Authors: Harmony Raines
Tags: #General Fiction
She shook her head. “It’s not the police I’m worried about.”
He frowned. “Trevor, from the circus? Damn.”
“Not him either,” she said, her voice trembling.
He didn’t know what she meant, but he knew she was scared; he had been scared enough times in the past couple of years to know that look. “Tell me.”
She shook her head again. “It’s nothing you can help me with.”
“I feel responsible.” He did. Really responsible for her and her safety. Going over their time together, he tried to identify just what it was about her he was attracted to.
In the back of his mind, his lion shifted, the tenuous link between them making it difficult for Daniel to understand what his lion was trying to tell him. If only he could take this collar off. Yet he daren’t risk it, he had been trained to shift immediately into his lion and he didn’t know if he had the control to stop himself. So the collar had to stay on until he was over the border, and he had to understand what was going on here without his lion’s intuitive help.
“Daniel, this has nothing to do with you,” she said. “Let’s focus on getting you home.”
“Home,” he said, sitting back, trying to relax. “I always thought of this as being my home.”
“Do you remember Shifters Prime at all?” she asked, and he knew the other conversation was closed. He didn’t push her, it was her choice; they both had secrets, both had things that were hard to share.
“Some. I remember my father’s face. A vague memory of my mother. More of a sense of her, you know?”
“Yes, I know,” she said, her eyes misting a little, giving him some clue as to where her hurt lay. “Are they dead?”
“My father, yes, it’s why Nora, Lea’s mom, came here. She brought me here to protect me.”
“From what?” Lottie asked.
“The man who murdered my father.”
“Didn’t he get brought to justice?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. Things didn’t work that way in the Prime. And when she came here, Nora cut off all ties with anyone she ever knew. So he might have.” Daniel felt the ghost of Nora on his shoulder; she had given up everything for him. And for his mother. Nora said they had been best friends, and so when someone had to run, taking Daniel to safety, she had volunteered.
“I’m sorry,” Lottie said. “And you don’t know what happened to your mom?”
“No, nor my brothers.”
“Do you want to know?” Lottie asked.
“I don’t know. When I was a kid, yes, I did. The last few years though, I’ve thought about it, and now I just want me and Lea to find somewhere safe, no family politics to get caught up in. Or death threats if the murderer is still on the loose. So we’ll go and find somewhere quiet to live. I’ve had enough excitement to last me for ever.”
“We’re on Team Vagabond,” Lea piped up.
“What’s Team Vagabond?” Lottie asked, looking at Lea in her mirror.
“That’s what we said we would be when we were free. We spent so much time in cages; we are going to walk until we can’t walk any further.”
“Like vagabonds, no fixed home,” Daniel said.
“Sometimes it’s nice to feel as if you belong,” Lottie said, glancing at Daniel.
“I know, but who do I trust?” he asked, and her eyes told him that the one person he could always rely on was her. Lottie was somehow connected to him, in a deep emotional way.
“OK, we are close to the border,” Lottie said. They had just passed a sign with a warning about entering the borderlands next to Shifters Prime. It was like they were expecting an invasion of shifters.
Daniel shifted nervously in his seat. “I hope it all goes smoothly.”
“It should. You have nothing to hide,” Lottie said.
“I’m not even sure what happens when we get there,” he said.
“Here.” She handed him her phone. “Google it.”
“What it?” he asked.
“Type it into the search.” She looked up at his confused face. “I guess you are behind most of the modern-day technology.”
She pulled over and showed him how to use her phone. He then spent the next half an hour accessing everything he could about shifters and Shifters Prime. It blew his mind. So people hated shifters, while some thought they should be treated as equals, and then there was the website set up for pure humans to advertise their willingness to become a shifter.
He searched for how the transformation took place. It sounded painful, and he wondered why anyone would want to become one of them. By the time they were dropping down out of the hills towards the border, he had discovered more about his kind than he ever knew.
And he also discovered they would check their DNA as they went through the border and try to match it to a contract. This worried Daniel. What if Trevor or someone else at the circus had made a bogus contract with his or Lea’s DNA on it?
“Everything OK?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, handing her phone back to her. “It should be straightforward.”
“Great. Then I’ll park up here,” she indicated a quiet road, up on the hill overlooking the border, and pulled over. “We can walk down to the border.”
“You don’t have to come with us.”
“Yes I do. I want to see you walk over the border, otherwise I’ll worry about you.” She switched off the ignition and undid her seatbelt. “OK. Let’s sort the packs out.”
They all got out, Daniel stretching his muscles while looking around. He took a deep breath and could catch a different scent on the breeze. Looking out across the border he could see the open grasslands, and his lion stirred, sensing their home. A thrill buzzed inside him, and excitement made his blood hot, the alpha part of him waking up from its long sleep. It did other things to him as well; it made him acutely aware of Lottie, and he longed to take off the collar and acknowledge the link between them.
Because the one other thing he had learned in his online search was that shifters had mates, others that they were meant to spend the rest of their lives with. Sometimes they were pure humans. And he knew without any doubt that was what his lion had been trying to tell him: Lottie was their mate.
The unsuspecting woman was his. And as they walked down to the border, he had to fight the urge to tell her. He had to fight the urge to
turn
her.
He clenched his fists. No, that would be selfish. She was better off here. To turn her against her will would be to live with the repercussions for the rest of their lives, and he didn’t want that. He knew what it was like to have your free will taken away.
So despite his lion prowling inside his mind, he tried to act normally.
Lea’s hand slipped into his, and he felt her fear. It distracted him from his feelings for Lottie.
“It will be alright,” he reassured her. And himself. He was used to being on his own; if he had to deny his mate, he would survive. But his lion roared mournfully in response.
“This is it,” she said. They were standing around fifty feet away from the border. It was quiet. Which surprised her, for some reason she has expected it to be a busy, bustling centre of trade. One in, one out, but there were only two border guards standing outside of a small hut.
They had caught sight of the three of them coming down the hill to the crossing point, and one had gone inside the hut while the other one rested his hand on his gun. That made this feel so much more real, more dangerous. How could they see Daniel and Lea as a threat? And her, of course they probably thought they were all shifters.
“This is where we say goodbye,” Daniel said firmly. “If I can ever repay you for what you’ve done, I will.”
She smiled faintly. “I doubt we’ll ever meet again.” His eyes flickered to hers and then moved away before she would fathom what the hurt there meant. Was he attracted to her? Stupid. He would be only interested in his own kind, but she had to admit she liked the idea of having him as her husband, that was a nice thought. One that made her want to reach out and pull him back towards her, to kiss him. Just one time so she could hold it in her memory, in the same place she held her mom’s hug and her dad’s laugh.
“Take care of yourself, Lottie,” he said and then held her, pulling her into his arms.
She allowed her body to soften in his embrace, letting her head rest on his shoulder, his heart beat in her ear. This was what she missed, close contact with another person, it didn’t matter that he could change into a lion at will. He was still all man, and her body wanted to be his woman.
She stepped back, scared she would give herself away. “You both take care,” she said, bending down to speak to Lea. “I hope you have a great time splashing in the rivers and streams. I sure would like to have seen your lion cub.”
Lea looked at her shyly and then slipped her arms around Lottie’s neck. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Be happy, Lea,” Lottie said.
Standing up, she smiled once more and then said, “You should go, they are looking at you suspiciously.”
“Goodbye,” Daniel said.
“Good luck,” Lottie replied quickly and then took a step back. She would walk up the hill and watch them cross. That way she would be able to see them actually set foot in Shifters Prime, she might also get a glimpse of them changing onto lions. Now that was a sight she would keep with her forever.
They turned and walked down to the checkpoint, the second guard appearing with a small hand-held device. She turned and walked away, climbing the hill back towards her car. Only when she looked up did she see another car had pulled up next to it. Her heart lurched, but then the vehicle moved on and she relaxed.
Reaching her car, she turned, leaning against it and looked down at the border, seeing Daniel and Lea talking to the guards. One of the guards held the small device to Lea’s neck and pressed it. Lea flinched and then put her hand up to the spot as if she had been stung. The guard then looked at the device. Lottie held her breath.
Satisfied, the guard moved to Daniel, and repeated the process. Lottie couldn’t breathe. If he was stopped and Lea went through, what would happen then? For the longest time the guard checked the device. Lottie could do nothing but stand and watch. Then a car drew up, blocking her view.
She took a step to the right, and watched, her whole attention centred on Daniel. The guard was speaking to him, was that good? She couldn’t tell, but then Daniel and Lea were walking towards the gate. Above them, a guard trained a gun on them, a surreal sight.
In her peripheral vision, Lottie was aware of a car door opening and a man getting out. She looked at him suspiciously, but then he held a map out to her and said, “Can you tell me where Carrington Road is? I’m lost.”
“Sorry,” she said, “I’m not from around here.”
“Really? Oh. That is a pity. Only my GPS is on the blink. Maybe if you look at it, you can tell me where Carrington Road is.” He indicated the GPS on his dashboard.
“I don’t know how it works,” she said, walking another step away to watch Lea and Daniel. They had nearly reached the other side and she felt happy, so happy.
“Charlotte. Why don’t you just get in the car?”
Her head snapped round, and she looked at him, and his gun, which was pointing out from under his coat. Dread filled her. “How did you find me?”
“The TV. You shouldn’t make the news if you want to stay hidden,” he sneered.
“But how did you follow me here?” she asked trying to buy some time and think through what she was supposed to do. If she got in the car, she was as good as dead. Ironic that she had released Lea and Daniel from their prison and now she was going to end up caged in a car and then driven to a secluded spot where she would end up dead.
“Your credit card, your phone. Once we had you on our radar, well, it’s not hard. So get in the car.” He motioned once more to the car, using his gun to threaten her.
Guns. She had an idea. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the only way.
One loud scream, to get the border guards’ attention, and then she ran for the border, the guards looking up and aiming their guns at her.
“He’s one of them,” she shouted as she ran towards the guards. “He’s a wolf and he said he was going to eat me!” It was lame but it was all she had.
One of the guards came towards her; the other was speaking on his radio. She had no idea what her assailant was doing, but no shot rang out and she hoped he had been scared off.
Ahead of her, the guards waited, and behind them she could see Daniel and Lea; he had turned back, looking to see what the problem was. She didn’t want that, didn’t want them to be in danger because of her.
“Ma’am. You need to stop right there, Ma’am,” one of the guards said, and she saw his hand resting on his gun.
“The guy, he had a gun,” she said, turning to look back up the hill, but the car had gone, no one was there.
“We’ve called for backup,” the other guard said. “Someone will escort you away from the border.”
They were twitchy, both of them looking around, and the guard on the tower aimed his gun their way. The danger crowded in on her. And then behind her, Daniel and Lea approached.
“You should go,” Lottie said, turning to them. “Please, just go.”
“What happened?” Daniel said, his voice tense, anger laced with concern.
“You need to back away, shifter,” one of the guards said, his gun now in his hand.
“It’s OK. Go.” Lottie shooed them away.
“Lottie, I can’t leave you like this,” Daniel said.
“You heard the lady, she wants you to go. Now you have been through security, and the border is that way. If you come back, I will be forced to arrest you. You were lucky we let you go with no papers.” The guard positioned himself between Daniel and Lottie, doing his job of protecting humans.
“Come with us,” Lea said, holding out her hand.
Lottie looked at it, and her heart ached. If Daniel had asked her, she would have found it easier to say no, but Lea’s face was so much harder to resist. But she didn’t want to say no, she wanted to go with them. However, she wasn’t one of them and she would never fit in; she would just take her trouble with her across the border.
“I can’t,” Lottie said.
“Why not? Just come for a while, see if you like it?” Daniel said, and she looked into his eyes and saw he meant it.