André

by Catherine Lievens

  “A Nix.”

  “True, but I’m not a full-blooded Nix. That’s why my tribe didn’t want me and treated me like they did.”

  “Okay. So what else are you?”

  Aeron took his sweater off, then his shoes, socks, and jeans. He kept only his boxers, and André kept his mouth shut, even though Aeron was getting naked in front of him.

  Aeron looked at him and winked. André’s mouth dropped open when Aeron’s body grew, both in height and in width. His skin disappeared under thick black fur, his nose grew into a muzzle, and his nails became claws. Aeron grinned, and André took a step backward at the sight of the wicked fangs in his mouth.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Aeron said. His voice was different, too. It was deeper, growlier, and André shivered. Aeron was obviously in control, and André was going to have to trust him. It was hard to go against all his prejudices, but he had with his shifter friends, so why would it be different with Aeron?

  “What are you?” André asked.

  “Half werewolf. My tribe was afraid of him. That’s why they kept me locked away and my father wasn’t allowed to take me.”

  “Your father?”

  “He’s the werewolf. My mother was a Nix.”

  “Okay. So you’re not going to hurt me.”

  “No. It’s like shifters. I’m me even in this form.”

  “And obviously being in this form helps you when it comes to fighting.”

  Aeron grinned again. “Exactly.”

  “Right.”

  “Stick with me once we’re there, okay? You might be gun-trained, but I have these.” He showed his claws. “They’re faster and do more damage.”

  André nodded, checked his gun again, took a deep breath, and looked at Aeron, who was gnawing on a fingernail as he waited. He looked up when André moved.

  When Aeron offered him his hand—paw—André stepped forward and took it.

  * * * *

  Nicky pushed away the man slumped on top of him and cleaned his bloody claws on his sweater. It wasn’t like he’d ever use it again anyway, not with the gash that now ran along its front.

  Nicky had avoided being stabbed, but it’d been a close call. The hunter clearly hadn’t expected him to be able to shift only his claws, so he hadn’t been careful when he jumped on top of Nicky and had tried to stick his knife in Nicky’s throat. Nicky had sunk his claws into the man’s stomach instead.

  Nicky looked at him. He didn’t know if the man was dead, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was protecting his family. It might be new, and he wasn’t sure where he stood exactly, but he wouldn’t back out.

  Something heavy landed on his back and Nicky almost fell on his face. Cold metal ran along his throat, but he reared back, head butting the man behind him.

  The man yelped and let go of him. Nicky twirled around, claws ready to sink into whoever had been foolish enough to attack him. He nearly stepped back when he faced the guy. He was just a kid, probably barely legal.

  Nicky had noticed that a lot of the hunters there tonight were very young, too young to be able to do much harm. They were alone—there were older men, clearly used to fighting, but they were the minority, and Nicky wondered what the hunters were up to. There had to be a good reason for their leader to send only boys.

  Nicky shook his head, and when they boy in front of him stepped forward, his knife poised, Nicky punched him in the face. The boy’s nose made a crunch and he cried out. His knife fell, and Nicky almost rolled his eyes.

  He crouched next to the kid, and the kid scrambled backward. When his back hit the mansion’s outside wall, he looked around, fear obvious in his eyes, but no one came to help him. Everyone else was either already wounded or dead, or busy fighting for their lives.

  Nicky took one of the plastic ties someone had handed him earlier and reached for the kid. The kid whimpered and put his hands in front of him as if to protect himself. They were bloody, and Nicky couldn’t help but wonder if it was the boy’s own blood or if he’d managed to kill a pride member.

  Nicky shook his head. He couldn’t think that way, not at the moment. He quickly tied the kid’s wrists and ankles together. The boy’s nose was still trickling blood, but he’d live. He looked bewildered as Nicky left him there. He wasn’t about to kill a harmless kid, no matter how much he might deserve it.

  Nicky’s heart squeezed when he saw a leopard slumped on its side, a bleeding gash running along its stomach. He wanted to stop and check, but the battle wasn’t over yet, and he couldn’t afford it. Instead, he ran to the spot where two hunters had managed to push a bear shifter against the wall and were taking stabs at it while it roared.

  Nicky wrapped his hand around the throat of one of the hunters, hoping the bear could take care of the other one. He pulled, and the hunter stumbled backward. He wasn’t one of those kids, though. This guy was older, and from the way he managed to stay upright and turn, it was obvious he knew what he was doing.

  The guy grinned, and instead of trying to stab Nicky like the kid had, he took a gun out. Nicky tensed. There wasn’t much he could do against a gun, but he wasn’t about to run away.

  He lunged, crashing into the man. He heard the gun shoot, but there was no pain, so he was pretty sure he’d managed to avoid the bullet.

  He reached for the man’s wrist and grabbed it. He held it on the ground until the hunter let go of his gun. A foot appeared in Nicky’s vision and kicked the gun away, but Nicky didn’t check who it was. He punched the hunter in the face, and while blood did spurt, the man didn’t seem to care. He punched back, and they rolled.

  The hunter managed to pin Nicky to the ground, but before he could do anything else, a huge hairy hand topped with claws gripped the man’s throat and pulled him away. Nicky looked up to see a creature that looked like a wolf walking on two legs rake his claws on the hunter’s stomach.

  Nicky looked away, not to avoid the sight of the hunter’s insides slipping out, but because a hand was pressed on the top of his head. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked André.

  Nicky jumped up and took André’s arm, already steering him toward the house, but André resisted. “I came to help.”

  “You should be in New York.”

  André pulled on the arm Nicky was holding again, but Nicky was stronger, and he needed to get André away from the creature, whatever it was.

  “Why? Because I’m human?” André protested.

  “No, because I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  André stopped walking and Nicky almost stumbled. “Well, I don’t want you to get hurt either.”

  Nicky looked back. The creature was done with the hunter, and the bear Nicky had rescued earlier was gone. The creature looked at Nicky and André and started to come toward them. Nicky tensed, ready to fight, but André put a hand on his forearm. “It’s Aeron.”

  “Aeron?”

  “He’s half Nix, half werewolf, and completely dedicated to our cause. Don’t worry. He’s the one who shimmered me here, actually.”

  Nicky snorted. Of course the werewolf would have been the one to shimmer André right into the middle of a fight. If it had been Nysys or any other Nix, Nicky would have kicked their ass, but the werewolf was huge, and Nicky wanted to keep his balls attached to his body. Maybe he could wait until the werewolf became human again.

  Nicky shook his head. “I don’t care how you got here. You have to go back.”

  “I’m staying right here,” André said. His chin was raised and his eyes stubborn, and Nicky knew he’d have to haul his mate up and away if he wanted him to leave.

  Someone yelled, “Look out!” and Nicky looked their way. His breath hitched when he noticed the hunter. The man had a gun raised, and he was pointing it at Dominic’s back. He was too far for Nicky to be able to do anything. He wouldn’t get there in time.

  He started moving anyway, but before he could get far, a shot was fired from right n
ext to him. He was still looking ahead, and he saw the hunter with the gun jerk and slump to the ground, his gun bouncing away.

  Nicky turned around, swallowing at the sight of André still holding his gun, his eyes hard, looking as calm as he’d be if he were grocery shopping.

  The werewolf stood behind André and patted his shoulder. “Good job,” he growled, then he left. André let his hand fall by his side, and Nicky gently took the gun out. “Are you okay?”

  André shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve never killed anyone before.”

  “You don’t know if you killed him.”

  “I probably did.”

  “You did what you had to do to protect your friend. Even if the hunter is dead, it wasn’t your fault. It was him or Dominic.”

  André looked at Nicky. “I know. I’m not sure how I am, because I don’t feel remorse. I should, right?”

  Nicky hugged André close and kissed the top of his head. “No, you shouldn’t. You understand why you shot him. There’s nothing to feel guilty about.”

  Nicky looked around and tried to imagine what would have happened if the hunter had managed to shoot Dominic. The alpha would be dead, and André knew that instead of pride members winning their battles, they’d be losing right now.

  André had prevented that.

  Chapter Five

  “What are you doing here?” Dom asked in a calm voice. It was at odds with the chaos around them. The battle was over, and the mansion’s front yard looked a mess. Enforcers were securing the hunters who were still alive while Nix made the rounds and healed the wounded, first the pride members, then the hunters.

  André could see Dom was furious, even if he didn’t sound like he was. He didn’t think a lot of other people could, but he’d known Dom since he was a kid. He could read him as well as Ani could.

  “I came to help,” he answered, knowing it wouldn’t be enough. He was about to get his ass chewed out, and he knew he’d earned it. He didn’t regret it, though.

  Dom took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You came to help.”

  “Yes. I was worried for Nicky, and since we’re not mated I couldn’t know if he was fine.”

  “And you decided walking into the middle of a bloody battle was a good idea?”

  “I know it wasn’t a good idea, but it didn’t stop me. Besides, I saved your life. You’d be very dead right now if I hadn’t.”

  Dom’s eyes softened. “I can’t deny that, and I won’t, but how do you think I would have felt if something had happened to you?”

  “Like I would have if something had happened to you, I guess.”

  “What would I have told your parents?”

  André sighed. He hadn’t thought about his dads when he’d decided to come back. His only thought had been Nicky, and he felt guilty about that, but he knew Nicky would be the most important person on his life from now on. They were mates. That was how it worked.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Dom patted his shoulder. “I know. And thank you for saving my life.”

  André shivered. “I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t.”

  Dom’s hand on his shoulder tightened. “It would have been hard, but I know my people. They would have managed. You would have managed.”

  “I don’t know. You’re kind of my best friend, even though we don’t see each other much.”

  “I know you have other friends in the pride.”

  “Well, yeah, but I’ve known you since I was a kid. It’s not the same thing. You’re a best friend and big brother all rolled up into one.”

  Dom was silent for a moment, then he asked, “Who brought you here?”

  Dom wouldn’t have problems finding out if he put his mind to it, so André confessed, “Aeron.”

  “Aeron, huh? I have to say I hadn’t expected him to fight like he did.”

  “You knew he was half werewolf, right?”

  “No. As far as I know he’s never shifted in front of any pride member, and he certainly never fought with us. Why did you call him? I didn’t know you were friends.”

  “Not really. We’ve talked a few times and exchanged numbers, but then he left and went to college, so we haven’t seen each other since then.”

  “Yet you called him.”

  “Yeah, well, Nysys wasn’t about to shimmer me back, Finn and Noem were here and wouldn’t have helped me anyway, and the other few Nix I know I can’t imagine in the middle of a battle.”

  “But since Aeron is half werewolf you thought he’d help you.”

  “I didn’t know what he was before he shifted in my New York office, and believe me, it was freaky. No, I called him because I’m slightly closer to him than I am to Yerad, Cerris, or Wyn. That’s it. I know most of them helped with the raids back when the Glass Company was still a problem, so I would have called any of them.”

  “Cerris is a werewolf too.”

  André gaped for a few seconds, then snapped his mouth shut. “Okay.”

  “We didn’t know about Aeron until he showed up today. We knew he was half-breed, but he never told us what his other half was.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because when people think werewolf, they think out of control monster,” Aeron said from behind Dom.

  André leaned around Dom to look at Aeron as he approached. He’d found some clothes and his long, black hair was bound in a messy bun on top of his head. There was a streak of blood on his cheek, and André shivered when he noticed the dry blood under his nails, but he wasn’t scared. Aeron looked fierce, even though he was a few inches smaller than André and looked like a porcelain doll most of the time—like a bloody doll at the moment. André had learned soon enough never to underestimate anyone, and it had proved right that day, too.

  Aeron stopped by them and looked at Dom. “Besides, I know you’d probably want me to become an enforcer, and no offense, but it’s the last thing I want to do with my life.”

  A flash of hurt passed through Dom’s eyes, but it was gone quickly. “Have I ever forced someone to become something they didn’t want to?”

  “Forced, no, but I remember how you talked to Corbin.”

  “Corbin was different. The way he was brought up was different, and I didn’t think he’d be able to do anything else.”

  “You thought he needed to be controlled. Do you think the same about me now that you know?”

  Dom looked at Aeron, and instead of answering, he said, “Cerris isn’t half as good as you when it comes to control.”

  Aeron shrugged, and the T-shirt he was wearing slid down his shoulder. “I had help.”

  “Would you be willing to help Cerris?”

  Aeron sighed. “Of course I would. I knew you’d ask.”

  “Is that why you left?”

  “In part.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “Yeah, I do. I know Cerris just wants to be a gardener, but he needs to be able to control his wolf. It might be useful, like my presence was in this case.”

  “Dominic,” someone said, and they all turned to face Nate. He looked grim, and it wasn’t because of the blood on his hands and arms.

  “Tell me,” Dom said.

  “Three enforcers are dead, ten are wounded, most not badly.”

  Dom looked at the ground, and André took his hand and squeezed it. He knew it wasn’t the same as if Ani had done so, but Ani was inside, still dealing with the people who’d hid in the safe rooms.

  “The pride members?” Dom asked in a rough voice.

  Nate was silent for a moment, and André’s heart sank. Did it mean some pride members were dead? He didn’t know all of them well, but he’d been living there for a while, long enough to cross paths with everyone.

  “Who?” Dom asked.

  “Gary and Amanda.”

  André pressed his lips together. He wasn’t friends with either of them, but he kne
w Gary was Jill’s mate. She was the one who took care of the daycare, and they had a son, Maxwell.

  “Wounded?” Dom asked.

  “Most wounds are light, but Ben...”

  Dom looked at Nate. “Ben? What was he doing here?”

  Nate shook his head. “He was caught inside. We found him in the kitchen, hidden behind the counter. From what we saw, he managed to drag himself from the hallway. We found a body there, a hunter.”

  “Ben killed him?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “How is he?”

  “Noem took him to the infirmary as soon as we found him. I haven’t heard from him yet.”

  Dom nodded, and André let go of his hand. “Anything else?”

  “We’re already moving the hunters who aren’t wounded too badly to the council jail.”

  “Bradley?”

  “Nowhere to be seen. I’m not even sure he was here today.”

  Dom rubbed his hand on his face. “Right. We’ll regroup tomorrow and talk about it.”

  “But I think one of the hunters we caught might be the guy who told Shad to spy for him.”

  “The second one?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll see him tomorrow.”

  Nate shook his head. “He’s unconscious.”

  “He needs to stay here.”

  “I know.”

  They left, and André looked around for his mate.

  * * * *

  Nicky helped the human hobble toward the house. He had an arm around the guy and the guy hopped along. Nicky thought he’d probably sprained or broken his ankle, but he wasn’t a doctor.

  He’d been about to tie the guy up, thinking he was one of the hunters, but the guy had showed him his neck, where a mating bite was obvious, so instead Nicky was helping him to the infirmary.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around,” the guy said.

  “I’m new.”

  “Yeah, I got that. I’m John. You might already know my mate, Isaiah.”

  Nicky remembered André had told him about a John who’d worked for the Glass Company, but he had a hard time believing any of the shifters living in the mansion would trust him enough to fight by his side.