Pride Mates

by Jennifer Ashley

  When she reached the bottom of the porch steps, Connor started screaming. The anguish of it made Kim stop, turn back. Connor was the youngest, the weakest of them, and whatever was happening hurt him most of all.

  Kim ran back up the steps and into the house. Connor’s keening split the air. Dylan and Liam were both crawling toward him, and she realized that they were trying to touch him, these people who comforted each other with bodily contact.

  “Liam, what can I do?”

  Liam cranked his head around and looked up at Kim. His eyes were bright red. “No, Kim. Get out.”

  “I can’t leave you like this. How do I help you?”

  Liam couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. He managed to reach Connor, who screamed even louder when Liam touched him.

  Damn it. Kim didn’t know enough about Shifters—she who’d thought she’d researched everything about them. This could be anything from their Collars going wrong to some kind of weird virus.

  “Hang on. I’ll be right back.”

  She had no idea if Liam heard or understood. Kim ran out through the kitchen again and headed down the dirt path to the house next door. She banged on the back door, cupping her hands to peer through the window.

  “Glory?”

  She heard nothing, and for a few seconds she feared that Glory, too, writhed on the floor, moaning. Maybe everyone in Shiftertown did. Shit.

  Glory wrenched open the door, as tall and stunning as she’d been the night before. She wore a hot-pink halter top that clasped her throat and hid her Collar, skin-tight black leather pants, and pink spike-heeled pumps. Not an alpha, my ass.

  Glory was breathing hard, as if she’d been working out, but there wasn’t a drop of perspiration on her face, not a hair out of place. “What?”

  “There’s something wrong with them. Something Shifter-wrong. You have to help them.”

  Glory jerked her gaze to the Morrissey house. “With Dylan?”

  “With all of them. I don’t know what’s happening.”

  Without a word Glory stepped past her and hurried down the porch stairs. Kim had to jog to keep up with the woman’s long stride, and this with Glory wearing mile-high shoes.

  Glory shoved open the back door of the Morrissey house as though she belonged there. She stopped short, and Kim nearly ran into her. Liam had his arms around Connor now, but Connor still keened with his heart-breaking wail.

  “What’s wrong with them?” Kim shouted.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen this before.”

  Fat lot of help that was. Glory strode to Dylan, who had his eyes closed, his now elongated teeth cutting his lips. Glory grabbed his shoulder. “Dylan!”

  She had to shake him and yell at him before Dylan finally looked up, his eyes now yellow swimming with red. He rasped a word Kim couldn’t understand, but Glory nodded. She turned back to Kim with a grim look.

  “They’re being Summoned,” she said.

  “Summoned? What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means their clan leader is calling them. He’s put a compulsory spell on them—they’ll be like this until they reach him and he lifts it.”

  A spell? “I thought you said you’d never seen this before.”

  “I haven’t. Summonings happen only about once every two hundred years, because clan leaders who use them indiscriminately don’t stay clan leaders long. Shifters don’t like being coerced. Fergus must want you bad.”

  “What, he couldn’t use the phone like everyone else?”

  “He did use the phone. Yesterday. He commanded Dylan to turn you over to him, and Dylan refused. So Fergus did this.”

  From Glory’s expression, she fully blamed Kim. Glory’s shirt might hide her Collar, and Dylan might claim she wasn’t high in her pack, but she was still a Shifter, still strong, still deadly.

  “You have to get them to San Antonio,” Glory said.

  “San Antonio?”

  “That’s where Fergus is. You have to get them to Fergus—they can’t drive like this.”

  “To this Fergus who’s demanding that I be ‘turned over’ to him, whatever the hell that means? Why can’t you take them?”

  Glory snorted. “Respond to a Summoning from another clan leader? I’m Lupine. I walk into a gathering of Felines, they’ll take my head off before I can speak.”

  “What about my head?”

  “You’ll have to risk it. Fergus will expect you to come with them anyway. Come on, help me get them into your car.”

  “They won’t fit in my car.”

  “Make them fit.” Glory grabbed Dylan under the armpits and hauled him to his feet. The big man could barely stand, but he leaned heavily on Glory and let her drag him across the kitchen. “There’s no other choice.”

  Glory kicked open the kitchen door. It banged against the wall and began to drift shut, small flakes of plaster floating from the ceiling.

  Liam snaked one clawed hand around Kim’s ankle. “No,” he rasped. “Run.”

  The pain in his eyes broke her heart. Liam was right; she should run. She should leave the Shifters to their fate and emigrate to Australia. Kim was coldly terrified at the thought of facing this Fergus, the man who could render four powerful Shifters helpless from seventy-five miles away. But Liam’s anguish kept her with him.

  “Kim,” Glory shouted. “Come on.”

  Kim leaned over Liam. “We have to go, Liam. It’s the only way, Glory says.”

  Liam tried to speak, but his words came out as unintelligible grunts.

  Glory charged back inside and grabbed Sean. Kim finally persuaded Liam off the floor, and Liam hauled Connor to his feet. Somehow, the three of them got out the door and to Kim’s two-door Mustang.

  Sean had already folded himself into the tiny backseat, while Dylan leaned heavily on the car. Dylan seemed the least debilitated, but he was older, probably stronger. Glory took charge of Connor, and Dylan helped her slide Connor into the back next to Sean. Dylan himself cramped in beside his grandson, leaving the front seat for Liam to collapse into.

  “What the hell?” A male Texan voice reached Kim. The big Lupine she’d met the night before, Ellison, came running at them from across the street. “Glory, what’s going on?”

  “Summoning,” Glory said tersely.

  “Holy shit.”

  “Kim’s taking them to Fergus.”

  “Aw, man.” Ellison’s light blue eyes filled with distress. “And I can’t go with you, damn it. Liam’s got my cell number. You call me and keep me posted, all right?”

  “Sure.” Kim numbly got into the car.

  “Wait.” Ellison dashed into the Morrissey house, then out again, carrying Sean’s big sword in its leather sheath. “Take this, in case.”

  There was no room for it in the packed car. Kim opened the trunk and Ellison dropped it inside.

  As Kim slammed her door and started the car, Ellison stepped close to Glory and put both arms around her. She leaned into him, not in a sexual way, Kim realized, but for comfort, like Sandra had with Sean and Liam yesterday.

  Kim pulled out of the driveway, her fingers cold and shaking despite the July heat, and headed out of Shiftertown.

  Chapter Ten

  They’d better be grateful for this. Kim sped down the I-35 as fast as she dared, cursing under her breath at the crawling traffic. It was Sunday—shouldn’t all these people be in church or something? But no, they were meandering along the freeway between Austin and San Antonio, clogging the ramps, driving slowly in the left lanes, cutting her off…

  She drove as swiftly as she was able, though she didn’t dare risk being pulled over for speeding. She imagined herself trying to explain to the nice police officer why she had four half-crazed Shifters stuffed into her car and a big sword in the trunk.

  Connor’s moans had turned to whimpers. Kim had no idea how this Fergus had caused their state from so far away, but she wanted to scream at him. Liam was the strongest man she’d ever met, and to see him hunched up in the seat next t
o her, rocking in pain, made her furious.

  “It’s not much farther.” She had no idea if Liam could hear her, and he didn’t respond.

  The freeway had never seemed so long. Signboards with German-sounding names slid by: New Braunfels, Gruene, the ever-popular Schlitterbahn water park, which Kim had loved as a kid.

  When they reached the northern outskirts of San Antonio, Liam at last took his hands from his face. “This exit.”

  Kim dove for the off-ramp, which took her to a freeway that looped around the city. “Then where?”

  Liam flicked his fingers at the road, which she took to mean, “Keep going.” Dylan sat up behind her. In the rearview mirror, Kim saw him draw Connor to him, cradling the boy against his chest. Sean had his eyes closed, but Kim couldn’t tell whether he slept.

  When they’d reached the southwestern edge of town, Liam gestured for Kim to take another exit. He directed her down a road that became a highway, running west out of town again.

  “There’s a Shiftertown out here?” Kim asked, as they left the city limits behind.

  Liam didn’t answer. Sean was sitting up now, leaning against the window. Their breathing had calmed, no longer tortured rasping, but they still looked gray and drawn.

  About twenty-five miles later, Dylan leaned forward between the seats, long arm pointing out a side road that wasn’t signposted. “There.”

  They’d left Hill Country behind and had reached the deserts of south Texas. The land was flat and dry, grasses clumped and yellow instead of soft green. On the left side of the road, behind barbed wire, a few cows grazed.

  No barbed wire lined the right side of the road, the land open and flowing to the white-blue horizon. The humidity had dropped considerably, Kim’s sweat was quickly evaporating in the dry air.

  “It’s coming up,” Liam said. He sounded almost normal, and his fangs had receded.

  Two wooden fence posts with no fence and no gate marked a dirt road that reached a pale finger across the land. Kim turned down it, silently cursing the ruts that banged her car’s underbody. Maybe she could charge this Fergus for the damage.

  A cluster of houses lay about three miles down this joke of a road, and a hand-painted sign read: WELCOME TO SHIFTERTOWN! POPULATION: FIFTY-TWO SHIFTERS, TWENTY HORSES, FIVE DOGS, AND FIFTEEN CATS.

  The houses were long, low adobes with tiny windows, probably ranch houses left over from earlier in the twentieth century. Like the houses in Austin, these had been fixed up and painted, but instead of having yards, they were grouped around a somewhat sad playground where no kids played. Pickups were parked haphazardly in the dirt around the houses.

  A steel pole corral that surrounded open stalls with corrugated steel roofs sat at one end of the street. A dozen desultory horses moved between pens and corral, paying no attention to the car hurtling toward them in a cloud of dust.

  One of the town’s five dogs lounged at the front door of the house in front of which Liam told Kim to park. The house was no bigger than the others and had a green-painted door flanked by two windows to either side of it. The dog got up, stretched, and wandered toward them, tail wagging.

  “Are you sure this is right?” Kim asked, as she got out and yanked the seat forward to release the others.

  “Very sure,” Liam said.

  The four men had returned to almost normal, except for the tension. Connor leaned against the car once he’d gotten out of it, his face still tight.

  “Why did he Summon Connor?” Kim asked Liam in a low voice. “If he wants me, why didn’t he just get you and your dad to bring me down? Or can’t he pinpoint who he wants?”

  “No, the spell can be very specific. Fergus decided who he’d cast it on.”

  Kim looked at Connor, who had walked away to retch into a stand of tall grasses. “What kind of asshole is this guy? Connor doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

  The Liam who looked at her was no longer the affable, sexy man she’d met yesterday. The Liam next to her sparked with contained fury and would have scared the shit out of her if she’d walked into the bar’s office and seen him like this behind the desk. She realized that Liam had showed her the “nice” Shifter, the one humans could talk to. The one she could sit with on a bed and kiss.

  No, wait, she could kiss him even now. She’d taste his fury and let him know she shared it, while he ran his hands over her body.

  How would sex with Liam be when he was like this? Raw and wild. Against the wall or on the hood of the car—all-out, good-time sex. That’s what I’m talking about.

  Liam opened the door of the house and walked in. The inside didn’t impress Kim. People obviously lived here, but they just as obviously didn’t much care about cleaning up the place.

  Liam strode through the cluttered living room and kitchen littered with dirty dishes, and opened a door. Cool air poured up stone stairs beyond. Cellar? Storm shelter? A place like that could house snakes, scorpions, black widows…

  “In there?” she asked. She thought she could face a hostile Shifter, but spiders? Not so much.

  Liam passed her without a word. Thank God for the Shifter custom of the male entering a place first. If there were spiders down there, Liam could stomp on them before she went down.

  Dylan nodded at Sean, who’d retrieved his sword from her trunk, indicating he should enter after Liam. Then Dylan, then Connor.

  Kim hesitated at the top of the steps, still thinking about spiders—and Fergus. She could run, make it to her car, and hightail it back to Austin. No one was behind her; she could get a good head start.

  Connor looked back at her, the light from the kitchen glinting on the fear in his eyes. He was terrified and, from the greenish cast to his face, still nauseated from the Summoning. Would the bully Fergus try to hurt Connor if Kim ran for it? Probably.

  “Bastard,” she growled, and started after Connor. She couldn’t do that to the kid.

  Connor flashed Kim a nervous grin and kept going. Kim picked her way along, feeling out of her depth and refusing to touch the stone walls.

  The Morrissey men waited for them in a tiled corridor that was completely incongruous with the house above. The walls were polished wood and, to Kim’s astonishment, filled with paintings and beautiful photographs. Real paintings by real artists that museums paid major money for, photographs by people like Ansel Adams. Spanish-style, carved wooden doors with small square windows lined the corridor between the priceless artwork.

  What the hell kind of place was this?

  Liam led the way to the end of the hall and opened a door to a cavernous room. Dylan went in first this time, then Liam, then Sean, then Connor. Kim, in most need of protection, entered last.

  The room was huge, meant to hold several hundred people. The walls were paneled with warm wood, the purple-red hue speaking of exotic Oriental forests. The ceiling was arched like a cathedral, the arches intricately carved and marching toward an enormous fireplace at the end. Money and artistry had gone into shaping the chamber, which was far larger than any of the houses above it.

  The room was also filled with Shifters.

  There must have been a hundred of them, each as physically honed as Liam, Dylan, and Sean. The sign outside said that only fifty-two Shifters lived in this Shiftertown, so these must have driven in for the occasion. Every single one was male.

  The crowd parted as Dylan led the way forward, past the looming arches, through the sea of Shifters, to the center of the room. Four men waited for them there: a big guy with a long black braid and a leather motorcycle vest, surrounded by three equally thuglike men.

  “Let me guess,” Kim whispered to Liam. “That’s Fergus.”

  Liam nodded grimly. Fergus turned hard blue eyes to Kim and gave her the Shifter once-over.

  “This is her?” he asked. His accent was more Southern than Texan, and his tone said he’d expected her to be more formidable.

  Liam set his mouth, and Dylan became their spokesman. “This is Kim Fraser, the defense attorney
for Brian Smith.”

  All eyes on Kim. Nostrils flared as the Shifters took in Kim’s scent and the fact that Liam had marked her. Every single Shifter in here wore a Collar, but it dawned on Kim that the Collars might not make a damn bit of difference if she tried to run or fight. These were dangerous men, watching for now because they chose to.

  “Crap,” she said under her breath. “And me without my pepper spray.”

  “We like pepper spray,” Liam answered.

  “Figures.”

  Fergus pinned her with a blue stare, then looked at Sean and held out his hand.

  Sean unstrapped the sword on his back and took it to him. Fergus didn’t say thank you; he just grabbed the sword from Sean and passed it to one of his underlings. As he turned, strands of braided leather swung across his hip from a handle hooked to his belt.

  “Is that a cat-o’-nine-tails?” Kim asked Liam.

  “Most like.”

  “Why, in case he loses his own?”

  Liam’s sudden smile burst over his face. Connor laughed openly.

  “Shut it,” Dylan hissed.

  Fergus’s attention riveted to Kim. “Come here, woman.”

  Kim remained where she was, not about to trot obediently to him. Liam stood beside her, his body solid and warm, making her feel suddenly safe.

  “I said, come here.”

  Kim lifted her chin. “Do the words ‘screw you’ mean anything to you?”

  Fergus’s eyes glittered as the Shifters muttered to each other. Fergus’s three henchmen folded their arms and glared. One had a shaved head and a neck covered in tattoos, one had a sandy blond ponytail, and the third had short black hair. He looked ex-military, although Shifters weren’t allowed to join the military.

  “Bring her to me,” Fergus said curtly to Liam.

  Liam didn’t move. The room was silent, the tension ramping high. Fergus’s eyes changed from blue to whitegray.

  Kim didn’t know what all Fergus could do—another Summoning to make Liam drag her across the room to him? Kim felt like a sapling in a tall forest; Shifter males were mostly over six feet tall, and she was five feet high in flats. And where were all the women Shifters? Baking cookies?