“And you let them? Why not strap a cracker to your ass and call yourself lunch?
Ow! Damn it, Becky.” He rubbed the spot on his arm his curly-haired mate had just smacked.
“Ignore Garfield, he hasn’t had his Cat Chow yet.” Simon’s eyes flashed down at his mate, gold sparks dancing in the dark brown.
Bunny bit back his laugh. “And you’re making fun of my nickname?”
Max rubbed the side of his nose. “Why don’t you two have a seat while we wait for Gabe and Sarah.” He walked away, pointing languidly at Emma. “Not a word.”
“Damn. And I had so many of them, too.”
Max stopped and stared at Emma, one eyebrow rising.
Emma gave as good as she got, staring right back at her mate. From the way their mouths were curving, Bunny didn’t think there would be a fight, but the tension in the room seemed to ratchet up a notch. He wondered if the blond Alpha was about to drag his small mate up the stairs, Pride meeting be damned.
The doorbell rang, breaking the staring match between the two Alphas.
“I’ll get it.” The Marshall stood, moving with easy grace to the front door. “It’s Gabe and Sarah. One of you get a cold towel, she spilled some coffee on her hands again.”
Bunny frowned. “How did he know that?”
Emma waved Becky toward the kitchen and followed her through. “He’s the Marshall.”
And?
Sheri, Adrian’s mate, must have seen his confusion. “The Marshall can sense the physical well-being of every member of the Pride.” She frowned. “Your scent. It’s so…wild. Not like the other Bear in town.” She stared up at him, her pale blue gaze unfocused. Suddenly her eyes widened. “You’re a—”
“Hey, Bunny.” Gabe slapped him on the back, interrupting whatever it was Sheri had been about to say.
“Anderson. Learn anything about Chloe’s attacker yet?”
Gabe shook his head. “I wish I had some news already, but there were no witnesses. Nobody on the street heard or saw a thing. The evidence we’ve collected is still at the labs in Pittsburgh, so we have to wait.” He shrugged. “I wish I had more, but that’s all I’ve got so far. How is Chloe, by the way?”
Bunny could see the way the small brunette watched Gabe. Her short hair was windblown, her hands reddened. His fingers twitched, the urge to heal the small hurt nearly derailing his train of thought. This must be Gabe’s mate, the one who’d given Gabe fits over Chloe. “Still unconscious. Any idea when her mate is supposed to arrive?”
“Jimmy’s coming back?” Emma swept back into the room, a wet towel in her hands. “Here, Sarah. Wrap this around that burn.” She clucked her tongue. “That looks nasty.”
“Let me.” He took hold of the poor burned hands and breathed deep, the relief at being able to heal the small hurt releasing some of his tension. He opened himself up to his Bear and the spiral of the healing path. He mended the burned flesh, encouraged the new growth of tissue and forced the skin to reabsorb the swelling.
When he was done, no trace of the burn could be seen, and his legs were trembling with fatigue.
“Holy shit.” Adrian stared down at the woman’s hands, his eyes wide. “I felt that.”
He lifted his face, his gaze narrowed on Bunny. “I’d forgotten Bears could do that.”
The woman smiled up at him sweetly. “Thank you.” She patted his arm. “That really stung.”
Gabe took one of her hands in his own, stroking the healed skin. “I owe you one, Bear.”
Bunny shrugged, feeling uncomfortable with the awed reactions of the Pumas.
This sort of healing was as commonplace as hello among Bears. “It was nothing.”
Gabe’s jaw clenched. “You healed my mate. That means I owe you one.” His jaw relaxed and his brows shot up. “Unless you’d rather not have the man investigating the attack against your mate owe you?”
“Attack?” Emma frowned, taking a seat on the huge leather couch. “All I heard at the restaurant was talk of harassment.”
“Tabby was attacked outside her place of business a couple of days ago. A stink bomb was thrown through the window, and when she and the other girls ran out, she was hit on the back of the head hard enough for her to black out.”
Bunny glared at Tabby. He hadn’t known she’d lost consciousness. He might not have been quite so calm if he had.
“Look, before we get too far, why don’t we fill the others in on everything that’s been going on? We tend to get a little blind to what’s going on outside the Pride, so they might not know what all’s been happening.” Gabe took a seat in one of the side chairs and pulled his mate into his lap.
She settled in with a sigh, resting her head against his shoulder. “Good idea.”
Bunny took a seat on the couch again, Tabby next to him. Adrian and Sheri took up the remaining seats, leaving Emma in the other wing chair, Max standing by her side. Simon and Becky settled on the floor across from the couch, their backs to the entertainment center. “Okay, here’s what I know so far. Tabby was Outcast
—” he ignored the gasp of his mate “—for something she didn’t do. She roamed as a Wolf for about eight years before landing in Halle.” He stared at Gabe, willing him to understand what he was about to say. “And if anyone owes anyone else, it’s me who owes you and your grandmother for taking care of Tabby.”
Gabe nodded, acknowledging what he’d said. Bunny got the feeling he didn’t quite agree with him, but that was all right.
“Because of her status, this guy Gary feels he can do anything he wants to Tabby without repercussions.”
Max winced. “Unfortunately, he’s right. She’s without the protection of her Pack, set apart from them for a crime, whether she committed it or not. Unless she proves she’s worthy of joining another Pack or manages to get her old Alpha to take her back, she’s considered a criminal and fair game.”
Emma’s lips curled up in a wicked grin. He’d seen that grin before, on a cartoon when he’d been a kid. It was the same grin the Grinch had when he came up with his idea to dress as Santa and steal Christmas. The look sent shivers down Bunny’s spine. And from the looks her mate was giving her, he guessed the Alpha had no clue what his little mate was thinking.
“Great.” Bunny sighed and ran his hand over his bald head. The stubble there rasped against his palm. Time to shave again. “Anyway, he’s egged the store, bothered all of the girls who, by the way, are all human other than Tabby, and called her multiple times. I got to see him last night and, frankly, if I hadn’t been there, I’m not certain he would have stopped at harassing her. As it was, he tried to warn me off, telling me he had every right to bother my mate. In other words, he’s stalking her.”
“He’s given humans a hard time?” Max whistled. “Who’s his Alpha?”
Bunny blinked. “I have no clue.”
Gabe shrugged. “I’ve asked him, but he refuses to answer. The only thing I’ve been able to learn is he comes from New Mexico. I’m still running down his birth records. The college has been less than enthusiastic about turning over records and, without a warrant, they’re right. I can’t get one without probable cause.”
Gabe ran his hand up and down Sarah’s back. Whether it was to soothe her or himself, Bunny had no clue. “Besides, technically speaking, shifter law is on his side. The girls at Living Art are aware of what Tabby is and who the Pride members are, so they’re considered kin.”
Bunny could feel the helpless rage building up in him again. Did this mean that the little fucker could keep on taunting Tabby, possibly hurting her, and there was nothing he could do about it?
Fuck. That.
A soft hand landed on his arm. He looked up into the warm brown eyes of the Omega. “We’ll fix this. I promise.”
A calm peace he’d never felt off a yoga mat settled over him. He nodded, knowing she was right. Everything would be fine. Sarah smiled and sat back in her mate’s lap, her hands curled up in her own. Gabe took hold of her wrists, his
thumb stroking the insides. Something about the caress had Bunny taking notice. He stared at the sheriff and his mate, and wondered…
“Alex?”
“Hmm?” He turned back to find Tabby staring up at him. The fact that his name was pretty much the first word she’d uttered since walking in the front door soothed something deep inside him.
Tabby took a deep breath. “Tell them about Chloe.”
He growled. “Some asshole beat my cousin Chloe damn near to death and left her in the road like trash. She would have died if it hadn’t been for Julian Ducharme.
She’s still in a coma. Nothing we’ve done so far will wake her up.”
Max’s blue eyes flashed gold for a moment. “I heard. We’re going to look into that.” He exchanged a glance with Gabe and Adrian, who both nodded.
Sheri bit her lip. “Chloe’s such a sweet little thing. Who would want do that to her?”
“We don’t know, but so far the clues are few and far between.”
“I’m betting on Gary and the Gutless Wonders,” Tabby muttered.
“Gutless Wonders?” Max’s tone was not amused. “How many Pack members does Gary have with him?”
Tabby winced. “He has two others who follow him. Oh, and he sent a kid out for a tattoo of his Wolf. I recognized it from when he changed once, just before he found out I was Outcast.” And from her tone of voice that conversation had not been full of warm fuzzies. “He told the boy that if he got the tattoo he could join his fraternity.” Tabby made little quotation marks with her fingers and made a face. “For all I know, he’s changed people around campus, but since I don’t exactly hang out there, I have no idea what he’s really up to.”
Max growled, the sound feral and feline. His sky blue eyes were pure gold. A light mist pooled around his feet, his power spilling out into the room. Bunny had only seen something like that once before, when a Lion had tried to make his father bow down before him.
It hadn’t worked on William Bunsun, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to work on William Bunsun’s baby boy. His chin lifted in the face of the Alpha’s anger.
“Why didn’t I know about this?” Max stared around the room at his core hierarchy, his expression full of outrage. “He’s changing humans on my territory and I didn’t know about it?”
“Shit. How the hell were we supposed to know? How many other Prides do you know of that are based in a college town with other shifters in it?” Simon showed why he was this man’s Beta. Other than the twitch of his shoulders and a brief wince, he stood tall. Even the Marshall was hunched over, fighting his Alpha’s anger. The only other person in the room who wasn’t bowed down was Emma.
Even Tabby had her head lowered. “For the most part, they’ve come, respected our boundaries, kept to themselves, and gone home when they graduated.”
“Except now we’ve got a wannabe Wolf Alpha roaming the streets, a Fox in the hospital, a group of Bears on the warpath, and God knows what else on the way.”
Emma sounded more thoughtful than upset. She rested her elbow against her knee and propped her chin in her hand. “Who the hell stood over my cradle and talked about living in interesting times?”
Max turned to his spouse, amused. The mist retreated, his eyes turning back from gold to sky blue. “At least we don’t have any more Senators running through town and co-opting our people.”
“Do you think it was Gary who attacked Chloe?”
Bunny turned to find Sarah, Gabe’s mate, staring up at him. “I have no idea, but I’m not sure why he would. Does he even know she exists?”
They all stared at Tabby, who shrank in on herself. “How the hell would I know? I stay as far away from him as I can.”
Max pointed to Adrian. “Thoughts?”
The man frowned. “We need to set Puma guards on Chloe, make sure no one can get into her room without authorization.”
Bunny bristled. “My family is there. Trust me, no one will get to Chloe.”
Adrian nodded. “I’ll need to discuss with them a rotation, so that they can get some rest. I have some people I trust to put with her, and I’m sure Gabe can come up with a few names as well.” Gabe nodded. “I’m going to assume you’re researching any possible human involvement, like a work rival or a romantic one?” Gabe nodded again, his eyes rolling. “Okay.” Adrian turned back to Max.
“Everything’s being done on the Chloe side that we can do for now. Without Chloe being Puma, there isn’t any way for me to monitor her physically other than keeping in touch with Jamie Howard.”
“Do that.” Max pointed at both men. “I want regular updates on her condition.
Once she’s awake, we can find out from her what she saw of her attackers. Maybe she’ll be able to identify whether or not it was shifters who did this.”
“And if it was?”
Max eyed Gabe. “We find out if it was Pumas, specifically my Pumas, who did this. If it wasn’t, whoever it was is all yours. Hell, if it was my Pumas, they’re all yours after I Outcast them.”
Gabe’s answering grin was feral.
Whoever hurt Bunny’s baby cousin was going to pay in a big, big way.
“We still need to deal with the Gary issue,” Emma pointed out. “Whether or not he’s involved in Chloe’s attack we know he did something to Tabby.”
Speaking of which… “Gabe, could I talk to you alone for a moment?” Tabby tried to ignore the questioning look on Alex’s face. If he found out about Gary’s little stunt in the woods last week, he’d blow his top. There was no way she’d risk letting him go off in a rage. He’d get himself killed.
“Sure.” Gabe helped Sarah to her feet and stood, settling his mate back down in the chair they’d been occupying. He kissed her forehead and released her wrists.
“Be right back.”
Tabby pointed at Alex, who was about to rise and join them. “Sit. Stay. Good Bear.” She followed Gabe out onto Max’s back deck, ignoring the giggles coming from Emma.
Gabe stood in front of her and crossed his arms, his expression concerned.
“Okay, Tabby. What did you want to tell me that you didn’t want Bunny hearing?”
She described what had happened in the woods. Gary and his proto-Pack surrounding her, the look of lust on their faces. The way Gary had tried to punch out her windshield to get to her.
By the time she was done, Gabe’s eyes had gone gold and he was cursing up a blue streak. “Why didn’t you call me immediately?”
“I meant to, I really did. But I kept getting distracted.”
He glared at her.
She winced. Damn it, he knew her so well, and they’d been friends for only six months. “Fine. I was worried that some people would blame me.” She was Outcast, despite Bunny’s unwavering support. There were those who would hear what Gary had done and shrug, thinking it nothing more than she deserved.
Some would actively encourage Gary, hoping to drive her away. It was one of the many reasons she’d stayed Wolf for years rather than try to find a home in the shifter world. Real wolves didn’t care that she’d been Outcast.
It had been lonelier than anything she’d ever been forced to endure. She prayed every night that she’d never have to face living like that again.
“Admit it. You were worried Max would kick you out of Halle.”
She bit her lip. “Yeah. I was.”
“Tabby. ” Gabe ran his hands through his hair, obviously frustrated. “How many times do I have to tell you? You’re home, okay? No one is going to take that away from you, especially not Max.”
Max could take it away by simply turning his back on her. “You don’t have the authority to say that, and you know it. You aren’t the Alpha.”
“No, but the Alpha listens to me, especially when it comes to Outcasts and rogues. I’m a Hunter, for crying out loud. Hell, his Marshall has vouched for you, his Omega thinks you’re wonderful and wants a fucking tattoo now, thank you very much, and even his Curana is in there fighting for you! And Emma barely
knows you! So let it go, Tabby.” He pulled her into a hug. “Whether you believe it or not, you’re home.”
She shuddered, collapsing into the embrace. Gabe was solid warmth, his feline scent tickling her nostrils in a—
“Excuse me. Is this a private party or can anyone join?”
She lifted her head to find the back door open. Alex stood there, leaning against the doorjamb, his hands jammed into his pockets. His fangs had descended. He was eyeing Gabe’s hands at Tabby’s waist.
Gabe’s hands lifted up and stepped away from her. “Mind out of the gutter, Bunny. Tabby’s like a sister to me.”
“Just like Chloe, huh?”
Gabe groaned. “When will people get over that? We never dated! God, as soon as she wakes up, I’m kicking her ass all over again.”
Alex relaxed and chuckled, his fangs receding. “No kicking girl ass. That’s just wrong.”
“Please. Like Chloe wouldn’t willingly kick my ass up and down the block if she thought I deserved it.” Gabe shook his head. “It’s hard to see her in that hospital bed.”
“Tell me about it.” He studied Gabe’s face for a moment. “Are you going to fill me in on what my mate’s hiding from me?”
Gabe shook his head. “Wish I could, but she has to be the one to tell you.”
“Thanks a lot. Traitor.” Tabby glared up at Gabe, ignoring the way Alex was watching her. All of his attention was suddenly focused on her, and not in a good way.
Gabe hesitated only for a moment, then shrugged and headed back inside. “Do me a favor, Tabby. Tell him. Trust him. He’s your mate.”
She nodded. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Alex. She just didn’t want Gary to get his hands on him. Gary would fuck him up without thinking twice about it.
Alex stepped out. Gabe shut the door behind him, giving the two of them their privacy. “Tabby?”
Better rip the Band-Aid off. “Gary attacked me one morning after a run. He and his goons cornered me out in the woods, up against my car. I’m pretty sure they were going to rape me.”
Alex’s whole body rippled. His fangs descended. His nails blackened, lengthening two inches. He freaking grew about six inches, the seams of his shirt popping, his jeans creaking against the strain. Considering he was pretty massive to begin with, it was impressive. “Where does Gary live?”
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