Charming (A Seven World Novel) (4 page)

Kat didn’t want to impose on her sister, especially after the last visit when Nadia had kicked her out of the apartment for painting the walls pale yellow.
Kat hadn’t meant any harm; she’d just thought the place needed a little cheering up. What she really wanted to do was shift and relax, but she wasn’t allowed to because the last time she did, her wolf had left a ton of black hairs all over Nadia’s white couch.

Nadia could be a real bitch, but Kat wasn’t perfect by a mile. After all, who wants to hang out with a woman who dedicates her life to tracking down thugs? When on assignment, Kat spent most of her days and nights in bars, going undercover and squeezing juicy gossip from her informants. She had to dress the part, and eventually the lines blurred on how much of it was an act and how much was really her. As long as the clothes were comfortable, she didn’t care.

Granted, leather pants had their downside. As badass and sexy as they looked, they also made her legs sweat. Kat preferred distressed jeans or a pair of khakis, but unfortunately she had nothing else to wear at the moment since she’d driven into town straight from a biker bar in Shreveport.

After waking up in Prince’s armpit, she’d slinked out of the room to retrieve two leftover slices of pizza from the dining table. Kat meandered into the living room and sat on the sofa beside Prince.

Prince
. What kind of name was that? Tall, graceful like a panther, long hair—and Kat had always had a thing for long-haired men. On top of that, he smelled good… beneath all the cologne. Prince had a face that artists chiseled from marble, and don’t get her started on his eyes. The intensity of his gaze made her talk faster than usual. Up close, the contrasting colors were arresting, and they pulled her in like magnets. Men shouldn’t have eyes that sexy. Especially not with wolfish brows that sometimes slanted in a way that sent a shiver up her spine. Prince was like a knight all cleaned up and wearing a silk suit. Okay, so maybe that was a little overboard, but she definitely enjoyed the sexy image in her mind of him astride a black stallion, wielding a sword.

Nadia had picked a winner this time. Not too young, not too old, and an alpha to boot.

But Kat knew beneath all the layers of sophistication was a man like any other man. At the end of the day, he was no different than the guy selling magazines in the airport. Same basic wants and needs, even if he didn’t choose to acknowledge them.

“Have a bite,” she offered, handing him a slice of room-temperature pizza. “You didn’t eat enough at dinner. I know this isn’t exactly a four-star meal, but at least it’s more edible than my sister’s wild game.”

He eyed the pizza skeptically. “I wouldn’t go so far as to call that edible.”

That was a little high and mighty. She turned to face him and waved the pizza in front of his mouth, brushing the tip against his lower lip. “Don’t think I didn’t notice your stomach growling earlier. What do you think lulled me to sleep? We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I prefer the hard way, but it’s up to you.”

Kat was joking, but much to her surprise, he took the slice from her hand and bit into it. Now
that
piqued her curiosity even more. How often do you get to see someone experience their first bite of pizza?

“Well? How is it?”

The lines in his jaw moved as he chewed and swallowed. “Like you.”

She dusted off her fingers. “And how am I like a pizza? Except for the supreme part.”

“Bursting with flavor, but probably not good for me.”

Kat laughed heartily and folded up her own slice, shoving half of it into her mouth.

“I’ve never seen a woman with such a ravenous appetite,” he remarked.

“I have a screwed-up metabolism,” she said around a mouthful of pizza. “My wolf is always in starvation mode.”

“Yet you have the same figure as Nadia.”

Her eyes flashed up with interest that Prince had noticed her body. It kind of made her want to blush, except Kat hadn’t blushed since she was twelve and a boy named Danny had kissed her on a dare. Twelve was much too young for a Shifter girl to be kissing boys, and Kat hadn’t done it again until she was twenty-one.

Kat finished her last bite and licked her finger. “My job requires a lot of running and climbing over walls, so I guess I need all the calories I can cram in.”

His eyes slid down to her legs and back up again.

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” she asked. It was a trait Kat was familiar with because she did the same thing in her profession.

“I… I was…”

When color touched his cheeks, she couldn’t help but smirk. The stammering was even more adorable.

“I
meant
reading my body language, but I’ll let you have an awkward moment of silence to think of an answer.”

Prince sighed and continued eating his pizza.

“Did Nadia go out to the club?” Kat set the box on the floor and kicked it out of the way.

He finished his slice in less than four bites and then stretched out his legs. “To meet with a client.”

“See, I’m not the only workaholic around here.” She licked a few crumbs off her lips. “Thanks for trying the pizza.”

He arched a brow and studied her for a moment. Even sitting, Prince was much taller than she was. “I didn’t perceive it as a gallant act, but you’re welcome.”

He’s so charming
, she thought to herself. Kat leaned forward and began unlacing her boots. “It shows you trust me. Just a little bit.”

“Perhaps I was just being polite,” he offered.

She glared at him over her shoulder. “Packmasters don’t eat food offered from complete strangers just to be polite. Not someone as old as you, who’s probably seen firsthand how effective poisons are against an enemy. Ancients aren’t polite by nature.”

“You can sense I’m an ancient?”

A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth and she pulled off her boots. “You have that stiff look about you. Plus, I see a few wisdom hairs in there.”

“Wisdom hairs?”

Kat reached out and plucked one of the rogue silver hairs from his head. He winced and recoiled. She held it in front of his face and tickled his nose with it. “Don’t worry, it’ll grow back. You might even get three in its place.”

He snatched the hair from her fingertips and let it fall to the floor. “That’s an old wives’ tale.”

“Aha! So you’ve done it. I didn’t take you for a man who dyed his hair; you can always spot a dye job a mile away on a guy. I would have never guessed you were a plucker.”

He leaned on the armrest and faced her. “And what of
your
artificial color?”

Kat laughed and flipped her hair between her fingers. “This is the real McCoy. Did you think Nadia’s hair was naturally blond? She touches up the roots before they’re noticeable. She always wanted to be a princess, and I guess she looks like one now.”

“You
are
from a royal bloodline,” Prince said firmly, clearly aware of her heritage.

The room was dark except for the light emanating from the curio, and it cast shadows along the contours of his face. He was easy on the eyes—a regal nose, slight widow’s peak, a strong jaw with dark whiskers just beneath the surface if you looked close enough. Features you wouldn’t see on a warrior so much as a king. Despite his age and a few silver hairs, he had a young look about him, seasoned somewhere in his late thirties.

Kat shrugged. “People don’t care about the royal bloodline now that we have Councils and the higher authority. Not all the Shifters today know about the old countries that didn’t enslave our kind. Most probably don’t have a clue that in some places, Shifters once held a lot of power and control, led by royal families. Even if it were common knowledge, I doubt most would care.”

“Yes,” he agreed, his gaze drifting toward a dark corner. “Years ago, when rumors of Shifter slavery began to surface, it planted a seed with some of the more power-hungry immortals. They coveted our wealth and dominion. Why allow us to flourish when most places were treating us no better than cattle? Our only true magic is shifting to animal form, so many subjugated our kind, forcing wolves to pull sleds, our horses to travel, and our panthers as recreational punishment. I left two places I called home when this insidious mentality began to spread like a plague.”

“Must have been a hard life for an alpha, always on the move and starting over.”

Boy, did Kat know all about that. She moved so much she practically lived out of a plastic bag more than a suitcase.

“I did what was required to survive. I thought Russia would hold; we had so many in positions of power there.” He rested his chin against his fist, swept up in the memories. “Your father was an intelligent man. While he made alliances with other Breeds, he also recruited Shifters into the territory to increase our numbers. We had a strong footing for many years. But times were changing; war was imminent even among the humans. Alex never spoke of me?”

Kat shook her head, remembering how reluctant her father was to discuss the details of his past. Only when he was full of spirits did he recount the glory days before it all went to hell. But when Kat would ask more questions, he’d switch to a lighter topic, saying his princess didn’t need to hear such stories of horror and bloodshed. Her father’s pain was buried deep, and as much as she’d wanted him to confide in her, it wasn’t worth taking the chance that those old memories resurfacing could destroy that man he’d become.

She curled her legs beneath her and turned on her right side to face him. Prince seemed like the kind of man she could talk to—someone who wouldn’t hold back, and she liked that about him. “Were you two close?”

“We were like brothers.” A rueful smile crossed his face, revealing the same anguished look she’d once seen from her father.

“And what happened that you haven’t seen him after all this time?”

A dark look dimmed the light in his eyes. “They imprisoned your father and banished me from my home. They threatened to execute him if I returned. I often wondered if it was an empty threat to keep me out—that perhaps they’d already murdered him long ago on that winter’s day.”

Kat lowered her gaze, saddened by the hard truth about her father’s past. “Why did they treat you differently and let you go?”

“Because, Kat, your father gave up his freedom for mine.”

The admission stole her breath.

“Your father was a peacemaker who forged alliances, but I had a reputation for battle that preceded me. One man in the Mage alliance wanted me dead. He knew I would have organized the packs and steered them to war; it wouldn’t have been the first time. For reasons I’ll never understand, Alex took my place.”

A sharp pain lanced through Kat’s tender heart when she thought of her father’s bravery. “The night he disappeared, he wanted to meet with me. He said he had information on someone I was tracking down at the time. He was like that—always helping me out. I think he was proud of what I did because I was the closest he had to a son. Anyhow, he owned a retreat in the woods no one knew about—a place we used to go fishing and hunting. That’s where I was supposed to meet him. When I got there, it had been ransacked, and I haven’t heard from him since.”

Prince turned toward her and his scent swirled in the air. It was a heady, desirable smell that made her toes curl and her wolf perk up. “Do you think it had to do with the case you were on?”

“That’s all I can think of. My father didn’t have enemies that I knew of, just a few local Packmasters who didn’t get along with him. But that goes with the territory, right?”

“You are correct.”

Kat smirked when he didn’t get the joke. “Do you ever just say ‘yep’?”

He stared, expressionless.

“Okay, maybe not,” Kat murmured. Some of the ancients weren’t easy to get to loosen up.

“What is the name of the suspect you were chasing?”

Her eyes latched on to his. “I can’t tell you that unless you swear an oath to help me search for him.”

His mismatched eyes widened and Kat suppressed a grin.

“Sorry, I can’t trust just
anyone
with the knowledge I have. I’m sworn to secrecy with the higher authority. The only people I can share intel with are partners. I guess the real question is: how good of friends were you with my father, and how indebted are you to his ultimate sacrifice?”