Vince followed Zach to a door along the wall opposite the bar, and couldn’t help a twinge of jealousy at his smooth, catlike movements that were so much like his mother’s. So much unlike his own.
Once inside a small, minimalistic office that had the crisp, lingering scent of a vampire, Zach leaned against the closed door with crossed arms and blurted out, “What’s your name?”
“Vince. Who’s Yi Min-jung?”
“What?”
“Who’s Yi Min-jung?”
Zach gave him a withering glare. “I heard you the first time. Are you seriously trying to screw with me?”
“No.”
If possible, he frowned even harder. “You’re not in Min-jung’s pack.” It was a statement, not a question.
Vince gave him some time to absorb this since it was obviously bothering him, then firmly said, “No.”
Zach didn’t like that answer, either. “Are you from Savannah?”
“No.”
Silence grew between them as Zach studied him head to foot. “Where are you from then?”
“Atlanta. Born and raised here.”
His eyes went wide. “Do you work at Peach’s Books?”
It was Vince’s turn to be surprised. “Wow, did that vampire tell you that? Word travels fast.”
Looking shocked, Zach shuffled further into the room and pulled out a desk chair. He sat down and stared at Vince while he reluctantly dropped onto the sofa that was jammed up against the wall behind him.
“Who’s Min-jung? You think I look like his family?”
Zach looked upset and Vince wasn’t sure why.
“You’ve been in Atlanta your whole life?”
“Yeah. Who’s Min-jung?” He was getting tired of repeating himself and wondered again if it was a mistake to be here.
Surprisingly, Zach finally answered him. “Yi Min-jung’s a Savannah jaguar. He’s the second to his father, the alpha.”
“And I look like him?”
Zach’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “Well, yes. Him and his brothers. I mean, I’m no expert, but there aren’t any Asian werejaguars in Atlanta.” He gestured towards him and said, “Your build resembles the Yi’s. Tall and wide.”
“How many are in Savannah?”
Zach ignored his question. “Do you have a pack here?”
“No. Not like you mean.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. No pack.”
Zach narrowed his eyes at him, then sniffed the air. “You’re all alone, then? I mean, no one to run with?”
“I don’t run with anyone, no.”
Zach sniffed the air again. “You smell like you’re telling the truth, but something’s not right. Why don’t you tell me what it is.”
He scoffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
By the look on Zach’s face, he knew that was bullshit.
“Why are you here tonight, Vince? You’ve been in Atlanta your whole life, yet this is the first time I’ve ever met you. Why is that?”
“I don’t mix with supers.”
He chuckled. “Why not?”
“They’re nothing but trouble.”
That got a good belly laugh out of him. “Maybe sometimes, but not all the time.” He studied Vince some more. “So why are you here if we’re nothing but trouble?”
He shrugged. “My friend Kaia said she’s marrying your vampire friend. He slipped me a business card with an address on it, then talked to me in my freaking head. He told me I should come here.”
Zach seemed unfazed as he leaned back in his chair and stared at him.
“So what’s with the Savannah jaguars?”
“What do you want to know?”
“I want to know about the family there. What their names are. How many there are. Stuff like that.”
“Why?”
His heart pounded as they stared each other down. He finally said, “Because my father might be one of them.”
Zach frowned sharply. “You’re trying to find your father?”
“I don’t know. I just want to know something about him. I want to know…” He wanted to know if his father was like him. Part shifter, part human, and a whole lot of issues. If his father was just a one night stand for his mother, maybe she mistook him for a full blooded were-animal. Shifters did that to Vince all the time. They’d tried their dominance games with him often enough for him to know they thought he was one of them. He supposed he should be flattered, but mostly he felt like a fake. Like now.
He stood up. “Forget it. It’s a longshot and I need to get going anyway. Nice to meet you, man. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
Zach popped out of his chair and chuckled. “Wow. That’s awesome. You’re such a loner.”
He frowned at his mocking. “Fuck you.”
Zach laughed louder. “Oh, this is going to be interesting.” He calmed down, but never stopped smiling. “Ok, where are we going?”
“We? We’re not going anywhere. I’m leaving.” Zach didn’t say anything, but he did follow him out. Vince caught Penny looking their way as they left the office, too. A lot of people were watching them, but no one said anything, so he kept going.
Zach followed Vince all the way through the club, up the stairs, out the door, and across the driveway to his car.
“What’s up man? You’re not coming with me.”
“Aw, come on. Don’t make me pull rank on you. I just want to ride along.”
“Why?”
“I want to get to know my new pack mate.”
He was getting seriously irritated with this guy. “I’m not in your pack just because we met.”
Zach’s eyes shone brilliantly, then, and Vince had the uneasy sensation of wanting to look away from him. He finally lowered his gaze and cocked his head so his neck was exposed. Fear bloomed throughout his body and he wasn’t sure if it was Zach tricking his mind into feeling the sensation, or if it was because he’d never truly felt the need to back down from someone and submit to them like he did now. He usually did it just to avoid trouble. It scared the hell out of him that it wasn’t his choice this time.
Zach’s voice was less friendly when he said, “I told you I didn’t want to pull rank on you. I’m the Alpha Jaguar of Atlanta and any jaguar living in my territory will be part of my pack.”
He left that challenge hanging in the air for a minute before saying, “It’s not such a bad deal to have someone to watch your back, is it? I mean, damn man, there are only fifteen of us in the midst of thousands of werewolves and hundreds of werecoyotes and vampires. Don’t you want some allies?”
He swallowed, hard. “What’s the price of having allies?”
The intense fear and feeling of wanting to submit to Zach eased, and his voice sounded friendlier when he said, “Putting up with me. Now where are we going?”
Vince stared in shocked awe at him. He’d had his ass kicked before by a shifter, but never because he felt inferior to them. Never because he had a feeling that he needed to submit. Was this what it felt like to be a real shifter?
“What?”
“Nothing. I, uh, need to pick up a friend. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come along.”
“Hmm. Part of what you just said was a lie. I can smell it. I’m thinking the part about it not being a good idea for me to ride along was the lie, so let’s go.”
Vince frowned and Zach smiled.
“Don’t worry about me, Vince. I can handle myself against just about anyone.”
“Just about?”
“I’m not going to press my luck against Anthony. Other than that, yeah.”
That startled him. “Anthony?”
“The Master Vampire of the Atlanta territory. The biggest badass around. Stay on his good side please. You don’t want to see him when he’s mad.”
Zach stepped past him and opened the passenger door of his car.
“Hey! How did you do that? It was locked. And how did you know that was my car?”
“Your scent is around it. Come on. We don’t want to be late picking up your mom.”
He felt the blood drain from his face. “I never said I was picking up my mom.”
“I do actually have some brains to go along with this pretty face. I can smell a woman on you, but not in an intimate way. I took a guess it was your mom. Now get a move on, bud. If she’s anything like my mom, she’ll kick our asses if we’re late, and I don’t want to make a bad impression on her.”
Vince shook his head and finally slid in behind the wheel. He was crashing from all the adrenaline of being here, and of course his stomach started growling.
“You hungry?”
He mumbled, “I’m always hungry. Why all the pressure to have us in your pack? Are you lonely or something?”
Zach didn’t miss a beat when he turned to him and said, “Are you?”
He frowned and looked away.
Zach finally cut the cryptic crap when he more flatly said, “Don’t you want to be around more of your own kind? You’re jaguar and there aren’t that many of us.”
Vince sighed and pulled onto the road. “Mom’s not going to like this.”
Zach shot back, “That’s what we’re going to find out.”
**
After driving in blessed silence for a time, Zach bluntly said, “What’s with your shakes?”
He wanted to growl at him for pointing it out because most people had the decency to look the other way when they noticed. He was thankful at least that his muscle twitches had been mostly calm in the club while he was so amped up on being there. Now that the rush of excitement was mostly over, he was crashing and his fatigue washed over him in a bad way.
“I’m just tired. They’ll calm down a little after I get some sleep.”
“They’ll calm down just a little?”
This time he did growl. “I don’t know what’s with my shakes, ok? They just are. They started when I was around ten or something. I can’t remember.”
Zach regarded him for a time. “You need to see our doctor.”
“No doctors.”
“He’s a shifter.”
Vince blinked at him, then regretfully said, “I don’t have insurance.”
“You don’t need it. Family doesn’t pay for doctor visits. He’s in another building back home.”
“Back home? You mean where the club is? You live there?”
“There’s more than just a club at that address. People live in the apartments above, I share a place with Sebastian and Anthony below, and the doctor is in the other building. There are other things, too. School rooms, a gym, a library… lots of things. Just for supers, though. The club is for everyone in the community, the rest is just for Anthony’s family.”
“Who’s Sebastian?”
“The Alpha Wolf. You met him tonight. The blonde guy at the bar.”
Huh. That must’ve been the surly dude. “And Anthony? You share a place with him, too? A vampire?”
“Yep.” Zach paused, then said, “You don’t know anything about the supernaturals in this city, do you?”
They came to a red light and Vince slowed to a stop. He wasn’t sure if being ignorant about a community he was supposed to be a part of was a good or bad thing.
The car shuddered and a whiff of exhaust hit him in the face. Ugh. When it cleared, he was stuck by the fact that he notice a distinct scent from Zach, and it made him feel like a fraud that he struggled so much with his animal senses. They were hit and miss, but for the most part he knew vampires smelled like stark, crisp night air, and shifters smelled like humans with a thick undertone of earthiness. Beyond that, he couldn’t tell the different were-animals apart. Now, he suddenly wanted to. Or at least the jaguars.
He tried to be discreet when he took a deep breath through his nose, but Zach immediately focused on him.
“Something wrong?”
“Ah, no. Just…”
“Getting used to what another jaguar smells like?”
He was about to make up some dumb excuse for why he’d been smelling the air, something he was used to doing around humans, but Zach wasn’t human. Besides, he acted like it was normal for Vince to be scenting him.
His voice came out a little quiet when he said, “Yeah.”
“So what do I smell like?”
Still feeling weird being so openly shifter in front of someone other than his mom, he cautiously took another couple sniffs of the air, then frowned. “I don’t know. You don’t smell like anything… different.”
“Because I’m not. I’m jaguar. Like you. I shouldn’t smell different. Only the other animals should. And vampires.”
Vince stared at him as that hit home. Zach had his own unique smells, like any person did, but underneath it all he didn’t have the heavy, earthy scent some shifters had. He smelled more like a warm blanket fresh from the dryer. He smelled of scents Vince associated with home.
Zach pointed to the green light out the dash, so Vince pulled himself out of his thoughts and started driving again. “It’s really only supers at the club? No humans?”
“No humans besides Kaia.”
Good. He wouldn’t have to try so hard to act human if he went back there, and curvy Penny was there, too, except she obviously hated him.
“There are only fifteen jaguars in Atlanta?”
“Fifteen besides you and your mom. Nine werefoxes, about two hundred fifty vampires, a few hundred werecoyotes, and a couple thousand werewolves.”
“That many werewolves? Really?”
There was a hint of contempt in his voice when he said, “Really. We should be sticking together, Vince.”
He wasn’t ready to just give in and join forces with this complete stranger, this powerful complete stranger, so he kept quiet.
Zach kept right on talking, anyway. “So if you’re not in a pack, I’m assuming you’re not in a family, either. Am I wrong?”
He frowned. “I told you I’m not alone in Atlanta.” Through the years, he’d overheard conversations between shifters about families, but none of it ever made sense to him, and his mom didn’t seem to know either.
“But no family, I mean besides your mom. Right? And you don’t know who your dad is.”
Vince glared at the road and snapped, “Do you?”
“Know who my dad is? No. I mean, I know his name, but I’ve never met him. He’s not around.”
Vince flicked his attention to Zach. “That’s not what I… Really?”
“My mom says it’s the jaguar curse. We like to be loners. All cats are a bit like that.”
He’d never heard that before.
“But seriously. You don’t have a supernatural family?”
He tiredly said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His stomach growled again and he barely noticed. It was just a fact of life for him to constantly be hungry.
Zach gave him a look, then finally said, “You don’t know anything about the families. Hmm. You’ve been kept totally in the dark for some reason.”
Vince growled under his breath.
“Don’t get mad at me. I’m not the one that did it.”
“Are you accusing my mom of something?”
Zach put his hands up. “Just stating facts. And since you truly seem clueless, I’ll fill you in a little. I’m in Anthony’s family. He oversees the largest family in Atlanta.”
Wait. Anthony was powerful enough to be in charge of the largest family of vampires and shifters in Atlanta? What had Kaia gotten herself into? “What kind of family are you talking about?”
“The kind where shifters, and even vampires, watch each other’s backs.”
Huh. Not having to feel like they were constantly living on their guard would be nice. Having others to watch out for them would be awesome, actually, but he wasn’t stupid. Things that seemed too good to be true usually were.
“If Anthony’s family is so big, why do you care about meeting my mom and me? What difference does it make how many jaguars you know?”
The look on Zach’s face almost made him feel ashamed for asking the question. “Because there are different levels of family, Vince. And no one will ever feel as much like family as your own kind. Why haven’t you guys ever sought us out before now?”
“I told you. We don’t hang with supers. They’re nothing but trouble.”
“Or maybe you’re avoiding someone.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Let’s ask your mom.”
He didn’t like the sound of him accusing her of something devious, but he’d learned too much tonight to not want more questions answered, too.
Zach quietly said, “You’re one of us. You should be hanging with us.”
He wondered how differently Zach would feel if he knew Vince wasn’t actually a shifter. His inevitable disappointment, or worse, disgust, gave him a sinking feeling in his gut.
His stomach growled yet again, and it was too loud in the suddenly quiet car.
“You like Willy’s?”
“Huh?”
“Willy’s Mexicana. Do you like it?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Zach pointed down the road. “Good. Pull in. Let’s get some food.”
**
Vince’s mouth watered as he picked out the toppings for his burrito. He loved this place. The food was good, the burritos were huge, and he could actually afford to eat here once in a while. Hopefully getting something in his stomach would help with his shakes tonight, too. They were getting worse. He’d pushed himself too hard trying to keep his measly extra senses open while at the club. Now he felt drained and just wanted to curl up in a dark corner and pass out.
“You look pale. Go sit down. I’ll get this.”
“I’m fine. And I’m not a charity case.”
Zach’s voice started out calm, but it got firmer and angrier as he said, “Didn’t say you were. I said you look pale. Go sit down.”
Vince looked away from Zach and did as he was told, but on the way to a table, he stopped in shock. He’d never felt the need to blindly obey someone like he just had, and it bothered him. A lot. His earlier feeling of submitting to Zach’s dominance was one thing, having his thoughts and freewill taken over was a whole other level of trouble he did not need in his life.
He was too exhausted to do anything about it, though, so he sat down and waited. It didn’t take long before Zach was in front of the table, a couple bags of food in hand.
“You look like hell. Is this how you get every night?”
He reluctantly said, “I pushed myself too hard at the club.”
“How so?”
“Opening my senses up.”
Zach stared at him, a contemplative frown on his face. “Let’s go. I got food for your mom, too.”