Silence that Sizzles (17 page)

No, what the General was surprised about was the fact that Kyle had the ability for mind control. That was what he had displayed to his father. Only one shifter in every clan could do what Kyle had just done. That was the secret that he had been keeping for the last two years. There was an alpha of the Urban Dwellers, and it was Kyle Frost.

“I guess this changes things then,” his father said thoughtfully.

It sure in the hell did. It meant that if the government wanted to go to war over Kyle’s territory, it would cause a media relations nightmare for it. This is what Kyle knew. It’s also what the General knew. He may want Kelly, but he was going to have to deal with the strength of the Urban Dwellers if he intended on trying to keep her. Kyle didn’t sense that there was probably anything that the General wanted from her that wasn’t what her former employer wanted from her. Kelly’s power was in her knowledge. She was a brilliant woman and a gifted scientist. That was what had always drawn him to her; it was her intellect as well as her beauty.

The General spoke into the small walkie on his shoulder. Kyle waited. A moment later, the building’s door opened again. Kelly was pushed forward out into the courtyard. His bear growled. He hated to see anyone lay a hand on his mate.

Mate.

That was the word that he had sent to his father. It brokered no argument. Kelly was his mate. He would be given his mate or he would raise hell.

“I think you are picking a fight with the wrong people. I will give you back your mate but know that this is not over.”

Kyle said nothing. He simply stared at his father. There was nothing that he needed to say. His will was the only thing that needed to be respected. Shifters had many different forms of communication. They had different rules that needed to be respected that humans did not understand or appreciate. But he knew that regardless of what the General’s thoughts were, he had to play by those rules. He was in enemy territory, and he had done something very bad. Kyle would make sure that some way or another his superiors caught wind of the mistake his father had made. It would be his gift to his father.

The General pushed Kelly in the back so that she stumbled forward. Kyle wanted to go to her, but he knew that he had to stay still. The moment that he set foot through the gate, all bets were off. That was not his territory. As long as he stayed on his side of the fence, it would all be okay. These were the thoughts that he was trying to send to Kelly as he saw her slowly start to make her way to him. He wondered if he had miscalculated when she was finally within reach, and he heard a crack through the air.

He felt a searing pain through his shoulder and heard Kelly’s scream. Then the sirens went off, and all hell seemed to break loose. Kyle roared. It had been his job to protect Kelly and protect his people. He had failed. Then he realized that the sirens and lights and all of the people merging into the lights weren’t soldiers. No, they were shifters. He saw Eric and Tony in their panther and wolf forms. They joined him on either side as he nudged Kelly behind him. He could feel the stickiness of blood running through his fur. But he knew that the shot that had been aimed at him then hadn’t been meant to kill him but only graze him. It was a warning. A warning of things to come.

The General looked at the three of them waiting there. He called out for a stand down. Kyle and his father stared at each other across the invisible barrier. Now, Kyle knew that it was time to phase back. He did so and stood there in all of his glory staring at his father. The General’s chin came up. “Man-to-man then.”

Kyle slowly shook his head. That was when he felt the tug on his arm. He was trying to tell Kelly telepathically that everything was going to be okay. That’s when he heard her whisper. “He has test subjects in there. Shifters. We have to do something. Get them out.”

Kyle made a decision. Normally, he would have consulted with Tony and Eric, but now he was taking charge of his clan. Things were changing, as he suspected they always knew it would.

“This property is officially the property of the Urban Dwellers from this moment forward,” Kyle said the words with every inch of authority that he knew that he had. “You and your men will vacate the premises immediately. If you do so, there will be no further course of action on our part.”

He could see the General was struggling with the decision, but that was when he put up his hands. The General had humans on his side. Behind him, Kyle had brought the force of the Urban Dwellers. He saw line upon line upon line of shifter men and women on either side of him. The General had his army. Kyle and the Urban Dwellers had theirs.

The General looked over the rows of shifters with a considering look. For a moment, he thought that his father might order an attack anyways. Then the General seemed to shrug. “You’ve won the battle, but you haven’t won the war.”

The General turned and moved towards a Jeep parked off the side. He started barking orders to the men around him. Soon they were all in their various vehicles. The Jeep at the front of the caravan, the one holding his father, nudged towards the gate. Kyle and his crew backed up to allow them full access to the road. Kyle watched as the trucks drove past him. He watched them until he saw the taillights finally fade in the distance.

“Sweep the area and make sure they didn’t leave anything behind.” The soldier in Kyle came out yet again. He knew how to lead men, and he also knew the various tricks that the soldiers would do when they were forced out of camp by an enemy. “Bring any survivors to Copper City General. We need to make sure everyone is okay. That’s top priority.”

Finally, he turned to Kelly. She threw herself into his arms. “I’m so sorry.” He couldn’t believe it. She was apologizing to him?

As he gathered her into his arms, he stroked her hair. “No, I’m the one who should be sorry. I can’t believe that I didn’t protect you like I said that I would.”

She looked up at him with a brilliant smile. He wondered what her next words were going to be. “So, now that all that is over, you do know you’re naked, right?”

Kyle started to laugh.

Kelly moved away from the microscope and stretched. It had been a long day. But so far she felt like she had accomplished a lot. Every single one of the shifters that they had found in the Army’s facility that had been influenced by Oak Tree’s vaccine had been changed back to their original form. She had been relieved to discover that the formula so far was only temporary. Oak Tree was still trying to work on a full vaccine. Then Eric acquired their company through a hostile takeover. Now the research division had been completely shut down. He had offered to hire her back, but Kelly knew that she wasn’t going to be able to go back to that company again. It didn’t matter in what capacity. She was ready for a fresh start now. She just wasn’t quite sure what that meant yet.

The door to the lab opened, and she saw Kyle poke his head in. “You ready for some dinner, Dr. Malone?”

She smiled. Kyle had been more than patient with her since everything had happened. He had encouraged her to continue with her work and help with getting all of the shifters back to normal. He hadn’t pressed her on the topic of the mate issue. She was grateful for that, because she had needed the time and space to think. She’d been staying with Sophie, but Kyle showed up every evening and took her to dinner before heading to the club. Everything about their relationship had been perfect. But she knew at some point they’d have to talk about what was next for them. She had to admit she was anxious about that discussion.

“I’m starving,” she admitted. She closed the file folder next to her and set it away. It would just be another day or so before she would turn everything over to the new head of the department taking over the work for Carmichael Industries. Kyle knew this, and she knew that he was waiting for her to tell him what her plans were going to be. He escorted her out of the building with his hand on the small of her back. She had to admit that she missed his touch. They hadn’t resumed their physical relationship. It was as if he was waiting for her to tell him what she wanted there too, and she was growing impatient. She felt as if they had reverted back twenty steps in their relationship.

Still, she knew that part of it was her fault. Until she made up her mind about what she wanted, Kyle wasn’t going to press her. The mark on her neck was a clear enough sign of what he wanted.

They made small talk in the car. Kyle asked her about her work that day. She was tired but pleased. She had had some help from some of the men who worked for the General at Oak Tree. She knew that although the General had had the best of intentions when he started out, it had all gone awry. Kyle was still struggling with that once she told him what the General planned to do. She had to admit that the whole thing felt surreal.

“We’re here,” Kyle said.

Kelly looked out the window in surprise. They were outside of Kyle’s townhouse.

“There are some things that I want to tell you,” Kyle said to her when he caught her look. “Privately. So I am going to make you dinner tonight.”

Kelly loved it when Kyle cooked. She smiled in delight thinking that he might also finally be caving on his edict to keep his hands off of her. That would make her very happy. After he had settled her on the stool in his kitchen and handed her a glass of wine, he started to heat up a pan on the oven.

Then he spoke, “I know that you got a call today.”

He didn’t have to say anything else, and Kelly froze. She had gotten an important call that day. It had been a call from an old colleague of hers from her graduate program who was following up on her feelers when she had left Oak Tree. He had something come through. It was for an associate professor track at Stanford in their biology department. Kelly would be on track to become a full professor in less than five years. It was the kind of dream job that she would’ve always wanted. It’s the kind of dream job she would’ve wanted before she met Kyle. Now the idea of moving across the country was less than appealing.

She started to say something when he put up his hand. “I know I haven’t made this easy for you. You have a big decision to make, and I know the way your brain works. You don’t have all of the information yet. I don’t want you to ever regret either staying here or deciding to leave. So you need to have all the facts.”

Kelly wondered what was about to happen. Was he finally going to open up to her? If he was, she knew that there was a good chance that she wouldn’t be able to say no to him if he pressed her to stay. Of course, it all depended on what it actually was.

After he had tossed all the ingredients in the pan, he put it onto the stove. Then he set the timer and pulled a towel off the rack to dry his hands. He picked up his glass and wiggled it at her. “Water.”

She had noticed that Kyle hadn’t had a drop of liquor since the night at the Army’s lab. He seemed to be doing everything he could to turn his life around. He came around and sat on the stool next to her and took her hand. He moved his thumb across her palm, and it sent shivers down her spine. She waited.

“What I’m going to tell you is something I have never told anyone. It’s something that I couldn’t tell you until I made sure that Eric and Tony were okay with it, because the story isn’t just mine. It’s theirs too. But they understand that if you were going to stay here and be my mate, it was important for you to have all of the information. We don’t hide our true selves from our mates, no matter what.”

Kelly felt a swell of something inside. He was going to trust her. The moment of truth in their relationship had arrived. She put her hand over his and nodded for him to continue.

“It was the year that the shifters finally gained full citizenship status. Seventeen years ago. The day that the announcement came out, October 23, 1999. Eric, Tony, and I were seniors that year. We were ready to take on the world. So we decided to have a little bit of a celebration. It was kinda hard to do that at school. But over the years, we had figured out how to sneak off school grounds and party. Just normal kid stuff, you know.”

Kelly didn’t really know; she had never done any of those things. She had been a total good girl her entire life. Perhaps that’s what had appealed to her about Kyle to begin with. She sensed that this was a set up for something that had gone horribly wrong.

“We were headed to a local quarry outside of town. It was a place where you could swim and light a bonfire and drink without bothering anybody. The local cops knew what happened out there, but they pretty much left us alone.”

Kyle seemed to struggle with what he was going to say next. Kelly squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. Whatever happened, it was a long time ago. You don’t have to worry about telling me what happened. I’m not going to judge you.”

Kyle looked up at her, and she was pained to see the torment in his eyes. “We remember getting in the truck to go to the quarry. The next thing I remember, we woke up. Me, Tony, and Kyle. We were at the quarry, and it was morning. It was obvious something bad had happened.”

Kelly felt a pit of dread grow in her stomach. “What do you mean? What happened that was bad?”

Kyle pulled his hand away from hers. “That’s the thing. We don’t know exactly what happened. All we know is that there was blood everywhere. It was all over me. I was still in a half-phased state. I still remember that I could taste blood. We thought at first that we might have hunted down some wild game in our phased forms, but then we found shreds of clothes and an indication that we hadn’t been alone that night.”

“Who had been with you?”

“Three girls. We think. One of them had the brightest red hair you’ve ever seen. We found…pieces of hair that color scattered all around the ground.”

Kelly felt sick. She had no idea what to say. “What happened after that?”

“I called my father. We didn’t know what else to do. We were scared shitless. Within two hours, the General, Tony’s father and Eric’s father were there. They worked some deal together between the three of them. It was all covered up, real hush-hush. Since there weren’t any bodies, my father said there was no way to prove we had anything to do with the girls’ disappearances. But, the fact is that when you’re young as a shifter, you can shift uncontrollably, and it’s really hard to control your impulses. There was no way that someone who wasn’t a shifter could have survived losing all of that blood. Twelve hours of my life is gone in that black hole, and yet I know I did something horrible that I’ll regret for the rest of my life.”

“Have you ever tried any kind of therapy to remember those memories?”

“Dad sent me to a series of therapists. I’ve had hypnotic therapy. In the end, they concluded those hours are just gone. I don’t know that I will ever remember what happened. I thought that you should know, though. It’s the one time in my life when I know that I lost complete control. I have the ability to be dangerous. That’s the simple fact of being with a shifter. That’s what you need to know.”

Now it all came together for Kelly. Now she understood why Kyle had put up the wall between them. And despite all of that, there had been a part of him that had been reaching out to her all along.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said simply. “I think I’d like to go back to Sophie’s now. I don’t think I’m hungry after all.”

Kyle nodded. He seemed resigned to the fact that this would be her answer.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” Kelly tried to reassure him. “It’s just something that I need to think about.” Kelly was being honest with him. There was something about Kyle’s story that had unsettled something deep inside of her, but she was appreciative of the fact that he had told her. That meant that he trusted her.

They said nothing else as he escorted her back to Sophie’s. As Sophie opened the door and saw her face, Kelly rushed into her arms. The tears started to fall. She heard Kyle growl behind her, but then he was gone.

Kyle sat in his kitchen staring at the stool where Kelly had sat hours before.

Kyle had laid his soul bare to her. He had told her everything. Everything except the one thing that probably mattered. He hadn’t told her that he loved her. He also hadn’t told her that he was still haunted by images of the redhead’s face. That was the face that he saw the club. That was the face that he saw across the street when he had chased Kelly at her hotel.

The girl’s name was Jillian. She seemed to be resurfacing in his mind and in his thoughts. He honestly didn’t know what had happened to the three girls that night. He was glad that Kelly hadn’t asked him to go into any further details. There wasn’t much else to tell, though. There had been some quiet inquiries throughout the nearby towns. But there was no sign and no mention of three missing girls. It was like they had never existed, except for the fact that their clothes and their blood were all over the quarry that cool fall morning.

Kelly had a new job across the country from him. It was a job she said she’d always wanted. Could he really deny her happiness? Especially if she would always hold the doubt that he might do something like that again. It was for the best if she left. That was why he didn’t chase her. That’s why he hadn’t been pressuring her. He had hoped that there might be a part of her that would be able to accept him for who he was. He realized that that was more important to him than anything else. But, it seemed he was about to be rejected yet again. He got up to head back to the club. It was fight night. Maybe he’d throw himself in the ring. He wanted to punch something. Hard.