Reclaiming the Wolf (Cascade Shifters Book 1) (10 page)

Sy gave a wicked smile and squeezed her tighter against him. Then he leaned down to her ear and whispered, “You’re supposed to play the part of my girlfriend, remember? Since anyone could be watching, we can’t turn it on and off. Shifters like touch, and when we’re in public, I’m going to keep you glued to my side.”

She was about to give him a harsh whisper scolding when he bit her earlobe and she drew in a breath. As he licked at the bite, her heart rate kicked up and warmth spread through her body. He bit her again, and she grasped the shirt on his chest as wetness rushed between her legs.

Damn it, her body responded far too easily to his.

Sy growled and stopped his attentions to whisper, “I can smell you, Kaya. Tell me I can fuck you again later, or I’ll never be able to concentrate during our upcoming meeting.”

The images she’d had in the shower of Sy fucking her against the cool tiles while hot water cascaded over their joined bodies came rushing back. Before she could stop herself, she said, “How can you still do this to me, and make me want you? By all rights, I should still hate you for standing me up at our engagement ceremony ten years ago.”

Sy nuzzled her cheek. “Did you ever think maybe all of that was supposed to happen, and only through our mistakes and maturing apart, could we fit together better in the future?”

She pushed against his chest and Sy leaned back. As she stared into his green eyes, she wished she could fall for his pretty words and see what happened, but too many people were counting on her right now. Whatever the hell was going on between them would have to wait. “We need to go or we’ll be late for our meeting.”

His jaw set in a firm line, but then he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. The touch was fleeting, and she barely registered it before his warmth was gone. Sy released her and held out a hand. “Then let’s go.”

She put her hand in his, loving the feel of his strong, rough hand gripping her own. She yearned to have those rough hands roam her body before pulling her close into a tight embrace. But no matter how much she wanted it, she had a job to do first.

~~~

As Sy guided Kaya out of the parking garage and out onto the street, he tried not to smile. Sure, Kaya hadn’t jumped into his arms and professed undying love, but she’d admitted to wanting him. That was a start.

And his cougar approved.

Soon they reached the designated meeting area on Third Avenue. After crossing the street, they ascended the small flight of steps to an open plaza strewn with old bits of the building that had once stood there. He wasn’t entirely sure what purpose they served, but humans seemed attached to their architecture, so he wasn’t going to question it too thoroughly.

He pulled Kaya over to the wall on the side of the plaza, which doubled as a tall planter, to partially obscure them from view. He leaned back, spun Kaya around, and pulled her against his chest. Before she could say a word, he whispered, “Your height gives away that you’re a shifter. I can get away with it, because some human males are tall, but you can’t. Leaning against me helps give the illusion you’re shorter than you are. The less attention we draw to ourselves, the better.”

She harrumphed, but nodded. His inner cougar purred at the heat of her of body against his, as well as her sweet grass scent filling his nose. The cat wanted to come out, rub against Kaya’s legs, and try to earn an ear-scratching, but he wasn’t about to shift in the middle of downtown Seattle. People here were more accepting than most places, but there were shifter haters everywhere. A shifter who let down their guard was most likely a dead one.

He kept watch on the comings and goings of people, looking in particular for his human contact. Thankfully, Kaya kept silent and never tried to pull away while they waited for the human to arrive. If anything, she relaxed more against him as he squeezed her tighter, enjoying the feel of her body in his arms.

Less than five minutes later, his thirty-year-old, slightly overweight contact ascended the stairs to the plaza. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he kept quiet. Dave knew where to find him.

His contact turned and headed straight for him. He looked a little confused at the woman in Sy’s arms since Sy had always come alone in the past, but smart man that he was, he didn’t question it. He held out a small piece of paper and Kaya took it. She opened the scrap and he read over her shoulder, “Markgen.”

Sy looked back up to Dave. “Are you sure?”

His contact nodded. “The encryption was fairly easy to break, if you knew what to look for.”

Markgen was one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the State of Washington. Getting into their headquarters was going to take some hard-ass finagling. Sy would probably have to trade in every favor he had.

He nodded at Dave. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Dave eyed Kaya again and Sy resisted the urge to growl at another man’s eyes on his female.

Wait, since when had he started to think of Kaya as his female again? He was going to have to watch that. Just because he’d fucked her didn’t mean he had a claim on her. According to shifter tradition, clan leaders had to make a claim first, and Kaya hadn’t done so. But he was working on that part.

Sy thanked his contact and waited until he was out of earshot before he whispered into Kaya’s ear, “Since I don’t have to visit DS Engineering’s branch location until tomorrow, I think we should grab some food and head back to the apartment to exchange information and come up with a plan.”

She nodded. “Sounds good.”

Kaya was tense as she rose up and moved out of his arms, and he started to get the feeling the wolf was keeping something from him. DarkStalker had little involvement with companies like Markgen since the pharmaceutical company had never contracted DarkStalker for work, but GreyFire’s bread and butter were vaccines and new drug therapies. They had probably worked with the company many times over.

The only question was whether she would trust him with the inner workings of her clan’s business interests or not.

He moved to Kaya’s side, placed a hand at her waist, and urged her back to the parking garage. The sooner he got them back to the apartment, the sooner he could try to find out what was bothering Kaya. He didn’t want her to face this alone.

Sy tried to think of the best way to approach this. He’d worked with his brother for years, and while he was still getting to know Kaya’s style, she put her heart and soul into her clan, just like his brother. No doubt, there were some similarities in their work ethics.

Of course, no matter what he did, the decision of whether or not to share secrets would ultimately be hers. He could only hope she would let him in again because both the man and the cougar desperately wanted to understand the older, more mature version of Kaya Alexie.

~~~

If a possible outbreak hadn’t been enough to worry about, now Kaya had to decide what to do about Markgen.

The big pharma company was her clan’s biggest research partner. Due to the restrictive laws about shifters, there was a limit to what Kaya’s wolves could and could not do when it came to the final stages of drug research. Any clinical trials on humans had to be conducted by humans, and since only a select few companies would even work with shifters, Kaya’s choices had been few.

Markgen was known for being shifter-friendly. She’d set up a collaborative project just after she’d become clan leader, nearly three years ago. She, and her head of research, had started to trust them.

But if Sy’s contact was correct and Markgen was responsible for the wolf-shifter virus, she’d have to cut all ties and risk bankrupting her clan.

Since they were now back in the car, Kaya closed her eyes and massaged her temples. If she could only shift and go for a run, she could clear her head and think of how to handle this situation. Letting her wolf run free was, hands down, the best way for her to de-stress and focus.

However, going for a run in the middle of a big city wasn’t an option. Sy probably knew of the local shifter-safe areas where they could run free, but that would require asking him about it. So far, he’d been respecting her wishes to stay silent. She was grateful for that, but on the other hand, she knew he wouldn’t let her go anywhere until he had answers. Curiosity had never killed the cat next her, and probably never would.

Opening her eyes, Kaya sighed. It was best to get this conversation over with now. “I’m guessing you want to know about Markgen?”

Sy glanced over and then back to the road. “Since it probably involves a few of your clan secrets, I was letting you think about what you could share.”

Damn. She was starting to understand what he’d said earlier about knowing what she was like from his years of working with his brother. Her wolf howled in approval at the cougar not trying to take charge. Because if he did, they would have to fight him, and her wolf really didn’t want to fight him unless it was necessary. He made them feel good. The wolf wanted more sex, and soon.

Coaxing her inner wolf to be quiet, Kaya focused back on the situation on hand. “GreyFire has two possibly lucrative clinical trials going on—one for a malaria drug and the other for a cancer drug. The short story is that both drugs use bits of shifter DNA to fight off the diseases, and only a handful of human companies will work with drugs like that.”

Sy nodded in understanding and she continued, “Right now, Markgen is in the final stage of testing both drugs. The results have been promising, and we might even have FDA approval by next year for the malaria one.”

The cougar-shifter glanced at her. “Do you think Markgen wants to patent the drug themselves?”

“It’s possible. With approval, it could be extremely profitable, even with our plan to donate large amounts of the drug to the hardest hit countries for free.”

Sy turned into the apartment’s parking garage. “I bet Markgen doesn’t like that last part. If they removed your clan from the equation, what would happen?”

She’d had similar suspicions. “If GreyFire was completely annihilated, they would own all the rights to both of the trials as well as the drugs.”

Sy turned off the car and turned toward her. “What do you want to do? I could tap my contacts and trade some favors to get some inside information on Markgen, but I don’t want to jeopardize your clan’s finances in case we’re wrong.”

She studied the man sitting across from her. Judging by the tension of his body, his instincts were screaming to act and take care of Markgen. Yet here he was, asking her what should be done.

Sy’s words from earlier popped into her head.
Did you ever think maybe all of that was supposed to happen, and only through our mistakes and maturing apart, could we fit together better in the future?

She was starting to think he had a point. With every hour that passed, he showed how much he could support and help her without trying to dominate her. Maybe—just maybe—they could try again. But first, she needed the truth about their past. If he gave it to her, she would risk telling him a few clan secrets. If she couldn’t confide the secrets to him, he couldn’t really help her when it came to Markgen.

Before she could change her mind, Kaya asked, “What did your letters say all those years ago?”

Sy blinked. “You want to talk about that now?”

She nodded. “Before I can start divulging more clan secrets, I want the truth from you, as a display of trust.”

He searched her eyes for a second before he said, “Mostly I asked for you to forgive me, and if by some miracle you did, I’d do anything to earn back your love, even if it meant challenging your uncle. I was half a man without you.”

At the fierce look in Sy’s eyes, Kaya stopped breathing. She wanted to believe the look was because he still cared for her, but she pushed that thought aside. She needed to hear the rest. “When did you start sending them?”

“As soon as I finished boot camp. Unless I was on a mission or incapacitated, I sent one every day.”

She searched his eyes. They were open and honest. For some reason, both she and her inner wolf believed him.

Once they’d dealt with Markgen and took care of this virus, she would ask her uncle’s old sentry for the truth. Her uncle, Frances Alexie, had never approved of her choice of mate. And after trying to clean up the mess he’d made of her clan with his egotistical ambitions, it would fit with his character to hide Sy’s letter from her so he could ensure they’d never reconcile.

She had focused so long on the hurt and pain of Sy’s actions that she’d never bothered to look for any other explanation of his complete silence. Neither one of them could change the past, but she could try for a clean slate from this point forward. She took a deep breath and said, “I promise you, Sylas, I never received any of your letters. I never would’ve let a year’s worth of them pile up without a reply. Passive-aggression is not my style.”

He raised a hand, brushed a stray hair from her face, and tucked it behind her ear, his finger lingering a second before he removed it. “In hindsight, I understand that. But at the time, your silence crushed me. I was young and my pride was stung. By the time my contract with the army was up, I had decided to leave you alone and start over.”

She nodded and felt something she hadn’t wanted to do with this male in a long time—she wanted to tease him. She clicked her tongue. “Male shifters and their pride...”