by A. C. Arthur
“Eli.”
He lifted his head as she called his name. She’d been standing about ten feet away with flowers entwined in her hair, Elder Alamar standing behind her, Caprise and Kalina beside her. Her dress was long and white and cupping her silhouette seductively. A few feet away were Ezra, Rome, X, and Nick and then it clicked.
“Eli?” Nivea had called to him again, this time rubbing her hand up and down his arm.
He blinked again and immediately recognized the gray walls and tiled floors of Havenway. His breath came quickly, his lungs filling with refreshed air as all the pieces to the jumble his life had been in the last years, came together.
“We need to have a joining ceremony,” he’d said to her immediately. “Before we head to D.C. to face … whatever. This, us, we need to be official, just in case.” He said the last softly.
Nivea hadn’t wasted a second. She hadn’t said a word in argument or protest. Instead, she’d hugged him again and the next thing Eli knew he was in his room, stepping out of the shower with Ezra sitting on the edge of his bed, a garment bag lying beside him.
“I didn’t believe that foul poison would have served any good in my life, and yet it did,” Eli said in reply to Ezra’s question.
Ezra chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’ve got a point there. But you know, we’re going to come out of this all right. We’re not going into battle to be killed. Unless you know something I don’t.” His twin lifted a brow in question.
Eli shook his head. “I haven’t had any visions about the battle,” he told his brother before turning from the mirror to face him. “But I did see Nivea and me joining in the rain forest. She was smiling and happy and I realized that’s how I always want to see her. Not fighting against our enemies or crying over her parents’ betrayal. I just want her happy and I know that this will make her happy.”
“And what about you? How will it make you feel?” Ezra asked him.
“Complete,” Eli immediately replied. “I will finally be complete.”
* * *
Not five minutes later they all stood in the living room of Rome’s suite. Kalina and Caprise stood side by side while Ary was standing near the couch behind them where Shya slept. In front of the door was Elder Alamar, his face solemn once again, a string of beads in his right hand, a black and gold scarf thrown over his left shoulder. Baxter stood a step behind the Elder, while Ezra and Eli were to his left, all of them facing the same way.
Rome held Nivea’s arm, walking her slowly the short distance from the conference room through the living room. There was no music—traditional human wedding chords or the tribal drumming that would have been heard in the Gungi. She did not wear a formal white wedding gown and Eli did not wear a designer tuxedo. There were no flowers, no gauzy white netting draping every surface, no lavish spread of food waiting for an extravagant reception later on. The room was neat and seemed personal only to those who lived there. The situation was dire and cast a heavy aura over them all.
Yet, Nivea’s heart beat a little faster as she walked, her gaze fixating on Eli’s until she was finally standing beside him. He took her hand and together they faced Elder Alamar.
“Os dois vieram, coração e mente como um só,” the Elder began, his voice low, resonating in a slow melody. “Eles encontraram um ao outro através de todo o mundo e por muito tempo para participar deste dia.”
He took the beads and motioned for Nivea to lower her head. Slipping them onto her neck, he pressed the emblem into her skin.
“Topètenia to Topètenia,” he whispered and nodded for her to do the same.
She cleared her throat. “Topètenia to Topètenia.”
“Assim será abençoado,” he said in Portuguese and then again in English. “So be blessed.”
He slid the scarf from his shoulder, lifting it and nodding until Eli leaned forward so that he could fit it around his broad shoulders. When he was finished he touched the center of Eli’s chest.
“Topètenia to Topètenia,” he said once more.
Eli repeated, “Topètenia to Topètenia.”
“Assim será abençoado,” Alamar said, then stepped back, holding both his hands up, palms flattened above Nivea’s and Eli’s heads. “O mate é o coração, eo coração é o shifter. Estados são vida, para todo o sempre. The mate is the heart and the heart is the shifter. United they are in life, forevermore.”
* * *
“Boden Estevez will kill and destroy the world as you know it,” Rayna told Dorian as they sat in his car, parked in front of the Reynolds Building.
“He is one of you?” Dorian asked, not at all surprised anymore by what was being said to him.
In the weeks since this mysteriously beautiful woman had walked up onto his sister’s porch, he had learned so much. They were a different species, shape shifters, she’d called them, able to turn from human to big cat and back again. They had originated in the Amazonian rain forest and once divided, migrated to forests throughout the world. They were both an anomaly and a nightmare, he’d thought to himself.
“He is a rogue shifter. They tried to kill him off but he lived. Everywhere he goes he is sent away, but he comes back, like a disease.”
“And you do not like him?”
“I abhor him,” was Rayna’s immediate response. “He came into my family and has been tearing us apart since day one. He’s vowed revenge against the Shadows and I’ve vowed revenge against him.”
“What did he do to you and your family?”
She turned quickly in the passenger seat and stared at him fiercely, her eyes almost translucent. He now knew this happened usually when she was upset or extremely aroused. Since they were parked in downtown D.C. on a very public street, he would have to hope for her being upset.
“He corrupted my sister. She now follows him around blindly like she is under some type of spell. It’s sickening and my parents want her back,” Rayna said vehemently.
“But your sister is an adult, correct? I mean, I’m just saying that oftentimes adults select persons to get involved with that their families do not approve of. It’s not that uncommon and the family meddling in their business doesn’t normally help.”
“You do not understand. Bianca was innocent before he came. She believes she loves him, that he is her mate. But Boden had a mate and he was forced to leave her, and then she was murdered. He’s angry and he’s evil. He does not possess the capacity to love anymore, but Bianca cannot see that.”
“If she’s with him then there’s a chance that she may be more like him than you think.”
Her teeth bared then and Dorian instinctively reached to his side for his gun. He loved having sex with her, had never experienced anything like it before in his life, but if she shifted and attacked, he would not hesitate to defend himself. That said a lot for the bond they’d forged in the past few weeks.
“Whatever she does it is because of him,” Rayna stated.
“Okay, fine. I’ll take your word for it since I’ve never met your sister. But why did you bring us here? How does all this relate to Roman Reynolds?”
“He is what Boden is after. All that he has and is in this part of the world. Boden wants it and has planned to get it, whatever the cost.”
“So he’s going to attack Reynolds? Is that what you’re saying? There’s going to be some type of shifter war going on in my city?” Dorian had known it. Deep down he’d felt something from the second he’d seen Roman Reynolds and looked at his financial records. The pull toward this man that he now knew for certain was a beast, had been strong and persistent.
His heart pounded at what that actually meant now, what Rayna had just told him would happen. “He’s going to attack Reynolds, and that means he’ll also attack Kalina.”
Rayna nodded. “Boden will come for Reynolds, but we can stop him. We can warn Reynolds and we can help,” she said adamantly. “And then I can save my sister.”
“Wait a minute,” Dorian said, flattening his hands on the steering whe
el. “You came to me because you want me to help Roman Reynolds?”
“You are a human,” she said. “He will need the help of your kind, your law enforcement.”
“He’s not one of us,” Dorian told her flatly.
Rayna shook her head. “Believe me when I tell you that if you could choose, it would be Roman over Boden to be a part of the human race.”
Dorian didn’t believe her and he didn’t believe she expected him to help the man he’d sworn to take down. He also didn’t want Kalina hurt. He had never wanted that, and thus this crusade against Reynolds in the first damned place. He’d always feared Kalina would become a casualty to whatever was really going on with Reynolds. In addition to that reason, Dorian was still a federal agent. It was his duty to stop any type of impending war between these animals from breaking out in his city.
CHAPTER 22
The time had finally come and strangely enough, Boden did not feel an ounce of excitement. There was no hum of anticipation, no anxious tingles moving throughout his body. This moment had been a long time coming. Well, the time was now. And he was ready.
“They will be here by seven, just as you asked,” Bianca said, coming to sit beside him on the couch.
Yesterday she’d packed their things and they’d made the drive from the Four Seasons to the suite they now occupied at the Gaylord. Both hotels had been phenomenal in their décor and service. She draped an arm over his shoulder, her chin resting there as she used a finger to run along the line of his jaw. The touch annoyed him and Boden tilted his head out of her reach.
“How many?” he asked.
“Charles confirmed two hundred,” she replied. If she was ruffled by his movements he couldn’t tell, nor did he care.
Years ago, Bianca Adani had come in handy. She’d been in the right place at the right time and he’d acted accordingly, taking the body she offered and the allegiance she swore after telling him who she really was. The initial shock that he’d slept with Acacia’s half-sister had first angered him. Then, after sleeping with Bianca again, he thought it fitting. Teodoro had been so smug and so arrogant that day he’d used his army of Lormenian soldiers to chase Boden out of the Sierra Leone rain forest. They’d forbidden him to come back, promising to do the Elders’ biding and behead him if they so much as smelled his scent again.
With a second death ordered and no army to back him up, Boden had no choice but to leave. But he did not go far.
He’d hidden for months in the village just west of the rain forest until one day, he’d looked up and Bianca had been standing there. Later she would tell him how Teodoro had raped her mother repeatedly, using her as his sex slave, impregnating her twice before finally tossing her out, banning her from the rain forest as well. Her mother had taken a job as a healer with one of the local missionary groups that had no idea she was a shifter. There in that small village, she’d raised her daughters as best she could, never letting them forget that their father was the Lormenian tribal leader and that he had turned them away, preferring his firstborn child, Acacia.
Bianca hated the fact that Acacia was treated as a princess while she was simply tossed away by Teodoro and the tribe. She’d admitted to Boden that she’d twice come to the rain forest before he’d been exiled, and watched him with Acacia. The moment she’d heard of what Teodoro had done to him, she’d set out to find him, wanting what her sister had, Boden had thought smugly. Boden hadn’t loved Bianca and he knew she’d never be his mate, but he’d seen something in her eyes the day they’d met, it reached out to a very similar trait in himself—vengeance—and that had sealed their connection.
Shortly after he’d begun sleeping with Bianca, and plotting his revenge against the Elders and the tribes, news spread that Acacia would be joined with a Lormenian, as per her father’s wishes. That night, Boden had taken Bianca in every way possible, doing things to her that he’d never imagined with any other female. And she’d taken every whip, touch, bite, slap—whatever he dished out she took willingly, looking up at him with her ice blue eyes and pledging her eternal loyalty. She wanted what her older sister had given up, the prestige of being with an ultimate leader. Bianca had believed in him from day one, no matter what he did with Sabar—the rogue that was so much more than his protégé—she stood by his side. She’d proven herself to him time and time again. Now, they were both about to be rewarded.
“Kegan Charles has proven much more loyal than his brother,” Boden remarked absently, not wanting to think about how Bianca came to be by his side any longer.
“It was a shame to learn of Darel’s death,” she said. “He finally messed with the wrong shifter, I suppose.”
Boden nodded, wondering what exactly Bianca knew about the shifter that had shot his son Darel and left him to bleed out in a hotel room.
“We should get dressed,” he told her then, tired of the feel of her warm breath against his skin.
It seemed as if every little thing had been irritating him today. Perhaps this was his form of nervousness. No, he thought with a deep inhale. He did not get nervous. He did not worry and he did not fret. He never had. That’s why he was still standing. Even with all the death orders, Boden was still alive and well and more than ready to kick some Shadow Shifter ass tonight!
Cannon had resurfaced, thanks to one of the rogues he’d sent to kidnap the man’s family. The kidnapping had been disrupted by the Shadows, which on the surface had angered Boden. But the rogue that the Shadows had captured that night had saved the day. Once he’d been thrown into the cells at the Shadow headquarters, he’d recognized a familiar scent. Cannon was in a cell beside him. It had been easy enough for the rogue to strike against one of the female Shadow guards, gaining entrance into Cannon’s cell, where he used his powerful fists and teeth to gnaw through the cinder block walls, setting himself and Cannon free.
Now, Crowe had more than enough hybrids and Boden had tripled the amount of rogues they needed to really shake things up tonight. His heart thumped wildly with anticipation, a grin spreading slowly across his face.
The door to the suite opened with a loud click, closing the moment the female slipped inside and pushed it shut behind her. Bianca was up in an instant, standing in front of Boden, ready to defend. She still wore the white silk robe that touched the floor and was belted tightly at her slim waist. Beneath it she wore nothing, as she had been trained to always be ready and available for him. He hadn’t wanted her at all today.
Now, however, there was a surge of desire spreading throughout his body as he came forward slowly to look over Bianca’s shoulder at their bold intruder. She was a gorgeous cat, one that he instantly recognized as his dick grew hard against his thigh. Her hair was long and straight, draped over her right shoulder, the wide-framed sunglasses she wore doing nothing to hide her true nature from him. If he ripped them from her face he knew exactly what color eyes he would see. She’d grown up, her body curving in all the right places—breasts high and firm, hips curving to what he knew would be a delectable ass. His mouth watered, the bland feeling that had plagued him all day long abating quickly.
“What are you doing here?” Bianca asked, surprise evident in her voice.
So she had not known that her younger sister was also here in D.C. That was interesting.
“I’m doing what I’ve been doing all my life,” Rayna replied tightly. “Trying to save you from making a bigger mistake than you already have.”
Boden tossed his head back and laughed, the sound echoing throughout the room, rumbling through his body to awaken the cat that languished inside.
“Sisters,” he said finally. “Together again.”
“She is no longer my sister,” Bianca raged, taking a step toward Rayna. “I told you that long ago when I left that forest for good.”
“You told us what he wanted you to say, Bianca. Not what you really meant. Mother was never the same after you left,” Rayna said, looking as if she thought that last sentence would somehow touch her long-lost sister.
Boden knew it wouldn’t. He was all Bianca had and she knew it, she accepted it. He would have it no other way. There could be no other allegiance in her life, especially not one to so-called family. If she were going to take Acacia’s place in his life, she needed to pledge herself wholeheartedly to him. And she had. Poor thing.
“You can come with me now,” Rayna implored. “This isn’t going to turn out the way he thinks, I can promise you that. Come with me now, Bianca, before it’s too late.”
“I am where I belong,” Bianca was saying but Boden was already pushing her to the side, moving toward Rayna.
“What do you mean this will not turn out the way I think?” he asked as he closed in on her. “What do you know?”
Her scent was heavy, sexy, infiltrating his nostrils, sending pulses of lust throughout his body. She was aroused, or had been very recently. He wondered if she would still be wet, if he licked between her long legs would he taste her sweet nectar or that of another? The thought was strange and only aroused him more, so that he was reaching for her before he could think otherwise.
“What do you know, sweeting?” he asked, his hands tightening around her arms as he pulled her close to him.
Her breasts rubbed against his chest as he lifted her off her feet and his cat purred, could not help but acknowledge the pleasure soaring through his body. Even while he became suspicious of this little vixen.
“I know that the Shadows are going to beat you,” she said to him. “No,” she continued, shaking her head. “They’re going to kill you. Roman won’t take your head off because he’s got too much class for that, but Nick? He’ll kill you for sure. He’ll tear your throat out and watch you bleed to death, just as Darel did.”
Boden roared then, slamming her back into the wall. Her head jerked violently and the sunglasses slipped from her face. Still, she didn’t look away. She stared right at him, taunting him. “When you’re dead and gone my sister will have her life back. We’ll walk away from your sadistic and evil ways and never look back. Our lives will finally be our own.”
