Waking the Beast (21 page)

“The man or the animal?”

“Both.”

“And you love her?”

“More than my life.”

“And you find no fault in her? No lack of sanity?”

Tah laughed. “Abby’s the smartest woman I’ve ever known.”

Cody nodded. “Then why do you not trust her?”

“I do trust her.”

Cody shook his head. “She loves you, all of you. This means she trusts you and the lion. Yet, you still doubt, still fight. Why? If she accepts you as you are, then why can’t you?”

“Did you ever doubt your wolf?”

“Never,” Cody answered. “But then, I was born knowing what I was capable of, knowing who I was.”

“A short time ago, I was content with my life. Maybe not happy, but content with being just a man.”

Cody smiled. “You lie to yourself. You have always been restless, always felt like there was something missing from your life. Known you were something more. Because there was.”

Tah shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe.”

“Tell me. Would you have preferred to come into this world knowing you were a mixture of man and beast? That inside you beat the heart of a lion? Would it make it all easier for you?”

“Yes,” Tah stated emphatically.

“Then think of your child and what you can give him or her. You can bring your children into a world like you would have liked. A father strong in his belief of who and what he is. One who will teach and guide as well as love. A mother who isn’t divided between fear for her mate and fear for her child. A strong pride that knows what battles lie ahead and how to face them. That is your choice to make for your child. But it begins with you.”

Tah took a deep breath and nodded. “Let’s try this again.”

More than anything in this world he wanted to give that to his child. Security. Understanding. Acceptance. Love. All the things his parents had given to him when he was young. The things his grandmother had shown him. They were key to building a strong foundation, to making an environment that would help any child to nurture and grow.

“Close your eyes. Feel your lion and center yourself with him. Let him guide you. Let him show you.”

Tah did as Cody urged and prayed this time would be different.

* * * *

Abby poured over the last journal in the pile in front of her. The house was quiet with all the men outside prowling the woods and trying to help Tah learn how to shift. He was getting restless again. She could feel it, and it worried her.

The reading worried her more. She’d already spoken to the Professor about doing another genealogy, this time of the brother of the original Tau. But she had no definitive starting point for him. A better choice would be to start with the names on some of the journals the Professor had gotten his hands on. Those from hunters and watchers.

She wanted to start with Uriah Blane, the man who’d lived in the 1920s. There were several of his journals. One from childhood and several from when he was an adult. There were gaps where she wasn’t sure what had happened, but she could imagine. The written passages from the man he’d become would give her nightmares. He’d grown to love the hunt, but not as much as he did the kill. So blood thirsty and vengeful. For what? So much hate spilled onto the pages that she felt chilled by it. People he had caught, tortured, and murdered simply because he thought they might be more than human. It made her sick.

Some of the journals had given her hope though. Journals from those who claimed themselves to be the watchers. It was all so crazy, so fantastic. She hadn’t gotten up the nerve to ask the Professor yet, but she knew he was waiting for it, could see it every time he looked at her. She was a descendent of one of the watchers. She was almost certain of it. It explained her inability to walk away from the story, and why it had consumed her thoughts most of her life.

There were still so many questions that might never completely be answered. They could guess or theorize, but some answers had been lost over time and might never be found. Still, they knew so much more than they ever had.

The Professor and Diane were down in the lab, going over test results and deciding what else they needed to run. Diane was concerned with Abby’s pregnancy. A lion’s gestation period was just under four months, and they had no idea how, or even if, that would play a part in Abby’s pregnancy. They were watching her closely, and though Abby knew it was necessary, she felt like a guinea pig. Still, Diane said they were already able to track the changing hormone levels in her body.

Jess was napping, and Abby couldn’t blame her friend. Tah exhausted Abby, and Jess had
four
mates to deal with. Good Lord. It boggled Abby’s mind. But Jess seemed happier than Abby had ever seen her. It was obvious she loved her mates, and just as obvious they loved her. The four men were devoted to Jess. Abby and Jess still hadn’t had a chance to discuss how Jess had finally found her wolves and how she had ended up mated to four of them. But there would be time later.

Abby stood up from the bed, where she’d been reading and stretched. She could really use a cold drink. She’d been reading longer than she’d planned, and Tah would get upset if he thought she wasn’t taking care of herself. She smiled. He loved her. It still awed and amazed her that a man like Tah could fall in love with her. She was by far the luckiest woman in the world.

She pushed the door open and headed down the hall toward the front of the house on her way to the kitchen. Her mind was still on Tah and how lucky she was.

“Well, well.” Harlan’s voice was a douse of cold water. “I knew if I waited long enough, they’d all leave you alone. Just when I was wondering what room to search next, you come right down the hall to me.”

There was a blur of movement in the doorway she'd just passed, and a hand slapped over her mouth as she opened it to scream. She was jerked against a hard chest, and her frantic gaze locked with the calculated one of the man she hated most in the world, Harlan. So much for Jess’s assurance that they didn’t need a security system out here in the middle of the woods. They’d even laughed together over anyone getting past their mates. Looked like the joke was on them. Where the hell was Tah? How had anyone been able to get into the house without them knowing?

“Now, now, Abby. I don’t want you calling your lion until I’m ready for him.” He turned toward the door to the living room, as another man stepped out with a rifle in his hand. “You have the darts ready and loaded?”

The man nodded coldly. “We’re prepared.”

Three more men stepped out after him, and Abby felt her pulse skitter with fear. There were at least five men with Harlan, four of them armed. If she yelled, she’d not only bring Tah charging to her, but Jess’s mates, as well as Reno and Logan. Jess might get caught as well. Or Diane or the Professor. What the hell was she going to do?

“Let’s take her outside. It’ll give us more room,” Harlan said as he and the four armed men headed toward the front door, while she was dragged by the man holding her. “Where is your little lion, Abby?”

She remained silent even when the hand disappeared from her mouth. She had to protect Tah. She had to protect all of them.

“How did you find us?” she asked, trying to distract Harlan.

“We never lost you,” he said with a self satisfied smirk. “I admit, even I was surprised when I found what he’d done to Johnson. Brutal the way he ripped his throat out.”

So Southy had been named Johnson.

“He threatened me. Tah can become enraged when someone does that.” She felt the man still holding her flinch and hoped he was scared. She hoped they were all scared.

Harlan just laughed. “You can’t frighten us, Abby. We know all about what he’s capable of. We’ve been hired to capture him and bring him in. Alive. You, on the other hand, they don’t care about. You’re only alive because I want you.”

His lascivious grin made her feel dirty. “I have plans for you, Abby.”

“Are you planning to kill me like you did my parents?”

“I wondered if you knew what really happened that day. I’d convinced myself there was no way you could since you never said anything to your grandmother about it. It’s the only reason I let her live.”

“I’ve always known you killed them.”

“I wasn’t sure if you were awake or not. It looked like you’d passed out. I hit your father first. I wasn’t sure if I could slit his throat or not, but it was easier than I anticipated. Your mother, though. She was something else. I always envied your father. I took her while he bled out.” He laughed and Abby felt the bile lodge in her throat. It took all she had not to throw up. “I’ve always wondered if you’d be as good a fuck as your mother was.”

“They never said she was raped.” The words were whispered past the horror that lodged in Abby’s chest.

“Amazing what a little money in the right palms can hide,” Harlan admitted with a laugh. He moved closer to her and cupped her breast through her T-shirt. “I’m going to enjoy fucking you. And when I’m done, when I’ve finally had my fill of you. I’m going to watch as my men take turns with you.”

Abby couldn’t help it. She leaned her head forward and threw up on him. Harlan jerked back from her, but not quick enough to miss the first wave of sickness.

“You fucking bitch,” he screamed, striking out at her and catching her on the side of the head with his fist. “You’ll fucking pay for that. I’ll shove my cock down your throat and give you something to gag on bitch.”

Abby did her best to hold it together. The punch against her head had rocked her, leaving her vision a bit hazy and making her dizzy. She whimpered, but managed to hold her screams inside. She had to protect them.

“Who hired you, Harlan?” she demanded as she tugged against the hard hands still holding her.

“Someone who knows how to hunt lions,” he sneered. “And your little lion is going to suffer before he dies. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get to see every strike against him. I’ll let you watch as they bleed him out. I’ll let you watch him die while I fuck you, just like your mother watched your father die while I fucked her.”

“You disgust me,” she told him.

He licked his lips as he looked at her. “I’m going to enjoy breaking that spirit of yours. You get that from your mother. Your father was weak. It’s why he fell for your mother. I handpicked him, you know. I had plans to train him, take him on a hunt.”

“He was a veterinarian. He loved animals as much as my mother did.”

“I wasn’t planning to hunt animals. He would have balked, but once he tasted the blood of his first kill, I would have turned him. His blood was weak from the man my aunt married, but I was determined to save him. All that time befriending him, grooming him to join me. Wasted once he met your mother. I could have killed her, but I swear the bitch had a sixth sense. Then you were born. I knew you would be their weakness. Finally, I’d get my revenge. I’d only planned to kill you. But what happened that day was so much better than anything I could have planned.” He licked his lips. “It’s one of my favorite memories.”

“Fuck you,” Abby yelled and sucked all the moisture in her mouth into a ball then spit it into his face. The liquid hit his cheek and slid down.

He screamed, wiping at his face in disgust. “You fucking whore!” The word spewed with spittle from his mouth as he struck out again. This time the hands holding her released her, and the hit she took knocked her to her knees as she tasted blood. She saw the foot swinging at her and turned to take it on her hip, protecting her soft belly and the child beneath it.

A roar rocked the woods around them. Primal and filled with anger. She swore she heard him calling her name in her head.

The man who had been holding her backed away, and she could see the fear on his face as another lion’s roar sounded, this one much closer.

“Grab the girl, you idiot,” Harlan screamed, as she did her best to move away. “She’s our insurance. Spread out. Shoot anything that comes at us.”

The man grabbed her again, jerked her to her feet by her hair. His arms locked around her, and this time she didn’t hold back.

She let a scream rip from her lungs to fill the air. She called to the one person she had no doubt would save her.

“Tah!”

Chapter Sixteen

From the journal of Uriah Blane

I killed a man today. It wasn’t as hard as I’d feared. I find the human is the most challenging of prey. My father has always stressed the importance of hunting, but until today, I didn’t fully understand why he thought it important. Not until I captured my first human prey. Father is sure he is one of the shifters my grandfather told him about. He is training me just as his father did him, just as I will train my son one day.

I was afraid I’d embarrass myself when father gave me the knife and told me to finish the man off. He’d begged for his life, never once admitting what he was. It sickens me to know such abominations live within this world, but I am comforted by my father’s promise that there are more like us, sent to rid the world of these creatures.

The man begged me to spare him. He was barely able to speak; that’s how swollen his face was from the beating my father had given him. But I proved I am my father’s son. I slid the blade across his throat and never even flinched as the blood sprayed across me, hot and smelling metallic. I tasted it on my lips and my father laughed.

I am a man today. I have tasted the blood of my first kill, and I find comfort in my father’s assurance there will be many more.

* * * *

Tah was focused on Cody’s words, trying to center himself with his lion when he felt the world shift under his feet. It felt like he was in Abby’s head, and she was hurt. There were men around her; he could smell the stink of their sweat and lust. He could feel her pain and fear. His mate and child were threatened. He yelled out to her with his mind, and he swore she felt him.

One minute he was trying to find the beast inside and the next moment he was on fire. His clothes ripped as his body changed, taking him to his hands and knees. Doubt and fear were gone as he become one with his lion. It wasn’t the seamless shift of one of the wolf pack, but Tah had done it. He was one with his spirit guide. His roar rocked the woods as he took off back toward the cabin. He knew Cody and the other alphas would heed his call and come to help him should he need them.