Chasing Payne

  “Which is why I'm not jumping on it until we have proof,” Jacob told him, his tone suddenly weary. “How fast can you get here?”

  He looked at Lora, who was watching him with a frown. He didn't want to leave her, but he needed to deal with this shit. “Give me thirty minutes.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Chase?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Tell Lora to call Jenna.” Jacob cleared his throat. “She called me this morning when Lora didn't answer her phone. I didn't tell her what happened, but she knows something is going on. She was pretty upset when she found out Lora stayed the night at your place.”

  That didn't surprise him. The woman had always been obsessively overprotective of her younger sister. He wasn't looking forward to the verbal beating he knew he would get from Jenna. “I'll tell her.”

  Chase ended the call and stared at the phone for a moment before turning to Lora. “You're supposed to call your sister.”

  Lora's face paled. “Jacob told her?”

  Chase shook his head. “No. But she knows you're here.” He stood and walked to the closet. “We're going to have to deal with your family sooner or later. We might as well get it out of the way.” Pulling on a pair of slacks and a button-down, he watched as a myriad of emotions washed over her face. “If you want, I'll talk to her first. Explain what happened.”

  “No.” She bit her bottom lip, resignation clouding her expression. “I'll call her.”

  He finished buttoning his shirt. “I've got to deal with some things at work. Call me if you need anything, and I'll send Turner.” She pulled the sheets tighter to her chest and looked down at her lap. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “When I get back, we'll go to your place and get your things.”

  She shook her head and looked up at him. “You don't have to do this, you know.”

  He frowned. “Do what?”

  “Keep me here. Do whatever it is we're doing.” She tucked her hair behind one ear. Her expression was grim, and he had no clue what had changed between them in the last few minutes, but he could sense the wall she was forming around herself. “We can figure something out. If we go to the Council and explain what happened, maybe they can—”

  “No.” Chase's breath hissed out as anger consumed him. Was she seriously suggesting that they try to have the mating process reversed? “You're staying here.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing,” he said through clenched teeth, grabbing his wallet and phone off the dresser and shoving them into his pocket. “Neither of us planned on this happening, but it did. I don't walk away from my responsibilities, and I'm not going to start now.”

  Her gaze jerked back up, her eyes stricken. She laughed bitterly. “That's the problem. I don't want to be anyone's responsibility.”

  The bitterness in her voice pissed him off further. “That's too fucking bad, because you're mine.”

  “But are you mine?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She was going to drive him insane. Of course, he was hers. He was her bloody fucking mate.

  Her arms wrapped around herself. She hunched her shoulders and dropped her chin, blinking back unshed tears. “Just go, Chase. Jacob's waiting for you.”

  Something about her tone bothered him, but he didn't have time to analyze her words. Not now. “We'll talk about this later.”

  She gave him a weak smile. “Right.”

  As he left his apartment, apprehension crept through his spine. Three days ago, she'd told him she loved him. He didn't believe her feelings had changed, but he got the uneasy feeling that she was about to run.

  He pulled his phone out and texted his brother.

  Lora's staying at my apartment.

  I'll explain later.

  I need you to watch the place.

  Let me know if she leaves.

  He shoved the phone back in his pocket. Like it or not they were mated, and nothing but death could ever sever that bound.

  Chapter 14

  Lora paced Chase's apartment.

  Her purse, which contained her cellphone, was nowhere to be found. She used Chase's landline to call her sister.

  Jenna answered on the first ring. “Chase, I swear to God if you laid a finger on—”

  “Jenna, it's me.”

  There was a pause, and then a long sigh. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah.” She was far from okay, but she didn't want to get into it over the phone. “Can you come over? And—bring a change of clothes?”

  Nothing but silence on the other end. Lora waited, dreading the conclusions her sister would come to.

  “Did it happen again?”

  Lora cringed at the coolness in her sister's voice. “No, nothing like that.”

  “Lora?”

  “Please—” Her breath hitched. “I'll explain everything once you get here.”

  She disconnected the call before Jenna could say any more. Closing her eyes, she rested her forehead against the wall and fought back tears, but she couldn't shake the pain clenching her chest.

  A loud thumping on the front door startled her. She stood and wiped her hands over her eyes. Another series of bangs made her pulse quicken. There was no way her sister had gotten there that fast.

  A video surveillance monitor sat suspended on the wall beside the door. It took her five attempts before she figured out how to turn it on. Austin's face popped up on the screen, and he waved at the camera as if he knew she was watching.

  “I came to return this.” His voice echoed through the system, and he lifted her black purse to the camera.

  She sighed and opened the door.

  His eyes went icy and his nostrils flared as his gaze traveled down and back up her body. She was still wearing Chase's oversized t-shirt, her hair was a mess, and she was sure she reeked of sex and pheromones. His brooding, dark gaze said he clearly disapproved.

  She took the purse from his outstretched hand. “I'm sorry about last night.”

  He shook his head and took a step towards her. Grasping her arm, he trailed his fingers over the skin where the wound had been. “I'm just glad you're okay.”

  She tried to pull away and his grip tightened.

  “Austin, I—”

  A low, muttered curse tore from his lips. “I can't believe the fucker marked you.”

  “I was dying.” She took a step backwards, but he trapped her, placing his palms against the wall. “He did what he had to do.”

  “I would have done the same.” He gently touched the mark on her neck. He bent down so his lips were close to her ear. “If it had been me in the backseat with you, instead of him, you would be my mate now, not his.”

  A shiver of warning crawled up her spine. “Don't—”

  “Don't what?” he said harshly. “Don't be honest? He doesn't love you. Not the way I do.”

  She blinked in surprise, and her mouth dropped open. “You don't—you can't.”

  His jaw flexed and clenched, and he inhaled through his nostrils as if trying to keep his reaction in check. “Do you deny the connection we have?”

  She'd be lying if she said no. He was a beautiful man. Power emanated from him. Most women would fall over themselves to have just one night with him, but he wasn't Chase.

  A heavy breath escaped her and she closed her eyes.

  “I know you feel it.” His voice was a dark, deep male purr, a distinctively werejaguar sound. He ran the back of his hand over her cheek. “It should have been me.”

  The edge of regret in his voice tore at her. She knew what it was like to love someone who didn't love her back. But even if she did have deeper feelings for him, she was marked. Therian law stated that she was legally bound to Chase.

  “There's a way to reverse the process,” he said, as if reading her mind.

  “Reverse the process,” she repeated. She'd heard rumors that it was possible. If there was a way to release Chase, to give him a chance
to find his true mate, then she needed to give him the opportunity. Her voice was shaky when she spoke. “How?”

  A small smile curled his lips, but there was a darkness in his eyes that made her shiver. “You don't have much time. Three maybe four days before the progression is complete. You need to choose before then.”

  “Lora?” Jenna's confused voice echoed from the doorway.

  Austin exhaled roughly, before dropping his hands to his side, not taking his gaze off her. “Remember what I said. When this whole charade falls apart, I'll be here. Just don't wait until it's too late.”

  He turned, gave a curt nod to Jenna, and walked out the door.

  Jenna's eyebrows shot up. She shut the door behind him, and followed Lora into Chase's living room. “Mind telling me what the hell that was about?”

  Her composure unravelled. Tears that she had kept contained flowed down her cheeks. “It's such a mess.”

  “Oh, Lo-lo.” Jenna dropped the duffle bag she carried and wrapped her arms around her. “It's all right. Whatever happened, we'll fix it.”

  “I slept with him.”

  Jenna stiffened, put her hands on Lora's shoulders, pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Who?”

  “Chase,” Lora mumbled. His name on her lips a reminder of everything they had done.

  Dropping her hands, Jenna's expression turned from concerned to seriously pissed off.

  “Please don't be angry with me.”

  “Angry with you? Why would I be angry with you?” Sarcasm dripped from her words. “It's not like you have any control around him, right? It's not your fault—That's what you tell yourself.” She raked her hands through her long auburn hair and looked up at the ceiling. “You're so fucking irrational where he's concerned.” Jenna picked up the duffel bag and threw it at her. “Goddammit, Lora, when are you going to learn?”

  Lora flinched, her eyes filling with fresh tears. Jenna had never spoken to her so harshly, not even after the incident that nearly destroyed both of them.

  “I didn't mean for it to happen.”

  “No, you never do. Just like you never meant for this to happen.” Jenna lifted her shirt revealing a crisscross of raised ugly white scars that wrapped around her stomach and back.

  Lora sucked in a sharp breath. The image of her sister's mutilated body sent a stabbing pain of guilt to her stomach. She sat down heavily on the couch and placed her face in her hands.

  It was her fault. Because she couldn't control her emotions. Because she had been so obsessed with Chase Payne, that nothing and no one else had mattered. She'd lashed out at the one person who had only ever tried to protect her.

  Images of the night flooded her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block them out, but the memories were fresh and raw from her earlier nightmare. “I know I can never fix what I did, but this is different. I swore I would never lose control again and I won't break my promise.”

  Jenna's eyes twitched, and her breathing came out in little huffs. “I'm not going to stand around and watch you self-destruct again.” She gave a hard shake of her head, disappointment clearly etched on her face. She turned to walk away, and then stopped. Her words were almost inaudible, “I hope you know what you're doing.”

  Lora didn't have a freaking clue what she was doing, but she wasn't about to tell her sister that. Not when Jenna already believed that Lora was on a one-way road to total and complete self-annihilation. The worst part about it was she knew her sister was right.

  Jenna didn't know that Chase had marked her, but Lora doubted it would make a difference in her sister's mind. She clenched her lips together to keep from calling her back, begging her to stay.

  When she heard the front door click shut, Lora threw herself across the couch and sobbed. She had no clue what she was going to do, but she needed to get out of Chase's apartment. Needed time alone, to think.

  Austin said there was a way to reverse the mating, and she had no reason to doubt him. When she was around him, her animal stayed dormant. With Chase, she could feel her control slipping, the lioness rising inside like a tsunami that couldn't be stopped.

  She quickly dressed in the jeans, sweatshirt, and running shoes Jenna had brought, grabbed her clutch and cell phone, and called a cab.

  Her sister was right. She was irrational where Chase was concerned. If she was going to make the right decision, then she needed to keep her emotions out of it, and that meant she couldn't be anywhere near him.

  Chapter 15

  Chase stared at the newspaper laid out on Jacob's desk, and cursed as he read the headline.

  RARE SUNDA CLOUDED LEOPARD FOUND IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN

  “Where is it now?” Chase took a seat across from Jacob.

  Jacob leaned back in his chair and let out a heavy sigh. “Our agents were able to convince the local authorities to hand the animal over. It's being placed with the others.”

  “You're sure it's another spontaneous morph?”

  Jacob lifted a brow. “The last time I checked, leopards weren't indigenous to Northern Michigan.”

  Sarcastic asshole. Chase frowned and shook his head. “So what are we doing about it? We've got our top geneticists working day and night, and are still no closer to figuring out what the hell is causing it, or how to turn the poor bloody bastards human again.”

  “We've got bigger problems than just a few spontaneous morphings.” Jacob brushed his fingers through his dark hair, making it stand on end. He kept his voice calm, but there was a clear edge of anxiety that filtered through. “In the past few days, Cyber division has shut down multiple blogs and websites, each one claiming that the random shifts are nature's retribution to mankind. They can barely shut one down before another pops up.”

  “Those sites pop up all the time.” Chase shrugged. “People pass them off as nothing more than conspiracy theories.”

  “Usually. But whoever's behind the most recent blogs have solid evidence that can expose us to the general public.”

  Chase narrowed his eyes, his chest tightening. “What kind of evidence?”

  “Pictures. DNA samples. And—” Jacob twisted his computer so that Chase could see the screen. “Every secure file the Therian Agency has produced in the last thirty years.”

  Chase jumped from his chair and paced. “Bloody fucking hell.”

  Jacob steepled his fingers and frowned. “We've been able to contain the leaked material, but so far we've been unable to locate the original source.”

  Chase swallowed tightly. If news of their kind leaked out to the general population, things would go to hell faster than shit in a handbasket. He tried to replicate Jacob's exterior calm. “Do we have any leads?”

  “Nothing concrete.” He stood and made his way across the room to a metal filing cabinet. “What we do know is that those three kids you found in that warehouse were doing more than just studying the coyote. They were creating a detailed genetic analysis of its DNA from before he morphed.”

  “Before? If they knew the man would shift, then it was possible they knew how.”

  Jacob shook his head. Finding what he was looking for, he closed the cabinet, then handed him the case report. “They were working blind. All data came from a concealed source.”

  “Did they administer something to cause the morph? If they did, then it's possible our scientists could use it to create an antidote.”

  Jacob shook his head. “There's no evidence of anything being administered to the victim.”

  Chase opened his mouth, then closed it. It didn't make any fucking sense. “Then how did they know he would morph?”

  “The man had been caged nearly four months. The reports we obtained showed a spike in thyroid hormones just days before the full morph. Nothing atypical for a first shift—”

  “If he had been a Metamorph,” Chase said, not fully understanding the implications. “What do we have on the coyote? Maybe there is something in the man's past. Something that we can trace back to whatever was done to him.”
>
  “Scott Kehoe. Twenty-five. Human. No shifter connections that we've been able to locate.” Jacob paused, took a deep breath, and looked as if he were debating sharing the piece of information. “He worked as a research technician under Richard Boyd until the fire. After that he went AWOL until he popped up in the warehouse where you found him.”

  “As a coyote,” Chase stated, needing to reiterate the absurdity of the fact.

  Jacob nodded. “Werecoyote is more accurate, but yes.”

  “You think Boyd has something to do with this?” Fuck, he sounded like his brother. Boyd was dead, but Chase didn't think the connection was a coincidence. It never was.

  Jacob's expression remained neutral, but Chase saw the quick sliver of acknowledgement behind his friend's eyes. “It's possible someone has continued his research.”

  Turner was going to have a fucking heyday with this information. The entire situation was a nightmare. He wiped his hands over his face and blew out roughly.

  “We also have to deal with the possibility that we have a mole within the department.”

  Another problem to add to the avalanche of shit they had to deal with. “You really think McCaffrey has something to do with the leak?”

  “My team found some inconsistencies in his data log. When he was called in for questioning this morning, he didn't respond. His phone's tracking device was turned off after last night's incident. We've been unable to locate him since.” Jacob expression darkened. “You've worked with the man for four years. Has he ever given you any indication that he has ulterior motives? Secrets?”

  Chase shook his head. The man was cunning, merciless, and highly intelligent. But he had never sensed any deceit in him.

  “I've sent my men to bring him in for questioning.”

  If Austin didn't want to be found, he doubted even Jacob's best agents would be able to find him. Chase had taught him well. Probably too well.

  “If you can find him,” Chase said, somewhat mockingly.

  His cell buzzed. He took it out and frowned—Turner. Normally he would have returned the call later, but he didn't want to take any chances if the call was about Lora.