by Abigail Owen
Gage rose to his feet, just as Zac handled the last animal.
“How’d you reach us?” Tieryn asked her mate.
“Your mother,” Shane said.
Gage turned from the two embracing couples and got his first decent view of the mountainside of fighting since that first wave of mountain lions had charged. At the sight of a chunk of their enemy wandering around like dazed zombies, he pulled up, then shifted.
“What’s going on?” He aimed the question at Sarai.
“I’m not entirely sure, but I think someone took out Lareina.”
He frowned. That sort of made sense. Zula had managed to hold a demigod prisoner with her ability as a Seductress. Why couldn’t Lareina use the same power to influence anyone reluctant to support a cause?
“Good. Fewer for us to fight.”
He also knew exactly what to do. Gage jumped to the top of the closest rock, getting a vantage of the fighting as well as being visible. He didn’t have time to change into clothing, but shifters didn’t blink at nudity, as it was a necessary part of the shifter life. Being up here made him a target, which was a risk, but one worth taking.
“Listen to me!” he boomed. Given how spread out the fight was over the rough lava rock mountainside, Gage knew he wouldn’t reach everyone, would only capture the attention of those closest to him. Twenty or so men turned.
“If you don’t know why you are here, you have been under a spell. One to make you fight your kin. My name is Gage McAvoy. I am one of you, and I fight with our new allies, the lions. Join me and fight the deceiver, Rick Delaney, and all those who oppose the Shadowcat Nation.”
Without waiting to see if his speech had any effect, he jumped down and ran to another rock further down. He would rally his people if he could. After delivering his speech again, this time several people glanced at each other, then turned from their fights and either walked away or changed sides and turned on their own people.
The ferocity of the attacks from those whose allegiance had flipped was a sight which put a grim smile on Gage’s face. Mountain lions did not like losing control. Natural loners, they preferred to call the shots in their own lives. Their natures made the existence of the Shadowcat Nation a miracle, one driven by desperation and the need to survive. That independent nature also meant any cougars under Lareina’s spell were now royally pissed off at having been manipulated and ready to take out anyone associated with the deception.
Before he could get to another outcropping, instinct warned him to watch his back. Gage swung around and shifted at the same time. Sure enough two cougars stalking him froze. With a scream he launched himself at his would-be attackers. At the same time, a lion, large and with a pale mane, joined him.
Together, they took them out with well-practiced precision. The fight over in less than a minute. He turned and nodded at the lion who’d helped him. The shifter changed to a man for an instant, and Gage recognized Seneca’s friend Faraji. After a quick grin, the man shifted back into the lion and bounded away. Threat neutralized, Gage moved on to the next vantage point.
By the fourth time he made his speech, he knew only one more time should do it. His effort had paid off, and the added forces were starting to turn the tide of the fight. This time, when he jumped up, though, the first person his gaze landed on was Seneca, in human form across the mountain, too far to reach, sprinting straight at Rick Delaney with Beno right behind her.
Why the hell wasn’t she in her tiger form?
****
Seneca dashed after the man she’d called father all her life, a word that had turned bitter in her mouth as she’d grown and dealt with the sting of his rejection and disdain, witnessing firsthand what kind of bastard he was.
He hadn’t gotten too far, but neither he nor his guards had bothered to check if Lareina had handled Seneca or not, assuming no one could resist the Seductress. Rick was still underestimating her and Seneca smiled even as she readied herself to kill. Arrogance was a flaw of Rick’s, and she happily planned to take advantage of it.
With a quick flip of her hands, she took both her sais by the handles, then lunged and threw. With unerring accuracy, both blades found a home in the backs of two of Rick’s guards. While she preferred not to stab her enemy in the back, she didn’t have time to deal with four guards today. Now she only had two.
The bodies of the men she struck dropped to the ground with heavy thuds. Rick and his remaining men spun around to face the source of danger. Seneca noted the shock registering on his face, and filed it away for later enjoyment. She was already in a dead sprint toward him when she’d thrown her weapons, which gave her an edge, and she got to the bodies before he did. With a gross sucking sound, she pulled the blades out and wiped the blood off on her black pants.
Rick scowled, then snapped at his men. “Kill her.”
Before they took one step in her direction, a roar, so deafening she flinched, sounded just before Beno tackled both cougars at once.
Seneca gave Rick a Cheshire grin. “Guess you’ll have to face me yourself.”
She didn’t give him time to respond, immediately going on the offensive. She moved her two lethal blades in rapid swings and stabs. Rick was forced to back up, stumbling over the uneven terrain, and defend himself. Blocking her forearm to forearm when he couldn’t leap out of her path.
The few cuts she did deliver gave her satisfaction, but none were debilitating wounds. As an Alpha, Rick was a fighter who’d earned his position for decades, despite being an asshole, and she’d known he’d be a tough opponent. However, she’d hoped years of leadership, bodyguards, and few challenges—at least in the last decade—might have made him soft.
The frustration written on his face in an ever-deepening frown told her he’d expected to take her out quickly.
“Who taught you to fight?” he gritted through his teeth.
“My mother.” His eyes widened infinitesimally.
“Enough!” He snapped, rage echoed in the single word.
In a silent instant, he burst from his clothes, shifting into the massive mountain lion he was. Scars from previous battles were more evident in this form. If she were another mountain lion, she’d be nervous to go against this Alpha male, but she was a tiger. Whole different kitty.
But he didn’t give her a second to shift or throw her sais. Staying low to the ground, he jumped at her. Seneca did an acrobatic mid-air cartwheel off to her right, and the air whooshed as he flew past her. She spun around and flung one of her weapons at him, but missed. As he came at her, she was forced to do a series of back handsprings one-handed, the rock slicing painfully into her palm, to keep her other blade in hand and her body out of his reach. He followed closely, forcing her to engage. She parried several of his attempts to gut her with his unsheathed claws. His yowl of pain on one pass told her she’d cut his right forefoot deeply. Taking advantage of his momentary diversion, she tried to back up and give herself a chance to shift, but before she could, he lunged in close again. This time he stood up on his hind legs, front paws extended to try to trap her in a bear hug wrestling move.
Instead of backing up, she took two running steps toward him, then jumped, planted one foot on his chest midair, and used that force to spring into a high back flip, pushing Rick away at the same instant. Mid-flip she dropped her sai and shifted into her tiger, her clothing rending with a tearing sound, unable to contain the bulk of her new form.
If Rick had been in human form, his jaw would’ve dropped in a dumbfounded stare. His expression was much creepier on his mountain lion face with the sharp teeth and wicked eyes. He narrowed his golden eyes, but she didn’t give him time to do much else. With a roar, she launched herself at him.
As a tiger her natural instinct was to go up on her hind legs and use her size to fight him, batting at him with her massive paws like a heavy-weight boxer. But a cougar’s instinct against a bigger opponent like that was to stay low and go for the neck and gut. A fighting style which gave him a slight advantage
over her, despite her size.
Deliberately, she didn’t stand up. Instead, she got low like Rick and, with a guttural battle cry, lunged at him. Rick tried to go up over her head, but she batted him away with one big paw. He screamed in pain as her claws raked down the side of his shoulder. They scrambled around on the ground, clashing, breaking apart, and coming back together, over and over, for several minutes. Neither of them came away from each encounter unscathed. She was going to have a nasty gash along her ribs, and another down her right shoulder when she shifted back. Seneca blocked out the pain, as she’d been taught, as well as ignoring any self-doubt at going up against an Alpha, and took her time, waiting for opportunity to present itself.
When he went for her head again, she took the window he gave her and drove her legs hard. She slammed him into the side of the mountain, putting all four-hundred pounds of her weight into the hit. The sickening crunch of bones snapping had never sounded so like a symphony to her ears. With a yowl, Rick dropped to the ground, and she didn’t hesitate. One snap of her mighty jaws, and she sliced open his throat. Just to be sure, she used her claws to gut him.
He was dead before he knew it, a gurgle of blood poured from his mouth with his last exhale of breath.
She shifted, remaining crouched over him. “I told you I wasn’t latent,” she spat. The rage that had fueled her battle still pumped through her and she could feel little else yet, though she knew relief, and maybe even guilt, would follow soon enough.
“Seneca!” She turned at the sound of Gage’s voice close by to find him standing twenty feet away, fear and pride warring in his eyes.
At the same time, a woman’s voice pierced the air. “No!”
Lareina, who’d apparently awoken, stared at her with murder in her eyes. Her sister held one of the sai blades Seneca had dropped in her fight with Rick.
Out of the corner of her eye, almost in slow-motion, Seneca saw Beno go for Lareina while, at the same time, Gage ran toward her. In a flash Lareina hurled the knife at Seneca.
But the blade never reached her.
Zula, whom Seneca hadn’t seen anywhere close by, was suddenly between her and the knife. The tip of it drilled right into the Alpha lioness’s chest and felled her to the ground.
At the same time, Beno tackled Lareina and snapped her neck with one hard bite.
“No. No. No.” Seneca hurried to her new friend’s side. She knelt, ignoring the dig of the rocks in her bare skin, and pulled Zula on top of her lap.
“Zula,” she whispered.
The African queen opened her eyes and gave one of her rare smiles. “It’s all right,” she choked, blood spurting out of her mouth and trickling down her chin, mixing with the layer of dust covering her body.
Seneca shook her head. She barely registered Gage draping clothing over her bare shoulders. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said. “I’m not worth it. Your people need you.”
“No.” Zula covered Seneca’s hand with hers. “Our people need you and Gage. I’m too much the old way, still too much angry about my father to forgive or forget. But an alliance is what he fought for, and died for.”
She turned her gaze to Gage, who’d crouched down at Seneca’s side. “You must lead our people now,” she said.
He gave a single nod, lips compressed, gaze grave. “I will. I promise.”
“And you will help lead by his side,” Zula said to Seneca.
Seneca shook her head. She wiped at blood oozing down Zula’s neck.
Zula managed another weak smile. “How could our people not follow a tiger shifter who is also Kuharte? And your Fated Mate Alpha.”
To Beno, on her other side, “Help the others. Have Eddie tell them whom I’ve chosen as our new leaders.”
The maneless lion gave a rumble of understanding, then leaned down to nuzzle his queen.
Seneca held her after that, crooning meaningless words as they waited for Zula’s lifeblood to fill her lungs. Eventually, Zula gave one last gurgling gasp, her grasp on Seneca’s arm surprisingly strong, before she went limp and heavy in Seneca’s arms.
A collective roar ripped from the throats of every lion in the pride, echoing the screaming in Seneca’s heart.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Between cutting off the head of the snake, and the additional forces, the rest of the fighting was stopped quickly. Seneca refused to leave Zula’s side, and Gage was determined not to let his mate out of his sight. Worry gnawed at him. She hadn’t spoken or acknowledge him with more than a glance since Zula’s death. Not even when JoLynn, the physical Healer from the Keller Dare, had healed the various wounds covering Seneca’s body. The rather nasty gash over her ribs had taken the longest.
“Tell me if the heat gets too intense,” JoLynn had said as a soft white glow emanated from her palms as she held her hands over the wounds.
Seneca had simply nodded her thanks.
Since the castle was destroyed, they’d had to deal with triage, prisoner round up, and other logistics from the battlefield. Gage and Eddie had made the decision to move all the lions to the Delaney Dare compound. As all their transportation had been destroyed in the collapse of the castle, Jaxon and Andie had stepped up, providing helicopters.
As it was the closest dare headquarters, all the remaining Alphas of the Nation gathered there as well. Prisoners were split between the other dares of the Shadowcat Nation. They were still figuring out what to do with the Alphas of the dares who had joined with Delaney, among other changes to the Shadowcat Nation made more obvious by the entire situation.
Someone had found clothes for both him and for Seneca. Running pants and t-shirts, but who cared? Given the dirt and sweat covering both of them, nice clothes weren’t really an option anyway. He would have picked her up and had both of them in the shower as soon as they arrived, but when they got to the compound, the Alphas immediately wanted to convene to discuss the events.
Reluctantly, Gage had left Seneca in the curtained-off space where Zula’s body lay in the medical rooms at the compound. The rot of death mingled with the sting of antiseptic, neither pleasant for a shifter’s heightened sense of smell, but Seneca hadn’t wanted to leave.
He didn’t go far, just outside in the hallway, to discuss needs with Edward, Beno, and Adam, the man he’d defeated in that fight what felt like ages ago. Gage and Edward had been invited to attend the Shadowcat Nation Alpha meeting, to represent the lions.
But first, Gage knew they had a critical need to deal with. “Call a meeting of the lions. Inform them of Zula’s last wishes.”
Eddie nodded and moved away with purpose.
Gage pulled back the curtain with a yank, the screech of metal on metal as rings holding the curtain to the bar slid to the side. Just in time to see Daje disappear.
Gage’s feet froze to the floor. “You okay?”
She wouldn’t look at him, but nodded.
“What did Daje want?” He wasn’t about to pretend he hadn’t seen the mountain lion demigod.
She shrugged. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Gage clamped down on his protest. He wanted to take her face in his hands, make her look at him, talk to him. He thought he’d finally overcome her reserve, that they were making progress as a couple. But a different Seneca had come out of that fight, and they didn’t have time to deal with it right now.
“I need you to come with me to talk with the pride,” he said. Ordered.
“I’ll stay with her.” Seneca squeezed Zula’s hand, which she still held.
Gage knelt in front of his mate. “No, angel. We need that united front now more than ever.”
Why did she refuse to look at him? What had Daje said to her?
“I’ll stay with Zula.” Adam, who’d been standing behind him in silent observation, offered.
Over the top of Seneca’s head, Gage eyed his former opponent, who he knew to be high ranking in the pride and an obvious contender for the position of Alpha. Adam nodded and Gage understood him p
erfectly. Without a word, he knew he had one supporter in the big man. Gage nodded back.
A hand under her elbow, Gage gave Seneca a little tug. “Let’s go. She’s in good hands.”
“Okay.”
While he hated the glazed, wounded air that had fallen over his mate, they had to do this. He led her to a large open-air atrium located in the middle of the compound, all lush greenery and tropical plants. An oasis in the middle of the Arizona landscape, and a patent display of wealth. All the surviving lions had gathered there already. He and Seneca paused in the back. The pride, like them, were all covered in dirt and blood and sweat. They had the collective appearance of defeat—shoulders slumped, heads bowed, weariness oozing from them. The stench of their filth and exhaustion couldn’t be masked by the fragrant tropic blooms that filled the atrium.
By pre-arrangement, Eddie had already informed the pride of Zula’s death, not that he needed to. They’d all known the moment she passed, if that collective roar meant anything. Had the loss of their leader been the final blow? Could they recover?
Gage pulled his shoulders back. The lions could recover…with his help. He glanced at the woman by his side. As long as she stayed at his side, he could help the lions, he mentally amended as Eddie announced Zula’s last words—her desire for Gage to lead.
“His mate is a tiger shifter and the daughter of the man we just defeated,” one of the lions called out, anger snapping with his voice on the air.
“Seneca is not Delaney’s daughter, and she is the one who killed him,” Eddie defended. “If anyone should have an objection to a tiger shifter, it would be Beno and me. But we don’t.” He paused and made eye contact with every shifter in the room, gauging how his words were being taken. When no one spoke, he continued. “She is a skilled fighter, and a powerful addition to our pride. She is also what the Shadowcat Nation calls Kuharte. A Believer who can help us determine our path.”
“But how can we put any trust in a cougar’s word?” another voice, more concerned than mad, called from the crowd. A grumbling of agreement arose.
