The kiss was hard, fervent and incredibly hot.
It felt almost as if Gregory was claiming him. Hayden could do nothing but hold on for the ride and hope he didn’t become overexcited. The last thing he wanted was to come in his pants like some horny, inexperienced teenager.
When Gregory finally ended the kiss, he groaned and pressed their foreheads together. He was breathing heavily and when he pulled back Hayden saw that his eyes and teeth had shifted to their cat form.
“You are not ugly. You are the most beautiful goddamn man I ever set eyes on and I’ll tell you every damn day until you start to believe it, you got me?”
Hayden was so shocked he couldn’t speak.
He nodded dumbly, trying to avert his gaze, but it was no use. Gregory still held his head in a death grip between his hands.
“Do you understand me?” Gregory pressed.
“But my scar…” Hayden whispered.
“Is just that—a scar. It doesn’t take anything away from your looks, not for me. I don’t even see it when I look at you, and it’s not as if you don’t know how to get rid of it. You only need to shift.”
Hayden closed his eyes.
It was the only thing he could do to get away from the intensity in Gregory’s stare. He couldn’t hold that inquisitive gaze without blurting out his secrets and uncovering his skeletons.
He wasn’t ready for that.
“I can’t,” he whispered.
Gregory sighed. When he next spoke, his tone was softer, less angry. “One day soon you’re going to tell me why. But I won’t push you into it. Right now, I’m going to get us a room for the night. Stay in the car until I get back, okay?”
Hayden nodded, but he didn’t open his eyes.
After a moment he heard Gregory sigh again and his hands fell from Hayden’s face. The car door opened then closed again and Hayden was at last alone. His breath left him in a rush. Could it be possible that Gregory really thought he was beautiful and didn’t notice his scar? Or had he only said that to make Hayden feel better about himself?
Gregory was the most incredible man he’d ever met. Handsome didn’t even come close to describing him. His face had a rugged quality to it. Strong nose, strong jaw, and the most alluring blue eyes Hayden had ever seen. Okay, so Hayden knew Gregory played for his team now, but someone like him could have any man he wanted. Could he really find Hayden attractive? Even with his scar?
Hayden didn’t dare believe.
Part of him realized the pointlessness of his thoughts, anyway. Most shifters didn’t get involved in relationships because it would only complicate their lives if they found their mate. So would there be any point in the two of them starting anything? Hayden knew it would be easy to fall for Gregory and then when the leopard met his mate, where would that leave Hayden? It was stupid of him to want things he had no business wanting.
Reckless.
Maybe it would be better if he didn’t see Gregory again after he’d been dropped off at the ranch in Texas. Better for them both. But the thought of never seeing Gregory again made his stomach ache.
Jesus.
What the hell was he getting himself into?
He tried to get a handle on his anxiety while he waited for Gregory to return.
Chapter Eight
Gregory pressed his head against the cool glass of the door to the motel office and cursed under his breath.
What the fuck had he just done?
He couldn’t believe he’d been so impulsive. He shouldn’t have kissed Hayden, but he’d been angry when he’d heard his mate call himself ugly. His cat had been furious and had quickly risen to the surface. Gregory had wanted to show Hayden that he’d been telling the truth, that he did think he was beautiful, that he was genuinely the most beautiful man he had ever seen.
He heaved a sigh. Whatever his reasons, that still didn’t make it right. He should have had more damn sense. If he couldn’t be more careful, he was in danger of scaring the young jaguar off. If only Hayden would shift he’d understand everything. He’d know. Just as Gregory knew.
There would be no other ever again—for either of them.
Gregory pushed open the door to the office then strode inside. The one-story building was old and run-down, but it was the type of place that wouldn’t ask any questions. Besides, he’d stayed in worse places. The elderly man behind the desk was watching a TV set on a bracket on the wall in the corner of the room. Gregory glanced at the set briefly before turning back to the man.
The man chuckled then turned to face Gregory, his smile wide.
“Garfield,” he drawled, shaking his head. “What a riot!”
Gregory’s mouth twitched. “Hilarious. You got a room?”
The man pursed his lips and opened a register on the desk. He took his time looking through the pages to see what he had available, but Gregory had no idea why he’d bothered. He could see the room keys hanging on pegs on the wall. Every peg held a key, bar one.
“Yep, it looks like I can sort you out. Hundred bucks.”
A hundred bucks? The place was a dump.
Gregory shook his head, but reached for his wallet and handed over the money regardless.
“We don’t do breakfast,” the man informed him, “but, if you want coffee, there’s a machine just there.” He nodded to the wall near the door. “Office is open all night. Name’s Larry, by the way.”
“Thanks, Larry. Is there a payphone around here?”
“Sure is, it’s ‘round near the pool, opposite the furthest unit.”
Gregory nodded and took the key, which had a small block of wood hanging from it with the room number painted in thick red numerals.
“Thanks,” Gregory nodded. “Have a good night.”
Larry grunted a reply and before Gregory left the office the man had turned up the volume on his movie and was laughing along with it again.
After collecting Hayden from the car, Gregory led the way to their room, which was located at the end of a long row of identical units. Gregory unlocked the door, pushed it open then switched on the light. The decor was just as he’d expected…old. The furniture was tatty and in certain places, the wallpaper was peeling away from the wall.
“One bed?”
Hayden asked looking from it to Gregory, his eyebrows raised.
Gregory groaned inwardly.
It hadn’t even occurred to him to ask for two beds, he’d just taken what Larry had given him. How the hell was he going to sleep next to Hayden all night and keep his hands to himself? His dick had been hard non-stop since he’d met Hayden and now he had to lie next to him in bed?
Christ.
This was going to be a true test of his willpower.
“I don’t mind,” Hayden said quietly.
His face colored to a deep shade of pink.
Gregory could smell the arousal seeping out of Hayden’s pores and it made his already hard cock ache with need.
Oh, man.
Gregory was done for.
He went to check out the bathroom to pull himself together. He was a grown man, but his body was reacting as if he were a damn horny teenager, not a grown man. It was embarrassing.
“How is it?” Hayden asked.
“It’s basic, but at least it’s clean. You can use it first. I need to find the payphone to make a call.”
Hayden moved quickly to his side. “Are you going to call Kelan?”
Gregory had to hold his breath and shove his hands in his pocket as he slid past Hayden to stop himself from reaching out, grabbing the jaguar and sealing their lips together.
That damn kiss in the car was to blame, he was sure of it.
He couldn’t get it out of his head. That kiss had made his already anxious cat whine in frustration and claw at him from the inside, begging him to take what was theirs.
“Uh, yeah. I need to ask if it’s okay for you to stay there and I don’t want to do it on my cell phone. I don’t think the council are monitoring my calls, but I�
��d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Okay,” Hayden replied quietly. “I guess I’ll see you in a while.”
Gregory thought he heard a trace of jealousy in Hayden’s voice but he didn’t comment on it.
He nodded. “Keep the door locked.”
He went out into the motel forecourt and circled around to the back of the units until he found the small pool area. The phone was just where Larry had said it would be, opposite the last unit. He dug in his pocket for some quarters, fed them into the phone then dialed Kelan’s cell.
“‘Lo.”
“Kelan, it’s Gregory.”
“Hey, what’s up? How’s the drive?”
“Good… Listen, I can’t talk for long, I’m on a payphone. I didn’t want to risk using my cell phone. It’s about that favor.”
“I’m listening,” Kelan said.
Gregory pulled in a lungful of air before he spoke. “Kelan, the thing is... I found my mate.”
“Well, hell, congratulations. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, but, uh… It’s not quite as simple as that. He doesn’t know.”
“Huh?”
“He doesn’t know he’s my mate.”
Gregory could practically hear the cogs turning in Kelan’s mind.
“Is he human?” he asked at last.
“No, he’s a cat.”
“Then how can’t he tell?”
Gregory sighed. “It’s a long story. The problem is he’s the cat the council had me go to Vegas to collect. But there’s no goddamn way I’m handing Hayden over to them, and I couldn’t tell them he’s my mate.
I said he got away from me, that I couldn’t find him.”
“Say no more,” Kelan said. “He’s welcome here.”
Gregory finally let out the breath he’d been holding. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. I don’t blame you for not wanting to tell the council about him. He can stay here for as long as he likes. I’m sure I can find work to keep him occupied. But we’ll have to be careful.
“Dean has been here and he’s been asking about you.”
“Shit, what did he want to know?”
“If I’d heard from you. I didn’t tell him you’d been in touch, but I’m not sure he believed me.”
“Is that what you wanted to tell me earlier?”
Kelan hesitated before he spoke. “There’s something else, but I’d rather tell you face to face.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“It’s not good news, Gregory. Look, don’t worry, just get yourself here and we’ll figure out the rest.”
“Thanks, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“No need, ‘sides, I know how you feel. I’d do anything to protect my mate.”
Gregory looked across at the row of rooms to where his mate was showering somewhere inside.
“Yeah, I think I’m finally beginning to understand that concept.”
By the time Gregory got back to the room, Hayden had already taken his shower and climbed into bed. He had the sheets pulled up to his chest, his bare arms folded on top.
Christ, was he naked under there?
Gregory muffled a groan and crossed the room to the bathroom, trying to ignore his throbbing dick.
“What did Kelan say?” Hayden asked, stopping him in his tracks.
“He said you can stay on the ranch, but Dean has been sniffing around, asking questions, so we need to be careful when we get you there. We can’t risk him seeing you.”
“Who’s Dean?”
“He works for the supernatural council, and he’s very influential.” He sighed. “Let me grab a shower and I’ll tell you the whole story, okay?”
While Gregory stood in the tub, letting the hot water ease his tired muscles, he debated how much he should tell Hayden about the trouble in the council and the things he suspected of his superior, Dean.
In the end, he decided to be honest with his mate. Well, as honest as he could be without telling Hayden about their bond. That was something he still wanted Hayden to discover for himself—if he could get him to shift.
He dried off quickly, pulled on his briefs then padded into the bedroom barefoot. Hayden was laying on his side, propping up his head on one hand. Gregory sat on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath.
“Are you sure you want to hear this? Some parts of it are…disturbing.”
Something flashed in Hayden’s eyes then, but Gregory couldn’t be certain what it had been. Hayden nodded then sat up in bed, the sheets bunching around his waist.
“Please.”
Gregory tried to keep his eyes off his mate’s temptingly smooth chest when he spoke.
“About six months ago, my partner Ashton and I were sent on an assignment in Missouri. We had to bring in a wolf that had killed someone in his pack, gone crazy.
“The job wasn’t any more complicated than dozens we’d been on before, but Ashton was uptight the whole time.”
“Ashton was your partner at the council?”
“Yeah, we’d worked together going on ten years, had each other’s back. I thought Ashton was so edgy because his mate Tania was eight months pregnant with their first child.
“I figured he was worried something would go wrong, or that she’d go into labor early and he’d miss it.”
“That wasn’t the reason?”
Gregory scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t think so. Ashton called Tania right before we picked up the wolf. He was upset after that phone call—he seemed…distracted, I guess.
“I think they’d had an argument. Tania hated what Ashton did for a living. She worried he’d get hurt and had been constantly nagging him to quit. It had been causing a lot of tension between them.
“Anyway, we picked up the wolf and drove him back to council headquarters. When we got there, our superior Riley called Ashton into the office.
“I could tell it was bad news from the look on Riley’s face. They’d only been inside a minute when I heard Ashton shouting.
Gregory sighed then scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “Actually, screaming would be a better word to describe it. I went into the office to see what was up. Ashton was tearing the place apart, upending tables, throwing things—he was crazed.
“In the end, Riley had to sedate him.”
“Had something happened to his mate?”
Gregory nodded. “She’d been killed. Riley said it looked as if burglars had broken in and tried to rob the place. He said Tania got in the way. A neighbor heard her screaming and called the sheriff.
“By the time they got there, it was too late. She was dead, the baby too, and there was no sign of the shifters that did it, no clues. A wolf in the sheriff’s department called the council and they brought her body back to headquarters.
“The story sounded plausible until I took a look at her body. It was a mess. They tore her apart, Hayden. I’ve seen a lot of dead bodies during my time on the council, but hers was one of the worst.
“Her wounds weren’t consistent with someone killed in a rush. Whoever did it took their time…got real pleasure out of it. Ashton was in pieces for months. I had to force him to eat, to shower… Hell, it was a struggle to make him get out of bed.
“Then one day he came into work as if nothing had happened, just another day at the office.”
“Why the sudden turnaround?”
“I think his grief finally turned into anger and he needed to do something about it. Ashton pulled me aside that day and made me promise to help him find out who had killed Tania and their baby and make them pay for what they’d done.
“He said he wanted justice, but I know it was revenge he craved. I couldn’t blame him. I probably would have wanted the same thing if I was in his shoes. I agreed, of course.
“I would have done anything to help him and I was glad to have my friend back, but he wasn’t the Ashton I’d known for all those years. He was different, changed in some fundamental way.”
“Some
people never recover from losing their mate,” Hayden remarked.
Gregory hung his head.
He wanted so badly to reach out and grab Hayden’s hand, to tell him about their bond, but he forced his mouth shut and fisted the sheets beneath him to keep his hands busy.
“I found out recently that Ashton wasn’t the only council member to lose his mate. There’s a definite pattern beginning to emerge. The others’ mates all died under similar circumstances.”
Hayden gasped. “So you think someone at the council had her killed?”
“I’m sure of it.”
“But why would they do that?”
“The council doesn’t look favorably on its members mating. It’s no secret that they discourage it, which in itself is ludicrous because what shifter is going to stay away from their mate once they’ve found them?
“Their reasoning is that because the bond is so strong and a shifter will do anything to protect their mate, it creates a weakness and they become a liability. Weak shifters are of no use to the council.”
Hayden nodded. “I guess I can understand their reasoning but it’s hardly realistic. Did you ever find out who was responsible?”
A lump rose in Gregory’s throat, but he tried to swallow it down.
“At the time we thought we had. A wolf at the council called Blake Deveraux started to help us. I never understood why. I thought it might be because he felt sorry for Ashton and didn’t believe the council’s story about his mate’s death.
“He said he’d learned that the man responsible was someone called Stan Michaels, a high ranking member of the council, but he hadn’t been able to find any concrete proof.”
“Around the same time, there had been trouble in Wolf Creek, the town where Kelan is alpha. We believed the council to be behind the trouble so Kelan called a meeting to discuss what we could do.
“He said he had a friend working on the council and, when Ashton and I went to the meeting, we met him. His name is Dean White and he holds a very powerful position. He’s the man I told you about earlier, the one Kelan said has been asking questions about me.”
“But I thought you said he was Kelan’s friend?”
Gregory's Rebellion (2019 Reissue) Page 5
