Blood Moon Cat Clan

by Bevill, C. L.

  “Oh my!” Per said with the proper amount of surprise. Took Wheeler long enough. Hell, took them both long enough. When Emma bounced him in the forest two years ago, Wheeler should have figured out it was time already.

  “Did you hear about the humans who took Emma?” Ulric added, eager to gossip with someone he thought didn’t know about it.

  Per frowned. The news had been sporadic. He’d heard only that Emma had been recovered safely. There was something about humans who were doing things to weres which made the tiger in him bristle with rage.

  “They had a breeding group,” Ulric said with anger filling his voice. “They coordinated with outlaw weres to kidnap others of our kind. It’s how they trapped Emma.”

  “One of us helped them?” Per said coldly. Like many of the weres in the Cat Clan, he’d been a born were but he couldn’t help but like the inimitable Emma Lucia. The thought of someone hurting the diminutive were appalled Per. The awareness that it was one of their own who had done the hurting was more than appalling.

  Wheeler will take care of the outlaw. Won’t be much left when Wheeler gets done.

  “Yeah, the outlaw got away,” Ulric said. “It was a cougar by the name of Martinez. Emma said he spoke with a Mexican accent. Turns out his group was hitting clans all over North America. Some hit in Europe and India, too. Not just cats but other shifters, too. Wolves, birds, some I’ve never even heard about.” He made a face. “The word’s out now. Won’t get anyone else without a fight, and his ass is history.”

  Per shifted his bag on his shoulder. He really wanted to get inside the mansion and take a long shower. A strong wolf aroma still permeated his clothing, and he hadn’t had time to change clothes. The Whitelaw shifter hadn’t been initially responsive to dropping his pursuit of the Cat Clan. Also, he’d thought he could take one of the clan’s Elite Cat Warriors. He’d been wrong. So had his computer.

  “The Council stepped in and took all the humans away.” Ulric considered. “Well, the ones still alive anyway. The Council activated one of their protocols. There wasn’t any evidence left about weres.”

  “I heard about the explosion at an old military facility in Wyoming,” Per said. It sounded like something the Council would do. A billionaire, a state senator, and his brother blown into smithereens didn’t just go on the back page of The New York Times. But knowing Wheeler, it might have been the Alpha who had the place blown up instead. Wheeler wouldn’t have liked anyone touching any of his weres, and when it was Emma who had been snatched, there was a huge difference.

  “Right. Not much left there,” Ulric agreed. “You know, Killian went up with Wheeler and wouldn’t say anything about what he’d seen. Not like Killian at all. Usually he’s the first to natter about stuff like that. You think the Council is that bad?”

  “They can be,” Per said.

  “There was a were in Russia they say got on the Council’s bad side,” Ulric said as he scratched the side of his face with a finger. “They say there wasn’t anything left of him when they were done. And him a lion and all. Wonder if he was related to Wheeler.”

  “Doubt it,” Per said. “Wheeler’s kin are like him. Dominant. Straight-laced. Ready to do business. Man never laughs.”

  “Wheeler was laughing this morning,” Ulric commented. His eyebrows arched with the statement, as if he couldn’t believe it either.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” Ulric said with a smile. “Him and Emma both. In all the time I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen either one of them laugh before this morning.”

  Really, really mated. Jesus.

  Per had been around mated couples before. There were several in the clan. His parents were a mated couple. It was like seeing someone on drugs and the drug of choice was their partner.

  “Never going to happen to me,” Per swore. He’d run the other direction, a thousand miles, and then go swimming, too. He’d find an island without any other weres on it.

  “What?” Ulric said.

  “That mating shit.”

  Ulric shrugged. “Don’t have much choice. Doesn’t sound so bad. It’s like falling in love on crack.” He chuckled at his own sense of humor.

  Per stepped back to study Ulric. The other were was in his twenties. He’d lived in the states since he was a little lynx. His parents were retired in California, and Ulric had set out on his own. He’d been with the Colorado Clan for more years than Per. But what irritated Per was that Ulric seemed wistful about the mating dance.

  Mating dance. Mating instinct. Mating protocol. So many names for such a fucked-up thing. Not me, buddy. Not this were.

  “Have you ever been in love, Ulric?”

  “No,” Ulric said sadly. “Lust maybe. Some of the human girls are awfully cute. But a little bite, and bam, the world just ended. Hard not to bite when a guy gets…carried away.”

  “And female weres aren’t as available as males.”

  “I’m not gay,” Ulric protested.

  “Of course not.”

  Per glanced toward the mansion. “Emma hasn’t started redecorating and shit?”

  “What?”

  “Flowers in vases, pink walls, doilies? That seems to be what happens when some dork falls in love.” Per’s face twisted disgustedly.

  “You know Emma, right?” Ulric asked in disbelief. “Girl carries knives on her. Lots of knives. She knows jujitsu and some other martial arts. She took down Britt, for God’s sake, while she was still in human form. Did you hear she once got the best of Wheeler, too?” He shuddered. “Emma doesn’t know a doily from a daffodil. Her redecorate? She might install fighting dummies every ten feet to throw knives at, but repaint? I don’t think so.” He thought about it. “Well, maybe in red, for obvious reasons.”

  Per laughed. “I got to get a shower, Ulric. See you at dinner. I’d like to see Emma and Wheeler laughing. And we’ll gang up on Killian. See what’s got his willy in a knot.”

  Ulric headed for his Ducati Multistrada. “Maybe. Got a date with a hot babe. A legal secretary. She’s got cats, so I figure I’ve got an in.”

  “You’re a perv,” Per said.

  “So are you, dude.” Ulric climbed on the bright red motorcycle and put a helmet on his head. A moment later the engine roared into life, and Ulric headed down the mountain. Like some of the other clan members, Ulric kept an apartment in town.

  Per shook his head as he looked back toward the mansion. How bad could it be? It was Wheeler and Emma after all. Wheeler was all brooding menace. Emma was dynamite in a compact feminine package. They weren’t the Stepford Weres.

  *

  Hours later, Per stared. He couldn’t do anything but stare. Twenty feet from him, Emma giggled and chucked Wheeler’s chin. Granted she had to stand on her tippy toes to do it, but she did it all the same. Amazingly, the Alpha didn’t snarl but instead smiled down at her.

  Happy. They’re happy.

  Emma didn’t look all that battered, and one of the other weres had whispered to Per she had been shot with silver bullets as well as tranquilized with animal sedatives. As a matter of fact, she looked great for someone who’d just been kidnapped, abused, and rescued. Her chestnut-colored hair danced around her head as she laughed. Her blue eyes bubbled with cheerfulness.

  Wheeler gazed indulgently down at his mate.

  Deliriously happy. That’s got to be good, right?

  Killian moved up beside Per and plopped in the chair next to him. “Good to see you back, boyo.”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t a problem.” Per couldn’t look away from Wheeler and Emma. She plucked a piece of invisible lint off Wheeler’s blue shirt and then smoothed the material. “The Whitelaw shifter was all hot air. Didn’t have shit for contacts, just a big chip on his shoulder. He wouldn’t know what to do with a pack if he managed to scrape one together.”

  “Wolves,” Killian said derisively.

  Per blinked. “We’ve met some who aren’t bad. Just like some of the feline shifters.” He didn’t know why he
said it. Weres came in all shades of gray. However, the Whitelaws Clan was a particularly nasty group of wolf shifters. They’d been raised that way and the patriarchs ruled with bloody fists. One of their kind had even tried to end the world. Fortunately, a dragon from another realm had bitten him in half before he could do so.

  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving shifter.

  “Right,” Killian said. It was the same derisive tone he’d used before.

  They were in the dining room while the chefs finished preparing a meal. Apparently, they were celebrating. Per suspected Wheeler would formally announce his mating with Emma, although it was hardly a secret.

  “Next thing you know we’ll have cubs everywhere,” Per muttered.

  Killian sighed. “I like cubs.”

  Per glanced at Killian sharply. “You need another beer, boyo.”

  “Another keg maybe,” Killian said.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing,” Killian snapped. The Irishman’s accent was thick. He reached for the nearest bottle of wine and poured himself a glass. He didn’t use the wine glass at his setting; he deliberately picked up the water glass and filled the wine all the way up to the rim. A few red drops sloshed out.

  Per shook his head. He looked around. The large dining room was full of feline shifters. Most of the weres were contented. They chatted with each other. They grinned at the picture Wheeler and Emma made. The tones were relaxed. Maybe the unsettled state of affairs between the Alpha and his Second had been more trying than Per had previously realized.

  Shrugging, Per reached for the bottle of wine Killian had put aside. He’d just finished pouring the wine into the proper glass when Donovan Lawton strode into the room holding hands with his mate, Isabella.

  More mates. Sheesh.

  Per drank half of the wine and finally realized Wheeler had broken out two cases of a rare Bordeaux. He cast an eye on Killian and saw the werecougar had finished his entire glass.

  It’s going to take a lot more alcohol to get you drunk, Killian.

  Killian reached for the bottle again. His hand stilled as he comprehended it was nearly empty and signaled one of the wait staff for another one.

  Which you obviously know. What crawled up Killian’s butt and died?

  Donovan said something to Wheeler. He handed the Alpha a paper bag with the top folded tightly up. Emma gently took the bag from Wheeler, opened it, and sniffed once. She nodded.

  “That’s exactly what we need,” Per heard Emma say. Donovan and Isabella wandered away to find a place to sit.

  A squadron of servers chose the moment to carry platters of food inside the room.

  The air swirled with scents as humans and weres moved in the large area. Wild mushroom paté. Shrimp cocktail. Roast beef. Gravy. Yorkshire pudding. Balsamic green beans. Ginger braised carrots. Wheeler had pulled out the stops for the evening.

  There’s something else that smells really good.

  Per put his glass down. He inhaled deeply.

  There it is.

  It was a spicy scent. Musk mixed with a cocktail of everything that smelled good to Per. Cinnamon. A very light perfume of freshly washed flesh and Dial soap. Femininity. It called to him.

  Hell, it doesn’t call to me. It demands my attention!

  Every muscle in his body suddenly tensed.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Killian asked, immediately sensing Per’s frozen attention.

  Per deliberately cast his gaze around the room. There wasn’t anyone new in the room. He knew everyone. Earlier he’d smelled some strange weres, but Edward, a werecougar from Texas, had said it was visitors from Mexico. It was something to do with the were who’d trapped Emma.

  Not visitors. Hostages to exchange for Emma.

  Disregarding the Mexican weres as irrelevant, Per knew straightaway what Wheeler had done. The Alpha had kidnapped some of the outlaw Martinez’s kin. But now that Emma was back and unharmed, the Mexican Clan members would be released.

  The scent didn’t come from one of them. They were locked and guarded in one of the upstairs suites.

  Per stood up and tracked the smell. He moved through the weres and gradually everyone in the room became aware of his absorbed intent. As if he was dancing in a world with a thousand partners, Per delicately stepped in the moderately crowded space. Words dribbled away into uncomfortable silence as more eyes found him, and Per found himself standing next to Emma.

  Emma looked curiously at Per. She bore an innocently inquisitive look on her face, wondering Per’s purpose. Wheeler’s look wasn’t, as it distorted into a snarl. He didn’t care for the attention Per paid to Emma.

  But it wasn’t Emma Per was interested in.

  The scent is in the bag.

  Per sniffed again. He wanted to grab the contents of the bag and rub his face in it. It smelled that good. It was everything contained there, and it screamed at him in silent demand.

  What’s wrong with me?

  “What is that?” Per said. His voice was brusque and insistent.

  Wheeler snarled again and Per stepped back, raising his hands placatingly in the air. The tantalizing aroma from the bag didn’t preclude him having his throat crushed by one of Wheeler’s strong hands.

  “It’s the scent,” Per tried to explain. Wheeler tucked Emma behind him in a movement that Emma clearly didn’t care for.

  She said, “Christopher, it’s not me. It’s her clothing Per is reacting to.”

  “Whose?” Per demanded.

  “There is a were who was recently changed,” Emma said calmly. She stroked Wheeler’s arm lightly. “The were named Martinez thought he could use her to flush some of us out. He only caught me. ”

  “Tell me where she is,” Per commanded. Distantly, he registered the contents of the bag was something belonging to the unnamed were.

  “We don’t know where she is,” Emma said with evident bitterness. “Martinez took her the same time as me. However, she wasn’t at the facility when the Elite Warriors came. Donovan brought some of her clothes from her apartment for the Cat Warriors to scent.” She held the bag out as validation.

  Comprehension appeared on Wheeler’s face. The snarl slid away and grim amusement replaced it. “Guess I know who to send to Los Angeles,” he said.

  The quiet of the huge dining room finally penetrated Per’s mind. He realized everyone was listening to the conversation with bated breath.

  Emma handed the paper bag to Per, reaching around Wheeler’s shape to do so.

  Per took it as if it was a snake ready to bite him. Nevertheless, it had already bitten him. He looked up and scanned the weres staring at him.

  Killian smiled crookedly at him and raised the full-again glass in wry salute. “Sure and you’re banjaxed now, boyo.” Then he drained the wine until every drop was gone.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Three

  No one can truly own a cat. - British Saying

  All Sage knew was that she was in a cage. It didn’t have bars, but the walls were thickly set and the door’s hinges were thoroughly fixed in concrete. The bolts were rounded instead of slotted, leaving nothing to pry open. She had yanked on the door’s handle until the muscles in her shoulders screamed and nothing resulted. She had kicked it until her feet throbbed with agony. She’d pounded until her hands bled.

  Emma Lucia had told Sage she would have superior strength. Sage, numbly dealing with the bizarre events changing her very existence, hadn’t paid much attention to everything Emma had told her. There was stuff about clans, councils, rules, not sharing with humans, and not eating people’s pet schnauzers while folks had their Droids out. But Emma hadn’t said anything about outlaw weres who might kidnap her or Sage.

  Martinez had been waiting outside her apartment when Sage had left one morning to meet Emma. It had taken only a bit of his strength and determination to show Sage she wasn’t a match for him. It had taken Sage a little longer to recognize Martinez as a were. When Sage had go
tten a good look at his eyes, she recognized something else.

  Martinez was the same werecougar who’d attacked her on the Lake Charles Trail.

  Why?

  The humans around Martinez talked. She heard their whispers about the peculiar project to which they’d attached themselves. They were part of a group hunting weres for purposes of experimentation. There were dozens of weres already kidnapped for those uses. Martinez was getting paid to target weres.

  Martinez had taken Sage and explained to her what would happen if she didn’t cooperate. He knew about her roommates. He knew about her family. He didn’t know Sage was estranged from her father, but it hardly mattered since he was threatening both of her parents. If Sage didn’t do what Martinez wanted, he would slice all of their throats. He would start with her roommates, then fly up to Seattle to finish with her parents. Sage would be forced to watch.

  And there was nothing Sage could do about it.

  She’d been forced to make a call to Emma. Emma had been lured into the park and tranquilized with darts shot from special guns. Of course, Emma had killed two of the men Martinez had with him.

  Sage struggled, but it was too late. One of Martinez’s men darted her while Martinez subdued Emma.

  Sage had woken up in this dark, dank cell. Really it was a cage. Even in the dark, she comprehended its limitations on her. It was roughly ten feet by ten feet. The walls were all concrete or rock. The door was a little smaller than the top of her head. There was a little window in the door, but there was only darkness beyond. No one came nor did they answer her frantic calls.

  Martinez, or someone else, had left bottled water and bags of beef jerky. They’d been sitting to the side of the door. She drank a little water and ate some of the jerky. She knew she would need the sustenance.

  Sage didn’t know how long she had been there. She didn’t how long she had been unconscious. She didn’t even know where she was located. Somewhat bitterly, she’d checked her clothing and found everything intact with the buttons still properly fixed. For some reason, Martinez hadn’t raped her.