A. Arthur - Hunger for You

I was stepping back from Caleb, who had already put distance between us, when Hanna came running over.

“Are you okay?” she asked me, taking hold of my shoulders like she planned to shake an answer out of me.

“I’m fine,” I tried to tell her but she let me go so fast to whirl on Caleb I couldn’t get out another word.

“You do not put your hands on her!” she yelled in his face. “She already told you she has a boyfriend. What the hell’s wrong with you? You some kind of crazy-assed stalker?”

“Stop it,” I said finally, trying to pull her away as she grabbed Caleb’s shirt as if to emphasize her words. For his part, Caleb hadn’t moved and only gave her a mildly annoyed look in response.

Actually, he’d stopped looking at her and was now watching me. He wanted to see what I was going to do, what I was going to say. Would I agree with Hanna or would I admit I wanted his hands on me, wanted his lips on mine?

“He wasn’t bothering me, Hanna,” I told her, giving the sleeve of the thin jacket she wore another tug. “I’m okay.”

Caleb visibly blanched after I said that. His eyes blinked and he looked like he wanted to say something else, but he didn’t. He only nodded to me, then slowly unclenched the fingers Hanna still had wrapped in his shirt, and gently pushed her away.

“Next time we’re calling the cops,” she told him, but with much less conviction than when she had been yelling at him.

Caleb turned then, walking across the parking lot. I watched him go, watched the set of his shoulders move with every stretch of his legs. I admired the curve of his butt in his jeans, the strength he exuded as he moved. It was beyond mesmerizing and sexy as hell. I wanted to go after him. I wanted that kiss.

I was going to find him and then I was going to kill him. There was no doubt in my mind, no talking myself down from the decision. He had crossed the line. It was that simple.

The moment I realized Dex and his sidekicks were rogues I should have chased them down and … what? Kill them because they were different from the other Shadow Shifters? For that matter, so was I. So I hadn’t gone after them, I hadn’t decided that I was the judge and jury and inflicted action on those shifters because they hadn’t done anything wrong, yet.

The sound of Zoe’s gasp when I touched her arm, the pain that radiated from her temples down to her jawline, ripped straight through to my soul. My heart had actually stopped beating the second I realized I’d caused her pain. But I hadn’t caused it, only magnified it for the moment. And she had denied it.

The denial and defense of that bastard was another bitter pill to swallow. One that I had no choice but to digest for the moment. Her friend was a little intense, but I’d dealt with worse.

I sat in my apartment facing the window, staring out into darkness, had been in this position for more hours than I could count. This was how I thought, how I processed things within myself. Marta said it wasn’t healthy, that I needed to let someone in, let someone attempt to share my life, share my love. I loved Marta Sanchez with all my heart, but I disagreed. I had nothing to share and no love left to consider.

I did have continued thoughts of Zoe, of her smile though I’d never been privileged to one of them personally, or that interested and attentive stare and the soft lilt of her voice. When I woke up each morning I thought of her, when I went to sleep it was the same. I’d never thought of anyone like that before.

I’d also never planned an attack.

Sitting on the couch beside me, my cell phone vibrated. I didn’t want to look away from the dark, didn’t want a break in my concentration. But the vibrating continued, until I finally picked it up.

“Yeah?” I answered, having already looked at the screen and knowing who would be on the other end.

“It’s time.”

He said it solemnly, resolutely, like I should have been expecting this call at this very moment.

“I’m good here,” was my response. He should have expected it, should have known I wouldn’t agree. I never had.

“We need you, Caleb,” Brayden pressed.

I’d begun staring into the dark again, holding the phone to my ear but not giving him my total attention. It didn’t matter, just as the words I’d just stated wouldn’t matter. Brayden Sanchez had been born for one reason—to become a Shadow Shifter guard. He was a warrior through and through and even though he was the second born, he often led the three boys and one girl raised by the Sanchez couple.

“Your Assembly needs soldiers committed to them and to their cause. I am not one of them. I’m not one of you.”

I never had been, no matter how many times they called me their son or their brother, I knew it was all a lie.

“Cut the dramatic bullshit, Caleb, and get your ass to D.C. ASAP!”

This was Aidan, the oldest, the one they thought would lead. Only I knew how much Aidan actually despised the idea of following a preordained destiny. I’d championed him when he decided to finish college, to strive for something else. Not when I heard the news of him falling for some girl and getting hooked up in that mating crap the tribes preached and going back to D.C. finally to do their bidding. I’d wanted to punch him in the gut for that move.

Still, I had to smile at the sound of his voice. It had been too long since I’d talked to either of them.

“You talk to your mate like that?” I asked, blinking away my dark stare and letting a smile creep along my face.

I didn’t do that often either, really had no use for the action.

“Don’t talk about her until you meet her face-to-face,” Aidan replied. “Which means you have to get here like yesterday.”

“Nah,” I replied, laying my head back against the sofa. “Don’t think so.”

“Why? What are you doing wherever you are that’s so damned important?” Brayden asked. “What means more to you than your family?”

If I answered truthfully they’d show up at my door in about twenty minutes, tops. So I’d lie. I was getting used to doing that.

“I’m thousands of miles away trying to take care of my own shit,” I told them.

There were maybe two or three seconds of silence in which I knew I’d messed up big time.

“What’s going on?” Brayden asked immediately.

“You need backup?” was Aidan’s follow-up.

I let out a breath. “I got this,” was my reply.

“Doesn’t sound like it to me,” Aidan continued. “Is it male or female?”

I could lie again but that wouldn’t end the interrogation. Besides, as long as they had no idea where I was, or how close I actually was to them, how close I’d made a point of sticking to them without them knowing, it didn’t matter.

“Both.”

“Human?” Brayden continued.

“One of them,” I replied.

“Rogue?” Aidan all but screamed through the phone. “Where are you? We can be there in—”

“You can’t be anywhere but in that training facility about to take your finals. This is what you two were born for. It’s everything your parents ever wanted for you. I’m used to doing my own thing, nothing different about that this time.”

“I don’t believe you,” Brayden said. “You don’t sound normal.”

I chuckled at that. “I’m not normal on a good day, what makes now so different?”

“Man, I don’t even want to hear about you being half human, half shifter. You’re my brother and you’ve been trained to be as deadly as any one hundred percent shifter ever born,” Aidan continued.

“If you know all that you know I can handle whatever I’ve got going on,” I told him, feeling quite smug at the moment. “You two just get all certified and shit and then we’ll meet up and have a beer to celebrate. Tell Lidia no vodka for her.”