Gabriel could feel his panther getting antsy, agitated. “When the war started escalating our guardians brought us to this country, where we were adopted into different families.”
“Wait a minute.” Dominic sat back further back in his chair and looked at Gabriel intensely. “Guardians? Where’s your guardian? And for that matter who the fuck is my guardian and where is he?”
“Dom, you need to calm down, man. I sure this is a lot to take in, but…” Chay pulled a chair beside Gabriel and sat down.
“Calm down?” Dominic snapped. “I’m just hearing that I have a sibling and I’m supposed to have a guardian somewhere, somehow and…and…I need to calm the fuck down?” Dominic shook in his chair.
“Actually, you have more than one sibling,” Gabriel interrupted, knowing that it would only get worse from here on out before it gets any better. “We have two other brothers.” He’d explained that before, but apparently, that tidbit of information hadn’t gotten through the first time.
Dominic looked at him with the look of utter shock on his face. “Two more brothers?” he whispered.
“Each one of us was assigned a guardian.” Gabriel hesitated for a split second. “But it seems that you and our brothers have all lost theirs.”
“What do you mean lost?” Dominic demanded, the strain of hearing all of this evident in his voice.
“The guardians were killed, except for mine.” Gabriel’s thoughts went to Aldrik who was waiting for him back at their motel room. Gabriel sincerely hoped that nothing happened to the man before he could get back to him. “Aldrik was able to cloak himself with magik that made it harder for him to be found.”
Gabriel stood up from his chair and walked to the side window looking out over the back of the shop. “I only recently found out about Aldrik, or at least, he found me when I started to experience some really weird shit.”
Gabriel could still not completely digest the fact that he was a panther shifter. Sometimes he still felt uncomfortable knowing that he could shift into an animal, even if it was a beautiful one. “In our homeland we’re like royalty. The elite of the elite.” Gabriel turned around and sat on the windowsill. “The Pantarius family, our family, has ruled for many centuries.”
“Our homeland? You keep saying that. Where is our homeland? What is it called?” Gabriel looked over at Dominic again.
“Our homeland is a place called Cataghar. It’s a parallel world to earth.” Pushing away from the window, Gabriel walked over to his chair and sat down. “The easiest way to explain is like this. Imagine earth. Now think of another earth on top of that.”
Gabriel smiled at the confused look on Dominic’s face. When Aldrik had told him the same thing, he too had thought it was completely crazy and that Aldrik didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
“That makes no sense whatsoever.” Dominic scowled at Gabriel. “Are you sure you’re not nuts?”
Gabriel burst out laughing. “There are days when I am not so sure.”
“Where’s your other siblings?” Chay asked.
The question quickly brought Gabriel back to the here and now. “Initially, I didn’t have any idea who they were, not to mention where they were. After I met Aldrik, he gave me their names. Since I worked for Family Services, it was a bit easier to locate them. It took a bit of digging and maybe even cracking some firewalls, but I eventually found them.” Gabriel leaned forward in chair. “I know where they are, but you are the next to go through the change so I thought it best to find you first.”
Just then they heard a loud clatter coming from the workshop. Gabriel immediately jumped out of seat. His paranoia was at an all-time high.
“It’s okay. I’ll go check what’s going on,” Chay said as he got up and touched Gabriel’s shoulder before leaving the office.
“It’s not safe to continue talking here.” Gabriel was starting to panic. Someone could be watching them. Damn it! Why hadn’t he thought of that before? “Fuck! I can’t believe I was so stupid!” Gabriel paced up and down in the office. “He could have people watching us and I led him straight here…to you.” He could feel all the blood draining from his face, his body going rigidly cold in seconds.
“Calm down.” Dominic got up from his chair and walked around the desk. “You’re working yourself up over nothing. We’re perfectly safe here.”
Gabriel pulled away from Dominic just as he was about to place a hand on his shoulder. “No. We’re not. He could have anyone watching us, and we wouldn’t even know!”
Gabriel was instinctively ready to attack when the door to the office opened and Chay walked in. Like flipping a light switch, Gabriel’s panther instantly calmed down and heat radiated through his body.
“You okay?” Chay closed the office door behind him and moved up close to Gabriel.
All he could do was nod his head. His body was rooted to the spot in fear.
“I need to go.” Gabriel couldn’t quite place this feeling that had come over him. One minute he was hot all over, and when he looked into Chay’s eyes, all he wanted to do was tear the man’s clothes off and throw him to the floor.
Gabriel took a step back, away from Chay and turned toward his brother. “I’m staying over at the motel just outside of town, room twelve. It’s on the second floor right next to the stairs. Can you meet me there?” Gabriel asked as he watched Chay from the corner of his eye.
“Okay. We’ll meet you there in an hour.” Gabriel heard the uncertainty in Dominic’s voice, but he could tell that Dominic was curious enough to find out more.
Gabriel brushed past Chay, their bodies barely touching, but it was enough to cause his whole body to shiver with lust. Gabriel just hoped that Chay didn’t notice. He walked out of the office and down the passage toward the workshop as fast as his feet would carry him. Gabriel almost knocked Tommy to the ground as he rounded the corner.
