White Tiger (A Shifter's Unbound Novel) (26 page)

Lachlan, of course, Challenged the first mate-claim that came after that. Being dominant, he won the fight, killing the other male, and Kendrick had to send the defeated Shifter to dust. The female, a feisty Feline, had refused Lachlan’s claim, vowing to kill him instead. So, Lachlan abducted and imprisoned her, along with the cub he’d previously taken.

Kendrick and the Shifters he trusted most, including Seamus and Dimitri, went after him.

They cornered Lachlan in the mountains as a storm was beginning. Lachlan attacked before they could reach him, shooting one of the trackers with an automatic pistol. They’d been shocked—Shifters didn’t use human weapons—which had allowed him time to shoot another.

Kendrick had gone tiger and attacked him, so swiftly that Lachlan had been forced to drop the gun and meet Kendrick as wolf. Seamus and Dimitri had joined in, and Jaycee had circled around them to find the female Shifter and cub.

But both were dead. From all evidence, they’d tried to get away from Lachlan, probably when they saw help coming, and Lachlan had killed them. The female had been holding the cub, trying to protect him, the child of another.

When Jaycee had shouted this information to him, Kendrick had thrown off any control and gone for the kill. Lachlan understood that and prepared to fight to the death. Seamus and Dimitri had let Kendrick lead, standing back to interfere only if necessary.

In the driving snow, Kendrick had slashed Lachlan to bloody shreds. Lachlan had fought to the last, finally
falling in a bleeding, dead mess, staining the white ground around him.

Kendrick had been so furious that he’d violated his vow as Guardian, and instead of dusting Lachlan after he killed him, left the man for the animals to feed on. If Lachlan wanted to return to wild ways, let him return to nature as they’d originally done. If his soul was stolen by a Fae, he’d pay for the torment he’d given to the Shifters he’d killed.

Kendrick had sent the female and cub to dust, blown their ashes to the wind with a prayer to the Goddess, and gone home.

Later, Kendrick had second thoughts about not sending Lachlan to dust—not for Lachlan’s sake, but so the Fae wouldn’t be able to claim a Shifter. Kendrick’s job was to not allow Fae to take even the worst of the Shifters—though Kendrick wondered if he shouldn’t feel more sorry for any Fae who got stuck with Lachlan’s soul.

But when Kendrick went out into the night to complete his task, he couldn’t find Lachlan. The blizzard had been a bad one, covering all traces of the fight. Kendrick had never been sure whether animals had dragged Lachlan away to feast on him or if the heavy snowfall and ice had simply buried him. Either way, no one had ever found trace of him.

Kendrick had moved the Shifters after that, relocating farther south, near the Canadian-US border, and taking over as leader. Even the Shifters who’d agreed with Lachlan welcomed him as leader, and everything calmed. Or so Kendrick thought.

Kendrick finished the tale and bowed his head in the silence of the room. Remembering the details of Lachlan’s crimes had dredged up memories of death and fear he’d wanted to forget.

He became aware of Addison, leaning on the doorframe, listening. When Kendrick looked up at her, he read shock and sympathy in her eyes.

Dylan spoke into the quiet. “So you didn’t dust him.”

“No.” Kendrick let out a breath. “I should have, but I didn’t. I fucked up.”

“He was
dead
.” Seamus leaned forward to emphasize his words. “No one could survive being ripped up like that. He had no more flesh on his bones. I was there. I saw him.”

“Dead as a d-doornail,” Dimitri added.

“Apparently not,” Dylan said dryly. “Though the odds of his survival were not good. Not unless he found himself a Shifter healer.” His unnerving blue gaze went straight to Zander and stayed there.

Z
ander looked around with a start as everyone stared at him. He raised his hands. “Hey, there are more Shifter healers in the world besides me.”

“There are.” Kendrick agreed, but Addie saw him give Zander a thoughtful look.

“And what would I have been doing in Canada anyway?” Zander went on, his eyes snapping. “I was trekking the polar ice back then.”

“You still could have done it,” Dylan said.

“
Could
have,” Zander returned. “Or a passing Shifter might have helped him out, not knowing who he was. Or a passing human—same thing. Or a mama bear dragged this Lachy to her den and nursed him back to health.”

“Was he feral?” Dylan asked Kendrick. “Being confined, even voluntarily, can do that.”

Kendrick shook his head. “No, this was different. Lachlan never lost himself to his animal. He remained clearheaded the whole time.”

Zander nodded, his expression grim. “There are other ways to go insane.”

“I plan to ask him,” Kendrick said. “Right before I dust
him for certain this time. Any idea where he went last night?”

Seamus broke in. “I followed him, with some of Dylan’s trackers, including Tiger. We lost him.”

“
Tiger
lost him?” Kendrick asked, surprised. “I thought he was some kind of tracking genius.”

“He is,” Dylan said in a hard voice. “This Lachlan is apparently tricky. But we’ll find him. Tiger won’t give up. Lachlan has met his match in him.” Dylan paused. “If I find Lachlan first, do you want me to save him for you?”

Addie watched Kendrick ponder Dylan’s question, emotions flickering rapidly behind his eyes. “Make the kill,” he said finally, his voice quiet. “We can’t risk him hurting others. That’s more important than me facing Lachlan personally to gloat. But
I’ll
send him to dust. I’m his Guardian.”

“And the others?” Dylan asked. “His followers?”

More emotions. These kinds of decisions were hurting Kendrick, Addie saw, but there was no one else who could make them. “Contain them. I’ll speak to them. But be careful. Lachlan’s followers have been using guns and knives.”

“That’s all we need,” Seamus said. “Shifters with guns. I hate the things, meself.”

“That’s because you’re s-sane,” Dimitri said. “Don’t know how humans can st-stand them.”

“Don’t be so hard on humans,” Ben said quickly. “They can’t turn into ferocious beasts to fight their enemies. They’ve had to invent ways to defend themselves.”

Kendrick ended the discussion. “Whatever the philosophy on human weapons,
Shifters
shouldn’t have them. It would be the end of us.”

“Agreed,” Zander said. “We’ll rip the guns out of Lachlan’s hands and stomp them into little pieces. But we need to find him, first.”

“So glad you volunteered,” Kendrick said, his tone dry. “A bear would be handy, as would a healer.”

Zander made a face but didn’t argue.

Addie noticed that Kendrick had told the tale and discussed Lachlan’s demise with his cubs in the room, without sending them away. They listened even now, eyes on their
father. Addie knew Kendrick hadn’t forgotten they were there—he’d included them in his eye contact as he told his story. He must have decided that they deserved to know about their enemies and the danger.

The Shifters began discussing the technical details of the hunt—who would go with whom and where they would look. Addie slipped away and down the hall to check on Jaycee.

*   *   *

J
aycee was sitting up in her bed in a tank top over her T-shirt, her golden hair tangled. Any other woman might look haggard like that, but not Jaycee. She looked pleasantly mussed, like a pinup girl at an old-fashioned mechanic’s shop.

“Kendrick giving you the spiel about Lachlan?” Jaycee asked when Addie entered. She tapped her ear at Addie’s surprised look. “Shifter hearing.”

“Yeah, he did. Lachlan sounds like a peach.”

“There was always something wrong with him.” Jaycee looked troubled. “Kendrick doesn’t say, but he admired Lachlan, even wanted to be like him. Lachlan had a lot of courage and, at first, was very protective of his people. Then . . . something happened. Everyone says he snapped but I think he was finally showing his true colors.”

“Well, whatever he is, he has everyone spooked,” Addie said. “He wasn’t dragging you off to do anything good, that’s for sure.”

Jaycee flushed dark red. “I heard how you stopped them. Thank you.” The words came out awkwardly, and Jaycee flicked her gaze away from Addie’s.

“I was scared to death,” Addie said. “I had no clue what to do but getting in their way seemed the best thing.”

“You didn’t have to.” Jaycee brushed her hair from her head with one plump hand. If she were human, she might worry she was “overweight” and frantically go on crash diets, each one weirder than the last, but Jaycee looked exactly right to Addie. Her form fit her perfectly—strong but with curves, soft rather than hard.

“Didn’t have to do what?” Addie asked. “Save you from crazy Shifters? I didn’t, in fact—I only delayed them until Kendrick could get there.”

“I haven’t exactly been nice to you.” Jaycee’s flush deepened. “Not real subtle of me, trying to keep you from Kendrick.”

Addie waved it away. “Oh, please. If I gave up everyone who wasn’t nice to me to kidnappers and murderers, the population of my hometown would dwindle real fast. It doesn’t matter if we don’t get along, Jaycee. You’re Kendrick’s family—or as good as. Families stick together, even if they fight. Just ask my sister. We used to go at it when we were kids—we still do if I think she’s being ridiculous about something.” She said the last with a pang in her heart. She looked forward to a nice cozy talk with Ivy when this was all over.

Jaycee watched Addie in surprise. “I didn’t think a human would understand that.”

Addie huffed a laugh. “You don’t know much about humans do you? We’re not that bad. Well, some are, some aren’t. Probably a lot like Shifters.”

“How do you tell?” Jaycee hugged her knees to her chest, the sheet tight against her legs. “How do you know the good humans from the bad? With Shifters, at least, we have scent, body language, warning signs.”

“They’re there with humans too. You just have to learn them.” Addie lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Truth to tell, it’s mostly trial and error. If I was better at it, I wouldn’t have let myself get engaged to a total jerk. I had a lucky escape but only because
he
dumped
me
. I would have gone through with it.”

More surprise. “You were going to mate? I mean, get married?”

Addie nodded, the pain of those memories having lessened a long way in the last few days. “Yes, because I thought it was what I needed to do. But I see now that it would have been a mistake of colossal proportions.”

Jaycee’s gaze turned awestruck. “The Goddess was keeping you for Kendrick.” She groaned and buried her face in
her knees. “I was trying to thwart the will of the Goddess. Oh, I am so stupid, stupid.”

She banged her forehead with each
stupid
. Addie, alarmed, sat down on the bed.

“What are you talking about? My engagement was a long time ago. It has nothing to do with this.”

Jaycee lifted her head, eyes glittering with tears. “That’s what you think. You were abandoned by this man because you weren’t meant for him—you were meant for Kendrick. The Goddess knows what she’s doing.”

Addie started to laugh. “No, he broke it off because he was an asshole. I knew he was—I just tried to tell myself he was better than nothing. Guess what? He wasn’t. It has nothing to do with Kendrick, or your Goddess, or you. Don’t worry.”

She patted Jaycee’s knee, something she wouldn’t have dreamed of doing when she’d first met the woman. Addie now felt a sort of protectiveness toward her—Jaycee had showed her vulnerable side and Addie had new sympathy for her.

Jaycee’s gaze rested on Addie, misery in her eyes. “You have it. The mark of the leader’s mate. You have the compassion, the ability to surrender yourself to it. I never did. I don’t know why I thought . . .”

Jaycee bowed her head again and began to shake with sobs.

“Oh, honey.” Addie moved closer and daringly stroked Jaycee’s back. “I’m so sorry.”

Jaycee continued to cry, rocking a little, but she didn’t shake off Addie’s hand. When she raised her head, her face wet and nose running, Addie grabbed a box of tissues from the nightstand and shoved it into her hands.

“See?” Jaycee plucked out five tissues and mopped her face. “You know how to take care of people.”

“I was a waitress for a long time,” Addie said. “I guess I’m used to it.”

Jaycee gave a watery laugh. “It’s more than that, and you know it. I should have seen . . .”

“That’s enough of that,” Addie said briskly. When strong people fell apart, in Addie’s experience, they could really go to pieces. “Kendrick needs you to help him, not blubber in the bedroom. Dimitri . . . he needs you too.”

Jaycee groaned and clapped more tissues to her face. “Dimitri. Oh, Goddess. I was hoping last night was delirium.”

“Why?” Addie set the tissue box down again. “Dimitri’s
hot
. I love red-haired guys.”

Jaycee wiped her nose with the tissues. “I’ve known Dimitri forever. We’re trackers. We fight together, we train, we spar . . . He’s always known how I felt about Kendrick.”

“
And
he’s hot,” Addie said. “I think that’s important to point out more than once. You could have pushed him away last night. You didn’t.”

“Crap on a crutch,” Jaycee whispered. She looked at Addie in so much dismay that Addie laughed.

“You clean yourself up and come out and join everyone,” Addie said, getting to her feet. “They need you. And don’t be afraid of what happened with Dimitri. Own it.”

Jaycee slanted her an ironic look. “I could say the same for you. You have a rabbit-in-the-headlights look, and I don’t blame you. Kendrick is a powerful man. But some advice—Kendrick isn’t good with close relationships. He shuts people out, you might have noticed.”

Addie sat down again. “He hugs everyone,” she said. “
You
were kissing all over his tiger face.”

“That’s him being leader,” Jaycee said. “He comforts and reassures us. When Shifters are with someone as dominant as he is, we turn into kittens. Or puppies.” She gave a dismissive wave to the Lupines. “It’s part of the whole being Shifter thing. But Kendrick does shut people out, retreats into being leader so he doesn’t have to deal with them one-on-one. Dimitri thinks it’s because of what happened with his stepdad. Did he tell you about that?”

Addie nodded, remembering Kendrick’s terrible story about his abusive stepfather and having to kill the man to save his mother. “He did.”

“Kendrick was only sixteen, which for Shifters is still a
young cub, but he had to fight the man who should have been taking care of him. Then Kendrick had to watch his mother die. It broke him.”

Addie sat quietly, trying not to imagine Kendrick as a cub, finding himself suddenly orphaned and alone. He’d have been crushingly lonely.

Jaycee laid her hand on Addie’s, her touch surprisingly gentle. “Don’t let him shut
you
out, Addison. He needs you.”

Addie nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Do more than try. Don’t be afraid of being with him.
Own
it.”

Addie made a noise of exasperation and got off the bed. “
You
are a smartass, missy. Come on and get out of bed. Comb your hair, get back to your beautiful self, and don’t let those guys out there have all the fun.”

Jaycee gave her a startled look. “You think I’m beautiful?”

“Well, yeah.” Addie said. “Look in the mirror. But don’t take too long. They’re going to go hunting for Lachlan soon and I want someone with them who will keep them out of trouble.”

Jaycee was gazing at her in stunned amazement but Addie was finished playing counselor. She’d started the fence-mending with Jaycee. Now to see if it took.

*   *   *

K
endrick noted Jaycee slip into the crowd as the Shifters gathered outside, awaiting his orders. He knew damn well Addie had something to do with rousting her—Addie remained on the back porch but looked pleased when she glanced at Jaycee.

Addison astonished him more every day. Jaycee, when she experienced what she perceived as a failure, could be morose for days. Kendrick didn’t have time to rally her and Addie had done it for him, as though she’d known exactly what both Jaycee and Kendrick had needed. His blood warmed.

Kendrick stepped back into leader mode and began to instruct the Shifters what to do. His role now fitted him like a glove—a change from the very first time he’d faced these
men and women. He’d been shaking and sick and knowing he needed to take care of them all and not entirely certain how.

He quickly divided up the forces into teams, each led by one of his top trackers. The Shifters looked eager but confident as they broke off into groups they’d worked in all their lives.

Dimitri, Seamus, and two other trackers turned to their assigned Shifters to prepare them for going after Lachlan but Kendrick decided to hold Jaycee, Ben, and Zander in reserve. Jaycee gave Kendrick a look of fury as he approached the porch where she and Addie waited.