by Amber Kell
“Looks that way,” Payce agreed in a choked tone.
Kevin pulled himself out of his depression to notice that the slashing on the bed and couch, attributed to a knife, looked surprisingly like claws. He kept quiet because that wasn’t something you discussed in front of the humans.
Whoever was angry with Payce wasn’t of the human variety.
Payce made a list of his damaged property for the police and his insurance company. Once he’d gathered another small bag of his belongings, he followed Kevin back to his truck.
Kevin leaned against the door instead of getting in. “What do you want to do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t want to stay with me. Did you want me to take you to a hotel?” He’d drop Payce wherever he wanted to go. He needed to get back home and lick his wounds. As much as he’d rather stay and watch over his mate, he wasn’t wanted, and as much as he longed for his mate, he wasn’t going to beg.
“Is that what you thought I was saying?” Payce dropped his bag on the ground and wrapped Kevin in his arms. “I’m not saying I don’t want you for a mate. I just think we need to discuss what I’m going to do with my life instead of you planning it without me.”
Payce placed a kiss on Kevin’s head. “Don’t give up on me, my mate. I just need time to adjust to belonging to someone.”
Kevin slid out of Payce’s arms. “I’ll give you all the time you need.”
He couldn’t face the jaguar. “Come on, let’s get to a hotel and see if we can figure this out.” He’d stay with Payce until they could figure who was after his mate. Then he’d let the other man go. He couldn’t force the jaguar to want him. Words of love said while having sex didn’t count.
Payce entered the hotel, barely taking in the luxurious surroundings. He could feel Kevin’s pain through their mating link. His overtures were politely rebuffed, and the sparkling shine in Kevin’s gold eyes was dull and lifeless.
He’d done that.
He’d crushed his mate.
Blinking back tears, Payce set his bags on the couch, then sat beside them.
“I’m gonna call my family,” Kevin told him, going out to the balcony doors.
Payce bit his lip to stop from blurting out that he was already with part of his family. He didn’t say it, though. He’d lost that chance when he’d told Kevin he wasn’t at home in the mountain. He was still kicking himself over that one.
If he could go back in time and take those thoughtless words back, he would.
Kevin came back into the room and gave him a weak smile.
“Tia said she’d talk to the boys and tell them I’ll be away for a few days. I’ll call them back when they get home from school.”
“Where do they go to school?”
“There’s a shared shifter and human school in town.”
“Really? The humans don’t worry about their kids?”
“Nope. There are strict rules and a shifter adult is in each classroom as room helper. We all donate a few hours a week and playtime is segregated so the shifter kids can play a little rougher. It also helps build shifter-human relations. You’re less likely to be prejudiced against shifters if you’ve been friends since kindergarten.”
“Makes sense.”
He walked closer to his mate, the jaguar in him seeking his mate’s touch.
Kevin stepped back, pain flaring in his eyes. “Don’t,” the lion’s voice cracked.
“Don’t what? Don’t touch my mate. You might as well tell me to stop breathing. When I said I hadn’t planned on moving in with you, I didn’t mean never. I meant I hadn’t thought that far ahead. You immediately thought the worse, why?”
Kevin glanced away for a moment, walking to the large glass balcony doors. “When I was eighteen, I was tossed out of my mother’s pride. I know it’s the lion way, but it was the worst feeling I’d ever felt. One minute I was a loved and cosseted lion cub; the next I was unwanted and alone in the world. I promised myself I would never make my children feel that way. Before I joined Talan’s pack, I made him swear that my boys could stay as long as they didn’t challenge him for alpha position. I want them to make the choice to move on instead of being shoved out of the pride. We might be part animal, but we’re part human too. When I thought you rejected me, all of those old feelings came back.”
“Oh, honey.” Payce went over to his mate. “I never meant you to feel I didn’t want you.” He turned his reluctant lover to face him. “You’re a little overwhelming, babe.”
Kevin’s eyes gained some of their sparkle.
Payce decided to chance it. He leaned in for a kiss. Relief rushed through him when Kevin didn’t pull away. “I will always want you. Just because we fight, don’t think it means you’re unwanted. I might be frustrated with you or angry, but I will always want you. When you pull away, I can feel it in here.” Payce touched the spot over his heart. “It’s painful for both of us.”
Kevin’s eyes glowed sadly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, darlin’.”
“I know.” Payce wrapped his arms around his mate, soaking in his scent. “We just need to get used to belonging together. Any new relationship is hard. Being bound together doesn’t mean we magically understand each other. Like anything else, it will take a lot of work.”
Kevin nodded against his shoulder.
A soft chiming had Kevin reaching for his phone. After glancing at the number, he stepped away from his mate. “Sorry, I’ve gotta take this.”
Payce listened to Kevin’s side of the conversation, which apparently involved building some sort of center. He enjoyed watching his lover pace as he talked. He could see the lion stalking underneath each step.
So sexy.
Payce’s own phone rang.
He didn’t recognize the number. Shrugging, Payce pressed the connect button.
“I have your friend.”
The voice was deep, raspy, and completely unrecognizable.
“What friend?”
“The coyote.”
Payce swallowed the lump in his throat. Dennis, his only friend, was in danger. “What do you want?”
“All of you fucking shifters dead. You’re an abomination.”
“So you’re going to kill Dennis no matter what I do?”
There was a pause. “I’ll send him to you in little pieces if you don’t go where I tell you. Feel free to bring your fancy lion friend with you. The more shifters the merrier.” The man’s chilling laughter froze Payce’s heart.
Fuck.
“Here’s the address.”
Payce scrambled to grab a hotel pen and a piece of hotel stationery. He quickly scratched down the address, then agreed to the time and place before the connection was cut. He dropped the phone and collapsed on the bed.
Kevin was there in seconds, stroking his forehead with his large warm fingers.
“What’s going on?”
“Apparently I’m being stalked by shifter haters. They have my friend Dennis. He’s a coyote.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get him back.”
Payce opened his eyes to examine at his mate’s worried expression. “He said I could bring you, the more shifters the merrier. Apparently he isn’t concerned with confronting the two of us.”
“The more shifters the merrier, huh?” A sly expression crossed Kevin’s face, unsettling on the usually friendly shifter. “Let me make a few phone calls.”
* * *
An hour later, they were speeding down the street to an address in the warehouse district. Neither of them decided to call the police because a stressed Dennis might have shifted and harmed any humans who showed up on site.
“Are you sure this plan of yours is going to work?” Payce asked his mate nervously.
“Of course, darlin’. I wouldn’t bring you if I thought you could get killed. I don’t know this Dennis friend of yours and he’s not my mate, so I could live with him bein’ killed.” His gold eyes flashed over to Payce. “You aren’t replaceable.”
&nb
sp; Despite his concern for his friend, Payce felt a rush of love for his overprotective mate.
“He’s the only friend I have, so I’d like to keep him in one piece.” Dennis was important to him. He only had the few people he cared about keeping safe.
“We’ll do our best, hon,” Kevin said in his easy relaxed manner. Payce wasn’t fooled. The werelion’s hands were gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.
The warehouse they stopped in front of looked like every other nondescript building on the street. Payce’s nerves were strung so tight he was surprised they weren’t pinging.
He didn’t know who was in there, but he knew this was a trap. They wouldn’t feel safe inviting two shifters if they didn’t think they had the upper hand.
The door opened as they reached it. Payce was shocked to see his foreman grinning at him from the entrance.
“You fucker! I told them you were innocent.”
Jim gave him a sinister smile. “That was sweet of you. Now they won’t search for me when you’re gone.”
Kevin growled beside him. “Sorry,” Payce said to his mate.
“Don’t just stand there. Come on in and let me introduce you to some people.”
Knowing this was a big mistake but unable to figure out how to get out of it, Payce followed Kevin into the warehouse. He stopped in his tracks at the sight of Dennis pacing a cage in coyote form. His eyes showed the panic he was feeling. There wasn’t much space for the animal to pace, but it kept trying.
Payce’s heart broke at the despair evident in every line of his friend’s body.
A group of around two dozen people stood around the cage, staring at it with varying degrees of contempt.
Payce jumped a little when the door slammed shut behind them.
“Welcome. This is a meeting of PAW, People Against Werekin. Cute name, don’t you think?”
Payce wanted to rip the foreman’s throat out. It must have shown in his eyes because the man paled and took a careful step back before continuing. “Your friend Dennis here is instrumental in helping identify werekin.”
Payce’s eyes went back to his friend. Dennis now crouched naked in human form in the middle of the cage, his eyes filled with guilt.
“Dennis?”
“I had to.” Dennis was close to tears, and Payce’s heart was breaking for the friendship he thought they had but was apparently a figment of his imagination.
“They have my sister,” Dennis shouted.
“Shut up!” Jim snarled.
“Why do you hate us?” Payce asked.
“Because you’re nothing but filthy beasts. My mother dumped my father and me as soon as a weretiger came by and claimed she was his mate. Suddenly we were nothing. Nothing! She just walked away. Every day for the rest of my childhood, my father blamed me. If I hadn’t introduced her to my teacher, he’d still have a wife.” Jim lifted his shirt, exposing a mishmash of scars covering his stomach. “This is what werekin did to me. We all have similar stories.”
The assorted crowd nodded their heads.
“That doesn’t make me responsible. It was your father that tortured you. It’s a terrible thing, but he was a human and you don’t blame all humans,” Payce said.
Jim’s face twisted into an evil sneer. “He was the best father a boy could want until that weretiger took everything from us. It was the beast that caused the change. My father never laid a hand on me until she left.”
“So in return, you’re going to torture other innocent people. How does that even make sense?”
Payce didn’t know what he was doing. Madmen didn’t listen to reason. The crowd wasn’t going to wake up and realize he was right. Now he was learning that the man he thought was his friend was the same one who put him and his mate in danger.
“If you’re all dead, this can’t happen to another boy.”
“You need counseling,” Payce said. He was surprised to notice his mate hadn’t said a thing.
Kevin was looking down at his phone.
“You make a call and I’ll shoot him in the head.” Jim pulled a shotgun off a shelf behind him and pointed it at Payce.
“I don’t need to make a call,” Kevin said, still focused on his phone.
Jim shifted his feet. “Why are you staring at it then?”
“I’m just checkin’ the time.” Kevin’s drawl was slow and easy. Payce knew his mate had made a few calls before he came, but he was waiting along with Jim for the explanation.
Glass shattered as dozens of wolves broke through the warehouse windows followed by a stream of lions. The screams of humans rang in Payce’s ears. The werekin left no one standing.
“Y’all are two minutes late,” Kevin reprimanded. “I was ‘bout to have to do something myself.”
“We wouldn’t want to put you out,” the lion alpha said, walking up to the pair. Payce worked hard to meet the alpha’s gaze, but a quick glance down let him know why Adrian was a happy, happy wolf.
“Called your alpha, huh?” Payce asked. Being a loner, it hadn’t even occurred to him to call for outside help.
“No, he called my mate,” Talan said. “His brother decided it was too dangerous for him to come alone.”
Payce looked over to see the Adrian glaring at Dennis through the bars. “Look, I found a coyote. Can we kill him?”
The pack of wolves circling the cage reminded Payce for the first time that wolves hated coyotes. Apparently that dislike carried through to the shifter world.
“Not until he answers some questions,” Payce said.
Striding over to the cage, Payce looked at his former friend who glared back defiantly. “How could you turn me over to that creep?”
“He’s holding my sister hostage, and now I’ll never know where she is.”
“So it was all right to let him kill more shifters? Do you think that’s what she’d want?”
“Well, he is a coyote,” Adrian offered.
“Not helping, sweetie,” Talan said.
Adrian bared a fang toward his lover.
“She’d want to stay alive,” Dennis said. “Are you going to let me out of here?”
Talan reached over and ripped the door off the cage. “There you go. I’d be careful about leaving with all the wolves around.”
“Can you help me find my sister?” Dennis asked Payce.
“I’m a tile guy and you tried to get me killed. What makes you think I would help you?”
Dennis swallowed hard. “I swear, Payce, if I thought I could find her any other way, I wouldn’t have turned on you. Besides you’re one of the toughest shifters I know. I knew if anyone could survive Jim it would be you.”
“Adrian could find her. He has a lot of contacts,” Kevin said.
Everyone looked at Adrian, who was still glaring at Dennis like he wanted to rip his throat out.
“Y’all play nice now. You wouldn’t like it if it was your sister-in-law,” Kevin interceded.
Adrian’s expression lost some of its hostility. “True. Come with us, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’d keep an eye on your friend if I were you. I don’t know how long Adrian can keep his natural dislike of coyotes at bay and he’s used to getting his way.” Talan eyed his mate.
Payce inserted himself between Adrian and Dennis as they walked out of the warehouse.
Chapter 7
Payce tiptoed away from the office where Dennis, Adrian, Talan, and Kevin were huddled around Adrian’s computer desk. He’d put it off long enough, but it was time to talk to Tia. He didn’t want the woman to hate him or think he hated her. He found her in the kitchen, curled around a plate of brownies.
“Hello,” he said hesitatingly.
Her wide gold eyes, so like her sons’, were wide with trepidation. “Hi.”
She grabbed a napkin to wipe the chocolate from her mouth but didn’t say anything else.
“I thought it would be good if we got to know each other a little since the father of your children is my mate.�
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“Were they bothering you?”
“What? No, no. They’re adorable. I think Quinn is a little concerned about a new person in their dad’s life, but Chase likes me. They’re sweet kids.”
He finally got a smile from that. “Yeah, they are.”
“I wanted to say how sorry I am for attacking you the other day. I don’t have the best control over my beast. It’s getting better, but it’s still shaky. Now that I’ve completed my mating with Kevin, that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”
Tia approached. “Try sniffing me.”
Payce walked closer to get her scent. He pressed his nose to her neck to get a good infusion of her fragrance.
“That better not be what it looks like, or I’m whopping both of your asses!” Kevin’s gravelly drawl filled the air.
Payce stepped away from Tia so fast he almost fell. Spinning, he turned to face his mate.
“I was checking her scent.”
“You didn’t need to get that close.” Kevin stalked up to Payce. He could see the lion close to the surface with every step his mate took.
“I wanted to make sure.”
Kevin wrapped his arms around Payce’s waist. “What did you learn?”
“That her scent isn’t driving me crazy anymore. I didn’t feel the need to attack her.”
Kevin placed a light kiss on Payce’s forehead. “That’s because you know I’m yours.” The satisfaction in Kevin’s voice made him laugh.
“Yeah, you are mine.”
“We found her.”
Dennis marched into the room, a bounce in his step.
Kevin gave a low growl. The big lion still hadn’t forgiven the coyote for betraying Payce. For his part, Payce wasn’t totally aboard the ‘forgive and forget’ train either.
A low purr rolled from Tia’s lips. Kevin and Payce turned to watch the lioness. Tia’s eyes were focused on Dennis as if he were a mouse and her cat wanted to play.
“Who are you?”
Dennis appeared more panicked than attracted, and Payce couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “This is Dennis.”
“Dennis, who almost got the father of my children and his mate killed?” Tia’s look turned more feral than friendly.