FavoriteObsession (30 page)

He shook his head. “Nah, Mira loves me. She’d never leave
me.”

Ella raised a brow. “Isn’t that what every guy who dates Zoe
thinks?”

Well, shit. It was. He dismissed her with a shake of his
head. When a shifter loved, it was for an eternity. “Mira and I are basically
married, Ella. She’s never getting rid of me.”

* * * * *

Mira stood with her arms wrapped tightly around her and
stared out the window of Kade’s house. Her mind spun and she kept coming back
to one conclusion—the singles wouldn’t be content until she took a mate…a
shifter mate. Even if they believed she and Josh had formed a bond, they
wouldn’t accept it.

Micah or one of his followers would kill her human mate and
all of Josh’s loved ones. Mira didn’t doubt Micah’s threat. The fire today had
proven he’d follow through with it. Then there was his promise to find Molly
and take her head.

Mira groaned. She refused to give Micah what he wanted, but
how was she supposed to protect everyone from the danger he posed?

Helplessness choked her. She willed the tears away. What was
the point of crying? What was the point of anything? She couldn’t escape her
destiny. The longer she fought it, the more people she hurt.

Kade’s offer came back to her. He’d allow her to continue to
be with Josh. She’d keep it a secret. If it meant holding on to him, she’d do
anything. She also knew Kade would do everything in his power to protect Josh
and his family. They’d get Shifter Affairs in place. There were also shifters
who worked as PIs and offered protection services. Rafe knew plenty of them.
She’d use her savings to buy their services. It had to be enough. Her only
other option would be to leave.

“I can’t walk away from him.” She pressed her hands to her
eyes. “I love him.”

She went over the details of the dream she’d had and sighed.
Defeat sat heavy on her shoulders. She slumped, broken in body and soul.

The door opened and Kade walked in alone. The troubled
expression he wore told her why. Zoe had dismissed him. Again.

“The woman is more stubborn than you are.”

Instead of asking why—she didn’t need to be reminded of how
her decision would affect her friend—she announced, “I’ve chosen my mate.”

Kade paused mid-step. “You have?”

She forced her feet to move and ignored the violent
thrashings of her cats. Inches from Kade, she tipped her head and met his
golden eyes. “Yes.” She took a deep breath that sapped the life out of her
instead of giving her courage. “I want you to mate me. Now.”

Josh climbed out of his SUV and grinned at the sight that
met him. Mira stood near a bench where Zoe sat stiffly and glared at Kade’s
back. Kade watched him approach with guarded eyes, but Josh’s were locked onto
Mira’s back. Her gorgeous patchwork hair teased the edge of her bottom and
shone in the afternoon sun. Another billowy skirt, the fuck-me boots she’d worn
earlier and a light turtleneck sweater clung to her torso and accentuated her
small waist.

He let his gaze roam over her. Pride welled. She was fucking
beautiful and all his.

Mira glanced over her shoulder and the cold, distant eyes
that met his sucked the happiness out of him.

“It’s about time you got here.” Zoe waved at Kade. “He
insisted I hang out so I can be a witness or something since all the other
shifters are out looking for the freaky-looking guy who burned down the bar.”

Josh glanced between Mira’s indifferent eyes and Kade’s
angry ones. “What’s going on?”

“I have—”

“No, Kade. I will tell him.” Mira stepped forward. She
lifted her chin and captured his gaze.

Josh’s heart raced. “Tell me what?”

“Kade and I are mated.”

Silence stretched as if the world awaited his response.

Finally, Josh laughed. “Kitten, I don’t know what’s gotten
into you, but you can’t mate two men. You’re already mine.”

Her gaze dropped to his nose. She linked trembling hands
behind her back. “What we feel is the mystical connection that sometimes forms.
Love, some people call it. It doesn’t count in the Council’s eyes and I’m tired
of fighting them so I…” She focused on his shoes and took a deep breath. “So I
decided to accept my destiny.”

Rage rose turning the edges of his vision red. He blinked it
away before it took hold. “You lie, Mira.” He thumped his chest. “I feel you here.
Your pain, pleasure, anxiety…it all resonates through me. I felt no passion
from you these past few hours, only sadness and desperation. Do not feed me any
lines about leaving me.”

Her eyes widened before she closed them. “Zoe, now that
you’ve heard our news, please sign the letter to the Council informing them of
my bond with Kade so they know I’ve fulfilled my obligation.”

Zoe stood and moved to his side. She reached out and grabbed
him before he could rush forward and shake some sense into his stubborn woman.
“Fuck that, Mira. If you want to cheat on my brother, go deal with the shit
you’ve caused on your own. I want no part of it.” She flicked her gaze to Kade.
“You’re all goddamn liars and I have no room in my life for any of you.”

With that, Zoe released him and walked toward the house.

“Mira, I know what you’re doing, but you don’t need to worry
anymore. I’m not going to die so easily on you.” Josh closed the distance
between them and wrapped his fingers around her upper arms. “
I
am your
destiny, the mate the golden goddess allowed you to choose.”

“No you’re not, Josh.”

He lifted her chin and stared into glistening eyes. “Don’t
cry, kitten. Your goddess has visited me too. She said the night you declared
you belonged to me in the bar sealed our fates. You chose me, then and there.”
He wiped away the tears from her cheek with his thumb. “I am your mate, the
only one you’ll ever have.”

“No!” She shoved away. “No, you’re making stuff up. The
goddess can’t visit you. She can only connect to pride leaders.”

Josh reached for her. She scrambled backward, tripped and
nearly fell. She righted herself but her eyes darted around. He stilled. “Love,
calm down. Let’s sit down and talk. You’re overreacting because of what
happened today.”

“Overreacting? You could’ve died! Micah meant to kill you.”

“But he didn’t.” He spread his arms wide. “Look, I’m fine.”

“And I intend to make sure you stay that way.” She pointed
toward his SUV then reached for Kade. He took her hand “Go, Josh. Once Kade’s
brother uncovers the traitors on the Council and sees them punished, you and I
can resume our affair, secretly of course. Until then, I want you to stay away
from me.”

It was too much. Josh closed the distance between them and
yanked her out of Kade’s arms. “Never. You will never touch another man. You
are mine for eternity, in this life and the next.”

“Please don’t be cruel, Josh. I’m doing this for your own
good.”

“I’m not. I’m trying to explain to you that—”

A rumble of an engine starting drifted to them. Squealing
tires came next.

Kade ran past them, knocking him to the side, and screamed,
“Zoe!”

Josh glanced at the other man. Kade hopped into Josh’s SUV
and peeled out after the black sports car. Josh tensed as the ’Cuda carrying
Zoe skidded sideways down the driveway. She evened out the car and disappeared
around the bend in the private road, but a sob from Mira yanked his attention
back to her. She ran toward the woods.

“Mira, wait!”

She shook her head, shifted into her tigress form and
disappeared into the woods.

A shot rang out. Chunks of grass pummeled his legs. Another
blast hit the section of the ground where Mira had just been.

Josh swung his head in the direction of the sounds. A few
hundred feet down the tree line from where Mira had disappeared into, he caught
a glimpse of a red beard and a plaid shirt. Another gunshot pierced the night,
quieter than the last.

It came from deeper in the woods.

Josh cursed and chased after Mira before he lost her for
good.

* * * * *

The sound of a gunshot echoed in Mira’s ears. She skidded to
a stop.

Josh.
Oh gods, no.

She scrambled for footing and turned around. Micah stood a
few feet away with the redhead who’d claimed to be Josh’s lover in his arms
with a talon-tipped hand wrapped around the female’s throat. She was naked,
bruised and bloody. Going by the marks on her hips and thighs and the scent of
a male’s release, she’d been raped too. Tears ran in twin lines down her
freckled face.

Mira stopped and shifted. There was no use hiding what she
was, not when the human’s life was at risk. Mira might not like the female but
her protective instincts rose. She knew intimately how it felt to be violated.
She couldn’t abandon the girl, no matter what she’d done. The female’s eyes
widened, but a plea of help shimmered in them, not disgust or fear. Mira’s
heart cracked.

Josh skidded to a stop on the opposite side of them, but
Micah didn’t turn around to face him.

“Good of you to finally respond the way I intended, sweet
Mira.” Micah scraped the sharpened nails of his free hand over the woman’s
cheek. Blood ran in thin rivulets off her jaw. “Now do what I say or the human
dies.”

Josh advanced slowly, but Micah laughed without taking his
eyes off her. “Now, Zeb.”

Josh stopped and pivoted on his heel a moment before another
shot rang out. He stumbled backward. Two more quick blasts and he fell, blood
oozing from his chest, stomach and over his heart.

Mira screamed and leapt the distance between her and Micah.
She swiped at his head with her clawed hand and ripped his throat out. Another
pass and his spine shone through the blood and gore. His limp body toppled. She
followed him down and ripped his head from his body.

She pushed away from the dead shifter and ran to Josh. His
unmoving body told her the truth. She pressed her fingers to his neck anyway.
No pulse. Eyes closed, she focused on her mate bite. No thump. Panic rushed up,
stopping her heart. Desperate now, she reached for the mystical tether she’d
formed with him and found it severed.

“No, oh gods, no.” Tears blurred her vision. She dropped her
head to his bloody chest and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry, Josh.”
She snuggled closer, tears rolling down her face. “I didn’t betray you.”

No answer, no movement. Nothing.

He was gone. Dead. She’d lost her
one
.

His face turned blurry. She blinked the tears away and
pressed a kiss to his closed mouth. “Love you.” She nuzzled his cheek. “Always
and forever, my mate.”

The human female shrieked. Mira glanced over her shoulder.
Two jaguar shifters were dragging the girl across the ground. She fought them,
kicking and squirming. The bigger of the two punched her. She cried out.

Mira jumped away from the lifeless body of the male she
loved and attacked the ones who thought to hurt a mortal. She wrapped her arms
around the one who’d hit the female and rolled with him across the ground. He
snapped at her. Claws raked her sides. She let the fury, the sorrow and the
injustice consume her. She grabbed his jaguar head and twisted. The crack of
his neck sounded. His body went.
Not good enough.
She let her talons
slip from her fingertips and gutted him.

She stood and turned toward the female. Something hit her.
She paid it no attention. A dozen more pops sounded, shaking her body. She
dropped to her knees. The world swayed. Three more and she collapsed. Her head
cracked off the ground. Amber eyes filled her vision.

A wolf shifter, one she’d never seen before, pressed his
booted foot to her chest.

“Bind her. Rosco wants the royal immobile so she can’t kill
him when he mates her.”

“What should we do with the humans?”

“Shoot the male and bring the female.”

The wolf raised his fist and pummeled her face. By the
seventh hit, the world went black and she knew no more.

Josh opened his eyes and glanced around. The inky mist of the
goddess’s realm surrounded him. He pushed up and stood on…four legs. A quick
peek confirmed his suspicion. He was in his lion’s form.

He shifted with only a thought necessary to bring about the
change. No wounds shone on his skin, but the sight of the blood brought all the
memories back.

“Mira.” He had to get back to her. She was in danger. He
closed his eyes and reached for her. The tether they’d formed was severed. Not
willing to give up, he willed himself to wake up. Nothing happened.

“Look at me, child.”

He knew that voice.
The goddess.
He popped his
eyelids open. She stood before him, exactly as she had in his dream.

“Yes, your dream. It is the only way I can connect to the
human world now and you have denied me more often than not.” The growled words
reverberated in his head as if she’d snarled them next to his ear.

He ignored her irritation and asked, “Mira? What happened?
Why can’t I feel her?”

“I do not know. You died and broke the bond you had formed
with her.”

“I’m not dead. What are you talking about?”

“Not anymore.” She turned her back on him and glided away.
“Walk with me, Josh Conway. Your physical body has not healed enough to support
our soul yet.”

“Our soul?”

She stopped and whipped her head to glare at him. “Do you
think what I accomplished was easy?”

He didn’t know how to answer since he didn’t exactly
understand what she’d done.

“For over a millennium, I have planned this. I have
influenced pairings among my children to produce the strongest offspring.
Mira’s birth was the culmination of my work. She is my beloved daughter, one of
my three children chosen to fix my mistake.”

“Your mistake?”

The goddess started walking. After a moment, she quickened
her pace. Josh hurried after her. He stepped into her path. “What mistake?”

“Love is a powerful emotion but so is jealousy. I fell
victim to both and damned all of the gods’ children. I regret my actions but I
cannot change them.” She swept a hand out to encompass the blackness. “I have
been collecting the innocent humans I have unintentionally hurt, soothing them
the best I can. They do not belong in my home, but they have nowhere else to
go.”

Anger tightened his chest. “You’ve been sheltering the
humans who’ve died during failed matings? Why the hell haven’t you told the
shifters?”

She snarled. “Do not think to question me.”

Yeah, he shouldn’t, but Devin had suffered over what he’d
done to Lena. “Do you have any idea how much they’ve worried about losing their
women?”

“Yes, I do, but if my children did not fear the
consequences, they might have chosen their mates poorly. Not every female which
stirs their loins is the right one for them and human-shifter matings cannot be
undone.” She raised her chin. “It was for their own good.”

Josh ground his teeth. The goddess didn’t have the right to
decide that.

“I have every right.”

He bit the inside of his cheek instead of continuing to
argue. It was a losing battle when she could obviously read his mind. “So this
is their heaven?”

“No. This is where they have waited for you to be born.”

He frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She focused on him. “Your offspring will house their souls.
They will become hybrids with a tie to both heavens and this realm will be
their second home, a place to shift and take refuge if their bodies are
damaged.”

He stumbled back. “How—”

“The only way I could. I shared my essence with you, tying
your soul to mine in order to give you immortality.”

His pulse kicked up. It was what he’d hoped for all along,
but anger rose too. He didn’t enjoy being anyone’s pawn. The goddess had toyed
with him, making him suffer along with Mira. “But if I’m the man you chose to
be Mira’s mate, why did you send Kade the vision of me dying?”

She narrowed her golden eyes until slits focused on him.
“Did you not hear my words when I said I have been influencing my children? How
exactly do you think I accomplished that?” She took a step closer. The fangs in
her mouth lengthened. “As soon as Mira licked your wounds, I foresaw your
death. Had I not influenced Kade to keep the two of you apart, my beloved
daughter would have tried to mate you. She would have killed you.”

“But—”

“The events had to play out the way they did. I could not
intervene in your life’s path until she verbally chose you to father the
prophesied children.” She pressed her palms to her eyes and groaned. When she
dropped them, golden tears ran down her cheeks. “But because of my connection
to you I have lost my ability to enter the human realm. Now you are my only
link to my other children.”

“Even the pride leaders?”

A low growl crawled up her throat. “Yes. I cannot even hear
their pleas nor can I foresee their futures. My last glimpse was the one I
shared with you because I could no longer reach Kade. Do you remember it?”

He closed his eyes and pulled up the memory of when he’d
last spoken with the goddess. The rapid succession of images she’d shoved into
his head slowed into a slideshow that chilled his soul. The final one of Mira,
beheaded, stopped his heart.

“She’s going to die?”

“Unless the events are altered, yes. You must reform your
bond and save her or else my plan will fail.”

“But how do I do that?”

“Mira is the mate of your heart. Your love transcends death.
Follow it back to her.” The goddess took several steps away but stopped and
glanced over her shoulder. “And Josh, you do not need to sleep to enter this
realm. Picture yourself here and you will come. The same applies to Mira but
she must follow your tether here as you are the tied to it and she to you. Be
warned, however, your bodies cannot follow. They will remain in the human
realm.”

With that the goddess vanished, leaving him alone with only
his fear as company. He needed to get back to his body so he could chase after
Mira.

Once again, he willed himself to wake. Again, nothing
happened.

“Our love transcends death, huh? All right, then. I’ll find
our love.” He slowly turned and surveyed the vast sea of nothingness. “Somehow,
kitten, somehow.”

* * * * *

Something wet and rough brushed against Mira’s cheek. She
forced her eyelids apart. Abby stared down at her with a bloody piece of cloth
in her hand. Twin tracks of tears had wiped the dirt from her pale face.

“Thank god,” Abby choked. She dabbed at Mira’s forehead with
a clean edge of the material. “I thought they’d killed you too.”

Mira tried to move but couldn’t. She was tied spread-eagle
on a bed. Panic seized her. She jerked on her bindings. Biting pain raced up
her legs, arms and across her neck. Her pulse raced at the realization of what
had been done to her.

“Don’t move, Mira.” Abby pressed a trembling hand to her
upper chest. “They wrapped chains with sharp spikes around you.”

“Oh gods.”

She turned her head, ignoring the pinching along her neck
and peered at the bindings she’d heard about but had never seen. Designed to
restrain a shifter, the manacles had a tension-sensitive trigger. If she
struggled excessively or shifted, the cuffs would snap together, severing
whatever body part it encircled.

“I’m so sorry, Mira. I should’ve listened to Zeb. He told me
to forget about Josh.” She sucked in a rough breath. “It was just that…I’ve
wanted him since fifth grade. He would always stand up for me whenever somebody
made fun of the pig farmer’s daughter. I got it in my head that if he cared
enough to do that then I could make him love me.”

Mira closed her eyes to block out the human’s face. Hatred
and empathy rose for the female. Neither were emotions she could give in to. A
steadying breath later, she glanced around the area where they’d been left. A
single mattress lay on the pine floor under her. A plastic bucket and a roll of
toilet paper sat in one corner of what she guessed was a barn. In the other, a
crate with a gallon jug of spring water. On the far side of the otherwise-empty
room a closed door served as the only way in or out. Next to it, butchering
tools hung on the wall.

She focused on the knives. They appeared thin enough to jam
the spring on her manacles, hopefully. “Abby, we don’t have time for regrets.
Go grab those—”

“I can’t.” Abby raised her cuffed hand. “They chained me to
you.”

And took all my options away except one—die.