Alphas of Black Fortune Complete Series (5 page)

There was a small porthole in the
Oso Armonia
’s brig, and Reza could tell by the dot of sunlight it let in that he had been there for nearly a day. They had fed him once. And he knew now what he was dealing with, from the thickness of the chains they’d put upon him, and the strength of the brig’s bars, and the general scent about every member of the crew. An adequate cage and sturdy restraints, even for a creature such as he. They were like him, he now knew, the entire crew and the captain too. Escape seemed thusly impossible.

He thought of the captain — ex-captain — Cressida. He wondered where she was and if she was all right. The looks between her and Captain Kelly suggested to Reza that they knew each other. He wondered how well. But Reza was not a fool, and Kelly had given
him
looks too. He’d come to the market to buy Reza, and that had been plain. He’d had a purpose. A ship full of like creatures, and Reza wondered what end Captain Kelly had in mind. They could not possibly have set to sea of their own choosing. No one like us, Reza thought, would
willingly
confine themselves to a ship, to a life at sea. It was too small, too dangerous. They had been driven here, he presumed.

He heard footsteps on the staircase that led into the brig. He was sitting in his cell, the chains a heavy weight to have carried for long on his feet, and he didn’t rise as he watched first Captain Kelly himself descend the stairs and then Cressida follow behind him.

She’d been given clothes. A pair of boy’s trousers and an oversized shirt, but though they were ill-fitting she wore them beautifully, and with an air of satisfaction that Reza felt utterly appealing. He lightly sniffed the air. Sex was fresh between them.

So they knew each other
quite
well, it seemed.

Reza fought down a flash of jealousy so strong he nearly shuddered.

“We’ve a proposition for you, mate,” Kelly said, smiling wryly at him through the bars of the cell. “Cress here tells me you speak competent English.”

“I do,” he muttered. He looked between the two of them, and felt outnumbered.

From his vest pocket, Kelly produced a folded piece of parchment, and from his belt he pulled a ring of keys. He came to the cage door and unlocked it, sliding it aside, but rather than unchaining Reza, he sank down to a crouch just behind the threshold of the cell and spread the parchment wide across the floor. Reza inched closer, inclining his head to see what the parchment told.

It was a map.

Reza felt his heart tangle into knots, and thought perhaps it would explode right in his chest. It was a map…home. To his home. To his island. He’d know the shape of it anywhere. He looked at Kelly and couldn’t keep the astonishment from his face.

“Ah, you know it,” Kelly said, grinning. “Excellent.”

“Where did you get this?” Reza asked.

“It was hidden in Wentworth’s quarters aboard the clipper we took you from,” Cressida said. “I missed it.”

“But I didn’t,” Kelly added. “This is where they took you from, is it not?”

Reza hesitated, and then nodded. “It is.”

“And this…” Kelly tapped a fingertip to the mountain peak. Reza was familiar with it, of course. It haunted his dreams of home, a piece of the scenery that had been there his entire life. “This is where the treasure is.”

“Treasure?” Reza frowned.

“The Jewel of So Sur,” Kelly insisted, tapping the mountain peak once more.

Reza felt a chill snake down along his spine. He had not heard mention of that relic in a very long time.

“It’s a myth,” he muttered.

“It’s real,” Kelly argued. “I can tell from the look on your face, it’s real.”

Reza scoffed. “Perhaps it was real, once. But it has been lost for generations. Even my people have gone looking for it and never found it. What makes you think you’ll be any different?”

“I’ve done my research,” Kelly said, rising from his crouch. He inclined his head toward Cressida. “And I have her.”

The knot of Reza’s heart pounded again, and he looked at the lady pirate. Her expression was neutral. Kelly had not told her all of it.

“He puts you in great danger,” Reza growled. “Do not do this.”

“A treasure like this could help me get my ship back,” Cressida said softly. “Hell, it could help me get a fleet of ships. That’s freedom. Don’t you want freedom?” She pointed at the map. “Isn’t that home for you?”

“Help us get to the island and find the jewel,” Kelly said. “And then we’ll let you go and never return.”

Reza felt rage spark inside of him and quickly engulf the blood in his veins. That this pale fool would not only try to take from his people the guarded heart of their home, but that he would risk this woman’s life to do it. And he would never be able to do it. Just like that moron Wentworth, his men would die horribly and he would flee, and probably try to kidnap more of his people to sell across the world as a consolation prize. The man in Reza’s mind knew it was best to let them try and die, but the beast wanted Cressida, wanted to have her and keep her safe, and it roared in the darkness of his heart.

And Reza succumbed to it.

He lunged for Kelly, the length of his chains clashing thunderously, and the air in the brig crackled with magic as he shifted forms. He swiped with massive tiger claws at the tall man, and heard Cressida scream as though she was leagues away. Kelly leaned swiftly back from the slash of claws and fell back, but that familiar spark hit the air along with the sound of fabric rending, and it was not the man James Kelly who rose from the floor; it was a great black bear.

Reza lunged again, roaring, but the chains still held him and he twisted about as they pulled taut, keeping him within the cell.

The bear lifted to its hind legs, maw gaping wide as it bellowed back at him.

Just come inside the cell
, Reza thought, baring his long fangs and letting out a hiss of challenge.
Just come inside the cell and I shall shred you to ribbons of flesh and blood
.
We’ll see who’s truly alpha aboard this vessel.

The bear gave an answering growl and charged.

Cressida had never been so arrogant as to flatly deny the existence of God and, by association, any other mystical or supernatural nonsense, but nor had she ever intended to see proof of such things with her own eyes. The sight of Reza transforming — or perhaps
unleashing
was the better term for it — of the liquid shift of his bronze skin giving way to banded black and orange fur as he dove for Kelly was enough to cause her heart to skip a beat with shock. And then
Kelly
…

She’d heard of course of all manner of odd creatures, living as she did amongst pirates, who were by nature the most superstitious lot. Mermaids and seal-women, the doom of the albatross’s flight, betentacled Davy Jones and his crab-handed minions, the sirens and their death song. She was too practical to have taken any of it for more than fancy, but now…

Now she questioned all she thought she knew, and all that she might come to know.

But there wasn’t any time for an existential crisis now, because the two men — beasts — were going to kill each other. And just where would that leave her?

With the swift instinct of one accustomed to fighting for her life, she drew the pistol from her belt and aimed it even as the bear went barreling toward the cell. She pulled the trigger and the shot exploded, smoke and sparks leaping into the air, the bear letting out a furious roar of pain as it fell back, rolling against the wall of the brig, back and away from the cell door. Cressida rushed forward and slammed the door shut on the cage, tossing the spent pistol aside, and bent down, lifting Kelly’s abandoned rapier to lance it right through the cell bars and point it between the hissing tiger’s eyes.

Tiger. She was looking at
a tiger
. She had seen paintings and photographs of such a creature, sepia and crinkled and blurry, drawn in broad strokes or black and white in an old newspaper. She’d read stories of these beasts being brought to the civilized world, kept in gilt cages or grand exhibits. She’d never seen a real one. She’d never found herself gazing into a tiger’s eyes.

It was huge. Far, far bigger than she had imagined. Not quite as tall as a horse but certainly the length of one, its paws as big as her face. And it was beautiful. That striking polarity, black ripping right through orangey-gold, ragged and yet perfectly juxtaposed. Its eyes were predatory and beautiful at the same time, green-gold and black and starving.

She shook herself, rallying her courage.

“That is
enough
,” she snapped at the giant cat. “Now I’ve shot him for your sake, so you had best back up and — and —
change
back
.”

The tiger growled again, and she held its eyes, willing herself to find Reza the man behind them, and then slowly the tiger lowered its head a little and took a few steps back from the cell bars. Cressida turned towards the bear.

Not so exotic but unfamiliar all the same, the bear heaved a breath as it struggled on the floor. From this vantage it looked like little more than a giant black rock, until it breathed, its gleaming midnight fur moving in the sunlight pouring in through the porthole.

Cressida watched, her heart in her throat, as the bear shrank before her very eyes, the thick black pelt receding, giving way to Kelly’s pale English skin, and the angry gunshot wound she’d inflicted upon his shoulder. It could be seen to, she told herself. She’d not shot to kill. And she was thankful that Kelly was large as a man, as well, and her aim had been true enough.

“
Bitch
,” Kelly spat. “You
shot
me.”

“And you’re a
bear
,” she fired right back.

There were footsteps on the staircase, and Kelly rolled onto his back, nude and bleeding and unaccountably attractive to Cressida in the moment. He clutched at his shoulder, muscled figure clenched, and turned his head to glare at her with furious brown eyes. They were, she realized now, a bear’s eyes.

Cort and Harry came stumbling into the brig.

“Captain, we heard a shot!” Cort announced, and then he saw Kelly and rushed toward him. “Captain!”

“It’s fine,” Kelly grumbled, struggling to sit up. “It was an accident.”

Cort looked at Cressida, and then so did Harry, and she took a step back, struck by the glint in both their eyes. More bears. She glanced at the cell and was startled to see that Reza had transformed again as well while she wasn’t looking, and was sitting once more with his back to the cell wall, chains piled modestly in his naked lap. He looked back at her, expression dark.

“I want an explanation,” she said to Kelly, even as Cort helped him to his feet.

“You shall have it,” he sighed, wincing. “Come on.”

“And Reza?” She indicated the man with Kelly’s rapier.

“He stays as he is for now.”

She wanted to argue but, given the display they’d just put on, thought better of it. Best that at least one of them was restrained, or they might try again to kill each other. As Harry went back up the stairs and Cort followed, Kelly leaning heavily upon him, she turned back to Reza.

“We’ll sort this,” she murmured.

Reza seemed to hesitate. And he said, “I’m sorry. If I frightened you.”

She frowned. She thought she must have been frightened, at least for a second or two, in the midst of it. But
fear
was a thing she had no use or time for, and so had learned to turn it into motivation instead. She didn’t like that he thought he’d frightened her.

So she said nothing, and turned, following Kelly and his crewmen back up the stairs.

Back in Kelly’s quarters, he gave over all.

He sat in a broad-backed armchair, a blanket covering his lap, as the ship’s mechanic — a nervous little man named Chester — went about cleaning and stitching the gunshot wound just inside his arm, below the eave of his collarbone.

His wide, burly shoulders were slumped. Dark brown hair fell disheveled into his face. Cressida noticed an abundance of old, silvery scars snaking beneath the wealth of dark hair that fanned across his chest, and wondered how she had never noticed them before, in all the times she’d run her hands over his skin.

“When the government began to hunt bears across England,” he was explaining, “we fled. I am the alpha of this den. I lead and protect these men. We do what we do so that we might buy a parcel of land for ourselves somewhere, and live as we used to.”

“You’re
all
bears,” Cressida clarified, eyes widening. “The whole lot of you?”

“There were more,” Kelly explained, flinching as Chester took the needle to his flesh. “Women and children, too. We had to leave them, scattered about the islands, where they might be safe. We promised to return for them when we’d found sanctuary.”

“And Reza is a tiger.” Cressida huffed. “This is pure madness.”

“This is the truth of my life, Cress,” Kelly murmured. “With the Jewel of So Sur, I could buy us a home. Please help me.”

“He won’t do it—you saw him.”

“He cares for you. That’s what I saw.”

“How did you even hear about him? And this Jewel? And the clipper?” she asked.

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.
Nothing
matters but this purpose. Please.”

Cressida understood well enough not having a home, even if the rest of it was strange and bewildering to her. Bears and tigers and, she wondered, what else haunted the fringes of society? But that line of thought would take her nowhere quickly.

She had never seen Kelly look so defeated as when he spoke of leaving the women and children of his — what had he called it? Den. Having to leave half of his den behind. She understood having to leave people and places behind, as well. Surely Reza did too. That was the thing, she thought, that linked them all together. That was the thing that had drawn her to both of these men. A kindred sense of loss, and the pursuit of something more.

She got up from her seat and went to Kelly. He looked at her, surprise on his face as she brushed the blanket aside and sank down in front of him, leaning in to steal a kiss from his lips.

Chester, behind his chair, looked away.

“I’ll try to help you,” she murmured, looking into Kelly’s eyes. The bear was still there, she realized, huddled in their depths, bristling. “So long as our deal remains the same.”

“It does,” Kelly whispered, his voice hoarse. “It does, Cress.”

“I help you,” she reiterated. “Then you help me.”

“Aye.” He nodded a little and lifted a hand, the rough ridges of his knuckles brushing her cheek. “That’s the deal.”

“And Reza’s chains come off,” she added.

He grimaced, and looked away. “Fine. But if he attacks anyone on board this ship…”

“I’ll make the consequences clear,” she assured him.

She straightened to her feet and went to the door, lifting the ring of keys from where Cort had tossed it onto Kelly’s writing desk as they’d come in.

Before she left, he said, “You care for him too.”

There was something brooding in his voice, and Cressida sighed. “That is none of your business.”

Back in the brig, Reza was still sitting just as she’d left him. He was watching the patch of sunlight spilling in from the porthole, and he looked up as she came down the stairs. She felt his eyes on her as she approached the cell, as she unlocked the door. Then she stepped inside and squared her shoulders before she dropped down into a crouch before him. She lifted his hand.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She slid the key into the lock and turned it. With a heavy
clank
the shackle fell from his wrist. Her eyes met his.

“I’m freeing you,” she told him simply. “So that you can help these men. And me.”

The line of his mouth tightened, his gold-green eyes narrowing angrily. “I said I won’t help them.”

“Please, Reza.” She found herself echoing Kelly only moments before.
Please
.

“He’ll get us all killed. He’ll get
you
killed.”

“Then
help
. Help him, help me. Help yourself.” She lifted his other hand and leaned into him, close and then closer still, until their noses brushed.

His free hand rose, fingertips just barely touching the spill of her hair, and she thought she saw longing in his eyes, behind the tiger’s hunger.

She unlocked the second shackle and, as it fell, Reza lifted both his hands to her face and he kissed her. A heady, impassioned kiss that warmed through the whole of her. But after a moment’s indulgence, she pushed him gently back and looked into his eyes again.

After a long moment, he nodded. “I’ll help you.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

Though it seemed like they had come to an accord, there was anything but peace in Cressida’s heart. She went mechanically through the motions of finding Reza appropriate clothes and arranging a bunk for him amongst the crew. Kelly seemed to recover from the gunshot wound far too swiftly, already up and roaring orders within an hour of receiving his stitches. And the crew of the
Oso Armonia
, Cressida thought, all looked different to her now. They looked not simply like men, like sailors, but also like animals, moving through unnatural terrain. Even Reza, his movements catlike now to her eyes, plainly did not belong aboard a ship.

She wondered what she looked like to them.

She wondered if she could maintain this very fragile peace between Kelly and Reza, or if they would murder each other and leave her alone with a ship full of angry, leaderless bears. She wondered what on earth had possessed her to agree to such a long, uncertain journey fraught with perils and complicated by the very conflicting emotions she felt every time she looked at one man, or the other.

Could she be falling in love with them both?

Was it possible to fall in love with a man after having known him only a day? Was it possible to love a man who had harbored such a huge secret from her over years of knowing him? And more to the point, was Cressida the sort of woman who could love a man, any man, at all?

She stood on the forecastle of the
Oso Armonia
and gazed not towards the darkening sky to the east, in the direction they sailed. Instead she gazed back west, watching the sun bed down along a horizon that shifted, the light pulled back and forth by the waves. There was nothing, she realized, behind them. Nothing for her, nothing for any of them. The adventure lay ahead.