A. Arthur - Passion's Prey

“He will survive this,” Baxter finished. “He will survive and be much better because of it.”

“How do you know this?” Nick asked. “You always know everything, even before things happen. How is that, Baxter? Who are you really?”

Rome did not object to any of those questions, even though they may have been better coming from him. But he looked at Baxter waiting, hoping, he would deem it appropriate to answer at least some of them.

He did not.

“I am who I am, Mr. Dominick. And I am doing my job. Watching the three of you grow up has been a privilege. You are very good friends to Mr. Xavier. But you are not who or what he needs to make it over this hurdle. That is for his mate alone.”

To that Nick cursed and Rome shook his head. It seemed neither of them had much faith in their friend or the true strength of a companheiro .

“Took you long enough,” Caprise said the moment X came out of what they called the “boys’ room.”

The room was at the far end of the north corridor, and was always locked. She’d figured out long before she’d overheard them talking about meeting there that it was expressly for Rome and his two commanding officers.

Thanks to Lucas, the shifter from the Gungi, she’d known exactly when they finished their official meeting in Rome’s private conference room. Lucas didn’t speak much English, and Caprise had only gotten to know him because he’d clung to Seth like a wet T-shirt. He was tall and gangly, still trying to figure out how his sixteen-year-old body was going to suddenly morph into the bodies he saw every day of full-grown shifters. He had intelligent eyes and an inner strength that some of the shifters around here would envy. She could see it in the way he held his head high, how he was determined to speak English, to learn to fight, and to prove to Rome he hadn’t made a mistake bringing him here.

Tonight he’d been in Rome’s rooms, as Kalina had summoned him there. He’d asked Caprise to come along because her Portuguese was a lot better than Kalina’s and he was hoping she could translate. She really hadn’t felt like being bothered with a lot of people, but it had actually worked out for the better.

“So you’ve seen X already tonight?” Kalina had asked when they were in her sitting room. Lucas was eating dinner because Kalina swore if he missed one meal he was going to shrivel up or possibly pass out. Caprise thought it was a little much. He was a growing boy; he’d eventually get hungry, at which time he’d eat. She understood all too well the starvation that came with grief. How many days had she gone without eating after her parents died? Double that after little Henrique had passed.

“Saw him, talked too much, moved on,” she said quietly.

“Talked too much, huh? I know that feeling. When I told Rome about my past as an orphan I felt like I’d talked too much, too.”

“He didn’t talk at all” was her reply.

Kalina simply shook her head. “They’re like that.”

“He’s not playing fair. He wanted me to tell him everything and I did,” she said, absently rubbing the mark at her side, her son’s name surrounded by floral swirls. “He should have reciprocated.”

“Is it important to you to know what he’s holding back?” Kalina had asked.

Caprise thought about that for a long moment, then sighed. Before last night, hell, about two weeks ago, it wouldn’t have mattered to her one way or another. Today she couldn’t say that. “Yes, it is.”

Kalina’s response was a genuine smile. “I knew it.”

“You did not know anything,” Caprise said, only slightly agitated. It was different having someone she could confide in. Kalina had said she and Ary were there for Caprise, that she could share things with them and they wouldn’t tell a soul. Caprise believed them and she appreciated their offer.

“So how are you going to get him?” Kalina asked after she’d cleared Lucas’s plate from the table and come back to sit on the couch next to Caprise.

“I don’t know yet.”

“My advice—and I know you’ve known X a lot longer than I have—I would smother him. Don’t give him a moment to think of why the two of you joining is not a good idea. Don’t let him find refuge.”

Caprise let her words sink in. “Like in battle you’d never let your opponent get a catnap,” she said slowly.

“Precisely. Stay on his back until he has no other choice but to face you, to face what’s going on between you two.”

“Or run and hide,” she followed up with. There was the possibility that X really didn’t want this mating thing with her. Maybe he wanted to mate with someone else. Maybe … stop it! she berated herself. Xavier Santos-Markland wanted her, she knew he did. The companheiro calor was so strong, if it were a drug she’d be high as a kite right now. No, whatever was standing in their way had nothing to do with her, but with him.

“You won’t run and hide, it’s not in your nature. You’ll bide your time to figure out a strategy, then you’ll strike.” Kalina picked up her mug of hot chocolate, blew on it, and smiled before taking a sip. “And when you do Xavier won’t know what hit him.”

Lucas had interrupted then, attempting to tell Caprise that X and the others were on their way out of the conference room. To avoid seeing him right at that moment and any awkwardness between the two of them and her brother, she’d slipped out the door before they made their way to this part of the First Female’s suite.

Now she was back, and she was ready.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” X asked, his brows drawn in a tight line.

He looked like he was about to explode, he was so angry. Any other woman would have run screaming. Caprise wasn’t any other woman and she wasn’t running anymore.

“I don’t have a curfew,” she said, taking a step closer to him.

His body was tense, anger rolling off him in heavy rivulets that assaulted her like huge waves. She didn’t falter, simply took another step closer.

“Do you have a time to be home, or someone you have to go home to?” she asked him.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She watched his muscled chest, beneath the fitted material of his black T-shirt, move up and down. Her mouth watered and at the same time her heart melted. He was trying so hard to keep a lid on whatever was inside of him. It was almost painful for her to watch.

“There’s no one else, Caprise,” he said finally, his eyes opening slowly as if he’d been drugged. “And don’t tell me you’re going to play the jealous girlfriend now.”

Caprise chuckled because of all the human and shifter traits she possessed and would inevitably claim, jealousy was not one of them.

“Just clearing the air about where we stand.”

He looked tired as he spoke.

“We’re currently standing in the hallway in the middle of the night discussing whether or not I’m sleeping with someone else.”

She nodded. “Well, are you?”

He didn’t speak right away but stepped toward her. She probably should have backed up, his height combined with his thick build could be intimidating— very intimidating. But she stayed still until her breasts brushed against his torso.

“When I touch you, nobody else touches you. Got it?” was his terse reply.

Caprise shook her head. “We weren’t talking about me, buddy.” She lifted a palm, placed it right over his left pectoral, and let the beat of his heart vibrate through her fingers, up her arm, until it seemed like their rhythms matched … finally.

“For the time you’re in my bed, no one else is,” he said finally. “Does that satisfy you?”