by Amber Kell
Before he could give into his fantasies and drive over to the pride house, a small hybrid pulled into the diner parking lot. His heart pounded faster as he spotted James through the windshield. Before he’d even realised he’d moved, he was at James’ side of the car ripping off the passenger door.
Oops.
“Um, sorry, Adrian.”
The wolf gave the door a sad look. “Damn, I just got it back too.”
“I’ll pay for repairs.”
The wolf sighed. “That’s what they always say. Just put it in the trunk.”
Lou gave a self-conscious laugh. Lifting the hatch he gently tucked the door inside. Good thing Adrian had a big trunk.
James laughed as he joined Lou around back, leaning on his cane. “I could’ve opened the door, you know.”
Lou’s cheeks were burning. “I didn’t mean to do that.” He couldn’t stop his visual inspection though. His inner bear wanted to strip the man down and search for any signs the lions weren’t taking good care of his mate. He doubted James would welcome the examination since they were standing in the middle of the street.
A hand hooked around his arm. “Come on, big guy, let’s go eat.”
“Did you want me to come back for you?” Adrian asked.
“I’ll take him back,” Lou offered. He might even return him sometime today.
The wolf looked them over carefully before nodding.
“I’ll see you later.”
Lou escorted James into the restaurant. Walking into the diner with his mate on his arm, Lou’s chest puffed out with pride. Kelly gave them a wide smile as they entered.
“I’ve got a booth by the window for you two.” She grabbed menus and led them to their seats.
Lou buried his face in the menu even though he could recite the damned thing by memory.
He heard a laugh.
“What?”
James gave him a smile, a sparkle lighting his eyes.
“I make you nervous.”
Lou nodded. “Yeah, you do.”
“Why?”
Lou looked back at the menu, his gaze unfocused as he tried to think of a way to break the news. He decided on the ’rip off the bandage’ approach. “Because you’re my mate.”
“Did you boys want some coffee?” Kelly stood beside the table holding an insulated carafe.
“Um, no,” Lou said. James still hadn’t spoken. His eyes were wide with shock. “We’ll take some water for now.”
“Be right back.” She scurried away, taking the hint that now wasn’t the time to interrupt.
“What do you mean I’m your mate?” James ran through his head the things he’d heard about mates last night during dinner. “You can’t be my mate.” He’d never want anyone attached to him, especially a shifter. James was a mess and he didn’t want to drag someone down with him while his sanity hung by a thread.
“Why can’t I be?” The patience the bear usually showed for him vanished. For the first time he could see the animal lying just beneath the surface. James’ skin itched, his own inner animal responding to the threat. With a lower dosage of his usual drug the world was a brighter place, smells were stronger, his vision sharper and his strength increasing in tiny increments. Despite those improvements his hands still shook when he picked up his glass of water and every inch of his body ached like a semi-truck had run him over.
He was silent too long. Lou repeated his question. “Why can’t I be your mate?”
Beneath Lou’s dark gaze he couldn’t lie. “My father is not only an anti-shifter zealot—he’s the head of PAW.”
“Seriously?” Lou didn’t look like he wanted to believe the news.
James’ heart ached to have to confirm the bear’s worst suspicions. He nodded. “He hates all shifters and tells anyone who’ll listen. He even has a large following of supporters. I don’t want to bring another person into this. As it is, I still need to confess to Dennis that my father could be responsible for his missing sister. I had no idea he’d gone from marching against shifters to kidnapping them. I don’t know why he would do that.”
Lou locked gazes with him. “You need to tell the pride what you know. Maybe you can talk to your father.”
James gave a bitter laugh. “My father has never listened to me before. I doubt he’s going to listen to me any better now.” He doubted his father would even want to have anything to do with him after he found out James could shift. If the doctor was right his father’s goal was for James to never shift. “He’ll call me soon about the medication. I’ve never gone this long without contacting him for a refill.” He’d also never lived that far away from him before.
Lou took James’ hands between his own. “Let me know how I can help make things easier and I will. Despite what you think, shifter mates are born, not made. I am willing to do whatever you need in order to make you more comfortable with the idea I’m your mate except give you up.”
The earnestness in the bear shifter’s eyes was James’ undoing. How could he turn down the sincere man who wanted nothing more than to help him achieve his goals? He’d certainly never received a better offer and some instinct deep inside told him if he let this man go he’d never get another chance at love.
“I…” He started to speak only to be cut off.
“James, what the hell are you doing? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for weeks.”
His father marched to their table and towered over him, his stormy grey eyes dark with anger. “Do you know how much I’ve been worried? I had to hire a detective to find you.”
Guilt tore at him with large shark bites. “Sorry, Father, I was going to call you. Lou, this is my father, Andrew Everett. Father, this is Louis Arktos.”
His father’s mouth curled with disdain as he looked at the sheriff. “A shifter, great. I let you move out on your own and you hook up with a shifter.”
Anger spurred James to speak. “You didn’t let me do anything. I’m old enough to move anywhere I wish.”
“Would you like to join us?” Lou offered, giving James a pointed look. The big bear desperately wanted them all to get along. Poor delusional man.
“No, thank you. James, when you’re done, I want you to meet me at my room. I’m staying at the Where Motel at the end of town. We have things to discuss.”
“Yes, we do.” He wasn’t going to let his father intimidate him. He wasn’t.
“I’m in room two-o-three.”
“I’ll be there in a half hour or so.”
“Good.” Without another word, James’ father turned on his heel and left.
“You could’ve been nice.” Lou’s words broke into James’ musings.
He gave a broken laugh. “I could’ve let him drag me out of here and back home too but I didn’t.”
“No. Don’t do that. I’ll take you to the motel after we eat.”
“Thanks.”
Kelly brought their food but they didn’t encourage her to stay so she quickly went to serve other customers.
Too absorbed in his own thoughts, James didn’t speak much as he ate. He was startled out of his introspection by a big hand covering his own. “Did you want me to stay while you talked to your father?”
James shook his head. “It’s best if I talk to him alone.” It wasn’t going to be a good scene and he didn’t want his sweet bear involved. Some demons he had to fight alone.
“Okay, but I want you to call me as soon as you’re finished and I’ll come get you. I don’t trust him not to try and take you back home.”
“Deal.” James couldn’t blame Lou. His father’s behaviour didn’t encourage confidence.
* * * *
The motel was bright and clean on the outside, reassuring James his father still had some standards. Not his usual five-star accommodations but he wasn’t staying in a hovel either.
As soon as Lou pulled up James’ hand was on the door handle. “Um, thank you for bringing me.”
The bear shifter gave the area an assessing look, the
cop in him coming forward. “Call me as soon as anything bothers you. I don’t care what. I’ll be at my office—it isn’t far from here.”
James laughed. “I’m going to talk to my father, not stage a showdown.” What did the sheriff think was going to happen?
Lou’s eyes were solemn as he stared at James. “Remember, as much as you think you know your father, you can never really know what goes on inside another person. Keep up your guard. Don’t let him take you anywhere. In fact, maybe I should wait for you here.”
“No! I don’t want you waiting in the parking lot like a stalker. I promise I’ll call you or Adrian to pick me up in an hour or so. This is my father we’re talking about. The most he’s likely to do is yell.”
Lou let out a long breath. “Fine, but don’t forget to call.” He popped the seatbelt release, grabbed James by the shoulder and hauled him across the bench seat. A hot kiss seared him like a brand, marking him as belonging to the other man. When he was finally released, his heart was pounding and his cock wanted to push its way through his jeans.
The bear shifter pressed his hand between James’ legs. “Keep that warm for me. I’m coming back to claim it.”
James gave a choked noise. “I’ll be sure to keep it safe but you should know I’m completely inexperienced.”
Lou groaned. “Now you’re just being mean. Call me when you’re done with your dad.”
Smiling, James slid out of the truck, carefully holding onto the door until he was certain of his balance.
Even though he dreaded the upcoming meeting with his father, his heart felt lighter after his lunch with Lou. The big shifter always made him feel good.
He abruptly lost his good vibes when he knocked on his father’s door and discovered the man hadn’t come alone. He’d brought Melinda. His father’s girlfriend looked at him with spiteful eyes. After learning about his genetic background, Melinda’s dislike of him had become clear. She was one of the reasons he’d decided to strike out on his own.
“Why is she here?” He inwardly cringed at the whiny tone to his voice. If he wanted his father to think of him as an adult he needed to sound more like one.
His father sighed. “I wish the two of you would get along better.”
“Since I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m an abomination I doubt we’re going to be best friends.”
Andrew frowned at his girlfriend. “She doesn’t think that.”
“Yes, I do. He’s everything we fight against and he’s gay.” She said the last as if it were the final nail in his coffin.
James’ lunch churned in his stomach. He knew she disliked him but he didn’t know she hated him quite that much.
His father frowned at Melinda. “I think it would be best if I talk to James alone.”
“Where do you expect me to go?” she shrieked.
The look his father turned on his girlfriend would have had James running. “Take a walk around or take my car and go for a drive. I need a few minutes alone with my son.”
“Fine.” She grabbed his keys off the dresser and headed for the door. “I’ll be back when I’m ready.”
After his girlfriend left, Andrew sat heavily down on the double bed. “I’m sorry, son. I had no idea she was against gays.”
James laughed. “So it’s okay to hate me because I’m a shifter but not because I’m gay.” His father’s logic escaped him.
“No! No, it’s not all right for her to hate you at all, but I thought she only had problems with your shifter half. I guess I was wrong about her.” His father suddenly looked older than he’d ever seen the vital man look before. For James his father had always seemed larger than life—to see the man look older and defeated broke his heart.
He sat down beside his father. “I have to ask you something.”
“If it’s about your mother, I don’t know where she is. She left us both once you were born. Because you were born as a human baby she decided you were too human to ever shift. She had no use for a non-shifting child. Two days after giving birth she left you.” His father blinked back tears.
“But why give me the medication? It’s stopped me from shifting all this time.”
“You shifted?” His father jumped to his feet. “Completely?”
James nodded.
The older man started to pace. “I need to recalculate your medicine. How have you been feeling?”
James told him about his hospital visit and asked the one question weighing on his mind. “Why did you give me the medication if you didn’t mind me shifting?”
“I didn’t know what else to do. You were in so much pain. Parts of your body kept shifting into lion and then going back to human. For a few days you were stuck between forms as if your body was trying to reject itself. I hated shifters for making you so miserable. I didn’t know your mother was a shifter until after we were married and expecting you. I didn’t believe her until she turned into a lion. She stayed that way until after your birth. Then she left and I had to raise a child by myself. At first I tried reaching out to other shifter communities but no one wanted anything to do with me. I grew to hate them. They were so confident of their superiority when they didn’t even have the compassion to take care of one of their own.”
James didn’t know what to say. Nothing his father said matched his experiences with the man. All this time he’d thought his father hated him, while he’d really only wanted the best.
“I—I’m sorry. I should’ve asked you a long time ago.”
His father shook his head and sat beside him again. “No. I should’ve talked to you when you got older. There’s no reason to let it go on for so long. I was wrong to hide the truth from you.”
“What about the People Against Werekin?”
“What about them?”
“You can’t keep it up, Dad. You can’t kidnap and kill people because you don’t like shifters.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve never captured or killed anyone.”
“PAW is capturing werekin and trying to kill them off.”
“My organisation is an outreach programme created to get the werekin to pay attention to us. To know they are responsible for the messes they create. They can’t just keep dropping their half-were kids onto society without providing for them. They are the ultimate deadbeat parents. I develop a serum to help half-shifters not shift until they are ready. In your case I thought you’d never be ready which is why I’ve always given you medication. Your memory lapses are from when I tweaked your medication and you partially shifted. Your mother made you and then abandoned you when you weren’t perfect.” The bitterness in his father’s voice made a lot of things clear.
“That’s why you hate shifters?”
His father nodded. “I want them to take responsibility for their actions. People Against Werekin was established to make the werekin aware of their issues. Werekin like to pretend finding a mate and settling down can solve everything, but when problems arise they dump their kids and move on. You can’t do that to children.”
“Well, if you are trying to alert them to issues, someone in your group is taking it further. The pride is talking about an agency called PAW that is trapping and killing shifters. Could you come back to the lion pride with me? I want you to talk to some people.”
“We’ll have to wait for Melinda to come back. She’s got my car.”
“No, we don’t.” James dialled the sheriff’s number. “Hey, handsome, can Dad and I get a ride?”
“Where are you going?” Lou asked.
“To the pride house. I think we need to sit down and talk with the lions.”
“I’ll be there in a few.”
When he hung up he found his father staring at him. “What?”
“Is that the guy from the restaurant?”
“Yeah, he’s the town sheriff.”
“Is he your boyfriend?”
“Not yet. He says he’s my mate.”
His father paled. “That’s what your mother always said about me.
”
“Then why did she leave? The lions keep telling me you never leave your mate.”
“I always thought it was because she didn’t want us anymore.”
James squeezed his father’s shoulder. “Maybe we should do a little investigation of our own.”
“Yeah, maybe we should. I don’t know how I feel about you having a shifter as a mate but I’ll try to get to know him.”
“Thanks. You might want to talk to Kevin, one of the pride lions. He’s established a bunch of houses to take in homeless shifter kids. Maybe the two of you can work on something together.”
He got the first genuine smile he’d seen on his father’s face in a long while. “I’d like to talk to him.”
* * * *
Lou didn’t know what to expect when he drove back to the motel, his heart jumping around in his chest like a landed salmon. Slamming the truck into park he leapt out and ran up the outside staircase. He stopped in front of the motel room door taking a moment to collect himself. Before he could knock, the door swung open.
Coming face to face with his mate had his heart fluttering again. If he didn’t claim this beautiful man soon he was going to have a heart attack.
“Hi.” He knew he sounded lame but every other thought vanished from his mind when those gold-ringed brown eyes met his.
“Hi.” James’ smile was brilliant. Lou frantically scanned the other man for signs of injury.
“You okay?”
“Of course he’s fine. What did you think I was going to do to him?” James’ father glared at him over his mate’s shoulder.
Lou shrugged. “Something I’d have to kill you for.”
Andrew gave a rusty laugh, like a man who was out of the habit. “As you can see, he’s fine, but we’d like to go talk to the lions. James told me some disturbing things about my organisation. It was never founded to capture and torture shifters. I want to hear what the lions have to say.”