Purring with His Mate (Miracle Book 1)

by Shea Malik

  The whole scene reminded him of he and Edrick, bringing home just how important it was that Nole find a way to forgive Jari. But how?

  “Did you tell him?” Lucca asked Jari.

  Jari just barely moved his head back and forth as he glanced from his mate to Nole. “It doesn’t matter,” he whispered despondently. “I still allowed it to happen. I don’t deserve to live after what I’ve done.”

  A rumble filled the room as Lucca growled out his displeasure. “Stop saying that.”

  “Why not? It’s true.” Jari stared at Nole. “You might as well sentence my death. I know it’s what I deserve.”

  This time Lucca didn’t just growl, he bent down until he was eye level with Jari and got right in his mate’s face. “You. Are. Not. Going. To. Die. Do you understand me?” Lucca’s fierce tone had Nole wondering how Jari wasn’t cowering in fear.

  For as long as Nole had known Jari, the man had never been known to stand his ground. Usually, he was the first one to try and make peace. “What do you care?” Jari shot back at Lucca.

  “I’m your mate,” Lucca spat out.

  There was anger in Jari’s soft brown eyes, something Nole couldn’t ever remembering seeing before as he glared at Lucca. “I haven’t seen any evidence of that,” Jari muttered.

  Lucca’s hands reached out to grasp Jari’s shoulders before slamming their lips together in a brutal kiss. Not wanting to intrude, Nole was tempted to go back up the stairs and away from this mess.

  “Hear Jari out first,” Edrick whispered into his ear.

  Nole glanced over his shoulder at his mate. He’d planned on glaring at the man in irritation for being too damn observant for Nole’s peace of mind. Except what he found when he looked into his mate’s blue eyes was love and concern.

  How was he supposed to be upset with someone looking at him like he was the man’s world? Leaning back into Edrick, he gave his mate a brief kiss. “Thank you for being here.” And he meant that. Sure, he could have done it alone, but things were just better when Edrick was there.

  After everything that had happened to Nole, he hadn’t expected to come to feel so close to another person, or trust them implicitly, yet with Edrick he did.

  “It’s my pleasure, my little mouse.” Edrick placed a kiss on the tip of his nose before they both turned back to find Lucca and Jari watching them with a healthy dose of fear and anxiety.

  “Tell him,” Lucca ordered his mate.

  One of the biggest differences between Nole and Jari was that Jari was quite submissive. He never stood up for himself, or anyone as far as Nole knew – well, until just now. Suddenly he started to get a clearer picture of the position Jari would have been put in if ordered to set Nole up. Jari wouldn’t have felt able to disobey an order from the Alpha.

  It didn’t excuse it, but for Jari, it would have been impossible for him not to do as Abdiel told him to. Especially since the man was their alpha.

  With a put upon sigh, Jari, voice so low Nole could hardly make out the words even with his shifter hearing, shared his story. “No one knows this, but since I came back from cooking school at the age of nineteen, Alpha Abdiel had cornered me and forced me to become his bitch.” Jari blushed furiously, tucking his face into his chest as if trying to hide when that last word echoed against the concrete walls.

  Nole was stunned.

  “Alpha Abdiel is gay?” Nothing, not even if Jari had said the alpha liked to dress up in drag and sing aria’s, could have shocked Nole more. “But, he hates gays.”

  Jari shrugged. “He told me we had to keep things a secret or the council would remove him as Alpha and then he wouldn’t be able to change things.”

  “Change what?” Nole yelled. “The man has been trying to kill me for five fucking years. He even used one of my best friends to do it.”

  Jari shrank back at Nole’s harsh words. That visible reminder of how weak Jari was deflated Nole’s rising indignation. As much as Nole wanted to shake Jari for being so easily manipulated by their alpha, he knew there was no point. Just because Nole had the sense to think for himself and stand up for what he believed in, didn’t mean others did.

  His former friend was just one example, but Nole knew more people willing to just blindly believe what their leaders were telling them, never once questioning them. It was how Nole’s old colony had gotten to the point of their alpha choosing their mates instead of fate. Not even when confronted with one’s fated mate were the alpha’s declarations changed.

  Too many of their colony had gone insane having to deny a mate. Yet, they still followed Alpha Abdiel’s orders. So how could he blame Jari for doing the same?

  The warmth of Edrick’s hand as he placed it on the small of Nole’s back seeped into him. But just because he could forgive Jari for allowing himself to be used, didn’t mean he was willing to let the man free. As far as Nole was concerned, Jari was a risk. A risk who couldn’t be trusted.

  “I know what I did was wrong,” Jari whispered. “But it wasn’t like I had a choice.” There was an edge of steel in Jari’s voice that surprised Nole. He hadn’t thought the man had it in him to stand up for himself. “Alpha Abdiel killed my brother when he walked in on us and threatened to tell the colony.”

  Nole felt the blood in his veins turn to ice as Jari spoke.

  “After that, anytime I didn’t do as he said, Abdiel would threaten one of my family.” Tears ran down Jari’s face, his hands fisting in his lap. “When I refused to go after you, he…” a sob burst from Jari, but he forced himself to continue. “He killed my parents and told me he would kill each of my brothers and sisters next. Then he would go after my nieces and nephews.”

  Heavy grief dulled Jari’s normally light brown eyes. “I just couldn’t let them die.” With a voice so small, so defeated, Jari said, “Once Abdiel realizes I failed, he’ll kill them.” Jari shrank right before Nole’s eyes. “They’re probably already dead.”

  “Fuck,” Edrick and Lucca said at the same time.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Lucca asked. “I would have gone after them.” Clearly, Jari hadn’t told his mate the whole story.

  Jari lifted a defeated shoulder. “What’s the point? Abdiel always wins. I know that better than anyone.”

  “Not this time,” Edrick snarled out. “I’m sick of alphas feeling they can do what they want without consequences. I can’t promise your family is still alive, but I can promise to do everything within my power to save those that are.”

  “It won’t do any good. Abdiel will only come after them.” Jari pointed to Nole. “Nole’s been running for years, and Abdiel hasn’t stopped trying to kill him.”

  Edrick growled low. The sound rumbled into the confines of the basement like thunder. “And I will end him for his attempts.”

  Before seeing Edrick and his friends in action, Nole might have thought that promise impossible to keep. But now? Now he knew just how deadly these cats were, and the hope of finally being free of his former alpha blossomed to life. For if anyone could kill Abdiel, it was Edrick.

  CHAPTER 16

  “We don’t have enough manpower for something that big,” Hudson argued. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than willing to go on this suicide mission if it’s what you want, but Nole and Jari’s colony is too big to get into without being seen. Not to mention we need to evacuate up to fifty members of Jari’s family.” Hudson threw up his hands in frustration. “How in the hell are we supposed to do that with four motorcycles and a pickup truck?”

  As much as Edrick hated to admit it, Hudson was right. They didn’t have the manpower to rescue so many people. “If we kill Abdiel, we don’t have to rescue anyone.”

  Jari snorted. They were gathered in the kitchen after Nole had forgiven Jari. However, there was one concession. Lucca wasn’t to leave Jari’s side since they didn’t trust the mouse shifter not to contact his colony and tell Abdiel exactly where they were.

  “Everyone who surrounds Abdiel is just as bad as he is. In so
me cases, worse. If you kill Abdiel, one of them will take power, and my family still won’t be safe, especially if they see me as a threat for bringing you to their doorstep,” Jari informed them

  “What if we recruited help?” Nole asked.

  All eyes turned to Edrick’s mate. “Who?” Edrick asked. It wasn’t like there were many shifters who were willing to help start a war with a shifter colony, especially when they would be helping gay shifters, an abomination in the minds of many.

  His mate cocked his head to the side. It wasn’t anything sexy, yet Edrick still found himself getting hard at how cute his little mouse looked. “While running from Abdiel, I met many gay shifters who were in hiding. If we offered them a safe place to stay, maybe they would agree to fight with us.”

  “Safe?” Chadwick laughed. “Have you forgotten we have our own alpha problems with Edrick’s father? Not to mention this town is falling down around our ears. Where are we supposed to put everyone and how in the hell do we protect them?”

  “It’s not that bad,” Nole argued. “Sure, we have a lot of work to do, but with more hands to help, it won’t take long to make this town livable.”

  Both had a point. Edrick just wasn’t sure he was comfortable adding more people to the mix. He might be the Alpha, but Edrick had never wanted to lead. Being in charge of his friends was easy since they all knew their jobs and worked together. Edrick didn’t usually have to give orders. That wouldn’t be true if they allowed others to live there.

  “We also need to consider, the bigger this town gets, the easier it will be for Alpha Lorcan to find us,” Hudson added. “Not to mention every alpha and bigot will come after us once it is known we have a town full of gays.”

  Surprisingly, it was Jari who spoke up and confronted Hudson. “So, you’re saying we should just leave all those people to fend for themselves because it might cause us trouble?”

  “So, the timid mouse has a spine after all,” Chadwick said, which earned him a growl of disapproval from Lucca. Flashing Lucca a cheesy smile, Chadwick flipped him off. “Calm down kitty. No point in getting your panties in a knot. I was giving him a compliment.”

  Hudson rolled his eyes at his friend. “To answer your question, Jari, no, I don’t think that, but I also feel not understanding the consequences of our actions would be highly foolish.”

  This time when Chadwick smiled, it was more menacing, with a touch of crazy. “I’m all for giving the bigots a big old “fuck you” by banding together. But if we’re going to do this, we need to start working on getting better weapons, maybe even a rocket launcher or two.”

  Now that Chadwick had come out of his uptight shell, Edrick was beginning to wonder about his sanity. “And where in the hell are we supposed to get a rocket launcher?” Edrick asked.

  Lucca lifted his hand up partway to gain their attention. “That’s easy. I can not only get us a rocket launcher but have it delivered in twenty-four hours. I’m going to have a harder time getting enough ammunition for our guns. With this country’s sudden threat to their second amendment, bullets are hard to come by.”

  Maybe it was Edrick who had gone crazy. There was no way they were talking about getting rocket launchers like it was nothing. On the other hand, they would need every advantage if they were really going to invite gay shifters to move to their town for Hudson was right. The entire bigoted shifter community would come gunning for them the moment they found out they where they were.

  The only one who hadn’t contributed to the conversation was Kellach. Not that he was surprised. Kellach was the most reserved out of all of them, especially around those he didn’t know. Nole might be Edrick’s mate and Jari, Lucca’s mate, but that didn’t mean Kellach would instantly be comfortable with speaking his mind in front of them.

  But this was too important to let Kellach remain in the background. Whatever decision they made would affect them all. “Kellach, what do you think?”

  The knife Kellach had been using to cut vegetables for the stew he was making slammed, point down, into the butcher block, embedding the knife into the wood. Startled to see such a violent reaction from their usual timid friend, Edrick and the others stared, jaws dropped.

  “I think I hate fucking cooking. You want to bring all these people here? Fine. I’m on board with that, since I’m sick and tired of those bigoted assholes chasing us like we are some disease that has to be eradicated, but I am not going to cook for all those people.” By the time he was done, Kellach stood with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet braced apart as if willing to go to battle over his being forced to cook.

  Even though he’d worried Kellach didn’t like to cook, Edrick had hoped he was wrong. He had no idea what they were supposed to do if Kellach wasn’t willing to make their meals. The last time Edrick had tried to cook, he’d nearly burned down the kitchen, and he’d only been boiling water.

  “I’ll do it,” Jari offered.

  All eyes instantly went from Kellach to Jari in surprise.

  “What?” Jari drew his brows together as he stared back at each of them. “I like to cook. It’s why I went to cooking school, after all. Is that suddenly a crime?”

  Lucca raised one eyebrow at his mate. “Of course not. But are you sure? I don’t want you to feel you have to do something you don’t want to.”

  Jari squared his shoulders as he faced his mate. “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to. I happen to love cooking.” Jari glanced over at Kellach. “If you’re okay with it, I would be happy to take over the meals.”

  Kellach tore off the apron he had on. “You won’t hear any arguments from me. If I never step foot in the kitchen again, I’ll be a happy man.” He left the vegetables right where they were and went to sit in one of the empty chairs around the table. “You can even start now if you want. Otherwise I say we’re having sandwiches for dinner.”

  Edrick bit back the groan at having to eat nothing more than a sandwich. When they were busy working, he didn’t mind, but for dinner, Edrick wanted something more filling. Thankfully, Jari jumped up from his chair and went to work chopping the rest of the vegetables.

  The whole atmosphere instantly changed in the room. Jari’s excitement was infectious as he made their meal. Even Kellach’s normally sour disposition, while he cooked, was gone. It was enough to give Edrick hope that they might just find a way to survive.

  “So, are we in agreement? Nole will make some calls and see who is willing to join us, while the rest of us get to work on securing this town and making it safer.” It wouldn’t be easy. Hell, Edrick was pretty sure it would be impossible, but if they worked together, they just may find a way to build the home they’d always dreamed of having.

  Each man nodded in turn.

  “Then let’s get to work,” he said.

  Nole and Lucca pulled out their phones and started making calls, while he, Chadwick, and Hudson made lists for what they would need to defend themselves, rebuild the town, and ways to bring food and water to Miracle that wouldn’t always require them to drive to other towns to get it.

  For the first time in his life, Edrick found himself up to the task of being Alpha. It wouldn’t be easy, but with his mate and his friends by his side, anything was possible.

  CHAPTER 17

  “Do you think we have any chance of beating Abdiel?” As much as Nole had tried to remain optimistic as he’d made his phone calls to the gay shifters he’d met over the years, inside he feared they would all meet their demise by going after the Alpha.

  Not that Abdiel was that strong, for he wasn’t. If anything, as an Alpha, he was pathetically weak. But the one thing Abdiel had was sheer numbers of those willing to fight to the death for him.

  Edrick kissed the top of his head as they lay in bed that night. “I would like to say yes, but I promised, to be honest with you.” His mate gave a sigh. “So, I honestly don’t know.”

  For several minutes, they lay there in each other’s arms. Nole wasn’t sure what Edrick was thin
king, but all he could do was fret about their future. Even if they managed to defeat Abdiel, they had so many other obstacles, Nole worried they would never know any peace.

  “Will your colony fight for their Alpha?” Edrick asked after a time.

  “Yes,” Nole answered instantly. “They may not like Abdiel.” Nole gave a grunt of derision. “Most of them hate him. But like Jari, Abdiel has a way of ensuring the colony’s loyalty through threats, blackmail, and any other underhanded means necessary.” It was a sad fact, yet true.

  Edrick pressed his lips to Nole’s head once more, then pulled him closer against his side. “Speaking of Jari,” Edrick started.

  Nole cringed at the reminder. He didn’t want to face what Edrick would say next, but he knew there was little hope of avoiding it now.

  “I agree we needed to forgive Jari for his betrayal,” Edrick said. “But he still has to be punished for his part in trying to kill you.” Edrick’s voice had turned rough with anger.

  This had been what Nole had been hoping to avoid. He wasn’t good with punishing people. Who was he kidding? He sucked at it. He might have been forced to become a fighter to protect himself over the years but he was a doctor, and the thought of causing someone pain wasn’t something he wanted to be a part of.

  Still, this was the shifter world, and Jari couldn’t be seen getting away with what he’d done, or other shifters would believe they wouldn’t have to pay for their crimes. “Isn’t having to cook for all of us punishment enough?” Nole asked hopefully.

  Edrick chuckled. “Normally I would say yes, but Jari loves it too much for it to be considered a punishment.”

  Nole considered Jari for a moment. His likes, his dislikes, and then came up with something that would definitely be considered a punishment without having to hurt him. “Then he should have to be my assistant for a month.”