I held up my hands, and the crowd halted as blue flame sprang to my fingertips. “Hang on, guys,” I said, holding them at bay with my magical fire. “I’m not here as a spy, dammit! I came here to help. My main objective is to find the Benefactor, the person who is financing the Resistance, and I have a lot of good information that could help you guys out.”
The crowd seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then somebody spoke up. “Aren’t you on the Resistance kill list? They’re going to think we’re helping you if we let you back in here, and then what? I’ve got my family to think of!”
More voices chimed in with agreement, and the crowd surged forward again, heedless of my magic as they cursed and yelled that they didn’t need the help of a filthy traitor like me. As one, they pushed me out of the main hall and slammed the doors shut on me as I landed on my ass in the entrance hall.
I stared up at the scarred, closed doors, hands braced on the equally scarred linoleum tile. I’d worked so hard to get into the Enforcers Guild. I’d wanted to be one of them since I was sixteen, had dreamed of fighting against injustice and making the city a better place. And now, they were throwing me out, calling me a traitor and telling me that my help wasn’t good enough for them.
Stop moping, Sunaya. There isn’t time.
I sighed. There never seemed to be time for wallowing in self-pity, was there? These days there were always lives at stake, and a big, bad guy that needed to be stopped. I wished that my enemy, for once, actually had a face. I hadn’t known Yantz was the guy behind the silver murders until the very end, and the same went for Danrian and the Shifter Royale. But even they were just puppets, their strings yanked behind the scenes by a greater force – the Benefactor. And we still seemed to be no closer to finding out who the hell he was.
I got to my feet, checked to make sure my weapons and harness were still in place, then left the building. As I passed through the entrance, I caught the scents of the male enforcers who were still guarding the entrance, and stiffened as my body throbbed in response. If even these guys looked good, I was in a bad way.
Fuck. I’d been thrown so off balance by my ejection from the Guild that I’d forgotten to put my illusion back on again. The two guards started at the sight of me, and I took off running. I wasn’t sure if I was running because I needed to get out of sight before someone from the Resistance took a shot at me, because I didn’t want to humiliate myself in front of those guys by letting my hormones get the better of me, or because I couldn’t stand to be near a group of people who, despite everything I’d done, still thought I was scum.
All I knew was that I needed a fucking break.
7
I found a quiet place to change back into my teenage-boy disguise, but even that didn’t seem to help with the heat much. I was on edge, hungry, aching, my fangs and claws elongating beneath my illusion despite my efforts to stay in human form. I needed to take the edge off. I needed release.
I needed Iannis.
Leaning my head against the alley wall, I laughed softly to myself. Iannis? Even if he weren’t too busy fighting and governing to see to my needs, I couldn’t let him if he wasn’t prepared to commit. If I did, then he was no better than the string of other guys I’d used in the past when the need had taken me. Was this what I’d been reduced to? Skulking in alleys and pining for a guy I couldn’t have?
Angry now, I straightened up. I was better than this. Maybe I was in hiding, but I was still Sunaya Baine, and I’d never had a problem getting a guy into my bed when I needed one. If Iannis couldn’t help me, I’d find someone else who could. Even just once a day would be enough to take the edge off so I could focus and get some real work done.
It’s for the greater good, a voice whispered in my head, and I nearly laughed out loud. How absurd, the idea of having sex ‘for the greater good’. But there was no denying that something needed to be done, and it needed to be done with someone else. Masturbation didn’t work – it was that living, human connection that the heat sought, and the heat responded to. After all, self-pleasure didn’t result in procreation, now did it?
I hopped on my bike and headed to The Cat’s Meow, a diner run by the Tiger Clan. After parking my ride in the back alley, I changed my illusion to that of the blonde tiger shifter female I’d used the last time I came here. But instead of a sweater and jeans, I put on a skin-tight leather corset beneath a black blazer, leather pants, and boots. No, it wasn’t the kind of attire one usually wore to a diner, but I wanted to make my intentions clear to the males inside.
It was mid-afternoon, so I didn’t expect the place to be packed, but it was still a lot emptier than it should have been. Over two thirds of the tables and booths were empty. But as soon as I stepped in, every single male’s gaze swung my way. Yellow, orange, and blue shifter eyes glowed with hunger as their nostrils flared, catching the scent of my heat. Other eyes, female ones, flared with jealousy, and several females bared their fangs in my direction as I walked past, swinging my hips a little as I headed for the bar in the back. The mated males all hastily averted their eyes as I sauntered past, but several gazes remained glued on my back. The single male seated at the bar, a handsome tiger shifter with orange eyes and shaggy dark hair that I remembered meeting here the last time, licked his lips, showing a hint of fang as he looked me up and down.
“Hey,” he greeted me as I sat down on the barstool next to him, his deep voice rougher than I remembered. He leaned in, nostrils flaring as he inhaled my scent. It would be nearly irresistible to him. “Visiting from Parabas again?”