Full Color (ORCA #3)

Chapter 24

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

DIMITRI

I’d never flown on a plane before, let alone a luxury private jet. When Athina and I had fled Cyprus, we’d bartered passage on a ship to Rome, then taken a train to Amsterdam. But now, having spent the better part of nine hours cocooned in the soft leather seat next to Quin, I could honestly say this was the only way to travel.

Athina had been without her medication since Dasselaar’s men had taken her from the apartment, so she took a dose from the bag Quin and Hadrian had collected and promptly passed out. When she woke up a few hours later, Jack had handed her a pair of high-end, over-the-ear headphones and connected her to the onboard entertainment system. She’d been watching movies ever since, completely unconcerned that hours before she’d been held at gunpoint after being held hostage. I kept waiting for her to break down or go into shock, but it hadn’t happened yet.

I was watching her when Felix dropped into the seat next to Quin and me and held out a navy blue folder. “Here.”

“What is this?” I flipped the little booklet open to see my picture.

“It’s a US passport. As soon as Quin told us about you, and later, your sister, I got to work on having them made. You have new birth certificates, social security numbers, and identities.”

I studied the passport more closely. “Dimitri Hunter?”

Felix shrugged. “Seemed appropriate. I didn’t want to change your first name, but Chrysanthos kind of stands out if anyone happens to be looking for you.”

“How did you know my birthdate?”

Felix made a face at Quin. “Can you believe this guy? It’s like he doesn’t know how good I am.”

“Yes, Felix. You are an amazing hacker and a genius.” Quin rolled his eyes as he finished the statement.

“I know.” He pretended to buff his nails on his shirt. “But in all seriousness, the old you no longer exists. I’ve wiped you from every public record, so there won’t be any issue clearing customs when we get to the States.”

I felt tears prickling the back of my eyes, but I blinked them away. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Julius also set you and Athina up with bank accounts. He can give you everything you need to access the funds as soon as we get to the house.”

The tears that had threatened before slipped out now. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Felix put his hand on my thigh. “You’re family now.” He looked over his shoulder at my sister. “Both of you. And one thing I’ve learned about orca shifters is they are fiercely protective of their own.”

I nodded because I couldn’t get words out around the lump in my throat.

Felix started to stand, then sat back down. “Oh, one more thing. A doctor’s appointment has been made for your sister for tomorrow afternoon. I did some research on the medication she’s taking, and I think there are better options for treating her condition.”

“We can’t afford the more expensive options.”

Felix smiled. “You can now.”

The dam burst, and I turned my head, sobbing into Quin’s shirt again as the roller coaster of emotions I’d been on for the last two days finally pulled into the station.

I was safe.

My sister was safe.

I’d met my fated mate.

And we were about to start a new life.

By the time we landed in Seattle, Quin’s designer shirt was stained with my tears. Like Felix promised, Athina and I flew through customs with no incident and then we piled into a big black SUV with a Haida art orca decal on the back and were on our way to the Hunters’ house.

Even though the air was cool outside, I opened the window and breathed in the unfamiliar scents of my new home. The ocean here was briny and the salty scent stuck in my nose. Pine was thick on the breeze, which also carried the faintest scent of coffee, and I loved it. I tried to focus on landmarks as we sped along the highway, but everything moved past in a green and blue blur.

The lights were on in the huge house when the SUV pulled to a stop. The house sat on an inlet, and in the distance, mountains stuck up out of the ground. Oddly, the view reminded me of Cyprus. While no one would say the Pacific Northwest and my homeland had the same climate, there were enough similarities in the landscape that I immediately felt at home.

Quin waited for me while I gaped at the huge house and the trees, and the water gently lapping at the rocky little beach beyond the backyard.

“Are you ready to go inside?” He placed a gentle hand on my arm, and I nodded.

Black and white tiles in the entryway gave way to warm hardwood floors leading into the rest of the house. The same honey-colored wood surrounded each door and window and featured on the wood and iron staircase that twisted up to the second floor. I’d barely stepped into the house, and it already took my breath away.

Somewhere deeper within the house, my sister laughed, and I almost wanted to cry again. It had been too long since I’d witnessed her joy.

“Are you hungry? Julius, Marcus, and Ben made lunch.”

We’d left Amsterdam at nine in the morning, but it was just approaching noon in Seattle, and my body was confused. It should be dinner time. Regardless, I was starving, and my stomach rumbled as Quin led me into the kitchen.

Nero and Felix had disappeared to their room upstairs. Cal and Jack were at the table, both with large sandwiches and a pile of chips in front of them. I scanned the room for Athina and saw her through an arched doorway, sitting on a dark leather couch next to a man with light brown hair.

“Who’s Ben?” I asked, doing a mental tally of all the members of Quin’s family I’d met.

“That’s me.” The brown-haired man next to Athina turned around and then stood. He walked into the kitchen and held out a hand. “I’m mated to Hadrian.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I wished everyone was wearing a name tag so I’d be able to keep them all straight.

“You too. Your sister and I have been talking. I’m a professor at the University of Seattle. It’s too late to get her into the art history program for this semester, but I’m going to see what I can do about getting her set up for the spring.”

“Isn’t that amazing, Dima?” Athina was on her feet too, bouncing on her toes with excitement.

“It is.” Quin’s hand found mine, like he could sense I was a little overwhelmed, and gave my fingers a squeeze. “That would be amazing, Ben.”

“Don’t mention it.” He turned and sat back down on the couch, and Athina flopped down next to him.

Quin pushed me into a chair and placed a sandwich and chips in front of me. I ate on autopilot, listening to all the conversations around me. When I was done and had declined Quin’s offer of seconds twice, I noticed the room had cleared out.

“Where did everyone go?”

“Cal and Jack are putting things away in the garage. Ben has an evening class to teach tonight so he left. Hadrian took him to campus, then went to check on his boat. Julius and Marcus, who I don’t think you’ve met yet, are in the basement following a lead we got in Amsterdam. Felix and Nero haven’t come down from upstairs yet, and Athina went to take a shower.

A shower sounded amazing, and I must have made a noise because Quin grabbed my arm and started towing me toward the stairs, but I dug in my heels and Quin stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I want a shower, but there is something else I want more.”

He cocked his head as if he were trying to figure it out before I told him. “What? I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“I want to see your orca form. Will you shift for me?”

Quin’s eyes went wide. “Of course. Will you shift for me?”

I glanced at my feet before looking up at him again. “I’ll try. I haven’t taken my chameleon form in over a year, and I’m not sure how long it takes the antitransmutative drugs to get out of my system.”

“It took three days for Felix to be able to shift after he was drugged, but I don’t think Dasselaar had you on a very strong dose since he needed you to be able to access at least part of your chameleon side.”

I hated that Dasselaar had taken the ability to shift away from me, but I was anxious to get reacquainted with that part of myself. “We’ll see.”

Quin changed direction, heading away from the front hall and the stairs and toward a set of warm wood and glass double doors that led out to a covered veranda and a deck. The new scents of home surrounded me when we got outside, and I stopped for a second, absorbing the simple luxury of being able to go where I wanted to when I wanted to. Having that freedom taken away had been a difficult adjustment, and I wondered if it would take me an equal amount of time to adjust to being independent again.

The air was a little chilly, but the sun was high overhead, and I tilted my face toward it and closed my eyes, letting the rays warm me through the slightly overcast sky. I hadn’t put on shoes after I’d kicked mine off at the door, and the grass was cool under my feet. I was in borrowed clothes that were a little too big, but none of that mattered as I soaked up my surroundings.

Quin let me stay there for as long as I wanted. He didn’t hurry me along or prompt me to try to shift. He let me take the time I needed, and when I opened my eyes, he was standing close, watching me.

“You look so content.”

A small smile tugged my lips. “Because I am. I’ve never been here before, but it feels like this is home.”

Quin’s answering joy was almost palpable as he beamed at me.

“Can you shift out there?” I tilted my head toward the inlet. “You promised to show me.”

“Yes, I can shift out there, but I want to see you shift first.”

I closed my eyes again and slid into the part of myself where my chameleon form sat dormant. I focused on my limbs, on shrinking down into my much smaller form, but the transformation felt just out of reach.

Quin’s fingers brushed over my skin. “Dimitri, your whole body is glowing. You’re beautiful.”

I pushed harder, trying to encourage the transformation, but still, it alluded me. I let go and opened my eyes. “I’m trying. I’m sorry.”

Quin’s expression was soft, and he reached out to caress my face, the rough pad of his thumb tracing along my cheekbone. “It’s okay. We have all the time in the world.” He unbuttoned his shirt, and shrugged out of it, laying it neatly on a fallen log at the water’s edge. “I’ll go first.” He winked at me over his shoulder and stepped out of his pants, which he also left neatly on the log. Then, naked, he waded out into the water as my mouth went dry. His ass was a thing of beauty, round and muscular, and if I thought it looked amazing encased in a pair of his designer pants, that was nothing compared to how it looked bathed in watery sunlight.

When the water reached his waist, he dove under, staying down for long enough that I started to worry before I remembered that he was an orca shifter and there was no possible way he could drown. Soon, a tall black dorsal fin broke the surface of the water, followed by the top of Quin’s back. A puff of air and water was pushed out of his blowhole as he flicked his tail and glided toward me. My heart fluttered with excitement and the fear that only came from being so close to something so large and powerful. Quin turned in the water, and his saddle patch came into view, the thick brush stroke vee exactly the same as it was in his human form.

A tug deep inside me pulled a gasp from my lungs, and my mind fell into the place where my chameleon lived. This time when I tried to shift, the transition was seamless, my bones popping and shifting as they reformed, and I shrank in on myself until I was buried in my borrowed clothes. It took me a moment to figure out how to move in my fully shifted form again, but I finally got my legs under me.

Nosing my way out of the pile of clothes, I saw the world from a completely different vantage point. The expanse of the inlet was huge to me in this form, and if I thought Quin’s orca was large while I was human, it was nothing compared to how it felt looking at him in the water while I was a chameleon.

He lifted his head and the warm iridescent glow that had been circling my hands whenever he was near shimmered around him. If I’d had any doubt he was my mate up until then, that doubt would have dissolved. Chameleon shifters only saw colors like that, a shiny mother-of-pearl aura, when we’d met our mates, and seeing it around Quin in his orca form confirmed everything I already knew.

He was mine.

I was his.

And we would belong to each other forever.

His dorsal fin disappeared under the water again, and when he emerged from the water next, he’d shifted back to human, water sliding down his chest as he ran toward me. He was out of breath as he knelt on the rocky shore and held out his hands so I could climb onto his palms.

“My god. Look at you.” Quin’s voice was thick with tears, and I was desperate to know what he was seeing. “You look just like me. Your coloring. It’s exactly the same. And”—he let out a small strangled sob—“the saddle patch.” He transferred me to one hand, holding me gently as his fingers traced over a spot on my back. His touch made my tail curl with happiness. “You are so beautiful, Dimitri, like this and as a human.” He lifted me to his face and pressed his nose gently to mine. There was no way he could have known that was what chameleon shifters did to acknowledge our mates in our shifted forms, and it was just another way I knew that fate had picked Quin just for me.

He carefully set me down on the log next to his clothes and lowered himself to sit next to me. I made myself comfortable, enjoying being shifted for the first time in so long, and Quin patiently kept me company until I was ready to shift back. I climbed off the log and pulled my human side forward, the stretch of my bones and skin unfamiliar after a year without fully shifting. The process felt like it took longer than it should have, but a handful of moments later, I was standing in front of Quin again on two human feet.

He wrapped me up in a tight embrace. “You are amazing. Gorgeous. So perfect.”

“You are too. Can I swim with you sometime? I want to touch you in your orca form.”

Quin’s smile was radiant. “Yes. Anytime.” Then he shook his head. “Except right now. There is something else I want to show you.”