Chapter Nineteen
Lily was shaking so badly that she needed to pull over and calm her nerves before she got into an accident. Pulling into a parking spot in a relatively empty area of a grocery store parking lot, Lily turned off the engine and sat back deeper into her seat to take a few deep breaths. Her mind was all over the place, thoughts whirling through her brain like a tornado. She couldn’t just sit back and wait to be arrested. She needed to do something. But first she needed to know what the police knew, and what exactly was going on. And that would require help.
Grabbing her cell phone, she quickly dialed Daisy who answered on the third ring, her voice bright and chipper. “Just so you know, you’re on speaker since everyone is dying to know how the sexy times went last night.”
Lily closed her eyes with a grimace. Her date. Just yesterday, she had been so happy, joking with Daisy, excited, and Christian had been so wonderful. He had stayed with her after Riley and Tarvahl had dropped their bomb. He’d held her in his arms, rubbing her back, lending her his strength. Not once had he pushed her to talk, trusting that she would tell him – or not – when she was ready. Nor had he treated her like a child by trying to take control of the situation. They’d fallen asleep there on her couch, his arms holding her through the best night of sleep she’d had in ages and she’d woken to a sweet kiss and a smile. He’d made her tea, his concern genuine when he asked how she was feeling. And when she’d told him she was going to call and set up the interview, he’d offered to accompany her for moral support, but hadn’t pushed when she’d decided to go alone. Not once had he demanded she do things his way. Her bear believed in her, and trusted in her strength, assuring her that he would be there for her if she needed someone to talk to when she came home. The sob rose up her throat and broke loose before she even knew it was coming.
The answering growl on the other end of the line was loud, low and vicious. “I’ll kill him. What did the bastard do? Never mind. I can be there in a couple of hours if I can find a flight.”
Muffled sounds as the phone was moved around and Lily raised her voice to ensure she was heard. “He didn’t do anything. It’s not about him, but I think I’m going to be arrested.” Lily’s voice broke on the last, and she had to grip the phone harder to keep it from shaking.
“Wait. What? Arrested? For what?”
A cacophony of sound, raised voices, growls, and frantic questions that were too muffled to hear met Lily’s ear. “Am I still on speaker?”
“No, honey, I took you off speaker, but you know shifter ears… Do you want me to kick them out?” Daisy asked, her voice painfully sympathetic.
Trying to swallow past the emotion that was clogging her throat, Lily shook her head despite Daisy not being able to see. “No. I may need their help.”
“Anything. Tell me what’s going on.”
Lily waited for Daisy to put her back on speaker before she began, trying her best not to leave anything out. She told them about Riley and Tarvahl interrupting her dinner date and what they had been able to find out. She explained how she messed up with her new identity by disclosing that she had been married and her husband had been killed. She explained about the nights in question, and how they coincided with the nights she couldn’t remember, the sleepwalking, and the fear that had quickly taken root in her heart: that she was in fact the killer they were looking for.
“They took my fingerprints and a DNA sample, Daisy. What if I am the killer?”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Dev interrupted. “You gave shifter DNA to the cops? Jesus Christ, Lily. What were you thinking?”
“Back off!” Daisy snarled, just as Lily said, “I thought they were going to arrest me at any moment, Dev. I was pretty much willing to give them anything they asked.”
“All right,” Dev said, his voice noticeably softer. “It’s all right. It’s okay. More than likely if they notice something odd, they’ll assume a lab tech who owns a cat accidentally contaminated the sample.”
Lily slid down even further in her seat with a defeated sigh. “What am I going to do?”
Again, it was Dev who answered. “First, I’m going to hack into their system and find out exactly what we’re dealing with and why they’re looking in your direction.”
Lily nodded, that was a good start. “And then what?”
“And then we find the killer.”
When Lily arrived back in town, she drove straight home, not able to deal with talking to Riley or Tarvahl just yet. She would definitely need to loop them in eventually – Riley being the local law enforcement and Tarvahl being the leader of the council – after all, the moment she became a suspect in a murder investigation, her business became pack business.
But walking past Christian’s cabin, she didn’t hesitate to stop. And there, on his door, was a bright yellow sticky note that brought an actual smile to her face and a prickle of grateful tears to her eyes. Written in his bold hand, the note read:Out bending trees for you to scratch. Come find me.Signed with a C surrounded by a heart. That bear… Her bear. He knew exactly what she needed. Ducking into his cabin, Lily quickly shed her clothes and shifted to fur.
The shift had been much needed, and she could feel the tension practically melting away as she lowered her body close to the ground and took off at a full run through the woods. Within minutes, she heard Christian’s welcoming bellow and modified her course slightly to intercept.
She had seen the male in fur before – kind of hard to miss – but the sight of him always managed to surprise her. He was just so big, covered in thick black fur except for the brown on his muzzle, and his claws, unlike hers, couldn’t be retracted, so the long and lethally sharp weapons were always on display. Lifting his head, he let out a long, low bellow of greeting before he raised up on his hind legs, making him even larger to her eyes, and rubbed his back up and down on the bark of a tree.
With a leap, Lily landed gracefully on the branch above Christian and put her claws to good use shredding the bark and letting the chips rain down like confetti on his head. He let out a chuffing noise that reminded her of laughter, and she wanted to grin. How she had needed this. This moment of sunshine in the middle of the storm. Grateful, she easily jumped down and rubbed her head against the thick fur of Christian’s side, a purr rumbling out of her chest.
In response, Christian dropped back down to all fours and nuzzled his head against hers. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to shift back to skin, wrap her arms around that thick neck, and hug him close. A mere heartbeat later, the fur under her cheek was gone, and warm, strong arms were around her, hot naked flesh against hers, and Christian’s mouth was seeking her own.
She welcomed him with a gasp of pleasure, the kiss so intense it made her knees buckle. If his arms hadn’t been around her, she was sure she would have fallen. Their tongues met and danced together, as both of them explored each other’s bodies with grasping hands.
Feeling like she was going to combust at any moment, Lily broke the kiss to draw in a hard breath while Christian moved his mouth to her jaw, his teeth nipping as he moved toward her ear where he whispered, “We should stop.”
The heat of his breath over her damp skin made her body shiver. She shook her head, everything inside of her rejecting his suggestion. “I don’t want to stop.”
Setting her mouth to his shoulder she licked the slight saltiness of his skin and nearly grinned when she felt him tremble. “I want this,” she said against the smooth expanse of muscle beneath her lips. “I want you.”
Pushed this close to the heat of his body, his erection was unmistakable, pressed hard and insistent against her belly and her fingers itched to hold it. “You want me too.” Unable to deny herself the pleasure, her hand slid down between them and she gripped the hard length of him, marveling at the silky feel of skin that seemed stretched over rock.
Christian let out a hiss, his head thrown back as she stroked him, before he gripped her arms and held her slightly away from him. Lowering his head, he pinned her with a look. His eyes were bright with arousal, but also fear. “I don’t want you to hate me.”
Understanding dawned and Lily’s heart felt like it would burst from all the emotion clamoring to get out. Emboldened, she shook off his hold and clasped his hand to bring to her core and the slick heat he’d brought forth. She gasped at the sensation, closing her eyes and biting her lip for a moment, before she met his surprised gaze. “That has never happened with anyone but you.”
Christian stared at her in awe for a moment before a smug grin split his lips and he lowered his head to kiss her. Against her lips she heard him growl “Mine” as his fingers set up a rhythm that had her body singing. She had no thought of protesting his bold claim despite her vows that she would never belong to anyone. Her body may be her own, her mind may be her own, but there was no denying, her heart belonged to Christian.
