Panic broke Rose from her paralysis. She scrambled to her feet and started toward them as something heavy banged against the main door. Fear surged through her. Then a flash of movement swirled between her and Lei. Lei cursed. Rose blinked and realized his arms were empty. She scanned the room. Vlad seemed to materialize out of thin air at the far side of the hall, holding Zoe.
Rose took a shaky breath and turned toward them, keeping her gun aimed at Lei.
Two elders finally moved from behind the dais to take hold of him as he cursed and shouted at her. “She’ll destroy us all. The hybrids will be our downfall! We can’t allow them.”
Another loud bang sounded from the main door, like a large body hitting it. Rose looked toward the noise and only realized in the chaos of the last few seconds that she’d lost track of Yuri when Vlad shouted her name.
She didn’t pause to think or focus. She let her instincts move her, the years of training taking over where her brain would have been too slow.
She stepped back and with her free hand reached across her chest to grab the hand moving toward her throat, then she pivoted and rolled his already rapidly moving body over her shoulder while keeping a grip on his wrist. The move slammed her attacker into the marble floor on his back, his head near her feet. She stepped to the side, pulled his arm up hard and twisted, dislocating his shoulder.
Then she pointed her gun at the center of his body and fired.
The gun clicked twice before she realized she’d spent her last bullet. Only then did she blink and focus on her surroundings, her brain slowly catching up to her actions.
She looked down at Yuri’s prone body, his gut torn open by her tight circle of shots. Blood splattered darkly across the red rug, and when he tried to speak, it bubbled out of his mouth.
She swallowed hard and looked back at the gawking audience. To her relief, Vlad had Zoe’s head tucked against his shoulder, her face safely angled away so she hadn’t had to witness her mother’s attack or the quick, brutal aftermath.
Vlad met her gaze, eyebrows raised.
For long moments, the only sound in the room was the wheezing gurgles of Yuri trying to breathe.
Qiang broke the stunned silence. “She will do well in our community.”
Rose blinked. Elizaveta gave a brief bark of amusement.
Qiang motioned toward the meeting hall’s main door and Rose spun to see Alexis and a silent line of six shifters just standing there staring at her. At Qiang’s gesture, some of the tigers collected Yuri and carried him from the room while all the elders’ assistants swarmed to the dais, hovering around their charges, their murmurs of concern finally filling the hall with noise again.
Alexis came up to Rose. “You okay?”
She nodded, though her limbs were shaking in reaction to the adrenaline rush.
Alexis motioned behind her to the main door. “Sorry. I had to break in. Something jammed it tight.”
“Must have been Lei when he took Zoe. I was trying to let you in.”
Alexis glared at the elder, now surrounded by tiger shifters. “There’s supposed to be an alarm to let the security teams know there’s a problem.” She muttered this mostly to herself.
Rose didn’t have the energy to think about that yet. She glanced at Qiang. “What happens now?”
“Now, we will see to
him
.” He nodded at Lei without looking at him.
Lei was escorted from the room, his assistant following with his head bowed and his hands gripped tightly in front of him. Lei didn’t even glance at her as he was taken away, but he continued to spew hateful vitriol about how hybrids would destroy their people.
Qiang continued, “We thank you for your assistance in this ugly incident.”
Thanks? They were thanking her?
“A vote,” Elizaveta said, her voice quieting the murmuring assistants. “Rose Callaghan’s status in the community. We accept her under the new human hybrid laws. All in favor?”
One by one along the line of elders, each raised a hand in assent. Elder Six hesitated the longest before acquiescing with a slight snarl. When the vote finished, pro-hybrid Elder Three grinned smugly and nodded his approval.
“It is unanimous, then,” Elizaveta said. “Rose Callaghan will be integrated into the community under hybrid laws and protected by such.” She looked at Rose. “Welcome to the community.” Then she rolled her eyes and looked at the other elders, motioning toward the bloody ground. “This was not the best of introductions.”
Most of the elders had the grace to look embarrassed.
Rose shook her head. “What does this mean? Are we safe now?”
Elizaveta smiled just a little. “You are both completely safe now. There will be no more difficulties for you.” She glanced through narrowed eyes at the other elders. No one argued her point.
“We will ensure the community knows this kind of attempt on you and your daughter will be met with vicious reprisal,” Qiang added. “You may relax.”
Rose actually did, then, letting her shoulders slump. She flashed a small smile at Alexis, tucked her now empty gun into the waistband of her jeans, and trotted to Vlad and Zoe, wrapping them up in a hug, her arms trembling. She buried her face against Zoe’s neck and breathed her in, the terror of what might have happened bringing tears to her eyes.
“Thank you again, Ms. Callaghan,” Qiang added, “for meting out the proper punishment to the criminal Yuri. The community will learn of this, too.”
With that final comment, the remaining elders and their assistants filed out through the undamaged door.
Rose hugged Vlad and Zoe even tighter. Then leaned back and looked them over. “Are you hurt? Either of you?” She searched Vlad’s face and body for signs of injury, rubbing a hand over Zoe’s back as she hunted for sore spots. “Are you okay, baby? That man didn’t hurt you, did he?”
Zoe shook her head, shifting positions so she could wrap an arm around Rose’s neck while still keeping one arm around Vlad. She leaned close to Rose’s face and said in a serious and intense tone, “Mommy, you a badass.”
Rose choked on her surprised laugh. “Baby! Where did you even hear that word?”
“Daddy said it after you shot the bad man.”
Rose glanced at Vlad, her brows raised.
He shrugged. “You are.”
Zoe grinned, the seriousness falling from her expression. “Yes. You a badass, Mommy. Mommy badass!”
“Zoe,” she tried to scold, but it came out more teasingly, which only made Zoe giggle and repeat “badass” a few more times.
Rose shook her head, laughing, afraid she might cry at the same time as her tension drained away. “My mother is going to make me do twelve rosaries if she finds out her granddaughter knows the word badass.” She was about to say more when something else Zoe had said gave her pause. Slowly, the single word sank in and Rose realized… “Zoe, you called Vlad Daddy?”
Zoe tilted her head to one side and gave her mother a frown. “Is Daddy.”
“You know that?”
“You said so.”
“I did? When?”
“You said Daddy in woods.”
“I didn’t think you noticed…” She pulled in a breath and let it out slowly. “How do you feel about that, baby?”
Vlad went still at the question, but Rose kept her gaze on Zoe.
“’Bout what?”
“That Vlad is your daddy.”
“Good. He smells like Daddy.”
“He does?” Rose frowned at Vlad. “Do you understand that?”
He stared at Zoe a moment. “Have I always smelled that way to you, Zoe? Or just after you heard Mommy call me that?”
“Always, but didn’t know I knew until woods. Where you been?”
He opened his mouth, closed it, and then sighed. “I had to go away and learn a few lessons before I could come back to you.”
“Like college? Granny says I go to college, like Mommy did, or else I can’t work for them. Was college fun?”
“Very. But I like being with you and Mommy better.”
“Yay! I hungry.”
Rose blinked several times at the change of subject, her already reeling brain having trouble keeping up with Zoe’s train of thought. “Guess we’d better go get you food then,” she said.
“I’ll get you back to your suite without hassle,” Alexis said.
Rose turned to face her. She was standing a few feet away, grinning.
“Vlad’s right, by the way. You are a badass,” she said, nodding toward the spot where Rose had taken Yuri down. “Humans can’t usually defend themselves against shifter speed.”
Zoe giggled when Alexis said “badass.”
“Martial arts training,” Rose muttered. “Years of it. Even went to Japan for a year before college.”
“When things have settled down, I’d like to talk to you about a job. I’ve got these self-defense classes I give to the other female tigers. We could use another teacher.”
“Huh?” It was the best Rose could do.
Alexis laughed. “Don’t worry. We’ll talk when you can focus again. In the meantime, let’s get Zoe fed.”
So much had happened in such a short period of time, Rose had no idea how to process it all. Rather than try, she hugged her family, then went back to their suite for dinner.
Thinking could wait.
Chapter Twenty
As soon as they entered their rooms, Zoe said, “I use the potty.”
“You need any help, baby?”
“No. I big girl. I badass!” She charged into the bedroom, already pulling her pants down.
Rose shook her head. “My mother really is going to send me to confession for letting my three-year-old use ‘badass’ with abandon.”
“You can blame me,” Vlad said.
She turned to say something sarcastic, only to find herself in his arms, his mouth coming down hard on hers, his kiss full of such force and intensity, it swept her away and robbed her of thought.
He hugged her tight, almost too tight, and claimed her mouth with a fierceness that made her body and heart cry out in joy. The reality of what had just happened, of what they’d just done and survived, fed her need to feel and taste him. She ran her hands over his back and waist, down to his butt and back up his spine again, stroking and savoring.
“He didn’t hurt you?” he said against her mouth, then kissed her again.
When he eased back enough for her to answer, she said, “No. You?”
“I had a heart attack when I saw him coming for you and knew I couldn’t get there in time.”
“You saved Zoe. That was the most important thing.”
“No. Equally important. I couldn’t get to both of you at the same time. I couldn’t stop him.”
“I’m okay.” She kissed his cheeks, his chin. “We’re all okay now.” Then she dove back into another kiss, letting all the fear fall away for just a few moments.
Finally, he loosened his hold and reluctantly eased back. He glanced toward the bedroom. “She just flushed,” he murmured. “We’d better stop or she’ll learn other things your mother will send you to confession for.”
Rose chuckled. She patted his chest, then cupped his face with her hands. “Thank you. For protecting her the way I would.”
“She’s my baby, too.”
“Yes, she is.” Rose scowled. “And she knows it. Little stink. I can’t believe I’ve been worrying about how to tell her and she knew all along. Or at least suspected. Is that really possible? Can she really tell by the way you smell?”
“Family scents carry similar…tones. Flavors? It’s a little hard to explain, but yes, it’s entirely possible for her to tell from my scent that I’m related to her.”
“Does that mean she could tell…about Yuri?”
“Hopefully that happened too fast.”
He said this against her ear, so quietly she realized Zoe was on her way back into the living room. When she looked up, Zoe ambled in with one of her coloring books and a packet of crayons.
“When dinner time?”
“Soon, baby. Alexis is having something sent up.”
“Room service! Love room service.”
They spent the rest of the evening coloring, reading books, eating dinner, and generally just hanging out as a family. Rose savored the peace, and for the first time in a long while, she felt safe and relaxed.
Alexis knocked on the door less than five minutes after Zoe finally fell asleep.
Rose let loose a long sigh when Vlad let her in. “Don’t tell me they want to see us again? Zoe just fell asleep. I’m not leaving her here alone. Besides, I thought everything was settled.”
“It is. You and Zoe are part of the community and safe. The elders are done with the formal meetings for a few days anyway while that mess earlier is cleaned up.” She glanced at Vlad. “Your brother survived—barely. He’s lucky he was here with the medical wing on hand.” To Rose, she said, “That was good shooting. We’re exceptionally hard to kill, but you almost managed it.”
“I should have aimed for his head,” Rose grumbled. Then realized she was talking about Vlad’s youngest brother. She grimaced. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Don’t,” he said. “I was thinking the same thing.”
She held his gaze, searching for clues to his feelings. She hadn’t wanted to bring up the shooting in front of Zoe, so they hadn’t had time to talk about it yet. She didn’t think he was mad at her for it, but what he was feeling about the fact that she’d nearly killed his youngest brother had to be…difficult. But she didn’t see any signs of recrimination, just a very small smile for her.
“Head would have worked,” Alexis said matter-of-factly, as if there weren’t more serious undercurrents to the conversation. She gestured to the couch. “We should sit down for this part.”
Rose sat hesitantly, frowning as Vlad sat next to her and Alexis settled in a chair facing the couch.
“Lei killed himself not long after he went into confinement.”
“What?” Vlad said. “How?”
“Arsenic. Huge dose. Would have killed two elephants. Guess he wanted to make sure.”
“But…why?” Rose asked.
“Remember when I said he might not be as fanatical as Vlad’s father and brothers? Well, apparently, I was wrong. He hated hybrids with the same blind passion that Vlad’s father had. The Trackers are going through his records now with the help of his assistant. The assistant is talking and cooperating. He doesn’t want to face a death sentence for being associated with Lei or helping him in Zoe’s kidnapping. He’s telling them everything. Lei has apparently been working on a plan to eliminate Nila, too.”