by Amelia Jade
Karri wrenched her arm free. “What are you doing? I have things to do to make this official.”
He had no idea what she was talking about. “Karri, come on. I’m free; we don’t need to stay here anymore. Let’s get you away before someone tells your father.”
“Andrew, my father is the one who brought me here!” she said testily. “He knows I’m here, and he’s here with me.” She looked up at him, shaking her head and lifting her arms. “How do you think you got free?”
“Because I…” He trailed off. “Karri, what have you done?” he asked cautiously.
“I did what was necessary. I did what anyone in my place should have done.”
He felt a chill in his bones. If her father was here, that meant they were on talking terms once more. There was only one thing in the world that would get them to talk again, as far as he know.
“What did you agree to do?” he asked.
She frowned at him. “I told my father that if he agrees to drop the charges against you and to get you out of jail, that I would relinquish any claim on the company.”
“Karri…no,” he breathed. “No you can’t do that. It’s insanity. You don’t need to!”
“Why? Besides, it’s already done,” she said. “He’s in there signing forms to ensure your release. Shouldn’t you be saying thank you?” she said, raising her eyebrows at him.
“No. No no no. It’s not supposed to happen like this!” he cried, pushing past her and heading for the room her father was in.
“Andrew wait! No!”
He ignored her, pushing open the door and closing it. Then he stood in front of it, his strength preventing her from opening the door.
In the room her father spun at the intrusion, the police officer at the desk looking up in surprise.
“Relax,” Andrew said. “I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m here to bargain, and I have something I think you’ll find acceptable.”
Her father frowned. “Everyone wants to bargain with me today it seems.”
“Sir,” Andrew said formally. “You can’t let Karri do this. She’s making a mistake.”
“What do you mean?”
“Karri has always dreamed of running your company, sir. She knows it inside and out. She loves it, and she loves the people there too. She deserves it. The truth is, she would have it too, if it weren’t for me. I screwed things up, I got involved with her when I shouldn’t have.” He shrugged. “But that’s over now. I’m going to resign, and I’ll go back to Cadia. There’s no need to take the company away from her. I’ll leave her alone, never speak to her again, if that’s what it takes. But sir, you can’t take this dream away from her. Please, I’m begging you.”
He paused, unsure of what else to say. The officer in the room had put her head back down, busily acting like she had exactly no idea what the hell was going on.
“You would sacrifice both your status as ambassador, and your chance at a relationship with my daughter, simply so that she can take over my company?”
Andrew nodded. “Yes, I would. In a heartbeat. I don’t want to, but who would I be if I asked her to give up her lifelong dream for me? I couldn’t live with myself, sir.”
The older man seemed to contemplate his words, his eyes looking up and to the left as he accessed thoughts and memories while Andrew stood in front of him, frantically thinking up anything else he could say that might get through to the old man. He was already astonished things had proceeded as they had. In truth Andrew had expected to be shot the instant he entered, despite being in the middle of a police station. So to not only stay civil, but actually have a conversation with him was astounding, to say the least.
What had Karri said to him to enact such a change?
“No!”
Karri’s voice came through the door. “Andrew, you can’t do this! You can’t leave!”
He stepped forward, letting the door open so that she could enter at last. The cop behind the desk just winced and tried to disappear even more, shrinking into her chair as the situation in the room became even more complicated.
“It’s already done, Karri,” he said. “I signed the resignation papers. I’m leaving. With me out of town, you can still take over the company. I know it’s been your dream all along.”
She shook her head. “No. I mean, yes, it was my dream, Andrew. But then I met you, and everything changed.”
Yes, it did. But I’m doing this for you, can’t you see that?
“I know. But I’m not going to let you give this up for me. I can’t do that. Not in good faith.”
Karri bristled as she stepped up to him. “Listen to me, Andrew Raskell. I don’t give a shit what you can or can’t do. This is my damned decision, and you will respect it. Otherwise you don’t respect me, and in that case you can go right to hell. Understood?”
Although he towered over her by nearly a foot and a half, and outweighed her by triple, Andrew found himself taking an involuntary step back. Karri was an intimidating figure when she got going, and he certainly would prefer to be anywhere but in her sights at the moment.
“I said, understood?” she growled when he didn’t reply.
Andrew thought about standing his ground, about pressing his point home, but a slight twitch of her eyebrows warned him that he would be making the wrong decision.
“I…” he started to say, then slumped. “I understand.”
“Good,” she said sweetly. “Now, Father, can you finish signing those forms so we can stop making this young officer have the most uncomfortable experience of her life?”
“But Karri, it doesn’t matter,” he protested as her father bent back to following instructions. “I already signed the resignation form. Once that reaches Cadia, it won’t matter anymore.”
“We’ll deal with that after we’re done here,” she said firmly.
“You’re done,” the officer said. She looked at Andrew. “Sir, you are free to go.”
“Freed twice in one day,” he said. “Now that’s something you don’t hear every day.”
“Come on,” she said, saying goodbye to her father before tugging his wrist to get him to follow her out of the office. “We’re going to the embassy. You’ve got to get together with Gray and figure a way out of this. I’m sure he’ll help you out if he can.”
“I’m not sure he should be involved in this.”
“Andrew, stop trying to make other people’s decisions for them, okay?”
Unsure of what to say, he simply nodded and walked alongside her.
“Ah, much better,” she said. “I could get used to this sort of obedience.”
He snorted. “I wouldn’t.”
“A girl can dream though, can’t she?”
Andrew wisely didn’t respond.
Chapter Thirty
Karri
“So wait, you’re telling me it never left?”
They were back at the embassy, sitting in the kitchen with Gray and Hector, one of the other guards. The third guard, whose name she still didn’t know, was currently walking the rounds of the property as security detail while the four of them came up with a plan.
“No. Did you really think I was going to just send that out?” Gray asked, sounding hurt.
“I didn’t,” she said before Andrew could speak up.
“Suck-up,” the gryphon muttered, his hand finding hers.
She let him hold it. They still had a lot to talk about in regard to the two of them, but for now she wanted to stay focused on finding a way for him to keep his job, and to deal with Al and his political backers’ threats.
Gray put the manila envelope on the table they were sitting at, shoving aside some of the food that she and Andrew were currently laying into with gusto. “Here it is. The original document.”
“You are a lifesaver,” Andrew said. “How did they not know better though?”
“I think I know the answer to that,” she said, speaking up around a mouthful of blueberry yogurt.
Andrew indi
cated for her to continue.
“You said that the woman who brought it to you was a human. Plain old human, right? Well, why would that human have any inkling that Gray here was willing to side with you against orders from Cadia itself? She had no reason to suspect that.” Karri paused, thinking it all through some more. “In fact, the whole thing is off. Why would they send a human to do it in the first place?” she mused.
Gray spoke up first. “Because they rushed it.”
She indicated she didn’t follow.
“They didn’t expect us to kill Myles. Hurt, maybe, but more likely just beat up and then the police arrest us. Then Myles comes and forces Andrew into signing the resignation. It’s just like Al, throwing salt on the wound by forcing him to sign the form and give it to the man he hates most. But when Andrew killed him, the others fled. Al would have needed someone in their camp to come down to the station ASAP to sign it. With no other shifters in town, he had to rely on a human to do his dirty work. But the human wasn’t told about my particular loyalty. So when I questioned her what was in it, she told me. Al couldn’t have foreseen that.”
Andrew chuckled. “Well, that sounds plausible, that’s for sure. A simple oversight on Al’s part as a result of wanting these papers so badly brought it all crashing down around him. Hilarious.”
“What about the police charges?” Gray asked.
“Dismissed,” she said, then elaborated upon a confused look. “My father is fairly, ah, shall we say, influential, in this town. He knows how to get things done, when necessary, by skirting the rules.”
Andrew spoke up. “Translation: he found out how much the police captain had been bribed, and doubled it.”
The three of them laughed over the simplistic solution.
“So what do we do now? I can’t believe Al is waiting peacefully in Cloud Lake,” Gray said. “He’s probably on his way here, don’t you think?”
As if on cue there was a massive boom from the lobby.
“Go get Gray!” someone screamed. “Now!”
Karri looked over at Andrew. She recognized that voice. She’d heard it twice before. Neither occasion had left her with any good memories of it.
“It’s okay,” Andrew said, putting an arm around her protectively. “He can’t do anything to you now.”
She let herself soak up some of his inner strength, merging it with her own until she felt it begin to force her muscles into action. Andrew stood up and she followed.
“You don’t have to come with,” he assured her.
“I know. But I want to see the look on this asshole’s face when you knock his teeth in,” she said savagely.
Andrew just chuckled as he led them from the room. “I think you have a bit of an anger problem.”
“Have you met my father?”
She elbowed him in his side as they entered the lobby, forcing Andrew to get his laughter under control.
“Hello Al,” he said over the top of the tirade the wolf shifter was directing at a stony-faced Gray.
“You,” the other man said, raising a shaking finger to point at him. “What, what is he still doing here?” he screamed at Gray. “He’s supposed to be back in Cadia!”
“Why?” Andrew asked.
“B-B-Because you signed the resignation letter! I was told that you did!” Al said, his eyes darting back and forth between the bear and gryphon shifter nervously.
“I don’t remember doing that,” Andrew said thoughtfully. “Gray, did I do something like that?”
“Don’t think so, boss.”
“Well, there you have it, Al. I didn’t sign anything.”
“I know you did. She told me. It’ll arrive in Cadia soon, and then you’ll be done,” he sneered.
“What will?” Andrew asked. “This?” He lifted up the envelope he’d been holding behind her back.
Karri just smiled, watching the entire thing go down. This was great theater. I do kinda wish I had some popcorn though. The climax is going to be short, but I think I’m going to enjoy it.
“Give me that!” Al screamed, lunging toward Andrew.
He didn’t make it. Gray’s foot shot out, fouling up the wolf shifter’s steps, sending him splashing to the floor. Angrily the man shot to his feet, whirling to stare down Gray.
“How dare you?” he hissed venomously.
“You walked into me,” Gray said innocently. “It was an accident.”
Al’s hand rocketed up and slapped Gray across the face. Karri gasped as three lines opened up on the bear shifter’s face from the claws that were even now emerging from the shifter’s hands. She watched as brilliant white fur erupted down his spine and then rippled out over his back. His legs thinned and became leaner, all covered in the white fur.
Two eyeblinks later a massive wolf stood where Al had been, as white as snow. Saliva dripped from its mouth as it snarled at Gray. The bear shifter took a swing at him, but Al dodged out of the way, and then darted back in, aiming for the bear shifter’s unprotected backside.
Karri was jostled slightly as Andrew moved. She watched as he plunked one hand down on the wolf shifter’s neck and lifted him easily into the air by the soft flesh there. Al whimpered and yelped, immediately backing down, but that didn’t stop Andrew from shaking him about like a rag doll.
“Listen to me, and listen to me carefully, Al. I am not resigning. This is my position. The people of Cloud Lake are under my protection. I’m going to let you go. You go back to Cadia, and you find something new to do. If you do anything other than that, you can rest assured that I will snap your neck and leave your body for the vultures. Got it?” he asked in a quiet, cold voice that nevertheless managed to fill the lobby.
Karri wondered how he did that, feeling slightly jealous. He would have to teach her. It would be a neat trick for business meetings, that was for sure.
The wolf shifter yelped and whimpered. Something in that must have worked for Andrew, because he released his grip and the wolf collapsed to the floor.
She watched her man—no, her mate, she realized with a thrill—her mate step back from the wolf shifter and gesture for him to go. The wolf slunk along for a bit until it was even with Gray again.
It happened almost too fast for her to follow. Al dove for Gray’s neck, thinking to take the bear shifter unaware. Gray was ready for it though, and his right hand swept across the intervening space, the backhand connecting solidly with Al, sending him skidding across the marble.
“I warned you,” Andrew said sadly, and she watched her mate take two strides forward, reaching down with both hands and casually snapping the wolf’s neck.
Immediately he glanced over at her. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said.
“I’m not,” Karri said with more strength than she felt. The knowledge that she’d just witnessed her mate kill another shifter was unsettling, but, she reminded herself, it wasn’t the first time. She’d seen him kill Myles too. That had been different though, because Myles was his equal. This had been so casual it defied belief.
He gave Al all the chances in the world to leave Cloud Lake alone, and to leave him alone. All Al had to do was take one of them, and he’d still be alive. It is not Andrew’s fault that Al couldn’t do that. Al did this to himself, plain and simple. His greed and lust for power got him killed.
“Gray, do me a favor and deal with this, will you?” she heard Andrew ask softly.
“Of course, boss.” He paused then. “It’s good to know you’ll be sticking around.”
“No plans to go anywhere anytime soon, Gray,” he reassured his man, then walked over to her. “Come on,” he said, taking her shoulder and guiding her up the stairs and toward his room. “We have some talking to do.”
Karri looked up at him, a smile crossing her face. “Yes, I suppose we do, don’t we?”
Chapter Thirty-One
Andrew
They sat on the edge of his bed, neither of them talking. He wanted to reach out, to put his arm around her and hold her ti
ght, but the moment just didn’t feel right. Something was missing, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. There shouldn’t be anything more. Al was dead, he was still the ambassador, and he had Karri. What more could he ask for?
Karri’s job. You feel guilty that you’re getting everything you want, at the expense of what she’s wanted her entire life.
It was true. The guilt hung over him like a thundercloud, beating down upon him with hailstorm-like intensity. It was why he couldn’t bring himself to be closer to her at that moment. He wanted to reach over and wrap her up into his arms more than anything in the world. But if he did, he would be acknowledging that she had given up her life for him.
Andrew would provide her with whatever she needed to start a new life. He would fund any business venture she wanted. His wealth would be more than she likely would ever need in the lifetime they were going to share together. His lifetime. That was something else they needed to discuss as well. If she wished to partake in the official mating ritual or not. It wasn’t something he wanted her to do lightly. Living long enough to watch everyone you know die, young or old, was no easy thing to stomach. She might very well want to live a normal human lifespan, for which he could not fault her. All he would do is cherish every day that she was with him, making them all special.
“So,” she said at last, breaking the silence so abruptly he jumped a little before settling down sheepishly.
“So,” he echoed. “This is awkward.”
“You don’t say.”
“Actually I did just say,” he pointed out.
Karri snorted and leaned into him.
“Well, where do we start?” she asked, staying leaned over as he finally put his arm around her at last, enjoying the feeling of having her pressed in close to him.
“Let’s start with you and me. Tell me what you haven’t told me.”
He nodded. “Well, I think you’ve already picked up on it from somewhere. But the truth of it is, Karri Blaine, that you are more to me than just a woman I’ve fallen for. You’re my mate. The other half of my soul. It sounds like a stereotypical romantic line, but I swear to you, among shifters, it is a real thing. We bond with our mates unlike anyone else before or after. It’s an incredible experience that brings about a deeper connection than you can imagine unless you experience it.” He paused for breath. “And before you ask, the reason I didn’t tell you is because I knew it from day one. That’s normal among shifters, and we’re used to it. But you humans, even when a shifter finds their mate in you, you need time. A proper courtship and dating period, until you come to the conclusion on your own.”
