Malakai looked like he was about to cry or lose his shit. Maybe both. Josie felt pain deep in her soul. Like if she walked out the door, it would be the biggest mistake of her life; but shifters weren’t real.
“Would it help if you met some of my Clan? Maybe talk with another human mate? I can give you their names. Talk to them. Let them tell you their stories, and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
“You’re saying it’s not just your family from back home, but there are more of your kind here in New Atlanta?”
“Yes. Hundreds more. Our King lives here. Do you remember Kaya Kane?”
“The chief of police?” Kai nodded. “Of course. She retired shortly after she’d been kidnapped.”
“She’s now our Queen. You could talk to her. Kaya’s a good woman. Honorable. She’ll help you understand all this.”
“I’m still not sure what this is.”
“She and Rafael host Family Day at their home most Sundays. Please, come with me. There’ll be plenty of mates you can speak to. And if you still believe I’m somehow tricking you, I can have my fellow Clansmen shift for you. Tessa will be there. She’s a half-blood and can shift too. Please, Sunshine. I’m begging.”
“I’m going home. I need to call for a ride.” Josie had to get away from Malakai so she could think.
“Let me drive you. Please.”
“No. I need space to think.”
“Then take my Jeep. I’ll come get it later.” Josie did love his Jeep, but that would mean him coming to her apartment to get his keys. “I have a spare key. I promise I won’t bother you when I come get it.” Taking his vehicle meant getting away from him immediately, which she needed.
“Okay.” Josie went to the dining room where she’d left her shoes. When she returned, Kai held out a key.
She hated the defeated look on his face, and she almost gave in and stayed. Something called to Josie. It was an invisible force pulling her to Malakai. Her heart was begging her to give him a chance. Take him up on his offer to meet others of his kind and their mates. Her head was telling her to go home and sober up. To think clearly away from him trying to persuade her all this was real. Her head won out. Josie took the key and walked out without looking back. She felt Kai’s eyes on her as she adjusted the seat and mirrors before starting the engine and driving away. When she got near the end of the driveway, she rolled down the windows, not knowing how to open the gate. She needn’t worry because the iron barrier slid toward her when she approached. While she waited, a soul-wrenching roar filled the air. The hair on her arms stood on end, but it was her heart that stuttered. Josie couldn’t breathe. She was suffocating at the anguish coming from the sound. She knew it was Malakai, but a human couldn’t make a sound like that. He’s not human.
Josie eased off the clutch and drove away. She focused on shifting gears and not on the man she was leaving behind. The thirty-minute drive went by quickly, and when she pulled the Jeep into the parking spot next to her own car, Josie leaned her forehead against the steering wheel. She took several deep breaths, then made herself get out and go upstairs.
Once inside her apartment, Josie flopped down on the sofa. For a moment, she allowed herself to believe what Kai told her was the truth. What he had shown her hadn’t been a trick. He was willing to introduce her to others of his kind. What if it was some sort of cult who pretended to be these Gargoyles? If they were humans pretending, they couldn’t go around sprouting wings at a moment’s notice. It would have to be an elaborate setup. But that didn’t explain Kai’s ability to run as fast as she had witnessed. That couldn’t be a hoax. Neither could his wings, now that she thought about it. She had seen him without his shirt on. There had been no hidden pack he was wearing where something that large was hidden, waiting for him to press a button or pull a cord to unfurl them. And they hadn’t been wings like you’d find on a bird. There were no feathers, only leathery appendages with spikes on the end, like a dragon would have.
Kai had called her his mate. Josie read all types of romance books. Fated mates was nothing new to her, but before tonight, it had been fiction. Hadn’t she heard that all fiction came from some form of reality? Maybe not aliens or men who could turn into bears, but Kai hadn’t turned into something else. Not really. He still looked like the man who cooked her a delicious meal. The man who talked lovingly about his mama and his family. The one who made her body heat with only a brush of his fingers or a gaze upon her skin. It was like she was in one of the novels she loved.
Kaya Kane was someone Josie admired. The former police chief had made a name for herself leading the New Atlanta police department as the first woman to hold the position. She was smart as well as tough. Surely, she couldn’t be brainwashed by a cult of shifter wannabes. Josie needed to talk to Miss Kane, but she didn’t know how to go about finding her now that she was retired. Yes, you do. In college, she’d been tempted to change her major to computer science, since she enjoyed it so much. Research was Josie’s job. It was what she did best. Every day, she dug around into people’s lives, finding those who didn’t want to be found.
