Jennifer Ashley - Wild Cat

Cassidy found Eric the next morning sitting at the kitchen table contemplating six Collars laid out across the dark wood.

Diego had dropped her off last night, saying he wanted to check up on Xavier, who’d gone back to Mamita’s. Cassidy kissed him good night, thinking it was just as well. Diego’s scent alone was enough to trigger her frenzy, and she feared burning him out. So much complication, falling in love with a human.

Cassidy helped herself to a heaping pile of eggs and bacon that Jace had left on the stove and sat down opposite Eric. “Hey,” she said. “You all right?”

Eric leaned his arms on the table, his gaze fixed on the Collars. “I hate this.”

One of the Shiftertown leader’s duties-assigned by the humans-was to find any un-Collared Shifters in his territory and bring them in. Once Eric had Collared them, they’d be turned over to the humans to be registered and assigned to whatever Shiftertown the human government thought they should go.

“Are you going to report them?” Cassidy asked.

She ate heartily, her brother’s distress touching her but unable to dent her mate-frenzied appetite.

“No.” Eric lifted his gaze, jade green and empty. “I’ll have Neal futz the database and make it look like they’ve always been here. I don’t want those women sent to the ends of the earth, maybe separated from their cubs. They’ve been through too much already.”

Neal Ingram, their Guardian, could access a computer network the Guardians had set up amongst themselves, unknown to humans. They had all kinds of information in their database, sharing across all Shiftertowns. Most Guardians had learned to be expert hackers as well. If anyone could slide the females into the humans’ information undetected, it would be Neal.

Eric returned to staring glumly at the Collars.

Cassidy finished her eggs and scraped the plate. Jace had added green chile salsa to the scrambled eggs, the way she liked them.

Eric sighed and pushed the Collars away. “I can’t do this, Cass. They thought they’d be safe forever from taking Collars and moving into Shiftertowns. If Miguel had been a better leader, they wouldn’t have been wrong.”

“Then don’t make them wear them.”

Eric shook his head, skimming his hand through his short hair. “What happens if someone finds one of the females running around without a Collar? She’d be arrested, interrogated, and the Collar slapped on her anyway. And then they’d come here for the others.”

“Then put the Collar on them,” Cassidy said.

Eric gave her an aggrieved look. “You’re a lot of help, Cass.”

“I’m only trying to point out that you don’t have much choice. If the females don’t take the Collars, they’ll have to hide the rest of their lives-or pretend they’re human, and I don’t think they’ll be able to. Peigi’s taller than I am, and everything about her screams Shifter. She’d be arrested in a heartbeat. Or hunted down. Do you want that?”

Eric shook his head. “But how do I make them understand why they need to take the pain? Why they should be restricted and monitored?”

Cassidy laid her fork across her empty plate. “Eric, Shifters agreed to take the Collars because we knew that capitulating to the humans was our only chance at survival, remember? The Collars were the price we paid to band together and grow stronger, and besides, they keep us from killing each other. That’s all you need to tell them.”

“Obviously they didn’t buy that argument twenty years ago.”

“Maybe not, but look what happened to them. Eric, you know that if those women aren’t accepted into a clan or pride or pack soon, they might go feral. Two of them pretty much are already. You didn’t do this to them. Miguel did.”

Eric clenched his fists on the table, hardening the muscles on his arms. “It’s a hell of a thing, Cassidy, to be leader. I hope you never have to do it.”

“Stay healthy, brother, and I won’t. Besides, if you go, I might have to battle it out with Nell to take over, and even then Shifters might not accept a female leader.”

“They’d accept you.”

Cassidy warmed at Eric’s certainty, but she was skeptical. Shifters were pretty old-fashioned at heart. Females sometimes did take over prides in the wild, but only when necessary, and only until she could find another male to protect her and give her more cubs.

Diego, on the other hand, was good for so much more than protection. He made her laugh, true laughter. He’d made Cassidy think and feel, had torn her out of the numb state in which she’d existed since the night Donovan had slammed out of the house, never to return.

Cassidy left Eric still staring at the Collars and went next door. One of the females, Peigi, was in the backyard, staring listlessly across the green. Peigi turned when she heard Cassidy.

“Stuart told me about the ritual he needs to do to return to Faerie,” Peigi said without greeting. “For it, he needs the lifeblood of a Shifter. I told him he could have mine.”

No one could talk Peigi out of her decision. Not Cassidy, not Eric-who in theory had authority over her-not Reid himself, and not Diego.

Diego arrived with Xavier that evening to find Peigi and Reid at Eric’s, Eric and Cassidy trying to dissuade Peigi from offering her life. Diego took one look at Peigi and realized that their arguments weren’t penetrating. Peigi’s eyes were lifeless.

He knew that look. He’d seen it often enough on junkies so hooked they knew only death would release them. On men and women stuck in terrible situations who had given up hope.

But he realized Peigi’s choices weren’t great. She’d had to struggle to remain alive with Miguel, and now that she was free of him, she was told she had to put on a Collar and live in captivity the rest of her life.

The other Shifter women seemed resigned, used to doing what they were told. Peigi had a little more spirit. She wanted to act, and she’d decided this would be her act.

“I’ll stop you,” Reid said, staring her down. “By not doing it. The spell only works at the spring equinox anyway.”

“ Around the equinox, you told me,” Peigi said. “It’s only a few days past. If you don’t try it, you’ll be stuck here.”

Cassidy broke in. “Not necessarily. Maybe we can find a way to send Reid back without the blood spell. That can’t be the only one that will work.”

Reid shook his head. “I’ve searched for nearly fifty years, Cassidy. I’ve never found another. The hoch alfar have locked me out.”

“I’ve been talking to a Fae,” Eric said. “Or at least Marlo flew Jace out after breakfast to talk to him, and Jace is keeping me informed.”

Diego looked at him in surprise, but Cassidy didn’t seem startled. Eric liked to play things close to his chest.

Reid’s reaction was electric. “A hoch alfar ? You’ve betrayed me to a hoch alfar ?” He went for where his gun would be if he were wearing it.

“Stand down,” Diego said sternly to him. “Eric, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about a Fae warrior called Fionn Cillian. I met him a few weeks ago, when he came through a ley line in Austin. He visits there sometimes. I sent Jace to talk to him.” Eric looked at Reid. “Have you heard of him?”

“There are many clans of hoch alfar. Dokk alfar pay them no mind. Why is he visiting Shifters?”

Eric didn’t answer the question. “Jace tells me that Cillian says that ley lines don’t always work for dokk alfar because it’s high Fae magic, which is completely different from dokk alfar magic. Like the difference between electricity and water. Both have force, but in very different ways, and it’s tricky to put them together.”