Chapter One

 

Norway

2048

 

The leggy female disappeared into thin air. Tamian jogged toward the woods where she’d been walking, but she was nowhere to be seen, even with his shifter sight. How was that possible? Harlow, as he thought of her, was a mystery. He had chosen that particular alias because he liked the way it rolled off his tongue when he imagined being buried in her heat. Or in her mouth. Never before had he dwelled on sex, but now that he’d gotten a glimpse of the one who turned his world upside down, it was all he could think about. He’d heard that was normal, but for him, it was anything but.

While a couple of the local Gargoyles were convinced the stranger was a spy, figuring out exactly who she was spying on was becoming a challenge. The woman had been in Holmesvik for almost two weeks, and Tamian had trailed her for almost half of those days. Other than driving into Oslo and hanging out around the palace, she spent most of her time outside enjoying the fresh air. Watching her wasn’t a hardship. Well, other than his cock wanting to misbehave anytime he was around her. He was still trying to convince himself she wasn’t his mate, but the longer he followed her, the more his body reacted to her, and the more difficult it was to deny.

When Tamian had slipped into the small home where Harlow was staying, there had been nothing lying around to indicate who she really was or why she was in the small Norwegian town. The house was being rented under the name of Warryck Lazlo, but Tamian had seen no sign of anyone other than Harlow.

Looking around to make sure she hadn’t slipped up behind him, Tamian stepped into the confines of the trees, keeping his senses open. The only footsteps were his own. Birds moved from branch to branch, and leaves rustled in the soft breeze. A large eagle took flight, drifting swiftly away from where Tamian was standing, and his eyes were glued to the bird. Not that he was all that familiar with the sea eagles of Europe, but this one’s coloring seemed… off. When it was out of sight, he returned his attention to the area around him. If the female had gone into the woods, she wasn’t there now.

He didn’t see her, but by the gods, he felt her. So, where the hell was she?

Giving up, Tamian retraced his steps and turned toward town. It wasn’t the first time Harlow had given him the slip. If he wasn’t Gargoyle, he would think she knew he was following her. But he was a shifter, and stealth had been his best friend since he was a toddler. If she kept to her pattern, the female was returning to the small house she’d called home for the past twelve days. Julian had yet to find a connection between the renter, a psychology professor, and Harlow, but the female was an enigma, having multiple aliases. Hell, the man could also be another alias, considering Julian hadn’t seen anyone other than the female in or near the house.

Having put it on silent, Tamian removed his phone from the back pocket of his jeans and brought it to life. Taking a seat on a metal park bench, he opened the app which allowed him access to the cameras he hid in the small bungalow Harlow was staying in. The app would have pulsed a notification had she activated the motion sensor on one of the cameras, but he looked anyway. From where he last saw her, it would have taken Harlow four minutes to walk the short distance to the house.

He knew it was pointless, but he waited a few more minutes before closing his phone. The female had gone somewhere else, so Tamian headed toward the town center where the café was located. Other than the small park, it was the place she visited most often. Gargoyles could sense their mates when they were near. They had an invisible link to the one the fates had chosen for them. Tamian felt the connection when he was close to Harlow. In spades. The odd thing was he sensed her even when he couldn’t see her. The stranger thing was he couldn’t listen in on her thoughts.

Tamian was no mere half-blood. He had been created from more than his sister’s cells. Jonas had added his own to the mix, thus making Tamian closer to a full-blooded Goyle. As with the full-bloods, Tamian had transitioned when he was young, not having to wait to find his mate to trigger the change. Not only that, but somehow his abilities were enhanced above what the average Gargoyle was born with. It had taken him years to control some of his powers, like being able to hear thoughts. If it hadn’t been for Jonas, Tamian would have gone mad before he was a teenager. No one other than Jonas, Caroline, and eventually, Xavier knew of the things Tamian was capable of. Not even his sister.

  While he was walking, Tamian passed by the house Freyda owned. Since she had taken up with Gautum, Banyan’s uncle, the house stood empty at night, but during the day, the female utilized her massive kitchen for baking the best bread Tamian had ever put in his mouth. At first, Tamian didn’t know what to think of the older Gargoyles. Urijah’s parents, Tabor and Halina, had welcomed Tamian into their home as if they’d known him all his life instead of someone they’d only just met. Tabor spent his days at the armory with Gautum. The two of them were waiting on Uri and Banyan to take over the armory so they could travel the world with their mates. The four of them were certainly different than Tamian’s parents in that they were old souls. On the outside, they looked to be in their early forties, but when they talked, years of living came out of their mouths. Their homes were on the smaller side yet thoroughly lived in. Love permeated the air.

Xavier Montagnon’s name was on Tamian’s birth certificate, but the Italian King had little to do with how Tamian had been raised in his early days. Instead, Tamian had grown up with Jonas as his father figure, having stayed with the male who created him more often than he did with his mother and Xavier. Being a clone, it was hard for Tamian to think of either male as a father.

Xavier split his time between New York, where he had a secure estate built for Elizabeth, and his Italian chalet nestled at the foot of Mont Blanc. Elizabeth had been a wonderful mother, but she had spent the first thirty-three years of his life hiding from Gordon Flanagan, her human husband. Now that Flanagan was no longer in the picture, Elizabeth was free to move about as she pleased.

When he was older, Tamian divided his time between the Italian chalet and following his sister around the world, keeping an eye on her. It was only when Tessa mated with Gregor, and the Stone Society welcomed her whole family into the Clan, that he stopped being such a recluse. Now, here he was in the thick of things with members of the Stone Clan and their families. Having played an integral part in helping Julian spring his mate from the FBI’s Super Max facility, as well as in the fight against the Greek King, Tamian had been welcomed into the fold even more than before. It was something he was still getting used to.

“Ya gonna walk on by like ya don’t know me?” Freyda called after Tamian. Grinning, he turned around and made his way up to the female shifter’s porch. “Why the hurry?” she asked, hands on her hips.

Keeping his voice low, Tamian admitted, “I was looking for Harlow.” Instead of continuing to call her “the spy,” Tamian told the others he preferred to use one of her known aliases.

Freyda, more than the others, was curious about the female Tamian was watching, convinced she was up to no good. The house Harlow had been staying in was just across from Freyda’s, giving her the perfect opportunity to do a little spying of her own. Tamian was of the same opinion, only because the female had so many aliases. Tessa has just as many names, he reminded himself.

“She entered the house across the street about ten minutes ago.”

“That’s not possible,” Tamian huffed, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the app.

“I saw her with my own eyes. Look, there she is.”

Tamian turned toward the house across the street, and sure enough, Harlow was walking out the front door, pulling a suitcase behind her. “What the fuck?” he muttered. Tamian couldn’t help but admire the way Harlow’s pants hugged her round bottom as she stowed her luggage in the trunk. As she shut the lid, the female turned and looked right at him with a smirk before walking around and lowering herself into the driver’s seat. He could only stare as she drove past and waved. “What the fuck?”

Tamian dialed Julian’s number, and as he waited for the other Goyle to pick up, he tapped on the screen of his phone. Changing apps, Tamian opened the one showing which route Harlow was taking. The red beacon moved across the map, headed out of town. Damnit. “Sorry, love. I’ve gotta run. Tell Halina I’ll call her,” Tamian said, kissing Freyda quickly on the cheek.

“Be careful out there,” she called after him as he headed toward the Aldobrand home to gather his things. If Harlow was leaving town, he needed to hurry.

Julian answered, “Tam? What’s up?”

“Harlow is on the move, and if I’m right, she’s headed to the airport.”

“Hang on.” Julian’s fingers moving across his keyboard was too loud in Tamian’s ear, so he put the phone on speaker. He rushed to gather his things from Urijah’s old bedroom, not bothering to leave a note. He had no doubt Freyda had already phoned Halina, letting her know he was leaving.

“The good news is one of her aliases popped up in the system. Marlena Evans is on the eleven-ten flight to New York. The bad news is that flight is booked. Do you want me to see if I can get you on the next one?”

“That won’t be necessary. I have my jet. I just needed to know where she was going.”

“Her flight is nonstop, due to arrive at La Guardia at one-fifteen.”

“Thanks, Julian. I should be able to be there before her, or at least close to the same time.”

“Good luck, Brother.”

“Later.” Tamian disconnected, his heart swelling once again at being considered part of the Clan. Making his way to the airport in his rental car, Tamian called his pilot, Santiago, who was on standby. Even with having to stop and refuel, the male assured Tamian they would reach La Guardia before the airbus Harlow would be flying on.

Tamian had found no evidence of Harlow spying on the Goyles, but he wasn’t ready to abandon the notion. There was more to the female than met the eye, and he planned on finding out all about her.

 

 

Lucy couldn’t help herself when she waved at the man who’d been following her. He thought he was being stealthy, but her senses were hyperaware of her surroundings. He also thought he could get away with being inside the house she’d rented without her knowing. Once she’d caught his scent, that was all she needed to realize he’d broken in. With her eagle-eyes, it didn’t take long to find the cameras he’d hidden. What she couldn’t figure out was why.

Being an agent with the Global Intelligence Agency, Lucy had plenty of resources at her disposal, and after snapping a photo of the man, she ran his picture through a facial recognition program on her computer. Tamian Andrew St. Claire was the most stunning man to ever follow Lucy. Hell, he was one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen, in real life or otherwise. The first time she noticed him, she nearly tripped over her own feet. There was something different about him, and if Lucy had time, she would love to figure out what that was.

Lucy had never found herself lying awake at night, thinking about how a man was built, or how his green eyes held a mystery she was dying to solve. Once she’d become immersed in the family business, Lucy never took time to date anyone. No one held her attention long enough for her to consider anything more than a one-night stand, and she’d not bothered with those since college. Until now.

Her time in Holmesvik had been cut short, as she’d been called back to the States. It bothered her that Mr. St. Claire was spying on her. She had never heard of the man before she arrived in Norway, and as far as she could tell, he wasn’t linked to any of the cases she’d had, past or present. Instead of alerting her superiors or her family to the man’s presence, Lucy decided to do a little more digging into his background.

After her mother passed away four years ago, Lucy finished her education at MIT. It had been hard, but she’d made a promise to Vera. Once she received her diploma, instead of diving headfirst into her father’s research, she took some time off and learned some new skills. Finding out she was adopted had thrown Lucy for a handful of loops. She became obsessed with finding out who she really was. If only Lucius and Vera had told her she was adopted, she would have been able to handle the truth. At least, she thought she would have. Finding out the Balls weren’t her birth parents, rather her aunt and uncle, put Lucy on a path that reshaped her future.

Lucy was smart, but computer hacking wasn’t in her sandbox back then, so she hired someone to teach her. With both her adopted parents deceased, Lucy was the sole heir to the Ball estate, and it had been sizable. Lucy talked one of her former classmates into showing her how to find things on the internet she shouldn’t have been able to, and for Anna’s time and discretion, Lucy paid her well. If things had been different, if Lucy had been different, she and Anna could have ended up being best friends. As it were, Lucy became obsessed with finding Warryck Lazlo – her father.

With Anna’s help, it hadn’t taken all that long to locate the male. He was a psychology professor, teaching not far from where she grew up. The reunion hadn’t been a happy one, but it did open up a whole new world to her. War, as his family called him, was one of five boys. Not only that, he had a twin – Maveryck. Mav and her grandparents welcomed Lucy into the fold, and her life took a twist she never would’ve believed had she not lived it.

Becoming entrenched in the family business, Lucy found herself switching gears from genetics to computer infiltration. That sounded better than hacking. Several months after she graduated, Lucy was approached by the GIA. She wasn’t as adept as Anna with computer research, but she had learned quite a bit. Somehow, she’d shown up on the government’s radar, and they wanted to recruit her. She asked them for time to think it over, but they gave her an ultimatum – work for them or jail time. For Lucy, there was no choice. In agreeing to work for the GIA, Lucy would have access to better equipment, and thus she’d have more resources to help the Hounds with their endeavors.

Before the GIA, Lucy had never fired a gun. Never studied martial arts. Never even thought about covert operations and spying on people except for those her family kept an eye on. Within eighteen months, Lucy was proficient in all those things. By her twenty-fourth birthday, she had several aliases and an almost-full passport.

Traveling the world was nothing new to her. Traveling the world as someone other than Lucy Ball took a little getting used to. She had chosen her own aliases, opting to use names closely related to real-life celebrities or television characters. Those were easier for her to remember.

Lucy had vacationed in many exotic places with her parents. Some were tropical islands. Some were ancient cities which had been abandoned during the near apocalypse. Some were even small villages where she and her parents volunteered their time and money to help the less fortunate. She was taught at an early age how most people didn’t have the luxuries she did, and it was important to give back to the people she shared the world with. As proven by her parents’ deaths, you couldn’t take it with you when you died, so being charitable had been ingrained in her for as long as she could remember.

Most of her cases within the GIA were to gather information. After the world fell some thirty years prior, it took a while for most countries to rebuild. Things became rather archaic at first, but gradually, the world returned to an almost normal status. As governments worked to recover from the economic as well as physical destruction, there was a faction who called themselves the Ministry, determined to hold governments hostage unless they conformed to their ideals. It was their belief the world had fallen because God had once again cursed the sinners.

The public lost all respect as police and other local officials stooped to corruption, and the alphabet agencies were brought to their knees. After many years and lots of hard work, the GIA was formed, replacing the CIA. The FBI was still around, but their name was still less than respectable.

Lucy’s job with the GIA was to make sure governments were behaving while determining how much of an influence the Ministry held over them. That was a job easier said than done. The reason she’d been in Holmesvik was because word had reached the agency that power was changing hands. When she arrived, Lucy found that not only was Norway’s King Aumont not going anywhere, but he was adored by the people. Whatever Intel her agency had received was wrong. She had figured that out within two days of arriving in Oslo.

Instead of returning to the States immediately, Lucy took a non-sanctioned mini-vacation. When she found the small town of Holmesvik, she fell in love. The people were kind, and the atmosphere was conducive to relaxing, so she stretched her visit out as long as possible. It was a village full of shifters, even though she didn’t let on she was aware of their true nature. She knew what it was like to hide the animal inside.

As the small jet settled at cruising altitude, Lucy’s thoughts turned to Tamian St. Claire and the way the man followed her. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was special, too. Having abilities outside the norm allowed her to go above and beyond in doing her job. They kept her safe on more than one occasion when someone got too close to finding out the truth of who she was underneath the alias and the disguises. Wigs, makeup, and fake accents did wonders, but sometimes they weren’t enough. If her cover was blown, it could mean more than a case being blown wide open; it could mean death.

Lucy wasn’t ready to join Lucius and Vera. Both their lives had been cut short. Lucius’s shorter than it should have been, considering. What would Mr. St. Claire think if he knew who Lucy was? How would he react to her inner nature? Leaving the gorgeous man behind in Norway, she would never find out, unless he somehow managed to find out where she was going. It seemed he had an agenda where she was concerned, and she couldn’t allow that. Unless he was aware of her aliases, he’d be searching for a long time.