by Olivia Arran
“What is it?”
“Something that’ll make you forget why you’ve got half of the forest stuck in your hair.”
I took a cautious sniff of the glass, reeling back, my eyes watering. “Are you trying to kill me?”
He leaned forward, biceps bunching and straining the cuffs of his dark t-shirt. “Darling, I—” He stuttered to a stop, his eyes widening and face paling. “Shit! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were taken.” He dragged a hand over his face with a groan. “I didn’t mean any offense, Ma’am.”
I downed the shot. He was right, it did take the edge off real life worries. “I’m not taken.”
He laughed, covering it with a cough when he realized I wasn’t kidding. “You’re not Leona, then?”
I squinted at him, my vision a little blurry.
At my confusion, he shrugged. “Word travels fast around here. You’re Austin’s girl.”
“No. I’m not.” How many damn showers would I have to take before every shifter I met didn’t jump to conclusions?
He nodded real slow. “Okay, then. Can I get you anything else?” The flirty bartender routine was gone for good.
Probably for the best, I couldn’t summon up the energy or the interest to try and not insult him. “What’s your name?” I eventually asked. Working here he had to have seen a little bit of everything.
“Harry, Ma’am.” He tipped an imaginary cap with a wink.
Time to put my alcohol infused courage to use. Running a finger around the edge of the shot glass, I worked out what I wanted to say and blurted it out. “What’s it like being a shifter?” Before he had chance to answer, my mouth decided to carry on, “Do you like it? I mean, you probably don’t know any different, but it must be kind of cool. Or at least, I think it would be.” Damn it, I hadn’t meant to sound all wistful.
His immediate frown softened, even viewed through my alcohol infused goggles. “You’re right, I wouldn’t know any different. I was born a tiger; my parents were tigers, too. Brother and sisters; all tigers. I love it.” Pulling a can of soda up from behind the counter, he took drink, visibly collecting his thoughts. “I’d imagine it’s different to what you’re used to, though I couldn’t imagine not being able to run in the forest, to chase and play and hunt.”
“It sounds amazing.” There I went again; all full of wistfulness and longing.
“Sure is.”
Giving the shot glass a little spin, I watched as it skated across the counter, coming to rest by his hand. “Not to mention the extra strength and super senses.”
“Those come in handy, too.”
“But you’ve never had to live without them.”
“No. You’d have to ask someone who has been bitten and changed for their opinion, but I can’t imagine anyone being upset about the perks. Most people I know who were changed, wouldn’t go back.”
I made a mental note to ask Harper, but knew I wouldn’t follow through. It felt too … private? It wasn’t the right word, but something along those lines. Like a special secret that even if she wanted to share, she couldn’t. And shouldn’t.
“Why don’t you ask Austin?”
I nearly fell off my stool. “Huh?”
He scratched his cheek with a look of chagrin. “I know, I know, we don’t usually talk about heritage, but I was thinking what with you and him…” He made a you know gesture in the air.
“Austin was bitten?” I managed to dial it back from a shout at the last moment. But … but …
His face fell. “You didn’t know.”
Austin had been human. “Yes, I forgot. Silly me.” I added a giggle, hoping to convince the poor guy that I was tipsy, before he had a heart attack. Austin had once had a life outside of Heartsridge, outside of shifter society. He’d been a regular guy, the kind I might have bumped into on the street and maybe plucked up the courage to ask out for a coffee. Yeah, right … no. I knew me. In all honesty, I would have stared longingly at him in passing, maybe fantasized about him while traveling on the subway, then gone home to my bed alone. That was more like it. But, still … he knew exactly what Harper had gone through. The change. The strangeness. It explained why he’d taken such an interest.
And why he’d hung around so much.
He’d been human and knew what that was like, so why the hell would he be interested in someone like me? An insignificant human. Forcing myself to see it through Austin’s eyes; I understood. It was finally clear.
It also meant that I knew two people who’d been bitten and survived. Heck, not survived. Thrived. Even I could see that Harper would flourish here, and she certainly wasn’t grieving her old life, not from what I’d heard over the last few days and observed tonight.
The spark of an idea was forming, struggling inside my fuzzy, tired brain. I gave up trying to grab it, instead letting it simmer and do its thing.
“You okay?”
I slid off my stool and grabbed my purse. Digging around, I pulled out my credit card.
Harry waved it away with a smile, but concern creased his brow. “On the house.”
Who was I to argue. “Thanks.” Dammit, I wasn’t going to cry. But I was slumming it in wallow town, and he’d shown a sliver of kindness.
“Austin would rip my balls off if I charged his girl,” he replied with a smirk.
“I’m not—”
“So you’ve said.” He turned away with a wink to serve another customer, leaving me standing there torn between laughing my ass off and wailing.
I decided on bed, instead. Alone. But, if I had it my way, morning would bring a whole lot of changes.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Austin
I wasn’t in the mood for this shit and everyone in the room knew it. Who the hell called a meeting at the ass crack of dawn, anyway? I’d been up near most of the night, running the forest with Harper as she bonded with her fox.
A smile tugged at my mouth, cracking the grumpy exterior I’d been perfecting for the last couple of hours. She’d done good. A natural, she’d had none of the issues I had faced and after the run last night I wouldn’t imagine I’d get called on often. But she knew where I was, if she needed me. As her Guardian, I’d volunteered to stand in as her Alpha until she chose her path. Yup. She’d done good for a shifter coming up on a week old.
Or was it a full week, now? The reminder of time slipping away only served to heighten my panic, driving me deeper into the self pitying state I’d been wallowing in.
“What do you think, Austin?”
I glanced at Carter. I hadn’t heard a word he’d said and I really didn’t give a shit. Though I should. So far this meeting had been all about shit and vinegar, but I was pretty sure I’d just heard the word fox. “She’s doing good.”
He frowned, just in case I didn’t catch the displeasure in his voice, “I wasn’t asking about Harper.”
Ah, right. “Jake tracked the bastard down to a farming settlement. A pack of foxes. He reckons there to be about three or four of them, probably a family. The one he was tracking—Harper’s attacker—wasn’t there.”
“About that…” Owen cut in, “He’s young, maybe even underage.”
Carter turned his glare on Owen, the Mayor immaculate in a black suit and tie combo I was sure I’d look like a jackass in, if I ever got the urge to dress up nice. “And how do you know this?” Yup. No escape from that look.
Owen, being the big, bad Alpha wolf that he was, didn’t shuffle in his chair or flinch, he flicked an imaginary speck of dust from his sleeve and met the other man’s eyes. The wolf had brass balls, that’s for sure. “Because one of my pack knows the fox shifter.”
Carter leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking under his weight. “And when were you going to inform me of this?”
“I’m informing you now.”
“The fox needs to be brought in for questioning.”
“He’s a kid who was looking for an adventure and got spooked. He didn’t mean to bite Harper.”
/> I slammed my hand down on the chair arm, cracking it down the center. “Bullshit.”
“He’s led a sheltered life.”
Damn Owen for defending him. “He attacked a person in human form. Human or shifter, that’s not how we do it around here.”
“He—”
Carter let out a snarl, cutting Owen off. “He needs to come in. If it was an honest mistake and he takes responsibility for it, it’ll work in his favor.”
“And then what? You’ll sentence him anyway? He was just checking us out, thinking about joining us. The human shouldn’t have even been in the forest—”
“Fuck you, Owen.” I jumped to my feet, the chair skidding away from me.
Zane jumped in front of me and held me back. Silent up until now, he turned to Owen with a snarl of his own, “Her name is Harper. And you’ve got some nerve coming in here and defending a rogue.”
Owen lowered himself back into his chair, his fingers sliding through his hair and leaving it in spikes. “I know her fucking name, I was there last night at her first change. Christ, do you think I want this responsibility? My pack member has brought this to my door and I can’t turn my back. One way or another this kid needs our help. Hell, his whole family might, who knows?”
“Unregistered shifters are rogues.” Carter didn’t shout, his voice cutting through the anger fueled air. “But a family is different.”
“In what way?” I demanded.
Law chose this moment to speak up, the son-of-a-bitch, “They chose pack, that doesn’t mean they chose to oppose us. People have reasons. If you ask me, this whole registration thing is a step too far.”
Carter’s groan echoed around the room. “Registration is not up for discussion. If you’ve got a beef with government, go shit on their doorstep and leave me out of it.”
A chuckle sounded from behind me. “You’ve always had a way with words, Noah Carter.”
I didn’t have to turn around; I’d recognize that voice anywhere. I waited for it…
“Glad you could finally join in one of our little meetings, Dante,” Carter drawled, indicating a spare seat. The same spare seat that sat empty every council meeting of the alphas.
The elusive dragon shifter ignored him, instead striding over to me and pulling up just short of sitting on me. “Tell your bears to leave my territory alone.”
Wait a goddamned minute… “My bears?”
The dragon cocked his head, as if listening to something, then his mouth curved up into a smirk. “Any bear. Yours, his, whatever. Make them stop.” He turned on his heel and stalked away, heading for the door.
“Or what?” Law called after him, a big shit eating grin on his face. No need to guess which bears Dante was referring to, then.
The man in question paused in the doorway, his back still to us. “I’ll find the motherfucker and incinerate him.” The air crackled around him, a haze of smoke trailing him out of the room.
“I don’t like that asshole,” Zane muttered under his breath. “He creeps me out.”
“That’s because he could turn you into a bear burger without the need of a barbecue,” Law pointed out helpfully.
Zane shuddered. The big baby.
At least we had something to laugh about now. “Fine. Bring him in for questioning,” I said, once we’d all taken a potshot at Zane and his phobia of dragons, and the more likely culprit for his animosity—fire. I held up a hand, cutting off Carter before he had chance to respond, “I’m saying this as Harper’s Guardian and proxy Alpha, she gets the right to weigh in on any decisions.” It was only fair and something I’d never had to opportunity to do.
It hit me like a sledgehammer. For years, every waking moment I had thought of him, keeping his scent alive in my memory for the day we finally crossed paths. Planning my revenge down to the last detail. There would be no mercy, no chance to talk things over, I would be swift and brutal, just like he had been when he’d murdered my family.
Yet, I hadn’t dreamed about revenge in days. Hadn’t spent the nights tossing and turning, unable to let go of the ever constant rage that had held me in its grasp since the day my life had changed.
Four nights, to be exact since I’d woken up drenched in sweat, still hearing their screams.
“Agreed,” Carter replied, breaking into my train of thought, “But now is as good a time as any to warn you that we won’t be the only ones making decisions around here from now on.” He looked pained, and a hell of a lot of pissed off. “The high ups in the human government didn’t take the news of a human being attacked in Heartsridge very well. They’re sending someone to keep an eye on us and weigh in on any policies and legal issues. A liaison of some sort.”
“A human?” Owen’s voice expressed everyone’s surprise.
“Yes. A human living in Heartsridge. The position has been agreed for a year, to start, with the possibility of extension if things don’t … go very well.” Carter looked like he’d just been handed a shit sandwich.
“Does this mean we—they—are lifting the restrictions on humans traveling in and out of shifter territory?” Jay asked, interest brightening the scowl he’d been wearing all through the meeting.
Contrary to public knowledge, it wasn’t shifters who’d initially set the guidelines in place. Sure, we appreciated them, and had worked with their government to come to mutually agreeable terms, but sometimes they were a little too restrictive. Take Leona, for example. If she could just move here, then I could have more time to convince her…
“No change.”
Damn.
Jay didn’t look surprised, but he didn’t look too happy either.
Zane lurched to his feet. “If we’ve finished the morning pow-wow I’d like to get some shuteye.” He’d just come off the nightshift, the poor bastard.
Carter nodded, shuffling papers around on his desk that indicated we were done.
Following the guys out into the corridor, we all veered off in opposite directions, some of us toward home, and others—like me—just starting work. I’d gotten two steps away from the Mayor’s office before someone zipped around the corner and plowed into me.
Soft, curvy body. A scent that had my cock hardening and my bear roaring to life. Dark brown hair and gorgeous soft brown eyes blinked up at me.
I steadied her by the shoulders, noting the dark circles under her eyes and the pillow creases still lining her cheek. “Leona?”
She stepped to the side.
I stepped with her.
She smacked me on the chest. “Cut it out! I need to speak to Mayor Carter.” Her voice carried an anxious twinge, as if she had something she needed to say and couldn’t wait a moment longer.
“What is it Miss Kelly?” Carter said from behind me.
“Leona,” she muttered, trying to step around me again.
This time I let her, my hands clenching at having to let her go.
“Leona,” Carter corrected himself with a soft chuckle, “What can I do for you?” He leaned against the doorframe, perfectly polished in a suit that probably cost more than my cabin and completely at ease, no sign of the man who’d been ready to bite everyone’s head off just moments ago.
Her eyes darted to me for a brief moment, then her shoulders straightened as she thrust her chin out. “I’d like to be bitten, please. I want to be like my sister.”
The air vanished from the room, crushing my lungs. “What the fuck, Leona?” I grabbed her shoulder.
Not waiting, she spun around. “This has nothing to do with you,” she hissed.
“Like fuck it hasn’t,” I roared, not caring if everyone in the goddamn building heard me having a meltdown. “Are you out of your goddamned mind?”
“No. I’m in complete control of my faculties, thank you.” She strode toward Carter, accepting his invitation to take this conversation out of the public domain.
Locking eyes with me, Carter raised an eyebrow in silent question.
I stormed in after Leona, intent on setting her r
ight. “No fucking way.”
She rounded on me, hands shoved on her hips and eyes sparking fire. “Like I said, this decision has nothing to do with you. I’m not asking you for anything.”
I spluttered, lost for words. I’d give her the world, if I could, and she knew it. “You could die!”
“And I could live. Like Harper did! Like you did!” She threw the words carelessly, not caring if they cut hard enough to bleed.
I gripped her shoulders, wanting her to see the truth in my eyes, “I wasn’t bitten, sweetheart, I was destroyed. What that shifter did to Harper was a kid’s party game compared to what was done to me. I was home on leave from the military when it happened, some might say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I fought for them, my parents. I couldn’t save them, it was already too late, but I made that monster bleed. He repaid the favor, taking his time and enjoying making me scream. I bled out for eight days before I finally started to heal. Suffocated slowly by a windpipe torn open. I didn’t know what had been done to me, what kind of thing had done this, because shifters weren’t real back then. They were nightmares. The boogey man who crept into your bedroom at night and slaughtered your family. I survived, but I died a dozen times waiting for help.” And I’d been told it was one of the reasons I was an Alpha, despite being bitten and not born. Strength earned through pain and sacrifice, reborn as a shifter through blood and loss. I knew how hard the change could be on the human body, had seen people die from it over and over again. Harper was one of the lucky ones. Why had she survived? Who knew. I only knew I would die a hundred more times than see Leona risk her life.
“You can’t do this,” I whispered, silently begging her to concede.
Tears had tracked down her cheeks, her body shaking as I had revealed my dirty past secret by secret. “My time is almost up, Austin. I have to do something.”
Truth. I heard it through the raw pain in her voice.
I swallowed my pride, something I should have ignored from the start. “Be my mate. Stay with me.” Love me, I added silently. Panic slid down my spine. I glanced at Carter, who shrugged, as if he were actually considering her request!
