Gladiator Cheetah, page 7
part #2 of Gladiator Shifters Series
"Then he had to know about it before, didn't he?"
Aeolis made a face. "We've kept it off the Sverre family radar. They…we don't trust them much."
"Because they've made a lot of money in the human world? No, the foundation that supports Imvelo has too, so that can't be it."
"Their family were ringmasters, in Rome. They didn't fight in the arenas. They ran them. They still do."
"Wait." Shannon twisted in her seat so she could see him better. "You're saying the same family has been running fights for two thousand years?"
"Yeah. So we keep them out of the loop as much as we can. Those of us who are still tightly bound to the community are drawn to the fights, so they know about us, but that doesn't mean they have to know where we go when we're done, or where we came from."
"Wow." Shannon sat back in the seat properly, astonished. "You must be good at keeping secrets. All of you must be."
"We are, and we go to some trouble to hide our histories, if we can. I was born here, but Dad is English and I went to school in London. Not just university, but primary and secondary. I'd come out to Imvelo for the summers to visit Mum, but it meant I don't necessarily look tied to Imvelo as a shifter, you see?"
"Right. Must be hard on families, though, to do that."
Aeolis chuckled. "Not on mine, so much. Mum and Dad were a fling that resulted in me, and Mum was trying to run Imvelo, so when I was born Dad took me back to London and they worked it out."
"Wow, good for them. My family is just like…white picket fences and apple pie, I guess. Mom and Dad are still together and my little brother and sister are working on ruling the world."
"Are they athletes too?"
"My sister is. We're the jocks. My brother's a science nerd. Okay, so you accepted the challenge to keep them from releasing the database, I get that, but what does a challenge even mean?"
Another sigh escaped Aeolis. "Property in our world is kind of…'you kill it, you keep it'. Remus could theoretically win control over Imvelo, through his second. It's a long shot, though. Cheetahs are faster, bendier and bouncier than wolves. I couldn't take on the pack, but one wolf?" He shrugged with the easy grace of a cat. "It shouldn't be a problem."
"The rest of the pack won't attack if their, um, alpha? Is losing?"
"There are strict rules to an arena fight, even a comparatively informal one like this. If they interfere, they forfeit the winnings."
Shannon said, "Wow," for the third time, more softly, and fell silent for a while, watching the Land Rover's lights ahead of them and the changing shape of the landscape around them. "I knew Imvelo was going to be different from anything I'd ever done before, but your world is…"
"Too much?" Aeolis sounded distant. Sad, even, or maybe resigned.
Denial surged through Shannon, sharpening her voice. "No! No. It's just…I never had any idea it existed. I feel like…like I want to ask hundreds of questions, but I don't even really know where to start."
Aeolis gave her a brief, still-almost-sad smile. "You'll have the chance to ask them all, if you decide to stick around."
"Oh, don't worry. There's no way you're getting rid of me now."
CHAPTER 10
There were poachers in front of him and a fight he couldn't afford to lose looming, but Aeolis thought nothing could wipe the grin off his face, thanks to Shannon Kavanaugh's certain tone as she'd said there's no way you're getting rid of me now. He knew it wasn't about him, but he could just about let himself imagine that it was.
It is, his cheetah said languidly. If she wasn't your fated mate, she wouldn't have stayed around this long. Queens never do.
The cheetah did not, Aeolis thought, have a good grasp of human notions of commitment. Cheetahs didn't mate for life, and the females were solitary, so its thought that queens didn't stick around unless it was fate made sense…for a cheetah. But Shannon was an Olympic-class athlete, which presumably meant she understood commitment on a cellular level. Aeolis couldn't imagine much that would send her running on the first day of a job. On the other hand, if anything was able to, him turning into a big cat would probably do it, so maybe the cheetah was right. Just…not exactly for the reasons it thought it was.
For exactly the reasons I think I am, the cheetah said, offended. She stays because she trusts you, because it's fate. You should tell her.
She's still my employee! Aeolis protested.
If the cat could roll its eyes and scoff like a teenager, it absolutely would have. Instead it made a motion of contempt, scuffing one paw back like it was burying litter, and went to sleep.
Which Shannon had also done, in the Jeep seat beside Aeolis. Usually newcomers had a few days to adjust to the time change and heat, but she'd been thrown into the deep end, and was coming through like a trouper. She'd earned a good night's sleep, although probably sleeping in the Jeep wouldn't do her much more good than sleeping on the ground had.
Guilt sizzled through Aeolis again at that memory. It had been wonderful to stretch out beside her as a big cat, intimately close without it being, as she put it, weird. But he hadn't thought about her injury, and twitterpation aside, as her employer, he should have been more thoughtful.
We should check on the queen tomorrow, his cheetah said sleepily.
Aeolis murmured, "We will," and finished the drive back to the village in silence.
They got back to Imvelo in the small hours of the morning, Aeolis guiding Shannon to the tent she'd barely even seen. Shannon, yawning hugely, protested that she could help with cleanup, and Aeolis, smiling, shook his head. "Get some rest. Nido and I have this down to a fine science."
He half expected her to insist, but to his relief, she yawned again and dropped into her bed, asleep before he left the tent. It took several minutes to get first the poachers into the portable unit Imvelo used as a holding cell, and then the dogs into their pens with bountiful rewards and praise for the work they'd done that night. Nido brought a couple of the dogs who hadn't gone on the hunt out to guard the holding unit. Aeolis could hear the men snarling and arguing with one another, but none of them tried to make a break for it. That was all he needed, at least until daybreak.
A few hours of sleep did him good, although his cheetah wanted to laze in the sun all morning. Humans, in the big cat's estimation, spent far too much time doing things, when they could instead…not. It had loved Aeolis's teenage years, when Aeolis had, in the cheetah's opinion, spent almost enough time sleeping. But it was resigned to the fact that Aeolis would insist on getting up to do things, and occasionally it would even concede that some of those things—like checking on the queen—were important.
We should check on our queen, too. The cheetah sent an image of Shannon, alert and with her weapon trained on the wolves last night. It also gave what Aeolis could only think of as a love-struck sigh, which left Aeolis grinning as he went to make sure the poachers had been fed and watered. One of them shouted that they'd called their lawyers and Aeolis wouldn't hear the end of this any time soon.
That, he had to admit, seemed likely, although he didn't think any lawsuits were going to work out the way the poachers thought they would. He stood a moment, watching the village at its morning routines, with kids playing a safe distance from the holding unit, parents watching over them as they chatted with one another, and rangers hauling food for animals or going for breakfast themselves. A quiet, proud contentment rose in Aeolis. He loved this place, and what they did there. He'd thought nothing could make him happier than Imvelo.
Then Shannon emerged into the peacefully busy morning, her blonde hair, falling loose around her shoulders, and Aeolis's heart filled even more. He didn't know how he could possibly expect it to work with Shannon without giving up Imvelo, but he could never give her up, not willingly. Not unless she simply didn't want him.
Impossible, his cheetah said, but since his parents hadn't been fated mates—or if they had, they'd overcome it and never mentioned it—Aeolis wasn't quite willing to discount it as impossible.
Shannon yawned violently and stood there in sunshine, her eyes closed and her hair shining brilliantly in the bright morning light. It was darker blonde from her scalp to about her jawline, then faded into a lighter shade, a natural ombre that he thought must come from wearing winter hats while practicing her favored sport. She yawned again and mashed her hands over her face, then shook herself everywhere, like a wet animal, and pried her eyes open.
Aeolis was smiling broadly by then, watching her, and when she caught sight of him, she offered a sweet, sleepy smile in response. His heart leaped, and it took everything he had to offer a professional, "Good morning, Ms. Kavanaugh."
"G'morning, Mr. Savio." Her jaw cracked with another enormous yawn. "Don't tell anybody, but I don't think I've adjusted to the time change yet. What's the schedule today? Any poachers for me to shoot at?"
"Only the ones in our holding cell, and that wouldn't be any fun. They're sitting ducks."
"Most of the targets I shoot at don't move at all. Maybe I wouldn't mind a sitting duck."
"Are you going to turn out to be a bloodthirsty maniac?" Aeolis asked, amused.
"No, just a thirsty one. I would do bad things for some orange juice and a cup of coffee."
"That can be arranged, but it makes me wonder if you only ingest acids. This way." Aeolis guided her toward the food hall, where most of the staff took turns cooking for each other under their head chef's watchful eye.
"I've been known to also indulge in proteins and literal mountains of low-carb vegetables. I can do things with a mushroom you wouldn't believe."
"Is that really a vegetable, though?" They debated the relative attributes of mushrooms versus other more widely acknowledged vegetables while Aeolis introduced her to other staff in the food hall, and to some of the townspeople, especially kids, who came in to wheedle for their favorites from indulgent adults. Shannon shook hands and nodded greetings and despaired over remembering everyone's name, although she supposed she'd remember them eventually.
"Of course you will," Aeolis said as they left the mess hall. "You have four hundred names to memorize. We've only got yours, so we'll have the advantage of you for a while."
"There are not four hundred people working for the reserve," Shannon said in disbelief. "Are there?"
"No, there are only about twenty regular staff and probably twice that who come and go. But Imvelo is a village, too, and you'll get to know everyone if you stick around long enough. I'm going out to check on the queen," Aeolis added. "Do you want to come with me?"
"I have to put on sun block, find a hat, and maybe drink a couple gallons of water if you need me to pee on things again."
"Need her to what?" Ulwazi, walking by, stopped dead and stared at Aeolis. "I could not have heard that right, Aeolis Savio. What would your mother say!"
"That if I'd found a woman who will mark territory for me, I should do anything to keep her," Aeolis replied promptly.
Ulwazi threw back her head and laughed. "That is true. Watch this one," she said to Shannon. "He has tricks up his sleeve."
"I dunno, his sleeves are really short." Shannon nodded at Aeolis's cream-colored shirt. "So maybe his tricks aren't all that impressive."
"Hey!"
To his delight, Shannon gave him a wicked look and said, "No, I'm sure you're right, Mr. Savio. I'm sure your tricks are very impressive," in a teasing tone.
Ulwazi laughed again, this time waggling a finger at Aeolis. "Keep her if you can. She may be too clever for you."
A sullen, I'm clever, came from his cheetah. Aeolis would have grinned at his tone even if he hadn't already been smiling at the doctor and the biathlete. "She's been invaluable to the reserve already. I'll do my best to keep her."
She was invaluable to him already, but he couldn't say that aloud. A sparkle in Ulwazi's eyes said she knew it anyway. "Go check on the queen," she told them imperiously. "Do not make Shannon squat in the bushes. Bad for her hip."
Shannon, sotto voce, said, "You told me squats were good for me, yesterday."
"Hush," Ulwazi said, still imperiously. "You may choose to squat in bushes, but Aeolis must not make you."
Shannon laughed the same way Ulwazi had, her head thrown back and her whole body seeming to fill with joy. Aeolis's heart sang, watching her, and he was unreasonably pleased when she said, "In his defense, he didn't make me the first time, Doctor. It was all my idea."
Ulwazi said, "Hnf," suspiciously, and left them to tend to her own duties.
"She's amazing," Shannon said before the doctor was quite out of earshot. "You're lucky to have her."
"She's an institution around here," Aeolis admitted. "She delivered me."
"No way!" Shannon looked after the doctor again. "What was she, ten years old at the time?"
"A gentleman doesn't speculate on a lady's age, but she's older than you think she is."
"Well, obviously. Give me three minutes to get the sun block and I'll be ready to go." Shannon hurried back to her tent and returned a moment later with a hat, sunblock, and water bottle. She was already sweating, even though it was early. Not glowing, not perspiring, but just plain sweating: there was nothing delicate about the beading drops on her temples, but Aeolis wasn't looking for delicate anyway. He wanted a partner who could handle everything the reserve threw at her, and so far, Shannon Kavanaugh was doing an incredible job.
He said as much, casting a glance at her as she rubbed the sun block and checked the weapons in the Jeep for ammo and cleanliness as they drove out under the morning sun. "You've taken a lot in stride. I don't know how to thank you."
"It's crazy," she confided. "There's a part of me that doesn't even know how I can be taking it all in stride. But the rest of me…I don't know. It's like it all feels right, somehow. That being here with y—um, with, um, that being here is where I belong."
Aeolis nearly punched the air with joy, certain that the word she'd swallowed had been 'you'. That being here with him was where she belonged. If she felt it too, maybe there was a way they could make it work. He tried not to grin too obviously, instead saying, "A lot of people feel like they've found a place to belong when they come to Imvelo. I'm glad you're one of them."
She gave him a shining smile. "Me too."
It only took a little while after that to reach the queen and her cubs. Aeolis shifted, padding quietly into the thicket to check on them. The queen had obviously eaten since they'd left her, although Aeolis didn't expect to see her in the same place a third day. "We're not tracking her officially, but I hope I can follow her scent after she's moved dens so I can keep an eye on her. The first six weeks are the most dangerous for cubs, while their mother is hunting."
"But she won't stay near the carcasses?" Shannon tilted her head toward the nearby hyena bodies, which plenty of different creatures had lunched on over the past 36 hours.
"The easy food might override the instinct to find a new, safe location for another day or so, but not more than that. If I can bring down an impala near her new den, though, it'll give her less reason to range far away for food, and that'll give the cubs the best chance."
"So, what, you're like the surrogate father to every cheetah cub in Imvelo?"
"As best I can be."
"Man," Shannon said, a note of audible envy in her voice, "someday you're gonna make someone an amazing husband and father."
You! His cheetah awakened with a surge of hope. Tell her!
Still my employee, Aeolis reminded the cat grumpily. I have to figure out how to work around that. Aloud, he said, "I'd like that. What about you?"
Shannon, who was sitting in the Jeep's passenger seat, somehow still managed to lurch, and stared at him in surprise. "Excuse me?"
"What about you?" Aeolis repeated, confused. "Marriage, kids? Is that anywhere in your game plan?"
"Oh. Oh." Shannon was inclined toward being pink with heat anyway, but she definitely blushed, deeper color rushing her face as she put it in her hands and laughed. "Oh," she said again into her palms, barely more than mumbling. "For a second there I thought you were…suggesting…"
Aeolis blinked at her, trying to understand, then surged back in dismay as her meaning struck him. "Oh, no. I said—you said—I didn't mean—"
"No." Shannon lifted her head, eyes bright with laughter. "No, of course you didn't. But I said you'd make an amazing husband, you said 'I'd like that, what about you,' and for a second it sounded like, I don't know, some kind of half-ass proposal." She laughed again. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."
"No, no." Aeolis shook his head. "You're right, it did sound like a sort of half-ass proposal. I promise," he said with a suddenly weak smile, "if I ever propose, it won't be half-ass."
Shannon Kavanaugh's grin was enormous. "Is that a general statement or meant to be specific to me?"
Aeolis covered his face with one hand. "I'm not making this any better, am I."
"No. No, you're really not. It's kind of great, though. Is there a shovel in the back of the Jeep? I could get it so you can keep digging." She made a couple of digging motions, and Aeolis, somewhere between laughter and chagrin, sank in the Jeep's driver seat as if giving up. Shannon gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder that sent a surge of longing through him. For one brief, insane moment he wondered whether it would be worth throwing all caution to the wind and going right ahead with a proposal.
Yes!
"No," he mumbled aloud, mostly to the cheetah, but Shannon laughed again.
"You're lying, aren't you. I bet there is a shovel."
"I'll never tell." Aeolis sat up, about to put the vehicle back in drive as the radio crackled. He picked up, eyebrows lifting with interest. "This is Aeolis, over."
"Aeolis, it's Nido. We have trouble at the camp. There are raiders coming in."
CHAPTER 11
Strain shot through Aeolis's voice and made cords stand out in his neck. "Raiders? We're on our way. Don't do anything stupid, Nido."
