Resisting the Cougar (Cascade Shifters #2) (14 page)

She answered quietly, “I’ll give up the SEA. The price of not doing so is too great.”

~~~

Rubbing Claire’s leg, Aidan tried to ease some of her tension. She’d just agreed to give up the center of her life. Nothing he said would help, but he would support her in any way he could. He was determined to make Claire happy again.

Rather than think about how Claire’s happiness had come to mean so much to him in a short span of time, he asked Kian, “Will you allow Dani and I to plan the security for keeping Claire safe?”

Kian tapped his fingers against the table. “You can help, but I’m putting Dani in charge of this.” Aidan opened his mouth but Kian cut him off. “No, you’re too close to it all and your emotions will get in the way. I want you to help Claire craft her story and teach her defense moves. Once the public starts to believe the story, you’ll need to make secret appearances and I want you both prepared.”

Aidan frowned. “Public appearances? How in the hell can we do that? The police will have their suspicions about Claire staying with me, and they could arrest her. Living with a shifter is illegal.”

Kian answered, “Did you miss the ‘secret’ part? With enough planning, we can get you two to speak to crowds of humans without the authorities’ knowledge.”

Aidan gave Kian a skeptical look. “It’s still risky. I don’t like it.”

Claire spoke up. “Kian’s right. Leaking pictures and videos will help, but without us talking with the public, there will always be rumors about it being untrue. The worth-of-mouth will help us more than you can imagine.”

He squeezed Claire’s thigh. “Not only will it make you an easy target, secrets leak out all the time. There’s no guarantee you won’t be arrested.”

Kian interjected, “I’m working on that. I’m going to have to ask the bears for a favor. I was putting it off, but I need to find a way to keep other humans on my land.”

Claire’s brows drew together. “What other humans? And the bears? What can they do?”

Aidan answered, “He’s talking about Lauren, who you met the other day. Once she gives birth, she’ll be here illegally.”

Trinity jumped in. “As for the rest, the ShadowClaw bears are mostly lawyers. If there’s any sort of loophole in the law to protect us once we step off DarkStalker’s lands, they’ll either know it or will find one.”

Looking to Aidan, Claire asked, “Why will Lauren’s status change once she has her baby? I don’t understand.”

Aidan answered, “Lauren is already using a loophole. Since she’s carrying a half-shifter child, she has shifter DNA in her body.”

Claire finished the thought, “And any person with even a trace amount of shifter DNA can choose to live with the shifters. But what about after she births the baby? What happens then if you can’t find a loophole?”

Kian’s voice was firm. “I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I think we’re done for now, unless you have any questions that can’t wait?”

Claire shook her head. “I need to process all of this first. I’m sure we’ll have another meeting soon.”

Kian replied, “As soon as you hand over the SEA, we’ll talk again. Not before.” Since Claire didn’t really have a choice, she nodded and he looked over to Aidan. “Take Claire back to her quarters.” Kian looked over to Claire. “Contact your second-in-command straightaway. Once you’re done, Hector will cut off your internet access. I don’t want you logging on to any of your accounts.”

“Without the internet or email, how am I supposed to do anything?” Claire demanded.

“You’ll find a way. I’m sure others can find information for you if you request it. I will also be keeping in touch with the SEA and can pass along information.” Kian stood up. “Now, I think we should all get to work. I’ll touch base soon. Take the evening to settle your affairs, Claire, and then move into Aidan’s apartments.”

Aidan realized Kian was forgetting one important point. “What about the clan? Will they be in on the love story idea, or do we keep it secret?”

Trinity melted against Kian’s side. “We’ll have a claiming ceremony tomorrow evening. They’ll know you’re together, but not that it’s a cover story. To them, it will be a whirlwind romance.”

Claire looked at each person in the room. “What’s a claiming ceremony? I’ve only heard rumors of a mating ceremony.”

Trinity waved a hand at Aidan. “Aidan can explain it later. From now on, your job is to play the part of a couple madly in love. It’s the only way for us to possibly have a happy ending.”

Aidan’s inner cougar purred at the idea of a claiming ceremony. That would be one-step closer to making Claire theirs for good.

However, his human half was a little unsure. The fact Claire was human meant he couldn’t foresee the reaction of his clan. Sean Fisher mating Lauren was one thing, but their head sentry marrying a political organizer was another. Human politics had done little to help Clan DarkStalker over the years. A few of the more stubborn might take out their hatred and frustration on Claire.

He only hoped the bears could help them. There was no way in hell he would allow the human police to steal Claire away from his side. If ShadowClaw didn’t have a way out, Aidan would have to dissuade both Claire and his clan leader about the public appearances.

Wrapping an arm around Claire’s waist, he looked to Trinity. “Don’t meddle and it will make our act easier.”

Rather than wait for a reply, Aidan nodded to Kian and guided Claire out of the room.

~~~

Powering down her computer, Claire let out a sigh and covered her eyes with her forearm. Her eyes prickled, and if she wasn’t careful, she would cry.

Effective immediately, she was no longer in charge of the Shifter Equality Alliance.

While she’d always figured in failure, she never in a million years expected to be forced out due to scandal. For five years, she had dedicated her life to the SEA. She could help from the outside to pass human-shifter marriage equality, but no longer could she turn tactics on their head and give orders to her team of thousands of volunteers.

While she was in shock, once everything had time to set in, she was going to need a lot of coffee and cookies to keep herself going.

Strong hands massaged her shoulders. Each rub and squeeze helped to release some tension. When Claire was sure she had her emotions mostly under control, she lowered her arms to look up into Aidan’s handsome face. “Thank you.”

“Well, you just had to willingly give up the most important thing in your life. That has to be worse than having it stolen from you. Either way, I more than anyone else understand a little of what you’re going through.”

After enjoying a few more seconds of Aidan’s massage, Claire stood and turned to face him. Gently, she laid her hands on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. Looking him in the eye, she asked, “How did you move past it? I know I’m still digesting it all, but there will soon be a giant, empty hole in my heart.”

He squeezed her against him. “I had Chloe to think about. Since she was only a toddler, I went through the motions for about six months. Eventually, though, Chloe was talking and asking me why I was sad. At that point, I knew I needed to pull myself together for her.”

Not wanting to pass up the rare chance, Claire risked pushing further. “How did it happen, Aidan?”

He glanced away, but she was patient. If their love story were to work, she needed to know the details of his past. Of course, she wanted to know about it for more than a cover story; Claire wanted to know everything about the man in front of her.

Aidan kept his gaze averted when he finally spoke. “Well, I guess I should start by saying shifter males are quite protective of their pregnant mates.”

Claire smiled. “You don’t say.”

He met her gaze then, but at her smile, he smiled himself. “If you think I’m alpha now, then it would be twenty times worse if you were pregnant.”

Rather than frighten her, the thought of having Aidan’s child warmed her heart. Strange, considering Claire had never really thought about having children before. It must be because of Chloe. “Okay, so you were protective. Tell me the rest.”

Shaking his head, Aidan continued. “Well, by Emily’s sixth month of being pregnant with twins, she was stir-crazy. She wanted to shift, run, and play in the forest.”

“Why couldn’t she?”

“Clan leaders generally don’t like pregnant females to leave the safety of the clan after about the fifth month. That’s when they start to show in both their human and shifter forms. There has been a long history of poachers kidnapping pregnant shifters and keeping them until they birth the babies. Then they kill the mother and keep the cubs to train or sell into the underground slave trade.”

Claire frowned. “What? Since when has there been an underground shifter slave trade?”

Aidan shrugged. “Pretty much since the beginning of time. Much like the human slave trade, it doesn’t really ever get mentioned.”

She was curious to know more, but didn’t want to distract Aidan from his story, so she prompted, “So did Emily sneak out?”

With a sad smile, Aidan shook his head. “No, she wore me down and I agreed to take her to the safe zone, which is usually reserved for the teenagers to run around and play without fear.”

Placing her arms around his waist, she gently prodded. “Tell me what happened, Aidan.”

Idly, he rubbed her lower back. “While both in our cougar forms, we played chase at first, and then hunt and seek.”

“Is that like hide and seek?”

“Sort of. The aim is to test our tracking skills, so the target moves around rather than stay still.”

“And?”

“It was my turn to hide and evade discovery. While Emily was good and could usually find me within five minutes, fifteen minutes passed without so much as a sound. More worried than usual because of the twins, I stayed put so she could find me. After another five minutes, I knew something was wrong.”

Her strong shifter male closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Even after all these years, the memories had to be painful.

Yet if she didn’t hear it in this moment, then Claire wasn’t sure she could truly understand Aidan. And for some reason, she wanted to understand him. Not just because of the cover story, but because she truly wanted to know everything about the strong shifter soldier who hid his pain both for the sake of his daughter as well as for his clan.

Rubbing Aidan’s back in long, slow motions, she whispered, “I want to know, Aidan. Tell me.”

He opened his eyes and traced her cheek. “For you, Claire, I will. I don’t think I could deny you anything.”

She stopped breathing at the tenderness in his voice. She was honest enough with herself to admit she was falling for him.

Afraid her voice would break, Claire nodded for him to continue and he did. “After tracking Emily, I finally found her with a bullet in the chest. Judging from the bruises and scraps of material strewn about, she had fought the poacher and lost.”

Laying her head on his chest, she hugged him tightly. “I’m so sorry, Aidan.”

After a few seconds of silence, he continued. “I know she’s gone, but there are times when I wish she was here. Despite weighing about seventy pounds less than me, she never backed down. She wasn’t afraid to call me out on my shit. She brought fire to my life in more ways than one.”

Nuzzling his chest, she kept her voice strong. “I never will try to replace her. She actually sounds like someone I’d get along with. But I can certainly call you out on your shit. I think I already do.”

Aidan’s laugh rumbled beneath her ear and she looked up. Laughter danced in his eyes. “Yes, and don’t ever stop. It’s one of the things that makes me feel alive for the first time since Emily died.”

Raising a hand to Aidan’s cheek, she rubbed her fingers against his late-day stubble. “I can think of other things that make parts of you come alive.”

His gaze turned heated. “My cock is already standing at attention. Kiss me, Claire. I think we both need something to distract us from reality.” He leaned down until his lips nearly touched hers. “Besides, I think we need to practice our loving couple façade. Fucking you hard will definitely have you fawning over me later.”

Heat rushed through her body, making her wet. Aidan could probably scent her, but she was going to make him work for it. “I don’t know about that. It’s going to take some rather spectacular sex to make me fawn over anyone.”

Growling, Aidan drew her closer against his body. “You won’t fawn over any other male. Just me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, is that so? Then you better start convincing me.”

Without another word, he kissed her.

Chapter Twelve

Telling Claire about Emily’s death lifted some of the weight off Aidan’s shoulders. Sure, Dani and Kian knew the truth of what had happened, but this was the first time he had ever willingly shared the experience with someone.

Not only that, Claire didn’t dismiss Emily or show any jealously over his former mate. He believed her when she said she wouldn’t try to replace Emily. With time, Aidan might be able to share some of his happier memories with both Claire and Chloe. Chloe always asked about her mother. If Claire remained at his side, he could probably tell Chloe whatever she needed, even treasuring the good times.