Hunger for You (Shadow Shifters: Damaged Hearts) by A.C. Arthur Page B

he wanted.
    The second I stepped into the living room I’d known he was in cat form, I’d seen his green eyes. I hadn’t hesitated, hadn’tthought for one moment that Zoe wouldn’t listen to what I told her, so I shifted. And we fought, until the death. And when I went back to the bathroom, when the human form had once again pushed the cat away, Zoe was gone, and I felt like the air had been sucked right out of me. I’d only been able to do two other things since that moment—put on my jeans and call Aidan.
    I’d called the only people I knew in this world, the only ones that knew all the dark recesses of my life. I don’t know why I called them because I could have just left. I could have packed up my shit and hit the road, the way I’d been doing since I left the Sanchezes when I’d turned eighteen. They hadn’t fought me, had respected my decision and told me they loved me, just like real parents would do, I guess. Only they weren’t my real parents and they never would be.
    Footsteps sounded but I didn’t move, didn’t see the need to. I knew who was here.
    “Caleb?” Brayden called to me the second he stepped through the front door.
    I counted his steps, knew by now he was standing over the dead carcass of Dex’s cat. A hand touched my shoulder and I knew it was Aidan.
    “We’ll take care of the body. You get your stuff so we’ll be ready to leave,” the oldest of the Sanchez boys said.
    I didn’t move, didn’t even look up at him before the words fell from my lips, “She’s gone.”
    “Who’s gone?” Brayden asked.
    He stood in front of me now, I could tell by how close his voice sounded. Slowly, as if it weighed far too much to do so with any type of speed, I lifted my head. I looked at the two guys, the two shifters, that I’d run through the jungle with, first drank liquor with, talked about losing my virginity with and I repeated, “She’s gone.”
    “There was someone else here,” Aidan said. “And she’s gone.”
    I nodded.
    “Goddammit!” Brayden swore. “Did she see anything?”
    “Yes,” I replied because there was no way she couldn’t have, and there was no other reason she would have left. “I scared her away.”
    “You protected her,” Aidan said as if now he knew exactly what had happened, which was impossible because all I’d said on the phone was that I needed help.
    “We have to find her,” Brayden announced. “After we get rid of this body. I’m calling for backup.”
    Because Brayden always did what was right. He’d pulled out his cell phone and walked away from me and Aidan. It hadn’t mattered, I knew he was calling the Faction Leader to reportwhat had happened. In minutes my apartment would be filled with shifter guards who would pack the cat carcass into a specially made body bag. From here it would go back to Havenway, the headquarters that the East Coast Faction Leader had constructed. They had crematories on premises for situations just like this, where shifter bodies were disposed of. They could not be buried for fear of someone, for whatever reason, exhuming the body and finding out it was not completely human.
    “Who is she?”
    Aidan’s question rang in my ears like an accusation and I was immediately on guard.
    “Can’t I have someone in my life? Can’t I do something that isn’t entwined with all this bullshit?”
    I’d stood to confront him but Aidan didn’t flinch. He was a couple inches taller than my six-foot-one stature. On his feet were black boots and he wore loose-fitting jeans with a black T-shirt beneath a dark denim jacket. His face was clean shaven, his hair shorter than mine. He did his fair share of working out and most likely training as evidenced by his broad shoulders and muscled upper body. In fact, he looked like he could probably kick my ass into next week—if I were drunk and blind in one eye.
    “Whoa, take it down a notch, bro. I’m not saying any of that,” Brayden insisted. “I was asking who she was to