Claimed by Caden Read online

  And that his mother had brought her here in an attempt to matchmake made him want to throttle her.

  “Where are your manners, Caden? I taught you better than that.”

  “If you drive a man to drink, Mother, you can’t blame him when he takes solace in Scotch.”

  Eloise glared at him. She was just how he remembered her being, and he meant that. His first memory was of her at thirty-five. She looked exactly the same then as she did now.

  Her blonde hair, carefully highlighted, curled into a bob that framed her still-beautiful face. Not a hair was out of place, because that hair wouldn’t have dared to move. Her golden-tinged skin was unlined, and taut, but her mouth, after years of being pursed in disapproval, did have faint lines marring it. She was perfectly made up as always, and in an outfit that probably cost his father a small fortune. Not that he’d mind. Christopher just lived to serve his life mate.

  Males were good for protection, sperm-donation, and business negotiation. The three ‘–tions.’ Caden’s father hit all three. He owned a sporting goods company that had gone national in the eighties, and thanks to good diversification, hadn’t taken too much of a hit in the recession.

  Christopher could afford to keep his life mate in as many designer labels as she wanted. Only Eloise didn’t have to rely on her life mate for anything, she had one of the largest trust funds in the northeast, and was wealthy in her own right.

  “You’re embarrassing me in front of Chloë, Caden.” She hissed, jolting him from his study of her.

  “You’re embarrassing yourself. I asked to meet with you so we could discuss a private matter. Not so you could ambush me with a Pride female who I have repeatedly rejected.”

  Rather than look affronted, Chloë appeared the ultimate in discretion. But then, when didn’t she? She was a regular Miss. Perfect.

  And Christ, that pissed him off.

  Her smile was polite as she patted Eloise’s hand and said, “I’ll just go and powder my nose. I hope you can convince Caden to stay for lunch.” As she rose, as graceful as any of their kind, she ducked down to press a kiss to his cheek. Instinctively, he froze. His beast rejecting the touch of the Pride female. Just as it had always done. As it would always do when the woman doing the touching was not Lia.

  Only at his physical rejection did the smile worthy of Grace Kelly falter. A look of fury flashed across her brow, showing, for the barest of seconds, the true Chloë. The Chloë he’d known existed all along.

  The problem with Chloë Gilbert was her mother. Jessica Gilbert was the Leona of the Pride. The head honcho. That didn’t make Chloë any more important. That wasn’t how the culture worked. It was the survival of the fittest even in these enlightened times, and blood and genes did not always make that so.

  Chloë had gone through life forgetting that particular creed.

  She walked through Anchor as though she owned it, and most people conceded because Jessica Gilbert could be a real bitch when provoked. Anything she wanted, Chloë usually got. The only thing she had never won over to her side was Caden.

  A fact that stuck in her craw.

  When Chloë stalked off, flustered anger dogging her every step, Eloise’s hand slammed down against the table, rattling the glasses. “How dare you treat the Leona’s daughter like that.”

  “Quite easily. How dare you treat me like I was chattel, Mother? I’m married. Whether you like it or not. And happily as well. But you just can’t stand that, can you?” Before she could reply, a waiter appeared with his Scotch, and he sank it back after tautly grimacing his thanks to the man, who disappeared when Eloise turned her glare on him.

  “You’re married to a human. Their rules don’t coexist with ours. Not in our culture. You know that. You might as well not have bothered to go to the trouble of marrying her.”

  His jaw turned to stone as she denigrated vows he’d made and meant. “You can say that all you want, but you know the Pride doesn’t like bringing attention to its members’ forays with humans. The National Pride won’t be happy if they hear of my divorce.”

  “It’s the Regional Pride we have to worry about, Caden. You know very well Chloë has wanted you, even when you were a snot-nosed teenager. Jessica always sees to it that her baby girl gets whatever she wants.”

  He waved a hand, dismissing his Leona’s wants. “I’m not a commodity, Mother. Not something you can use to make deals within the Pride.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Is it really that ridiculous? Let’s face it, what will Jessica do if you manage to break my arm and drag me to a life mate ceremony? Let me guess, more power within the Pride, the prestige of being related via mating to the Leona. Why would I want to swap a mate for a life mate? Just because you settled for Dad doesn’t mean I will, too.”

  “How dare you speak about your parents’ mating in such a derogatory way!”

  “If you’d held out for your mate, you’d understand why I could deride you for even considering I’d give up Lia for that cat,” he sneered out the word, using it as the insult it was.

  Lion shifters were not cats. Calling them that or tabbies was a huge insult. Words worthy of challenges.

  Eloise hissed at his use of the curse, then spat out, “You’re shaming your entire family by going down this line.”

  “I made my decision two years ago, Mother. And I was right to. Lia’s pregnant.”

  His words fell into the melee like stones into lava. They sizzled and hissed, spat and exploded. For a second, he realized he’d reaped a miracle. He’d actually managed to shut his mother up.

  Then, of course, came the insults. “Do you mean to tell me that your slut of a wife has been cheating on you? On you, a Drummond of Anchor Pride?” She hissed, her eyes glowing with rage. She was minutes away from shifting, the lines of her body vibrating as her Lioness begged to be liberated. “I’ll tear the bitch’s eyes out!”

  While his beast wanted to do some eye-tearing of its own, Caden held it back, refusing to get very violent in such a public place. Not only because humans were here, not because it was his mother, but because he knew that if he let the beast loose, he’d do more than damage to the woman sitting opposite him. The Lion knew it was his dam, the female who had birthed him, but year after year of hearing this same woman insult his mate prodded the big cat to the outer limits of his control.

  “I can assure you the cub is mine.”

  “How can you?” she scoffed. “Shifter and human pairs are sterile. You know that.”

  “Then Lia must have shifter blood.”

  “Because that’s so likely! Lea help us, you can’t honestly believe this cub is yours?”

  He rolled his eyes at her plea to their Goddess. “Lia has never done anything to make me believe she can’t be trusted. And I do trust her, implicitly. On top of that, I keep my wife plenty busy in the bedroom. She has no need to go searching for something that is available in abundance at home.”

  Caden took great pleasure out of his mother’s rosy red cheeks. “Don’t be crude.”

  He’d often wondered if he’d been immaculately conceived. His mother’s reaction made him pity his father all the more. “The truth isn’t crude. It’s how it is. Lia is carrying my cub.”

  From fire-truck red, Eloise’s cheeks blanched. “You can’t honestly expect me to let this female introduce her spawn into the Pride. What are you trying to do to me, Caden? Humiliate me beyond compare? I’ve given up a lot for you. I let you loose, I helped you become the man you are today. I didn’t have to. I never had to. I could have kept you tight to the Pride as every other dam has. Instead, I let you become a big city attorney. And this is the thanks you give me?”

  “I’ve never acted in a way that would intentionally cause you harm, Mother. I would never do that. Why should I? I’m grateful for the freedom you gave me, because it led me onto the path to Lia. I think, rather than judging her and finding her wanting as you’ve always done, that you should help me rather than judge.” When
Eloise’s cheeks flashed between white and red again, then turned a little puce as though she was nauseated, he held out a hand in an attempt to calm her. “Mother, as a man, do you trust my judgment? Set aside my life choices with Lia. Every other decision I’ve made has been the right one, hasn’t it? Look where I am in the world of law. I’m no idiot.”

  “I couldn’t beget an idiot for a son,” Eloise retorted snootily. Her hands had clenched on the tablecloth, dragging it from its setting, but now, at his words, they slowly released the fabric from the prison of her fingers.

  “No. My career speaks for itself. I truly believe in Lia. She has never done anything to make me question my faith in her. I know this all comes as a shock, but, I would like your help having her tested at the medical center.”

  “You genuinely think she has shifter blood?”

  He nodded, but watched her cautiously as he added, “I noticed Lia’s scent change when her pregnancy took hold. I didn’t believe it, I didn’t trust my senses because naturally, I believed that she was human, and therefore, we were sterile. But, when she started showing signs...morning sickness, dizziness, fainting spells...I did some research.”

  “What kind of research?”

  “Into her background.”

  “I’m assuming you found something that would support your belief Lia has shifter blood?”

  He nodded. “She didn’t know her father.”

  “That does nothing more than show bad blood will always out. Her mother was a slut, just like her daughter was.”

  It was Caden’s turn to grip the tablecloth. Only with him, the sudden renting of fabric tore through the air. His claws had come out to play, and realizing this, Eloise cleared her throat and backed down.

  “Carry on,” she ordered. “I’m listening.”

  “He disappeared when she was four years old. Lia has a brother, older than her by five years—”

  “That’s almost proof she has no shifter blood. You know we only tend to beget one child.”

  “I know. But it isn’t totally rare,” he snapped. “For God’s sake, that’s how we have our leaders!”

  Eloise sniffed. “Are you trying to suggest to me that Lia’s mother must also have dormant shifter genes, and that she should have been one of our leaders?!”

  He shrugged. “That’s how our culture works, isn’t it? The more children a mother breeds, the more power she has in the Pride.”

  “Don’t use Pride culture against me, Caden,” she snapped. “Don’t you think you’re making all of this up in an attempt to hide what is more than likely the truth? That Lia isn’t as trustworthy as you’d like?”

  He blinked at that, trying to roll with the punches before the desire to string up his own mother overcame him. The only way that wouldn’t happen was if he got out of there. Now. Scraping his chair back, Caden stood and leaning over the table gritted out, “I believe in my mate. I believe in my nose, and the lack of any other strange scent on her is another piece of proof. Whether you believe in us or not is of no concern to me. I will integrate her into the Pride myself. I believed that as my dam, you would want to help introduce your grandchild into its rightful place within the Pride, but of course, I was wrong. I’ll see to it myself.”

  He saw her guilt flash across her features before it was quickly replaced by anger. Knowing she’d reply, and probably with a comment designed to piss him off all the more, he quickly turned on his heel and strode out of there.

  As he made it to the foyer, he saw Chloë at the bar, sipping a drink. Not wanting her to see him, he swerved out of the way. Only, as he turned, dizziness swept over him. It made his body alternate between a heaviness and a lightness that added queasy to the list of sensations currently pummeling his nervous system. When his knees gave way, he literally sank to the floor. He didn’t even feel the pain as his knees took all of his two-hundred-and-forty-pound weight. More than anything, he felt surprised at tumbling down so easily.

  Toppling back to the ground, the last thing he saw as his eyes closed of their own volition, was Chloë, standing over him, a pleased smile on her face.

  After that, even the screeches and cries for an ambulance, the flashing white lights at the back of his eyes, all of it faded to black. But that smile, that devious twitch of the lips, was imprinted on his retinas.

  Chapter Three

  “Mr. Drummond’s office, Lia speaking.”

  Her mind on the article she was transcribing, Lia’s concentration was split between her work and the call. It took a few seconds for her to recognize her brother’s voice, and when she did, she blinked and smiled. “Tomas! Oh my God, it’s been ages. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, Lia. I’m okay.”

  “Why the hell haven’t you been returning my calls?”

  Tomas’s hissed in breath was audible. “Things have been kind of rough on this end.”

  “Rough in what way?”

  “I lost my job.”

  “What the hell? Tomas, you were your boss’s favorite!”

  “I–I need to see you, Lia. In person. We can’t talk about this over the phone. People might be listening.”

  Lia frowned down at the papers on her desk. “People might be listening?” she repeated, brow puckering as she looked around her vacant office. “Tomas, who would be listening to our conversation? Why would they be interested?”

  “You don’t understand, Lia. I need to talk to you, to explain why I lost my job. And, why Maria left me.”

  “Maria left you?” Lia squawked. “Oh my God! Why didn’t you tell me? Why have you kept all of this from me when you know I’d do anything I could to help out.”

  “You can’t help me, sis. Not with this. No one can.”

  “Have you got into drugs again, Tomas?” she asked on a low hiss.

  “No! Dammit, Lia, it’s nothing to do with that. I got clean inside and clean, I’m staying.”

  “Everything you’re telling me would only make sense if you were using. Tell me true, Tomas. Can I trust you? Can you swear you haven’t used?”

  “For fuck’s sake, Lia. I’ll take a goddamn blood test if you want! This isn’t about drugs. I haven’t gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd again. This is something else. Something I can’t discuss on the phone. I’m in a motel in Queens. Please, come here. Today. It’s getting urgent.”

  Lia contemplated the earnestness of her brother’s tone. Five years older than her twenty-six, he’d spent four years inside when he’d hit eighteen two months before being arrested.

  Their neighborhood back when they were kids had not been the best. Their tenement had been filled with junkies, thieves, and dealers. Some of them were probably even murderers. The rest had been trying to scrape by, like their mother had. Sara hadn’t been interested in anything but trying to keep a roof over her family’s head in the impact zone that was their housing project, while killing herself trying to put food in their bellies.

  Tomas had managed to get mixed up with the wrong crowd. He’d started carjacking to order. When he’d been caught, he could have earned a lighter sentence, only he’d refused to divulge any information about his gang and its members. He’d done his time, and seemingly changed in jail. Leaving his past behind and facing the future with qualifications in construction, electrical engineering and plumbing. The trifecta of home improvement. Even with his past, he’d managed to pick up a job, and he’d been with the same company ever since.

  Until now.

  “I could come this evening,” she said, eventually replying. She couldn’t ignore this call. She might be the intervention he needed—Lia still wasn’t sure if this was or wasn’t about drugs. He’d never given her a reason to distrust him, not since he’d been released, but neither had he called her up at the office, knees deep in paranoia.

  “Thank you,” he murmured on a breath. “I swear to you, Tally, I’m not using. This is something that affects both of us. You can’t even tell Caden, honey. Not even he must know, okay?”

  His use of his nic
kname for her had her belly clenching with concern. She didn’t know what was happening to him, couldn’t understand how his boss and girlfriend of so many years could turn their backs on him, but whatever it was, he was scaring her. Why would he ask her to hide this from Caden? Yet what else could she say but, “Okay.”

  He sighed, the relief audible. “Thank you, Tally. Look, I’ll text you the address. I’m in 2B. Come whenever you can.”

  “See you later, Tommy.”

  She cut the call, and felt more dread now she wasn’t speaking to him than she had moments before. Even though she’d just promised not to, she knew the instant Caden returned from his lunch, she’d share this with him. He knew all about Tommy’s past. Knew all about how hard it had been for her brother to become respectable.

  She really needed his opinion, his support on this. For Tommy to have lost his job, when he’d dedicated the last eight or so years to going on the straight and narrow, to holding down his job and becoming the apple of his boss’s eye, of going steady with Maria Lopez...for all of that to go tits up, it had to be pretty bad.

  She guessed she’d find out how bad tonight.

  To say it was hard focusing on the articles she was transcribing was like saying bears didn’t shit in the woods. Tommy had worked so hard and for so long to get himself on the right track, and for all of that to be in vain, she just couldn’t imagine what it was that had derailed him so badly.

  Unfortunately for her, she had a brilliant imagination.

  By the time Caden’s three o’clock appointment arrived, she’d imagined Tommy in all kinds of scenarios, and none of them good. However her concern for her brother was overshadowed by Caden’s absence.

  He’d said he’d be back for three. That it would be cutting it close to home, but when she’d scheduled his first afternoon appointment, he’d assured her that he’d be able to make it back in time.

  When she’d settled Mr. Greenslow in the reception with a tray of tea and an apology, she went into Caden’s office and called him. When there was no reply, she frowned. Trying a few more times and still getting nowhere, she started to worry.