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Birk’s jaw dropped. His fresh glass of beer tumbled to the table and almost spilled, but he caught it in time. Some of the color in his cheeks vanished, but then his confusion turned to anger. “Why would you want that?”
Adam was prepared for the question. “The way I see it, the only way to get Sakura is to be a shifter.” He paused and glanced around them. Birk waved away his concern that they would be overheard. No one seemed to pay them any mind, and he wondered how many of the patrons weren’t human. Thinking that way made him fidget a bit in his seat. Now he wished he’d brought along a weapon as added protection. No, I can’t think that way anymore. They are no longer my enemy.
Birk shook his head. “That makes no sense. From what I hear, Sakura hates my kind more than all the others, more so now with her sisters mated to shifters. The middle one is no longer human.”
Adam puzzled over the word mated, but didn’t question Birk about it. He’d learned about shifters finding partners they believed they were meant to be with and forming a bond that was unbreakable, but he knew the full meaning escaped humans.
Feeling self-conscious, he muttered, “Sakura loves me.”
“So you want to control her. Is that it? Force her to be with you?”
“Of course not!” Adam half rose from his chair, but he remembered he was the one who needed Birk, and he reined in his temper. So far he had failed to convey how he felt because of his pride and because shifters tended to exude masculinity. He had no desire to look like a punk in front the man.
“Turning is dangerous. I’m sure you know you could die.”
“A mi plín. I don’t care. I’d risk anything to be with her. I know this is the best way.”
“You love her,” Birk said with dawning understanding. “I know about the Keiths. They are an arrogant family. They’ve been hunting my kind for generations, and they think somehow that makes them superior. The one thing they do respect is our strength and that we’re not to be taken lightly. You believe by becoming what Sakura respects, she will look up to you.”
“I don’t wish to be above Sakura. I don’t want to rule her. I want her to see me for more than the green man she once knew. As…what you are, she’ll open her eyes. I know she will.”
“And if she rejects you? Then what? In fact, you risk her deciding to kill the man she loves. That would hurt her a lot more, maybe even destroy her. Did you think of that?”
“Night and day,” Adam said. “This isn’t a decision I came to overnight. I know Sakura better than anyone. She’s not the hard-hearted woman many make her out to be. She’s strong physically, but emotionally, she can be very vulnerable. She’s afraid to let me in, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t found a place already inside her. I will burrow deeper and deeper until she can’t deny me.”
“You could do that as a human.”
He shook his head. “I never said I was perfect. I want her now. Besides, the biggest reason Sa
kura thinks she can’t give in to her feelings is because she thinks she’ll be much more open to the enemy’s attack.”
“If there is no longer a reason to fight…” Birk concluded, and Adam nodded.
Birk sat in silence for a while, having another beer. Adam nursed a second one but didn’t drink much. He wanted all his faculties about him, and from the glance Birk gave him, he guessed the man knew his reservations. Here Adam was asking Birk to make him a shifter and yet, he couldn’t trust them. Adam had no doubt that Birk felt the same. The man’s next words confirmed it.
“I can’t be sure this isn’t some elaborate scheme. The Keiths will do anything to get their man. Granted, they usually use the beautiful Keith daughters to seduce the men, but since we are aware of who and what they are, maybe the family has come up with a new tactic.”
Adam opened his mouth to respond, but Birk continued.
“That’s why I’m meeting you and not Kotori. My friend believes this is a trap. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. Kotori would just as soon rip off your head as talk to you.”
Adam flinched at the image the words produced in his mind.
“We also agreed to keep Shiya out of the city for the time being.”
Adam frowned. “You’re holding her hostage?”
“Of course not! Shiya is our mate. As I said earlier, she’s everything. We’ll keep her safe no matter the threat.”
“But she must want to see her family.”
“She misses her sisters and her dad, but they’re on different sides now. There’s nothing any of us can do.”
“I can make a difference,” Adam insisted, leaning forward. “With Sakura. Give me the chance.”
Birk studied his face for a long time, and Adam did his best to look trustworthy. He might have come in here not knowing what to expect, holding on to his own prejudices against shifters. Talking to Birk had felt awkward and even wrong at first. He’d always kept his distance, watching over Sakura while she seduced the men suspected of being something other than human. He’d hated seeing them touch her or her touching them, but he was never privy to conversation. He had been taught that shifters came off as human and could fool anyone who did not know to look for the signs. Adam found this to be untrue with Birk, unless the training referred to lower level shifters. Birk didn’t give off any signs—no sudden shifting of the eyes, no violent temper, no claws forming from out of nowhere. Then again, Birk had no reason to lose control in this place. Juneau was his home, and clearly, he did not consider Adam a threat.
“If I’m changed,” Adam said, “I am an immediate enemy to the Keiths. Correct?”
