Shadow Shifters: Shifter's Claim Part 24

"We trust you, Priya," he finished. "We trust you as a professional and a friend. Because you know our secret and you could have told the second you found out. But you didn't, instead you offered to help us. You did help us and took a bullet for your troubles. Come work for us and I promise we'll take very good care of you."

"By that you mean a lucrative salary, health, dental, and vision benefits. Fully vested 401(k) and maybe a company car," she added because she believed they were just jerking her chain anyway, so why not play along?

"All of that and then some," Kalina replied. "You even get a new apartment closer to the new a.s.sembly Headquarters Rome is setting up in Maryland."

"Moving? Me? Wait a minute, this cannot be happening," she said, continuing to shake her head. In a minute she was going to have a crick in her neck from all the back-and-forth motion.

"I bet you thought that when Bas told you what we really were, and yet here we are," Kalina offered in that kind, makes-perfect-sense way of hers.

She'd left the office with the promise to think the offer over thoroughly before giving them an answer. Now, as she stepped out of the cab and walked toward the front steps of her apartment building she was thinking that maybe it would be nice to have a car of her own and an apartment where the security door really worked and the buzzers to allow people to call up to her apartment weren't a bundle of open wires just waiting to singe somebody's fingers off. Then again, there was much to contemplate about working for, not just another employer, but another species entirely.

As she took the steps she remembered the first time she'd seen those eyes in that alley. She'd been intrigued. The next time she'd felt vindicated that her suspicions had been confirmed. And when she'd seen Bas's cat up close and personal an array of emotions had volleyed for attention, the most prominent one still stalking her to this day. With a frown she pulled out her key and walked down the hall toward her apartment. Her mind was still whirling around the Shadow s.h.i.+fters, Rome's job offer, and the full circle she'd come with that man and his family, and ... wait a minute. Priya paused right in front of her door, the door with the s.h.i.+ny new gold k.n.o.b and dead bolt. She stepped back and looked up to the apartment number that had been crooked since the day she'd moved in. This was her apartment but her locks hadn't looked like this when she left. Just to a.s.sure herself that she wasn't totally losing her mind, Priya reached out and tried to insert the key in her hand into the lock on the door. It didn't work, which did not surprise her in the least. What did give her more than a little start was when the door was wrenched open and a man stood on the other side. She backed up in disbelief and stumbled. He reached out an arm, catching her around the waist, pulling her up to his chest.

And her mind went back to over a month ago when she'd worn a red dress and crept through the halls of the Willard InterContinental Hotel. A man had grabbed her to him this way then, stopping her from breaking into a suite. He was a man she'd never forget.

Bas pulled her into her apartment before she could manage to wrap her lips around any coherent words. He closed the door with a resounding thump, then pushed her up against it.

"Every night you've invaded my dreams until finally I realized what will make a person travel thousands of miles without a second thought. It's this, right here, right now, this between you and me."

His last words were a bare whisper over Priya's lips before he took her. His mouth pressing hard against hers, his tongue not obediently requesting entrance, but pus.h.i.+ng its way inside, almost daring her to pull away, which of course hadn't quite occurred to her yet. Instead her tongue readily reunited with his, her head tilted, and she took, d.a.m.n she took what she too had been dreaming of for weeks that seemed more like years.

His fingers raked through the short strands of her hair, sc.r.a.ping her scalp as he held her head in place, his mouth ravis.h.i.+ng hers all the while. Her back pressed against the door as his front-the delectable hardness of his sculpted abs, toned pectorals, and oh yes, the enticing bulge of his erection-pushed deliciously into hers. She was on fire immediately, her center pulsating with need, her hips jutting forward instinctively.

At that little action Bas purred. She felt the sound as it emanated deep in his chest then ripped free and in response she moaned her own pleasure. With reckless abandon that she figured would lead to a lot of forehead slapping and scolding of herself later, Priya wrapped her arms around his shoulders, grasping the material of the long-sleeved s.h.i.+rt he wore between hurried fingers. She pulled at the s.h.i.+rt until it gave, ripping free of its hold within his pants. Yanking upward she attempted to rid him of it, but for that they needed to tear their mouths apart. Bas made the move, pulling back enough so that she could get that s.h.i.+rt over his head and her busy little fingers on his bare skin. She rubbed along the back of his shoulders where she knew his tattoo began. He buried his head in the crook of her neck, licking and biting her skin there. His hands moved downward until he was lifting one of her legs, pulling it up past his thighs to wrap around his waist.

She'd worn pants to her meeting with Rome, a dove-gray linen pantsuit to be exact, and was now cursing herself for not having the convenience of a skirt to hurry this pa.s.sionate process along. Still, even the barrier of clothes did not stem the heat building fiercely between them. It did not stall the pressure of his arousal pressing forcefully against hers. In that moment her thighs shook as moisture coated the thick walls of her center. Priya s.h.i.+vered and heard the tearing of her blouse as Bas ripped the b.u.t.tons free. He kissed along her collarbone and she helped him by pulling her arms free of the jacket and blouse. His teeth sc.r.a.ped over the rise of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s seconds before he cupped both mounds, squeezing tightly with his hands. Her head fell back, rapping against the door as she gasped for air. Bas used his teeth once again to tear the bra from her chest, stroking his tongue over the now freed nipples. His hands went to her waist where he popped the b.u.t.ton of her pants free then proceeded to push the pants and her underwear down her legs. Priya hurriedly stepped out of her shoes, then her pants and underwear. And then she was naked and Bas was not.

With an impatient moan she reached for his belt buckle and repeated the popping, pus.h.i.+ng motions he'd just performed on her. The second they were both naked her legs were wrapped around his waist again. He entered her with one swift thrust, sending her head back against the door once more, her nails driving into the skin of his shoulders, his name tearing from her lips.

"Don't leave me again," he whispered into her ear as he continued to thrust inside of her.

Priya rode the continuous waves of desire as Bas filled her, completing some part of her she hated to relinquish. His strong hands gripped her b.u.t.tocks, spreading her cheeks as wide as her legs, touching her in that forbidden place he loved to explore. Until Bas, Priya had never been touched there, never thought to allow such penetration, but now, she craved it, biting down on her lower lip as his finger pressed slowly inside. Deeper and deeper he went, all the while his length was stroking her coated walls appreciatively, sensually. Something about the contrasting sensations rippling through her at the simultaneous penetration pushed her right over the edge and she screamed with her release.

Bas walked slowly then, carrying her away from the door. His erection was still hard and deep inside of her, his hands now holding her securely around her waist. He stopped at her couch, pulling out of her gently, letting her feet slowly touch the floor. His hands went to her cheeks once more as he cupped her face and held her stare.

"I came back for you," he told her. "I needed to."

Priya nodded slightly, licking her lips before replying, "I hoped you would."

He kissed her again, an open-mouthed duel between their tongues, a merging of moans and purrs until their sounds filled the room. In the next instant he tore his mouth away from hers, turning her so that her back was now to his front. He held her right there, one arm around her waist, the other hand snaking between her legs. On his silent command Priya lifted her leg, settling her foot on the couch and granted him complete access.

Her head dropped back to his shoulders as Bas worked the tightened nub of her center. She jerked her hips back and forth, loving the rough stroking followed by soft pressure. Her arousal was so clear it could be heard with every motion of his fingers inside her, the smacking sound making her hungry for more. His fingers slid back and forth, granting attention to her c.l.i.t to the point where she shook with pleasure, then reaching back to dip inside her center, making her buck with desire. When he touched her back entrance again, this time Priya screamed out his name, louder and longer than she ever imagined she could.

"Please," she whispered. "Now."

It wasn't a request but a demand. As strange as it may sound to need something she'd never had so desperately, she needed him there like she needed her next breath.

Bas had never been one to deny a woman any s.e.xual request. With a hand to the small of her back he pushed Priya gently so that she was now bent over the couch, one leg still propped up. He had an unfettered view of her now, from the slope of her rounded a.s.s to the glistening arousal that coated her center and dripped down to her inner thighs and back to her now slick a.n.u.s.

Inside his cat roared and Bas not only let it, his lips peeled back baring sharp teeth as he growled in dominance as well. A deep inhale filled him with their companheiro calor. It fed him, fueled the hunger deep inside, and guided his d.i.c.k to the puckered rim where he pressed ever so slowly at first.

She gasped and thrust her hips backward. "Please. Now!"

"Shh, baby. I got you," he told her, reaching forward to slip a finger between her drenched folds.

Bas worked her slowly with his finger while gingerly pressing his length into her. She bucked again, sucked in a breath, then relaxed as he inserted another inch. It was like a hungry little mouth grabbing hold of him, sucking him so tightly inside he felt tingles up and down his spine.

"Sebastian!" she screamed when he'd inserted the last of his length so that he was now totally inside of her.

Bas moved slowly, eyes closed, head rolling back on his shoulders. He pulled out then pressed in, gritted his teeth, then decided to h.e.l.l with it all and growled in response. The sound seemed to spur her on and Priya began to rock against him faster and faster. Every muscle in his body tensed as his release built like a churning volcano until he couldn't withstand it a moment longer and he exploded inside of her.

For her part, Priya s.h.i.+vered and shook as her release ripped free, her center sucking deep on his finger, her essence pouring out of her like a waterfall.

It was moments that seemed more like eons later that they both collapsed onto the couch, naked, sated, completely depleted.

"You broke into my apartment and changed my locks," she stated as she lay on her back, her eyes closed, breath still coming in heavy pants.

Bas lay at the opposite side of the couch, in a similar position to hers, only he'd cracked his eyes open to see her. Naked and still open he felt his body hardening again with need for her. Swallowing back that need he thought about his reply.

"I came to see you and your door was ajar. I knew someone had been here besides you. I was about to call every shadow in the vicinity to go out and search for you, but my first call gave your location."

She sat up then. "Gave my location? What did you do, attach a GPS to me when I was in Sedona?"

Recognizing the s.h.i.+ft in this conversation by the flash of her eyes, Bas sat up. "I called X. On my command he's had a guard watching you since your return."

Priya shook her head as if trying to digest everything he'd just said. Bas figured he might as well put it all out there at one time and let the chips fall where they may. He reached out to her, taking her hands in his and thanking the heavens that she hadn't pulled away. Taking that as a good sign he slid a little closer to her.

"Look, I was an a.s.s. I'm man enough to admit that. I messed up with you and that's not normal for me. I don't mess up with females. At least I only did one other time." Bas took a deep breath and recited the events in the Gungi all those years ago, saying it aloud for the first time in his life.

"It was right after my parents' divorce when I was already feeling like they'd both let me down in not fighting for their love, for the joining they'd had. I had been dating this girl named Mariah, but broke up with her right after my parents announced their separation. Not wanting to be around anyone I knew, anyone I thought I'd known for that matter, I went to the Gungi for a few days. I had no idea Mariah had followed me down there until I saw her one night in the forest."

He dragged both hands down his face, not believing he was telling this story and yet knowing it was absolutely necessary at the same time.

"Palermo Greer and a couple of his flunkies were a.s.saulting her," Bas reported through clenched teeth. "I wanted to go to her, to help her but I thought about the exposure first. I thought about those stupid rules and I hesitated. Then they s.h.i.+fted and killed her and I was still standing there, frozen in shock. She died right in front of me and I couldn't, I didn't stop it. I felt like I'd let her down at that point, like I was no better than my parents. As stupid and self-destructive as I can now say that was, I refused to let anybody in, refused to ever have someone close enough to me that I could let them down again. And it worked for years, until you came along."

Priya didn't speak, just watched him. It was an intense stare that a lesser man may have fallen beneath. But Bas had come here with a purpose, he'd set his course, made his plan, and there was nothing that he was going to let stop him from at least putting that plan forth to her. What she did with his words, his feelings afterward was completely up to her.

"You were double trouble because I felt something for you the moment I saw you at the hotel. That connection only solidified when you were outside of Rome's office. I wanted you too badly to really think about the consequences of being with you. And then it was just too late, consequences were out the window and you were in my arms. And then he shot you and I was in the Gungi all over again."

He sighed, wis.h.i.+ng she would say something, do something, but maybe understanding why she didn't. She needed this from him. h.e.l.l, he needed it for himself, so he took a deep breath and finally said what he thought he'd never say to a female, let alone a human, in his life.

"Life with me will not be easy. In fact, everything you've ever known will change. And that's big, Priya. You're a human and I'm a Shadow s.h.i.+fter. We're not the same and yet I cannot deny the feeling that we are one. Can you?"

She couldn't.

Oh, how she wanted to. The moment he said the woman's name she'd wanted to smack him, to yell at him that he should have never been comparing her to another woman. A dead woman at that! But she couldn't because she knew why the comparison was made, why the guilt had eaten at him and kept him quiet all these years. She knew and she ached for him because of it. She ached for him because for so long she'd allowed herself to be trapped by caring for her family that she hadn't taken the time to do things solely for herself, to make her own life better, just for her.

So no, Priya could not deny that she and Bas were one. It was absolutely asinine for her to even try. And if she were extremely honest with herself, as she accepted that Bas was being with her now, she would acknowledge that she'd felt the connection from the very beginning. She didn't think she had to be a Shadow s.h.i.+fter to admit that.

"You make things too hard, Sebastian Perry. Sometimes you just have to go with what you know," was her reply. "I wish you would have told me all this sooner but I get that you were doing that brooding male sort of thing. I guess that's universal and doesn't discriminate between species." She'd tried to keep things light, as the emotion in her almost clogged her throat and Bas looked as if he might actually stop breathing if this conversation wasn't over soon.

He smiled then, the genuine smile she'd wanted to see since first meeting him. It was the same one that had reached inside her chest and tugged on something there.

"If I could stand on that balcony and watch you s.h.i.+ft from a cat to a man, you should have known you could trust me with all your baggage and your fears. Because we all have them, Bas. h.e.l.l, I've been looking for validation all my life and I had to go thousands of miles across the country to figure out I only needed to please and impress myself."

"You know what I also knew the moment I grabbed you in that hotel hallway?" he asked.

Priya shook her head. "No. What's that?"

He released one of her hands and lifted a finger to trace along the line of her jaw. "I knew that you were the other half of me. It was like looking in the mirror at a reflection that was just like me on so many levels, and yet as different as night and day."

Priya was the one to smile this time, her heart nearly about to burst at his words. "I love you, too," was her quick reply.

Later that night as Priya lay in Bas's arms, in the comfort of the Willard InterContinental where it all began for them, she thought of his earlier words about her life never being the same and everything she ever knew changing. It had already begun to happen.

When she'd questioned Bas about being at her apartment, it was then that he informed her of the break-in. After a meticulous search she realized the only things missing were the key chains she'd saved as keepsakes from her trip to Perryville. Bas had a.s.sured her that she could have all the key chains she wanted from now on, but both of them knew what that meant. Priya wasn't the only one that suspected something was going on, something unexplainable.

He'd offered to either move her out of the apartment or to let her stay there with an armed guard at her side twenty-four/seven. She'd opted to move.

Two days later he'd taken her to dinner with Rome and Kalina at their home in Virginia called Havenway. There they'd discussed in detail what Priya's job with the Stateside a.s.sembly would be and how she could work from Sedona, traveling to Maryland or wherever else they needed her when necessary. The females, Kalina and Ary, also talked about a joining ceremony since she and Bas were officially mated. Priya wasn't 100 percent positive but she a.s.sumed in their tribe this was the equivalent of marriage, a place she didn't feel like she was ready to venture just yet. She'd spent years believing-thanks to her mother's past performance and her father's cowardly escape-that relations.h.i.+ps didn't work, so moving in with Bas was a big enough step. Surprisingly, Caprise took her side, telling the other females to leave her be and let her and Bas find their own way.

This was a new world for the Shadow s.h.i.+fters, Rome had said that often at dinner. It was also a new world for Priya, one she decided she was willing to venture into, despite what Bas thought might be a big price for her to pay. She believed in him and in the Shadow s.h.i.+fters, what she wasn't so sure of was how the world would react when they found out about them, because eventually-and Priya sensed they all knew this-their secret would be revealed.

Chapter 31.

Havenway.

Northern Virginia.

On an otherwise serene night, Nick and Ary lay in bed asleep, only to be awakened by the high-pitched wails of their only child.

Ary was out of bed first, moving quickly to the cradle that stayed at the foot of their bed. It had been their original plan to find their own house and move out of Havenway, but after Shya's birth and because of Ary's job as curandero to the Stateside s.h.i.+fters, they'd remained at the compound with Rome, Kalina, and at least fifty other Shadow s.h.i.+fters.

Shya was now four months old and for the last six weeks had been having crying spells and running light fevers. If Ary was worried then Nick was beside himself with anxiety over what might be plaguing their child. As she lifted the clearly agitated baby into her arms, cooing and whispering comforting words, Ary thought of Dr. Papplin's advice.

"She may simply have what the humans call colic," he'd explained. "It is normal and usually lasts until they are a year old."

Ary had been taking cla.s.ses in human medicine so that she could better a.s.sist the tribe in this environment, so she'd had no problem looking up the ailment and coming to the conclusion that Dr. Papplin may in fact be correct. But the fever was a different symptom and as she rested her forehead on Shya's, Ary thought glumly, it was rising.

Nick sat on the side of the bed with his usual worried glower.

"Here, Daddy, see if you can quiet her down. She likes when you rock her," she told him, placing Shya gently into his arms.

In a thousand years she would have never thought Nick Delgado would be rocking a baby, kissing the child on her forehead, and staring down at her with nothing but genuine love in his eyes. They'd come a long way, she thought as she moved to the table where she kept all Shya's supplies to retrieve the thermometer. These last couple of months she'd been trying valiantly to keep a positive outlook, to keep Nick calm. It was taking its toll as Ary too had begun to worry more. When the apparatus beeped, signaling it had completed taking the temperature, Ary looked at the screen and frowned.

"I'm going to call Dr. Papplin," she told Nick.

Dropping the thermometer onto the bed she crawled over it and reached for the phone on the nightstand.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked.

"Her temperature's too high," Ary told him, panic clear in her voice. "Dr. Papplin? Are you still at the compound? Okay, good. Can you come now? Yes, it's Shya."

"He's coming," she said to Nick as she moved across the bed once more to sit beside him.

"It's not colic, is it?" Nick asked.

Ary shook her head. "I don't think so."

He frowned, continuing to rock and attempting to soothe Shya who was now red faced, her tiny fists balled up as she screamed with every ounce of oxygen in her little body.

"This is bull! We're taking her to the hospital," Nick announced, standing from the bed.

"She's not human, Nick," Ary replied. She was wringing her hands, trying desperately to keep it together, but the sound of her child in such obvious distress was killing her. "They'll find out."

Nick only shook his head. "I went to the doctor when I was young. Caprise and I had regular checkups just like other kids. Our blood is red and bleeds into a vial just like humans. We go to dentists just like the rest of them," he argued.

"But we don't get colds. We don't contract s.e.xually transmitted diseases. We don't take as long to heal. Despite trying to fit in, we are different, Nick." Of all the s.h.i.+fters in the world, Nick was the one Ary knew she could say this to.

"I know that," he countered. He'd been the one to always point out their differences, to question the blending in of the s.h.i.+fters and the humans, to them hiding what they truly were. But now he wasn't thinking clearly, Ary was convinced. He was thinking like a concerned parent and so was she.

A knock at the door tore her attention away and she hastily went to answer it, believing it was Dr. Papplin. It was Rome and Kalina instead.

"Is everything all right?" Kalina asked, concern marring her features in what Ary figured might be a mirror of her own.

"She won't stop crying and her fever is 103," she recited, her voice cracking slightly toward the end.

Kalina immediately stepped inside, putting an arm around Ary's shoulders. "Have you called Papplin?" she asked.

Ary nodded. "He's on his way."

Rome moved into the room and closed the door. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know what.

"I think we should get her to a hospital," Nick said again to Ary's chagrin.

"And you don't want to?" Rome asked Ary.

That sounded like an awful accusation to Ary and she wanted to scream with frustration. "I want to do what's safe for her, that's all."