Awakening The Shifter

“Five minutes.” She capitulated, nodding to the guard to meet her at the car. Ged smiled as he pressed the button for the basement. “Thank you.”

After exiting the elevator, they followed a short corridor. “Although the members of the band come from all over the world, once Beast became famous, they all moved here to New York. We tried a number of different recording studios before we settled on this one.”

“If they come from all over the world, how did they get together?” Sarange didn’t want to be intrigued by Beast. Didn’t want anything to do with the world’s greatest rock band and its purring, strutting, infuriating frontman, but Ged’s words interested her in spite of herself.

“I brought them together.” Why did she sense a huge story lay behind that simple statement? In spite of their dynamic personalities, Beast didn’t give much away about their private lives. Biographical details about the band members were scarce. In the past, Sarange had curled her lip at what she believed was a publicity ploy. The enigmatic tough guys of rock. She wondered for the first time what they were hiding.

Ged held open a door, motioning for her to precede him. When Sarange stepped inside, she was in a recording booth. From behind a clear glass panel, she could see a small, circular stage. Khan was seated on a stool in its center. He had drawn his wild mane of red-gold hair back with a simple elastic band, and his head was bowed as he clutched a microphone to his chest. His whole attitude was despairing.

Sarange turned to regard Ged. This didn’t feel comfortable. It felt a lot like she was intruding on Khan’s privacy.

“I’ve known him to spend hours perfecting a single note.” Ged’s voice was quiet as he looked over her head at the lone figure on the other side of the soundproof glass. “This side of Khan doesn’t fit with his public image. The stage persona, the guy who’d laugh in the devil’s face? That takes a hell of a lot of hard work.”

He flicked a switch as he spoke and Khan’s voice filled the booth. The song wasn’t one of Beast’s. It was an old love song, with a sweet melody, haunting in its intensity. Khan didn’t apply any of his usual vocal fireworks to this performance. Alone, unaware of his audience, and with no backing music, he closed his eyes, pouring his heart into the song.

As she listened, tears burned the back of Sarange’s eyelids. What was it about this man? Where had this invisible thread that pulled her to him come from? And how the hell was she going to sever it? She didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry that Ged had shown her Khan had another side to him. Would it have been easier to walk away believing he was shallow and self-absorbed? Khan had given her no choice. She had to walk away. It was never going to be easy.

Ged waited until Khan had finished singing before he spoke. “His vocal range is unique. Khan can sing opera just as easily as rock.”

As if to demonstrate, Khan started to sing again. The same ballad with a slightly different emphasis. There was something rawer in the emotion this time. God, he could tell a story with that voice! The last version had made her think of unrequited love. This one was a whole lot hotter. It conjured up visions of steamy sex and crumpled sheets...and it made her whole body burn.

“Who is he?” She tilted her head back to look at Ged. The question, coming out of nowhere, surprised her.

Ged didn’t falter. “He is Khan.” Ged said it as though it clarified everything. And maybe it did. Khan was one of a kind, defying explanation. “This campaign you have with the blue wolves, is that because of your own heritage?”

“I certainly have an interest in their plight because I was born in Mongolia, but that’s not the only reason I want to help.” She still wasn’t sure why she felt so fiercely about this pack of wolves. Her homeland, heritage, Mongolian folklore...none of those things could quite account for the intensity of emotion this cause aroused in her.

“You must know that’s not what I meant.”

Sarange frowned. “What else could you possibly mean?”

Ged’s expression was unfathomable. It reminded her of the look in Khan’s eyes when he had called her “wolf girl” just before she initiated that devastating kiss. What is it with these people and wolves? Was it to do with the name Beast? Were they looking to use wolves for some sort of gimmick? Ged was staring at her as if she was an alien being. As if he couldn’t make up his mind what to do about her.

Enough was enough. Whatever his problem was, she really didn’t have time to spend analyzing it. On balance, she decided she was glad Ged had shown her this other side of Khan. Although her pride was still stinging, it helped to know he wasn’t the one-dimensional jerk of first appearances.

She turned toward the door. “You’re Khan’s friend. Why does he hate me?”

Ged took a last look at the lone figure. “Khan doesn’t really do friendship. And it’s not you he hates—” he flicked the switch, and the booth went silent “—it’s himself.”

* * *

Beast had won Best Band at the Rock the World Awards for the last two years. This year, when they burst onto the stage to receive the award for the third time, Khan looked out at the sea of faces in the vast audience with a feeling close to apathy. The great and good of the music industry were gathered under one roof to honor their own, but there was only one person he wanted to see. He already knew Sarange wasn’t there. If she’d been there, he’d have felt her.

They were in her town, yet she’d stayed away. It was her message to Khan. He knew she felt this invisible, unbreakable thread as powerfully as he did. By not attending this prestigious ceremony, she was showing him she was stronger than he was. She didn’t need to see him. Didn’t need the buzz that came from his nearness. This was what he’d wanted, yet the despair he felt was like a giant rock sitting on his chest. How could he miss what had never been his? All he knew was there was an aching hole in his life that could only be filled by Sarange. How was he ever going to learn to deal with this constant gnawing pain?

Beast was closing the award ceremony with a number from its new album. It was time to don his rock star persona and do what he did best...drive this crowd wild. Doing it when his heart had just been ripped out and his limbs felt like lead? That would be a new experience.

The way the band played together had always been creative and intuitive. Each member was individually talented, but when they came together they became so much more. Maybe it came down to what they’d all been through before they got together. Their music did the talking because their emotions had been shredded. From Khan’s raw yipping, screeching tones, through Diablo’s wild drumming to Finglas’s haunting bass lines, their unique sound pulsed with primal energy.

Physically they complemented each other perfectly as well. Each member of the band had his unique, onstage personality. Khan was all strutting, purring egomania. Diablo was solitary, stealthy and quick tempered. There was Torque with his quick-fire restlessness and Dev, in contrast, who remained cool and aloof. Finglas was the newest addition to the band. The young Irish werewolf had replaced Nate Zilar, the long-standing bass guitarist, and was just finding his place among the big personalities. Finglas often appeared detached, but he could raise as much hell as Khan when the mood took him. As a cast of characters, the band came together with a power that couldn’t be manufactured. Beasts in the true sense of the word, they were one of a kind.

Behind them, giant LED screens played recordings of their signature three-sixes logo, roaring flames and the snarling jaws of wild animals. The cheering audience enthusiastically demonstrated the horned sign of the beast by pointing their fingers at the sides of their heads. The number ended on a wild note when Khan climbed to the top of the lighting installation at the rear of the stage, hanging perilously by one hand as he howled out the final verse.

He sprang back onto the stage, landing in a crouch at Torque’s feet.

“And that, my friend, is how to bring the house down,” Torque said, as they walked off the stage. “I thought it might be literally. That set didn’t look very stable.”

Khan shrugged. “Remember Moscow?”

Dev caught up to them. “How could we forget? Although I blame Ged for booking us into a theater with balconies. He must have known you’d climb into them.”

“How was I to know that building was unsafe?” Khan scowled.

Torque draped an arm around each of their shoulders. “Those were the days. Collapsing balconies. Irate Russians. Hot women. Cold vodka.”

“Talking of which—” Dev steered them toward the bar at the back of the vast auditorium “—Ged is waiting for us. Best behavior, guys. The press is out in force tonight, always looking for the money shot of Khan in a compromising position.”

Khan cursed under his breath. He wasn’t in the mood for socializing, and he was never in the mood to have his behavior regulated. Over time, he had learned to strike a balance between his human and tiger personalities. On occasions like this, he drew on his human need for company, suppressing his cat desire for solitude. And there were usually compensations. On a night like tonight, he could generally find an outlet for his wild sexual appetite. The problem was, his body had decided it had found his mate, meaning his desire for sex with anyone other than Sarange had deserted him. It was a highly inconvenient side effect to an already out of control situation.

Until now, Khan’s sexual instincts had mirrored those of a tiger in the wild. He supposed humans would call it promiscuity. Tigers would call it common sense. Find a female, have sex with her as often as possible within a short time frame until she was carrying his cubs, then move on to the next female. It was a simple rule for big cats in nature to ensure fertilization. As a human, of course, Khan was meticulous about using protection to ensure that didn’t happen. Thankfully, his inner tiger didn’t take over completely.

Monogamy wasn’t part of the tiger social structure, but despite his inner cat, Khan wasn’t all wild animal. He didn’t get to be that lucky. Being a shifter, he got to live within a set of expectations that applied to all shifters. Ones that said he needed a mate. It seemed there was no right of appeal. Even though there were so many things wrong in this case. The mate the Fates had selected for him was the wrong species. She didn’t know she was a shifter. And don’t get me started on who I am...

Khan bit back a smile. Monogamy without a partner? Wasn’t that called celibacy? That should keep Ged happy. At least there would be no sensational kiss-and-tell stories tomorrow morning.

“Come and join me, Tiger Boy.” As if in answer to his thoughts, Ged appeared at Khan’s side. He was carrying a bottle of brandy and two glasses. It was always serious when Ged got the brandy bottle out.

By some miracle, they found a quiet corner table and Ged sloshed brandy into the glasses. Around them, celebrities were getting drunker and noisier. Finglas was locked in an embrace with one member of a girl band, while her bandmate wrapped her arms around his waist from behind.

“That guy is after your reputation as the bad boy of Beast.” Ged tilted his glass toward Finglas.

“The way I feel right now he’s welcome to it.” Khan leaned back in his seat, draining his glass in one gulp.

“Does this newfound apathy have anything to do with Sarange?”

Khan stared at his manager, the man who had rescued him from a cage and given him his life back. For long, unblinking seconds he said nothing. Then he sighed. If Ged wanted information from him, he would get it. He might as well cut out the part where he tried to resist.

“You’ve heard some crazy shifter stories in your lifetime, Ged. Shall I tell you a new one? One that takes screwed up to a whole new level?” He dropped his voice, glancing around to make sure they were the only ones who could hear. “How about I tell you the story of a tiger who fell for a wolf? If that wasn’t bad enough, it gets even crazier. It turns out she didn’t know she was a wolf.”

Khan reached for the brandy, planning to pour himself another glass. To hell with it. He drank long and hard straight from the bottle, wiping the neck on the tail of his designer shirt when he finished. “I know.”

Khan’s eyes narrowed. “You know what?”

“I’ve met Sarange. I know she’s a werewolf.” Ged took the brandy from Khan and tilted the bottle to his own lips. “And I agree with your assessment. She has no idea what she is.”

Khan slumped down in his seat. “Has that ever happened before?” If anyone was going to know the answer to that question, it would be Ged.

“Not that I’m aware. Violet, Nate’s wife, lost her memory for a while.” Violet was a werewolf who had joined them on tour recently. When she and Nate got married, he had left the band. “Part of that memory loss meant she forgot how to shift. That was temporary, but this is different. Sarange seems unaware that she has ever been a werewolf.”

“What I don’t understand is how she can be a shifter yet not want to shift. It’s the most powerful urge we have. Right up there with breathing and sex.”

Ged had been about to take another drink, but he lowered the bottle. “Judging by some of the situations I’ve had to bail you out of over the years, I’d say sex is the strongest urge you have.”

Khan stretched his long legs in front of him. “I’m a cat. We enjoy the hunt.”

“Yet you’re not hunting tonight?” Ged raised a brow.

Before Khan could tell him to butt out, the music was lowered and the sound turned up on the big screens that were located on each wall. “You might want to listen to this, guys.” Torque came to lean against the wall next to them.

The screens were all showing the same news story. The announcer’s voice filled the room. “We’re returning to our main story. Earlier this evening a group of four men broke into the Los Angeles home of singer, songwriter and animal rights activist Sarange—”

Khan was on his feet in an instant, his heart rate kicking up to explosive new levels. “What the...?”

“—although the men fled when the singer’s bodyguards came to her aid, Sarange sustained minor injuries in the attack. It is believed the intention was kidnapping—”

Khan didn’t hear any more. He couldn’t think straight. Someone had tried to abduct Sarange. She had been hurt. His mate had been in danger and he hadn’t been there to protect her.

Ged’s hand was firm on his shoulder. “Go to her.”

Chapter 4

How many different ways was she supposed to answer the same question? Tiredness and frustration were getting to Sarange now. It was beginning to feel like she was the suspect as the detective waited with his notebook open and his pen poised.

“I’ve already told you, Detective Kidd.” Sarange thought she did a pretty good job of keeping the annoyance out of her voice. “They came into my bedroom through the balcony.”

He tapped his pen against his teeth. It was a mannerism he’d already used a few times. If it continued, he might find himself eating that pen before too much longer. “See, that’s where I’m struggling.” He shook his head, and Sarange decided he’d modeled his mannerisms on various TV cops he’d seen. “You’re saying that four men climbed up the front of the house and in through the balcony to this suite in broad daylight without being seen and without triggering the alarm system?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Sarange had decided not to go to the Rock the World Awards. She hadn’t declined, she had just decided she wouldn’t turn up. Even though it was one of the biggest nights in the music world’s calendar, she wasn’t going to put herself through the humiliation of seeing Khan again. She might spend every private minute fighting the cravings, but she didn’t have to do it publicly. She couldn’t trust her emotions around him, and no way was he going to get another chance to humiliate her.

Even if he didn’t reject her this time, what did she anticipate would happen between them? A one-night stand? She shivered at the thought. Spontaneity, stepping outside the boundaries, seizing the moment...they were all alien to Sarange’s nature. She played by the rules. That, and the fact that she lived her life in the full glare of the public eye, were probably the reasons she’d never hooked up with a stranger. I don’t do wild. An image of Khan came into her mind, bringing with it a surge of longing to break free of her self-imposed constraints. Although she thought she knew her own mind, her treacherous body kept giving the idea of a one-night stand an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Her resolve had held firm. Vowing to avoid social media, she had spent the day in her office, doing her best to focus on Animals Alive paperwork. The attempt had been futile. The white-hot desire and almost insane longing for Khan weren’t going away, no matter how hard she tried to push them aside. Knowing he was in the same town made it so much worse. It was as if an endless recording that could not be turned off was playing inside her head. Khan had entered her soul like a mind-altering drug, meaning she was no longer responsible for her actions.

Eventually, she had succumbed and checked her cell phone. Almost with a will of their own, her fingers found images and recordings of Beast arriving at their hotel. And there was Khan. Her heart melted at the sight of him. Glittering, feral, predatory. With his usual grace, he bounded from the limousine ahead of his bandmates. The sunlight turned his hair to burnished copper as he acknowledged the shouts of the crowd with a wave.

Who was she fooling? Of course she was going to the awards ceremony. There was no way she could stay away from him. That invisible thread that drew them together was pulling her to him harder and stronger than ever. It had been as she was in her dressing room, trying to decide what to wear, that the men had burst in from the balcony.

Sarange could understand Detective Kidd’s confusion. It matched her own. Her luxurious home was secure. She lived in a gated community. She had three live-in bodyguards. Her security system was the best, and most up-to-date, that money could buy. There was no way four men should have been able to get close to her house, let alone inside her personal suite. She should not have a sprained ankle and a bruised cheek because she had fought them as they tried to drag her back out onto the balcony. It was only because she had her cell phone in her hand, with its personal attack alarm enabled, that she had been able to summon Marco, her head of security.

Her bodyguards had rushed into the room while calling the police. With remarkable agility, the intruders had vaulted back over the balcony wall and scattered through the grounds before they could be caught.

“I didn’t imagine them.” She was tired now. Yet surely she should feel more traumatized by her experience? Instead, her overriding emotion was disappointment that she wouldn’t get to see Khan. “My bodyguards saw them, too.”

The detective consulted his notes. “And these men made no attempt to hide their faces?”

“That’s right. I’ve already given your colleague a description.” Sarange resisted the temptation to sigh.

“Tall, muscular, medium brown hair, amber eyes, sharp features.” His eyes probed her face. “That’s your description...of all of them?”

“Yes.” They had been through this. Several times. She knew how weird it sounded. “They could have been quadruplets.”

Before he could say anything else, she heard a commotion. It sounded like it was downstairs, possibly in the entrance hall. Disturbances didn’t happen in her house. In her life. She paid people to make sure of it. Now, twice in one day, her ordered existence was being tilted off course. But this time, she knew the reason. She could feel it...him. Khan was close by. She had no idea how she knew he was the source of the fire and fury taking place elsewhere in her home. She just did. This connection they had transcended normal rules.

Detective Kidd turned his head to look at the uniformed officer who was standing by the door. “Find out what’s going on.”

Before the police officer could move, Khan strode through the door, instantly filling her bedroom with his presence. Those hypnotic eyes, golden and fiery, fixed on Sarange as though there was no one else present. “They tried to stop me seeing you.”

Sarange’s head of security burst into the room behind Khan. His shirt was torn and a scratch on his face oozed blood. “I’m sorry. He was like a wild animal...”

“It’s okay, Marco.” And it was. Suddenly, it was as though she had been wrapped in a protective blanket. Without words, Khan had managed to do what the police and her bodyguards couldn’t. Just by being there, he had reassured her that she was safe.

“Call me if you need anything.” With obvious reluctance, Marco left the room.

Khan was about to cross to the bed when he appeared to notice Detective Kidd and his companion for the first time. “Why are these people here?”

“The detective wants to ask me some more questions.”

“I think not.” No one could do arrogant like Khan. As he turned that feline gaze on Detective Kidd, the words of protest died on the police officer’s lips. Moving to the door, Khan held it open.

“There is something very strange about this incident. If you think of anything else, give me a call.” Tossing a look of dislike in Khan’s direction, the detective and his colleague left.

Sarange barely had an instant to wonder why Khan had come here. After taking so much trouble to show her he didn’t want anything to do with her, why was he in her bedroom right now? And why was he gazing at her with that look in his eyes? Within a second or two of the door closing, he had crossed the room and dropped on one knee beside the bed, catching hold of her hand and raising it to his lips.

“I wasn’t here to protect you. I will never forgive myself for that.” The antagonism was gone. His voice throbbed with genuine regret.

This should be weird. That was her first response to his words. She should run a mile from a man who spoke to her that way. She definitely shouldn’t tangle her hands in his hair, or utter a sound that was midway between a laugh and a sob. This shouldn’t feel like the best thing ever to happen to her. Yet, as she touched Khan, she could feel strength and heat flowing from him and into her body.

This is real. Whatever it is, this is happening.

“Who were they?” Khan lifted his head. “Did you know the men who broke in here?”

Sarange shook her head. “I’ve never seen them before. They didn’t speak to me, so I don’t know what they wanted. They were trying to drag me out of the house when I raised the alarm. Marco and my other bodyguards burst in. They called the police, but the intruders had already gone.”

Khan raised a hand, his touch featherlight as he traced the bruise on her cheek. “They hurt you.”

“Because I fought them.”

There was a flash of fire in the depths of his eyes. She glimpsed something in him then, something raw and animal. It called to an answering part of her own character. A part she hadn’t known existed until now.

“You are safe now. I’m here.” His smile was pure insolence and undiluted mischief. “You no longer have to rely on second-rate protection.”

“I get a rock star for a bodyguard?”

He got to his feet, and she looked up at him. He was breathtaking. “You get Khan.” The words should have been conceited. Instead they comforted and scared her. Was it possible to feel those conflicting emotions at the same time? It seemed Khan could make her feel the impossible.

Khan pulled a chair over to the side of the bed and sat in it. Resting his feet on the mattress, he leaned back with his arms folded across his chest. Sarange turned on her side, drinking in the beauty of his profile. “You can’t stay there all night.”

“How else will I make sure you are safe?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to suggest he could join her, but she stopped short of saying the words. This wasn’t a fling, or even the start of a brief relationship. This was beyond anything she had ever known. There was magic between them, but there were barriers as well. She still had no idea what this attraction was about. She suspected Khan knew and was fighting forces that went way beyond her comprehension.