and me—we’re your family. I didn’t know that about your mom or your aunt, that both of them died so violently. How awful!” She reached up and brushed Keisha’s hair back from her face. “Let me come with you. That way you won’t be alone and Anton won’t worry so much. It’ll give me a chance to get back to the city and shop and do girl stuff. Would you mind?”
Caught off guard, Keisha turned and looked deeply into Xandi’s gray eyes. “You’d do that for me? Leave Stefan here so you can babysit me in San Francisco?”
Xandi’s laughter was free and totally uninhibited. “Babysit? You? The alpha bitch? You’ve got to be kidding! You want the honest truth? I want to go to a play, eat out in really expensive restaurants and go back to your place for some totally kinky sex. We haven’t gotten together, just the two of us, for weeks. The guys keep barging in.”
Keisha snorted. “So true. I never realized how much it turned a guy on to see two women having fun. It’s like shooting them with a sex gun. Kapow! One look and they’re both naked and panting.”
“So true. Deal?”
Keisha smiled at Xandi. “Even though I know Anton put you up to it, yes, it’s a deal. I’d love to have you come with me.” She grabbed Xandi’s hand in hers. “Don’t tell Anton, but I was scared to death when the poacher shot me. It hurt so much, at first I didn’t realize if I was badly injured or not. When I left the house, I was mad at Anton and didn’t pay attention to my surroundings. I’m lucky they didn’t kill me. I actually stumbled over their hiding place before I even saw it.”
Xandi laughed. “Well,” she drawled, “I think Anton’s figured all that out, but you know I’d never betray a confidence. I’ll pack some things and be ready as fast as I can. Shouldn’t be too hard for me to get a ticket once we arrive at the airport, flying midweek like this.” She stood up and headed for the door, then turned and struck a pose against the frame. “Oh, I need to thank you. Whatever you and the guys did yesterday afternoon certainly put Stefan in the mood! I’m almost glad I got home too late to join you.” She brushed her hand over her heart. “Talk about hot! Whew…he wore me out last night!”
Laughing, she turned and headed down the hallway. Keisha just shook her head and grinned. Suddenly, this trip was beginning to look a lot more interesting. She’d be doing the work she loved, seasoned with a girls’ night out…or two.
She’d have four days with Xandi before Anton showed up…four days to play with her best girlfriend ever.
The skies over San Francisco were a clear blue when their plane landed at San Francisco International Airport. Xandi chattered on about the sailboats on the bay and the heavy traffic along Nineteenth Avenue, but Keisha barely heard her friend’s voice. There was a lump in Keisha’s throat as their cab pulled up in front of her townhouse late in the afternoon.
She stared at the freshly painted exterior for a moment, then stepped out of the cab and grabbed her bags. Xandi paid the cabbie and the two women climbed the stairs to the front door. Keisha took a deep breath before she stuck her key in the lock and opened the door.
Keisha peered into the dim interior and inhaled a lungful of musty air before finally stepping inside the foyer. She heard a soft thump when Xandi set the bags down on the wooden floor behind her. The hollow sound emphasized the lonely sense of abandonment. There was an uncomfortable chill in the air and a thin layer of dust covered the once beloved, still beautiful antique furnishings Keisha had spent so much time collecting.
She’d found peace here before the assault, but it hadn’t truly felt like sanctuary to her since, even less so, now that Carl Burns knew where she lived. No, that peace was strongest in the deep forests of Montana when she ran with her packmates.
Feeling a gentle sense of loss over her once treasured home, Keisha reached for the thermostat and turned the heat up a notch. She sensed Xandi’s concern and her shoulders slumped.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Keisha turned and leaned back against the wall. “It just feels really weird, coming back here. It’s not home anymore.” She swept her fingers slowly across the textured wallpaper. “I decorated every inch of this place, made it into exactly the space I wanted. Now I realize it’s not what I want at all.”
Xandi nodded as if she understood completely. “Maybe it’s time to sell. Move on. It was a positive step for me when I resigned my job, gave up the apartment…gave myself to Stefan without any ties holding me anywhere else.”
Keisha stared at her friend for a long moment. Xandi had never seemed happier, more content than she was now that she’d permanently moved with Stefan to Anton’s Montana home.
Keisha wanted that same feeling—the solid foundation of Anton’s love—but what of her hard-won independence? Her need to control the direction of her own future? Would Xandi understand?
Would she have any answers?
“Xandi, do you ever feel as if Alexandria Olanet has become lost in Stefan Aragat? Do you worry about losing you in him? Losing your identity, your sense of self?” She held her hand up, giggled and shook her head. “Now I sound like my shrink!”
“No you don’t. You sound like a very serious-minded woman who is still a bit unsure of this whole life-changing set of events.” Xandi drew Keisha into a brief but loving hug. “I finally decided, just like Popeye, I yam what I yam. I’m not merely human. I am Chanku. I’ve had to reevaluate my feelings about a lot of things. Being mated to a hard-headed shape-shifter is only one of many adjustments.” She laughed. “Try not to worry. You will always be Keisha Rialto, even though you are Anton Cheval’s mate. It works. Trust me.”
Trust. That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?
Xandi nodded, smiling. Exactly. C’mon. Let’s unpack and go eat. I’m starving.
They went out just after dusk and found a popular restaurant and bar combo in the Castro district. It was near a small restaurant just like this one where Keisha had been kidnapped so many months ago. Would she ever totally get beyond the seemingly random act of violence that had changed her life in so many ways—changes both good and bad?
A tremor ran along Keisha’s spine, a reaction to the memory of her horrifying assault—the bloodied bodies of the three men who’d attacked her, their torn remains spread about the apartment after her first unconscious shift to wolven form. Then, shortly afterwards, Xandi had appeared on her front step and changed into a wolf before her disbelieving eyes.
Keisha had awakened to Anton Cheval’s beautiful amber eyes staring into hers, awakened to the face of the one man she knew she would love forever.
No, life would never, ever be the same.
Shivering, Keisha grabbed Xandi’s hand at the crowded entrance and held on tight.
A massive bouncer blocked their way. His muscular arms were folded across his broad chest and he looked the women slowly up and down, as if assessing their attributes. His gaze lingered a bit too long on Xandi’s full breasts and there was a curl to his lip as he took in the women’s tightly linked hands.
Xandi returned his insolent gaze. “Hello, big boy. Seen enough, or do I need to strip for permission to enter?”
Blinking in surprise, the man jerked his head in a quick nod for them to go inside. Keisha still held tightly
