Pride (36 page)

A shiver of fear and excitement raced up my spine. I’d thought I would miss all the action, but once again, the action had come to me…

“W
hat’s wrong?” Ethan held his cards to his chest, glancing at the window in mild curiosity. But Reid set his hand down and stood, heading for the sink before I’d even rounded the coffee table.

“Did you see it?” I leaned over the double basin by his side, déjà vu sharpening my sudden dread.

“A second ago.” We stared some more, then Reid stiffened. “There. He just passed behind that twisted tree. Be on the other side in a second.”

My eyes found the twisted trunk, and sure enough, a patch of shiny black fur slunk out from behind it as I watched.

“Do you recognize him?” I whispered, though I knew Kaci would hear us.

“Recognize who?” she demanded. Her fork clinked on the edge of her plate, but I didn’t turn. I didn’t want to lose sight of the trespasser again.

“Not yet.” Reid ignored her question, as did I. We didn’t have answers yet anyway. “Doesn’t matter, though. Our guys are long gone by now, or else holed up in the lodge.”

I nodded. “He’s heading that way.” Toward the lodge, where the Alphas were gathered with an injured tom, and no
one to protect them, other than Michael. Michael fought damn well for a lawyer, but he was only one man, and there was no telling how many strays were really in the brush.

The tabby’s chair slid back from the table and Ethan squeezed in at the sink on my other side. Kaci hung back in silence.

“I’ll go. Keep an eye on him while I Shift.” With that, Reid disappeared into the living room, already pulling his shirt over his head.

“What’s going on?” Kaci’s voice was tight with tension and encroaching panic.

I smiled and put one arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. “It’s fine. Reid’s just going out to take care of an intruder.”

“Who is it?”

I blinked at the raw fear in her voice, then searched out the cat again when Ethan turned to comfort her. Or maybe to pull her away from the window. “We don’t know yet. Probably one of the strays. Ethan, get her out of here.”

“Come on, Kaci.” He guided her by one shoulder, glancing at me in question as he ushered her out of the kitchen. “We have some movies set up in the living room.”

She went reluctantly, but I could feel her eyes on my back. She wasn’t happy being left out, and I couldn’t really blame her.

Several minutes later, Reid huffed and I turned from the window to find him standing on the linoleum clad in nothing but shiny black fur rippling over long feline muscles. He huffed again and tossed his head toward the front yard, probably asking me if our unscheduled visitor was still there.

“Yeah. He’s moving slowly, scouting everything out,” I said. Reid nodded and padded toward the back door, where I let him out. “Be careful.” He nodded, then took the steps at a trot.

I closed the door behind him and returned to the window. A second later he raced across the yard. Reid slowed as he approached the tree line, coming up on the intruder from the rear, his paws no doubt silent even on crunchy dead grass.

The stray paused, and his ears arched forward on alert. Reid dropped to his belly, and when the stray moved on, he rose. Three steps later two large black blurs dropped from the trees on either side of him.

“No!” I screamed, and Ethan came running. Outside, claws slashed, fur flew, and howls of pain sliced through the peaceful calm like a machete through birthday cake. “No!” I shouted again, leaning over the sink in fury. My fist slammed into the glass and it shattered, slicing open my knuckles. I barely felt the pain, I was so numb with shock and outrage. “They set him up!” I whirled to face Ethan, holding my bleeding hand in front of me. “They’re here for Kaci. They waited for the guys to clear out, then they set a trap, and we let Reid walk right into it.”

“Shit!” Ethan yelled, his eyes still glued to the fight outside. I turned back in time to see a spray of blood arc across the dead grass, staining the ground bright red. The shape in the middle of the huddle went still and the two remaining cats stepped back to reveal Reid, limp and unmoving. He was dead, his throat ripped out by the stray whose muzzle still dripped blood.

Ethan twisted on the cold water and shoved my hand under the faucet. “Pick out the glass!” he ordered, then raced over the linoleum to lock the back door. I plucked two shards of glass from my fist as he ran across the kitchen behind me, brushing past a newly shocked Kaci on his way to lock the front door. Then he was back again, wrapping a towel from the dish drainer around my bloody fist.

“Call Dad.” He pressed my good hand over the makeshift bandage to hold it in place. “Call him, then Shift. Do you understand?”

“Ethan, I’m cut, not stupid.” I had to let go of the towel to dig my phone from my pocket. Fortunately auto-dial made it possible to call my father with the press of only one button.
While the electronic tone rang in my ear, my gaze settled on Kaci, whose eyes were wide with mounting horror.

“They’re here for me? Why?” she demanded, her voice shrill with fright, her arms wrapped around her torso.

I frowned, surprised and dismayed all over again by how little she knew about us. “They’re trying to form a Pride, and you can’t have a real Pride without a tabby. But don’t worry. We won’t let them take you.” Or me either, because the consensus was that two tabbies were better than one.

Naked now, Ethan dropped to his hands and knees on the hardwood behind her. And still the phone rang in my ear. “Shit! He’s not answering.”

“Call someone else!” Kaci’s eyes were huge in fear, and she glared at the phone, as if it were the source of all the trouble. “Call one of those other guys. The enforcers.”

“I can’t. They all went out in cat form. No pockets,” I added when she shot me a confused look. But Michael hadn’t gone out at all… I pressed End Call, then auto-dialed my oldest brother. The phone buzzed in my ear.

Then it buzzed on my right.
What the hell…?

The phone rang again in my ear—than again somewhere to my right. I whirled around to see Michael’s cell phone vibrating on the counter by the fridge. “Damn it!”

“What?” Kaci backed slowly toward the far corner.

“Michael didn’t take his phone.”
Dumbass!

I glanced out the window to find the strays slinking across the yard boldly. And as I watched, a fourth form stepped from the bushes, in human form.

Zeke Radley. Shit!

Ethan moaned behind me and I turned toward the living room. My brother now resembled a bald jaguar, other than the occasional odd bulge where things were still changing and coming together. He was almost through Shifting, but even in cat form he probably couldn’t hold off three toms, and I
didn’t stand a chance without claws. I’d have to Shift. And so would Kaci.

Thinking quickly, I redialed my father’s number, then crossed the linoleum toward the terrified young tabby as the phone rang in my ear. I sat in one of the kitchen chairs and pulled her toward me. “Kaci, you have to Shift. We both do.”

“No.” She shook her head vehemently, her hair slapping both of us in the face. “No! I can’t! I don’t ever want to be that again!”

“We have to, hon. We can’t defend ourselves otherwise.”

“We’ll keep calling,” she insisted. “The doors are locked. They can’t get in and we’ll keep calling for help.”

But help wasn’t answering.

“Kaci, locked doors won’t stop them. Dead bolts will slow them down long enough for us to Shift, but they
will
get in, and we need to be able to defend ourselves. We need canines and claws.”

She shook her head again, not quite as violently this time, but with no less determination. “I can’t do it, Faythe.” Tears stood in her eyes. “I do bad things when I’m a cat. I can’t do it again.”

“Yes you can. You have to. I won’t let anything bad happen.”

“No!” she shouted, spraying me with spittle, then backed toward the table while I wiped my face.

In full cat form now, Ethan growled at me in warning, telling me to hurry.

“Kaci…” I began again, but she was halfway across the living room now, backing away from us both with eyes wide in horror, tears trailing slowly down her flushed cheeks.

“No. I’ll let them kill me before I’ll do that again.”

“You don’t mean that.” Not that it mattered. They weren’t planning to kill her. What they wanted was even worse.

Her face went suddenly calm, and she spoke with an eerie softness. “I won’t Shift, Faythe. You can’t make me.”

She was right about that.

In the backyard, Radley walked behind the three cats, halfway to the cabin now. “Fine.” I ended my call again and held the phone out to her. “Go into my bedroom and lock the door behind you.” I gestured to the room at her back. “Then get in my closet and keep trying to call my father. He’s programmed in as ‘Daddy.’”

“Really?” Her eyes brightened with hope, which nearly broke my heart in spite of the circumstances. “You’re not mad?”

“Of course I’m not mad. Here.” I tossed her the phone and she caught it. “Go!” I didn’t have to say it again.

The bedroom door slammed shut behind her, then metal scraped metal softly as she engaged the lock.

Ethan whined, pacing back and forth in front of the front door now. I had my shirt and bra off in an instant, and my pants followed quickly. I dropped to all fours on the kitchen floor, the faded linoleum cold and smooth against my hands. But I barely had time to feel the November chill coming through the broken window before a familiar, bone-cracking pain chased it away.

My spine bowed and my knees cracked. My shoulders ached, the agony especially acute in my left shoulder, which had been wrenched by a psycho stray the previous summer. My elbows creaked, my ankles lengthened, and my knuckles popped like a series of firecrackers all going off at once.

Muscles slithered into and out of place under my skin, burning beneath my flesh. My fingers curved and shortened, the pressure in my hands almost unbearable. My nails lengthened and hardened into retractable claws, digging into the linoleum before they were even fully formed.

The surface of my tongue rippled with an influx of backward-pointing barbs as my newly sharp teeth pushed up from my gums, my jaw taking on a whole new shape in the midst of the pain. And finally my skin began to itch all over—fur announcing its arrival with the pomp and circumstance appropriate for such a majestic covering of thick, glossy black.

I sat on my haunches, stretching my front paws just in time to hear the first bang of a fist against the front door. “Little pig, little pig, let me in!” Radley shouted, then laughed hysterically. Like I’d never heard that one. Fortunately, the current shape of my jaw prevented me from responding with the line expected of me.

When he got no answer, Radley pounded again, this time with his foot, from the sound of it. Since his lungs evidently lacked the strength, he was going to kick the door in. And we were damn well going to be ready for him.

I padded into the living room next to Ethan, who was sweating adrenaline and excitement, laced with fear. All of which fed my own rage and eagerness—two of the best mental states to be in when forced to fight.

From the bedroom behind me came the faint electronic ringing from my own phone as Kaci tried in vain again to get in touch with my father.
Why isn’t he answering his phone?

Radley kicked the door again, and we could do nothing but watch. And wait.

The door rattled in its frame, and his determination grew. Radley kicked over and over again, until finally the door frame splintered, cracking visibly. His next blow sent a long shard of wood flying into the living room as the dead bolt tore free of its home. On the next whack, the door swung open to bang into the wall.

Radley stood in the doorway beaming, clearly not surprised to find us in cat form and ready to fight. “Kill the tom, but try to keep the bitch intact. I’ll find the kitten.”

The moment he stepped into the living room, Ethan was in his face, growling fiercely. But his threat was cut off a millisecond later as one of the cats behind Radley launched himself at my brother. Ethan jumped and they met in midair, jaws snapping, claws flying.

The other two cats approached me slowly, growling in
unison. I backed away from them, not quite sure what to do with two at once. I’d never faced a pair of foes, outside of training.

Angry and beyond pissed off, I hissed, and the cat on the left hissed back. Then a dark blur flew across the room and smashed into the cat on the right. Both forms went down in a heap of black fur. But they were up in an instant, and both turned their attention to Ethan, who’d evidently tossed the flying stray.

Now I only faced one. He pounced, and his teeth sank into the back of my neck. The pressure on my spine was tremendous, but his canines barely penetrated my thick fur. Probably because he’d been told not to kill me.

He shoved my head into the floor. One broad, heavy front paw landed on my face, a black toe pad holding my eye closed. I twisted, and my jaws closed over his ankle. I pulled, growling deep in my throat. He bit harder. Blood ran down my neck.
I
bit harder, and my teeth hit bone.

He howled, and when his mouth opened, I dropped my grip and backed away, facing off against him again.

A door slammed down the hall, and Radley swore, apparently having no luck in his search for Kaci. So far.

On my right, Ethan had one stray’s foot between his jaws, the other cat pinned to the ground, beneath him. He was holding his own, even with four parallel gashes across his left flank. They weren’t pouring blood, so the injury probably wasn’t grave. But it couldn’t have felt good.

My opponent charged again. I met him with a pawful of unsheathed claws, aiming for his chest. He anticipated my move and twisted away. My blow only glanced him.

Across the room, Radley had discovered the locked door. Abandoning my furred opponent, I pounced on Radley, knocking him to the floor in front of the couch. I growled, my muzzle inches from his nose. But before I could decide whether or not to kill him—it wouldn’t be self-defense since
he was no real threat to me in human form—something hit me from the side, throwing me into the coffee table.