Saving the Beast (7 page)

Oh, no! No! That son of a bitch! “Or maybe it’s one mad scientist’s way of making sure Zane finds me,” Diane stated angrily.

“The Professor?” Kenzie asked.

“He said he was giving me a tetanus booster, and I didn’t even really question him. I’m such a fucking idiot. I should’ve known better than to trust that sneaky bastard.”

“I’m sure he only meant to help you,” Kenzie offered, almost mirroring the Professor’s earlier words.

“He’s gone too far this time. He’s not only risked my life but yours, as well. And when we get back, I’m going to knock some sense into him. It would serve him right if I left despite his little plan.”

“You’re planning to leave? With Zane?” Kenzie didn’t sound happy.

“I would never tell Zane what to do,” she promised.

“If you leave, he’ll go with you, whether he wants to or not. Mates come first. If for one minute he thinks you’re unhappy and wish to leave us, he won’t hesitate,” Kenzie informed her.

“I won’t do that to him,” Diane swore.

“Then be careful of your emotions. They become his, as well. You’ll be unable to hide anything from him.”

“Shit! What about you?” Diane asked.

“What about me?” Kenzie replied.

“He gave you a shot, too.”

“I’ll be fine. My body might not even react to it.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “It hasn’t, yet. You’re the one we should be concerned about. You going into heat could make the animal in Zane even more predatory and unwilling to relinquish control.”

Not to mention the changes to his physiology that Diane wasn’t going to share. Besides, Kenzie was a shifter. She might already know and just not want to scare Diane. Either way, Diane wasn’t bringing it up.

“Maybe the Professor should have thought of that before he gave me something to force my body to ovulate,” Diane gritted out between clenched teeth. They were going uphill, and she was panting a bit.

“He definitely should have,” Kenzie agreed. “Mates can be very protective. Your anger becomes theirs. The bond mates share… It’s a love like no other.”

Diane glanced at Kenzie. “Is Holt your mate?”

Kenzie laughed. “No. I think Holt hoped for us to be mates, but we weren’t meant to be. He’s not mine.”

“Have you…?” Diane cleared her throat, uncertain of finishing the question.

“Had sex?” Kenzie offered then smiled. “Holt’s an amazing lover, but that was a long time ago. We’re just friends, now. He’s my best friend.”

“So from lovers to friends?” Diane asked.

“More like from friends to friends with benefits to best friends,” Kenzie said, sharing her infectious grin again.

“I’ve never had a lover,” Diane admitted out of the blue. “Unless toys count, in which case I’ve had several, and they’ve all been perfect.”

Kenzie stopped and turned with an incredulous expression. “Holy fuck! You’ve never been with a man and you’re planning on taking a primal shifter on as your first? Jesus!”

Diane swallowed, nervous tension spreading from her stomach outward at the look on Kenzie’s face. If Kenzie was that worried, Diane had a feeling she should be terrified.

“Yes,” she managed to squeak out.

Diane’s phone began buzzing in her pocket, jolting both of them.

“I wouldn’t answer that just yet,” Kenzie said anxiously and headed them farther through a thicker copse of trees.

“Why not?” Diane asked, giving Kenzie a piercing glance the other woman did her best to avoid. Kenzie was hiding something.

“Well…” Kenzie started to answer then sighed. “God, what a mess this is turning into.”

“Why shouldn’t I answer my phone?” Diane demanded just as it ceased buzzing and Kenzie’s began.

“Because we didn’t exactly have Tah’s permission to leave when we did this morning,” Kenzie admitted quietly and walked a bit faster as if that would keep Diane quiet.

“What?” Diane couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Kenzie sighed. “I owe Zane, and I wasn’t going to take the chance of Tah changing his mind and not letting us go. He gave his approval once. That’s all we needed.”

Diane didn’t know which of them Kenzie was trying to convince with that logic. Either way, she was sure Kenzie knew she was wrong. Chances were very good they were both in very serious shit with Tah, now. But Diane focused on something else Kenzie had said.

“How do you owe Zane?” Diane asked.

“He saved my life,” Kenzie admitted. “It was after we were all back state side. Holt went home for a bit to check on his parents and younger brother. I found myself in a bad situation, one of those caught in the wrong time and place sort of circumstances.”

“How wrong?” Diane asked.

“I was out numbered and unsure of how the hell to get out of the situation without getting myself hurt or without hurting someone seriously. Then Zane walked through the door.” Kenzie grinned again. “He has a commanding presence. He called my name and held his hand out to me. The look on his face. It was as if he were defying anyone to stop him. He was dominant and forceful.” Kenzie laughed. “Oh, God, you should have seen him. Picture this. I’m in a dark bar. There are six guys in there with me. I was drinking way more than I should have and not paying attention. I should have cared that I was the only woman in there and maybe got a clue there might be a reason for it.”

“Why were you drinking?” Diane interrupted to ask.

“I’d just decided to end things with Holt. I was afraid of hurting him, losing his friendship,” she admitted.

“Obviously, you didn’t.”

“No,” Kenzie said with a shake of her head. “He understood and agreed. We’ve been best friends since.”

“So what happened with Zane?”

“I was surrounded when he walked in. One of the guys had a hard grip on my arm. I was a little roughed up. I’d uttered the word no, and they didn’t take it very well.”

Diane looked at Kenzie’s tiny build. She was not just short but carried a smaller frame, as well. Her long brown hair was usually pulled back in a braid down her back, making her huge brown eyes the focus when you looked at her. She was beautiful, especially when she smiled, which was most of the time. But she was also quiet—almost to the point you didn’t realize she was there, until she wanted you to. Diane had noticed all the guys in their group had a tendency to be a little over-protective of Kenzie.

“I tugged my arm and tried to walk over to Zane, but the guy didn’t want to let me go. He asked Zane who the fuck he was. Zane said he was the one who was going to kill anyone who’d touched me. He looked pointedly at the guy’s hand still on my arm and just lifted his brow. God, his eyes! He let just enough of the animal loose so that they really glowed. It was scary as fuck. I thought a few of them were going to piss their pants. Here I am surrounded by a bunch of dickheads who think they’re really bad boys, and in walks six and half feet of pissed off muscle. Ebony skin that only seems to make his eyes look all the lighter, you know?”

Diane nodded. Yeah, Zane was gorgeous.

“The one who had a grip on me dropped my arm and practically shoved me toward Zane. He’s all, ‘we don’t want any trouble’.” Kenzie mimicked. “Zane swept the room with all of them before we left. My God, I knew he was lethal, but his control. When he was done, none of them were moving.”

“Did he kill them?” Diane asked with wide eyes.

“No,” Kenzie answered with another shake of her head. “He just taught them a lesson. The main guy kept saying no and begging Zane to stop hitting him. Zane would just hit him again and ask how many times the guy had ignored others saying the same things. When he thought the guy had enough, he took my hand and pulled me out of there.”

“What happened then?” Diane wanted to know. Good grief, she couldn’t control the fact she was feeling a bit jealous. Had Zane comforted Kenzie? Kissed her? Jesus! Had Kenzie been fuck buddies with Zane, as well?

“He chewed my ass out when I woke up,” Kenzie admitted with a shudder. “Lord, I’ve never seen him so mad. He was absolutely livid with me. Told me he didn’t care what I was dealing with, there was no excuse for stupid.”

“Oh, my,” Diane breathed out. Would he be mad at her for this plan to save him? “Sounds like he helped you out of tight spot. Wait a minute, what do you mean when you woke up?”

What had happened between Kenzie and Zane that had exhausted the woman? Kenzie gave a snort of laughter.

“What?” Diane demanded and even she could hear the growl in her voice. Good grief. She wasn’t even a shifter.

“Not what you think,” Kenzie stated. “I’ve never been anything more than friends with Zane. Never. To be honest, he scares me a little. He’s all intensity and control and intimidation without even saying a word.”

Diane knew what she meant, but where it scared Kenzie, it just turned Diane on. She wanted Zane like she’d never wanted another man. Truthfully, there was a part of her who relished the thought he would be her first lover, and if they were mates like she suspected, her only lover.

“So what happened after?” Diane asked again. “You said he didn’t say anything until you woke up.”

“My drink was drugged. Apparently, the bar was a known place where women have a tendency to disappear. Zane was checking into it, and there I was. It might have taken me a little longer to lose consciousness under the drug they were lacing my drinks with, but I would have been as much at their mercy as a human woman when I did.”

“But you’re a shifter,” Diane argued.

Kenzie stopped and shifted from foot to foot. She skimmed her gaze around them, but Diane sensed a nervous tension in the other woman. “That doesn’t make me invincible, Diane. I can still be drugged, killed.”

“But couldn’t you have shifted? Saved yourself?” Diane asked.

“No,” Kenzie admitted.

“Too dangerous to shift?”

Kenzie blew out a breath, and the look in her eyes when she finally met Diane’s gaze sent a shiver of foreboding through Diane.

“I can’t shift,” Kenzie confessed. “That’s why the Professor came to me and asked for my help.”

“No,” Diane countered, shaking her head. “That’s not possible. You have the same coding as the others. Your blood work shows a strong shifter hormone in your blood, similar to Clara’s. There’s nothing to make us think your animal’s recessive like Finn’s.”

“It’s another anomaly. Didn’t you ever notice my canines?” Kenzie opened her lips wide again, and Diane stared at the shorter canines more similar to hers than Clara’s. How had she not paid attention to that before?

“How did the Professor know?” Diane demanded, and why hadn’t he told Diane?

“He approached me after he ran the first blood test. I told him I wasn’t ready to come forward, yet. He was okay with it, but wanted to ask me some questions,” Kenzie explained. “I couldn’t answer them all. I admitted to him that I couldn’t shift, that I never had. Have to admit, I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.”

“I’m not,” Diane grunted. Oh, she’d have plenty to say to the Professor when she got back. Then another thought occurred to her.

“Can you even smell Zane?” she demanded.

“Yes. I have all the enhanced senses of a shifter. I can even manage claws when I need them. But I’ve never been able to pull off a full shift. I often wonder if my birth parents knew I was defective and that’s why they gave me up for adoption. They thought I was normal and wanted me to have a normal life.”

Kenzie’s face took on a sad expression.

“But you didn’t?” Diane prompted.

“No, I didn’t. I told you I have shifter senses. Sometimes my ability to smell or see something I shouldn’t have been able to freaked people out. My adoptive family couldn’t wait to be rid of me. My bags were packed as soon as I hit eighteen. I stuck around until I graduated then took off and joined the Marines.”

“Oh, Kenzie, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s worked out for the best,” Kenzie said, but Diane didn’t think so. How would it feel to think you didn’t belong in either world?

“So how are you going to be able to protect me out here?” Diane asked, changing the subject and hoping to spark something other than sadness in Kenzie.

“I might not be a fully merged shifter, but I am a Marine. Trust me. I can kick ass with the best of them,” Kenzie assured her with a hard look.

Diane continued, wanting to banish any remaining crumbs of sadness that might remain. “Well, your story of Zane coming to the rescue hasn’t exactly invoked a confident feeling.”

“I was drugged.” Kenzie grunted, and Diane did her best to hide a smile. This was much better.

Diane’s phone started vibrating in her pocket again.

“I should probably answer, or we’re going to have a whole posse on our tails,” Diane said, pulling free her phone and answering. She hit the button to place the call on speaker.

“Hello.”

“What the fuck part of see me before you leave this house did you two not understand?” Tah’s voice was hard and lethal, and Diane was very happy she wasn’t there to see his face.

“Uhmm. What?” Diane mumbled.

“Put Kenzie on the phone, now,” Tah commanded furiously.

Kenzie sighed as Diane looked at her. “I’m here.”

“You’re most definitely not here or you’d feel the full brunt of my anger,” Tah seethed. “Do you have any clue what you’re walking into? What you’re taking Diane into?”

“I’m not a child, and you’re not my parent, Tah,” Kenzie fumed. “And yes, we’re both aware of what we’re doing and why.”

“Does Diane know you can’t shift?” Tah asked softly and the menace in his voice was so much scarier for the quietness of his tone.

“Yes,” Kenzie answered in surprise, her gaze clashing with Diane’s. “You’re on speaker. We can both hear you.”

“Did you think Holt wouldn’t tell us when he found out what you’d agreed to?” Tah demanded.

“Fuck,” Kenzie seethed.

“How far away are you? Holt and Murphy will come get you,” Tah stated.

“No,” Kenzie said quietly.

“Excuse me?” Tah asked, his voice rigid with disbelief.

“I said no,” Kenzie repeated, her gaze bouncing around them as she inhaled. “It’s too late, anyway,” she admitted and Diane felt a chill run up her spine. “We’re close. I’ve picked up his scent, which means he’s already caught Diane’s at this point. It won’t be safe for anyone else to be around.”