Seduction's Shift (11 page)

“If Serino was involved in giving away the tribe’s supplies even back then, and he thought you’d seen something you weren’t supposed to, that would be a big reason for him to want you gone,” X said.

“The fact that you’d slept with his daughter was like icing on the cake,” Rome offered.

“And I did exactly what they wanted me to do. I left and never looked back.” Nick cursed, feeling as used and betrayed as he supposed Ary had.

A heavy hand clapped onto his shoulder, but Nick didn’t turn around.

“You did what you thought was best at the time. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“I hurt her,” he admitted on a whisper.

“That’s something you need to fix,” Rome said. “Especially since she’s obviously your
companheiro
.”

*   *   *

“I am glad you are well,” Sheena Serino told her daughter in her hushed tone.

Ary didn’t turn to her mother’s voice. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, looking out the window. This was where she’d been since her return. Elisa, one of the female shifters, had come to tell them of the Elders and their meeting with the stateside shifters about the kidnapping. Her father had cursed and refused to go. Ary just didn’t want to be bothered.

Really, she didn’t want to see Nick again.

“We will go back to our lives now,” Sheena continued. “Father thinks we should have a bigger medical center and maybe closer to the border so we can receive shipments with more ease. We may have to get some of the other females to help us find a location and get started with the building.”

“I’m not a builder,” Ary snapped.

Behind her Sheena moved about, most likely picking up the things that had fallen onto the floor when Ary had swiped a hand over her desk. The moment she’d returned it had been her first act of rage—on the only thing she could lash out against, unfortunately.

“We do what we must, Aryiola.”

That mildly spoken statement had Ary whipping around. “No we do not! We do what he says. And I’m sick of it!”

Sheena looked startled. “Do not raise your voice.”

“Why? Because he’s sleeping?” Ary had raised her voice even louder as she stood. “Because he does not want to be bothered right now?”

“Father has been very worried. He has been troubled in these last days.”

“That’s because he’s been lying and stealing! Did he tell you that, Mother? Did he tell you that he’s been taking the money that the stateside shifters sent to us and some of the supplies?”

Sheena smoothed down her long, thinning hair and resumed picking up the ink pads and sheets of paper from the floor. “I do not ask questions. You should not speak of such things. You are but a
curandero
.”

“I am a person, Mother! Just like you. We don’t have to live like this,” she said.

Her mother paused. Kneeling on the floor, she looked up at Ary. “What way do you wish to live? This is our life.”

Ary shook her head adamantly. “It’s
your
life. I want more.”

Now Sheena shook her head so hard her hair fell around her frail shoulders. “You do not.”

“I do.”

Sheena’s entire body was shaking as she stood, dropping the paper onto Ary’s desk. “I will not speak of it.”

“You never do,” Ary replied. “But that doesn’t change how I feel. It doesn’t change what I want.”

“You should want to be a
curandero,
to help your tribe.” She was wringing her hands now, looking down nervously.

Ary felt sick to her stomach. This is how she would forever remember her mother: head bowed, soft-spoken, no will.

“I want to heal and help all people, not just shifters. And you should support that,” she told her honestly. That’s what parents were supposed to do, right?

“You will stay here where you belong.”

Her gaze shifted to Davi, who stood in the doorway, warm candlelight bathing the background behind him as if he were the devil coming from the fiery pit of hell. There was so much she wanted to say to him, and then there was nothing. Words just could not explain how she felt about this man that called himself her father.

“I will not stay here and continue to help that animal,” she told him defiantly.

He stepped fully into the room. “You will do as I say.”

“She will stay here. She will be a
curandero
just like us,” Sheena said, stepping between Ary and Davi.

“No. I will not!”

Davi reached for her but Sheena blocked him. “She is tired and does not know what she says.”

“She is a grown woman and will speak when she is spoken to. You don’t have to protect me from him,” Ary told her mother.

Davi shook his head. “You have no idea what you say. He will get what he wants without us, and we will be dead.”

Ary didn’t care. She simply did not care what Davi said. There was no way she would stay here and willingly work for Sabar. Of course, she had no real idea where she would go. She had no money of her own, so traveling to the States was out of the question. The humans had a village outside the forest; maybe she could work there.

There was no time to really think that through, however, because Davi grabbed Sheena by the shoulders and tossed her to the side.

“You will not endanger us! You will do as I say!”

He yelled as he reached for Ary, but she stepped to the side out of his way. “Do not run from me!”

As her father yelled once more, Ary stopped in her tracks. She was not her mother and she was not going to run from him. Standing still, she squared her shoulders and looked right into Davi’s almost black eyes.

“You cannot control me,” she told him.

“Then I will put an end to you.”

Ary thought she saw tears sheen his eyes as he said those words, but anger pushed past that thought and she lunged for him. Pushing him back, she began swinging, her flattened palms landing against his face and chest. Because he was substantially taller than her, with a much more powerful body, he only had to slap her once and Ary stumbled backward. There was something in one of his hands as he approached her, but Ary didn’t have the chance to see what it was.

In a blur of motion there was yelling and crashing as her desk was broken; the contents her mother had just picked up from the floor scattered once more. Sheena began to scream and cry, a gut-wrenching sound that hurt Ary’s ears. But her eyes were focused on the two men slamming against the wall in her room.

Nick was there with his hands wrapped around Davi’s neck.

“You sonofabitch. I warned you never to put your hands on her again!” Nick yelled in his face.

“She is my child. You are an outsider,” Davi said in chokes and gasps.

“Let him go,” Ary screamed when it looked like Nick was going to kill Davi right this minute.

“Get your stuff, Aryiola. We’re leaving,” Nick told her, still holding on to Davi.

“I mean it, Nick. Let him go!” she repeated.

“Get your stuff so we can leave!”

Two men telling her what to do. Two men yelling at her as if she had no brain of her own. Ary was so tired of this nonsense.

“Fine! Kill each other. See if I care.”

She left the room and the entire bunch of crazies behind her—but as she approached the front door of their home she was rendered speechless.

Through the door came the shifter named Franco—the one who had been with Sabar. Ary gasped and took a step back. Franco looked crazed. His cat’s eyes were an eerie orange tint and glazed as if a layer of glass was covering them. He walked with a staggered gait and couldn’t seem to talk as his mouth opened and closed and repeated the action.

“Kill…” was the word that finally escaped his throat. Ary knew what she needed to do next. She ran.

But he caught her, moving surprisingly fast given how bad he actually looked.

“Kill…,” he said again.

He’d grabbed her by her legs and they both tumbled to the floor. Ary kicked and kicked, her feet landing in his face, on his shoulders, on the back of his head. She scrambled away from him then tossed a chair in his direction. He stood just in time and caught the chair with one hand, breaking it with the other. He lifted the table and did the same, his strength seemingly endless.

He was coming for her again when gunshots echoed around her. Ary covered her head and ducked, not knowing where the shots were coming from. Through half-closed eyes she watched as bullets riddled Franco’s body. He jerked and jolted but did not fall. He looked like someone was doing target practice with his body as the shots simply kept coming. Finally they stopped, and the bullet-riddled shifter’s body fell face-first to the floor.

Cats came through the front door and from the bedroom until there were at least seven shifters fighting in the living area of what Ary knew as her home.

“Come on, we have to get out of here,” she heard a female voice say as she stared mutely at the scene before her.

It took another shake of her arm and someone screaming her name to snap Ary out of her shock. It was Kalina.

“Let’s go. Rome wants us out of here now!”

With a nod Ary followed behind Kalina. They both hunched down and made their way to the back of the house where they fell through the door, crawling on the wet ground until they were covered by a small thatch of bushes.

“We have to go back and help them,” Ary said.

“No!” Kalina grabbed her by the arm. “Rome said to stay here and wait for them. They’ll take care of it, then we’re leaving.”

“What? No. That’s my home. My mother’s in there. I’m going.”

Ary tried to make a run for it, but Kalina pushed her down by the shoulders and held her to the ground.

“Your parents are in cahoots with Sabar. That rogue that walked through the front door was one of Sabar’s men. He and four others were sent to the Gungi to deliver the message that Sabar has left the forest but will return to kill all shifters who do not follow his orders. You were first on the list. That’s why Nick came looking for you.”

Judging by the edgy look in Kalina’s golden cat eyes, Ary knew she was speaking the truth. “No” was all she finally managed to whisper. “My mother.”

“I’m sorry. It’s too late for her,” Kalina said in a softer voice. She moved off Ary, let her get to a sitting position, and shook her head. “Your mother knew what they were doing, Ary. She knew all along.”

Tears freely fell from Ary’s eyes, without her consent. She hated crying as much as she hated weakness. But at this moment she didn’t know how to conquer either. It was all so overwhelming. Everything that had happened in the last few days was more than she’d ever imagined, more than any one shifter should have to endure.

Her chest felt constricted but the sobs broke free, and when she was cradled Ary let herself go. She welcomed the comfort from someone who seemed to understand. Because in the distance, that house she’d grown up in and learned how to be a
curandero
in was being destroyed. Everything that her life had been was gone.

Chapter 11

The bed was comfortable. As Ary lay her head down, that was all she’d allow herself to think about.

She was in Nick’s house, where he’d wanted her all along. But she’d had no other choice. The Elders would take her in, but then Nick would sleep on the floor right outside her door. He’d sworn to do just that. Ary was tired of all the attention and didn’t want to upset the tribe or the Gungi any more than she already had.

So she’d agreed to come here.

Her parents were dead. Both of them killed by the Rogue shifters who came for them. It was what Sabar had threatened. Only she still lived. Rome, X, and Nick had made sure no other Rogue had that privilege. Maybe Sabar would never know she was still alive.

She shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts and memories from her mind. It wasn’t working.

“I made you some tea.”

Ary didn’t turn over, didn’t even move as she heard Nick’s voice and listened as his footsteps came closer to the bed.

On the small table beside the bed he set a mug with rising steam and looked down on her. She’d pulled down the netting since a good portion of one wall in this room was a window with adjustable flaps to either keep out the elements or let them in. The majority of the time the Gungi was hot and sticky. Tonight was no different, so the flap was opened wide.

In came the night sounds and a breeze cooled only by the light drizzle now falling. The constant pitter-pat sound was lulling, but unfortunately not enough. And now that he was close by, she knew sleep would take even longer to come.

“Thank you,” she whispered finally.

He squatted so that his face was level with hers. She wanted to turn over, to close her eyes. Anything not to look at him. Why? Because he was so handsome it was painful. Because his eyes pierced deep into her heart and he could surely see how helplessly in love with him she still was.

Nick cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Then his brow furrowed and he had that frustrated look about him. A second later he pushed the netting back so fast and hard it almost ripped.

“What are you apologizing for?” Ary asked when her heart threatened to hammer right out of her chest.

He was close enough she could reach out a hand to touch his cheek, to trace the hard indentation that lined his lips. She could kiss him, if she thought that’s what he wanted. As it was, she kept her hands lodged beneath the pillow that cradled her head.

“For leaving you. I should have stayed.”

And she shouldn’t be so touched by the apology. But she was. “Maybe I should have followed you,” she said, feeling emboldened by his admission.

Nick shook his head. “I could have handled things differently. I should have.”

Because I’m the man
. He didn’t say that, but the words sort of lingered between them.

“So what now?” she asked with a sigh. She was too tired to do anything more.

“You come back to the States with me in the morning,” he said simply.

So simply and so matter-of-factly, fatigue was quickly forgotten. His bossiness was getting on her nerves. “My plans are to head to the human village and find work there.”

“Work? What type of work? You don’t even know any of them.”