Fated

Chapter 14

Dressed in her new yoga outfit, Cara hit the mat with a slap and rolled to her knees, pushing curls out of her face. “Nice move.” She rubbed her arms, thankful for the thick pads covering Jordan’s basement gym. As well as for the new clothes—she and Katie had done some serious shopping a couple of weeks previous.

“Thanks.” Katie grinned, her tennis shoes dancing happily on the blue cushions. “You forgot to block again.”

No shit. She should’ve listened to Emma and taken those damn self-defense classes. “Yeah, but you’ve been training since you turned four years old.” Cara staggered to her feet, her hands going to her knees, the yoga pants loose and comfortable. She’d been training with Katie every evening, something to do while the guys either prepared to raid, raided, or recuperated from raiding.

“You’d think in these three weeks of training you’d know how to counter my one good move,” Katie smirked. “You’ve spent too much time deciphering all the information the guys have retrieved from the raids and not training with me.”

True. Every time the guys raided a facility, they discovered two more places to raid. “I sure wish we could find your Dr. Bigsby, though,” Cara said.

Katie nodded. “Me too. So, how did your talk with Janie go earlier?” Her gaze slid to Cara’s knees.

“Great.” Cara readied her stance, happy to have discovered that not only was Jordan’s phone secure, so was his computer. “She really enjoyed that bedtime story you told her last night about the lost lion girl in the woods.”

Katie grinned. “Yeah, some of that was true—especially the part about the handsome lion king who rescued her.”

Nodding, Cara gave a snort. “I thought so.”

“Did she like it as much as the one Talen told her about the vampire princess?”

Cara rolled her eyes. “Janie thinks Talen hung the moon and the stars. I wouldn’t even try to compete.” She could attest to seeing stars every night clasped in Talen’s arms. There were times she actually thought she might belong there. In fact, her husband showed her a side of herself she’d never dreamed existed; although she worried her heart was mistaking passion for love on this vacation from reality. She pointedly ignored that tiny voice in her head whispering that maybe it was love.

“Don’t blame her.” Katie lunged, knocking Cara to the ground, who rolled to pin the lioness to the thick mat.

Katie tapped out. “Nice job!” Jumping to her feet, she stretched her arms behind her head. “I knew you could do that—you work out regularly and have decent muscle tone.” She shifted in her purple workout clothes, dropping into a crouch. “And, since you’ve mated, you should be seeing physical results as well.”

Heat flooded Cara’s face and she settled into a defensive crouch, inhaling the scent of lemon cleanser.

Katie laughed out loud. “I didn’t mean those kind of physical results.”

Rolling her eyes, Cara moved in with another tackle, knocking the lioness to the ground again. This time Katie pushed Cara to the side, flipping her legs over her head to backflip onto her feet. “Much better. Your strength has improved like crazy the last few nights.”

Cara rolled to her own feet. “Yeah, weird, huh?” It was almost as if Talen’s blood pumped through her veins with ancient strength. “I feel stronger, tougher.” She giggled. “When I was sixteen, my sister Emma took a karate class and within a month, she said she felt like a major bad-ass.”

Katie snorted. “Was she?”

“No. But she sure felt like one.” Cara stretched her hands over her head. “I wonder if I feel so tough just because I think I have Talen’s strength now.” Who could know? She then lifted an eyebrow at her new friend. “What about you? You already have the strength of a cougar; will you become even stronger once you mate?”

Katie shrugged, grabbing a towel off the ground. “Depends who my mate is.”

Cara grinned. “Right. Well, hypothetically speaking, what if your mate is the leader of a mountain lion pride? Just out of curiosity, of course.”

Throwing the towel at Cara, Katie huffed out a breath. “Considering I’ll probably go absolutely freaking crazy waiting for that to happen, I don’t think we need to worry about it.”

“What if?”

Katie shrugged again. “Then yeah, I’d gain strength. And he’d gain my instinctive ability.” She dropped to the mat to stretch. “Though he’ll always see me as that cub he saved from those rotten foster parents.”

“They freaked when you shifted, huh?”

“That’s an understatement. I ran, and old Jim Bob chased me with a shotgun. It was pure luck Jordan hunted nearby.” Kate rolled her neck one way and then the other.

Man, Cara wished she could’ve seen the girl’s face when she shifted for the first time. “You had no idea you could shift?”

“Nope. My dad left the Pride to settle in the city with my mom, who was human. They died in a train wreck, and I was put into the system.” Katie shrugged. “I don’t know what would’ve happened had Jordan not been hunting in the woods that day.”

“So Jordan raised you?” Okay, that may be kind of weird.

Katie giggled. “No, thank God. He paid off the foster assholes, and my mum adopted me. She was widowed with no kids and really wanted me.” Pride and love flowed through each word, and Katie smiled. “Though Jordan was always nearby, especially when I got into trouble.”

Cara grinned back. “Figures. Where’s your mom now?”

Katie snorted. “She’s on a two-month mahjong cruise with a bunch of friends—they love that game.” She lifted an eyebrow. “What was your first husband like?”

Cara sat and stretched her legs out before herself. “Simon and I weren’t married.”

“Oh.” Katie pulled one arm across her chest. “What was Simon like?”

“Nice. He was a good friend. We worked together in the lab with plant viruses.” Tall, serious, clumsy as hell, the guy had a heart of gold. “He approached me one day, all serious, and proposed we date.” Cara smiled. “I figured it a rational, well thought-out plan for some companionship.” No passion, no fear usually associated with being around men. She reminded herself that unlike her father, most men didn’t hit.

Katie giggled. “I see. Sounds different than Talen.”

“Oh yeah. No question there.” Her heart had never been in any danger from Simon. “He died in a car accident, not even knowing about Janie.” If he’d lived, they’d have worked out sensible arrangements regarding their daughter.

“Would you have married him?”

Would she have? “No. I never intended to get married.”

“So, Talen changed your mind?”

“You could say that.” She grinned at her friend, the marking on her hip starting to throb just before Talen poked his head inside the door.

“More female bonding?” he asked, pushing at a dark purple bruise under his left eye, crossing to where she lounged.

Cara stretched her back and groaned. “If you consider me getting my butt kicked bonding.”

Talen pulled her to him, scraping his teeth down her damp neck. “Why don’t you let me train you?”

Heat slammed into her loins. Giving him a two-handed push that failed to move him an inch, Cara sighed. “Because I want to learn to fight, not …” Her face heated as she realized Katie was still in the room.

The young woman cleared her throat, making a beeline for the door. “I’ll go check on Jordan. Later.”

Talen chuckled against the rapidly beating pulse in Cara’s neck. “Smart girl.” He nipped at her collarbone. “You were saying?”

She lifted her head, studying the bruise. “What happened? I thought you guys were making dinner.”

He flashed sharp canines at her. “We disagreed about the amount of hot sauce for the chili and took the argument outside.”

Cara huffed out a laugh. “You got into a fight over hot sauce?”

Talen shrugged. “Consider it training without the mats.” The purple bruise shifted to green then yellow.

“Who won?”

He raised an eyebrow. “It was pretty close, then Baye shouted out the window that he added jalapeños instead.”

“Ah. Baye’s the mediator, huh?” As one of Jordan’s enforcers, he looked more like an assassin to her.

“Nah. He just likes jalapeños.” Talen grinned, his hands lowering to cup her ass. “So, have you learned anything?”

Her body instinctively pressed into his. “I’ve learned that fighting isn’t one of my talents.” She reached up to trace his chest through the thick cotton. “And I’ve learned I’m glad to have Katie as a friend.”

He traced Cara’s ear with his tongue and lowered his voice. “Do you have many friends?”

“No.” Her eyes rolled back into her head. “I haven’t really gotten too close to people before.” Talen drew her earlobe into his mouth and she moaned. “I have acquaintances at work, but no real friends like Katie.” She figured the lack of childhood friends had something to do with her father being a complete bastard and her not wanting to bring other kids over to see him, but she didn’t feel like going into past hurts at the moment. Especially with Talen’s hot mouth on her skin.

Talen lifted his head, green shards emerging from the gold in his eyes. “Have you checked your e-mail account for a return message from Emma today?”

“Yes. She hasn’t replied yet.” Her sister refused to use the computer at whatever safe house she’d set up, instead taking the laptop to public places. Somewhere. “But she’s only checked in twice. Have you heard anything?”

“No. Our contacts inform us that the Kurjans haven’t found her but are actively searching.” The hand on her butt began to knead.

They wouldn’t find Emma. “My sister’s probably one of the smartest people on the planet, Talen. And apparently she has some work to do before trusting your people.” Pure pride had Cara lifting her chin even as desire began to speed up her heart rate.

“I think you have a skewed opinion of your superhero older sister.”

Perhaps. Cara had survived childhood because of Emma, no doubt about it. “Maybe. But then again, only a superhero could elude the Kurjans for three weeks.”

Talen nodded, one lip tipping up. “I’m not surprised the Kurjans haven’t found her, but the fact that our scouts have been running in circles alarms me a bit.”

Cara lifted a shoulder, fighting a smile. “Maybe you’re all out of practice. Peace can lead to laziness.” If Emma didn’t want to be found, nobody would find her.

His grin turned his eyes into the color of fresh sunshine. “Laziness. Hmm.” Lowering his mouth to run along Cara’s jaw, his hand roamed around her hip to brush across her core.

Only his other arm around her waist kept her knees from buckling her to the mat. “Talen—” Wasn’t there something they should be doing? White static filled her mind while her body took over.

Just then Katie called down the stairs, “Dinner’s ready.”

Oh yeah. Dinner. With a sigh of regret, Cara stepped back. “Saved by the chili.”

“Slight reprieve, mate. Very slight.” Talen took her hand and led her to the door as the bruise faded completely from his face.