by Anya Nowlan
He stepped outside, not turning on the porch light. His eyes got accustomed to the darkness fast, gold muddling out the gray, and the big tiger shifter stood, hands rolled into fists, sniffing at the air.
Another crackle to the right of him, and his head whipped to the side, seeking out the large form in the darkness. The body of a big Siberian tiger, slinking gracefully toward him, as big as he was when shifted. Atlas snarled under his breath, his muscles tensing. He knew those markings. He knew that slow, languid step, that utter arrogance. His younger brother. It couldn’t be anyone else.
“Grayve, what the hell are you doing here?” he asked, seething, pressing the words through his teeth.
The tiger stopped, sitting down on its haunches. It looked at him almost curiously, large golden eyes unblinking, his long tail curling around its paws for a moment. The perfect picture of regality, of poise and monstrous strength contained. Everything Atlas had never wanted to be. Atlas growled again, now louder, his eyes the same gold, even deeper than Grayve’s.
As if giving itself over to the nonsense of the situation, the tiger seemed to sigh before the shift took it. A moment later, Grayve stood before him, taller now, stronger. As tall as Atlas, maybe with shoulders as wide, but not the same strength. Not yet. Grayve had been pampered and appreciated. He hadn’t fought for every single thing he had now like Atlas had. He lacked the sinewy strength of a life of hard work and it was painfully obvious. But the smug smirk on his lips told Atlas that the young tiger royal before him did not care.
“Brother,” Grayve allowed with a slight nod, stepping onto the porch, offering his hand.
Atlas didn’t take it.
“What the fuck do you want, Grayve? What are you doing here?”
In that moment he could hear the softest creak of one of the floorboards in the house, making his stomach drop. Layla was right there, so close. So close to his brother, a man he could have never trusted, and who clearly was not making a courtesy call. He would just have to hope that she would not come out.
“Get out of here,” he said, raising his voice, hoping that Layla would hear too and know to stay back.
“What’s the matter, brother? Don’t recognize me anymore? Has life with the commoners ruined you so quickly?” Grayve mused out loud, padding down the length of the porch.
He was dressed in well-fitting slacks and a white button-up, the fabric straining against his muscles, the licking tongues of tattoos visible through his sleeves. Compared to the almost wild-looking Atlas, he was a completely different beast. One that was sleek, cared for. Dangerous in a different way.
“Oh, I recognize you all right. I just want you off my fucking property,” Atlas said, all snarl, ready to hurl himself at the younger tiger at a moment’s notice.
“Why is that? Could it be the pretty little whore you have in the house? Or her bastard child?”
Grayve turned to face Atlas now and his heart sunk. Of course it had to have something to do with his son. His heart iced over, cold fury gripping him. In two steps, he was at Grayve’s side, practically hanging the man up by his shirt, pressing his back against one of the corner posts of the porch.
“What the fuck did you say, Grayve? You wanna fucking repeat that? You never mention my son, or my girl, you hear that? Never.”
Grayve brought his hands up in a placating way, grinning like a cat that had gotten into the milk.
“Chill out, brother dearest. I don’t care about your bitch in heat. I just care that you passed along the genes. Father was… ambivalent. But you know the boy has to come with us. He’s the next Alpha. Maybe we won’t make the same mistakes with him as we did with you, hmm?” Grayve queried, smirking.
Not that he would know. He was two years younger than Atlas, but unlike Atlas, he had always reveled in the thought of the old tiger ways. How they were some of the fastest and strongest shifters, capable of bringing bears and lions down easily enough. And how unlike those wretched species, they hadn’t fallen into squalor, hadn’t forgotten about their past. Everything that made Atlas gag.
“You won’t lay a fucking hand on my kid,” Atlas growled, his face up close against Grayve’s.
“Yeah? You think? I knew he existed far before you did, brother,” Grayve said, a chill in his tone.
That finally surprised Atlas. He took a step back, letting go of Grayve, a deep frown on his face. What was this, some sort of a trick?
Did they send Layla to me? No, that’s impossible… she’s not a tigress.
“The moment you met her, I knew. I followed her. I’ve been watching that brat grow… but I needed to be sure he was yours before I brought him home. A half-breed in our bloodline. Guess we’ll have to live with it. How do you think her sister ever found you? I sent her the link, your profile among them, when she was looking around for you online. Humans. So fucking predictable.”
Grayve sounded incredibly smug, so amused with himself. Atlas’s hands were shaking, his breath ragged. Knowing that his brother had been so close to Adrian all along, biding his time… only waiting to see if he was truly Atlas’s son? Disgust roiled in the pit of his stomach, anger fusing with it.
And what was this now? Grayve just wanting to rub it in?
“If you’ve hurt one hair on his head…”
“Your kid is safe with that other traitor,” Grayve said with a wave of his hand. “I just wanted to give you one last chance. Take the boy. Leave the bitch. Come back home. Father is waiting for you. You’ll never be Alpha, obviously, but there’s a place for you… there are so few of us as it is. We shouldn’t let some human blood get between us.”
That was it. Atlas couldn’t take it anymore. He let the tiger forth, his body beginning to morph and twist. Limbs elongated and his body stretched, thick red, black and white fur spreading over him. His head got blockier, nose flattening, and horrific teeth growing into his mouth, until he stood on the porch, a Siberian tiger at the prime of his life.
His brother shifted even faster. Neither one waited. They threw themselves at each other with reckless abandon. Snarls so loud that the house must have shook on its foundation echoed into the night sky as they tumbled off of the porch into the darkness. Atlas ripped at Grayve, letting his nails sink into his brother’s sides, teeth searching for his neck.
But Grayve was slightly smaller and faster, wiggling out from underneath him and pouncing on him instead, getting ahold of his neck. Atlas snarled, twisting in the grip, until he brought both of them down on the grass, one on top of the other, with their positions constantly changing. He could feel pain radiating up his flank, but he didn’t care. Grayve had also definitely punctured his neck, but he couldn’t feel himself getting woozy yet, so the wound must not have been too deep.
When the porch light flicked on, Atlas took his chance. Grayve glanced back, and Atlas finally managed to pin him down in earnest, biting down into his neck immediately. Grayve twisted and turned in his grip, slashing at Atlas, but it only took a few moments until his body began getting limp and Atlas tasted coppery blood in his mouth. That of his own brother.
Finally, Grayve slumped against the grass and Atlas could let go, falling backward on his haunches in shock. Grayve started shifting back, unconscious and bleeding, and Atlas could only stare down at the prone body.
A second later, the door flung open and Layla came running out, dressed in one of Atlas’s big flannel shirts, her eyes wild with worry, but the med kit he kept in the house in her hands.
“Are you okay?” she demanded, not an ounce of fear in her eyes as she kneeled down next to Grayve, only a few feet from Atlas, who was still in his tiger form.
He looked from Grayve to Layla, whose hands were working with impossible speed trying to put pressure on Grayve’s extensive wounds, before he could snap out of the situation. He let the shift take him, willing his tiger to understand that they were safe. Layla, Adrian, both of them.
When he had shifted back, Layla was coated in blood already, her movements frantic. Atl
as shook his head, standing up, but not before kissing her on the head.
“Where are you going?” she asked, breathless.
“To call for help,” he said numbly, running into the kitchen and dialing the phone for Kacey and Warren’s place, the only nurse in town.
He might have just killed his brother. And he couldn’t feel an ounce of regret if it meant that his family was safe.
My family. Layla and Adrian.
Nine
Layla
It was a frantic night at the little nurse’s station that Shifter Grove had. Grayve was in no situation to be moved or transported to one of the hospitals, since even with Slate’s helicopter it would have been at least an hour. So he had to be treated there.
She’d watched with wide eyes as the community gathered, helping where they could, several people alongside Atlas giving blood. Slate was among them, as only tiger blood could really do the trick, but he was losing volume so fast that anything with the right type would have to do.
Thanks to her medical training as a midwife, she was constantly in the room, helping Kacey, who had become rather adept at fixing up even the most grievous of wounds. Seemed like this was no rare occurrence in Shifter Grove.
“Happens more than we’d like to admit,” was her glum response.
All night, Layla had watched Atlas sit or pace in the waiting room, Adrian either in his arms or sleeping on one of the chairs. He wouldn’t let the baby out of his sight. It had been a whole song and dance to get him to sit down and let her dress his own wounds, including a particularly ugly gash over his ribs. He hadn’t made a sound when she’d cleaned it out.
“I can’t believe this fucking happened,” he said, his jaw set and his eyes flashing with fury. “My own fucking brother…”
Slate had stayed the whole night too, having sent Teresa home with the kids when it was clear they couldn’t do anything else. It seemed that Slate being there helped, though. He had a similar story to tell.
“It happens. To too many of us. This is what we’ve been running from. Sometimes it catches up. You did what you had to do,” Slate had said, clapping Atlas on the back.
Atlas hadn’t said a word.
So Layla had been there for him when she could, and kept him updated when she couldn’t. By the morning, Grayve wasn’t out of the woods, but he was good enough to be airlifted out.
As they stood outside in the early morning light, Layla blinked her eyes a few times, adjusting to it. She’d heard the whole confrontation. Every word. Every question, every answer. Her hand slipped into Atlas’s big palm and she looked up at him, willing him to meet her gaze.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“For what?” he asked, Adrian sleeping with his head on Atlas’s shoulder.
“For doing that… for us.”
A slight frown passed over Atlas’s features and he bent down, kissing her softly on the forehead.
“Don’t say that. I would do anything for you. He stopped being my brother the moment he knew you were pregnant and wouldn’t tell me.”
“But he said he wasn’t sure.”
“Bullshit,” Atlas growled. “We can smell our own. The scent is unmistakable. He knew the boy was mine. He just wanted to see how strong he was, if he could keep up with full-blooded tigers. The fucking wretch. You know half of them still believe we can’t even mate with humans? A tale told to the young tigers so they’d never have a chance to make up their own minds before it’s too late. I’ve never been so ashamed of my own kind,” he said, pain evident in his voice.
She squeezed his hand, hearing the helicopter nearing as Kacey and Warren wheeled out Grayve on the gurney.
“We’re your family now, Atlas. No matter what,” she said, meaning every word.
He looked down at her, smiling the saddest smile she’d ever seen, but one that also had hope in it. Hope that they’d never have to go through something like that again. Standing next to him gave her a chance to breathe. Her hand in his felt right, oh so right.
It wasn’t only the evening they’d spent together that had shown her that they were right for one another, but the whole night. The long, horrific night where she’d had to fear for her own life, her child’s, and her man’s as well. Not only that, but she also had to save the life of a man who had wanted to separate her from her boy, and do it without losing faith, without losing her will to help.
It had been the hardest night of her life. But she’d come through it. Standing next to Atlas, she knew they could overcome anything. Anything at all.
Epilogue
Atlas
Making a new start was never easy.
It was hard work. Planning, plotting, and preparation went into it, but also a lot of sacrifices. It was the latter that a lot of people had problems with, Atlas had always thought. But that had turned out to be the easiest thing for him to do.
He had stayed at Grayve’s side until his little brother came out of the medically-induced coma he had been put into to give his body a chance to heal. The moment Grayve opened his eyes, his gray-golden depths wide with surprise, Atlas had stood up and not looked back. He’d marched out of that hospital room and as far as he was concerned, his debt to his brother, and his old family, had been repaid.
Despite everything Grayve had done to him, he hadn’t killed him. He’d held back, he’d given blood, he’d waited and worried. Now, Grayve was awake, lucid, and most definitely alive. That was all the caring Atlas could find within himself. As far as he was concerned, his streak and his family of tigers no longer existed.
The moment he’d gotten back, he’d sat down with Diesel, the local sheriff, and explained the whole thing. Diesel had taken his confession, written it down and promptly discarded it. It wasn’t the first occurrence of something like that in Shifter Grove and it wouldn’t be the last. Shadows of old lives tended to try and catch up with people, but as long as the two sides handled it and no one ended up dead, then discretion could be used.
Atlas was damn sure that Grayve wouldn’t be coming to press charges. It’d take him long enough to learn how to stand again. He wouldn’t have time to worry about it.
Remorse bloomed in his chest for the fact that things had ended as they had. Against reason, he’d held up hope that things would eventually work out. That they were not beyond salvaging. That there could be some hope for his streak. But he’d been wrong. He couldn’t care anymore. Atlas had much more important things to worry about now.
Like the woman he loved. And his child.
Arrangements to move Layla to Idaho had been made quickly enough. With the boom of babies around Shifter Grove, Kacey was happy to add her to her practice, and between the two of them, they could provide all the loving care the young mothers and grievously wounded idiots in Shifter Grove needed. And that meant that Atlas had his woman with him all the time.
It had taken another two months before he had proposed, wanting to make sure that she did not regret her decision. He’d never want to force anything on Layla. It would have to be a partnership. Always. She’d accepted two seconds later.
And now it was the day. The day he had been waiting for.
The suit itched a little, but Slate and a score of the other shifters had assured him that it was normal. Battle, the big bear lumberjack, had given him a knowing nod. They were about the same size, mountains of men. Not meant to be tucked into endless buttons and ties and what not. But the way Layla looked at him as she walked down the aisle—in a white dress, her cheeks flush with a pink blush—made it all worth it.
I’m the luckiest tiger in the world, he thought, beaming with delirious joy.
He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. The only time he did was when he glanced at Adrian, having been escorted down the aisle by Lily, who was sitting in the front row and waving at him with the now-empty ring cushion in his lap.
When Layla’s hands slipped into his palms, he took a big breath. A relieved one. She grinned, her eyes bluer than the clear skies abo
ve them, the Idaho summer blessing them with a gorgeous day. All of their friends and family were there, though in Atlas’s case, his friends had become his family. Right alongside Layla and Adrian, of course.
He gave her a fond smile, wanting badly to kiss her, but knowing that he was supposed to behave himself for a short while longer. And then he could kiss her for the rest of her life, because she’d be his. Officially.
The big ceremony was really only for Layla’s friends, because they’d made their own vows that morning, just the two of them. But he wanted everything to be right, for both the shifter side and the human side. The traditions had to be respected. It was now his and Layla’s job to build the kind of legacy they wanted to leave their son, and hopefully to other kids in the future as well. He wanted to be proud of everything he’d done and there was no better time to start than the present.
“You look beautiful, baby,” he whispered.
“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she replied with a giggle.
“Can’t wait to get you out of that dress though,” he added, giving her a wicked smile.
“Well, a little bit of patience… you know how it goes.”
Layla winked at him and it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. Atlas squeezed her hands and his lips ached to kiss her. This ceremony couldn’t be over soon enough!
“I think I’m exceptionally good at patience,” he grumbled playfully.
“Well, so am I. So we can wait a tiny bit longer, right?”
“If we have to,” he said with a heavy, dramatic sigh, turning to face the minister.
He’d be willing to wait for a lifetime for that woman.
Also by Anya Nowlan
Want more? Pick up one of Anya’s other Shifter Grove series:
Bear the Burn – First Book of Firebear Brides
Make Him Purr – First Book of Shifter Grove Brides