Her phone rang again.
“Medea?”
It was strange to hear her old name on her cousin’s lips.
“Maria?”
It was her oldest cousin. Shanya could hear the children in the background.
“Are you doing this for drug money?”
“No!” Shanya said.
She was supposed to spend the next week relaxing and avoiding undue stress. The Center had offered to put her up for the week, but Shanya wanted to come back home where things felt real. Now she was beginning to think that that was a mistake.
“Then why are you doing this?” Maria asked.
Shanya didn’t know why she jumped to drug money. Shanya had never shown interest in doing drugs ever. That was more of her brother’s thing. But Alex was handsome and fair and their mother never seemed to think he could do anything wrong.
No matter what mess Alex got himself into, Mama would always be there to bail him out.
“She’s got so much to worry about,” Maria continued. “Alex is in rehab.” 'Again' was unspoken.
“She doesn’t need this.”
“I’m not doing this to hurt her,” Shanya said. “Not everything I do has to be about her.”
“She hasn’t been the same since you left,” Maria said. “Besides, if you would just come home, we could find you a nice human man to settle down with—if that’s what you want.”
“I’m not coming home just so it’s easier for her to run my life,” Shanya said and cut off the call with a press of a button. She fell back on her bed. This was a terrible start to the day. More and more relatives kept calling and her mother got through several more times to scream at her.
This was the most attention her family had collectively paid to her and Shanya didn’t know how that made her feel. Nothing had gotten this many phone calls. Not vanishing in the middle of the night. Not the lack of forwarding address. Not her graduation from college. Not any of the awards she’d won. Nothing.
But now that she was doing this (and it was their fault, really, as she’d been unable to get a job in her field due to her family’s disapproval), they all suddenly remembered that she existed. It hurt more than she wanted to admit it did. They weren’t there for her triumphs but in her one perceived failure, they were all there—telling her what a terrible person she was, how hard this was on her mother with Alex’s most recent escapade (even in failure, her brother managed to eclipse her), and bandying about theories for why she’d done it.
“Are you being trafficked?”
That accusation bothered her the most for some reason.
Shanya could brush off accusations of whoredom (her family did not think well of humans of their status mixing with Shifters) but the idea that she had somehow been forced into the single most pleasurable sexual encounter of her life burned.
Her family seemed determined to take the one pure thing that had come her way and sully it.
Storm Panthera seemed to be utterly entranced with her. She didn’t know if that was something standard that he said to all the women he mated, but he’d said she was beautiful and it sounded like he meant it. Shanya had a good ear for when people were lying to her about those things.
As silly as it sounded, she just felt that he was telling the truth.
She sighed as she remembered his touches. They burned like fire across her dark skin. His powerful hands gripped her and instead of making her feel like some freak, it had felt like he’d actually been overwhelmed by her. Shanya knew that it was not possible, but it was nice to think that.
Afterwards, she had tried to glean more information about panther shifter mating online. Shanya’s searches had proven useless. All she’d come across was either porn or propaganda against Shifters. She’d already gone through the first experience and nothing could compare to her memories of Storm. If she wanted to listen to people pour poison in her ear, she’d have called her family. They were always more than happy to tell her terrible things about Shifters.
Honestly, Shanya wasn’t sure where all the hostility came from. Many people in her family’s circle didn’t mind Shifters. Some had even married them. But Shanya’s family stood firm in their beliefs. They refused to discuss it when Shanya had asked, as a child.
Sometimes Shanya wondered if her mother had done all those tests and gotten her certified as a pure human because someone in the family thought she might be of Shifter origin.
It was certainly an easy way to mask a paternity test.
She’d never really been accepted in her family. There was a coldness towards her that wasn’t present towards her brother. Shanya had tried to win them over. She’d done exactly what they wanted her to do until she’d fled, first to Kansas City and then to New York City when she was transferred.
Her brother—though he lied, stole, and did drugs—was treated warmly and trusted more than Shanya. It was unfair but there was nothing that Shanya could do about it. She’d tried but there was something about her that made all of her relatives distant. Sometimes she’d wondered if it was her eyes.
Now that she’d seen a panther shifter up close, she was beginning to wonder about that. She was pure. The purity tests were impossible to fake and even then the Center had retested her when she’d agreed to get pregnant. No, Shanya was human. Her eyes just looked exactly like Storm’s.
It had been nice. She felt like she actually belonged with him. Maybe that was why her family had always been so distant. But it wasn’t like panthers were common where they were from. They mostly stayed on the East Coast, as they were old money.
At this point, she was not sure how her mother was finding out about what happened in her life. Shanya was careful not to let anything slip to anyone. She didn’t have friends at SMILE Inc. No one from work ever saw her outside of work. She didn’t know anyone else in the building. There should have been no way for them to find her here, let alone track what she was doing. But they always seem to know about her breakups and woes right as they happened.
Once when Shanya and Clara had gotten high, Shanya had wondered if there were cameras secretly installed everywhere in the apartment.
Clara had humored her and looked all around.
Then when Shanya still wasn’t convinced, Clara pretended to make out with her and even went to far as to fake sex and orgasms underneath the blankets in Shanya’s room.
Her mother had never mentioned that.
Shanya was sure that if she were a lesbian it would have been seen as further proof as to why she was a terrible and worthless person. But there hadn’t been a single word. That had debunked the idea of bugs fairly easily. Still, it was little comfort to Shanya. All she knew was that she wasn’t being watched right now. The drapes were closed and the room was warm despite the fact that it was beginning to cool in temperature. The sun was going down. Shanya flopped back on the small twin bed.
How had they found her?
CHAPTER SIX
Jackson Kentwood was the man going over her contract with Storm Panthera. The instant he saw the terms, he whistled.
“I haven’t seen one this good before,” Jackson said.
“Oh?” Shanya said. She was looking at her copy. She’d seen the numbers and was completely staggered. It was more money than she’d ever seen before in her life. She wanted to sign it the instant she had seen all the zeroes. But since the Center offered this as a free service, Shanya thought it would be madness to decline it. That’s why she was currently spending the weekend with this man instead of immediately doing whatever was in the contract.
“So, there’s the standard fee part; while generous, that’s not the biggest thing,” Jackson said. He looked excited by the whole idea of the contract. “So there’s the part where his family is saying they’re going to provide for you, which normally means money. Only instead of doing that, they’re offered the best care—a team of private doctors, access to the best hospitals and if your living conditions aren’t up to snuff, and since this is the Panthera family,
trust me they’re not, then you’re being invited to live with them.”
Shanya gaped.
“What do you mean, live with them?” Shanya asked.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Jackson said. “You’re not even being installed as a mistress. This is just all to take care of the young. There are no romantic overtures. So there’s nothing that’s required of you. There’s no financial punishment for a stillbirth or a miscarriage.”
“That’s good, right?” Shanya asked.
“Well, yes. But there’s more,” Jackson said. “If you sign this part then should any of those happen then you’ll have the opportunity of falling pregnant again with him. There’s even another bonus if you’re pregnant a second time.”
“Why wouldn’t I just get a new contract?” Shanya asked.
“Well, most of the Shifters don’t want to waste money on someone who can’t carry their young to term,” Jackson said. “They’re giving you another chance.”
“Oh,” Shanya said. Why did he want her that much? He was willing to do anything to keep her and Shanya didn’t know why.
“However, there is the matter of space—he’s setting you up with your own apartments at the country estate and in the city; a whole floor is going to be made available for you.”
Shanya blinked. That did sound like a lot more than many people did for their surrogates.
“I haven’t found anything that seems off or horrible about this contract,” Jackson said. “So I think that you should sign it. Though, you’ll be wanting to see the house first, I assume?”
Shanya paused. She’d thought that she’d be spending the pregnancy at home when this had first happened, but now after the calls from her parents she was beginning to wonder if that would be a bad idea. There wasn’t anything that she wanted from the apartment and everything there was something that Storm probably had more of at his place.
“No,” Shanya said. “I’ll sign it.”
Before the man in front of her could protest, she took the pen from him and signed her name on the dotted line. It felt like she was signing her soul away.
“Well,” Jackson Kentwood said. “In that case, my work here is done. How do you want to be picked up?”
“Privately,” Shanya said.
She wondered if seeing the Human Research Council on television had done meant anything. Obviously, someone was watching her. That seemed like the only possible way for them to have found her this easily.
This would be perfect, Shanya thought as she waited in the underground waiting room for the car that would take her to the Panthera buildings. They were an arrangement of four gigantic skyscrapers in Manhattan. Each one belonged to a family of Shifters. The four families had a long and pure ancestry. Tigris, Leo, Onca, and Leopardus. The four big cat families had aligned themselves together.
Among those four houses, security would be tight. She would have her own floor and likely wouldn’t be leaving the house for any reason during her pregnancy. Her parents were never going to find her. She’d already switched phones to something that would jump signals—making it impossible to trace.
Clara had been surprised that was one of the things that Shanya has spent her advance on. She’d gotten Clara to buy it as well. So it wasn’t even under her own name and she wouldn’t be seen buying it. She was going to be able to stay in touch with Clara and her family was never going to find her.
This might just be Shanya Black’s most complete disappearance yet. It excited her. They were going to have no idea where she’d vanished to – it was going to drive her family crazy. Shanya smiled as she waited.
Someone came out and took her to the car. She felt like a princess as two assistants leaped out and proceeded to help her into the limo. The partition was up and she could not see the driver. The windows were darkly tinted. In the dim light of the underground, Shanya was unable to see anything outside. It was nice. All the sounds were muffled as well. The car moved suddenly.
Shanya was impressed. There had been no hum of the engine before the car sped up. She relaxed into the comfortable seats. She could get used to this. For nine months, all this luxury would be hers.
Though the greatest luxury was going to be how little her parents knew about her location.
They were never going to be able to find her.
Shanya had often dreamed of this day, but she never thought she would ever be in a position to make sure they would be cut off from her completely. But the Panthera family had enough money and prestige to keep even her family away.
She was going to be safe for nine months.
*
Even through the heavily tinted windows, the Panthera complex of buildings was stunning. They rose high into the sky. In the filtered light, they gleamed and sparkled. Arching walkways connected them and the tall green trees of the courtyards rose up and surrounded them. The trees made it look more jungle-like than anything, though Shanya knew that it was located in New York City. She wondered if the trees had been planted because it reminded the families of home.
She pushed that thought away. How could a lion feel at home in the jungle?
Like the Center, the Panthera Complex had an underground parking structure. This made it possible for the family to enter the building without exposing themselves. She knew that this had been a popular principle in building for a long time, but try as she might, she could not remember for how long or when the tradition had started.
Her education on the history of humans and Shifters had mainly focused on the effects that Shifters had on humans and not the other way around. Considering how powerful the Shifter families were, it was easy to forget that humans had been a great threat to their continued existence. In fact, marriage between Shifters and humans had only been legalized thirty years ago. It had been something that Shanya’s mother and father had campaigned against.
That had been one of the things Shanya had been researching before she disappeared for the first time. The Human Research Council wanted to show that there had been an uptake in human/Shifter relations since that ruling. While there had been an increase, Shanya was sure it had been because the definitions of human and Shifter were blurring. However, that wasn’t the research the Center was looking for. They wanted something they could use to promote keeping the humans and Shifters as separate as possible.
The car descended down into the parking garage. Shanya tried to push the thoughts of her former life away from her mind. When she’d left her parents and her job on the West Coast, she’d tried so hard to forget about everything. It wasn’t easy, but Shanya did manage to push those thoughts away in order to focus on the present.
When the car stopped, the attendants came and opened the door for her. Shanya was wearing one of the new dresses that she had purchased for herself. It was bright gold and set off her eyes wonderfully.
There were more servants ready to welcome her. They led her up carpeted steps. She was then taken in to a small waiting room. It was a cozy space and Shanya felt instantly comfortable there. A door opened and suddenly, Shanya was attentive. There stood Storm Panthera in all his glory.
“You came!” he said and rushed to her side. “I didn’t think you’d be here this quickly.”
Shanya drank in the sight of him in his nice suit, so eager to see her. She’d never been treated like this before and she was realizing that she liked it—she liked it much better than the other men who were never thrilled unless she was naked and on her knees.
“Where else would I go?” Shanya asked, smiling at Storm.
“Stay in your home, gathering your possessions?” Storm couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He wasn’t even staring at her stomach like she’d half expected. No, he genuinely seemed happy to see her and not even think about what she was doing for him.
“I don’t have many,” Shanya said. She fingered the pendant around her neck. What she did have was more precious than gold. The fake black gemstone hid the USB drive that contained her book and scans that were impor
tant to her research. She’d started keeping them on her body after her mother called.
She couldn’t let the book fall into her mother’s hands. She knew that her mother would try to have it ghost written and publish it under Shanya’s real name. She didn’t want that to happen. She would die if her mother completely ruined any pretense at a career for her. Shanya was determined to have this one thing to herself.
“Truly?” Storm asked.
Shanya nodded. “Besides, what could I bring that you wouldn't already have?”
“You’re not the sentimental type,” Storm said.
“I move around a lot,” Shanya said. “I can’t really afford to be.”
“Well that will thrill my sisters,” Storm said. “I’d assured them that you wouldn’t want to go out shopping with them, but they were not to be dissuaded.”
The Panther's Arranged Mate Page 6
