Her senses tingled when she got to the end of the street. One hand fisted, she spread her legs hip-width apart, waiting for whatever came.
“Sorry, did I scare you?”
She relaxed at the sight of him. It was just Gabriel, the puppy-bunny who smelled off to her. Her bear didn’t like him, but that was probably because Winnie was smitten with the kitties. Sam wished she could fall for a geeky human like this. But it wasn’t fair to any of them. She needed adventure, a life of travel and cool stuff like fighting battles, helping other people, white-water rafting, rock climbing, sky diving, building homes in poor villages...stuff like that. She just needed some adventure.
The prick in her arm caught her off guard, and she saw Gabriel quickly step in to take her against his chest. Shit, what was that? Her head woozy, her vision blurred, and all sounds got low and tunnely.
“Come on, my Sam. We’ve got somewhere else to be.” He propped her arm over his shoulder and helped her shaky legs move forward about four steps into the alley. Then he placed his hand on top of her head as he pressed her into the car. She should fight back. Kick his ass. Scream for help. Anything. But her body wasn’t …fucking…obeying…anymore.
Shit, there was her adventure.
The world went black.
~.~
Noah
“She’s going out on a lunch date.”
Noah could hear the frustration in his brother’s voice. Hell, he felt the same anger. She shouldn’t be eating lunch with anyone but one of them. Mate. His tiger barely whispered it, but Noah heard it loud and clear. Ah crap. It made no sense. His tiger might want the beautiful bear, but he couldn’t have her, and they both knew it. Sam belonged to Traeger. He closed his eyes and willed away the vision of the dark-haired beauty with the perfect wit, perfect sass, perfect...perfection. Dammit, she wasn’t his, no matter how much his tiger wanted to claim her. His human side thought of her soft belly and lush hips, the way she giggled when he tickled her behind her knee. The way she didn’t back down from an argument but raced forward to help a kid tie his shoe. She was kind and sensual and smart and funny, and… He glanced over at his seething brother, barely holding his lion at bay. Yeah, she was amazing, but not Noah’s.
“Are you even listening to me?” Trae spat, his eyes narrowed.
“You should claim her as soon as we get back into town.”
“What?”
“Sam. You’re perfect for each other. Even if I didn’t have the ability to read you like a book, I could tell you and your lion are totally into her. And she’s into you.”
Trae harrumphed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, let’s say for just a sec that she is actually saying I dig you when she shoots me glares and F-bombs every conversation. You forgot one thing.”
Noah kept quiet. Trae was working up to something big. He usually didn’t talk this much, let alone emote like this. He was projecting anger, desire, and panic all over the place.
“I can’t…” Trae closed his mouth then opened it again, pain evident on his face as he ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t mate her. No matter how much my lion is calling me to.”
“I knew it. I knew she was your mate!”
“You’re not listening to me, dickhead.” Trae scowled at him. “I can’t claim her.”
“Why not?”
He couldn’t quite pick out the mumbled words behind Trae’s hands.
“Bro?”
“I said I’m not worthy! All right. are you happy now? I’m too fucked up for her. I’ll fuck her up and then I’ll fucking jump off the highest bridge I can find because I can’t live with killing another...another…” His voice broke off in a strangled groan
“You think it was your fault Mom died?” Noah lost it. He pushed his brother hard in the chest, and Trae staggered back, his eyes wide. “Screw you! You play the victim pretty damn well. Poor me—I lost my mom. Poor me—I should have stopped a lunatic before he shot her. Poor me—I let down my brother and my pride. All...you! Did you ever for a goddamn second think about how I might feel? That I might feel it was my fault, too? I was the idiot who shifted. I was the one who didn’t catch her when she fell. I listened to her fucking strangle to death, her eyes on mine as the light went out of them. But you even blamed my guilty conscience on yourself!” He shoved him harder.
Trae’s eyes glowed with his inner lion. “Don’t push me.”
“Fuck you. She was mine, too.” Noah clenched his fists and prepared to strike the other man in the jaw. “When you took it all on yourself, you took it away from me. Like I wasn’t worthy to be her son, like I wasn’t worthy to hold the guilt. Like I wasn’t...” Noah’s shoulders sagged, and his arms fell to his sides. “Like I wasn’t really your family, so I didn’t deserve to mourn her.”
“Man, I’m sorry.” Trae stepped closer. “If you want to clock me one, you can. I deserve it for being such a dick.”
“I don’t want to fight you.” Noah glared at him, then took a deep breath. “But I also don’t want to be the insignificant one anymore. If you really want our family to stay together, then you gotta stop trying to protect me from everything, especially the bad stuff. It hurts when you do that. Hey, what are you doing?” He glanced at the space Trae had eaten up between them and winced when large arms wrapped around his shoulders.
“Shut up for just a fucking second, asshole,” Trae said, his head next to Noah’s. “I’m hugging you.” He squeezed him tighter into his embrace and sighed. “Shit, I don’t know if I’m doing it right, but I’m not letting you go until you either hug me back or give me a right hook.”
Noah laughed and wrapped his arms around his brother. “Just don’t start trying to grab my ass or anything. “
“I was thinking about poking my fingers in those pits in your face.” Trae smiled. “Just to see how deep they go. Think I can get to China?”
“Idiot.”
Trae laughed. “No denying it, but you’re family, which means the idiot gene transferred over to you a long time ago.”
Noah chuckled and returned one final hug.
“So, do we stop hugging before it gets awkward or what?”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Noah said. “That little old lady walking her dog is giving us strange looks.”
Trae released him, mussed Noah’s hair up, grinned, and took a step back. “So, I have an idea about how to deal with Sam.”
The low, angry hiss left Noah’s mouth before he could stop it, and Trae grinned. “That’s what I thought. Let’s have a seat while you calm your tiger down.”
They sat, and Trae waited for the old lady to walk past them with her yapping fluffball dog.
“You ever heard of a triad?”
“You mean like three wolf shifters coming together to lead a pack?”
“Yeah, but it’s not just wolves. A long time ago, like before Granny Elias and her parents, there was a triad in our pride. It was the strongest in the history of our pride and all the surrounding prides before they moved to Virginia. I don’t know why the Goddess never formed another one, but it’s been a while. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about things.” He paused and rubbed his head. “Your tiger calls for her, right?”
Noah nodded.
“My lion does, too. Hell, she even heard me speaking in her head.”
“I thought it was a fluke. Don’t you have to be Alpha of a pride to do that, and only once you’re mated?”
“I don’t know, dude, but I do know it only happened cuz you were there. You’re the most important link to all of this.”
“Me?”
“Hell yeah. You ever wonder why a female tiger left you on our pride lands, instead of going to the royals or another tiger clan that was closer. No offense about your birth mother, sorry.”
“It’s okay, I didn’t know her. What are you saying?”
“I’m suggesting, as far-fetched as it is, the Goddess works in mysterious ways. Maybe you were meant to be left with us, become my brother. Beco
me part of the strongest triad in over a century.”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m not asking to pick out curtains with you and Sam yet. But just think about it, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Trae’s phone rang, and he answered it. “Hey, grumpy bear, you miss me yet?” The grin fell from his face. “Who the hell is this? Where’s Sam?”
Noah shot over to listen to the voice on the phone.
“I’m in the woods behind city hall. You want to see your precious bear alive, come soon. I’m about to take her to the nearest facility. One you didn’t burn to the ground.” The cackling voice set his fur on edge.
It couldn’t be. They’d thought he had run off and bled to death after their mother died. But Noah would never forget that voice.
Gabriel Fowler was back, and he had their mate.
Trae was already racing for the truck, and Noah sped after him.
Chapter Eight
Traeger
This could not be happening again. Fear crept up his spine, rendering him immobile as he watched in horror. His brother was half lying half sitting on the ground—he’d been run through the fucking ringer all right. It was Traeger’s fault. If he hadn’t been such an asshole, the only family member he had left wouldn’t be lying here, bleeding and beaten half to death by the psycho standing in front of him. Gabriel’s gleaming knife gradually crept along the side of Noah’s neck, and a thin line of red, tickled down his neck. Trae winced. They’d barreled into the field without even thinking. They should have known it was a trap, but seeing Sam on her knees, her hands cuffed behind her back, they’d sprinted forward without even bothering to assess the lack of smell perpendicular to their entrance. That was Gabriel’s thing. The science shit. Making masking devices to cover up the humans and shifters. They’d used that to capture all the shifters—he and that freak called Bossman—for their shifter testing facility.
And Trae and Noah had fallen for it. The bait. As soon as they got close enough to see Sam’s rapidly widening eyes, the shots rang out. Noah got hit hard by the special bullets that now had him lying, pale-faced and bloody on the ground. Trae had turned, already half shifted, ready to kill the mother fucker. But Gabriel walked right toward him and shot him with a tranq dart. The shift paused, and he reverted to human, slumping to the ground next to his brother and their mate.
Sam glowered up at Gabriel. “If you hadn’t dosed me with this shit, we would be having a much different conversation right now. And why the hell isn’t my mom’s antidote working still?”
“New batch just for you guys to try out.”
“What do you want, Gabriel?” Trae fought to keep his wits.
Gabriel’s maniacal laughter shook him to his core. “I would have preferred to have stolen your lover from you. Had her gut you like you gutted me when you pushed me away from Nova.” His eyes flashed black. “I just wanted to be loved! You couldn’t even allow me that small concession. I had no one, and Nova was willing to accept me. But you couldn’t even see past your judgment. You kicked me away, and then you made me kill her.”
Trae’s mother. He remembered the horror on Gabriel’s face when he realized he had killed her.
“It was an accident.” Gabriel’s voice trembled. “You forced my hand. I just wanted to share her love.” His eyes flashed again. “But you made me do it. It was your fault we all lost her. Now you get to watch your brother die.” He stood up straighter and pulled back the side of Noah’s shirt. His side was puffy with bruises and dried blood. “I injected him with a new serum I’m trying out. When he doesn’t get the antidote within the next two hours, his body theoretically should shut down. His blood will rise to three hundred degrees, his organs will stop working, and finally, he’ll choke on his own blood as everything explodes in his body. It’s still kind of new, and I haven’t worked out all the kinks, but I think I’m close.”
“Close to what?” Trager asked as horror filled him.
“A shifter killer. I tried it a few years ago with some special bullets. But it just slowed down shifter healing and cell regeneration. The male wolf I hit with it is still alive, unfortunately. I think I’m finally onto something a bit quicker.
“You’re a shifter, too. Why would you want to kill your own kind?” Traeger was trying desperately to hold his lion in. If he didn’t get the knife away from Noah and find the antidote, Noah would die, and Traeger would die right there with him. “Why?”
“Because I hate you! All of you!” Gabriel screamed, and the knife sank a little deeper into Noah’s shoulder.
Noah groaned, his eyes contorting.
“Do you know what it’s like to be shunned by your own kind for not being able to shift? To be cast out by your own father for not being human enough? To be beaten on your birthday while your mother screams and rants and tries to make you shift, to be more like her? To be alone.” His eyes filled, and his fists clenched. “I fit nowhere. Nobody accepts me. Except her. Nova accepted me. She said I was funny and smart. And you messed it all up!”
The knife flashed in front of him again.
“Just tell me what you want.”
“I’m going to kill your woman in front of you. Make you feel the pain I felt when Nova died. When my Sam is dead and you’ve cried your last tear, I’ll give you the antidote. Then you and your brother will leave the country and never return. I don’t want to have to ever see your faces again.”
“How do you know we won’t kill you right now?”
“You can’t, ignorant feline. That dose will keep you both from shifting, and the bullet in your brother? It will kill him soon enough. If that’s not enough for you, I have a few dozen soldiers all armed with these bullets heading out. I know of at least five clan locations including a lovely little town with a bunch of bears.
Sam stepped in, fury evident on her face. “You want me dead, asshole? You’re going to have to do it quick. Because I’m about to lose my fucking temper and let my inner bitch go to town on you. I don’t need my bear for that. You won’t go near my hometown. You’ll get this over with, take your revenge, and then get the hell out of here.”
“You’re agreeing to this? Sacrificing yourself for these…cats?”
Her heavy sigh preceded a look of love between her and Noah and then Traeger. “I’ll die for either of them, if that’s what it takes.”
“Sit down next to pretty boy and take the needle. It’s a backup plan just in case you decide to do something stupid.” He held the knife against Noah’s neck and handed her the syringe.
“Plunge it anywhere. It just has to get into your body. It doesn’t matter how. It will slow down your system even more, make you fatigued.”
She shoved the syringe into her neck and pressed down the plunger and winced as the liquid flowed into her neck. “Now you’re going to let him go and take me.”
“No dammit.” Traeger found his voice again.
You don’t really get a choice in this, Angry Pussy. At least I get to choose how I die, so how about you shut up and follow my lead. She spoke right into his head. Traeger had heard it, and based on his brother’s quick inhalation, he had also. Noah was right. They were meant to be together. To form their triad, save their pride.
Traeger’s breath stopped in his chest. What was she up to? “Sam, Noah, I’m sorry about all of this.”
~.~
Sam
Sam had to do something. Poor Noah looked ready to pass out again, miserable from both the kicks and punches Gabriel had given him and whatever that asshole had injected him with. She unclenched her fists and took a few deep breaths. She’d blown Traeger off once before—out of fear for her damn heart—she wasn’t making that mistake again. Trudy had said she could talk to her mate, and that Trae and she could talk to each other if she would just let him in, let the bond form. But was she ready for that? To let him in her mind meant she was accepting their mating call, and she wasn’t ready for that. Was she?
Her bear rumbled inside her,
fuming with rage—not over their current treatment, but over Sam’s wall over her heart. She loved these males more than any she had ever known. More than herself. She winced as Noah shivered from another spasm as the poison worked its way through his system. It was killing her, seeing him like this. But Traeger, with the haunted look in his eyes as he didn’t even breathe, just standing there waiting to fight for all of them? He was killing her the most. Because she loved them. She truly loved them both. She couldn’t let Noah die, and she sure as hell wasn’t letting Trae live the rest of his life mourning the loss of either of them. Was it scary? Hell yeah. Did it mean she stood the chance of losing her heart and dying a lonely old woman after they each died—if she walked away from this alive? Double yeah. But that was the future, and these men—one lying next to her, and one standing across from her like a wounded soldier ready to die in the biggest battle of his life—were her present. She took another deep breath and let down her walls. Barrier by barrier. Sarcasm, heated words, cuss words, lame jokes, attacking words, attacking hands, all of it. It all poured out of her like she had opened a valve on high. The avalanche of rock and anger and glass and fear, all of it shattered, and the first tears fell.
Gabriel saw her weeping and sneered down at her. “See, your female doesn’t want to die. She’s crying because of you. You hurt everyone who comes near you.”
“Kill me instead.” Traeger’s voice was strong and low. “Give Noah the antidote, let Sam go, and you can slit my throat right here. Dance on my corpse. I give it all to you.”
Gabriel pulled the vial out of his pocket and grinned, waving it in the air like a madman. “That’s all I ever wanted. I don’t really want them to die—it’s not their fault they got sucked into your hell.” He tossed the vial onto Noah’s prone form. “Kneel before me like a good little lion, and I might make your death quick, so they don’t have to suffer while you choke on your own blood.”
A Lion, A Tiger and Her Bear...Oh My!: A Howls Romance (The Mates of Bear Paw River Book 4) Page 9
