Shadow Of A Mate (3 page)

What had he done? The magnitude of refusing his mate in what could be Jay’s final moments started to sink in.

The hall doors crashed open and his betas, Tryst and Mack, ran in, closely followed by Logan. They were all bloody and looked like they’d been in a war. Kyle couldn’t actually see any injuries or wounds on them, which was weird. If he could’ve mustered up any emotion to care, he’d have asked. But all he had left was shame, anger and pain.

Logan narrowed in on Jay’s unfamiliar body crumpled in Kyle’s arms and cried out in horror. “We’re too late.” The half wolf shifter dropped to his knees, tears rolling down his face.

Tryst and Mack wore similarly broken expressions as they, too, fell to the floor beside Kyle and Jay. “I’m so sorry, Jay,” Tryst cried, holding Jay’s hand as if it was made of delicate spun glass.

“What happened?” Kyle knew his eyes had gone jaguar when his vision sharpened and he could make out the individual hairs on Tryst’s neck rising as the leopard sensed the danger of an angry alpha.

Tryst bared his neck, but met Kyle’s eyes as he spoke. “He wanted to try and save Nikko. Logan’s mother betrayed us and tried to steal Jay’s power. We tried to fight, but it was futile, we were all going to die, Logan almost did. Somehow Jay got us free, but the next thing we knew Jay was gone and the witch looked like an old man instead of a woman.”

Mack took over as Tryst shook his head and scrubbed a tear off his cheek. “Since the witch smelled the same we were certain it was her...until the old man fought us off and saved Logan. It was Jay, not the witch. We were less than useless.”

Logan shuffled forward and the scent of humiliation and betrayal coming off the wolf almost matched the pain Kyle felt himself. “My mother is evil. I knew she didn’t love me, but I never thought...” Logan glanced away before turning back, eyes flat and resigned. “I forfeit my life for allowing Alpha Mate Jay to be harmed so.”

Before Kyle could answer that he didn’t want Logan to die, a choking sound came from the hospital bed beside him.

Everyone froze.

Papa recovered first and moved closer to the bed. “Nikko’s alive.”

“Goddess, he did it,” Tryst whispered, awe shining on his face.

Mam and Kane raced to the bed just as the body in it rose to a sitting position. Nikko was alive. “Oh, my boy. My baby boy.”

She pulled a shocked, scared Nikko into her arms and held on tight as he shot up straight in the bed and looked around the room with wide eyes. Kane climbed onto the bed, still in puma form, rubbing against Nikko like a happy house cat.

Kyle could barely believe what he was witnessing.

Seeing his long lost brother come back to life filled him with happiness, but it soon leaked away as Jay started to shake in his arms. Kyle curled closer around him, trying to give Jay some of his warmth.

Nikko slowly lifted his arms and awkwardly patted Mam on the back. The poor shifter didn’t seem to know how to hug her back, like he’d never been shown the kindness of a comforting embrace.

Wide eyes that were exactly like his own gazed at him over their mother’s shoulder.

The instant recognition in them that was deeper than human comprehension lit in Nikko’s eyes. His brother’s jaguar knew who they were. The jaguar recognised it was amongst kin, pack.

“Hello, brother.” Kyle managed to smile, but he knew it came across strained when Nikko frowned and looked down at Jay. There wasn’t a chance to say anything more as hordes of medical staff flooded the space, checking Nikko’s vitals and exclaiming it was impossible.

“Enough. Leave us.” Papa used his alpha voice and the humans scattered along with most of the pack.

Nikko’s eyes flashed wide again as he looked at Papa. Kyle imagined Nikko hadn’t ever seen anyone as big, or an alpha that strong, if any alpha at all.

“Hello, son. It’s good to finally meet you. The woman crushing you is your mother, Mam or Eleanor if you prefer. I’m Papa or Arthwr. I’m the alpha here, we got you away from the hunters.” Papa spoke softly and slowly, obviously trying not to spook him.

Kyle didn’t miss the way Nikko’s fingers curled into claws at the word hunter, but Mam was there, smoothing over the black hair that was becoming more sleek and healthy as they watched. Nikko’s whole body now appeared healthier, in fact. Nikko’s ribs still stuck out, but gone was the yellowish gaunt look.

Glancing down at Jay, he realised what was happening. With every second that passed, Nikko seemed healthier, while Jay got weaker. The visible correlation almost killed him.

“You’re so amazing, so selfless,” Kyle said brokenly, kissing Jay’s ashen cheek, rocking and trying not to break down.

Jay had saved everyone, but not himself. Jay was special, Kyle knew it down to his bones. His mate was vibrant and braver than anyone he’d ever met.

It was so wrong, seeing Jay old and used up by evil magic.

A sob caught in his throat and his jaguar yowled inside him, desperate to do something, anything. “I’m so sorry, Jay. I don’t know what to do.” His hand hovered over Jay’s wrinkled and bruised face as he tried to find somewhere that wasn’t hurt, not wanting to cause him any more pain.

His jaguar roared inside him. “I’m not giving up, I’ll find a way to help you.” Kyle nuzzled Jay’s head, his heart breaking when he still didn’t feel Jay respond. “I promise.”

“He can’t go out like this. Not now.” Papa gently let go of Nikko’s shoulder where he’d been holding Nikko up under the weight of Mam and crouched next to Kyle, making a purring sound to comfort him.

Mam’s voice shocked them all as she said in a cold tone he’d never heard before. “Oh, we’re not giving up. We’re going to hunt that bitch down and make her reverse whatever she’s done to Jayden.” Mam had pulled back from clutching at Nikko, but still held the shifter’s hand. Nikko looked terrified, but nevertheless shuffled closer to Mam, seeking comfort and protection from her instinctively.

“How?” The hopelessness of the situation weighed him down as he nuzzled Jay’s head, tensing between every slow beat of his mate’s heart in case it would be the last.

Mam looked him dead in the eye and Kyle saw murder there. “There was a reason the witch trials started all those years ago,” she said ominously. Her jaguar was so close to the surface Kyle could see the bloodlust of her animal. “Check him, Logan.”

“Yes, that’s it!” Logan leaped to his feet and Kyle ducked in time to avoid being hit in the face as Logan grabbed the vase of flowers off of the table beside the bed. The wolf threw away the flowers and poured the water over Jay’s chest. The water washed away the blood to reveal a cleanly shaped pentagram.

Kyle smacked Logan’s hand away when the wolf tried to touch Jay, but Logan just growled and reached out again, touching the wound and bringing the red fingertips to his mouth. Kyle’s jaguar voiced its growing anger with a dangerous growl that had several shifters who were standing close backing away.

Logan’s eye scrunched closed as the wolf concentrated on something. “Damn it, you’re right, Eleanor. It’s a draining spell just like the witches of Salem used to practice, that’s why he smells like her. She put some of her magic inside him so she could drain his magic and add it to her own. It’s a very old spell. It should have already killed him. There’s something minimising the drain, something very powerful.”

“What does that mean?” Kyle was sick of not understanding what the fuck was going on.

“It means that whatever is slowing down the spell is also keeping him alive until Katrianna’s magic drains him completely. It also means that the witch who cast the spell will be vulnerable until then. If you kill her before the spell kills Jay there is a chance you can save him.” Mam stepped forward, pulling a shell shocked Nikko with her. However, his brother didn’t pull away so there must be some part of the shifter that understood what was going on.

“But even in the witch trials no one was able to kill a witch even half as powerful as my mother,” Logan warned, looking grim.

Kyle sheathed the last blade in his thigh holster and double checked the rest of his weapons. He was going to take any and every chance he could going up against this witch.

This rig was specially made to be shifter friendly. All Kyle had to do was yank the strong strip of canvas and the weapon harness came free and he could shift without fear of inadvertently stabbing himself with his own weapons.

Kyle’s eyes strayed over to where Jay’s body had been laid on the bed and the thick blanket that was barely keeping Jay from shaking. The medical staff had all jumped on Jay the second they were allowed back into the hall. Jay would have hated all the fuss if he’d been conscious, but his mate still lay unresponsive.

Despite all warnings, once the staff had declared they couldn’t do anything for him, Kyle had picked Jay up and left the hall, carrying his mate to their room. There was nothing medicine could do for magic.

When they’d found out about Jay having powerful, old magic in his blood he’d been sneaking to the library to study the old books he and his father had tracked down about magic. He’d since spent every spare minute poring over old texts and learning everything he could.

Logan’s guess that Jay had less than four days before the spell completed its work did little to comfort him. There was no time to search for other answers. Kyle had to go after the only hope they had. He had to kill Logan’s mother, Katrianna, the witch who’d hurt Jay.

Or die trying.

If Kyle closed his eyes and concentrated he thought he could feel the tiniest spark of something through their mate bond, but it was still so new, so fragile that there was a big probability that it was wishful thinking. Mate bonds were unpredictable.

The mere thought that Jay could be gone completely was so tragic that Kyle had not even a shadow of a doubt that if Jay died, he would shortly follow. His jaguar would simply give up.

“All is not lost yet, son. We can get him back.” Papa’s words should have startled him. Kyle had been so focused on Jay, he hadn’t realised anyone else had entered the room. But instead he turned away from his mate, swallowing the anguish threatening to overwhelm him.

Tryst and Mack were getting ready, too, refusing to let him go after the witch alone. He knew his betas were thinking they could stop him from going over the edge if the worst happened. Sadly that just wasn’t true. Anyone would think Kyle had been the one spelled because he was cold. Someone without a mate bond wouldn’t understand.

“Not we, me and my betas,” Kyle corrected, turning to meet his father’s eyes.

Papa frowned and Kyle could see him preparing to argue.

Holding up a hand, he tried to put this in a way that wouldn’t throw what Papa was offering in his face. As an alpha, the need to protect the pack, to be the strength of the pack was in every breath he took. Yet his father was pushing that aside to be a good dad instead.

“You’re needed here.”

“You and Jay need me more,” Papa pointed out.

Kyle couldn’t refute that. Going up against a witch, especially one as strong as Katrianna was terrifying. But he didn’t have a choice.

The last thing he wanted was to leave the pack unprotected after everything with the hunters. “Jay can’t come with me like this, it’s too dangerous. I need you to watch over him. You and Mam, no one else.” Leaving Jay behind was going to be torture. All his instincts screamed at him to reconsider and stay here with Jay. But if he did then he was admitting there was no hope left at all.

Staying wasn’t an option.

“Kyle...” Papa came forward and pulled him roughly into a hug.

He leaned into his father, shuddering as he struggled to restrain the need to cry. Crying wouldn’t help Jay.

Papa held him up easily with strong arms. When a deep comforting rumble erupted from his father Kyle went limp. The sound vibrated through him, and like a cub, he yielded and let Papa lead him over to the bed and sit him down. They hadn’t sat like this since Kyle was thirteen. Jay had been the reason he was upset then, too.

It had been around the time when Jay had started avoiding him like the plague, dodging his calls and Frank had refused to give any messages or let Kyle in to see Jay when he went to the house.

“I can’t lose him, Papa.” His words were calm despite his racing pulse.

“You won’t. I’ll look after him here and you’ll go and end this evil spell. You are strong and capable. Look how you rescued Nikko. You can track, hunt, fight better than most experienced alphas and you need to trust your training. Failing isn’t an option. You’ll end the spell and bring my other boy back to us.” Papa gripped his shoulder firmly, shaking Kyle to make the point stick.

Papa and Mam had claimed Jay as their own straight away.

He knew Jay was still cautious and maybe a bit distrustful about it, but his mate stood taller every time Mam or Papa called him
son.

“And when Jay wakes up we are throwing him straight in the deep end of training,” his father growled, turning to look at Jay.

Kyle almost smiled as he imagined breaking the news to Jay that he was going to be put on a gruelling training schedule of running drills through the forest and worked hard until he sweat a river and ate dirt. Papa didn’t hold back on training. Arthwr was a big believer in everyone being capable of defending themselves and others if they were forced to.

“He’s going to hate that.” He reached out to touch Jay’s blanket covered foot, reassuring himself that Jay was actually still there.

“Yep, and we’ll never hear the end of it. I remember when you started training. Such a whiner.” Papa shook his head and made a mock disappointed face, ducking when Kyle swatted at him half-heartedly.

He took offense at that. “Hey! I was nine and you had me practicing the monkey bars in the rain.”

“Yes, I did and the next year you got into trouble climbing a tree in a storm that was far too high for you when a branch broke. You were able to hang on until I climbed up after you to bring you down because of that training.”

Kyle didn’t dignify that with a response. He didn’t have to. They both knew Papa was right.