Fever Claim (The Sigma Menace) (8 page)

She didn’t exactly lie to Cassie when she relayed events from earlier this morning. And it wasn’t as if Cassie didn’t find out eventually about the main event Kaitlyn had left out of her story; that she felt her transformation, every millisecond, when she turned and killed those men. She was aware that she became a wolf even though she didn’t have a mirror to confirm. Flowing into another form was exhilarating, an awakening, like the most natural move in the world. Ripping into bodies matched the rush of her shift. The acrid blood tainting her taste buds should disgust her. She didn’t want to know what it said about her that it didn’t.

The transformation sparked vague memories. Images from past nightmares that she always chalked up to being just that—nightmares. Kaitlyn spent the morning hiding from those images more than the memory of the two men she ripped apart early this morning. The guys were convenient and it wasn’t until it was almost permanently too late that she sensed any danger from them. Up until that point, it’d been raging hormones and sexual need, and the temporary fulfillment that would only last days to weeks. She should feel torn up about those men, wonder if they had family. She
killed
, but remorse remained an unattainable emotion. Her intuition screamed that if she hadn’t destroyed them, they would’ve kept hunting women. Despite her lack of regret, she wasn’t ready to pat herself on the back. She didn’t just kill them, she’d decimated them.

Kaitlyn switched her disturbing train of thought from translating the images and possible memories from her past and inexplicable killing instincts to dwelling on her guilt about Cassie. She started dragging her to Pale Moonlight to check the place out after she heard about The Den from one of her martial arts clients. It had taken several visits before she mustered up the courage to actually participate in Den festivities. But she’d taken to ditching Cassie to leave with a candidate to help her release. It was unlike her. Not being known for being traditionally responsible as a grown young lady, she’d never taken chances with her body and well-being. Having a good time, dancing on bars? Yes. The occasional police call to get bailed out when she couldn’t flirt her way out of public intoxication? Yes, but that was totally unjustified since it was
a
street
dance. But driving off with unknown men, not just for a quick lay, but to hunker down somewhere and get it on for hours. Every time she ditched Cassie, she didn’t end up with her clothes off and that somehow helped her feel less guilty. Cassie wised up and started bringing Grant when Kaitlyn asked her to the club.

Kaitlyn couldn’t help the groan when Grant came to mind. He was a good guy. Anyone would be lucky to pair up with that one. He was good-looking and he tolerated Kaitlyn and her behavior around Cassie. He was just so
nice
. And that was the problem. Kaitlyn wanted more than nice for Cassie. She needed someone who’d bring her out of the safe, comfy life she’d built for herself. Her predictable, quiet, uneventful life. They used to stay up all night talking about what they’d do once they turned eighteen, had a diploma, and were free to go anywhere and do anything. Kaitlyn was still trying to figure out what anywhere and anything was, but it sure didn’t include settling down and working Monday through Friday, nine-to-five. Her foster sister might have thought that was what she desired most in life, but Kaitlyn knew it was wrong for both of them.

To help stave off her conscience when her life started to jumble up into hot mess, Kaitlyn threw herself into her maid of honor duties for the upcoming nuptials. It wasn’t enough to payback her friendship and now it was all for nothing. When Cassie called her last night, upset and in disbelief that Grant called everything off, Kaitlyn played the part of sympathetic friend and talked her out of the house to go to the club.

Then she hung up and danced around.

But yet again, even before walking into the club last night, the urge got to be too much. Tyson had a fast car, a friend, and privacy. Entering the world of shitty BFF again, she dreaded leaving Cassie. Until she saw how the bartender looked at her. She knew her friend was oblivious to Jace’s interest. Kaitlyn had been to Pale Moonlight enough to know that while the staff may not overtly fraternize, they kept any sexual escapades with their clientele on the downlow, heavily utilized The Den and only chose any who were also looking for quick, forgettable hookups.

But not Jace. Kaitlyn noticed him only because he looked through anyone at the club. He watched for empty glasses to refill, customers needing service, and trouble brewing. He didn’t watch the bountiful breasts on display. He never noticed the women with short skirts and sprayed on pants who
accidently
dropped something in front of the bar. Kaitlyn saw some bend over shows put on that would make any strip club ask for lessons. Kaitlyn’s first thought was that he was gay, but nope, men didn’t turn his head either.

The only thing that turned his head was Cassie. And the look he saved for Grant when he thought no one would see… that man was into her friend something fierce. Kaitlyn would’ve fueled that fire, but Cassie had too much respect and loyalty for Grant to ogle other men. Anytime Kaitlyn tried to lure Cassie close to the bar to order drinks, she’d get flustered and flag down another server.

Nope, she had no guilt leaving Cassie in the large, strong hands of the mysterious bartender.

Then they showed up together this morning to rescue her sorry ass out of the gravel pit. If she hadn’t been so freaked out by the shit in her head and the bodies in the warehouse, she would’ve whooped and chest bumped both of them.

Aaaaand, that thought brought her back to the locker room and the borrowed sweats she was sitting in. The sweats must’ve been from one of the guys. She was tall, muscular but slender, and they hung on her. Did they even have any women out here? And where was here?

A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts.

“Are you decent, Miss Savoy?” Master Bellamy asked through the door.

“Uh, yeah. Come on in.” The nerves constricted in her belly, not knowing what was going to happen next. Nothing the men had done, except for when they scared the fuck out of her appearing almost from thin air and she turned furry again, had given her any indication they meant harm. That made her just as nervous as waking up and hearing that she had to be put down.

In Kaitlyn’s experience, life was about bargaining. There was nothing given for free. If they wanted to help her, then what would she have to do for them in return?

Master Bellamy walked in. He was a handsome man, older than the others, and it was obvious he was in a leadership position from the way Bennett referred to him. The master conveyed an air of quiet confidence in the way he carried his body; he reminded Kaitlyn of all her dojo masters. They had years of training and experience, years of teaching inexperienced kids and adults who thought they knew better only to be proved wrong, and they had no need to show off their abilities. No one would mess with them, and if any idiot wanted to try, it was their wasted energy.

“How are you feeling, Miss Savoy?” he asked.

“Please, call me Kaitlyn. I feel fine. For now. Just a lot of questions.”

“I can imagine. We have a lot of questions for you, because Miss Savoy—Kaitlyn—we’ve never encountered one such as you.”

Kaitlyn gave a nervous chuckle, “I’m sure you haven’t.”

“Not in the way you think. We’re like you, the men you’ve met today: Commander Fitzsimmons, Bennett, Mercury, and myself. Even Jace. Kaitlyn, in my world you are normal. No, what we haven’t encountered is a full-grown adult who seems to not know she can shift into a wolf.”

Kaitlyn blew out a breath and shrugged. Master Bellamy was sympathetic, his green eyes filled with concern.

“Did you really not know you were a shifter?”

“Nope,” she replied. They sat in silence and Kaitlyn shifted in her chair. What did he expect her to say?

“Did your parents ever explain to you what you were?” he finally asked.

Kaitlyn snorted, “Um, no. The whole murder/suicide when I was eleven ended all that. Before my mom died, when she wasn’t recovering from my dad’s beatings, she was pretty intoxicated. I was always out of the house, for whatever reason I could find. After that, I lived with my aunt and uncle, and they never said anything about four legs or fur. They didn’t even own pets.”

“I’m sorry, Kaitlyn.” She was sick of his sincerity. The pitying looks everyone gave her when they heard her history. Then came the nod of understanding, as if they just put together why she was such a problem child.

“One more question, if you will?” He sensed her growing unwillingness to continue this line of discussion. “Can you recall any sort of physical transformation happening at the time you were going through puberty?”

The blood drained from her face as she began to wring her hands together, those pictures and screams streaming through her mind. “I don’t
…
I don’t remember anything about that night.”

“That night?”

Her foot tapped the floor and her breathing quickened. Her hands turned white from the force of her grip on herself. Her vision blurred at the edges, going black like she wanted to pass out.

“Kaitlyn? Kaitlyn!”

Her head snapped over to look at him. He was her anchor to consciousness.

“Let’s move on to the other reason you’re here.”

She nodded numbly.

“You’re here for answers, but clearly you’re not quite ready to go down that road. We’d like you here to train you. To join our team.”

Puzzled, she questioned, “Team?”

“We’re the law enforcement for our species. We’ll explain to you our world, our history, and more specifically what the Guardians do.”

“And you’re a Guardian?”

“Yes, and you are, too. Look, Kaitlyn, Mercury and Bennett told me about your night together,” he paused.

“And what did they tell you?” she asked tersely.

“They sensed you were one of us, which isn’t easy with you. It’s more obvious, we just know our kind, but you’d been in the club before and they only sensed you as human. But the night you all were together, that changed. And the fact that you could keep up with them suggests you are more like us than other shifters.”

She wanted to yell, “Fuck off, old man!” storm away and die of embarrassment. But the curiosity of where he was going with this subject made her keep her ass planted and she forced herself to look him squarely in the face as he talked. She was a grown woman and what she decided to do with her body was her business.

“You see, Kaitlyn, we have two types of Guardians. We have ‘normal’ shifters because our population is growing and spreading out as technology advances, and we can hide in plain sight easier. But historically, some shifters are born to be Guardians. They are more aggressive, more powerful, have intense protective instincts for those they’re in charge of.”

“And what does my sex life have to do with the Guardians?”

“Guardians don’t mate as easily as others of our kind. We don’t know if it’s to keep us on edge physically since our mating pool is low, or if it’s the nature of the job that we don’t come across our mates as readily. With no mate to mellow out our aggressive nature, we need to expend that energy every so often, especially during a full moon. We fight often enough, working out is part of our everyday life, so that leaves…”

“Shopping ’til you drop?” she asked dryly.

Master Bellamy chuckled. “Some Guardians fare better than others. Some turn wolf and run all night in the woods. Some have demons chasing them so hard, it’s easier to fuck themselves into oblivion.

“Anyway, we started checking on you. You have black belts in at least three different martial arts and your previous employment shows that you are drawn to security and protection services.”

That was a nice way of saying, “you can’t hold a job, you irresponsible little girl.” Her only steady income was assisting her tae kwon do, judo, and Krav Maga gyms. She was past her first-degree black belt in each one and working her way up Muay Thai.

“So you’re investigating me thinking I’m the next new Guardian?”

“Exactly.”

She turned to stare at the lockers along the wall. Her world had turned completely upside down. Today, she found out she wasn’t human, she was suffering from PTSD she hadn’t experienced in over a decade, and the truth of it was her life had turned into a hot mess long before today. This world of Guardians and people who turn into wolves promised answers to her past, present, and future.

She turned back to Master Bellamy. “I’m in.”

***

“I’ll drive,” Cassie said abruptly. Satisfied after talking to Kaitlyn when they brought her up to the interrogation room, Cassie just wanted to get back home—to her reality.

Jace glared at Bennett for shutting him out. But Bennett was watching Kaitlyn walk away, a contemplative look on his face. Cassie worried about Kaitlyn around all these alpha males, but Kaitlyn told her she already felt at peace here, an acceptance she hadn’t felt in a long time. And relations between Guardians of the same pack were prohibited, except for mates, but Kaitlyn was told she would know if she ever met her mate. She would be in an eternal “just friends” status with all of her partners out here. Kaitlyn would be alright without Cassie.