Tane's Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifter's on the Run Book 1) (17 page)

“Just what we need,” Leza said under her breath. “Riddles before breakfast.”

They left the inn feeling relief once they were no longer under the roof. Jay led them to a large SUV. It was reinforced like it had dreams of becoming a tank before someone was rude enough to make it into a lowly SUV.

Dai climbed into the driver’s seat calling dibs on driving it first. Jay climbed in the passenger seat leaving the back of the vehicle for Tane and Leza.

“Which way are we going?” Leza asked, curiosity in her voice.

“Mysteria,” Tane replied.

“What if it is a set up?”

“It could be, but I didn’t hear anything in her voice to make me think she lied. Then there’s what we found out last night. We know they are tracking us. I’m sure that all roads out of this town are being watched.”

You’re being hunted, they want her.
The words echoed in Leza’s head. They were headed for a trap. All that mattered was which trap they would spring.

Dai turned the radio on and drove the speed limit like they were out for a nice Sunday drive. Soon Mysteria I210 came into view. She watched the edges of it move and curl around itself until she realized the road was just like the club they had been in. Great, it gave her the feeling it too may disappear at any moment.

“Tane?” Dai’s voice rang out.

“I see it. Keep driving, the road will keep until we are off of it.”

“What did you learn last night?” Jay asked.

“A lot of shifter history.” Leza gave them a run down on what they had learned. Then she added how they were being tracked and she was the target.”

“If we’re honest we already knew that. I knew it was a trap when you hit my property. These traps are simply better.” Tane caressed the side of her face with the back of his knuckles.

“Then what’s the first order of business?” Dai asked as he turned onto the highway.”

“Let’s try not to fall into their trap.” Tane watched as the road they just left fluttered and disappeared much like the club from last night.

It’s too late, Leza’s animal whispered to her.

*~*~*~*

They finally stopped at some nondescript diner on the side of the road. Dai had pushed them refusing to stop until hunger and the need to use the restroom was making Leza crazy.

She used her best smile as she walked into the diner and asked for the girl’s room. Tane followed her walking in behind her to the scream of at least one young lady and a gentle pat from an older woman who said she remembered what is was like to be so in love that going to bathroom in front of each was a thing.

Leza gave a deep sigh taking care of her business and washing hands before she dragged him out.

“Tane, don’t you think you’re taking protecting me a little too far?”

“No.” He led her back to the table.

“What can I get for you?” the waitress asked them with a smile.

She was young with raven colored hair and the grace of a model. Leza thought she didn’t look like someone she expected to see in a roadside diner. With her looks she could have high-tailed it to California to be an actress.

She was seeing conspiracy everywhere; of course there were women who looked like her working in diners. Maybe she was just getting money together to leave, or taking night classes. Dropping her head to the menu, she gave her drink order. As much as she wanted a coke, she gave into her beast that was fighting her on it and asked for juice instead.

She ordered a large breakfast when the waitress came back with their drinks.

“What’s different between the two of you?” Dai asked looking between them.

“What do you sense?” Leza asked as she looked at Tane whose head was cocked to side as he waited for an answer.

“I sense a connection between the two of you. It was always there, almost something that teased the senses but now it’s sharp and defined. Maybe a warning letting males know that you’re taken.”

“I feel it also. Leza has a big do not touch sign on her back but it’s more than that. There’s no doubt the two of you are together. I would hazard a guess if a female was here she would say that Tane had the same sign on his back.”

“I think it’s natural. What happens when you meet your mate and actually bond. I feel different, like I can feel Tane no matter where I am.”

Tane scanned the room. “I want to protect her. Make sure there’s nothing and no one around to hurt her.” His hand moved over her leg giving it a squeeze. “I can’t risk living without her. Now that I have her, my stability, my sanity depends on her.” His confession was low, the sincerity behind the words hitting them in the heart.

The waitress came back bringing them their plates of food. Leza looked at her eyes narrowing. The lady handled all those plates like she did it every day, but something was off.

They met the waitress with polite smiles as she gave the plates out.

“What’s wrong?” Tane took her hand, which was clutched around her fork.

“The waitress. She’s making me uncomfortable. She looks like she belongs on the runway, but she’s in this hole in the wall diner. In fact, all the waitresses except one look like they belong somewhere else.”

Tane swept his eyes around the room one more time. “You’re right. They all look beautiful, something we would have normally caught.”

“Why didn’t we?” Jay sounded nervous.

“They’re not our mates. My animals want nothing to do with them. They catalogued them in passing as passable humans, but not as a threat,” Dai said as he took a bite of his food.

“The food?” Leza asked.

“If they poisoned it, it’s odorless as well as tasteless,” Dai said.

“I’m probably just paranoid,” she picked up her food and began eating. They waited throughout the meal but there was no unexpected lethargy or falling out.

The waitress came back again to give them refills on what they were drinking. She handed Leza a coke.

“I wasn’t drinking that.”

“Sorry,” the waitress murmured, her face going red at the mistake. “I can bring you something else.”

“No, thanks I’m done.”

“The check, please.” Tane asked eyeing the drinks on the table.

The waitress handed it to them after offering them dessert. No one touched their drinks taking their cue from Tane.

After leaving a tip on the table they went to the register.

“I’m going to hit the bathroom one more time since my bladder doesn’t seem to hold as much as the rest of yours.” Leza smiled and gave Tane a small hug.

“I’ll come with you.”

“Why? We’ve already established the bathroom is safe.” She went up on her toes and kissed the side of his cheek before strolling off.

No one was in the rest room while she made short work of using it. When she came out to wash her hands, their waitress was at the sink. Leza gave her a polite head nod and turned on the water to wash her hands.

The waitress jabbed her with a needle before she knew what hit her.

“All you had to do was drink the coke.” The waitresses voice went cold and hard before Leza passed out.

*~*~*~*

“She’ll be ok,” Dai said as he came behind his brother clapping him on the back.

Tane nodded and watched the front of the diner. “It’s different now. I feel her deep within me as if my life and my well-being now revolves around her. I wonder if this is how the race is perpetuated. I can’t stop thinking about what will make her happy and wanting to do that very thing. It’s sort of what I always thought love would be like but on a grander scale.”

He sighed when he looked at his brother and his brother-in-arms. “I think you have to experience it to understand.”

Tane turned to look at Dai. “You know how we loved mom?”

Dai nodded.

“It’s bigger than that.” Dai’s hand covered his chest rubbing at the ache there.

“She’s taking a long time.” Tane turned to stride towards the bathroom.

“That’s because she’s a female,” Jay laughed. “They do that thing in the mirror where they come out looking like freaking runway models. She’s doing that thing for you.”

Tane’s lips were lifting up into a half smile when his body hit the ground in pain. He doubled over while still trying to find his legs to stand.

“Leza,” he called out in a pained voice.

Jay lifted him up while Dai was already running towards the restroom. Tane and Jay behind him. They kicked open the door only to find it empty. Sitting on the side of the sink was a tube of lipstick that Leza kept with her all the time. Tane roared. They spread out to search the facility. Leza was gone as were the waitresses.

Dai pulled Tane out of the diner before he destroyed it with his bare hands. Jay was sitting in the back of the SUV trying to control Tane. He bellowed reaching for the steering wheel time after time.

“You’ll kill us, Tane,” Dai hissed as he drove faster putting as many miles between them and the diner.

Tane was already dead. He couldn’t feel Leza no matter how he reached out. He felt moisture in his eyes and didn’t care. The one person he lived for was no longer with him. The whole world needed to cry with him. He looked within himself finding a hole that Leza used to fill.

Thoughts of her laughter and her smile tried to comfort him to no avail. He kept seeing her as she went all dominant on him taking control of their lovemaking, her teeth sinking into him changing his world forever.

The soft look she had whenever she looked at Amy. The fierce need she had within her to protect. How her breath caught, a sound that was beautiful to his ears. He was a monster. That’s what they called him and he even agreed until she came along. He needed her to keep the animals in line.

“You have to tell us where she is, Tane.” Jay tried for rationality.

“I don’t know.” It came out in a scream of pure pain. “I would tell you if I knew. I can’t feel her. It’s like she’s dead.” The last came out as total resignation, as if his life were over.

“She’s not dead, Tane. They want her alive because they know you will come looking for her. What they don’t know is that you’re connected to her. Whatever they used on her and believe me they used something, knocked her out to the point that her body is feigning death. Why? Because her animal is busy trying to push it out of her system.” Dai talked fast. He needed to get to his brother before he bought into the she was dead theory.

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Tane asked his brother.

“You should consult me more often. We’d get into less shit that way,” Dai said in a voice that tried to be light but failed. “I think we should find a place to hole up. Leza’s going to wake up and when she does you’ll know it.”

Tane nodded. Dai found a motel on the side of the road. Jay went in and came out with keys to one room. Tane and Dai would take a bed leaving the other one to Jay although they would sleep in shifts until Leza woke up.

Dai forced Tane to rest. He fell into nightmares of Leza being tortured with him unable to help her as he searched frantically to find her.

*~*~*~*

The lights were all she could see, shining harsh and bright in her face. Leza slammed shut the eyes she just opened. She tried to bring a hand up to shield her face, but it was stuck at her side. The other one wouldn’t move either. She opened her eyes partially only to realize she was in a white room. Lifting her head, she realized she was tied down to a table.

Memories came blurring back…the diner, the coke she wouldn’t drink, the restroom, the waitress who wasn’t a waitress. Dropping her head to the table, she mourned what she lost.

She’d never see Tane again because she had to protect him. There was no way she could let him track her here. If only one of them could live free so be it. He would always have her heart, but she wouldn’t see him locked up in a cage poked and prodded like some lab rat.

With a smile meant to signal retribution she closed her eyes and looked for the link between her and her mate. She found it practically glowing. She reached for it and pulled at it trying to destroy it. It twisted and turned evading her. He couldn’t come rescue her; it was a fool’s mission.

She yanked on it as her animal clawed her up on the inside.
He will come anyway!
No! she argued back, trying to get the upper hand while she felt the need to double over with what her animal was doing to her.

Yes. Listen to me. If you break this connection or damage it you will hurt him more than being in a cage will hurt. And still he will come. He will never give us up now. The minute he can feel us again I know he will come.

He couldn’t feel us?
No, and we couldn’t feel him.
Leza calmed down and her animal stopped tearing her up on the inside. For someone who couldn’t shift, her animal was frightening in what it could do to her.

She needed a plan, but what could she do being tied down to a table.

“You’re awake. Welcome back to hell.”

She cocked her head to see Dr. Baker looking at her. The one who said he would take care of her back problem.

One day she would get free and separate his heart from his body with her claws.

“I’m not staying; I just needed a little sun and heat. Thought I’d compare this place to my condo in Florida.” Leza gave a careless shrug to her shoulders to let him know he didn’t intimidate her.

His face jacked up in an evil smile. “You’ve served your purpose, so let’s hope you bring Tane in, or you’ll be seeing what the inside of a box looks like real soon.”

“Death threats. My condo’s sounding better all the time. Since we’re making threats maybe I should make a few of my own. When Tane comes he’s going to free me and whoever else you have trapped in this hell hole. You will think I’m so desperate that I ran away, but you will be wrong. I’m going to stalk you like prey until you piss your pants in fear. Then I’m going to keep coming until you’re on your knees begging for mercy. After I tire of the game, I’m going to snatch your still beating heart from your chest and watch as it dies in my hand.”

His face paled and his hands shook as he looked towards the cameras and the guard in the room to make sure he was safe.