His to Claim (9 page)

Damn, he hated waiting.

~*~

Alex still had no clue what to think by the
time he finally doubled back and headed for home. He loved Kyle and had never
seen or heard anything other than that one painful memory in his mind to
indicate he wasn't the guy Alex believed him to be.

Alex stopped walking as he considered that
thought. It had been a
painful
memory
for Kyle, not something he remembered fondly. When Alex had first seen and
heard it in his own mind he'd simply assumed the pain he'd sensed embedded in
the memory had belonged to the young man who'd been tied down and whipped, but
that didn't really make sense.

It was Kyle's memory. If he'd enjoyed doing
that, wouldn't it have been his pleasure that came through their link, not his
sorrow and pain and regret that he'd agreed to do it for his sub?

Alex played the memory over and over in his
head, picking at the smaller details, at the nuances he'd missed earlier. In
his mind he could see the man smiling after each lash, his entire body begging
for the next one even as he screamed from the pain of the last. It was a rather
confronting scene, but in his memory at least, Kyle had been the reluctant
participant, not the man being whipped.

They really needed to talk this out. If Alex
could understand the circumstances of Kyle's involvement, maybe they could work
through it together. He walked a little faster, eager now to understand the
situation. He wasn't certain he would ever be able to accept whatever his lover
told him, but Kyle at least deserved the chance to explain.

He was almost at the driveway to the home he
and Kyle had shared for nearly a month now when a child no more than eleven or
twelve stepped into his path.

"About time you got home," the
girl said as she pressed a handgun to his chest and fired at point-blank range.

Chapter Twelve

Thank fuck for safety mechanisms.

Alex could barely believe he was still
standing when the young girl made a sound of distress, flipped the safety off,
and then tried to shoot him again. He grabbed for her, wrestling the gun out of
her hand even as the damn thing went off. He shook from the adrenaline rush
even as he tried to temper his strength. He needed to disarm and pin the kid
down until he could call for backup—unfortunately not an unusual situation for
him when he'd been on the police force.

Of course, the kid choosing that moment to
turn into a hyena and biting his arm hadn't been something he'd been expecting.

Nor was the raging, massive grizzly bear
that crashed out of the front door of the home he shared with Kyle.

~*~

Kyle had only one thought—Alex!

He hardly even noticed the change as every
instinct his grizzly bear side owned went into attack mode. Never before had he
felt so out of control, but the sound of a gunshot and the smell of his mate's
blood sent him into a rage he'd never truly realized he was capable of.

He bolted toward where Alex was wrestling
with a hyena, but at the last moment managed to pull back his reaction. He let
loose a growl that would have all the neighbors calling animal control, yet
somehow resisted the urge to tear apart the hyena that was trying to tear apart
his mate.

Kyle lifted his nose into the air,
desperately checking their surroundings for more danger before moving over to
where his mate was fighting a wild animal that owned really sharp teeth.

Thankfully, it only took a few more seconds
for Alex to pin the small hyena under his much larger bulk, the animal's
pathetic growls turning to frightened whimpers as it realized it was trapped.
The wound on Alex's arm continued to bleed freely, but in his bear form there
wasn't much Kyle could do to help.

Incredibly, Alex glanced his way and smiled.

"Hey, sexy," he said, shifting
slightly so he could hold the hyena in place without hurting the pup. Judging
by its size the shifter was barely old enough to be shifting in the first
place. Thank the goddess Kyle had retained enough control of his human side to
stop his bear side from reacting instinctively. "It might be a good idea
to call one of your brothers before our neighbors start reaching for their
guns."

Kyle knew he needed to go back into the
house, call Adrian, and grab some clothes, but his mate was injured and he
didn't want to leave his side.

"I'm okay," Alex said with a
reassuring nod. "I promise I won't bleed out while you're gone."

His mate gave him such a beautiful smile it
was hard to remember why the man had walked away from him at Adrian's.
Unfortunately, the memory swept through Kyle's mind once more and he almost
cringed when he realized their mate bond was still working even with him in
furry form.

"We'll talk," Alex said with a
reassuring smile. Kyle nodded his big furry head and turned to go back into the
house.
"Grab something to cover the
shifter too. She's just a kid and scared as hell."

Kyle moved faster then, managing to call
Adrian, drag on clothes, and grab a quilt almost at the same time. The moment
Alex released her, the hyena tried to run, so Kyle wrapped her in the quilt
before she could take two steps.

"Take her inside," Alex said in a
calm voice. "I'll clean up out here."

Again reluctant to leave his mate, Kyle
nevertheless followed his lover's instructions and headed toward the ruined
front door. The hyena pup turned back into her human form just as he stepped
inside.

Thankfully, Alex was only a minute behind him,
and Adrian, Tyler, and Derek a minute more than that.

~*~

Alex wasn't really sure how to react to a
child who'd very literally just tried to kill him. He had no doubt that if
she'd had the safety off when she'd first pulled the trigger, he would have
been dead. She was a little thing but she'd known exactly where a human's heart
was. He had no idea if leaving the safety on had just been an oversight, or a
Freudian-type reaction to not actually wanting to kill him.

The fact that she was a hyena certainly
suggested a link to his ex-partner and the internal affairs case he'd been
working on, but not why she'd tracked him down or how she'd found him. It also
didn't explain why no one had bothered to report her missing from the
shifter-friendly foster home she and her cousins had been sent to.

"You okay?" Kyle asked when his
brothers took over the investigation. They couldn't even consider an
interrogation since the kid hadn't stopped crying since she'd regained her
human form.

"I'm not sure," Alex said slowly.
The situation was heartbreaking and extremely disturbing at the same time.
Everything about the child before her change into her hyena form had suggested
she was a "done deal." She'd been calm, sarcastic, and more that
ready to kill him. She hadn't even hesitated to pull the trigger.

Thank fuck for safety mechanisms.

But the weirdest part was that the crying
child, the one who now shook with fear and confusion, didn't seem at all
capable of doing what she'd done.

"Can I hold you?" Kyle asked, not
making a move to step closer, just waiting a step away for Alex's answer.

Alex simply moved into his mate's arms and
held him close.

~*~

Kyle couldn't stop shaking. He'd gone so
close to losing his mate.

"I'm okay,
Ky.
I'm still here."

"But for how long?" He wasn't even
sure if he'd asked the question out loud or not, but thanks to their mating
link, Alex heard it anyway.

"I don't know if I'll ever understand
what happens at Santutegia, but you've shown me over and over that you protect
those who need it." He laughed softly. "And even some of us who
don't." Alex hugged him tighter. "I love you, Kyle, and I'm willing
to believe whatever explanation you give me."

Kyle heard the sadness behind that
admission, understood where it came from, and silently vowed to never give his
mate a reason to doubt him.

"I know it's a painful memory for
you," Alex whispered.

Instead of trying to block the memory from
his mind, this time Kyle let it run through in its entirety, from the
negotiation, to the scene, and even to the aftermath. The whip had left the man
beaten and bloody, gasping for breath even as he shuddered in orgasm. Of course
it had helped that he'd also been a werewolf, so once the scene had been
finished he'd simply changed forms, healed the injuries, and walked out of the
club.

Alex shook his head. "That information
would have helped clear up a whole lot of things way faster." He pressed a
kiss to Kyle's lips. "Werewolves can really heal that easily?"

"Most of them," Kyle admitted.
"We've come across a few packs that didn't have the ability, but most of
them can."

"Tyler?"

"Yeah, he was made by the alpha of the
Lupinville pack. He's still learning to control his change from human to wolf
and back again, but it's given Adrian a little bit of peace of mind. You might
have noticed our lives aren't exactly risk free."

"Considering that attack was because of
an investigation I was involved in
before
I met you, my life probably wasn't any less dangerous then than it is
now."

Kyle shuddered again just at the reminder of
how close he'd come to losing his mate today.

"Would you consider maybe becoming a
werewolf too?" It probably wouldn't have saved him from a gunshot wound to
the heart like he'd faced today, but it did give him a better chance of
surviving most injuries that would kill a human.

"I have a feeling that might destroy
our mating link. Didn't Anaedra say that it was because of my latent
bear-shifter DNA that the bond developed at all?"

Kyle was actually surprised by how much the
idea of losing that bond hurt. Considering the trouble it had already
caused—and let's face it, with his track record for foot-in-mouth, likely
always would—they were probably better off without it.

He could sense the sadness in his mate as he
also considered the idea.

"Could we maybe think about it for a
while? I feel like there should be a better option for us. We just have to find
it."

"Honestly," a petulant voice said
from behind them, "why not just ask someone who knows?"

Kyle's irritation spiked at the
interruption, but it was his mate's calm demeanor that had him holding his
tongue.

"Hi, Anaedra," Alex said happily.
"Welcome to our home."

The goddess quirked an
eyebrow at Kyle.
When he apparently didn't
understand her meaning she rolled her eyes and addressed Alex as if Kyle wasn't
in the room. Damn the woman was annoying.

"Tell your mate to apologize and maybe,
just maybe," she qualified with a smart-ass grin, "I'll tell you both
how bear shifters are made. They can heal just like werewolves, you know."

"Alex can be a bear?" Kyle asked
as his heart rate doubled. Was it really possible that his mate could have the
healing abilities of a shifter without losing the mate bond they shared?

"Tell your mate to apologize,"
Anaedra demanded crossly, still pretending Kyle wasn't in the room.

He was pretty sure she was talking about the
argument they'd had fifteen years ago, but he honestly couldn't remember what
it had been over. He instinctively knew a generic apology wouldn't cut it.

Alex laughed and moved closer to Anaedra. He
leaned in and asked in a conspiratorial whisper, "What did the big lug
do?"

"He insulted my shoes."

Kyle froze. Honestly, the woman had gotten
kookier over the past few decades, but not talking to him over an imagined
insult of a pair of shoes—he never even noticed shit like that—was taking
things a little too far.

Thankfully, Alex was there to remind him to
be nice to the crazy goddess. None of them ever truly understood what the woman
was capable of, so it really wasn't wise to piss her off.

"Forgive me, Anaedra," Kyle said
earnestly. "I don't remember what I said to upset you, but I promise I
never intended to insult you or your shoes. I'm really sorry."

"See how easy that was?" Anaedra
asked in a haughty tone.

Kyle grabbed for his mate as the nauseating
sensation of suddenly being in two places at once made his stomach turn and his
legs grow weak. Damn, even after fifteen years of not traveling via
"goddess" he hadn't forgotten how awful the sensation was. He locked
his knees and tightened his grip when he felt Alex momentarily lose his
balance.

It was over in less than a second, but the
nausea promised to linger much, much longer.

"Where are we?" he managed to ask
Anaedra in what he hoped was a respectful enough tone. They were standing in a
small clearing surrounded by dense forest, and while he might have a very good
sense of direction, it didn't really help if he had no idea where they were to
begin with.

"Anaedra, we can't just leave
now," Alex said urgently. Even though Kyle could sense through the mate
bond just how much he wanted to be a bear shifter, it was clear that Alex would
always put the needs of others over his own. "The girl—"

"Is currently being cared for by Adrian
and Tyler," Anaedra said, obviously interpreting Alex's worry correctly.
"She's in good hands, Alex. They won't let anything happen to her, and
they will find out why she did what she did and who was behind it."

Kyle didn't need the bond to sense his
mate's relief. It was clear that he didn't believe the child had acted alone. A
tiny girl of eleven or twelve didn't cross the country to find a man she'd
never met without getting a whole lot of adult help. Alex was convinced that
someone had coerced the child into the attack, perhaps with false promises of
having her parents released from prison. Kyle agreed even if he did find Alex's
memory of the first few moments truly disturbing. The child hadn't seemed like
a child at all at that moment.

"Tyler is a high school teacher,"
Kyle explained to his mate, uncertain if he'd been given that information or
not over the past few weeks. "If anyone can understand the pre-teen mind,
it's him."

"The hyena pup is in good hands,"
Anaedra said reassuringly, her demeanor one that Kyle had never actually seen
from her before. He knew she cared for all paranormal beings—that's why the
Alateekas
existed—but he'd never considered how she reacted
to each paranormal on an individual level. If he had to guess, Anaedra was
extremely angry at the person behind the attack for the way they'd used one of
her vulnerable paranormal children.

Alex nodded in silent agreement and hugged
Kyle just a little closer.