, and Niamh jumped right in for a hug.
“I didn’t think you’d gotten my message at first.”
“I did. But I wagered you wouldn’t contact me on my emergency line for a matter that could be sorted on Skype, so I had to wait until I could get away unwatched.”
“And did you?” Ace asked. “Get away unwatched?”
Tria rolled her eyes. “I’m going to try not to take that as an insult. Right, so, you have a Turner issue with one of these delightful little people,” she said, waving towards the kids. “And everyone wants to kill you.”
“Well, we know the Council and a pack who’s wanted to get at us for a while are coming…”
“No, trust me. Everyone is on this, worldwide. You’re the first things shifters agree on since they chose a full moon as a mascot in the dark ages.”
Great. Just what they wanted to hear. It wasn’t hundreds of shifters who wanted her and Zack dead; it was hundreds of thousands.
“But you can help, right?” Niamh asked, half frantic. “You can stop it. Hsu saw your mist; she saw your signature in her vision. That means you’ll help us, right?”
How she clung to that hope; Clari would have loved to have that faith.
But, every passing day, she’d come closer to realizing and accepting the truth. Her restlessness, her frustration, her anger. She’d tried to displace it, but it was rooted in the fact that she knew her days were numbered. If all these people came to hurt her, she wouldn’t let the entire pride suffer for her. She’d go meet them head on.
The issue was, they also wanted an innocent child.
Perhaps they could run, like Daunte had suggested. But where?
“Of course,” Tria replied, matter of fact. “To every problem, there’s a solution, and this one seems particularly simple.”
Clari could see Ace hold Zack tighter, fully expecting Tria to attack. But the woman was still talking to her teenage friend, indifferent to the Alp
ha and the dozen pair of eyes on her.
But then she explained the details of her plan, and, for the first time in two weeks, Clari had hope.
Clari had met Daunte at the door with a radiant smile after his patrol, rather than the growingly sulking expression that he’d come back to over the last few days; but the real surprise awaited inside, sitting next to Niamh and waiting for him to explain her plan.
“How could that be possible?” Rye asked.
Tria smirked. “Leave it to me,” she’d replied mysteriously.
“You’re a Descendent, aren’t you,” Tracy blurted out from the other side of the room; she’d kept her distance from Tria, the magnificent creature who made everyone feel uncomfortable.
Rye and Daunte did their best to avoid looking at her, both hating the fact that they had to acknowledge just how breath-taking she was. The other males didn’t mind.
“A Scion,” Tracy added.
Daunte hadn’t expected an actual response, but Tria just said, “Yes.”
Well, this explained that. He was pretty certain he was allowed to find a goddamn modern-day goddess attractive. Although Clari would probably not see it that way if she even suspected he might like what he saw.
Then again, she’d salivated over Luke a time or two. That unpleasant memory alleviated any sense of guilt.
“Scion or not, we’re talking about something I’ve never heard about before. Are you sure it’s doable?” Rain asked.
“It won’t be easy, and you’ll still have to defend yourself while I take care of that. But yes, I can do it.”
Here they were again; waiting for their fate. This time, they did so without certainty, as Hsu was of no use whatsoever.
Tria had gone home.
“I need to go,” she’d told a distressed Niamh. “Your little Seer saw enemies at your door; she saw you in this house the day it happened, remember? If I had been around, she wouldn’t have seen any of that. Which means you would never have thought to call me.”
