Authors: Soraya Lane
“Hunter, about my sister…”
He shook his head. “You can’t ask me about her, remember? You need to trust me.” He looked away then blew out a breath as he turned back around. “I can’t talk to you about it now, but I will. Soon.”
Riley sighed. She’d had to ask. “Okay, let’s go.”
Hunter turned, his body away from the tree now, angled toward her.
She didn’t hesitate this time.
Hunter’s eyes made her stomach turn to liquid. His piercing gaze made the breath pump hard through her lungs. His body sent an energy through her that she’d never known possible.
She wanted to change partly to experiment, to play with her new other self. But also because she was braver around him when she was a leopard. Stronger, more determined, more attractive. Riley could show him that she was interested when she shifted, without worrying about blushes or awkwardness. Plus she wanted him to teach her.
“Just one rule, okay?” he said.
She turned her head toward him.
“Go easy on me.”
That made her giggle.
Her
go easy on
him
? “I thought I was just a little itty bitty cat to you?”
He reached out one hand, catching her arm. His fingers were warm, strong on her skin.
“You’re a leopard, Riley. The strongest of the strong.” His eyes, widening, held her in place. “I like to tease you, but soon you’ll be as good at hunting, running, searching, than any cat out here. Me included.”
A lump in her throat stopped her from answering. Did he really believe that?
“You have a guider, Riley. Someone to show you the way. That makes you stronger than any of us.”
It seemed surreal, this entire conversation. Just the thought of what they were about to do. And what was a guider anyway?
“Are you sure?” It was like she’d been mistaken for someone else. What had happened to school books, cafeterias and movies? Now it was forests, changing, predators and the future.
And
loss
. Claudia was still in her heart and her mind. But for some reason, being leopard made her feel closer to her sister than ever.
Riley jolted back to the present. Hunter’s hand hadn’t left her arm.
He tugged her along, gently, his fingers curling so softly around her skin.
“We need to go.”
She turned her face to him.
“Why the hurry.”
“We’ve got a lot to get through today.” He let his fingers glide slowly from her arm. “Before the predators come snapping at your heels again.”
Oh
.
Riley had decided that the time they spent together after they’d been leopards was almost as enjoyable as the changing itself. There was a chilled out sense of relaxation, a calmness that stopped any awkwardness.
They lay, spread out on the floor of the forest, the sun teasing them as it glinted through the branches high above. Riley felt almost feline still as she basked in the warmth, being careful not to stretch out so far as to touch Hunter.
“I’ve met her, you know.”
Riley stopped dead. Her heart hammered, pulse thumping. There was only one person he could be referring to. “When?”
“She’s waiting for you.” He took her hand cautiously. “Are you ready to hear about her?”
Riley didn’t know what to say. Hunter seemed to understand. He’d said he couldn’t talk about her, not yet, but he must have changed his mind. Must have found it too hard to keep it from her. Or could they talk here because he was certain?
“She has auburn hair, red like the changing leaves of autumn.”
Tears formed a shallow pool in her eyes.
“Go on,” she croaked.
“Her eyes are green, the same as yours, but her skin is pale. Like she’s never seen the sun.”
He was describing Claudia. Her sister. Her
twin
. “How can you see her? Where is she?”
Hunter pushed back from her, like he was giving her space to breath. She needed it. It was as if a hand was clamped to her throat. Squeezing. Trying to suck the life from her.
Riley didn’t want to get her hopes up. Couldn’t go through losing her sister all over again.
“Claudia is our healer, and she’s your guider,” he explained. “She guides you, because you’ll be our leader one day. But she heals us all. She saves our kind.”
Riley swallowed another lump of emotion. She wanted to ask about exactly
who
their enemy was again, but it just wasn’t the right time. Claudia was more important to her. Why wasn’t Sophia telling her all this?
“Will I be able to touch her?” she asked.
He let his fingers flutter from her shoulder down to her fingers. “She’s as real as you or I, Riley.”
“So why hasn’t she come to me yet?”
Hunter was being very patient with her, she could tell. His eyes were soft, an aqua green now rather than his usual intense, flaring emerald.
She just couldn’t get her head around what was going on. Riley had seen her sister’s body, cold and lifeless, lying on her bed. Seen her empty. Unmoving.
Dead
.
It just didn’t seem possible, what Hunter was saying. But then none of this seemed possible.
“You have to be a leopard to see her. To hear her.”
“Let’s go then.”
Hunter reached out one hand, forcing her to stay seated as he clamped down on her shoulder.
“I’m here for you, Riley, but it’s too soon.”
Riley gave him a brave smile. She tried not to cry.
“You will see her again.” His eyes flickered over her face. “We can’t be long out here today, but you’ll be with her again soon. I promise.”
Riley knew she was in danger, that her being out in the forest at large meant they were both exposed. That Hunter was risking his life every time he took her out, down to the beach, anywhere far from Sophia’s direct control. Especially in human form.
But seeing Claudia again would be worth any risk. Just like being with Hunter, at his side, was worth the danger.
It made her realize just what kind of man, what kind of creature, Hunter was.
She hauled her thoughts into check, sucked back a deep lungful of air and nudged him with her shoulder. He looked at her, his gaze locked on hers. Riley recognized the familiar flutter of attraction that she so often felt for him, and this time she didn’t even try to fight it.
“Thank you, Hunter.” She leaned forward, just close enough to touch him. Before whispering a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for making me hope again.”
He stiffened, but he didn’t move.
“You’re welcome,” he muttered.
A buzz tore through her body. From the way he’d reacted, it wasn’t just her hiding an attraction.
It should have scared her, but it didn’t. She’d never felt so excited.
Or conflicted.
And she still didn’t really understand what was going on. Or who their enemy even was.
Or how her sister could be alive.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“So what are my options?”
Hunter slumped back into Sophia’s outdoor rocking chair, his big frame dwarfing it. Riley stayed perched on the wooden rail that wrapped around the porch.
They were both exhausted from a long day outside again.
“You don’t need to think about that yet, just…” He kept rocking, but not talking.
“Just what?”
“See how you feel in a few weeks.”
She wasn’t the kind that could just roll with the punches. Riley liked plans, liked to know what was going on. She needed some more information here. “If I stay with you, what happens?”
He looked exasperated. “I think you should be having this conversation with Sophia.”
She snorted. “So I’m told that you’re meant to become my
husband
,” it seemed the most appropriate word. She wasn’t happy with mate. “And yet we can’t even talk about what will happen if I go along with it?”
“Fine.”
She hadn’t heard him snap before. Show a flash of anger like he had just now. Hunter stood, taking a few steps toward her.
She suddenly wasn’t feeling quite so confident. It was better when they had some distance between them. He didn’t come any closer, just shoved his hands in his jeans pocket and glowered at her.
“What do you want to know?”
She hesitated, but saw in his eyes that he was serious. That he was actually going to answer any questions that she fired at him.
“If I go along with the plan, will I go back home at all, or do I have to stay here?
“You’ll go home.” His voice was flat, like he didn’t want to be having this conversation but felt he had to.
“So I’d just go back and pretend like nothing happened?” Riley didn’t get this at all.
“No, you’d go home to make everything look normal, then we’d figure out a plausible plan to get you back here for good.”
Riley gulped. So it did mean she’d be living here forever. It made sense; she just hadn’t really given it much thought. “So I’d finish out the school year and plan to come back after that?”
“Yeah, something like that,” he muttered.
It amused her, how touchy he was over this discussion. The usually cool, laid-back Hunter actually seemed rattled.
“And I would, ah, move in with you?” She cleared her throat, repeatedly.
Her question made him look up, eyes flashing with adrenalin, with the confidence she’d become used to from him. “That depends.”
It was taking all her power to stay seated on the rail. He was making her go all hot and bothered again and she was craving some distance from him to order her thoughts.
“On what?” Her voice was whisper-soft.
“Whether or not you’re ready.” His wry smile made her change the subject. Fast.
“Let’s say I choose not to stay, what then?”
A dark cloud settled over his eyes, turning them dark and brooding. He was clearly trying not to make a deal out of it by shrugging.
“You go home, pretend like none of this happened, and carry on like normal.”
Normal
. She didn’t even know what that felt like anymore. With her sister gone but really here, a bond developing with a grandparent she’d barely ever spent any time with before, and a growing attraction to a guy she hardly knew, she didn’t feel anything even close to
normal.
“And if I did,” she said slowly, thinking out her words, “if I left all this behind and tried to just go home, would I still be able to change. Later I mean?”
Hunter started to pace, slowly, back and forward down the porch.
“You’re trying to ask me if you’ll ever be normal again, right?”
He already knew her too well. Riley nodded.
“Changing doesn’t come easily to you yet. You can do it,” he assured her, pausing to look at her before resuming his pacing, “but it’s not second nature to you.”
It felt like second nature but she got what he meant.
“I’ve been doing it so long that I just think it and bam. I hardly feel the change anymore, it’s just me. Like brushing my teeth in the morning, but then I’m a guy and that means I’ve been able to change since I turned thirteen.”
She watched as Hunter paced toward her instead of back and forward. He stopped close, his hand reaching for the rail, leaning against it. He was close enough to be intimate, but not so close he was touching her.
“You have a talent, Riley. A talent that makes you special.” His voice was husky, soothing. “But if you go soon, you’ll still be able to change, but it won’t be easy. While you’re here, you’re in the right environment to learn and practice. Going back to your other life will be such a distraction that you’ll find it difficult, mentally, to do it.”
She knew all about distractions. He was a big one. But she’d still been able to change with him nearby. “But I’d be able to forget all this ever happened?”
His eyes clouded again. “Could you really forget this?”
She knew the answer to that, but she didn’t want him knowing how much he already meant to her. Not to mention being able to see her sister here. When he finally took her to Claudia.
Claudia.
How could she ever leave here when Claudia was here?
“I just don’t know if I’m ready for all this.”
He shuffled closer, reached out a hand and let the back of it curve down the side of her face. “What is it you’re not ready for?”
She closed her eyes as the soft of his skin teased her. “You,” she whispered.
His hand dropped away. “You can trust me, Riley.”
She knew that, but it didn’t make her internal battle any easier.
Hunter pulled her gently into his arms, talking softly into her hair. Like they’d been doing this forever already. “I can wait for you as long as it takes. I would never, ever hurt you. Or take advantage of you.”
Riley let her hands find their way around his waist. She didn’t understand how it felt so natural to touch him, for him to hold her. But it did.
“I do trust you.”
He rocked back so she could look up at him. “What is it then?”
“I’m scared.” She couldn’t help the catch in her voice or the tears that welled in her eyes.
He looked frightened by her emotion, but he didn’t let her go. Hunter watched her as the tears pooled then dropped, big tumbling tears, as they started to pelt down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, trying to pull away. “I just don’t understand everything. It’s so much at once.”
His grip tightened. Hunter drew her closer, one hand holding her in place, the other rubbing in soft, big circles over and around her back. Soothing her.