The B Team: A Dark Leopards MC Novella

by Christine Michelle

  “True,” Gentry responded.

  “Not true,” Gray shot back, but he wasn’t looking at Gentry then. His eyes were purely focused on Pharell. “Do you want to inform your friend here of what you’ve been up to, or shall I?”

  “It seems I might also need to be enlightened as to what you think I’ve done now,” Pharell attempted to say with an exasperated tone, but there was an undertone of fear in his voice and being shifters, we could all scent it on the air as clear as if he had shit himself.

  “You’ve made inquiries about Charlotte and how to get her away from the clubhouse,” Gray accused.

  “Only as a precautionary measure in case she was being held against her will.”

  “Is that so?” Gray asked. I took a step closer to Pharell, as he looked ready to bolt. “What of the other inquiries you’ve been making into women who could also possibly be shadow cats? Did that just happen to be in case they were somewhere against their will too? How deep does your concern go for all of the girls who could be a potential mate for you?”

  “It’s not like that,” Pharell attempted to argue.

  “Why don’t you tell us what it is like then?” I asked, voice quiet, since I was now level with his ear as I stood at Pharell’s back.

  “Tell me you didn’t take up where Raven left off?” Gentry asked him, though the question wasn’t one he actually wanted answered unless an immediate denial could be made. Pharell refused to look him in the eye and couldn’t deny it though.

  The insufferable asshole did attempt to shrug out of the hold I had him though. “You can’t tell me that you object, Grayson. After all, you benefited from happening across a shadow cat in distress. What of the rest of us? What of the many males out there who never come across their true mate for whatever reason?”

  “What of them?” Gray snapped.

  “If we could find a way to breed only shadow cat females, we would never have to worry about not having a mate for ourselves one day.”

  “What you are proposing is slavery, forced breeding, and it has gone against the council’s laws for ages,” Gentry reminded his friend. “You can’t possibly think it okay to hold these women hostage and allow men to just choose which one they want?” That truly was a question the man seemed to want answered.

  “And what of the males who never find a mate?”

  “Fuck them!” Gentry snarled at Pharell. “I rescued Betina from one such male who thought he could just pick and choose and he took a child. What limits would you have? Could these women refuse? Would they be subject to a bond no matter what age they were?”

  “Of course not,” Pharell hissed.

  “And who would stop them then? You’re sitting here telling us that you want to actively figure out how to breed these special young ladies for the soul purpose of making sure men have a guaranteed mate of their choosing. What say will these women have? What happens to the women who have a mate out there when the mate chooses the easy breeding program rather than finding the one meant for them? What happens to the bonds that are formed? Will they be degraded because the women didn’t choose?” Gentry snarled and snapped each question at the man I still held in my arms. With each new question the resistance Pharell initially put against my hold slackened and by the end he was actually hanging limply in my arms.

  “You don’t understand what it’s like, Gentry, because you found your mate early in your life.”

  “I also lost her early too. She gave me a couple of daughters and then she was gone. For them, for my girls and their girls, I would never allow this sacrilege to happen. What if it meant they never had a mate? What if they were shadow cats and people like you were trying to force them? Jesus, Pharell, you let Raven taint you that much?”

  As if the taunt gave him a second wind, Pharell came back to life in my arms and renewed his struggle to get free of the hold I had on him. “You don’t understand what it’s like to walk this earth without a mate of your own.”

  “I do, in fact understand. And I’d still never sacrifice another’s freedom for my happiness.”

  “Don’t pretend you’ve been innocent all these years while leading the council.”

  “I have never been innocent, but I have yet to compromise myself while selling out a whole gender of our species, and such a rare part of it as well.”

  “Raven and I are not the only ones who had hopes of breeding a solution to our mate problems.”

  “And that is something we’re going to discuss back at the clubhouse,” Gray told Pharell.

  Pharell simply laughed and shifted so that he slipped free of the hold I had on him and then he charged Gray. That was his first mistake that day. Gray jumped to avoid impact with Pharell’s leopard and then he shifted midair, spun, and came back to grab hold of Pharell’s haunches, effectively yanking the cat underneath his own body. Gray only let go long enough to clamp a solid bite down on Pharell’s neck.

  “Be still!” Gentry roared, but Pharell continued his wild fight, no matter that he’d already lost. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with a tranq that would take down any size shifter, save maybe a dragon. I plunged it into his neck, and Pharell dropped, all the fight gone from him. He was tied up, hauled to a cargo van the council had on sight and then we went back in to take care of any others who were straggling behind.

  “You will be retiring from the council,” Gray announced to Gentry on his way back inside. “We can’t allow any of the tainted past to follow through with the future of our leadership. You may not have been involved in what they were planning with the breeding program, but no one will ever believe it. No one will trust a single council member who sat with those who would enslave their own, sell them out for parts, or breed them for better mates.”

  Gentry’s head hung low. “I know,” he stated quietly. “I’m not innocent in all things, but there was no way I could stand by and let that plan play out.” He glanced around the hall, “it looks like I’ll be able to go visit my girls now.” He shook his head. “Should have made more time for them anyway. Even our long-lived lives sometimes aren’t long enough.” We could all see that he was remembering his mate as he spoke.

  8

  Steam billowed out of the bathroom door a full few seconds before Betina followed. Her hair was still wrapped up tight in a towel atop her head while her body was encased in a pair of my boxer briefs and one of Brace’s t-shirts. She saw me staring and blushed, a beautiful, rosy hue flushing her cheeks.

  “I hope you don’t mind. Yours fit better than what Brace had,: she explained while her nose scrunched up in confusion. Brace had packed a few pairs of tighty whity briefs because I thought it would be funny to replace all of his usual boxers with them. Other people might not find them sexy, but the man has an ass that deserves to be hugged and a set of thighs like tree trunks that should be on display and envied.

  “You’ll understand one day,” I told her as I laughed.

  “You’re not upset?”

  “Why would I be? You wear them well.” The compliments flowed from my tongue with no hesitation. It was the damn truth. “Too well,” I muttered under my breath as I pictured snatching them back off of her just to watch the silky glide of them down her legs as she revealed herself to me. Only, in my imagination, Brace was there on the other side of her, lifting his shirt off of her body at the same time. The dramatic unveiling had my chub turning into a steel rod in my pants. I was at once both thankful and pissed that I had jeans holding my body back. They hid just enough that I didn’t think she noticed my reaction, but hurt just enough to bring me damn near to the edge of my boiling point.

  “Well,” she told me as she flipped her hand toward the door of the bathroom. “It’s all yours now.” I knew she meant that the bathroom was vacant, but there was a moment where all I could hear were those words and her speaking them to both Brace and me. The little she-panther had to have some sort of magical pull for the men she felt attracted to. There could be no other reason why I’d sud
denly fallen head over dick for the creature - no matter how lovely she was. I turned and moved past Betina without another word, greeted by the remaining steam welcoming me in. My kind preferred warm and moist places. A dry cavern was wonderful for the preservation of our hoards, but the scales needed a little moisture to maintain their own type of glorious sheen.

  The bathroom did not turn out to be the reprieve from Betina that I thought it would though. Her scent still mingled here in the steam pockets, taunting me, and getting even more of a rise as I imagined taking her and Brace back to my true lair and having them both beneath the waterfall shower I’d always been too lonely to enjoy properly. I shook the thought off and turned the faucet to cold. The only thing that might help was to ice the desire straight from my burning veins.

  When I finished, Betina stood, staring at the one bed we would have to share for the night. In order to keep others off of our trail, I’d checked us in as a married couple and they’d given us a room with one bed instead of two queens.

  “At least it’s a king, and you don’t have to lie close to me if you don’t want,” I offered in an attempt to console her.

  “Is that why you thought I hesitated?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  Betina shook her head. “No, Bomber. My hesitation is only because I knew you needed sleep and you’re not exactly my biggest fan.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I do need sleep. We both do. That part is true enough. I don’t dislike you though. On the contrary, you’re a beautiful woman and the way you make Brace smile only adds to your attractiveness -”

  “But-” she attempted to cut me off, but I stopped her.

  “I was jealous. He’s been only mine for a long while and I’ve wanted to be all in, out in the open with our relationship. Brace didn’t think the men of the club would react well though, at least, not until Chantal came around. By the time I got him almost comfortable with the idea of basically coming out to everyone, you showed up and I got to see how it could be if we had been a traditional couple. I wondered if it would be easy for you to lure him away from me completely because a tie to you would be far less stressful for him.”

  Betina laughed, acknowledging the whole slew of problems they were facing because of who she was and who she happened to still be tied to - no matter how involuntarily.

  “You know what I mean,” I managed to get out beyond my own laughter. “Your story wasn’t known to me then. I just saw a man happy to be with a woman and not having to hide his blatant interest.”

  “Do you feel like he was cheating on you or something?”

  “No. Nothing like that. I just saw the potential there and how uncomplicated it appeared to be.”

  “He was never inappropriate,” she told me, as if to reassure me that no lanes had been crossed.

  “I know he wasn’t. Brace was upfront about everything. He said he felt a pull to you, something that couldn’t easily be explained away. Almost like a mate’s calling, just watered down. I told him that he should see where things went.”

  It was her turn to surprise me. “I know,” she parroted back to me. “He told me that, but he also said he would never leave you out or leave you, period.”

  Something in my chest clenched tightly at knowing Brace was that adamant about what we had together.

  “He loves you. I don’t know if you two say it to one another, but it’s obvious to me. I don’t want to be the person to come between that in any way.”

  “You wouldn’t.” She remained silent as I spoke this time. “How would you feel about being with the both of us though?”

  “You mean all three of us together, as a third-wheeling couple?”

  I laughed. “No third wheels. Three equally important parts of an equation though.”

  “I honestly don’t know. Is that something you would be okay with?”

  “Not with just anyone, but I could see it working out with you.”

  “Are you sure you’re not just looking for a way to make your relationship look more legitimate for Brace’s sake?”

  “You think a polyamorous relationship is any more acceptable than just two males being together?”

  She shrugged as if to show her disbelief or indifference and that’s when something inside me snapped into a semi-predatory mode. I moved in closer, pulling her hips gently until she was just an inch or two away from my. Then, a little more, so that Betina’s front was finally flush with my own. The boner I’d been sporting most of the evening hadn’t been relieved in the icy shower since her scent still wafted all around the space. It had grown more evident while talking to her too. She could feel exactly what I thought of her joining our relationship. I was turned on, excited, and more importantly, it just felt right.

  Betina’s arms wrapped around my waist and we both held there, steady, getting a feel for one another. It took one glance down into her beautiful face, one longing look up at me from beneath her thick, dark lashes, and our mouths found one another’s. We connected in a molten kiss that was both exploratory and passionate all at once. Her lips, thinner on top and fuller on the bottom teased and tormented my own until I took control and sucked the bottom in between my own, tugging lightly with my teeth, and eliciting a moan from her that had sparks igniting up and down my spine. The animal inside was screaming for me to take her, make her mine, my little precious beauty.

  My hands slipped from her waist to her ass, grabbing hold as I picked her up. Betina’s thighs immediately tightened around me. She knew what I wanted. I grinded my hardness against her center, giving us both a little of the relief we craved. It was even hotter knowing that those were my briefs she was wearing. A sigh slipped from between her lips as I squeezed her luscious ass once more before diving in and scenting her neck. The smell of Brace on her skin is the only thing that made me pause.

  “Shit,” I huffed out, causing her to stiffen in my arms immediately. “We can’t do this. I won’t do this without him here.”

  Betina hopped down immediately, planting her feet back on firm ground beneath her. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  “No. Never be sorry. He won’t be sorry that we got on like this either, but if we do this, the first time, it can’t just be two of us. We can’t start off on that footing. It would have to be an all or nothing thing for me.”

  “I understand.”

  “But is it what you would want?”

  “Honestly?” She asked as we both went to separate sides of the bed. I nodded my head, encouraging her to go on. “I need some time to think things through. I can’t deny that I am attracted to the both of you, but it’s a different dynamic and I’ve always been taught that things like that aren’t natural.”

  “Do me a favor, when you close your eyes at night, thinking on what might be…” I settled into the bed and then glanced over into her eyes. “Remember that the same people that taught you a relationship between loving people is wrong just because it’s different, are the ones that allowed you to become an unwilling child mate for a monster.” It was something I’d been thinking on a great deal, and though I didn’t want to tarnish her father’s memory, he had to have known the type of man Fynn was. He was once leader of his claw. There was no way he hadn’t seen the taint on the man who took the position from him when he stepped aside.

  I didn’t expect a response, but when I felt her curl up closer to me in the night, I knew what I’d said had sunk in. There was no need to judge what we might all three have together when people who taught her it might be a bad thing were the same to not care what was happening to her. Everyone around her had condoned a grown ass man taking a child as his mate. That brought up something else we were going to have to talk about, but it wouldn’t be tonight. Betina needed to be able to talk through what happened to her with someone who could help work through the issues it had already caused, and the unforeseen things that might come up down the road as a result. Trauma was trauma, it didn’t matter if it happened to a human, a shifter, or other supernatura
l being, we all still had to process that shit, understand, and find a way to put it behind us before we could move on.