Page 35 of Juneau Heat (Urban Heat 1)

“Don’t be so proud of it,” Birk snarked, annoyed.

She flicked her gaze over him. “What, you think you’re all that?”

His hand snaked out to her breast and covered it. In an instant, her nipple hardened, and he poised a thumb above it as if he would strum the tiny peak. She forced her gaze away from him, trying for an appearance of being unaffected. The low chuckle told her she fooled herself and no one else.

“Stop teasing her, Birk, and let her finish her story.” Kotori didn’t fool anyone either, because she felt his cock twitch and stiffen behind her ass.

“The job was supposed to be routine. My mom would enter the bar and sit near the jaguar shifter. She would make contact and get him to talking. All she had to do in this case was to draw him out, but something went wrong. Another man outed her as a Keith in the bar. I don’t know how he knew or what connection he had. My dad and my brother dealt with it, but they refused to share the details. The next thing any of us knew was we found my mother dead in a motel room. She’d been tortured and then left to die. That was five years ago, and we have been reminded every day how cruel shifters are, how vicious.”

Birk sat up and touched her cheek. She turned her face away, but he made her look at him. “What did I tell you, Shiya?”

She glared at him.

“I said there’s a reason for everything we do. Everything.”

Kotori added his thoughts. “Yes, we are part animal, but we are part human too. We have reasoning where our counterparts do not. That can be challenging going up against instinct. As we’ve pointed out earlier, the greatest reason for a man to forget his human side is when someone touches his mate or his family. You don’t want to hurt a man’s mate and leave him alive.”

The way Kotori said it sent a dead chill over her being. She thought about it. Her father and brother kept a lot of things from the women, even though they said they were all in this together. The interviews almost never included the women, and the only reason she’d sat in on one for a short period of time was because her dad hadn’t noticed. When he did, she was shown the door.

Now she’d heard straight from her brother that they wanted to kill Kotori’s entire family. Birk’s sister might be safe since even he had no idea where she lived, but what about Kotori’s grandmother? The old woman hated her, but she didn’t deserve to die, and neither did his parents or siblings. She gasped at the way she was thinking. When she stepped off the plane, she’d thought she was firm in her beliefs about the rightness of what her family was doing, but really, she’d already begun to doubt. That started when she began chatting online with Birk.

Shiya climbed off the bed and walked over to the window. She pulled the curtain back and stared out at the snow with the beautiful mountains in the distance. If she could, she would never leave this cabin. She’d keep Birk and Kotori close, but who would protect the others? What if her family found out about the rest?

“Kotori.” She spun around to face him. “Is your grandmother safe? I mean, she can’t be used to . . .”

He rose and came to her, tugging her into his arms. His big hand cupped her neck, and she tilted her head back to receive his hungry kiss.

Oh no, I want to be with him and Birk forever, but they’re not offering that, and how can I? They can’t trust me. I’m a Keith.

Kotori raised his head, and the gentleness in his eyes robbed her of the ability to speak. She had expected lust or any number of emotions close to the surface in his readiness to take her. What looked like love scared the hell out of her. She closed her eyes, deciding it was wishful thinking.

Besides, she’d just shared with them about her mother’s death. If anything, she should feel hate, shouldn’t she? Rage? That’s what Kasen wanted her to experience when he showed her the picture. Yet, she knew she could never hate these two men. Something about Birk and Kotori had gotten deep inside of her, and she didn’t know whether they were unique or just like every other shifter out there in the world. What she did believe was that they were not vicious or evil.

“My people are fine,” Kotori assured her. “I made arrangements for them before Birk and I brought you here.”

Her eyes widened, and she dug her nails into his arms without meaning to. “Do you plan to kill me?”

Birk strode over and stood behind her. He stroked her hips and pressed in tight to her ass. She went up to her bare toes and stuck her ass out to him. Birk moaned. He raised his hands to her breasts and gave them a firm squeeze. “We couldn’t kill you without cutting out something vital to our existence.”

Totally unsexy declaration of love, but she would take it. Shiya dipped her head and hid a grin. There was no telling how a relationship between the three of them could work out long term, but right now was not the time to figure it out.

“I need to work off my breakfast.”

Kotori growled low in his throat. “Is that right?”

“Yes.” She looked up at him and tilted her head a little in challenge. “You know how I can do that?”

“Definitely!”

Chapter Ten

Birk reached from behind her and unbuttoned her pants. He had them around her ankles in seconds. Even as he yanked her panties down with one hand, his other one cupped her pussy. Her jaw went slack, and she covered Birk’s hand with hers.

“Yes, that feels so good, Birk. I want to come so bad.”

“Easy, baby. You will. You want to please Kotori?”

“Mm,” she murmured.

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