by Helen Scott
“Point taken,” he conceded, surprised by the redhead’s statement.
A little while later, he and Valentina were cruising along a country road in a mid-sized black SUV, the fields blurring by their window.
“I found you just ahead on the left,” she said, gesturing to the cluster of trees and bushes they were approaching as she slowed down. “You were unconscious and naked. No visible wounds and completely nonresponsive. Do you remember ending up here?”
“No, everything past being trapped in a cage with that panther is a mystery.”
“And he bit you, right?”
“Bit, clawed, practically destroyed? Yeah, all of the above.” When Elijah thought about it, he could still feel the animal’s teeth sinking into his side, its claws raking over his flesh, leaving his skin in tattered, bloody ribbons in their wake.
She was quiet for a while after that, and he could sense her trying to put puzzle pieces together. The trouble was, unless she wasn’t telling him everything, neither of them had all the pieces to this particular puzzle.
Chapter 7
Valentina had parked on the street in front of the apartment building. The red brick walls glowed in the sunlight, with two white front doors sitting next to each other. The paint on the doors looked dull and was peeling slightly around the edges.
“I’m upstairs,” he said. Elijah had been quiet and somewhat curt ever since they’d driven past where she had found him. She couldn’t blame him for the reaction, but wished he would tell her what was going through his mind so she could help. Not that it was her job to help him. The idea of kicking him out, which she knew she probably should do, wasn’t one that either she or her cat were okay with, so here she was, entering a stranger’s apartment in the hopes she could ease this transition for him.
“Sorry it’s a mess. I wasn’t exactly expecting company.”
“No worries.” She smiled at him, trying to ease the anxiety she could feel coming off him in waves. Generally, she tried to avoid reading the emotions of others, having always felt as though it was an invasion of privacy, but the stress coming off him was so strong that it drowned out anything else he might be feeling.
He walked around, picking up various items while avoiding her gaze.
She looked around and took in the disarrayed clothing and other random items, and it was clear he lived alone. “No roommate?”
“Nope, just me.”
To be able to afford a large one-bedroom place with a Chicago address meant that his job had to pay well, very well. “Do you prefer living on your own?” she asked as thoughts of him being a rogue alpha swamped her mind. He could be alone and not need a pack to survive if he was an alpha, but if he found his own pack, he would thrive. If he were a true blood, it would be different. He would have a built-in pack, but being bitten? Being a rogue? It meant there would be work up front to find his place in this new world.
“Sometimes. I don’t know, really. I just do it out of habit more than anything. I guess I just don’t like being cramped, feeling like I’m walking on eggshells because I don’t want to disturb whoever is living with me.”
Valentina nodded. There was so much about him that was shifter already that she was surprised he wasn’t a true blood.
“Feel free to have a seat or whatever. I’m going to put some stuff in a bag.” He disappeared through a door, and she was left alone in his living room.
Now that he was gone, she let herself relax a little. Being around Elijah was like walking a tightrope—the alpha side of her cat demanded she show dominance, make him bend to her will, while the rest of her cat just wanted to rub against him, marking him as her own. It didn’t matter how hard she tried; the instinct was becoming almost impossible to resist.
She clenched her hands into fists and felt her claws pushing against her palms instead of her fingernails. As she opened her hands once more, she watched as the pale white and pink claws retracted and became her human fingertips once more. A loss of control like that hadn’t happened to her in decades, and she knew she would need to be even more careful around him if she wanted to avoid a similar situation in the future.
“I think I’ve got everything,” his deep voice growled behind her.
As she turned, she saw that he had changed. A heather-gray T-shirt clung to his broad expanse of chest and muscular arms. The three buttons undone at the center of the neckline displayed a delicious dip between the tendons of his neck. He had on dark jeans that fit him perfectly, displaying his powerful thighs. The combination made her mouth run dry.
When he smiled at her, she smiled back reflexively, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. It was a cocky grin, the one that belonged to someone who knew they looked good, and it was predatory. His alpha side was coming to the surface and wanted to make her bow down, so she stood taller, unwilling to be cowed.
“It’s not that I didn’t like the sweats; I’m just more comfortable in my own clothes. I’ve packed them, though, so you can have them back,” he said as he moved toward her in slow, sure steps.
“Thanks.” Her voice came out in a husky whisper.
“My pleasure.” He was almost touching her now, and she wanted to back up, but she resisted, knowing that if she did, his cat would think it had won.
She would not lose this battle of wills.
The last thing she expected was for his hand to come up and brush a few strands of hair away from her face. When his fingers made contact with her skin, she felt that same rush of energy she had felt before, and froze, losing herself in his dark eyes. Her breathing became uneven, and she felt her cat trying to push her forward, push her into more contact with him.
Slowly, fraction by fraction, he brought his face to hers. His lips stopped less than an inch from her own, and for a second, they just breathed the same air before he finally closed the distance.
The soft heat of his mouth on hers had her melting into him. Everything faded away, and the only thing that existed was his touch on her skin. His lips moving against hers. His hands gripping her hips, pinning her to him. When he nipped at her lower lip, she gasped, not in pain, but because a bolt of pleasure rocketed straight to her core. She could feel her heart racing, her pulse pounding against her skin, while his arms wrapped around her. One hand dipped down to her butt and squeezed it. His fingertips brushed the crease where thigh met butt, and curved around, almost touching her most sensitive area. It was a bold move and one that she wanted to lean into, and yet it also made her realize what was happening.
She couldn’t do this.
Another alpha? That was just asking for disaster. She knew better, and her pack deserved better. She wrenched her mouth away from his and placed both her hands on his chest, pushing against him. At first, he resisted, but when she turned her head and growled, he backed off.
“We can’t. I can’t.” Her voice was breathy and uneven.
“Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He turned away from her and took a few steps so he was on the other side of the room.
“It’s fine. It just can’t happen again.”
“Ready to go?” he asked, turning back to her.
His cat was in his eyes. The color had changed to an emerald green, and the iris shape had become larger, covering more of the whites of his eyes.
“Elijah . . .” she warned, using her alpha voice.
He turned away once more and shook his head. “I’m fine. I just forgot for a moment.” When he faced her once more, his eyes were human. He grabbed the bag that she hadn’t even noticed him drop on the sofa, and they left.
On the way to the bar, he called his boss and let him know that he had a really contagious “flu,” and that he’d be sending in a doctor’s note later in the day. By the time they were at the bar, he had called Liam, who agreed to e-mail a signed doctor’s note over to his boss once he was done with his rounds.
The bar they pulled up to was thankfully open during the day, starting with lunch, which Valentina was glad for since her stoma
ch was growling. They sat in an awkward silence, both looking at the menus but with their minds on other things. Valentina’s mind was throwing images at her of what sex with Elijah would be like based on their brief kiss. It was exactly what she shouldn’t be thinking about, so when the server stopped by for their order, she couldn’t have been more grateful for the distraction.
“I’ll have the chef’s sampler, steak frites, your soup of the day, and a glass of your driest hard cider.” By the time she was done speaking, the server’s eyes had widened.
“And for you?” the petite woman asked as she finished scribbling Valentina’s order down and turned to Elijah.
“I’ll have the soup of the day and the pulled pork sandwich, with a water.”
“Sounds good. I’ll have that right out for you.”
When the woman had walked away, Elijah’s eyes finally locked onto Valentina. “Hungry?”
“Usually, yes. Most people like us have larger appetites than it appears they should. Soon, you’ll want to make sure you figure out what your own body needs in terms of a caloric intake for the day, or you could start feeling more agitated than normal.” She shrugged off his comment. There were many reasons they had a personal chef come in twice a week and cook for them, but the one that crossed her mind in that moment was the amount of food her pack consumed.
“So, we’re here. Now what?”
“Well, after we have a nice lunch, I’m going to ask to speak to the manager, and we will see about getting our hands on that security footage.”
“No offense, but why the hell would they just give you security footage?” He grinned as he asked the question, as though he found it funny.
“Because I’m a beautiful woman not afraid to ask for what I want or to make compromises to get it.” She could feel her fangs growing as she spoke. “Some men find me intimidating, which can help. Others think they can sweet talk their way into my pants, which never works, but I might let them think it’s working if it will get me that footage.”
“And what if the manager is a woman?” Elijah’s voice had a growl to the edge of it now, and Valentina could smell the lust coming off him.
Reining in her impulse to climb over the table and straddle him, she said, “Then I will simply explain the situation. Women are usually more reasonable than men, anyway, in my experience.”
He grinned again, but before he could poke holes in her plan as he so clearly wanted to do, the food arrived. Valentina could tell as soon as the smell hit him because his eyes bled to the pale green of his panther, and he began eating ravenously. Food bringing out the animal was one of the perils young shifters faced, but thankfully, Elijah was cognizant enough to lower his gaze before anyone around them could pick up on it.
They both devoured their meals with little conversation, and by the time the waitress came back to check in on them, she was able to take a few empty plates out of their way. After that, Elijah slowed and matched Valentina’s pace.
“So, you were born a jaguar?” he asked in a low voice as he took a bite of food.
She nodded. “My mother was one, and my father’s a wolf.”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “So interspecies is cool with you guys?”
She chuckled. “A, you are now part of ‘you guys,’ so don’t forget that, and b, it depends. Some clans are okay with it, some aren’t.”
“Clans?”
“Family packs. Midnight is just a pack because none of us are related by blood, but if the pack was predominantly true bloods, then it would be called a clan.”
“True bloods?” he asked with a frown.
“I’m a true blood. You’re not. You’re a rogue.”
“Because I was bitten?”
She nodded. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a rogue, but it can be hard for them to find a pack that will take them in since true bloods tend to keep to themselves, with the exception of marriage negotiation.”
“Jesus . . . I feel like I’ve fallen through the looking glass.”
“Yeah, I guess in a way you have. There aren’t any talking caterpillars, though. At least, not that I’m aware of.” She popped the last fry into her mouth and enjoyed the salty, tangy taste on her tongue.
They had both finished eating, and there were some parts of the upcoming conversation she needed to have with Elijah that she couldn’t do in public, and since they were both done eating, they might as well go talk to the manager.
“What else is out there besides shifters?” He whispered the question, and she could feel the unease sweeping through him.
“What you will encounter most is shifters, but there are mages, mythical creatures, and other stuff that I’m not too familiar with. Now, if you’re all done, we should get moving.”
He nodded and stood up in a daze. She had overwhelmed him, which was exactly what she had been trying to avoid. The cash in her wallet was more than enough to cover their bill and leave a healthy tip for the waitress. As she pulled out the bills and set them on the table, she could feel eyes on her.
Someone was watching them.
Valentina prayed to any god who would listen that it wasn’t a Reaper. The last thing she needed was to be paying for damage done to a restaurant. Since there was nothing they could do until whoever it was made their move, she tried to ignore it, but her cat snarled inside her.
“What is it?” Elijah’s voice was low and urgent.
She knew if he wasn’t careful, his panther would come out to play, so she said, “Nothing to worry about right now.”
“I can feel your watchfulness. Your guard’s come up. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I’ll tell you when you need to know,” she hissed back at him.
“Now.” His voice was a low growl as his protective alpha nature came front and center.
“Fine, but I won’t play this game with you again. I can feel someone watching us. No, I can’t tell who or where it is, so the only thing we can do is wait. If I tell you to run, then you better damn well run.” She hissed the next words so quietly, she could barely hear them herself. “And if I tell you to shift and run, then you shift and you run your ass back to Woodhaven, clear?”
“Crystal.”
“Good. Now, let’s go find the manager.”
Chapter 8
Elijah wanted to snarl at Valentina the way she was ordering him around, but he didn’t want to piss her off so much that she left him behind. He needed to know what happened to him. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that when he thought about being apart from her, this new side of himself became angry.
She was haughty and way too bossy for him, definitely not his kind of woman. Liana, though? She was beautiful and seemed much more relaxed than his current company. That thought brought about another wave of anger. He sighed, resigning himself to his current course of action.
Valentina had walked away from him and was speaking with a server. When both of them looked over at him, he wasn’t sure whether to stand tall or play the victim, the latter of which was a role he had never seen himself in. The female alpha raised her hand and waved him over. He obediently followed even though he rankled at the idea of being her lap dog. When he reached them, the server began walking to the back of the restaurant area.
“Max is this way,” she called over her shoulder.
Valentina said under her breath, “Just follow my lead when we are talking to the manager, okay?”
“Whatever you say, boss,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Easy there, buddy. It’s only because I have more experience. No one is doubting your manliness.” Valentina’s voice stroked his ego but did nothing to quell the anger bubbling inside him.
“Max,” the waitress called as she knocked on the door. When there was no answer, she knocked again and opened it. This Max person was nowhere to be seen. “That’s super weird. He never goes out without talking to all of us first.” Her worried eyes glanced first at Valentina and then at Elijah, silently pleadi
ng with him to reassure her.
“Is there somewhere he goes regularly?”
“If he’s super stressed, he’ll take a smoke break either in the alley or on the roof.”
“Mind if we go have a look?”
“No, just don’t tell him I gave up his hiding spots, okay? I should really get back to my tables. Good luck finding him.” She smiled her pearly whites at Elijah again before spinning on her heel and heading back toward the restaurant.
“Okay, so why don’t you go looking for him outside and I’ll take a peek in his office?” Valentina asked, trying to squash the tendril of jealousy winding through her.
“Are you sure I should be the one looking outside?”
She sighed dramatically and threw up her hands, which almost made Elijah burst out laughing. “Whatever you want. Let’s just decide and move before we get caught just hanging around his office.”
“I’ll go office, you go outside.”
“Fine,” she said before stalking away toward the back door that they could see from their current position. The angry sway in her hips made his mouth go dry and his hands clench at his sides. It hadn’t been that long ago he had been touching that sculpted ass, and he wanted to feel it again so badly that he almost went after her. She paused before she exited, and whispered, “If I ruin these shoes, you’re buying me new ones.” Then she pushed open the door and was gone.
His mind stayed stuck on her for a moment before he glanced around and, finding that he was still alone, went into the office. There was a beat-up old desktop computer almost hidden by the stacks of paperwork all over the place, along with half-finished mugs of coffee, some of which had the occasional cigarette butt floating in the dark liquid.
The desk was so overwhelming that he didn’t really know where to start. It wasn’t the eighties, though; there weren’t going to be VHS tapes sitting out like in the movies. No, this was a modern restaurant run by a man who clearly detested the managerial aspects of his job, but modern technology meant that Max probably had access to the footage on his computer.
