Page 48 of A Cougar's Kiss
“My name is Theo Masters.”
“And all we need to know about Theo at the moment is that he brought Cole back to us and that his security team has taken care of the remnants of our raid on Tavarus Lancombe’s house,” Rome said.
That’s right, the Ruling Cabinet was no more after all the FLs—Rome, Jace and Decan—along with Nick, Gold, X, Eli and Ezra set out on a secret mission three days following Lancombe’s rally at the Paradise Center. Zion and Jordin were sent back to the Central Zone to personally guard Nisa because they still weren’t certain the hit Mackey had taken out on her and Shya had been cancelled due to his death. Immediately after the mission—which left no survivors at Lancombe’s beach house—Rome had contacted Dorian Wilson, who worked out a statement on behalf of the Oasis Treaty, announcing the disbandment of the Ruling Cabinet. Dorian’s consulting firm was also working to re-institute the democracy and branches of government that had been ravaged by the Ruling Cabinet’s tyrannical reign.
So, for all intent and purposes things were going right in the shifter world.
“What will we do about Jacques? We can’t just leave him out there to run around killing at will or whatever he’s doing to get back at me for leaving him to die,” Bas said after a few moments of silence.
“You had every reason to believe he was dead, Bas, there’s no need for you to carry any guilt about this. Besides, if this is a manifestation of Jacques’ multiple DNA, it was only a matter of time before it would have happened anyway,” Ary told him.
“Still, there’s no doubt Jacques is holding a grudge against Bas,” Decan, who was also participating via conference call, said. “Up until two weeks ago it had been reported that the Desert Cat had been killing shifters. The fact that he dropped those three human bodies off in front of Keller’s center meant he knew exactly what he was doing.”
“Starting a war,” Gold spoke again. “If he had a reputation for killing shifters, but then he switched things up and left human bodies in front of a shifter-owned building he did it to actively engage both parties, thus starting a war between the humans and the shifters.”
“For what purpose? I mean, there was already a war between us. And how would he have known who owned that building?” Jace asked because he was sort of following the line of thought from these new shifters in leadership, he just wanted to make sure they were dotting all the I’s in their scenario.
“He would have smelled them,” Bas offered. “Jacques was an excellent tracker, he could scent anything from almost a mile away. He knew I was there, and he wanted me to know he was alive.”
“But he didn’t kill us,” Gold said. “When we all ran to help Shya, he just left as if his job there was done. That’s the part that doesn’t make any sense.”
Jace looked around the room at all the shifters gathered. They were a family even after all that had happened—a family that may be starting to come apart at the seams. He hoped that wasn’t the case, hoped that combined with this new generation of rebellious shifters they would really be able to start over again.
“It does if his goal was to simply tell us that he was only beginning to get even,” Bas said. “Look, I’m not blaming myself for what’s happened. But Jacques was like a brother to me. If he’s suffering, I want him healed, the same way we all wanted to find Cole and to get him out of that coma.”
“I’ll take care of him,” Theo said, his words and tone as mysterious as the man dressed in a black suit, white shirt and sapphire blue tie. “My company specializes in things of this nature.”
“You mean shapeshifter things?” Jewel asked.
“I mean supernatural things,” Theo replied and once again, the room went quiet.
* * *
“I’ll wait for you, Shya baby. I’m gonna sit right here and wait for you.” No matter how much he hated the sound, sight and smell of hospitals. Keller had sworn to her he wouldn’t leave and since someone had obviously convinced Nick that it wasn’t a good idea to try and physically remove him from the room, Keller had kept his word and sat right there in the chair next to her bed.
She wasn’t in a coma as Cole had been but was simply sleeping Ary had said.
“That blast from Jacques seared right through her shoulder, slicing some tendons on the way. While shifters can heal on their own, some injuries require a little assistance and a lot of rest. I’m not worried about her at all now,” she’d told him and surprised Keller by placing a hand on his shoulder. “Especially not now that I know you’re here for her.”
That had been over a week ago and Keller still hadn’t figured out how to adjust to having Ary’s blessing over his mating with Shya.
It was around seven in the evening on the fifteenth night of her stay in the medical center and he’d stood to stretch and get a drink of water from the mini-refrigerator Ary had one of the attendants bring in for him. He was standing at the refrigerator staring at one of the pictures that Nisa had insisted be taped on the wall—a scene from one of Shya’s favorite old books,Wuthering Heights. It was a dour scene painted in grayscale but Nisa had assured him that Shya loved it and had spent many days dreaming of different ways that story could have ended. Keller wasn’t much of a reader and he didn’t know as much personal stuff about Shya as he wanted to, so he’d taken Nisa’s word for it. He tilted his head and thought for an instant that he could picture him and Shya walking along that dirt road in the painting, heading toward the cliff with the rolling waves below.
The sound of the locks on the door being disengaged pulled his attention away and he turned to see Ary step inside the room.
“Rome wants to speak with you,” she said. “I’ll stay with her until you return.”
“I’m not leaving her. I told her I wouldn’t leave.” He’d repeated those words to her every day since she’d been in here.
“And you’re not going far, Rome is right out in the hallway. If she wakes, I’ll come and get you.”
He still didn’t want to leave, especially not at the behest of the Assembly Leader, but he moved toward the door anyway. When he stepped out into the hallway Keller was shocked to see not only Rome, but Nick as well. His cat immediately rose, ready for whatever was about to go down.
“Ary says Shya is doing well. There was no infection from the wound, and she seems to be resting comfortably,” Rome stated the moment the door closed behind Keller.
The Assembly Leader wore a charcoal gray suit, his white shirt was unbuttoned at the collar and he’d ditched the tie. Dinner would have stopped being served at the dining hall right at seven, but if Rome was dressed this way, he hadn’t been in there eating. A glance at Nick who was also wearing a dark suit said they’d both just come from above ground, probably at one of the many meetings they’d been having with the world leaders concerning the continued roll-out of the Oasis Treaty.
“Yes. She’s healing.” Keller wasn’t sure what else he was expected to say, he hadn’t spoken to Rome or Nick since he’d insisted on traveling with Shya back to Oasis. Nick hadn’t liked it, but Ary had been the one to tell him to stand down.
