Chapter Seven
Luna
So, maybe an ATV ride home after an afternoon of sex wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had, Luna decided as they went over some rough terrain. But, since her arms were still full of her sexy shifter man, she was still pretty happy.
All she wanted was a hot bath followed by a long snuggle with Jason. That wasn’t too much to ask for a woman who was falling in love, was it? Except that when they pulled into the parking lot at Maxwell Mountain Resort, Cree James sat on the tailgate of his truck
“What’s going on?” Jason demanded as they pulled to a stop near his truck. Luna felt the tension hit his shoulders. “There’s not another fire, is there?” Already he was checking the gas tank and jumping off the ATV to grab his rescue gear.
“No.” Cree stepped in front of his mate, every line of his body a determined predator. Here was a shifter in pure stalk mode. He walked around her, sizing her up. His eyes narrowed as he watched, his muscles taut and strained. Luna trembled with fear before the upcoming storm.
“Creole.” Tamara’s lilting voice tried to soothe him. She reached a hand up to touch his shoulder, but Cree remained tense and waiting. Stalking.
A stillness fell over Jason as he saw how close his boss was standing to his mate. Luna wanted to look to him for protection but wasn’t sure she had that right. So, she lifted her chin and got off the four-wheeler. Let him kill her if he was going to. She was done avoiding him.
And if Nana’s secrets came out? Well, so much the better, she decided.
But then Jason was there, moving as smooth as water to stand between her and the oncoming threat.
“I need to smell her.” Cree’s icy green eyes were absolute.
“Fuck you.” The scents of power, anger, and male dominance swirled in the air. This was exactly what Luna had hoped to avoid.
“I don’t want to fight you, Jace.” Green eyes narrowed. “She smells familiar, and I need answers.”
“Who she smells like is none of your goddamn business!”
Luna cringed. After the picnic in the meadow, she probably smelled an awful lot like sex, ice cubes, and Jason.
“I will fight you if I have to but I will have answers.”
Jason relaxed into a fighter’s stance. “You can try,” he challenged.
“I killed a man,” Cree reminded him.
“Join the club, asshole. I’ve killed dozens.”
Tamara looked over Cree’s shoulder to catch Luna’s attention. Luna didn’t want to take her eyes off the battle playing out between the two men but spared a quick glance at Tamara.
Cree’s mate mimed something that Luna took as “he smelled you on me” and nodded. She figured as much.
“What’s going on?” Quinn demanded. He carried with him the genes of his own animal. Not a fighter. Not a loner. Quinn was a Mastiff, genetically instilled to diffuse and herd.
“You’re back from Raleigh,” Tamara said, wobbling a little over the words as emotion tightened her throat.
Quinn nodded. “Lacey's father has friends in Capitol. As soon as Luna’s blog goes live, he’s going to help make it go viral. There’s already a bi-partisan bill being sponsored to approve shifter marriages. Lacey and I were down talking to some of the key people voting. Explaining that the no marriage clause in our service contract should have ended when their contract ended.”
“It’s all bullshit if you ask me,” Cree said, jaw tight and eyes never leaving Luna. “I never signed it. If you want to get married, just do it. If it's a fait accompli, what can they do?”
“So, what’s your excuse for not marrying me?” Tamara demanded.
Cree flinched slightly, and it was the only opening Jason needed. He lowered his stance and dropped to one knee in front of Cree. The cougar shifter was instantly off balance. Jason used his head to push Cree to one side, away from Luna. Moving rapidly, Jason pinned Cree. “Tap out and get away from my mate,” Jason growled.
Quinn grumbled as he got closer. “Just do it, Cree. Between you and DeShawn, it’s like none of you have any manners anymore.”
“Screw manners. She’s up to something,” Cree said, trying to fight the hold.
“Keep it up, and I’ll wind up breaking something,” Jason grit out.
“Luna?” Quinn looked at her expectantly.
Knowing the proverbial cat was out of the bag, Luna nodded. She sat on the tailgate of Jason’s truck. In a show of solidarity, Tamara instantly joined her.
“Knock it off, Creole,” Tamara ordered.
Cree sighed and tapped out. “Don’t think I’ll forget this.”
Jason lifted a single eyebrow. “Like you challenging my mate?”
Luna cleared her throat. “I am Luna Flowers, a blogger from Portland, Maine. I’ve been blogging for six years about shifters. I haven’t lied to you about that.” Her voice was clear and truthful. Loud enough to carry but spoken only to Jason. “However, I was already looking for a reason to head to North Carolina when Lacey contacted me regarding Melody’s pregnancy.”
“So, you lied.” Cree’s voice was absolute.
“She didn’t lie,” Tamara said, taking Luna’s hand. “She just left a few key things out. It’s not like she knew any of us. How could trust us?”
Luna shared a weak smile with her defender. “It wasn’t really my secret to tell. My grandmother asked me to try and find her husband.”
Tamara gasped and looked at her. Jason stilled, his face firming in expectation of betrayal. Even Quinn drew closer. “And who is your grandfather.”
Luna frowned. Had they all gone mad?
“She’s the granddaughter of Nicholas Lowell,” Cree announced, eyes lighting with recognition. “No wonder you smelled familiar.”
“Who is Nicholas Lowell?” Jason still hadn’t taken his eyes off Luna despite Cree’s suddenly relaxed posture.
“He’s a Vietnam veteran. Leopard shifter. Owner of the Lusty Leopard,” Luna announced. Her words diffused the tension in the small group. “When the story about the fire last summer broke, my readers wanted to know more. So, I did some digging. Found the Lusty Leopard. You have a link on your website that I followed and found a reference to my grandfather.”
“Which explains why you’re so passionate about shifters,” Quinn supplied.
“Are you a shifter, too?” Tamara asked.
Luna was caught, her back against the wall. “According to Nana, when her husband came back from Vietnam, he was changed. Different. The jungles there, what he saw, what he did. It broke him.”
Jason, also a combat veteran grunted. “He hid in his animal, didn’t he?”
“For over fifty years,” Luna confirmed.
“He’s been to see me a few times. Pretty sure he lives around here, and I keep a line shack stocked for him when he shifts,” Cree said. “But yeah, for the most part, he’s reverted to his cat. Even in his human form, he’s more wild animal than not.”
“Are you a shifter?” Jason asked, repeating Tamara’s question.
Luna shrugged. “I can’t shift. Or, if I can, I don’t know how. My mom says she can feel her cat, but I don’t know what that means.”
“I do,” Jason, Cree, and Quinn said in near unison.
“Sure, the first time you say ‘I do’ and it’s not even to your mate.” Tamara giggled and rolled her eyes. Cree approached her and put his hands on her hips before putting his head on her shoulder.
The odd show of vulnerability caught at Luna’s throat. “Do you know where I can find my grandfather?”
Cree exchanged a long look with his fellow shifters. “He’s elusive. No need for money, food, or shelter. Hasn’t even needed a doctor. I’d say the quickest way to bring him out of hiding is to have his mate show up.” Cree nuzzled Tamara’s hair. “No shifter can avoid their mate for long. Especially after fifty years.”
Jason
After Cree and Tamara left, Jason followed Luna into Little Yellow.
A stray wind picked up, and the cabin shook with its force. “Storm coming in?” Luna asked, shivering a little as the air turned cold.
“Could be.” Jason dropped a kiss to her forehead. “Can you clean up the cooler? I want to get my ATV in Quinn’s garage.”
“Should I mention how silly it is that a bear shifter has an oversized pick-i-nick basket?”
“I’d prefer you didn’t.”
Luna only laughed. “Go, I’ll get something set up for dinner.”
Jason looked at her intently. “It’s not food I’m hungry for, Cinderella.”
Luna glanced up through her bangs. “We can do that, too.”
“You aren’t too sore?”
She shook her head. “Even if I were, I still wouldn’t say no.”
Jason closed his eyes, picturing the feel of her under him. Around him. Over him. “I’ll be right back.”
Jason got the truck closed up and secured his four-wheeler in Quinn’s garage. While he was heading back to the cabin, the heavens opened up, and rain fell like buckets.
“Son of a bucket,” Jason muttered before picking up the pace. He leaped up the stairs on the porch and into the small house.
She greeted him with a dry towel and a gentle smile.
“You could have trusted me, Cinderella. I don’t care who your grandfather is.” Jason toweled his hair dry and took off his flannel shirt. His undershirt remained dry, so he kept it on.
“I was afraid. What if Nicholas was a terrible person? I didn’t want you all to hate me. What if you had taken some blood oath to kill anyone who came to look for him?”
Jason snorted. “You’ve watched too many movies.”
“Your code of honor wouldn’t let you protect him if he’d asked?”
“Maybe. If you’d been up to no good. But you’re only looking for your grandfather. Not looking to kill him or anything.”
“You and Quinn didn’t seem to think it was okay earlier,” Luna pointed out as she went into the kitchen. “Both of you got all growly faced at me.”
“We really stay off the radar. There’s big money if private groups can figure out the secret to our DNA splicing. The biggest one is Franklin Biologics, and they’ve sent people looking for us before.”
“You realize everyone will know who you are once my blog goes live at midnight,” Luna pointed out. “Won’t be any hiding from anyone once that happens.”
“Maybe that will be for the best.” Jason shrugged. “We’ll have people on our side, too. We’ll be public figures. Harder to kidnap or do medical testing on public features.”
“It will also crash the door wide open on a secret the military wanted to be kept quiet.” Luna got them each a soda and walked into the living room. Jason joined her on the couch. “I am sorry I couldn’t tell you everything. Nana was afraid if Nicholas found out, he’d go in the wind again. Silver Fells was the first solid lead she ever had.”
“It’s been hard on her?”
“All of my memories of her are sad. The only time she was even remotely content was when she had Mother and I all to herself. Birthday parties were a nightmare. I had to stop inviting people over because it upset her so much.”
“And your dad?”
Luna sighed. “He left after he figured things out. Said he was ashamed of spawning an animal.” She spat the words out as though she’d heard them dozens of times in her life. Jason’s heart ached for her.
“Sounds about right. Hatred is a funny thing like that. Almost makes you want to remind him that humans are animals, too.”
Luna’s grin was only a shadow of her usual incandescent smile. “Natural born shifters have a different life, I guess. I could run faster than all the other kids. My hearing and eyesight are better. But I can’t feel an animal within me.”
“She’s mourned him every day. And maybe it wouldn’t have been as bad if he had died. There’s closure in death. But having her mate reject her was a knife wound that couldn’t heal.”
They were quiet for a moment, each letting the words float around them. Outside, dusk began to close in on them. “Are you mad at me?” Luna finally asked.
“No. I’m glad it’s out in the open.” He put one hand over his heart and then moved it to hers. “Glad you’re free to love. My biggest worry was that you were married or taken somehow.”
Luna bit her lip and looked at her lap briefly before capturing Jason’s hand in hers. “Did you mean what you said out there?”
Jason frowned. “I always say what I mean.”
“Am I your mate?”
“You can’t feel it?” Jason had been aware of it from the first moment. It spun like a gossamer thread. A rainbow of sparkles shot off it in all direction like stars around a spider’s web.
“There’s been a connection,” Luna said softly. Her fingers played with his as they lay over her heart. “But how do you know it’s a mating bond?”
“Instinct.” The answer was so simple, Jason couldn’t believe Luna didn’t see it.
“So, what happens now? My home is in Maine. Yours is here.”
“My home is wherever you are, Luna.”