Hunted (28 page)

Meehan!

My lips pulled back and I growled softly. My cat was so close to the surface now it wouldn’t take much to release her. I held her in check, barely. I had to deal with this before I let her have her satisfaction. Then I’d gladly let her lose, let her deal with Jennings and anyone else who tried to stop me.

“This stops now!” I closed the distance between Meehan, held firmly between two very burly members of Teresa’s pride.  Without thinking, I backhanded him much as I had done Jennings earlier. “Teresa, Danny, I don’t care what you do to him. Just make sure he understands that this sort of betrayal will not be tolerated. Then mark him so any pack or pride he goes to will know how he turned on his own.”

“Y-you can’t!”

“She can and so can I,” Matt said. I turned to see him struggling to his feet. “And know that if you ever cross into our territory again, it will mean your death. Now keep him secure until Jennings is dealt with.”

As Matt spoke, Stefan moved to my side. I tried waving him off as he reached for my injured arm. The arm hurt, but I could tell I’d suffered only a flesh wound. It wouldn’t slow me once I’d shifted. For the moment, it reminded me not to trust Jennings and not to drop my guard.

“Uncle Adam, let that bastard up.” I waited until he and the others who’d been holding Jennings down did as I said. “Shift,” I said simply as Jennings climbed to his feet.

I released the last of my control. Pain rolled over me as muscles contracted and bones began to reshape. I dropped to my hands and knees. My head went back and my mouth opened. What started as a moan turned into a roar. My fingers dug against the floor, nails turning to claws. My vision blurred and for that one short but interminable moment, I was lost in the shift.

*     *     *

A growl sounded deep in my throat. Not far away, Jennings stood there, staring at me in disbelief. Why hadn’t he finished undressing and begun his shift? Had my anger been so great that I’d shifted faster than usual?

I swung my head, sniffing. Everything always seemed so different when I was in this form. Scents were stronger, colors brighter. And there were so many scents around me. Different shifters, some familiar, others not. Emotion hung in the air like a heavy fog. Fear, expectation, surprise.

Blood. Mine. Matt’s--mate.

I turned to look for Matt. My body felt wrong. Heavier, bigger. Stronger. A step and a flash of orange, black and white caught my eye. No, that was wrong. So was the size of the paw. My paw, but big, so much bigger than it should be.

The human part of me that always remained after a shift didn’t know whether to laugh or scream in terror. I was a jaguar. I’d always shifted into a jaguar. The colors and markings I saw as I twisted my head this way and that were most definitely not what I ought to be seeing. The long body and long, thick tail belonged to a tiger.

Was this a dream--or a nightmare?

A hand lightly scratched between my ears. I knew that scent. Grandmother. Elder. Alpha. I rubbed my head against her thigh once before turning my attention back to Jennings.

My cat--my new cat--reveled in the fear in him. Let him see what a mistake he’d made in trying to destroy my life. Let him know that he was now the hunted. There was no way his cougar could best me now.

“Wait,” my grandmother said softly as my tiger-self took a step forward. “Let him shift.”

I roared and gloried in how he cringed in fear. I was the predator and he the prey.

“T-that’s not her!” He took a step back, only to come to a stop as Teresa’s men blocked his escape. “I’ve seen Meg Finley’s shifted form. It’s a jaguar.”

I roared again. I was tired of waiting.

“You fool.” Humor and pride filled my grandmother’s voice. “You forget our family history. It isn’t unusual for our alphas to be able to shift into more than one animal.”

“You issued the challenge. Shift or sacrifice your life,” Uncle Adam said.

My tiger waited. That felt strange. The jaguar had always been a part of me. Even before I’d had my first shift, I’d known I would turn into a jaguar--if I ever shifted. It wasn’t a certainty that I would, not even with both of my parents being shape-changers. One of the reasons there were so few of us was that we don’t always breed true. Yes, it was more likely that a child of two shape-changers would also be a shape-changer but it wasn’t a guarantee.

I paced. The human part of my brain was surprised at how quietly the large tiger moved. That part of my brain also wished there was longer to learn just what this new body of mind could do. I knew my jaguar form, its reactions and reflexes as well as my human body. But not this one.

A moan pulled my attention back to Jennings. He’d fallen to his hands and knees and was in the midst of shifting. Good. It was past time to get this over with.

A few moments later, a fawn colored cougar stood where Jennings had been. My tiger roared in challenge even as its confidence increased. The small cat would be no challenge. It was a mouse to my cat and my cat always won. It didn’t matter what form that cat happened to take.

The cougar answered my roar and paced forward. It was as much of a fool as its human counterpart. Otherwise, it would be submitting, recognizing my dominance over it. But that’s not what I wanted. I wanted, I needed satisfaction for everything Jennings had done to me and to my family. I needed to make him pay for what he’d done to Matt. The tiger understood that. The tiger knew the importance of protecting territory and family.

The cougar leapt. Its claws raked down my right flank as I twisted away. The fight was on and it had drawn first blood.

Fur flew and blood sprayed. My human part resisted the tiger’s insistence that mercy couldn’t be shown. I knew it, intellectually at least, but this was new to me. I’d never seen a fight like this between two shifters, much less taken part in one. Unfortunately, the cougar had no more scruples than its human form did. That put me at a disadvantage, one I had to overcome quickly or the larger size and greater strength of the tiger wouldn’t mean squat.

The cougar raced in again, confident in its skills. At the last moment, it leapt, jaws opening. As if I were watching a movie, a large paw cut through the air, swatting the cougar to the ground as easily as if it were swatting a fly. Stunned, the cougar lay there. That was long enough to act--and act I had to if I was going to end this.

It was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Tiger jaws are weapons unto themselves. The cougar’s neck snapped and blood filled the tiger’s--my--mouth. Part of me knew I should feel sick but I didn’t. This was no innocent I’d killed. It had been the monster responsible for my parents’ deaths and so much more.

But now that the fight was over, every injury inflicted by the cougar ached. Still, there was one thing I had to do. I closed my jaws carefully around the cougar’s neck once again and dragged the limp carcass across the floor to where my grandmother stood. It landed with a muffled thud at her feet. Then I forced my tiger-self up the steps onto the platform and collapsed at Matt’s side.

His hand reached out to stroke my heaving side. I lifted my head. I needed to shift back but I was so tired. Maybe I could just rest here for a few minutes.

“Lie still, sweetheart,” he soothed. “Don’t shift yet.”

As Matt spoke, Stefan knelt on the other side of my tiger-self. His hands were gentle as they probed a set of deep scratches down my flank. “He’s right, child. Just stay there. You’ll heal faster if you don’t shift yet.”

I shifted slightly so my head rested in Matt’s lap. It was over, finally. I’d never have to run again.

Sun streamed in through a crack in the curtains. As if that wasn’t insult enough, somewhere just beyond the window a zillion birds chirped happily. No one and nothing should be that happy this early in the morning.

Morning.

Memory of the events of the past day returned in a flash. I rolled over, twisting around to see the other side of the bed. It was empty. I ran my hand over the sheet and frowned. It was cold. At least it looked like Matt had slept there. So where was he? Had he taken a turn for the worse and I didn’t know it.

Worried, I sat up and tossed back the sheet. Pain caught at my side and left thigh. Then I saw the bandages and remembered the cougar sinking its teeth into my leg near the end of the fight. It had felt like he was going to rip my leg off. Now it merely ached like a bad toothache, enough to remind me of what happened but not enough to keep me in bed. Even if it had been worse, I’d be up. The memory of Matt lying there, bleeding from the wound in his side haunted me. I knew we’d gone to bed together, under strict orders from Stefan to rest. So where was Matt and why hadn’t I realized he’d gotten up--or worse?

Fear and worry can make a person do things they’d normally not do. Add in the fact I’m not a morning person, never have been and never will be, and was it any wonder I left the bedroom without thinking about the fact I wore no more clothes than I’d been born in? All I cared about was finding Matt and making sure he was all right.

I stepped through the door into the kitchen and came up short. Matt sat at the table, a mug of steaming coffee held gingerly between his hands. Sitting with him were Uncle Adam, Danny and Uncle Lou. Sharon was just coming in through the back door. My grandmother and Aunt Jane worked side by side at the stove. It was a homey scene spoiled only by the fact Matt looked pale and pain etched deep lines in his face.

Then heads turned to me and my grandmother smiled and shook her head. Only then did the fact I was nude hit me. God, talk about embarrassing. A blush started at the tips of my toes and worked its way up to my hairline. It didn’t matter that each of them had seen me naked the night before. That had been different. I’d been about to shift then.

With a groan, I turned and started out of the kitchen. A week ago this never would have happened. A week ago, I’d never have thought I’d be sharing my bed--well, his bed--with a man I knew down to my bones was my mate. It didn’t matter that we’d known one another only a few days. Those few days had changed me in so many ways, as this morning proved. My concern for Matt had made me forget a simple thing like modesty. Now I might just die from embarrassment.

I shut the bedroom door behind me and crossed to the closet. Maybe I could climb in there and hide for the next year or two. At least by then my blush would have subsided--I hoped. I could still feel the heat of it. Damn and damn and damn again.

A soft knock sounded at the door. Before I could tell whoever it was to go away, the door opened. My blush deepened to be caught standing there, staring at the closet just as buck naked as I’d been when I’d burst into the kitchen. Well, I could stand here and wish for whomever it was to go away, or I could turn around and act as if I was the confident alpha and mate to the clan leader I’d been the night before.

That closet looked awfully inviting.

“Finn.”

I didn’t need to turn around to know Sharon was smiling. I heard the humor in her voice and felt my blush deepen again. God, if it kept doing that, I’d be turning purple before long.

She cleared her throat and tried again. “Finn, relax. We all understood.”

“Understood what? That I’m an idiot who couldn’t remember that she went to bed naked?”

“No, we understood that you woke up and realized Matt wasn’t there and were so worried about him that you came in search of him without thinking about anything else.”

She moved to stand beside me. Without a word, she reached into the closet and withdrew Matt’s robe. As she draped it about my shoulders, I shook myself. Maybe she was right. Maybe that’s what they had thought. God knows, it was the truth. Not that it made it any less embarrassing.

“Matt?” I asked, sliding my arms into place and pulling the robe closed. Once I’d tied the belt, I felt slightly more ready to face the world, even if the robe swallowed me. “You were right. I couldn’t think of anything but finding out if he was okay when I woke and found him gone.”

“He’s fine. The bullet went cleanly through his side. He’ll be sore for a few days and that will make him grouchy, but he’s going to be fine.”

I relaxed to hear the truth in her voice and see the confidence reflected on her expression.

“And both your grandmother and I read him the riot act for getting out of bed. Not only did we think he ought to have slept in this morning, but we knew you’d worry when you woke up and found him gone. So I have a feeling he’s getting another earful from her right now.” She grinned at that and I shook my head, a smile touching my lips. Maybe I wasn’t the only one feeling more than a bit embarrassed this morning. “Now, how are you feeling?”

“Other than still suffering from a terminal case of acute embarrassment?” She simply tilted her head to one side and cocked an eyebrow at me. “All right. I feel like I’ve been through the wringer, but it’s tolerable.”

“If you’re up to it, let’s go to the kitchen. You could use some coffee and I know everyone has more than a few questions about what happened last night.”

Me included.

Sharon linked her arm through mine and together we left the bedroom. I had to give it to the others. As we entered the kitchen, they acted as if I hadn’t come barging in wearing nothing but my birthday suit just minutes earlier. Instead, Matt smiled and motioned for me to take the seat next to him. As I did, my hand reaching for his, Uncle Adam pushed a mug of coffee across the tabletop in my direction. A moment later, Grandma set a plate of bacon and eggs before me. Aunt Jane served Matt. Once everyone else had been served, they crowded around the table or leaned against the counter.

For a few minutes, we ate in companionable silence. I discovered that acute embarrassment had done nothing to take the edge off my hunger. I finished what I’d been served. Almost before I’d managed to put my fork down, Sharon was there with seconds for me. As I thanked her, the memory of my father telling me that I’d always be hungry after a shift came to me. He’d gone on to tell me that if I was ever seriously hurt either while shifted or if I shifted after being hurt so healing would be sped up some, I’d need even more food, especially protein, to recharge my system. Since eating an entire package of bacon as well as a dozen eggs sounded pretty good just then, I had to assume he’d been right.