Scorpio Sons 4: Chase: (SF/Shifter Romance) (6 page)

The helicopter hovered over the pad before gently putting down. Anna had kept her face plastered to the window the whole trip, marvelling at the scenery laid out below her like a miniature world. While she marvelled at the view she could keep her doubts from resurfacing. It was too late now to change her mind. Too late now to ask to go home. Either she was about to be taken into captivity again, or she was about to meet her idol, Alyssa Aimes. After the video call, she was pretty sure it was the latter.

Once the propellers had slowed, a man dashed to the door of the vehicle and opened it. Chase slid out and then held a hand out for her to follow. Nervously, she took his hand and edged onto the concrete.

It was mid-afternoon, but a storm front was coming in, and that had obviously brought with it colder than usual weather. The air stirred up by the chopper chilled the temperature even more and her thin coat wasn’t enough to keep her warm. Her mind flashed back to those miserable freezing nights in St Petersburg. She’d sworn to herself, when she left Russia, that she would never be that cold again; and yet here she was, feeling the icy fingers wrapping around her once more.

Not that San Francisco compared with Russia, or even her homeland. But the feelings of ... dread, doubt, and confusion were too chilling for her not to be reminded of that other place and time.

Seeing her shiver, Chase opened his coat and drew her in to his warm side. Immediately she was surrounded by the scent of him, expensive male cologne and something woodsy and feral beneath. It felt like coming home.

Trying not to consider that last odd feeling, she let him draw her towards the concrete block entrance to the building. She’d seen a name written on the side of the building as they’d begun to land:
Scanlan Industries
. And this was Chase Scanlan. No wonder he was rich enough to travel by helicopter, if he owned a whole building like this.

Once inside, the temperature rose and Anna sighed with relief. They rode the elevator down in silence. In fact, Chase had said very little to her since she'd returned to his suite with a small overnight case in hand. Maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she'd felt him relax as soon as he saw her. But his moody silence seemed to negate that feeling.

She’d changed into jeans and sweater and let her hair hang loose around her shoulders. Not sure whether he’d get the wrong idea, but still wanting to look her best to meet Alyssa Aimes, Anna had even applied a little eye-shadow and mascara. Her eyelashes were so pale that unless she used mascara people often thought she had no eyelashes at all, even though they were actually quite long and abundant.

Chase had taken one look at her, scowled, and kept coldly silent ever since. She could only hope that her welcome would be a little warmer from those she was here to meet.

When Chase had pressed the button for the basement and entered a code, the prickles of unease had begun to multiply. Why were they going to the basement? Why was the area sealed off and only accessible by code? How was she going to get out once he got her down there?

Before she had a chance to truly panic, the elevator doors slid open and she saw a much loved face beaming at her excitedly. Suddenly the weight of fear was lifted from her chest. She could breathe again.

“Anna! I knew you were one of us. Welcome to HQ! It’s so good to have you here,” Alyssa gushed, not waiting for Anna to leave the car before wrapping her in a warm hug.

Chase grumbled at her side and she felt the pressure of his hand on her back, propelling both Alyssa and herself forward out of the elevator. “Couldn't you have waited two seconds until we got out?”

Alyssa laughed light-heartedly. “You’re just mad that I was right. Admit it, Chase.”

“I never said you weren’t. Why do you think I raced off to do your bidding so fast?” Once free of the elevator he took several steps away from the two women and stood watching, his expression even more troubled.

“I guess she doesn’t need to be tested, now you’ve claimed her,” Alyssa said to Chase.

“I activated her, I didn’t claim her. It still might mean she belongs to someone else.”

“I don’t think it works that way.”

“None of us know how it works. I’m the Alpha. I might need to activate every Mate who hasn’t already been claimed. We don’t know.”

Alyssa appeared ready to disagree but then shrugged.

For a long minute the three of them stood in silence. Anna could see that Chase was becoming more and more restless and irritable, as if he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin.

“If that’s what you think then maybe you need to go back to your office or something. I can take Anna from here,” Alyssa said slowly, as if she was speaking to a deranged madman.

Chase jerked his head up to glare into the singer’s eyes. Whatever he saw there made him immediately back down.

“Whatever,” he said on a defeated sigh. “But keep her away from the others for now. You can’t protect her if... No, I’m not leaving. There are too many Sons on-site at the moment. This is not turning into a free-for-all.”

“I just left Caleb in the IT suite. I’ll start with him. Caleb wants a mate.” Alyssa put her arm through Anna’s and began leading her down the surprisingly well-appointed basement corridor.

Anna wasn’t sure what was happening. She had no idea what was making the aloof, very proper, businessman suddenly behave like a wild thing. If he hadn’t calmed down, she felt sure the cat creature inside him would have returned to his eyes. Her own had felt like only seconds away. Sensing this new, feral essence inside her was already becoming second nature, even if she still had no idea how to control that powerful force.

She heard and felt Chase close on their heels. The urge to turn around and check on him was absurd, and she fought it down. Whatever his problem was, it wasn’t something she could solve with a smile or a comforting hand.

As they entered the dark IT lab Anna saw another version of Chase rising from his chair and moving towards her. This one sported a blue Mohawk and intricate patterns cut into the short hair at the side of his head. Though such a look had never appealed to her, on this man it looked good.

The man came slowly forwards, his nostrils flaring.

“Damn, I really wanted to have someone to heal my paper-cuts,” he said with an exaggerated grimace.

Anna was starting to wonder if her grasp of English was lacking. Since coming down to the basement, nothing that was being said made any sense to her.

She felt Chase relax behind her. Something in that strange statement had appeased him.

“One down, shall we see what some of the others think?” Alyssa said with a smug smile.

“What...?” Anna managed to get out. Her mouth was suddenly so dry she could barely form that word, no less finish the question. What was wrong with her?

Alyssa looked at her sympathetically. “Oh, sorry. You must think we’ve all gone crazy. I know how unsettling all this was for me at first, and I had Colt protecting me. And Connor too. We’re just trying to determine whether Chase has done more than just activate you by biting you. For the other three of us, getting bitten on the shoulder meant we were mated, as much as it meant being activated. We’re just trying to work out if it’s the same for you.”

Alyssa was about to ask a question and then thought better of it. Instead, she turned to Caleb. “Take Chase for a walk for a few minutes, will you? Go scope the common room for more Sons. I want a little time alone with my new sister.”

Caleb shook his head and shrugged. Taking Chase’s arm in his tight grip he dragged him out the door. Chase seemed to want to resist, seemed ready to take a swing at his Mohawked brother, but then reluctantly let himself be led away. When the door closed between the men and her, Anna huffed out a big sigh of relief. She hadn’t realised how tense she was until the source of that tension was removed.

“Take a seat, Anna. You look ready to fall down. This must seem scary to you. A strange businessman bites you on your neck, you see his eyes turn cat and then your own do the same, then he whisks you away from everything you know and brings you down to the dungeons where everyone you meet acts like a crazy person. Have I got it right?”

Anna laughed softly, liking the real Alyssa as much as she did the media version. She had no pretensions, nothing that marked her as superior to Anna, other than her knowledge of what was going on.

“Pretty much. Is...Is Mr Scanlan usually like that?”

“Call him Chase. I think you have the right to do that after everything he’s put you through today. And is he usually like what? Moody, volatile, and about to go postal on us?”

She nodded, smiling guiltily. Somehow it sounded so much worse when Alyssa put it into words like that. Although she was tense around the man, she couldn’t truly say she was scared of him, even when he appeared ready to
go postal
. She hadn’t understood that saying when she first came to the US, until someone explained how a sacked postal worker had come to work one day and just started shooting up the place. Now that kind of sudden, out-of-the-blue, extreme violence was called
going postal
.

“No. That’s all his cat. Normally Chase is very controlled. He has to be, as he’s the leader of the Scorpio Sons."

Anna had heard the word
Sons
used to describe the cat-people, but she didn't know what the
Scorpio Sons
were. Her confusion must have shown on her face because Alyssa stopped talking to study her.

"Didn't Chase tell you about the genetically-engineered super-soldiers he leads?"

"Yes, he said we're all clones created to fight the Guild. But I thought clones looked alike and you and I don't look alike and we don't look like Chase and Caleb, or your bodyguards."

Alyssa sighed heavily and shook her head. "Boy is he messing this up. We aren't clones. We
were
genetically-engineered with panther DNA, the same as our males, but we only share panther DNA, the rest of our genetic makeup is different for all the Mates.

"We weren't gestated in tube either. We were taken as fertilised embryos from the lab when the Termination Order was issued by the Guild. Then we were gestated in the wombs of women within the Résistance movement all over the world." Alyssa paused for a moment, as if trying to get her story straight. For Anna, the more she was told, the more overwhelmed she felt.

"We're called the Mates. We were created so that the Sons could breed and keep fighting this war for as long as it's necessary. But the idea of having their son fight this war doesn't sit well with most of the Sons."

"So you're telling me that my mother wasn't really my mother. She just allowed a science experiment to be put in her womb." Anna frowned with revulsion at the idea. How could the mother she had loved with all her heart done such a thing, and then gone on to raise this unknown creature as if she really was her daughter? It boggled the mind.

"Said like that it does sound awful. But the Résistance believes in their fight. They will do anything to bring down the alien monsters that are sucking our world dry, like they did to their own planet. So I think our mothers saw the idea of giving birth to us as a privilege. I know my mom loved me as if I was her own. I imagine yours did, too."

"Yes, she did. I just can't understand why. I'm not even human."

"The only thing you need to remember is that she
does
love you."

"Did. She's dead. My whole family is dead."

Alyssa's eyes filled with unshed tears of sympathy. "Well, now you have a new family. One that
is
connected to you by blood. Anyway, I want to finish telling you about Chase.

"Being the leader of the Sons is a lot of responsibility, and he handles it well. Everyone trusts and believes in him. Leaders like him are rare, especially in a situation like this, when it’s not just men that have to be led, but the panthers inside the men, too.

"But he’s had issues with Mates from the start. Maybe he’s sexist. Maybe he doesn’t like the way his men behave when they find mates: like loose cannons. Maybe his protective alpha male doesn’t like putting us in danger. And we all have been put in danger since joining the Sons. Maybe he doesn’t like the way missions have changed since we’ve come on board. Maybe it’s none or all of the above.

"Not that he's anything but kind and polite to us, but we all sense his reservations where we're concerned.”

Alyssa sighed and threw her long, honey-coloured braid over her shoulder. “Let me ask you a question, and I know it will seem totally inappropriate, but I don’t ask it out of curiosity. The answer is important.”

Again Anna nodded, even if Alyssa hadn’t actually asked her permission to pose the question.

“How do you feel about Chase? Not right now, because anyone in their right mind would be a little frightened of him right now. But from the moment you met him to – I don’t know – after he bit you?”

Anna felt a blush burning its way into her cheeks. How was she supposed to answer that question? She hadn’t even asked that of herself yet. But Alyssa seemed to need a truthful answer, and as Anna intuitively trusted this girl as she imagined she would have a sister, she answered as best she could.