Passion's Prey: The Shadow Shifters (21 page)

“What or who do you think she needs protection from?” Rome asked before Nick could speak again.

“My guess, from the look on her face every time the bastard calls, is a man from her past. Someone she was involved with maybe. The calls are definitely freaking her out, but she won’t tell me who he is.”

Rome nodded. “So you took it upon yourself to find out?”

“Fucking right” was X’s immediate reply.

“Which tells me that not only do you want to protect her, but that you care about her.”

Rome was slick, X thought. And he was a lawyer so X should have known to be careful with this little question-and-answer session they were having. Rome made that a statement and not a question so X couldn’t deny it. But it didn’t matter. X was used to doing what he wanted when he wanted; he wasn’t about to stop now.

“Don’t go dressing this up like some sort of mate connection. I care about her because she’s Nick’s sister. I’m protecting her because right now she’s my lover. End of story,” he said with a definitive look at Nick.

“How can you be so sure she’s not your mate? She’s a
Topètenia
and you’re undoubtedly attracted to each other. Your protectiveness rivals mine and Nick’s put together, and we’re already joined. So how can you sit there and say you haven’t even considered her to be your mate?” Rome asked him.

There was only one reason X knew Caprise wasn’t his mate—one absolute and undeniable reason that no rule in the
Ética
would change.

“I’m not cut out for that mating crap. Too much has happened for me to reach for a happy fuckin’ ever after. So I don’t waste time kidding myself.”

Nick smirked. “But you’ll waste my sister’s time gladly.”

“Your sister’s an adult, man. She could have said no and you know I would have walked away. I don’t force any female, shifter or human.”

“And you don’t know how to let go of the past,” Rome said, which X thought was more than hypocritical since Rome was still chasing the truth about his parents.

“Whatever happened back in Atlanta—look, I’m not asking you to tell us. You know I’d never do that. That’s completely your deal. But whatever it was happened a long time ago. You obviously survived for a reason. Sentencing yourself to a lifetime of suffering is childish and pointless,” Rome said.

“It’s what I feel is the right thing to do, for all involved. Now can we please let this shit go? We’ve got bigger things to worry about.” X gave Rome a look that said,
Hey, I respect you, man, but I’m not telling you jack.

Rome thankfully nodded as he stood from the table, dropping his napkin onto his half-empty plate. “I’m going to the office. Find out who the stranger is and what he’s doing here,
before
you do anything, X. I want to know what you’re walking into to see how we’ll coordinate backup.”

“I don’t need backup,” X said defiantly.

“Humor me, okay? Get the information, give me a call and we’ll go from there. Got it?” Rome asked.

X only nodded, not sure he could trust himself to answer Rome. Because he knew the answer Rome wanted to hear would be a blatant lie.

In the next second they were alone at the table. X and Nick—a confrontation that had been coming for the last few days.

“She’s my only blood,” Nick said slowly as he stared down at the table. “I’d give my life to protect her from any more hurt.”

“That makes you a good shifter and a great brother. But I’m not the one, Nick. I’m not the one trying to hurt her and I’m unfortunately not the one she’ll spend her future with,” X told him. And it was the absolute truth. If inside, his cat was bristling, that was its problem, not X’s.

“For all that she is or that she may have done while she was gone, Caprise has always been smart. She wouldn’t sleep with you just to pass the time.”

X shook his head. “She doesn’t want anything to do with shifter life, Nick. Mating is the farthest thing from her mind, trust me.”

“I just don’t see how this can end well” was Nick’s final tortured reply.

“I’m not guaranteeing that. I just know that at some point, it will end.”

And how the hell he was going to deal with that, X had no clue.

Chapter 19

“You’ve had a busy week, huh?” Kalina asked the moment Caprise let her and Ary into her room.

All she’d had a chance to do when she arrived late last night was unpack her bag, grab a shower, and get into bed. It was too late to go and speak to Seth’s family and she didn’t want to speak to her family, so she’d chosen sleep. The pesky little pastime hadn’t come easily, though. Her mind wandered over things better left alone for longer than she cared to admit.

That’s probably why she was up so early this morning, already dressed and ready for the day. Only she had no idea what the day would entail. She had no real job, which was still a bit bothersome since she had qualifications to work at the school. No, she hadn’t had formal dance training since her tween and teenage years, but she was good and the school had accepted her ten years prior as a student.

She’d thought she was content dancing at the club, but something told her that was going to be a little more difficult to pull off this time around. So here she was in her room, all dressed up with no place to go and memories that were more than ready to haunt her.

“How was Sedona?” Ary asked, totally ignoring the fact that Caprise hadn’t said a word since they’d entered.

“It was pretty, as usual” was her reply after another second of futile hesitation.

Caprise had taken a seat on her bed and for lack of something better to do with her hands, picked up a pillow, pulling on the decorative fringes at its edge.

“And how’s X?” Kalina asked.

Caprise looked at her. She was a pretty woman with a natural golden tan. That was reason enough for a woman to hate her, never mind the fact that she’d married Roman Reynolds. Her eyes were pretty, a warm hazel color. And her hair, which Caprise could tell she was trying to let grow out, cupped her chin neatly in a fiercely cut bob.

“X is the same as usual” was her reply. She found herself wanting to say more, needing to say more. Her chest had actually begun to hurt with all that she’d been holding in. Still, because she wasn’t used to behaving any other way, Caprise waited to see if they would ask her first, which they probably would: This was definitely a tag-team interrogation no matter how they masked it with smiles and soft tones.

“Are you still sleeping together?” Ary asked, coming to sit on the bed beside Caprise.

She was about an arm’s length away. Caprise figured that was why she could smell her perfume so clearly. Something floral and soft, it fit Ary perfectly.

“We did in Sedona. I mean, we shared a suite.” She tossed the pillow. The damn thing was making her more edgy.

Kalina watched, from her perch on the chair next to the dresser, as the pillow tumbled and fell off the other side of the bed. “Hmmm” was all she said.

“What does that mean?” Caprise asked, her defenses all ready to go up. But the pounding in her chest continued and she took a deflating breath.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Kalina said. “Caprise, you can trust us you know. Whatever you tell Ary and I won’t go beyond this room. We’re family, we want to help.”

Family? They weren’t her blood. She’d walked away from the only blood she had to find—what? She still didn’t know. Leaving after her parents’ funeral and traveling the world did nothing to still the restless feeling she carried like luggage. Each time she’d thought she was someplace where she could be happy, where she could be safe, that feeling reared its ugly head and she ran again. She was so damn tired of running.

“He’s just a guy, right?” she asked quietly. Her pride wouldn’t let her hold her head down in shame at the weakness she heard in her voice. Instead she looked from Ary to Kalina and back again, waiting for their reply.

Both of them stared back at her with compassionate looks on their faces. Like pity—
No,
she told herself before her mouth started going again. It wasn’t pity, but understanding. But how could they possibly understand what she was going through? They had no idea what had happened to her in the Gungi all those years ago. Nobody did.

“He’s just a guy that acts like he’s my father. And does everything else like he’s some kind of perfect god,” she said with exasperation.

“He’s a powerful shifter,” Ary said slowly. “He’s one of the commanding officers in the Stateside Assembly.”

“And he’s your brother’s best friend,” Kalina added. “And you knew all this when you slept with him. So what did you think was going to happen?”

Caprise ran a hand over the loose braid she’d put in her hair. “I thought it was just sex,” she answered finally.

Ary seemed to let out a breath before shaking her head. “And now what do you think it is?” she asked.

“I think we’re both too screwed up to think beyond sex. I mean, he’s like got all this stuff going on in his head and it makes him almost crazy. And I’ve got my crap. We’re just a mess.” And when she’d finally said that out loud it didn’t seem totally true.

Kalina nodded. “Wouldn’t it be better if the two of you sorted out your mess together?”

That sounded too logical for it to make sense. Or Caprise simply wasn’t trying to hear the logical explanation and resolution for what was going on between her and X. Besides, there were other important things going on.

“Look, we’ll figure it out. I mean, I guess we’ll do what we need to when the time comes.”

“You’ll have a joining ceremony?” Ary asked.

Caprise was already shaking her head. “I was talking about when it’s time to part ways. I enjoy sex with Xavier but I don’t know about all these shifter rituals.”

“How about the
companheiro calor
?” Kalina asked. “You don’t know about that one?”

“I know about it, but I’m not trying to get caught up in it. I live in a different world than the two of you,” Caprise told them with a sigh.

Ary reached for Caprise’s hand then. “You’d be surprised how quickly you get caught up, Caprise. Almost even before you realize it you’re mated and then there’s nothing you can do—nothing you want to do—besides have a joining ceremony. Because to be apart from your mate would surely be like dying.”

Been there, done that,
Caprise thought with an inward push at her cat, which was slinking along the surface as if it, too, belonged in this conversation.

“It’s not like that with me and X,” she said but wasn’t totally sure that was the truth. Her head was throbbing, matching the rhythmic beat of pain in her chest. “We’re too different.”

It was Kalina’s turn to shake her head. “On the contrary, I think you’re too much alike. He’s just as stubborn as you are. But eventually you’re both going to have no choice but to face the facts.”

Caprise took a deep breath. “The fact is that a young man is dead because of me.”

“You’re talking about Seth?” Kalina asked. “No, honey, he was killed by another shifter. You had nothing to do with that.”

“But I did,” she said. “That shifter is looking for me and he found Seth because Seth was my guard. It’s my fault.” One tear slid free, falling to leave a dark spot on the comforter.

*   *   *

Nick only wanted what was best for his sister. That was all. When his parents died he’d wanted to take care of her because he knew that was what they’d expect of him. But she’d disappeared. And truth be told, he’d harbored a shitload of guilt over not carrying out his parents’ wishes.

When he first found out about her and X, he was livid. He’d wanted to kill Xavier Santos-Markland and shake some sense into his little sister. But then he’d realized two things: Xavier was one of his best friends, and Caprise wasn’t little any longer. She was an adult and so was X, a healthy male shifter and a beautiful female shifter. Logically it made sense they’d come together. But logic had been clouded by emotion—in Nick’s world, nothing new.

So it had taken him some time to decide confronting his sister was the right thing to do. X wasn’t backing down where Caprise was concerned. Nick didn’t blame him; if someone had tried to take Ary away from him after he’d found her in the Gungi, he would have been ready to do bodily harm. This morning at breakfast, X looked like he was at that point, like he would get physical without a doubt should Nick take a firm stance about him seeing Caprise. Nick wasn’t a fool, he knew that at the end of the day Caprise was going to do what the hell she wanted. She always had. And X, that crazy shifter, hardly ever did what he was told.

He was just about to knock on Caprise’s door when she came out. She looked the same, her dark eyes flanked by long lashes and thick arched eyebrows. She looked like their father.

“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. “I was just coming to talk to you.”

She sighed as if he was the last person in the world she wanted to talk to. “Nick, I don’t have time for this right now. I have to go see Seth’s parents. Then I’m going into the city.”

Nick took her by the arm, leading her down the hallway and into one of the meeting rooms on this floor.

“Look, give me a minute, Caprise. I’m trying to get some things off my chest.”

“When will you learn everything isn’t about you, Nick? You called me a couple of days ago yelling and screaming about who you thought I should be with and what I should be doing with my life. Now you want to tell me what’s been on your chest. Did it ever occur to you that I have my own life, my own problems?”

She was absolutely right. Nick didn’t mind eating crow if it meant the women in his life would eventually end up happy. He’d watched X this morning, listened to his reaction to Rome’s questioning about him and Caprise being joined. Standing here, in this close proximity to his sister, he could see that even though she looked the same, she’d definitely changed. His first clue was the heavy musky scent that circled her like a cloud. It was the
companheiro calor,
he knew that without a doubt. What he wondered now was if Caprise and X knew it.

“I apologize,” he said instantly. “You’re right, I’ve been a selfish goof. But here’s the thing: I’m your brother and I just want what’s best for you.”