by Selena Scott
Matt took a deep breath. “I guess I should say thank you, then. For doing that for me. For us.”
“I guess I should say thank you, too. For putting your life on the line for my sister.”
They eyed one another. To Matt’s surprise, Milla broke first, leaning forward and kissing Matt square on the mouth.
“It’s good to have you on our side, poindexter,” she grinned at him.
He couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m not going to kiss you, but yes, I’m glad you didn’t die.” John Alec held one calloused palm out to Matt and they shook.
“I heard you carried me out. Back onto Earth.”
John Alec nodded. “You’re a big motherfucker. Almost broke my back.”
“Ah, sorry about that?”
John Alec broke into a quick smile. And then watched the way Inka was staring at Matt. “Time for us to go.”
“But—” Milla protested.
Alec looked at her meaningfully. “It’s time.”
Milla glanced at her sister as well, suddenly getting the memo.
“Alright, kids,” she said, swinging her hands. And found that there wasn’t anything else to say. There was always tomorrow.
Neither Matt nor Inka paid attention to them leaving. They simply stared at one another. She moved to sit next to him on the couch.
“I didn’t understand at the time,” she said quietly. “But you were really going to do that? Kill him so that I didn’t have to?”
Matt nodded. “I told you I would do anything for you, mariposa.”
Inka nodded and pressed her cheek into his palm.
“Inka, I’m leaving in a week. I have to go back to Manhattan. And I assume that since all this mess is cleared up here, you’ll want to live here permanently.”
Inka was as speechless as that first time he’d told her he wanted to kiss her. There was nothing to say back to what he’d just said. She got the horrible feeling that he was saying it all.
His eyes were absent, far away, the way they were when he was chewing over something in his mind. “You can come with me then, or maybe it makes sense to just come when it’s all finished. Actually, you wouldn’t even have to come at all, if you didn’t want to. I can always get your things from Milla’s.”
When his eyes focused on hers again he saw her terribly confused, pained even.
“Oh, crap,” he searched her eyes. “I botched this. Shit, mariposa, I didn’t mean to make you sad.” He turned and searched frantically on the couch for the package. “Here.” He slammed it into her hands. “Open it.”
She was flustered and on edge as she opened the thick envelope and peeked inside, expecting a letter. There was nothing. “It’s empty.”
He blinked and took the package from her, peering in. A grin flashed across his face. “No, it’s not. Hold out your hands.”
She did as he asked and he upended the envelope into her palms. A flash of green, a catch of the light, and a small gold ring fell into her hands. “It was Abuela’s,” he spoke softly. “The emerald makes me think of your eyes.”
Inka stared at it. Then at Matt. Then back to the ring.
“You…” she started, and then couldn’t finish.
“Love you,” he murmured, catching her face and pressing his lips to hers. “Love you so bad.”
“Por supuesto,” she spoke in Spanish, as flustered as she was. “Te amo. Te amo.”
He coughed out a laugh. He’d thought that flustered Spanish was his move. He was happy to share it with her.
“This is what I forgot, mariposa, that day you were talking to my mother. I realized that this whole time that I’d been so concentrated on the frequency tool, on your safety, on falling in love with you, that I’d forgotten to make you my wife.”
He picked up the ring from her palms and held it out to her.
She held out one shaking hand and he slipped it on her finger.
It slipped right off.
“Oh, crap,” he muttered. “I guess Abuela’s hands were a little chubby.”
Inka laughed and jammed the ring onto her middle finger. “I don’t care. I don’t care at all. Matt,” she said, her eyes wide and honest, “you’d live here with me? That’s what you’re saying? You’d leave the Chinese food and running in the park and the lingerie store and your falcon at the window? And you’ll come live here?”
“Inka,” he scooted closer to her. “What I feel for you? I’ve been trying to put a pin in it for a very long time. It’s not adoration. It’s just to the left of that. It’s not lust, it’s, ah, the vehicle that lust rides on. It’s not quite happiness or desire either. Because love is all inside all those feelings, but it’s also right on the edge of them. It’s everywhere for you.” He tapped his fingers against his chest. “It’s–It’s—”
“It’s the common denominator,” she finished for him.
“God, yes,” he groaned, so grateful she understood. The way she always understood. “And when you come up against something like that? You move your life. I want to come here. I want you.”
She pulled him into a kiss that was much more vigorous than anyone a week out from surgery should have been participating in.
He shivered, from everything, the feelings, the adrenaline, the early summer breeze through the open windows.
Inka automatically threw one of her knitted blankets over the two of them. “Welcome home, Matty.”
“Yeah,” he kissed her once more, leaned their foreheads together. “You too.”
The End
Ansel’s Game
(Shifter Fever Series – Book 1 Preview)
PROLOGUE
ONE YEAR AGO
Ruby Sayers skipped a rock off the shallow, almost still, waters of the lagoon where she sat. She wanted to shout something across the water to her brother, but instead she bit her lip and skipped another stone. She was trying to take a step back lately. He was seventeen years old, for God’s sake. And she was woman enough to admit that she was a tiny bit of a helicopter parent.
She didn’t particularly blame herself for it, considering that she’d had to learn how to be a parent all at once, at age nineteen, when she’d unexpectedly become the sole guardian of her then nine-year-old brother. But it was eight years later, their lives had really started to smooth out, and she knew Griff didn’t need a nagging, harping voice in his ear telling him to be careful jumping between the boulders that surrounded the lagoon.
But dang it, she really wished he’d be more careful jumping from boulder to boulder! Instead of calling out to him, she squeezed her eyes shut for just a minute, centering herself. It was better if she didn’t watch him. When she felt a little bit better, she grabbed up her camera from her satchel and set about taking some pictures of the lagoon. This would make a lovely place for some engagement photos, she reflected. Or some graduation photos.
It was a little bit too woodsy for typical wedding shots; no woman in a full wedding gown could make it out this far from the trail. But, in her last five years as a professional photographer, she’d definitely learned that it took all kinds. People came in all shapes and sizes and they wanted all matter of things documented. Hell, Ruby had photographed a cat wedding not three weeks ago. As in, a person had wanted his two cats to be wed.
She and Griff had been laughing through tears when she’d showed him the final proofs. She smiled now, just thinking about it. And without a second thought, she swung her camera toward Griff, and captured him in a photo in the exact second that he backflipped off a boulder and into the lagoon below.
Ruby squawked in dismay. Yes. Squawked. The noise tore out of her as she rose up instantly, tossing her camera aside and readying herself to dive into the water after him. Half a second later, he surfaced, grinning and waggling his eyebrows at her.
“Griff, you ass!” Ruby hollered as she set her hands on her hips. But she couldn’t stay mad. She’d never been able to stay mad when he was smiling like that. Ever since their parents had been declared de
ad, all of Ruby’s focus had been firmly placed on Griff’s happiness. Which was why she’d made the decision to yank him out of school in Brooklyn two years ago.
They’d had to leave some friends behind when they moved out here, but Griff was never gonna survive in high school. He often had debilitating migraines that his doctors never could get to the bottom of. And he found himself falling further and further behind in school. When the choice had been to repeat freshman year, or yank him out and help him get his GED, Ruby hadn’t hesitated.
And for his part, Griff hadn’t either. He was a shy kid, always had been. Even though he’d been born and raised there, the loud, raucous heat of Brooklyn had never quite felt like home. Both Ruby and Griff had breathed a tremendous sigh of relief when they’d finally rolled into the driveway of the summer home their grandparents had left to them a few years back.
It was small, quaint, and had needed plenty of upgrades to turn it into a year-round home, but two years later, it suited both of them perfectly. Small enough that it was fairly easy to keep clean and just big enough that they had places to stay out of one another’s way.
Which was becoming increasingly important, Ruby reflected as she watched Griff’s slender, sleek body dive under the water. He was growing up. He was starting to meet—shudder—girls.
God.
Ruby sat on the edge of the lagoon and turned her face up to the sun that filtered through the layers on layers of green leaves. What was she gonna do about Griff dating? Up to now, she’d been able to muddle her way through parenting him in each stage of his life because each stage of his life had been something she’d handled first-hand.
But dating? Yeah. She had zero experience in that arena. Like a big, old, whopping zilch. She hadn’t been, you know, very cute in high school, all that red hair and a little chubby. And she’d only been one year into college when her parents had disappeared. And then, when she’d blossomed (her hair had calmed and she’d made her peace with her curves), which she could admit that she finally had, she’d become a two-for-one deal. Most guys weren’t interested in getting super close to a girl who had a lanky, quiet, often scowling kid attached to her side.
She sighed. She figured that she’d probably handle it the exact same way she’d handled everything with Griff. With unfiltered, often cringe-worthy honesty. She never wanted him to feel as if she were keeping anything from him. So she’d just gone the safest route and told him the truth. About everything. It had made for hard moments.
-There was an avalanche, Griff. They can’t find Mom and Dad.
-They stopped looking for Mom and Dad, Griffie.
-There’s gonna be a funeral, Griff. We’ll say goodbye together.
-It’s just you and me. But we’ll make it, Griffie. We’ll make it.
Hard moments, but ones that she was grateful for in the end. She and Griff trusted one another without question, and he’d understood what had happened from the beginning. There were none of those gut-wrenching, when is Mommy coming home? moments that you so often saw in movies. She’d told him the truth. He’d cried his eyes out, accepted it, and moved on at her side.
She watched Griff float lazily in the water. He was getting bigger. And he’d started asking her about getting a job of his own. Because the house from their grandparents was bought and paid for, Ruby had been able to keep them in groceries and fairly stylish clothes with just her photography gig. But she had to admit, a little extra pocket money for a kid his age would go a long way. And a job would be good for him. Maybe something physical. Something that could put a little meat on his bones.
She wondered idly if the carpenter who’d done the upgrades on their home two years ago would ever hire an assistant on. Her brain quickly skittered away from thoughts of that man. He made her stomach jump. Not in a bad way, but just in a… jumpy way. Slow-talking, slow-eyed, and well over six feet tall, Ruby had always felt nervous in whatever room he was in. So for the most part, she’d kept out of his way while he finished up the project. Occasionally she’d see him around town and she’d give him a quick smile or a nod, but most of the time she found herself busying herself with something, crossing to the other side of the street.
She supposed some men were just like that. No one else she’d ever met besides that particular one. But it soothed her nerves to think that he was of a particular type that she just wasn’t quite familiar with yet.
Ruby did a quick scan of the lagoon, saw that Griff was still floating on his own, and stood up to start getting lunch ready for the two of them. Nothing fancy, just some sandwiches she’d tossed into the bag and an orange and a pickle each. And a Nalgene of water to split. She was halfway through setting it out on the small picnic blanket she’d brought when something caught her eye. And sent her stomach right down through the floor.
Griff was gripping the side of the lagoon, his shoulders up around his ears and the heel of one hand digging into his eye.
She’d recognize that posture anywhere. It was exactly what he looked like when he was just minutes from experiencing an excruciating migraine.
Damn. Damndamndamn. Ruby dug through the bag until she found the pills that the last doctor had prescribed, but she knew they wouldn’t work. They never worked. Yet, it was better than just sitting back helplessly. Luckily they still had a few hours before the sun set, so Griff would probably be over the worst of it before they had to hike back out.
She grabbed the Nalgene, hopped a small shrub and skidded to her knees right next to where Griff gripped the side of the crystal clear pool.
“Here you go,” she whispered, knowing that extra noise would be excruciating to him now. She wasn’t surprised when he shoved the pill back toward her. He didn’t like taking them and Ruby couldn’t blame him. They didn’t do much besides knock him out for a day and a half.
“No, Rube,” he groaned. “If I gotta walk out of here in a few hours then you know I can’t take that crap.”
“Alright,” she whispered back, and then tipped the bottle of water onto his lips. He took a few grateful sips.
“Rube,” he said through a voice laced with the beginnings of pain. “Do you see that?”
His eyes were focused on something just over her shoulder. Ruby glanced quickly behind her and then back to Griff, her attention focused on him. But then, what she’d seen slowly registered and Ruby found herself doing the mother of all double takes.
The small waterfall that fed into the lagoon was… glowing. Amber gold and absolutely incandescent.
Ruby rose to her feet and turned to stare when something large and wet brushed past her.
“Griff!” she started; he was moving quickly. Considerably faster than he was ever able to when he was in the first throes of one of his migraines.
But she could barely keep up.
“Griff, wait!” she hollered at him as he jogged toward the glowing waterfall. She caught up to him, grabbed his shoulder, swung him around to face her, and barely recognized her little brother. The boy she’d damn near raised. His face was dazed and somehow looked both pained and calm at the same time. His features were both lax and tight. And she knew, without knowing, that his eyes were unseeing. He was gazing at that waterfall like it was otherworldly.
Something cold and quick zipped up Ruby’s spine and she called his name again. But he didn’t hear her.
He merely shook her off of him with strength she didn’t know he had. And then he wasn’t jogging, he was full on sprinting toward the waterfall. Water droplets flung off of him, catching the sunlight on their way into the air as he closed the distance.
Ruby was right behind him, but not quite fast enough. Just one yard behind him. Inches really. And it would be that that would haunt her in the months to come. How close she’d been to being able to grab him again.
But she wasn’t close enough. Because Griff ducked his head, reached out his arms and dove into the waterfall.
Ruby full on screamed as one second he was there and the next second he wasn’t. She r
eached the waterfall one second after he did and she plunged her hands into the water first, looking for a handhold that would help her step through the water and into whatever cave Griff had just dove into. But her hands didn’t find a handhold. They found a solid sheet of rock.
She screamed her brother’s name and broke fingernails as she scraped her hands through the falling water, searching and searching for whatever hole he’d disappeared into. But she’d found nothing.
And neither did the cops who eventually came. And neither did the hunting dogs who combed the mountains for him. And neither did the men who dragged the lagoon for his body. No one found a thing.
Which is how Ruby Sayers found herself one hundred percent alone in this world. Living on the outskirts of a town full of people who started giving her real funny looks. Those of them that would look her in the face, that is.
Ruby didn’t care. She cared about nothing. Her brother was gone. Just like her parents were gone. Disappeared into nothing. Just like the light of the golden waterfall the second it closed around Griff.
CHAPTER ONE
Ansel Keto didn’t consider himself to be a complicated man. Sure, there were plenty of things about him that would make most folks’ mouths drop open–one thing in particular–but besides that, he was just a regular man. With a regular man’s needs. He liked to work hard at something physical every day, which was why carpentry suited him just fine. And he liked to relax in a quiet place with something cool to drink every night. Which was why his two-room cabin up in the Catskills suited him just fine. The porch was perfect for sitting and the view was perfect for looking.
He was aware that most people viewed him as a rather slow man. And that didn’t bother him at all. He and his three siblings had a pretty juicy secret that they chose to keep to themselves. Each of them had chosen a different way of coping with such a burden, and a different way of throwing folks off the scent.
