Only After Dark The Boxed Set Books 1 - 4: Shifters Forever Worlds (15 page)

“
T
his time
I’m the one saving you,” the man her brother called Reese murmured.

“Pardon?”

He rubbed his hand over his thigh. “Nothing.” He took a step toward the veranda, then turned back. “Coming?”

“If I’m needed I suppose I should.”

He stepped to the side and indicated she should precede him, then placed his hand in the small of her back. His fingertips seared her skin, even though there was fabric between their flesh.

She could feel his gaze creating a thrumming in her body that began at her core and emanated to her scalp, her toes, her fingers. Her breathing was shallow, her body intensely aware of his presence.

Balmy Louisiana air greeted them as they passed through the glass double doors. The sound of the music grew faint, the harmony of crickets and bull frogs taking precedence with every step they took away from the ballroom and toward a dark corner of the veranda. They stopped at a giant marble railing and stood overlooking the maze below.

“You mentioned I was needed…” Alexa was beginning to believe there wasn’t a matter that actually required her attention. Deep in her chest a rumbling sensation gave her pause. Was it more than a sensation? Was she making that sound? She looked around, then studied the man to see if he would react to the rumbling.

Alexa concentrated on her tigress, trying to discern if she knew anything.

She’s purring,
Alexa realized with a start.

Her tigress was purring.

Tigers don’t do that. Do they?

Whatever it was… her tigress was doing it.

“You’re very needed,” the man’s voice was huskier than it had been inside. An amber glow flared in the depths of his eyes.

“Have we met before?” She couldn’t get past the sensation that she knew him—somehow.

As if I’d forget ever meeting this man.

Tall, so much so that she had to tilt her head to look at his face. His hair was short. It wasn’t as dark as she’d thought it was initially, with bronze highlights that caught the moon’s silver beam. A strong jaw, as if chiseled from rock was joined by a set of high cheekbones and a pair of eyes that held directness.

“You don’t know?”

A kiss of embarrassment licked flames on her cheeks, embarrassed that he’d think she’d have met and forgotten him.

“No. It’s just…”

He placed a fingertip on her chin. “You don’t have to say it.” His tone said,
he got it
.

She believed he did. There was something about this man, his directness, his honesty. She wanted to scent his emotions, hoping to get a bead on him, to know more about this man who affected her body, her mind, and her tigress. She drew the air in, analyzing it, letting it sit on her senses while Reese studied her.

Alexa turned toward the maze, away from the piercing eyes of the wolf shifter who faced her. She held onto the guardrail with one hand, clutching the rock-solid marble. She pretended to look at the maze, closed her eyes and let his scent infiltrate her senses.

Earthy pine and…

Blood?

Blood!

Her eyes flew open. She swiveled toward him, gave him a once-over. There was no blood anywhere that she could see.

His eyes glowed a deep amber.

She swallowed a lump made of emotions she couldn’t peg. “There’s blood.”

“You’re remembering?” His voice was low, so soft that she almost didn’t hear the words he said.

A shudder coursed over her body.

Is this Leandra’s doing?

She didn’t want to tell him she scented blood she couldn’t see, blood that as far as she knew, didn’t exist. “What am I remembering?” Her whispered words hung on the heavy swamp air, thick, tangible, as though they were connected.

He blinked slowly, breaking the connection between them. “I was hoping you’d tell me.” He covered her hand with his.

Tell him what? “I’m not…”

He took her hand, pulled her toward him until she was facing him fully.

“You don’t think it’s strange we haven’t introduced ourselves?”

She tilted her head way back, seeking something in him, finding his wolf.

“Reese.” She said his name, the name her brother had told her he was called by.

“Alexa.” His full bottom lip curved into a small smile.

Her tigress chuffed in her chest. The sound was a happy one, unlike any Alexa had heard her make before.

A low rumbling came from Reese’s chest.

A chill ran through her. “They know…”

“They do seem to know each other,” Reese finished her thought for her.

“How?”

“She saved me—him—us.”

Alexa chewed on her nail. “Why don’t I remember?”

“You don’t have dreams? Of the chase? My wound?”

She cocked her head. “Wound?” Yet without even knowing why she looked down at his thigh.

He took her hand, the one he was still holding and moved it close to his thigh. He held it a mere finger’s width from his body, but didn’t lay her hand on him.

Even separated by the tiny distance, a buzzing made the fingers of her hand tingle.

He placed her hand on his outer thigh.

She gulped, feeling much like a fish that had been thrown ashore, squirming and gasping. A vision flashed in her mind, like a series of lightning flashes.

In her mind’s eye, Alexa saw a wounded wolf—Reese’s. And there was a tigress hovering over him—she couldn’t see the tigress’s face—but she was licking his wounds and guarding him. The tigress turned her head.

Alexa sucked a breath in.

The tigress. Her tigress!

But I don’t remember that. Where…? What…?

Deep within, her tigress pushed against her in a way she never had before. Alexa’s teeth began that familiar twinge. The twinge that heralded erupting canines. Her nerve endings twitched, her bones ached.

This can’t happen right now.

Alexa pushed her tigress back. Her efforts were fruitless. She may as well have been shoving a monument. Her tigress was unyielding, pressing Alexa further as her tendons stretched.

“No.” The word was a growl.

It was Alexa’s sentiment because she didn’t want to shift, but her tigress was winning the battle.

R
eese didn’t release
the hand he was holding. Beneath her flesh he felt her bones stretching, shifting. Slight creaking and crunching sounds hidden by the night’s denizens—the crickets, bullfrogs, rustling rabbits, and the occasional screeching owl.

Her fingers became paws. The tips were pads. She dropped to all fours, her body shifting as she dropped. The ball gown yielding to luxurious fur.

She’s going to be pissed when she shifts back.

Though their clothing remained on their bodies after a shift that returned them to their human form, the clothing was rather worse for wear—askew, rumpled, and occasionally torn.

His thoughts of that vanished as the woman he was attracted to transformed into the tigress in his dreams.

The same eyes, the same intricate patterns. The same silver and white against black stripes. A long, elegant neck upon which was perched a beautifully marked face with eyes so vivid as to be emerald in color.

He stared at the tigress. She was the very one from his dreams.

He reached out a hand placed it on her shoulder, just at the withers. Muscles rippled beneath her fur.

She angled her head, placing it against his thigh, resting on the same scar she’d tended to all those years ago when they were…

Where the hell were we? Who could answer that?

An image flitted through his mind of a dark-skinned, dark-haired woman with glowing eyes.

His wolf didn’t allow Reese to dwell on the thought. The wolf shoved Reese aside, planting his paws firmly in Reese’s mind, demanding Reese immediately yield his body to him.

Reese knew, he understood. And he wasn’t going to stop his wolf from having this moment.

He was no stranger to shifting, indulging his wolf often—equally sharing space with him.

His canines erupted. His face lengthened, his body stretched. He fell to all four, pads striking the tiled veranda without making a sound.

A
lexa’s
light-colored tigress eyes widened when she saw the size of Reese’s wolf. She was no small tigress. She wasn’t as large as her sister Evie, but she wasn’t diminutive either, but this wolf…

She took a step back. Her tigress studied him. Noting the bulk of his muscles, the way his ears were perked, listening, attentive, on guard. His neck was thick, rising from a broad chest. She let her gaze wander, drinking him in. It felt like it had been eons since she’d seen him. Her gaze was drawn to the jagged scar that ran the length of his thigh, parting the fur, revealing a jagged line of ivory skin.

That’s not a new scar,
Alexa told herself.

Her tigress huffed a sound of agreement on the inside.

How did it happen? How were you there? Why don’t I remember?

Alexa sensed her tigress tuning her question out, avoiding the topic.

Fine. I’ll establish a link and talk to him.

Alexa pushed for a sync with Reese, a communication between them so they could converse in their minds.

He accepted the sync and his powerful presence filled her mind.

“Let’s go somewhere private.”
With that, he leapt over the marble guardrail and landed soundlessly on the grass below, next to the entrance of the maze.

Alexa followed suit, bounding over the marble barrier and landing next to him.

“Where do you want to go?”
she asked him.

“You know the area better than I.”

An idea struck her.
“Let’s get some answers.”

“Leandra?”
he said the name in her head.

Curiosity ran amok through Alexa. How did he know that name?
“You know Leandra?”

“I’ve had the pleasure.”
His tone gave nothing away.

“Shifters should be smarter than this.”
Leandra’s voice entered their sync.

Reese snarled.

Alexa whirled around, looking for her friend.
“Don’t hurt her,”
she told Reese in their sync.
“Leandra? You can talk in our sync? We didn’t let you in.”

Leandra stepped out of the bushes. Her hair was in long braids, hanging halfway down her back. Her eyes were luminescent, picking up the moonlight’s glow.
“Some don’t need to have permission to enter a sync.”

“That’s like eavesdropping,”
Alexa harrumphed.

Leandra lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“Why can’t I scent you, witch?”
A snarl accompanied Reese’s question.

“Block. You think shifters are the only ones that use it to hide?”
She waved them forward.
“Come. Out of the light, into the shadows. I don’t need to be noticed.”

Alexa padded behind Leandra softly, Reese took the rear position.

When they’d gone several paces, Leandra stopped.
“I knew it. I knew it though I couldn’t get a clear vision.”

“What?”
Alexa dropped to her haunches.

Reese stood above her, almost as if guarding her.

“I knew you’d find one another,” Leandra explained, still in their sync. “I’ll have to stay in your sync. I won’t speak where I can be heard. Too many creatures with preternatural hearing in the vicinity. And not all are shifters. The swamps are full of others.”

“I don’t give a damn about the others,” Reese snapped, his teeth bared. “What do you know about us? About my scar?”

“You knew one another before—”

“Before what?”
Alexa interrupted.

Leandra glanced away.
“I wish I knew. All I’ve seen is that you have a history. You protected him, stood guard over his unconscious wolf while he healed. Your tigress tended to his wounds, keeping them clean and free of infection.”

There was something more Leandra wasn’t revealing. Alexa could feel it.

Reese glanced at Alexa. He stepped close, his shoulder inches above hers. She leaned her body against his golden-gray body. His warmth passing through the thick double coat.

“And then?”

“And then you never saw each other again. Until now. But you’ve dreamed of her, wolf.”

“That I have.”
Reese pressed his side against Alexa’s tigress torso.

His warmth was a heated reminder of the attraction they shared as humans, and clearly also in their shifted forms.

A rumble of pleasure sounded in Alexa’s tigress mind.

“And now you are together again.”
Leandra studied them, her eyes driving through their flesh, as if assessing their very souls.

Was this a spell?
“You promised no magic,”
Alexa asserted.

“I am—”

“Alexa!” A voice, panicked, came from the direction of the house.

“Alexa!” The voice was closer.

Alexa recognized Maylene’s voice.

“I must go. I can’t be seen here.”
Leandra made a swift turn and vanished into the thick shrubs.

Alexa shifted into her human body, trying to be soundless, and wishing she were more accomplished so she could do it effortlessly.
I must practice shifting.

“Here, Maylene.” She turned to Reese. “You should go. For now. We have unfinished business.”

With a quick twitch and a sudden almost soundless move, Reese shifted into his human form. He touched a finger to her bottom lip, tracing it, then placed it against his lips and slipped toward the maze, giving Alexa a backward glance.

To Alexa, his departure felt like a crater had been blasted in her body. She felt his presence as he left, leaving behind an emptiness.

She glanced at her dress. For fuck’s sake. Her ball gown looked like she’d been in a tussle. She pulled at the fabric to straighten it, and swiped at dust marks. A small tear in the satin at her waist made her grimace. She could hide it if she placed her arm strategically.

“Chère.” Maylene’s eyes widened. “What happened to you? Were you accosted? Where is Theo when he’s needed?” She scowled as she looked around.

“It’s nothing I couldn’t handle. What was it you needed?”
Did we run out of punch?
Surely Maylene wouldn’t come hunting her down for something trivial.

“She’s in labor. She’s having the baby.”

Alexa’s heart skipped a beat. “Callie?”

“Yes, come please. We can’t find your brother.”

Alexa followed Maylene toward the staircase, glancing backward to see if Reese was still nearby. A pair of eyes glowed at her from the maze. A warmth ran through her. He was looking out for her. He was here for her.

Alexa picked up her pace following Maylene up to the balcony, winding between tables and potted plants. They hastened to the house where she set Callie up with a room and grabbed two of Theo’s men to track down Doc.

“Where’s Lézare?” She tugged on Theo’s sleeve.

He looked at her. As close as she was to Theo, Lézare was closer to the huge lion shifter.

Is he covering something?

The thought vanished when Callie released a low moan that began to build in volume.

“I’ll find him myself.”

She scoured the ballroom to no avail.

No Lézare.

She headed toward the balcony. Movement to the side caught her eye. Alexa paused and studied two figures. “Maylene, I’ll catch up to you.”

Lézare was at the gazebo, in the shadows. And he was embracing a blonde in a black and gold ball gown.

She hastened toward him. “Lézare!”

Her brother raised his head and looked at Alexa.

“Callie. She’s in labor,” Alexa yelled at him.
Fine time for him to be making out with some random woman.

He waved an acknowledgment and headed toward her and up the stairs. He joined her.

Alexa indicated the gazebo with a nod. “Who is that?”

He glanced at the gazebo. “A guest.” The look on his face reminded her of when he was a kid and didn’t quite confess to the full version of a story. “Where’s Callie?”

“I set her up in a guest bedroom and sent some of the men to find Doc.”

“Be right there,” he told her then veered toward Theo.