Archie (Sheppard’s Shadow #2)

Chapter 1

When Archie had gone to the salad bar twice more after ordering his pizza, he came back to his table to find Nash sitting at his table. Not bothering with asking him, his younger brother, what he wanted, he watched as he got up and made himself a huge meat-only salad, too. As soon as the waitress brought him his pizza, Nash took two slices for himself and rolled them into a long tube, eating them nearly in one bite.

“You’re paying for dinner. I hope you know that.” Nash nodded, saying that they’d talk about it. “Why are you bothering me here? I was having a good day until you showed up. That’s not entirely true. I’m treating myself after helping a young man not end up in jail. Where is Sunny, anyway? I have a feeling she’d not be too thrilled about you taking my meal. She likes me.”

“Yeah? Well, she loves me, and I get to have sex with her. A lot of it. All over the house, too. In the bathroom. On the counters. On my favorite chair. Which, I might point out, is my doubly favorite chair now. “ Rolling his eyes at his brother, he asked him what he was doing here. “I have some questions for you. I don’t know that you’ll have all the answers, but they’re important that I voice them not get answers for them necessarily. Also, I have a lot of things to talk to you about. Some of it’s good, and the rest? I guess we’ll find out how you like it. This is really good. I’ve not had a salad in years, I don’t think.”

“Technically, you’re not having one now. It’s mostly meat and cheese, like a sub without the bun. All right, you want to talk, then talk. But you’re still paying for my dinner.” Waving him off, Archie had a feeling that he was going to leave him with the bill. Not that he really minded but it was the principal of the thing. He’d really been having a good day until then. “What did you want to know?”

“First, and this shouldn’t be a surprise to you, Josiha stepped down from his position as leap leader just about an hour ago. His plan is going to be to hang out at the offices for you to shadow until you take over. I hadn’t any idea that it was a done deal for you to be taking over. Also, you should know that once you take over and are comfy with the position, he’ll be gone. I didn’t dig too deeply into that, but knowing that he won’t come back on you is great news, don’t you think?” He said that he’d not known that either. “You should go by there soon and have a talk with him. Sunny said to tell you not to go alone, either. For you to take me. Again, I don’t know if he’ll give you any shit, but she wants to protect you, so I’d let her if I were you.”

“I can do that. What else?” He told him the second part as the waitress came to the table. After ordering another pizza for them, Archie had to think about why Nash thought he needed to take the job. “Who cares who runs the shadow? I mean, I guess I could do it. However, I’d be a bit more present than Joshia ever was. Not to say that I’m taking it but he’s been lax for a long time. I don’t want something like this to consume my life. I want to have one. I started to say again, but I’ve never had a life that didn’t involve what Mother told us to do any more than the rest of you did.”

He was so happy that his mother was dead along with her father that he was sleeping better at night. She had pitted them against one another their whole lives so that they hated to be around one another. Then Sunny, Nash’s mate, had come into their lives and it was as if they’d had their eyes opened for the first time. She didn’t even have to point things out to them anymore to have them see what a shitty and painfully terrible life they’d had. It was all their plans to now have a life. Not necessarily a happy one, he knew that would be easy to have, but a productive one too. And he also got to hang out with his brothers more. He loved them with all his heart.

“He has.” He had to think about what his brother was answering him about when he realized they were still talking about the leap. “I talked with Lily this morning. Did you know that if you take over the shadow, you become an immortal? Lily seems to think that he’s been at it for so long. He was just doing his time. Bored, she thought that he had seen too much and was bored out of his mind with the shit, so he just ignored it. Not a good way to run a leap, but that’s what she told me.” Archie could see that, too. It was why he decided that he was going to go to college and try something else. Anything else that would stimulate his mind and body. “Also, Lily said that as soon as you take it, she seems to think that it’s a foregone conclusion that you will take it, you’ll get a shit ton of power. I don’t know what that might entail but she told me that you need to be with people in the event that it puts you down for a while. I would count on that. It’s been pointed out to me that with great power comes exhaustion.” His brother laughed.

“Good to know. Though again, I don’t know that I’d take the job. As I said this morning, I want to be able to live a life that I’ve never had before.” Nash nodded but didn’t comment. “What else? You said several things.”

“You are aware that Lily is the Queen of the Earth, right? I want to make sure you understand…When Lily acknowledges that Sunny is her daughter, we’ll get a lot of power, a great deal of it. I was told that the family will get it as well. While I have an idea that it will make us powerful, I don’t have a lot of details about what that might mean for us. I could have asked her, but she was upset with me already. I really love to piss her off a little. She’s adorable when she’s mad at me.” Rolling his eyes and nodding again, he ate the last slice of his pizza. The second one was coming toward them even as he realized that he was still really hungry. “Also, and this one boggles my mind to no end. We’ll have an endless supply of funds. I had to ask because— well, endless? What the hell does that even mean? Anyway, we’ll get that as soon as she does her thing with my mate. I’m thinking that they might mean like power funds. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. I don’t want to think beyond that for now.”

“Endless, huh? And I completely understand about it being something that would be scary. One’s endless supply of money could mean different things to different people, I suppose, too. Well, I guess that would be nice to be able to help out the shadow if there is enough left over after we pay some bills. I know it’s not all that big of one. The leap, I mean. I think that Joshia said that it was less than fifty cats. With us included.” Nash told him that there was a great deal of money already in the coffers for the shadow that hadn’t been touched in decades. He’d just been too lazy to do anything with that. “What the fuck? You mean that there could have been all these improvements, and he just sat on it not doing a thing? Christ, no wonder there are only fifty people in the shadow. No one is getting help, so they just went to greener pastures. Anything else I need to be made aware of?”

“Yes, plenty.” When he didn’t say anything more, Archie looked at his brother. He seemed to be lost in thought, and he found himself reaching beyond where they were to see if he could figure anything out. “Archie, do you trust me?”

“With all that I am.” And in that moment, he truly did believe that. Also that he’d lay down his life for his brother, any one of them. “What’s going on, Nash?” He leaned toward him, which surprised him that he was speaking rather than using their link if he wanted it to be a secret. “Nash, you’re scaring me a little. Actually, a great deal.”

“The three people over there at the booth just to the right of the front counter are planning to rob the place. The manager knows about it. She’s in over her head with owing them a great deal of money from her brother’s debt. She’s going to be hurt badly while the rest of us will be put to death. Not you and I, but everyone else,” Archie asked if they were planning to hurt anyone in the back room, too. “Yes. All of us. I need you to take my hand, Archie. Just for a second so that I can protect us both.”

He didn’t hesitate at all but put his hand out so that Nash could do whatever was necessary to keep them safe. The brush of his hand over his was warm but he could feel whatever he gave him start to heat up his hand then up and over his body. It was beginning to be too warm when a wave of something…powerful washed over him.

“Archie, don’t pass out on me. Come on now. You got this.” Shaking his head, Archie said that he was a little dizzy. “Dizzy is better than dead. Just follow my lead, and we’ll get everyone out of here in one piece. All right?”

“Yes. Do whatever you need.” When Nash stood up, so did Archie. He wasn’t as dizzy as he’d been at first but his body was beginning to hum with whatever Nash had done to him. He thought that ‘hum’ was the perfect word for what he was feeling. Not bad, just humming along. When Nash headed for the three people in the corner, he told him to go to the back room and help the manager. He was nearly back there when he heard the sound of one pissed-off cat then nothing at all.

“You can’t be back here.” Archie told the man making pizzas that the place was about to be robbed and that he needed for him to get out. “Just fucking great. I’ve had it up to here with this place. All right. I’m done here. This is the fourth time this place has been hit in a year. I’m not coming back.”

The man tossed his apron onto the half-finished pizza he’d been making and left by the back door. Alarms were still going off when Archie entered the office of the manager. The woman was sitting there with a gun to her mouth. Sitting down trying to remain calm, she stared at him with her eyes full of falling tears. She pulled the gun out of her mouth long enough to tell him to go away.

“I can’t do that, I’m afraid. Not and be able to live with myself knowing that you were going to kill yourself. Please don’t do whatever you’re thinking of doing.” She said that she didn’t want to go to prison for someone else’s trouble. The gun was still in her hand, but it was no longer in her mouth, for which he was thankful. “No, I can see that. Where is your brother while you’re dealing with this shit here?”

“Dead. He decided to get himself killed and leave me hanging. I don’t even know how they figured out that I was related to the fucking bastard, but since he’s been dead, they’ve been showing up here or at my house demanding money. Wait, how did you know I had a brother? Who’s been talking to you?” Archie told her that he had read her mind. Then he asked her why she thought that killing herself was going to help. “Great. A loony reading my mind. And it won’t solve anything, but I won’t have to deal with it either. I’m sick of being the one that has people dumping their—you know, I’m not even supposed to be managing this place. I’m just a waitress who started helping out the real manager when she was too drunk to care what happened here on a daily basis. Since I like to have a check and food in my belly, I took over. Of course, no one is happy about it but at least the employees are getting their checks on time. This is just bullshit.”

“It would drive me crazy too. But not to the point where you are now. But then I have a feeling that I don’t know everything. I think this, not the gun part but what you’re doing, that’s commendable of you. Brave too. Where is the manager right now?” She told him she didn’t know, but she thought that she came in to take the deposits to the bank at night. “No doubt after you’re closed. Are you sure that the money is getting to the bank?”

“No. And again, I don’t care all that much. I have the money witnessed by an off-duty cop before I put it in the bank bag and leave it in the safe for the day. I don’t have the authorization to deposit money. The cop records it all for me, and then I email it to corporate and to both him and myself. I might be a waitress, but I know how to cover my ass when I need to. I’ve certainly have had enough practice at it. Except for my brother’s crap.” He grinned at her, and she cocked a brow at him. “I don’t know what you think might be funny, mister, but I have shit going on, and you’re not helping me get to the end.”

“My brother, you’ve not met him as yet, but he’s taken care of the problem in the lobby for you. I don’t know what he did—I know that I would have killed them, but then Nash has a better head on his shoulders than I do most of the time. By the way, my name is Archibald Sheppard. I go by Archie. You’re Carrie. Your nametag gives you away. But back to my brother. Which isn’t to say that he might have killed them already, but there you have it.” She asked him to get out of her office. “Sure. But in the meantime, you do want to have dinner with me tonight?”

“No. Now, leave me alone. I’m sick of this world and those people like the ones in the lobby. Yes, I know who they are and what they want. And I’m sick of rolling over for men. I won’t be able to do that again if I’m gone.” He hoped that he had given her enough that she’d put the gun down. At least it wasn’t pointed at her anymore.

He did leave her, but he wasn’t sure that he’d be staying away. She was a spitfire, and he wanted to get to know her. Before he was to the dining area again, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He’d just met his mate. Turning to go back and talk to her more, he heard the sound of a gunshot before he reached her office.

“Christ.”

~*~

While riding to the hospital in the back of the ambulance, Carrie decided that she was going to make sure that when she got out of there, she was going to find a place to hide and do what she had tried to do earlier. She didn’t even know how she missed. She put the gun near her forehead, fired, and the next thing she knew, she was where she was right now. In the back of an ambulance…alive.

“I’m afraid that it won’t do you any good. I have your scent, and since I gave you a bit of my blood, actually quite a bit of it, you can’t hide your feelings from me either. And because I had to give you a bit of my blood to save you, I’ll have a firsthand look at your emotions, too. I know you really wanted to die, Carrie. But I couldn’t allow that. I’m so very sorry. But I need you around. By the way, I never got your last name.” Glaring at the man had him laughing. “You’re not having a good time? I believe that I am. You’re also going to love my family.” And why could she suddenly talk to the loony cake this way? He told her. She no more believed that than she did that he’d given her his blood. That was just…it was gross. She didn’t even want to think about how he’d done that either.

“Are they as nutty as you are? He laughed harder when she told him she hated him. And while she’d only just met the man, she had a feeling that his life up until recently hadn’t been the best. “What’s happened to you? Did someone shit in your oats or something? No, that can’t be right. You’re a cat. It’s doubtful that you’ve ever eaten anything as cheap as oatmeal.”

“As a matter of fact, I love oats. As for something shitting in them, no, it’s not happening anymore. You see, my mother recently passed on along with her father. I’m happy about that. Now, while I know that sounds like I’m a bastard of a son, it’s not true. I’m actually just figuring out that I’m a nice enough sort of person. I have lived a sheltered life, thanks to my mother controlling every aspect of my life, but myself and my brothers are working things out.” She asked him if he meant LouCinda Sheppard. “Yes. I’m sure that you read about it in the paper. It was written about all over the world, I was told. Her father wasn’t all that much better than his daughter. But while it hurts me that I didn’t have a good relationship with her, I am glad that they’re both gone. The two of them killed a lot of people before they were killed.”

“I’m sorry about that. I read about the trial not ending well. And a lot of people are left to wonder if their missing family members were part of her killing spree.” He said that the attorneys were taking care that everyone they had records of have been notified. “Good.”

They were just pulling up in front of the hospital when she was told to please keep her head down. There were reporters all over the entrance, and they were going to bring her in through the emergency department. Not around back where ambulances usually did their drop-offs.

With the blanket over her head, she could hear everything that was going on. There must have been a couple of reporters in the ED because she heard someone telling them to leave or be arrested. Not paying attention to whether or not they left, she was amazed at how wonderful it felt to have her hand held by Mr. Sheppard. Trying to pull away from him didn’t work, so she made herself leave her hand limp in his much larger one. His laughter pissed her off.

“You are going to be a handful, aren’t you? All right, you can remove the covering. We’re in a room.” She wanted to know why she was even in here when she looked down at her blouse as they sat her up on the other bed. There was a great deal of blood, too, and she had to put her head back when it occurred to her that it was all hers. “Steady now. You don’t want to pass out on me now. Breathe in and—”

“I know how to breathe.” But she did listen to his instructions so that she wouldn’t pass out. “There is no telling what you’d have them do to me if I were to faint. Why are you even following me around? Don’t you have widows to toss out of their homes or something?”

“Why do people think that first thing? I mean, sure, I have some money, but I’ve never once even been tempted to toss anyone out on their ass. That’s not true. I did toss my mother and grandfather out before they were killed. I might toss you around just to see if your bosom bounces as well as I think they might. Will they?” She could only stare at him, not sure what to say. “Close your mouth, dear. The doctor wants to talk to you.”

She didn’t hear a single word that the doctor said to her. Carrie was still trying to figure out why he’d brought up her breasts right now. When the doctor left her, she looked around the room and wondered yet again why she was there.

“You have a broken collar bone as well as some contusions along your cheeks, lovely as they are, that need to be stitched up. And just so you know, you’ve single-handedly stopped the restaurant from being robbed by taking out the three men who came there to do the job.” She asked them how he had come to that conclusion. “Oh, that’s not what happened. It’s just what the police and the reporters think happened. Lily broke your collarbone when she slapped the gun out of your hand. The rest is what they saw when they got there.”

“Who is Lily?” He told her something about a queen and earth. “I’m sorry. What? I mean, did you just tell me that Lily is the queen of the earth who kept me alive and that she’s been keeping an eye on me for you? I don’t know that I’m all that happy with that. I mean, she could have kept a better eye on me than she had, don’t you think? I’ve been beaten nearly to death, stabbed, shot—not by me those times, and I’ve been thrown—why are you looking all fuzzy?”

“My cat doesn’t care for the fact that you’ve been hurt. He’s showing you how upset he is. And I want to find these men and teach them a lesson in treating my mate.” She turned her head away so that he would not see her pain. “Carrie? I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Okay, first of all. I’m not upset. Hurt? Yes. But not upset. Also, I can’t be your mate. Well, I suppose that I could be, but I don’t want to be. You do not want to saddle yourself with a woman who is in debt for thousands upon thousands of dollars because her brother is a fucking deadbeat that…did you tell me that your cat was upset?” He nodded and told her that he was a jaguar. “A jaguar. You’re a jaguar.”

“Yes. Not only that but I might be the leap leader. Which would make you the female version of myself. Gives you lots of power, too.” She glared at him. “Honey, I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not but I think you’re just too adorable to be upset with when you get all mean looking at me. It just occurred to me what my brother meant when he said he liked to piss off his mate. Sunny is scary, but she loves us all.”

“You’re insane.” He thanked her. “No, it’s not a compliment. It’s…do you have any idea how that sounds? That you’re a shifter? I mean, don’t get me wrong. If you believe it, then I will, too. But there are—what the fuck did you do?”

“I’ve become my cat for you. I must tell you that he’s happy to be with you.” She backed as far as she could from the gianormace cat that was standing next to her bed. Reaching for the call cord to get someone to come and save her, the furry fuzz ball leaped up on the bed and licked her face. “He loves you too.”

“No one loves me.” He told her that he did, and the big cat licked her face again. She noticed that he’d not touched the side of her face where she was cut up. When he leaped off the bed and became Archie again, she felt disappointment all the way to her toes. Then the door opened. There stood three men that could have been the man that had just been a— “If you tell me that you’re cats, too, then I’m going to have them ship me off to la-la land. Brothers, right?”

“Yes. Archie is the oldest. I’m Nash. My name is Nashville but I decided that I like Nash better. This is our younger brothers Weston and Beau. You’re Carrie Hunter Sheppard.” She said that she knew who she was and she was not Sheppard. “I hate to break it to you, but that’s what the newspapers are calling you. That might be better, to be honest. You’re protected by magic, as well as all of us.”

“Just how many are there of you? And so, you know, you look like you’ve been cut from the same mold.” He thanked her. “Why is it impossible to say something to you guys, and you think it’s a compliment?”

“Because no one has ever been nice to us before.” That hurt her not just in her heart but in her very soul. She told them that she was sorry. “No worries, honey. You’re with us now, so I’m thinking that we’re going to start having a better life. I know that I am. My mate, Sunny, is everything to me. Just as you are to Archie.”

“I’ve only just met him.” The nurse came in and told her that she was going to go to preop. Nervous all of a sudden, she felt herself suddenly relax when Archie took her hand into his. It wasn’t a habit that she wanted to keep, but it was nice to know that he was going to be there for her. Why? She didn’t know, but she knew on some level that he would be forever.

They rolled her down to the preop room, and she was glad again that Archie was with her. He had an effect on her nerves that made her feel like she was going to be all right. Again, she didn’t understand that, but she was glad for it. As soon as they gave her something to relax her, Carrie was drifting off. She was sure that she’d not said anything aloud, but she told Archie that she loved him. She was being silly, she knew. But she really thought that she knew what her heart was telling her.

“Hello there.” She had to take a few minutes to get her eyes to focus and saw that another brother was sitting in the chair next to her bed. She asked him who he was. Or she thought that she did. “You did. However, you didn’t ask it out loud. I’m sorry, but I didn’t want you to hurt when you spoke. You’ve been out for a few days. My name is Wrangler. As you’ve guessed, yes, I am one of the brothers of Archie. I’m the third born. Can I get you anything? They said that you shouldn’t allow the pain to get too much for you. That if you need something, ask for it sooner rather than later.”

“Am I going to be all right?” He told her that she had some stitches that were in her arm and that they’d not known she’d been hurt there until they got her in the operating room. “Why haven’t I healed up? I mean, that’s what is supposed to happen, right? I don’t know if I believe all the stuff I’ve read about shifters. But that is constant in all the books I read.”

“Yes, well, you’ve not said that you accept Archie. He’s claimed you, not in a bad way, but just telling everyone that you’re his mate. In order to heal, and just so you don’t do that immediately, the police have yet to speak to you and you have to make it look good for the public. They get kind of testy when people heal too quickly.” She said she understood. “Good. He just said that he claimed you as his mate. And being that he’s holding off accepting the position of leap leader until he can speak to you about it, he went to Joshia and told him. That’s all you need to do.”

“Sounds too easy.” He said that it wasn’t really. “What’s going to happen when I say those words? I immediately heal or something? And what happens to me when I do? I’m assuming that I’m going to heal from what you’re saying.”

“You will heal completely. Even the things that haven’t been known to you as yet will disappear. I’m only telling you this so you understand what will happen to you. You have several spots of cancer in your left breast. It’s not bad yet, but it would have eventually taken you. I’m sorry. I’m not known for my tact.” She told him that she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Good. There is more, but I think your pain is getting the better of you. Before my brother comes in here and beats me up for keeping you from your pain meds, please call the nurse for something. Please?”

She nodded, just realizing that he was right. She was hurting. He had to help her with the button and the nurse came in immediately to give her meds. Wrangler didn’t leave her, even holding her hand while the meds took her under. She didn’t understand her need for Archie just then, but she closed her eyes and allowed the medication to take her under.