Prologue
At the tender age of ten, Emelise learned a very hard, very painful life lesson. Never depend on a man to provide for you. Her mother had met Sean Scotsdale when Eme was four and they’d quickly moved in together. He became the father she wanted but didn’t have. Emelise, as young as she was, believed he would be there forever. The day he packed his things and left was the worst day of her young life.
“I know it hurts, sweetie, it hurts me too, but we’ll be okay. We’re strong, we can get through this. We don’t need a man to take care of us,” Adelaide said as she rocked her daughter. Sean would be the second, and last, man she allowed into her life. From that day on she devoted herself solely to raising her daughter to be a strong, independent woman.
Fifteen years later that strength would be the only thing that would get Emelise through the worst event of her life.
Emelise looked at the clock and sighed. Her mother was still out. You’d think it would be the other way around; she would be the one out and her mother would be watching the time; but Adelaide had needed a night out with her friends and went out while her daughter was at work. It was late though. The jazz club Emelise worked at closed at one, it was almost three in the morning, and Eme had expected her mother to be home before now. The sound of a car pulling up outside reached her and she frowned. She knew what her mother’s car sounded like and it wasn’t the one that pulled up outside their home. Before she made it out of her bedroom there was a knock at the front door and her frown deepened. When she opened the door and found a police officer standing on the other side, she grew concerned. “Can I help you, officer?”
“Sorry to disturb you at such a late hour miss. Do you know an Adelaide Rousseau?”
“Yes, she’s my mother. Oh gods, don’t tell me she got herself arrested or something.” The instant she said it she knew that couldn’t be why the officer was there because if her mother was arrested she’d be getting a call to bail her out.
“I’m sorry, Miss Rousseau, but there has been an accident. Your mother is being transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center’s trauma center.”
Emelise felt her entire world stop with those words. “Oh gods,” she whispered. “What... what happened?”
“Another car crossed the median and hit her head on. Do you have someone you can call to drive you to the hospital?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s just me and my mother.” She was shaking but she forced herself to stand tall, or as tall as her 5’4” would allow. “Thank you, officer, for telling me. I need to go, I need to get to her.”
“I’m very sorry to have to deliver such bad news. I’ll give you a police escort to the hospital.”
She nodded and went to grab her purse. She locked the door behind her and drove her car on autopilot because she didn’t even remember the drive itself. She was glad the officer hadn’t realized just how shaken up she was. She rushed into the ER and approached the desk. “My mother was brought in by ambulance, Adelaide Rousseau,” she said and tried to not snap at the receptionist to hurry up while she looked her up on the computer.
“Miss, your mother is in surgery, someone will come get you when they can.”
Emelise was staring at the doors leading into the back of the ER when she was finally approached. “Miss Rousseau?” She knew. When she looked up and saw the doctor’s eyes, she knew what he was going to say. “She’s gone, isn’t she?” Tears fell as the doctor explained they’d done all they could but there was too much damage and they’d lost her on the operating table. Emelise barely heard him. There was paperwork she had to sign, and then a bag was handed to her. Inside it was her mother’s purse, her phone, and what jewelry she’d been wearing at the time of the accident.
During the three weeks it took for Emelise to get all of her mother’s affairs in order, go through things and get rid of what she didn’t need, pack what she wanted to keep, and get the house listed for sale, Emelise had made a decision. She’d wanted to open her own night club and her original plan was to do so right there in Phoenix. Now that she had other options, she knew where she wanted to be. It made little sense, this driving need to go to New Orleans when her mother was so sure she wouldn’t be welcome there, but she couldn’t ignore the way she felt. She had to go to New Orleans.
She’d scanned properties that were for sale, made some calls, got some photos of several potential spots that were in fairly high volume areas of the city, and made arrangements to meet with the Realtor to look at the one that caught her eye the most. She knew from what the Realtor said about it that the place was a bar until the owner died several years ago and it had been sitting empty and untouched since then. It already had the bare bones of what she would need even if it did need a good cleaning and possibly a complete overhaul of the interior. It was the one. She was sure of it.
Emelise took one last look around the house she’d grown up in before she stepped out and closed the door behind her. She handed the keys over to the Realtor who would handle the sale for her and took a deep breath of morning air. It wasn’t too hot yet. By early afternoon the sun would be scorching the sidewalks but she would be well on her way to New Orleans by then. Of course, she’d be driving right into more heat, this time coupled with humidity. She wasn’t sure how much different that was going to be from the dry heat of the desert but she’d adjust even if it took a while to get used to it.
She felt a little trepidation as she made her way to her car but she chalked it up to being nervous about starting a new chapter in her life in a new city. She knew anything could happen but at least she was going to a city where she knew at least one person. Her best friend, Lily, lived in New Orleans so she wasn’t going to be completely alone.
It was strange, really. One would think that having grown up there in Phoenix she would have a large group of friends, people she would really miss when she left, but she’d never been that close to any of the girls she’d gone to school with. Having to keep the fact she was a leopard shifter from them had made getting close to any of them a bit difficult. How could you be close and share secrets if you had to keep the biggest secret of all to yourself? There was only one person she was really going to miss, a fellow shifter and coworker at the club she’d worked at, but they would keep in touch.
She slid her sunglasses on as she slipped into her car, turned the radio up, and she was on her way. She was both excited and nervous about what the future might hold for her but she sure as fuck was going to meet it head on. She was no shrinking violet, she wasn’t a wallflower, she wasn’t going to let a little uncertainty stand in her way or change her mind. She would chase her dreams and by Goddess she would succeed because failure wasn’t an option.
Emelise drove out of Phoenix with a light heart. Yes, she missed her mother, she would always miss her, but letting her grief bog her down wouldn’t do her any good. She would live her life and keep her mother’s memory alive. She knew her mother wouldn’t want her to wallow in misery day after day just because she was no longer here. “Look Out New Orleans, here I come,” she said as she left the town of her birth behind her.
It was a little over twenty-one hours to New Orleans from Phoenix, but because she did a little sightseeing along the way, it took Emelise twice as long to get there. Her first view of the city was as the sun was setting. The red, gold, and orange sunset reflected off the waters of Lake Pontchartrain as she neared New Orleans was breath-taking and even at a distance the city seemed to be filled with life. She’d been exhausted from the drive but now that she was there, titillation thrilled through her and once she checked into the hotel she’d booked ahead of her arrival, she found herself wandering the streets.
While she wandered she thought about all she had to do starting the following day. She needed to meet with the Realtor to look at the old bar and sign the paperwork, because, really, she’d already made her decision without seeing it physically, start looking for an apartment, catch up with her best friend, oh, and then there was the whole being in the Black Water Pard’s territory uninvited. On the bright side, she was a leopard and her mother had been a part of the pard before she’d taken off, so getting the Alpha to let her stay probably wouldn’t be too difficult. On the downside, she had no idea who the Alpha was or how to contact him, but she was hoping Lily did. She was a wolf in their territory, she had to have met the Alpha at least once, right?