Her Bad Cat (Marked By The Moon Book 5)

by Kestra Pingree

  MARKED BY THE MOON BOOK FIVE

  KESTRA PINGREE

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2018 Kestra Pingree

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Any unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This is a work of fiction.

  kestrapingree.com

  Summary

  She’s on a mission to save him.

  Emily Walker is a human woman with two Fated Mates, both of them sexy shifter men. It should have been a dream come true. But everything changed when Mason was murdered and Ethan disappeared.

  For five years, Emily has searched for Ethan to no avail. She’s about to give up when a dangerous shifter gives her Ethan’s location. Is this the miracle she’s been searching for or is it a trap?

  He made a dark promise.

  Ethan Street, black panther shifter and son of a dangerous gang boss, lost both of his Fated Mates on the night Mason died in his arms. He promised to keep Emily safe by never crossing her path again. Humans are fragile and shifters are volatile.

  He took up the name Rogue and resigned himself to a lonely existence of atonement, but Emily shows up one day and puts a rift in his plans.

  Together, can they fix what is broken?

  Fated Mates. Forever Love.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

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  Chapter 1

  ETHAN STREET’S LUNGS BURNED as he ran in the snow and slid on the ice without ever losing his balance. The old warehouses disappeared behind him one by one as he searched for the one that held half of his heart. His lungs felt like they were going to burst. He wasn’t normally bothered by the cold, and the sensation he was feeling wasn’t strictly because of it. He had to work harder than usual to slip away from Liam. It was something that was getting harder all the time, but he managed, and Mason Walker was waiting for him. That was the only thing that mattered right now.

  Mason was waiting for him.

  And everything was falling apart.

  Outsider shifters popped up out of nowhere and started causing trouble with Five Claws. No one messed with Five Claws. They owned Brooklyn and Liam had ruled unchallenged for Ethan’s eighteen years of life and longer. He did and took what he wanted. People were too scared to speak out against him. Shifters weren’t widely known to humans, but everyone knew Liam and his gang were a crew of monsters. No one was brave enough, or stupid enough, to do anything about it. When they tried to resist, he snuffed out the fire. He ruled. He ruled and ruled and ruled. The black panther king. Then those outsiders came, powerful and challenging. Five Claws was getting demolished.

  Truthfully, Ethan was rooting for the outsiders, shifters he knew nothing about. He was even excited, but he held on to the right amount of fear. He had been in Five Claws all his life. It was never an option for him because he was born into it. But these new shifters might be his answer. They might be his way out. Then he could be with Mason. Mason was almost done with school. They were both eighteen. They could convince Emily to pick up and leave with them. There would be nothing holding them back if Five Claws was out of the picture.

  If Ethan was free, he could have everything. If Five Claws was destroyed, Mason wouldn’t be against Ethan spending time with his sister. He wouldn’t be a threat anymore. He wouldn’t have to see her in secret behind Mason’s back like he had been for months. Ethan loved them both, Mason and Emily, more than anything in this world. He kept Emily in the dark about almost everything because he knew Mason was right. Emily was a human. Ethan wanted to keep her safe as badly as Mason did. But the one thing he couldn’t do was stay away from her. Together, Mason and Emily were Ethan’s every breath. They were the beating of his heart. He couldn’t live without them. He never knew what it was like to live before them.

  Ethan smiled when he rounded another icy corner and saw the warehouse he was desperately running for.

  “Mason,” he whispered under his breath.

  Mason was his Fated Mate. Ethan had never heard of that before, but Mason told him stories about these Fated Mates, Soulmates, hearts made for each other. Mason’s blood parents, Tasmanian devil shifters like himself, told him these stories when he was young. They were romantic stories Ethan never had growing up. He loved them, craved them, always asked Mason to tell him more. He never knew love until Mason and Emily came into his life.

  Mason seemed to think Fated Mates only included two individuals. Ethan was convinced that wasn’t true. He never said it, but he was certain Emily was his Fated Mate too. Mason’s as well. The three of them had a chemistry that was undeniable. None of them were blood-related. Emily and Mason were adopted by a human couple who couldn’t have kids. Emily was human, and Mason happened to be a shifter. Emily was the only one in their family who knew his secret, but he tried to keep her out of shifter business even though she kept his secret well. Even though she understood. Ethan knew it was because Mason loved her, because he never wanted anything bad to happen to her, because she was a frail human, but maybe it could change. If Five Claws was gone, it could change. Mason wouldn’t be so against Emily being with them. Ethan was convinced of that.

  Fuck, he hoped things would change for the better. Liam saw the new mark on Ethan’s chest just over his heart, the Lunas Sigil showing he and Mason were bound by the Moon: Fated Mates. It lay perfectly on top of the scar that marked Ethan as a Five Claws. Mason had claimed Ethan and this Moon Mark was the result of their union. Liam knew how to manipulate the Moon’s power and used it to make that scar more than a scar, but Ethan wasn’t sure if he knew anything about Fated Mates. Ethan did his best to explain it away. He didn’t want Mason involved with Five Claws any more than he wanted Emily involved with them.

  Hell, he just didn’t know. Everything was spiraling out of control. His head was a tornado twisting around everything that happened, everything that was happening, and everything that could happen. He needed Mason. He was going to implode if this kept up. Mason would keep him steady like he always did.

  Ethan slammed into the rickety and rusty warehouse door. The heavy-duty chain usually holding the door mostly shut was already on the ground, meaning Mason was here waiting for him. Ethan tried to catch his breath as he swept the warehouse with his eyes until he saw Mason sitting on a large box, looking right at him. Mason’s eyes were an entrancing green that stood out in the dark with an animalistic glow. That look mixed with his buzzed hair made him appear extra tough at a simple glance, not to mention all the defined edges that made up every inch of his face and body.

  “Mason,” Ethan murmured. Saying his name was a release, a relief, a privilege.

  Mason slid off the box he was seated on, and Ethan ran for him. He was grinning like a fool, but he couldn’t help it. Mason made him feel light. Mason was the definition of hard, but he softened for Ethan. A smile found its way onto his lips when he
opened his arms in the last second to catch Ethan. Mason wasn’t tall, but he was sturdy. Catching Ethan wasn’t a problem. He grabbed the back of Ethan’s head, tangling his fingers in Ethan’s slicked-back brown hair as he brought him down for a devouring kiss. It had been too long since they kissed.

  “Need to touch you,” Mason rasped, “feel you.”

  “You are touching me.” Ethan smiled against his lips.

  Mason took the lead as was usually the case. He spun Ethan around so he could press him against that box and halfway onto it. He ripped off Ethan’s holey black jacket, disheveling his shirt and revealing his smooth and muscled stomach. Mason pressed his hands to his skin, tracing bits of Ethan’s tattoos as his eyes rolled shut and he let out another rasping noise. Hell, Ethan loved it when Mason got desperate like this over him. It was somehow empowering to be wanted so much. He was already hard, so ready.

  “Mason,” Ethan said as he sat up half on and off the box and grabbed Mason’s waist.

  “What?” Mason looped his arms loosely around the back of Ethan’s neck. It seemed neither of them could stand being apart. They needed to touch. Mason especially seemed anxious. Ethan could see the hungry look in his eyes and feel his hard-on against his own as he pressed in between Ethan’s legs.

  “Liam knows.”

  Mason frowned. “Knows what?”

  “He saw my Lunas Sigil. I lied. I said I got someone to pledge to me and bound them with Moon Magic like what he does to the members of his gang. I told him I was practicing, getting ready to take over Five Claws someday, to carry on Liam’s legacy just like the damn jaguar wants.”

  Mason moved back a little, probably to stop torturing himself since it was clear they weren’t going to get to sex at the moment. Mason was dominant and controlling in their lovemaking, but he never did anything unless Ethan was right there with him. He taught Ethan what it meant to be a considerate partner. He taught Ethan the difference between sex and lovemaking. There was a time and a place. Sometimes, Ethan just needed someone to listen. Mason understood and respected that.

  “So he doesn’t know,” Mason commented. “But you’re worried.”

  Ethan nodded.

  “Did he hurt you?”

  “No. I think he believed me. He seemed… happy.”

  Mason grabbed the base of Ethan’s shirt and lifted it up high to get a good quick look at his tan skin underneath. Ethan didn’t have any new injuries, so Mason let it go. An involuntary bout of shivers shook Ethan’s body with the nearness of Mason’s warmth and the contending coldness hovering all around them in the big abandoned warehouse. Their breaths were so hot and heavy, they could have taken up jobs as fog machines.

  “How are things then? With these new shifters in Brooklyn,” Mason asked.

  “Five Claws is breaking. I think these outsider shifters might get rid of it for good. Maybe it’s just what we need.”

  Ethan pulled up Mason’s hoodie, and Mason assisted him in removing it and his shirt all the way and proceeded to throw them onto the floor. Ethan stayed seated on the box and reached up to the right side of Mason’s chest where he could see the hint of shiny skin currently shaped like the Full Moon. It had a cold blue undertone unlike the warm golden tan color of his natural skin. Ethan pressed his palm to the mark, eclipsing it. Energy and warmth pumped into his hand with the contact, and he could feel his own mark, over his heart, reacting in kind.

  “Are you going to keep me warm, or do you just want me to freeze?” Mason asked with a smirk. “I want you so bad, Ethan. Don’t make me beg.”

  Ethan chuckled, tore off his shirt, and threw it onto the pile on the floor. Then Mason was on him, pushing him back against the box and climbing over him so their chests were touching. Their breaths were synchronized. Their marks burned against each other’s chests, making their heart space a furnace. It was a manifestation of their feelings for each other.

  “Fuck, take your jeans off already,” Ethan teased. “I thought you wanted me. You can’t take me like this.”

  Ethan pressed his fingers against Mason’s hips, feeling that urge to dig like he always did when he and Mason started getting serious like this. It was a strangely violent side of him. Not violent, just a reflex that happened to be violent. His cat wanted to claw into his lover, make him bleed, mark him. Apparently, it was affectionate. Ethan’s nature was far from violent, but that delicate part of him had been pushed aside his whole life by his father, Liam. Ethan had done plenty of things he wasn’t proud of. It was Mason and Emily who found the softness in him again, the part Liam tried to destroy, the part that was deeply and truly him.

  Mason touched one of Ethan’s hands. “It’s okay,” he reminded. “I heal fast. I don’t mind.” Then he grinned. “You have to put up with my devil. I can handle your cat.”

  “Pants off,” Ethan reminded, breathless. Then maybe he’d let go.

  Mason did as Ethan asked. Then he gave Ethan the quickest of questioning looks and went for his as well, leaving them both completely naked. Ethan moved back against that giant, low to the ground, box so Mason could hover over him comfortably and so Ethan could raise a leg and press one of his feet against Mason’s perfect, firm ass. He gripped Mason’s back at the same time, digging in with his claws and drawing warm blood.

  “Ready?” Mason asked as he bit at Ethan’s chest, right over his Lunas Sigil and ironically the same place he had his Five Claws scar. He tore skin and drew blood. Things got messy when they were intimate, in more ways than one.

  “So ready,” Ethan replied as he grabbed Mason’s thick cock. He couldn’t wait to join him, to have him inside him.

  Then the rickety and rusted door slammed open. Ethan lurched underneath Mason and looked past him. He tried to tell himself it was the work of the frigid wind and the fact he hadn’t exactly tried to close the door when he came in. But it wasn’t the wind.

  A booming growl reverberated through the entire warehouse as Ethan wriggled out from under Mason and grabbed him, trying to hide him behind his body as he jumped up. But Mason was having none of that. He stood beside Ethan and glared, facing Liam, Ethan’s blood, with no trace of fear. This couldn’t be happening. This was the worst thing that could have happened. Ethan shouldn’t have come. Liam would kill Mason. He’d do it without a second thought.

  Liam’s eyes were glowing gold like his black panther. His teeth were bared and his cat was ready to rip through his skin. He wouldn’t stop growling. His slicked-back hair was a mess and that was sign enough that Liam had snapped. He always had a calm and controlled fury about him, but this was unruly. There was no telling what he’d do.

  He flexed his muscles. He was wearing nothing but a skin-tight t-shirt so the massive muscles in his arms and his coiling tattoos were on full display—as if he wasn’t intimidating enough. He spat on the floor in front of Ethan and Mason. “I fucking didn’t want to believe it,” he said. “Always knew my son was a spineless pussy, but it turns out you’re a fag, too.”

  “Don’t fucking talk to him like that!” Mason screamed. “Fuck you. Fuck you and everything you do.”

  “Mason, wait!”

  Ethan tried to grab his lover, but Mason was gone, fast as a bullet. Ethan took off after him, but things were even worse than he had thought. He saw David Fletcher, the hulking blond, scarred to hell, lion shifter his father made his right-hand man, hovering in the doorway, and countless Five Claws gang members behind him. This was a lynching.

  Mason got to Liam first and managed to get a good swing at him. He punched him right in his damn face, but the victory was short-lived. David was there an instant later, piece of shit brawny lion, and laid into Mason with a hard swing of his own. His strength was insane, and he sent Mason spiraling through the air.

  Ethan skidded forward and managed to catch Mason before he could hit the icy floor.

  “Stop!” Ethan begged. “I’ll do anything. Just don’t hurt him. Please.”

  David snickered along with everyone in Five Claws e
xcept for Liam. He brushed at the bruising welt on his face and growled again. Ethan was surprised his feared and iconic black panther hadn’t ripped out of him yet. He had never seen Liam more furious than he was right now.

  “Is this how I fucking raised you?” he demanded. “To beg? To plead? No.” He shook his head. “No, we’re going to settle this once and for all.” He turned to the lion shifter. “David, kill Ethan’s fuckboy.”

  David stepped forward, tossing his head to the side to throw back the loose strands of his blond hair that escaped his ponytail. He cracked his knuckles as Mason shook his head, waking from the daze David’s punch sent him into.

  “Stay down,” Ethan hissed as he gave Mason the quickest of hugs and jumped to his feet, teeth bared and fingers clawed.

  “Cute,” David remarked. His lips quirked up, showing off the scar that deformed his upper lip.

  Ethan jumped forward as if to take David head-on, but he wasn’t stupid. He was no match for the lion. He dodged to the side in the last minute and hit David from another angle, but the guy was like a boulder or even a mountain. He didn’t budge an inch. He grabbed Ethan effortlessly and smashed him down onto the icy concrete below, breaking it with Ethan’s body. Ethan was pretty sure he heard his own skull crack. He sucked in a painful breath of air, but it did little good. David put him down with that one attack. His ears were ringing, his vision was pulsing, fading in and out.

  He heard Mason’s scream, a feral sound that came straight from his devil as he shifted. He was bigger than a normal Tasmanian devil, but he was no match for David, the monster African lion. Ethan was barely aware of David shifting that same moment. He saw only flashes of blood and fur as screams and roars filled his ears, cheering and shouting too.

  Ethan blinked his eyes hard a few times. He tried to struggle to his feet, to call to his black panther and shift, but his body wasn’t responding. It was like his brain and body had been disconnected. He tasted blood in his mouth. It was pouring out of his nose, too.