by Renee George
“Let me see,” Shane said. He sat up and gently pulled the covers off Scottie. The line where she’d been opened by the jaguar’s claw was red with yellow bruising on either side, but it was closed and healing. He pressed his lips lightly to the forming scar and Scottie rewarded him with a happy sigh. “It’s looking better.”
“Liar,” Scottie said. “I look like someone gutted me.”
He traced the scar, his fingertips lightly dancing on her skin, “You are beautiful.”
“You just want me for my body,” Scottie teased, but he could hear the uncertainty in her voice.
“Damn right,” he said. Did she really not know how fucking turned on he was by every inch of her?
He and his beast both wanted Scottie. Wanted to claim her as their mate. To mark her as his. Forever. His cock, fully hard and ready for sex, agreed whole-heartedly.
He leaned in close, his voice low and guttural as desire permeated his blood. “If you were strong enough, I would make love to you until believed as much as I do that you are perfect, Scottie Monroe. Perfect, sexy, and beautiful in every way. I can’t even tell you how desperate I am to have you, to be inside you, to give you everything I am, and have you give it back to me. I may not be claimed yet, but I am taken. I am taken by you, Scottie. Every gorgeous inch of you.”
“Wow,” she said, her eyes blinking back tears. “So…you do like me?”
His mouth watered with the need to put his lips on her breasts, but Tig had been right, he wouldn’t be able to be gentle. “More than,” he said. His need was too strong. His desire for Scottie went beyond self-control, and he worried if he let himself start, even with the best intention to be easy, slow, in the end, he would damage her. “I’m going to get my stuff.”
“Party pooper,” Scottie said.
“That’s me,” he agreed. “I’ll be right back.”
The apartment was empty as Shane made his way out to the parking lot. He glanced at the dark stain on the gravel where both the jaguar and Scottie had bled. God, he couldn’t believe how close he came to losing her. It would have left a hole in his heart, right next to the one left by his mother. He wondered if that’s how his mother had felt about his dad. But what about his father? If the mating had been fated, wouldn’t it have killed him to give her up? What kind of cold-hearted monster was Matthew Pierce anyway?
When Shane got to his room, he paused. Something didn’t feel or smell right. The door to Room 7 had been jimmied open. Inside, a man sat on his bed and was thumbing through the stack of letters. His mom’s letters.
“Who are you?”
“I am your father’s enforcer, cub.” When the man stood, his dark hair and dark eyes menaced Shane. He was almost as tall Shane, but with a boxer’s build. The scars on his arms and neck marked him as a seasoned fighter. “My name is Lance Stringer, and you’re Shane Largos, the bastard son of Matthew Pierce.”
“Now that we have all that sorted, what the fuck do you want?”
The man set the letters down on the bed. “I thought I wanted to kill you, boy. That was my first impulse. But I decided to watch you for a while. The way you took down Brandon Meyers last night makes me think you might be useful.”
“The jaguar shifter? So my father did send him?”
“Brandon is…was a hot head. He got himself killed over a bad case of pride.” Lance snorted. “Your daddy has no idea you’re even here.”
“Then how did—”
“I have a friend in the Southeast territories who works for the Itan. He called me and let me know about your little plan to challenge my Rex.”
“So you came to stop me?”
“I considered it, but then I saw you shift into a lion. It’s one thing to fuck a human and get her pregnant, but to have her whelp a shifter? Matthew is a goddamn traitor to his kind.”
“So you want to use me against him?” Shane shook his head. “I’m done living in the past. I won’t challenge the Rex.”
“You’ll do as your told, boy.”
Shane’s beast roared forward, his claws slipping down in preparation for a fight. “Or else?”
Lance held up his right hand. “Hold up.” With his left hand, he pulled his cell phone from his back pocket. He swiped it with thumb twice and turned it over so Shane could see the screen as a short video played. It was Lin Monroe. She was battered, bloody, and behind bars. “What did you do to her?”
“Me?” Lance shrugged. “Our Regina loves to use trespassers as scratching posts. Lin entered Pride Lands last night with the intent of confronting the Rex. As per our laws, she’s been arrested. Tomorrow she will be judged.”
“No,” Shane said. This was his fault. His anger and need for revenge had brought him into Scottie’s life, and his revelation about being the Rex’s son had fueled Lin’s hatred. “If I do as you ask, will you let her go?”
“I promise you, she’ll die if you don’t.” Lance gave him a thin-lipped, cruel smile. “You see, here’s the deal. You come to the Pride with me today and tell our people what a human-loving traitor your father is.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all I need. Now, if you do this and don’t challenge the Rex, you and Lin Monroe will both be killed. But, if you do challenge him, you have a fifty-fifty shot of saving both of you. Most likely, though, Rex Pierce will rip off your head and yank your heart out through your throat.” Lance held up his hands in a who knows gesture. “There is a chance, though. I mean, lightning might strike the Rex before he gets his hands on you.”
“When I’m Rex…”
“Yes?”
“I’m going to kill you next.”
“Dream big, boy.” The enforcer hooted a laugh. “Dream big.”
****
Scottie got up for a glass of milk. She checked in on her mom first, but the bed was empty. Maybe she went to the office early. The choice Lin had made to live must have felt like dying. Her mom never showed it, though. She’d always been loving. She’d never made Scottie feel like an albatross of sorrow. But how could her mom not feel that way?
Walking around the apartment hadn’t been easy at first, but the more Scottie moved, the more her muscles limbered up. Bending was still a nearly impossible task, and lifting made her stomach feel like someone was jabbing knives into her gut. Still, better than death.
She heard the front door open. “Shane, you back?”
“It’s me,” Tig said.
“Have you seen mom?”
“No. Why?”
“She’s not in her room,” Scottie said. “Do you really think she’s going to be okay?”
Tig walked over and put her arm around Scottie. “She’s a tough chick, baby. Don’t you ever forget it.” She cuffed Scottie under the chin. “And so are you. You got strong stock running through your genes.” Her aunt looked around. “Where’s that man of yours? I thought we’d have to get a doctor to perform a separation surgery to get him away from your side.”
“He went to grab his bag from his room. He’ll be back soon.” A knock on the door made Scottie smile. “There he is.” But when the door opened, Tony stood there.
“Why did Shane just get in a truck with Lance Stringer?”
“Lance?” Tig asked. “Like Enforcer Lance from Leone?”
“Yep.” Tony’s expression was pinched. Worried. “Lance looked pleased as punch, but Shane looked like he wanted to hurt someone.”
“No, no, no!” Scottie said, the bitter taste of fear rising in her throat. “He promised me. He wasn’t going to go to the Pride. He told me he wouldn’t do it.”
“Calm down, baby,” Tig said. “You don’t know what’s going on.”
“I know exactly what’s going on. Shane Largos is a dirty, lying bastard.” She was more frightened than angry, but anger was an easier emotion to process. Orange fur sprouted her skin as anxiety brought her beast. “He’s going to get himself killed, Tig. I can’t…I have to stop him.”
She grabbed her car keys from a bowl in the living ro
om, but Tig stopped her before she got to the door. “Put some clothes on, Scottie. You won’t be saving anyone in a robe and slippers.”
Scottie nodded, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Good call.”
Chapter Eight
Scottie leaned forward and addressed Tig and Tony from the backseat. Because of her injuries, her aunt had refused to let her drive. “That fool better not have gotten himself killed already.”
Tig gave Scottie a quick glance over the shoulder. When her eyes went back to the road, a turtle had suddenly appeared. She swerved, her right front wheel hitting the drift bumps along the side of the highway. “Where the hell did that thing come from?” She took a deep breath after getting the car and her pounding heart under control. “It just came out of nowhere.”
“Turtles don’t just come out of nowhere, babe,” Tony said. “They aren’t the fastest animals on the block.”
“Smart ass.” Shaking her head, she gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Look, baby,” Tig said to Scottie. “I said this already, but this is a bad idea. I think you have no business at the Leone Pride. They don’t take kindly to strangers. Especially ones that aren’t pure blood cat shifters.”
Which meant, Tony was in danger as well. The previous Rex, Rex Solomon had threatened to kill Tig and Lin if they ever returned.
Scottie bit her lower lip, trepidation making her skin itch. “The new Rex might not want your head, but we can’t know that for sure.”
Tony patted Tig’s knee when she gave Scottie a sharp look. “Eyes on the road,” he said.
Scottie sighed. Heavily. “Do you think he’s already fought the Rex? It wouldn’t happen that fast, right? A challenge would require some formal set-up. What was he thinking?”
“We don’t know what Stringer said to him,” said Tony. “My instincts about Shane are that he’s the real deal. I don’t think he’d leave you without good reason.”
She’d opened her heart to Shane Largos. She’d let him in. Oh, who was she kidding? Nothing Shane could have said or confessed would have made her want him less, but she would have at least had her eyes wide open. Maybe she could have hog-tied him while he slept. Her knuckles were going white as her worry simmered into anger.
“If he’s still alive when we get there, I am going to kill him myself. Why the hell would he trust anyone from the Leone?” It was hard to keep the heat from her voice. Scottie didn’t even try. “He left without saying anything to me. Who does that?”
“Someone who doesn’t want to say goodbye,” Tig said.
“Or someone without a choice,” Tony added, his gaze wistful.
“Well, it’s a coward’s move, and I’ll be damned if he’s going to challenge his dad without me being there.”
“As his mate should,” Tig said.
“I’m not—” Scottie shook her head. There had been no official claiming by Shane. She still wasn’t well enough, but her fear for Shane had driven most the aches from her body. Still, they were promised to each other. The driving need to be by his side, even without him claiming her, marking her, meant he was hers. Had the Leone Pride insisted on his presence, or had Shane thrown his life away on a half-baked scheme for revenge?
“Stop that,” Tig said. “Your forehead is going to have a permanent crease. Besides, we’re almost there.”
Clearing his throat, Tony pointed to a gravel road on the left. “There it is.”
Tig put on the blinker and rapidly decelerated to make the turn. Although the road seemed well-maintained, the white gravel threw dust everywhere behind them, making the highway disappear completely from the rearview mirror. Several small houses loomed on either side.
“Those are the Pride homes.” Tig gestured to a blue one with a small white porch. “That’s where we grew up.”
“Really?” Logically, Scottie knew her mom and Tig had been part of the Pride. She’d heard the stories her entire life. But seeing their home crystalized the reality. This was where her dad died.
This is where Shane will try to kill his own father.
After about twenty small houses, there was nothing for another four miles except wooded land and hills. “Where is the Rex’s place?”
“We should be coming up on it anytime. It’ll be another left.” Tig pointed out the driver side window. “Like right there.”
Scottie glanced over to see two worn tire track marks between two large trees.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s not a road. It’s a path.” The trees were so thick that the road was darkened under the looming branches of oaks and maples, poison ivy encroaching on the edges, giving her the sense of an old fifties horror film. A heavy sense of foreboding weighed on her. “It’s a goddamn spooky path in the middle of freaking nowhere.”
Please let Shane be okay. Please let him be alive, she prayed to any god or goddess listening. In her heart, she believed he still lived. He didn’t feel dead to her. Not in her soul. If he’d been torn from this earth, she would have felt it. Right? Was she fooling herself about being his mate?
The tree branches dragged over the hood of the car reminding her of Freddie Kruger cutting into the side of a metal wall with his bladed fingers. “God, will this awful road never end?”
“I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Tig said.
And then, there it was. The sun peeked through the trees, throwing its blessed light down on the road now opening into a pastoral setting. She’d expected a small rustic cabin, something out of Grizzly Adams, but instead, it was more like the Kennedy’s home. “Holy bejeezus. This place is freakin’ huge.”
“Yes, it’s good to be king,” her aunt said.
“Ya think?” The cabin, if you could call it that, was a three-story house accented with cedar panels and had to be at least 8,000 square feet. Tig pulled up into a paved circular drive in front.
“Who would have thought something like this…” Scottie gestured toward the house then jerked her thumb. “…would have been at the end of that,” she finished, pointing at the path of darkness.
As they exited the car, the front door of the house opened, and two large men barreled out the front door. They stood at the bottom of the porch, arms crossed, and waited for Scottie and her family to exit the car.
Scottie got out first. Whatever will be will be. She marched between the two men. “We’re here for the challenge.”
The larger of the two guys nodded to his partner after Tig and Tony strode out of the car. “Take them.”
Before Scottie could react, the man farthest from her pulled out a gun. “Don’t try anything. I will shoot you.”
Chapter Nine
The Pride territory seemed deserted. No children played, and no adults worked in the yards. When Stringer had driven Shane down the hidden driveway to the Rex’s house, he could hear the drone of people. A lot of people. It was only when Lance took him around the backside of the property that he understood. A crowd of a hundred or more shifters sat in bleachers around a large field.
There was a fenced in arena in the middle. Lin Monroe was on her knees in the center with her hands tied behind her back. On the north side, a platform had two grand, high back chairs. In one sat a woman with pale blonde hair and milky skin. Next to her was a man with dark hair and golden eyes. The same eyes Shane saw every morning when he looked in the mirror. Rex Matthew Pierce and the woman had to be his Regina.
The Rex looked startled when he saw his enforcer walking with Shane toward the gathering. He stood and slammed the bottom of a gnarled wooden staff into the platform. He had his scepter and his throne, Shane thought. The only thing missing was a crown. The Regina, her expression sour and pinched, stood up next to him and raised her hand. The crowd immediately silenced.
“What is this?” the Rex demanded.
Shane had to work hard to keep himself calm. He had to save Lin. For Scottie. The rest didn’t matter.
“Do it,” Lance muttered. “You want to save the bitch. This is your only shot.
”
At Lance’s prompt, Shane said the words he’d been practicing for more than a year. “I am here to challenge Rex Matthew Shane Pierce. By right of birth and blood. I am a firstborn son. I am heir. I call you out.”
A dull roar of disbelief and surprise rippled through the spectators.
“I have no son,” the Rex said. His Regina’s nostril’s flared with anger and the woman shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“I am the son of Lila Largos. The mate you abandoned in Texas thirty-two years ago.”
The Rex appeared surprised. No, stricken. “I…I don’t believe you.”
“I have a birth certificate to prove I am her son.”
“But no proof you are mine,” Pierce said.
Fury swept over Shane. How dare this man deny him! He brought his lion to the surface, fur slipping his skin as his face widened and became more animal than man. He roared his rage. “Deny this, Matthew Pierce.”
The Rex sat down, his face ghostly pale. “She never told me.”
“You’re lying! I have the letters. Proof that you have kept in touch with her over the years.”
“It’s true, I wrote to Lila.”
“Enough,” the Regina barked. “Stringer, do your job and dispose of this…this trash.”
“Can’t.” The enforcer shrugged. “If he’s the Rex’s son, he has a legitimate right to challenge him for the Pride.”
“This is ridiculous!” she shouted. “Tell them, Matthew. Tell them he is not your son.”
The Rex shook his head. “I can’t. I…I…He might be.”
There was a louder joining of voices then. Talk of human hybrids, traitor, liar, and bastard son. And while Lance Stringer was eager for Shane to challenge, the Rex looked less than willing to accept. Maybe he could keep his promise to Scottie and save her mom.
“I will forfeit my right to challenge if I can take the Monroe woman out of her with me.” He gestured to Lin. “I will never return if you grant her mercy.”
“What is she to you?” the Rex asked.
“She is the mother of my mate,” Shane said. “A mate who will never forgive me if I don’t bring her mother home alive.”
