Now Stuart felt disgust. He hoped Dylan Morrissey hunted down Miguel, if Miguel proved to be still alive, and ripped his head off. “Now you’re free of him. Are you all right?”
She shrugged. “I never formed the mate bond with Miguel. When I was young and silly, I believed it would form, but after I didn’t conceive any cubs, Miguel started taking additional mates, who did have cubs. I had to battle to keep my place in the hierarchy, or he would have thrown me to his men to see what they could get on me, or he’d have had me killed. It became a struggle to live, every day. The day I let my place slip as top mate was the day I died.” Peigi let out her breath. “Now it’s over.”
Stuart let her sit quietly for a moment. In his career as a cop, he’d seen the look Peigi now wore on the faces of women from abusive marriages, after their husbands had been killed or imprisoned with no hope of parole. The women didn’t dance around in elation; they sat quietly, stunned, confused, unsure of what to do or where to go. Realization that they were free would hit them later. Many of them had grown so used to being told what to do every second of their lives that they were terrified of going it alone.
“Eric said he’d release all of you once you were settled in,” Stuart said. “That he wouldn’t make you his mates.”
Peigi nodded. “That’s what Nell told me.”
“Would you want to stay with Eric?” Stuart asked.
Peigi’s eyes flashed, the first fire he’d seen in her. “I’m thinking I don’t want to be with anyone. At all. Ever again.”
She leapt from her chair so fiercely that the heavy thing fell back, then she stepped from the porch and moved across the yard in long-legged strides, not looking at the playing cubs. She wore borrowed jeans that hugged her legs, and her now-clean tail of black hair bounced against a white blouse.
Stuart watched her for a time, as her swift walk turned to a restless jog. She was a fine-looking woman—for someone who could turn into a bear. Stuart quietly rose, left the porch, and followed her.
Iona Duncan pulled into her driveway after work, looking forward to unkinking her body and unwinding with mindless TV, or maybe digging into a good novel.
What she really wanted to do wound its way through her mind. Her wildcat wanted to come out and play, to feel the forest floor underneath her paws, to taste the wind.
Iona suppressed the wildcat with effort. She couldn’t keep driving up into the mountains without people getting suspicious, wondering what the hell she did up there. Even her mother was getting worried, and her mother and sister were the only ones in the world who knew what Iona truly was.
The wildcat wanted to come out, though. As Iona tried to unlock her front door, her fingers turned to claws, and she dropped the keys.
“Damn it.”
She bent to pick them up and yelped when a strong hand scooped them up for her.
“Shit, Eric.”
He was standing way too close, his scent and body heat making her wildcat shiver. His Collar glinted in the evening light. Eric shoved the key into the lock and opened the door. He kept unlocking doors for her, damn him.
Without invitation, Eric walked into Iona’s house and looked around, Shifter-style, to make sure nothing waited for them inside. He looked back and gave her a nod that it was all right to enter.
Iona strode to him. “Eric, you cannot come into my house.”
“I’m already in. Shut the door before your neighbors see you with a Shifter.”
Iona slammed the door and dumped her purse on the table in the foyer. The mirror above the table showed her black hair mussed, her blue eyes wide.
Eric had already moved to the back, into the kitchen, to pull down the blinds in there. “Nice place,” he said. “You own this?”
“Of course I do,” Iona said, following him. “I bought it myself.”
His jade green eyes almost shone in the dim light. “Shifters aren’t allowed to own houses.”
“I know that. Why do you think I don’t want you going around telling people I’m half Shifter?”
Iona couldn’t have him here. Eric took up too much space, the tall, hard-bodied Shifter pushing her cozy kitchen into the background.
“What do you turn into?” he asked.
“What?”
“Your wildcat. What does it look like?”
The wildcat in question started to push its way out again. Iona fought it back. “Panther. Mostly.”
Now Eric was in front of her, hand scooping back her hair. “Black haired. With blue eyes?”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to see it.” Eric leaned closer and inhaled her scent. “I’d like to see you.”
“Why?”
A smile tugged the corners of his mouth. “I’d like to let my wildcat out to chase you, to tussle with you.” He nuzzled her. “Maybe more things, Iona.”
Heat swirled along every limb and settled low in her belly. “I don’t go wildcat in the house,” she said with difficulty. “I don’t want to break anything.”
“Where do you go, then?”
“Out in the mountains. I have a place.”
Eric’s nose touched her temple, followed by a brush of lips. “Next time, I’ll go with you.”
“No.”
“It’s too dangerous for you to go out alone. There are hunters looking for any excuse to shoot a Shifter. You need to stay safe.”
“I’d be safer if certain Felines didn’t come sniffing around my door.”
Another smile. Iona wished that Eric weren’t so tall. He enclosed her into his space, filled it with his warmth, his scent, his heat.
“I’m not sniffing at your door, sweetheart. I’m smelling the goodness of you.”
Iona made herself turn and walk away from him. She flipped on the kitchen light because her wildcat wanted too much to melt to him in the darkness.
“I should call the police,” she said. “Shifters aren’t supposed to harass humans.”
Eric looked pointedly at the phone on the wall, all the way across the room. “Why haven’t you, then?”
Because the human police would overreact, lock up Eric, maybe go after his family, and who knew what else. Eric didn’t scare her… exactly. He was a threat, yes—to her secrets and to her sanity.
But…
But what? Hell, she was confused every time she got around the man.
“I’m hoping you’ll leave me alone without me having to report you,” Iona said.
“You won’t report me.”
“What are you doing, trying to plant suggestions in my head? Not working, sorry.”
Eric laughed, a low-throated laugh. He braced himself on the counter.
“You have a sassy mouth,” he said. “It tastes even better with chocolate.”
Iona’s breath caught as she remembered the sensation of his dark kisses, Eric’s body caging her against the wall, the strength of his mouth, the fire of his tongue.
“You need to go,” she said. Before I drag you against that counter and start kissing you again.
“No, I don’t.” Eric straightened up and put his back to the counter exactly as Iona had been picturing. “I didn’t come here to tease you, though that’s always fun. I came because I need your help.”
“My help? With what?” The alpha Shiftertown leader, I’m such a badass I can keep anyone in line, was asking for help?
“Long story, but you have to promise me this goes no further than us.” Eric’s smile was gone, and he looked grim. “I have children to protect. Understand?”
“No, I don’t understand, but if you think I’ll harm children, you read me wrong.”
“I know you won’t harm cubs, Iona. That’s why I came here.”
Iona made a noise of exasperation. “Eric, you do know that you could drive someone insane, don’t you?”
“My sister says that. A lot. Come to think of it, my mate always did too.”
His mate. Iona had learned when she’d looked up background on Eric Warden that he’d been mated t
o a woman named Kirsten, who had died a long time ago.
“Your wife,” she said.
“No wives for Shifters, love. Only mates. Wife is a human term. Mate is so much more.”
Why did he look at her so intently when he said that? “I’m sorry,” Iona said. “About Kirsten.”
Eric gave her a slow nod, as though he took her words to heart. “She was a good person.” Another nod, compartmentalizing the pain and moving back to the question at hand.
“Five un-Collared Shifter females have come to Shiftertown,” he said. “I mate-claimed all of them, and unfortunately, I have to get Collars on them. They’re terrified, and I’m doing this under the radar. I’ll get them as many painkillers as I can, but…”
“And you want me to what? Get pain medications for you?”
“No.” Eric fixed her with his alpha Shifter stare. “I want you to let me bring you in. To lead the way, to show them that it’s all right. Become their alpha, and let me put a Collar on you first.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Iona stared at him, her blue eyes huge. “You want me to what?”
Eric knew that this would be easier if Iona weren’t so sexy. He watched her confusion and outrage and at the same time couldn’t keep himself from studying her body. A tight business skirt hugged her legs, and her blouse was open just enough show a hint of cleavage. Thick black hair framed her face, wisps of it not staying put.
I want you to come home with me, be my mate in all ways. The thoughts wouldn’t leave Eric alone.
“They need reassurance,” he said. “These females have been living in captivity, held by a feral Ursine, in pretty horrible conditions, Cassidy told me. I’m trying to bring them out of it, and I need to reassure them, especially about the cubs.”
“You’re going to put Collars on kids too?”
The horror in her eyes made Eric feel so damn guilty. “Cubs don’t get Collars until they’re seven, and I’ll lie like hell and say they’re all under seven if anyone asks. They’ve been underfed, so they look young anyway.”
Iona waved her hands in front of her face, which moved her breasts in an enticing way. Were they fettered under that shirt? Or tucked into a lacy bra that his hands would enjoy opening?
“What did you mean, you need me to become their alpha?”
“Top female of my pride. Humans, in some of their cultures, call it head wife or first wife, but as I told you, mates aren’t quite the same as wives.”
“Wait, wait. Are you saying that these five women are your mates?”
Iona’s dismay had him talking fast. “No, I’m saying I mate-claimed them. That means that no other Shifter males can claim them without going through me. I don’t want the females worrying about fending off mate-claims on top of everything else they’ve gone through, until they’ve found a place in Shiftertown and are ready to live their own lives. It also means that I take responsibility for their cubs, so they’re not hurt or taken away from their mothers.”
Iona blew out her breath. “I guess that’s good. So, what does all this have to do with me?”
“I’ll mate-claim you and make you my alpha. They need someone to follow, someone to reassure them until things get settled. Cassidy defeated their alpha, but once I made the mate-claim, she as my sister can no longer have precedence over any of my mates. You as head mate would supersede all. The woman who’d been the Ursine’s head mate has given up, and the other females are confused and uncertain. You can help me calm them down, show them that they’re all right. Then I’ll release them from the mate-claim and give you the choice to reject it as well.”
Iona stared at him with a mixture of disbelief, rage, and fear. “Give me the choice? After you out me and Collar me? Oh, then I get the choice to tell you to kiss my ass?”
“You get the choice to let me make the mating permanent. Or not.”
Iona put her hands around her bare neck. It made Eric’s heart sing to see her un-Collared, but he feared that humans would discover her, lock her away, slap the Collar on without preparing her. That fear made him want to put her under his arm, whisk her to Shiftertown, and never let her go.
“Eric, from what I understand, putting a Collar on a Shifter causes a hell of a lot of pain. Is that what you want? For me to be rolling around on the ground, screaming, while a Collar I can never take off again infuses itself to my flesh?”
“No, that is not what I want.”
“Then why are you asking me to do it?”
Eric went to her and cupped her face, unable to keep his hands off her any longer. “To keep you safe. If they find out you’ve been passing as human—Iona, love, I don’t know what they’ll do to you.”
Iona stared up at him, her eyes enormous. “Then leave me alone. Stop stalking me, and no one will ever know.”
“Yes, they will.” His fears poured out. “Sweetheart, they’ll find you. Some Shifter will scent you and let on what you are, whether he means to or not. Or a human will see you, watch you, figure it out. You’re holding your wildness in, but you can’t forever. If you suppress the wildcat too long, it will take over.” From the fear flooding her face, Eric knew she was already fighting that. “Let me protect you, Iona. Please.”
She shook her head, the ends of her hair brushing his fingers. “I can’t just give up my life. I have a mother, a sister, a career, a home. I can’t walk away from it. It’s mine. I want it.”
“I know.” Eric kissed her wet face. “I will try to make everything the best I can for you.”
“By putting the Collar on me? To make me go through that pain and make me a slave? You can’t. I can’t.”
She broke his heart. “I don’t want to, sweetling. The laws are stupid, but someday they won’t be. We’ll get free of the Collars and do what we want.” Eric looked into her eyes, her beautiful eyes that saw past his hard-ass shell to the true man inside. Kirsten had looked at him like that too. “And when that day comes, I want you by my side.”
Iona tried to shake him off. “What are you talking about? Shifters are captives. How is that better than letting my wildcat take over?”
Eric didn’t answer, because he didn’t have an answer. Shifters were working, in secret, to become stronger, unstoppable. The ones leading the movement wanted Shifters to live in peace, to be well, to raise cubs without fear. Until then, they had to do what they had to do.
But when Eric imagined himself latching the Collar around Iona’s beautiful neck, he balked. The pain would bite deep, as it had done to him, to Cassidy, and to Jace on that awful day. Iona’s eyes would flood with tears, and she’d not be able to stop her cries of agony.
Eric couldn’t do that to her. Not now. Not ever.
He gathered her close, pressing his cheek to her hair. “I’ll find another way, Iona.” The scent of her, the nearness of her, drove him wild. “You don’t have to be afraid,” he whispered. “I promise.”
Cassidy had something on her mind. Diego knew it by the way she didn’t mention it as they rode through the streets on the way to Jobe’s.
Beautiful dusk was spreading over the valley. The mountains hid their secrets, becoming a distant wall of blue gray. Against that backdrop sparkled red, blue, green, and gold lights of the heart of Las Vegas, beckoning the unwary.
Diego paralleled the lights of the Strip when he came out of Shiftertown and headed west to where Jobe’s widow lived with her teenage sons and daughters. Cassidy looked around with interest as they pulled up in front of the deceptively compact house with its neat cactus garden edged with spring wildflowers.
The front door slammed open as Diego and Cassidy emerged from the car. Jobe’s youngest daughter, Christine, thirteen years old, ran out. “Uncle Diego!”
She launched herself at Diego, and he swept her into a hug. He kissed her cheek and set her down again, and Christine turned interested brown eyes to Cassidy. “Who’s she? Your girlfriend?”
“Yes,” Diego said. Cassidy looked gorgeous tonight in a black sheath dress and
shiny black high heels. “This is Cassidy.”
Christine tore away and ran back into the house. “Mom! Diego has a girlfriend!”
Jackie Sanderson appeared at the door, the black woman as elegant as ever in pants, silk blouse, and softly clinking gold necklaces. Jobe had always liked to ask: How did a classy lady like her end up with a lowlife like me? Diego felt a deep gouge of pain, as he always did when he saw Jackie.
“Christine, stop shouting like that,” Jackie said. “You’ll have everyone in the neighborhood out wondering what you’re yelling about. Diego, get in here. Now I know why you’ve been hiding yourself away.”
Jackie opened her arms, rings glittering in the dying light, a smile of genuine welcome on her face. Diego embraced her, trying not to remember the day he’d come to console her after Jobe died, and how Jackie and her kids had ended up consoling him.
Jackie let him go and looked Cassidy up and down, taking in Cassidy’s height and her Collar. “All right, Diego, introduce me. Come on.”
“This is Cassidy Warden. Cassidy, this is the nicest woman in Las Vegas, Jackie Sanderson.”
“Warden?” Jackie said before Cassidy could speak. “Isn’t a man named Warden leader of the Shifters?” She leaned to Cassidy. “Honey, I know he’s your brother, but if he looks anything like he does in his pictures, he is damn hot.”
Cassidy grinned. “I’ll let him know you think so.”
She moved, Shifter-fashion, to embrace Jackie. When Jackie’s strong arms closed around Cassidy, Cassidy’s expression changed.
“I’m so very sorry,” Cassidy said, tightening the embrace. “Your loss, it hurts you.”
Jackie looked over Cassidy’s shoulder at Diego, her eyes soft. “Yeah, it’s bad, having Jobe gone.”
“I lost my mate too,” Cassidy said, gently pulling away. “And the world changed.”
Jackie nodded, clasping Cassidy’s hands. “The world changed.” She put her arm around Cassidy’s waist. “Come on inside, honey. Let’s have some wine.”