ShiftinDirty-ElizaGayle (9 page)

She had no idea who this Bhric guy was, but right now he scared the crap out of her. And he apparently did not want her here.

“Sienna, would you mind helping me in the kitchen? It appears that since I’m up this baby thinks it’s morning and is demanding to be fed. And, if we go in the other room we won’t have to watch the guys puff up their chests and thump them like cavemen while they work this stupid shit out.”

Sienna gladly grabbed the lifeline held out by the other women. “Yes, please.” She pulled her hand free from Gage and followed Nikki out of the room.
 

“Thank you so much for that. Can you sneak me out the back door and point me in the direction of the nearest bus station too?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I’m not going to send you out to face the wolves. Pun intended.”
 

“A phone call? My roommate is probably worried about me.”

Nikki shrugged. “We might be able to work that out.”

They pushed through a wooden swinging door into a massive industrial kitchen.
 

“Whoa. This place is amazing.” She started thinking about all the donuts she could make in this kitchen.
 

“Fully stocked too. Shifters have high metabolisms and require a lot more food than humans.”

Sienna reached out and ran her hand over the top of the line industrial stove with six dual flow natural gas burners and oversized double ovens. She was already calculating how many donuts she could make at one time.

“Is that why all shifters have amazingly perfect bodies?”

“What?”
 

Sienna jerked, looking up from the oven fantasies. “What?”

“You think shifters are perfect?” Nikki laughed. “Trust me they aren’t.”

“Spoken from the most perfect female specimen I’ve ever seen.”

Instead of the laugh Sienna expected, Nikki’s mood turned somber, her expression closing down.
 

“I’m sorry. I have the bad habit of blurting out the most inappropriate things at the worst possible times.”

“It’s not you. It’s me. I’m not a normal shifter. Actually none of us here are. This little twenty mile slice of land is what we call the neutral zone. Or as some like to call it the land of the misfits.”

Sienna stared at Nikki thinking she must be crazy. All of them were gorgeous and ripped and in Nikki’s case perfect. Even Bhric with his angry scowl made her hormones sit up and take notice.
 

“That makes no sense to me.”
 

“Maybe one day soon we can sit down and I’ll tell you all about it. For now—food. Do you like scrambled eggs? I’m not the best cook but I can usually make those without screwing it up.”

Ooh a flaw. Finally.
 

Sienna tried to clamp down the glee the thought caused. It wasn’t very nice to be looking for flaws in a hostess who’d so far been nothing but nice.

“How about I cook then? This kitchen is a dream and I’m dying to make some homemade donuts. I tried earlier, but I kinda got interrupted before I could finish.” Because he distracted her with his wicked tongue. Not that she needed to tell Nikki that part.

Nikki perked up. “Donuts?”
 

Sienna laughed. “It’s a shifter thing right? Gage seemed pretty excited about them too.”
 

“We are pretty fond of sweets. Can I watch?”

“Only if you sit on that stool there and relax.” She pointed to one of three stools tucked under the large island that dominated the middle of the room.
 

“Already getting bossy. I’m guessing you’ll fit in here just fine.”

Sienna’s back stiffened and she turned away to hide her reaction. “I don’t know…” She really didn’t. Things were still happening way too fast. Meet, kiss, find out he’s a shifter, have mind blowing orgasm, run for our lives and meet the family all in one day. That wasn’t fast, it was insane.

“I take it you aren’t yet comfortable with him claiming you as his mate?”

She walked over to the pantry and began pulling down the supplies she needed for breakfast. “Would you?” She shook her head. “Sorry, that was probably rude. You’re a shifter with a mate so obviously it was different for you.”

Nikki snorted. “Well, yes and no. I definitely knew what becoming mated meant in advance, but that didn’t mean I
wanted
a mate. I made poor Dean chase after me for months before his brother circumvented me and decided to tell him I was pregnant.”
 

Sienna caught her rubbing her belly with reverence from the corner of her eye.

“You see. I was a loner who wanted nothing to do with packs or clans or their rules. I lived for my work and nothing much else mattered.”

“Oh? What do you do?”

“Did. Let’s just say I’m on hiatus for now and as for what, that’s a long story for another day.”

Sienna wanted to prod her for more about her job, but as a guest in their house she chose to let it go. “So if you didn’t want to mate, how did you end up—”

“Pregnant? Just lucky I guess. I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but shifters do still get horny like everyone else. So I went looking for a one night stand and well, one thing led to a shifter miracle and bam, I was pregnant.”

“What were you going to do? Have the baby on your own?” This conversation sounded like something she’d have with best friend Marcy, not someone she just met.

“I guess I really didn’t think it through. I was too mad. Mad at Dean. Mad at the world and especially mad at myself. It felt like a big cosmic trick from the start.”

“I met him at a bar and knew almost right away that we might be supernaturally connected.”

“Good Lord. Does everything with shifters happen at a bar? I met Gage at a bar. Then he brought me to a bar. You met Dean in a bar. Now you live in a bar.”

“Not a whole lot to do out here in these woods. And if you want to hook up, you go to—”

Sienna laughed. “A bar.”

“Yep. Now you’re getting it.”

“Is that why Gage showed up at the bar I work in yesterday? Was he looking for a hook up?”

Nikki’s face softened. “Honey, I can’t speak for Gage. Things haven’t been easy for these guys around here lately.”
 

“How so?”

“My pregnancy isn’t just hard on me. Shifters have enhanced senses and the kind of hormones I’ve got flying these last couple months has sent most of them in a frenzy more than once. When that happens all they want to do is either fight or fuck.”

“Oh.” Sienna was starting to get the gist of what she meant. Which gave her another thought. “So that could be what’s got Gage on the mate thing. It’s just some overzealous hormones speaking.”

Nikki shook her head, laughing. “Hardly. He’s the last person I expected to walk in here talking about a mate.”

She cocked her head, making donuts long forgotten. “Why is that?”

“Because he wanted it about as much as I did. You must be a very special woman to have changed his mind so quickly.”

And they were back to the root of the problem. Everything was happening too fast. “Exactly my point. If he’s acting out of character and I’m not myself either when I’m around him, then something must be wrong.”

“Maybe you just need to have sex and see how it goes. If you think it’s not normal then maybe it will go away.”

Sounded logical to her. But why was Nikki snickering behind her hand?

“Do you love your mate?”

The woman stopped snorting immediately. “Why in the world would I become his mate if I didn’t?”

Sienna winced. She kept saying the wrong thing and insulting Nikki. “I really don’t mean to offend you. I’m just trying to understand.”

“Well, it is possible you’re thinking about it too much. Are you attracted to Gage?”

She scrunched up her face and made her best “Are you serious?” face.
 

“Then stop worrying so much and start getting to know him. I know it’s hard to wrap your head around how mating works, but I’ve yet to see a mating situation that didn’t turn out exactly as it was supposed to.”

With her stomach in knots and her mind churning through all of the information of the day, Sienna touched Nikki’s shoulder. “Thank you for being nice to me. I really needed that.”

Nikki winked. “I know how it feels. Although I would not have sat through anyone giving me advice. Plus I know we’re getting fresh donuts this morning and for that I’ll talk all day.”

“Oh my God.” She jumped up and rushed over to where she’d set all of her ingredients. “I got so distracted I stopped working.”

“Relax. We’ve got time. Or we’re giving the big lugs in the other room more time to work their shit out.”

She glanced at the door. She was not looking forward to returning to that room, although she’d pay money to be a fly on the wall.

Chapter Nine

“This shit is too fucking complicated for four in the morning. Why can’t we ever have a crisis in the middle of the day?” Bhric was stalking behind the bar grabbing glasses and a couple bottles of scotch.
 

“If it wasn’t complicated you’d be bored.” Dean reached for one of the bottles as soon as his brother set them down.

Gage was pacing. After last night, he didn’t like have Sienna out of his sight. The only thing that kept him from the kitchen was her sweet scent drifting through the door reassuring him she was close and the anger stamped across Bhric’s face. He had to get them all on board with the situation or they were screwed. Wolves chasing him was one thing. He absolutely did not need to add Guardians to the mix.
 

“I’d ask you if you were sure, but I guess we wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.” Calder had been silent through the entire discussion until now. “A mate is a mate. We of all people shouldn’t judge her based on species. So I say we gotta find a way to get this straight for you.”

Gage turned to the big bear, surprised he’d weighed in with his support. He was always the quiet one in the bunch, speaking only when he felt strongly about something. That he felt strongly about him and his mate nearly choked him up.

“What happens if and when he bites her though? Is our DNA going to be compatible with a human? Anyone know?” Dean asked.

They all stared around the room at each other, shaking their heads no.
 

“That’s a pretty big fucking risk in and of itself. Council or no council. How do we know humans can handle that?” This wasn’t the first time that thought had entered Gage’s head. He’d been shell shocked most of the day after meeting Sienna, but by the time they were riding back the rest of the implications of her being his mate had hit him full force.
 

Bhric pulled up a chair and began lining up the shot glasses. With the unanswered question hanging in the air he poured each glass full. The silence dragged on as they each grabbed one and saluted to the air before downing the bitter amber liquid. Gage fought the grimace. Their leader had a fondness for a local distillery whose scotch was as known for its bitterness as it was the fire it caused in your gut.
 

“Over the years there have been rumors. Vague rumblings about experiments with shifter and human DNA.” Bhric kept his voice low to ensure only those at the table heard his words.

Fuck, he was glad Nikki wasn’t in the room. As the product of a breeding experiment herself, she didn’t need to hear this shit and get upset.
 

“Doesn’t really surprise me.” Dean set down his glass and nodded for a refill. “The dwindling shifter population has not brought out the best in our people.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Gage said. “I’ve got a bad feeling these wolves are trying to get to Sienna for a lot more than the fact she saw one shift. While they were outwardly insulting her yesterday at that bar, there was something else going on. I just had a hard time identifying it because I was a little distracted.”

Bhric looked his way, a strange smirk on his face. “Is that why you brought her here and put everyone in danger? Because you were distracted?”

Anger simmered inside Gage at the continued insults from his leader. The beast inside was pissed and wanted to be unleashed. “I brought her here because she’s my mate and as such deserves our protection.”

“Well, all right then. We better get serious about coming up with a solution.” Bhric put down his glass and placed his elbows on the table, leaning forward. “I’ve already made some quiet inquiries. Rafe is willing to bet that if anyone can help you find anything to support human/shifter mating it will be Simon.”
 

“We sure we trust the Comyn pack alpha leader and his mad scientist?” Dean asked.
 

“I’ve been working with him for a long time and so far he’s been trustworthy. I don’t have any indication that’s now untrue. Plus, Simon is the only real medical doctor we’ve got and he’s planning on delivering your baby.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Unless of course you all want to trust someone the council might appoint if they even agree to hear the case.”

“Does Rafe know we might be up against another wolf pack over this? Maybe we should ask him what’s the deal with the loose cannons.”