Page 20 of The King

“No! No, that couldn’t be. Could it? That…”

But the words rang too true to ignore. Ettie felt it to the bottom of her soul. Now that the effects of the tranquilizer and the silver nitrate were wearing off, she wasn't so sure itwasMax she was following. Or that he was the one who was in danger.

“How long have we been under the influence of these drugs?”

"I know for certain that shit didn't enter your system until about ten minutes before you tried to mentally call Maggie, then got mad when your cell phone had no signal, then finally found that beat-up, old payphone."

“No, that can’t be right,”Ettie argued.“I may not have been as open to my Mating with Max as I should have been…”

“And there’s the understatement of the year.”

“I’m not listening,”Ettie sassed, then continued. “But I damned sure know that sexy behind when I see it.”

"Okay, but was it really Max's sexy behind, or were you under the influence of something that made you think it was?"

“But you just said…”

"I just said that Dr. O'Baoill's cocked-up cocktail of crap did not enter our system until ten minutes before you tried to call Maggie."

“But…”

“Just wait,”Eden snapped.“However, an hour before that, you stopped for water at that questionable little liquor store, and I told you I wouldn’t trust anything that guy was selling, even if it was wrapped in NASA-grade tin foil."

“Okay, but I was thirsty – like parched.”

“And you have no idea what might have been in it.”

“But it was sealed. How would they…?”

"If your dad can be the Celtic God of the Sun, and you can change into an Empress Eagle, then Dr. Dipshit can sure as hell tamper with bottled water or pay somebody else to do it. It didn't have to be the shit they gave you here. It could have just been the appetizer."

“But how would she know it would be me who bought it?”

“The better question is, did she care if it was you? Or was anyone okay to capture, and she just got lucky it was us?”

Letting the harsh ebb and flow of Dr. O'Baoill's nasally toned tirade clear a little more of the fog from her mind, Ettie thought back to the crumbling sidewalk in Puerto de Anapra, a colonia in the city of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. She remembered walking past empty building after empty, rundown building. The place was a ghost town whose inhabitants had simply neglected to leave. It was nothing but a graveyard of a town long ripped apart by all manner of corruption and neglect and then forgotten. Shattered windows, doors hanging on by a single rusted hinge or missing altogether, paint peeling, roofs caved in, wood rotting, and rats – so many rats that they fearlessly sauntered down the street like they owned the place. Hell, maybe they did.

More times than not, she’d wondered to herself and to Eden why the King of the Big Cats would be in such a place. Although his humanitarian efforts for all living creatures were well known, Ettie was sure he rarely made personal appearances.

But she didn’t let that stop her. Her sixth sense was screaming that her Mate was in trouble, and she had to help.

Twisting and turning along the path, she stayed far enough back not to be spotted but close enough to be ready when the danger she sensed appeared. Then it hit her. The unmistakable feeling of being watched. At that moment, she was sure all eyes were pointed at Max.

“But were they pointed at me?”

Nope, no way. It had to be Max, didn't it? He was the majestic King of the Big Cats. He was the face of the Council of Supernaturals. He was the famed Shifter with an illustrious heritage who continued to bring all factions of the Paranormal World together.

He was the man with the sexy ass, smooth baritone voice, and Emerald eyes that made her think of all the things she’d sworn to never think about.

It had to be him.

Didn’t it?

Come on, she was Ettie – just Ettie. A Daughter of Lugh, one of the seven – or maybe there were more since her dad had an eye for the ladies, and they always had eyes for him. Sure, no matter how many times she tried to fade into the background, someone always brought up that she was second in the hierarchy of the Clan of the Sun or that she was the only living Empress Eagle Shifter in the world, or that she had a mind for solving mysteries and puzzles. Still, in the end, she was Ettie Featherstone, and that was enough. She liked to do what had to be done without prying eyes, recognition, and a big hoopla.

"You're also one helluva chick. You are a prize, a catch, the real deal. And yeah, the Mate of the one and only King of the Big Cats, but that's just the icing on the amazingness of you,"Eden added."And even though you don't like to admit it, you're softening to the idea of being with that sexy hunka-hunka-of-purring-hotness."

“I am not. I don’t…”

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