Andromeda's Fall (Shadowcat Nation) (4 page)

Five
hours later Andie was slumped down in a chair that now felt glued to her butt.
She rubbed her hands over her tired eyes. Every inch of the whiteboards on the
walls in the room was covered in writing. Flirty Charlie was busy taking
pictures of it all and translating it into his computer.

She’d
covered the Carstairs’ leaders, their methods, their training, their
experience, and their thinking in detail. Then she’d moved on to their general
strategies in battle, including formations, coordination, operations, and
movements. Finally she’d covered resources and tactics, including weaponry,
Specialists, training programs, technology, treaties and alliances, and
intelligence networks.

At
first, she’d noticed the skeptically amused looks that passed between the men
as she talked. It was rare for a female shifter to be a Strategist in a dare,
and even rarer to be involved in actual fighting. But as she continued her
exposition, and her expertise became obvious, the looks had turned serious. Now
there was even a hint of respect in them.

Andie
had been an open book in explaining everything the Keller Dare would need to
know in order to defeat the Carstairs if ever attacked by them. But she’d
refused point blank to provide the layout and defensive systems and strategies
employed at the Carstairs compound, no matter how hard the five men tried to
pry it out of her.

“It’s
key information,” Scar Face pointed out for the third time.

She
shook her head but didn’t remove her hand from her eyes. “Yeah. I get that, Pete.”

She
felt someone kneel down in front of her and knew it was A.J. She could smell
the citrusy aroma of his aftershave and an underlying scent, woodsy and totally
male, that was just him. When she didn’t look up, he placed his hands on her
knees. The warmth of his contact spread through her, and, for some reason, relaxed
her. Andie took her hands away from her face and opened her eyes.

“What’s
holding you back?” A.J. asked quietly.

She
huffed a sarcastic laugh. “That would be the proverbial elephant in the room.”

He
tipped his head questioningly.

“What
I’m doing is essentially betraying my dare,” Andie elaborated. “And none of you
know my reasons for that. You don’t know if there’s any truth in what I’ve told
you today. And even if I’m for real, why would you ever accept a traitor into
your midst? Or worse, what if I’m giving you false information so I can
infiltrate your dare and report back to Walter and Kyle?”

“There’s
more, isn’t there?” A.J. prodded. Andie was very aware of the fact that his
hands were still on her knees, his thumbs moving in lazy, highly distracting
circles.

She
nodded. “I am exactly what I seem – someone who is asking for asylum from a
dare where she’s no longer…
safe
.” Her voice wobbled on the last word.

Andie
gritted her teeth. She hated showing her vulnerability, especially to A.J.
Taking a deep breath, she continued. “But there are still people I love in that
dare.” She didn’t add that her father was trying to wrest the power from
Carstairs. If he could do that, the dare still needed to protect itself. “I’ve
heard that Jaxon Keller is a trustworthy Alpha. But I will judge that for myself.
But this information, which would make my friends and family vulnerable should
you
choose to attack
them
, is something I will only give to him.
After
I’ve decided that it’s safe to do so.”

The
men in the room shifted uncomfortably but remained silent. A.J. stayed crouched
in front of her, still and steady, his gaze on hers unwavering. “If you want to
talk to the Alpha, you have to earn our faith in you first and tell us why you
need asylum. Will you give us that much?”

Hannah’s
advice to confide in A.J. rang in Andie’s ears. But more than that, something
about this solid man demanded her confidence in him. He’d mostly listened these
last hours, letting the Protectors and Commanders ask the questions. But she’d
gotten the impression that he’d have stepped in had the questioning become too
intense.

Andie
looked down at his strong, capable hands still resting on her knees. “Spilling
my guts to five strangers from another dare, especially ones in power to use
the information against me, is too much to ask.”

She
glanced up and locked gazes with A.J., catching a flicker of disappointment
before he cleared his expression. “But I will tell
you
. And only you,”
she added in a whisper.

Satisfaction
blazed in his eyes. Without a word to the other men, and without removing his
gaze from hers, he nodded toward the door. Silently they rose and filtered out,
closing the door behind them and leaving Andie alone with A.J.

A.J.
hooked a chair close to her and sat down. Andie took a deep breath and started
talking. She told him everything she’d told Hannah the night before. She
started by detailing her dare’s displeasure with Walter and Kyle’s treatment of
Hannah and Nick when they’d visited to negotiate a joint business deal. They’d
turned out to be the Fated Mates they’d claimed to be, making any challenge to
their relationship off limits according to Shadowcat Nation law. But Kyle had
challenged anyway.

Andie
then walked him through her own father’s position as Beta in the dare. She
talked about the ways that Walter and Kyle kept the dare in check – mostly by ruling
with fear and threats of pain.

“Why
didn’t your father leave with you?” A.J. asked.

Sadness
clouded her eyes. “He’s a good man. He’s stayed in the position of Beta all
these years to try to help as many as he can from within. I once asked him why
he didn’t leave or challenge Walter.”

“And?”

“He
said that after watching Walter take down more than ten cougars who tried to
challenge him for Alpha, he knew he’d never beat him in a straight up match.
Walter fights mean. He also kills the family of anyone who dares to leave. And
when Kyle got big enough, well, let’s just say he’s worse. Dad stays where he
is because he sees no other way. He expects that his very public position in
the dare, and Walter’s reliance on him to keep the peace, will keep him alive
after I leave.”

She’d
only given him half of the answer. Only Jaxon could know about her father’s
plans to try to oust the current leaders. Finally she expanded further on her
own history.

“I
am my father’s only offspring. My mother, his wife, was killed by a pack of
wolf shifters when I was ten.” Andie swallowed, the memories of that encounter
as fresh as the day it had happened. After that, wolf shifters were the only
thing that really scared her. Them, and Kyle Carstairs.

“He
never mated again, even casually. My father wanted a boy, and he raised me like
one. I was taught to fight in both my forms from the time I could walk. When I
showed aptitude for it at a young age, he was so proud, and my training focused
solely on those skills. As I got older, he added strategy, defensive tactics,
systems, and so forth. The fighting came naturally, but I worked my ass off to
learn the rest. If my father were to die, I should’ve taken his place as Beta.
Not that Carstairs would ever accept a woman. He barely tolerates me in the
role I have as it is.”

If
A.J. was surprised, he didn’t show it. A female Beta was almost unheard of, but
it did make sense. The Beta of the pack was typically the military leader,
which explained her extensive knowledge and the fighting skills she’d
demonstrated so far. Not to mention her stealth in entering his compound
unnoticed.

“Kyle
Carstairs tried to force you to mate with him, didn’t he?” he asked.

Andie
clenched her jaw, anger sparking in her eyes. “Not just mate him… marry him. He
came away a lot worse than I did,” she said in a low voice. “I fought him off, but
I still had to leave. I couldn’t let Kyle Carstairs force my father or the dare
into an untenable position. And no way in hell would I ever mate that rat or
marry him.”

“From
everything I’ve heard, there are a lot of strong fighters in the Carstairs Dare.
Couldn’t you go to any of them for protection?”

Andie
shook her head. “It’s not as it seems to be here. Their Protectors and
Commanders back them up in the fear and pain bit. Remember that cougars don’t
naturally interact in groups. In our dare, at least, that’s resulted in a
completely dysfunctional society. You stick with the program or you die. You
try to go to another dare, you die. You question, you die. And it’s hard to
know exactly who is with Walter and Kyle, and who is just living scared. Going
rogue is an option that a few have taken. But the wolf shifters and other pack-related
shifters out there… at least a dare offers safety from them.”

A.J.
nodded his understanding. Thirty years ago, the cougar shifter population had
been in danger of being completely wiped out. Other shifters who moved in
packs, like wolves, African lions, and even coyotes, had slowly been picking
off the shifters who were loners, like cougars and tigers. The threat they
posed was why cougar shifters had gone against their nature and formed the
Shadowcat Nation in the first place.

A.J.
leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “You’re going to ask Keller
to marry you, aren’t you?”

A
rare blush flamed up her cheeks. But she held his gaze and nodded. “They’ll
figure out where I am eventually and—”

“Enact
the Lyons Treaty forcing us to extradite you back to your own dare or risk full
on war,” he finished for her.

She
nodded. “I know I’ve put your dare in an ugly spot, and I am sorry for that.
Truly. But I couldn’t think of any other way. And I’m a Strategist.”

After
a long silence he said, “You wouldn’t have to marry the Alpha. Mating anyone in
this dare would make you a full member with no extradition rights.”

Andie’s
training kicked in as she caught a tone in his voice. Something wasn’t adding
up here. A.J. was keeping something from her, and it had to do with Jaxon
Keller. She forced a mischievous look, trying to play along. “Why? Is Jaxon
Keller hideously mangled or something?”

The
corner of A.J.’s mouth tugged up in a small smile. “I guess you wouldn’t know
what he looks like, would you?”

Andie
shrugged. “Not really. Only the Alpha and the Alpha’s Council are allowed to
know the other dares like that, who their leaders are, and sometimes their
Specialists.”

“Cougars
are naturally secretive,” he murmured.

“Exactly.
By descriptions I’ve heard, I’d say he looks a lot like you.”

A.J.
cleared his throat. “I’m much better looking.” He winked.

She
rolled her eyes, tired of being played. “Or
you
are Jaxon Keller.” She tipped
her head and waited for his reaction.

“Maybe
I am, maybe I’m not.”

Mental
note, don’t play poker with A.J. Damn. That told me absolutely nothing.

He
wasn’t going to give her a straight answer tonight, so she’d drop it for now.
But that didn’t mean that she was no longer suspicious. Just that she was
patient.

“I
can offer Jaxon Keller an alliance with my dare through our mating if the
Carstairs are ever unseated.”
Come on, Dad,
she silently tacked on. “If he
still decides he doesn’t want me, and some other member of the dare steps up, I
will accept that.”

“You’d
tie yourself permanently to a man you neither know nor love? And a cougar
shifter at that. We don’t take mating with marriage lightly here. Our animal
natures are far too solitary.”

Andie
leaned forward and put her head in her hands. “I know. But my only other option
would be to go rogue.” She did have other contacts she could try. But why put
even more people in Walter Carstairs’s sights?

“I
can last against the pack shifters out there for quite a while, I think,” she
shivered at the thought. “But not forever. And they wouldn’t be my only
problem. You don’t know Kyle. He’s maniacally obsessive. He won’t let this go.
He’s given up on Hannah only because she and Nick are Fated Mates, which puts
her completely off limits. Not to mention she’s under her brother’s protection.
That, and his attempt last year was too public. I gather he got slapped on the
hand by other Alphas of the Nation for that stunt.”

“You
knew about that, huh? Well, I have a pretty good idea how sick he is. I was
there when we had to helicopter Hannah and Nick out. I saw the cats he sent
after her.” Andie winced as his features hardened and a cold look settled over
him.

Suddenly
A.J. leaned forward and took her hands in his. “I’m not sure how we’ll solve
this yet. But I do promise that I will help you.”

Andie
was taken aback by the sincerity in his voice and the intensity in his eyes, but
even more so by the urge she had to snuggle right into him and feel his strong
arms wrapped around her. She knew she’d feel safe there. And she hadn’t felt
safe in a long, long time. Maybe not ever. Not really.

“You
don’t even know me. Why would you help me?” she whispered.

“I
believe you.”

Andie
opened her mouth to speak but stopped when he held up a hand. “How about for
now we go on the assumption that we’re working together in this, hmmm? We’ll
figure out the rest as we go.”