Tane's Mate: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Shifter's on the Run Book 1) (7 page)

“Please graduate,” her voice was frail and thin when she asked that. All she ever wanted them to do was graduate.

The doctors told them she wouldn’t live to see them walk across the stage but his mother was determined that she would see her two boys become men.

Tane could still see the doctor shaking his head when he told them their mother wouldn’t live another week to see them walk across the stage at graduation. She was dying. He could still remember the fuss when he and Dai walked into the hospital the day of their graduation dressed in their gowns with their caps sitting precariously on their heads.

Clutched in his hand was a simple dress, one his mother had seen in a store window and pictured wearing when they crossed the stage. He asked her favorite nurse Nancy to help them get her changed. She kissed them both on the cheeks and agreed.

Then with the doctor frowning with his mouth, but smiling with his eyes, he unhooked her from the machine. He told them she had to be back at ten that night because she couldn’t miss the next dose of her medicine. They acknowledged him and took her to graduation. She was given a place of honor on the stage to see her sons walk across and accept their diplomas.

When they walked each one of them ended at her side kneeling down before her. She was the powerhouse in their lives. The whole stadium stood up and gave an ovation. Their mother deserved it. She had held them together. They could have been lost to the streets and gangs. Or whatever else waited for two angry teens but she refused to give them up. That moment was made possible by her.

They went to a restaurant with some of their friends and their families. Mom was sitting between them, she couldn’t eat but that didn’t matter. She laughed and talked and rejoiced in their special day.

She died a month later with them holding her hands. It was ok; she was ready to go home and she had already charted their lives. They would enter the military, find good women, settle down and have babies. Of course they would tell the babies about their grandma and granddad who loved them even though they didn’t get a chance to meet them.

He was pretty sure that dream died the day they ended up in that testing facility but his mom never knew about that. Now Leza was at his side. Now they were fighting for their lives against the government but what their mom instilled in them would get them through. They gave up hours of sleep in order to study to make their mom’s dream a reality but it had helped them later in life. They were intelligent. Way too intelligent for their own good was how the government doctors logged it.

He watched the sun as it climbed the sky. He checked the position and realized it was close to eight in the morning. It was time to stop and get something to eat. Then he needed sleep.

*~*~*~*

Leza stretched. The feel of Tane’s hand caressing her face woke her up with a sleepy smile on her lips.

“Where are we?”

“At a rest stop. You need to get up and get something to eat.” She nodded and looked into the back to see that both Dai and Jay were up doing a visual reconnaissance of the stop. They silently slid out the car and moved off into different directions. She reached for the door handle but Tane stopped her.

“Let’s wait until they come back.”

She nodded her understanding. They didn’t trust there wasn’t danger even though the rest stop was filled with families and what looked like businessmen and women getting their day started. Dai and Jay finally came back giving Tane a sign that everything was fine. He let go of her hand, and she quickly exited the SUV not wanting to draw attention to herself.

They walked into a busy restaurant, it was loud and boisterous. Leza found herself relaxing. It was humanity at its best as a mother teased her child and a boyfriend snuck a kiss. It was normal, something she hadn’t seen or been a part of in a long time.

“This is what life was meant to be,” she said as they were seated at a booth. “Early morning with the family. Full of life and love as you make your way to someplace amazing.”

“It’s not what every life was meant to be,” Jay said looking around the restaurant. “Not everyone has those kinds of lives, they just don’t.”

“I know, but I always believed it was meant to be this way.”

“I think life was meant to be you by my side, along with my brothers as we run from the government and military to a safe place to live,” Tane said. “There we will have early morning breakfasts and raise kids and live in freedom.”

Her eyes glazed over as she imagined living on acres and acres of land with Tane, their children sitting in their laps as they watched the sunset. She would look over and he would place a kiss on her lips. When she looked to the other side one of the other males would be their tickling their children or kissing their mates. She could see forever in a place like that. Raising her hand, she wiped at her eye before a tear of longing could fall.

“That sounds nice. I can almost see it.”

“Hang onto that vision, it will come true.” Tane’s hand slid into hers.

The waitress approached the table, she handed each of them a menu.

“Can I get you something to drink?” She was tall and thin with black hair pulled back into a ponytail.

“I would like a coke.” Leza looked down at her hands which were jittery. That’s when she realized fine tremors were going through her body. Could it be caffeine withdrawal? She noticed that the others seemed to be fine with water or milk and beer. Her mouth quirked up, of course they were fine with beer.

They each asked for a glass of water and waited until the waitress walked away before they looked at her.

“Are you all right?” Tane asked.

“I’m fine, just a little jittery. I’m thinking caffeine withdrawal although I don’t have the headache yet.”

“You drank soda after you received your animal?”

“Every day they made sure I had a glass even if they didn’t feed me they made me drink.”

“We can’t drink caffeine,” Jay finally volunteered as if that made everything understandable.

“Why not?”

“Our animals can’t take caffeine. Each of us reacts differently on it. It may act like a poison or a drug. Sometimes it has an erotic side effect, not a nice one. More like I will tear you apart when I get my hands on you. It’s dangerous to us,” Tane answered her question.

“I wish Dev was here,” Dai said. “He understands our physiology better than I do. It’s possible that since you only have one animal caffeine doesn’t affect you like it affects us.” He looked at her hands that were shaking so much she looked like a junkie needing a fix. “Although it obviously affects you to some degree."

The waitress came back with their drinks. It took everything Leza had not to snatch it from the waitress’s hands. Instead she waited and mumbled a polite thank you before she tilted the glass and drained it in one long swallow.

“Wow, you were thirsty.”

“I was,” she smiled at the woman. “Can I have another?”

The waitress took her glass. “I’ll have it for you in a few minutes.”

Leza slid back in the booth as her body began stabilizing.

Leza and Tane were sitting in the back of the SUV with her peering over into the trunk section.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Her eyes were lit up like it was Christmas morning and she received the best gift ever.

He looked back running his eyes over the cases of coke sitting back there.

“Until we know why you need it; I think it’s best to make sure we have a good supply on hand.”

She reached out and placed her hand on top of his giving it a small squeeze.

“Thank you.” Her mouth quirked up as she remembered the look on the waitresses face when Tane ordered several cases of coke to go.

The waitress sent them to a store not too far away where they were able to get what they needed.

“Tane, you need to get some sleep.” She gave his hand another squeeze before letting go.”

He nodded looking around at the cars speeding past and the surrounding landscape before he allowed his shoulders to relax against the seat. He reached out and took her hand holding it gently before closing his eyes.

She bit her lip and gently rubbed his hand with the one he wasn’t holding until his grip went lax and he was finally a sleep.

“You should get some sleep also, Leza,” Dai said from the driver’s seat.

“I’m not tired, probably a side effect of the caffeine.”

He nodded and went back to watching the road. She looked over at Jay who was in the front passenger seat to see he was dozing.

Who were these men? She knew Tane was the leader, maybe even the unofficial leader but they all listened to him. Dai was obviously his twin but who were all the others? How had they all come together? What was their life like before they came to the facility?

The facility was a large building. She knew that because she had been transferred around it even though she had never seen the outside of it. When she first got there she thought it was a mistake. All she had to do was convince someone to listen to her and then they would understand and allow her to leave. How naive she had been. It didn’t matter, time taught her.

Now she was being naïve again believing in a fairy tale that said they could get away and have a life. Not a normal life, that would never happen but still they could live, love and be happy.

Love. Her heart thumped at the thought that one day maybe she would love Tane, and he would love her in return. She wanted more than an overwhelming desire to sleep with him, because they were some sort of genetic match. How could they do that anyway? It didn’t make sense that they would know she was the one person he would be attracted to above all others. Maybe they had just rolled the dice and picked her because physically she was his type. They figured if they added an animal then he would have no choice but to fall for her.

Her heart sank. She wanted more than that. She wanted to be needed and cared for, loved because of who she was and not because she was someone’s only choice.

Then she’d make him love her.
Back up, Leza, it’s not like you’re in love with him.
She was in serious lust though and she liked everything she knew about him so far, even the fact that he grunted when he didn’t want to talk. It was seriously cute. Grunting was cute? Ok, maybe she liked him a little more than she was admitting but isn’t that what happened when people were thrown into a dangerous situation? She didn’t know so she closed her eyes and decided to take a small nap.

“Are they both out?” Jay asked quietly.

Dai looked in the rear view mirror. “Yeah.”

“What do you think?”

“About the fact that they sent the one female my twin can’t kill, or that they have other females that may be our mates.”

“Take your choice, man.”

“How did they know?” Dai turned his head to throw Jay a frown. “I’m not convinced that any female who looks like her with an animal would have made my brother this protective. How did they pick this female? Why this female? They went to a lot of trouble to get her. She’s not even military or ex-military and there were plenty of them that Tane had his eye on before we were captured.”

“I talked about it with some of the others and Lore has a theory. Only someone with the nickname Lore could come up with it.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“He thinks there are others like us but with different abilities. Maybe even some who were naturally born. If science could do this, what’s to stop nature from doing it?”

Dai head shook. “I hate to think that nature would do this to mankind, but no one ever accused Mother Nature of being nice.”

“He suggested that maybe there was someone who could tell or predict pairings.” Jay laid his head back while he let Dai think over his words.

“So you’re suggesting, or Lore is suggesting that someone the government has captured or created can tell what couples will come together or should come together?”

“It makes sense if you think about it. I didn’t know you guys before we were taken, but I saw you around. It’s hard to miss a pair of twins that go everywhere together and look like they could take out a small army on their own.”

Dai shot him a grin.

“I was smart enough to know that the two of you, though twins, were attracted to different women. Tane was always surrounded, but he seemed to gravitate to the women who resembled Leza. You, on the other hand, were harder to get a handle on.”

“You’ll never find my mate in the military. So why didn’t they pick one of them? Isn’t it easier to make military personnel disappear? They did it with us.”

“I hate Lore’s idea, but it makes some sort of sense. It also means that the women they have are definitely our mates.”

“I know, it makes a male want to run off and find his mate, but we don’t know where to go.”

“We’ll ask Leza again when we’re safe to tell us anything even if it was a smell. We’ll find them.”

“Dai?” Jay’s voice was low as he said his name, checking the rearview mirror intently.

“I see them; they’ve been on us for the last five minutes. I want to wait until I’m sure they’re tailing us. Then we’ll shake them and swap vehicles. We’re almost at the first swap point anyway.”

*~*~*~*

Leza woke when the car made a sharp U-turn and picked up speed.

“How many?” Tane woke fully in an instant.

“I see two, but I bet there are at least two more ghosting them.”

Tane nodded as Leza looked out the back window trying to see who they were talking about.

“Lose them.”

“Really? I thought I’d just play with them. Hold on, Leza.” Dai shouted as he crossed the barrier on the highway and began driving into oncoming traffic.

She screamed as she watched drivers cuss him out as he missed their cars by a hair and kept going. Twisting her head, she saw two cars whip around and start towards the wrong side of the highway.

“They’re going to follow us. We are all going to die.”

“We’re not going to die,” Tane said, hauling her body up against his. He waved out the window at the driver that just flipped them the bird.