Authors: A.C. Arthur
“Wow” was the only word he could manage.
Her expression turned serious.
“Female shifters are in heat four times a year—you could say quarterly depending on their own individual schedule. During their heat they can become impregnated. Normal incubation for a shifter is twelve to eighteen weeks. I’m about three and a half weeks along.” She took a deep steadying breath and continued. “While full jaguars are known to birth anywhere from two to four cubs, shifters usually average a birth of one or two.”
The entire time she’d been talking, Nick had been looking at her body. Loving the curve of her hips, the natural hang of her heavy breasts, the curl-covered juncture of her sex. And now his gaze rested on her stomach, the tiny slit of her navel, the beginning of a small bump at her stomach. He put his palm there and closed his eyes.
“Baxter’s ordering ultrasound equipment along with other radiographic tools we may need. For right now we’ve decided that besides myself, Dr. Papplin will be my doctor. It wouldn’t be smart to go into a human hospital and tell them I’m giving birth after eighteen weeks.”
Nick heard her words but was still focused on her stomach and what was at this very moment growing there.
“I love you,” he said without a second thought.
“What?”
She grabbed him by the chin, lifting his face so she could see him. “What did you just say?”
He sat up then, keeping one hand on her stomach, touching the other to her cheek, tracing a line around to her eyebrows, over her eyes, down her nose, over her lips. “I love you, Aryiola Serino.”
Her eyes had already started to water, her bottom lip quivering before a laugh bubbled from inside her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her. “I didn’t think you were ever going to say it. I hoped and prayed. And Caprise and Kalina said not to worry because it was so obvious that you did. But you wouldn’t say it. Acted like it was going to kill you actually. But I’m so happy. So very, very happy!”
Her voice was music to his ears, her words raining down on him like a downpour when all he wanted to hear from her were three words in return. Reaching behind him he unlaced her arms from his neck, holding her hands in his, bringing her fingers to his lips to kiss.
With their gazes locked he said once more, “I love you,
companheiro
.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she smiled. Oh, she smiled so prettily, it was like a fist clenching Nick’s heart.
“I love you,
companheiro
.”
* * *
Hundreds of miles away, in a room with two long stainless-steel tables, blood splattered onto cement floors.
“This is not what I do. I’m a chemist. A researcher,” Norbert cried frantically. His sweaty hands shook as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“Shut up!” Bianca yelled. “You’re the only doctor here, so you’re up. Now get over there and fix them. Him first.” She pointed to Sabar, who had a jagged gash on his neck.
His body was riddled with scratches and lacerations that all bled like a flowing spring. Darel was on the second table, part of his side hanging open, blood and a multitude of other things hanging out.
But Sabar was their leader, he was the important one. He needed to live through this. If he didn’t, everything Bianca had worked for would be for nothing. When Boden came looking for her she’d be alone and vulnerable once more. She’d come to Sabar for protection because she’d seen something in the boy that Boden had brought to them years ago. There was a spark in his eyes that said he was going to be something one day, something big. And as the shifter had gotten older, his body and mind maturing, Bianca had watched, mouth watering, waiting for the exact moment she could stand beside him and claim the power and respect that Boden couldn’t give to anyone.
So when Norbert continued to stand there and stare at Sabar’s bleeding body, Bianca’s claws emerged and went to the stupid human’s throat. “You can do what I tell you or die where you stand.”
Norbert stepped toward the table where Sabar lay gasping for breath. He pulled on latex gloves and moved closer. “I’ll need some of that gauze over there and a bucket of warm water. I can’t do anything if I can’t see what I’m working with.”
Used to being a slave for another, Bianca moved around the room getting the chemist whatever he said he needed, watching with bated breath as he tried to save her new lover, her savior’s life.
Chapter 35
One week later
It was breakfast time at Havenway. They’d all moved in, except for X, whom they hadn’t seen much of in the last week. The dining hall was complete with high vaulted ceilings and six-foot tables lined in rows four wide and seven long. There were two head tables in the front of the room, turned to face the remaining tables. Those were for the FLs, commanders and their families.
There was a large pitted fireplace on one side of the room that reminded Kalina of the pictures she’d seen of medieval times. In the kitchen, which had connecting doors that opened on one side to the dining hall and on the other to a back hallway, there was another pited fireplace, gas grills, and a professional stove. Three Sub-Zero refrigerators, deep freezers, and more pots and pans than Kalina had ever seen in her life had also been added to the kitchen.
Baxter supervised everything at Havenway, just as he had at Rome’s house. He hired staff using X’s database—which by this time had become an invaluable tool for the stateside shifters. And even with those added duties he still found time to see to Kalina’s and Rome’s needs personally. Not to mention the way he doted on Ary as she carried Nick’s child.
Next week Rome was flying three of the Elders and a handful of females from the Gungi to the States to assist in Nick and Ary’s official joining. After that they’d have a civil ceremony at the local courthouse just as Kalina and Rome had done to seal their union in both the worlds they lived in.
It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of this shifter family, Kalina thought as she looked up and down the table at them. Even Caprise had mellowed a bit. Okay, that might be taking it a bit far. Kalina agreed with Rome and Nick: There was something eating at Caprise, something that was tearing her up on the inside so that she was a living, breathing bitch on a daily basis. To Kalina and Ary she seemed to be relaxing a little more, not snapping at everything they said, and even offering her opinions during their conversations. Kalina thought that if she’d ever had a genetic sister, this is how they would act. Not always agreeing with or even liking each other, but caring deeply what was going on in each other’s lives and being loyal enough to keep whatever secrets were necessary. While Caprise hadn’t opened up to them yet, Kalina felt a confession might be coming soon. At least she prayed so.
“Another stripper was found dead last night,” Kalina said when it looked like everyone was finished eating and sipping on coffee or orange juice, as she glanced at Ary.
“I’m not surprised,” Rome said.
“The drug is already out there. It’s going to do its damage until it’s gone,” Nick chimed in.
Rome shook his head. “He’s not dead,” he said solemnly.
Nick sighed heavily. “I don’t think either one of them is. That would have been too easy.”
“Then they would have had to have gone to a hospital. You both said you wounded them. Even shadows don’t heal that fast on their own,” Ary told them.
“They couldn’t have gone to a regular hospital,” Kalina said. “So how would they have gotten treatment?”
Caprise put her mug down with a loud clanking sound against the marble table. “The same way he got your shaman here and your father to turn against you and the tribes. Money. It rules here in the States. All he has to do is flash some green and he’ll get whatever he wants.”
“Yeah, but at an even higher price.” Nick grimaced. “Money doesn’t buy silence, not for long anyway. So if he’s pulling in human doctors to help him out, he’s risking exposure.”
“You mean more exposure than you guys have already risked?” Caprise asked. “Have you seen the news lately? You’d think a spaceship landed in the middle of DC. They’re speculating about the sounds that were heard that night near Sabar’s house and on the highway. I read in the paper the other day that people are reporting sightings of weird-looking cat-like people. I’d say the exposure element is already out there.”
Kalina sighed. “Unfortunately, she’s right. How are we going to deal with that?”
“It might die down, just like the alien thing did years ago,” Nick said without much hope to his tone.
“Or it’s going to spiral out of control,” Rome added dourly.
“So where do we go from here?” Ary asked.
“Get Sabar and deal with the rest afterward.” Rome spoke with finality as he pushed his chair back and stood from the table. “And continue to make money so we can help the tribes.”
That was Nick’s cue to leave as well. They’d go into the city to work, leading their human lives as if they had no other care in the world. Kalina accepted her husband’s kiss and watched him walk out of the dining hall in his custom-made suit and shiny tie-up shoes. He looked as good as he had the day she’d first met him in his office. Only now, her heart swelled with more love and respect than she’d ever thought it possible to feel.
* * *
Ary walked with Nick as he stopped in their bedroom to get his suit jacket. It was charcoal gray today, with a crisp white shirt and gunmetal-gray tie that she’d finally gotten the hang of tying for him. In the morning they’d made love and lingered in bed for as long as possible before they knew Baxter would be knocking at their door. Then they had breakfast with friends who were more like family and she walked him to the door, watching as he drove off in his car for work.
Later in the morning she’d leave to attend her first classes at the university. She had a long way to go to achieve her goal of becoming a doctor, but loved that at least she was on her way. Late afternoon she’d return to Havenway and to the medical center where she checked supplies and studied some more, this time using the herbs Rome had shipped in for her. Already she’d begun taking care of the minor scrapes and bruises the guards-in-training received. And she was getting to know everyone at Havenway, the same way she’d known all the tribesman in the Gungi.
She didn’t miss Davi, didn’t think about him or his betrayals anymore. It was done. As for her mother, there were tinges of regret there, and a slight bit of longing, as Ary sometimes sat alone staring out a window, her hand on her quickly growing belly. It would have been nice to have her mother here with her during this time. But that was a useless thought.
“Be careful today,” Nick said, turning to her and pulling her into his arms.
“You say that every day,” she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He laughed. “I mean it every day, too. Make sure Leo sticks close, and come right back when you’re finished.”
“Yes sir,” she said, twisting her lips because this diatribe was getting old. She always told Leo where she was going, which didn’t matter because now that he knew she was pregnant Leo was as big a shadow to her as Nick. Like right now: He wasn’t in sight, but Ary knew that just around the corner he stood, ready and able to do whatever was necessary to save her and the baby’s lives. It was comforting and not as stifling as she’d thought when she originally came to the States.
“I’ll miss you,” Nick said, bringing his lips down to brush over hers.
“I’ll miss you more” was her soft reply.
When he pulled away he knelt down to kiss her stomach, another thing he did now on a daily basis.
Nick wanted a boy. Ary wanted a girl. Kalina said that was natural. Rome wished them a happy, healthy baby. Caprise jokingly prayed it wouldn’t look and act like Nick. X broodingly watched Ary like a hawk when he was around. He’d be the overprotective uncle, she knew instinctively.
And when Ary shut the door that day she leaned against it, closing her eyes and thinking of how happy she was at this very moment. How perfectly normal and quaint her life seemed to be.
The question of whether that would last didn’t dare creep into her mind.
* * *
Agent Dorian Wilson sat in his closet-size office, pictures spread out over his desk. His fingers moved in a pecking motion over the keys on the keyboard as he searched the hard drive for other photos he’d saved there. It was an old file he’d stumbled upon, just like the link connecting Roman Reynolds and his law firm to the accounts in Brazil. There seemed to be so many loose ends, all dangling in the air in front of him. Like they were teasing him, daring him to put the puzzle pieces together.
When the pictures flashed on the screen Dorian sat back in his chair staring, still in disbelief. The images were of a man—body, face, legs, arms of a man—with claws of an animal. Dorian wasn’t naive; he knew all about Photoshopping pictures and airbrushing images. But something told him this image wasn’t a fake. Or at the very least, if the claws were fake, they’d still been used in the commission of a crime.
Senator Baines and his daughter had been mauled to death. So had those two prostitutes they’d found a couple of months ago. The MPD was supposed to be working on the cases, forming some sort of task force to get to the bottom of the murders. But Dorian’s superiors had already called him in for a briefing. They thought all of this was connected somehow to Reynolds and his still-unproven cartel connections.
Dorian believed them.
So what he had in front of him now were more pictures, more connections, but nothing concrete. Except the business card that had been found on one of the bodies recovered.
Diamond Lauray Turner was twenty-one years old. She lived in a dingy hotel two blocks from Athena’s where she worked as a dancer. She’d graduated from high school and was taking online college courses working toward a degree in business administration. On paper she looked like a good girl.
Dorian picked up one of the photos from the MPD’s homicide file. Half her face had been ripped off. On this paper, Diamond looked like a statistic. And Dorian didn’t like it.