B008IJW70G EBOK (7 page)

      “Your sister is alive,” he whispered, mouth close to her ear.

      What?

      Hunter reached out to hold her, to keep her from toppling straight over. She rocked back and forth, unsteady, reeling.

 “Claudia?” She could barely force out her sister’s name. 

      “She’s different, I mean, you can’t just see her like normal, but she’s here.”

      What? It didn’t make any sense. No sense at all. Blood was rushing to her head, ringing in her ears. Claudia was alive? “She’s here? Claudia,
my sister
, is actually here?”

      Hunter pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her. Drew her body into his. “Shh,” he said. “Claudia is going to be a big part of your life again, you just need to trust me to teach you, to show you the way, and I’ll lead you to her when I can.”

      Riley would have said yes to flying to the moon if it meant seeing her twin again. There was nothing she wouldn’t do. 

      “Does Sophia know?”

      “I wasn’t meant to tell you, okay? Not before you understood everything. Not until you were ready.” Hunter looked down at her and smiled. “But I can’t keep it secret from you, not if I want you to trust me.”

      Riley’s arms shook, her whole body numb. 

      “I need you to promise not to ask me, or Sophia, about her? You need to wait until I ask you. Until you’re ready.”

      Riley nodded. She didn’t’ want to agree with him, but right now she didn’t have any other options. 

      “Just trust me.”

They sat out on the porch after dinner. Riley felt a closeness to Hunter that she’d never experienced with anyone else before. Except for with Claudia. Like something existed between them that was natural, that she couldn’t have denied even if she wanted to. 

      Riley pushed her sister’s name from her mind. She wasn’t thinking about her again. For now. Because if she did, she’d just start questioning Hunter, or wanting to, and that wasn’t fair. He’d told her what he could, given her hope, and now she just had to wait. And trust him. 

      Because the look on his face when he’d told her had been deadly serious, his words clear. She couldn’t say anything within earshot of Sophia, to risk her hearing. 

      “Have you always known you were a shifter?”

      Hunter smiled over at her. The sadness of his lips haunted her. Made her sad. 

      “My parents were both leopard changers. My brother too.”      

      She gulped. “When you say were…”

      He changed his position, leaning heavily against the timber, kneading his fingers against the handrail. “I always knew what I was, but I didn’t change for the first time until I was thirteen.”

      “And your parents?” she asked.

      “Killed. When I got back home one day, I found my little brother hiding beneath the floorboards. We both knew where the safe place was; only I’d never had to hide there before.”

      She wanted to reach out to him, to comfort him, but the hard set of his mouth made her stay still. He needed to get this out. And she needed to know. 

      “They’d been killed, by our enemy. The
soul sucking vermin
.” A dark, possessed look crossed Hunter’s face. 

      Riley didn’t understand who
they
were, but she got the gist of it. 

      Hunter grimaced and turned his face away. “I had to get my brother, before they realized we were alone and came back for us. We had to escape.”

      “And you came here?”

      He nodded. “We travelled for days. I had already learned how to change, but I hadn’t had much practice because I was so young. I did it and put him on my back then ran, hour after hour, day after day.”

      This time she did reach for him. Not just because she was attracted to him, but because she cared about him. He’d kept her safe today, been patient with her, and she’d had no idea what he’d been through.

      She’d thought no one could understand how she felt. No one back home had, but here? Sophia and Riley both knew the pain of losing someone they loved.

      Riley leaned forward and laced her fingers with his, squeezing both his hands in her own, shuffling her body closer so their knees almost touched. 

      He braved a smile, but it was touched with sadness. 

      “Sophia found us. She scooped my brother up and helped me limp to her house, bloody paws and all. She raised us, like her own, before she sent me and then my brother off to train with our army in the north.”

      “And you returned?”

      “For you.” He watched her, his eyes floating over hers, searching her out. “I did my time in the army, proved myself as a soldier. As a trained fighter and leader. Now, I’m here for you and Sophia.”

      “So you’re, like, the head guy?”

      He nodded. It made her feel even safer.  

      Riley went to release his hands, to scoot back away, but he changed the grip and kept her still. Immobile. 

      Riley refused to look back up at him, until he gave up hold of one of her hands to tilt her chin. 

      “Sophia told me about you for years. I’ve had more time to get used to the idea, that’s all. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

      She couldn’t even mumble a response. 

      “I was her strongest leopard. She trained me to fight. To protect.”

      “For me?” she croaked. 

      That made him smile. “For you. And for the greater good of our pack. I’m the highest ranking soldier we have now. She said she knew I was the one when she found me, but I still had to prove myself.”

      Her body shook. She couldn’t stop. “We have a pack?”

      “You’ve got a lot to learn, kitty.”

      Her eyes darkened, she could feel the heat within them. 

      Hunter raised both his hands in defence. “No offence intended.”

      She denied the growl, letting it die in her throat. 

      “That’s a good girl.”

      They sat still. She wasn’t ready to go back inside yet. They were safe here, or at least not far from safety, and it was good to just sit and talk to him, to understand. To hang out.

      “Have you always known what I looked like?”

      “Yup.” He tucked his knees up to his chin and rested his head. Eyes locked on hers. “But you’re even better in real life.”

      “How can this be so… easy for you?”

      “I want you.” He shrugged. “I’ve been waiting for you, fighting to be strong enough to be your equal, to be your teacher.” 

      He didn’t say more, but she could tell what he meant. He knew he was, one day, going to be her mate. Is that what they called it here? He knew exactly what he wanted, what his destiny was, which meant he was the complete opposite of her.

      
Geez.
“And you’re okay with this, uh, arrangement?” she asked.

      Hunter leaned forward, slowly, his face suddenly inches from hers. He blew softly on her skin, before dropping a kiss to her jaw. Hunter trailed a featherlight trail of kisses down her throat, stopping, waiting, before nipping oh so gently at her collarbone. 

      Her hand snapped up, catching him around the throat, her grip stronger than she’d ever known it could be. 

      His smile only deepened,
like he liked it.
Riley watched the glint of his eye, thrilled in the strength she’d found. 

      Hunter just laughed. A belly deep rumble that made her release him. 

      “I am.”

      She knew he’d pushed her, provoked her into playing back. 

And she liked it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Riley left the house before Sophia had even woken. She knew that today was the day she could quiz her grandma, but she was more interested in finding Hunter. In seeing him again, in learning from him. 

      There was time for questions later. Like why she was here, why she could shift, what she was preparing for. And who the soul suckers he’d talked about were. 

      But right now, what she was most interested in was Hunter himself. And why he’d told her her sister was still here. Why she wasn’t supposed to known yet… and why she believed him. Too many questions that had kept her awake all night.

      Riley hurried over to the horses, feeling bad for ignoring them, but they seemed content grazing. She threw them each a couple of apples over the fence. 

      Riley almost felt guilty. No, she
did
feel guilty. 

      All her life, up until a few weeks ago, she’d been a twin. Wherever she went, her sister had gone too. Whenever she thought something, her sister had seemed to read her mind. 

      Now, she was alone. Or at least she had been.

      Until she’d somehow stumbled upon Hunter. And he’d taken her mind off everything. She’d gone to bed and remembered his touch, the way he looked, what they’d talked about. 

      Then she’d woken up and he was still in her mind. When Hunter was gone, it was like she was lost all over again. 

      
And she hated it
. Because never, not once, had she ever felt like this over a guy before. 

      But then Hunter was different.
So different
that she was starting to wonder if her mind had been captured during a dream and not let out. 

      Riley thought about going for a ride, but given the last few attempts she thought  her riding life might be over. The horses were on edge when she went into the field with them, nostrils flared, snorting at the slightest movement in the forest. 

      At least she knew they were safe here, happy so long as she stayed on this side of the fence. 

      For now. So long as Hunter was sure his daily injections were going to keep working that was. 

      But Riley didn’t have any other option besides trusting Hunter. Aside from the fact that he seemed to be marked as her teacher, not to mention her future
husband
, he had promised her the potion and rubdowns would keep the cats away. 

      Besides if she sent the horses home, put them on a truck or called for her parents, it would only alert them that something was wrong. And she was struggling just to come to terms with what was happening to her. What her life was turning into and she didn’t need to deal with worried parents too. 

      But if she couldn’t ride, what else could she do?

      Riley didn’t want to admit it, but she was unsettled. Her fingers were fidgeting, feet itching to move, to do something,
anything
.

      What she wanted was to see Hunter. 

      She wanted to change again. To thrill in the excitement of it, to be close to him. To learn more. To forget about everything else.

      “Hey.”

      Her head whipped sideways. There he was. Speak of the cat and he appeared. Riley took a deep breath to calm herself. 

      “Hey,” she said back. 

      He looked cool, leaning against the tree. It was where he’d appeared yesterday, body folded against the thick trunk. But today he was waiting for her to decide. He’d told her yesterday. Now he knew she could change, that her mind was as strong as her body, he had to wait for her. Needed to know that she’d accepted what she could do. 

      Yesterday, she’d wanted to rebel against his wishes, against Sophia’s wishes, but today? She gulped, nervous as he watched her so unashamedly. Last night, out with him on the porch, her mind had changed.

      Riley was used to boys stealing glances at her in class. Faces stained red and spinning away if she caught them. But the way Hunter watched her, let his eyes rove over her, his cool green gaze appraise her, it was like a predator watching prey. Only she knew he wanted her to be his equal, not his dinner. 

      Maybe a touch weaker than him, so he could still be the alpha. But he didn’t want a wallflower, someone he couldn’t challenge. And that’s why she wanted him. More than another other boy she’d ever met. 

      She wanted to know what it was like to truly challenge him. To fight him. To race him.
To love him.
 

      The thought embarrassed her. She’d often wondered what it would be like, to
do it
, but she hadn’t been that attracted to a boy before. Not enough to actually consider going that far. 

      But Hunter …

      “You decided yet?”

      She knew what he was asking her. Riley had thought of nothing else but changing again, with the exception of her fantasies about Hunter, since they’d made it back to the house. She wanted to experience the thrill of the change again. Of the intense burst of pain and the flash of red, before her body took on the lithe, sleek form of a leopard. There was so much to learn, so much to experience. 

      Riley was scared, but she wasn’t afraid. Not even of the other leopards who were hunting her. Not with Hunter around. 

      His eyes questioned her again. 

      “Yes.” She exhaled the word, felt it pass through her lips. 

      Hunter’s eyes jumped and danced. She could feel the electricity of his excitement. 

      He’d made no apology for his attraction to her, but she had a feeling he liked her even better in cat form. That he
wanted
her to shift. 

      “You ready now?”

      She grinned at him. How could she not be? “I’m not going to be a pussy cat today.”

      He laughed. His head thrown to the sky. “You’re ready, aren’t you?”

      “For what?” She had a feeling he meant more than just
changing
. 

      “You’re ready to test yourself. To test me.”

      Heat traced a burning slap across her face again. Riley shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe.”

      “Come on then, let’s go.”

      She was curious to know if they were being watched by any other shifters. By any other leopards. But she didn’t ask him. Didn’t want to ruin the feeling between them. 

      He wouldn’t take her anywhere he thought was unsafe, not by choice. Sophia had probably put an end to the other cats loitering. For now, one snarl, one snap of Sophia’s teeth in cat form, wasn’t that what Hunter had said? When they’d gone inside, she’d known something was being dealt to outside. Her grandmother wasn’t just walking the garden at twilight for nothing.