Formidable: Shifters Forever Worlds (Ever After Dark Book 1) (5 page)

“
I
sabel
.”
The voice penetrated Isabel’s blindness and a sleeplike fog she’d fallen into. A voice she knew too well, one from her younger days at the boarding school.

“Desideria?”
She said the name of the witch who’d been her and Ana’s teacher.
“How are you talking to me in my sync? I thought only shifters could do that?”

“No, ‘Bel.”
Desideria’s nickname for Isabel.

Isabel opened her eyes. Still blind.
“We fell into a trap. I’m blind.”

“I know. It won’t last long.”

She listened for Giovanni’s heartbeat, found it stable and unchanged. He was still out.

Then what Desideria said struck home.
“You know? What about Giovanni? He’s… Wait—what—what are you doing here?”

“He’ll be fine. Just like your eyes. Just give it a little time. I’ll be here to make sure nothing happens to either of you. But I have to leave when he awakens. He wouldn’t take too kindly to another witch being here.”

Isabel was relieved that her friend and old school teacher was here, but she still had questions. Lots of them.
“Whose trap? What happened? What are you doing here?”

“My sister told me to come.”

“I thought you and Esmerelda had bad blood? Why is she… I don’t understand.”

“I am making things right with my sister by coming here. It’s for her and her unborn child.”

“What?”
Isabel hadn’t picked up the scent or pulse of an unborn child in Esmerelda.
“Why couldn’t I tell she was carrying a baby?”

“Witches have ways of hiding, just as shifters do. Esmerelda wanted me to come here and make sure her traps didn’t create problems.”

“Why does she have traps set?”

“That’s a question for her. I agreed to come and make sure no Tiero came to any harm.”

“Desi, you can trust me. Whose baby is it?”

After a long pause, so long that Isabel wondered if Desideria had left, Isabel heard Desideria’s sigh.

“It’s a shifter’s baby. That’s all I will say.”

“So why was Esmerelda so concerned about a Tiero coming to harm? Why would she care what happens to a shifter?”
Especially now that Esmerelda was being held captive by shifters.

“That’s complicated.”

Isabel held her growl of frustration back. She was getting virtually no answers from Desideria.

“Okay, then how was it I managed to save Giovanni? Why am I not unconscious?”

“I intervened. Too late to stop your sight from being taken, but not permanently.”

“Will he be blind? What will happen to Esmerelda?”

“No, he won’t. As for Esme, she can take care of herself. And her baby. I need you to keep my visit here a secret from everyone. Even Ana.”

“What you ask isn’t easy. She’s not only my sister. She’s my best friend.”

“Sure, it’s easy. She kept her stonebound lover Cristiano from you for months.”

Damn it, Desi was right, but Isabel still didn’t like this.
“True. She did,”
she admitted reluctantly. “
Will you be around?”

“No, it’s best for a witch not to be on Tiero territory. Your formidable friend Giovanni does not take kindly to other types.”

“He’s not my friend.”

“True. He’s fated to be far more than that. And between your children and his, you’ll be witnessing battles within the family, and with others.”

“What?”
Isabel was confused by Desi’s words, they almost seemed prophetic.
“Where did you come by this information? What is this about?”

A groan came from Giovanni.

“I must go. Now,”
Desi announced in their sync,
“before he finds me here.”

And with that, she felt Desi’s presence leave, and she was once more alone, in the dark still, and with an awakening Giovanni.

Desi’s words faded to the background as she felt Giovanni stirring and closed her eyes, feigning sleep.

G
io stirred
, half-asleep, half-awake. The crickets were louder than usual tonight. Maybe he’d left his windows open.

He stretched, feeling drained, and yet for some reason, feeling more complete than he ever had. His fingers were nestled in warm thick fur.

Fur?

He opened his eyes, and with his keen shifter vision, saw Isabel’s tigress next to him, curled around him.

They were in the forest and—

The memories flooded back: Isabel running away. Finding her. Walking with her while they hunted for…

Then it returned, a white tigress, she said she’d seen a white tigress. How could that be?

Then they’d been walking through the forest and he’d hit a trap.

A witch’s trap.

Esmerelda. He cursed the witch in his mind. This had to be her trap.

Why? Was she trying to hurt the Tiero family? He’d been more than fair with the trespassing, rule-breaking witch.

He remembered a blinding blue light, losing strength while he lost his tiger.

Definitely a trap designed to take a shifter’s animal away and weaken a shifter.

He’d come close to death, of that he was sure.

He studied Isabel’s tigress profile. Majestic, even while she slept. She’d stood guard over him. A sensation of emotions flared within him. She’d taken him out of the force field. Somehow, she’d done it. And risked her own life, clearly.

They needed to get back to the villa.

“Isabel.” He touched her shoulder gently.

Isabel’s tigress stirred, her eyes opening.

She moved her head from side to side, making low growling noises.

“We need to get back to the villa,” he said.

She released a snarl, facing him but without actually focusing her eyes on him.

He stood. “Ready?”

Another snarl, but she didn’t rise. Gio watched her, confused. Was she picking up something he couldn’t see or hear?

Stretching, crunching, and popping sounds signaled her morphing into her human form.

She reached her hands out, toward him, but not touching him. “Giovanni.”

He took her fingers into his grasp. “What is it?” He studied her face. Her brown eyes had a blue tint over them, as if she were wearing colored contacts. She was in one of the semi-formal dinner dresses he was sure the housekeeper had provided. Clearly she’d changed before she shifted. The dress was rumpled, giving away their misadventure in the forest.

“Giovanni, I can’t see. That blue light…”

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing.”

Damn it.

“Can you shift?” she asked him.

“Not yet. Temporary aftereffects of the trap, probably. I’m sure I’ll be able to shortly. It’s not like my tiger’s gone. He’s still here with me.”

“My sight should return soon.”

He wondered if she could be sure of that. “If it doesn’t, I’ll have another job for Esmerelda. This had to have been one of her traps.” There were no other witches in the area, were there? He felt he’d know if there were. “Do you feel up to going to the villa?”

“I’m…” She licked at her lips. “I’d rather wait a bit. If…” Some handwringing. “If you don’t mind.”

He didn’t want to be a target in the forest, but how could he refuse her, after she’d stayed and watched over him while he recovered.

“I don’t mind.” Hopefully nothing would come up.

She lowered herself to the ground. “My head’s killing me. It feels like someone’s driving pencils in my eyes.”

Gio held her, sat behind her, leaned her against his body.

“Rest. I’ll keep an eye out.” And hopefully, he could shift if he needed to.

He’d never encountered such loyalty from someone who wasn’t a part of the Tiero family or crew. He’d certainly not seen this from Vanessa.

He pushed her away from his mind.

Vanessa was a part of his past.

He had a future to look forward to.

He studied Isabel’s profile—fierce, proud.

And trustworthy.

He hadn’t counted on ever meeting a woman like her.

I
sabel held her head
, trying to make the searing pain dissipate. She couldn’t. And she couldn’t ignore it. But she didn’t want it to rule her. She had to keep the pain at bay, at least until her sight returned. Until Giovanni was fully recovered. Everything was based on a series of
untils
.

She concentrated on Giovanni’s presence, on the fact that he wasn’t dead or dying. She drew his scent deep into her lungs. His human scent that yielded hints of woodiness, cinnamon, and his tiger’s essence. His scent was calming, like a soothing balm on shattered nerves. She was trying to hide the confusion of Desi’s visit.

Against her body, she felt Giovanni draw in a deep breath. “Thank you for saving me.”

“No thanks needed. You’d have done the same for me.”

“True. Still, I owe you. If there’s ever anything—”

“There is.” Her interruption was quick; this had preyed on her mind quite a bit. “Tell me about your—” Now what was she supposed to say? Tell me about your dead wife? She couldn’t say that. “—the children’s mother.”

His breath hitched, her tigress hearing picked it up as surely as if it were an alarm bell.

He hesitated, she could hear it in his pulse, the way it became erratic. “Anything but that, Isabel.”

“Okay.” She wasn’t able to keep out the forlorn tone. She’d hoped she could crack his impenetrable shell.

His breathing was ragged. “It's—difficult.”

“I understand. What if you tell me a secret, something you’ve never shared with anyone?”

He paused, as if thinking. “Sometimes I wish I wasn't firstborn and required to uphold antiquated customs I'm not even sure I believe in. Tell me one of yours?”

“That doesn’t seem fair. You were supposed to tell me yours in exchange for my helping you.”

“Understood.” He fidgeted, his fingers moving restlessly.

She reached out and placed her hands on his. He was holding a blade of grass, strong hands wrapping the greenery around his index finger.

She relented. “I’ve had issues with my tigress.”

“Define issues.”

“In my teens, we had a falling out. She refused to return. She was there, but she wouldn’t come back in a shift. Would hardly communicate with me either.”

“What did you do?”

“My parents sent me to a counselor.”

“A shifter shrink?”

She could hear the smile in his voice, as if a counselor for shifters was farfetched in his mind.

“Guess he served in that capacity. He was a shifter and a doctor, in the final years of his residency, an American who was returning to his country the next year. I saw Dr. Evans for a full year before he left.”

“Did he help you?”

“He said he wasn’t very familiar with cases like mine, that they weren’t common. His advice was to immerse myself in something I was passionate about and wait for my tigress to return.”

“So you did? What is it you were passionate about?”

“Ballet. And, yes. Now I give private lessons.”

“And clearly your tigress returned.”

“She did. Not right away, but she did.”

“No explanation?”

“I didn’t need any, I knew why she left. I had met a young man—I mean we were teenagers; it wasn’t a big deal—but she was unhappy because she knew he wasn’t my fated mate. She wasn’t okay with our dating.”

“She’s a headstrong one, isn’t she?” He took her hand. “I can see where she gets it from.”

“Ha. You know it doesn’t work that way.” But she did appreciate the teasing tone and the levity. Thinking about the time without her tigress was unpleasant.

She lowered her lids, then opened them slowly to see if there was a difference. Was that a glimmer of light she could see? She didn’t want to get her hopes up.

“Tell me about the tigress. You’ve seen her, right? Who is she?”

Another breath hitch.

He definitely knew something about the tigress.

“It’s…” He exhaled softly, but to her supernatural shifter hearing, she could tell it was laden with consternation.

“You’ve seen her, right?”

“Not exactly.” He adjusted, moving slightly, repositioning her against his chest. “I think it’s my children’s mother—her tigress.”

Like a ghost?
Isabel didn’t want to ask something so naïve. But what else could it be?

Time for her to mind her own business. “That must be difficult,” she murmured, allowing the subject to drop. She didn’t need to be bringing up painful memories.

“Mhmmm.” The sound of his agreement was drawn out and low, his heartbeat against her back was even, almost lulling. “Rest,” he said. “I’ll shift if needed.”

“Your strength is back? You can shift?”

“Yes, my tiger’s been pushing for it, angry at the experience, seeking revenge.”

Not good. The last thing she or anyone else needed was Giovanni Tiero seeking revenge.

In Isabel’s head, her tigress roared agreement, though still inclined to want a measure of retribution for the pain they’d been through. Her eyesight loss. Her head’s aching had lessened, no longer searing its way across her brain; now it was a throbbing uncomfortable sensation.

G
io breathed Isabel in
. His mate. He knew this now, with a certainty he’d never felt before.

Not ever.

Her scent infiltrated his system, coursing through his veins like it was his own life source.

Her body, soft and curvy, with a layer of muscle beneath, from her years of dancing. Softness over steel. Just the kind of woman who could put up with him. He knew he wasn’t an easy man. Being easy was never an option for the firstborn of the Tiero family. It never had been.

His own father had told him that repeatedly, as had his grandfather before him. He needed her to stay. But more than anything, his tiger argued, he needed her to want to stay with him. His headstrong, possessive ways would push them apart if he wasn’t careful.

In the darkness, her chest rose and fell with each of her sleeping breaths. He traced the beauty marks on her arms, reminding him of the patterns of the stars in the sky above. His superb shifter sight allowed him to pick out each one, speckles that he lingered over gently, enjoying the way she nuzzled backward, her body fitting perfectly against his.

Mine.

The thought resonated from his tiger, but was Gio’s sentiment as well.

His. She was all his. He’d never allow another to have her. Gio’s tiger snarled in agreement.

Gio wrapped his arms around her, leaned in, placed his lips against her temple, left them there while she rested.

Isabel’s brow furrowed, her eyelids fluttered. It was as if she was in a dream.

“I can’t,” she said with a low tone in her restless sleep.

Can’t what
, he wondered.

Her hands clenched into fists. She shook her head, gently, then more fiercely. She growled, her tigress’s voice merging with hers. The sound was low in the night, barely audible in the near silent forest.

Worried about her, Gio held her tightly and whispered to her, hoping to bring her out of her dream. “Isabel, it’s just a dream.”

Her eyelids flew open. The blue coloring was gone and she was focusing on his face, clearly. “Giovanni.”

“You can see?”

She nodded.

“It’s Gio, please. Not Giovanni. You were having a bad dream, it seemed. What was it about?”

She paused, her eyes looking around, as if trying to jar her memory. “I don’t know.”

“You were talking in your sleep. Said that you couldn’t. Couldn’t what?”

A headshake. “No idea. I can’t remember.”