Isaiah (9 page)

“I don’t hear an engine starting up.”

Isaiah huffed, breaking into a jog. “Me either, but it’s noisy out.”

“Yup.” Bae kept at his side as they swerved around the occasional person. They got some odd looks but for the most part were ignored. Probably, if they’d run full-out, people would think they were criminals running from cops or something. As it was, they hopefully appeared to be two guys in a bit of a hurry.

“Here,” Bae said, veering into an alley, only to stop abruptly. Isaiah stopped as well, putting an arm around Bae automatically as the scent of shifters hit him.

“Yours?” he asked as quietly as possible, then immediately wanted to smack himself for not using their link. It might have worked, considering the intensity of the situation. Isaiah was scared for his mate.

“Not my lepe, no, and not felines, I think.”
Bae sniffed delicately and grimaced.

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ISAIAH

Bailey Bradford

54

Isaiah wasn’t worried about being delicate. He inhaled and almost gagged on the stench of garbage, but he caught it again, the scent of the supernatural, something not quite human.

And not felines, just as Bae had thought.

Isaiah began backing away. There were still humans out and about, so he didn’t think whoever or whatever was in the alley would cause a scene. In the shadows, he saw movement, and judging by Bae’s shiver, so did he. Then yellow eyes shone from the darkness, and Isaiah could make out the large shape of a man, then another as someone came up from the other end of the alley. Fear slicked a finger over the fine hairs at his nape. Isaiah was totally unnerved as a low growl penetrated the air between them.

“Run,” he whispered, taking Bae’s hand in his and putting action to words. If they looked like criminals or someone called the cops, he didn’t give a shit. He wasn’t sure whatever was in the alley wouldn’t attack them out in the open after all.

Isaiah and Bae ran full out. Their vehicles—his bike, Bae’s car—were in the lot behind The Heart.

“Ride with me,” Bae urged when they reached his car. “I’m afraid for you on the motorcycle with them—with whoever is in that SUV. What if they come after us? After you?”

Isaiah couldn’t see anyone who looked threatening, but he felt…watched. “We could go faster on my motorcycle,” he began but Bae squawked and Isaiah held up a hand. “But I don’t have two helmets. If those shifters are watching you, they probably know what you drive.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Bae bit his bottom lip until blood welled from between it and his teeth.

“Stop,” Isaiah said. He bent and kissed Bae, his leopard yowling inside him at the taste of Bae’s blood. So close to what his cat needed, and yet Isaiah couldn’t bypass Bae’s fear and he wouldn’t break his vow to him. “You take your car, and I’ll follow you. If they follow, we’ll have to pull in at the closest gas station and figure out something from there. And let’s stay off the highway. Try to drive on busy streets where there are lots of witnesses.”

“Jesus, this is like some bad spy-action movie,” Bae grumbled. “Where are we going?”

“Where’s your vet van?”

Bae turned and glared down the direction they’d just run from. “In my garage. Let’s go to my place. I am not going to be run out of my own home!” Bae planted a hand on his hip.

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ISAIAH

Bailey Bradford

55

“And if they’ve been watching me, they may know who you are. Or have your scent. We don’t know what kind of shifters they were, how acute their olfactory is—we don’t fucking know anything but that they drive a SUV and have creepy fucking eyes!”

Bae’s anxiety and anger were making Isaiah want to punch something, namely the fuckers who’d upset Bae. But that wasn’t the smart thing to do, and Isaiah wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box but he did know he wanted Bae safe.

“Okay, okay. Just, let’s get to your place, then we’ll go from there.” He waited until Bae was in his car and had it started before getting on his motorcycle. With his helmet on most of his senses were fucked up, not as sharp, but he could still smell things better than humans.

Not as well as he used to. Now he agreed with his cat. He definitely wanted back his ability to scent things as acutely as possible.

He pulled out of the lot right behind Bae, looking for the SUV. Isaiah continued to watch for it the entire drive to Bae’s house, which took twice as long due to them staying off the highway. The pervasive sensation of being watched had stopped minutes after they left The Heart, but Isaiah didn’t believe he could be overcautious, not when it came to protecting Bae.

Bae parked in the driveway and the garage door was already rising when Isaiah pulled in. He wished Bae’s car would fit in the bay beside the vet van, but there just wasn’t room.

Isaiah’s motorcycle barely fit as it was. He parked his bike and Bae was in his arms as soon as he got the helmet off.

“I didn’t see them,” Bae breathed against his chest.

Isaiah rubbed his hands up and down Bae’s back, chasing away some of the tension in him. “Me either. I wish we knew who they were and what they wanted. Although I think that’s obvious. They want you, or something to do with or from you.”

Bae shivered and pressed tighter against him. “I’m afraid you’re right, after last night. I just don’t know why.”

Isaiah hoped he wasn’t taking a misstep. “Maybe you should call your family? Your dad or mom, or whoever leads the lepe?”

Bae groaned and gave him a quick squeeze before letting him go. He looked tired and worried, and Isaiah didn’t like either of those on his man. “Yes, I was thinking the same thing. They need to know I’ve found my mate, and they won’t get any of my juice.” He www.total-e-bound.com

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Bailey Bradford

56

winked and leered, looking adorable to Isaiah. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever refused to participate. If not, it’s past time someone did. The lepe needs to get its head out of its ass and start moving into the twenty-first century.”

“You know, for us—snow leopards shifters, I mean—the ability to shift is passed down matrilineal-ly.” He shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s a word. I’m not as smart as my doctor brother or the rest of my siblings, but I’m not dumb, either.”

Bae grabbed him with a hand around the back of his neck and pulled Isaiah’s head down. The fierce expression he wore was a shot of adrenaline straight to Isaiah’s cock, making him hard instantly. “Listen to me, I don’t ever want to hear you put yourself down again. You are very smart. You have your own business, you are exceedingly skilled with restoration. I saw Cliff’s Camaro. A stupid person couldn’t do what you do, Isaiah. Just because you’re not a doctor doesn’t mean you’re not brilliant. And frankly, us doctors can be some of the dumbest people sometimes. We miss what’s right in front of us.”

Somehow Isaiah had put the part about Bae being a doctor out of his mind, he supposed because yes, he felt they were equals. It was a new idea, him being an equal with someone with such a fine education, but—Isaiah was willing to try to accept it. Bae didn’t make him feel dumb or any less a man than Bae was. Isaiah knew most of that was in his own head. He didn’t need to compare himself to Tim or anyone else, though, as long as he was enough for Bae, that was all that mattered.

“You need to be enough for yourself, sweetheart,” Bae told him, obviously having felt Isaiah’s potential mini-meltdown. “You know that saying, the one that goes something like, you have to love yourself before you can love someone else? I believe that. You have to know you’re worth loving, too. Do you know that, Isaiah?”

“Yes.” He didn’t have to even think about it. “It’s just me that does the comparing. No one else does. I look at Tim, my brother, who has all sorts of degrees. He studied so he could work and find out more about snow leopards and the shifters we are. Our family knew nothing much for a long time because my grandma, Marybeth, she was the only surviving member of her clan. She had no shifters to teach her about our past. So Tim took it on himself to learn, and I became a mechanic.”

He hadn’t meant to say that, but the words spewed out like pus from an infected wound. “I didn’t even know…” He shook his head.

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ISAIAH

Bailey Bradford

57

Bae cupped his chin and held his face still. “You didn’t know that’s how you saw it?

Thought about it?”

“Not really.” Isaiah felt like a fool, but he’d never dug too deeply into his insecurities. “I just figured I wasn’t that smart, I’d never be like Tim. He was always driven to find answers, and I kinda didn’t care.”

Bae’s soft smile caused an equally soft trembling inside Isaiah. “You just wanted to be happy and to fix cars. To do what you loved, not what you felt you had to do, and you felt guilty because of that.”

“Yeah.” Isaiah was understanding a lot of things he hadn’t before. “I guess I always felt guilty for not being like Tim, all interested in our history. I mean, I know it’s important to be aware of, but…”

“But there’s already people in your family finding out the past, so you don’t need to feel guilty for not doing it, too,” Bae pointed out. “You love them?”

Isaiah answered without hesitation. “Of course. I’d do anything for any of them.

They’re my family.”

Bae smiled knowingly. “Then that’s all they need from you. And maybe a tune up or two.”

“They get those, sure enough.” Isaiah rolled his shoulders, shaking off some of the guilt he’d carried. “And what about your family?”

Bae’s smile dimmed slightly. “Well, we love each other, but I think duty might trump love. I don’t know. I can’t do what they want, though, not even to, you know, donate.” He turned his glorious eyes up at Isaiah. “I wouldn’t want to father a child then have nothing to do with that child, and the babies born from an arranged mating are almost always sent to other lepes in hopes that they’ll grow up there and find a mate to procreate with.” Bae stopped and widened his eyes. “Wow, I sound like one of those religious people who go on about sex only being for procreation. Ew.”

Isaiah knew Bae was trying to deflect some of the worry and anticipated pain from the confrontation he was going to have with his family. Isaiah caressed Bae’s cheek, then his throat, resting his hand on Bae’s shoulder. “Bae, my family will make you theirs, just so you know. It won’t be like you’re a guest. They’ll suck you in like…like one of those black holes www.total-e-bound.com

ISAIAH

Bailey Bradford

58

you see in crappy sci-fi movies, and you’ll be integrated into this rowdy band of snow leopards shifters, along with a cougar shifter and a wolf shifter.”

“And we’ll make a motley crew?” Bae asked, but his smile seemed brighter, and his mood less dour.

“Yes, so you will have family, no matter what,” Isaiah said. He brushed several kisses over Bae’s cheeks, his nose, then finally his plump lips. “And you’ll have me.”

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ISAIAH

Bailey Bradford

59

Bae hung up the phone and cradled his head in his hands. God, he wished he had more of a backbone when it came to his family and his lepe. He pushed away from his desk and walked to the kitchen, where a freshly showered Isaiah was setting a bowl of pasta on the table.

“I was just going to let you know it’s ready,” Isaiah said, then he looked at Bae and hurried over to him. “What’s wrong? What did they say? Who’d you talk to? I didn’t feel anything, I tried to keep my mind out of yours so you had privacy but now—”

“You don’t need to do that ever again,” Bae interrupted. “We’re mates, and we should be open to each other, right? In all ways.” And maybe, if Isaiah had been there cheering him on in his head, Bae wouldn’t have been such a wuss.

“I’m sorry,” Isaiah said, and Bae rolled his eyes at himself.

“No, that wasn’t fair to put the blame on you. I’m just going to have to learn that it is not my lot in life to serve the needs of my lepe. My father is furious and demanding a meeting with me Saturday.”

“I’m coming,” Isaiah gritted out, then asked softly, “right? I am coming with you?”

“Yes, you are,” Bae told him, trying not to freak about it. His dad could be intimidating.

Bae eyed Isaiah. Well, so could he. Isaiah was much bigger than Bae and the other Amur shifters, for that matter.

“Good, and I promise if you want me to, I’ll stand behind you like this”—Isaiah crossed his arms over his chest, making his biceps bulge,—“and I’ll glare and growl, maybe even froth a little.”

Bae snorted out a laugh at the image he could see clearly in his imagination. “Oh hell, that’d be great. My dad wouldn’t know what to do if he couldn’t scare you out of the room.

He said you couldn’t come and I told him it was us or no one. I should have had the balls to tell him to accept me and what I am doing because I’m not changing my mind, but I was afraid of what he’d tell me.”

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ISAIAH

Bailey Bradford

60

Isaiah didn’t offer empty reassurances, for which Bae was grateful. He himself didn’t know what was going to happen come Saturday, so there was no way Isaiah could tell him everything was going to be fine and mean it. Isaiah did, however, give him a hug followed by a kiss that distracted him from his worries.

“I thought after we eat and clean the kitchen, you can fuck me until I scream, like you promised to do this morning.”

“Fuck dinner,” Bae said, coming up on his toes to claim Isaiah’s mouth in a stinging kiss. He bit at Isaiah’s lips, tasting just a hint of copper, and his cock became so rigid he hissed from the friction of his jeans rubbing against it.

Isaiah moaned beautifully, giving Bae the sound of his need. Bae speared his tongue into Isaiah’s mouth, plundering it greedily, wanting everything he could get from Isaiah.

The bleating of the over timer caused them both to stumble back, Bae catching himself on the table and Isaiah, slapping a hand to the counter. Isaiah looked dazed, his mouth open as he panted. He pressed his other hand to his groin and whined, tipping his head back. Bae watched the bob of his Adam’s apple and wondered if Isaiah could take his cock that deep into his throat.