in love?”
There didn’t seem to be an answer to that. Because although it wasn’t what she had expected to happen, the insta-love that Allie was joking about was exactly what had happened. However, maybe now she had been removed from the center of the furnace, love was too strong. She couldn’t seriously have fallen in love with a man she hadn’t even spoken to. Desire was probably a more apt description for what she was feeling. Good, old-fashioned lust.
The initial wild exhilaration had subsided. Thank heaven. There was no way she could have endured that level of panting eagerness for long. Even so, her whole body was quivering. It was like the aftermath of her most strenuous workout, with an additional heat zinging through her bloodstream. Every impulse was urging her to return to that theater and find her mate.
Lidi knew what arousal felt like. She was an adult shifter with a full range of both human and bear emotions. Although human and shifter time worked differently, thirteen years ago, her country had been thrown into unimaginable turmoil and she had sworn to devote her life to fighting to restore its equilibrium. Unusually for a bear shifter, Lidi’s human emotions were dominant. It was an inconvenience she had sworn to overcome. She was a warrior with no time to waste on feelings.
That was what made her reaction to Ged so difficult to understand. He was the man she had come to find. She needed him. As she accompanied Allie along the seafront promenade, Lidi bit back a laugh. Oh, yes. She needed him; that had become glaringly obvious. She only had to think about the instant connection between them to experience a thigh-clenching response.
She had to overcome these troublesome cravings and focus on the true reason she was here. Lidi always battled to maintain command over her feelings as well as her muscles. All those years of directing her energy into maintaining a mind and body that were at peak fitness had to be put to good use now. For some reason, her reaction to the man at the theater had been extreme. Maybe it was the stories she had heard about his bravery. Possibly it was the fact that he was the true ruler of her beleaguered nation. A legendary hero and a man of mystery.
Lidi had spent years training her body. It was hard, strong and fast, and it served her well. As for her emotions...well, she was having to work a little harder than usual to get them under control. It was an obstacle she hadn’t anticipated, but she had never backed down from a fight. She wasn’t about to start now.
They reached the Palais Hôtel, a dazzling white structure that faced the glittering waters of the Mediterranean. The imposing building consisted of a central block with two attached wings forming a U shape. Pretty wrought iron balconies were decorated with blue-and-white-striped parasols and lipstick-red geraniums.
As they were ushered behind yet more barriers, Lidi surveyed the hotel thoughtfully.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Allie sighed. “One night in a top-floor suite costs more than I earn in a year.”
“Is that where the band will stay?” Lidi shielded her eyes against the sun with one hand, viewing the rooms directly beneath the terracotta roof tiles.
“They always have the best rooms, and in this hotel, that means the fifth floor.” Allie regarded her warily. “Don’t even think about trying to get in there.” There it was again. That word. Don’t. “The place is wall-to-wall celebrities this weekend. You won’t get a foot inside the gardens before you’re noticed. And while Beast’s security team are okay, you don’t want to take your chances with some of the others. Vicious thugs all of them.”
Allie’s words might almost have been issued as a dare to Lidi, who was focused on the edifice across the promenade and in particular on those balconies.
Many people believed that bears couldn’t climb. Some people had died while clinging to that hope. Lidi, growing up in the shadow of the Callistoya mountains, had spent her childhood scrambling up the steep slopes alongside the mountain goats. The hotel was busy, of course, and scaling a building always carried an element of risk. But those wrought iron railings were almost too good to be true. If they were replicated at the rear of the hotel, and if she waited until the early hours of the morning...
Allie was still outlining the reasons why attempting to get into the hotel would be a bad idea. Tearing her gaze away from the building, Lidi cut across Allie’s explanations with a final, very important, question.
“Will the band’s manager also have a room on the top floor?”
Ged couldn’t sleep. The gamble he’d taken on the documentary had paid off. If the initial reviews were anything to go by, it looked set to be a huge success. He’d made the most of the party, renewing old contacts and developing new acquaintances.
His hotel suite was comfortable, with every luxury at his fingertips, but it was 3:30 a.m. and slumber still eluded him. Even his online contacts had fallen silent. It was that strange, predawn time when it would be easy to believe he was the only person in the world left awake.
The familiar restlessness surged through him, the need to do something stronger than ever. He glared at his electronic tablet, searching through his contacts. When he drew a blank, he tossed it aside in annoyance. Nothing? He wanted action and his usual sources weren’t helping.
Stretching full-length on the bed, he willed his body into something that resembled a relaxed pose. Even if there had been a task for him, he was in no frame of mind to undertake it. Coiled tight as a spring, he needed to get his head straight before he went charging off on a rescue mission.
Ever since he had been driven out of his homeland by his enemies, the urge to help others had been Ged’s driving force. There were many ways he could have done that. Working with children, donating a percentage of his earnings, volunteering in a deprived country...the list went on.
He didn’t have to risk his life rescuing other shifters who were in danger, but that was what he had chosen to do. He knew what an analyst would say about his motives. Danger, excitement, risk...all of those were factors. But there was more to it. Ged had grown up knowing from an early age he was the heir to the throne of Callistoya.
Monarchy and immortality were strange partners. The werebears of Callistoya had eternal life, but they were not invincible. Like other shifters, they could be killed by silver, fire beheading and some illnesses. Since their magical kingdom had always been peaceful, Ged had expected his father’s reign to last forever. Then everything had changed. Ged had barely reached shifter maturity when his father had been murdered and he and his brother, Andrei, had been forced out of their homeland.
Driven into exile, his rightful place on the throne snatched from him, his reputation ruined, he had attempted to return and fight back. That was when he had discovered that his enemies had used magic, as well as villainy, against him. Though prepared to fight evil, he had been unable to combat the sorcery that barred him from entering Callistoya.
Although his old life had been snatched away, Ged had been raised to serve and protect. His duty to others came first. Even though he no longer had a country over which to reign, those feelings of service and honor hadn’t gone away. They had simply found a new direction.
Raised voices distracted him from his thoughts. Standards must be slipping if the tiniest sound was allowed to penetrate the luxurious corridors of the fifth floor of the Palais Hôtel. When the commotion continued, he paid closer attention, his finely tuned hearing distinguishing individual sounds. A woman’s cry of protest was followed by a scuffle and a grunt of pain.
Frowning, Ged got to his feet. Pulling sweatpants over his boxer briefs, he went through to the sitting room and opened the door to the corridor. The sight that met his eyes was unexpected.
One of Beast’s security guards was lying on the elegant rug, clutching his groin and groaning. At his side, a uniformed member of the hotel’s staff was slumped against the wall with both hands clasped over his nose. Blood was seeping through his fingers.
In the center of the corridor,