Jaguars' Reward [Impulse 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

“Oh, God!” Tears leaked down her cheeks. “I’m so glad I didn’t succeed. You think Ed Finch is involved?”

“Him or someone connected to him,” Zayd said. “We don’t know who he is yet, but the leopards are working on that. They’re good with information technology.”

“I don’t believe it. Mom hates shifters and would never knowingly have anything to do with one.”

“You’d better tell us why that is,” Vadim said. “You have shifter blood, don’t you?”

It was a long time before she responded. When she finally did, she spoke so softly that they barely heard her.

“My grandfather was a wolf shifter,” she said.

“I never really believed that shifters existed,” Talia said softly. “I didn’t know my grandfather, you see. He died way before I was born.”

“But you were taught to mistrust them?”

“To start with, I was told they were like fairies and giants and that they didn’t actually exist. But I heard things. Heard my mother and grandmother talking and picked things up, like kids do. I asked a question once. Asked what a rogue was, and what was Impulse? My mother hit me. She’d never done that before, but she got real mad and told me I shouldn’t listen to other people’s conversations.”

Vadim covered her clasped hands with one of his own. “But she started warning you off shifters and Impulse after that? Am I right?”

Talia paused to arrange her thoughts. Vadim’s hand covering hers didn’t help much. The warmth seeping into her skin, the scorching gleam from his intelligent golden eyes, combined to derail her concentration. He and Zayd were so kind to her, so understanding, that she found it hard to compute. It was a long time since anyone had cared about her. Not even her mother had—especially not her.

Men came and went in Talia’s life, all of them wanting more than she was prepared to offer—usually sex. They were intimidated by her because of her ability to land them on their asses if they came on too strong and wouldn’t take
no
for an answer. She was used to being alone, to looking out for herself, and now these two hunks were eyeing her with equal expressions of concern. She tried to kill them and yet they didn’t bear a grudge, which confused her even more. All the adults in her family bore grudges like they were a fundamental human right.

“My grandmother was pure human. So are my mom and dad.”

“Is your dad still alive?” Zayd asked.

“I have no idea. I’ve never met him.” Talia lifted her shoulders. “He and Mom weren’t married and he left before I was born. Mom won’t speak about him. I don’t even know his name, and if she does, she isn’t saying. On my birth certificate, under ‘name of father’ it says ‘unknown.’”

“Why would she inflict that sort of stigma on you?” Vadim asked. “I don’t mean to be indelicate, but did she sleep around and really not know?”

“Oh, she knew all right, but, like I said a moment ago, she’s made bearing a grudge into an art form. My father left her and so she she’s expunged him from our lives like he never existed. ‘We don’t need him’ was her favorite phrase when I was growing up.”

Zayd scratched his head. “What made her so bitter?”

“Blame my grandmother for that. She’s the one that married the wolf shifter.”

Vadim raised a brow. “Without knowing he was a shifter?”

“Apparently.”

“Then you’re right. He must have been a rogue,” Vadim said decisively. “No decent shifter would marry a human without her knowing what she was getting herself into first and going into it voluntarily.”

“I’ve seen pictures of him and can understand why she was smitten. He was almost aggressively handsome.”

“Is it possible to be aggressively handsome?” Zayd asked, smiling.

“You two wouldn’t know, because you both wear your good looks like they’re no big deal. You’re probably not even aware that you move with a feline grace that draws the eye. It’s like you have no muscles in your bodies and you seem completely comfortable with who you are. The pictures I’ve seen of my grandfather, on the other hand, show a man who’s defying the world and doesn’t give a damn what people think about him because he’s better than everyone else.” She frowned. “Does that make any sense?”

“We’ve known shifters with that attitude,” Zayd said. “Where did your grandmother meet him? Do you know?”

“Fort Myers is where they lived.” Vadim and Zayd exchanged a glance. “You look worried. Why?”

“Do you ever feel the urge to shift?” Vadim asked.

“Don’t think so. How would I know?”

“You’d know,” the guys said together.

“Do you feel any animal instincts?” Zayd asked.

She canted her head as she considered the question, a devilish glint in her eye. “Well, domestic cats always like me.”

“Talia!”

“Sorry, but this is all kind of weird. I figured we needed a moment of light relief there. And to answer your question, no, I’m not aware of any animal instincts.” Another grin escaped. “Put it this way, I’ve never felt the need for nights out on the prowl.”

Vadim threw a cushion at her. “This is a serious business.”

“Sorry,” she said with feigned contriteness, not feeling the slightest bit sorry to have made the oh-so-serious Vadim chill.

“Tell us everything you know about your grandfather,” he said.

“Well, in his human life he worked as a mechanic, but, according to my mother, he was a beta wolf shifter who wanted to be top wolf, like you guys are the top of the tree here in Impulse.”

“Who are you calling a wolf?” Zayd asked, blowing her another of his kisses.

“You know what I mean. Anyway, Grandfather decided the pack leaders were too stuck in their ways, too cautious, and he led a group of renegades who would show them a thing or two.”

“And let me guess,” Vadim said, gritting his teeth. “Their target was Impulse.”

Talia’s head shot up. “What makes you say that?”

“Because it always is. And because your mother, presumably thanks to your grandmother’s influence, taught you to hate Impulse because it cost her her husband.”

She sighed. “Yes, you’re right. The wolves, led by my grandfather, made a raid on Impulse. They managed to breach security but didn’t succeed in taking the place. A lot of lives were lost, including my grandfather’s.”

Talia immediately knew she’d said something wrong. She stopped speaking and watched the guys lock gazes. They were quiet in a way that sucked the air out of the room, frightening her into speaking again.

“What is it?” she asked. “What did I just say?”

“Tell her,” Vadim said curtly. “I’m not sure I’ve got the stomach for it.”

Zayd reached across to pat Vadim’s shoulder, cleared his throat, and spoke. “Vadim’s father was head of security here at the time,” he said.

She frowned. “He can’t have been. This happened more than fifty years ago.”

“Age in Impulse is a relative thing,” Zayd explained. “It’s also one of the reasons why shifters are so keen to get their thieving paws on the place. Due to the rare atmosphere, we only age one year to every human’s three.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.” She didn’t try to hide her confusion. “How old does that make you guys, then?”

“In human years,” Zayd replied, “we’re both pushing ninety.”

“Was your father hurt in the raid, Vadim?”

“He was killed,” Vadim said, grinding his jaw and not meeting her gaze.
Shit, he blames me!

“I’m sorry. Now you have double reason to hate me.”

His ferocious glare softened just fractionally. “I don’t hate you. It would make life one hell of a lot easier if I did.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ignore him,” Zayd said flippantly. “The rest of us do all the time. It’s the only way to handle him.”

Vadim shot Zayd the finger. “Okay, so your grandfather married your grandmother, didn’t tell her he was a shifter until after the event. That would be enough to get him expelled from any respectable colony if the alphas knew, so we have to assume that they didn’t.”

“I’m sure they didn’t. It was a love match, by all accounts. My great-grandfather didn’t like my grandfather and refused to let Granny marry him. So they eloped. She only found out about his other
life
after the event and was appalled by it. But by then she was expecting my mother and in those days women didn’t cut and run, especially as her father had disowned her.” Talia shrugged. “She had nowhere to go and so she had to make the best of it.”

“Then your grandfather got ambitious and led that fateful raid on Impulse.”

“Yes. He was killed and my grandmother was devastated. She was also left, literally holding the baby.”

“Your mother,” Zayd said softly.

“Yes. Apparently there were repercussions when news of the failed raid broke. The wolves had been trying to mend fences with the Impulse leaders, but the attack put paid to that. The wolf leaders retaliated by confiscating all my grandfather’s property, leaving my grandmother with no choice but to go crawling back to her father, who never let her forget what she’d done.”

“No wonder she became so bitter,” Vadim said. “And passed her hatred of shifters on to her only child.”

“Yes. And history repeated itself. My mother was abandoned by the man she loved and never got over that, either.”

Zayd indulged in a graceful feline stretch. Talia watched him and opened her eyes wide with appreciation. It wasn’t every day that a girl saw such a lithe display of lean, hard, and unquestionably male musculature. He saw her watching and flashed a wink that made her blush. It also took her mind back to their bedroom the previous night when she’d caught them fucking one another. When they’d asked her to join them, she’d thought she would get to experience one or both of their cocks buried deep inside her. Had desperately wanted to, but instead they stuck to cunnilingus. Now that she’d regained her memory, she knew it had been like nothing she’d ever experienced before. It had blown her mind, taking her to places that she hadn’t known existed. Talia had loved the attention, but was eager to know what came next. Surely it had just been a curtain-raiser to the main event?

She’d been wrong about that. They all went to sleep, and she’d slept like a baby. Even so, she had been disappointed that they didn’t want to fuck her. She couldn’t have made her willingness plainer if she’d sent them a written invitation, but they obviously hadn’t wanted her that way. Not that she could really blame them, not after she’d tried to kill Vadim. But still, the rejection hurt.

“What type of jaguars are you?” she asked, just to show that she was broad-minded and didn’t share her mother’s view of shifters. “You look very different.”

“I’m just your run-of-the-mill spotted cat, albeit a threatened species,” Zayd said, grinning at her. “I was born and raised right here in Impulse. My buddy here likes to think he’s rare, just because he’s all black and his spots are only visible on close inspection—”

“His mottled hair,” Talia said.

“Right, but don’t be fooled. Color morphism occurs regularly in us jaguars. He ain’t
that
special.”

Vadim had been very quiet since she’d unwittingly revealed that her grandfather was responsible for his father’s death. He now offered her a smile, full of ironic complicity that made her toes curl and her pussy leak.

“Ah, but you should see me when I shift, darlin’,” he said, his smile turning into a full-on sexy grin. “I’m as handsome as all get-out.”

“And modest,” Zayd added.

Vadim flipped him the bird. “Modesty’s overrated.”

“Do you think this Ed Finch who Mom’s so keen on is a shifter?” Talia asked.

“I expect so. Shifters would have picked up on your mother’s shifter blood, which would have led them to you. My betting is that it’s the bears. There’s a sloth of bears still near Fort Myers, which puts them close to Venice.”

“What will you do about it?” Talia’s breath caught in her throat as she asked the question. Her understanding was that shifters…well, shifted, when they fought. Surely jaguars would be no match for bears? The thought of these two lithe, beautiful creatures risking their lives because of her, especially when her ancestors had already visited so much trouble on Impulse, was more than she could stand.

“Vadim, you mustn’t—”

“I’m gonna check to see if Kane’s got anywhere tracing the guy behind Finch,” Vadim said, standing. He looked grim-faced and didn’t ask her what she’d wanted to say. “We’ll decide after that.”

* * * *

It was very quiet in the sitting room when Vadim left them. Half of Zayd wanted to go with him, to reassure him and make certain he didn’t take rash decisions when he was in a state of emotional turmoil. But he also knew that Vadim needed space to deal with what he’d just learned, so he let him go alone.

“Is he all right?” Talia asked, staring after Vadim and appearing endearingly anxious.

“He’ll be okay. He just needs to be alone for a while.”

“Could I have handled that better? I’ve upset him, haven’t I?”

Zayd sighed. What to tell her? He slipped an arm round her shoulders and pulled her sideways until she was lying along the sofa they shared and her head rested in his lap. Her hair fanned out across his thigh and he ran his fingers through its silky mass repeatedly.