Every inch of body language Graham threw out told Eric he didn’t want to fight right now, but too bad. Graham was finished.
Eric heard a muffled shot and then he couldn’t feel his leg. He stumbled as the rest of his body went numb, then a blackness rushed through him.
He looked over his shoulder to see Diego Escobar regarding him sternly over the barrel of a tranquilizer rifle.
“Sorry, Eric,” Diego said.
The world went dark as Eric hit the ground.
“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Iona’s voice cut through the darkness a long time later.
Iona’s beautiful, dusky voice. Eric swam toward it, his need for her scattering the pain.
“Well, I’m no medic, lass. He told me he thinks it’s to do with the Collars, but I can’t be certain. I could dissect him and find out, but that would be a bit of an inconvenience for him, eh?”
Eric knew the voice—he’d met the Shifter a few times, but for the moment, the name wouldn’t come. No one from this Shiftertown. The man smelled Feline, lion probably. He was very strong, a clan leader at the least.
“No dissecting,” Iona said in a hard voice.
“I’m teasing you, lass. Sorry.”
“He does that,” another voice came, the crisp, clear one of a human woman. “He tries to be funny at all times.”
“It eases the tension,” the Irish voice said.
Irish. Eric remembered now. The Austin Shiftertown was run by a family of Irishmen. Their last name still swam out of his memory, but he recalled the brothers, one the Shiftertown leader, the other their Guardian.
“Liam,” he croaked.
“Ah, he’s still with us, is he? How’re you feeling, lad?”
Eric tried to wet his lips and found no moisture in his mouth. “What are you doing here?”
“You sent for me, didn’t you? Said you had a ceremony to perform, and oh, by the way, having a bit of trouble with your Collar.”
Eric pried open his eyes and looked into the very blue ones of the dark-haired Liam Morrissey. Liam wore a smile, as he often did, and his eyes held humor. But behind the man’s bonhomie lay a sharp mind and a powerful will.
Eric seemed to be lying in bed in Jace’s bedroom—what had been Jace’s bedroom. Covers were bunched over him and bright sunlight poured through the window, not helping his headache.
A phone call Eric had made this morning—no, yesterday morning—came back to him. Eric rubbed a weak hand through his hair. “I remember now.”
His entire being relaxed as Iona climbed onto the bed with him and sat cross-legged by Eric’s side. He reached for her hand, and she held his between hers.
Liam touched Eric’s Collar. “Looks intact. You try to take it off?”
“Take it off?” Iona asked at the same time Eric shook his head. “The Collars come off?”
“Carefully, slowly, painfully, and sometimes, disastrously,” Liam said. “Trust me on this. And that information goes no further than this room.”
“She’s my mate,” Eric said.
“I’m seeing that. You’re going to trust her with all things, are you?”
“I’ve already started.” Eric showing Iona their strong room was the first step. “She’ll be leader’s mate. I have to.”
“Aye, I know what you mean.”
The crisp female voice came again. “Leader’s mates are better at keeping secrets than any Shifters I know.”
“Iona,” Liam said. “This is Kim. The love of my life.”
“We met in the hall,” Iona said.
Eric remembered meeting Liam’s mate the last time he’d gone out to Austin, the short young human woman with the dark hair and no-nonsense attitude. Kim had been a defense lawyer, and now she ran a law firm that specialized in helping Shifters.
“No, I didn’t try to take off my Collar,” Eric said, strength beginning to return. “I’ve been able to keep it from going off when I fight, but not for long, and that’s about it.”
“And these attacks come when?”
“Seem to be all over the place. After I fight, yes, but other times too. Last night, on the porch with Graham. He wasn’t being aggressive, just his usual shithead self.”
“But he’s a threat,” Liam said. “To you, to Shiftertown, to Iona.”
“Yes.”
“What happened before the other attacks? Maybe not right before—say within the few hours before?”
“Whenever I fight,” Eric said, thinking back. But then, he’d had a huge attack after he’d gone to Iona’s house and seen her dancing at her sister’s bachelorette party. He’d taken Iona into her back hall and done many pleasant things. He told Liam this, omitting the glorious details. “The night after Graham Challenged for Iona as well,” he went on. “When I was remembering experiments done on me, I had a small attack, but it went away quickly.”
“Hmm,” Liam said. The man sat comfortably on the armchair Cassidy had brought into Jace’s bedroom, leaning back with his feet on the bed like he owned the place. Kim perched on the chair’s arm. “Seems to me like every attack came after an adrenaline spike. Fighting triggers it, sure, but when Graham Challenged, I bet the spike was a big one. And then when you thought about being experimented on, that had to be full of bad images.”
Iona broke in. “What about when he came to my house during the party? We were just kissing.” She flushed.
Eric’s smile was slow. From the twinkle in Liam’s eyes, the man guessed how much more they’d been doing.
“Ye said you saw her dancing with a male stripper,” Liam said. “I’m thinking that would raise the ire of a Shifter watching his mate.”
“You got that right,” Eric said. “I didn’t like it at all.”
“Stripper?” Kim asked in a bright voice. “What did he do? Did it all come off?”
“Most of it,” Iona said. “He came as a fireman. He got all the way down to his bright red thong.”
“Mmm. Did he have a hose?”
“A very long one,” Iona answered, and both women laughed.
“Tell me you took pictures,” Kim said.
“Oh yeah.”
Eric felt it immediately—the red rage of his possessiveness. He saw the same flare in Liam’s eyes.
“Ladies,” Liam said. “You want to get yourselves sequestered, do you?”
“Only if you bring us pizza,” Iona said.
“And dress as a fireman,” Kim added. She sent Iona a sly look. “With a big hose.”
“I think our mates don’t know their danger,” Liam said to Eric.
“They know,” Eric answered, feeling stronger by the minute. “But they don’t care.”
Liam growled at Kim. “Wait ’til I get you home, love.”
“Promises, promises.” Kim smiled.
“Adrenaline,” Eric said loudly. He pushed himself into a sitting position, the sheets bunching around his bare waist. He seemed to be naked under the covers, and sincerely hoped Iona had undressed him, not Diego. “Adrenaline is supposed to trigger the Collar. Maybe it’s triggering pain directly, bypassing the Collar?”
“Possibly,” Liam said. “When I stave off the Collar, I pay for it pretty bad later, but you’ve been suffering from triggers that wouldn’t necessarily have set off the Collar at all.”
“Which leaves me where?”
“I don’t know.” Liam frowned. “I’ll have to ponder.”
Outside the room came a loud cry, a child’s voice. A cub. Kim quickly slid off the arm of the chair. “I’d better go get Katy before she takes over your house, or the entire Shiftertown.”
“Katy?” Iona asked.
Liam answered. “Katriona Sinead Niamh Morrissey. Our firstborn cub.”
“He’s so proud,” Kim said. “Like he did it all himself.” She leaned down and gave Liam a fond kiss on the forehead, then went for the door. “Come and meet her, Iona.”
Iona scrambled up and followed Kim with only one glance back for Eric. The door closed, and Er
ic looked around for some clothes within reach.
“The ladies like the babies,” Liam said.
“And you don’t? Right.” Eric leaned to the chair on the other side of the bed and snagged his jeans. “Why didn’t you bring your cub in with you? She might have cheered me up. Cubs are good things.”
“Bring me only daughter into a room with a crazed, maybe feral Shifter? No, thanks.”
“Feral.” Eric paused. “You think that’s what happening?”
“I don’t know, my friend. I sincerely hope not. I know from experience it’s not a pleasant thing. Thank the Goddess for my mate sticking with me when it happened to me, or I’d not be here talking to you now.”
“I know how you feel,” Eric said, and slid out of bed to get dressed.
“You narrowed it down to three?” Eric asked Xavier several hours later.
Xavier Escobar tapped his laptop where it sat on his crossed legs and nodded. “Yep. Three Ross McRaes of seemingly the right age living in the northern Nevada, or western California, western Oregon, or southern Idaho areas at the time in question. Two of them definitely human, because I found pictures of them, and they’ve aged like humans. The third—don’t know, because I haven’t found him. He’s the one from western California, residence listed as Grass Valley. Locals still there from that time say he was a loner, came and went, and they haven’t seen him in thirty or so years.”
“Hmm,” Eric said. “I think we have a Shifter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Could be,” Xavier agreed.
“You’re good, Xav. Neal?”
Neal Ingram was a big man, a Lupine, and the Shiftertown’s Guardian. Often the Shiftertown’s Guardian came from the leader’s family, but the Guardian most closely related to Eric had died years ago. Eric, to keep the peace, had requested that Neal, the Guardian for his clan, be made Guardian for the entire Shiftertown.
Guardians were another thing the humans had almost fucked up. Each clan had its own—the Shifter male whose Fae-made sword would send dead Shifters’ souls into the afterlife—but the humans insisted on only one for each Shiftertown.
They just didn’t want too many guys with big swords running around, Eric supposed. So each clan’s Guardians had to hide their swords and submit to the one Shiftertown Guardian. Eric appointing Neal, the next-highest Guardian in the dominance order, instead of holding a choosing for the Guardian to be picked from Eric’s own clan, told the other clans that Eric wasn’t going to insist his clan dominated everything. Now Eric’s clan had no Guardian at all—they used Neal.
Eric had an ulterior motive that he figured his Shifters understood. When a Guardian died, tradition dictated that all eligible-aged members of the clan gathered for a choosing. The Goddess herself picked the next Guardian—so legend said.
Jace had been about the right age to qualify, and Eric had no desire at all for Jace to become a Guardian. Guardians lived a lonely life. Females avoided them, and while Shifters respected them, they were also uneasy around them. Guardians dealt in death. Everyone knew the last person they’d see in life was their Guardian arriving with his sword to send their bodies to dust.
Neal was unmated, fairly young for a Shifter at age one hundred, a gray wolf, and the silent type. He lived with his brother and several nephews, but didn’t get out much or say much for himself.
However, the man was a genius at computers. Most Guardians were.
“I’ll check the Guardian network,” Neal said in his deep voice. “If he did take the Collar, I’ll find him.”
“And then I’ll have a talk with him,” Eric said.
“You have a ceremony,” Neal said in his quiet way.
“After. You’ll come with me.”
Neal inclined his head.
Xavier, who’d watched the exchange with undisguised curiosity, tapped a little more on his keyboard. “About the other name you wanted me to look up. I might have found him too. Dr. Peter Murdock?”
Neal’s gaze snapped back to Eric. “Him? Why?”
“I have questions he might be able to answer,” Eric said calmly, though his pulse sped up at the thought of facing the man again. He kept those thoughts at bay, not wanting to trigger another attack. Not today.
“Who is he?” Xavier asked.
“A bastard who used to stick needles and probes into Shifters,” Neal said. Neal had been a victim of the experiments too, the humans wondering what a Guardian had inside him that made him a Guardian.
Murdock had been part of the team of scientists studying Shifters, but he’d seemed a bit more ashamed than the others that he was torturing live specimens. Not that he stopped it, or protested, or anything. And he’d still called them specimens.
“Sounds like a real nice guy,” Xavier said. “And successful. Full professor at UCLA, but now retired back in good old Vegas.”
“After the ceremony,” Eric said, looking at Neal again. “A long time after.”
He didn’t want bad memories to destroy this time with Iona, no matter how much he needed to get to the truth.
Eric looked much better when he stood next to Iona at the mating ceremony that afternoon—the mating under full sun.
Iona wore a garland of flowers, woven by Cassidy and her friend, a Feline called Lindsay. The two women had helped Iona pick out clothes they said were very Shifter—a loose brown skirt and a sleeveless white top with a high collar. Iona’s hair hung unbound, and the day had warmed enough for bare legs and sandals. Winter on the desert floor sometimes took its time.
Eric was dressed up—for Eric—in a button-down shirt, black jeans, and square-toed black boots. His slicked-back short hair was still damp from a shower.
He smiled down at Iona next to him, a look of heat in his green eyes. But she sensed the tension in him, no matter how nonchalant he tried to appear. He was wound up, ready to get this over with.
Iona’s mother had come for the ceremony, though Nicole was still in Hawaii on her honeymoon. Iona had talked to Nicole earlier on the phone, explaining to her sister that she was about to mate officially—in Shifter terms—with a Shifter.
Nicole had been stunned, then hopeful, then sounded relieved. Nicole had always known, she said, that Iona would have difficulty in a relationship with a human, but had been uncertain that Iona finding a Shifter was a good solution either. But because Iona sounded happy, Nicole would be happy. When she met Eric, though, she would make sure he was good enough for her big sister.
They’d both cried, Nicole sorry that she couldn’t be there for the day. But there’d be a full moon ceremony, Iona had been told, and Nicole might be back in time for that.
Penny stood a little behind Iona as Cassidy had instructed her. Her mother was a bit nervous to be among all these Shifters, still uncertain that she wanted to lose Iona to one. But, like Nicole, she seemed relieved she no longer had to worry about Iona finding a companion for life. And, like Nicole, she’d make sure Eric made her happy.
Jace stood behind his father, Cassidy and Diego on the other side of Jace. Xavier had come, and he stood with Lindsay, talking and laughing with her. Diego’s mother stood next to Diego, talking like mad to Cassidy.
The other Shifters began forming circles around the group in the middle, an inner ring of close friends, an outer ring of everyone else, including Graham and his Lupine Shifters. Each circle moved in a stately dance in opposite directions, the Shifters holding hands as they moved around the ring. The whole thing was informal, with everyone smiling, laughing, talking, calling out to each other.
Silence fell when Liam stepped into the middle of the double circle, Kim at his side carrying little Katriona.
Liam, grinning, his Irish blue eyes warm, placed one hand on Eric’s shoulder and one on Iona’s.
“This is a simple ceremony, Iona,” Liam said. “I call for the blessing of the God, and it’s done.” He leaned to both of them. “You two be happy now. It’s a fine thing, another mating.”
Eric moved closer to Iona
when Liam stepped back, Eric’s body heat touching her. Liam took both their hands, raised them up, and clasped them together. Eric’s hand was warm, strong, and Iona swore a spark leapt between his fingers and hers.
Liam declared in a loud voice, “The blessings of the God be on Eric and Iona. Under full sun, the Father God, I declare them mated!”
The circles of Shifters whooped, then everyone went crazy. Music sprang up from of one of the houses, old-fashioned rock and roll. Dancing started right away, but first, Iona was jerked into a hug by Jace, who swung her off her feet.
“Thank you, Iona,” he said. “Thank you. He needs you—bad.”
“Don’t squash her,” Eric yelled at him, but then he was pulled into embraces by Cassidy, Diego, and a crushing one by Nell.
Cassidy’s strong arms went around Iona, her cub inside her pressing Iona’s abdomen. “I’m so happy you’re my sister now.”
Iona’s eyes were wet when Cassidy released her and so were Cassidy’s. Cassidy immediately turned to Penny and hugged her as well. “Mother of my sister, you’re an honorary member of our clan now.”
Penny looked a little bewildered but hugged Cassidy back. When Penny came to Iona, she broke down. “I’m so happy for you, sweetheart. I was worried, but I see how he looks at you. And how you look at him. I know that feeling.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Be happy, darling. And don’t worry about the business. I can handle it. I took care of it the whole time I was raising you, remember.”
“I’ll still come to work, Mom. I haven’t abandoned you.”
“We’ll see,” Penny said, tears in her eyes.
Iona was stolen away then, for hugs with Diego, Xavier, and Juanita, their mother, then instantly claimed by Shane and Brody, who gave her, well, bear hugs.
“Leave her be,” Nell said, coming for her share. “My house is always here for you, honey. I’ll kick out these two louts, and we can talk about anything that troubles you.”
“Thanks, Nell. Everyone’s being so nice to me.”
“To the mate of the alpha?” Nell’s eyes widened. “You betcha. You’ve got the full trust of the dominant Shifter, and everyone’s going to want to get next to you. Take some advice—show that you’re neutral to everyone and favor only your family. Trust me on this. But the offer of a haven is there if you want it.”