Passion's Prey

that any more than I can get away from what you and X have done. So I’m telling you to be careful. Because once you’ve crossed that line there’s no going back. No running away, because he’ll find you. He’ll track you to the ends of the earth once he’s mated you. And I don’t want to lose my sister and my best friend.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. X and I cannot mate. It’s impossible according to those laws of the Etica you like to live by.”

Nick wanted to ask her why she thought it was impossible but Caprise—true to form—had already left the room. She was finished talking and way beyond her quota for listening.

He thought about going after her but axed the idea in favor of thinking harder on what she’d just said. The laws of the Etica said Shadow Shifters would find their mates, and they would be joined for their entire life span. It also said that there was only one mate for every shadow, one true love, one life’s connection. He frowned with his next thought. Had Caprise already been mated?

* * *

It had taken too long for night to fall, too long for X to wait for Athena’s to open.

But he’d waited, and he’d used the time sitting in the front seat of his truck to research Slakeman Enterprises and all its connections a little deeper. Robert Slakeman was one corrupt individual, the trail of illegal dealings he’d made following him like a bad stench. Miraculously, he’d never been caught, never prosecuted. Which said pretty damn clearly to X that somebody with lots of money and even more clout was protecting him. First thought was Ralph Kensington, but he’d only become senator-elect on the death of Senator Baines a few months back. However, Kensington had also known Baines personally.

X tapped a finger on the steering wheel as he looked over at the laptop he’d positioned on his passenger seat.

Kensington, Baines, and now Athena’s. Baines and his daughter were mauled to death. Two strippers were killed in the same fashion just weeks after that. Diamond Turner was, too.

It was starting to add up, but X wasn’t happy about what the math was proving. The connection between these men and Sabar wasn’t coincidental.

X stopped, all thoughts of the connection and the connotations paused. His entire body went still, his senses prickling, his cat ready.

Someone was coming.

Hitting the ESCAPE button on his computer to instantly lock the machine and shut it down automatically after three idle minutes, X moved only his hands as he reached for the door handle. He was out of the car in a flash, standing with his booted feet planted firmly on the ground, legs spread, fists ready at his sides.

“Trespassers will be prosecuted,” the man now standing in front of him said.

It took about two seconds for X to figure him for a shifter. His scent was dull, as if something was muting it. But it was there, the scent of the cat. Only this was no Topetenia. His eyes were too blue, his hair too black, his stance cockier, as if he had a right to be that way. He was no cheetah, either.

“Stalkers will be beaten to death” was X’s response, finally.

The man had the audacity to feign innocence. “Excuse me?”

X was in his face in the next instant. “Don’t jerk me around, cat. I’m not in the mood. You’re the one who’s been calling Caprise.”

It was a hunch. But X’s hunches were never wrong. Ever.

And this time was no different.

The corner of the guy’s mouth lifted slightly, his eyes alight not with humor, or with disinterest—either of which would have garnered a more acceptable reaction from X. No, it was lust, pure and simple lust at the mention of her name. X wanted blood. Right here, right now, he wanted to rip this motherfucker’s throat out.

“Why would I need to call the woman who belongs to me?” he asked.

Again, wrong words, wrong time, wrong fucking shifter.

The fist that plowed into the man’s jaw was powerful, knocking him back a good couple of steps before he was able to shake it off. Almost. His next step was a little wobbly. But X didn’t care; he moved in for more.

“I told you not to call her again. Now you can take this as your final warning.” X punched him again.

The man’s head snapped back. The next hit had his head jerking, then falling forward as he spit out a mouthful of blood. X could have finished him off right then. He could have completed the human ass kicking and broken a few of his bones. Or he could shift and crack his skull. He did neither, only because he wanted the bastard looking right at him when he died.

Instead the man came to his full height, which was a couple of inches shorter than X. His eyes had changed, the blue even brighter, almost to the point of being iridescent. X didn’t need to look down at his hands to know that his claws had sprouted. The white Bengal tiger was about to emerge.

But the man held it back.

“She belongs to me. I own every inch of her magnificent body,” he told X.

“You don’t own shit! This is my town and she’s my female. We can stop with the talk and settle this once and for all if you’re still liable to believe otherwise.”

“You have no idea who she is or what she’s done,” he said clearly.

The alley was dark, the back sides of three buildings caging them in. An urban jungle prepared to host a feral battle.

“I know what I need to know” was X’s heated retort.

“Did you know she was a killer?”

The pause in X was minute. Nothing about his outward demeanor changed. The word killer rubbed him the wrong way, especially since it was referring to Caprise. But this shifter would never know that.

“You’re a dead man,” X said and made another move forward.

The tiger wasn’t about to take more hits without dishing some out. It lifted its head, blue eyes sparkling in the dark of night.

“Stop!”

The female voice had both males halting. Then X inhaled. His body paused. His cat stiffened.

What the hell was she doing here?

* * *

He was about to tell X.

Caprise hadn’t wanted to see him. She actually thought she could come down here and bring X back to Havenway without any altercation at all. She was dead wrong.

From the moment she’d admitted to Kalina and Ary that the shifter who’d killed Seth was really after her, she’d known she’d end up here. X was determined to find out who was calling her; it was logical that he’d want to come to Athena’s to see if that person worked here, since this was the only place Caprise went outside of Havenway. He would also want to look for the shifter who’d killed Seth. No matter what the FL had ordered, X would want to take care of that situation sooner, rather than later. Knowing all this did not mean she cared for this man or felt connected to him in any way. It just meant she was perceptive. She’d known him before she went away and had been forced to spend time with him in close confines these last couple of days. That was all.

So she’d waited until it was night to slip out of Havenway, which was not easy. And she hadn’t gotten far before she was caught. Luckily for her, the newest shifter captor was a female by the name of Nivea Cannon. She was a guard but she was a female first and recognized the rebellion in Caprise’s eyes. Instead of taking her back or even calling Nick or Rome to tell them where she’d gone, she’d accompanied Caprise to Athena’s.

The minute she heard Rolando’s voice, Caprise reverted to that young girl, in that foreign land, in a foreign body, doing things when she had no idea what their repercussions would be. Her body had shaken all over. All she wanted to do was run. But she was through with that; she reminded herself and the cat that lurked beneath that running was no longer an option. It was time for her to stand.

So on shaky legs she’d come around the corner, watched as X’s large form was about to pounce on Rolando’s. It would be a fight guaranteed to make the front page of the tabloids: a jaguar and a white Bengal tiger battling to the death in the alley behind a strip joint. She couldn’t let that happen. The shadows couldn’t risk the exposure, not because of her.

X found her gaze the moment he turned around and for a split second Caprise felt like there was no one else in that alley. It was just her and this man, and the restlessness that had plagued her for years