A Kitty in the Lion's Den (11 page)

Yeah, she did, with flame torches, screwdrivers, and a million and one other forms of torture.

“You’re a sick motherfucker.” She scooted back on her ass, but he didn’t follow her, just crossed his arms over his chest and smiled sadistically at her.

“Yeah, I am, but it’s pretty fucking fun, Kettah. I can see on your face you remember the screams coming from the basement, the sounds of the things we like to do to the ones that think they can screw over a Milokov.” A shiver worked through her, and Konstantine laughed. He got down on his haunches, his smile one of macabre satisfaction. “You have no idea the pleasure I will derive from making an example of you, Kettah, and Father has given me free reign.”

“Did you ever love me, Konstantine?” She stared into his hazel eyes, ones that matched her own. How had he turned out so cruel and evil?

“Little sister, when did you become so weak?”

Curling her hand into a fist, she didn’t think, just swung out and connected with the side of his face. He grunted in pain, and she watched in satisfaction as his lip split and blood welled at the wound. Bringing the back of his hand to his mouth and wiping the blood away, he looked down at the red streak on his pale skin. “He won’t let you take me away.”

Konstantine threw his head back and laughed, and it truly was a sickening sound. “Kettah, that lion is as good as dead. In fact, he will wish he hadn’t faked his own death and just slit his own throat once Father gets a hold of him.”

Viktor was coming? Here? Commotion came from the stairs, and her heart rate increased. Was that Maverick? Had he taken care of things downstairs, or was Konstantine right, and there were just too many of her father’s men for him to handle alone? Her brother kept chuckling, and the sound of something being dragged came closer to the bedroom.
Oh God
. She covered her mouth as two burly, one of them Sevastian, dragged a clearly drugged up Maverick and threw him onto the floor.

“Sorry, Boss. The fucker was a machine downstairs. He broke Sevastian’s nose, and he nearly took off my left arm.” The shifter she had never seen before let go of Maverick. “Good thinking on bringing the tranquilizer, though. Gave the asshole a triple round, and still he came after us like a pissed off rhino. Finally I hit him two more times, and he went down.”

Konstantine looked down at her, wiped his mouth once more before grinning, and turned to walk over to Maverick.

“You stay the hell away from him.” She tried to push herself up, but her brother was before her in the next second and kicked her so hard in the belly she slid across the floor. Gasping in pain and clutching at her abdomen, Kettah blinked back the tears and forced herself not to throw up.
“You asshole.”
The words came out of her on a wheezed breath, but that only had Konstantine and the unknown shifter chuckling. She noticed Sevastian by the door, a hard, unreadable expression on his face.

“Huh. I can smell the stink of his claim on you a mile away.” Her brother laughed again.
“Not that it wasn’t a little hard in tracking you down once we got to this shitty little down.
I’ll give the lion credit, he did a pretty good job of hiding from us for this long, but once we started asking around for the lion shifter, it seemed the only person they knew that fit that description was a
Maverick.
Hell.” Konstantine looked around.
“Looks like he has a pretty nice setup here.
Hiding like a coward when he should have just been a male and come to us if he wanted out.”
Her brother shook his head. “To fake your own death, use the body of a druggie lion shifter, and was smart enough to make it look like him that burned up in that crash…” He gave her a hard, unforgiving look. “Frankly, it pisses me the fuck off.”

Kettah pushed herself up until she was sitting. “Let’s remember that he could have killed you where you slept, Konstantine. All of you assholes in fact.” She looked at the other two men and snarled. Her cat was right
there,
ready to protect the male she cared about immensely. He was lying on the floor, his hands twitching, but the tranquilizers that had been injected into him were potent and rendering him without function. His eyes were open, and she knew he could see everything, but couldn’t do anything. Oh God, she had to protect him, had to make sure that even if she died Maverick would be okay. But how could she make that happen when she couldn’t fight off one, let alone three male shifters? Before anyone could say another word, the sound of steady footsteps getting closer and closer had her looking toward the broken door that hung from the
hinges,
and everything in her screamed when her father walked in. He looked so proper with his pressed grey pinstripe suit and his silver gleaming cufflinks. He glanced around the room with clear disgust, and when his gaze landed on her, and then on Maverick, his smile grew.

“Ah, Kettah, my dear.”
He took another step toward her. “You evaded me far longer than I gave you credit for.” He looked over at Maverick who was making small, deep noises, as if he were trying to talk. “And, Marick, I thought you were dead. You’re a smart bastard, I’ll give you that, but it seems that your luck has finally run out.” Viktor smoothed his hands down his chest, and then clasped his hands in front of him.
 

Her father never liked to get his hands dirty, but apparently this was a special occasion for him. He stopped in front of her, and in a move far quicker than she anticipated, he had his hand wrapped around her throat and had her hauled up. The tips of her toes barely touched the ground, and she clawed the iron-tight clasp he had on her throat, cutting off her oxygen. “It’s truly a shame, Kettah. I wish things didn’t have to come to this, but everyone knows that once you fuck over a Milokov then that is the end.” He brought his arm up, and through the pounding of her pulse she heard the low groan come from Maverick. That had energy pouring into her, and she brought one of her legs back and kneed her father right between the legs. He howled in pain, loosening his hold slightly, but still he didn’t let go enough for her to escape him. How could she hope to save Maverick when it was clear she couldn’t even do that for herself? Her father slammed his fist into the side of her face, and pain exploded along her temple. She went flying through the air, hit the wall, slid down it, and tried to stay conscious, but the darkness was too much of a temptation, and she wasn’t strong enough to fight it.

Chapter Fourteen

Maverick’s lion rose up, pushing through the haze the drugs inside of him, and trying to gather all of his strength. His mate’s pain slammed into him as forcefully as if it were his
own,
and the sight of Viktor hitting her had rage burning so brightly inside of him it would have blinded the whole fucking town. Someone kicked him in the ribs, but he couldn’t feel anything aside from his mate’s pain and his own anger and hatred. Someone rolled him over, and as his vision cleared, his lion continuing to push through the drugs, he saw the male that he loathed, the one whom he should have killed six years ago.

“Marick, it has been a long time, old friend. Oh, wait, you’re not going by that name anymore, right?” He turned and looked at Konstantine, another motherfucker that was just as vile as his father, and would die by his hands tonight, too. “Son, what does the great lion go by now?”

“Maverick Storm.”
There was a hiss in Konstantine’s voice.

“Yes, Maverick.”
Viktor looked at him again and smirked. “I like it, but too bad you won’t be around much longer to continue using it.” Another swift kick to his side had
Maverick
groaning. “Ah, there we go. Coming around I see.” Viktor stared at him for a long few seconds, but Maverick needed every bit of time for his lion to continue to wade through the drugs and come forth. He needed his animal more than ever right now, because he had four assholes he needed to take down. “Konstantine, I want the lion here to see what happens when they fuck over a Milokov, and this should make it even sweeter seeing as my dear daughter has mated with the asshole that thought he could get away from the business.” Konstantine chuckled, but Viktor cut a nasty glare to his son, shutting the cat up instantly. “Go to your sister and make sure she screams.”

Maverick tried to move, tried to go to Kettah, but whatever they had shot into him made his human body sluggish. It was like moving through tar, but his lion was making progress. It was just too slow for Maverick’s comfort. Viktor grabbed him by the hair and lifted his upper body up so he could see Konstantine walk up to Kettah. His mate was slouched against the wall, her eyes closed but her heart still pounding fierce and strong. His lion growled and clawed to get free and go to his mate, protect her and tear these fuckers apart until there was only blood and shredded body parts left. But there was commotion behind him, and the sound of grunts of pain, curses, and flesh meeting flesh sounded loudly.

“What the fuck?” Martin, Sevastian, what the hell?” Viktor shifted his body so he could see what was happening, and the two fuckers that had fought him downstairs were currently grappling for supremacy.

“Shoot him,” the one named Martin grunted out, but the other one, a bear shifter, slammed his fist over and over again in the side of Martin’s head.

“Sevastian, stop.”
Konstantine lifted his hand, and the sight of his silver gun gleamed under the ceiling light.

“Konstantine, worry about taking care of Kettah. I’ll shoot these fuckers myself.” Viktor dropped Maverick to the ground, and Maverick saw Konstantine move over to Kettah again.

Maverick’s fingers
twitched,
and he felt his lion come closer and closer to the surface. His beast was almost out, almost ready to tear through his human form and take control. It was hell knowing that Konstantine wanted to hurt his
female,
and absolute fucking torture when the asshole pulled out a Dark Ops VIN-1 knife from a case at the small of his back. The lion in him clawed faster, moved more swiftly, and Maverick tasted the wilderness moving within him, but he couldn’t shift fast enough, not when Konstantine got down on his haunches and slapped Kettah across the face, waking her so she was lucid when he tortured her.

“No.” The word came out of him on a gruff whisper. Fuck, he needed to get stronger. There was more commotion behind him, and he forced himself to grab onto his strength and push himself up. The sound of Viktor cursing, of threatening whatever was going on with the other two shifters, was loud, but not as loud as his lion roaring out.

“Do it now, Konstantine, before he regains his strength,” Viktor yelled out, and the sound of a gun going off, although muted from a silencer, was the last thing Maverick heard before his lion broke through the haziness of the drugs.
 
Rage churned fast and toxic inside of Maverick. Konstantine chuckled, and before Maverick could even blink he was slicing right into Kettah’s thigh. The strong scent of her blood was immediate, and Maverick knew her femoral artery had been damaged in some way. She screamed and tried to move away, but even from this distance he could tell the hit to the wall had rattled her. He shifted, felt his bones break and realign, felt his skin tear and make way for fur, and then he was standing in front of the male he should have killed a long fucking time ago. Martin charged forward, and right before he got to Maverick he saw Viktor and the other shifter fighting. Maverick didn’t give a fuck on what was going on, because it was going to end tonight. Martin reached him with a snarl on his face and his body in the process of shifting, but Maverick was on him before he changed fully and ripped the fucker’s throat out. He roared out when blood sprayed along his mane. There was another gun that went off, but this time it was the shifter Viktor had been fighting with that went down. Blood started to pool on the floor by his arm. Maverick turned and faced Konstantine, who had since moved away from Kettah during everything.

“What the fuck? What the fuck?” There was almost a panicked quality to Konstantine’s voice.
Good
. At least the bastard knew he was going to die.

“Control yourself, boy,” Viktor snarled out. “Kill him, son, kill him and be done with it.”

“Father, he is fully shifted—”

Viktor hissed out, and the other Pallas’s cat snapped his mouth shut.

“You’re fucking weak, Konstantine.” Viktor turned and looked at Maverick. “You think you can handle both of us, lion?”

Maverick growled low in his throat and glanced at Kettah. She was alive, but the blood from her wound was a steady flow down her leg. He calculated his next moves, knowing that if he went for Viktor, Konstantine would attack Kettah, and vice versa. Konstantine was closer to his mate. “Come on, lion.” Viktor charged at him at the same time he barked at his son to finish her off.

Maverick ran forward, slammed his shoulder into Viktor, which had him being shoved back toward the open door, and dug his teeth into the fucker’s leg. He growled out and went for his gun, but Maverick clamped his jaw on his forearm, swung his head wildly, and tossed the other male into the hallway. Everything had happened so fast, that when he turned to Konstantine the other male stood there with a horrified look on his face as he watched what had just happened to his father. Maverick had the blood of two men already on him, and he was about to add a third. Konstantine had his knife raised, turned toward Kettah, and was about to go for her throat with a shaky hand.
Seemed like the shifter had balls of steel when he had back-up, but now that he was all alone he was ready to shit his fucking pants.
Maverick launched himself at Konstantine, and before the other male could even blink he had his teeth latched around his arm, tore the limb clean off, and dropped it to the ground, the knife still clutched in his hand. Konstantine screamed out in pain, but only seconds had passed, and Maverick was wasting time. He attacked, sank his canines into his throat until the sound of crunching bone drowned out his gurgled screaming, and growled low in satisfaction. The cat slumped onto the ground, his eyes not quite lifeless yet as he stared at Maverick. He couldn’t revel in the joy of watching his enemy die because Viktor chose that moment to pull his old and now battered body off the ground to attack. A piercing sensation sliced through Maverick’s front limb, and he roared out. He swung around, tackled the other male, and brought his claws down across his face. Viktor screamed out, tried to grab Maverick’s mane and get supremacy, but he wasn’t faster than the lion. Viktor didn’t dare shift, not unless he wanted to be a snack for the lion. After another attempt to throw him off, Maverick was done with this.

“You should have killed me a long time ago. Then your mate wouldn’t be about to bleed out in front of you,” said Viktor. His lion went crazy, and in a fast move he brought his claws across the front of Viktor’s chest, slashing open his jugular on the way down and feeling immense pleasure in the fact it was he who would bleed out. He continued to claw at Viktor until there was nothing left but the tattered remains of a body lying on his floor, and Maverick was sure the bastard was dead and wouldn’t be able to hurt Kettah again.

Kettah
.

 
He was by her side in the next instant. Nudging her with his head, he whimpered. She mumbled something, and even though she was weak from her blood loss, she lifted her hand and ran it through his mane. Maverick shifted back into his human form, not caring that his arm had a bullet wound in it, or that he was naked, and scooped her up. There were three corpses on the ground, and only a small puddle of blood where the other male should be.
If the fucker had left, then all the better.
He headed out of the apartment, but before he left walked out the front door he grabbed two throws that were over the couch, one for her and the other for him. He hurriedly made his way through the broken glass that littered the hallway, through the broken door that they had burst through, down the stairs, and out to his truck. He heard Trace’s motorcycle before the headlight pierced the night. When he had gotten the call from his friend, which seemed long ago but in reality was just a short time, he had known Viktor’s men were in Sweet Water. They had been asking around about him at Dakota Dark’s. It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that one of the employees came to tell Trace about the males inquiring about Maverick. By then Viktor’s men had already found where he was.

Trace pulled his Harley to a stop and was striding forward just as Maverick pulled open the passenger side door of his truck.

“I came over right away, but they are having that damn festival and I had to take the back road.” Trace looked between him and Kettah, and he sensed the man’s bear right below the surface. “Who do I need to take care of?” Trace cracked his knuckles and started toward the garage.

“It’s done. There isn’t anyone alive in there.” Trace stopped and eyed the garage before looking back at Maverick. He had his cell out and was punching in Luke Landon’s number, the local physician and only male he trusted with this. “You know any guys that can get rid of the bodies?”

Trace nodded. “Yeah, man, just get her to the doctor.” Maverick was already in the truck before Trace finished talking.

Maverick couldn’t get to Luke’s fast enough, especially when his mate was bleeding out in his truck, and the threat of her dying right before him was a very real possibility.

****

Maverick lifted Kettah out of the cab of his truck and tucked her closely to his body. Blood marred his chest and arm, some from his own wounds, but the majority of it was from his mate. The deep gash on her thigh wasn’t bleeding as steadily as it had been, but he knew nothing about wounds like this. He knew about bullet holes to heads. His home was a bloody mess, but none of that mattered. The only thing he cared about was getting Kettah to Luke’s office and getting his mate healed. She was too weak from the blood loss to fully shift and help with the healing process, so Doctor Landon needed to tend to her wounds so she could shift enough to speed the process along. His heart was beating a mile a minute, because the danger that Kettah had been in, and the very real thought that he almost lost her, had fear moving inside of him like a vicious animal, waiting to tear him apart from the inside out.

It was
dark,
and the only lights on were the streetlamps, casting their muted yellow glow. Luke had been patching up his and Trace’s wounds after hours for years, and he was the only male they trusted when it came to tending to them. They could heal themselves, even withstand some pretty gruesome wounds, but there were times when it was just a bit too much to handle, and they needed medicine only Luke could deliver, and where confidentiality were pretty fucking important. There was just something inside of the cougar shifter that told Maverick he was genuine, without the taint of vileness and deceit that he picked up in people a lot. He hated bringing him into this, especially now that he was mated and had a family of his own, but Maverick was desperate for the first time in his life.

He moved swiftly and quietly to the back door of the building, and it opened right as he reached it. Luke stood on the other side, a soft glow surrounding him. He ushered Maverick inside, shut the door and locked it before facing him. Luke’s concerned gaze was on Kettah.