Shogun doubled over, clutching his stomach, the moment he exited the plane.
“Sir, are you all right?” a member of the flight crew asked as he slowly straightened.
“Just fatigue from the long flight,” Shogun’s lieutenant muttered, helping him forward. Seung Kwon gave both Chin-Hwa and Dak-Ho a warning look to watch their backs as he ushered Shogun forward.
The two muscular enforcers bringing up the rear exchanged sidelong glances as they cleared the Jetway. None of the tense, silent exchanges were lost on Shogun. Pure humiliation burned his face. He should have passed on Sir Rodney’s kind invitation. Were it not for the insistence of his half brother, Hunter, he surely would have. It had been bad enough that his need for Sasha was a private matter known and acknowledged only by him, but now, once again on North American soil, the desire to be with her had become excruciating.
Shogun wiped the sheen of sweat beading his brow, sipping in shallow inhalations. Her scent littered the air. She was already in New Orleans. To covet another man’s wife was dishonorable; to covet one’s brother’s wife was tragic.
Seung Kwon’s steady hand landed on his shoulder. “Cousin, are you still not well?” He stared into Shogun’s eyes, his voice low and private and laden with concern. “The long flight, the lack of raw food so close to the moon shift… or maybe some human contagion is simply passing through your system as you purge it. They are germ conveyors-sickly beasts-and we’ve been in recycled air so long… unnatural for wolves.”
Watching his cousin try to understand what he could never impart twisted Shogun’s conscience. The only response he could give right now was a curt nod. He had to remember that above all else, he was a head of state. Deep within his core he sought that element of strength that made him the alpha clan leader of the Southeast Asian Werewolf Federation. The fact that Seung was also searching for something plausible, something that would allow him to save face, only seemed to make the humiliation more profound. How could one explain that losing Sasha was like losing a limb… or that the other women he’d burned his way through once home in Korea were merely prosthetic devices-temporary, clumsy by comparison, without warmth and fluidity and offering only dulled sensation, even though they were necessary, aesthetically appealing alternatives. But they would never be Sasha.
Damn what his aunt and her elderly advisors had to say about the appearance of grieving for the Shadow female. His mother’s sister sounded like his dead sister Lei. Lady Jung Suk’s name fit her well: chaste rock.
What would a Were Snow Leopard know of wolf causes or passions? Just because his mother, father, and sister were now deceased didn’t give his aunt any familial rights of inheritance or a place in his den of government. So who was Lady Jung Suk to attempt to now interject herself into the running of a Werewolf Federation?
The Snows never mated with the ferocity of the wolf or stayed in a familial pack, never bonded for generation upon generation… They were loners who lived in the barren, icy mountains of Tibet and only came together to procreate once a season. And now his aunt would attempt to counsel him about appearances?
Shogun almost spat but refrained. She needed to be more concerned about how her dead sister and dead niece had committed treason, rather than trying to pretend that him marrying a nice Korean female Were and bearing an heir would wipe away the sins of the past… or allow her into his advisors’ council.
How could anyone understand how the phantom pangs of holding Sasha near, his fingers playing against her supple skin, tasting her mouth, now haunted him? Even though their intimate union had never been fully consummated and had occurred long before he’d known that Hunter was his half brother, the memory of his sensual shadow dance with her refused to leave him.
It was so much worse now that he was back in New Orleans. He could almost feel her in the air and he tightened his grip on his carry-on duffel bag to keep from howling. Clan leaders could not go to war over a woman… Brothers could not go to war over a woman. Any hint of impropriety for such dubious reasons would make both men lose face. Hunter had saved his life; he had saved Hunter’s life. Shogun repeated each fact to himself, making each one a silent mantra. A fragile peace between the once rival Werewolf and Shadow Wolf Federations had been forged, had followed the prophecy of a reign of peace ushered in by an amazing female of their kind… yet she also held the keys to more than mere peace; she owned both the keys and a lock on two men’s hearts.
Tears of regret filled his eyes and quickly burned away as his cousin lowered his gaze, seeming confused and ashamed for him, but clearly not sure why. Shogun let out a slow and quiet breath to steady himself. The humor of fate was cruel. What the hell was wrong with him? This sentimental weakness was not the way of the wolf!
A few moments of reflection disappeared behind Shogun’s normally controlled façade. He squared his shoulders and glanced around at his men. He refused to allow them to witness any distress that he owned. His wolf struggled for freedom but was trapped inside his skin waiting on the full moon, waiting on her. That was a private pain that he’d take to his grave, if necessary.
“I’ll be fine,” Shogun finally said as he briefly closed his eyes, again recalling Sasha’s heated touch during their shadow dance in the teahouse, reliving it in his mind as he’d done a thousand times. “It will pass.”
The figure moved out of the shadows and stood by the tree line near the Bayou House. Within moments, Buchanan clan sentries had picked up the scent, and Butch strolled over with a smile.
“It is in place. Make sure you do your part when the time comes.”
Butch smiled, his gold-covered teeth gleaming. “Don’t worry, we will. The heads of the Wolf Federation will fall.”
“Excellent.”
Before the wolves could howl their agreement, the shadowed figure was gone.
This was absolutely insane. Returning to Ethan’s bar had resulted in nothing after an hour of talking to distraught employees. Hunter looked like he was ready to climb out of his own skin. But Sasha had to talk to Claudia, the waitress that was usually on Desidera’s shift.
“Are you sure that she didn’t have any beef with anybody around town?” Sasha said, willing her voice to remain calm.
Claudia shook her head. “Only a little fracas with Mike, but that was stupid.”
“Mike the bartender?” Sasha said, now looking at Hunter.
“Yeah,” the young woman said, her nervous gaze going between Hunter and Sasha. “He’s due in at four.”
“Uh-huh,” Hunter muttered and then fell silent when Sasha shot him a look.
“So what was this little argument about?”
The young woman glanced around and then smoothed her auburn hair away from her round face. “Okay, this was not the kind of thing I want to see a guy thrown in the dungeon about, all right?”
“That’s not what we’re here for,” Sasha said calmly. She ignored Hunter’s raised eyebrow.
“Okay,” Claudia said quickly, glancing around again. “He liked Desi, but she was way out of his league. So after he tried for who knows how long to get her to go out with him, she finally brushed him off, hard.”
“When was that?” Sasha stared into the frightened woman’s eyes. “Believe me, we are not going to be locking him up.”
“It was the day before everything happened.” Claudia let out a hard breath. “He got mad at her and said that she was the kind who would only lay down with rich kings that paid for it. But whatever she told him, he never said a mean word to her again.”
Sasha didn’t blink. “I already know about the Blood Oasis, so spill it.”
“Okay, okay, she told Mike to fuck off because she was an employee over there and when he didn’t believe her, she flashed her card. The guy went white, apologized, and left her alone, okay? Mike is a really decent guy. He’s not a… you know.” Claudia looked around quickly again and lowered her voice. “He’s not a murderer.”
Hunter wiped his palms down his face and pushed off the ladies’ changing-room wall. “Yeah, we gathered. C’mon Sasha, everything here’s a dead end.”
Hunter was right. Ethan’s place was making her skin crawl, and her nerves were so shot she could scream. Whoever killed Desidera had obviously found and removed what the poor girl had tried to stash for Sir Rodney, leaving them at yet another stupid dead end. Ethan had been virtually no help, either, not having a clue as to what it could have been-for all his Fae knowledge.
Sasha’s cell phone buzzed and it gave her such a start that her hand flew to her chest as Hunter whirled at the sound.
“Yeah!” she said without formality. “What?”
“Uhmmm… we’re outside?” Clarissa said, measuring her response.
“Be right out,” Sasha muttered and clicked off the phone. What the hell was wrong with her?
“But what if we’ve missed something in here,” Hunter suddenly said, beginning to walk down the hall, his gaze sweeping.
When he spotted the back staircase, he headed up, taking three steps at a time. Sasha was on his heels, but there was nothing to be found except storage space, a spare office, excess furniture, and old files. Above that was the attic, and Hunter stood in the middle of the floor staring up at the ceiling, sweat pouring off him.
Right now it felt like the walls of Ethan’s Fair Lady were closing in on her and she could tell Hunter also felt it-but male pride refused to let it best him. Heat in the building had risen to the upper floors that lacked the benefit of air-conditioning. To make matters worse, now she had to deal with the fact that her human crew, along with Hunter’s men, had tracked them down and were waiting outside, and still Hunter refused to relent.
“This is not going anywhere,” Sasha finally said, throwing up her hands. “Give it up, dude. whatever was here is gone. We’ve asked everybody we can ask. Look around-there are no hair fibers, not even any Were scent or blood scent up here… can we go?”
Hunter looked at her and growled. She pushed past him and headed for the stairs. The close confines and the heat were wearing her down, grinding her nerves to a fine dust.
By the time they’d reached the sidewalk, Hunter was almost panting and she could barely catch her breath. The interior air was damp but not as oppressive as the June humidity and midday heat on the streets of New Orleans. Looking at her bored, uncomfortable squad, she felt bad that she’d had to leave the rest of their team outside-but Ethan had insisted. It was also what Sir Rodney had requested, to keep as much of this as possible on a need-to-know basis only. Both Ethan and Sir Rodney wanted only her and Hunter to witness what had happened and she’d given her word.
Good thing they hadn’t needed to stay inside The Fair Lady for too much longer, because she and Hunter might have come to blows. But as the thought crossed her mind, Sasha became still… Why was she thinking of doing battle with Hunter? They’d been getting on each other’s nerves ever since they found the Phoenix, but prior to that they’d been making love and going at it like a couple of college kids. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, noting how distressed his entire vibration seemed to be. What the hell…
Sweat had created a deep V on Hunter’s army green t-shirt, starting at his heavy silver and amber amulet, and her tank top and jeans clung to her like she’d been poured into them. The thick silver chain around her neck with the etched amber piece dangling from it now felt like it weighed a ton. They’d only been inside about an hour and their guys that had been waiting double-parked in open jeeps looked like they’d been drenched in a sudden downpour.
Clarissa’s plump face was red and damp, and her blond hair was practically plastered to her scalp. Woods, who was behind the wheel of the second vehicle, had a steady stream of sweat rolling down his temples, matting down his normally immaculate brunet hair, while poor Bradley, the eldest on the team and in his forties, had his head back with his eyes closed, apparently deciding to tough out the heat by going semiconscious. Right behind them in another haphazardly parked jeep, Fisher bopped to the radio like a lanky golden retriever that enjoyed the wetness-simply having the time of his life because it involved another adventure. Seeing him in the backseat joking with the baby of the group, Mark Winters, brought a smile to her face despite the circumstances or uncomfortable heat.
However, Hunter’s main enforcer Bear Shadow, a three-hundred-pound Native-American double for an NFL linebacker, as well as Sasha’s half brother Crow Shadow, a shorter, more sinewy, defensive tight-end version of “the Bear,” seemed anything but relaxed and jovial. Sasha held her brother’s gaze for a moment. Looking into Crow Shadow’s face was like looking into a darker version of her own. His expression was tense but unreadable and only offered her a reflection of his exotic biracial elements of Native-American and African-American ancestry.
Still, there was a level of quiet anxiety in both Hunter’s men’s eyes that concerned her. Those two were normally laid back; they didn’t do high anxiety unless something serious had raised their DEFCON levels. What had the two male Shadow Wolves locked in on that she hadn’t seen or that her human squad hadn’t detected?
Clarissa should have picked up something psychically wrong now, just like her Shadow Wolf familiars, Woods and Fisher, should have instinctively detected if something wasn’t right. Their entire system was designed to preempt a threat. Plus, Bradley, their dark arts specialist, was always on guard, just like Winters’s techno-gadgets should have sounded if there was something dangerous closing in on them. But everybody in the Paranormal Containment Unit squad seemed okay and only heat fatigued, except the Shadows…
She glanced at Hunter and then watched him take two more steps toward their vehicle, weave, and then catch his balance by grabbing on to a lamppost. Then he slowly turned around, his gaze pure wolf.
“You okay?” she asked, ruffling her hair up off her neck, seeking a breeze from any direction in the still air.
Hunter shook his head slowly. “No. Not at all.”
For a moment she held his gaze and then looked around, stepping in closer. “What’s wrong? What did you see in there that I didn’t?”
Hunter’s hands covered her bare arms, sending searing heat into her flesh. Confusion tore at her mind; was what he had to say so awful that he had to steady her with a touch?
When he angled his face and moved in, the strange action startled her and she pulled back, eyes wide. A kiss? Out in public? In front of their squad? Hunter?
Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong. They didn’t do public displays of affection-ever.
“You okay?” she whispered, staring at him and then nervously glancing at her squad from the corner of her eye.
“I told you before. No,” he said between his teeth, his canines beginning to crest.
“Then what’s the matter?” She’d asked the question without blinking, almost without breathing.
“You.” His grip tightened on her arms. “I can’t explain it… but do I need to right now?”
“Yeah… Hello… We are out on the sidewalk and people are staring at us and a you’re acting weird-”
The kiss was so sudden and feral that it knocked the wind out of her. One moment there was at least a half a foot between them, and the next she was wrapped in a viselike grip, her body crushed against Hunter’s stone-cut chest. Her amulet was pressing into her breasts from the force of its collision with the heavy amber and silver piece he wore. Winters’s joking comments about them getting a room sounded so far away as Hunter’s fingers threaded through her hair and within seconds splayed across her back. She swallowed Hunter’s moan while trying to wrest herself from his grasp, but her legs were becoming rubbery as he devoured her mouth. The second he broke the kiss to gasp in a breath, she pushed his chest with both hands.
“Yo! Time out!” Sasha tried to step back as she wiped her palms down her face. “What just happened in there?”
Woods started up the motor of his jeep. “We’ll catch you guys later tonight,” he called out and put the vehicle in reverse.
Bear Shadow nodded and started his engine.
Fisher jumped out of the backseat of the third jeep and headed toward the jeep Hunter had been driving. “I’ve got you covered, man. Leave it here and you’ll get towed for sure. Throw me your keys.”
Hunter never answered, just dug in his pocket and threw his keys in the direction of Fisher’s voice.
“No, no, no!” Sasha yelled, pure humiliation burning her cheeks. “This isn’t what it looks like!”
Hunter stared at her. “Yes, it is.”
It all happened so quickly that it seemed like a blur. One moment Hunter was staring at her, his eyes transformed to betray his inner wolf, the next second he’d spied the shadow cast by the lamppost, pulling them both into it to tumble into the shadow lands.
He’d landed them in the twilight place, the shadow lands where spirits walked and Shadow Wolves traveled, but that fact seemed completely lost on Hunter. Wide, hot palms covered her backside, pulling her in close as he aggressively sought her mouth with a moan. No matter how fantastic what he was doing felt, his entire demeanor was incongruent with what was going on. Two women had died, they had just been standing over the first victim’s body… and that turned him on? Not a good sign.
“Stop!” Sasha said with a snarl and yanked away from Hunter’s grasp. She lowered her head in wolf attack mode, feeling her ears begin to flatten against her skull. “It’s dangerous in the shadow lands to be caught unaware. You of all people know that. How many battles have we fought in here? How many predators have we run from, coming through the zones? Once you start making love, you won’t hear a thing. Never that in here.”
She watched him back up and begin to rub the nape of his neck as though blood flow was returning to the thinking part of his body. Pointing toward the mist in a hard snap, she leveled her gaze at Hunter. “Two women just died, we just examined the bodies… now I want you to tell me real slowly and clearly why that just sent you into a mating frenzy.”
“I haven’t a fucking clue,” Hunter said quietly in a far-off voice. His tone was bewildered, as though he’d come out of a bad dream. There was no anger or judgment in his response, only what seemed like pure disbelief. He looked down at his hands, studying them intently as they trembled, and then finally looked up at Sasha. “If one of my own men had gotten out of the jeep, I would have battled him for being too close to my mate while in season… but you’re not.”
“No… I’m not,” Sasha said more softly, glad that the old Hunter she knew was beginning to return.
“I don’t understand… I thought my system had beaten the contagion.”
They stared at each other for what felt like a long time.
“This can’t be the contagion,” she finally said, now wrapping her arms around herself. “You beat it; Doc said you beat it-Silver Hawk saw you beat it in a vision.”
“Then what was this!” Hunter began to walk in a circle, dragging his fingers through his disheveled hair, tearing the leather thong away from his ponytail to fling it on the mist-covered cavern floor. “It’s come back before, lain dormant in my system for years, then erupted… I’m going back to our pack’s north territory in the Uncompahgre. I need to be as far away from New Orleans as possible. Right now I can’t risk an outbreak that could jeopardize you, my pack brothers, your human team, or even my blood brother Shogun again. He is on his way here; Sir Rodney is counting on us, and I’m unstable?”
He turned to leave and she caught his arm.
“We beat it before down here at Tulane Hospital… me, you, Doc, and Silver Hawk. The PCU’s top biochemical expert, ’Rissa, is here-and she and Doc make a solid team. The core clan leadership is here in New Orleans. No one is back home, Max.”
She hated that her voice had become so panicked, but if Hunter left, anything could go wrong, and that simply wasn’t an option.
“Ethan’s wife Margaret even helped sway the critical human physicians that we needed on our side at Tulane.” Sasha bodily blocked Hunter as he shrugged out of her hold. “Max Hunter, listen to me for two seconds-you owe me that much. Think about it. If you’ve got the virus spiking in your system, all of your best enforcers are here-which means innocent women and children from the pack will be at your mercy up north. Do you honestly want that on your conscience? You could spread it up there, where no contagion currently exists, if that’s what it even is. Plus, you’ve also got me and your brother down here, along with Bear and Crow. Alone up there, who can hunt you but us, if you have to be put down?”
It was insane logic, but her argument was what he’d needed to hear. She could feel it as his body relaxed and his eyes held uncertainty. Every fiber of her being knew the last thing that Hunter would be willing to risk would be an outbreak among the innocent, practically defenseless, members of the remaining Shadow Wolf pack.
“And what happens a few nights from now, when the moon waxes full… and it’s your birthday, and we’re out at Sir Rodney’s ball? What happens if we are called upon for battle, and I may be an enemy within that you hadn’t anticipated?” Hunter chuckled sadly and stalked away from her. “When are you going to just give up on me, Sasha, and finally put that silver bullet in my temple?”
“No time soon,” she said, folding her arms over her chest and willing the quaver out of her voice. “Answer me this… When did you start feeling like you were losing it?”
Hunter let out a long, frustrated breath, keeping his back toward Sasha, and then jammed his hands into his fatigue pants’ pockets. “I don’t know. It just hit me all of a sudden.”
“Think, man! Tell me when you felt the shift!”
“When we went back to Ethan’s, all right!” He spun on her, eyes beginning to glow amber around the edges of his irises.
“Good. Now we’re getting somewhere.” She walked closer to Hunter, holding his gaze. When Hunter shut his eyes and swallowed hard, she stopped speaking.
“I never heard a word the staff was saying this second time we went in there-all I saw was you.”
She hugged herself and turned away. This was definitely worse than she’d thought.
“Couldn’t take my eyes off of you,” he admitted in a deep rasp. “I could only focus on the way each pore leaked the smallest bead of perspiration… until your shirt clung… every shallow breath you took, trying not to breathe, but your breasts rose and fell. I had to walk away… had to go deeper into the room you interviewed them in to find a cool, dark place to stand, away from you. Every now and then the conversations you were having would fade… I’d simply hear the tone of your voice, Ethan’s voice-the way a wolf would… without understanding the words, simply relying on the tone, then speech would return to me. At points I felt like I was blacking out. Then the pain came.”
“Pain?” Sasha murmured, going to him.
Hunter nodded. “I’ve wanted you before, but never like I felt in there-no offense, just truth. I told you before I was no liar. But standing apart from you felt like an ache that twisted my gut into knots as a blade stabbed… Suffice to say, it hurt.”
“It wasn’t like that when you had the demon-infected Werewolf virus… was it?”
“No,” Hunter said in a quiet rumble. “There was rage, there was hunt hunger, there was the painful transition and the increased desire, but wanting you was never a physical ache that hurt worse than a gunshot wound.”
“A Phoenix flamed in that cellar in a totally weird way. Ethan can’t hold his Fae glamour, albeit he was terribly upset… but still. Then you-and you weren’t all right until we got outside of the normal dimension. Even outside on the street-”
“I was losing my mind.” He looked at her without an apology in his eyes. “Truth.”
“Yeah… you were,” she said with a slight half smile.
“It’s still there, you know,” he said without a trace of humor in his expression. “Just not as acute, and requiring a great deal of concentration to keep it at bay.”
“Oh… I’m sorry, I just thought… Never mind.”
Hunter nodded. “But that does make me feel better, just knowing that in the shadow lands I have some measure of restraint. The more I think about it, before, when the contagion hit, shifting through the borders of dimensions made the virus spike in my system, so perhaps this is something else.”
“In here,” she admitted, “I’m not as angry…” Sasha lifted her hair up off her neck. “Did you notice last night, every time we went into the shadows, we might have been fighting, but we seemed to get clear once we came out?”
Hunter just nodded and stared at her.