Wanted by the Alphas (An Extremely Sensual Paranormal Shifter Romance) (17 page)

Lucien does not take his eyes off her.
“Shannon, I love you. I’ve loved you since the day we met, but I
didn’t know what being in love was then. I kept thinking of you,
and that is why I followed your car to the supermarket the week
after. I still can’t stop thinking about you. Please . . . come
with me. We don’t need these people. Together, we can go around the
world and do whatever you like.”

He loves me.

The words should be music to her ears. A few
weeks ago, she would have given anything to hear them. But now – in
this current setting – they trigger a warning bell.

Nothing good will come out of this.

Kirk says harshly, “You have no longer any
claim on her, Walker. She’s mine now.”

Shannon’s world is spinning.

She finds her voice. “Stop it, please, both
of you. I don’t belong to anyone!”

But the two men face each other. The air
between them is dangerously charged.

“She’s yours?” Lucien challenges, his blue
eyes flashing. Shannon remembers the dark change that had come over
them and suddenly, she is very afraid.

“Yes,” Kirk says. She can see his nostrils
flaring in that way Jared always does when he anticipates a
metamorphosis.

Don’t tell me he intends to change here right
now!

“Not here,” she cries urgently.

“This has gone on for too long, Fitzpatrick.”
Lucien is a taller man and he towers over everyone now. He takes
one step towards Kirk, and the other man bristles. “I challenge you
to a duel. No holds barred. Just the two of us.”

Shannon is beyond shock.

“No,” she cries.

“I accept,” Kirk says, just as calmly. “Name
the place and time.”

Shannon knows that this is once again him
going against his nature. To preserve his alpha spot, he has no
choice but to accept. Or does he actually crave to finish Lucien
once and for all? Because Kirk now has another reason to detest
Lucien.

Her
.

Oh my God
, she thinks,
they are
fighting over me!

Her knees go weak with terror.

For the first time since this started, Lucien
becomes aware that they are the center of attention.

“Very well,” he says. “I will not name the
time and place here in front of everyone for obvious reasons, but
you can expect an email from me to your personal account at the
clinic.”

“Good. It’s settled then.”

“It is not settled!” Shannon says. Tears
spring to her eyes. She turns to Lucien. “Lucien, please don’t do
this. If you say you love me, then don’t do this.”

“So you love him?” Lucien says harshly.

Her tongue is frozen.

Who do I love?

The question has never really occurred to her
until now, because she was never given an option.

Until now.

Lucien turns to Kirk, whose face is
flushed.

“I guess you have your answer. She doesn’t
know if she loves you. Or me. But when we are finished with each
other, she won’t have a choice. Because there will be only one of
us left standing.”

With that, he walks out of the restaurant,
leaving everyone to stare – stunned into speechlessness – after
him.

PREPARATION

They are back in Kirk’s bungalow, where he is
seeing to a few things and his affairs.

“Kirk, don’t do this,” Shannon pleads.

“I have to. I want to.” His mouth is set in a
determined line. “He can’t just demand to be back in your life this
way and expect me not to have a say in it.”

“You’re fighting over me? I’m not worth
it!”

She tries to put her hands on him but he
wards her off.

“On the contrary,” he says, his steadfast
green eyes taking her in, “I think you are worth every bit of it.
But this is not just about you. He insulted me in front of a room
full of people. He tried to make a play for my woman.”

“I am not your woman, Kirk. I have a mind of
my own, feelings of my own!”

“Then are you
his
woman? He seems to
think so. He is asking you to make a choice to be with him.”

Tears sting her eyes.

She drops her voice to a whisper. “Then if I
choose one of you . . .
now
. . . will you both drop this
stupid duel to the death?”

He smiles sadly at her. “I think it’s gone
beyond that. Like I said, this is not just about you. You are part
of it, yes, but this is about everything that has gone between the
Fitzpatricks and the Walkers. This is the fight my cousin Bob wants
me to have. I have to live up to my family’s expectations. It’s
just one slap in the face too many.”

He turns from her.

“Now, if you don’t mind, Shannon. I have to
prepare.”

“But he’s a powerful witch! You said it
yourself. He will kill you!”

“If I was an ordinary werewolf, yes. But I
have a few tricks up my own sleeves. Kirk isn’t the only one in
this duel who knows witchcraft. How did you think I was able to
keep ahead of all my cousins who are champing at the bit?”

His eyes are as sad as his smile.

“I love you, Shannon. I’m sorry you had to
hear it this way . . . under such circumstances. If you must know,
I have left instructions to my lawyer to leave you something in my
will so that you’d be taken care of. If I should die, I want you
and your brother to pack up and leave this place, because my
cousin, Bob, will not be so magnanimous.

“And to Lucien’s credit, he has left
everything for you. I know the Walkers. Once he makes such a public
stand, they would not forgive him for insulting them so readily in
front the Janssens. So I know it will not be easy for you, Shannon,
to make a choice. But you might not have to. By tomorrow, only one
of us will be left, and you can help him pick up the pieces and
build a new life.”

“Where and when are you going?” she says, the
fear bolting to her throat.

He purses his lips.

“I can’t tell you that. I don’t want you to
see us. I don’t want anyone to see us, because they might be hurt
in the crossfire. I have already called your brother, Jared, to
come pick you up in ten minutes. Be safe, Shannon. And remember
always that I love you.”

With that, he grabs her arms and pulls her to
him fiercely. He plants a savage kiss on her mouth. It is a kiss
which is full of regrets and misgivings and hopeful promises. She
has never seen him so charged up before. Prior to this, he has
always been a watchful and careful alpha – more content to keep the
uneasy peace than to act with force and aggression.

But now . . . it is as if a spirited and
furious entity has taken over his body. His passion astounds
her.

The sound of a car engine rolls to a stop
outside.

Jared.

Kirk leaves off his kiss.

“Now go,” he says urgently. And he turns from
her.

*

Once she is in Jared’s car, her brother says,
“What the hell happened?”

She tells him.

“Damn.” He grins. “That is a fight I wouldn’t
mind seeing.”

“It’s not funny, Jared. They are going to
kill each other.”

“Over you?” He tsk-tks. “Whoever would have
thought you’d be such a prize?”

“I must go see Lucien to stop this!”

“Why do you think you can even stop this? You
heard Kirk. This is not just about you. If either of them backs
down, they would lose status in front of their respective
communities. And for both of them, it’s personal.”

Trust a shapeshifter to take their side, she
thinks angrily.

“Are you going to help me or not?”

“All right. I’ll help you. I’ve always helped
you, don’t you forget that.”

“And I you.” She bridles. “How many times
have I healed you when no one else could?”

He holds his hands up from the wheel. “All
right, all right. We’re even. So what do you want me to do?”

THE DUEL

The drive to the Chatterly is fraught with
argument and indecision.

“So what have you decided to do, dear
sister?”

“I’ll simply confront him,” she decides.
“I’ll beg him to stop this.”

“You failed with Kirk. What makes you think
you’ll succeed with Lucien? I don’t particularly like him, but I do
respect his values and ideals, from what you tell me about him. And
it takes guts to stand up to his family like that. What makes you
think he will listen to you?”

“Because he loves me.”

Jared chortles.

“And that is exactly why he won’t listen to
you. He has to destroy his rival in more ways than one. It’s a
legitimate duel, Shannon. He threw the gauntlet in front of a room
full of witnesses, so that the one left standing will face little
persecution in this town where everyone seems content to cover up
for one another. How do you think those ‘murders’ went unsolved by
the police? This town has been bought by the witch and shapeshifter
clans, and any unfortunate souls who get in their way will be
brushed aside and forgotten.”

He eyes her meaningfully.

“You don’t want to be a statistic,
Shannon.”

“I am not a statistic. I am involved. Look,
Jared, if you don’t want to get involved, I’ll understand. Just
leave me at the Chatterly’s and lend me your car.”

“My car? No way!”

Her glare cuts short his protest.

“I’m only kidding, sis. There’s no way I’m
not behind you in all this. But I think you should just let the
boys deck it out and sit down and wait for the last one
standing.”

She says softly, “How can I be with someone
who killed someone else I loved?”

Jared’s expression is one of amused
understanding.

“You’re taking bets now on the victor?”

“No. I love both of them. I don’t know who I
love more. I have come to understand the two of them in ways that
no one else possibly can.”

“Of course.” He barks a short laugh. “You’ve
slept with both of them.”

“No. It’s more than physical. I understand
their minds intimately and why they choose to do the things they
do. In many ways, both of them are victims of their birthrights.
Neither of them particularly relishes the roles they have been
thrust in, and yet they do what they must to keep the equilibrium.
Both of them are good men in their own right, and I can’t help but
love both of them equally.”

“You can’t love people equally, sis. Just as
parents don’t really love their children equally, you can’t do the
same. You think you do, but you really don’t. There’s going to be
one of them you marginally prefer over the other. One you will be
subconsciously rooting for to win.”

He raises his eyebrows.

“Do you even know who that is right now?”

His question takes her aback.

Who does she love more? Does she even know it
herself?

Is it the passionate and volatile Lucien, who
is giving up everything for her – his family, his fortune, the
world he has known and lived in for so long?

Or is it the measured and matured do-gooder
Kirk, who rebels against his shapeshifter nature but does what he
does admirably to keep the peace, and who loves her just as
fiercely in his own right?

They draw up to the parking lot of the
Chatterly – just in time to see Lucien’s Mustang exit and go down
the other direction.

“Oh, no. It’s started,” she says. She looks
at Jared mutely.

“OK, OK, I’ll follow him. He doesn’t know
this car. But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Please, she prays,

Jared is a good tracker. It comes with being
a shapeshifter. On the hunt, he has to tread carefully after small
animals, many which are swift of foot and sensitive in hearing. So
if he wants a kill, he has to be even quieter than they are. He
keeps the Ford a distance away, sandwiched behind two or three
cars, but never losing sight of his quarry.

Besides, Lucien seems to be in too much of a
hurry to notice anyone behind him. Or maybe he is not expecting
anyone. Or so Shannon hopes.

Lucien finally veers off the main road into a
lane leading to the forest. Jared hangs back, not wanting his
tracking to be too obvious to Lucien.

“There’s only one road in anyway,” he
confirms. “This path leads to a dead end. It’s a wood trail from
then on for hikers.”

“How do you know?”

He glances at her deadpan. “Do you have to
ask? I know every forest trail here.”

Of course. It is the only thing that could be
expected of a shifter.

Just as Jared said, the lane terminates in a
dead end. Lucien’s Mustang is parked there, and the tall blond man
is nowhere to be seen.

Jared gets out. He starts to unbutton his
shirt.

“You sure about this?” he asks Shannon.

“Yes.”

She is surer of this than anything in her
life.

*

Once Jared has transformed into the huge
black panther, it is easy enough for him to track Lucien, who is on
foot. They keep to the shadows of the trees, staying out of sight
while keeping Lucien on their radar. They have to go on quite a bit
in this stealthy manner.

Sometimes, Shannon gets a glimpse of Lucien
through the trees, though not often because Jared is staying back.
His superior sense of smell allows him to follow Lucien on scent
alone. Lucien’s golden head catches the sunspots dappling on the
forest floor now and again, and his hair gleams like a bright
jewel. She thinks he has some sort of long weapon hitched to his
back, but she can’t be sure.

Her stomach cringes at the thought of the
weapon that he means to kill Kirk with. What is it? Some sort of
magical wand? Or is it a sword? She doesn’t know what modern
witches use or whether all the tropes of ancient witchcraft are
true.

That is how much I know about Lucien.

They soon come to a clearing near the
mountain range. Here, the wind is cold as it sweeps down from the
range, rustling the tops of trees. Shannon’s cheeks burn with the
chill. As agreed upon with Jared, they keep back within the forest
fringe. Lucien may not be able to sense them, but Kirk in his
werewolf form certainly will if they don’t keep out of his scent
radius.