Free Lover's Instinct: A Moon Shifter Novella by Katie Reus

so that she’d needed to calm him down. They so didn’t have time for that right now. Leaning into his embrace, she placed a palm over his chest. “Before you two start measuring your dicks, we have more important things to worry about. The Moretti brothers want to meet Antoine in about an hour and a half and he’ll need a solid thirty minutes to get there. We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
    Thabit looked over at Antoine, his lips pulling into a thin line. “I’ve never met a daywalker before.”
    Antoine didn’t move from the window, his expression drawn and haggard as he stared at Thabit. Esperanze wanted to shake him out of his pity party. He had three people willing to help him and he was acting defeated. “Well, now you have,” he said drily. “I’ve already told Esperanze and Nikan that they want to meet me at an abandoned warehouse. We’ve met there before. There isn’t much life around there except for the homeless, which makes it easier for them to control the environment. From there, they blindfold me, drive me somewhere and draw my blood. This time it seems they have different plans.”
    Raw energy practically pulsed off Nikan as he not so subtly moved to keep himself between her and Thabit. “We’re going to follow you this time. You said you’ve never met anyone else in their operation so if it’s just the two of them, we should be able track them back to where they’re keeping Chandra.”
    “But what if they don’t go back to her today? Or what if they see you and decide to hurt her?”
    Esperanze gritted her teeth. His questions were valid, but this was a completely different side to Antoine. He’d always seemed so sophisticated and put together. It hadn’t surprised her that a vampire had offered to turn him. Looking at him now, she realized no amount of polish, money or education could give him what Nikan had in spades. Confidence, control and an innate strength. Granted it wasn’t Nikan’s friend’s life on the line, but he always kept his cool.
    Before she could say anything, Nikan spoke. “Anything could go wrong, Antoine. If you don’t want our help, we’ll walk away. Then you’re not risking anything. You also won’t be helping the woman you claim to care so much for.”
    The three of them stood there, watching until finally he nodded. “You’re right and . . . I’m sorry. I appreciate your help. I’ve just never felt so fucking helpless in my life.”
    Thabit cleared his throat, drawing their attention to him. “We can’t follow in one vehicle. It will give them too many opportunities to see us. One of us will follow for a while, then inform the other via cell phone where we’re turning off. Then the other can pick up the tail.”
    Nikan nodded. “I agree. After our run-in with them this morning, they’ll be more careful. Esperanze and I will ride in one car and you can ride in yours. Did you drive here?”
    The feline shifter nodded.
    “Good. We’ll leave now that we have the address. It can’t hurt to get there early. Antoine, can you make it back to your hotel’s parking garage unseen?”
    He nodded. “I’ll be invisible.”
    Once he’d left, Nikan and Thabit exchanged phone numbers so they’d have a way to contact each other if they got separated. Esperanze knew without asking that the only reason Nikan was trusting this other shifter so much was because he had their Alpha’s backing. Connor never would have sent someone he wouldn’t have trusted to watch his own back.
    As they rode the elevator down to the parking garage below the lobby level, Esperanze shot Nikan a quick look. “Before we arrived in DC, I memorized the grid pattern of all the roads. And all the traffic laws. Did you know some streets become one way after a certain time of day?”
    His eyebrows drew together. “No.”
    “Well they do and the streets can be very confusing from what I’ve read.” She didn’t have an eidetic memory exactly, but pretty close.