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She blinked again.
“Those two beasts have marked you as their mate. You obviously don’t know it, and sometimes even the shifter doesn’t recognize it. They knew who you were from the beginning. By their laws, they should have killed you. Even if you do nothing else, they will come to you—here or in San Diego. They will find you and make you theirs because, in their minds, you are their mate.”
“That’s BS,” she snapped. “They hate me.” Birk and Kotori had told her they’d shared women before. She had no reason to think she, above all others, was special, and Kasen and his notions could accept it.
“Who do you think fixed your door, Shiya?”
“How did you know about that?”
“Who?” he insisted.
“Joe? You?”
He said nothing.
When she delayed letting the manager of the inn know about the damage, she did so because she needed to make preparations if they pressed charges or if they just tossed her out. When the locksmith came and fixed everything, she thought they’d found out and just dealt with it. She had been ready to inform all her online buddies about the inn to choose when in Juneau. Then Joe claimed responsibility, and she let the matter drop. Now, Kasen was telling her Birk and Kotori made the arrangements.
“I don’t understand why you’re pushing this either way. Even Joe can attest that both Birk and Kotori are shifters. All you have to do is . . .” Pain tightened her chest, making it hard to breathe. She waved a hand like the rest didn’t need to be said, but her brother cast her a knowing look that pissed her off. She turned away from him.
“I want them all.”
She peered back at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Mother, father, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Every single person in their families.”
Shiya’s mouth went dry. “Y-You can’t be serious, Kasen.”
“Oh, I’m dead serious. They’re not of the human race. That means killing them is no different than hunting wild game and putting one between its eyes.”
His deep hatred was palpable, weighing her down until she panted. “You know some of them are not shifters. In fact, most aren’t.”
He nodded. The gleam in his eyes terrified her more than any physical assault he had done so far. “We’ve been going at this all wrong. We know that a few generations in the future, any shifter’s family can, and does, produce new shifters. So we end up having to go back over the same territory. If we kill every one of them, we destroy the gene.”
Horror clogged Shiya’s throat, making it difficu
lt to speak. “But they’re innocent.”
“No carrier of the shifter gene is innocent!”
“Dad can’t agree—”
“Oh, he agrees. In fact, he commended me, said he doesn’t know why our ancestors didn’t think of this before.” Kasen reached into his coat and brought out the picture, but he didn’t turn it around so she would see anything. The reminder was enough. “You’re going to let them pick up your scent and know you didn’t flee Juneau, and you’re going to get them to tell you all about their families, every detail. I don’t care if you have to shake your ass or give up your ass. You’re going to do it, Shiya, because you are a Keith and because it’s the least that Mom deserves.”
Chapter Seven
Kotori stretched his arms over his head and stood at the water’s edge. The chilly temperature served to cool his anger, but only so much. He kept replaying the incidents that happened in Shiya’s suite. What stuck out in his mind most—the part that threatened to send him into a rage—was when that stupid human claimed to be Shiya’s fiancé. Breathing deep and stepping farther into the water was the only thing that would keep him from hunting the man and killing him. Kotori glanced down at the wound on his arm, which Birk had stitched. Already it was healing, and if he shifted into his bear form, it would go much faster.
He stared out at the water, his lips compressed, unmoving except his chest as it rose and fell with each heavy breath. Maybe they should have killed her, too, because she had led Joe there and because it was likely the rest would come to hunt him and Birk, maybe even pose a threat to the rest of his family. When he considered Shiya’s death, though, he couldn’t fathom it. He wouldn’t. Something inside rose up and insisted on protecting her instead. The emotion angered him, unsettling his thoughts even more than they already were.
He yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. His pants and boxers followed. He’d already removed his boots and socks. Now that he stood naked, he let the wind and cold whip about his body. Goose bumps rose on his skin, but they soon gave way to the change. Silvery white hair sprouted from every follicle, and his skin darkened to the shade natural to the polar bear. His body grew several times its human size, and he dropped forward onto all fours. Curved black claws sprang from his fingertips and from his toes. He raised his nose to the sky and let a roar rip through the air.
He waded out into the water, and his ear canals and nostrils closed just as he dove beneath the surface. With powerful strokes, he swam in the murky, freezing depths. His keen sense of smell told him prey swam nearby. He could pick up the scent up to forty miles, but he chose not to hunt today.
When he came up out of the water, he shook the excess liquid and ice from his fur. He transformed to his human form and stretched his muscles again.
“Feel better now?”
Kotori bent to pick up his jeans before answering Birk. “Not in the least.”
