Bad Boy Romance: Nick (Romantic Suspense Alpha Male Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Contemporary Short Stories) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 2) (41 page)

****

When he woke, he opened his
eyes immediately, then slammed his lids shut when he saw they were still
underground. Charlie had slid onto the floor, but Ali hadn’t bothered to tie
him up, and his heart raced briefly in celebration. As his pulse sped, his
system cleared away the rest of the drug, and he twitched and curled one finger
experimentally; then he heard Ali’s voice, and he focused on quieting his heart
to hear more clearly. He could vaguely see her figure pacing around in front of
the open steel door, with a newly healed Natalie glaring at her in chains from
the floor. Ali must have found a way to hear her without letting her shift. He
wondered if she was drugged too.

“…Think we wouldn’t find a way
to bug your stupid houses,” she was saying gleefully. “God, you were so wrong
there. You think steel can stop the kind of tech we use? Brainless. Anyway, it
doesn’t matter that little Theodore hasn’t shown up; I can kill your baby
myself, and I’ll kill your husband as well. I can’t figure out which of you is
the source of power, so I’ll have to off you both. Usually the prides we find
have clear signs—one mate is clairvoyant or has super speed or can manipulate
an element, like fire. Ariel seems to be able to manipulate earth and mineral.
I’m going to get creative with her.” Her nonchalance was chilling.

Charlie’s mind raced, and he
debated whether or not he should try to get up. Ali would almost certainly hear
him crossing the plastic, and that would put Natalie in harm’s way after she
dispatched of him. If he could find a way to distract her, he could buy time to
launch himself twenty feet and take her out, but with her fully aware, it
wasn’t a sure enough move.

“You don’t see that I’m doing
our kind a favor,” Ali was saying, and she seemed to be stalling in case
whoever Theodore was showed up. Charlie assumed it was the short blonde man
from the tail and the airport. “You attaining these powers is a sign that we’re
reaching a ceiling of sorts. Shifters used to be gods, golden idols who looked
down on every other being on Earth.” Her voice was dripping with admiration,
and Charlie was revolted at her worshipful tone. “They were perfect, so the
other gods destroyed them for it. It ended an era, and shifters had to crawl
back up again from the bowels of mankind.” Ari stopped pacing and peered down
at Natalie’s face, and her words were spiteful and bitter. “I won’t be made to
writhe on my belly like a worm or bitch in heat. I won’t have our kind set back
just when we are starting to become diverse and unstoppable again!” Ari reached
behind her and pulled out a breathtakingly sharp knife about as long as her
forearm, and she cast a final look toward the door.

It’s now or never, Charlie
realized. How will I do this?

Then he remembered Ali’s
words—shifters were showing signs of new powers in the targeted prides. Hadn’t something
baffling happened earlier, something that shouldn’t have been possible at all?
Charlie held his eyes wide and looked at Natalie, who was looking daggers at
Ali from her place on her knees. He focused all of his strength and energy into
regaining the link between him and his wife, and desperately thought as hard as
he could.

Nat, I’m awake, and I need
you to distract this bitch so I can take her out!

Her brown eyes widened ever so
slightly, but she didn’t move. He was gathering energy to shout again when her
voice sounded in his head, clear as day and as irresistible as any order he’d
ever been given.

Why don’t YOU distract her
for ME, tough guy?

He drew a deep breath and rose
at the same time, and he saw Ali shift her weight and move toward the sudden
noise behind her. Time seemed to slow dramatically; he saw each movement
dragged out over space as he ran, so that by the time she locked eyes with him
and moved to raise her knife, he had covered ten feet of space between them.
Charlie raised his right hand, feeling the red haze of his beast swell in his
body as he shifted a deep brown paw bigger than Ali’s human head and sent it
toward her neck with his black claws outstretched. He saw the confusion
register in her face the moment before Natalie’s paw burst through her chest
from behind, shattering her ribcage and taking out a chunk of her beating heart
while Ali’s mouth was still open in shock. Charlie closed the space and closed
his shifted paw around the flesh of her throat, crushing her vertebrae between
the pads of his fingers as her body crumpled to the floor.

Her body lay in a ruined mess
between them, a scarlet pool rapidly growing around her broken form. Charlie
kept looking from her head—nearly completely separated from her body—and her
chest, which was mostly dripping from Natalie’s hand. He felt numb, but
Natalie’s shoulders were beginning to shake. He stepped over Ali’s body and
unshifted his hand, reaching for her to pull her into his arms.

When he locked his arms around
her, he finally realized she was laughing.

“What’s so funny?” he asked
uncertainly. All he could feel was an impossible mixture of panic and relief.

“Nothing,” Natalie admitted,
and he felt tears soak through the fabric of his shirt. “I just…love you so
much.” He had a feeling she wanted to say more, but it was lost in her
uncontrollable giggling.

Charlie smiled and gingerly
kissed the top of her blood-soaked head. I love you, too.

****

In the days that followed, the
human residents of Sierra Leandra all returned from mysterious vacations or
snapped out of a light trance, and they couldn’t seem to agree on what had
caused all the damage in town. A lot of it was quickly repaired with the help
of the remaining lions, and no one had to explain away any of the painful absences
caused by the rash of violence the Golden Claws had wrought—because none of the
humans noticed a thing.

“They’ve been dosing the humans
with some kind of drug so they would stay docile and out of the way, or at
least open to suggestion,” a recovered Evan said in their newly cleaned up
living room days after the lions conducted a private investigation. “Once the
leader was gone, all the henchmen moved out real quick. It actually seems like
they don’t have it down to an exact science, drugging people. I woke up like
five minutes after Ali and the big guy left.” He shivered, and Ariel slipped an
arm around his neck and kissed his cheek. They had been so close to death, and
had escaped based on mostly luck. They both seemed to need more contact after
the ordeal; Charlie supposed they all did.

“So we’re safe?” Ariel asked
again. It was a question their community was asking a lot—when they dropped by
to check on Natalie, when Charlie visited his missing pridemate’s families, at
funeral and wakes; it was the one question that no one tired of hearing an
affirmative answer to every few moments.

“We’re safe,” Natalie said.
“And even better, we’re growing stronger. Susan Doyle can predict things a few
hours into the future, Charlie and I can communicate with our minds, and Ariel,
you can lift almost five hundred pounds now.”

Ariel blushed, her flaming red
hair accentuating the scarlet of her cheeks. “Yeah. But I don’t know how useful
it’ll be for everyone. Not like your healing,” she muttered. “It’s useful being
able to share healing powers.”

“You’re far more useful than
you give yourself credit for,” Natalie assured her best friend, smiling warmly
at her from her recliner. “Besides, you don’t even know what I have planned.”

Evan sat up straighter at her
words. “Plans?”

Natalie looked at Charlie for
confirmation and nodded. “We’re going to help other prides reach their
potential while we reach for ours,” she said, and the joy was bursting through
every word. She held her palm against her stomach as she spoke, and Charlie
felt his heart swell and lighten as she told their friends what she’d told him.
“This new era those scumbags were afraid of…let’s go for it. Let’s find out
what our potential is. Lions are such a small group nationwide, wouldn’t it be
wonderful to strengthen and rally around this cause?” Her golden brown skin was
bright and flushed, and her words were impossibly buoyant. “I don’t think it’s
just us; I think we can all do it, and I think we owe it to other prides to let
them know.” She looked from Evan to Ariel, encouraged by the growing smiles on
their faces. Charlie was already there, high on the spirt of togetherness with
her. She pressed her hand more firmly against her stomach; they knew now that
the baby really was the link between them, the reason for their power.

“So what do you say?” Natalie
asked. “I want to make history. I want to make the best available for everyone.
Are you ready?”

“Ready!” Evan cheered, carried
away by passion.

“Ready!” Ariel echoed, bouncing
in her seat.

Natalie turned to her mate,
pure happiness radiating from her determined features. She slipped her hand
against his cheek, her brown eyes consumed with love. Ready?

Charlie grabbed her hand and
sent a gentle pulse of dizzying energy into her palm as he pressed his jaw
firmly against it and answered her, with a single word packed with unwavering
devotion: Ready!

THE END

"If I have to attend one more simpering, shallow,
saccharine display of fake mourning, I might have to throw myself off of the
balcony."

Aurora's hand grabbed at the jutting rock above her head and
held tight as she adjusted her foot in the hold beneath her, gave a few small
bounces to build up momentum, and launched herself up a few more feet.

"Yes, I could probably come up with several more 'S'
words to describe them. How about 'sickening'? That's an 'S' word."

The voice streaming through her headset continued to ramble,
but Aurora focused on her hand slipping across the grit on her handhold and
tightened her abdominal muscles to keep herself steady. Beads of sweat rolled
down her spine and she could feel the burning in her thighs from her exertion.
She pushed forward, unwilling to surrender to the rocks.

"No, I do not think I'm being bitter. I'm the one whose
father just died, but I seem to be the only one who has managed to keep myself
together and not fling myself into despair bemoaning the continuation of life
as we know it. I swear, from what everyone is saying, I should be wearing a
black veil and wailing. I've already given up my future for my father. Is it
too much to ask that I at least get to enjoy the last few days that I have
left?"

A surge of energy pulsed through her and Aurora pushed
herself up and over the edge of the cliff. She climbed to her feet and turned
to look out over the view stretching in front of her. The sun was coming up in
the distance, washing the sky in shades of pink and blue that should be giving
her a fresh outlook and renewed hope for the day. Unfortunately, they only
reminded her of the god-awful bridesmaids' monstrosities the wedding
coordinator had brought over the night before and that now lay draped across
every piece of furniture in Aurora's bedroom.

"Anson, go to bed. If you haven't noticed yet, the sun
is coming up, which means you have, yet again, stayed up all night trying to
save the world one political event at a time. Get some rest and I'll see you
this afternoon."

Without waiting for her assistant to respond, Aurora tapped
the button on her earpiece to end the call. She planted her hands on her hips
and let out a long breath. These would be her only moments of peace in the day.
Up here on the rocks where she could be alone was the only time when she felt
free. Below her, the city looked peaceful and picturesque in the early morning
light, but she knew that buried among those pristine houses and perfectly
manicured landscapes waited for her an engagement ring she only wore when she
had to, a man she didn't want to marry, and a promise to her father that she
would soon have to keep.

Aurora waited until the last possible moment to slip her
engagement ring onto her finger before stepping out of her bedroom. The gold
band felt heavy against her skin, the cushion-cut diamond glinting up at her
with such frustrating perfection it was as if it knew her secret. Smoothing a
few wayward strands of coppery hair back into her severe bun she took a
steeling breath and started downstairs.

Greyson stood at the bottom of the stairs, gazing up at her
with a smile nearly as fake as his tan. Aurora suppressed a sigh and returned
his smile with equal sincerity. If someone had taken a picture at that moment
they would have looked the image of young prestige and budding political power.
From her sleek black dress and the diamond drop at the base of throat to his sharply
pointed pocket square and gleaming shoes, they said we've got our shit
together.

Right past that thin, glossy surface, though, she felt more
along the lines of how the hell did I get here?

Aurora descended the stairs slowly, resting her fingers
across Greyson's outstretched palm so he could lead her down the last few. Once
she stood beside him his smile became softer and more genuine. He stroked her
cheek with the backs of his fingers and Aurora felt an involuntary shudder. It
wasn't that she hated Greyson. In fact, they had been friends nearly their
entire lives. When he touched her, though, and she saw that look in his eyes,
it was like bits of her were disappearing beneath his fingers.

An hour later Aurora stood behind a podium with a stack of
note cards in her hands. Her eyes swept across the faces staring up at her from
the sea of cream linen and gold chintz in front of her, then back to her
father's handwriting sweeping across the cards. The cursive letters seemed to
unravel and slither across the thick white cards. She forced herself to focus
on them and they slowly recoiled into their words. These were the last words
her father ever wrote and it was her responsibility to put a voice to them now
that he couldn't.

Aurora finally forced the words through her throat and kept
pushing them out, letting them pour from her chest as she worked her way
through the cards. Her voice remained steady and strong until she reached the
last card. Her father hadn't intended on it being the last and the half-finished
sentence looked lost against the pristine expanse of the mostly empty card.
Touching her fingertips to the faint streak of blood along the bottom of the
card, she completed Lee's final thought and brought the speech to a close.

Greyson met her again at the bottom of the stairs, but this
time Aurora stepped closer to him. This is what Lee wanted and what she had
promised him. She knew if her father could see her at that moment, walking
through the glittering event on Greyson's arm, he would be proud.

They spent the rest of the evening moving through the crowd,
greeting people until they all became a swirl of color. Their words were a
strange juxtaposition of condolences and congratulations. Aurora thanked them
for both, changing the inflection of her voice slightly to make the response
appropriate. By the time Greyson led her out of the room and into the soothing
cool air of the night she felt like she might as well just roll her father's
coffin right down the aisle with her on her wedding day.

"You handled that very well," Greyson said,
placing his hand on her lower back.

"Handled what well, Greyson? Reading the speech my
father was writing when he was murdered, or plastering on my best bridal smile
to accept congratulations?"

Greyson stroked the segment of bare skin revealed by the
cutout in her dress and Aurora subtly pulled away from his touch.

"Why don't you come home with me tonight?" he said
softly.

She stepped away and turned to look at him.

"No, Greyson. Still no. Please just bring me
home."

Greyson gave the same resigned, disappointed look that he
gave every time she refused to go home with him and held out a hand so she
would walk ahead of him. They waited silently under the portico until the valet
brought Greyson's car around.

Once home, Aurora removed her engagement ring and nestled it
in place in her jewelry box. She took a long shower to wash away the memories
and slipped into bed, another day crossed off of her countdown.

****

Aurora descended into her dreams as if stepping from one
consciousness into another. She was aware that she was sleeping in that
intangible, abstract way that her body felt heavier; but unlike in a dream, all
of her decisions seemed to be completely her own.

The forest around her was dark. Not an empty darkness, but a
rich, velvety darkness that seemed alive as she moved through it. Silvery
moonlight washed the path where she walked, illuminating plants that looked
vibrantly green even in the partial light. She was barefoot, and as she walked
she was aware of the texture of the ground and the press of grit and pebbles
into her feet. It wasn't painful, but a strange, elevate sense of awareness to
have in a dream.

Aurora continued to follow the path not knowing where it was
leading. It wound through the dark outlines of trees and along a tiny, burbling
stream that sparkled across a bed of smooth rocks. Finally the path opened into
a large clearing where the stream poured out into a small lake. She approached
the edge and sat on a moss-covered boulder that jutted out slightly over the
water. As she dipped her feet down into the lake to rinse them she noticed she
wore a long white skirt that flowed around her legs and brushed her ankles.

The water was cool against her skin and she swirled her feet
just beneath the surface. Everything around her felt so quiet and peaceful that
Aurora didn't want to move. She sat on the rock allowing the moonlight to wash
across her skin, finding comfort and relief in the reprieve from the turmoil
and chaos of her waking life.

Time slid by without her recognizing how long she had been
sitting there. What could have been moments or hours later she felt the water
on her feet becoming warmer. The temperature rose slowly until it felt like
bath water against her skin. As the water got warmer, it also got rougher. The
once smooth, crystalline surface shook and rocked, gathering into small waves
and splashing up over her legs.

Aurora watched as the water soaked into the hem of her
skirt, sending ribbons of color up the white expanse with each drop. She gasped
and withdrew her feet onto the boulder, staring at the streams of color
creeping up her skirt until the entire dress was a swirl of blue, purple, and
pink. Climbing to her feet, Aurora looked out over the churning water. A dark
shape caught her attention halfway across the lake. Gleaming in the moonlight,
the shape rose partially out of the water, then sank back beneath the surface
only to break through again a few feet closer to her.

The water continued to surge and shift, and Aurora kept her
eyes focused on the dark shape moving through it. It seemed to appear and then
disappear every few feet as if swimming toward the bank but gradually moving
away from her. After a few moments the water quieted and there was a brief
pause when the world fell still and silent again. Just as her heart was
settling from its quivering pace, though, the calmed surface of the water
shattered and a massive black creature climbed out onto the bank.

Aurora screamed and stepped back, stumbling off of the edge
of the boulder and landing on her side on the damp earth of the bank. She
collected herself from the force of the impact and slowly opened her eyes.

A claw came into view first. Long and black, they dug into
the ground only yards away. She lifted her gaze slowly, giving herself time to
take in the image of the creature. Powerful, muscled legs became a smooth,
shimmery torso. Massive reptilian arms rested at its sides, partly concealed by
leather-like wings tucked over its shoulders and touching the ground beside it.
Fearsome spikes at the tips scraped into the dirt as the creature straightened
further. Water dripped from its body, making its black skin look like oil.

Aurora pushed herself up to her hip before letting herself
lift her eyes all the way to the creature's head. Huge and sleek, the head
tilted down to look at her. Gleaming black eyes reflected the moonlight and
Aurora felt her breath catch in her throat. She gradually rolled to her knees,
keeping her movements slow and controlled. The longer she looked at the
creature, the more details she noticed. The lines of its body were curved and
graceful, but the edges of its wings were sharp and intense.

Feeling bolder, she climbed to her feet. The creature
shifted slightly and made a low snorting sound as if disturbed by her movement.
Aurora stilled, keeping her gaze steady on his eyes. When it quieted, she took
a step forward. It made another, softer sound, but she took a second cautious
step. On her third step the creature stood up straight and spread its wings wide.
Turning its face to the sky, it opened its mouth and a stream of vivid orange
fire poured across the sky. She felt the heat on her body and a surge through
her chest a moment before everything went dark.

When Aurora opened her eyes again she was staring up at the
ceiling of her bedroom. Her legs tangled in the sheets and her heart was
pounding so hard against her ribs that she could feel her skin trembling above
it. Now that she was awake the color seemed to have drained from the world
around her, but in her mind she could see the vividness of the colors within
the dream. Everything had been clearer and more saturated, from the purity of
the moonlight to the glossy ebony skin of the creature. The dragon.

As soon as it released its fire into the air, she realized
what was standing in front of her, and even though she knew the beautiful,
majestic dragon had only been a dream, she could still feel the sting of the
heat across her skin.

****

"Honey?"

Her mother's voice broke through Aurora's musings and she
looked at her across the patio table.

"Huh? I'm sorry, Mom, what did you say?"

Sara gave her a strange look and took a sip of her coffee.

"Are you feeling alright? You seem like you're a
million miles away this morning."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little distracted."

Her mother smiled and Aurora felt the wedding talk coming.
She had had that same look two years ago when her sister got married and Aurora
wondered if that specific expression was one of those things that you learned
when you became a mother. Maybe the doctor would pull her aside if she ever had
a daughter and teach her that misty-eyed, dreamy look just for the occasions of
proms, weddings, and grandchildren. Of course, that would require her to have
children with Greyson and at the moment she was still trying to decide if she
could get through her marriage without ever having sex with him, much less
children.

"Are you thinking about Greyson? Don't worry, it's
perfectly normal for a bride to start getting nervous this close to her
wedding."

"That must be it. I had a really strange dream last
night."