by Kyle, Celia
“I’m big and manly and mean.” His kiss was soft and sensual. “And yours.”
He really said the sweetest things. She was ready to show him how sweet he was when another round of knocks came. These were heavy and strong and definitely didn’t belong to a set of six-year-old twins. With a sigh, she rested her forehead on his shoulder for a moment before she let her legs unwind from him. Damn it.
“Get cleaned up, I’ll see what’s going on.” Worry tinged his voice and that set her nerves to fluttering.
Honor halfway did as Grayson asked. She just did things a lot slower. Instead of taking two steps, she took one that gradually led her to the bathroom. She carefully eased toward her destination.
He reached the door and tugged it open, causing her cat to bristle. She didn’t want anyone else seeing her male naked. Even if the only other woman in the house was the mated Prima, no one should see her mate nude.
The portal cracked open enough to hide Honor while still allowing Grayson to greet their visitor. Honor held her breath, waiting to see if she had to rip someone apart for ogling her naked mate.
When the definitive deep timbre of the Prime’s voice reached her, she relaxed.
Alex was straight which meant her male was safe.
Now she could focus on getting rid of the crusties.
She spent a handful of minutes in the bathroom, hurrying when she realized the two males continued speaking. By the time she burst into the room, Grayson swung their bedroom door shut, closing them off once again.
Her mate smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes, didn’t travel any farther than his lips.
“Grayson?” Butterflies took up residence in the pit of her stomach.
He shook his head. “We’re needed downstairs.”
“What…?” Worry filled her, dread quickly on its heels.
“Give me a minute and we can go down.”
Give him a minute…
Honor wanted to run down the stairs, wanted to race toward the news that could be nothing but bad, but she stayed put. She needed to show she trusted her mate and sitting still was the tiniest thing… The moment he emerged from the bathroom, cleaner but smelling of her, he grabbed her hand and led her downstairs.
They traveled to the familiar living room, taking up the spot they’d shared many times before. The normal gang had gathered. Maya’s guards, their mates, as well as Maya and Alex. She heard the tinkling laughs and high-pitched snarls coming from the twins on the second floor.
Everyone stared at her grim-faced and she took a deep breath. Anger. Worry. Sadness. Rage.
She could attribute the sadness to just about everyone as well as the worry. The anger came from Alex and the rage… from Grayson.
Honor looked from her mate to the others, meeting the gaze of each male with the same inquiring look. When no one spoke, she finally focused on Grayson once again.
“What happened?”
* * *
Grayson knew the answer to that question. Knew it and hated it and ached to cut, slash, and kill the force behind the answer.
Angus.
The Prime glared at him, his amber eyes shining, but he didn’t care. Alex could glare at him over dragging Honor to the meeting and telling her what happened. He’d learned his lesson the first time around and he wasn’t keeping another secret. Though, in the back of his mind, he acknowledged he still hadn’t told her about the London cubs. All right, he wasn’t keeping two secrets. He had a one-secret limit which meant Honor needed to be told of Angus’s most recent activities.
Activities.
Grayson almost snorted.
A nice way to phrase what he’d done.
He drew her to a nearby chair, lowering himself onto the seat before easing his mate onto his lap. He needed to hold her for what came next.
“Grayson doesn’t want to keep you in the dark, so here.” Alex rose to his feet and passed over a handful of papers.
The Prime practically threw them at his mate and he fought to contain the building growl. Just because his leader didn’t like having Honor involved didn’t mean he could be a callous ass.
Honor furrowed her brow and accepted them, turning and straightening them until they could both look at their contents. The top sheet was a simple note encased in a plastic bag. Red marred the page’s surface, staining the paper.
Two words, large with block-shaped capital letters.
SHE’S MINE
His mate shivered and Grayson’s gut clenched as it had the first time he read those eight letters. Rage filled him, but so did a hint of fear.
SHE’S MINE
His lion felt the same way, possessive and domineering when it came to Honor. The difference was, he had every right to be.
With shaking hands, Honor tugged on the seal of the bag, breaking it and allowing the stained page to grasp for air. A deep inhale and he knew what she’d find.
Angus.
“The blood, it’s…” She breathed deep again.
“It’s not one of Ridgeville’s,” Alex said. “Look at the pictures.”
She pressed the bag closed and sat it on an end table before focusing on the pictures. The images were seared into his mind, burned there forever, and now his mate was exposed to them as well.
“Oh my god.” With trembling fingers, she traced the lines of the body.
Small, black and white, pink nose, fluffy tail and two floppy ears.
Eviscerated. Toyed with and then disemboweled.
“Is it…?”
That’d been his first question as well. The scent on the page hadn’t told him enough to tell if the deceased rabbit was natural or…
It was the “or” that was beyond comprehension.
Carly, abnormally quiet, shook her head. “No, it wasn’t one of ours. I’d know the scent…” The woman shuddered and then the rabbit shifter was cuddled in her lion mate’s lap. “It doesn’t make the act any easier to accept, but it’s a natural rabbit.”
Honor shuddered, fingers tracing the small form of the young rabbit, stroking the flat picture as if it were smooth fur. “Angus. Why?” She turned stricken eyes on her mate, orbs filling with tears. “Why?”
“There’s no telling, lovely.” He kept his voice low, unwilling to frighten her. If he allowed himself free rein, he’d roar and rage. The male who’d already tortured her was now trying to claim the woman who belonged to him. “He could be simply trying to give you,” he gulped, “a snack or he hoped it was one of your friends in the warren.”
“It could have been…” It could have been a rabbit from the Ridgeville Warren. It could have been Carly and Neal’s kit or one of Honor’s old high school friends or… anyone.
“We’ve warned Ian.” Alex broke into the trembling silence. “He’s speaking with his warren and we’re also passing news around town.”
Honor trembled in his arms and he stroked her back, doing his best to soothe her. “He killed it. But why?”
“Because you’re not available, and he’s frustrated.” The familiar voice echoed off the walls, filling the room with the booming bass. “The man’s got blue balls of rage right now.”
Everyone turned to focus on the newcomer and Grayson felt a little of his worry and tension ease. The men gathered in the pride house were strong, capable, and deadly as hell. But they were also mated. If push came to shove and it became a matter of saving their mate or Honor, he had no doubt which way they’d go. He didn’t blame them for their instincts, Grayson would do the same, but it helped to have a trusted unmated male around. It also helped that said male was a badass.
“Stone,” he called to his friend, drawing his attention.
Grayson raised his hand for the male’s handshake, gripping his friend’s outstretched palm. He tried to convey his appreciation with that simple touch and based on the tilt of the male’s head, he’d been successful.
“Grayson.” The gorilla shifter tugged one of Honor’s curls. “Little bit.”
His mate mock
snarled. “I’ll show you little, overgrown ape.”
“Not that I don’t want you here, but what are you doing here, man?” Grayson raised his eyebrows in question.
“Queenie called for me.” Stone gestured toward the other side of the room.
A lone figure remained on the love seat, ice cream carton in one hand, spoon in the other. She licked the curved utensil, tongue tracing the edge. If he weren’t mated, mostly, he’d think impure thoughts about the woman. Maybe he’d get Honor to make love to a spoon later.
“Why’s everyone staring at me?” Maya shoved her spoon into the carton.
“Queenie?” Alex voiced the question.
The Prima tugged on her shirt and leaned forward. “I still think my tits are good enough to keep the Booblandia crown, right? Queen of Booblandia? Otherwise I have to fall back on Queen of Vaginaville and Ruler of All Things Pink Bits Related. The second one’s kind of a mouthful, huh?”
Stone’s arrival and the Prima’s joke shattered the lingering tension in the room. Now they all sat to rehash Angus’s activities, and the information Stone had from the different captured London pride members. Finally the gorilla focused on him.
No, focused on them.
The longer Stone stared, Grayson realized the male truly stared at Honor. Grayson’s lion urged him to tear the male apart for daring to look at their mate, but he held the beast back. He trusted Stone with his life, there was no way the male would dare poach.
“Now, I need to hear from you.”
“Stone, I gave you what you needed,” Grayson interjected. He tensed, ready to shove his mate to safety before he rose to challenge the male.
“You told me what you think I need. I need to hear Honor’s story. Not bits and pieces. Not portions that have been filtered through your mind, Grayson. I need it from her.” Stone was adamant and Grayson wondered how hard it’d be to slaughter a gorilla.
He tightened his hold on Honor, baring his teeth at the threat to his mate. Mental or physical, he couldn’t let anything happen to her. “You don’t need to hear it.”
Stone curled his lip, exposing a fang, and Grayson did the same. He wasn’t about to be intimidated by some fucking monkey.
“Grayson,” she whispered, stroking his forearm, and he realized golden fur coated his skin. “It’s okay. I can’t”—she looked around the room and then focused on him once again—“not with everyone here, but if he really needs to know, then I can tell him.”
“I don’t like it,” he grumbled and glared at Stone.
“Neither do I, but if it’ll help…”
If it would help, she’d do what she could. He loved, and hated, that about her.
Honor focused on Maddy across the room. “Maddy? You can pull us together? In my head?”
Grayson didn’t like that Honor reached for another, but at least it was a woman. The lioness crawled from Ricker’s lap and padded forward and grasped his mate’s hand.
“Just him, or big boy behind you, too?” Maddy tipped her head toward him.
“Can you do all three of us?” The tension in Honor increased by the second, with every beat of her heart.
Ricker growled, which had him growling, because he’d be damned if anyone was going to growl around his mate and then another, louder, longer growl that belonged to a scary as hell lion overrode them both. No, it was a particular lioness.
Fuck, it was a lot of growling.
“Quit your pissing contest and get ’er done,” the Prima snapped.
Suddenly Honor wrapped her claw-tipped fingers around his wrist while she clutched Maddy with the other. Maddy’s free hand snatched Stone’s.
The moment the four connected, he felt weightless, as if he floated through space and time.
And then… Then he was thrown into hell.
* * *
Honor fought to remember that she loved Grayson, that she was almost certain he loved her in return, because this would stretch and attach the bond they had. He knew the beginning. She wondered how he’d feel about the end.
Maddy’s familiar presence swept into her, comforting and disconcerting at once. It blanketed her in welcome and warmth, her caring unmistakable in the ghostly touch. Soon after her, Grayson and Stone joined the lioness. Stone’s appearance scented of rainforests and a sweetness that didn’t seem to match the gruff gorilla as she knew him. Grayson’s dry grasslands scent mixed with his heady musk stroked her, his ethereal hand running down her arm. They were with her now, three individuals crowding her mind.
“Show them.” Maddy’s soft, lyrical voice echoed in her head. “Show them.”
Honor didn’t want to. She didn’t. She didn’t want to go there again, not ever. Never, never. Panic assaulted her, spearing her heart in a great heave. He wouldn’t want her. Not after he saw, after he witnessed…
A mantle of calm glided over her, Maddy soothing the terror before it overwhelmed her. “You know that’s not true.”
She did. She did know.
Breathing deep, begging her heart to calm, she led the trio deeper into her mind. She sought the writhing ball of hate and pain that lingered in the shadows. She’d gathered every torturous moment, tied them into a twisting, turning bundle, and kicked it as far from the present as she could.
Honor reached for it and slid her fingers beneath the golden glowing rope. She winced with the first bolt of pain, but brushed it aside. She had a goal to achieve. She allowed her fingers to shift to claws and yanked, severing it with a single jerk.
The past shook off its bindings, exploding in a shower of darkness that nearly suffocated her with the black, oily cloud. She wanted to hold her breath, wanted to keep it from sinking into her. It needed to stay apart from this; her home, the happiness she’d found in Grayson’s arms.
Maddy wouldn’t allow that to happen. “You need to purge it, Honor. Show them.”
Honor floated past the first pangs of her heat and the rush to her dorm room. It wasn’t what they sought. They wanted Angus. They wanted the hell she’d endured.
She gave it to them…
The banging on the dorm room door continued. She wasn’t sure how long. Long enough for someone to pick the locks or steal a key. Alex assured her the only one who had a key was the dean of the school. He was one to be trusted, someone to go to if she needed immediate help. He was a tiger and didn’t have ties to any pride or pack. No other shifters could lay claim to his loyalty.
His number was in her phone. Should she call him?
The drug still infected her blood, making even the smallest movement difficult. She forced her head to turn, demanded her eyes open. It’d been ten minutes.
Another snick of a lock, metal grinding on metal, reminded her what’d woken her. Right, the door.
“Hurry the fuck up.” The voice belonged to Angus. He wasn’t giving up. “Honor!”
The cat was slow to waking as well, but it purred, excited the male was so intent on getting to her. She mentally kicked the animal, sending it sliding over the ground. The cat skated over the floor and rolled to its feet, wobbling, but still standing. It hissed at her and the human side of Honor hissed back.
Why didn’t it understand? Why did it fight for the other male?
Another snick. Another lock undone.
She rolled her head again, staring at the one piece of metal that kept her from Angus. Two locks left, two locks ensuring her safety.
Another one flipped open.
One lock.
“Damn it, fuck this.”
The door bowed, a heavy thud accompanying the bend of the metal. Then another. One more and the door finally burst inward. Four locks could secure her against a shifter male, but one obviously wasn’t enough.
A half-shifted Angus stood over her drugged body, his eyes glowing amber, his face distorted by the cat, and his body stretching his clothing to its limits. He panted, his mouth open, and then a smile split his features.
He breathed deep, the light in his eyes shining brighter, and he re
leased a low purr. “You have entered your heat, haven’t you? And on the night of the Gaian Moon. You’ll be hot for it, won’t you?” His grin was evil, excited, and a bit crazed. “Oh, baby, tonight is going to be fun. I’ve wanted my cock in you since you stepped into the territory.”
Honor tried to shake her head, tried to form a single word, but the cat denied her.
No. No. No. The litany repeated over and over again.
Her lion didn’t care.
Tears formed in her eyes, clouding her vision, blurring his image.
But she did see him crouch, she did feel him sift his fingers through her hair, and she winced with the pain of fisting the strands as he wrenched her head back. “Dad said I couldn’t force you, I’m not allowed to demand your submission like all the other pride bitches. But,” his grin widened, “I can take what’s offered.”
Angus pulled so hard, his grip forcing her to expose her throat. He brought her to his mouth and he licked a path along her neck, his stench transferring to her skin. “And you’re gonna lift your tail for me, aren’t you, little slut?” He laughed—bastard son of the Prime—he laughed and pushed to his feet. “Gimme that rope.”
There was movement to her left and then something dangled before her. Rough hands gripped her wrists, something scratchy tied them together, and then she was yanked to her feet.
Honor swayed, her knees buckling, and the only thing that kept her upright was Angus’s embrace. She would rather have fallen.
Her head flopped forward, thumping against his shoulder. “Aw, look at that, she can’t wait to get started.”
The lion liked the treatment, liked the way he dominated them.
Honor wanted to vomit.
Other scents surrounded her. Males of the London pride. Males she’d rejected at some point or another. She didn’t want anyone but Grayson.
But the cat purred, wondering if others would mount her. Would they be strong enough to tear her from the Prime’s son?
“Get her shit cleaned up. If someone comes looking for her, I don’t want them to see anything fucked up,” Angus growled at some of the males.
“What about the humans?” The voice was familiar. Timid.
