3. Blayne

THREE

BLAYNE

The sun was bright and the sky a cloudless blue when I pulled into the coffee shop's parking lot. The fresh, early morning air smelled sweet. If it had been any other day, any other circumstance, I'd have said it was a beautiful morning. Instead, I had to deal with this shit.

After slamming my truck door, I jammed my fists into my jacket pockets and stalked toward the shop. Right before I stepped inside, a familiar silhouette appeared through the smoked glass of the front door. Tate and another broad-shouldered young man stood at the counter.

I sighed. Of course they'd be here. Tate and Jared. My eyes narrowed at Jared's back. Even after everything that had gone down, I still wasn't certain he was on our side.

Jared was the adopted son of Antonio, the asshole who'd founded the hunter organization we were up against. Like Tate, he was a dragon shifter, but Antonio had drugged Jared to suppress the dragon inside him. That had been part of Antonio's sick plan to create some sort of super soldier who would destroy every shifter. My suspicions of Jared stemmed from what an asshat he'd been in his adoptive family's employ. His ass-hattedness had been the result of Antonio's treatment of him his entire life and the stress of his dragon being suppressed, but still…he'd assaulted Celina and had attacked a couple of our security guards.

The guy couldn't really be blamed for being a little messed up. He'd been raised by a sociopath and had grown up with a psychopath like Mariana for a sister. I trusted him because the other guys did, but it was a slow and grudging trust that gradually increased with every passing day. Besides, he was just as much in the hunters' crosshairs as we were because Antonio had disowned him when Mariana was killed.

I was pulled from my thoughts when Tate glanced over his shoulder. Frowning, he turned toward me. "Blayne? What are you doing here?"

"I could as you the same thing," I said, nodding toward the two of them.

Jared raised a couple of boxes. "Tate wanted to grab some stuff for the office."

"Yeah," Tate said. "Muffins and pastries. Just waiting for the coffee. So, why're you here? And why do you look pissed?"

I titled my head back and looked up at the ceiling as I composed myself. "I told Ava I'd meet her here. I'm gonna tell her about—" I stopped to glance around, making sure no one else could hear "—the curse. Once she rejects me, we can get on with our lives."

Tate's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Already? Man, you work fast."

"Not fast enough," I grumbled. "The last twenty-four hours have been the worst I've had in the past few years. I'm ready to get back to work and put this curse stuff behind me."

Tate leaned closer to whisper. "You sure you don't want to wait a couple of days? Really let it sink in and think about it without your emotions clouding everything?"

I shook my head, grimacing in irritation. "No way. I need to get it over now. Save myself the pain. I saw the way it affected you guys. Aches, pains, nausea, nightmares, cold sweats. I'll be damned if I put myself through all that pain because I refuse to claim my dead brother's ex-girlfriend."

Jared whistled. "Dang. That's some heavy shit. I don't know what I'd do if…"

Tate and I glanced at Jared, staring off behind us with an almost awestruck expression and faint grin on his slightly ajar mouth. Frowning, I turned to see what had him looking like a lovestruck teenager.

Ava walked through the doors. I sighed in irritation, but my panther felt wholly different emotions—anger and jealousy.

The look on Jared's face got even more ridiculous as she caught sight of me and walked toward us. A growl caught in my throat when I saw Jared couldn't take his off her. It actually made me angrier at my own panther than I was at Jared. Why the hell shouldn't he look at her? Loath I was to admit it, Ava did look gorgeous this morning.

Tate, hearing my stifled growl, muttered, "You may be ready to write this off, but it sounds like your panther has other ideas."

I rolled my eyes and hissed, "Well, that's too bad. Sucks to be the cat. It's not happening. He'll just have to get over it."

The panther hissed in my mind, angry and heartsick. I'd never felt such disappointment from it. Tough shit , I thought, hoping it heard and understood the words loud and clear.

Ava didn't look any more excited to be here than I was. I couldn't blame her—I'd basically beaten down her door the day before and demanded to know why she was there. Then I more or less commanded her to meet me here. If our roles were reversed, I'd have looked a little irritated, too. We weren't on great terms to begin with, and what I was about to tell her would only make things worse.

"Blayne," she said. "I'm here. What do you want to tell me?"

When she noticed Tate and Jared, her cheeks went red. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you all. Are you friends with Blayne?"

A year or two ago, Tate would have done the strong-guy-intimidating thing he used to always do. But Harley and the baby had mellowed him and changed him into a much more polished version of the man I'd always known. Now, he was practically a gentleman.

He leaned forward, stretching out a hand. "Tate. Blayne and I are friends and business partners. This is Jared, another of our friends," he said, gesturing to the other man.

Jared was still gaping at Ava. He'd be drooling any second. He seemed unable to talk much less form a sentence. I nudged him. "Pull yourself together, man. You're embarrassing me."

He blinked and finally snapped out of whatever spell he'd been under. Maneuvering the boxes of pastries under one arm, he extended a hand toward Ava. "Sorry, yeah. Jared. My name's Jared. That's my name. Uh…Jared."

"Christ," I groaned, covering my eyes with my hand.

If Ava thought he was an idiot, she didn't show it. She only smiled and shook Tate's and Jared's hands in turn. "Tate, good to meet you." She looked at Jared. "And, hmmm, if I'm not mistaken, your name is Jared. It's nice to meet you, too."

Jared flushed a deep red, and he looked down at the floor, embarrassed. "Yup. Nice to meet you too," he muttered.

Ava's gaze bounced from the two of them back to me. "So, you guys are friends. Does that mean"—she pointed back and forth between us—"you are like him? Like…you know, special like he is?"

My panther damn near rolled over and exposed its belly, purring and yearning for her to pet it. I gritted my teeth and urged it to shut the hell up.

Tate and Jared smirked at each other before Tate said, "We're similar, I'll say. A little bit bigger and much less fuzzy. Listen, we need to get to the office. It was nice meeting you, Ava. Come on, Jared."

As they headed for the door, Jared kept glancing over his shoulder to check out Ava, and I had to suppress yet another growl from my panther. The beast was acting like she was already mine. I tried to remind it for the thousandth time that she was not ours. Would never be ours. It had to give up on the thought.

It was useless, though. All I received in return was an irritated snarl that echoed through my mind as I awkwardly stood next to Ava and placed my order.

The barista obviously thought we were together, which made things worse. I ordered a black coffee with cream and sugar, but Ava got something with caramel, whipped cream, and a bunch of other stuff I didn't pay attention to. When they handed it to her, it looked more like a milkshake than coffee.

I led her to a table at the back, away from most of the patrons. The farther away, the better. I didn't want anyone hearing the crazy shit I was about to spill to Ava. They'd probably call the cops on me, the ranting psychopath.

Sipping at her dessert in a cup, Ava took the seat across from me and gestured toward me. "Okay, Blayne. I'm here. What do you want to talk about?"

I licked my lips and got to it with no preamble. "Well, Ava, you obviously know about shifters, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Blayne," she said with a tone of condescension. "I dated one, and I know you're one as well."

Wincing, I held my hands up in acquiescence. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm setting the scene, okay? Anyway, shifters are real, but there are other things in the world you probably don't know about."

"Like? What are you gonna tell me? Aliens are real? Shifters come from the Lost City of Atlantis? What?"

I gritted my teeth. I wished I were anywhere else but here with this damnable woman. Panther be damned, I wanted to be done with her.

Taking a steadying breath, I composed myself and continued. "No, not that. For one, there are hunters. People who have either been wronged by shifters in the past or those whose loved ones have been hurt by rogue or feral shifters. They band together and form small hunting units, and then, well, as the name suggests, they hunt us down and try to kill us."

Ava paled, her eyes wide. "Are you serious?"

I nodded. "Yes. There've always been hunters. In the Middle Ages, things were dire for shifters because the hunters formed large groups that were dozens, if not hundreds, strong. These days, the groups are small, perhaps ten or twelve men and women who hunt. They're also not as dangerous as they were in past centuries, what with DNA and fingerprinting technology that can link them to the crimes. So, it's not really that bad." I picked up my cup and took a sip. "At least it wasn't until a year or two ago. A crazy billionaire pulled together a new group. They're better trained and better funded than any group in the last five-hundred years. They've already killed dozens of shifters, and me and my friends here in Lilly Valley are at the top of their most-wanted list."

Ava blinked and shook her head slowly, like she was trying to clear her thoughts. "This is…insane. How can this happen? Don't you guys have someone you can go to for help? Someone in the government?"

"Hell, no," I scoffed, glancing around furtively. I always panicked that merely saying the word "government" would summon men in black sunglasses and unmarked vans. "The only thing worse than the hunters coming for us would be if the government came for us. We're sure they know about us, but since we almost never do anything to draw attention to ourselves or kill anyone, they've almost completely left us alone. I'm afraid some of the stuff that's happened will catch their attention, but we're trying to lay low for now."

The fact that this curse was allowing humans and shifters to conceive children was not something we wanted the government to know about.

Ava took another drink, then said, "What does this have to do with me, Blayne? It's terrible, but I don't see why you dragged me out here for a talk."

"Here's the thing. Along with hunters, there are other…shall we say…magical beings. Witches."

She stared at me blankly. I stared back, waiting for some kind of response from her. Finally, she frowned, her eyes narrowed. "Witches? Like from Macbeth or The Wizard of Oz ?"

I gave a half-shrug, half-nod. "Kinda, I guess. Not really the same, though. They don't dress in robes or wear pointy hats or eat kids. They're just regular people. The only difference is that they have gifts that allow them to do stuff. Crazy stuff. The hunters hired a witch. Her name was Emily?—"

"Was?"

"Well…she's dead. I was getting to that."

"Dead? A woman is dead, Blayne?"

"Dammit, Ava, let me get through the damn story, all right?" I snapped.

A pink flush crept into her cheeks as she glared at me, and I worried she was going to get up and storm out of the coffee shop. Thankfully, she didn't. Instead, she sank back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Fine. Go on, then."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you, but this is important." When she didn't respond, I shrugged and continued relaying the story. "Anyway, this witch Emily cast a spell around Lilly Valley that affected all the shifters in town. At the time, there were only four of us—me and my three partners Miles, Tate, and Steff. The spell was meant to be the end of us. It forces us to mate with a human, which is supposed to be impossible.

"I'm not sure if you know that. Shifters and humans can have relationships, even get married if they wanted. But to claim someone and become mates is something that is only supposed to happen between shifters. This curse forced something that was supposed to be impossible. If we don't pursue our new mate and make them fall in love with us, we die a slow and painful death. The only way to escape that fate is to claim them as a mate or…have them outright reject you.

"This curse has struck each of us. I'm the last one. Once it's through with me, it'll be over. So, that's what this conversation is about. My fated mate has been revealed to me." I drummed my fingers nervously on the table, not wanting to utter the next words, even though I knew I had to.

"It's you, Ava."

Instead of the relief I'd expected to feel, more stress piled onto me. My shoulders bunched into knots as my panther raged. It knew what I was going to say next.

"All you need to do is reject me here and now. Then the bond will be broken and we'll be done with this. You'll go your way and I'll go mine, and we'll never have to speak again."

As I spoke, I watched the look on her face slowly change. It went from irritation, to disbelief, to surprise, and now she sat there looking stunned. I folded my hands in my lap and waited for her response.