Mate Claimed (27 page)

“We were just talking about coming out to the site,” Kellerman said, extending a hand to Eric. “To look around, perhaps let a few of the local rags get a photo or two…”

Eric looked at Kellerman’s hand, then back up into his eyes. “Small problem today,” he said. “Twenty of the Elko Shifters came in on a bus they didn’t get on in Elko. They were missing for twelve hours. Know anything about that?”

Penny gasped. Iona clutched the lip of the desk she leaned on. They’d found them. Thank God, they’d found them.

“Missing?” Kellerman looked concerned. “What do you mean, missing?”

“He’s lying,” Graham said to Eric. “He stinks of lies.”

Kellerman raised his hands. “Boys.”

“What happened to them?” Eric asked. “Where were they taken? What was done to them?”

“I swear to you, Mr. Warden, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then find out.” Eric didn’t move, didn’t approach, but he might as well have picked up Kellerman by the lapels and slammed him into the nearest wall. “I want to know who did it, what was done, and why.”

“Don’t give me ultimatums, Mr. Warden. You’re Shiftertown leader by our sufferance.”

Eric’s eyes narrowed. “The deal is, we put on Collars and follow your rules. In return, you let our kids grow up safe, and
you don’t mess with them.
”

Kellerman met Eric’s stare with one of his own. The man wasn’t afraid, but not because he was brave, Iona decided. She guessed he’d lived so long without anyone challenging him that he considered himself invulnerable. Not very smart.

“Fine, I’ll find out,” Kellerman said. “But it was probably nothing. The bus must have broken down.”

“Broken down, my ass,” Graham said. “Moving here wasn’t my choice, but you and your little council promised me safe passage for the females and cubs. Anything happens to them, and you’ll find out how pissed off I can truly get.”

Kellerman reddened. “Are you threatening me, McNeil?”

“Sounds like a threat, doesn’t it?”

“I can have you arrested for even speaking to me like that.”

“Humans. When you have to call on your warriors every
time you’re in the least bit of danger, you know what happens?” Graham leaned to Kellerman. “You get weak.”

Kellerman at last showed uneasiness, but he didn’t step back. Graham grinned in his face, then turned his back on him.

Eric remained where he was, like a solid pillar, unmoving. Her hunger for him flared.

I need him…

“I’m sorry you’re taking this stance, Mr. Warden,” Kellerman said with the air of someone unjustly insulted. “I will look into the matter, but I can guarantee it was nothing dangerous. You’ve wasted a very good opportunity today to show the world that Shifters and humans are working together. You need a lot of good PR on your side if you want to be fully accepted into human society.”

Graham turned around at this and opened his mouth, but Iona glared at him. The Lupine actually gave her an acknowledging nod and kept quiet.

“Catch you next time,” Eric said to Kellerman.

“There might not be a next time.” Kellerman turned his attention to Penny and Iona. “I’m sorry that you had to witness this, ladies. Why don’t we go, gentlemen, and leave them in peace?”

So, Kellerman saw himself as protecting Iona and her mother from the Shifters. That was rich.

“Agreed,” Eric said. He gestured at the door. “After you.”

Graham looked meanly delighted. Cassidy had explained to Iona that Shifters considered having the strongest Shifter going first through a door the right thing to do—the Shifter made sure all was safe on the other side for the weaker members of the party. A dominant Shifter sending someone else out first was an insult, implying that the Shifter didn’t think the person worth protecting. Kellerman would assume Eric was deferring to him, when in reality, Eric was spitting in Kellerman’s face.

Kellerman gave Eric a gracious nod. “Warden.”

Eric walked out right after him, not saying good-bye to Iona or Penny. He wasn’t being rude, Iona knew, but keeping Kellerman from knowing that Iona and her mother were important to him.

Graham, on the other hand, faced both of them full-on as the door closed behind Eric.

“So you’re her mum,” he said to Penny. “The human lady who couldn’t resist a Shifter. I get that.”

Penny flushed, and Iona made an exasperated noise. “Your ego is the size of a city, did you know that?” Iona said

Graham gave her a grin that wasn’t friendly. “That’s not the only thing super-sized, sweetheart. You should have found that out when you had the chance.”

“Are you talking about your ass or your head?”

Graham growled. “I was right—you are a mouthy bitch. Warden can have the joy of you. See you in Shiftertown, babe.”

He started to leave again, but Iona said, “Wait. Are they safe? The missing Shifters. They’re back?”

Graham’s sarcasm left him. “All of them. They’d been tranqed. I think they’ll be all right, but we won’t really know until they wake up.”

“The Goddess go with them,” Iona said, repeating what she’d heard the other Shifters say.

Graham looked surprised at the blessing then gave her another nod. “Thanks,” he said, and then he went.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I
n the darkness of the night, Eric sat at the foot of his bed and touched the match to the last candle on the small table in front of him. The glow of candles surrounded the framed photograph of Kirsten, Eric’s mate.

The photo had been taken more than thirty years ago, before digital cameras. The image was slightly yellowed, the paper shiny and stiff.

Eric and Kirsten had been walking along a loch on a rare sunny day in northern Scotland. She’d turned, laughing, and Eric had snapped her picture. Not long after that, Kirsten had discovered she was carrying her first cub, Jace.

In the photo, the wind and sun played in Kirsten’s golden hair, her smile as warm as when Eric had first seen it. They’d both been excited and eager for life—by the time the photo had been taken, they’d started giving up on ever having young. The weekend by the loch had been a magical time.

The other thing on the table was a tiny stuffed leopard, black and gold, like Kirsten.

Eric dropped the spent match into an ashtray, rested his hands on his knees, and drew a long breath. Meditation and prayer were supposed to calm him, but Eric searched in vain for calmness.

He’d spent the bulk of the afternoon and evening helping Graham settle the new wolves. The ones that had been kidnapped had woken groggy, scared, and cranky. They hadn’t wanted to see Eric, a Feline, in their midst, but he’d waded in, with Cassidy and Jace, and tried to soothe their fears.

Graham, Eric had seen, was a good leader. He knew how to get his Shifters to do what was needed without bullying them. He had crude strength but common sense, and his wolves followed him willingly. They didn’t mindlessly obey but looked to him for guidance.

Eric wasn’t about to bow out and relinquish Shiftertown to him, but he admitted that Graham knew what he was doing. Leading wasn’t just about dominating everything in your path, and Graham appeared to know that.

At least the Lupines were settling down in their temporary quarters together, unpacking, beginning the adjustment. Eric had sent all his Felines home, gulped down a meal Diego and Jace put together, and retreated here.

To think.

His thoughts roiled and spun, the hunger in him uncontrollable.

He knew Iona had rejected his mate-claim only to stay ahead of Graham in the Shifter game—she hadn’t seen it as an emotional decision, but one to expedite things. Hell, Eric had told her that the mate-claim was a convenience, to protect her from other Shifters while Eric decided what to do.

What a liar he was.

But Iona’s rejection had kicked the Shifter in him in the gut. The beast wanted Eric to go after Iona and carry her home by the scruff of her neck, or roar in an onslaught of pain. The big, bad Shifter leader had been brought down by a half-human Shifter with eyes the color of a deep Scottish loch.

He traced the outline of Kirsten’s face. “I miss you.”

Eric knew what he had to do, and he wanted Kirsten, somehow, to know.

She smiled, understanding.

The door opened so softly Eric barely heard it. Cassidy sat down next to him on the foot of the bed, her warm weight rolling
against him. She looked at the photo of Kirsten, touched the little stuffed leopard, and breathed a prayer of her own.

“She would have liked Iona,” Cassidy said.

Eric nodded and didn’t answer.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Cass went on.

Eric let out a faint laugh. “I told Iona that I wanted to bring her in for her own protection, to keep her safe until she learned how to be Shifter. That’s total bullshit, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” His sister nodded. “You saw her, you said,
Goddess, she’s hot
, and you tried to figure out how to get her into your bed.”

Eric flicked his fingers over the nape of his neck. “Somewhere in the back of my brain.”

“I’d say it was pretty much in the front of your brain. You haven’t consummated anything yet though, no matter that she’s spent the night in here a couple times. I’d know. No wonder you’re twitchy.”

“Mmph. Shifters don’t understand the meaning of
privacy
, do they?”

“Not in this family.” Cassidy ran her fingers through Eric’s short hair and kissed him above his ear. “Go, Eric. You deserve a little happiness. Goddess knows you’ve given up so much of it for the rest of us. Jace thinks so too.” She smiled. “Well, what he said was:
When is Dad going to bring Iona home for good and get this done? He’s driving us all crazy.
”

“Sounds like Jace.” Eric rested his hand on Cassidy’s knee. “I didn’t want to go without saying good-bye.”

Cassidy knew he didn’t mean to her or Jace. “It’s never good-bye when you had the mate bond. She’ll still always be a part of us.”

She would. Eric touched Kirsten’s face again, then he and Cassidy blew out the candles.

T
he hunger was controlling her now. Iona paced the downstairs rooms of her house, shaking, sweating, and hoping like hell she could hold herself together.

She’d done pretty well at the office while her mother demanded Iona tell her everything that had happened over the
last few days. Her mother had listened, both alarmed and angry.

“So what are you going to do?” Penny had asked.

“I don’t know.” Iona’s hunger had started to flare, and she’d known she needed to get out of that office and home where she wouldn’t hurt anyone. “I can’t keep it secret that I’m Shifter forever. Eric says he can fix the records to show I’ve always been Shifter, always been part of Shiftertown. I didn’t believe him before, but now that I’ve been there, and I’ve seen…”

She’d closed her mouth, knowing she couldn’t betray the Shifters’ secret places under their houses and what they kept there, not even to her mother. Not yet.

“I think they can do it,” Iona finished.

Penny’s eyes filled. “I just don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t.” Iona put her arms around the smaller woman. “No matter what, you won’t.”

Penny’s hugs had always been able to comfort her. Not today. Iona was restless and worried, feeling trapped. She hadn’t been this way in Shiftertown—her hungers had been somewhat abated there.

What had Eric done to her? Addicted her to Shifters?

But, no, this restlessness had begun before she’d met Eric, starting with what she now knew was called her Transition. She’d survived that only to have her frenzies flare again with mating hunger. If Eric hadn’t found her that night in Coolers, she’d by now either be a puddle of quivering goo, or else out in the woods as a panther, unable to remember how to be human.

Iona had gone home after that, eaten everything in her refrigerator, and started on what was in the freezer. She stared at the low-calorie frozen meals she’d bought a few weeks ago, thinking herself virtuous. She couldn’t believe her stupidity.

Snarling, Iona hauled all the boxes out of the freezer and threw them into the garbage.

No, wait. The spaghetti ones were pretty good. She grabbed all the spaghetti and tomato sauce dinner boxes back out of the trash, ripped them open, scraped them all into a bowl, and popped the bowl in the microwave. She waited impatiently for the stuff to heat up, then she gulped down the entire bowl of
pasta, the red sauce sliding down to ruin her pristine white shirt.

Not enough. Iona tossed the empty bowl—which she’d licked clean—into the sink, tore off her sauce-stained clothes, showered, brushed her teeth, and dressed again in sweats and a tank top.

There. Civilized.

And still starving. Iona walked back through the dark house, not bothering with the lights. She could order pizza again, but she worried about what she’d do to the guy who brought it, in the state she was in.

She called Eric. He didn’t answer. She knew he’d walked out of the office without saying good-bye because he was protecting her from Kellerman. He didn’t want Kellerman to know Iona was anything to him, that he even noticed her in the room. Iona knew that, and still felt empty.