by M. A. Church
“Um, Heller?”
I ignored Dolf, instead focusing on the man nearly even with me. Who was this, and how dare he have the scent of my mate on him? That was my mate. Mine! And, and… oh my goddess, I wanted to strangle this guy who wore my mate’s scent. It suddenly didn’t matter my mate was human. I didn’t care.
“Heller? What’s going—”
Just as he drew even, I reached out and grabbed the other’s wrist, quickly tightening my fingers. Rage rode me hard. “You… you—”
He stopped and looked down at me, one eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”
“He’s mine, damn you.” My voice sounded gravelly and barely human. The thought that someone else might have touched my mate festered like an open wound. Where did that come from?
His surprise gave way to aggravation. “Are you drunk? Man, you need to let go of me.” When that didn’t work, he leaned down. “Did you hear me?”
Dolf glanced from me to the stranger and then sniffed discreetly. “Heller, I don’t know why you are challenging another… I don’t know what’s going on, but remember where you are. Let him go,” Dolf demanded. “You’re drawing attention.”
I hissed softly, the sound of a pissed-off cat echoing around us.
“Aw, sweet hell.” The other man’s eyes widened at the sound. “You’re—”
Dolf suddenly stood and grabbed my arm. “Get up! Let’s go. Both of you. This cannot happen in here.”
The stranger glanced at Dolf and then he slowly nodded. “You’re an Alph…. Yeah, outside it is.”
Dolf practically dragged us through the kitchens. Several interested gazes followed us. At least they were shifters and not human. Speaking of human… my head swam with the knowledge that I didn’t care that my mate was human. No, I was more concerned he might have eased the pain of my walking out with another man. The man on the other side of Dolf. I wanted to scratch his eyes out. The idea he might be with someone else drove daggers through my heart.
Sam came around the edge of a counter, concern written all over his face as he eyed the bigger man. “Dolf? Is there a problem?”
“No, no, not really. It’s fine. Or will be shortly.” Dolf hustled us through even as he waved off Sam. “Just some overreactions and being caught unaware, Sam.”
Sam glanced around the kitchen. “Um, why don’t you use my private patio out back?”
Dolf paused. “Not your office?”
Sam waved helplessly at the partially opened door to his office. “I just stepped out to grab a towel since I knocked over my drink, and saw you. You can’t use the office. I, ah, I have a job interview going on in there at the moment.”
Dolf nodded. “I understand.” Turning, he herded us outside to the patio Sam mentioned.
Luckily it was somewhat private. As soon as the back door closed, darkness surrounded us, the air nippy. I turned and immediately swung, hitting dude dead square in the jaw. I hoped that fucking hurt. Goddess only knew what he’d done to my mate to be so drenched in his scent. You probably drove him to it with how you acted, whispered through my head.
I was going to be sick.
“Fucking hell, Heller!” Dolf threw his arms around me and pulled me back. “Stand down, dammit!”
“Yesssss,” he hissed, holding his jaw and glaring at Dolf. “Get him under control, or I will.”
The sudden appearance of blue snake eyes and long fangs slowed me down. “What the fuck are you?”
“Vetala,” Dolf answered quietly, still holding on to me.
“What the fuck is that?” I snarled.
“Your worst nightmare, kitty!” He hissed.
Seriously?
“Vetalas are snakelike paranormals. They don’t actually shift into snakes, though,” Dolf said.
I curled my lip. They didn’t shift? And they called themselves paranormals?
“They’re a lot like vampires in the sense they drink blood to survive, but unlike vampires, they aren’t dead. They paralyze their prey with a venomous bite and then feed on human blood. And Heller, they have enhanced strength, so he’s as powerful as you,” Dolf added.
“That son of a bitch is covered in my mate’s scent.” Then I blanched, going limp in Dolf’s arms. “Did you say they feed on humans?” Gasping, I looked at the other paranormal. What if…. The thought of my mate hurt made me want to heave. “Did you hurt my mate? Feed off him? Let me go, Dolf! Oh fuck, did you… did you…. Where is he? We have to—”
“Lawson’s fine. He’s in the restaurant.”
That put the brakes on my budding panic attack. Both Dolf and I paused. “How did you know who I was talking about?” I asked.
“Because Lawson told me about you earlier. My name is Marshell Foles, and Lawson is perfectly safe with me. I’ve known him for ten years, so calm your ass down. I’d never hurt him. He, my sister Janelle, and I all live together, which is why I’m saturated with Lawson’s scent. We three also own the auto detail business you met Lawson at.” Marshell crossed his arms. “The point is I’m around him a lot.”
Dolf let go of me. “I’m Dolfoon Hoyer, heir apparent to the West Falls clowder.”
I drew a deep breath. Lawson was fine. Maybe if I kept repeating that, I’d calm down. “Okay, okay. I smelled him on you, and I guess I just reacted. I’m Heller Wirth, a beta to West Falls clowder.” I turned back toward the restaurant. “He’s here, you said? Funny, I didn’t smell him.”
“There are a lot of people here tonight,” Dolf said.
“We’re seated on the other side of the restaurant too.” Marshell looked at the two of us, then focused on Heller. “Huh. Interesting.”
I ran a hand through my hair. I really wanted to go in and find Lawson. “What do you mean, ‘interesting’?”
Marshell pinned me with a glare. “Well, according to Lawson, you couldn’t get away from him fast enough a week ago, but here you are ready to take me down over him. You rejected him. So what gives? Better yet why should I let you within a mile of him?”
What? Marshell’s attitude set my teeth on edge. Just who the hell did he think he was, anyhow? “This is none of your business. You have no say in what my mate does, so fuck off.”
Glaring, Marshell pointed his finger at me. “Want to bet? I’ve known him ten years. You’ve know him… what? A week.”
With a hissing scream, I shifted.
Chapter Five
Lawson
FIVE MINUTES passed, then ten. After fifteen minutes passed, I began to worry. Had Marshell fallen in or what? Giving up, I went to the restroom. Finding the place completely empty sent me into a tailspin. My first thought was hunters had found him, but that made no sense.
They wouldn’t attack in a crowded restaurant, and we hadn’t seen or heard of any hunters in over five years. Hunters didn’t want humans to know about paranormals any more than the paranormals did.
It was another reason he and Janelle always stayed in touch if they weren’t together. They were also protective of me since I was the only human in the bunch. Marshell wouldn’t just up and leave no with no message or phone call.
Hurrying out of the bathroom, I caught our waitress and asked her if she’d seen Marshell. When she said no, I asked for the manager. Something was seriously wrong. I returned to our table and dragged out my cell.
I’d give it two more minutes, and then I was calling Janelle. I was well on the way to working myself into a grand panic when a gentleman stopped by the table. He was a little shorter than me, with messy dark-brown hair. The strange man standing at my table wore a nice red button-up shirt with the restaurant’s name on it.
“Excuse me, sir. I’m Sam Ross, and I’m the owner of Arches.” Sam sat at my table and immediately I noticed how he lowered his voice. “Your friend? Is he a large black man with long braids? Gray shirt and black slacks? Really muscular?”
Well, he certainly had my attention. He’d described Marshell perfectly. I didn’t know if I should be scared to death or relieved. Frankly I was creeping ov
er to the scared side of things.
I yanked my cell out, thumbed it open, and opened my contacts. I hit my favorites and was ready to call Janelle. “Yes, he is. Where is he?”
“Hey now, easy.” Sam held up his hands, palms out. “He stepped outside with two friends of mine and—”
“Shit.” I hit the little green phone emblem and called Janelle.
Sam gulped. “Oh man. Please, we don’t need any trouble.”
I held the cell tightly, scowling at him. I dropped my voice so I wouldn’t be overheard. “Should’ve thought of that before you and your friends—”
Janelle’s voice whipped out of my cell. “Hello? Hello? Lawson? Is that you? Lawson? Hello? Dammit, answer me.”
“Get to that restaurant we went to eat at. Now!”
“On my way.”
Sam blew out a breath as I hung up with Janelle. “Aw, jeez, was that really necessary?”
“Yes.” I gritted my teeth. “Where. Is. Marshell?” I slowly pronounced each word. I’d about had enough.
“Goddess, this is really getting out of hand. Please, I’m going to tell you, just keep calm. Heller apparently grabbed Marshell’s wrist and they exchanged words. Dolf suggested they step outside and cool off. Heller, the dumbass, swung at your friend, but—”
The blood drained out of my head and everything went blurry. I slapped my hand on the table to ground me. “Did you say Heller?”
“Yes. Why?”
It couldn’t be. But seriously how many Hellers were there running around? The name was odd. Then I remembered Marshall said he’d smelled cat in here. Shit, shit, shit. Janelle said my mate was a cat shifter. What are the odds it’s the same guy? With my luck, pretty good. And he ran from me once. What have I walked into? Does this Sam know what Heller is? Is he a paranormal too? Dare I ask? Shit, being human sometimes sucks.
“I need to see Marshell. Will you take me to where he is?”
“Sure.” Sam stood. “Then could you maybe call whoever that was and tell them things are cool?”
I stood too and grabbed my jacket. “As soon as I see Marshell.”
I didn’t bother to tell him it wouldn’t make any difference. Janelle would still show up ready to rock and roll if needed. We cut through the kitchens and stepped out onto a small patio. The back was a retaining wall made of concrete. At the top of the wall were several bushes. There was a streetlight, but it was down a little way from us, so the area was cast in shadows. The patio had been fenced off. There were clothes strewn around, and it appeared we’d stepped off into a full-blown argument too. Of a sort.
A nice-looking man with collar-length black hair and the oddest blue eyes I’d ever seen was trying to talk to Marshell, who, it appeared, didn’t like what was being said since his eyes had changed and his fangs were showing. Lord, he looked ready to pounce on the other guy.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“Dammit, what are you doing out here?” Marshell hissed at me.
“Looking for your ass, what else? Man, you pulled a Houdini on me.”
“Are you Lawson?” The man with black hair interrupted us. He wasn’t having a major freak-out, so that told me he was more than likely a paranormal too. “I’m Dolf.”
“Yeah, I’m Lawson. Why?” I asked.
“Your mate decided he wanted a word with me,” Marshell said, then looked off to the side.
Mate? That was when I noticed the large longhaired cat. Wow, those were some bright blue eyes glaring down at all of us. Going by what Marshell just said, that was Heller. If that was, then holy moly, he was fucking huge… and breathtaking.
If that was him in his shifted form, he was oddly regal. I glanced around but didn’t see Heller, so that had to be him. I also saw Sam wasn’t reacting to Marshell either. Jesus, was I the only human there?
“I take it that’s Heller?” I nodded at the cat on the retaining wall.
“Oh yeah,” Marshell snipped.
Ahhhh. Now I understood why they were the only two having a discussion. It was hard to have an argument when one of the combatants was a cat. The longhaired black cat was larger than normal house cats.
This one was the size of a Savannah. Big, big cat. His coat was very fine and glossy. The moon came out long enough for me to see it wasn’t a pure black. There were shades of dark brown in his coat just like in his hair. It almost looked he had a mane that was threaded through with that deep brown. There were touches of brown around his nose and mouth too.
Looking away from the cat staring a hole through me, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at Marshell. “I swear, I take my eyes off you for a minute, and what do you do?”
“Hey, it wasn’t me.” Marshell jerked his head at the cat.
The cat hissed in response.
Well, now, that sounded threatening, so I kept an eye on the cat. “Everything okay here, Marshell?”
Marshell rolled his eyes. “For the most part.”
“Um, alrighty, then.” I needed to give Sam a heads up on what was about to happen. I turned to face him. “Look, your name is Sam, right? Well, Sam, a very lovely and bossy black woman is going to show up here shortly looking for her twin brother. Her name’s Janelle Foles.”
Sam looked at Dolf.
I caught the look. “I’d highly suggest you bring her back here. Trust me, you don’t want her looking for Marshell or me on her own.”
I looked at Heller again. So far he was just sitting there watching us.
Sam threw his hands up. “Jeez! I’m supposed to be conducting an interview with someone who just happens to be human, so I can’t explain this, but hey, no problem.”
Marshell bared his fangs at Sam. “I was minding my own business until your buddy over there latched on to me, so deal with it, man.”
“Marshell, chill out,” I said. Jesus, this was going downhill fast. “Sam, I’m going to call Janelle and tell her to ask for you. You’ll be glad you took care of this. Janelle isn’t someone to mess with.”
Marshell snorted.
Sam didn’t look convinced, but I had other worries. He had no idea, he really didn’t, and he didn’t want to know either, which was why I sent him to wait on Janelle. The males of their species could be vicious, but the females? God. They could be straight up sadistic.
Mumbling, Sam left.
That settled, I shot another glance at Heller, then turned back to Marshell. “Could maybe someone tell me what’s going on here?”
Dolf stuck out his hand. “As I said earlier, my name is Dolf. Well, Dolfoon Hoyer is my full name, but I go by Dolf. I’m the heir apparent and head beta to the West Falls clowder.”
“Ah, yeah. Um, I’m Lawson Dupre.” I shook his hand, but glanced at Marshell. “I’m a little unsure what heir apparent means.”
“He’s the next Alpha of their clowder. A clowder is a group of cats,” Marshell answered. “Think wolf pack, but felines instead.”
Dolf winced. “Well, we’re not exactly like the wolves.”
I didn’t know that that meant, and didn’t care for now. “Ah, right. I’ve heard of Alphas. But what has that got to do with this?” I asked, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. Even with a jacket, I was chilled. It was quickly getting uncomfortable out here.
Dolf picked up the clothes on the ground and put them on a small table near us. “It seems Heller smelled your scent on Marshell and reacted. Since you’re not scared of your friend, I’m going to assume you know about paranormals.”
I nodded. “Yeah, for about ten years now.”
“That makes this so much easier, then,” Dolf said.
“Yeah?” Marshell cut his eyes over at the big cat watching us. “Tell your beta over there that.”
I looked at Heller too. I really wished he’d change back.
“Oh, he’s aware,” Dolf said, setting Heller’s shoes next to the clothes. “That’s why he acted like—”
“Marshell? Lawson? Look, they better be out here, or I’m going to—”<
br />
I smirked at Marshell. “Hurricane Janelle has arrived.”
“Gods.” Marshell pinched the bridge of his nose. “All I wanted was a damn slab of meat. Seriously. Is that too much to ask?”
I bit my lip to keep from responding, but it was a near thing. Man, what I could do with an opening like that.
“Funny, Heller said the same thing,” Dolf said.
Heller hissed again.
I shuddered. Damn, that sounded mean. Then what Dolf said hit me. Was Dolf trying to say the two had something in common? From what I could see, all they had in common was the fact they disliked each other.
“Please calm down. They’re both fine. I promise.” Sam’s voice drifted to us.
Dolf frowned in the direction the voices came from. Even I heard the worry in Sam’s voice, but the worry wasn’t for himself, and oddly enough he didn’t sound afraid of her. Did he know Janelle? He couldn’t. If he did, he’d know Marshell, and for that matter, me.
Janelle swept onto the little patio. She had one hand twisted up in the middle of Sam’s shirt. Not letting go, she hurried to Marshell, dragging Sam with her. “Are you okay? Lawson called and said to get here, and when I get here I find this pretty kitty—”
Sam huffed.
Marshell raised an eyebrow. “I’m fine.”
I couldn’t help it; I laughed aloud.
“And you!” Janelle swung toward me.
“Me?” I squeaked, laughter gone.
Heller hissed again.
“Are you fine too?” she demanded, ignoring the angry cat.
“Absolutely.” I nodded like a bobblehead doll in an effort to show her how fine I really was.
“Un-huh.” Janelle then narrowed her eyes at all of us. “So let me get this straight. I ran out of a nail appointment, hauled ass to get here, met my mate, and then got here only to find you both are perfectly fine? Someone better do some explaining, fast.” Janelle waved her other hand in our faces, the nails stripped bare of any color. “See that? I’m half-done here and not happy, so—”
