I groaned inwardly.
It’s impossible to keep a secret around here.
I decided to change the subject.
“Is that why you’re so successful in court? Because you know when the witness is lying?”
“That’s one of the reasons. So do you want to try another answer?”
“No. I’m happy with the one I gave.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. That predatory look was probably another reason he was so successful. If I hadn’t grown up with it, I’d be shaking in my sneakers. I knew he was more growl than bite—well, except when he was in wolf form. Then he could rip out a throat without remorse. It was rumored that he’d actually done it once—to a guy who had killed a couple of teens and gotten off on a technicality. But if that was true, Dad had never admitted it. He believed in the law of the jungle, but he was all about working within the confines of the Static law.
“I saw you with that Lowell boy last night,” he said with deadly calm.
I felt anger rising up within me.
“Boy? Rafe is a Dark Guardian, protecting your butt—”
“Watch your tone with me, young lady.”
Sometimes my parents could be so…well, parenty. It was irritating. “Why didn’t you just ask about him to begin with, instead of treating me like I’m a bad guy on a witness stand?”
The muscle in my dad’s cheek jerked. “Trust me, sweetheart, I’m a little more ruthless with the bad guys. You don’t want to go there.”
“We’re just worried, honey,” Mom said, restoring tranquility to the table. She was good at that. She owned a world-class spa in our small town. It drew practically as many tourists as the forest did. “I’ve been where you are. I know sometimes things can get scary when you’re approaching your time, but you have Connor. And he’s better suited to you.”
Better suited? I thought about Brittany’s shoe comment the day before. It did sound like my parents and I were selecting accessories. It was kind of insulting, to both Connor and me.
“Meaning…?” I prompted.
“Connor comes from the same type of background as you do. Rafe’s family is a little more…coarse.”
“His dad was a drunk, but he’s not.”
“Rafe was arrested for stealing a car,” Dad said.
He’d hotwired a car a few years back—I’d forgotten about that. “When he was sixteen. Right after his dad died in that awful car accident. Maybe he was acting out. He hasn’t done anything wrong since.”
“You mean he hasn’t been
caught
doing anything wrong.”
“Okay, look. Rafe is my friend. He’s Connor’s friend. If you’re going to put him down, I’m out of here.”
“Were you with him last night?” Mom asked.
“Nothing happened.” I knew that’s what they were really asking. Was I cheating on my boyfriend? On the perfect Connor? I scooted my chair back. “I’ve got to head out with the others. It was great seeing you both.”
Not. Never was.
They wanted me to be what they were: rich, successful, sure of themselves.
Before I could stomp off, Mom reached out and gave me a quick hug; we barely touched. I’d heard some Shifter families actually roll around on the floor together like wolf cubs. Not my parents. Sometimes I wondered if they weren’t quite comfortable with the animalistic side of our legacy.
Dad said, “Do you need any money?” It was his equivalent of
I love you.
“No, I’m good. Getting a paycheck every week.” I hugged him because I knew other families might be watching. Our family motto was never to let on if anything was wrong. Dad was probably going to run for governor someday. Nothing about us was supposed to create scandal. That was probably the reason that they were more comfortable with Connor than with Rafe. Connor was an Eagle Scout. Rafe had spent time in juvie.
I picked up my backpack and headed outside, quickly sweeping my gaze over the parking area. Rafe’s bike was gone. I figured he’d already headed out.
Connor was standing at the bottom of the steps, staring out into the wilderness.
“Spare me from another breakfast with my parents,” I grumbled as I joined him.
“Tell me about it. Dad and I got into an argument,” he said wearily.
“About what?”
“Nothing you should worry about.”
But shouldn’t we share tough moments like this?
“I didn’t see you in the dining room,” I said.
He gave me an ironic grin. “Met with them early. The elders had a special meeting with some of us afterward.”
“I didn’t hear about that.”
He shrugged. “It was just the guys.”
Brittany was so right. We’re such a sexist group. I couldn’t keep the irritation out of my voice. “What are you guys doing? Planning some secretive operation that’s too dangerous for the girls to be involved in?”
“It’s secretive, but only dangerous if Brittany finds out.”
“She’s not the only one who’ll be pissed off for not being included.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?” I prodded.
He shifted his gaze back to whatever he’d been staring at before I joined him. “Connor? What’s going on?”
“You have to promise not to tell.”
That sounded so childish, but whatever. I wanted to know what was going on. “It goes without saying.”
“Still, say it.”
“I promise not to tell.” It was so unlike him to be melodramatic that I was starting to get a little worried.
“The elders are concerned about Brittany. You know. Because she doesn’t have a mate. They were looking for a volunteer.”
I was appalled that they’d tried to hook her up with someone who didn’t love her. Especially after what Kayla had confessed, about how intimate shifting with someone truly was. And Connor was right to keep it to himself. Brittany would explode if she found out.
“What? You mean like…a pity mate?”
He looked really uncomfortable, and I realized that was exactly what this was. Worse than a blind date. She might as well sign up for an arranged marriage.
“Connor, this is insane!” Then I had another thought. Maybe one of the guys did have an interest in her but was too shy to come forward. If his hand was forced…
“Did someone volunteer?” I asked.
“No. They drew a name.”
“This is totally nuts.”
“Look, she doesn’t have to
choose
him. But he’s going to be part of our sherpa team, hang with us, determine if there’s any chemistry there.”
Oh, there would definitely be chemistry—like an explosion in a lab—if Brittany discovered that the elders were trying to set her up. On the other hand, we didn’t get a lot of time to hang out with the other Dark Guardians, so maybe it was simply that she hadn’t been around anyone else enough for that attraction to develop.
Part of me wished I had her problem, because feeling something for two guys seemed almost worse.
A horn beeped as Lucas pulled up in his jeep with Kayla riding shotgun. Brittany was sitting in the back.
Connor opened the door for me, because, of course, he came from a family that did that sort of thing. I couldn’t imagine Rafe extending the same courtesy. He’d probably think I could handle it myself. I climbed in. Connor tossed our backpacks into the rear of the jeep before sitting beside me.
“So what are we going to do about Bio-Chrome?” I asked.
“We stay alert,” Lucas answered.
“You don’t think we should be proactive, go after them?”
“Not until we know more.”
I looked at Connor. He took my hand and kissed my knuckles. I felt Brittany shift on the seat beside me and my cheeks turned red.
“So I hear we’re getting a new member for our team,” I said casually.
“Yeah,” Lucas said catching my gaze in the rearview window, before adjusting it slightly so he could see Brittany. “Daniel. He’ll be joining us tomorrow.”
“He’s the guy from Seattle, right?” Kayla asked.
“That’s right,” Lucas said.
He’d become a Dark Guardian only this summer. We’d met him, of course, but we didn’t know a lot about him.
I looked over at Brittany. She was staring out the window, as though she couldn’t care less that an interesting new guy was part of our team.
“I’m glad we have another team member,” I admitted. “With all those girls we’re taking out tomorrow morning, the more help we have, the better.”
Lucas cleared his throat. “Actually our number stayed the same. Rafe got reassigned.”
I jerked my attention to Connor as his hand tightened around mine, before loosening again. “You didn’t mention that.”
“Is it important?” he asked quietly without looking at me.
That depended on the reason he’d been reassigned. It was, but only to me, and I couldn’t admit that without explaining why. But as I watched Connor’s jaw tighten, I had the sick feeling that he might already know the answer.
♥ Uploaded by Coral ♥
The national forest is a little over five million acres in size—about the size of New Jersey—and traveling from our hidden village to the main entrance of the park took us until late afternoon. It didn’t help that we had to drive cautiously through the woods. Even when we eventually hit an actual road, we took it slow because of the wildlife that was likely to dart out in front of us—and maybe because in a way the wilderness we’d grown up in no longer felt like ours, no longer felt completely safe.
Ever since our encounter with Bio-Chrome we couldn’t completely relax and enjoy our surroundings. We were waiting for them to leap out at us at every turn.
And I couldn’t stop worrying about Rafe. I wanted to know what had really prompted his reassignment and if he was okay with it. I was so tense by the time Lucas brought the vehicle to a stop that I thought I might snap in two.
Inside the entrance to the park was a small village with a few cabins where the sherpas stayed when we weren’t serving as guides. I shared one with Kayla and Brittany. After we dropped our packs in our cabin, we climbed back into Lucas’s jeep to head to town. We were all restless, so we decided to spend some time at our favorite hangout—the Sly Fox.
The rustic building was a cliché: a bikers’ bar and gaming hall, a favorite haunt of hikers, campers, and locals. The only people over age thirty were the owner, Mitch—who carded everyone multiple times—and a couple of the waitresses, who’d been around since the dawn of time and called everyone “Sugar.”
I slid into a horseshoe-shaped booth in the back corner. Connor nudged up against me. As Kayla settled in on the other side of me, with Lucas beside her, Brittany said, “I’m gonna go shoot some pool.”
“Aren’t you hungry?” Connor asked.
“Not really. I’ll catch you later.”
She caught a guy’s attention at the bar, and he followed her into the pool room. He was tall, with lanky black hair and a couple of days’ beard growth.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Connor said. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“Considering everything that’s going on, shouldn’t we be wary of strangers?”
“I don’t think we want to get paranoid,” Lucas said.
“It’s not being paranoid when you’re actually in danger,” I pointed out. “There are a lot of people in here I don’t recognize.”
“It’s summer. Tourist season.”
Connor ran his hand along my shoulder. “Lucas is right. We can’t suspect everyone.”
But suspecting no one seemed equally dangerous to me.
After we gave our order to the waitress—burgers rare and fries all the way around—I relaxed against Connor. We’d spent several months apart while he’d been away at college. Maybe that was partly responsible for the strangeness I was feeling with him. Maybe we just needed to get back in sync. He put his arm around me and started toying with my hair. He always liked messing with my hair. He nuzzled my neck.
“Connor,” I whispered.
“What?”
“We’re in public.”
“So? It’s dark over here.” He tipped his head to the side. Kayla and Lucas were talking low and snuggling, acting as though they were totally alone. “I’ve missed you, Lindsey. It just seems like we haven’t really had any time together. We’re taking another group out tomorrow. Have to be all responsible.” He wrapped his hand around my neck and stroked the underside of my chin with his thumb, causing shivers of delight to race through me.
“It’s really hard with you being away at college,” I admitted.
“One more year, and you’ll be there. Right?”
“I hope so. I’m losing my enthusiasm for school. I seem to be losing my enthusiasm for everything lately.”
“Including me?”
I released a self-conscious laugh. “No.” Then I thought about how strained things seemed to be between us lately and a thought occurred to me. “Are you interested in someone else? I mean, did you meet someone while you were away at school?”
“No. But things
are
different between us. I’m not sure what it is.” He lifted my hair and nuzzled my neck again. “And it bothers me that I can’t read your thoughts.”
I felt the heat of his lips against my neck and went with it, drifting into a languid place where everything felt good. “You mean when you’re in wolf form?”
“No. Like now, when I’m in human form. Lucas can read Kayla’s mind anytime, regardless of his form.”
“What?” I jerked back. “Is that true, Lucas?”
He moved away from Kayla’s lips as though I’d just woken him up. “Is what true?”
“You can read Kayla’s mind even when you’re not…” I glanced around. A guy at the bar jerked his gaze from us to his mug. Had he been watching us? Who was he? He gave me the creeps. He was big, with a shaved head and barbed wire tattoos around his biceps. He looked like someone who might have just stepped out of prison. Definitely not a lab tech…but who knows? I shifted my attention back to Lucas. “You know.”
I didn’t want to say
a wolf
aloud. Not everyone here was one of us, so we always had to be careful about what we said when we were here.
Lucas shrugged and leaned forward, across the table. Quietly, he said, “We can both read each other’s thoughts anytime.”
“Eww! You’d never be able to have a private thought.”
“We can sense when the other wants privacy. We turn it off,” Kayla said.
I looked at Connor worriedly. “Is that the way it’s supposed to be? My parents never told me that.”
“Mine didn’t mention it either. Maybe it’s like sex. They’re not comfortable talking about it.”
“Actually,” Lucas began, “I think every bond is different. The first time I saw Kayla it was like I was standing too close to a bug zapper.”
“Oh, that’s romantic,” I said, while Connor chuckled gleefully at the gross image.
“It was like an electric charge,” Lucas explained. “It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was…a little unsettling.”
“No matter the species, it seems guys are all alike,” Kayla said, smiling. “Shy about the
L
-word.”
“I’m not,” Connor said. “I’ve loved Lindsey ever since she bloodied my nose because I took her chew toy.”
My heart stuttered at his casual use of the
L
-word. In our relationship I was the one who was shy about using it. I always had been. I adored Connor, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever told him I loved him. Now certainly wasn’t the time. I slapped his arm playfully. “It was a teething ring and I was only a year old. I don’t even remember it. But my parents always bring it up anytime our families get together.”
“That and the naked videos.”
“What’s this?” Kayla asked, laughing.
I groaned. “I was two, Connor was four. We’d been playing in a splash pool. We took off our clothes and got in the sandbox. Makes sense to me. You don’t get in a sandbox with wet clothes on.”
“And I haven’t seen her naked since,” Connor said.
But he would. During my first transformation. Clothes hamper our ability to transform. Despite what happens to the Incredible Hulk, shirts don’t rip off and pants don’t stretch. I felt myself blush as Connor wiggled his blond eyebrows at me. For a species that had to divest itself of its clothing under what we considered
natural
circumstances, we were a modest bunch.
Thank goodness, the waitress brought our burgers over and conversation stopped as we wolfed them down. So to speak. Generally, we enjoyed nothing as much as we did warm, red meat. Although I did also have a weakness for fudge and anything else remotely chocolate.
When we finished eating, Connor and I decided to join Brittany in the pool room to give Lucas and Kayla some privacy. Walking inside, I was disappointed to see that all the tables were occupied. At the one nearest to the door, the young guy leaning over the table about to make his shot looked up and met Connor’s gaze. With a shrug, he laid his cue stick down, bumped his partner on the shoulder—who set his stick on the table—and they both leaned against the wall, arms crossed defensively over their chests. Their reactions told me two things: they weren’t yet eighteen and they were one of us, because apparently they recognized an alpha wolf when they spotted one. It was like that with our kind. Until we had the ability to go all furry, we gave way to those who could. It was a sign of respect.
A Static might have felt sorry for the two guys. After all, they were there first. But in order for our culture to work, a hierarchy had been established. As a Dark Guardian, Connor was at the top of the food chain. I had to admit that I felt a swelling of pride as he put his hand on the small of my back and led me to the table.
“I’ll rack, you break,” he said as he began taking the balls out of the pockets and rolling them toward one end.
I picked up the cue stick the first guy had set down. It was the right size for me. As I began chalking it up, I shifted my gaze over to Brittany. She’d finished whipping the butt of the guy who’d followed her into the room—or maybe he’d let her win so she’d relax around him. They began to set up for another game.
“What’s wrong?” Connor asked quietly as he slid his arm around me and pulled me close. A possessive move. His question seemed to be a frequent one lately.
“I don’t know. That guy. I’m not getting good vibes off him. He’s not one of us.”
“A hiker maybe. Mountain climber.”
“A spy,” I added.
“I think he’s harmless.”
“That’s what we thought about Mason.” He’d managed to capture Lucas in wolf form. If not for Kayla, Lucas might still be living in a cage somewhere, on display like a prized possession.
“Good point.” He looked over at the young guys. It seemed to me that they had stopped breathing, waiting for his assessment. “Thanks for the table, but we changed our mind. We’re going to play with a friend.”
Brittany was leaning provocatively over the table when we arrived. She swept her gaze slowly over Connor, before taking her shot—and missing the corner pocket she’d been aiming for.
“All right!” the stranger said, with a grin. “Maybe this time I have a chance of winning.”
He handed his beer bottle to her, before taking up his position to make a shot. With a dare in her eyes directed at me, she took a swig.
“You’ll get kicked out if Mitch finds out you’re drinking,” I told her.
“He has to catch me first, and he’s busy.” She took another swallow, before tipping the bottle toward the guy lining up his shot. “This is Dallas. He’s new to the area, here to do some hiking. These are my friends, Lindsey and Connor. They’re destined for each other.” Her words were almost slurred, and I wondered how much beer she’d had.
“Cool,” Dallas said, amused. He nodded at me and touched two fingers to his brow in a salute to Connor, then sent two balls flying into opposite side pockets.
“He’s also very good at pool. Game over,” Brittany said.
“You don’t know that,” Dallas responded as he pocketed another ball. “I could miss if you come over and distract me.”
Smiling, Brittany shook her head. Maybe the reason none of the guys declared for her was because she gave the impression she was unavailable. She never flirted with anyone.
“Thought we could team up, challenge you guys,” Connor said.
“Sure. Nothing like a friendly game to get to know each other better. Let me just finish up here.” And Dallas quickly cleared the table of balls.
“See?” Brittany asked. “You guys don’t stand a chance.”
“We’ll see,” Connor muttered beneath his breath.
Our kind was nothing if not competitive.
While Connor and Dallas each rolled a ball across the table—whoever got it to stop closest to the far end would break—I nudged up against Brittany and said in a low voice, “So what’s his story?”
“Says he’s a hiker.”
“You believe him?”
“No way, too pale.”
“One of Mason’s minions?”
“Maybe.”
Nothing like spending all day in a lab to prevent a tan.
Connor won the right to break, and I felt that little spark of pride again. My guy. But as he made his move to strike the balls, I shifted my gaze over to Dallas. He was watching the room as though he was expecting trouble. I felt the wariness creep through me.
We were at a disadvantage. Our best warriors were here, but they wouldn’t be able to shift in front of all these tourists. We’d worked diligently to keep our special abilities a secret. But now I felt as though we were walking around with big signs taped to our backs saying,
Caution: We shift at will.
Even though I couldn’t shift yet. Soon, though. Very soon.
Connor called my name, and I realized it was my turn to shoot. I moved over to stand beside him. He pointed toward a solid ball. “That should be an easy shot.”
I nodded jerkily.
He put his hand on the small of my back. “Relax.”
“I know it’s totally irrational, because I have no evidence for it, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s trouble coming,” I whispered.
“We’ll handle it.”
I had this déjà vu moment from last summer when I’d been assigned my first group of campers to lead out into the wilderness. I’d been so worried that I’d do something to get one of them hurt. Connor was going with me. “If something happens, we’ll handle it,” he’d said. So calm. He never doubted his ability to take care of any situation.
With a nod, I bent over to line up my shot.
I knew the second Rafe walked into the room. I didn’t know how I knew. I wasn’t facing the door. It was just an awareness that shimmered through me. I glanced back over my shoulder to see him sauntering toward us.
“So who’s winning?” he asked.
“No one yet,” Brittany said, right before she made introductions.
I was acutely aware of Rafe studying Dallas—he didn’t trust him either. So that made all of us.
“Play already, will you?” Brittany prodded. I bent back over and aligned my cue stick.
“You’re not lined up right to make that shot,” Rafe said quietly, and before I could react, he was behind me, his arms coming around me. Everything within me went still. I wondered if he’d felt this same awakening when I’d been holding him on the bike last night.
I heard a low rumble. Anyone else might have mistaken the sound for someone clearing his throat, but I recognized it immediately as a warning growl coming from Connor. Completely ignoring him, Rafe adjusted my position slightly.