by A. C. Arthur
“I specifically recall telling you to keep your mouth shut. So imagine my surprise when I find out you’re now spreading your vicious lies to this so-called Assembly Leader you insist on following.”
She took a step back, hating that she couldn’t control the instinct to get as far away from him as she possibly could.
“You’re the last shifter I would waste my time talking about.” Nivea spat. “Now you can just take yourself back to New York.”
Richard shook his head, clicking his tongue against his teeth, creating a sound that echoed through her small room, sending wary shivers up and down her spine. He used to make that sound whenever she cried. When she’d run into the corner of her room, turning her back away from him, and thinking that would be enough to send him away. It hadn’t been, and the sound had represented his first show of disappointment in her. The leash around her neck had been the final clue. It had meant he could control her, that she was his to do with as he wanted. And he had.
“Someone’s been asking questions. They’ve been digging into my financials, talking to my shareholders, putting doubts in their heads. Your mother’s friends are acting as if they no longer want to talk to her. I think you know why.”
Nivea shook her head. “I don’t go back on my word. I don’t lie or betray like you and she did.”
“Just tell me what you told him and then we’ll go to him together and explain that you lied. That you’ve always been a liar, always a troublemaker looking for attention. We’ll tell him that and see just how long he wants to keep you here amongst this little army he believes he’s building.”
“I did not lie!” she yelled at him. “I didn’t lie when I told her what you were doing to me and I didn’t lie when I said if you put one hand on my sisters I would make you pay.”
“Don’t threaten me, you little bitch!” Richard yelled, stepping so close, so quickly that his chest pushed against hers.
The movement caught her off guard and she stumbled back a step. Trying to regain her composure, Nivea moved around Richard, going deeper into her room, her back to the wall but her front to the door, where she planned to kick his ass out in the next few seconds.
“Don’t talk to me like that! You are no longer allowed to talk to me like you own me. I’m an adult and I’m free from you,” she countered. “I don’t have to tell anybody a damned thing about you if I don’t want to. And guess what, I don’t want to. I don’t want to mention your disgusting name!”
The hand that came up to slap her was quick, but Nivea was quicker. She blocked the slap, grabbing hold of Richard’s wrist and twisting it until he frowned back at her. He didn’t yell out. No, Richard Cannon was too strong for that. She bristled at the fact that here was where her inner strength had originated. The very part of her that she’d relied on so heavily to get over all that he’d done to her, had come from him, the sick bastard.
“You think you’re so tough, but you’re not. Remember Amina and Serene are still with me. They’re still mine.”
“I kept my part of the deal,” she told him, releasing his hand as if it had been on fire. “I did what I promised so you would keep your filthy hands off of them. They don’t deserve what you did to me.”
“I did nothing that you didn’t want,” he taunted, his eyes filled with the same glint they always had when he came into her room, just before he …
“You were always front and center, singing the loudest in the school plays. Shining brighter than any other star in the Christmas play. You outran your sisters, outdanced them, and outlearned them. No matter what they did, you did better. And when I finally opened my eyes to that, when I finally gave you the attention you fought for, you cried foul, running to your mother of all people!”
“I was your daughter!” Nivea yelled, her chest heavy and heaving with each breath she struggled for. “You were not supposed to do those things to me.”
“You wanted it, Nivea,” he told her, taking a step closer to her. “Just like you want it now. You’re not getting the attention you want, maybe from one of these misguided shifters. That’s why you brought up my name, and it’s why you’re telling these lies about me. You want them to think you’re special, that you’re worthy.” Richard grinned. “They have no idea.”
Every muscle in her body trembled. With the blink of an eye Nivea was sixteen and back in the Manhattan condo where she’d lived with her sisters. She’d just come home from school—from track practice—and was all sweaty and tired and had already peeled off her shirt, toed off her tennis shoes, and was headed to the shower, when he’d walked into her room. It was daylight outside. He never came to her during the day, was never home. Why was he now?
Why was he here at Havenway?
She felt dizzy, her throat clogging, hands sweating. In her mind, she knew the difference. She knew the here and now, that she was a guard for the Shadow Shifter Assembly and that Havenway was more heavily protected than the humans’ White House. But another part of her, a part she’d thought she’d closed the door on long ago, had just been revealed. He was back and he was close and she was …
Richard was on her in the seconds she hesitated. She should have known better, should have never given him the moment to act. Nivea fell back onto her bed, the force of his quick launch knocking the air right out of her. With a gasp she looked up at the ceiling, at the plain dark-gray paint that covered all the walls in her room.
His body was pressing into hers, familiar and sickening all at the same time. He was hard and strong and she wanted to scream. No, she wanted to fight. All those years it had taken her to stand up to her father, to stop the cycle of his vicious abuse. She shouldn’t be in this spot now. He shouldn’t be here and she wasn’t about to take this shit from him again.
Nivea lifted a knee, aiming right at his groin, but he slid off her just in time to avoid the contact, wrapping his hands around her neck and squeezing as he rolled partially off of her.
“You were always too stubborn, thinking too damned much to do you any good. You should have just listened like your mother and sisters did, then I wouldn’t have had to punish you,” he told her, his hands tightening at her throat.
Nivea smacked at his wrists, kicking her legs up and down, struggling to breathe.
“I told your mother we should have taken care of you, but no. She wanted to make the deal. She said that even though you were the youngest, that you were the smartest of the three and you would do what was right. You would protect them all and thus keep our secret.” Sweat dripped from his forehead down onto her cheek. “I knew she was wrong. She wasn’t smart, not at all. I should never have listened to her. Should have … done … this … before!”
He continued to choke her and Nivea felt like she was falling, her limbs dangling in the wind as she plunged to her death. Then her hands wrapped around his wrists and she squeezed with all her might. Her watery eyes focused on his bulging, erratic ones, and she centered her mind and body on all that she’d learned, on how to kill this bastard.
* * *
Something inside Eli’s chest pounded, a hurried rhythm that moved from his shoulder blades all the way down to his ankles, propelling him forward from the moment he stepped out of his truck in the parking lot of Havenway. He moved quickly past Jax and Rome and Kalina, reaching the door to the side entrance before any of them. His fingers punched in the code so quickly they looked like a blur of movement.
Inside his cat hissed and swiped so that Eli’s human body reacted by moving even faster. In the back of his throat was a sour taste, similar to the night in the Sierra Leone rain forest when he’d been on his knees in the shaman’s hut, inhaling the thick smoke that he’d been promised would heal him. He swallowed deeply, hoping the memory of the taste would subside, but instead it increased and Eli’s heart pounded, his legs breaking into a run.
Without knowing exactly where he was going he moved through the hallways of the H-shaped structure, passing other guards who looked on with concern, cutting aroun
d the corner that separated the dining hall and training facilities from the guard quarters. His cat was chuffing now, announcing its arrival, which it never did. Jaguars stalked their prey, watched and circled until it was time to pounce. This was different, he wasn’t hunting, he was avenging.
Nivea’s face appeared clearly in his mind, her eyes wide with fear, mouth opened to scream but no sound coming out. Eli ran faster until stopping in front of a door. Taking a step back he kicked the steel-lined door with all his might. It creaked, then buckled, and his shoulder slamming into it next did the rest.
When his eyes focused on the room, on who was in it and what was going on, he knew he had to continue to react now, and think about the consequences later. He pounced on the back of the man, his sharp teeth biting down into the back of his neck. He pulled back, yanking his prey off the bed, pulling it to the floor.
“Eli! No! No!” she yelled.
Her voice was familiar, rubbing along the spine of his cat until it trembled. But it wasn’t enough. He shook his head, tossing the man caught in the grip of his strong jaws and sharp teeth from side to side.
“He’s not worth it, Eli,” Nivea continued. “He’s just not worth it.”
There was only darkness, only the heavy cloak of black and anger, pain and despair. He wanted to stop that, wanted to put an end to the pain and the abuse that he now knew she had suffered. In his mind’s eye he could see it clearly, could piece together Nivea’s reluctance to go home to her family in New York, to even talk about them. This man was her father, the blood seeping into Eli’s mouth was kin to his mate. With a stinging burn at the base of his spine, that word settled over him and Eli released his hold on the man, tossing his head back as he roared in the deepest despair he’d ever experienced in his life.
“It’s okay,” she was saying now. “Just let him go, Eli. It’s better if he just goes.”
Eli heard her words, had heard everything she’d said since barging into the room. Only now, her voice sounded different. Sad, no, desolate maybe. He didn’t look at her because he knew there was no way he could do what she’d just suggested, no matter how much he wanted to give her whatever she needed to make her sound happy again. Even if she were cussing at him, pressing adamantly against his authority as she did so often, anything but what he was hearing in her voice right now.
Taking another heaving breath, he moved to stand in front of the door just in case the asshole that now had blood running down his back got the sick notion in his head to run.
Eli dug into his pocket, pressing numbers quickly into his phone.
“Yeah. I need you down in Nivea’s room right now. Bring some cuffs and shackles, and another guard with you. We’ve got a prisoner.”
Disconnecting the call, Eli ignored the burn at the base of his spine that said the cat still wanted to break free. It recognized the scent of another shifter—the one lying on its stomach across from him—and one that had been in contact with rogues. The rogue scent could have been left over from the crazy as hell run-in he’d just watched Rome and Kalina experience with Bianca. But Eli was betting it was the cat across the room struggling to breathe that had recently been with a rogue shifter. His body moving with uneven breaths, the coward refused to stand. He wouldn’t get up to face Eli head-on like a man. No, he’d rather pick on a female. He’d thought he could pick on Nivea.
The older man had no idea how stupid a move that had been. There was nothing Eli wouldn’t do for this female. Absolutely nothing, he thought as he turned his attention to her, wanting to ensure that she was all right. He hadn’t anticipated anything less from Nivea, was actually counting on the superior strength this female shifter had that rivaled her other counterparts. But he’d been wrong, and the sight of her curled into a fetal position in a far corner of the room had rage boiling deep inside his gut once more.
CHAPTER 13
This was ridiculous.
This was not her.
She did not cry or give in or succumb.
She was stronger than this, had been for the last ten years. Nothing could get her back to that place in her life when everything had seemed so bleak and all that she’d believed in had crumbled so completely. Absolutely nothing.
Except him.
His hands had been on her again, rubbing along the bare skin of her arms, touching the curve of her hip. He’d pressed his body into hers and she’d felt everything about him, from the buckle of his pants to the sickening erection, even so deep as the vile blood running through his veins. She was nauseous, her stomach roiling at the mere memory and she curled up even tighter. Wondering if somehow she could be that fetus again, the unsuspecting and unknowing creature that had yet to breathe the same air as the asshole that had helped to create her.
A shower would rid her of the disgust, of the tainting marks that had to be left on her after he was finished. The signs that everyone would see how defiled she’d been. But it never worked. After hours beneath a stinging hot spray she’d still felt the touch of his fingers, his lips, and his tongue. She’d felt it and had been repulsed each and every time. It was a wonder she’d been able to be intimate with anyone else, with memories like that bouncing around in her head.
But that was because of her strength, because the jaguar living and breathing inside of her would not surrender.
Nivea reached for that strength, she called out to her cat, to save her, to bring her back. The fact that she hadn’t moved, her body still huddled tight in this corner said the call had fallen on deaf ears.
Then there was another touch. It was warm and comforting, so she didn’t bother to fight against it. She was being lifted, her entire body feeling light and trouble-free. They were moving, she and whoever carried her, to where she had no idea. She had no strength to question or even wonder. Her head lolled forward, the left side of her face resting against a muscled chest, eyes remaining closed, having seen far too much today.
She breathed in his scent, let it filter through her body like salve against an open wound. She hissed at first, then settled into the feeling of safety, and of home.
His voice still sounded in her head.
“You wanted it, Nivea,” he father had told her. “Just like you want it now. You’re not getting the attention you want…”
But this wasn’t what she wanted. It wasn’t how Nivea wanted to feel, how she wanted to live her life. Who in their right mind wanted their father touching them intimately with his hands and his mouth, doing things to them that at nine and ten years old nobody should be doing? That hadn’t been her request, hadn’t been her intention when she’d achieved good grades in school or performed well at a sport. She had never looked for that type of attention from him and she would not let him blame her!
“It’s not my fault!” she screamed out, just seconds after hearing a door click softly closed behind her. “It’s not!”
“No, it’s not,” Eli whispered quietly against the top of her head. “It’s not your fault, baby.”
Nivea kept her eyes closed. It was the only way to stop the tears. “It’s his fault,” she continued, her chest heaving with the effort of each word. “He’s the one that’s deficient, not me. He’s sick and he’s wrong and I’m, I’m just … his … victim.” The last word came out in a whisper, yet it still burned her throat to say.
“You are not his,” Eli replied vehemently. “Not one part of you belongs to him and I’ll be damned if he touches you ever again.”
His voice held only the slightest semblance of control, his arms tightening around her as he spoke them. Nivea couldn’t help it, she tilted her head back and looked up at him then. That muscle in his jaw was twitching, his lips held tight. She couldn’t see his eyes because of his shades and without thought, she reached up and pulled them off. He didn’t resist, did not complain, simply looked down at her. And she was lost.
Eli had the stormiest green eyes she’d ever seen. In them was all the turmoil and intensity that came with this man and beast. There had never be
en a time that she’d seen them and not felt the power of all that was inside him.
“You’re right,” she admitted. “I do not belong to him.”
They sat on Eli’s bed now, while he cradled her in his lap. A couple of hours ago, or maybe even yesterday, she might have thought this the most insane position. She would never have relinquished enough of herself to sit in his arms this way, to have him hold her as if she were his child to protect. But right now, hell, it felt damned good to have been protected, at least one time, from her father.
She took a deep breath, wondering for an instant if what she was about to do was a mistake or not. Instinct told her it wasn’t. For so long she’d known there was something different about Eli, something that existed only between the two of them. And while he’d yet to accept it, she had vowed not to run away from it, from him. So her words, which she was trying to consider carefully, were going to come, no matter the repercussions.
“It started when I was nine. I’d just finished my first piano recital and I was so excited that I’d received a standing ovation. Amina, that’s my oldest sister, she didn’t like the piano, but she loved the pretty pink dress she’d had to wear to the formal affair. Serene is my other sister, she’s older too and she was just happy that it was me playing the piano and not her. Reading was her thing. She lost herself in all those books she had. But me, I liked to shine.”
Nivea could admit that because it wasn’t a bad thing. She’d done good work in her life and there was nothing wrong with being proud of it. No matter what he’d said.
Eli pushed a strand of hair from her face, tucking it softly behind her ear.
“I was in my bedroom, getting ready for bed, when I heard the door open. I thought it was Amina because she was always sent to check on me. There were so many things my oldest sister did that my mother probably should have been doing.” Nivea sighed. “But it wasn’t Mina. It was my father. He congratulated me for doing such a wonderful job and for being his star daughter. He was so proud of me, so happy for me.”
