Andromeda's Fall (Shadowcat Nation) (7 page)

A
brief rap on the door had Andie looking up from the video of her training with
A.J. and his men today.

“Come
in,” she called.

A.J.
popped his head around the door and grinned. “Hey.”

Andie
smiled back. A.J. had been making it a habit to drop by these last few weeks.
She didn’t want to admit it, but she kinda liked his company. Kinda.

Seeing
that he didn’t come in all the way, she patted the seat beside her. “Don’t be
shy.”

A.J.
chuckled. “I have something to show you.”

“What?”

He
held out his hand. “You’ll see.”

Andie
narrowed her eyes as she slowly got up from her comfy spot on the couch. “I’m
not much for surprises.”

“What
a shocker,” he said dryly. “But indulge me. You’ll like this one.”

Andie
sighed. “Okay.”

She
followed him from the room, down the hall a few doors to stop in front of one.
A.J. pulled out a key, and, with a flourish, he opened the door and beckoned
her inside. Andie looked around with interest. It looked like a nice, single-bedroom
apartment, cozily done up in colors that appealed to her wild cougar’s heart –
all browns and blues and greens.

She
turned to A.J. with eyebrows raised. “Nice. So?”

“It’s
for you,” he said, leaning casually against the kitchen counter.

Andie
tipped her head and then took a closer look around the space. “Really?”

A.J.
shook his head at her with a smirk. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

Andie
just regarded him, skepticism in every inch of her wary stance.

“Nick
gets back tomorrow. We need to stick you somewhere.”

Andie’s
mouth twitched. “Now
that
I believe. But why my own apartment?”

A.J.
shrugged. “With Nick coming home you can’t stay with Hannah. We’re trying to
keep you a secret from most of the dare, and the only other cats you know are
the guards.”

Looking
around, she nodded. “I could handle this.” She didn’t add that it would be nice
to have her own space finally. Much as she loved Hannah, she could use some
alone time. Andie turned and walked to the wall of windows that faced an inner
courtyard. Out of sheer habit, she started checking the alarm and safety
measures.

“Why
do you do that?” A.J.’s voice at her side caused her to jump a little. Dang.
Snuck up on her again.

“Do
what?”

“You
do it in every new room you enter, check everything – alarms, cameras, exits.
You know you do. Are you afraid of Carstairs finding you here?”

Andie
chewed at the inside of her cheek. Sure, she’d gotten a little closer to A.J.
these last weeks, but should she tell him? Andie moved to the couch and flopped
down. “This started long before Carstairs,” she began.

A.J.
said nothing, just followed to sit beside her.

“When
I was six years old, my mother went on a diplomatic mission seeking other types
of shifters for treaties either with the Carstairs Dare or the Shadowcat
Nation. My father was occupied with a coyote attack on the Carstairs northern borders,
so I went with Mom. They felt it was safer that way.”

Andie
paused and glanced at A.J., who appeared to be listening attentively. He nodded
for her to continue.

“My
mother was a very charismatic and charming woman, but also very strategically
smart. It made her excellent at diplomacy. The types of animals we were looking
to find were similar to cougars – loners who would make good allies against the
pack animals.”

Andie
swallowed. This next bit was the hard part.

“We’d
been gone about a month and were up in Northern Canada in a cabin with some
other shifters – I was six so I don’t really remember the details of who or
what.”

She
paused again, lost in thought about a dark-haired boy three or four years older
than she was at the time. He’d played games with her. He’d grossed her out by
making her sardine sandwiches. He’d watched her while her mother was busy. For
a few days, it was like having an older brother.

“We’d
been there a few days when the attack happened. Timber wolves. About fifteen or
so. Maybe twenty. I don’t really remember. I guess a decision was made to stay
in the house where we were meeting and to fight them from there rather than run
for help. This is almost twenty years ago now, so a lot of the technology we
have today wasn’t around yet to call for help.”

Andie
swallowed hard before continuing. “The people we were with, my mother included,
held the wolves off as long as they could, but, the wolves just kept coming.
They… have you ever seen a wolf shifter pack attack? A coordinated one?”

A.J.
nodded, but didn’t elaborate. Andie grimaced. “Then you know that they’re
relentless. No matter how many of them die or are injured, they just keep
coming.”

She
shook her head as memories of fangs and fur, those eerie coordinated howls, and
the reflection of eyes in the moonlight flitted through her mind. And then
blood everywhere. Screaming. Chaos.

“After
the first night, my mother took one of the wolves they’d killed and skinned it.
I asked her why she was doing that, and she said that it was to help me escape.
That if I saw a chance, I should wrap up in it and leave. Head south. Use all
the survival skills Dad had taught me.”

“It
was to mask your scent,” A.J. murmured.

Andie
nodded. “My mother was a very smart woman. She was killed during the second
wave of attacks the next day. She’d hidden me in a safe hole in the wall, but I
saw it all. A wolf ripped her throat clean out. I don’t think I’ve seen so much
blood, even since. I watched as he dropped her to the floor where she kicked
and twitched the last of life out of her.”

Andie
stopped talking as that image filled her head. A wave of nausea buffeted her,
and she swallowed.

“But
you got away?” A.J. said softly.

Andie
pulled herself back to the present and nodded. “She’d hidden me in the wall
with the wolf skin. After they checked the bodies, the wolves left. Although to
this day I have no idea how they didn’t hear me. My heart was pounding so hard.”

A.J.
reached over and rested his hand on hers. She hadn’t even realized it was
trembling until he held it.

“I
waited, days it seemed like,” Andie continued, her eyes filled with the haunted
memories. “But in reality it was probably just overnight. When I came out of my
hiding place, I started gathering supplies like my Dad had showed me. And I saw
something move. A boy, a little older than I. He was unconscious, but he was
breathing. I found a sled and pushed us out of there.”

“How
long till someone found you?”

Andie
shook her head. “They didn’t. I managed to get us to a lodge of shifters about
a hundred miles away. Some people my Mom and I had visited previously.”

Andie
saw the shock register in A.J.’s eyes. A six-year-old girl had hauled an
unconscious boy a hundred miles through Northern Canada in the snow and managed
to find a safe haven.

“Jeez,”
he breathed.

Andie
smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “I told you I showed talent young, and
my Dad took advantage of that. The boy did wake up after the first day. And
he’s the reason I didn’t die, lost out in the wilderness. He helped get us back
to the shifters I was hoping to find. So I didn’t do it alone. But you asked me
why I check everything?”

A.J.
tipped his head, waiting for the answer.

“They
got inside the house on that second wave because someone had opened a window to
let out some of the smell, and it had disabled the alarm on the house. More
warning could have made the difference between my mother’s being dead or alive
today. Kyle Carstairs terrifies me. And I’m a damn good fighter now. But the
only thing that scares me more than Kyle is a pack of wolf shifters. Those pack
shifters may not hit the compounds as much anymore, but it still happens. And they
definitely still attack the cougars in the wild. Now I have Kyle Carstairs
hunting me too. So yeah, I check.”

A.J.
reached out and pulled her into his arms. “You don’t have to worry about that
here. I will keep you safe from wolves or Carstairs or anything else that comes
for you.”

Andie
let her head fall on his chest and closed her eyes. “I know.”

A
few days later, Jaxon was headed inside from a run through the obstacle course.
Andie was still out there working with his men, but he had a meeting with his
High Council in an hour and needed to prepare. He entered the guards’ room and
hit the showers before returning to the locker where he’d stored his clothes. He’d
just finished buttoning his shirt when the sound of his cell phone ringing caught
his attention. He fished it out of his bag and looked at the screen. An unknown
number flashed at him.

“This
is Keller.”

“This
is Sarai Bouchard,” said a soft female voice on the other end.

Jaxon
jerked upright so fast he smacked his head on his open locker door with a loud
clang. The Seer calling him couldn’t be good. A couple of his patrolmen were in
the room and glanced up, giving him curious looks as he stood there rubbing his
head.

“Give
me a moment to get to a private space,” he said.

“Hurry,
I don’t have much of a window to talk.”

Jaxon
grabbed his bag and hustled through the halls to his rooms. His state of
semi-undress received more than a few strange looks from the folks he passed.

“All
right. I’m alone,” he said, once he’d locked the door behind him.

“You
need to give Andromeda Reynolds a message for me,” she said.

Jaxon
tensed. Sarai was a member of the Carstairs Dare. There were only a few
Kuharte, cougar shifters with supernatural gifts, in the Shadowcat Nation. No
dare was allowed more than one in order to keep the balance of power even.
JoLynn, their Healer, was the Kuharte in the Keller Dare. Unfortunately, Sarai,
one of the most gifted Kuharte, had ended up with Carstairs, which meant this
call could possibly be a trap.

“I
don’t know an Andromeda Reynolds,” he said.

Sarai’s
soft sigh reached his ears. “You need proof that Kyle and Walter aren’t sitting
right next to me,” she murmured. It wasn’t a question. “Do you remember the
conversation we had about ten years ago?”

Jaxon
moved to look out his window; the mountains of Idaho rose up beyond the walls
of the compound. Usually the sight of those wide open spaces served to soothe
him. But not today.

“I
do.”

“I
told you that someone very special would drop into your life. That you wouldn’t
be sure at first, but you would know just how important she was to you
eventually. You know now, don’t you? You know that girl is Andromeda Reynolds?”

Jaxon
held his tongue. Sarai, by Shadowcat Nation law, was not allowed to reveal her
visions to any but the person they were about. Her referencing the visions
she’d shared with him now most likely meant that Kyle and Walter were not with
her. But he couldn’t risk their threatening Sarai to do this in order to
confirm Andie’s location.

Another
soft sigh. “I have no love for Walter Carstairs. But Kyle… let’s just say that
he’s a monster. And you know Kyle well enough to realize that I would be
risking my life to say that in front of him.”

Jaxon’s
shoulders dropped just a little. “You’re risking your life just calling me.”

“I
realize that, but this is too important. You know it’s her?”

Jaxon
pictured Andie, tiny and spunky with her gorgeous hair hanging in waves down
her back and her dark eyes, full of life, trained on him. His heart swelled.
He’d waited for her after the Seer’s call. Ten years he’d waited. He’d rejected
arranged matings, even though his Council had encouraged him to find a bride
and produce the next Keller Dare heir. He’d waited.

“Yes.
I know.”

“That’s
good.” He could hear the smile in Sarai’s voice.

Jaxon
ran his hand through his hair. “Go on.”

“Kyle
and Walter are closing in on her location. Andie is good at covering her
tracks, but that was only going to last so long. Have you married yet?”

“No,
though the offer’s on the table. Sort of.” A.J. had made the offer, not Jaxon.

A
short silence greeted his statement. “She doesn’t know who you are? You kept
your identity a secret as I told you.”

“I
tried, but I’m pretty sure she suspects.”

“Well,
that explains a lot,” she muttered. “I also told you that you would know when
the time was right to tell her. That passed two days ago. Why didn’t you say
something?”

Jaxon’s
jaw clenched. Two days ago, Andie had told him about her mother. After she was
done talking, he’d just held her for a long time. He’d had this overwhelming
urge to confess all then but had held back. That moment had been about her, not
him.

“The
timing seemed off,” he said to Sarai now.

Sarai
muttered something that sounded like, “Dense Alphas.”

“What
was that?” he asked.

“Nothing.
It’s just that not telling her in that moment, when she was vulnerable, means
that when you tell her now, you might set off a series of events that could end
very badly. It’s… hard to see… very fuzzy.”

“Fantastic.”
Jaxon ran a hand over his face. “Is there anything else that you can tell me?”

“It’s
time to tell her. Tonight. And she won’t react quite as you’re expecting.”

“Anything
else I should know?” he asked dryly.

“Not
that I can share.”

Jaxon
shook his head. “Do they breed stubbornness into Carstairs Dare women? Or is it
just my luck that the only two I’ve met are so intractable?”

“Heaven
save us from men who mistake a woman knowing what’s best for being stubborn,”
Sarai said in a dry voice. “When I say I can’t tell you more, it’s because with
more knowledge the future might change in a direction you don’t like. I’ve told
you what I can.”

Jaxon
heard a knock on the door through the phone.

“Just
a moment,” Sarai called out. Jaxon could hear her voice shake, as if she was
suddenly afraid.

“I
must go,” she whispered. “Tell her who you are, and prepare for Kyle and
Walter.”

“Thank
you, Sarai –”

But
she’d already hung up.