by Alisa Woods
Jared nodded, impressed. “Our tech guy can erase all this stuff once we’re out.”
“No,” Grace said, firmly. “We need to preserve it. I’m going public with all this. Not the data itself, but the evidence of it. We need to show people what was going on here, Jared.” She strode toward the door of the lab like she was ready to burst out into the world right now with all of it.
He understood the burning need to do that… but it shot a gut-twisting worry through him. He didn’t want her to get hurt. Again.
He caught up with her at the door. “Are you sure? Grace, your father will find a way to—”
“My father…” Grace hissed. “My father is the source of all of this. He sent his own daughter here to be a lab rat, tortured by a crazed anti-shifter agent of the federal government. If you don’t think I’m going to let the world know about that, Jared River, then you don’t know me as well as you think.” The fire in her voice, the passion of it, her determination to right all of these wrongs—if he hadn’t already fallen in love with her, he could point to this moment and say, this is it. This was the moment when he knew Grace Krepky was everything he wanted in a mate.
He smiled a little. “I should’ve known.”
She frowned, and that moment of confusion held a touch of innocence again. The fiery girl ready to take on the world was replace by the pure, good-hearted girl he had seen through his scope, the very first time, when he had decided not to kill her father—she was all those things. And goddammit, he was so in love with her.
“You should’ve known what?” she asked.
“That there really was a tiger underneath that kitten exterior of yours.” He smiled broadly and hoped like hell she would say yes when he asked. Because he was definitely asking. Not now, but soon.
She grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet, Jared River. And I know exactly what we need to do next.”
He had no doubt.
Jared River was a damn liar—he had two gunshot wounds that his brother, Jace, had to sew up. That was not Grace’s idea of “fine.”
Regardless, once he was stitched up, he seemed to heal fast enough that she didn’t need to worry about him. Too much. Her clothes were a wreck, Jared looked exhausted, and his brothers, along with the rest of the pack who had come to rescue her, all seemed completely on edge. The tension in the van was crazy high. But she knew they had no time to waste—they needed to head straight to the Senator’s campaign office downtown.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jared asked for the fourth time, eyeing her. She really looked a fright—with her white blouse bright with blood, and a black skirt that hid it a little better—but that was the point.
Grace could tell Jared was just voicing the other’s thoughts, the ones rumbling through all the hulking, good-looking shifter men who packed the van. Damn. They were all extremely hot. How did female shifters get anything done with this much drool-worthy, man flesh around all the time? Even so, Jared was the largest and hottest among them. And her wolf only had eyes for him—she’d already given him her virginity, along with her heart. Now that he had saved her life, she owed even that to him. But the thing she was about to do… well, it was a bit crazy.
She hoped he would understand.
Grace gave him a nod she hoped was reassuring. “Yes, I am sure this is a good idea,” she said, not just to him, but to all of them. “You want to stop the Senator, right?” She waited for the nods to grudgingly come out. “Well, I know how to do that. What’s on these hard drives is all the evidence you need, but I’m uniquely suited to deliver the missile straight to the target.” She held Jared’s gaze. The rest of them, with all their eyes on her, faded into the background. “This isn’t just for me—this for every shifter who was captured, or went under the blade, or was injected with experimental medicines. This is something I can do for all of them.”
Jared just nodded. She wasn’t sure if he was agreeing, or just didn’t want to argue anymore, but the tension in the van dropped a couple levels. Lots of looks were exchanged, but no words during the rest of the trip back to her father’s campaign office.
She insisted that only Jared accompany her. He insisted that the rest of them stay on standby outside the high-rise building. She didn’t object—in fact, it was comforting to know she wasn’t on her own with this. Not anymore. And looking at Jared, she hoped never again.
It was late—past ten o’clock—but she knew Kylie and Nolan and her father would still be in the office, preparing for the next day’s campaign activities. They were still in ramp-up mode to the launch in a few days—everyone would be pulling late nights, under normal conditions.
Things were about to get very not normal.
She shoved open the door to the office and strode in. Her father, Nolan, and Kylie were all gathered in the center of the office, in the bullpen. They were huddled over Kylie’s desk, examining a map of the districts, no doubt planning out a strategy to hit every precinct during the official launch—which speeches Nolan would write, which messages Kylie would tailor for the residents of each district. Her father was always intimately involved, but Grace had to wonder what he told them about his campaign manager suddenly going missing. They certainly seemed to be carrying on like nothing was wrong.
She walked up to them, Jared at her back, and stood a dozen feet away, hands on her hips, bloodstained shirt making her look like something out of a nightmare.
Kylie was the first to look up. She shrieked, and her hands flew to her face, covering her horror. Nolan and her father were next. Her father’s face turned three shades more pale, and Nolan’s mouth dropped open.
Nolan was the first to recover, his face flushing red as he tore around Kylie’s desk. “My God, Grace, what happened to you?” Then he threw a glare at Jared behind her. “What the hell kind of bodyguard are you?”
“Nolan, I’m fine,” Grace said, putting a hand on his shoulder, then gently shoving him back. “Jared saved my life. He’s also my boyfriend.” Although boyfriend seemed like a pretty inadequate term for their situation. He was her lover—once—and soon to be mate. At least, she hoped. She threw a bashful look to Jared, hoping he didn’t mind, but he was watching her father carefully, like he expected the Senator to pull a gun at any moment.
Which, if she was honest, was a possibility.
Nolan had a dazed look on his face. Kylie had recovered and hurried up to them. “Jesus Christ, Grace, why are you covered in blood?”
Grace looked away from her best friend’s pained expression and stared hard at her father, who had backed away two steps, looking like he wanted to run. Coward. “I was tortured at the hands of a man working for the government with the blessing of my father,” she declared, throwing the words at her father like knives.
He had the decency to flinch under the assault. But he didn’t say anything.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Nolan was looking back and forth rapidly between her and her father.
Grace turned to face Nolan and Kylie. “My father already knows this, but it’s time you did. I’ve been keeping a secret from you for a long time.” She took a breath. “I’m a shifter.”
If the shock of her in a blood-soaked shirt sent a tremor through the office, being a shifter was a 10.0 on the Richter scale. Kylie’s face was blank with surprise–she stood motionless, staring at Grace with an almost comical expression on her face. Nolan looked slightly disgusted at first, but that was quickly chased away by a dawning understanding.
His gaze flitted back to her father. “Your father knew?” She could hear the trace of bitterness, and she couldn’t blame him—after all, she had kept the secret from him even though they had supposedly dated. Nearly had sex. Had worked together intimately for years.
“He only found out today,” Grace said, returning her steady drilling glare to her father. “And once he knew I wasn’t his biological daughter, he packed me off into a secret program. One he had authorized to torment shifters, perform medical expe
riments on them, and develop serums for a shifter-based super soldier.”
“Holy fuck—” Nolan whispered.
“Those are damn lies!” her father said, finally coming to life. “I don’t know what you thought you saw—”
Grace thrust her hands into the air, one hard drive in each, ribbon wires dangling down her arms. “It’s not just what I saw, Daddy.” The venom from hours of torture leaked into her voice. “It’s not just the blade that cut me, time and again. Or the cage I was stuffed in. I have all the evidence I need, right here—the reams of digital data that will make your secret program not so secret anymore.” Her chest was heaving. Jared’s warm hand landed at the small of her back, and that affirming touch bolstered her. She kept her glare trained on her father across the room.
The Senator scowled at the hard drives in her hands. “I don’t know what the hell those are—”
“Agent Smith is dead.” Grace let those words hang in the air.
Her father’s face opened with shock. He looked to Jared, then back to her, and Grace could see a light sheen of sweat break out on his forehead. He shuffled to the side like he was going to make a run for it.
“I don’t think so.” Jared stepped to block her father’s path to the front door.
The Senator held back, frozen in some kind of indecision in the middle of the office.
“Who the hell is Agent Smith?” Nolan asked, his voice pitched up and panicky.
“He’s the man who did this to me.” Grace let her hands drop and rotated her arms so the myriad of white lines that crisscrossed them were obvious to Kylie and Nolan.
Both blinked in horror.
Nolan edged forward and took one of her hands, gently, staring at her arm. He looked up. “Oh my God, Grace. Are you all right?” His voice was soft. She could feel the sudden weight of his concern—the concern of a friend, not a jealous lover.
“I’m fine, thanks to Jared,” she said with a small smile. “He saved my life. But that’s not what’s important now. What’s important is doing the right thing.” She held Nolan’s gaze.
He frowned a little. “I’m not sure what you mean.” But it was gentle—he wanted her to explain.
She straightened. “I will tell you exactly what I mean.” She glared at her father again. “I’m going to tell the world I’m a shifter. In fact, along with that news, I’ll also announce that I’m running for Congress.”
Nolan just blinked at her, surprise freezing his face for the third time. Kylie covered her mouth because it was gaping wide. Her father’s panicked look settled into one of fury.
“The hell you are,” her father said.
“Oh, yes, I am.” Grace let her anger have free rein. “And you, Senator Krepky, have a choice—either announce that you’re not running for re-election and that you support my campaign, or I’ll release all the information on these hard drives that explicitly connects you to the program to genetically engineer a super-soldier shifter.”
“You wouldn’t… you can’t…” Her father was sputtering.
“Oh, I can, and I definitely will.” Grace’s jaw hurt when she clenched it—she’d been biting down all day, trying to survive Agent Smith’s sadism and fascination with her ability to instantly heal. It made her woozy to think about, so she shoved it aside and let her righteous anger rise up. “In fact, the dirty laundry is coming out no matter what. The people deserve to know how shifters have been mistreated. How their human rights have been violated. And they deserve to have one of their own on the floor of the House to make sure something like this never happens again.”
“I will not support this!” her father shouted, but his voice was screeched with panic.
“Very well,” Grace said, calmly. “Then I’ll show the world the scars your henchmen gave me. They can make their own judgment about a man who sent his own daughter into such a program. And all your little, bigoted friends can try to figure out where my shifter genes actually came from… and what kind of man you actually are.”
Her father paled and leaned against Kylie’s desk. His eyes still had that calculating look, but she could tell—he knew he was in a box with no way out.
“You’re leaving me no choice at all.” He looked lost, and for a brief moment, she felt bad for him. The Senate was all he knew, all he had ever wanted, and she was destroying that power dream for him. But then she reminded herself—he destroyed it the moment he sent her off with Agent Smith.
“This is your bed, Senator,” she said, coolly. “I didn’t make it, but I’m going make you lie in it.” It felt hard—brutal almost; he was her father after all—but it needed to be said.
The resignation finally came across his face. He straightened up from the desk, stiffly, holding his chin up. But she knew it was just bravado. She could allow him an exit.
“I’ll make the announcement tomorrow,” he said.
“So will I,” Grace replied.
He gave her a short nod, then strode toward the door. He paused when he reached her and Jared, and for a moment, Grace thought Jared might just kick the crap out of him right then and there—but he held back. There was fury on Jared’s face, but also a strange sort of satisfaction, as if things were working out just the way he had hoped.
Her father only spared Jared a glance, but he gave her a look full of loathing. “You will not be welcome at the estate.” And with that, he strode out of the office.
If that was all he could threaten her with—that she couldn’t return to her childhood bedroom—she figured that was as close as she would get to a complete and utter concession.
She heaved a sigh of relief once the door was closed behind him.
“Holy shit, Grace,” Kylie said, breathless. “All this time…” She looked at Jared anew, running her eyes over him in appreciation and a kind of awe.
“I would say holy shit is about the least of it.” Nolan’s eyes were shining as he looked at her. Once he had her attention, he said, “I need to get back to work.” But he didn’t make a move to go anywhere.
Grace frowned. “I know you and Kylie both… well, you work for the Senator and—”
“I have a speech to write,” Nolan cut her off. “You’re doing this tomorrow, right? And our themes are the human rights violations of shifters and cleaning up corrupt government? I can work with that.”
A grin swept across her face. “Nolan…” But then she was too choked up for words. She lurched forward and threw her arms around him.
He hugged her back hard. “You sure you’re okay?” he whispered into her hair.
She nodded, then released him. “I promise.”
He glanced at Jared, but for once, it wasn’t filled with rivalry. “He’s a shifter, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Grace said with a small smile for Jared. “And he’s my mate.”
Jared’s eyes sparkled in return, but he stayed silent. He had watched the whole thing play out, quietly backing her up with his presence and his strength.
Grace looked back to Nolan. He frowned a little, but he didn’t look surprised. “I can work with that, too.”
She hugged him again, then Kylie shoved him aside to get her turn at hugging.
“Holy shit, girl, you do not mess around.” Kylie grinned when she let Grace loose. “I totally would vote for you without the hot shifter man as your mate, but girlfriend, that’s going to lock it down, you know what I’m saying?”
That forced a laugh out of her. Grace thought all her tears had been wrenched out, but it turned out there were a few more left inside her.
“Our country is at its best when it’s practicing tolerance and respect for all people.” Grace’s voice boomed out over the crowd of reporters Kylie had assembled. She and Nolan stood to one side of the stage, next to Jared, who was scanning the crowd, ever vigilant for any kind of threat. He hadn’t tried to talk her out of this, but he’d thrown every resource that Riverwise had into protecting her during her “coming out” speech. Dozens of hunky shifter men were sprinkled among
the crowd and lined the doors to the hall.
“You don’t have to be a shifter to recognize that the kind of abuses I’ve revealed, occurring right under our noses here in Seattle, are intolerable. We can’t continue to call ourselves a civilized country if this is what we’ve become. If this is what we allow to happen. But I don’t believe this is what we are. I believe we’re a country that can find a way to accept others, no matter how different, rather than fear them. Shifters are our neighbors, our friends, our family. They are serving in our military, building businesses and homes and communities. They are, in a word, us.” She paused, letting the word stretch. The lights were hot on her face, making her squint at the crowd. They were holding their breaths, waiting for her. “It’s time for a shifter to hold office. To lead us into an era where shifters no longer have to hide in the shadows or fear for their lives or hold themselves separate from society. We need shifter representation in the House precisely to keep these kinds of abuses from happening. Because that’s not the kind of country we want to be. We are better than that.”
She pulled in a breath. “Thank you for your time.”
Grace stepped back from the podium. Cameras flashed. The reporters shouted questions. But Kylie had insisted that she leave all of that for later. More interviews. More speeches. This was just the beginning, and Kylie and Nolan had thrown themselves into creating a campaign for her out of thin air.
Kylie hurried forward to take the mic. “Ms. Krepky is not taking questions at this time, but there will be plenty of opportunity in the days ahead.” Her best friend kept talking, placating the crowd, thanking them for their time, but Grace’s head was buzzing as she stepped back to Jared’s side. Nolan gave her a wide smile—she must have done okay in the delivery—then slipped away to leave her alone with the gorgeous shifter man she hoped would be her mate. Someday. Maybe soon? The long hours of the campaign loomed ahead, but the hardest part was already over.
Jared slipped his hand into hers and pulled her past the curtain, off stage. Then he tugged her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.
