Chapter Three

Kassian

He watched from across the room as his brother closed the door gently.

From outside came a hoarse cry several seconds later. “I don’t have anywhere else to go!”

Not for the first time, Kassian frowned. There was something about that voice. Something he thought he recognized.

“Who was that?” he asked, entering the conversation. He’d seen Pierce close the door once already and consult the group, but he hadn’t paid any attention to it. Not once it’d become clear it wasn’t the Institute come calling.

Maybe it was the owner of the motel, come to tell them that their bills were unpaid, or that they were sick and tired of all the noise the brothers made. That would be more likely.

Pierce glared at him, but Kassian just let it slide away, looking on patiently as he waited for his youngest brother to clue him in.

“Some woman. She claimed to be from the convoy. Said that one of us had given her this location, told her to come here if she needed any help.”

Very, very carefully, Kassian forced himself to stay relaxed, without reacting to that statement. “Oh,” he said neutrally. “So she needed help? And you turned her away? That doesn’t seem like you, brother dearest,” he teased, doing his job as older brother to torment the younger ones.

Pierce rolled his eyes. “If you’d been paying attention brother, you’d have known that she doesn’t need help from us. She wants to help us. To fight the Institute.”

“And we’re just turning help away?” Kassian said, rising from his seat. “That seems silly. There’s only eight of us. Why wouldn’t nine be better?”

“She’s a human with no special skills of any kind,” Pierce said, clearly reining in his own temper. “She’ll just get killed.”

Kassian moved toward the door, wondering if it was who he thought it might be. His brothers wouldn’t be impressed with him if they knew he was the one who’d given their hiding spot away. Even now he kind of winced at that. If this woman had told the others, thinking he’d meant that message for them all, then it was entirely possible one of them had mentioned it to the Institute at some point if they’d decided to re-enlist in the program. Which is how the wolves could have come to be in the forest out back. All of which was his fault.

“Tell me you haven’t been surprised by a human before,” he told Pierce, glancing pointedly at the human female sitting next to him, her head resting on his shoulder.

Pierce clearly got the reference to Mila, and how she—as a human—had managed to spring all of the brothers from a prison designed to keep them in. Not only had she done it once, she’d done it twice. The woman was impressive, there was no denying that. Nor was she the only one in the room who had helped the shifters.

He pushed past his younger brother, for once reining in his desire to shoulder him aside, and opened the door. Kassian didn’t pause in the doorframe though; he strode right through, closing it behind him as fast as he could.

“You!” the woman hissed as she met his eyes.

“Me,” he rumbled.

The little firebrand, all five foot three, tanned skin and exotically curled hair stared back at him. She looked ready to explode. Then again, as he remembered, she always looked ready to explode. It was just her natural look, he decided.

“You were in there the entire time,” she said, practically shaking with anger. “And you didn’t speak up, say a word, intervene…nothing?”

Kassian shrugged, though he was finding it hard to tear his eyes away from her. “I wasn’t paying attention, to be honest. I was on the far side of the room.”

“Stop that,” she said as he stood there.

Kassian looked around in bewilderment. “Stop what?”

“You’re looking at me strange. Like you were back at the convoy.”

Shit. Was he staring? Kassian hadn’t thought so, but maybe he had been. That wasn’t good. Still, it was hard for him to tear his eyes away from her. She was so deliciously different than anyone he’d ever met before. Her skin was the color of burnished bronze, Her hair, hanging down just to her ear, was so curly he felt he could thread his fingers through the pitch-black strands. They even bounced as she spoke, driving him even more wild.

The diamond shape to her face was accentuated by a pair of almond-like eyes that, in the deepening afternoon gloom, looked as dark as her hair. He recalled back to the day of the attack on the convoy though, and he could all but picture the deep blue seas of those picturesque eyes. It was such an utterly random combination, but he could still remember the first time he’d laid eyes on her.

It…hadn’t gone over well.

He’d been staring at her, mouth hanging wide open as she’d emerged from the crowd of other women, all of whom had been on the way to the Institute to help breed full-blood shifters out of existence. They hadn’t realized what they were doing was designed to bring his kind to extinction, however, and many of them had reacted with anger and shock once the truth was revealed.

But Kassian only had eyes for her.

“What the hell you lookin’ at, dumbo?” the woman had snapped as she took in Kassian’s look.

“Um, nothing, ma’am,” he’d replied as earnestly as he could.

Around him the others had chuckled and snickered, but that had been that. They’d dispersed, putting the women back into the trucks. Kassian had snuck a moment to tell the woman with curls his message about finding them. She’d looked at him strangely, but then nodded and took off, driving one of the trucks back to the nearby human town of Longhorne City. He’d thought he would never see her again.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered in the here and now. “I’ll try to keep my eyes to myself.”

“You’d best,” she muttered. “I already have one set, I don’t need a second one.”

He smiled at the joke, but didn’t say anything.

“You know,” she said thoughtfully, “the more I remember that day, the more I realize I told your brother there a lie.”

Kassian went cold, his eyes darting around as if expecting Institute soldiers to come pouring out of the dark at any second.

“Not like that,” the woman—what was her name! Had he ever gotten it?—said with a dismissive gesture. “I mean, I told him that you were driving the truck. But I think it was actually him.”

Kassian thought about it. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

“So why didn’t he remember me?” she asked, sounding slightly hurt. “Am I that bland?”

“Nobody would ever call you bland,” he told her, his fingers aching to reach out and touch her. “In fact, you’re quite memorable.”

“If this is another comment about my body…” she began hotly, but he shook his head furiously.

“No, not really. It’s about your hair.”

This caused her to stop. “My hair?” she asked, reaching up to pull gently on several of the curls.

Kassian nodded. “It’s…not normal, in shifter circles. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it to be honest with you.”

“Oh. I see.” She was flustered.

He didn’t want that, so Kassian tried to change the subject. “So, ummm,” he said, lifting his eyebrows slightly as he left the sentence open, hoping she’d see where he was going.

“Rosie,” she supplied. “Rosie Hernandez.”

“Kassian,” he replied, reaching out to shake her hand, even as he moved to keep on talking.

But the instant his fingers threaded through hers, the words failed him. Muscles auto-contracted and wrapped his fingers around hers. What was supposed to have been a handshake had somehow turned into holding hands. He’d not been paying any attention to it. The mechanics shouldn’t have worked. Yet there they were, fingers wrapped together.

He looked around, unsure of what else to say. Forcefully he commanded his fingers to unwrap, allowing the hand to drop free, and trying to ignore the sudden frenzy his bear had erupted to within him. It was going insane. Kassian wasn’t sure why, but he could hazard a guess. Being older than his brothers, he’d seen a bit more than them. He’d talked to others of his kind.

That still didn’t help him understand how he was supposed to tell Rosie that she was his mate, the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.

You’re in deep shit now.

“So, Rosie,” he said, resolutely ignoring the sudden timidity in his voice. “I take it you’re here to fight? That’s what Pierce said.”

“Pierce is the one who doesn’t remember me?” she asked.

“Um, yes. The one who opened the door. And don’t feel bad,” he added swiftly. “He only has eyes for one woman. The rest all sort of look alike, apparently. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but I’ve seen the effects of it firsthand.”

Rosie was still rubbing together the fingers of the hand that had been in contact with his, glancing down at it discreetly when she thought he wasn’t fully looking. Kean saw it all though. He had been doing the same thing, wondering where the sudden feeling of pins and needles had come from.

The two of them had come to an unspoken agreement not to mention what had happened, which filled him with a huge amount of relief.

“Tell him he’s rude,” she said with a smile. “But yes. I want to ensure that they don’t get their hands on any more women like me.”

“Like you?” he asked, curious.

“Vulnerable, beaten down, poor, hopeless. Get the drift?” she asked, her personality coming back up, including the angry and scared street persona she seemed to affect.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I get it.”

He walked past her, looking out into the shadows created as the sun set in the west. Rosie fell in step beside him.

“How do you think you can contribute?” he asked gently. “You don’t have any fighting skills, or other things that can help us out. You’re not a shifter, so you can’t get into it physically with our opponents.”

Rosie thought about it. “I’m smart,” she said proudly. “Quick off the draw.”

He nodded. “Perhaps, but those aren’t things we need.”

“So teach me,” she said, walking next to him as he meandered through the parking lot and out to the road, kicking up bits of gravel and dust as he went.

“That takes years,” he said. “I don’t have time to do it.”

He could see her shoulders slump as reality set in. “I need to help,” she repeated. “Somehow.”

Kassian slowed as his excellent night vision picked out something emerging from the forest ahead. The trees grew almost right up to the side of the road; only a small drainage ditch and shoulder separated them.

Two men, large, calm and unthreatening, yet revealing themselves nonetheless.

Shifters.

There was nothing else they could be. Their size, confidence, and gait all screamed it at him. Kassian lifted his head slightly, testing the air to see if he could pick up more detail. Their scent hit him immediately. Bear.

Great, so it wasn’t just the woods out back that had people in it monitoring them. They had the whole place surrounded. A glint of something had him focus a little farther down, and after a moment’s concentration, Kassian was able to make out the outline of a pickup truck pulled off the road and almost lost in the trees themselves.

Lovely. That was just lovely.

Shoulders straightening, he turned around abruptly, heading back toward the motel. Rosie, caught off guard by his sudden about-face, staggered to a halt and then reversed course, chasing after him.

“Umm, care to explain what that was?” she asked. “Was it something I said?”

He shook his head.

“Something I did?”

“No.”

“So why are we heading back? What happened?”

“Nothing.”

Rosie shuffled forward quickly until she was able to cut in front of him. She stood there, facing him down, hands on her hips. He stepped to the left. Rosie mimicked him, her short hair bouncing violently as she moved quickly to ensure he couldn’t get back. Kassian moved the other way. Once again Rosie was there, blocking his path.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

He grimaced. Telling her was the last thing he wanted to do. It would…not help her out.

“Don’t be that quiet asshole that doesn’t reveal things,” she said as he tried to get around her once more.

“Fine,” he said, almost barking at her. “There are men from the Institute down there.” He pointed behind them. “And over there,” he pointed to where he’d encountered the wolves. “And probably there and there, though I haven’t looked yet,” he added, his hand pointing to the field across the street from the motel, and the opposite direction down the road.

Rosie swung around in a circle, eyeing the forest differently now. “They’re surrounding us?”

“Not you,” he said. “But they’re here, now. Somehow they found us.”

It took her all of a few moments to clue in to his meaning. “I led them here?” she asked softly.

“I’m not sure how else they could have found us,” he admitted. “Did you tell any of the other women about the message I gave you?”

Rosie’s shoulders slumped as he asked the question. “I thought it was meant for all of us,” she said quietly.

Kassian nodded, and this time he moved around her.

“I’m sorry!” she said from behind him.

“I don’t blame you,” he told her. “It’s completely my fault. I should have made it clear not to share it around. Or I should never have told you at all.”

“I feel terrible,” Rosie moaned, the self-hatred evident in her voice.

“I told you, not your fault,” he said, dismissing her words as they stopped in the middle of the parking lot.

“You need to let me make it up to you.”

Kassian opened his mouth to immediately deny her request, to send her packing. But then an idea came to him.

“They let you come in just fine?” he asked, curious. “Nobody stopped or harassed you?”

Rosie shrugged. “No.”

“So you just drove up to the motel?”

“Ah, not exactly.”

“Explain,” he said, trying not to stare at her face, even as her delicate features called out to his fingers, begging for them to caress each and every curve of her body.

He resolutely did not look at her body either, though it was just as attractive as the rest of her. Right then, he needed to focus, and focus hard.

No, not that kind of hard. Come on, brain. Don’t betray me like this, you asshole!

“I didn’t drive. I hitchhiked my way here. A trucker dropped me off as he passed by.”

Kassian winced. He didn’t want her taking any more drives with strangers. She should be escorted everywhere she went. By him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that, trapped as he was in the motel. But maybe, just maybe, she could get out. Assuming the bear shifters over there hadn’t seen enough detail to tell her apart from the other women already there.

“Okay, maybe there is a way you can be of use. It’s not much right now, but it’s a start.”

“Okay, how?”

He shook his head. “Not now. Go get a room, Number 18, next to ours. It’s open. We’ll talk.” He pointed in the direction of the office, and then headed back to his room.

“Umm, Kassian?” came the tentative call.

“Yes?” he replied.

“I don’t have any money.”