by Jessica Sims
It was then that I noticed the big flashing rock on her finger. I gasped and grabbed her hand. “Holy crap, what’s this?”
She gave a happy little hop in her seat. “What do you think it is, silly? Josh proposed!”
We shared a girlish squeal, and I squeezed her hand happily. “Oh, my God! I’m so excited for you!”
Marie seemed unable to stop smiling. “Thank you! I’m so excited. It happened about two days ago. I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.” She gave me another curious look.
I waggled my pinky at her.
She rolled her eyes.
“Just give me the deets and spare not a single detail,” I told her, leaning forward and resting my chin on my hands dreamily. “I need to know everything.”
Over the next half hour, we picked at our salads and Marie talked in happy, animated gestures about Josh and his moving into her apartment. She acted exasperated when she talked about their bickering in regards to whose laundry went where (Marie was a neat freak and Josh was apparently a slob), but every time she said his name, it was with a note of affection. Then she told me all about the engagement. How they’d gone to Konstantine’s and he’d taken her into the alley (which apparently meant something to the two of them) and showered her with flowers and had a band there to serenade her. He’d gone down on one knee in the midst of the dirty alley and proposed to her, and she beamed, like it had been the most romantic thing ever.
Weird, but Marie loved it, so I couldn’t protest.
Then she talked about their plans for the future. They would get married at some point next year, and then maybe look at getting a house in Little Paradise to be closer to Josh’s family; he was one of many Russell were-cougars in the area, and Marie naturally fit into their clan well. Her father wanted to pay for the wedding, and the two families were already bickering about location and catering.
“It’s only been two days,” she said with an exasperated smile. She forked another mouthful of lettuce into her mouth and added,“I can only imagine what the next year is going to be like.”
“Oh, you’re eating up every bit of it,” I told her with a smile. “Admit it.”
“Maybe just a little.”
I smirked to hide my wistfulness. Marie was so happy and animated. I was used to pale, sarcastic Marie, but the Marie of the last month had truly come out of her shell. She was lively and had color in her cheeks for the first time since I’d known her, and she looked healthy and oh-so-happy. She was beaming.
I was insanely envious of my friend. Her life was perfect and on track.
Mine was in danger of running off the rails.
“So you’ll come to the engagement party? It’s a week from tomorrow. You can even bring your date.” She winked and nodded her head at Hugh. “It’ll be so much fun.”
“Of course I’ll be there,” I told her, sharing her excitement. “Do you need me to do anything? Help with anything?”
“It’s a pretty informal get-together,” she said. “We’re renting out a barbeque place over in Little Paradise, though I personally thought a pizza or two would be great.”
The sound of breaking glass made me jerk in my seat, and Marie winced, clapping her hands to her sensitive were-cougar ears. I looked over at the direction of the broken glass . . .
And saw Hugh sitting at his table alone, his drink spilled all over the table, the broken glass in his hand. He was staring at me with an intense look on his face, and his cheeks were bright red. Blood covered his hand.
He’d smashed his glass in his fist by accident as soon as he’d heard the word pizza. And I knew why, and the thought filled me with heat.
It seemed the porno viewing last night had affected Hugh more than he’d let on. I got up and hurried to his table, bringing my napkin even as the waitress rushed over.
“Oh, my goodness,” the waitress gasped, plucking glass from the table and putting it onto a tray. “I am so sorry, sir. Let me get you another drink and some napkins. Are you okay?”
I peered at his hand. “Did you hurt yourself?”
He glared at me. “My drinking vessel broke.”
“I see that,” I said mildly. “Did you want me to help out?” I held my napkin out to him, intending to dab at his hand.
“No,” Hugh said as he snatched the napkin from me.
“Fine, be that way.” I went to sit back down with Marie.
She watched Hugh with confusion, a frown furrowing her brow. “He okay?”
“He’s fine,” I said cheerfully. “Just not good with fragile things.”
“Then it’s probably good that you’re not dating him,” Marie said.
For some reason, I didn’t like that comment. I wasn’t that fragile. I glanced over and noticed that the waitress had remained at Hugh’s side and was wiping his hand, taking it in hers and dabbing at the blood as she babbled about how very sorry she was. Hugh looked . . . confounded. Like he wanted to jerk his hand away but couldn’t. He stared at the woman, fascinated, as she fussed over him.
Was he thinking of his mate? I felt another envious surge. Everyone was getting their happy ever after but me.
“Oh, crap,” Marie whispered as I picked up my fork again. “Don’t look now, but things are about to get really crowded in here.”
“Huh?” I looked up and found she was staring over my shoulder. I glanced behind me and froze.
A celebrity with a pretty-boy face and tousled curls was sauntering through the café. He waved at people while giggling women pulled out their camera phones and snapped pictures of him. A famous celebrity. At the mall I was having lunch at. What a remarkable coincidence.
Yeah, right.
My heart sank. One of the fae was here. Just what I needed. While this man had the face of a lesser-known actor from a recent pirate movie, I knew it had to be Finian, checking up on me. The fae could take on any appearance they wanted, and they often switched between a few choice celebrities.
My salad suddenly tasted like dirt in my mouth. “I should probably go,” I told Marie as I raised a hand to flag down the waitress.
“Go? But we’ve barely talked,” she said, giving me an odd look.
“I know.” I glanced at the fae man again as he declined autographs and posed for photos at the far side of the room. Was it my imagination, or was he swinging around to this end of the café? Or was I just paranoid?
Turned out that nope, I wasn’t paranoid; the fae made a circle around the room and began to head unerringly in our direction, his gaze focusing on me. A cool smile crossed his face as he hurried toward me.
I was trapped.
Marie continued giving me that odd look as I jerked to my feet, fumbling for my purse. “I need the check,” I told her again. “I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she told me. “I can get the check.”
I gave her a grateful look and moved to head to Hugh’s table.
The fae stepped in front of me. “Hello, delicious. What have we here?” He tilted his head, staring at me with fascinated eyes. “Is this my lucky day?”
I kept my voice low. “How did you find me here?”
“Oh, it’s obvious, my darling,” he said in a smooth voice. “You’re positively clouding the air with pheromones.”
My eyes narrowed at him. His voice seemed a bit smoother, more urbane than what I recalled. “Do we have to talk about this now, Finian?” I asked, my heart hammering in my throat.
“Finian?” His eyebrows arched. “So that’s who’s been hiding you away?” He tsked. “What a naughty boy. I had no idea he was holding such a delicious prize . . . and so close to ripening.” He plucked an imaginary piece of lint off my shoulder. “Too bad for him, though. You’re coming home with me.”
If he wasn’t Finian . . . who was this? “I’m not going anywhere,” I told him, a little clench of fea
r settling in my stomach.
“Oh, but you are,” he said in a low voice and leaned in. “Look at all this skin you have exposed. I’d hate for you to have an accident and show your true side to all these people. They might not understand what they’re looking at . . . and then what would happen to you?”
I remembered Hugh’s story about the Jersey Devil, and I shuddered. No one here would understand. The strange fae was blackmailing me. I was so afraid that I took a step backward, only to have his hand remain on my shoulder. He pulled me closer, his arm going around my shoulders. “All these people think you’re so lucky to be getting my attention. Every single one of them has a camera phone trained on us. I’d hate for you to end up on a YouTube clip, dearest.”
I shuddered. That was my worst nightmare. “Just . . . please don’t.”
A big hand clapped down on the fae’s shoulder and jerked him backward a step. The fae’s hands flew off me. To my relief, Hugh had appeared behind the man and had pulled him away. He leaned in, his feral eyes gleaming. “She is not yours to touch, friend. She is spoken for.”
The fae’s gaze remained on me, though his mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “I should have known that Finian would set a watchdog on you.”
“The biggest,” I agreed, relieved to have Hugh at my side.
Everyone at the restaurant was now staring at us. Phones were raised into the air, and I knew several people were recording. My skin prickled—not with my monster but with fear. I just wanted to get out of here.
And the fae was not leaving.
“Let’s go, Hugh,” I told him. “Please. I just want to leave.”
Hugh growled, causing a few people nearby to jump in alarm.
“Do as your little friend says,” the fae said in a charming voice. “I’d hate to make a scene. I don’t think anyone wants that.”
“We don’t,” I said desperately. “Come on, Hugh. Let’s just go, okay?”
But Hugh’s eyes were gleaming, and as I watched, his fingernails seemed to grow past the manicured, blunt ends, forming claws again. He was losing track of his human side smack-dab in the middle of a crowded mall café. As I watched, his teeth elongated, poking out from under his upper lip.
This was a nightmare.
What was I going to do if Hugh changed into a saber-toothed tiger in front of all these people? It would be as bad as my own change. Worse, maybe, because if something happened to Hugh, then who was going to protect me from the fae that wanted to kidnap me?
I had to stop him. My hands went to Hugh’s sleeve, and I stepped forward and tugged at his arm. I looked up into his eyes. “Please,” I whispered. “Please stop. For me.”
Hugh looked down at me. His hard, rugged face twisted a bit. He shook himself, and I watched the long fangs slowly retract. He nodded. “Very well. We are leaving.” His eyes hardened as he focused on the fae stranger. “Do not follow us.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” the man said, far too easily. He gave me an unctuous smile. “See you later, dearest.”
I shuddered and clung to Hugh’s sleeve as we pushed out of the café. People were milling around us, drawn by the celebrity, but luckily we only got a few stares and no followers. As soon as we were out of the café and in the parking lot, I breathed a sigh of relief and slowed my steps.
Hugh, however, didn’t slow down. He placed his hands carefully on my shoulders and continued to propel me forward. “Keep walking, Ryder,” he said. “We must get into your cart and drive immediately.”
“Car,” I corrected. “What’s wrong?”
“I do not trust him not to follow us.” Hugh headed to my side of my car with me, and he didn’t leave until I opened the door and slid inside. He shut the door behind me, then moved to his side of the car and got in.
I was getting more scared by the minute. Hugh was on high alert, his nostrils flaring as he rolled the window down a crack and scented the breeze. He gestured for me to start the car, and I did so, pulling carefully out of the parking lot.
“Is there more than one road to your home?” Hugh asked, still scanning the parking lot as we pulled onto the highway.
I could hear my cell phone buzzing in my purse, and I knew Marie was texting me, wanting to know what the hell was going on. I couldn’t answer her right now, though. I was too busy driving and being wigged out by Hugh. “There are lots of roads,” I told him. “I can take several routes. Why?”
“He will not be deterred by a public scene,” Hugh said in a clipped voice. “He will attempt to come after you tonight, once he has determined where you live.”
My eyes widened. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stare at the road and not at Hugh. “I don’t understand. How will he know where I live? Is he going to find me by tracking my scent?”
“By your pheromones.”
“If I’m giving off all these pheromones, how is it that all the other shifters aren’t going nuts around me?” Panic striated my voice.
“He does not have the same senses that the primordials do. He does not need them.”
“Then what do we do?” There was a panicky note in my voice, and I made a left at the next light instead of a right, because a right would lead me closer to home. “Can you put another one of those magic seals on my front door so he can’t come get me?”
“And then what?” Hugh snarled. “Let him take you as soon as you go out again?”
“I don’t know,” I bit out. It was getting harder to concentrate. I pulled off the road and cut through a grocery store parking lot just because it was random. “I don’t know about any of this. Aren’t you here to protect me? Can you stop him?”
“He knows I am here. He will seek to go around me. Or to eliminate me.” Hugh sounded grim.
I shot a horrified look in his direction. “Eliminate you?” Someone honked at me, and I forced the car back into a straight line. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly that,” Hugh said. “We need a new plan.”
“Where do we go?”
“Somewhere new. Someplace that you have not been before so there is not a thick concentration of your pheromones. He will find your home because your scent will be imprinted in your things.”
“So we get new clothes,” I said, thinking quickly. “And stay at a hotel for a few days?”
“Hotel?”
“It’s a place where they rent rooms,” I told him.
“Are there many of these? We will need a new one every night. We do not want to take chances.”
I was beginning to freak out, but I forced myself to remain calm. “Okay. Okay. New hotel every night. We can do that. And some clothing changes. No problem. I have room on my credit cards.”
Hugh grunted. “Good. We will start with that.”
My bodyguard continued to peer out the windows of the car as I drove—aimlessly—around the city. I eventually settled on a downtown hotel, just because it seemed more public than most and the roads here would be more heavily traveled. If I’d left a scent trail, hopefully it’d be covered up by exhaust and afternoon traffic before long.
I parked in the parking garage and we briskly walked the block to the hotel. Hugh kept his arm around my shoulders as I clutched my purse close, and I did my best not to stare around me.
The fae could glamour himself to look like anyone. I’d have no idea who he was until it was too late. He could even look like Hugh, really. Suddenly the concept of Hugh not leaving my sight didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.
My hands were shaking by the time I went to the front counter and got us a room with two full-sized beds. We rode the elevator to the fourth floor, and luckily, Hugh didn’t ask any questions. In fact, he didn’t say anything until we shut the door behind us.
Then he took out his necklace charm and began to run it along the edge of the door, magicking it to lock me in.
I collap
sed on the edge of one of the beds, my thoughts in turmoil. Another fae wanted to nab me. It didn’t matter if the fae was Finian or a stranger—both wanted the same thing. They wanted to turn me into the changeling version of a puppy mill. If I disappeared with one of the fae, I was done for. There’d be no second chance for Ryder. No hope of ever escaping my changeling fate.
And the fact that I now had a second fae prince pursuing me? It was like the icing on top of a very crappy cake. The weight of it all felt like it was pressing on my shoulders. A small sob escaped my throat, and I sank to the floor.
“Ryder?”
I looked up to see Hugh looming over me, his necklace hanging from one big hand.
He frowned down at me. “Why do you cry?”
“It’s nothing,” I said, wiping at my cheeks. “I’m just . . . stressed. That’s all. Pay no attention to me.”
“You are upset,” he said, glowering down at me.
“Of course I’m upset. You would be, too, if you were in my situation. One guy wants to turn me into his own personal exotic pet and stud me out so I can breed him more little exotic pets, and the other guy wants to steal me from guy number one. I don’t have a way out, the True Love thing is bunk, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life as someone’s pet monster.” Just letting it all erupt out of me made fresh tears crop up, and I continued to wipe at my cheeks. “Now I’m hiding out in a hotel with some big jerk that doesn’t even like me, and my best friend is getting married to the love of her life.”
He said nothing, which only made it worse.
I put my head down and continued to weep, feeling sorry for myself. The situation just continued to swirl in my mind, all the pieces interlocking. Just as Marie’s life was coming together, mine was falling apart. My best friend was happy and engaged and radiant with joy. I was having to overnight it in a hotel with a stranger because I couldn’t go home thanks to the fact that I was being hunted.
