Morgan (21 page)

“I promise, Cameron. When I saw your pain, saw how much I’d hurt you, I knew then that you meant it all. Everything you’ve all told me came back in a rush. You
literally
can’t live without me. I understand now and I will never hurt you like that again. I just couldn’t.”

He saw the truth and scented her pain. She would never leave them now. “Are you in pain still, Morgan? I don’t want you hurting.”

She sat up and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Well tightly for the tiny little thing she was. He wrapped his arms around her and felt her sink closer still. He hated to leave her right now when he desperately wanted to mark her with his cock and his teeth. But the fight had begun. He licked his mark on her neck and indulged himself a second longer, enjoying her moan and the delicious smell of her arousal.

“Soon, baby. Soon we will be safe to enjoy each other.” She sighed and suddenly bit into his neck, hard. His cock erupted as his orgasm overwhelmed him in an instant. He growled as his cum shot from him in hot pulses.

“So sexy, baby. Wait until I have you naked under me. I want you to come all over my tongue. Then you’ll come again with my cock buried deep inside you.”

Morgan moaned, the scent from her pussy betraying how much she wanted him. “I’m so sorry, Cameron. I love you so much.”

“I know you do, baby. Is that why you made me come in my pants?” She looked surprised as she pulled away slightly and stared at the damp stain on his crotch.

He had only minutes before he was needed back on patrol of the Alpha’s property, but he needed to taste her lips. Needed to swallow her moans. He pulled her close again and kissed her with the certainty that she would never leave them sending joy into their bond.

He pulled away from her lips as his canines descended. The sharp points sank effortlessly into the soft skin of his mark and he nearly came again as her sweet blood washed onto his tongue.

She cried out as an orgasm rocked through her. He released her tender flesh, licking the wound closed and rocking her until her orgasm waned.

“Wow. That was amazing.” She smiled up at him, but her smile faded as he gazed at her solemnly. “You have to go now?”

“I do, baby. But I’ll be back as soon as we make you safe.”

“I’ll be here, Cameron.”

He stood and set her on her feet, looking around for the first time to see what room he’d rushed into. They’d just made out in the baby’s new nursery.
Gabe is going to kill me.

Ben watched as the big shifter crouched behind the tree he was perched in. He remained still, opening his lower jaw, his tongue protruding to allow him to better assess the scents in the air around him. His whiskers flattened as he scented more tigers approaching.
How many damned men did Petrov bring with him?
Three more men came into view around him.
Too fucking many.

A load roar sounded from the house. The Alpha had just shifted. “
There are three men in the trees behind the barn
,” Ben informed him. “
All tigers
.”

“
I have four hyenas directly behind the house
,” Axel said. “
Twitchy bastards, too
.”

“
Axel?
” Finn asked coolly.

“
Whatever stuff their doc has given them may make them strong and fast, but the downside for them is they are fucking noisy. They can’t seem to keep still. They’re constantly moving around like they’ve got bugs up their asses.”

“That’s just normal hyena behavior,”
Finn said, his distaste apparent.
“As stealthy as elephants.”

“Three more tigers approaching from the south,”
Fergus said.

“The east is clear,”
Gabriel said.
“Drake is running out a bit farther to see if there are any stragglers.”

“They’re making their move,”
Michael said.

Ben watched the men behind the trees strip off their clothes and shift. They were all huge Siberian tigers. Even in the dim light of the moon he could see the many scars shining silver on each of their coats. These men were seasoned fighters and were not going to be easy to kill.

Ben landed silently behind the men as they stalked toward the Reed home. With Samson and Gabriel’s fathers’ both out here with them, it made them even in number to the intruders. The extent of the hyena’s drug-induced enhancements, however, remained an unknown factor until they engaged them.

The distinct sound of hyena cackle rose like an alarm through the still night air. The snarl of a cat followed. They were about to see how big a threat the hyenas were going to be.

* * * *

Evan stood beside Aiden as they watched the hyena’s disperse through the town under the directions of a slim man with dark hair. The man stayed at the side door to the truck and looked to have no intention of joining the fight. As the distinct sound of a skull hitting a brick wall reached Evan, Aiden vanished. He reappeared at the rear of the truck a heartbeat later.

A snarl sounded behind Evan and he ran back down the lane he’d been hiding in to see Caine Prentiss being held aloft by a huge man in a black fatigues. One of the hyenas.

“You’re clear,” Evan shouted. There were no humans in the street and Caine needed to know that it was safe to shift if he needed to.

Evan felt like he’d been hit by a percussion grenade as he was thrown to the ground with such force that he felt a few of his ribs snap. As he tried to draw in a breath he was lifted from the ground by his leg and hurled through the air.

Only the agility of his cat saved him from a fractured skull. As he completed the shift his cat pushed off the wall of the building and leaped back on the hyena who had attacked him.

Caught by surprise, the man was thrown to the ground by the combined force of Evan’s weight and speed. Evan didn’t hesitate in gripping the thick skull in his jaws and swinging his body around in a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn that pulled his attacker’s head free of his neck.

Dropping the head to the ground, he bounded to the hyena now holding Caine immobile on the ground. The man had a knee in Caine’s spine and his arms bent behind his back at an unnatural angle. Evan lowered his head and ran at the man’s abdomen. As the assailant fell backward off Caine’s body, Evan bit into the man’s stomach and tore deep into the flesh.

The man screamed in pain and batted Evan easily away with a single swipe of his arm. The blow was so hard it felt to Evan like he’d been hit by a car, but he’d already locked his jaws tight before the blow sent him flying.

When he landed with a heavy thud, he struggled to rise. His ribs were still aching from the first blow and now his spine was groaning from the second. But he did rise. These men would not have his mate.

He spat the chunk of flesh from his mouth as he turned to continue to battle the man. Caine had risen from the ground and moved to stand behind the man as he knelt, stunned, his intestines spilling out around him. Caine grasped the man’s head and twisted, snapping its neck. They ran to the end of the lane where the sounds of more fighting were growing louder.

“I’ve killed two of the hyenas who had remained behind to guard the truck,”
Aiden said.
“I’m going to free Eamon now.”

Evan continued to run the other way and left Aiden to deal with the doctor and the rescue of his friend. They still had six hyenas to contain without alerting any humans to their existence. They had quite enough to deal with before they could offer Aiden any assistance.

“Dane has killed one behind the sheriff’s office,” Caine said. “Thanks for the assist, Evan.”

Evan just snarled and stuck to the shadows as he followed Caine through town in his cougar form. The hyenas left an overpowering smell of sweat in their wake. It meant that even if they proved hard to kill, they were not going to be difficult to find. Five more to go.

A huge boulder landed on Evan’s back and his cat howled in pain as he was smashed to the pavement.

* * * *

Cameron had only just made it to his position on the porch when Cooper’s distinctive roar sounded across the ranch. A big black SUV skidded to a stop behind the barn as Cooper, in the form of his huge cougar, landed on its roof.

With no humans in the vicinity they were not restricted to fighting as human, which the members of the pride in town were. Cameron shifted as he ran. He was glad to be shedding his human skin as his cat hungered for a fight with anyone bent on harming his mate and members of his pride.

“Four tigers are coming up behind the house,”
Calder said.
“Asher and I could use some help if anyone’s free.”

Cameron heard the rage in Calder’s voice. The tigers must be huge if Calder was asking for assistance. But with Calder’s mate and cub inside the house it was a certainty that he wouldn’t risk their safety by being reluctant to ask for reinforcements.

“The house is empty,”
Tanner Willis said.
“All the mates are now in the safe room. I’ll come out the back door.”

With that threat secured, Cameron focused on the men exiting the SUV. The huge men all wore black fatigues and heavy boots. Cameron could scent tiger, bear, and hyena coming from the group of six men.

The men formed a loose circle around one large man. His shaved head gleamed in the moonlight. Cameron would bet his left nut that Artur Petrov was that man.

“I will leave you all alive if you surrender my daughter to me now,” the bald man said. He gestured to his men to pull closer around him and they obeyed immediately.

Cameron had guessed right. Petrov had found Morgan. His growl rumbled out of him, drawing Petrov’s gaze directly to him.

“She and her sister are useless as shifters.” His eyes were cruel and totally devoid of humanity. He would kill them all as soon as he had Morgan and Bethany.

Cooper kicked off from the roof of the SUV and leaped for the man in the center of the ring of men. Cameron began running and had nearly reached them when one of Petrov’s guards plucked Cooper from the air and tackled him to the ground. He’d moved so fast that Cameron had seen nothing but a blur. Hyena.

Asher Pollock, who had still not shifted, moved like lightning and dislodged the man from on top of Cooper. Cooper rose immediately and joined Asher in trying to incapacitate the hyena. Cameron was now in reach of the group and saw Rowan Lonnigan, Jordanna’s mate, streak across the yard to join him.

Cameron leaped for the man in the front of the group, his jaws wide as he aimed for the huge man’s thick neck. He doubted he’d be able to wrap his jaws completely around it, it was just too wide, but he only needed to rip out his carotid. Then the man would die.

He was punched in the chest by fists that felt more like battering rams before he’d made contact with the man’s neck. He flew back a good ten feet before he managed to twist in the air and land back on his feet. The man was on top of him before he’d drawn a single breath into his damaged lungs. The man wrapped his massive arms around Cameron’s chest as he lifted him from the ground and squeezed so hard that his ribs began to snap like twigs.

Cameron was held immobile as the sounds of roars and snarls began to grow quiet. The battle wasn’t ending. Cameron knew he was losing consciousness. As his vision began to dim he felt fear for the first time in his life. Fear that Petrov might actually succeed in stealing his daughter away from them.

“Is anyone in the town aware of our presence?” Parran asked. “Artur wants to know if we are going to meet any opposition.”

Eamon kept his head down, his mind mired in pain and confusion. The doctor had left him so damaged and drained that Eamon had thought he’d finally die. When the doctor had woken him a few moments ago he was crushed to find he was still alive and also dumbfounded by the thoughts of the people around him.

“I know you’re awake, my pet. I just gave you enough adrenaline to jump-start a corpse.”

That explained why he was awake when he felt like he should be dead. But he still struggled with what he was hearing from the minds of the shifters outside. They had a vampire helping them, a vampire that was apparently here for him.

He shook his head in an attempt to wake up and clear his thoughts. The pain from the deep bite wounds on his neck made him cry out with pain. He felt blood trickle down his chest from the gashes he’d just torn open. His weakened body was unable to heal even those relatively minor wounds.

“There are shifters in the town,” Eamon said slowly. He hoped to stall Parran until he could determine if what he was hearing was true, or if it was just an imagining of his mind as he finally went toward death.

“I know there are shifters, you useless sack of blood. I can smell their feline stench for myself. I need to know what they are thinking. Why else are you here?”

“I believe you have brought him with you for your own sick and perverted purposes, Mr. Parran.”

Eamon gave up the charade of subservience and lifted his head at the sound of that voice. He knew that voice. In another time, in another life, that man was his friend.

Eamon felt the cold steel at his throat even before he’d focused on Aiden’s approaching form. “Take another step and this one dies at last,” Parran said.

Eamon watched as Aiden halted, his hands held up in a gesture of surrender. The doctor relaxed the blade slightly and Aiden was gone. Eamon heard only the brief grinding of metal and the clink of chains behind him, then silence. He’d imagined it all.
Are hallucinations a sign that I finally get to die?

“I will leave his fate to you, my friend,” Aiden said. “What little I know of the torments he’s subjected you to makes me certain that his death at your hands is the justice he deserves.”