dissipated.
“Shit!” she heard Nivea say from behind her.
That was about two seconds before the alley was filled with flashes of light. Nivea charged past Caprise, jumping up to kick the Dumpster that was about ten feet away from where Caprise was standing. From behind, a female and a male holding a camera emerged.
“Hey, it’s a free country,” the female quipped.
“If you don’t get your ass out of here you’re going to get a lesson in just how free this country really is,” Nivea replied. Her small frame didn’t look as if it carried a punch, but Caprise figured the way she’d kicked that Dumpster a good distance—it had almost knocked the woman and man on their asses—was a pretty accurate judgment of the damage she could do.
The twosome raced out of the alley, passing Caprise in a blur as they went.
“Go home,” X said, his voice feral as he gazed at her.
“She is home,” Rolando stated, coming from out of the shadows where he’d gone while Nivea did the kicking-trash-can thing.
Her heart tripped at the sound of his voice, and when his hot blue gaze settled on her, Caprise thought she would actually pass out. It had been years since she’d seen him, since she’d left him asleep in the forest.
“You shut the fuck up!” X yelled, pointing at Rolando then turning back to Caprise.
Caprise shook her head. “No, he’s right. I am home. I was born and raised here in DC. This is where I belong.” The words sounded strong and concise. She heard them and wanted to clap for herself, for this step ahead in life she’d taken. But now was certainly not the time.
“I want you out of here,” X said again.
His voice was lethal, his cat’s eyes glaring at her. The body she’d grown so familiar with was bunched with tension, muscles bulging, claws already released.
“She won’t leave, will you, Caprise?” Rolando moved closer. X stood between them.
“You will stay because you know you owe me at least that. You owe me your life,” he told her precisely.
“I owe you nothing,” Caprise told him.
She stood just behind X, could feel and scent his anger building.
“You lied to me and used me. In return, I left your conniving ass in the forest. I’d say that makes us even,” she told Rolando.
Rolando’s head tilted just slightly, his incisors showing as he grinned a malicious smile that almost stopped Caprise’s heart. This was the real Rolando. This was who and what she’d realized he was, only that realization had come too late. And it had come at a great cost.
“You lied to me. Then you ran like a coward. You went to those humans and together you killed my child. Buried him beneath the earth like he was nothing. For that,” he said with a chuckle, “you, my
The next actions happened in a blur but Caprise knew she’d never forget them. The sounds, the scents, the death. She would store this memory alongside that of her son, Henrique, for the rest of her life.
Rolando’s shift was quick, his cat’s heavy paws hitting the pavement with a thump that rocked the entire alley. It lunged right over X’s shoulders, pushing Caprise back onto the ground. She didn’t have a second to think, to reconsider, or to retreat. Her cat ripped free of her human body with a roar that echoed. Leaning back on its hind legs, it threw its front paws up just in time to catch the first blows from Rolando.
Behind her she heard another cat’s growl. Then Rolando’s head reared back, its mouth opened wide, teeth bared. Another ferocious roar and the tiger was out of her reach. Through her cat’s eyes she watched as X, now in cat form, sank his teeth deep into Rolando’s neck. The tiger roared and tried to swipe back, but X was on its back, jaws locked, eyes focused … on her.
The tiger writhed and roared, tumbling along the ground of the alley with the jaguar fiercely hanging on to it. It was dying. X was killing Rolando. Caprise’s cat roared so loud she thought she might actually go deaf from the sound. She stumbled back, heart thumping wildly.
When X shook his cat’s head, jerking with all his strength, the tiger went down on its front legs. Its blue eyes rolled back and forth then locked on Caprise’s cat. Her flanks heaved with the effort it took for her to watch. There were two big cats fighting in an alley. Both she’d shared herself with. One was dying. The other was killing.
And suddenly the bravado the human had was being chased by the sight of the cats. She backed away, on four legs, slowly moved until the sight of X and Rolando grew blurred. Coolness pelted her fur and she realized it was raining. It came down in sheets as heavy and disfiguring as those in the rain forest. The scent permeated her senses and flashbacks ran rapidly through her mind.
Running through the forest with Rolando, making love beneath the misty canopy, lying beside him in the long night hours, listening to him breathe, wondering if he were her mate.
Realizing he was not who he said, seeing the differences in his eyes, his stance, his claws when retracted. He was no
She’d run that night, her paws clamping to the bark of trees as she went higher and higher into the canopy then moved fluidly from branch to branch until she was a safe distance away. The cat ran as far as it could before the human had to take over the journey.
Months later there was the pain of labor. The death of a child. Tears and pain she thought would kill her. The eyes of her dead child staring back at her—one brown like hers, the other blue like Rolando’s.
Caprise turned from the alley then, her cat running through the rainy streets of downtown Washington, DC, at full speed.
Chapter 20
“You were seen,” Rome said as calmly as he could manage when X and Nivea returned to Havenway. It was almost dawn. They’d spent hours looking for Caprise before deciding to come back here.
“There were two humans, one with a camera,” Nivea added in a slow, quiet voice.
“What the fuck? Are both of you insane?” Nick asked. “Pictures? There are pictures of cats out there?”
X shook his head. “I hadn’t shifted. Nobody had shifted at that time. Nivea chased them off before any of that happened.”
“So we should be glad they didn’t see you kill a fucking tiger? Is that what you’re saying?” Nick was not in a good mood.
And X was sick of Nick’s bad moods. He was in the other man’s face in a split second, grabbing his shirt and pushing him back a step as he spoke right in his face. “Look, I’m not in the mood for this shit. It happened and I couldn’t stop it. So be it. Let’s move on.”
“Get the hell off me,” Nick said, pushing back at X. “You need to think first, idiot. You were in a public place.”
“I need to think first?” X asked. “You don’t even want to go there with me, Delgado.”
“Enough!” Rome yelled. “I’m sick of you two bickering like two little girls. Now is not the time for your pissing match. Like X said, what’s done is done. Now we need to do damage control. But you can bet we’ll talk about you disobeying my direct order later.”
“Where’s Caprise?” Nick asked when he stepped away from X and had gone to stand near Rome.
X rubbed his hand down his face and walked away, too. Nick wasn’t his immediate concern. As for Rome’s comment, he’d deal with the FL’s wrath later. What he needed to do right now, before he took his next breath, was to see Caprise.
“I’m going to get her now,” he said, heading for the door.
“I’ll come with you,” Nick said.
X turned slowly. “Stay. The. Hell. Back.”
Rome put a hand on Nick’s shoulder when the shifter acted as if he were going to ignore X’s command.
X didn’t speak again, just walked out, not giving a damn what any of them said when he was gone. Out in
