Juneau Heat (10 page)

Shiya swung
on her booted heel and strode away. That conversation was the last she would
have with Joe. For years, she’d been a fool, accepting his mess because he was
her first and because she loved him, but she deserved better than he had to
give. When he showed up in Juneau, she had a moment of weakness because of fear
of something new and because of how she still felt about him. No more.

She checked
the time. Joe had made her ten minutes late, and Kasen’s mood would likely
reflect it. She picked up the pace and soon came to the street where he said to
meet him. Pedestrians strode all around Kasen, but her brother stood
stock-still, legs apart, arms folded over a muscular chest, and head bowed.
Intimidated glances were tossed his way because of the frown on his face, but
he didn’t appear to notice. Kasen was the second most single-minded man she
knew, the first being her father. He had one goal in life, and that encompassed
wiping out every shifter in existence.

She’d
always been surprised that he had time to find a wife and have a son of his
own. Before she left San Diego, there were rumors his wife was pregnant again,
with the oldest aged two, but neither Kasen nor Sheila had confirmed yet.

“Hey, bro,”
she called when she drew close enough. “How’s it going?”

He looked
up and raised a single brow, something only Kasen could do. A scar lined the right
side of his jaw where a tiger shifter once got the better of him. A matching
set stretched across his chest. They had almost lost him, but the experience
made Kasen harder—and meaner.

“Should you
really be smiling at a time like this? Two confirmed—” He scanned the area
around them. “Let’s walk.”

Shiya
hurried to catch up with him as he started off. He didn’t slow his gait at all
to match hers. Maybe this was payback for her treatment of Joe earlier, or
maybe rudeness ran in her family. They continued in silence for another few
blocks, and then Kasen led her into a less populated area where they could
speak more freely. He faced her, and she waited for his tirade. When he didn’t
speak for a while, she took the plunge.

“I’m sorry.
I screwed up. I guess I’m not meant for fieldwork, or I need to shadow Shae or
Sakura to get how it’s done.” She spread her hands to the side. “I don’t think
I have that natural thing, that seduction ability that they have.”

“Are you
serious?” he snapped.

“Thanks,
but—”

“I think
you forgot who you are, Shiya.” While his words might hint at being a
compliment, his tone of voice and the anger burning in his eyes told her she
disgusted him. “You’re a Keith, and it’s time you start acting like one.”

“Everbody’s
not like you, Kasen. Besides, I’m damn good at what I do, gathering research,
talking to people—”

“On the
phone,” he interrupted. “On the computer.” His nostrils flared. “You fucked up
the relationship with Joe, and the first chance you get, you whore yourself out
to a couple of animals that aren’t even human.”

She gasped.
So Joe did tell him she slept with Birk and Kotori. Once again, she kicked
herself for doing it at her place, and for that bastard Joe probably standing
in the bushes watching her let them in. While she knew it was more than just
her jumping into bed with Birk and Kotori, Joe’s attitude and her brother’s
words had her feeling like what he accused her of, but she would not give him
the satisfaction of knowing he made her feel that way.

“Don’t get
all holier than thou on me,” she snapped. “Everybody knows how wild you were
before you met and married Sheila.”

“Human is
the operative word here.
Human.
Like
I said, you forgot where you came from. Shae and Sakura would never sleep with
a shape-shifter. They’ll be sickened to know you did.”

Shiya
crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from him. She refused to be
goaded into begging him not to tell the others. He could do what the hell he
wanted, and all of them could think what they wanted.

When she
ignored him, Kasen seemed to calm down. He reached into his coat pocket and
pulled something out she didn’t see. He paced past her, but she stayed facing
the way she was. The next thing she knew, pain erupted from several points on
her head. Kasen had grabbed her hair, knotting his fingers in it, and gave it a
sharp yank. She grasped his hands, crying out in pain. No matter how hard she
tried to get free, he held on. The more she struggled, the more he pulled,
until she stopped resisting.

“Let me go,
Kasen. I don’t want to fight you.”

He laughed,
a harsh sound that grated on her ears. “
You
fight
me
? That’s funny.” He held up
his other hand, and she just caught the glimpse of a picture. He jerked her
head around to see it clearly. “Look at it and remember who you are, bitch.”

Shiya cried
out again, and tears sprung to her eyes and spilled down her face. “Why do you
have that?”

“To remind
me,” he snarled in her ear, “that the
things
we’re dealing with aren’t to be tolerated or made into friends. They aren’t
potential fuck buddies. They are the enemy.”

Shiya
lowered her gaze from the picture, but her brother gave her hair another yank.

“Look at
it! See in detail what they did to our mother, how they ripped her body to
shreds and left her for dead. Animal attack, the police said. Yeah, it was an
animal attack, all right, a calculated murder. He hunted her for days, and when
he caught up, he killed her. Not right away, though. No, he made her suffer for
a while, bleeding to death.”

“Stop.” Her
voice came out hoarse.

“Why? So
you can keep the rosy picture you have in your head of those two polar bears?
No, you’re going to do what you came here to do, and me and my men are going to
do what we do.”

Shiya had
had enough. She drove the side of her fist into her brother’s testicles and
stomped on his instep. His hold loosened, and she moved out of reach, both
hands up to defend herself if need be.

“Damn it,
Shiya,” he roared, bent over and holding his junk.

She glared
at him. “Oh, you can hurt me, but I can’t hurt you?”

“You’re going
to pay for that.”

“Why don’t
I ask Dad if it’s okay for you to manhandle me, no matter what decisions I’ve
made.”

He paced
back and forth a few steps, limping and muttering. When the pain seemed to have
lessened, he straightened and then spotted the picture of their mother lying on
the ground. Shiya averted her gaze from it without taking her eyes off Kasen,
but he didn’t attempt to approach her. She knew she didn’t stand a chance
against him in a normal fight. Hell, getting the drop on him when he least
expected it had proved unsuccessful every other time, but she figured the
subject itself—their mother’s death—got to him as much as it did her, maybe
more.

“It’s over.
Since Birk and Kotori know I’m a Keith, and they know we’re hunters, I don’t
see any reason to continue this farce.”

Her
brother’s nostrils flared. He tucked the picture into his coat. “
You
wouldn’t. Nothing’s over. You’re
going to continue as you were.”

Shiya’s
eyes widened. She could not believe him. Did he care so little about her that
he didn’t mind Birk and Kotori killing her? He didn’t get to burst in when they
least expected it. So what? Kasen needed to get over himself.

“I guess
you don’t see how much they hate me? They’ll kill me on sight.”

“This is
why men use you, Shiya.”

She flipped
him off, and he jerked her closer, his fingers biting into her arm.

“Kasen.”

“You
will
respect me, Shiya.”

She said
nothing, and he shoved her away from him.

“If they
wanted you dead, you already would be. Ever think of that?”

She blinked
at him, and he swore, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“The one
thing in common among all shifters, no matter their species, is what?”

“High sex
drive?”

“That,
and?” he demanded.

She
searched her mind for information. Rubbing the spot where her brother had
grabbed her, she ran through everything she knew, but none of it applied to
her.

“Why don’t
you try spelling it out since I’m not getting it?”

“A mate.”

She blinked
again.

“Those two
beasts have marked you as their mate. You obviously don’t know it, and
sometimes even the shifter doesn’t recognize it. They knew who you were from
the beginning. By their laws, they should have killed you. Even if you do
nothing else, they will come to you—here or in San Diego. They will find you
and make you theirs because, in their minds, you are their mate.”

“That’s
BS,” she snapped. “They hate me.” Birk and Kotori had told her they’d shared
women before. She had no reason to think she, above all others, was special,
and Kasen and his notions could accept it.

“Who do you
think fixed your door, Shiya?”

“How did
you know about that?”

“
Who?
” he insisted.

“Joe? You?”

He said
nothing.

When she
delayed letting the manager of the inn know about the damage, she did so
because she needed to make preparations if they pressed charges or if they just
tossed her out. When the locksmith came and fixed everything, she thought
they’d found out and just dealt with it. She had been ready to inform all her
online buddies about the inn to choose when in Juneau. Then Joe claimed
responsibility, and she let the matter drop. Now, Kasen was telling her Birk
and Kotori made the arrangements.

“I don’t
understand why you’re pushing this either way. Even Joe can attest that both
Birk and Kotori are shifters. All you have to do is . . .” Pain tightened her
chest, making it hard to breathe. She waved a hand like the rest didn’t need to
be said, but her brother cast her a knowing look that pissed her off. She
turned away from him.

“I want
them all.”

She peered
back at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Mother,
father, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Every single person in
their families.”

Shiya’s
mouth went dry. “Y-You can’t be serious, Kasen.”

“Oh, I’m
dead serious. They’re not of the human race. That means killing them is no
different than hunting wild game and putting one between its eyes.”

His deep
hatred was palpable, weighing her down until she panted. “You know some of them
are not shifters. In fact, most aren’t.”

He nodded.
The gleam in his eyes terrified her more than any physical assault he had done
so far. “We’ve been going at this all wrong. We know that a few generations in
the future, any shifter’s family can, and does, produce new shifters. So we end
up having to go back over the same territory. If we kill every one of them, we
destroy the gene.”

Horror
clogged Shiya’s throat, making it difficult to speak. “But they’re innocent.”

“No carrier
of the shifter gene is innocent!”

“Dad can’t
agree—”

“Oh, he
agrees. In fact, he commended me, said he doesn’t know why our ancestors didn’t
think of this before.” Kasen reached into his coat and brought out the picture,
but he didn’t turn it around so she would see anything. The reminder was
enough. “You’re going to let them pick up your scent and know you didn’t flee
Juneau, and you’re going to get them to tell you all about their families,
every detail. I don’t care if you have to shake your ass or give up your ass.
You’re going to do it, Shiya, because you are a Keith and because it’s the
least that Mom deserves.”

Kotori
stretched his arms over his head and stood at the water’s edge. The chilly
temperature served to cool his anger, but only so much. He kept replaying the
incidents that happened in Shiya’s suite. What stuck out in his mind most—the
part that threatened to send him into a rage—was when that stupid human claimed
to be Shiya’s fiancé. Breathing deep and stepping farther into the water was
the only thing that would keep him from hunting the man and killing him. Kotori
glanced down at the wound on his arm, which Birk had stitched. Already it was
healing, and if he shifted into his bear form, it would go much faster.

He stared
out at the water, his lips compressed, unmoving except his chest as it rose and
fell with each heavy breath. Maybe they should have killed her, too, because
she had led Joe there and because it was likely the rest would come to hunt him
and Birk, maybe even pose a threat to the rest of his family. When he
considered Shiya’s death, though, he couldn’t fathom it. He
wouldn’t
. Something inside rose up and
insisted on protecting her instead. The emotion angered him, unsettling his
thoughts even more than they already were.

He yanked
his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. His pants and boxers followed.
He’d already removed his boots and socks. Now that he stood naked, he let the
wind and cold whip about his body. Goose bumps rose on his skin, but they soon
gave way to the change. Silvery white hair sprouted from every follicle, and
his skin darkened to the shade natural to the polar bear. His body grew several
times its human size, and he dropped forward onto all fours. Curved black claws
sprang from his fingertips and from his toes. He raised his nose to the sky and
let a roar rip through the air.