Claws (5 page)

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Sasha spent a sleepless night walking around the yard and porch, raking her brain for a solution to her dilemma. Etienne of course had no problem getting some shut eye, so deeply asleep he snored and it dawned on her he trusted her. No shifter ever slept so soundly they wouldn’t hear if someone was sneaking up on him.
Crap, crap, crap
. How could she let this happen? If she didn’t know better, she’d swear he put a spell on her. Wasn’t that what some Cajuns did? Voodoo? Sasha wiped a hand down her face. Who was she kidding? She was caught in the thrall of a claiming and she had no one to blame but herself.

Loubel showed up bright and early at the crack of dawn, flicked out his tongue, then smiled like a loon. How she hated some of the extra senses shifters had. Etienne appeared in the doorway of the shack and looked refreshed. Damn gator. They all piled into the front seat of the monster truck. She sat between them in the massive vehicle that could probably be heard two counties over every time the snake revved the engine.

High above the road, she had a good view of her surroundings. As soon as she could, she’d shift and take a run. She needed to clear her head. But before that, she needed to talk to her partner, Eivan. Surely he’d heard of a way to reverse a claiming. He had to. The man went through women like some people drank water. If he didn’t have a way to stay single, surely he would have been mated by know.

“We need to visit Marree,” Etienne spoke as they reached a fork in the road.

“Why didn’t you say that sooner?” Loubel took a sharp turn, forcing two wheels off the ground and Sasha toppled over into Etienne.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

Loubel glanced over and snickered. “Never mind, I know why. Smooth move, son.”

“You two are about as country as you can get.” Sasha huffed.

Loubel snorted. “Then you should meet my Texas cousins.”

“Isn’t Tee from Texas?” she inquired.

“Yeah, she’s the smart one.” Loubel sighed before continuing. “Well, her and Marree.”

“I thought Marree was a vet. A human?” Confusion muddled her mind.

“She is and she isn’t. She is part of a pit viper clutch and a distant family member.”

“So why doesn’t she live in Betaille?” Sasha sensed she was missing something.

“Well Marree is a snake at heart but she can’t shift, so she prefers to stay with humans,” Etienne answered. “She had a few issues with the anaconda clutch and sought refuge with us here in Betaille.”

Loubel hissed before he spoke. “Jamison troubles, more like it. That idiot wouldn’t know a good thing if it bit him on the underbelly.”

“Loubel, can we keep our clan squabbles to ourselves for a while?”

“Why? You’re mated. She might as well hear about the skeletons in our closets.”

Sasha straightened in her seat. “Secrets? Talk to me, Loubel. I’m all ears.”

“It’s no big mystery, just a little bad blood between clans. They’ll work it out,” Etienne interjected before Loubel could speak.

They rode in silence. Loubel hung an arm out the window and inquired. “Are we going to see Marree because the claiming didn’t work? I mean I smell her all over you but you’re not on her.” He angled his head toward Sasha. “If there’s a problem that means she’s a free agent, right?” He glanced over at her and winked. “After all she is a cat shifter. My clutch could use some fresh blood.”

Sasha sank into her seat. Heat rose up her neck and across her cheeks.

Etienne turned and stared at Loubel, his voice rumbled like gravel rubbing together. “That little fight you had with the wolf a month back will seem like child’s play after I get a hold of you. Keep joking like that and I will skin your ass, then systematically break you down until there’s not even enough to feed my pets. When I’m done, there won’t be enough of your body to be found.”

She looked over at Etienne. He stared at Loubel and didn’t blink. She was quickly learning his traits and when he didn’t blink, she was sure he was deadly serious. A pissed-off gator was an unreadable one and she wasn’t quite sure what the animal would do in a fit of anger. She swallowed and inched closer to the snake.

Etienne turned his gaze on her. “Move any closer to the viper and you will give me reason to kill him.”

Loubel slammed his foot on the brake and they all flew into the dash. “Goddess but I hate creatures and their sensitivities during a mating. It was a damn joke, gator. She’s too skinny for me. Chain your fucking beast before I’m tempted to shift and bury my fangs in the softer hide of your chest. We’ll see who wins when you have a few cc’s of venom flowing through your system.” He pushed on the gas and the truck lurched forward.

Sasha swiveled her head between the two men. “Exactly how long before we get to wherever we’re going?”

She needed to get out the truck in the worst way. She had a little devil on her shoulder screaming at her to instigate a fight and see just how far Etienne was willing to go. What the hell was wrong with her? She scrubbed her face with her hands. A run would calm her and given her circumstances, she might hightail it all the way to Volkshire.

Marree was no help and Sasha could still hear her peals of laughter long after they left the vet’s office. When she was finally able to control her mirth, she looked at Sasha with compassion and shook her head. Sasha’s nails had bitten into her skin. She hadn’t realized she’d been clasping her hands so tightly. A claiming could not be undone. The sinking feeling Sasha had been trying to ignore bottomed out and settled like a lead weight in her stomach. Was there no one in this town who understood how dire her situation was? It was like she was bumping her head against a concrete wall. She was supposed to be securing the place for the committee the Council was sending. Instead she’d been shot, soundly fucked, but she’d never admit that out aloud, and mated a gator. She hadn’t spent much time actually working on her directive. Sasha hung her head. This had to be one of the most bizarre weeks of her life.

Loubel stayed behind when they exited the building. Etienne didn’t walk toward the truck as she expected. He started off in the opposite direction and glanced back and lifting his arm to offer her his hand. She shook her head. They weren’t lovers out to take a romantic stroll. She was a battle-hardened Volkshire sentential and he was a predator of the basest nature. In the swamps, they would have given each other a wide berth. He dropped his arm, turned on his heel and walked away with his shoulder squared and his back stiff. With a sigh, she trotted to him keeping a bit of distance between them. She glanced over at his profile remembering the night before. Her clit throbbed and her legs went momentarily weak, forcing her to drag her feet for a few steps.

He didn’t appear to notice her sudden loss of coordination. Crab boats floated down the river, the whir off their engines competing with the sound of the waves crashing against the pilings of the neighboring docks as they passed. The sparse traffic allowed her to start a conversation without raising her voice. She stuffed her hands into her front pockets. If only she knew where to start. Goddess, why did she feel like she owed the man an explanation? But she had to make him understand. There was no way they could do this. Entering into a mating right now was just wrong. She had a job to do. Honestly, she liked her freedom.

Her mother had withered away because she’d been caged in a mating with an abusive partner that had only cared for himself. Her daddy was a creature with a vicious temper who had no problem beating her mama into submission and striking out again when she tried to stop him from hitting his child.

Sasha stared at the road ahead of her, seeing the faces of her past. Her father, Salt, was a Florida panther with a penchant for alcohol. Sweetest man around until he got hard liquor into his system which was the reason she never touched the stuff. The night she left her kin, she’d witnessed her father break down and left him on his knees staring at the still form of her mother. She ran away as quickly as her legs would carry her and never looked back.

Her mother hadn’t done some asinine chore that he thought should have been completed by the time he got back from the bar. He spent his evenings drinking away what little money they had. For that transgression, Salt decided her mom needed to be taught a lesson and the face slapping started. For some reason her mother chose that night to fight back. It was the crashing of furniture that had drawn Sasha from her room.

She’d never forget the scene she walked in on. Her mama was begging her daddy to stop. Huddled in a fetal position to protect her middle, she pleaded with Salt to see reason. Drea, her mother, tucked her head when he started to kick her. For the first time in Sasha’s life her vision changed and she literally viewed everything tinged in red. She hadn’t realized that she’d shifted. Her sole objective was to protect her mom.

At that time she didn’t have the finesse to handle a partial conversion. Nope, in her teenage mind, changing into her beast was a go-big-and-tear-a-mofo-up type deal. Bounding up on her father’s back, her claws tore into Salt’s flesh. He’d easily thrown her off and swung around, his attention focused on her and being an older panther he had mastered all the tricks of shifting. He sliced through her foreleg with one swipe of his claws.

She rubbed the three faint slash mark scars on her biceps, a reminder never to trust a man and not to take a beast as a lover. She’d already broken cardinal rule number two. Sasha blinked a few times, trying to clear the memories running like a movie through her mind. All she saw was her mother’s face, the determined set of Drea’s jaw.

Salt didn’t get a chance to take another swing at her. Drea changed forms, becoming a leopard. Sasha hadn’t been able to do anything but stare at her mother. Her beautiful black-and-tan coat rippled over her mom’s body. The woman stood on all fours, battle-ready, opened her mouth, and roared. Although she’d never seen her mom raise a hand to protect herself from Salt, she went at him full throttle, chomping down on his arm with so much pressure Sasha heard bone crack.

Another first, Sasha witnessed her father shift. His panther was huge. In awe she watched her mom rise up on her haunches and battle her dad with her fore legs, taking swipes at his head and chest. Lamps toppled as tables were shoved aside when one or the other beast went down. Their sofa was shoved across the room, the wooden legs skidding as wood tore through linoleum. For a brief moment the leopard had the panther pinned and snapped her jaws at his muzzle. With lightning speed she witnessed her dad clip her mom’s back legs to slide from beneath her and suddenly everything slowed. Salt flipped back, landing on Drea’s spine with all his weight. The sickening
crunch
told Sasha he’d broken her mother’s spine.

She’d dropped to her knees and fell forward on her palms as she emptied all the contents from her stomach onto the discolored floor. Drea didn’t return to her human state but Salt did. He dropped to his knees and gathered her mother up into his arms. Sounds similar to strangled growls came from his direction. Sasha wasn’t sure if he’d killed her mom or if she was simply unconscious but she didn’t stick around to find out. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she rose and fled the house. She never went back. Hell, she wouldn’t even go through the state of Florida.

Sasha spent the rest of her teenage years homeless, skipping from town to town until she finally landed in Volkshire. She snorted. Colin took one look at her sitting on the curb, leaning against a column in front of the general store and told her she needed a bath. Her response was to growl at him. She damn near pissed her threadbare pants when he snarled back. Then he did something amazing and got in her face. She could still remember his words verbatim…

“Life is hard, kitty. Get your ass up and fight. I’ll give you exactly sixty seconds to get in my car. You’re coming home with me. You need to get cleaned up. I’m sure one of my boys can train and use you on one of their teams.” Colin had stepped back to give her room. “This is your one chance, little cat. Things may not have gone the way you wanted them too. I’m offering you the chance to take back your power.”

If looks could kill, she was fairly sure at the time hers would have cut to the bone. She took a glance at him and spat out the words. “I’m nobody’s whore.”

“If I wanted a woman, I’d have no problem obtaining one. You’re way too young to handle me. But I am always looking for fighters, people I believe I can train and trust. At least until you piss me off and trust me little bit when I tell you, you’re moving down that road fast.” He crossed his arms. “You need a home and I need a guard. Take the offer and stop trying to bite the hand that will feed you. I’ll even throw in a slice of cake.”

That last sentence had thrown her. “What the hell does cake have to do with anything?”

“Things always look sweeter after a good dessert. Now come on and meet my boys.”

Her instincts told her to go and she followed them. It was probably the best decision she ever made. True to his words she was trained, honing her skills, becoming one of the best sentinels he had. Part of his son, Boris’s, elite team, she opted for the dangerous posts, jumping into them with a zeal as if she had a death wish. Battle worn, scarred, and tired she finally stepped back from the team and asked for the easy contracts to protect the rich and lazy.

This was supposed to be one of those easy jobs. She scrubbed her face with her hands and glanced over at Etienne. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

Etienne sighed as if repeating himself was a chore. “I said when I love, I love hard leaving no doubt in your mind or body how cherished you are.” He stepped into her personal space and traced a digit around the collar of her shirt before continuing. “And when I hate, folks die. I see no reason to make others suffer the stupidity of one.” He dropped his hand and shrugged, leaving her wondering exactly what else he’d said while she was reminiscing. Damn gator.

Court pushed the clothing aside, listening to the hangers scratch the metal rod. He dug through the heavy sweaters and other winter outfits stacked neatly on the back shelf. His hands grazed a smooth surface and he pulled the square box from the back of his closet. Wiping the nonexistent dust off the side, he hastily crossed the room leaving the bi-fold door opens. Softly he placed the shoe box with his handwritten scribble across the top on the bed. Excitement skidded along his spine. He’d been looking for a reason to open this box, reverently prayed that the day would come when he’d get the opportunity to use the object he’d tucked away under the guise of shoes.