Andromeda's Fall (Shadowcat Nation) (2 page)

Andie
scooted out of his path and tried to ignore the way his body seemed to prowl
with a powerful kind of grace. He opened the door to the hallway, and she
followed him out. In the light she got a better look at him and promptly wished
she hadn’t. He was about her age, had midnight black hair, and a face a movie
star would pay good money for. Andie shook her head. So he was an impressive
specimen. So what?

After
they walked through a labyrinth of halls for several minutes, she finally held
out her hand. “Andromeda Reynolds, but you can call me Andie.”

He
glanced at the hand and then shook it perfunctorily. Then he raised his
eyebrows. “Andromeda? Really?”

She
shrugged. “My mother liked Greek mythology and was a bit of a romantic.”

“Mmmm…
the princess saved from the Kraken by Perseus. Suits you.”

More
than you know,
Andie thought. But would Jaxon Keller turn out to be her Perseus or her Medusa?

“And
you are?” she asked pointedly.

“You
can call me A.J.”

What
?!

Andie
stared at his face closely questions flying through her mind.
Does he know
who I am? How could he?
There’s no way!

She’d
gone by the nickname of A.J. most of her life. Her father had wanted a boy.
Bumping into another A.J. seemed like too much of a coincidence.

“Which
stands for…?” she asked.

He
gave her a sideways glance. “Arthur, Junior,” he revealed reluctantly.

Andie
wrinkled her nose. “Huh. I’d go with my initials too. You got a wizard named
Merlin stashed somewhere?”

“Funny.”
His lips tightened into a grim line. “It’s a family name…
Andromeda
.”

She
ignored the jab. “I just find it interesting. That’s all.”

He
flicked her a glance. “What?”

She
shrugged one shoulder. “I happen to know another A.J. is all. Funny coincidence.”

“It’s
a small world,” he muttered.

Andie
was still suspicious, but he’d answered her question readily enough. She
decided to drop it for now, but she’d stay on guard.

“So
where are you taking me?”

He
glanced down at her. “You really are a tiny thing, aren’t you?”

Andie
scowled. “Don’t let my size fool you. I can pack a wallop when I want to. Even
with a broken arm.”

A.J.
laughed. “I’m sure you can.”

Andie
stared straight ahead, her mouth thinning. She hated being patronized. Men were
so dense sometimes. They never took her seriously until she showed them exactly
why they should.

Keeping
her left arm protected, Andie suddenly dropped. One leg shot out and she spun
low to the ground, sweeping A.J.’s feet out from under him. As he landed on his
back, she was on top of him, her knee on his windpipe – not crushing, just
sending a message.

Before
she could gloat too much, though, she was flying through the air. Andie tucked
into a back flip, landed on her feet, and then spun and launched herself
backwards in a one-handed back handspring. A.J. had just gotten on his feet when
her legs wrapped around his neck.  She used her momentum to drop him back to
the floor.

Andie
rolled and ended up in a crouch close by. A.J. held up his hands in surrender.
“All right, wildcat. You’ve proved yourself.”

Andie
glared at him. “Don’t doubt me. And don’t insult my intelligence by pretending
you just lost either,” she said in a severe voice, made harsher, perhaps, by
the fact that she’d just realized exactly how incredible his blue eyes were.
They were a vibrant color made even more interesting by the black ring that
rimmed the irises. And she was more than irritated with herself for having
noticed that at all.

He
levered himself up off the floor. “Fair enough.”

The
only thing that kept her from proving her point more – because she could tell
he’d held back - was the small amount of respect she could see in his eyes. With
a brusque nod, she followed him down the hall.

“So
where are we going again?”

“First
we’re going to the medical rooms. Need to get you healed up before we start
testing you. And then we’ll find you a place to stay.”

They
continued on through the maze of hallways. She suspected A.J. was taking a back
route, not allowing her to get a good idea of the layout of the mansion that
was the Keller compound. Andie wasn’t surprised to hear there would be tests.
Loyalty and skills were key in a dare. She’d have to show them both. For now,
she said nothing.

“You
don’t mind a roommate do you?” he asked.

Andie
was just happy that he hadn’t kicked her out on her butt yet. She could handle
anything he chose to throw at her. “No problem.”

A.J.
nodded.

The
trip to the medical wing was a revelation. They walked through a set of doors to
what appeared to be a fully-outfitted emergency room and surgery center. All
white walls and stainless steel. A young woman wearing a lab coat over pink
scrubs, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, stood up from the desk in the
corner to greet them. She took one look at Andie and led her to one of the curtained-off
hospital beds.

She
glanced at A.J. “I assume you want the works?”

He
nodded brusquely. “Start with the arm.”

Andie
looked back and forth between them with a blank look. The girl gave her a warm
smile. “I’m a Healer. Hold out your arm. This won’t hurt.”

Andie’s
jaw dropped. Healers were very rare indeed. She’d never met one before, only
heard rumors of their existence. Alphas tended to keep shifters graced with
supernatural abilities beyond shifting a secret from all but their own dare and
the Alphas of the other dares.

She
turned her dazed eyes on A.J. “Why let me anywhere near your Kuharte?” she
voiced her surprise. “I may be beat up, but there’s nothing life-threatening
here.”

“If
you’re going to be tested, you need to be healthy. At least to start.” He
waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Ignoring
his sudden playfulness, Andie didn’t quite buy his reasoning, but she didn’t
say anything else. The woman, whom A.J. didn’t introduce, placed her hands on
Andie’s broken arm. Suddenly a soft white light began to emit from her palms.

“You
glow!”

The
girl smiled again. “You already know that cougars call their supernaturally-gifted
people Kuharte. But did you know that term was picked because of Healers?”

Andie
felt warmth radiating from anywhere she was touched. “No. I didn’t know that.”

“Mmm-hmmm.
It’s an Iroquois term, like awa dare. It means
through a light
.
Appropriate, don’t you think?”

Andie
nodded, too fascinated by what was happening to make much conversation. In only
moments the gashes and bruises all over her body were healed. The wounds were concentrated
on the backs of her thighs and behind her neck, a clear indication of a fight
with another cougar… specifically, a male who had tried to force her to mate.

A.J.
had briefly excused himself to make a phone call. When he returned, he watched
the Healer work with a stoic patience, although when he got a good look at her
wounds— particularly the ones on her neck— Andie could’ve sworn he was
seriously pissed. But he said nothing.

Good.
Let him assume
she was just an omega mountain lioness who’d been violently thrown out of her
dare. It meant he was still underestimating her, and if she was to be tested,
she’d take any advantage she could get.

Neither
of them said a word once the Healer was finished. Andie followed A.J. down
another series of hallways, through a few comfy common areas with couches and
TVs and kitchenettes, and finally to a wing that looked mostly like living
quarters. Andie would bet a lot of money that the compound was intentionally
designed to bring the members of this dare together more often, to force them
to interact with one another whether they wanted to or not.

As
mountain lion shifters, they all tended to be loners, part of the nature of the
beast inside them. The wild cats were elusive and highly territorial.
Circumstance had forced them to form dares, making up the Shadowcat Nation. And
now they had to learn to coexist… to get along, despite their natural instincts
to live a solitary life.

A.J.
eventually stopped at a nondescript door and knocked. After a small pause, it
was opened by a petite redhead whose eyes opened wide when she saw who was
standing there. Andie kept her own shock of recognition successfully hidden.
She sent the girl a surreptitiously pleading look, hoping she’d get the hint to
keep quiet.

“Hannah,
this is Andromeda Reynolds,” A.J. said. “She’s asked for asylum and needs a
place to stay while I prepare her to meet the Alpha. Can she bunk with you for
a bit?”

Andie
narrowed her eyes at A.J, but she quickly moved her focus back to a confused Hannah.

Hannah
finally nodded. “Of course. Come on in… err… Andromeda.”

“Andie,
please.” She gave A.J. one final enquiring glance as she stepped into the room.

“I’ll
be by first thing in the morning,” he told her. “We’ll start then.”

“Start
what?”

But
all she got in reply was an enigmatic smile. A.J. turned and strolled down the
hall, whistling a little tune.

Andie
glanced at Hannah, who just shrugged and closed the door.

They
looked at each other for a moment in total silence. Hannah held up a single
finger as she listened at the door. Finally she turned to Andie, grabbed her
and pulled her in for a tight hug. Leaning back she said, “Andromeda Jaci
Reynolds. What. The. Hell?”

“I’m
so sorry to put you in such a tight spot!” Andie grimaced. She’d hoped to talk
to Jaxon Keller before Hannah even knew she was here. She hadn’t wanted to
place her old friend in the position she was in now.

Hannah
took her by the hand and led her over to the sitting room. Andie glanced around.
Apparently the living quarters for long-termers in the Keller compound were set
up a lot like apartments, with a living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

They
both sat down on the soft leather couch. “Do you know how hard it was to not
say anything when you showed up at my door with… A.J.?”

Andie
grinned. “You did awesome. And is his name really Arthur?”

Hannah
tipped her head. “I’m surprised he told you that. He hates his name.”

“So
he goes by A.J.?”

“I
know. What are the odds that you would bump into him of all people? Why’d you tell
him your name was Andie instead of A.J. also?”

Andie
shrugged. “New life, new name. But yeah, the odds seem slim. Those darn odds
just seem to keep stacking up against me.”

“So
I guess you’ve finally left your dare? For good? What happened?”

“Kyle
Carstairs, that lowdown s.o.b., tried to force me to mate him. Like that would
ever
happen.”

“Wait
a minute.
The
Kyle Carstairs? The son of Walter Carstairs and heir to
the Carstairs Dare? The one you helped me and Nick escape from?”

Andie
could picture that day last year. Hannah and Nick had visited the Carstairs
Dare at Walter’s invitation in order to discuss a potential business deal for
the two dares. But the real reason they’d been invited was so that Kyle could
try to force Hannah to mate him. As Jaxon Keller’s sister, it would’ve bound
the two dares in a way that Jaxon would have found difficult to work against.
Andie had secretly helped Hannah and Nick get away, despite the risk to her own
life.

Andie
flopped back with a groan and covered her eyes with her hands. “The one and only.
He cornered me… almost had me too. I had to fight my way out.”

“You
don’t look too bad.”

Andie
dropped her hands in her lap. “A.J. took me to your Healer.”

Hannah
raised her eyebrows. “Really? That’s… interesting.”

“Yeah.
I was surprised he’d let me in on your Kuharte.”

Hannah
shrugged her own bafflement and then narrowed her eyes. “So why was Kyle after
you?”

“Now
that you’re out of the picture, he wants to make me his mate,” Andie mumbled.

“So…
as in mate
and
marry and he’d never be with another cougar?”

“Yes.”
Andie tasted bile at the thought. Cougars weren’t naturally monogamous. Many
mated seasonally rather than for life. But once shifters added marriage into
the mix, it changed the rules a bit and made the mating permanently monogamous.

“He
seems to have a thing about mating as a political tactic,” Hannah murmured. “So
why you?”

Andie
sighed and sat back up. “Because my dad is the Beta for the dare.” She glanced
up and caught Hannah’s hurt look. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I knew
that our being friends in college could make things tricky for both of us once
I realized who you were.”

Hannah
patted her hand. “I understand. Although I wish you would’ve trusted me. You
knew I was Jaxon’s sister.”

Andie
gave her a lopsided smile. “Having the same last name was a pretty big clue.
And then there was the fact that you had zero pictures of your family around.”

Hannah
shrugged. “You know cougars…”

Andie
nodded. “Damn secretive creatures. Especially about our leaders.”

“Exactly.”

Hannah
just shook her head. “So your dad’s the Beta. What does that have to do with
you?”

“It’s
why I never tried to leave before now. That dare is so corrupt and damaged that
they need some people with common sense and a moral code running things. That’s
what Dad believes, and he refuses to leave. Especially now.”

“Why
now? Seems like his daughter having to escape Kyle would be a good reason to
go.”

“Yes,
but after that mess with you and Nick, some of the dare members who’ve been too
afraid to do so before now are starting to talk about banding together to take
Walter Carstairs down. Walter’s and Kyle’s actions against you and Nick were
just the last straw on a big haystack. They’re looking to my dad to step up. He
stayed behind to try to lead them. But he couldn’t watch me and his back at the
same time. If Kyle took me as his bride, my dad would lose leverage. He helped
me get out.”

Hannah
leaned back. “Wow.”

“Bingo.”
Andie blew out a deep breath. “So you see why I had to leave?”

“I
do.” Hannah thought for a moment, and then her face scrunched up. “How’d you
get here, anyway?”

“Walked.
Hitchhiked when I could. But a lot of that is back country.”

“Holy
shit!”

Andie
winced. Hannah didn’t tend to swear unless she was really shocked. She waited
for the tirade.

“You
risked moving through that land alone?!?” Hannah yelled, her face turning red.
“Wolf shifters could’ve
killed
you!”

Andie
rubbed her ears. “Only dogs can hear you, Hannah. And I’m fine. I made it.
Besides, other cougars live in that territory, too, and manage to survive.”

“They
only live in groups now, and you know that. Rogue cougars just don’t make it
anymore. Not for long. Why on earth didn’t you just call me?”

Andie
shook her head. “I needed to hide my tracks to get here. A phone call can be
traced. And I didn’t want to strain the relationship between our dares more
than it already is. I’m pretty sure I’ve managed to keep the fact that we were friends
in college a secret, so no one in the Carstairs Dare should think to look for
me here.”

“And
what about last year when you helped Nick and me escape? Don’t they know about
that? I’d say it would be a big clue.”

Andie
leaned back on her arms and shook her head. “I destroyed any evidence. They
never figured out if you had help or not. Only Mike knows, and he won’t say
anything. I’m very good at what I do, Hannah.”

“And
what is that exactly? You’ve never really said.”

The
smile fell from Andie’s lips. “Well… I don’t do it anymore, so it’s not
important.”

“What
do you think you’ll do now?”

Andie
grimaced. “I don’t know. I never was book smart like you. If they gave me your
job, I’d bankrupt the dare in six months. But before I figure out a new
occupation, first I’ve got to get asylum. Then I’ll figure out the rest.”

“Maybe
you could help Nick with dare relations.” Hannah grinned with a snicker.

Andie
laughed. “Very funny, smarty pants. I think we’d both agree that diplomacy is
not in my genetic makeup. And speaking of your gorgeous man, where is he? I
figured you’d be mated by now.”

Hannah
beamed a radiant smile. “Nick and I
are
mated
and
married. And
very happy. He’s visiting the McGraw Dare of panthers in Florida at the
moment.”

“Ah.
Well, I hope I get to meet him eventually. I’ve only seen him on a monitor so
far.” Andie had helped them from the security room of the compound where she’d
turned off the cameras as they’d moved through the building. She sobered and gave
Hannah a serious look. “Please don’t tell anyone that we know each other.”

Hannah’s
eyebrows beetled. “Why not?”

“If
I am allowed asylum in this pride, it has to be on my own merits. And if
there’s trouble, I don’t want it impacting you.”

“After
what you did—”

“I
didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have done. And now you can do this for me.”

“Not
speaking up? Not telling my brother who you are?”

“Or
A.J. for that matter. Let me do this on my own. You know as well as I do that,
despite the dares formed by the Shadowcat Nation, cougars aren’t natural pack
animals. We’re wary of other cougars. I need to prove to them that I would be
loyal and that I have skills worth keeping in the dare before I tell them who I
am. And even then, your brother might not want to keep me around.” Andie
reached out and gave Hannah’s hand a squeeze.

Hannah
didn’t look happy, but she squeezed back. “Okay…”

“By
the way,” Andie switched subjects only slightly. “What is A.J.’s position in
the dare?”

Hannah
shifted uncomfortably. “He’s one of the Alpha’s men. More than that, you’ll
have to ask him. Officially you’re being tested, so I shouldn’t say too much.
And if you’re so determined to prove yourself without my help, then I’m sure
you realize there are confidences in my dare that I also cannot betray. Also, I’ll
spill the beans about you if I feel like you’re in danger or not getting a fair
shake.”

“I
understand. Now…” Andie sat up straighter. “What exactly am I starting
tomorrow?”

Hannah
shook her head. “I’m not exactly sure. Testing of some sort, I’m guessing. And
if I know A.J., you should get some sleep tonight. He’ll start you with the
physical stuff.”

“How
bad?”

Hannah
grimaced. “I know you’re some kind of wonder woman. But expect it to be pretty
rough – both the physical and mental tests. A.J. will be very thorough in
making sure you’re worth the risk.