Christmas Day
Seattle, Washington
There were times being the leader of the Shadow
Sisters, righting wrongs, protecting
innocents and just generally being a badass for good wasn’t all it was cracked
up to be. Today was one of those times. The man she knew to be her fated mate
slept in the large Victorian brass bed, completely sated, supremely confident,
and about to be utterly destroyed.
That she was the architect of
that destruction was something she had accepted a long time ago. It wasn’t that
she had set out to destroy him; it was just that she couldn’t indulge her
deepest romantic fantasies until her work was done—and she was a long way from
being done. Colby would survive, but he was not going to be happy to find her
gone.
In a world where humans reigned
supreme, it was tough enough being a female Canadian lynx shifter. The
rejuvenation of the Shadow League, a group of assassins controlled by the
Ruling Council and used for their own nefarious purposes, meant that their
counterpart, the Shadow Sisters, had been restored as well. Aubry Hawthorne, or
Brie as she was known to those closest to her, had been chosen to lead the
group of female shifters who were often referred to as ‘rogue.’
Right now, Brie’s most vexing
problem was her belief—which grew stronger each day—that the League had a far
darker purpose than anyone imagined and answered to a master no one even knew
existed for sure. That wasn’t true. There were those who knew; they just
couldn’t prove it yet.
One of those people was Colby
Reynolds, the alpha of the Windsong clowder, her fated mate, and the man that
she would never see again.
***
Christmas Eve
Seattle,
Washington
Brie stood at the edge of the
Olympic National Park where the tree line met the sea. Her home, if one could
call it that, was a primitive cave deep within the Olympic Mountains
themselves. Right now, she doubted anyone could make out that she was there watching.
The spotted pattern of her coat ensured she was well-camouflaged in this
environment. She still wasn’t convinced this was a good idea, but she was
certain it needed to be done. Meeting in person with the enigmatic alpha of the
Windsong Clowder might be necessary in order to have his continued support, but
she had long ago decided a meeting would be problematic to say the least.
Brie turned away from the
stunning view and began to make her way through the forest to the place she’d
hidden her clothes so she could shift into her human form, board the ferry to
Seattle, and meet this evening with Colby. Somehow, he had managed to secure an
entire boutique hotel for their clandestine meeting. The hotel would be closed,
and they would be alone. Anyone trying to secretly observe them or overhear
their conversation would have a degree of difficulty that would prove
insurmountable.
Reaching her hidden stash of
clothes, Brie bade her lynx to retreat as the whirling mist of color,
lightning, and thunder swirled all around her until the only thing left was
Brie, standing naked in the cold Pacific Northwest winter, pulling on her
clothing and boots in order to take the ferry to Seattle.
Sunset and the following
darkness came early in the Pacific Northwest. By the time she reached the
small, elegant hotel in the heart of the city, it would be full-on dark. How
Colby had arranged for them to meet there was beyond her knowing, but she
didn’t doubt his ability to do anything he wanted to do past him. The tentacles
of his power seemed to have an endless and infinite reach.
Brie knew that many people, if
not most, preferred daylight to darkness. She was not among them. She had
always found the night to be the most comforting of shrouds. There were things
she could accomplish between dusk and dawn that would have been far more
difficult if not downright impossible.
As she reached her destination,
a liveried doorman rushed down the steps to open the door to the limo that had
been waiting for her at the dock. The man had style; she had to give him that.
“Ms. Hawthorne, the alpha is
waiting for you in the dining room. Dinner has been laid out and no one will
disturb you. We have a small, but more than adequate security team to ensure
your safety and privacy.”
Brie shook her head. “You do
know this is a bit much, right? We could easily have met somewhere close to the
dock or even at the Space Needle.”
“The alpha wanted to ensure you
had the privacy and safety he felt a lady of your importance to the cause
deserved.”
Brie snorted a very unladylike
laugh. “No. Your boss is trying to impress me with his wealth and power. I
could care less about either. What I do care about are his intentions and that
he understands the Shadow Sisters will not become one more asset in his
criminal and espionage circles.”
“I can assure you the alpha…”
“Save it. I’m going to go in,
meet with the man and leave. Any deviation or hindrance to my plan will be met
with deadly force. Got it? You might want to let the rest of your team know
that.”
Brie pushed past him and entered
the lobby of the beautiful and sophisticated hotel. The overwhelming bout of
dizziness and nausea felt like a blow to the gut and made her falter. She might
actually have been driven to her knees had it not been for the strong, steadying
hand of the man into whose eyes she looked up and found herself mesmerized.
“I wondered if that might not be
the case,” Colby Reynolds purred. “I’ve felt your presence off and on since you
left the ferry. You should know you’ll never be able to completely shut down
the link.”
“You don’t know that for a
fact,” she said, withdrawing her hand from his.
“I do, but I sense a strong
streak of willfulness in you. Not to worry. I like a good challenge.”
Choosing to ignore what they
both knew to be true; Brie chose to get their discussion steered back to the
reason for this meeting. “I rarely worry about things that don’t matter to me.
What does matter to me is your increasing presence in the work of the Shadow
Sisters.”
Colby smiled and gestured to a
darkened dining room lit only by candles, stepping back so she could precede
him. Brie had to hand it to him; he was smooth, polished, had impeccable
manners, and was sexy as hell. She’d never been as instantly and wildly
attracted to a man as she was to Colby Reynolds.
But she guessed that’s what
happened with fated mates.
They spent the next several
hours discussing the Shadow League and their mutual belief that neither the
Council nor the League itself was the ultimate power behind what was happening
within the shifter community at large. Well, at least that was what Brie was
discussing. What Colby was discussing was on a whole other level, and Brie did
her best to avoid it.
When she felt she’d gotten out
of him all that she could, Brie stood, looking down for the brief moment before
he too got to his feet. “This has been enlightening. It’s good to know we have
your support—financial and otherwise—if we need it. But for now, the Shadow
Sisters will continue as we are.”
Colby shook his head. “That
makes no sense, Brie. Your network has grown large and unwieldy. You need a
centralized headquarters where you can set up an intelligence gathering and
analyzing group. You need far better weapons, computers, and networking than
you currently have. All of that exists at Windsong and your operatives, as well
as those women needing sanctuary until you can find them a permanent place,
could have a safe home from where they could come and go as they please.”
“Here’s the thing, Reynolds, the
one question you never answered regardless of how many times or ways I asked
it. What’s in it for you?”
“We have the same goals. We want
the same things. We both hide in different ways, but I am not the enemy of the
Shadow Sisters. It’s time we banded together to bring down the Shadow League
and whoever is truly behind them.” He reached up to tuck a stray lock of her
copper-colored hair behind her ear. “I am not your enemy, either. In fact, we
both know we are so much more to each other.”
“I know no such thing.”
Colby chuckled. All evening,
he’d made it clear that he knew why she’d stumbled. He purred to her, found
ways to touch her, and she’d been unwilling to put him off. The arousal that
had started swirling in her nether region from the moment she had entered the
hotel had been steadily increasing. It now surged through her blood like a
wildfire out of control—heat, passion, and need churning together into an
intoxicating cocktail.
“But you do. It may not be what
you think you want, but we both know need is riding you hard. The scent of your
arousal calls to me as does everything about you. Would it be so wrong for you
to find peace and some kind of solace in this world while you fight the good
fight? Would not we both be stronger if we had the other to lean on?”
Brie thought about going for her
knife. She told herself she didn’t as it would mean fighting her way out of the
hotel, but she knew that wasn’t the real reason she didn’t jerk her hand away
or offer him any resistance as he led her toward the vintage, two-person
elevator and drew her inside, inserting a special key card that would take them
to the top floor. She’d seen similar security features in other exclusive
hotels.
“Colby,” she said as the doors
opened into a gorgeous room that seemed to take up the entire top floor. A top
floor that had a commanding view of the Seattle skyline and the water below.
She gasped as she walked toward
the windows. “It’s beautiful. It almost feels like we’re hanging in the air
with the stars.”
“I agree. I bought this hotel,
refurbished it and created this sanctuary for myself for when I need to be in
Seattle. Mystic River is a quiet place of refuge, but my work often requires me
to be here. If I cannot persuade you to return to Windsong at my side, perhaps
we could find a way to use this hotel to suit our needs.”
She turned, leaning back against
the window, and smiled at him. She hadn’t realized he’d followed so closely
behind her, but she found his stealth oddly comforting. “Look, Colby, I’m going
to be honest with you. I accepted a long time ago that I was destined to live
my life alone.”
“We both know that destiny has
brought you to your fated mate.”
Brie nodded. “That might be
true, but I chose a different path early on. There will be no happily ever
after for me. I will not rest until I see my sisters free.”
“What makes you think I would
try and keep you from your goal, as it is the same one I seek?”
Brie snorted.
“How can you doubt me? Until
recently my second-in-command was a female snow leopard-shifter. Time and
again, I have lent my support to the Shadow Sisters, asking nothing in return.
I don’t doubt your strength, courage, or tenacity, but I sense the part of you
that you keep hidden from the world, maybe even from yourself. You need a mate
who can offer you his loving support and passion.”
“And what do you need, Colby?”
“In a word, you. I need to be
needed—not by my clowder or the world at large, but by one woman who wants me
for myself and not for the wealth and power I bring to the table. I long for
someone with whom I can share all my secrets.”
She got the feeling that there
was so much more to what he was saying than just the words themselves. She knew
it couldn’t work, but would it be so wrong just to indulge herself in his
passionate embrace? To know for once and all time what it felt to be loved by
her fated mate?
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